"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.

WTF: U of R referendum results?

So, as I wrote in my last post, the polls in the University of Regina's referendum on continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students closed on Thursday night (October 28th). The next day, when the results still hadn't been released, this message appeared on the Referendum Oversight Committee's website.

Then, today, Saturday October 30th 2010, the University of Regina Student Union (URSU) post this message on their Twitter account:

UPDATE: The CFS Referendum results will be released on Monday [November 1st 2010]. If results are provided earlier, we will make sure...

I can only assume that the rest of the sentence goes... This does seem to be quite irregular and may possibly demonstrate a lack of preparedness on the Referendum Oversight Committee. One can only speculate at this moment. I would hope that the ROC's report to be released after the whole referendum process has concluded.

University of Regina's Referendum on Continued Membership in the CFS ends today

Students at the University of Regina will soon find out the fate of their continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. Today was the last day for the University of Regina Student Union's (URSU) members to cast their ballots in the referendum on continued membership if the CFS.

More to come...

Is education really a right?

Well, well, well! What do we have here?!? A new "Education is a Right!" spin-off website highly critical of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Some people think that it's a pretty funny site. However, many CFS supporters have already cried foul and say that the people behind this site are hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet. The Excalibur reported on this yesterday. As many of you may not know, the CFS recently launched their new "Education is a Right!" site promoting its campaigns.

Let the war of words and websites begin!

Rencontre publique du Conseil d'Administration de la FÉUO aujourd'hui

Après une réunion remplie de tension entre les spectateurs et les membres du Conseil d'Administration de la FÉUO, Tyler Steeves, le président de la FÉUO, a annoncé une réunion publique. Cette dernière aura lieu au Café Alt entre 14h et 7h afin de discuter des inquiétudes soulignées hier par plusieurs spectateurs lors de la réunion.

Il sera intéressant de voir quels membres du CA décideront de se montrer la face durant cette réunion.