Sometimes the Good Guys Win

If you received Quebec student loans for the 1997-1998 or 1998-1999 school years, you were probably screwed. I mean, everyone on student loans has been screwed, but you were screwed a little more than the rest of us. Apparently during these years, the Ministere de l'Education backtracked on their agreement with students not to charge them interest or request payment until six months after their graduation. They started charging interest immediately upon graduation, just to get that little bit extra out of you. Quebec say fare. Or Quebec sait faire, as my Dad would say... although I was never sure in what language. They didn't account for the fact that not everybody on Quebec student loans gets a useless degree like a BFA (I can say that because I have one- you holders of BAs or BSCs, by the way, are not much better off, so be quiet). McGill law school graduate, Harry Dikranian, recipient of said screwy loans took the government to court in 1999 and has finally won his case. Good thing he was a lawyer and could book himself some 'free' (except for that nasty student loan) legal aid. In June 2008, some
80 000 Quebec students should be receiving checks for as much as 1200$. The government expects to dish out about 30 million dollars in interest repayments. So if you happened to be a loan recipient those years in Quebec, visit http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/ministere/info/index.asp?page=communiques&id=144
and sign yourself up to get your money back. The government claims they'll be mailing out letters to these students, but I'm sure many of them will be lost in the mail. And good luck finding this information on the ministry's English site, or in the English newspaper. Apparently only the French deserve to know about this reimbursement. I'm surprised they didn't post it only in English to minimize the number of payments!