A person was charged with destruction of property after tearing down a Canadian Federation of Students banner in Mike’s Place pub Oct.16, according to university safety director Allan Burns.
The canvas banner which read “Drop Fees” took up almost an entire wall across from the bar.
Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) co-ordinator Vincent St-Martin said he was sitting by the bar at around 9:30 p.m. when he noticed a woman fiddling with the banner.
“I got up to see what was going on — she was slicing it with scissors. We asked her to stop and she didn’t. I took my phone out to take pictures and we called campus security, and she left,” he said.
St-Martin said he followed the woman and told her she had committed a crime.
“I was shocked,” he said. “This is not the way we discuss things at a university.”
Burns said the person who tore down the banner came to their office and turned herself in.
“She was arrested and turned over to Ottawa Police who charged her with Damage to Property,” he said via email.
GSA president Kelly Black said he is certain the vandalism was a political act.
“It’s quite upsetting that someone would feel the need to cut down a banner about financial access to post-secondary education in a student-run establishment,” he said.
“If someone wants to debate financial access or the Canadian Federation of Students, we’re more than happy to have that debate. But this is definitely not a way to act on campus,” he said.
Black said the GSA will put up two more signs in Mike’s Place: a new ‘Drop Fees’ banner and the torn banner “with its wounds and all.”
