Grad health care providers tied to Apaak, CSF Darfur
Ashley Nijjer
The world of student health and dental plans can be a complicated place. All the average student wants to know is that they can opt out of their plan if they have coverage elsewhere and that if they get hurt, their plan will cover them. Unfortunately, not everyone’s intentions are as sincere as the average student’s. Case in point: self-proclaimed SFSS agitator Clement Apaak. Here’s the story.
Apaak has decided to make it his personal mission to hold certain SFSS directors accountable for actions he sees as inappropriate. The meat of Apaak’s indignation is that these directors are attempting to undermine the health and dental plan that graduate students at SFU have brokered through Gallivan and Associates. However, nothing has changed about the plan; graduate students have the exact same plan they have had for the past year.
So why is Apaak so bent out of shape? And why is he arguing for an abandonment of the tendering process and proposing an extension of the contract between Gallivan and Associates and the SFSS?
Well, here is one suggestion. A cursory look at the Canadian Students for Darfur website (www.csfdarfur.net), an organisation that Mr. Apaak is chair of and founded, reveals that in this past year alone Gallivan and Associates was a major donor to CSF Darfur.
Would a donation of thousands of dollars have an effect on Apaak’s loyalty to Gallivan and Associates? Quite possibly. Would it account for Apaak’s vehemence about renewing with Gallivan and Associates and punishing the actions of certain directors? Again, quite possibly. Does Gallivan and Associates have a reputation for using questionable means to gain support? Students at McMaster certainly seem to think so (http://sil.mcmaster.ca/Archive/news041007newshockey.html).
Is any of this definitive? No. But it does call into question Mr. Apaak’s motivation. So, the point of writing this article and my advice to the students of SFU: don’t believe everything you hear.