How Senior Members of the NDP & the Canadian Federation of Students Protected - and Promoted - a Man Who Assaulted an Indigenous Woman
The NDP's National Director, Lucy Watson is one of many highly placed individuals in the NDP & CFS who protected a man with a history of violence
I started writing this Substack in the aftermath of my election loss in October 2023, when as MLA and party Leader I lost my seat in the Manitoba Legislature - perhaps kicking off something of a trend, since two Federal leaders in the most recent election lost their seats - the right-wing Conservatives’ Pierre Poilievre, and Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the New Democratic Party, which is considered Canada’s party of “the left”.
The 2023 Manitoba Election was notable for hitting a new moral low. Progressive Conservative party strategists decided that their key wedge issue of the campaign should be refuse to search a landfill for the human remains of four Indigenous murder victims, where they were known to have been abandoned by a serial killer and admitted white supremacist.
It was a campaign that was cruel to the point of psychopathy. To stake your re-election on the psychological torture of the families of murder victims is an act of an exercise in human evil and wanton cruelty. The act itself was contemptible and unforgivable, especially in a province where there are dozens of cold cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
My party and I announced we would support the search, but since our poll numbers were terrible, and since our likelihood of winning government was considered nil, our policy statements were generally considered irrelevant. On a number of occasions, we were left out of coverage entirely, adding to the sense of futility on my part. On election night, I lost my seat and resigned. The NDP won, and the PCs, despite their monstrous campaign, were returned to opposition.
The experience of that election did more than leave a sour taste in my mouth.
For many observers of politics, it is treated as a game, or a spectacle like professional wrestling - performances for effect, but nothing is actually real, when in reality, politicians routinely make decisions that are either life saving or life destroying.
There is a unique horror in watching people you have met and had friendly exchanges with, even as opponents, completely surrender their own conscience and go along with a campaign that is morally indefensible. It was sickening behaviour, and an act of collective cowardice and moral bankruptcy that I find unforgivable. It showed that they so lacked any independent moral judgment that they would go along with anything.
The bodies have all now been found and recovered, and the murderer was convicted, the PCs offered a pathetic apology that they “lost their way.”
This brings me to the Federal NDP.
The Federal NDP & Lucy Watson
Because of my revulsion, I have tried to stay at arm’s length from electoral politics, and so I was surprised to learn who actually ran the Federal NDP campaign - Lucy Watson, the NDP’s National Director. Watson spent many years working with the Canadian Federation of Students, a National post-secondary student organization which is, in many ways a farm team for the NDP.
The reason I was surprised Watson had been chosen is that she is certainly aware that CFS and the NDP covered up and promoted an individual with a track record of multiple violent attacks and criminal charges, including an incident where he struck an Indigenous woman so severely that he put her in hospital.
There can be little doubt Watson, and many others are aware of all of this, since the individual in question - Phil Link - was her partner.
Creating the Canadian Federation of Students
Phil Link is credited with creating the Canadian Federation of Students as a national organization. If you haven’t heard of CFS, it plays a significant role on university campuses, in a variety of ways. When student unions sign up with them, CFS collects fees, which CFS then spends on lobbying and other measures.
Link kept working in student politics in BC, at Langara Student Union (LSU), at Langara College, British Columbia, and by 1988, there were complaints about the state of affairs on Link’s watch. The former Treasurer told the student paper The Gleaner that “the organization is large and unwieldy, unnecessarily bureaucratic, and engages in illegal activities.”
That rather surprising statement was not met with any action. Later, in 1989, two student newspapers, The Gleaner and the Voice reported that a fight had broken out between Phil Link and Richard Bell.
The student union struggled to deal with the issue, even as other students wrote in to say that it was not an isolated incident:
“Several students spoke out against the secrecy of the Executive Committee. In a letter to the editor of The Gleaner, Journalism student Gordon Smedley claimed that there had been three separate assaults involving LSU staff, and claimed that the four executives who voted to discuss the incident in camera have acquiesced to yet another whitewash of a continuing legacy of violence and abuse.” Four Langara students claimed that the Executive Committee majority engaged in a "cover up," and that the minority, "in trying to challenge a clique that controls the union, as well as their own 'collective agreement," risk intimidation, and if any past record can be correct, the same physical violence that occurred last week.” However, nothing further happened for the remainder of the academic year.
According to an article in The Voice, Link took the LSU's computer and disks home with him during the last two weeks of April 1989, failed to show up at the LSU office during this period, and did not return phone calls. The LSU Executive Committee “considered he had abandoned his job” and unanimously voted to fire him on April 26, 1989. Link, who claimed that the reasons for his dismissal were “unfounded,” called a representative of the Vancouver Municipal and Regional Employees* Union (VMREU), which represented LSU staff, to assist him.
The VMREU representative claimed that the dismissal violated the VMREU Collective Agreement, as Link did not receive twenty-four hours' notice of his disciplinary meeting, and a Staff Relations Officer (a person designated by the LSU to act as the official liaison with staff) was not present at this meeting. The LSU appointed its then Chairperson, Paul Keet, to meet with the VMREU, but Keet failed to show up, “forfeiting our chance to launch a complaint.” (For his part. Keet, who was subsequently hired by the LSU as a Resource Coordinator, claimed that it was “standard practice” for LSU staff to take computer equipment home with them without the approval of the executive.)” Thus, Link was able to continue his employment with the LSU. notwithstanding the unanimous desire of the Executive Committee to dismiss him.”
While this could be chalked up to “HR in the 1980s” it had the hallmarks of many incidents involving Phil Link - a violent incident at work that would normally be considered career-ending, but no consequences, because something in the process goes sideways - especially people not showing up to testify.
It wasn’t even the only such incident in 1989:
“On September 22, 1989, The Voice reported that the police had charged Link with assaulting fellow Resource Coordinator Bell on September 6, 1989. The LSU Executive Committee met the following week to discuss possible disciplinary action, but took no action, as the LSU (still) did not have a Staff Relations Officer, and thus was prohibited from holding any disciplinary meetings under the terms of the Collective Agreement.
Until such an Officer was appointed, “our hands are tied,” explained Chairperson Tracey Wenberg.”
This absurd situation was even more absurd because a “Staff Relations Officer” was an unpaid position that could be filled by appointing an Executive. A battle of facts ensued between the student newspaper and the student executive.
October 6, the CFS Pacific region threatened to sue The Peak, the students’ newspaper at Simon Fraser University, for reporting on an incident at a CFS meeting where Link had allegedly knocked the voting card out of a delegate’s hand.
The Peak stood by its reporting, while CFS Chair Pam Frache minimized and denied the incident, saying “the card was dropped by one member of the delegation who was accidentally bumped by another delegate, neither of whom was the individual defamed in the article.”
In November, news broke that two LSU executives had discovered that Link had charged over $47,000 in overtime in 1989 dollars - over 20% of the student union’s annual revenue - and worth about $100,000 in today’s dollars.
Link himself helped choose the Staff Relations Officer, Tracey Wenburg, who would rule on his case.
“On December 1, 1989. The Voice reported that Link had pled guilty to charges of mischief and damages under $1,000 before the Provincial Court of British Columbia. The incident occurred on May 9, 1989, in the LSU parking lot, and involved then LSU executives Adele Paris and Kerry Boultbee. According to Paris, Link "screamed obscenities from the backdoor of the [Students' Union Building], then ran toward [her] car and punched in the window. It shattered, covering the interior and their hair with broken glass."
This incident
“followed an argument inside the [Students' Union Building] about whether she and Boultbee should leave the office to go for lunch. According to Link, however, Boultbee and Paris were trying to have Link fired, and actually drove over his foot when he approached them in the parking lot. In the end, Link paid $200 to repair the broken window; this appeared to satisfy the judge, who granted Link an absolute discharge.”
This manifestly deranged series of events continued and kept escalating.
When The Voice published a special report on Link’s overtime and other incidents, one of Link’s allies, Paul Keet, was caught collecting stacks of the newspaper and putting them in a dumpster.
When the student journalists then retrieved the issues from the dumpster and returned to the student union offices, where they dumped them on Link’s desk. According to student journalist Ian Hanington (who is now at the David Suzuki foundation):
"At that point, Link came out of his office, struck me in the face, and tried to take my camera from me. In the process he knocked me to the floor, knocked my glasses off, and began choking me with the camera's strap. Several people finally removed Link from me.”
The response from the Student Union was minimal - letters of reprimand, and no other action.
Yet another threat of violence was reported shortly thereafter. A woman, Ana Maria Naturalli, said that Link has unplugged a phone and swung it at her head, then tried to block her exit from the office. Link claimed that he had been attacked first. In January, 1990, the Gleaner wrote:
“Today there is Philip Link. He has, according to executive and general union members been responsible for the intimidation and misconduct of the Union. Link's position should be used to educate and guide the Union, its executive, and its members - not to interfere. At the most recent executive meeting Link was caught on tape influencing the vote of the executive: this is in direct conflict with his contract.
There are several gross physical abuses of his position also. Link has had many accusations of assault against him: the complaint of a fellow Vancouver Regional Municipal Employees Union member, the beating of fellow Union worker Richard Bell, the broken windshield of Adele Paris, the assault of Voice reporter lan Hannington, and the new allegation from Ana Marie [sic] Naturalli. These alone should be enough cause for his dismissal.
Link has also tried to get $36 000 from the students of Langara, in accrued overtime - when his contract plainly stated it is not owed to him.
We cannot blame the Union executive members for this debt; or for the assaults; or for the intimidation; but we must urge these representatives of students to act.
Philip Link should be fired, or save some face and resign - then maybe we will see some progress in the Langara Students’ Union.”
The Langara Students Union did not fire Link, who was once again caught destroying the newspapers that told these stories about him when they were distributed at a CFS-BC Meeting. Rather than condemning an attack on freedom of the press, CFS-BC Chair Pam Frache sided with Link, saying that the paper did not have permission to distribute it.
During the student elections, Link was one of the issues on the ballot. Yet another assult conviction was discovered - this one a conviction from Dec 1, 1989, from an incident at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in August 1989.
After Link found a successor to replace himself - former CFS Treasurer Lyndon Surjik - Phil Link was hired as the Executive Director of CFS BC.
Discontent with CFS at Langara led to a referendum for the student union to break ties with, and stop paying fees to CFS. CFS-BC Chairman at the time was Brad Lavigne, who campaigned to have students vote to stay part of CFS. Langara voted to leave, but as Titus Gregory wrote in 2010, Link was about to play a much larger role in shaping the national organization.
How CFS Protected and Promoted Phil Link after he struck an Indigenous Woman, Putting Her in Hospital
In 1997, at an event in BC with other CFS workers, an Indigenous woman Lanna Many Grey Horses, who was the BC Aboriginal Students’ Liaison, expressed her dissatisfaction with what CFS was doing for Indigenous students, and told Link that if it didn’t improve, they might consider leaving the organization.
There is no dispute about what happened, as it was observed by several witnesses.
Link reacted with a curse, and she slapped him. He then punched her in the face, breaking her nose, giving her two black eyes, chipping a tooth and giving her a cut on her cheek that required four stitches when she was treated in hospital.
She was reluctant to speak to the police, so the police pressed charges without her. While they waited months for the trial to take place, she had to return to work in the same office as Link.
At the 1998 criminal trial, Link and his lawyers argued he acted reflexively out of self-defence, denying that he swore and accused Many Grey Horses of being violent. The fact that she was reluctant to talk to police because she was Indigenous was taken by Link’s lawyers to argue that she shouldn’t be believed.
CFS officials, including Maura Parte - the Chair of BC CFS, testified on Link’s behalf, claiming that he was acting in self defense, and several witnesses who were supposed to show up never did.
The many instances where Link had assaulted people, including women, were not raised. This is standard in criminal trials, because the trial is strictly about whether the accused committed the offense of which they’ve been accused.
However, those same standards do not apply to the complainant.
The court found Link not guilty of breaking the law - but not guilty has never meant innocent. It means the available evidence didn’t pass the threshold it was criminal. He was not fired or disciplined. Instead, he was promoted by CFS to the National Office.
The incidents were recorded at the time in student newspapers across Canada, in the minutes of the Canadian Federation of Students AGM, and in e-mail exchanges and official statements.
At the time, the National Chairperson for CFS was Elizabeth Carlyle, who has been a National Rep from Manitoba with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Carlyle said Link being hired at the National office was “essentially a transfer” and that his altercation with the woman was not a factor in CFS’ decision. In an interview with about the incident in the September, 1998 issue of the student newspaper from the University of Guelph The Ontarian, Carlyle:
‘expressed “frustration on the part of the Federation that people are so concerned about this issue when there's been a clear verdict.” She called the situation is “a little bit of a distraction from the real issues” facing students, such as debt.”’
Carlyle accused the woman of having a history of violence.
“There was simply no questioning of the background of violence of this other person… We cannot hire or not hire people because of gossip and rumors. That would be simply unfair," she stated.”
Titus Gregory provides a detailed account of these events in his meticulously sourced 2010 paper on CFS, “Solidarity for Their Own Good,” which is available in full at archive.org.
At the trial, CFS-BC Chairperson Maura Parte testified on behalf of Link, and CFS-BC officials Joey Hansen and Michael Gardiner were also present in support of him. After considering the evidence, the Provincial Court dismissed the charges, ruling that Link feared for his safety and that his actions were an “instinctive... reflex.”
Speaking before the LSU Executive Committee, however, Many-Grey Horses said the judge ruled the way that he did because the independent witnesses to the incident failed to show up, forcing the judge to decide the case based on the credibility of herself and Link.
In other words, had any of the other witnesses from the CFS event shown up to testify, the outcome could have been different. Instead, the complainant said she “was portrayed as a young drunken Indian,” while Link was portrayed “as this thirty-eight year old white middle-class male, who had a steady work history.” She also said Link's multiple previous assault charges were never mentioned at trial.
An article published in The Ontarian and reprinted in The Student Activist supported the woman’s version of events. Several students’ unions, including the Simon Fraser Student Society, the Graduate Students’ Union of the University of Toronto, and the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University passed motions calling on the CFS to dismiss Link.”
This is the reporting from The Peak of June 15, 1998, after Link was found not guilty.
CFS executive director escapes assault charges
kris anderson
Assault charges against B.C. Canadian Federation of Students executive director Philip Link were dismissed last week after a hearing in B.C. Provincial Court. Link was charged with common assault for an incident which occurred during a CFS conference last November.
During the hearing the female complainant, who at the time of the incident was the chair of the Aboriginal Student's Caucus of the B.C.-CFS, began to cry several times as she described how an argument between her and Link lead to physical confrontation.
The argument began, the woman testified, when Link refused to acknowledge her concerns that the CFS does nothing for aboriginal students. She told the court that Link became defensive saying that the tuition fee freeze [which the CFS takes credit for] was enough.
When she persisted with her argument, she testified, Link began to make fun of her and became aggressive with his gestures. The woman stated to the court “he was invading my space." She told the court how in response she pushed him away from her, but that her push was not at all hard. She then testified "he made comments about how stupid I sound.”
The woman then testified that she told Link that if the issue was not rectified soon her student association would have to pull out of the CFS. She said he then began swearing at her and called her a "fuckin' bitch".
At that point, the woman told the court, she slapped Link across the face. She then testified "I don’t remember what happened exactly, but I got hit."
The injuries she incurred as a result of Philip Link hitting her were two black eyes, a cut below her cheek that required four stitches, and a chipped tooth.
A police officer later testified that her left eye swelled shut as the officer tried to question her. The woman testified that the injuries left her in great pain. After the woman was hit both Link and the woman testified that he immediately fled the bar where the incident occurred. He told the court that he feared the response of other patrons in the bar who saw that he hit a woman, but did not know the context of the situation.
During the majority of Link's testimony he sat hunched over in the witness box with his head down answering the counsels' questions in a very controlled manner.
Link testified “nothing I said was inappropriate or rude... she slapped me, hit me, and I remember thinking this situation is getting out of control and I needed to leave.” Link told the court that as he got up to leave the woman grabbed at his face and his collar and that she ended up having a firm grip on his jacket.
He testified that he then closed his eyes and swung his arm around at her. “It was an intentional blow to her to try and break free," he said. He then told the court “I perceived her in size to be my physical equal, if not bigger.”
At one point during questioning Link testified “I thought I was going down with her on top of me,” he later testified “I hit her out of fear.”
Link testified that after hitting the woman it occurred to him that the situation “looked bad"“, he said “because she was a woman and I was a man... there would be an assumption that it was unjustified.” He told the court that he left the bar right after the incident and that an “angry mob” followed him to his car. He said he then drove to the CFS office on Spruce Street where the police showed up shortly after he arrived.
After Philip Link fled the scene, the woman who was hit had testified that she also ran out of the bar despite B.C.-CFS Chair Maura Parte's attempts to convince her to stay. She said she wanted to make it to the Vancouver General Hospital, but was stopped by police as she walked down the street. During the course of the questioning it was revealed that the woman was not cooperative with the police because of her general distrust for them. The defence counsel stated in his closing argument that the woman's refusal to cooperate with the officers was representative of her overall belligerence that night.
Maura Parte who was present at the bar on the night of the alleged assault, but not seated with Link and the woman, testified on behalf of Philip Link.
Also present in the courtroom in apparent support of Link last Monday were past SFU student society president Joey Hansen, and former BC-CFS chair Michael Gardiner. Gardiner who now works for the premier's youth office was scheduled to testify as a character witness for Philip Link, but for some reason was not called to testify.
Both Link and the woman he hit testified that they met on several occasions in the months that followed the altercation. It was revealed by the defence that the woman even had a restraining order on Philip Link removed so that he could go back to work. It was also revealed through the testimonies of Link and the woman he hit that he gave her 700 dollars because of financial difficulties she said resulted from the incident.
Last Friday the judge for the hearing dismissed the charges against Link saying that he believed Link feared for his safety and that his action was “instinctive... reflex.”
Link's past aggressive behaviour was not mentioned during the hearing.
NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT
Several sources who wish not to be named have told The Peak that Philip Link is one of the most influential members of the CFS and that he has been known to resort to intimidation tactics to maintain the control he has in the organization that all SFU students pay into as part of their student fees. Link was a staff member of the Langara Students Union in the late 80s before becoming BC-CFS executive director in 1990. A few years ago Langara students voted to pull out of the CFS, but have since maintained an active student’s union.
Past incidents involving Philip Link at Langara as reported by the Gleaner, Langara's student paper, include:
- In October 1989, Link was seen dumping copies of the Voice, Langara's journalism school paper, into a dumpster. A journalism student responded by pulling copies out of the dumpster, walking into Link's office and dumping them on the floor. Link responded by knocking his glasses off, pushing him to floor, and choking him with a camera strap. A witness to the incident said, "Link was completely out of control, it took four people to restrain him."
- The next month 2,000 copies of the Gleaner went missing. A student said he saw Link throwing issues into the garbage.
- In December of 1989, Link was convicted of assault and fined 100 dollars
- In another case Link plead guilty to a charge of public mischief for smashing a female LSU member’s windshield with his elbow
- In the spring of 1990 the principal of Langara demanded that the LSU ban Link from the campus.
Link responded by putting up slanderous posters about the principal's private life. Link was then fired from the LSU and officially banned from Vancouver Community College property. Link was reported to have visited VCC campuses anyway.
-when Rodney De Croo, a former chair of Langara's student union delivered a notice of a separation referendum to the Spruce Street CFS office in 1992, he told the Gleaner that Link shoved him up against a wall and pushed him out of the office.
-when Link left the LSU it was over 100,000 dollars in debt, an LSU staff person said that after Link left the financial problems were cleared up.”
Unsurprisingly, the community reaction was not positive. This is the article that ran in the Guelph Ontarian September 8, 1998.
“WHAT IF AN ORGANIZATION WHOSE IDEALS YOU SHARED COVERED UP SOMETHING YOU COULDN'T STAND FOR?
September 8, The Ontarion, University of Guelph by H. Hudson
What if an organization whose ideals you shared covered up something you couldn't stand for?
What if it was legally prudent to remain silent? What if everyone else was doing it? What if you didn't have all the facts, but felt in your bones that something was very wrong?
A First Nations woman was the victim of violence. Two eyes swollen shut. Four stitches on her cheek. A chipped tooth.
What if the court cleared the perpetrator of all wrong doing? Said it was justified, said he did nothing wrong and the issue was closed. What if it still wouldn't go away?
What if you weren't there? You don't have all the facts. Who do you believe? Do you look take the law to equal the truth? Do you allow yourself to see patterns in the situation that it would be easier to ignore?
Last November Canadian Federation of Students staff person Philip Link hit Federation member Lanna Many Grey Horses, sending her to hospital. In June of this year, his assault charge was dismissed by a BC provincial court. According to a court of law, his name has been cleared, but the issue has not gone away.
This piece contains my opinion. It also contains the facts that I know, and I don't know them all.
The CFS-BC statement, the judge's verdict, all accounts contain opinion. Some people's biases are more normalized in society than other's. No one is objective, no one has all the facts.
By all accounts, the blow occurred in the context of an argument. The court heard that an argument ensued in the evening of November 4th. This was the evening of a CFS meeting in Vancouver. People had left the meeting as a group, and gone to a bar. At some point in the evening Link and Many Grey Horses began to quarrel. By all accounts she slapped him first.
The woman stated, both in court and to me, that she doesn't remember what happened next.
The Simon Fraser Peak reported in June that Link told the court that she grabbed at his face and collar. The paper quotes : "it was an intentional blow to break free.... I hit her out of fear." By all account Link hit her. The next thing Many Grey Horses remembers, she told me:
"I stood there with blood coming down my face."
By all accounts, Philip Link fled the bar immediately, chased out to hit car by angry people who had witnessed the injury, and drove away.
Lanna left the bar soon afterwards to go to the hospital. She was stopped by police on her way, who noticed her injuries. Charges were laid.
We live in a society that is not equal. We live in a patriarchy. We live on stolen land. We live in a world where socialized, treated or perceived equally.... in such a world, how can we be equal before the law?
I don't have all the facts. I have some.
I know that the legal system doesn't generally get at "all the facts." I know that victims of violence are not believed in court. I know that justice is denied to First Nations people again and again over land over genocide over self government and the legal system is a vehicle for that. I know the legal system has a long and ongoing history of silencing First Nations people. We are not all equal before the law.
I know that when a woman is hurt physically by a man who she's close to her confidence is often shattered. Her priority is often on protecting the man from repercussions, over taking care of herself.
I know it has been ten months, and I am the third journalist that Lanna Many Grey Horses has spoken to. I know she has been actively involved in CFS, and believe that she cared deeply about the organization, and what it purports to stand for.
I spoke with Lanna Many Grey Horses. I've spoken with survivors of violence before. Her statements sounded familiar.
"Philip was a good friend," she told me.
After the altercation she was extremely isolated. "I secluded myself for four days...I was told I had to keep it quiet" due to legal issues. She was embarrassed and dropped out of school and lost her funding.
Her debt began to accrue. Still she didn't press charges. "I was thinking, I didn't want to get him in trouble."
Philip was her friend. She emphasized this repeatedly. "I spoke to Philip. All I wanted was that he recognize it and that he seek help and he wouldn’t even do that."
Seven months went by before the trial. She removed the restraining order that had been placed, so that Link could return to work. They interacted in the office over this period.
They worked within the same committee at the national meeting in May.
I asked her about the trial, and her answers rung frighteningly true.
He was asked about his job, his education. She was asked how much she had had to drink that night.
She hadn't pressed her own charges. She declined to talk to the police when the tried to press theirs. “I just got beaten up by a white man. I don’t want to be confronted by another white man shining a light in my face. I was in shock. I just wanted to be by myself," she told me. They didn’t get a statement form her until she got to the hospital.
The court date in June was for an assault charge brought by the crown. The crown only called her the night before the court appearance to put together the case. Some witnesses did not show up.
The Simon Fraser Peak reported that "the defence counsel stated in his closing argument that the woman's refusal to cooperate with the officers was representative of her overall belligerence that night."
A First Nations woman, an aboriginal activist was penalized in court for not co operating with the police. The time constraints of an overworked crown's office resulted in an incomplete case. I’ve seen these things happen before. I can't close my eyes to that pattern. These are the facts.
“I was the one on trial,” Lanna said in the interview. I've done court support work for women victims of violence before. I believe her.
The Canadian Federation of Students is a national student union. If you are an undergrad or grad student at the University of Guelph, it is your student union. A union. that means something. Or it is supposed to. The CFS has admirable policy on harassment, on aboriginal issues, on women’s rights. I believe in these policies.
So I contacted Liz Carlyle, the national chairperson of the CFS.
She told me the trial was the only fair and thoughtful process where all the facts had been heard. She expressed "frustration on the part of the Federation that people are so concerned about this issue when there's been a clear verdict." She called the situation is "a little bit of a distraction from the real issues" facing students, such as debt.
Philip Link has been hired, since this incident, by the National office of CFS. He is taking a leave from his job with the BC component to take this job. Liz Carlyle called this "essentially a transfer" and said that his altercation with Lanna Many Grey Horses was "not a factor in our decision.”
"We cannot hire or not hire people because of gossip and rumors. That would be simply unfair," she stated.
Carlyle brought up the issue of Link's hiring in the interview. I had not raised the issue, hadn’t questioned their hiring process or their decision. I never suggested that there was a connection, or even mentioned that I knew of the transfer.
She urged me to obtain the court transcript. I may do that. Most of my leads for this story have been obtained on the internet. Carlyle told me:”I don't think a few malicious postings amount to much of a story." She stated that "the Peak article was reasonable grounds for a libel suit." I did not feel encouraged by her to run this story.
Carlyle raised another issue.
"There was simply no questioning of the background of violence of this other person."
When I spoke with Lanna Many Grey Horses, I questioned this background.
She and Philip talked in the past about Lanna having got into fights as a 12-13 year old, defending herself in school when confronted with racial slurs. Is this her background of violence? What else is in this background?
“I've been a victim of violence my whole life,” she told me.
Philip Link's background of violence is reported in same Simon Fraser Peak article that covers the trial: "In October of 1989, Link was seem dumping copies of the Voice, Langara’s journalism school paper, into a dumpster. A journalism student responded by pulling copies out of the dumpster, walking into Link's office and dumping them on the floor. Link responded by knocking his glasses off, pushing him to the floor and choking him with a camera strap. A witness to the incident said, 'Link was completely out of control, it took four people to restraint him.'
In December 1989 Link was convicted of assault and fined $100. In another case Link pled guilty to a charge of public mischief for smashing a Langara Student Union (LSU) member’s windshield with his elbow."
A statement has been made by the organization on September 2nd. It is signed from the BC Executive committee of the CFS, but at least one executive member was not informed of the statement before it was made public.
“Over the last few months,” it begins, “a great deal of debate has occurred over an incident that occurred between a member of staff of the British Columbia component of the Canadian Federation of Students and a former director of the organization.” While some of the debate has been accurate, it states, “some of it has included rumors, speculation, and misinformation.”
“The Board has decided to issue a statement that provides a rationale for...the actions that we have taken.”
The two page statement contains views that I can't reconcile with the realities of a legal system and a society that are skewed against women, against First Nations people, against those without the money for extensive legal advice.
“While we do not believe the courts are always right...we also believe the judicial system is the only forum in which any impartial hearing of this facts has taken place”
There are facts that seek relevant to this case that the legal system is not set up to hear.
Lanna's election as Aboriginal Caucus representative to the CFS national executive has been contested. Consequently she has been removed from the position. When researching this article I was unable to determine conclusively the connection (if any) between this fact and Lanna’s situation. I do imagine, at the very least the isolation that much place her in, be it real or perceived.
Elvira Balakshin, CFS-BC's women's liaison submitted her resignation to the board on September 4th. In her letter of resignation she writes: “I can no longer work for an organization whose actions are contrary to its beliefs and whose decision undermines the work women have struggled to achieve in the prevention of violence against women.”
Lanna cites Balakshin as the one member of the CFS-BC board who gave her unconditional support, outlined her options. Balakshin, who joined the board in May, told me that she “remained optimistic that something would be done until hearing the testimony at the trial.”
Since coming out in support of Lanna Many Grey Horses, Balakshin feels she has been undermined and isolated within the organization. “It's been an extremely uncomfortable environment,” within the BC office. “I'm having trouble receiving information and receiving support implementing directives from the women's caucus.”
As a journalist and as an anti-racist feminist I have to ask certain questions. Is this purely a legal matter? Are the CFS' hands tied by labour contracts, or can is there avenue for justice open that has not been tried?
Why is the organization not openly addressing the issue? Is there a pattern to the way it is reacting?
Some have called for Link's dismissal. Some have called for individual student unions to pull out of the CFS. Others have said that the matter has been dealt with appropriately. I believe strongly in justice, and as such I believe strongly in unions. What, in this situation is the principled thing to do?
I asked several people who have been involved in the CFS for their perspectives.
Past students of colour commissioner, and national executive member Lance Morgan, stated, “to be honest I don't think it's terribly out of character for the Fed to respond that way.”
“They can be a reactionary organization. They become defensive [when challenged]. The statement is a reflection of that,” he continued. “They ball up and say everyone else is wrong, but they don't address the issues.”
One student union rep contacted the national office about this in August.
“I don't feel as though my concerns will be taken seriously” she said to me last week. “Nobody's willing to answer my questions; nobody's willing to do anything,” she added.
She is also in contact with other CFS members who are deeply concerned.
“It's a call to hold the ‘leadership’ accountable and get all locals who think this a problem to...take the CFS back in our hands and make it a safe and workable environment,” she stated.”
There were resignations in CFS BC and the issue was part of the debate at the 1998 National AGM of CFS, but a vote to address the situation failed: 32 CFS member student unions voted against it. Only six associations voted in favour. Also in the minutes, the report of the Aboriginal Caucus pointed out that the National Executive had intervened to overturn their elections, and also raised the issue of Philip Link having struck Lanna Many Grey Horses.
Where are they now?
It is notable that Link was also very well-connected, and his network of supporters have since gone on to much greater influence, especially when the NDP formed the official opposition in Ottawa for the first time in 2011.
Link’s partner, Lucy Watson, was Director of Organizing for the Canadian Federation of Students from 1996 to 2016, is the National Director of the Federal NDP, and was Executive Director of the Ontario NDP, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Federal NDP Leader, Director of Operations to the Leader of the Federal NDP and National Campaign Coordinator for the NDP.
Joey Hansen, who was in court to support Link, is the Executive Director of AAPS, the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff at UBC, and is a former President of CUPE BC.
Anita Zaenkner is currently a principal at Earnscliffe Strategies, was elected as the National Women’s Representative at CFS in 1998.
Michael Gardiner, is currently the President at 360 Strategies Canada. Gardiner “… has played a central role in five provincial election campaigns, four leadership races, and as war room director in a federal election” & was Executive Director of the BCNDP & director of John Horgan’s successful leadership bid.
Joel Duff is currently Associate Executive Director at Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)
Pam Frache (she/her) is currently the Coordinator of the Justice for Workers campaign and an organizer with the Worker’s Action Centre in Ontario.
Brad LaVigne, was senior campaign advisor to the 2015 NDP campaign; worked for Jack Layton; was National Director of the NDP; worked for the BC NDP government. He is a fellow at the Broadbent institute.
Maura Parte, who testified for Link at his trial, was President of the BC NDP, worked for NDP MP Murray Rankin, and married Rob Fleming, who became BC NDP Minister of Education then Transportation and Infrastructure.
Dave Molenhuis. Former CFS National Treasurer, now a National Representative, Communications, at Unifor National. In 2015, he was made Associate Publisher of Rabble.ca
Kemlin Nembhart was a Manitoba field organizer on staff with CFS in 1998, and is currently executive director of the Women’s Health Clinic. In 2017, when news broke that a former Manitoba NDP Cabinet Minister had been sexually harrassing women, and that those women faced reprisals when they reported their mistreatment, a commission was struck. Nembhart was chosen to be one of the commissioners for the inquiry.
Other CFS veterans who have gone to on major roles in labour or the NDP include:
At the Canadian Labour Congress:
James Pratt - Political Assistant to the President, Bea Bruske
Vicky Smallman - Director of Human Rights
Brent Farrington - Director, Political Action and Communications
Danielle Sampson - Director, Atlantic Region
On the NDP Federal Executive
Anne McGrath, National Director of the NDP of Canada, principal secretary to former Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and as Notley's deputy chief of staff.
Jennifer Howard, Chief of Staff to Jagmeet Singh, Former Cabinet Minister, Manitoba NDP.
George Soule - Press Secretary to Thomas Mulcair
Elizabeth Carlyle, who was the National Chair of CFS, who sided with Link and spent years working with him at CFS National & who is now a National Representative with CUPE in Manitoba.
If you’re shocked and dismayed - so was I. The NDP’s brand of moral superiority - steeped in its evangelical Christian social gospel origins - has been deeply carved into the Canadian political imagination, and the brand itself is why they have been able to get away with it.
-30-