What began as a lecture on the inefficiencies of the Ontario government’s spending habits soon descended into a loud and raucous protest by several students March 21 at Carleton.
Don Drummond, famous for the month-old report from the Commission on the Reform of Ontario Public Services he chaired, came to Carleton to speak about the political culture that is necessary to implement some of the recommendations in the commission’s report.
Reforms mentioned in the report, commonly known as the Drummond Report, include the unpopular recommendation to scrap the 30 per cent tuition grant introduced by the Ontario Liberals this year, as well as making university faculty and staff more cost effective and accountable.
The tone was set for the lecture when several jeers were heard from the audience members as André Plourde, dean of public affairs, introduced Drummond.
The audience quieted down, however, and Drummond proceeded to describe the process he and his fellow commissioners used to figure out where and what to cut in Ontario’s expenditures for the province to return to a balanced budget by 2017.
Twenty minutes later, while talking about estimating the growth of the Ontario economy, two students in the front row began to shout at Drummond.
“This is bullshit,” a female student said loudly.
Despite efforts by Ploudre and others, the two students continued to protest and were encouraged by other students in the audience.
“I think your austerity measures would make Mike Harris look like a student here,” she continued.
“I think you are the enemy of every single mother who’s trying to raise her kids on multiple jobs . . . Your cuts are going to be so detrimental, how do you sleep at night?”
At one point, the arguing grew so loud and heated that Drummond had to leave the conference room, in an attempt to calm the situation down, which caused another outburst.
“I wish I could get paid to walk out of a meeting, that’s awesome,” a student in the back of the room shouted as Drummond walked away.
The arguing lasted for a few minutes before the students left the conference room.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, at least not in Canada,” Plourde said as Drummond returned into the conference room, this time with supportive applause.
“The one thing being involved in public policy for a lot of years is that you learn to hear other people’s opinions,” Drummond said as the lecture was reconvened. “You just wish it were a debate rather than a . . . [shouting match].”
The rest of the lecture went uninterrupted and focused on the efforts of the commission to find more efficient means for the province to distribute social services, including health care and university education.
