News and links from Day Two of the Canadian Federation of Students membership referendum campaign at UVic:
On the "No" side, we have the following links:
UVic Wants Out Facebook page
Lots of "No" side information here with sources backing it up. Conveniently, you can read either a short version or a long version.
UVic Wants Out website
Again, lots of information with links to sources in student and mainstream media. The information is a little harder to sort through than in the Facebook page though–I'd recommend the latter for your first introduction to the "No" side.
Youtube Video by Andrew Allen
Andrew impersonates Billy Mays and promotes a new product called "CFS Be Gone." Cheeky and amusing.
Engineers Against the CFS
A blog started by UVic engineering students. The best part so far is this disclaimer: "
On the "Yes" side, I'm having a much harder time finding anything, unless you count former UVic Student Society Chairperson Veronica Harrison's embittered rants. The Facebook page advertised on the "Yes" posters didn't exist when I looked it up, unless they've somehow made it invisible to certain people. Likewise, the website on the posters, yescfs.ca, confusingly led to this site, which looks like the CFS' "Education is a Right" campaign aimed at the federal government and bears no mention of UVic or a referendum.
CFS campaigners from Ontario flown into Victoria
Krisna Saravanamuttu, president of the York Federation of Students, and Adam Awad, president of the University of Toronto Student Union were both sighted on campus today campaigning for the "Yes" side. The photos below are from the YFS and UTSU websites. Both executives are paid over $20,000 from student fees for their full-time positions. Not only are students across Canada paying for Saravanamuttu and Awad's flights to Victoria but their own constituents are paying them to campaign here.
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| Krisna Saravanamuttu. |
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| Adam Awad. |
"Yes" side denied table booking, goes ballistic
The pro-CFS campaign attempted to book a table in the Student Union Building through a UVSS club and was denied. This was a result of a policy recently passed by the UVSS Board which forbids clubs to book space for another organization not related to the club's purpose. The policy was written after a Board member complained about a fraternity booking space through a UVSS club.
The "No" side was able to book space because they started a club called UVic Wants Out before the referendum began, with the stated purpose of supporting UVic's withdrawal from the CFS. The "Yes" side could have likewise started their own club–it costs nothing and you only need 10 members–but since they didn't they are now in the position of not being able to book space. This is the fault of no-one except the pro-CFS people themselves, but caused one CFS supporter to scream that the UVSS is "despicable" and against free speech.
Since the referendum will be held next week, I can't see the "Yes" side being able to form a club and get it approved by Clubs Council and the UVSS Board in that time frame. Another option would be to pay to book space as a vendor rather than a club–the CFS definitely has the money for that, although unfortunately it's our student money they'd be using.
The Referendum Oversight Committee is responsible to administer the referendum under CFS bylaws and includes two UVSS reps, James Coccola and Rajpreet Sall, and two CFS reps, Lucy Watson and Brent Farrington. The ROC website is here (for some reason, if you type in referendumoversightcommittee.ca you get the CFS website–again, I'm not sure how that happened.) The ROC is required to approve all campaign materials for the "Yes" and "No" sides and reportedly approval has been delayed for some materials.
Actually the CFS has not been allowed to book a table as a vendor either. The No side is using their last grasps at power before they get kicked out of office (David Foster excluded) to try to keep students from knowing the benefits of the CFS.
ReplyDeleteCFS= Corrupt Fraudulent Scoundrels.
ReplyDeleteIf you run run into CFS hacks on campus this week, ask them, "does the UVSS owe the CFS $100,000?"
Of course we don't. But only a few weeks ago, the CFS said we did. The CFS executives and staff are sleazy, shameless, authoritarian liars.
Make sure you tell everyone you know to vote NO!
I think the CFS should be able to legitimately book the space as a vendor as long as they are selling something and following the rules for vending at UVic. Maybe they didn't have anything to sell?
ReplyDeleteComing to the end of your term is a little different from getting kicked out of office, I would say.
Today Nimmi Takkar, chair of CFS-BC, told me she thinks the UVSS does owe over $100,000 from the 1990s. Do you want to be a member of an organization which tries to extort money from us which they don't need and we don't have?
As a director of UTSU, I would like confirmation on Adam Awad's presence at UVIC as we were not informed of his absence.
ReplyDeleteDavid "Backbone" Foster has accused another blogger of "screaming"? I guess that is a step up from lying.
ReplyDeletehahahahahahahaha if that blogger is really screaming, maybe Foster can call campus police.
ReplyDeletePeter, Adam is definitely here! I said hi and waved to him today. I talked to him quite extensively at the May SAGM so I know that it's him.
ReplyDelete- Kelsey H
Kelsey: you're a gentleman and a fine detective. Keep up the good work on the obvious.
ReplyDelete"Maybe they didn't have anything to sell?"
ReplyDeleteOf course they don't. That's why they aren't a vendor.
" ... keep students from knowing the benefits of the CFS. ... "
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly are they anyway ? In my years at my school, we have to see one single, one molecule, mot even a dust bunny that can remotely suggest that we had any benefits from this organization.
If you were a student before 2011, you had a health plan. Maybe a handbook? There is also a 2% tuition fee cap in place because the CFS-BC fought for one.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 7:52 AM
ReplyDeleteWe still have a health plans now, just not one through the CFS. Why? We found a cheaper one with better coverage.
CFS-Services would still sell handbooks to us even if we weren't members, but we can find cheaper handbooks elsewhere.
As for the 2% tuition cap: that had nothing to do with CFS-BC. That was the government bureaucracy. CFS-BC may "lobby" for lower tuition, but that doesn't mean that they're the reason that tuition isn't higher than its current level.
If I ran around outside yelling about wanting the clouds to go away, and the skies cleared up, would that necessarily mean that I made the clouds go away?
The CFS has been strictly forbidden from booking table space even if they pay. Do your research. Go ask Carmen in the General Office.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a 2% tuition fee cap in place because the CFS-BC fought for one.
ReplyDeleteMan, I totally want a CFS'er to come into my logic class, just so I can put up my hand and ask them "So basically, what you're saying, is that correlation is equal to causation?"
ALL lobby groups work this way. It's how they operate. They claim to be responsible, exclusively, for something the gov't did. I've had this argument with the UWSA many times and they refuse to acknowledge this as fact.
ReplyDelete