In February, three groups of hard-pressed Canadians shoved back. In major cities across Canada on February 2, thousands of university students took to the streets in a one-day strike endorsed by the country's largest labour organization, the Canadian Labour Congress. Cuts in funding to post-secondary education, rising tuition, and prospects of enormous debt load following graduation have become intolerable to most students, but especially to those from workingclass families. The neoliberal policies embraced by both federal and provincial governments also raise the specter of the privatization of education. The CFS is calling for a rollback of tuition fees and their eventual elimination.
Farmers occupy legislature .
Canadian farm incomes, especially in the prairie regions, have dropped to worse levels than those of the hungry 1930s. Unable to get a fair price for their produce, hundreds of farmers are going bankrupt. At the same time, the number of people using food banks is unprecedented, even in rural areas. Today, stock markets are booming, employment levels are fair, the weather is generally good and crops are average or better. The report also debunked the standard explanation by government analysts that foreign agricultural subsidies, mainly in Europe, cause the imbalance.