Like a lost hiker in the desert, MUN continues to amble about aimlessly, looking for a new president.
Ever since Axel Meisen announced he was stepping down more than a year ago, the MUN Board of Regents and the Presidential search committee have been scouring the land for the next person to take the top job. Indeed, they were doing a damn fine job of it, until Joan Burke took over and deemed herself more capable than the presidential search committee.
Everybody knows the story, and it’s getting old by now. Joan Burke used an archaic clause in the Memorial University Act giving Government-in-Council final approval of an incoming MUN President. It was an egregious violation of academic freedom and integrity, and gave MUN a black-eye across the country, with numerous unions and associations coming out against this example of blatant political interference.
Again, that story is old. Nobody seriously buys the bullshit that the government should be more involved in the presidential selection- it’s a tired excuse that doesn’t stand up against even the flimsiest argument.
There have been some recent developments, but nothing earth-shattering, like say government actually modifying the legislation so they can stick their noses somewhere else. But we shouldn’t expect so much from King Danny and his minions.
In any other government, in any other province, Burke would have been canned for her actions. She would have been thrown out on her arse, and told not to let the door hit her on the way out. Ditto for Ross Wiseman, but that’s about as likely as Burke leaving/being fired. No, for to do so would be an impugning of King Danny and His Infalliable Works, and heaven forbid that happen. Danny is exalted for making NL a have province- not the millions of barrels of oil offshore, not the mineral deposits in Labrador, not the offshore deals that he didn’t even sign- but when there’s a problem, the buck gets passed further and further down.
Firing Burke and Wiseman would be an honourable and intelligent move, and a move that’s arguably necessary. But then, that would require, y’know, honour and intelligence on the part of the government.
And we all know how likely that is.
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