The message in the mayhem

What are we to make of more than 100 days of mayhem in Montreal?

Coddled kids with a mistaken sense of entitlement? Yes there’s some of that. But if it were just that, the student strike would have fizzled out long before now.

The idea of a free education that has deep philosophical and political roots in France and Quebec? OK, but does it run deep enough to pull thousands of young Québécois into the streets week after week?

Ah-ha! The unions have hijacked the demonstrations. The Quebec unions are there all right, and they’re a lot bolder than their English cousins. But the people on the streets were … and are students.

Dial down the diatribes for a bit and what do the streets of Montreal look like? They look like Toronto or Seattle during a G20 meeting. They look like Occupy Wall Street. We say we want the young engaged in the political process. Why are we surprised they engage in a way we don’t approve of?

Our sons and daughters, in Quebec this time, are trying to tell us something. Their leaders are articulating it even if we, in English Canada, can’t hear them. No jobs in the future. No money in the money bank. No food in the food bank. Dishonest business leaders. Dishonourable political leaders.

The house is burning down and the pumps don’t work “’ cause the vandals took the handles,” to quote Bob Dylan from the 1960s. But the real vandals are not the blackmasked kids we see on TV. David McLaren, Neyaashiinigmiing Ont.