A statment by the We Are the Student Ryerson Coaltion in response to the January 17th provincial government announcement of sweeping rollbacks to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP), funding for Ontario colleges and universities and dramatically altering how student fees are administered.
Students and workers are appalled by the Doug Ford government’s shameful attempt to use a tuition fee reduction as a political gimmick to try and hide a $600 million cut to student grants, a $440 million cut to university and college budgets, all and a petty and vindictive attack on democratic students’ unions.
Ontario’s universities and colleges are vital spaces where a culture of rich academic debate and free expression should be fostered. Core to the mandate of our postsecondary institutions is the advancement of knowledge, and that requires our campuses to be places where all community members have the right to speak their minds and respectfully challenge each other intellectually. Faculty associations, labour unions, and student unions deeply believe in these rights, and will continue our collective work to uphold them.
