Joke issue disrespectful, sexist
It was with great disappointment and sadness that I read your Varsity edition last week. After the extensive efforts made by and on behalf of women to change attitudes of sexism, ignorance and misogyny, it is clear that that the message is still not being heard in some quarters. Groups across campus had widely publicized memorial events being held to remember the Montreal Massacre at Ecole Polytechnique, and still the Varsity newspaper could not see fit to show even a modicum of respect for the lives lost on that terrible day.
Instead, women are greeted with the editorial equivalent of a slap in the face (or a pinch on the ass, so to speak) and a defilement of the memory of that day. The field of Engineering has come a long way to open its doors to women, yet all of those efforts are in vain if our own student newspaper cannot close its own doors on such offensive and sexist ideas.
Laurelle LeVert
Mineral Engineering
Idle cops riding cyclists
As I was riding my bike on my usual route to the physics building, two young undercover cops nailed me for failing to do a complete stop at the corner of Huron and Willcocks.
Besides getting a ridiculously steep $110 fine, the cops told me that my driver’s license would be suspended until the fine is paid. I’ve been watching that corner from my office window since then and seen cyclist after cyclist get stopped, some of them clearly distraught students who I’m guessing can not all readily swallow a $110 fine.
The irony is that these cops were sitting in an idling car (an infraction!), punishing people who chose an environmentally responsible mode of transportation. There must be more socially useful ways for these cops to be spending their time than by punishing cyclists who, compared to motorists, pose at most a minor risk to others if they do not ride carefully.
Denis Dufour, PhD student
McLennan Physical Laboratories
