By Shanleigh Brosseau, Editor in Chief
Eric Chappell has been re-elected as president of the Students General Association, as results released by the group confirmed two of three presidential candidates—one who received more votes than Chappell–were disqualified.
According to an email sent out to SGA members, Darius Garneau received 447 votes but was disqualified. Chappell received 344 votes and Jacob Fielding, who was also disqualified, received 105 votes.
Also disqualified was Benjamin Chartrand, running for VP of Education.
Garneau said he received an email from Conrad Eder, the Chief Returning Office (CRO) on February 10th at 8:45 pm, notifying him that he had been disqualified after accumulating four “electronic campaigning not conforming with guideline” penalties.
According to the email, the Elections Policy was made aware to all running candidates that “The CRO will require one copy of all materials to be used.”
But Garneau said there were delays in getting materials approved by the CRO.
“Eight o’clock rolled around, and he [the CRO] hadn’t gotten back to me, so I [made a post] because I have a campaign to run,” Garneau said. “And just because, maybe there’s some bias towards certain candidates posting at a certain time, doesn’t mean that I could just not [post].”
“I remember waiting on posts, where my partner that I was running with [Benjamin Chartrand] was getting [posts] approved, and I was sitting there like, ‘It would be nice to be able to post for the election today’.”
An election package given to candidates before the election defines campaign materials as: “Any media that expresses a preference or opinion for a particular candidate, whether implicitly or implied. All campaign materials must be approved by the CRO or CRO Agent before use or distribution, with no exceptions. “
“Any candidate distributing non-approved materials shall be penalized as outlined in the penalty schedule provided.”
“Their argument is that all the rules were explained, but that doesn’t excuse the fact the system favours whoever [the CRO] happens to read the email [of] first,” Garneau said.
Included in the email were instances in which Garneau was found to have violated the policy by posting campaign materials that included Instagram comments and reposting campaign materials including LUPSA’s live streamed debate and the Lambda’s candidate platforms post, including comments.
Garneau addressed the penalties included in the email.
“When I made that post [about LUPSA’s debate], saying I was happy to be invited to the space, that does not endorse, [it] was an event that I was happy to go,” Garneau said.
“I never said that [I] outperformed the other candidates [or] that I was the best and you should vote for me. Nothing like that, I just said that I was happy to be there.”
“If you watch the debate, all the candidates were there, I didn’t get [more] press than anybody else from making that post,” he added.
“As much as I’m not the SGA president on paper, I’m certainly the SGA president of these people.”
SGA president candidate
Darius Garneau
Garneau attempted to appeal the committee’s decision at an in-camera meeting with the elections committee but was unsuccessful in getting the disqualification overturned.
“This was a system that was made to give you strikes without telling you to take down your posts,” he added. “Just automatic strikes, no warning, automatically you’re on the board to get disqualified, which is a system that’s already broken in itself.”
“I feel hurt, I feel upset for students because that is what they wanted,” Garneau said.
“I’m going to keep being opposed to this, and I’m going to keep making it public. I’m going to do my absolute best to service the students as best I can, as much as I’m not the SGA president on paper, I’m certainly the SGA president of these people.”
“I want to emphasize that people have been impeached in the SGA for the last four years, and the first year that nobody was impeached, they disqualify [three] potential candidates from being able to run.”
Since the voting results have been released by the SGA to members via email, several posts and comments on UMentioned Laurentian by “concerned students” have addressed the topic of a “re-election”.
Eder did not respond to several requests for comment.
Justin Pappano, Chair of the SGA, told Lambda the SGA will soon be releasing a statement, but refused to immediately comment on the matter.