In a marathon meeting lasting into the wee hours of the morning, the Students’ Administrative Council (SAC) voted to turf John Lea from his position as vice-president operations of SAC—a position he was re-elected to just over a month ago.
Also tossed out in the April 13 meeting were Jason Young, the vice-president student life, and all of Scarborough college’s directors (Scarborough is also represented by a vice-president, Ryan Demello, who was not affected). Young and the Scarborough candidates were not accused of breaking the rules—instead, some of the candidates they ran against did not have candidate statements up for voters to read on the ROSI election site, which some SAC directors thought was unfair.
Lea was disqualified when the SAC board of directors overruled the elections committee and voted to increase the number of demerit points he had racked up for election violations, to 51 points. A candidate is disqualified if they are awarded more than 45 points.
“There were many, numerous election violations on my campaign,” Lea said, adding that the elections committee had ruled on all of them previously. He said the board’s decision was “incredibly subjective.
“The process that made this result was shocking. It’s perversely their prerogative. The rules weren’t bent,” he added.
The election violations concerned posters promoting SAC parties at the Scarborough and Mississauga campuses that said “sponsored by John Lea,” and an e-mail sent to members of U of T’s association of Jewish students, Hillel.
The message was sent by Lea’s campaign manager Andrew Ash. It suggested Dhruv Jain, a candidate for vice-president student life running on the Students United ticket, had voiced anti-Semitic opinions during a campaign speech on a bus, and said he wanted to make U of T like Concordia—a Montreal university racked by controversy over its pro-Intifada student union.
The vice-president operations position now falls to Lea’s opponent, Alexandra Artful-Dodger. She said Lea’s poster violations were bad enough, but the e-mail was way over the line. “It was done on his behalf…I think he consented to have it happen,” she said, adding “He knew what happened within 8 hours.”
Jain was “totally misquoted” in Ash’s e-mail, Artful-Dodger said, adding that a number of people came forward saying Jain actually said he wanted to avoid Concordia-like confrontation: “It was a total flip.” She said Jain was “totally non-violent.”
Artful-Dodger said many people on campus have since accused her Students United ticket of being anti-Semitic: “I was walking down the street with Paul [Bretscher, the Students United presidential candidate] and someone called us Jew-haters.”
Ash defended his e-mail and was critical of the board’s decision: “This is how Alexandra Artful-Dodger twisted the system to her benefit. She is overriding the wishes of over 700 voters. It’s atrocious.”
Lea condemned the “self-righteous” attitude at the board, adding “There was never any question of who sent the e-mail. It was a bad thing. I wouldn’t have sent it. I think Ash got incredibly overzealous.” As for the posters, Lea said it was SAC president Rocco Kusi-Achampong’s idea to broaden Lea’s social horizons. “I think Rocco wanted to force me to party…. At that time, neither of us were planning on running.”
He added his name was removed from some posters. But Artful-Dodger said the posters simply weren’t put up, as the party was never held.
Lea said he is philosophical about his disqualification, as it means he will graduate on time. But he said he wanted to see a by-election for the position in the fall, so someone else could run. Other students are not as resigned. “There’s been a groundswell of pissed-off students…. There are hundreds of people that are very angry,” he said. Now, petitions are circulating calling for Artful-Dodger’s resignation.
“It worries me that these people are pretty-much apologists for what John did,” Arful-Dodger said. “They should know that the message they are sending to students is that it’s OK to call people anti-Semitic.” She blamed Andrew Ash and former SAC director Mike Foderick for circulating the petitions: “They’re our opponents. They were willing to cheat, slander and lie during the election and they’re never apologized.”
