SAC divided over joining left-wing student union

Student politicians are divided on the issue of whether or not to join the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). U of T will hold a vote on joining the organization, most likely in November.

The CFS currently represents 400,000 students at universities and colleges across Canada. Its supporters say it is an effective organization that has worked to achieve tuition freezes through research, lobbying, and protests.

Its detractors say the CFS is a confrontational organization that is effectively ignored by policymakers at the federal and provincial level, and has squandered its political capital on pet causes that do not represent the views of average students.

In addition, four Canadian universities are suing the CFS, in a bitter fight over the CFS-owned travel agency Travel Cuts.

Currently, the U of T is a prospective member, which means that U of T students do not pay the $12 membership fee that full CFS member schools pay.

Joel Duff, the Ontario chair of the CFS, is eager to get the U of T to join his organization: “I think it’s high time students at the U of T sat down and said, let’s work together.”

Duff said the strength of his organization is in its three-pronged approach, which he said involved research, an aggressive government relations strategy, and mobilizing students in mail-in campaigns and protests.

“U of T going on its own cannot shape government policy. Full stop,” Duff said. “There’s no reason a minister of education or a premier of a province would listen to one student union,” he added, noting that joining a larger student union is necessary to get U of T’s message across.

He said protests were only the most visible part of CFS’ activity, but that lobbying efforts have garnered the attention of governments across Canada.

Duff denied that becoming a member of the CFS meant abandoning some of U of T’s freedom to act in its own interest.

“Where the situation is national…we co-ordinate with our offices around the country,” Duff said. “But we can use a provincial strategy to deal with unique questions,” he added.

“It allows student unions to focus more on becoming the experts on local issues,” Duff said.

Duff dismissed the Travel Cuts lawsuit it is fighting against Western, the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia and Queen’s University as a political trick by CFS opponents.

“They think they’ve stumbled on some technicalities” relating to the formation of CFS in 1981. Before the CFS existed, Travel Cuts was being operated by a group of Canadian universities. When the CFS formed, it took over the assets of Travel Cuts.

“If there are technicalities [in the asset transfer,] they don’t jeapordize ownership of Travel Cuts,” Duff said.

“Essentially, what this is is a political manoeuvre to undermine the national student movement.”

Alex Kerner, past president of SAC, agreed with Duff.

“The reality is, [the lawsuit] won’t affect U of T at all” if it chooses to join the CFS.

Kerner pointed out that York University, a large school that faces many of the issues U of T does, is a CFS member.

“Some of the U of T undergrads have gotten the rawest deals around,” Kerner said, calling into question how much one student union can accomplish on its own.

“Students across the country can be more effective together,” Kerner said.

But Rocco Kusi-Achampong disagrees with his predecessor. The current SAC president thinks joining the CFS is a bad idea.

“Conceptually, the Canadian Federation of Students is a great thing,” Kusi-Achampong said. “Practically, the CFS is an absolute disaster.”

“They’re involved in a nasty lawsuit with four schools I would hold in repute with U of T,” he said, noting that the lawsuit might make the CFS look at U of T’s 34,000 full-time undergraduates as a revenue stream. “We are the largest university in the country… They need us more than we need them. As a matter of fact, we can do anything we want on our own, in terms of lobbying,” noting that the provincial Liberals and Progressive Conservatives have asked for SAC’s input on education policy.

Kusi-Achampong thinks U of T should continue lobbying for its interests on its own. “The money that would be going to them could be coming to SAC, as a result of the SAC fee increase, and effectively run the student council better.”