UVSS votes down motion to support CFS reform package

The UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) Board of Directors has voted down a proposal to endorse a package aimed at fundamentally reforming the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

The package will be considered at the CFS Annual General Meeting (AGM), taking place at the end of November. The UVSS, who will be sending four delegates to the AGM, made the decision at their Nov. 16 board meeting.

The reform package, consisting of 43 motions, was created by student union executives at McGill University, Concordia University, Kwantlen Polytechnic, the University of Calgary and the Alberta College of Art and Design. It has been offered as a possible solution to rising discontent with the CFS. Petitions for referenda on defederating from the organization have been circulated at 13 universities and colleges, including UVic.

The reform package includes motions to disclose salaries of national CFS executives and staff, institute question periods at AGMs, separate the boards of the CFS and its corporate arm, CFS-Services, limit the number of years staff can work in the organization, review the effectiveness of CFS campaigns, cease lawsuits against student unions that voted to defederate and appoint an independent judicial board to supervise all legal action.

Two final motions call for the impeachment of CFS Deputy Chairperson Noah Stewart-Ornstein and the dismissal of CFS Services Executive Director Philip Link.

At the Nov. 16 UVSS board meeting, Director-at Large Kelsey Hannan proposed the UVSS endorse all but one of the motions in the reform package.

Hannan’s motion also urged UVic’s delegates to support the reform package, describing it as a “legitimate attempt to reform the CFS.”

This would be a non-binding directive, explained Director-at-Large Nathan Warner, “but since the whole board can’t go, it’s good to tell delegates how the whole board feels about this.”

But some board members believe the package could do more harm than good.

“After reading many of the motions, I believe the reform package is not created to reform the CFS, rather to destroy it, almost like union busting,” said Director-at-Large Meghan Shannon.

Director-at-Large Brodie Metcalf, who will be one of the UVSS’ delegates to the CFS AGM, said he either has concerns or needs more information about most of the motions in the reform package.

Finance Director Edward Pullman also objected to the package, saying that the CFS national executive would be swamped with internal work if the motions passed.

“The national exec is being directed to do many things,” said Pullman. “This would effectively paralyze the exec in terms of being able to do any advocacy, any lobbying.”

Hannan’s motion was defeated.

The UVSS isn’t alone in refusing to endorse the CFS reform package.

The McGill Post Graduate Student Society (PGSS) has asked some student unions to endorse the package.

Vancouver Island University (VIU) Students’ Union chair Mikael Jensen responded, saying that VIU delegates “will debate the merits of the motions” at the AGM, and the Union won’t be taking a prior position.

Kimalee Philip, president of the Carleton Grad Students’ Association, said that “the entire document reeks of hypocrisy” and called the PGSS’ actions “malicious” and “divisive.”

One of the strongest condemnations of the package came not from a student union, but from the Canadian Association of University Teachers. The group’s executive director, James Turk, accused the PGSS of trying to “cripple” the CFS.

“Should your motions be successful, it would be a tragic loss for students across Canada,” said Turk. “We hope the membership of the CFS soundly rejects each of your destructive motions.”

Debate over the package has already created serious factions within the CFS itself. After the CFS-Quebec (CFS-Q) publically endorsed the reform package, CFS-National told the Concordia Students’ Union (CSU) to pay its CFS membership fees directly to Ottawa rather than the Quebec component. CSU president Amine Dabchy said he received a letter from the CFS national office saying CFS-Q currently “does not exist.”

National CFS chairperson Katherine Giroux-Bougard has added the package to the AGM agenda, but prefaced it with a letter explaining that some clauses in some motions have been removed since the CFS deemed them “potentially litigious.”