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In September….

“The motion was passed to clarify a policy amendment passed 10-1 by the last UVSS board of directors in April.That board amended the society’s policy on military issues to include, “The Society is opposed to the militarization of Canadian Society, and is unsupportive of a Canadian military establishment that violates international law and human rights.” […] “The ban voted in on Sept. 10 means that the Canadian Armed Forces will be unable to attend the annual recruiting fair put on by UVic’s Career Services in the SUB every January. The Armed Forces attended last year’s recruiting fair.”

Graham Noyes sends a final update; The Nightmare is Over

In a true display of democracy in action, 400 UVic students crammed into the conference room at the Student Union Building (SUB) to vote in the Annual General Meeting. The issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind was that motion passed by the Board of Directors last month banning the Canadian Forces from recruiting in the SUB, a motion submitted by the organization Students Against War (SAW) who used lies, paranoia, and unproven allegations of war crimes to push it through without the knowledge of the student body at large. Following the very successful board meeting on the 10th, the ban was rescinded, and moved to a formal vote at the AGM earlier tonight, much to the dismay of SAW, who argued for the “democratic sovereignty” of the board to make decisions for the UVic Student Society as a whole. These are the same people who verbally assaulted an Afghanistan veteran, vandalized university property in their propaganda campaign, and tore down posters from the anti-ban group my friends and I organized.
The movement to oppose the ban grew out of a random Facebook group set up by my now good friend Jon Fox. What started as an off-the-wall webpage for those enraged by the UVSS board’s initial decision spontaneously transformed into a massive political force, peaking around 700 members in less than 2 weeks. Our membership went beyond the political divide of left and right; liberals, libertarians, conservatives, socialists, social-democrats, anarchists and moderates all concerned with the state of freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and freedom of choice at UVic actively took part in our organization.
Despite this, SAW continued to deride us “a right-wing minority” within the Student Society over the past month since this issue first surfaced. Well it would seem this right-wing minority covered enough of the political spectrum and carried enough supporters to win the vote against the ban by *a landslide victory of approximately 95%*. In the 2 hours leading up to the vote, SAW tried every dirty parliamentary trick in the book, attempting to filibuster the motion, purposely muddling the issue by attempting to amend motions and debate procedural challenges during the meeting, and even attempting to have the CF recruitment ban motion tabled so it would be sent back to the Board of Directors who passed it in the first place. Those Stalinist autocrats who said we were “uninformed about the issues” were sent packing with their tails between their legs. As for the 7 board members who allowed this ban to go through originally, their days in politics at the University of Victoria are numbered.
So, after over a month of shame and frustration with the state of this institution, this issue has finally been put to rest. We students can all get back to our lives, especially we dozen or so of the core group who have campaigned long and hard to get this result. The victors here are not only the students of UVic, but the men and women of the Canadian Forces, and those among us who seek to join them, myself included. The military recruiters will be at the career fair in January after all, and I’ll be one of many present to shake their hands.

Well done, Graham!
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Update: Video of the vote.

“Is it OK to question their Patriotism yet?”