Juste part, boycott et loi spéciale : le cadrage gouvernemental d’un printemps de crise sociale

This article examines how the government framed its communications during the so-called "Printemps erable" (Maple Spring), a historic student protest movement that took place in Quebec in 2012. Six years after the end of the conflict, and despite the production of a significant volume of analysis and reflections on this social crisis, no empirical work had been dedicated yet to the study of the government’s communication strategy. Following a quantitative content analysis of 424 public interventions from cabinet members, this study raises the argumentative frameworks at the heart of the government’s communication strategy. Drawing on Entman's cascading activation model (2004), the analysis shows how the government tried to define the problems, solutions and protagonists involved in this societal conflict. Our study highlights the government's failure to maintain the framing initiative of the crisis, and the change in communication strategy that resulted.