Monthly Archives: March 2007

Frustration at McMaster University and the McMaster Students Union



I have been sitting on this for about two weeks and I am still rather frustrated.

McMaster University and the MSU are dragging their feet on fixing a major problem for students with disabilities. Let me be clear to both these parties. I will not stand by and allow students with disabilities to continue to be disadvantaged because of your agendas. We have collected the necessary evidence to take this to the Human Rights Tribunal. We know of the side deal made with one student this year, the student who was most vocal and promised to take both your parties to Tribunal. The rest of us put our faith in the negotiation process since an agreement had been reached and all we were waiting for was implementation.

We will not sit by another year, we will take the case to Tribunal. We have the evidence to prove that the side deal was made. (Not to worry, the student the deal was made with as lived up to their end of the bargain and denied it occurred) We have the minutes and I have recordings of members of the Executive Board admitting the deal was made and approved by the Executive Board in closed session. Not only is that unethical, the Executive Board does not have the power to make the deal. Regardless, by making the deal, the MSU no longer can use the same defense they did in the last Tribunal hearing.

It is up to the MSU and the University to solve this now! The only reason the Tribunal did not rule harshly against both parties was that both parties were able to claim they were working in good faith to fix the problem and it would be solved for this year. This year is done and it is not solved. To solve things for next year, you need to sit down now and fix it.

The ball is in your court. We, the students with disabilities looking for this problem to be solved, are watching and are prepared to act.

I Love Mackay Cartoons



I always look forward to Mackay’s cartoons in the Spectator. Frankly, it is the best part of the Spectator to me. I always get a good chuckle or am made to think about the subject matter when I see his cartoons. This is his latest:

Moving My Blogging Activities on Student Politics



Hey Everyone, I am moving most of my student politics blogging over to Macleans where I am now blogging as well.

Bookmark the site: http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/?mod=for&act=dis&eid=54

The RSS feed is: http://forums.macleans.ca/advansis/publish/rss54.xml

Now what is this all about?

Basically, Macleans launched a brand new University section of their website today.  It is very exciting.
Head over to check it out here: www.macleans.ca/university

There are sections for user participation including “My Residence”, “My Cafeteria”, and “Campus Style”.  You can submit your own pictures and they may end up on the site.

As an aside, I have to admit that the roostroast beef at Pembina Hall was alright most of the time.  Of course, the Chicken Lasagna was just plan scary.

The Long Night of Counting Sheep, I Mean Votes



Tonight, at least three students’ union (that I know of) finished voting today and are in the process of tabulating the results: the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, Simon Fraser Students’ Society, and the York Federation of Students.

All three of these races have some interesting aspects to them. 

The USSU has been mired in turmoil for the last two years ever since they took up prospective membership in the Canadian Federation of Students, a decision that has split the Council and the student body fairly evenly.  The past two weeks have seen new controversy covered in the campus paper The Sheaf.  The USSU situation has been closely watched by many and there are questions if the USSU is even considered a member of CFS after a court threw out the CFS referendum held there last year.

Evan Cole, former USSU President, reports the results on his blog.  Three bloggers, that I know of, won seats; Evan Cole, Jade Buchanan (both to the Senate), and Josie Steeves to VP (Academic Affairs).  It is worth noting that only a four vote difference separates Lindsey Levesque from Alice Collins (who is also on the CFS National Executive), so I would expect a recount with that small a margin.  Interestingly, the incumbent student union president was beat by abstentions.  Abstentions were very high in this election.  This clearly shows a student body that is unhappy with the current state of the USSU and motivated enough to express it by voting for no one.

The SFSS had its own share of turmoil this past year.  Seven members of the executive were impeached by students in the fall, eventually the case went to the BC Supreme Court and a by-election was held in December.  There are two referendum questions on the ballot here as well.  One is to have an autonomous Graduate Student Society and the other is for the SFSS to leave the CFS.
Results are not expected till tomorrow afternoon and will be posted on a well designed student union election webpage.
(I like this layout more than most federal election media sites, very impressive)

The YFS election is interesting because of the size of the school, the fact that YFS elections are usually well contested and that there is one independent in the race this year.  It is unknown when results will be available.

Filed under: Coleman on Campus, Student Politics

StudentUnion.ca obtains DSU Case Court Documents



Titus Gregory, who blogs at www.studentunion.ca, today posted most of the court documents from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the matter of Society of the Douglas Students’ Union v. Douglas College.  He paid over $300 in photocopy costs in order to obtain these documents which are of great interest to students across Canada.

Global News reported back in the fall allegations that the Canadian Federation of Students Services provided funds in the form of a loan or advance to the DSU during a time when serious questions were being raised about the financial management of the DSU.  Global relied upon documents including a forensic audit of the DSU in 2006 by Blair Mackay Mynett Valuations Inc.

The CFS has denied loaning the money. Global was a little unclear about whether the allegations were that the money was loaned from the CFS, CFS Services, or CFS BC.

All the documents that Mr. Gregory obtained are available here: http://www.studentunion.ca/dsu_case/

I must note that access to court documents is expensive and so is the cost of access to the administration of justice.  A group of University of Ottawa students recented filed suit against their school in small claims courts.  CBC News reported they had their filing fee of $75 waived by the court because of their low income.  I know that increased my confidence in the justice system.

Governments should look into making the cost of obtaining court documents must affordable.  One of the most important foundations of a justice system in a democratic society is transparency.  Cost cannot be allowed to make the justice system lack transparency.

Filed under: Macleans 2007 - 2009, Student Politics, StudentUnion.ca

StudentUnion.ca obtains DSU Case Court Documents



Titus Gregory, who blogs at www.studentunion.ca, today posted most of the court documents from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the matter of Society of the Douglas Students’ Union v. Douglas College.  He paid over $300 in photocopy costs in order to obtain these documents which are of great interest to students across Canada. 

Global News reported back in the fall allegations that the Canadian Federation of Students Services provided funds in the form of a loan or advance to the DSU during a time when serious questions were being raised about the financial management of the DSU.  Global relied upon documents including a forensic audit of the DSU in 2006 by Blair Mackay Mynett Valuations Inc.

The CFS has denied loaning the money. Global was a little unclear about whether the allegations were that the money was loaned from the CFS, CFS Services, or CFS BC.

All the documents that Mr. Gregory obtained are available here: http://www.studentunion.ca/dsu_case/

I must note that access to court documents is expensive and so is the cost of access to the administration of justice.  A group of University of Ottawa students recented filed suit against their school in small claims courts.  CBC News reported they had their filing fee of $75 waived by the court because of their low income.  I know that increased my confidence in the justice system.

Governments should look into making the cost of obtaining court documents must affordable.  One of the most important foundations of a justice system in a democratic society is transparency.  Cost cannot be allowed to make the justice system lack transparency.

Filed under: Coleman on Campus, StudentUnion.ca

Ontario Budget Today



I will be offline during the afternoon and early evening today.  I do not expect to be back online until after 10pm EDT.  I will try to post on the budget tonight.  I will be speaking to the President of OUSA and the Chair of CFS-O tonight.  I will be questioning a cabinet minister tomorrow morning and I am working on getting in touch with the other parties.  I am writing The Silhouette story on the budget and will post what I am learning as I work on the story.

Ontario election budget for students



Today the McGuinty Liberal government in Ontario will be releasing what should be their last budget before going to the polls this October.  They may do a mini-budget in the late summer or right after Labour Day but there is a decent chance this will be their election budget.

It should be interesting to see what the McGuinty Government offers to post-secondary students.  I am not expecting much considering that last year’s budget did give quite a bit to the PSE sector.  I also lowered my expectations after the disappointment I felt in the federal budget from Canada’s “New Government” (I do not know if something is new after a year).

The Conservative Budget was clearly designed to appeal to the voters they think they can capture: Ontarians living in the 905-belt. The suburbs surrounding Toronto and are fairly affluent and that is why the Conservatives put $600 million into RESP tax breaks instead of putting the money directly into the system. This will do nothing to assist lower and lower-middle class students. You have to have the money to save in order to get any tax break.  Where I grew up people just make it by and they do not have the money to save for PSE.  They barely, if at all, have the money to afford items that have become educational necessities such as a lower-end computer.  Nevermind affording monthly internet access and maintenance.

Here is what I want to see in the Ontario budget:

  • An increase in OSAP assistance: the government was right when they increased the maximum amount of provincial financial assistance available each year. The nice thing was that they kept everything above $7000 as grant money. The maximum loan repayable for 8-months of study remained the same. However, the maximum is still not enough. At McMaster, it does not cover the cost of tuition and residence for eight months. There are still the costs of textbooks, supplies, and other expenses. The reality is that each year, I have more expenses but I get no more funding from the government. With inflation, it becomes harder and harder to make ends meet. The government must move quickly and increase the OSAP maximum. I could even live with an inflationary increase of the $7000 cap.
  • An allocation to GO Transit to keep fares steady for students: Many students rely on GO Transit to commute to school. With the increasing numbers of students, transit is needed to keep universities from paving more greenspace for parking. Also, the 407 express is often overcrowded for McMaster and York students.
  • Better tuition regulation: The government is right to say that tuition should increase much like the cost of bread but the current increases are above inflation. The government should step forward to ensure that tuition only increases by inflation. They should put forth the funds to fill the gap between inflation and the current increase. Of course, they did make a lot of investments last year so I do not expect this to occur this year. If they promise it for next year, I am going to dismiss the promise. They can say whatever they want about the 2008/2009 budget, but there is no guarantee they will be in government, so it is meaningless.

In the run up to the budget, student lobby associations have been busy sending out news releases.

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance was first on March 19th with Federal budget raises Ontario students’ expectations for McGuinty’s pre-election offering on Thursday.  The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario released a pre-budget poll showing opposition to tuition fee increases on March 20th. The poll is available on the CFS website here.  They have nice slides showing the outcome of the poll here.  I called them and they sent me a copy of the questions asked and the breakdown of answers.  I have uploaded this here. Yesterday, the CFS sent this release: Student budget watch – Student representatives available for comment on 2007 Ontario Budget. The College Student Alliance wired this College Students Expecting More from McGuinty on Thursday.  So far nothing from the Council of Ontario Universities, which is the lobbying organization representing the administrations of Ontario universities.

The budget is available on the Government of Ontario Budget Site at 4pm EDT today.

I look forward to hearing the Council of Ontario Universities talk about universities having budget deficits, how this budget will not be enough to help them, how they are going to have to make cut-backs, and basically how the sky is falling for them.

Next Saturday we will see just how poor universities really are.  March 31st is “Salary Disclosure Day” in Ontario.  We will find out exactly how much university presidents and senior administrators are paid.  By looking at the salary of my university president at McMaster, Peter George, over the past couple of years, it seems that the university is doing alright.

Filed under: Macleans 2007 - 2009

Ontario election budget for students



Today the McGuinty Liberal government in Ontario will be releasing what should be their last budget before going to the polls this October.  They may do a mini-budget in the late summer or right after Labour Day but there is a decent chance this will be their election budget.

It should be interesting to see what the McGuinty Government offers to post-secondary students.  I am not expecting much considering that last year’s budget did give quite a bit to the PSE sector.  I also lowered my expectations after the disappointment I felt in the federal budget from Canada’s "New Government" (I do not know if something is new after a year).

The Conservative Budget was clearly designed to appeal to the voters they think they can capture: Ontarians living in the 905-belt. The suburbs surrounding Toronto and are fairly affluent and that is why the Conservatives put $600 million into RESP tax breaks instead of putting the money directly into the system. This will do nothing to assist lower and lower-middle class students. You have to have the money to save in order to get any tax break.  Where I grew up people just make it by and they do not have the money to save for PSE.  They barely, if at all, have the money to afford items that have become educational necessities such as a lower-end computer.  Never mind affording monthly internet access and maintenance.

Here is what I want to see in the Ontario budget:

- An increase in OSAP assistance: the government was right when they increased the maximum amount of provincial financial assistance available each year. The nice thing was that they kept everything above $7000 as grant money. The maximum loan repayable for 8-months of study remained the same. However, the maximum is still not enough. At McMaster, it does not cover the cost of tuition and residence for eight months. There are still the costs of textbooks, supplies, and other expenses. The reality is that each year, I have more expenses but I get no more funding from the government. With inflation, it becomes harder and harder to make ends meet. The government must move quickly and increase the OSAP maximum. I could even live with an inflationary increase of the $7000 cap.

- An allocation to GO Transit to keep fares steady for students: Many students rely on GO Transit to commute to school. With the increasing numbers of students, transit is needed to keep universities from paving more green space for parking. Also, the 407 express is often overcrowded for McMaster and York students.

- Better tuition regulation: The government is right to say that tuition should increase much like the cost of bread but the current increases are above inflation. The government should step forward to ensure that tuition only increases by inflation. They should put forth the funds to fill the gap between inflation and the current increase. Of course, they did make a lot of investments last year so I do not expect this to occur this year. If they promise it for next year, I am going to dismiss the promise. They can say whatever they want about the 2008/2009 budget, but there is no guarantee they will be in government, so it is meaningless.

In the run up to the budget, student lobby associations have been busy sending out news releases.

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance was first on March 19th with Federal budget raises Ontario students’ expectations for McGuinty’s pre-election offering on Thursday.  The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario released a pre-budget poll showing opposition to tuition fee increases on March 20th. The poll is available on the CFS website here.  They have nice slides showing the outcome of the poll here.  I called them and they sent me a copy of the questions asked and the breakdown of answers.  I have uploaded this here. Yesterday, the CFS sent this release: Student budget watch – Student representatives available for comment on 2007 Ontario Budget. The College Student Alliance wired this College Students Expecting More from McGuinty on Thursday.  So far nothing from the Council of Ontario Universities, which is the lobbying organization representing the administrations of Ontario universities.

The budget is available on the Government of Ontario Budget Site at 4pm EDT today.

I look forward to hearing the Council of Ontario Universities talk about universities having budget deficits, how this budget will not be enough to help them, how they are going to have to make cut-backs, and basically how the sky is falling for them.

Next Saturday we will see just how poor universities really are.  March 31st is "Salary Disclosure Day" in Ontario.  We will find out exactly how much university presidents and senior administrators are paid.  By looking at the salary of my university president at McMaster, Peter George, over the past couple of years, it seems that the university is doing alright.

Filed under: Coleman on Campus

MSU Recognition Night



Last night was the MSU Recognition Night where student leaders invited by the MSU and the University wine and dine, and awards are handed out.  The Honour M went to a good candidate this year.  I have not heard about the other awards. 

I was noticeably excluded from the invitations list this year, and was the only MSU committee member to not get an invite.  I am also Silhouette staff which should have got me an invite. 

Of course, being MSU public enemy number one and having been “blamed” for The Silhouette covering the story of the University President having the highest salary of any University President in Canada, I am not exactly popular.

The funny thing is that I would not have attended anyway.  I received an invite last year and turned it down after attempting to arrange to pay for my own meal.  I feel that the night is too MSU and does not get the true student leaders on campus, the people that volunteer day in and day out to run student clubs without any profile, thanks, compensation, or pay.

I, again, call on the MSU to look into how this night is organized, how much it costs and who is not invited and then ask themselves if this is good use of student money?  You want to have a recognition night, no problem, do something in Quarters and invite the people that really get things done; grassroots leaders.  I know I would attend.

Perspectives Magazine – New Issue Available



I just received the following information in an email:

Perspectives Magazine: The Powerless Issue — is now out!
Pick up your free copy at the Sheep Table in the Student Center tomorrow March 22, Friday March 23, Monday March 26, Tuesday March 27. There will also be copies available at the Union Market and Titles Bookstore, and through out the campus.

Perspectives Magazine is a publication put out at McMaster University by a very active student group.  I was offered the opportunity to write in it but was unable to get an article complete due to my time constraints.  I really wanted to support this publication by submitting.  I hope to do so next year.

This group has a blogspot site now: www.thinksheep.blogspot.com and their website is www.thinksheep.org

CFS Report on the Needs of Muslim Students



Today the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario released a report on the needs of Muslim students at Ontario universities.  There are points in it that I agree with and points that I disagree with.

I believe that universities should declare academic amnesty for any religious holiday which is significant to a substantial percentage of their population including Muslims.  I agree that professors should be well versed in Islam if they are teaching about it.  They must, however, treat it with the same academic objectivity as other faiths including my own; Christianity. 

I believe that “islamophobia” does exist.  It do me, is not when people fail to “accommodate”, it is when people fail to treat someone the same because of their religion.  This is to say when they treat someone poorly, stereotypes, or mistreats based on their being Muslim.  (Mind you, I have no problem with accommodation as long as it is reasonable, of course that is a huge debate in Quebec right now)

I am disturbed by the calls for multiple prayer spaces that are exclusive to Islam.  This is recommended even at schools that have multi-faith rooms.  Yes, I know that some schools have churches or chapels on their grounds.  They are “relics” from the past when most universities were religious institutions or run by churches.  We have grown as a society and made our universities public secular institutions.  It be unacceptable to me for any public university to build a chapel for Christians today.

However, say enough people in the Muslim community get together, fundraising and want to have their own college at a school with the college system, I being very supportive of this provided that no public funds go into the creation of a religious based college.  The building of classroom space attached to the college by public funds is great in my opinion.

I understand there is tensions at some schools over the use of multi-faith space, these tensions need to be solved.  The solution to me does not include segregation of space for each religion.  We must share space like we must learn to co-exist in the world.

Having an ablution area beside a multi-faith prayer space is something that I support.

In terms of halal foods, this one is tough for me.  I want it to be available and I want people to be able to afford it.  It be great if it were the same price.  The reality is that volume is a key factor in pricing of food on campus especially residences.  It is cheaper per capita to make a lot of something for a lot of people.  I have spoke with many food service providers and am aware of the higher costs to purchase halal foods.  The reality is that to have halal food at the same price, it must be subsidized.  That subsidization must come from other sales usually meaning that prices will have to increase for other students. 

I believe that halal food should be provided at a rate equal to the cost of providing it.

In terms of alcohol at events; I agree with the recommendation to have the first hour of events alcohol free.  I am concerned that much like multi-faith prayer space, that the accommodation will eventually not be enough.

In terms of athletic facilities, off-peak women only times make sense.  If the demand is there, enough people want and use it, go for it.  I know that The Pulse at McMaster has a strict dress code for both sexes to make people more comfortable working out.  Basically, one cannot wear anything tight fitting.  In terms of The Pulse, I would not like having the time I can use it restricted.  It is busy even in off-peak times, and I know that is when I prefer to use it.  I am not very comfortable working out with a lot of people around, plus it is hard to get equipment during peak times.  However, if enough people are going to use the space to fill it because they cannot use it any other time, who am I to be so greedy as to not allow them?

I noted that the study took a swipe at the University Students’ Council at Western.  A favourite of Jesse Greener and the CFS to kick at.  They cannot stand the USC especially since the USC won the Travel Cuts case. 

Overall, I think the CFS has provided a service in bringing this forth for discussion.

In my experience, it is tough to balance religion with society on a whole.

I remember the Danish cartoon incident last year.  I supported the publication on grounds of freedom of speech.  I remember many of my friends trying to get me to sign a petition to the government to ban insults to all religions.  I did not sign it.  My friends asked me why and I told them.  We all had a good discussion on it and I stated why I felt the way I did about it and they told me why they (and their religion) felt the way they did.  We had no problem among us.  During the later part of the discussion, one of their friends entered the discussion.  She eventually called me a racism for supporting the publication of the cartoons and for a banner on my site that read “I Support Denmark and Freedom of Speech”, I remember how hurt I was to be called a racist.  I know that a student group wanted to form to have a discussion on the cartoons, which would have required showing the cartoons to talk about them.  After some of the leaders were called racist, they decided against it and felt it would only make things worse.  There were also some students that called for me to be removed from my position as Disability Co-ordinator in Diversity Services because of my stand.  Many people failed to see that I was disgusted with some of the cartoons (not all of them) especially the turban bomb one, yet I supported the right of free expression to publish most of the cartoons. 

I believe that one can disagree with parts of this report without being racist.  Of course, there are idiots out there that do not like the report and are bashing those that wrote it and generally being idiots over at FreeDominion.ca

The Smoking Gun – Nora Loreto, RSU VP and President-Elect, Die Hard CFSer Actively Assisting in the Management of and Campaign for York UnDivided



When I was at York University last week, my friend and I decided that it be interesting to sit at the back of the room during an all-candidates debate.  So, I am sitting watching things and who do I see leading the one slate in and advising them plus handing out materials?

None other than Nora Loreto who is not a York student, should be working at her SU (Ryerson students are paying her) and has no business interfering in the York elections.  Now, if she was a casual observer that be one thing, but she was not.  Anyway, I took out my camera and took some pictures:

It’s Nora Loreto!  Interestingly, when the RSU office was contacted, the person answering claimed she was off that day to attend a funeral.  I guess that she could have done that before 12:30am or after 2:00pm with campaigning at another school mixed in there for fun.

As I was taking pictures, I was informed that there was no recording of the proceeding allowed including photographs.  Someone from York Undivided went up to the CRO and she announced that this was the case and that people were required to delete any recordings already taken unless they were members of the media.  Members of the media were asked to sign a sheet.  I did so, signing my name as Joey Coleman from The Silhouette where I am a staff member.  I released these photos to other papers as soon as I returned to McMaster.  My friend noted that when I was nearly complete signing the sheet that the CRO’s and York Undivided’s faces changed suddenly.  That would be when I signed my name and they must have recognized it.  The Silhouette did receive a call later in the day asking if I was truly staff.  Anyway, I went back to sitting down and noticed a conversation occurring between Nora and YorkUndivided with lots of looking (and one person pointing) my way.  At this point, realizing that last year the YFS CRO (another die hard CFSer) called security on student journalist who caught outside interference, I left the premises since I was never intending to actually catch a story or take pictures or anything like that.  Just decided that I be interested to hear what was being said and to see if any candidate had a position on 407 GO Transit service which is an important matter for students at York and McMaster.