Fourth-year St. Thomas University student Chris Brooks feels betrayed by the St. Thomas University Students’ Union after it was communicated to his former employer that he had gone to the union seeking legal advice against his ex-workplace.
Time-stamped emails show this information was leaked to The Brunswickan, the University of New Brunswick student newspaper and Brooks’ former employer, almost two weeks before any reply was sent to Brooks regarding his request.
“Even though I feel I was wronged by The Brunswickan,” Brooks said. “I’m more concerned with the STUSU’s actions as it could affect other people and people in worse situations.”
Brooks was a writer at The Brunswickan. After failing to meet deadline for a story, the paper published a caption under a photo in their issue before March Break that said: “Here is a photo of Tilley Hall because Chris didn’t do his job.”
Brooks first contacted Student Services who then referred him over to STUSU.
At 4:13 p.m. March 2, Brooks emailed STUSU vice president of student life Brianna Matchett with the subject line “legal help,” saying he needed “help moving forward with the issue” and that he thought he might have been defamed.
The next day at 4:41 p.m. Brooks received an email from Brunswickan editor-in-chief Emma McPhee that opened, “Adam [Travis, managing editor,] and I were informed today that you contacted the STUSU for legal advice with regards to the photo caption that was published in our latest issue. The STUSU has informed us that this is not within their domain.”
Brooks did not receive a return email from STUSU’s vice president of administration Ben Graham until Monday, March 14, at 9:12 p.m.
“The fact that [the STUSU] went to my former employer, who I had complaints about and obviously looking for advice about and basically gave [The Brunswickan] a heads-up that I was vulnerable, that’s pretty terrible,” Brooks said.
While the students’ union adamantly denies anyone on the STUSU executive team released the information, McPhee and Travis said it was Megan Thomson, president of the union, who told them about Brooks’ request for help.
While McPhee said she couldn’t remember the name of the STUSU president in a face-to-face interview on Thursday, she did identify the person who spoke to her as Thomson after being shown a photograph of the president.
“I was of the impression while I was talking to the person from STUSU that an email had already been sent back to Chris saying that they couldn’t do anything about it,” McPhee said. “That’s why when I emailed Chris I thought he already had the email.”
She said this meeting happened between 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. March 3.
Both Matchett and Thomson turned down interview requests from The Aquinian and referred questions to Graham, who spoke on behalf of STUSU.
“They are simply nothing more than allegations,” Graham said Thursday. “From conversations today, we are calling them completely false.”
Graham said he didn’t know, without a member of the executive telling McPhee, how the Brunswickan would have come across this information about Brooks but noted the offices of the two organizations are in the same hallway.
When asked if he thought what McPhee said on the record was false, Graham replied, “Yes.”
“It’s word against word,” said Graham.
In a later email McPhee said the meeting took place in passing but stood behind that it was Megan Thomson who leaked the information.
She said Adam Travis, who will be the editor-in-chief of the Brunswickan next year, could corroborate her side of the story.
“She was going past my office (same side of the hallway as hers in the SUB) and stopped and asked about the picture,” McPhee wrote. “I exited my office and crossed the hall to the newspaper stand by our main office to show her. We chatted a bit and then she left. Adam was leaving for the day and came out when we were talking.”
“I was present when Megan told Emma about Chris’ request,” Travis wrote in a separate email. Travis later repeated this statement in a face-to-face interview.
“I really think Megan thought that the matter had already been dealt with on their end and I don’t think she even knew all the details of Chris’ email when she spoke to me,” McPhee continued.
As for Brooks, he said, he’s leaning against taking legal action.
According to Graham, the union does provide one free hour of legal advice per student each year.
