Political science students at U of T might tell you of a troubling trend now being recognized in Third World countries, an emerging kind of autocrat dubbed “dictators for a democratic age.” Leaders like Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez prove that despite superficial appearances of democracy, a political system can easily be manipulated behind the scenes. Whereas the definition of tyranny was once limited to countries that maintained concentration camps, controlled their citizens’ lives through the use of violence, and officially banned opposition voices, the rise of leaders like Chavez shows that creative tactics can ensure perpetual power for the few, while preserving the illusion of rule by the people.
Sadly, it appears that over the last few years U of T students have fallen under a similar regime. From the dubious connections between Your Team candidates and the Canadian Federation of Students during last spring’s University of Toronto Student Union elections, to the unholy strategies used by the “yes” campaign’s members in last week’s Student Commons referendum, questions about the fairness of our school’s political process are justifiably being raised.
Senai Iman, who ran against Your Team last year under the New Deal slate, put it bluntly: “Our student governments today survive on a complex system of political affiliation, blatant patronage, and monopoly over the rules that govern them.”
Iman cited the UTSU elections last year between Your Team, which supported the CFS, and New Deal, which did not. CFS represents dozens of student unions across the country. If New Deal won and pulled UTSU out of the CFS, the federation would lose the hundreds of thousands of dollars U of T students pay the group each year in union dues. Despite the CFS’s vested interest in the election results, UTSU’s chief returning officer and election supervisor last year was Eric Newstadt, who was a CFS executive at the time he accepted the position.
While Your Team won, there is no evidence that Newstadt directly influenced the election results. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable to question his impartiality. Affiliations in themselves aren’t incriminating, but surely we must question the legitimacy of a system that allows such close ties to exist at its highest levels.
Last Thursday, The Varsity ran a story exposing the questionable methods of the “yes” side in the SC referendum, a group predominantly made up of the same individuals who campaigned for Your Team last year. Some disturbing tactics included the bribing of voters with free coffee directly across from a polling station at Sid Smith, attempts to use campus police to silence “unregistered” opposition, and the mysterious absence of a polling booth at Victoria College (whose students were less likely to support a campus-wide student commons due to plans for their own).
Hugh Macintyre, who was approached last Tuesday by UTSU president Andrea Armborst as he distributed literature opposing the Student Commons levy, described another disturbing incident. “They told me I was violating the Code of Conduct,” he wrote on his blog. “They asked me if my degree was important to me. They told me that their lawyers were very excited.” The fact that he has faced no official sanctions makes one suspicious that these threats were baseless, designed only to intimidate him into silence.
On the international scene, human rights organizations like Amnesty International decry Chavez’s selective censorship of opposition through the use of complicated electoral regulations and the mandatory registration of opposition voices, all under the guise of preserving “fairness.” Canadians of all political stripes would agree such conduct has no place in this country. Why, then, is it happening at Canada’s biggest university?
There is clearly a group of elite students at this school who, for whatever reason, think they know what is best for the rest of us. And if that means adopting illiberal tactics, so be it, they say, politics is a dirty game. Even though U of T appears to operate under a democracy, the smallest amount of scrutiny reveals a different story.
But these movers and shakers are not the only ones to blame for this democratic deficit at U of T. Voter apathy shoulders part of the responsibility for this abysmal state of affairs. Turnout for student elections and referendums is dismal, making the job all the easier for those who wish to control student politics. As the latest incidents of creeping authoritarianism come to light, one can only hope student voters will pay more attention.
