CUSA to CCFF: FOAD

Some things are so insane, amoral and disgusting, only a university student council could possibly be responsible:

Carleton University won't be holding a popular fundraiser to benefit cystic fibrosis, a student councillor confirmed Tuesday, after the student association passed a motion claiming the disease affects only white men.

In what journalism councillor Nick Bergamini calls an "incredibly divisive" move, the Council of Carleton University Students Association (CUSA) passed a motion at a meeting late Monday night that effectively cancelled the annual Shinerama fundraising campaign.

Shinerama events occur during the school's orientation week and proceeds go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF).

The association raised the motion based on information it received from one of its former executive members that the disease affects only white people and mostly males, Bergamini told CTV.ca.

[...]

It is correct to say that cystic fibrosis "does affect Caucasian populations primarily," according to Cathleen Morrison, CEO of the CCFF.

However, the term Caucasian includes people from South Asia, North Africa, the Persian Gulf and Israel, Morrison said.

"These are Caucasian populations," Morrison told CTV.ca. "These people do not have white skin. They have CF, it now seems, in the same ratios as other Caucasian people who do have white skin."

Cystic fibrosis, which is the most common genetic fatal disease in young people in Canada, affects just as many young girls as boys, Morrison added.

It is a chronic disease that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system. Only about half of patients live into their thirties and beyond.

Text of the motion (which passed 17 to 2) here. Hopefully, any Carleton alumni planning a donation to their old school will give the money to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation instead.

Damian P.

Update: Jonathan Kay has the stats:

Even by the loopy standards of students governments, this has got to be a new low. Had the author of this resolution...bothered so much as to look at Wikipedia, here is what he or she would have found: “Approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent … is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene. Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.”

That same author would also have found a photo of a young, pitiful-looking black girl staring back at him from behind a mask nebuliser. (Good thing for her the disease “only affect[s] white people,” huh?)

Somewhere out there, a CUSA member is looking at the photo and thinking, "she's acting white." Maclean's has much more.

Last word goes to a CBC.ca commenter: "Folks! Remember! The K in Carleton is for Quality..."

Posted by damian at November 25, 2008 03:41 PM