:

i a ae

—

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Other Press

the othe r
page

 

To baa or not to baa...

An open letter to Jimmy MacLaren

by Lesley Moore

As a fellow student, I was extemely
insulted to be labeled a “sheep” simply
because I do not agree with the
Axworthy/Martin. According to your
opinion piece in the last edition of The
Other Press, students are essentially
ignorant about the proposals laid out in
the Green Book. You did have a point
there, since the Feds are constantly
changing their stand on exactly which
way they plan to attack the poor, and
what they have stated so far is couched
in such blithe terms as the need for “re-
form” and “improving” our social safety
net.

lave reaped the fruits of -
Canada They
may fe “Sa
| helped build the country bot they have

also watched it slide into debt while
| large corporations contributed less and

less in taxes. Now the wealthy don’t
want to be taxed to pay that debt. In-
stead, they are putting the lio
anada’s debt on our s

-Weisgerber and Campbell place less

- ing the a

For those people who are still con-
fused about the Green Book and (with
good reason), allow me to do a little
translation: “Investing in people” means
giving incentives to companies to train
people for jobs that don’t exist; “‘adjust-
ing the UI program” means eliminating
employer contributions to UI so that
workers are the only ones paying into
the plan. (The gov’t does not fund UI);
“improving access to learning” means
eliminating federal transfer payments to
the provinces and replacing this with
block funding (smaller, lump sum pay-
ments with no stipulation as to where
the money will actually go). Inciden-

tally, I wonder exactly whose “access”

Nelson
told his

- meaning behind
- what our. politicians are

saying. For that we need to be edu-
Next time there is an election, I
hope students remember that

ue on our education than on pleas-

 

 

 

will be improved when students are
forced to borrow huge amounts through
student loans, with interest accruing
from the day those loans are negotiated?
Obviously, argument about whether or
not students should be members of the
CFS are irrelevant to this issue.
Ostensibly, the funds diverted from
UI and gain would be used to finace
“Employment Tools” (workfare and
trainingfare). Translation: The gov’t
plans to take from the “unworthy poor”
and give to the “worthy poor’, not ac-
tually create jobs. These proposals are
part of the feds new low-wage strategy
which is designed to pit the working
poor against other (ie. unionized) work-
ers. This will only succeed in eventu-

These kids nowadays

ally reducing everyone’s wages as peo-
ple are forced to compete with each
other in an ever-shrinking job market.

The deficit scare has apparently
succeeded in frightening Canadians into
believeing that we must slash social
programs and/or raise taxes. What the
Feds and the Bourgois media have not
been telling us is that making people
poorer and more desperate will not re-
duce the deficit (besides, social pro-
grams are not responsible for the defi-
cit).

Furthermore, the gov’t is not plan-
ning to raise the taxes of those who can
afford it — the rich and the more than
60,000 corporations who currently pay
little or no taxes on huge profits. In-

its achance
for OP readers
to vent - you
guessed it-
their opinions.
Submit to
room 1020.

Articles may he edited for brevity, clarity,
or pretty much anything elsity.

stead, they expect Canadians — of low
and middle income — to sacrifice so-
cial programs and pay even more taxes,
which may or may not go towards the
deficit.

To conclude, the “Spoon-Fed
Masses” — the sheep you referred to
in your opinion piece — are all the peo-
ple who support the feds proposals
without asking who is really benefitting
from these schemes. The rest of us, and
those of us who need to use social pro-
grams (the unemployed, students,
women, children, seniors, and so on)
are not sheep, we are guinea pigs tar-
geted for the gov’ts [sic] latest experi-
ment.

Damn them, their goin' to school, their classical, and their jazz...

by Trent Ernst

There has been a bit of
the Music Department
amount of noise rai
both in the field
outside the

The
offices
have

 
 
 

 
 

ime Hallway,
sic students tend
| we say, rowdy.
nts laugh and joke
lway, they. are
promptu jam
g.

  

  

 
 

 
 

  

  
 
  
 
 
   
      
   
   
  
  
  
  
   
  
 

    
  
 

unlike most
music depart-
e actually
tu-

is a bit of ano
cause the students h
each other as friends, and
class mates. Such interpersonal relafie
ships tend to be the basis for the no
levels that are causing concern.

  

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
    
 
 
   
     
      
    
 
  
   

nts would just congregate Stvencie
making noise and disrupting the effi-
cient flow of traffic through the h
ways.

To dissuade the student
more jam sessions in the h

instruments
could be for-
bidden from
ol property. This would
wreak havoc on things like the
~ school band and private lessons,
but the members of the Faculty As-

-

sociation would no longer have to live

in fear of spontaneous music disrupt-
ing heir work. Music education would
ly of theoretical k

be to abolish the music program. Since

the students would not be in the same
Glasses, there would be no way that they
know each other to the same

students? That w
people in the office
work in the silence that
sire. No students mak
bodies sprawled in thi
weave through. Compl
peace.

What more couk
Douglas could cease
tional facility, and
haven for aoe

  

  
   
   
 

   
  
   
  
 

 
 
    
    
  
  

Trent Ernst is the A&E Coordina-
tor for the Other Press and a Douglas
College music student.

& "FESS 4:00pm Wednesday
Staff Meetings

Room 1020