The Hunsdale of Notre Dame: A True Story

Once upon a time, while i was quixotically studying French amidst a throng of anglophone revelers at l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (a dismal experience, but with some highlights, including a brief detour to the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair), i met a friendly, charismatic young man named Shawn. Years later, having begun my degree in Linguistics and Women's Studies at SFU, i bumped into him again. Naturally, this coincidence gave rise to a measure of mirth for both Shawn and i, and we forged a rapport characterized by good-humoured greetings in the hall and on the street.

I had been organizing events with the SFU Linguistics Student Union - an activity in which i was aided considerably by the exemplary work of Hattie Aitken, the SFSS student union organizer at that time. The following spring i decided to become even more involved in student union activities, and i won (by acclamation - meaning no one ran against me, a process which i believe should be replaced by a "yes/no" vote for unopposed candidates) a position on the board of the student society. My acquaintance Shawn also ran for and won a position in the election. That fall, he enrolled in a Women's Studies course that i was taking. Thus, inevitably, we ended up spending a lot of time together.

By that point, i had already developed a degree of frustration with this young man's penchant for sophistry, but that's a common vice in academia, so i didn't allow myself to become seriously upset with him. Rather, i would usually try to laugh off his refusals to genuinely engage with the serious and complex issues we faced in class and at work: He's just one of those incorrigibly playful and free-spirited 'artists', i would tell myself...

As a side note, having spent the last few weeks carefully dissecting (and savouring) Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", i have a renewed contempt for poseur artists (and a renewed appreciation of Joyce, about which i will write at a later time).

Eventually there was no denying that his unwillingness to take things seriously had myriad negative consequences, including two that i find inexcusable: other people consistently ended up doing work that Shawn neglected, and valuable class-time was regularly spent entertaining his specious and frivolous arguments - which he dependably interjected to demonstrate his ignorance of the course texts (not to mention the problem of men taking up lots of space in a Women's Studies class). In fact, the only mitigating factor in the crescendo of my irritation with this colleague of mine was his frequent absence from both meetings and classes.

Towards the end of the term i served with him, i began to notice a strange and troubling pattern in his voting: an unprincipled fidelity to the positions of the Canadian Federation of Students. This kind of behaviour always baffles my poor, naive little mind at first. Why would anyone ignore facts pertaining to specific issues and simply advocate allegiance to a particular party? But upon reflection, there's no mystery to it: Shawn Hunsdale is a polititian, in the most common, vulgar sense of the word.

Many months have passed. I've completed my undergraduate studies, and my brief career in student politics is over (though i continue to work on projects initiated during that period, including an upcoming issue of West Coast Line which will document the series of anti-colonial events i co-organized). But Hunsdale continues to haunt me. A couple of weeks ago i joined a long list of former student society board members in signing a letter condemning recent actions of the current SFSS board (of which Hunsdale is now president).

The most egregious offense of the Hunsdale board is their recent firing of Hattie Aitken - the very one whose expertise and organizational skills inspired my initial confidence in the SFSS, which prompted me to get active on campus.

A former colleague of mine, who enjoys a reputation for diligence and attention to detail, has posted information and comments concerning these events on his blog, including the letter to which i attached my name. The Georgia Straight even ran an article on the "controversy" last week, and another one this week about the political fallout (quoting yet another former colleague, who is now engaged in the optimistic enterprise of impeaching Hunsdale and the others responsible for Hattie's dismissal).

In principle, i believe Hattie should be reinstated with compensation and an apology (because i am convinced of her innocence, and of Hunsdale's ulterior motives, as described in the Straight articles); however, if i were her, i can't imagine i'd be eager to return to a work environment where i had been so badly mistreated. I sure as hell wouldn't work with that guy again. On the other hand, in her decades of service to SFU students, Hattie has seen many dozens of board members come and go... both good and bad.

Meanwhile i still can't speak French worth a damn, but i did enjoy the film Bon Cop Bad Cop, even though i probably only got half the jokes.