Travel Cuts settlement in jeopardy
U of A student union president’s comments a source of concern for CFS-S
Chloé Fedio
The Gateway (University of Alberta)
EDMONTON (CUP) — The drawn-out Travel Cuts dispute is facing yet another delay after the University of Alberta student union president Graham Lettner made controversial statements about the recent pre-trial settlement.
In the Feb. 28 issue of the Gateway, the student newspaper at the U of A, Lettner said, “it’s clear in the settlement, and it’s clear in the work that we’ve done, that the plaintiffs were wronged in the past,” adding that the agreement was a matter of vindication.
“The statements are false and a fundamental violation of the agreement,” said executive director of the Canadian Federation of Students-Services (CFS-S) Philip Link.
Last week, an out-of-court settlement was reached regarding ownership of Travel Cuts. It provided a newly created non-profit organization — of which plaintiffs will be members along with 12 other student unions — with a 24 per cent share in the company. Link said that CFS-S was “sufficiently satisfied” when the agreement was made.
“We were comfortable in agreeing with a settlement, but not a settlement whereby the plaintiffs can make these sorts of false claims about what the settlement means and how it should be viewed, because in no way are we in any way saying that there was wrongdoing by us or Travel Cuts, and that was explicit in this settlement,” Link said.
After learning of the comments, CFS-S released a statement on March 1 stating that Lettner’s “false statements” violated the terms of the agreement and may result in its cancellation.
Travel Cuts was originally owned by the Association of Student Councils-Canada (AOSC), now a dormant organization, which passed along its assets to a new organization, CFS-S, in 1987.
Years later, a dispute arose between CFS-S and four plaintiff student governments from the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia, the University of Western Ontario and Queen’s University — which were members of AOSC but not CFS-S — pertaining to the ownership and operations of Travel Cuts.
The lawsuit was originally filed by Western University Students’ Council in 1996, which accused CFS-S of illegally transferring the company, and asked for its full benefits, including free International Student Identity Cards (ISIC) for all undergraduate student associations across Canada, whether they are part of CFS–S or not. However, Link disputed this claim.
He went on to say that the only problem with the transfer was that it wasn’t completed within the AOSC’s prescribed timeline — “but the notion that these guys were wronged is a joke,” said Link.
He added that it remains in the best interests of Travel Cuts to provide services to students at the four universities in question.
U of A president Lettner responded to the Gateway in writing about his controversial comments and paid to place an advertisement on page 7 of the March 2 issue, reiterating that there was no wrongdoing.
