CFS-Quebec Creates New Confusing Website

The Quebec component of the Canadian Federation of Students has created a new website, www.cfs-fcee.qc.ca. This replaces their old website, www.education-action.net.

However, a great deal of confusion remains. Their old website, www.education-action.net, has not been updated to redirect people to the new website. A great deal of content on the old website has not been transferred to the new site (such as issues of Ruckus magazine, published by CFS-Quebec).

One will also find contradictatory press releases. "CAPE [Coalition for Accessible and Public Education] is a province wide coalition that includes the Canadian Federation of Students (Québec), the Conseil Régional de l'ASSE à Montréal and the Front Régional des Associations étudiantes de la Capitale amongst other groups" proclaims one press release dated March 22, 2006; seven days later, another press release states: "The CFS-Québec is not a part of the coalition that is organizing the demonstration, the Coalition for Accessible Public Education (CAPE)." There was no "apology" or "retraction" issued for the earlier press release - simply a contradiction.

One possible explanation for the errors in the "new and improved" CFS-Q website may lie in its administrators. According to CIRA, the "Administrative Contact" for cfs-fcee.qc.ca is Joey Hansen (who is erroneously listed as the Treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Students) while the "Technical Contact" is Ken Marciniec. Mr. Hansen is presently the Services Coordinator of the Douglas Students' Union - in British Columbia! - while Ken Marciniec is the National Executive Representative for CFS-Ontario. Mr. Marciniec administers, on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Students, the domain www.casa-acae.ca, which just happens to be the bilingual domain name of CASA (as The Paulinian has documented). He also administers, on behalf of CFS-Ontario (!), the "new and improved" website of the University of Toronto Students' Administrative Council.

Council of the Federation

Here is the news that I have found regarding the recent meeting of the Council of the Federation and post-secondary education:

• Competing for Tomorrow: A Strategy for Postsecondary Education and Skills Training in Canada (PDF) - Council of the Federation document

• Premiers Must Engage the Federal Government to Restore Funding to Post-Secondary Education - CFS press release
  
• Premiers' Post-Secondary Education Strategy is Lacking - CFS press release
  
• Lack of Progress Stalls Commitments on Education - CASA press release
• Comprehensive strategy needed for post-secondary education - CAUT press release (prior to the meeting of the Council)
  
• Students concerned national vision and funding for higher education will be bogged down by fiscal imbalance finger pointing - OUSA press release (prior to the meeting of the Council)

Questions of Affiliation

I had a look through the websites of the various national and provincial organizations that represent students' unions' (and presumably, students') collective voices to government. And what interesting things one can find! Here are just a few gems:

• The Acadia Students' Union (ASU) is claimed as a member of three such organizations: CASA (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations), CFS (Canadian Federation of Students), and ANSSA (Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations). A model of pan-student cooperation and unity, perhaps? The only problem is that the ASU only claims to be a member of one such organization, CASA.
  
  
• Ever heard of the Graduate Students Association of Canada (GSAC)? Unless you've attended a recent meeting of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies, probably not. They claim to have four full member students' unions and two associate members. However, the Graduate Students' Association of the University of New Brunswick has no mention of their membership in GSAC on their website. They do, however, link to the CFS - both on their main page and on their links page.
  
  Similarly, GSAC's ability to continue to claim the allegiance of the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students (DAGS) may be in doubt. They are prospective members of the Canadian Federation of Students. Further, a recent report from DAGS' VP External casts doubts on GSAC's capabilities, noting its small size and its location in far-away Edmonton, in comparison to the Federation's large size and its location in Ottawa.
  
  
• The College Student Alliance - which represents college students' unions in Ontario - lists 23 members on its website. But look closer: the Students' Administrative Council, Cambrian College (Sudbury, ON) is listed twice. Furthermore, the Northern College Students' Administrative Council is listed three times - once representing all Northern College campuses, once representing the Haileybury campus, and once representing the Kirkland Lake campus - even though all three links point to the same website.
  
  
• Lastly, the Fédération Étudiante Collégiale du Québec (FECQ), the main organization representing Québecois CÉGEP (college) students, seems to exist presently in a state of flux. The news on its homepage consists largely of news regarding the results of referenda to leave or join the organization. According to its website:
  
  • one referendum to leave FECQ has failed
  • one referendum to leave FECQ has succeeded
  • one referendum to join FECQ has failed
  • one referendum to join FECQ has succeeded
  All of this may have something to do with the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ). This organization, which has as slogans "For a militant student unionism!" and "For an education that is public, free, secular, high-quality, accessible and non-discriminatory!", has been in hot pursuit of FECQ members. Supporters of ASSÉ have held anti-FECQ rallies in Montreal, while one partisan has established a website (www.rocklafecq.info) solely dedicated to the promotion of disaffiliation from FECQ.

..................
UPDATE (2006-06-26):

• I have been informed that the ASU actually is a member of ANSSA, notwithstanding its (apparent) reluctance to claim such affiliation on its webpage devoted to telling people which organizations it is a part of....
• The DAGS (Dalhousie Association of Graduate Studies) executive appears nonplussed to the idea of being a member of either GSAC or the CFS. They officially requested that their prospective membership in the CFS be "dissolved" in April 2005, and they voted to withdraw from GSAC in January 2006. More recently, the 2005-2006 exit report of the outgoing Vice-President External recommends that DAGS not join either organization - GSAC due to its limited profile and lack of communication, and CFS due to "strong ideological differences with their policies." However, the same report also encouraged developing a "positive open relationship" with the Federation's National Graduate Caucus, and encouraged a stronger push for graduate student representation within CASA.
• As has been noted in the comments, the College Student Alliance's double-counting of members is a web site error.
  

Canadian University Press Threatens to Incinerate 'Annoying' Student Associations

Are you a student politician? And is the student press on your campus independent of your student association? If 'yes', then you may very well have come in for a lot of criticism from your local campus media. The student press in Canada is very famous for asserting its independence, and for insisting on ruthlessly reporting on the shenanigans of on-campus organizations, including student associations.

The intentions of the student press, however, may have taken a darker turn. To cite a resolution that was passed in January 2005 by Canadian University Press, the alliance of Canadian student newspapers:

WHEREAS once upon a time, CUP had an awesome idea of building a Death Star, and decided to put money toward making it happen, and
WHEREAS student unions are evil and should be eliminated from the galaxy (toasted like flaming marshmallows), and
WHEREAS we have serious engineers who support the idea and are willing to work pro bono on this project, and
WHEREAS late during plenary at CUP 66, some people put forward a motion to loot the Death Star Fund in order to build a houseboat, and
WHEREAS a houseboat seems silly and unrealistic, like much of what comes out of the Gateway, and
WHEREAS a Death Star would still totally rock!

BIRT CUP change the houseboat fund back into the Death Star Fund, and
BIFRT the fund continue to be contributed to at the rate of $π ($3.14) per year, until such time that funding is sufficient to research, design and build a full-scale Death Star to be used as a negotiating tool for CUP members with student associations and university administrations, and
BIFRT CASA and CFS are nerdy geeks, and
BIFRT the Death Star also be used to acquire revenge on student associations or other unpleasant groups of individuals who annoy anyone in CUP, for any reason, and
BIFRT the Death Star be used to extort money from large multinational corporations, where such activity is not against the law, and
BIFRT we acknowledge that the Death Star is very important to many members of CUP, and therefore not try to replace it with any other vessel or vehicle of destruction.

So... are the nerdy geeks in charge of your student union capable of piloting X-Wing fighters?

(This motion, and many other of a similarly hilarious nature, were discovered on the weblog of local SFU campus media baroness Amanda McCuaig.)

The Smoking Gun

Click to download: Gavin Gardiner's Notebook [PDF]

Odds are, most readers of this blog are not familiar with the great controversies that surrounding the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union over the past year. Briefly stated, the organization applied for prospective membership in the Canadian Federation of Students in November 2004; they postponed their referendum after receiving legal advice that such a referendum would violate USSU bylaws; they attempted to merge USSU and CFS policies [PDF] by ordering the results of the referendum subject to the ruling of the USSU Elections Board; students voted 55% in favour of joining the CFS; the Elections Board overturned the referendum, citing numberous problems; and most recently, USSU Council ignored the decision of their Elections Board and accepted membership in the CFS.

And in the process, it was discovered that a number of pages of President Gavin Gardiner's notebook had been taken, scanned, and distributed to the public at large. This was noted in The Sheaf, and at a meeting [PDF] of the USSU Students' Council. Furthermore, the debate noted in the minutes of that meeting goes a long way towards establishing the authenticity and reliability of the document in question:

"Member Mowat stated that everyone probably received the email from the unknown source that had a bunch of information from President Gardiner’s book.

Chair Thoma asked President Gardiner to clarify this issue for people who did not receive the email or read the Sheaf.

Member Mowat stated he brought this up because of the article in the Sheaf and one of the councilors said to ignore this. I would like some clarification on some of the goals in President’ Gardiner’s stolen notebook. What kind of meeting was this? Was there a meeting at all? What do some of these comments meetings mean? I understand that there is a referendum here to join CFS but I am concerned that student money is going towards a goal to get UBC out of CASA to switch our health plan. President Gardiner stated that in the paper some of these goals were forged, and some were real, he didn’t want to go into this because it was personal. I am uncomfortable as a student paying his salary to spend time doing some of these activities, if he was at all. I would like an explanation.

Councilor Mitchell stated she does not want President Gardiner to have to defend himself right now. I don’t think this is appropriate considering it is under criminal investigation about how this information was obtained. It is offensive that our intelligence is being questioned as councilors. I would encourage President Gardiner not respond unless he chooses to.

President Gardiner stated he is going to stay away from the specifics. If Member Mowat wants to talk to me one on one I will do that. The fact at hand remains that my notebook and I have written lots of things down that are not necessarily my own opinion. A lot of this was taken completely out of context and I don’t think it is appropriate for me to explain a stolen notebook at a public forum.

Member Forbes asked if this Planning Session went ahead?

President Gardiner stated he was at a meeting and there were MSCs and lots of other people there besides me."

Please note that Mr. Gardiner never disputed the authenticity of the document in question. Further, please note that Mr. Gardiner's 'defense' consisted of his stating that many of the notes recorded in the notebook were not his "own opinion." In stating this defense, he implicitly admitted that they were, nonetheless, things that were discussed - by someone, at least.

So what's in the notebook? Here are some relevant extracts:

* NSHN talk to Tom
* GSA, USSU & URSU Health Plan Policy
* internal McGill levy
* time line for McGill
* Dastageer [sic] about Phil Ollete [sic]
* meeting w Don Rossick
* CAUT referendum
* Meshon and website
* Control voter turnout + demographics
...
Planning Session July 25/05

2004/05 Goal Review

1) Prospective by November
2) Full membership by May
3) Electing good slates for 05/06
4) Withdrawing from CASA
5) Stopping other members from joining
6) Purging bad staff
7) Replacing w good staff - CFS
8) Getting local 10 back
9) Getting UBC out of CASA / GM
10) Getting U of M and U of R out of Campus Advantage
11) Getting everyone out of Amiccus
12) Use CCSA to our advantage
13) Long term CUTS lease
14) Switching health plans & laying ground
15) Stoping [sic] Buckmank's [sic] expansion into SIAST
16) Phones for students
17) Shit from 03/04
18) Undermine Council

2005/06 Goals

1) USSU Website
2) Health Plan
3) Handbook
4) Elections
5) AMICCUS-C
6) McGill
7) Staff

......

* Get Premier to mention CFS

U of S referendum dates
Campaigning begins Sept 19
Voting
....
Education
1) Resign outright
2) Resign & S.A.C.
3) Stick it out until end of Sept.
4) Ignore
...
Staff
* Student hiring committee (talk to UMSU)
* develop list
* get out bad staff

Get Evan to resign? Angela - 613-612-4780

(Links and emphasis added.)

Very interesting, no? The goal "Use CCSA to our advantage" has certainly been corroborated by previous posts on this blog, but what about the other goals? And is there any evidence that similar strategies have been in place at other students' unions?

Also, what is this about McGill? Are they referring to the Post-Graduate Student Society of McGill, or the (undergraduate) Student Society of Mcgill University? And what sort of "internal levy" are they planning?