Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Impeachment Campaign: Douglas Students' Union

Ryan Cousineau reports on an impeachment campaign currently taking place at the Douglas Students' Union (Local 18, Canadian Federation of Students), in relation to an ongoing criminal investigation and alleged financial regularities at that students' union. I reported on this fascinating situation in New Westminster yesterday.

P.S.: Something intriguing to note. Sean Hibbitts is listed as the Disabled Students' Liaison of the Douglas Students' Union on their "DSU REPS" page. Mr. Hibbitts, a new SFU student, is also responsible for writing two letters to The Peak in recent weeks ("Radical campus: take charge of your education," and "Cruelty, the B.C. student loans way") - letters that, in my humble opinion, look suspiciously like an attempt to build up one's profile before running in an election. (I should know, since I've done the same sort of letter-writing myself!)

In any event, I'm not suggesting that Mr. Hibbitts, the SFSS scandal, and the DSU scandal are in any way related. It's just ... fascinating ... to see all these connections. Such as, for example, his latest entry in his blog, simple titled: "IN SOLIDARITY!! HUN-SDALE POWER!! KITA."

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24 Comments:

Blogger Ryan said...

Shurely you should link to this post if you really want to scupper dear Mr. Hibbits' campaign, eh?

Myspace: for quality oppo research!

8:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Is that Sean Hibbitts son of SFU's VP Finance and Administration, Pat Hibbitts?

8:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sean Hibbitts absolutely is the son of Pat Hibbitts, VP Finance and Administration, Simon Fraser University

12:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seems to me that the letters that have appeared in the Peak are likely written by another person--someone familiar with CFS campaigns and who knows their grammar and spelling pretty well. As for a connection with the CFS:

from Sean Hibbitt's blog:

Wednesday, April 19, 2006


Alive

I am no longer a director of the DSU wahoo now im working for the CFS as a Student Saver/ISIC discount solicitor yay..... been fun past couple of weeks with no strees.....

11:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I doubt Mr. Hibbitts would run for SFSS it probably would be a major conflict of interest. Especially since his mom is a VP.

2:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok, am I missing a big part of this story.
Why did the Douglas College SU buy that building? What are they going to do with it? And where is there a readable copy of the audit memo online?

8:53 AM  
Anonymous Nonny said...

DSU and the CFS loan are on youtube again with a newscast from last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
lalghUu44zk&mode=user&search=

(sorry don't know how to make this a link on a blog)

The audits are online through Studentunion.ca but the forensic audit letter, which is a confidential letter from the auditor to the board but was leaked, has disappeared from where it was originally.

The reported covering it on Global certainly must have a copy though--it is pictured in this broadcast.

9:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The links to Hibbitts myspace blog are dead (he seems to have taken his blog down). Did anyone copy/cache these anywhere?

12:41 PM  
Blogger Joey Coleman said...

Is that Mr. Hibbin's in this picture behind Margo and someone else?
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=279652585&size=l

11:53 PM  
Blogger Joey Coleman said...

Looking at this photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulman/279652747/)
I think Titus has a future in a boy band.
lol

11:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Joey Coleman said...

Is that Mr. Hibbin's in this picture behind Margo and someone else?
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=279652585&size=l
11:53 PM

The guy behind Margot Dunnet is Mr. Paul Browning (another huge cfs sycophant). Directly behind Margot (obscured) is Krystle Kalanj.

8:56 AM  
Anonymous Eric Blair said...

This is an astonishing story. I'm amazed student journalists haven't picked up on this. Here are just a few questions that should be - bur presumably won't - be answered:

1) Was it CFS National or CFS BC that made the loan? This is somewhat unclear.

2) Which officer, precisely, authorized the loan? Was he/she actually authorized by the NE or provincial executive to do so?

3) If I understand this story correctly, CFS National is claiming that they are "heroes" because they paid fees on Douglas students' behalf. Since CFS is fact runs the health plan, what this means is that CFS *KNEW* that funds being collected for the health plan were being diverted and didn't say anything. So: who at CFS knew and when did they know it?

4) If CFS has the scratch to "cover" 300K plus in missing premiums... where does this money come from? Does this imply that CFS is generating surpluses of 300K or more annually in its health plan? Why is this money not being returned to students?

5) And how much money, exactly, did CFS spend in legal fees to try to intimidate a reporter into not reporting this story?

Now, of course, in an ideal world, a CFS member would actually bring thse questions up at the next AGM...but given the cult-like atmosphere at CFS meetings I'm not holding my breath...

11:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seeing Joey H. on that YouTube clip after so many years made me think of something: people who have been campaigning about CFS, etc, for years have been going about it all wrong. You can't reason with CFS-types because they are unreasonable. You can't name and shame them because they are shameless. And to the average student, their "fight the man" pose sounds pretty good.

No, if you're going to go after them, you have to do so on the grounds that they are LOSERS.

Joey Hansen - how long has he been in student politics? A decade? What kind of loser does that?

Phil Link - what is he now, fifty? And he's worked for student unions for 25 years? Loser.

Michael Conlon? Ian Boyko? Decade-long losers, still working for CFS.

I could go on, but you all know what I'm talking about. These people aren't students, but they make a decent living (possibly more than that in Hansen's case) off students. And when real students see these people up close, they can smell that and they don't like it.

Let's call these professional leeches what they are: losers. When you put it in context like that, students will do the right thing.

1:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee, nothing like a mature and dignified argument to really rile up the masses...

2:10 PM  
Blogger Joey Coleman said...

The Peak covered the story and was sued back in May.
CFS BC gave (I would not call it a loan since there is no paper trail) $200,000. This was reported by The Peak and then the lawsuit resulted in it disappearing from The Peak site.
CFS National gave $300,000.

2:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Screw dignified. People have played nice with those losers for way too long. These leeches have played students for suckers for too long...gaining positions of trust by mouthing a few radical phrases and sounding oh-so-dedicated to the student cause. Meanwhile, they've ripped off students for HALF A MILLION. Not just at Douglas - all CFS students across the coutnry are on the hook for this.

Why should anyone be dignified with these people? Dignified is what lets these people get away with their bullshit...

11:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The loan has been raised at a CFS AGM and it will be again.

9:31 AM  
Anonymous Nonny said...

Is there any word on the DSU impeachment petition? We heard the deadline was last wednesday??

11:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Check out www.thenownews.com for the following articles:

Nov 3 - College holds back student union dues

Nov 8 - Police file on Student Society

Nov 8 - Action Needed

7:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The impeachment petition gathered enough signatures, and last night at a rep. meeting the directors set a date for a SGM. (nov.29th at 4pm)
Lets just hope that it makes qourum.

6:46 PM  
Blogger anonymous said...

the impeachment petition gathered over 1200 signatures and last night at a rep. meeting the directors set a date for an SGM.(nov.29th @4pm)
Lets hope they get quorum

6:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You might take a look at Steven Lee's blog for the KSA post audit memorandum, looks like a chapter out of Douglas'

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so happy you're on my side!
Bloggers rule man, so fucking awesome. Man, there is nothing like having the last word!

mabye link to the thing you trumpet, other than yourself that is.

3:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not so sure about this loser argument. It seems a bit harsh and not likely to win over anyone not in the anti CFS camp (cult).

Also, Michael Conlon left CFS a year ago.

1:42 PM  

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