Canadian Army Forced Out of U Victoria

An already bitter left-right divide simmered as the University of Victoria Student Society announced its decision to ban Armed Forces recruiters from their career day, to be held in January, claiming the Armed Forces commits war crimes that make it unacceptable as an employer of the university’s students.

The left-leaning student union, registered under the Canadian Federation of Students, has recently been at odds with conservative, liberal and even several independent groups since the controversial ousting of a popular UVSS chairperson candidate in last year’s election. Right-leaning campus groups have expressed dissent, claiming that the student union has no business banning recruiters from the fair and that students themselves should decide where they would or would not like to work.

What war crimes? Remember, the Canadian Forces are fighting in Afghanistan - the war the the Left continually tells us is the justified war. The front that the Left tells us that the US should have paid most attention to, that in Afghanistan, we “took our eye off the ball” and let Bin Laden go. Afghanistan is the just war, according to the rhetoric of the Left.

But, regardless, the left-leaning student union at the University of Victoria levels baseless accusations of “War Crimes” at the Canadian Forces.

Unbelievable.

Update: I found the article from the U of Victoria Student newspaper, The Martlet. Check this out:

[Tim] Fournier [from Students Against War] accused the military of being dishonest, saying the Canadian Armed Forces use depleted uranium, which has been linked to cancer. The website of the Department of National Defence said that the Armed Forces haven’t carried depleted uranium since 1998.

“They are liars,” Fournier said. “They do not tell the truth, and they manipulate us.”

Hmmm. When confronted with a denial from the Department of National Defense, his response is - “You’re a liar.” Nice comeback buddy.

Scott Garnett, a student in the gallery, challenged Fournier’s assertion that the Canadian military is guilty of war crimes.

“Has anybody in the Canadian military been convicted of war crimes?” Garnett asked.

“They don’t tell us,” replied Fournier, who said Afghans under the supervision of the Canadian military were tortured. “Convicted or not, torturing people is a war crime.”

I wonder if this guy is a Truther. He’s got all the marks of a conspiracy theorist.

Director-at-large Christine Comrie said it was important to ban the military from recruiting because some students are ignorant about the issues.

“A lot of students don’t know about the issues and don’t know about the facts,” she said. “We have to make this decision for students.”

…

Many people in the room broke into applause after Ho cast her tiebreaking vote in favour of banning the military.

U of Victoria students - welcome to your nanny state!

In the meantime, the ban has been rescinded, and is scheduled for a vote on October 25. I guess that they are going to let students actually make their own decisions.

The UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) rescinded their ban on Canadian Forces recruiters in the Student Union Building (SUB), putting the issue to a student vote at the society’s Oct. 25 annual general meeting.

…

In response to that meeting, a Facebook group was started called “The Canadian Forces are not criminals … but the UVSS are idiots.” Group members printed handbills and impeachment petitions were circulated for the seven members of the UVSS who voted to remove the military from the SUB.

So, I guess not everyone at U of Victoria is an idiot. But, again, this guy is:

Tim Fournier of Students Against War said that his group is not trying to censor anyone, but rather “prevent students from being charged with international war crimes.”

What?

Can’t wait to see what the vote is.

Update #2: Had I been keeping up with my RSS reader, I would have noticed that SDA was all over this 2 weeks ago.

Posted by casey on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 4:15 pm.