Students look to split unions from CFS

Petitions have been started by students at 15 different universities and colleges to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students.
The York Federation of Students and the York University Graduate Students’ Association are both part of the CFS, a national lobby group representing approximately 500,000 students in different Canadian post-secondary institutions.
Ashleigh Ingle, spokesperson for the defederating Ontario, Central, and Eastern Canada students, says at York, students are working towards defederating the YUGSA from CFS. Apart from York, the students from the other two biggest CFS member schools in Canada, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto, aim to split their student unions from CFS, as announced by a group of organizers from various CFS schools in a press release on September 3.
According to Ingle, other schools are in the early stages of their petitions and are working on a slightly longer timelines to collect signatures.

 “Students are realizing that their interests are not served by [CFS]. We are not walking away from organizing at the national and provincial level; we are creating the space for [lobbying] to happen effectively.”

As of publication, YUGSA could not be reached for comment. Ingle states the petitions are aimed at student unions who are part of CFS to end CFS’s control over local campus affairs, but also to begin discussions about alternatives for provincial and national organizing that keep decision making power in the hands of students.
For example, Ingle says CFS annual general meetings, which are attended by student representatives from member unions are actually dominated CFS staff .
Ingle wrote, “Students are realizing that their interests are not served by [CFS]. We are not walking away from organizing at the national and provincial level; we are creating the space for [lobbying] to happen effectively.”
CFS is famous for their “Drop Fees” campaign that advocates for free tuition, as well as the “No Means No” anti-sexual assault campaign, but has also adopted stances on issues that don’t directly affect students, such as war and refugee health care.
York’s undergraduate students pay CFS $0.24 per credit, while graduate students pay $5.19 a year if they are taking full-time studies.
Prior to Excalibur’s email on September 4, Jessica Thyriar, president of the YFS had not heard about any petitions to defederate YFS from CFS.

“Our membership is also very involved in the campaigns of the federation, and are always eager to find out ways to get more involved. It is in our member’s best interest to continue being members of the federation,” she says.

Brent Farrington, current CFS spokesperson for internal affairs, says the process for student unions to defederate is simple.
A petition with signatures from 20 per cent of the student body must be gathered, then submitted to the CFS head once, where the names are verified with what the institution has on record. Once the names are checked, a date is set for a student vote on the issue. A simple majority of the constituency must vote to defederate in order for the proposal to go through.
Farrington also notes that only two student unions can hold referendums every three months, meaning that more than two schools can’t attempt to vote to defederate at the same time.
The press release also mentions the creation of a potential new education lobby group, at the national or provincial level, to represent those schools who would leave the CFS table.
Since the initial press release, Ingle says more interest has come in from students across the country, from different schools in British Columbia, the Prairies, and the east coast.
Divyesh Mistry
Copy Editor