cult, for racism is only ignorance, and instead he should feel sorry for those pathetic, rude people who have no idea the pain that they caused, and not to give them the satisfaction of seeing his tears, most importantly I asked him to hold his head up high because he has every right to do so, being a member of Canada’s First Nation is a privilege. Our native children are our future. Most importantly I asked Justin to dream, always dream because the sky is the limit for every child no matter what nationality he or she may be. I asked him to do his best in school and to think of this racist incident as a sign from God that he is even more special, and he was chosen to help us all.

I look forward to travelling to various Island elementary schools to discuss the positive ele- ments of native culture and to see how discrimi- nation is affecting young children. When a teacher called and asked me I was surprised to learn that it is a growing problem...I don’t understand, I do know I would like to help and the suggestions above may help.

With the 1992 Referendum and the talk of _ native self-government, I noticed that there was

an increase in my awareness of racial prejudice against natives. I believe that people did not fully understand what the Indians meant by ‘‘self-government’’ and perhaps they viewed it as a major threat to themselves. One should read about the various concepts to understand that the Indian people do not mean to harm any one in their quest for equality and justice. It was one encounter in the Pit which sparked an angry reaction out of me that I never knew I was capable of feeling, when a girl stated that the Indians should just be left on the reserves be- cause they had already received more than they deserved. I told her angrily and not so elo- quently to shut up and until she had any know]- edge of what natives had to endure or what they lost to the government or because of the govern- ment she should keep her opinions to herself. There were many incidents after that, though much smaller ones and I feel the need to encour- age people to find out what they do not know and give the Indians a chance. Many other people turned towards educating themselves and the knowledge shocked some of whom have chosen to work in educating the Inuit and Indi- ans. I find this encouraging.

My situation has changed over the years and I have very little problems with discrimination now in my own life. I react to other people’s problems, though, and in my native studies research I have raised my interest from a na- tional focus to an international one. I know the world has a long way to go and that it will not be in my life-time that I will see world peace; it is a dream, though.

I never want my two sons to suffer the pain that I did. I, like my Mother taught me, will teach them that everyone in the world is equal and that differences in colour, race, sex, lan- guage, and religion do not make people any less important because they exist. The tragic thing

6

is discrimination because of these things do exist. Thank you for reading this and I hope that it means something for someone. I would like to read any comments or experiences which pertain to this delicate subject. It is time to

speak up.

Holly Marie Ayotte Fourth Year History

Dear Editor,

This letter is in reply to the unsigned letter that appeared in the March 25 issue. I must take offense to some of the comments made in that letter. First of all, the Student Union is bound by the laws of Prince Edward Island which do notallow us to publicize the details surrounding an employee’s departure. In any case, I think it would be highly unethical.

Next, Tracey Arsenault and Rick Gallant were elected officials, put there by the general membership, not hired on a whim of the Student Union. When they resigned they both published their reasons in the X-Press. And unless you didn’t read a Guardian, listen to the radio, or watch TV, you probably would have heard about the resignations. Also, we havenever had a speaker named Greg Bradley. We did, how- ever, have a speaker named Craig Bradley who was a hired employee and who resigned on his own free will. His reasons for resigning were his

own and he allowed them to be picked up by the:

local media. If you’re looking for wrongdoing, you’re sniffing up the wrong tree.

As for our hiring practices, all I can say is that we do backflips to be fair. All applications are screened by the supervisors without the names of the applicants. The successful appli- cants will be called for an interview by the Student Union Hiring Board. This Board con- sists of Heather Love, General Manager, one executive, and three students at large. The Hiring Board rates the different applicants and makes hiring decisions. The supervisors rec- ommendations are taken into consideration but are not always followed. Final approval is then taken to Council, who may question any deci- sion that has been made by the Board. Sound confusing? It is. But we need to have this process so that the hiring practices are fair. I think that if you look at the staff of the Student Union, which numbers close to 75, you will see a real cross-section of campus. Yes, many of these people are friends but they became friends after starting to work for the SU and yes, there is one (1) past executive working for the SU at present and yes, some of our employees are athletes, but I can think of only two that play for avarsity team. I don’t see these numbers adding up to unfair hiring practices. I’m afraid we don’t have any dirty laundry to air.

I do invite the person who wrote the letter to which I’m replying to drop down to the SU and find out what we’ re all about. We’re not an ‘evil empire’, but a bunch of students trying to make

life more enjoyable for all students on this

campus. Sometimes we make mistakes and

sometimes we shine. We, as an organization,

try to take credit for both. We always have an

open ear so please talk to us if you have a

problem with us. Maybe you have suggestions to further improve our policies. _

Thank you

Michelle MacCallum

UPEI SU President

Dear Editor:

I write in response to the unsigned letter that appeared in the last Issue of the X-Press. It sought to chastise the Student Union Council on several issues (I think, as he or she kept refer- ring to ‘‘the UPEI Student Union’’ but my

interpretation of the letter is that it was not this

person’s intention to attack the 2700 of us that comprise the Student Union).

I’d like to respond to what I read to be that unnamed writer’s five points. First, regarding the recent dismissal of a member of the Barn Staff I find your suggestion that the details ofa staff member’s employment record should me made public VERY DISTURBING. The laws of this province rightfully protect employees, whether they work for in the private sector or in a public organization like ours, from the kind of abuse you advocate. The reasons for and details concerning any employee’s hiring or dismissal cannot, thankfully for his or her sake, be made public by his or her employer.

Second, as a member of this year’s Student Union Executive, this unsigned letter is the first time that I’ve heard that we had “‘hidden many of its internal discussions and problems...”’ Whoops, I must have missed that particular evil conspiracy that has taken so much of our time this year... In all seriousness, the only discus- sions that kept internal are those are required to be for legal reasons. If I had wanted to partici- pate in a conspiracy to keep what we’re doing secret from the people that elected me and that I’ve worked very hard to represent, I don’t honestly know where I would have found the time.

Third, of course any member of our Student Union has the right to complete knowledge of decisions made in his or her name (excepting information on staff). A lot of my time over the past eleven months has been spent trying to let people know what I’ve been doing and to try to get some direction from them. My door is and has been always open. I seriously contemplated not dignifying the writer’s remarks about com- ing clean with ‘‘dirty laundry’’ (wow, what an original phrase). However, I can assure you that students ( and for that matter the entire prov- ince) had a full accounting of the details of the resignations of Ms. Arsenault, Mr. Gallant, and Mr. Bradley (whose first name is actually Craig and not ‘‘Greg’’ the last time I checked). I served with all three of these people, respect all