It's late so this is going to be a very short post. I wanted to draw everyone's attention to the emergency legislation that's being debated right now in Quebec's National Assembly. The goal is to "pause" the student strike for the summer and resume the current semester in August. The text of Bill 78 is frightening and takes aim at the right to freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly of young people - this is bush league Duplessis era tactics targeting a minority in society that doesn't possess a lot of power. Quite disturbing amid the wider developments that are being deployed against students: use of chemical weapons, deploying riot police to respond to peaceful protests, and the use of anti-terrorism provisions in the Criminal Code against people accused of using smoke-bombs in Montreal's Metro. I'll be writing more on the overall situation in Quebec soon, hopefully on the weekend after I've had a chance to talk to some of my friends living up there.
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