UVic Student’s Ultra Marathon Highlights Middle Eastern Conflicts

Students for empowering change and building a brighter future

By Ajah Newsome

September 10th, 2024

Our world is experiencing serious turmoil and unprecedented times that will prove hard to overcome. It has become impossible to escape the conflicts occurring overseas and across the globe, no matter how little media you consume on a daily basis.

If there is one thing for sure within these trying times, it is that more can be done, especially by average people living in the ‘western’ world. At least that much is true for a local University of Victoria student Nicholas Ferster. Ferster took it upon himself to run from Nanaimo to Victoria, British Columbia in the hopes of raising money and spreading awareness for the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, specifically Palestine.

Ferster, a member and Branch Leader of the Canadian section of the Revolutionary Communist Party is confident that the lack of influential power and ultimate negligent efforts being made by not only the Canadian Government but by those hoping to make a difference on a more localized level, is the lack of funding and therefore organization. 

The total distance of Fersters run came out to 118 km, starting just outside Nanaimo and ending in a suburb of Victoria a mere 34 hours later, with a total running time of 14 hours, give or take. A fellow friend and member of the party volunteered to bike alongside Ferster to ensure his health and safety throughout this difficult endeavor. The two experienced heavy rain the first day but persevered, wearing garbage bags on their feet and over their raincoats. Despite the difficulty they experienced during the first half of the voyage, they still had just over 50km to finish the next day to make the total planned trip come to a close. 

Ferster proposed the idea back in early spring to his branch, with the promise that he would run a kilometre for every donation made to the party with the goal in mind of organizing another student strike for Palestine here in Victoria, and ultimately one that produced better outcomes than previous ones our province has seen. 

Ferster is a fourth year Political Science student who discovered Marxist Communism early in his second year. Certain aspects immediately resonated with him and his newfound understanding of this political organization he found ultimately proved relevant in solving modern day issues with capitalist systems. At the root of his passion though, is the understanding that we cannot create change without uniting, and where one major flaw with solving these important ongoing issues is the lack thereof. 

The naivety of big institutions that we have placed power into the hands of can no longer be ignored. No matter what, it is imperative that we hold these institutions accountable for their complicity. As a result of Fersters run, the Party was able to raise money for a student strike for Palestine that will ultimately force institutions such as UVic to listen to local activists. The results of Fersters run are already underway, with other members of the party and impartial UVic students beginning to organize another strike for Palestine to kick off this year's fall semester as we come up on the one year anniversary of the atrocities commencing overseas. 

The scope of power held by institutions such as the University of Victoria reaches far beyond the student population and yet, it is students who are unknowingly participating in advocating for these institutions on a daily basis. The student body is inherently intertwined with promoting and representing branches of UVic through social media by way of reels, posts and student body events on campus.

In terms of the encampment that was initiated in the quad at UVic back in early May, it was just one established on university campuses across the country. It was also one of the last ones standing by the time it was finally shut down, however that was not due to the University working with the students to gain any traction on the movement. Rather, UVic idly stood by making statements about the progress or lack thereof of the encampment in a way that made the students protesting look like dangerous citizens impeding on the livelihoods of other staff and students during the schools summer semester. 

The only way to separate yourself from the kinds of students one who fly by unaffected by current issues, and the ones who take a stand against destructive institutions that we pour thousands of dollars into every year, is to participate in events such as student strikes. Fersters run in itself was an incredible feat to undertake, but it cannot be a stand alone protest. We must not forget why we are students in the first place, to learn, to educate others, and to emerge impactful participants in our society.