News

CFS-Quebec hit with legal action after reform proposal

By Sam Reynolds

In response to growing hostilities against the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), the Quebec wing of the organization has released a package proposing broad reform in an effort to keep disenfranchised schools within the Federation.

The reform package includes a series of motions to be proposed during November’s CFS Annual General Meeting in Ottawa. It was compiled after the September 11 meeting of the CFS-Quebec Board where they unanimously adopted a resolution that stated the group must “aid member locals and/or their individual members in evaluating their continued membership within the CFS.”

The package is broken down into sections, which advocate changes to be made to accountability, transparency, and financial reforms, structural reforms, and membership reforms.

Among the reform propositions found in the package is selling the CFS-Services, which owns on-campus businesses such as Travel Cuts, full disclosure of the CFS’s financial documents. It also calls ending all litigation being pursued by the Federation, which many critics have accused of being predatory in nature.

The reform package was sent out to numerous student journalists and bloggers on October 14, then publicly released the day after. Upon its release it was met with a letter from the CFS’s lawyer consisting of a declaration which claimed the Quebec wing was no longer part of the Federation due to engagement “in activities which have caused and continue to cause damages to the CFS.” The letter also demanded that the Quebec wing stop using the CFS name, and cease collecting student fees.

In an interview with the Canadian University Press, the president of CFS-Quebec, Gregory Johannson, stated that he believed this movement was helping, not hindering the Federation as it fell in line with the wishes of students.

“They say they are threatening us because we are harming the Federation, but how can you say the rights of the members as spelled out in the constitution are in conflict with the interests of the Federation?” questioned Johannson.

The legal action against the CFSQuebec quickly solicited a response from CFS critics.

Dean Tester, blogger and president of “Out at Carleton,” the University of Carleton’s CFS defederation group, called the national executive’s response to the reform proposal “deplorable.” Tester argued “representatives of the CFS-Quebec have tried to exercise their rights as members, and the CFS responded by trying to take away those rights. It is a slap in the face to every Quebec student who was told they have a democratic right to participate in this organization.”

The national office of the CFS has yet to release an official statement about the issue.