Dion make gas-tax transfer pledge but doesn't commit on one-cent GST request
February 27, 2007
TORONTO (CP) - A federal Liberal government would make permanent the current five-year deal that transfers a portion of the gas tax to municipalities, party leader Stephane Dion said Tuesday while stopping short of agreeing to fork over one cent of the GST to cities.In an election-style speech to delegates attending a summit on Toronto's future, Dion pledged that, as prime minister, he would make research and development, immigration, public transit and the working poor a priority. Dion suggested he wouldn't be able to honour such commitments if he agreed to a one-cent GST transfer that he said would take some $5.5 billion out of federal coffers.
On Monday, Toronto Mayor David Miller called on Ottawa to provide permanent funding for cities by giving them one cent of every six cents collected through the GST.While Dion said he's sympathetic to mayors who rely on property taxes which don't "grow at the same speed as the economy" for revenue, he called a permanent gas-tax transfer a "good first step.""Our cities and communities need stable, long-term commitments, with predictable funding," Dion told conference delegates, noting it would give cities an extra $2 billion a year."Our federal and provincial governments don't make decisions based on short-term commitments, and neither does the private sector. We shouldn't ask our cities to do what we wouldn't do ourselves."
Dion cast himself as a prime minister who would "fight" to ensure the municipalities had their needs met "on transit and other infrastructure needs.""I will work with your mayors and understand their challenges and need for real financial partnership over the long-term."In his speech, Dion also urged the Conservatives to help the poor by funding the working income-tax benefit, which supplements the wages of low-income earners, to the $2.25-billion over five years proposed by the Liberals two years ago.
He also called on the Harper government to reinstate the national day-care program and promised to invest $250 million a year to cover the indirect costs of university research - something he said the Harper government has slashed to just $40 million.A Liberal government would also reinvest in financial assistance for post-secondary students, which Dion said the current government has cut by 70 per cent."For the GTA and other university regions to prosper, we need to reverse those cuts," he said. "We need to keep our universities first class universities in the world."
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
Ah! Lesbians!
So... apparently girls' schools are vortexes of lesbionic activity! Sign me up, as I learnt in elementry school "boys have cooties". Seriously, could it not be logic or coincidence that there's be at least one or two lesbians in an all-girls' school? Shockingly enough, not everyone is hetero - so lock up your daughters with boys and take away those magazines plastered from cover to cover with 'hot' women, your little princess might like girls!Gay surge 'is hitting same-sex schools'
By SARA SAMI
A LEADING child psychologist has backed claims by a Bahraini MP that girls' schools have become a hotbed of lesbian activity.Batelco Centre for Family Violence Victims president Dr Banna Bu Zaboon added that all non-mixed schools in the Gulf are encountering a surge in homosexuality.
She said many girls she came across had admitted to having homosexual encounters at school.
However, Dr Bu Zaboon added this was not a new phenomenon.
"I don't think that this issue is new to our society," she told the GDN.
"It has been a problem for quite a while now, but it has been treated on an individual basis.
"Many college students that I have spoken to have admitted to me that during their days in government schools, they came across this phenomenon on a daily basis."
However, Dr Bu Zaboon said that many girls who enter same-sex relationships are not even lesbians.
"It only appears to be a side-effect these students are getting from going to an all-girl school, because after treating them they came to know that it was only a phase they were going through," she said.
"I have given many lectures on this phenomenon, which girls attended and discussed the behaviour of some girls in their schools, who showed tendencies towards lesbianism.
"During the lectures many parents complained that their daughters showed no such behaviour until they were taken to an all-girl school.
"We can see that this phenomenon is caused by the environment that these girls are living in at school."
However, she added that society as a whole was also contributing to the number of girls entering same-sex relationships.
That is because it is widely frowned upon for girls to date boys before they are married.
"The fact that society does not allow girls to date boys before marriage has led many girls to be intimate with other girls because they feel that is safer than dating boys," said Dr Bu Zaboon.
"Many patients of mine have told me that it is easier for them to have a relationship with girls because they are afraid to go out with boys."
MP Abdulla Al Dossary raised the issue of lesbianism in girls' schools in parliament on February 13.
He claimed that girls' schools had become a breeding ground for lesbians and demanded answers from Education Minister Dr Majid Al Nuaimi.
However, the minister dismissed the suggestion as an exaggeration and asked Mr Al Dossary to come back with proof
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Campbell, You're Missing the Picture!
Campbell's Baby Bonus Ignores British Columbians' Concerns Ineffectual Program is an Attempt to Mask $23M CutVICTORIA-- The BC Government's announcement of a $1,000 ‘children's education credit’ will do nothing for students who need help now, say students reacting to the BC Budget. And, with no plan to reduce tuition fees, the benefits to families will be more than eaten up by the time the credit can be used.
“British Columbian's didn't support this idea when Campbell proposed it three months ago, I'm not sure why he thinks that they will support it now”, said Scott Payne, BC Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. "Campbell and his Liberals need to reduce the tuition fees that they have doubled over the past five years."
Under the government's current tuition fee policy of inflationary increases, average tuition fees will be $7,226 by the year 2025, when the first children will be able to access the post-secondary credit. This amounts to an increase of $2,266, while the government projects the credit will grow to just $2,200.
Budget 2007 cut funding for student financial assistance by $23 million. BC currently has the second highest student debt in Canada, at an average of nearly $27, 000 upon graduation. Student debt has increased at a higher rate in BC than anywhere else in Canada in the last five years, rising from amongst the lowest in Canada.
"With the additional cuts to student financial assistance, Campbell is shutting the door on students who are most in need, and telling BC's families to wait eighteen years for some relief", said Shamus Reid, BC National Executive Representative. "This Budget makes absolutely no sense for students and families."Students called for a 10% reduction in tuition fees in Budget 2007, at a cost of $92 million, just 3% of the governments $2.8 billion surplus.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The US Allows a Gay Man In (That Wasn't In The Closet?)
So, the US actually let a gay man into their country? That's wierd... usually they don't like those kind of folk. Though, the government there doesn't seem to like anyone that doesn't wake up at the crack and dawn to pray to a not-to-scale ceramic sculpture of dear ol' Bushyboy and their odd version of Condi as the virgin Mary. Could progressive ideology be afloat? COULD IT?
Gay Mexican granted asylum after long battle
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A U.S. immigration judge granted a Mexican immigrant asylum, citing his sexual orientation and the severe persecution of gays in Mexico, the man's lawyer said Tuesday.
Jorge Soto Vega, 38, said he had suffered harassment and violence from family members and authorities in Mexico because he is gay.
According to court documents, while living in Guadalajara, Soto Vega was beaten by police and then robbed, called anti-gay slurs, and told that he would be killed if he was ever seen again.
In 1988, Soto Vega paid a smuggler to sneak him into the United States, and he settled in the Hollywood and Silver Lake areas of Los Angeles. In 2001, Soto Vega returned from a brief visit to Mexico after his mother's death, during which he said he was afraid to go outside. He filed an application for asylum the next year.
His request was denied in 2003 by immigration judge John Taylor, who said he could return to Mexico because "it would not be obvious that he was homosexual unless he made it obvious ... ."
The case was returned to Taylor after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it is the government's responsibility to prove Soto Vega had no "well-founded fear of persecution" in Mexico.
At the hearing Tuesday, the judge agreed that a person should not have to conceal his or her sexual orientation to be free from persecution, said Jon Davidson, Soto Vega's attorney. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency waived the right to appeal in the case, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Gay Mexican granted asylum after long battle
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A U.S. immigration judge granted a Mexican immigrant asylum, citing his sexual orientation and the severe persecution of gays in Mexico, the man's lawyer said Tuesday.
Jorge Soto Vega, 38, said he had suffered harassment and violence from family members and authorities in Mexico because he is gay.
According to court documents, while living in Guadalajara, Soto Vega was beaten by police and then robbed, called anti-gay slurs, and told that he would be killed if he was ever seen again.
In 1988, Soto Vega paid a smuggler to sneak him into the United States, and he settled in the Hollywood and Silver Lake areas of Los Angeles. In 2001, Soto Vega returned from a brief visit to Mexico after his mother's death, during which he said he was afraid to go outside. He filed an application for asylum the next year.
His request was denied in 2003 by immigration judge John Taylor, who said he could return to Mexico because "it would not be obvious that he was homosexual unless he made it obvious ... ."
The case was returned to Taylor after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it is the government's responsibility to prove Soto Vega had no "well-founded fear of persecution" in Mexico.
At the hearing Tuesday, the judge agreed that a person should not have to conceal his or her sexual orientation to be free from persecution, said Jon Davidson, Soto Vega's attorney. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency waived the right to appeal in the case, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Blueprint?
Federal Act is a Blueprint for Federal-Provincial Co-operation
Canadian Federation of Students
Monday, February 05, 2007
OTTAWA--
The Canadian Federation of Students welcomes proposed legislation tabled by NDP Member of Parliament Denise Savoie calling on the federal government to set out a vision for post-secondary education. Increased federal funding and a Post-Secondary Education Act are crucial to improving the affordability and quality of post-secondary education in Canada. “Federal-provincial cooperation is critical to building a system of universities and colleges that are the best and most accessible in the world,” said Amanda Aziz, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “The timing of this Act comes at a convenient time for the Premiers to get on board with a national plan,” said Aziz, referring to the Council of the Federation conference call to be held on Wednesday.
A federal act would provide a framework under which the federal government and provincial governments can work together to achieve the highest standards of universal accessibility and world-class quality. Although post-secondary education is a provincial jurisdiction, the federal government plays a major role in both funding education and ensuring that Canadians have access to a high-quality system. Students and faculty have long called on the federal government to create legislation that addresses both accessibility and quality of higher education.
Tuition fees have more than tripled in the past fifteen years as a result of federal cuts to transfer payments to the provinces.“A joint strategy on improving higher education and skills training is something that should be at the top of the agenda for the Premiers,” added Aziz. “Like healthcare, public education is an issue bigger than egos and jurisdictional squabbles. We intend to drive that message home during the student demonstrations later this week.”
Canadian Federation of Students
Monday, February 05, 2007
OTTAWA--
The Canadian Federation of Students welcomes proposed legislation tabled by NDP Member of Parliament Denise Savoie calling on the federal government to set out a vision for post-secondary education. Increased federal funding and a Post-Secondary Education Act are crucial to improving the affordability and quality of post-secondary education in Canada. “Federal-provincial cooperation is critical to building a system of universities and colleges that are the best and most accessible in the world,” said Amanda Aziz, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “The timing of this Act comes at a convenient time for the Premiers to get on board with a national plan,” said Aziz, referring to the Council of the Federation conference call to be held on Wednesday.
A federal act would provide a framework under which the federal government and provincial governments can work together to achieve the highest standards of universal accessibility and world-class quality. Although post-secondary education is a provincial jurisdiction, the federal government plays a major role in both funding education and ensuring that Canadians have access to a high-quality system. Students and faculty have long called on the federal government to create legislation that addresses both accessibility and quality of higher education.
Tuition fees have more than tripled in the past fifteen years as a result of federal cuts to transfer payments to the provinces.“A joint strategy on improving higher education and skills training is something that should be at the top of the agenda for the Premiers,” added Aziz. “Like healthcare, public education is an issue bigger than egos and jurisdictional squabbles. We intend to drive that message home during the student demonstrations later this week.”
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
National Student Day of Action
Day of Action
Was... Today!
My school had an absolutely AMAZING turn out for a small institution! We even had kids from the local high school come up to join us, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single car/truck that passed us on the highway blared their horn giving us the thumbs-up! The weather was great, student's yelling "Reduce Tuition", "Education is a right, we will NOT give up the FIGHT!" along with "We don't want no mac 'n cheese, gordon campbell lower the fees!" was deafening. I am absolutely proud and estatic that such a large group of people can get together from across the country to protest and make their demands that increasing tuition, ancillary fees, and decreased funding are barring students from accessing post-secondary education. All citizens, no matter the size of their pocket book should be able to further their education if they so desire.
EDUCATION IS A RIGHT!
So, to mark this momentous day, I'm going to post several clips from protests across the country. WE WILL NOT GIVE UP THE FIGHT!
Day of Action TOMORROW
National Student Day of Action is...
TOMORROW
More than a 1/2 million students across Canada are walking out to show their support for lowing tuition, and making post-secondary education more accessible to students.
Show your support! Join those who are walking out! Sign petitions! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Day of Action in 2 Days
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is in TWO DAYS!!!
Day of Action is in 2 DAYS! I cannot bloody believe it! All I've heard about for the past eight MONTHS has been Feb. 7th or Day of Action! Please note, that at this precise moment I'm trying not to scream with excitement at the top of my lungs, as there's a good dozen students sitting around near me studying. Of course studying, what does a university student do aside from study, experience insomnia, and protest for reduce tuition?
So, today I found an interesting article - fresh off the press... or at least relatively fresh, it hasn't expired.
McGuinty Fails Ontario's College and University Students Access Undermined Despite Aggressive PR Campaign
TORONTO - Students are angry that the McGuinty government is still pushing forward with its plans for indefinite tuition fee increases of up to 8% per year. Minister of Training, Colleges and
Universities Chris Bentley held a media conference today at the Bloor Collegiate Institute announcing token measures to streamline applications for financial aid.
"Students are disappointed that the Ministry is launching yet another
self-congratulatory media conference to distract the public from the
detrimental effects of its Reaching Higher framework for higher tuition fees,"
said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of
Students. "It is absurd for McGuinty to pedal bureaucratic government
initiatives as real improvements to access when at the same time they plan to
continue dramatic tuition fee increases."
self-congratulatory media conference to distract the public from the
detrimental effects of its Reaching Higher framework for higher tuition fees,"
said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of
Students. "It is absurd for McGuinty to pedal bureaucratic government
initiatives as real improvements to access when at the same time they plan to
continue dramatic tuition fee increases."
Today's Ministry announcement took place at the Bloor Collegiate
Institute in downtown Toronto, an area where financial barriers to
post-secondary education are acutely felt according to Maria Rodrigues School
Board Trustee for Ward 9 in that area.
"I think 20-36% fee increases on a regular four-year degree, sends
exactly the wrong message to high school students who are hoping to go on to
college or university," said Trustee Rodrigues. "Many high school students
actually chose to dropout out because high tuition fees have already put the
dream of college or university out of their minds."
"Despite McGuinty's rhetoric, student financial assistance will not
mitigate the harmful impact of tuition fee hikes. If tuition fees rise by even
5% each year, then for every dollar allocated to student assistance, more than
$1.30 will be clawed back through tuition fee increases," said Greener. "In
effect, students will be borrowing to finance their own student aid
programme."
According to the Canadian Federation of Students' detailed analysis, even
if debt is capped at $7,000 per year, a student borrowing the maximum for a
four-year programme will graduate with $28,000 in debt or $3,000 more than the
current average debt for a four-year programme of $25,000.
"Students can see through the McGuinty government's PR campaign and
continue to plan to raise public awareness about its Mike Harris-style tuition
fee policy," said Greener. "Thousands of students will be present on February
7 to hold this government accountable for its track record of high tuition
fees and high student debt."
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Day of Action in 4 Days!
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is In 4 Days!
Is In 4 Days!
So, it's Saturday morning and while waiting for one of my friends to come over to hang out for the day, I thought I'd blog a little. I'm excited, she's coming in from out of town - we go to separate universities, and I can tell you right now that Day of Action will pop up in our conversation. Hell, there isn't a conversation in the past two months that didn't include "day of action", "feb.7th" or "reduce tuition"... it's rather odd... and a wee bit consuming. Only four days left until Day of Action - I'm excited to see what the media will say about it.
Speaking of which, I have a clip from YouTube - it's press coverage compiled by the Canadian Federation of Students. One of the most exciting clips I've watched in awhile. It'd be amazing to see what the larger cities will be like on the 7th.
Friday, February 02, 2007
A Random Thought on Education
So, since my life - like that of any other university student revolves around writing term papers and fretting over tuition (right now with emphasis on Feb. 7th Day of Action) I thought that I would search out what each party thought about post-secondary education... in my search, I stumbled upon the Conservative party website (I think I felt my eyes burning when the site loaded on my computer...). Upon the site loading, and scrolling around to find where their education policy fit in - I finally found "education" towards the bottom of their list of issues. What was on the top? "Action for London" and "Action for Business"... education is at the bottom of the list.
Now, due to thinking in a lecture frame of mind (again, because I spend all day in lectures and writing papers), I began to think, "maybe this somehow signifies the imporantance of education on their demented self-serving agenda." Could this be entirely wrong? I don't think so...
Again, after scrolling to the very bottom of the document of their manifesto, after reading all about "child dicipline" and the like, I finally reached the part about post-secondary... which offered solutions such as:
Now, due to thinking in a lecture frame of mind (again, because I spend all day in lectures and writing papers), I began to think, "maybe this somehow signifies the imporantance of education on their demented self-serving agenda." Could this be entirely wrong? I don't think so...
Again, after scrolling to the very bottom of the document of their manifesto, after reading all about "child dicipline" and the like, I finally reached the part about post-secondary... which offered solutions such as:
- They will "replace student fees and government grants to universities with a new system of government-funded National Scholarships to meet the cost of educating students
Um... how about grants? While scholarships are nice, how about offering a solution that will actually help those in need of financial assistance? - "Scrap the Government's arbitrary target for 50 per cent of young people to go to university."
Doesn't this go against individuals RIGHTS to an education? Or how about that delightful phrase "no child left behind"? Silly me, here I thought people going to university was a useful endeavour. - "To improve student finance, a Conservative Government will abolish Labour's student fees and reform the student loan system"
How do I put this lightly... FUCK THAT. Student loans, paired with increasing tuition IS THE PROBLEM! The typical answer for those with the fat-wallets; how about putting yourself in the shoes of someone from a family that is lower/middle income and downward, trying to pay for their education out of their own pocket? I bet some of those people would be biting their tongue if the shoe was on the other foot. - "A new, independent Student Loans Trust. Students will pay a low commercial interest rate, but will be able to borrow higher amounts to replace expensive credit card and overdraft debts"
Um... again, IT'S NOT THE ANSWER! While it's the "conservative solution", all that will result will be millions of university students being extremly angry, and being bogged down in student debt for the rest of their lives. Isn't it grand that for an education, one will carry with them a life sentence? Harper, how about you try going to university today - I bet you wouldn't be able to handle it - you expect us to? The generation that will be spoon-feeding you jello in your own age?
Day of Action in 5 Days!
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is In 5 Days!
So, Day of Action is in 5 days! My student's union has planned for us to walk out to the highway with banners and placards - we've been advised to bring with us anything that will make a lot of noise. This will be fun... oh, the excitement! I still stand by my thoughts that nothing makes the winter season merrier with a good ol' loud protest! Again, THE EXCITEMENT! And Feb. 7th is only getting closer.
Today's information...
Wages Better and Tuition Fees Lower When McGuinty Studied
Modest Minimum Wage Gains Undermined By McGuinty’s Tuition Fee Increases
Minimum wage increases that came into effect today are undermined by soaring tuition fee increases, said the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada's largest national student organization. Despite a modest increase in the minimum wage to $8 an hour, Ontario's students face record tuiton fee levels and mounting student debt.
"Dalton McGuinty is giving with one hand and taking away with the other," said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students. "Increasing minimum wage by only 25 cents will not make ends meet for students paying record tuition fees."
"Decision-makers like Premier McGuinty benefited from better wages and lower tuition fees," said Greener. "Reaping the benefits of an affordable education and then turning around and depriving young people today those same opportunities is selfish and hypocritical."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty began studying Biology at McMaster University in the mid-1970s, the minimum wage in Ontario was $240 an hour and university tuition fees were only $610 for a year. By February 2007, minimum wage has increased to $8.00 an hour while tuiton fees has risen to over $5,000 a year for an undergraduate degree and as much as $17,000 a year for law tuition fees.
"If he had paid for his own education, a young Dalton McGuinty would have had to work for only 6.4 weeks in the summer of 1975 to pay his undergraduate tuition fees," said Greener. "Students working minimum wages jobs in the summer of 2006 would have had to work 16.6 weeks in order to finance a year of undergraduate tuition fees. Working all summer, today's law students could barely pay a third of a year's tuition fees."
Last September, Premier McGuinty cancelled the tuition fees freeze and allowed fees to increase between 4% and 8%, after a 200% increase over the past 15 years. Students across the province, who are calling on Ontario to reduce tuition fees to 2004 levels, have also partnered in a campaign to demand a minimum wage increase to $10 an hour.
"This year, Dalton McGuinty gave Ontario's minimum wage earners a 3% raise, while giving himself a 25% raise to $198,620 a year," said Greener. "McGuinty is making approximately $95 an hour, while students earning minimum wage are kept below the poverty line."
The Canadian Federation of Students, Canada's national student organization, unites more than $500,000 college and university students from coast to coast, and over 300,000 in Ontario.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Day of Action in 6 Days!
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is In 6 Days!
Less than a week to go until Feb 7th Day of Action! And, still I'm excited - students are slowly finding out that they have academic amnesty at my institution, thus there is heightened excitement... and the posters! There's posters every where! I think it's really cool... really makes walking down those long halls more entertaining.
Taking Action Works! A Brief History of Victories
Anyone who has tried to get people to join a campaign to make change has heard the argument a hundred times: I'm not going to take action because the government doesn't listen.
Are thy right to be so cynical? Simply put, no.
Since the mid 1990s, provincial governments of all political stripes across Canada have been regulating, freezing and even reducing tuition fees.
In many cases, the Canadian Federation of Studens had been directly credited with the change in policy
After announcing a tuition fee freeze, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Brian Tobin said "students made it impossible for me not to freeze fees."
When we take action, the government doesn't just see thousands of motivated students at rallies and events. They see our issues beig raised on the six o'clock news. And they see public opinion polling that shows that the majority of British Columbians agree with our goals.
Just this past fall, British Columbians made their opinions clear when polled by ipsos-reid.
- 80% supoort reducing tuition fees
- 84% think that the provincial government should increase public funding to post-secondary institutions to support more course options and higher enrolments.
- 87% support an increase in student grants.
British Columbians think that the provincial government needs to do more to ensure that post-secondary education is more affordable and accessible for all.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Day of Action in 7 Days
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is in 7 Days!
Only one more week to go before a 1/2 million students (at least) walk out to tell the government and post-secondary institutions that we want a reduction in tuition and increased accessibility to post-secondary education.
After four years of deregulated increases, students forced the BC Government to re-regulate tuition fees in 2005-2006 after submitting more than 38,000 signatures to the Legislature calling for tuition fee reductions and a reinstatement of funding. The decision to prohibit any institution from increasing fees beyond the rate of inflation (2%) annually represented an about-face from the government's previous rigid policy of unfettered increases ad marked a major victory for students.
However, the tuition fee increase policy did nothing to reduce the cost of a post-secondary education, and ensures that post-secondary education will remain out of reach for many potential students and their families. Today, tuition and ancillary fees are the most significant barrier to acquiring a post-secondary education. In BC, the average university student pays nearly $5,000 in tuiton and ancillary fees, while college, university-college and institute students pay an average of $3,400.
The Canadian Federation of Students has worked to develop widespread support on issues of affordability, with public opinion polling showing that the vast majority of British Columbians believe that tuition and ancillary fees are too high.
On February 7th, students in BC are demanding that the government go the next step in ensuring an affordable post-secondary education system and a prosperous future for all British Columbians by:
- reducing tuition fees by 10% in 2007-2008
- increasing funding for all post-secondary education institutions
- making adult basic educatoin tuition fee free
- reinstating student grants for those in need, including graduate students
- increasing funding for trades and apprenticeship students
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Feb 7th, The Word is Spreading
Windsor Students Deliver 3,000 Petition Signatures to Sandra Pupatello Calling for the Reduction of Tuition Fees
Canadian Federation of Students Ontario
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
WINDSOR--
Students from the University of Windsor delivered 3,000 petition signatures to the constituency office of Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello today. The petition calls for the rollback of the McGuinty government’s tuition fee increases, the restoration of the tuition fee freeze, and an increase in funding for post-secondary education.
“Premier McGuinty’s Reaching Higher Plan for tuition fee increases makes going to university even harder for most of us,” said Justin Teeuwen, President of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance. “Increasing tuition fees does nothing to encourage the ‘knowledge economy’ we’ve heard so much about.”After the McGuinty government increased tuition fees by 4 to 8%, students’ unions across Ontario collected signatures from tens of thousands of voters since the beginning of classes this September. The petitions delivered to Pupatello today follow the delivery of more than 40,000 signatures presented to MPPs and the Premier earlier this fall by students at Carleton University, George Brown College, University of Guelph, Lakehead University, Laurentian University, University of Ottawa, Ryerson University, University of Toronto, and York University.
“Student debt has gone up almost 350% in the last 15 years and that’s because tuition fees have increased four times faster than inflation,” said Lena Mangoff, President of the University of Windsor Graduate Students’ Society. “With increases as high as 8%, graduate students have been hit with the highest of all tuition fee increases in the province.”
“The McGuinty government’s tuition fee increases will result in a claw back of more than $1.30 for every dollar invested in student aid. Meanwhile part-time students aren’t eligible for any Ontario financial aid at all,” said Badaruddin Khuhro, President of the University of Windsor Organization of Part-time University Students.
“Dalton McGuinty has broken his promise to freeze tuition fees at a time when the Ontario government is sitting on a $300 million surplus and new money from the federal government for post-secondary education,” said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “The petition of 3,000 University of Windsor students delivered today demonstrates that McGuinty’s plan for tuition fee increases is out of step with Ontario voters.”
The Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s national student organisation, unites more than 500,000 college and university students across the country, and nearly 300,000 in Ontario. On February 7, 2007, students across Canada will be participating in a National Student Day of Action against tuition fee increases. Visit www.ReduceTuitionFees.ca for more campaign information.
Canadian Federation of Students Ontario
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
WINDSOR--
Students from the University of Windsor delivered 3,000 petition signatures to the constituency office of Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello today. The petition calls for the rollback of the McGuinty government’s tuition fee increases, the restoration of the tuition fee freeze, and an increase in funding for post-secondary education.
“Premier McGuinty’s Reaching Higher Plan for tuition fee increases makes going to university even harder for most of us,” said Justin Teeuwen, President of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance. “Increasing tuition fees does nothing to encourage the ‘knowledge economy’ we’ve heard so much about.”After the McGuinty government increased tuition fees by 4 to 8%, students’ unions across Ontario collected signatures from tens of thousands of voters since the beginning of classes this September. The petitions delivered to Pupatello today follow the delivery of more than 40,000 signatures presented to MPPs and the Premier earlier this fall by students at Carleton University, George Brown College, University of Guelph, Lakehead University, Laurentian University, University of Ottawa, Ryerson University, University of Toronto, and York University.
“Student debt has gone up almost 350% in the last 15 years and that’s because tuition fees have increased four times faster than inflation,” said Lena Mangoff, President of the University of Windsor Graduate Students’ Society. “With increases as high as 8%, graduate students have been hit with the highest of all tuition fee increases in the province.”
“The McGuinty government’s tuition fee increases will result in a claw back of more than $1.30 for every dollar invested in student aid. Meanwhile part-time students aren’t eligible for any Ontario financial aid at all,” said Badaruddin Khuhro, President of the University of Windsor Organization of Part-time University Students.
“Dalton McGuinty has broken his promise to freeze tuition fees at a time when the Ontario government is sitting on a $300 million surplus and new money from the federal government for post-secondary education,” said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “The petition of 3,000 University of Windsor students delivered today demonstrates that McGuinty’s plan for tuition fee increases is out of step with Ontario voters.”
The Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s national student organisation, unites more than 500,000 college and university students across the country, and nearly 300,000 in Ontario. On February 7, 2007, students across Canada will be participating in a National Student Day of Action against tuition fee increases. Visit www.ReduceTuitionFees.ca for more campaign information.
Monday, January 29, 2007
A Middle East View of Mackay's Mentor... Rice
Rice is ignorant of the Palestinian issue
By Adel Safty
During her recent visit to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used Kissingerian terms to claim that the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the war in Iraq created unique geopolitical alignment that finally made peace in Palestine possible.
To the consternation of the Palestinians, however, she only brought the same biased and incomprehensively ill-informed approach embedded in the now discredited roadmap.
A fundamental obligation of the roadmap is that Israel stop all activities to build colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli leaders have done precisely the opposite.
In July 2004, The International Court of Justice found that "the Israeli settlements [colonies] in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law". It also found that the separation wall was in breach of international law.
A few days before Rice arrived in Israel, the Israeli government announced the establishment of a new colony in the occupied West Bank. Washington responded with the usual slap on the wrist, albeit with unusually strong language for the Bush administration.
You would think that if Rice was seriously interested in reviving the moribund Middle East "peace process", the issue of Israel's continued violations of the roadmap ban on construction of colonies would figure prominently in her discussions with Israeli leaders.
Kidnapped
One would think that if Rice wanted to bolster the embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's standing she would have pressed Israeli leaders to free the Palestinian government officials and legislators that the Israeli forces have kidnapped and illegally imprisoned.
One would think she would insist that Israeli leaders hand over the $500 million in Palestinian tax revenues they illegally withheld to punish the Palestinians for exercising their democratic right to elect a Hamas government.
Instead, Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeated the usual condescending platitudes about the need for the occupied, not the occupier, to meet the conditions set by the occupier: recognition of Israel, relinquishing violence and acceptance of previous agreements with Israel.
As to the fiction of the roadmap, Rice and Olmert agreed that "a Palestinian government would have to abide by the road map". This is laughable considering that Israeli leaders never hid their intention to use the roadmap as an excuse to delay and abort the peace process.
Even the Israeli press recognised that the reference to the roadmap was "Olmert's way of foiling various recent attempts by Europeans and other elements to call for an international peace summit." (Haarezt, January 16)
Abbas was aghast. Instead of being bolstered by Rice's visit, he felt weakened as Hamas's predictions were being verified by Rice's ill-informed approach.
Perhaps Abbas should have invested some effort in educating Rice, notoriously ignorant about the Middle East, by giving her a copy of the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem's 2006 annual statistics report.
Rice would have learned that during 2006, Israeli military actions killed 660 Palestninans including 141 children, as opposed to 17 Israelis, including one child, killed by Palestinian actions. She would have also learned that the Israelis maintain in the West Bank some 52 permanent checkpoints in addition to hundreds of physical obstacles such as concrete blocs to restrict access to Palestinian communities.
Rice would also have learned that former US president Jimmy Carter did not use the word apartheid gratuitously in his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid - for which he was criticised by the Washington establishment and the Israeli lobby.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has also reached the same conclusion.
Sanitised
Had Rice taken the trouble to learn any of these facts, conveniently sanitised from public debate in the United States, she might have learned the need to define the Israeli-Palestine conflict with more fairness and intellectual honesty.
She might have detected the fallacy underlying the usual Israeli strategy of confiscation, dispossession, dispersion and the systematic shattering of the Palestinian society, while blaming the victim for the absence of peace.
By Adel Safty
During her recent visit to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used Kissingerian terms to claim that the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the war in Iraq created unique geopolitical alignment that finally made peace in Palestine possible.
To the consternation of the Palestinians, however, she only brought the same biased and incomprehensively ill-informed approach embedded in the now discredited roadmap.
A fundamental obligation of the roadmap is that Israel stop all activities to build colonies in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli leaders have done precisely the opposite.
In July 2004, The International Court of Justice found that "the Israeli settlements [colonies] in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law". It also found that the separation wall was in breach of international law.
A few days before Rice arrived in Israel, the Israeli government announced the establishment of a new colony in the occupied West Bank. Washington responded with the usual slap on the wrist, albeit with unusually strong language for the Bush administration.
You would think that if Rice was seriously interested in reviving the moribund Middle East "peace process", the issue of Israel's continued violations of the roadmap ban on construction of colonies would figure prominently in her discussions with Israeli leaders.
Kidnapped
One would think that if Rice wanted to bolster the embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's standing she would have pressed Israeli leaders to free the Palestinian government officials and legislators that the Israeli forces have kidnapped and illegally imprisoned.
One would think she would insist that Israeli leaders hand over the $500 million in Palestinian tax revenues they illegally withheld to punish the Palestinians for exercising their democratic right to elect a Hamas government.
Instead, Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert repeated the usual condescending platitudes about the need for the occupied, not the occupier, to meet the conditions set by the occupier: recognition of Israel, relinquishing violence and acceptance of previous agreements with Israel.
As to the fiction of the roadmap, Rice and Olmert agreed that "a Palestinian government would have to abide by the road map". This is laughable considering that Israeli leaders never hid their intention to use the roadmap as an excuse to delay and abort the peace process.
Even the Israeli press recognised that the reference to the roadmap was "Olmert's way of foiling various recent attempts by Europeans and other elements to call for an international peace summit." (Haarezt, January 16)
Abbas was aghast. Instead of being bolstered by Rice's visit, he felt weakened as Hamas's predictions were being verified by Rice's ill-informed approach.
Perhaps Abbas should have invested some effort in educating Rice, notoriously ignorant about the Middle East, by giving her a copy of the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem's 2006 annual statistics report.
Rice would have learned that during 2006, Israeli military actions killed 660 Palestninans including 141 children, as opposed to 17 Israelis, including one child, killed by Palestinian actions. She would have also learned that the Israelis maintain in the West Bank some 52 permanent checkpoints in addition to hundreds of physical obstacles such as concrete blocs to restrict access to Palestinian communities.
Rice would also have learned that former US president Jimmy Carter did not use the word apartheid gratuitously in his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid - for which he was criticised by the Washington establishment and the Israeli lobby.
The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has also reached the same conclusion.
Sanitised
Had Rice taken the trouble to learn any of these facts, conveniently sanitised from public debate in the United States, she might have learned the need to define the Israeli-Palestine conflict with more fairness and intellectual honesty.
She might have detected the fallacy underlying the usual Israeli strategy of confiscation, dispossession, dispersion and the systematic shattering of the Palestinian society, while blaming the victim for the absence of peace.
Peter Mackay - Where's Waldo?
January 25, 2007
By Jon Elmer
Peter MacKay in Israel and Palestine
--What the Foreign Minister did not see or discuss during his visit
GAZA CITY, GAZA -- Despite the impression cast by corporate news coverage, there is never anything like "calm" here in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The casualty count for 2006 released by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reports that Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians, while 17 Israeli civilians were killed, 13 of them in the West Bank. The violence is often spectacular, as during the summer and fall siege operations in Gaza that killed more than 450 Palestinians under withering aerial bombardment, artillery barrages and two major ground invasions. But, as an unusually frank headline in the current edition of the Economist rightly stated, "It's the little things that make an occupation."
When Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay visited Israel this week, it was these "little things" that he missed--like the more than 530 fixed checkpoints and roadblocks identified in a joint UN-IDF count in the occupied West Bank. These obstacles make simple travel between neighbouring Palestinian villages often impossible, particularly when added to the more than 7,000 "flying checkpoints" that spring up at the whim of the Israeli army, anywhere and at anytime. As the Economist pointed out, "arbitrariness is one of the most crippling features of these rules."
The checkpoints and closure regime enforced by Israel is more than inconvenient; all too often, it is deadly. On Friday, as MacKay met with President Abbas in Amman, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside of the West Bank city of Nablus refused the Israeli-issued permits of a patient returning from liver surgery in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The soldiers forced Tayseer Al Qaisi out of the car and ordered him to walk across the checkpoint. Al Qaisi, a father of eight, was weakened critically by the surgery and collapsed only a few hundred feet into the checkpoint. As reported by David Chater of Al Jazeera International, a Palestinian ambulance was prevented from entering the area for two hours. Mr Al Qaisi died while waiting for help.
In meetings with top Israeli cabinet ministers, Peter MacKay did not mention the more than 2,200 hours of strict curfew enforced by tanks and gunfire over the last two years, or the more than 5,400 Palestinians who were arrested or detained on Palestinian land last year -- including more than half of the elected Palestinian cabinet, the Speaker of Parliament and scores of local and municipal officials. He did not ask about the Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody this week, or about the hunger strike being waged by political prisoners at Ansar III in the Negev desert in response to an attack by guards with police dogs and tear gas. While MacKay gave ample notice that he would be discussing the Israeli soldier captured on the Gaza border in June, he almost surely did not bring up the 11,000 political prisoners being held by Israel, some 400 of them children.
Nor did MacKay talk about the more than 30 incursions into Palestinian cities and villages by the Israeli army in the last eight days, or the 14 fisherman shot off the coast of Rafah last week as they fished in Palestinian waters. He didn't talk about the 15 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces in protests this week, or of 10-year-old schoolgirl, Abir Aramin, who died on January 20 as she left the grounds of her school in Anata. According to witnesses, Abir was pursued by Israeli forces as she tried to run away and was shot in the head with a stun grenade or tear gas canister at close range.
It's doubtful that MacKay raised the issue of last week's bulldozing of the entire "unrecognized" Bedouin village of Twail Abu-Jarwal in the Negev Desert. The Bedouin were displaced because they were illegally "trespassing" on the land of the Jewish state, despite the fact that their presence in the desert long predates the State of Israel. They are being forcibly relocated to urban reservations, while the Negev is prepared for settlement by the Jewish National Fund. In the "only democracy in the Middle East," at least 75,000 Bedouin live in more than 40 villages that are officially "unrecognized," where, like in Palestinian areas, building permits are denied and demolition orders are routinely carried out. The unrecognized villages have no infrastructure--no sewage, no water or electricity, and often no health or education facilities.
While Arab and Bedouin homes are destroyed, Jewish ones are being built. On the same day that MacKay arrived in the region, the Olmert government announced that 44 new housing units would be built in the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, a settlement which effectively, if not absolutely, severs the West Bank in two. In fact, MacKay won't deal with the issue of settlements at all--not the 121 illegal settlements and 100 outposts in the West Bank, nor the scores of settlements in occupied-East Jerusalem, beyond acknowledging the massive infrastructure of permanent dispossession as a "hindrance." In fact, along with their Jewish-only roads and attendant security footprint, these settlements render a Palestinian state an impossibility. Rather than fortified colonies on illegally occupied land, the Canadian government calls the settlements "facts on the ground." Not to be outdone, Stephen Harper referred to the settlement blocs as "democratic realities" in addressing a Zionist advocacy group in early 2006.
MacKay did not address the substance of the 700 km-long barrier of sniper towers, concrete walls and deadly electronic fences snaking deep into the West Bank (80 per cent of the wall is built on UN recognized Palestinian land) in order to annex the massive settlement blocs into Israel and isolate the Palestinians into enclaves. He did not visit the machinery of settlement and dispossession created by the wall, the checkpoints, the settlements, the settler-only roads. John Dugard, South African human rights lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory told the UN General Assembly, "In other countries the process would be described as ethnic cleansing, but political correctness [forbids] such language where Israel was concerned."
MacKay certainly did not visit Gaza, where 1.5 million people (one million of whom are refugees) are sealed off from the rest of the world, teetering on the edge of total social and humanitarian collapse because of the cruel and comprehensive sanctions regime that he so proudly vanguards. MacKay boastfully declared "not a red cent to Hamas" when the movement won the Palestinian elections early last year, but failed to see what that means on the streets of Gaza. He did not visit the EU-funded power station that was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in June, nor did he visit the refugee camps where a million of the world's poorest people have been condemned to endless months of crippling power shortages, random blackouts and Israeli-imposed shortages of cooking and heating gas.
He didn't see the rubble left from thousands of aerial bombing raids and tens of thousands of artillery shells. He didn't see the roads shredded by tanks, or the pile of gravel in Beit Hanun that used to be an 800-year-old mosque. He didn't see the graffiti on the demolished houses that reads "we will never forget." He didn't walk in the refugee camps as winter rains and sewage run in rivers down the unpaved streets, or visit the beachside picnic site where the Ghaliya family was massacred in front of the eyes of seven-year-old Huda, whose horrified tears were broadcast around the world. He didn't visit the ambulance workers at the Red Crescent, four of whom were killed by the Israeli army since June. Where does Canada stand on the killing of medical relief workers, Mr. MacKay?
And what about the home of the Atamna family in Beit Hanun, where blood still covers the walls and pieces of shrapnel are scattered on the floor and embedded in the cinderblock walls after an artillery barrage by the Israeli army? The IDF had used the family's home as a forward operating base in the November operation during which more than one hundred Palestinians were killed; the Atamna family was cordoned into one room and guarded by soldiers. The morning after the army left their home, the shells came. Within moments, 60 members of the extended family lay in the street, either maimed or dead. When asked what they would say to the Canadian government, defending Israel's atrocities as it does time and again, Iyad Atamna said: "We don't want your money or your political support, just come here for one day before you speak about justice."
By Jon Elmer
Peter MacKay in Israel and Palestine
--What the Foreign Minister did not see or discuss during his visit
GAZA CITY, GAZA -- Despite the impression cast by corporate news coverage, there is never anything like "calm" here in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The casualty count for 2006 released by Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reports that Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians, while 17 Israeli civilians were killed, 13 of them in the West Bank. The violence is often spectacular, as during the summer and fall siege operations in Gaza that killed more than 450 Palestinians under withering aerial bombardment, artillery barrages and two major ground invasions. But, as an unusually frank headline in the current edition of the Economist rightly stated, "It's the little things that make an occupation."
When Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay visited Israel this week, it was these "little things" that he missed--like the more than 530 fixed checkpoints and roadblocks identified in a joint UN-IDF count in the occupied West Bank. These obstacles make simple travel between neighbouring Palestinian villages often impossible, particularly when added to the more than 7,000 "flying checkpoints" that spring up at the whim of the Israeli army, anywhere and at anytime. As the Economist pointed out, "arbitrariness is one of the most crippling features of these rules."
The checkpoints and closure regime enforced by Israel is more than inconvenient; all too often, it is deadly. On Friday, as MacKay met with President Abbas in Amman, Israeli soldiers at the Hawara checkpoint outside of the West Bank city of Nablus refused the Israeli-issued permits of a patient returning from liver surgery in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The soldiers forced Tayseer Al Qaisi out of the car and ordered him to walk across the checkpoint. Al Qaisi, a father of eight, was weakened critically by the surgery and collapsed only a few hundred feet into the checkpoint. As reported by David Chater of Al Jazeera International, a Palestinian ambulance was prevented from entering the area for two hours. Mr Al Qaisi died while waiting for help.
In meetings with top Israeli cabinet ministers, Peter MacKay did not mention the more than 2,200 hours of strict curfew enforced by tanks and gunfire over the last two years, or the more than 5,400 Palestinians who were arrested or detained on Palestinian land last year -- including more than half of the elected Palestinian cabinet, the Speaker of Parliament and scores of local and municipal officials. He did not ask about the Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody this week, or about the hunger strike being waged by political prisoners at Ansar III in the Negev desert in response to an attack by guards with police dogs and tear gas. While MacKay gave ample notice that he would be discussing the Israeli soldier captured on the Gaza border in June, he almost surely did not bring up the 11,000 political prisoners being held by Israel, some 400 of them children.
Nor did MacKay talk about the more than 30 incursions into Palestinian cities and villages by the Israeli army in the last eight days, or the 14 fisherman shot off the coast of Rafah last week as they fished in Palestinian waters. He didn't talk about the 15 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces in protests this week, or of 10-year-old schoolgirl, Abir Aramin, who died on January 20 as she left the grounds of her school in Anata. According to witnesses, Abir was pursued by Israeli forces as she tried to run away and was shot in the head with a stun grenade or tear gas canister at close range.
It's doubtful that MacKay raised the issue of last week's bulldozing of the entire "unrecognized" Bedouin village of Twail Abu-Jarwal in the Negev Desert. The Bedouin were displaced because they were illegally "trespassing" on the land of the Jewish state, despite the fact that their presence in the desert long predates the State of Israel. They are being forcibly relocated to urban reservations, while the Negev is prepared for settlement by the Jewish National Fund. In the "only democracy in the Middle East," at least 75,000 Bedouin live in more than 40 villages that are officially "unrecognized," where, like in Palestinian areas, building permits are denied and demolition orders are routinely carried out. The unrecognized villages have no infrastructure--no sewage, no water or electricity, and often no health or education facilities.
While Arab and Bedouin homes are destroyed, Jewish ones are being built. On the same day that MacKay arrived in the region, the Olmert government announced that 44 new housing units would be built in the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, a settlement which effectively, if not absolutely, severs the West Bank in two. In fact, MacKay won't deal with the issue of settlements at all--not the 121 illegal settlements and 100 outposts in the West Bank, nor the scores of settlements in occupied-East Jerusalem, beyond acknowledging the massive infrastructure of permanent dispossession as a "hindrance." In fact, along with their Jewish-only roads and attendant security footprint, these settlements render a Palestinian state an impossibility. Rather than fortified colonies on illegally occupied land, the Canadian government calls the settlements "facts on the ground." Not to be outdone, Stephen Harper referred to the settlement blocs as "democratic realities" in addressing a Zionist advocacy group in early 2006.
MacKay did not address the substance of the 700 km-long barrier of sniper towers, concrete walls and deadly electronic fences snaking deep into the West Bank (80 per cent of the wall is built on UN recognized Palestinian land) in order to annex the massive settlement blocs into Israel and isolate the Palestinians into enclaves. He did not visit the machinery of settlement and dispossession created by the wall, the checkpoints, the settlements, the settler-only roads. John Dugard, South African human rights lawyer and UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory told the UN General Assembly, "In other countries the process would be described as ethnic cleansing, but political correctness [forbids] such language where Israel was concerned."
MacKay certainly did not visit Gaza, where 1.5 million people (one million of whom are refugees) are sealed off from the rest of the world, teetering on the edge of total social and humanitarian collapse because of the cruel and comprehensive sanctions regime that he so proudly vanguards. MacKay boastfully declared "not a red cent to Hamas" when the movement won the Palestinian elections early last year, but failed to see what that means on the streets of Gaza. He did not visit the EU-funded power station that was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force in June, nor did he visit the refugee camps where a million of the world's poorest people have been condemned to endless months of crippling power shortages, random blackouts and Israeli-imposed shortages of cooking and heating gas.
He didn't see the rubble left from thousands of aerial bombing raids and tens of thousands of artillery shells. He didn't see the roads shredded by tanks, or the pile of gravel in Beit Hanun that used to be an 800-year-old mosque. He didn't see the graffiti on the demolished houses that reads "we will never forget." He didn't walk in the refugee camps as winter rains and sewage run in rivers down the unpaved streets, or visit the beachside picnic site where the Ghaliya family was massacred in front of the eyes of seven-year-old Huda, whose horrified tears were broadcast around the world. He didn't visit the ambulance workers at the Red Crescent, four of whom were killed by the Israeli army since June. Where does Canada stand on the killing of medical relief workers, Mr. MacKay?
And what about the home of the Atamna family in Beit Hanun, where blood still covers the walls and pieces of shrapnel are scattered on the floor and embedded in the cinderblock walls after an artillery barrage by the Israeli army? The IDF had used the family's home as a forward operating base in the November operation during which more than one hundred Palestinians were killed; the Atamna family was cordoned into one room and guarded by soldiers. The morning after the army left their home, the shells came. Within moments, 60 members of the extended family lay in the street, either maimed or dead. When asked what they would say to the Canadian government, defending Israel's atrocities as it does time and again, Iyad Atamna said: "We don't want your money or your political support, just come here for one day before you speak about justice."
Day of Action in 9 Days
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is in 9 Days!
Only 9 days left before the Feb. 7th day of Action!! I'm sure that I've mentioned a million times already how excited I am about this. The amount of tuition now is rather ridiculous - and the funny thing is, tuition costs go up, yet students do not see any improvements in the quality of their post-secondary education. Where exactly is this money going? It obviously isn't going back to the students. If more emphasis were placed on post-secondary education, and the benefits of education has on society - if perhaps beaurocrats give two-cents about (post-secondary) education, the Canadian Federation of Students would not have had to devise this brilliant plan of having at least a half-million students walking out on February 7th.
Today's information is from an article posted on the reducetuition.ca website - a good read.
Students to Doer: Why wait another five years?
-->Tuesday, November 14, 2006
WINNIPEG--
The Canadian Federation of Students is encouraged that the Doer government plans to keep the tuition fee freeze, and acknowledge in today’s throne speech the student debt crisis as well as the social value that education provides, but is urging the provincial government not to delay financial relief to students for five years.
“We agree that student debt and the costs of education stifle young people and the economy,” said Stacy Senkbeil, Provincial Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “So why tinker with tax credits that benefit few when the tuition fee freeze already keeps young people in Manitoba?”
Added Senkbeil: “Students are paying their tuition fees and taking on student debt now, many can’t afford to wait five years for relief.”
Although the details of the tuition fee tax credit policy have yet to be unveiled, preliminary information from the provincial government suggests that the programme will be modeled after New Brunswick’s tax credit. Only those paying income tax are eligible to receive the credit in that province, and the programme does nothing to improve access for those that cannot afford tuition fees in the first place. The Canadian Federation of Students points out that the tuition fee freeze and other up-front measures like low-income grants may be more effective than the New Brunswick model, both for attracting young people to Manitoba and improving access to universities and colleges.
According to figures released last month by the provincial government, 3,294 more young people between the ages of 15 and 24 came to Manitoba than left during the period between 1999 and 2006. This compares favorably to the net loss of 2,579 between 1992 and 1999, when tuition fees were rising.
Concluded Senkbeil: “Fee reductions and grants are based on the idea that education benefits everyone: they give students with modest incomes a better chance of getting an education, while tax credits are only an investment in those that can afford fees in the first place.”
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Day of Action in 8 Days
Feb. 7th Day of Action
Is in 8 Days
Is in 8 Days
All out on February 7th! Make some noise! Make it known that you and a million other students aren't happy with ridiculous prices of tuition.
Record Tuition Fee Hikes
In 1990, governments across Canada started increasing tuition fees at dramatic rates. Even with recent tuition fees freezes and reductions in some provinces, the average student today is paying more than twice as much as students did in 1990.
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