CSU Council shoots down allegations of collusion and conflict of interest

CSU Council voted to shoot down allegations of collusion and conflict of interest on the behalf the CSU Judicial Board chairman Ceejay Desfosses and Chief Electoral Officer Ismail Holoubi at a special meeting Wednesday night.

Former CSU Councillor Tomer Shavit filed the complaint, which led to the special meeting. According to 9.3f of the CSU Code of Procedures, a special meeting can be called if it is allegedge that a Judicial Board ruling "was manifestly unreasonable or was motivated by racism, sexism, collusion, bribery, homophobia or conflict of interest."

Shavit accused newly appointed CEO Holoubi of running with the Your Concordia slate in last year’s election. This would give the new CEO a conflict of interest and constitutes a questioning of Holoubi's "character" and "integrity" according to Shavit.

Holoubi said at the special meeting that he ran as an Independent candidate briefly, before quitting early on in the campaign for academic reasons without spending any campaign dollars. He also said that he chose not to run with a slate because he had too many friends on both teams.

Shavit learned from CEO Oliver Cohen's election report that Holoubi was not listed as being an independent candidate. This caused Shavit to deduce that Holoubi must be a part of Your Concordia since Shavit was aware of all the members of Team Action.

CSU VP Finance Jordan Lindsay presented another report, which Shavit could not access before the special meeting, that showed no evidence of Holoubi being on Your Concordia and was never elected.

Shavit admitted that "there's a chance that Oliver might have been wrong in his report." However, Shavit still believes that Holoubi misled council.  "I feel the allegations made that were brought up against Ismail about his not stating that he ran in the election, is very very serious," he said.

Shavit is referring to a question asked of Holoubi on the night that he was hired if he had been involved in CSU elections before. To clarify the claim, Councillor Nadine Atallah asked Holoubi on Wednesday night if he remembers his response to that question. Holoubi responded by saying that he didn't remember being asked it. 

Councillor Iain Meyer-Macaulay said that even if Holoubi ran in the CSU elections "he basically didn't feel as though he ran," because there was no evidence of him postering, spending campaign money or being affiliated with a team.

Shavit also accused the chair of the Judicial Board Ceejay Desfosses was in collusion with CSU Executives, but this was quickly voted down for lack of evidence. 

When asked why council voted down the motions so quickly, Meyer-Macaulay said, "I think that [council] had their questions answered to a satisfactory degree and people felt confident to proceed in the way that we did."

This is not the last of the issue that has been dubbed CEO-Gate. Shavit’s appeal has been returned to the Judicial Board. They will review new evidence and decide whether stripping Goldstein of his duties as CEO was legitimate or not. 

Photo of Tomer Shavit by Joel Balsam