Last week, CUSA called for students to act as human barricades for the 5 a.m. Thursday demolition time, but when crews showed up at 3 a.m. instead, CUSA president Carole Saab and a few others were there to try and stop them from scrapping Oliver's pub patio, which is legally rented by CUSA.

The cops hauled those protesters away but released them later that day with no charges. Other students showed up at 5 a.m. and have refused to budge, working on rotating shifts through the wind and rain all week. CUSA president Carole Saab said they will continue to stay there "for as long as it takes. They're also suing the school for $500,000.

"We want to negotiate and hopefully this action will get them back to the table," Saab told XPress. "Without a space we can't really function as an organization on campus."

Several student unions from all over Canada, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Canadian Association of University Teachers have all expressed their support for the students.

 
 

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You don't need crack kits when you have Coke     I can completely understand why our government would want to hand out free crack pipes, to of course stop the spread of AIDS, it's pretty basic. For example, if one AIDS infected crack user shares a pipe with someone who isn't, and they then sleep with someone else without a condom, 2 other people have been infected, one of them who wasn't even getting high. So, I can see why they'd be concerned: people get infected, and then more people get infected, and then more, and so on. I can see that the problems with that... What I can't see is why the hell we need to give them free crack kits. Doesn't the government know that you can easily make one out of just a pop can and an earring? Were none of the members of parliament EVER in college/university? Making crack pipes and bongs out of just about anything is one of the valuable lessons people experience during post-secondary education. So I'm pretty sure that crack addicts who don't have to worry about homework can spend all day long figuring out how to make crack pipes out of apples and straws. So what's my suggestion to the government? Instead of spending valuable taxpayers dollars on things like free crack kits, why don't they just make one sided flyers on how to make an at home crack pipe? Or instead of that, why don't they boost all the money they'd use on photocopies into our education system? Or *gasp* even putting more money into our hospitals? My god! It's so crazy it just might work! But you know, its kind of ironic. They're still torn over the legalizing marijuana deal, but yet promoting the use of crack is just dandy! Don't you just love our government?
D'Janau Morales	{9 votes}	May 1st, 2005
Should we trust Bevan on crack pipes or indeed anything at all?     Have none of the reporters or editors at Ottawa Xpress read Stephen Williams' book on the Bernardo/Homolka case, "Invisible Darkness"? In it, Williams' documents the now-Ottawa Police Chief Bevan's role in helping to botch the investigation of the "Scarborough Rapist" (Bernardo before he became a murderer) and the later investigation of the French-Mahaffy murders. Apparently, Bevan (who was the officer in charge of the investigations) had an opportunity to arrest and investigate Bernardo during the Scarborough Rapist investigation, ultimately allowing Bernardo to go on and escalate his crimes and become a killer. Then, when Bernardo and Homolka were finally caught, a year or two later, after three unfortunate teen-aged girls were killed, Bevan (again the officer in charge of the investigation) pronounced the "crime scene" (the couple's house) to be thoroughly "investigated" - only to miss the crucial video tape in the ceiling. Of course, the lack of finding the tape led to the notorious plea-bargain deal with Homolka, with the result that she is soon to be released from prison. If the evidence of the tape had been discovered, it seems likely that she would still be facing many years in prison, as Bernardo is. According to Williams, who seems to have exhaustively researched all details surrounding this horrific case, Bevan's superiors were so unimpressed with his poor performance that he was subsequently "let go". Then when Ottawa was casting around for a new police chief it seems to have been a case of "here, take this guy, we sure don't want him!". Now, will someone please explain why, with this background, this man should be viewed as a "reliable souce" on things like the possible legal liability of the city for handing out "crack pipes" in an effort to reduce the spread of a couple of fatal diseases?
Curheal Salmon	{20 votes}	April 29th, 2005
Giving Away Medical Supplies     There are many events in Montreal throughout the year such as during Gay Pride Week where condoms are distributed for free. Although used as a marketing gimmick this venture will help save lives in the future by reducing sexually transmitted diseases and reducing the burden on our heath support system. Likewise the distribution of fee syringes is a small price to pay to help prevent future health problems. Diabetics use syringes to inject themselves all the time and so this should not always be looked upon as an illegal activity. Even doctors get free syringe samples and even I myself picked up a few at a health exhibit booth some time ago. Crack pipe kits on the other hand are an expensive novelty item that has no legitimate personal use making it a bad idea to distribute it at no charge. Anyway the kit does not lessen the health risks involved.
Stephen Talko	{3 votes}	May 1st, 2005
The Crack Man     Is this a Soap Opera?.....You gotta be kidding....Bevan what a joke. Ok put the cuffs on him...wouldn't handing out crack kits be against the law?...drug paraphenalia and using our money to do it. Those crack heads are in their own positions...we didn't put them there. This is such a bunch of nonense...it isn't even worth commenting about. Bevan/Chiarelli and the likes of them have a voice in the provincial government...god help us! What is next?
Jennifer Berardini	{3 votes}	May 1st, 2005
Curheal makes some good points.     Who is Vince Bevan to lay claim to what we should be doing with our crack pipe distribution? Obviously, from some of the comments that Curheal Salmon makes, Vince may not be the clear and obvious choice to lead our police department based on his past failures as a police officer (prior to getting his new digs on Elgin Street). Let's hope the crack pipe debacle goes away quietly. Crack users seem to be the ones that should have been consulted in all this. With our kits or not, they'll find a way to get high anyways.
Aaron O'Brien	{4 votes}	April 30th, 2005
Crack this!     I can't even remember when something so stupid was issued by this city. People thought the new seats in the Civic Centre was a bad investment. Well, my butt was just fine watching concerts there in "real" seats afterwards. Crack pipes? Give them Crackbombs so they can blow themselves up. What a waste. it's their problem, not mine so let them deal with it, but not with my money!
Ger Madden	{5 votes}	April 28th, 2005
The Case Of The Crack Job And The Whacked Job............     City Council and the Chief Doctor vs The Police Chief: Sounds like something you'd read on the court docket down at Elgin Street. It seems like it may be too late to stop the crack pipe kit. There probably is a trial period attached to this..I mean.. the money can't be endless from Mr and Mrs taxpayer, can it? At the end of the trial period, show us that the crack pipe experiment was a success and let us vote on whether we want it back for another test period. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CUSA paid for the space and lose the space because it's become a power fight, a war over principles. This mess is not getting any better between administration and the student body. Are there enough interested people to care? $500,000 says there might be.
Steve Landry	{2 votes}	April 28th, 2005
Chief Bevan     If Bevan gets his wish, does that mean he'll be sending police to arrest the proprietors of all those stores on Rideau St that sell bongs, pipes, and rolling papers? It's just this city's luck that our city's head of police chose Chief Clancy Wiggum as a role model.
Andrew Franklin	{1 vote}	May 2nd, 2005

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