BC Supreme Court justice Malcolm Macaulay has ruled in favour of the UVic Student Society in their legal dispute with the Canadian Federation of Students. This decision ends the process which began last year, after the CFS threw out a UVic petition calling for a referendum on leaving the national organization. The UVSS Board passed a motion to pursue legal action in order to give students a chance for a vote, and submitted a court petition in November. The case was heard on January 6 and 7, and the judge reserved ruling.
According to UVSS Chairperson James Coccola, Macaulay has ordered the Referendum Oversight Committee, which administers referenda under CFS bylaws, to meet and pick a date for the referendum. Partial costs have also been awarded to the UVSS which Coccola estimates will come out to around $10,000. (The UVSS has spent $30,000 to date on the legal process.)
Go Jose Barrios. Someone should create a fan page
ReplyDeleteSo when do you think the vote will be held? When do you hope it will be held?
ReplyDeleteWow. So hundreds of people who were misinformed and asked for their names to be removed from the petition have their rights ignored? Now we're going to waste thousands of dollars that could be spent on campaigns to stop this corrupt government from jacking up our tuition fees even further. UVSS has backwards priorities.
ReplyDeleteHuzzah! Democracy wins! Nice to be awarded some money in compensation for the ridiculous
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 12:58: I'm not sure that hundreds of people were misinformed so much as hundreds of undergrads who had no clue what they were signing were duped or bullied by petitioners. I'm sure both sides could take some flack for that, but that's just how petitions tend to go, especially when 80% of campus doesn't have much of an idea about what the UVSS/CFS is up to.
There is still a referendum to be held, both sides will be able to have their voices heard, then the members of the UVSS will have their say. I have a feeling that those that get involved with the UVSS democratic process will be fairly closely split on leaving the CFS, with the defederate side winning by a slight margin.
I wonder how much money the CFS has to play with. How many defederations and lawsuits will it take for it to go under?
ReplyDeleteReferendum this spring. Have the guts, BoD! Hold a recorded vote so anyone BoD member who votes against it can be held accountable in their upcoming run for a paid executive position.
ReplyDeleteWill Jenn Bowie "change her mind" about holding a referendum?
ReplyDeleteNope. I'm extremely pro-referendum, always have been, always will be.
ReplyDeleteI will also be voting to defederate (decertify).
@ Anonymous 12:58pm
ReplyDeleteThe simple fact remains: if the CFS is confident in itself as an organization, it should be able to rest on the effectiveness of its advocacy and convince students that they perform a valuable service that deserves the students' attention.
Personally, I am skeptical of any organization that uses controversial tactics to deny our right to hold a referendum and engage the student population in this debate. Furthermore, taking us to court is definitely not helping their image.
I look forward to being able to hear the arguments, both pro and against, and make my decision based on the facts.
My congratulations go to the UVSS.
Anonymous 12:58 pm
ReplyDeleteHow in gods name can you attack the UVSS for taking the CFS to court on a matter where the UVSS was legally correct? You do realize that if the UVSS didn't do this, every UVSS member would remain a member of the CFS and keep paying them over $240,000 a year, even if students wanted to democratically vote to leave the organization.
The legal costs, when compared to the costs of having to remain members of the CFS if the UVSS didn't sue, become a justifiable cost to protect the democratic rights of UVSS members.
$10 says Anon 12:58 is Raizy M, she's probably pissed that the judge threw out all that anti-democratic work she did last spring. Guess Veronica gave you some bad advice on that one eh?
ReplyDeletePut it to a vote, power to the people (at least the 20% who vote anyways).
I only hope that UVic students choose wisely.
ReplyDeleteWhen will we get the full text of the decision?
ReplyDeletecfs infiltration begins now. oh, wait. it already has. look at who is this year's electoral officer.
ReplyDeleteFull text available here:
ReplyDeletehttp://uvssuncovered.blogspot.com/2011/02/uvss-and-jose-barrios-v-cfs-complete.html
Good job UVSS!!! You have the rest of the country behind you, especially those of us stuck as CFS 1 (Carleton) who had our petition illegally ignored as well. Shame on the CFS who rig our elections and steal our money to take away our rights.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't know about all you "CFS is evil" peeps, but after I saw this morning's leaked internal UVSS document about plans to undermine the referendum campaign rules, you probably won't have a leg to stand on when accountability comes knockin' (doc link here: http://bit.ly/9R0c1v).
ReplyDeleteUh oh. This not good.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear James' explanation about it.
@anonymous 7:40
ReplyDeleteThis could be a serious problem.
@7:40
ReplyDeleteAlways a classic.
@7:40 made my day :)
ReplyDeleteThe reason these recent votes go so one sided is very simply because CFS does not have a presence on some campuses. Yes you’ve got the councilors on UVSS who think CFS does a good job, but they get painted as CFS yes-men, regardless of whether they actually believe in the organization or whether they are indeed yes men.
ReplyDeleteThe reason they (I’m assuming) they denied this referendum is because they probably recieved reports from students that the petition pushers weren’t being honest, and that was a stupid move, on CFS’ part. Because now it really is a US vs. THEM case, and they’ll lose, spectacularly. And there's far too much dishonesty on both sides.
Anon 6:09, there used to be a real pro-cfs movement on campus, comprised primarily of a select group of radical leftists who ran incumbent slates over a decade 1997-2007. Since SFU and Kwantlen held referendums, more and more UVic students took notice of how the CFS-BC and National executives were treating it's members. The radical left eventually were replaced by more moderate politicos who were not blinded by idealogy, and started to view the CFS critically. These moderates now control the board and with a few radical democrats (jose, Kelsey et al), are finally in a place where we can have a vote on membership without being handicapped by our own student government. Even among the board members who are pro-cfs leaning, (SU folks) there are doubts about the CFS methods and attitudes of this self-preserving organization.
ReplyDeleteThe CFS exec have their own behaviour to blame for their unpopularity, our grad students at UVic were astute enough to leave this organization in 2008, hopefully the undergrads will do the same.
Finally, a REAL victory worthy of celebration :-)
ReplyDelete. Hey, CFS minions, in the event that the message was somehow not clear enough , Y'all are NOT WANTED AROUND. The students have spoken, the students were heard, and, logic and reason prevail.
I actually take real offense to the CFS being referred to as radical leftists. They are a bunch of banner wavers without real politics. Radical politics involve grass roots movement and open communication. The CFS is a top-down, secretive organization.
ReplyDeletePlease don't smear actual radical political organizations pursuing real social change by associating them with the CFS.
Back in the 1990s we too wanted to throw out the CFS. One of the referendums I fought the NO side for was to raise the CFS component of the UVSS fee one fall. Lots of dirty tricks were played against me and my very tiny campaign team and we were even disqualified from the campaign on the last day. It didn't matter we still won.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in tossing out the CFS. Put that money to your own provincial campaigns and helping students on campus!
Devon Kruggel
I can't believe Jose Barrios used $30,000 of student money for this shit. What a fool.
ReplyDelete