by NOEMI LOPINTO

Since the Liberals swept into power on April 14, 2003, they have managed to irritate an impressive list of groups. Labour organizations are debating whether to call a general strike over midnight modifications to the Labour Code. Community groups fear the dismantling of social services and warn of a major housing crisis. Students are fighting a proposal to lift the freeze on university tuition fees. Equal-pay legislation is being scrapped and a thermal power plant was okayed and then put on hold. Add hydro, daycare, and auto insurance rate increases, the de-fusion debate and the Kanesatake crisis and you get voter dissatisfaction. Between 60 and 70 per cent of Quebec voters put Jean Charest in the political doghouse. The Mirror spoke to just some of the infuriated citizenry, to see what they have planned to mark the upcoming anniversary. All of the groups below are part of the "Réseau de vigilance," a recently formed group that will be keeping an eye on the government and organizing demonstrations throughout the year.

The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) has been at the forefront of anti-Charest activity. They will be staging demonstrations across the province throughout April and May. CSN president Claudette Carbonneau says this administration began their mandate with a bang - a direct hit on workers. "They tabled Bills 7 and 8, which basically focus on daycare and home daycare workers," says Carbonneau. "They cancelled the existence of home daycare unions and made sure that they would never be able to organize. They did the same thing for people who take care of the handicapped and elderly. After that, they passed Bills 25 and 30 in the health sectors. Bill 30 replaces current unions with unions drawn to fit the taste of the state as an employer. They removed the right to negotiate on work conditions and the right to strike. An employer can hire a sub-contractor and the workers cannot negotiate for the same conditions they had under the previous employer. They cut funding for civil society groups, people who worked hard to improve our society. What is so angering is that they want to make a break with all the values Quebecers developed over the last 40 years. Charest will not recognize that we are a people, and we have the right to make choices. We have the right to want to live differently, pay more taxes but have good services and less poverty. They are ready to throw our difference and our solidarity in the garbage."

Coalition solidarité santé is an umbrella group for more than 58 regional and national organizations, including religious and community organizations, and the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ). They are suspicious of the government's supposed close ties to the Montreal Economic Institute, a public-policy-oriented thinktank that advocates a parallel private health-care system, lowered taxes and a variety of other staples of rightist economics. For Marie Pelchat, media representative for the Coalition, April 14 is a "sad anniversary."

"They have chosen to destroy the Quebec system," Pelchat says. "Bill 25 will abolish regional services - the Régie régional des services de santé sociaux - and within that bill are measures which would effectively dissolve the CLSCs. With abolition of the Régie they fired most of the administrators, and all their subsequent nominations will be made by the deputy. The Liberal caucus makes all the decisions. It's a move worthy of Duplessis. They have proceeded to appoint at least 56 partisan nominations there. Their plans are very much inspired by what the MEI thinks. The rightist organizations are guiding this government, I am convinced of it. When you read the MEI's publications, you can only have two hypotheses: either they are behind the changes, or they are psychics. April 14 will be a hard day for many of us. But between now and then we will try to prevent more damage."

Coalition Québec-vers-Kyoto was created three months ago in response to the Liberals' approval of the construction of a thermal-power plant in Beauharnois, Quebec. The coalition represents more than 40 citizens' groups, from the Collège des médecins to consumers' rights to employees of Hydro-Québec. Coalition member Daniel Breton says the Liberals can look forward to a fight.

"We feel like we have been kidnapped by the interest of a small minority," Breton says. "This government had a clear mandate [to oppose it]. It's a blatant contradiction of their program. Charest is just not credible in this case. We are trying to make them understand the global perspective. Our strength is not with the judges behind closed doors - we will stay in the streets and make sure they understand."

The Conseils régionaux de l'environnement (CRE) are non-profit, pro-environment lobbyists with offices placed throughout Quebec's regional areas. Their mandate is to promote conservation and work towards the improvement of local environments. Yves Gauthier, the coordinator of the Comité de l'environnement de Chicoutimi, is worried about the Minister of the Environment's veracity.

"The Liberals had a very clear pre-election program," says Gauthier, "which focused on sustainable and clean energy development. They made six promises for their first year alone, and only one has come through, and it is not what was written in the program. They promised a commission to proceed to an inquiry on forestry management in Quebec, and what came through was a study. An inquiry has the power to force people to testify, a study is voluntary; it doesn't have the same impact at all. It looks like they are going to dilute the power of the Régie de l'énergie, when one of their promises had been to expand its powers. The government is saying that their finances are precarious and we know what that means: the first cut is always in environment. But the environment is linked to the population's health. They never seem to make that link."

The 38-year-old Fédération des femmes du Québec represents 172 women's rights groups across the province. Their mandate is the defence of women's rights in Quebec, with a focus on the prevention of violence and all forms of discrimination. President Michelle Asselin says the past year has been a series of "steps backwards."

"We are far from being 50 per cent of elected officials, and with Bill 34 [which limits consultation and input from civil society groups], power is concentrated only among municipal leaders. Women can no longer participate in law-making. The Liberals still haven't presented an action plan to implement the Act to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion, passed in December 2002. We have been worried about this all year. We want a plan that makes sense, with real measures to fight poverty. The government needs to answer questions on salary equity, poverty, respect for the workers and their right to unionize. We invite men and women of good will to fight these steps back."

In February 2004, housing activists denounced a report by Groupe Roche, a thinktank hired by the Liberals to look at the rental market. Their report, among other things, recommended phasing out rent control. FRAPRU media rep François Saillant says they are asking the Liberals to put the report in the trash.

"The subject of rent control is much too important to be left in the hands of one group," says Saillant. "It merits a full public debate. We want to reinforce the rent control, not eliminate it. The PQ government had promised 13,000 units of low-cost housing; that money - $128-million - was withdrawn by the Liberals last year. [Quebec Finance Minister Yves] Séguin said there would be investment, but for the moment there is nothing. So far it has been unimpressive, and we are not going to wait with our arms by our sides."