UVic GSS gives referendum notice to CFS

Following the most recent Annual General Meeting of the CFS-BC in August, what was originally an independent effort became an official GSS campaign and a new (includes latest concerns regarding CFS) petition drive was initiated at the beginning of the new school year.
https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~incet/GSS/PetitionFinal.pdf

The GSS delegates did continue efforts to ensure proper financial management and controls put in place as well as adequate representation of the interests of graduate students at the meeting in August. However, their efforts saw a strong resistance as it was the case for the past few years and resulted in no genuine remedies.

By last Friday, (required) 10% of the members of the GSS had signed the petition and the GSS sent a notice of referendum to CFS along with a notarized copy of the petition. According to the Canada Post, CFS-BC has received the notice on Monday. CFS National office in Ottawa on the other hand was somehow closed on Monday, so the delivery could not be made, but a notice of delivery was left.

The referendum is scheduled to happen in March 2008 when UVic grads will get a chance to find out all about the CFS and make their decision on whether they would like to continue their membership to CFS.

UVic GSS is not the only member student association of CFS that is going on referendum to defederate. Simon Fraser Student Society, Kwantlen Student Association, Concordia Graduate Students' Association and Cape Breton University Students' Union have all given notice recently as well and will be holding referendum in March 2008.

The Campaign

https://particle.phys.uvic.ca/~incet/GSS/Petition.pdf

STATEMENT:
This is a petition campaign for a referendum to defederate from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Supporting this campaign by signing the petition does not mean you are defederating from the CFS. It will only mean (if required signatures collected) there will be a referendum giving all graduate students at UVic the opportunity to re-evaluate their membership to the CFS. Below, you will be presented with reasons why you shall support this petition and review your membership to the CFS.

FACTS:

• You are a graduate student at UVic.
• You are a member of the Graduate Students’ Society (GSS).
• GSS membership fee is $55.67 per semester as of May 2007 collected along with your tuition.
• GSS has voted to join the CFS in 1997, and started collecting fees on behalf of the CFS in 1998.
• $7.50 of the GSS membership fee per semester, as of May 2007, goes to the CFS. CFS National receives half and the other half goes to the provincial component CFS-BC. Approximately $45,000 a year goes to CFS.
• CFS-BC has not provided audited financial statements to the members for the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 fiscal years and therefore not in compliance with the Society Act of British Columbia.
• CFS Services loaned approx. $400,000 to the Douglas Student Union (DSU).
• CFS-BC loaned approx. $200,000 to the DSU.
• CFS National spent in 2005-2006 fiscal year about $300,000 for lawsuits.
• GSS Graduate Representative Council (GRC) formed a committee to review CFS membership in February. The committee did report to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in March and recommended a referendum on CFS membership of the GSS: http://hepweb.phys.uvic.ca/~incet/GSS/GSSMRC_Report.pdf http://hepweb.phys.uvic.ca/~incet/GSS/GSSMRC_AppendixA.pdf http://hepweb.phys.uvic.ca/~incet/GSS/GSSMRC_AppendixB.pdf Note that CFS Campaigns and Services section is missing in Appendix A as there was no electronic copy of it. One can see CFS website: http://www.cfs-fcee.ca/html/english/home/index.php or inquire the paper documentation from the GSS general office.

REASONS:

• CFS-BC has not presented audited financial statements to the members for the fiscal years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, although it is required to have the audit ready for the first AGM immediately after the fiscal year end, which is about 6 months later. Financial health of an organization like the CFS is arguably the most important building block of its existence and efficiency. Members of the CFS need to know if the fees they have paid for the representation of their interests is spent efficiently and the only sure way of knowing the financial health of the CFS-BC is to look at the audited financial statements. Members of the CFS-BC have been approving budgets (new expenditure) without knowing how the CFS-BC did in the previous year financially. CFS-BC leadership does not seem to worry about the audit and continue to provide (rather funny actually) excuses to the concerned members. At the most recent AGM in January 2007, they yet again did blame the auditing firm for the audits not being ready. Ironically enough, they were still satisfied with the performance of the auditing firm that they did recommend the same auditing firm for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Fortunately, the recommendation was not accepted and the decision was tabled until the audits from previous years delivered.

• CFS Services and CFS-BC combined granted loans of approx. $600,000 to the DSU despite proven (by forensic audit) financial mismanagement at the DSU. CFS-BC loaned about $200,000 to the DSU, knowing there was financial mismanagement at the DSU and even the Douglas College was not releasing the fees collected from students on behalf of the DSU. Global TV had three stories regarding the DSU and CFS loan issue: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnbzw_dsu-cfs-corruption-1 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnc1a_dsu-cfs-corruption-2 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xnc22_dsu-cfs-corruption-3 Aside from the fact that the massively large amounts of student money being loaned, the way these moneys loaned are highly questionable. First $100,000 loaned by the CFS-BC was not authorized the CFS-BC executive council. It was authorized by God knows who and later “retroactively” approved by the executive council. The loan given by CFS-BC (possibly the CFS Services as well) was not secured meaning no written document of any kind that guaranteed pay back of the money. GSS brought forward the following motion at the CFS-BC AGM in August 2006 regarding the loan: “Whereas questions have been raised regarding the CFS BC loan to Douglas College Student Union; and Whereas it is in the interest of all democratic Societies to ensure proper procedures are followed in financial management; Be it resolved that the BC CFS direct the auditor to prepare a formal report to the BC CFS Executive on the amounts loaned, contracts signed and decision-making processes in regards to all funds loaned to the Douglas Student Union; and Be it further resolved that the auditor's report is presented to the September 2006 BC CFS Executive meeting and reported on to the February 2007 BC CFS SAGM." This motion was found to be so offensive that it was not even discussed at the meeting (Objection to Consideration, Robert Rules of Order). Instead the GSS delegate who presented the motion at the meeting (actually finance committee meeting at the AGM) faced serious hostility. By the way, Mr. Philip Link (see Global TV video clips #3) who was neither a staff nor a member of CFS-BC was present at the meeting as a "resource" person. I wonder what he knew about the finances of the CFS-BC, while living in Ottawa. Obviously, CFS-BC needed his "expertise" in handling concerned members. Later on GSS has realized that the reason this motion was found to be so offensive was that the loan was not secured. After some hard work (about 3 months) and pressure from the GSS, the loan was finally secured.

• CFS National spent in 2005-2006 fiscal year about $300,000 on legal lawsuits almost all of which against other student unions. Two of the main ones are the TravelCUTS lawsuit which the CFS lost and the lawsuit against the Acadia Students’ Union because they defederated from the CFS. The question is why would an organization that claims to be the name of the student movement in Canada and supposed to represent the interests of the students spend $300,000 on suing other students?

• CFS is formed primarily by undergraduate students. Hence there is a significant lack of graduate student specific campaigns, especially in BC. CFS-BC has run very few (I don’t know of any) graduate student specific campaigns since the GSS joined in 1997 and paid about $200,000 (equivalent) to CFS-BC alone. One can say “Reduce Tuition Fees” campaign do interest graduate students as well, but the success of the campaign is highly questionable considering more than 70% tuition fee increase since 2002. In addition, tuition fee is not the only concern of graduate students. Research funding, space, scholarships, grants, TA wages etc are equally important for graduate students. CFS-BC does try to claim the latest government funding, about $20 million to graduate students half of which in the form of scholarships, to be one of the successes of their lobbying. But in reality, this new funding is the direct result of constant pressure and lobbying from the BC Coalition of Graduate Students (includes SFU, UBC, UNBC and UVic Grads) and the university presidents. In fact, CFS-BC was against such scholarship campaign in principle since there was no needs-based grants program existed in BC. Currently, GSS and the SFU graduate students (they are together with undergrads in the same society) make up 99% of grads in CFS-BC. In a recent SFSS referendum in March 2007, SFU graduate students did get the right to separate and form their own graduate students’ society. This means by the end of this year, UVic GSS will be the only graduate student group in CFS-BC unless SFU graduate students decide to join the CFS. However, considering the review process SFSS went through about the CFS membership and the poll question about leaving CFS getting 78% in favor in the same referendum, it is very unlikely that SFU grads will join the CFS. If the GSS is to be the only graduate student group in CFS-BC, there is no reason for joining forces for strength in numbers.

• Recent CFS-BC AGM I have attended has proven the lack of communication, dialogue and networking between the student societies, and instead seemed to be focusing on the agendas of a few people in CFS who are mostly non-students. Every student union gets one vote at the CFS meetings and the student societies are allowed to send their staff as delegates. Since the main work of the CFS meetings has been conducted at four sub-committee meetings (finance, organizational development, policy review, campign and communications) in parallel sessions between the opening and closing plenaries, those who know the structure of CFS meetings will know at which meeting the most important decisions are made and attend to those meetings. Staff voting rights are very often abused at these meetings. Very simple example is the “Objection of Consideration” motion against the GSS motion above. The objection motion was made by a staff member from another student society. This person and a few others at that meeting are known to be good friends with Mr. Joey Hansen (see Global TV video clips) and one cannot help but think whether this was an act of protecting a friend rather than the name of the CFS-BC and the students.

• CFS has been accused of being too close to NDP (New Democratic Party). I personally have witnessed how the CFS-BC main office in Vancouver operated like another NDP office during the previous provincial elections. Regardless of one’s political view (I am a lefty as well), CFS shall never be or seem to be a partisan organization. Students across the country share similar interests, and regardless of the government in power, they will be fighting for the same interests like reduced tuition and more funding. By being partisan, CFS has lost its effectiveness in lobbying the government. CFS-BC AGMs have consistently had guest speakers from the NDP and never from the current government. CFS-BC leadership claim they invite representatives from the current government, but they don’t show up. This shows that the CFS-BC is not listened by decision makers anymore. The main reason the student societies unite under umbrella organizations like the CFS is to have large numbers so that the governments do listen to students’ concerns and interests.

CONCLUSIONS:
CFS has been and is departing from its original purpose of establishment. It has become an organization providing resources (student money) for personal agendas of a few people (mostly non students). There are no better alternatives to the CFS that exists and unites students from across country. CFS requires serious reforms to become an effective student movement. However the current system is very hostile against such reforms. In any case, the graduate students of UVic shall work actively uniting all graduate students nationally and work in coalition with the other graduate students in BC for the unique interests of graduate students rather than being part of a predominantly undergraduate student organization even if it is reformed. Working with the undergraduate students for common concerns like tuition fees can always happen on a per campaign basis. GSS has been part of the CFS for about 10 years and paid considerable amount of money for representation of graduate student interests. A referendum will at the very least open debate and dialogue whilst also providing members of the GSS with the opportunity to inform themselves of the activities of the CFS in representing the interests of graduate students and to determine whether continued membership to the CFS is of benefit for their interests.

WHAT CAN YOU DO:
You can support the campaign by signing the petition when I show up at your office or at the Grad Centre during lunch hours starting May 14 or by printing out a copy of the petition and collecting more signatures from your fellow graduate colleagues.