Speeches from Sept. 20th rally

Alison Moraites, President of the Music Therapy Student Association (MTSA)

This is our way of saying the students matter. Windsor is mostly populated by students, whether they want to admit that or not. The students are frustrated at the lack of communication and information that we have been given. It’s frustrating to fight for our program when we don’t necessarily know the truth.

As all of you know, as most of you attended our town hall meeting on Monday, we do have the largest program in Canada. We have 47 students here at the University of Windsor. These students provide 2280 hours of free practicum—basically free music therapy —to organizations in our community each year.

We have to stand up not only for ourselves, but for the clients that we help in our community. We work at places like the hospital. We work in long-term care facilities across Windsor. We work in the school board. Wherever the need is, we send students and provide as

much help as we possibly can.

Jessica Dickie, MTSA Treasurer and 3rd

year Music Therapy student

We’re basically here today to let them know that our program matters. They need to talk to us. No input from anyone in music therapy, whether it be students or faculty, was put into this decision. Not at all. We need to let them know that we have a voice and we’re not going to let them just take it away.

A lot of us came to this university just

because of the Music Therapy program. That needs to be noted. It was in Maclean’s magazine that this university has three programs bringing in students. Music Therapy is one of them. They don’t realize that we may have a small number of students – we have 47 students – but we are the largest program in Canada and we do bring students to this city, to this community, and to this university.

Jim Middleton, 4th year music student

I am not a Music Therapy student. However, every Music Therapy student

here deserves the chance for Cecil Houston to hear you shout, to hear you scream that we will not sit down, we will take a stand, and we fight for what is right.

Every Music Therapy student here will give thousands of hours themselves as free labour, as free volunteer work in the community, in hospitals, at hospitals with sick kids. Thousands of free hours that the University is just going to throw away. Do you call that thinking forward?

More Music Therapy coverage on page 4.

THE STUDENT MOVEMENTIssue 11 - Windsor’s Independent, Student Newspaper October 2011 | FREE

Students defend Music Therapy

By Maaya Hitomi

On Wednesday, September 7th, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom passed a bill that is being called the largest restructuring of their publicly funded health service—the National Health Service (NHS)—since its inception in 1948. Currently, the United Kingdom’s health system is a two-tiered system, with both private- and public-funded clinics, hospitals, and services. This newest reform has been touted by the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government as a way of placing more of the power of the health service in the hands of the General Practitioners (GPs) who know the needs of the clients best.

Continued on page 6.

Music Therapy students and their allies march through clubs week on September 20th. Photo by Ian Clough

UK re-evaluates health care

Pay attention to the lies behind the curtain Busting myths that criminalize WUFA

By Lauren Quinn

Strike? Strike? Strike? It’s been the question on students, professors and community members’ lips for several weeks now. WUFA, the union that makes up professors, librarians and instructors at the University of Windsor, voted 90% in favour of a strike. Additionally, the union recently filed for a no board, which sends a request for their legal right to strike. All actions are meant to strengthen the collective bargaining process and to send a message to the administration that they refuse to accept recent proposed offers.

At a town hall meeting in March 2010, Wildeman presented a chart of the budget to students and used his typical, tired slogan of “you can only spend as much as you have.” He targeted

faculty and staff members specifically and directly blamed their wages for the program cuts at the university. He criminalized the people who make up this university instead of the provincial government for their continued decrease in funding for education over the years. Throughout his time as president, Wildeman has continued to use this recycled rhetoric as a direct attempt to divide students and their professors.

Not only are faculty wages blamed for budget cuts but also for increased tuition fees. During the March 2009 board of governors’ meeting where students protested against tuition fee increases, the administration argued that WUFA’s recently settled collective bargaining agreement was a major reason why tuition fees had to rise. Such skewed

logic doesn’t make sense since we know that tuition fee increases are actually at the fault of the provincial and federal government for their continued lack of funding for education. In 1988, students and other private sources paid 23% of the operating budget and now, only 23 years later, students at the University of Windsor pay 50% with the province paying only 48%.

With the possibility of another strike, in order to take the focus away from the unfair proposals from the employer and to weaken the bargaining for the union, the administration takes advantage of the student struggle by creating faulty logic as a direct attempt to place a wedge between students and their professors.

Continued on page 10.

Palestine’s bid for statehoodGLOBAL, PAGE 7

Public Inteterest Research and CommunityOPIRG, PAGE 11

Get out & vote on October 6th!ELECTIONS, PAGE 5

2 | NEWS & EDITORIALS The Student Movement | October 2011

The Student Movement InformationEditorial CommitteeMohammad AkbarIan CloughMaaya HitomiTracy HuynhWalter Petrichyn

For more information, visit tsmwindsor.ca/info

By Ian CloughAt more than one university town hall meeting, TSM members have asked if the Strategic Priority Fund (SPF) is derived from the University’s base operating budget. Unfortunately, these questions have always been answered with vague half-truths.For example, last December, TSM was told at a town hall meeting that the SPF came from investment income. After the town hall, we learned that investment income, like tuition fees and government grants, contributes to the budget.However, in a recent interview, Provost Leo Groarke—whose office controls the Strategic Priority Fund—confirmed that the Fund does come out of the operating budget. According to Dr. Groarke, every year the University must decide upon where to make a commitment, such as to pensions, faculty, or the SPF.For context, the SPF is part of Dr. Wildeman’s Strategic plan for the University. It is a $1.5 million dollar fund taken from the operating budget (which accounts for everything at the school from wages to departmental resources). The budget goes through a “democratic” process of several committees before being put to a vote by the University’s Board of Governors (the problems with the Board and committees is an article unto itself).

The SPF is significant because it does not go through the normal processes, but is under the control of three people: Dr. Groarke, Associate Vice-President Bruce Tucker, and Chief Planning Officer Sandra Aversa. These three are meant to represent the entire campus community of 20 000, yet, unlike Senate (which reviews the budget), none are elected to those positions.Dr. Groarke calls the SPF a “change fund” where people hoping to win funding submit proposals. These proposals are made primarily through deans, but can also be made by non-academic Vice-Presidents, managers and others, Dr. Groarke says.Continued on next page.

“No really, what are you?” Strategic Priority Fund comes clean

Artificial water fluoridation is wasteful at best, dangerous at worst

By Travis Reitsma

In the spring of 1945 as the harsh winds of World War II began to die down, a small Hudson River town in New York State called Newburgh began adding sodium fluoride to its drinking water as an experiment. This experiment was designed to test fluoride’s effect on the health of teeth. Children from the community were brought into a clinic once a month for several years to have their teeth checked and have urine samples taken. Their height and weight were also checked. Mere months after the start of this experiment, other communities started artificially adding fluoridated products to their water and the dental industry raved about the positive effects the chemical had on cavity prevention.

In recent years, however, due to concerns of safety and necessity, most of Europe has stopped fluoridating their water as have both Montréal and Calgary and several small U.S. cities. This raises an important question: how safe is the artificial fluoridation of drinking water?

Fluoride became part of the vernacular of modern dentistry in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s when it was discovered by a U.S. Public Health Service researcher named H. Trendley Dean that where fluoride occurred naturally in water supplies, cavities were much less prevalent. This was the prevailing theory and justification at the beginning for the fluoridation of water.

Dean’s study, however, only proved that naturally occurring fluoride in water causes Chronic Dental Fluorosis or mottled enamel; a condition that discolours teeth and changes their

density. The idea that fluoride in the water supply prevents tooth decay, or dental caries, was merely a hunch of Dean’s, predicated on the notion that teeth exposed to fluoride appeared harder than those which had not been exposed. The hypothesis was also based on the circumstantial evidence that cavity rates were lower in these areas. Dean’s work became the main crutch with which proponents of water fluoridation would lean on when questioned about the safety of fluoride ingestion.

Soon after the completion of Dean’s initial study, and subsequent work studying the effects of mottled teeth on dental caries, municipalities and cities in the U.S. and Canada started to fluoridate their water supply; first with Grand Rapids, MI in 1945, followed by Brantford, ON in Canada in the same year. The studies by Dean were highly controversial at the time of their release and conflicted with other studies.

The industrial connection

Theories of political economy state that the ruling class will exert their influence in all facets of human life. On a very integral level, the fluoridation of our water is no different. Hydrofluosilicic acid (HFA) is the substance most often used to fluoridate water, including here in Windsor. HFA is a highly toxic industrial by-product of the fertilizer industry (and many textile manufacturers) that is so dangerous that Canadian and American government banned its dispersion into the atmosphere due to its effects on surrounding vegetation and animal life.

Calgary Herald columnist Kevin Brooker, who studied the matter carefully when Calgary was in the process of banning water fluoridation, says HFA “is not a naturally occurring substance, but rather a by-product of the fertilizer manufacturing process due to anti-pollution measures. Formerly it was released as fluorine gas, until farmers in various locations who lived downwind of the factories noticed that their crops were burning, and their animals dying from strange maladies.”

A chemical scrubber eventually solved the problem of the substance being released into the air, but the HFA waste product removed from the smoke stacks became a waste product that was difficult and expensive to dispose of.

Rather than take a big hit to the bottom line, fertilizer companies instead sell the by-product to third-party companies who then sell it to cities and municipalities across North America. They’ve effectively taken an expense and turned into a huge profit.

HFA is a highly toxic and is now deliberately being added to our drinking water. The purpose is to keep our teeth healthier through fluoridation, even though there’s little to no evidence to suggest it actually does anything in that regard.

Taking our water back

Over the last decade, discoveries of the damage fluoride does to our bodies have prompted many communities to take back their water. Over the next few issues of The Student Movement, I will be talking to the people involved in the defluoridation movement and to city counsellors and even those involved in selling HFA to municipalities. The goal will be to help educate students and community members about the chemicals deliberately added to our water and detail the movement afoot to bring it to a stop.

The corporations involved in water fluoridation are very powerful, complete with government lobby groups and special teams set up to snuff out the defluoridation movement before it even gets started. Windsor should follow the lead provided by communities like Montréal and Calgary and fight to take back our drinking water.

For more information on water fluoridation and the movement to stop it, pick up a copy of Christopher Bryson’s book, The Fluoride Deception, visit www.fluoridealert.org, or search “Fluoride Free Windsor Ontario” on Facebook and join the action group.

By Tracy Huynh

At some point, many people in Canada have been asked to justify their Canadian citizenship because of their physical appearance. Even though originally Canada was solely inhabited by the First Nations peoples, it seems like people of colour cannot say they’re “Canadian,” until they have justified how they “became” a Canadian. Of course, this interrogation doesn’t end when his or her answer is that they were born on Canadian soil. In actuality, they will have to go back through their family history until they reveal that at some point in their family line, their ancestors once immigrated to Canada.

“So what are you? Like, where are you or your parents from?” This “curiosity,” as one would defend, is actually a form of racism as one presumes that if someone is of colour they are not Canadian. So what does a Canadian look like? As systemic stereotypes have been ingrained in our societies and passed on from generation to generation, we often forget that the majority of the “Canadian” population has immigrated to this country.

People justify their “curiosity” by claiming they are trying to “educate themselves” of other ethnic groups. However, it would be more reasonable to spend their own time researching in order to expand their knowledge of the world, and the people in it. Interrogating

someone about their family history and forcing them to justify their belonging in Canada cannot possibly give grounds for racist excuses such as curiosity.

Canadian society has come a long way in regards to blatant and overt racist acts in the mid twentieth century. One in every five Canadians of visible minorities must endure acts of subtle racism—like the pressing questions mentioned above—on a daily basis. Racism has not disappeared over the years: it has evolved. Even though it has evolved, society does not acknowledge this new form of racism. Instead, society

chooses to conform to its new social practice, even though the definition of racism has not changed. This should make one think: should our definition change to keep up-to-date with the evolving

racism for society to acknowledge it?

To question someone about their ethnic and cultural origins is the same as saying they do not belong here. This is why a direct question such as “Where are you from?” is a subtle form of racism, as one is acknowledging someone’s visible minority features and is not satisfied with their Canadian status.

Along with the freedom of being a Canadian, the right of not having to justify how they became Canadian should be included. Canada is unique for its multiculturalism. It is time to accept the fact that every Canadian is as unique as its nation.

Racism has not disappeared over the years: it has evolved

NEWS & EDITORIALS | 3The Student Movement | October 2011

By the Editorial Committee

It is our understanding that the Strategic Priority Fund (SPF) is being reviewed, though it is not clear how or who is doing this. However, it is our belief that a review must have a clear mandate, to be determined by the campus community. If the community is not involved, the review will be fundamentally undemocratic. There are several key points we’d like to touch on.

Why a new decision-making body?

Despite having numerous issues, the University already has decision making bodies through which it sets the direction of the University, such as the Senate and Board of Governors. Why the need for another decision making body which is even more unrepresentative than those that already exist?

If a new decision-making body is deemed necessary, then it should be one that is more inclusive. Rather than narrowing the decisions to three people, mechanisms should be found so that the entire campus can participate in deciding the overall “strategic direction” of this university including any proposals submitted to the SPF. This would build a vibrant and involved campus community.

Why the need for speed?

The cornerstone of democracy is not voting but discussion. Voting should be the end result of a broad discussion which brings forward all the opinions on matters of concern and, hopefully, a consensus. If this discussion is facilitated on campus, then at the end of the process decisions can be made quickly on what is in line with what the campus wants.

The provincial government pressures our university to make decisions quickly, whether it be new programs or capital investments for buildings which have not been thought through. These should not be used to try and eliminate the discussion. The campus must be informed about these decisions and collectively discuss them, otherwise our university will become a breeding ground for animosity and decisions will not favour those they affect.

Why the disinformation?

When TSM asks about the SPF, the administration dodges the question. The provost’s office does not release information on all the proposals, only the ones they select. When we say there needs to be democracy, they say they’ll consult (but not listen). We believe the only way for the SPF to be effective is if all the facts are available for the entire campus community. Only then can we all participate.

The only way to really get the campus on board with something is to have the campus decide.

The strategic direction of the University is no different. Many departments on campus have submitted proposals to the SPF in the hopes of seeing their project “selected” by the Provost’s office. This process will not truly set a direction for the University which is meant to serve the community. Instead the SPF pits one faculty against another without anyone really knowing the criteria for what is and isn’t funded. Why don’t proposals for new directions and new projects get submitted to the entire campus through a democratic process? Through this process a unifying sentiment can be built and a real sense of where the University should go and why will be developed. Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone deciding on every detail, rather

we argue that the direction and principles of the University should be set together. Moreover, TSM believes that a mandate should be given for the implementation of details based on the guiding direction set democratically. A campus such as ours, with so many great minds and different perspectives, should have a process truly fitting of the 21st century. This would be a process to “be proud” of.

If the administration really wants

to review the SPF, then open up the discussion to the entire campus. We, The Student Movement, will help foster this dialogue by accepting letters from the community and hosting meaningful town hall meetings where all are encouraged to express their views.

What do YOU think should happen with the SPF? Write in to movement@tsmwindsor.ca

Continued from SPF.The SPF gives money so that a department can start up a new project and present it to Senate or another body for approval.TSM has been very critical of the SPF. Over the past few years, this University has seen many budget cuts, yet the SPF has grown. Essentially, a small group of people doles out money that was once distributed through committees and the Board.Yet Dr. Groarke insists that the process is very consultative: his office gets suggestions from the deans who submit the proposals.“Deans don’t operate in a vacuum,” Dr. Groarke says, meaning deans are meant

to work with students and faculty on the SPF proposals. Multiple proposals coming from the same faculty are ranked by that dean.However, the provost’s office doesn’t always go by the rankings and sometimes makes a decision challenging a dean.If a proposal is rejected, it can find funding elsewhere, but would be “difficult to develop,” says Dr. Groarke.Some decisions are hardly strategic. Last semester, $200 000 was given to Engineering “to be used at the discretion of the Dean.” Dr. Groarke says that there were multiple proposals from Engineering and not all of them could be funded. Instead, the Faculty of Engineering was allowed to decide.

No other faculty has been afforded this privilege.Although Dr. Groarke recognizes the problems with the SPF’s decision-making structure, he feels there is a need for an expedient “change fund.”But this expediency comes at a price. The Digital Journalism program—which, after receiving funding through the SPF, was approved at Senate last June—is already coming under fire. The debate at Senate was quite heated and doubts are being raised now, as can be seen by The Lance’s article “Digital Journalism program introduced with promise and uncertainty.”TSM has often called for a more democratic process when selecting proposals in which the entire campus

can participate. Currently, only the proposals that are selected are made public: the rejections are never published.The good news is that the decision-making process for the SPF is under review. Dr. Groarke hopes to have “as much input as possible,” not just from faculty but also students. He also wishes to avoid bureaucracy where people would not want to apply. Whether or not both can be managed remains to be seen.Let us know your views and experiences with the SPF. Write in to

movement@tsmwindsor.caFor more information on the SPF, visit tsmwindsor.ca

Whose campus? Our campus

Houston and Wildeman By Vajo Stajic and Darryl Gallinger

4 | NEWS & EDITORIALS The Student Movement | October 2011

By Enver Villamizar

Students of the Music Therapy program have taken an important stand for the right to education. They are not accepting the arbitrary decision by the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences Cecil Houston to close their program. This is not the first time this Dean and the University administration have tried to pull a fast one on students in the Arts. And thus far they have been unable to overcome students resistance to the cuts to their programs.

Cost Recovery Fees

In 2006, the same Dean tried to implement an illegal “cost recovery fee” in order to raise tuition fees for students in music and visual arts. The fee was illegal in that it violated the government regulations about what ancillary fees could be established for. They cannot be used to fund things normally funded by tuition. This was the Dean’s first attempt to cut funds from the program and have them replaced with student money. At that time the students and faculty, especially in music, opposed the manoeuvre because they recognized that if they paid the fee, it would just replace money cut from the program, rather

than increase its quality. This experience provided evidence that the University was going after smaller programs, like music and visual arts which they claimed were “expensive,” in order to re-direct their funding to other programs.

Winners Over Losers

In 2009-2010, the chair of the University of Windsor Board of Governors Dave Cooke said that whole programs should start being cut. He said at that time that “winners” should be chosen over “losers.” Despite the University administration claiming that Cooke did not represent the University in making those comments, such remarks from the chair of the Board of Governors could not be ignored.

Too Costly

Today, the Dean and the University administration are trying to carry out a wholesale elimination of Music Therapy, an important part of the music department. Dean Houston’s main argument is that the program is too costly given the enrolment. He is quoted in the Windsor star saying: “The enrolment is just too small and the cost is just too great to maintain the professional accreditation for this

program.” “It really is a wonderful educational vehicle,” Houston said. “But it just became so relatively expensive. I had a decision to make. And I’m sorry about that. But we can’t live beyond our means.”

Education is a Right!

Students should resolutely oppose this logic for determining which programs are funded and which aren’t. If universities will only offer programs that have high enrolment with low costs then the arts in general faces a serious threat. The cuts being demanded to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are a result of provincial and federal governments’ cuts to public social programs which benefit all.

However, this is only half the story. These same governments have handed out millions of dollars to companies to set up research on university campuses, essentially paying them to do their research, while they cut back general funding to universities.

One example was the research centre which the provincial government funded for International Truck based at the University of Windsor. The provincial government handed over $32

million to set up International Truck’s research and development centre at the University of Windsor. This summer, the U.S. company closed putting its workers out of jobs and essentially running away with the public money they were given for their research. The point is that there is money to fund education. However, the provincial and federal governments are using public funds to pay large monopolies in Ontario, while they cut back funds to education and then demand that students pay higher tuition, ancillary fees, and/or have smaller programs that are “too expensive” cut.

The underfunding of universities is a political matter. Deans, university presidents, and faculty should stand with students in establishing a united block which does not permit the dismantling of our universities in favour of paying the rich. Students should oppose any and all attempts to get them to pay more to keep their programs afloat. The idea that students should pay more to keep their programs, or maintain their quality will only lead to more cuts and higher fees. Education is a right that society must provide for the youth so they can contribute back to their society. This is what the students in Music Therapy are trying to do.

Students question Music Therapy suspensionBy Ian Clough

On September 20th, in what was assuredly the best sounding rally this campus has seen in years, students primarily from the School of Music went out in force to protest the potential closure of the Music Therapy program.

“We have not had our voices heard,” said Alison Moriates, president of the Music Therapy Student Association (MTSA). “Students are frustrated.”

“Admissions have been suspended,” said Cecil Houston, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, who made the announcement at a town hall meeting on September 12th. “It means that we will not accept students who might apply for the next recruitment cycle.”

UWindsor’s Music Therapy program is the largest in the country and the only Canadian program that certifies its graduates to work in both Canada and the U.S.

When asked why there had not been representatives from the MTSA involved in the decision to suspend admissions, Dean Houston said “I’m not going to have students on my budget committee.”

According to Dean Houston, the program requires two tenure-track faculty to run, one which resigned last year. “We did not have the money to make a commitment to a tenure track professor a year ago. The last tenure track professor left this summer.”

However, there seems to be money for new programs in music. “One is interdisciplinary arts and one is sonic arts and these will come into play with the move downtown,” said Moriates. “That’s why we question how they can’t give us funding, but can create two new programs and fund those programs. Their expectations are fifty students, and Music Therapy is forty-seven. So they can’t sustain our program, but they want to sustain a program with fifty students that does not lead to a professional career.”

“They are programs that aren’t in Canada,” said Moraites, referring to the new programs. “There are no programs like them, there’s no research backing, there’s no professional degree after, there’s no career options.”

Music Therapy students are starting a letter writing campaign and have already contacted the mayor and local politicians. “They gave us 25 million dollars for the new building and they should know what the money is actually being used for,” said Moraites. “The city doesn’t know that the Music Therapy program is being cancelled.”

“There are rooms in the architecture of the new building for those degrees,” she continued. “There was going to be a music therapy clinic area but it’s gone now.”

Music Therapy also received $50 000 in funding from the Strategic Priority Fund last April for the “hiring of an accredited music therapist to support current music therapy clinical practicum,” according to the website of the Provost.

“We’re not going to stop,” continued Moraites. “Music therapists who graduate from Windsor, a lot of them do leave Windsor, but there are so many that stay here and they have started their own music therapy organizations, they work in the school board, they work privately, all through the community. It’s a huge loss for anyone.”

Editorial: Education is a right!

CADDAC 3rd Annual ConferenceADULT ADHD: Treatments & StrategiesFeaturing Dr. Anthony L. Rostain, MD, MA

Sunday, December 4th, 2011 - York UniversityVisit www.caddac.ca (events page)Contact: erinbernhardt@caddac.ca

Photos by Tracy Huynh. For more rally photos, visit tsmwindsor.ca

PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS | 5The Student Movement | October 2011

By Mohammed Almoyad

The Windsor-West candidate for Ontario’s New Democratic Party is Helmi Charif. According to Charif, the main issue for this election is job creation. “We all know this election is about jobs. Jobs are the most important issue for the people, other than the healthcare system. That’s why our party came up with a very practical platform that we’re going to implement if we form the government,” he explained. He described the Ontario NDP’s rewarding job-creators plan, which has been the cornerstone of their platform. “It’s called job creation tax credit: we will give a tax credit to any employer who hires a permanent worker.” He described how the NDP will reimburse such employers with 20% of the wage of each permanent employee for one year, under the condition that the employer has to hire the employee for one full year.

When asked about student issues, Charif explained how he strongly sympathized with them. “I was a student. I graduated from St. Clair College and I had to rely on Ontario student loan assistance. And it took me about 15 years to pay off that debt that was on my shoulders,” he said. He then explained the predicament Ontario’s post-secondary institutions are in and what the NDP plans to do,

“The reality is that Ontario is the most expensive province when it comes to post-secondary education, and the tuition fee hikes were the highest in the country for that last eight years. We’re going to freeze tuition fees and we’re going to eliminate the interest on the provincial portion of student loans. And this will apply to part time students and full time students.”

The NDP platform for students received the highest praise from the Canadian Federation of Students, despite not being as appetizing as the Liberals’ $1600 grant. Charif said he understands there is a lot more that needs to be done to fix post-secondary education in Ontario, but he is confident the NDP platform is an excellent first step. “I believe our practical platform is a very good deal for now—we all know we cannot change things overnight.”

When it came to other issues, Charif described how affordability is the common theme in the Ontario NDP’s platform. “I believe the NDP is the only party with a commitment to make life affordable not just for students but for everyone in all aspects—not just tuition but also healthcare and education in general. This is what we’re going to focus on: we need to make life affordable for everyone.”

By Darryl Gallinger

Chad Durocher is the Green Party’s candidate in the provincial election for the Windsor-West riding. “Community involvement is what the Green Party is about,” Durocher says. After hearing about the closing of the music therapy program at the university, he says that community-based programs should be investigating where costs go at universities. Low revenue programs may have to go, but not popular programs or ones that are essential to today’s jobs.

Durocher identified unemployment as one of the primary concerns of Windsorites, and believes education is the key to countering it. To this end, his party promises a one-year tuition fee freeze followed by increases indexed to the rate of inflation as well as increased funding for college and university operating budgets.

The Green Party has also pledged to work with students to lobby the federal government to change the current system of back-end tax credits to upfront grants. Additionally, they will put an end

to the difference in tuition fees based on a student’s year and program. This will assist students in accessing a post-secondary education, but more steps will need to be taken to address rapidly growing student debt.

The Green Party has also promised to place universities under the ombudsman’s jurisdiction. The ombudsman investigates complaints regarding the provincial government and its services. His reports, which are usually public, have been responsible for a wide array of changes within the government. The ombudsman can investigate Ontario’s colleges but is unable to examine complaints against universities. Placing universities under the ombudsman’s purview will bring more accountability and transparency to Ontario’s post-secondary education system.

He also hopes to see Windsor invest in the green-energy industry.“I think Windsor should go from blue-collar to ‘green-collar,” he says.

Continued on page 10.

By Mohammad AkbarTheresa Piruzza is the Ontario Liberal Party candidate in the provincial election for Windsor-West. While I was unable to contact her through phone or by email at the time of print, I have relied solely on her platform as described on VotePiruzza.ca, which is essentially the Ontario Liberal Party’s official platform, “Forward, Together.In terms of education, the Liberals have a very comprehensive platform. The main point in the Liberal plan is the highly publicized “30 percent cut in tuition…” for dependent students whose family are making 160,000 dollars or less. This is an admirable and innovative platform point, however it is not a 30 percent cut and this should be explained. This point involves the creation of a grant that will immediately be distributed to students who fit the specific criteria. Professional programs, such as business or engineering, which also have the highest fees and tuition increases, are not covered by this grant. Graduate students, as well as students who do not apply to college or university directly out of high school, are also ineligible.

Another issue on this point is that while the grant is worth nearly 1600 dollars for university students and 730 for college students, this is not truly 30 percent of tuition. Estimates indicate the actual value of the grants is less than 26 percent of tuition. The Liberal party uses a tuition fee average of $5,400 while stats Canada informs us that the average tuition is $6,300. We must also note that there will be no freeze on tuition fees and therefore, fees will continue to increase 4-8% every year.This means that in 2016, the tuition fee rates will be the same as they are now and your grant will practically be non-existent.Since coming to power in 2003, the liberals have also been responsible for exuberant tuition fee increases. This grant is actually putting the numbers back to the 2006 levels and therefore, they are not actually lowering tuition fees at all. Other education oriented goals are continuing existing policies on OSAP, repayments on OSAP loans, and keeping a freeze on how much debt a student can have total in one year.Continued on page 10.

By Walter Petrichyn

Todd Branch is the Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate for Windsor West in the upcoming October 6th provincial election. Todd Branch unfortunately did not respond to my questions or calls, but here is some information about the Progressive Conservatives you should know before voting. In his Behind the Ballot speech, he stated that two billion dollars will be invested into education in Ontario by the end of the first year the PCs take office. Unfortunately, he did not continue to elaborate as to how that money will be spent, and what areas of education he meant in particular.

On looking at the PCs platform, the most pressing incentive about post-secondary education is that middle class families will be able to gain OSAP. This promise will make OSAP more accessible for students who may need financial assistance, but who are currently denied due to their household incomes. This policy carries a double edged sword: in the attempt to make the OSAP loan more accessible for students, it still does not alleviate the burden of continuous tuition hikes in Ontario. Another PC goal is to create 60,000 post-secondary spaces for Ontario colleges and universities to branch out and to expand

the amount of enrolment within these institutions.

Also part of the PC plan is to disadvantage international students by abolishing the Liberals’ foreign scholarship program. The reasoning behind this motive is to ensure more focus and financial support for Ontario students. These policies ultimately undermine the chance for Ontario students to be treated equally (that means out of province and international as well), and for our rising tuition fees to find a reasonable solution. International students pay about three times more than an average Ontario student.

While there should be attempts by all parties to reduce the fees for international and out of province students, the evaluation for university administrators regarding this topic is not one to discuss. Abolishing this grant for international students will only increase international student debt, while the PCs should remember the contribution international students make to post-secondary funding. The aggressive recruitment of international students allows universities to ignore the enormous gap in their budgets left by funding cuts from the provincial government.

Green Party

Progressive Conservative Party

Liberal Party

New Democratic Party

Thursday, October 6, 2011 Voting hours are from 9 am - 9 pm ET

Who Can Vote On election day, you can vote if you:- Are 18 years of age or older, - Are a Canadian citizen, - Reside in an electoral district, and - Have not already voted in this electionVoting for Students Who Live On or Off CampusDuring an election, you may find yourself living away from your family’s home. You may wish to vote for a

candidate in the electoral district where you live while attending college or university or you may want to vote for a candidate in the electoral district where you live while not attending school.You are given the opportunity to decide which residence you consider to be your principal residence. Regardless of which residential address you choose, all voting options, including voting by special ballot, are available to you.If you are a student with a physical disability and cannot go to the returning office, advance poll or election day to

vote, you may request a home visit.Where do you vote?

Visit wemakevotingeasy.ca to find out the poll where you vote. You need to be on the voters list for your poll to vote. It is possible to get on the voter’s list on election day. You must bring a piece of government issued identification and proof of where you live (see the website for appropriate proof) to the poll designated for your address.

If you have any questions, contact Elections Ontario: 1-888-668-8683

Academic Amnesty at U of W

“Be it resolved that Senate declares Thursday October 6th, 2011 as a day of Academic Amnesty for all students such that, if a student does not have a three hour break for this day, they may provide a copy of their class schedule to a professor and be absent to vote. No student shall receive academic penalty (be it grades or otherwise) for being absent in such a case.”

This was moved by OPUS during the June 12th Senate meeting and passed by Senate.

2011 Ontario Provincial Elections - Get out and vote on October 6th!

6 | GLOBAL The Student Movement | October 2011

By Meghan Mills

... almost a decade ago. Many Canadians remain unaware of the fact that Canada has been, and is currently, using military might to occupy countries under the pretext of what past-president of the United States George Bush would describe as a “war on terror.” Even when Canada’s presence is requested it would seem that an emphasis on immediate peace-keeping has been replaced by a shoot-first-then-ask-questions approach. This can be reflected by Prime Minister Harper’s recent statement, which can be found on Macleans.ca, regarding Libya: “a handful of soldiers is better than a mouthful of arguments.” What Harper didn’t say was especially when these arguments disrupt the business of Canadian based oil company, Suncor.

Despite what the current Conservative government would have Canadians believe, the majority of the Canadians do not support this increase in

militarization. For example, a recent survey noted in the Vancouver Sun, indicates that as many as 75% of Canadians do not believe the war in Afghanistan has been worth the financial cost. Nevertheless, in the same article, historian Desmond Morton suggests that these attitudes have changed since 9/11: “today, if the military asks for something, it gets it, whatever the cost, whatever the quantity.” I suppose we can thank the Conservative government for that as well.

Our presence in Afghanistan isn’t the only thing Canadians have begun to question. With over 600 troops in Libya alone, complete with CF-18 Fighter jets, aerial tankers, warships, and surveillance planes—resulting in a massive firing of 500 bombs—it is no wonder Canadians are questioning Harper’s motives for remaining in Libya. In a Globe and Mail article, Prime Minister Harper expressed his doubts

that Canada would leave Libya at the predicted time of September 27th. If you remember, Prime Minister Harper also extended Canada’s presence in Afghanistan from the original date of 2009 to 2011. Perhaps the extension of Canada’s presence in Libya—which would actually be the second extension—should not come as a shock after all.

Continued on next page.

GlobalContinued from UK healthcare.

The reforms, if passed by the House of Lords, would reduce the powers of the Secretary of State and move this regulatory burden to the groups of GPs and other health professionals in the form of General Practitioner Consortia, effectively de-centralizing the decisions about healthcare and fragmenting control of health services. This would also push the control, and accountability, of budgetary matters to the consortium in each district, encouraging districts with more financially demanding populations to make concessions in health services that other nearby and competing districts need not make.

This reform would also make it so that the NHS would be subject to anti-trust and anti-competition legislation, making it harder for the NHS to advertize their services, relocate hospitals and clinics, and expand outside currently existing trust locations. Further, this bill acts to remove the income cap that public hospitals currently have for treating private clients. This would allow public hospitals to take more people who are privately insured, which, some health professionals fear, could lead to public

hospitals giving priority to private clients to increase the bottom line, while making those who do not have private coverage wait for even routine services.

Since the bill’s proposal, there has been a strong push by GPs, and other health professionals, to get the bill withdrawn. This push has come from letter writing campaigns, candlelight vigils, and public protests by health professions. So far, the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Midwives, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the British Association of Occupational Therapists, the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychologists and many grassroots GPs have all publicly expressed concern as to the direction of the bill, with some health professionals going as far as calling the bill privatization by stealth.

With 316 in favor and 251 opposed in the House of Commons vote on September 7th, the bill now moves on to the House of Lords, where it is expected that the bill will face opposition from Labour members, as well as Liberal Democrats willing to cross party lines.

By Michael Wilson

From July 22nd-27th, over a hundred students and United States Student Association (USSA) staff attended USSA’s 64th yearly Congress, hosted at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee. The gathering came at a critical time for the student movement in the United States and the world.

At the convention, students from Wisconsin, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, California, and the host state gathered to elect the incoming leadership and set the organization’s platform and agenda for the year. Changes to USSA’s internal structure were also proposed.

Among the resolutions approved were the adoption of the national Pell Grant and TRIO lobbying campaigns. Both of these campaigns deal directly with the diminishing of government investment in education.

Also in attendance at the USSA Congress was Angus Johnston. Decades’ long USSA member and alumnus, Johnston is one of the leading contemporary historians of student activism and a professor at City University of New York.

“The student movement in the United States is in a position of amazing strength,” said Johnston. “It is building incredible relations with labor and other organizations; the student body in the U.S. is more likely to be first-generation, more likely to be female, non-traditional, students of color, working class, openly gay, have a disability... it is more representative of the people of the U.S. than it has ever been.”

There is an incredible power in that, he stressed. “If the students represent the state population, they cannot be dismissed by media and politicians as ivory tower brats separated from society’s issues.”

As attendants arrived at the convention, news stories emerged about Norway’s Anders Behring Breivik, a hyper-conservative with reported ties to fundamentalist Christian as well as militant, racial purity, anti-Islam, anti-immigration and pro-gun rights organizations. Breivik followed his bombing of the Prime Minister’s office at the Labor Party headquarters in Oslo on July 11 by driving to the largest annual convention of student activists, in the Utoeya island North-West of Oslo, and opening fire on the crowd, killing 85 student leaders.

Breivik, who has been charged with “acts of terrorism,” called the killings “atrocious” but “necessary.” These events made the reality of an internationalized student movement chillingly palpable.

As the story developed, Johnston urged the assembly of students at Florida A&M University to recognize the similarities between one meeting of student leaders and another. Proportionally, in terms of national population, the murder of 85 student leaders in Norway would equal

the murder of 5,400 student organizers in the U.S.

For the first time in modern history the following generation’s prospects are grimmer than ours. Students across the world—from Greece to Gaza to Chile and Wisconsin—are organizing a coherent push back on behalf of public education.

Within its broader social context, the student movement can serve the function of a vanguard for all social sectors—such as labor, community, religious and other advocacy groups—by providing the example, information, discourse and the will to fight for government accountability, decent standards of living and adequate public services.

To empower these sectors, organize and act for social change, “these sectors need to be informed of their own rights and the ways they are being abused. However, today’s standard model of education often serves to control social norms and maintain current hierarchies of power,” said Sarah Kelley, a student from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst and an intern for Jobs with Justice.

Students at the USSA Congress offered their insight on the broader prospects of the student movement.

David Castillo, from the University of California - Riverside, said, “Our passion for justice is fueled by the injustices we see prevalent in America and the world today, but even with our own passions we must reflect and always be self-critical on what we want to accomplish as a movement.”

“Activism is a combination of engaging in social and personal transformation,” said Kelley. “We cannot realize and change injustices in our country and in our world, without realizing and changing them in our own personal actions. Or as Martin Luther King understood this, we must undergo a ‘radical revolution in values.’ In this post 9-11 period especially, we must know the importance of values like compassion, generosity, and love.”

Michael Wilson is News Editor for The Pointer newspaper at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, where he studies Latin American Social Movements and Human Rights. You can read more from him at his blog: guidolions.wordpress.com.

For the full version of this piece, visit tsmwindsor.ca

A decisive year for student movementNational student association holds its 64th Congress

Editorial: Canada goes to war!

Participants in the Congress, including Angus Johnston and Sarah Kelley

GLOBAL | 7The Student Movement | October 2011

By Mohammed Almoayad

Last year, Amir Gissin, Consul General of Israel in Toronto, came to give a talk on how the Arab Spring was a threat to Israel. A group of at least a dozen pro-Palestinian students marched in, and collectively stormed out in the middle of his talk, some shouting “free Palestine” as they left. It wasn’t the most well-publicized talk, so I thought to myself “if all these people feel so strongly about the issue that they are willing to organize to heckle this one speaker, why have they not started any movement on campus that will actually do something to support Palestinians?” Before the talk started, I overheard what seemed to be the Israeli diplomat’s entourage chatting with some people seeming to be affiliated with the university. They were discussing how wonderful our campus was in that it didn’t have Israeli Apartheid Week like many other campuses did. This was the moment I decided to start a Palestinian Solidarity Group under OPIRG. The group has been founded in a very critical period in the conflict, giving us the opportunity to immediately have a large presence on campus: the first major event we will organize will be a rally in support of the Palestinian bid for statehood on the September 24th.

Palestine is a state that has been literally wiped off the map. When you look at many maps in the West, Gaza and the West Bank are labelled as “disputed.” They are disputed by Israel and its Western supporters, but not by anyone with respect for international law and norms. This was made clear in the 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the separation wall in the West Bank which unanimously pointed out that Israel had annexed Gaza, the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem in 1967 illegally. Essentially, Israel has colonized Palestine, transferred part of its population there and put the indigenous population under a military-run apartheid regime—all obvious breaches of international law.

As a result of the four-decade long illegal

occupation, Palestine, specifically the PLO, currently has only observer status at the UN. On Friday September 23rd, Mahmoud Abbas will present a bid for Palestinian statehood which should change that. There are two options: applying to become a member-state or a non-member state. Becoming a member state would give Palestine the same status as Israel and every other country in the world, but requires going through the Security Council. The U.S., unsurprisingly, has already said it would veto the bid. They have historically been the main enabler of Israel’s illegal policies and the main roadblock to a solution to the conflict. The status of non-member state, currently held only by the Vatican, would simply require passing a General Assembly vote, and considering more than 126 countries out of the 193 in the UN already recognise a Palestinian state, it should easily be able to get that status. The latter option should be the obvious path to take, and so it is very likely Palestine will gain the status of statehood on the 23rd.

The implications of this would be very significant, because it means no one would be able to say the occupied territories are “disputed.” The UN would be essentially recognizing that Israeli’s occupation is illegal along with every settlement—leaving Israel in a position very similar to Apartheid South Africa: a rogue state that refuses to comply with international law. This has largely been the case since the colonization started, but now it won’t be an easily hidden fact by both the West and Israel, and it would essentially force them to face it.

It will most likely not bring any immediate changes to the occupation, and could even have negative repercussions, but the clear message it sends and the position it puts Israel and the U.S. in make it an extremely important step in the right direction—especially in this critical period of the conflict. Both internal and external pressure is mounting against Israel. International condemnation at Israel’s response to the first freedom flotilla, the subsequent flotillas being organized all over the world, especially

strong actions by the Turkish government, and major protests against the conservative government inside Israel all are making Israel’s illegal occupation less sustainable. It’s also important to note that the U.S. itself is collapsing from imperial overstretch, which threatens its crucial military and economic aid to Israel.

Now is the time to be as involved as we can in the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions movements that helped take down Apartheid South Africa. It should be very clear that any solution will have to come from overwhelming international public pressure; governments and international bodies are stuck under the tyranny of hegemony. Therefore, a solution to the conflict would most likely need to be based on the actions of citizens in the imperial, Western states. Mostly this means the U.S., but all Western states bear varying levels of responsibility. Canada, under the Harper administration, has become the

most pro-Zionist country in the world, as outlined in Yves Engler’s Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. It is my hope that we can get the University of Windsor to be a big part of the reversal of this shameful support for the last remaining colonial crime against humanity.

The Bid for Palestinian Statehood

Windsor rally for Palestinian Statehood, Sept. 24th.Photo by Ian Clough

Continued from Canada goes to war!

What is shocking, however, is that although Western leaders generally agreed that a military presence in Libya would end when Muammar Gaddafi is killed, the current leader of the NATO-led campaign states that the bombing was unlikely to result in Gaddafi’s death. According to Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, Canadian leader of the NATO bombing-campaign, he did not have the mandate to “engage Gaddafi directly” and that in fact, due to obscure hiding locations, bombing tactics were “unlikely” to kill Gaddafi. Not to fear, however, as Bouchard continued to say that civilian casualties were limited: “we’ve had strikes within 150 meters of a children’s amusement park with zero, zero, casualties.” 150 meters—that’s a relief.

More evidence for Canada’s militarization has been brought to light, however, by a confidential report recently made public via WikiLeaks. This report indicates that Canada had helped more than it had originally let on in the

early months of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. According to CBC news reporter Greg Weston (2011), on the same day then-Prime Minister Chretien publicly announced Canada’s refusal to take part in the war in Iraq, a Canadian official had been “secretly promising the Americans clandestine military support for the fiercely controversial operation.” In effect, the report leaked by WikiLeaks has provided evidence that the Canadian naval and air forces, already in the Strait of Hormuz, were to be put to use by the US government “discreetly”.

This might-as-right approach should ring the bells of familiarity for Canadians, considering our Southern neighbour’s past head of state and his notorious international relations. In fact, not so long ago, Harper glowed as then-president George Bush offered praise for Canada’s presence in Afghanistan, specifically in “writing the first chapter of laying the foundation of peace in the 21st century.” Nevertheless, occupying a country for peace seems as logical a solution as bombing a nation to end terrorism.

8 | ARTS The Student Movement | October 2011

ArtsBy Travis Reitsma

From September 8th-11th in Amherstburg’s beautiful Fort Malden, the seventh annual Shores of Erie International Wine Festival took place showcasing the delicious food, great wine and world-class music of Windsor and Essex County. This year’s headliners, Sam Roberts, April Wine and Sarah Harmer provided terrific entertainment for all those who attended, but local music was also prominently on display. I was lucky enough to attend Sunday’s portion of the event where nearly every musical act had a strong connection to Windsor.

I arrived to discover that I was wearing entirely the wrong footwear. Due to the rain that had soaked the event the previous few days, the entire park was turned into a muddy mess, with cardboard and cedar mulch strewn everywhere in an attempt to keep the feet of the many patrons dry.

Despite the mess, the festival was terrific as usual. The food and wine booths were buzzing with activity, proudly showing off Windsor and

Essex County’s terrific bounty of local products. Not being the biggest fan of wine, I stuck to the food. Smoke & Spice, one of my favourite restaurants in the city (located on Ottawa Street) provided me with a delicious pulled pork sundae; a dish with pulled pork in signature barbeque sauce, lovingly placed on a bed of beans with a spicy sauce finished with white wine.

The music on hand was an outstanding display of the talent that graces our fine city. The afternoon started out with songstresses Jackie Robitaille and Crissi Cochrane. Both have beautiful voices and display a mastery of their instruments (Jackie on piano and Crissi on guitar) and a mastery of the art of song-writing.

Next up was my own producer and good friend Johnny West. West performed with a three-piece band that included the owner of Windsor’s own Dr. Disc Record Store, Liam O’Donnell and bassist Dan Carpino. West has become

renowned in Windsor for his music, releasing several albums per year and crafting a sound that is as unique as he is personally. Despite some technical difficulties with his keyboard’s sustain pedal, West and company churned out a sublime performance, working in several of his terrifically-written pieces, along with a brilliant cover of The Police’s Walking on the Moon.

Next was Raul Midon, a blind singer-songwriter that captivated the crowd with his soulful music and brilliant percussive guitar playing; he even managed to throw in more than a few trumpet solos, except he did not have a trumpet; he made the sound using only his mouth.

The headliner for the day was none other than Ontario folk superstar and environmental activist Sarah Harmer. Although she was born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, her Windsor connections are strong. Her lead guitarist, Dean Drouillard once graced several stages in the Rose City, the place he calls home. He now produces and plays on many prominent Canadian acts including Windsor’s adopted son Ron Leary and Toronto’s Royal Wood. Her

stage-tech and manager was another Windsor native, former Yellowood bassist Ryan Fields.

Harmer’s performance was near perfect. Her beautiful song-writing was complimented perfectly by her band and her voice rang out over the shores of Lake Erie as hundreds gathered near the stage to listen and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine.

Windsor’s Stereo Goes Stellar finished off what was another outstanding festival that highlighted many of the great things about Windsor and Essex County. If you missed this year’s festival, be sure to mark the first weekend after Labour Day on your 2012 calendar, you will not be disappointed.

For more info on the acts I saw this weekend, visit the following sites:

www.myspace.com/jackierobitaille www.crissicochrane.com www.johnnywestmusic.wordpress.com www.raulmidon.com www.sarahharmer.com www.stereogoesstellar.com

By Tom Lucier

I remember how grateful he was, the look on his face, when I’d play the track from the album he gave me. I’d see him parking his car across the street and I’d prepare my ipod – Scroll to “M” – Medeski, Martin & Wood – It’s a Jungle In Here – Shuck It Up.

I’d wait until he’d come in and order something, and then press play. He’d look up with a big grin, already slightly bobbing his head to the beat, and say happily (sometimes groggily), “Thanks man.”

I can recall, over the years, that the car he’d pull up in was ever-changing. First it was the Rambler that he’d been tinkering with for ages. And then I think I saw him tooling around in ANOTHER Rambler. Different colour. Then he was in a white Cadillac. Then the Benz. When he told me that he raced that Benz in Michigan as often as possible, I was initially shocked. I knew he could fix cars, and that he could diagnose a sick car, but he was also making time to race? Okay. The ever-deepening myth of Bradford just kept growing the longer I knew him.

And the guy could flat-out play the drums like no one’s business. This is something we all know. We’ve all known. He played with performers coming to Windsor without bands, but needing back-up. Josh on bass, and Bradford on drums. He’d learn it overnight. Just listening. Name a style or genre, he could play it. Jamie Greer said it best…he made everyone sound better. And musicians all over the place knew it. I remember showing up to the first or second Shores of Erie Wine Festival in Amherstburg early. Not too many people around. The sun was still up. He was the only guy I recognized in the whole place. He was playing with three or four bands that day,

at that one event. That’s how he was…as a musician…omnipresent.

As I think about his more unique entrances into Phog, I recall the afternoons that he’d come in before a Detroit drumming gig and ask Frank and I if we’d like any Lafayette Coney Island hot dogs or chili dogs. “C’mon Tom, heavy-heavies? A few?” he’d say. He knew I couldn’t say no to the dogs that snapped when you bit them. But I never really expected that food to show up. He was just so prone to going with the flow, that I just supposed that he’d never bring the food…but I can say for certain that EVERY time he asked if I’d like some food from Detroit, he’d bring it in six hours later when I was needing it most. Braved the border with a brown bag of meat and onions and cheese on the Tunnel Bus.

I knew portions of Bradford. I knew the musician, and the ambassador to Detroit. I knew the storyteller. I knew the giver. I knew the car buff. I knew he was just settling into a gleaming new job fixing super-high-end cars in Royal Oak. He popped in late on a Saturday night to say hi, and look at the new music project we started on the wall (The Windsor Music Tangle). He had a Labatt 50 and a shot of Jägermeister: what he always had. He also told me all about the new job. He rarely, and I mean rarely, talked about his conquests. But he was excited about this new job, and I was really very happy for him.

Continued on page 10.

7th Annual Shores of Erie Wine Fest displays local cuisine, wine & music

High school commons How I remember Bradford HelnerSatire by Walter Petrichyn

I was new to high school system, and I didn’t have any friends. You can tell I was nervous by the way I pronounced “Helluoo”. When you are in the 9th grade, the biggest issue is surviving in the hierarchical system of lunchtime. It didn’t matter whether some students were bigger than others, I was intimidated by every student equally. However, I went to introduce myself to five different groups that day, and this particular experience has always made me choose sides without any pressure.

I approached a couple of individuals that were known for basically running the student council, and I talked to Stephen. He was wearing an blue American Eagle shirt, moccasins, and had a clean cut hair cut. He told me there were certain things I had to agree with to hang out with him and his friends. I said, “What do I have to like to be part of your gang?” Stephen replied, “You know, the usual things”. I asked him to elaborate on what he meant exactly. He said “You have to like the following things: respect for your student government, our troops, and the Canucks.” I was against our Canadians being in the middle east so I told them we probably wouldn’t get along. Stephen told me, “Get lost then, geek”.

I didn’t take Stephen’s comment offensively though because name calling is something I just brush off my shoulders. After my discussion with Stephen, I went to another table in the cafeteria to introduce myself to another group of students. Sitting at the centre left table in the cafeteria, an older student named Bob welcomed me to the table. Bob apparently came back to high school as a teacher assistant, so he didn’t fool me with his age. After talking for a couple of minutes, he said “Usually everyone in our group detests the actions of Stephen and his friends, and I used to hang out with Nicole’s group”. I found out that Nicole was part of the kids that cared more about their

co-op programs than homework itself; Bob was sick of being around them. Ultimately that day, I sat with Bob and his crew for the whole lunch period.

The next day, I decided to introduce myself to Nicole and her colleagues that sat at the left side at the cafeteria. Nicole greeted me warmly, and I sat at her table that day for lunch. Nicole wore glasses, and she and her friends wore a lot of buttons on their coats. The one that caught my eye was the one that read, “Down with student council, Up with student rights”. However, I asked her why Bob doesn’t hang out with her group anymore. She replied “Well maybe for the same reasons I do not talk to the french club anymore, people change”. I didn’t understand this comment exactly, but I wanted to fully grasp who could I trust in this school. After lunch, I went to meet up with the leader of the french club, Louis. Louis was a new student at the school, wore a blazer and jeans that reminded me of the comedian Jeff Foxworthy. While I asked him what was his deal with Nicole, I saw Bob walk by and give me a menacing look across the hall. Louis told me, “Nicole is a good friend, but it is up to her to choose to decide whomever she wants to associate with.” I thought that’s how Bob feels as well, and continued my search for my potential best friends.

It has been a week of floating around different groups of people until I met Elizabeth. She had at her display her own reusable water bottle and homemade carrot soup. When we talked I found out that the carrots in her soup were grown right in her backyard. When I asked her about the other groups in school, she shrugged her shoulders and stated “Everyone is different, but the diversity of our school system is what makes this school exciting.” I decided to hang out with her for the rest of that lunch period, and a couple of weeks afterwards.

WWAC Free Friday Film NightsOct 7th: Land and Freedom Oct 14th: Anarchism in AmericanOct 21st: The InternationaleOct 28th: The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish AnarchistsEach movie starts at 7pm. The Windsor Workers’ Action Centre (WWAC) is located at 328 Pelissier

SPORTS | 9The Student Movement | October 2011

SportsBy Dave Zirin

Jerry Richardson, as a Google search quickly proves, is invariably described as “old school.” The 75-year-old Carolina Panthers owner played pro football back when tickets were a dollar, there were no player unions and black quarterbacks didn’t exist. He made his fortune in the food service industry, with a strong emphasis on personal appearance and low wages for all under his employ. During the NFL lockout, he oozed with contempt toward every player, union official and fan. Even the sainted Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning earned an ugly sneer.

Now he’s the owner who told number-one draft pick quarterback Cam Newton that grooming and servility are prerequisites for success. On The Charlie Rose Show, Richardson proudly recounted asking Newton if he had any tattoos or piercings. When Newton replied, “No sir, I don’t have any,” Richardson told Rose he informed his new franchise quarterback: “Good. We want to keep it that way. We want to keep no tattoos, no piercings and I think you’ve got a very nice haircut.” No word if he then checked Newton’s gums.

It’s worth noting that Richardson didn’t hesitate signing Jeremy Shockey in

the off-season, a tight end with more tattoos than a Hell’s Angel. But there’s a difference. Shockey is a white good ol’ boy from Oklahoma. Newton is black and branded by the media as having “character issues.”

Certainly, many were surprised when the “old school” Richardson used the NFL draft’s number-one overall pick on the Auburn University Heisman trophy winner. While Newton’s talent, size and speed are unquestioned, his recent past has been a national soap opera. It includes multiple school transfers, accusations of theft and the finding that his father attempted to sell his services to the highest bidder. It was a unique journey that said less about Newton than the gutter economy of the NCAA, where everyone gets paid but those the people pay to see perform. Now Richardson is telling the world that no one should worry about Newton’s “character issues” because he’s under the owner’s care from this point forward. He even told Newton not to worry about the past because Richardson would guide his future.

It’s one thing to have the Panthers owner express these feelings to Newton privately. One gets the feeling that a rich variety of racist nonsense is said to players behind closed doors. We can

remember last year, before the 2010 NFL draft, when it was leaked that Miami General Manager Jeff Ireland asked star Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute. Or recall Anthony Prior, former NFL player, who wrote the book Slave Side of Sunday. Prior said to me, “I’ve heard coaches call players ‘boy,’ ‘porch monkeys,’ ‘sambos.’ I’ve been in film sessions where coaches would try to get a rise out of players by calling them ‘boy’ or ‘Jemima,’ and players are so conditioned to not jeopardize their place, they just take it.”

What differentiates Richardson’s brand of racial paternalism is his public, boastful pride. It’s like when Rick Perry made Jose Cuervo jokes in a speech at a Latino Political event. In other words, it’s a way of proclaiming your power over others because your station, your bank account and your skin color allow you to treat others like they live on their knees.

There are some in the press defending Richardson on the grounds that “the Carolina Panthers are a company, Richardson runs the company and many companies have dress codes and

rules concerning personal appearance.” Yet there are two problems with that argument. The first is that the Panthers have no such team rules (see Shockey, Jeremy.). The second is that once you have on your pads and are under the helmet, no one can tell if you have more tattoos and piercings than Lisbeth Salander. This is not about Newton’s personal appearance. It’s about the public effort to exert control over a 22-year-old man by an owner who posesses what can only be called a plantation mentality. If Richardson really wants this kind of absolute power over young, gifted black athletes, he should just sell the Panthers and apply for a job at the NCAA. As for Cam Newton, he might want to read about some Panthers who weren’t under the control of people like Jerry Richardson.

Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) and just made the new documentary “Not Just a Game.” Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

Jerry Richardson, Cam Newton & the Color of Change

By Mohammad AkbarLast month I discussed the storyline between CM Punk, John Cena, and Triple H. Triple H is the new Chief Operating Officer of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). CM Punk defeated Cena and retained the championship. At this point, wrestling legend Kevin Nash came out and powerbombed CM Punk, allowing Alberto Del Rios to use his money in the bank briefcase to schedule a match for the championship against CM Punk then and there. He quickly defeated CM Punk and became the new WWE champion.This worked well for WWE storyline as now CM Punk could turn “face,” a term used to describe a character becoming more identifiable and likable by fans, and it allowed that fellow “face” wrestler John Cena could feud with the “heel” champion, a term used to describe those who are considered evil by fans.CM Punk was scheduled to face Kevin Nash at Night of Champions on September 18th, however, Triple H took his place, citing his

authority and the authority of the WWE Board of Directors supporting this decision.Over the past few weeks, CM Punk cut bristling promos on both Triple H and Kevin Nash, and insulted Triple H’s wife Stephanie McMahon. It was this that motivated Triple H to face CM Punk. The match was a no disqualification match, implying that wrestlers would be “running in,” meaning when wrestlers unrelated to the match in question interrupt and attack the participants. There were a total of three run-ins: first, the Miz and R-truth attacked Triple H, hoping to give CM Punk the victory. When this failed, they attacked both participants. Second, Kevin Nash came through the crowd and attacked CM Punk and Triple H. Finally, John Laurinitis, the Vice President of Talent Relations, stopped a referee who was injured from re-entering the ring and counting the pin on CM Punk. In the end, CM Punk—after three Pedigrees (an underhook facebuster, Triple H’s finishing move), and a powerbomb from Kevin Nash—was pinned by Triple H. Continued on page 10.

CM Punk faces Triple H

By Mohammad Akbar

Many of those who watched wrestling in the late 1990s and towards the turn of the century will probably recall the “Hardy Boyz.” Matt and Jeff Hardy were easily one of the most popular tag teams in the history of the sport, along with long-time rivals, Edge and Christian.

The primary reason for this was their high-flying maneuvers. The Hardy Boyz used their talent for daredevil moves, such as the “Swanton” (modified senton) bomb used by Jeff Hardy.

The Hardys took off in the late 1990s as a demand grew for edgier and more exciting wrestling matches. While the American “mat-style” of wrestling, which featured more in ring and on the ground techniques was still held in high regard,

as can be seen with the popularity of Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle, the younger fans of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) were much more into the Hardy’s unique style.

The beginning of the end of the Hardys’ popularity was the decision to split Matt and Jeff Hardy. Both Hardys’ performance began to falter, and both engaged in recreational drug use.

Jeff was released from his contract in 2004, and he soon joined Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling. Matt was released following problems with his co-star and girlfriend Lita, but was quickly rehired after a few months.

In 2009, the Hardys were once again pushed to the main event, however again they were enemies, with Jeff losing the

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) championship due to interference from Matt.

The feud marked the end of the duo in WWE. Jeff Hardy was released shortly after losing a “Loser leaves town” match with CM Punk, and Matt was released about a year later.

Today, both have been dealing with extended drug use and charges of steroid use, something that has cut short many careers, including that of “Ravishing” Rick Rude, Chris Benoit, and has left the “Superstar” Billy Graham, a legend of the 1970s, completely crippled. Jeff plead guilty to possession of drugs and anabolic steroids in 2010, and was sentenced this year.

After his release from WWE Matt Hardy also joined TNA, and was soon released after being arrested for driving while he was intoxicated. On September 12th, he was arrested for the same crime.

Why was it that after their release, both Hardy brothers, in excellent shape and with great futures ahead of them, did their lives spiral out of control? Many blame their new employer, TNA, for the lack of a Wellness policy as found in WWE. Another concern is the lack of unions or of any health and safety contracts between the companies and their employees, though both TNA and WWE are known to aid in paying off surgeries and other health related issues. Wellness Policies clearly lay out guidelines for talent in a company, and there are appropriate responses for any infractions. WWE often suspends those who violate the policy, and many, such as the Hardys, Kurt Angle, or even Ken Anderson, join TNA due to the lax policy on talent relations, especially in relation to drug and alcohol abuse. It’s clear that wrestling needs more Wellness policies, and many more support programs.

The Hardy BoyzFrom high spots to downwards spiral

10 | The Student Movement | October 2011

Live Music in Windsor - OctoberMonday, 3rd

Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge, 10pm

Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub, 10pm

Tuesday, 4th

Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub, 9pm

Wednesday, 5th

Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub, 10pm

Chris Barrette The Dugout, 10pm

FAM FEST Phog Lounge, 9pm famfest.ca/schedule

Thursday, 6th

Vice Aerial Manchester Pub, 9pm

Mellow Shelf The Dugout, 10pm

The Milkmen The FM Lounge, 10pm

FAM FEST Phog Lounge Milk Coffee Bar famfest.ca/schedule

Friday, 7th

FAM FEST The Loop The FM Lounge The Coach & Horses The Dugout famfest.ca/schedule

Rebekah Higgs Pat Robitaille Phog Lounge, 9pm

Saturday, 8th

FAM FEST Phog Lounge The Loop The FM Lounge The Coach & Horses famfest.ca/schedule

Yukon Blonde (Vancouver) Great Bloomers The Unquiet Dead Phog Lounge, 6pm

Monday, 10th

Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge, 10pm

Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub, 10pm

Tuesday, 11th

Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub, 9pm

Wednesday, 12th

Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub, 10pm

Chris Barrette The Dugout, 10pm

We Are The City (Vancouver) The Paint Movement (Toronto) Phog Lounge, 9pm

Thursday, 13th

Vice Aerial Manchester Pub, 9pm

Mellow Shelf The Dugout, 10pm

The Milkmen The FM Lounge, 10pm

Friday, 14th

Sweet Piece Ray Whimsey Phog Lounge, 9pm

Saturday, 15th

Adam and The Amethysts (Montreal) Phog Lounge, 9pm

Monday, 17th

Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge, 10pm

Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub, 10pm

Tuesday, 18th

Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub, 9pm

Wednesday, 19th

Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub, 10pm

Chris Barrette The Dugout, 10pm

The Pack A.D. Phog Lounge, 9pm

Thursday, 20th

Vice Aerial Manchester Pub, 9pm

Mellow Shelf The Dugout, 10pm

The Milkmen The FM Lounge, 10pm

Friday, 21st

Ten Indians Diesel Junkies Phog Lounge, 9pm

Saturday, 22nd

10,000 Hours (Toronto) Pete Dominas Phog Lounge, 9pm

Monday, 24th

Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge, 10pm

Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub, 10pm

Tuesday, 25th

Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub, 9pm

Wednesday, 26th

Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub, 10pm

Chris Barrette The Dugout, 10pm

Thursday, 27th

Vice Aerial

Manchester Pub, 9pm

Mellow Shelf The Dugout, 10pm

The Milkmen The FM Lounge, 10pm

Friday, 28th

Eric Welton Band CD Release Party Long Lots Phog Lounge, 9pm

Saturday, 29th

HALLOWEEN DRESS-UP SHOW! Vaudevillainaires as 90s bands The Hypnotics as The Ramones Nefidovs as The Specials Phog Lounge, 9pm

Sunday, 30th

Library Voices Phog Lounge, 9pm

Monday, 31st

Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge, 10pm

Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub, 10pm

Continued from Bradford Helner.

I realized later that he had visited because he was making his rounds. He was likely going to have to move to the Detroit area for this job. He wasn’t going to be seeing us as regularly as he might have otherwise.

The last image I hold of him, late on that Saturday night, was the back of him (his hat) as he traversed the alley en route to say hello to the folks at FM Lounge.

I’m not even sure if we said goodbye.

I got word in the afternoon on Sunday that he had collapsed. A handful of days later, he passed away with family at his side.

The Thursday night he passed, there was a makeshift gathering in our little building that he had played dozens (likely over 100) of shows within. So many people with so little notice. We cried. We shared stories. We were stunned into silence together.

At 39, he had the soul of a great, great grandfather it seemed. I will miss him. We will all miss him.

Continued from Green Party.

To meet Windsor’s own energy needs, he envisions “an energy grid that would be spread across Windsor, using solar-panels, bio-mass, windmills,” where Windsorites share the energy they produce. “We can take in waste from companies, turn it into energy and then power ourselves,” he suggests. “There are a lot of really smart ideas people are implementing all over the world.”

“We have a fantastic alleyway grid in Windsor...we’re looking at expensive ways to get bicycle routes when we have perfectly usable alleyways. We wouldn’t have to implement costly road-widening.

If the alleyways were cleaned up and saw regular use, then they would be good for bikers. With proper planning, we could make this happen,” Durocher says.

The Green Party is pushing for Ontario to decentralize energy production and agriculture. Through this, the Green Party hopes to eliminate the waste that comes from containers and transportation of food from local farmers to distributors and then back out again to local communities. For Windsor especially, Durocher points out that it is possible to eat locally. “We might only be able to do it seasonally, but still, it is a good start.”

Continued from Liberal Party.Like the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals pledge to open 60,000 new spaces for students in post-secondary education over the next five years. To accommodate the influx of students, and to ease the burden from over-crowded and underfunded universities, the Liberals have proposed creating three new campuses, solely for undergraduate programs. Unfortunately, there will be no research or graduate programs at these satellite campuses. They will be hiring “teaching-only” instructors who will not

be conducting research in addition to their teaching, and will not be able to provide the same quality of education.The Liberals have also promised 600 million dollars to contribute to building new facilities on existing campuses, such as the engineering building here at the University of Windsor and the upcoming downtown facilities.The final main point in the Liberal’s platform is developing an additional 700 million dollars in funds over the next four years.

Continued from WUFA.Students in Ontario are currently paying the highest tuition fees in all of Canada and in the government’s view, it is a fight—not a right—to obtain a post secondary education. With education becoming less and less accessible, students are frustrated and angry and want to know why education is not made a priority. We must not fall into the trap of the Wildeman rhetoric—if there is a strike, we should not blame the professors. An attack on wages, benefits, and quality of work of the faculty and staff is an attack on the quality of our education. In an interview with TSM on September 22, when referring to WUFA members, Brian Brown pointed out, “People are doing more with less. People are having to sit on more committees, which is taking up

more time, dealing with more students on an individual basis and not really having the time to do it. So as far as the quality of education goes, it suffers. And it’s not because of the people that are here it’s because of how much work they have to do over and above what they would normally be doing.”Less time and resources for faculty and staff translate to less time and resources for students. When WUFA unites and fights for their rights, they are actually helping fight for the quality of our education. They are stating that they do not accept the lack of funds and lack of resources that they need in order to provide the best quality education they can for their students. They are arguing that the lack of funds is not because there are not the resources—it is because of the choices that are being made by the administration and

provincial government on where to allocate these funds. Professors are not merely dipping into the dried up money pool for funds that the students and professors must fight against each other for. If we buy into this kind of rhetoric then it will divide and weaken us.Further, the student struggle is the worker and community struggle. The fight for workers’ rights is directly linked to the fight for access to affordable education. Workers and students are both under attack and our struggles are intertwined. As students fight back and demand that funds be put into education instead of war and corporate tax cuts, workers must also fight back for their right to quality working conditions. When there is an attack against education and workers’ wages and their quality of work, it is an attack on society—when workers and students

unite and fight together we are fighting for our communities and demanding improvements in our society. WUFA filed for a “no-board” on Friday, September 23rd. According to Brian Brown, once a no board is received back from the Ministry of Labour, after 17 days the administration can lock out the union or the union can strike. If there is a strike, students supporting their professors on and off the picket line will end a strike sooner and strengthen the collective bargaining process for the union. Together, students and workers can communicate to the administration that attacking professors, instructors and librarians is an attack against the students and the entire university community.

Continued from CM Punk vs. Triple H.Meanwhile, Cena defeated Alberto Del Rio in a squash match, where Cena essentially dominated Del Rio for the entire match and won a clean victory, reestablishing himself as the corporate champion.All in all, it seems the summer of Punk is over. WWE has returned to the position it was last year, around this time, but with a notably better direction. Over the

past few weeks on Monday Night Raw storylines have continued to develop, and Cena is by no means in a safe space, as he is set to face CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio in a triple threat championship Hell in the Cell match. The remarkable improvement in WWE programming, while disastrous for other companies, really gives fans something to warm up to, after years of sub-par attempts at re-capturing the magic of the Attitude Era, without resorting to Attitude Era tactics.

| 11OPIRG - WINDSOR | October 2011

Frequently Asked Questions What is OPIRG? We are a society which funds and provides resources to activist groups on campus. There are a total of eleven OPIRGs in Ontario. What does OPIRG stand for? Ontario Public Interest Research Group. What is ‘Public Interest Research’? Public Interest groups are those who try to influence government policy on issues which affect the general public, such as education or healthcare. OPIRG advocates research and education of public interest issues related to social & environmental justice. What is social & environmental justice? Social justice advocates are interested in creating a society based on the ideas of equality, human rights, and solidarity. Environmental justice advocates want equal enjoyment and protection of the environment regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, etc. How can I get involved? We are always looking for new volunteers! E-mail opirg@uwindsor.ca to find out more information, or visit us at http://opirg.uwindsor.ca!!!

Rally around campus and soap box demonstration in the quad

Monday September 12, 2011

Barbecue with Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity and Engineers Without Borders on Thursday September 15, 2011

Tar Sands Update

On September 25th and 26th, hundreds of individuals and groups gathered in Parliament Hill in Ottawa to protest the Harper Government’s policy on tar sands. Events included a rally and a civil disobedience sit-in to fight the oil industry’s control over government policy, as well as a call for investment in green energy. Participants included Maude Barlow from Council of Canadians, and Clayton Thomas-Muller from the Indigenous Environmental Network. Official celebrity endorsements of this action came from big names such as Graham Greene, Dave Thomas, Bruce Cox, Mia Kirshner, and Naomi Klein.

To see the powerful video of this event, go to

http://ww.ottawaaction.ca

FREE FAIR TRADE

COFFEE!

Come drop in to the OPIRG Exchange

Monday—Thursday 2:00—6:00

372 California OPIRG volunteers protest at the candidates’ forum on Wednesday September 29, 2011

The upcoming Provincial election on October 6th is your chance to make your voice heard. As educated Canadian citizens, it is your RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to be informed about the key issues being debated by politicians. To get started, visit http://votecompass.cbc.ca to find out where you fit on the political spectrum, as well as learn about each party’s position.

VALERIE CROSS

DAN NARDONE

LINDSAY SHEPPARD

STEPHANIE ONESCHUK KRISTINA NIKOLOVA

Meet our Board of Directors:

NADHEERA PANAMALDENIYA

STEPHANIE LALONDE MIKE GIBBONS MANDA IVEZIC

12 | The Student Movement | October 2011