The following is a short review of the events The York Life has taken an interest in at York University and abroad during the fall semester of 2009. Included in the vlog are some events that you can expect TYL to cover in the future, such as the coming student government elections. In addition, there is a short opinion piece which tries to grade the York Federation of Students on how well the current administration is running their ship with the 1.5 million dollar budget, paid for by students.
Please feel free to leave a comment, or video response that disagrees with my position and i will be glad to host it on this vlog. After all, opposition is a good thing. If you have an opinion on anything york related and want your voice to be heard then feel free to contact TYL and we will be happy to feature your voice in one of our episodes.
At york university last week Justin Trudeau and Ken Dryden were invited to speak by the PPASA and GPSA for December 3rd at Vanier College. However, the event was canceled at the last moment when it was learned that the speakers could not attend since they were required to be present in Ottawa for an important vote on the HST.
In any case, the hope is that the event can be rescheduled for January sometime and who knows, he may bring Micheal Ignatieff along, since it has been reported he will be touring Canadian universities in 2010. So instead this week The York Life showcases the new design concepts of the plans for the TTC Subway extension that were hosted in Vari Hall.
Enjoy, and make sure you look out for the next video to come on what we have seen these past few months in student politics and what york can expect in the next few months for student activism and politics.
On November 30th Kevin Annett, a former minister of the united church and long time advocate for the recognition of the genocide against aboriginals in Canada, came to York University to talk about the subject of Canada’s participation in genocide and to screen a documentary called “Unrepentant” in which he is featured.
During Kevin’s lecture he outlined how the churches, who were empowered by the government through the Indian Act, were the main perpetrators in instances of abuse, torture, murder, ethnocide, cultural degradation and ultimately genocide. He described how the government through the Indian Act made it the law for aboriginal children to be forcibly taken away from their parents and be placed in residential schools, sometimes miles away, where they would stay year round and were not allowed to see their parents. This was done for the purposes of “assimilation” and “Christianization.” In many cases children never saw their parents again. In cases where parents would refuse this process of “Christianization” they were either imprisoned or fined. In addition, the Indian Act empowered the residential school principles to be the legal guardians of the aboriginal children who were forcibly displaced into these schools.
Kevin latter went on to describe the conditions within in these schools as horrific. Children were not allowed to speak their own native language or conduct their own native practices or were severely punished for doing so. In many cases children were beaten, sexually abused, murdered, and arbitrarily tortured through the use of electric shocks for no apparent sane reason.
In addition, evidence was presented that the use of the deadly disease, Tuberculosis, was used to actively kill aboriginal children. In many cases healthy children were forced to play and socialize with sick children who had TB. This allowed for the disease to spread throughout the entire school population. Quarantine was actively discouraged and treatment was minimal if any. This led to a mortality rate of 50% in some residential schools in one given year.
Many more instances of the abuse against aboriginal people were talked about in Kevin’s lecture, including the malicious sterilization of native men, woman and children. In the film “Unrepentant” he describes his own personnel experience of how the united church maliciously attacked Kevin’s reputation and personnel life for excavating the very details of the churches involvement with Canada’s genocide.
For the shortest version of the presentation please see the video above. For the complete presentation see the video links below. If you would like to know more about this topic then please see Kevin’s Website here or I highly recommend watching the documentary, Unrepentant, here.
On December 2nd there was a day of action and remembrance of the 1989 massacre where 14 woman were targeted because they were woman and murdered. The YFS, GSA, OPIRG and the Centre for Women and Trans People hosted this event to try and lobby the york administration to adopt more accountability and awareness in regards to multiple instances of sexual assault on campus this year. The aim of the lobbyists is to use the video warning system, that has been used in the past to make students aware of bomb threats on campus, to make students immediately aware of any cases of sexual assault on campus.
Actions and events on campus included the tying of white ribbons to trees and polls with short descriptions of cases of violence against woman, a showcase in Vari Hall hosted by the YFS, a panel discussion hosted by OPIRG and a candle vigil outside of Vari Hall.
Even though it rained during the candle vigil, students endured and pulled through by speaking, performing and by vocally chanting their opposition to violence against woman.
for more on the rally you can see the following two videoes for speeches from the YFS President and vice president, OPIRG, GSA and performances by york students:
In student politics at York University this week, on Monday the YFS held a meeting on a few motions including motions to fill three vacancies on the board of directors. Three directors from Winters College, Osgoode College and the Arts all stepped down within in the past month for reasons that are unknown. However, it has been confirmed that one of the former directors graduated from York University recently.
In any case the meeting to elect these three new board members was advertised around the campus, but not to the extent to which other YFS events have been advertised in the past, and not in a student friendly way as seen in the document below. An average student passing by would not take note of such an advertisement. In fact, it is actually a bylaw requirement for this type of meeting to be advertised across the campus two weeks prior to the meeting. This begs the question, would this meeting be advertised at all if it was not a bylaw requirement, considering the lack of student friendly advertising.
In any case the meeting took place on Monday the 23rd of November at 4pm. Motions were passed in regards to a reserve fund for the YFS in case of certain circumstances. However, these circumstances were not defined and thus the use of the reserve money is open to interpretation. Another motion was passed that designated a new presidential commissioner, whose duties are basically those of a personnel assistant to the president of the YFS.
Furthermore, there were three students who applied for the Arts position, Halgan Ahmen, another unknown student and me, Kriss Bacon. Two students applied for the Winters position, Kevin Morris and Tom Cochrane. However, for the Osgoode position only one student ran, Burton Taylor.
The nominees gave a short presentation on why they thought they should be elected. In the arts case the unknown student described his experiences and involvement within the community at York. For myself I described my involvement with the York community based on The York Life project. Halgan Ahmen gave her name and which program she was in. To my second hand knowledge, the votes were 5 in favor of me and 9 in favor of Halgan Ahmen.
In the case of the Winters nominees the debate was much more interesting. Kevin has been a long time active member of the York community but has often taken an opposition stance to the current YFS regime in terms of his association with York Forward. Tom Cochrane has been a dedicated volunteer with the YFS since the start of this school year. At one point it seemed that Kevin had more experience with student governance than Tom. However, this was soon trumped when Krisna Saravanamuttu interjected by suggesting that the Winters student council, of which Kevin is an active member, is “out of touch with Winters students.” Thus this signalled the executives stance on how the voting should go. For much more information on this specific case then check out Kevin’s blog, it’s a very good read. In any case, Tom Cochrane was elected.
As for the Osgoode position, it was filled by Burton Taylor, whose loyalties at this moment are not yet known.
In any case I would much rather have had the students of York choose in a by-election who the new Directors would be, instead that choice went to the YFS board members. Maybe that’s a section of the YFS bylaws that can be an election issue coming this winter. But, in closing The York Life would like to say congratulations to all our new YFS representatives and we hope you do York students proud by representing us.
On November 19th Malalai Joya, an outspoken and controversial MP in her country of Afghanistan, came to York University and spoke in depth about her perspective on the situation in Afghanistan. She discussed Human and Woman rights in Afghanistan, drug and war lords, the Afghan government, democratic elections in Afghanistan, NATO involvement and occupation, George Bush, and President Obama.
For a condensed version of the public event see the video below for highlights. If you want to see the complete 5 part filming of the event then view the links below.
Remembrance day at York University was marked by a ceremony at the flag poll at 11 am joined by members of the Canadian armed forces, York chancellors, YFS Vice President of operations Steve Broadley, and york community members. Three reefs were laid in honor of those who served their country at the flag poll.
Meanwhile, an alternative remembrance day ceremony was conducted by DisOrientation 2009 in the form of a “vigil and rally to demonstrate against occupation and imperialism in forms of wars, both past and present.” In addition to this, white poppies were handed out at this ceremony to represent peace as an alternative to the traditional red poppy.
“Remember, remember the Fifth of November,The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,I know of no reasonWhy the Gunpowder TreasonShould ever be forgot.”
A couple things about the Nov 5th drop fees campaign, confused, puzzled and generally pissed me off. Never mind the cost of the event to York students, which was in excess of 20 thousand dollars, what with all the advertising, picket signs, and busing costs. And never mind the fact that the message the media received from the whole protest was “end poverty in Ontario”. Admittedly, yes that was half the message but the other half of the message was the reason for why students attended the whole protest, and that was to drop fees. Somehow that message got entirely lost within the media, and was recycled as an end poverty protest. Which, after all is a noble cause, but it was not the primary reason why students came out by the bus load in the rain and hail that day. And never mind the fact that the whole logic of dropping fees will somehow get us all a job after we graduate. In reality, dropping fees under values all degrees to the point where no one has a chance at a job if everyone has a bachelor degree.
In any case all of these things are an afterthought, because the real wounds from this event came from the message sent and delivered by a CUPE Ontario representative at Queens Park, while hundreds of York students looked on. I was at the front filming. So I was incredibly shocked and angered as a York student by CUPE’s message that, “Student’s and workers are not divided. Students and workers are the same god damn group,” and “workers at York University stood up and said no, enough is enough, they went on strike for fair wages and proper compensation.” Oh and to see the irony of Hamid Osman, the former YFS president turned CFS-Ontario representative, standing right beside CUPE chanting “Shame”. It was like a big old flash back from last year’s strike at York. One had to resist the urge to shout bullshit.
If you don’t understand my shock at these comments then let me explain. I find it ironic that CUPE said that workers and students are the same group, when last year it was students who succeeded in their lobbying efforts to legislate CUPE 3903 back to work after the longest university strike in Ontario’s history. Students and workers are not the same group; in fact we are divided on many issues, especially when workers threaten our education and livelihoods, like last year when all York students had 12% less instruction time and 33% less money making opportunities as a result of the strike by CUPE 3903. Many York students were not even able to find a summer job because of the strike. So no, students and workers are not the same group and York students have every reason to not stand in solidarity with CUPE workers. Furthermore, it is debatable and has often been rejected by the public that CUPE 3903 was pursuing fair wages and proper compensation. Many believed that their demands were outrageous and unrealistic. So please don’t stand there a year after and open old wounds by telling me that everything is rosy with CUPE and York students. I’m sure it is alright between CUPE, the CFS, and Hamid Osman, because after all, the CFS was nowhere in sight during the York strike, at least in terms of support for students to get back to class. And Hamid Osman stood in solidarity with CUPE 3903 during the strike on their picket lines. It would help though if the CFS would support their students, but I suppose that would put them at odds with the unions, and they don’t want that at all.
Treasonous behavior occurs when a partner shakes your hand and then stabs you in the back with the other hand, while trying to explain to you that the knife is actually just a rubber chicken. But if the knife was just the rubber chicken then why did students bleed through their pockets? In any case, I cry bullshit and declare that I and York students will not forget the fifth of November and the CUPE treason and plot for unrealistic higher wages and benefits at the expense of York students and students across the province. Bullshit.
For a video of the remarks by CUPE – Ontario look below
