F1

[deedub]

now Quebec students are trying to protest at the Montreal Grand Prix ? Formula 1 racing and student tuitions ? what has one got to do with the other ?

[grammafreddy]

Nothing. The students don't need to relate anything to anything. That's how we educate kids these days. "If I don't get what I want, I will throw a temper tantrum!"

[French Castanut]

The F1 is being broadcast internationnally... It's a media window for them. Simply.

[Smurf]

Now they will have the whole world laughing at them.

[The Green Barbarian]

Jacques Villeneuve tells it like it is! About time somebody in Quebec did.

Quebec's student protesters have a new celebrity critic and he's firing away on all cylinders.

Jacques Villeneuve, the Quebec-born car-racing champion, is upset at a protest movement that has gone on for months and is now promising to turn up at Formula One Grand Prix events in Montreal all weekend.

In a five-minute exchange with reporters Thursday, Villeneuve urged the protesters to go back to school.

He suggested they were lazy. He called them an embarrassment to Canada, especially to Quebec. He suggested they were badly raised, by parents who never learned to say, 'No.'

And he said they risked scaring away tourists and wealthy taxpayers, who would just pick up and invest elsewhere in a more stable climate.

The student protest movement has received the enthusiastic endorsement of many Quebec celebrities and near-unanimous support from the artistic community. But the Quebec-born, Monaco-raised driver just might have become the most famous, most virulent new critic of the movement.

"It's time for people to wake up and stop loafing about. It's lasted long enough," Villeneuve told reporters at a cocktail benefit that kicked off the four-day Grand Prix festivities.

"We heard them. We listened. They should stop. It's costing the city a fortune. It makes no sense."

As for their parents, Villeneuve said: "I think these people grew up without ever hearing their parents ever tell them, 'No.' So that's what you see in the streets now. People spending their time complaining. It's becoming a little bit ridiculous. They spoke, we heard, and now it's time to go back to school."

He said that in a democracy, people can vote to turf governments, and speak their mind between elections to make themselves heard, but they have to know when to give it a rest.

"That's what democracy is. We vote for people and if you're not happy, then you vote for other people the next time around. And if you're not happy you complain, they listen, and that's it," he said.

"Same with your parents: 'Daddy, mommy, I don't like this.' Well, go back to bed now." Villeneuve said he was raised to believe in hard work, and not imagine money will fall from the sky.

He also compared the students to the London rioters last year and said they were "rebels without a cause."

In the end, he said, the students are hurting themselves because they're pushing for things that aren't fiscally sustainable and they'll end up paying one day. Unfortunately, he said, if they keep it up there will be less taxpayers around to help foot the bill.

"And where does the government get the money? From taxes, from selling stuff. The next thing they will say is, 'Well, take it from the rich,'" he said.

"And that's when you have the rich moving to another country."

The student protesters dismiss the idea that taxes would need to be raised to freeze or eliminate tuition — which represents only a tiny fraction of the provincial budget and pales in comparison to the money spent on corporate subsidies.

Scores of protesters demonstrated outside the cocktail event Villeneuve was attending, in the company of other racing figures and celebrities. It was a glitzy $1,000-a-plate fundraiser, with proceeds going to a local children's hospital. Some protesters have promised to disrupt events throughout the Grand Prix weekend and even jam the metro leading to the race track on Sunday.

Villeneuve, 41, won the 1997 Formula One world championship and received the adulation of local sports fans who feted his success with a roaring celebration before a Montreal Canadiens game. After several difficult seasons he left Formula One in 2005 and has since raced on other circuits.

He said he's heard from people outside the country commenting on the student protests in Quebec — but he said the opinion is ill-informed and based almost entirely on the one-sided take of protesters.

[French Castanut]

removed off topic - Jennylives

[Fritzthecat]

Nothing. The students don't need to relate anything to anything. That's how we educate kids these days. "If I don't get what I want, I will throw a temper tantrum!"

They don't have it becasue they can't afford it.
:127:

[Captain Awesome]

They don't have it becasue they can't afford it.

Weird, people with lowest tuition fees in Canada are whining the most about tuition fees.

[violadagamba]

Full disclosure - we've been coming to the F1 in Montreal for every year it's been held for the last 8 races. It's one of the highlights of our year, and something we wouldn't miss for the world. We love Quebec, Montreal, and are serious boosters for the province.

The whole disrupt the F1 thing (anarchopanda discounted - that guy is awesome) - leaves us baffled. I think I understand the students' issues - maybe - but trying to disrupt the F1 seems counterproductive in the extreme. It's an event that draws an international crowd and over 300 million dollars - profit - into the province - for a 3 day event. Most of the people employed therein are students - at way above minimum wage. I get handing out pamphlets, or what have you, to inform people - but to disrupt it? Really? Weird - and shortsighted. I know they're students - but you'd think some of the marketing students, or people wanting to be in that field, might try to find a more sympathetic PR route - 'coz this one sucks.

FWIW - if any of you enjoy F1 - seriously - try to get to Montreal - it's such a great city, and a very accessible race.

[fvkasm2x]

Jacques Villeneuve tells it like it is! About time somebody in Quebec did.

I'm not a racing fan, but his comments were dead on. He has a new fan in me, that's for sure.

[ixler8]

Spoiled kids trying to wreck an international event like this . It' s just wrong. Jacque you rock!

[The Green Barbarian]

Weird - and shortsighted. .

I think you just summed up the entire Quebec student movement there. Good work.

[MAPearce]

Weird, people with lowest tuition fees in Canada are whining the most about tuition fees.

It's because they're french ...It's what they do.