The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) annual general meeting running the weekend beginning Nov. 22 included three motions brought by Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA).
The meeting is one of two that happen every year and has representatives of the local CFS member unions across the country come together to discuss and vote on motions.
“It’s a very interesting environment . . . I see a lot of people you don’t see otherwise,” GSA president Grant MacNeil said.
One motion the GSA brought forward was for the CFS to donate “at least” $1,000 for residents of the Attawapiskat First Nation who were displaced due to a fire in a housing complex.
The motion was brought forward by a Carleton student, who is also a member of the CFS National Aboriginal Caucus, MacNeil said.
The same student originally asked the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) to be sent as their delegate, but was turned away.
CUSA president Alexander Golovko said they did not send a delegate at all because of an incident between CUSA executives and the CFS in May 2013 at the bi-annual CFS meeting.
The executives were barred from entering the meeting, due to alleged unpaid fees of around $100,000, Golovko said.
For this reason they chose not to attend the annual conference this time around, he said.
“If the Canadian Federation of Students is not allowing execs of CUSA to attend the meetings and represent the 23,000 members we have here in our campus, then they will not allow anybody else to attend either. It made sense in our books,” he said.
Golovko said he referred the student to the GSA, who were attending the meeting.
Many motions discussed at the general meeting were related to taking official stances on issues such as the Saint Mary’s University frosh chants, endorsing various causes, and donating money to causes such as the recent typhoon in the Philippines.
Another motion the GSA brought to the meeting was related to the Canada Social Transfer, which is a federal payment that supports post-secondary education.
Another added a mention of discrimination of teaching and research assistants to CFS policy.
MacNeil said though the meeting was exhausting, it was worth it.
“I enjoy the atmosphere, but it is tiring,” he said.
Carleton undergraduate students paid $8.47 each to the CFS through tuition fees in 2013-14, according to CUSA’s listing of fees and levies, and a further $7.06 each to the CFS’ Ontario provincial component. θ
