Today's Ontario Court ruling may help post-secondary chess

[Frank Dixon]

In the 'Toronto Star' online today, there is an important article concerning the overturning of a Doug Ford Ontario PC government law, which made many provincial post-secondary student interest fees optional. The Court ruling, on a case launched by the Canadian Federation of Students and the York University student union, concluded the provincial government had overstepped its authority in this matter.
The so-called 'Student Choice Initiative', brought in by Premier Ford, created significant student employment loss on campuses across the province, since the funding for many of those positions was cut. This caused problems for thousands of students who relied on those jobs, with income, to help fund their educations.
Turning to chess, specifically, funding for post-secondary chess in Canada has never been easy to obtain in the years I was involved with it, and it would have been even tougher had this law remained in place. Hopefully the post-secondary team championship, for which funding may have been in jeopardy, can be organized for this year. I haven't seen anything announced as of yet, and the event is usually held in mid-January. It has been held annually since 2003, but before that was something of a hit-and-miss proposition, with activity each year depending on particular people who made it happen, or not.
Best wishes to this year's organizers!!!

[Hugh Brodie]

The CUCC will be held January 18-19, 2020 at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo.(reported on the McGill CC Facebook page).

[Frank Dixon]

Thanks very much for this information, Hugh. I see that this very significant event is NOT yet posted on the CFC site under 'Upcoming Tournaments'. Who should do this?

[Frank Dixon]

Also, with respect to this Ontario Court ruling, the Ontario government is in the process of appealing it, according to recent media reports. We must have many better areas to direct those resources, one would think. Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford characterized Ontario university student groups as 'Marxists' when the legislation was first introduced, showing his clear bias, and justifying, in his mind, the rationale. Appalling; I had thought my whole life that Canada was better than that.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Also, with respect to this Ontario Court ruling, the Ontario government is in the process of appealing it, according to recent media reports. We must have many better areas to direct those resources, one would think. Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford characterized Ontario university student groups as 'Marxists' when the legislation was first introduced, showing his clear bias, and justifying, in his mind, the rationale. Appalling; I had thought my whole life that Canada was better than that.

It is only clear bias if the allegations are untrue. I had relatives that became involved in student politics and the stories they tell clearly relate to organizations that do not deserve special support from the government or forced contribution to actors and actions that are abhorrent to the students being asked to fund these organizations..

[Vlad Drkulec]

Thanks very much for this information, Hugh. I see that this very significant event is NOT yet posted on the CFC site under 'Upcoming Tournaments'. Who should do this?

The organizer should submit this both for the website and for the CFC forum tournaments section..