Copy of a Letter I wrote in The Gateway

Dear APIRG

I was recently walking by your office in HUB and noticed, to my dismay, but not surprise, that you had posters advertising the events surrounding Israeli Apartheid week. I find this to be symptomatic of the bias present within your organization, an organization may I add that is funded by students of the University of Alberta, and claims to be “non-partisan”.

I think that, at least in concept, APIRG is a good idea. Our society needs to graduate students who have an informed understanding of society. However, in practice, APRIG has become a partisan organization, only supporting projects that propagate the ideology of the board. Groups and events supported by APIRG include: the Palestinian Solidarity Network, Greenpeace, Deep Green Resistance and frequent events that are, I surmise, highly critical of the Oilsands. This is, I gather, not a new issue either. Reading excerpts of a newsletter published in 2005, one read about the “Western chauvinists” and how in the capitalist system, which is motivated by “greed”, there is little concern for “labour rights and the environment”. Now, I have no qualms with any of these groups existing, or for that matter, being funded; I take issue with the obvious political motivation behind the funding. If there was some sort of balance practiced by the board, I would have no problem.

Further, the ideology being promoted is not representative of the student body, in its entirety, at the University of Alberta. Yet, we all fund APIRG. Now, one can argue that these fees are optional; however, being aware of the overall apathy of the student body, I feel this is a weak argument. The fees are small enough that most will not notice or care, yet large enough to allow APIRG to continue to function.

So, in closing, I would like to reiterate that I have no problem with the views being promoted by APRIG, lest I be labeled a bigot, just merely the lack of ideological balance demonstrated by an organization that relies on a diverse student population for funding.