Bad blood
Campus apathy cured—for one weekend
Monday, November 30th, 2009
The votes are in and the crowd has spoken: the people want blood. Student reaction to Frederick and Chu’s latest blunder has been strong, to put it extremely lightly.
It has been an internet circus for the last three days. On Saturday afternoon, a group filmed a mock UN flag raising. By Sunday night, over 300 people had viewed the video on YouTube.
Twitter is inundated with requests for Frederick and Chu’s resignations. One user, @ashleyel, UBC alumna Ashley Elchuk’s Twitter account, wrote: “Well, you’ve embarrassed all of UBC and this will probably have the opposite effect on whatever it was you intended. Good job.”
Which pretty much sums it all up. Facebook is full of anti-Frederick sentiments. So are our website comments. On Saturday night, for the emergency AMS Council meeting, we hosted a Live Blog event, as did UBC Spectator. Both saw over 300 people participate. The emergency meeting had over 175 people attend. That’s 175 students showing up to Hebb Theatre on a Saturday night. With no notice—students are paying attention.
The majority of people do decry Frederick and Chu’s actions; however, there is a minority that shows support. Rebecca posts:
“[Frederick] represents the students. How can any of you possibly be upset by this? This is brave, not embarrassing. It’s unfortunate that the rest of you do not have the desire to make big moves to stand up for, not only the rest of the student body, but yourselves as well.”
Most of the pro-Frederick camp echo Rebecca’s sentiments.
Top Comments:
Thanks to everyone for getting the word out about this outrageous and irresponsible reaction from members of the AMS who are seeking to overturn the very democratic process which selected them. Social justice advocacy in our AMS Execs is something we voted for, deserve, and should celebrate.
—Alissa W-t, Facebook
These guys need to take Econ 101. If they can’t afford it due to the increasing prices of both pot and education, I’ll tutor them for free.
—V, from ubyssey.ca
Any committee can only act by resolution, and that would have been subject to approval by Council. You deceived us.
—@Naylor4x, Arts representative Matthew Naylor’s Twitter account
Ashley Nov 30
I’m famous!
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Alex Dec 1
This article seems to be a rather self-fulfilling prophecy. The Ubyssey has done little to provide a well-rounded image of the events of the last week. Many argue that this problem is about a subversion of democratic processes from Tim and Blake. What about the role of critical journalism in maintaining a strong democracy? Ubyssey has made it clear how they think the situation should be handled and now you dare to celebrate your success with this ridiculous article? This so-called ‘end of student apathy’ is beind fuelled by the Ubyssey, its related blogs (RBF, Insider, Spectator, its all the same these days) and their reactionary messages.
The AMS oligarchy wanted Tim and Blake gone and this was exactly what they needed. It’s a shame that the Ubyssey, our student newspaper, has to contribute in the spreading of the divisive propaganda.
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Lionel Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I agree, the Ubyssey has been doing a pretty poor job of even trying to look unbiassed.
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Ugh Dec 1
Alex, don’t blame the media for the reaction to Blake and Tim abusing their power. Blame Blake and Tim for abusing their power in the first place.
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Dan Dec 2
It seems that it’s a regular trend among Blake supporters to simply brand any organization that opposes them as corrupt and morally bankrupt. What’s ironic is that this only furthers the problems Blake and Tim have created, antagonizing all bodies might even remotely provide solutions to the issues they pursue. In a sense, it is a self-defeating war cry that is risking to tear apart the university.
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Dan Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Grammar correction: *all bodies that might even remotely
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