Matt Dionne, Contributor
Allegations have surfaced again, claiming executives from the York Federation of Students are campaigning on other university campuses.
This time, it’s at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus.
Recently, YFS VP Operations Gayle McFadden’s Facebook account was seen linked to the Unite UTM slate Instagram account.
Previously, McFadden and Hamoudi Hneinou, YFS president last year, were alleged to have campaigned at UTM during the 2015 elections.
The YFS did not respond to requests for comment.
Maaham Malik, UTM student, ran for UTMSU president in 2015 as part of the Reform slate. Malik lost to incumbent slate UTM Rise, which went on to win all the available seats.
A board member on the UTM student union, Malik says there were many issues throughout the electoral process.
“I brought [my concerns] up to the CRO, but they were ignored 99.9 per cent of the time. We couldn’t beat the biases that exist within the system. For example, having current executives at UTM taking a leave of absence in the office and then campaigning for one of the slates in the election. We found that to be a huge issue because it biases the entire election.”
Members of the York Federation of Students, specifically McFadden, were alleged to have been campaigning for UTM Rise, both of which are part of CFS. Malik alleges she saw Hamoudi last year.
“He’s very close to Hassan Havili, who was our president last year, and Havili had taken a two week leave of absence to become the campaign manager of Ebi who was running for president against me,” says Malik.
“So the current president was the campaign manager of the incoming president and his best friend, who was the president of York, was supporting Ebi’s slate at UTM,” she adds.
“He brought other people from York to help with the campaign. It was just a very non-democratic way of running the election. He was basically using union resources and relationships to bring in other student union personnel, which doesn’t make any sense because they have nothing to do with UTM. They don’t know about the issues that students face on our campus first hand.”
She says even though York may face similar issues, YFS executives cannot claim to understand issues on the UTM campus.
“I remember having a lot of disputes with these non-UTM campaigners, especially the ones from York, and the York executives that were there,” she says.
“They wouldn’t even tell students they weren’t a part of UTM, they would actually act as if they were UTM students,” she adds.
“It’s very deceiving for a student who’s just walking around the halls, who doesn’t know anything about the election – maybe they’re in first year – if they’re approached by a campaigner who’s not from UTM they would have no way of knowing. It’s deceiving the people who will be voting in the election.”
