Canada in brief: Nov. 11, 2009

Campus Activities Conference held at WLU

ONTARIO— From Nov. 4 to 7 Wilfrid Laurier University hosted the regional Canadian Organization of Campus Activities Conference. Attendees included Laurier students, associates of supporting companies as well as students from other universities and colleges in Ontario and Quebec.

“The idea of the conference was to bring all these people together and to do some training and education sessions,” said Joel Robinson, vice-president of public affairs for the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union.

“The big focus was on marketing as well as ways to market your event or program,” he added.

The conference ran from Thursday to Saturday and consisted of information sessions as well as showcases of local talent.

“The showcases went great, the response was extremely positive, [and] we’re very happy [with the outcome],” said Bill Kitchen, WLUSU’s programming and services manager.

-Idil Herzi

Grad students question CFS tax plan

MONTREAL (CUP)—Graduate students at several schools across the country are taking issue with a national student lobby group’s call to end tuition and education tax credits.

The call is part of the “Education Action Plan” released by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) in October. According to the plan, non-refundable education and tuition fee tax credits cost the federal government almost $2.5 billion annually – money that the federation wants to see redirected to upfront grants.

By taxing graduate scholarship and fellowship income, recipients of such income could be taxed as much as 30 per cent of their funding, say the group members.

– Jacob Serebrin, CUP Quebec Bureau Chief