www.canadafoi.ca/studentfoi (2026) stanleytromp@gmail.com
* March 2026. Finance Ministry freezes spending of the Kwantlen Student Association, and announces an investigation of the KSA. (Students are reportedly “ecstatic” over this news. )
* Editorial – Student Society Reforms Needed. Victoria Times Colonist and Business in Vancouver, Aug. 22, 2024
* “I’m very concerned about the information you presented about what’s happening at Langara, as an advocate for open government and transparency at all levels.”
- B.C. Premier David Eby, then MLA, speaking to Langara College students at Legislative Special Committee to review the FOIPP Act, Nov. 18, 2015. (See students’ testimony, and my 2022 report).
* Errors in Finance Ministry memo of 2025 on societies’ misconduct
* LSU fees refunded, and the voluntary membership of other student societies
* Architects of Dysfunction: The Great Deregulation of 1999
* In 2025, the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education announced a sweeping public review of the entire B.C. post-secondary education system and its financial crisis, led by Don Avison. (See here.) Yet the Ministry also stated: “Student societies are independent organizations established under the BC Societies Act and are not considered in scope for this review.” / Letter to PSE minister, Dec. 2025 – Review needs to include student societies
See the histories of financial, electoral and other misconduct at:
= Langara Students’ Union (LSU), with news archive. (This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first reported LSU financial scandal, 1976.) / * Recent LSU news / * The Voice student newspaper
= Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) / * Recent KSA news (including attempted shutdown of Runner student paper) / * Blog https://ksaleaks.com / * KPU letter on KSA problems. Sept. 23, 2024 / * The Runner student newspaper
= Douglas Students’ Union (DSU)
= Other B.C. student societies (SFU, UBC Okanagan, UVic, etc.)
= More Canadian student societies
= Legislative speeches by PSE critic MLA Korky Neufeld on societies’ problems
SOLUTIONS / BACKGROUNDER
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The purpose of this website is to raise awareness of grievous financial and electoral problems in B.C. student societies, of systemic abuses of power dating back half a century, and the urgent need for a complete legislative reform to these societies.
Kwantlen and Langara each host about 20,000 students yearly, and their FOI-exempt student societies, the KSA and LSU, each collected more than $5 million in mandatory fees in 2025. Thus since 1969, innumerable thousands of B.C. students have had untold and unrecoverable millions of their dollars misspent, mainly in secret, while ironically funding the societies’ private security guards and lawyers to thwart dissenters – all legally empowered by an obliging government in Victoria (and turbo-charged by Glen Clark’s Great De-Regulation of 1999).
The NDP wishes to be known as “the party of affordability.” B.C. families are under growing financial strain, and the devastating fiscal impact of the foreign students cutback has caused the layoffs of college instructors, plus reductions to sports teams and other student services. Yet in this bleak context, B.C. student societies are still unaffected and prospering at public expense, which renders their waste and misconduct even less acceptable.
Meanwhile, society officials (several being teenagers with no managerial education) mishandle elections, issue secret loans to their friends, and pay themselves up to $140,000 yearly, while ever more students must depend upon food banks.
Let us now work to create an enduring legacy of justice, transparency, and fiscal responsibility for students in B.C. colleges and universities. For everything there is indeed a season, and we should welcome this opportunity for renewal.
- Stanley L. Tromp, graduate of Langara College’s journalism school (1993), former LSU and UBC AMS fees payer, author of Fallen Behind: Canada’s Access to Information Act in the World Context (2nd, FIPA, 2020)
[More to come…….]
You can speak or write about B.C. student societies to:
[1] Hon. David Eby, K.C., Premier of British Columbia
Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC V8V 1X4
(250) 387-1715, premier@gov.bc.ca
Vancouver constituency office, Point Grey, 2909 West Broadway St., Vancouver, BC V6K 2G6
(604) 660-1297, david.eby.MLA@leg.bc.ca
[2] Minister of Post Secondary Education, Jessie Sunner, NDP, lawyer, Surrey Newton riding (includes Kwantlen’s main campus)
(604) 597-8248 (Surrey office), or (250) 387- 953-3655 (Legislature office)
[3] MLA Sunita Dhir, NDP, Vancouver-Langara riding (which includes Langara College)
(604) 660-8380, or (250) 356-3655
[4] MLA Korky Neufeld, B.C. Conservative Party critic of post-secondary education, Abbotsford-West
(604) 870-5486 (constituency office), or (250) 387-3507 (Legislature office)
[5] B.C. Green Party legislative members.
Rob Botterell, MLA. (250) 665-5600 Rob.Botterell.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Jeremy Valeriote, MLA. Jeremy.Valeriote.MLA@leg.bc.ca
[6] Deputy Minister of Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills
(778) 698-4059
[7] Assistant Deputy Minister of Post-Secondary Education
PSFS.ADMPost-SecondaryPolicyandPrgms@gov.bc.ca
(250) 952-0697
[8] President, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
12666 72 Avenue
Surrey, BC V3W 2M8
(604) 599-2078, president@kpu.ca
Kwantlen Board of Governors – boardofgovernors@kpu.ca
[9] President, Langara College
100 West 49th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5Y 2Z6
(604) 323-5827, pburns@langara.ca or president.office@langara.ca
Langara Board of Governors – ahsu@langara.ca
[10] Other B.C. colleges and universities
For B.C. colleges and universities (e.g., in Nanaimo, Prince George) not on the list above, to find your MLA’s contact information, click on Election BC’s 2023 Location Index at this site. The college will be on this list, in Section 1 – with the electoral district name. Then go to this legislative website, to find the MLA who serves the electoral district of that name.
[11] Legislative Press Gallery, Victoria
(250) 387-1591.
[12] The British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal
The B.C. government says: “Any concerns you have about the governance and operations of a student society be addressed through the mechanisms that are provided in that [Societies Act] legislation under Part 8 – Remedies.
“Applications for remedies under the Societies Act, are done through the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal, who has jurisdiction over disputes about BC societies, including issues about access to documents, meetings or voting, and enforcement of the constitution or bylaws of a society.”
To contact the Civil Resolution Tribunal:
https://civilresolutionbc.ca/solution-explorer/societies-and-cooperative-associations/
Phone (Toll free): 1-844-322-2292
Contact Form: https://civilresolutionbc.ca/contact-us/
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Over 500 students banded together in a gymnasium in 2011 and voted 352 to 0 to remove the Kwantlen Student Association board, in response to the misuse of $2 million of student funds. (Photo from The Link newspaper, story in the Langara Voice, Dec. 2, 2016) See KSA News Archive, pg. 8
Langara students Keshav Puri and Khushi Salwan say the Langara Students Union would not explain why they weren’t allowed to run for the elected positions they sought – such as VP Finance and Administration. (Photo by Emma Shular. Langara Voice, Oct. 18, 2023) See LSU News Archive, pg. 27
A group of Langara students protested the Langara Students’ Union annual election in October 2024 after their 250-name petition to cancel the vote as unfair was refused. Private security guards hired by the LSU – not the college – locked the doors and tried to confiscate the student journalists’ cameras. (Photo by Sofia Mohamed. See video. Langara Voice, Oct. 23, 2024)