Ostensibly, University of Regina Students’ Union President Kyle Addison was on John Gormley’s show today to talk about about the Canadian Federation of Students referendum results. There are plenty of problems with how that goes down, like Gormley framing it as the students simply wanting to leave the CFS when they in fact voted by a slim margin to stay and the contradiction of Addison saying that the CFS held back the results when URSU wanted them released, but then Addison being upset when they finally do get out.
By the end of the short interview, though, it trends dangerously close to Addison campaigning for his reelection. He trash talks his opponents as lackeys of the CFS, while also mentioning that he’s again running for president. He doesn’t name either of the slates running, though he does talk about one of his opponents.
Why would that be a problem? Campaigning ended yesterday, since it can’t happen concurrently with voting. At best, this is an iffy area that Addison could have avoided by doing this a day earlier or two days later when voting is over.
You can listen to his interview here. URSU’s election page – including the e-mail address for the Chief Returning Officer, who monitors all this matters – is here.
UPDATE: The Carillon has a more detailed account, including specific bylaws that Addison may have broken.
Also, Gormley’s name is now spelled correctly. Sorry, Commenter Katie – that campaign will have to wait for another day.
UPDATE TWO: I’m bumping this to the top of the Dog Blog. A few updates on the matter.
First, Addison has apologized, saying that “there were statements made about Kent Peterson during the John Gormely interview at noon today that were not factual.” Commenter Kate will note that I’m not the only person who can misspell Gormley’s name.
Gormley himself took to Twitter to talk about the controversy, saying:
Some in an uproar over @KyleAddison on JGL today. The Carillon (controlled by NDP smearchild Kent E Peterson) is in an uproar. Really?
Saying that the Carillon is controlled by Peterson, who was Business Manager at the paper until he took a leave of absence for the campaign, is ridiculous. The paper has bent over backwards to cover all these matters – the election, CFS, and anything URSU related – in a balanced way.
