Every year over 1,500 people are killed and more than 63,000 people are injured in Canada in drinking and driving related collisions. Following a recent reddit post on r/TorontoMetU we discovered that the Toronto Metropolitan University Students’ Union (TMSU) President, Marina Gerges was criminally charged with drinking and driving in May 2022. She was working full time as an elected representative of the TMU students while she was criminally charged. Please see the attached screenshot where Marina openly admits in court that she was the President of the TMSU at the time of her arrest.

 

Strong student leadership requires good moral character and human decency, neither of which the current TMSU President possesses. We request that you sign this petition asking for Marina Gerges’s resignation from her position as President of the TMSU and Vote NO for Marina Gerges in the upcoming Student Union elections. By signing this petition and voting NO, we are saying that the students should not and will not condone such behavior from their representatives. Every elected representative must be held accountable for their actions.

PSA these are publicly available court documents.

Here are a few other reasons why you should request the resignation of Marina Gerges and everyone else who’s complicit in her actions:

SPENDING STUDENT FUNDS ON PARTIES AND CONFERENCES:

Marina Gerges, Success Daka (FEAS director), and [REDACTED] ([REDACTED]) attended conferences in Calgary and Vancouver in August. Student monies were used to fund the three of their trips to the conference. All their expenses such as food, hotels and transportation were paid for using student funds. None of these expenses were approved by the Finance Committee, Events Committee, the Executive Committee, or the Board of Directors. 

Please note that Success Daka, and [REDACTED] are also running for positions in the upcoming elections.

RUNNING EVENTS WITHOUT APPROVAL:
Marina and Ozioma (the current VP Student Life and Events, who is re-running for the same position) have run pub nights and extravagant events with student funds which were not approved by the board or the events committee. Any expenditure over $5,000 must be approved by the board of directors and none of the large events were approved by this year’s board. 

Please note that Ozioma (Ozi)  is rerunning for her position in the upcoming elections.

PROVIDING FRIENDS WITH FAVOURABLE CONTRACTS:
Marina Gerges unilaterally approved a $93,000 employment contract for the position of Director of Programming. This position did not exist a few months ago. Marina created this position and hired her close personal friend and gave a cushy job. is now the Director of Programming of the TMSU.

On December 19, 2020 was impeached from their position on the student unions’ board of directors. As per the most recently published bylaws on the TMSU’s website. Any person impeached from their position is not eligible to hold a paid or volunteer position within the students’ union. Marina was fully aware of this bylaw since she passed it in her own “historic SAGM”. Marina has chosen to breach her own bylaw by employing at the TMSU.

Please note that the ForTheStudents Instagram page (previously run by) openly supported Marina Gerges’s bid for the presidency.

NO NEW GRANTS DURING THIS TERM:
Numerous students go through financial difficulties on a daily basis. These students rely on bursaries and other grants for emergency financial relief during the term. Marina has not approved a single new grant during her entire term. While students were struggling to pay for a single warm meal the President and her possy were partying at conferences with funds that belong to the students. 

STAGNANT WAGES FOR PART-TIME STUDENT STAFF:
Part-time staff that work at the TMSU are full-time TMU students who contribute to our community in a very productive manner. Early this year, a few staff members spoke with the TMSU President and put forth a proposal as a collective unit. They requested the part-time student staff wages be adjusted to reflect the current cost of living crisis. The staff members who made the proposal were laughed out of the office. Every time the idea was brought up it was instantly thwarted. It is incredible to see the current TMSU President re-running on a platform to increase part-time student staff wages.

ISSUES WITH CAMPUS GROUP REIMBURSEMENTS
Typically, Campus Groups plan, organize and put on events for their respective members. Campus Group executives spend money out of their own pockets to put on these events. Once the events are complete, the Campus Group's Executives file an expense form and are reimbursed for the expenses they’ve made. 

This year there have been numerous campus groups who have had their reimbursements withheld. These students ended up ruining their credit scores and accumulating interest on their cards. No student should have to undergo such financial duress when all they wanted was to put on a good event for their members. During one such reimbursement fiasco, the University’s President’s office had to get involved to help the campus groups out. This is absolutely unreasonable. 

To make things more comical, the current TMSU President is rerunning for her position with a campaign promise to better support campus groups. Now how would a president who denies campus groups reimbursements, better support campus groups?

MULTI-FAITH SPACES:
The TMSU President is currently pledging to improve multi-faith prayer spaces on campus. How can someone make this promise, when they openly impeached a Pregnant Muslim Woman from her board? The number of POC resigning and being pushed out of office from the TMSU should be a clear sign as to the work environment created by the TMSU President.

NO 40 HOUR WORK WEEK:

The President of the TMSU is paid over $35,000 a year. One of the terms of employment is that the employee must work 40 hours every week. In 2019, a TMSU executive was impeached from their positions since they failed to clock in 40 hours of work every week. Marina Gerges has not completed a single 40 hours work week at the TMSU. This alone is enough grounds for impeachment.

We kindly request that you sign the petition and share this with as many of your peers as possible. Please only use your @torontomu.ca emails to sign the petition. Feel free to share your stories and thoughts on driving and driving and its implications on society.