“Let them eat cake!” Marie Antoinette never said those words (really, who would be ignorant enough to say such a thing while peasants were starving for lack of bread?), but they were subsequently attributed to her to illustrate the yawning gap that existed between the masses and the rulers on the eve of the French revolution.

“Let them work up north!” Québec Premier Jean Charest didn’t use those exact words, but that was pretty much the gist of the “joke” he made to business leaders at a Montréal conference on the Québec Liberal Party’s Plan Nord. What he said was captured on video and is currently a viral youtube hit.

He made the snide comments minutes after striking students and their supporters crashed the party at the Palais des congrès. The riot squad used its shields and clubs to force the protestors out of the building, but battles continued on the street as the Premier poked fun at his opponents.

Debt-ridden students were already feeling insulted and frustrated about Charest’s refusal of any dialogue on the question of the $1625 tuition fee increase. The Premier’s incendiary remarks will only add fuel to the fire.

Now here's an interesting historical question: Imagine if Marie Antoinette really had made those callous remarks subsequently attributed to her. Now, imagine that the revolutionaries had been able to tweet youtube clips of her offensive comments in 1789. Would it still have taken until 1793 for the guillotine to fall?

David Bernans is a Québec-based writer and translator. Follow him on twitter @dbernans.