Are you a democratically elected government trying to cut funding for social programs? Do those pesky things called the citizens of your country keep yelling about how they don’t want you to do what you are doing? Are the protests of the people really getting in the way of your daily routine of pretending like you are helping the people you were elected to represent? Well, the provincial government of Quebec has a solution for you! Just pass laws that make it harder for people to express their feelings about the bad laws you are passing! Not only will these new laws take away your headaches they will also ease all that guilt building up in your conscience about making life worse for the people not lucky enough to be you!
(A quick note on that last statement: Yes, I am assuming these folks actually have a conscience. A theoretical leap, I concede, but I am trying to be perfectly objective as always.)
Joking aside, some Americans might be reasonably shocked to see so much anger and protesting in Canada over the proposed hikes in tuition. The increase is $254 per year over the course of seven years. For Canada’s southern neighbors, tuition increases like this have become so routine over the past two decades most of us wouldn’t even react other than to say, “That’s life.” Canada’s young people must have seen the mountain of debt American students are being crushed by and said, “No, thanks.” So they have taken to the streets for nearly 100 days now and clearly their government wants them to give up.
But they aren’t giving up. And for this they should certainly be commended for showing a great deal of vitality in the face of such oppressive action on the part of their elected leaders. This will be an interesting situation to continue watching to see how responsive the democratic government in Quebec decides to be with so much animosity from its citizens toward its policy. The new law does not stop protesting altogether so this debate is far from over…
Sparking The Left 