January 28, 2009

Board of Administration
Student Federation of the University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario

Re: Electronic Voting Decision

Dear members of the board,

I feel it important to notify you of the developments over the past couple of weeks with regard
to the decision taken at our last board meeting held on January 11, 2009.

The decision taken by the board was the following: Be it resolved to approve the e-voting
method as presented by the elections’ staff.

As you will recall the system was described by the elections office at the board. The system
was an electronic voting system accessible online by our students. The Elections’ Office
described the details of the system.

Soon thereafter, the constitutionality of the board decision was challenged by an individual
member. The Student Arbitration Committee (SAC) was convened by the Chief Arbitrator,
Pamela Mezher. Both the elections’ office and I worked closely to defend the decision of the
board and show that this was not unconstitutional and the board was within its right to make
this decision. As the president of the Student Federation and spokesperson for the board, I
found it essential that I defend the decision made by our board. The SAC decided that the
aforementioned decision was constitutionally sound, thus rejecting the request to overturn the
board’s decision.

Within the two business day time period after the SAC decision, individual members decided
to appeal the SAC decision to the board. This was ruled in order for the business of the board
by our chairperson, according to Right of appeal, under section 8.8 of the constitution.

The question that will be posed to board members on Sunday, February 1, 2009 is whether or
not they would like to hear the appeal. Should the board wish to hear the appeal, they will
have a presentation from the appellants, followed by a final decision. The latter would deny
the right to hear the appeal, thus finalizing the January 11, 2009 motion.

Please note that until the request for an appeal is settled on Sunday by the board, I am not
conducting business on behalf of the federation with regard to this issue; therefore, I am
unable to conclude contracts verbal, written or otherwise for any voting system. It is
important to note that arrangements have been made concurrent with the board’s original
decision (as was the will of the board); however contracts have not been concluded on any
voting system. This is the most responsible and prudent step I am taking as we move forward.

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Further, I have instructed the elections’ office to prepare a contingency plan by Friday,
January 30th, 2009 in the possibility that the board decides to hear the motion and overturn its
original decision made on January 11, 2009.

I have recently been receiving communications back and forth, to and from board members
with regard to this debate. Without diminishing the concerns of those board members, I
would kindly ask that debate be kept to the board table. I have requested that other parties do
the same. Please keep in mind that it is impossible for our chairperson to mediate across the
World Wide Web.

In closing, let us remember that while we are passionate and principled on subjects such as e-
voting, we must remain respectful to one another in order for that passion and principle to
matter.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions on the above subjects.

Yours truly,

Dean P. Haldenby
President, Student Federation of the University of Ottawa
Chairperson, Elections’ committee

Cc: F. Carvajal, Chairperson, SFUO

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