For years, conservatives have been trying to take down student unions and now, with Bill 33, Ontario Premier Doug Ford seems prepared to pull it off. The innocuously named Supporting Children and Students Act or Bill 33, would give the government the power to make student union fees opt-outable.
It’s not the first time Ford has tried this. Under the guise of giving students more individual choice, and putting money back in their pockets, Ford, and activist groups like B’nai Brith, saw an opportunity with the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) to silence one of the last remaining organized progressive forces in Ontario, student unions. The Student Choice Initiative was a 2019 policy decision by the Ford Government that allowed students to opt out of (or in some cases required students to opt in to) student fees that post-secondary institutions collected on behalf such as student union fees.
In February 2019, in the midst of the SCI showdown, Ford boasted in a fundraising letter, “I think we all know what kind of crazy Marxist nonsense student unions get up to. So, we fixed that.” The statement hadn’t come out of nowhere, conservatives had been trying to organize against student unions for decades. In 2009, as reported by rabble.ca, Conservatives had gone so far as to host organizing sessions with young conservative activists on how to take over their student unions and defund key services like Public Interest Research Groups.
Student unions, which have historically engaged in all kinds of “crazy Marxist nonsense” like organizing for better working, living, and studying conditions, as well as international solidarity work, in particular with Palestine, had been a thorn in the side of conservatives for years. Student unions serve as an organized, well funded, and politically radical hub for student life, just as likely to organize a frosh week, as they are to push for affordable housing policy, an end to the genocide in Palestine, or lower tuition, and their strategic place and resources means that sometimes they can do this well.
The effect of this was cataclysmic on post-secondary campuses, not just for student union activism, but also life saving services. Services like rape crisis centres, foodbanks, even bike repair centres are found across Ontario at post-secondary, and are almost universally funded by student unions fees. Even in the brief couple of months where SCI was in effect some student unions and campus newspapers saw budget cuts of 95 per cent . SCI was defeated in court and student unions could breathe a little easier, but in response to student unions’ consistent and at times militant advocacy for Palestinian liberation beginning in 2023, the next phase of the crusade began. Universities threatened disaffiliation, Zionist organizations and legal firms launched legal action, and Ford, speaking about encampments, urged Universities to violently crack down. On May 29, 2025, Bill 33 passed first reading.
This time, there is no fan-fare, no allegations of student unions being Marxist agents, just harmlessly titled bills and a dead silence. The bill is likely to pass without much opposition. Neither the Ontario NDP or the Ontario Liberals have mentioned Bill 33, and justifiability has been instead devoting limited resources to challenging and delaying Bill 5, which allows the government to bypass all provincial laws in the name of economic development. Many student unions s, which reacted quickly to SCI, have seemingly been caught off-guard. In the slew of bills from Bill 5, 6, 16, and others which have stirred up justifiable outrage, activism, and media attention, Bill 33 has snuck by.
Bill 33, if passed, might represent the end of one of Ontario’s oldest progressive traditions and the decades-long consensus around campus life. Student unions will have to adapt, no longer being able to rely on consistent funding they may be skeptical to engage in activism that rocks the boat or might encourage members to opt-out of fees.
Students, facing a cost of living crisis, with some paying on average almost $1,000 a month in rent at some universities, it would be understandable for students to think saving a couple bucks here and there by opting out of fees might be worth it. But it is important to remember that those small fees add up to a vibrant campus life, and sometimes save lives.
Student unions too would be good to reinvigorate their commitment to their members. They can do this by working to create active identification and involvement with their union. Lessons can be drawn from union activity in Canada before the Rand Formula – the law requiring workers covered by collective bargaining contracts to pay union dues -and their creative attempts to engage, sign up, and retain membership.
Finally, activists across the left need to take campus organizing and the attacks against it seriously. Many of them come from campus politics, but after graduating stop caring. Others, never having been involved, don’t understand the value. But there is value in political, organized, and well funded student unions, and as much as the right attacks student unions the left must be ready to reinforce and defend. Bill 33 may be a victory for the conservatives in Canada, but it is not and cannot be the end of the fight. In 2012, the threat of a well organized, and funded student movement became clear, when almost half the student population of Quebec shut down the province, and changed Canadian history.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
