Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, February 17, 2012

Protesters pepper-sprayed at Quebec student protest

There were four arrests on the ground and the whiff of pepper spray in the air Thursday as hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Montreal against planned university tuition increases.

Students, unions and women's groups held a joint protest in a downtown area around the local stock exchange, as access to a hotel was cut off.

Riot police were called in and things became tense as officers unloaded the contents of some pepper spray cans into the crowd.

Four demonstrators were arrested and carted away in police vehicles, which caused other participants to attempt to block the vehicles' path while chanting for their release. A cameraman from one TV network was surrounded by protesters who shouted at him.

Tens of thousands of university students are also planning strikes in a throwback to the kind of protests in the 1990s that kept the then-Parti Québécois government from raising attrition fees. Student rates have been largely frozen in Quebec, for most of the last 40 years.

But the current Liberal government of Jean Charest wants to change that.

Quebec's university tuition fees are so low that, even with an annual $325 hike planned over the next five years — which would nearly double current rates — they would still be the lowest in the country.

The protesters argue, however, that the increase will keep some people from obtaining a higher education and they call it a question of societal values.

Original Article
Source: Globe 
Author: The Canadian Press 

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