Thursday, March 22, 2012

How to tell when it's unseasonably hot

You can tell it's unseasonably hot when students decide that a $500 tuition fee hike is so fundamentally offensive to their civil rights that they paralyze a metropolis for hours on end.

Sheesh, you'd think that the G8 was in town for a kaffeeklatsch.




You know it could get tough, when the horses think to wear their soccer shin pads and paintball visors to the party!

The men in blue also brought dogs wearing their doggie SWAT suits. No sense in letting the horses have all the fun.

6 comments:

Trobairitz said...

I've been hearing a bit about this on our news.

Do you think if you had snow that many people would still be out protesting?

David Masse said...

Not a chance Trobairitz! It's a mystery to me why so many students are protesting. We have the lowest tuition in North America, even taking the modest increase into account.

I think that there is some deeper malaise. I think that people are losing faith that their future will be bigger and brighter than their parents enjoyed. I think it's malaise over opportunity, or the lack of it.

Who really knows?

SonjaM said...

I wonder if the weather would have been different would have this many people showed up?

The police squad seems a bit overkill given that there are just students voicing their opinion, but remembering the Vancouver riots... maybe it is appropriate.

Canajun said...

I think you nailed it when you said, "Who really knows?"

As far back as I remember it was always easy to get students out to a rally, especially if the weather was good. 90% would go just to be part of the scene and have a good party. 10% might actually be serious about the subject of the protest. No different now than it was in the 60s.

But I do have to say that Quebec students, with the lowest tuition in the country (by about 50%) really don't have a leg to stand on in this case.

Unknown said...

When I was in school the place broke into a riot. If you asked anyone why it happened you couldn't get an answer - but I really agree. I think there is a lot of malaise these days, the feeling that things haven't been going anywhere for working folk and that we need to do something to make sure those that work get paid. That the country focuses on what's best for its people.

Who knows though. Could have just been some good pot out there. That wouldn't surprise me, either.

Brady
Behind Bars

Unknown said...

David:

this seems to be a worldwide trend against the established hierarchy, the same as the riots in Britain where young people, with education, don't feel there is a place for them, with no future prospects. Many cannot find jobs in their chosen professions and many can only see frustration coming . . .

I think that the "golden" time has passed. Nothing can can come close to what our parents' had in their generation. Things are too complex and inter-related, what happens here is often dictated by what happens elsewhere (Greece).

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

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