I'm horrible at crowd estimates. Guess for yourself how many people turned out.

Tuesday was the day the CBC was supposed to announce which of its employees it was going to lay off. The SCRC, which represents CBC and Radio-Canada employees in Quebec and Moncton, planned for a day of mourning at noon to draw attention to those names.

Unfortunately, the CBC made no such announcement, and the people who turned out still don't know who's being fired and who's being kept on, even though the corporation has already started the process of laying people off.

UPDATE: CBC says 180 people will get the pink slip on May 27 and 28.

Free hot dogs and cheeseburgers!

One would like to think union solidarity was the primary motivation behind the crowd, but there was a really long lineup for the free hot dogs and cheeseburgers. It made me want to work there, until someone reminded me what they pay in union dues.

Soon, after some socializing, it was time for the speeches from union leaders.

Alex Levasseur

This is Alex Levasseur. He gave a strong speech about how the Conservative government is attacking culture, specifically francophone culture in Canada. I found that statement odd for two reasons: first, the cuts were made by the CBC, not the government, and second, the cuts affect English services as much as they do French services.

True, the government did refuse the CBC's request for additional "bridge" financing to make up for plummeting advertising revenue, but it's spin to turn that into a government decree of hundreds of layoffs.

Sadly, not a single word of the speeches was in English. The SCRC union is usually labelled somewhat inaccurately as the "French" CBC union because it represents Quebec and Moncton, but it also represents anglos in those areas. Montreal is also Radio-Canada's headquarters, where most of its network programming originates.

I had a little game of "spot the anglo" going. With help of some insiders, we could name about 10.

Spot the photographer

Despite not really having any news to deliver, the event got quite a bit of media attention...

... even from some of the CBC's competitors.

So far I see articles in Le Devoir, Canadian Press, Rue Frontenac and Metro, in addition of course to Radio-Canada itself.

After the speeches, a fake coffin was carried at the head of a procession a few feet down the street ...

Look at that line.

...and then carried back. I guess it made sense to them.

Nancy Wood gestures with a hot dog

There's an anglo. I get 10 points!

(The hot dog wasn't actually for her, it was for newsreader Joanne Bayly, who like many of the anglos at CBC Radio had to stay inside to deal with a live broadcast.)

Ange-Aimée Woods, being tough

Ange-Aimée Woods, who works on the Daybreak team, doesn't know if she's on that list the CBC doesn't want to share. She was one of the last people hired permanently in the department (even though she's been there for half a decade), which would theoretically mean she'd be one of the first to get a pink slip.

The CBC says those notices will come by the end of next week. At that point we'll have some bodies to put in that casket.

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Spot the non-union flags at this protest

On Saturday, I went downtown to Protest Central (the Guy Favreau building) to check out the pro-coalition protest. I had wanted to stop by the "Rally for Canada" anti-coalition protest, but that never materialized in this city.

Coming out of the building, I noticed a lot of presence from labour unions. I did some quick number-counting. There were 150 flags with union logos on them. The number of signs, flags and banners without union logos were so few that I have pictures of them all below.

The numbers, and the speeches given during the rally, showed something worrisome: this protest wasn't about the grass roots standing up for democracy. It was about unions and separatists wanting to push the government more toward the left.

Party logos: 3

A lone sign carried the name of would-be prime minister Stéphane Dion

The NDP was represented by a big banner and kids in orange tuques

The Communist Party of Quebec (with cliché old-guy-with-beard) apparently supports the coalition, not that it matters.

Quebec flags: 1

A single, giant Quebec flag waves independently over the crowd

I won't fault the lack of Quebec flags, since the single flag was also the largest one there. Besides, as I explain below, Quebec pride was not lacking here.

Canadian flags: 0

Yes, that's right. Aside from the two flags permanently stationed on flagpoles outside the federal building, there was not a single Canadian flag flown at this protest. Considering they want the coalition to run the federal government, and the Tories are trying to turn this into a national unity issue with their "Rally for Canada" and separatists-are-traitors hyperbole, this seems like a really stupid mistake to make.

Patrick Lagacé said in a recent column that:

"Il faut sortir un peu du Québec pour comprendre à quel point le sentiment canadien est absent, chez nous. ... Je parle plutôt d'un sentiment collectif. D'une canadianité, si je puis dire, très visible. Je parle d'un attachement ostentatoire. Je parle de drapeaux canadiens immenses qui flottent au vent, dans les parkings de stations-service ou de centres commerciaux."

I don't think I need to go to Alberta to see that Canadian pride was mostly absent here.

Political signs

Fortunately, some people did get the point. There were generic "COALITION OUI"/"COALITION YES" signs being handed out, while others used their creativity to make their own signs expressing their arguments. Some did better than others.

A sign uses a pictograph to denote that the Tories are a minority.

This sign invites you to "count the seats", and I actually found myself doing so. According to this graph, it's 14 Conservative seats to 17 coalition seats. If only the House of Commons was actually this small.

Signs demonize Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a way that won't change anyone's mind.

These signs were cute, even though they're preaching to the choir.

Coffin uses an acronym to explain its case.

This coffin (at least, that's what I think it was) was clever, but not clever enough. "Laconfiance" is not a word, last time I checked my Larousse. "Liberté" might have been a better choice, but I'm sure you can come up with something better.

The politicians

Can't have a political protest without politicians. In between speeches by labour leaders, student union leaders, feminists and other special-interest groups, an MP from each of the parties represented by the coalition got a chance to speak to the crowd.

Wherever there's a microphone and camera, Liberal MP Denis Coderre is there.

Denis Coderre, never one to shy away from the spotlight, gave a speech in which he said "the whole country is watching." They no doubt were, and I'm sure some might have noticed the lack of flags, the overwhelming presence of unions, and the cheering for sovereignty and the Bloc.

The NDP's only Quebec MP, Thomas Mulcair, preaches to the coalition choir.

Tom Mulcair carried the NDP banner (well, not literally), giving a speech I've long-since forgotten.

Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe is surrounded by news cameras before he gives his speech.

But the real rock star here was Gilles Duceppe. Partially because he was the only party leader present, partially because since he never has any power he can't screw anything up and his approval ratings are high, and partially, I would quickly learn, because this crowd was made up mostly of hard-core sovereignists.

Gilles Duceppe goes over his speech beside the stage (note the union jacket he's wearing).

The speech started off (as many did) by noting that this was Dec. 6, the anniversary of the Polytechnique shootings. Everyone, including Duceppe, turned this into a women's issue, which I personally don't get. Are men not affected by who's running the government? Is pay equity really the biggest issue in all this, and does it somehow compare to killing 14 women?

Duceppes speech has some hand-written modifications

It was clear the moment Duceppe was announced that this crowd was on his side. Labour unions are known for being pro-sovereignty, and they just ate up everything he said.

Gilles Duceppe ends his speech by saying sovereignty is the best way for Quebecers to stand up for themselves.

I could barely get my camera in what with all the women swooning at his very presence. But between the orgasmic cheers, I could hear him make reference to Quebecers electing their first female prime minister (yeah, right), and some angry comments about "Harpeur" in Ottawa running around like a king.

His speech ended, naturally, by endorsing sovereignty as the ultimate solution to Quebec's democratic problem with Ottawa. That might have caused Liberal and NDP supporters to cringe, since they're trying to downplay that whole this-coalition-is-supported-by-people-who-want-to-break-up-our-country thing. Of course, Duceppe doesn't care. He's not trying to win votes in Calgary, and he's not trying to become prime minister.

It's clear that Duceppe is a fine orator. Far better than Stéphane Dion (in both official languages). It's easier, of course, to attack the sitting government than to defend it. But he does it well.

But like Coderre said, "the country is watching," and this protest may only have confirmed their worst fears: This coalition is a huge win for separatists, and the motivation of many behind it is the deterioration of national unity and the independence of Quebec. Not only is it bad that the Bloc has a veto over government legislation, but the Bloc sees this as a step in the path toward sovereignty.

A mobile food vendor knows business when he sees it.

Are there any non-union issues here?

But back to the union flags. Those were the most visible, and far more union speakers were brought out than any other group.

It's not that unions don't have a legitimate interest here. One of Harper's ideas was to restrict the right of federal employees to strike. This is clearly a union issue and their presence makes sense.

But 150 union flags to 0 Canadian flags means this protest was overwhelmed by union interests. That might not matter to the NDP, which is essentially run by labour unions, or the Bloc, which continually counts on their support in Quebec. But the Liberals?

And what about issues where labour issues might conflict with other leftist causes? Would forestry, fishing or resource extraction, industries where jobs are dependent on the slow destruction of our environment, get as much tough love from the government if labour unions they owed their existence to were trying to protect jobs?

These dogs learn to work together (oh those protest flings...)

In the end, it doesn't matter

Of course, when it comes down to it, the general public have no say in this matter. They expressed their will in October when they elected 308 representatives to the House of Commons. It's now up to them to decide how they want the government to work. Party leaders can get guidance from the grassroots, but the decisions will still be made in back rooms. And politics, not democracy, will be their guidance.

Children attend some sort of family Christmas concert at Complexe Desjardins, blissfully unaware of the politics outside.

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A spoof on the Gazette's "words matter" TV campaign (not the first one either), to get people to pay attention to what's going on in contract negotiations and sign a petition (now with over 5,000 signatures) put forward by the union. A Facebook cause has also been setup with 343 members.

UPDATE: Another video has just been posted.

Meanwhile, CTV News Montreal covered the Gazette union situation last night during its noon-hour and evening newscasts (Windows Media video). It includes an interview with Bernard Asselin, the VP of marketing and reader sales, who says that pagination is a "technical" job, and so it shouldn't matter if it's centralized in another city. He also says that "our goal, which is the same as the union's, by the way, is to protect local content."

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This sets the stage for a coming strike vote at the Gazette this Sunday.

And the union executive isn't happy about the rejecting of their recommendation.

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MédiaMatinQuébec's final issue: August 8, 2008

After more than 15 months, 317 editions and 12.5 million copies, MédiaMatinQuébec, the paper put out by striking and locked-out workers from the Journal de Québec, published its final issue this morning (PDF). Next week, the 252 workers return to the Journal de Québec and start re-learning how to do their jobs (which now will include increased use of multi-media for journalists), thanks to the deal that was approved last month.

In other words, it's ok to like the Journal de Québec again (though it remains to be seen what it will take in from all that the employees have learned from putting out a paper over 15 months).

The MMQ's final issue, at a staggering 80 pages, is filled with congratulatory ads from local businesses and unions, as well as retrospectives on the paper and the union's long fight. In fact, other than the crossword and horoscope, that's all that's in those 80 pages. Stories about the 15 months of the paper's existence, a collage of the best photos used in the paper, and mostly first-person retrospectives from dozens of employees who struggled through 15 months working in a cramped office, getting up early and standing in traffic handing out newspapers for pennies of strike pay. (Michel Hébert has a more poetic obit on his blog as well as a copy of his final column.) It's also interspersed with comments from readers who say they'll miss the free paper with no filler material, no wire services and 100% local news compiled by dedicated professionals.

You've never seen so many people happy to see their paper cease to exist. But then, that was its goal all along. The deal reached with the Journal wasn't what either side wanted, but it was fair. And now everyone can return to work and start receiving a proper paycheque again.

More importantly, MédiaMatinQuébec may have changed the face of media union pressure tactics forever. Taking what happened during the CBC lockout to the next step, they put away their baseball bats and picket signs and protested by doing their jobs. And the public loved them for it.

MédiaMatinQuébec is dead. Long live MédiaMatinQuébec.

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Concordia University has declared that the show must go on though they will tolerate CUPFA's tactics. Students must still complete all work, handing it in to departments directly if necessary.

Part of CUPFA's tactics include setting up a YouTube channel and posting videos.

Here, head honcho Maria Peluso explains the skinny on CUPFA's position.

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Among the details of the agreement, according to Michel Dumais:

• Pay equity between La Presse and Cyberpresse workers, including eight years of back pay for underpaid Cyberpresse workers
• Extra pay for print journalists who blog
• Print journalists can now take video, but only when a photographer is also taking photographs at the same time.
• Print journalists will no longer be forced to file breaking news stories for Cyberpresse and articles for La Presse (really?)
• Journalists keep copyright over their work, which is being sold back to Cyberpresse for a symbolic fee.

Hopefully this will set a precedent for other unionized papers in Quebec who are facing similar problems with journalist multitasking.

UPDATE (March 21): Tristan Péloquin has returned to blogging.

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This is kind of one of those grey areas with unions. Is it OK to hire non-unionized workers for union jobs if it's being done in another city? Can you shift jobs from a unionized part of a company to a non-unionized part without problems?

Sun editor-in-chief Patricia Graham calls the layout being transferred "essentially a mechanical function." The article doesn't give details about what exactly is being transferred, but I'm guessing it's debatable how "mechanical" such a function really is.

UPDATE (Nov. 10): J-Source has another post on the CanWest situation, including a union response alleging that Global is violating its CRTC licenses by centralizing its newsrooms.

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