In 2012, tens of thousands of students rose up to denounce the increase in tuition fees announced by the Liberal government of Jean Charest. Faced with the inflexibility of politicians, the contempt on the part of the elites and the adoption of laws considered to be liberticidal, the revolt quickly turns into social protest on an unprecedented scale. To the sound of saucepans and slogans calling for a fairer society, the street mobilized for months, until the power in place wavered.
Ten years later, Gabriel Pelletier recounts this period of intense protests from the inside in a poignant essay, What’s left of spring. The militant lawyer, who was studying at the Cégep André-Laurendeau in Montreal at the time, participated in the demonstrations, defying in the worst moments the truncheons, pepper spray and smoke bombs thrown by the police.
“We were inhabited by a desire to change Quebec,” he says on the phone. Many young people did not recognize themselves in the government in place. We wanted another style of society, which would make education accessible to all without commodification. »
The 28-year-old author waited a decade before writing his book, a testimony to what he saw and experienced on the ground. “Ten years is the time it took me to let things digest,” he says. And then 2022 is the time of commemorations, so I thought it was time to add my modest contribution. »
Dismantle preconceived opinions
His Maple Spring, Gabriel Pelletier recounts it in the first person. He remembers that two Quebec practically clashed for several months – the one who shared the fights of the demonstrators and the one who defended the government measures – with the students as the front line.
“Quebec has the most mobilized student movements in North America,” he maintains. The Maple Spring is above all a student. The Charest government’s coercive response made it an intergenerational movement. But who received the beatings? It was the students. »
The essay also sets the record straight by dismantling several stereotypes maintained at the height of events by certain conservative columnists and editorialists. “I fight against prejudices that have the hard tooth, he says. The students were called either depoliticized spoiled brats or radical leftists. There was no truth in any of this, but it served the power in place well. »
On the contrary, he recalls that student mobilization actually stemmed from a long tradition of citizen protests that began in the 1960s in Quebec for equality and accessibility to higher education. “Students are the canary in the coal mine,” he writes in his book. “They are the objectors, the protesters par excellence who figure at the forefront of many social struggles. They have the means, the motivation, the courage and the ambition for the change they want to propose. »
Jean Charest the incendiary
Opposite the “largely peaceful” young demonstrators, according to the author, was a government in a position of attack, increasingly out of touch, facing several allegations of corruption.
“The response of the Quebec state was to send an overarmed and totally disproportionate police force, with the primary objective of breaking the striker. The authorities have undoubtedly found the opportunity to cling to power, despite the political scandals, by presenting themselves as the government of the hard line. »
The author illustrates the raw reality of this police violence in a revealing chapter where he does not hesitate to speak of “urban guerrilla warfare”. On May 4, 2012, the Liberal Party of Quebec organizes its General Council in Victoriaville. The students, including Gabriel Pelletier, gathered on the premises in an almost good-natured atmosphere; no one expected what was to follow. “The situation escalated when the police received the order to attack. I was afraid for my life and for that of my comrades. It was chaos, the smell of blood, screams of pain. However, I will never forget the courage shown by the young people. »
By his contemptuous tone and his purely political calculations, Jean Charest added fuel to the fire, continues Gabriel Pelletier, referring in passing to the dubious declaration of the former Prime Minister who proposed to send students to the Far North of Quebec. .
“And that’s not all,” says the author. He is the first premier in the history of Quebec to have said that a student strike was not a strike, but a “boycott”. This term is not insignificant, since he did not want to admit the collective scope of the movement. Above all, he wanted to discredit the demonstrators by reducing them to a group of scattered individuals who do not represent anyone. »
The movement has nevertheless found some sizeable allies in the political sphere, particularly within the opposition, with the support of former solidarity deputy Amir Khadir and former PQ Prime Minister Jacques Parizeau. The latter also announced very early on his solidarity with the struggle of the demonstrators, those who were called the “red squares”. “He saw in this movement the continuation of political and social struggles that Quebec had been waging since the Quiet Revolution. We represented for him the living force of a generation which continued the work of those who had preceded us. »
The sometimes painful experience of Maple Spring makes Gabriel Pelletier say that democracies remain fragile, including Quebec. He recalls that controversial legislative maneuvers (Bill 78 and Regulation P-6) were adopted manu militari at the time with the aim of breaking the movement by limiting the right to demonstrate — to hell with them if they were then condemned by citizen organizations, the Human Rights Commission, the Barreau du Québec and even the UN.
“Most people thought that democratic institutions and rights were particularly strong back home,” he notes. They thought the October Crisis or the Duplessis era was a thing of the past. The fact remains that the implementation of freedom-killing measures has convinced many people to join the protest. A burst like Quebec has rarely experienced.