In 2003, the Toronto-born Jon Elmer spent four months in Jenin, in the West Bank, and six months in the Gaza Strip from June to December 2005. He was there as a freelance journalist, doing print, radio and photography, which has appeared in a range of publications including the Journal for Palestine Studies, The Progressive and The New Standard. He said the experience really allowed him to see the situation “on the ground” in the occupied territories.

Theft. Impeachment. Election irregularities. Silk flowers.
Over the past four years, it’s words like these that have brought the Main Campus Residents’ Council (MCRC) up on the campus radar. For a student government whose mandate is to make the first-year experience a highlight of a student’s university career, the organization has had its share of lowlights.

The sound of a pin dropping was audible at noon in the Upper Ceilidh of the JDUC on Feb. 8, as 11 members of Queen’s Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) began a 24-hour vow of silence.
“Silence is a symbolic gesture that represents everyone in the world who’s been silenced by human rights abuses,” said Andrew Lee, ArtSci ’06 and co-president of JHR, after the event was over.

For Erica Stubbs, ArtSci ’09, last Friday, Leonard Dining Hall smelled like home.
The cafeteria was filled with the aroma of homemade curried chicken and sweet potatoes, prepared for students by Erica’s mother, Christina Stubbs, who was ensconced in the international food kiosk wearing an apron proclaiming her as the winner of the “Cooking Countdown.”

Students feeling imprisoned in the library this week may perk up—literally—after hearing the results of the plebiscite questions voted on in conjunction with last week’s winter referendum.
The two non-binding questions posed to students were about installing a coffee shop in Stauffer Library.

In an effort to promote civic responsibility among students, the University has established a special fund to support initiatives aimed at preventing a recurrence of the unsanctioned Aberdeen Street Homecoming party.
The street party erupted in the heart of the Ghetto on the Saturday night of Homecoming weekend in September. Aberdeen Street was illegally blocked by 5,000 to 7,000 partygoers that night, and at one point a car was flipped and set on fire.

After a five-year love affair with CFRC, Eric Duncan has made a permanent commitment.
On Friday, he had the CFRC logo tattooed onto the back of his neck in front of station volunteers, friends, and a handful of curious spectators in the JDUC. Duncan, CFRC’s programming manager, had vowed to take the plunge if the campus radio station’s first funding drive raised $5,000. The drive was held from Jan. 27 to Feb. 8.

In the final count of the prolonged 40-hour ballot counting period, Johsa Manzanilla, ArtSci ’07, won with 40.3 per cent of the vote in the final round. Candidate Tom Woodhall, Sci ’05 and ArtSci ’06, came in an extremely close second, with 39.9 per cent—a difference of 17 votes. Candidate Ken Saddington, Sci ’07, got 15.7 per cent of the votes in the second round and Arun Parkash, ArtSci ’06, got 9.9 per cent of the votes during the first round.

After many years of separation, Canada’s first prime minister will be reunited with his first wife in the small Ontario city where they began their life together.
A combined purchase by the University, the city of Kingston, the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, and private citizen Diane Weatherall has ensured that one of two known portraits of Isabella Clark Macdonald will be displayed alongside that of her nationally renowned husband in his hometown of Kingston.

Riding on a Team MBT victory, a sleep-deprived Louis Plamondon, ArtSci ’06, delivered a resignation letter to the current AMS executive yesterday afternoon, effectively making him the fifth senior AMS staffer to quit his post this academic year.
Plamondon returned yesterday morning to his position as the AMS Campus Activities Commissioner (CAC) after taking a two-week leave of absence to work as one of Team MBT’s campaign managers.

Students thinking of applying to Queen’s School of Medicine will be pleased to hear that, starting in 2008, six new first-year spaces will be made available.
In an intimate press conference held in Macklem House on Barrie Street yesterday afternoon, Ernie Parsons, MPP for Prince Edward-Hastings, announced the provincial government’s commitment to create 104 new first-year medical positions in the province by 2008-09. Six of these positions will go to Queen’s School of Medicine.

The results for the most question-heavy referendum in recent memory came in at 9:30 p.m. last night, one day after the final ballot counting began.
Out of the 31 binding referendum questions and two non-binding plebiscite questions, everything passed but one of two plebiscite questions. Voter turnout was 32.3 per cent of eligible voters. Because turnout was more than 19 per cent, questions needed 50 plus one per cent to pass.

A dollar can’t buy much these days, but it can buy one of the houses that are currently standing in the path of the soon-to-be-built Queen’s Centre.
The only catch? The houses don’t come with the land, so purchasers have to move the homes themselves.
Tom Morrow, associate vice-principal (operations and facilities), said the idea to sell the Queen’s houses for $1 derived from questions from the public about the future of the 24 University-owned houses that face onto Clergy and Earl streets.