The Canadian Federation of Students

Students in Canada have or- ganized under a number of differ- ent names —- NFCUS, CUS, NUS and, for almost nine years, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Interspersed are a pro- liferation of provincial organiza- tions, some affiliated, some part of, still others opposed to the CFS. The years have rolled on and the original goal of one na- tional federation of all students remains unfulfilled. This week’s CFS meeting in Ottawa may sig- nal a fundamental change in the federation’s direction, if, as some expect, delegates reject an incen- tive plan for provincial federa- tions that merge with CFS. This feature examines the battle for unity among Canadian students.

Editor’s note: The CFS meet- ing goes from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 and will be attended by Lisa Mur- phy, UPEI SU President.

By Chris Lawson Canadian University Press

Five minutes before its meet- ing ended, the Canadian Fed- eration of Students’ budget for 1989/90 came up for discussion.

About 200 student leaders - delegates to CFS’ eighth an- nual general meeting last May, in Sackville New Brunswick — sat behind rows of tables, faces awash with a mixture of fatigue and ten- sion.

The budget had been the sub- ject of many hours of debate and negotiation in committees, hall- ways, and the student pub at Mount Allison University.

And now, as university staff prepared the final banquet, it was to have five short minutes on the plenary floor.

One association called for the budget to be approved in total.

Then, calmly, politely, Uni- versity of Waterloo student coun- cil delegate Tim Jackson moved to strike a single expense — re- bates for provincial components.

And suddenly the excited din of two hundred student leaders, staff and observers, eager to have the business over-with, fel! to near silence.

A deal was off. Some British Columbia delegates were visibly enraged, and there were two min- utes left in the plenary.

Strange Alliances

The meeting ended before the federation could approve a bud- get, and without answering fun- damental questions about how Canadian students repre- sented.

Delegates from CFS-Pacific had paid a special visit to a CFS

are

Ontario region meeting the night before, which went into the early hours of the morning.

The meeting was B.C.’s at- tempt to get support for a rebate plan, which would have given it (and other provincial ‘compo- nents’) 50 cents for every stu- dent at a CFS-member associa- tion. For B.C., that would mean about $45,000 per year.

With painstaking tact CFS- Pacific chair Pam Frache and Vancouver Community College- Langara delegate Phil Link ex- plained why B.C. — not gener- ally an ally of Ontario in CFS — wanted the rebate from CFS’s federal budget and why Ontario should support them.

In return, Ontario delegates, also part of the Ontario Federa- tion of Students (OFS), would get the Pacific’s support for a pro- posal to reimburse OFS for some staff salaries for doing CFS work.

Or at least, that was the deal.

But what came up for a vote wasn’t what either side had wanted. The rebate proposal was for a 10 cent per student rebate to CFS provincial components. The proposed budget also gave some money for CFS referenda in On- tario and B.C. and gave Ontario about $4,100 to pay for Ontario staff travel to CFS meetings.

And while B.C.

with what they saw as a sym-

could live bolic gesture to reimburse them for their work for CFS, Jackson and other Ontario delegates had the distinct impression they had been left out.

The two regions often find they have little in common, ex- cept on the issue of ‘national de- velopment’.

Both the CFS-Pacific OFS members who are part of CFS pay the budget. They subsidize the costs of CFS staff who travel to the rest of the country, while they pay for their own staff people, who of- ten look after CFS business. It’s a situation both want to see cor-

and

into federation’s

rected.

The One Big Federation

Founders of the Canadian Federation of Students had hoped to create a single student feder- ation, with partially autonomous provincial organizations, called components, to work on provin- cial issues.

Each component would have their own fee, their own staff and their own policy and strategy. But the components would also collect national fees and member- ship would mean belonging to the provincial and federal organiza-

tions or none at all.

The national office would be responsible for research and lob- bying on Parliament Hill, while the ‘congruent’ provincial compo- nents worked on their the legisla- tors however they saw fit - - all as the Canadian Federation of Stu- dents.

Almost nine years later, there are only three components out of a possible nine in the CFS. A for- mer CFS chair said the situation now was “all over the map. It’s worse than Meech Lake.”

Most provinces have indepen- dent provincial student federa- tions in them. Some, provin- cial groups, like the Ontario Fed- eration of Students, are large- budgeted federations, closely tied with CFS. Others, like the Man- itoba Alliance of University Stu- dents are loose linkings of student councils that won’t go to meet- ings when CFS reps are there.

Only in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and British Columbia must members of the provincial federation be members of the

CFS. Of the three, only B.C. has a

separate fee levy, and their own staff.

In Newfoundland, the Newfoundland-Labrador Fed- eration of Students which re- cently got its first full-member when Memorial University stu- dents voted to join, has no plans to become congruent, chair Bruce Belbin said.

All student associations in the Students’ Union of Nova Scotia (SUNS) area also CFS members. But the organization isn’t a CFS component, and likely won’t be.

“A big concern for us is a loss of identity,” Mike Wallace, Nova Scotia rep for CFS’ national ex- ecutive. “(SUNS is) older than CFS.”

“What we have now works,” he added.

Divisive Issues

CFS-Pacific chair Pam Frache calls their rebate proposal for components an incentive for re- gions to develop the kind of orga- nization the federation had origi- nally planned.

“When a province got to- gether to plan their federation, they would know that there would be money from the feder- ation budget there to help them out,” she told a CFS national ex- ecutive meeting in October.

“Right now, a province knows if it becomes a component all that will happen is they’ll end up sub- sidizing the rest of the country,”

she said.

The rebate also compensates for work the provinces do in the name of CFS, Frache said.

While the Pacific wants to see provinces becoming components, they also want financial relief. When they incorporated as the CFS’ Pacific region in 1982, they set their per-student fee at $3.75 per semester, which in retrospect, may have been too low.

Now, faced with an under- staffed regional office, the rebate proposal would give them enough cash to add another staff posi- tion.

To make matters worse, the Pacific region is facing a large membership problem in the form of the students association at Si- mon Fraser University.

The student council executive will run a referendum to pull out of CFS in the spring, mostly be- cause they have been dissatisfied with the national organization’s work. According to the CFS- Pacific constitution, SFU will have to drop out of both the Pa- cific and CFS, taking about a third of the Pacific region’s rev- enue with it.

But members of SFU’s coun- cil have said they want to remain part of the Pacific federation. To allow this, Frache said CFS- Pa- cific would have to break congru- ency and become the BC Federa- tion of Students.

While it’s not a desirable goal, Frache said the Pacific region’s fi- nances may not leave them much choice.

Unequal division of labour

Ontario is not congruent, but through a working agreement be- tween the Ontario Federation of Students and CFS, it carries more than its fair share of the load in CFS.

OFS shares its research, lob- bying responsibilities and field staff with CFS. The system works - except all OFS members pay the field staff, but not all are in the CFS, nor do all of them want to be.

If CFS is running a member- ship referendum on an OFS cam- pus, OFS staff cannot oppose the CFS, according to the agreement,

even if the OFS-member student council opposes CFS.

“This makes for some really complicated situations,” OFS chair Edith Garneau said.

As well, Ontario CFS mem- bers pay for their own field staff while helping pay for CFS staff in every other region. It’s the extra contribution Tim Jackson wanted

to see recognized.

“The rebate proposal is not a good one,” Jackson said, “but there needs to be some recogni- tion that work is being done on a provincial level for a national body.”

Jackson would like to see CFS give back about $30,000 in recog- nition.

OFS has nce position on how much — if any - compensation it should get from CFS, beyond what is set out in the CFS- OFS working agreement, Gar- neau said.

And while the Ontario feder- ation could use the money, Gar- neau said money isn’t ine issue.

“There are always ways of sorting out finances,” she said. “The principle of how the fed- eration is structured must come first.”

Garneau said the rebate would cause Ontario prob- lems because even though OFS contributes more than its fair share to CFS, the rebate wouldn’t compensate Ontario because it’s not congruent.

She said the rebate would also hurt small provinces because the per-student rebate wouldn’t be enough to establish an effective provincial organization.

What Happened to Congru- ency?

In 1981, CFS’ founders said the one-big-federation would have to develop quickly, or iner- tia and turnover among student leaders would make it impossible to attain.

The CFS national executive reaffirmed — unanimously — the principle of congruent federations last month, right after at least half the executives around the meeting table said it wouldn’t be possible in their province in the near future, if at all.

Some provincial organizations see congruency as a surrendering of their identity and autonomy. Others just don’t like being told what to do.

In Alberta, political lines are drawn up around opposition or support for CFS. Pro-CFS stu- dent councils are a minority.

“The feeling of being Cana- dian just isn’t there,” said CFS Alberta national executive Hugh Leighton. “Being Canadian means being from Ontario.”

“What we want basically is ‘hands off Alberta’,” he said. “We don’t want the impression of an outside model being forced upon us.”

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