Oxfam Hunger Banquet back for another year
Queen’s Oxfam will be hosting their annual Hunger Banquet this Sunday, an event that aims to raise awareness about global hunger.
According to a 2001 Journal article, attendees of the semi-formal banquet are treated to a local, organic and fair-trade three-course meal, with the portion sizes and seating area dictated by which economic status they have been assigned.
Tickets for the event, which will be held in Wallace Hall, cost $10 and were already sold out by Jan. 18.
This year’s event will feature speaker Robert Fox, the executive director of Oxfam Canada, a network of organizations across the world whose goals include building a “future free from the injustice of poverty,” according to the oxfam.ca.
Other speakers include Brock University researchers David Butz and Nancy Cook.
— Holly Tousignant
Circle-dance in support of Idle No More
A dance party took place today in the Queen’s Centre in solidarity with the Idle No More movement.
The event, organized by Idle No More Kingston, saw a crowd of around 50 people take part in a circle-dance, with a bear-skinned rug on the floor in the middle.
The movement’s aims including drawing attention to Bill C-45, which supporters claim removes environmental protection from waterways, including lakes, rivers, streams and ponds. Another concern is the land rights of First Nations and the process of selling reserve land, which they claim has been changed without consulting stakeholders.
Ann-Marie Grondin, a participant in the event, said she came to raise awareness of the issue to Queen’s students.
“I want to support the groups in our community who are here to talk about Bill C-41,” she said. “This big dance is to draw attention to that and get people to connect with it in some kind of way.”
She added that Idle No More Kingston organized a teach-in last night at 7 p.m. in Kingston Hall Rm. 101. A talk is scheduled for this morning in BioSci Rm. 11, which will feature Indigenous leaders speaking about settlers and Indigenous solidarity.
— Vincent Matak
AMS shares fact sheet on Discretionary Fund
The AMS released a fact sheet on their Discretionary Fund yesterday after it became a topic of contention in recent executive election debates.
According to the fact sheet, AMS corporate services research expenses, sales projections and wages during the summer, adhering to zero-based budgeting — meaning that budgets must start at zero and every dollar added must be justified.
Within the AMS Assembly’s $1,060,000 budget, which comes from the $70.18 AMS Specific Fee, $15,000 was set aside for the Executive Discretionary Fund, $10,000 of which has been spent so far.
The breakdown of that $10,000 includes: $1,800 for staff development and team building (such as the summer retreat, which all falls under staff appreciation), $4,400 for staff appreciation (like staff socials), $700 for business meetings, $2,400 for events (such as staff representation at events like the John Orr Award Dinner and Spring Reunion) and $700 for platform/miscellaneous (which has gone toward the AMS’ pledge to provide $5,000 to support the Queen’s Student Alumni Association Speaker Series).
The AMS couldn’t comment due to the ongoing executive campaign period.
— Holly Tousignant
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