January 15, 1999

Students' Union supports Western students in battle over travel agency

Students' Union supports a $100 million lawsuit

A vindictive agenda against a rival national student lobbying group, or an effort to right the wrongful transfer of assets? Although ultimately it will be up to Ontario courts to decide, the University of Alberta Students' Union (SU) has recently pledged support for a $100 million lawsuit over the ownership of the national student travel organization known as Travel Cuts.

The SU contends ownership of the travel service was illegally transferred to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), a national political organization that U of A students voted to leave in 1985. The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 31, 1997, was initiated by the Students' Council (SC) at the University of Western Ontario.

Travel Cuts, formed in 1974, was owned by the Association of Students' Councils (AOSC), of which the SU is a member. The last general meeting of AOSC was held in 1987, at which time transferring the group's main asset, Travel Cuts, to CFS was approved. Although the transfer was to have occurred the following year, it did not do so until 1991. In those three years, CFS membership had declined to a level at which SU president, Sheamus Murphy, has estimated it would not have been possible to achieve re-approval of the motion on the transfer. AOSC still exists as a legal entity and, although it has not met in 10 years, Murphy would like to see it reactivated and have ownership of Travel Cuts transferred back to AOSC.

"The issue is the CFS monopoly," says Murphy. "If we had our say in how Travel Cuts was run, things would be different." Murphy envisions a board of representatives elected from all the schools involved in Travel Cuts, with "each campus as a shareholder in an entire national organization." Travel Cuts is currently run by the CFS board of directors, and operates 55 travel agencies on campuses across Canada.

CFS contends, however, that the lawsuit is not about justice. "It is a frivolous and vexatious lawsuit, designed to prevent us from doing our mandate," claims Elizabeth Carlyle, national chairperson of CFS. Carlyle would not comment on the case but said: "We have a strong case. We are very confident justice will prevail."

Carlyle noted the schools pledging support for the lawsuit against her organization are members of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA). "We are not interested in getting involved in a fight with another student organization," she said. The SU is a member of CASA but Murphy insists the lawsuit is not an attack on CFS.

Students questioned on campus say the service they receive from Travel Cuts has not been affected by the struggle over its ownership. "It's the best deal on my trip," said Heather Kuzyk, a first-year arts student who had recently purchased her reading week ticket to Mexico through Travel Cuts.

Peter Dang, a third-year education student, also thought the travel service was owned by the SU. "I buy tickets from Travel Cuts, and it really ticks me off that the [profit] is going to an organization that I have never heard of," he said. "If the money is going to a political organization, I'd want it to go to the one that we belong to. If I knew that the money was not going back to our SU I would rather go to another travel service."

Carlyle believes that no matter what the outcome of the lawsuit, students across Canada will lose. "Whether CFS or Western is footing the bill, the cost is coming from the students' hard-earned money," she says.

Paul Durand, manager of the U of A Travel Cuts, would not comment on the lawsuit.

According to Murphy, the U of A SU has no intention of actually joining Western's SC as plaintiff in the lawsuit. Instead, the U of A Students' Council recently passed a motion of financial support for Western for the lawsuit, although Murphy has said that the decision was made in camera and the amount approved is not available.

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