NEWS
The Eyeopener•3Wednesday, October 21, 2009
By Michael Deruyter
Ryerson has denied its two studentunions their request or the email ad-dresses o all ull-time students — in-ormation that the Ryerson Students’Union (RSU) eel they are privy to.“Students pay dues, it’s their right tobe notied,” said Liana Salvador, vice-president education. “We need to com-municate with our members, regardlesso university support.”The RSU wants emails to notiy stu-dents, who pay membership ees tothe union, about its works and services without having to go through Ryersonrst to send out inormation.But Ryerson’s vice provost students,Heather Lane Vetere, says the schooldoes not have the right to hand overstudents’ contact inormation withoutrst gaining permission rom students.“We would like to rst send out anemail to all students notiying themthat the groups are gaining their con-tact inormation,” said Vetere. “Thatemail would include an opt-out optioni students didn’t want to continue to
Sd s spks msond os
Ex-Rye tuent plea gulty n ‘Trnt 18’ plt
By caryS MillS
NEws EdiToR
A ringleader o a plot to cripple the Canadianeconomy with a series o explosions, some target-ing downtown Toronto, pleaded guilty on Oct. 8.Zakaria Amara, a ormer Ryerson student,pleaded guilty in a Brampton court to knowingly participating in or contributing to a terroristgroup and intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm, death ordamage to property.Plans o the group, dubbed the Toronto 18, in-cluded targeting the Toronto Stock Exchange, theheadquarters o the Canadian Security Intelli-gence Service (CSIS) on Front Street and a military base with three U-Haul trucks packed with ertil-izer bombs in 2006. Amara, 24, agreed to a statement o acts, ad-mitting he created a remote-controlled detonator.He also recruited others and helped organize aterrorist training camp. Amara’s guilty plea surprised his wie, Nada Fa-rooq. The two married just beore nishing highschool in 2004.“We thought we were going to go through allthe way and we were going to ght the case,” shesaid.“I haven’t really talked to my husband about it, just more what I’ve read in papers,” Farooq said.“My belie in God and my condence in thecase [keeps me going],” Amara told the Eyeopen-er in September 2008. “The truth will come out, whether today, tomorrow, a year, or 10 years romnow.” Ater graduating rom high school, Amara took inormation technology classes at Ryerson. In2005, Farooq and Amara’s daughter, Nour, wasborn. Amara dropped out o school to support hisamily nancially. While he worked ull-time at a Canadian Tiregas station, Amara and 17 other men were being watched by RCMP and CSIS agents. Amara tried to buy three tonnes o ammoniumnitrate rom undercover police, leading to a slew o arrests in the summer o 2006.“To put this in context, the 1995 bombing o theMurrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City thatkilled 168 people took one tonne o ammoniumnitrate,” said RCMP Assistant Commissioner, MikeMcDonell, in a release the day ater Amara and 16other individuals were charged.Two months later, another Ryerson student,Ibrahim Aboud, was arrested. Charges againsthim were stayed last year.In 2008, Ryerson students campaigned or Amara to be released rom solitary and to be ableto continue his studies while in prison.Muhammad Ali Jabbar, ormer Ryerson Stu-dents’ Union president, describes himsel as anacquaintance o Amara.“Without these kids actually being provenguilty, everywhere it was assumed that these kids were guilty and that’s the issue,” said Jabbar, whopushed or the presumption o innocence.He reused to comment on Amara’s guilty plea.Now, Amara awaits his Dec. 18 sentencing hear-ing in the Don Jail.His lawyer, David Kolinsky, said it’s dicult topredict the sentence Amara will receive.“There’s very little sentencing precedent, thiscase is airly unique as ar as Canada’s concerned,”said Kolinsky.“I hope people can dierentiate between himand his amily instead o just everyone painting allo us in the same brush,” said Farooq, who’s un-sure i she will continue attending her husband’scourt appearances.
Zakaria Amara, former Ryerson student, pleaded guilty on Oct. 8.
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receive emails rom the groups.”However, the opt-out option cannotbe perormed until the email system isupdated later in the semester. While the school has relayed thisinormation to the Continuing Educa-tion Students’ Association o Ryerson(CESAR), RSU President Jermaine Bag-nall and Salvador were unaware o theplans.Earlier this semester, the RSU wasn’tallowed to include inormation aboutthe Anti-Racism Task Force in an edi-tion o Campus News. Other inorma-tion such as post-secondary education-al barriers to Aboriginal students werealso blocked by the Oce o University Advancement, which managed Cam-pus News, now Ryerson Today.“The school suddenly said they wouldn’t include inormation aboutnon-Ryerson events,” Salvador said.“That doesn’t make sense because theschool has allowed us to send out in-ormation about non-school eventsbeore.” Vetere said the issue is still under in-vestigation.
A new study site allows students to share old assignments and exams.
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More than 200 Ryerson studentsaccessing a new study site could becharged with academic misconduct orposting and viewing old coursework.The website, universityjunction.com,allows students to collaborate on work through orums and online chats.Users can also upload and sharedocuments like class notes, old assign-ments and exams.Donna Bell, Ryerson’s academic in-tegrity ocer, is concerned with stu-dents’ ability to access and share oldexams and assignments on the site.“I’m all or websites that have col-laborative opportunities or students,”said Bell. “But individual assignmentsneed to be done individually.”Mitch Reiss, one o the site’s twoRyerson promoters, knows the schooldoesn’t like the idea o sharing pasttests and assignments.“University Junction tells the reps toocus on aspects o the website that donot breach their school’s policy,” saidReiss, a second-year hospitality andtourism management student.
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Individual assignments needto be done individually.
Donna Bell, Ryerson’s academic integrity ofcer
Computer science proessor SophieQuigley doesn’t mind her old exams be-ing posted on the site.“It’s a great tool,” she said.Liz Mitchell, the site’s communica-tions director, promotes University Junction as an ethical study site.“When students rst sign up, they have to agree to abide by their school’sethics policy,” she said, adding that thesite links back to each school’s academ-ic policy.Students can also fag content they think breaches codes o conduct, whichis then taken down. I fagged more thanonce, the user’s account is disabled.Two years ago, electrical engineering student Chris Avenir was almost ex-pelled or his involvement in an onlinestudy group. Now in his third year, Ave-nir thinks University Junction could beuseul or students who commute.“The theory o it seems pretty cool,”he said, though he cautioned againstusing the new study site to break any codes o conduct.Right now the website is available on10 campuses throughout Canada andthe United States.
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> follow the money
$84,000$260,000$160,000
This year’sdecit.Total Used Book Room expenses.RSU’s decitlast year.
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