“Zero tuition now, united we stand! Blah, blah, blah…”
By Kenny Yum
University students will join the protest against Mike Harris’ social reforms as his government prepares to let the axe fall on university funding.
“Most of the student organizations in the Metro area are getting organized and sending people (to Queens Park),” says Heather Bishop, Chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario (CFS).
CFS-Ontario has been organizing a protest to be held today with the Embarrass Harris committee, made up of labour, women and welfare advocate groups from across Metro and Ontario. The committee formed after fears of the Conservatives’ promise to cut social programs and education funds.
The noon-time protest is being held at Queen’s Park — the first day the Harris government gets back to work after a summer hiatus.
Many fear the possible education cuts will be as high as 20 per cent. “The potential cuts that the government are planning to make are really going to harm students,” Bishop says.
For RyeSAC president Paul Cheevers, education is a greater priority than some of the social programs. He says cuts to education will cause post-secondary enrolment to drop.
Bishop says the CFS is concerned with the Conservatives’ idea of an Income Contingent Loan plan, which would see graduating students pay for their loans based on their salary.
But students leaders are also afraid that the Harris government will deregulate tuition fees, which may force current university students to fork over substantially more in the future.
“Deregulation opens the door for universities to set high tuition at whatever level they want, which is really dangerous,” Bishop says.
She thinks the protest will help the government understand the educational system’s plight. “Our goal is to put education back into the spotlight again.” Bishop hopes that 500 to 600 students will show up.
That participation would not match the January 25 National Student Strike in Toronto which attracted more than 6,000 students.
Cheevers says a large scale student protest will probably not happen until after funding cuts are announced.
But Cheevers says these rallies are ineffective. “I really don’t want to do a big demonstration, rally or anything else… out of 14,000 Ryerson students, only 25 people end up marching to Queen’s park. That looks bad.”
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