The Cape Breton University Students’ Union (CBU) is forced to pay $295,000 after unsuccessfully attempting to leave the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). The Superior Court of Justice has ordered the students’ union to pay six years’ worth of unpaid fees to the CFS, plus damages, despite having voted to leave the CFS in 2008.
In the 2008 referendum, 92 per cent of the CBU’s membership voted in favour of leaving the CFS, membership for which they paid $40,000 yearly. After the referendum, the CBU discontinued paying dues to the CFS, citing the students desire for those funds to be put towards other services.
Brandon Ellis, president of the CBU, said that the union has a budget of around $500,000, and that the amount they have to pay on top of the CFS fees for this year could result in the CBU’s bankruptcy.
The CBU has 30 days to appeal the ruling.
With files from CBC News
