UofOgate: Fulcrum gives 'cover up' a whole new meaning

Fulcrum pulls peanut butter stain defence to cover Rock and Appleyard

The March 4, 2010, weekly print edition of the U of O student newspaper, The Fulcrum, is out on the stands.

It is remarkable in two respects.

First, despite numerous requests to the editors, it completely avoids news coverage of the Fulcrum scandal that has been raging since the Fulcrum Board of Directors suspended and fired its Ombudsman in mid-investigation. (See French student media coverage HERE.)

Second, this little item in a box at the bottom of page 21:

Excuse me? Fulcrum Business Manager Frank Appleyard, who threatened to sue over false accusations, was in "technical breach" of the Constitution ... but only because "Typographical errors in Sections 1.01 (i) and (l) of the Constitution suggest [as in state] that employees of the Business Department are subject to its provisions."

"In an effort to clarify its [conflict of interest] policy, the Society is in the process of making amendments to the Constitution..." ...so it says what we says it means... (Recall: They fired their Ombudsman over differences in "interpretation" of the Constitution.)

Wow.

If we find we are "technically" breaking the rules then we must change the rules so that their "intent" is clear. Holy poo poo. That tops the Rock admin approach of "if we are criticized for our actions then we will introduce a policy to legitimize what we want to do (e.g., promised 'donor recognition policy').

Why not just state that Appleyard had a peanut butter stain on his copy of the Constitution when he accepted the job under Rock while he was Business Manager of the Fulcrum and that Rock forgot that he was no longer a Liberal MP.

[Photo: Business Manager Frank Appleyard and Editor-in-Chief Emma Godmere - total separation between the business and editorial departments?]

Now it's time to change the Constitution so that it allows conflict of interest? Brilliant move.

It's right up there with the Publisher of The Ottawa Citizen (Jim Orban) being on the Board of Governors (BOG) of the University of Ottawa while Rock writes invited editorials and receives personal advance notices from Orban about editorials critical of dissident professor Rancourt, not to mention media-reported undisclosed contracts for naming publicly funded campus spaces in exchange for "editorial support".

As Frank Appleyard has learned, "editorial support" has a mercantile value...

What was that job? How was it advertised? What special talents were required? How was student tuition money being spent? An investigation is in order. Ooops, we fired the Ombudsman.