Conservatives gunning for the CFS at the University of Guelph

Gunning for the CFS: Shaun Zanin and his Conservative commrades like guns and hate the CFS, obviously.

Nearly one year after a leak revealed a Conservative plot to smash Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) and takeover student unions, their continued efforts couldn’t be more obvious than stepping into a pile of cowshit in bare feet. Smells about as good too.

Last year, Guelph Conservatives tried to take over the Guelph’s OPIRG, now their sights are turned towards the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), just as predicted by last year’s media leak.

Last September, a twice-failed student union candidate Curtis Batuszkin convinced enough drunk bar-goers to sign a petition to vote on membership in CFS. Barely enough confused froshies signed up. After a debate about whether or not there were enough signatures (petition peculiarities: see below), a judge ruled that a referendum should go ahead—which will commence on Wednesday April 7^th. The good news for Guelph students is that now there will be a more legitimate referendum on membership in the CFS than a pro-war keg party as Batuszkin, Zanin and their Conservative buddies likely counted on.

Two thumbs up: It's not just Peter Braid's eyes that are bulging as he gets down with the Conservative youth after a narrow election victory.

The bad news is that Guelph is located very close to Kitchener-Waterloo, the region where Peter Braid (must see video of Braid articulating his party’s “logic”) tapped into his tiny Tory network (via Ontario campus Conservative president Eric Merkely) and won the election by a mere 73 votes.

With that win, the South Western Ontario Tories are regrouping and now have their fingerprints all over the referendum at Guelph. On the most heavily female campus in Ontario, the “No” (to CFS) side stands out as a starkly male-dominated group. But these aren’t just men, they’re more like libertarian men (read angry boys), proud of their ability to skype, twitter and blog with other libertarians (usually from their parents’ basements). So proud, they argue that organized student movements like the CFS are the dinosaurs to their new libertarian skype movement. That makes as much sense as appointing a creationist as Canada’s Science Minister.

The “Vote No CFS” Facebook group is a veritable who’s who of Tories: Erik Merkley (OPCCA president), Beth Corbet (OPCYA soon to be president), Nick Bergaminni (OPCCA soon to be president), Anosh Jacob (president, University of Toronto Scarborough Campus Conservatives and Team Bergaminni supporter), Eugene Pasternak (OPCCA Director of Election Readiness and Team Bergaminni supporter), Amber Ruddy (Director of Campus Activism and a key petition organizer to defederate at the UWO), Brandon Myles Wallingford (active Carleton tiny Tory and defederation petition organizer at Carleton), Sabine El-Chidiac (secretary-treasurer candidate for Team Beth), Stephanie Brooks (communication director candidate for Team Bergaminni), Zach Engel (former independent candidate for OPCYA and now Team Beth supporter, running for city council in Woodstock) and Brittany D’Arcy, secretary-treasurer candidate for Team Bergaminni and now president of the University of Toronto’s Campus Conservatives. (Dean Tester is a member too, but has only posted a couple of times. He’s likely too busy studying so he can pass as a McGill grad student.)

Another notable involved on the group is Bob Senechal, Progressive Conservative candidate for the provincial riding of Guelph.

The many sides of Guelph "No" side campaigner, Shaun Zanin: he is not only a gun enthusiast, but he is also a dedicated Conservative and a webmaster. A truly unique blend of interests.

Meanwhile two key anti-CFS campaign organizers are also active Conservatives. Shaun Zanin, the “No” side’s webmaster, is also the official webmaster for OPCCA (and presumably their “CFS Watch” website). Michael Sona is also campaigning. Expect Sona to be appointed as Election Readiness position after Nick Bergaminni’s preordained ascension to OPCCA president (note Bergamini’s call for continued attacks against “problematic organizations such as the CFS and OPIRG”). Sona and Zanin were half of the attempted Conservative take-over of Guelph’s OPIRG last year.

Despite the fact that they’re not normally rolling at the top of any social circles featuring average students, the Conservative’s brazen interference in campus politics should be concerning for regular and fair-minded students. The entire youth wing of the federal Conservative government along with elements of Ontario young Conservatives under Tim Hudak’s wing seem to be mobilizing against the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s strongest and most progressive student voice.

While the conservative campaign on Canadian campuses is quite obvious, rest assured it is symptomatic of what’s happening in all sectors that are traditionally dominated by progressive values.

Fight back!

Literally a cover-up: looking at this petition page, it is clear that there was additional text that was covered up for the photocopy, what did that say? Was there wrong or biased information presented to signatories that petitioners didn’t want to be made public?

Post-script
We recently came across this juicy little tidbit: It seems that the University of Guelph is at least implicitly backing the Conservative-led pull-out referendum from the CFS. While most universities would have strict policies about exposing private student information online, U of Guelph apparently has no problem here. This document—which apparently has been publicly accessible on line since September—exposes students’ personal information (name, signature, student number). We don’t see anything in these petitions that gives consent to having signatories’ Guelph identification publicly broadcast, though the disclaimer at the bottom of each page does seem to end abruptly. What was the text that was only partially covered on page 9 before they were photo copied and posted?

More weirdness, if you take a close look at these pages, only the pages in the second half of the document are notarized by the admin. Presumably the “125 additional pages” still count as legitimate, even thought they are not actually notarized. Also note, that the “125 additional pages” all appear to have the same staple markings in the upper left corner. Hmmm, a late contribution from Peter Braid’s PC youth election campaign volunteer team? Maybe one of the signatories will realize the U of Guelph isn’t doing enough to protect their privacy or ensure that these petitions weren’t biased pre-campaign material. This could be a legal problem for the University.

Despite the dubious nature of U of Guelph’s role and quality control with these petition documents, they are neck deep in the referendum process. Their home page features a message claiming that “voting will be facilitated by the University secretariat’s office”. Whaa? Of course we’ve seen administrative interference into student union affairs before, at the behest of another Conservative MP, Peter Kent.

Guelph students, don’t let the Conservatives and your university pull a fast one on you. Get out and vote!

More backlash against tuition fee-fighting student union leaders, this time at UBC

Fresh off one attempted ousting of a tuition fee-fighting elected student union leader, another attempt is underway, this time at the University of British Columbia’s student union (Alma Mater Society–AMS). Both the UBC-AMS President, Blake Frederick, and VP-External, Tim Chu are the targets of this new attack.

Frederick and Chu, spearheaded a legal initiative to pressure Canada to hold to former commitments to the UN (and to Canadians) to progressively reduce tuition fees until they were eliminated. Canada was signatory to a UN resolution (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) to this effect in the 1976. As with other international treaties (the Kyoto Protocol, for example) Canada has walked away from its commitment on this. Tuition fees have spiked and continue to climb.

This challenge from the UBC AMS was an interesting and creative initiative that could result in real pressure on Canada to reverse the trend of increasing tuition fees. At the very least it is attention grabbing. In fact, apparently it got the attention of some people in high places. As a result, there is yet another professional smear campaign, followed by another attempted ousting. (Is this the 1990′s all over again?) As usual, Maclean’s was among the first to set the tone for the reactionary backlash.

Embattled Frederick and Chu are not backing down and will contest this move against them. A Facebook group has also sprung up in their defense. Also Resource Groups (read Public Interest Research Groups, we believe) who are also under attack on that campus have unified around Frederick and Chu.

The meeting where this issue will be decided is being held today at the 6:00 pm in the SUB council chambers.

Campus Conservative Campaigners Fail to Oust UWO Graduate Student Union President

It appears that campaigners for the UWO campus Conservative-led initiative to pull out of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have failed to oust the president of the graduate student union, Rick Telfer. It is widely speculated that this move against Telfer was related to his opposition to the attack campaign being leveled against the CFS by Conservatives and their supporters. Organizers required a 2/3 majority vote, but failed to secure support from even half of the voters. The final vote of 58% in favour of keeping Telfer, is the same percentage that elected him previously, demonstrating that Conservative muckraking hasn’t had much of an effect on UWO graduate students. Hopefully, students don’t take this victory sitting down, but use the momentum to push back against other Conservative initiatives on that campus.

Students prepare for onslaught of navel gazing and time wasting at Canadian Federation of Students meeting

Conservative activist Dean Tester's dream finally comes true. (1) Change of venue: Instead of blogging from his basement, he'll do it from the CFS general meeting. (2) Perks: He gets to protest anti-war speakers by wearing his Friday reds, while being mistaken for a McGill graduate student, while getting paid by McGill's Post-Graduate Students' Society. Life is good.

For this post we thought we would address one of the most blogged about events in Campus Conservative circles. As you may have heard, this week the Canadian Federation of Students convenes its second general meeting of 2009. This meeting will be an important one for CFS enemies and supporters alike. Much blogged about motions packages (“reform packages”) have been served and are on the plenary agenda. In total, almost 100 motions will be debated. We guess any of these motions could take hours to fully address, but even if only 15 minutes per motion are required, this will take 25 hours. Of course, with such talk of de-federation, many of the motions served are related to this aspect of the CFS’ bylaws. Motions are served from member student unions. In case you aren’t familiar with CFS terminology for the different “locals”, this link will help. We noticed that the majority of the motions came from three such locals, the Kwantlen Student Association (“Local 26”), Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Calgary (“Local 21”), and the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill (“Local 79”). We briefly review some of their contributions to the hijack of this CFS general meeting.

1. The Kwantlen Student Association (KSA)
The KSA attempted to disaffiliate from the CFS in 2008, but students on that campus rejected that idea. The KSA representatives pledged to continue with their membership in good faith. Given that the KSA just won a referendum vote to increase its war chest to fight membership in the CFS by several tens of thousands of dollars, this pledge seems somewhat disingenuous.

Some motions moved by KSA:

Motion 18: would see the first steps of merging the CFS and Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (the right-of centre and much smaller counterpart to the CFS, which according to former Globe and Mail editor-in-chief, Edward Greenspon, was formed at the same time as the Canadian government was actively attacking CFS and building alternative networks to it in the mid 1990s.). This could help stabilize CASA after its loss of founding members at the University of British Columbia and could legitimize the organization, which formerly supported regressive loan schemes and still, to our knowledge, has nothing to say about rising average of Canadian tuition fees. Motion 18 looks like an innocent “can’t we all just get along” motion, but we think it will disproportionately help the smaller, right-wing CASA gain momentum and leech off the CFS. CCW to meeting participants: don’t do it.

Motion 19: Motivated by the claim that previous bylaw amendments caused the Canadian student movement to “weaken and splinter,” this motion would mandate work with legal counsel to “modernize” CFS’ bylaws. Following this, the updated bylaws, in their entirety, would be brought back for ratification. The cynics in us see this leading to the following: (1) cause CFS to waste all sorts of money, (2) cause their legal bills to grow so that muckrakers have more ammo against the CFS, (3) give anti-CFS types a chance to waste another entire meeting sparing over bylaw minutia. Motion 19, is a classic “reform motion” which we believe is at best useless, and at worst strongly detrimental to the capacity of the CFS to actually get anything done.

Motion 20: Calls for journalists to attend CFS general meetings. Looks like that’s already happening. Also, looks like some are unmoved by this gesture (could just be his way of lobbying the CFS for tuition policy he prefers).

Other motions include motion 21, which would institute perpetual referenda on every campus every year in order to maintain consumer price index adjustments to membership fees (more time/energy wasting) and motion 22 seeks to waive outstanding membership fees from the York Federation of Students. Strangely, among the motions from the YFS (“local 68”), there appears to be nothing indicating support for KSA’s motion 22, leading us to believe that this is more about financially stalling the CFS than it is about helping a fellow student union. Presumably this will be explained by YFS representatives at the general meeting.

2.The University of Calgary Graduate Students’ Association (UCGSA)
According to the UCGSA website, two delegates will attend the CFS general meeting. The first, David Coletto, is the former president and current executive member of Alberta Graduate Council, Albertan competitor to the CFS graduate student outfit, the National Graduate Caucus. The second attendee for the UCGSA is Matt Musson, an active campaigner for the de-federation campaign at U of C. We’re sure they’ll have no interest in being objective.

Coletto and Musson claim, along with the PGSS leadership, that the CFS’ Canada Education Action Plan, will result in “…recipients of non-salaried research assistant stipends to be required to pay as much as 30% tax on their funding.” This claim has been refuted.

Coletto and Musson will be arguing on behalf of the nearly 15 motions that were submitted by their student union. The majority of their motions relate to removing the speaking rights for CFS employees at meetings, dissolving various services, posting various internal documents online, making changes to membership referendum procedures (making it easier to run a successful withdrawal campaign, obviously), along with a host of other internal changes.

3. Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) of McGill
The motions that have caught the interest of many are those served by the PGSS, which apparently have not been approved by their council. Also unapproved was a decision to front the delegate fees for out of province, non-members (specifically anti-CFS partisans such as Dean Tester and Erin Hale), for which the PGSS executive have come under fire.

Some of the PGSS’ motions include:

Motion 49: An attempt to reduce the salaries of the National Executive to minimum wage. This smacks of a malicious attempt to ensure CFS elected leaders either live in poverty or are independently wealthy. Neither are very equitable. Both would be ideal to education elitists and Conservatives.

Motion 52: A call to open all meetings to “members of the press.” Does that mean everyone with a blog would be granted universal access? We’ll be there with our coffee mugs.

Motion 53: Put bylaws online in a less “cryptic location”. We found the link them under Research & Policy in less than 1 minute.

Motion 55: Requires a question period before and after every lunch. Hmmm, if Dean Tester…errr…the PGSS didn’t submit so many motions of questionable import, there would probably be time to have questions answered.

Motion 56: Calls for a publication of a “boycott list.”

Motion 57: Maintain a list of coalition partners on the website. We found this on the CFS site under “links.”

Motion 58: Would allow for the removal of “any of the at-large National Executive” for the “Federation’s” failure to adhere to policy, resolutions of bylaws. Someone missed a deadline, you’re all fired!

Motion 59: Takes issue with CFS representatives serving as meeting chairs for local student union council meetings and requires conflict of interest policy to prevent this. No word on how this is, in fact, a conflict of interest.

Motion 74: Calls for the CFS to implement voluntary fees. A sort of voluntary student union fees, ushered in by the Howard government in Australia decimated students’ ability to organize in that country (now mandatory fees are now being charged by the universities to provide services that were killed along with the students’ unions).

In addition, the PGSS has many more motions ranging from severing the CFS’ services from the CFS (motion 61) to changing referendum rules such that vote a local keg party can suffice for a referendum (motion 66) to demanding that the CFS and NDP stop their collusion (if this were true maybe the NDP would be doing better–motion 63) to the development of a complicated system of performance metrics for National Executive members (motion 71).

There are other motions, plenty in fact, but we don’t have time to get through everything here. Unfortunately, for the students at this general meeting, they probably won’t either, which means the important work of challenging the enemies of public education will have to be put on hold until this hijack is dealt with.

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Email us if you have a story idea: campusconservativewatch@gmail.com

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Conservatives poised to make a move at University of Manitoba?

Hugh McFadyen strategizing with Manitoba Campus Conservatives

It appears that the Conservatives have their eyes on a new prize, the University of Manitoba Student Union, according to a very interesting article from Canadian Dimension. In it, author Brian Latour exposes the Conservatives’  involvement in previous campus elections and speculates that the next big push by the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives (UMCC)–who are well connected and appear to be well funded–will be to get partisans elected in 201o at the Students’ Union. The UMCC connections reach right to the Federal government via high profile alumni such as Steven Fletcher, current Minister for Democratic Renewal and former Manitoba Students’ Union president. Fletcher recently stirred up controversy when he used a public speaking engagement (hosted by the UMCC) to attack the students’ union, the Canadian Federation of Students and the local campus newspaper.  As an indication of who might be involved in planning for the 2010 election push, Latour notes that the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives facebook group includes the likes of:

Pierce Cairns, 2008 UMSU Presidential candidate (Regressive Conservative)
Adam Cousins, 2009 UMSU Presidential candidate (Campus Change)
Young Jung, 2009 UMSU VP Student Services candidate (Campus Change)
Stefan Paszlack, UMSU election, Campaign Manager (Campus Change)
MP Peter Braid (Conservative Party of Canada)
Joey Coleman (formerly of Maclean’s On Campus)

[Cue arguments that we are the "mouth piece" for Canadian Dimension]

The U of M Campus Conservatives got help from the leader of Manitoba’s Conservatives to try to undermine that province’s student day of action against poverty and tuition fees. Hugh McFadyn was there to personally prop up Conservatives’ media profile and steer the message away from what students were calling for.

Meanwhile of important symbolic value, students are beginning to rally behind the embattled CFS under the new group “Progressive Students 4 CFS”. A facebook group and website called have sprouted up in the face of the Conservative’s attack  campaign against the CFS.

2009′s Remembrance Day Achievements: Pointlessness of Canada’s war forgotten for one day, universities get free advertising, KEGGER!

Remembrance Day used to be the day we’d all stand around in grade school class for an awkward minute as we were required to pay homage to those who fought and died in WW1/2. Now RD has diversified. New improved purposes include: (1) Conservatives and war mongers can hide their true lust for stealing resources from poor countries abroad by pretending to respect the poor Canadians they sent off to do it; (2) Universities (McMaster for example) are getting in on the jingoism by promoting their highly touted, little used “Project Hero”; but for (3), the main event, you’ll have to wait until Friday November 13 for “The Support the Troops Kegger“, jointly hosted Ottawa and Carleton campus Conservatives. If you are lucky enough to be invited (as we were), you must attend…and take pictures (we’ll post the best picture). With almost 200 confirmed guests, almost 300 maybes and at least 5 keggers, we expect all sorts of camera-ready patriotism to be displayed, the likes of which will make this patriotic stunt look weak. Get your cameras ready!

One trick pony? Campus Conservative attack campaign against the Canadian Federation of Students leaves little else to report

Amber Ruddy (right), Conservative activist and anti-CFS campaigner at the University of Western Ontario.

The stated purpose of this resource is to expose campaigns being run by the Conservatives on Canadian campuses–particularly those which are being run covertly.

Since April 2009, we have been following the Campus Conservatives’ attack against Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) and student unions, which was leaked to the public. It became apparent this Fall that the main target of Conservatives’ attacks was the Canadian Federation of Students, the umbrella organization that facilitates not-for-profit services and campaign initiatives for most of Canada’s student unions. This campaign is being perused so vigorously, in fact, that we simply are not receiving tips on any other aspect of campus Conservatives. Having said this, we’re not too upset; this is clearly an important story as evidenced by the heavy traffic through our site.

Somewhat recently, more evidence has surfaced showing campus Conservatives continue to highly prioritize this campaign. The Ryerson Free Press (RFP) responded to legal threats from Conservatives regarding their previous coverage of ‘Conservative Training Sessions’. In their response they showed more uncovered picture evidence of Conservatives targeting the CFS and PIRGs.

Just days ago another blog has surfaced demonstrating the involvement of campus Conservatives’ drive to pull the Western’s graduate student union out of the CFS. There Eric Merkley, president of the Ontario Progressive Campus Conservative Association (OPCCA), and Amber Ruddy, OPCCA Director of Campus Activism, are directly involved in the anti-CFS campaign.

And in this picture (below), Manitoba campus Conservatives  are seen blocking the stairs of the legislature, where the provincial student rally against poverty and tuition fees was to be held. This, reportedly, after the leader of the provincial Conservatives arranged a counter media event to  undermine the students’ messaging. Despite all this, the rally looked like a hit.

Show of force: Manitoba campus Conservatives try to block students from rallying at the foot of the Legislative building. -Nov.5.2009

With your help, we’ll continue to keep you up-to-date on campus Conservatives. Keep the information coming, especially if you have some new research angles.

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Email us if you have a story idea about campus conservatives or their allies: campusconservativewatch@gmail.com

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Conservative campus media, we’re watching you too…

Conservatives have long-realized that like-minded people in the media business can really help their cause. And every once and a while we can see such players expose themselves. A few months ago, Stephen Harper named media heavy hitters Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Linda Frum Sokolowski to the Senate. TV anchorman Peter Kent, (journalist and senior member of the neo-conservative outfit Canadian Coalition for Democracies) also officially jumped to the Conservatives not too long ago. And recently, former journalist, Danielle Smith, won the leadership of Alberta’s right-of-Conservative Wildrose Party. Incidentally, Smith’s husband, David Maretta, and fellow WR party member, is the managing editor for Calgary Global TV. (Hot off the press: yesterday Peter MacKay announced he will be marrying Jana Juginovic, a CTV news executive. We’re sure she’ll remain impartial…as always.)

To only find out years later that these journalists may have been playing partisan politics while feeding us the news is unfortunate, to say the least. On the other hand, it is (a) vindicating to see the likes of Mike Duffy finally come out of the closet and admit he’s in bed with the Conservatives and (b) a good reminder that the media is far from objective; other partisans certainly remain embedded.

The same holds true for campus media; the campus conservative movement would be nowhere without the aid of sympathetic media.

Look at Maclean’s, for example. There, teams of writers and bloggers consistently blur the line between news, opinion and fiction, all the while pushing decidedly right-of-center on campus issues like: labour, Canadian militarism, science vs. the humanities, feminism, tobacco and public health, and the Canadian Federation of Students. But, it’s easy to beat up on institutions like Maclean’s or the Western Standard, which have been at this for years. It is more of a challenge to spot individuals. A campus Conservative writing for his or her paper for a couple of years easily evades due recognition. So we thought we would find and expose a representative sampling of such “journalists” from across country. From East to West we have…

Québec: Andrew Haig

Dwindling solidarity among students in Québec has put in jeopardy their claim to a more progressive post-secondary education system than any jurisdiction in Canada (Actually there does seem to be an upswing in solidarity between the ultra-left and the right). Conservatives there are contributing to, and seizing on, student unionists’ disarray. Andrew Haig, former editor-in-chief of the Concordian and regular contributor to the Link appears to be making full use of this opportunity. Apart from attempting to re-brand conservative hero, George Bush, he is among those who are calling for tuition fee increases in Québec.

With this in mind, it is clearly for strategic purposes only that he argues that one of the two main threats to the Québec student movement is “annual increases in Qu[é]bec tuition through 2012”. The second “threat”, and more likely his real target, is the Canadian Federation of Students [note: he spends one sentence on tuition fees and the rest of the article on the CFS]. Haig has been reported working anti-CFS petition drives at McGill, Concordia and Carleton.

Ontario: Dean Tester

Dean Tester fills a number of roles within Canada’s conservative student movement, including blogging for Maclean’s. His role with Maclean’s seems to be relegated to personal PR service for Nick Bergamini, the most notable Carleton Conservative elected to the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA). We presume Tester’s goal there is to sow the seeds for a better showing for the Conservative ticket next time around.

Tester’s Conservative credentials also include: serving as the communications coordinator for Conservative candidate in the Ottawa-Centre riding, a (failed) candidate himself (and strategist) for the right-wing slate in the last CUSA election, an elected member of Carleton’s alternative right-wing “student government”, and a “Blogging Tory” (under the blog “Alwaysright.ca”). Unsurprisingly, he is also the organizer of the campaign to pull Carleton University undergrads out of the Canadian Federation of Students. Tester’s fervour for capitalism is only outdone by his fanaticism for his other favourite flawed –ism, Toronto Maple Leafism.

British Columbia: Sam Reynolds

Reynolds works with the BC Liberals (read: CONSERVATIVE!) and is at the same time a journalist with the Simon Fraser campus newspaper, The Peak. Reynolds proudly touts his far-right views.

Reynolds on the environment:

In response to the Canadian Federation of Students’ “Guide to Sustainable Living”, Reynolds could not contain himself and not only announces on his blog that he denies climate change, but calls David Suzuki, of all people, a “dickhead” (also be sure to catch his list of things that are “awesome” at the end of his article…hint some of them are firearms, what’s the message there?).

On the Canadian Federation of Students:

Reynolds penned the entirely one-sided news story for the Peak, which reads very similar and was published at almost the same time as the much criticized piece from Erin Hale, in the McGill Daily. Both articles carry the usual mis-mash of unsubstantiated allegations levelled at the organization. Since being published, similar or identical stories to Reynolds’ or Hale’s have appeared in other campus papers. As George Bush would say, “mission accomplished.”

In response to an opinion piece by James Clark from the Ryerson Free Press (a lone progressive voice in a sea of reactionary campus newspapers), Reynolds levels legal accusations against Clark of “slandering” Dean Tester. Though it is preposterous to allege that Clark slandered Tester in any way, Reynolds’ accusation quickly spread.

Despite his open hostility toward left-leaning political principles, Reynolds happily promotes the open letter from the “The Left” to the Canadian Federation of Students, a letter which has generated a lot of concern among real progressives.

On his ‘hatred’ for Barak Obama:

“I hate Barack Obama. I despise the man and his policies entirely…It’s because I strongly believe that his reckless financial management and weak foreign policy will lead to the demise of what was once the world’s hegemon, the United States of America.”

Reynolds on taxing the rich:

“The prevailing logic being that because these people are “rich” they can afford to pay extra taxes to fund the state’s social programs. But does this exercise in pseudo Demand side economics really work?  No. And to prove it, I’ll show you a parable from the magnum opus of simulation gaming, Sim City.”

–Yes, he’s using a video game to attempt to prove the supremacy of right-wing economics.

Reynolds on torture:

“In fact Guantanamo Bay isn’t that bad of a place at all.” And, “The effects of modern enhanced interrogation techniques don’t leave any permanent damage…don’t advertise it as Torture”

–Maybe Reynolds thinks water boarding is some kind of recreational activity?

While it is obvious that these unbalanced rants are that of a far-right ideologue, too often such comments are dismissed as those of a harmless crank. In fact, people like people like Reynolds, Haig and Tester have the power of their collective voices (there are some 220 registered blogging Tories alone) and their positions in various media organizations to influence “legitimate” media, as well as the general public. We think students reading their campus papers deserve better than recycled Tory rhetoric passing as news.

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Email us if you have evidence of a Conservative posing as a journalist: campusconservativewatch@gmail.com

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Passionate, mobilized and with common cause: could American left youth movement be a model for Canadian progressives to follow?

Kindred Spirits: CCW (heart) Campus Progress

The days may soon be gone, when Canadians can smirk indignantly at the “Ugly American”. Campus-dwellers are getting it together as they push for long needed reforms and with seemingly none of the left-wing cannibalism featured by their Canadian counterparts.

With enjoyable article titles like “Anti-Heath Care Reform Protesters Skewed Old, White” and “Know Your Right-Wing Ideologues”, Campus Progress could just be the tonic to the ignoramuses holding that country back from modernity. Meanwhile, conservative-exposers have moved to video as well. New Left Media seems to have taken a page out of the CBC’s Talking to Americans series with their DC Tea Party interview series and The Young Turks (read “rebels”) are doing an excellent job digging into issues, right-wingers and the media’s habit of perpetuating ridiculous rumours (great/hilarious gotchas at Palin, Limbagh (danger Maclean’s bloggers your tactics are being exposed), Glenn Beck, Pat Buchanan, racists).

Sadly, Canadian students may only now be discovering things aren’t so inspirational here. Continuous conservative bellowing combined with people playing left-wing but who are shooting right are contributing to the normalization of campus-based jingoism and right-wing education fee schemes, among other things.

Campus progressives, it time to get it together!

So left, they’re right: Conservative student movement conscripts Montréal’s ultra-left

Anarcho-conservatives, the new weapon in the campus conservatives' arsenal. Branding themselves as progressive, they wage war on conservatives' targets from a position of perceived moral high ground.

Recently, in a letter written by Lex Gill, José Barrios and Yves Engler self-identifying as “the left”, they announced their solidarity with the unfolding campus Conservative campaign against student unions and their national umbrella organization, the Canadian Federation of Students, which we reported on back in April 2009. In their piece, Open Letter From the Left to the Canadian Federation of Students, they attack author James Clark for his story, Manufacturing Crisis, which looks critically at the student media and its role in the surging right-wing politic on campuses, something we have also reported on.

After reading An Open Letter and then Manufacturing Crisis, it’s almost impossible to deny that Gill, Barrios, Engler and company must be smoking the same thing as Stephen Harper. So we decided to review their piece, point-by-point, and rank their work as Conservative or Left. We follow this review with an insightful conclusion. We hope you enjoy…

An Open Letter From the Left to the Canadian Federation of Students

…

1-
“James Clark recently published an article in the Ryerson Free Press entitled “Manufacturing Crisis:” a clumsy attempt to refute the existence of an organized, national push to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students…In fact, Clark goes on to assert that this highly-publicized “rumour” is part of a wild conspiratorial plot by the far-right.”

It’s not? We thought that was obvious.

Point Conservative – Their on-going campaign which they re-announced this year is getting cover despite their open work on it.

Conservative 1, Left 0

2-
“Four petitions (Trent, Guelph, Carleton and Western) have already been delivered to CFS-Ontario by bailiff. We’re quite sure more are on the way.”

Point Left – We wouldn’t expect the left would know what a bailiff is, hint it has nothing to do with Night Court. Actually, in Ontario a bailiff is a person “who acts…in the repossession or seizure of chattels or in any eviction” (Bailiffs Act, R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER B.2, Government of Ontario). Unless CFS didn’t pay their rent on time, there appears to be no reason why a bailiff would pay them a visit.

Conservative 1, Left 1

3-
“We don’t agree with the right on much, but scandal is scandal, corruption is corruption, and bullshit is bullshit, no matter where you stand politically.”

Point Conservatives – Their campaign slogan is getting air time. Like most conservative initiatives, the name must be Orwellian and the more inflammatory the better. Our reading of Manufacturing Crisis is that the media is not presenting evidence of corruption, it’s just perpetuating un-attributed allegations and hearsay. The only thing that is mentioned in news articles on the corruption front is that Hamid Osman was “hired” (well we’re willing to bet he was elected) by the CFS after his time as president of York Federation of Students. So we dug up the dirt on Osman. In fact the biggest grievance against him was for his support for organized labour – wouldn’t it make sense for real campus lefties to get behind each other when campus conservatives are on the attack against labour and students?

Conservative 2, Left 1

4-
“The CFS has alienated real activists by highjacking our campaigns, stamping glossy brands on our hard work…”

We’re torn on this one…

Half point Conservatives – By assigning property rights to public issue campaigns you are propertizing the commons all over again. (PS are you alleging this was your campaign? Clever messaging.)

Half point Left – It’s true that lefties seem to prefer the single sheet printouts that inevitably get stuffed in pockets at rallies and trashed shortly thereafter. But, we’re not sure this is the right strategy to force the government to reduce tuition. Mostly, quality campaign materials are good, unless you are opposed to the campaign goals.

Conservative 2.5, Left 1.5

5-
“We’ll overlook the blatant ad hominem attacks (towards Brandon Wallingford, Dean Tester, Erin Hale…)”

Point Conservative – “Always right” Blogging Tory Dean Tester, et al. are getting backup. (PS you’re not using ad hominem properly, therefore your thesis must be wrong…)

Conservative 3.5, Left 1.5

6-
“So here’s the truth. The real student movement can’t be put on a pin or a sticker, can’t be sold to us in a bus ad, and can’t hide behind superficial and obsolete rhetoric.”

Point Conservative – Stickers and pins are definitely not Conservatives’ thing (OK, sometimes), but students seem to like them. Besides, you can’t fault CFS for outreaching to students, or you could, but then you’d really sound like a Conservative. Speaking of “obsolete rhetoric”, it runs pretty high in An Open Letter too.

Conservative 4.5, Left 1.5

7-
“The CFS has been a driving force behind the active and ongoing co-optation of legitimate social justice organizing for too long. We’re fed up.”

Point…and a half Conservative – The above complaint translates to: “oh no, social justice issues are going mainstream, that can’t happen. We only want social justice to be advocated by a small fringe element that doesn’t have the support to get anything done.” Sounds like sour grapes that rank-and-file students have a vehicle to grapple with social justice issues. What’s the next complaint, that because of the CFS, the ultra-left at McGill are no longer the only white kids to co-opt the wearing of keffiyehs? (They’re for sale at Simons).

Conservative 6, Left 1.5

8-
“While quick to pay lip service to marginalized and disenfranchised communities, evidence of actual progress is hardly forthcoming.”

Point Conservatives – generally speaking, people working on such issues appreciate support. Meanwhile, the hypocrisy runs deep: Yves Engler, you’ve been a Palestinian activist for many years…but oppression continues there. You fail. You fail on Haiti too.

Conservative 7, Left 1.5

9-
“The irony, of course, is that for all this talk of a united “Student Movement™” arguably the most open-source, multi-partisan and member-driven one we’ve seen has been against the Canadian Federation of Students.”

Really? Just because there are some grievance-mongers from all ends of the political spectrum doesn’t mean that CFS can’t represent the majority of students. Seems like a lot of people here for example.  How’d you make that little TM by the way?

Oh, points, right. This is already turning into a slaughter for Conservative, let’s just move on and give Left a chance to catch up.

Conservative 7, Left 1.5

10-
“Moreover, we consider the adoption of progressive campaigns by the CFS deeply problematic regardless of whether or not we agree with their stance.”

Ah, now the truth surfaces… shouldn’t your thesis be moved up higher? Point Conservative.

Conservative 8, Left 1.5

11-
“The reason is simple: the CFS has a clear mandate to provide a voice for all students–on student issues–at the federal level, and no matter what we think about Palestine, copyright, gender, Cuba, abortion, or land claims it is unrepresentative to speak for all students on such divisive issues.”

Point Conservative – It’s all becoming clear now. You don’t want students working on these issues. Period. Besides that, since when was working on copyright issues divisive? And this mandate you speak of, is it just to speak on behalf of “regular” students, not that insignificant part of the student population who are women, or <gasp> Aboriginal? Wait, YOU’RE telling students what they can and can’t support, as opposed to recognizing their rights to decide for themselves. That makes you conservative and anti-democratic. Another point Conservative!

Conservative 10, Left 1.5

12-
“Some of us have dedicated our lives to these causes, but it’s inappropriate for a federal lobby organization to adopt these campaigns…”

Well we’re stumped here. No conservative would spend their life working on these issues (you must be very dedicated, how old are you again? (wow-did she really tweet about a “hobo fight”)). But then again, no one on the left would claim that it is inappropriate for federal lobby organizations to take on progressive issues. Seems to us you’re feigning an interest in social issues in order to claim moral superiority over other people. But if everyone else is concerned about these issues, well then, that kinda just makes you like a regular person. So it could be that your real fear of a progressive student federation that you have no influence over is that you loose your status. We diagnose you as elitists with a superiority complex – Point Conservative.

(We’re starting a pool on how many signatories to An Open Letter will be in law school within 2-5 years)

Conservative 11, Left 1.5

13-
And to our sisters, brothers and lovers on the left who are not yet convinced, we implore you to do some serious research and introspection. To quote Margaret Mead, “what people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.”

Ah yes, the sweet sound of hypocrisy – Point Conservative.

Final Tally:

Conservative 12, Left 1.5

Too conclude, our analysis on this stuff is simple, any enemy of the Conservatives is a friend of ours. So we’re cheering for the Canadian Federation of Students. We’re also cheering for the PIRGs, organized labour, environmentalists, pro-choice organizers, public health care workers, stem-cell researchers, evolutionary biologists, open mindedness, decency, etc. As for the bohemian university students who wear their brand of elitist ultra-left politics on their sleeves while they do the Conservatives’ work of trashing the dwindling number of progressive institutions left Canada, not so much.

——
Read here for Canadian Dimension’s take on this issue:
“Unholy Alliance?  Conservatives and Ultra-leftists unite against CFS?“
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