On March 21 and 22, graduate students at Carleton University overwhelmingly voiced their support for the Palestinian people, by voting for the university's pension fund to divest from four companies that are complicit in the occupation of Palestine. With the vote taking place through a referendum question, all graduate students had the power to make their voices heard, and in the end, over 72 per cent took a principled stance, by voting for Carleton to stand on the side of justice, equality and accountability.

If the real rulers of Greece -- who would be German bankers, I guess -- need advice on how to put the democratic genie back in the Greek bottle, they need look no further than the Canadian province of Alberta to see how to properly manage a potentially restive population.

They've had a bad scare these past couple of days, those Europeans, what with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou coming up with the nutty idea of actually giving the citizens of a his country a vote on things that affect their lives and livelihoods, and those of their children.

During my last days in Cancun, I attended a roundtable discussion called the Global Referendum/ Referendum for Climate Justice: The Next Steps. The discussion was co-sponsored by the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers, Hemispheric Social Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Jubilee South Americas, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives and Red Mexicana de Accion frente al Libre Commerico. The roundtable was held in one of two gymnasiums at the Foro International de la Justicia Climatico de los Pueblos (the International Forum of Climate Justice - Dialogue of the Communities). Thirty people from Colombia, Spain, the US, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Canada participated, sharing experiences and perspectives.

For the last few weeks in October, Ryerson University campus in Toronto was littered with two competing signs: one, black and white, telling students to vote against a tuition increase, and the other, bright yellow, telling students to vote for bringing refugee students to campus for a better life. Like so many campus posters, they were largely ignored, but now that the results are out, the Ryerson community is fired up on both campaigns.

From Nov. 1 to 4, a referendum was held on the campus to determine whether students would approve of a $4 increase to tuition, starting in September 2011.