Get Your Pots and Pans Ready, Canada

Québec student protest (Photo credit: Pedro fait de la Photo)

I don't think the Quebec protests are about tuition hikes.

They might have been at first, but not anymore.

I think that the Quebec government is the first of many North American governments that are powered by big business to finally hear the sound of the people.

And right now thousands of people all over the province are taking their pots and pans to the streets every night. 

The clanging can just barely be heard in Ontario but it is sending shivers down a few spines at Queen's Park and in Ottawa, I'm sure.

This week Andrew Coyne, a reporter with the Montreal Gazette complained that, " a democratically elected government may be prevented by force and intimidation from enacting laws in the public interest...;

I'm guessing the protesters would say the laws are only in the interest of the wealthy.

Telling people that true change will happen at the ballot box is a lie.

When we vote we trade Tweedle Dum for Tweedle Dee.

To say I'm worried about the future would be an understatement.

Related articles

• Quebec tuition talks fall apart

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• Quebec student protest reaches 40 days in a row

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• Quebec's largest student group vows defiance of emergency law - Globe and Mail

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Occupying Niagara

Image via Wikipedia

The Occupy Wall Street movement has come to Niagara.

I wasn't at the meeting but evidently about 70 people showed up at the CAw Hall in St. Catharines and according to the St. Catharines Standard the group hopes to occupy Montebello Park in the city's downtown later this month, (see photo).

If 70 people cared enough to go to the meeting, I'm betting there are at least ten times that many supporters in the area.

I'm not of an age or in a position to occupy anything, but I will be there when I can.

The critics of this world wide, peaceful comment on poverty and corporate greed seem to think that because the  number of occupiers has dwindled and because they do sometimes go home to shower and eat that it is coming to an end.

I don't think so.

I suspect things will simmer for a few months and we'll see a greater push for change in the spring.

Because,

economically speaking,

it promises


to be a long, dark and very grim winter.

Gloutonnement

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The movement against corporate greed that started on Wall Street in New York City has come to Canada. 

Toronto and Vancouver are both bracing for massive protests on Saturday.

Hmmmm.

 Do we have the right to be criticizing the people at the top? 

The 1%.

The people who control most of the world's wealth.

After all, the guys who run the world's big corporations worked hard to get where they are.

Spent money on an education, spent long hours working their way up.

They deserve what they have. 

Right?

It depends on whether you believe there is anyone on this earth who deserves to be making

$16,826 an hour.

That's  what Michael Duke, the CEO of Wal Mart makes.*

$16,826 an hour.

 So what do you make?

*I found the salary info on Yellow Dog Granny's blog and looked up his salary.  He made $23 million during 2007.  Couldn't find anything more recent but I doubt his income has dropped. Thanks to YDG for doing the math on that one!

Related articles

• Toward a Corporate Greed Index (ask.metafilter.com)
• Hundreds march against 'corporate greed' in New York City (telegraph.co.uk)