We’re so happy to see a full slate of intelligent, rational, hard working, responsible CUSA executives get elected.
We think Emile Scheffel said it best. Here is his facebook note on the recent elections.
Finally: A Better Carleton:
Some said it couldn’t be done. Many thought it would never happen.
And yet.
Last night I learned that, barring some eleventh-hour dirty trick, A Better Carleton has won the 2012 executive elections of the Carleton University Students’ Association.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be around for this fight. But I’ve been watching closely, giving advice when I can, and I think I’m equipped to provide some historical perspective on what this means.
Since I arrived at Carleton, and for years before, CUSA has been run by a consistently unaccountable, relentlessly ideological, and constantly self-perpetuating clique of students we’ve referred to as “the Establishment”. Even as they have disavowed their own existence, they’ve done everything necessary – and more – to keep their hold on the student union.
They’ve rigged elections, bullied and intimidated their opponents, and indulged the ugliest impulses, all to preserve their power.
Along the way, for electoral gain, they’ve helped make Carleton a profoundly divided and often toxic place.
But for just as long, a group of courageous, resilient, and reform-minded students have fought to change the way things are done. We’ve been called by a lot of names, but my favourite is “our movement.”
Our movement has faced overwhelming odds, and not just at election time. We’ve regularly been accused of racism, sexism, homophobia, and opportunism – and, memorably, of belonging to a vast, right-wing conspiracy.
Our opponents, by seeking to define us in those provocative terms, have committed deep and serial hypocrisy. While purporting to champion ideas like “safe spaces” and “anti-oppression policies”, they have made the lives of too many reform-minded student activists a living hell.
Members of our movement have been subjected to – by my count alone – arbitrary disqualification, racist and anti-Semitic taunts, sexual harassment, physical intimidation, and defamation.
I don’t mean to imply that members of the Establishment have been directly responsible for all of the incidents above. But they have passively and actively contributed to a campus culture that makes them possible.
That same campus culture, as some will recall, also produced an instance of assault and attempted murder against two members of our movement.
This past week alone, a Muslim member of A Better Carleton was targeted by slanderous, anonymous posters in the Unicentre. A supporter of Fresh Carleton warned his Facebook friends not to vote for the team “run by Zionists.” Another supporter of that slate was heard puclicly referring to a female executive candidate by the ugliest word possible.
Faced with these odds, these trials, how has our movement responded?
There have naturally been some tears. Thank God, so far there has been no blood. Above all, there’s been a whole lot of sweat – the kind that comes from constant, relentless, punishing hard work. Work, however, that had to be done.
Candidates, campaign staff, volunteers, and supporters have put their fullest energies into making sure, bit by little bit, that injustice is broken down.
We have spent sleepless nights outside the elections office to protect the integrity of ballot boxes. We have faced down screaming mobs of people who detest us with every fibre of their being. Those who were elected shared office space with resentful and obstructive colleagues and employees. We have rallied, and postered, and persuaded, and protested, and yet always managed to advance a consistently positive message.
That message has been remarkably consistent down the years, even though many of today’s candidates have never met those from four or five years ago. It has always been about building a student union that is more inclusive, more accountable, and more focused on real results for Carleton students.
Now, finally, that can start to happen.
So congratulations, and thank you, to the members of A Better Carleton, and of our movement – candidates, organizers, volunteers, and supporters, past and present, too many to name.
Thank you, especially, to CUSA President Obed Okyere – a true fighter who has had to put up with far too much in the name of the movement.
To Alexander Golovko, Michael De Luca, Maher Jebara, Hayley Dobson, Tomisin Olawale, Fatima Hassan, and the newly elected councillors, one last thought.
We’ve had our eyes on the prize a long, long time. Now you’ve got it. So act with courage, serve students well, stand up for what’s right – and keep it.
