The script at the Toronto school board this week runs like a remake of Bad Teacher, the 2011 film starring Cameron Diaz. Remakes get done quickly today. It stars (now former) board director Chris Spence, caught plagiarizing in several articles here in the Star. It lacks the redemptive elements of the original but retains some of its irony.
Students in Quebec made international headlines when they went on strike to stop a 75% tuition fee increase. In what became the longest student strike in Canadian history, Quebec students resisted police repression and a government-led attack on civil liberties. In the process, they inspired a solidarity movement across Quebec and Canada. In response to the social crisis provoked by the strike, Quebec premier Jean Charest called a snap election in August - and lost. On September 20, the incoming government cancelled the fee increase and scrapped Charest's anti-protest law - a total victory of the students' demands.
Whew. The Maclean's issue ranking Canadian universities, just out, still bases its ratings on what goes on in them, rather than their success in supplying grads with jobs. Everywhere else in the debate over higher ed with which we've been inundated (whoops, bad phrase this week, call it a ceaseless din), the focus has been on the failure of universities to assure jobs for grads. That's because their "education is poorly matched with the national economy" and the jobs now available, say professors Ken Coates and Bill Morrison in a recent book and Walrus article. Grads may still have a better shot at jobs than non-grads, they concede, but the "rate of return" on their educational investment as baristas or parking valets doesn't justify the costs incurred. U.K.
Where? McMaster University. Email outreach@madstudentsociety.com for details.
Who? Students (from any college, university, or adult education course/program) who have personal experiences with psychiatric systems, madness, mental illness, mental health disabilities, etc.
Can’t make the meeting? Looking for other support? Join our active, private, email discussion listserv to continue this and other conversations.
Questions? Directions? For further info, location details, or to join the listserv, email Elizabeth and Alisa at outreach@madstudentsociety.com.
University of Toronto Equity Studies Students Union Presents...
LINKED OPPRESSIONS 2012
Linked Oppressions was born out of the realization that racism, transphobia and homophobia are deeply affected by one another.
The ways that each of these spaces of oppression are experienced is deeply affected by how we inhabit and exist within the world. Linked Oppressions will be a week of events that are dedicated to speaking about the issues that affect us, learning and healing.
"There is no such things as a single-issue struggle because we do not lead single-issue lives."
-Audre Lorde
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) presents the Neil Reimer award for social justice to representatives of the Québec student movement.
The CEP Neil Reimer Award is given bi-annually to individuals or organizations in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the public good. CEP has awarded the student movement in Québec for their work in defeating the planned tuition fee increase in their province and their outstanding mobilizing efforts of the past year.
Ramzy Baroud: Palestinian Unity, Arab Revolutions and the ‘Solidarity’ Road Ahead: Now What for Palestine?
Reserve your free ticket now: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/4604119044
Tune in live tonight at 7PM PST for the livestream of the final event of the cross-Canada tour on the Quebec student movement with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Ethan Cox, Cloé Zawadzki-Turcotte, and special guest moderator Judy Rebick. For event details click here.
