CFS meets in Gatineau for Annual general meeting

Nick Taylor-Vaisey, CUP Ottawa bureau chief

OTTAWA (CUP) — At its annual national general meeting, held Nov. 21- 24 in Gatineau, Que., the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) adopted new resolutions, aired internal grievances and rejected the membership of McGill University’s students’ union.

Voting down SSMU

At the opening plenary session, members declined to extend the prospective membership of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) for another year, denying the society a voice in future affairs of the CFS.

According to CFS National Chairperson Amanda Aziz, around 60 per cent of members — led by parts of the Quebec delegation — voted to eject the school about a year after the SSMU joined the organization as prospective members.

Noah Stewart, the vice-president of communication of the Concordia University students’ union, attributed his vote to a belief that SSMU did not want to work with the CFS membership in Quebec.

“We had the Quebec component completely shut down largely because of the action of the SSMU,” he said, referring to the internal turmoil that has paralyzed the Quebec component of CFS.

“[SSMU] has, since joining [the CFS] just over a year ago now, acted in completely bad faith the entire time and undermined the democracy of the component.”

Aziz was surprised by the debate and regretted the decision not to renew SSMU’s membership.

“We, as a national executive, were obviously recommending that the membership be extended. I was certainly surprised to see what was happening,” she said.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk about it as a national executive yet, but I would say most were disappointed that that was the end result of the motion.”

Aziz said those looking to eject SSMU might have been hasty in their action.

“I think that although there was concern for the actions of certain people had been, I am a believer that we’re stronger when we work together. I think that there could have perhaps been some more discussion leading up to the meeting,” she said.

Israel-boycott motion denied

A controversial motion that declared Israel an apartheid state and called on the CFS to “investigate the feasibility” of a boycott campaign against the Middle Eastern country was removed from the agenda entirely.

“I have hard time saying whether that was for the best or not. There was a lot of discussion leading up to the meeting, people were calling about this motion and stating their opinions on the issue,” Aziz said.

“The national executive, on that issue, was very much taking the lead of our members.”

Shortly after the motion was defeated, the CFS received praise from the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Toronto and prominent Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor.

Public-opinion polling

Since 2003, the CFS has commissioned polls to inform its membership of the status of post-secondary issues on the national radar. For the last few years, the chosen pollster has been Decima — the same firm hired by the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

CFS Government Relations Coordinator Ian Boyko presented the results of the latest poll, conducted Nov. 1-12, at the national meeting.

In addition to a “free” question about voting intentions provided by the pollster, participants were asked about the relevance of student issues in their daily lives.

According to the poll, 34 per cent of respondents trust students more than any other education stakeholders when it comes to policy development.

The top priority for post-secondary investment, according to the 2,000 Canadians who participated in the poll, was reducing tuition fees, which received a 55-per-cent majority. Nineteen per cent suggested reducing class sizes, 13 per cent favoured increasing research and 12 per cent thought more spaces for students was important.

The poll also found that a majority, whether student or not, favoured a reduction in tuition fees over a cut to the GST. While the margin has shrunk over the past year — 56 per cent a year ago compared to 50 per cent now — Boyko said the results were still encouraging.

“Everybody in one way or another benefits from a cut to the goods and services tax, at least when it comes to a reduction in the sticker price,” he said.

“There are many people who are done their schooling, or whose kids are done schooling, or who don’t have any kids, and they receive no direct benefit from a tuition-fee reduction. We were pleased to see this is a stronger priority than reducing the GST.”

Boyko argued the service provided by Decima actually advances the student movement.

“We value the data we get back, and it serves many purposes from literally gauging public opinion, giving our activists and our membership a sense that the work that they’re doing is working. In some ways it can be very motivational,” he said.

Newly elected executive

Katherine Giroux-Bougard, the current chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador component, was elected national chairperson.

Brent Farrington was re-elected as deputy chairperson, and current Ontario executive representative Dave Molenhuis was elected as national treasurer.

Giroux-Bougard looked forward with optimism, but admitted that the task at hand — successfully lobbying the federal government — is made harder by the current administration led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“The federal government has been more inclined to implement tax cuts rather than invest in social spending — social spending we need to make post-secondary education accessible,” she said.

Giroux-Bougard attended Concordia University for one year, but said that it wasn’t until she transferred to the Memorial University of Newfoundland and became president of its student union in 2006-07, that she realized how much advocacy was necessary at the pan-Canadian level.

In reference to the internal dissent plaguing the CFS, Giroux-Bougard said some level of disagreement is natural in such a large organization.

“Not everyone is always going to get along. Democracy is not an easy thing, so you can’t expect everyone to come to general meetings and be happy,” she said.

“Part of being a large organization is there are disagreements and different viewpoints, so I guess it’s a challenge, but I think it’s important to make those people feel like they can participate as fully as possible in those discussions.”

Afternoons during the four-day meeting were dominated by educational sessions for the CFS membership. Briefing sessions and panels dealt with a wide variety of issues, including public opinion polling; public-transit advocacy; a review of recent provincial elections; copyright reform; ethical purchasing; and an overview of the post-secondary review conducted in Saskatchewan.