Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin issued a court order Aug. 10 affirming that 16 councillors from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) still hold their council seats until further order of the court.
This comes as a result of a July 28 email CUSA vice-president (internal) Ariel Norman sent to the councillors, informing them their seats had become vacant because they failed to attend or send a proxy to two council meetings this summer.
These councillors believe the two meetings Norman cited did not take place because a quorum was not met.
The motion for the court order, which was moved by the 16 councillors, was made without notice, meaning neither Norman nor her legal counsel were in attendance.
The judge read sworn affidavits from public affairs councillor Michael De Luca, public affairs and policy management councillor Chris Thompson, special student councillor Ashley Scorpio, business councillor Jordan Campbell, and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences councillors Brandon Wallingford and Jean-Luc Ngabo, and heard submissions from their lawyer(s), according to the order.
The order instructs CUSA executives to refrain from referring to the council seats as vacant, and to recognize the 16 councillors as justly elected and sitting members. It also originally ordered CUSA to cover the legal costs on their own. Beaudoin decided to amend the order, however, as costs will now be determined later in the proceedings, De Luca said in an email.
“The judge felt that an order for costs was not of as much urgency as ordering the defendants to recognize our rightful and duly elected seats,” De Luca said. “The judge expressed that there was no legal or factual basis for [Norman’s] claim that our seats had been vacated, resulting in the order being granted.”
Computer science councillor Justin Campbell, another one of the 16 plaintiffs, said he is satisfied with the outcome of the legal proceedings, but points out that legal action was sought as a last resort.
“Prior to filing for an injunction, multiple avenues for resolution were sought. We contacted [Norman] on more than one occasion, sought help from the ombudsman, and were even offered a third-party mediator at the expense of the university administration,” he said.
Carleton’s acting provost and vice-president (academic) Katherine A.H. Graham sent a letter to CUSA’s councillors and executive members Aug. 9, offering the services of an independent mediator to help resolve the issue. The letter acknowledged CUSA as an independent organization, but offered to fund a mediator nonetheless.
Also Aug. 9, CUSA’s lawyer Jonathan Davis-Sydor responded to a demand letter sent by the legal counsel for the 16 councillors. In his letter, Davis-Sydor maintained Norman’s position that the councillors’ seats should be vacated because they “made the deliberate choice not to attend” two meetings, which were called and convened according to CUSA bylaws.
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences councillor Shauna Daly stands by Norman’s decision even after the court order, suggesting the 16 councillors are preventing CUSA from carrying out its duty to the students.
“If these councillors were working [towards] the best interest of the student body, they would have attended the meetings. This way we could have dealt with the issues within council as we are expected to,” she said.
Daly said she feels the legal proceedings are forcing CUSA to defend itself from those who aren’t there to support the organization in the first place.
“Hopefully as a council, we can begin to address the current motions on our agenda at our next council meetings,” she said.
Campbell said he believes the dust has settled when it comes to legal action now.
“If [CUSA’s constituting documents] are respected and followed, we should see no further legal action.”
Norman declined to comment on the situation at the present time. CUSA president Obed Okyere could not be reached for comment.
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