City in brief: Nov. 30, 2010

To Quebec City we go!

Fresh off the yes campaign for the student centre, the CSU is launching a new campaign this week to drive three busloads of students to the Dec. 6 protests against tuition increases in Quebec City, which coincides with the provincial government’s conference with university heads and lobby groups. CSU President Heather Lucas said this is a strategic decision on the government’s part,”[…] they know students are in exams, and that not everyone’s going to leave their exams to go protest.” To join in, sign up at the CSU’s office on the seventh floor of the Hall building. The CSU will even throw in a wake-up call.

High school tells champion student athletes to trim mohawks

The juvenile boys volleyball team at Royal West Academy was threatened with suspension after they got mohawks. The students got the haircuts to celebrate their first-ever championship. But the school administration was determined to prove their lack of school spirit. They enforced their conservative dress policy, which includes a uniform, and the students complied, while protesting that the policy violated freedom of expression. School officials refused to comment. Earlier this year, students protested summer reading policies, which timed with the release of local movie The Trotsky, where Montreal high school students went on a fictional strike.

Prochaine station… Villa-Maria… brought to you by Home Depot

Have no fear… your beloved green metro line is at no risk of changing colours or being renamed the Bell line. But despite those restrictions, the STM announced last week that it will go ahead and open public tenders for the sponsorship of metro lines within a few weeks. This is just one of several cash-generating ideas the STM is tossing around. The money from the planned 10-year “partnership” deals will supposedly go towards technology that informs users of train schedules in real time. Opposition party Projet Montreal opposed the idea, calling it “hare-brained.” They released their own projected sponsorship map. Unlike the STM’s minimal map, this one was plastered with ads.

McGill prof: don’t give money to the beer drinkers!

Ed Clark, CEO of Toronto-Dominion Bank, in an unusual move for bank brass, made a statement in Montreal that would probably not find favour with his colleagues. He told the Canadian Club that while Canada is in a comparatively good state in today’s lax economic climate, the nation should address a couple of issues to keep from falling behind other countries, like the uneven tax system. Clark advocated lowering taxes for the poor. Not everyone is in the same boat, though. McGill economist Thomas Velk told the Financial Post, “I would really dispute Mr. Clark’s notion that we need to give money to the beer drinkers.” We resent that.

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