Vol. CXXXVIII, No. 20 March 5, 2018 thevarsity.ca —— University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880
COMMENT
ARTS
SCIENCE
SPORTS
Governing Council who?
Blood and revenge
An intergalactic scrapyard
Blues beat Guelph
To represent students well, better communication is needed
Hart House’s Titus Andronicus balances comedy and tragedy
Too much space debris could impact satellites in space
Women’s volleyball team make OUA final four
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Campus radio station faces criticism for ‘undemocratic’ elections process Student union appointees claim aspects of process violate U of T Policy on Open, Accessible and Democratic Autonomous Student Organizations Josie Kao Associate News Editor
“Justice for Tina Fontaine” rally held at Nathan Phillips Square Protesters call for action following Raymond Cormier’s acquittal in death of Indigenous teenager Ilya Bañares Associate News Editor
More than 1,000 people gathered outside City Hall on March 3 to voice their outrage about the fate of Tina Fontaine, a 15-yearold Indigenous girl who died in 2014. The rally came a week after a jury found her alleged murderer, Raymond Cormier, not guilty of the crime. The event was organized through Facebook by 16-year-old Madyson Arscott. “The news of Tina Fontaine’s death took the breath out of me. It made me lose the balance in
my step,” said Arscott. “There was nothing she could have done to deserve it. However, the system of colonial court that we have here in Turtle Island makes Indigeneity a crime.” Fontaine went missing from the care of Manitoba’s Child and Family Services in the summer of 2014. Her body was later found in Red River in Winnipeg, wrapped in a duvet and weighed down by rocks. In a taped confession to police, Cormier admitted to sexual relations with Fontaine and said, “She got killed because we found out, I found out she
was 15 years old.” Cormier’s defence team argued that the evidence tying him to the crime was circumstantial and that the prosecution provided no forensic evidence linking him to the crime. The jury acquitted Cormier of the second-degree murder charge. Many attendees could be seen holding signs that read, “Justice for Tina Fontaine,” “In Unity We Stand,” and “Missing and Murdered are Canada’s shame.” The rally’s numbers swelled after people from the International Fontaine, page 4
Graduate students’ union elections results
U of T radio station CIUT 89.5 FM is facing criticism from two of its Board Directors, Anne Boucher and Stuart Norton, over its internal executive elections process. Boucher, who is also Vice-President External of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), blasted the organization’s process as being “not democratic, transparent, [or] open at all.” Executives are elected during a Board of Directors meeting that is held immediately after the station’s annual general meeting in the fall. Both Boucher and Norton argue that the nature of the election process — specifically the speed at which it’s conducted — hinder the potential for any competition for positions. “It was all oral… So someone else may have wanted to be VP, even though they didn’t get a chance to lift their hand up. There was no chance for an actual election,” said Boucher. “[CIUT President Steve Fruitman]... went around the room asking who wanted to be... other positions, being like, ‘Oh, where’s my VP? Secretary?” Norton backed up this statement, saying that “the President was like, ‘So, anyone want to be President? Well, I’d love to do it again, so I’ll be President.’ But... it happened in like five seconds.” Fruitman described the structure of the meeting as “Who wants to be this? Who wants to be that? We need four officers, you’re the Treasurer… Secretary, who wants to do that?” “We need a President and Vice-President, and in this case, as usual, it’s not people stepping forward, it’s people stepping back. So who wants to do it? I put my name for it. I said if you want me to continue doing it, I’ll do it. Nobody opposed me, so I was nominated and elected with a motion. Or I wasn’t elected, I was acclaimed,” said Fruitman. He added that only board members can vote for executives. “Your board is comprised of who gets elected at an annual gen-
eral members meeting, and they amongst themselves are going to decide who’s going to be on their executive.” “I started there in 1988,” said Fruitman. “And we’ve always elected our executive that way.” Cheri DiNovo, former NDP MPP for the Parkdale–High Park riding in Toronto and current CIUT board member, wrote that “anyone is welcome to run for and vote for positions on the Board and our AGM is coming up. All our terms are limited and certainly since the management is elected democratically, there’s an opportunity to change management at every AGM.” However, according to the station’s bylaws, students who pay the levy are not entitled to receive notice of, attend, or vote at CIUT meetings unless they have paid a general membership fee of $89.50, separate from the levy. The sole guaranteed student representation at the station is through the UTSU appointees. “Students are not considered that way because of the nature of our relationship,” said Fruitman. “They get their representation through the [UTSU].” Students also cannot run to be on the board unless they have paid the membership fee. General member directors are limited to two-year terms, although there is no limit on the number of consecutive terms they can serve. Boucher further criticized the station for not appointing a Chief Returning Officer (CRO) to administer the elections — a move that violates U of T’s Policy on Open, Accessible and Democratic Autonomous Student Organizations, which states that student organizations must have “impartial and fair elections processes that allow members to participate easily as both voters and candidates.” Fruitman confirmed that CIUT did not have a CRO at the last election, stating he didn’t know of the CRO requirement and was unsure if the university’s policy applied to CIUT. Interim Director of Media Relations at U of T CIUT, page 3
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