A HIT AND A MISS: TALES OF EXECS' SUMMER PROJECTS

The academic year is back in full swing, and Students' Society
executives are for the first time facing oversight of their actions
from SSMU Council. Two notable summer projects have come up so far,
the Harm Reduction Centre (HRC) and the Flying Squad. Both are still
in the larvae stage, and there are many details that remain to be
worked out concerning their structures before they can be given full
approval. The Harm Reduction Centre deserves a chance to work out its
kinks. The Flying Squad does not.

The mandate of the HRC-the brainchild of Vice-President Clubs and
Services Floh Herra-Vega-is education about drugs and alcohol and
activism on drug policy. The HRC plans to take a realistic approach
towards drug use, which is refreshing. It is time that drug education
took a page from sex education and went beyond "just say no".

Preaching abstinence from drug use is all well and good, but it
ignores the fact that many people will use-and abuse-drugs and
alcohol regardless of how many times they are told that it is bad for
them. This is especially true during university, a time when many
people experiment with drugs.

This natural tendency to experiment, together with the lack of
knowledge that many students have about drugs, means that there is
potential for the HRC to do a lot of good by teaching people how to
minimize the harm they do to themselves with their drug use.
Additionally, the HRC has a reasonably clear mandate. While the
granting of "interim service status" is an odd move, the concept has
been well thought out and most importantly, the benefits of the HRC
to students are clear.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Flying Squad, which is an
excellent example of how not to start a new student group. This
initiative is the summer brainchild of VP External Max Silverman. The
Flying Squad's mission, which admittedly is still being fine-tuned,
is to organize students around various causes, which would be chosen
by the Flying Squad with no input from SSMU.

The Flying Squad would not be dedicated to any one particular cause.
Supposedly, it would allow for quicker and more effective organizing
of actions on issues of interest to students. However, the Flying
Squad is basically an umbrella organization and it would simply be
creating another level of bureaucracy, diminishing its effectiveness.

Currently, if SSMU Council wants to organize student opposition or
support for a particular cause, it can pass a motion creating a
committee, and give the committee money to carry out its mission.
What is unclear is how the Flying Squad will improve on this process.
Its budget will still be controlled by Council and its actions will
likely need ultimate approval from Council.

How can an umbrella group which has to meet and make its decisions
democratically and whose members may not have any interest in
particular issues possibly act faster than a focused group made up of
people dedicated to a cause?

Effectively, the Flying Squad serves as a duplicate the work of the
Grassroots Association for Student Power (GRASPe)-a generalist
activist group-except that it lacks GRASPe's ability to act in an
expedient manner. In fact, around half of those who took part in last
week's first meeting of the Flying Squad were members of GRASPe,
further adding to the question of why there is a need for the Flying Squad.

In addition, the idea that the Flying Squad could take up any cause
it chooses, is troubling. The Flying Squad, as a wing of SSMU, would
lend an air of credibility to causes that may be of no interest to
the vast majority of the student population. Although SSMU Council
would supposedly have a veto over the Flying Squad's actions, what
good would that veto do if the Flying Squad had already taken action?

Silverman should take a page from Herra Vega's book and re-examine
what he is doing with the funds SSMU allocates to him. He must make
sure that this money is being put to a use that will provide a
substantial benefit to the student body, and this is one test we feel
the Flying Squad will not pass.