University of Ottawa undergraduate students voted to join the Canadian Federation of Students last week with an unprecedented voter turnout of 21 per cent. The Referendum Oversight Committee confirmed the Yes campaign won with 52 per cent of the vote.
CFS often raises contention on campuses, and this past election was no exception.
“With a gap of only 250 votes, the fact that the Yes Committee were able to stack its volunteer list with full-time campaigners from Toronto, Laurentien, Carleton, and Concordia completely changed the outcome of this referendum,” said Ryan Kennery, SFUO Board of Administration member and Student Association president.
U of T Student Union president Sandy Hudson admitted that she had spent the last two weeks in Ottawa, but defended her participation due to her executive position in CFS and a more general mandate to unite students.
She treated her two-week absence as a personal vacation—the maximum amount allowed—and clarified later that CFS had paid for the trip.
York Federation of Students president Hamid Osman caught flak for having abandoned the university in the middle of a strike to be in Ottawa.
Other allegations have surfaced of CFS’s direct involvement in the referendum process with the group’s national deputy chair Brent Farrington acting as poll clerk.
The Yes Committee says membership with CFS provides a stronger student movement, citing the National System of Grants approved by the Conservative government for the 2008 year.
Referring to the defeat of the Code of Student Conduct proposed by the University Administration earlier this year, the No Committee insisted the SFUO has already gained major victories for students on campus.
Carleton students will pay CFS $378,000 annually for membership. UTSU has been part of CFS since 2003.
With files from Andrew Louis
