A special provincial commission into the student protests of last spring started Monday (June 3) with the goal of looking into the demonstrations and how authorities reacted to them.
“We don’t intend to make a political judgement,” said Serge Menard, the president of the Commission d’examen des événements du printemps 2012 (Commission of inquiry into the events of spring 2012).
Last month Menard, a former public security minister in the province of Quebec, along with former union president Claudette Carbonneau and retired Superior Court judge Bernard Grenier were appointed to examine the methods used by the police and by demonstrators over several months of protests against tuition hikes, in the predominantly French-speaking province.
In announcing the commission Quebec’s Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron said the commission’s mandate is to:
- Analyze the circumstances of demonstrations and disruptions in Quebec in the spring of 2012.
- Identify factors which contributed to the deterioration of the social climate.
- Evaluate the impact those events had on the public.
Last Thursday, some 200 police officers demonstrated in the provincial capital and their unions said they would not cooperate with the commission and boycott it.
More information:
CBC News – Student protest commission assailed from all sides – here
Radio-Canada – Lancement des travaux de la commission sur le printemps érable (with video in French) – here
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.