SOGS to vote on CFS membership

The Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) of the University of Western Ontario has finalized the dates for its referendum on continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). See the "Notice of Referendum" bellow. 
Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) of the University of Western Ontario - Notice of Referendum on continue...

UPDATE #2 - WTF: URSU referendum results

I decided to take a few minutes this morning to update everyone on just WTF is going on with the University of Regina Student Union's (URSU) referendum results. In case some of the people reading this are unaware of the situation, here's a a brief backgrounder:

1) The URSU held a referendum on continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) from Wednesday 26 October to Friday 28 October 2010.

2) On Friday 29 October 2010, the Referendum Oversight Committee (ROC) released, as you can see on one of my earlier blog postings, this statement on its website.

3) On Saturday 30 October 2010, the URSU tweeted that the referendum results would be released "on Monday (1 November 2010) at the earliest."

4) On Wednesday 24 November, after a long period of silence, the URSU released a statement which can be seen below:

URSU media release: http://ursu.ca/ursu_media?n=967

 5) On 2 December 2010, the URSU released another press release which states that it "will seek a court injunction against the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), in an effort to push forward the CFS referendum ballot counting process."



URSU media release: http://ursu.ca/ursu_media?n=1001

 6) On the same day, The Carillon, the University of Regina student newspaper, reported that little mention of the URSU's referendum was made in the CFS National executive's report. That report was handed out to the delegates attending the recent CFS annual general meeting which took place from Wednesday 24 November 2010 to Sunday 28 November 2010 in Gatineau, QC.


7) In Brief, a podcast by two students, John Cameron and Mason Pitzel, interviewed Mike Burton, one of four members of the Referendum Oversight Committee that overseen the CFS referendum process at the University of Regina (fast-forward to 9:50 to get to the segment pertaining to the CFS referendum). There's one part, at the beginning of the interview, that really bothers me and that I wish to highlight. After being introduced by one of the hosts, Mike Burton says:

I am a member of the Referendum Oversight Committee but, um, just so we're clear, this is not an approved or sanctioned, um, discussion. I've... just come to the conclusion that students deserve to know more than they've been given as of now and so, I'm willing answer questions on that basis.

NOTE: In Brief podcasts © The Carillon - All Rights Reserved - Please visit In Brief under the "Podcasts" section on The Carillon's website.




Here are some other media attention this whole referendum fiasco has been receiving...

The Leader Post: December 3 & December 4

CTV News Regina

Global News Toronto

There will surely be more in the days to come...

Request to be an observer at CFS AGM = IGNORED!

Dave Molenhuis has all the time in the world to protest at the G20 Summit, to post CFS news releases on Twitter but no time to answer my emails

Exactly one month ago today, I sent this email to the Chair of the Canadian Federation of Students Dave Molenhuis. It was a simple, polite request: I asked to be given accreditation as an official observer at the upcoming CFS annual general assembly (November 24th-27th in Gatineau, QC).

It seems to be becoming more and more common that, when individual members of the CFS demand transparency and accountability from their representatives (both national and provincial), they are either ignored or turned away from AGMs. Gregory Kay is only one example...



Instead of denying the media, the general public and its OWN MEMBERS from attending important forums such as the CFS AGM (where all policy decisions are taken, the national executive is elected, the budget is approved, etc.), maybe the Canadian Federation of Students should in fact open up and embrace those very members who are showing an interest in the organization. Isn't that what "SOLIDARITY" is all about? Oh, I also sent this email to Dave Molenhuis and CFS Treasurer Roxanne Dubois on October 28th 2010 politely asking if they would be so kind as to provide me with a copy of the CFS AGM agenda. Well, I'm sure glad I kept searching for it myself because I have yet to receive any sort of acknowledgement of that message.

Canadian Federation of Students' National AGM Agenda - November 2010

On another note, when legitimate questions about the organization are raised (legal fees incurred from all the lawsuits either initiated by or brought against the CFS, sending numerous CFS employees to to join the "YES" campaigns during referendums on continued membership, simply trying to get a copy of the CFS's budget) are either ignored (which they are much of the time) or answered with unnecessarily aggressive rhetoric, dismissal, changing of the subject and/or unwarranted personal attacks, it's no wonder student unions all across the country are lining up to defederate from the organization.

Voici comment créer une bonne relation avec l'administration

"Remember, Remember, the 5th of November!"

The Cannon - http://www.thecannon.ca/whats_on/activism/2009_10_15/drop_fees_for_a_poverty_free_ontario_organizing_meeting

Aucune manifestation "À bas les frais!" a eu lieu cette année à l'Université d'Ottawa. Pourquoi? Selon Amalia Savva, l'organisatrice des campagnes à la FÉUO, qui parlait avec Isabelle Larose, une journaliste de La Rotonde, « [c]e n’était pas nécessairement le moyen le plus efficace et le nombre de manifestants diminuait depuis les dernières années. »

Une semaine plus tard...



Mayank Bhatnagar Graphic Reflections.org

 C'est une situation qui, encore une fois, met en question la transparence et la responsabilité de la Fédération Canadienne des Étudiant(e)s (FCÉÉ). Entre les 26 et 28 octobre 2010 dernier, l'Université de Régina a eu un référendum portant sur son adhésion au sein de la FCÉÉ. Les bureaux de scrutin ont fermé vers environ 21h le jeudi 28 octobre 2010.
Nous sommes maintenant le vendredi 5 novembre 2010. Les résultats n'ont encore pas été annoncés et les étudiantes et les étudiants de l'Université de Régina attendent toujours impatiemment. Il m'a été dit, par une source très impliquée dans le référendum, qu'il y a avait des questions concernant l'éligibilité de plusieurs étudiants et qu'ils devaient vérifier l'éligibilité de ces derniers avant d'annoncer les résultats. Le mercredi 3 novembre le Comité de surveillance du référendum avait en main cette liste et attendait pour les deux autres membres du comité du côté de la FCÉÉ, soit Lucy Watson et Ben Lewis, de revenir à Régina pour effectuer le compte.

Pourquoi ce manque d'organisation de la part du FCÉÉ. Ce n'est pourtant pas la première fois que cette dernière entreprend un référendum et cela ne sera pas le dernier non plus...

UPDATE - WTF: URSU referendum results

Alright, so there still hasn't been any results released as of 3:00 pm Monday afternoon, November 1st 2010. Furthermore, I checked the URSU Referendum Oversight Committee's website this morning and I was still able to access it. Well, between now and then, the site has been disabled.

Key words added to the URSU's Twitter message: AT THE EARLIEST. This definitely brings up many questions. Let's hope for some answers.

UPDATE: An article published by Leader-Post which explains the situation

UPDATE: For the benefit of the reader, here's a picture of the the ROC's website page; It seems to go off and on the air sporadically.

Did Dave Molenhuis mislead the Standing Committee of Finance?

When Dave Molenhuis appeared before the Commons Standing Committee of Finance on October 20th 2010 as part of the Government's pre-budget consultations, he was asked this question by Bloc Quebecois MP Daniel Paillé:

Mr. Chair, my question is for the Canadian Federation of Students. First of all, I would like to know why your Association only has four universities and one CEGEP from Quebec, and no French-speaking association, whether it be from Université du Québec, Université de Montréal, HEC, École Polytechnique de Montréal or CEGEPs.

Molenhuis promptly (and strategically) played the independence card:

I thank the member for the question.Very briefly, it's part of the founding principle of the student movement in Canada to respect the right of students in Quebec to self-organize. There are student unions that have been formed in the province that we certainly work in partnership with. It was only a recent development actually that students in Quebec had expressed an interest in joining the national student movement. We still do work with La Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec as well as the CEGEP organization, La Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec.

Really? "It was only a recent development actually that students in Quebec had expressed an interest in joining the national student movement."

That's odd? I was sure that, at one point not too long ago, there was a wing of the Canadian Federation of Students in Québec. Ohhhh! Right! I guess Mr. Molenhuis wouldn't want to bring up this little hiccup with its former CFS-Q. Furthermore, I would assume that it would be slightly embarrassing to have to admit that a number of institutions, including three from the province of Quebec, are involved in lawsuits with the CFS.