7/31/2019 The Carillon - Vol. 38, No. 17 - CFS Falls Short: Lack of Information Blamed for Low Student Turnout - February 8,

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CFS falls short

Lack of information blamed for low student turnout

y Alexis Roman

he Carillon

someone organized a protest and no one came, would it really have taken place? This is the question some of the media were asking during the "National day of

ction" which was organized by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) on Wednesday.

bout eighty students along with a handful of union representatives marched in front of several banks on the corner of Scarth St. and Eleventh Avenue.

he rally was an attempt to raise awareness on alternatives to cutting post-secondary education funding and social programs.

We're on the brink of a massive disintegration of society," said U of R Students' Union President, Dave Beros, referring to the cuts on social programs.

eros and other rally organizers spoke about the fact that several large corporations and banks, pay little or no taxes, while ordinary Canadians are forced to carry the

urden.

owever, not even a nice day with relatively warm weather was enough to draw more students.

eros admitted he was disappointed at the lack of student participation.

t's midterm crunch time," said Beros, offering a possible reason for the lack of participation, "People are really busy right now writing exams."

eros also attributed the lack of interest to a possible lack of information.

believe that the CFS could have done more to educate and inform people about what's going on here."

They could've done a better job promoting the event."

n a random questioning of students who were still on campus during the event, the Carillon found few who were actually aware of the rally.

don't know anything about it," said Lee Garinger, a first year U of R student.

don't think there was enough publicity at all," said Sabrina Cataldo, another U of R student.

f you stayed at the Owl, you knew about the rally. If you were anywhere else on campus, you had no clue."

thers simply disagreed with the action against the banks.

Why would I go protest against the banks?" said one student who wished to remain anonymous, "Someone might come out and make me pay the money I owe them."

am Kapoor, CFS Saskatchewan representative and rally organizer, defended the information campaign launched by the CFS.

We did start circulating information well before hand, but our hard core circulation started two weeks ago," said Kapoor.

We did the best we could in the time we had."

Kapoor was not worried about the lack of numbers in Regina, as she maintained that the protest was national, and that the numbers nation-wide would impact the

ederal government's decisions.

t press time, events scheduled in Newfoundland were cancelled due to a blizzard, but twenty students staged a sit-in at Brian Tobin's office.

vents in Ottawa were also cancelled, but several thousand students were expected to participate in a march to Queen's Park in Toronto.

ith files from Cory Litzenberger

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