Deidre Butters, Advertising Representativephone: (613) 880-6494fax: (613) 562-5259email: ads@thefulcrum.caCheck out our rate card online.Go to www.thefulcrum.ca andfollow the link for “Advertisers”.Multi-market advertisers:Campus Plus: (800)265-5372Campus Plus offers one-stop shopping for over90 Canadian studentnewspapers.The
Fulcrum
is a proud member of Canadian University Press:www.cup.ca
Contents
Contents
Employment, impeachment
The blame gameFinishing
fi
fth
Chew on this!
News
News
Arts
Arts
Sports
Sports
Feature
Feature
p. 4
p. 4
p. 9
p. 9
p. 16
p. 16
p. 12
p. 12
Plans to
fi
nd new arbitrators and threat of executives’ impeachment further SFUO electionappeal saga.
p. 4
Common Law student newspaper blasted for“demeaning” content.
p. 7Nick Rudiak
explores the absurdity of
Don’t Blame the Bedouins
.
p. 9Peter Henderson
interviews funnymanJon Lovitz.
p. 14
Men’s basketball team settles for consolationsuccess at national championship .
p. 16
U of O synchronized swimmers maneuver the water in style.
p. 19Megan O’Meara
investigates the facts ongum.
p. 12–13Di
isn’t too happy about receiving fake ques-tions!
p. 22
A response to the SFUO president
Re: “Moving Forward” (Letters, March 12)
DEAN HALDENBY, YOU alone areresponsible or the Student Arbitra-tion Committee (SAC) hearing deba-cle on March 6. A ew thoughts as toblatant inaccuracies and overreach-ing liberties taken in your most re-cent unof cial address to the studentpopulation.You were elected through a by-elec-tion in which less than ve per cent o the student body voted and you didnot receive even close to 100 per cento the vote. You are not the leader orpresident o the vast majority o thestudent population. Do you really believe describing yoursel as “[our]president” is an accurate reectiono student aith in your perormancethis year and in your character, ethics,and ability to lead? Most o us didn’t vote or you. In act, almost all o usdidn’t vote or you.You “made it clear” that arbitra-tion could not continue, but did younot make it clear that every eort wasto be made or the arbitration to pro-ceed? Or did you immediately makethe conscious choice to leave thestudent arbitrators in the middle o a volatile, hostile situation with theirpersonal saety in jeopardy? Further,did you ever oer the arbitratorsany level o support as the one per-son who was ultimately responsibleor permitting that display o overtintimidation to occur? You write o your disappointment that a sae spacewas not ensured, and yet you don’tseem to accept the responsibility ornot having made this happen. You doindeed hold the position o presidento the Student Federation o the Uni- versity o Ottawa (SFUO), so are younot ultimately responsible or all ac-tions resulting rom the invocation o the SFUO constitution?You call these events somethingwe experienced “unortunately”. Tisterm is inappropriate or the circum-stances. Perhaps we may alternately use the terms disgusting, unthink-able, horric, and terriying. You areresponsible and accountable.Finally, you conclude with a quotedescribing students as each others’enemies. Regardless o the circum-stances, such a label is abhorrent,especially rom the president o astudent ederation. Perhaps considerthe ollowing instead: “Integrity is nota 90 per cent thing, or a 95 per centthing; either you have it or you don’t”(Peter Scotese). Shame on you.
Allison Enright Tird-year earth sciences student
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
RESPEC. WEBSER’S DICION-ARY describes respect as esteem, re-gard, consideration, or honour. Withrespect, people with diering opin-ions can share a calm and reasoneddiscussion. With respect people caneel ree to voice their opinions with-out ear o discrimination or humili-ation. Respect creates a positive andembracing environment, which inturn osters growth and knowledgewithin the community.Unortunately, I am increasingly nding that respect is not somethingthat is practised on campus. Studentsdisrespecting the U o O administra-tion are supported by the SFUO, voic-es in opposition to movements areshut down with partisan and ignorantcomments, students protesting theelection results are humiliated, andstudent movements themselves aretaking the easy and childish route o being disruptive. We demand respect,but why should others respect us,when we ourselves do not practise it?Respect does not entail that youmust agree with everyone else, it doesnot mean you can’t protest anything,and it does not mean that you mustkeep your opinions to yoursel! Re-spect simply means that these thingsare done in a considerate, calm, andreasoned manner, while in turn, they are acknowledged and listened to inthis same way.Respect needs to be practised andsupported on this campus. Withoutit, meetings will continue to descendinto chaos, deences will continue tobe put up, and opinions will be keptsilent. Let us embrace a respectulcampus: practising what we preach,and being considerate o each otheras we discuss, learn, and grow duringour time here.
Christina aekemaFourth-year political science student
A poor display
I’S WIH OURAGE and a greatdeal o disappointment and an evengreater surprise that we are writingthis letter. But we absolutely eel thatit is both our right and the right thingto do to share with the entire studentbody what one o the newly electedcandidates o the SFUO election hassaid about the black communitieshere at U o O.Tis incident took place right a-ter the SAC hearing which took placeMarch 6. Board o Administration di-rector-elect Aminka Belvitt was heardby many espousing her personal viewabout SFUO VP Social-elect JeanGuillaume’s supporters, other mem-bers o the Haitian Students’ Associa-tion, and the black community. Tese very same individuals were there be-cause they too had voted and wantedtheir voice to be heard. Te wordsBelvitt used were not only extremely crude but specically directed at theblack communities and on top o thatthe Haitian community members thatwere present. Tese hurtul words shementioned have le numerous inpiercing pain.With the Haitian community be-ing an unwavering part o the U o O’s student body and the black com-munity; the Congolese Student Asso-ciation, the West-Arican Student As-sociation, and the Kilimanjaro Black Student Association are joining orcesto combat such despicable and disre-spectul behavior.It comes across as quite a surpriseto many, or a couple days earlier thatweek Belvitt was heard by numerouspeople rmly speaking on many “rac-ist issues on campus”, especially thosetargeted towards visible minoritieslike her. We are completely horriedby this incident and the lack o pres-sure to condemn it by the people inthe room. In an educational institutelled with studious young men andwomen o all walks o lie, events o this genre need to be condemnedand cannot at any point be toleratedor go scot-ree. What we demand asa community o black people and insupport to our brothers and sisters o the Haitian community, is that Belvittmakes an of cial apology to the black community as a whole.Her actions show that she does notseem to be applying the same justiceand values she declared to be ght-ing or in her election campaign. By standing as an actor in that trial, andthen turning around and insultingthe entire Aro-community made itseem like she blamed them or theMarch 6 election hearing complaints.Contrary to what she shouted, yes,the members o the Aro-communi-ty voted rationally, and did not just vote, as she claims, or candidates“just because o their ethnicity”. Herdiscourse is an apparent indicationo her incompetency in being sen-sitive enough to represent an entirestudent body that entrusted her to sitin and represent them in the post shewas voted in.Tis sort o behaviour is utterly unacceptable and horrendous or any-one, especially someone the studentbody elected as their representative.Te members o the Aro-community who elt aected by this demand thatdecisions be taken so that Belvitt ully athoms the eect and consequencesto her actions to assure that justice isserved to those gravely oended.
Haitian Students Association,Congolese Student Association,Nigerian Student Association,Kilimanjaro Black Student Associa-tion, West African Youth Association
Got something to say?
Send your letters to
editor@thefulcrum.ca
Letters deadline: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Letters must be under 400 words unlessdiscussed with the editor-in-chief.
Drop off letters at 631 King Edward Ave. oremail editor@thefulcrum.ca.Letters must include your name, telephonenumber, year, and program of study. Pseud-onyms may be used after consultation with theeditor-in-chief. We correct spelling and gram-mar to some extent. The
Fulcrum
will exercisediscretion in printing letters that are deemedracist, homophobic, or sexist.We will not even consider hate literature orlibellous material. The editor-in-chief reservesthe authority on everything printed herein.
March 19–25, 2009
Letters
Frank AppleyardEditor-in-Chief editor@thefulcrum.ca
3
Advertising DepartmentBusiness Department
The
Fulcrum
, the University of Ottawa’s inde-pendent English-language student newpaper,is published by the Fulcrum Publishing Society(FPS) Inc., a not-for-pro
fi
t corporation whosemembers consist of all University of Ottawastudents. The Board of Directors (BOD) of theFPS governs all administrative and businessactions of the
Fulcrum
and consists of the fol-lowing individuals: Ross Prusakowski (Presi-dent), Andrea Khanjin (Vice-President), TylerMeredith (Chair), Peter Raaymakers, Nick Tay-lor-Vaisey, Toby Climie, Scott Bedard, AndrewWing, and William Stephenson.To contact the
Fulcrum
’s BOD,contact Ross Prusakowski at (613) 562-5261.
Do you believe that SFUOexecutives voting on theirSAC appeal is a conflictof interest?
Yes:No:
thefulcrum.ca poll
This week’s question
Belvitt’s response
I WOULD FIRS like to begin by ad-dressing those groups that addressedme directly in their open letter. I my words oended anyone, I apologize. Itwould be dishonest o me to disavowwhat I said, so I will not. I will simply attempt to explain my words.Almost three weeks ago, I was askedto be a witness or a group o studentswho appealed the SFUO elections.When I accepted, I had never imag-ined that such a decision would be socontroversial and that I would haveto endure personal attacks and slursdiminishing who I am and what Istand or. As a black woman on thiscampus I know more than anyone thestruggles which minorities ace every single day. I see how black students,among other minorities, are used topromote certain campaigns and ac-tivities. I see how groups such as theMuslim Student Association and theKilimanjaro Black Student Associa-tion are approached by student poli-ticians during election campaigns orendorsements and then ignored orthe other 11 months o the year. I wasasked to participate in videos andposters or certain candidates, or noother reason than or the color o my skin and to showcase just how ‘mul-ticultural’ and ‘open’ these candidatesare.Over the past month, I have beenattacked by ellow black students whohave told me I am not black enough.And why? Because one o the deen-dants acing accusations o electoralraud happens to be black. Coordi-nated attacks, such as the open lettersent out to the media, were done inthe attempt to discredit me, margin-alize me, and rally support or the ac-cused.
LETTERS continued on p. 20
Leave a Comment