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| Source: Mohawk Trading Post |
This is part one of a multi-part series on why an Ontario student strike won't happen anytime soon (if ever).
Many hardcore student activists, both from Ontario and Quebec, have touted the inevitability of a "Maple Spread": the phenomenon which would see the Quebec student strikes, occurring in many of the province's post-secondary institutions since mid-February 2012, "spread" or be "imported" onto college and university campuses across Ontario in the months and years to come.
Many hardcore student activists, both from Ontario and Quebec, have touted the inevitability of a "Maple Spread": the phenomenon which would see the Quebec student strikes, occurring in many of the province's post-secondary institutions since mid-February 2012, "spread" or be "imported" onto college and university campuses across Ontario in the months and years to come.
This, according to the brass of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, would be the best way to show solidarity towards our student counterparts (or, to use their lingo, "comrades" or better yet "brothers and sisters") in Quebec. With that being said, the Canadian Federation of Students (National) donated $30 000 to a so-called "Independent" Legal Fund administered by the Dawson Students Union (the only CFS-affiliated institution left in Quebec). Furthermore, the CFS-Ontario donated $3,000 to the same fund.
And so, as you can see in my last post, many events have taken place throughout the summer months in an attempt by Ontario student activists to ensure that the "Maple Spread" does in fact occur. Case-in-point: the Ontario-Quebec Student Solidarity Speaking Tour, which kicked off at the University of Ottawa on July 12, 2012, made stops in 9 other Ontario cities (for a total of 10 stops). Full-length videos from the various stops are not numerous. Therefore, if you couldn't be present in person, the content of the conferences is difficult to find.
On May 24, 2012, student activists and community organizers, for the most part based in Toronto and the surrounding area, gathered at Ryerson University to discuss and organize protests in solidarity with the Quebec student strike. The next day, a press conference was held to announce the creation of the Ontario Student Solidarity Network. This network, led by the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario, includes activists from a variety of organizations, including major Ontario labour unions. None of the organizations involved thought to have someone record the press conference. Instead, the CFS uploaded the CP24 coverage of the press conference to YouTube (uploaded on June 14, 2012, the video has received 35 views as of October 15, 2012). If you're like most students, not paying attention to the news media during the summer months, you would likely have no idea that this press conference ever occurred.
Another group, the Ontario Student Mobilisation Coalition, was created and was initially very active both online through the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter & Vimeo) and its website and in organizing events and protests. Initially, the group even went as far as posting its meeting minutes online. However, it should noted that, as time passed, that practice was discontinued. Also, the organization's Facebook group, which was initially an open group (meaning anyone interested in getting involved could freely join), has since become a closed group which limits any new members from freely joining without first having their request to join approved by any of the group's administrators or have a friend (who is already a member of the group) invite them to join.
From July 27-29, 2012, the U of T Graduate Students' Union hosted what was dubbed the "Ontario Student Strike Training Camp". Even less of what happened during this gathering is known, unless of course you yourself attended or know someone who did. If you weren't there, you wouldn't know what was discussed in the various workshops. Therefore, no transmission of information is possible for those who aren't already intimately involved in the so-called "student movement".
Most recently, the CFS-Ontario organized the Ontario Activist Assembly which took place on October 12th and 13th at the University of Toronto. The last CFS-Ontario activist assembly was organized in 2008 (back when the Drop Fees campaign attracted a much larger number of students to CFS Day of Action protests; Even I participated in all the hype!). An article about the gathering appeared in the October 15th issue of The Varsity. According to the article, this event attracted over 450 university and college students from across the province. This activist assembly was fully subsidized by the CFS-Ontario (travel, food, accommodations, etc.) which means membership fees paid by each and every individual student who attends a CFS-affiliated college or university in Ontario. One particular sentence from the article cited above jumped out at me when I read it: "Campus media outlets were not permitted to attend the sessions. 'We ask media not to be recording the sessions or taking notes, simply because we wanted to create space where everyone felt comfortable participating fully, where people can say whatever they wanted without fear of seeing something in the newspaper that they didn't want recorded,' explained (CFS-Ontario Chairperson Sarah Jayne) King." Nothing from the event was live-streamed: none of the keynote speakers' speeches, none of the workshops, none of the events. None of the knowledge transferred during this two-day gathering could be transferred to any interested students if they were not able to be present for whatever reason. One comment posted on the Activist Assembly's Facebook event page read: "How many of my public dollars were spent getting everyone to this event (Free Food Accommodations, and travel). Since most students paid into this (given we are members of the CFS...) I expect a full summary of events." I don't think anybody should hold their breath...
I bring up these various... I'll call them "barriers" to participation in the student movement, that appear to have been erected by certain student activists or groups (purposefully or not), for one simple reason. They ensure the failure of any kind of "Maple Spring" in the province of Ontario.
Since the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has been lobbied by some of its members to take on a major organizing/financial role in hopes of realizing this "Maple Spring", the organization cannot escape scrutiny and/or criticism as former CFS-Ontario communications and government relations coordinator and long-time student activist Nora Loreto might have you believe. In a blog post entitled Ontario's fractured student movement: the wheat from the scabs, she argues that some student organizations in Ontario such as the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), the College Student Alliance (CSA) and, in a subsequent post, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) should be blamed for the weakness of the Ontario student movement. Miss Loreto freely criticizes these organizations, fairly or otherwise, and leaves the reader thinking that the CFS is the victim of the other student organizations' vicious bile and profound hatred. However, Loreto's above mentioned posts deserve their own, standalone post and I will thus not address them here.
Since I first became involved in student politics, there are two things that I have never understood about the largest student organization in the country which claims to represent the English Canadian students: secrecy and exclusivity. Above, I have addressed the perception of exclusivity within the English Canadian student movement. Let me now deal with the perceived secrecy surrounding the way the CFS functions.
Secrecy or lack of communication?
If your student union (SU) or student association (SA) is a member of the Canadian Federation of Students, you should know that the CFS/CFS-Ontario made generous donations to an "independent" legal defense fund which uses these funds to provide legal representation to people who have been arrested or fined during the Québec student uprising. I will not comment on the wisdom of the $30,000 donation made by the CFS and the $3,000 donation made by the CFS-Ontario. However, what I will say is that official information (from the CFS) pertaining to the simple fact that this donation was made is scarce. Only a few blogs/newspaper articles have made allusion to the donation.
The exact wording of the CFS motion, as passed by the general assembly, is as follows (according to another blog):
Be it resolved that efforts by Québec students to maintain an affordable, accessible post-secondary education system be supported including with in-kind and financial support; and
Be it further resolved that a donation of $30,000 be made to the Fonds Légal Indépendant en Soutien à la Grève au Québec to assist students and student unions in Québec with legal costs incurred during the strike against tuition fee hikes; and
Be it further resolved that member locals be encouraged to offer in-kind and financial support to the strike efforts in Québec."
Why couldn't the CFS inform its individual members about this? And when I refer to individual members, I mean the students that make up the CFS's membership; the students who weren't present at the CFS's annual general meeting (May 30-June 3, 2012 in Gatineau, Québec) and who may not even know what the CFS is.
Aside from the information pertaining to this $33,000 donation, let me bring up another similar issue: the non-availability of CFS/CFS-O general meeting minutes, documents, budgets, audits, national/provincial executive meeting minutes online for its individual members. The CFS website is a nightmare to navigate. You can find the CFS' Bylaws, its operation policy, its post-secondary education and its standing resolutions. This is the absolute minimum that one could reasonably expect to be freely accessible online to an organization's membership. But, one persistent criticism that I have brought up on many occasions is the fact that the CFS does not make its important documents freely available ONLINE. However, one provincial component of the CFS, the CFS-British Columbia (CFS-BC) is an exception to this rule. The CFS-BC's website contains its executive committee's report, its budget, its audit, its policies and, finally, its resolutions. This, in my opinion, is a good start and should be used as a model by both the CFS and its provincial components. However, more transparency and most importantly, more accessibility have never really appeared to be important principles for those at the top of the CFS's hierarchy.
