So, a couple of questions I posed below seem to have been answered by a couple of enterprising journalists.
First, what the 'average' Quebecker thinks about the student protests and Bill 78 by Paul Wells of Maclean's does a great job of dissecting some poll results and summarizing what it all means.
Second, Brian Platt takes a pretty good stab at trying to determine why, in the Rest of Canada, students are more timid and are unlikely to mount a huge protest along the lines of what we've seen over the past 13 weeks in Québec.
Enjoy!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Why Andrew Coyne Needs to Visit Montréal
My favourite Canadian polemist, Andrew Coyne of National Post and At Issue fame, penned a short commentary on the Quebec student strike this past Thursday. Maybe it's because of the distance he lives to the actual situation on the ground, but I would suggest that his comments, and that of others at the Post and other Canadian media organizations, suffer from a lack of context.
Coyne et al state that the students have evolved the strike to a never-ending protest, that focusses less on actual demands than on the act of protest itself, a sort of 'protest for protest's sake'. They invoke comparisons to literature, namely the Unbearable Lightness of Being, equating what is happending in Quebec now to The Grand March of that book.
Allow me to take issue with that conclusion.
I will agree that some of the demands of the students go beyond the issue of tuition fees. But that's normal, as the issue itself is a tad complicated when you start mixing in how Universties of financed, how they use their money, who governs them and what their role should be - all legitimate questions for society as a whole to debate.
But where the arguments of Coyne et al fall apart is the moment the Province passed Bill 78. It was if a straw broke somewhere and ordinary people had had enough. The Provincial Liberals have been stirring anger on the part of the population for months, if not years, on sensitive subjects such as shale gas extraction, the development of Northern Quebec and how much money is extracted from mining and petroleum companies for the privelege of operating in the Province. In these files, they just haven't shown a huge willingness to sit down and debate the issues.
And then they passed Bill 78. It caught in the throat of more than just the students. It caused a lot of ordinary people who were quietly on the sidelines of the student protest to sit up, take notice and not like what they saw. They saw the arrogance again, and the unwillingness to even consider a conversation with the students. A familiar pattern.
Enter François-Olivier Chené, a CEGEP professor of politics in Ste-Hyacinthe. Inspired by the not-so-quiet protests in Chile and Argentina, he asked people on his Facebook page to go out on their balconies at 8pm every night and bang their pots and pans to show their disagreement with Bill 78.
And they did. In record numbers. Every night now, in most neighbourhoods in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City and elsewhere, ordinary citizens take a break from whatever they're doing, step outside and bang pots and pans. The sound resonates across Montreal when it happens.
So, yes Andrew, the protests are about more than just tuition fee increases. They're about a citizenry angry at their government for a whole range of issues and further, they're not willing to wait for the next election to show their displeasure. The student protests were a flashpoint. The 'Casseroles' movement is humerous, peaceful way to show how you feel about your government.
I wonder if citizens in other provinces could be so moved.
Coyne et al state that the students have evolved the strike to a never-ending protest, that focusses less on actual demands than on the act of protest itself, a sort of 'protest for protest's sake'. They invoke comparisons to literature, namely the Unbearable Lightness of Being, equating what is happending in Quebec now to The Grand March of that book.
Allow me to take issue with that conclusion.
I will agree that some of the demands of the students go beyond the issue of tuition fees. But that's normal, as the issue itself is a tad complicated when you start mixing in how Universties of financed, how they use their money, who governs them and what their role should be - all legitimate questions for society as a whole to debate.
But where the arguments of Coyne et al fall apart is the moment the Province passed Bill 78. It was if a straw broke somewhere and ordinary people had had enough. The Provincial Liberals have been stirring anger on the part of the population for months, if not years, on sensitive subjects such as shale gas extraction, the development of Northern Quebec and how much money is extracted from mining and petroleum companies for the privelege of operating in the Province. In these files, they just haven't shown a huge willingness to sit down and debate the issues.
And then they passed Bill 78. It caught in the throat of more than just the students. It caused a lot of ordinary people who were quietly on the sidelines of the student protest to sit up, take notice and not like what they saw. They saw the arrogance again, and the unwillingness to even consider a conversation with the students. A familiar pattern.
Enter François-Olivier Chené, a CEGEP professor of politics in Ste-Hyacinthe. Inspired by the not-so-quiet protests in Chile and Argentina, he asked people on his Facebook page to go out on their balconies at 8pm every night and bang their pots and pans to show their disagreement with Bill 78.
And they did. In record numbers. Every night now, in most neighbourhoods in Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec City and elsewhere, ordinary citizens take a break from whatever they're doing, step outside and bang pots and pans. The sound resonates across Montreal when it happens.
So, yes Andrew, the protests are about more than just tuition fee increases. They're about a citizenry angry at their government for a whole range of issues and further, they're not willing to wait for the next election to show their displeasure. The student protests were a flashpoint. The 'Casseroles' movement is humerous, peaceful way to show how you feel about your government.
I wonder if citizens in other provinces could be so moved.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Almost 50 - All over Montreal
This is what happens when you get a law that few in the population support - Almost 50 demonstrations on every corner of the city.
It's part of the 'casseroles' call to arms in Quebec right now - at 8pm in the evening, people appear on their balconies, in the street, on the sidewalk with their pans and start making noise. Pots, pans, mixing spoons, horns, whistles - any and all are used to create as much noise as possible to let everyone know their discontent.
I call them the 'Almost 50s' because in my neighbourhood (show in the photo), they were mocking the 50 person limit for demonstrations contained in Bill 78, chanting 'almost 50, almost 50'.
Maybe with all that noise, someone in the government might actually listen. That would be an improvement.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Dig deep, O Students, dig deep
So now we are stuck with a new law imposed on us all of dubious constitutionality, a law that while not restraining our ability to protest, certainly circumscribes it much more narrowly than before. All so the Quebec provincial government can save some face in its long running dispute with Quebec students (not sure how the 8 hour advance notice is going to work in an era of social media, but we'll see; at this moment, the police are still figuring out how to enforce this).
Bollocks, I say. While Charest certainly has the right to do this with their legislative powers and legitimacy as the duly elected government of the province, it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
The students on the other hand, seem to be digging in. Their frustration was palpable at the press conference as PL78 was revealed and since them, have shown some willingness to be flexible with the government, provided the Minister of Education will listen.
But I'd like to hear a new tune by the students. Not once have I heard them pronounce on the financial situation of the province.
Oh sure, they talk about wanting to reform how the Universities spend their money. I'm good with that.
But I think they're living in a bit of a bubble. They want the state to pay for education - make it free, in other words - meaning that the public needs to shoulder all the burden through taxes.
I don't know how that's going to work. The province has such a high debt load that fully 11% of its annual expenses are interest payments on more than $170 billion in debt. Both the debt load and the interest on that debt are growing. Add to this that, of the $86 billion in revenues recorded during the most recent fiscal year, over 17% (or $15 billion) is transfers from the Federal Government (read: Alberta. Yes, it's all those petrodollars that are helping fund our social programs. Ironic, eh?). It's all here in black and white. That's not a lot of margin to maneuvre.
So, I'd like to see the students dig a little deeper. Acknowledge the financial situation the province is in. Become a partner with them in finding creative ways of living within our means.
Asking the province, and by extension, Quebec taxpayers, to shoulder more of the load isn't going to fly.
Bollocks, I say. While Charest certainly has the right to do this with their legislative powers and legitimacy as the duly elected government of the province, it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
The students on the other hand, seem to be digging in. Their frustration was palpable at the press conference as PL78 was revealed and since them, have shown some willingness to be flexible with the government, provided the Minister of Education will listen.
But I'd like to hear a new tune by the students. Not once have I heard them pronounce on the financial situation of the province.
Oh sure, they talk about wanting to reform how the Universities spend their money. I'm good with that.
But I think they're living in a bit of a bubble. They want the state to pay for education - make it free, in other words - meaning that the public needs to shoulder all the burden through taxes.
I don't know how that's going to work. The province has such a high debt load that fully 11% of its annual expenses are interest payments on more than $170 billion in debt. Both the debt load and the interest on that debt are growing. Add to this that, of the $86 billion in revenues recorded during the most recent fiscal year, over 17% (or $15 billion) is transfers from the Federal Government (read: Alberta. Yes, it's all those petrodollars that are helping fund our social programs. Ironic, eh?). It's all here in black and white. That's not a lot of margin to maneuvre.
So, I'd like to see the students dig a little deeper. Acknowledge the financial situation the province is in. Become a partner with them in finding creative ways of living within our means.
Asking the province, and by extension, Quebec taxpayers, to shoulder more of the load isn't going to fly.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
3:10 to Yuma: Redux
It was a gritty film that one. Bearded and haggard white guys pulling six-shooters and Lee-Enfields all to prevent one man from getting on a train.
How times have changed. Not the guns part, but the white guys part.
According the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States now produces more non-white babies than white. The problem, it seems, comes down to demographics - us white folk are just too damn old and didn't produce enough young uns during the last fifty years. The result is that the median age for whites is 42 - for the vast majority of women, past the age of fertility. The median age for non-whites - 27, smack dab in the middle of the peak fertility years. And Yuma? Yuma county in Arizona is the place with the largest gap between white and non-white - only 18% of under-20s are white.
Add to this the scolarity rates for non-whites - 13 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of blacks obtain a University degree. For whites, the rate is 31 percent. If the key to success in the modern economy is possession of a degree, and access to higher paying jobs, then the United States has a problem: how to continue growing its economy and remaining globally competitive with less and less well-educated workers.
The ramifications for our neighbour to the south are staggering. I already overheard at a conference I attended in Chicago the fact that, in many parts of the South, Spanish is overtaking English as the main language. Will we see laws passed to protect English? Or will the U.S. adopt Spanish and English as official languages? Might not be a bad idea, given that, even with the increasing participation rates of Hispanics at voting time, more will need to get involved and the way to do that is to make them feel more welcome in the U.S.
Or will we see reactionary movements sprout up out of the vestiges of the militias and neo-Nazi groups, seeking some kind of demographic 'firewall' between whites and non-whites? It's happening in Greece and there are early signs with English-only groups sprouting up in places like Florida.
Only time will tell. If the gunplay in Yuma were to repeat itself now, I think Hollywood would have to dig deep to find the right mix of non-white actors to play the leads. Sorry, Russel Crowe.
How times have changed. Not the guns part, but the white guys part.
According the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States now produces more non-white babies than white. The problem, it seems, comes down to demographics - us white folk are just too damn old and didn't produce enough young uns during the last fifty years. The result is that the median age for whites is 42 - for the vast majority of women, past the age of fertility. The median age for non-whites - 27, smack dab in the middle of the peak fertility years. And Yuma? Yuma county in Arizona is the place with the largest gap between white and non-white - only 18% of under-20s are white.
Add to this the scolarity rates for non-whites - 13 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of blacks obtain a University degree. For whites, the rate is 31 percent. If the key to success in the modern economy is possession of a degree, and access to higher paying jobs, then the United States has a problem: how to continue growing its economy and remaining globally competitive with less and less well-educated workers.
The ramifications for our neighbour to the south are staggering. I already overheard at a conference I attended in Chicago the fact that, in many parts of the South, Spanish is overtaking English as the main language. Will we see laws passed to protect English? Or will the U.S. adopt Spanish and English as official languages? Might not be a bad idea, given that, even with the increasing participation rates of Hispanics at voting time, more will need to get involved and the way to do that is to make them feel more welcome in the U.S.
Or will we see reactionary movements sprout up out of the vestiges of the militias and neo-Nazi groups, seeking some kind of demographic 'firewall' between whites and non-whites? It's happening in Greece and there are early signs with English-only groups sprouting up in places like Florida.
Only time will tell. If the gunplay in Yuma were to repeat itself now, I think Hollywood would have to dig deep to find the right mix of non-white actors to play the leads. Sorry, Russel Crowe.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Moi, je suis un 'carré blanc'
In the devolving war of Quebec students against the Provincial Government, there seems to be a singular lack of solutions to the impasse from both the students and the Government. Charest is intractable; the students are linking their fight with so many other conditions, it makes it impossible to agree on any position; the Universities are desperate for more money in a system that has been chronically underfunded for years.
They tried negotiating. Last weekend, 23 hours of non-stop discussion produced a limpid agreement soundly rejected by all the student and CEGEP associations. Which raises the question of just what mandate the student 'leaders' really had to negotiate anything. The union leaders and negotiators who were around the table are looking a little befuddled by the outright rejection, given they know this was as good as the Government was going to give at this time.
In the on-going battle to identify who is with what side, the students started everything off by sporting a red felt square on their chests, an identity badge that showed the world they were against any tuition increases, and for a 'strike'. Then a green square came out of the woodwork for those students who were against increases in tuition, but were also against a strike. Then Richard Martineau - a notable Quebec journalist - came out with a yellow square on the popular talk show Tout le monde en parle. The yellow square would mean, proceed with the increases in tuition, but just slower. Seems the students didn't like that idea either, as that element was part of the Government's offer.
So what now? An enterprising group of parents has come up with a possible way out of the now-polarized debate: declare a moritorium on any increases in tuition for a year, send the students back to class and get everyone around the table in a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere to negotiate a real agreement that would be acceptable to a majority of students and the Government.
As a proponent of the motto 'calmer heads prevail', I think it's a grand idea. In this climat of completely polarized positions, we need to get out of the pressure cooker atmosphere and take the time it takes to find a solution.
Because after all, nobody agreed to anything good with a gun pointed at their head.
They tried negotiating. Last weekend, 23 hours of non-stop discussion produced a limpid agreement soundly rejected by all the student and CEGEP associations. Which raises the question of just what mandate the student 'leaders' really had to negotiate anything. The union leaders and negotiators who were around the table are looking a little befuddled by the outright rejection, given they know this was as good as the Government was going to give at this time.
In the on-going battle to identify who is with what side, the students started everything off by sporting a red felt square on their chests, an identity badge that showed the world they were against any tuition increases, and for a 'strike'. Then a green square came out of the woodwork for those students who were against increases in tuition, but were also against a strike. Then Richard Martineau - a notable Quebec journalist - came out with a yellow square on the popular talk show Tout le monde en parle. The yellow square would mean, proceed with the increases in tuition, but just slower. Seems the students didn't like that idea either, as that element was part of the Government's offer.
So what now? An enterprising group of parents has come up with a possible way out of the now-polarized debate: declare a moritorium on any increases in tuition for a year, send the students back to class and get everyone around the table in a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere to negotiate a real agreement that would be acceptable to a majority of students and the Government.
As a proponent of the motto 'calmer heads prevail', I think it's a grand idea. In this climat of completely polarized positions, we need to get out of the pressure cooker atmosphere and take the time it takes to find a solution.
Because after all, nobody agreed to anything good with a gun pointed at their head.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Quebec Students: Staying on Message
This morning in Montreal, as-yet unidentified parties threw smoke bombs onto the subway tracks in three stations, shutting down all three major subway lines and effectively stranding thousands of commuters. This has happened twice before in the last few weeks and in both instances the perpetrators were related to the students protesting the Provincial Government's proposed increase in university tuition fees.
At the same time as this was going on, I was reading (on the subway platform before I had to leave and find a bus) a Harper's essay (sorry - no link; it's not posted yet on their site) about the monumental rise in tuition fees at U.S. universities that have occured over the past 30 years. The conclusions reached by the author are that universities in the U.S. are really about getting rich, providing the goods to participate in the 'knowledge economy' and that students must be made to pay for this privelege (the average annual tuition bill for an Ivy League university in the U.S. is US$40,000.00. If you include room and board, it's US$54,000.00.). By requiring students to pay a hefty price - and accumulate a huge debt load - students in such institutions do not become enlightened about the ways of world, but rather, arrive at the knowledge that they've been screwed. There's even the story of the Ph.D. student who, after obtaining her degree and realizing that the salary for an adjunct professor was so insignificant, decided to become a high-end escort to Wall street types, basically providing sexual services to the guys who lent her the money to get her degree.
So, how are the events in the Montreal subway and the Harper's article related?
The students in Montreal are protesting hikes in tuition that they say would lead to a situation that has occured in the United States. They are raising legitimate questions around university financing and the use of those funds in providing educational services. I certainly see the role of universities being larger than churning out students who feel entitled to become rich. And for that, I salute them. They've done far more to get the public's attention than the government, which, frankly, has dropped the ball on the whole issue for the sake of political expediency.
However, the student movement is being hijacked by opportunistic vagabonds and hooligans, who see any large protest (and Montreal has its share) as an opening to wreak havoc in public places. I don't think that shutting down the subway system in Montreal for an hour is going to endear those commuters to the student's cause as it distracts the public's attention away from the arguments raised by the students.
The students need to stay on message so they can get the public on side. Smoke bombs won't do it.
As for the subway, I think I'll take my bike the next time to get to work.
At the same time as this was going on, I was reading (on the subway platform before I had to leave and find a bus) a Harper's essay (sorry - no link; it's not posted yet on their site) about the monumental rise in tuition fees at U.S. universities that have occured over the past 30 years. The conclusions reached by the author are that universities in the U.S. are really about getting rich, providing the goods to participate in the 'knowledge economy' and that students must be made to pay for this privelege (the average annual tuition bill for an Ivy League university in the U.S. is US$40,000.00. If you include room and board, it's US$54,000.00.). By requiring students to pay a hefty price - and accumulate a huge debt load - students in such institutions do not become enlightened about the ways of world, but rather, arrive at the knowledge that they've been screwed. There's even the story of the Ph.D. student who, after obtaining her degree and realizing that the salary for an adjunct professor was so insignificant, decided to become a high-end escort to Wall street types, basically providing sexual services to the guys who lent her the money to get her degree.
So, how are the events in the Montreal subway and the Harper's article related?
The students in Montreal are protesting hikes in tuition that they say would lead to a situation that has occured in the United States. They are raising legitimate questions around university financing and the use of those funds in providing educational services. I certainly see the role of universities being larger than churning out students who feel entitled to become rich. And for that, I salute them. They've done far more to get the public's attention than the government, which, frankly, has dropped the ball on the whole issue for the sake of political expediency.
However, the student movement is being hijacked by opportunistic vagabonds and hooligans, who see any large protest (and Montreal has its share) as an opening to wreak havoc in public places. I don't think that shutting down the subway system in Montreal for an hour is going to endear those commuters to the student's cause as it distracts the public's attention away from the arguments raised by the students.
The students need to stay on message so they can get the public on side. Smoke bombs won't do it.
As for the subway, I think I'll take my bike the next time to get to work.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Obese America
So, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are reporting that close to half of all Americans will be obese by 2030.
Think of the implications for a moment:
Think of the implications for a moment:
- cars need to be larger, countering the recent trend to smaller ones, leading to increased oil consumption;
- health care costs will balloon to take care of all the associated illnesses;
- the military will have to look elsewhere for recruits, or training costs would double as training an obese recruit versus a non-obese recruit would be significantly longer;
- airplane cabins need to be 'adjusted' to accomodate the wider girth of obese passengers;
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