For Dan Roffey it began as a question without an answer. No one in the George Brown administration would tell him why the college, where he was pursuing a degree in early childhood education, was charging him hundreds of dollars in extra fees for computers, libraries, and labs, on top of tuition. When he learned these fees were, in fact, in violation of a government policy prohibiting colleges from charging extra fees to cover academic services, his simple question led to a $200-million class action law suit.
Roffey joined with another representative plaintiff, Amanda Hassum of Conestoga College, in suing 24 Ontario colleges for the return of fees, which Hassum and Roffey claimed had been illegally charged, in direct violation of a government directive forbidding ancillary tuition-related fees.
The Ontario Superior Court, however, put an end to their legal challenge when it ruled on March 28 that Roffey and Hassum had no legal claim against the colleges. Forcing colleges to stop charging ancillary fees was, the court held, a political matter and not one in which the courts can interfere.
The Canadian Federation of Students’ Ontario branch has long lobbied to convince Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities to enforce the ancillary fee ban, but CFS-O chairperson Jen Hassum said that the ministry still does not always enforce the law.
The institutions argue, however, that such a ban ignores the will of students and hurts valuable student services. “This case is about local democracy and autonomy,” said Freya Kristjanson, a lawyer and spokesperson for the colleges in the suit, “these fees vary from campus to campus. They still have to be approved by local student government.”
The colleges also noted that fees go to support valuable student services, like libraries and computer labs, which may be severely hurt by this loss of revenue.
Jen Hassum offered a different perspective. She said CFS-O wants “a publicly funded college and university system, which would not rely on piecemeal funding from students who are already economically disadvantaged.” CFS is also advocating for a $50-million increase in the funding colleges receive from the government, which would help replace the revenue that would be lost if the ancillary fee ban succeeded.
For the moment, CFS is hopeful that the lawsuit may have drawn enough attention to the issue to elicit a meaningful political response. CFS is meeting with the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, John Milloy, later this week about ancillary fees, and hopes that students will show their support by emailing their student government, member of parliament, and the minister himself.
The question for Roffey and Hassum is still whether to appeal the March 28 ruling. They are undecided, but Roffey said that if the case has inspired students to ask more questions like he did about how colleges fund the services they provide, he considers it a victory. “Get students involved,” he said of how to progress. “Now that it’s not a legal matter, it’s a political matter, and we need to get students involved in politics.”
