Reading Time: 2 minutesThere are nine referendum questions on the 2023 UOSU by-election ballot; one is asking if the OPIRG Levy should be stopped.
OPIRG
Reading Time: 3 minutes“if OPIRG does all this amazing work and has been around for so long, why are we receiving a defunding referendum question? The University of Ottawa Student Union [UOSU] may have some answers for that, but we’ll save you the trip.”
Reading Time: 3 minutesColorinpractice founder Jamal Boyce speaks to the Fulcrum about the grassroots non-profit for Black and racialized nature lovers.
Reading Time: 4 minutesThe UOSU, BSLA, OPIRG, CUPE 2626, WISE and 16 student governments say the U of O ‘fails to address systemic racism in a meaningful way’ and calls on U of O president Jacques Frémont to implement eight demands for action.
Reading Time: 4 minutesAn average of around one-quarter of students at the U of O opted out of campus services deemed ‘non-essential’ under the Student Choice Initiative, a policy introduced by the provincial government this semester. Services impacted include the Office of the Ombudsperson, financial aid, clubs, student governments and campus media.
Reading Time: 3 minutesStudent organizations on campus are already feeling the pressures of the Student Choice Initiative as the opt in deadline of Sept. 27 approaches, leading groups to develop tighter budgets and cut staff.
Reading Time: 3 minutes“(These changes are) not benefitting anyone except Ford and his cronies … we’re going to have to fight back.” — Susan Spronk, president of the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa.
Reading Time: 10 minutes“They’re putting a Band-Aid on a (major problem) and it’s not the right type of Band-Aid, it’s going to fall off after your first shower,” said Brittany Wilson, who uses OSAP’s soon to be scrapped free tuition grant.
Reading Time: 2 minutesObviously, students’ money shouldn’t be going towards something that they don’t support, but defunding OPIRG entirely isn’t the right way to go about it.
Reading Time: 3 minutesUnlike some recent scandals and controversies for which voters and “tax payers” have no chance of opting-out (including a weapon’s trade with Saudi Arabia, one that even the new government cannot opt out of), OPIRG has a levy policy that allows every individual student to ask for their levy back.
Reading Time: 3 minutesOn Oct. 14, Marcus Mattinson, a fourth-year public administration student at the U of O, started a Facebook campaign asking students to sign his petition to remove the levy for Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG)
Reading Time: 2 minutesCommunist sympathizers love to compare violent communist regimes to the early forms of developed western countries. This approach is academically dishonest and fails to give credit to contemporary and developed democracies like Canada.
Reading Time: 3 minutesApart from the general conservative cold-war platitudes and red-baiting used by Mr. Mattinson as arguments to denounce socialism, all the while holding up Canada as a “free” country of “hope and opportunity,” he conveniently omits many issues that one would expect such a strong advocate of human rights would consider.
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe problem with redbaiting is this: it demands accountability for the historical crimes of some (the scary communists) and not others (the colonists and the capitalists).
Reading Time: 2 minutesI’ll be the first to say, communist radicals should continue to enjoy their right to speak about their ideas, no matter how baneful they are. However, their activities must be on their own dime.
Reading Time: 3 minutesDear Editor, From now until Friday, December 5, full time undergraduate and graduate students have the opportunity to opt-out of paying fees to Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Ottawa (OPIRG). According to their website, OPIRG’s mandate is to “facilitate and support campus and community activism in Ottawa and strive to work in an anti-oppressive framework.” In …
Reading Time: 2 minutes“Don’t wait for the cops to read you your rights, they usually won’t.”
