As you all know, the UTMSU elections ended about two weeks ago. The results? Well, Students United (yellow) won by a large margin. As for the demerit points, well, I think we all saw that accurate graph (do you sense the sarcasm?) on the front page of last week’s paper.
In simple terms: Students United exercised their right to appeal points and none of the group members are facing disqualification any longer. Now, is that a problem? It’s important to note that the demerit points are given without hearing from the accused individual, therefore an appeal is an opportunity to “get rid of points” if the accusation is not true. What I found most interesting was the amount of complaints that were filed. While Students United focused on outreaching to students, UTM Renew found it necessary to pinpoint every “infraction” made by Student United.
If Students United had filed as many complaints as UTM Renew, that graph would have looked a lot different. The demerit points for both teams would have probably been the same. However, during the campaigning period, Students United had different priorities. In the end, the unofficial election results reflect the efforts of the teams. If UTMRenew had spent as much time campaigning as they did complaining, maybe the results would have been different.
After multiple meetings, discussions, and notes on Facebook, I’m sure we’re all tired of it all. These elections have gone too far and if you take a look at this UTM student’s response to a friend’s status, I think you would agree.
Is it really necessary to call the newly elected unofficial president of UTMSU “the scum of the earth?” Comments like “I actually think I found a piece of you in the bottom of my garbage can with a piece of gum stuck to you” are absolutely disgusting.
We are all adults who attend the University of Toronto and this is a downgrade to the U of T name. Immature and useless comments like these are an indication that the elections have gone too far. What has Vickita Bhatt done to deserve this? Absolutely nothing. Students United ran a clean campaign and in the end, they deserved the win.
The students have spoken.
Shereen Abdou
One might wonder why you’re using the same negative energy the entire United campaign relied on. The onus is on United to exercise their right to file complaints against opposing party infractions; the rules of the election aren’t for United to ignore while others must obey.
Speculation on whether the demerit points would be equal between teams is just that, speculation. If Renew spent as much time calling in favours from *non-UTM students* to hand out leaflets for them, they might have done a little better.
Lovely how you side-step the bias in demerit point appeals, the conflict of interest on the ERC, the years of history of corrupt elections.
Calling the current and upcoming oligarchy ‘the scum of the earth’ would be an insult, but only to the people that really are the scum of the earth. You people have no shame and feel entitled to doing wrong things only to elevate yourselves; you are pathological liars, manipulators, and narcissists. You will become the next great politicians to exempt themselves from the rules like Rahim Jaffey.
Without a right to resist, we have a duty to submit.