Three arrested in Vancouver rally Jim Chliboyko hat do we want?! Education! % When do we want it!? Now!” 4@ screamed the thousands of Lower Mainland students that gathered ee —- a in front of the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library on January 28 to aim their frustrations at corpora- tions, banks and the Vancouver Stock Exchange. And in a remarkable display of restraint on the part of the Vancouver City Police, only three were arrested. Maura Parte, BC chairperson of the CFS, “was pleased with the turnout,” but would not estimate the size of the crowd. “There’s a good energy.” The National Day of Action, organized largely by the Canadian Federation of Students, had specific targets this year, particularly concerning the student debt crisis. According to the literature, the CFS claims that student debt has almost doubled since Jean Chretien’s Liberals have taken over, and that in other ways, “the federal government has abandoned its responsibility for funding public post secondary education,” as evidenced in the $2.29-billion in cuts to education and a 45% rise in tuition since 1993. Particularly galling to students, though, is the federal government’ plans for an Income Contin- gent Loan Repayment Scheme (ICRPs), which the CFS believes “is not to provide student financial assistance, but rather to justify and hasten the underfunding of post-secondary education, while increasing the user/tuition fees that students are charged.” The CFS also maintains that those who graduate and move into'lower-paying jobs could end up aa TS ee Hey ho, the gang’ all here. Jaimie McEvoy, Darryl Flasch, Christa Peters and Amanda Wheeler at protest. making student loan payments for up to 25 years, and eventually pay usurious amounts of interest on the initial loan. “This means that any demographic that statistically makes less money (people with disabilities, for example) will end up paying more for their education,” according to a CFS fact sheet on ICRPs. Parte mentioned the protests of 1994-95, when federal consideration for the schemes was scrapped after nationwide student protest. “They did back down, though two years later, they're on the table again. It’s outrageous,” said Parte. The Harris government in Ontario has already planned to initiate the scheme in September 1998. An alternative to the ICRPs is a national system of grants, something which most students were calling for during the march. What momentum was lost from not having a 1997 National Day of Action showed in the lower numbers but not in the rage. Students marched from the library, led by drummers from the Squamish nation, and headed down Howe — eventually reaching a large branch of the Royal Bank near the corner of Georgia and Burrard. Students blocked entrance to the bank by gathering in large numbers on the front staircase and pinning the bank’s doors shut by placing placards through the bank’s door handles. Other students with water soluble markers wrote slogans haphazardly on any pane of glass available. “Decapitate capitalism” was a popular one, as was “Free U[niversity].” It was at about this time that witnesses saw Vancouver City Police grab and cuff one of the orange-vested protest marshals, a Langara student named Steve Rhodes. “He was obviously angry, he Rheostatics Up close and in concert page 4 Survey results in > page 5 More on student society > page 5 Who is Vesna Rukavina?- page 7 Jim Chliboyko photo was arrested for nothing, it seemed,” said another witness. “I'd be angry, too.” Another said, “it looked like he was just pamphleteering.” Several plainclothes policemen were seen filming the march. The arrest angered rally organizers, who likened it to the APEC strategy that the police used to handle the student protesters. “This trend from APEC has got to stop. Tomorrow, they may not give us permits to gather,” said John Helsby, a protest marshal and former Langara student. From the bank, the crowd turned down the Burrard slope towards Dunsmuir, turned north on Hastings after a delay and a moment of confusion when the crowd split in two ways, distracted by, according to organizer “Garth,” the arrests. Students then headed west on Water, where they stopped to gather for speeches in between the old railway station and the Vancouver Convention Centre. Among the speakers was an aboriginal woman, Penny Kerrigan, who demanded, “You, the govern- ment of Canada, live up to your fiduciary duty and educate aboriginal Canadians.” Kit Krieger of the BC Teachers Federation also presented a speech, saying “this generation, far more affluent than my parents’, don’t have enough for you.” Not everyone downtown that day, though, was aware of the issues. Two women in the crowd heard the commotion caused by the speeches, and unaware of the protest said, “Oh, it’s Chinese New Year!” Most of the crowd headed home in a light drizzle, interestingly enough, by about 3:30. For information on protests around the country, see page 3. The impeachment proceedings are underway. president Jaimie McEvoy, Maple Ridge VP Amanda Wheeler, UT Repre- Impeachment process under way - Jim Chliboyko Initiated by the firing of the Douglas College Student Society business manager Merrilyn Houlihan and their inability ro get any information about the case, a splinter group of DCSS representatives has initiated the machinery that could see the ousting of DCSS sentative Paul Rosha and VP Internal Christa Peters. Houlihan, the business manager, was fired not under suspicion of embezzlement, bur for informing the college administration abour the continued on page 3