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Point/Counterpoint

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Keith Lehwald and Miguel Chua
Opinions Contributors

Point (Keith Lehwald): Sometimes, war is necessary. But all too often, there is no clear way to tell when those times come. When our government sends us down the warpath, we are often left with only politically spun stories and statistics with which to decide if the cause is just. It is for this reason I am arguing that the media should be allowed to depict the full horrors of war. That is, with the exception of strategically sensitive information that could directly jeopardize the mission, the media should not be subject to government censorship in images and text nor censor itself in the name of common decency.

Counterpoint (Miguel Chua): While there may be an interesting and compelling case that media outlets should showcase the full horrors of war, the proposal has adverse effects both at home and on the battlefield. On these grounds, I’ll be rebutting the case based on two planks. The first plank is based on a moral and rational rebuttal of the case presented, while the second plank highlights how this policy greatly reduces the capacity of states to fight in just wars as well as reduces states’ abilities to fight in wars.

Point: Under the status quo, the only way by which we can imagine the state of war is through statistics. Numbers and general categories of the dead, such as “soldiers” and “civilians”, dehumanize the tragedies and isolate us from true understanding. As Stalin allegedly once said, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Giving the media more free reign in what it can publish would go a long way toward combating this issue. Graphic images produce a visceral and intense emotion in those who view them that numbers never can. An image highlights the death of one so that the millions may no longer be a statistic. As an example, the genocide in Darfur seems like just another faraway conflict until you see the photograph of a lone gunman looking out across a swath of partially dismembered bodies, left lying in the desert to be buried by the drifting sand.

Counterpoint: Proponents present two mutually contradictory effects that come about through this policy. On the one hand they say people will be rational enough to discuss policy and “just war theory”, while on the other they also say that people will be so emotional that they will be compelled to intervene. Therefore the question has to be: Which of these two effects would come about? Furthermore, the fact that these images will be showcased daily and nothing will be left for the imagination is extremely damaging. The risk exists that people will become desensitized by these images. It’s for this similar reason that we as a society refuse to showcase all the images of rape and murder scenes.

Point: The notion of the wider public being exposed to such gruesome images on a regular basis during wartime is not a pleasant concept, but neither is the concept of war itself. This closer and more personal understanding of the horrors of war forces us to think long and hard about whether the objective is worth the sacrificed soldiers and the collateral damage. Increased media access would also ensure that the worst atrocities come to light, even if the military might prefer they did not – an issue particularly pertinent in the case of civilian casualties.

Counterpoint: The second plank that I would like to discuss is how this policy actually hampers the capacity of states to enter into and to fight wars in general, and especially just wars. The capacity of soldiers to fight wars on the ground is also extremely hamstrung, primarily because for this policy to work reporters would have to be inserted into every unit in a warzone. Therefore soldiers are not only responsible for their own personal safety but also for the safety and security of civilians that have become closely linked to the conflict. Beyond that, soldiers must now also think twice when presented with an order from their commanding officers because every action that they take in the battlefield will be under an intense media spotlight.

Point: As I mentioned earlier, some wars do need to be fought. This plan still allows for the wars that are necessary to be waged, and even encourages public support for them. When photographs of bodies lining the streets of Rwanda reached the media after the war had ended, people across the Western world wondered why our militaries did not step in. If they had seen those pictures while the war was in progress, perhaps it could have ended sooner and with less bloodshed.

Counterpoint: By showing the full horrors of war, the capacity of states to exercise judgment when entering conflicts is severely hampered because wars are no longer judged on the basis of “just war theory” but are instead compared to the last conflict that a state found itself in. An example of this would be the United States and its refusal to aid in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994. “Just war principles” would have stated that it would have been necessary to intervene in Rwanda; however the images of a U.S. pilot being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia just a year prior on CNN were still fresh in the public’s minds and therefore prompted inaction from the U.S. state.

Point: Ultimately, a democracy works best when we make decisions in collaboration with our leaders rather than blindly trusting them to always do the right thing. However, this system cannot exist if the public is insufficiently informed. That is why the media, our primary source of information, should always show us the whole truth, even when it hurts.

Counterpoint: This idea hampers the effective use of just war and ties down the capacity of soldiers on the ground. In addition, this policy would actually fail to bring about discussion on issues of war and would only make the violence associated with war more gratuitous.

Keith Lehwald and Miguel Chua are members of Sodales, the Dalhousie Debating Society. Debaters are notorious for arguing things they don’t actually believe. Positions taken by the authors aren’t necessarily the authors’ personal beliefs. Vote for the side of the debate you agree with at www.sodales.ca, or find out more about Sodales by writing to sodales@dal.ca.

The Healthy student

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Rachel Sunter, Health Columnist

One look at some of Canada’s top athletes featured in Vancouver 2010 ads made my brows furrow with envy of such a lifestyle. They’re toned, make-up-less and practically glowing with the radiance of working out for money, and eating well to boot.
I mistakenly assumed they must live longer, healthier lives than normal people.
As it happens, however, superstar athletes actually have similar life expectancies to you and me. How is this possible? How can bodies so determined and well-endowed wilt like any other flower?
It’s because of our body’s ‘reversibility’, or the way it adapts to a given lifestyle. If you stop asking your muscles to work for you, they slack off, and quickly. Even for a top athlete, within weeks of inactivity muscles deteriorate and cardio levels recede.
All that work for nothing, as far as longevity goes.
The key to living long is an everyday lifestyle that balances relaxation, nutrition and activity. Staying moderately active until the day you die is much more important than a limited bout of peak performance at some point in your life. ‘Active’ doesn’t mean running on the treadmill every morning. It means using your muscles throughout the day.
In fact, a recent study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that spending long hours reading or sitting in front of the computer can hurt your health in the long run, no matter how many hours you’re killing at the gym. The study looks at long periods of sitting as an independent health hazard, regardless of the presence of daily exercise. Researchers say that long periods of bodily stillness trigger chemical changes that are harmful to your health in the long run.
Following these theories, getting up to get a snack or walking upstairs can make all the difference when it comes to keeping your body at an active level throughout the day. Just like taking a mental time-out when things get too stressful, researchers are suggesting you remember to take activity time-outs when things get too still.
National Geographic writer Dan Buettner birthed project Blue Zone, a worldwide project that investigates ‘blue zones’ – regions where people have the longest life expectancies. According to their findings so far, people who live extra long don’t stay fit by ‘working out’ per se, but rather by doing simple things such as walking, using their hands, bending, stretching and doing a variety of activities that engage their bodies.
Contrary to the Western trend toward retirement, older people in other countries keep busy, involved and active (and happy) until the day they die. Their bodies appear to stay young because they keep acting young, and not the other way around.
Implementing this knowledge to your lifestyle may mean breaking a few habits. For starters, keep tabs on the clock to measure long hours spent on your bum. Chances are you could do with a glass of water, a snack, or a breath of fresh air. It’s not hard to find excuses to get up and move around.

To see some real centurions (people who live to be 100 years or more) in action check out Buettner’s video “How to live to be 100+” at www.ted.com.

Winter Olympics worth it?

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Justin Ling, Opinions Contributor

An authentic Olympic gold medal: $133.
Hosting the world’s biggest sporting event: $6 billion.
Cutting the department that investigates children’s deaths: priceless.
As we sprint toward this year’s Olympic games, it’s worth looking at the social cost Canadians are paying to host the festivities. Many were quick to decry China’s human rights abuses in the lead-up to the Beijing summer Olympics, but what makes Canada so much better?
When the Chinese government sent bulldozers into low-income neighbourhoods to destroy dozens of homes, the world recoiled in horror.
Much in the same way that China forcibly relocated its low-income and transient populations, some of Vancouver’s homeless have recently been forced onto buses and given one-way tickets out of town. In a 2008 pre-Games study, the International Olympics Committee found 2,660 homeless people living in Vancouver. That number had more than doubled since 2002. For those people, this isn’t good news.
Of the Canadian provinces, B.C. was cited in a recent report as having the most unaffordable housing of the six countries surveyed, including the U.S., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. In recent years the B.C. government has actually demolished affordable housing in Vancouver.
It would seem less painful, however, if the government followed through on its pledge to allocate some parts of the Olympic village to low-income Canadians, a promise that will likely go unfulfilled.
These problems are not endemic to Vancouver, although they have become worse since Gordon Campbell’s Liberals took over in 2001. Since then, and the subsequent Olympic announcement, funding has been slashed left and right for vital services within the province.
Take, for example, the Children’s Commission. This department was responsible for investigating children’s deaths, but was nixed in 2002. The damage done by such a move is incomprehensible. The cut led to 700 cases being orphaned and forgotten in a warehouse, leaving the parents without answers into the death of their children.
The government was further remiss by failing to have the proper oversight in, or subsequent improvements to, its child protection services. This is the service that should have protected five children who died while under government supervision over the past decade. One three-year-old child was suffocated to death, and while it was ruled a homicide, no arrests were ever made. Another toddler was beaten to death by her uncle.
Considering the systemic failure of B.C.’s under-funded child welfare programs, and the fact that it has had the highest rates of child poverty in Canada for six years in a row, shouldn’t these issues have priority over any multi-billion dollar sporting event?
These cuts are not an anomaly, either. Healthcare has also taken a serious blow in the name of cost-cutting to finance the Olympic games. As $720 million was shelled out for a new convention center, 1,400 operating rooms were closed, 5,800 surgeries were postponed and 125 full-time hospital staff were let go.
But we all know where spend-thrift governments bring their cleaver down first: the arts. The B.C. Council for the Arts was cut by a staggering 82 per cent, which works out to $16 million dollars in lost funding. As if that weren’t enough, Gordon Campbell’s new harmonized sales tax will add seven per cent to services such as Internet, phone, TV and gym memberships. When Darrell Dexter speaks about raising taxes and cutting services, let’s hope he finds a better way than this.
Perhaps these cuts would sting a little less if the budget for the over-the-top Olympics were hit with the same red pen. This, however, has rarely been the historical precedent. In fact, the operational costs of the Olympics ballooned by 26 per cent while the government bulldozed affordable housing complexes and locked hospital room doors.
The $16.6 million for the Cypress Mountain ski resort, $110 million for the Olympic Village, $600 million for the sea-to-sky highway, $900 million security and $7 million for ‘paid volunteers’, amongst many other lavish costs, are cold comfort to Vancouver’s homeless and the families of the dead children who are still waiting for answers.
The B.C. government is quick to hold up the fact that the Olympics are primarily financed by corporations, yet they neglect to mention that $37 million of that cash put forward has been from crown corporations.
While it’s unclear exactly how much the Olympics will cost the taxpayer, both in B.C. and throughout Canada, it will undoubtedly be a pretty big figure. Considering the B.C. government just posted a $2.8 billion deficit, you can bet that the cuts aren’t over, either.
So when you tune into the Olympics, keep in mind from whose pockets those games were financed and at what cost Canadians are made to suffer so that the world can watch figure skating and downhill skiing.

This article was originally published on Justin Ling’s blog, Demarchy.

Queen’s home to hockey’s oldest rivalry

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Amrit Ahluwalia, Sports Editor (Queen’s Journal)

From the land where curling was born, the Church of Scotland established Queen’s College in Kingston in 1841, Queen Victoria’s royal charter in hand. Queen’s University’s history isn’t as arson-heavy as King’s College’s, or as broom-heavy as McGill’s, but our fair university has had a sizeable influence on the sport of hockey. The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto recognizes five locales as hockey’s potential birthplace – Windsor, N.S., the Halifax-Dartmouth region, Deline, NWT, Montreal and Kingston. Six other areas have thrown their names into the mix of places claiming rightful ownership of hockey.
Because hockey doesn’t have any specific sport to plant its roots, given that it evolved from essentially any stick-and-ball-with-a-goal game, or any specific creator, such as basketball’s James Naismith, there can’t possibly be any one, specific birthplace.
As such, any discussion on hockey’s rightful owner must come down to the place which has had the most profound impact on the modern game’s evolution. That place is Kingston.
In 1843, a British army officer stationed in Kingston named Arthur H. Freeling wrote: “Began to skate this year, improved quickly and had great fun at hockey on the ice.” This was the earliest written reference to hockey being a sport played on ice, with skates.
This is refuted by residents of Deline, who point to a letter written by Sir John Franklin in 1825 that said, “The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport.” His letter makes no reference to skates, though.
Those who argue against Kingston being the birthplace of hockey will say that a game of shinny was played somewhere in their municipality on some windswept ice patch. But Kingston has had the most profound involvement with the game.
In 1886, using sticks from Nova Scotia, hockey teams from Queen’s University and the Royal Military College (RMC) faced off on the Kingston Harbour. This might not have been the earliest hockey game, but the Queen’s-RMC game was one of the most important games in hockey’s history. The two schools continue that rivalry to this day. In fact, they play for the Carr-Harris Cup every year in vintage jerseys to recognize the importance of their game 124 years ago.
McGill students will surely point to the Montreal Canadiens as the most important hockey team in the last 150 years. I would argue it is in fact the Queen’s Golden Gaels who created the most stir to spread hockey across the continent.
Queen’s University’s teams were prominent in the game’s development west of Montreal and south into the U.S. They brought the game to cities such as Washington, New York, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, where they regularly drew crowds of 4,000 to 5,000 people during the dawning days of the 20th century. The Gaels pay homage to this part of their history as well, as they take part in pre-season tournaments such as the one hosted by Pittsburgh’s Robert Morris University.
Although Queen’s hasn’t won an OUA title in quite some time, our name is still on the trophy. The university donated the Queen’s Cup to the OUA in 1903.
Finally, while a university team, the Gaels made serious headways into the provincial and national championship ranks through the years. They were the first successful challengers for the Allan Cup, presented to the best amateur hockey team in the country, in 1910. In 1926 The Gaels also brought home the George T. Richardson Memorial Trophy, named after a former Queen’s player, as the best Junior A team in the country. Finally, they competed in (but lost) three Stanley Cup challenges – more challenges than any other university team in the country. They had to forfeit a fourth due to the timing of medical school exams.
Kingston might not be the place where the first hockey game took place. But as the birthplace of Don Cherry and Doug Gilmour, the location of the game’s oldest rivalry and the home of Queen’s University, Kingston lays the greatest claim to owning the world’s greatest game.

Who Owns Hockey?

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Joel Tichinoff, Sports Editor

There is a reason tams don’t fit under hockey helmets. Hockey belongs to the University of King’s College.
Like many quality things, it started on the Jersey shore. With the founding of Princeton by Presbyterians across the Hudson, the Anglican congregation of New York’s Trinity Church, fearing a world run by Calvinists, determined to establish a college dedicated to the Church of England. King George II granted a Royal Charter and his grateful subjects honored the college with the title of her earliest benefactor. King’s began accepting students in 1754 to her first campus on the corner of Wall Street and Broadway. Despite the college’s monarchist roots, her halls would produce the brightest sparks of the American Revolution. Thus, while Montreal was a fur-trading post with a brewery and ‘Ft. Frontenac’ kept incompetent guard where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence, King’s College alumni were signing the Declaration of Independence and drafting the U.S. Constitution.
Rebel alumnus Alexander Hamilton served the Continental Army that re-captured Manhattan, burned King’s, and forced her faculty to flee north. Those who remained in New York pilfered what was left of the original King’s founding an obscure institution named Columbia. In Nova Scotia, a bitter Bishop Inglis, who once counted George Washington among his flock, would re-constitute King’s College at Windsor, with a pledge that never again would King’s be alma mater to revolutionaries.
Perhaps it was the Bishop’s repressive doctrine that led escape-seeking King’s students out onto the ice on Long Pond at the edge of the new campus. Whatever the cause, there, between the fertile folds of the Annapolis Valley, in view of the not-long-ago banished Acadians’ heartland, students of King’s College created a game for themselves. They called it ‘hockey.’
Incorporating physical elements of the local Mi’kmaq first-nations’ sport ‘dehuntshigwa’es’ and the Scottish ball-and-stick game of Shinty, the Kingsmen devised not just the name, but essential elements such as the position of goalie, shaped sticks and bench-clearing brawls. They chose Blue and White as team colours, somehow anticipating Toronto would one day supply their entire student population. King’s would never win a hockey championship, and, in order to make Torontonians feel even more at home, eventually gave up having a real hockey team altogether.
Judge Thomas Chandler Halliburton records Kingsmen playing their game of hockey in the early 1800’s, (roughly coinciding with Chris Chelios’ rookie season). In 1821, a full two decades later, James McGill converted his country home into a school, allowing18-year-old Ontario arts students access to Montreal bars; in 1826 these students would invent the Victory Lap – often cited as McGill University’s greatest contribution to education.
Not until 1841, nearly half a century after hockey was born, would Queen’s University open the doors of its inaugural class to a total of 10 students. Presumably the rest of the student-body was in police custody following the inaugural Homecoming riot on Aberdeen. And so King’s bestowed the greatest gifts upon her natural and adopted homelands, America and Canada. To the former republic King’s gave freedom and laws and to the latter dominion its national obsession, identity and 200 years’ supply of brilliant, witty, intellectual-elite, jobless hipsters. In 1920, King’s students would burn their alma mater to the ground for the second time in 200 years, move to Halifax and begin a complicated long-term relationship with Dalhousie.
It is generally believed that McGill students played a form of hockey in the 1870s involving modified broomsticks and 18 players on the ice at once. Miraculously, the early McGill broomstick teams avoided scandal and the sport grew unhindered by cancelled seasons. Being Quebec Anglophones, for years McGillians struggled to set the rules of the game; typical tetes-carres, they reduced the number of players on the ice to seven per side. Anthropologists agree that the primitive ‘McGill Hockey’ consisted mostly of ‘hot-dogging’ (“steamy-ing” in Montreal) and, due to most participants coming from Westmount or the Plateau, virtually no passing. Indeed, the word for ‘assist’ would remain untranslatable east of St. Laurent until well into the 20th century.
Hockey helmets were never meant to fit over Tams. With the exception of the Hip, Michael Ondaatje, and Danny Brannagan, Queen’s products tend towards incompetence, ranging from current Environment Minister John Baird to Boo Hoo the Bear. Though located in the homeland of hockey legends Don Cherry and Doug Gilmour, Queen’s did not have an established hockey team until 1886, by which time King’s students had been playing hockey for nearly a century. Thus the outrageousness of the Queen’s claim is matched only by its fallacy and the Gaels’ affection for sheep. Though it may soothe Queen’s pride that their school contended three times for the Stanley Cup, the Gaels were swept in every contest. The Gaels sheepishly tried their luck with the Memorial Cup and failed there as well. From their Nova Scotian Olympus, the Gods of Hockey continue to scorn the Gaels for their foolish pride. To this day Queen’s hockey teams have yet to win a National championship. Queen’s College Colours, soiled as they are by the battle and the rain, still wait for a hockey victory to wipe away that stain.
What’s the sport of King’s?
Hockey.
Too bad no one’s ever heard of us.

Joel Tichinoff is a student at King’s College.

Maritime residences compete to conserve

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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Sarah Ratchford, CUP Atlantic Bureau Chief

FREDERICTON (CUP) — Last year, three UPEI residences challenged each other to conserve energy, and they saved 8800 kWh. This year, they’ve challenged schools from across the Maritimes to do the same.
Over 30 residences, and over 2000 students, are now competing to be the greenest house on the East Coast. The contest, which started on Jan. 10, is pitting the residence halls against each other to see who can reduce the most energy from their normal consumption, through everyday methods like turning off lights and computers off they’re not being used.
The competition originated last year between residences at the University of Prince Edward Island, but this year they challenged six other schools to join them: St. Francis Xavier University, Dalhousie University, Holland College, Mount Allison University, and both the Fredericton and Saint John campuses of the University of New Brunswick.
David Taylor, manager of sustainability and energy management at UPEI, was very pleased that last year’s challenge saw the school’s three residences cut energy consumption by 8800 kWh. “We felt that was pretty positive,” he says.
It was that positive result that drove UPEI to get other campuses on board.
Taylor says that where the competition stretches longer than 30 days – enough time to form a new habit or break an old one – it has the potential to encourage new habits in students across the region, which could have long-term positive benefits for the contestants.
“It’s turning off your TV, putting your computer on sleep mode or hibernate. Those types of small, habit forming things.”
Perry Eldridge, technical services manager at Mount Allison, echoes Taylor’s sentiments, saying that he hopes students will carry energy-efficient habits away from university residences and into their future homes.
“Rather than this just being the six weeks for the challenge, we’re trying to promote a way of life,” he says.
Dave MacNeil, budget analyst for facilities management at St.FX, says whether or not people make long-term changes depends on the person.
“A lot of it is awareness,” he says. “It’s about how much energy we all use on a day to day basis. If we make small adjustments in our routines, that makes a big difference from week to week.”
Another goal of the contest is to foster discussion among the participating schools.
Eldridge says Mount Allison has some initiatives that other schools could use and benefit from, including residence “eco-reps” who pay attention to energy use in their residences to “raise energy awareness.”
Discussion may not just grow within individual schools now that they’ve begun interacting over energy.
“We’d like to get some really good discussions going among universities and the different campuses,” says Gladys Lacey-House, energy co-ordinator at UNB Fredericton. “We’d like to discuss what’s being used for heat, lighting.”
The contest, she continues, will provide “information for us to help move forward as to the best way to go. We need to find out why some buildings perform so well, and others do not.”
She also says it’s important to look at the culture within particular residences to determine what kinds of attitudes make the best environmentalists.
“Do the students meet regularly? Maybe they’re very conscious, and keep an active venue of meeting and discussing.”
A few weeks into the challenge, UNB Fredericton is winning the competition, with a reduction in energy of 24.8 per cent.
Lacey-House points out that the contest’s energy-reduction leader — Lady Beaverbrook Residence at UNB Fredericton — is the campus’ oldest house. It was built in 1930.
“It’s great, people are so enthusiastic,” says Verna McLean, a residence assistant at Lady Beaverbrook. While she says some residents are more enthused than others, she expects more to get more involved as the competition goes on.
Aitken House, also at UNB Fredericton, is in second place, while Holland College’s Glendenning Hall is third.
Residences that are falling behind need not fret, however, as the competition will continue until Feb. 20.
The winning residence will receive a plaque as well as a cash prize to go toward energy reduction initiatives. The eco-friendly habits the students are forming, though, go beyond just tangible prizes.
“There are benefits for all, regardless of who wins,” says Lacey-House.

Study confirms student debt is on the rise

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Emma Godmere, Ottawa Bureau Chief

OTTAWA (CUP) – A new Statistics Canada report suggests more Canadian students are taking out loans to finance their education – and are carrying larger debt loads upon graduation.
The study, entitled The Financial Impact of Student Loans was released on Jan. 29 and pointed out that increases in tuition fees over the last decade have brought more attention to student borrowing and led to more student debt. The average amount owed in government loans by students graduating in 2005 was $16,600 – up from $14,700 in 1995.
The difference becomes even larger when loans from other sources are considered and combined: the average total student debt for graduates in 2005 was $18,800, compared to only $15,200 a decade earlier.
Further, the proportion of students graduating with even bigger amounts of debt has also grown: while only 17 per cent of loan-borrowing graduates graduated with debt amounting to more than $25,000 in 1995, that number reached 27 per cent in 2005.
“The statistics that were released today basically confirmed what we’ve been saying for the past few months, which is that there (are) more and more students (who) are having to borrow to attend college and university, and we’re seeing students who are … graduating with much higher debt loads than in the past,” said Katherine Giroux-Bougard, national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students.
NDP post-secondary education critic Niki Ashton agreed that proof of increased student borrowing and debt did not come as a surprise.
“Certainly the trend isn’t shocking; there (have) been numerous indications of that being the case,” she said. “However, the fact that we’ve got a federal government that’s not responding to that need, despite this ongoing trend, is a shock.”
The study, which was based on three surveys completed between 2002 and 2007, indicated that students are also paying proportionally more for their education while governments are paying proportionally less. Between 1989 and 2009, government funding fell from 72 to 55 per cent of the average revenue of post-secondary institutions, while percentage of revenue from tuition fees more than doubled from 10 to 21 per cent.
Additionally, the study – which conceded that little research has been conducted in the past to examine the effects of loans on students after graduation – found that while post-graduation employment rates remained about the same between borrowers and non-borrowers, students with loans after graduation were much less likely to have savings and investments or own a home.
Canadian Alliance of Student Associations National Director Arati Sharma highlighted that more research needs to be conducted in these areas – but that there are considerably fewer organizations available to investigate long-term issues surrounding post-secondary education.
“We need to do more research,” she said, noting that the Canadian Council on Learning think-tank may be closing its doors soon and that the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation has been dissolved. “We really need someone to step in and do that type of research so we can know what students are doing after graduation.”
Ashton, who said recent cutbacks in funding for educational research are a key issue, reiterated the need for a national post-secondary education initiative.
“It’s a huge priority for us … It’s also important to get that debate going and (call) on the other parties (and call) on the government to support our plan and support a vision for post-secondary education,” she said, referring to the NDP’s intent to introduce a post-secondary education act in Parliament in the near future.
“We (want to) see that the national government provides leadership, so that it’s not something that’s left to the provinces, but rather Canada is looking out for the support and the investments that they need to be making in our students and in our future generation,” Ashton continued.
Calls were made to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada in an effort to find out if any plans to respond to the student debt statistics were being crafted by the government, but requests for interviews were not immediately returned.
“It would really be a shame if the provincial governments and the federal government didn’t take action on this student debt crisis, especially at a time when there’s a number of Canadians (who) are out of work, looking for retraining,” said CFS chair Giroux-Bougard. “Both levels of government should really be seeing post-secondary education as an area of investment – one that’s going to pay dividends for the governments for years to come.”

MLAs discuss Sable Island, environment at Dal

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Scott Beed, Staff Contributor

Sable Island may be a federally- and provincially-protected wilderness area, but some of the province’s more eco-savvy politicians argue more needs to be done.
Dalhousie University hosted an environmental panel last Monday. It was the same day the province made the Sable Island announcement and much of the conversation hinged on protected wilderness.
Howard Epstein, Leonard Preyra and Michele Raymond, all members of the New Democratic Party, and Liberals Andrew Younger and Diana Whalen joined the crowd for the informal discussion.
“It’s a really good day for me today,” said Preyra, MLA for Halifax Citadel Sable Island, who had pushed for the protected land.
Sable Island, known for its ponies, has a population of four. Preyra says it’s important to protect the habitat and wildlife because they are part of Nova Scotian culture.
The decision comes as part of the province’s Buy Back program.
Through the program the province has already put nine per cent of Nova Scotian land under protection from development, with a goal to put a total of 12 per cent under protection by 2020. Epstein said the 12 per cent marker isn’t an end point, but he wants to look at it as an attainable goal.
Unlike other provinces, such as B.C. where the provincial government already owns 90 per cent of the land, N.S. owns only about four per cent. In order to protect land, Epstein explained, the province has to spend vast amounts of money to buy it back from private owners.
Younger argued that the NDP’s buyback plan is misleading.
“If you just say we’re gonna add Sable Island and count that, you haven’t really added anything that wasn’t technically already protected,” he said.
He said nine per cent is a step forward but that opposition parties have not been told what land that percentage represents. No one has access to the information about the land the government plans to buy.
The protection of Sable Island is governmental grandstanding, he added. Younger said the NDP is only adding the island to the list of protected areas for good publicity.
“The government would never dream of selling off Sable Island or developing on it,” he said. “So by adding it to the 12 per cent you’re effectively just padding your numbers.”
The event was mostly informal. About 50 people participated, clasping mugs of fair trade organic tea and eating from plates of homemade hummus with crackers.
“This semester we wanted to bring the focus back home and we started thinking about how so many Dal students are from out of province,” said Kaleigh McGregor-Bales, of SustainDal, a society that promotes sustainable campus policies.
She added that new students often don’t know the issues or the political climate in N.S. SustainDal decided to host the informal Q&A panel discussion to spark conversation between students and the MLAs.
“We wanted to just educate students, get them involved, give them the chance to meet the local politicians so hopefully they’ll find it easier to get more involved in their new home out east,” said McGregor-Bales.
McGregor-Bales said the invitation was sent out to any MLA who lived relatively close to campus because they wanted to cut down commute time.
“Luckily the ones who were interested were the ones who had more background in environmental issues, so they can speak to actual issues they’re pushing for in the provincial legislature” she said.
McGregor-Bales said SustainDal has focused its attention on the federal government. Their main concern was how Harper’s Conservatives were dealing with climate change and the Copenhagen conference.
Noticeably absent from the panel participants were Conservative MLAs. McGregor-Bales said she sent invites to many Conservative MLAs with no response.

The quiet demise of the Halifax Student Alliance

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Lucy Scholey, News Editor

Some students may have forgotten about it, and many students haven’t even heard of it. And now, all that’s left of the Halifax Student Alliance is a gaping hole in the Dalhousie Student Union’s budget.
The DSU budget allocated about $13,000 to the multi-university coalition last spring for the current academic year. But the DSU didn’t collect student fees this year after the students’ union and several others bowed out of the organization. The move was unprecedented.
“This is the first time I have heard of it,” said DSU vice president (finance and operations) Doyle Bond of the group’s collapse. “I think HSA was one of those organizations that people weren’t expecting universities to pull out of.”
The multi-university coalition was officially formed in 2007 to lobby the municipal government on issues such as safety and security around the city. Most notably, the organization pushed for a late-night transit system.
For several reasons – including the $1.8 million price tag – Metro Transit decided it couldn’t provide this service, but that it would continue trying to “engage the universities and colleges to develop plans and strategies to provide safe travel for students” (according to a municipal report from the Feb. 8, 2009 meeting).
The HSA was a collective of the DSU, the St. Mary’s University Students’ Association, the NSCC Waterfront Campus Student Union and the Atlantic School of Theology Student Union.
But for various reasons, most of these groups dropped out, leaving Dal to carry the load.
“It seemed like Dal would be the only school that would fund the organization and council didn’t see that as being appropriate,” said DSU president Shannon Zimmerman.
Though the Mount Saint Vincent University Students’ Union wasn’t a member, the union president said there was a falling out between the former president and the HSA director.
“HSA wasn’t supportive and there wasn’t a lot of dissent going on,” said Jeremy Neilson. “It just dissolved, more or less.”
According to Zimmerman, SMUSA and the NSCC students’ union dropped out because they didn’t have room for the HSA in their operating budgets.
Kyle Shaw, editor of The Coast, said student organizations are important in a city “where municipal services like Metro Transit and the police go beyond apathy to treat their student customers with contempt.”
“The main reason any government can get away with treating students badly is turnover,” he wrote in an article in August 2008. Students started forming organizations such as the Canadian Federation of Students and the Nova Scotia Alliance of Student Associations to push for their needs.
Without the alliance, there is no cohesive student advocacy group at the municipal level.
“Municipal is not a focus on (post-secondary education),” said Zimmerman. “It’s a focus on issues that are affecting students that are in universities and colleges. So it’s kind of a different lobbying.”
But not all is lost, she added. The DSU is working on getting the organization back on its feet.
“(HSA’s demise) doesn’t mean that it won’t necessarily happen again,” said Zimmerman.
But she’s had problems convincing other students’ unions to join.
“(DSU vice president education, Rob LeForte) and I started working on it this year and we’ve had a lot of issues with other students and student organizations,” said Zimmerman. “I’m not sure the interest from other schools was there like the interest from Dal was there.”
“It’s supposed to be a coalition of Metro universities and colleges, it should have all of them committed to it, rather than just one financially committed.”
Neilson said he wasn’t aware of the DSU’s efforts, but that he likes the philosophy behind HSA.
“The initiative, the goal and drive of the organization is strong and the city would only be better if we had it,” said Neilson, adding that he’s not sure if the Mount’s students’ union would join the group. It would depend on what the students want, he said.
Despite any troubles, Zimmerman said the DSU is still in talks with municipal councillors about issues that are important to students.
“It’s not as if the voice has been lost for them,” she said.

Pro-choice activists talk reproductive justice

Dalhousie Gazette Staff
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By Katrina Pyne, Staff Contributor

In a mostly empty auditorium on the 22nd anniversary of Canada’s decision to repeal the abortion law, women’s voices echoed loudly through St. Mary’s McNally Theatre.
“Happy Morgentaler Day everybody!”
Students from the SMU Women’s centre organized the Trust Women Conference on Reproductive Justice with about 60 registered participants. The free evening event on Thursday, Jan. 28 covered everything from abortion, to population control, to racism.
Guest speakers included Jessica Yee, Joyce Arthur and Loretta Ross as well as an introduction by Mohawk drummer Catherine Martin and spoken artist El Jones.
“It is my right to make decisions about my own body,” said 23-year-old Yee, a self-described indigenous hip-hop feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter. She’s also the director of Native Youth Sexual Health Network.
“I believe in reproductive justice because I am not about to forget all that we’ve worked, lobbied, yelled, screamed, fought, died, struggled, resisted, waged, campaigned and what we stand here for today.”
Lisa Garrett went to all of the Trust Women events and was involved in the production of Jane: Abortion and the Underground, a play presented the night before.
“Event’s like this really bring women together,” she said. “You can see the leaders of the movement and everyone gets really into it.”
Joyce Arthur, the founder and co-ordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and well-known activist spoke about her own experience with abortion.
“I couldn’t believe someone else made that decision for me,” she said regarding the panel of doctors whose consent was needed for an abortion at that time.
Arthur said she knew what it was like to grow up in a “fundamentalist Christian patriarchal home.”
“I was taught to conform to certain non-expectations,” she told the audience. “What I see now in society is that women are equated with sex, breasts and vaginas.”
Arthur said the root cause of pro-choice politics is that a woman’s status is treated as mother first and human being second.
According to her, good mothers can have both babies and abortions.
“A women’s decision to have an abortion is as private as their period,” said Loretta Ross, founder and the national co-ordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective.
She also spoke about the association between the anti-abortion movement and population control. She said that the same developed nations that over-consume resources are wrongly putting their effort into population control in underdeveloped countries to compensate for depleted resources.
“We are in danger of losing control of our destinies,” she said.
The evening was interactive. At one point Ross and Yee even had the audience chanting the Bob Marley lyrics, “Get up / stand up / for your rights.”
Later audience members were asked to pair up and talk to one another about a woman they looked up to. Jane Hebert spoke about her mother, “An outstanding example of a strong, resilient and fun woman.”
Yee would like to see people make a habit of talking more about strong women.
“We need to have role-models to be proud of, not to gossip about.”

The SMU Women’s Centre, located in room 528 of the SMU Student Centre, offers a variety of feminist and women’s focused activities and events. Visit www.smuwomenscentre.com or reach them at smu.womenscentre@gmail.com.

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