Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Quebec Students and the Magic Moment


Like so many things in Quebec these days it was an amazing sight.

Eighty thousand people in downtown Montreal watching an outdoor show by Loco Locass, a very popular and very political hip hop group.

The group was dressed in red and waving a Quebec flag with a red square sewn on it to show their support for the student movement.

But the truly magic moment came when they invited the movement's leaders on stage, and they all sang one of the group's biggest hits, Libérez-nous des Libéraux...Free us from the Liberals.












And who can blame them eh? When Jean Charest is trying to use their long and overwhelmingly peaceful struggle to get himself re-elected.

Under the headline "Ballot question," the document cites the planned election message as follows: "Jean Charest and the Liberal team with the northern (development) plan and job-creation? (Or) Pauline Marois and the PQ with a sovereignty referendum and the streets?"

Such a theme would come as no surprise, given that it stems from messages the premier has been repeatedly delivering in recent weeks. But in that time Charest has repeatedly — even angrily — denied that he might be trying to let a social crisis fester so that he could use it to his electoral advantage.

And he is so desperate to call an election before his corrupt party is further disgraced

The report that compelled Premier Jean Charest to call a public inquiry into corruption in the construction industry almost never saw the light of day because of government intransigence, according to its author, Jacques Duchesneau, former head of the province’s anti-collusion squad.

He is smearing the students as criminals and anarchists, because he needs social chaos, like Dracula needs blood.

And like a mad Emperor he would fiddle while Quebec burns...
















So far his strategy is working. Polls show the Liberals are now tied with the PQ.

But in the long run what kind of future has a political leader who would wage war on the young? What kind of person is he? And what kind of society would he have us live in?

It's true that a lot of people in Quebec, including many in the student movement, are exhausted by the long months of protest. 

But surrendering to somebody like Jean Charest is simply unthinkable. As unthinkable as surrendering to someone like Stephen Harper.

And if you fast forward the following tape to the four-minute mark, when one of the student leaders, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, kicks off the song Free Us From the Liberals. Or fast forward to the eight-minute mark, for the grand finale.

You don't have to understand French to understand the message the students are sending him...



For as long as it takes Emperor. You maniac. For as long as it takes.

The future belongs to us. Câlisse.

And the struggle continues...


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1 comment:

thwap said...

Jean Charest was always regarded as something of a bubble-head (with an IQ somewhat lower than Kim Campbell's) until his patriotic generalities that he felt compelled to mouth during one of the soveregnity campaigns made him the hero of English media.

If it turns out he's a super-corrupt stooge, that'll come as no surprise. That's the way these liberal dickwads roll.