Persistent petitioners are not unique to Carleton University. This year, students at several universities have been petitioning to hold a referendum concerning continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students.
The CFS, formed in 1981, is a student lobby organization that works at federal and provincial levels of government in the interest of post-secondary students.
This year, many student groups have been circulating petitions to hold a referendum so students can vote on whether they want to continue to be a part of the organization or not. In September, the McGill Tribune reported 13 student unions are petitioning to hold a referendum.
The Post-Graduate Students Society (PGSS) of McGill University has been a member of the CFS since 1993 and is one of the founding members of CFS-Q, the Quebec component of the CFS. Now, the society is hoping to revisit the issue of membership.
Ladan Mahabadi, McGill’s PGSS vice-president (external), said in an e-mail to the Charlatan, the CFS has been accused of not accomplishing the goals it sets out, leaving student unions dissatisfied. Each year the CFS collects a fee they say helps fund campaigns such as Drop Fees and other services; the steady increase of tuition fees is one of the various reasons student unions have become doubtful of the organization’s abilities to lobby and achieve what they need.
“Education is a provincial matter and the CFS has not been effective at lobbying for student interests,” Mahabadi said.
“In the case of Quebec, the CFS spends a lot of energy and efforts on mobilization of students for actions, but spends too little time lobbying the Quebec government. In particular, we note that the CFS has failed in achieving tuition reductions across the country.”
Mahabadi said a petition bearing the names of over 960 PGSS members (more than 13 per cent) was delivered to the chair of the CFS asking for a referendum to be held on the question of PGSS’s continued membership in the federation.
Other groups have declined comment on the issue. A representative from the University of Windsor Students Association said “the decision to petition to leave the CFS is one made by each student individually and not by the student association itself. We cannot be responsible for their decisions.”
Mahabadi said the CFS has responded by calling the accusations “a series of false and malicious claims about the federation,” and calls the call for reform at the CFS an “internal matter.”