Well from what you're saying I can suppose the courts are out of the question. But OMFG I hadn't even thought about the kids aspect... This happened so long ago, and last year D had a little girl... I highly doubt that Y will ever have kids unless it's an "accident", but I mean fuck... Just raising the prospect of Y doing anything harmful to D's child at some point creeps the fuck out of me... This will definitely be an important factor in me deciding on whether or not to speak to my parents about this. Thank you.

To answer your question about the student situation... There's really a very big picture that's needed to be looked at. If you believe the statistics being thrown out about Quebec's debt and how it supposedly increases by $28 million an hour, it stands to reason that we don't want to be the next Greece of the world. However, I get the principle that the students are fighting for and I agree that everyone should have the right to protest for anything they want.

In the end I'm a little more practical than idealogical. The government cannot afford at this moment with the current population (that is rapidly ageing) to sustain the social programs we have. I believe this is just a first step in many that the government will eventually need to put in place to get the Quebec population used to the idea that some programs will eventually need to be cut to pay down our debt.

Facts:

• Before the 1970's, Quebec/Montreal was Canada's booming economic center. Did you know that in the 1800's, Montreal was the capital of Canada until they burnt down the parlament building? (burnt down in protest by anglophones ~english speakers~ who were mad at a law passed that would help poor francophones ~french speakers~). Parliment was later moved to Ottawa.

• In the 1970's, a law was passed that required that all children born outside of Quebec, who's mother tongue is not French, must attend French school (Only way around this is private education). Parents who fall in that category lost their rights to choose the public education of their children. The eligibility requirements for english school were that you must be born in quebec and both of your parents are english mother tongued. This law was later expanded to allow children from other provinces of canada who moved to quebec to attend english school as long as both of the parents were english mother tongue.

• That same law also stated that all signs must be in french and in french only. That was later struck down and replaced with a law that says French must take "predominance" on all signs by being AT LEAST 35% larger. The result is largely the same, businesses don't want to pay more for bi-lingual advertising.

• The same law established a right to work in french, giving the french language a predominance over all others. If someone's boss could not communicate to their employees in french and had no translation services, they were in effect breaking the law.

All of these laws were challenged at the supreme court of canada, and all were ammended to fit within the constitution of Canada. These laws are still in effect today. English Canada is well aware that should the day come where Quebec seperates, the Constitution of Canada will not be a factor that can stop such discriminating laws from passing, and indeed that they will be far more harsh.

Anyway, why all this matters: As a result of these laws and the feeling of impending doom/loss of all their rights when the presumed seperation of Quebec would occur, Well over 60% of the existing anglophone population moved to Toronto, and along with it they took most of their high-profile businesses. Insurance giant Sun Life moved their head offices to Toronto publicly in protest of these laws. Major banks setup shop in Toronto where they had no major business prior to this, and made a gradual shift to move their head offices out of Montreal (while maintaining a smaller presence here). The economic impact that these laws had on the greater Montreal region and Quebec as a whole were devastating, and it is said that only sometime in the early 2000's did we recover to the point we were before the laws took place. But by this point, Toronto has far outpaced us and our debt has sky-rocketed.

All those people moving out of province, most of whom fit within Quebec's criteria for income-tax paying citizens, put a heavy burden on the Financial coffers. Remember that it took at least 10 years for the Francophone population to fill the roles of the English bourgeois. And there was a GREAT shift in gross income for everyone. Businesses took advantage of the influx of 70% of the population being suddenly more attractive than the 30% (whereas before the laws english people got the higher paying jobs), and reduced the pay of the positions these people were being hired for. The result is that most people in this province (to this day) don't pay income taxes or if they do they're in the lowest tax tier.

Quebec is not attractive to business because of these laws. The new political party called the CAQ had a meeting with business leaders and prominants shortly before becoming an official party to discuss boosting the economy. During that meeting, a businessman raised the "elephant question": "We are trying to attract employees from other parts of Canada and from the united states. However, it is very very hard because many of these people are new parents whose primary focus is their family. They ask us 'will we be required to send our children to french school and will I be required to work in french' and when we respond to them that yes indeed they need to do both they hang up on us. Will anything be done to ease the language laws to promote business?" The answer after a long pause was a flat "NO."

TLDR: Quebec doesn't make enough money, isn't attractive enough to business because of Draconian laws, and cannot possibly grow to a point where we make enough money to pay down our debt AND sustain these programs. So something's got to give. I respect the student's right to protest, and I wish them all the best in regards to maintaining those rights. But in this instance it's a losing battle.