In Today’s Globe and Mail!

Natalie Zemon Davis and I have an op-ed in today’s Globe and Mail giving some historical context to the casseroles protests.

While the Anglophone press continues to talk about disorder and how they are wrecking everything (summer festivals, school recruitment–though people actually involved in both seem considerably less worried than the journalists covering them), I think they miss the central point of the protests, which are heavily communal and precisely about order and reparation.

So, we tried to put another perspective out there.

Also, it was amazing to work with Natalie on the project, which began when I interviewed her for another piece I’m doing, to appear next week.

One of the best parts of casseroling happens near the beginning

Most nights when we arrive at St-Denis and Jarry, if it’s close to 8pm, people are marching back and forth in crosswalks, with the light. This goes on for some time as the crowd builds up. And then, in a manner I can’t quite fathom, we take the intersection. People just walk right in and shut down traffic. It doesn’t seem overly planned or managed. It just..kind of..happens. Very simple, very profound.

Then the police do what they can to steer traffic away until the march begins down St-Denis toward the Petit Patrie. The march is great too, of course, but in a different way, depending on the night. The first night we marched in the neighbourhood it was a surprise. Now it’s more of, well, a delight.

Last night’s march was, of course, smaller because of the rain. And rather than heading south the whole way, it turned in the Petit Patrie and went into Little Italy. When we broke off it was headed for Park Ex.

I know this is getting predictable, but

Here’s last night’s casseroles protest in our neighbourhood. We walked down to Beaubien last night and ran into a bunch of friends. I guess “Villeray désobéis” is the place to be.

My attendance this week will be a little spotty–there’s a lot of music stuff going on with MUTEK right around 8pm, but perhaps I will catch some of it downtown.

Casseroles

Carrie and I just got back from 2 and a half hours of our manif (it was still going strong). It’s the 3rd night in a row (possibly more–we were visiting friends in Westmount Saturday, a wealthy enclave that’s hostile territory for protesters). What started as a local event with hundred of people taking up space in intersections snowballed into thousands taking over entire streets. We saw most of our neighbours, the people who staff our local business, and friends from around the area. Although there is a majority of students, of course, it’s children, the elderly, people of all colours and backgrounds.

In terms of numbers of bodies in the streets in a single place, we should at least consider that this is bigger than Occupy Wall Street, and it’s no doubt the most important student movement in North America right now–except that it’s people of all ages.

It is really moving to take a stand with your friends and neighbours against an immoral, unconstitutional and unenforceable law.