In February we attended a forum hosted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives looking at the manufactured crisis the Liberals are using to bring in a far-reaching austerity agenda. At the time, we noted that Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has … Continue reading →
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Cowichan Conversations: Quebec Students Were Right! Students Debts Are Crippling!
Quebec Students Protest Started Over Tuition Hikes It was University Students in Quebec who raised the profile of challenges facing students seeking post secondary education. Tuition hikes ignited the protests but costs for living accomodation, books, clothing and food combine to increase the overall burden. The protests grew, morphed into
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: An Attack On Progress
Here in Quebec, amidst the nightly demonstrations against the tuition increases and Bill 78, the bill that gave the movement oxygen, we hear a constant drumbeat from media sources that the kids are “spoiled,” or have a sense of “entitlement,” and are perhaps communists. Seriously. It’s tiresome. Students protest in
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: An Attack On Progress
Here in Quebec, amidst the nightly demonstrations against the tuition increases and Bill 78, the bill that gave the movement oxygen, we hear a constant drumbeat from media sources that the kids are “spoiled,” or have a sense of “entitlement,” and are perhaps communists. Seriously. It’s tiresome. Students protest in
Continue readingNEW MEDIA AND POLITICS CANADA: An Attack On Progress
Here in Quebec, amidst the nightly demonstrations against the tuition increases and Bill 78, the bill that gave the movement oxygen, we hear a constant drumbeat from media sources that the kids are “spoiled,” or have a sense of “entitlement,” and are perhaps communists. Seriously. It’s tiresome.
Students protest in the downtown streets of Montreal against tuition hikes on May 16, 2012 (AFP Photo/Rogerio Barbosa)
Erica Shaker of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has written a terrific piece about this “scapegoating” of the kids involved and begins by asking a question that should be the starting point for any discussion about the issues at the center of the protests:
Why is it still, for some, a newsflash that reality for today’s youth is a solar system away from the world of just 25 or 30 years ago?
She then outlines what she calls the “toxic socioeconomic brew” that led here: Wages stagnating since the late ’80’s, the infamous 1995 Paul Martin budget which oversaw massive cuts to and restructuring of social programs, and the reduction of transfer payments which has reinforced the trend to greater income inequality.
Now, add to that…
…the fallout from declining levels of government support for higher education in Canada which has resulted in a number of new realities: over the past 30 years, government grants as a share of university operating revenue plummeted from 84% to 58%, and the share funded by tuition fees rose from 12% to 35%.
Suddenly a University education in Canada is a lot more expensive than people appreciate and students get saddled with more debt on the way out the door than their parents ever knew ($37,000 on average – somewhat less in Quebec), and there are less good employment opportunities. Remember, unpaid internships are all the rage.
More to the point, Ms. Shaker reminds us of the benefits of education to all of us:
We know the vast benefits of accessible higher education—and not just physical accessibility. Societies that make this a priority tend to be healthier, have a more politically-active citizenry, enjoy greater levels of community and family involvement, and have more social mobility. There are economic returns as well, all of which means that the demand for public education—or public health care, or public child care—is not a request for “free” anything, or even not wanting to pay one’s “fair share.”
For wanting more and easier access to education the student protestors have been vilified endlessly by the media. This of itself is simply sad but it illustrates the lack of understanding and the unwillingness of the supposed adults to engage in a constructive dialogue. But it’s not the name calling she wants to bring our attention to in all of this:
To be clear, I don’t think what we’re experiencing is so much an attack on youth, though it often feels that way, as it is an attack on progress.
Attacks on progress are something we’ve seen far too much of in this transitional era – one that seems to be marked by greed and stupidity. It’s time to try and put a stop to it by not giving in to media propaganda and opinion writers who regularly make a habit of not only being wrong but of always siding with the corporations, the banks and other arms of the establishment. Maybe we could all try and do what we’re always telling our kids to do, think for yourselves.
Go read the entire piece here for yourself, form you own opinion and just try not to be that guy or gal yelling at the kids to get off your lawn!
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Ontario Health Coalition forums head north this week
The Ontario Health Coalition heads north this week, hosting community forums in Matheson (Monday), Sault Ste. Marie (Wednesday), Thunder Bay (Thursday) and Kenora (Saturday). The forums discuss the impact of the provincial spring budget on the future of health care … Continue reading →
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Jim Doak can’t see the ground from his lofty tower on Bay Street
The way Toronto financial analyst Jim Doak sees it, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and groups such as the Campaign to build ‘One Big Campaign’ (CBOBC) are, well, pretty much evil! Howarth outraged Doak and his privileged, elite friends on Bay Street last week by proposing a two percentage point
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Now Here’s A Budget That Makes Sense
Although largely shut out of the public discussion on government budgets, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released its alternative to the upcoming federal budget. While the Harper government is fixated on massive cuts that will only produce more unemployment, this budget contains some eminently practical ways to help
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Kevin Falcon
Kevin Falcon Minister of Finance Government of British Columbia Dear Mr. Falcon, During your budget speech yesterday, you announced that BC’s carbon tax will be frozen, and its place in our economy reexamined, after its final scheduled increase later this year. Forgive me if I am being presumptuous, but given
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Conservatives Federal Public Service Cuts: Up To 68,000 Jobs To Vanish
The cuts behind the curtain: How federal cutbacks will slash services and increase unemployment. Federal cutbacks announced in the 2010 and 2011 budgets will result in more than 60,000 job losses, says a study released …Read More
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Report: CCPA and the Wilderness Committee on BC’s "Reckless" Desire to Frack
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If British Columbia wants to pursue economic, environmental and human health then the province must slow its furious pace of unconventional gas production…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What the Occupy Movement Means for Canada
There is a surprisingly good article (but only online, I think) in the Globe and Mail by an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Armine Yalnizyan, who offers an interesting assessment of the Occupation Movement.These are a few of…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
– Since I haven’t yet mentioned the September 9 federal council meeting which will set the rules for the NDP’s 2012 leadership race, let’s point it out now. Needless to say, now figures to be the time …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading.
– Chris Selley nicely summarizes Jack Layton’s celebration of life today:
I can just hear people kvetching: Was this a funeral for a great man, or a rally for his party?
But again, this is surely to mi…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Free Water for Fracking: B.C. Government Gives 20-Year Withdrawal Permit to Talisman
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British Columbia is providing the gas industry with 78 million cubic meters of free water each year, according to a recent CBC article. That water,…
Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- thwap is among a few bloggers to rightly slam the Cons’ obscene message to flooded Quebeckers that the only way they can hope for help is if somebody stands to profit from it:Toews (is) justifying removing Canadian F…
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