Full speed ahead
Penetrating taboos
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the newspaper
University of toronto’s Independent Weekly
February 11, 2010
Vol. XXXII N0. 20
Parliament is in session Angela Davis American radical comes to U of T
Inaugural session of U of T Model Parliament comes at opportune time
TEJAS PARASHER
While Canada’s own parliament remains suspended, student delegates from high schools and universities across the country have convened in the Ontario Legislative Assembly at Queen’s Park for the inaugural session of U of T’s Model Parliament (UTMP). The delegates will simulate parliamentary proceedings from Feb. 10-12, debating three case studies: education, the environment, and First Nations Healthcare Reform. Delegates met at Trinity College to elect party leaders during a plenary session on Feb. 6. Liberals came out on top and formed the government with a small majority, followed by a Conservative opposition, and NDP third party. On Wednesday, the Honourable Bill Graham, former U of
aLEX NUrSaLL
HELENE GODERIS
Mock speaker Harlan tuffer struts his stuff in front of U of t model parliament. T International Law Professor and Liberal MP, welcomed delegates to the legislature with a keynote address. Graham spoke
about parliamentary democracy, the importance of develop-
It would have been difficult to ignore the posters plastered around campus in January: a woman with a 70s afro, caught in a passionate lunge against a striking red backdrop, the words Xpression Against Oppression scrawled along the bottom. It was rebellious, so passionate. It made you want to jolt yourself out of your apathy and actually do something. The posters were advertising the keynote event of UTSU’s “Xpression Against Oppression” week. On February 4, the student union invited academic and activist Angela Davis to speak at Bloor Cinema. Davis is easily one of America’s most controversial public figures. Currently a professor at UC Santa Cruz, she has been everything from an inspiration for John Lennon to a Vice Presidential candidate to the third woman ever on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. In the 60s and 70s, Davis was at the
forefront of many left-wing movements sweeping the US. She was known for her staunch Marxism as well as her commitment to radical groups like the Black Panthers. In 1969, Davis was fired from UCLA for her membership in the American Communist Party. This led to an international uproar over the state of academic freedom under the Nixon administration. Davis was also embroiled in one of the landmark cases of modern legal history. In 1972, California judge Harold Haley was killed before he could sentence to death three black men arrested for attacking a white police officer. The shotgun used in the murder was allegedly registered in Davis’s name. Arrested on counts of kidnapping, conspiracy, and homicide, she was sentenced to be executed. Many saw this as typical of the racism embedded in the American leContinued on page 3
Continued on page 3
Let the games not begin Activists fail to see shine in Olympic gold TEJAS PARASHER Not all British Columbians share Premier Gordon Campbell’s belief that the 2010 Vancouver Olympics will be “an incredible economic stimulant.” Concerns have been raised repeatedly about the real import of the games, and about the way in which the provincial government has gone about staging
them. After Vancouver won its hosting bid in 2006, residents of Eagleridge Bluffs in North Vancouver set up a road blockade to oppose the expansion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler. The unveiling of the Olympic Countdown Clock in February 2007 was disrupted by protestors. In May 2008, activists trashed the offices of
Deputy Minister Ken Dobell, who had been a key lobbyist for the games. Later that year, First Nations leaders led hundreds in an anti-Olympic march through the Downtown Eastside, infamous as one of the poorest postal codes in North America. In the final lead-up to the games, such protests are becoming regular fixtures in Vancouver. On February 15, the Anti-Poverty
angela Davis speaking at a rally back in the days.