Indigenous leaders struggle to make progress in GSA

In the last year, Indigenous students and community members have been sounding the alarm over allegations of anti-Indigenous bias within the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). Accusations of anti-Indigenous bias have been directed at GSA President Aashish Kumar. 

In December, the Appeals and Complaints Board (ACB) suspended Kumar from his position following a complaint Tamara Dubé filed back in June 2025. Shortly after, an anonymous complaint was filed against Dubé and the ACB suspended her.

In the GSA’s history, only four Indigenous directly elected officers (DEO) have been elected. The first was Florence Glanfield, who is now the University of Alberta’s vice-provost (Indigenous programming and research). The three other Indigenous DEOs have all been elected in the last two years — and all have faced suspensions during their term.

The Gateway spoke to Benjamin Kucher, former GSA vice-president (student life) and current president of the Indigenous Graduate Students’ Association (IGSA). He spoke regarding his concerns and those shared amongst other Indigenous students and community members.

Kucher first noticed instances of anti-Indigenous sentiment early on in his role, with the GSA Council routinely dismissing Indigenous issues, and treating them as separate, unrelated issues from graduate students’ affairs. 

The GSA made advances to try and remove child care subsidies from the 2025–26 budget, used predominantly by Indigenous students, as well as the Indigenous Initiatives Fund. The fund provides $5,000 for executives to host culturally enriching events. 

Struggle to take office

Tamara Dubé is the fourth Indigenous person to hold an executive position within the GSA, and is the GSA’s first vice-president (Indigenous relations) (VPIR). She spoke with The Gateway about her experience in November. 

Dubé originally put her name forward in a by-election for the VPIR position. She says GSA staff scrutinized her over being a course-based graduate student and for her home campus being Augustana. After the scrutiny, she withdrew from the race. 

The position remained vacant until the IGSA, by a motion of the Elections and Referendum Committee (ERC), appointed Dubé as the VPIR. 

The president raised concerns with the ERC about the appointment violating the bylaws. The bylaws state that if an executive position is unfilled after a by-election, it shall remain vacant for the remainder of the term. However, the VPIR policy states that if the position is vacant after a by-election, the ERC should work with the IGSA to nominate a candidate for the GSA Council’s approval.

A month after Dubé’s original appointment was rescinded, GSA council approved her nomination for the position. 

Scrutiny over transfer of funds to the IGSA

Even after council officially elected her into the position, she continued to face issues. One of those issues was the allocation of the unused VPIR stipend. 

GSA policy states that if a VPIR is not found, the GSA must put the funds allocated for their stipend towards Indigenous initiatives. While Dubé was eventually elected, the stipend had not been paid from May 1 to July 16. 

Dubé wanted the GSA to transfer the unused funds to the IGSA, but faced pushback. 

She says it was primarily Kumar who did not want to transfer the funds. He insisted on auditing the IGSA before transferring any money to the organization.

Dubé felt this was higher scrutiny than was necessary or would have been directed towards a non-Indigenous group.

“We’ve found evidence on how student groups are able to receive … up to $100,000 without an audit. But [the GSA] is putting up barriers naturally,” she explained.

She said conversations around the transfer of the money often revolved around claims that she was misinterpreting the policy. 

“I was placed in the role … but we decided to be all picky about the bylaws and policies,” she said. “And now we’re being picky about bylaws and policies to continue to suppress Indigenous representation or money that is specifically delegated to Indigenous students.”

Kumar told The Gateway in an interview in November that he wanted to make sure the GSA did the transfer properly.

“Whatever we do, it’s going to set a precedent of what will happen next,” he said.

The money was approved to be transferred to the IGSA in late November. Dubé says the transfer was approved without an audit of the IGSA.

Continuous pushback against Dubé

She described her term so far as being one road bump after another. And the issues go beyond just Indigenous representation. 

“We’re not even advocating to the university for anything because we’re so busy trying to get everybody on the same page on what equity looks like,” Dubé said.

She’s also trying to think of things she can realistically do in her term to make the position better for the next VPIR.

Dubé was re-elected as the VPIR for the 2026–27 year with 75.6 per cent of the vote.

“Every single thing I do is push back from this group,” Dubé said.

She’s also been working to make the VPIR the designated chair of the equity, diversity, and inclusion committee (EDIC). Dubé explained that the chair must be a marginalized person, as per the policy. The VPIR, as an Indigenous representative, will always be a marginalized person, so for Dubé it makes sense to make the change.

She said she’s received pushback against that as well.

Kumar recommended caution towards working group on Indigenous experiences

Additionally, the EDIC struck a working group to look at the experiences of Indigenous executives. She, Kucher, and Nathan Lamarche are part of the working group.

Kumar made a public statement in his September 24 report to the GSA Council warning against the working group.

“While this group has been presented as a way to address concerns, I must note that multiple individuals within the group have had several complaints filed against them through the [ACB],” his statement read.

“As such, I believe that any recommendations emerging from this working group should be approached with caution. In my view, they are unlikely to be in the best interest of the GSA or its members, given the conflicts and harm already documented,” Kumar wrote. “I strongly encourage Council to consider whether the existence of this working group aligns with our bylaws, policies, and the GSA’s commitment to fostering safe and constructive spaces.”

Kumar has also had complaints filed against him.

In an interview with The Gateway, he said that he could not discuss the matter further due to ACB confidentiality.

Dubé said that the working group has started its work, but that she expects it will extend beyond the end of her term.

“If you sit and listen to the stories and go through everything that’s happened to three out of the four Indigenous leaders out of the 53 years [of the GSA] … it’s really heavy, it’s actually really sad.”

Concerns with the Appeals and Complaints Board

Dubé also filed a complaint with the ACB against Kumar. She didn’t receive an acknowledgement of her complaint for five months. 

She said that it’s difficult and time consuming to have to go back months later find all of the documentation for her complaint again. 

“I will be really straightforward, it’s like is this even worth my time? Because I don’t have faith in [the ACB].”

That is largely because of the way the ACB has handled complaints against and by Kucher and Lamarche.

Nathan Lamarche was elected as the GSA’s associate vice-president (labour) and began his term on May 1, 2025. He was the third Indigenous executive to be elected. The ACB suspended him on June 23 after Kumar filed a complaint against him. Lamarche was suspended for several months without a hearing.

Then in late November, the ACB held a hearing and ruled to remove Lamarche from his position. Lamarche was unable to attend the hearing, and claims none of his witnesses are allowed to attend either.

For Lamarche, a lot — but not all — of the issues with anti-Indigenous bias come down to the current executives. 

“They went out of their way to organize a healing circle, [organized] by a white British lady … to talk about how they’ve treated me without me being there,” he said. “They refused to invite me. That is incredibly insulting and an abuse of our culture.”

“They have shown at every single opportunity they’ve had that they are going to disrespect Indigenous Peoples,” he said.

Lamarche mentioned that it goes beyond himself and Dubé, referring to the attempt to audit the IGSA before releasing funds to the group. 

“I don’t see any world where we move forward [with the current executives],” Lamarche said.

Kumar maintains that he and the GSA do not have a bias against Indigenous Peoples.

Consistent pushback slowing down GSA operations

Dubé says she reminds herself to take baby steps, “because what I want to achieve and what’s going to be feasible this year are not the same … it’s so frustrating.”

She said the pushback she’s receiving is not only consuming her time and energy, but also the GSA Council meetings and the EDIC meetings.

Without an AVPL for several months, the Public Service Alliance Canada (PSAC) took over bargaining for academically employed graduate students. Negotiations had reached an impasse, but the latest update from the U of A in mid-January said that PSAC’s actions were delaying a deal for the GSA.

The Gateway emailed the new AVPL, Farzin Sadehlari, for more information about bargaining, but did not receive a response.

“The labour is insane, for just these little things that become big things and then it’s taking away from other things that I would rather be doing to support Indigenous students,” Dubé explained. 

“What I’ve been struggling with is what is intentional and what is just that lack of awareness or the lack of knowledge,” she explained.

Dubé feels the the system itself is at the root of these issues. She described it as a colonial structure, not an Indigenized space. 

“A huge factor is how can we bring Indigenous students into this space and Indigenize it?” Dubé said.