News for Youse: Students in Quebec go smashy smashy, and Dr. Seuss punted from BC schools

All aboard the 1968! Student unrest escalated in Montreal yesterday after talks between student groups and the provincial government fell apart after only three days. Cars, stores, and even a cop shop were vandalized in the ensuing melee, leading to 85 arrests.

As one national daily put it, “an angry mob that spilled out from a larger crowd” was responsible for the violence. News for Youse is wondering if anybody noticed what kind of boots they wore. Meanwhile, media talk this morning is focused on the mob violence, rather than the institutional violence implied by Premier Jean Charest’s proposed $375 a year tuition hike.

Over in Prince Rupert, Dr. Seuss has become the focal point of a dispute over what the Canadian Press calls “students’ rights to be insulated from political messages.” In this case, the message, from Yertle the Turtle, reads: “I know up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here on the bottom, we too should have rights."

"This is simply an attempt to make the district look absurd," said school administrator Dave Stigant about the situation, in which a teacher was forbidden to use the quote in the context of ongoing resistance to Bill 22 by the BC Teachers Federation.

“If you put that quote beside a placard that is objecting to a loss of bargaining rights or some other right it becomes part of that political message,” said Stigant.

Not that he’s wrong—but the larger question of whether children should be exposed to the politics that shape their lives has deeper implications, by which we mean that it’s better to keep them stupid. As one UBC prof pointed out, any opportunity to apply an allegorical reading of turtle-stacking to the real world might help young minds to develop critical thinking skills, and what kind of monster would deprive them of the right to be insulated from that?

Up at the top of Canada’s federal turtle stack, Stephen Harper has indicated that Canadian forces will remain in Afghanistan beyond the year 2014. “Our plan at the current time is obviously for the mission that goes to 2014, but as we approach that date, we will examine all options and we will take the decision that is in the best interests of this country,” said the PM, who was in Canada at the time if you’re wondering what “this country” he’s talking about.

Canada has been involved in training operations in Kabul since the formal (read Bizarro World) completion of its involvement in the NATO mission last year. At a summit last week—and in light of the marvellously timed emergence of the wily Haqqani Taliban network—the US urged its partners to remain in the region for as long as it takes for it to never, ever end.