Even without ice storms I spend most of my spare time during the winter months sleeping. If I’m really not up to facing the day, I call sick. It’s a wasted life, but my only escape from the agony of cabin fever, restlessness and the horrendous cravings that make it impossible to think of anything other than food. Without my bike I’m a lost soul. I can’t get around and don’t get any exercise. The cold saps my motivation and makes me feel like a zombie. I can’t interest myself in anything but the dream of winning a lottery and leaving this misery for good.

I’m miserable all winter, but November is especially tough because I know I have the whole thing ahead of me and wonder how I’ll make it through without going insane.

-Marla Comm

I was wondering if I could ask you some question about the situation. How you found out? How it felt when you first found out? and so on. (Basically all that you’ve written already).

I apologize for contacting you this way, but I am having a hard time finding people to ask because I don’t know anybody living nor any connection to any people living in the areas affected. I was hoping you could contact me via email: d.awwad@yahoo.com and I could explain my project in more detail.

Thank you very much!
Dareen.

Come on, 50$ even cumulative is nothing. You do realize that low fees favor the middle class and rich instead of the poor right?

By increasing grants to students who really need them by an equivalent amount, the middle and upper classes are the ones really footing those 50$ a semester.

You have to face it, the only ones demonstrating are doing it out of principles and not because they can’t afford it. And those principles (free tuition) have very litte echoe in society at large, in Québec free lunch is a thing of the past.

Cheers!

As for the “wealthiness of the students”, I’m sorry but it doesn’t represent the majority of us. Sure there are students that have a lot of cool stuff, but are your sure they are in university in the first place ? I bet a lot of them are in CEGEP or not studying anymore. Having a computer now is almost mandatory, some programs even require that you have a laptop.

But most of all, it’s the global attitude of the government (and society in general) towards education that is problematic. « if I could get an education on loans and bursaries in the cheapest province for world class education, anybody can. » Don’t you remember that just 2 years ago, in 2005, the government tried to cut loans and bursaries by 100 M$. Most of the students are ready to pay a greater share for their tuition, but not at the expense of the accessibility for the poorest of us, and right now the governement is not showing that it is an important concern for him.