The vote to decide if the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) should represent U of T’s 34,000 full-time undergraduates is underway, and both sides are pleased that voter turnout is high.
But both sides charge each other with violating the election guidelines put in place by the Students’ Administrative Council and the CFS.
Andrew Tyler, one of the SAC representatives on the Joint Referendum Committee, said the voting is going well. “From my limited experience with polling, I’d say it’s going relatively smoothly.”
“There have been complaints filed but the Committee hasn’t dealt with them yet,” Tyler added.
A polling station in the Galbraith Building was left short-staffed, after a SAC poll clerk failed to show up for their shift. Polls are staffed by two clerks, from CFS and SAC. Tyler said he “filled in for as long as he could,” but had to leave the poll. “When I left, the ballot box was sealed.”
“There was no voting taking place with one clerk,” Tyler added.
The “No” side alleged that a CFS poll clerk at another voting station was encouraging voters to cast ballots for the CFS. Tyler said the Committee is investigating. “We’ve given very specific instructions. Outside of procedural questions, they are instructed to tell the voter to leave the poll to inform themselves and return when they are ready to vote.
“If that complaint is found to have merit, there will be serious repercussions.”
Tyler said he is confident the vote will achieve the quorum necessary to make the result valid. At least five per cent of U of T’s full-time undergraduates must cast a vote in order for the referendum to be considered binding.
The “Yes” side said an advertisement placed in the Nov. 4 issue of the Varsity was not approved by the Committee, which approves all campaign material for accuracy. The complainant, former SAC president Alex Kerner, recommended that “Every copy of The Varsity should be collected immediately, so as not to impact the referendum unfairly.” Kerner could not be reached as of press time.
Not a single copy of the Nov. 4 Varsity placed in the entrance to the Sidney Smith Building remained on the stands as of Wednesday afternoon.
The “Yes” side said it is pleased with how the referendum is going.
“I can’t think of many concerns,” said CFS Ontario chair Joel Duff. But Duff was dismayed at what he called “a continuous attempt to produce material that contains false information” on the part of the “No” side.
In particular, Duff said allegations the CFS would be held responsible for costs incurred if its subsidiary, CFS-Services, lost a $100 million lawsuit over the Travel Cuts travel agency were untrue, because the subsidiary is a separate corporation from CFS itself.
“It’s a fairly common-sense business practice to contain liability,” he said, adding that the allegations were “factually incorrect.”
“Students at the University of Toronto are more interested in building a student movement…. The true interests of students will be reflected at the polling booth,” Duff said.
The “No” side said it is fighting, but winning, what it sees as an uphill battle because of the way the referendum is being run.
“The campaign’s been difficult because we’re dealing with a biased Committee that won’t approve a lot of our material,” said Mike Foderick.
Another campaign worker, SAC director Bob Hurst, said that the “No” side is raising awareness of the issues.
“When we talked to people, they didn’t know there was a ‘No’ committee,” he said.
Speaking from the “No” side’s campaign offices in the basement of University College, “No” volunteer and former SAC director Matt Curtis, who is also president of the U of T Progressive Conservative club, said “The CFS has the big money, the paid campaign workers. The ‘No’ side has the silent majority.”
Results of the referendum will be announced on Friday.
Photograph by Simon Turnbull
