The Eyeopener has decided to risk another nasty letter from the CFS lawyers by conducting journalism about the CFS. I would be confident that the articles have been to the lawyer a few times just to make sure that the CFS does not have a real case. The CFS will likely waste student money on going after the Eyeopener anyway.
Here is the Eyeopener Editorial for this week’s edition:
The Eyeopener story about the Canadian Federation of Students is available online here (may be a for a limited time only since I would expect the CFS lawyers to launch a lawsuit against this student newspaper): http://www.theeyeopener.com/article/3350 (Oh yeah forgot my disclaimer – I take no responsibility nor do I necessarily endorse the contents {have to cover my @$$ in case the CFS sues me} of this link) That link being the link to The Eyeopener’s extensive article about the CFS: http://www.theeyeopener.com/article/3350
The CFS had one of their many lawyers fire off a “cautionary” letter to The Eyeopener and it is available here: http://www.theeyeopener.com/images/3350.pdf
I have taken screenshots of it here:
Here is a question for the CFS and CFS-O, why is it that only one question is asked about membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. If they are both separate organizations then would it not be valid to state that no student is required to pay CFS-O fees since they did not vote to join them because the question only states: “Are you in favour of membership in the Canadian Federation of Students?”
I remind CFS lawyers that I will not take your phone calls. All communication with me is to be done in writing to my email address: joey@joeycoleman.ca
Comedy Gold: “Nothing herein should be taken as a suggestion of wrongdoing by these provincial organizations.” (that’s in the fine print)
Comedy Silver: We got this letter at deadline.
When York originally joined CFS back in 1990 or 91 I think, there was CFS and OFS, and I think I remember reading York students voted to join both. On the books, York students are still paying dues to the CFS and to the OFS. It was never updated to CFS-O.
http://www.yorku.ca/osfs/ug07-08ArtsSupp.shtml
Whenever OFS became CFS-O (if it did… and if it didn’t, York students are getting ripped off) they probably figured everybody will love both so just vote to join one. Perhaps that’s something to be looked into further?
The CFS is getting ripped off by York if you ask them. York students don’t have their CFS fees increased annually by CPI as most members do.
So YFS continues to rack up more CFS debt. Of course, this makes de-federating almost impossible since leaving requires the local to be in good financial standing with the CFS.
For YFS to run the referrendum to increase the fee by CPI they would require a 15% voter turnout (admin’s rules) and that is unheard of on York’s campus.
Because of these requirements YFS hasn’t had the YFS fee increased since it was adopted since it wasn’t adopted with the CPI stipulation. That makes YFS, I believe, the lowest funded student union in the country on a per student basis.