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Devante Mowatt
Life Sciences (Honours)
Level IV
"This may be a little selfish, but I want to see the school from a different perspective. I want to be able to change something in my school. I feel like a lot of universities, changing your own grades is about you, it's very personal. And I want to be able to provide for other people. I want to be able to say "I have an idea" or "you guys have an idea", "let me know, let me get your voice and then I want to change it for you guys" Seeing the university in a different perspective can change how you feel about school entirely, because everyone is always in the same: I am a student. I am a student. I am a student. And some people are going to be students for the rest of their lives; and that is totally fine, but I feel that if I have the chance to be something different than a student, I am going to take it."
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Jonathon Tonietto
Materials Science and Engineering with Society and Co-op
Level VI
"I have been at this school for six years, which is now a quarter of my life. A lot of people feel that university take from them, I feel like this university has only given to me and I think that in this position, I would be able to give back to this school the way it has given to me."
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Justin Monaco-Barnes
English and Cultural Studies
Level IV
"The main reason why I am running for MSU president is that I have been very involved from both an MSU standpoint as well as a student standpoint. I have gotten to work with a lot of passionate people who are very passionate about their own projects, whether they are part-time or full-time, or just general students. I would love to work with them more at a different kind of level. And to bring in certain ideas that can really impact everyone. It is kind of the idea of being a leader and working with these people that are so passionate with the student life."
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Mike Gill
Integrated Sciences concentrating in Mathematics
Level IV
"I'm running for MSU President because I believe that our campus and students are capable of really big exciting change and I think that it is time we start addressing the largest problems facing us as students here at Mac. Personally, I have benefited a ton from my time during the MSU. I have grown so much, I have met so many great people, but I know that a lot of people don't have that experience. So I am excited to see our organization do more, especially for those students who aren't involved and don't want to be involved. I think that together we can do a whole lot more to prioritize academics, employment, all sorts of things that extend beyond this MSU organization."
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Sarah Jama
Social Psychology
Level IV
"I am running for MSU President because I really want to make sure that student voices are being brought to the table that aren't being listened to during the conversations of student leadership and student government. I want to make sure that we are bringing as many voices to the table as possible."
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The campaign will officially begin Sunday, Jan. 17 at 12 p.m. Stay tuned at thesil.ca/category/msu2016 for ongoing coverage of the election.
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If you looked at early photos of the McMaster campus, you might notice that it looks drastically different than it does today. In the 82 years Mac has spent in this city, the school has grown, more buildings were put up to accommodate the growing population, and the campus expanded to take up more of the surrounding area.
But in early November, the administration took a major step towards bringing Mac back to its roots. The President’s Advisory Committee on Cootes Paradise (PACCP) announced on Nov. 9 that a 30-metre buffer zone would be created between parking lot M, on west campus, and the nearby Ancaster Creek.
The implementation of the buffer will mean the lot will lose 318 parking spots, according to the Hamilton Conservation Authority.
The lot currently has 1,400 transponders for staff and students, and approximately 1,300 spots. According to Gord Arbeau, McMaster’s Director of Public and Community Relations, the use of the lot is spread out over the week, so the loss of the additional space is not expected to have an effect on the availability of parking.
The area that is now occupied by parking lots M, N, O and P was the floodplain area for Ancaster Creek. It wasn’t until McMaster took possession of this portion of the Royal Botanical Gardens land in the 1960s that the floodplain was paved.
Randy Kay, a local environmental activist, said this change has been a long time coming.
“This is a very integral part of the puzzle,” he explained. “It is a huge, important piece of the larger Cootes Paradise recovery.”
Kay is the organizer of Restore Cootes, an environmental group dedicated to the revitalization of the area surrounding McMaster. The group has been leading “Ponds to Parking” hikes since December 2011 to spread awareness of the issue.
Kay also submitted a letter to the University Planning Committee in March 2011 encouraging the administration to take on the wetland restoration project, but did not have any success at the time.
“I was a little upset, actually… when you send a letter to the University Planning Committee, they don’t actually even acknowledge they’ve received it.”
In the spring of 2012, after a meeting with McMaster officials, two city councilors, and the chair of the PACCP, the University agreed to take on the project, creating a specific lot M subcommittee, and their support “changed the dynamic quite a bit,” said Kay.
Although the agreement to the 30 m buffer marks an achievement for Restore Cootes, Kay explained that the process of working through the channels of University administration was not always easy.
“You’re kind of left in this one-way vacuum where you don’t get anything back. It goes into this black hole of administration,” he said of his early attempts to get the attention of the University Planning Committee. “I could see that being a barrier, for citizens and other interested people around the campus to get involved.”
As well as working with the PACCP, Restore Cootes collaborated with MacGreen, OPIRG McMaster and a group of “McMaster Marsh” professors. The professors have also been advocating that a currently closed portion of the lot be repurposed to become an outdoor research facility, to serve both students and faculty.
“What they’re doing now is the minimum requirement for today’s standards of a healthy, coldwater creek,” Kay explained. “Doing the minimum is what needs to be done… doing more would be great.”
By Ryan Sparrow
Leading an empire is a lot of work. President Obama won a second term as President over a slightly nastier person, Mitt Romney. In their course for the White House, the main headquarters to direct the empire, billions upon billions of dollars were spent. Billions were spent saying the right-wing Democratic Party is better than the right-wing Republican Party and vice versa.
The US is a massive empire; it has near hegemony over the entirety of the world.
This is why in the Presidential debates there was no mention of tackling climate change or curbing military spending.
The US has 50% of the world’s defense budget not because it is defending itself or freedom, but to maintain an Empire. Liberal commenters will have us believe that the Empire building is simply mistakes, simply invasions based on wrong information or stupid ideas.
It is not by mistake or stupid decisions that Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam or many others were invaded. It’s not by mistake that Yemen, Pakistan, and many other countries are being drone strike on a regular basis. It’s not by mistake that democratically elected governments were overthrown like Haiti, Honduras and Paraguay.
It is, however, big business. Millions die across the globe in order for profits to be made. There is a lot of money involved in attacking other countries via defense contracts, there is a lot of money involved in stealing their resources, and there is a lot of money in rebuilding contracts afterwards.
Empire is not about military conquest; empire is imperialism which is resource extraction and profits. For example in 2008 when the government of Honduras was overthrown, they overthrew the government without any initial bloodshed, though death squads do round up and routinely kill supporters of many of the democratic organization, peasant associations and trade unions. The new dictatorship in Honduras has now opened themselves to the dictates of mining corporations, many of which are based in Canada.
It is not necessary to have a country be a colony by use of military invasion, simply the threat of force when a country engages in economic nationalism. Economic nationalism refers to economic policies that are directed towards the betterment of the colonial people at the expense of the interest of the imperial country.
As President, Obama has overseen the expansion of the US Empire to include more colonies, like Libya. Libya’s crime to the empire was not abuses towards the population which no doubt existed, nor that Gaddafi was a undemocratic, it was that Libya did implement policies that were in the economic interests of the Libyan people. Policies like a public oil corporation whose profits went to fund healthcare, infrastructure and education. The crime to the empire was the lack of markets for foreign multinationals to profit where profits could be made.
Obama’s new colony is very unstable, the life expectancy and purchasing power of Libya has plummeted since the NATO bombardment and overthrow. But this is not a concern of the US Empire. Libya, once the richest country in Africa now has much of the country’s major infrastructure in ruins. Soon after the overthrow Libya had its oilfields privatized and are now in the hands of big oil multinationals.
The empire however is not free; someone has to pay for the costs involved in maintaining an empire. When the United States government goes to wars, maintains military bases or attacks other countries it uses its defense budget and public treasury to pay for it. The spoils of war are not going back into the government’s coffers, the revenues brought in from imperialism are privatized, and the profits of war are provided to corporations and their boards of directors. The CEO of banks and hedge funds, Oil companies, construction firms, defense firms, and so on all benefit from imperialism.
Imperialism allows that the coffers of defense contractors’ overflow, with their rampart “unexpected” cost overruns much like the F35 Fighter Jets that Canada is planning on purchasing, where the costs more than doubled.
So much profit is made, but the people have to pay for this empire, they do this through taxes, which are increasingly flat taxation. What is meant by flat taxation is working people are paying a larger share of it, while the rich and the corporations pay less or sometimes nothing. Debt is used to finance the imperial ambitions, which in turn provide massive returns to those issuing the debts. Cuts to the social wages are made, cuts to social security, public sector wages, and so on in order so that these vultures can profit ever more for war.
In order to maintain an empire, there is a need to suppress alternative political voices that are opposed to it, most notably in this most recent election was the arrest of the Green party candidates and their exclusion from the debates. Most notably under Obama was the repression of the Occupy Movements, this continues policies that attack organized and peaceful protests and the routine arrests of the poor and racialized people.
The monopoly media cartel and the public education system also help reinforce the dominant imperial ideology by not just promoting and framing the discourse but also limiting the realm of acceptable opinions. For example discussions on reducing the US defense budget or even municipal policing budgets are deemed subversive and outside the realm of acceptable opinion.
Obama is not in opposition to empire building, he is engaged in it. If he was opposed to it, he could not be president.
Kacper Niburski
Assistant News Editor
After a grueling two weeks of campaigning and a balloting period that had the makings of a political cliffhanger, Siobhan Stewart is nothing short of appreciative of all that has happened.
“It is a privilege. I feel honoured to be given the opportunity,” she said. Considering the close margin of the presidential elections results, in which 33.4 per cent of the MSU’s eligible voters casted a ballot, “privilege” may be an understatement.
Winning the MSU elections by no more than 47 votes ahead of the second-place David Campbell, the results were an embodiment of the year’s strong field of candidates. In fact, when campaigning had started two weeks prior to Stewart’s win, it felt as though the title could go to any one of the five candidates.
Stewart initially felt very much the same. Even on the night of the ballot count, she was unabatedly jittery while attempting to absorb herself in a game of Settlers of Catan. “Usually I am focused and competitive but I wasn’t able to concentrate.” She added with a laugh that “I guess I had something going on.”
Then, the call came. In tears she answered the phone, assuming the worst. On the other line, however, was the current MSU President, Matthew Dillon-Leitch, congratulating her on a successful campaign. At that point, Stewart was no longer crying from anxiety; she was crying from excitement.
“The first person I called was my mom. She woke up my dad. They both were very proud. To be honest, though, I think I was crying more than she was,” she said.
After a night of endless phone calls and celebration, she awoke the next morning as the soon-to-be MSU President.
“It’s hard to put the feeling into words. When I woke up, I just told myself, ‘I’m going to be the MSU President.’ I guess if I had to sum it up, I’d say it was a feeling of appreciation that I’ve been given an opportunity unlike any other.”
As to why this “opportunity” was bestowed to her over the other four candidates, Stewart was hesitant to reply. “I am not sure why the students voted as they did.” Perhaps the win was due to a dedicated campaign team. Perhaps it was a result of extensive promotions. Whatever the reason, Stewart stressed, “I can only be humble.”
Plans to begin the initiatives outlined in her platform stretch far beyond the campaign trail. As Stewart transitions into her one-year term as MSU President, which starts on May 1, she will be meeting with various members of the current administration.
“I want to do my best to keep the positivity by staying true to the MSU and all it stands to represent,” she said.
To do this, she plans to first implement the key sustainability promise of her campaign platform: green roofs. She has currently set up meetings with Kate Whalen, the Manager of Sustainability, to discuss the most successful plan of action.
“It’s no longer an idea,” Stewart stressed. “It’s now about how we act towards it.”
Yet Stewart hinted that her presidential initiatives will not be restricted to her own campaign points. Among the many other things, Stewart lauded Mukhtar Galan’s WiFi passion, David Campbell’s stress busters, Alex Ramirez’s expansion into the community and Chris Erl’s HSR-related mandate.
“The beauty of the election is I don’t know who voted for me, but I am interested as to why people voted for someone over someone else. As the MSU President, I need to look at every platform and try to incorporate the standout points to resonate with all students.”
“It takes a certain amount of bravery to put your name on the ballot,” she continued. “All of the candidates exemplified this, just in different ways. In the end, we all agreed we wanted to make the student experience better.”
She joked, “Why can’t there be five MSU presidents?”
Though this won’t be a reality, the MSU President must work extensively with three Vice Presidents. Unlike the President, whose mandate is somewhat open to interpretation, the Vice Presidents have three respective roles in finance, administration and education.
“I am looking for VP’s that are different than myself,” she said. Comparing the MSU Board of Directors to a puzzle, Stewart stressed that the pieces must come together to form the picture. She is looking for people who see things, “in a unique perspective apart from my own, but when put together, they share the same vision.”
It is this vision, powered by the idea that there can be something for every student, despite the differences in opinions, despite the area of studies and despite the social scene, that makes Stewart excited. “It’s going to be a good year,” she said.
