Today’s funny BD comes from Montreal’s daily Le Devoir, and is from bédéiste (cartoonist) Garnotte:
The Pun:
“Sommet” means both conference and height;
“être dans le trou” (lit. to be in the hole) is a colloquial expression for being out of money;
“être au fond du trou” (lit. to be at the bottom of the hole) means to be in the dumps.
Background:
Last year in Quebec students protested against the government’s decision to raise higher education’s tuition fees, by going on strike and marching the streets. Protesters wore a red square pinned to their clothes to show their support to the movement, which became quite large, and ended up lasting the whole Spring and Sumner seasons. The event was dubbed “Le Printemps Érable” (The Maple Spring), a pun to the previous year’s Printemps Arabe, The Arab Spring.
Things resolved when elections were called and a new government was elected, the Parti Québécois, which had emphatically sided with students during the crisis, and promised a tuition freeze if elected, which they did.
But all this doesn’t solve the universities’ financial problems, and now, prime minister Pauline Marois is holding a summit conference to discuss the issue. However the population knows that universities are underfunded.
