I suspect the United Church Conference delegates supported the right of students to protest, and their right to not be subject to undue violence at the hands of the police.  I suspect they also opposed the draconian Bill 78, a law so draconian, it got the attention of writers in the US, mostly because it was so out of tune with the culture and polity of Quebec.  More people have been arrested and thrown in jail than happened during the use of the War Measures Act.

I am tired of hearing how Quebec abuses equalization payments from other provinces, especially my province of Alberta.  Those payments provide for an approximation of equality in services.  It is the higher taxes that people in Quebec pay that support those features that are admired by many in the rest of Canada and feared by the wealthy as promoting unrest that might reduce their privileges in order to achieve a fairer distribution of the wealth of our various provinces.  Almost everyone attacking low tuition fees and day care costs is someone whose income is well above average.

Could you please provide a link to the article? Thanks!

The United Church of a whole did not make this statement, but that makes a better headline.  THe article makes it clear that delegates to M&O conference discussed and voted on the statement.  As they are a court of the church in the area most affected it seems logical that they would choose to make a statement.

Here is the article:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/United+Church+takes+students+side/6687...

Ok, thanks for that clarification. I re read it before posting and thought I had read the motion was passed by the United Church but I guess I was mistaken. So what you are saying is  a group within the Untied Church made the motion to take a side, passed the motion?

I am grateful to belong to a church that is a social justice church but I get leery when it takes official stands on issues that portrays it's memebers to think a specific way. It in effect becomes an open church that is so open it tramples on the rights of others to have their opinions. Does that make sense?

Thanks GordW. I am glad to hear that the members of the United Church in the area that is affected have taken a stand on this issue.

I was very pleased to read it, too.

Just a quibble. Draconian legislation is not foreign to Quebec. There are a quarter million or so ex-Quebeckers who can tell you that. It has been the most bigoted province in Canada eacept, of course, for BC and Nova Scotia. And maybe Ontario.

What's encourging this time is that the students are pointing the way to the real issues. No wonder Charest wants to shut them up.

I have to admit, I haven't been following the Quebec protests closely enough to really give a solid opinion...but I saw this typo and I thought it was funny...one little slip up on the placement of letters can really change a perspective on things.

No it does not make sense to me. Please clarify. The Montreal Ottawa Conference, which represents all of the United Churches in Quebec and those in eastern Ontario, says it supports the rights of students to free speech and free assembly.  They are asking the national church's General Council to do the same this summer when they meet.

This is not the same as supporting all of the demands of the students, only that they students and their supporters have rights of free speech and free assembly. 

You should join the discussion in the politics section on the Quebec Student Strike.

I do not understand how supporting free speech, and the right to freedom of assembly can be construed in anyway as trampling the rights of those that do not believe in free speech and the freedom to demonstrate peacefully.  All the conference (and hopefully the GCOthis summer) said that those who against freedom are wrong.    Nowhere did I see the article to mention that Montreal Ottawa Conference  wanted to trample the freedoms of those opposed to freedom.

As I said in my second post, I realize I mis-understood the article and mistakenly  thought the United Church as a whole was taking this stand. If the churches within an area are taking a stand that is one thing but I do not believe General Council can do so for the entire country. From what I have read, the students protests have not all been peaceful and Bill 78 went to far in reaction to that. Neither side is entirely faultless.

Have you ever heard of any conflict n world history in which one side was entirely faultless?

If you defend only those who are faultless, that's a cop-out for never defending anybody at all.

The students were thousands in the streets - with no way to know who the trouble makers were. The people who passed Bill 78 were a body of elected officials sitting in a very safe room, pledged to maintain basic freedoms.

I have no trouble deciding who to support. And any church with integirty should be ready to take a position on one side or the other of this issue.

In fact, I attended a very successful demonstration tonight in Moncton supporting the Quebec student strike. The turnour was good - but I didn't notice any clergy there.

There's something wrong when you have to deal with moral issues - and realize your church is not interested in them.

The lawyers had no trouble deciding which side was in the right. And it was a legal question - so that gives the demonstrators some pretty expert support. It's pretty awful , though, when you have to rely on lawyers to defend moral positions.

Can you please clarify. You say that Bill 78 went too far. So you are agreeing with this resolution.   It seems not only did the article headline misslead you in you past a resolution, but also what it said.

It opposes Bill 78 and asks both sides to negociate.  

The problem is that Charest cannot possibly negotiate on the real issues. He cannot limit the power of the wealthy. He cannot lower fees because the universities operate on pure ego which is expensive to maintain. They always have been like that - but now that they have become an essential and fairly general extension of high school, they need ego, pretence and pomposity (and the ratings that go with them) to draw students and so to survive. The basic idea that universities can be different from what they are has never been considered - and will certainly not be considered by anybody in the universities.

That's why he had to resort to such extreme force. You're going to see more of it across North America and Europe. The political powers that be will not compromise. their owners will not allow it.

"There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk "his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else."

--Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Did you see this report Graeme. Anonymous hacked a home computer and released video of a Birthday bash for Paul Desmarais. Just so people can see how George Bush, charest, Mulroney, Chretien, and all move in the same circles. Why would all these people attend the birthday party of a Montreal billionaires wife. 

The video starts with the building of a special hall for the fete at Desmarais mansion on the Charlevoix coast.  No less than 5 former Prime Ministers of Canada and Quebec, North America's media elite is present along with George Bush.  Perhaps Clinton was too ill to attend, or another Billionaire had paid more for him that day. 

People are being asked to identify the guests and post their names at https://www.facebook.com/AnonnewsFrancophone In order to illustrated the links in the oligararchy. So called democratic and republican dancing together as well as Liberals and Conservatives politicians bowing to the many millionaires.

Here's a video from LCN an all news station with an interview of a United Church member of the Montreal Ottawa Synod.   He says it was imperative that the United Church take a stand during this crisis in Quebec and that it is about far more than just student fees.

great stuff. Though the party one is so upsetting, I couldn't finish it. I'm going to steel myself for a comeback.

I was glad to hear this news and support the students in spirit at present. I'm wondering about ways of making that support more concrete.