In the last edition of the Herald, we published an early contender for an official Innis song, titled “An Innocuous, Inoffensive, Totally Respectful and Reverent albeit Tongue-in-Cheek School Song for Innis College”. We reached out to the original lyricist himself, Bob Bossin, who graduated from Innis in 1968 with flying colours, and is now known for his folk music (including as co-founder of the group Stringband) and social activism.

After looking up Bob on the internet, we found one of his more recent compositions, which is a complete departure in tone and content from the Innis Song. Titled, “We Don’t Want Your Pipeline,” the Youtube video features Bob performing along with images of real protestors onsite against the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion in British Columbia.

Bob’s activism began during his school days, where he described Innis as a campus “aboil with activism”. We reached out to Bob to ask about his memories as a student on this very campus, and for some advice for current students who feel the need to make a real difference in the world.

Bob, now in his 70s, wrote back to us with a beautifully eloquent reply, giving us a useful tip to “snort it before you shoot it.”

That was a bit of a misrepresentation. His actual advice for current students is: “Just ’cause you are saving the world, it doesn’t mean you have to have a bad time.”

Here are his complete comments:

“Thank you for reminding me of “Who the Hell was Harold Innis.” I remember writing it but had forgotten most of the lyrics, which actually aren’t bad, eh? I don’t remember a debate about making it the College’s official song but the thought of such a thing makes me chuckle.

“I arrived in ’65, the second year of the College’s existence. We inhabited a portable – left over from the war years? – next to the old observatory on front campus. At that point, the College had neither its own classes – which we took at U.C. – nor its own residence.

“We pretty much all knew each other. We were all or virtually all white, but otherwise pretty varied: right-wing, left-wing, academics, activists, athletes and acid heads. Mine was the graduating class when Ken Stone ripped us his degree on the stage of Convocation Hall. It made the front page of the Star and was a source of chagrin or pride depending on your political persuasion.

“That was 1968 and Innis and the campus, indeed all campuses, were aboil with activism. Vietnam protests; demands for a more liberal university. Not everyone was caught up, but enough were to elect an activist SAC, with me as the Innis rep. (I think there were two of us.) Mine was the era that gave birth to Innis’s (somewhat) modern academic program with film and environmental studies and a briefly extant free-form course called Contemporary Social Something-or-Other which, in its short life, generated considerable controversy and would merit an article of its own. I was one of the “resource people.” Ah, those were the days.

“You ask, “How do you think students can effect change?” That’s a simple one: any way they can. And they better be quick about it. If not, I won’t be around to suffer the consequences but you will and the consequences of inaction look to be dire. As we used to say, “If you keep going the way you’re going, you’re gonna wind up where you’re headed.”

“I had to laugh when you asked me for advice to contemporary students. I was asked this once before by Innis when they decided to put pictures on the wall of notable Innis grads, along with our advice. Mine was “Snort it before you shoot it,” which seemed to me to be a useful tip. But it was a bit racy for the walls of the College, so they suggested I try again. No problem: “Just ’cause you are saving the word, it doesn’t mean you have to have a bad time.”