| # | First Name | Last Name | Please provide a comment or personal story. |
|---|
| 51 | Jeremi | Davidson | I ran into some major problems with my student loan. They wouldn't accept my application for interest relief, even though they did the first time I applied, and I ended up being sent to collections over it. |
| 52 | Jeremy | Herring | I have almost $70,000 @ over 8% interest in loans, a cut would be nice. |
| 53 | Dave | Thomas | I've recently graduated and my loan payments are debilitating. I pay $10 per day in interest alone!!!! |
| 54 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I was paying my loans for 2 years, I became laid off and couldn't make my payments. After years of harassment by various agencies, I just totally ignore them. I think it's unfair that we need to financially kill ourselves in order to get educated in this country. Change something, and do it fast. |
| 55 | Allan | Dawson | I am still in school yet have been forced to enter repayment on my federal loans because I have been in school for over 520 weeks. This policy is prejudicial against graduate students who require loans. Canada wonders why good scientists don't stay here? |
| 56 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I think that borrowing money for my education was probably the worst mistake in my life. I am quite successful
and I will be even more successful. I make good money and I will be making more money in the future.
Although, I have credit cards back, the defaulted student loan is still preventing me from buying a
house. Defaulting on my student loan was not really my intention. I will have it paid off this year but,
it is still defaulted. I can't get out of collections no matter how hard a I try. I will pay it off
this year and I think the student system is a brutal system. When a student loan borrower
gets his life back together, makes consistent payments, the student should come out of collections
so that the student loan borrower can get on with his/her life. |
| 57 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I am about to graduate by the end of thei month and my debt is ouver 40,000$. I dunno what to do with it? I wanna study more...but with this debt I am better off just killing myself! |
| 58 | Russell | Munday | Maybe we can bring in some sanity to this program. |
| 59 | Shauna | McShane | My student loan was "taken away" because I made "too much money" working part time at McDonald's while attending college full time. The Royal Bank also withdrew $600 from my account saying I was in "arrears" (I was still in school at the time). I was forced to leave school because of this, and have worked minimum wage jobs since, making it impossible to pay my student loans, since minimum wage is not a living wage. |
| 60 | Ronnie | Jackson | education should be free! |
| 61 | Sonja | Horlings | Post secondary education is becoming harder and harder to pay for. Every year tuition goes up and costs of living go up, etc. But, wages stay the same and so do the payments. There'd be less debt and a better economy if everyone was given an equal chance of going to college/university without the added burden of an enormous debt afterwards. Not saying that it should be free, well maybe it should, but if a post secondary education cost less, graduates would be more likely to get ahead financially and be a positive contributor to the economy. Times can be hard and it seems students don't get much of a break these days. Hopefully this petition will help. |
| 62 | Ruby | Collier | I graduated in '89-,owing 17,000.I didn't get a job in my field-but--I paid and I paid whatever I could ,whenever I could for 10 years -now my loan is 34,000.I am going to die owing this money! Help!-there has to be help somewhere for a situation like mine -I'm sure I'm not the only one! |
| 63 | Tara | Molloy | Being a single mother at the time I decided to go back to school...the loan was for 25gs...I have paid more then 18000 and now the tell me that because of the interest rates I still owe them almost 9000 in interest... |
| 64 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I am currently a grad student at Queen's. I have two small children with consequent expenses, and will find it very hard to begin making loan payments. |
| 65 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I defaulted on my loans many years ago due to unfortunate personal circumstances. I have since paid off my loans, but I had to do a lot of digging and work in order to find out who to pay money to. There were three different portions of the loan - I was only aware of two. I was surprised with the third portion when buying my house. |
| 66 | Anonymous | Anonymous | In my personal opinion the Education in Canada shouldn't cost a penny.
There are so many successful countries in the world, where Education is FREE.
Students have a lifetime ahead of them to pay taxes.
Everybody should have equal access to Education, based on personal merit only.
Wake up Canada! |
| 67 | Francisco X | Cerda | 1. My daughter was asked, and harassed by CBCL to pay back her Student loan while in school at 7 or 8% interest which she, I in this instance, paid in installments.
2. After she finished school she was harassed by Alliance One to pay inmediately four thousand dollars while she was being charged 27% interest.
I tried to get someone from the Ministry or from the loan sharks to talk some sense and all I got was gibberish from the gov't. moguls.
3. At the same time I have had the utmost difficulty to find out who is responsable for the file, I always find an overworked and underpaid underling who said his/hers was the final word, which was absolute nonsense and a huge lie, and that nothing could be done about it.
4. When I try to get a written statement of the amounts paid , itemized in principal and interest I don't get any response.
5. The minister in charge should just resign and go fishing. This way he would be more useful to the country.
FX Cerda |
| 68 | Dianna | Inkster | I had money in the bank when I graduated in 1976 and worked. I paid the $800 student loan I had the instant it was due. The current situation for students stinks! I wasn't aware that if you become disabled it has to be in the first 6 months after graduation to get loan forgiveness. That is ridiculous. |
| 69 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I have a student loan in the amount of $18,000. I feel like I will never pay it off as the interest alone is $140/month and I can only afford to pay $100/month. I get ahead a little bit every year as there is a lien on my income tax and I generally get 1 to 2 thousand a year. Lower interest or no interest would be great as I would feel that I am getting ahead. I finished school in 2004 so in 3 years I have only managed to pay off about $3000 |
| 70 | Stephen | Kenney | I support this initiative will supply today's youth with opportunties that were not afforded to those before them. |
| 71 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I agree wholeheartedly. I had four loans....now three! I need to make half of my take home pay to pay these loans! |
| 72 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I've been through it all, interest relief, default, collections (still ongoing). Royal couldn't tell me where my Ontario loan was, and then I had 3 different collectors contacting me by phone, etc, lying about who they were and refusing to send me documentation. Nightmare. |
| 73 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My payments a month are too much. Interest is sucking me dry. I pay nearly 200 dollars every month but I have a baby to raise in the meantime. Its very hard to make my payments but they are made or else Student Loans will come back at me and serve me with something. |
| 74 | Anonymous | Anonymous | As someone who finshed university over 10 years ago and has hardley made a dent in the amount I owe (due to medical issues, occasional unemployment and under employment), I demand that the government deal with these issues NOW. Does the government want graduates to drown in debt or to be active perticipants in the economy?? |
| 75 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Strongly support the changes, and hope they would apply retroactively and encompass all student loans regardless of age or collection status. |
| 76 | Christopher | Stubbs | I believe that the government should be doing more to help people obtain a higher education. |
| 77 | Anonymous | Anonymous | Government should step in to help students with this issue. We, the students, were faced with higher tution fees for many years. We can really use a reduction on interests and on pay-backs. |
| 78 | anonymous | anonymous | A reduction in the interest would be nice. I am paying $500.00 a month in student loans but a good portion is only going to interest |
| 79 | Pam | Barton | I feel that these changes could impact alot of people and improve their current and future situations. |
| 80 | Leanne | McKenzie | My husband and I each owe $40,000 in student loans. The payments are $1,000 per month.
Debt advisors have told us there is nothing we can do to make those payments with our income.
We now have 3 or 4 collection agencies each, calling us and demanding "their" share.
This has resulted in depression and medication. |
| 81 | Shelley | Comer | Education should be a right, not a privilege. |
| 82 | Melanie | Preston | I value my education and am grateful for the loan of resources to have made it possible. The terms of repayment, however, are unreasonable in the extreme. First of all, I was unable to access debt reduction because I exceeded time completion rules: this was a result of my (unknowingly expensive) decision to go to school part-time for 2 years, during which time I did not receive any loans at all. Still that time counted against me in the access to debt load assistance. Now, I pay an amount equivalent to my housing cost ($550), of which 60% is interest payments. The bank tells me the only 'option' I have is to default and negotiate with collection agencies. As someone who wants to contribute to society and meet my obligations, I find the gouging interest rates and inflexible payment options are making this increasingly difficult. Is education really accessible at this cost? My friends who did not go to university are getting mortages. I have a mortgage of debt on my future. |
| 83 | J | McCarthy | I have been paying my student loan for over 3 years now and there is no end in sight, I have a well paying job however I still have no Hope of becoming a home buyer anytime soon. They say that my generation stay at home longer than any generation before us, that is because we cannot move out when you are 40K in debt. |
| 84 | Anonymous | Anonymous | 5 years after I received a grant - my parents were audited which affected the amounts used in my grant application. 5 years after that the government accused me of lying on my application forms and collection agents demanded the money back. My lawyer said tell them to "go pound sand". It is now 25 years since I got the grant money and I am still being harassed by collection agents. |
| 85 | Catherine | Siegler | good education is the key to a healthy society. Please make it possible by keeping fees reasonable. |
| 86 | Steven | Orr | I have been living in Korea for two years so that I can make my student loan payments and save money to return to school. I make minimum payments to three different lenders: Cibc, BC, and Canada. After my minimum payments, around half goes to principal and half to interest, which makes climbing out of the hole a frustratingly long and expensive process. I'd be happy, above all, if interest rates were lowered, as education in Canada should not be about bank profits! |
| 87 | Cesar | Hinojosa | .... |
| 88 | Anonymous | Anonymous | My husband and I are nearly ten years past univesity graduation and we are still trying to dig ourselves out of our financial ruin from student loans. We are both permanently employed teachers (five years or more) and we cannot even get accepted for a small credit card, much less a home or a new car. What completely destroyed us is that our loans were sharded in so many directions that we couldn't keep track of them. Other difficulties compounded this problem. Please make these significant changes to student loans. |
| 89 | Jennifer | Jensen | I graduated from UNB & STU. After 6 years of studying and obtaining 2 degrees, I am employed at a job that I was qualified for before attending university.
My student loan is being paid off monthly through the mediation board
(500.00). The interest is approximately 400.00+ per month.
There is no way I will live long enough to pay off the principal!
Jennifer |
| 90 | Anonymous | Anonymous | All I know is that after getting the loan there was an unemployment jump here. Jobs are hard to find. The only one I managed to get gives me $700 a month! Tell me how I'm supposed to make payments of $70 and still survive |
| 91 | Jennifer | Carter | Both my husband and I have loans from undergraduate and Master's degrees. We can't believe the hassles we have to go through to get accurate information about student loans! Anything that can be done to reduce the enormous debt load for students should be considered a high priority for this country. |
| 92 | Treena | Isherwood | Had I known the absolute hell I would incur by playing by the rules, attaining my degree and subsequently seeking employment at a level higher than that of a bar waitress - I doubt that I would have opted for post secondary education.
I now have a 6 year old child, am a single mother and have not much hope of paying back my debts for provincial and CSL portions of loans administered. (Still over $40,000 - over a decade of payments made so far). I now receive harrassing calls, threatening letters and haven't seen an income tax return since my daughter's birth year (ironically enough - just when I needed my tax returns the most...the government decided to take every single penny. Thanks for THAT).
To make a long story short, unless I can afford to foot my daughter's education costs - I will refuse to co-sign any government sponsored educational fees for her. Which is a damned shame - since by the time I manage to get my head above water again and no longer have to worry about my debtload...my daughter will have long since grown up and moved on w/ her life and/or career. Here's hoping she makes a heap of money in a self taught trade.
I no longer advocate 'higher education' to any youth groups that I speak to. Since it was made abundantly clear to me that the so-called Great Canadian Dream is one of debt and lies. |
| 93 | Anonymous | Anonymous | I couldn't agree more with the points outlined in this petition. The Canada Student Loan Program in its current form is completely unacceptable. Myself, like so many other student borrowers in this country, have been the victims of a broken and negligent system for too long. I am a responsible individual who is making every effort to pay back my loans, but until changes like those proposed in this petition are implemented, I will continue to struggle under an unmanageable and unfair debt burden. I sincerely hope this document is received seriously, and action is taken to make some much needed changes. Thank you for listening! |
| 94 | Kevin | James | 4 loans, 2 in default, 1 missing, one in good standing, but only through hard fought negotiation. A very evpensive degree for a job that will never pay any better than $ 58,000 |
| 95 | Gabriela | Kamenicki | Education should be a right not a privilege of the wealthy! Help people who are not well off with a better program that does not put them in a difficult financial situation after they go to school. |
| 96 | pamela | lawhead | I have a student loan in default because the National Student Loan Service Centre repeatedly lost documents, interest relief applications and payments. They refuse to accept responsibility for their own incompetance and are useless when attempting to deal with problems they created. |
| 97 | Andrew | Stevens | Post-secondary education should be a right! |
| 98 | Shanah | Pitawanakwat | Point 3 – Create a Student Loan Ombudsman Office - Lost Documentation is the cause of alot of problems! |
| 99 | Tim | Hunt | I graduated in 1995. I paid back my OSL with help from loan forgiveness program. My CSL is still being paid 12 yrs later. No help whatsoever to reduce this debt. |
| 100 | Mike | Schuster | . |
