The Peak

Campus : Controversy erupts after secret CFS documents made public

By Shara Lee

The Peak has obtained a highly confidential document from the B.C. headquarters of the Canadian Federation of Students that details the organization’s comprehensive plans to counter the Simon Fraser Student Society’s March separation referendum.

The elaborate, multi-page document also contains lists of known and prospective CFS supporters at schools across Canada, as well as the names of several individuals the organization evidently plans to secure employment for at various student unions. CFS critics have been quick to argue the document proves many of their longstanding allegations about the organization’s supposed secretive and mendacious tactics.

Though the document was originally intended for internal CFS eyes only, the item was mistakenly e-mailed to all members of the B.C. Executive Committee by Summer Mcfadyen, the B.C. staff organizer of the CFS. As the Executive Committee contains many student politicians who are hostile to the CFS, including members of the Simon Fraser Student Society, the document was quickly made public and soon proliferated across the internet.

The bulk of the document, which takes the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, offers a detailed timeline outlining the CFS’s aggressive plan of counteroffensive activities at SFU, designed to help persuade students to vote against leaving the federation. The plans include everything from manning information tables on campus to preemptively purchasing a number of anti-CFS website addresses. Other plans involve advertising in the Metro and 24 Hours newspapers, speaking to classrooms, campaigning in residence buildings, publishing letters to the editor in The Peak, and possibly even running television spots. The CFS also evidently plans to provide campaign materials in a variety of different languages, including Chinese, Filipino, and Punjabi. Even CFS supporters from outside of British Columbia are poised to be flown in to assist with the campaign, as the document contains several references to booking flights and hotels.

The document also sheds light on some outstanding concerns regarding the oversight of the CFS separation referendum itself. According to the spreadsheet, the CFS intends to both hire and train all poll clerks for the March referendum vote, as well as personally design and print the ballots.

Not all of the document relates to the SFSS referendum, however. A different section of the document is labeled “hiring” and seems to suggest that the CFS intends to hire various pro-CFS partisans to staff positions at several student unions across B.C. It has long been alleged by CFS critics that the CFS actively works to secure employment for its most loyal supporters in bureaucratic jobs at student unions as rewards for support.

One individual named in the “hiring” list is Tiffany Kalanj, a former member of the SFSS board of directors and prominent CFS supporter. After her departure from SFU she was hired to a staff position at the student union of Vancouver Community College, and according to the document she is now favoured to be employed at the Douglas College Student Union.

CFS critics have been quick to use the leaked document as part of their case against the organization.

“This is pretty much a smoking gun,” said Laura Anderson, Chairperson of the Kwantlen University College Students’ Association who is helping lead an effort to get her school to leave the CFS. Shortly after the document was leaked the Kwantlen Student Union issued a press release denouncing what they described as an elaborate “war plan.”

SFSS President Derrick Harder also claimed to find the various revelations problematic. “[The document] illuminates a lot of things that I’ve understood and believed about the Federation for a very long time,” he said.

CFS officials, for their part, have sought to downplay the relevance of the leaked spreadsheet. According to Shamus Reid, B.C. Chair of the CFS, the document was created solely by CFS staffer Summer McFadyen as a compilation of “personal notes,” and is thus not a statement of formal CFS policy. When asked about the “hiring” section, Reid did not answer why such notes were taken in the first place, repeating that document merely represented B.C. organizer’s “personal notes.”

According to Titus Gregory, a strongly anti-CFS former SFSS politician who now works for the Kwantlen Students Association, the document is “indicative of the top down control nature of the Federation.”

“It’s very very methodical. It’s an extremely detailed plan,” he said. “The fact that they’re rallying so many executives and staff of other student unions to fly down [to be] on SFU campuses . . . means that they’re doing whatever they can to keep control.”

Another controversial section of the document is a series of lengthy school-by-school lists of students deemed to be potential “volunteers” to assist in publicly organizing and supporting the CFS. Though the SFU list contains a number of the campus’ most prominent and vocal CFS supporters, other students have claimed they were unaware of their inclusion.

Glyn Lewis, who served as Member Services Officer on a pro-CFS SFSS Board of Directors in 2006 was one of several students listed on the volunteer list. However, next to his name, there was a note that read “maybe . . . Shamus [sic] to evaluate,” in reference to Shemus Reid. Lewis, for his part, said he was not aware that his name was placed on the list. “I have not and did not intend to get involved,” he said. “My focus lies on positive campaigns beyond the realm of SFU politics.”

Vanessa Kelly, who served alongside Lewis as Treasurer on the same Board, was also placed on the list. Among others included were current At-Large board member Natalie Bocking, Health Sciences Board Rep Madiha Mahmoud, Student Forum Represenatives Ravi Patel and Tommy Thompson, former SFSS Chief Electoral Officer and Hillel staffer Jeff Bradshaw, as well as several defeated candidates from the 2007 SFSS general election, including Andrew Fergusson, Ali Godson, and Aman Bains.

Asked to comment about how he felt about being on the list, Fergusson stated “everyone who knows me knows why I’m on the list. Everyone else probably doesn’t care.”

Ultimately, the leaked document may prove to be highly problematic for the CFS, an organization which has until now been well known for running a very careful public relations campaign. When asked by The Peak whether Summer McFadyen, the CFS staffer responsible for accidentally leaking the document, planned to release a statement explaining the information contained within, Shemus Reid replied that McFadyen was not a spokesperson for the CFS and was therefore not able to comment on the matter.