Down with York U.

Between rising tuition, the burdens of financial aid and a societal view that real life can’t begin without at least a couple of post-secondary diplomas, there seems to be a marked decline in student activism directed at anything beyond the cost of a Metropass. But the geographical isolation of York University seems to have incubated its own sort of stridency, even if it’s just one dude exercising his angst. A pre-federal election debate held at the Keele Street sarcophagus culminated in ex-immigration minister Judy Sgro being shrieked at by York Federation of Students staffer Daniel Freeman-Maloy when she tried to exit, a confrontation that prompted another candidate to leave. On the day of the federal election, though, Freeman-Maloy and fellow members of the Grass Roots Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN) stood still in the Vari Hall rotunda on the first anniversary of a demonstration tied to the re-inauguration of George W. Bush. Back then, paid-duty officers asking for the bullhorns to be turned down were drawn into a fracas that culminated in five arrests – a melee which begat another protest the following day, then a third event drawing media attention to York’s “violent suppression of free speech”. This problem evidently hasn’t been resolved 365 days later. York president Lorna Marsden issued a press release outlining the measures taken to avoid future confrontation; the GRAINiacs countered that “despite continued efforts by the administration to erect bureaucratic barriers to anti-imperialist and other dissident activities, students have organized many successful events, and more are in the works”. Not even the York Excalibur newspaper can accurately keep track of what this recurring mob is griping about – this battle was initiated three fall semesters ago, when Jewish student Freeman-Maloy raised enough of a ruckus at a pro-Israel event to provoke Marsden into expelling him for three years. The decision was legally challenged, allowing this thorn in the president’s side to keep racking up credits toward his Bachelor of Antagonism.