Student walkouts at Toronto universities drew crowds and attention in protest of OSAP cuts.
But at Humber Polytechnic, at a walkout set for 1 to 3 p.m. outside the LRC on Nov. 5, there were often more organizers than visitors.
The Ontario branch of the Canadian Federation of Students, or CFS-O, coordinated the province-wide walkout as part of its Hands Off Our Education campaign.
Neither CFS-O or IGNITE, Humber Polytechnic’s student union, attended the walkout outside Humber’s North campus.
Instead, Humber’s Political Action Club promoted the event with flyers across the North campus.
Elizabeth Marculewicz, club president, said that it can take weeks to organize an official event with IGNITE, and that they “didn’t have time to go through the proper channels.”
“So I didn’t get approval from anybody. I just said ‘We’re doing this,’” Marculewicz said.
Emily Edwards, IGNITE student advocate, said the student union was invited to by CFS to the walkout.
Edwards said IGNITE had decided to focus on its own OSAP advocacy, such as Students Write Back events where students can write letters to their MPPs for IGNITE to mail.
“Although IGNITE has made the decision to not participate in the walkout, we do fully support any student who wants to participate in this action,” she said.
On the morning of Monday, Nov. 2, some Humber Polytechnic students received an email from an outside address. The email called for students to join the Nov. 5 walkout against rising education costs.
At the bottom of the email was a link to marxist.ca/join, the website of an organization called the Revolutionary Communist Party, or RCP. The RCP is not a registered political party with Elections Canada.
Valerie Churilov, a Humber student and member of the RCP, attended the walkout and said she had received the email.
“I think that is just an invitation, basically, for everybody at the school to know that this is going on,” Churilov said.
She said she didn’t know who sent the email, or how, but that she felt “glad” that somebody did to raise awareness.
“What we’re asking is ‘How come IGNITE didn’t send out this email?” Churilov said.
She said she hoped to see students show up and use their voice.
“We believe that students themselves need to start organizing and building political power and, essentially, asserting their interests as the working class, as the majority of society against the ruling elite which are calling the shots and doing these cuts against us,” Churilov said.
She said the walkout was “mildly successful.”
“I think not as many students came out as we would have hoped, but from the ones that did we saw very positive responses. I think students here definitely do have a vested interest in this movement, they understand that it relates to them, it’s important,” Churilov said.
“I think that we are moving towards where we need to be as a student movement,” she said.
Churilov said she would try to promote the event more next time, such as with IGNITE-approved posters on campus.
Pam Johnson, now retired after teaching at Humber for 20 years, came out to support the Humber Faculty Union at the walkout.
Johnson said it was inspiring to see students “standing up for public education.”
She said it was important for faculty to recognize their shared issues.
“There have been many times in the past when there’s been an attempt by the administration to sort of divide students and faculty, ‘their interests are different,’ and I feel like this is a moment when we can all how we are connected together,” Johnson said.
She said IGNITE was “not very proactive.
“We found this out as the faculty when we were on a couple of strikes and we thought they might support the issues but they kind of went with the management side of saying ‘Oh no, this only hurts students’ and we’re saying ‘We’re trying to help students here,” Johnson said.
She said her experience with the Political Action Club has been “fantastic.
“I just, I’m so impressed. I feel like it’s a real step forward,” Johnson said.
Marculewicz said the walkout “could have gone better, (but) could have gone worse.”
They said that the Political Action Club plans to hold weekly events on campus to teach students about politics, but that any demonstrations may have to wait for warmer weather.
Organizers had initially set up tables near the LRC entrance, where Marculewicz said they had requested a permit.
Marculewicz and the others were told by security to move their tables in front of the nearby flag poles, where the club president said security told them the permit was for.
“For me, it was disheartening. I thought they would support students and their cause, especially with something like OSAP,” Marculewicz said.
Cyrielle Ngeleka, the CFS-O chairperson, said it was “really exciting” to see students and workers show up across the province.
“It’s really riveting and reassuring to see that students are very much fed up with what’s happening with post-secondary education, and it is abundantly clear that students are not letting up the fight,” Ngeleka said.
She said she didn’t know IGNITE decided not to join the walkout.
Ngeleka said CFS-O tried “to attend as many rallies as possible during the day.”
She said the walkout is not the end.
“It is only part of a larger fight for a publicly funded and accessible education system,” Ngeleka said.
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