Mahmoud Sabry, the former Carleton Academic Student Government (CASG) vice-president (operations), has resigned ahead of a motion calling for him to be impeached.
CASG president Emily Grant said the motion was brought to council by two faculty co-ordinators, who are responsible for overseeing faculty councillors, in a January meeting.
“The motivations behind the motion came from the councillors seeing a lack of participation on the part of the VP of operations and fulfilling his job duties, as well as not being a very present participant in council and in operations,” she said.
According to Grant, a discussion on whether the motion could go to council resulted in Sabry deciding to resign in response to the motion before it was discussed by council.
“From my understanding, it’s been something that wasn’t necessarily a snap decision, it was more so thought out and planned for a little while,” Grant said of the motion.
Both Grant and CASG vice-president (academic) Chris Wright said they were surprised by the motion.
“It was a bit surprising to see it, especially the detail of everything it came to, but at the same time, I can understand from the councillors’ point of view why it happened,” Wright said.
“I don’t think any of us were expecting this, to see an impeachment motion come forward this year. That’s something you always want to avoid when you’re in a position like this,” Grant added.
She noted that councillors and co-ordinators had strong opinions on moving the motion forward and replacing the vice-president (operations).
Part of the motion was that Sabry hadn’t held his required office hours throughout the semester. He had also missed two meetings in September, one because of a personal reason and one because of sickness, according to him.
Grant said the motion was more based on Sabry “not being as present in planning for events and undertaking some of the planning duties that comes along with each of the positions.”
Wright added that communication issues also led to the motion.
“Mainly a lack of communication it seemed from him . . . and that I can see was one of the major issues that led to this,” he said.
Sabry said the year “wasn’t the best in terms of internal stuff.” He said he wasn’t involved in the summer because of family issues. Sabry said he was surprised to see a motion for impeachment.
“When I first received the motion, I was quite surprised. I was quite expecting a move, but I didn’t think it would be an impeachment,” he noted. “Usually, if somebody wants to impeach someone, they give them a warning, they talk, [give] advice.”
According to Sabry, the reasons for the motion weren’t clear.
“I did my job internally,” he explained. “Of course, there was part on me that didn’t give it 100 per cent because I didn’t know, but it’s not me not wanting to give it 100 per cent, but it’s the hurdles that were there.”
Sabry outlined some challenges he faced in the position in his resignation letter.
“The responsibilities were often unclear. Certain executives looked to dominate other portfolios. These hurdles, on top of family circumstances within my personal life, resulted in operational issues with CASG, within CASG, which I’m truly sorry for,” he wrote.
In the end, Sabry said he decided not to fight and argue the motion,.
“I love CASG. I learned so much from CASG—great experience—but sometimes, someone should take the hit [rather] than the whole association,” he said.
Sabry said he sent his resignation letter to Grant, but council didn’t receive it. He called the letter “my only opportunity to defend myself.”
According to Grant, no CASG executives have resigned or been impeached in four years before this incident.
Photo by Aaron Hemens
