Botched coup at UBC
AMS exec powers neutered over unauthorized UN tuition complaint
Despite the fact that, by his own admittance/Facebook status, Frederick will “probably be unable to perform his duties as President,” he has decided to stay on, pledging to respect the wishes of council from here on out . . . except for their unanimous wish to have him resign. This will come as a great disappointment to the over 1,600 people in the “Impeach the AMS President and VP External” group on Facebook, but has caused joy to the 600+ members of the anti-impeachment group.
On the plus side, this probably saves UBC students thousands more dollars in legal fees (even though approximately $12,000 has been spent already on the legal complaint to the UN and the last-minute legal opinion requested by council). Moreover . . . well, that’s pretty much the only non-partisan “good” news here.
Frederick and Chu are still in power, but after issuing the complaint, skipping an emergency council meeting to discuss the issue so they could “socialize” at an NDP convention, refusing to initially apologize for their actions, and sending mass emails that willfully misinformed students about the issue, you can count on one hand the number of student politicians who trust the two of them. Though on Monday Frederick admitted that the UN complaint was only intended to “be a media stunt . . . and it failed miserably.” The other three elected executives (VP Finance Tom Dvorak, VP Academic Johannes Rebane, and VP Administration Crystal Hon) were all revealed to be one way or another complicit in the stunt—however, they apologized immediately, and thus were saved the wrath of council.
And as for Student Council itself? Well, if you want to orchestrate a coup, you should at least dot your I’s and cross your T’s, and this group didn’t. Within six hours of the UN complaint, a large group of them quickly moved to do everything in their power to recall Frederick and Chu from power, without figuring out whether it was legal, and without collecting signatures from two per cent of students to force a special resolution as a backup plan.
What was this all about originally about again? Tuition fees? Right. That issue has been pushed far to the backburner during this mess. There’s talk of petitions being started to try and have Frederick and Chu (legally) recalled from office early, but realistically, with holidays followed by new elections next month, chances of that happening are dim. The crisis has been wrapped up in a tidy 12 days, and now all that’s left are hard feelings, a damaged student union, and the United Nations being a punchline on campus for months to come.
I resisted positing much on this, if only because this whole incident quickly devolved from a tuition/silly student government issue into an internal cluster#@%$. However, given that it’s one of the more noteworthy/ridiculous student government scandals to happen in Canada in recent years, I figured explaining it in full would be of benefit, if only to serve as a cautionary tale of a) How not to fight for lower tuition, or b) How not to impeach your president, depending on your point of view. What I’ve written here is a Coles Notes version of what took place, so if there’s anyone out there with additional questions about this fun little incident, let me know in the comments.
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Great article, really good analysis. Just one thing – I believe the motion that you relate in point b was amended to the executive committee, as opposed to student council. So Blake and Tim can act on issues that don’t need council approval, with the approval of the exec com, which is kind of how it should have been all along; that’s why the chair of the exec com was taken away from Blake, because council felt that he just might avoid meetings in order to do whatever he wants.
Not being a UBC student, there is a piece of information I don’t know that was left out of the report: what is the difference between the Alma Mater Society and the student council? These seem to be treated as two different entities in the report.
Not that it matters, but what’s the deal with the picture attached to this?
1) The reference to “thievery” isn’t completely direct – it’s not like anyone actually stole money and kept it for themselves. I suppose one could make the case that because it wasn’t approved by Council, then it was a form of thievery, but still…..
2) I’ve been waiting for someone to blame this escapade on the CFS, just so I could casually note that the AMS is not part of the CFS. This picture, with all the CFS signs in the background, is as close as I can find.
The AMS is a student government body, but its legally a society under the Society Act. The Student Council is effectively the Board of Directors. So the term AMS refers to the entire student union at UBC (45,000), while Student Council refers to the 30-some-odd elected faculty representatives on the Board of Directors.
The CFS hadn’t been brought up in the debate until the University of Victoria Student Society’s (UVSS) Director of Finance brought a motion to their Council supporting the UN complaint. UVic is a CFS school, and it has brought about a huge debate at UVic about where this idea came from. I’m not going to meddle, though, its a sticky situation, which also happens to be none of their business.
Oh man, these are the same type of people the CFS is full of… goodbye common sense…
Again, diplomacy and negotiation is how to have your view accepted not harassment, media stunts, or making people/organizations look foolish.