News and Views

A Light on the Law

by Meaghan Daniel January 9, 2008

Now nearing the end of a long post-secondary career, I have one thing on my mind: student loans. How much do I owe? How long will I be in debt? And how will this debt affect the other financial decision I might want to make?

Debt is becoming the determining factor in the lives of brand new graduates. Over one-million Canadian are in the process of paying back a student loan, government and private. Whether you can afford graduate work, work for a non-profit organization, or pursue amazing volunteer activities often depends on your debt load. Young people are increasingly limited in the kind of opportunities they can chase, even with an advanced education. And the overwhelming majority faces the necessary evil, and instead of focusing on our dreams we worry about default.

The Coalition for Student Loan Fairness (CSLF) suggests that this debt is far from a necessary evil, that the Canadian Student Loan program is unforgiving, and unorganized. The Canadian reports that high interest rates are clearly a contributing factor in default, as 22% of people who default do so after being denied Interest Relief. Those that default face ruined credit ratings, harassment from collection agencies, and hope for relief. Julian Benedict, who started the CSLF, found that while students suffered the government has recouped more than $300 million in GST and T1 income tax credits since 2002.

Yet the Auditor General reports that the major reform to the loan program will be to improve and modernize their collection of defaulted loans. While there are varying reports on how much of the money collected is principal and how much is interest, the government does lend student funds at a higher rate then the rate at which they borrow this money from the bank.

With the average undergraduate student carrying between $20 000 – $30 000 of debt, our graduates cannot afford to do social work unless it is lucrative (this kind of work does not exist). Thus, the opportunities left behind are often those that will help our communities most.

Rights, Responsibilities, Justice

by Fred Kirby June 13, 2007

“Around the world, giant hydroelectric dams, pipelines, canals, roads, and seaports have been constructed on Indigenous lands in the name of economic development and modernization…Indigenous people suffer the adverse effects of such projects, but rarely benefit from the profits they generate.” (Mairin Iwanka Raya, International Indigenous Women’s Forum 2006)

Land claims and understandable unrest exist not only in Canada but are found throughout the world. Amnesty International states that without secure access to land and resources, all the human rights of Indigenous peoples are in jeopardy. In Bolivia, the Indigenous population has formed the government and, yes, they have little experience in modern government, but they have the best of intentions for the country. Rather than oppose this new government, we in North America should be offering to do all we can to make this democratic government flourish; but we do not because, as so many times in history, our greed blinds us to the needs of humanity. In Chile, a gold mine will destroy the water supply of an entire community; the people have no power; corporations do. When did gold become more important than water? Which sustains human life? These tragedies may be in distant lands but Canadian companies such as Barrack and Enbridge participate in the assaults. But we do not need to go to Columbia’s pipelines or Chile’s gold mines to see the continual assaults on Indigenous people.

The Alberta tar sands oil extraction project is depleting the water supply in Alberta and, while Canadians may think that is acceptable as long as it only affects Canada’s Aboriginal people, the reality is that eventually all Albertans will suffer. The final irony is that not only will we all pay a terrible price but all the oil produced goes directly to the USA.

What has this got to do with municipalities? Think of Caledonia, remember Oka and Ipperwash and do not forget our neighbour, Hope Bay. You can only rob a people, ignore their rights, subject them to numerous demeaning attacks on their culture and on them as individuals for so long before anger and resentment builds and they bite back.

Municipalities cannot avoid involvement; through their provincial and federal organizations they need to keep the provincial and federal governments’ feet to the fire. Nothing will happen unless they do. The aboriginal among us act within their rights though the bigots and uninformed will blame them. Now is the time to remember what Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Meaghan Daniel has just completed her first year at the University of Manitoba’s Law School where Meaghan was named to the Dean's List for excellence. This monthly column will speak to these issues and welcomes questions and comments.