If You're Free Next Thursday...

and feel like participating in what will likely be a futile protest, please come to a rally in support of freezing tuition fees for international students at the University of Toronto. Tuition fees for Canadian students were frozen recently, but the Board of Governors is contemplating hiking international-student tuition by 20%. Before you argue that international students don't pay taxes, etc. etc. etc., well, we do. I pay federal and provincial taxes on my fellowships, which pay my stipend and tuition. I also pay GST and PST. In return for that I have access to the most minimal of social services: water, roads, transportation. I am required to purchase health insurance that is the equivalent of Ontario health insurance so that I am not a burden on the Canadian medical system. I also speak three languages, read two more, am highly educated, young, and exactly the type of person you'd want to settle here. Most international students, simply because they can be international students, tend to be exactly like me: bilingual at least, young, well-educated. We'll be difficult to attract to Canada if we can't afford to study here. We may just go to the States instead.

So, the details:
Where: Simcoe Hall, King's College Circle
When: Thursday April 29th, 4pm

I'll be there because I don't like people taking advantage of the fact that I can't vote and in this one instance, I'm too impatient to wait for karma. -Zh.