Translating the printemps érable
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For more useful English-language sources on the conflict, see:
CUTV - broadcasting live from the protests nightly
Rouge Squad - Tactical Translation Team
Rabble.ca's Maple Spring Coverage
Virginie Larivière - Doctoral student in Environmental Sciences at UQAM and author and spokesperson for a petition of 1.5 million signatures against television violence in 1992.
June 19, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/352769/malhonnetete-ehontee
Dear Premier Jean Charest,
I hope, in this space, to express my trouble with your repeated appeals condemning the banalization of violence and intimidation. Not because I do not condemn these myself; I was even inclined to denounce the banalization of televized violence at the beginning of the 1990s, after the murder of my young sister Marie-Ève.
If my activism is nowadays less public, know that I always denounce and condemn the recourse of violence and intimidation in all situations. In one breath, and like you, I condemn the smoke bombs in the metro, the riots of April 20 around your salon du Plan Nord[event announcing the government’s plans for exploiting natural resources in the north], the Victoriaville riots, the breakers of the windows, the “sung” violence of the music group Mise en demeure.
That said, since the beginning of the student conflict and the social crisis that are shaking Québec, your government has demonstrated a shameful dishonesty by appropriating the themes of violence and intimidation, posing at the same time as victims of this and as ardent defendants of law and order.
Marie-Ève Sylveste, Professor, Civil Law section, University of Ottawa
June 12, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/352178/les-arrestations-preventives-sont-illegales-et-illegitimes
PHOTO CAPTION: Montreal’s police force made 34 arrests deemed “preventative” over the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend.
The City of Montreal’s police service (SPVM) made 34 “preventative” arrests this weekend surrounding the events of Montreal’s Grand Prix, as well as augmented identity controls and searches in the metro and onsite at the Grand Prix.
In so doing, the SPVM has suggested that arrests can be made in virtue of article 31 of the Criminal Code without them ending up in charges. Not only are we of the opinion that the Criminal Code does not allow for preventative arrests, but we are also very concerned to observe that police officers have been incessantly multiplying their recourse to such measures in Canada over recent years, and as such, have acted as though it’s the most normal thing in a democratic society.
Are we witnessing the rise of a preventative state?
My 31, 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/351380/gagnon-tremblay-croit-que-l-onu-s-interesse-a-des-futilites
Québec – The United Nations (UN) should be dealing with more serious subjects than Québec’s social crisis provoked by the tuition fee increase, stated the minister of international relations, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, today.
Yesterday, two independent experts from the UN expressed their concern in view of the sequence of protests in Québec after the adoption of a special law and certain waves of mass arrests.
Special Rapporteurs worried about the massive arrests made during the night of May 24.
Lisa-Marie Gervais, 31 May 2012
Original French Text: http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/education/351317/l-onu-fait-la-lecon-a-quebec-sur-sa-loi-speciale
The United Nations (UN) has snubbed the government of Quebec, exhorting it to respect the rights of students and demonstrators. It has also criticized the Special Law adopted by the Charest government, emphasizing that this legislation “unduly restricts the right of association and peaceful assembly in the province of Quebec”.
The UN stands by the report prepared by two independent experts who specified being in contact with the government, which had promised to clarify these issues. The special rapporteurs were particularly concerned by the “acts of serious violence” and by the massive arrests made during the night of May 24 when at least 700 demonstrators were arrested across the province of Quebec.
Denis Lessard May 30 2012, 5:45PM
Original French Text: http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/dossiers/conflit-etudiant/201205/30/01-4530170-lonu-sinquiete-de-la-rigueur-de-loi-78.php
PHOTO CAPTION: UN insider worries that the “fines imposed by law 78, up to 125 000$, are disproportionate and can discourage students from exercising their rights of peaceful assembly.
(Quebec City) Today, two independent experts on issues of freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, and of opinion and expression from the United Nations have shared their preoccupations regarding the acts of violence committed in Quebec during the May 24th protests that led to the detention of 700 protesters, as indicated by a UN press release sent Wednesday.
These observers “urged the federal and provincial governments of Canada and Quebec to fully respect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, expression and association of students affected”, the UN maintains in its release. For over four months now, students have been protesting in Montreal and throughout Quebec to challenge a rise in tuition fees deemed “abusive and unjustifiable”, the UN envoy explains.
