One great stunt
Re: When not to sweat the small stuff, March 5
Two years ago, SAC held a summer press conference on its front lawn with me and Ontario Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley. I praised the Liberal government’s commitment to reinvesting $6.8 billion in post-secondary education. Minister Bentley, with the freeze on fees still in full effect, promised a long stakeholder consultation process. All options were on the table: fees could go up, down, or remain frozen. Relations between students and the provincial government were at an all-time high.
A few months later, before the stakeholder consultations had even begun, Premier McGuinty announced the freeze was over. Tuition fees were going up. Quite simply, the McGuinty Liberal government screwed students and did so while deliberately misleading us. They had no intention of sitting down at the table- their minds were made up.
Fast forward a year or so, and Minister Bentley is making another announcement. Apparently, the government has created a nifty new system to price out your education. Instead of dealing with the problem of student debt and skyrocketing tuition fees, they built a website showing students that they were doing nothing about the real problem.
So some students, including SAC VP External candidate Dave Scrivener, crashed the press conference and pointed out the hypocrisy of Minister Bentley’s announcement. This cheap media stunt worked brilliantly. The mainstream press took Minister Bentley to town. The Liberal government got exactly what it deserved-for making a fluff announcement, it got some bad press.
I was proud of Dave Scrivener and Emily Shelton for getting out message, and very proud of The Varsity for focusing on the big picture. When governments work with you, honestly and truthfully, they deserve your support. When governments work against you and purposefully mislead you, it’s okay to speak out and get your message heard.
Paul Bretscher
SAC President 2004-2005
