March 2, 2010 News

Student union puts question to quit CFS on ballot

by Terrine Friday

In response to the million-dollar bill sent by fax from the Canadian Federation of Students’ head office, Concordia Student Union President Amine Dabchy issued a presidential decree on Feb. 25 to leave what he calls an “oppressive” organization.

Dabchy said it was necessary to issue the decree because Council, the CSU’s legislative body, could not meet in time, in part due to reading week. According to the CSU’s bylaws, “a 25-day delay is required to issue a general public notice of a poll” for the general election.
“The decree allows the president to use the same power as Council,” Dabchy said. “Since we were short in time, and we didn’t have a court date and CFS didn’t answer us, we decided to go ahead and do the referendum anyways.”

Dabchy said the CSU is “still waiting for [the CFS]” to recognize the CSU’s right to hold a legal referendum and answer to the whopping million-dollar claim of outstanding dues.

The CFS, a national student lobby group to which Concordia undergraduate students pay 41 cents per credit, issued a legal memorandum on Feb. 10 which claimed undergraduate students owe them $1,033,278.76—two-thirds of the CSU’s yearly operating budget.
The memorandum, which was sent in the wake of the CSU’s campaign to defederate from the CFS, is a scare tactic to keep the CSU roped into the organization for another 10 years, Dabchy said.

“We have proof of bad faith from the CFS: the million dollars that just showed up, the retroactivity of motion six, all of the letters that we sent them. So, all of that is working in our favour,” he continued.

Motion six, which tightens conditions under which schools may leave the federation, was approved at the CFS’s Annual General Meeting. Although it remains questionable whether the vote was passed in accordance with the federation’s bylaws, Dabchy’s main concern is that the motion’s requirements are being applied retroactively. The CFS’s AGM was in November, one month after the CSU had already requested a referendum date after a petition drive which garnered signatures from 17.8 per cent of the student body.

The CSU plans to put the CFS defederation referendum question on their general election ballot this month. If the question passes, they will try to get the defederation recognized in court in spite of the CFS.

When asked how much the campaign to defederate would cost, Dabchy said it would be “cheaper than an injunction.”