We received a letter this afternoon from the lawyers for the Canadian Federation of Students. It says the CFS never gave $2,500 to the union representing York strikers, CUPE local 3903. “This passage is false,” reads the letter. “CFS has not made any such financial contribution to CUPE 3093.”
What we’re trying to understand — and what we’ve have just emailed CFS spokesman Ian Boyko to ask — is exactly what that means.Is the CFS saying that no part of the CFS gave $2,500 to CUPE local 3903? The original Excalibur story says that the Ontario arm of CFS, CFS-Ontario, provided the money. Is the CFS splitting hairs (as they often do) between the closely related CFS and CFS-O? Is that the alleged falsehood in our post and the Excalibur story? Or is CFS saying that no money was given to CUPE 3903 by any part of the CFS, whether the national body or the provincial body, and that the Excalibur story is entirely false?
We note for now that the Excalibur is sticking by its story and the Canadian University Press has just moved the Excalibur story on its newswire, which is distributed to Canadian campus newspapers.
More details to come as soon as we receive them from the CFS. We’re happy to make their position clear and public, but so far all we have is this letter (and this earlier exchange with Ian Boyko), so that’s what we’ve published.
Update 28-Nov-08 1458EST: Ian Boyko responded to use with the following email:
Joey,
Every statement about the Canadian Federation of Students in the original post, including the title, is false. The Canadian Federation of Students has not made a donation to CUPE 3903 (“zero dollars”).
As for determining the actions taken by affiliated organizations, you should ask their representatives yourself. The difference between our organization and our affiliates has been explained to you before.
Now they we’ve received a specific complaint from the CFS, we are in the process of clarifying the information provided by the CUPE 3903 website.