Toronto Metropolitan University's Independent Student Newspaper Since 1967

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More than ever, the RSU is yours

By Mohamed Omar

In total shock but with utter delight, I am relieved to say that this campus’ system of democracy isn’t completely ass backwards.

Hell, I’d be so bold to say that it sort of works. Before you left to Medicine Hat or Oshawa or wherever the hell you like to go during reading week, the Ryerson Students’ Union election wrapped up – and it only took seven goddamn hours to count the votes.

Transform RU, the opposition group comprised of members from the three major student societies on campus, won every single executive position – completely defeating Unite Ryerson, the incumbent slate led by current Vice President Equity Pascale Diverlus.

If that sentence made no sense or – even better – did not provoke you to give a third of a turd, here’s why it should: your campus has a totally new student government, one that has nothing to do with the system of governance that has been in place for the longest time.

That does not mean the exiting government was malicious, nor does it imply that the incoming government will be God’s gift to the students of this campus.

For all we know, they could develop an opposition even larger than the one Unite Ryerson had during this election.

What Transform’s victory actually means is that students now have, at their mercy, a government that has no track record, no good or bad deeds – only a responsibility to answer to the students that voted its people in.

Transform’s candidates found a bunch of irregularities and bylaw discrepancies during this election. If these issues arise next year, call them out. In the student media, at general meetings and in person at their offi ces. As part of its platform posted on its website, Transform said that if elected it would share the minutes of its board of director meetings – a very important promise – and stick to a “48-hour communication response time requirement.” If you don’t see this happening, call them out.

Finally, if Transform RU – or any variation of it – is still the reigning slate a few years from now and you think they have stopped earning the trust of the student body, remember that all it took to obliterate the status quo on this campus was an organized, cohesive group of students who gave a damn or two.

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