news Security’s new wheels
Breast protest planned by Dave Thomson Imprint staff After recently losing an appeal of conviction of indecent exposure, Gwen Jacob has declared July 18 and 19 to be a “national top-optional weekend.” July 19 is a day of significance for Jacob; it was that day last year when she was a r r e s t e d f o r i n d e c e n t exposure. She had initially taken her top off on the way home from school because it was a hot day, but was charged after refusing police requests to put it back on. The point of the weekend, said Jacob, is “to get women out, with or without men, to do whatever they were going to do anyway, but without a shirt.” But she added that “if you’re not comfortable with it don’t do it.” She suggested that woman who are going to remain clothed but sup port the cause could play a supportive role for their shirtless friends, who may be apprehensive about removing their tops. Locallv, the Universitv o f Waterlo6’s Women’s Centre and the WPIRG Men’s Group are organizing a demonstration of sorts in Waterloo her
Erik Estrada, eat your heart out! Officers Marshall Gavin and Lori Emick prepare to embark on UW’s new bike patrd. Photo by Peter Brown by Peter Brown Imprint staff The UW security department has made a step toward conservation, participacHon, and accessibility, atl at once. With the purchase of two souped-up mountain bicycles, UW police have joined other police forces across the country in instituting a bike patrol here on campus. “We hope that this program will improve iecurity here- on campus, but also help relations with the city community,” said security’s Wayne Shortt. He-said that on M&ndav, two b i k e officers assisted Waterloo Regional Police in searching Waterloo Park behind Westmount Mall for a crime suspect. UW was
called because the mountain bikes could go into areas inaccessible to cars or motorcycles. WRP have a bike patrol in downtown Kitchener, but not in Waterloo. “Canada Day festivities (on Columbia Field) were a good indication of the response from the public,” said officer Marshall Gavin, one of the first riders and a kev player in the purchase of the bikes: “We were constantly stopped and asked about the bikes: Th; iesponse was very positive.”
Shortt hopes that the bike patrols will save gas, as the cruisers iill not have to 6k used as much. He also believes that riding bikes is a more personable approach to the campus community than riding in a car.
The bikes will also allow security to patrol some areas of the campus much more efficiently, according to Gavin. The road to the Bauer warehouse on the north campus, for instance, has been a problem in the past.
To patrol it, an officer in a security would have to drop off another officer on Columbia Street who would walk along the path and be met by the cruiser at the other end, some&nes as much as an hour later. Now, the path can be patrolled in 1520 minutes on the bikes. The UW program, which started two weeks ‘a& will be onRoirig, t h r o u g h a s n&h o f t h e ye& aS
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Prez talks turkey with COU, MCU by Peter Brown Imprint staff *The Federation of Students’ Iobbying contact with the provincial government continues this summer, president Dave Martin told students’ council last Sunday, July 5, “We, and people from the other four schools which are not in the OFS (Ontario Federation of Students), have met with the Ministry of Colleges and* Universities and the Council of Ontario Universities recently,” Martin told Imprint, “Both meetings were positive,” Martin said. “We were meeting to discuss our common perspective. No concrete proposals were made.” First came the meeting with the COU, an organization that is seeking an income contingency plan for dealing with student loans. This is a plan which would link the repayment of
student loans to students’ ability to pay after they have graduated. “The COU is more concerned with the financial aspects of income contingency,” Martin said. “The student organizations (UW, Queen’s University, Brock University, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Toronto) are also intere$ed in issues of accountability and accessibility.” Martin says that Jan Donio, the assistant deputy minister in charge of the Ontario Student Assistance Program with whom the student leaders met, felt that income contingency was a more long-term objective. Minister of Colleges and Universities Richard Allen is a big fan of income contingency, Martin said, and wants to increase accountability on the part of students as tuition fees rise. Also at the July 5 council meeting,, council endorsed changing the
Federation record store’s name to The Music Source as a result of a recent contest. Nicholas Mew, a UW alumnus (BA, ‘91, history; BSc ‘90) and WLU history masters student, submitted the recommendation as part of recent contest. He also works on campus in the biology department. “The name is appropriate for the record store,” said John (J. J.) Jongerius, manager of the store. “We asked for name ideas that reflected how the business has changed from vinyl to CDs and cassettes. And we can get most orders for customers within a matter of days, so the name The Music Source is even more appropriate.“
For hiscontribution, Mew wins 100
vinyl LPs and 20 promotional casset-
tes from the store, along with a T-shirt with the new name once they are produced.
’Park on Saturday, July 18, that they are calling a “walk-a-breast . . . in the spirit/flesh of supporting Gwen Jacob and all people who fight to end unfair gender discrimination.” The organizers are hoping for a mix of women and men, both with and without shirts ‘because if they choose to arrest just women without shirts, then it’s obvious that it’s gender-biased.” , Daryl Wilson, a member of the WPIRG men’s group, said that men should begin to “take responsibility and work against the discriminatory nature of our patriarchal society.” Jacob is taking her case to the Sally Jesse Raphael talk show on July 20, and plans to continue appealing her conviction until she reaches the Canadian Supreme Court. Supporters can send donations
to:
Gwen Jacob has also designed and produced “Targets of Discrimination” T-shirts to help defray her legal costs; they are also available through the above address.
Feds debate protest poster by Peter Brown Imprint staff The Federation of Students board of directors voted 3-2 this week to overturn a student council decision to ban a poster advertising Walk-abreast, a protest in support of Gwen Jacob organized by UW’s women’s centre and a WPIRG men’s group. President Dave Martin’s motion,, that authorized placing the poster on Federation bulletin boards, recognized the autonomy of the women’s centre and acknowledged that the Federation will not be endorsing an explicitly illegal activity. The contentious part of the poster for the July 18 event was text that read: “We need women with shirts / women without shirts / men with shirts / men without shirts - so that if anyone is arrested, it is obvious why.” Councillors at a meeting on Sunday, July 5 were concerned that the poster encouraged an activity that might be illegal and may reflect poorly on Waterloo students. Because this issue was not added to the agenda until the Friday before, representatives of the women’s centre or the WPIRG men’s group were not invited to the council meeting. On these grounds, women’s centre coordinators Sue Forrest and Helen Victoros asked Federation vicepresident, university affairs Sue Crack to call an emergency board meeting for Tuesday, July 7 to discuss the issue. Martin, Crack, and non-executive board members Tom Drlje, Elizabeth Barratt, and Glenn Rutland were present; vice-president, operations and fmance Brent McDermott and none x e c u t i v e m e m b e r mSchm were absent from the board meeting.
“Putting these posters on our boards is endorsing something that’s questionable in the law right now,” Drlje said. “It is considered illegal until the issue is resolved elsewhere, in the courts.” Forrest disagreed, saying that the decision of a judge in one case does not make bearing breasts by women illegal in all cases. “We’re inviting people to wear a shirt or not wear a shirt, and that’s something people do each day,” Forrest said. Forrest quoted from section 173 of the Canadian Criminal Code to show that women exposing their breasts is not literally dealt with. Instead, she said, it takes a judge to interpret this act as “indecent.” “Regardless of sexism in society, the university can play a leadership role in battling sexism,” Victoros told the board. Forrest described the Walk-abreast event as a protest similar to ones in the past, on a variety of topics, where UW’s Federation has advertised the protest and W students have been arrested. The women’s issues board, Forrest said, paid for buses to travel to Guelph for a protest outside the courthouse where Jacob’s trial was taking place. Forrest cited Imprint articles describing anti-war protests in 1489 in Ottawa where UW students were arrested. She also recalled working in the Graphix Factory at that time and producing posters for those events. “I am in full support of the protest,” Barratt said. “But from the corporation’s point of view, I have to consider our legal Liability.” Barratt i& abo chairperson of me women’s issues board.
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