Adam Gibbard

Finance update: ConU President’s trip to Israel: A breakdown of Graham Carr’s university-funded expenses during 2022 trip

Graphic Adam Gibbard

Maria Cholakova & Zachary Fortier

Local Journalism Initiative

In August 2022, Concordia President Graham Carr participated in a trip to Israel to visit Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv and build academic connections. Six months after the trip, The Link spoke to Palestinian students and Canadian academics about their reactions and to understand why Concordia decided to participate.

Since the article’s publication in February 2023, The Link has acquired new information about the trip via records provided by an access to information request.

In total, the university spent nearly $9,000 to send its president on the trip to Israel. The money was spent on business class flights, luxury hotels and several activities on the itinerary.

Carr left Montreal on Aug. 26, 2022, three days after his sit-down interview with The Link. He transferred to Toronto Pearson Airport and then took a direct flight to Tel Aviv. Sitting in a business class seat, Concordia spent $5,883 on airfare alone. That price doesn’t include the additional $75 for taxis to and from the airport. The president was also allowed a daily allowance of $52 while in Israel, which would come up to $364 for the week-long stay.

In addition, the university paid $2,500 to participate in the trip itself. The event was organized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which took care of the trip’s itinerary and its collective organization.

All 15 Canadian university presidents who attended the trip stayed at two five-star luxury hotels during their stay. Although the prices for the rooms were not listed in the document, Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem currently charges $580 per night for a studio room, which is the least premium of those rooms available. Carlton Hotel charges $385 per room for a “Superior City View Room.” Carr stayed eight nights split between the two hotels.

During his week-long stay in Israel, the president visited seven Israeli and two Palestinian universities. On Sept. 1, 2022, Carr attended an “Israeli Politics 101” seminar and later in the day met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The itinerary also included several dinners, networking events, strolls around cities and leisurely activities like a “Lunch and Swim” at the Vert Hotel.

However, Concordia’s ties to Israel are deeply rooted. In 2011, Concordia received $5 million from the Azrieli Foundation for the creation of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia.

More recently, in January 2023, Concordia received $1 million courtesy of Miriam Roland, a former member of Concordia’s Board of Governors and honorary president and chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. The donation would be shared with Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel. According to the Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights, BGU had strong connections with the Israeli military. According to their report, in 2018, the Israeli government allocated $15 million to BGU to accommodate thousands of active Israeli soldiers in technology-related subjects, as the Israeli Defence Forces continue to transfer its technology units to the Negev region, where the university is located.

Concordia has yet to make an official statement on the trip or speak directly to Palestinian students on campus.

Finance update: ConU President’s trip to Israel: A breakdown of Graham Carr’s university-funded expenses during 2022 trip Read More »

Students denounce double standard in Concordia’s Israel-Palestine statements: Separate emails leave students feeling “appalled” and “unsafe” by administration

Graphic Adam Gibbard

Iness Rifay

Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 11, the Concordia Communications team and President Graham Carr sent out a statement to the university’s entire student body regarding the “events in the Middle East.”

The correspondence described how “profoundly troubling the deadly attacks and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel” are, and expressed concern that “the violence and the reporting on it will inevitably intensify emotions in ways that risk becoming even more polarizing than they already are.”

The email asked the Concordia community to “conduct [it]self respectfully” in the event demonstrations occur on campus, mentioning past demonstrations “not authorized by or associated with Concordia” that have taken place.

The administration then detailed having “reached out to some students and student groups whose members are most affected by this war” in support.

SPHR member Leith Barghouthi explained that the “safety” and “zero-tolerance policy for hate and violence” message Concordia reiterated in its mass email resulted in more uneasiness for the Palestinian student community.

“Scratch SPHR—as a Palestinian student, we’re not feeling safe,” he said. “They think they have a superiority complex on us and it’s something we don’t approve of.”

The day prior, the student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia received an email from Dean of Students Andrew Woodall. After he expressed wishes of safety for any family members possibly located in the region, Woodall wrote: “I also want to remind you that we do expect everyone at Concordia to be respectful of each other even in difficult times so if any of your members are feeling otherwise, please let us know. We are proud of our safe campus notwithstanding many different opinions.”

On Oct. 8, multiple Israeli international students received a separate email from the International Students Office in which on and off-campus mental health resources were explicitly laid out. The message mentions “Concordia’s wishes to express deep concern for all members of the community impacted by the violence in the Middle East.” While 30 students registered as Palestinian with the ISO received these ressources, members of the Palestinian diaspora within the Concordia community were not accommodated. These emails were also never sent to members of SPHR.

One Israeli student, granted anonymity for their safety, was a recipient of this correspondence. They expressed their “complete appallment and disappointment [towards] the actions committed by the Concordia administration” to The Link.

“Sending out an email of support and sympathy to only Israeli students and disregarding that all the other students are going through a difficult time is an absolutely disgraceful thing to do,” they said.

They added that “the Concordia administration should be ashamed of this act and should rectify it as soon as possible.”

A previous version of this article stated that Palestinian students were never contacted. The International Student Office (ISO) sent resources to 30 Palestinian students. The Link regrets this error.

With files from Maria Cholakova.

Students denounce double standard in Concordia’s Israel-Palestine statements: Separate emails leave students feeling “appalled” and “unsafe” by administration Read More »

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