January 24, 2000

Letter to the Editor:
Re: Women’s Center Funding

We would like to inform students of
the latest developments between
NUGSS and the Women’s Center.
Although $3000.00 was approved by
NUGSS for the Women’s Center fund-
ing in November,1999, NUGGS has
been unable to hand over the money
based on the fact that the Women’s
Center has not signed the new con-
tract.

NUGSS used pressure tactics to try
and entice the Women’s Center to
sign the new contract, Yet the
Women’s Center continued to stall the
process by not giving any input into
why they won't sign or can’t sign the
contract. The contract was sent to the
Women’s Center over two months
ago for their evaluation. At the time of

LETTERS

More News From NUGSS Meetings

the board meeting in question and to
this date, there had not been any
response from the Women’s Center
collective. NUGSS bylaws state that
no funds can be released to the
Women’s Center until a contract is
signed. This is for the protection of all
parties involved: you the student,
NUGSS, and the Women’s Center.

At the Board of Directors meeting of
Jan.14th, 2000,the Women’s Center
representative- Amy- brought forth a
motion to have NUGSS pay the
Women’s Center coordinator- Suzie-
her wages from Sept.1st to Nov.5th
1999 in the amount of $1920.00. The
objection was made that a contract
still had not been signed and there
was much debate on whether a
motion could over ride a bylaw of our
constitution. According to Robert's

More Response from Page 4

Mr Low further justifies the behav-
iour of the banks by pointing to the
Return on Equity (ROE) which he
says has been falling. Considering
that the equity of the banks is calcu-

lated on their inflating stock prices —

which, in turn, are tied to expected
future earnings, this is a meaningless
measurement for this purpose. He is

_ drawing a ratio of two interdependent
variables and using it to claim that
profits have been falling!

Our Director of Finance and
Operations further implies that we put
more money into the economy by
having NUGSS dollars in the
Scotiabank than in the Prince George
Savings Credit Union. Hogwash! He
claims that “half of all working
Canadians” hold stocks or mutual
funds which directly benefit from high
bank profits. Right. So if my pension
fund has a share in the Scotiabank |
should be satisfied that the bank pays
me a pittance on deposits, robs me
with fees and rips me off on loan
interest. After all, | am just robbing
myself. The truth is that the majority
of bank stocks, like other equities are
owned and controlled by the rich
upper crust of society. We are not
about to enter a socialist wonderland
through the back door whereby all of
the little people will own the big cor-
porations.

An area that Mr Low does not touch
upon is employment.. For years the
banks have been firing staff and clos-
ing branches to “become competi-
tive”. We see little of this competition
as all the banks have similar rates
and fees, but we do see that it is

increasingly difficult to deal with a
human being in a bank and harder to
find a branch that is handy. The most
recent casualty is the Third Avenue
branch of the Royal Bank which
seems to have served no purpose for
the monster bank. The Royal claims
that no one will be fired because of
the closing but this begs the question
of where the new entrants to the
labour market (that’s you students)
will find entry-level jobs in this
decreasing job market.

| don’t give a sweet damn whether
Canada’s banks are “globally
competitive”. | think that the
Canadian banks should do business
in Canada where they have been
coddled by a friendly government. |
cannot bank in Hong Kong or Taiwan
so | don’t care whether the Royal
Bank of Canada is competitive there.
I think that my money in the Royal
Bank should be invested in Canada
and not put into a foreign market.

When Canada’s domestic banks do
not serve the people of Canada, it is
time to force them to do so and not
time to give in to their blackmail and
allow them to merge to three, two or,
god help us, one monster bank.

Yours sincerely,
James Loughery

Rules this can’t be done, only at an
AGM can the bylaw be changed. Mike
Lau presented us with his solution of
“creative paperwork” idea to get
around our bylaws of our constitution
in order to pay Suzie. The panic
seemed to be that Suzie had quit as
coordinator. Mike Lau motioned to
take Suzie’s wages out of NUGSS
budget and then release the remain-
ing $1080.00 to the Women’s Center

‘under the title: Women’s Center

Funding, upon signing of the contract.

What we hope to inform the
Women’s Center collective and the
students in general, is of some of the
problematic issues that can or do
arise from this unethical “creative
paperwork” In previous years, fund-
ing for the Women’s Center has been
based on the amount released the
year before. What this motion has
effectively done is to insure that next
years funding will be based on the
sum of $1080.00. Due to the fact that
the Women’s Center has been negli-
gent in their responsibility to either
dispute or sign the contract, Suzie’s
wages had to come out of NUGSS
budget and is not visibly recognized
as Women’s Center funding.

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Over The Edge Page 5

Creating this loophole in our consti-
tution has in effect made a mockery
out of our constitution and is a prime
example of unethical politics. It also
gives a clear message to the
Women’s Center and anyone else in
the same position that they don’t have
to take responsibility for the actions or
lack of action ,as is true in this case,
and that NUGSS will bend the rules in
order to caretake the situation. It also
takes away the students security that
NUGSS has to operate within a set of
rules or guidelines called bylaws. We
the students created those guidelines
as a way of protecting student inter-
ests and assuring accountability.

Why do we have a constitution if the
only purpose it seems is to find ways
to get around it?

The AGM is 11:00AM, Feb.10th, ~
2000. We strongly urge as many stu-
dents as possible to exercise your

‘rights as a student to voice an opin-

ion, demand accountability, and vote.
Sincerely,
Art Jory, Concerned Student

Lisa Brzezinski, Concerned Student
andDisillusioned Director, NUGSS

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