Amy Hammett is (apparently) at it again!
It's been quiet as of late... too quiet. The student press is no longer printing yet "student politics never sleep". With less than a month left in their mandate, you may have thought that the current SFUO executive might go out quietly. But no, while a majority of students are busy studying for exams and scrambling to hand in their term papers, some students would rather raise Hell. Don't get me wrong, that's not necessarily a bad thing at all. However, the tactics being used have led some to question the effectiveness of these protests. There was this stunt that the SFUO executive helped facilitate last week: the "occupation" of Allan Rock's office in Tabaret Hall. See pictures below:
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| Amy Hammett and Marie-Claude Noël providing pizza to the students occupying Allan Rocks office. |
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| Amy Hammett and Marie-Claude Noël providing pizza to the students occupying Allan Rocks office. |
Not to mention the stunt the SFUO also encouraged during the University of Ottawa board of governors' meeting on April 2, 2012. This is how some students believe things should go down when they disagree with what is going on.
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| Marie-Claude Noël puts on her best face for Allan Rock while Iain Brannigan toots away on his "Drop Fees" whistle in the elevator of Desmarais Building |
Now, let's get to the reason why I'm writing this current post. I have learnt, throughout my years of observing the SFUO executive, to never underestimate the ability of these people to lower the bar even lower than before when it comes to ethics. To add context, this job posting appeared on CharityVillage.com on April 4, 2012. I received this email yesterday evening from an anonymous email address:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ottawa Student studentottawa@gmail.com
Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Subject: SFUO news
To: editor@thefulcrum.ca, executive@thefulcrum.ca, news@thefulcrum.ca, president@larotonde.ca
I would like to make the student medias aware that the current VP student affairs, Amy Hammett, has officially resigned from her elected position as of April 14th. She has done this so she could officially apply for the SFUO Executive coordinator position. VP finance, Sarah Jayne King, (her known ally and friend) is in charge of interviewing and hiring at the SFUO and the current Executive coordinator, Shawn Phillip Hunsdale, also sits in on the interviews for this position. I find that it is a huge conflict of interests and really sketchy that they are doing this during exam period and while the medias are no longer printing, and the current executive is taking advantage of their situation and doing all the hiring before May 1st, when the new exec would start, so that they can stack the SFUO with people they approve of (AKA their friends) and who share their views.
To be fair, I have not attempted to communicate with Ms. Hammett to ask her. However, I don't envy the journalists that will be tasked with trying to get her to comment on this one. I mean, Hell, she didn't see fit to reply to my last blog post. If Amy Hammett has in fact resigned as vice-president student affairs in order to apply for the position of SFUO executive coordinator, I feel sorry for the incoming executive. Not so much Elizabeth Kessler, incumbent VP university affairs, as she has worked with Amy for many years and is used to her way of doing things. Not even Adam Gilani, incoming VP finance, nor Anne-Marie Roy, incoming VP communications, as they are also both affiliated with Hammett's crew. No, I'm referring to the three individuals who were elected in the February SFUO elections who were unaffiliated with the above-mentioned group: Ethan Plato, Jozef Spiteri and Kate Hudson. Those who were elected to bring about change to the SFUO rather than the same old hire-your-friends-behind-closed-doors and keep-all-information-about-anything-to-ourselves mentalities which have been prominent over the past few years.
Shawn Phillip Hunsdale's shady past in student politics
The famous Shawn Phillip Hunsdale, the media story that never was. The outgoing executive coordinator has quite the history in student politics. He was elected President of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) for the 2006-2007 academic year as part of the "Common Sense" slate and is said to have been heavily involved in with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Coincidentally, in 2008, the SFSS held a referendum on continued membership in the CFS. A former SFSS President, Clement Abas Apaak, wrote this letter to fellow students with regards to the CFS referendum. In it, Apaak wrote:
AS we now know, he (referring to Hunsdale) 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 (Aitken). Why, because she was a staff person who was not seen as loyal to the CFS (and) was regarded as an obstacle in the bid of a CFS-owned company to take over as the broker for the grad health plan.
Rather than go on and on about his past, I suggest that you simply Google "Shawn Hunsdale". His apparent crusade was to change the SFSS' health plan from Gallivan &Associates to the National Student Health Network (NSHN), a service created by the CFS (SURPRISE!). You can also visit the following links to get a better understanding of Mr. Hunsdale's interesting past.
The Peak - Simon Fraser University's Student Newspaper - July 31, 2006
SFSS Democracy Now - IssueGate
SFSS Democracy Now - SFSS Official Response sent out by Shawn Hunsdale - August 9, 2006
SFSS Democracy Now - A Dissection of Hunsdale's Official Response
The Georgia Straight - SFU firing draws its own fire - August 17, 2006
Video Documentary of the SFSS Special General Meeting which drew approximately 800 students. This is the Special general meeting at which Shawn Hunsdales and 6 other members of the SFSS executive were impeached by an overwhelming majority as can be seen in the video (This group of 7 was often referred to as the "G7" in student media). Before being impeached, the G7 purportedly hired Ms. Angela Regnier who, at the time, was the CFS National Deputy Chairperson.
The above image was purportedly taken during vote on whether or not to impeach Shawn Hunsdale. These people were voting IN FAVOUR of impeaching the former President of the SFSS.
This image was also taken during the SGM from a higher view point.
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| François Picard during a Canadian Federation of Students' Annual General Meeting |
All this to say, the position of SFUO executive coordinator was brought in by Ms. Pam Hrick when she was the SFUO President during the 2007-2008 academic year. It was rumoured at the time that she created this position just for Mr. François Picard who held the position until he was hired by the newly-elected Quebec NDP MP Mylène Freeman. That is when Hunsdale came into the picture although he had been in charge of running the SFUO health plan before being hired to replace Mr. Picard. If Hammett is in fact hired as to replace Mr. Hunsdale, this would ensure the kind of "continuity" that her and her crew require to ensure that the SFUO remains in-line with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) "policies". You see, Sarah-Jayne King was elected as the Chairperson of the CFS-Ontario and will thus be well informed about anything and everything that occurs on our campus. If you haven't yet read about the unrest that has begun at Carleton University with regards to the CFS, I encourage you all to read some of the articles/letters in The Charlatan.
Such patronage hiring (if Hammett does in fact get hired as the new SFUO executive coordinator) is simply another example of a long list of shady practices by the current SFUO executive.
As always, your comments are welcomed and encouraged!
