More than 400,000 filled the streets of Montreal this week as a protest
over a 75 percent increase in tuition has grown into a full-blown
political crisis. After three months of sustained protests and class
boycotts that have come to be known around the world as the "Maple
Spring," the dispute exploded when the Quebec government passed an
emergency law known as Bill 78, which suspends the current academic
term, requires demonstrators to inform police of any protest route
involving 50 or more people, and threatens student associations with
fines of up to $125,000 if they disobey. The strike has received growing
international attention as the standoff grows, striking a chord with
young people across the globe amid growing discontent over austerity
measures, bleak economies and crushing student debt. We’re joined by
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for CLASSE,
the main coalition of student unions involved in the student strikes in
Quebec, and Anna Kruzynski, assistant professor at the School of
Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. She
has been involved in the student strike as a member of the group,
Professors Against the Hike.
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.]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment