UWSA clashes with CFS, same old song and dance
By Michal Tellos
Lance Writer
September 7, 2010
 The most recent CFS (Canadian Federation of Students) conference proved to be the same old song and dance for UWindsor’s delegation.
Vice-president university affairs Robert Woodrich, Jake DeJong, Tanuj Virani, and Ryan Dhiman attended the latest CFS Ontario annual general meeting in Markham representing the UWSA, only to be met with the same hostility that they have become accustomed to.
Once again, the central problem between the UWSA and the CFS is the perceived obstacles involved in leaving the federation.
“If you need X number of students to leave, it should be the same number to get in, which its not, it’s at the discretion of the people trying to join. So it's a double standard," said DeJong.“Any motions aimed at changing the organization’s structure never pass. So with that in mind, it can be quite disheartening."
Typically they will use obscure procedural items to keep you from being able to speak to a motion. They might begin to address you in French, anything to make it more difficult for you to participate fully, if you don’t agree with their mandated opinion,” added Woodrich.
Both DeJong and Woodrich were also upset at the fact that many of the issues that the CFS debates over are overtly political, and often potentially far out of their jurisdiction.
However, Sandy Hudson, chairperson of CFS Ontario, finds the UWSA’s concerns strange.
“I can’t believe that they felt that way. For the vast majority of meetings, they weren’t actually there, they weren’t around. The UWSA reps missed most of the meetings.
They did, however, attend most of the social events, and while they were there I saw them laughing and socializing with other delegates,” she said, adding that both the GSS (Graduate Student Society) and OPUS (Organization of Part-time University Students) were present.
Another problem that Woodrich continues to have with the CFS is their repeated retention of full-time staff and executives.
“The staff members and executives by and large do not change, and they are the ringmasters of the circus that is the conference,” he said. Hudson also dismissed this complaint, citing the recent hiring of four new staff members.
Perhaps the most troubling issue for Woodrich, however, is the amount that the CFS spends on legal fees every year. He stated that the CFS has “been known to litigate against students who threaten to leave, or do actively try to leave,” while Hudson maintains that no lawsuit against a student or organization has ever been initiated by the CFS, and that Woodrich misrepresented their legal budget.
“I’m aware that on Twitter, Robert Woodrich mischaracterized (sic) a legal line item, as a litigation line, and that simply is not true. No student has ever been sued by the CFS, and no legal proceeding against any party has ever been initiated by the CFS. We’re a provincial organization with a unionized staff and we often require lawyers throughout the year,” she said.
Notwithstanding this, however, the CFS has been involved in numerous legal altercations, as can be seen at the Canadian Legal Information Institute, (CanLII). A search query limited to the courts, boards and tribunals reveals 1,841 national results from the past five years, 281 of which are from Ontario alone.
Woodrich stated that at budgetary meetings no one would tell him what percentage of the legal line is spent on litigation.
In the face of most of UWSA’s claims, Hudson simply stated that all of the members of the CFS have an equal democratic right.
“Any members can serve what they want, and it’s their democratic right as members of this organization. Members serve motions, and they are debated,” she said.
“It’s a shame that the UWSA reps chose not to represent its members at these sessions where campaigns were debated,” she added, also stating that the CFS held workshops during the conference which were likewise not attended by members of the UWSA.
Of particular trouble to DeJong was a motion which opposed any sort of corporate sponsorship of a program or class, a notion he thinks could seriously harm UWindsor’s engineering program, which has benefited from sponsors in the past.
Hudson also added that CFS Ontario is excited to visit Windsor’s campus within the coming weeks, in order to ensure that students are fully aware of their membership rights.
For more information on lawsuits the CFS has been involved in, please visit CanLII’s databases at canlii.org. For more information on CFS Ontario mandates, please visit cfsontario.ca.
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