In support of striking students in Quebec against the Charest government and Law 78, Occupy Toronto is answering the call from Quebec to bring the spirit of the student strike to Ontario.

Both Quebec and Ontario students have the same demands, accessible education.

In Quebec, the student strike - which sparked the Maple Spring - has been going on for months. 160,000 students are on strike, approximately 35% of the post-secondary student population in the province. Of those, 65,000 are CEGEP students, all in Montreal and surrounding regions.

As students in Quebec continue their 14-week strike, students in Nova Scotia continue to be reminded that post-secondary education is not a priority for the Nova Scotia government. Students and faculty at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in particular are bracing for severe funding cuts as the provincial government continues to target the school, which has faced financial hardship for several years. Students have already been told to expect $900 in total fee hikes, including tuition fee increases and the introduction of new fees. NSCAD will also be offering fewer classes and making further program cuts. The university is recommending laying off 26 faculty and staff members.

I went to McGill in the late '80s and early '90s when tuition fees were less than $1,200 a year, so with summer jobs and some parental help I graduated from my first degree debt-free. For my MA, which I took in Ontario, I worked part-time and graduated after one year with a debt of $10,000.

By way of comparison: my partner went to university in Ontario after grants were eliminated, and when the first round of tuition fee hikes were implemented. He completed a BA and then an MA, and graduated with a debt load (and compound interest) requiring monthly payments of $650 for 10 years.

I've written before about attempts in Canada to create more separation between university teaching, on the one hand, and university research, on the other. In 2009, I wrote this opinion piece about an attempt by five university presidents to each acquire a larger share of university research dollars. And last year, I blogged about a proposal for the Ontario government to create more separation between teaching and research within the university sector.

It was bound to happen.

After almost three months, Margaret Wente finally got wind of this kerfuffle in Quebec about students refusing to buy into the whole "but it's just the cost of a cappuccino a day!" rationale for why a 75 per cent increase in tuition fees over five (or 82 per cent over seven) years is, like, the way of the future. Or something.