Red Squared Montreal, a fictional chronicle, revisits and reframes the historic and bloody student strike and mass social rebellion of 2012 that rocked Quebec, especially Montreal.

Through the eyes of one of the 300,000 post-secondary Quebec striking students navigating his way through the upheaval, Huberto, we see beloved city streets transformed into either joyful red-strike spaces vibrant with art and youthful rebellion, or ugly and dangerous police no-go zones. The day and night protests last seven months and lead to a city divided, a government toppled, and Huberto’s personal vow of vengeance. Nawrocki’s book unearths stories that never made official narratives about the conflict. Originally a protest against a tuition fee hike, the strike morphed into the largest civil disobedience movement in Canadian history. It was Montreal’s version of the heady days of May/June 1968 in Paris, Quebec’s own Arab Spring.

Nawrocki wrote Red Squared Montreal while teaching part-time at Concordia University. He actively supported the strike both as a concerned citizen and one of the “Professors Against the Hike.”