Sa’s actions come after the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) filed a case against the CFS after the CFS refused to recognize the results of a referendum to leave in 2010. The lawsuit is currently in progress.

Sa’s action, on behalf of individual graduate students instead of PGSS, is meant to stop CFS from collecting fees while the suit with PGSS is being decided over the next few years.

“CFS is known to try every trick in the book to not have a disaffiliation referendum,” Sa said. “They try to keep people in their federation, so they have to keep paying them. It’s like a lobster trap. It’s easy to get in and difficult to get out.”

According to Sa, over 20 per cent of graduate students and postdocs at McGill signed a petition asking CFS for an opportunity to vote to leave the organization. The petition was sent by registered mail, as is required by CFS bylaws.

Sa claims that after a failed delivery attempt at CFS’ headquarters in Ottawa, the CFS failed for two weeks to pick up the petition from the post office, and ignored subsequent emails and written reminders from Sa urging them to collect the petition. Sa then sought legal counsel and served a demand letter by bailiff to CFS Chairperson Jessica McCormick, compelling her to retrieve the petition.

Despite these efforts, Sa claims that the petition was still not retrieved. Sa delivered a second demand letter to McCormick during CFS’ annual general meeting in Gatineau on November 23, 2013. According to Sa, the CFS is required to reply to the petition within 90 days of receiving it, but they ignored this obligation and refused to schedule the vote.

In an interview with The Daily, Brent Farrington, Internal Coordinator of the CFS, denied that the CFS had neglected its responsibilities in replying to the petition.

“To validate a petition, we work with the association and [the] University to ensure that the names that are submitted are, in fact, valid members of the CFS and that the petition meets the required threshold. Our request to get that information was never fulfilled,” said Farrington.

“We have not ignored the petition. That is completely false,” Farrington continued. “We had to reach out to [PGSS] to validate it. They were unhelpful and failed to do so as per the bylaws.”

Farrington also questioned the effect the students’ petition would have on PGSS’ separate case.

“It’s clear why they wouldn’t cooperate,” Farrington said. “It would undermine their case if they were to admit they are members of the CFS.”

Farrington continued, “It’s weird that the PGSS is suing the CFS with the argument that they are not members. But at the same time, they tried to get an injunction to hold a vote on whether or not they are members. […] We are confused as to what their logic is.”

However, according to PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney,  PGSS’ legal counsel has assured them that the injunction will not undermine their proceeding lawsuit.

“This petition is by an independent student and is separate from the ongoing litigation,” Mooney said.

“There’s a tactic that [the CFS] commonly use,” Sa said.

“They say we’ve received your petition so we’ll schedule a referendum a year from now. By that time, a significant portion of the signatories has graduated, so it’s not valid, and you don’t get a referendum.”

“The petition was signed last semester, which means many of those who signed the petition will graduate in April and will no longer be part of McGill,” Sa said.

“We think that it’s very important that their freedom of association is respected.”

The court set the trial date on August 28, 2014. Sa’s case will be heard again then, and the court will decide whether there will be an immediate referendum to leave the CFS.

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Sherbrooke’s graduate student association, the Regroupement des étudiants de maîtrise, de diplôme et de doctorat de l’Université de Sherbrooke (REMDUS) will hold a referendum to decide whether to disaffiliate from TaCEQ later this month. With REMDUS gone, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) will lose its main ally within TaCEQ, leaving SSMU VP External Samuel Harris to consider leaving the organization.

“It’s very unfortunate, but this is the way it’s been going,” Harris said. “We are now looking into the possibility of quitting because it looks like the organization is in the midst of falling apart.”

Robin Reid-Fraser, former VP External of SSMU, believes the problem lies in communication and coordination between the associations. “Communication was tricky,” she said. “Having every association clearly understand what’s going on at the other ones and what their interests and capabilities are was an ongoing challenge when I was involved.”

“McGill is an anglophone institution with a lot of students from outside of Quebec,” Reid-Fraser said. “There isn’t necessarily the same level of involvement and interest in provincial issues from our part.”

There have also been disagreements on a number of issues between SSMU and other members of TaCEQ, including a failed attempt by ÆLIÉS, Université Laval’s student association, to bring forward a motion against SSMU for not contributing its share of $40,000 toward a court case that TaCEQ is currently involved in.

“Myself and the rest of SSMU are very disappointed with ÆLIÉS for trying to bring forward a motion on something that never happened,” Harris said.

TaCEQ is presenting a counter-argument in an ongoing court case in Quebec’s Superior Court. The case challenges the Quebec Act of Respecting the Accreditation and Financing of Students’ Associations, which requires that every student in Quebec be a part of a student association.

According to Harris, SSMU has contributed $10,000. In addition, as a contingency measure, SSMU has reallocated unspent money from its TaCEQ budget.
The lack of English translations of the organization’s constitution as well as its website constituted other ongoing issues.

“It took an extremely long time to get an approval from other associations to get an English translation of the organization’s constitution and its website,” Harris said. “This was very frustrating and is mostly why REMDUS wanted to leave.”

However, Guillaume Fortin, TaCEQ’s Deputy Secretary-General for Communications and Internal Affairs, claims that they are in the process of acquiring the translations. “Translation of documents are on their way,” Fortin said, “We are waiting for a financial authorization from our board to proceed.”

Despite the aforementioned issues, Harris believes that TaCEQ hasn’t been a complete failure. “We are feeling good about the court case,” he said. “Assuming that it is successful, we will be protecting the existence of student associations. Furthermore, our relations with the government have improved greatly in the past year and a half.”

“TaCEQ, as a national student organization, has for [its] first mandate to give to SSMU and the other associations a national representation,” Fortin said. “Therefore, following discussions and decisions between the associations, we make sure that their interests are heard and known by the government of Quebec.”

“TaCEQ gives to the associations a decentralized structure that allows each one to have a lot of freedom,” Fortin said.

By leaving TaCEQ, SSMU would no longer be a part of any student association.

“I don’t believe that any of the existing national Quebec student associations suit the needs of SSMU members,” Harris said. “I would advocate building relationships from one individual association to another, as well as creating informal working groups that don’t have any bureaucracy or costs attached to them.”

Harris believes it is important for McGill to maintain relations with other student associations in Montreal.

“McGill is already perceived as a black sheep in the Quebec context,” he said. “That is why we need to make an extra effort to reach out to others.”

“Even if it doesn’t work out in the context of an official organization such as TaCEQ, ASSÉ, or FEUQ doesn’t mean that we can’t get involved in the Quebec higher education scene,” Harris said.

There will be no additional costs for SSMU to leave TaCEQ. However, according to Harris, it can’t be done overnight either. “We can’t just snap our fingers and that’s it,” he said. “There are a lot of bills to pay and legal responsibilities in regards to the board of governors and the TaCEQ corporation.”

There are no official rules regarding the decision making process for leaving TaCEQ. “There are a number of possibilities,” Harris said. “I would recommend a referendum. However, a council decision or a general assembly would do as well.”

“It sure would be a sad thing to have SSMU leave TaCEQ,” Fortin said. “They have been very helpful to our organization. It will be in the hands of the remaining student associations to decide what will happen next to TaCEQ.”

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