{"id":13917,"date":"2017-04-12T09:34:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T16:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=13917"},"modified":"2017-04-20T10:08:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T17:08:38","slug":"cfs-tensions-continue-over-selkirk-college-student-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2017\/04\/12\/cfs-tensions-continue-over-selkirk-college-student-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"CFS tensions continue over Selkirk College student fees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tensions continue to rise between the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and Selkirk College Students\u2019 Union (SCSU), with the CFS allegedly threatening legal action against SCSU, according to a press release sent out by SCSU on March 21.<\/p>\n

The SCSU has sent a petition to the CFS asking to hold a referendum in which students would decide whether or not to leave the national organization, but the CFS says their bylaws prohibit the referendum from happening until outstanding fees are paid. (Camosun College students are also paying members of the CFS.)<\/p>\n

Students at Selkirk, which is in Castlegar, pay fees for membership in both CFS and the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS); fees for both organizations are given to BCFS, who then are required to pass along CFS\u2019 share to the national organization, according to a letter sent to SCSU from the CFS\u2019 lawyer. According to CFS national treasurer Peyton Veitch, the BCFS hasn\u2019t passed along those fees, and until it does, the referendum can\u2019t happen; SCSU says that this is why the CFS threatened legal action.<\/p>\n

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Castlegar’s Selkirk College (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to multiple sources, the BCFS is withholding the CFS fees because CFS also owes BCFS fees.<\/p>\n

Veitch says it\u2019s not true that the CFS threatened a lawsuit, but says that there was an ongoing dispute about the outstanding fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt initially looked like a judge might have had to make a ruling on this issue,\u201d says Veitch, \u201cbut we\u2019re very happy that it appears we can resolve this issue without a court-imposed solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

SCSU spokesperson Santanna Hernandez says that SCSU did everything according to the CFS bylaws, including paying the CFS fees (to the BCFS). BCFS chairperson Simka Marshall says the CFS knows SCSU has paid their CFS membership fees. She would not comment on whether or not the Selkirk CFS fees have been given to the CFS by the BCFS (who are a separate legal entity from the national organization).<\/p>\n

\u201cFees shouldn\u2019t be an issue,\u201d says Marshall. \u201cThey\u2019ve been paid to the office here, and we are a component of the national organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veitch says that students\u2019 money should be going to where they\u2019re told it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have informed Selkirk College Students\u2019 Union that they should direct the BCFS to remit those fees as soon as possible to the federation,\u201d says Veitch, \u201cfor the simple reason that these are fees that students at Selkirk College paid with the understanding that they would be used to support national campaigns and services that the federation provides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal documents sent from CFS\u2019 lawyer say that the BCFS had to remit fees to the national organization on or before March 21. Veitch says that, as of April 11, that hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n

Hernandez says that students at Selkirk are scared and upset that these legal complications are taking place, and says that threatening legal action is a tactic the CFS often uses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re focused on,\u201d says Hernandez, \u201cis trying to give the students their right to vote, and this lawsuit has basically stopped that from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veitch says that the BCFS must remit SCSU\u2019s CFS student fees so that SCSU can hold a fair and democratic referendum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a clear requirement of our bylaws that a referendum can\u2019t be scheduled unless outstanding membership fees are remitted,\u201d says Veitch. \u201cAnd we want to make sure that students have an opportunity to participate in a referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n

In February, members of the CFS showed up unannounced at Selkirk College to talk to students without SCSU knowing, according to emails shown to Nexus<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tensions continue to rise between the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and Selkirk College Students\u2019 Union (SCSU), with the CFS allegedly threatening legal action against SCSU, according to a press release sent out by SCSU on March 21. The SCSU has sent a petition to the CFS asking to hold a referendum in which students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13920,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13917\/revisions\/13920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}