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| Delegates at the CFS semi-annual general meeting used #fcee12 as their Twitter hashtag |
Before I begin, I would like to welcome the newly elected Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) executive. Ethan Plato (President), Adam Gilani (Vice-president Finance), Anne-Marie Roy (Vice-president Communications), Kate Hudson (Vice-president Student Affairs), Jozef Spiteri (Vice-president Social) and Elizabeth Kessler (Vice-president University Affairs) began their mandates on Tuesday May 1, 2012.
Also, outgoing SFUO Vice-president Finance (2010-2011, 2011-2012), Sarah Jayne King, recently began her mandate as the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS-O) chairperson replacing two-time CFS-O chairperson, Sandy Hudson. Here's a video of Ms. King speaking in Toronto, at George Brown College, during a "Casserole March" on Tuesday June 5, 2012. Her speech is pertinent to this post.
I think it goes without saying that I have been following the Quebec student strike (or boycott) very closely. I have been working on a comprehensive historical timeline of events which led up to the beginning of the current strike which began in the middle of February 2012. I will attempt to complete it within the next few days so stay tuned! If you follow me on Twitter (
@climbrandon) you will see when I publish new blog posts!
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| The infamous "carré rouge" which became the symbol of the 2005 Quebec student strike |
Now, during the recent Canadian Federation of Students' (CFS) semi-annual general meeting, which took place in Gatineau, Quebec from Thursday May 31 to Sunday June 3, 2012 at the Palais des congrès de Gatineau, a number of motions were passed by the delegates. I would like to point out one motion in particular which I found to be of great interest which easily passed during the closing plenary. The CFS delegates voted in favour of making a $30 000 contribution to the
Independent Legal Fund in support of the Quebec Student Strike (Fond légal indépendant de soutien envers la Grève étudiante du Québec) which is managed by the
Dawson Student Union (Local 108 of the Canadian Federation of Students). The "
bylaws" governing this legal fund (only available in French) outline its objectives:
a) To collect financial donations for the purpose of support the Quebec student strike;
b) To seek out new sources of financial support;
c) To administer the Fund's resources;
d) Give, or lend, partially or in full, the resources associated to the Fund.
I will be attempting to get more information on this so-called "independent fund" in the days to come and will update this post as needed.
In the years since the SFUO joined the CFS, I have been particularly interested in the way this organization manages students' money. It is quite interesting that the only member local left in Quebec, Dawson Students' Union, will be receiving such a significant amount of money to help fund the legal defense of people who, in many cases, have broken the law. This is not to say that every single person that has been arrested since the beginning of the student strike has committed a criminal offense. To the contrary, many have been written up after having been at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, myself having attended a protest in Gatineau, Québec a few weeks back, I witnessed behavior that was disappointing to say the least. People dressed in black CFS "Drop Fees" t-shirts who had their faces nearly completely covered (some of which hold prominent elected positions within the uOttawa governing bodies) attempted throughout the rally to impede police cruisers from following the crowd. They did so by moving orange construction barricades into the path of the police cruisers. Some even decided it would be smart to grab the large construction pylons and throw them in the middle of the road or even into the ditch. I also witnessed these same protesters (clothed in black) grab cans of red spray paint from their backpacks and begin to draw red squares on government building signs. This type of behavior is completely unnecessary and, in fact, was quite out of place that night considering the festive nature of the protest. In my opinion, if students' money is to go towards defending people who have been accused of committing such criminal acts, the CFS should not have donated a cent to this legal defense fund. Of course, delegates passed another motion condemning the infamous Bill 78 (which was wise, in my opinion). The same motion also called on students to engage in "direct action and civil disobedience" in order to contest the law. Since both these concepts could be defined differently by different people, some may conclude that the motion is calling for people to break the law. If someone disagrees with a particular law and question its constitutionality, there exists ways by which to legally contest the law as have done the FEUQ, FECQ and CLASSE.
All this to say that the CFS has had little influence on the events that have taken place in Quebec since the beginning of the student strike. This, for an organization that purports to be a national student organization must put the leadership in a very uncomfortable situation. At least there appears to be some sort of admission that the rest of Canada is nowhere close to being prepared to initiate such a strike/boycott, never mind make it last over 100 days. I don't believe that such a strike will ever occur elsewhere in Canada and, in my opinion, the chances that students in Ontario will initiate a strike in September 2012 is even less likely than in other provinces. My reasoning behind my last statement is relatively simply but will not be addressed at the present time.
As always, your comments/questions are welcome and encouraged!
