Sam Heaton’s opinion piece in the Charlatan on March 3 was the best thing ever to appear in the pages. Not that I support Heaton and what he does, but he finally brings the proof to what many students, myself included, have been saying.
CUSA is a corrupt, undemocratic organization that does not represent students. For those out there who were paying attention to the campaign, Councillor-elect, Brandon Wallingford had “End The Corruption” written big and bold on his posters. This is what he was talking about. This organization does not listen to students. It does not care what students think. Instead it is an oligarchy bent on its own image and survival and will do anything to maintain the status quo. Every year, we see this kind of self-serving attitude on display.
Whether it be through rigged elections where winning candidates are disqualified on yet to be proven charges (still can’t prove Bruce made that hole in the wall) or they make false claims to students to make themselves look better (just ask those who were told they’d have to be fired unless the university “Frees the Fees” even though emergency funds were released by the university). The survival of the regime is of utmost importance.
The motion on Feb. 17 that Sam refers to is another example of that. Already under fire for the Lifeline decision, and remembering Shinegate, CUSA’s executives knew they had to cut the SAIA motion off at the knees for fear of making international headlines again and having to deal with hundreds of angry phone calls. So to save their own skins, they had their (no longer) secret meeting with the council chair Brent Farrington, who in a former life was Deputy Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. Here I shall quote from an opinion editor of the Link, Concordia’s student newspaper in January 2009.
“Farrington, the current Deputy Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students, is back at Concordia, doing double-duty as the interim-Chair of the CSU — the person in charge of the administration of day-to-day Council business.”
Further in the article, it says,
“Without any consultation with the student body, one of the founders of the Unity dynasty and a top official for a political lobby group in Ottawa has become, for a limited time, the second most powerful student at Concordia… err, non-student.”
Remember I mentioned elections earlier, well here’s what the Link had to say about Farrington and elections, “Even if Brent Farrington’s slate is the choice of students, the irregularities and electoral violations in this election are too serious to ignore this time.
If the allegations against them are true, some of New Evolution’s supporters have broken the most basic rules of elections. Hiring people to physically intimidate opposing candidates, getting access to contact info through a fake tuition campaign and running a $10,000-plus push-poll with permission from the University.”
So it is already clear that Farrington’s judgement isn’t necessarily the best there is, and that’s me putting it nicely.
The other area CUSA is not representing students, and not being honest is, the U-Pass. As you may have heard, thanks to the Charlatan, the U-Pass is going to continue next year. As you may have read their editorial, it is undemocratic.
Last year, we were told by Dina Skivirsky, CUSA VP Student Issues, “The U-Pass is a pilot program…students will have to vote again in another U-Pass referendum in February 2011.”
So students like myself, voted for the U-Pass so that we could give it a try. As was expected, I evaluated the U-Pass and in a previous blog post, I gave it a failing grade.
This was done in expectation that there would have to be a referendum. Now either she has explicitly lied to students and to the Charlatan about the true nature of what we voted on last year, or they failed to pull their part of the bargain with City Hall and students when they did not hold a referendum in the just concluded elections.
What the U-Pass staying does do however, is provide something for CUSA establishment to campaign on next year because they can now say they saved the $145 U-Pass instead of the $148.63 as City Hall wanted so as to be fair to all residents of Ottawa.
Everything done at CUSA is about preserving the oligarchy that exists. Students are deceived on a regular basis by their student union but too few speak out against it. Those who do are labelled as being part of “the Conservative takeover of student unions” and their arguments dismissed. Now finally, someone on the inside has revealed what many already knew to be true. The “S” in CUSA doesn’t stand for students.
–Delroy Dyer, public affairs councillor
