Angry Ontario students protest high tuition fees
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Ontario students have launched a massive campaign against what they say are excessive tuition fees in 14 cities across the province.
Named are Toronto, Ottawa, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Mississauga, Orillia, London, Guelph, Sault Ste. Marie, Peterborough, Hamilton, Scarborough, ingston and Windsor.
Yesterday the students delivered more than 50,000 signatures collected during the first month-and-a-half of school at institutions across Ontario.
The petition came only hours before the release of a revised Ontario budget that had promised to address the current economic downturn which faces the province.
“Since McGuinty took office, tuition fees in Ontario have gone from fourth place to second highest in Canada,” says Shelley Melanson, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.
“Students are fed up with McGuinty simply paying lip service to accessibility and we are demanding concrete action to drop fees.”
At a time when McGuinty is announcing an economic downturn in Ontario, “he is allowing tuition fee increases to outpace inflation while average raduating student debt rapidly approaches $28,000,” says Melanson.
“Seventy percent of new jobs require a post-secondary education and the best way for Ontario to invest in new opportunities is to invest in a knowledge-based economy.”
Students unwound thousands of petition sheets on the lawn at the Queen’s Park rally, and presented petitions to McGuinty’s constituency office in Ottawa.
Statistics Canada data released on October 9 indicated that tuition fees in Ontario increased at the highest dollar amount in Canada, says the CFS web site.
“This has pushed Ontario’s tuition fees for an undergraduate degree to the second highest across the country.”
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November 6th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
ok then next time you see microsoft windows in your class room , remember thats 200$ cost.
more you get linux IN , as in russia less things will cost.
PERIOD.
quit whining now.
November 6th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Compare the tuition to that of a visa student (non-canadian), you’ll see how much the goverment is really paying your way. Most of the U’s tuitions I’ve seen are about the same (about $2,300 / semester), apart from a few programs and U-Toronto (I hope those fees are per two semesters). If one is out of range you do have the choise to not go there.
As for the protest, see it every year at the time the goverment announces the % tuition increase. To predict the future, yes your U will increase fees the entire percent allowed.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
in other news: York Univ teachers go on strike, protesting a 9% wage increase over 3 years they were offered. Instead they want 11% and job security. These people are insane.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Bullshit. Utter bullshit. It pisses me off every few years when these whining pimples get up in arms about the cost of tuition. Post-Secondary is already HEAVILY subsidised in Canada, paid from the taxes collected from people who actually work for a living. The idea that somehow these little buggers are OWED a post-secondary degree by the rest of the country, and of course the attendant higher average pay that accompanies it, is beyond absurd. I went, I worked evenings to pay for it. It’s already too goddamned easy to get into university in Canada, maybe higher tuition would help make the experience more meanigful, instead of just feeling like grades 13-17.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Students across the world arranged protests as part of the “International Day of Action against the Commercialization of Education” on Nov.5th: http://www.emancipating-education-for-all.org/content/record-protests-part-international-day-action-so-far
Let’s get organized and unite in our struggle for Free and Emancipating public Education – worldwide!