By Vihaan Bhatnagar

The Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) is coming back from a summer of silence after voiding its April election and suspending its executive members.

On Aug. 26, the TMSU reestablished contact with students, announcing a proposal to postpone the Fall by-election—required by its bylaws due to the vacancies—until Spring 2026. The proposed change will be voted on at a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Sept. 29.

The proposal followed an independent investigation that found a Fall 2025 by-election was unlikely to be free from the same outside interference that marred previous elections. The investigation—conducted by MNP LLP—found attempts to manipulate the 2025 election results by Ali Yousaf, a former TMSU executive member from 2017 to 2020. It also found that “members of the 2025 Elections and Referenda Committee colluded to hire the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) to influence the 2025 election.”

Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) president Mohamed Lachemi told The Eyeopener in a phone call that the university is currently holding funds from the union until they resolve certain issues. “We have formally notified the student union that they are not meeting obligations under the contract, particularly financial management and appropriate governance,” said Lachemi. 

The investigation looked into “allegations of threats, bodily harm, extortion, corruption, illegal electronic monitoring, corruption of TMSU vendors and counter-surveillance of MNP investigators.” The TMSU shared the findings with Toronto Police Services (TPS) who confirmed to The Eye that a fraud investigation is currently underway. 

In the meantime, two executive directors with no prior connection to the union—Sally Lee and Scott Miller Berry—were hired over the summer to manage its operations.

Not the first time

The TMSU’s history is riddled with scandals that continue to shape its reputation among students. 

In 2019, The Eye verified that over $260,000 worth of purchases—including food, clothing, alcohol and club purchases—had been made with a credit card under the name of then-Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) president Ram Ganesh. 

Ganesh and then-vice-president operations Savreen Gosal, the signing officers on the RSU’s expenditures, were later suspended by the executive team. Ganesh was impeached on Feb. 11, 2019 at a Board of Directors (BoD) meeting. Within a year, three others resigned and one was impeached.

On Jan. 24, 2020, TMU terminated their 1986 operating agreement with the RSU, saying they had “lost confidence in the RSU’s ability to represent students.”

The termination meant the university no longer recognized the RSU as the official student government. It also restricted the union’s access to the student fees it collected on the union’s behalf.

The RSU filed a legal claim against the university four days later in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. A judge eventually ruled in favour of the RSU, forcing the university to release the withheld student fees and reinstate the union.

In April 2020, a new fixed five-year agreement was negotiated between the union and the university. But the TMSU did not operate in-person for the next two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The TMSU finalized their new by-laws with over 200 attendees at the Dec. 1, 2022 Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM).

A look at 2023-24

What appeared to be a milestone at the 2022 SAGM soon deteriorated. 

The Eye reported in March 2023 that a member of Team Revolt—one of two slates running in the election—accessed a student’s voting portal, violating Section 8.3.7.2 of the TMSU Elections Procedures Code (EPC). Students also reported being offered goods in exchange for votes.

Team Revolt was given 60 demerit points and disqualified as the EPC mandates disqualification after 35 points. Two days later, the TMSU Elections and Referenda Committee (ERC) voided the election, stating widespread misconduct which compromised the election’s integrity.

The ERC, an independent body overseeing the elections and enforcing the EPC, scheduled a new in-person election with physical ballots for that April.

The April election was cancelled and postponed to Fall 2023 after more rules were violated and what the TMSU described as “intentional efforts to undermine the integrity” of the election process.

The TMSU later sued several former executive members for colluding to sabotage the 2023 election. The TMSU announced in May 2024 that they had reached a settlement with the defendants, the details of which were confidential but included monetary compensation. 

The 2023 Fall election brought in a new executive team but several faculty representatives positions remained vacant.

The Spring 2024 election proceeded as planned, with the Celestial slate winning all executive seats on the TMSU BoD.

The 2025 general election 

The TMSU’s Spring 2025 general election was marred by controversy even before voting began on March 10, with 65 demerit points and seven rulings issued by the CRO in the leadup. 

As of Sept. 2025, the TMSU has not disclosed the final results of the Spring 2025 general election. As the number of complaints lodged grew, the ERC advised the TMSU to delay the results of the election. In the days that followed, Team Reform Now and Team Reborn were disqualified with 218 and 85 demerit points respectively.

Ruling #29 states that a member of Team Reform Now distributed posters allegedly imitating Team Re-Elect’s branding and featuring inappropriate racist and inflammatory content. The majority of Team Reform Now’s demerit points came from this ruling. This was concluded by the CRO based on OneCard swipe data acquired from TMU’s security services. They also earned demerit points for campaigning without required volunteer badges.

Team Reborn was penalized for a member campaigning in a computer lab—an off-limits space—where they were allegedly helping students vote and threatening someone who tried to film them.

Both teams also acquired a total of an additional 100 demerit points for cross-campaigning and having a graduate student campaign for both slates. All graduate and part-time students are ineligible to campaign under the EPC.

Meanwhile Team Re-Elect—composed of the then-executive team—had only 10 demerit points, despite campaigning using their achievements while in office, such as the Offset and G-Eazy concert hosted by the TMSU at Sankofa Square in September 2024, sponsored varsity games and free breakfasts.

All of these achievements were executed using the TMSU’s student levy funding—an advantage that the other slates didn’t have.

While there is no by-law explicitly prohibiting this advantage, the EPC bars the “use of benefits acquired by virtue of office,” in regards to campaigning.

Members of Team Re-Elect, including then-candidates vice president operations Muhammad Awais, vice president education Aneesa Masood and vice president equity Koby Biya, allegedly approached students on campus during the active voting period, campaigning their slate while urging them to vote for them on the spot.

Team Re-Elect could have received a maximum of 55 demerit points according to the EPC, enough for disqualification—but most complaints were dismissed by then CRO Tatiana Carrion.

On April 9, two weeks after the election results were due, the TMSU Board of Governors declared the election null and void, following an investigation launched in January 2025. 

Several members of the TMSU’s executive team and board of directors were suspended with pay until further notice.

Where we are now

Six years and a global pandemic later, the TMSU remains in turmoil.

The TMSU collects around $62 from every full-time student every semester. The TMSU received $4.8 million from student fees in 2024, according to an unaudited 2025-26 budget obtained by The Eye. 

The TMSU’s financial statements have not been audited during the union’s general meetings since 2023 due to multiple failures to reach quorum.

In an email statement to The Eye, the TMSU said financial statements for the fiscal year 2024-2025 will not be shared at the Sept. 29 SGM. Instead, they plan to share it, along with the previous years’ statements at the SAGM, which will take place before the end of 2025.

The union said it plans to convene an expert panel to advise on next steps and “help determine the reforms needed to secure the student union and protect it from future infiltration and corruption from malicious outside actors.”

At the upcoming Sept. 29 SGM, students will vote on whether to delay the Fall 2025 by-election to Spring 2026. If the motion fails, the TMSU must hold the by-election before the end of Fall 2025.