"Native Students Protest New Policy on the Post-Secondary Student Assistance Programme" Clipping Part 1

[Transcript] NEWS. ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
hind. The Conservatives, for ex-
ample, have not felt the need to
re-assess their position on free
trade of Meech Lake. After all,
they won the election, so their
stand on these questions “must
have worked.“ What they have
re-assessed, however, is their
ability to keep all the promises.
they made during the campaign.
Finance Minister Michael Wilson
has already announced that it will
be impossible to keep these
promises, and that Canadians
should brace themselves for var-
ious tax increases and fiscal
measures which were not men-
tioned during the course of the
election.
A political party which in-
dulges in pragmatism can never
serve people’s interests. It is a
philosophy which has other aims.
And in the current situation, one
can see clearly that one of the
aims is to hide precisely which
class the various political parties
serve.
NATIVE STUDENTS
PROTEST NEW
POLICY ON THE
POST-SECONDARY
STUDENT
ASSISTANCE
PROGRAMME
On March 22 in Winnipeg,
2000 students demonstrated
against proposed government
cutbacks in post-secondary edu-
cation funding for Native stu-
dents, which will take effect April
1. The demonstration in Winni-
peg was part of a national day of
protest which saw actions in most
provinces as well as the Yukon.
The decision of the government
to implement the E-12 Guidelines
View of the demonstration organized in Winnipeg on March 22.
is a violation of the Native peo-
ple’s treaty rights.
The demonstration in Winni-
peg was organized by the Indian,
Métis and Inuit Student Associa-
tion but included the support and
participation of various non-Na-
tive students and their organiza-
tions. The University of Manito-
ba Students Union, the student
newspaper at the University of
Manitoba, The Manitoban, the In-
ternational Students' Organiza-
tion and the Manitoba Student
Movement, student organization
of the Communist Party of Can-
ada (Marxist-Leninist), organized
and worked for the success of the
demonstration. The participation
of non-Native students, and stu-
dent organizations was one of the
specific objectives of the Native
students who were active in or-
ganizing the action. They recog-
nized at the outset the necessity
to unite all the students. Those
who participated on behalf of
other organizations made note of
the importance of uniting in the
fight for the common demands of
the students.
While the E-12 Guidelines are
a specific attack against Native
youth and students’ they are also
part of a broad front of education
cutbacks that are increasingly af-
fecting the quality and accessibil-
ity of post-secondary education.
In their statements and com-
ments on this issue, UMSU, The
Manitoban, the ISO and MSM all
made reference to the basic right
to education as fundamental for
the youth of this country and it is
a measure of the quality of the
society. Their view was that an
attack on one section of the stu-
dents was an attack on all the
students and must be treated as
such. This unity they believe will
deal a blow to those who seek to
employ the policy of "divide and
rule” in an effort to split the
ranks of the people.
In Vancouver, more than 150
Native and non-Native students
demonstrated at Robson Square.
Beverley Scow of the Inter-Cam-
pus Native Student Network said
that students across the country
are standing for a moratorium on
the implementation of changes to
THE NEW WEEKLY