... In which we attempt to stop the re-writing of history...

...And so yesterday I attended the opening plenary meeting of the Semi-Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students - British Columbia. Here is a precis of the more interesting things that happened.

After preliminary matters, we came to:

8. Preparation for Committees

All committees were struck (Campaigns; Finance; Organizational and Services Development; Policy Review and Development).

When the motion was moved to adopt the Finance Committee agenda, the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) noted that the Finance Committee agenda curiously did not include any information on audits. This was rather odd, given that the CFS-BC was, at that time, 2.5 years behind in its financial statements. The SFSS moved that the Finance Committee agenda be amended to include (1) Review of Audits, (2) Appointment of Auditor, and (3) that the Auditor be present at the Finance Committee meeting as a resource person. Amendment approved.

9. Consideration of Motions Served With Due Notice

A great deal of motions were moved, seconded, and referred to an appropriate plenary committee. The motions included matters relating to general meetings; research on student financial assistance, Campus 2020, private loans, and international students. The Malaspina Students' Union submitted this gem: "Be it resolved that a handbook on best practices in financial management be produced as a resource for member local boards of directors and staff," which was submitted to the Organizational and Services Development Committee.

The only motion that aroused controversy during this meeting was this resolution, submitted by the Graduate Students' Society of the University of Victoria:

Whereas a CUP resolution was passed such that the Death Star fund not be otherwise appropriated; and

Whereas no other vessel or vehicle is sufficiently evil or potentially, advantageously destructive; and

Whereas construction has begun in a secret facility hidden in a galaxy far, far away; and

Whereas a construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer – I’ll bet there are independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers…!; therefore

Be it resolved that independent contractors hired by the CUP be offered benefit packages accordant with the hazardous working conditions posed; and

Be it further resolved that in the interest of an egalitarian destructive weapons base, funding be increased for the Death Star Gay Bar; and

Be it further resolved that in the case that the pesky Federation discovers the weakness of the yet incomplete Death Star, i.e. typos on Joey Coleman’s blog, that the independent contractors be evacuated promptly; and

Be it further resolved that minacious posturing by the Federation be tantamount to a declaration of boredom, and that, foreseeing spurious debate upon the cryptic nature of such ridiculous resolutions

Be it further resolved that we acknowledge on behalf of the CFS that a safely completed Death Star is disastrous, as Darth Vader would never vote NDP, and therefore must be barraged at all costs with Mark Hamill’s wooden acting and reactionary plenary oversight

This motion was fairly clear to the small group of us in the room who (1) had attended the May 2007 National General Meeting and witnessed the plenary notify the National Executive about the "attempts by the Canadian University Press to influence the decision-making of the [national plenary] Organizational and Services Development Committee" and (2) were actually familiar with CUP's joke "Death Star" motion [which is hilarious in and of itself].... It's hard to tell what the rest of the plenary felt about this motion - and we will probably never know, since a motion was promptly moved to Object to the Consideration of this motion.

9. Presentation of the Report of the Executive Committee

Now this was interesting. The Report of the Executive Committee was presented, even though the Executive Committee itself never had a chance to review and approve the report.... Two particularly controversial portions of this report were aroused great controversy, under the most amusing heading "Membership Issues": Douglas Students' Union and the Simon Fraser Student Society. The Douglas Students' Union section read as follows:

LOCAL 18 - DOUGLAS STUDENTS' UNION
For almost two years the administration at Douglas College refused to remit local and
Federation membership fees collected for the member local union. The College's
intial claim was that the member local union was not in compliance with the
College and Institute Act, the legislation in BC that obligates institutions to
collect and remit students' unions' and provincial and national students'
organisation's membership fees to the respective organisations. Upon the member
local union's demonstration of its compliance with the Act, the College created
a list of demands that it required be met before the member local union's and
Federation's fees would be remitted. The demands from the College far
outstripped the obligations of the member local union according to the Act and
sought to undermine the autonomy of the Union. The Union refused to meet the
College's criteria and remained firm in its resolution that its compliance with
the Act obligated the College to remit the dues it was illegally holding.

In response to the College's unwillingness to fulfill its obligation, the Union
initiated legal action to obtain its dues and ensure that the Federation's dues
were remitted. The College launched a counter petition, requesting that the
Union be put into receivership with a receiver manager of the College's
choosing. The College named as its desired receiver manager expensive firm
Deloitte and Touche, the Union, agreeing that the appointment of a receiver
manager would be beneficial, proposed Local 44-University of Victoria Students'
Society General Manager Marne Jensen.
Given that it had a vested interest in a responsible resolution to the dispute, the Federation sought and was afforded
intervener status on the case and expressed its agreement with the member local
union that Jensen be apointed receiver manager. In early January, the case was
heard before the BC Supreme Court; the judge's ruling not only agreed with the
member local union and Federation's request that Jensen be appointed as receiver
manager, but also vindicated their assertions that the Douglas College
administration had been illegally withholding both the member local union's and
the Federation's membership dues.
Since the ruling, Douglas College has
released the dues it was illegally holding to the member local unions and the
Federation. The Receiver Manager, working with the Students' Union's Board of
Directors, has enacted appropriate financial controls, and is working to ensure
the Board is able to stabilise its financial situation and complete its late
audits.
Elections for the Board of Directors were held in April and the new
Board took office May 1. Federation membersin BC have been supporting the newly
elected representatives so that they are able to address internal challenges
while offering useful servicces and effective representation for
members.

Representatives of the Douglas Students' Union pointed out the following flaws in this section of the Executive Committee report:

• The DSU has never, since the controversy began, become compliant with the Society Act's requirements of annual audits. (For more information, please see the following extracts from court documents: Affidavit of Karen Maynes #1; Exhibit G (draft, unaudited financial statements for 2005); and Exhibit L (Don Crane's demand letter that claims that the DSU is in compliance with the Act.)
• The DSU Board of Directors never agreed that Marne Jensen should be appointed General Manager; the DSU's lawyer, Don Crane, made this submission to the Court without their consent. [Interestingly enough, Mr. Crane's position happened to coincide with that of the Federation's position...]
• they said that the Courts never "vindicated" the position of the Federation re: the alleged 'illegality' of Douglas College's withholding of CFS fees; their only Order was to appoint Marne Jensen as receiver manager.
• they disputed the assertion that "The Reciever Manager, working with the Students' Union's Board of Directors, has enacted appropriate financial controls, and is working to ensure the Board is able to stabilise its financial stituation and complete its late audits."

The Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) then moved that that portion of the report be referred back to the Executive Committee. When the vote was called for 'in favour,' half a dozen students' unions raised their voting cards, while the majority of them didn't do so. When the vote was called for 'against,' a couple of voting-card-carryers half-raised their cards - I presume hoping that the other Fedhead unions would join them in shooting down this motion. This did not happen, however, and so rather than bravely raise their cards in the air, these two 'half-against' student unions simply put their cards down - meaning that the motion passed unanimously! My interpretation was that they were too embarassed to attempt to rewrite history without the support of all the other loyalist/Fedhead students' unions in the Component.... (Interestingly enough, one of these voting-card-holders was Steve Beasley, Executive Director of the Malapsina Students' Union....)

(I have uploaded onto my webpage hundreds of pages of court documents that I pulled from the Supreme Court of BC registry several months ago relating to the Douglas Students' Union case. Read them, and then tell me whose story you believe!)

Immediately after this vote passed, a number of rather unhappy Fedhead delegates came to the microphone. One delegate insisted that this motion was out of order. Anita Zaenker, the Plenary Chair, disagreed.

A motion was then moved to approve the Executive Committee report, except for the Douglas Students' Union portion.

Then came the Simon Fraser Student Society, who objected to this portion of the Executive Committee report:

LOCAL 23 - SIMON FRASER STUDENT SOCIETY
In March a letter from a member of the Local 23 Board of Directors was received by the
Vancouver office, stating that the Local had held a referendum to defederate.
The Federation clarified to the Local that no referendum had been held.

The SFSS moved that that portion also be referred back to the Executive Committee.
While this was being debated, the Douglas Students' Union then moved that the ENTIRE report be referred back to the Executive Committee, citing yet additional flawed references in the Executive Committee report to the Douglas Students' Union....

The motion to refer the entire Executive Committee report to the Executive failed, with UVic Grads, DSU, SFSS, and KSA voting in favour.

The amendment relating to the SFSS succeeded on a very tight vote. (A motion moved earlier that this vote be taken by roll call was defeated.)

Finally, the main motion passed. UVic Grads, DSU, SFSS, Capilano Students' Union and KSA voted against, citing the continued inclusion of false statements in relation to the Douglas Students' Union case in the report....

The entire meeting was rather emotional, even though we were not debating the expenditure of money or the launch of a campaign; all we were doing was arguing over a certain version of events. It was clear that CFS-BC (or rather, the at-large officers and their loyalists) wanted desperately to spin the situation as "Evil Douglas College versus Oppressed Douglas Students' Union," presumably so as to justify the hundreds of thousands of dollars that CFS-Services and CFS-BC lent to the DSU in 2005 and 2006 (without Board of Directors resolutions, might I add) and portray the Federation as "liberator" rather than "participant in cover-up" or "waster of money," etc.

In any event, today and tomorrow we have committee meetings, speakers, caucuses, and workshops of various sorts. Sunday is the day for Closing Plenary, when motions that have been debated in committees get voted on.

Student Services administrators to discuss students' unions

At the upcoming national conference of the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS), the following workshop will be held:

Bridging Accountability and Autonomy: The Impact of Poor Student Leadership, Management and Accountability within Student Societies

Frank Cappadocia, Director, Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development, York University
Blaine Jensen, Vice President Educational Services, Douglas College, New Westminster, B.C.

SASA

As student unions continue to grow, so do the levies they draw from their members and the creation of significant enterprises on campus. These organizations are largely controlled by a handful of young individuals many with little or no financial, business or operational experience.

The development of student societies has gone from a leadership development model to that of big business. In most universities and many colleges student societies’ annual budgets are in excess of $1M and staff will exceed some medium sized businesses. The complexity of business operations are often challenging to those with graduate degrees let alone a second or third year undergraduate student. Yet legislation and other factors have created a situation where “autonomy” has become “unaccountability”. Whether through temptation, personal benefit, naiveté, or sheer negligence, some individuals, and indeed entire councils, have used their funds and positions for purposes beyond the benefit of their membership.

Through the exploration of two actual case studies – one from York University’s Glendon College and the other from Douglas College in B.C. – this session will provide Student Affairs practitioners with an advanced review of what can happen to a student organization when self-interest and benefit override the By-laws, the needs of members and, longer-term the validity of student unions themselves. Session participants will be invited to share their experiences and recommendations through an interactive dialogue following the presentation of the case studies.

Though I would disagree with certain assumptions inherent in this description (including the claim that students' unions were originally formed for the mere purpose of "leadership development"), this sounds like a very interesting workshop indeed.

(Hat tip: Jeff Friedrich)

Where, oh where have all the financial statements gone?

• At the CFS-BC Executive Committee meeting held last weekend, members were informed that the audited financial statements of the organization for 2005 and 2006 are still not available for approval. (At the February 2007 meeting, we had been informed that the 2005 statements were almost completed, and copies would be sent to all member student associations within three weeks.) Scott Payne, BC Chairperson, said that the auditor, Charlie Miller of Tompkins, Wozny, Miller, was not prioritising the CFS-BC audit as he was devoting the majority of his time to establishing his own firm.
  
  
• At the same meeting, members were informed that the audited financial statements of the Douglas Students' Union for 2005 and 2006 are also not completed, despite the Supreme Court appointment of Marne Jensen (University of Victoria Students' Society [UVSS] General Manager) as Receiver-Manager. I have received no explanation for why these statements are not complete. The Douglas Students' Union is also audited by Tompkins, Wozny, Miller.
  
  In her Affidavit sworn October 25, 2006, Marne Jensen said: "I expect to be in a position to forward the remaining financial documents to Calvin Tompkins so that the audit for the fiscal year 2005 can be completed within the next 6 - 8 weeks, at which time the society will be in compliance with the College and Institute Act" (para. 12). Similarly, in his Affidavit sworn October 31, 2006, Calvin Tompkins said: "In order to complete the 2005 financial statements we still require the society's books to be written up and reconciled for at least the first 6 months of the 2006 fiscal year, and a list of other required documentation has been provided to the DSU. As soon as we have that information we expect to be able to complete the 2005 financial statements within 2 - 3 weeks."
  
  
• As the Douglas Students' Union's contact page indicates, Ms. Jensen as hired Ben Johnson as her assistant. Mr. Johnson was the Chief Electoral Officer of the UVSS in 2006. In addition, I have been informed that at least two individuals associated with the UVSS have been appointed to substitute for Mr. Johnson on days when he was not available: Naomi Devine and Penny Beames. (My sources tell me that Ms. Devine and Ms. Beames have only worked a couple of days each at the DSU.)
  
  Naomi Devine, a director of the UVic Sustainability Project, was an unsuccessful candidate for UVSS Director in the 2006 election that Mr. Johnson oversaw (and a successful candidate for Student Senator).
  
  Penny Beames was the (ultimately) candidate for Chairperson of the UVSS in the 2006 election. Thus, it would appear that she and Ms. Jensen are in the peculiar position of being each other's supervisors - albeit at two different students' unions, on different sides of the Georgia Straight. (Ms. Beames' term as Chairperson ends very shortly.)
  
  
• My sources have also told me that the Malaspina Students' Union has loaned $20,000 to the Douglas Students' Union, without signed documentation. (The Malaspina Students' Union won the competition to host the 2007 conference of the Federation of Canadian Student Leaders. However, their General Manager was unable to give me any meaningful information concerning the details of this conference.)
  

Society of the Douglas Students' Union v. Douglas College

This is what I have been working on:

http://www.studentunion.ca/dsu_case/

This is the entire contents of the court file in the Douglas Students' Union court case. It's rather large - over 300 pages (which cost me over $300.00 in photocopy charges) - but I think you will agree that the facts and arguments in this file should be of profound concern not only to the students of Douglas College, but also to the student movement in general.

(P.S.: My sincere apologies for my paucity of blogging these past couple of weeks. I have been very busy. Hopefully blogging will return to a more regular schedule.)

Stunning Display of Apathy: Douglas Students' Union SGM Fails

According to my sources, the Special General Meeting of the Douglas Students' Union held on November 29, 2006 only have about 50 student in attendance, falling short of the 75 required for a quorum. As a result, students were unable to vote on whether or not to impeach the Representative Committee, the governing body of the students' union of Douglas College.

Kwantlen Student Association Post-Audit Memorandum Released

The Kwantlen Student Association has published its Post-Audit Memorandum [PDF] for 2005, following the recent victory of the "Concerned Students of Kwantlen" slate, displacing the "Reduce All Fees" (RAF Party) slate that had previously been in power for a year and a half. And what revealing things one can find in this document! Allow the following gems to pique your interests:

1. Disbursements should be authorized by appropriate personnel. There is no approval system in place for disbursements....
2. Cheques issued no longer require 2 signatures....
5. ... As at December 31, 2005, $285,000 in outstanding deposits had to be recorded in the current health and dental plan accounts.
6. ... The bank accounts were not reconciled correctly for most of the fiscal year....
9. At the time of the audit, we discovered that certain expenditures (some were large) that were unsupported (i.e., no cheque requisition, no supplier invoice)....
23. For the year ending December 31, 2005, the Association incurred a loss of approximately $352,000 after recognizing a gain of $49,000 on the sale of long term investments which had previously been written down. In addition, the Association's overall equity has been reduced by that amount to approximately $326,000 (down from $677,000)....
24. As at December 31, 2005, the Association has a working capital deficiency of $209,815....
28. Substantial severance payments (over $180,000) were made to employees in 2005....

In total, 53 complaints were recorded in the Post-Audit Memorandum. The KSA is currently conducting a Forensic Audit through PriceWaterhouseCoopers to determine exactly when happened to their money during the RAF Party era (now referred to within the organization as the "Dark Times").

Now, the KSA actually received a clean audit [PDF] for 2005, back in June 2006 when its financial statements were presented at the Annual General Meeting. This is most peculiar: the society received a MASSIVE number of complaints in its Post-Audit Memorandum, which was (until now!) a confidential documents, known only to the KSA management and executives, whereas their actual Auditor's Report - the only document presented to the membership - suggested that everything was rosy.
Even more interestingly, the auditors of the KSA are Tompkins Wozny Miller, the same firm that audits our good friends the Douglas Students' Union (DSU) and the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS)! And, as it turns out, there are actually quite a number of interesting connections between the KSA and the DSU/SFSS, besides a common auditor....

In an earlier post, I noted that a lawsuit between the KSA and a group of students (who have since won the recently-held KSA elections and are now in power) had been settled. The Petitioners in this lawsuit alleged that the KSA, under the rule of the RAF Party, had held a Special General Meeting that was corrupt and anti-democratic, specifically alleging that notice was not given for the general meeting, no opportunity was allowed to debate the motions under consideration, and the motions themselves were voted on in a manner designed to prevent the assembly from knowing what exactly they were voting for.... (Check out Steve Lee's website for the details!) In any event, here is a screenshot of a video clip of this Special General Meeting:



Wait a minute, who is that gentleman in the red shirt? Is that not our good friend Joey Hansen, Finance and Services Coordinator of the Douglas Students' Union?

And here is another interesting connection between the DSU and the KSA: they both have granted loans from the Health and Dental Plan funds to people! In the case of the DSU (at least as reported by Global TV), a loan of $20,000 was allegedly granted to Christa Peters, Mr. Hansen's partner (and staffer of the Students' Union of Vancouver Community College). In the KSA, however, it appears that loan of $200,000 was approved, out of Health and Dental Plan funds, to someone named Inderjit Johal. Here is the proof:



Now how about that connection to SFU? Well, the RAF Party has contended that the election that saw the Concerned Students of Kwantlen take power was conducted improperly, and they sought to have the election annulled (with the result that they would continue to stay in power until another election could be held). So they appealed to the KSA Ombudsperson, Paul Browning, who has apparently agreed with the RAF Party on appeal.

Now, Paul Browning is also an SFU student. Indeed, during the October 25, 2006 Special General Meeting at SFU, Mr. Browning was first on his feet during the debate on the motion to impeach President Shawn Hunsdale, declaring that Mr. Hunsdale was a "fine, upstanding individual."

In any event, the latest electoral conflict will be sorted out in court, as the former Council (dominated by the RAF Party) has filed a lawsuit naming the Concerned Students of Kwantlen as Respondents, asking the Courts to annul the election. And guess who is the lawyer for the RAF Party folks?

You guessed it! Donald G. Crane, of Rush Crane Guenther, is prosecuting this case, just as he is sueing me over the SFSS Special General Meeting.... Oh, what a small world we live in!

Global News Continuing Coverage of the Douglas Students' Union

Joey Coleman reports on the latest Global news coverage of the Douglas Students' Union.

A very interesting story, to say the least.

The report states that Philip Link, who apparently approved the $276,000 loan from CFS-Services to the Douglas Students' Union, simply "works" for CFS-Services. In fact, according to news reports on the Travel CUTS lawsuit settlement, Mr. Link is the Executive Director of CFS-Services. This is a very substantial responsibility.

Now, I had known from reading articles in The Peak that Mr. Link had a colourful past, but it had been my impression that his only formal altercation with the law came with his 1997 acquittal of assault charges against Lana Many-Grey-Horses (whose testimony regarding the above you can read in these Langara Students' Union old minutes). So the Global news report is a new revelation for me.

In any event, I am now seriously considering re-posting the Douglas Students' Union forensic audit on my website. The post-audit memorandum is disconcerting in and of itself, but this is nothing compared to the forensic audit. When I last posted this forensic audit, Joey Hansen's lawyer gave me a letter threatening to sue me unless I took it down. At the time, I assumed that he had to have some sort of solid legal ground. But now that mainstream media companies like Global TV are prepared to talk about the contents of this forensic audit, this seems more like "SLAPP-like" behaviour to me....

The Peak - October 30, 2006

Interesting articles in this week's Peak:

News Articles

• SGM achieves quorum by Earl Tapia and Sean Wilkinson
• SGM: What happens now? by Earl Tapia and Sean Wilkinson
• Douglas College Student Union faces possible impeachment by Iain W. Reeve

Opinions

• Editorial Cartoon by Mike Hingston
• A good ol'-fashion' lynchin' by Matthew De Marchi

Letters to the Editor

• An open letter from Shawn Hunsdale, by Shawn Hunsdale
• Ex-directors must step down by Joel Blok, Titus Gregory, Clea Moray, and Bryan Jones
• Against the SGM by Paul N. McCulloch
• A victory for democracy? by Juan Tolentino
• A biased meeting by Paul Browning
• Accept impeachment by Brianna Turner

(Note: Matthew De Marchi, Joel Blok, Titus Gregory, Clea Moray, Bryan Jones, Paul N. McCulloch, Paul Browning, and Brianna Turner all verbally participated in the SGM.)

Impeachment Campaign: Douglas Students' Union

Ryan Cousineau reports on an impeachment campaign currently taking place at the Douglas Students' Union (Local 18, Canadian Federation of Students), in relation to an ongoing criminal investigation and alleged financial regularities at that students' union. I reported on this fascinating situation in New Westminster yesterday.

P.S.: Something intriguing to note. Sean Hibbitts is listed as the Disabled Students' Liaison of the Douglas Students' Union on their "DSU REPS" page. Mr. Hibbitts, a new SFU student, is also responsible for writing two letters to The Peak in recent weeks ("Radical campus: take charge of your education," and "Cruelty, the B.C. student loans way") - letters that, in my humble opinion, look suspiciously like an attempt to build up one's profile before running in an election. (I should know, since I've done the same sort of letter-writing myself!)

In any event, I'm not suggesting that Mr. Hibbitts, the SFSS scandal, and the DSU scandal are in any way related. It's just ... fascinating ... to see all these connections. Such as, for example, his latest entry in his blog, simple titled: "IN SOLIDARITY!! HUN-SDALE POWER!! KITA."

Douglas Students' Union in the News

In the interests of avoiding another unfriendly letter from Roger McConchie, I don't think I'll be providing any commentary on this one. But then, I don't think that commentary on my part will really be all that necessary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfZ3j0asXWI

• Other commentary by litlebopeepshow

(P.S.: Yes, I know, I'm late in commenting on the USSU.... I have two major midterm assignments around now, so that will have to late until I have enough time to properly do justice to this very interesting situation.)

Update

Sorry for the week-long delay in posting, I've been extremely busy. Fortunately, there is plenty of interesting stuff for me to write about, both close to home and far away.

Simon Fraser University

• Student Forum met on September 27, despite an attempt by Member Services Officer Glyn Lewis to cancel the meeting. The membership unanimously elected myself as Chair. Since President Shawn Hunsdale had failed to call a Special General Meeting upon receipt of a petition containing the signatures of well over the 5% required by our By-Laws, Forum voted to call a Special General Meeting on its own. Forum also adopted a motion of non-confidence in the Board of Directors, censured the members of the Labour Committee, and replaced two Executives on the Constitution and Policy Review Committee with two of its own members.
  
  
• On September 29, the Board of Directors apparently met. On motion from Member Services Officer Glyn Lewis, the Board voted to hold their Annual General Meeting on October 25, at 2:30 p.m.— at the exact same time when Forum had voted to call their Special General Meeting!
  
  
• In my capacity as Chair of Forum for the fall semester, I have created a Forum website. This website contains information regarding the activities of Forum, and also includes a page dedicated to the Special General Meeting that we have called.
  
  
• I have been informed that an emergency Board of Directors meeting is being held today at 1 p.m. Apparently, the entire meeting will be in camera (i.e. confidential).

Not Simon Fraser University

• Douglas College has suspended the remission of student fees to the Douglas Students' Union. The latter's website has no comment; not very surprising, considering that it has not been modified whatsoever for several months. The Administration has published a letter to students in The Other Press, the Douglas student newspaper.
  
  
• The Liberals have won a majority in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick under the leadership of Shawn Graham. Their new Cabinet includes Kelly Lamrock as Minister of Education, who will be responsible for primary and secondary education in the province. Mr. Lamrock was National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students in 1993 and later founded the New Brunswick Student Alliance. At its first meeting (held today), the NB Cabinet "approved the creation of $2,000 grants to first-year university students and the elimination of parental and spousal contribution requirements for student loans."
  

"...serious deficiencies in internal controls..."

Thus saith Tompkins, Wozny, Miller & Co., auditors for the Douglas Students' Union. After completing four audits - in the earliest case, four years overdue - and submitting them to the DSU's Annual General Meeting, held in March 2006, students still don't know what's happened to their money. Furthermore, financial statements for fiscal year 2005 have yet to be released, even though over five months have expired since the end of that fiscal year.

Released on the Internet for the first time by yours truly:

• Financial Statements of the Society of the Douglas Students' Union, year ending August 31, 2001
• Financial Statements of the Society of the Douglas Students' Union, year ending August 31, 2002
• Financial Statements of the Society of the Douglas Students' Union, year ending August 31, 2003
• Financial Statements of the Society of the Douglas Students' Union, year ending August 31, 2004

All documents are in PDF form, and are provided for information purposes only.

Douglas Students' Union Elections

The Douglas Students' Union (DSU) has been having problems as of recently. As Dave Fleming-Saraceno reported in The Peak back in 2005, Douglas College decided not to remit student fees to the DSU due to the latter's not having had audits for the past three years. Mr. Fleming-Saraceno stated that the CFS had given $100,000 to the DSU to keep them afloat, notwithstanding their lack of ability to keep track of said money.

Lisa McLeod, Chairperson of CFS-BC responded. She stated that the Federation had given a loan to the DSU, not a gift, and that the DSU had, in fact, completed its audits regularly. Of course, this was not the end of the matter. Jan Gunn responded, "They may not be stealing... But they can't prove they aren't." She showed a copy of a post-audit memorandum from the DSU's auditors, containing many criticisms of the way that the DSU handled its money. Gunn also claims that, in fact, there is no record of the Federation having properly approved any loan to the DSU. Confidential sources tell me that the Federation did, indeed, grant a loan to the DSU, but this loan was not subject to any terms or conditions of repayment - effectively making it more like a gift than a loan, for legal purposes at least.

But good folks in charge of the Douglas Students' Union may soon wish that they had these minor problems. DSU elections are coming up, and there are three slates vigorously competing for the votes of Douglas students. The DSU webmaster seems blissfully unaware of this minor fact, of course, but The Other Press, the Douglas College student newspaper, has dutifully published the official notices of the Students' Union. The last page of the March 22, 2006 issue notes that DSU elections will be taking place Tuesday, March 28 - Monday, April 3. The last page of the March 15, 2006 issue notes which positions would be available, and when campaigning would take place. But no where do we find out *who* these mysterious candidates are.

Fortunately, Steve Lee, a Kwantlen student, has posted a full set of resources on his website relating to the Douglas Students' Union elections. Apparently, one entire slate of candidates in the Douglas elections are actually Kwantlen students who all registered in courses at Douglas for the purposes of getting themselves elected to the DSU. This slate (called "Reduce All Fees" [RAF] at Kwantlen) is currently in power over at the Kwantlen Student Association, and many of the candidates in the DSU election are currently executives or staff over at the KSA. Mr. Lee informs Kwantlen students that "a number of your KSA staff and elected officials seem to have so much time on their hands that they feel they can effectively run multiple student unions at the same time."

What about the other candidates? Sources tell me that the other candidates are part of two different slates, each of which includes incumbent DSU executives. For example, consider the candidates for Treasurer. Jessica Gojevic is the current Treasurer; Heidi Taylor is the current College Relations Coordinator; and Liv Grewal is a former candidate for the Kwantlen Student Association with the RAF Party.

How will the elections turn out? We won't know until a few days from now, when (hopefully!) all the votes will be counted.