Government

Montreal Gov’t Negotiating with Occupy-Style Protesters After Months of Street Rampages

(The Blaze/AP)– Quebec students and the provincial government return to talks Tuesday in an attempt to put an end to a sometimes violent months-long dispute over tuition hikes that has led to more than 2,500 arrests.

Montreal Student Protestors Negotiate After Months of Street Rampages

photo by ryan remiorz/AP

No comments were issued at the end of more than six hours of talks Monday evening. Riot police were deployed as about 200 protesters stood in front of the building where the talks were held. Other students banged pots and marched through downtown streets in what has become a nightly scene.

Students have called for a tuition freeze, but the government has ruled out that possibility. Students also object to an emergency law put in place to limit protests. Among the controversial provisions of the law is a requirement that police be informed eight hours before a protest and told the route of any demonstration that includes 50 or more people. Critics called that an affront to civil rights.

Montreal Student Protestors Negotiate After Months of Street Rampages

Photo by ryan remiorz/AP

The French-speaking province’s average undergraduate tuition – $2,519 a year – is the lowest in Canada, and the proposed hike- $254 per year over seven years – is tiny by U.S. standards. But opponents consider the raise an affront to the philosophy of the 1960s reforms dubbed the Quiet Revolution that set Quebec apart from the rest of Canada.

Analysts have said Quebecers don’t compare their tuition rates to those in the U.S. or English-speaking Canada, but to those in European countries, where higher education is free.

Montreal Student Protestors Negotiate After Months of Street Rampages

Photo by Paul Chiasson/AP

More than 2,500 students have been arrested since the demonstrations began weeks ago.

Student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said if the government refused to budge on the two issues, his group would reconsider participating in negotiations.

Education Minister Michelle Courchesne said she was showing up at the meeting “open” to discussions but didn’t know how long the talks would last.

Lawyers wearing their black robes held their own march in Montreal against the new emergency law. Genevieve Dufour, one of the protesters, told French-language TV network Radio-Canada that the new law would have an enormous impact on the justice system.

“It raises a lot of questions on the legitimacy of laws,” she said. “When the lawyers come out and challenge the laws it has an enormous impact.”

Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who has vowed to shake up the debt-ridden province’s finances since he was elected nearly a decade ago, has refused to cave in.

Charest’s government passed emergency legislation on May 18 restricting protests and closing striking campuses until August.

The law requires that police be informed eight hours before a protest begins, including details on the route of any demonstration of 50 or more people. It also prohibits demonstrations within 50 meters (165 feet) of a college and declares that anyone who incites or helps another person break the new protest regulations can be fined.

Amnesty International says the law breaches Canada‘s international human rights obligations and called for it to be rescinded by Quebec’s legislature.

The Montreal student protests have been compared to the Occupy Wall Street movement, and there is often solidarity expressed between the Quebecer strikers and the Occupiers. In fact, just last night in downtown New York City, a small student strike marched through the night shouting “from Montreal to NYC, every night til victory.”

After thousands of arrests and over a month of nightly protests, the Montreal student movement may be on the verge of achieving its goals. And thousands of other Occupy Wall Street-affiliated protestors in America will be watching — and learning — from the entire ordeal.

Comments (25)

  • Auntie izlam
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:11pm

    They should not be negotiating with these spoiled thugs. They should be arresting them and expelling them and not tolerating this extremely bad behavior,

    Report Post »  
  • KeithOlberdink
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 6:10pm

    Let’s let triumph the insult comic dog handle those commi Quebecers.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF43P-FJrFo

    Report Post » KeithOlberdink  
  • 1SheepDog
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 4:02pm

    There is NO negotiating with criminals. When they go outside of peaceable protest, they become lawless anarchists, PERIOD! The flash mob mentality, endorsed by the DNC, is a travesty and one doomed to failure soon.

    Report Post »  
  • Jaycen
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 2:33pm

    Analysts have said Quebecers don’t compare their tuition rates to those in the U.S. or English-speaking Canada, but to those in European countries, where higher education is free.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I have many clients and friends in Canada, but I have to say, “IT’S NOT FREE!”

    The costs are paid by everyone, through their taxes. Instead of those receiving the education paying for the education, people who receive nothing are paying for the education. That means, even if the student graduates but can’t get a job, everyone else paid for it. If the student fails to graduate, everyone else paid for the failure.

    Report Post » Jaycen  
  • Wigan
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 2:25pm

    If the universities actually taught marketable skills, and those who took on these subsidized educations actually paid back more in taxes than it cost to educate them, and the program paid for itself then maybe I could get behind it. But the sorry state of affairs is frequently education gets squandered on unmarketable skills and the universities are filled up with so much lefty propaganda that the end result is a useless, non contributing leech on society who has been taught it is natural to receive something for nothing, and cry like a Grecian baby the second their entitlement undergoes the slightest of modifications.

    Report Post »  
  • TAXLORDCOMETH
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 2:02pm

    Quebec has the highest tax rates in North America, and a crumbling infrastructure to show for it. Montreal’s slide began after the 76 Olympics, and it’s hapless “social democratic” government has been unable to admit their policies of high taxation have stifled growth and opportunity for their young people who continue to migrate to Ontario in droves. Quebec is a textbook failure of left-wing policies.

    Report Post »  
  • 13th Imam
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:55pm

    NOTHING is Free. Anytime someone gets something free, someone or somemany had to pay for it. The fact that Higher Ed in Socialist Europe is free , just means that Taxpayers have to pay the bill. Much like OUR DEMOCRAT policy’s.Past, Present, And Future.
    DEMOCRATS stealing our children’s future, since ,a long time.

    Report Post » 13th Imam  
  • RightUnite
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:54pm

    Someone needs to tell these idiots in Montreal, you NEVER negotiate with terrorists… You take them out, you no longer have a problem.

    Report Post »  
  • Constructionist
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:53pm

    This is why God created rubber bullets.

    Report Post » Constructionist  
  • Hunrodr
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:47pm

    negotiating with terrorists…..now THERE’S a postiton of strength.

    Report Post »  
  • ColoradoMaverick
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:46pm

    Negotiate with common criminals? Doesn’t that legitimize these morons?

    Report Post » ColoradoMaverick  
  • jackact
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:44pm

    OWS is so………yesterday
    Stop reporting on it.
    You only encourage these losers.
    Without media they will remain the filthy unemployed dolts that they are destined to always be.

    Report Post »  
  • lel2007
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:41pm

    Negotiate, that’s so fair, so cute. I wonder what the middle is between marxist socialism and free markets is. And what will the middle ground be next time we negotiate with the left.
    Tuition too high? Find an alternative.

    Report Post » lel2007  
  • vox_populi
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:30pm

    The Blaze isn’t showing any of the pictures, but literally hundreds of thousands of people have been marching in the streets of Montreal on and off for days now. At one point, about a quarter of the city’s population was out in the streets.

    Let’s see what we can do this summer in the States, comrades.

    Report Post » vox_populi  
  • MichelleB6123
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:26pm

    Check out (and like) “It’s About Time”- A protest song meant to engage and activate: http://tinyurl.com/7p6vuxj

    Report Post »  
  • Magyar
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:16pm

    NEGOTIATING? The Canadian socialists are as dumb as rocks—–

    Report Post »  
    • CatB
      Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:46pm

      Amen to that .. Amen !!! Hi to my Canadian cousins! Yes I am serious .. my real cousins.

      Report Post »  
  • taksavillage2
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:11pm

    Canada embraced the draft-dodgers in the 70′s…. I call this Kharma

    Report Post »  
  • Detroit paperboy
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:59pm

    They model themselves after Europe…..hmmmmmm ok…

    Report Post »  
  • KeithOlberdink
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:52pm

    The Montreal goverment is run by the occupy movement. You don’t get and more left-wing and socialist than the government of Quebec/Montreal. Look at the provincial debt of Quebec, they make California look like it’s run by a bunch of bean counters. Quebec = Greece.

    Report Post » KeithOlberdink  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:51pm

    Montreal just lost the war; so it shall be with us under Obama unless the people stand togeather agaisnt the Occupy useful idiots and anarchists of the progressives.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • lukerw
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:49pm

    What ideology suggests that you Negotiate with the Enemy… until you have the Advantage? Answer: Islam/the Koran!

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • opieandannie
    Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:48pm

    I smell soros.
    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/beck-issues-stern-warning-for-canada-you-are-now-dealing-with-george-soros/

    Report Post »  

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