Service centres run by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) are scrambling to get rid of any campaign materials they have been supplied by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).
The move comes after CUSA vice-president (student services) Fatima Hassan sent out an email to service centres asking them to deliver all CFS material they possess to the CUSA office by Sept. 19.
“As a Service Centre employee you are to ensure that your Service Centre is not in possession of any materials produced by the Canadian Federation of Students (“CFS”) or its affiliates,” the letter said.
Service centre co-ordinators said they are liable to be “written up” if they fail to comply with the policy. After three write-ups, service centre employees’ contracts come up for review, and they may be fired, according to one of the co-ordinators.
“[The email] was about how we had to return and bring all of our CFS material to the office by five o’ clock that afternoon, so that they can take it,” said one service centre co-ordinator, who wanted to remain anonymous due to concern for their job.
“They want to take back hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of material, and keep it, and not give it to students,” the co-ordinator said.
CUSA held an all-service centre meeting in May this year, where they informed all service centre co-ordinators they could not purchase any more CFS materials. However, they were not told to turn over all existing CFS materials, according to the co-ordinator.
The co-ordinator said the materials include anything CFS related, like t-shirts, buttons, and posters.
“Now what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to provide this information to students?” the co-ordinator said.
Hassan’s email stated CUSA would prefer to use its own materials, made from the “grassroots,” and not “handed down” by the CFS.
Another service centre co-ordinator, who also wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job, said the letter asked them to not only remove CFS material from their office, but also make sure their volunteers don’t wear any CFS material.
“So we would also have to police our volunteers on what they wear,” the co-ordinator said.
When asked if the service centre complied with the request, the co-ordinator said they had been storing their CFS material in the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) office.
“It leaves students feeling like there are no campaigns to help support themselves, and to help support other students,” said a service centre volunteer who was told to take off a CFS shirt by a coordinator because they didn’t want to get written up.
“I personally feel like there’s nothing to support anymore because we’re not seeking to help marginalized people, we’re playing politics . . . instead of focusing on the people who matter, and the campaigns that can help,” the volunteer said.
GSA vice-president (external) Anna Goldfinch said she had no idea service centres had been asked to turn over all their CFS material, but she had noticed service centres bringing their material up to the GSA office.
“It makes sense now,” she said.
Goldfinch, however, did not mince words when describing CUSA’s latest move, calling it “disgusting.”
“These materials . . . are for things like transphobia, sexual assault, consent,” she said. “It’s important to see how this will affect students, who will be left without these materials.”
The GSA gives funding to all of the CUSA service centres, though Goldfinch was unsure if the GSA had the authority to reverse CUSA’s policy. She also said the GSA did not receive Hassan’s email, something she called “telling.”
The email comes after CUSA vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca approached a GSA table in the Unicentre atrium and asked them to remove buttons, pens and pamphlets for “No Means No” and “Challenge Transphobia and Homophobia” campaigns, according to GSA president Kelly Black.
“This is a space that all students pay for. Essentially CUSA is practicing censorship,” Black said.
“CUSA doesn’t believe the CFS is a transparent organization. We don’t want to support an organization like that nor do we want to accept their products if we think we can make better ones. And we certainly can make better ones,” De Luca said.
Specifically, De Luca said the Challenge Homophobia campaign was “not only… oppressive because it discriminates against biphobia, but it wasn’t built by Carleton students.”
Black said De Luca returned to the table, bringing Hassan with him, and “started sweeping the materials into the box to which [Black] exclaimed, ‘What are you doing?’”
The GSA was tabling as part of the Womyn’s Centre’s Consent is Sexy week.
Black said the GSA isn’t going to take any further action on the table-clearing.
“I mean what’s there to pursue? What I’m going to do is continue to do my job and outreach with the student population on our campaigns and issues,” he said.
Hassan could not be reached for comment at time of publication.
— with files from Jenny Kleininger
