St. George snarl
Re: Construction chaos,
Sept. 11

Thanks to The Varsity for actually following up on the status of the St. George construction. Apart from some memos sent out to officials there is no word on it at all! Most people who work on campus just stare at the project in disbelief-how could anyone sit around all summer and then start construction the day thousands of people come back to campus? Can anyone be that stupid? I guess they can, and we’ll suffer until November because of it.

Paul Nazareth

Pro-life kafuffle

Re: Radical group source of SAC pro-life tracts, Sept. 11

Thank you very much for the article detailing the mix-up between SAC and the U of T Students for Life this past Frosh. It did an excellent job of showing just how confusing the situation was. Despite the article’s accuracy, however, it fails to follow through on the more ambitious suggestion of its title. Whether an argument can or cannot be made for Alliance for Life Ontario’s “radical” nature as described by the title, it does not appear in the article. In fact, the most accusatory label one can find is that the source of the literature is an “advocacy organization.” If such a commonplace definition and description is deserving of the banner “radical,” we have an issue with our journalistic standards.

David Tingle

• I wish to express my disappointment with Jen Hassum and SAC for its blatant discrimination against U of T Students for Life, a campus-based pro-life group, by not allowing information about the club and abortion into first-year student frosh kits. This misuse of power is a prime example of why abortion of the innocent exists in the first place.

Paul Kokoski

• It is disturbing that SAC has not done its part to support the free exchange of ideas on campus. If SAC claims to represent all students, they must help all student groups get their message out equally and not pick and choose based on their own personal beliefs. The un-elected Rick Telfer’s statement that this was a “management decision” sounds suspiciously authoritarian and is most definitely contrary to what a student union should be about.

Sam Rahimi
Whoah, CUPE!
Re: Bid to boycott Israel gathering pace?, Sept. 11

I think some people need to take a deep breath and think about some facts regarding the so-called “movement” to boycott the Jewish state. Firstly, CUPE members are by no means “unanimous” in their short-sighted and ultimately impotent resolution condemning Israel. Many Jewish members of CUPE were angered by the resolution and went so far as to picket their own union this summer. (Why is a union that is elected to serve Canadian workers wasting their time taking positions on Middle East issues, anyway?)

Secondly, the organizers of this bid would impress a lot more people if they could sign up somebody other than the usual gang of permanently aggrieved trade unions and a marginal American political party. The average citizen does not support divestment, and most likely couldn’t care less. By the way, I notice that neither of the two organizations on campus that speak for Israel (Betar and Hillel) was approached for a quote. What the hell, Varsity?

Josh Lieblein

Global Day for Darfur

Since 2003, the genocide in Darfur has killed over 400,000 innocent men, women, and children. More than two million citizens have been forced to leave their homes and more than three million now rely on humanitarian aid to stay alive. Women and girls are subject to systematic rape and even refugee camps in neighbouring countries are not safe from militia attacks.
On August 31 the U.N. Security Council authorized a peacekeeping force in Darfur, but only if it is permitted by the Sudanese government-a government that has repeatedly said it would not consent to such a force. We must pressure our representatives to get that consent or else to proceed without it. On September 17, citizens worldwide will rally to tell politicians that we demand better.

The Toronto rally will take place at Ramsden Park (Yonge and Roxborough, across from Rosedale subway station) from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 pm. The keynote speaker will be Senator and retired Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, the ex-commander of peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide who now sits on the U.N. Genocide Prevention Advisory Committee. Please join us on Sunday, September 17 to show your support for Darfur.

Tony Balkissoon