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The rise in influence of the canadian federation of students

DYLAN FERGUSON STAFF

When Devin King talks about joining student politics for idealistic reasons, it’s hard not to believe him.

As King sits across from me at a table in Finales Café in St. Boniface, he exudes enthusiasm and unassuming confidence throughout his thin frame, wrapped fashionably in a collarless woven sweater over a shirt advertising what I assume is an obscure band. “It seems as though most people start off the same way I do,” he says of joining students’ unions, his face very animated behind a pair of black plastic-framed glasses. “They want to be idealistic, and they want to make a difference. But soon they get sucked into the whole, well, the politics of it.”

I’m meeting with King to discuss the fact that on Friday, Feb. 23, he resigned as director of education for the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA). King, who is in his fourth year of a bachelor of education degree, wrote in his open letter of resignation that “The ideas that the UWSA was, and is, most fervent on seem to come from the top down. By this, I mean that largely our ideas come from the Canadian Federation of Students or its representatives.”

King elaborated why his obvious passion for the job was eclipsed by frustration. “As a director, your role is to see things come in, and you decide if they’re worthy or not. And everything that was coming in, consistently, seemed to have a CFS flair to it.” He said that it seemed as though the executives were talking to CFS representatives and promoting their agenda, and he, as a director, felt out of the loop and impotent.

The definitive moment came over a referendum to increase student fees. Recently, an expansion for the U of W’s athletics facility, the Duckworth Centre, was proposed, with a $35 increase of student fees to fund it. Initially, the UWSA had agreed to hold a referendum to let students decide if it was worth it. At what would become the last meeting Devin King attended, members of the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) gave a presentation, encouraging the UWSA not to hold votes on fee increases. Ultimately, at the meeting the UWSA decided not to back the referendum

King believes the CFS, which promotes a rigid policy against fee increases of any sort, was behind the move. UMSU and UWSA actively share the CFS views on fee increases, and King believes that executives from the two students’ unions were discussing these issues.

For Devin King, that was the deciding moment. “That’s when I realized, there’s something bigger than me. Something I can’t change.”

Odds are, most students are familiar with the Canadian Federation of Students from the posters they display on campus, advertising the Day of Action, which they organize, or the tuition fee freeze, which they support.

The CFS was established in 1981 through the merger of two students associations, the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Association of Student Councils (AOSC). The idea behind it was to create a unified student movement across Canada to provide the post-secondary crowd with effective representation to both the federal and provincial governments.

The Federation was growing until the early 1990s, when several local students’ unions began to pull out, either because they were upset with the organization’s focus on political demonstrations, or because they thought it was too radical.

“The ideas that the UWSA was, and is, most fervent on seem to come from the top down. By this, I mean that largely our ideas come from the Canadian Federation of Students or its representatives.”

— Devin King in his open letter of resignationtuition

At the time, the CFS advocated a controversial “zero tuition” policy. Several of the disillusioned students’ unions formed the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) as an alternative, effectively splitting national student representation in two.

The CFS has since retooled its philosophy to simply lowering and freezing tuition. Recently, many student groups have left CASA, which is often perceived as ineffective, and have been joining the CFS. Visible events such as the Day of Action have boosted CFS stock as an organization with a message and the means to influence government policy.

The last decade has seen a huge spike in CFS membership, with several new student associations joining via referendum every year. Today, the Canadian Federation Students is far and away the largest such organization in the country, representing over 500,000 students from over 80 colleges and universities.

As CFS members, U of M students pay $6.23 per semester to the organization, comprised of $3.74 to the national level, and $2.49 to the provincial level. The CFS collects more than $300,000 from the University of Manitoba annually.

Ian Boyko, the campaigns coordinator for the CFS, explained to me why his organization is important to the student movement. “There’s a sense that governments are more likely to listen to organizations that are representative of as many parts of Canada as possible. So, like any other lobby, there’s greater unity, there’s greater strength.”

Kate Sjoberg, the president of the UWSA, would agree. In spite of what King says, she believes the ability to talk with CFS representatives and members of other students’ unions is an important asset. “We’re able to communicate and share stories about what’s happening on our individual campuses, and how those situations are really starting to link up and align with each other.”

Sjoberg confirmed that UMSU did make a presentation at the UWSA meeting concerning the Duckworth Centre referendum, but says the board “reconsidered” its decision for its own reasons. “One of the things that the board was most concerned about was that the referendum, as it came up, was a university idea,” she said, pointing out that the school’s administration, not the students, had originally proposed the question.

Whatever their reasons, since the UWSA reconsidered, the referendum question has been resurrected by students. Five per cent of U of W students signed a petition in favour of a referendum, which, according to UWSA bylaws, means one must be held. Sjoberg says the board has not yet decided whether it will campaign against the referendum, though she says she has been in touch with CFS representatives about it.

And as for Devin King, the UWSA president speaks highly of him. “It’s all of our jobs to represent our own opinions and our own views on everything that’s going on . . . he was doing that, and he was good at it. So I think it’s too bad he decided to leave.”

Sjoberg adds that she thinks his reasons for leaving were faulty, and defends keeping close council with members of the CFS. “The work we do together is important because our decisions that we make at the UWSA and the decisions that happen at the University of Winnipeg don’t happen in a vacuum.”

“Fresh-faced” and “disarming” are clichéd descriptors that find justification when applied to Amanda Aziz. A tall woman with kinky black hair and a brilliant smile, Aziz’s chipper and confidence-inspiring presence was a familiar one to U of M students during her tenure as UMSU president in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

It was in November of 2005 that Aziz and her UMSU council held a referendum to join the CFS, a year after we became a prospective member, in accordance with the Federation’s bylaws. The “yes” side won the referendum with an 86 per cent majority, and UMSU, and therefore all students of our university, were brought into the CFS fold.

I was attending school in 2004, and I remember talking to Aziz about the CFS vote at one of the Tim Hortons tables in University Centre. She gave me a little yellow button that read “Support the CFS, Keep the tuition freeze!” a button which I have to this day. I told her I would vote “yes,” and would have, had I been a student the following year.

I suspect few students realized that at the time of the referendum Aziz was the Manitoba national executive representative for the CFS.

Aziz is currently the national chairperson of the CFS. It is possible her role in making U of M a Federation member was every bit as much a factor in her nomination as was her sprightly demeanor.

During the UMSU CFS referendum, the referendum oversight committee, charged with overseeing the vote and receiving all complaints, was composed of two members appointed by the CFS, and two appointed by UMSU. UMSU actively endorsed the “yes” side. Buttons and all. According to a decision by the students’ union council, “all UMSU bylaws and policies or parts thereof relating to the referenda” were temporarily suspended so that the referendum oversight committee could be established.

Few people seemed to care that there was no significantly visible “no” side, or that our students’ union president had a comfortable position with the CFS. Regardless, the referendum to become federated went over without much hoopla, and certainly not much opposition.

But the same was not true one province over at the University of Saskatchewan.

The U of S held their referendum to join the CFS in October 2005, one month before the similar vote at our school. The “yes” side won with a slimmer 55.4 per cent of the vote, though controversy surrounded the elections procedures, which according to the Saskatchewan court included suspending U of S Students’ Union (USSU) bylaws and regulations. The USSU elections board, in the face of widespread discontent, recommended that another vote be held. The elections board was particularly concerned that the referendum question made no mention of a fee increase. The students’ union ignored their recommendations, saying the “yes” result should stand.

But that did not put the matter to rest. Robin Mowat, a U of S student and former USSU president, filed a lawsuit against the CFS and USSU for violating the Non-Profit Corporations Act. He won, as Judge J. R. Smith declared that the manner in which USSU suspended their regulations and most importantly overlooked the decision of their elections board was, in essence, “to ignore the very process it had created to ensure there was a fair referendum.” The Saskatchewan judge declared the referendum to join the CFS “of absolutely no force or effect.”

Today, the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union considers itself independent of all national student organizations, though the CFS has, despite the decision of the Saskatchewan judge, maintained on its website that it is a member. U of S is one of the instances where local students assert independence, but the CFS website does not acknowledge it.

At the University of Prince Edward Island, for example, the students’ union held a referendum to pull out of the CFS 11 years ago. The Federation disputed the legitimacy of the vote, and, as reported by campus paper the Cadre, “after threat of legal actions the student union overturned the results.” In 2004 the union, citing concerns of how UPEI initially joined in 1984, opted not to recognize its membership. The CFS continues to dispute this.

Membership is also disputed at Acadia University, where again the local student union assserts indepence from CFS and the federation maintains it is a member.

As Devin King told me, “In the same way that it was easy for me to opt out, it should be easy for us [the union] to opt out of the CFS. And it’s curious that it wouldn’t be.”

Titus Gregory thinks he knows why the CFS insists on keeping as many member unions as possible.

A former on-campus politician at SFU-Surrey in B.C., Gregory created the website studentunion.ca to monitor the goings-on of student politics across the country. The site, a series of blogs and a collection of political tidbits is perhaps the most comprehensive single resource about student-union controversy. And CFS figures into this game more than a little.

“The group of CFS loyalists do exert a significant . . . influence on many students’ unions in Canada.” Gregory told me. “And they do so in furtherance of the ideology of, and in furtherance of the wealth and power of the Federation. And that is inappropriate, because it defeats the autonomy, the independence of local students’ unions.” He adds that these CFS “loyalists” do not act under authorization of any written resolution, and therefore their actions, which are widely alleged, are also easily denied.

Gregory believes the problem with the CFS is that it promotes a culture of excessive loyalty and a faulty ideology, which “denies the possibility that a students’ union would not want to be affiliated with the Federation.”

Henry Kissinger once said, “University politics are vicious, precisely because the stakes are so small.” Titus Gregory knows this, but he thinks the CFS, by creating a national movement, may have raised the stakes significantly.

Derrick Harder, the current president of the Simon Fraser Students’ Society (SFSS) experienced the CFS first-hand when he initially ran for elected office in 2003. Harder was running on a slate called Access Coalition. He lost that year, but when he became a journalist with SFU’s student paper, the Peak, he wrote about his experience in his column, called “The Harder Line.”

In the article “Federation blues” (Nov. 6, 2006) he wrote, “Our platform was a cookie-cutter list of Federation campaigns and slogans . . . Our campaign plan was drafted by a former BC-CFS chairperson . . . Our senate posters were delivered with the same former B.C. chairperson in a Kinko’s box — again, we had no involvement in their creation.”

Harder believes that the winning slate from 2006, called Common Sense, was aligned with CFS. Last summer, that council came under controversy after Hattie Aitken, a permanent staffer, was terminated. A group entitled Students for a Democratic University alleged that she was fired to make it easier for the SFSS to adopt the CFS-Services National Health Student Network for graduate students, a rival health plan had been put in place in the spring. Harder, among others, led the charge to have the president, Shawn Hunsdale, and his entire council impeached. They were successfully ousted, and in January Harder was elected as the new SFSS president.

Yes, Mr. Kissinger, vicious indeed.

Harder no longer criticizes the CFS as heavily as he once did, though the SFSS council is currently taking preliminary steps to review their CFS membership, with an eye to possibly holding a pull-out referendum.

“The problem is,” he told me, “that anybody who comes into office as the representative of students on this campus then needs to somehow work in a good-faith relationship with a group of people, at the provincial level, who wouldn’t under any situation be our natural allies.”

National chair Amanda Aziz laughs at the notion that the CFS is trying to consolidate power. “The policies of the Federation are the policies that are put forward by the student unions,” she told me over the phone.

“Certainly, board members are going to disagree about ways forward for local initiatives . . . [but] I don’t understand how someone would say that someone is putting policies of the CFS before local students, because ultimately those students are the CFS, right?”

Within the CFS, however, at least at the national level, many of the people making decisions are not students.

Among these whispered-about CFS insiders in the corridors of power, no figure cuts a greater profile than Philip Link.

Link is currently executive director of CFS-Services, which is a separate legal entity, but has virtually identical constitution and bylaws as the CFS. He has also served as executive director of the B.C. component of the CFS. He was last a student in the early 1980s.

Link's past, which is colourful, to put it gently, includes two convictions on mischief charges in 1986 and 1989, as well as an assault conviction in 1989. In 1997, he was again tried on assault charges, this time for an incident involving a female CFS national Aboriginal students' representative; Link was acquitted.

Ben West, former chairperson of the Capilano College Students' Union in North Vancouver, B.C., said that it is believed Link was essential in building the federation up to what it is today.

The group of CFS loyalists do exert a significant . . . influence on many students’ unions in Canada . . . And they do so in furtherance of the ideology of, and in furtherance of the wealth and power of the Federation.”

— Titus Gregory, studentunion.ca

After the CFS general meeting this past November, a delegate from prospective members the Student Society of McGill University expressed concern to the McGill Daily about the apparent influence of the permanent staff: ÒIt seemed like the staff was more involved than the [national] executive.Ó The delegate added: ÒEspecially in terms of democratic process, it's a lot more difficult to have a check and balance on a staff member than an executive.Ó

That the organization's staff -- who are far from being ÒstudentsÓ at all -- are perceived as running the Canadian Federation of Students, has led many to believe it is no longer an organization only interested in students.

The "CFS insiders" Titus Gregory refers to are often individuals who have been federation-friendly for some time, whether or not they have an official position within the organization, and often jump from school to school. Individuals such as Jeremy Salter, president of the Continuing Education Society at Ryerson and former president of Lakehead University Students Union. Salter was chief returning officer at a York Federation of Students election before being hired as YFS general manager.

West -- who believes in the federation's principles, but has been critical of it on certain points -- has run for positions within the organization: CFS-BC chairperson, B.C. national representative and to sit on the board of Travel CUTS, which is owned by CFS-Services.

He was never elected and says he was criticized for running because he had not sufficiently worked his way up in the organization. Although he had a senior position in his student union and a number of years experience working with the CFS, he says he never felt that he had a fair shot when running.

According to the McGill Daily, most people running for elected positions at the CFS November general meeting were uncontested.

The “CFS insiders” Titus Gregory refers to are often individuals who have been Federation-friendly for some time, whether or not they have an official position within the organization, and often jump from school to school. Individuals such as Jeremy Salter, president of the Continuing Education Society at Ryerson and former president for Lakehead University Students Union. Salter was chief returning officer at a York Federation of Students election before being hired as YFS general manager.

Ben West — who believes in the Federation’s principles, but has been critical of them on certain points — has run for positions within the organization. He ran for the position of CFS-BC chairperson, B.C. national representative and to sit on the board of Travel CUTS. He was never elected and says he was criticized for running because he had not sufficiently worked his way up in the organization. Although he had a senior position in his student union and a number of years experience working with the CFS, he says he never felt that he had a fair shot when running.

According to the McGill Daily, most people running for elected positions at the CFS’ November general meeting were uncontested.

Banners are fun, and posters are, too. “Freeze the Fees!” “Lower Tuition!” Devin King told me that the perception students have of their union was that they only come out of hibernation for the CFS Day of Action, an opinion echoed by many students I spoke with on our campus about UMSU. Students generally express only a passing interest in student politics because they are, after all, only passing through. They may not care much for specific, on-campus issues, but a poster that basically shouts “Pay less money!” is always going to generate a positive reaction. “Honk if you like cookies!” works on the same principle. This is how the CFS created a banner empire.

If the CFS did indeed block the UWSA referendum on increasing fees for the Duckworth Centre, it shows how adamant the organization is about promoting its one overriding principle, promise, and raison-d’être: lower fees. The same thing could be seen recently on our campus, during the campaign to increase tuition fees for the faculty of engineering. The “no” side was supported by UMSU, and “no” posters and banners in University Centre bore the CFS colours. Ultimately, engineering students voted in favour of the fee increase. An insistence on lower fees is nice, but banners cannot fix crumbling infrastructure.

Those pretty banners may come at a price for student representation. Derrick Harder told me, “The candidates [the CFS] support, in my view, have shown some level of disregard for on-campus issues and the membership in favour of provincial campaigns.”

Ian Boyko, however, insists that member students’ unions are always going to act in their own best interest. He says the CFS has never tried to get one slate voted in for a student election, and has never pressured a union to join. “The Federation doesn’t actively recruit new members, per se. What often happens is student unions who aren’t members see the campaigns of the organizations, or see the services of the organization and want to know more.”

He adds, “It’s not up to me to say what the will of the student unions that comprise the Federation are.”

Boyko refused to answer my questions about the possibility that CFS principles were overshadowing specific issues facing local unions. Amanda Aziz insisted on repeating her stock answer.

“When you say ‘the CFS’ that is, like, every student that is a member.”

The problem with this answer is that not every student can attend a CFS general meeting, and therefore influence the organization’s policy. Only a selected students’-union delegate can. What is perhaps more troubling, at least to myself, is that members of the student press are also not allowed to attend the Federation’s general meetings. Requests by Canadian University Press and the McGill Daily to attend the November meeting were denied.

Devin King, for his part, is still struggling to get through school, as so many students are. He speaks fondly of entering “the teaching world” after next year. King still entertains the possibility of getting involved in student politics in the future, though in some other form. For now, he is satisfied with his decision to leave the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association.

As the dark roast coffee in my cup reached its conclusion, and our rendezvous did the same, King told me why he believes the CFS has grown in power. “I suspect part of that is apathy. At some point no one was focused on what the CFS was doing except for a small amount of people. They’ve managed to create the organization’s image and what it is . . . So now it’s at the point where they have the power, and they’ve managed to get enough people on side with their opinions, UMSU and the UWSA included, that no one questions them. And now no one is questioning them.”