Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois guilty of contempt of court by CTV News, November 1, 2012
The face of the student uprising this year has been found guilty of contempt of court. Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a spokesperson for the student coalition CLASSE. He faces a year in prison and a $50,000 fine. During the student movement in the spring many students sought and were granted injunctions banning demonstrations from interfering with classes. The judge ruled that Nadeau-Dubois encouraged protesters to violate those injunctions with his statements made during a TV interview on May 13, 2012. University of Laval student Jean-Francois Morasse, who had won an injunction, filed the complaint against Nadeau-Dubois following that interview.
Nadeau-Dubois was often criticized for not speaking out strongly enough against the violent actions taken by some protesters. For his part Nadeau-Dubois contended he was not a student leader, just a spokesperson for an umbrella group, and as such had no power to stop violence. The judge disagreed that Nadeau-Dubois was not a leader, as as such ruled that Nadeau-Dubois should have encouraged people to respect the law.
Sentencing arguments will be made on Nov. 9, 2012.
[Refer also to: Watch: Spreading the Maple Spring: Lessons from Quebec’s Student Strike – the Vancouver stop on the Cross-Canada Speaking Tour October 20, 2012, by rabbletv
As a proud Québécois, I think that what [Judith] said is very important for us, if we want to be able to .. to be sure that this system .. that this economic system that is destroying the national cultures around the world can be defeated, what we all need to do in order too fight against this system, is also be able to recognize that the national attempts of the peoples of the world to save those cultures is not a different fight than the fight for social justice. In fact, it is the exact same fight. … In Quebec, more than 50% of students are first generation students. That means we are still in the process of democratizing post-secondary education.
Big corporations are putting more and more attention towards universities … There’s a problem with that process of integrating universities into capitalism. … Increasing tuition, the first impact is to create debt .. student debt. Debt is a very very efficient disciplinary process for human beings. … When you give birth to a youth with debt, you actually create an obedient youth. …
You will even see a Prime Minister scared by a bunch of students, and when you will see that you will know clearly that just you won.
The October 5 Vancouver event was livestreamed by W2 Media Cafe, and features:
At Min. 41:00 – Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, former spokesperson for CLASSE
-Cloé Zawadzki-Turcotte, a former member of CLASSE’s executive and a key organizer behind the strike
Fighting for Education and Against Austerity Together
[Refer also to: No zeros, mandatory school fees don’t belong in Education, Alberta MLAs say, but corporate control does ]