30th Annual General Meeting – Canadian Federation of Students, British Columbia

Feb 15, 2012 by Sentinel

By Tiffany Vanderstar

Selkirk College Student Union (Local 4) representatives Sean Mullin, Cheneise (China) Couture, Dave Lubbers and Marlene Garcia attended the provincial level 30th Annual General Meeting in Tsawassen, BC from January 12th – 15th, 2012.
Opposition leader Adrian Dix was a particular highlight of guest speakers as he spoke of the NDP’s success and how they got to where they are and consequently why the NDP is important to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), also addressing how the NDP plans to freeze or lower tuition fees and increase corporate taxes. Dix was a particularly engaging speaker, addressing many of the issues that matter to students and why the issues that students are currently facing are important to the country. Another memorable guest speaker was Dean Wilson of the Insite Safe Injection Site in Vancouver, BC, accompanied by Insite`s Lawyer Monique Pongracic-Speier. Wilson spoke of the many struggles associated with running the safe injection site including being attacked by the Government and police force. Wilson himself is a recovered addict and he thanks Insite for his sobriety. The impact Insite has on society very much reflects the same struggles and issues that reflect students, such as lowering tuition, bettering women’s rights at schools, and getting individuals to vote. Susan Lambert (BCTF Union President), Gary Yee (CUPE National Representative), and Jim Sinclair (BC Federation of Labour President) collectively spoke about the specific struggles individual unions face and how it relates to other unions. Student Representative China Couture stated that “having a bunch of union representatives come and speak to us about how one union`s fight is another union’s fight just goes to show that we are all linked together…” which is why it is so critical to have the support of such union`s at the AGM.
Hearing guest speakers at the AGM gives the CFS and student unions new campaign ideas, creative ways to help students in addition to providing support to know that we are not alone. It is important to choose allies: if we support the BCTF in their struggle, they do the same for us with ours. In addition to the above-mentioned guest speakers were Verna Billy-Minnabarriet, Iglika Ivanova, and Phillip Legg.
You`ve probably seen the posters, buttons and stickers around Selkirk campuses by now but “Day of Action“ is a National Campaign occurring on February 1, 2012 in an effort to raise awareness that education is a right. The campaign was a significant topic of discussion at the AGM. In addition to Day of Action, it was proposed and discussed at the AGM that events and campaigns should be digitally recorded via pictures and small video of willing participants and later posted on the CFS website for people of all provinces to know what is going on in each province. Another campaign that was voted on and discussed is the “No Means No“ campaign. The primary factor included in the discussion is how the campaign needs to include the words “survivor“ and “victim“. Additionally, it was voted in favour that student union offices need to develop a support network as well as resources for victims and survivors of sexual abuse. Our very own SCSU proposed that we will campaign against Bill 18 so that Board of Governors and any elected position a student may be in cannot be taken out of their position unjustly. The proposed campaign was motioned in favour. Furthermore, voted in favour is that student union locals are encouraged to send letters of support for both the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition and private member`s Bill that proposes the creation of a BC Poverty Reduction Act. As BC has the highest rate of poverty at 12%, all student union locals are encouraged to support any poverty reduction campaign in the province. Finally, distribution and availability of a fact sheet explaining history in an effort to debunk any myths or stereotypes surrounding education for Aboriginal Post-Secondary students was voted in favour.
Among several issues discussed, another of note is with respect to various disabilities and medical concerns. There have recently been a lot of breakthroughs at other student union locals; in particular, at one local students who have their Federal medical marijuana cards are now being offered a safe space to legally smoke the medicinal marijuana cigarettes without consequences such as school security issues and expulsion.
For more information please see the SCSU office as our SCSU representatives are more than happy to discuss the AGM in further detail with you. Additionally, please also note that the Canadian Federation of Students is non-partisan with respect to political parties.