Hundreds of students, many traveling from universities across Ontario, converged on the Legislature at Queen’s Park on March 24. They gathered to protest plans by the Doug Ford Conservative government to make life miserable for learners less well off.
Ford’s policy is to make the Ontario Student Assistance Program 85 per cent loan instead of the present 75 per cent grant. On top of the skyrocketing cost of housing, groceries and transportation, rising tuition and reduced grants will drive thousands out of school, with grim prospects for the future.
Many at the protest chanted for a province-wide student strike. Socialist Action members echoed that sentiment, and pointed to the need for a Workers’ Government that would make post-secondary education free by taxing the untold wealth of giant corporations, landlords, and the super-rich. Dozens of students signed up at the SA display table for more information, bought scores of buttons, a few booklets, and took free copies of the new socialist policy book “Capitalism Can’t be Fixed.”
Once again, the most popular banner at the action was SA’s “Dump Thug Ford with a General Strike!”
