All Posts Tagged With: "politics"
Course requires field work with Occupy movement
Protesting prof says she will remain objective
Photo by bogieharmond on Flickr
Students at Columbia University in New York are being offered a course that requires most of those taking part to work with the Occupy Movement.
Anthropologist Hannah Appel, who supports the movement, is teaching “Occupy the Field: Global Finance, Inequality, Social Movement.”
Appel is described on Columbia’s website as a post-doc “with research interests in the daily life of capitalism and the private sector.”
She told the New York Post that, ”Inevitably, my experience will color the way I teach, but I feel equipped to teach [the course] objectively.”
Unlike Canada’s Occupy movement, which has moved out of city parks, New York’s occupiers have continued to gather publicly. In fact, 68 protesters were arrested at or near Zuccotti Park on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment on New Year’s Eve.
NDP candidate would lavish gifts on students
But Paul Dewar doesn’t have much support
Photo from PaulDewar.ca
No less than nine people are fighting for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
Now, one candidate has distinguished himself by promising gifts for students—in the form of cash.
Paul Dewar, member for Ottawa Centre, released a plan last week that would provide 10,000 youth with tuition grants in exchange for time served with non-profits, either in Canada or abroad. Those youth would get $1,500 per month to cover expenses during their years of volunteer work and up to $6,000 more for education or training.
But that’s not all. Dewar says he’d reduce interest on the federal portion of the student loan to prime (potentially saving students thousands), he would reduce tuition fees by $700 per year and he’d provide $200-million more in grants for low-income, disabled and Aboriginal Canadians.
Continue reading NDP candidate would lavish gifts on students
French professor steals English sign
Latest in U Ottawa language tussle
A University of Ottawa professor stole a National Bank sign set up on campus because it wasn’t available in French. François Charboneau, an assistant professor of Political Studies told CBC News that he did so because he wanted to send a stronger message than simply “making another complaint.” All official signs must appear in English and French at the university, but many companies providing services on campus, such as construction companies and food shops, don’t follow the same rules. That’s because the 1974 provincial act that made the university bilingual says it must support this mandate in “programmes, central administration, general services, internal administration of its faculties and schools, its teaching staff, its support staff and its student population.” It says nothing of ancillary services. It isn’t just francophones who are often frustrated by the relationship between English and French on campus. An anglophone student recently wrote of her frustration about French-only signs and service at a Quizno’s sandwich shop on campus.
Commandant Camila’s uprising
A student’s revolt against Pinochet’s school reforms
Photo by Victor Ruiz Caballero/Reuters
Story by Richard Warnica.
If one were to rank the legacies of the Pinochet era in Chile, education reform wouldn’t likely make most lists. The former dictator devastated his country in many ways. Thousands of his opponents were murdered or simply disappeared. Countless more were tortured or forced into exile. But Augusto Pinochet also radically deregulated the education market, pulling funds from the public sector in the early 1980s and spreading them into a parallel private system. Remarkably, it is that decision that has his country roiling today.
McGill Principal defends herself
Protesters were “masked and hooded”
McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum told the Montreal Gazette yesterday that she is “sorry” to students who were hurt by pepper spray when riot police showed up at the administration building on Nov. 10. Students have called the response to their occupy-style protest heavy-handed. But Munroe-Blum defends herself by stressing that the occupiers were “masked and hooded,” which frightened the staff. She also added, “when you call the police you don’t tell them how to do their job.” The pepper-spraying at McGill came the same day tens of thousands of Quebec students marched in protest to the annual tuition rise of $325, which will bring fees more in line with the Canadian norm by 2017. Munroe-Blum continues to defend the tuition increases as a way to compete with better-funded schools like the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto. Three police officers at the University of California Davis are on leave after pepper-spraying 11 seated students at an Occupy protest Friday. Those protesters were not masked.
Bloggers prove that not all students support McGill strike
Union says they’re a “small minority”
McGill students. By shahk on Flickr.
In the war of words between McGill’s administration and MUNACA, the union representing 1,700 support staff who have been on strike since Sep. 1, a new battalion of students has emerged— and they’re fighting for Principal Heather Munroe-Blum.
Since the blog Exposing MUNACA went online Nov. 9, it has been viewed roughly 25,000 times.
The bloggers are physics student Peter Guo and English student Kayla Herbert. Their critique of MUNACA fills a hole in the public debate, considering that both the Students’ Society of McGill University and the McGill Daily newspaper have sided with the union.
In response to the popular blog, Joel Pedneault, SSMU’s vice-president of external affairs, told the Montreal Gazette today that he will send an e-mail to all students with more “objective” facts. “When they see the conditions at other universities, they will see MUNACA’s side,” he said.
Continue reading Bloggers prove that not all students support McGill strike
Saskatchewan MLA is a PhD student and a mom
Jennifer Campeau balances motherhood, school and politics
Saskatoon Fairview MLA Jennifer Campeau
Running for office isn’t easy. But how many politicians can say they won their seats while parenting and working on their PhDs?
Not many. But Jennifer Campeau, the newest member the Saskatchewan Legistlature can.
Campeau, 38, is pursuing her PhD in Native Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.
The Yellow Quill First Nation members’ election in Saskatoon Fairview on on Nov. 7 marked only the second time a First Nations woman was elected to the Legislative Assembly in Saskatchewan and the first time an Aboriginal Canadian woman snagged a seat for the Saskatchewan Party, which cleaned up with 49 out of 58 ridings this month.
Despite the rigours of campaigning, Campeau chose not to take any time off from her studies.
“You’ve really got to be out there knocking on doors at least 3 hours a night, if not more,” she says. Still, Campeau doesn’t take the opportunity of post-secondary education for granted. A single mother, it took her a long time to earn her first degree. It was simply too difficult to study full-time while working to support her young daughter. ”It was just the two of us so I didn’t have the support that I could have had to do well in school; I had to work to support us both,” she says.
“[But] when I was 30 and she was old enough to be in school all day, I’d had enough of telling her that education was important when I didn’t have a degree myself,” she says. Sometimes she would bring her daughter to class, explaining “it instilled in her the value of post-secondary education.”
Campeau now has a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Saskatchewan.
She’s pursing her doctoral degree in Native Studies to learn more about aboriginal policy. She says the economic challenges facing Yellow Quill First Nation are part of the reason she chose her field of study.
As an MLA, Campeau hopes to provide a voice for both Aboriginal Canadians and newcomers alike. “The Saskatchewan economy and population is growing, so we have a lot of people new to Saskatchewan in Saskatoon Fairview,” she says. “I want to bring their concerns to the table.”
You’re forigiven if it all sounds tiring. ”In the last eight years, I haven’t really had a life of leisure, I’ve always been working and going to school,” jokes Campeau, “so I kind of got used to a fast pace.”
Scenes from the Occupy Toronto eviction
As some protesters pack up, others discuss what to do next
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- The Charter of Rights is “the only permit we need”
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- Protesters and passersby watch the general assembly together
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- A woman sits near her tent outside St. James Cathedral
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- There were more tents in this area this morning, they say
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- Bertrand folds his tent, says “it was a gift from a friend”
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- Dejected-looking protesters discuss their plans
Around 10 a.m. this morning, the City of Toronto posted eviction notices on the benches and fountains in St. James Park telling Occupy Toronto protesters to “remove your tents, structures, equipment and personal belongings” between 12:01 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. It also said: “the City can no longer sanction the appropriation of St. James Park by a relatively small group of people to the exclusion of all others wishing to use the park and to the detriment of those in the vicinity.”
The park has been occupied by members of the anti-greed Occupy Wall Street movement for past 31 days. Protesters were evicted and arrested last night at the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City, although a court order has allowed them back into Zuccotti Park today.
The scene in St. James Park this afternoon was more serene. Under bright sunshine, a handful of protesters chatted about what to do next, trading bets about the likelihood of riot police with tear gas tearing down their encampment at midnight. One man, who gave his name as Bertrand, packed up his tent, adding “it was a gift.” An advertising student from Humber College packed up too.
Others assembled at a microphone in front of St. James Cathedral to discuss what they might do next. The small crowd was doubled in size by journalists, local residents and onlookers in business attire. Meanwhile, an old lady sped through the centre of the park on her motor-scooter, a man jogged through in shorts, and children played in the mud where the grass was killed by tents.
Near the entrance to the park, a young man stood holding a poster of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, shouting out “this is the only permit we need!” A passerby called him a “loser.”
Quebec launches site to sell tuition increase
Students react swiftly with copycat site
Minister Line Beauchamp from Quebec Gov. Video
Quebec’s Liberal government has launched a new website to convince students of the fairness of the annual $325 tuition fee increase that will bring tuition to $3,793 in 2016-17.
But a coalition of student groups quickly launched their own anti-tuition website, which looks almost exactly the same as the government’s.
Student groups cried foul last week when they learned that Quebec had budgeted $50,000 for Internet advertising, including some that attempts to re-route Internet users to the governments’ site whenever they search the names of activist organizations on Google, reported La Presse.
Tens of thousands of students protested the Charest governments’ increase last week, despite the fact that Quebec will continue to have some of the lowest fees in North America even after the rise.
Continue reading Quebec launches site to sell tuition increase
Why the student protests won’t move Charest
Nothing to gain
Protest photo by shahk on Flickr
University students in Quebec continued their fight against annual $325 tuition increases on Nov. 10, protesting in large numbers by skipping classes. Classes were even cancelled at Dawson College and students marched in the streets of Montreal.
It was well organized and peaceful. To get a sense of that, consider that marshals in fluorescent vests helped defuse the tense moments between protesters and police outside Charest’s Montreal office where things might have become violent. Although the sight of riot police on campus is always disturbing, there was only a small cadre of roughly 100 students outside the McGill Administration building when police moved in.
But as big and peaceful as the demonstration was, will it change anything?
Although the 2005 student strike ended with the government giving in to some student demands, Thursday’s much shorter “strike” takes place in a much less friendly political climate and a much more uncertain economy. Even as students were marching in Montreal, education minister Line Beauchamp stood up in the National Assembly to reiterate that students must pay “their fair share.”
It’s easy for her to have such bravado. Premier Jean Charest faces no threats on the left who might gain from angry student voters. The Parti Québécois, the only other party to have formed government in this province since the 1970s, is tearing itself apart.
At the moment, Charest’s biggest political threat comes from the right. François Legault, a former PQ cabinet minister, and his centre-right Coalition pour l’avenir du Québec (CAQ) are leading in recent polls. The Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ), a right-wing party with four seats in the National Assembly, is entering into formal negotiations with the CAQ concerning a potential merger.
Legault is on the record saying that students in programs which lead to higher paying jobs should pay more tuition. Considering that kind of thinking, it’s safe to bet that students wouldn’t find a CAQ government any more supportive of their demands.
Ontario city wants new university
Pledges millions for new campus
The City of Barrie approved a preliminary motion Monday to ask Ontario’s government for the province’s next university campus, reports the Barrie Examiner. City council will also commit $14-million toward a new campus of Laurentian University that would cost roughly $60-million to build. Laurentian itself has committed $14-million. The proposed campus would house 3,000 students and open in 2020. Barrie is estimated to have grown by one-third in the past decade to 135,000 people according to the City, with 191,000 in the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) in 2010, according to Statistics Canada. That makes it the biggest CMA in Ontario, by far, without a university. The Ontario Liberals promised three new campuses during the October election campaign. Ontario will need to add between 50,000 and 104,000 new undergraduates seats by 2025 to meet the growing demand for degrees, according to the new book Academic Reform.
University of Saskatchewan president defends endorsement
It’s not the first time a president has praised a politician
Photo by waferboard on Flickr
A University of Saskatchewan professor says President Peter MacKinnon’s endorsement of a Saskatchewan Party minister is unprecedented and constitutes an “abuse of power.”
MacKinnon is quoted in a brochure saying: “Rob Norris is the finest minister responsible for post-secondary education that I have been privileged to work with in my (13) years as (president).”
Len Findlay, Director of the Humanities Research Unit at the university, said presidents are required to stay neutral. “It’s a publicly funded institution and it’s a provincial responsibility,” Findlay told the StarPhoeix. “Provincial governments change and the interests of the institution and the public interest is best served by the university not being seen to align itself with one party…”
MacKinnon said there’s nothing wrong with the comment. He said that it’s important to be careful during election campaigns, but the comment was made in a speech before the writ was dropped.
But are such endorsements, even during elections, really unprecedented as Findlay suggests?
Here are some recent examples of how university and college presidents have praised political parties. You be the judge.
In March, University of Guelph President Alastair Summerlee endorsed federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s “Learning Passport,” calling it “absolutely amazing” and “a very, very positive contribution,” reported the Guelph Mercury.
In September, York University President Mamdouh Shoukri said in response to the Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal platform that: ”the goals of having the highest postsecondary attainment rate and most educated workforce in the world are the right ones.”
That same week, Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson University, said that the Ontario Liberal’s platform included “the most progressive change in tuition policy I have seen in 40 years.”
And while their words came after the election in October, both University of Manitoba President David Barnard and Red River College President Stephanie Forsyth offered their gratitude to the NDP for promises of new funding that came in Manitoba’s Throne Speech, according to CKNW.
MacKinnon’s comments may be controversial, but such endorsements aren’t unprecedented.
To read more about what the Nov. 7 Saskatchewan election means for you, click here and here.
Obama offers students debt relief
News comes as study reveals rapidly growing tuition rates
Photo by feelsgoodlost on Flickr
As some American students continued their Occupy protests on Wednesday, President Barack Obama was being cheered by other students in Colorado where he announced he will speed up his initiatives to help students overcome debt.
“We should be doing everything we can to put college education within reach for every American,” the President said in what CNN describes as a “campaign-style event.”
Obama announced that a program to limit the repayment of federal student loan debt to 10 per cent of discretionary income will start next year, instead of the year after. And he said that students will be able to consolidate public and private loans to save on interest charges.
Ontario student demands to be served… in English
French-only sandwiches?
Bilingual sign by MPD01605 on Flickr
French-only signage at the bilingual University of Ottawa has caused debate on The Fulcrum’s website. Anglophone student Jaclyn Lyte writes that at an on-campus sub shop, employees have practically given up on English, with French-only signage. “Call me crazy, but I think it’s important for students to be able to make informed choices about what they eat,” she writes. “I shouldn’t have to grapple with francophone food workers and hold up the line for 15 minutes just to find out what I’m eating.” Lyte supports billingualism. “I’m content to listen through French messages first, and I won’t complain if I have to scroll down an extra page or so to get to my English message,” she says. But she draws a line French-only lunch.
In the comments section, students show their frustration at the school’s official bilingualism. “This school is so French biased,” comments ‘Nick.’
Continue reading Ontario student demands to be served… in English
Windsor to offer bilingual political science degree
Program aimed at creating public servants
The University of Windsor has created a new bilingual program, which will start next fall. The school is adding a bachelor’s degree in political science that will be available in English and French, with a total of 14 French-language courses and an option to take some third-year courses in French at the University of Ottawa. Cheryl Collier, a political science instructor at Windsor, told CBC News that the program will help students who want to work in public service, adding: “without the French language skill set, you can only go so far in the bureaucracy.”
The French language has a long history in the Windsor area, but few locals speak it today. According to Statistics Canada, only four per cent of residents in the Windsor CMA claim French or French and English as their mother tongues; 24 per cent learned a non-official language first.
What the election results might have been…
Three Ontario Votes educates voters on alternative systems
Photo by of a.drian on Flickr
In the Ontario election on Oct. 6, Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals won far more seats than their foes. The Liberals got 53, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives landed 37, and Andrea Horwath’s New Democrats took only 17.
But McGuinty only beat Hudak by a few percentage points, 38 to 35, and Horwath received only a sixth of the seats for her 23 per cent of the votes. The seat count didn’t come close to matching the popular vote.
Likewise in Manitoba on Oct. 4. Premier Greg Selinger’s NDP won double the number of seats as Hugh McFadyen’s PCs, (37 to 19), despite the fact that he only got about two per cent more votes.
With results like these, it’s no surprise that people are once again asking whether first-past-the-post (FPTP), where the winner takes all in each seat, is the best electoral system.
A group of political scientists anticipated this debate and created Three Ontario Votes. They asked 9,000 website visitorsto “vote three ways” before the Ontario election, to see if the results of their hypothetical elections would be different from the real thing. They were, in fact, different.
Participants voted three times: once as if they were voting in a traditional FPTP system, once in an Alternative Vote (AV) system and once as if their province had Proportional Representation (PR).
Saskatchewan Party pledges affordability
Incumbent party announces two new programs
Photo by waferboard on Flickr
The Saskatchewan Party’s leader, Premier Brad Wall, announced on Tuesday two new initiatives for improving access to post-secondary education in the province. It happened on the first day of the campaign before the Nov. 7 poll.
The Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship would provide up to $2,000 for high school graduates in the province to go towards tuition fees at Saskatchewan post-secondary institutions. Under the new program, which would be launched next year, students would be able to reduce their tuition costs by up to $500 per academic year.
The second program, the Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings, would build on the federal Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) to help families save for their children’s educations. The provincial government would match 10 per cent of contributions to an RESP account, to a maximum of $250 per year.
The two programs would cost close to $15 million in the next year, according to the release.
So far, Wall’s main challenger, NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter, hasn’t announced any major education-related policy ideas, except that he would spend $24-million to help small centres recruit and keep doctors. That plan would “include things on tuition…” he told the StarPhoenix.
Layton’s books to rest at Ryerson University
Late NDP leader was lecturer at school from ’74 to ’81
Photo courtesy of Medmoiselle T on Flickr
The family of Jack Layton, the late New Democrat leader, has donated his book collection to Ryerson University. The donation was announced by President Sheldon Levy at the Ryerson Senate meeting on Oct. 4, reports The Eyeopener. Levy said the University is still in the “thinking stages” as to what to do with the books. Renaming or appointing a Chair position to honour Layton is also being considered.
Layton began lecturing in the politics department at Ryerson in 1974. He stopped teaching after joining Toronto City Council in 1982. He earned an MA (’71) and a PhD (’84), both from York University.
On May 2, Layton led the New Democrats to new heights, winning 103 ridings out of 308 total to become the official opposition for the first time. He died of cancer on Aug. 22 at the age of 61 and was honoured with a state funeral.
Ont., Man. and P.E.I. voters keep student-friendly governments
But turnout still dismal
Premier Dalton McGuinty by • JenniferK • on Flickr
Voters in Ontario, Manitoba and P.E.I. have re-affirmed their provincial governments—and all three of those governments ran on more student-friendly platforms than their main competitors.
Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario Liberals won a third term Thursday, but were one seat shy of a majority government. McGuinty got 53 seats, the Progressive Conservatives under Tim Hudak got 37 and the New Democrats under Andrea Horwath got 17. The leaders achieved, respectively, 38, 35 and 23 per cent of the vote.
McGuinty’s Liberals poured funding into universities over the past two terms, although they promised no extra base funding this time around. That’s unsurprising considering Ontario’s $15-billion deficit. What they did promise for students is the introduction of a new grant in January that will reduce tuition for full-time college and undergraduate students by approximately 30 per cent, so long as their families’ household incomes are less than $160,000. The Progressive Conservatives promised no such grants. The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance was quick to congratulate McGuinty on his win.
Continue reading Ont., Man. and P.E.I. voters keep student-friendly governments
Another election, another vote mob.
More people are pushing youth to vote. Will they listen?
Photo courtesy of a.drian on Flickr
Much like during the run up to federal election that happened in May, campaigns to encourage youth to vote in the five provincial elections happening this fall are popping up everywhere students look.
The question is—will they work?
Elections Canada has not yet released details on voter turnout by age from the 2011 federal election, but overall voter turnout was up just two per cent in 2011 over 2008 (from 59.1 per cent to 61.4 per cent). In other words, it looks like the rock-the-student-vote campaigns failed to get the big results they aimed for. The 2008 turnout for youth aged 18 to 24, by the way, was 37 per cent.
The failure to boost turnout much in May hasn’t stopped political scientists from creating campaigns like U2011: Understanding the Manitoba Election project. U2011 has tried to spur interest with several events that connect the public with experts on issues including women in politics and politics in Northern Manitoba. The team also created VoteAnyWay, a social media campaign aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds, which enlisted several Manitoban celebrities for video pleas asking youth to vote.
But will cringe-inducing PSAs like this riviting “poem” by Gail Asper really motivate youth? ”Even if you got small pox / you can still go check that box / If politics gets you dejected / maybe you should get elected,” Asper enthusiastically rapped on the steps of the Manitoba legislature. She deserves credit for having courted 2,500 views on YouTube. But other celebrities’ videos, like Fred Penner and Rosanna Dearchild’s joint plea, haven’t exactly gone viral with only a couple hundred views.
Bartley Kives, a reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press, offers a more convincing argument as part of the paper’s Democracy Project: ”People all over the world do not have the opportunity to vote because they live under dystopic, tyrannical regimes. They are dying attempting to vote. Therefore, if you do not exercise your right to vote, you’re kind of spitting in their faces and telling them they’re dying for no reason,” says Kives in his video. He admits he was inspired by Rick Mercer, whose video during the federal election got 58,000 views. But few youth could have heard Kives’ video. So far a grand total of zero people have shared his video on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.
Nationwide, the Vote With Me project similarly proves that making your message available for sharing on social media doesn’t mean people will necessarily bother to share it. The campaign asks voters to not only get themselves to polling stations, but to bring one friend—and to take the Vote With Me Pledge promising they’ll drag that person along. As of publication, only two Manitobans, one voter from P.E.I., one from Nfld. and 15 from Ontario had taken the pledge.
Student Vote tries to interest elementary, middle and secondary students across the country in the electoral process. Too bad they haven’t reached voting age yet.
And no round of campaigns could be complete without a flurry of student advocacy groups making videos. The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance created this vote rap video, which may rival Gail Asper’s for artistic merit, though it has an even smaller viewership so far.
So, why aren’t students paying attention?
Jennifer Black, a University of Manitoba arts student, thinks voting is important and that’s why she took part in a Vote Mob at the University of Winnipeg in the spring. But even she doubts the effectiveness of such campaigns. The vote mob got a lot of attention from the media, but she felt it was preaching to the converted. “We all got together and made each other feel good that we’re voting,” she said. But shouting “just go vote” doesn’t really motivate anyone, she says.
When student unions do create more specific campaigns, it’s almost always about tuition fees, says Black. “Everyone has to pay tuition fees, generations before us had to pay tuition fees,” she explains. “It’s a little patronizing—it’s as if we don’t have the capacity to grasp larger issues.”
She’s not the only one who feels that way. A survey by the Historica Dominion Institute ahead of the federal election found that education is surprisingly low on the list of students’ political priorities.
Ethan Cabel, a fourth-year political science student at the University of Winnipeg, is similarly cynical about get-out-the-vote efforts. He also believes that student-led campaigns fail to enumerate the many issues students should care about. Besides, he says, if students don’t know the issues, do we really want them to vote? So far, the get-out-the-vote campaigners haven’t convinced Cabel.
But, as we’ve seen this fall, that doesn’t mean they won’t keep trying.
