Student union coalition scrutinized

Despite being labelled as “permanently closed” online and maintaining a website filled with outdated information, a coalition of student unions is defending itself as an active entity deserving of fees in spite of its low profile.

The Canadian Federation of Students and its local chapter, better known as CFS-MB, collect annual membership dues from campuses across the province to support their advocacy work.

Alan Saji Koshy’s advice to new and returning students to the University of Winnipeg? “Start asking questions.”

“We pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for practically no benefit and students don’t even know (CFS-MB resources) exist,” the recent graduate and former student association president said.

Last year, in addition to 2025-26 tuition and textbook rates, U of W students each had to pay about $20 to the federation, including $11.30 to the national entity and $7.50 to CFS-MB. Those dues amounted to about $170,000.

Saji Koshy said he repeatedly asked CFS-MB for a breakdown of how those funds were being spent to better the lives of students during his tenure as president of the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association.

“There is no accountability,” he said, adding he found there was a disconnect between CFS-MB’s promises and what it delivered, as well as the urgency placed on collecting dues versus how it treated members’ requests last year.

An online search of the Manitoba chapter via either Google or Microsoft Bing yields a red banner declaring the organization has shuttered for good.

The last time CFS-MB published a campaign update on its official website — which includes outdated executive and staff information and a call out for commissioner candidates for the 2021-22 academic year — was more than four years ago. The organization’s most recent public post on Facebook is dated Jan. 27, 2023.

Both websites, cfsmb.ca and facebook.com/cfsmb, respectively, list a phone number that is out of service.

(The U of W student newspaper reported this contact information was out of date in March 2024. At the time, The Uniter quoted the then-chairperson acknowledging the organization was grappling with staffing challenges but its “pretty obsolete” website would “definitely change” in 2024-25.)

A Free Press reporter visited CFS-MB headquarters in downtown Winnipeg twice in recent weeks to discover a locked door during weekday business hours. Multiple employees from the neighbouring office indicated they’d never seen anyone come or go from the third-floor unit on Broadway.

Manitoba chairperson Joy Chikezie said she “rejects” all claims that CFS-MB has been inactive, citing the fact there is behind-the-scenes work and the organization is active on Instagram.

Chikezie said her team has done lots of student outreach on campuses, organized a lobby week in October and represented Manitoba on a national level at federation events.

“I recognize that we can do a better job at communicating our work publicly … Over this past year, we’ve continued advocating for students in different ways,” the Brandon-based student leader said.

She noted that one of the two CFS-MB staff positions, which are hybrid roles, is unfilled at present.

The national federation alleges it lobbies and launches campaigns to make post-secondary education more affordable on behalf of 50,000 members in Manitoba, including students at U of W, Brandon University, Université de Saint-Boniface and the University of Manitoba.

The University of Manitoba Students’ Union has held a conflicting stance since its student body voted to defederate — a notoriously complex process that has sparked lawsuits involving student unions in Canada — in 2020.

Court records show the parties remain in a multi-year legal limbo.

The federation launched a lawsuit in August 2022 alleging UMSU was benefiting from its services and withholding funds. The student union filed a defence and counterclaim six months later, but there have been few developments since then.

Chikezie said all students have benefited from her team focusing its lobbying efforts on the pressures of rising tuition rates and international health-care coverage.

“Our role is to bring students together and amplify those concerns and advocate for meaningful solutions. I believe that when students speak with one voice, they have the opportunity to strongly influence the decisions that affect them,” said the chairperson who began her second consecutive one-year term in May.

Advanced Education Minister Renée Cable last met with CFS-MB in October, but she said she regularly meets with UWSA and its counterparts.

“Just like it’s important to have a strong Opposition while in government, it’s important to have effective lobbying groups in the public,” Cable said in an interview about the post-secondary education landscape ahead of the 2026-27 school year.

The minister said that in the post-secondary sector, lobbyists are critical because they bring key issues to elected officials’ attention and get young people involved in democratic processes.

Asked Monday about the status of the NDP government’s pledge to reinstate international health-care coverage, Cable did not have an update.

As far as Saji Koshy is concerned, UWSA has plenty of access to government leaders and regularly collaborates with other student unions without CFS-MB.

“If they don’t start being more accountable to the execs that are going to be on board of the UWSA now and in the years to come, the relationship is only going to be more and more strained,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the U of W students also go down the path of U of M.”

UMSU currently advertises itself as a member of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, a competitor of the Canadian Federation of Students.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca