{ Wednesday March 29, 1995 3 Gun-toting studentarrested at Dal by Carrie Sidney and Judy Reid The Gazette HALIFAX (CUP) - A Dalhousie University student who was carrying a pistol was arrested Jan. 27 after witnesses reported seeing him enter a classroom with a weapon. Charges were not laid against the student because he did not point it at anyone. The weapon, a squirt gun, was part of a_ residence-wide assas- sination game put on each year to "boost student morale." “Up until the person was arrested, no one knew if it was a real gun or not” It involves receiving another student's photocopied student ID and having to assassinate him or her. The "killing" can be done at finger point or at squirt- gun point and,.if the "kill" has been successful, the victor then takes on that person's assignment. According to reports, the student had painted his water pistol black. "Up until the person was arrested, no one knew if it was a real gun or not,” said Sandy MacDonald, chief of Dalhousie security. "The reason he was not charged was because he didn't point the gun at anyone." For the time being, Dalhousie has banned residences from playing the assassination game. Bob Pritchett, president of Howe Hall, the largest residence on campus, said administration may be overreacting. "I don't like to say people are overreacting because there was a definite threat, but the reaction of the administration may be a bit overboard," said Pritchett. The student who was arrested lived in Cameron House, one of five houses that make up Howe Hall. Vice-president of student services Eric McKee said he thought everyone _ irivolved acted appropriately. "This is a university, not a high school," he said. "I think that anyone who comes on campus with what appears to be a gun should be arrested." CUP - Canadian University Press Candian University Press, commonly referred to by those in the know as CUP, is a collective of university papers across Canada. This organization has been operating for over fifty years and has an active membership of university papers from Halifax (The Gazette) to Victoria (The Martlet). Every week, the national bureau (located in Ottawa) compiles the week’s hottest stories into a news-exchange, which is made available to all CUP newspapers. Over the Christmas holidays, a staff member from Over The Edge attended their national conference and introduced CUP to Canada’s newest university and our fledgling newspaper. Response was positive and Over The Edge is now a trial-member of Canadian University Press. One of the benefits of this organization is that it provides UNBC with a link to most other Canadian universities, so that the rest of Canada doesn’ t forget about us up here in the hinterland. We at Over The Edge hope that the addition of articles from writers across the country will be interesting to our readers and hopefully open up new readers to our publication. McKee will be meeting with. residence council later this week to discuss the future of the assassination game. He stressed that the meeting will simply be a discussion of the pros and cons of the game. "I don't know if it would allow us to ban, by administrative directive, a game on campus," said McKee. Tara Johnston from Bronson, a co-ed residence of Howe Hall, organized the assassin game for her house. "It's a fun game," she said. "It's fairly harmless." Johnston cites a 40:60 ratio of women to men who play and said the assassination game is a good way for students who live on different floors to get to know one another. "The guns we play with here are huge and florescent and pink," added Johnston. Terry Gallivan, associate director of residence life, said the strong reaction to the arrest was directly related to a campus shooting that took place on Jan. 13. "People at Dalhousie have never faced such circumstances before," said Gallivan. "A weapon which is real-looking | "raises all kinds of concerns." At the time of the shooting, Howe Hall's assassination game was already in progress and was stopped immediately. "We do have a social conscience,” said Pritchett, adding that the game did not resume until the shooting incident was out of the media spotlight. The assassination game had been spreading to other societies on campus. "We're not the only society on campus that has an assassin game," said Pritchett. “We are upset that we are being singled out yet again." « Ontario’s battle in the woods: by Jeff Blundell, the Varsity TORONTO (CUP) - A trout, a cougar and a pine tree chained themselves to the doors of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in defence of the Algoma Highlands. The activists - who were dressed up as the animals which would be forced from their homes if the highlands are clear-cut - were part of a protest held recently in Toronto. The timber management plan, announced Jan. 6, opens the 1,200 square km forest to clear-cutting. The region, 100 km north of Sault Ste. Marie, represents the last substantial area of road-free, uncut old- growth white pine in the world, says Lee-Anne Mallet, chair- person of Earth First, the group which organized the protest. “We look at [the forest] as a bank account .. We'll dish out the interest, but I’m not eating into the principle.” Ron Reffle, the area supervisor for the Sault Ste. Marie district for the Ministry of Natural Resources, says Mallet's claims are ill-based. "I've looked at maps of the area and it is anything but road- free. There have been roads in there since the sixties. Sure there are some areas which are road-free but so is my backyard. You don't call that a " road-free area," said Reffle. Numerous _—_ environmental groups have been arguing that it is an important area to protect because it supports a rare species of cougar. "It's a rich area for wildlife," said Mallet. "There are a number of wolf packs in the area, There have also been over 100 sightings of the eastern cougar, but the ministry refuses to believe that there are eastern cougars in the area. They claim that the sightings are of western cougars who are disoriented and have stumbled into the area,” said Mallet. "[The government] said they won't believe [the eastern cougars] are there until they see a corpse." "The last confirmed sighting of an eastern cougar in Ontario was at the turn of the century," said Reffle. "Claims about seeing eastern cougars are like you telling me you saw a Dodo bird. The easter cougar is basically extinct. The region they are talking about is not even cougar habitat." Mallet is critical of what she calls the government's mercan- tile attitude towards the forest. "They're treating the trees as a marketable resource, instead of as the linchpin of an entire ecosystem," said Mallet. Reffle explains the minis- try's policy of resource distri- bution as "the most the forest can sustainably supply. We determine what a sustainable portion is based on the best calculations and. the best information available." He said, “We look at it as a bank account. You have a principle and ‘interest. We’ll dish out the interest, but I’m not eating into the principle.” “What we are trying to save is really just a postage stamp of what all of Northern Ontario used to be.” A. 60 square km conser- vation reserve has already been set aside by the ministry. This area will remain free from both roads and logging, Reffle said. But activists say that even the entire 1,200 square km area they are trying to protect is quite small by — ecological standards. "What we are trying to save is really just a postage stamp of what all of Northern Ontario used to be. There are trees up there that are so big, two people with their arms outstretched couldn't reach around them," said Egan. "It also contains the head- waters of five pristine rivers, so whatever way you look at it, either from wildlife, water or the trees themselves, this area is worth saving," said Mallet. "According to the timber management plan, 75 per cent of the old growth white pine will be clear-cut starting on April 1. The remaining 25 per cent will be left as a shelterwood cut [which] will be cut down in five years," said Mallet. "Anyone who has seen a shelterwood cut will tell you it looks a lot like a clear-cut. ;