CSU elections: Transparency, personal gain or blatant incompetence?
Election rhetoric around transparency distorts how the union actually works
If you’ve paid attention to student politics in the past few years, the word "transparency" has probably grabbed your attention.
As a student councillor who has served on council and the Board of Governors for two years, year after year, I’ve witnessed student politicians try to solidify their careers and understanding of general governance by promising to grant you, the student body, “more transparency” if they are elected in the Concordia Student Union (CSU) elections.
These days, the calls for transparency have become the slogans of choice for candidates running for university elections, often deployed to advance very specific agendas.
In the Winter 2025 general elections, an Instagram account called “Students4Better” (ironically unable to be transparent about who they even were) endorsed over 30 students running for council and executive positions on the basis of transparency.
But let’s pause and ask: what exactly is transparency anyway?
In its name, some students have been accused of filibustering council meetings, at times dragging them over the six-hour mark and spending most of them debating clearly defined procedures.
Councillors also shut down fee-levy groups simply because those organizations or collectives have a noted political stance, namely, the Art Matters fee levy increase being denied because they allegedly “don’t welcome Zionists.”
I would argue that denying students the ability to vote on whether or not they wish to grant the festival extra funding is much less transparent than shutting it down before it ever reaches the ballot.
More recently, some councillors even tried to pass two motions to make the union non-partisan, undercutting years of important political action at the CSU and across student unions in Quebec.
As if lack of political action allows more "transparency."
Student unions are inherently political. No organization can perfectly reflect the opinions of all its members, and therefore, discussion before taking political action is important.
However, all positions held by the CSU as reflected in the positions book were voted on by a majority of students during a general or a by-election. This is democracy 101.
How would it be more transparent to go against the political positions students have voted for the union to hold in the name of nonpartisanship than it would be to honour them?
The union should advocate for the positions students have voted for it to hold, including the position against the practice of apartheid adopted in 2022. It also should uphold the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions motions that students voted in favour of at a special general meeting just last year.
This is not a rant against students wanting transparency. It is your right as a student to know what your union is doing and how it is spending your money. It is also your right to want more information about what is happening internally.
There are real, valid concerns in the CSU and things that the union can do better. Please come to council meetings, question candidates on their platforms before voting for them, and talk to your councillors about your concerns and what we could do better.
The issue isn't that you want this change, and the issue isn’t the idea of transparency; the real problem is that you’re constantly being told half the story.
