osenbwg S :bylaw is invalid
University of Waterloo Waterloo, On tarjo volume I, number 34 friday, june 24, 1977
Federation of students lawyer Morley Rosenberg believes the by-law concerning graduate representation on council is invalid. The by-law, passed by students’ council in March, intended to remove graduate representation from council and disenfranchise graduate students, but has caused chaos because of its wording, suggested that all off-campus students were disenfranchised, and further that all of the councillors from last term were unable to vote. Federation vice-president Ron Hipfner said Wednesday that he is accepting Rosenberg’s opinion. If council accepts it, then graduate representatives Dave Carter and Mike Devillear will have their voting rights restored, and their constituency will once again have full federation rights. Rosenberg was approached Wednesday of last week by arts councillor Doug Hamilton who supplied Rosenberg with a copy of the by-law plus a covering letter explaining its possible irregularities. After consulting the Corporations Act and the charter for the Federation of Students Rosenberg called the by-law invalid for two reasons. One is that the students council, according to section 130 (I) (a) and (d) of the Corporations Act, does not have the power to pass the by-law. According to Rosenberg, only the Board of Directors can pass by-laws and since council does not have the director’s power the by-law is invalid. The other reason is that in the charter of the Federation of Students the objects clause states the federation is to “act as a representative of the students, both undergraduate rend graduate of the University of Waterloo.” The by-law abrogation of graduate student representation in the federation would possibly be invalid because of the conflict with the objects clause. Rosenberg’s opinion goes against an earlier opinion given by Gary Flaxbard, who held that the by-law was valid. Flaxbard, who had originally been hired on to conduct legal proceedings against the chevron staff- said that the intent of the by-law (disenfranchising only grads) was the important factor in its interpretation. Despite Flaxbard’s opinion however, Hipfner said that the advice followed will be Rosenberg’s. ----&x&g hamiltow
The nine-month long conflict begun when the chevron was officially closed last September may end Sunday if federation council ratifies a provisional agreement reached between the chevron staff and federation president Doug Thompson and vice-president Ron Hipfner. The provisional agreement essentially meets the chevron staffs “Reinstate! Investigate!” demand, which it issued in October shortly after council officially closed the paper. Hammered out in an unexpected session Monday, the provisional agreement is substantially different from the ” Final Offer” made by the federation’s Board of Directors to staff in a special bulletin distributed on campus June 17. Unlike the federation’s “Final Offer”, the provisional agreement will immediately return a substantial part of the chevron’s 1976-77 blldget to the chevron staff, and will create a full investigation commission to look into the closing of the chevron and the charges made against the paper. The investigation commission will also pass judgement on the legality and propriety of the action taken by the federation executive and council in
closing the chevron and firing staff September 30, 1976. IJnder the “Final Offer”. a commission was to draft a new bylaw without investigating whether the old bylaw was a cause of the September closure. The federation directors’ bold “Final Offer” and threat to evict the chevron staff from its office by a professional security firm if it rejected the “Final Offer”, disintegrated during an impromptu negotiation session Monday between Thompson, chevron editor Neil Docherty and lawyers representing the federation and the chevron staff. The session was to have been an “examinations for discovery” meeting, part of the legal preliminary -rounds leading ~9; to a court battle over possession of the chevron office later this year, Instead, negotiations were begun when lawyers and representatives for both sides decided to try to work out a settlement rather than proceed with legal matters. The chevron representatives continued io press for full reinstatement and investigation and explained the staff-s objections to the directors’ “Final Offer”. The staff objected to the directors’ threat to
rate on loanscould drop TORONTO (CUP) -Student loan officers at some chartered banks in Toronto are advising’students who are considering negotiating the terms of their student loan repayments, to wait until after July I. The officers are speculating that interest rates will drop at that time. The present rate of interest on student loans is 9.78 per cent. A new rate is announced every year on JLI~Y 1, by the Guaranteed Loans Administration, a branch of the federal government which guarantees repayment of i’ndividual student loans to chartered banks. Interest rates on personal loans have gone down 1 l/2 to 2 per cent since last J~9ly and it is not expected that with the prime lending rate being lower, the government would fail to reduce the student loan interest rate. This loan negotiation applies to students not returning to school next year. whose first repayment would be made in November of 77. The loans are interest free until that date. Mr. R.V. Whittaker the manager of the imperial Bank of Commerce in the Campus Centre also expects the interest rate to drop in keeping with other rates.
use a security firm to clear the office if the offer were not accepted unconditionally. The staff also objected to the directors’ action of rescinding the Board of Publications bylaw July 15, even though the offer depended, on the normal operation of the bylaws, and the commission which was to recommend a new bylaw was not scheduled to end until July 31. Also unsatisfactory to the staff was the fact that the offer came from the directors, and gave council no input, and to the lack of a full investigation. All these points were conceded
From troubles
by the federation side, further details were thrashed out, and after about five hours of negotiation a provisional agreement was signed by Thompson and Hipfner for the federation and Docherty and chevron staff member Larry Hannant for the chevron staff. Wednesday, Hipfner told the free chevron that the provisional agreement was a move of “desperation’ ’ . “The student movement cannot survive on this campus with the paper and the federation at each other’s throats.” He predicted that the proposed offer will be approved by council
Sunday. “I’ve been talking with what Dot herty called ‘my supporters’ and so far no one’s voting against it. Mostly there will be abstentions.” Tuesday, the chevron staff ratified the provisional agreement with one technical amendment. If council ratifies it Sunday, the chevron - minus the adjective ‘“free” - could appear on campus next week. The agreement would turn over to the chevron staff a total of $B3.500 which is less than the $20,070 subsidy provided for in the 1976-77 budget. (The subsidy is the Continued on page 4
_
at home
A troubled Doug Thompson, federation president, is in yalifax on a “business holiday” according to his vice-president Ron Hipfner, while on campues it seems almost evervon”e is after his hide. 2 He is expected back about Tuesday, but then, according to the Board of Directors minutes printed in last week’s Federation Bulletin. he is going on a leave of absence at half-pay, “to allow full attention to pressing personal matters.” It is becoming increasingly apparent, however, that by the time he returns he may have no right to the throne. Though Thompson signed a proposed agreement with chevron staff representatives Monday, and the conflict with the student newspaper may be resolved, if ratified by council Sunday, the president still has a lot of problems on his plate e There is a vote of nonconfidence in him and Hipfner on the agenda for Sunday’s council meeting: a recall petition taken out last week has gained the support of Engineering Society: and the president, along with ten of his supporters, faces criminal charges.
The motion of non-confidence came out of an informal meeting councillors held two weeks ago when Thompson, and almost all of his supporters, failed to show for a council meeting he had called, leaving it short of quorum and unable to act. Thus the councillors called for a meeting this Sunday. The meeting has been organized but, according to Hipfner, Thompson won’t be back from Halifax where he is attending the annual meeting of the Association of Universities and Community Colleges. Thompson’s expenses are being paid by the university administration. but it is strange that he would go to this conference. It is not considered to be an important one and both the National Union of Students and the Ontario Federation of Students have called on members not to attend. (The student organisations believe that the meetings allow no real student input.) Even UW president Burt Matthews, who is at the meeting, admits that it is not very important. He said of the AUCC Monday “It does a number of useful things, but not at the annual meeting.” Hipfner told the chevron
Thompson has driven out east on a “business holiday” and that there are a couple of items on the agenda which are of interest to him. But his absence is unlikely to help him in a recall petition. The petition, started last week by Science councillor Gerrard Kimmons, and Math student Lorne Gershuny, got a boost this week when Eng Sot took 50 forms to distribute _- enough for 1500 signatures. about 200 more than the number required to recall Thompson. Eng Sot president Peter King told the chevron that the engineers have no faith in Thompson. He criticised the president for erratic behaviour, and for not paying sufficient attention to the societies. On top of all this Thompson faces legal charges layed by Renison student Larry Smiley. Smiley claims Thompson assaulted him on March 30, and has also charged Thompson and others with mischief based on the temporary eviction of two chevron staffers from the paper’s offices February 27. Thompson left early Tuesday fo9 Halifax and thus has been unavailable for comment on his troubles. --neil dscherty
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2
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the tiee chevron
june 24, 7977
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/-Comment,-,
( Councilor Directors?\Whe Student’s council has, in the past, been the main legislative body in the federation of students. However, the Board of Directors has recently acted as the self-appointed heir to council. Although the directors are allpowerful (according to the Corporations Act), they have not been used by past administrations to carry out the day-to-day operations of the federation. This is purely council’s business. The June 12 council meeting, which was one councillor short of quorum, showed that a working summer council was more than possible. But the five directors did council’s work on June 15. Gord Swaters was appointed OFS/NUS liaison officer under the Board of External Relations. This new position was advertised as three separate executive positions last February, therefore, through this appointment, the three students who had applied for the OFS and NUS executive positions were discarded. The directors also ratified Doug McDougall as Board of Education chairperson even though this is clearly against the bylaws. They state that the chairman (along with the Board of External Relations chairperson) must be appointed by students’ council. This move also eliminated a candidate for the position. These positions should be filled only after council reviews all candidates. The Board of Directors also ratified the recently elected and acclaimed council members, and re-
scinded the Board of Publications bylaw. Why was this not done by proper procedure, by council? The directors .decided after a bylaw mixup that all off-term students have the right to vote but they then promptly denied these students the vote in the upcoming voluntary fee referendum.
The “final” offer to solve the chevron/federation conflict was made without consulting council or the executive. The chevron staff was either to accept it or suffer the results of a professional firm which would “clear and secure” their offices. The directors are supposed to act only on rare occasions when time or circumstances prevent council from meeting. They are now acting autocratically (and without reason). The federation should adhere to past procedures and use the Board of Directors as a last resort. Better yet, council should become the Board of Directors (as is the case at Wilfrid Laurier), thereby eliminating the problem. -randy
barkman
njured workers’ ilm controversial The grievances of injured workers against the government and employers, and the history of the formation of the Union of injured Workers to defend themselves was presented in the film “A Right to Live” at a meeting of the Kitchener local of the Union of Injured Workers June 16. Erhard Kienitz, president of the local, introduced U I W president Phil Biggins who gave a history of the film. Biggins said the film was financed by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council, which at the time didn’t realize what they were funding. After the film was made, tile government tried to suppress it and iut pressure on the UIW to hand-it over to them, he said. The WCB threatened to get an injunction against the film and they wanted 12 sections cut out of it. Biggins maintained that all cases --au ~~ depicted in the film were well documented. Faced with opposition from the UIW, the WCB decided not to get an injunction. Biggins pointed out that for three weeks the government tried their utmost to stop the showing of the film. The film describes the formation of the UIW in 1973 and the serious and militant attitude of the workers who came forward to join it. The film puts forward the following four demands of the UIW and the reasons for them: I) Job Security or Full Compensation. 2) Cost of Living Increases. 3) No Board Doctors. 4) Better Safety Conditions. It also documents several case histories of injured workers. Some show how doctors use LSD or electric shocks to “cure” the workers - others compare the WCB to the Gestapo and the “Rehabilitation Centres” to Concentration Camps. In addition, the film points out
that most accidents are the fault of the employer, and that it is cheape1 for the employer to pay into the WCB than to improve safety conditions. After the film ended a number of people told of their own experiences with the WCB. One person cited a figure - of 12 per cent of previous wages as the average compensation- benefits. One said that the WCB pays her even less than the assessed claim payment. In 1974 her husband was killed on the job and as a result she received a widow’s pension. When she was injured, her widow’s pensionwas deducted from her compensation, and she is now only reckiving $60 per -peter
blunden
Clarification Last week’s story “Feds duplicate services” said of the Ontario Youth Employment Program that “the jobs must run from May 30 to September 16.” In fact it is only the subsidy which is restricted to this period. The article also refers to duplication of services by the housing office and para-legal . _-.assistance. . The housing office is an intentional duplication of the administration’s servick in Needles Hall, providing service when that office is closed and when it is crowded, as occurs later in the term. Para-legal, contrary to what was reported, does not run the same service as-was performed by a volunteer last summer. The office’s activities have expanded, with more research being done on legal matters, even to the point of preparing information in advance to save clients money when they go to a lawyer. A precedents file is also being compiled.
chevron
A provisional agreement to resolve the Federationchevron conflict was signed by Neil Docherty and Larry Hannant of the chevron staff, and Doug Thompson and Ron Hipfner, Federation president and vicepresident respectively, in the presence of their lawyers, on june 20, 7977. The chevron staff ratified this provisional agreement, subject to an amendment to the terms for the appointment and ratification of full time staff. The amended version modifies the agreement so as to operate according to bylaw and precedent.
The Federation of Students, University of Waterloo, invites the staff of the Free Chevron, University of Waterloo to settle the present dispute between them according to the following proposal: 1. The Federation of Students, University of Waterloo, agrees to recognize the present staff of the Free Chevron as the legitimate staffof The Chevron, the official student newspaper of the students of the University of Waterloo. 2. The Federation of Students, University of Waterloo, agrees that it will not rescind or change the existing publication by-laws of the Federation pending the report of the commission described herein. 3. The Federation of Students, University of Waterloo, agrees to release the budget of the student newspaper, The Chevron retroactively to May 1, 1977, according to the by-laws and past policies and procedures of the Federation of Students. 4. The Federation of Students further invites The Chevron staff to present to the Students’ Council of the Federation of Students their candidates for the positions of editor-in-chief, production manager, and advertising manager for The Chevron. Upon ratification of these positions by the Students’ Council, the successful candidates shall be assigned salaries of $160 per week beginning immediately, provided that if any of these successful candidates held the same position with, the staff of the Free Chevron on May 1, 1977, the salaries shall be effective to May 1, 1977. The Federation of Students also invites the Chevron staff to present to the Students’ Council a candidate for the position of news editor, unless the Commission recommends otherwise. Upon ratification by the Students’ Council, the successful candidate shall be assigned a salary of $160 per week commencing September 1, 1977. 5. The Federation of Students shall normalize all services to The Chevron office as they existed on September 24, 1976 and shall return to The Chevron offices Federation property which was used by The Chevron prior to September 24, 1976. 6. Both the Federation of Students and The Free Chevron agree to withdraw all legal action against each other which is now pending in the courts. The Federation of Students further agrees to reimburse the staff of the Free Chevron in the amount of$l,SOO for legal fees incurred by them. 7. The Federation of Students agrees to reinstate the budget of The Chevron as of September 30. 1976 by paying to the Chevron staff an amount agreed upon by the staffof The Chevron to be $13,500. The staff of The Chevron agrees to assume all debts incurred by it during the period of September 30, 1976 to April 30, 1977. S.(a) A binding commission shall be set up for the following purposes: (i) To investigate the reasons for closing The Chevron and for the termination of the position of news editor and production manager; (ii) To investigate the legality and propriety
settlem of the action taken by the Federation of Saudents as described in subparagraph li) above; (iii) To make recommendations concerning future policies, by-laws and structures of&he Federation of Students concerning the iswration of The Chevron and the empioymentsrsf The Chevron staff, and generally csmxxmiang the publication of student newspapedsj a% the University of Waterloo. 8. (b) The commission shall be compos;ed CB~CW (5) persons, to be selected as fotlows: (i) Two members be chosen by the staff~fThe Chevron; (ii) Two members shall be chosen by ahe Z&udents’ Council of the Federation of Students: (iii) The fifth member, who shall be the chairman, shall be chosen by the 4 members described in subparagraph (ij and (ii) above; (iv) The staff of The Chevron shall have the right to veto any appointee of the Students* Council, and the Students’ Council shall have the right to veto any appointee of the staff of The Chevron; (v) In the event of a veto of an appointee. the party appointing the vetoed appointee sha!H make a further appointment; (vi) all appointments to be made by the sta!ff of The Chevron and by the Students’ Council shall be made by midnight Friday, July 8, 1977; both parties agree to use their utmost efforts to make these appointments within this time limit. It is agreed that this procedure Ss preferable to the procedure in subparagraph (viii). (vii) The four appointees will then have until Tuesday, July 12, 1977 in which to choose a chairman for the commission, and in the event that they cannot agree upon an appoinrtment by then and should they not mutually a,gree to extend the time for an appointment, the appointment shall be submitted to arbitration ts the Arbitrations Act. R.S.O. 1970; (viii) In the event that any of the four positions on the commission are not filled within the time limits prescribed in subparagraph (vi) above, and provided that the parties do not agree to extend the time for selection of t:he appointees, the commission shall consist .of one appointee by the staff of The Chevron, one appointee by the Students’ Council, and a chairman to be selected mutually by them according to the procedure described in subparagraph (vii), further provided that there shall be no right of veto over the appointment of either party. 8.(c) The commission shall hold its investigations in public commencing no later than Monday 1 July 18, 1977 and the commission shall determine its own procedures including the calling of witnesses, the presentation of submissions and the rules of evidence which shall be followed. 9. The Federation of Students, University of Waterloo, shall be responsible for all seasonable expenses of the commission, said expenses not to exceed $500 without the prior approval ,of the Students’ Council. 10. The commission shall report to Students’ Council as soon as possible. Agreed to this 20th day of June, I977 sub&cit $0 ratification by The Chevron staff and by ;Ithe Students’ Council. (signed) Douglas Thompson, Ron Hipfner, Larry Hannant, Neil Docherty .
Amendment AMENDMENT TO PROVISIONAL AGREEMENT BY THE CHEVRON STAFF ON JUNE 21, 1977. SECTION 4 OF THE AGREEMENT TO BE DELETED AND REPLACED BY THE FOLLOWING: 4. The Federation of Students further invites the Chevron staff to present to the Students’ Council of the Federation of Students those persons elected for the positions of editor-in-chief, production manager and advertising manager for The Chevron. Upon ratification by the Students’ Council of the editorin-chief, as per by-law, and the other two persons if
they are non-students, as per precedent, they shall be assigned salaries of $160 per week beginning immediately, provided that if any of them held !he same position with the staff of The Free Chevron on May 1, 1977, the salaries shall be effective to &%a~ I 1 1977. The Federation of Students also invites the Chevron staff to present to the Students’ Council a candidate for the position of news editor, unless the commission recommends otherwise. Upon ratification, as necessary if non-student, as per precedent, by the Students’ Council, this person shalu33be assigned a salary of $160 per week commencing September 1, 1977.
A member of the Canadian University Press, the free chevron is produced and published by the chevron staff and is typeset by Dumont Press Graphix. The free chevron is produced from Room 140, Campus Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. Mail should be sent to P.O. Box 802, Waterloo. Telephone (519) 742-5502.
It may be that this is the last free chevron to cross your palms, since we seem close to settling this dispute. Sunday’s council meeting will tell all, so come out and see. Needles Hall 3004, 1 p.m. Helping this week were the follo~iag fightin’ free chevrics: lorne, gerard, cody, jonathan, neil, joanne, ernst, larry, salah, dave, nick, randy, heather, peter3 and peter, karen, jules, Yves, ciaran, myles, - et moi, hamilton.
4
the free chevron
iriday,
june 24, 7977
Students suffer from drama group dis Saturday night’s closing performance of Sleuth marks the end of the ‘76’77 drama season at UW. As the last flats are being pulled down in the early morning hours, speculation will begin on the future of Creative Arts Board (CAB) drama productions. CASE IN POINT: a recent decision of the Drama Department will prohibit the granting of production credits to students who work on CAB productions, and rehearsal space will be at a premium next season as the Drama Department expands its own production Best food
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schedtile and acting classes. As yet, no successor has been named to replace Maurice Evans at the post of Director-in-Residence. One suggestion is to bring in guest directors for each production giving students an opportunity to work with a variety of personalities. But who will be around to build the sets, run the lights and gather props? Not drama students, though few other students understand stage management, or set construction. And even drama students get poor grounding in technical production.
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This past season, the drama community spread itself pretty thin, and the same small group of diehards were to be found working on every show, building, scenery, hanging lights and prop-hunting. Technical planning was kept to a minimum. As a result, productions often suffered from many blunders. It must be apparent by now that the last thing we need is another director to swallow up resources and coerce unsuspecting students into late night work shifts. Indeed, students need a professional stage manager, or a production stage manager to organize productions and breed competent student stage managers. To what end were student resources utilized in the production of Sleuth? Well, two professional actors were employed (one of them being Evans himself) and a professional director was brought in. Two and a half weeks before opening night, an ex-student was engaged to design lighting at no pay. Another ex-student was asked to work as stage manager, and three members of the set crew were students, but not from UW. Evans didn’t line up a designer, or a technical director to oversee the work done by students. The master carpenter w-as not given a ground plan, nor a prepared set design. The stage manager was bullied into finding props for herself because Evans couldn’t assemble a competent props staff first. Theatre technicians have’ always been treated as second-rate citizens” at UW. Finally, the stage manager had to call upon personal friends to get the work done. A cynic might comment that student resources were being exploited to support professionals, noting that CAB productions are funded by the Federation of Stu-
The Wnisex Wai2Syfing
dents. Were the professional artists worth hiring? Their performances were by no means memorable. Occasionally, Nolan Jennings (Milo) showed signs of coming out of his shell of indifference: but when he did his gestures had all the subtlety of an adolescent lost at the He searched and school prom. searched for a dancing partner, but his co-star, Evans, was nowhere to be found. John Plank’s direction, while ostesibly geometric, was boring. His actors trot back and forth, getting from one place to the next without establishing a single human trait. Lines blurt, bloop and sometimes belly-flop. Rarely are real persons evoked with whom the audience can remotely identify. Only the unstoppable Inspector Doppler raises a faint sigh of relief from this rancid performance.
I remain unconvinced that Sleuth is a modern classic, as its international acclaim would suggest. The play’s humour begins and ends with the one-liner. Its characters are delineated by the opinions they espouse, instead of their action? and cultural distinctions. Milo and Andrew (Evans) shoula be two entirely different personalities. As the play is written, their differences are social, but their behaviour is similar. Sleuth is a murder-mystery, but there is no mystery surrounding the production of a play. any piay. Good productions depend upon work and skilful execution. If students intend to continue breaking their backs to prodlice ;I \ho\v. then at least they could get professional technicians to gi\ e thtzm qllalified assistance instead of‘ more fake!/ directors to beat them doun. --myles kestera
Continued
agreement is to \t;\rt Ju11, IX. to report as “iis soon ;I\ pcwible”. The chevron st:tff and the fedsration will each appoint t\\ o pec)plc IC: the commission. E,!sh put> h:+.\ a \ eta if the other‘s appointee\ are ilot acceptable. The foul :lpl-~ointez~ are to choose a c hairpex~n. If the two partie\ canno: ::gree on the commissioner-s. a contingency plan is to have e xh side choose one person but to ha\,e no power of veto, and for the two commissionsers to choose a chairperson. Two societies active during the summer have been informed of the proposed agreement and discussed it this week. Monday, MathSoc passed a motion “reluctantly” endorsing the proposed agreement, in a 3-3-l vote. A vote in EngSoc Tuesday went 4 pro, 4 against, and with a large number of abstentions. EngSol: president Peter King interprete the vote to rnexn that there was nu strong objection to the proposed agreement, but that many were hesitant about the financial settlement. He stressed, however. that EngSoc wants the conflict to end.
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amount of money provided out of federation fees after advertising revenue is subtracted from total praduction costs, including salaries for editor, production manager and news editor.) The money will be used by the chevron staff to cover some of the costs incurred in producing the first 26 issues of the free chevron since council withdrew funding for the chevron September 30, 1976. The t‘2gure is based on back pay for Docherty and former News Editor Henry Hess. loans given to the free chevron (mainly from staff, totalling about $5,400) and other costs, like phone bills and publishing bills. The figure does not cove1 donations made by students, faculty members and other supporters, including the Canadian University Press (CUP) and member papers df CUP and La Presse fitudiante Nationale. Under the agreement the federation will pay $1,800 for legal costs incurred by the chevron staff during the conflict. The 1977-78 budget will be released to the paper retroactive to May 1, 1977. The investigation included in the
opvl 7 Bqv.5 A Week
prescription
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