One of the first things I learned when I learned to drive a car a few years ago is that the road is a space of absolute selfishness. Safety rules are less important than micro-sprains which save fractions of a second, and any breach of this custom will be punished with honking, which seems to be used almost exclusively passive-aggressively.
In recent weeks, the horns, for once, have sounded for something else. In front of the picket lines, the pennants, the rattles and the trumpets of the striking workers, the motorists honk their horns repeatedly, a majority of them at least, and everywhere, whether there are ten or a hundred people gathered on the line picketing.
According to the Léger firm, as of November 22, 70% of Quebecers supported the striking workers. This is not practical, health professionals on strike, and even less teachers on indefinite general strike for those who are affiliated with the FAE. Despite everything, the horns sound. Because everyone has noticed at least once the pitiful state of public services in recent years. And everyone knows at least one person who, on a daily basis, carries the burden of doing the impossible with paltry resources so that the system does not collapse.
A colleague pointed out to me this week that it was surprising, with all the children staying at home with the school strike, that society was not already completely blocked. What parents, and especially mothers, do these days to keep their children busy while continuing to work is a reflection of what teachers do all year round so that public school does not fall. in pieces.
This too, people understand intimately. This is perhaps why the government’s calls for compromise, reasonableness and flexibility to strikers are not working very well. The public network, and with it, society as a whole, is on the verge of breaking point. For many people, this justifies tolerating the discomfort and anxiety caused by the strike. No one strikes for fun; no one deprives themselves of wages and keeps their children at home without the conviction that neglect would have even more serious consequences.
While public sector employees are picketing in the cold, we took the opportunity, in Quebec, to add a layer of complication to the lives of tenant households. On Wednesday, the detailed study of Bill 31 took place in parliamentary committee.
The Minister of Housing, surrounded by her iPads, was visibly exasperated by the questions raised by her colleagues on the transfer of lease. She accused everyone of spreading misinformation. The bill, she said, does not put an end to the assignment of leases. It grants a right of veto to the owner in order to rectify a misuse, such as using the transfer to “pay it forward”, she cited as an example. It is well known that putting into practice a principle of solidarity in times of crisis, whether it is a strike or a lease transfer, is a problem for this government.
While both the economic situation (high cost of living, high interest rates) and the state of the rental market encourage owners to terminate a lease rather than witness its transfer, it is obvious that the objective here is to de facto abolish the transfer of lease. As proof, the solidarity deputy Andrés Fontecilla had proposed an amendment aimed at defining additional reasons for refusal which would not be purely discriminatory or speculative. He was met with rejection.
If Minister Duranceau were sincere in her desire to restore the spirit of the lease transfer, she would have recognized that, in the context, its moderating effect on the general increase in rents is desirable, and recommended its temporary maintenance, while waiting for put in place adequate rent control mechanisms and the market returns to balance. That’s not what happened. The article was adopted as is.
Still others, this week, did not understand why Quebecers complain about the decisions taken in their name. While we learned that the Northvolt company acquired, with a loan from the Quebec government, its land for more than ten times the acquisition price in 2015, the first director of Northvolt for North America, Paolo Cerruti , said he was surprised, in front of business people gathered by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), that the project aroused so much discontent in Quebec.
CCMM president Michel Leblanc agreed, adding that he wondered if Quebec had “the right level of collective maturity to see the value of what is proposed.”
This sums up the doctrine that governs the organization of Quebec society under the government of François Legault. They don’t understand all the good things we want from them, they say to each other – between bosses, between business people, between ministers, it’s the same thing in this case. While teachers are on the streets without pay, because it seems better to them than continuing to teach young people in the conditions imposed on them.
“Collective maturity”, we understand, would be to put away the flags and noises and accept that the strongest win, while the others row.
Columnist specializing in environmental justice issues, Aurélie Lanctôt is a doctoral student in law at McGill University.