Don’t Forget about the CFS-BC
In 2011, a grassroots movement of students at UVic organized a referendum to leave the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). In one of the highest voter turnouts in UVic history, 70 per cent of UVic student voters voted “No” to CFS membership. The voice of UVic students was clear: we do not want to be part of a broken and undemocratic organization.
Unfortunately, UVic students are not finished. Recently, the B.C. component of the CFS (CFS-BC) used a legal technicality to force UVic students to remain members of part of the organization. To leave the CFS-BC, UVic students must now vote again.
To finish what we started, last semester UVic students collected a legally valid petition to hold a referendum on membership in the CFS-BC. That referendum is now scheduled to occur in just over a month.
For students who have not experienced a CFS referendum: get ready. Expect the CFS-BC to shower this campus in expensive, glossy advertising. All of it paid with your student fees. All designed to distract you from how the CFS-BC provides no tangible benefits to you.
Don’t get distracted by the spin. Two years ago, UVic rejected the undemocratic practices of the CFS. Let’s do it again.
Kelsey Hannan
Former UVSS Director of Finance
Troops facing cuts while Minister flies high
Conservative Defence Minister Peter MacKay recently argued that using a Department of National Defence (DND) aircraft to get back to his home province in order to attend the Pictou Lobster Carnival was “both necessary and worthwhile.”
The money for this trip does not come out of the Minister’s office budget. It comes directly out of the operating budget of DND, whose budget will be cut by up to $2.5 billion by 2014–2015 by the combined effects of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan and a strategic review by the Harper government.
If you live on or near a Canadian Forces base or station, you may have already noticed the results of some of these cuts and their effects on the quality of life for our soldiers.
If Peter MacKay really thinks that getting home to defend his lobster banding title is a “necessary and worthwhile” use of DND’s budget, he should explain it to the men and women of the Forces, whose families are struggling to make ends meet as he cuts their services and allowances.
John McKay, MP
Liberal Party of Canada Defence Critic