victims have remained anonymous to most of us.

We print their names here, not to sensationalize their deaths or martyr
them, but in rememberance of them. We hope such a list will not have to
be printed again.

Genevieve Bergeron
Helene Colgan
Nathalle Croteau

Barbara Daignaeault
Anne-Marie Edward
~~ Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganiere
Maryse Leclair
Sonia Pelletier
Michelle Richard

Anne St.

Arneault

Annie Turcotte

Barbara Maria Kluez

 

Mistakes
Made on
All Sides

When the strike ended, the en-
tire student body expelled an
audible sigh of relief. A month’s
worth of pent up anxiety was
released with that breath. Students
could finally get some answers, and
get their lives organised. Some had
the very tough decision of whether
or not to withdraw completely and
try to get jobs; some had the equally
tough decision of deciding whether
or not they could make it through,
and if they could fit the extra time
necessary to make up the semester
into their lives. Either way, most
realised the entire episode was
definitely detrimental to their
education, and were angry.

The funny thing is though, a lot
of that anger has been directed
everywhere but where it should be.
Instead of taking the provincial
government, the College Ad-
ministration, and even, to some ex-
tent, the faculty to task about the
strike, quite a few students have
been lashing out at the Student
Society.

It seems we all didn’t agree
with our elected representative’s
chosen stance on the matter. This,
of course, is quite reasonable. What
is objectionable is Douglas College
student’s complete apathy to things
going on around them until some-
thing like a strike happens.

Students had the means of get-
ting information about the strike at
least a month in advance of its oc-
currence. Two issues of this paper
appeared with information, the Stu-
dent Society was in constant con-

n

wget

ick

seiste

        
     

tact with both faculty and ad-
ministration, and the Faculty As-
sociation was issuing weekly
updates, which were distributed in
front of the Student Society office,
as well as other very accessible
places around the college. While
many students did take the time to
find out what was going on, most
didn’t as they were quite content in
their assumption that the faculty
wouldn’t dare go on strike.

Students also had the chance to
air their views at the student forum
held in the concourse a week before
the strike. At that time, the Student
Society stated its position of sup-
porting the faculty’s actions.
Anyone could have voiced their ob-
jection to this position then, or any
time in the next week. No one did
during the forum, and very few did
after it. That is, no one did until the
strike became areality and students
were faced with the very real pos-
sibility of losing their semester.

And of course, as the strike
wore on, those objections grew in
number and in volume.

No one expected the strike to
go on as long as it did. No one. Not
the Administration, not the Faculty
Association, and definitely not stu-
dents, the Student Society in-
cluded. Only the faculty were
prepared for such an eventuality,
and only because they’re a union.
The Administration was so sure of
a swift end to it they weren’t even
willing to begin to prepare a contin-
gency plan until towards the end of
the second week, and then only on
a day-by-day basis. Also, media
stopped any sort of real coverage it
may have made, making students’
access to information almost im-
possible. These were the conditions
the Student Society was working
with. If no information is being

Other Press

December 18, 1989

 

The psychosis of one man has
illuminated a dark side to our
society that not many are willing
to admit to. Those of us that are,
are told we read too much into
such events, we are being reaction-
ary, being too sensitive. When
Marc Lepine went into that class-
room in Montreal, separated the
women from the men, and killed
14 of the women, he committed an
extreme act of violence that was
the embodiment of everything our
society condemns in public, but
condones in private.

The violence we are stooped
in on a daily basis, from the time
we are born, until the time we die,
is a pathetic reminder of the depths
human beings can fall to. We kill,
mutilate, abuse, assault, humiliate,
and damage each other to such an
extent that we feel the need to arm
ourselves with weapons of further
destruction to protect ourselves
from each other on every level,
from the personal, to the national.

There is something fun-
damentally wrong with a society
that cannot admit to itself that the
actions of a psychotic like Lepine
are a symptom of the society itself.
Lepine didn’t just hate women be-
cause he hated women. He hated
women because he lived in a
society that says its okay to feel
hatred against each other, espe-
cially if the "other" is perceived as
being different, inferior, and start-
ing to get a bit "uppity". He killed

 

women because he understood
strong women to be the reason why
his life was not going well, and was
brainwashed into believing it by the
images and words of his society.
Women were his scapegoats just as
they are always this society’s
scapegoat when things go wrong.

But as has been pointed out
more than too many times since, he
could have chosen any group of
humans in general, being the
psychotic he was. It was just a fluke
that he chose women. Look how
many times Jews, Blacks, Natives,
children, Asians, (the list goes on
forever), just look how many times
some psycho has gone on a killing
spree because he perceived that
group to be the reason for his life
being so screwed up. Of course,
there is always the possibility that
the psycho didn’t know that the par-
ticular group of human beings he
was gunning down were Jews, or
Blacks, or Asians, or women, or
Natives, or children.

Because, you know, "racism
and sexism don’t exist" any more.
People no longer need a reason to
blow each other away. We do it for
the hell of it now. We don’t hate
each other because we’re different
-- we just hate each other.

The reluctance of people out-
side of the women’s community to
allow our society’s innate
hypocrisy towards women to be
one of the underlying reasons for
Lepine’s actions is ample proof of

The Violence MUST End

the truth of this. Women who have
had enough, are sick of the violence
acted out against them everyday,
have been voicing their anger, their
pain. And they have been called
men-haters, radicals, communists,
trouble makers because of it. The
message behind the silent denials
of society’s ultimate complicity in
the murders is clear: women should
never have tried to stir things up in
the first place, and this wouldn’t
have happened,

We have got to stop hiding be-
hind words and half-truths. We
have got to wake up from our
dream-state and realise that our in-
difference, our callousness towards
each other enables people like
Marc Lepine to exist. We have got
to stop segregating those among us
who are perceived as different into
labeled groups. We have got to stop
condemning those working so hard
towards change, and join them. We
have got to start working together
as women and men, white and of
colour, Christian and not. We have
got to stop trying so hard to hurt
each other and start healing. In-
stead of pointing fingers at in-
dividuals or groups within our
society, we have got to look in-
ward, and then around us. And
then, we have got to grab hold of
the first human being who happens
by and love them.

Tamara Gorin

 

given to you, you can’t very well
pass it on.

Later in the strike, when the
lines of communication were
opened through the daily 11:30
meetings with the Administration,
and later still, when students were
allowed to sit in on negotiations, is
the time the Student Society should
have made its presence more
strongly felt, and should have
worked the hardest at getting the
information out to students. As we
all know, they didn’tdoa very good
job of this. Still, the effort was
made, and several members did
work very hard.

The most visible Society
member during all this was Jamie
McEvoy. When he left for the
N.D.P. convention, many students
saw his leaving as a desertion of the
University Transfer students he.
represents. But before we con-
demn Jamie, who was so visible for
the very reason that he worked so
hard before he left, we should ask
ourselves: where were the other
U.T. Reps? Norman Gludovatz
worked just as hard as Jamie did,
but no one else seemed to be
around,

Personal attacks against in-
dividuals are not warranted here:
the Society as a whole should be
called upon for its action, or its
seeming inaction during the strike.
Considering student body apathy
prior to the strike, the Society did
the best job it could as far as repre-.
senting students’ opinions is con-
cerned. And if they made any
mistake, it was in not being or-
ganised enough prior to the strike
to get their jobs done as effectively
as possible.

If students were more active in
and around the college while things

=,

are on an even keel, the Student
Society would be able to do its job
- represent Douglas College stu-
dents. As things are now, and have
been for some time, the Society is
dealing with so little outside input
from students that any decision or
action it takes is seen as being un-
representative of the student body’s
needs, regardless of the intent or its
outcome. During the strike, the
Society made mistakes in the way
it handled things, but students have
got to stop passing the buck and
take some responsibility for this.

And while students are at it,
they should focus on the real
reasons behind why the strike hap-
pened: the state of education in this
province, and the unwillingness of
the College Administration to try
and avert the strike before it be-
came a reality.

Society
Meeting a
Mess

The aganeda for December
7th’s D.C.S.S. Representative
Committee meeting contained
many interesting items. Itis too bad
that the Rep. Committee couldn’t
set aside their petty differences and
work together as a team to com-
plete their agenda.

During the meeing there was
constant bickering and cross
debate about irrelevant items. Fur-
thermore, I was not impresed with
their pathetic attempt at Roberts
Rules of order. I had to repeatedly
set the committee straight on major
points that they should have
known, (it has been more than 7
months since the executive’s elec-

 

tion after all.) One of the Reps was
so disgusted by the meeing that he
muttered expletives all the way
through.

This seems to signify a much
bigger problem within the Society.
Perhaps it is their attitudes towards
the rest of the student body -- one
of which appears to be mild an-
noyance, particularly towards cer-
tain persistent individuals who
insist on being heard. Perhaps it is
that they are too childish to over-
come their differences in opinion.

I do not intend to imply by all
of this that eveyone within the
Society is like this. Just 96% of
them.

Matthew Martin