Last updated:10/04/2008
Military ads banned from student paper

University of Ottawa students have decided to ban Canadian armed forces advertising in their campus newspaper.

In a vote on March 19 students voted to not allow Canadian Forces adverts in their paper the Fulcrum.

The ballot pitted anti-war activists against members of the Fulcrum’s own staff, who supported running the full-page advertisements.

Francois Picard, vp communications of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) and a member of the Student Coalition Against War that supported the boycott, said having the Fulcrum run the ads turned the paper into a recruiting arm of the Canadian Forces.

“Most students just didn’t want to benefit from this war machine that’s being put in place to really push the government’s agenda,” said Picard.

The university’s French-language newspaper, La Rotonde, already refuses National Defence ads.

However, the newspaper’s staff opposes the boycott, citing a need to encourage debate on political hot issues.

“This is a university campus and we’re taught to think critically. I don’t think students are going to look at this ad and be duped into joining the military,” said Melanie Wood, editor-in-chief at the Fulcrum.

“It’s more constructive to challenge people than to stop running (the ads),” added Wood, who said the paper stands to lose $7,000 in advertising revenue.

“It’s not about the armed forces specifically. It’s about disagreeing with something and thinking it shouldn’t see the light of day.”

But Picard dismissed the argument that banning military adverts means censoring debate.

“It’s really tough to have a balanced environment for debate when one side gets a full page, week after week, of advertisements,” he said.

But the Canadian Forces are not worried by the boycott. Captain Allan Larrett, attraction officer at the Canadian Forces recruiting centre in Ottawa, said, “These things don’t fuss us too much.”

“We get our message out very well and one less venue to get that out won’t ruffle too many feathers for us.”

Last September, Canadian Forces recruiters were banned from the University of Victoria campus but the decision was later overturned.

Student newspapers at McGill University and Concordia University have also voted to ban military ads.

by Jeremy Rush