Will Dion give Ken Dryden the boot?

As many of our readers know, the Ryerson Free Press is monitoring certain aspects of the election that are not always on the mainstream media’s radar, such as post-secondary education and the war in Afghanistan. These issues are nevertheless critical to Canadians.

Most recently is the news of Ken Dryden, Liberal candidate for York Centre, who caught the attention of some when he called for the collective punishment of Palestinian people in Gaza. At an address on September 24 at Beth Emeth synagogue, Dryden was reported to state the following: "Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians… it is the right thing to do at this time."

The Liberals have gotten off pretty easy during this election campaign for their history of supporting Canada's war effort. During this election they have painted themselves as a peace-loving party, exemplified by their support for American war resistors and commitment to end Canada’s role in Afghanistan by 2011.

However, the Liberals are just as culpable for Omar Khadr's arrest and seven-year detention at Guantanamo Bay as are the Conservatives. They could have toppled the Conservative government on any number of votes, including the budget where billions of dollars was earmarked for military expansion, but instead they let it quietly pass.

Sins of omission are often worse than sins of commission. But that's not the case for Dryden. His words about cutting aid to Gaza were loud and clear.

With the exception of a short piece from John Turley-Ewart, Associate Editor of the Financial Post, most of the major media outlets seemed to miss the comments made by Ken Dryden. As Turley-Ewart points out, there appears to be a vast gulf between the media’s treatment of those who promote intolerance and those who promote Islamophobia.

Dion has already fired one candidate for her volatile comments pertaining to the Jewish community. The question now is will he follow his own example and consult with the Arab community about this latest infraction committed by another one of his candidates?

No One Is Illegal-Pictures from today's rally

Today, there was a rally organised by No One Is Illegal calling on the federal government to stop the deportation of Isabel Garcia, a woman who left Mexico to flee domestic violence.

The RFP went to press today, but during that fury, we managed to get pictures from the rally.

Click here for more information about today's rally. Also, keep watching the RFP's website for a story about Garcia from June.

Stephen Harper: FAIL

For many students, failing a course is a fate worse than any other while at school. Within this realm, there are two kinds of failure: failure due to lack of understanding and failure due to cheating.

In many ways, it is failure by cheating that is worse. Those who do it don't think they'll be caught and are able to enjoy the lull between cheating and getting caught.

Cheating is an especially timely issue for students at Ryerson having just witnessed the largest story on cheating and plagiarism last year in Canada.

However, this is probably not what folks at the Canadian Federation of Students were thinking when they developed their party platform report card, released today. They were judging platforms issue by issue, not based on plagiarism. As such, the F earned by the Conservatives was because of performance on tuition fee policy, not plagiarism.

Failure due to both performance and plagiarism can be an indication that you may want to reconsider your choices to study a particular programme or at a particular institution. Getting an F in politics due to both performance and, on the same day, being accused of plagiarism may be an indication that there is something seriously wrong with your party.

In a video released today by the Liberal party, it is clear that Harper borrowed parts of a speech about the war in Iraq from one delivered by John Howard, then-Prime Minister of Australia. Owen Lippert, a former foreign policy adviser and campaign worker has been canned for the gaffe.

A video of Harper, superimposed on a video of Howard has been uploaded to the Liberal party website. It shows the parts of the two speeches that are the exact same.

Stealing from yourself is one thing, but it is indeed plagiarism when it's taken from someone else. The originality report from turnitin.com would likely result in a zero in the assignment and an F in the course, if he were a student in a class.

But he isn't, and really, Harper and his Conservatives should get many Fs for a number of their policies and public statements: tax cuts over social spending, refusing to do university debates, the war in Afghanistan, racial slurs against First Nations peoples, the list could go on for days.

Grading the Harper Conservatives, and the other parties, is a useful tool to get a message across. But things should be placed in perspective: how embarrassing it is for us Canadians to have such a leader, and how difficult it will be for university administrators to prosecute students who are found to have cheated.

Imagine the new defence: if Stephen Harper did it and got elected to be Prime Minister, why can't I?

Who will be able to argue against this logic with a straight face?

RSU President Announces Withdrawal of Anti-War Stance at RSU

Last night, RFP reporters donated 7 hours of their lives to witness the September board meeting of the Ryerson Students' Union. While there will be extensive coverage of the meeting in the October issue, out next week, this letter made its way to us today. We thought it fit to publish. It was sent to all members of the Canadian Peace Alliance.

OPEN LETTER to the members of the Canadian Peace Alliance:

Dear members of the Canadian Peace Alliance,

It is with great regret that I must inform you that the Board of Directors of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) resolved last night to not continue its membership in the Canadian Peace Alliance. While I affirm that a significant minority of our Board and I are very supportive of the Canadian Peace Alliance and are staunchly opposed to war, I can no longer say that this is the position of the RSU.

The RSU has had a long and proud tradition of supporting anti-war initiatives. From the position taken at our 2002 Annual General Meeting against the American-led occupation of Iraq to strong student contingents at rallies calling for Canadian troops out of Afghanistan, the RSU has, in the past, been a proud and vocal supporter of peace.

Unfortunately, our Board of Directors has shifted dramatically to the political right and, at last night’s meeting several motions were served that illustrated this shift. This includes the narrow defeat of a motion to continue our membership in the CPA and proposed budget amendments that would see our funding of campaigns for peace, accessible education and student rights all reduced to zero. Further budget cuts to our progressive campaigns work are still outstanding and will be considered at our next meeting.

I would, however, like to assure you and your members that there are still a dozen directors and thousands of Ryerson students who are committed to the peace and anti-war movement at Ryerson. The Students Against War coalition will continue to be anchored by the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR). I also commit to you all that, as President, I will work hard to ensure that the first-ever national anti-war conference scheduled for February will be a success, and not derailed by these circumstances.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

In peace and solidarity,

Muhammad Ali Jabbar

President
Ryerson Students' Union
Local 24, Canadian Federation of Students

ATTN Ryerson Students and Community Members: Pro-Choice Event TOMORROW

The Ryerson Students' Union sent this notice out about a photo-exhibit on tomorrow:

The struggle to keep Canada pro-choice persists as the Conservatives supported Bill C-484 which would have given personhood to the fetus and been an attack on abortion rights.

Minister of Health Tony Clement has refused to intervene to allow clinic abortions to be funded in New Brunswick.

Don't let the Harper Conservatives send women's rights back to the 1950's! Come out to these events to show your support and rally for the cause.

Wednesday September 24
Credit Lounge 11 am- 5 pm
Photo display of pro-choice women defending our rights.
Photography from the 60s, 80s and today!

The CASA Misses Chance to Lobby Federal Candidates on Students' Main Priorities

With the Federal election in full swing, advocacy organizations of all types are trying to influence political parties to get the best promises possible. Just as these groups kick into high gear, so too do the media outlets.

Media groups voraciously seek out angles, interviews, cute stories, scandals and anything else they can get their hands on to keep an audience tuned in. This is a prime opportunity for interest groups to get their messages out to the public and politicians.

One interest group, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) has recently launched web-campaign which they sell as “All you Need to Know to Make an Educated Vote.” Notable components to the site include some information on voting, and press releases, a blog, and a short video.

On second glance it is clear that missing among the CASA’s campaign is any attention to the issue that is arguably most important to students—tuition fees. This is first apparent in their poll asking what is the most important change needed for post-secondary education in Canada. Strangely, of the four questions, none give an option for reducing, freezing or, heaven forbid eliminating tuition fees. There isn't even an “other” option.

Unfortunately, it appears that the price of tuition fees isn’t on their radar at all for this election. At best, this is an embarrassing misreading of the students’ priorities that they purport to represent. What's more, the CASA’s “solutions” ignores calls from federal candidates themselves for dedicated federal funding to be used to help offset tuition fees.

For example, the CASA does not link to the NDP’s “Education & training your family can afford” among their links to that party’s education platform. Instead they characterized the “NDP Party Platform” as only relating to the promise to medical students, which was announced in their plan for healthcare. Contrary to the all-encompassing website it purports to be, the rest of the “Party Platforms” section is out of date, with the exception of a section on the Green Party.

This organization appears to simply steer clear of tuition fees altogether. A closer reading of the CASA’s website and their press releases reveals a disconnect between their own tuition fee policy and the consistent absence of this issue from their lobby priorities. The CASA has come on board with other organisations who do call for a national strategy on post-secondary education, including dedicated transfer payments. Such a method of payments could be used to help offset the cost that students pay, making this an important federal issue. The average student must be disappointed, however, that the CASA is missing the boat on integrating into the discussion calls for lower tuition fees. Instead their sights are aimed lower, calling for a Pan-Canadian Dataset.

Students deserve better than this. When an organization’s lobby efforts do not represent their paying membership, students ultimately lose.

Student ‘representatives’ who call unqualified praise for party platforms 'lobbying' would better create the change they seek by taking jobs from the Liberals or the Greens and working from within these parties. If this is the CASA’s idea of making the post-secondary education system better, they should leave lobbying for real change to students.

Trent Central Students' Association: At the whim of partisan politics?

School has only been in session for a few weeks and already Trent Central Student Association (TCSA) President Liam Mooney is under fire from various constituents at that campus. According to reports from the Trent Arthur, Trent's student newspaper, Mooney (a self styled moderate) immediately set upon an aggressive agenda which has raised a number of students' eyebrows on that campus.

According to the Arthur's website these moves include:

1. Culling staff. Resulting from a closed-door vote, staff person Cat Dickenson was fired without cause. There was no record kept of the meeting's proceedings. As a corollary, a wedge was driven through the TCSA executive over the firing.

2. Opposing staff unionization.

3. Reprimanding a fellow executive member (Meaghan Kelly, VP Student Issues) for articulating TCSA policy against a privately owned and operated residence on campus during a CBC Radio interview. In an email, Mooney pointed to a error during her interview and accused her of following her own “own myopic political project.”

4. A failed attempt to see the TCSA withdraw from the CFS. His petition to leave CFS was answered by a counter-petition against defederating signed by over 20 per cent of TCSA's membership in one week.

5. Ignoring the "Solidarity in Meetings" policy of the TCSA when he met with elected provincial representatives alone.

6. Inviting anti-choice groups onto campus during clubs day.

It has been revealed that Mooney--pictured here (third picture down) with Federal Liberal candidate for Peterborough Betsy McGregor--may be the one who is harbouring his own partisan political project. According to the President of the Peterborough Young Liberals Jonathan Pinto, Mooney is a member of the Young Liberals, though he has never held an executive position within the party.

Although this whole situation is considered "petty and stupid" by some observers, others should wonder if it’s main-stream politics, and the appearance of its intrusion into students' union politics, that is the problem. Indeed, it wouldn’t be the first time that political parties attempted to influence the affairs of a students’ union.