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Anarchopanda is a giant panda and the unofficial mascot of the 2012 Quebec student protests, known for hugging both students and police officers. He favours free education, thus opposes the tuition hike.
Profile
Anarchopanda made his first appearance at a protest May 8, 2012. By day he is philosophy professor Julien Villeneuve at Montreal CEGEP Collège de Maisonneuve, with a strong affinity for Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus.
A self-described anarcho-pacifist, he tries to create a buffer between police and students to avoid violence "without betraying struggle or co-opting their discourse". In an interview in Montreal's Le Devoir, he expresses a desire to oppose police brutality. "If peaceful students deserve to be beat with police batons, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets or flash grenades for demonstrating, so do I."
The panda suit was chosen because it was the nicest cheap costume he could find on eBay China. Before buying it, he participated in 70 student demonstrations in his "human skin" to protect demonstrators from police, which he found impractical and paternalist.
References
- "Grève étudiante: un panda pour la gratuité scolaire". Huffington Post Quebec. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- Lalonde, Catherine (26 May 2012). "AnarchoPanda : la philosophie dans le trottoir". Le Devoir. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- SEIDMAN, KAREN (23 November 2012). "Skepticism trumps hope ahead of education summit". The Gazette. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
- Guerchani, Sarra (23 May 2012). "Vedette des manifestations étudiantes, Qui est Anarchopanda?". TVA Nouvelles. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
External links
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