A small but loud group of students and progressive organizers met in the cold square of Grand Parade on the morning of Wednesday Nov. 8, to protest astronomical tuition fee increases in their lifetimes.
Aideen Reynolds, chairperson of the Canadian Federation for Students Nova Scotia—CFS-NS—emceed the first hour of speeches at the cenotaph in front of City Hall, where red signs reading “Fight the Fees” lay at the statue's base.
“In this province and in this country, university and college administrators make hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money, while students go hungry and barely afford a roof over their heads, crammed into tiny and unsafe apartments,” says Reynolds.
“Universities and colleges have neglected the basic safety of their students. They have exposed us to dangerous temperatures in classrooms and residences. They have denied accommodations to disabled students, and have continued the fundamentally and explicitly exploitative international differential fees, which average about two-and-a-half times domestic tuition.” Reynolds is in their final year at the University of King’s College.
“Universities even had the gall to raise our tuition during the hardest and most isolating times of this global pandemic. As the university took and took and took, students have turned to each other: to mutual aid to kindness and the radical belief that it does not have to be this way.
“It seems our government and university administrators have forgotten that if we pay their bills, we can shut off their power. It is well past time for students and all people to rise up against a system that is not built for anyone but the rich to succeed. It is well past time for free education, for free housing, for everyone to have the basic necessities of life.
“On the larger scale, this is not just a fight against the college and university. This is a historical fight for our future worth living in against capitalism… The struggle of our generation for survival is no simple task. We live in disobedience and rebellion so that we may live at all. These schools are built on stolen land, and their administrators continue to throw money at fossil fuel companies and weapons manufacturers profiting off global catastrophes and violence.
“Free education will be won by deciding: ‘It must be.’ Students have been taught to deny even the possibility of radical action, and we can see that today. But all that we're allowed to do is beg in the halls of power for someone, anyone to listen and feed the hungry, house the poor and educate the young. No students anywhere should have to beg for the right to learn. I encourage you to stand with your friends and neighbours in every fight for liberation for every day until we die.”
"It seems our government and university administrators have forgotten that if we pay their bills we can shut off their power."
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“We’re not your cash cows! Stop making money off of us,” says Cape Breton University international student and student-organizer, Navy Nguyen.
Says Nguyen: “When I started a CBU in 2018, our university had roughly 2,000 international students. This year, CBU student numbers clock at roughly 9,100 students, with 7,000 of them international students. That’s 77%, the highest percentage of international students in the country. Mind you, the national average is 30%. And CBU international student numbers have tripled over five years while the international student numbers across Canada only doubled in the span of nine years.
“As an international student, I pay double the amount of tuition and medical insurance fees compared to my domestic counterparts, with no access to federal student loans and grants. Many students have to take out high-interest loans back home or take on multiple jobs to fund their education, pay rent and put food on the table.
“CBU has admitted to spending time and large sums of money on international recruiting through overseas agents, after realizing that they could not rely on domestic students to keep the university financially viable. Incoming international students were told by their recruiters that housing and jobs will be readily available in the area, not knowing that this explosive growth in Cape Breton has triggered a housing crisis and job shortage for years.
"This is not right."
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“The situation in Cape Breton has been so dire that many students I know had no resort but to move to Halifax for a better chance of accommodation and employment while still traveling back and forth to Sydney for classes a few times a week. In December of 2022, less than a year ago, an international student lost his life in a house fire that also displaced seven other international students who shared the same unit. Meanwhile, CBU reported a profitable year the same year.
“Our president being the second highest paid university president in Nova Scotia just behind Dalhousie's. During the midst of the pandemic, our president gave himself an 18% pay raise while laying off staff, asking faculty to take a voluntary pay-cut, and slashing scholarships and bursaries. If only that surplus were redirected towards desperately needed student services like on-campus counselling or student food banks, where almost 99% of the food bank users are international students. Those are just the tip of the iceberg of the discrimination that international students experience.
“CBU's heavy reliance on international student recruiting to keep it financially viable is unethical and exploitative. International student differential fees, originally instituted in so-called Canada to deter non-white immigration, is a textbook definition of discrimination.
“Everyone should be able to access higher education for free, because Canada can afford it. I am standing here thanks to generations of student movements and queer resistance doing the exact same thing that we're all doing here, and I owe that to them.
“All of us being here, sharing our story and advocating for our rights, is an act of resilience and resistance. And I look forward to the day when we don't have to be here, when we don't have to be resilient anymore and we don't have to pay anymore. And I hope that it will happen in my lifetime, in our lifetime. But until that day, power to all students and to everyone because liberation for one is liberation for all.”
Dalhousie University recently announced a new model for international students, called a tuition guarantee, that Dal says “would apply to new international undergraduate students beginning their studies in fall 2023 or later in most programs” in certain faculties of study. This means: “International undergraduate students who begin their degree programs in fall 2023 or later will pay a fixed tuition price each year: tuition will not increase or decrease. This means students have stable, predictable annual tuition fees over the course of their degree."
However, “the tuition guarantee would not be available to:
- current international students
- international students starting in the 2022-23 academic year
- international graduate students
- international students in select professional programs
- domestic students
- students outside of the Faculties listed above
- students in select exempted programs within the Faculties listed above
These students will continue their studies under the current tuition model, subject to standard tuition increases.”
Teresa Workman, a representative of the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers—ANSUT—says all 1,400 ANSUT members’ voices are joined with students “in demanding that governments and university leaders do better, [because] you are more than just students; you are advocates for change.
"From Church Point to Sydney, Nova Scotia [ANSUT stands] with you in your fight for better post-secondary education. We believe in the transformative power of education. We believe that education is a fundamental right and not a privilege for the fortunate few. And it's a right that transcends borders, abilities and backgrounds."
Carlos Pessoa, vice-president of Dalhousie’s part-time faculty union, encourages students to organize. Pessoa recalls what he learned from recently striking with his union, CUPE, at Dal: “You have to make noise. There is no other way. Either you make noise or you get nothing. Nobody's going to wake up from the administration and think, 'Oh, gee, I think we're probably charging too much so let's put it down.' It's not gonna happen. The only way is to make noise and to be inconvenient at times. Your education, in many ways, is just a business transaction. That's all it is.”
"In Canada between 2000 and 2020, so 20 years, universities increased average tuition by 115% above inflation? What is the reasoning? We know on average that international students pay 429% more than domestic undergrad students."
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Pessoa recalls his own experience being burdened with student loan debt after graduation. “Every time you borrow money on a student loan, that's a piece of your future that is gone. I learned that because by the time I graduated, I owed about $80,000.” Pessoa had to live in the old YMCA in Halifax for two years. “A PhD, living at the YMCA just to pay my student loan. So, you have to fight now, there's no other way. Either you fight now or you lose your future.”
Dr. Christine Saulnier, director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia—CCPA—calls student debt “the gateway debt” to a lifetime of inequality.
Saulnier calls for all student debt to be cancelled. “And here's why;” she says. “Nobody escapes student debt except the wealthy… This is a story of inequality. Wealthier people are less likely to have student debt over their lifetime, and students without debt have twice as much wealth as those with debt. Students with debt have lower earnings. And the debt also affects, of course, their disposable income. It limits their ability to get credit, and on and on…
“How did we get here? A place where Nova Scotia has the highest tuition in the country. A place where, not surprisingly, our students are coming out with the highest average debt load. Unfortunately, Nova Scotia doesn't stand alone. The debt in Canada from students amounts to $39 billion.
“This debt impacts individuals and families with the burden of repayment amid this horrible affordability crisis, a crisis that prevents others from even accessing post-secondary education altogether. This is not right. Everyone should be supported to reach their full potential without having to go into debt for an education.
“We need to transform the way universities are funded in this country. Nova Scotia universities receive the lowest percentage of revenue from government sources in this country. That amounts to 40%. That's it. 40%. And the second highest percentage comes from students, of course. Did you know that in Canada between 2000 and 2020, so 20 years, universities increased average tuition by 115% above inflation? What is the reasoning? We know on average that international students pay 429% more than domestic undergrad students. It is essential that we put this into the context of what else students are facing right now."
“We know students are living in crowded housing," continues Saulnier, "wondering what will happen the next semester or their next year of university. Will they have a place? We need the federal government to step up. We need a federal post-secondary education act, we need to properly fund universities. But we need that done with strings attached. Those strings must ensure quality education that is accessible, free, inclusive and not delivered on the backs of low paid, insecure part-time professors. Strings that mean that universities cannot pay their presidents more than the prime minister of Canada. Strings that means universities cannot treat international students as cash cows. Our provincial government can and must do more.
“Government inaction needs to end. We can stand together and push for government action and make a difference that will have a ripple effect on our communities, releasing the student debt load and investing where we should be in our collective future.”
A final chant rang out from the students before dispersing at 1pm Hollis Street.
In call and response, they yelled through frigid air: "One: We are the students. Two: A little bit louder. Three: And we want justice. For each other!"
