All out February 1 for the National Day of Action!

We have compiled an events listing for both students and community activists alike looking to take action against student debt, increased tuition fees and decreased student funding.

Maritimes and Atlantic Regions

Halifax-Wide Rally
Location: Victoria Park
Start time: 1:00 p.m.

NSCAD
Event: Joining the Halifax-Wide Rally
Location: Student Lounge
Start time: 12:00 p.m.

University of King's College
Event: Joining the Halifax-Wide Rally
Location: King's Quad
Start time: 11:30 a.m.

All out! The Canadian Federation of Students' (CFS) Day of Action will soon see thousands marching upon Canadian capitals. The CFS is the largest student lobby in the country, representing more than 500, 000 members and on February 1, members and students will protest against the ever-increasing tuition fees and student debt. On February 1, students will shout; on February 2, this energy, so rarely mobilized, will have died down. Or will it? As is often the case, Québec has a mind of its own. Strife with infighting, our student movement is nonetheless heading towards an unlimited general strike to protest imminent tuition hikes.

Defending the right to education is, at the core, a fight that aims to build an equitable society. It is the struggle to recognize that education allows people to reach their full potential. Education develops a person's skills and knowledge and perhaps, more importantly, education helps develop an understanding of the world we live in. As students, we believe that only through gaining such understanding can we hope to build a more equal and fair society. However, many barriers stand in the way of our access to education.

Funding for education has been in steady decline. In fact, deep spending cuts to social transfers in the mid 1990s had the effect of drastically undermining federal government funding for post-secondary education. The consequences of these cuts are still felt by students today in the form of unprecedented tuition-fee hikes. Since the mid 1990s, tuition fees in Canada increased at four-times the rate of inflation. Increasing fees, the main financial barrier to education, now stand at an average of $5,146 a year.

It is impossible to turn a blind eye to the numbers. On average, a student in Canada graduates with $27,000 of public debt. Collectively, students owe the federal government over $15 billion and much more in provincial and private loans such as bank loans or credit cards. Loans given out by the federal government increase by roughly $1 million a day and students are taking on more debt than ever before.

Going to college or university is becoming a requirement for today's youth to get an average income. The vast majority of jobs -- almost 70 per cent -- require some form of training or advanced education to gain the skills and knowledge needed just to be considered. However, as the need for higher education has increased, so has the price. Tuition fees have increased four times the rate of inflation over the previous 30 years and pursuing an education has become out-of-reach for many working families.

For the first time in 22 years, the University of Victoria (UVic) will not be hosting a memorial for the National Day of Remembrance and Action Against Violence Against Women.

The December 6 National Day of Remembrance started on the first anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, an incident where 14 women studying engineering were killed in a shooting at the École Polytechnique. In the past, classes at UVic have been cancelled for an hour.

Instead, two film screenings with panel discussions were hosted on campus. On November 29, Marker of Change was screened and on December 1, Finding Dawn was screened.

On November 10, over 203,000 McGill University and CEGEP students in Quebec chose to have a one day general strike in protest of the upcoming tuition hikes. While 30,000-plus students marched through downtown Montreal, 14 students entered McGill University's James Administration building and peacefully occupied Principal Heather Munroe-Blum's office on the fifth-floor.

Mayor Watson proclaimed last week to be Bullying Awareness Week, but I don't think Transit Commissioners received the message. The province of Ontario defines bullying as "a form of repeated, persistent and aggressive behaviour... in a context where there is a real or perceived power imbalance." On Wednesday, November 16 at the Transit Commission meeting, commissioners patronized, bullied, and insulted students who had the audacity to suggest the city and OC Transpo may be wrong in calculating the UPass as revenue-neutral at $180 per semester.

A couple of years ago I spent my summer vacation from university back home in Vancouver working at the same pizza place I worked in high school. A work friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see a few films at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival with him, one of which included an accessible documentary called Diagnosing Difference made by Annalise Ophelian. Diagnosing Difference focuses on Gender Identity Disorder (GID) as a central point to address many trans* issues, including access to health care and services, legal issues, and common misconceptions.