Nepean student charged after hazing incident
OTTAWA—A NEPEAN HIGH-school student has been charged under the Highway Traffic Act for failing to report a collision after he drove into the back of a fellow student’s bicycle.
The accused, along with two other students, was participating in hazing events by throwing eggs from his car at other students. His car struck the Grade 9 student walking his bike. The driver was subsequently suspended from classes and is now pending a transfer to a different school. The two other students who were in the car at the time of the incident were also suspended but are not facing charges.
Approximately 40 students protested the punishments last week, asking the accused be reinstated at his original school immediately. According to the striking students, hazing often happens without consequences.
—Andrew Ikeman
Students fear consequences of staff strike
ONTARIO—WITH THE ONTARIO Community College support staff on strike, students are fighting to have their say. The Ontario College Student Alliance is pushing for a settlement, concerned with the impacts of the strike.
The workers currently on strike represent about 8,000 staff members in charge of positions like food services and registration offices among Ontario’s 24 colleges.
After rejecting an offer of an increase in average salary to more than $59,000 a year, the chairman of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union bargaining committee stated that the support staff union’s demands simply are not reasonable given the present economic environment.
Already feeling the strike’s impact, the student advocacy group said that numerous students from Ontario colleges are experiencing difficulties attaining administrative and educational services. The colleges will remain open while the bargaining committee tries to come to an agreement.
—Brianna Campigotto
Student convicted of manslaughter returns to UBC
VANCOUVER (CUP)—UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH Columbia (UBC) student Sasan Ansari was convicted of stabbing his friend, Josh Goos, 33 times in a parking lot outside of a West Vancouver country club after a monetary dispute in 2006. He was charged in 2008, completed his sentence last year, and has returned to UBC to finish his degree this year.
Ansari was admitted to the school’s law program and attended UBC before being convicted. He even won a $1,000 scholarship during that time. UBC does not deny admission to or expel any student for committing a criminal act off campus.
“Sanctions for criminal offences are established by our judicial system and it would not be appropriate for UBC to act on its own in adding an additional sanction—denial of access to education—to those already imposed by the courts,” wrote James Ridge, associate vice-president and registrar, in a statement about the student’s return to the university.
Bijan Ahmadian, a business and law student who takes classes with Ansari, argued that he should be allowed to attend UBC.
“I had a chat with him and had I not known from the news, I wouldn’t have guessed,” said Ahmadian.
—Arshy Mann, CUP Western Bureau Chief
RIM stock continues to topple
WATERLOO, Ont.—RESEARCH IN MOTION Ltd. (RIM), a Waterloo-based company known as the developer of BlackBerry phones, announced disappointing revenue results for the second fiscal quarter, continuing a downward trend for the technology giant.
Despite analyst predictions of $4.5 billion revenue in the second quarter, RIM managed to bring in only $4.2 billion. A drastic drop in share prices by 16 per cent followed.
RIM’s stock has lost almost half its value since January, and Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu said that if the trend continues, he expects investors “to lose all confidence in RIM’s earning power.”
RIM is scrambling to reverse the trend. This summer, the company revealed plans to lay off some 2,000 workers, and a “cost-optimization program” cost RIM $118 million in the second quarter. The future looks brighter for the company as RIM’s newest line of smart phones, including the latest version of the BlackBerry Bold, have been selling well and some analysts, including Ferragu, think the stock will pick up soon.
—Joseph Boer
