November 26, 2012 Volume 39, Issue 11 www.mediumutm.ca
UTSU’s short-lived AGM
The U of T Students’ Union AGM ends abruptly after the motion to pass the agenda fails Larissa Ho News Editor The motion to approve the agenda at the Annual General Meeting of the U of T Students’ Union was defeated minutes after the meeting was called to order, bringing the meeting to a sudden halt. More than 300 students and 3,000 proxy votes were in attendance on Thursday in the Meeting Room of the Medical Sciences Building at the St. George campus. The event was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., but was not called to order until well after 8. Many students stood in line for several hours outside the packed room, waiting to register. Because of the large number of students in line, the keynotes—aboriginal elder Cat Criger and Adam Vaughan, the city councillor for Trinity-Spadina—proceeded without UTSU having called the meeting to order. Students were overheard commented on the lack of organization on the part of the students’ union: not only was registration slow, the
Junaid imran/The MEdium
Ashkon Hashemi, chair of the AGM, tallied votes for the motion to approve the agenda. room was not large enough to hold the number of people the union had expected to attend. People were forced to sit on the floor, on the stairs, and around the fire exits.
Shaun Shepherd, the president of UTSU, began his presidential address following the keynotes. Members of the union held up signs that read “online voting now” as Shep-
herd spoke, and laughed collectively when Shepherd referred to the “democratically elected board of directors”. Shepherd ended the address with
a tearful personal plea, saying he and his peers had endured malicious attacks and bullying from those who “wish to smear the hard work” of himself and his peers. “I really encourage each and every one of you who wish to participate in democracy, who choose to have your voices heard, but please, stick to the issue. This is my plea,” said Shepherd. Some members of the union stood up as the crowd clapped for his address. The chair, Ashkon Hashemi, officially called the meeting to order at 8:19. “If you are not respectful, if you do things that cross the threshold from civilized speech to disrespectful, I will cut you off,” said Hashemi before members of the union tried in vain to amend the agenda, then to replace Hashemi as chair. Then Samuel Greene, the head of Trinity College, took a microphone and called for electoral reform, urging members not to approve the agenda. AGM continued on page 2
Lighting the night against violence Matthew Butler Staff writer UTM’s Student Housing and Residence Life held their annual Light the Night event in Roy Ivor Hall. Students came together to raise awareness of power-based personal violence in the community. The event was the culmination of the fundraising campaign of the last two weeks, in which students and staff raised about $600 for Interim Place, a charity that advocates for women who have been victims of violence. The Light the Night committee, a collection of students and Residence Life staff, organized the event and collected donations at successful tabling sessions in Oscar Peterson Hall and through a competitive changedrive with residence student communities. The event started just after 8 p.m. in the decorated lobby of Roy Ivor, where rows of candlelit bags formed a walkway outside the building.
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Alberto Becerra/The MEdium
Students carried candles around campus to raise awareness of violence against women. People crowded in the lobby for the 30-minute presentation, which featured an informational video filmed by Chris Hugglemann in which students wore ribbons of different colours to symbolize different types of violence, and had statistics written in black on parts of their bodies. Members of the committee explained U of T’s Green Dot violence prevention program.
Afterwards, Farheen Khan, a representative of Interim Place, expressed her gratitude for the donations. “One out of two women in Canada has experienced some form of violence,” she said. The candlelit walk around campus followed. Jenna Malone and Amanda Luongo, the chief organizers, asked everyone to reflect on something meaningful to them during the silent
walk. Tamara Bernstein and William Yih led the attendees carrying their candles around the campus to “light the night” as a positive symbol of the effort to prevent violence. When they returned to the lobby, the guests painted their hands and added their handprints to a collection of canvases, informally pledging, “These hands will not be used for violence.”
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