The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) election, which has been plagued with allegations of bullying, unfair procedures, and breaking the union’s own bylaws came quietly came to a close Friday.
The union’s Board of Directors overwhelmingly voted to ratify the election results. On March 25, the vice-provost, students requested that the UTSU seal and preserve certain ballot boxes pending the resolution of a complaint filed by vice-president, university affairs-elect Pierre Harfouche. The vice-provost suggested that the union’s funding might be witheld if they did not comply. Ballots would normally be destroyed after a successful ratification vote.
The controversy centered around a decision by the Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) to extend voting to utm on Friday, March 14, after the campus was closed early on Wednesday, March 12 due to sever weather.
At the board meeting, all sides agreed that the decision was in clear contravention of the union’s bylaws, but many argued that principles of equity were more important.
“Mother nature broke our bylaws — it’s not my fault, it’s not anyone’s fault here. It was mother nature,” said UTSU president Munib Sajjad. Sajjad received the letter from vice-provost, students, Jill Matus on Tuesday raising concerns with how the union had handled a complaint from Harfouche and saying that if the union destroyed the ballot boxes it “may be seen as failure to operate in an open, accessible and democratic manner under the Policy for Compulsory Non-Academic Incidental Fees.”
That clause can be used by the administration to cut off fees to the union until they feel they are operating in a democratic manner. It has been used by the administration before when student groups have ignored democratic calls for reform. Earlier this year, the union implemented online voting only after the administration threatened to cut off funding.
Sajjad made no mention of Matus’s letter. He has been contacted by The Varsity eight times since it became public. As of press time Sunday evening, Sajjad had not replied.
The decision to extend voting at utm was further complicated by a decision to add a third polling station at the Davis building, which had not been there for the first three days of campaigning. While Sajjad has consistently claimed that no candidates were informed of the extra station, U of T Voice candidate Grayce Slobodian posted on Facebook before the polling station opened urging students to come and vote for her. U of T Voice campaigned at the station all day. Unite claimed not to be aware the polling station existed until late in the afternoon, and did not campaign there.
Slobodian, who is a current executive on the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), won by 15 votes over Team Unite’s Nicky Bhatty.
According to several scrutineers, U of T Voice candidates won over 90 per cent of the votes at the Davis polling station. The election has been plagued with numerous allegations of irregularities and controversial rulings by CRO Alex Flor, including the decision to keep the name of withdrawn candidate Luis Moreno on the ballot in the race between Slobodian and Bhatty. Moreno withdrew from the race well before the start of voting and endorsed Bhatty, however his name remained on the ballot. Votes for Moreno were counted as spoilt — there were over 400 more spoiled ballots in Moreno’s race than in any other executive race.
Flor had repeatedly refused to answer any questions about her rulings, including the decision to leave Moreno’s name on the ballot. Flor left before Friday’s meeting began and executive director Sandy Hudson read out a statement on her behalf. Flor’s statement congratulated all the candidates, and questioned the high volume of complaints she had received over the election. She recommended that the elections rules be changed so that complaints could be filtered as she found the high volume of complaints difficult to manage.
Harfouche’s request to have the fourth day utm votes discounted was met with almost no support from those present at the meeting, who included board candidates and general members of the union, in support of both the union and Harfouche.
Nine students gave their opinion for or against the motion. The comments were largely in favour of ratifying the results, with only Vip Vigneswaran, Team Unite’s campaign manager, directly speaking out against it, mentioning that the extra day of voting violated the bylaw that states that polling stations must be open at both campuses at all times during elections. Vigneswaran said the union started accepting the breaking of bylaws, it was unclear where that sort of behavior would stop.
Raymond Noronha, president of the utmsu spoke against Harfouche’s motion saying, “I consider it really offensive that folks would consider throwing away the votes of UTM students.” Noronha went on to say that UTM students typically engage on a physical level, and deserved to have their voting time.
Susan Froom, president of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS) raised the point that other electoral jurisdictions have systems in place that allow for the CRO to make emergency rulings. “There is an allowance for the CRO to make arrangements to extend voting hours that is permitted within our federal elections, within our provincial elections and within our municipal elections. It might be advisable for the UTSU board to look at these other jurisdictions, see what’s done there,” said Froom.
Even traditional opposition allies, like St. Michael’s College director Cullen Brown had little time for the motion saying, “I would much rather have preferred this situation than have a last minute board meeting about the issue.”
The motion was called to question before everyone on the speaker list had been given a chance to address it. The vote to ratify the election results passed with all in favour except Harfouche, law director Billi Wun, and UC director Aimee Quenville, who voted by proxy.
Some students felt that there wasn’t enough time given to discuss the decision. Sarah Qidwai attended the board meeting as a general member of the UTSU hoping to voice her opinion on the matter and share a letter from UC director Aimee Quenneville, who was unable to attend. “I know I wasn’t a voting member or ex-officio, but I had my hand up for one of the motions and wish I had a chance to speak before the motion was called to question,” said Qidwai.
UTMSU board member Bilal Sandeela also wished he had been given more time to discuss the issue. In the meeting Sandeela raised the issue that the UTSU might potentially be breaking the law, but it was quickly dismissed by speaker Ashkan Hashemi. “We shouldn’t have rushed to discuss what was and wasn’t legal,” said Sandeela, in conversation after the meeting.
In the hall after the meeting concluded, Harfouche engaged in a heated conversation with Brown and Sajjad, threatening legal action. In response to a comment by Brown, Harfouche replied, “You guys are in for a lawsuit, like, actually,” despite the warnings of Vigneswaran, urging him to keep quiet. Addressing The Varsity, Harfouche said he needed to look at the next steps available to him: “I don’t believe that my election was fair, so I’m an in an awkward position. I have to decide what to do.”
The ratification of the results mean that Yolen Bollo-Kamara, current vice-president equity will become president of the utsu. Her executive team will be composed of U of T Voice running mates Cameron Wathey, re-elected to the position of vice-president, internal and services, Grayce Slobodian in the position of vice-president, external, and Najiba Ali Sardar as vice-president, equity. Pierre Harfouche, the sole Team Unite candidate to be elected, will round out the executive as vice-president, university affairs.
The board is largely split between Team Unite and U of T Voice candidates, which is different from this year when nearly all of the directors ran on the incumbent slate with current president Munib Sajjad. In fact, the wins for non-incumbent slates this year are the first in many years. Harfouche is the first executive running on a non incumbent slate to win in eight years, and the board has been dominated by incumbent-slate candidates for almost as long.
