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Contents
Contents
An on-again, off-again relationshipPost-apocalypticawesomenessShot down in ashootout
Pwnd by addiction
News
News
Arts
Arts
Sports
Sports
Feature
Feature
p. 4
p. 4
p. 9
p. 9
p. 16
p. 16
p. 12
p. 12
Amanda Shendruk
looks into the history of theCFS and the SFUO.
p. 4
An independent campaign aims to make the U of O smoke free.
p. 7Peter Henderson
reviews
Fallout 3.
p. 9Danyal Khoral
reviews the latest comic takeon the Joker.
p. 15
Women’s soccer team misses out on gold medalin shootout.
p. 16
Football team upsets Golden Gaels in semi
fi
nal.
p. 17
Dave Atkinson
explains the difference be-tween online obsession and harmful addiction.
p. 12–13Di
helps you increase your chances of havingrandom sex at home and at school.
p. 22
Te choice is yours
I IS OFFICIAL. We, the undergradu-ate students o the University o Otta-wa, are fnally being asked the questiono whether or not to join the CanadianFederation o Students (CFS) as ull-edged members.For those o you who do not already know, the reerendum will take placeon Nov. 18–20. Stay tuned or pollingstations around campus.What is the CFS you ask? Google it;it only takes 0.25 seconds.Now, you are probably asking your-sel why should you care about anotherelection. We have been bombarded inthe media with our own, arguably pointless, ederal election. We havebeen enthralled with the presidentialelection in the U.S. or the last year. Butmost importantly we, as students, typi-cally don’t vote in elections, whetherthey are on-campus, municipal, pro- vincial, or ederal.It is important to make your deci-sion. Te decision o joining the CFSis crucial. You have the opportunity to end a long-running debate amongyour student leaders here at school.Now, you are probably saying thatyou do not care about student poli-tics. But the reality is that you pay orstudent politics to happen. You pay or services at your university that arerun by your ellow students, you pay or your Student Federation o theUniversity o Ottawa (SFUO) execu-tive salaries, and you pay or tuition,books, rent, and beer. At the end o theday you pay a lot or your university experience.What is important to note is that joining the CFS will be yet anothercost added on to your student ees. Youneed to make an inormed decision oryoursel and or uture students o thisinstitution o whether or not you think this increased ee will beneft you.Voice your opinion, because this timeit actually does matter.So please stay tuned in the comingweeks. Tere will be two sides o thedebate presented to you. And o coursethey will be bombarding you with pro-paganda again and again. Te mostimportant thing you can do as a stu-dent is to pay attention and vote.
Liz DoneathyFourth-year English student
A united student voice
I AM A strong supporter o the CFS.I come rom a working-class am-ily. I have a degree in linguistics andam completing another degree inhonours translation. I have had anincredible experience in university.However, I have aced much struggleand hardship. Even now I am tryingto pay o about $50,000 o debt.I have been involved in student poli-tics since second semester o frst yearwhen we had a rally or lower tuitionin Haliax and I was introduced to theCFS. Te CFS is ocused on students,is organized and run by students, andconsistently gets results or students.Like all organizations, it is not perect,but it unites the great majority o stu-dents in Canada and lets them have a voice.While the ederal and provincialgovernments are unding so many other things, they are neglecting us:students and recent graduates. Te CFSis fghting to change this and unite the voices o students so we can be heardtogether. Provinces in Canada whohave a united student voice have suc-ceeded in obtaining tuition ee reezesand reductions and increased undingto post-secondary education. Te CFSand the hal-million students acrossCanada that they represent have seenmany victories that have benefted allstudents.Why do we hear politicians speak about the economy, the elderly, ami-lies, etc., but seldom about students?Because there are some who think weare better o independent, screamingwith our individual voices and drown-ing each other out. We need one voice.We need a united student movementor things will never change. Studentsmay not be rich but we are many, andi we can learn to speak together wecan eect change. All Canadiansshould have access to a high-quality university education. Some say we al-ready do, but it is neither equitable norinclusive. I know many brilliant peoplewho were denied their right to a uni- versity education, who dropped out orlost their scholarships, or couldn’t getinto grad school because their gradessuered when they had to work ull-time. I know many people who aredrowning in debt.You can tell yoursel this is normalin a developed country like Canada,you can tell yoursel this isn’t true, youcan tell yoursel that not everyone whois qualifed deserves to go to university.But you would be in denial.Tere is a reerendum coming up.Educate yourselves. Examine the is-sues, not the rumours. Listen to acts,not naysayers. I support the CFS. Findout whether you do too.
Amy MorrisFormer SFUO vp fnance
Drop fees, not bombs
Re: “Don’t drop ees” (Opinion, Oct. 30)
AS SUDENS ASSEMBLE on Nov.5 to drop ees, we must not orget the very real connections between mili-tary spending and a lack o unding oreducation. As tuition ees rise, we aresimultaneously witnessing an increasedmilitary presence on campus in theorm o the Canadian Forces’ aggressivemilitary recruitment campaign, bom-barding students with hal-truths andeasy solutions or education fnancing.Te deceptive tactics o the recruitersis oen enough to convince studentsto trade their debt sentence or a deathsentence.While students make demands orbetter-unded education, we need tolink the student debt crisis to areas o wasteul, unethical government spend-ing. Over the next 20 years, Prime Min-ister Stephen Harper has pledged tospend $490 billion on the military andon Canada’s war in Aghanistan. Butlet’s put these numbers into perspective:six new warships will cost Canada $4.5billion. Tis spending could eliminateall tuition ees in Canada. Four strategicairli airplanes will cost $2 billion. Tisequates to a $4,000 grant or every Ca-nadian student. As our right to quality education is being disregarded, rightsto lie, security, and sel-determinationin Aghanistan are being bombed topieces by the Canadian government.Te war in Aghanistan has killedthousands o Aghan civilians, and97 Canadian soldiers. Airstrikes are acommon tool in the NAO arsenal;in August an air strike killed over 90unarmed men, women, and children.At the end o October, the aliban an-nounced it would only engage in peacetalks i all NAO orces leave Aghani-stan. Canada’s occupation has provendestructive and ruitless.Troughout the Drop Fees cam-paign, some students may question i a reduction (or elimination) o tuitionees is economically easible. KalinSmith makes several ridiculous argu-ments against the Drop Fees campaign.First, i tuition ees are reduced, theoperational unds o the university arereduced. Smith is misrepresenting ourcampaign; Drop Fees isn’t targeting theadministration, but is targeting the pro- vincial government. I the ederal gov-ernment can allocate $490 billion to themilitary over the next 20 years, it hasthe means to properly und educationthrough a social transer to the prov-inces— it’s merely a matter o prioritiesand political will.Secondly, Smith’s argument that uni- versity degrees will lose value i enroll-ment increases is rom the perspectiveo someone blatantly unaware o hisprivilege in society. Over 70 per cent
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Nov. 6–12, 2008
Letters
Frank AppleyardEditor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca
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o newly created jobs require a post-secondary education. Tose denied aneducation or economic reasons areat a distinct disadvantage regardlesso their intellectual merits. Educationmust be accessible or all, and this goalis certainly within reach. Te frst stepis student mobilization, but we mustmake the connections between expen-sive imperialist wars and under-undedpost-secondary education. Drop ees,not bombs!
Student Coalition Against War
Due to space constraints, we wereunable to print all letters received.Please visit thefulcrum.ca/letters toread more about sustainability at theU of O.
Correction
An article in the Oct. 30 issue o the
Fulcrum
incorrectly said that over 70 per cent o stu-dents who contact the Student Appeal Centreare visible minorities. Te article should haveread that over 70 per cent o students whocontact the centre concerning accusations o academic raud are visible minorities.A second article incorrectly stated that over70 U o O students have fled appeals with theuniversity through the Student Appeal Centre.Te article should have read that there are cur-rently over 70 students with unresolved cases.Te
Fulcrum
regrets the errors.
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