![\"Shayli](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1317.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cSo I went up to the mic and said, \u2018Jessica, I recognize you told us you took a LOA for mental health issues and I appreciate that. But what I want to know is why in April, when the national executive met, you were not there and you didn\u2019t provide a reason for not being there, and you didn\u2019t provide a work report.\u2019 Totally fair question, just asking for transparency. And people freaked out and used me as a scapegoat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson claims that due to recent tensions between the BC locals of the CFS and the national organization relating to allegations of internal corruption, which Nexus<\/i> previously reported on, she was used as a scapegoat to pick on BC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter that, people kept going up to the mic to speak about things, even when we were talking about other things, and they\u2019d start by saying they find it really inappropriate to be probing about mental health issues and totally twisting what I said,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cIncredibly frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, Robinson says Ontario delegates called an emergency women\u2019s constituency meeting, which is where she claims the abuse took place.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically the person who called it explained that they called this meeting because of what I had said, and as the national women\u2019s representative they did not like that, and they wanted to talk about it,\u201d says Robinson. \u201cI explained in more detail what had happened and what I meant, and apologized again for what happened. It was just awful because they chose not to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadian Federation of Students national chairperson Bilan Arte says that she is \u201cincredibly concerned\u201d to hear that this was Robinson\u2019s experience at the meeting, which Arte attended. Arte, who answered questions for this story via email, says she hopes that Robinson will discuss these matters with her directly so they can resolve the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot comment on the specific proceedings of the Women\u2019s Constituency meeting,\u201d says Arte. \u201cConstituency meetings are spaces for delegates who identify with the constituency group to come together to discuss the proceedings of the meeting and reflect on issues the group faces. As those discussions can be very personal, confidentiality of all members needs to be upheld. I can say that conversations were had that were important for many delegates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arte says that she knows a number of delegates were \u201cdisturbed and hurt\u201d by what Robinson said to McCormick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that there was also some level of resolution that took place,\u201d says Arte. \u201cI am troubled to hear that the experience was difficult for Shayli.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson says that although BC delegates kept putting their hands up to get on the speakers list, no one from BC really spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure they manipulated the list to put Ontario people on first,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Arte says that this is definitely not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is false and is not the way any part of any federation meetings have ever been facilitated,\u201d says Arte. \u201cAs per general meeting practices, new speakers are given priority and those responding directly to questions or statements are also given space to do so. A number of delegates from across the country approached me personally after the conversation, including delegates from British Columbia, stating that it was a well-organized discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the speakers went on, according to Robinson, people were twisting her words, saying it was \u201cdisgusting\u201d that she would \u201cask for details about someone\u2019s mental health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of really awful things were said about me,\u201d she says. \u201cWe all called it verbal abuse; that\u2019s what was happening. It was totally bullying, which is extremely messed up because the women\u2019s constituency is supposed to be a safe space and they made it not a safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arte says that the CFS strives to create safe spaces for students and says that at all general meetings an anti-harassment officer is available for delegates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis resource was an asset at the most recent meeting, skillfully addressing and correcting any concerns as they arose,\u201d says Arte. \u201cAt the emergency women\u2019s constituency meeting, there were additional supports for all delegates who may have been triggered by the conversation. At the opening plenary, delegates received a thorough anti-oppression presentation. The federation takes the responsibility of creating supportive and effective spaces for student representatives very seriously and continues to look for ways to improve that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Robinson says that the abuse she faced in that meeting was so intense that the room was no longer safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was having anxiety attacks, I felt physically ill, I could not eat afterwards. It was one of the worst things I\u2019ve ever been through, and I\u2019ve been through a lot of trauma in my life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Although some were saying they didn\u2019t want Robinson as a representative anymore, no re-vote was called, she says. However, when it came time to ratify the positions, Robinson did not get ratified.<\/p>\n
Still, CCSS executive director Michel Turcotte is hopeful that a unified national student movement can press on and says that the resources of student organizations would be put to better use on issues such as tuition-fee spikes or the federal election rather than internal political issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have unanswered concerns about some of the recent changes that have been made in the CFS national office and was astonished and ashamed by what happened at the recent national meeting,\u201d says Turcotte, \u201cbut I believe that we need to reach out and find a way to work with the national office and the locals in Ontario, as the interests of Canada\u2019s students are not served by having a divided student movement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson says that the events at the national meeting are indicative of how the national organization is moving forward in a way that she\u2019s not in line with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am horrified that an organization that is supposed to be about working together and providing safe spaces and letting voices of those who are marginalized be heard would do this to a recently elected delegate who comes from two minority groups,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was incredibly messed up that they would do that to anybody. I\u2019m horrified.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) Lansdowne executive Shayli Robinson, who is also Aboriginal Students Liason for the Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia (CFS-BC), claims she was verbally abused and bullied at a recent Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) national meeting. Robinson says she ran for the national women\u2019s representative position at the meeting (which took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-august-19-2015"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11458,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10854\/revisions\/11458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}