"Projecting" Free Speech on Power Corporation

"Projecting" Free Speech on Power Corporation

This is about another type of protest.

At Christmas, as you may recall, I reported that media ownership was concentrated in the hands of a wealthy few, also known as the 1%. This week in the media, it was reported that the Quebec government leader, Jean Charest, was actually a privileged guest at Sagard, a sprawling estate owned by none other than the über rich Desmarais family (the rulers of Power Corporation), who coincidentally own one of Quebec's largest dailies, La Presse. Given this and the fact that the Charest government has limited the freedom of assembly and the right to protest, it would seem that mere mortals have relatively few conventional means to get their message out.

But who needs conventional! 

Fortunately, students brimming with creativity make up the front-line of government opposition. I came across this page today on Facebook: Nous Sommes Tous Arts, a group that specializes in projecting protest messages.

The top left picture below shows the projection of the Power Corporation logo with that of Jean Charest's Liberal Party on La Presse's office building on St. Antoine Street in downtown Montreal. The tagline below reads "Same struggle." 

In gentle mockery of a sketchy pro-Charest poll conducted of a very small number of respondents and published on the front page of La Presse, Nous Sommes Tous Arts projected the results of an equivalent poll  (top right picture below). The group surveyed some 20 people at the corner of Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine streets in downtown Montreal on May 28, between 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Those surveyed were asked "Do you believe that the Desmarais have a hidden agenda?" Quite unsurprisingly, 90% responded "yes," while 10% responded "no."

According to the Facebook page, the projection lasted about 45 minutes. The police did arrive on the scene, asked for ID and took the name(s) of the projectionist(s), but fortunately, no charges were laid. I think this is a brilliant, creative form of free speech.

If the 1% is going to project their beliefs on us then we will just project our beliefs back on them.

Other student protest related posts:
Pots and Pans Protest of Bill 78 
Riotous Super Moon in Quebec
Montreal: 200,000 People Protest


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