Hot beef rejection

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by George Maddux

Fifteen-year-old Sarah Tosques' latest demonstration was a little too hot for Vincent Massey Collegiate in Rosemont. Tosques, inspired by her favourite singer Daniel Johns from Silverchair, became a strict vegan two years ago. Since that fateful time, she's earned the nickname "veggie" from derisive classmates as she attempts to bring the meat-is-murder message to her predominately Italian institute of learning.

Although she has met some resistance to her class presentation displaying the horrors of slaughterhouses and animal experimentation, it was last Thursday's rally that had authorities asking her to make her point off school grounds. On that afternoon, along with seven friends, she distributed graphic pamphlets and Burger-King-esque birthday crowns inscribed with the words "Murder King" and a gruesome depiction of a cow with a skinned skull.

"Teenagers go to fast-food restaurants. This way they'll know exactly what they're eating and what's in their burger," Tosques says. "It's not just an animal, it's an animal who suffered his entire life." Tosques, who points out that it's much more cruel to kill an animal than say, a tomato, has no bones against her school--which she describes as "excellent"--but says that she simply has to get her message out. "I wish somebody had come to me with all this info but I had to get it myself. Now I want the info to be there for others so they can see what is going on."