Third dime’s a charm, hopes a critic with CFs in his sights

Gregory would tell you to be persistent. After twice trying to force the Canadian Federation of Students to admit to mismanagement, Gregory has called on CFS national chairperson Amanda Aziz to accept a motion condemning her organization’s executive board.

The 38-point motion, largely authored by Gregory, moves to censure CFS’s national decisionmaking board and impose strict limitations on its powers to grant “extraordinary loans.”

Last year, Gregory was influential in unseating seven student council executives at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University, where he was a student. Now working for the Kwantlen Student Association at Kwantlen University College on BC’s lower mainland, Gregory is spearheading an attack on CFS, of which KSA is a member.

KSA has twice tried to force a vote at CFS’s National General Meeting to censure the federation’s national executive board over a series of unsecured or shoddily documented loans amounting to over $600,000, handed out by CFS and CFS’s British Columbia wing in 2005 to prop up an ailing and mismanaged member union.

The Douglas Students’ Union of BC’s Douglas College, failed to conduct audits of its finances during 2002-2005. BC’s College and Institute Act requires unions to have accounting specialists check their books annually and inform their members of the results. Because of this, Douglas College’s Board of Governors cut off DSU’s funding, effectively paralyzing the union.

CFS-BC and CFS-National’s Services division lent the union a total of $614,000 to pay its health and dental dues, without proper documentation.

DSU commissioned a forensic audit of its finances but later criticized the audit. “The auditor failed to interview key DSU board members, including the individuals who served as the DSU treasurer and board chair during the time the auditor focused on the review,” said DSU finance and services coordinator Joey Hansen.

The audit strongly chastised Hansen over DSU’s disorganized books and Hansen’s role in a loan of $20,000 granted by DSU to Hansen’s girlfriend Christa Peters.