Around 200 students gathered outside the offices of the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities last Thursday to “fire” minister Chris Bentley.
At 12:30 p.m., the crowd marked the one-year anniversary of the McGuinty government’s lifting of the tuition freeze with a two-minute noise frenzy using horns, pots, and drums.
“Hey Bentley, you’re fired! You said fees would go no higher!” one of their chants went.
“Bentley has failed our students,” said part-time student Shane Milne. “He’s supposed to be a public servant. We want the fees reduced and frozen.”
Milne and other students from U of T, Ryerson, York University, and George Brown College proceeded to deliver boxes stuffed with more than 5,000 pink slips booting Bentley. Each slip contained a signed pledge from a student vowing to vote for “a candidate who promises to reduce tuition fees and student debt, and increase government funding for colleges and universities” in the next provincial election.
The Day of Anger grew out of the CFS’s national Day of Action last month. Student leaders have been canvassing students and amassing these signed slips ever since then.
Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students Jesse Greener rallied the crowd.
“We want a minister who reflects the desires of the students,” he shouted.
In a press release, Bentley touted the 60,000 tuition grants for low- and middle-income students created last year. He also noted that enrollment at Ontario colleges and universities has risen 22 per cent on his watch.
The CFS has retorted that for every dollar the provincial government invests in financial aid for students, it will “claw back” $1.30 through higher tuition fees.
