Muse, 1973-10-22

              Pinheads who pilfered papers are pretty poor
BY GAR PUDDICOMBE
Over the years, the Muse staff have experienced a
number of problems in getting the paper out and
distributed to students, but last week there was a brand-
new headache-all 5000 copies of the October 15 issue were
hijacked and stolen before they even reached the
university.
Muse staffers first noticed that a theft had taken place
around 3:30 Monday afternoon. The paper had been
scheduled to come off the presses at about 2:15, so it was
expected on campus around 2:30. When 3:30 arrived and
still no Muse, the staff contacted the paper's printers,
Robinson-Blackmore, who said their van had already
been back from delivering the papers for over an hour. A
hasty chat with the van driver revealed that on his way to
the university from the Robinson-Blackmore plant on
O'Leary Avenue, he had been intercepted by some people
in a red rented van, who told him that since there was an
"important meeting" going on in the Thomson Centre, he
should deliver the papers to residence for that one time
only.
Assuming that everything was on the level and that
these people were indeed authorized representatives of
the Muse, the driver complied, and returned to Robinson-
Blackmore. After he left, however, the people in the
rented van evidently absconded with the entire shipment,
as a thorough search of the residences by Muse staffers
and others revealed no trace of the papers.
After they had notified the CID of the theft, the staff
puzzled over possible motives. Since 5000 copies of a 16-
page Muse cost about $800, theft of an entire issue is an
indictable offense (theft of anything worth over $200 is
indictable), so the thieves could not conceivably have done
it as a prank, unless they were pitifully ignorant of the
possible consequences of their actions. Furthermore, the
likelihood of making any worthwhile amount of money off
5000Musesisvirtually nil, so the hijacking was clearly done
only to keep the paper from being distributed. Since
Monday was the first day of voting in the CSU general
elections, it seemed logical to connect the theft of the
papers with the elections. No proof, however, was
available to support this assumption.
Meanwhile, since the issue contained information
pertinent to the elections, the staff wanted to make sure
that it was read before polls closed at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday,
theft or no theft; so they ordered 5000 more copies from
Robinson-Blackmore, to be delivered under tight security
on Tuesday morning. They also ordered a red front page,
so that the stolen papers, which were blue, would be easily
distinguishable in case they showed up again. The extra
copies cost the union $425.
Four Muse staffers went to Robinson-Blackmore on
Tuesday morning to provide a security vanguard for the
5000 red Muses, and the papers were distributed without
incident. At about 11:00 Tuesday morning the rumor mill
started up operations, with word having it that the stolen
Muses had tuned up in the Education building. Sure
enough, there they were - all 5000 of them- in cardboard
cartons just inside the building's loading door. So the staff
now had 10,000 copies of the issue, quite a jump from the
number of copies available to students the day before.
The CID are still investigating the incident at their
usual leisurely pace, and they report very satisfactory
progress. In fact, they expect to have it wrapped up soon.
Actually, it would be difficult for the CID to blow this
one, because the culprits left tracks all over the place.
Firstly, they pulled the job off in broad daylight, making
themselves very vulnerable to observation; they actually
talked to the driver, giving the police one surefire witness
at least; and they were foolish enough to rent a van,
something which requires a driver's licence that gives
away the culprit immediately.
And for what? The bandits would have to be fools to
assume that the Muse staff would take the theft of their
paper lying down; and a quick check with the printers
would have revealed that more copies could easily be
printed up. Add to this the fact that the paper didn't come
out until 2:30 Monday afternoon anyway, and you have the
following quite ridiculous situation: the thieves, who
assumably didn't want the paper to be read before the
elections were over because of what it contained (we
can't think of any other halfways-logical reason for the
theft), prevented the paper from being read between 2:30
and 4:00 - the time polls closed - on Monday. So only those
who voted between those times on Monday (and their
number is doubtless exceedingly small) were affected aby
the robbery. A mammoth and extremely risky exercise in
futility, to say the least.
So what amazes us, then, is not the malicious intent of
the thieves, but their sheer stupidity for giving themselves
away so easily and also for risking so much for so little.
Whatever happens in this whole hijacking case, one
thing's certain- the people who did it hadn't betted be
planning to make their livelihood in crime, because they
sure aren't very good at it.
the muse
Vol. 24 No. 6
Monday, October 22, 1973
Pathetic turnout mars close Sullivan - Mouland victory
An extremely poor voter turnout - only
about 1300 voters - showed up at the polls
last Monday and Tuesday to elect Des
Sullivan and Lis Mouland as the new
president and vice-president of the
students' union.
After a hectic campaign marked by
charges of "smear campaigns," threats of
lawsuits, and precious little student involvement, Sullivan and Mouland won a
91-vote victory over Art Dominix and Tom
Singleton, their closest rivals. Sullivan and
Mouland polled 469 votes, certainly the
smallest number of votes for a winning
presidential ticket in many years, while
Dominix and Singleton had 378. Bob Caul
and Tony Cox finished third with 329 votes,
while Brian Clarke and Marilyn McGrath
were a distant   last with 116.
The only real races in the elections for
councillors were in the at large category,
and in the faculties of arts and education.
In all other faculties, the seats were either
filled by acclamation or left vacant for a
lack of candidates.
John Gould and Harry Pride tied for the
lead in the close at large ballotting, where
nine candidates tried out for four seats.
They had 490 votes each, while Gord
Simms had 429 and Jim Bennett 386.
Student Affairs director Bob Vardy was a
close fifth with 368, missing a seat on
council by just 18 votes.
In the faculty of arts, Denis O'Brien led
the polls with 207 votes, and Tom Myrick
and Mary Barry followed with 201 and 186,
respectively. Bob Hunt, ironically also a
Student Affairs worker, got 180 votes, just
six short of election.
In education, James McGrath, who
raised some eyebrows at the speeches on
October 12 by calling for some "townie
representation" instead of letting all the
"Daymen" run things, surprisingly came
first with 213 votes. Jim Coughlan with 179
Photo by Francine Fleming
The incomplete tally board and the satisfied smile on Des Sullivan's
face tell the story of last week's CSU elections.
votes and William Bowers with 164 also
were elected, while Doug Warren just
missed with 153.
The representatives in science (Fred
Alvarez and Bill Anderson), junior
division (Debbie Gushue, Ray Penton and
Chris Sorenson) and engineering (Herb
Stacey) were all elected by acclamation.
Stacey received the stupendous total of
four votes as most of the engineer
boycotted the election. The enginnering
society has, in fact, voted overwhelmingly
to leave the students' union entirely.
The seats in medicine and physical
education are vacant, since there were no
nominations in either faculty.
The changeover meeting takes place
tonight in the Social Room of the TSC. At
that time the Veins of power will be officially handed over to the new council.
President-elect Sullivan obviously has a
lot of work to do to get students interested
in union affairs, if the voter turnout is any
indication. However, he said, "There's no
use crying in our milk about the low turnout. This points out that action concerning
apathy on campus has to begin immediately.
"One of our first jobs wil be to sit down
and talk about communications," Sullivan
continued. "I don't think students know
very much about what a union actually is,
what the issues facing it are. We intend to
tell them."
(Continued on page 3)
INSIDE
Morgan new president
page 3
Comments on Mid-East
page 5
Come-by-Chance opening
page 8-9