Monthly Archives: March 2010

What’s happening with CASA?



Arati Sharma resigned Monday as National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. According to a statement released by CASA she is “pursuing new opportunities in her home city of Toronto.”

Other than a brief statement from CASA, a cone of silence has engulfed the situation. With Ms. Sharma on vacation in the Dominican Republic this week, we can’t reach her for comment.

The McMaster Students Union council, the Student Representative Assembly, met Sunday night and were told by their vice-president education Chris Martin that the problems with CASA were such that the McMaster Students Union will be looking at leaving the student lobbying organization. Mr. Martin told the Assembly that Ms. Sharma would be leaving CASA as well and tied her resignation to problems within the organization. The problems were not made entirely clear. Mr. Martin did devote a significant amount of his speaking to the new fee structure that CASA is implementing this coming fiscal year.

Ms. Sharma is the immediate past vice president education of the McMaster Students Union and lead the MSU into CASA. For the MSU to be leaving raises serious questions that need to be answered.  

Mr. Martin has not been commenting on the matter since the resignation was made public. In a statement to The McMaster Silhouette, Martin said that it is a confidential human resource issue. However, his statements on Sunday raise the question – what’s the truth of the matter?

Filed under: Higher Education, Student Politics

Statement by Canadian Alliance of Student Associations on ND resignation



The following statement has been provided by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (www.casa-acae.ca):

“This is to confirm that Arati Sharma has chosen to not seek a second term as the National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, and is pursuing new opportunities in her home city of Toronto. As such, she has resigned from her position effective April 1st, 2010. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations would like to thank Ms. Sharma for her year of service and wishes her nothing but success in her future endeavours.” – Tina Robichaud, Chair of CASA

Filed under: Higher Education, Student Politics

The helping



Tonight, I was finishing up some reading at The Second Cup in Westdale when a young lady caught my eye as she was trying to find seating in the coffee shop.

A few minutes before, I was thinking about seating behaviour and how my sitting at a four person table – the only table open when I arrived – was taking away three other seats on a busy night.

Now, admittedly, what transpired next was initated by the fact that this young woman caught my eye; however, I hope this is not held too much against me.

I told her that I was just finishing off a page and would be leaving. She could have the table in a minute. I’m not sure what she did next; but about 15 seconds later she stated that she had left her cellphone in the cab she took to the coffee shop.

I’ve left my blackberry in taxi-cabs on one than more occasion and offered to help. I gave the lady my cellphone to call the cab company. They gave her the run around and told her to call her phone in order to reach the taxi driver. Her phone ringer was not on – so this solution would not work.

I called the taxi dispatcher and knew – having experience - what to say. Eventually, the dispatcher found the taxi and I arranged for the taxi to return with the phone.

After this, I proceeded to carry-on with leaving The Second Cup. The lady thanked me and was surprised that I had been so helpful. I told her I had misplaced my phone before and I would hope that others would be helpful to me. At that point, I left and made a point of not telling her my name.

I feel good when I help others, especially when they do not know who I am. I honestly believe that “anonymously” helping someone else encourages them to pass on the chain of good deeds and assist someone else.

I’m hopeful that the lady does not believe that I help her merely because she is attractive – this is not the case. However, I have to admit that the sequence of events started because of this fact.

The world is an interesting place and nothing is purely good or purely bad. I’m human and do my best to live well. That said, I have my faults and wonder if they taint my good deeds. In this case, I say no; in others, I do not know.

My first opera review



Last summer, my friend Sarah dragged me to a production of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. I’m glad she did, because it turned out – as much to my surprise as anyone – that I really enjoyed the opera. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

I attended the performance of La Boheme on May 22, 2009. It was amazing and remains the best performance I’ve seen so far.

Shortly afterwards, I penned a short “review” piece for The McMaster Silhouette. I’ve re-published the piece on my personal website for your enjoyment.

I recently wrote another piece about affordable culture in Toronto for the uToronto the newspaper. It is available online: http://www.thenewspaper.ca/the-arts/item/144-affordable-coc

Yes, I’m become a budding culture critic – who would’ve guessed?