Laval defeats McMaster as the Vanier Cup comes to Toronto pg 26
Shaun Shepherd on the polarized state of student politics pg 10
THE VARSITY
Vol. CXXXIII, No. 10
University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
26 November, 2012
Demands for electoral reform unheeded as opposition votes down UTSU agenda in tense meeting Kaleem Hawa & Zane Schwartz VARSITY STAFF
The University of Toronto Students’ Union’s annual general meeting ended abruptly Thursday night after members present at the meeting refused to approve the agenda. Less than half an hour after the meeting was called to order, the agenda was brought to a routine vote. Following failed attempts first to amend it, and then to force the chair of the meeting to recuse himself, membership declined to approve the agenda with an unofficial tally of 999 votes against to 905 in favour. The failure to approve the agenda brought the meeting to a screeching halt. More than 300 students, carrying nearly 2,000 proxy votes, were packed into the meeting room at the Medical Sciences building on the St. George campus. Many waited in line for hours to be admitted, after delays caused by the union’s restricted access to its membership list. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 6 pm, did not get underway until 8.19 pm. In the meantime, the capacity crowd was addressed by Trinity-Spadina City Councillor Adam Vaughan and Aboriginal elder Cat Criger.
Many students waited almost two hours to sign in for the meeting. MICHAEL BEDFORD/THE VARsITy
At the meeting Thursday night, Engineering Society president Rishi Maharaj initially argued for hosting a separate general meeting in January to entertain reforms, but was overruled by the meeting’s chair. Maharaj saw the ultimate rejection of the agenda as a step forward. “It’s nice to know that democracy has a chance, even if it’s taken this long. It’s only the start, but against the
odds we’ve faced, even the smallest victories have meaning,” said Maharaj following the meeting’s abrupt conclusion. In an impassioned speech before the agenda vote, student head of Trinity College Samuel Greene urged members not to “rubber stamp” the union’s items and called for student-driven electoral reforms, which failed to make the agenda.
“If you believe that the union can only be effective if it is accountable, that it can only be strong if it is fair, then join with us in demanding reform,” said Greene. “Our current system and our current union executive are stuck in the past. We need online voting, preferential voting, and greater accountability and transparency so that we can move past the old and divisive politics that
this union has fostered year after year and focus instead on how to improve the student experience,” Greene added in a post-AGM interview with The Varsity. The reform-minded opposition, who had previously failed to bring their proposals to a vote at the AGM, claimed a victory. Union executives and staff, for their part, expressed their disappointment. According to AGM chair Ashkon Hashemi, this year marked “the highest attendance at any AGM in recent memory.” Both Greene and Maharaj attributed to the opposition’s success to the “swathes of students that voted against an agenda that didn’t adequately address student concerns.” Student leaders from Trinity, Victoria, St. Michael’s, Innis, and University Colleges all congratulated those at the meeting — both in person and via proxies — on their actions in voting down the agenda. University College Literary and Athletic Society president Benjamin Dionne believes that those present at the meeting rejected the agenda because it “failed to adequately represent student interests.” He felt that “if the agenda only reflected the issues that
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