What Happened? What’s Next?

The atmosphere in Queen’s Park was quietly excited as reporters, many of whom were from

student newspapers, waited for Kayla Weiler, the Ontario representative of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), to speak. The press conference, held on Nov. 22, had been scheduled only the night before, following the news that CFS and the York Federation of Students (YFS) had won their challenge to the Student Choice Initiative (SCI) — The Ontario Divisional Court voted unanimously to quash the SCI, deeming it unlawful.

Since it was announced in early 2019, the SCI has been the subject of much discussion and coverage. The SCI posed the risk of drastically impacting the operating budgets of many students groups, potentially (and as it turned out actually) interfering with their ability to provide service to students. This was something the court noted in their decision, stating the government has no statutory authority to interfere with the internal affairs of student organization.

“Student associations are not created or funded by Ontario or by universities. They belong to and are funded by the students.”

Student groups, both here at the university and across Ontario, now find themselves again standing in uncertainty. The biggest question that reporters had for Weiler and YFS president, Fatima Babiker, as well as Louis Century, a lawyer from Goldblatt Partners LLP, who helped represent CFS and YFS, was What happens now? Their answer was, in short, that they aren’t sure. And it’s much the same here on campus.

“We are reviewing the court decision to determine what the impact will be. Hopefully we will have more information in the coming weeks,” Lori Bona Hunt, Director of Integrated Communications, told The Ontarion. While this is a fine — even expected answer — it does little to assuage the uncertainty that now looms. Will things revert to how they were before the introduction of the SCI? What does this decision mean for student groups that had to change operation or fire staff? “I would love to be able to provide more information at this time as I know that our students are very anxious to know what impact it will have,” Carrie Chassels, Vice-Provost Student Affairs told The Ontarion. “The reality is that we really don’t know yet.”

The CSA was unable to comment at this time.

This win is a win, and that should be celebrated. It represents a tremendous victory for students who saw the SCI as what it was, an attempt to interfere with the organizing power of students. “[The SCI] was never about choice,” said Weiler, it was always “about the Ford government attempting to silence the bodies that hold them accountable.”

Still, many questions remain. I spoke with Weiler at the press conference and asked her what the next steps are for CFS. “We go back to the table … we’re going to continue with the work that we do, advocating against the OSAP cut, calling for a free education system, calling for more public funding of education, for more democratic rights of students on our campus, and continuing to tell this government that we’re the ones who care about students — they’re not.”