Réflexions sur le St-Laurent

Life goes on... so fast!
Je ne sais pas quoi penser de se qui se passe.

Le Québec, ma tête,
en effervescence,
À voir une identité se forger,
les tensions qui l'habitent
Les peurs et les espoirs les plus fous

À parler de la langue
le français et l'anglais co-habitant sur une île
depuis 370 ans
Ville-Marie l'utopie
...

En ces temps politiquement chauds
En ce printemps de l'année 2012
Des manifestations d'hommes et de femmes
d'enfants et d'aînés
d'étudiants, de générations,

Des voisinages qui s'animent finalement
Des jardins communautaires

I am getting a privileged perspective into what it might be to be anglophone and live in Montréal, because I am seeing my friends looking for work and facing a reality I never considered before... to work here, you need to speak French.
And that's a good thing, I think.  I think I think.
This is how we preserve a language.  This is how we keep it alive.  The money, the economy, drives exchanges and thus keeps our connections alive.  What happens to our beautiful français if we let English take over the world of our daily transactions?
(C'est comme ça qu'on préserve une langue!  C'est comme ça qu'on la garde en vie.  L'argent, l'économie, c'est ce qui créer nos échanges et garde en vie nos connections. Non?  Qu'arrive-t-il à notre français si beau, lorsque l'anglais commence à s'imposer comme unique langues du monde des transactions?)  (C'est ce qui est arrivé au 20e siècle.)

The reality is that Montréal has always been populated by both Anglos and Francophones.  And there were Native inhabitants too, and soon came the Irish, the Italians, the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Haïtians... (who am I forgetting?) and now the Arabs, the Africans.. the Canadians, the French!

I asked my friends, ''Do you feel... discriminated against?''

''I love French and I think we should all learn to speak it'', responded K.
''I think one should come here and expect (I always rather thought ''to respect'', perhaps in my feeling victimized?) to live in a new language.  It's like going to Spain.  You can't say 'I should be able to work in English!''', explained E.

Québec is another, different place.

It's not too late to make something of it.

It's not the Berlin Spree, but it's still gorgeous.
(coucher de soleil au Canal Lachine)

Métro quelconque

We've been living in two ghettos, and that's perfectly okay.  in a way.
Two cultures of different values, or business meets religion.
(Two fundamental activities for humankind, I must say.)
...

Civil engineering
 

''It's a very interesting dynamic here,'' added E., ''because you can easily live and go by in Montreal without speaking a word of French.''

C'est bien vrai.

Quoi que tout le monde n'ose pas parler de politique.  ''On ne devrait pas parler de politique dans sa  famille.  Ça enflamme souvent les discours.  On le prend personnel.  C'est trop désagréable.''

''Oh! Je ne pourrais jamais afficher mes opinions politiques au travail!''

Quelle tristesse!  Pourquoi ne pourrions-nous pas débattre des meilleurs façons de vivre ensembles?  Pourquoi ne pourrions nous pas apprendre, dans nos écoles, à discuter et à écouter, à dialoguer et à médier, à s'organiser et à gérer tous ensembles les secteurs de nos vies qui nous concernent tous?

Je sais, je sais. Mais pourquoi ne pourrions-nous pas au moins essayer?

Je reviens encore à Nietzsche, mon éternel compagnon... Il y a ceux qui choisissent encore de se faire mener.  Ils préfèrent la loi du moindre confort, ils ne prenne qu'un minimum de responsabilités et se contente d'un minimum de liberté.

Et ils y a les sauvages, les illuminés, ceux qui ont le besoin de faire pousser la barrière du possible.  Ceux qui voient au-delà de la servilité confortable et se sentent appellés à la Créativité...

Ils y a ceux qui se veulent maîtres d'eux-même.

Bien sûr personne ne l'est vraiment.  Les forces du subconscients sont bien réelles après tout.  Il faut rester humble dans cette histoire d'Übermensch.

Orion nebulla / La nebuleuse Orion

''Special Law'' kicks in a new season in Montréal

Une tite rangée de polices à cheval (pas des chevaux blancs, bien sûr!) avant le début de la manif.  Il était sympa le mec, et je fût impressionnée de par sa volonté à dialoguer.

Last Friday the Liberal government passed a special law to try to put an end to the strike...
Any organism, association, or person who organizes a public demonstration that counts at least 50 people is now required by the law to provide, at least 8 hours before the start, the exact rally point, the route, and the time length...
And if the police don't like it, they can ask the demonstrators to change their plans.

WTF?
This is supposed to ''keep and regulate the right to demonstrate''. .. But wait a minute!  Why should we obey these rules and voluntarily relinquish our power (numbers) to you, when what we are precisely trying to do is to emancipate ourselves from this abuse of your power?  And what about you really informing us about where you're leading this country?

This is clearly an attempt to try and control the power of public demonstrations... But the people aren't that stupid.  In fact, this special law might have been the worst strategic move that the government could make.
Because now, the general population is switching sides!  They are getting in the streets, along with the students!
We are denouncing fascist policies.
We are celebrating the potential of a nation, united.
(I always ask myself: and then what?)

I thus finally went out to my first demonstration last Friday.  Calling time: 20h30.  Place: Parc Émilie-Gamelin.
Number of demonstrators: more than fifty.
A few photos taken in the few days since that event...

Les chevaux n'ont par contre pas voulu commenté sur la nouvelle loi passée par le gouvernement Charest:
Loi Spéciale 78

Friday, 19 MAI 2012
I was not impressed when I saw the row of police on horses overlooking the beginnings of the rally.  However, I was impressed, after I got closer, to find this man actually engage in a dialogue with a young man.  Soon, more people came by...
We are so thirsty for that communication... we wish we could get through to the humanness behind the armor.

French-Canadians have a long history of fighting for self-determination, freedom, and equality.  French-Canadians have always been a majority here in Québec, but our values are shared by many...

In today's struggle, the divide is not language.  It's money.  Dirty money.  Dirty politics.  And we invite all those who feel called by our values to join us.

La soif d'auto-détermination, de liberté, et d'égalité du peuple Québécois remonte à très, très loin...

''We have become the ferocious beasts of hope''

''Angry but pacific.  (Don't hit me)''

Nous marchions pacifiquement... quand tout d'un coup les policiers  ont cru bon de charger sur la foule avec des bombes lacrymogènes.  J'étais à environ 40 mètres, alors pour la première fois,  j'ai pu sentir cette odeur poivrés... voir les gens autours de moi qui toussaient (... et c'était pas des étudiants, mais des adultes de la population générale.)

Apparemment, ils cherchaient à nous diviser.

...

Ils n'ont pas réussit.

Manifestation de casseroles
(pots and pans protests)


In 1971 Chile, the dictatorship (Alliende) passed a law that made any assembly of more than 4 people illegal.  Chileans protested from right in front of their houses... with pots and pans.  Since then, a number of ''cacerolazos'' have taken place in Argentina and in Spain.  But the most recent and amazing results from this type of protest movement happened in Iceland (why didn't we hear of it in the media?), when the nation banged their pots and pans to the point of making the right-wing government resign, in 2009.  Read more about the Kitcheware Revolution here.

Now... it's happening in Montreal city.

Lundi 21 AVRIL, 20h- 22h.  

Sur l'Avenue de Lorimier, au coin Marie-Anne, tout le quartier sort de chez lui pour faire la révolution des casseroles: monsieur et madame tout le monde, les jeunes familles, les ados, les personnes âgés, les professionnels... un voisinage se rencontre enfin!!

Et on fait du bruit, pour dénoncer la loi Spéciale.

Et on fait du bruit, parce que c'est tellement l'fun faire de la musique ensemble.

Avenue de Lorimier, on Monday night. We heard a neighbor banging on his pots and pans... A gesture to denounce and protest against the Special Law.  Soon, other neighbors joined in... and more... until the whole neighborhood was out of their apartments, on their balcony or on the sidewalks.

For many- including my roommates and I - this was the first time we were interacting with our neighbors.  

And we banged those pots and pans... for almost 2 hours.

Cars honked. We jammed.  We smiled..

We connected.

And today? Well after marching- and dancing and chanting - throughout downtown Montreal for three hours, we went home to have dinner. And at eight o'clock...  it happened again ! 

Pots and Pans !!!

If this was in a movie.. we'd think it's too surreal to be true.

From Spring to Summer... the Movement keeps on...

Helicopters are filming everything.  In the streets, violent clashes are taking place.. at this very moment.
The government of Québec just passed a ''special law'' making popular assemblies illegal.  Bad move: now it's explicit: you are fascists.
It's a strong word, but it's a reality: the government is desperately trying to repress the revolution.  Riot squads are out, day after day.
It's been 98 days.

The temperature has been particularly hot here in Montreal, and it got me thinking...

We are entering Summer season.  This means that Spring is ending, and what does that mean for the movement?  We've been calling it the Québec Spring, but now a new season is at our door...  What will it look like?  How long can the students persist?

They have been made to look like their are alone with their cause.  Everyday we talk about the situation, and everyday I raise the same point: for change to occur, there needs to be more sectors of society that join the movement.  Students don't have much power... they are just a bunch of idealists.  They're not part of the machine yet, so they can't actually stop it.  They can make a lot of noise, but it's easy for the common people to overlook what they are trying to say.

Who can say that this crisis does not concern them?  Who can say that education isn't the concern of everyone?  Who can say that they wish for education to become accessible only to those who 1) can afford it, or 2) play the game and get into debt?  Who can say that this isn't going to increase the gap between the rich and the 99%?

Now, some may say that they understand all of this, and they still choose to denounce the student movement.  Those people do not value socialism.  They have opted for the race... to the mountain top; they may believe it's a matter of ''survival of the fittest.''
They haven't understood the concept.

The fittest are those who know how to work together, how to share, how to communicate.  The fittest are those who understand that we are all interconnected.

I don't understand how the movement can be so isolated still.  Their are plenty of supporters: teachers, parents, professors, workers, thinkers, artists, doctors even... They are out there, marching every night.  They march in peace, by the thousands, and not a single newspaper is talking about that.  The media focus on the violence...

It must be the movement's ''fault'', in part.  How come they didn't try to get more unions to show support?  Now is the new season.  This Summer, every one who believes in a more equal and loving society must get up from in front of the tv screen and get out to see what is happening.

Historically, revolutions happen when the discomfort becomes too great; when too many mothers become unable to feed their families.  Then, they take to the streets.  It is true, many of us are quite comfortable and well-fed in today's Québec.  (Though many struggle, too.)
History is a spiral, however.  There seems to be a pattern unfolding... a mix of repetition and linearity.  And to me, something very special has the potential to take place.

Sure, we have made it this far.  Sure, we take long hot showers and we eat fancy foods.  We have worked hard to acquire all of this, we deserve it, and we shouldn't complain with our mouths full.  We shouldn't make a fool of ourselves by raising up our hopes, or ideals, our utopias...

Or should we?
Québec is a relatively comfortable nation.  It is a nation, yes.  We are proud of our unique identity, even though we are still working at defining it.  But the world is One now, more than ever.  My generation barely remembers a time before the internet.  We can choose to travel or work abroad, we are fully aware of the global village and of the issues other nations struggle with.  We are well aware, also, that we are all in it together.
This is why we march in the street.
This is why we want to bring about a revolution.   From our place of privilege, we want to create an even better world for our children to grow up in and take care of.  We want the integrity and equality of all human beings to be recognized.  We want to organize in ways that can reflect and sustain that.

If you are reading this from another country, please tell me, have you heard about the Student Protests?  Do you know about the DAILY confrontations between the police and the people?  Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Tsunami in Montreal

(What's up with Mars?)
(It's opposite Neptune and squaring Chiron, for one thing.)

It's day 95 for the student strikers.  In Québec, in case you didn't know, there is a war going on.
We are over 7,900 hundred citizens in this province, 3 millions in the Montréal metropolis.  These days a lot of things are going on as usual.  I'm sure many have families and they go to work everyday, they eat a decent dinner at night, and watch tv in the evening.  Other things are moving at the speed of light, or they are stalled - you could take it either way.
(Hiroko Tamano - a Butoh teacher- used to say that immobility is the fastest speed, because you can feel the earth spinning on herself and in the galaxy.)

Student protests are taking place everyday still.  The minister of Education resigned earlier this week, the government is uncompromising, and the media are in the trenches.  The police is in the spotlight.  Whether on the streets or at home, we are all witnessing a HUGE amount of violence taking place.
How do we react?
Is it true?  Are we truly in a ''police state'' ?
There are thousands of people demonstrating each day.  Creativity and anger are co-existing in a difficult and beautiful mélange...  The status quo is intensifying in self-defense.  The people are coming up with ever more creative ways to protest.  (We've even had two naked demonstrations (!) ... to ask ''for transparence'' on the part of the elite.  That's the symbolic at its best!)

Being naked ''to be playful and creative'', said one participants.  ''To show our vulnerability'' added another.  ''To show that we are a peaceful movement... We're obviously unprotected for batter... we're not going to go fight in our underwear!''

Yet the government keeps sending out his riot-squads.  (Not on the nude ''manifs''... but on the other ones.)

This is not a World Summit of some sort.  There are no congress of presidents or bankers happening. (Or maybe there are.)  This is provincial politics.  The images we see, the beatings, the pepper spray, the batons, the tactics, the blood...  This is not some news from a country halfway around the globe.  This is right here, in our schools and our streets.

On Wednesday a friend of mine went to demonstrate.  Around midnight, somebody at the top (who?) went ahead and declared that the gathering was now illegal.   ''This demonstration is illegal.  Move!    Moooovvve!!''  Hundreds of people, students and supporters, suddenly became... liable.   The police began dispersing the crowds... and charged.
It's been like this everyday.
My friend was walking towards the nearest metro station, along with about 20 other people, when a riot-squad unit of about 50 men showed up and cornered them.  They arrested them and packed 'em up in a ''panier à salade'' (the police wagon).  They brought them to jail, on the premise of ''attending an illegal demonstration.''

What!?
All of this a few thousand dollars of tuition fees?

This violence is becoming something else.  It is obvious now, and it's - I think - this very dynamic (the abuse of power) that the student are [unconsciously?] fighting to highlight.  It's not about tuition fees, it's about principles.  It's about free education as a symbol for democracy.  It's about the corruption, the power games, the selling out.  We are asking the government to acknowledge something: It is not representing our interests.

(And even though I do very much understand the anger of ''the masses'', I'm not sure that it's the smartest, most sustainable way for protesters to fuel the violence either.)

I haven't decided whether I think that the strikers (specifically from the CLASSE association) should accept some kind of compromise.
They talk about making the prime minister resign, make him fall.

And then what?

I can't help but ponder what this means in terms of sovereignty.  This movement is clearly re-affirming the cultural cleavage between Québec and the rest of Canada.  It is very clearly pointing to our difference and to the direction we want to take.  It think this is a great opportunity to refresh the debate about Québec ''souveraineté-association''.  That's why I've been reading René-Lévesque lately.
I also think that the situation is more complex than ever, and that the timing is overwhelming.  The crisis is happening with our provincial government.  If they were to launch elections right now, I wonder what the turn out would be.

Many citizens claim that they're fed up with the strike.  They just wish things were go as usual.
Would they vote for the Liberal party?
Or would the PQ win? or perhaps Québec Solidaire?!

And then what?

I see this as a huge possibility to help our politics take a radical new direction.
And what I'm thinking about, in truth, is what this means for new models of ''resource management''.

and more thoughts...
and more thoughts...

What are yours?

Political ecology: we're relating

I had diner with about 14 roommates tonight. It was the Shire family from downstairs, and us all squirrels from the spire; a last supper before many leave us for the summer, to plant trees in British Columbia, to go back home to Barbados, or to move forward to new adventures as new parents! Next week, things will be so different.

We can all feel it. Something is changing. ''What's next?'', we ask.
The conversation some of us are having is the whole point.
Citizens engaging in endless debates, exposing their opinions, and thus exploring and exposing their values. Citizens finally having a conversation, so at least, there is finally some kind of communication happening. We are mobilizing, organizing, and talking about our pains and our visions.
Not everyone, but many are starting to consider the puppeteers casting shadows on the cave wall, we are naming it: the illusions propagated by the media. The veil.


Apocalypse:

Emprunté au latin apocalypsis (« révélation »), lui même emprunté au grec ancien ἀποκάλυψις, apokálupsis (« découvert »), et non pas « révélation de Dieu » comme cela est communément admis. Provenant du verbe grec καλύπτω, kalúptô (« cacher »), précédé du préfixe de privation ἀπό ápó. Littéralement donc « dé-caché », et donc par extrapolation, « dévoilé au yeux », « retrait du voile », « le voile est levé ». Ce n’est que bien plus tard que les écritures religieuses assimileront le mot pour l'associer au jugement dernier et donc à la découverte de la vérité de Dieu.

In Le Devoir online, a reader started a debate about strikers being constituted of a great majority of students of what she called the ''soft sciences'', i.e. human, social, literary sciences. Oh my friend, you should have read what other people responded! (You can click on the link above). This sort of debate is happening anonymously, which creates a certain distance, but I find it wonderful, that citizens be sharing their point of view.

Someone recently told me: ''We shouln't talk about politics when we're in family.''

Well, I think we should. It's hard to come face to face with disagreements. Discussions get heated. It's easier to shy away from conflict and mute the tensions that exist. It's also dangerous, as a collective, to deny the issues that concern us all.
We should gather around, people of Montreal. What we have is something so special: French, English, and a dozen more ''nationalities''.. we should open up that discussion about what ''nationality'' means, to acknowledge the inescability of ''politics'', and to generate thoughts and actions that will contribute to a better tomorrow.


We should share in the excitement of not knowing what tomorrow is going to look like, and share in the fears that come up for us too. We should see the web we have been waving, and use it for Good.
(So far, in my book, Good = sustainable.)


--------

I can't believe that I'm living in this city, at this time. i can't believe that I do live in the co-op I have been talking about for years! Yes it's hectic and it's sometimes crowded, but so is the world out there. We are social researchers, organizational revolutionaries, even though we're still so much working at what it all means.

Yes I live with ''a bunch of students'', and somehow I sometimes struggle with that thought. As if it was a pejorative classification. As if it was "better'' to have already found your place (read: a career) in society. But tonight as we were talking about politics and ecology, I smiled to myself and realized that it is a privilege and a huge responsibility, to be studying this society and this world we are about to ''enter'' and take part in.

students digging for books!

In other words: this is the way we take part in it. This is our way of showing maturity. We are rebelling, taking to the streets, as an existential response and a duty, as citizens of tomorrow.
Are we complaining with our mouths full? Sure. (Is it better to complain after you've gone hungry?) Our mouths are full of genetically modified food, soaked in pesticides and chemicals meant to kill other creatures. Our mouths are full of foods that are being produced by underpaid farmers and sent halfway across the world, in gas guzzling trucks, on highways that are built on the lands of indigenous people. 

We want to do politics with what we're learning through ecology. Everything is interrelated.
Seems to be the new cosmology. It would seem that humans have always organized according to the myths that underlie their understanding of the universe.

The sap of r)evolution

It's hard to make sense of what's been happening; there are moments when I wonder: how I can consider myself to be a writer, when I'm not actually writing?  Though )at the risk of being redundant) somehow it also makes so much sense:The readjustment, the adaptation, the unceasing movement of impressions and emotions... my need to let this process unfold within, in its own time, and away from the screen.  There is so much happening inside, that I can't keep up the transparent and immediate processing the way I usually do.

Transparent and immediate processing has been a cause of mine.  Lately, I've embraced what I consider to be a yin approach (my own sense)... no words, no conceptualization... only this ineffable mystery of unconscious gestation and silence.


... Meanwhile...
in the streets of Montréal city...
a revolution is wanting to take place.

The students are still on strike!
Protests and marches are happening daily now.


Two days ago (April 25th), I watched this video on Facebook:

I watched this video and I thought of one thing: Prague.

Such mobilization, such fervor, such numbers... It's so important that we remember the amount of power that a people can have, if only enough individuals dare get out and stand up, together.  ''Un pueblo, undo, nunca sera vincido!''
Hold on seers, revolutions take months to unfold... evolutions take centuries.

Now let me say this,
My roommates have been passionately involved in the student movement, while I have personally found it more difficult to fully identify with the arguments and the cause.  I am not in school anymore, for one thing; but that's not a real reason, because I still consider the education system to be the concern of all citizens.  So the reason why I've been tentative about wearing ''the red square'' - the symbol of this strike - is because I don't think we're highlighting the real issues, the real incentives, the real needs...

 And besides, I am after all a good Libra; I can very well empathize with multiple perspectives.

''These students are complaining with their mouths full; tuition in Québec is still one of the lowest in America, and in the world.''

True, and...

''Education is at the very foundation of a society.  In a true democracy, it should be public and free.''

This needs more exploration and nuancing, but I'd say that I basically agree.

''The costs of living have increased so much over the past thirty years; if we want the employees of those institution to earn a fair wage, we need to raise the prices we pay to attend schools.  If we want to keep the universities open, we need to raise tuition.''

Are we talking about finally valuing the work of our teachers?  Then I'm in.  But even here, we'd only be  talking about professors... intellectuals... the elite.  What I really want to see happening is for society to acknowledge the most fundamental role and function of all the people who educate our children, starting with parents, and nannies, kindergarden ''technicians'' (as we call them here) and high school teachers.

One more thing on this.  We need to ask about the management of university funds.  Where would the extra money would be going exactly?  Those currently earning the highest salaries are not our professors, they are the top administrators, those whose job is to bring more funding to the busin... I mean, the school.
Well it's out now, I've said it: Yes, universities are businesses.
(I played four years of NCAA soccer.  I saw it from the inside.)

That's what the strike is really about.
It's not about a few hundred dollars.  It's about capitalism hijacking and corrupting what should be our most valued and noble insitutions.  It's about the mixing of money and knowledge.  It's about something that's not turning quite right.  Something in the equation sounds contradictory... if we live in a popular democracy, where equal citizens get to exercise their reason... that critical thinking... should we not teach how to thing critically?  Should we not focus on emancipation rather than student loans?

Slogans are easy to shout.
The issue is so much more complex and it runs so deep.  We are having a hard time verbalizing what it is.

As far as I'm concerned, that's why the movement is unstoppable.  It is bigger than us.  

 I am talking about that unconscious undercurrent, el rio abajo, that invisible power streaming under the surface... sweet maple sap rising up : we have termed it: 

''Le printemps érable'' (a pun on ''arab Spring'' and ''maple Spring'').

When discussing the situation, I always make sure to underline that what's going on is part of a global transition.  We generally seem to agree.  Nations stand up to their tyrants, corrupted bankers are being uncovered, ice caps are melting faster than ever.  The temperature is rising.
(What year is this again? Oh yeah... it's 2012.) 

From Berlin to Warsaw, Istanbul, Toulouse, and Cadiz.
The revolution is breathing...
(All pictures I took this Fall)

But to get back to the topic at hand.

''If we make university free, people will stop valuing it.  Kids won't take it seriously, and they won't have the incentives to take their responsibilities.''

Really?
Sure, it's true that my debts are ''forcing me'' to get on the boat and join the system.
That's where the problem lies.  Too many westerners are stuck in jobs that alienates them.  Depression is a real plague.  (I bet xanex has a lot of money to put towards university research programs!)  Wouldn't it cost less to society in the long run, if we invited students to try all the classes and the programs they might be interested in, so that they'd be able to choose what really sparks their interest?  Wouldn't we be glad and impatient to take responsibilities in a world that aligns with the values of our generations?

Do we truly need monetary incentives to wanna contribute to the world as best as we can?  Could we not learn to value things for its own sake?

Nietzsche prophesized it: transvaluation is needed.

To be continued...

Feel free to post your opinion and enter the conversation.

Student Spring in Montréal

I'm feeling very torn.  I want to write in French, but I don't want to let you English readers down.  I guess I should start a new blog in French uh?

For now, I want the world to know that Montréal is experiencing a lot of socio-political heat.  Have you heard?  University students have been on strike for over five weeks now.

All the separate departments of different post-secondary institutions have gathered in their own general assemblies.  One by one, they have voted to join the movement.   This past Thursday, they were between 200 000 and 308 000 supporters (students and non-students) to take to the streets during the general strike!

Their cause?  The provincial government announced a raise in tuitions: 325$ per year for the next five years (for a total of 1,625$).  If you're reading this blog from Norway, or Germany, you might think this is appalling.  If you're in the US of A, you're probably wondering what the big fuss is about.

I spent almost 30,000 dollars on my tuition when I got my Masters degree in California.  Why did I do that!!!?  Well, there was no other ''Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness'' program to be found in Canada.  I decided to be wild...  bold and carefree.
And I was in love.

It's ironic that I should move back to Québec at this specific point in time.
Here, the tuition has been more or less ''frozen'' since 1968.  Sure, there were small increases here and there.  Still, between 1994 and 2007, students paid 1,668$ per year.  Then it got raised by 100$ per year over the span of five years, so that it is currently 2,168$.
With this new raise announced by the Liberal government, tuition fees will come up to 3,793$ a year (by 2016)

That's still less than half the price of what American undergraduates have to pay each year...  But hey, that's still 13,000 dollars for an undergraduate degree!



I just don't understand how we're supposed to start ''an adult life'' with such debt.  It doesn't make us excited to become active members of society, it holds us back, keeps us down, frightens us.  Some of us will take whatever job we can find just because we need to start making money quickly.  In these conditions, how many will push their sense of ethics aside?
We could build a much better society, we could make better choices, we could channel our energies into positive and sustainable endeavors if we weren't so caught up in the rat race!

Elsewhere in Canada people are commenting on what's been happening in Québec.  The media are portraying the students as ''spoiled brats'' who feel entitled to their privilege.  I must acknowledge that I've had the debate with myself too.  But that's before I did the math.  That's before I realized that we're no better than the Americans when we ask students to pay such a price in order to get access to the education we are told we need.

This is not about being spoiled.  This is about an entire generation trying to make itself heard by those in powers.  It's not just about tuitions either.  It's about coming together and pondering the choices we make as a society.  It's about the need to look at our definition of democracy.  It's about resource management.  It's about the future we want to see...

How far will students go on with this strike now that the government has officially presented the budget?  How long will their political involvement last?  Will they still care when the elections come around?  Will they vote in greater numbers?  Or are they forever disillusioned with this so-called liberal democracy?

The climate is warming up.  2012... how exciting to be living at this time!