If proactively releasing information won court cases, Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) would have this one in the bag.
The GSA has delivered a steady flow of information to their constituents since first posting their notice of intent to sue the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) for breaking their shared health plan on their website in July of 2012.
Since then, the GSA’s board of directors has released five membership advisories to inform and justify their position and actions on the lawsuit. CUSA responded to the first, but in the seven months since has not posted any new information. There have been major developments on which CUSA has been silent, vague, or has relied upon others to disseminate information.
This lack of communication is a disadvantage. After CUSA’s fourth statement of defence deadline extension, the GSA included in their membership advisory that they hoped CUSA was not stalling for time intentionally or for extra-judicial purposes.
Afterwards, when the GSA was first to announce CUSA had filed its statement of defence they included a remark that it only “slightly” clarifies the CUSA position.
CUSA needs to speak for itself. Without rebuttal, these kinds of statements build distrust and can disengage a student body from the issues that matter— and if there’s one thing to not be apathetic about, it’s the hundreds or thousands of dollars at stake when you break that tooth or catch that cold..
CUSA needs to be proactive when disclosing information throughout the rest of the court proceedings. The next step of the proceedings is mediation before a judge. If CUSA is not going to be mediating with the GSA, let’s hear why in a membership advisory posted to their website.
Carleton’s undergrads have their $20, now they need transparency.
