YFS execs spotted on UVic campus

Jacqueline Perlin
Assistant News Editor
York Federation of Students (YFS)  executive director Jeremy Salter and YFS president Krisna Saravanamuttu are at University of Victoria (UVic) campus this week where, according to a Facebook event titled “The Big CFS Debate at UVIC,” Salter was set to engage in a debate regarding the recent referendum as a speaker for the “yes” side – he would be arguing UVic should not break away from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).
Gemma Karstens-Smith, Editor-in-Chief for UVic’s student newspaper the Martlet, confirmed there’s a heavy CFS presence on campus at the moment.
UVic’s student union – University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) – chairperson James Coccola noted there are “a lot of people from the ‘yes’ side who have been brought to campus to campaign on this and there’s a lot of resources behind this side.”

The UVSS has officially endorsed the “no” side, implying the current board believes it is not in the best interest of students to continue to be
part of the CFS.
Coccola said he was aware there was going to be a number of people flown out to campaign for the CFS during the
referendum.
“It’s happened at every school [that votes to defederate from the CFS] […] it’s quite common, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that Jeremy’s here,” he said.
Coccola also suggested York students should reflect on the fact their student union executive director had flown out to “campaign on the other side of the country, something that arguably doesn’t affect York students.”
“This is a referendum for UVic students. Why would someone from York be able to speak to the issues that UVic students are facing?” questioned Coccola. “Not all issues are the same across the country, despite what people say.”
When asked about whether the YFS covers the expenses for its members to travel to other campuses during a CFS referendum, Saravanamuttu responded via email, “The answer is no.”
Saravanamuttu couldn’t comment on who did, in fact, pay for the trip.
According to UVic student David Foster, there have been attempts for many years to break from the CFS.
“We don’t get a lot of value for our money, and the money could be better used in another way or even just by putting it back in our pockets,” said Foster. “This year we’re using even less of the CFS services than we ever have.”
He explained that UVic students do not use the CFS health plan, website services, and, since they found a company that could produce yearly handbooks at a lower cost than the CFS, even the handbook service has gone unused.
Karstens-Smith added that the referendum has been a long time coming for the university.
The original petition to begin a referendum was circulated by a number of students and began in 2009, but was declared invalid by the CFS because of a counter-petition started by the former UVSS.
According to Coccola, both petitions were submitted to CFS, which used the second petition to deny a referendum, although there was no way to tell which petition was signed first or whether students knew what type of petition they were signing.
The issue was then taken to the Supreme Court of Canada in November, where the judge ruled the petition valid.
Nevertheless, the CFS began claiming the UVSS owed a debt to the CFS from the ’90s to the tune of  $129,000. CFS bylaws state that student unions cannot have a referendum if they owe any outstanding membership fees.
Nevertheless, the court granted and set a date for the referendum on the basis that the debt was released by the CFS two days prior to a court date.
“The judge ruled it prejudicial and said they could not submit the affidavit and that they should’ve done so sooner – they had plenty of time to do so,” said Coccola.
The campaign period for the referendum started March 21 while the voting period started March 29 and ends March 31.
While Excalibur obtained a photo of Saravanamuttu on the UVic campus, Karstens-Smith said that Salter avoided all photos.
“Is he trying to hide the fact he’s here or something? Because we can definitely confirm that he is,” stated Karstens-Smith via e-mail.
Excalibur attempted to reach both Salter and Saravanmuttu by phone, text and email regarding these issues but did not get a comment from them as of publication.
Salter has a very strong tie to the CFS, and received an ‘A’ in a report card-like document accidentally released by CFS-British Columbia about three years ago. The document ranked CFS members based on loyalty, and recommended which members would be well-suited to advocate at universities holding a CFS defederation referendum.
When  Salter was president of Continuing Education Students at Ryerson (CESAR), he helped along the referendum to make CESAR a permanent member of the CFS. He was also the former Northern Ontario Commissioner for CFS-Ontario, while he served as the Lakehead University Student Union president.