If you thought rioting was only for Americans, Greeks, Italians, and Europeans in general, I guess egg is on your face.
Students in Quebec took to the streets to protest rising education fees. I don't think I'd call this a riot, but it definitely shows that Canadians will take over the streets for more than just the Stanley Cup playoffs.
From a PR perspective nothing gets people's attention like mass protests. The story was front page of both the Globe and Mail and the National Post.
What Occupy Wall Street did last year was wake people up to the PR reality that unless you make some noise, and a lot of noise, your concerns will be ignored.
This is a troubling trends for society, because it is a prelude to the theme that acting out is the only way to be heard. It implies that the 'system' has become so unresponsive to people's needs, that they must use a physical presence (and associated implication of physical force) to have their concerns addressed.
The long-term issue with this being that this will ultimately lead to a more extreme form of acting out in incidents where mere protesting accomplishes nothing (although it will generate media coverage). In this case, the protests seem to have worked.
We'll see what the summer holds though, while Canada will be quiet I expect, the US, Greece and Europe are likely to see some serious protests.
The G8 Nato Summit in Chicago this month will be one to watch.
Students in Quebec took to the streets to protest rising education fees. I don't think I'd call this a riot, but it definitely shows that Canadians will take over the streets for more than just the Stanley Cup playoffs.
From a PR perspective nothing gets people's attention like mass protests. The story was front page of both the Globe and Mail and the National Post.
What Occupy Wall Street did last year was wake people up to the PR reality that unless you make some noise, and a lot of noise, your concerns will be ignored.
This is a troubling trends for society, because it is a prelude to the theme that acting out is the only way to be heard. It implies that the 'system' has become so unresponsive to people's needs, that they must use a physical presence (and associated implication of physical force) to have their concerns addressed.
The long-term issue with this being that this will ultimately lead to a more extreme form of acting out in incidents where mere protesting accomplishes nothing (although it will generate media coverage). In this case, the protests seem to have worked.
We'll see what the summer holds though, while Canada will be quiet I expect, the US, Greece and Europe are likely to see some serious protests.
The G8 Nato Summit in Chicago this month will be one to watch.
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