The Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) lost its student funding at Queen’s University in Kingston for the second year in a row after a student referendum.
Prior to the 2012-13 school year, OPIRG-Kingston received an annual $4 levy from student fees at Queen’s, from which students were able to opt out.
The result of this year’s referendum was 42 per cent in favour of the levy and 58 per cent against, according to Libby Drew, a board member of OPIRG-Kingston. Due to voter turnout of less than 20 per cent, the threshold of the vote was 55 per cent.
Queen’s student Stuart Clark led the campaign against the OPIRG levy, which was titled, “NOPIRG,” according to the Queen’s Journal. He told the Journal that OPIRG misuses student money by not focusing it on Queen’s-centred events.
Pamphlets distributed anonymously in the student housing around Queen’s on voting day accused OPIRG of anti-Semitism and homophobia, two claims that OPIRG refuted.
“With regards to the pamphlet, first of all, we were not able to defend ourselves, because those pamphlets came out on the voting day, which is a violation of the rules, and it also came out pamphletted in people’s mailboxes at home, which is also another violation,” Drew said.
For now, she said OPIRG-Kingston does not think the claims are worth defending because they’re false and the organization “has anti-oppression built into its mandate.”
Although the group will receive an equalization payment from the provincial level of public interest research groups, Drew said OPIRG-Kingston programming will suffer as a result of the loss.
“Obviously it has been really difficult,” she said. “It will affect the organization in that we will not be able to support a lot of the projects of our own, as well as our working groups . . . I guess just a lot less programming to offer.”
Queen’s student association, the Alma Mater Society (AMS), said it remains impartial on the issue, trying to ensure a fair referendum for both parties.
“We do our best to promote the elections as a whole and have students understand the importance of clubs and student involvement,” AMS commissioner of internal affairs Kristen Olver said. “We provide financial support so that each group has an equal opportunity to campaign, though the AMS is neutral to the results of the elections and referendum.”
