Praise for - In Defiance
Praise for
In Defiance
The historical significance of Quebecs colossal 2012 student strike is destined to be the subject of debate for years to come. With incisive clarity and intelligence, In Defiance shines in its analysis of the provinces so-called Maple Spring. Co-spokesperson of Quebecs largest student union during the strike, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois places the conflict within the context of a broad neoliberal attack on the Quebec model of socio-economic development, explaining how the movement faced down a barrage of insults, legal intimidation, contempt and violence from journalists, politicians, and the police and persevered to win substantial public support in the streets and at the polls. As ever, Nadeau-Duboiss voice elevates public discussion about the kind of world we want to live in and will be sure to resonate with readers the world over.
Jarrett Rudy, Associate Professor of History, McGill University
In Defiance is a remarkable insiders account of the largest popular mobilization in recent Canadian history. With wit and clarity, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois provides an engaging window into the 2012 Maple Spring and the role of the Quebec student movement as one of the leading forces challenging neoliberalism today.
Yves Engler, author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, former Vice President of the Concordia Student Union
In Defiance is as assertive as the demonstrations that overwhelmed Montreals streets in 2012. It is a crucial book for Canadians. It gives insight into events that have shaped Quebecs political culture, such as the Quiet Revolution, which placed importance on education and called for free tuition. It exposes the breadth and depth of the student movement, which infused Quebec with ideas, reinvigorated our sense of street-level democratic participation, and demanded to know: how and by whom is our future to be shaped?
Kaie Kellough, writer/poet, Montral
In Defiance is a must-read for todays students and activists, and for anyone needing a renewal of faith in the future of humanity. Superbly written, with clarity and self-awareness, this book captures the idealism, practicalities, frustrations, failures, and victories of the Maple Spring. In addition to revealing the tactics, day-to-day challenges, and political realities happening behind the scenes of one of the largest student movements in recent history, Nadeau-Dubois shows us that even against an entrenched government, bolstered in its suppression of the disenfranchised by a wider culture of social apathy youth, intelligence, and hope can always rise and challenge those in power and, more importantly, the ways of thinking that keep them there.
Mark Edelman Boren, author of Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject
Title
In Defiance
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
Translated by Lazer Lederhendler
Foreword by Naomi Klein
Between the Lines
Toronto
Copyright
In Defiance Originally published in French as Tenir tte , Lux diteur, Montral, 2013 www.luxediteur.com English translation 2015 Lazer Lederhendler | First published in English translation in 2015: Between the Lines 401 Richmond St. W., Studio 277 Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8 1-800-718-7201 www.btlbooks.com |
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Between the Lines, or (for photocopying in Canada only) Access Copyright, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5.
Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. Between the Lines would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Nadeau-Dubois, Gabriel, 1990
[Tenir tte. English]
In defiance / by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois; translated by Lazer Lederhendler.
Includes index.
Translation of: Tenir tte.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77113-182-7 (pbk.). ISBN 978-1-77113-183-4 (epub).
ISBN 978-1-77113-184-1 (pdf).
1. Student strikes Qubec (Province). 2. Student movements Qubec (Province). 3. Qubec (Province) Politics and government 20032012. I. Title. II. Title: Tenir tte. English.
LA418.Q8N3313 2015 | 371.8'109714 | C2015-900601-5 C2015-900602-3 |
Cover design and photos by Jennifer Tiberio
Page preparation and text design by Steve Izma
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing, an initiative of the Roadmap for Canadas Official Languages 20132018: Education, Immigration, Communities , for our translation activities. We gratefully acknowledge assistance for our publishing activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program and through the Ontario Book Initiative, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.
Dedication
To my mother and father, who passed on to me their love of people and of justice.
Quotation
The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
Frederick Douglass
Foreword
Naomi Klein
T he Maple Spring in Quebec ushered in the biggest social mobilization this country has seen in decades. Its consequences will be felt for years to come in Quebec, but it will influence the rest of Canada only if those outside the province better understand what made it unique. This book, written by one of the countrys most inspiring young leaders, does a great deal to help.
In early 2012, Quebecs students went on strike against massive hikes to university tuition fees. But instead of simply protesting the latest round of increases, the student movement told Quebec what they stood for : free, universal education, which they saw as a precondition for any just society. They also showed persuasively that the barriers being erected for poorer students were a reflection of a wider pro-corporate agenda, the reversal of which would be necessary if they were to achieve their goal.
By making a non-reformist, ambitious demand, their protests lit a spark in the province and opened up a broad debate about what kind of society Quebecers actually wanted. Outside the province, many of us watched as the movement unleashed an incredible wave of creativity and militancy. There were the witty videos, the gorgeous art, the poetry and music. There was the omnipresent red square a must-have symbol of solidarity, which I eventually spotted even in the streets of Toronto. Most iconic, however, were the unforgettable images of hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, regularly crowding the downtown streets, many of them banging pots and pans on their balconies and in their neighbourhoods.
