Carleton undergraduate students voted by a slim margin to retain membership with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) in a referendum that ended Oct. 19.
The CFS is a union that operates on a national and provincial level, lobbying on behalf of 64 university and college student unions across Canada for issues that affect students.
The referendum asked students to vote either “yes” or “no” on whether they’re in favour of the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) continuing its membership with the CFS. The results of the referendum come after a year-long campaign by CUSA to defederate from the CFS.
According to the unofficial results, a little more than 52 per cent out of a total 4,530 participants voted for CUSA to remain as Local 1 of the CFS, a position CUSA has held since 1981.
There was a voter turnout of 17 per cent from 26,321 eligible voters, achieving the minimum of 10 per cent required as per CFS’ bylaws to hold quorum for the referendum. The “yes” campaign won by a difference of only 262 votes.
In an email, Chief Returning Officer (CRO) Steven Gaon said there are still 216 votes that are “unverified ballots” which are currently being processed by Carleton administration.
Unverified ballots are voters who are not listed on a master list of eligible voters, or who had already voted at another polling station out of the five possible stations at Carleton for the referendum when they presented themselves to vote.
“Only when I hear back from the administration official I wrote to, will we be able to complete the ballot count, which I will do in the presence of one scrutineer from each side (CFS and CUSA),” Gaon said.
Gaon added the unofficial results will likely not change after ratification is completed.
David Oladejo, CUSA president, said he was disappointed by the results.
“The defederation process was very exhaustive. The fact that the referendum happened so much later than it was first sought is very telling of the process,” Oladejo said, adding CUSA had first sought to defederate earlier last year.
“Results are always telling, though—they were not one-sided in any manner . . . there is definitely some skepticism about the CFS from students, as shown in the results,” he said.
Nour Alideeb, CFS-Ontario chair, said the results felt like a victory for Carleton students.
“I feel very heartfelt that there are people at Carleton who would like to see this happen, and to see us come back and offer services to students from the CFS,” she said.
Alideeb added the biggest focus for the “yes” campaign was to educate students about the CFS, and the services it offers.
“My favorite part about campaigning is to be able to connect to students on a personal level,” she said. “Being on campus and talking to students on the ground, day in and day out, about how they would like to be included in the national movement was very important.”
Mackenzie Mumby, a third-year public affairs and policy management student, said he voted against CUSA membership with the CFS because of a “lack of fiscal responsibility” in the CFS.
“When an organization doesn’t spend the money I am personally contributing to them, to me, that doesn’t come off that great,” he said. “I hope that despite the CFS’ win, they pick up their act and become a lot more financially responsible.”
Kenneth Aliu, a fourth-year transnational law and African studies student, said while he voted for the “yes” side, he knew the results were “going to be a very close call.”
“People really wanted to know what even the CFS is, and why does CUSA want to take away what seems like essential services,” he said. “The reason I think it was close was because there is a lot of misinformation about the CFS. Students don’t know about the kind of relationship CUSA has with the CFS since 2012.”
“At the end of the campaign, I think the biggest takeaway was engagement from students, which was very nice to see,” Aliu added. “Whether you voted yes or no, the big thing now is that both CUSA and CFS must come together to make sure they support the students with better services.”
Oladejo said despite the loss, he found the referendum educational for students.
“Looking at how many students alone came to vote, that itself is a success. It would’ve been nice to win, but there are many positive takeaways from it,” he said.
“A lot of students don’t know that these are levies that they pay for services. I’m glad the referendum allowed us to educate students about services not just by the CFS, but by CUSA as well.”
According to CRO Gaon, ratified referendum results will be made available later next week.
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