Jean Charest: Pot calling the kettle

I don't usually write -- or care -- about Quebec politics but it's becoming alarmingly clear that the situation is turning into a powder keg.

So far, more people have been rounded up and arrested than during the FLQ crisis. Police are using "draconian" methods to detain innocent Montrealers, something called kettling. And the government is about to pass a law which restricts lawful assembly.

My inner Neil Young is saying: Shiiiit.

Word: Neil -- time for another song?

But there is good news. You can probably get really good tickets to the Montreal International Jazz Festival or Just for Laughs. So that's something.

Unless unionized musicians refuse to cross a picket line. Well, Just for Laughs will still go on. Everybody knows that comics are ruthless, self-centred pricks.

The crazy part of all of this is that the Charest government is frantically trying to salvage what's left of its reputation because it's worried about what the protests will do to the tourist season.

Priorities. Priorities.

Wouldn't want to disappoint Drew Carey, now would we? Wouldn't want to lose all those great federal sponsorship deals, would we?

What's a few bruises on the asses of students? A little pepper spray is good for the economy.

Hmmm.

Charest seems to be taking a page from the Harper government whose hobby is to shut down every legal strike with back to work legislation. After all, says Lisa Raitt, strikes are bad for the Canadian economy. So it's no wonder that the unions are backing the students in Quebec; they are otherwise helpless to strike, protest or anything else.

Might as well join the students.

The right to strike means absolutely nothing in this country anymore.

Unions are becoming a joke. Student organizations are facing hefty fines and jail time for doing what comes naturally to students -- being a pain in the ass of The Man.

Back in the day, Canadians would have been outraged by these kind of actions on the part of government. They would have been alarmed that their rights were being taken away, inch by inch, step by step.

I miss my old friend Tim Ralfe. At least back in the day, somebody was asking how far the government would go.

Canadians don't seem to care.

Canadians seem to be more concerned with renovating their kitchens and measuring their Body Mass Indices than protecting in their rights.

Makes me sad to be a Canadian.

Oh, well. No time to doddle.

Maybe I'll snap up some of those juicy Just for Laughs tickets. Before I go to the show, I'll make sure to shake the hands of some of these protesters. If they aren't all in jail.