Canada's 'casseroles protests' grow

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(Guardian UK) It's just before 8pm in the Villeray district of Montreal. People wander in and out of the shops and bars, and traffic streams down the main road. But gradually the atmosphere changes, as clusters of people begin to congregate at the busy Jarry intersection. Some are in small groups, and others alone; hipsters in shorts and hi-top trainers mingle with parents in hiking boots and khakis. One thing unites them: they are all carrying pots and pans.

Within half an hour, the metro station is closed to traffic and the intersection is shut down. Hundreds of people are banging their pans, drowning out the sound of car horns from frustrated motorists. This clanking cacophony has become a nightly ritual all over Montreal: a remarkably successful street protest against a draconian emergency law enacted to crack down on what began as localised protest against tuition fees.

"This is about people power," said Carlos Luer, a 53-year-old children's worker who is attending the "casseroles" (pots and pans) protest for the first time. It wasn't the students' demands that brought him onto the street, but like thousands of others, he is motivated by bill 78, a loathed piece of legislation passed by the provincial government in Quebec in a failed attempt to stamp out the student protests ."This government said: 'Keep your mouth shut.' But they forget, these are the kids of tomorrow," Luer said.

This growing crisis has its roots in March 2011, when Quebec's finance minister, Raymond Bachand, announced that the government would increase tuition fees by C$325 (£203) a year for the next five years. Tuition fees in Quebec are lower than in any other province in Canada, and the government was facing a budget shortfall. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/30/quebec-protests-canada

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1. Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked.....