Cohen’s Concordia
Why the CEO Should Be Disqualified
As a Concordia student, Action’s antics, abysmal performance at election debates and blatant post-campaigning inspired embarrassment.
However, after reading the regulations that Chief Electoral Officer Oliver Cohen determined were breached, it seems that Your Concordia did not run a perfectly clean campaign either.
Regardless, I do not believe that Your Concordia should be disqualified from elections, or banned from running for two years. Oliver Cohen has been the CEO for three years running, and has witnessed far dirtier tactics employed by former CSU executives on the campaign trail, such as third-party funding, ad trucks and call centres.
Not disqualifying these previous slates in his past CEO performances, but specifically banning Your Concordia at this time, is both unjustified and suspect.
As a Concordia student, I’ve witnessed a few electoral violations on Your Concordia’s part. However, I’ve also witnessed post-election campaigning, slander and deception on part of Action and Fusion that make Your Concordia’s alleged additional flyering absolutely inconsequential in comparison.
Objectivity is a pillar of just ruling; the fact that the same CEO who let pass the blatant and publicly-criticized violations of these slates instead decided to ban the least erroneous of all candidates in recent history is ridiculous. It indicates a severe behavioral inconsistency that is worthy of serious investigation.
Furthermore, the disqualification and banning of the most popular slate on campus occurred at exactly the time where students are most unable to defend their chosen party: right after The Concordian and The Link finished their printing cycles, in the middle of finals and right before the summer vacation.
The timing chosen for this inevitably controversial ruling is irresponsible and inspires an atmosphere that lacks in debate, democracy and civil retaliation.
I hope that the concerns I’ve outlined will be brought forth to the CSU Judicial Board by one slate or another. I hope that Cohen, the three-year election overseer, will be investigated and made to answer for the questionable timing of his decision. His trend of ignoring the blatant violation of election rules during the election, followed by this action, is unjustifiable. I hope that Oliver Cohen’s decision to ban Your Concordia, but not Action, will receive special attention.
Finally, I hope that Concordia students will stand up for their university and not let this sort of judicial behavior pass unquestioned. The reputation of our university, our education and our academic future now rely on the outcome of this election. If students ever plan to take a stand, it must be now.
