When George Galloway was banned from entering Canada, it was just one more reminder that students had to shout a little louder for the right to freedom of speech.

And shout louder, they did. The Student Assembly Against War and Racism took place this past weekend and boy, did it ever come at the right time.

On top of the Galloway incident, racism and hate speech has risen on campus at Ryerson University, posters for Israeli Apartheid Week were banned at Ottawa universities, the feds cut $2.1 million in funds for the Canadian Arab Federation, and an anti-gay member was appointed to the immigration board. If this isn’t a direct attack on our freedom of speech, our right to education and our livelihood, than I really don’t want to know what is.

University campuses have always been known to be an environment of political activism for social justice and peace, a reputation upheld by students themselves. But when Israel began its bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip, university presidents in Canada started to show a dark side.

When the Ontario NDP voted against the back-to-work legislation that would put an end to the strike at Toronto’s York University and bring students and strikers back into the classrooms, I was surprised to see that this royally pissed off a lot of people.

Yes, the strike goes on.

We all remember the “apology” given to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples less than a year ago by Stephen Harper for the genocidal crimes that took place in residential schools across the country.

In his speech, Harper expressed his sincere regrets for the thousands of former students who died as a result of the assimilation policy. Wait, did I say sincere? Because by the looks of things today, Aboriginal students seem to be at the bottom of Harper’s agenda.

On Dec. 1, the Ontario Ministry of Labour announced that an agreement between CUPE 3903 and York University is far from being reached.

It has been nearly a month since workers called a strike and classes were put on hiatus. There are no negotiations being scheduled for the moment until the parties have reflected on their proposed framework.

Part-time workers at York University have called a strike, leaving thousands and thousands of students in a state of flux and anxiety. In an effort to sympathize with the students, many have lashed out at the teaching assistants, the contract faculty members; the ones that walked out on the students on November 6.

The strikers are calling for better job security, wages, benefits and classroom context and when they rejected a binding arbitration, I started hearing students call the union members “greedy” and “selfish.” It irks me to hear this because aren’t some of the strikers recent graduates, or even students themselves trying to pay for their education and loans?

Remember, remember the fifth of November.

That was the catchy phrase the Ryerson Students’ Union used in their campaign to get students to come out for the drop fees rally. Without a doubt, it worked. By 11 a.m., there were already about 200 students gearing up for the rally. Half an hour later, a herd of students from George Brown College impressively marched towards us with their placards and signs. It was quite daunting, in a good way though.

So here we are again…living in yet another Canada under the leadership of the Conservative government. It’s a hard blow for students, immigrants, families, the working class and so many more. But it’s not so much for the corporations.



A sociology professor very recently said to my class of about 50 students that we are essentially feeding into several profit-driven corporations. What was she talking about? She was talking about the very institution we students hand over more than $20,000 to for an education degree: an educational institute that’s linked to some of the most powerful corporations in the world.

Saying no to war isn’t that easy. When you’ve got a pile of debt from your student loans, or you’re working a minimum wage job, or you havean unreliable health plan, it’s hard to refuse when military recruiters dangle a “solution” to your problems.

Let’s face it; higher education is expensive, making university campuses hot spots for military recruiters to enlist. Many Canadian universities are affiliated with the Canadian Forces, providing them with booths at career fairs and space to sprinkle their advertisements around campus.

While students were basking in the sun this past summer, federal Industry Minister Jim Prentice introduced Bill C-61, a copyright law that would have given students a tougher time researching for that 10-page essay.

The bill may have died on the table now that Parliament has dissolved and a federal election draws near. But don’t be fooled by its death. A copyright reform will most certainly be on the agenda of the new government, and if the Tories get re-elected, we may see the resurrection of a harsh, U.S. influenced copyright law.

If it were passed into law, the proposed bill would make, among other provisions, the downloading of music and the uploading of copy-protected