Students protesting during June's G20 summit in Toronto. (Photo by Alexandra Posadzki/CUP)

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OTTAWA (CUP) — Peter Flynn is outraged that some University of Ottawa students were able to participate in June's G20 protests thanks to some funding from their student union.

Flynn, president of the university's Campus Conservatives club, called the decision a misuse of student funds.

At least four union services — the Student Appeal Centre, the Women's Resource Centre, the Pride Centre and Foot Patrol — combined finances from their budgets to rent a bus which took students to Toronto from June 26-28.

Flynn says encouraging activism is not under the mandate of any of the student union's services.

“I don’t necessarily understand how students on the University of Ottawa’s campus who are trying to appeal their marks apparently need to be represented at the G20. It just doesn’t really make sense," said Flynn.

But student union president Tyler Steeves defended the decision, saying the services were simply doing their job by sending the buses — engaging students.

“The services got together and said, 'There’s a bunch of us that really care about these issues, so let’s pool our money and go to Toronto,’” he said.

“[Activism is] a part of the student experience. Part of that [experience] is being politically active and having your voice heard and getting out there and rallying for something you care about. Just like part of [the student experience] is playing intramurals, joining a club, debating or running for student politics."

“I understand that at the G20 groups of protesters protest everything under the sun, however . . . I don’t necessarily see how sending individuals down to participate in protests, and potentially riots, at the G20 is a positive, cost-effective way, or even legitimate way of spending students' money,” said Flynn.

Rita Valeriano was one of the students who took advantage of the opportunity to attend the summit protests.

“It’s really important to be there as a student to show that you’re in solidarity with all the other movements, but also you’re there on behalf of students to fight for justice in terms of accessibility to education,” she said.

Valeriano defended the student union's decision to provide transportation to the G20 for interested students.

“The [student union] works on behalf of the students, so if the students were demanding to get access to these movements then I think it was definitely in their right to facilitate that,” she said.

Georgeanne Blue, community relations co-ordinator at the Women's Resource Centre said she was proud that students were represented at the G20 protests and praised the student union and its services for the role they played.

“I think what [the union] did was great because [it made] sure that going to the protests was accessible to everybody that wanted to go,” she said. “I think that students have a lot of privilege . . . and so we need to use that privilege in positive ways to make changes.”

But Flynn still disagrees.

"If we had a protest service, I would say, ‘You know what? It’s part of their mandate [and] as much as I disagree with it, it passed a referendum. Send them down there!' I wouldn’t be happy about it, but it wouldn’t be as troubling or as disturbing or as blatant a violation of the use of student funds by the services,” he said.

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