Max Christie on removal from elections committee: “while I strongly disagree, I respect their decision. My conscience has never been clearer, and I still have full confidence in the integrity of this election.”
On Sept. 29, the Candidates for UOSU’s byelection were announced, and despite only seeing two contested races for paid executive committee positions, the campaign period has been messy.
On Oct. 4, the Fulcrum received an anonymous article submission raising concerns with many elements of the Union’s operations, the most pressing of which being the ongoing byelections. The Fulcrum spoke with the author of this piece, who agreed to have their writing quoted in this article on the condition of anonymity.
They write: “[T]he UOSU failed to hire a Chief Electoral Officer, meaning that a member of the Board is currently filling that role. The CEO is hired as a way to have an impartial non-member overseeing the process of the elections. Note, this is not a condemnation of the Elections Committee. The variable personal aspect of this particular election cycle is irrelevant. Rather, the serious concern here is the fact that an election exclusively run by members of the Board, in which two of their colleagues are running, is allowed to happen at all in the UOSU.”
They go on: “It is no wonder that the UOSU was unable to hire a CEO when the vacancy of the President and Operations Commissioner left it without any position on the executive that has the authority to oversee Human Resource decisions. Constitutionally, that responsibility is the sole purview of the President and Operations Commissioner, as is retaining legal counsel and signing off for the corporation’s expenses.”
“As such, the UOSU has been violating its own constitution in allowing other executive members to do those duties since August. It will continue to violate its own constitution until either it rushes a constitutional change through a Board that has no Chair to rule on the interpretation of that very constitution, or until the results of a by-election that will elect a President and no Operations Commissioner in November.”
When the Fulcrum asked the chair of UOSU’s elections committee and director of social sciences, Brandon Ly, about these concerns, he shared that he’d been acting as CEO for the by-election and would continue to “until one has been hired.”
“As for the reason we do not have one right now, we are currently in the process of hiring. We’ve actually just sent out a letter of offer, now it is just a matter of waiting. Assuming that everything goes according to plan, I will not be the Chief Electoral Officer for much longer.”
When asked how they expected to stay impartial with their current or former Board of Director (BOD) colleagues running in a byelection they were overseeing, Ly said, “I pride myself on being somebody who works for Elections Canada and working on [the] Elections Committee. The way that I do it, my job comes first. My friendships come second. I’m committed to ensuring a pure neutral stance.”
Ly additionally discussed how vacancies at the executive level have had little impact on the by-election process.
“Not having a full executive [committee] is always challenging, no matter what you do. That’s the same for any organization. But, from my point of view, there haven’t been any challenges that I feel the need to speak about because everybody who’s currently there has been helping me tremendously and I have only good things to say about the work that everybody has done.”
As this article was being prepared for publication Max Christie, a member of the BOD and a former elections committee member, endorsed one of the candidates for president. If Christie were to maintain his seat on the committee, this would be a conflict of interest.
The Fulcrum reached out to Ly again to inquire if Christie was still a member of the committee; Ly refused to comment on the makeup of the committee. When Ly was told this would be included in an article he forwarded a message showing Christie had been removed from the committee as of Oct. 7. Christie’s endorsement of a candidate came after his removal from the committee. Christie was removed due to “negligence of his duties as a member of the elections committee.”
Voting for UOSU’s by-election is now open and will close Oct. 13. Students can vote online through a link in their student email inboxes, or vote in person on campus.
Candidate bios can be found on UOSU’s website and information on referendum questions has been published by the Fulcrum. The Fulcrum and La Rotonde will host debates for the two contested exec positions, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. streamed to our Youtube channel.
UPDATE (10/10/2023, 4:56 p.m.): Christie provided a statement on his committee removal to the Fulcrum: “Following an anonymous complaint, the Elections Committee chose to unilaterally remove me using a process that is not in line with our constitution or any of our election rules. As I stated publicly at every meeting of the Elections Committee, I have answered questions and provided impartial campaign information to over half a dozen candidates since September – conduct that is allowed and encouraged under our election rules. The committee took a different interpretation, and while I strongly disagree, I respect their decision. My conscience has never been clearer, and I still have full confidence in the integrity of this election.”
