Kwantlen claims victory against CFS court injunction
Vote delayed until April; parties back in court Thursday
The Kwantlen Students Association claimed victory after a Friday BC Supreme Court hearing regarding a referendum to leave the Canadian Federation of Students.
The CFS — Canada’s largest student lobby organization — sought to delay a referendum on whether students at Kwantlen University College wish to remain members in the advocacy organization until the fall. However, the court ordered that the vote, that was originally scheduled to begin today, be delayed until April 8 to 10.
RELATED STORY: CFS goes to Supreme Court to postpone membership referendum
The CFS is dealing with simultaneous membership referendums at Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria (graduate students).
Despite the court ordered three-week delay, the Kwantlen Students’ Association (KSA) released a statement Tuesday that said the CFS “failed” in their petition to delay the vote. The release also claimed that the judge strongly disagreed with the CFS on whether it was permissible to post campaign material before official campaign dates. “On the free speech issue, the Judge disagreed strongly with the CFS, and pointed out repeatedly that we live in a free society,” the KSA statement read.
Because the court order has not yet been released, the decision on campaign materials could not be confirmed. The two parties will be back in court Thursday to settle further disagreements, such as the campaign question.
Maclean’s was not able to reach the CFS before deadline. Please check back Wednesday for more information.
Meanwhile, at Simon Fraser University the campaign surrounding membership in the CFS continued with much less drama. The student paper, the Peak, reported a particularly civil debate on the issue last week despite the a majority of anti-CFS students in the audience. Aside from the debate, the campaign in support of the CFS appears to have a larger presence on campus.
The Cape Breton Times reported that Cape Breton University students voted in favour of leaving the CFS last week. 366 students voted 92 per cent in support of cutting ties with the organization, according to the article. However, it is expected that the CFS won’t recognize the referendum since it was not conducted according to the organization’s bylaws for defederation. The Cape Breton Students’ Union reportedly did not serve proper notice to the CFS about the referendum.
i would like to know who the cfs has sent to BC, and who is paying the tab.
The CFS didn’t fail at all, unfortunately. The delay puts the referendum right in the middle of the final exam period, which will lower turnout to people that happen to be there to write exams on those three days, as well as the pro-CFS hippies who care enough to bus down to Kwantlen to vote to force students to stay.
End result, the KSA remains a member of the CFS.
What a shame.
Kwantlen is on a slightly different academic schedule than most schools. The referendum will therefore actually take place in the last week of class.
The CFS and the KSA were able to reach agreement on a number of issues prior to today’s follow-up Court hearing. There were, however, a number of issues where the CFS and the KSA did not agree, and the Court sided with the KSA on all of the major issues of disagreement. In particular, the Court agreed with the KSA’s submission that the polling question should be: “Do you want to withdraw as a member of the Canadian Federation of Students?”
We will try and get the full text of both court rulings as quickly as possible.
How terrible. The judge is clearly in violation of the CFS by-laws. I guess the Supreme Court of British Columbia can now expect a letter from Todd Burke?
How could the question be anything else. “Further fragmentation” – “maintain formal relations” and then a list of all CFS schools. You would think we were in an “elected dictatorship” with the CFS’s ideas as to wording of the question.
I hope the CBU students also get out. It’s pretty sad when it’s easier to break a cell phone contract (without paying the ETF) than it is to hold a democratic vote to leave.
(Hey, CFS)
Bye, Bye, Bye
Bye, Bye…
Bye, Bye…
Oh, Oh..
We’re doin’ this April 8th to 10th,
At all Kwantlen campuses
Our students know you aint right.
Hey CFS get lost,
We hated you endlessly,
When you weren’t there for us.
So now it’s time to leave and leave us alone
We know that we can’t take no more
It ain’t no lie
We wanna see you out that door
CFS bye, bye, bye…
Bye Bye
Don’t wanna be a fool for you
Just another union in your game for two
You might wanna sue us but it ain’t no lie,
CFS, bye, bye, bye…
Bye Bye
Don’t really wanna make it tough,
We just wanna tell you that we had enough.
We aint stupid,
But it ain’t no lie,
CFS, bye, bye, bye
(Oh, Oh)
Just hit us with the TRUTH
What you seem to fail to do.
So give us one good reason,
To stay in the CFS
We suffer you and us,
And now we really come to see,
That life would be much better once you’re gone.
We know that we can’t take no more
It ain’t no lie,
We wanna see you out that door
CFS bye, bye, bye…
Bye Bye
Don’t wanna be a fool for you
Just another union in your game for two
You may sue me but it ain’t no lie,
CFS Bye, bye, bye…
Bye Bye
You are trying to make it tough,
We just wanna tell you that we had enough (ooh ooh)
We aint crazy,
But it ain’t no lie,
CFS, bye, bye, bye
We are leaving you we know for sure
We aint gonna miss you we know for sure
Bye Bye
We are voting out
We’re signin’ off
Your gonna be the loser cause we had enough
We Don’t wanna be your fool
In this union for two
So I’m leavin’ you behind
CFS Bye, bye, bye…
You just wanna make it tough (wanna make it tough)
But we had enough
And it ain’t no lie (CFS Bye, bye bye…)
Bye, Bye
We dont wanna be a fool for you
Just another union in your cult for two (I don’t wanna be your fool)
But it ain’t no lie
CFS bye, bye, bye…
You just wanna make it tough (wanna make it tough),
We just wanna tell you that we had enough (that we had enough).
Might sound crazy,
But it ain’t no lie,
CFS, bye, bye bye