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MP Fletcher's talk stirs campus storm

Cabinet minister rejects apology demand

By: Mia Rabson

18/04/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 33

PAT MCGRATH / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES Steven Fletcher: Tory values

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PAT MCGRATH / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES Steven Fletcher: Tory values (CNS THE OTTAWA CITIZEN)

OTTAWA -- Some University of Manitoba student leaders want an apology from Manitoba cabinet minister Steven Fletcher over comments he made last month at a campus forum.

But Fletcher and the event's organizers say no apology is warranted.

The event was hosted by the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives on March 19 and billed as a chance to hear from Fletcher in his role as the minister of state for democratic reform.

David Safruk, a politics major and incoming arts student council representative on the University of Manitoba Students Union, said the talk had very little to do with democratic reform.

"It turned out to be like he was in the midst of the campaign trail," said Safruk, who wrote a comment piece about the event in the U of M student newspaper, The Manitoban. "I believe it was much too partisan."

Safruk said Fletcher spent most of the talk berating left-leaning student politicians, The Manitoban and the Canadian Federation of Students, referring to the newspaper as a "socialist rag" and repeatedly calling the CFS "loony."

"Mr. Fletcher owes the University of Manitoba, CFS and The Manitoban an apology," Safruk said.

But Campus Conservatives co-founder Stephen McCreary said nobody was upset about the forum until Safruk's misleading piece ran in the paper. McCreary said Safruk's piece suggests the event was tense and confrontational, and it was not. "It really painted a false picture," McCreary said.

McCreary said at no time did Fletcher make any inappropriate insults about student union leaders or the newspaper.

"I don't think any apology is necessary," McCreary said.

He said he can understand some students were disappointed Fletcher didn't spend more time talking about democratic reform, because that is how the forum was marketed on posters around campus. He spoke for 45 minutes, McCreary said.

But he said students who attended were engaged, Fletcher took questions from the crowd for more than an hour and the mood was light-hearted.

Fletcher said he was invited to speak at an event hosted by student Conservatives and he went with the intention to discuss how Conservative principles benefit students.

"I think Conservative values are student values," Fletcher said. "I was there to speak about the Conservative party and the role Conservatives play on campus. I wasn't asked to be there in a general way."

Fletcher said at no time did he call anyone specifically a "loony". "I said people on the far left are sometimes loony."

He said he is very aware the student union has members from all political backgrounds, pointing out he was a Conservative when he was president of UMSU from 1997 to 2001.

Fletcher and The Manitoban have a history of animosity. When he was UMSU president, he was accused of attempting to infringe on the paper's independence by terminating its autonomous funding arrangement with UMSU. The dispute was eventually settled but made national headlines at the time.

Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville said this is Fletcher making an overt attempt to subvert the democratic rights of students.

"If you are the minister of democratic reform, you should have some respect for the democratic process and for views that are different than your own," Neville said.

Current UMSU president Jonny Sopotiuk says he is shocked that an elected official and a cabinet minister would use a forum on campus to try to undermine elected student officials.

"For an elected MP to go to the level of name- calling is childish," Sopotiuk said.

Sopotiuk and Safruk both think Fletcher's comments are part of a larger-scale attempt by the federal Conservatives to get more Conservative students elected in student politics.

Last month, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Campus Association was found to be holding workshops on how to take over student councils and campus public-interest research groups. McCreary said there is nothing like that occurring in Manitoba.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 18, 2009 B2

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33 Commentscomment icon

Its ironic the number of posts that have appeared with individuals behaving like arm chair quarterbacks. I can count the number of individuals on my hand who actually claim to have been in attendance. People simply resort to ad hominem attacks and purporting incoherent conspiracy theories.

In both articles in question we only have a total of 5 words from Steven Fletcher's presentation and a litany of circumstantial accusations hardly comprehensive and unbiased journalism.

Its irnoic that many CFS and UMSU supporters alledge a Conservative conspiracy and ridicule Fletcher for being biased and out of line and yet invite Jack Layton to be the keynote speaker at the Canadian Federation of Students AGM and were prepared to fly student leaders to Toronto to hear highly controversial figure George Galloway speak... so much for being neutral and non-partisan.

I guess neutrality and free speech only exist when they agree with the individuals

Interesting to read the comments where a 'pen name' is used........ much more vitriolic. Perhaps the FP should limit comments to those whose full name is shown.
Free speech is a great concept. Anonymous name calling not so.....

I'd have liked to have heard Fletcher explain why our right to habeus corpus has been removed by the federal government - holding people without right to counsel, without right to be charged, without right to be taken to court ASAP. The RCMP exonerated the 20-odd Pakistanis being held under our "terrorism laws" and they've been held incommunicado for more than half a decade.

We aren't being attacked.
We haven't been attacked.
There are no credible reports of plans to attack us.

If there are terrorists, somewhere "out there" it sure is a well-known fact that our borders are as porous as cheesecloth - and nobody's attacking us except, IMHO our federal politicians. They took our human rights, our democratic freedoms and our civil liberties away without any terrorists so much as saying "boo" at Canada.

When are we getting back our democratic rights, is what I'd have liked to hear Fletcher say.

The super-cons now holding sway at24 Sussex are like that - all insults - all confrontational - nothing but partisan extremism.

Harper at the meetings of the Americas, looked like he was pretending to be the President of the US, IMHO. The super-partisan extremist attitude he has of being a lakey of the USA, has brought Canada into disrepute. When he opens his mouth, he mirrors the USA's worst of the worst right wingers and, internationally nobody wants to hear him.

No wonder the whole right wing of the political spectrum will be in the same job-search mode as Harper's 'political uncle-wisdom' Mulroney.

I wrote Fletcher a letter complaining of discrimination I recieved in one of the federal offices on west-Portage Ave and he didn't so much as answer or acknowledge receipt.

I've not much use for the breed of conservatives Fletcher represents. The sooner the toilet is flushed on their political careers, the better for Canada, IMHO.

The Conservative Party should indeed have to answer for their actions. They have had their three strikes, and now someone should essentially "be out". Regarding the strikes, the Conservative Party is guilty for: 1) The Conservative Party was caught donating funding to certain individuals to help promote their position in their student union election through the "Millennium Leadership Fund" at Wilfred Laurier University:

http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/2002/March/20/news1.htm

2) The creation of the "Star Wars Appreciation Club," etc. at Carleton University - front organizations used to syphon student money back to the Conservative influence:

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Censored_CBC_Radio_One_report_on_Canadian_Conservative_campus_front_groups,_20_Mar_2009

3) Peter Braid (MP for Kitchener-Waterloo) caught on audio discussing with students how to take over student unions and undermine local public research groups:

http://ryersonfreepress.ca/site/archives/745

The Conservative Party should be held accountable for their actions - and attempts to undermine student politics - and taken together with the rude comments towards both women and persons with disabilities, the resignation of Minister Fletcher may not be a bad choice.

What is refreshing to me is that these forums contain a wide variety of opinions. I like the fact that people on all sides of the issue can all be reading the same news, get together, and argue about it. That's democracy, folks. And boy, do we ever have a lot to talk about!
My 2 cents--Fletcher's words were ill-chosen. By all means, at a private gathering, giv'r. But at a public speech, let's have some sense of decorum, shall we?

Minister Fletcher's presentation was promoted as talks on Senate Reform. Instead Minister Stephen Fletcher used the time to speak of personal beliefs and policy changes in the University involving the Students Union and CFS.

A presentation is on “Senate Reform” is not the forum to express personal beliefs and policy changes for the University. If this was going to be the case, the presentation should have been labeled as such, and an open forum with all parties could have and should have been arranged.

On top of all this Minister Fletcher would Mock what he referred to as the “Looney Left” and the Womyn’s Center not being able to spell women.

At the end of this, I did not see a presentation by Minister Fletcher’s talk about Senate Reform, but rather was a speech that ridiculed and mocked many minority groups on and off campus and offered a slanted one side debate on the Student Union and CFS rather then Senate Reform. The University of Manitoba, our Student Union, CFS, and the Disabilities Community all deserve an apology from Minister Fletcher, though regretfully I doubt that one will be given.

One Distressed
Gabriel Pelletier

As posted by Craig "Fletcher is and has been blatantly partisan all his life. Democracy for Fletcher is all about "Me, Myself and I".

Including the days when he was UMSU President and persistently abused his privileges preparing for his jump to politics. This man definitely has a vision, a vision that includes himself justifiably at the public trough. He probably doesn't realize that, just as corporate psychopaths lack the basic understanding of empathy and the desire to help someone other than one's self.

Minister Fletcher without question is an asset to our national political scene. Unfortunately, a lot of students do not appreciate the right to free speech. It really demonstrates the sad state of our universities when individuals take quotations out of context and demand apologies, regardless of the speaker. I cannot help but wonder if the response would have been different had it been a CFS representative, NDP MP, or NDP MLA.

I was in attendance for Steven Fletcher's presentation at the University and fail to see what all the commotion is about.

Steven encouraged young conservatives to become active in student politics. How is this attempting to undermine elected student officials? How does this infringe on the democratic rights of students? If anything Fletcher’s contentious comments will contribute to the health of university politics!

Fletcher did not attempt to involve himself in the affairs of UMSU or meddle in Student Elections. In fact, the UMSU elections had taken place over three weeks prior to Fletcher's presentation.

The event was presented by the University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives and thus I was wholly expecting it to be partisan and to hear my fare share of partisan jabs. However, I fail to see how an apology could possibly be warranted simply because he was critical of the existing institutions.

I certainly hope the negative publicity surrounding Steven Fletcher's presentation does not have the undue effect of scaring off other prominent politicians.

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