Board of directors votes to provide resources for campaign to leave the CFS
Written by Nicole Elsasser, photo by Rashaad Bhamjee.
At a March 31 board of directors meeting, the Central Student Association (CSA) voted to support the ‘No’ side in the referendum on continued membership in the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). This effectively allows the CSA to use their organization’s resources to campaign to discontinue membership in the CFS.
The referendum is the result of a recent court battle between the CSA and the CFS, after a requested referendum was halted by the CFS; both the federal and provincial factions of the lobbying group claimed that there were issues with the petitions that had initiated the referendum.
The motion to end the CSA’s neutrality stance and take a side in the referendum was hotly debated, passing with a 16 to 7 majority, with some board members abstaining from the vote.
Gavin Armstrong, the communication and corporate affairs commissioner for the CSA, chaired the March 31 board meeting and therefore did not vote, but said that the main reason the CSA broke their neutrality stance was in the spirit of fairness for both sides.
“Both CFS and CSA are student organizations. Students pay to both the CFS and the CSA,” explained Armstrong. “CFS is paying for the ‘Yes’ campaign, meaning students are paying for the ‘Yes’ campaign. The CSA [was] not campaigning for the ‘No’ campaign, therefore students [were] not paying for the ‘No’ campaign. Which means there was not an equal allocation of resources. That was one point for taking a stand, that is leveling the resource allocation.”
Denise Martins, another CSA board of directors member and the incoming external affairs commissioner, voted to maintain the CSA’s neutrality stance and said that it was a mistake to do otherwise.
“The CSA has been taking a neutral stance this entire time and then they turn around and say ‘we’re not neutral anymore,’ when it’s convenient for [some] individuals’ purpose,” said Martins. “I feel like the neutrality stance was used a lot to silence a lot of people and now it’s being used to justify the fact that student resources were being used to push forward this campaign against the CFS.”
Dave Molenhuis, the national treasurer for the CFS, has been on campus speaking to students during the campaigning and said he continues to get support from CSA board members despite last week’s vote.
“There has definitely been an outpouring of support from a number of the board members in favour of continued membership in the federation, and as well the majority of new executive members also support continued membership and have been campaigning very actively on campus for the past couple of weeks,” said Molenhuis.
Despite this support from certain board members, Martins believes that by the CSA using its resources to campaign for a particular side, they’re not equalizing the debate but rather effectively dictating how students will vote.
Armstrong, however, disagrees.
“We’re not telling students how to vote,” said Armstrong. “We’re taking a ‘No’ stance. If students look to us and they follow our messaging, then that’s up to them but we’re not forcing all of our members to vote ‘No.’ We don’t operate like that.”
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