The Con Leadership Race and the Day of the Dead

It was just another day in the Con clown leadership race, but before it was over the real face of the Harper Party had been revealed. Again.

And it couldn't be more ugly.

Or for the Cons more like the Day of the Dead.

Big Daddy and the Quebec Election

Well there he was the old smoothie, on day one of the campaign, sitting in his comfy chair in his big blue bus. The one with the slogan For Quebec. 

Trying to explain in his Big Daddy knows best way, why he called a summer election. 

Because you know, he's a good money manager, the Quebec economy is strong, but the situation remains fragile. We need stability, and the students are  The Enemy !!!!!!

The Quebec Students and the Road Ahead

There are fewer of them these days. The long hot days of July have quietened things down.

But the Quebec students are still marching through the streets of Montreal. 

Tonight was their 83rd nightly demo in a row. And next month they will have to make a choice that could determine the future of their movement, the future of Quebec, and maybe even the future of Canada.

The Quebec Students and the Magic Moment

Like so many things in Quebec these days it was an amazing sight.

Eighty thousand people in downtown Montreal watching an outdoor show by Loco Locass, a very popular and very political hip hop group.

The group was dressed in red and waving a Quebec flag with a red square sewn on it to show their support for the student movement.

But the truly magic moment came when they invited the movement's leaders on stage, and they all sang one of the group's biggest hits, Libérez-nous des Libéraux...Free us from the Liberals.

The Quebec Students and the Little Red Square

The Grand Prix of Montreal is finally over, and sadly my favourite driver Anarcho Panda, the gentle mascot of the student movement, didn't win.

And although there were a lot of red squares and red Ferrari shirts at the race.

If you wore a red square anywhere near the Grand Prix activities you risked being searched, detained, and politically profiled. 

Jean Charest and the Grand Prix Panic

Oh no. Somebody please stop him. It looks as if Jean Charest has finally, as we say in Québec, perdu ses pédales, or lost his pedals.

He's so eager to discredit the students, so he can run against them in a snap election, he's accusing them of plotting to sabotage the Montreal Grand Prix. And now look what he's done. 

Quebec's Mad Emperor Strikes Again

They don't call Jean Charest the Mad Emperor of Quebec for nothing eh?

For this is madness.

Four days of negotiations ended in an impasse on Thursday when Premier Jean Charest’s government refused to budge on its plan to increase tuition fees.

 It was likely the last chance for an immediate resolution to the social crisis that has gripped the province for almost four months.

This is delusional.

Quebec and the Spirit of Resistance

A massive thunderstorm hit Montreal this evening. The heavens really opened up.

But that didn't stop thousands of people from parading through the streets, beating their pots and pans.

Even though in a city full of riot cops armed with a fascist bill, anything could happen.

More than 2,500 people have been arrested in a months-long dispute that has catapulted the province onto international news pages, which is at least five times the number jailed during the 1970 FLQ crisis that saw martial law declared in Quebec. 

Quebec: The Mad Emperor and the Klown Media

They were out in the streets of Montreal again tonight, for another casserole protest or cazerolazo

The 31st night protest comes as a growing number of Montrealers join a neighbourhood-wide cazerolazo - casserole protest. 

 Since the weekend, hundreds of people in the island's central neighbourhoods have taken to their balconies, porches and sidewalks with pots and pans.

Refusing to be intimidated by last night's mass arrests. 

The Casserole Symphony and the Royal Canadians

In many Montreal neighbourhoods this evening people were banging pots and pans in another casserole symphony of protest. The latest tactic in this awesome  struggle. 

It's a nightly ritual known as les manifs aux casseroles, that sees hundreds of people step out of their homes, armed with pots and pans. At the stroke of 8 p.m., they start to bang on their kitchenware.

And just about everybody in the province was talking about yesterday's massive demonstration.

Meanwhile in the rest of Canada, judging from the coverage on the CBC, this was the Big Story.

The Day They Turned Montreal Red

And so it came to pass. On the 100th day of their amazing struggle, they refused to be intimidated by a totalitarian bill, and turned Montreal RED.

A sea of students, their numbers swollen by trade unionists, teachers and other supporters, flooded through the streets of Montreal in a massive turnout marking the 100th day of a protest movement that is growing broader and bolder. 

Reported estimates placed the number of protesters Tuesday at between 100,000 and 250,000.

And it was awesome sight...

Quebec and the Big Freedom Party

It's just after 8pm in Montreal, and the reporter from CUTV is talking to a young mother who is taking her two kids to the 28th nightly demonstration in a row.

Even though she knows she could be arrested, for defying the Charest government's totalitarian Bill 78, like so many were the night before. 

About 300 people were arrested and 20 were injured during overnight protests in Montreal in defiance of Quebec's contentious Bill 78, which cracks down on student-stoked demonstrations sparked by the province's proposed tuition hikes.

Jean Charest and the Great Distraction

When I see pictures like this one of my beloved Montréal on a warm Saturday night.

On sedate St-Denis street of all places.

And I read what kind of peace the Quebec government's totalitarian Bill 78 has brought.

The adoption of emergency legislation to end Quebec's escalating student crisis stoked fiery debate across the province overnight, from highly charged street protests that lasted into the wee hours to harsh editorials and some calls for civil disobedience.

When I read how police pepper sprayed the peaceful patrons of a bar. On a patio of all places. 

Or watch the video...

The Quebec Students and the Savage State

Uh oh. It  looks like my Quebec student's victory celebration party, from which I'm still recovering, was a little premature.

Students in a half dozen colleges and 10 university faculties and departments voted to reject the agreement on Monday after the Charest government boasted of having won the battle. Students at other schools are set to vote on the deal throughout the week, but the trend is clearly running against it.