ON CAMPUS

McGILL: A savage dispute

A savage _ideological-
racial dispute within Mc-
Gill University, Montreal,
ended Dec. 1 with the ter-
mination of the univer-
‘sity’s two-month stay in
.the Union Generale des
Etudiants du Quebec —
(UGEQ). * :

At a referendum held
along with other student
elections  anti-UGEQ
forces obtained a two per-
cent majority over pro-
UGEQ forces. The turnout
“of 5,400 was among the
highest ever seén for any
_ kind of election at McGill.

The anti-UGEQ forces
had been responsible for
the publication of a fas-
cist-style publication call-
ed “Resistance.” The pub-
lication was headed by
Colin Gravenor, a student
whose contacts with the
extreme Right and whose
anti-French ideas were

UGEQ: Stop.

The coordinating com-
mittee of the Union Gene-
rale des Etudiants du Que-
bec has called on the fed-
eral government to dis-
sociate Canada from
American policy in Viet-
nam. It has demanded that
hostilities cease in that
country and that negotia-
tions begin immediately.

The organization also
called for a national cam-
paign in cooperation with

well Known on campus.
: 4

Following the referen-
dum, student society presi-
dent Sharon Sholzberg re-
signed, but the student
council refused to accept
her resignation. Sholzberg
had favored UGEQ.

At the same meeting a

motion of non-confidence
in the left-wing editor of
the McGill Daily, Patrick
MacFadden, was defeated
8 to 9, with Sholzberg cast-
ing the deciding vote. This
was the nearest the Marx-
ist editor had come to an
upset during the course of
several motions demand-
ing his resignation: The is-
sue was an editorial, which
MacFadden had written on
election day, exposing the
Rightist orientation of
Résistance. :

The question of joining
UGEQ was first raised in

the Vietnam

the Canadian Union of
Students to effect a boy-
cott against Rhodesia,
South Africa and Portugal.

The committee condemn-
ed the political situation in
South Africa and in Por-
tugal, whose actions in
Angola and Mozambique
came under ‘heavy criti-
cism. It also condemned
U.S. policy in Latin Amer-
ica, demanding that mili-
tary dictators resign and
that Canada adopt a Latin

the McGill Young Com-
munist League monthly,
“Roots,” before the union
had actually been founded.
Commenting on the failure
of a referendum held two
years later a YCL spokes:
man said it was not be-
cause McGill students are

-English that they opted out

of UGEQ, but because the
student union threatens
their fathers’ businesses.

The McGill Liberal, NDP
and Communist clubs had
all supported membership
in UGEQ this year.

Due to certain irregular-
ities, a petition is being
circulated demanding a

new vote.

At present .Sir George
Williams University in
Montreal is the only Eng-
lish university in UGEQ.
Student leaders there said
they had no intention of
returning to isloation.

war!

American policy indepen-
dent of the United States.

At its policy-making
meeting at the University
of Montreal on Nov. 20-21
the committee reaffirmed
support for student syndi-
calism, free university
education and remunera-
tion for all university stu-
dents, and demanded that
all forms of discrimination
be erased from the educa-
tion system.

ALBERTA: Free-speech fight

A free-speech fight is
‘going on at the University
of. Alberta -in Edmonton.
On Nov. 24 the Dean’s
Council rejected. a- request
from the Studént Union
for Peace Action for per-
mission to set up a booth
in university buildings to
sell materials on the war
in Vietnam.

University authorities
claimed such booths would
violate regulations _ pro-
hibiting “canvassing and
soliciting” on university
property.

SUPA said such an in-

terpretation of a rule aim-
ed at controlling the acti-

vities of local businesses
would violate the right of
students to freely dissemi-
nate their ideas among fel-
low students. They estab-
lished a booth in one of
the university buildings
the following day.

On Nov. 30 a member of
SUPA was called to the
president’s office and
warned that if the booth
did not cease operations
by the following day indi-
viduals participating would
face disciplinary action.

In the face of this threat
SUPA agreed to move its
booth to the Student
Union Building to allow

time for further negotia-
tions.

They are demanding that
either the rule be rescind-
ed or that the interpreta-
tion be changed so as not
to discriminate against
legitimate exchanges of
opinion among students.

At last report SUPA |

members were still to
meet with university of-
ficials to argue their case.
Many feel that if no satis-
factory change is made in
the administration’s posi-
tion they should return
their booth to university
buildings as a direct chal-
lenge to the ruling.

TORONTO: National power grid

A resolution moved by
the University of Toronto
Communist Club passed
25 to 7, with 2 abstentions
in a rather poorly-attended
Public Affairs Forum on
Dec. 2.

The resolution, drafted
and defended by Mark
Sydney, a freshman at the
university, called for the

federal government to. de-
velop a Canada - wide
power grid and to limit the
export of Canadian power
abroad to ensure a suffi-
cient surplus to meet Can-
ada’s expected growth in
demand. Only the Liberals
-opposed the resolution.

A moderate New Demo-
cratic resolution outlining

steps for the gradual re-
patriation of the Canadian
economy was passed 25 to
Bees :

A Conservative resolu-
tion suggesting that Can-
ada stay out of the Orga-
nization of American
State was passed by 34 to
0, with 6 Liberal absten-
tions. :

BOUNCING BABY BEAR
Big Dan, at 800 pounds, is just half grown and tame as a
baby. He still likes his milk from a bottle—a two-and-a-half-
gallon bottle with a nipple. He lives on Al Oeming’s game farm
just east of Edmonton.

—| |

side | by side
J. $. Wallace

The hard and the easy
We takes as it comes
And when ponds freeze over
We shortens our runs,
—Come-all-ye, Tickle Cove Pond, Nfld.

NCE upon a time I spoke on poetry to a group of stu-
dents at the University of British Columbia. I had less
than an hour and during the first half of that time

the scepticism was so thick I felt you could slice it and
serve it as... well, not as caviar. Why the cold wall?

They were educated in English, and who was I? They
had never run across any of my books, they had never
heard them referred to by any professor, I was in no antho-
logy, had only been reviewed briefly and obscurely in two
dailies . . . they had never heard me on Canadian radio or
seen me on Canadian TV.

That same week I had to talk on poetry to a fishing
village. Ladrone? Anyway it’s where Homer Stevens lives.
I wondered how I could cross the fence that shut them out
from poetry when I could see no stile. But chatting before
the meeting started I found one. A fisherman, referring to
the way the lordly red cedars were being slaughtered, said

. “destruction beyond description” and of the weedy trees
that took their place “a quick growth and a quick death.”
When I got up I had only to start:off: you talk poetry; I’m
going to talk about it. Afterwards an old Indian, shaking
my hand, said: “Paul Robeson says it in song, you say it
in words.*

Once in the internment camp at Petawawa I passed
two obscure Italians and caught three words one of them
uttered: ‘Remember and regret.”

When my wife died Bobbie Wong said sadly: “The
cage door is open; the brown bird is fled.” When Sven
Gahm was asked why he voted for me to be a delegate to
the unemployed conference in Ottawa, 1933, he replied. “I
voted him into the struggle, knowing that there he’d find
peace.” eee

There’s a point here somewhere if we can get together,
find it, and act on it. Come-all-ye .

P.S.: Over and over I’ve heard folk songs and wished to
blazes I had the ability to duplicate them.

——

——-—

December 17, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

*At the age of 75 your are licensed to let your hair down a little... if you i
have a little. . ,