i love montreal, banging pots, chanting in french and photo formatting

it's a very interesting time to be in montreal these days, and possibly the worst time to leave it, even if only temporarily. tonight me and my roommate went out in the street (laurier, just east of papineau) and banged our kitchen utensils on pots for about half an hour. corner delorimier, then a bit further - cartier - we joined groups of people who were banging on their own pots, peacefully and cheerfully, but mostly trying to block the intersections. young people yes, but also old (a funny lady wrapped in a red blanket), families with children. welcome to the neighbourhood! most cars passing would be honking in support, with people waving at us. bicycles passed whirring, young people with their red patches probably hurrying to the manif downtown.

 it's been happening every evening for the past 5 days...but let me start from earlier this spring:

this is our balcony, early May

the student strike against tuition hikes is now entering its 15th week, more precisely 100 days today. as i've lived through various sorts of strikes and protests, i'll admit it took me a while to get into it. i'm not a student, not a resident (alas) etc. but education is sort-of my field, and i know where they're coming from. i also knew, and it annoyed me, that the government was just waiting for them to calm down/for the movement to die down, instead of actually discussing and negociating with them. it's a harsh thing to do to your citizens.

anyway. very briefly, what topped it off last week was the 'special law' number 78, which is basically trying to control the right to gather/protest. it says that any group of more than 50 people have to inform police 8 hours before if they are planning a manifestation, and to give an itinerary...also people aren't allowed to wear masks. see what their problems are.
so people, in response, are continuing their nightly marches (today is the 29th one in a row) with no set itinerary, with masks and chants and the ubiquitous carrés rouges everywhere. (``on est plus que 50``= my favourite thing to chant.) as long as there`s no violence, police leave them (us) alone...and as long as the police don`t come too close, i heard, there`s generally no violence or hooliganism.

i`m afraid this is pure wishful thinking....

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

but anyway i`m impressed by the amount of popular support expressed for the strike, even in the smallest ways.

  i first didn`t want to take manif pictures, because ....i wanted to participate as opposed to observe. but i caved in and took some today, at the 100 day celebration march, because it was just too impressive. probably the greatest number of people i`ve ever seen in my life - media put it at around 250 000.

on est plus que 50!

that`s it that`s all, like quebecers love to say (honestly: i learned this phrase here). here`s for debuting my blog, and maybe more updates from the pots and pans department before i leave.

love,
carmen