Nick Drain is secretary-treasurer of the Carleton Campus Conservatives, and says students should be free to choose which campus groups to associate themselves with, and anything less is a violation of their Charter rights.
An Ontario Divisional Court killed the Student Choice Initiative, and the provincial government should resurrect it.
Last January, student associations and campus clubs were hit with the shocking news that the Ontario provincial government was introducing legislation to allow students to opt-out of paying non-essential ancillary fees.
The legislation, called the Student Choice Initiative (SCI), would mean students would only have to pay extra fees to student groups and associations deemed necessary by the provincial government. Fees that go towards groups such as Foot Patrol and the CU Student Emergency Response Team (CUSERT) and Sexual Violence Prevention were deemed essential, while CUSA service centres and campus media were deemed non-essential.
On Nov. 21, the Ontario Divisional Court deemed the SCI to be unlawful and struck down the legislation. The question that stands is: what happens now? The court has made its decision, and now it’s up to the provincial government to make theirs.
The options on the table now are to let the court decision stand and quash the SCI, or pass a bill in the legislature to expand the statutory authority of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities so that the SCI can continue to exist. The government should take measures to ensure the SCI continues to exist. Here’s why.
First, while a provincial court may have overturned the SCI, the guiding principle of the policy remains the same: students should be able to pick which non-essential fees they want to pay and which associations they want to be a part of.
By not allowing students to opt-out of associations, universities are violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section two of the charter clearly states under fundamental freedoms that Canadians have a right to freedom of association.
Freedom of association is defined as an individual’s right to join or leave groups voluntarily. By not allowing students to opt-out of non-essential student groups they wish to not be associated with, students’ fundamental freedom of association is being violated.
Wishing to be associated with a university is far different than wishing to be associated with and to fund groups that support controversial ideas like the Canadian Federation of Students, which openly supports and advocates for socialism, and OPIRG, which supports the BDS movement.
In addition, the SCI forces a higher level of accountability onto the groups receiving these funds. By allowing students to opt-out of groups that receive funding from student fees like the Charlatan, these groups are held to a higher level of accountability. If the Charlatan has a strong year producing engaging content, the opt-in rate is likely to increase. If the opposite is true, then more students will opt-out.
The Ford government was elected with the promise of making life more affordable for the people. Allowing students to opt-out of non-essential fees is just another way the government is standing up for students and making life more affordable.
File photo.
