May 12
25
Red Square, a Time Machine and Mindless Masses: Rod Taylor
Over 100 days have passed since (some) Quebec university students took to the streets to demand that their tuition fees (the lowest in Canada) be kept at their unsustainable levels. Quebec’s efforts to raise rates by $350 per year to achieve—after 5 years—the lowest rates in the country (?) have been viciously attacked by a collage of students, professors, strident unionists and would-be Marxists reliving the unfinished escapades of a deprived youth they never experienced.
Nearly 100 years have passed since Russians (who really were deprived, mistreated and hungry) rose up and deposed the Czar (subsequently executed, with his family.) The tragic and brutal history of the Russian people under the czars, the wars in which they were entangled and the details of their short, mean lives certainly were a fertile breeding ground for rebellion and savagery, much like Paris in the years of arrogant and pompous extravagance and injustice that preceded her Revolution. There are more similarities: the monstrous beheading machine, La Guillotine, was the tool of vengeance gone wild in Paris and the shameful slaughter of the innocents in her heyday was a foreshadowing of the hard and cruel tortures and deaths of millions in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. It is said that Stalin may have killed—directly—50 million of his own citizens, many with bullets, many with starvation, all of them tormented with fear and terror. The torture and murder of innocent people who are somehow blamed for the sufferings of others or callously executed on the basis of false accusations of treason seems somehow to have followed the orchestrated overthrow as surely as night follows day.
Today, the “risen masses” in Quebec seem grasping for a cause to call their own. Their hunger and thirst is not for bread and water—of which the participants in this revolution have plenty. It is not because of the callous execution of their fellow-citizens; although if they keep pressing their unreasonable demands, breaking the law, destroying property and threatening or injuring innocent bystanders, they may eventually coax or bait La Belle Province into actions that would create a few “martyrs” and thus retroactively justify their extreme and lawless behaviour.
No, this revolution is simply rebellion looking for a cause. The “access” to education they say they want is now squandered. The cost of protecting the public from their unruly rampages has been very high, both for the students and the state. 100 days is a long time to do nothing but cause trouble. No job, no income. No classes, no diploma. And now the Red Squares have drawn in their union comrades to raise the stakes in this contest. They wished for an “Arab Spring” for Quebec and for Canada. The results of last year’s Arab Spring in the troubled Middle East are coming in; the chickens are coming home to roost. What was touted as a quest for democracy in Egypt and Libya has been exposed as a Muslim takeover and the Brotherhood has stepped forward to take its prize and impose its shariah-based tyrannical oligarchy on the very citizens who bravely faced down the tanks a year ago.
In Canada, we believe in the supremacy of God and the rule of law. Without God in the picture, the rule of law can become arbitrary, harsh and unfair. The rule of law is supposed—under the guidance of a just God—to treat all citizens equally, to assume innocence and not guilt, to hold all equally accountable for their behaviour. As Canadians, we must use our personal influence, as well as the authority vested in the state, to entreat these young people—our fellow-citizens—to take an honest look at their grievances and the inconveniences they have imposed on innocent bystanders. Rebellions that end in bloodshed have happened before. Justice has suffered, the people have suffered and civilization has suffered. May it not happen in Canada on our watch.