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.

Go wander on Demotix for photo sales.

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. 

For photo sales, visit my Demotix page.

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.