On January 18 at 1 pm, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) held an emergency rally in front of Queen’s Park in response to the Progressive Conservative government’s changes to the tuition framework at Ontario’s universities and colleges.
The new changes will eliminate the Liberal government’s “free tuition” OSAP program for students from low-income families, reduce tuition by 10 percent, eliminate the six-month interest-free period for recent graduates, and make certain “non-essential” ancillary fees optional. The new changes will come into effect in fall of 2019.
Though the Progressive Conservatives have claimed to be committed to “post-secondary education affordability,” Premier Doug Ford’s government’s changes will lead to a decrease in grants and an increase in loans and student debt, making post-secondary education less accessible for those who rely on OSAP to pay for school and living expenses. Students will now be forced to take out loans which will begin to incur interest immediately after graduating.
Many of the speakers at Friday’s rally focused on the inaccessibility of the Ford government’s new student aid plan. In her speech, Lucinda Qu, president of the Equity Studies Student Union, stressed that “investments in social infrastructure and quality, critical, public education—investments, in other words, that are for all of the people—are what’s proven to save money and save lives. “
Not only will students from low-income families be pushed out of post-secondary institutions if they can’t afford tuition, Black, Indigenous, and students of colour will be disproportionately affected by the changes as this will add additional barriers to these students’ ability to access a post-secondary education.
Another major part of Ford’s cuts, The Student Choice Initiative, will allow students to pick which “non-essential” student services they wish to contribute to. Campus resources like health and counselling, walksafe programs, athletics and recreation, and academic support will continue to be mandatory.
Organizers of Friday’s rally emphasized that the designation of student services such as student unions and student media as “non-essential” is an attack on the democratic functions of a post-secondary institution. According to the CFS, democratically elected “student unions have long fought for government action on accessible, affordable high quality public post-secondary education.” A reduction of their fees will jeopardize their ability to serve the student population and will result in a decline in the quality of the services they provide such as health and dental insurance, discounted transit passes, and the operation of non-profit groups on campus.
The organizers also stress that the services being deemed “non-essential” are also the ones which hold universities and their governing bodies accountable.
Student publications around Ontario, such as The Strand, will also be deemed a “non-essential” student service under Ford’s new tuition plan. The Canadian University Press (CUP), a national, non-profit co-operative owned and operated by student newspapers that provides support to campus media, said in a statement published on January 17 that Ford’s plan is “a direct hit to institutional transparency, healthy democratic dialogue on campuses, freedom of the press and the free speech that the Ford government claims so strongly to defend.”
Friday’s rally was attended by hundreds of students from post-secondary institutions around Ontario. Organizations both associated and not associated with universities and colleges, such as the Ontario Federation of Labour, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Canadian Labour Congress, and Unifor also attended the rally in solidarity.
Post-secondary student or not, everyone in attendance chanted the same words over and over again: “Education is a right, we will not give up the fight.”
Correction (Jaurary 19th): A quote previously attributed to ESSU President Lucinda Qu was misattributed.
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