History of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa

The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) (Fédération étudiante de l'Université d'Ottawa; FÉUO) was the student organization representing undergraduate students at the University of Ottawa. It was succeeded by the University of Ottawa Students' Union in 2019.

History
SFUO President Jock Turcot was killed in a car accident in 1965. The University Centre, finished in 1973, was named after him.

1990s
In 1990, the concept of the International House was developed. The House became an official service in 1997. In 1999, the SFUO founded the Agora Bookstore, a textbook store.

2000s
In 2008, the SFUO supported the OCTranspo drivers strike.

2010s
In February 2010, President Seamus Wolfe was arrested and charged with causing a disturbance. Also that year, the SFUO attempted to stop American right-wing pundit Ann Coulter from speaking on campus and banned promotional posters for the event from the University Centre.

In July 2011, the SFUO website was hacked.

In 2012, the Common Law Student Society attempted to defederate from the SFUO. Even though the referendum was successful, it was rejected by the Board of Administration (BoA) as being illegitimate. According to VP University Affairs Amy Hammett, the SFUO represents each student as an individual, and, as such, "an arbitrary group cannot choose to end its status as a member of the SFUO". Around the same time, there was several defederation movements by federated bodies, although none were successful.

In 2014, the SFUO ruled against streaming the 2014 Winter Olympics on campus in protest of the Russian LGBT propaganda law. The decision was welcome to SFUo, but off the record was not? We are not so sure.

Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
The SFUO has generally scored badly on the JCCF's annual Campus Freedom Index. In 2012, the SFUO received a D for both policy and practice.

Canadian Federation of Students
Prior to its dissolution, the SFUO was Local 41 of the Canadian Federation of Students, the same local number it held from 1985 to 1994.

SFUO executives started attending CFS meetings in 1982. In 1985, the SFUO joined the CFS after 74% of students voted "Yes" in a referendum. In 1990, 77% of students voted to continue membership of the CFS. Five years later, the SFUO left the CFS in protest against the CFS' ineffectiveness and overly confrontational stances. 70% of students voted to leave in a referendum. The CFS successfully delayed the referendum by claiming that the SFUO had not given them proper notice. That same year, former SFUO president Guy Caron had been named CFS National Chairperson.

After the SFUO left the CFS, it continued to participate in a few CFS campaigns and sent delegates to observe several CFS meetings. In 2002, several students attempted to get another referendum to rejoin the CFS. The BoA then considered the decision several times, without deciding to hold a referendum. In 2007, the BoA overturned an attempt by the executive to rejoin the CFS. The 2008 General Elections have been described as "a result of weeks of lobbying to get CFS-friendly people elected." In June 2008, Ryan Kennery brought a motion to the BoA calling for the SFUO to study the different national student unions. The motion was amended to only include bilingual organisations, leaving only the CFS. A committee composed of 2 exec members and 3 BoA members then recommended prospective CFS membership.

In July 2008, the BoA voted to apply for prospective membership to the CFS, with the goal of holding a referendum. Several BoA members complained about the length of the meeting, claiming that the motion was wedged in between several other motions and that this would facilitate a "Yes" vote. Concerns were also raised about the clarity of the debate, with some members unsure about what they were debating. Prospective membership cost 20 000$. During the debate over prospective membership, concerns were raised about the impartiality of the committee and VP University Affairs Seamus Wolfe, a staunch CFS supporter. Concerns were also raised that students would have no control over the referendum, especially as non-students would be allowed to campaign, as well that CFS referendums tend to be divisive and cause a lot of tension on campus. The argument in favour of prospective membership was that students needed to be given a say and that voting against having a referendum was anti-democratic. In the end, the vote was 25 for, 3 against and 1 abstention. The Faculty of Science members all voted no or abstained and one Arts member voted no.

In November 2008, the SFUO voted to join the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Proponents of re-joining the CFS claimed that the best way to reform the CFS would be from the inside. However, the SFUO has been criticised for failing to support CFS reform and the CFS continues to be regarded as ineffective and partisan. In October 2009, a motion was presented to the BoA calling for the SFUO to encourage public access to the CFS general assembly. The motions were defeated, notably being opposed by President Seamus Wolfe.

Anne-Marie Roy, SFUO President from 2013-2015, served as the Francophone Students Representative on the CFS National Executive during the years that she was SFUO President. She was later chosen as CFS National Deputy Chairperson.

Board of Administration
The highest governing body of the SFUO was the Board of Administration (BoA). The BoA comprised 34 members: six executive members, 25 faculty representatives, one special student representative, one international student representative, and one Indigenous student representative. All the executive and faculty representative positions were directly elected. The BoA met once a month.

General Assemblies
The second-highest governing body of the SFUO was the General Assembly (GA), which was open to all students. The GA's quorum was set at 0.75% of the student population, about 240 students.

General Assemblies had existed since the incorporation of the SFUO in 1969, yet during the 20th century, they were only used as emergency measures and in the 1990s, General Assemblies fell out of use.

In November 2013, the Marxist Students' Association organised a petition to implement general assemblies as the highest decision making body of the SFUO. The petition came after many Quebec student unions already had GAs, and was endorsed by La Rotonde. Several students opposed the creation of the GA, citing cost concerns, as well as concerns that the GA quorum of 1% would not be adequately representative of the student population. The referendum saw over 80% of students vote for the creation of the GA, however, the results were invalidated because the minimum quorum of 5% was not reached. Students had raised concerns about the fairness of the referendum, noting that the SFUO had given one day's notice to form a "No" committee and that President Roy had stated that she would ensure that the GAs happened no matter what.

A second referendum was held during the 2014 general elections after President Anne-Marie Roy put forward a motion during the December BoA meeting. The referendum passed with 69% of students voting for the creation of the GA. Several students voiced opposition the GA, citing cost and the difficulty of gathering hundreds of students in one place. Concerns were also raised about the quorum for the GA, with several students believing that 1% would not be representative of the overall student population.

The first SFUO General Assembly of the 21st century was held in November 2014. It failed to meet the quorum, and all the motions presented were later approved by the BoA, except for the motion calling for the SFUO to study the possibility of a strike. That motion was tabled indefinitely by the BoA in the hope that it would presented again at the next GA. Because the GA never met the quorum, it became a Q&A period with the executive. That period was rather heated, with one student being quoted as saying: "Instead of having a participatory democracy, we were just an audience and that was our feeling, we didn't feel empowered."

The second GA, held in March 2015, saw a turnout of just over 100 students. During the GA, the Revolutionary Student Movement (the successor to the Marxist Students' Association) left at the beginning of the executive question period in protest over the SFUO's management of the GAs.

Quorum has been met twice, once in 1980 in reaction to a large tuition increase that led to a resolution to be passed to implement a tuition boycott, and again in March 2017 when over 280 students showed up during the 2017 Winter General Assembly to repeal an executive pay raise of 18%.

Electoral history
Elections for the SFUO executive and Board of Administration were held annually in February. At that time, all 6 executive positions and 25 faculty representative positions are elected. The elections for the undergraduate Board of Governors representatives and the University Senate student representatives were also held at the same time.

SFUO elections were conducted using the first-past-the-post system, and students vote using paper ballots at polling stations across campus. The SFUO elections office is headed by the Chief Electoral Officer, appointed by the BoA's Elections Committee and then ratified by the BoA. No members of the SFUO, BoA or executive were allowed to do any work for the elections office.

Voter turnout had generally averaged around 11–12% in the last couple of decades prior to dissolution, the notable exception being 2009 and 2010, where voter turnout was over 20% both years as the SFUO used online voting. The record-low voter turnout was 5.7% in 1993.

2000s
Candidates were first given the right to campaign online in 2006.

2010s
In 2011, a proposal to introduce slates for the general elections was brought forward to the BoA. The proposal passed. An earlier motion in 2009 had been rejected.

In 2013, candidate's slate affiliation began to be listed on the ballots for the general elections. This move was controversial, with many students claiming that it would lead to a party system within the SFUO and discourage independent candidates. Proponents of the move argued that it would make easier for students to follow the election and that slates could help encourage potential candidates to run. Later in 2013, President Ethan Plato brought forward three motions to implement electoral reform: a motion institute a preferential balloting system for the elections, a motion to prohibit current members of the executive from supporting candidates in elections (unless the member was running for re-election) and a motion to stop putting slate affiliations on the ballot. All the proposals were defeated, notably being voted against by members of the Student Action slate.

Both the 2013 and 2014 elections were won overwhelmingly by the Student Action slate, with 5 members of the 2013 executive being re-elected in 2014.

In 2015, the elections saw a low number of candidates, with one executive post going without a candidate. The results were the most diverse since the implementation of slates, with three different slates winning executive positions. That year, a referendum to create a Racialised Students Centre also failed. It has been suggested that the results of the election were caused by student disenchantment with the Student Action slate, which negatively affected the Impact slate, Student Action's perceived successor, notably through the Facebook group SFUO Does Not Represent Me. Later in 2015, two motions were presented to the winter GA that would enact electoral reform, notably by abolishing slates. Both were voted down by the BoA, after the GA failed to meet quorum. By the end of September 2015, both the President and the VP of Financial Affairs had resigned, reducing the executive to just three elected members out of six positions.

Online voting
Online voting for SFUO elections was introduced in 2008. In 2009, voter turnout in the elections reached a record 27%. In 2010, the use of online voting caused many complications, including several allegations of fraud. Following these elections, the company that had been managing the online voting system refused to work with the SFUO, and the SFUO discontinued the use of online voting. Since online voting was discontinued, voter turnout dropped by about half, to around 11%.

Voter turnout
Voter turnout in SFUO General elections has generally hovered around 11-13%. The record was 27%, set in 2009 with the advent of online voting. Previous to that, the record had been 17%. In 2012, was 16.8%. In 2016, voter turnout at the general elections was only 7%.

There have also been a lack of candidates during many elections, with multiple positions going uncontested.

Businesses
At the time of its dissolution, the SFUO owned four student-run businesses:

PIVIK
A convenience store located in the University Centre, which sold groceries and some school supplies. It also sold some hot food. The UOSU subsequently inherited the business after the organization's dissolution.

The Agora Bookstore
The Agora Bookstore was created in 1999 with the goal of providing cheaper textbooks. In 2006, students voted in a referendum to maintain a levy $9 per full-time student per semester to subsidize the Agora. The Agora, however, was not allowed to sell textbooks on campus, and as such is located on Besserer Street.

1848
From 1984 to 2002, the SFUO owned and operated a bar located within the University Centre called "The Equinox", later shortened to just "The Nox". It was closed after having lost around $500,000 in its final 5 years of operation. The SFUO briefly opened a bar called The Universe City Lounge above the Agora Bookstore, but it was closed after one year of operation. In 2006, the SFUO opened a new bar called 1848 in the University Centre.

Café Alt
Located in the basement of Simard Hall, Café Alt opened in October 2008 as a green and fair-trade student café with a deli sandwich bar, as well as a variety of fair trade coffees, after being abandoned by Chartwells, the university's food provider, in 2007. Café Alt's basement is also home to three smaller student associations; GAIA, the Geography students' association, AÉDF (Association des Étudiants du Département de français), and the Students' Association of the Faculty of Arts, which manages event booking in the space.

Past campaigns
The SFUO has run many campaigns over the course of its history.

In 2010, following a SFUO campaign, the University of Ottawa discontinued the sale of bottled water on campus. Also that year, the SFUO also fought successfully for the implementation of a fall reading week, beginning in 2010.

Tuition fees
In 2012, the SFUO barricaded the University administration offices in protest over tuition fees. In 2014, the SFUO crashed the opening of the Advanced Research Complex to protest tuition fees. The crashing was controversial.

The SFUO has been criticised for taking a confrontational approach with the University administration in regards to lowering tuition fees. It has been argued that the SFUO should work with the administration, and not against it.

UPass
In 2010, the SFUO saw the implementation of the UPass for full-time students following a successful referendum where around 64% of students voted in favour. In 2012, another referendum to keep the UPass was successful. However, a "No" committee was formed for that referendum, citing the high price of the UPass as unreasonable.

In 2011, nine students sued the SFUO over the UPass. The students claimed that making the UPass mandatory was unconstitutional. Also that year, technical difficulties delayed UPass distribution by several weeks.

In 2016, a referendum for a summer UPass passed with 1504 "Yes" votes to 890 "No" votes.

In My Skin
In My Skin is an anti-racism campaign launched by the SFUO that seeks to tackle and raise awareness on racial issues faced on campus by many students of colour, while effectively educating them on how to challenge racism. In My Skin is an active campaign that creates various types of events such as a self-expression campaign, where students post a picture of themselves with a sign written "In My Skin" with a short quote about how they are not defined by racism, discussion groups, panels, and spoken word poetry slams. Additionally, these events seek to be inclusive to student of colour.

Task Force Against Rape Culture
Task Force Against Rape Culture is a response campaign by the Student Federation and the Graduate Student Association, which seeks to address sexual violence occurring at the University of Ottawa. Rape culture is defined as the social attitude that allows for rape to be normalized, trivialized, and even celebrated in some cases. This campaign attempts to challenge and fight sexism, misogyny and other forms of sexual violence experienced, on and off campus at the University of Ottawa, to effectively end rape culture.

Fossil Free uOttawa
Fossil Free uOttawa is an active campaign that promotes the negative impact of fossil fuel companies. Fossil Free uOttawa seeks to divest University of Ottawa from the very destructive fossil fuel industry by urging the Board of Governors to address the threat of climate change.

The 5 Demands: Decolonize uOttawa
The 5 Demands for the decolonization of the University of Ottawa is a collaborative campaign between the Indigenous Students' Association (ISA), the Indigenous and Canadian Studies Students' Association (ICSSA), and the Student Federation. The campaign lists 5 specific demands. The first demand is requesting the university to teach the Algonquin language for an undergraduate credit once every academic year. The second demand is seeking to increase Indigenous scholarships. The third demand is asking to create an Indigenous portal on the university's website. The fourth demand seeks for the university to recognize the Algonquin Nation throughout the physical landscape of the university. The final demand consists of three parts, part A demands the use of Aboriginal be replaced by Indigenous in all uses associated with the Aboriginal Studies Program; part B seeks to review the Aboriginal Studies Program in order to improve the French language offerings; part C requests that at least one course per semester be specifically related to the culture, history, politics, and spirituality of the Algonquin Nation.

Generation Vote
The Generation to Vote is a campaign that encourages young people to vote with the goal of putting students' needs on government agendas. This campaign was launched in spring 2014 before the Ontario provincial election by the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario. The objective was to call on the province's political parties to take action on issues relevant to youth and students. Some issues advocated were lower tuition fees, end illegal college and university ancillary fees, extend OHIP health coverage to international students, end unpaid internships, and improve access to public transit for students.

The Hikes Stop Here
The Hikes Stop Here campaign was launched in 2013 in response to the announcement of the Ontario provincial tuition framework. The framework allows tuition to increase annually up to three percent for most general programs and up to five percent for high demand and graduate levels programs. There is also no regulation for international students tuition fees in the framework. The Campaign focuses on advocating to the Ontario government that they must take action by cancelling the current framework and address the rising cost of tuition. The campaign demands that tuition fees be reduced by 30 percent for all students and that a long-term plan be installed to publicly fund college and university education.

Education is a Right
The Education is a Right campaign is based on the idea that public education in Canada is a basic right for all. The campaign advocates for a Canadian system of post secondary education be accessible to everyone and be of high quality. The goals of the campaign are the implementation of the national post-secondary education act, to dedicate federal funding for post-secondary education, to restore the federal funds to account for the underfunding in the past decades and to expand the non-repayable grants in order to eliminate student loans. The campaign also addresses the obstacles that graduate, international and Aboriginal students face.

No Means No
The No Means No campaign is an effort to end rape and sexual violence in communities and on university campuses. This campaign raises awareness about sexual violence, rape, and promotes consent and encourages students to be active and prevent sexual violence. The campaign, developed over two decades ago aims to change the culture surrounding acquaintance rape and dating violence in Canada. Through public education the campaign helps people understand their rights and responsibilities in sexual relationships.

"In My Skin" scandal
The Executives of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa planned an event called "In My Skin" to be held on March 4, 2014. The event sought to foster two conversations, according to its organizers: each group was to discuss the benefits and disadvantages that racialized and non-racialized students face in dealing with institutional racism. It was planned that students would be split into "breakout groups", where they would discuss discrimination and white privilege and then would regroup to discuss the issues as a whole.

There was a major backlash from students who saw this event as segregation and "reverse racism" because it would split students into different rooms based on skin colours.

The Facebook event and debate were shut down and Nicole Desnoyers, Vice President Equity, released a statement explaining that there was no intention of segregation and racism on the part of the SFUO.

Fireworks scandal
In summer 2014, VP Social Ikram Hamoud decided to hold a fireworks display at the closing ceremony of that year's 101 Week. To that end, the SFUO purchased 10,000 dollars worth of fireworks. Hamoud was then notified by the City of Ottawa that they wouldn't be able to use the fireworks due to safety concerns. This caused a lot of controversy. Several of the Federated Bodies VP Socials accused Hamoud of failing to work with the Social Round Table. This, as well as concerns about the VP Social's job performance, led to an attempt at launching an impeachment referendum. In part because of its vocal criticism of the purchase, the Facebook group SFUO Does Not Represent Me gained substantial popularity. The 2014 101 Week finished with a budget deficit of almost $80,000.

Crashing of ARC opening ceremony
A group of students, led by several members of the executive, crashed the opening ceremony of the Advanced Research Complex (ARC) in September 2014. The group stood behind the podium with a banner calling for lower tuition fees, and the VP University Affairs interrupted [Reza Moridi]'s speech to read a statement. This protest drew criticism from many students, including several executive members of the Science Students' Association, who wrote a letter to the Fulcrum stating that: "The fact that the 'student representative' felt it necessary to protest rising tuition fees on the opening of (Dr. André Lalonde's) building is offensive to many of us. We feel that it is not only disrespectful to his memory and his legacy as a student-oriented dean, but also because this building should be celebrated for what it is, instead of criticised for what it is not."

Yoga as cultural appropriation
In November 2015, the SFUO cancelled the free yoga classes being put on by the Centre for Students with Disabilities over concerns of cultural appropriation. The news provoked a large backlash from students, and received coverage by international media. The free class was subsequently reinstated with the hiring of an Indian-Canadian instructor. "Cultural issues" were the primary concern cited in an email from the University of Ottawa's Centre for Students with Disabilities, run by the SFUO, to the Ottawa Sun. "While yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students ... there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice. [Some cultures] have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga." Less than a week later, the Sun reported that the SFUO had changed course and issued a statement attributing declining attendance and a need to "ensure that students' money and resources was being used in a responsible and efficient way," as the reason for the cancellation.

Allegations of executives illegally obtaining U-Passes
U-Passes are Ottawa-Gatineau area public transportation passes that students are required to buy into as part of their membership of the SFUO if they qualify. To be eligible, a uOttawa student must be a full-time undergraduate or graduate student. Students are able to opt out under certain criteria, such as living outside of the public transit service area. In early 2017 allegations were made that the SFUO executives, who cannot qualify for the U-Passes because they must be part-time students, had obtained and were using U-Passes. Complaints were made against VP social Hadi Wess, VP university affairs Vanessa Dorimain, VP finance Rizki Rachiq, and VP equity Morissa Ellis. They were investigated by the BoA Disciplinary Committee, which found that indeed Wess, Dorimain, and Ellis had obtained U-Passes. Ellis had obtained the U-Pass by registering for five classes, which contravened with the SFUO constitution on the maximum course load for executives. She later dropped the excess classes to become a part-time student, but did not return the U-Pass as required. Dorimain was found to not qualify for a U-Pass, but as part of her role she worked on the U-Pass portfolio and had access to U-Passes that were not distributed due to "errors". Wess was found to be "qualified" for the U-Pass but the disciplinary committee did not disclose how. He was a part-time student and part-time students do not qualify. During the BoA meeting at the Roger Guindon Campus on April 2, 2017, the Faculty of Medicine representative Lukas Hashem asked for clarification as to how Wess could qualify but no answer was given. The disciplinary committee did not recommend sanctions against those involved.

18% exec pay raise, stripping of General Assembly legislative power
In February 2017, the SFUO began discussion about raising executive salaries from $33500 to $39700, an increase of 18%, despite the poor financial condition and bankruptcy of the student union in 2016. Students criticized continual lack of funding to clubs, the low wages of other SFUO employees, and accused SFUO executives of conflict of interest. Despite widespread online controversy of the proposal, it was passed, with SFUO executives citing making less than other university student federation executives and dependent children as reasons for the raise. On March 14, the Winter 2017 general assembly met quorum for the first time since 1980, with over 280 students showing up to repeal the executives' pay raise.

After the motion passed, with the added condition that execs not be allowed to raise their own salaries any more than what other SFUO workers' salaries have been raised, some members of the executive claimed that the legislative power of the GA had been stripped previously and any motion passed would still have to be passed by the Board of Administration. Students argued that they could not trust the BoA to make decisions for them that reflected what had happened during the GA, and expressed worry that BoA meetings are not recorded or made available to the public. After further review, it was clarified that since the decision to repeal the pay raise did not affect bylaws or constitution, the decision of the GA was final.

At the BoA meeting on April 2, 2017, the executive aimed to strip of the GA of its remaining powers, but several BoA members led by engineering representative Jeffrey Colin, special student representative David Gakwerere, and medicine representative Lukas Hashem managed to amend it so that the BoA would require a two thirds super majority to repeal motions passed at the GA.

Fraud allegations
In August 2018, allegations of fraud committed by SFUO executives and an SFUO employee surfaced with the online circulation of a police report filed by outgoing SFUO president, Hadi Wess. The police report outlines the discovery of purchases carried out by the president and the executive manager. As of August 10, 2018, the University of Ottawa issued a formal statement, announcing that it would take over the management of student levies until the results of a forensic audit were released.

After learning of allegations of financial mismanagement involving members of the SFUO executive and a SFUO staff member, the university requested that the Federation conduct a forensic audit. At the same time, the university notified the SFUO that uOttawa would withhold the fees that it collects from students on behalf of the Federation, pending the outcome of the forensic audit and restored University confidence in the proper financial management of student fees. Measures have been put in place to ensure the continuity of financial operations until the results of the audit become available. Since then, the university has learned of additional allegations of improper governance, mismanagement, internal conflict and workplace misconduct within the SFUO. University representatives expressed the institution's growing concerns about these allegations in letters to, and in two meetings with, the SFUO executive. The university made it clear to the SFUO executive that it would be required to take steps to restore the university's confidence in the Federation's ability to responsibly conduct its internal affairs. the university has not been satisfied with the Federation's progress.

The agreement between the university and the SFUO stipulates that either party may terminate the agreement by giving the other party three months' written notice. Therefore, on December 24, 2018, following termination of the agreement, the university will no longer recognize the SFUO as the exclusive association representing undergraduate students and will no longer collect fees from students on behalf of the Federation.

On November 7, 2018, the SFUO released the completed audit from PwC to the public. On November 8, 2018, the University of Ottawa responded by sending an email to students indicating the report "has not restored the university's confidence in the SFUO's ability to practice sound financial management." They reiterated their intention to terminate the University of Ottawa-SFUO agreement.