punditry.ca — uncovering DSU elections

The Judicial Board has rendered their decision today and it becomes effective immediately.  Congratulations to Jamie Arron and Aaron Beale!

You can read the whole thing below if you want but the relevant paragraphs are 5, 6, and 7:

5. For the reasons that follow, I would maintain four of the six fines levied against Mr. Arron by the Elections Committee. Specifically, I find that both fines regarding Mr. Arron’s use of four seconds of footage from a ‘Brains for Change’ video were improperly levied, and cannot stand. While the first of the two ‘Brains for Change’ fines was not appealed to the Elections Committee, I find that the DSU’s By-laws give the Judicial Board the jurisdiction to consider this fine nonetheless. As will be explained, I would overturn this fine based on my finding that copyright in the ‘Brains for Change’ footage never passed to the DSU. Accordingly, it was not a DSU resource, such that no fine could be levied on this basis for its use.

6. With regard to Mr. Beale, I would overturn the twenty-nine fines in respect of the handbills posted in Howe Hall, and replace them with a single fine for negligence in relation to campaign material. I would also overturn the fine for post-campaigning levied in relation to these handbills. I would maintain the other fines levied against Mr. Beale. As will be explained, I would overturn these fines based on my conclusion that Mr. Beale had no involvement in the posting of these handbills in Howe Hall. While candidates must be responsible for taking proper of their campaign materials, I find that this care ought to be limited to the realm of reasonable foreseeability. The amount of fines levied against candidates should not be determined by way of the actions of independent parties beyond the control of campaigns.

7. In light of these findings, Mr. Arron and Mr. Beale will be reinstated as candidates in their respective races. Seeing as both garnered the majority of votes in those races, I would also declare them the winners of the races for DSU President and DSU Vice President (Academic and External), respectively.

Judicial Board Decision – Arron v Election Committee – Beale v Election Committee

In case you don’t follow @punditry on Twitter, FYI the JB hearing is scheduled for Monday.

“Should any party wish to become a respondent to this appeal or intervene in the appeal, they may do so by applying to the Judicial Board” by Friday.  Full information up on dsuelections.ca.

Dal News has posted a set of DSU Election campaign photos by Martina Marien.

We’re hearing from several sources that the Elections Committee denied the appeals.  No official announcement from the appellants or the Committee.

If true, the appellants will have 5 days to file an appeal with the J.B.

Update: Sorry for the delay in updating the post to note the rumour was confirmed.

Update: CKDU did interviews with Beale before his appeal was denied.

Update:The Elections Committee has posted their reasons for denying the two appeals

The Gazette is reporting that Arron and Beale have filed appeals.

The headline and the first few paragraphs are dedicated to Arron’s allegation that a “smear campaign” was launched against him, referring readers to punditry.ca as evidence.  (To be clear to new visitors, I believe he’s not alleging that the site itself is orchestrating a campaign, or the pundits, but rather that evidence of such a campaign may be seen on this site given its role as a nexus of election information.  No hate mail, please.)

It’s not clear from the article which of the offences was caused or perpetrated by the smear campaign, or if that is just a parenthetical remark.  (Arron took to Twitter to clarify that this was a secondary comment; we’ve reached out to him to offer to publish in full his case).

They largely ignored my comments on working-around-the-rules appeals, which is fair as I was not optimistic about most of them.  Beale in particular blames an unregistered volunteer who was not aware of the rules; Arron variously notes there is no specific prohibition against campaigning in residence, that his posts weren’t campaigning, that the video is owned by an independent director not the DSU, and that his website could not have had any impact on the election.  The Gazette article has details.

Update 02/26: Jamie Arron has put up a website detailing his appeals.

These are obviously tense times for the union. We’ve just come off the most stunning election results night in recent memory, the future of the executive is up in the air for the indefinite future, and though it is still only February, a looming faculty strike casts a grim shadow over the remainder of the school year—all this, and we have not yet even considered what the  strikes affecting public transportation and cheap beer (edit: nevermind, Oland Brewery strike averted yesterday!) will do to an already weakened campus moral.

I have been tinkering with a post about all of that business, but this is not that post. This is a punditry.ca exclusive so utterly unforeseen and unspeakably exciting that I simply had to put everything else in my life on hold so that I could address the information within immediately. Some who read this might already be in possession of this knowledge—and if so, they must be punished by the gods of DSU gossip for not alerting me to it earlier—but I suspect that for others, this will be something to cling to in otherwise acrimonious times. Read more…

The official statement is now up regarding the disqualifications of Jamie Arron and Aaron Beale, click here to read…

In summary:

Jamie Arron diaqualified for amassing $120 in fines. These included various post-campaign Facebook posts, using video footage owned by the DSU in a campaign video and not removing this video from his website, putting the website up early (by one hour), and solicitation in residence.

Aaron Beale disqualified for amassing $205 in fines (if my math is correct). Twenty-nine handbills were found in Howe Hall after the campaign period (at $5/handbill this adds up quickly, with the additional $20 post-campaigning fine), for not removing chalk by the deadline, and for knocking on residence doors in Shirreff Hall.