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To strike or not to strike

March 7 will be the day that undergraduate students decide on Concordia’s role in the province-wide battle against tuition fee hikes in Quebec.

The Concordia Student Union has passed a motion setting March 7 as a date for a general assembly for a strike mandate expected to last from March 26 to 29.

“This is pretty much, the only card left that the students have in their hands in Quebec,” said CSU president Lex Gill at at last Wednesday’s council meeting. While Gill admitted that a strike will not be easy, she described it as a necessary step against tuition fee increases in the province.

This week, the CSU will renew their campaign against the hikes, launching an information campaign leading up to the assembly in March about the pros and cons of going forth with a strike, including flyers, posters, booklets and speeches.

“It’s really important to us that moving towards March 7, each student is fully aware of what they are going to be voting on and what impacts it will have on them,” said VP external Chad Walcott at the meeting.

Other events in the campaign include a one week sleep-in at the library to raise awareness about the tuition increases, fax and phone jams and F#ck Tuition Tuesdays at Reggie’s Bar in the Hall Building.

“To talk about a strike at this point, frankly if we weren’t I would be really worried,” said Gill, who reminded council that there are other student unions in Quebec planning strikes as early as February.

Walcott said strikes are proven to be effective in putting pressure on the government.

“We’re in a position to have a serious impact on our province,” he added in an interview.

During the meeting, some concerns were raised with regards to international students, and the potential consequences of their participation in long-term demonstrations. The CSU, however, insisted that international students who choose to strike will not run risk of being deported.

Concordia’s Mob Squad is also planning for future demonstrations, and teamed up with McGill to hold a winter training camp for interested activists last weekend.

Concordia students first protested the hikes on Nov.10, joining tens of thousands of students marching against the extra $1625 worth of tuition fees proposed by the Jean Charest government. The province currently plans to increase the cost of university tuition $325 yearly over the next five years.

The next province-wide demonstration is set for March 22.

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Gatineau immigrant handbooks subject of human rights complaints

The first in a series of complaints has been filed at the Quebec Human Rights Commission over
the City of Gatineau’s controversial guidelines for new immigrants.

Four people, all of them immigrants, have reached out to an anti-discrimination organization for help.

“The first complaint has been filed this morning, and there are more to come,” said Fo Niemi on Monday.

Niemi, director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations, a Montreal-based advocacy group, said it could take two years to come to a decision through the Human Rights Commission.

He declined to name the four people involved, but said that three of them are from the Maghreb area of Africa, while another is a black francophone from Africa. All have been in Canada for up to 10 years, having lived for the last two to six years in Gatineau.

“They felt singled out,” said Niemi. “When they read the handbook, they felt like they were being […] ridiculed and infantalized. And also, they feel like they are subject to all kinds of stereotypes. Not for what it says, but what it insinuates.”

New immigrants are counselled to avoid bribing officials, and not to commit honour killings. Children are not to be punished excessively, nor be physically or sexually abused. Some of the tips in the 16-point guide are found in the federal government’s guide for new immigrants, but others raised eyebrows. The guide warned against cooking food with pungent flavours and avoiding smells like cigarette smoke, and stressed the importance of punctuality and good hygiene.

“The fact that the book is targeted specifically towards immigrants – the assumption is that immigrants don’t share or don’t have these values,” said Niemi. “So that’s why these values are considered important to immigrants’ successful integration in society.”

Another issue Niemi took issue with was the line that “religion is a private matter.”

“This is contrary to the constitution and to laws, since there’s no laws that says that religion is a private matter,” said Niemi, unlike in countries like France, where religious symbols are banned from public space.

The guidebook also paints an unrealistic vision of the makeup of Gatineau, said Niemi.

“The code of values in the handbook presents Quebec society in Gatineau as if there are no anglophones, no First Nations people, and other groups that are equally important to what we call diversity. There’s not even mention of people with disabilities.”

In response, four different groups that help 2,000 immigrants a year in the city have boycotted the guidebook, including Accueil Parrainage Outaouais.

Gatineau is the fourth-largest city in the province, with over 240,000 residents. According to Statistics Canada, it saw an influx of over 5,000 immigrants from 2001 to 2005.

Comparisons have been drawn between Gatineau’s guidebook and the statement of values issued by the town of Herouxville, Que. in 2007. The controversial statement of conduct reminded newcomers that stoning was not permitted in the town, making Gatineau the second Quebec town to issue a statement of values targeted to immigrant newcomers, noted Niemi.

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INDIGNEZ-VOUS! conference billed as alternative to government agenda

Canadian author and activist Maude Barlow is National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ organization.
Canadian author and activist Maude Barlow is National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ organization.

The upcoming INDIGNEZ-VOUS! HOPE IN RESISTANCE conference is focused on providing an alternative to the Conservative government’s agenda, according to Maude Barlow, the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians.
“We are very keen to build a closer working relationship between progressive forces in Quebec and the rest of Canada, so that together we can move forward with an alternative vision for all,” she said. “The people of Quebec clearly identified themselves as progressive in the last election and we need to build on this momentum together.”
The council hopes to address the social injustices and inequalities Canadians face on a daily basis at the conference taking place on Oct. 21-22 at the Marriott Chateau Champlain Hotel.
Held in collaboration with several Quebec and First Nations organizations, as well as student and labour groups, the two-day event is slated to tackle various issues that affect Canadians and Quebecers alike with an emphasis put on building solutions through a progressive movement.
Panels will focus on protecting democracy, equality, the environment, public services and civil liberties with social change on national and provincial levels. One of the many issues emphasized is the growing gap between the rich and poor, which goes hand in hand with the Occupy movement currently in motion.
The council has officially declared their support for the demonstrations, which has people across the world rallying to voice concerns over issues such as corporate greed and financial inequality.
“I am thrilled that our conference is taking place so soon after the launch of the Occupy World movement and we will be marching to the Montreal site several times and providing support and solidarity there,” explained Barlow. “We join this movement in saying that workers, students, retired people and the unemployed should not have to carry the burden and pay the price for a crisis made by the private sector, for the benefit of the private sector and aided and abetted by most governments around the world.”
Barlow extended the invitation to Concordia University students, emphasizing that all students are welcome to attend the conference. 

A free public forum will take place Friday, Oct. 21 from 7 to 9:30 p.m.
For more information about the conference, visit www.canadians.org/about/AGM/

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News

Needle exchange program cut from Heads and Hands

This sharps container, used for the disposal of needles, is part of the Heads and Hands street worker's kit.

Head and Hands, a clinic and social services organization for youth aged 18-25, has scrapped its Streetwork needle exchange program in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, potentially leaving hundreds of users in the west end without clean needles and other forms of support.

Juniper Belshaw, fundraising and development co-ordinator, said that the organization was told by Montreal’s Directeur de santé publique last August that the $75,000 required to fund the two programs had been slashed from their budget. Other organizations also lost their funding in the round of budget cuts, said Belshaw.

A spokesperson from public health confirmed the cuts, saying they were ultimately made for budget reasons, though the results are unfortunate.

By Aug. 19, Streetwork closed down, leaving the two street workers out of a job and potentially hundreds of people without their services, which includes referrals to counselling and other services.

“I like to think of these street workers as these harm reduction fairies,” said Belshaw. “At Head and Hands, we work with a harm reduction approach, which has a lot to do with meeting people where they’re at. […] If someone is having sex, we want to talk about how to have safer sex. If someone’s using drugs, we want to say, ‘Hey, here’s some information about how to smoke more safely, how to inject more safely.’”

The workers distributed 360 needles, 64 crack pipes and over 6,700 condoms between March and July of this year, and touched base with nearly 700 new contacts.

Ironically, while Head and Hands has had to cut its needle exchange program, it has gone public just over a week after it was announced that a provincial pilot project will see the launch of two safe injection sites. Health minister Yves Bolduc said he had consulted and will work with needle exchange services Cactus and Point de Repères to set up safe injection sites in Montreal and Quebec City.

Both needle exchange programs and safe injection sites are based on the “harm reduction” model, which attempts to reduce the harmful risks of drug consumption without requiring users to abstain. With needle exchange programs like Head and Hands’, street workers are mobile, visiting clients at their apartments, metros, parks and the street. Whereas safe injection sites are stationary, and users can safely shoot up and receive medical attention and other resources, without the fear of being arrested for violating drug laws.

Groups have been anticipating the announcement of more safe injection sites across the country since the Supreme Court of Canada granted on Oct. 1 an exemption to allow InSite, a Vancouver safe injection site, to remain open in spite of federal drug laws. The ruling has left the possibility for safe injection sites to pop up without problem in the rest of the country.

Speaking in an interview less than a week before Bolduc’s announcement, Marianne Tonnelier, director-general of Cactus, said that her organization was looking to set up a safe injection site before the end of the year and was working on a request for an exemption.

Dr. Julie Bruneau, a researcher in drug addiction at Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, was one of those who welcomed the announcement of the sites.

“We need an array of services for those who are hard to reach. This is one of the many services that can help with that,” she said.

A survey a few years ago estimated the number of drug users on the Island of Montreal at between 10,000 and 15,000 people. But, said Bruneau, each city is different when it comes to drug use patterns. Montreal, unlike Vancouver, does not have a concentrated group of drug users in one place. It may be that there will be more than one safe injection site in Montreal, potentially helping the users who received support from Streetwork out in the western part of the island, she suggested.

But Belshaw still hopes to begin another needle exchange program, this time by seeking out diverse sources of funding instead of relying on one government source. There has almost always been a form of the service in the 40 years that Head and Hands has been operating, she said.

“I think what we’re really focusing on right now is the impact this has on our clients, and the way that we can bring this service back,” said Belshaw.

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Labour minister tries to revamp construction hiring

Quebec’s Labour Minister Lise Thériault has proposed a law to fight against the abuse and intimidation construction workers, but construction unions are opposing it.
Bill 33, which was introduced to the National Assembly Oct. 6, will take away the unions’ power to decide the number of workers assigned to construction projects, and which of their members go to each project. Instead, unions will have to hand their decisions to the Quebec Construction Commission.
“The law has not been changed in decades,” said Thériault the day of the bill’s introduction. “What we’re proposing will mark a new era in labour relations in the construction industry.”
The plan is part of a larger cleanup in Quebec construction, Thériault said, pointing to ongoing accusations of collusion and corruption in the industry.
The minister chaired a closed-door working group that produced a report last September on the construction industry. Quoting the report’s findings, she said unions’ assigning of workers reflects negatively on the industry’s image and that workers’ and employers’ rights were infringed upon during the hiring process.
Construction unions were quick to oppose the proposed laws. Two groups that represent the majority of construction workers in the province, the Conseil provincial de la construction and the construction division of Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, have already launched an advertising campaign against the legislation, calling Thériault’s report “partisan and discriminatory” and biased towards employers over their workers. They claimed the law would be expensive and complicated.
Yves Ouellet, director-general of FTQ-Construction, said he’d prefer that the province launch a public inquiry into allegations of corruption and collusion in the construction industry rather than mount a diversion. “Instead of talking about the real problems in the industry, they’ve decided to mount a fake issue to distract the population,” he reiterated.
He added that the province failed to impose labour laws already in place. Talking about the initial report, he said that “in the beginning, it was supposed to come to the aid of workers, but in the end, we’re saying it doesn’t help them at all. On the contrary, it’s going to make things worse for them. It’s an attack.”
Speaking from Barcelona last Friday on a business trip, Premier Jean Charest urged the unions to “accept democracy” and to not do anything illegal in protest of the proposed legislation. The province, he said, would “never allow itself to be intimidated.”
Thériault said the next day that her security has been not been increased since the announcement. QMI Agency reported that Laurent Lessard received death threats when he investigated similar issues as labour minister in the construction industry six years ago; in response, police posted 24-hour surveillance outside his house.
The national assembly will be holding hearings on the bill.
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Opinions

New political group suggests shift in Quebec nationalism

Graphic by Sean Kershaw

Graphic by Sean Kershaw

Recent developments have created a chance to highlight two very different approaches to the cause of Quebec nationalism. The first was the announcement of plans to protest the July visit of Prince William and his new bride Kate Middleton by certain Quebec nationalist groups. The second was the announcement of the formation of a new political coalition in Quebec that promises to eschew the cause of sovereignty, and instead focus on matters relating to Quebec’s future prosperity. These developments, which can both be seen as manifestations of Quebec’s nationalist movement, represent what is very much the past of that movement, and what seems likely to be its future.

The Réseau de résistance du Québec (RRQ) has promised to make the royal visit as “unpleasant as possible.” The RRQ is the same group whose threats of violent intervention forced the cancellation of the re-enactment of the battle of the Plains of Abraham in 2008. Their list of grievances against the British monarchy include the assimilation of francophones and the deportation of the Acadians in 1775.

More related to contemporary Quebec politics was last month’s announcement of the formation of a new political coalition: the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec. Its leader is Francois Legault, a former Parti Québécois minister. He claims that sovereignty has become a dead end in Quebec, and that nationalists must move on and tackle real issues affecting Quebec’s population, such as the province’s future prosperity and its ability to remain competitve economically. As such, the group is calling for better pay and a more effective evaluation process for the province’s educators, tuition hikes and increased funding to deal with the chronic underfunding of the province’s universities, and a re-evaluation of taxation to encourage private investment in the province.

While not an official political party, Legault has stated that the Coalition could turn into one if its suggestions are not adopted by any of Quebec’s current mainstream parties.

These two recent developments within Quebec nationalism very much epitomize both the past and the future of that movement. Groups such as the RRQ, who seem intent on focusing their energies on protesting against the visit of two 20-somethings to Quebec, have clearly lost sight of both the interests of the province and the interests of Quebec’s nationalist movement. While their protest will surely be carried out in the name of Quebec and Quebecois nationalism, it is very hard to see how protesting the royal visit will further the cause of either one.

In contrast, the Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec seems to have it right. The cause of independence or even increased sovereignty for the province of Quebec is simply not that popular anymore, nor is rabid anti-royalism. The Coalition has instead, and rather wisely, chosen to further both the interests of Quebec and of nationalism by working towards specific goals that are actually in Quebec’s “national” interests.

In an era where political sovereignty is becoming increasingly less important, and when the ability to compete economically is becoming ever more of a priority, it makes perfect sense that the goal of working towards Quebec’s economic prosperity would surpass it’s goal of political independence, and of harping on about centuries-old wrongs as the main focus of nationalism in the province. In that sense, it seems likely that groups such as the RRQ represent the past of Quebec’s nationalist movement, while practical-minded groups such as the Coalition represent its future.

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