On March 9, the CRO received two complaints related to candidate posters and campaigning in the Sanford Fleming building. The CRO had awarded 10 demerit points to Chris Dryden of the Demand Better slate for the alleged act of removing other slate’s posters along with a arms length party. The ERC later overruled the demerit points as a letter of written confession for the act of removing the posters was sent in.
The confessional letter explained that the individual had torn down the posters in the engineering building because they had the required stamps that are needed when posting in the Sandford Fleming building. The individual is a verified at arms length party.
The morning of March 8, students noticed the only slate to have posters up in the building was Demand Better. Posters belonging to Reboot UofT and other slates had existed in the same space as of March 7.
In response to the slate dispute rumours, Mathias Memmel, Demand Better’s presidential candidate, claims the slate did not take down the posters. Instead Memmel suggests, “we told the Reboot folks that the engineering administration were going to take down their posters because there was too many of them up. They know what happened.”
Reboot claims that Demand Better did not communicate with their slate about administration removing posters. Reboot also claims that the general accusations by students made of their posters lacking a Skule stamp, which is required for campaigning in engineering buildings, are also false. Former Life Sciences Director candidate for Reboot, Avinash Mukkala, claims that he was present when the posters were being officially stamped.
The Demand Better slate has a roster of over 100 volunteers who are educated and trained in terms of postering rules and guidelines. Memmel explains that the engineering administration took down the posters, as there were too many put up, “and that’s fair because they run the building.”
The Procedure on Distribution of Publications, Posters and Banners at the University of Toronto, St. George campus states that posters cannot be attached to any “wall, door, window, column, washroom, building sign, garbage or recycling can inside any university building unless prior approval has been received from the manager, property management.”
Elizabeth Church, Issues and Media Strategist at U of T, confirms that if the allegedly taken down posters were in unapproved locations and did not get the approval of building staff then they would be removed automatically. Sanford Fleming building staff are not aware of such an approval.
“Part of the EPC (Elections Procedures Code) is that you respect and follow the rules of whatever building you are campaigning in. You have to follow the rules” states Memmel.
The complaint sent in about the postering of Demand Better in Sanford Fleming was accompanied by photographic evidence of a note saying, ““DEMAND BETTER tore down other slate’s posters and put theirs up instead! We DEMAND BETTER ethics from the Demand Better group!”. This instance still remains unsolved.
Reboot UofT’s posters that were placed around the pit in the building were replaced with sheets of white paper printed with “Make U of T Great Again.” Mukkala also claims that Reboot is unaware of who did this, but states that Demand Better still had their posters up in the same area, whereas theirs were taken down.
As of March 13, five Reboot UofT candidates were awarded enough demerit points to find themselves disqualified. This includes presidential candidate Micah Ryu, Avinash Mukkala, Allan Cheung, Riley Moher, and Calix Zhang.
*Editor’s note: this article originally did not include the ruling of ERC. Edits have been made to include the ERC ruling which overturns the distribution of demerit points to the Demand Better slate for this incident.
