Editorial: Nothing screams democracy like a vote you can’t cast

OpinionsEditorialThe Link — Published November 4, 2025 4 minutes

Two different fee-levy groups, Art Matters and the CSU Legal Information Clinic (LIC), were barred from reaching the ballot after failing to receive the required supermajority vote. 

Council questioned both groups regarding their political affiliation, with a councillor saying she voted against Art Matters’ increase due to the group’s support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

Some councillors questioned the LIC’s work in helping defend students involved in protesting the Gaza genocide. Even after the group clarified that it does not discriminate based on political opinion and must assist all students who seek its services, the council struck down its fee levy application.

The fee levy application process is meant to be solely administrative. 

According to the CSU’s own Policy on Fee Levy Applications, councillors are only meant to verify the submission of appropriate documentation, to verify whether the group has followed its mandate, and to consider if the draft question “is factual and not prejudicial to the outcome.”

After the LIC’s fee levy application was rejected, CSU legal representative Walter Chi-Yan Tom asked council to explain what part of the clinic’s application did not conform with the CSU bylaws. He did not receive an answer. 

This process must remain nonpartisan. Students have already voted for these groups' right to exist and, as such, should have the right to vote on whether they want to grant them a fee levy increase or not. 

Additionally, even if both fee levies went to ballot and a majority of students voted in favour of the increase, students would still have the ability to opt out of the Art Matters’ fee levy.

The Link firmly believes that the decision taken by the CSU council to bar these fee levies from going to ballot undermines student democracy and represents a blatant abuse of power.

Additionally, both the Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA), which Art Matters is an affiliate of, and the CSU have voted-in motions in support of BDS. 

Is it truly democratic to deny a fee levy on the grounds that it supports a movement students have already voiced their support for? 

Fee-levy groups are extremely important on campus, offering necessary services and opportunities to students. They represent the heart of student life and, without them, the student experience would suffer greatly.

Students fund these groups through fee levies collected from their tuition based on the number of credits they take. With the drop in enrolment as a result of the Coalition Avenir Québec government’s tuition hikes, paired with high inflation and the current cost-of-living crisis, these groups are struggling more than ever to make ends meet.

Under normal circumstances, refusing their applications would be bad enough. But especially in this context, when these organizations need increases to keep their heads above water, councillors should know to respect the policies governing fee levy applications, regardless of their biases. 

Indeed, both Art Matters and the LIC shared with the council that they currently struggle to maintain operations, with Art Matters specifically sharing that it spent over four months and over $3,000 putting together its application package.

The Link is no stranger to the CSU’s questionable decisions when it comes to fee levy applications. During the 2024-25 academic year, we were denied from running in both the by-elections and the general elections due to claims that our annual report was outdated. This, as we refuted at the time, was incorrect.

The Link believes in the right of students to make their voices heard through their right to vote. Whether a fee-levy group with a valid application package receives a fee levy increase should be left up to the students, not left to die on the floor of council. 

Over the past year, The Link has reported on ongoing transparency issues at the CSU. While council meetings technically remain open to all students, the CSU website is out of date, with the most recent minutes dating back to July 2024. 

Hence, it is certainly worth mentioning that without exterior reporting, those who cannot attend these council meetings have little to no way to stay up to date on all the latest CSU-related news.

The rejection of Art Matters and LIC from the ballot marks an ongoing lack of regard for student democracy and for students’ rights to make their voices heard. 

The Link urges the CSU not to let councillors’ individual political biases supersede the union’s own policies. 

Students have a right to know what happens behind the scenes of their student union and to make their own decisions about which services they wish to fund. 
Most importantly, students deserve to have faith in their union’s democratic process and trust that policies will be followed no matter what.

This article originally appeared in Volume 46, Issue 5, published November 4, 2025.