A recent issue of The Silhouette, McMaster University's student newspaper, at their offices on campus in Hamilton, April 28.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Andrew Mrozowski remembers when the Ontario government’s Student Choice Initiative slashed the budget for McMaster University’s campus newspaper, The Silhouette, where he worked as the arts and culture editor.
The policy allowed students to withdraw from ancillary fees for services deemed non-essential, such as student unions, clubs and campus media. In 2021, Ontario’s Court of Appeal quashed the provincial government’s attempt to overturn a lower court decision that struck down the policy.
But campus newspapers found it difficult to bounce back, especially considering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time.
Thirty-five per cent of students had opted out of The Silhouette’s then-$9 annual fee, reducing its weekly publishing to every other week, Mr. Mrozowski said. The Hamilton-based newspaper also could not rehire for some staff roles.
Now, as executive director of The Silhouette and president of the Canadian University Press, or CUP, a co-operative of campus newspapers across the country, Mr. Mrozowski fears that Ontario’s Bill 33 will yield similar results.
Andrew Mrozowski, executive editor of The Silhouette, McMaster University's student newspaper, at their offices on campus in Hamilton, on April 28.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Globe and Mail
Bill 33 provides the government with power over what ancillary fees postsecondary students must pay, allowing them to opt out of some – though it’s not yet certain how these provisions will actually be applied. Ahead of the changes, Ontario student newspapers are slashing their budgets and anticipating the worst: a significant funding loss that will limit their ability to report comprehensively on campus news.
“The Student Choice Initiative was detrimental to campus papers and radio stations,” Mr. Mrozowski said, adding that CUP members lost between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of their funding from opt-outs. “The main worry is that Bill 33 is going to allow students to do the same thing.”
He said that “a lot of student newspapers are scared they’re going to lose funding and have to make tough decisions to cut back on things that have been part of their paper for years.”
But students “deserve to know where their fees are going,” said Bianca Giacoboni, press secretary to Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.
“This bill ensures transparency and fosters better trust in our postsecondary education system,” she wrote in an e-mail, adding that the ministry is consulting with the postsecondary sector to identify which ancillary fees should be optional. “No changes will come into effect until consultation has concluded.”
She did not respond to questions about when these consultations will finish.
The budget for Toronto Metropolitan University’s student publication, The Eyeopener, is almost entirely comprised of an annual levy of about $11 a student, according to general manager and publisher Liane McLarty. The Eyeopener lost 70 per cent of its budget under the Student Choice Initiative.
In the wake of Bill 33, the publication has scaled back its food budget. Its funds for legal coverage and salaries will depend on how much money the levy brings in.
“We’re trying to save money to give us a little buffer,” Ms. McLarty said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen.”
According to David King, editor-in-chief at The Arthur, the student newspaper at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., losing between 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the budget could force the paper to stop printing and hiring student editors. Seventy-five per cent of the paper’s budget comes from its $14.64 annual fee per undergraduate student.
“That’s the really troubling reality I don’t like entertaining,” Mr. King said. “It would have to be a very, very bare-bones endeavour.”
Bill 33 comes at a time when student media organizations are being defunded and journalism programs are closing across Canada.
Last December, the University of Ottawa’s campus radio station closed following financial issues after students voted to end its levy in 2023. In March, Algonquin College cut its journalism program, and its campus radio station closed earlier this month. Last year, Fanshawe College’s student union closed its 50-year-old newspaper, The Interrobang, to reallocate its funds.
Opinion: Ontario’s Bill 33 is harming the students it claims to protect
Jeffrey Dvorkin, the former journalism program director of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, maintains student media is essential to democracy.
“Getting students accustomed to having a media presence on which they can rely is terribly important to give students the skills they need to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information,” he said.
More than two in five Canadians find it’s becoming harder to distinguish between true and false news, according to Statistics Canada data from 2023.
“There’s a lot of turmoil on campus these days, and it’s important that students be informed of all the issues,” Mr. Dvorkin said. “There’s a long tradition of great student newspapers where they report on stories that may be embarrassing to the university but may benefit students.”
In recent years, student media has covered campus stories including pro-Palestine encampments, allegations of misconduct in student unions, university union strikes and access-to-information request delays involving Canadian universities.
The Canadian Federation of Students and the York Federation of Students first mounted the legal challenge against the Student Choice Initiative policy. According to Rawan Habib, executive director of the Canadian federation’s Ontario branch, bringing a legal challenge to Bill 33 “is not off the table.”
In the meantime, Mr. Mrozowski said CUP has been creating reporting guides and human-resources training to provide Ontario newspapers with extra support. The group is also encouraging outlets to reach out to local MPPs for more information on Bill 33.
“It boggles my mind to see papers, radio stations and journalism programs being shuttered,” he said, adding that he sees it as a larger issue about distrust in the news.
Fewer than half of Canadians – 47 per cent – reported high levels of trust in the media, according to Statistics Canada data from 2025.
“This isn’t just a student journalism issue, it’s across the country,” Mr. Mrozowski said. “It’s not an envious time to be in student media, let alone mainstream.”