A motion on the controversial Fair Elections Act was debated at the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) meeting on Aug. 24.
Humanities councillor Sean Illman-White introduced a motion that would have compelled CUSA to publicly condemn the elections bill, also known as Bill C-23, no less than 30 days before the Oct. 19 election.
After debate, the motion was amended to have CUSA educate students about the bill, rather than oppose it.
Illman-White said his main issue with the legislation is how much more difficult it makes voting for certain groups, notably students, because of more restrictive voter ID and registration rules.
“The Fair Elections Act is known by many groups across Canada as a piece of legislation that suppresses voters’ ability to participate in general elections,” he said.
The motion was challenged by several members on the grounds that it was expressing partisan support against the Conservative Party and that federal issues are outside of CUSA’s jurisdiction.
Matthew Pelletier, public affairs and policy management councillor, referred to article one of the CUSA constitution to oppose the motion. The article states CUSA acts as a representative of the entire undergraduate student body at Carleton.
“We can’t say we’re representing the entire undergraduate student body when we’re catering to a special partisan interest,” Pelletier said.
Illman-White, who is the co-chair for Carleton’s New Democratic Party (NDP), said his motion was not about expressing support for one party over another.
“The intent was to encourage student participation in democracy and to try to educate people that the changes of the Act are ultimately … a bad thing for students,” he said.
Other student groups, including the Lakehead University Student Union, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, and Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association, have all come out against the Fair Elections Act, Illman-White said.
Engineering and design councillor Jasmine Shaw said CUSA’s focus should be on education rather than attempting to change a law already in place.
After debate on the motion, an amendment was suggested by journalism councillor Peter Russell, who seconded the motion, to gear it more towards educating students about the Act.
The motion was initially passed during a vote at the meeting, but after review it was decided that the spirit of the motion had been changed and council was forced to postpone further discussions.
The motion will be reviewed and discussed at the next CUSA meeting in September.
Information on the election and strategies to get students to vote have already been planned by vice-president (student issues) Maddie Adams.
This includes informing students on where to vote, hosting an official Ottawa Centre federal candidates debate and a vote-mob, which will encourage students to vote together, according to Adams.
At the same meeting, CUSA passed a motion to amend the clubs and societies fund approved during the July meeting, and created an ad-hoc survey committee on how to increase student engagement.
The ad-hoc survey committee plans to continue the work of last year’s democratic reform committee, according to Russell, who put forward the motion.
The democratic reform committee was formed to gather feedback on undergraduate student engagement with CUSA.
