As opposed to the many private institutions in the US, Canadian universities are all publicly funded and tuition costs a few thousand dollars at the most.

Where was mankash666 talking about private universities?

I've talked to publishers who say they can justify charging high prices because it does not come from "taxpayers" but instead from tuition. While that is not entirely accurate, universities failing to push back against high costs for serials contributes to higher student fees.

UdeM is pretty great actually: https://admission.umontreal.ca/en/student-info/costs-financi...

As mizzao pointed out, Canadian universities are publicly funded. Tuition rates went up a few percent over the course of my 5-year degree, and the most I paid for a year of studies was ~5600 at UBC (the lowest being ~5400). It really is nothing like the publisher UdeM is complaining about.