RSU: Three Ring Circus

The on-going divisiveness of a slim majority of RSU directors is leading to some of the most outrageous times ever experienced by the RSU. Once a proud and strong student advocate and service provider, recent antics of directors is enough to lose faith of the average student and the RSU is dangerously close to alienating the students it represents.

Some examples:

First, the annual budget process was stalled by four months. Eventually, a budget was rammed through, but it failed to reflect the RSU’s actual financial location. For example, the new budget cut the Anti-War campaign line item to zero. However, at that point, the RSU had already used financial resources on anti-war campaigns as per its back-up budget, (last year’s budget).

The list of problems with the budget continues, despite being moved by a business faculty director (Chandan Sharma) and supported by other business faculty directors. It should certainly be the hope that this isn’t the kind of fiscal prudence being taught at the Ryerson business school. Indeed, the problem is likely acute, resting with the bull-headed Ryevolutionaires at the board.

A second example is the debacle at the Senate meeting, which has already been written about. You can find it here.

Third, Abdul Snobar served a motion this week to sign a year-long contract with Gallivan and Associates (G&A), the broker for the RSU’s health and dental plan. G&A is most notable for having sued the RSU a few years back, and hiking its rates by almost $100 in only four years. G&A has steered RSU’s plan to be the most expensive in Toronto. Rather taking the financially prudent approach tendering the plan, Snobar’s motion sought to skip right to re-signing with G&A before taking other bids. Stopping the tendering process for an insurance plan makes about as much sense as buying the first used car that you’re offered at the first lot you find.

The most recent evidence of the RSU's decent into the absurd happened on Wednesday night. Ryvolutionary board members moved to install a new chair—Snobar’s brother, former business student and failed RSU presidential candidate Abe. Somehow, the Snobars thought they could side-step Abe Snobar’s defeat during last year’s elections and sneak him in the back door as board chair.

Moreover, any attempt to appear impartial—as a chair must be during a decision-making meeting—was thrown out the window when Abe was caught overtly organizing with his brother and other Ryevolution directors to get himself installed. The motion to install the senior Snobar as Chair failed, so as per the bylaws, the job fell to his election adversary, current RSU President Muhammad Ali Jabbar.

After all this excitement, what's next for the RSU board of directors? Surely exams and less frustrating activities must be taking over aspects of board members' lives.

The Ryerson Free Press’ November edition will be on the stands next week. You'll be able to read about all of the above in more detail among the pages of the paper. Until then, if you're a concerned student, you should email the board of directors (bod@rsuonline.ca) and tell them to stop this fraternal block from confusing and stalling the business of the RSU any further.

Judge Harry LaForme resigns from Truth and Reconciliation Commission

It was reported today that Justice Harry LaForme has resigned as Chief Commissioner of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. LaForme cited conflict with government appointed commissioners as his reason for the resignation.

The federal government launched the Commission the same month that it apologized for its complicity in the genocidal policy. It was launched as part of a solution to a court-ordered settlement to settle outstanding legal claims brought against the federal government and churches for abuses from within the schools.

Harry LaForme is a member of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation, the Nation that has claim over most of the City of Toronto, including Ryerson University. He is also a judge with the Ontario Superior Court of Appeal.

The Commission was supposed to be a forum where victims can heal from the abuse they endured while at residential schools. The intention of the commission was not to lay blame upon any individuals or institutions and, unsurprisingly, it has been widely criticized.

One of the criticisms leveled against the Commission was triggered by the appointment of lawyer Owen Young to the Commission. Earlier this year, Young urged a judge to impose a "financial penalty that hurts," against the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug 6 (the KI6) for protecting their traditional lands from Platinex Corp., a platinum mining company. As reported by the Globe and Mail, Young was the Crown prosecutor in the case.

There were also calls for the Commission to be independent. Rather than independence, however, the Commission reports to the Minister of Indian Affairs, Chuck Strahl. This is a position of power, as defined by the Indian Act, that today remains a paternal figure who can exercise control over First Nations peoples in a variety of ways through the Act.

The root of the problem is simply the Indian Act. It was the piece of legislation that first allowed residential schools to be established (the jurisdiction to set up residential schools still exists today).

The Act has within it a formula that will essentially reduce the number of status Indians as generations pass and people marry with non-status people, a clever assimilation policy to say the least. It also places a myriad of restrictions upon status Indians that Canadians do not have to contend with (and would likely riot over had they these restrictions imposed upon them).

Until the Indian Act is repealed and self-government is recognized in a real way, no amount of apologies, commissions or government [in]action is going to address the hurt inflicted by colonization.

White Culture Club again rears its ugly head, this time it's 'Ryevolutionary'

On Tuesday night, Ryerson's Senate met as it normally does, to discuss the various aspects of running a University.

And, as they normally do, the two students' unions served a motion calling for academic amnesty on the province-wide Day of Action to Drop Fees.

Ryerson's administrators, not ones to make waves, usually pass these motions and encourage students to get involved. They're also not ones to stand out. So it's unsurprising that they passed the motion considering that similar motions of support have already been passed at the University of Ottawa, Queen's University and York University.

The motion was served by Rebecca Rose from RSU and Tania Hassan from CESAR. It called on the Senate to strongly urge professors to allow students to be away from class should they choose to participate in the Day of Action.

In an all too typical example of how right-wing student representatives operate, Natasha Williams, a member of last year's 'Ryevolution' election block, spoke against the motion. She's likely best known for her work with the ryevolutionary Ryerson Commerce Society (RCS).

Williams argued against the motion, suggesting that students who want the day off should write letters MPPs about tuition fees rather than taking a day off to demonstrate. In effect, she called for the academic punishment of all students who participate in the Day of Action. What a student representative!

While known for her work with the RCS, Williams is lesser known for her support of a White Culture Club at Ryerson, where white students could gather and discuss issues of common cause. Of course, this notion is offensive and lacks any historical, anti-racism, anti-oppression or even societal analysis.

When the 'White Culture' debate gripped the RSU two years ago, most of the activity was online. And, as is known by most who use the Internet, online posts can be forever. In Williams' case, her words remain there:

"I have a HUGE issue with someone who says there is no such thing as white culture. How dare you, that is no different to saying there is no Black culture or no Asian Culture. White culture isn't simply north American culture. I posted on another groups board saying that for example Classical European Music (and I'm speaking of for example Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven etc.) is white culture, but is definatly not north american culture, because these composers were from europe. Ballet is also white culture, and that definatly didn't originate in north america either."

How representative. How Ryevolutionary. How offensive.

Williams may have been the only student to speak against the motion for academic amnesty, but a large majority of her fellow Ryevolutionaries voted with her. These included: Shakera Martin, Darius Sookram, Merit Abadir, Ken Chadha, Paul Yoon and Melissa Piacente (former staffer at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities and Ryerson Commerce Society executive member).

Most revealing about this vote is the fact that these people appeared to vastly misrepresent themselves during the election by running on a platform calling for tuition fee reductions and even outright elimination. It appears after talking the talk, they aren’t walking the walk.

Not that Williams' racist and offensive comments are representative of a group of students who purport to be representative of Ryerson's diverse members, students should be concerned with anyone who makes an alliance like this just to be able to gain power.

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