The coast-to-coast rallies from St. John's, N.L., to Victoria, B.C., were the culmination of a year-long campaign to bring attention to the effects of high tuition fees and heavy student debt, said co-ordinator Ian Boyko of the Canadian Federation of Students.
Several hundred students packed the snow-covered front lawn of Ontario's legislature in Toronto and were joined by rapper Kardinal Offishall and other speakers in calling for Premier Dalton McGuinty to freeze tuition fees.
In Winnipeg, close to 200 students braved a -34 C wind chill outside the Manitoba legislature, calling on the province to cut tuition fees which, at $3,300, are already among the lowest in the country.
"Our tuition fees are still out of reach for many Manitobans," said Garry Sran, president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union.
Hundreds of students gathered in downtown Vancouver in light rain in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, with some carrying signs reading "We're drowning in debt" and "Drop tuition fees not bombs."
"In about a year, I'm going to have to make decisions about the rest of my life and I don't want to be in debt," said high school student Ania Dudziuk.
"You need an education after high school because it's really hard to get by. I know I'm going to have to borrow money now, so it's pretty hard for us."
Gabrielle Lemieux was one of about 300 students who travelled between five and 10 hours to attend Toronto's rally, and said lower tuition rates are especially critical for students in northern Ontario, where the future looks bleak when education is priced out of reach.
"High school students are dropping out because they can't even dream of going on to post-secondary education because it's too expensive," she said.
McGuinty - who has three sons in university and said he has "a personal interest in this issue" - had little to offer students beyond his current commitments, which include $6.2 billion over five years to open up more spots for students and to provide grants to 120,000 students.
But protesters weren't satisfied with that response, and said McGuinty can't understand their plight since he paid only $600 a year in tuition when he was a student in law school - an amount that some students now pay just for their textbooks.
The average tuition for a Canadian university student in 2006-07 was $4,347, up 3.2 per cent from the previous year and almost triple the average of $1,464 in 1990-1991. Quebec students were at the bottom end of the scale, paying an average of $1,916, while Nova Scotia commanded the highest fees at $6,571.
The Canadian Federation of Students estimates the country's more than one million post-secondary students are struggling with debts totalling $20 billion, with the amount growing by $1.5 million each day.
Governments can't claim they have no money to fund post-secondary education when provinces like Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are doing such a great job for students, Boyko said.
"Quebec has a terrific record of keeping education affordable - fees in Quebec are about half the national average and college is free," Boyko said.
"And Newfoundland and Labrador is also a place where there's been tuition fee reductions and a real attempt by successive governments to keep education affordable."
But students still staged a rally in Montreal, where the Quebec Federation of University Students said protesters must stay vigilant because tuition fees may go up if Premier Jean Charest is re-elected.
The Canadian Federation of Students did welcome Ontario's message Wednesday that the federal government should be more involved with post-secondary funding.
"The McGuinty government is investing, taxpayers in Ontario are investing, students are making an additional contribution, and we need Ottawa to step up," said Chris Bentley, Ontario's minister of training, colleges and universities.
"We need the federal government ... to make sure that their per capita funding for students in the province of Ontario matches what it is elsewhere."
Boyko said that doesn't excuse Ontario for not lowering or freezing tuition fees, but he acknowledged the message is important.
"There's a big emphasis ... to really put pressure on the federal government to stop its retreat and really reassume its responsibility and be an important funding partner for post-secondary education," he said.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday the government would like to increase transfer payments to provinces for post-secondary education, but the provinces must deal with the details.
"There's no question that the primary responsibility of setting tuition rates, creating universities and community colleges is that of the provinces," he said.
By MICHAEL OLIVEIRA
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