While B.C. Students Give It The Boot, The Canadian Federation Of Students Scrambles For Support In Quebec

My first inkling the Canadian Federation of Students might be corrupt came when I was a student reporter for The Voice newspaper at Langara College in Vancouver. The story was handed to me by now-Black-Press-reporter and Noble-Firs-bassist-and-singer Rob Manglesdorf. At the time, we were both in Langara's j-school program. It was my job to investigate and write the story behind president Shawn Hunsdale and the Simon Fraser Student Society in the fall of 2006. I had one week.

The truth behind the entire mess was hard to boil down into a concise 500-word story. What ended up getting printed was a complex read, filled with lawsuit-proof attributions and omissions of the most damning evidence. On the day of publication, it took two instructors, myself, Rob, and maybe one or two other head-scratching students to bang out something that did at least mild justice to the incredible story. I drew a flow chart on the computer lab's dry-erase board, after having spent hours over the weekend writing notes on my computer that amounted to something like 5,000 words.

Here was one of my drafts, it was not the one printed in The Voice, but close to it:

The Simon Fraser Student Society is spiralling into disarray amidst allegations of corruption.
Accused board members say they are acting with diligence and responsibility, but hundreds of students have called for a special general meeting to consider the impeachment of seven of the 15 directors.

One thing seems to underlie the allegations of suspicious behaviour that have plagued the society’s board since summer: health plans.

In 2005, after a lengthy bidding process for the contract, the SFSS board approved a two-year contract with Gallivan and Associates, a health broker that would then sell group health benefits for SFU's graduate students; an undergraduate health plan has not yet been established.