Efforts to leave the Canadian Federation of Students, the biggest student lobby group in Canada, are underway at several universities across the country. Last week, the McGill Daily reported that students at 13 schools are circulating petitions that their schools de-federate from CFS.

The endeavour is still in the early stages: four student unions told The Varsity they were aware of the petition and wanted to remain neutral, while two hadn’t heard about them. The rest did not respond by press time. According to the Daily, petition organizers are disenchanted with the CFS for three reasons.

First, organizers accuse CFS of consistently employing aggressive litigation against student journalists and student unions wishing to de-federate.

“CFS is the most aggressive organization I’ve ever reported on. I don’t mean most aggressive ‘student organization’ but most aggressive organization— period,” wrote Erin Millar, a Maclean’s writer, in a blog post last week.

Three years ago, Millar wrote a piece about CFS’s legal threats against theneditor of the Ryerson Eyeopener, Robyn Doolittle, and editorial staff. Doolittle reportedly received a legal threat two hours before the paper was to publish a story about alleged money advances to Douglas College Union. The Eyeopener went ahead with the story and CFS did not pursue legal action.

“From what I hear, there was slander printed in the newspaper. What would you do if that happens? Ask for a retraction. If that doesn’t happen, make sure that it’s corrected,” responded Sandy Hudson, who is CFS’s national women’s representative and also president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union. “Going to court is a process of finding out whether that’s right or wrong.”

Second, petitioners claim there is a “revolving door” phenomenon between pro-CFS student politicians and the CFS national headquarters. One example they cite is Hamid Osman, former president of the York Federation of Students, who is currently a CFS National executive representative. In November 2008, Osman was criticized for leaving in the middle of York’s strike to campaign at a CFS membership referendum at the University of Ottawa.

Third, organizers say CFS is not effectively transparent and accountable to its member organizations. The former VP external of the Society of Graduate Students at the University of Western Ontario, Dan Dechene, cited transparency as his personal reason for wanting Western to leave CFS.

“It’s an ongoing process,” said Dechene, who is a petition leader. Dechene declined to comment on whether he contacted other student societies to coordinate anti-CFS efforts.

U of T full-time students pay around $12 per year for CFS national and provincial membership, according to Hudson. A CFS representative could not be reached to confirm the figure.

Several student union executives said they are maintaining a neutral stance.

“We received the petition on Thursday,” said Daniel Simeone, president of the Post-Graduate Student’s Society at McGill University. “Assuming the right number of signatures, we are obligated to go forward and hold a referendum.” Simeone said a petition verification process is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 27.

CFS bylaws require that petitions for a member union to split from the federation be signed by at least 10 per cent of that union’s membership. The PGSS currently has 7,000 members, each paying $12 per year for membership.

Other student unions listed by the Daily hadn’t heard about the petition. “We haven’t been contacted by students organizing a referendum,” said Gavin Armstrong, an exec from Guelph’s Central Student Association.

“I think it’s just a rumour,” said Veronica Harrison, chairperson for the University of Victoria Student Society.

U of T’s student union leaders expressed support for CFS.

“CFS has been very supportive,” said Joeita Gupta, VP internal for the Association for Part-Time Students.

Gupta said that in addition to CFS’s support for student space and campaigns against tuition fees and the Olympics, part-time students benefit from membership services like the health and dental plan and the Studentsaver Card discount program.

“The federation isn’t this thing off-campus,” said Hudson. “It’s difficult to make an impact with policy with just UTSU members. As members, we can go to student unions across Canada, tell them what’s happening.”

The Graduate Students’ Society at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser Student Society successfully left CFS in March 2008.

The Cape Breton University Students’ Union also held a successful vote last year to leave CFS, but CFS maintains the referendum was not legitimate because the union failed to follow bylaws.

CFS de-federation procedure:

1) A petition must be signed by at least 10 percent of members.

2) Notice of a vote on defederating must be delivered by registered mail to CFS head office six months prior to voting.

3) CFS formally acknowledges they have received the petition, then decide within three months to approve or reject it.

4) If approved, 60-90 days’ notice are given for the referendum date

5) No less than two weeks of campaigning must take place immediately preceding referendum voting. Anti-CFS campaigners complain about the short window, since no vote can take place between April and Sept. 15 or between Dec. and Jan. 15.

6) No less than 16 hours of polling over no less than two days, except in the case of voting being conducted at a general meeting.

7) The vote is overseen by a committee composed of two members appointed by CFS and two members appointed by the local member association.