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Quebec Protest Aims To Pressure Leaders On Climate Change

Representatives from environmental organizations, unions, student groups and First Nations Sunday announced plans for a rally to demand action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The groups say Canada and other countries need to respect targets for cutting emissions, and they say projects such the ones going on in Alberta’s tar sands are incompatible with meeting those targets. They want the governments of Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick to oppose the expansion of the tar sands and the transport of oil by pipeline and by train. Dubbed the “Act on climate” march, the groups want the march, set for April 11 in Quebec City, will remind leaders that Canadians want them to do more to protect the planet.

Quebec Students Plan One Of Largest Strikes In Canada History

Three years after staging the largest student protest in Canadian history, students in Quebec are gearing up for another one. Various media outlets may have threatened the same thing last year, and the year before, but the protests planned for the upcoming weeks are larger in scale than anything the province has seen since 2012. As of writing, 24 student organizations in Quebec, representing over 30,000 students at six university and CÉGEP campuses, have voted to strike as part of a protest against the Liberal government's austerity measures. Student organizations representing another 110,000 students are scheduled to carry out strike votes.

Anti-Austerity Protesters Occupy Yves Bolduc’s Office

Hundreds of protesters once again converged on the Montreal office of Premier Philippe Couillard to voice their opposition to government cuts in the public sector. "Austerity is irking me, definitely," Deanna Lombardi of the Réseau d’action des femmes en santé et services sociaux, a coalition of health and social services organizations that support marginalized women, told CJAD News. "I'm worried about those that are the most vulnerable in our society, those with the least agency," she continued. "We know the gap between richest and poorest is increasing and I'm worried that austerity measures will just worsen this." A short march to Place Montreal Trust involved a brief detour for a few dozen demonstrators, who occupied the offices of Education Minister Yves Bolduc and the headquarters of the Canadian Bankers Association on McGill College Ave.

Thousands Of Quebec Students Protest Austerity Measures

Less than six minutes after it was scheduled to begin, the rally organized by one of Quebec’s more militant students’ federation, ASSE, was declared illegal by Montreal police. By 2 p.m., several thousand protesters had already gathered at the starting point for the march at Place Emilie Gamelin in downtown Montreal. The assembled crowd, wearing red squares and carrying placards, contained a mix of students, masked protesters and families. Riot police surrounded the square and declared the rally illegal because protest organizers did not provide a march route, as required by the controversial Montreal municipal bylaw P6. After an hour wait, the protesters set off, heading north up Berri Street and then west along Sherbrooke Avenue. After snaking its way through the downtown core, the march, which extended several city blocks, ended at Victoria Square, in front of Quebecor headquarters. The protest was declared over by student federation ASSE at approximately 4:20 p.m., although several hundred protesters continued the march.

Montreal Activists Protest ‘Anti-Protest’ Law

A wave of street politics has begun in Québec as the PQ government pursues its conservative nationalist agenda, and this wave is being met with an organised police response. Grassroots activists across Montréal are using a range of tactics to resist P6, a city bylaw that has emerged as the preferred regulation at police disposal. Despite these inspiring acts of resistance, divisions continue to surface before protests even take place. Activists are rightfully questioning why organisers would comply with P6. These divisions are likely to occur again, so a grassroots strategy that recognises this reality is needed.

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