leave the CFS

coppied from an email sent to the cs dept from Clement Abas Apaak.

==========

My fellow SFU students,

My name is Clement Apaak; I am a former president of the SFSS, former member
of the SFU senate, and a current student member of the SFU Board of
Governors. I write to you to ask you to take your campus and student
society back. Please vote and get our beloved SFSS out of the CFS. Our
SFSS has shown courage in the last two years, and has placed the interest of
SFU students' front and centre. We must now use our votes to help it get
out of a broken, corrupt, undemocratic, and unaccountable national student
organization, the CFS. Please read and pass this on to all SFU students you
know.

I have spend most of my years as an SFU students serving you, and our
university community in various capacities, and I was part of the recent
action led to the unprecedented removal from office of members of our SFSS
student board who engaged in a witch hunt, and underhanded practice for
political gain and to stratify the wishes of their sponsors, the CFS.

To set the record straight, I used to be an officer of the CFS. I served as
the graduate representative to the BC provincial component, and as the
international student commission at the national level. In all I have
attend four national CFS meeting on behalf of SFU students, and 3 provincial
meetings, as well as other events arranged by the CFS. By virtue of the two
positions I held in both the provincial and national components of the CFS,
I know first hand that the basis for which I have joined the call for us to
get out of this broken institution are well founded.

I know of many instances during which the CFS, BC component, interfered with
SFSS elections on campus. When I run for grad issue officer, our slate at
the time, my profile as a candidate, and posters were made in the CFS
offices. While on the board at that time, CFS staff imposed candidates on
us that we were asked to hire as SFSS staff; research and policy, and
communications. When I became president a few years later, this continued,
in spite of opposition from board members, including me. I wrote to the CFS
as president, as directed by the SFSS board of directors when, then,
external relations officer, Shawn (Philippe) Hunsdale invited CFS officers
to our campus to do class room speaking without due consultation with the
board or executives. As it tuned out, this was one of many instances in
which he communicated and gave permission to the CSF to engage our students
without the knowledge of the board.

This interference came to a head on collision with those of us who did not
approve of it when Hunsdale become president after me. AS we now know, he
used underhanded tactics, and concocted charges, in collaboration with his
lover and right hand woman, Margo Dunnet, to dismiss one of our long and
outstanding staff people at the SFSS, Hattie. Why, because she was a staff
person who was not seen as loyal to the CFS as was regarded as an obstacle
in the bid of a CFS- owned company to take over as the broker for the grad
health plan. Given that I was the person who attended meetings with Hattie,
and knew first hand where these stupid charges were coming from, I said no,
refused to be silenced in the face of shameless and blatant lies aimed at
causing be to back off. Together with independent thinking board members,
forum, grads, and the GIC, we mobilized to impeach the bad, ill informed and
CFS puppets. Our side won the support of the SFUI administration, and the
courts ruled in our favor. I mention this because; it is connected with
where we are today.

For your information, I had not yet concluded that I would support the call
to end our membership to the CFS even after the impeachment, and court
victory because I though, maybe this time the CFS will work at changing the
issues for which we as SFU students have complained about since the 1990s.
I came to that conclusion that we had to leave the CFS when word got to me
that Margo Dunnet, had been hired to work for the Dawson Students Union out
east, and that Shawn Hunsdale, had changed his name to Philippe Hunsdale and
was again back in student politics at a college in Quebec. It become clear
to me, as is the case with many other former CFS supporters on campus that,
the CFS rewarded leaders that our students impeached, and could not have the
moral basis to say that it values the membership of the very same students
who impeached Shawn and Margo. It was also clear that the CFS was not
willing to change.

Speaking of change, as a member of the CFS local 23, [that is what the SFSS
is know in the CFS], I introduced many motions at national and provincial
meetings seeking to reform the provincials and national executives of the
CFS to include international students and have been present at most of these
meeting since 2002. On each occasion my proposal was killed at the
committee level or at the closing plenary of these meetings. When I finally
got a motion passed at a national meeting about four years ago to create a
position for an international student on the national executive, the
leadership moved to ask that that idea be sent to the national executive to
investigate such a possibility. The outcome of that investigation is not
known, but the fact is that international students have no representation on
the national executive of an organization that clams to value them.

Then, as I was working with other BC student unions to ask for the repeal of
section 23 c of the BC University Act, so that international students can
run for, and sit on the boards of their institutions, the CFS offered no
help, and was unsupportive. I was called names for working with the AMS
(UBC Student Union, and its president, Spencer Keys), the University
presidents council, and MLAs, Harry Bloy in particular, to seek changes to
23 c of the Act. As you know, I was successful and now represent you on the
board of governors as the first international student in the history of this
province, and likely all of Canada to have done so. Because of what the
SFSS did, we now international students serving on boards in other parts of
BC.

I have come to the conclusion, based on seven years of active involvement in
student politics at SFU, BC, and Canada, and my intimate knowledge of how
the CFS functions, that we need to get out of it. It is not about the
principles for which the CFS stands; it is the way it has been run, its
resistance to change and insatiable need to directly influence our SFSS. It
is clear that the main reason why the CFS is now fighting to keep the SFSS
as local 23 is because of the fact that it will lose 430, 000. Well, it is
too late, and we must VOTE NO. We must send a clear message to the CFS and
to the rest of the student unions in Canada that we have a choice, and the
choice is no to take pack our campus, keep our money, and to serve our
students. And yes, we can if we go out and vote. Yes we can get ride of
the CFS from our campus. YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN.

In Solidity,

Clement Abas Apaak

i'm voting for xenia, i guess. joe is already senator, lets share the wealth a little. and he's a super insider. xenia will be some fresh blood.

TA-union wants out of CFS too

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Organizer
To: Stewards , exec@tssu.ca
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:09:28 -0700
Subject: TSSU supports NO vote on CFS referendum
============URGENT============

===============URGENT=====================
All TSSU Stewards: Please forward the message below to all TSSU members
in your department today (Monday) or tomorrow morning. Thanks so much~
Veronika Miralles Sanchez, Jason Tockman and Christina Hanson
========================================================================

The TSSU urges all students (ALL graduates and undergraduates) to vote NO
on the Canadian Federation of Students referendum on this week’s ballot.
This issue was deliberated at a recent TSSU General Membership meeting,
and we voted to endorse the SFSS effort to ‘defederate’ due to the CFS’s
unaccountability, nepotism and anti-democratic behavior. Please join the
TSSU in voting NO to the CFS at Simon Fraser University. TSSU members are
welcome to forward this email to their friends or students.

Polling Dates, Locations and Times: Tuesday March 18 to Thursday March 20
- Burnaby Main Library lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Vancouver Campus main lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Surrey main level: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM

For more information, see the website: www.wewantout.ca
A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted
here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html
Candidate written statements are posted here:
http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm
Recording of the candidate debates is here:
http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/

--
Christina Hanson
Organizer

Teaching Support Staff Union
at Simon Fraser University
Phone: 778 782 4735
Fax: 778 782 5369
Email: organizer(at)tssu.ca

concerns about SFSS election

(i got this email today)

A year and a half ago students came out en masse to impeach many members of the SFSS Board of Directors for undemocratic actions and the illegal firing of a staff member. The affidavit of Andrea Sandau (then University Relations Officer) shows that impeached Director Margo Dunnett and her friends had hoped to get rid of this staff member merely because she had been critical of the CFS.

Last week, thousands of anonymous leaflets were placed on virtually every chair in all large lecture halls throughout the campus making false and mudslinging claims about the staff of the SFSS. For those of you followed the lead-up to the impeachments, this may sound unpleasantly familiar: a similar tactic was used then against staff and students in an attempt to dissuade students from kicking Hunsdale and his friends out of office. That people would put this much effort into a massive, dirty campaign for the relatively low stakes of a student election would be funny -- were it not for the cruelty and callousness it shows to the staff who get caught in the crossfire, and who work very hard and in good faith for the students at SFU.

Although I have so far tried to limit my comments about the upcoming SFSS election candidates, I am now personally concerned about the outcome. I find it difficult to dismiss the thought that the distribution of these mean-spirited flyers last week, which I strongly suspect to be the work of the CFS campaigners, indicates a willingness to foster future attacks against the staff of the SFSS in an attempt to drive them out so that they can be replaced with pro-CFS staff -- so that SFSS will be turned into yet another bland, ineffective, sycophantic CFS franchise like so many other student unions in BC.

I initially became involved in the impeachment drive in 2006 because of concerns for the grad health plan, but a significant part of why I became more involved in the lead-up to the SGM was because I was sickened by the way all the SFSS staff was treated by Hunsdale and his gang. Although as a grad I will not be a member of the SFSS as of May 1, 2008, I would be very distressed to see the SFSS staff subjected once again to the treatment they endured in 2006.

If CFS supporters claim a majority of seats on the SFSS Board in the upcoming election, what assurance do I have that they won't continue the work of Hunsdale, and the people who distributed the anonymous flyers last week? None. That's why I'll be voting in both the SFSS referendum AND the elections next week, and I will only vote for candidates that will vote to kick out the CFS and/or have the strength of character to withstand the peer pressure that can operate within the SFSS Board in order to do the right thing if things turn ugly once again.

Please inform yourself about the candidates and get out and vote this week.

A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html
Candidate written statements are posted here: http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm
Recording of the candidate debates is here: http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/

Polling Dates, Locations and Times:

Tuesday March 18 to Thursday March 20
- SFU Vancouver Campus main lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Surrey main level: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- Burnaby Main Library lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM

Clea Moray,
Graduate Issues Officer
--
Clea Moray
Graduate Issues Officer, Simon Fraser Student Society (tel: 778-782-6563; www.sfss.ca)
M.Sc. Candidate, Biology Department
Simon Fraser University

web: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/

CFS

dont know what to make over all this CFS hoopla?

i didnt, but thats because i wasnt here for the big impeachment of CFS loyalists on the SFSS a year and a half ago. that seems to be the seminal event driving all of this.

so i asked 4-5 buddies who were here for it, and who i trust and they told me some positively creepy things. my friends inform me that the CFS is a really sleezy group. they use lots of misinformation, laywers, intimidation. what they're doing right now on campus, minus the lawyers. and don't you think theres something really creepy about this massive presence on campus now?

sure they have these fuzzy things they're saying, about all these wonderful things they did, but don't believe it. they're just doing it to be fuzzy. we should get out.

as far as i'm concerned, the CFS has one good argument, that without being part of some larger student organization, who will represent our interests nationally? thats a real problem we will have, and theres no good solution, so far as i know. but i dont want the CFS representing our interests, so i still support getting out.

go find someone you trust, that was here for the impeachment, and ask them about what happened.

*****
A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html

Candidate written statements are posted here: http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm

Recording of the candidate debates is here: http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/