eported by the London Free Press last July
were convicted of going absent without
eave in 2005 as in 2000.
Some of the students at the demonstration
were more ambivalent about recruitment.
amille Bussiéres-Hamel, also from Trois-
Riviéres, said she opposes the war in
Afghanistan and wants the troops home,
but recruitment on campus doesn’t really
bother her because recruiters can’t force her
o listen.
‘Joining the army is a personal decision,
nnd people who want to join should have
e choice to do so,” she said.

Myriam Faraj, a political science under-
praduate at Université du Québec a

ontréal, said she would confront
ecruiters on her campus to open their
minds.

“As people, we should try to communi-

ate with each other, and question and
Hebate. I would want to make [a recruiter].
Huestion what he’s part of,” she said. “And I

be quite an annoying person sometimes,

could] talk with him for hours,” she
dded.

hanging the mission

e Bloc Québécois has taken a less critical
tone in its stance towards recruiting, which
does not outright oppose, Bloc
pokesperson Frédéric Lepage said by
phone last Friday.

e Canadian Forces’ role in Afghanistan
means we need to replace more troops than
hsual,” said Lepage. “The problem is that
this government has no clear foreign policy,
which needs to be defined before defence

pending can be done responsibly.”

That sentiment is echoed by groups like
the Council of Canadians, which has no
bpinion on recruitment per se, but is calling

 

 

 

for Canada’s role in Afghanistan to change
from a combat mission to a focus on humani-
tarian work, reconstruction, development and
peacekeeping, the Council’s media officer,
Meera Karunanthan, said.

As peacekeeping funds-go towards
Afghanistan, Canada has reduced its number
of peacekeepers to 56, no more than Mali, the
Council says.

“The personnel shortage in the Canadian
Forces is approximately the same as the num-
ber of Canadian troops in Afghanistan,”
Operation Objection’s downloadable anti-war
campaign kit reads. “Ironically, there would be
no ‘troop shortage’ if we brought them
home.” "

Mote importantly, Karunanthan said, the
increased military recruitment helps the
Conservative government's deep integration
policy with the US., which cedes Canadian
sovereignty and sends troops to fight a Taliban
movement that is no threat to Canadians.

But others weren’t so sute. “To say [the
wat] is hopeless is a legitimate argument, but
[Canada] is a target,” said one of the counter-
protesters named Jay, a McGill student who
joined the army voluntarily and wished not to
reveal his family name. .

He pointed out the day’s National Post
headline, “Al Qaida warns Canada,” and the 18
terror suspects arrested in Toronto this sum-
mer. “I believe there’s a real need to fight this
war. I hope I’m nuts. And maybe [these
demonstrators] are right. But I don’t see it that
way.”

He added that one of his hobbies is study-
ing the history of the First and Second World.
“T see the courage that our soldiers displayed.
If we had the same mentality then [that] we
have now, we wouldn’t have won those wars,”
he said.

Meet Matt Bristo,
Campaigning

to Impeach the DSU

Travis Paterson, Features Editor

There’s a lot of talk around campus of a movement to impeach membets of the
Douglas College Student Union, including Joey Hansen, the representative who’s been on
paid leave since March, 2006.

Meet Matt Bristo, a first year political science student who has petitioned the students
at both the Coquitlam and New Westminster campus'’s.

I met with Matt on a drab Thursday afternoon to discuss his motivation on the mat-
ters. “This all happens, it all accumulates and these signatures finally come into a decision
to have the entire board, or the entire representative committee remioved and they have
the right just like anybody else to re-run, if they truly believe in their position and if
they’re telling us the truth,” Said Bristo.

“We've got close to 1256 signatures, and ultimately the Douglas College Board.over- .
sees the whole petition process, and we turned it into them,” said Bristo. Anyone can

_ challenge the DSU if they get a thousand signatures in order to call a special resolution

meeting with the DSU to talk about the current situation. “Then we'll get 75 or more
students to back us up, regardless of whether they signed [the petition] or not, we need
as much support as we can get for that particular meeting.”

Bristo also spoke about the DSU’s failure to complete an external audit since 2001,
“Something as small as an absolute budget of two million dollars in a real political arena,
its like pocket change.” Bristo finished with a declaration of what he believes the DSU
represents, “I want to work with people who are going to be honest, and I want to have
absolute clarity for every dollar that students put into the student union, its that simple.”

According to Bristo, the petition was submitted to the Douglas College Board in early
November, and the signatures are under review for DC student authenticity.

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