Campaigning in the UVic Student Society's referendum on continuing membership in the Canadian Federation of Students starts tomorrow. There is already an anti-CFS Facebook page and we can expect a pro-CFS one in the next 12 hours.
Not all campaigners in the referendum will be UVic students. The Camosun College Student Society has approved unlimited spending to promote the pro-CFS side at UVic, and a recent leaked email shows the CCSS will likely be sending executives and staff out to campaign as well.
For those UVic students not familiar with student politicians and staffers at Camosun, here's a handy guide drawn from the CCSS website.
Also according to the CCSS website, their executives earn work study stipends, while staff Turcotte, Glover and Pai earn around $23 per hour.
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| Matteus Clement, External Affairs Executive. |
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| Matthew Martin, Finance Executive. |
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| Darragh Grove-White, Interurban Executive. |
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| George Ivanishvili, Lansdowne Executive. |
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| Richard Kao, Sustainability Director. |
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| Edward Lai, International Student Director. |
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| Chris Marks, Students with Disabilities Director. |
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| Pamela Webster, First Nations Director. |
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| Chantal Kyffin, Women's Director. |
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| Kara Vandervalk, Pride Director. |
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| Michel Turcotte, Director of Operations. |
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| Michael Glover, Student Services Coordinator. |
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| Jaya Pai, Financial Resource Coordinator. |
Wow. That is one old photo of Michael Glover.
ReplyDeleteSo all of these people will be at uvic?
ReplyDeletedoubtful if more than two-five will be here.
ReplyDeleteThe point is, this is not a UVic internal referendum. This is a referendum about a nation wide organization that UVic and many other schools are a part of.
ReplyDelete@ Jared
ReplyDeleteIt's important to know who's on campus, especially for safety reasons. Other schools have sometimes had problems with CFS campaigners harassing "No" side campaigners. This behaviour has even occasionally included the following of smaller females back to their cars and yelling threats at them.
Not that I am an expert on this but from what I have read, the UVSS has sent people to campaign in other CFS Membership Referendums. The rules are established by the Referendum Oversight Committee and the CFS Bylaws which clearly allow other CFS members to campaign. What sort of democracy only allows one side to campaign? I wonder why David is so afraid for both perspectives to be heard.
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of crap and fear mongering is that about the CFS campaigners following women, remember this is the same organization that brought us the idea of No Means No.
David Foster, as a person from the No side, do you think it is quite hypocritical to be having non-students running the UVic Wants Out facebook page, while at the same time saying this is an internal matter?
ReplyDeletewhat non-students are running Uvic wants out? I'm pretty sure at least one admin is a current uvic student?
ReplyDeleteAt least one? By David's standards, shouldn't they all be current UVic students? Oh the hypocrisy....
ReplyDelete"What sort of crap and fear mongering is that about the CFS campaigners following women, remember this is the same organization that brought us the idea of No Means No."
ReplyDeleteJust because they can put together a glossy campaign, it doesn't mean they're against using intimidation tactics. Nothing against campaigns to end violence, I've been assaulted in that way on more than one occasion myself, but I personally know people at other schools (SFU, specifically) who were followed by CFS staffers in that manner. They felt very unsafe.
I think the issue to remeber is that the no side has $750 to work with while Camosun (after explicitly asking the UVSS to piss off during their elections) has approved unlimited spending (speculatively in the $2,000 range) and the CFS spends tens of thousands of dollars campaigning. The no side is entirely made up of CURRENT UVic students volunteering their time during this busy month. I am upset about off campus reps as they are paid or remembursed for their time spent campaigning. While I respect these individuals rights to free speech, these tactics just confirm how infantile and comabative the CFS is and have made it very difficult to conduct a fair referendum with respectful dialogue.
ReplyDeletelol @ Anon 9:27
ReplyDeletethe group cfs wants out is a UVSS club :) read the clubs & course unions policies before you take that leap of faith. Non UVSS members are allowed to join. How do you know that non UVSS members are admins? The group is private so unless you have access to that you would not know the membership, or their status. I was created an admin so I could invite people so I happen to know that at that point in time there were no non UVSS administrators. To whom are you referring?
This issue has been blown out of proportion. I am yet to decide how I will vote in the referendum but I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to people from other schools about what their experience with the CFS has been.
ReplyDeleteI am curious why you are so angry at there being off campus students when you don't really care about democracy in the first place...NO side is trying to stop a polling booth in the law building. Ignore us all year when in charge of the UVSS, take our money, use it to try to leave the only organization lobbying on our behalf, and now denying us a chance to vote on the subject. As a faculty that never leaves the building with a considerably higher course load than any other at UVIC by not having a booth you are actually disenfranchising us. Deny us a polling booth and all your talking points are a sham
ReplyDeleteI am sure the no side has money coming from other sources. Renew (who was headed by the same people as the no side) had no trouble finding a huge amount of money for their campaign (professional t-shirts and a lot of them-enough to give all their friends, professional banners, text message system). My best guesses is that the no-side money is coming from some frat association, or maybe people associated with Liberal party (where Justin and Geoff got their support), or maybe Justin Bedi's dad (according to Justin's friends he paid for his whole campaign last year), most likely from Jose Barrios's dad. At least with the yes side we know who is supporting them and it makes sense. During the SFU campaign the no-side hired a lot of students from SFU to campaign. Considering the type of tactics these same people have taken during the UVSS elections, there seems like a high probability, they will hire UVic students as well.
ReplyDelete@anonymous 11:47am. My friend is facebook friends with one of the non-uvic student admins and it keeps coming up on her facebook sidebar that it is his page. She has a screen shot of it, if you would like to see it.
ReplyDeleteSounds great, Jared! Why don't you blur out all the sensitive names and info, post it to a photo hosting site or something of the like, and post the link on here so we can ALL see it. I mean, if you're going to make such claims on here, might as well post the actual proof to back it up, right?
ReplyDeleteHow dare students take an interest in a school they will likely move to in the future? People call Camosun Uvic Jr. for a reason you know.
ReplyDelete