The Varsity has obtained a copy of the motions that will be presented at the Canadian Federation of Students’ (CFS) National General Meeting (NGM) this weekend. Among the more than 30 motions up for debate are proposals to expel all BC unions, to simplify the decertification process, and to approve over $100,000 in spending on various projects.

The CFS is a national student organization that represents almost 80 student unions across Canada, including the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, and the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students of the University of Toronto. Its goal is to lobby for accessible postsecondary education and advance student interests.

Expelling BC unions

In a motion put forward by the National Executive, the CFS is proposing to expel all shared members of the CFS and the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS). The 12 unions to be expelled would remain members of the BCFS and continue to have access to the International Student Identity Card program.

The CFS and the BCFS have had a difficult working relationship since 2014, when the national organization and its provincial counterpart began withholding fees from each other. Since then, a large number of BC unions have petitioned to leave the CFS.

In the motion presented for the NGM, the National Executive stated that the dispute has “served as a distraction from the CFS and the BCFS core mandates of serving member students and fighting for progressive change.” As it is impossible for the BC unions to initiate decertification until they pay all their fees, the CFS is proposing to summarily expel all the BC unions to bypass the process altogether.

The motion further states that this action is “not intended to be punitive… but rather serve as a mechanism to allow both the BCFS and the CFS(-S) to continue their work independently from one another, to the mutual benefit of their members.”

Simplifying decertification

Of the 30 motions to be presented at the NGM, seven of them touch upon the process of decertification, which has been criticized in the past as being “antiquated and impractical.”

Among the motions are proposals to lower the number of petition signatures needed for a referendum from 20 per cent of students to 15 per cent, to allow online voting, and to shorten the time given to schedule a referendum from 90 days to 60 days.

A motion forwarded by the Student Union of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (SUNSCAD) also proposes loosening regulations on waiting periods between decertification votes. As it stands, universities must wait 60 months between votes, which SUNSCAD calls “absurdly drawn-out.” They propose lowering the timeframe to 18 months.

The UTSU has also put forward a motion proposing to abolish the petition process altogether. Instead of requiring a petition signed by students to initiate a referendum, they recommend that member unions vote to hold a referendum.  

Approval for spending

In response to what it calls a trend of “terminal decline” in the CFS, the Selkirk College Students’ Union proposed a motion to allocate $100,000 to fund a “congress of student unity.”

The motion states that since “support for the Federation has arguably collapsed in British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, and New Brunswick,” the CFS needs to bring together all student unions across Canada and “find common ground.”

The Selkirk students’ union also proposed to donate $1,000 to a political podcast, Sandy & Nora Talk Politics, hosted by Sandra Hudson and Nora Loreto. Hudson was a former Executive Director for the UTSU who recently settled a lawsuit with the union regarding allegations of civil fraud.

The donation is in response to “political attacks on Nora Loreto” from what they describe as “fascist and ultra-right groups in Canada and North America.” These attacks occurred in response to Loreto’s tweets about the Humboldt Broncos hockey players’ accident in April 2018.

Two more motions further propose allocating $3,000 to the Decolonizing Conference taking place at U of T in the fall, as well as $3,000 to fund travel for care workers attending the Reclaiming our Bodies and Minds Conference.

The NGM will take place from June 9-12 in Gatineau, Quebec. Be sure to follow along closely with The Varsity‘s reporting from the scene.