This website is a testimony to the problems Canadian Student Loan borrowers experienced from approximately 1996 to 2008 and until their loans were paid off.

The privatization of the Student Loans system by the Chretien and Martin Liberal governments broke the system and defaulted thousands of borrowers who were trying to pay their loans. There were even stories of suicide due to the harassment of borrowers.

Read the report that I prepared back in 2007 here. Canada Student Loans-The Need for Change Fortunately the new Conservative government at the time revamped the program and fixed the system for new borrowers, but borrowers under the previous program were left with ruined credit and continued harassment from debt collectors.

I call on the Canadian Government to apologize to the borrowers affected by this fiasco and make amends.

Unfortunately the Liberal government is again clobbering the Education system with their upcoming changes to International Student Visas. Yes, there's a problem, but instead of a well thought out plan, they have pulled the emergency brake on the train causing a derailment. This has introduced unprecedented instability for both private and public education institutions who serve both international and local students.

Universities can't plan. I've heard of courses being cut because the government has no process in place for universities to send the newly required acceptance letters to the government.

This means that students who have been accepted can not attend courses that start in the summer 2024 semester. With cut sections, current Canadian students will have trouble getting courses, and may have to switch to part-time which changes their enrollment status and might trigger repayment of their loans or ineligibility for funding. I've seen this before. It wreaks havoc on the student loan borrowers.

Again, the Liberal government has messed up the education environment. Will the new system needed in a rush for the acceptance letters be the new Arrivecan scandal?

I call on the government to implement a slower phased in approach and delay the requirement of the acceptance letters until a process is in place to submit these letters.


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paulaffleck View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote paulaffleck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17/February/2008 at 10:43am
This is a better way of making the point.  And of course, it's hardly my point, but one experienced by anybody in any long-term relationship. 

I am all for the romantic notion of struggling together and making it against the odds.  However, I think that budgeting appropriately and having similar long-term goals are even more important.  Too bad they aren't seen as being as "sexy" and "romantic" as the struggling part.

cheers,

Paul


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old hippy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote old hippy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18/February/2008 at 7:53am
Mark, you're absolutely right about marriage affecting IR and DRR eligibility.  My partner never has any money anyways, and conveniently disappears from time to time.  But for young couples with children, it must be extremely frustrating when only that little bit of extra income pushes them over the eligibility limit.  That's not really their fault for getting married and having children is it? 
 
Paul, you appear to be a shining example for successful loan repayment after adopting a lifestyle of self-sacrifice.  Yes, I've read your posts.  And that's cool for you...I'm sure we all dream of paying off our loans but we're not all of us lawyers.  With your success you seem to be embracing the current student loan system - maybe that works for you but not for me and probably not for those married student loan borrowers with children. 
 
Happy Family Day!
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote paulaffleck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18/February/2008 at 2:48pm
Thanks for your reply.  I want to clear up a few things that your respose highlighted for me.
 
I don't embrace the entire student loan system.  In fact, I don't embrace any "system," entirely.  Many aspects of it urgently need repair.  Certainly, it lacks long-term vision:  People can not be expected to function ideally while living under a cloud of seemingly never-ending debt, and the intent of the student loan system cannot be to drive those people into uncurable indebtedness. 
 
But student debtors nevertheless now live with its economic, and resulting, social consequences.  The social consequences are severe, but have to be acknowledged and overcome, not simply ignored.   To live happily as a lower-middle class citizen whose education was publically financed means delaying significant life decisions for a significant period of time.  It is a laudable social program that has strayed off-course, and finds itself adrift in an ocean of unintended financial ruin.  It is a social maelstrom.  And I submit that this is a shameful social failure. 
 
My point is to ask:  Is this a consequence of a publically funded education system with which we are prepared to live?  I don't think it is. 
 
(It may also surprise you to learn that not all lawyers, especially young criminal defence lawyers, are swimming in cash!)
 
-Paul
 
 
 
 
 
 
It's not that I embrace the entire student loan system, but I don't embrace the current student loan system, but I do , but... I would say it's a stretch to say I embrace the student loan system.  The folks at ARO inc. with whom I dealt with previously may beg to differ. 
 
And of course, you can't necessarily paint all lawyers with one broad brush-stroke, when you're considering their incomes. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote old hippy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19/February/2008 at 11:40am
Your education paid off, you have a career and more than 10-15 years left before you retire...

 

Your approach to paying your student loans is commendable.  And for you it's possible.  You must know that for many student loan borrowers it isn't.  The scenarios are all here on this site..

 

I like to give everything the benefit of the doubt, but as far as this student loan system goes - I believe they have intentionally boxed in students by any means possible to make as much money as they can, with little regard for anything else.  I don't like submitting to that.

 

Postponing marriage to be eligible for interest relief or debt reduction is entirely understandable.  It makes sense.  If they want to be with the one they love they'll just need to think outside the box, that's all...

 

Big%20smile

 

 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20/February/2008 at 4:55am
Yes, I think his cirumstances that allow him to pay off his loan so quickly are the exception... View some of the other posts on this site, like the guy who has diligently paid his loans, but just lost his job so will be defaulted because he's out of school more than five years and although he has no job, made too much money to qualify for interest relief...   or people with medical conditions that have to choose between medical treatment and paying off the loan...

Also read the posts at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/StudentLoanFairness/petitionsignatures.html to see what student loan debts have done to people ...and sign the online petition!
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