The Journal provides free space for parties on the referendum ballot. All statements are unedited.
This year’s fall referendum will take place from Nov. 12 to 14.
AMS Food Bank
The AMS Food Bank provides confidential and non-judgmental food options to members of the Queen’s community in the most comfortable environment possible. The Food Bank helps to ensure that Queen’s students can be healthy and productive as they pursue academic achievement and alleviate poverty amongst Queen’s community members. The student fee for the AMS Food Bank directly goes into purchasing food for patrons. With the small budget we currently have and the increase in grocery prices it is becoming more difficult to provide patrons with the same reliable and quality food as in the past. With the financial burden caused by an increased cost of living, our number of patrons is increasing. This is leading to shortages in the Food Bank as well as more patrons requesting special items. We offer a service in the Food Bank where patrons can request items matching dietary accommodation not included in our regular stock and this year we are noticing an increase in requests. The increase in the fee will go directly towards purchasing food to meet the increased demand. In addition, the fee will allow the Food Bank to operate longer so that more patrons can seek access to food which matches their schedule rather than having to accommodate to match the hours. This is beneficial for the students as food should not be the largest concern a student has, and by providing access to adequate healthy food we can ensure that they are able to stay healthy and full while focusing on their academics.
Kingston Canadian Film Festival
The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is the globe’s largest standalone showcase of Canadian film and media and is in its 26th season, with Festival dates set for February 25 – March 1, 2026. Founded in 2001 by a Queen’s film student, KCFF now showcases over 70 films, including dedicated programs for students, youth and emerging artists. The Festival presents the stories of Francophone and Indigenous directors, plus work by filmmakers living coast-to-coast. Additionally, KCFF hosts workshops, career and networking events, outreach to under-served members of the community, and Festival awards. KCFF is a registered charity with the goal of celebrating and promoting Canadian film and film production.
KCFF offers the Queen’s community access to Festival programming that both challenges and inspires. Students actively engage in screenings and Q&A sessions, free workshops and panels, a full day of seminars featuring guests from the film and media industry, plus one-on-one sessions and networking events.
KCFF offers student filmmakers showcase opportunities with major media and press attention. Our student film showcase guarantees artist fees, promotion and marketing for successful applicants, plus nomination for Festival awards. Students from all disciplines are invited to submit films and many continue to do so beyond graduation.
KCFF also employs 10 – 15 students who receive an academic credit, work study, or contract position. The skills, experience and connections that student staff make during KCFF have a lasting impact: many go on to positions with TIFF, Bell Media, The Comedy Network, VICE, Vancouver International Film Festival, to name a few. KCFF has partnered with many Queen’s clubs, and groups over the years, offering reciprocal marketing and promotion. Some groups include the Queen’s Film Production Club, The Queen’s Journal, CFRC 101.9, the Queen’s University Film Society, the Queen’s Commerce Film Committee, Vogue, and the Focus Film Festival.
Queen’s First Aid Campus Response Team
Queen’s First Aid Campus Response Team is a student-run, volunteer 24/7 on-call campus response team that has served the Queen’s community since 1986. QFA provides emergency first aid services to those in need and is dispatched to incidents via the Queen’s Emergency Report Centre. QFA also attends university and student events by request and offers St. John Ambulance First Aid courses at discounted prices for students. The QFA student fee is the Unit’s only revenue source and is used to pay for training, equipment, and volunteer development. The Unit maintains a partnership with Queen’s Department of Campus Security & Emergency Services, participating in joint marketing campaigns promoting the Emergency Report Line.
Queen’s Pinoy Association
Queen’s Pinoy Association (QPA) is a student-run cultural organization that aims to create a supportive and inclusive space that represents Filipino heritage and welcomes students of all backgrounds. Our club was founded in 2019 and was ratified under the AMS in 2023. QPA has worked towards integrating cultural understanding in campus life through hosting social events open to all students and collaborating with other cultural clubs. Our goal is to create meaningful experiences of cultural expression, peer support, and intercultural collaboration in hopes of contributing to a more diverse Queen’s community.
Up to this point, our events have relied on small-scale fundraising and multiple executive contributions, which limit the quality and quantity of opportunities we can offer. In order to sustain and expand, we are requesting a student fee of $0.10 with an opt-out option. This modest fee will provide sufficient financial aid while remaining accessible to students. The opt-out model respects student choice, while also empowering QPA to plan and deliver high-quality events in hopes of benefiting a broad range of students.
Funds raised will directly support cultural and social events such as potlucks, karaoke nights, and game nights—activities that have consistently had strong participation and positive feedback from students. In addition, the funding will also contribute to collaborations with other student organizations in highlighting diverse cultures and traditions across campus. The student fee will also help cover essential costs, including materials, food, equipment, and venue rentals, ensuring that events are well-organized for the Queen’s student body. Overall, we hope to continually create lasting impacts on student life by creating opportunities for inclusivity, diversity and strengthening the sense of community at Queen’s.
Project Sunshine Queen’s Chapter
Queen’s Project Sunshine is a university chapter of Project Sunshine, an international not-for-profit organization that brings free educational, creative, and social programming to children facing medical challenges. Our club provides three avenues of engagement: TelePlay, Sending Sunshine, and fundraising. We currently have 11 volunteers.
In the TelePlay program, our volunteers lead interactive virtual game sessions for pediatric patients and their families. All of our members receive standardized training from Project Sunshine and Vulnerable Sector Checks (VSCs) before volunteering. We initiated biweekly TelePlay programming at our partner health facility in August 2022.
In the Sending Sunshine program, volunteers assemble developmentally-appropriate activity kits for pediatric patients. Each of the kits includes supplies for a themed arts and crafts activity. Since January 2022, we have created and delivered ~150 activity kits for pediatric patients at our Kingston partner facility.
Finally, we engage in fundraising to support the mission of Project Sunshine Canada (every $1 raised supports the creation of 1 activity kit). We have raised over $3100 since January 2022 through two fundraisers.
Although Project Sunshine provides logistic and organizational support to all university chapters, no budgetary support is given. Therefore, the club has no budget for team socials, marketing, fundraising, and volunteer appreciation – all of which are critical components of the club experience. We have used creative solutions to engage in these activities, but we could not eliminate the financial burden for our volunteers, which is not sustainable over the long-term.
With a student fee, we would increase our club’s financial accessibility by covering the cost of VSCs and fundraising materials for volunteers. We would also be able to run more on-campus outreach/fundraising events for the Queen’s community. Ultimately, this would allow us to expand our club capacity and better achieve our mandate of bringing joy and play to pediatric patients.
Queen’s Bridge Building Team
The Queen’s Bridge Building Team (QBBT) is a multi-disciplinary engineering design team at Queen’s University consisting of sub-teams that contain eight to ten members. Each sub-team designs and constructs innovative bridges solely from popsicle sticks, white glue, and dental floss. Team members come up with inventive ways to take their ideas from paper to creating a bridge spanning a one-metre distance. Team members compete annually in the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition, held by Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. The Troitsky Bridge Building Competition represents an opportunity to expose the spirit, creativity and knowledge of Queen’s engineers to future professionals and industry partners. In addition, Team members will be able to connect with students from other Universities, as well as getting an opportunity to experience the Montreal culture.
Queen’s EngiQueers
Queen’s EngiQueers runs meaningful, informative, charitable, and/or career-enhancing events and initiatives to cultivate a positive, accepting, inclusive, and accessible environment for queer-identified students and their allies in engineering. As Queer people are often marginalized and underrepresented in professional engineering, our aim is to empower these students and give them the tools they need to succeed. Queen’s EngiQueers is also part of a national not-for-profit organization, EngiQueers Canada, which allows us to expand our members’ networks and provide them with access to more resources.
Queen’s Students 4 Special Olympics
Students 4 Special Olympics (S4SO) is a student-run club that provides free, weekly, sports practices to children and youth in the Kingston community with an intellectual disability. In partnership with Special Olympics Ontario, we hope to provide the Kingston community with an hour of engaging and inclusive physical activity. The club promotes diversity and inclusion and helps bring awareness of Special Olympics Movement to the Queen’s community. Each week, a group of student coaches and athletes from the Kingston community unite in the name of inclusive sport! Our executive team works to fundraise and create outreach opportunities to further promote our program to both the Kingston and Queen’s Communities. Our team of student volunteers are passionate about creating inclusive opportunities for individuals at any ability level to participate in fun physical activity.
Swam Kingston
SWAM Kingston is a chapter of SWAM Canada, a not-for-profit organization which provides accessible and affordable swimming lessons for children with special needs. SWAM Kingston builds on the institutional strengths and successes of existing swimming lesson organizations. We are able to be more effective in injury prevention by providing lessons specifically targeted and adapted to those children at highest risk of drowning in our society. We recruit our volunteers from the abundance of university-aged, qualified swimming instructors and work with our community partners to properly train, educate and prepare them for working with special-needs children. We rent out pool space twice a week, and assign one instructor to each child. By using innovative techniques to dramatically cut our operating expenses, as well as by actively fundraising, we are able to offer private swimming instruction at a rate affordable even by those living under the poverty line. Swimming lessons are a half-hour long on weeknights and take place at the ARC pool.
CFRC 101.9 FM Radio
CFRC 101.9 FM is Queen’s voice – YOUR voice- in the media! Broadcasting since 1922 and podcasting since 2018, CFRC is the space on campus where students share their voices, ideas, perspectives, creativity, research, initiatives and interests with a global community, make their marks, and jumpstart their careers. Our music and spoken word content broadcasts on 101.9 FM and Cogeco Cable 282; streams at cfrc.ca and our mobile apps; and podcasts through Spotify and Apple Music. 75% of CFRC pod/broadcasters are Queen’s students or alumni who enjoy opportunities to engage with and shape their communities on campus, in Kingston, and around the world. Students are also members on our Board of Directors ensuring student vision and leadership steers your campus radio station.
100% of student fees go directly to the maintenance and operation of the station in Lower Carruthers Hall: maintaining the space and the one of the largest music collections in the region, keeping our equipment updated and in good repair, training broadcasters and podcasters, and paying staff wages (all CFRC staff are students or recent Queen’s graduates) including station administration and program coordination. Fees also support the creation of student employment opportunities through SWEP and Work Study Program and support the creation of news programming, public service announcements and our daily broadcasted events calendars that inform students about current issues, events and services of which they can take advantage.
On and off the airwaves, students gain life-long career-building skills in research, audio production, writing, oral presentation, listening, interviewing, time-management, collaboration and team-building, outreach and event-planning, influencing others, customer orientation, strategic thinking, and leadership.
Corrections
In a previous version of the fall referendum statements, the EngiQueers statement was incorrectly replaced with the Chess Club’s statement. This has since been corrected to reflect the proper EngiQueers statement.
Incorrect information appeared in the Nov. 7 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.