The Marxist-Leninist Daily

On the occasion of Earth Day 2012 one quarter of a million people took to the streets of Montreal. They raised their voice as one in defense of Mother Earth and, specifically, against the Charest government and its sellout of the resources, its attacks on the students, its support for the monopolies and its destruction of the natural environment. They also denounced the Harper dictatorship and its anti-social policies.

A high level of social consciousness prevailed which affirmed the human factor/social consciousness and decried the neo-Liberal market approach which is destroying life itself. Placard after placard pointed to the need for a new direction for Quebec. The resources belong to the people and must serve the people! Public Right Must Be Upheld! Charest Must Resign!

There were people from all walks of life: workers, seniors, students and youth, women, families, members of the First Nations, artists, environmentalists -- all bringing their own demands for renewal, for the affirmation of their sovereign will, not the dictate of the rich, for a human society that recognizes the rights of all. While tens of thousands of people were gathering at Place des Festivals in downtown Montreal, the contingents of the locked-out workers from Rio Tinto in Alma received an especially warm greeting from the crowd. They came in large numbers to denounce the global aluminum monopoly, the sellout of our resources and the secret deal between the government of Quebec, Rio Tinto and Hydro-Québec. The delegation of Innu women from Maliotenam, who walked all

the way from Sept-Iles to Montreal to express their opposition to Charest's Northern Plan and defend the hereditary rights of the First Nations, was also warmly received as were all others such as the organizations from different regions of Quebec present to raise their demands for control over the natural resources in their regions. From opposition to shale gas exploitation, the destruction of the forests, exploitation of uranium, and the export of asbestos -- No Means No! they said.

Thousands of students said "Present!" and were warmly greeted by all. The youth of Quebec are our most precious resource, a placard aptly put it. The Charest government was roundly denounced for unleashing state violence against the youth.

Quebec's highly regarded artists were present front and centre representing the proud aspirations of the people of Quebec. They played a leading role in the mobilization, animation and organization of the Earth Day events.

A sea of human persons stood up for the defence of Mother Earth, with thousands wearing the red square indicating support for the students. No to Charest's Northern Plan! Northern Plan Dead Plan! No to [Government] Corruption! Many responded in disgust to the uncouth joke made two days earlier by Premier Jean Charest during the so-called Northern Plan Fair in Montreal. He said the youth who demand their rights should be sent to the northern most regions of Quebec to work. "Who does he think he is -- the Czar sending people to Siberia?" one person asked.

"We want a Quebec that benefits all, in the interests of the future generations. We declare that it is possible to develop Quebec in a way that it becomes a source of true enrichment, progress, pride and inspiration for the entire world. We refuse to be dispossessed of our wealth. We demand that the government of Canada fully comply with the Kyoto protocol. We declare that it is imperative that we orient our efforts towards the future generations."

The Harper government was roundly denounced: "We don't want your F-35s, your war planes. We say No! to the attack against our scientists. No to the intimidation of environmentalist groups."

"Citizens of the great territory of Quebec, today our water, the air we breathe, our agricultural lands, our forests, our mining resources are threatened by powerful interests that are ready to sacrifice it all without any qualms in the name of profit. Those businessmen are powerful but we can impose respect. We need a government that will stand up to the multinationals. Our natural resources belong to us and must benefit everyone. We are against the short-term vision of development at the expense of workers, communities, women, students, humanity. Another world is possible, an alternative to the world of shameless exploitation of human beings and collective resources. We want respect for the environment, for our students, for our collective wealth. This is our future, we build it together. Today is the triumph of the collective. Our message today is that our governments must work for everyone and not for a handful of owners."

Activists of the Marxist-Leninist Party broadly sold and distributed the issue of Workers' Forum with the cover slogans "Whose Resources? Our Resources!" on the fight of the workers in Alma, Quebec. It was eagerly received and the slogans were shouted out by many. The need for the people to control their own resources was at the heart of the concerns of the thousands of people, as was the future of the youth and the future generations that the workers in Alma and all over Quebec are standing up for.

This demonstration once again illustrated the contradiction between the democracy defended by Charest, the democracy of the monopolies and their narrow interest, and that to which the people aspire, a democracy where political arrangements allow people to exercise control over decisions that affect their lives.

This is what democracy looks like in Quebec today. There is the democracy of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, isolated in fortified board rooms with CEOs and private interests. His democracy is that of state sanctioned anarchy and violence with helicopters overhead, police truncheons and pepper spray while the Premier threatens to send the Quebec youth to the slave labour camps he is setting up in Northern Quebec. On the other side of the barricades we have the democracy of the people of Quebec - the workers, women and youth, their artists, professionals and families united as one in their hundreds of thousands with their demands, clear about what it takes to represent Quebec interests.

Everyone applauded the emotional and militant speeches in defence of public right, all of them clear statements about what people want. They denounced Charest, they denounced his Northern Plan, they denounced the rape and plunder of the resources, and they denounced his police state. They also denounced the Harper dictatorship, its sellout of the treaty on Climate Change and the anti-social offensive. Wall to wall people. Placards of every kind and description.

The Earth Day demonstration represented the very best spirit of the Quebec nation, what the people stand for, what they value above all else. This is what democracy looks like. It is opposed to the arbitrary arrests that once again continue against the students as the fight carries on.

(Remarks translated from original French by TML Daily; Photos:TML, Avril 22, S. Deschenes, M. Leclerc)

Quebec People Condemn State Sanctioned Anarchy and Violence and Students Win New Allies

Amongst the 250,000-strong demonstration in Montreal on Earth Day, April 22, 2012 were thousands upon thousands of students. The vast majority of people wore the Red Square which has become the symbol of the student movement against the fee hikes the Quebec Premier is trying to impose. This student movement has now also become a Quebec-wide movement against state-sanctioned anarchy and police violence against the youth.

Premier Jean Charest gave the students until Monday to condemn the violence "or else." But the violence is of the state, not the youth and Charest is the one who is isolated on the issue. A good example took place on April 20 and 21, when more than 1,000 demonstrators responded to the call of the Broad Coalition for Student Union Solidarity (CLASSE) to denounce the fire sale of Quebec's natural resources taking place within the framework of the Salon Plan Nord in Montreal at the Palais de Congrés, an exhibition of companies seeking employees for the Charest government's slave labour Northern Plan. The demonstrators included students, First Nations people from the group Innu Power, many workers represented by the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN) and activists from social organizations.

More than 1,000 handpicked business people came to hear the Premier boast about what he calls the "work site of a generation."

Carrying their banner "No to Free Mining! Yes to Free Tuition!," the students and their allies were brutally assaulted by the police with clubs, pepper spray and tear gas. The population of Quebec got a clear view of the peaceful nature of the protest and the police assault.

As if that wasn't enough, the Premier allowed himself to make a joke in bad taste, saying: "To those knocking on our door this morning, we can offer a job, as far North as possible, something that will allow all of us to get on with our work."

The Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ) said it was "flabbergasted by the arrogance" of the Premier. "By denigrating the largest and most important mobilization of students in the history of Quebec, Jean Charest, who is also the Minister of Youth, has revealed all the contempt that this government has for Quebec's youth. Are we dealing with a clown or with a Premier who listens to the youth? It's undignified for a head of state and he must apologize for his words," said FEUQ President Martine Desjardins, adding

"While the Charest government daily shows its inability to settle the conflict between the government and the students on the question of the rights to education, the Premier, on the occasion of Salon Plan Nord, considered it a good idea to do comedic improv and mock the students who are demonstrating and who are facing more and more brutal police repression. He must stop having fun at the expense of the students, control himself and settle the issue," she added.

"It's insulting to hear our Premier say that he wants to send us to the Far North so as to allow him to work. Mr. Charest must withdraw his words and work to resolve the crisis," said Léo Bureau-Blouin, President of the Quebec Federation of College Students (FECQ).

To resolve the crisis, FECQ has invited the Premier to give Education Minister Line Beauchamp the necessary room to manoeuvre. FECQ has the impression that the Premier does not want to budge from his position on tuition, so as to prepare for a future electoral campaign. "To resolve the crisis, the Premier must give the widest margin of manoeuvre to the Minister of Education. The students must be able to speak about tuition with the Minister and not just university management," Bureau-Blouin said.

Put on the defensive, Charest has pursued the road of provocation by claiming he was quoted out of context. In a statement issued on April 20, he said: "The Government takes the question of intimidation and violence very seriously. All the more so since today's demonstration was without doubt one of the most difficult since the start of the conflict." He did not say that it was the police who attacked the youth. The youth did not attack the police.

The premier could only repeat his empty arguments that "the future of Quebec is not in moratoria and freezes, that the student strike is in fact a boycott" and that "the Quebec state is not the students' employer and the students are not its employees."

For all those who were present at the two-day demonstration against the Northern Plan, it was clear that the police attack was premeditated.

"The demonstration was peaceful until a certain police officer, without cause, decided to spray a youth with tear gas. Immediately, they pulled out the heavy artillery and went violently for the demonstrators to push them back, beating them with batons even if they were retreating without resistance. The police's behaviour was purely a provocation," said Jean Trudelle, FNEEQ-CSN president.

"During the demonstration, when the president of the teachers' assistants union of the University of Québec in Montréal was trying to help up a student who was on the ground, a police officer grabbed him and violently threw him into a car. Several other demonstrators were pepper sprayed even though they were demonstrating in a calm manner," said Gaétan Châteauneuf, president of the Central Council of Metropolitan Montreal.

When the police charged at demonstrators to expel them from Place Jean-Paul Riopelle, demonstrators received a full-frontal attack of pepper spray, including Patrick Beaumont, CSN-Construction president for the Montreal region, who came to support the students.

"While the government should have sat down with students' associations from the beginning of the week and resolved this conflict, it has rather decided to stage an even bigger crisis by diverting the debate to the question of violence. Its behaviour in recent days is not only irresponsible, but scandalous. We are far from thinking it is working to ease tensions. On the contrary, it's stirring the pot. Its joke about the demonstrators shows contempt unbecoming of a head of state. No one but the Premier can re-establish a dialogue, and he should remember that," said CSN president, Louis Roy.

Police violence against students, workers and First Nations. Montreal, April 20, 2012.
Montreal, April 20, 2012

The next day the Quebec Resistance Network (QRN) as well as the First Nations group Innu Power demonstrated.

The QRN had pitched tents to accommodate Innu women who had walked from Maliotenam, on the North Shore, near Sept-Iles to denounce the Northern Plan and its potential impacts on the traditional territories of the First Nations. Students also participated in the demonstration.

QRN activists threw hundreds of peanuts at an entrance to the Palais des Congrès, the peanuts symbolizing what they say the mining companies pay to the public treasury.

Less than 40 minutes after their arrival, the demonstrators were attacked by the riot squad. To escape the brutality, they fled to a balcony of the Caisse de dépôt building, in the hope that they would be able to make their way out from there.

But the only way out was behind them and it was quickly blocked by the police. They were arrested one by one and put on two Montreal Transit buses brought there for the occasion. They were all arrested for illegal assembly.

It is estimated that more than 600 arrests have been made in the past four days.

Calls for Charest to Negotiate Multiply

All week, denunciations of the state violence and calls to negotiate with all the students' associations have multiplied.

In a unanimously adopted resolution on April 19, 2012, the administrative council of Édouard-Montpetit College stated it "invites the Quebec government to open the dialogue as quickly as possible with the student movement representatives to resolve the current crisis and favour students' return to classes as soon as possible, and in the best conditions." In essence, with the situation becoming more and more worrisome, the College considers it its duty to ask the government to demonstrate openness and start the discussion with the representatives of the student movement with the aim of finding a negotiated solution that would suit all parties involved.

In a general assembly extraordinary session on March 1, of more than 3,000 students from the Longueuil campus, members of the general assembly voted in majority to launch an unlimited strike to protest the tuition fee increase at the university. Back in the general assembly, the students extended the strike vote three times (March 20, April 3 and April 17) each time with a clear majority. The students of the Longueuil campus have been on strike now for seven weeks (27 school days, as of April 19, 2012).

Owing to the inability of the Education Minister to resolve the current crisis with the student movement, the Cégep de Rimouski's teachers' union, and those of Bois de Boulogne campus and the Gaspé are demanding her immediate resignation.

Over the next two weeks the teachers' unions of Cégep du Victoriaville, and the unions of Matane, the Quebec Maritime Institute, Sorel-Tracy and Rivière-du-Loup will also submit this demand to their members in their general assemblies. This follows the meeting of the Federal Council of the Federation of College Teachers (FEC-CSQ) held on April 13.

"Not only is the minister incapable of resolving the crisis," explains FEC-CSQ president Mario Beauchemin, "but she supports turning the conflict into a law-and-order matter, ignoring the right of students' associations and flouting the democratic decisions taken in the general assemblies. Yet the minister has the responsibility to apply the [Education] Act respecting the accreditation and financing of student associations and students (RSQ, A-3.01, section VI, Section 64)," said Beauchemin.

In watching the parade go by and ignoring her responsibilities, the minister is placing teaching staff and students in a position which is in opposition to their legal obligations and their ethical and democratic principles, and moreover, it creates an unfavourable climate for learning and educational activities, the FEC-CSQ adds.

Finally, the FEC-CSQ denounces the minister's attempts to divide the student movement while the latter has shown democratic, admirable, courageous and exemplary solidarity.

University of Quebec in the Outaouais

Students from the University of Quebec in the Outaouais and their supporters. Gatineau, April 20, 2012.

The University of Quebec in the Outaouais teachers' union (SPUQO) denounces the climate of fear that exists in the two main buildings of the University of Quebec in Outaouais campus this week in Gatineau.

The SPUQO points out that the hundreds of student arrests in the Lucien-Brault pavilion cafeteria during a demonstration on Thursday, April 19, is part of a week in which our members have reported numerous arrests and incidents which affect civil liberties, including freedom of expression and academic freedom.

- The effect of the massive presence of armed police forces in the Gatineau university campus.

- The captivity of its personnel and students for several hours in certain university buildings and parking lots.

- The contradictory instructions given over the intercom to personnel to stay in their offices, while the evacuation alarm sounds, which caused a state of panic amongst personnel and students who encountered locked doors while trying to exit the Brault building.

University of Montreal

Meanwhile, the different bodies that make up the University of Montreal community held a joint demonstration April 19 in front of the Faculty of Music. This demonstration denounced the judicial measures used by the institute's administration, the private security forces and police presence on campus. All deplored the university administration's use of a court injunction to force the resumption of classes and the tensions on campus created by this measure.

"We find it regrettable that the university administration has tried to smash the student strike movement by force through the courts. This action bears witness to the administration's refusal to recognize the democratic character of the student movement," said Ludvic Moquin-Beaudry, philosophy student and co- spokesperson for the University of Montréal strike roundtable).

Quebec Journalists

The Professional Federation of Quebec Journalists is concerned about the repeated incidents where police do not respect the work of the journalists covering the student demonstrations.

On April 18, the journalist Justine Mercier, a member of the journalists' organization Federation of Professional Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) who works at the Le Droit newspaper in Ottawa, was brutalized by a Gatineau policeman who threw her on the ground.

League of Rights and Liberties

The recourse to criminalization and repression is a matter of great concern to the rights organization the League of Rights and Liberties.

The government strategy, the League said, is encouraging the criminalization of conflict by the use of courts to bully the students who are exercising their right to strike. By resorting to injunctions, the authorities are refusing to recognize the decisions taken democratically in the students' associations and thus the authorities are undermining the freedom of association.

Instead of listening to the students and favouring good faith bargaining, continued the League, the government and authorities in the educational institutions are opting for repression. "We are witnessing the use, by the police, of crowd control techniques that have been condemned by the UN Human Rights Committee: encirclement and mass arrest (as in the Outaouais), use of chemical weapons such as pepper spray and tear gas. Even professors are being intimidated by security agents, as at the University of Montréal," the League added.

Furthermore, said the League, the decision to resort more and more often to the Highway Safety Code to put an end to various demonstrations undermines the right to demonstrate. The League has been informed that the police are systematically preventing access to the universities of those wearing a red square: this means the practice of political profiling, which undermines the freedom of expression and opinion.

League President Dominique Peschard said: "The current repression directly undermines the right of association and freedom of expression." He added that "the student struggle is forcing Quebec to face its obligations with respect to the right to education and makes all of us aware of the obligation to defend and promote this right in the public space."

Unions

The leaders of the Social Alliance (a group of unions including the Alliance of Health Care Professionals and Social Service Personnel (APTS), the Quebec Union Central (CSQ), CSN, Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ), the Public Service Union of Quebec (SFPQ), the Unions of Quebec Government Professionals (SPGQ), the FECQ and the FEUQ) are urging Premier Charest and Minister of Education Line Beauchamp to immediately stop resorting to police repression against the Quebec students and to fulfil their obligations to negotiate with the representatives of all the student movements, without exception, so as to resolve the current crisis.

In denouncing the government, the leaders said unanimously, "After having dishonoured themselves with respect to their responsibilities, and thus helping to further criminalize the conflict, Jean Charest and Line Beauchamp are going even further now by endorsing, through their silence and inaction, the aggravation of the situation which translates into the use of more and more aggressive and violent police forces against the students. This police violence, endorsed by the state, is no more acceptable than the violence that Minister Beauchamp would like to see condemned by the youth."

"This is the first time in the history of Quebec," they state, "that a government has gone as far as negating and refusing to recognize student democracy, preferring to favour individual right over collective rights. It means a serious precedent which will have consequences in the future and which, in the short term, is leading to the creation of real chaos on the campuses, filled with tension and threats between the student groups themselves. It's totally irresponsible to see a government pit students against each other with the sole aim of achieving its political ends."

(Translated from original French by TML Daily; Photos: TML Daily, F. Faddoul, B. Falardeau, M. Martel, Media Coop)

This Is What Charest's Democracy Looks Like

On Thursday, April 19, Quebec City police arrested 49 CEGEP de Limoilou students and issued 51 tickets, 49 ($494) for obstructing traffic and 2 for obstructing police, totaling $24,206 for 49 people (plus two John Does, yet unknown). Earlier, in the name of "zero tolerance," police made three arrests at a prior demonstration. The students have said they will not pay the fines. "I'd rather spend months in prison that pay this," one student said.

So what happened? To denounce the three previous arrests, on Thursday afternoon a teacher wanted to give her philosophy course (ethics and politics) outside the CEGEP, the students standing legally on the grounds and public street. The administration denied her permission to do so, and demanded she give the course in class, which she did.

During this, the students, teachers and staff went outside to see what was happening. More than 100 students were peacefully demonstrating outside and that's when the police launched a massive attack. Picture the youth in front of their CEGEP, not blocking any cars from passing in any way on the small street. Then dozens of police cars and a bus arrive and block the entrance to the CEGEP at 12th Street, preventing students from going inside the CEGEP and trapping them! Police officers then penetrated the CEGEP, went to the classroom where the teacher was giving her course and forced the youth to produce their IDs. They also blocked access to the CEGEP. Outside, other police officers were arresting students under the pretext that they were blocking traffic. One student, who told them they didn't have the right to arrest the students for blocking traffic since it was the police cars themselves blocking the street, was violently thrown to the ground and handcuffed. We also learned that the students who were arrested were threatened that the next time they would be brought to the station and before a judge.

Following this, about 30 students held a candlelight vigil in front of the CEGEP de Limoilou. Once again, ten police cars immediately swooped in without any pretext for arrests.

For some time, one can see that any action of anyone wearing a red square is immediately targeted by a massive deployment of police cars. The police have nothing better to do than red-square profiling! It also appears that they are conducting racial profiling as well, since in one group it was the Arab student who was thrown to the ground. This is where one has doubts about the alleged profound values the police defend! The state sanction of police violence has given confidence to cowards, some who are taking advantage to increase the pressure, threats and insults against those wearing a red square.

The same day, Mayor Labeaume gave a public speech against the firefighters who have been without a contract for six years, accusing them of stealing taxpayer's money. And the day the blue-collar city workers voted to strike, the city gave 169 layoff notices to temporary blue-collar workers, three days after the city gave them their work to accomplish for the summer.

One Quarter of a Million in the Streets of Montreal -- This Is What Democracy Looks Like

One Quarter of a Million People in the Streets of Montreal -- This is What Democracy Looks Like