Shame on UTMSU.

Spending student dollars on this “bail out” fund.

UTMSU claims to want to “drop fees”

sounds like they’d rather ABUSE FEES!!! this is outrageous! I cant believe this is where our fees go.

what is wrong with the student union???

What else do they “donate” to?

UTMSU does not seem to realize that if they were ever in a similar situation UTSU would never assist our student’s or our campus.

On numerous occasions we have asked, for in-kind, support from UTSU and they have always, always turned us down.

To me Angela Regnier is just another person. Why does she have to get so much support and help for consequences of her own actions? If a student union was boasting about equality for all, then wouldn’t they help the others arrested?

Echoing my sentiments from before, choosing to protest in such a careless manner will result in consequences. Consequences that are a direct result of an INDIVIDUALS participation.

As for comments stating that there is no conflict of interest? There most certainly is! Within the student union world everything is tit-for-tat. I would know, I’ve been there long enough. Except this time, as always, UTSU wont be there for you UTMSU.

Shame. Someone ought to give the Board a voice, I feel like they’re following motions and not understanding they have the power to say NO.

“Michael” you are obviously from UTMSU

No real student would be in favour of this. Funny how the poll jumped to people in favor with only your comment supporting the cause.

FAKE POLLS! I love it..UTMSU is so concerned with student interests that they can’t even let the poll speak for itself.

Oh and by “Michael” do you mean your name is really Walied?

YOU SHOULD GET A LIFE BUD!

The article is wrong. If a donation goes to a legal defense fund, it’s not going to the individual, so it’s incorrect to say the donation was to “Angela Regnier”. There’s a big difference.

Student unions, and unions in general, donate to legal defense funds all the time. Historically, when student protestors at UofT have been charged after a non-violent demonstration, student unions and trade unions across the country sent money in to their legal defense fund. This isn’t new.

Whatever you think of the Tamil situation, when police arrest people just for being at a protest, I think it’s something student unions should be defending. I’d rather my student union money go to something useful like this than yet another pub night for white kids.

A.K.A Walied, UTMSU, UTSU, The CONSPIRACY! Sameer..

Why so upset Sameer,

Someone disagrees with you and your quick on the attack!

Seriously get a life. I really don’t mind if UTMSU made a donation to help out on a legal case. If i were arrested in the drop Fees demo that i attended i would have wanted my student Union to bail me out.

PS: R.I.P Michael Jackson

Nepotism at its finest.

So let me get this straight, the fact that she is an active member of the student union had absolutely no impact on the decision to donate to her situation? If this is indeed the truth, I have some unresolved parking tickets that I could use some help with. Uhh, I guess the parking maids gave me tickets as an intimidation tactic that was meant to discourage anyone else for parking without an insanely expensive parking pass.

The simple truth is that she did not get arrested for protesting. She got arrested for obstructing one of the busiest highways in the city causing danger not only to herself but the vehicles on the road as well.

That whole speech about protecting student interests is complete bull. How exactly does this help the general student body? I can respect the council’s decision to help out a friend but to do so with the student’s money is ridiculous. The question becomes, would they have done the same if it were anyone else in the school? Let’s say a non council member or a student who could care less about student government?

I’m sure that if they raised the funds themselves with the money coming out of their own pockets and not the budget that was give to them by the student, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

But for serious… I really could use some “donationsâ€� with the parking tickets.
Wink Wink Mr. President

Ahmed, its funny how you have such detailed information about the board meeting when you were not there and there is no one the UTMSU board of directors named Ahmed.

Regardless- as a student I have a right to my opinion and since you were clearly not at the meeting let me share what happened.

After many people had already spoke against this donation and there was a question of student dollars. I simply stated that I have been on the needs based bursary committee for UTMSU for the past two years and UTMSU has not been able to give $1000.00 to a UTM student.

If you see anything in the article that seems bias please point it out.

Maybe you should try attending future board meetings. I’d be happy to chat with you about objectivity.

Thanks for reading!

I have access to this information because friends of mine were talking about what happened. That’s what got me posting here in the first place.

I’m sorry if I offended the integrity of your secret meetings by repeating details of your conflict of interest, Saaliha.

You’re free to be involved in student politics. That’s your right. It just makes it hard for you to be an objective news editor writing about a board meeting where you were an active participant in the debate on this issue.

Who knows what other details I’m not aware of because I’m not part of the select few who are allowed to know what Razan and Saaliha know?

It’s not about what “we are allowed to know” Ahmed. It’s what we DO know vs. what you don’t know.

Please come out to meetings and learn about it full circle. Don’t go by what your friends say.

I just have to say that I know people and I know how to read through the lines. I have reason to believe some people posting here aren’t who they are saying they are.

Miss. Malik did not attend the meeting as a student politician but as a STUDENT who is a member of the student body eligible to sit in on meetings.

Making a comment at a meeting does not engross a person in the motion nor the controversy. Miss. Malik did not have voting power but rather the guts to inform the board members of the whole issue before they made their decisions.

Toronto Star writers are citizens, and as citizens they have a right to participate in city council meetings and consultations.

But can you imagine a Toronto Star writer showing up to a city council consultation, arguing in favour of one side of the debate, and then writing an “objective” news story about it, without admitting their own bias?

Ahaa… And so it begins. Another year of unbiased, objective journalistic reporting from that institution of UTM, The Medium.

Of course, I am being sarcastic. I love how in this article, the only reporting from the Board Meeting is of those who spoke against the motion. If memory serves me correctly, there were others who spoke in favor, and quite eloquently, but of course, with the Medium, expecting both sides of the story is a dream.

And before somebody accusses me of being Walied, I would like to point out that not everybody on this campus is divided into “Hates The Union” or “Elected Representative of The Union”. There ARE students out there (like me) who think the Student Union does some excellent work, and there are students out there (like me) who think that its important for the union to take a stance on issues of social justice.

Of course, if one were to read the Medium, one would assume that the only way the Student Union exists is at gun point, and under the esteemed leadership of Saaliha Malik, whos bias against issues of social justice is very clear to anybody who payed attention, I think this year, were in for another year of biased slanted anti-union reporting.

And before anybody says, “How do you know all this, you werent there, YOURE WALIED”, people who sit on the board do have friends who tell us about this stuff, because some of us care about the issues.

Some of us do think that its fine for the Student Union to spend money on things like justice, solidarity, and unity. Not all of us are incredibly selfish, and not all of us think that we should only help people if they help us.

In Solidarity (with whoever fights the good fight),
Saad,
An Ordinary Student.

UTMSU raising their salaries is a whole other issue, but thank you for bringing that up Damian! Not many people knew about that. So much for the “transparency” student’s were promised.

And, sad as it is, I’m quite sure if you or any student was in a similar situation you would not receive this much assistance and financial support.

I echo your sentiments, if you do the crime, you do the time.

Journalists always pose statements/questions to inform individuals and get the topic going.

Had the Board only heard, “Angela is in need, we must help her. She was arrested by the police for speaking out.” they would simply vote yes on the notion of the argument being emotionally sympathetic.

Miss. Malik allowed a situation to arise where people had to think and react to knowing all sides of the story. Is that not what you want from your student leaders? People who can think and act rationally with ALL the information?

Meghan, have you considered running for office against them? Or not using all-caps?

Just to jump in once more: Considering that she is against the idea, she framed it fairly neutrally. As a writer trying to entice discussion one typically needs to “pick” a side and present it more heavily, just as one would argue a thesis with several points and offer only one counter-point.

Furthermore her objectivity barely enters the equation. Remove all the quotes and the story is this: UTMSU donates $1000 to aid the legal defence of a UTSU member arrested on charges of mischief interference with property.

THAT’s what people are angry about, not any quotes in the article.

Find me the bias in the article.

Is there any? I didn’t think so.

You’d get a fail if this was your English class analysis work.

It’s not false!

Are you even reading what people are writing???

The article clearly shows 3 POV’s:

One view is that of a student who did not agree with the $1000 bailout.

Another student did not say if it was right or wrong but rather if we should be doing it at all.

And lastly, Joey Santiago’s comments that defend the union’s decisions.

3 different sentiments, 3 views, 3 people, and 1 article.

3 POV’s. Tell me how that’s biased Ahmed?

Ahmed:

It was not a debate. She told everybody a fact. She didn’t argue or rebut.

Simply participating in a meeting did not give her voting authority.

So maybe I can help this discussion move forward a little bit.

Miss Malik, when you were at the Board meeting, did you frame what you said as a statement to elicit more information (i.e. a question) or rather, was it a statement that showed that you had an opinion about the issue? I think that the answer to that question will help with the issue of objectivity.

An editor of the Medium can have all the opinions they want. If they wish to write them out and get them published in a paper, they can do that too, there is a specific section for that, its called the Opinions Page. The article would, then, be called an Editorial. But this is not an editorial. This is an article. There is a difference.

And about the issue of bias. Come now, if anybody still defines media bias as only overt gestures (i.e. the Medium printing a headline “UTMSU siphons money to friend in need’), then I think you need to wake up and smell the fresh air. Just as their is such a thing like systemic racism (NOT calling somebody names, but denying them jobs and social services) and systemic sexism (NOT keeping women at home and not letting them vote, but rather making sure that they dont get the same pay as a man, for the same work, when both are equally qualified) there is such a thing as systemic bias in the media.

Some complaints: the fact that there was no mention of the fact that directors spoke in favor of the motion, all the quotes from the UTMSU executive were from a statement issued to the Medium, when there were some very eloquent speeches made at the meeting itself, etc. And really, if youre telling me that the style of writing, using certain words to get reactions (calling the motion “controversial” , etc.) in no way reflects a bias, then you need to take a course in language, or even common sense.

Also, please dont give me that cock and bull story about the Medium being here to “inform” the students.

Did the Medium “inform” the students about the fact that UTM is going to be spending $70 million on construction of new buildings, while raising tuition fees because they have no money?

What about the fact that UTM wanted going to start fining students for smoking withing 9 meters of any building?

Look, just because you can sit in your big office and say that youve reported on something that the union did wrong (and the only reason it seems wrong is because you put a negative spin on it) does not make you a real paper. Youre not a student union newsletter. Your bias leans (clearly) the other way.

Grow a pair and take on those who actually harm students. The admin, with their exorbitant raises in tuition fees, while raising their own salaries (I dont remember you publishing that either).