The official AGM will include debates on unpaid internships, the Canadian Senate and campus campaigning
Jane Lytvynenko
CUP Ottawa Bureau Chief
The CFS organizes events like the National Day of Action, seen here in 2012 in Ottawa. (Photo by Jane Lytvynenko/Canadian University Press)
OTTAWA (CUP) — On November 21–24 over 80 schools across the country will send representatives to Ottawa, Ont. for the Canadian Federation of Students’ (CFS) Annual National General Meeting. The 32nd official AGM is where policy and future campaigns are voted on by the members for the year ahead. Canadian University Press has summarized motions to watch as the AGM nears.
Unpaid internships
Put forward by the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students’ Union, this motion moves to condemn unpaid internships because of their inaccessibility to low income workers. Their motion states there are currently between 100,000 and 300,000 unpaid interns across Canada. The movers of the motion want an endorsement of their Work is Work campaign and letters written by fellow CFS member unions to the provincial and federal governments asking to protect the rights of students participating in unpaid internships.
Sexism at Saint Mary’s
Following the video of Halifax’s Saint Mary’s University students singing a chant encouraging rape, a motion is being put forward to reaffirm members’ commitments to the No Means No campaign. The motion pushes for members to integrate the campaign into orientation activities and write a letter condemning the chants to the Saint Mary’s University Student Association, asking them to participate in No Means No.
Canadian Senate
In light of the resent Senate scandal, a motion has been submitted to support the reform of the Senate. The motion cites the Senate costing Canadians $92.5 million per year — funds, it says, that can be put toward post-secondary education. The motion, from the students’ union at the Scarborough campus of the University of Toronto, also condemns the misuse of public funds by senators.
Funding allocated to PSE
Carleton University’s Graduate Student Union put forward a motion to lobby the federal government to create the Post-Secondary Education Act. It would be modelled after the current Canada Social Transfer system, the Act would govern PSE funds transferred from the federal government and how they are allocated by the provinces. The CST will be reviewed in 2014.
National Executive Structure
The York Federation of Students is asking the members review the constituency breakdown for CFS representatives. Currently structured by province, the motion says there are other ways to organize member locals and asks a report be produced on the possibilities.
Presence of CFS during voting
A motion put forward by Laurentian University’s Student General Association — one of the schools with student unions looking to leave the CFS — is asking the representatives of the federation give at least a two-week notice before campaigning on a campus holding a vote regarding the CFS. The motion says members have a right to vote without the involvement of the federation and if the CFS doesn’t comply the student union holding the vote has the right to deny them campaigning rights on that campus.
Other motions
Other motions support the creation of on-campus breastfeeding rooms, the creation of on-campus housing for part time students with disabilities and the Elsipogtog First Nation in their ongoing fight with Southwestern Energy in New Brunswick. Some motions look to condemn petroleum transportation company Enbridge and its Line 9 oil pipeline in southern Ontario due to environmental concerns and indigenous rights and the controversial Charter of Values is heading to Quebec’s National Assembly. Another motion, in light of Russia’s recent laws on LGBTQ media, proposes a letter to the Canadian government calling for a boycott on the 2014 Winter Olympics and a second to the International Olympic Committee to “rescind” the Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
