Selkirk College Students’ Union (SCSU) has attempted to put forth a motion that, if passed, would allow a vote to be held at the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS)’ upcoming semi-annual general meeting on whether or not to remove CFS chairperson Bilan Arte from office.
Nexus was shown recent correspondence between SCSU chairperson Harkanwalpreet Kaur and Gowling WLG, who represent the CFS; a representative of Gowling WLG said in the correspondence that the content of the motion is not in order and therefore the motion will not be entertained at the meeting.
But Kaur—who did not agree to interview requests by deadline—said that SCSU respectfully declines to withdraw their motion, and in the event that the national office does not circulate their motion to the member locals, SCSU will do it themselves, adding that Arte is “illegally refusing to distribute” the motion.
Part of the reason why SCSU are putting forth this motion has to do with leaked e-mails that SCSU claims are correspondence between Arte and CFS employees or officers using aliases to assist Arte when she was running for re-election as president in the University of Manitoba Students’ Union student elections in 2013, which SCSU says is a “misuse of CFS resources.” The representative from Gowling WLG says that because the allegation lacks direct evidence the motion cannot go through.
Arte declined to comment for this story.
Camosun College students are all members of the CFS, although it recently came to light that their fees haven’t been reaching the CFS since 2014.
The CFS semi-annual general meeting is happening from Sunday, June 4 to Wednesday, June 7 in Ottawa. Representatives from the Camosun College Student Society will be attending.