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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DavesNotHome View Drop Down
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    Posted: 25/March/2004 at 4:51am
...that's me! Just another file in the collection agency database, getting the daily calls and the weekly letters. LOL.

Frankly, there is some truth that misery loves company. Feeling constantly harashed, harried and hunted? I can live with. But at least I'm not alone. There's a bizzare comfort in knowing these problems are systemic, not personal. Looks bad for my Country but at least it's not bad on me.

For the FYI, I'm 32. I've been living in my Mothers basement with my girlfriend (of 10 years) for the last 2 years after she lost her well-paying job in the tech bust. We're now a no income family.

Anyway, I did a 4 year Honours Psych course graduating in 99'. Dean's list awards, scholarships and academic achievement awards took the edge of my student loan debt but I've still ended with something around $20 g's owed. It may as well be a Billion.

In the five years since I've graduated I had ONE job of any significance. It was a miserible, degrading position in a call-center warehouse but hey, at least it paid well! It did also require a heck of a commute from where I lived but it was the best I could find.

My first paycheck arrived direct deposit in my bank account! Yea!!! So, I finally wa able to chip in my share of the household bills and still had some left. So I decided: Now is the day I'll start paying the bank and stop being hounded by the debt collectors! I made a SL payment at my bank. Big mistake.

Two weeks pass and my second paycheck... didn't arrive. Apparently, my first payout was just enough to cover ONE single payment from a previous billing cycle. So the lien on my account automatically debited the remaining overdue payments from my account. I was stunned. And broke. No money, no gas, winter snow coming with no tread left on my tires, and no knowing if I would even see my next paycheck. But heck, that was no problem! I couldn't get to my job and so there wouldn't be another paycheck! :)

Well, it's now 5 years down- 5 years to go until bankrupty. I had recently thought of going to community college to get SOME kind of marketible skill, but thank goodness I read the FAQ here first! If I had reset my bankruptcy clock to zero to take a single accounting course, I'm not sure I would survive it!

Anyway, five years should go by pretty fast. Or at least faster than I could hope to earn $20 grand plus penalties!

Not to be sappy, but my biggest regret is for my girlfriend. She's the only child of two very devoted and aging parents. If I could have, I would have married her years ago. But with my credit rating all but destroyed, I couldn't live with my failings dragging her reputation down, having her trade her good name and credit in exchanged for my bad ones. Five years may go by fast for me but my 'In-laws-to-be' are not young. Time will tell, but it's painful to think that my debt may potentially rob the people who gave me a wife, of their chance to see her married in their lifetime.

But you know what really ticks me off? In a sea of grad's from my university's pysch faculity, I was academically in the top 2%. But at the end of the day, any of my personal achievments or future potentialities counted for nothing in that tide of under-educated, over-charged blue robed masses. I was then, as I am now, just another drop in the ocean. It would be kinda' poetic if it didn't suck so very, very, VERY badly.

Thanks for this website. It was nice to get this off my chest.

--D.
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Sirjammer View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sirjammer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26/March/2004 at 10:34pm
You know i agree that it sucks that a BA is now the equivalent of a high school degree in opportunity, and with an honours that is also kinda sad, but i have to ask, why did you do honors if you werent going to go to grad school? I mean i am doing honors on my psych degree right away here and there is no way with 35-40k in debt that i am going to quit, i cant i need to get the MA and PHD because its the only way i can pay down my debt and get a career. The mentality of school at least for me is that i knew that i wouldnt get anything with a BA and have to do grad school. Plus there is no Honors in the states and they really like that down there, and there is more opportunity due to the practical experience. Just a question.
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