Maybe This Is Why We Call Them Hoseheads...

Another day, another Canadian university does something dumb.

Carleton University, in Ottawa, takes part a yearly charity fundraiser among Canadian colleges and universities called Shinearama. Up until this year, one of the benficiaries of Shinearama was the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. But because one of Carleton University's students learned that cystic fibrosis affects only white males, he moved at a student government meeting that Carleton drop the CCFF as a beneficiary.

Of course, cystic fibrosis affects people of both genders, and while it generally is more prevalent among people of Caucasian origin, that genetic classification includes folks from the Middle East, India and South America as well.

Members of the student association now want to reconsider their vote. If it wasn't for the fact that worthy charity that does a lot of good will lose out on money if they don't, I would be happy to have this group of maple-leaf mouth breathers stuck with the results of their decision. After all, they want to reconsider their action because they've learned CF can affect people other than white males, not because the idea that withholding donations to a charity because you want to play identity politics with who has the disease qualifies as an "idea" in only the loosest of fashions.

Ironies drench this little amorality play -- the student government president said that the real reason everyone voted the way they did was because the association would like to rotate its donations among several charities. I think she's got a future in politics. And the young man who brought the motion is a science student. I would submit that Carleton University be sure to stamp his diploma with the letters "B.S." as is traditional for students earning undergraduate degrees in the sciences. But I think it'll be obvious that in his case, those letters will revert to their more common meaning...

(H/T Erin O'Connor)