By Jordan Press
The ongoing saga of RyeSAC President Dave MacLean versus the Canadian Federation of Students took anotherYoung and the Restless turn when it was revealed MacLean may not have followed proper procedure to set up a defederation referendum.
So now no one knows if there will be a referendum and it looks like MacLean screwed up. But he’s not alone. MacLean claims he was following the guidelines the CFS gave him.
The section of the CFS’s bylaws that MacLean referred to says nothing about a poll of 10 per cent of the electorate before holding a referedum. In fact, the poll rule was in another section of the bylaws titled ‘Membership.’
The CFS said there could be no referendum on campus because someone at RyeSAC broke the rules. MacLean fired back that the CFS was throwing out rules to halt a vote.
“They’re scared right now of losing a lot of money, and they’re playing cheap tactics,” MacLean says. The only thing missing is a jilted lover and a half-brother showing up alive after being thought dead for five years. So who’s at fault here?
Well, MacLean should have looked at the entire list of bylaws. It also would have been helpful for RyeSAC’s chief delegate to the CFS, Vice President Education Rebecca Rose, to inform the president of all the rules.
Rose said she didn’t know about the rule until the CFS told the board of directors last month. “One would think you would read the bylaws thoroughly,” she said. So one would think. Even if Rose did know, MacLean probably wouldn’t have talked with her about it-the feud between the two is well-known. Another possible explanation is that the CFS purposely withheld information to create a loophole in case a referendum turned up a no vote.
Tonight at RyeSAC’s semi-annual general meeting, there’s a motion to put a halt to this referendum, but only if there are enough votes and the meeting reaches quorum. And that’s a rule everyone-even Victor Newman-should know about.
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