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| Image source: http://www.charlatan.ca/content/cfs-o-grades-ontario-parties-0; Graphic by Adriel Yu |
During the most recent provincial elections, the Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario (CFS-O) evaluated all four of the political parties' platforms and gave each a mark according to their pledges pertaining to post-secondary education funding. Albeit having been called out by the Ontario Liberal Party's campaign chair, Greg Sorbara in this letter, the CFS's response from Sandy Hudson fell far short of what students should expect from an organization that is supposed to defend their best interests. It would seem that the CFS based their "grades" on statements rather than basing them on any hard numbers provided by the parties. Did the CFS-O fail to provide non-partisan information to students when it comes to each political party's post-secondary education policies?
All this to say that, once again, I must give a failing grade to the CFS. I feel it important to denounce the CFS when it comes its policy on who can and who cannot attend its bi-yearly general assemblies. The CFS is holding its annual general meeting in Gatineau, Québec from 22 to 25 November 2011. Interested in attending? Interested in giving your input on how the organization plans to spend your hard-earned money? Interested in seeing what kind of debate actually occurs and the positions that your SFUO delegation takes during these debates? Well, I answered yes to all three of these questions. The SFUO BOA selects one "student-at-large" who then joins the SFUO delegation at the AGM. But, we shall see if someone like me, who voices opinions opposite to those who sit around the board table, will in fact stand a chance against whoever the SFUO executive has already hand-picked as their delegate of choice (N.B. Although this is pure speculation, it should be noted that our current VP Social, Marie-Claude Noël (who had never, ever attended a BOA meeting in her life) was accompanied by the current SFUO president, Amalia Savva during the BOA meeting last fall at which the "student-at-large" was to be selected. Marie-Claude had submitted her name to be the "student-at-large" and was chosen as they needed someone who wouldn't voice their opinion too loud (or at all). She was chosen by the BOA of course which in theory should be considered to be a fair process. Anyways, we shall see this Sunday if the Pro-CFS camp decided to hand-pick somebody or not. Anyways, back to the point of this post. If you didn't want to submit your name to the SFUO BOA for consideration but simply wanted to attend to learn more about the CFS and see how its decision-making process works, well, apparently, you're quite out of luck. On Wednesday, October 5 2011, I sent an email to the brass of the Canadian Federation of Students regarding the organization's upcoming Annual General Assembly to be held in Gatineau, Québec from November 22 to 25 2011:
All this to say that, once again, I must give a failing grade to the CFS. I feel it important to denounce the CFS when it comes its policy on who can and who cannot attend its bi-yearly general assemblies. The CFS is holding its annual general meeting in Gatineau, Québec from 22 to 25 November 2011. Interested in attending? Interested in giving your input on how the organization plans to spend your hard-earned money? Interested in seeing what kind of debate actually occurs and the positions that your SFUO delegation takes during these debates? Well, I answered yes to all three of these questions. The SFUO BOA selects one "student-at-large" who then joins the SFUO delegation at the AGM. But, we shall see if someone like me, who voices opinions opposite to those who sit around the board table, will in fact stand a chance against whoever the SFUO executive has already hand-picked as their delegate of choice (N.B. Although this is pure speculation, it should be noted that our current VP Social, Marie-Claude Noël (who had never, ever attended a BOA meeting in her life) was accompanied by the current SFUO president, Amalia Savva during the BOA meeting last fall at which the "student-at-large" was to be selected. Marie-Claude had submitted her name to be the "student-at-large" and was chosen as they needed someone who wouldn't voice their opinion too loud (or at all). She was chosen by the BOA of course which in theory should be considered to be a fair process. Anyways, we shall see this Sunday if the Pro-CFS camp decided to hand-pick somebody or not. Anyways, back to the point of this post. If you didn't want to submit your name to the SFUO BOA for consideration but simply wanted to attend to learn more about the CFS and see how its decision-making process works, well, apparently, you're quite out of luck. On Wednesday, October 5 2011, I sent an email to the brass of the Canadian Federation of Students regarding the organization's upcoming Annual General Assembly to be held in Gatineau, Québec from November 22 to 25 2011:
To: CFS Chair chair@cfs-fcee.ca; CFS Deputy Chair dchair@cfs-fcee.ca; CFS Treasurer treasurer@cfs-fcee.ca; CFS Web web@cfs-fcee.ca
CC: Amalia Savva president@sfuo.ca; Elizabeth Kessler vp.university@sfuo.ca; Paige Galette vp.communications@sfuo.ca; Amy Hammett vp.student@sfuo.ca; Marie-Claude Noël vp.social@sfuo.ca; Sarah Jayne King vp.finance@sfuo.ca
Date: Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 11:13
Subject: Request to observe the upcoming CFS AGM
Hello,
I am writing to you today in order to request that I be provided with an observer's pass for the upcoming CFS AGM that is taking place from 22 to 25 November 2011 in Gatineau, Quebec. This would give me the opportunity to learn more about and to better understand the CFS. It would also allow me to witness, in person, the democratic decision-making process of the organization in action.
Could you please forward me the AGM's itinerary and any other relevant documentation so I can have the chance to familiarize myself with the motions that are to be presented by various member locals.
Finally, I kindly ask that you acknowledge this message upon receipt.
I look forward to hearing back from you in the very near future.
Thank you very much!
Cheers,Yesterday, Wednesday, October 12 2011, I received the following response from Toby Whitfield, the CFS's National Treasurer:
Brandon Clim
L'École d'études politiques
L'Université d'Ottawa
From: Toby Whitfield t.whitfield@cfs-fcee.ca
To: climbrandon@gmail.com
CC: Amalia Savva president@sfuo.ca
Date: Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 18:14
Subject: Re: Request to observe the upcoming CFS AGM
Hi Brandon,
Thank you for your email.
In the past, observer status has been granted on a case by case basis to student organisations that, at the time, do not represent members of the Federation. At general meetings, students are represented by a delegation from their local students' union, as the logistics of holding a general membership meeting would be unmanageable and inequitable. Member locals are responsible for selecting delegates to attend national general meetings.
I have copied Amalia Savva on this email. Amalia is the president of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa and will be able to advise you on the process to follow to express your interest in attending the meeting.
Regards,
Toby
--
Toby Whitfield
National Treasurer
Canadian Federation of Students
p: 613.232.7394
c: 613.868.9266
f: 613.232.0276
So, albeit being a bit further ahead than last time, the answer provided above by Mr. Whitfield is troublesome to say the least and, if we are to consider this national student organization as a democratic one, absolutely unacceptable. It once again demonstrates the fact that, unless you are "selected" to be a part of your student association's delegation, the rest of the "membership" is not allowed to observe, let alone participate in the decision-making process of so-called democratic organization. On numerous occasions, I have argued that the CFS should make documents such as its annual general meeting's itinerary and all motions being proposed easily accessible on its website for all to consult. In response, I have been told numerous times that I can access such documents by visiting the SFUO office and requesting them. Sure, but I don't want to have to go to the SFUO office every couple of months in order to view these documents. I should be able to access them online, in the comfort of my house, at any time. Therefore, in a subsequent email, I again requested that Toby forward me the AGM's itinerary and other relevant documents since these are not available anywhere on the CFS website. This is problematic as students are not able to consult the motions that are to be presented by various member locals and are therefore unaware about what policies are being debated and inevitably passed during the AGM.
I have also argued that the CFS should welcome any and all media (local, regional, national, student) who wish to cover the proceedings (and let's be honest in saying that there is nothing glamorous about it). However, instead, the CFS allows two student journalists (one English-speaking and one French-speaking journalist) who write for student newspapers that are members of the Canadian University Press (CUP). If the task of covering such a large-scaled conference wasn't already difficult enough for two journalists, it gets better. In the past, before these journalists have been allowed to enter the conference room, they have been forced to sign a document which imposes a variety of terms and conditions that they must observe throughout the time that they are present: speaking to any of the delegates was prohibited until the conclusion the closing plenary, publishing articles about the AGM was prohibited until the conclusion of the closing plenary, the times during which the journalists could be present was extremely limited (they could not be present during the regional caucuses or the Budget sub-committee for example), etc. Now, this is not to say that the CFS is attempting to hide something from its membership. However, it certainly doesn't look very good and inevitably people begin to become suspicious (and justly so) and ask questions.
In closing, I wanted to remind everyone that this Sunday, October 16 2011, the SFUO BOA is meeting at 1:00 pm in Tabaret Hall (uOttawa Senate Chambers) Room 083. It is during this meeting that the motion to eliminate the Student Arbitration Committee (SAC) will proceed to second reading and will likely pass with one or two board members voting against. I encourage you to read the absolutely ridiculous raison-d'être given by Sarah Jayne King (SJK) in regards to the motion (which she presented at the last BOA meeting).
Notable SJK quotes from the article
"The Student Arbitration Committee is something over the past three years we haven’t seen properly filled"
"SAC is an undemocratic body that is not actually accountable to the SFUO in any legal sense and can literally overturn the elections or a referendum process with two people"
I hope to be able to write a piece before Sunday's BOA meeting in order to demonstrate how such pathetic arguments put forward in defence of this motion will inevitably harm the legitimacy of an already badly beaten SFUO.
What are your thoughts about the SAC? Do you believe it should be eliminated and replaced by a Constitutional committee made up of 5 board members? Or, do you believe that the SAC plays an important role as an impartial body, which is made up of students-at-large, that oversees the decisions of the BOA and, for example, can rule on appeals which inevitably surface during SFUO elections?
