Translating the printemps érable

Martin Ouellet   May 31, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/education/351415/le-gouvernement-charest-met-fin-aux-negociations-avec-les-etudiants

Québec – Today the Charest government put an end to negotiations with the students, suggesting disturbances in the weeks to come. This governmental decision will have the effect of further deteriorating the social climate, the student leaders have estimated.

“We will organize your Grand Prix for you!”, hurled a CLASSE negotiator, the most radical of the student groups, unsatisfied by the offer that had earlier been submitted by the Education Minister, Michelle Courschesne.

In a press conference at the beginning of the evening, Premier Jean Charest said he was disappointed in the failure of the talks, but he warned that his government would not backtrack in front of those “who threaten Quebeckers.” “A government does not give in to threats,” he ruled.

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Antoine Robitaille   May 31, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/351330/negociations-dans-l-impasse-a-quebec

The students threaten to withdraw.

The “last chance” negotiations in Québec City have been at a deadlock between the Charest government and the student associations since the beginning of yesterday evening. The associations don’t rule out leaving the discussion table this morning. At the moment of writing, the parties were still in discussion, but the two said they were respectively waiting for a counter offer on the part of the other, which translates into “confusion of the situation”, said a source close to the negotiations.

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Antoine Robitaille, Le Devoir, May 30, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/351215/quebec-pret-a-un-certain-compromis

After around nine hours of discussions, the government and the student associations did not succeed in agreeing to an exit to the crisis yesterday, but they will continue negotiations in the afternoon today.  “If we stay at the table, we consider it worth the effort and, yes, we’re talking about tuition fees,” said Martine Desjardins, President of the FEUQ, at around 10:45pm last night.

Her counterpart of the FECQ, Léo Bureau-Blouin, declared “We presented several scenarios in the evening to the government party and we’ll wait for responses tomorrow [today]”. The spokesperson for CLASSE, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois corroborated that the students would take until the end of the evening yesterday and the morning today to evaluate the different proposed scenarios. An agreement is nevertheless not necessarily “imminent” admitted Mme Desjardins: “That depends on how many hours you see as imminent.”

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by ANABELLE NICOUD, Montreal correspondent     May 25, 2012 22:16 

Original French Text: http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2012/05/25/contre-le-liberalisme-vive-le-quebec-libre_821569

After more than 100 days of conflict regarding the tuition hike, the government is now open to negotiating with the students.

The minister of education, Michelle Courchesne, made an initial yet lukewarm move to approach the student unions. The dialogue, which had been halted about a month ago, may begin again in the next few days, after 104 days of striking. “Yes, there will be discussions,” the minister announced on Thursday. We should mention that pressure put upon the government has not decreased. Since the adoption of the emergency law on May 18, back-to-back protests have been held. These are not only happening in Montreal, but also in Quebec City as well as in some of the province’s more modest cities. 

Since then, in addition to spontaneous evening protests, new forms of mobilization have appeared. Over the past few days, colossal uproars have been resounding every night on Montreal streets and balconies. Hundreds of people have responded to the invitation to bang “pots and pans against Bill 78,” initiated by a teacher on Facebook. Because one swallow doesn’t make a summer, the clanging of pots and pans can also be heard in residential neighborhoods and suburbs of Montreal every evening after 8pm. As for the students, they keep to the streets. They’ve also kept their sense of humor, which has been in the spirit of this movement since the beginning. After the scantily clad protests, people are now spontaneously marching in costume. On Thursday, a march entitled “pirates vs. ninjas” attracted dozens of participants. The nightly protests also feature costumed characters like Anarchopanda, the anarchist panda who is no stranger to Montreal protesters, and the giant banana. On the Internet, more than 4,800 people posted their photo on the Web site, arretezmoiquelquun.com (a French pun that loosely translates as somebody stop/arrest me .com) created by the student union, La Classe, in reaction to Bill 78.

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by Marie-Michèle Sioui, May 26, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/education/351000/conflit-etudiant-des-negociations-des-lundi

Student associations don’t want to go round in circles anymore: they now want to resume negotiations with the Minister of Education, Michelle Courchesne. Discussions could resume as early as Monday.

Spokeswoman of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ, roughly university student federation of Quebec), Martine Desjardins, is adamant: as long as we ignore the “key point” during discussions: the raising of tuition fees, there will not be an ending to this crisis.

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Courchesne plans on a “very very important” meeting

May 24, 2012

Original French Text:http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/350792/crise-etudiante-charest-perd-son-chef-de-cabinet

PHOTO CAPTION: Today, Jean Charest lost his chief of staff, Luc Bastien.

Quebec City – Following Line Beauchamp, the student conflict has claimed another victim in premier Jean Charest’s entourage: his chief of staff, Luc Bastien. He will be replaced as of next Monday by one of his former chiefs of staff, Daniel Gagnier, who accepted to resume his old post. His first assignment will be clear: to settle the student crisis.

According to information gathered by the Canadian Press, Mr Gagnier has already been very active in this affair for weeks now. He was called by Mr Charest to help untangled the impasse with the students, which has lasted for four months now without an end in sight. 

A specialist in crisis management, Mr Gagnier was acting voluntarily in the affair. As he has already devoted countless hours to the issue, he will be able to assume his functions rather quickly. 

According to what we’ve learned, he has been given the task to resume the negotiations with the students with the aim to settle the crisis as soon as possible, before the high tourism season gets underway in Montreal. 

Since Stéphane Bertrand’s departure in 2007, it’s now the fourth time in five years that Mr Charest must replace his right-hand man. 

Mr Gagnier led Mr Charest’s cabinet from 2007 through 2009, mostly while the liberal government was the minority, which is a rather fragile position. He played a strategic role in helping the premier obtain a majority government at the December 2008 elections. 

He left not long after the liberal victory. In the autumn of 2009, he was briefly replaced by Marc Croteau, until Luc Bastien took the reigns in February 2011. 

Mr Gagnier is highly respected by the liberals and perceived as a stable element, reminding the party of the better days before the beginning of the conflict with the students. 

At the premier’s office, they were scrambling today to deny any link between Mr Gagnier’s return and the student crisis. “It has absolutely nothing to do with the conflict. Mr Bastien clearly indicated when he took the role that he was in it for a limited time. He simply decided to pass the torch. All this has happened on good terms”, maintained Hugo D’Amours, Mr Charest’s press attaché. 

If this change of guard is occurring now, at the same time as the government appears to be quite distressed by the popular revolt, it is merely fortuitous, according to Mr D’Amours. 

Mr Bastien’s departure had been “agreed upon”, claimed the premier when asked about it during the National Assembly’s question period. 

Now 65 years of age, Mr Gagnier has long been an associate of Alcan, where he was notably its chief vice-president. In the 1990s, he assumed several roles within the governments of Canada, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. He was also the president of the board of directors of the Manufacturers and Exporters of Canada. He his the president of the board of the Institut international de développement durable (IUDD - an institute devoted to sustainable development), and member of several different boards. 

As for Mr Bastien, who had been Yvon Marcoux’s and Sam Hamad’s chief of staff before having been noticed by the premier, said his goodbyes to the liberal caucus today, stepping down after only 15 months. 

He’s not the first of Mr Charest’s intimate guard to turn the page. Weary of the recent battle, the ex-minister of Education and vice-premier, Line Beauchamp, announced last week that she was leaving politics, feeling that she could not resolve the crisis with the students. She was replaced by Michelle Courchesne. 

Bad management, claims the opposition

To the péquiste opposition [translator’s note: péquiste is a neologism, an adjective or noun referring to the Parti Québécois], Mr Bastien’s departure reveals that something’s not right within the Charest government, when you put two and two together. The “catastrophic” management of the student crisis for the past three months is not unrelated to this new desertion, maintained the péquiste opposition’s adjunct parliamentary leader, Bertrand St-Arnaud. 

“It smells like the end of a regime. Line Beauchamp’s resignation, the tug of war within the caucus on the topic of the special law, and now the chief of staff’s departure are all typical signs of it. They’re jumping ship”, he said. 

In his opinion, independent MP for Nicolet-Yamaska, Jean-Martin Aussant, believes that bringing back Mr Gagnier reveals the extent to which the government is impotent in resolving the crisis. “If the government is calling upon people who weren’t already here, it’s because it feels disarmed and does not know how to resolve the crisis. It’s a bad sign on behalf of the leader of the government”, he said. 

According to Pierre Curzi, independent MP for Borduas, there’s a hope that the premier will not be using Mr Gagnier’s talents to save the government’s reputation at the students’ expense. 

“Mr Gagnier has the reputation of being a keen strategist and a very intelligent man. But if his return is for the goal of providing shrewd arguments, I think we’re past that now”, he pointed out. 

Charest gets involved, Courchesne plans a meeting

Premier Jean Charest has otherwise insisted that he is involved in the ongoing efforts to untangle this social crisis that has been instigated by the rise in tuition fees. 

In response to the Parti Québécois who, for weeks now, has been insistent that he play a more important role before the situation deteriorates, Mr Charest insisted today that “the whole team” is mobilized. 

“I want to tell all Québécois today that it’s the government as a whole that is working to ensure that we may more quickly reestablish social peace, he stated in the Commons. The whole government. And I’m the first to get involved in the effort, and we’re doing it as a team.”

Earlier, before a meeting with the liberal MPs, Education minister Michelle Courchesne also insisted on the premier’s involvement in the affair, even before her predecessor Line Beauchamp’s resounding resignation on May 14. 

“No matter if it was with Ms Beauchamp or with me, the premier is constantly by our side, constantly, she said. He takes part in discussions, he takes part in decisions. And you must understand that he’s the premier, he’s our leader.”

During a press conference, Ms Courchesne stated that she planned on holding a very important meeting with the student leaders. 

“There will likely be meetings, but both sides have agreed to take the necessary time to be prepared, because you should understand that this will be a very, very important meeting”, she replied. 

According to Courchesne, over the course of the past few days, she’s had many exchanges with the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ - the Federation of CEGEP students of Quebec), and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ - the Federation of university students of Quebec), whereas the Coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE - the broad coalition of the association for student union solidarity) was to be contacted through the day today. 

“Conversations with the leaders have been very positive”, said Ms Courchesne. According to the minister, in the context in which the crisis has persisted for over 100 days, a meeting time is to be decided upon by all parties very shortly. 

“What each party wishes is to get out of this crisis, she said. It’s certain that if we take the necessary time to be prepared, it’s because we are very conscious and serious about the situation and that, no matter what, we wish to have everything aligned to arrive at an agreement.”

In the House of Commons, péquiste leader Pauline Marois drew attention to the fact that the previous day’s great number of arrests – 518 in Montreal and 176 in Quebec City – are in addition to the 2000 others that have been made since the beginning of the conflict. 

“This is unconscionable, she said. It defies reason, everything that’s happening in Quebec. It’s without precedent in our history. The liberal regime is becoming radical. And this radicalization is occurring at the expense of our citizens and will lead us nowhere.”

Ms Marois again asked that Mr Charest become more active “on this bone of contention”, whereas péquiste MP Marie Malavoy has requested that the premier sit down with the students to negotiate. 

For his part, the minister of Public Security, Robert Dutil, defended the application of law 78, passed last week in order to suspend classes in striking institutions and to limit protests, a move which appears to have only given new life to the protests. 

“It is not arbitrarily [applied], these are laws, these are laws that are applied, he said. And they are applied by police forces, without political intervention. I repeat, there is no political policing in Quebec.”

Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

*Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we would be very grateful if you would share them with us at translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of solidarity and the sharing of information.

Marie-Andrée Chouinard    Le Devoir    May 23, 2012

Original article: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/350617/conflit-etudiant

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people stood up to Bill 78. They reflected back to the government, by their sheer numbers, the absurdity of this repressive law. This emergency legislation is obviously not helping the police stop any of the actual damages being done. The bill is pointing at the wrong target.

The streets were red-hot with anger and shame. The people remain united behind student opposition to arbitrary and repressive Bill 78. The citizens who took to the streets can’t recognize Québec’s DNA anymore in this anti-democracy.

Yet, it is this very democracy, so dear to our history, that the Charest government is claiming to exert in order to burst a crisis and douse the chaos. They chose to allow access to classes by rattling chains that are too heavy. It was obvious yesterday: the emergency legislation will not halt protest movements uninfiltrated by rioters, quite the contrary! The weakness and hypocrisy of a “back to normal” legislation are showing: are the real targets those who do harm or those who make noise? The former and the latter should not be confused, even though a complete lack of nuances has made us repeat this mistake collectively.

Bill 78: is it impossible to enforce? Yesterday was a great demonstration by contradiction! The SPVM (Montreal Police Service) obviously chose to exert tolerance, even if one of yesterday’s demonstrations was “illegal” according to the emergency legislation, as la CLASSE respected their usual operating mode of wandering wherever they choose. How, then, to intercept throngs of illegal demonstrators without incurring ridicule?

Add to this reality check the government’s hesitation: they didn’t, as they should have, seek legal advice on their own legislation’s constitutionality. “The sooner a judge speaks out on it, the better,” said Security minister Robert Dutil, as though he had doubts about Bill 78’s strength. In the meantime, we will have to leave it to the police’s discretion. In Montreal, they have been watching very closely for misdemeanours, with the possible escalations that this entails. However, they have so far abstained from enforcing strictly the emergency legislation. The bill’s writers might catch the drift when those who must enforce the law are trying not to…

While the streets were serving up a lesson to the politicians, the National Assembly (the Québec Legislative Assembly) was naturally abuzz in debate. The Liberals are maintaining the hard line. The PQ are begging the Premier to get personally involved. Québec Solidaire are calling to “resist peacefully and legally” to Bill 78. The CAQ is praying for elections.

The dispute on principles is dragging on and hardening, which shatters the possibility of lucid debate. Everything is now wrapped in raw emotion and ideas are flying at half-mast. The mere mention of “civil disobedience” is synonymous with vandalism. In the minds of many, demonstrations are the scene of violence and immediate riots. Some semantic shortcuts are utterly despicable: for some, condemning Bill 78 is the equivalent of a call to violence. With this kind of fact distortion, an open invitation to calm down would benefit everyone.

If peace is to come back, it will be around a table. Yesterday, the new Minister of Education, Michelle Courchesne, brought the day’s good news in this respect, scarcely heard amidst the noise of very carefully supervised demonstrations. “Solutions are found around a table,” she said, adding that since last Thursday, communication channels had remained open despite the fact that this emergency legislation does little to encourage trust. Let us restate it: dialogue is still the royal road, for the streets will not turn down the noise. Everyone understands it.

Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

*Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we would be very grateful if you would share them with us at translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of solidarity and the sharing of information.

Michèle Ouimet   May 23, 2012
 
Original Text in French: http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/michele-ouimet/201205/23/01-4527716-limprovisation-du-gouvernement-charest.php
 
The new Education Minister, Michelle Courchesne, is ready to negotiate with the students. Yesterday, she spoke about a”meeting, ” not a few phone calls fit between other meetings. No, a real meeting. So something serious.
 
After knocking them out the truncheon law [loi matraque], she lends a hand. And she is ready to include the CLASSE even though they defied the special law yesterday.
 
Go figure.
 
I confess that I just don’t get it.
 
Let’s rewind a bit. Tuesday, two days before the filing of the special law, Mrs. Courchesne met the three student leaders for an hour.
 
Yes, they told him, we are ready to negotiate, here’s the bottom line, that students are ready to accept. Nothing extravagant: a revised and improved interim council, charged with finding potential savings in universities’ operating budgets.
 
This idea is based on a huge misunderstanding on the part of the students. They believe they will find hundreds of millions of dollars in potential savings that will serve not only to eliminate costs, but also to reduce tuition. The government does not believe it, but hey, they signed a tentative agreement on May 5
 
Students put cards on the table at Tuesday’s meeting. Michelle Courchesne said nothing, she  listened, said thank you and goodnight. Two days later, Thursday, wham! The special law arrived like a swift hit by a police truncheon.
 
Yesterday, there was a change of tone, the minister said the government was ready to negotiate.
 
“We’re both working 24/7,” she has said. She referred to her chief of staff and her being available 24 hours a day, 7 days out of 7.
 
She added: “I am ready for a meeting, and they know it.”
 
Well no, they do not know it. I was the first to tell the President of the FECQ, Leo Bureau-Blouin, that the minister was ready to meet.
 
It was 2:30 pm, Leo Bureau Blouin was waiting for the big demonstration, which brought  tens of thousands of people together in downtown Montreal, to start. He was stunned. “Of course we are ready to negotiate, but we do not want to replay the same film,” he said.
 
A meeting, a bludgeon law, an outstretched hand, and student leaders who are unaware that the Minister is prepared to negotiate. All this feels improvised.
 
How will the hawks in the government react when they see the “dangerous” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who dared to challenge the special law, sit down with the Minister?
 
Let me imagine the atmosphere around the negotiating table.
 
 ***
 
The government has overexcited youth on their hands. The fight has gone beyond the narrow boundaries of university tuition.
 
Perhaps historians will be able to correctly interpret the causes of this indefatigable anger: Opposition to a worn-out and weary government? The noxious fumes of corruption? A generation who has been passed the torch by the baby boomers? A giant sign of being fed up by elites who ignore them? All wrong.
 
Thursday night, when Jean Charest explained his special law, he gave a speech peppered with half truths. He has done everything to marginalize the movement, which has stood up to him for the past three months. He said his government had extended a helpful hand, while students had done nothing. Go figure.
 
Was it the trauma of riots in Victoriaville that forged this siege mentality among Liberal MPs? After all, they caught a whiff of tear gas when they were locked in their hotel, while outside the police and rioters came to blows, fighting with metal bars and truncheons.
 
With the emergency law, the government has alienated a portion of the population. Yesterday, there were not only students in the streets.
 
And the movement instead of petering out, continues to grow.
 
 ***
 
I will not repeat all the criticisms that have been raised about this special law, but I will summarize the most unacceptable points: restriction of the right to protest, threatening to cut funding to student unions, reversing the burden of proof for civil liability. A law that casts too large and net and stifles the rights protected by the Charter. A law that is in conflict with every generation.
 
However, the starting point was good: suspend the semester and see what’s happening in August, when people have had time to calm down. Instead of clubbing students with the blunt end of the emergency legislation, the government should take time as an opportunity to negotiate.
 
Jean Charest has created a monster. In challenging the law, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois has started the legal machine. If he refuses to pay the fines, he faces prison. Imagine the images: the young Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, who enters prison, his fist in the air.
 
The government has succeeded in creating a martyr.
 
This strategy has a name: improvisation.

by Denis Lessard   May 23, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/conflit-etudiant/201205/22/01-4527670-loi-dexception-la-premiere-version-etait-plus-draconienne.php

Caption: By questioning sources within the government, one notes there were more falcons than doves around the table last week.

(Québec) Already completely thrown by the outburst at the law to control student protests, Charest’s government got off easy. The special law that they envisioned at the start was even tougher.

La Presse learned from multiple sources that the government’s intentions were considerably modified after two long meetings of the Conseil des ministres (Counci of Ministers) last Wednesday and Thursday that preceded the introduction of the bill Thursday night. The ministers received a written version of bill 78 Thursday, but even more draconian measures had already been removed for evaluation by the Conseil des ministres and the comité des priorités (priority committee).

Firstly, the Charest government wanted to add to the bill a provision preventing protesters from wearing masks, a pressing request from police. It was put to the side given the intentions of Gérald Tremblay’s administration in Montreal to adopt just such a rule. “We won’t use 14 hammers to hit the same nail,” explained a source very close to these considerations yesterday. At the beginning, “there were even more framing measures for the protesters,” confided a witness to discussions.

In addition, in its plan Québec did not foresee a “sunset” provision, while the law as it is adopted ceases to be in effect as of July 1^st 2013. Yesterday, the Ministre de la sécurité publique (Minister of Public Security), Robert Dutil, alluded to the provision having been added late in the game. “It’s one of the recommendations of our jurors precisely to make the law more acceptable under the carter of rights and freedoms.”

Another provision envisioned a moment when Quebec would have been permitted to proceed with discrediting student associations proposing illegal economic disruption. They sooner opted for another severe measure, a stop to the paying out of contributions. Interesting at first glance, the “disaffiliation” option had an awkward consequence: the day after the adoption of the law the government would find itself without a legitimate interlocutor. In dismissing the avenue of revoking accreditation, the approach applied in previous special laws remained.

Until the adoption of law 78, Québec had always maintained the services of lawyers from the private sector for its special laws. This one was prepared solely for the executive council by Me Louis Sormany, deputy minister responsible for legislation, a first. Besides that, it’s two special laws rather than one that that were submitted to the comité de législation (legislation committee). The first pertained to the suspension of trimesters, the second touching on questions of public security. To avoid two gags in the Assemblée nationale (National Assembly) and, above all, to attempt to bury the more controversial provisions under those pertaining to education, the two bills were combined. The result is a law applied by the minister of education, of which one section makes note of her colleague in public security. A two-headed law, therefore, something rather unusual.

Lots of falcons… war of the doves

By questioning sources within the government that there were more falcons than doves around the table of the council of ministers last week. “The bill is tough, but less than some would’ve hoped,” summarized one of the protagonists, a rare supporter of the moderate line.

Amongst the supporters of the hard line were Raymond Bachand, an official from Montreal, who is subject to the important pressures of merchants, restaurateurs, hoteliers and, above all, festival organizers, one of which being his friend Gilbert Rozon, all unanimously worried by the repercussions of repeated protests. “For him, Montreal is on the verge of an economic disaster,” summarized an observer.

There is a long list of supporters of the hard line to be found along with him. Michelle Courchesne, reluctant, but knowing that she would have to go ahead with the law ever since she accepted the education portfolio. Line Beauchamp left the government for a precise reason: she knew that, with the failure of her final attempt, the special law, already in the works, was now inescapable in the eyes of the boss, Jean Charest. She will soon leave Québec for Africa to reunite with her sister, we’ve learned.

Other supporters of the hard line? Clément Gignac, Sam Hamad, Jean-Marc Fournier, Laurent Lessard, Lise Thériault as well, galvanized by a certain success with muscled measures in construction.

Others intervened in favor of the law, “said that something had to be done,” all while being personally less deeply convinced. Me Pierre Moreau, for example – his spouse is a judge, himself a lawyer through and through, “and a jurist can not pretend this is a good law,” confided a colleague. Robert Dutil is, in his duties, the defender of law and order but, personally, he is more moderate. Yvon Vallières is also a moderate, but like many ministers outside of Montreal, he doesn’t understand the movement of protestation that has taken over the metropolis and finds it urgent to put an end to it, confided someone.

Among the ministers less enthusiastic about the consideration of a special law are Julie Boulet, Yolande James, Marguerite Blais and Geoffrey Kelly, but it seems that this less determined camp did not put a lot of energy into stopping the clan of “falcons” who clearly dominated the table of the conseil.

by Vincent Marissal    May 23, 2012

Original French Text: http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/vincent-marissal/201205/23/01-4527782-un-gouvernement-depasse-et-inadequat.php

Was Rosa Parks a Delinquent?

This question may seem rude—but no more, if you want my opinion, than the statement by Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier that the term “civil disobedience” is a nice way of saying “vandalism.”

Let me clarify, before an irrepressible urge to write me in a rage assails you, that I make no parallel with the American Black Civil Rights movement on merits, but simply on form. Civil disobedience is a classic mechanism for fighting against power. This was the case for the young Alabaman seamstress who refused, in 1955, to sit in the back of the bus in the same way as it is the case for certain students who have decided to defy the Loi Spéciale (“special law”) 78.

I don’t encourage the students to do this (it would be stupid to worsen their financial situation with heavy fines), but I understand extremely well what their motives are. This law is exaggerated, abusive, poorly thought out, very likely unconstitutional and, apparently, difficult to enforce. In any case, yesterday, the SPVM preferred not to enforce it. The police showed great restraint in the application of the Loi Spéciale that the government concocted as a catastrophe in the name of security and social peace.

It is now 100 days that this has been going on. Hundreds of demonstrations; more than a thousand arrests; a small, aborted offer of settlement; a minister sacrificed; a hard-line law adopted in the crowd; and for what? Nothing. Impasse. Government in “threatening mode.” Police in “anti-riot mode.” Striking students in “demonstration mode.”

The government can take comfort by considering the different polls that show that a majority of Quebeckers are  in agreement with the Loi Spéciale[translator’s note: some polls, such as the one published by TVA on May 22, show the opposite to be true], but this will not change the heart of the problem: three months on, the crisis hasn’t been resolved.

For three months, this government has had it all wrong. Despite its serious and confident tone of a government that will not back down, this government is outdated and inadequate.

From the beginning, it misjudged the extent of the movement, which most people in Quebec would quickly run out of steam. Then the government assumed the strike would end by Easter. After that, the Liberals attempted to demonize Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. In vain. They believed they could bring the conflict to its end with a trussed-up wacky agreement, and when none of that worked, they figured they could frighten the students with the Loi Spéciale.

Of course, the government isn’t entirely to blame. Student representatives have shown a holy intransigence at times, but in the end, in a democracy, it’s the government which must manage crises and assure the social peace. It arrived with the FTQ, in particular, which is far more intimidating than the students could ever be. [translator’s note: had difficulty with this sentence. If you have a correction from the original, please forward!]

A few days ago we learned that the FECQ and FEUQ offered to talk about tuition, but that ex-minister Beauchamp told them that the subject was non-negotiable.

This government was incapable of arriving at a negotiated solution. It is now incapable of forcing the end of the crisis with a Loi Matraque [translator’s note: this literally means “nightstick law” but does not really translate]. What does it have left in terms of credibility, and in terms of legitimacy?

The minister of Education, Michelle Courchesne, said yesterday that her cabinet had been trying since Thursday to get in touch with the student associations. Come on! Every student has a cell phone (and drinks sangria in Outremont!), it’s well known! And if the line’s busy, just send your formal invitation through the media—it wouldn’t be the first time.

At the point to which we’ve come, we must shut this whole crowd up in a church (to facilitate meditation) and not let them out until the white smoke of consensus is seen escaping the chimney.

On the other hand, perhaps it’s a little too late. We’re heading toward another 100 days of the strike, toward a definitively fucked semester, and a happy mess come September.

The principal problem in the government’s approach is that it is intransigent and antagonistic. You wear the red square? You must be the enemy of the government, the enemy of Quebec, and in favour of violence; you disobey? You must be a vandal! You don’t denounce violence? That’s therefore what you’re encouraging! You don’t accept the tuition hike? You’re opposed to university development!

There’s a problem of balance and of counterweight in this government’s approach to the crisis. It begins at the top of the hierarchy with Jean Charest, who apparently has forgotten that he is also the Minister of Youth. He has listened to his own party’s Youth Commission, which produced the sound recommendations in recent years, but in his eyes the student leaders have no legitimacy.

There’s a problem of counterweight, too, in education, which is now in the hands of the President of the Treasury Board, whose principal mandate is to reduce state spending.

As for Minister of Public Security, Robert Dutil, he is first and foremost the Minister of Police in this conflict.

The police should arrest and neutralize the rioters and hotheads, sure, but who is going to protect the collateral victims who have been generously beaten and pepper-sprayed, as we saw in videos this past weekend? Who will protect the clearly identified press photographer who was hit in the head by a brute in a uniform? Who will protest the restaurant owner or playwright unjustly abused, insulted, and arrested?

“Ethics,” Mr. Dutil said yesterday…

Go on,  make me laugh…

Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

*Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media’s extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired. If you find any important errors in any of these texts, we would be very grateful if you would share them with us at translatingtheprintempsderable@gmail.com. Please read and distribute these texts in the spirit in which they were intended; that of solidarity and the sharing of information.