Emmanuel College Student Society - Solidarity for Quebec Protestors
Channel: ECSSAntiOppression
Date: 08/06/2012

An Open Letter of Solidarity

 June 7th, 2012

We, the students of Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, express our solidarity with our fellow students striking for fair tuition in Quebec. The Emmanuel College Student Society represents theological students, the majority of whom are Christians associated with the United Church of Canada, along with students from other denominations and faith traditions, including Muslims and Unitarian Universalists. We write this letter from a position of concern and hope. Our concern falls into four areas: the value of education; debt; media representation; and violence.

We look to our theology and sacred stories to help us hope for a different kind of society. We believe in the potential of Canadian society to support students by keeping tuition affordable and supporting the vision of an academy that encourages the development of the whole person. From Christian traditions, we draw inspiration from the emphasis on debt forgiveness (Deuteronomy 15), the idea of communities supporting each member (Acts 2:44-46), and the vision of swords being beaten into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4). We also draw inspiration from Islamic financial tradition, where debtors set their terms of repayment, which allows the repayment plan to be feasible. We invite our siblings of different faiths to express their own concerns about the current situation from the grounding of their own unique faith perspectives.  We ask everyone to uphold that matters of education and debt are not only the concern of individuals or the student body, but of society as a whole.


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