CFS and CFS-Services Bylaws, Policies, and Annual Reports, 1981-Present, Now Posted

In accordance with federal law, non-profit corporations under the Canada Corporations Act are required to file all amendments to their Bylaws with Corporations Canada. In addition, they are required to file an Annual Report every year, detailing the membership of their Board of Directors. These documents may then be retrieved by interested citizens for a modest fee. And so, this interested citizen has retrieved all the documents of the Canadian Federation of Students and of the Canadian Federation of Students-Services from Corporations Canada. They are now available online here. A link to this page has also been established on my main CFS information page.

Unfortunately, I was not able to compile a full list of Federation executives, for two reasons: first, the Federation didn't bother to submit that many Annual Reports (especially for CFS-Services); and second, many of the old Annual Reports that were submitted frequently did not list the names of the representatives from the provinces (as they were required to do). (Since 2004, however, both CFS and CFS-Services have been completely compliant with respect to both Annual Reports and [to my knowledge] Bylaws and Standing Resolution amendments, thanks to the diligence of Internal Coordinator Lucy Watson.)

The historical bylaws, policies, and reports of the Federation are extremely fascinating. We find, for example, that the original bylaws of the Federation conceived of an organization that would not operate in Quebec. Instead, the "organized post-secondary students in Quebec" would elect a non-voting observer to the Central Committee of the Federation (later called the National Executive). It was only in 1987 that the Federation voted to establish a voting provincial representative on the National Executive from Quebec.

We also find that the bylaws of CFS-Services were once quite distinct from those of the CFS. The original bylaws of CFS-Services stipulated that the Board of Directors of CFS-Services would consist of nine provincial representatives (again, excluding Quebec), one representative of the Federation, and the Executive Director of CFS-Services as an ex-officio, non-voting member. This Executive Director was one David Jones, who appears to have served from 1982 until sometime in the mid-nineties. (Anyone know what happened to him?)

The names listed in these documents are also interesting. We find that one Diane Flaherty was an early Executive Officer of the Federation (an office since disestablished) - and, indeed, Ubyssey archives show her as such (here, here, and here). The National Chairperson of 1993 - Kelly Lamrock - is presently a Liberal MLA in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick!

Having a look at these bylaws has also raised some interesting questions in my mind:

• Have a good look at CFS Bylaw 1, section 2.a-vi. Remember that the Bylaws of the CFS and of CFS-Services are identical - as such, member local associations owe a $3.75/student fee to both the CFS and to CFS-Services! Technically speaking, doesn't this mean that all member associations have been delinquent in paying their fees to CFS-Services for many, many years now? And technically speaking, doesn't this mean, as per Bylaw 1, section 3.b-i, that no student associations are allowed to cast a vote at meetings of CFS-Services? Thus - unless the National Executive of CFS-Services have granted an exemption "on a case-by-case basis" to all member local student associations for the past several years - it would appear that all votes done at Federation meetings that purported to affect CFS-Services are, technically speaking, null and void.
  
  
• Take another look at CFS Bylaw 1, section 2.a-vi and 2.a-vii. Now check out this definition of "notwithstanding" in Duhaime's Canadian Law Dictionary. (This is also the only definition that makes sense when interpreting s. 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.) Technically speaking, does this not mean that the fee continues to be $3.00 per student? (Incidentally, this sort of mixup is not limited to the Federation; the Bylaws of the Kwantlen Student Association, specifically Article 3, clause 4 (v), technically require the organization to break its own bylaws as well as provincial law in order to consider special resolutions, due to a confusion between the meaning of the words "proscribe" and "prescribe.")
  

Anyways, have fun looking at these bylaws, discovering when certain bylaw provisions were added or deleted, and finding out what CFS alumni are up to these days! I, for one, will be in Sechelt, BC, on vacation until July 16, 2006. As Internet access will be very limited, this weblog will not be updated until then.

[Disclaimers: [1] I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice; use at your own risk. [2] The absence of certain documents on my website (such as certain Annual Reports) may not necessarily be due to a lack of compliance on the part of the Federation; it may also be a clerical error on the part of Corporations Canada, or (hopefully not!) of myself.]