Comments | ochodias: medical student protest

ochodias

medical student protest

Nov 29, 2006 14:25

sounds like an oxymoron eh? medical students protesting.... impossible! well - i saw it. it was really interesting. at first people were afraid to chant anything... like they all had the impression they might be doing something wrong if they were too loud... even most of the organizers had never been to a protest in their lives. for anything.

Comments 7

xquerenciax November 29 2006, 22:06:01 UTC

I rode through that this morning. My initial response was contempt, because I got the idea they were potential members of one of the highest-paid professions in the world protesting for pay raises. Then I figured I'd better hold my horses until I knew what it was about. What was it about?

ochodias December 1 2006, 00:23:09 UTC

medical students have been kicked out of hospitals because the federation of quebec's medical specialists is on strike by refusing to teach students until they get parity (with other provinces) and the right to strike from the government.

i.e. med students are protesting because they're not being taught. but! they also hate both the choice of pressure tactics by the specialists, and the 'draconian' no-protesting-allowed bill by the government. (BTW, the government ripped up some agreement in an illegal way... which is what pissed off the specialists)

xquerenciax December 1 2006, 00:31:27 UTC

Ok-- that makes some sense. The gov't ripping up an agreement illegally is not cool, nor the no-protesting bill. However, fuck parity. They already make over $200k per year. Some of the reporting I read on it made it seem as though the "rights" issues were there to prop up what was essentially a demand by potentially rich people for more money, but you'd know better than a lot of people whethere there's truth in that. People who make $200k a year asking for another $100k a year shouldn't be blocking any roads, though. Unless every damned one of them is planning on giving the $100k to the Stephen Lewis foundation.

ochodias December 1 2006, 00:53:22 UTC

well... none of the people standing on the sidewalk were doctors. they were students. about the whole rich people wanting more money thing- it's hard for me to get upset that they make ~40% less than they would in Ontario - but they make a good point that it's impossible to keep anyone in the province with that discrepancy, making conditions here shittier... and the downwards spiral continues. so... is it fucked up that the most powerful and well paid group is protesting when gp's and nurses and everyone else in medicine deals with just as much of a provincial pay discrepancy with way way lower incomes? or is it kind of cool that they're taking a stand when less powerful groups can't, to potentially try to make conditions better by keeping specialists in the province? or should they really be happy that maybe Quebec is stopping specialist wage inflation across the country and every specialist should be paid less? (although that makes absolutely no sense since it's not like what they're not being paid is going to nurses, who make that ( ... )

Thread 5

this_charming December 1 2006, 23:34:49 UTC

i saw you! i was on the sherbrooke bus and i saw the protest signs and lab coats and wondered what was going on and then i saw you standing there drinking coffee..

haha but that sounds funny

ochodias December 2 2006, 00:32:07 UTC

it was funny. i had some trouble when people were yelling some things... like 'we have the right to learn' and 'les etudiants en hotage' because i was like, 'god - we're basically the most privileged people in the world this is so weird'

the funniest part was when the organizers were like "try to stay off the streets and make room on the sidewalk - because we don't want to get in anyone's way!"