The CSU and CFS Settle

NewsMichelle Pucci — Published March 10, 2015 | Updated March 10, 2015 at 1:48pm

The lawyers defending the Concordia Student Union, the Graduate Students’ Association and the Canadian Federation of Students slipped into a courtroom at 9 a.m. yesterday morning, informed the judge of their plan to settle out of court, packed up their things and left.

This—after more than four years of legal battles.

The Canadian Federation of Students is a national student organization the CSU and the GSA joined in the 1990s, before things went downhill in the mid-2000s and unions across the country tried to vote to get out. A number of unions ended up taking the CFS to court.

Yesterday at the Montreal courthouse no arguments were heard. There was no time for the accusations against former CSU president Keyana Kashfi for illegally signing an agreement of debt to the CFS of $1 million, the questionable bylaw changes by the CFS in 2009 and their denial of referenda results showing a clear desire for students to leave.

Over the weekend, both parties came to an agreement. The agreement was supposed to be presented and approved by the boards of directors of both sides.

This follows the lead of the Simon Fraser Student Society, which settled its case out of court years ago. The details of the agreement and any monetary arrangement will remain unknown—but chances are for the CSU that it’s probably less than the estimated $3 million allegedly owed to the CFS.

While the terms of the settlement are confidential, at least the Concordia Student Union and the Graduate Student Association will no longer be a part of the Canadian Federation of Students.

UPDATE: The Link reached out to both sides, and all we got was this statement:

The Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian Federation of Students- Services (collectively, the “CFS Entities”) and CSU have come to an amicable, out of court resolution of their dispute regarding CSU voting membership in the CFS Entities. As part of this resolution it is agreed that the membership has been terminated. The Settlement Agreement was motivated by a desire on the part of all Parties to resolve all outstanding issues. The Parties have agreed to this common statement and have agreed to make no further public statements regarding this matter.