Two protests take place on one day at U of G
Upon first glance, supporters of the political left on campus appeared out of sync as the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the Central Student Association (CSA), and the Revolutionary Student Movement organized two distinct province-wide protests on March 20 at noon to fight for different demands. Upon closer look, those demands have very similar goals: demanding more accessible education and critiquing the government’s decision to remove the free tuition program, the six-month grace period for OSAP, and the introduction of the Student Choice Initiative (SCI).
The two groups’ lists of demands are as follows:
We the Students (comprised of CFS and CSA)
- Provide more grants not loans
- Eliminate tuition fees for all students
- Increase public funding for public education
- Protect students’ independent voices
- Defend the right to organize
The Revolutionary Student Movement’s demands
- Education in the service of the people, not profit
- Guaranteed paid internships for all students
- Abolition of tuition fees at all levels of education
- Cancellation of all outstanding student debt
- Barrier-Free access to post-secondary education for all Indigenous people and an anti-colonial aspect to all programs
- Democratic control of post-secondary institutions
The CSA protest congregated in the University Centre (UC) with CUPE workers, student groups, and the CSA before striking outside of the UC near Branion Plaza, whereas the Revolutionary Student Movement organized in Branion Plaza.
“We don’t want people to have to give up on their education,” said Sofian Aouamri, a representative of the student revolutionary movement. “We want education, first of all, to be free, and we want people to be able to go to the best of their abilities and to achieve what they set out to do.”
At the CSA protest in the UC, Carrie Chassels spoke with The Ontarion on her support of students and student groups.
“We want to make sure our students feel well supported with the changes that have happened,” Chassels said. “As a university, once we have a fuller sense and more detailed information from the province we’ll have more information to share with our students around some of the advantages […] included in terms of cuts to tuition and their ability to decide what fees they’re going to support and some of the optional activities. I know that those are going to be advantages to our students.”
CSA president Jack Fisher said the protest was mainly about the SCI, which he saw as an affront to student agency and democracy.
“While it’s called the Student Choice Initiative, it only takes away the choice for students to understand and participate in their own local democracy,” Fisher said. “So that’s what we’re out here protesting, the loss of our rights as students to choose where our money goes.”
CFRU, the campus radio station at the U of G, was striking during the protest. Vish Khanna, CFRU station manager, said the decrease in funding for student programming and less financial accessibility for students will only hurt the city as a whole.
“As a student, there’s going to be less events, less festivals, less everything,” said Khanna. “It’s going to decimate our campus.”
Chassels also said university officials will be looking at how the university can provide financial support to students who will be most impacted by the OSAP changes.
When asked if that financial support will come from grants through the university, Chassels said that the university has no details currently, but the administration is looking at a full range of ways to give support to a student experiencing financial need as a result of OSAP changes.
The administration also said that they have not conducted an analysis yet.
“Once we do have the details, and once our students see the details, those impacts will be positive for students,” Chassels said.
Members of CUPE 1334 workers were also at the protest in solidarity with students.
Janice Folk-Dawson, the university worker sector chair for CUPE, said that five years ago students at U of G helped workers to give input in the Board of Governor’s budget decisions. Now, she says CUPE workers hope to return the favour by standing in solidarity.
“We recognize that the footing we have on campus has a lot to do with the relationship we have with students,” she said. “Let’s not fool ourselves, we clearly know that this attack is on student unions. The next attack will be on workers unions.”
Featured image by Daniel Nardone