The University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) might have dumped the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) on a national scale, but when it comes to the provincial division, the two are still legally tied together — at least for now.
Justice Elaine Adair of the Supreme Court of British Columbia gave her ruling Aug. 9, stating that “based on a proper consideration of CFS-BC bylaws . . . termination of membership in the CFS does not have the effect of automatically terminating members of the CFS-BC,” according to the term of order.
Despite the recent date of the hearing, the case stems from a March 2011 referendum in which 3,255 students voted “no” to continued membership in the CFS, beating out 1,361 students who voted “yes,” as reported in the Martlet.
The question did not specify whether the term “CFS” was meant to refer to the national or provincial body. Nevertheless, Emily Rogers, chair of the UVSS board of directors, said it was students’ mandate to leave both.
“The understanding from students was that they were voting on both organizations,” she said.
To the CFS-BC, it’s not the referendum question that matters in this case, rather, it’s the process that led up to it.
Before a referendum to de-federate can take place, CFS-BC bylaws dictate a petition signed by at least 10 per cent of individual members must be served to the federation’s executive committee. The petition organizers from UVSS only filed notice with the national branch.
“What it said in the ballot is kind of irrelevant,” CFS-BC communications co-ordinator Ian Boyko said. “It would be bizarre to recognize a process that is specific to another organization, [and] that was never raised with our board of directors.”
But Rogers argued there was good reason for the way UVic students proceeded.
“We never signed up for CFS-BC. We only signed up for CFS national and automatically got put into CFS-BC . . . it was the nature of the agreement,” she said.
“If you leave Canada, it’s assumed you leave Victoria. Or, if you leave UVic, you don’t need to email the students’ society and be like, ‘Hey, I’m not a member anymore.’”
Regardless, Rogers said UVSS accepts the court judgment, and there’s nothing left to argue about. However, that doesn’t mean everyone is taking the ruling lying down.
José Barrios, an organizer of the original petition, confirmed he’s already collecting signatures for a new petition — this time, one that’s explicitly aimed at triggering a referendum on continued membership in the CFS-BC. He said he’s collected over 2,000 signatures so far. That’s a couple of hundred more than necessary, just in case.
In Boyko’s eyes, this is a mistake.
“A lot of people don’t quite appreciate what a provincial student federation is and does,” he said. “The real question is: is working with 15 other student unions valuable to affecting change or is it better done in isolation?”
This ruling comes at a time in which the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) is distancing itself from the CFS in certain respects. CUSA did not use CFS agendas this year for the first time in five years, and did not attend last month’s CFS-Ontario annual general meeting.
While vice-president (finance) Michael De Luca said a referendum is “a very low priority” for CUSA, he also assured that in 2009, in advance of a potential referendum, Carleton students successfully submitted both a national and a provincial petition.
“Carleton does already have that part of the process done,” he said. “So if one day students thought we should leave the CFS, half the battle is done and we just have to pick up where we left off.”
Should that ever occur, Rogers offered up some advice from the UVSS. “Follow the bylaws by the letter. That’s all I can say.”
