When I obtained a recording that exposed concrete pieces of evidence of Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) involvement in the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA)’s election, it lit a fire in me.
I knew the election process was extremely biased, so my team and I sought to do one thing; we wanted to be completely transparent with students.
The recording I obtained was a call between team Forward’s president Jaden Slawter and several CUSA executives. To respect the wishes of the person who took the recording, it will not be made public.
Upon listening to the recording, two major violations of the RRRA electoral code came to our attention.
Slawter said that he has access to the residence list, which would essentially give him the unfair advantage of having access to all residents and their information to use for his team’s benefit. In 2012, this was a major violation that disqualified the winning team.
If Slawter obtained the residence list from his previous position as vice-president (programming) for RRRA, he would have broken section 4.5 of the electoral code which states “[a]ny member seeking nomination who works in RRRA businesses/offices must take a temporary leave of absence during nomination and campaign periods.”
In the recording, Jacob Howell, CUSA executive and off-campus student said “I could run a code from my computer using your accounts,” alluding to messaging students to vote for his slate. Slawter responds with “ok,” accepting this help.
This situation violated section 6.10 (f) of the electoral code, for using off-campus volunteers.
Sissi De Flaviis, a former CUSA executive who recently graduated, is also heard saying she could help the Forward slate with their social media outreach. While this act does not violate the electoral code, it emphasizes strong ties to CUSA in the RRRA campaign.
This adds onto a previous violation the Forward slate committed on the first day of voting on June 25. The Forward slate posted a video of testimonials telling people to “vote Forward,” where two of the individuals in the video were off-campus volunteers.
On this same day, the slate also still had live Instagram advertisements up, which are not allowed as this qualifies as campaigning. The electoral board explicitly said that they were avoiding an appeal as it would delay the election process and therefore chose not to penalize the slate.
These violations have been submitted to the electoral board, and no matter the outcome, I am calling the institution to action. It is due time for change.
This behaviour impacts the integrity of RRRA as an institution and disrespects the efforts of other candidates.
It is time for elections to be more accessible and for students to be better informed on how they can get involved.
Featured image provided by Angelica Zagorski.
