"You don't discuss the issue of fee increase which being an international student is of utmost importance to me and that which caused several riots in Montreal. How do you plan to combat that?" -Abdul Muiz

I could tell you that I plan to stop the deregulation of tuition prices for four faculties here at McGill before they take place. But I won’t tell you that, because that is happening and is real, and if I did, I would be blowing smoke to try and win your vote. The riots that occurred in Montreal were particularly interesting because McGill (relative to other universities in QC) has a much lower proportion of provincial students and so was much less engaged in the rioting activities. We have a high volume of international students who did not expect the tuition hikes to affect them as severely as they have, and now all international students (myself included) are, as you have mentioned, going to be facing the reality of tuitions fees comparable to the levels seen at other institutions around Canada and the United States. Because due to budget cuts, it is an unfortunate fact that McGill needs more money to continue providing the level of service it does, and it seems international students will be the first ones paying the price.

What I will tell you is that as a student society we need to focus engagement more closely on the international student population specifically to find out how these changes will affect them, and in turn we need to advocate for them and the new issues that will be arising because of this at a provincial level. One of the biggest reasons I, as an international student, chose to come to McGill was because of its affordability compared to other North American universities. As the president, I will strongly support the VP UA as well as the VP External in their advocation for resolution to the issues that will arise because of these tuition increases for international students. As Austin Johnson, I will personally advocate for solutions to the newly arising difficulties myself and all the other international students will face due to the tuition increases. 

Concretely one thing I would do if I had the opportunity to right now in response to this is to work to educate students who can vote in the provincial elections on the issues that are at stake and the positions of the political players involved. The budget cuts are mostly due to decisions made by the government at the provincial level, and so empowering students to vote in ways that can combat these decisions that trickle down is very important. While the election will be taking place soon and I cannot do this personally as I am not the president, I do think that government transparency and educating students on what is happening at the government level and how it impacts them is something that should be done on a continuous basis.