The Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) third members’ meeting ended suddenly after around seven councillors walked out following a dispute about the 2025-2026 budget.
The contention began after vice-president (finance) Samuel Easby said he was unfamiliar with the version of the budget presented at the March 31 meeting. Easby told council he saw “different numbers” just before he left for sick leave on March 28.
Easby also told council that his “opinion and influences” were not taken into account in the 2025-2026 operating budget.
Following Easby’s statements to council and a debate on whether the budget should be passed, postponed or reviewed, around seven councillors walked out of the room. This ended the meeting, postponing the approval of the budget to another members’ meeting.
In an April 1 email statement to the Charlatan, Easby said he viewed a draft of the budget before it was sent to CUSA’s operations manager and finance manager. He said he also viewed what he was told would be the final draft. Easby did not specify who told him it would be the final draft.
According to CUSA’s bylaws, part of the vice-president (finance) role is to “lead the allocation of expenses in the annual creation of the budget with the President/CEO and Director of Operations.”
Easby also told council on March 31 he wanted to start creating the budget in November 2024, but was told to “hold off” due to reasons including the outcome of CUSA’s student levy fee referendum, potential organizational changes and the hiring of a finance manager.
In his statement to the Charlatan, Easby said he wanted council to know his “decreased involvement was not caused by [his] own reluctance.”
When asked who was involved in the budget’s development and who had the final say over the 2025-2026 budget, CUSA president Sarah El Fitori did not respond in time for publication.
‘An absurd amount of proxies’
Following Easby’s statements to council, engineering and design councillor Nathan Bruni suggested that council could choose not to approve the budget and instead send it for review by the association’s finance, fees and funds committee.
Engineering and design councillors Dana Sayed Ahmed and Amogh Thungathurti said they agreed with Bruni’s suggestion, especially as around 20 councillors were represented at the meeting by proxy.
According to section 6.16 of CUSA’s bylaws, councillors who are unable to attend a members’ meeting “may appoint another Member to vote for them by proxy.”
There is no limit in the bylaws on how many councillors can be represented by proxy.
Sayed Ahmed said the contentious nature of the budget meant she could not guarantee all of the people who gave her their proxy vote would agree with the way the councillor they were representing would choose to vote.
“I’m guilty of this too,” Sayed Ahmed said. “I hold six proxies and I am saying that I cannot fully guarantee that, should they be here, they would agree.”
Thungathurti said there was “an absurd amount of proxies” at the meeting.
“I do not think it is worth us discussing [the budget] further without more people actually here,” he said. “I think you are silencing over 20 to 25 opinions that may not align with the proxy, so I think a topic as serious as this should be tabled.”
A motion to refer the budget to the finance, fees and funds committee failed with 22 votes against and 18 votes for. Following this, council was supposed to vote on whether to approve the budget.
However, multiple councillors left the meeting after the failed motion, resulting in a loss of quorum, or sufficient attendance.
Section 6.10 of CUSA’s bylaws states that at least 51 per cent of council members need to be present “in person or by proxy” for members’ meetings to proceed. Section 6.11 states that without quorum, the business of the meeting can’t proceed.
In accordance with this policy, the abrupt departure of several councillors effectively ended the meeting and prevented further discussion on the budget.
Only six councillors did not leave the meeting:
- Maxwell Heroux, a Faculty of Public and Global Affairs councillor;
- Cass McIsaac, a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences councillor;
- Cherry Zhang, a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences councillor;
- Elissa Gee, a Faculty of Public and Global Affairs councillor;
- Amy Kopytskiy, a Faculty of Engineering and Design councillor;
- Mohamad Adel El Fitori, a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences councillor.
Including proxies, these councillors held 25 votes — to meet quorum, council needed 26 votes.
Vice-president (student issues) Artur Estrela da Silva said council should not pass the budget with so few councillors present.
“We have physically present like six councillors,” he said. “Are we legitimately trying to approve our budget and do a decision you know will be controversial?”
Mohamad Adel El Fitori said he consulted the councillors who gave him their proxy votes prior to the meeting on their opinions about the budget and other motions on the agenda.
Those who give their votes to a proxy do so consensually and with the ability to take it back from the proxy, McIsaac said.
“If [representation is] the main concern, we can go back to the rules and the rules say that you are allowed to give proxies,” they said.
Kopytskiy said councillors who left could have moved to adjourn the meeting instead, calling the choice to to walk out of the meeting “grotesque.”
“The people who just walked out … could’ve moved to adjourn the meeting,” Kopytskiy said. “Instead they walk out. I think this is grossly unprofessional.”
In order to continue the meeting’s agenda and discussion of the budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, vice-president (internal) Aiden Rohacek said CUSA will need to announce a fourth annual members’ meeting.
The motions left on the agenda are the approval of the budget, approving an auditor for CUSA’s financial statements, dissolving this year’s CUSA council, appointing councillors to the vice-president (finance) hiring committee and appointing councillors to the speaker of council hiring committee.
According to CUSA’s bylaws, the board of directors must call any annual members’ meeting and must give at least ten days notice prior to the meeting.
Featured graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi
