The see man Other Press December 18, 1989 Protesters Picket McDonalds Restaurant OTTAWA (CUP) -- It was like a scene from a twisted McDonalds commercial. There were people hovering around the downtown McDonald’s with food containers taped to them, and Ronald McDonald was there -- except he had a skeleton face. And the cute slogans the group of about 20 were chanting would have made bad advertising copy as Wel: > "Ronald McDonald is a litter bug! The earth deserves a break today! Mcdonald’s - Mc- Extinction!" they shouted. The protestors were mostly from the Green Party and from the Carleton branch of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG). One was waving a sign that read: ‘five billion served, 10 billion pieces of garbage’. They were at the restaurant November 25th to fight the McDonald’s "wasteful and harm- ful" packaging. Roy said styrofoam and polys- tyrene used in McDonald’s pack- aging is harmful to the environment. He called McDonald’s the worst culprit of the fast food industry for not using biodegradable packaging. "Burger King and those other places all use paper for packaging." The Ottawa demonstration was one of many held across On- tario November 24th. "Kids think of french fries and hamburgers when they see the clown," said Ronald imitator War- ren St. Marie. He said he was trying to change Ronald’s image with the skeleton face. The protestors’ scrapped their plan to bring plates and cutlery and ask servers to ‘hold the styrofoam’ when they found marching outside the entrance drew a lot more atten- tion. "It’s not too late, bring your own plate; Don’t be a dork, bring your own fork; don’t be a goon, bring your own spoon; don’t give up, bring your own cup," they shouted. McDonald’s managers would not comment on customer’s reac- tions to the protest. The restaurant was still fairly busy during the protest. "I have to eat somewhere,” said McDonald’s customer Kevin Resch. But outside, signs pasted with McDonald’s french fries and sport- ing slogans like “Boycott McTrash’ caught the attention of Market shoppers. Hal Gregory, the National Director of Purchasing for McDonald’s in Canada said using plates would do more harm than good. He said there are about 10,000 injuries yearly to staff and cus- tomers due to broken glass and $800,000 in Limbo VANCOUVER (CUP) -- University of British Columbia stu- dents won’t be paying for a proposed athletics facility next year, but what happens to over $800,000 already collected isn’t clear. "There is nothing in the code of the (council) that says this money has to be returned to stu- (x BAGS LAUNDROMAT & & Bachelors and/or Bachelorettes! - Hate Laundry Drudgery? - Don't Have The Time To Do It? Let Lilly At Lilly's laundry lounge Columbia Square 10th & Columbia New Wstminster V3M 6H5 HELP! & Complete Laundry Service & for: . F Famity & BUSINESS &. 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"A Big Mac container won’t change composition after it’s thrown out, and we don’t want it to." He said even scientists don’t yet know what environmental im- pact will result from garbage in a ‘landfill site that decomposes. UBC Supports 1990 Gay Games by Rick Hiebert VANCOUVER (CUP) -- The University of British Columbia’s student council has thrown its sup- port behind the 1990 Gay Games. The council voted 22 to 2 to welcome the games in response to ads placed in local dailies by local Christian leaders denouncing the games. Eight councillors abstained."I thought with all the negative publicity that the Gay Games have been receiving," coun- cil executive Vanessa Geary said, "it was necessary for the student council at UBC to strongly wel- come the gay community to cam- pus." The university rejected a proposal to bring the games to UBC in September 1988. Following the decision, UBC president David Strangway said the university should not “have an in- formal identity with an issue of such controversy." But the board reversed its decision in January 1989. Some student councillors agreed with the motion but said the council wasn’t the best group to deal with the issue. "It’s out of our mandate al- though it’s certainly of aconcern to university student groups," science student council rep Ari Gilligson said. "We should promote liberal student attitudes. Students Serious About the Environment 5 u To by Andy Riga MONTREAL (CUP) Quebec’s youth will pay more for energy if it’s more efficient and less damaging to the environment, a poll of almost 13,000 college stu- dents says. Eighty two per cent of those = surveyed said they would be will- ¥ ing to pay more for cleaner energy 8 and 67 per cent would beready to § accept rationing of electricity & during peak hours. This holiday season "The poll clearly shows that Give a child a future young people are thinking serious- By sending UNICEF cards. ly about the environment," said En- vironnementJeunesse(EJ), director general Jean-Claude Lavergne. "We’re ready to do our part." EJ is the provincial, student- unicef @ For a new full-colour brochure, contact: UNICEF British Columbia, P.0. Box 602, Station ‘A’, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 2N5 (604) 687-9096 OR call toll-free 1-800-268-3770 (Operator 741) 2 PP mr ey Holiday Special: 61 eo all Regular Price Items until December 31! (Upon presentation of your Student Card) Merry Christmas!!! DJ's Discount Jeans 422 Columbia Street New Westminster, B.C. Phone: 526-1422 run environment group that con- ducted the poll in 22 colleges this fall. "Young people want to have a say in what the future will bring." At a press conference last week, EJ called on the government to declare a moratorium on energy development projects, including Hydro-Quebec’s James Bay II. EJ also said the province should: * initiate a province-wide debate on energy and the environ- ment; * fund more research into energy efficiency, diversification andconservation; * implement a special tax on gas to promote public transit, * implement an "ecology tax" on electrical energy consump- tion,with money raised going towards opening a university centre specializing in research on energy alternatives. One of the sponsors of the poll, Hydro-Quebec, doesn’t agree with some of the group’s “unrealistic” demands. Hydro official Jacques-Andre Couture said that although the com- pany “shares many of the same | preoccupations (as EJ)," the province can’t afford to stop developing energy projects. "The province’s demand for electricity keeps increasing year by year. If we decide to stop the project for five years there will be a very big problem for the popula- tion in five or 10 years,” Couture said.