An hour into the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) National General Meeting I realize I might be in the most inclusive space in the country.

The national Indigenous caucus of the CFS stands attentively at the front of the room. One of every five hold a flag representing an Indigenous community, and a circle of four seated men hammer hard on a drum. Their wailing songs echo loud in the auditorium. I turn to snap a photo of the crowd and I’m taken back by the sterling gaze of about 100 CFS delegates standing at attention. The smell of burnt sage is strong. This crowd of delegates are both visibly and ideologically diverse. They’ve all converged upon Gatineau, Que. to sit in a convention hall for four days to decide the future of the student movement in Canada.

As the chair tables the first few motions, there is clear division in the room. The opening plenary is largely a formality, as I’ll explain later, but after the first few verbal spats over the jostling of motions in the agenda, I can feel tension weaving its way in with the now-fading smell of sage and priced-for-students cologne—creating an atmosphere only fit for student politics.

The chair says, “please no audible signs of approval,” as people stop clapping. This goes on all weekend. Claps, snaps or banging of tables from one ideological side would be greeted by sneering from the other.

For anyone who hasn’t been as attentive to student politics at Ryerson as I have over the last few years, I’m here to watch the CFS—Canada’s largest student advocacy group that takes in about $500,000 of student money from Rye—carry out their general meeting.

Back in September, nine schools penned a letter requesting reform from the CFS. Looking over the agenda, it’s clear that a “reform party” had formed.

I recognized members of the Ryerson Students’ Union as part of the reformers. Additionally, all of the motions reformers were suggesting were submitted to the agenda by the University of Toronto Students’ Union, member local 98. The number of schools that signed the letter has certainly grown, and after speaking with some of them, I learned that there were 15 schools that would be supporting the reform motions.

In total, there were 14 motions that resembled the suggestions in the original letter. These included things like: online voting, greater access to financial documents and lowering the percentage of petition signatures a member local needs to hold a referendum to leave the CFS.