UMSU’s failure to find an alternate insurance plan comparable to CFS’s is made even bleaker when you consider who uses the plan. During my degree, I opted out of the health and dental plan every year because, as bourgeois scum, I had coverage through my parents. The students who live comfortably and receive some form of parental support will not even notice this premium increase, as they will never have to pay it.
Approaching resource extraction by treating the hinterland as a provider for global economies isolates the local communities from their land, often excluding them from jobs and wealth associated with the resource industry as well as excluded from use of the physical resource. With extraction of resources increasingly for exports and global use, regionally the benefits of extraction landscapes are rarely reaped.
In heeding our conscience – and what, other than that, is the purpose of having consciousness – we will find a path clear before us. This is the path of protest, of differentiation form the norm. Not of calling out, but of turning away. True protest, the kind that seeks change, must be more affirmation than negation. It is focused on the actions we can ourselves take, not the actions not taken by others.
In practice, the executive holds all the power. Executive members are full-time officers of UMSU. They can devote their entire day to furthering their agendas. They can utilize the expertise of UMSU staff to develop large-scale plans and proposals. Most importantly, the executive controls the flow of information to council.
We are all entitled to support whom we choose and to give voice to that choice. To listen to our conscience and act upon the things it tells us about the world. If we do so without violence, there can be no case for the use of government force against us. In a free and just society, the use of government power to punish individuals for speaking their beliefs, no matter how unpopular, is oppression.
Examining the events leading up to the referendum on July 5, we are reminded of a flaw inherent to referendums: when public opinion is expected to be broadly split, it boils down to a large-scale marketing contest.
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