More than a thousand students from across Toronto showed up at Queen's Park today to protest the high cost of tuition in Ontario.

They joined students from around Canada who are marking the National Student Day of Action, a country-wide campaign to call attention to the high costs associated with post-secondary education.

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) organized the protest to demand that the McGuinty government reduce tuition fees. The organization says that Ontario students have the lowest tuition funding in the country and accuse the provincial government of using the promise of a 30 per cent rebate — which excludes two-thirds of students — to buy votes. Metro News reported today that 90,000 eligible Ont. university and college students  have not applied for the rebate.

In Toronto, students from Ryerson and George Brown College marched to the University of Toronto, then travelled east on Wellesley St., south on Bay St. and then west on College St. to Queen’s Park. Traffic was stopped along the route.

Winnie Ng, the Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson, told the Ryersonian earlier today that she wants the government to recognize the importance of post-secondary education.

“In Ontario, students are urging the McGuinty government to drop the fees by 30 per cent as promised in the last election,” she said. “It is important that our federal and provincial governments recognize that people are the most important resource of a country and that allocating more funding and investing in public post-secondary education system is more important and yield more return than investing in fighter jets. Our collective voice and action will hold them accountable.”

Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of CFS-Ontario, echoes Ng’s sentiments on the importance of a collective voice.

“In the past, we’ve been able to win significant victories,” she said, adding that students who got involved not only represented themselves, but entire families who are also concerned.


The Liberals recently made headlines after they announced that $66 million allocated to research conducted at universities and hospitals would be cut. They stated that the money is needed for other programs, which would likely create more jobs.

Earlier this month, The Ryersonian reported on how these cuts would affect Ryerson researchers.

The Ryersonian's Kendra Mangione and Marwa Hamad reported live from the protest.


(Note: For full transparency, Marwa Hamad is a candidate for the upcoming RSU election, and previously was the Students Against Racism coordinator for the RSU. The RSU is an organizer of this protest.)