The Peak

Thirteen more schools want out of the CFS

By Sam Reynolds

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) could soon be short another 13 members, if all goes according to the plans of petition organizers across Canada.

Student unions at 13 campuses across the country have spent the last week gathering names for petitions to put forth a referendum to defederate their respective unions from the national organization, currently Canada’s largest student lobby group, involving 83 different student unions across Canada.

Approximately two years ago, students at SFU, the University of Cape Breton, and Kwantlen University College put forward similar referendums; however, all three failed as the CFS claimed referendum bylaws had been broken. The CFS then pursued litigation, causing students to further delay defederation proceedings.

Recently, the CFS has come under scrutiny from critics accusing it of being corrupt, politically motivated, and not looking out for the interests of students.

“Students are slowly becoming aware that the CFS is not a democratic organization that represents students,” stated Dean Tester, organizer of the referendum petition at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The Carleton University Students’ Association, a local branch of the CFS, made international headlines last year when it cancelled Shinerama, a fundraising event for Cystic Fibrosis on the grounds that it “only affected white men.” This was the basis of angry editorials from a variety of publications, such as the National Post and Forbes Magazine and, according to Tester, the catalyst in Carleton’s anti-CFS movement.

“What we want to see is students working for students, not students working for salaries,” concluded Tester. “The movement itself is a sham and merely a front for a $6 million-corporation.”

“It’s time to ask what’s working, and what’s not working. If the CFS isn’t working in the opinions of students, the funds should be redirected to stay on campus,” added José Barrios, the coordinator of the referendum petition at the University of Victoria. In two days of petitioning, the disenfranchised UVic students received nearly half the signatures required to put forth a referendum.

In British Columbia two student unions, the University of Victoria Students’ Society, and the Kwantlen Student Association are both actively petitioning to begin the defederation process from the CFS.

The University of Victoria Graduate Students’ Society already successfully left the CFS in March of 2008.

Students at these universities are fed up with the gross incompetence and corruption in the CFS, according to various campus representatives. Barrios credits the success of the petition thus far, to the student body’s annoyance with the CFS’s incompetence. “There’s a lack of transparency, and lack of accountability in the CFS and it’s very obvious.”

According to Barrios, the money collected from the student unions by the CFS that should be used to represent students on campus is being used elsewhere, sometimes to fight in court against other universities who attempt to defederate. Student unions across Canada pay membership fees to the CFS ranging from $40,000 to $400,000, annually.

Should the petition at the student societies achieve the 10 per cent quorum required for a referendum, the CFS will have the final say on whether the petition is legitimate or not. It could take the CFS up to five months to decide to recognize the petition. If the petition is deemed legitimate by the CFS, litigation could be brought forward to ensure that the union remains in compliance with CFS bylaws, and a date would be set for a referendum.

Barrios, Tester, and other petition organizers across the country are worried about the CFS bylaws, but see it as part of the path to defederation.

When asked about the issue, the spokesperson for the CFS British Columbia office had no knowledge of any such petitions calling for referendums. The acting national representative of the CFS, current Treasurer Dave Mulenhuis could not be reached for comment before The Peak went to press.