I squeeze by crawling/stopped cars on the road when a) I’ll be making a right hand turn and the cars ahead of me are waiting at a red looking to go straight and b) when there are blocks of gridlock. I dislike waiting in the fumes.

Let’s face it, pedestrians j-walk, motorists speed, cyclists find ways to cut ahead in slow moving traffic. So I guess nobody should be whining here.

…and I’m not, while cycling, I get home faster, get some exercise and have some fun.

Andrew Shaw
Finance Standing Committee Chair
Arts and Humanities Students’ Council President 2011/2012

40 of which will likely be Canadian/American crapwater like Molson or Budweiser. It’s sad to see unique places like this go by the wayside.

Alright, if that’s your stand, then how do you propose the USC go about tackling the Israel/Palestine issue? Would it be up to the current members to decide what the USC’s ‘official’ position was, or would there be a referendum of some sort? What would be the end goal of this?

So far as I can tell, there’s little harm in the USC remaining neutral on issues like this, but taking a decisive stand one way or the other creates unnecessary problems and would serve to divide students. If you wish to protest and inform people on a particular issue, all the more power to you. I encourage activism, but I do ask that it be done with an open mind and that partisan differences not translate into willful ignorance and semantics. That last point seems to be lost on a great number of ‘protestors’ in this day and age.

P.S.
Speaking as a Canadian born, educated, able-bodied, middle-class white male, there have been numerous times in my life that I’ve felt marginalized by our government. The notion that discrimination and marginalization are endemic only to visible minorities is antiquated and inaccurate. You’re correct in saying that a government will inevitably marginalize *someone* no matter what they do, but their goal should be to reduce that number as much as possible. To serve the needs of the majority is one of the most basic functions of a democracy…but I’m sure you already knew that.

Governments marginalize whatever action they take. They either enforce the status quo, marginalizing those who are generally marginalized (women, the poor, anyone who is not a fully able-bodied white heterosexual male born in Canada, in our case) – or they take a stand on challenging the status quo, thereby marginalizing those who benefit from it.

If you take social services, as an example, you either “marginalize” the rich by progressively taxing to create social services that seek to end rather than perpetuate cycles of poverty, or you continue to marginalize the poor by not taking the above action and maintaining the status quo. Though its reach is less because of what little control it does have, the USC has a similar marginalizing effect every time motions are based. There are winners an losers to each.

To be young and apolitical is an oxymoron. And so to have a Students Council that is apolitical is also an oxymoron. Being neutral and being just are not the same thing.

THE PALESTINIAN VOICE not only on campuses, but in the whole world is louder than ever.. and will keep getting louder until Palestine is FREE!

And many thanks go out to the large number of well-informed voters in Ontario [*sarcasm*], who gave Pinocchio another four years to skullf*ck this province into financial oblivion. If people were truly concerned about privatizing liquor sales (and maybe restoring our economic stability), we wouldn’t have the government we do. Unfortunately, most Ontarians seem to be incredibly short-sighted and self-interested. Just watching the hostility that erupted around Rob Ford’s attempts to reduce Toronto’s debt is a good indicator that people won’t be too eager to sacrifice any of their precious frills or social programs.

Looking at the horrid mess we university grads are inheriting…makes me glad I’ve got a fridge full of Heineken, even if I did overpay for it.

“Students councils are supposed to be *political* advocacy groups. To take a stand on events and ideas, to represent students, not just the fall in line with their university administration’s agenda.”

“We’re suppose to have a council, but instead we have a bureaucratic, apolitical corporation. To be apolitical in this day and age is irresponsible and inhumane.”

So instead of attempting to remain relatively neutral on contentious issues such as the Israel/Palestine one, the USC should take a definitive side? It should effectively marginalize and cast out those who dissent from its ‘official’ position on a particular issue? Sounds like a great way to unite students…

Last year, they had to hire a lawyer (on our dime) to review their own elections policy because we had it in us to physically demand our voice in a stronger manner than simply filling a petition and writing letters.

Our university already teaches us to ignore critical thinking (I mean UWOs political science dept. doesn’t even consider critical theory valid, for example) and to work within the system when it’s broken, and now our students council continues to propagate this notion that activism and protest is somehow taboo and wrong because it makes others uncomfortable. But activism has never been comfortable. It’s goal is long-term happiness and community, which doesn’t always coincide with keeping everyone happy and comfortable in each moment.

Students councils are supposed to be *political* advocacy groups. To take a stand on events and ideas, to represent students, not just the fall in line with their university administration’s agenda.

It’s bad enough our government is criminalizing dissent, but now our students council is approaching toward the same? Someone was banned from campus for one year for filming this event (USC-repoted trespass). Political event are never given full approval, or only the morning of, and this type of bullying is completely unprofessional and unacceptable. And I will fingerpoint the Student Life department on this one.

We’re suppose to have a council, but instead we have a bureaucratic, apolitical corporation. To be apolitical in this day and age is irresponsible and inhumane.