Two college students in Sudbury are representing their schools in the province-wide class action lawsuit resulting from the college strike across Ontario.
Chelsea Katerynuk, a Cambrian College student, says the lawsuit is seeking compensation for some of the financial losses students have incurred during the 5-week strike.
“A refund in tuition and compensation for any out of pocket expenses that we have been faced with including bus passes, parking passes, meal plans all that kind of stuff that every student has been faced with.” said Katerynuk.
Danielle Martin is a student at College Boreal who’s finding the strike incredibly frustrating.
“It's just gone too far and something has to happen, otherwise we are just continuously wasting money and time for something that we paid for.” said Martin.
The suit claims breach of contract and breach of the Ontario Consumer Protection Act.
“It's week five and it's honestly exhausting. We have no more assignments to work on, because we can't ask our questions to our professors and, therefore, we can't finish our assignments. We can't keep up on readings because they don't make sense if you don't have the knowledge from classroom to read about them.” said Katerynuk.
Martin says there are other challenges as well for students in the middle of the strike. For some that have young children, day care costs have continued despite being off from school. If the school year is extended, this could cause another problem associated with finding adequate care for little ones.
Results of a vote on the latest contract offer are expected on Friday, but it may not end the strike as the union representing faculty is recommending its members reject it.
Even though the two students are feeling frustrated, Katerynuk says they still stand by their faculty. “We want the faculty to make the right decision for them and the right decision they think is for us, and right now, that decision is probably no.”
The student reps say they are gathering testimonials about how the strike has negatively affected students, and they plan to present that information in court.
