| WA:

 

 

Clark’s only good
news delivered
at Douglas

ANNETTE MARTIN

He came, he talked and the crowd went
wild.

i Glen Clark, premier
of British Columbia,

| visited the New

_ Westminster campus of
Douglas College on
Friday, March 26, to
announce his govern-
ment’s commitment to
post-secondary educa-
tion.

“We are proud to
announce that the
tuition fee freeze is
extended for a fourth
consecutive year.”
| Predictably, his
words produced enthu-
siastic applause and
whoops of delight from executive mem-
bers of the Douglas College Student
Union, the Canadian Federation of stu-
dents and the mass of students crowded
into the Douglas Room.

—

 

SS

Douglas

SS

 

Glen Clark in media scrum at

Annette Martin Photo

Graduating from throwing chairs since 1976 to kicking in file cabinets

Tultion freeze continues

Clark opened his announcement,
which was delivered 25 minutes late,
with a joke suggesting that instead of
the premier in the deli, the students
thought someone said, “there's free beer
in the deli,” which explained the large
turmout.

He thanked the Canadian Federation
of Students (CFS) and student activists
for keeping the issue of tuition fees and
student debt in front of
government and media,
and joked about the
10,000 postcards students
across the province have
sent to Vicoria.

The premier said that
it in the last three years,
BC has gone from having
the second highest
tuition fees in Canada, to
the second lowest.

He continued, “And we
won't stop until we have
the lowest tuition fees in
Canada, because it’s good
for you, but more impor-
tantly it’s good for British
Columbia and the future of our
province.”

The premier then made two compan-
ion announcements.

“The second part of the Access to

Education that we're making today,
aside from the freeze, is that we're
increasing the number of spaces in uni-
versities and colleges by 2,900 more
students,” he said. “That means in the
three years since
the last election,
we will have
increased the num- §
ber of spaces in
British Columbia’s
universities and
colleges by
16,000,” he added.

“Now listen to
this,” he went on.
“In every other
province enrolment
is declining, but in
British Columbia enrolment is increasing
directly because of increased funding
and a tuition freeze. I’m very proud of
that and you should be proud of that as
well.”

The third announcement was an
increase of $7.7 million in funding for
student financial assistance.

Clark said Quebec and BC are now the
only provinces with a grant portion in
student loans, referring to the Federal
government's new Harmonisation pro-
gram.

“We are now the only two provinces

   

Premier Glen Clark and New

Westminster MLA Graeme Bowbric :
Annette Martin Photo education—no matter where

 

Volume 23 ¢ Issue 23

 

with any grant portion,” he continued.
“There are only two, and we have, by
far, the most generous student loan pro-
gram.”

The premier acknowledged that his
government would come
under pressure for increas-
ing, rather than decreasing,
education funding as the
province faces some serious
economic challenges

“But,” he said, “That
would be misguided and
short-sighted. The key to a
strong, prosperous economy
and a healthy citizenry is
, access to high quality public

you live and no matter what
your income is today.”

Clark did not say whether funding fot
college programs would be increased to
offset less revenue from tuition fees,
nor did he accept questions on that
topic.

In response to student questions
from the floor his final comments were,
“Can we do more? Yes! Will we do more?
Yes!”

It could be the only favourably
received move made by his government
this year.

 

ZAHRA JAMAL

 

mercenaries licensed to kill, and

has empowered 700,000 troops in
Kashmir to crush the freedom
movement. Innocent civilians have been
| |persecuted by being beaten, raped,
|  |burned with cigarettes and hot rods and
suspended by their feet. Their limbs
have been crushed by heavy rollers and
electric shocks, and needles have been

I ndia’s government has over 600,000

 

 

poked into their genitals. The list goes
on and on.

Terror has taken over the state of
Jammu and Kashmir as thousands of
people struggle with this never ending
genocide.

Last year, a local human rights
organization in Kookal Panchayat
reported, “Women were kicked and
beaten, their clothing was torn, and
police forced sticks and iron pipes down
their mouths. Attackers joined the

The Kashmir crisis

police in looting property, assaulting
children, and assaulting senior citi-
zens.” These lowlifes even urinated into
cooking vessels.

Events such as these take place every
day in Kashmir. Women are raped while
pregnant; civilians are tortured to death
if they protest; explosives are placed in
mosques and shrines; children are
abducted, and crackdowns are constant-
ly performed.

During one of these crackdowns in

December 1998, people were forced to
come out of their homes in the merci-
less cold (Kashmir is located on moun-
tains) to be tortured. At another crack-
down in Islamabad, 50 innocent
civilians were arrested and kept stand-
ing in cold water for hours. More than
20,000 aggressors have been arrested
for such crimes during the last seven
years; none of them have been tried in

 

 

 

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