Americans traveling to Quebec this summer should know they are entering a province that rides roughshod over its citizens’ fundamental freedoms.
Dear [American] tourists…
Comments
19 responses to “Dear [American] tourists…”
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So, does that sound pretty awesome? Destroying the tourist season? That’s real people, real businesses, real jobs.
Pretty dangerous game of chicken to be playing.
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So if I understand you correctly, we should let our basic democratic rights be trampled and be quiet about it so we don’t disturb the tourists? I’ll be frank, I didn’t really care about the tuition hike (besides the fact that increasing tuition by 75% in a province where we’re taxed at over 50% of our income should lead to less such taxes, which it will not), but Law 78 is an abomination usually reserved to totalitarian regimes. And this shall not stand.
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Furthermore, if the tourist season is ruined by protests, I don’t think the protestors will be to blame. I think the people who got them pissed off enough to protest are.
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I find that line of reasoning creepy and weird. “You made us angry, so it’s your fault we [set fires|set off smoke bombs|do other dumb shit].” I don’t think it’s a reasonable way to interact.
I’m pretty much in favour of retaining low student tuition, and I really like ideas like http://blog.mricon.com/2012/04/higher-education-as-investment.html for making education in Quebec as close to free as possible.
But I also think solidarity has to include everyone in Quebec. We all live in this house, and it’s a bad idea to burn it down in order to save it.
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“it’s a bad idea to burn it down in order to save it”: mmm, I dunno, it worked for the Russians with Napoleon. Just kidding. 😉
If you follow what’s happening, nobody’s burning anything. Or if anybody is, they’re rogues within the bulk of pacific protesters. Unless you meant this as an analogy, like “burning bridges”, in which case I’ll probably agree with you, once I’m a little less pissed off. 🙂
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Solidarity has to include everyone in Quebec: you mean a little like when the doctors went on strike in 2006? Which lead to all of us paying an extra $2000 a year in taxes and doctors getting an average raise of $92,000? Yeah, they were really worried about everybody being onboard then…
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You watch this, then get back to me: http://www.universitv.tv/archives/1577
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That was awesome when that police horse harassed that dude. Fucking horsist!
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LOL
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Xopher also has a pretty good blog post on that front today.
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Thanks for sharing Steph. I’m trying to get as many people as I can to wear red baseball caps at the protest. Maybe, just maybe, the SPVM will start to feel a bit of shame.
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I agree that there has been plenty of things done by protesters that is shameful as well as unlawful, and we should (and I have) spoken out against that. There are some pretty important things we need to remember though:
1) many of the instegators are clearly not students or are certainly not there because they believe in accessible education,
2) the number of instegators vs people protesting is very small
3) as law enforcement officers who are in a position of trust, the police have a duty and are held to a higher standard than average citizens
4) the responsibility for social peace lies with the government – that’s probably their most important task – and they’ve been failing at it miserably.
If you want to blame anyone for lack of tourist dollars coming in, most of the blame lays with Jean Charest. His actions (and inaction) have lead to a marked decrease in respect for the law and law enforcement (the SPVM have been helping there too). Merchants who rely on tourist dollars should be calling their MNA demanding his resignation. I would do it, but my MNA is Amir Khadir, and I think he’s already been demanding Charest’s resignation. I will probably start calling Liberal MNAs this weekend though, because I’m totally fed up with this.
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Shame on Bill 78 and shame on Charest…. I doubt that either will or would have changed one American’s mind about traveling to Quebec, though.
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Likely.
PS: it’s not a bill any more, they passed it into law.
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UGH….
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Yeah, on a Friday night, past 8pm. You know, that’s how legitimate laws are being passed and all. Oh, wait…
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It’s sad to read that, especially from the NYtimes.com site where millions read that and make a hurried decision on not coming to Mtl this year based on the news. Nothing should change the fact that our city is still the most amazing city in the world!!!
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Here’s to our city remaining one of the most amazing in the world. Hard to justify that when people’s democratic freedoms are being trampled.
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I guess you have a point:(
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