Munib Sajjad wins UTSU presidency Unofficial results show that UTM student and candidates of Team Renew win executive positions in UTSU Michael J. Watson associate news editor The unofficial 2013 spring election results show that Munib Sajjad and the rest of the candidates from Team Renew were elected to executive positions in the U of T Students’ Union. Though UTM students have their own student union, UTMSU, Sajjad stressed the importance of UTSU to Mississauga students and elaborated on related elements of his campaign’s platform. UTM students are paying members of both the U of T Students’ Union (based on the St. George campus) and the UTM Students’ Union. UTSU provides UTM students with health and dental plans. At the Scarborough campus, students pay only to their local union. The Scarborough Campus Student Union also provides its members with a health and dental plan. “We at UTSU have been present at the UTM campus, not only working at the campus and other associations, but we’ve all taken time to make a presence,” he said when asked about the perceived distance, both in scope and geography, between UTSU and Mississauga students. “We have a
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Munib Sajjad campaigns at UTM. good relationship with UTMSU and we want to establish stronger connections. […] What we’re doing together this year is collaborating more with our campus partners and delivering services to students where they are in popular hubs on campus.” He explained how UTSU’s proximity to Simcoe Hall at the St. George campus “makes interactions quite regularly, so that’s how we’re effective for UTM students”. According to Sajjad, this proximity
allows UTSU to better relay concerns and ideas from other campuses and also allows the different unions to form a unified voice. UTSU has more meetings with the provost and viceprovost than other student unions, and its partnerships with other campus unions allow it to bring up those unions’ concerns at meetings. When asked about Sana Ali’s resignation, Sajjad declined to comment until the team could make a group response. Ali was Team Renew’s vice-
president external candidate until she resigned last week in an open letter on Facebook. In her letter, Ali wrote that she felt she was placed on the slate to “fill a space and fulfill a preset mandate”. She criticized the slate for “groupthink” and a “desire to suppress any kind of communication I may have with the ‘opposition’ ”. A prominent element of Team Renew’s platform was the intent to lobby for international students to get access to OHIP. International students
were cut from OHIP in the ’90s because of funding issues, and the province has scaled back health services even for citizens of Ontario. Despite this, Sajjad is adamant that getting international students into the program will benefit everyone. “It’s not that there isn’t enough money, it’s that the priorities are different. Across the board, I’m seeing international students not getting access to the public healthcare from the ’90s. But in Manitoba they are offering international students healthcare,” he said. “Why? Because international students were empowered and able to speak about how they were affected by the healthcare access.” In Ontario, international students are prevented by law from serving on governing councils, “a sign that the provincial government doesn’t have interest in helping international students and is just using them as cash cows,” said Sajjad. According to Sajjad, international students tend to stay in Ontario—whether for work or for graduate studies—and they also invest about $2 billion a year into the province. Sajjad continued on page 2
Discussing racism and stereotypes The Students for Pan-Arab Dialogue talked about prejudice against immigrants Jai Sangha Associate News Editor The Students for Pan-Arab Dialogue hosted a discussion on campus last Tuesday about racism towards and among immigrant communities. The discussion, titled “Discussing Racism in the Diaspora: A Conversation on Constructed Stereotypes”, was led by Rima Berns-McGown, an adjunct professor of diaspora studies in U of T’s Department of Historical Studies, and Shelina Kassam, a sessional instructor in the department’s women and gender studies division. In his introduction, Ahmen Khan, the vice-president of SPAD, said that people lose parts of their identity— things as small as the tea in their homeland—when they immigrate. “Does the nostalgia for such things [get] in the way of becoming a mosaic and mixing in the Canadian culture?” he asked.
EPUS to disband again Part-timers will vote on whether to become members of UTMSU. Medium News, page 2
“I am left with no choice.” UTSU candidate forfeits from Team Renew in an open letter. Medium Opinion, page 4
Mariam Ahmed/The Medium
Historical studies professors talk about experiencing racism as immigrants. The speakers made opening remarks for 10 minutes each before taking questions from the audience. Berns-McGown talked about the racism she witnessed during apartheid in her native Africa, and which she also experienced when she came to Canada. She also discussed her recent study, for which she interviewed
young Somali immigrants from different social backgrounds, many of whom had experienced racism and Islamophobia in Canada. “But astonishingly, each one of them [said that] being Canadian means respecting someone who is different from you even if you don’t agree with them. So being Canadian is an attitude,” said Berns-McGown.
She compared her results to those of a similar study by a colleague in Britain, where the majority of young Somalis answered that to be British meant to be a white man who drinks beer. “We’re doing something right, but there is a long way to go,” she said. Racism continued on page 3
Hiding out with DVSSS The locker art of “Caché: things we keep” is hard to find, but worth it. Medium A&E, page 6
Ride of the muffin tops We’re gonna need some guidance to navigate all our muffin options. Medium Features, page 8
Eliminated by technicality Forgot to swipe a T-Card? Your team has to forfeit the championship. Medium Sports, page 10