The Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia (CFS-BC) is having its semi-annual general meeting from August 13 to 16, and the agenda has several motions condemning the national Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) organization.
The motions talk in detail about how the BC branch of CFS (which is a separate legal entity from the national CFS) has “no confidence” in the national branch and explicitly calls for the resignation of, among others, CFS national chairperson Bilan Arte, who took over from Jessica McCormick earlier this year. The national CFS office has faced criticism from CFS members for allegations of corruption and union-busting, which McCormick denied to Nexus in March.
The motions go on to say that the CFS should no longer have contact with Arte and McCormick.
The motions also suggest looking into the process of the CFS-BC eliminating membership with the CFS.
CFS-BC chairperson Simka Marshall says that after roughly 10 months of what she calls “frustration” with the Ottawa office of the CFS, the Executive Committee of CFS-BC was “forced to recommend organizational changes to our upcoming meeting,” she says.
“British Columbia students have been stonewalled by the Ottawa-based group for nearly a year about serious questions of staff relations, financial information, the lack of direction of political campaigns, services delivery, and the overall lack of democracy in the national organization,” says Marshall.
Marshall says that student unions throughout the province have had to work “tirelessly to pick up the slack and deliver cost-saving services and representation to British Columbia students.”
“The focus of CFS-BC continues to be the representation of students on issues like reducing tuition fees and making education more accessible, and on the provision of high-quality services,” she says.
“At this point, students in British Columbia are approaching several decisions with regards to protecting the organization in BC from the dysfunction in Ottawa and developing services and launching new and innovative campaigns on issues important to students.” (Marshall stresses that at this point nothing is set in stone and the decisions are ultimately up to BC students at the general meetings.)
The national CFS office did not return phone calls and emails by press time (this story will be updated when they do).
Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) executive director Michel Turcotte remains optimistic that despite the challenges, the national student movement can work through its problems.
“While student leaders across BC are understandably frustrated with what has happened, it’s important to remember that it is only the Be It Resolved causes that are really consequential, and in a democratic organization everyone gets to put forward their point of view,” he says. “I am hopeful that the upcoming CFS-BC general meeting will give full consideration to all the submitted motions and perhaps ultimately come up with a moderate way to seek resolution to the differences with the national organization.”
Camosun students are all members of the CFS and CFS-BC.
The full agenda for the CFS-BC meeting is available here.
More on this story as it develops.
I attended the National General Meeting in June on behalf of the Northwest Community College Students’ Union, Local 66 of the CFS. To put it simply: every delegate from British Columbia was subjected to at least some extent of slander and verbal abuse during the course of the weekend. Those who were not of a typically marginalized demographic were dismissed as speaking from positions of privilege regardless of the validity of their statements, and those who were faced hostile personal attacks in constituency group meetings normally respected as safe spaces for discussion of matters affecting individuals marginalized by race, gender, and orientation. The abusive actions condoned by Arte and McCormick were blunders in judgement of the worst kind I have encountered in my time working with the CFS and need to be addressed whether with or without input at the national level.