The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) will merge its association and corporation into a single not-for-profit body and completely rehaul its bylaws, according to its executives and staff.
A series of recommendations from the association’s democratic reform committee was reviewed by councillors and voted upon at CUSA’s Oct. 25 meeting. Key recommendations from the report included turning the five vice president seats into hired positions, creating a board of directors to govern CUSA and having CUSA function wholly as an incorporation.
The merger would ensure the group follows provincial law, gives students-at-large more power and provides legal protection for all of CUSA.
Democratic reform committee chair and student-at-large Braeden Cain said the change would make CUSA more accountable to Carleton students.
“One of the biggest problems we’ve seen at Carleton in recent years is that we don’t trust the student union,” Cain said. “It’s really important that we have a union that isn’t a legal quagmire, a union that people feel they can trust and feel that they can hold accountable.”
While the exact changes in the union’s structure are still under review and will ultimately be decided by a council vote, vice-president (internal) Ahmad Hashimi said the association will most likely dissolve and CUSA will remain a corporation as per CUSA lawyer John McNair’s advice. The association’s fate is still to be decided by councillor vote.
“Our lawyers have advised us that merging CUSA Inc. and the association is the smartest way forward,” Hashimi said. “We’re going to close CUSA [as] the association and bring all the bylaws into CUSA Inc.”
CUSA, as a group, currently must adhere to two sets of bylaws. The association has a set of bylaws amended regularly at council meetings. The incorporation also has its own set. The democratic reform committee’s report suggests the system is confounding.
“Having an association and corporation with confusing levers of power leaves the student body with a union with increasingly low engagement and a damaged reputation,” read the democratic reform committee’s report.
Cain said having CUSA exist as two separate legal entities makes holding the student union accountable difficult.
“By amalgamating these two organizations into one, we only [have to] hold one organization to account,” Cain said. “We would only be electing board directors, councillors and executives for one organization and that will help keep [CUSA] much more simple and more organized.”
The merging also ensures CUSA Inc. adheres to Ontario’s Not-for-Profit Corporations Act. Section 22 (1) of the act requires not-for-profit corporations such as CUSA Inc. to have a board of directors with at least three members. While passed in 2010, the act came into force on Oct. 19.
Currently, CUSA Inc. has a board of three trustees who can make all financial decisions for the corporation, according to CUSA corporate bylaw section eight. According to section five, board of trustee meetings may be held anytime, anywhere and without notice.
“[Trustees] are not really accountable to anyone, which means that you could effectively have executives using student monies for their own purchases,” Cain said. “That’s not really fair. And it can also leave the organization open to a lot of legal troubles.”
CUSA is no stranger to the courts, either. In 2011, the association received a court order forcing executives to allow 16 councillors to hold their seats. In 2016, Ashley Courchene was reinstated as vice-president (student services) by order of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice after being removed from office by Carleton’s Constitutional Board.
Merging the association and corporation will make sure councillors and executives are insured for future legal protection, if need be, Hashimi said.
CUSA’s board of trustees now consists of Hashimi, vice-president (community engagement) Callie Ogden and vice-president (finance) Venassa Baptiste.
The democratic reform committee’s report recommended a new board of directors composed of eight students-at-large and CUSA’s president. CUSA Inc. executive assistant Jordan Collacutt said establishing a new board would improve the group’s transparency.
“[Merging] creates a board of directors where a lot of the decisions that are being made are public,” Collacutt said. “Students can get involved in the board of directors, and have a say in how the long-term goals of CUSA shape up and where the money is being redirected.”
The merger follows students’ expressed discontent with CUSA’s current structure, Hashimi said. These last two years, the association has also faced criticism for its executive slate systems and perceived conflicts of interest between executive candidates and elections officers.
Councillors’ votes on the democratic reform committee’s recommendations are under review by CUSA Inc.’s legal team at McKenzie Lake Lawyers LLP. However, Cain said CUSA will only remain a corporation.
“Clearly, if there’s a lack of trust in the union, it’s for a reason, and it’s important that we re-establish that trust,” Cain said. “ And that starts with remaking the framework in which our union is run.”
Featured Graphic by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
