Tag Archives: un debacle

lulz of the day

2 Replies

Thanks to a cute little birdie and his tweet, we’ve stumbled upon some EPIC FORESHADOWING.
This post was written back when the Executive was a little sexier and included this resolution for 2010 2008:

At EAT CAKE, we– and by we I mean I, but we sounds so much cooler– solemnly resolve to never stop making fun of people who treat the AMS like it was the United Nations.

Lots of love to this fellow unicorn lover, and take in the hilarity.

PS- Presidential candidate Sean Kim was disqualified for not having 50 verified student numbers. Now, he’s reinstated. Long live handwriting!

Canadian Unicorns

Men of Several Hours Ago

10 Replies

Before Council completely overshadows the outdated UN Debacle with its scintillating debate of whether or not to reallocate $1,000 for slam poetry at the Student Leadership Conference, we thought we’d show some love.

MAN OF THE HOUR #1: Edward Pullman, UVSS Director of Finance

Although some may question our commitment to the democratic process for this, we’d just like to point out that it takes balls the size of truck tires to ask students in Victoria to support a shitshow in Vancouver.  Plus, look at those puppy dog eyes.  Has Finance ever been this cute at the AMS?

MAN OF THE HOUR #2: Hillson Tse, Former Senator and Shit-Disturber

Not only is his entire Facebook full of photos like this, he’s also the creator of the Impeach the AMS Pres & VPX Group on aforementioned social network.  Politically active? check.  Witty, articulate, and snarky? check.  Roster of amazing eyebrow-based expressions? check. Oh, and he does ballroom dancing and likes puppies.  Be still my heart.

Naylor Potentially Smash

1 Reply

Fuck the other referenda.  Glorious Impeachment cannot be stopped!

Yesterday, the (really, really) ridiculously good looking Taylor Matt Naylor was passing around a petition for impeachment. How is this possible, you ask? You mean we might not be stuck with have Mr. Blake Frederick and his sidekick Timkachu representing us due to a legal blip? Yes, my friends. This is a possibility.

How smash? In order to remove Blim, a referendum would occur in which YOU, the student body, would decide whether we should have an interim President/VP External until the new one steps in. For this referendum to happen, 1000 signatures are needed.  Considering our regular voter turnout, collecting that many signatures in two days could potentially be called some form of “mandate,” possibly “from the people.”

If we can’t remove them democratically, we’ll have to remove them democratically.
-Hillson Tse, opinionated badass, Facebook group “Impeach the AMS President and VP External“

Confused yet?

  1. Elections for the new term of President are happening very soon. That’s what we’re here for. The nomination deadline is January 8, and there will be an All Candidates Meeting after in which we will find out who is running.
  2. This new term would officially begin after the Olympics extended reading week in February. However, there is a transition period which happens earlier for the incoming Executive to learn the ropes and how to be victorious/not an epic fail in the next year.
  3. Currently we have a President and a VP External who council tried to “impeach” but due to swanky legal terms within the Society Act, just had to censure.  This was a giant headache that made no one happy except, possibly, people who want us all just to get along.
  4. If this request for referendum gets 1000 signatures, it goes to Council tomorrow night.
  5. In a flurry of legal speak, Council will vote on two issues: a) to approve funding for Yes & No committees on the issue, and b) whether they wish to sponsor the Yes or No side.  Exciting stuff, considering the general Council attitude towards Blim before the break.  Have they cooled down, or will these lovely hands be forced to construct some form of monstrous Council-headed Rage Hulk?  (this is not necessarily a bad thing)
  6. You get to vote YES or NO for keeping Blim.
  7. If the referendum fails, Blim stay on through the Olympics and transition period
  8. If the referendum passes, an interim President/VP External will be appointed until the new term of the new Executive.
  9. There will still be an election Jan 25-29 in which we will have a new Executive, including yet (potentially) another new President and VP External.

Hopefully that makes a bit more sense.

You can sign the request for a referendum in the AUS offices (BUCH D140) all day today. They need 1000 signatures by WEDS for the impeachment to go forward! The organizers also need volunteers to help sort the signatures for the upcoming Council meeting. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer, feel free to contact Matt Naylor (naylorm@interchange.ubc.ca)

Rehashing Old News

2 Replies

To combat the brain drain that occurs over winter break, here’s a quick recap of what’s affecting elections this term: namely, the United Nations Tuition Debacle.

The United Nations visited the Knoll

I’m sorry,  let me repeat that: the UN DEBACLE!!!!

Quick summary: is tuition a human rights issue worthy of the UN?  Blake & Tim and their legal counsel think so, and they’re willing to secretly spend $$$ on it.  Oh, it was all just a media stunt? The campus is safe from  Too late—we’re still on Failblog.  (The Ubyssey has a whole UN category if you’re a total keener.)

—so anyway, the wake of the biggest thing to happen to AMS politics since Slategate ’09 saw student leadership divided into two factions: Blake & Tim supporters, who believe Council are a bunch of groupthinking overreactors and that involving students in the tuition discussion is worth breaking a few rules, VERSUS Blake & Tim detractors (i.e. most of Council), who are generally displeased with the maverick turn Blim have taken.  Also, they’re not too happy about said broken rules, especially the ones where they demand to be consulted about large expenses. Not to mention Blim had a secret rendezvous with an expensive lawyer and didn’t invite Council along.

In an emergency meeting in which Blim did not appear (those NDP conventions throw serious parties), AMS Council unanimously passed a motion to retract the complaint to the UN against the BC and Canadian governments in regard to Article 13(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Basically, they showed them who’s boss.

I’m suddenly confused at this methodology that everything has to go through committee.
-President Blake

Thus, when we last left our esteemed student leaders, everybody was all het up.  In lieu of legal advice which said that removal from office was not an option*, Team Blim had been censured (note existence of previous attempts to do so) and, in addition:

  • asked to keep exhaustive records of their activities (aka hourly reports)—Blake, that bastion of transparency, puts his on Twitter.
  • effectively stripped of their decision-making abilities

And, of course, Geoff Costeloe, outspoken Blim detractor & vanity URL holder, had become one of the most polarizing men on campus (see also: Matt Naylor), judging by pure undiluted blogosphere commentary.

So what’s to be expected from this round of elections?  Without knowing who’ll run, we can predict platforms in the following non-exclusive categories:

  1. People who claim to represent some form of “new politics,” or “fresh thinking,” be that more or less radical
  2. People who are 100% committed to lowering tuition (but…)
  3. People who aren’t here to discuss Blake & Tim, goddamnit
  4. People who are not, in fact people. See: Kommander Keg

Either way, it’s going to be an exciting month plus, folks.

* Unless, of course, there was a referendum.