Students’ Society Vice President External Myriam Zaidi plans to file a case with the SSMU Judicial Board against President Zach Newburgh over the alleged conflict of interest stemming from his involvement with Jobbook, an employment-based social networking website.
Concerned with the lack of “in-depth analysis of the conflict of interest policy and whether or not it was breached,” Zaidi said she wants to present all the new evidence that has come to light in various campus media outlets since the February 3 Council meeting at which councillors voted to censure Newburgh.
However, Newburgh believes that all pertinent available evidence has already been presented and that “there’s nothing lurking or hiding around any corners that people should still be waiting to hear about.”
Zaidi maintains that it is still important for the J-Board to have an outside perspective, to look into the financial transactions section of conflict of interest policy in order to arrive at a “final, impartial decision.”
“One thing that’s good about J-Board is that politics are not mixed into it, or other things like relationships,” Zaidi said. “All they look at is the policies.”
Zaidi added that since the J-Board’s main function is to interpret SSMU’s policies, they are most capable of providing a thorough and informed analysis of the issue at hand.
If the case is heard by the J-Board, Newburgh will be facing his second case concerning a violation of the conflict of interest policy.
Newburgh claims “to know this policy very well,” and to be comfortable at a hearing.
“It’s going to do a lot of clarifying on the issue and I think it’s clarification that’s certainly needed. Individuals need to know that there was not a policy breach, and I am looking forward to the verdict of the Judicial Board, if this case is if even heard. To my knowledge, there currently is no case in the first place,” Newburgh said.
Currently, no case has officially been filled with the J-Board, meaning that Newburgh is still unaware of the exact arguments that will be brought against him. Zaidi said she plans to file the case by next Monday.
Both Newburgh and Zaidi said that some review of the current conflict of interest policy ought to be undertaken in order to avoid future problems similar to those which arose this semester.
Meanwhile, Zaidi said there has recently been a “cloud” over the SSMU executive.
“Executives are more emotionally involved because it’s our day-to-day life, and we were a team. So there’s trust issues and things like that,” Zaidi said. “I talked with Zach and told him I still believe there was a conflict-of-interest breach and he said he doesn’t think there was. So I said that’s exactly why I want to [go to J-Board.]”
Newburgh, for his part, argued that the best way to move forward is to put SSMU’s focus back on the student body rather than on himself.
“What we ought to do is turn our focus back to the students where it ought to be,” Newburgh added. “But if this is the closure that some people need, then I’m happy to provide it.”
