The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) held their executive byelection debate on March 19 in the University Centre atrium. While only three executive positions were being debated over, the audience was much larger and louder than it was for the January debate when all six positions were looking to be filled.
Vice-president (internal)
Ryan St-Jean, an independent candidate, opened the debate for the vice-president (internal) position by talking about his conflict-of-interest policy.
“I want to cut down on a little bit of the perceived nepotism and cronyism,” St-Jean said.
He said that CUSA’s current clubs and programming could be improved with this policy and promised to personally recuse himself in instances when he can’t be impartial.
Throughout the debate, St-Jean continued to build on this policy, saying, “If you guys want to get the best people hired, then you have to be fair.”
Some of his other campaign points included more online voting for issues that may later need a referendum—such as defederating from the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) —better mental health coverage in CUSA’s health plan, free art show cases, and more sponsorship for individual clubs.
The One Carleton candidate, Natalie York, was greeted by a crowd of green t-shirts. She mentioned she was the only candidate running for a second time, saying the results of the first election showed students’ desire for change in the electoral system. If elected, she promised to increase education on the nomination and electoral process.
York said she showed her dedication to Carleton students “by not being too proud to admit that there’s room for progress, to be strong enough to be self-critical.”
York campaigned on improvements for the clubs and societies on campus, including renegotiating the Aramark contract for cheaper food as well as promising increased storage, free graphic services, and funding for business and engineering clubs. She also committed to live-streaming town halls and introducing American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters.
Tristan Taylor from the Confidence slate used his opening remarks to talk about inspiring change. Taylor chose to stand as he yelled to his supporters.
“You may be thinking ‘You’re just an entertainer, you’re just a pretty face, what can you do,’ ” Taylor said to the audience. “Well guess what an entertainer and a pretty face can do—it can inspire people to make change that we want to see.”
He also said he would implement general assemblies to ensure that all student voices are heard and councillors aren’t overpowered by the executives.
“They need to be sure that they’re repping their societies or whoever they’re councillors for,” Taylor said.
James Brunet, one of two candidates on the SOLIDARITY slate, began by speaking about his extensive union and negotiation experience.
“It actually doesn’t matter how good of a negotiator you are,” Brunet said. “At the end of the day, it comes down to leverage.”
Brunet went on to say that the student body has no leverage to accomplish their goals around sexual violence, mental health, and lowering tuition.
“We’re disorganized, immobilized, divided,” he said, before pledging $10,000 of his executive salary to organize the student body with flyers, posters, and targeted social media advertisements.
During the question period, Taylor said he wouldn’t pull funding for clubs from elsewhere in the budget.
“Because then somebody’s getting screwed over,” he said. “Maybe it’s somebody that the executive doesn’t find important enough. Maybe it’s something that the student body doesn’t represent enough.”
Instead, he promised $8,000 out of his own pocket to give back to clubs and societies.
York later questioned her opponents grasp of the vice-president (internal) position and wondered why more candidates didn’t address specific ways to help clubs and societies on campus.
“Honestly, I’m interested to know if many of my opponents actually knew what the vice-president (internal) position did before running for this position.” She continued, “$8,000 works out to $26 per club,” adding that the campaign promises she hopes to implement—which will be free for clubs—will equate to more than $26 per club.
Later in the debate, Taylor said York was very quick to “shit” on his contributions and questioned if she would commit $8,000 from her salary.
The candidates also debated the Our Turn movement, with Brunet advocating for more training, and Taylor adding that more funding is needed to support the initiative.
St-Jean said there should be a condensed version of Our Turn training for club members so people don’t “tune it out.”
“It needs to be a little bit shorter,” St-Jean said. “I think most people would agree that most of us know not to sexually harass someone,” he said, a statement which some in the crowd protested.
Vice-president (student services)
Following this debate, three candidates for the vice-president (student services) position took to the stage, including Diana Idibe from the Confidence slate, Cassandra Ambar of One Carleton, and Ahmad Rahal from SOLIDARITY.
Rahal used his time on stage to address the need to demand more mental health services from the university.
“We also need to be unafraid to openly criticize our university administration’s shortfalls when it comes to mental health,” he said.
He added that he wants to continue building the peer-to-peer support system and use the service centres to bridge gaps between communities on campus.
Ambar said that while she was crushed by the results of the first election, “the decision of running again wasn’t even a question.”
Ambar promised to implement a CUSA discount card, “12 days of giveaways” at the service centres, skill-based training for classes like cooking and self-defence, and to develop the peer-to-peer support system.
Idibe spoke about the experience which qualified her for the position and promised to advocate for Indigenous groups and mental health by connecting students to resources. She also said would increase the popularity of service centres by reaching students through social media and empowering service centre co-ordinators.
“I want us to have a students’ association that we can be confident in,” she said.
When asked if he planned to restructure any service centres, Rahal again criticized the university’s lack of action.
“At the end of the day, we need to remember that we’re only being forced to do this because our university administration is failing to provide adequate, professional mental health services for our students,” he said. “We’re going to be stuck playing catch-up if we don’t effectively pressure the administration to provide better services for us.”
Rahal also said it would be more useful to promote existing infrastructures, like the International Student Identity Card (ISIC), rather than introduce new discount cards.
Ambar said she wants to knock down the walls between certain service centres to create an open community, an idea which was later combated by Idibe who said the walls of the service centres offer a safe place for vulnerable students.
“I don’t think my opponent knows where every single service centre is,” Ambar shot back, explaining that service centres on the fourth-floor could host private spaces like the Wellness Centre and the Womyn’s Centre.
Idibe responded in her closing remarks, saying, “I have used the service centres and they have supported me personally in times of crises, and I’m fully aware of where they are.”
President
The presidential position was the most heavily contested, with six candidates in the running.
Independent candidate Thompson Stubbs said he wants to get rid of executive compensation entirely.
David Oladejo, the One Carleton candidate, promised to save students money by defederating from the CFS and creating a more sustainable campus.
“I can promise you candidates who will face adversity head on,” he said of his team.
Mehdi Bouchentouf campaigned on being a student president for everyone and said his team includes the whole campus.
He also spoke about the ‘no confidence’ vote from the first election saying, “I don’t think it was based on misinformation, I think it was done by student frustration with the way the system works, and I am ready to change that system.”
Lacretia Antwi, also an independent candidate, wants to renegotiate with OC Transpo to make transportation easier and to save students money by letting them opt-out of services they don’t use, such as gym memberships and bus passes.
“As a fourth year, I have been complacent for so long, letting the system take money out of my pockets, but I do not want it coming out of yours,” she said.
Connor Coukell started his opening remarks on a different note, saying, “I’m not going to have a mob blindly cheer my name every time I stop talking.” He continued, “I won’t talk louder to make my points sound better, and I won’t tell you to vote for me and my team every time I get the chance. What I’m trying to say is that I respect you.”
Donna Al Sououb of the Confidence slate spoke last. She campaigned on the implementation of a full sexual violence prevention policy, and advocating for mental health and lower tuition.
“As a woman in engineering, I have learned to look adversity in the face and say ‘I’m going to do this,’ ” she said.
During the question period, presidential candidates began by discussing the CFS, with all the students being for membership in the federation except Oladejo and Antwi.
“The CFS is more than just buttons and posters,” Al Sououb said.
Coukell agreed, adding, “I feel that CUSA should work to ensure that their house is clean before they try to clean other ones.”
He spoke about the work the CFS does to advocate for students, saying, “Well, I’d hate to be on the wrong side of history.”
According to Oladejo, defederating from the CFS would save students approximately $17 in fees per year.
Antwi said students’ lack of knowledge on the CFS shows that Carleton should defederate.
“For all I know, the CFS is the Carleton Football Society.” She later added, “Personally, I think even if you could buy a stale sandwich with this $17 it is still worth something. As a Carleton student, I find $2 and it’s my lucky day.”
Stubbs said he’ll save students money by cutting executive salaries, not CFS membership.
“I have no idea how we’re going to get the 10,000 signatures [on the petition needed to defederate] . . . too much work,” he said.
Candidates also spoke about how they plan to deal with sexual violence on campus.
During the debate, Stubbs took heat for saying it wasn’t CUSA’s job to address sexual violence on campus.
“Since when was it CUSA’s job to solve the problem of sexual violence?” he asked, adding that it’s the job of the university and the police.
He continued, “Why is the student union supposed to be the one dealing with criminals. I don’t understand the question,” to which debate moderator Shawn Humphrey replied, “Do you need me to repeat the question?”
Members of the audience yelled “shame” and “get off the stage.”
Later in the debate, Stubbs said he really “messed up the last question” and said, “I know what I don’t know and I know when I’m wrong.”
Oladejo said his team would work to make the Sexual Violence Policy intersectional and survivor-centric.
“I want to start by saying that CUSA stands for the Carleton University Students’ Association, and sexual violence is a problem that faces students, so it is CUSA’s job to combat sexual violence on this campus,” he said.
Bouchentouf responded to Oladejo by saying the policy was already intersectional because it had been worked on by various groups such as Ontario Public Interest Research Group and the Womyn’s Centre.
If elected, he said he would make it mandatory for all students who participate in Fall Orientation to take Our Turn training first.
Al Sououb promised to implement an internal sexual violence prevention policy that applies to everyone “regardless of their power.”
The last question in the debate asked the candidates to sum up their platforms using two words.
Al Sououb referenced her team’s name saying, “restore confidence,” while Coukell responded with “be better,” and Antwi cited her campaign slogan, “Fix CUSA.”
Bouchentouf said “real transparency,” while Oladejo used his slate name “One Carleton” and Stubbs summed up his major platform point saying “zero salaries.”
Students are able to vote in the byelection on March 21 and 22.
Photo by Graham Swaney
