By Shanleigh Brosseau, Editor-in-Chief
The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the York Federation of Students won a court battle against the Ontario government, where the Divisional Court unanimously ruled the Ford Government’s Student Choice Initiative (SCI) unlawful.
The Student Choice Initiative (SCI) was implemented this past September by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, which allowed students to opt-out of certain fees that were previously mandatory.
In a press release by the CFS, Sofia Descalzi, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students said, “This is a historic moment for the student movement.”
According to the press release, “The court determined that the government had no authority to interfere in the affairs of university and college students’ unions.”
Katlyn Kotila, the Student General Association’s (SGA) Vice President of Education, said the SGA is part of two external student groups, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) and the CFS.
“That is something that I personally have never seen happen, where a group of students [challenged] the government and won,” Kotila said. “I think it’s going to set a precedent from here on out.”
Kotila said the SGA was not directly a part of the lawsuit, and had been informed after it became public.
“We always want to support students who are fighting for what they believe in,” Kotila said. “I commend the Canadian Federation of Students for doing that.”
With the possibility of the Student Choice Initiative not being in effect next year, Kotila said it is a matter of balancing students’ interests.
“I know that there are some students who may have really liked the Student Choice Initiative, and I also know there are a lot of groups that are really disproportionately affected,” she said. “The Student Choice Initiative marginalized some of our already marginalized voices here on campus.”
Kotila said the impacts of the Student Choice Initiative have been difficult on the SGA.
While Kotila confirmed Laurentian’s opt-out numbers are the lowest in the province, the SGA has not publicly released the numbers.
“We definitely did take a hit. Our opt-in numbers have been established as the lowest in the province,” she said.
“We’ve had to really change the way we operate. But, it has given us the opportunity to re-evaluate what students prioritize.”
“We always want to make sure that we are maintaining a high quality service level,” she added.
University says releasing opt-out numbers up to student associations
Kotila added that since the ruling on the SCI had been announced, the SGA has tried to remain “cautiously positive” while monitoring the situation.
“I think the biggest thing is we want to make sure that moving forward, the students are getting what they want and what they need. That’s always going to be our approach,” she said.
“I think [we are] going to have to wait and see how the next couple of weeks play out with the government,” she added.
“There’s nothing in place saying what has to happen or what’s going to happen, everything is kind of up in the air. It’s a lot of just monitoring the situation to see what happens from here.”
Kotila said that she encourages students to reach out to the SGA with any questions they might have.
“We’re open to talking about it and talking about ways that we can improve our own services,” she said.