A Decade of Corruption

First Full ‘Opposition’ Slate Wins Election

In February 2015 the “Transform RU” slate won all 5 Executive positions and all but 3 spots on the Board of Directors. This was the first contested election since 2011. [source]

RSU Restructures, New Manager Position Created

The new Executive decided to create a new position of “General Manager” which would oversee the entire organization and be responsible for union negotiations. They also eliminated two unionized management positions that they argued were not beneficial to the organization and that the now-fired staff claimed performed the same function as their job had so they should have at least been able to apply to. [source, source, source]

Stand with Gilary Campaign

Following the news of the restructuring and resulting layoff of Gilary Massa while on maternity leave, many students and community members who were familiar with her work over the past years rallied to call for her reinstatement. A settlement was reached between her and the students’ union but she was unable to comment publicly on it. The RSU repeatedly denied that her pregnancy had anything to do with her firing. [source]

Team “Impact” Sweeps RSU Elections

The incumbent Transform RU team, re-named Impact for the election cycle, won all 5 Executive seats again and a large majority of the Board of Directors. [source, source]

6fest

The notorious concert occurs after many delays and allegations of bad faith marketing, leading to months of financial issues with refunds. Several student union executives and close allies transferred upwars of $80,000 in student funds into their own bank accounts against the advice of their finance team. [source]

First Split Executive Team in Years

Infighting among the incumbent team, led by the cult, results in three teams running in the election and the election winners coming from all three teams in a fairly even split. [source, source]

Accusations of a ‘Boys Club’

Executives accuse their male team members of creating a hostile work environment and excluding them from decisions. [source]

Ram Ganesh elected President

Following an election full of questionable activity, now infamous Ram Ganesh and his team "Unify" sweep the Executive positions and most of the Board. [source, source]

New Execs Eliminate Oversight, Increase Exec Spending Limits, and Plan More Concerts in Secret Meeting

On their first day in office, Ram Ganesh's team fired the full-time manager position that the Transform RU team he was involved in created only 3 years prior. This position was the only staff position with ability to conduct oversight on the organization. [source, source]

Ram Ganesh closes 6Fest Investigation Early

To shelter himself and his allies from future legal issues, then-president Ram Ganesh announced that the RSU would not continue investigating the missing funds from 6Fest that were improperly transferred into executive accounts. [source]

Credit Card Scandal Breaks

The news that Ram Ganesh and other executives used RSU credit cards, and student funds, for personal expenses totalling up to $250k breaks during a Board Meeting following persistent attempts from one independent Board Member to view the RSU financial statements. [source, source, source, ]

Executives Distance Selves from Ganesh

As the primary cult leader Ram Ganesh does damage control, multiple Executives start to come out to claim they were unaware or pressured into silence regarding the scandal. To this day no answers have come out about how involved the wider team was or if it was truly a single-person criminal operation in the hands of Ganesh. Ram Ganesh was later impeached after several attempts at various meetings. [source, source]

University Withholds Student Fees from RSU

The university uses the credit card scandal to achieve their long-time goal of minimizing the power of the students' union to hold them accountable - the same goal that led university admin to support Transform RU and their successive teams. [source]

New RSU President Begins Repairing the Organization

One of the first actions of the new RSU President is to bring back the full-time role that oversaw finances, along with changes to the Board structure and implementing more transparency. [source]

Team Refresh Wins Election

In the regular election that followed the tumultuous year of the credit card scandal, a new team is elected in an election between three primary teams - two of which were vocally opposed to Ganesh and one that was the remains of his supporters. [source]

Difficulty Finding New Management

A new Executive Director was hired but shortly let go before finishing their probationary period for creating a toxic work environment. Long-time student staff member in the Copyrite office, Reanna Maharaj is eventually hired as the Executive Director. [source, source, source]

Executive Team Falls to Infighting

Due to the nature of passionate youth working in close quarters, and the ongoing meddling from the cult trying to rebuild its power after the previous year's massive scandal, the executive team faces multiple impeachment motions and public accusations. [source, source, source]

University Terminates RSU's Official Status

Only three days after the RSU announced a police investigation into the past year's financial mismanagement [source], the university terminated the Operating Agreement that established the existence of the students' union. [source]

Election Occurs Amid University Attempt to Shut RSU Down

Ali Yousaf and his team sweep the Executive positions with record low-level turnout due to the ongoing efforts of the university to shut down the students' union. Most students were unaware the RSU was still operating, let alone having an election, due to the university's announcement. [source]

RSU Reinstated by Court Order

The court case between the university and RSU concluded in RSU's favour due to the university overreaching and attempting to make the students' union not only agree to stricter financial controls (which they had already implemented) but to also agree to criticize the university administration less. [source, source]

New RSU Execs Terminate Most Staff

Citing the pandemic and a lack of work (that the Executives immediately contradicted in the same meeting when they stated there was tons of extra work due to the pandemic) they laid off several long-term staff members in order to get away with stealing more student funds. [source, source, source]

I'm Impeached

While the circumstances of this event are essential to the overall timeline, I am including it as its own point in the timeline to stop any claim that I am trying to hide my own mistakes. Despite still knowing ethically I did nothing wrong, there was a technicality in the by-laws that I was unaware of and was impeached for violating. One of the fired staff brought evidence to me that executives were abusing their power and despite never sharing any information that wasn't public, just by speaking to an individual who we were in a legal proceeding with I "undermined" the organization's legal standing. Something that most people would at most get a stern talking-to about, but I'm ultimately proud of my impeachment especially since this entire Executive team was later brought up on charges for stealing money. [source]

Election Meddling Leads to Another Sweep

Again questionable tactics and outright voter intimidation that was widely reported on by the Eyeopener and One The Record News results in no repercussions and the incumbent team winning all major positions. [source, source, source, source]

Questionable Business Decisions

The RSU initiates a business relationship with a company that is owned by someone with ties to the current Executives and a major scandal that occurred at Carleton University in previous years. [source]

Independent Candidates Overcome Election Corruption

A record number of independent candidates put their names forward in the RSU election and were able to consolidate support among each other to overcome the drastic measures the incumbent team took to hold onto power. [source, source, source, source]

Independent Team Passes New By-Laws

The most significant update to the By-Laws (the rules the organization and its members must abide by) was passed at the SAGM, which was also the first general meeting to be held in almost 3 years. The new by-laws closed countless loopholes and made huge improvements to transparency and gives the average student more power to hold TMSU accountable. [source]

Independent Team Announces Investigations into Past Teams

The Executives of past two years were the subjects of legal investigations into financial mismanagement and the defrauding of student funds. [source]

Chaotic Election Sees Majority of Candidates Disqualified

An election fuelled by misinformation being pumped out by the disgraced former teams now under investigation for stealing funds leads to the news that then-President Marina Gerges, who was seeking re-election, was allegedly set-up for a drunk driving charge. [source, source, source, source]

Election Results Voided, Lawsuits Launched

Following the confession and provision of evidence from multiple people on the election teams in question, the TMSU files multiple lawsuits against people for the intentional and malicious abuse of the election process. Given the inability to hold elections due to the cult meddling, an interim board was hired via interview process. [source, source, source, source]

New President Wins by Single Vote

After sexual harassment complaints were not properly investigated, I shared my story as a witness. The Executive in question was running for President and the election was decided by a single vote, emphasizing the saying that every vote counts. [source, source, source

Personal note: my intention was mainly motivated by a hope to pressure management to do better because the real issue I felt I could address were the specific ways management ignored policy and conducted itself with gross indecency towards the survivors. But every avenue was exhausted before I went public, including security, and legal involvement. Never thought it would get more than 200 - 500 views, best case was maybe it can be evidence for if this happens again, maybe it makes it easier for someone else to come forward.

Record-Breaking Election Caps Off Uneventful Year

After a year of minimal news from the students' union, the general election saw a record-breaking number of demerit points given to candidates - over 300. Ultimately the election was voided again due to evidence of illegal external influence from the cult. [source, source, source]

TMSU Announces New Management, Apologizes to Student Body

In a letter posted on August 25, 2025 [source] the TMSU announced a new investigation into former President Ali Yousaf for illegally interfering with the democratic process, introduced their new Management, and apologized to the student body for the past several years of chaos. [source, source, source, source]

2025 SAGM: More Interference

The 2025 SAGM where the TMSU Board and new Executive Directors were hoping to make their case to students about why they felt holding an election would be impractical was again infiltrated and disrupted. The fire alarm was pulled at least two different times, multiple people currently being investigated for crimes against the students' union delayed the meeting with fivolous motions, and ultimately the result was less than 20 votes short. [source]