Renew Ontario!

Today, students across the province are taking action to see that the problems facing post-secondary education are put on the agenda. Now, more than ever before, our generation must fi ght to see that our education is guaranteed as a right for all in society, once and for all. Who will defend the right to education if we don’t do it ourselves? This is why several youth have come forward in this election to run as independent youth candidates. Who better to represent the interests of youth and students than ourselves?

As youth, we are very aware of the importance of education. To be part of a modern society it is a necessity to have a good education. Instead of guaranteeing education, up to and including post-secondary for all in society, our education system is more and more being privatized, and made a privilege for those who can afford it. All of the major parties in this election are reducing post-secondary issues to saying that they will tinker with tuition fees and student loans to make it easier for students to go into debt and make education a little less expensive.

At election time, we’re told that our vote is our say. Yet we all know, once the elections are over, we’ll be fair game for more tuition hikes and other attacks on our rights. Already the Liberals are saying they may have to delay some of their campaign promises due to a provincial deficit. So what are we to believe? For the next four years, our status will be that of a special interest group, lobbying for the recognition of our rights. Enough is enough. It is high time that as youth and students we elect our own representatives so that our problems will be on the agenda in the legislature and not turned into campaign promises that don’t get realized. We should elect those youth that are fi ghting day in and day out in defence of the rights of all.

As youth and student candidates in this election we call on students to use the provincial elections as an opportunity to demand the following as concrete measures to recognizing our right to education:

1) that the right to education from primary to post-secondary level be guaranteed in legislation.
2) that tuition hikes be stopped immediately in all programs and fees be decreased until tuition is free.
3) that the businesses and corporations which currently receive trained, educated workers and research from the post-secondary education system be required to pay a levy to fi nance post-secondary education and training
4) that the system of loans which allows banks to make profi ts from indebted students be abolished and be replaced with a bursary system.

Education is a Right! We Will Not Give Up the Fight!

____________________________________________________

Here are just some of the youth candidates running in southern Ontario!

Enver Villamizar - 26 yrs old. Young Worker from Windsor. Running In Windsor West.

Enver got involved in politics when he entered University. At that time he joined the work to defend the rights of workers of CUPE Local 1001 who were being attacked by the University administration. Since then he has worked relentlessly to defend the rights of students to education and to an academic environment on campus. As a result, in 2001 he was selected by his peers as President of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance, representing the 10,000 undergrads at the University of Windsor. He was re-elected in 2002. He has since graduated the University with an Honours Degree in Biological Sciences. This is Enver’s second provincial election and he has also run federally as a candidate for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. He is currently an apprentice Printer.

Saroj Bains – 24 yrs old. Young Woman from Toronto. Running in Windsor St. Clair.

Saroj got involved in politics at the age of 15 when she joined the work to develop new journalism. She worked on Youth Today, a magazine for youth and students which presented the reality facing Canadian youth. She also worked on a magazine which profi led the reality facing Canada’s aboriginal youth called Aboriginal Youth Today. She is a member of the Standing Conference of South Asians. As a minority young woman Saroj has fought to defend the rights of national minority youth in Canada in the context of defending the rights of all in society. This is her first provincial election. She has run as a candidate in the Federal Elections as a candidate for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. She works in the Film and Communications Industry as a Producer.

Nick Lin - 31 yrs old. Healthcare Worker from Toronto. Running in Trinity-Spadina.

Nick got involved in politics in 1998, when as a parttime student at the University of Toronto, he became active in opposing racial discrimnation on the campus. In 1999 Nick ran in the provincial elections as an independent candidate in York-West on a platform of opposition to racial discrimination and democratic renewal. Since then Nick has continued to be active on the campus with the Toronto Student Movement (the Marxist-Leninist Party at U of T) and the Student Christian Movement, organizing youth and students in defence of their rights as part of the
anti-globalization mobilizations, fi ghting for education as right, against racial discrimination, and opposing war on Yugoslavia and Iraq. In 2000, Nick ran in the federal elections for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. He works in Trinity- Spadina as a personal attendant for a woman with paraplegia.

To get involved in the work to Renew Ontario, contact (519) 564-5177 in Windsor, 416-407-3166 in Toronto, or RenewOntario@yahoo.ca.

Authorized by the CFOs' of the Enver Villamizar, Saroj Bains, and Nick Lin campaigns.