FILLER KIDS ON THE SIDE

tiple layers of clothing and installing industrial-grade door locks.

Next: sleep deprivation. Considered to be a cruel and inhumane form of torture when utilized in imprisonment tamps but a socially acceptable tactic for a baby to get pretty much nnything that s/he wants. So much for adequatc rest.

According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.). we arc supposed to be guaranteed a safe, nutritious and ample food supply. In our house, nutritious is subjective, safe is questionable (with four kids, God only knows who touched what) and ample? Ask any of the kids: there's never anything good to eat around hcrc.

l also used to take safe living conditions for granted: not that foreign leaders are drop-

SEXISTLIBERALGOVERNMENTCONTINUEDFROMPAGE 3 ing the economy by endorsing the new $6.00 per hour employment positions in the food service industry'? All of those single welfare morns can now go anJ get a great new job working at a fastfood restaurant for $960.00 per month less taxes (approximately $800.00 per month take homi:) it's not like she'll have to support her kids. because at that pay rnte lhcy'II suffer from malnutrition and m:gkct. nncl the stmc-oops, I me;111 government- will take them away From her iind raise them anyway. Anyone can! to argue thal the new $6.00 per hour deal doesn'L target women'? Are the majority of local fast-food restaurant workers not female? It's my impression that the majority of the young men are readily employed by local industry. ie: agriculture, construction etc., which makes them exen1pl from the six-bucksper-hour-rule

As of the 8th of November, the teachers in British Columbia began what they have dubbed 'Phase One· of their job action, only to be told the following day that the government has no intention of coming to the bargaining table under those condition Anybody want to hazard a guess that the Liberals are not going to treat the teachers with any more professional respect than the nurs• cs? Just to let you know w11gesare NOT the primary is. ue on the table; instead, the teachers are asking that the caps on class size REMAIN IN PLACE so they will nor be forced to compromise the quality of instruction. The Liberal government wants to put 35 to 40 kids in one classroom with one teacher and call th.it an education. The 01her big issue for them is the loss of funding for teacher's as istunls, which 1~ a major bone or contention should nne's child hnve a learning disnhility in a da~s of 40 kit.ls. ( For those neople 1\ ho have d1iltlrc11 in the r11blic etluca t1nn sysrem. is this what YOU want'!)

Arc you .iware 1hut 1heteacher•~ ln~t contract entailed ~age increases 10 the tune of 0-0-3'? Thill meWlh for two year!. ~lraighl llH.:ir rate of pay was SH!llC and their 'demands' for wages Ihis lime arc certainly not out of line for the professionals that they are. And just out of curiosity, what IS the ratio of men to women in this (again) femaledominated profession? ln the days preceding the announcement of government's intention to 'thaw' the 1uition rates in RC, u n:pon was publishetl stuting thal FOR THE rIRST TIMR female high-sdmol graduates will out-number the nwlcs by as much as 25% in the spring or 2002 and consequently they predicted that the number of undergraduate degrees gran1cd to women in 200-1will also exceed the number of degrees granted to their male counter-parts by 25% is it strictly coincidence that the proposed tuition incrcascs would happen at the same time thut post-second• ary institu1ions arc expecting a higher enrolment of women than men?

So, considering 1ha1UCFV is educating a large number of future elementary school teachers and nurses. how much of the student body is actually paying attention to these disputes'?Arc ·student teachers' going to getas involved with this issue as the ·student nurses' did in the health care strike in the spring? Arc these professional organizations not negotiating on behalf of the individuals they will represent in the neur future?

Shouldn't we, as students and the future of the c and other professions, become more involved in these political issues now'? If not, should we students expect that the general public wi II also raise their voices in support.of our battle over the impending tuition thaw?

So l ask you, what is the Liberal Government's itinerary'! Have they spccilic.,illy targeted women in a mbogynist stratagem? Is this hard-no~ed, political I11ant:uvcringon the part of the governmcn1jus1 bad P.R or .',hould we all be wury of the mn1ivatiu11sbchind the Liberal 's lesi-.-tha1H.lcn1ocrnticdcci sinns'?After ull, 1hey aren't going lo lake m,;iy our righ1 ll) vnte \\t:'rejust reminded 1haI we Jon't gct tu c\crcise 1hul right for another four years. In the interi111,shoukln't we be speaking out'!'/ -CASSANDRA· ping bombs on my house, but some days it sure looks like it! Negotiating the noor in a kid' bedroom could mean taking your life into your hands- especially after an all-youcan-bui ld-lego-f'est. l' m surprised that ICBC and the MVB haven't classified the transportation of minors as a high-risk activity. I don't care how old the kids are: the sound of a running engine is conducive to scrapping in the backseat. Our i.:ollective right to safe roadways is inversely proportionate to our right to procreate; never mind the driver's right to enjoy music at volumes less than ear bleeding to be audible

I really miss my right LO the bathroom. Since we've only gol the one, there's usually a line up for it. so to save on the number of disputes we've also cleverly installed a ticket dispenser in the hallway (much like the one outside of registration here at UCPY). I strongly recommend that should you stop by our house for coffee that you grab a number right away. Allernatively, we're thinning the hedges in the yard and my sons know which trees arc going We apparently have the right LO communicate our needs and have those needs met, but every parcnl knows that any conversation, be it in person or on the phone, is a rare privilege.

I'm either competing with cries of ''mom• mom-mom-mom-mom (stop me if you've heiird this)" or interrupted (when on the phone) from an exttmsion with "Uh, excuse me, but can you hang up? I have w use the phone."

How about the l'ight to the T.V. remote'! OOOPS, sorry, the right to the "Godstick'' was forfeited prior to that. but what about the right to watch a program that isn't animated or-GOD FORBID· based on some idiot who· dances around in a purple and green dinosaur costume?! I HAVE THE RTGHTTO LlVE WITHOUT BARNEY!!! And Tclerubbies and Pokcmon/Digimon and Power Puff Girls and Barbie and Nintendo the mounlains of laundry and dishes the mess noise chaos

But 1hcn I wouldn't huve the right to i;all myself a parent.