The Peak - October 30, 2006

Interesting articles in this week's Peak:

News Articles

• SGM achieves quorum by Earl Tapia and Sean Wilkinson
• SGM: What happens now? by Earl Tapia and Sean Wilkinson
• Douglas College Student Union faces possible impeachment by Iain W. Reeve

Opinions

• Editorial Cartoon by Mike Hingston
• A good ol'-fashion' lynchin' by Matthew De Marchi

Letters to the Editor

• An open letter from Shawn Hunsdale, by Shawn Hunsdale
• Ex-directors must step down by Joel Blok, Titus Gregory, Clea Moray, and Bryan Jones
• Against the SGM by Paul N. McCulloch
• A victory for democracy? by Juan Tolentino
• A biased meeting by Paul Browning
• Accept impeachment by Brianna Turner

(Note: Matthew De Marchi, Joel Blok, Titus Gregory, Clea Moray, Bryan Jones, Paul N. McCulloch, Paul Browning, and Brianna Turner all verbally participated in the SGM.)

Andrea Sandau, the University Relations Officer of the Simon Fraser Student Society, has written the following affidavit:

Statement of Andrea Sandau

University Relations Officer, Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS)

On Tuesday June 6, 2006 in the early afternoon, between approximately 2:00pm-4:00pm, I spoke with Ms. Margo Dunnet in the Board of Directors office of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) (MBC 2220) regarding one of the SFSS’s employees, Ms. Hattie Aitken, the Graduate Issues and University Relations Coordinator.

In that conversation, prior to the commencement of an investigation that led to Ms. Aitken’s firing, Ms. Dunnet informed me that the SFSS was planning to fire Ms. Aitken. I did not realize it at the time, but it would soon become clear that the investigation was launched specifically for the purpose of generating the justification for her termination. I believe this decision to fire Ms. Aitken was already made prior to the discovery of the evidence upon which her firing was allegedly based.

During that conversation, on that June afternoon, I stated that I had to schedule a meeting with Ms. Aitken within the next few days, before I was to leave for Europe. I did not know Ms. Aitken well, so I asked Ms. Dunnet for suggestions about how to interact with Ms. Aitken. Ms. Dunnet responded, “You won’t have to worry about her when you get back anyway.” I asked Ms. Dunnet, “Why, are you guys gonna’ fire her?” Ms. Dunnet smiled and nodded. She replied: “Yeah, we’re looking at letting her go. We don’t trust her. She attempted to bring speculation upon the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) at the CFS conference in May by publicly asking inappropriate questions during some of the meetings, and she missed most of the workshops she was supposed to attend.” I asked some questions about the CFS conference, but I asked no further questions about this employment issue.

At the time that Ms. Dunnet shared this information with me, we shared a positive working relationship, having recently run on the same political slate, “Common Sense.”

I shall post a scanned copy of this affidavit when it becomes available.

The bank account of the SFSS has been frozen. I am not entirely sure who is responsible for this. All I know is that if said bank account does not become unfrozen very soon, the SFSS will likely be forced to (temporarily) shut down....

Post-SGM Aftermath

So the G7 are refusing to budge. Shawn Hunsdale and Wei Li sent a draconian letter Thursday to all SFSS staff. This letter contains nine instructions, and warns that "deviation from the direction given in this memo will be viewed as insubordination and grounds for discipline or discharge." The instructions are designed to centralize power in the hands of the G7, and to strictly limit the powers both of the staff and of the other members of the Board of Directors. Let us examine these instructions one by one, and note how they violate the By-Laws and/or the regulations, even if they were, in fact, still legitimate directors of the Society:

1. "All direction to staff will come in writing from Wei Li, Internal Relations Officer. Any requests from employees should be directed to Wei Li, Internal Relations Officer." A violation of AP-18 (3), which states: "Employee workload priorities shall be set by the Executive Committee in consultation with the employees concerned. However, this shall not preclude Executive Officers from giving direction to employees as needed to ensure that the duties associated with their portfolios are fulfilled, and/or to ensure that the Society’s day-to-day operations are carried out."
   
   
2. "All correspondence to and from University administrators should be directed through Margo Dunnet, External Relations Officer." A violation of By-Law 4 (7) (a), which states that the University Relations Officer (Andrea Sandau) shall "act as a liaison between the Board and the University."
   
   
3. "All contact with on-campus student groups, including the Graduate Issues Committee should be directed to Glyn Lewis, Member Services Officer." A violation of By-Law 4 (2) (a), which states that the Graduate Issues Officer (Joel Blok) shall "act as a liaison between the Board and the Society's Graduate Issues Committee." GIC is not a "student group," but a committee of the Board of Directors. Furthermore, this instruction effectively prevents Sam Bradd (Student Union Organizer) from doing his job.
   
   
4. "All contact with off-campus groups should be directed to Margo Dunnet, External Relations Officer." Valid (assuming Dunnet was not impeached, that is), but draconian.
   
   
5. "All contact with media, both on- and off-campus, should be directed to Shawn Hunsdale, President and Margo Dunnet, External Relations Officer." Valid (assuming they were not impeached), but still draconian. Seriously impacts Anthony Maragna's (Communications Coordinator) ability to do his job.
   
   
6. "All correspondance with the SFSS financial institutions are to be through Vanessa Kelly, Treasurer." Seriously impacts the ability of the Financial Coordinators to do their jobs.
   
   
7. "All correspondance with the SFSS auditors should be through Vanessa Kelly, Treasurer." Translation: whistleblowers, beware! A recipe for creating a financial scandal even greater than that currently afflicting the Douglas Students' Union.
   
   
8. "Other than payroll-related expenses, no cheques are to be processed." This will effectively shut down the Society in a few days.
   
   
9. "All questions regarding the legal affairs should be directed to Shawn Hunsdale, President and Margo Dunnet, External Relations Officer. Only these two directors should be in contact with the SFSS legal counsel, Rush, Crane, Guenther, and Associates." A violation of By-Law 4 (6) (f) which states that the Treasurer (currently vacant, but according to Hunsdale and Li, Vanessa Kelly) shall "coordinate the commercial and legal affairs of the Society."

The letter closes with this gem: "While it may seem that this direction is overly restrictive and limits employees' ability to perform their duties, the employer has taken this action for the protection of staff." Oh, how thoughtful! How gracious and compassionate! Mr. Hunsdale and Mr. Li are clearly very concerned about the protection of the staff, as clearly evidenced by their actions over the past few months....

The G7 have overstayed their welcome. SDU is preparing a legal challenge to their continued hold on power. In addition, some students have adopted some... unorthdox tactics. At noon today, around 30-40 members in good standing of the Society staged an impromptu "tea party" in the Board of Directors office, demanding that the impeached directors accept the results of the special general meeting.... Photos of this sit-in are available on Flickr, courtesy of Saxifrage and doviende.

On a side note, it would appear that our good friend Shawn Hunsdale observed the proceedings of the SGM from on high, surrounded by a small coterie of people who look like students, but who apparently decided against participating in the SGM. Question: are these SFU students?

Special General Meeting Successful

(For pictures of the SGM and links to blog entries from other attendees, please see this comprehensive blog entry on Joey Coleman's blog. Paulman Chan has a bunch of photos on Flickr, as does Aleszcz. Chris Demwell has an excellent bird's-eye view photo of the SGM.)

It was a cold, blustery day yesterday on Burnaby Mountain, but that did not stop around 750 students from assembling in Convocation Mall for a Special General Meeting of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS). Patrice Pratt was appointed Chairperson pro tem, and over the next three hours, students voted to impeach seven directors of the SFSS and to amend the By-Laws in two places to give increased autonomy to graduate students within the organization. The results of the votes on impeachment were as follows:

Director's name	Position	In favour	Against	Abstain
Shawn Hunsdale	President	724	6	13
Margo Dunnet	External Relations Officer	613	14	61
Wei Li	Internal Relations Officer	573	20	45
Glyn Lewis	Member Services Officer	607	22	3
Vanessa Kelly	Treasurer	597	10	30
Marion Pollock	At-Large Representative	492	20	57
Erica Halpern	At-Large Representative	382	60	155

The votes on the amendments in support of graduate student autonomy (note: not independence) were near-unanimous.

I am told that somewhere between 40 and 60 people attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) taking place in the East Gym, including SFSS staff (who were all required to attend the AGM if they were working at that time) and a number of family members of "G7" directors, who were there to offer moral support.

Some random thoughts before I go to bed:

• Instead of presenting arguments against impeachment, the handful of opponents of the impeachment motions in the hall resorted to a host of procedural tactics to try and prevent the meeting from taking place. One student raised a Point of Order, claiming that the Special General Meeting was invalid; the Chair ruled that point not in order, citing the legal letter [PDF] that SDU's lawyer wrote to the lawyer for the SFSS on that subject. Another student attempted to amend the agenda to add an unrelated matter (relating to residence students), preventing the assembly from dealing with the business that drew everybody to the meeting in the first place. Still another student unsuccessfully moved to eliminate all constraints on debate, potentially allowing a single fillibusterer to discuss Hamlet, etc.
  
  
• The most comical event of the meeting would have had to have been when an anti-impeachment student tried to move to take the vote on the impeachment questions by roll call. That is to say, this student wanted the Chair to record, one by one, each of the 600+ assembled students' name and vote on the motion - a process that would take, by a conservative estimate, three hours per vote. The Chair announced that a vote would be taken on whether to adopt this change in the voting procedure; at this, Margo Dunnet raised a Point of Order, claiming that a roll call vote must be taken on the request of a single member. It took me great pleasure to cite the relevent provisions in Roberts Rules of Order, which clearly specify that a roll call vote shall be taken on a majority vote of the assembly :-).
  
  
• That said, some of the opponents of the impeachment motions gave some actual arguments. One student objected to the general meeting impeaching directors over a human resources' decision (i.e. firing Hattie Aitken), a decision that, according to the Collective Agreement, must be kept confidential, thus preventing the G7 from effectively defending themselves. (This student did not note that these directors had, through their Member's Update and classroom speaking, doing exactly such defenses.) Another student claimed that Students for a Democratic University's (SDU) actions were mere political posturing to remove their ideological opponents and set themselves up for a return to power in the subsequent by-election.

• The AGM apparently ended early, and several of the G7 and their supporters made their way to the SGM to participate in the debate. (Shawn Hunsdale was apparently unable to produce his SFU ID card, and so the registration desk was unable to verify his student status (or otherwise!) in our brand-new registration system. [By the way: THANKS Computing Science Grads for programming that system! It worked spectacularly and efficiently.])
  
  
• One controversial issue was the time limits on debate. At the beginning of the meeting, we voted on a set of Special Rules of Order that provided that (1) each speaker would be limited to 3 minutes, (2) debate on each *motion* would be limited to 16 minutes, and (3) speakers would alternate between supporters and opponents of each motion. When the "G7" entered the room, they immediately complained that these limits were preventing debate, etc. Even worse, there was one student who kept calling the question after just two speakers had spoken (one for, one against), other than the initial debate on impeaching Shawn Hunsdale. I was very much opposed to this latter suppression of debate, but SGM members thought otherwise, consistently voting around 75% in favour of calling the question on each impeachment motion. Patrice Pratt told me that the assembly had every right to decide that they had heard enough debate on the issues over the past several weeks, an argument that I can understand, if uneasily. (Or perhaps the assembly didn't want the meeting to last beyond three hours [which is how long it lasted] in the cold.)
  
  
• I left my place at the front table (where I had been serving as parliamentarian to the Chair) specifically to vote against the motion to impeach Erica Halpern. The vote totals show that impeaching her was far from unanimous. My reasoning (which extended back to August, when I was part of the minority of SDU that opposed adding her name to the list of impeachees) is as follows: Erica was not part of the Labour Committee that conspired to fire Hattie; and she abstained on many of the By-Law-defying, process-ignoring decisions that followed. Now, I certainly have no intention of voting for her in any future election; however, I remain unconvinced that Erica's actions warranted a measure so grave as impeachment.
  
  
• The G7 aren't giving up! Some non-impeached directors approached the G7 after the vote, asking them of their position on the SGM. They were quite clear: the SGM is invalid, and the G7 are staying right where they are, exercising full control over the property, finances, and staff of the Simon Fraser Student Society. SDU is preparing a petition to the courts, and about a dozen of us have been tasked by our lawyer with writing affidavits in support of this petition. I will update this blog with any new information on the latest stage in this saga as it becomes information.
  
  
• I and several other organizers of the SGM were wearing radio headsets so that we could communicate with each other during the meeting. But we were not the only ones wearing headsets! Indeed, I could see quite the contingent of mysterious individuals wearing headsets rushing around the meeting, and I overheard one of them attempting to persuade an SFU student to attend the AGM instead of the SGM. However, interestingly enough, most of them (as far as I could tell) did not enter the meeting area, remaining on the outskirts during the entire meeting. (The meeting area was fenced off, and one could only enter the meeting at one of the registration desks, provided that one provided proof that one was an SFU student.)
  
  
• Oh, so cold! I was just wearing a fleece jacket over my shirt, which was entirely unsufficient to prevent me from shivering through the entire meeting....
  
  
• MANY THANKS to all our volunteers! This event could not have been organized without all your help. Security volunteers, registration clerks, vote counters, runners, computer system techs, AV tech, Secretary, Chair, promoters, and many more all worked together, some contributing many hours of their own time, to make this meeting a well-organized success. Particular thanks go to Josephine Wong for coordinating the entire operation. In fact, Patrice Pratt and our lawyer told me that this was, by far, the most well-organized of any 'insurgent' volunteer-organized general meeting that they had ever attended.
  

And now, to start working on a midterm assignment due this Friday....

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."

The Peak for This Week

The Peak has published their SGM/AGM issue. Key articles:

News Articles

• The Peak's General Meeting Guide by Earl Tapia and Amanda McCuaig

Opinions

• The Harder Line: A tale of two meetings by Derrick Harder

Letters

• From one MSO to another by Sarah Caufield, MSO, 2005-2006
• SFU scandal: brooms and an apology by Clement Abas Apaak, Former SFSS President
• The SGM is lawful by Titus Gregory
• SGM is bogus by Margo Dunnet, SFSS External Relations Officer
• Synopsis of the SFSS' SGM and AGM by Clea Moray, Forum SGM Oversight Committee Chair
  

The Varsity highlights SFSS Controversy

The Varsity, the student newspaper at the University of Toronto, has an article on the impeachment controversy here at SFU. This article has a lot of detail. However, as is frequently the case, there are a few minor errors:

• The article states that "In order to have the university's student forum, an advisory body, call a campus-wide Special General Meeting to hold an impeachment vote, SDU needed a petition signed by at least five per cent of the student body." In fact, under our By-Laws, Forum has the authority to call a Special General Meeting whenever it wants to. The By-Laws also provide that the SFSS President must call a Special General Meeting upon the receipt of a petition signed by at least five per cent of the student body. However, President Hunsdale refused to call such a meeting, and Forum's decision to call an SGM was simply in response to his inaction.
  
  
• The article also states: "The conflict, which began as a purported murky conspiracy and has ballooned into a mud-slinging debacle of finger-pointing and denial, will reach its climax this Wednesday in two simultaneous student meetings, each of which declares the other illegitimate." Neither Forum nor Students for a Democratic University have ever suggested that the Annual General Meeting is illegitimate.

Aside from these minor quibles, however, it's an excellent article!

Douglas Students' Union in the News

In the interests of avoiding another unfriendly letter from Roger McConchie, I don't think I'll be providing any commentary on this one. But then, I don't think that commentary on my part will really be all that necessary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfZ3j0asXWI

• Other commentary by litlebopeepshow

(P.S.: Yes, I know, I'm late in commenting on the USSU.... I have two major midterm assignments around now, so that will have to late until I have enough time to properly do justice to this very interesting situation.)

The Debate Continues

A debate between Clement Apaak (former SFSS President), Shawn Hunsdale (current SFSS President), Margo Dunnet (current SFSS External Relations Officer), and myself took place last Thursday. You can read about it in this week's Peak (or on Xenia's blog)... or you can listen to it online! Special thanks to CJSF Radio, who recorded this debate, and to Michael Letourneau for storing it on his server.

A number of webpages have appeared and disappeared in recent weeks.... Since the SFSS Powers That Be do not recognize the decision of Forum to call the Special General Meeting (SGM), I have created a website for Forum In Exile, which has information on the Special General Meeting. A MySpace account has been created called "I am going to the SGM." Bhuvinder has devoted his webspace to providing his perspective on the issue, and Derrick has written a fascinating post on the subject as well. A lively discussion is taking place on the online forum of the Computing Science Student Society.

As for the Other Side - well, one can find the agenda for the Annual General Meeting on the SFSS website. However, the Other Side's campaign website, yoursfss.org, has been taken down, reportedly on the advice of their labour lawyer.

I also found out that our Communications Coordinator was forced to remove all of the minutes of SFSS meetings from the SFSS website, upon receiving written orders to do so from one of the SFSS executives. SFSS staff have also been ordered not to cooperate with the SGM in any way whatsoever.

I am also very pleased to report that the Special General Meeting will likely be chaired by none other than Patrice Pratt! Ms. Pratt is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of VanCity Credit Union, the former director of staff development and administration for the BCGEU, and the former president of the BC NDP. She served as a member of the Board of Governors of SFU until her appointment was rescinded by the BC Liberals in 2002.

(I will comment on the fascinating stuff happening with the USSU tomorrow!)

More Peak articles posted

After a three-week absence, The Peak is beginning to post its recent issues in online format. Here are some interesting articles. Please note that articles in The Peak may contain one or more of the following: lies, confusion, misinformation, bias, libel, an utter lack of fact-checking, posturing for a future election run, and facts.

SFSS Fiasco - News

• Campus: Letters answer sought-after questions by Earl Tapia, News Editor
• Campus: SGM scheduled for October 25 by Iain Reeve, Associate News Editor

SFSS Fiasco - Opinion

• Speak Out: Transparency and SDU by Margo Dunnet, SFSS External Relations Officer
• To the barricades! by Victor Finberg

SFSS Fiasco - Letters

• SDU thwarts democracy by Glyn Lewis, SFSS Member Services Officer
• SDU confusion by Lisa Wall
• Trust is still the issue by Brianna Turner
  

Non-SFSS Fiasco

• Campus: Rent revolt results in partial victory by Iain Reeve, Associate News Editor
• Radical campus: take charge of your education by Sean Hibbitts
  

Canadian Student Newspaper Database Now Online

To complement the Canadian Student Union Database, I have created a database of Canadian student newspapers. This database is intended to include student newspapers of all types: institution-wide newspapers, graduate student newspapers, faculty- or campus-specific newspapers, special interest newspapers, etc.

Please email me with new links to student newspapers!

York U Protests

York University was again subjected to a clash between students over the Israel-Palestinian dispute. The Excalibur reports that what started out as a tabling session by the Grassroots Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN) turned into a "major demonstration" marked by "a yelling match between students from two campus groups." GRAIN is a working group of OPIRG-York. The 'two student groups' identified were GRAIN and Hillel@York, though Adam Hummel, President of Hillel@York, stated that "From Hillel's point of view, we didn't have an official protest or response against it. There were members of the community there and there were members of Hillel there voicing their opinions and talking to people."

The Ubyssey and The Link Archives Gone

Both The Ubyssey and The Link, student newspapers for The University of British Columbia and Concordia University respectively, have unveiled new websites to better service their members. Unfortunately, both websites have, in the process, taken down all archived material from years past! (Boo! Hiss! Lament!) Fortunately, archives of The Ubyssey from 1918 to 1998 are available online courtesy of The University of British Columbia Archives.

University of Saskatchewan Students' Union By-Election

The University of Saskatchewan Students' Union is having a by-election to replace their former President, Evan Cole. Mr. Cole resigned under pressure from the other members of the USSU Executive due to his decision to write an affadavit in a lawsuit filed against the USSU surrounding the referendum on joining the Canadian Federation of Students. Speaking of said lawsuit, I have obtained the court documents that have been filed by the various parties:

• Brief filed by the Plaintiff [PDF], Robin Mowat
• Brief filed by the Defendant [PDF], the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union
• A motion filed by the Canadian Federation of Students[-Services] [PDF] to add themselves to the lawsuit

Kwantlen Student Association Troubles Continue

The Kwantlen Student Association is undergoing some problems at the present time. In August, I reported that a lawsuit between the KSA and several Kwantlen students had settled. In accordance with that settlement, a new election is taking place this semester. However, the four students are complaining that the KSA has breached the settlement agreement, and are applying to the Supreme Court of British Columbia [PDF] for an order declaring, inter alia, the executives to be in contempt of court.

Blog Reborn

Vanessa Kelly's blog seems to be back.

Update

Sorry for the week-long delay in posting, I've been extremely busy. Fortunately, there is plenty of interesting stuff for me to write about, both close to home and far away.

Simon Fraser University

• Student Forum met on September 27, despite an attempt by Member Services Officer Glyn Lewis to cancel the meeting. The membership unanimously elected myself as Chair. Since President Shawn Hunsdale had failed to call a Special General Meeting upon receipt of a petition containing the signatures of well over the 5% required by our By-Laws, Forum voted to call a Special General Meeting on its own. Forum also adopted a motion of non-confidence in the Board of Directors, censured the members of the Labour Committee, and replaced two Executives on the Constitution and Policy Review Committee with two of its own members.
  
  
• On September 29, the Board of Directors apparently met. On motion from Member Services Officer Glyn Lewis, the Board voted to hold their Annual General Meeting on October 25, at 2:30 p.m.— at the exact same time when Forum had voted to call their Special General Meeting!
  
  
• In my capacity as Chair of Forum for the fall semester, I have created a Forum website. This website contains information regarding the activities of Forum, and also includes a page dedicated to the Special General Meeting that we have called.
  
  
• I have been informed that an emergency Board of Directors meeting is being held today at 1 p.m. Apparently, the entire meeting will be in camera (i.e. confidential).

Not Simon Fraser University

• Douglas College has suspended the remission of student fees to the Douglas Students' Union. The latter's website has no comment; not very surprising, considering that it has not been modified whatsoever for several months. The Administration has published a letter to students in The Other Press, the Douglas student newspaper.
  
  
• The Liberals have won a majority in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick under the leadership of Shawn Graham. Their new Cabinet includes Kelly Lamrock as Minister of Education, who will be responsible for primary and secondary education in the province. Mr. Lamrock was National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students in 1993 and later founded the New Brunswick Student Alliance. At its first meeting (held today), the NB Cabinet "approved the creation of $2,000 grants to first-year university students and the elimination of parental and spousal contribution requirements for student loans."