SAC's Interim Chief Arbitrator Calls Out BOA

Gashoka urges BOA to reconsider motion that would scrap the SAC, concentrate powers

I have just received an anonymous tip in my inbox: it appears to be an email sent out by Hazel Gashoka, the Interim Chief Arbitrator of the Student Arbitration Committee (SAC), addressed to Dave Molenhuis, the SFUO Board of administration's Chair, and forwarded to the all members of the BOA and student media:

Dave Molenhuis, Chair of the Board of Administration of the Student

Federation of the University of Ottawa

Student Federation of the University of Ottawa

85 University Private, Room 07

Ottawa, Ontario K1N8Z4

Hazel Gashoka

78 Templeton

Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6X3

September19, 2011

Dear Chair,

It has come to my attention that there is a motion before the Board of Administration to dissolve the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO)’s Student Arbitration Committee (S.A.C).

Please consider that, within the SFUO, should the Board of Administrators dissolve the S.A.C., it would be analogous to the Parliament of Canada abolishing the Supreme Court by majority vote.

As per By-Law No. 8.2 of the SFUO Constitution, the S.A.C. is the “judicial authority of the Federation”, and according to By-Laws No. 8.2.1 to 8.2.3, it has the power to “interpret the By-laws, the policies, and resolutions of the Federation; decide upon the constitutionality of any action taken under the Constitution [...]; impose sanctions on any member of the Federation..."

The S.A.C. is of fundamental importance to the integrity of the Federation and one of its most vital and well-known mandates is to handle allegations of election rules violations in the election of SFUO Executives and other student representatives to the Federation.

Independence of the S.A.C. Arbitrators is essential to enable an effective role within the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, as highlighted by an understanding of the provisions of the SFUO Constitution, and I believe that, in the current context, I have done everything possible to ensure the independence of Arbitrators and of the Committee. There have been serious concerns with respect to the manner in which political figures within student government have tried to exercise influence on previous elections and, therefore, I am firmly opposed to the dissolution of the S.A.C.

Given that the by-laws have not been changed, I will continue my role as Interim Chief Arbitrator. According to By-Law No. 8.3.4, “the President of the Federation, the Chairperson of the Board of Administration and the Chief Arbitrator of the Student Arbitration Committee shall recommend arbitrators to the Board of Administration which shall ratify them as vacancy occurs”. At this time, all the positions – except for Chief Arbitrator – are vacant. As such, I will schedule interviews with the 40 applicants and I trust that you and the President of the Federation will be present during these interviews. Such is the law until the By-laws are changed. I would urge you to stop violating the by-laws and to actively ensure that the By-laws are respected. For actions to be taken implying that the By-laws will be changed is irresponsible, disruptive, and disregards our rules.

Sincerely,

Hazel Gashoka

Interim Chief Arbitrator

Student Arbitration Committee

cc: Members of the BOA, SFUO executives, Student Media

The motion which Hazel referenced in her email can be found in English and in French.
More to come... Stay tuned!

La rentrée 2011-2012 - le uPass, le « frankais », etc.

La campagne « Arrêtons la FCÉÉ » commence!

Bienvenue à mon blogue qui s'intitule « J'ai quelque chose à dire! ». Pour ceux et celles qui reviennent me lire, rebienvenue! Pour ceux et celle qui visitent mon blogue pour la première fois, je vous souhaite la bienvenue! N'oubliez pas que vous pouvez aussi suivre uoLeaks, un autre blogue qui est une excellente source d'information. Il y a moins que 2 semaines que l'année universitaire 2011-2012 est commencée, mais le cirque qui est la politique étudiante à l'Université d'Ottawa est déjà en train de brasser.  Après les élections de la Fédération étudiante de l'Université d'Ottawa (FÉUO) en février 2009 et la perception de corruption au sein du processus électoral, j'ai décidé de que c'était le temps de communiquer, de façon publique, mes frustrations concernant la politique étudiante et plus spécifiquement l'existence (ou la perception du moins) d'une culture d'exclusivisme à la FÉUO. En tout cas, me voici, maintenant en septembre 2011, encore en train de dénoncer les décisions, les actions, les discours, la gérance, etc. de non seulement la FÉUO mais aussi de la Fédération canadienne des étudiantes et des étudiants (FCÉÉ) (la FÉUO est devenue membre de cette organisation nationale/provinciale en 2008). Mais bon, l'introduction est finie...

Un survol de la Semaine 101 et la politique étudiante

Source: Galerie de photo de l'AÉÉPID

La Semaine 101 s'est débutée du mauvais pied avec la démission du vice-président aux activités sociales (anglophone) de l'Association étudiante des études politiques, internationales et de développement (AÉÉPID), Jack Witwer. Pour en lire davantage, suivez les liens ci-dessous :

Le v.-p. aux affaires sociales anglophone de l'AÉÉPID forcé de démissionner
ID, please

L'AÉÉPID tourne la page sur la Semaine 101

La distribution du laissez-passez (uPass)

La distribution massive du laissez-passez (uPass) s'est fait dans le « couch lounge » du Centre Universitaire entre le 22 août et le 16 septembre 2011. Personnellement, je suis allé faire prendre ma photo avant l'arrivée de la grande vague de nouveaux étudiants. De plus, j'ai été très chanceux, car je n'ai pas eu à attendre en ligne lorsque je suis allé ramasser ma passe. Par contre, pour une grande partie de la population étudiante de l'Université d'Ottawa, la fille d'attente fut extrêmement longue. Certains étudiants se plaignaient qu'ils ont attendu pendant 5 heures avant de finalement recevoir leur carte.  Pour en lire davantage à ce sujet, suivez les liens ci-dessous :

U-Pass distribution disaster

All Aboard?

Certains ont aussi exprimé leurs frustrations via les médias sociaux :

La langue française : une langue de deuxième classe pour la FÉUO?

La Rotonde, le journal francophone indépendant de l'Université d'Ottawa, a couvert cette histoire de façon rigoureuse :

Un article, La situation prise en main dès cette semaine, traite du site web de la FÉUO et la négligence de certains aspects de la version française. L'article cite le professeur Timothy Lethbrigde (un expert en génie logiciel et en informatique) qui dit que cela « démontre un manque de compétence à gérer le site. » Professeur Lethbridge croit que « plusieurs problèmes auraient pu être facilement évités avec un peu d’efforts supplémentaires. » Et voilà. La planification du site web de la FÉUO aurait pu être faite durant l'été. Peut-être que cette planification a eu lieu. Par contre, c'est légitime de mettre en question la qualité de cette planification, si la FÉUO avait un plan du tout.

Les membres de l'exécutif de la FÉUO se sont excusés publiquement envers la population étudiante francophone : Mlle Paige Gallette s'est excusée au nom de l'exécutif entier lors de la réunion du Conseil d'administration de la FÉUO qui a eu lieu le dimanche 18 septembre 2011. Oui, elle s'adressait aux sections non traduites du site web mentionnées dans l'article cité ci-haut. Par contre, elle s'adressait aussi à la qualité abominable du français dans le Magazine des Camapgnes 2011; Les journalistes de La Rotonde se sont penchés sur cette question (à la une) dans la toute première édition de l'année universitaire 2011-12. Ce fut aussi le sujet de l'éditorial au sein de cette même édition : Lettre ouverte à la FÉUO. L'exécutif de la FÉUO était bien au courant du manquement flagrant en ce qui concerne le français écrit au sein de ce magazine commis par les traducteurs/correcteurs étudiants, employés à temps partiel par la fédération étudiante.

Les membres de l'exécutif de la FÉUO se sont aussi excusés dans une lettre aux étudiants dont vous pouvez voir un extrait ci-dessous :

Source: La Rotonde - volume 74 - no. 4 - p. 4

 Rendre hommage à une « M'Rochstar»

Photo credit: Andrej Sakic - www.casaproductions.com

Finalement, j'aimerais souligner les efforts d'Amanda Marochko, une amie, une ancienne collègue; nous avions tous les deux siégé sur l'exécutif de l'Association étudiante des études politiques, internationales et de développement (AÉÉPID). Elle s'est dévouée inconditionnellement à une cause extrêmement importante durant son séjour ici, à l'Université d'Ottawa : l'amélioration de la vie étudiante. La population étudiante a perdu une jeune femme exceptionnelle! Par contre, elle ne pouvait guère nous quitter sans faire un peu de trouble! Une manifestation contre la Fédération canadienne des étudiantes et des étudiants?

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication, Amanda! You're one hell of a trooper! The uOttawa students, whether they knew you or not, will miss you! Good luck at Algonquin! :)

N'oubliez pas de visionner ce video clip!

Bon début de cours à tous et à toutes! Vous avez une opinion? Laissez un commentaire ci-dessous pour continuer le débat! N'oubliez pas de me suivre sur Twitter (@climbrandon) et de vous abonner au RSS Feed et/ou visitez mon blogue sur une base régulière afin de vous garder à jour au sujet de la politique étudiante sur notre campus!

If you thought Federico was bad...

Well, well, well... The SFUO's website seems to have gotten a half-assed face lift. I guess they have to make it seem like SOMEBODY is doing something this summer, right? Alright, alright! I admit that I'm being quite critical. I can only hope that 90% of the links that appear on the website might actually be functional in the next week or so. Do I expect that to be the case? If we go by how fast the last year's budget was posted to the SFUO website, it may be by the next SFUO elections, in February 2012 (and sadly, I'm being OPTIMISTIC).

Anyways, that's not the point of my post as I think uOleaks has poked enough fun at the site for one day! For those who may not recognize the fella in the above picture, let me introduce you to the former Canadian Federation of Students National Chairperson, Mr. Dave Molenhuis. Before being "elected" as National Chairperson, Mr. Molenhuis held the position of National Treasurer. He gave an interesting statement about where the money we pay in membership dues is spent to The Ontarion.You may remember an interview, conducted by Antoine Trépanier, that appeared in the 6 December 2010 edition of La Rotonde. He also travelled the country (on the student's dime) to help campaign in favour of the organization which he led when referendums on continued membership in the CFS were taking place. To say the least, it has been a rocky year for Mr. Molenhuis. He also seems to have had a rocky past in student politics at the University of Western Ontario.

You may also remember the bitter battle that ensued the October 2010 referendum on continued membership at the University of Regina between the University of Regina Students' Union (URSU) and the Canadian Federation of Students. In this "friendly" letter, Mr. Molenhuis unilaterally released the referendum results. In the period between November 2010 and March 2011, accusations had flown left and right coming from both the URSU executive and the CFS's student-funded legal counsel. The URSU executive released this statement shortly after the release of the referendum results.

Why have I highlighted the controversy surrounding Mr. Molenhuis while he held the position of CFS National Chairperson? Recently, Ms. Roxanne Dubois took over the helms of the CFS, replacing the 28 year old Mr. Molenhuis.

Oddly enough, as I wrote at the end of July, Federico Carvajal resigned as Chair of the SFUO Board of Administration during the 17 July 2011 meeting. As you can see in the images below, his position was quickly advertised online (but not on the SFUO website).

Do you see where this going? Well, after taking a few minutes to browse through the new SFUO website, I looked up the BOA. If you scroll down to the last email address in the list of board members, you'll see that beside "BOA Chair", Dave Molenhuis' name appears. I encourage everyone who reads this post to contact the new BOA Chair, Mr. Dave Molenhuis by emailing him at boa@sfuo.ca. And if you do, please comment below and let readers know if he bothers replying to your email. You see, during Mr. Molenhuis' tenure as CFS National Chairperson, I sent him a few emails. Sadly, Mr. Molenhuis never seen fit to even acknowledge my emails... Not once. So send him a message and see if his BlackBerry has been fixed yet.

"Help me with the SFUO finances!?"

Looks like SJK is looking for a financial director to assist her with the SFUO's finances. As you can see, this position was posted to the Charity Village website on Friday, July 22 2011. However, at the end of the add, interested candidates are asked to "send a resume and cover letter prior to July 13 at 5 PM via email to Sarah Jayne King, Vice-President of Finance at hr@sfuo.ca." Oh, SFUO...

Job Posting Source: http://www.workopolis.com/EN/job/13282008?uc=E4

Carvajal resigns as SFUO BOA Chair

Other than the ill-advised "affiliation" motion that passed at first reading on Sunday, 17 July 2011 SFUO BOA meeting, the audience (of 5) was surprised by what the Chair, Federico Carvajal announced at the beginning of the meeting: he announced his resignation as Chair of the BOA and that would most likely be the last BOA meeting that he would chair.

He has presided over some less than stellar BOA meetings in the past. To be sure, we needn't look far: the 15 October 2010 BOA meeting when he called Protection to have students in the audience removed (which never ended up happening). Another example took place on 6 March 2011 which was the meeting at which time the Board heard appeals arising from the SFUO elections (i.e.: disqualification of Tristan Dénommée).

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS CONTAINS COURSE LANGUAGE - VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

Federico became the SFUO BOA chair at some point between the 2 March 2008 and the 1 June 2008 board meetings. Amy Morris, Carvajal's predecessor, had only been the SFUO BOA's chair since 1 January 2008 and only chaired 4 board meetings.

Federico has deep roots within the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) which made his chairing the board during discussions involving issues such as the SFUO bulk t-shirt orders very controversial. (the report recommended Just Shirts, a company strongly supported by the CFS) 

1) First "final" report authored by Martin Schoots-McAlpine, Jesse Root and Iain Brannigan: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48751480/Final-Report-of-the-Ad-hoc-Ethical-Purchasing-Policy-Committee-Submitted-to-the-SFUO-Board-of-Administration

2) The final "final" report: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48751480/Final-Report-of-the-Ad-hoc-Ethical-Purchasing-Policy-Committee-Submitted-to-the-SFUO-Board-of-Administration

Carvajal was the CFS-Ontario Chairperson of the Ontario Graduate Caucus; While Carvajal was the external commissioner of the Graduate Students' Association (GSAÉD), he was a member of the "Yes" Committee during the CFS referendum that took place on the U of O campus in November 2008. As recent as 26 April 2011, Carvajal was at Trent University speaking with the Trent Graduate Students' Association (GSA) to promote the CFS administered health plan with Green shield.

Here is an image of the job posting for the new Chair of the SFUO Board of Administration which appeared on the Charity Village website:

As always, your comments are more than welcome and will be published upon review. Stay up to date by subscribing to my blog's RSS feed by clicking this icon found somewhere within your browsers. 

SJK's SFUO Budget Presentation

For those who are interested (and I'm sure there are many who are), I recorded large portions of Sarah Jayne King's 2011-2012 SFUO budget presentation which took place during the 17 July 2011 SFUO BOA meeting.

Liveblogging: SFUO BOA meeting - Sunday 17 July 2011

Late Night Mischief: SFUO.ca hacked

This image appeared as the splash screen of the SFUO website on Thursday, 14 July 2011 just after 12:00 am. I wonder how long it will take before someone actually notices...