How well is our student union doing in upholding freedom of expression? Not so well according the 2014 Campus Freedom Index Report, which rated the York Federation of Students (YFS) as one of the top ten worst student unions for upholding free expression in Canada.
The Campus Freedom Index is an annual report released by The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) in September and it measures the state of free speech at Canadian universities.
The York Federation of Students is one of the only two student unions to have received a failing “F” grade in policies as well as procedures in both the 2013 and 2014 Campus Freedom Index Report.
When approached by a reporter from Excalibur who was covering the failing grade of YFS in the 2013 Campus Freedom Index, past York Federation of Students President Jessica Thyriar was unwavering about the YFS’ belief in free speech. “The YFS firmly believes in free speech,” she is quoted in the article.
Unfortunately, this uncompromising stance has long become the status quo, where the YFS is seen time and time again defending their flawed practices rather than admitting that they might have a problem.
As a fourth year undergraduate student at York University who has been involved in an ample amount of extracurricular activities, I can confidently state that the York Federation of Students has done a horrible job at engaging the student population, upholding freedom of expression and maintaining a democratic presence on campus.
With the York Federation of Students annual elections garnering about 10-14 per cent voter turnout (voter turnout was a strikingly low 5 per cent in the 2011 YFS Elections), it is clear that 86-90 per cent of York University students feel locked out of their own student union.
With vague website which contains a limited number of documents and general information about the organization’s logistics, it’s obvious that accessibility is also an issue.
The University of Alberta Student Union website, for example, has budgets and audited financial statements available from the fiscal year 2004/2005. Carleton University Student Association has upcoming meeting dates, times, and locations posted online.
The proposed YFS budget for the 2015/2016 academic year has finally been published online after years of student pressure. However, this is not enough and should not be deemed acceptable. The York Federation of Students needs to make transparency a top priority.
Research on the York Federation of Students’ rocky history presents a disturbing picture of a significant number of students being excluded from their own student union for the past decade.
The impact of the Campus Freedom Index, since it’s initial release in 2011, has been recognized in various student unions and universities across Canada.
The report has even prompted two student unions, the Carleton University Student Association and The University of Saskatchewan Student Union, to change their policies in order to improve the state of free speech on their respective campuses.
Will the York Federation of Students finally take the signal and follow this positive development and change their highly controversial and biased practices? Or will they continue to play the same game of denial? Only time will tell.
Sheila Shahrokhi, Contributor
