Action, Your Concordia Appeal
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The first steps towards clearing up the current confusion about the future of the Concordia Student Union council have been taken, as the presidential candidates for both disqualified slates, Your Concordia and Action, filed complaints to the CSU Judicial Board on Sunday.
The “ Your Concordia and Action appeals cited Article 246, Section D of the CSU standing regulations, which states, “To disqualify a candidate, the [Chief Electoral Officer] and/or their agents must clearly demonstrate evidence both that a serious breach of electoral regulations has taken place, and that the party to be disqualified was responsible for the breach. Neither circumstantial evidence nor imputed interest shall be sufficient to justify disqualification.”
In his rulings against Your Concordia and Action, CSU CEO Oliver Cohen had cited regulations and directives violated by the slates, but provided no evidence of those violations. The document goes on to add that “Before arriving to the aforementioned findings and sanctions, the CEO at no point asked for any explanation from [presidential candidate Lex Gill] or any of the members of Your Concordia.”
The appeal also denies any wrongdoing by the slate, addressing specific violations cited by Cohen in his notice of disqualification regarding improperly filed expense reports.
“Not only did Your Concordia satisfy the requirements for a return of election expenses, but did so early,” said Gill in the appeal.
Action ’s complaint cited Article 240 of the CSU standing regulations, which lists the reasons candidates can be disqualified, pointing out that Cohen never mentions that section in his notice of disqualification to the team.
“ Action submitted its appeal based on the considered opinion that the Notice and Reasons contain significant reviewable errors of procedure and judgment of the CEO, sufficient to warrant a full review by the Board,” said Action presidential candidate Khalil Haddad in a press release sent out on behalf of the slate.
Both complaints argue that Cohen never tried to communicate any of the infractions to the candidates, and has failed to produce any evidence regarding the broken rules. Similarly, both documents call for the CEO’s ruling to be overturned, and Your Concordia requested that the results of the election to be certified as official.
On April 12, both slates had received notice from Cohen that all candidates were disqualified and would not be reimbursed for election expenses. Your Concordia candidates were also prohibited from running for elected office for two years.
In a statement read at a CSU Council meeting on April 13, current CSU President Heather Lucas said, “It is shocking and unfortunate that the CEO has made the decision to disqualify both slates, as it makes a mockery of the CSU, and ultimately does a disservice to the most important people at this university, the students.”
The disqualifications came just days after Gill and Haddad signed a statement that declared a desire to work together for electoral reform for future elections. When approached after the April 13 council meeting, both candidates said they still looked forward to working towards electoral reform for future elections, regardless of how the Judicial Board rules.
“No matter what happens, it will still go through. And it will be done with our consultation,” said Gill.
“We’ll be working together. This is something we truly care about it, and we want to see that change [happen],” added Haddad.
