MARCH 30TH - ONE YEAR AFTER THE STRIKE, EDUCATION IS STILL A RIGHT!!

-->DEMONSTRATION FOR ACCESSIBLE EDUCATION

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Thursday, March 30th
2:00pm
Berri Square (metro Berri-UQAM)
**Bring your banners and noisemakers!!
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Don't let Charest deregulate tuition fees! Stop the student debt burden!!

Organized by the Coalition for Accessible and Public Education (CAPE).
For more info, call 514-931-2377 or email c...@education-action.net.

{And don't forget "A Red Square on My Heart", featuring One Night Band,
Genr' Radicale, and DJ Leila P, March 29th, 8pm, El Salon - 4388
St-Laurent}

BACKGROUND

Public education is under attack in Quebec and throughout Canada. Since
1994, the federal government has reduced transfers to the provinces
destined for education and social programs by $2.2 billion a year. These
cuts, with a real increase in cost, represents a hole of $4.9 billion a
year in the coffers of the provinces. Now with the Stephen Harper
Conservative government in power, these cuts could deepen even more.

In Quebec, Jean Charest is seriously considering lifting a long-standing
freeze on university tuition fees. This is a freeze that students in the
province fought hard to win, and continue to fight to maintain.

Exactly one year ago, over 200,000 high school, cegep, and university
students went out on strike, some for more than five weeks, to defend our
rights to education. We held workshops, blocked bridges, picketed
schools, and marched to stop Charest's cuts to the Quebec loans and
bursaries program, but also to assert that education should be accessible
to all. In the end, we made some gains, but the fight continues!

One year later, we are taking to the streets again to demand that the
Canadian government reinvest $4.9 billion dollars per year in education.
Student debt must end, the tuition freeze must be kept in place, and
education must be accessible to all.

Students, united, are much more powerful than any politican!

CAPE PLATFORM

* Whereas a public, accessible and high quality education system is a
necessity for any democratic society;

* Whereas the freeze on tuition fees in Quebec is a minimum standard in
insuring accessible education;

* Whereas continued increases in ancillary fees and tuition fees for
international and out-of-province students have been decreasing the
accessibility of education;

* Whereas corporate interests conflict with the aspirations of our public
educational institutions;

* Whereas many inadequacies remain in the loans and bursaries system and
that this system encourages student debt;

* Whereas government funding, a necessity for public, accessible and high
quality education, has dramatically decreased over the last 15 years;

We demand:

- A real freeze on all tuition and administrative ancillary fees for all
students, including out of province and international students, with the
goal of universally accessible, public education;

- An end to corporate influence which threatens the public nature of our
campuses and the integrity of academic research;

- Improvements to the loans and bursaries system with the goal of
eliminating student debt;

- A massive reinvestment in education beginning with $4.9 billion in
federal transfers.