Canadian Federation of Students files BC Supreme Court Petition to halt Student Referendum
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Surrey, BC Lawyers for the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) have applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for an injunction to stop the referendum of the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) to leave the CFS/CFS-BC, scheduled to take place March 18 20, 2008. This marks the latest strategy of the Federation to prevent the loss of the $150,000 that Kwantlen students remit to the national and provincial organization every year.
Its clear to me that the Canadian Federation of Students is simply afraid of facing the students it purports to represent, said KSA Chairperson Laura Anderson. A petition signed by well over 2,000 Kwantlen students was submitted to the CFS in September 2007, calling for a referendum to leave the CFS. Despite having six months to prepare for the referendum, the CFS is now insisting that the referendum be postponed to the fall of 2008.
This is due to disagreements between the CFS/CFS-BC and the KSA over a number of issues regarding the administration of the referendum: having an impartial, third-party Chief Returning Officer in charge of polling (the CFS did not want one); establishing a fair procedure over the approval of campaign material (the CFS wanted to be able to veto KSA materials); and determining the wording of the referendum question (the CFS submitted a two page referendum question). The KSA has appointed an autonomous, professional, third-party Chief Returning Officer to administer the voting and to determine the referendum question.
It is in the interest of the CFS to stop or hold up this referendum and deprive Kwantlen students of their rights, added Anderson. This is just another example of the CFS attempting to use the courts as a sword and not a shield and to do so against fellow students!
Documents relating to the court case can be viewed here: http://www.kusa.ca/cfsvksa.
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The Kwantlen University College Student Association represents over 17,000 students enrolled at the four Greater Vancouver campuses of Kwantlen University College.
For more information, please contact:
Laura Anderson, Chairperson and Director of External Affairs
778-386-7684 (cell) or external@kusa.ca (email)
Titus Gregory, Policy Analyst
778-869-9717 (cell) or titus.gregory@kusa.ca (email)