Just hours after the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) 2020 election results were released, Students First vice-president (student life) elected candidate Osman Elmi seemingly took a jab at the independent candidates, in a video posted to social media.
“We won six for six—fuck the rest,” Elmi said in a Snapchat video posted by a Carleton student on Jan. 30, while a supporter yelled beside him.
Elmi’s comment follows a tumultuous election where the importance of respect and open communication was brought up frequently by CUSA election officials.
“I don’t want any cattiness this year,” said chief electoral officer Claudia Calagoure-Perna, at an all-candidates meeting just before the campaigning period. “I don’t want anyone coming into my office crying, I don’t want anyone so upset that they don’t even want to be in the election anymore.”
“That’s not the spirit of student politics,” she added.
Despite understanding how the message could be misinterpreted, Elmi said the video did not show the full context of his statement and asked his friend who posted the video to remove it, upon seeing it for himself on the morning of Jan. 31, the day after the video was released.
“The video had nothing to do with my opponents,” Elmi said. “[‘The rest’] was actually the stress of the elections.”
Elmi added he sent a message on Jan. 31 to all his opposing candidates congratulating them on a good run before he knew about the video.
“The other candidates and I have actually been friendly with each other way before the election, obviously during the election, and after the election,” he said. “The other candidates can probably testify to that.”
Matt Gagne, an independent candidate who ran against Elmi in the CUSA 2020 election, said although he did receive the well wishes from Elmi in a message earlier today, he did not see the video but is disheartened by Elmi’s celebration.
“I consider Osman a good friend and I’m disappointed he chose to celebrate this way,” Gagne said in an emailed statement. “I congratulate [the slate] on their win and I hope this isn’t the mentality they’ll be taking into office next year. As ‘the rest’ is who they now serve.”
When told Elmi said “the rest” referred to the stress of the election, Gagne said he would not have interpreted the video that way.
However, not all candidates felt the same way.
“I’m not one to get easily offended, he’s just celebrating, you get excited,” said Brendan O’Malley, an independent candidate who ran against Elmi. “I won’t take it personally, it’s all good.”
Regardless of others’ responses, Elmi apologized for the way the video could be interpreted.
“I definitely understand how a five-second clip could be taken out of context and I apologize for that,” Elmi said.
At the beginning of the election season, CUSA president Lily Akagbosu emphasized that although negative instances occur between candidates, it is important to be proactive in the promotion of respect.
“There will always be incidences where people don’t necessarily break rules, but they do things that are not as polite,” Akagbosu said. “It’s unfortunate we have those [incidences] but that’s why it’s important that we reemphasize this message of promoting a culture of respect.”
This is not the first time a vice-president (student life) winner of a CUSA election has had a video circulate with questionable comments the day after election results.
Former vice-president (student life) Abdullah Jaber was suspended by CUSA executives for two weeks in 2018 for posting a video on Facebook which was captioned, “We have no. Confidence in this Dj. #Ls,” aimed at a candidate who had lost during the election.
It is unknown whether Elmi will have to undergo any disciplinary actions.
Featured image from file.
