sfss: Forum eat cookies, discuss U-Pass
Amy Holt, The Peak

Only once in a blue moon does the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) forum gather to discuss business on Halloween night, and last Wednesday was such a night.

The meeting was called to order after enough members had gathered in forum chambers but not before communications representative Katie Nieman had passed around some witch-finger cookies.

A discussion about the U-Pass kicked off the meeting. The proposed transit pass that would reduce fares for SFU students is still in the research and development stage. Don Buchanan, a researcher hired by the SFSS to study the U-Pass, expects to have his work completed by December. The SFSS would begin negotiations with TransLink in the spring and hopes to have the U-Pass available to students by September 2002.

As the first order of new business, Jonathan Silveira, external relations officer, resigned as the SFSS representative to the B.C. executive of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

After debates, nominations, speeches and votes, psychology representative Janis Gunn was chosen to replace Silveira. Gunn will travel to Ottawa in November to take part in the CFS annual general meeting (AGM).

"National meetings are intense," said SFSS treasurer Carolyn Tansey. "But it's well worth it."

As the final order of new business, forum discussed the $6 an hour training wage regulation to be brought before the provincial legislature this month. Employees would be required to work the first 500 hours of their working lives for the new training wage as part of a two-tiered wage system. After 500 hours of labour, employees would then be eligible to work at minimum wage.

Arguments in support of and in opposition to the two-tiered system were raised by forum.

"This will have some positive effects [as] it will give incentive for employers to hire and train new people," said Christopher Steinbach from computing science.

Other members suggested that this system would exploit youth and would unfairly target and impede the earnings of new immigrants to B.C. "We need to create some kind of action," said Gunn.

Other forum members echoed these sentiments, and the issue was moved to a vote. The SFSS forum voted to officially oppose the two-tiered wage system and decided that advocacy groups will plan actions to be carried out against the mid-November legislation.

Later, it was announced that the former humanitarian co-ordinator of the United Nations Food Program in Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck, will be speaking on "War, Sanctions and Iraq" this Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 9:30 a.m. in AQ 3153. Sponeck will also speak Monday, Nov. 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the Christ Church Cathedral.

Finally, forum carried a motion to "go home," and the Halloween session ended.

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