The Politics of Shouting

Say it loud

At Concordia University the motto used to be "a real education for a real world", or something like that. Well, student politics are real, and they are definitely ready for the 'real' world of corruption and oligarchy.

"We are a bunch of idiots, vote for us"!

Today the candidates of Action slate gathered for a flash mob, showing once again how overwhelmingly numerous they actually are. For an hour they roamed the university campus, singing, shouting, and making all sort of wild noises. Welcome to politics, where what matters is visibility, not ideas.

"Uuugh"

"A real education for a real world"... And those idiots are going to handle over $2 million.

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Amir Khadir defends of the right to boycott Israeli products at UQAM

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: the right to say no to the Israeli occupation:
Amir Khadir gave a speech in defense of CJPME's (Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle-East) campaign to boycott Israeli products at UQAM. And I became a member of Quebec Solidaire.

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Patric Moore gives a speech for the Fraser Institute

Patric Moore giving his speech.

Today Patrick Moore gave a speech at the Omni Hotel for the Fraser Institute. Patric Moore was one of the founder of Greenpeace, but ever since he left the environmental activist group in 1986 he has been crusading against them, and what he calls 'pop-environmentalism'.

Moore discussed a few points from his new book Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist:

Signing books.

• "go for hydro-electric as much as possible": here it's already more problematic. Moore says: "there is nothing wrong with lakes, and there are plenty of valleys on this planet. We like them because they are beautiful." He claims that artificially made lake that result from flooding entire valleys are new ecosystems where life strives. But what the flooded vegetation that rot, thus creating toxic chemicals that prevent any life to exist for years?
• Go for nuclear energy. "Japanese crisis is a crisis, not a catastrophe". Really??? I heard today in the news that Tokyo's water was contaminated, and that's not a catastrophe?
• "It's stupid to try to stop fossil fuel at the source as long as there demand." True, maybe, but it doesn't mean that we have to stop the fight against the oil production cartel since it's them who lobby against the development of renewable energy.
• "There is nothing bad about GMO seeds!" What??? What about all the reports from Monsento that actually show that internal organs get severed because of modified corn, which is why it is forbidden in the European Union? Patrick Moore keeps praising "Golden Rice", and hope that soon, thanks to pollination all the rice in the world will be genetically modified "which is a good thing, for Golden Rice is more nutritious." But what about uncertainty, and long term repercussions that we have no idea about?
• "There is no need to panic about climate change because even if it is true, there is still no need to panic". Well, I thought it had been widely accepted that carbon dioxide emissions are causing a rise of temperature and ocean acidification. And if that wasn't enough, what about all the respiratory problem that result form car exhaust?
• Finally, his last point was that "no whale or dolphin should be killed anywhere around the world"...

In other words, just someone else who likes to hear himself talking. While Patrick was signing some books, a mining industrial came to him to congratulate on his courage, and told him that "the world needs more people like you." "It's very rewarding" answered dear Patrick. 

But that's what it was: a room full of industrialists who congratulate themselves on how much they pollute while resisting environmentalist movements. I had never been in contact of such people. It was a blast...

Pictures available on Demotix as usual.

Protest against police brutality turns violent in Montreal

Police arresting a protester

Today a few hundreds of protester gathered at Place des Arts in Montreal to demonstrate against police brutality, following the tradition of the 15th of March. As they were gathering, the organizers asked for people to remain calm and avoid clashes that traditionally accompany anti-police brutality protest. They also asked for Jean-Loup Lapointe to be put under court for killing Fredy Villanueva.

Police charging...

As soon as they started to walk, though, some kids pulled up black scarfs to cover their faces and started chanting "Fuck the Police", and "Let's break everything". Soon enough indeed clashes broke out, and riot police answered with force making no difference between thugs, people passing by, or photographers for that sake. A few of us received some blows by the police. I saw an old lady being pushed on the ground.

The whole purpose of the demonstration went for nothing as clashes and arrest went on. Yet the worse is that thugs were doing all they could to start the fighting with police, who were doing what they could to prevent actual fighting. Once it had started, though, there was nothing stopping them, until all protesters had to disperse.

Pictures are available for sale on Demotix as usual.

2011 Student union campaign kickoff at Concordia University

Action slate animals shout rally slogan

Last night at 23h45 the chief electoral officers allowed student union election candidates to start their campaign by sticking posters on all the billboards at Concordia University.

Every years this is a show of student running around, painting their faces as warriors, and stepping on each other to the point of almost being violent. As I was taking pictures I saw a girl who was standing aside with her poster in her hands. "These guys really scare the shit out of me" she confessed as others were almost fighting to get to put their posters on the billboards. 

Slate Action, Your Concordia and Yes CJLO fight to cover the allocated billboards with posters

This campaigning method is often criticized as being undemocratic as it's up to the stronger to cover with posters the allocated billboards, leaving little room for others. This is specially true as some slates organize themselves as if they were waging a war. Third slates have almost no chance to be advertised for the elections.

Concordia University's student union politics is widely known to be plagued with corruption. A few years ago some CSU allegedly stole around half a million dollars! It easier to understand why there is so much corruption in student politics when knowing that the amount of the CSU's annual budget reaches between 1 and 2 million dollars!

5 days for the Homeless campaign kickstarts at Concordia University JSMB

Concordia students launch the 2011 "5 days for the homeless" campaign during which they will sleep in the street and fund-raise money for NGO Dans La Rue.

Concordia students brace themselves for their first night in the street as the 2011 "5 days for the homeless" campaign kick-starts. Between March 13th to 18th, students from Concordia University JMSB, HEC Montreal, and ESG UQAM will sleep in the street and fund-raise money, which will be given back the NGO DansLaRue.org that supports youth at risk.

On Tuesday night guest sleepers will join the ranks of students, including Mahesh Sharma (JMSB teacher), Elisabeth Morey (Concordia Dean of Students), and Christine Long (CTV Montreal).

Since last night 18h they already fund-raised 500$, but they are expecting much more within these 5 days.

For more information, visit their web page: 5 Days for the Homeless. 

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Tuition Hike, where are the Concordia students?

Union leaders

On Saturday thousands of students and teachers marched together to denounce Jean Charest's government's plan to reduce public spending by cutting funds allocated to education and health sector. The hike is expected to be of 500$ or more per year, which is a lot considering that it has already risen by 500$ since I started my degree 4 years ago.

Crowd gathered on McGill College St.

What's maybe more troubling is that almost no students from Concordia were to be seen, which just adds itself nicely to the apathetic week that started with the International Women's Day. The day before I noticed that the Political Science Student Association of Concordia had absolutely no mention of the march whatsoever. Who's gonna care about it if the Poli-sci students don't?

SPVM cops ready to play with guns

Finally, it is worth remembering that 10 protesters in their 20s were arrested on charge of 'conspiracy'. This could be a good joke if it wasn't a real government arresting real people. Conspiracy? What the fuck! What's next? Is Jean Charest going to close facebook like Mubarak, Hu Jintao, Ahmadinejab, or even Qaddafi?

So what's left between apathetic Concordia students and angry government? I hope UQAM and other francophone students keep going for those who are too lazy to raise a finger.

The pictures are available on my Demotix page.