The McMaster Students Union has a policy of censorship against students at McMaster University. This is to prevent anyone not approved by the MSU Elections Committee (one of the last non-independent student union election processes in Canada) (incorrect, a lot of students union do not have independent elections – see comments) from speaking about the MSU election in a way that could “interfere” with the elections process. The punishment for speaking about the MSU elections can included monetary penalties (fines), revoking of MSU membership (which means one must pay MSU fees in the hundreds of dollars because cannot get the so-called benefits of those fees), and potentially punishment under the Student Code of Conduct for harassment of the MSU.
As I have been threatened for my blog on numerous occasions and the MSU loves to file charges against me under the Student Code of Conduct, I have no choice but to obey the censorship of the MSU. I ask that you obey the censorship as well.
I have been warned by MSU politicians that they will not tolerate any discussion of the MSU on the internet that is not approved by the elections committee. MSU politicians are in the majority on the committee. One of them went so far as to warn me that I would be up for punishment for anything that appears on www.studentunion.ca! This because the MSU seems to believe that I have some sort of control over studentunion.ca or that I will merely send my information to be posted there. I will not be doing so. They are also concerned that someone could send information to www.studentunion.ca and bypass the MSU censorship. It seems there is a problem with controling the internet for the MSU. Damn internet and its free flow of information, how dare students be allowed to get their information from non-(state)approved sources especially independent student bloggers.
As such, I am asking all my McMaster readers to follow the censorship guidelines of the MSU. I ask that you not email me at my email joey -at- joeycoleman.ca or the studentunion.ca tip email: titus.gregory -at- gmail.com with any information about the MSU elections.
Thank You!
This is ludicrous. Seems to me the biggest factor interfering with the free operation of MSU’s elections is THIS VERY POLICY. Elections need discussion, and a free discourse of ideas. If you can’t talk about the issues or the candidates, then how is anyone supposed to form an opinion?
This policy is crying to be challeneged, as is their draconian policy of removing membership.
Seems like this is one of those catch-22 rules that by definition you’re not allowed to even talk about. By informing us of the policy, and discussing it here on your blog, haven’t you already broken the rules?
i think the problem for the msu arises is when students are receiving inaccurate, libelous, one-sided information from a self-proclaimed expert.
you are correct that I have violated it already. I am working with a large group of students to change this policy along with many others.
i think the problem for the msu arises when students are receiving inaccurate, one-sided information from a student government which looks at the people it represents as children needing information to be kept from them.
Joey, you refer to the MSU Elections Committee as “one of the last non-independent student union election processes in Canada.” I think that I can state that that is largely incorrect. Most if not all students’ unions’ elections are run by an official or a committee who is/are appointed by the students’ union. In many cases where there is an elections committee, incumbent elected officials or staff are appointed to that committee.
Offhand, I can’t think of a single students’ union whose elections are run truly “independently.”
Correct me if i am wrong Mr. Coleman, but were you not a one point this year on the elections committee? And thus, were in a position where you could have provided input on, or prevented the creation of such policies? Oh, and also correct me if i am wrong, but did you not also willfully and completely voluntarily resign from that committee, because you felt that future issues at the time would put you in a conflict of interest with the committee? Which, does that not also basically mean that instead of taking part in the creation of non-biased, fair, objective and equitable policies, you opted for partisan politics and the permeation of your own inaccurate bias and opinion through pitifully dedicated blog posts (bloggers, aka. modern day monks without the righteousness of faith to back them up, or the “coolness” of knowing how to make beer).
In fact, while on the elections committee were you not also helping one of the current presidential election candidates with their platform? Essentially defying any notion of ethics with which the elections committee should typically be associated?
If you answered no to any of these questions, you can happily add “liar” as a prefix to the word that i would already choose to describe this post, “hypocrite.”
Plus, “damn internet and its free flow of information, how dare students be allowed to get their information from not(-state) approved sources, especially independent student bloggers.” Joey, any student above gr. 11 should not only know, but rather have it ingrained in them to NOT approach any “joe schmoe’s” site for academic/factually correct information of ANY kind. The reason for this, is of course that the information contained on these site’s cannot be verified against any forms of invalidity, elaboration, libel, lies, or plagarism (seriously Joey, white supremacy sites fall into this category of “non-(state) approved” websites that you describe, i am certainly hoping that this doesn’t imply you are endorsing them). And seeing as these seem to be consistently in vogue on your site, my advice to you would be to please, never EVER become a teacher, t.a., instructor, professor, doctor, lecturer or person providing any sort of “supposedly” valid information of any kind.
You, Joey, are Gorgias.
Just to continue on Mr. Mitchell’s point Joey, if you do decide to become a person providing information which is held to be accurate, think again; Unless you are willing to provide the WHOLE story, say include relevant numbers when you talk using generalizations like “one of the few.” How am I to know how many these “few” are.
Just to put you on the right track, if you’re ever talking about how “expenses increased slightly” in some department or another, please provide solid numbers (i.e. Quarter’s loss increased by 100,000 in the last 2 years).
Something like that would definitely make your information better. The information you provide will also not look like you put it together at the last minute.
I was on the Elections Committee for one cycle. This was because the MSU desparately required members on the committee and I thought that I could enact change on the committee.
I could not. The censorship rules have existed for many years within the MSU and I was unable to convince the MSU politicians on the committee to remove the censorship rules allowing free speech.
I resigned from the elections committee when Drew Mitchell began his attack upon the student newspaper; The Silhouette for its attempts to investigate Quarter’s. I wanted to be able to cover that issue. This required that I resign from the committee and frankly, I was wasting my time trying to reform from within.
No, I did not help any candidate while I was on the elections committee. I was only on the committee for 3 weeks in October.
I am not part of any campaign team at all.
I have “helped” candidates. They have approached me to discuss many of the issues going on in the MSU. Being knowledgable about the MSU and being outside of the MSU clique, it is understandable that people would approach me.
Danny V/Anonymous/Mitchell/SRA leadership I find YOUR comments to be the most generalized posts on this blog. What is your opinion on the subject of msu censorship? What are your facts? If you so disagree with Joey, then why don’t you attempt to bring some data into it to prove that he is wrong. You claim that Joey is presenting us with inaccurate information – won’t you be so kind as to point out the accurate information so that I and everyone else who reads this blogg learns from it? So far all you have presented are childish attacks.
I will be perfectly happy to verify the data you give me to see whether you are right or wrong, and come to my own opinion. I doubt anyone visiting a blogg is neive enough to have this as the only source of information, or expect that the WHOLE story with every little detail be presented by a student making a blogg of the information that he finds.
If you are writing an essay and looking for academic information, I understand why you would be so upset, but just as a suggestion – maybe a student blogg is the wrong place to look! McMaster’s library’s have a wealth of academic information which might be of more use to you.
As to the Gorgias comment – you misunderstood the book Mr. Philosopher. Maybe you relied on a single internet blogg for your information which would explain your inaccurate character analysis. If you actually read the book, Joey’s blogg seems a lot more like an open discussion in which we can exchange information. It is something you also can participate if you wanted to critically examine your views. Bring your data to the table and engage in a debate and discussion about the subject! Your comments on the other hand are just attempts to persuade us without expressing any information about the subject at all (that’s msu censorship in case you’ve forgotten). You’re not even talking about the subject but are immaturely personally attacking Joey. I find it ironic that your comments are actually the libel in this case.
I just want to say thank you to Joey for bringing the issue of msu censorship to my attention. I did not know about it previously. Now I will do further research on my own, and not expect you to have all the answers (unlike some of the neive individuals who visit your website).
I guess you don’t get out much do you? Ever heard of sarcasm?