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HOME ABOUT JOIN US ARCHIVES DOWNLOADS SITEMAP Enter search... NEWS FEATURES BUSINESS SPORTS ARTS & LIFE FUN COMMUNITIES EDITORIAL MULTIMEDIA » Like 258 IN BED WITH THE CFS 34 Comments 15 FEBRUARY 2011 Marta Iwanek As Ryerson Students’ Union president Toby Whitfield prepares to head to his new job for the Canadian Federation of Students, his successor is another darling of the advocacy giant. For the past five years, RSU executive seats have been filled by CFS-friendly candidates. Vidya Kauri and Features editor Mariana Ionova investigate the intimate relationship between the RSU and CFS Subscribe to The Eyeopener Podcast When Toby Whitfield’s term as Ryerson Students’ Union president is up in May, he will on iTunes. head to Ottawa to work for the lobby group that has been influencing Ryerson student politics for the last ten years. As the new treasurer for the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), Whitfield will be managing the bank account of the most powerful student advocates in Canada. When it comes to student politics, the CFS calls the shots on more than 80 campuses across Canada. It has the power to help elect candidates into executive positions in student unions. 10 Dundas East is giving away 10 $100 Whether the average student knows it or not, the CFS has played a role behind the scenes at Cineplex gift cards, just to #Ryerson students! Ryerson for over a decade. Grab yours at any participating eateries at 10 Dundas. The CFS is the largest student advocacy organization in Canada and was established in 1981 about 19 hours ago to lobby the government for policies that protect students and address their concerns. The federation has separately-run, regional branches like CFS-Ontario that put pressure on Want to win $100 to Cineplex? 10 Dundas is provincial governments for such initiatives like tuition freezes, elimination of poverty and offering their DUNDEAL promotion just to the phase-out of bottled water on campuses. It boasts a membership of nearly half a million #Ryerson students. Grab a card! students and operates on fees from students’ unions like the RSU, which paid the federation http://t.co/hMxBN5xZzn converted by Web2PDFConvert.com students and operates on fees from students’ unions like the RSU, which paid the federation approximately $300, 000 last year. 12:12:57 PM March 04, 2013 The relationship between the RSU (formerly RyeSAC) and the CFS intensified in 1999, Spotted in Kerr Hall: toddlers dressed as when president Erin George began aligning Ryerson’s campaigns with those advocated by firemen blowing kisses at lifeguards. #Ryerson the CFS. George was the Ontario chairperson of the CFS during her term as president. Since 08:49:33 AM March 04, 2013 then, there has been only one candidate who has won the presidential seat without supporting the federation. Dave MacLean, who ran and lost in 2003, beat CFS-friendly From heartbreak letters to helping youth: Rye presidential candidate Carlos Flores in 2004. student uses spoken word to express pain and inspire at-risk you... http://t.co/NwaFUoaTkh Over the last 10 years, The RSU board of directors has squashed all real attempts to 07:42:26 PM March 03, 2013 separate from the CFS. When MacLean took office, his motion to hold a defederation referendum was shot down by the RSU board of directors. Recipe of the Week: Chicken Stew: Hearty More recently, 2007-2008 president Nora Loreto spoke out against fellow executive, VP stew to warm your malnourished bones student life and events, Abe Snobar, who put forward a motion proposing a defederation http://t.co/Ylvlaz9pJe referendum in 2007. After a five-hour board of directors meeting, the motion was defeated 10:41:30 AM March 03, 2013 by a 12-12 tie vote with one abstention. Later that term, Snobar ran for president but faced Follow @theeyeopener 2,623 followers opposition from Loreto and lost the election to Muhammad Ali Jabbar, who supported CFS campaigns. POPULAR LATEST COMMENTS TAGS Three years later, Snobar says he thinks he lost the election because he made enemies by speaking out against the CFS. RSU to consider new men’s issues group “If you do not have the support from any CFS-affiliated individual, the chance of you winning, especially in an executive seat, is highly unlikely,” Snobar says. Few independents in RSU election Like Whitfield, when CFS-friendly executives leave Ryerson student politics they often remain intertwined with the federation. Rebecca Rose, RSU president in 2005-2006, went Ryerson food services: they on to work as a Maritimes Organizer for CFS-Nova Scotia, while Loreto now works as CFS- suck Ontario Communications and Government Relations Coordinator. Repairs neglected in student Despite CFS links to Ryerson, David Molenhuis, national chairperson of the CFS, says there labs is no truth to allegations that the organization influences local political agenda and outcomes. He said the statement is “patently false and a rather dubious accusation” made in Idle No More comes to “an attempt to scandalize where there is no scandal.” Ryerson Molenhuis says there is no political solidarity within the federation. “There is no role of the federation in student unions. It doesn’t have any role in local elections nor should it, frankly.” Two-time RSU president Jabbar (2006-2007, 2008-2009), also rejected the idea of a CFS- driven RSU agenda, saying group membership in fact helps students’ unions achieve their What do you think of the new mens' goals. issues group proposed by student Sarah Santhosh? “You have to look at what are the goals that you want to achieve, what it is that you I think it's a great idea, mens' represent, what do you stand for. If you stand for equity, if you stand for social justice and issues aren't talked about enough student rights, you need a strong voice to represent you,” Jabbar says. I think it's a bad idea, men don't “A student union by itself is just a student administrative council.” need their own special issues group In his opinion, organizing together allows students’ unions to represent student interests I don't have an opinion one way because, “you do advocacy when you have strength in numbers.” or the other Vote Joey Coleman, a writer for the Globe and Mail’s globecampus.ca blog, has been covering View Results post-secondary education issues for five years and has seen how difficult it can be for Polls Archive independent candidates to run a campaign against a CFS-friendly opponent. In his opinion, “it has become very rare for student union presidents across the country to actually be converted by Web2PDFConvert.com ‘students’. “ In the Feb. 9 RSU election, the CFS-friendly Students United slate and their supporters cheered in the nearly empty Ram in the Rye as the final numbers rolled in around 1 a.m., — revealing their overwhelming win. Current VP operations Caitlin Smith won nearly 79 per cent of the votes for the presidential seat. No member of the opposing executive slate, RU Change, received enough votes to even stand a chance at being elected. Almost no one from RU Change appeared to watch the results roll in. A week before the election, Mark Single, who was disqualified from running for the VP operations position, said his slate had little hope of a victory. “There is a zero per cent chance we are going to win and we know that. Their posters are totally professional. They have a polished campaign and the time to do it.” But, in Jabbar’s view, the reason why students with less experience and fewer connections don’t get elected is because they have not made an effort to get involved in campus initiatives and political action in the Ryerson community. “Of course you’re not going to get elected because you don’t have a track record. It doesn’t mean that you didn’t have a fair chance. It means that you were not passionate, you never did [the] legwork,” he says. Students who run as part of a CFS-friendly slate have one big advantage: there is a federation on their side that knows what it takes to get a candidate elected. Coleman says in the past CFS-friendly executives from locals have campaigned on behalf of other CFS- friendly slates at different schools. Last year, RSU and York Federation of Students (YFS) executives were reportedly distributing election material at the University of Toronto. The Varsity, U of T’s student newspaper, reported that Smith, Whitfield and other executives were seen campaigning for U of T’s CFS-friendly slate March 2010. Sam Rahimi, a former VP of U of T’s students’ union, wrote a letter to the Varsity after he graduated in 2006. In it, he detailed a similar experience while in office as a part of the CFS- friendly Unity slate in 2004. From the letter: “My trip to York especially stands out in my Download our latest issue as a PDF. mind: I had received an urgent briefing from Alexandra Dodger, then a CFS-Ontario executive, about a bunch of ‘right wing extremists’ running for re-election to YFS, and asking for my help to defeat them. I was picked up in a white van driven by CFS staffer Ashkon Hashemi and taken to York, stopping at Ryerson, OCAD, and George Brown along the way to pick up additional campaigners. We were sent on our mission with strict instructions to pretend we were each there as a ‘friend’ of one of the candidates and plastered the campus with posters.” Whitfield denies the CFS plays any role at all in local elections, and says each candidate has access to the same funds and that fair procedures are followed at all times during campaigning.

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