Is Gerard Kennedy worth $124,615.38 to Ryerson?
The Ontario Government’s list of public sector employees who earned more than $100,000 in 2008. MP Gerard Kennedy was an unlikely addition to Ryerson’s list of the highest rollers.
Nora Loreto
News Editor
Ontario’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure 2009 was released on March 31 and, despite its timing right before April Fools Day, many of the salaries listed were no laughing matter.
Among Ryerson’s top-paid administrators, faculty and staff was former Liberal leadership contender and current Member of Parliament for Parkdale - High Park Gerard Kennedy.
For 2008, Kennedy’s salary was $124,615.38, despite only working there for eight months. The original announcement of his appointment indicated that his term would be finished on September 4, 2008. By coincidence, this happened to be only days before the federal election was called.
Had Kennedy worked every weekday from January to September, with benefits, he would have made $738.04 dollars a day. That is just under $100 an hour.
“I was paid less than I have been for other work I’ve done, less than I make in government,” said Kennedy. He added that he did not negotiate his salary, that it was Ryerson’s offer he accepted.
While at Ryerson, Kennedy gave three guest lectures, worked with undergraduate and graduate students on a variety of projects and started to develop a centre for Canadian enterprise with other universities. He also represented Ryerson in a number of meetings and delivered remarks on behalf of Ryerson to several groups in Canada and in the Ukraine and Israel.
His contract was renewed in summer 2008, but contained a clause that said it would be terminated upon the commencement of a federal election. The election was called on September 7.
During that election, Kennedy unseated New Democratic incumbent Peggy Nash by just over 3,000 votes.
“My only regret is the sudden call of election,” he said. Despite the end of his contract, Kennedy said that he’s continued to work on finishing some projects through the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009.
Ken Jones, the Dean of the Faculty of Business was pleased with both Kennedy’s contributions to Ryerson and with the network of people he built around the Faculty. “He helped brand us in a new set of communities,” said Jones, adding that Kennedy’s left-of-centre approach to business provided a needed balance to the Faculty.
Jones said that Kennedy worked three to four days a week, met with students, provided counsel to Jones himself and made linkages across other faculties.
“His view is that entrepreneurship should be applied to government, not-for-profits, business and social organisations… from my point of view, that’s an important message,” said Jones.
When Tania Hassan, Vice-President of Student Rights for the Continuing Education Student Association of Ryerson (CESAR), was told about the salary, she was shocked.
“When President Sheldon Levy speaks about there not being enough money for infrastructure, but they can find the money to pay someone for eight months of work – that’s ridiculous,” she said.
Kennedy was the only Professor of Distinction on the list of salaries over $100,000.
When asked if he felt that his salary was too high, he asked, “Was there value received? The University said yes, there was” and added that he believed that his work led to tangible benefits for students and that Ryerson will see good things arise as a result of his work.
Jones was not part of the discussion of salary for Kennedy. He said that it was an institutional decision, rather than a decision of the Faculty of Business.
“Different people have different costs associated to them… If you want to get people who have a reputation, it has a cost. He had a market value and had other options,” said Jones.
In total, 548 faculty and staff at Ryerson made over $100,000 in 2008. President Sheldon Levy topped the list with a combined salary and benefits of $391,217.00. Right after him was Vice-President University Advancement, Adam Kahan who made $369,730.66.
There are 59 more people making over $100,000 than last year, up from 489.
“Why are students’ backs being broken to pay these high salaries?” asked Hassan, also a part-time student in the School of Social Work. “I’m working two jobs just to stay in school. It’s ridiculous… it’s ridiculous.
Students caught in the middle of conflict at CKLN 88.1 FM
After over a year of fighting over jurisdiction, students have been hired to take over time slots. Many of them know that there’s a conflict, but prefer to stay out of it
Ronak Ghorbani
Editorial Assistant
When Ashley Stanhope walked into CKLN’s office for the last time, she wasn’t expecting a confrontation with police.
After attempting to start her weekly one-hour show Wired for Sound, a woman barged into the studio, yelling erupted between other
volunteers, two people barricaded themselves in a room and police were brought in to break up the debacle.
“It seems bizarre when you think of it,” Stanhope said. “This would never happen at CHUM FM, it would never reach that point. It seems people are on this power trip when it comes to college radio.”
For nearly two years, CKLN has been embroiled in fierce internal fighting with two groups of people claiming power over the station.
While one side was fighting to keep CKLN to its social justice roots, another side was attempting to make the station more mainstream. Dozens of hosts were fired and shows were cancelled, resulting in new student shows filling the gaps.
CKLN was shut down in the last week of March.
After a unanimous vote at a Student Centre Board meeting, it was decided that the station remain closed until the divided CKLN sides meet and negotiate on how the station should be run. For two weeks re-runs were broadcasted. Currently, there is on-and-off dead air and sporadic broadcasts being played.
Stanhope, a second-year journalism student, got involved with CKLN in first semester this year to get broadcast experience. She loved recording bands and had arranged for George Stroumboulopoulos to appear on the show. For most of her time at CKLN, she was treated with respect and oblivious to the escalating conflict.
“I knew for a while there was bad politics going on but basically, we wanted to keep our noses clean. We didn’t want to get involved with it. We had an hour show (every) week. We didn’t ask questions,” said Stanhope referring to how she and co-host Barb Deck felt.
Many of the students the Ryerson Free Press spoke to consciously decided to stay out of the station’s politics.
Although 60 percent of CKLN’s budget comes from Ryerson student fees, there was minimum student programming representation until this year. Many of the students were happy for the opportunity to host a show and tried to keep their slates clean.
However, bringing students in wasn’t necessarily done to pump up student-made content.
Rob Heydari, a second-year Radio and Television Arts (RTA) student, has written extensively about the CKLN conflict for the Ryerson Free Press. After months of observation and speaking to various board members and ex-volunteers, he believes the newly recruited students are being used for political purposes.
“From my interview with Mike Phillips (the former station engineer) in August, he was quite clear that he was putting students on the air because that was the right thing to do,” Heydari said. “(But) you can’t ignore the political benefits that came from ejecting programmers with students. It’s not that it would give more power…you can only maintain control as long as you have the community behind you.”
Old programmers that were forcibly taken off the air have formed the group Take Back Our Radio. Actively resisting current CKLN management, the group hosted an independent broadcast on March 11 for International Women’s Day.
They believe they were taken off the air because of the politically progressive nature of their shows. Some of the cancelled programs include Anti-Psychiatry Radio, Honour the Earth, which focused on First Nations issues, and Radio Cliteracy, a feminist show.
Heydari believes students are being used to keep these old programmers out of CKLN.
“By replacing displaced programmers with students it’s very hard to argue against that. Who wants to be the person (that says) ‘no you shouldn’t have more students on the air?’” Heydari asked.
Chi-Lihn Dihn, a third-year RTA student, who hosted Anime Brigade, feels horrible at the thought of being recruited by CKLN for political purposes.
“Before, students never had the chance (to host shows) and now they do,” she said. “Who do you think they’ll back? The people who give them a chance - or people who want their shows back? The sad part is I understand both sides.”
Dihn views the situation as two sides trying to avenge personal vendettas while the students “feel like a cog in a machine to keep it afloat.”
Getting involved with CKLN meant Dihn could reach a broad audience and have student input on the airwaves. Up until she started the show five months ago, Dihn wasn’t even aware CKLN existed.
“You can’t get passed the fact it’s funded by student money, it’s in the middle of the university and no one’s heard of the station (within) the student body, and only this year student shows are popping up,” she said. “I feel really bittersweet. We got the chance and now we’re getting steamrolled for something we didn’t do, it’s not fair.”
One student that did get involved with the current CKLN board of directors is Alex Narvaez. His hip-hop oriented show Off Da Tracks, went-primetime on CKLN in August, 2008. Narvaez wanted more input on the station’s functions so he joined the board and recruited more student programmers.
“It was a great experience for students to get on actual FM frequency and experience broadcast from a professional atmosphere and setting,” he said. “It was nice to make that transition from a hobby like online radio and pushing it to making a passion and possibly a career…These last couple of weeks (CKLN) has been closed it’s basically de-motivated everybody from taking it to the next level…I also really think it sucks out of all the times for the station to close down it was when the students got involved.”
Although he does miss doing his show, Joe Yachimenic who co-hosted the Eyeopener show every Wednesday morning is glad some action is being done to resolve the CKLN issue.
“We decried the situation (on air). Said it was silly. It was foolish that a campus radio station would not serve the campus. Especially if students are paying for it to have a bunch of old guys going in there to run an independent radio station to provide content students never listen to. And (we) said so many times.”
The decision to close CKLN temporarily was triggered by several incidences where police were called to remove people from the station.
“Multiple people are claiming they should have access to the station and the Student Centre Board of Directors is put in an awkward situation,” said Toby Whitfield, Ryerson Students’ Union vice-president of finance and services. “This is the way that the student centre has chosen to deal with it - no one will have access.”
Ryerson president Sheldon Levy believes that, “Students are funding (CKLN) students should have a say in the product under which they’re funding. And they should take whatever actions they think to ensure they are satisfied with the radio station and where their money is going to.”
Currently, lawyers are attempting to mediate between the two rivaling CKLN boards.
“We’re trying to bring people together and have a discussion and solve it,” Whitfield said. “There’s a lot of people here and hopefully they have the best interest of CKLN and that’s the focus…People should be able to come together and have a civil discussion.”
But for Bhairavi Thanki, she doesn’t see this as plausible. The third-year journalism student spent her summer volunteering at the station and grew to see it as a second home. She also hosted the morning show Rude Awakenings on Thursdays.
“You’d think things would resolve itself and reach a mutual understanding and the new board and the old board would just work together but it’s such a utopian idea,” Thanki said.
“I think CKLN could’ve gone in a much better direction than now. I think that involving more students, we were finally getting more students actually listening to CKLN,” she said. “Now people only think about it as a negative space…Anytime I mention CKLN they say ‘oh my goodness look at the politics. I hate that now everyone thinks about it so negatively.”
Smeldon splits for tuition; students stunned over splits misunderstanding
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Students fighting for Ryerson’s administration to “Split Tuition Fees” were disappointed today over a misunderstanding at a party thrown by Smeldon Bevvy.
On March 30 in the lower HUB, Bevvy threw a party called “Splits for Lower Tuition.” Several hundred students attended from Ryerson’s Drop Fees coalition in hopes of hearing that Ryerson was finally going to agree to divide tuition fee payments into to parts to better reflect the distribution of OSAP.
Instead, students were floored by what the event actually was.
“I’ve never seen such an old guy do such great splits,” said Sandra Berhnard a third-year Occupational and Public Health student. “I mean, I knew Smeldon was young at heart, but I would have never guessed he was this flexible.”
Bevvy and a team of volunteers from Student Services had hoped that the party would attract enough students to break a Guinness world record: the highest number of splits performed in a university cafeteria at once. The record followed a recent attempt of Ryerson’s Student Services to provide the lowest amount of service to the highest number of students; they were defeated by administrators at the University of Toronto.
“After the loss to UofT, we knew we needed to find another record to win, one that they couldn’t match,” said Evelyn Same-Vaater, vice-provost for student engagement and retention.
“When we heard that the kids were all asking for more splits, we though, perfect! There’s no way UofT can do more splits than us in a university cafeteria. They don’t even have anything close to the size of our beloved HUB.”
If the record is broken, Ryerson will be awarded $50,000 from the International Federation of Ridiculous Records (IFRR).
“That money will go directly to lowering tuition for all students by $0.73,” said Same-Vaater from the floor in a perfect Chinese split.
The campaign to split tuition fee payments was started by Daisy Chewbecca after receiving over 1500 phone calls from an angry parent about Ryerson’s policy of making students pay tuition fees in a lump sum in September. She started crying at the site of senior administration doing the splits.
“As a former dancer, I was most angry that many of their back legs weren’t straight. As an activist, I was confused as to how Senior Administration could have gotten our campaign so wrong.”
Chewbecca said that despite this misunderstanding, they will continue to fight to split fees, under the banner: “Split our Fees not your legs.”
Bruce La Fond and Dr. Henry Chrispymountain, present on behalf of the IFRR said they needed to send photos of the event to the international referee before they could declare Ryerosn’s attempt at the record a success.
“They’re actually competing with a March Break event that occurred recently at McMaster University. The cafeteria there was filled with young gymnasts doing great splits. The average age here, though, makes this event special. It must be closer to 52, where they were all between 9 and 14 years old,” said La Fond.
Chrispymountain added that Ryerson’s intention to donate the money back to students was especially heart-warming. “Bevvy is a regular Mother Theresa, you know.”
Ryerson’s Security Services was on hand for any emergency situations that could have occurred during the event. They only first aid administered was from a member of the senior administration to revive a Ryerson First Responder who went into a forward split and then proceeded to faint.
In absence of knowing whether or not the day was a success, Bevvy gave credit to himself for bringing school spirit to Ryerson.
“Since the dark ages of Rye High, few events have managed to put us on the map like this one,” he said. “I really hope we win the record because I sacrificed my favourite pair of Henry Rosen pants for this. Henry gave these to me himself. He said, ‘Smeldon, these are very nice pants. Don’t even think about doing the splits in them.’ I unfortunately got too excited to change, and indeed, I ripped the crotch. Please don’t report on this cause Henry’s going to be pissed,” he said.
The university refused to comment on whether or not they will go ahead an split tuition fees for fall 2009.
Exams moved from convention centre to SkyDome
What many of them have not yet heard is that Ryerson has again changed the location for final exams.
“Due to the pressures on our budgets and our sadistic love of watching students suffer, Ryerson’s Senior Administration has decided to move all exams out of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and over to the Skydome,” said a press release sent from the Director of the Provost’s office.
Ryerson moved exams to the MTCC two years ago to ensure that massive tiered lecture halls would continue to dot Ryerson’s campus, rather than build class rooms that are conducive to exam writing.
“I’m pretty pumped for exams this year,” said Joshi Rana, a second-year aerospace engineering student. “Like, I mean, if I stay long enough, I’ll probably be allowed to watch the Jays play, right?” Beside Rana was Chris Bonik-James who shared Rana’s optimism: “Will there be concessions salesmen? Can I buy beer throughout my exam?”
Moving exams to the SkyDome does have some downsides. Maiya Chu said that she was afraid that writing an exam in such an intimidating atmosphere would be difficult: “There’s something about writing an exam in a room with 6500 other students that’s overwhelming. I mean, if we need to go to the bathroom, we’ll lose like 25 minutes of exam writing time.”
There’s also the issue of cost. Right now, Ryerson pays the MTCC $18,000 a day to host exams there. To rent the SkyDome for two weeks is going to cost Ryerson $1.2 million dollars.
“We got a deal, actually,” said Dionne School-Man, director of the Provost’s office. “We were thrilled to see that in Ted Rogers’ will, he granted us a 15 percent reduction in rent should we want to use the SkyDome for such purposes. How can you say no to that?”
The plan is to fit 6500 students in hundreds of rows to write as many exams as possible. In some cases, students will be handed two separate exams and asked to write them both in five hours.
Ryerson also plans to hire 120 students to guide other students towards the SkyDome so as to avoid confusion on the morning of their exams. Students will be equipped with orange vests and paid in Tim Horton’s dollars for their services, redeemable at only on-campus Tim Hortonses. They will also be instructed to point toward the CN Tower if anyone gets lost on their way south.
Each student hired will be given an extra-large bright orange t-shirt.
“We will ensure that this transition will be smooth,” said School-Man. “No student will get lost trying to navigate our new space. Unless, of course, they find themselves at the 500s level. Then we can’t help them.”
Students are being advised to plan to be an hour early to ensure enough time to go through security, purchase the necessary nachos and hot dogs and find their assigned desk. Students should not bring bags, coats, pencil cases, sweaters, bottles of water that are not Dasani or backpacks.
Late students will be asked to wait for the first inning to finish before they find their seats.
Ryerson students asked to vote to increase funds to fledgling library; remove poor students from programme
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
At the last meeting of the Ryerson Board of Governors, a motion was served by Sir Henry Applebaum IV and seconded by an unidentified Ryerson Commerce Society member to increase tuition fees to improve Ryerson’s library.
The referendum question will ask students to pay an additional $5366.32 in tuition fees. The money will go to paying for a state-of-the-art library, where books will be entirely replaced by computers, and robots will be built to serve the wealthiest students.
The referendum asks for students to agree to house the poorest students in the basement of Kerr Hall North. These students will be removed from their programmes and placed in special classes to teach them the value of hard work and etiquette.
“We’re pretty happy with this motion,” said Rick Von Slobar, a fourth-year business management student and former representative of the RCS. “We’ve been trying to rid our programme for years of riff-raff. How can we be taken seriously by high society when we have a Ryerson degree these days? It’s impossible. This motion is exactly what is needed to bolster the reputation of our school.”
Smeldon Levy, president of Ryerson, was vague but witty in his interview about this increase. “We weren’t completely sure that students would be in favour of such a fee increase. When Sir Applebaum brought it forward to our board, I thought ‘oh god, those Drop Fees people are going get to our student representatives and cause a stir.’ Thankfully that didn’t happen, and our hopes and dreams of a new mega-super library are coming to fruition.”
He added that the less favourable option, grabbing students by the ankles and shaking them upside-down, was amended to instead be an actual vote.
The upcoming referendum is posing some ethical issues for some students. Sara Thompson, a first-year sociology student was surprised and confused when asked. “They’re going to do what? I don’t understand. Don’t we pay too much already? I’m kind of poor, am I going to be taken out of my class?” she asked. There was no answers available to any of her questions.
While referendum on increasing fees, if passed, will undoubtedly force some students who cannot afford school to drop out, Levy is not worried about enrolment for the new programme in Kerr Hall North.
“Enrolment is booming in the Greater Toronto Area,” he said. “There isn’t a doubt in my mind that less-well-off students will enrol to learn valuable life skills.”
Sounds of champagne being uncorked, high fives and blissful screams were heard coming from the second floor desk of the library just after the referendum was announced on Infoline. “We can finally hire robots!” was shouted from the back of the book drop-off area.
Any student who wishes to lead a YES committee should contact the CRO. Students interested in the NO committee will be given the run-around and tried under Ryerson’s Non Academic Code of Conduct.
The vote will take place on April 7 from 12:00 am to 2:00 pm on the third floor of the library. The CRO explained that this is to allow for those students who use the library most to be able to access the vote.
Q&A with The Other Guy: Ryerson’s Provost
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Ryerson’s senior administration is normally overshadowed by Smeldon Bevvy, the gregarious advocate for all-things student. His outgoing nature, his motorcycle and his dry wit makes most journalists’ knees melt.
Bevvy takes the lime light most of the time, and his love affair with the Eyeopener leaves little space in the Ryerson media for the Provost, Pallin Efford. But we at the Devryersonian believe that Efford deserves his 15 minutes of fame and sat down with the man to discuss life, Ryerson, his rilvary with Bevvy and his dreams.
DeVryersonian: What exactly does the Provost do?
Pallin Efford: As the Provost, I consider that question on a daily basis.
D: You’ve been at Ryerson for almost two years now. Have you arrived at an answer yet?
PE: Almost. I do know that I get told what to do by the Senate, sometimes. And I’m the head of the university when it comes to academics.
D: But Smeldon is the real head, right?
PE: Well, yeah. He’s the president.
D: As an academic, you must have loved teaching at some point. Do you ever miss it?
PE: I do, often, but then am snapped out of the serenity of reminiscence when some kid from RSU barges in my office and demands that I split tuition fees.
D: They do have a point, though, you probably should split tuition fee payments.
PE: So much for unbiased media. What paper are you from again? I don’t believe that I should do anything.
D: You used to be at the University of Guelph. That means that you’re either an aggie (someone who studies agriculture) or a hippie (everyone else). Which one is it?
PE: I’m a moderate, so I’m probably an haggie. Or an agppie.
D: How does being an agppie help you in your work at Ryerson.
PE: I don’t understand the question
D: Me neither. I think we’re a bit off track. That brings me to your relationship with Smeldon. Do you wish you had his job?
PE: No
D: Are you jealous of his sweet ride [his motorcycle]
PE: No
D: Do you think his skillz are better than your skillz?
PE: No. Please stop asking me about my rivalry with Smeldon.
D: Oh, so you admit that there exists a rivalry.
PE: Sure. I have a rivalry with Smeldon. I have a rivalry with everyone.
D: Including me?
PE: I don’t really know you so….yes.
D: Interesting. In other interviews with the campus press Smeldon takes ownership of loving the students. This means that all left for you to love is the faculty, the staff and the buildings. Is it fair to say that out of these, you love the buildings the most?
PE: I don’t think that it is fair to say that at all. I love a lot of things about the buildings, but I think it’s the faculty that I love the most. Ryerson’s faculty are, by far, the most creative men and women I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.
D: Wow, you’re really laying it on thick. Is it time to bargain a new contract with the faculty or something?
PE: No, I’m just trying to match Smeldon’s enthusiasm for students with my enthusiasm for faculty.
D: It doesn’t sound genuine
PE: Well I haven’t had my morning shot of scotch.
D: It’s 3:00 pm.
PE: I was joking.
D: Smeldon can get away easier with a joke than you can. Does this make you jealous?
PE: No.
D: He once held a Ryerson-wide event at 4:20. Have you ever done anything as ballsy as that?
PE: What’s 4:20?
D: Ok, ok. Tell me a bit about the new academic plan?
PE: Well, we want to take the traditional mandate of Ryerson University and make our hands-on applied classes as world-famous as can be. For example, we’re thinking of amalgamating the faculties of–
D: Do you think I can go and meet Smeldon? Is he in his office much? I hear he works twenty hours a day.
PE: You cut me off, you punk. Let me finish my beloved speech about the Academic–
D: Do you think I can get a picture of him for my desk at the Devryersonian?
PE: silence
D: Do you?
PE: Get the hell out of my office.
D: I bet Smeldon never says hell. I bet he doesn’t even swear at all.
PE: Get out or I’m calling security.
RSU to offer payday loans
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
[author AWOL]
Special to the DeVryersonian
Ryerson students will soon be able to access more money, thanks to the business caucus of the Ryerson Students’ Union.
The caucus, comprised of business students who sit on the RSU board of directors, formed after frustrations over what it referred to a “Socialist Finance Committee that is borderline communist.”
The new service will allow for students to access emergency payday loans to help make ends meet.
“I saw all these payday loans around Toronto and thought that maybe RSU could provide them to Ryerson students. It seemed to be a silver bullet: students get cash faster and RSU makes enough money to pull itself out of the current deficit,” said Shandan Charma, business director for the RSU.
Under the new scheme, students would be able to access payday loans at the Member Services Office. Loan limits would be as high as $20,000, depending on the credit rating of the student. Then, the student would have two weeks until they had to pay the loan back, normally with money that they were expecting through a paycheque or a relative’s death.
Payday loans have been called unethical by many people who oppose the high level of interest that is usually charged as a result of the loans. The proposal sets the interest rates at 75 percent of the loan principle.
“I think that this is completely unethical,” said current RSU vice-president finance and services Thomas Blacroad. “I mean, RSU as a loan shark? I don’t know any loan sharks, let alone men who break legs for money.”
He added that the board has forced him to develop a request for proposals to hire a collections agency to follow-up on outstanding loans. “I hope to find a group with business practices that are somewhat above board, but Charma’s motion specifically prohibits me from using the words ‘ethical’ and ‘non-violent.’”
While no members of the board were able to guarantee an outside consultant to help develop the new service, some members who have ties to the Canadian Armed Forces said they knew some people.
“Ya, I know a guy,” said Ab-Shmuel Rainpub. He didn’t elaborate.
When asked about the ethical implications of RSU starting such a service, Charma said that there shouldn’t be any concerns.
“In our society, it’s a battle for survival among the strong. Those who are weak, or those who agree to take on a payday loan at 75 percent interest, deserve to have their money removed from them. And besides, the new money will allow for us to offer more bursaries for students who really need money.”
Blacroad argued that instead, the RSU should occupy the office of president Smeldon Levy and make long distance calls on his phone until he agrees to reduce students’ costs.
“There’s a win-win situation. We can offer free long-distance calling for students with families abroad, occupy the president’s office, and engage students as they come in and out of the thirteenth floor of Jorgenson.”
Charma disagreed. “Blacroad is just a communist. A crazy, Stalin-loving, Bolshevik Revolution-admiring, freedom-hating, Marx-fantasizing paxist hippie who has no idea what the hell he’s saying 99 percent of time.”
“Hippies have no style. I used to work for Moore’s,” was Blacroad’s response.
Spenny says go go go; Cohen says no no no
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Special to the DeVryersonian
Jason Spenney, Minister for Citizenship and Immigration has come under fire from civil liberties organisations for the recent deportation order of Sara Jane Cohen.
Cohen is a former student at the University of Toronto and was deported because she is ‘outrageously anti-Semitic,’ according to Spenney.
Cohen is an activist with the group Against Our Intentions (AOI), an advocacy organisation that works to bring attention to human rights abuses in the Palestinian Authority by agents of the Israeli state.
Spenney told journalists at a press conference held at a dude ranch on March 31 that Cohen’s links to Hamas and support of terrorists is what did her in.
“Canada does not harbour terrorists or terror supporters. People in support of Hamas and Hezbollah and who are anti-Semitic have no right to live in Canada.” He added that with the United States being taken over by an administration that supports terrorism, Canada now has more responsibility to ensure that terrorists are found and deported.
Cohen is of mixed ancestry, which made the deportation order a bureaucratic nightmare for the Ministry. Her mother is Jewish, from Winnipeg, but has family roots in territories that no longer exist in western Russia. Her father is Israeli. Cohen lived in Israel until she was seven.
As such, she will be deported to Israel.
“I’m outraged that my government would deport me on the grounds that I’m anti-Semitic,” said Cohen. “I have always stood up against oppression and state-perpetuated abuses committed against the Palestinians but I am in no way anti-Semitic or a terrorism supporter. For example, much of my family and friends are Jewish. Oh, and so am I.”
Spenney doesn’t believe that being Jewish is a defence for being anti-Semitic. “Cohen supports Hamas. She hates freedom,” he said.
When asked if she supported Hamas, her answer was simple: “My husband is named Hammas Juurrgen. It’s Finnish for tooth. He was born with a tooth in his mouth. I support him because he was laid off from Chrysler.”
Cohen said that she’s explained this misunderstanding to Spenney’s office before but was called a terrorist.
The National Association for People’s Individual Rights issued a statement calling on the Liberals to end the Conservatives’ “Reign of Terror” and call and election. “Deporting Jews to Israel for being anti-Semitic is a new low, even for the current government,” said their national director, David Greenan.
Cohen’s mother was sad about the news, but was optimistic about her swift return: “She’ll be at the first sader for Passover this year, you can bet Spenney’s political career on that. We’re a resilient people.”
The National Congress Against Anti-Semitism said that they were in full support of the deportation. “We finally have a government with enough strength to have zero tolerance for hate in Canada,” said their national vice-president James Stevens. “The faster we can remove anti-Semites from Canada, the safer our country will be.
Cohen is set to be deported on May 1.
How can you read your prescription if you don’t speak English?
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Ryerson Nursing students embark on a campaign for health literacy among Canadians for who’s first language is not English
Alyssa Friesen
When you receive a prescription drug, one of the first things you may do is read the information and dosage instructions.
As a literate person who can understand English, the fact that the label is typed in English is probably not a concern to you. But what if you, like thousands of Torontonians, couldn’t understand English?
A group of third-year nursing students at Ryerson are raising public awareness about health literacy.
For a class project Marie Riddell, Alana Black, Stacy Vuu-Chau, Arnel Tirona and Sarah Chung are advocating that the Ontario Ministry of Heath should make pamphlets for prescription drugs available in different languages.
The students say health literacy could be improved if patients had access to pamphlets printed in their first language, and as a result patient medication errors would decrease.
“We would like to make the public aware of the high incidence of medication errors due to patients not understanding their medical regimen, which can directly jeopardize their health,” said Marie Riddell.
Riddell explains that when a patient is diagnosed and prescribed a medication by the Canadian healthcare system, the pharmacy prints the instructions to the drug in English. This is a concern to her because such a large percentage of Canadians are unable to speak, read or comprehend English.
In Toronto alone, there are approximately 150 different languages spoken on a daily basis, and according to a 2008 report by Statistics Canada more than 70 percent of immigrants have a first language other than English.
The students discovered that people with low English literacy levels are more likely to have higher rates of hospital admissions and use emergency service. Medication errors, such as the wrong dosage at the wrong time, that result from miscommunication, have led to unnecessary extra costs for the healthcare system.
“Currently, there is nothing being done about this issue. As citizens, we have the right to speak up for what should be done,” said Riddell.
The issue came to the attention of the students over their past year of studies, as they focused on learning and working in community health nursing. They noticed that there were certain needs of the community that were not being met.
“We have conducted research on this matter and have come to realize the extent that language barriers can have on an individual’s health,” said Alana Black. “We first would like to have this matter heard by the public and ideally have the Ontario Ministry of Health address this issue.”
The students believe health literacy could be improved by allocating funding towards translators who could convert the drug information from English into different languages. Pamphlets would be in circulation at large pharmacies such as Rexall, Shoppers Drug Mart and PharmaPlus. Through writing letters to the Ontario Ministry of Health and to editorial sections of Toronto newspapers, the students hope to make light on their idea and get the citizens and health professionals of Toronto discussing it.
“If the public and health professionals know this technology exists, then what would stop the government from furthering this project?” asked Black. “Ontario could be saving lives by avoiding potential harm to its citizens.
“The crisis in Darfur has gotten even worse”
April 13, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Students plan rally on April 12 in support of humanitarian aid to the Sudanese region
Maiya Keidan
On Sunday April 12 at 7:00pm, students hope to make the government take notice when they take a stand at Queen’s Park.
In years past, the protest has had as few people as 800 and as many as 2,000.
Elham Bidgoli, campus director for Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND), is one of the event’s planners. Bidgoli manages all STAND chapters across Canadian universities. “The crisis in Darfur has gotten even worse,” she said.
It’s the sixth anniversary of the situation and Canada needs to step up its commitment, argued Bidgoli: 300,000 people have already been killed.
The International Criminal Court recently issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Although Bidgoli believes this action was a positive step forward, it has come at the expense of humanitarian aid.
American President Barack Obama is calling for a re-introduction of aid agencies that have lately been expelled from the region, leaving 4.7 million people dependent on outside aid, at risk. In addition to food and water, these organizations provided the majority of medical treatment. Without them, an alarming 650,000 people are suffering without full healthcare access.
“Unless the international community responds, these people will die,” said Bidgoli.
STAND succeeds in providing people with the tools to advocate for the victims of Darfur. At the campus level, there are STAND events in which students are welcome to participate. They might even consider joining the student group, always open to new members.
If students cannot to get involved on campus but do want to increase their awareness, they can call 1-800-GENOCIDE. The line officially launched in the middle of October last year.
Caroline Cormier is the national programmes director for SHOUT, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about genocide. The group was formed from student participants in the March of Remembrance and Hope and the March of the Living. Both trips take students on a journey of Holocaust atrocities in Poland.
Cormier is also planning the Darfur candlelight vigil and rally.
The event has taken about a month-and-a-half of organization. “Recently, it’s taken up all my life,” said Cormier. Cormier and Bidgoli have been in touch with many organizations, such as the Red Cross, Save Darfur Canada, and the Darfur Association of Canada.
Although they’ve tried to attract both the students and non-students to the rally, Cormier admitted that it’s hard to know how to know how to tackle people outside the school system. High school and university students are the best chance for the vigil.
Not only will it include a moment of silence for attendees but students can also expect a number of speakers, and musical performers. Students should expect to leave inspired, perhaps having discovered a way they can make a difference. The organizers will also have education and volunteer tables on hand.
For Cormier, the bottom line is, “We want to let the government know that a large amount of people care about this issue.”
