Quebec news and updates

Labour opposes Harper’s EI reforms
The major trade union centrals of Quebec and the MASSE coalition, a group formed in solidarity with the unemployed, held a series of mass rallies with the biggest one in the town of Thetford Mines in late October. Over 3,000 people from about twelve towns and cities from across Quebec marched to the offices of Christian Paradis, MP for Mégantic-L'Érable (and Stephen Harper's Quebec lieutenant).  Coordinator of MASSE Marie-Hélène Arruda told the rally that "The Conservatives, with their ideology [...] will define by regulation what is a decent job, that is to say a position that an unemployed person cannot refuse for fear of losing their benefits.”

Student legal struggle continues
Drawing attention to the hundreds of students still facing charges from the Quebec student uprising last fall, former spokesperson of the CLASSE, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, was convicted November 1 of contempt of court because he publicly criticized a court injunction ordering picket-lines to disperse during the student strike. The judge (who has been linked as a donor to the former Charest Liberal government) based his ruling on a 1972 court decision which tried to smash the Common Front of public sector unions. A support campaign has been launched at www.appelatous.org to fundraise for an appeal.  Meanwhile, the PQ government have announced an education summit to take place in mid-February, with preparatory meetings and consultations starting at the end of November, about the question of post-secondary education funding.

Corruption inquiry exposes P3s
More revelations have been coming forward at the Charbonneau Commission, especially the testimony of ex-construction boss Lino Zambito which has implicated the Liberal party, as well as their political machines on the municipal level and construction firms, into a web of graft with the Mafia.  Media headlines have focused on Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay’s resignation, the implosion of his Union Montreal party, and now the Mayor of Laval quitting. But the Montreal Gazette has also said that Zambito reported “Public-private partnerships, the sort that are blooming in Quebec to yield hospitals, roads and cultural facilities, are fertile ground for corruption and collusion” because, once big consortiums are ‘awarded’ the contract, the only risk is held by the public sector. One of the biggest P3 projects in Quebec, the McGill University Health Centre, has long been a target of criticism by labour and is currently under police investigation.

QS co-spokesperson steps down
The long standing co-spokesperson of the left-wing political party Quebec Solidaire has stepped down. Amir Khadir was the first “Solidaire” elected to the Quebec National Assembly and the founding leader of the predecessor of QS, the Union of Progressive Forces – which was formed as a federation of left groups including the Communist Party of Quebec.  Khadir will maintain his seat in the National Assembly. Québec solidaire's constitution requires two national spokespersons: one from the legislature and a second from outside it, called a "porte-parole extra-parlementaire", who is not an MNA. The latter also assumes the role of president of the party. A young person is expected to be chosen.

In Quebec, school's out but not the class struggle

Student protest continued on Friday, making another big splash in two places cities at once.

J. Boyden

School is out of session. The students have returned home, leaving their close-knit campus life behind. Young people are in summer jobs – or searching for summer employment, as the youth unemployment rate in Quebec is still one of the highest in Canada. And so the English-language corporate media has a new line about what they`ve mislabelled the Quebec student “boycott.’ The spoilt brats have surrendered. The resistance is melting away.

Anyone who believes that line in Quebec was in for a rude awakening on June 22. That’s when another major demonstration rocked the streets in Montreal, quickly growing in size to become a rumbling, noisy human river running through the downtown. And at the same time, the largest mobilization Quebec City has seen during this five-month struggle also swept through the streets of the historic capital.

The noise on the street is the sound of struggle!

On s`en casserole! 

J. Boyden

Over the past two months the picture of Quebec is of a people in motion, a river of struggle and solidarity.  That river surged and burst its banks in May with the passing of the repressive Law 78 (read more here, here and here). While June has seen (as everyone expected) a slow-down in the intensity of protests, the resistance has not gone away.

Nor has the police repression abated, evidenced by the arrest of Amir Khadir, member of the Quebec National Assembly for the left-wing coalition party Quebec Solidaire, of which the Communist Party of Quebec (PCQ-PCC) is a member. Khadir was peacefully marching in a casserole protest.

Almost the next morning, around 6:00 am, police raided his house, snatched his student activist daughter and her boyfriend out of bed and paraded them in front of TV cameras, down to the station in hand cuffs.

According to the CLASSE student coalition, wearing the sign of the student and anti-austerity struggle, the red square, for the past few days during the Grand Prix Formula One race has meant your are an open target to have your bags searched each time you enter the subway and sometimes on the street. Le Devoir newspaper did an investigation into this claim and found that, not only were their unidentified journalists with red squares searched, but if they ask questions they were be detained at the police station.

But the spirit of the people has not been dampened. And that resilience is best described through stories about the casserole.