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The Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union (TMSU) hosted two general information sessions on Feb. 4 for its third election in 11 months, but many students report feeling disconnected from the students’ union after two failed election cycles.
The TMSU notified students of its upcoming general elections for its Executive Committee and Board of Directors positions that, if filled, will be active between May. 1, 2026 and Apr. 30, 2027. In an email sent to students from the TMSU’s Communications Coordinator on Feb. 9, the student union outlined the brief description of the roles and responsibilities and the timeline of the election process. The same information was also posted on the TMSU’s election page.
“I feel like I get so many emails from the TMSU that it’s really difficult to know which ones to pay attention to and which ones not,” said TMU film student Luke Diamond, “They just blur out, and I end up ignoring them.”
Diamond’s experience was one we encountered again and again when looking for students to interview. A majority of students OTR approached declined to comment because they did not know a lot about the TMSU at the moment or had no opinion on the students’ union.
Final-year architecture student Ne’jean Ramsahai is slightly more informed about the TMSU as he serves as the President of the TMU Caribbean Students’ Association. However, he still knew nothing about the TMSU’s current hierarchical structure. He said he was aware of the upcoming elections and is hoping for a smooth one this time around.
“After last semester’s debacle, it was not a pretty scene. A lot of faith and trust has been dropped, especially after new updates about the budget cuts to student groups. They seem to be giving us a lot of trials and tribulations right now so I’m not sure what they are trying to do.”
In its most recent attempt to elect an executive, the by-election for the voting period was extended because of technical difficulties with the voting software, and then the results were declared null and void because two slates were disqualified. The fall 2025 by-election was only made necessary because of the failure to elect an executive in March 2025.
A full year later, at the Feb. 4 information session, Chief Returning Officer (CRO) of the TMSU Ghallia Hashem led the presentation and answered questions with the assistance of the interim co-executive directors Scott Miller Berry and Sally Lee.
Miller Berry clarified what the TMSU hierarchy looks like at the moment during the meeting.
“TMSU is always governed by the Board of Directors. The board is the overseeing governing body. So the board of directors from the 24/25 general election, the members who weren’t suspended in April of 2025 continue to be the board of the TMSU. Underneath the board is management, which, at the moment, there’s three people, so it’s Sally, myself and the financial controller, and then just underneath us is the full-time unionized staff.”
The CRO also noted the importance of candidates following the rules of the Elections and Procedures Code as no major changes have been made since the null and void fall by-election.
“We were able to make rulings of the by-election that allowed us to continue in a way that we think is equitable and fair to the TMSU community. So those changes are all still being implemented within this one. Unfortunately, we can’t hold people down and control their actions. So if people decide to act a certain way, we will continue to respond in the way that we responded this way, which we think was fair and indicative of a desire to ensure that TMSU is represented by folks who are following the rules,” Hashem said.
There is another general information session planned for Feb. 11, and nominations will be open from Feb. 23 to Mar. 2. Nominees are then validated and approved during an interim period the week of Mar. 3 to Mar 8. Official candidates can then campaign between Mar. 9 and Mar. 13. Voting then occurs from Mar. 16 to Mar. 18.
Jaden Whitelaw is a multimedia journalist who specializes in radio and television news broadcasting.
He is an undergraduate journalism student at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). He has experience in news writing, news and sports reporting for TV and radio as well as technical production including expertise in Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro. He is the audio producer of a documentary style podcast entitled 'The Art of Moises," which can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Jaden has also been tested in a live newsroom after interning at 680 News Radio Toronto in Spring 2025. He was entrusted by experienced journalists to write copy stories, gather breaking news content and produce news stories for on-air. He has also voiced a news story which has made it to air.
Otter.AI was used in the production of this piece.
