Donkey Riding (And now for something completely different...some local news)

The forthcoming semester at the University of Toronto promises not to pass without controversy

The Soviet Union may have collapsed, but communist ideology is still alive and well on North American campuses. My school is no exception. A news bulletin sent out by the Students' Adminstrative Council (SAC) of the University of Toronto highlights an upcoming event, the annual Xpression Against Oppression Week, which will focus this year on the Make Poverty History campaign. In their bulletin, SAC boasts about the riveting key note speaker that they have secured for the event: rogue British Parliamentarian, George Galloway.

Galloway, who formed the socialist RESPECT The Unity Coalition after getting booted out of the Labour party, was quoted in 2002 by The Guardian, "If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life." He has also been quoted as saying of Fidel Castro's Cuba that it is a "remarkable society" and "a model for the world."

Somehow, SAC thinks it is a good idea to invite someone who thinks very highly of communist Cuba (where oxen, donkeys and mules are about as common on the roads as automobiles) to be the key note speaker of an event aimed at ending world poverty. How ironic then, that SAC's major campaign to get cheaper Toronto Transit Commision (TTC) metropasses would likely be rendered useless if we were to follow any of Galloways advice since the TTC would have end up having to trade in its buses for some farm animals. How ironic also, that the event is being funded by students' tuition money, whether they agree to it or not.