Apparently, this was part of the backstory of the latest Doug Ford "initiative" re: post-secondary education, too.
"On January 17th, 2019, Doug Ford’s government announced a new funding framework for Ontario’s post-secondary education system that, in addition to throwing students further into debt, includes a policy called the “Student Choice Initiative” which will allow students to opt-out of ancillary fees.
As Nora Loreto has written about elsewhere, this move is potentially catastrophic: “If implemented, this would severely weaken, if not kill students’ unions, clubs, associations, services and campus media like radio or the campus press.”
The opposition from stakeholders has been universal, including virtually all elected student union leaders and campus clubs, student newspapers, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, the College Student Alliance, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian University Press, and many more.
With the entire college and university sector united against Ford’s initiative, the question is: did they even consult any students on this “For the Students” plan? When asked directly about this following her press conference, and then later on CBC’s Power and Politics, Minister Merrilee Fullerton was unable to name a single student or student organization that she had consulted.
But there was one individual on Twitter who insisted that he had been consulted, and even claims that his student organization had come up with the idea..."
And I recommend you take a look at Michael Bueckert's article. In full.
"On January 17th, 2019, Doug Ford’s government announced a new funding framework for Ontario’s post-secondary education system that, in addition to throwing students further into debt, includes a policy called the “Student Choice Initiative” which will allow students to opt-out of ancillary fees.
As Nora Loreto has written about elsewhere, this move is potentially catastrophic: “If implemented, this would severely weaken, if not kill students’ unions, clubs, associations, services and campus media like radio or the campus press.”
The opposition from stakeholders has been universal, including virtually all elected student union leaders and campus clubs, student newspapers, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, the College Student Alliance, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian University Press, and many more.
With the entire college and university sector united against Ford’s initiative, the question is: did they even consult any students on this “For the Students” plan? When asked directly about this following her press conference, and then later on CBC’s Power and Politics, Minister Merrilee Fullerton was unable to name a single student or student organization that she had consulted.
But there was one individual on Twitter who insisted that he had been consulted, and even claims that his student organization had come up with the idea..."
And I recommend you take a look at Michael Bueckert's article. In full.