What English Media Isn't Reporting About Quebec's Printemps 2015 Mobilizing

Apr 9, 2015

What English Media Isn't Reporting About Quebec's Printemps 2015 Mobilizing

Despite nightly demonstrations, and a protest of 75 000 that took over streets in downtown Montreal for hours last week, Canadian media is pretty much on the same page that the anti-austerity, anti-petro-economy movement in Quebec, Printemps 2015, is not going to get very big.  

The National Post, for example, published an article "Another 'Maple Spring'? Likely not" on March 25th and since then has been publishing stories mocking protesters and describing how the student strike is being shut down

In the Globe and Mail, Konrad Yakabuski came out swinging in "Quebec students get a lesson in austerity" (March 30), saying "So far, there is no public sympathy for the striking students, who have been roundly ridiculed for their lack of focus." The Globe then neglected to cover the 75 000 people out in Montreal's streets on April 2, instead publishing a story on how the movement may be falling apart because of one internal argument in one prominent organization. A story and video of an Irish folk dancing festival in Montreal were also published. Today, the Globe managed to provide coverage of a large anti-austerity protest in the francophone metropolis of Paris, France.

English Canada might get the sense the movement is fizzling, or never took off. But this misses some widely unreported developments, including that:

So how is English media, the Globe & Mail for example, so quick to dismiss the movement and cover almost none of this? What does this acheive?

 

 

Update: The Toronto Star this afternoon (Thursday April 9) published a story "Protests at Montreal university breathe new life into student movement"