Quebec’s emergency law blasted by critics

The Globe and Mail:



Students and at least one Quebec legislator are contemplating a campaign of civil disobedience after two pieces of legislation widely condemned as attacks on liberty became law.

The National Assembly cracked down on student protests with an emergency law that includes measures requiring demonstrators to inform police of protest plans and strictly follow them, to stay far away from campuses and to avoid disrupting classes, or face heavy fines.

As the 21-hour, overnight debate ended with approval, Montreal city council banned masks from protests – another highly controversial move overshadowed by the provincial crackdown.

A student protest and boycott over tuition hikes, which began as little more than a traffic and classroom nuisance Feb. 13, culminated Friday with province’s passage of a law one scholar described as the worst attack on Canadian freedom since the War Measures Act. In the intervening weeks, an education minister resigned, demonstrations turned into riots, dozens were injured and jailed, and thousands of students – some 35 per cent of their ranks – have boycotted or been blocked from attending college and university classes.

Student groups, unions, opposition politicians, a host of legal scholars, the Quebec Human Rights Commission, right-wing and left-wing commentators, and the normally restrained Quebec Bar Association blasted the provincial law as an assault on the right to speak and assemble freely.

“This bill infringes many of the fundamental rights of our citizens. The basis of a democracy is the rule of law. We must respect the law. We must also respect fundamental freedoms, like the freedom to protest peacefully, the freedom of speech and the freedom of association,” bar association president bâtonnier Louis Masson, said in an interview.

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