Castonguay, who has many issues with the province’s education system, opposed the hikes and even argues that university should be free, at least until the first undergraduate degree.
Not long after he got there that morning, Castonguay found himself on his back after he was knocked down by riot police. The incident still angers him, he says, because it was unnecessary. Here he was, says Castonguay, an elderly man of 72, being bashed to the ground with a riot shield because he was standing a couple of feet within the perimeter of where police were moving forward.
The former University of Ottawa mathematics prof and longtime Gatineau resident wants authorities to apologize not only to him but to the many others who were manhandled or injured during many similar student protests across Quebec in 2012. Even better, he says, would be a public inquiry into the debacle.
Protesters were “whacked and mistreated” for simply exercising their right to freedom of expression, he says. “There were a lot of teeth knocked out and bones broken and (someone lost an eye). I feel so oppressed by this.”
Despite his anger, Castonguay almost let the incident with riot police — caught by Citizen photographer Pat McGrath — pass. He wasn’t hurt, though he says he was mentally and physically shaken, and becomes anxious and riled when he now sees police. Still, when Castonguay made attempts to file a complaint following the incident, it became apparent that it was going to be a lot more trouble than it was worth. So he more or less let it go.
But now, he says, that’s all changed, and he plans to file a complaint with Quebec’s police ethics commission. What got him ticking again were news reports of police going after student protesters in Montreal, following Premier Pauline Marois’s recent announcement of a three-per-cent tuition hike. The students were caught off guard by Marois. She had promised during last fall’s provincial election campaign to restore the social peace that had been lost when then-premier Jean Charest announced proposed tuition hikes. Charest’s government wanted to increase the fees from $2,168 to $3,793 between 2012 and 2017. The ensuing student unrest eventually forced him to back down, and he went on to lose the election. The students thought the new premier was in their corner.
Thirteen people were arrested during a demonstration on Feb. 26 — the day Marois announced the hikes — and again on March 5, when thousands took to the streets for a nighttime protest. Projectiles were thrown, windows smashed and police cruisers damaged. Police detained 72 people, and charged 10 under the Criminal Code and ticketed 62 for municipal-bylaw violations. Protesters accused them of targeting people indiscriminately.
Castonguay’s ire was further stoked by massive arrests March 15 during the 17th annual protest against police brutality in Montreal. According to the CBC, three criminal charges were laid, but the majority of the 250 arrested were charged under a municipal bylaw that makes it illegal for protesters to cover their faces. About 150 were fined $637 for participating in an illegal event.
Castonguay says he decided to go to the protest at the Outaouais campus of the Université du Québec last April after a friend phoned to say “kids were being hit by the police” at a demonstration the day before. He says his friend felt that “if some older people came, the police would temper their enthusiasm.”
Castonguay recalls a few hundred people of different ages assembled in front of the school’s Alexandre-Taché building. Police cruisers blocked the east and west sides of that portion of Alexandre-Taché Boulevard, leading him to believe that police had cordoned it off for a peaceful demonstration. Some protesters were chanting slogans, he says, and he was looking around to see if he recognized anyone he knew. That’s when he noticed the riot police, three abreast and in lines of 10 to 12 deep. “They were just standing there.”
He says he decided to take a photograph of the police in their riot gear — “they looked like Martians.” He asked his wife, Lise, to take the camera out of his backpack, which was strapped over his shoulders.
Suddenly, he says, the riot police started moving in their direction. He didn’t notice as quickly as Lise did as she got out of the way. But when Castonguay saw them coming toward him, he says he stood there, trying to decide whether he “should stand my ground or get out of the way.”
The thought of the Chinese student facing down an army tank during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests flashed through his mind. That’s when he decided he “was going to stand my ground.”
He says it would have been easy for the officer who struck him with the shield to walk by him without making contact. “But that isn’t what happened. He bashed me. I went flying. People came running to see if I was OK.
“None of those goons stopped ... When you fall as an old person, it shakes you up.”
Castonguay says he has “no illusions” that his complaint to Quebec’s police ethics commission will result in much. But, he adds, if more protesters who were pushed around complained like he is, that might force authorities to take notice.
Castonguay says he would like to talk to the officer who knocked him down and to the riot squad’s commander, whom he believes should have checked on him to see if he was hurt. “I think they should offer an apology, which I would accept,” says Castonguay.
Castonguay says he believes the protests were also fuelled by “the simultaneous activity of the Charbonneau Commission on corruption in the construction industry.
“It’s tough to hear your premier, be it Charest or Marois, say that it’s fair and just to hike tuition fees, when everyone well knows that the truth will soon (come) about how Quebec’s two old political parties and big businesses collaborate to inflate construction costs and pocket taxpayers’ dollars. The students rightly consider that were corruption not so rampant, the millions saved in public money could go quite a way toward reducing tuition fees, instead of hiking them.”
Original Article
Source: ottawacitizen.com
Author: Hugh Adami
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