Last month, The Varsity reported that a Saskatchewan judge had ruled the results of a student union referendum to join the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) invalid, since the U of S student union executives had disregarded the recommendations of its own elections board to re-run the vote.
The Varsity has now learned that CFS and the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, joint defendants in the case, are considering launching an appeal.
Last week, the USSU executive committee voted to appeal the case “pending the CFS launching an appeal and allowing us to piggyback on their case,” a USSU insider wrote on their personal blog.
“We’re waiting on an opinion from our legal council,” said CFS national treasurer David Hare.
The rub is it will cost USSU $5,500 to launch the appeal, and the union already owes CFS $160,000 in federation back fees, since, as the CFS’s Hare puts it, “it’s our position that they’re a member of the federation,” since CFS endorsed the result of last fall’s contested referendum.
Joey Coleman, a commentator on Canadian campus politics at the University of Manitoba who is critical of CFS, said that “the more CFS appeals this the more students get frustrated with the process, and feel that money is being wasted.”
