National

Several Ontario colleges and universities have hired lobbyists to speak to the government on their behalf, a practice provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath said is a waste of public money.

“Municipalities shouldn’t have to redirect public money into the pockets of well-connected insiders to get their concerns on the government’s agenda,” Horwath said in a press release.

The clock may be ticking on the University of Ottawa’s Vanier Tower. U of O’s director of physical resources has said the tower has run into a long list of construction delays, and with a deadline approaching, the school could lose  federal government funding to complete the project.

The Vanier Tower is being funded in part by the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program.

Bishop’s University’s everyday activities were washed out in early October as the aftermath of tropical storm Nicole caused surrounding rivers to flood, severely damaging the school’s Sherbrooke, Que. campus.

Around 100 millimetres of rain had fallen in the first 24 hours of the storm on Oct. 1, causing the Saint-François river to rise dramatically, the CBC reported.

David McBride, Bishop’s director of university advancement, said the flood damaged many parts of the campus.

Popularity has always come with a price. But according to a recent study conducted at Université de Montréal, the stakes are higher than ever, involving drugs and alcohol — and teens are buying into it.

Janitors working at the University of Alberta have been met with threats and the possibility of job termination if they join a union, according to Merryn Edwards of Janitors for Justice, the group trying to organize the union.

“Supervisors were watching to see who would attend the union meeting, and when the [union] leaflet was distributed … they threatened those on the list with job termination,” Edwards said.