NDP Upset With Action

LettersNatalie Bocking — Published March 29, 2011

On behalf of NDP Concordia, I am writing to express our extreme displeasure with Action’s conduct during this year’s Concordia Student Union election campaign. When the campaign began, Action put up a website which listed about 25 groups that they claimed had endorsed them, including NDP Concordia. The problem is that the list was completely fake and none of the named groups had agreed to support Action.

When a member of NDP Concordia discovered this and posted a demand for an explanation on the wall of Action’s Facebook page, his post was deleted and he was blocked from accessing the page. Despite repeated requests, Action has refused to apologize or even retract their false claims.

In an interview with The Link [Action Presidential candidate Khalil Hadad] claimed it was an accident and that the groups listed were the ones they expected to endorse them. However, there was no evidence at all that NDP Concordia would support them and indeed we have had no contact with anyone on the Action slate. Also, if this was an accident, why did Action try to cover it up rather than simply apologize?

We have an especially hard time believing it was an accident considering that slates have now made the same “mistake” three years in a row. It seems more likely that they did this because most students check the websites at the beginning of the campaign and are left with a false impression of a slate’s support, which lingers even after the fraud is exposed.

Concordia students should seriously question whether Action, a slate that is clearly dishonest and that has refused to take responsibility for their actions, should be trusted with our money or to represent us.

—Natalie Bocking,
Chair, NDP Concordia

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 28, published March 29, 2011.