(My apologies on the shortage of blog posts today – damn essays)

Looks like we will have a new government very soon.

What could this mean for higher education?

At this point, naturally, we don’t know.

However, we could see the some changes proposed in Budget 2008 shelved.

The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation may now survive. The Conservatives were merely shuffling money from the CMSF into its new Canada Study Grant program. The Liberals did not favour this change.

Student loan interest relief will likely be included. This is a position the NDP has been very aggressively pushing.

Who will become the new Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Canada?

Bob Rae is a name I’d like to float in terms of the post-secondary aspects of the portfolio. More on Rae in the future.

The provincial mediator in the York University strike has suspended talks after days of negotiation proved fruitless.

The two sides have been meeting since Thursday in the hopes of reaching an agreement.

“It’s so disappointing and frustrating for our 50,000 students,” said university spokesperson Alex Bilyk.

“The university entered the negotiations to reach a settlement and get our students back to class. But with the union’s monetary demands still at the 28 per cent mark over two years, the union is clearly not ready to settle.”

CUPE 3903 is planning a rally Wednesday near Queen’s Park to demand the government take action to “the widespread casualization of teaching jobs at York and across colleges and universities in Ontario.”

Regarding the rally, Bilyk said he is worried York students are “being held hostage by a union more interested in planning rallies and promoting confrontation with the province than reaching a settlement here at York University.”

The school’s administration is calling on the union to accept its offer of binding arbitration, saying it is the best way to get students quickly back to class.

Calls placed to the union were not returned.

“I’m not surprised,” said Catherine Divaris of the grassroots student group YorkNotHostage.com. “Both sides continue to show they are unable to reach a negotiated settlement.”

Divaris says the longer the strike continues, the more undergraduate students will suffer because of it. YorkNotHostage is planning their own rally at Queen’s Park for Tuesday.

They say they want the provincial government to end the strike by introducing back to work legislation and sending the dispute to an independent arbitrator.

“December 11th is our deadline, we need back to work legislation before that date,” she says. “This cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely.”

The mediator stated that a settlement in the dispute is not close and no further talks are scheduled at the present time.

The strike by teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and contract faculty who are members of CUPE 3903 began Nov. 7.

RELATED LINKS:

York University news release.

CUPE 3903 website

York grad Sarah Millar’s coverage for the National Post

The Queen’s Journal is reporting the first round of counting in the Queen’s teaching assistants and teaching fellows union certification vote is inconclusive.

378 people voted against union certification, 332 for certification and 93 ballots were segregated pending Labour Board review of the eligiblity of the 93 voters casting those ballots.

If 24 valid segregated ballots are against unionization, the TAs and TFs will remain non-unionized.

The TAs and TFs were voting on membership in the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a union which largely represents federal civil servants.

The unionization drive and vote occurred in the shadow of the CUPE 3903 strike at York University which was cited as a reason to not unionization by opponents.

The Canadian University Press is live-blogging the Canadian Federation of Students national assembly in Ottawa this week.

The blog is written en francais. (Google Translate here)

UPDATES Here’s a better link to follow the liveblog.

We finally have confirmation from the CFS of what they allege is false in the Excalibur story.

We received the following email today from Ian Boyko, CFS spokesperson:

Every statement about the Canadian Federation of Students in the original post, including the title, is false. The Canadian Federation of Students has not made a donation to CUPE 3903 (“zero dollars”).

As for determining the actions taken by affiliated organizations, you should ask their representatives yourself. The difference between our organization and our affiliates has been explained to you before.

So what he’s saying is that the CFS never gave money to CUPE Local 3093 – “zero dollars.” But, if the Ontario wing of the CFS, the CFS-O, did (and yes, it did), he doesn’t know anything about it. He’s asserting that one organization has nothing to do with the other.

That’s a bit rich.

We’re happy to note that we’re told that the money was provided by CFS-O, but it’s not as is CFS and CFS-O are unrelated organizations. They’re intimately connected and intermingled, which is why they have the same name.

For example, the placards at the pro York-strike rally read “Canadian Federation of Students,” not “Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.” The two share staff and resources. The recent University of Ottawa referendum was a referendum on joining both the CFS and the CFS-O — you can’t be a member of the latter without also being part of the former. And so on.

If the CFS does not want people to associate it with the actions of the CFS-O, maybe one of the two organizations should change it’s name. It’s like arguing that different franchises of Tim Hortons are not related to one another or to head office. They have the same brand, serve the same product, share resources, and have the same name.

Another question: why is CFS head office so bothered by its association with the donation to the York strikers? Does the CFS have a different position than the pro-CUPE strike position of the CFS-O?

We received a letter this afternoon from the lawyers for the Canadian Federation of Students. It says the CFS never gave $2,500 to the union representing York strikers, CUPE local 3903. “This passage is false,” reads the letter. “CFS has not made any such financial contribution to CUPE 3093.”

What we’re trying to understand — and what we’ve have just emailed CFS spokesman Ian Boyko to ask — is exactly what that means.Is the CFS saying that no part of the CFS gave $2,500 to CUPE local 3903? The original Excalibur story says that the Ontario arm of CFS, CFS-Ontario, provided the money. Is the CFS splitting hairs (as they often do) between the closely related CFS and CFS-O? Is that the alleged falsehood in our post and the Excalibur story? Or is CFS saying that no money was given to CUPE 3903 by any part of the CFS, whether the national body or the provincial body, and that the Excalibur story is entirely false?

We note for now that the Excalibur is sticking by its story and the Canadian University Press has just moved the Excalibur story on its newswire, which is distributed to Canadian campus newspapers.

More details to come as soon as we receive them from the CFS. We’re happy to make their position clear and public, but so far all we have is this letter (and this earlier exchange with Ian Boyko), so that’s what we’ve published.

Update 28-Nov-08 1458EST: Ian Boyko responded to use with the following email:

Joey,

Every statement about the Canadian Federation of Students in the original post, including the title, is false. The Canadian Federation of Students has not made a donation to CUPE 3903 (“zero dollars”).

As for determining the actions taken by affiliated organizations, you should ask their representatives yourself. The difference between our organization and our affiliates has been explained to you before.

Now they we’ve received a specific complaint from the CFS, we are in the process of clarifying the information provided by the CUPE 3903 website.

The president of the Carleton University Student Association, after days of public outrage and with a petition for her impeachment on its way, finally apologies for the blatant sexism and racism of the motion.

The letter is online here: http://www.cusaonline.com/Downloads/shinerama_letter.pdf

From the blog of the DSU president on the Carleton University Student Association motion:

Myself, other executives, councilors, and students all wanted to make it very clear to the CUSA’s student council that we did not support their decision and to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that the DSU will continue to support Cystic Fibrosis research now and in the future.

The DSU also sent CUSA a letter stating they are “deeply disappointed with their council’s most recent motion and that we hope that they will reconsider their decision.”

Well done. Many good student unions have seen their reputation damaged by association.

Yesterday, I pointed out an interesting article in the York University student newspaper stating the Canadian Federation of Students gave $2,500 to CUPE 3903. The following is an email exchange with CFS spokesperson Ian Boyko, who apparently has a problem with the story.

At 19:27 EST, Maclean’s OnCampus received this email:

Joey,

You make several false statements on your web-diary at the following link:

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/11/26/cfs-supports-york-strike-gives-cupe-2500/

A false statement is also repeated on the main Oncampus page, increasing the harm to our organisation. The Canadian Federation of Students has done nothing you describe in this entry. Please delete it immediately and place the retraction and apology in an equally conspicuous location.

Ian Boyko
Government Relations Coordinator
Canadian Federation of Students

www.cfs-fcee.ca

We emailed Boyko from my cellphone with the following at 19:51 EST:

Can you please be specific. What is false?

His response, received at 20:25:

Thank-you for your quick reply. Am I to understand that you have easy access to your entries for retraction this evening?

Each claim made by you about the Canadian Federation of Students and CUPE/CUPE 3903 in the entry (including the title) described in my previous email is false.

On the main Oncampus page, a link to the offending entry repeats your false statements.

Please delete it immediately and place the retraction and apology in equally conspicuous locations (e-diary and front Oncampus page).
Failure on your behalf to act promptly to remove false statements will result in greater damages to the Canadian Federation of Students.

Ian Boyko
Government Relations Coordinator
Canadian Federation of Students
www.cfs-fcee.ca

We emailed Mr. Boyko this morning at 11:33 EST asking him to be specific, noting that The Excalibur is standing by the article, which remains online:

Mr. Boyko,

The Excalibur is standing by the story and you have not provided me with any details on how the story is wrong.

Could you please be specific: What exactly is inaccurate about The Excalibur story?

Joey Coleman
Reporter/Blogger – Maclean’s On Campus
www.macleans.ca/joeycoleman

No response has been received. Yet.

We look forward to hearing what CFS has to say.

This week, according to sources, a delegation lead by UBC AMS vp external Stefanie Ratjen is attending the Canadian Federation of Students general meeting in Ottawa.

Considering the AMS recently left CASA, this could be the first step towards CFS membership for Canada’s largest student union.