Amazing footage care of CUTV.

A student activist friend of mine came to visit from Halifax for the week, so we decided to take in the sights that have defined Montreal as of late;

20-somethings, clad in red bandannas, pumping their fists in the air and marching through downtown.

The city was a collection of frayed nerves by Thursday morning, having played host to a highly charged show-down between protesters and cops on Wednesday night. Students were accused of lighting fireworks, breaking windows and assaulting cops and journalists; while the police were accused of ham-fisted tactics that included arresting comedians and assaulting them.

When the crowd assembled on the East side of downtown, there was a certain uneasiness. Who would act first?

Turns out; neither.

The protest stayed entirely peaceful, the entire night.

Programming note: You can see my liveblog of the protest here 

Despite a few showdowns, the protesters consistently backed down from confrontations. The police, for their part, left the students to their own devices - as long as they stayed on the main streets. 

They’re getting good at this…

Walking with the protest for a good 4 hours, I noticed something - both the police and the protesters are going pro.

The students have developed a methodical system to avoid police confrontation, keep the crowd in line, and make sure things stay peaceful. Basically, three or four organizers will stay at the head of the crowd, making sure the mass knows where to go. They get their information related to them by a team of scouts on bicycles, who drive ahead to check police movements.

This system was tested last night when a few rabble-rousers tried repeatedly to take the crowd down sidestreets, no doubt provoking a confrontation with cops. The organizers, however, did a masterful job using mob mentality (in a positive way!) to get a few people chanting “keep straight! Keep straight!” and thus dragging the entire 2000+ crowd away from a showdown.

Whenever the crowd did face some cops, the organizers got the entire group holding up their fingers in a peace-sign salute and chanting “We’re staying pacifistic!” The organizers were also quick to back off if a showdown was nearing a physical confrontation.

The cops, on the other hand, were no doubt cognisant of how messy Wednesday’s protests got and wanted to avoid questions of their capability. Their tactics consisted of quarantining the protesters and giving them a wide berth. Cycle cops would go ahead of the crowd, directing traffic away from the students. Vans full of riot police and cop cars would shadow the protest on the two adjacent parallel streets, rapidly forming lines to block passage if the group seemed like it was considering a change of route. Horse-mounted cops took up the rear and made sure the protesters stayed in somewhat of an organized pack. 

While the police behaved professionally for most of the night, the protest got off to a bit of a rocky start when students supposedly launched “projectiles” at the police, leading them to make two arrests and declare the protest illegal.

That was, no doubt, an over-reaction and an empty threat. Beyond sending trucks equipped with speakers to announce that the protesters could be arrested, the police made no attempts to actually stop the protest. On top of that, I saw no evidence of vandalism or anything being thrown. The most illegal thing the protesters did was set of half a dozen fireworks (which was met with massive boos from the crowd.)

But peaceful protests don’t make news…

Unsurprisingly, the protest didn’t get much coverage. The media that showed up for the protest smelling blood got bored after the first hour and slowly got into their news vans and left. The protest garnered only fleeting references in all five of Montreal’s major daily papers. The news this morning was focused on Charest’s new offer (that student groups characterize as an insult.)

Basically, instead of offering to raise tuition significantly over five years, he’ll raise it more significantly over 7. Not exactly a good offer.

The media quickly pointed out that sympathy has been draining from the student movement. The mayor of Montreal is furious over the whole thing. The costs of the protest are escalating, perhaps past what would be raised by the hikes.

But the one that really got me was an op-ed in the Globe & Mail.

The condescending diatribe comes from us care of Quebec student Sandy White, who was formerly an aide to embattled Conservative minister Christian Paradis.

The article - rightly - points out that a mere minority of students actually voted for the strike. 20%, she estimates. His inference here seems to be that if the majority have not ratified a decision, then it can’t be done. As such, White seems to suggest an abolition of parliamentary democracy. Ludicrous, of course. As democratic bodies, student unions and faculties have the right and responsibility to vote and take action on issues that they consider relevant. Not showing up to that vote is a forfeit of your voice and a tacit approval of the results. Just like a general election.

He also rightfully points out that only 35% of students are striking. And here’s where it gets fun. 

To put things further into perspective, the faculties that have opted to strike are not those known for their thorough grasp of concepts such as how inflation affects the price of goods and services; how to pay top teachers when universities are burdened by their own heavy debt loads; and the need for balanced state budgets.

A look at the lists of which faculties and student groups involved speaks volumes as one recognizes the intellectual and philosophical heft behind the strikers is comprised of those studying sociology, anthropology, geography, cinematography, and fine arts. Of the 160 university associations currently playing hooky, not a single group from the fields of commerce, finance, accounting, engineering, law, mathematics or administration is among them.

The holier-than-thou assumption is here is, at its base, wrong.

First - one of the largest components of the striking group is made up of political science students who do, indeed, have a grasp of how inflation works (as do most high-school students.) Furthermore, dozens of the striking groups represent CEGEP, student union and graduate students association which are made up of a diverse swath of college and graduate students who do study all of those fields that White mentions (also, how the hell does an engineer inherently understand economics?)

But, generally, the premise is offensive. I am a member of one of the striking associtions and I understand quite well “how to pay top teachers” (seriously? That’s really high-level economics? Seriously?)

The main body organizing the strikes has also shown its grasp of exactly what these hikes mean, and exactly what they’re proposing.

See all the videos here, and get an anglophone break-down of the costs here.

Further, in a formidable demonstration of their own ignorance of the fundamental economic principles of society, the students have constantly disrupted the lives of Quebeckers who pay the taxes that subsidize their education. It is these types of illogical acts of self-indulgence that make it clear the strikers do not understand the basic financial issues at stake and how damaging it will be for the future of our post-secondary education system to continue on this current path.

This is a tired old lob that is always employed in debates such as this. Canadians have no right to convenience. There is a right, however, to freedom of peaceful assembly. (Cut to me slamming a copy of the Charter down on a desk.) And the mythologization of the “taxpayer” as a holy entity who resigns supreme over the lowly students is an absurd effort to create a society where citizenship is bestowed only on those who have entered the workforce.

And then he appeals to the students.

When broken down, the $325 annual increase is less than $6.25 a week. At some of the bars where I have seen students celebrating another “successful” day of protests, this is less than the price of a drink.

This is actually an old university organizing tactic that I know all too well. A few years ago, the Conservative party organized right-wing university workshops to enable sympathetic university-goers to combat left-wing student groups and unions. This was the same line that has been repeated the country-over in regards to levies for Public Interest Research Groups. “It only costs a beer!” the happy-go-luck Tory operatives say with a grin.

If you break down any spending decision per capita, by day, it looks foolishly small. That doesn’t make it right, however.

What this comes down to is that White, just like Charest and much of the political establishment, have accepted and tired their horse to the idea that the only option is a hike.

That’s simply not true.

Support the hike or not, it’s disingenuous to say that these hikes are the only option. In any public policy decision, there is not a sole way forward. And certainly the students have picked up on a massive hypocrisy in the government’s firm stance on tuition hikes, as it is using its other hand to pour money into La Plan Nord in Northern Quebec. Certainly couldn’t Charest put off the hikes and La Plan Nord funding until economic growth picks up again, then use the revenue from the mining projects to deal with post-secondary under-funding?

Or he could put a second mortgage on the Assemblée Nationale. The point is that the government has developed an unnecessarily rigid approach to these negotiations by not bargaining in good faith. The condescension that flows in White’s op-ed are systemic through the ranks of the Liberal Party of Quebec.

The student groups may yet have to bite the bullet and accept a tuition increase. Simply ramming it down their throats, however, is just bad public administration.