Geneviève Sylvestre

In conversation with Graham Carr

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Graham Carr is the President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University. Courtesy Concordia University

Geneviève Sylvestre & Hannah Vogan,
Local Journalism Initiative

The Link sat down with Concordia’s president to answer the student body’s pressing questions

Disclaimer: Answers have been edited for clarity.

As we enter the winter semester of Concordia University’s 50-year anniversary, how are you looking to improve the university for current and future students?

For me, the big question as we enter the new year, as we enter any year, is how we can make the university better.

I think Concordia has been on a pretty good growth trajectory, but obviously, the challenges are growing for us, in part because of government policies which severely affected our recruitment from the rest of Canada and created instability with international students; and both of those communities are pretty critical to Concordia’s identity.

Unfortunately, that situation is only worsening this year because of Bill 74—which all universities in Quebec opposed—which has really put a chill on international student recruitment, not just for Concordia, but for others as well; and I think it sent an unfortunate message on behalf of Montreal. 

I’ve been at Concordia a long time. We’ve been through challenging periods before. I think that we’ve always been an innovative university that has a very distinct place in Montreal, and a very distinct place in Quebec. We have to remember that, notwithstanding the challenges that are out there, fantastic things go on at this university all the time. And we need to continue to tell that message. Although we’re going to experience a decline in international students this year, and we saw a decline in students from the rest of Canada, we need to continue to convey the message that we still want those students, and we’re going to do everything possible to encourage them to come. I think that diversity has always been one of Concordia’s strongest assets, and we need to keep that going forward.

Since the announcement of tuition hikes, Concordia has been forced to make cuts and limit spending, including the reduction of the shuttle bus service schedule. What would you have to say to students who are frustrated about not being able to access services that they were promised when they enrolled?

My answer is not just for students, my answer is for the whole community that uses the shuttle bus service to move back and forth between campuses. My answer to that goes beyond the specific case of the shuttle bus, because there are a lot of things that we’ve had to stop doing or slow down. 

Obviously, a direct impact of reducing the schedule of the shuttle bus is that people need to find an alternative way to go between campuses because the shuttle is not available. But, there are a lot of indirect impacts of the budget cuts that are less visible but equally tangible within the university. We’ve essentially frozen hiring for the last year, both in terms of new faculty recruitment, but also in terms of staff recruitment. That means we have a lot of staff positions that are unfilled, which means that some people are being asked to try to pick up the slack and do extra work.

We are in a significant deficit situation. I know it’s a cliché to say hard decisions have to be taken, but we are having to make decisions which are not about growth. There are decisions about: “OK, can we do without this?”

What I’m heartened by is the efforts that faculty, staff, students and others have made to try to work within the new parameters that are in front of us. We’re invested in this place. We know it’s a great place, we want it to be even more successful, and we’re going to do our part to help that happen. 

I can’t be naive and not say we have a vertical climb ahead of us. If we lose a cohort of students last year, we’ve lost that cohort of students for four years, and the same is true this year; it has a compounding effect. We need to become as creative as possible in our thinking about how we deal with the financial situation. It can’t just be about where we’re going to cut, it has to also be about what can we do differently, and where we can find new opportunities to generate revenue.

There have been videos circulating on social media of students being assaulted by Campus Safety and Prevention Services (CSPS) agents and SPVM officers on campus. How will you ensure, going forward, that students are kept safe while protesting?

Our duty is to keep the whole community safe: that’s students, staff and faculty. It’s very painful to watch videos of conflicts and violence happening, whether it’s verbal violence or physical violence. We don’t want that on campus. Our campus safety officers are individuals who worked on, for the most part, the university campus for a long time. They’re as committed to this place as we are, and there are limits to what they can’t do. They’re a small number of individuals, they’ve been asked to do an awful lot over the last 16 months or so which is out of the ordinary. We need to realize that some of those CSPS agents have also been the victims of incidents. As a community, we have to say that certain things are unacceptable, and obviously, violence is one of those things. Keeping the community safe is a priority. I’m always very troubled and hurt when people say: “I don’t feel safe coming to campus.” Whether that’s a student, a faculty member or a staff member.

I’m really saddened by events that have happened over the last 16 months or so. I’m saddened by the vandalism that’s happened at the university. I’m saddened by the fact that there have been occasions when we have called the SPVM onto campus. CSPS agents are not bouncers. This is not a nightclub. It’s a last resort to call the SPVM, and the SPVM doesn’t want to be on campus either. It’s really concerning to me that this has become, over the last several months, a point of discussion, because it seems to me that we as a community have the capacity within ourselves to create the environment where we can express ourselves, but do so in a way that doesn’t feel intimidating. We’ve unfortunately seen incidents that are really regrettable here.

For over a year, students have been demanding that the university divest from companies funding the genocide in Palestine, including, but not limited to, BMO. This has culminated in 85,000 students going on strike in support of Palestine in November 2024. What do you have to say to students who feel that their demands are not being met or listened to by the administration?

I think two things. There’s one part of it around BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions), and one part of it is around investment strategy. I’ll start with the investment strategy. The investment strategy of the university refers to the investments that are made by what used to be called Concordia Foundation, and is now the Concordia University Inter-Generational Fund (CUiF). Those are funds that are raised as a result of philanthropy; there’s no student funding in there. In 2019, in collaboration with the president of the then Concordia Foundation, we agreed that we would set an objective, that between 2019 and 2025 Concordia would become the first university in Canada to fully divest from fossil fuels, but also to double the investments that we were making in social equity investing, supporting educational initiatives abroad, clean water initiatives, and so on. 

I think the university as a whole should be really proud of that action, because that’s a differentiator for us. A lot of the pathway to get to that decision was a result of students concerned about climate change. We’ve just turned the page into 2025, and we’re going to meet that target. The CUiF will meet its target of being 100 per cent invested in sustainable and social equity investing this year. There’s no other university in Canada that can make that claim, and I think that’s something that the community should be really proud of.

Somehow it isn’t landing with the entire community. It’s like people are still assuming that we’re investing in things that we’re not investing in. We have no investments in the arms industry. We have no investments in the munitions industry. That’s not the pathway that we’ve been on. I think we as a university should be looking at our investment strategy as a point of pride for Concordia and as something which I think other universities would be envious of achieving, and other student organizations would be envious of achieving.

Based on Concordia’s ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) status, why does the university still partner with weapons manufacturing companies like Bombardier and Lockheed Martin, which have a high ESG risk rating through programs like Co-op or workshops? 

One of the initiatives that has helped make Concordia a destination university for students is our commitment to experiential learning and work-integrated learning. 
Last year, we had about 5,000 students who were in paid internships or Co-op programs at Concordia. That’s a huge number. Those are optional for students. Nobody’s forced to be in an experiential learning program. Students have the right, and should have the right, to choose where they would like to do work. I don’t think it’s for me, or for others within the university, to tell students that they shouldn’t work for a company, because that’s a field that they’re interested in working in. 

Being able to demonstrate the added value that students get coming to Concordia, getting a great experience in class, but also having the option to pursue work-integrated learning, is a huge advantage for us. We made the commitment two years ago, and it took a lot of work to get to this point. Every single undergraduate program in the university had to find a pathway to experiential learning for students in their program. Now, based on the success of the last two years, we’ll be able to announce next year that students, if they want, can have two experiential learning opportunities within the context of their program. Students who have had the benefit of work-integrated learning experience step more quickly into better-remunerated positions after graduation.

If students are pursuing paid internships or Co-ops, two things have to happen. First of all, they have to choose where they would like to go and interview for those positions, and then they have to be successful in getting the interview. We’re not the ones who are matchmaking. We’re not the ones who are saying this student is going to work with this organization or that company. It’s important to understand that this is about student choice and that we’re simply trying to make that choice available to the widest array of students possible within the university.

Students have requested that Concordia disclose all of its investments to increase transparency between students and the administration. Is this something that the current administration would consider?

Absolutely—I’d say two things about that. One is, we have been disclosing, in the sense that CUiF has a public report that they publish every year, that information is already public. I mean, it’s essential—it’s important to understand that the point of the CUiF is to raise money, the vast majority of which is used to support students, to provide student scholarships, etc. We need to be sure when our fund managers are making their investments, not only that they’re meeting the investment criteria that we set around sustainability, but they’re also yielding a return, because we want to be able to grow that fund to be able to support more students in the future. 

We also set up an informal meeting group with students from the Concordia Student Union and with the head of our fund management program to try to explain in more detail how the investment strategy and structure work. Investment at this scale for large institutions is very complex. We have a number of fund managers who manage Concordia investments, but all those fund managers are given certain parameters, and those are the parameters around sustainable and social equity investment, and that we judge their performance based on the revenue that they generate. I don’t think we have any problem being transparent about this, because this is a good story for Concordia to tell. The more we can tell that story about our investment strategy, and the more widely that’s circulated, I think it will be a factor that will encourage students to come to a university that’s invested in sustainability and social equity. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 7, published January 14, 2025.

In conversation with Graham Carr Read More »

Concordia University president’s statement draws criticism

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On Jan. 29, 885 students voted in favour of BDS motions at the CSU SGM. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

Activists raise concerns with Graham Carr’s statement following January’s BDS vote

Some student associations and organizations at Concordia University have raised concerns over a statement made by the university’s President Graham Carr on Jan.30. 

The Carr statement was released following a special general meeting (SGM) where undergraduate students voted in favour of two Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) motions. 

On Jan. 29, 885 undergraduate Concordia students voted in favour of two motions: for the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to adopt BDS demands and for the union to bring those demands to the Board of Governors. Only 58 students voted against the motions. The total turnout for the vote was more than twice the 450 student quorum—the number of people needed to validate the vote. 

In the statement released on Jan. 30, Carr reiterated that Concordia’s position on “such boycott campaigns” has been consistent, writing, “Such campaigns are contrary to the value of academic freedom upon which all universities are founded.” 

He continued, saying that reports from the meeting were “deeply troubling” due to “the presence of heavily masked individuals, complaints of discriminatory behaviour and the use of intimidation tactics.” He called the behaviour at the meeting unacceptable and said it contravened Concordia policies.

Following the release, the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association (SCPASA) and four other student associations condemned the statement in a post on Instagram. 

“Despite a clear, democratically obtained majority, Graham Carr incessantly seeks to silence pro-Palestine students, claiming the motions to be ‘contrary to the value of academic freedom,’” the post read. 

SCPASA executive secretary Samuel Gold said that he takes issue with Carr’s statement because it showed an “attitude of distrust” for student democracy. 

“I think it really just demonstrates that this administration is not in it for the students at all,” Gold said.

The CSU has also released a response to Carr’s statement on Instagram, stating, “Graham Carr’s statement draws upon existing anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic sentiment to present the result of a democratic vote in favour of BDS […] as illicit, hostile and non-binding.” 

Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier told The Link that Concordia is “troubled” that people have chosen to “misread” and “purposefully miscommunicate” Carr’s statement. 

“President Carr’s statement does not say that the motions […] are contrary to the value of academic freedom,” Fortier said. “President Carr reiterates what has been Concordia’s position for years and that is that boycott campaigns are contrary to the value of academic freedom upon which all universities are founded [italics in original].”

CSU academic and advocacy coordinator Vanessa Massot said they want to ask the administration if they believe academic freedom is a universal right. 

“The entire point of us wanting to boycott, divest and sanction is the fact that people in Gaza, right now, do not even have shelter, food, medicine, let alone universities,” Massot said. “The entire point of what we’re doing is for academic freedom and overall liberation.”

Michael Bueckert, interim president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), sent a letter to Carr to express grave concern over Carr’s comments. 

In it, Bueckert listed several academic organizations in support of BDS, including the Middle East Studies Association and the American Studies Association. Bueckert also referred to the growing global concern that Israel is committing scholasticide in Gaza. 

“When universities, students, and academic bodies hold Israel to account for its role in apartheid, this is an affirmation of the very values that underlie academic freedom, not an attack on it,” Bueckert wrote.

Director of media advocacy at CJPME Jason Toney also raised concerns with Carr’s statement and how it may make students fearful of advocating for Palestine.  
“To use that kind of language that stifles debates and that stifles democratic expressions as it relates to a decision made by the CSU in a situation that seems to have followed all procedures and protocols,” Toney said, “it is extremely disappointing and highly concerning.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 9, published February 11, 2025.

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CSU sends Concordia a cease and desist

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Photo Matthew Daldalian

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

The student union accuses the university of restraining freedom of speech, cites concerns with upcoming election

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) sent a cease and desist letter to Concordia University on Feb. 20 following the university’s announcement that it would launch an investigation into the student union.

In the cease and desist letter, the CSU claimed that Concordia’s actions will cause “irreparable harm” to the union. As such, the CSU has given Concordia 72 hours to rescind its suspension or they will undertake legal recourse against the university.

Concordia first informed the CSU of its investigation on Feb. 6 following claims of alleged breaches of university policies during the Jan. 29 special general meeting (SGM). At the SGM, a significant majority of undergraduate students voted for the union to adopt a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) motion and for the union to bring the motion to Concordia’s Board of Governors.

Primarily, Concordia pointed to alleged breaches of the Policy on Student Associations and Groups, the Policy on the Temporary Use of University Spaces, and the Code of Rights and Responsibilities. 

The university specifically outlined allegations that the auditorium was overfilled during the vote and that the CSU used the mezzanine to accommodate additional student voters without proper authorization. Concordia also pointed to allegations that the CSU permitted intimidation during the SGM, claiming that it received reports of “heavily masked individuals” creating “an intimidating climate.”

As a result, the university suspended the CSU’s ability to book spaces on campus and rescinded all the union’s past bookings. 

In the cease and desist letter addressed to Concordia provost and VP of Academic Anne Whitelaw, the CSU outlined how the alleged accusations “are very serious and are made without specifically referring to any articles of the three policies mentioned.” 

The cease and desist also claims that the university failed to provide details on the formal complaint that prompted the investigation.

“Limiting CSU’s rights on this basis goes against the CSU’s freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly and association, which are guaranteed to all students in section 1.3 of Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities,” the cease and desist reads.

The CSU also claims, contrary to Concordia allegations, that organizers counted and registered each student coming inside the building for the duration of the SGM. 

The union’s lawyer also wrote that Concordia Campus Safety and Prevention Services (CSPS) officers raised no concerns with organizers using the mezzanine as an overflow space to accommodate additional students. The cease and desist claims that CSPS officers even helped organizers install chairs in the mezzanine. 

“Accusing the CSU organizers of using space without authorization while, in reality, security personnel employed by Concordia helped them use this space constitutes an attempt to intimidate and stop students from being active in politics,” the cease and desist reads. 

The CSU also claimed that it provided students at the SGM with masks to ensure safety, claiming that concerns were raised by immunocompromised students who wanted to attend the vote. The union also noted that students were able to communicate their concerns through an anonymous text line to the moodwatcher throughout the SGM. 

“No concerns of discrimination or intimidation were brought forward beyond requests to mitigate cheering and prevent attendees from filming each other, both of which were then directly addressed by the chair,” the cease and desist reads. 

The CSU claims the administration did not try to get the CSU’s version of events or communicate with CSU executives except to clarify the effects of the suspension. 

The union’s concerns with the suspension come as the campaigning phase of the CSU General Elections is set to begin on March 3 at 9 a.m. 

The union claims that Concordia is causing “serious and irreparable damage to student democracy and freedom of speech” by preventing the union from booking the spaces needed to hold the elections. 

The cease and desist continued by stating that it is inconceivable for the union to hold “proper and valid” elections and organize debates in accordance with the CSU bylaws without access to the requisite spaces on campus. 

The letter also states that the governance and decision-making power of the CSU would be rendered null if the general election results were deemed illegitimate following the university’s actions. 

“The CSU is a multi-million dollar non-profit for students by students, so if these services were to be rendered null it would mean that millions in student funds would be put to waste,” the cease and desist reads. 

Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier told The Link that the university does not comment on pending legal matters and that it “is not restricting freedom of speech or student democracy on campus.” 

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Concordia’s austerity measures threaten another victim

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SFCUCCR General Meeting on Nov. 1. Photo Matthew Daldalian

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

Students are mobilizing to save the CUCCR amid risks of permanent closure

The Students for the Centre for Creative Reuse (SFCUCCR), a new student coalition, has formed at Concordia with the goal of saving the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) from its permanent closure. 

The Students for the Centre for Creative Reuse (SFCUCCR), a new student coalition, has formed at Concordia with the goal of saving the Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) from its permanent closure. 

The CUCCR is a used material depot that connects students with free materials collected from Concordia’s various waste streams. The depot is fruitful with various materials like wood, fabric, ribbon, binders, kitchen supplies and more that students can use to work on various projects. 

SFCUCCR created an appeal form for students to sign “to prove the CUCCR’s importance to the members of Concordia’s community.” According to the appeal, the university has yet to renew the centre’s contract and, if it is not signed by December, the CUCCR will have to close its doors in April. 

SFCUCCR member Jonah Doniewski said that the coalition wants to show the university that students believe the CUCCR is worth keeping alive. 

“We’re not trying to attack the university. We understand it comes from a place of really tight money constraints and funding constraints,” Doniewski said, “but ultimately [Concordia not signing the renewal contract yet] is a choice.” 

On top of being a coalition member, Doniewski is also a volunteer at the CUCCR. He said that students are often baffled that all of the materials inside the depot are free. 

“We live in a world [with] a lot of scarcity and competition, so free stuff doesn’t really make any sense to a lot of people,” said Doniewski. 

After collecting their supplies, students use the check-out system to weigh their items and assess their value, allowing the CUCCR to keep track of its impact live on the Concordia website. 

“It’s not like we’re getting new stuff,” Doniewski said. “We’re just finding the home for the old stuff.” 


So far this year, the CUCCR has already diverted 6334.42 kg of waste and saved students $43,394.10. Over the 2023-2024 school year, the centre saved students over $100,000. 

Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) finance coordinator Ryan Assaker has been very active in the movement to save the CUCCR, in part due to ASFA contributing a yearly fee-levy to the centre. 

“The CUCCR has been so vital in helping out the student community,” Assaker said, “and so, for ASFA, we can’t just see an organization such as the CUCCR disappear in front of our eyes.”

Reuse programming and sustainability specialist Anna Timm-Bottos is the founder of the CUCCR and the only employee. 

According to her, without the CUCCR, most of the waste that the centre currently diverts would end up in a landfill, as it usually comes from departments with limited storage space. 

For Doniewski, volunteering at the CUCCR helped make him more aware of the abundance of waste at the university and globally. 

“Interacting with that abundance has completely changed the way that I sort of see the world and see the community,” he said, explaining that the sense of joy these items bring people gives him a sense of hope.

Assaker added that while he understands that Concordia needs to implement different financial measures, he takes issue with the administration making these decisions unilaterally.  

“We’ve had it happen with the shuttle bus, and now it’s happening with the CUCCR and it’s concerning [not only] as a student leader, but also as a student,” Assaker said. “You’re making these decisions, you’re not consulting the student base and then you’re just basically pulling the rug [from] under our feet.”

For Timm-Bottos, the support has been overwhelming.“It really shows how much of a community project this is,” she said. “I may have been a leader in starting it, but it’s really the community that is around us, the students, that make the project what it is.” 

Concordia University spokesperson Vannina Maestracci explained that no decision has been made about the future of the CUCCR and that the university values the CUCCR’s service to the community. 

Looking forward, the SFCUCCR is looking to host an art fair with work made using material from the depot to fundraise and raise awareness for the CUCCR. 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 5, published November 5, 2024.

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BREAKING: $360,000 CUTV incubation project questioned at AGM

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CUTV members raise concerns with ongoing MOU between the station and The Breach. Graphic Maria Cholakova

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

The station has been partly funding the independent media outlet The Breach since 2021

The latest Community University Television Concordia (CUTV) annual general meeting (AGM) saw some members raise issues with the station’s incubation of the independent media outlet The Breach. 

The arrangement was set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between CUTV and The Breach which was approved by CUTV’s board of directors on April 7, 2021.  

Funding and additional services 

As laid out in the MOU, CUTV’s incubation of The Breach was meant as a “mutually beneficial arrangement” between both parties, with the aim of The Breach becoming fully independent in the long term. The document outlined five payments to be made by CUTV to The Breach between Feb. 1, 2021 and Feb. 1, 2025, totalling $360,000.  

Terms of payment from CUTV to The Breach as laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding. Infographic Maria Cholakova

In a letter sent to CUTV’s interim board president, Mackenzie Smedmor explained their decision to not seek re-election as a director of CUTV. In it, Smedmor, who had been in the position since 2022, outlined their belief  “that the directors of CUTV should consider undertaking a candid assessment of the relationship between CUTV and The Breach.” 

According to Smedmor, between 2021 and 2024, The Breach received between 13.3 per cent and 25.9 per cent of CUTV’s total funding, with the total funds sent to The Breach equating to 31.6 per cent of the station’s total Concordia University undergraduate fee levy in that period.

“There’s always been two mandates of the station, and it kind of represents two purposes and visions, and sometimes two factions [regarding] what the station is about,” said Marcus Peters, former president of CUTV’s board of directors who held the position when the MOU came into effect, and a former board member of The Breach.

According to CUTV’s website, the station has two mandates: To “provide facilities, training and equipment for the Concordia community & Montrealers” and to “support production of alternative programming for those underserved by the corporate media.”

Peters said The Breach was conceived in relation to the second part of the mandate as a media organization that aligned with student values, especially as the equipment depot was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

He clarified that the decision was made to fund a media outlet separate from CUTV, as it would allow their coverage to have national reach and to shape “Canadian media discourse.” He argues that this would not have been possible if The Breach was a student media organization. 

CUTV’s current undergraduate fee levy sits at $0.34 per student, per credit, totalling over $200,000 every year according to Smedmor’s letter and CUTV’s 2023-2024 budget. 

For CUTV’s board secretary Allison O’Reilly, despite her personal “leftist” beliefs aligning with The Breach’s editorial line, she is skeptical of the decision to use student money to fund the organization. 

“I think that The Breach’s coverage can be fantastic sometimes, and I support them as an organization,” O’Reilly said. “I just feel like the justification for using student fee levy money in order for their existence is weak.”

For Peters, fee levy groups have a role to play beyond students and they can, and should, serve the “community as a whole.”

CUTV revenues and transfers to The Breach between 2021-2024. Infographic Maria Cholakova

In addition to funding, The Breach has received support in the form of sharing health insurance, financial audits, banking fees, government fees and payroll processing with CUTV, according to Smedmor’s letter. Both organizations also shared a bank account until a closeout agreement was discussed in a CUTV finance committee meeting on July 10, 2023. 

According to CUTV’s former financial administrator Olivia Champagne, The Breach had a separate checking account under CUTV’s business account, as The Breach was not yet incorporated and, as such, “could not open an independent bank account.”

Potential conflict of interest 

In their letter, Smedmor outlined potential conflicts of interest between both organizations. Namely, they point out that, in addition to being CUTV’s executive director, Dru Oja Jay is also the publisher of The Breach. 

According to Moshe Lander, a senior economics lecturer at Concordia, transparency is primordial when it comes to two joined organizations.

“Whenever you’re going to have two organizations that are joined at the hip, whether you’re calling one an incubator and the incubated or whether they’re just a joint venture, […] transparency is critical,” Lander said, “and transparency seems to be lacking here.” 

Peters believes the overlap was necessary since The Breach is incubated by CUTV.

“You want to have overlap for various reasons. Not only because of the necessary resource sharing to maximize the potential [of] the project that’s being incubated, but also to protect the investment,” Peters said. “You want to have those overlaps, so that you have increased accountability, increased transparency.”

Smedmor’s letter detailed how, in 2022, CUTV’s station manager shared their concerns that Jay was often absent from the station as he split his time between both CUTV and The Breach.

According to Clare Chasse, who sat on CUTV’s board of directors in 2022, Jay was wearing himself thin in both positions. 

“I think that [Jay] especially was completely at his working capacity [and] was not able to oversee his job as the executive director in a way that was beneficial,” Chasse said, adding that there was a lack of oversight from the executive director role held by Jay.  

According to Peters, Jay was not failing to meet his job requirements and was “accomplishing his job […] in an exemplary fashion.” 

Chasse claimed she never received proper training for her position on the board, stating that the majority of board members with seniority were mostly tied to and concerned with The Breach. She said that CUTV’s continued close relationship with The Breach is why she left the board.

“Myself and another board member that I know both had ended up leaving the board early because we felt like […] we weren’t going to be able to contribute properly because of the precedent that The Breach took on a lot of everyday things,” Chasse said. 

The Link contacted Jay for comment and he refused the request. 

The letter also outlined other potential conflicts of interest. In addition to being the former financial administrator of CUTV, Champagne is also the general coordinator of Solidarity Economy Incubation for Zero Emissions (SEIZE) and the co-founder and director of Populus Solidarity Cooperative. Populus offers bookkeeping, accounting, and consulting and training services. 

Champagne was one of four co-founders of Populus, serving as a user member representative for SEIZE alongside representatives for CUTV, the Hive Café Solidarity Co-op and the Concordia Food Coalition. Members of Populus include CUTV, The Breach and SEIZE as well as others. 

Champagne served as CUTV’s financial administrator from October 2020 to January 2022 and said her position had no decision-making authority. 

At the time of publication, The Breach’s website lists Champagne as a member of the board.

Champagne claims that some government accounts were lost after The Breach was incorporated in June 2022. Following The Breach’s application to become a member of Populus, she was appointed to help recover access to the accounts in an administrative capacity she classified as “officers who are not members of the board of directors.” 

Lander believes that CUTV and The Breach should use different bookkeepers nonetheless to avoid any potential conflicts of interest, as the overlap can create “the whiff that something is wrong, whether it’s actually true or not.”

According to Champagne, both CUTV and Populus demand that individuals disclose potential conflicts of interest in relation to certain agenda items at the start of every meeting and step out of that portion of the meeting if conflict is identified. 

Transparency with members 

At the latest CUTV AGM held on Nov. 4, some members raised concerns regarding the station’s continued financing of The Breach. 

According to the minutes, CUTV ended the fiscal year with a $92,000 deficit, largely due to payouts made to The Breach, with financial recommendations including cutting costs and keeping a closer eye on financial transactions. 

At the AGM, member Cameron McIntyre proposed a motion for the board to opt out of the MOU with The Breach, pending legal consultation. The motion was seconded and, following a discussion period, it was called to a vote. 

Prior to the vote, two CUTV members left the room, including Peters, who called to recount quorum—the minimum members needed for a meeting to be valid. As quorum was no longer present despite the two members’ departures, the meeting was adjourned. 

Members present at the meeting, including McIntyre and Smedmor, deemed this undemocratic.  O’Reilly shared similar concerns. 

“The AGM showed […] that the members decided that they don’t feel [The Breach] is a priority for CUTV anymore,” O’Reilly said. “The pushback by other members and some staff members, I find, is disrespectful because they should be listening to what the membership wants.”

Peters disagrees.“I would say it’s not undemocratic for a member to choose how and when they engage with a general meeting, but what is undemocratic is […] 14 to 16 people making a decision on a station that represents hundreds of members for the rest of the year,” Peters said, adding that he does not believe the opinions presented at the AGM represent those of the whole membership.

According to O’Reilly, the motion presented at the AGM was not planned beforehand. 

“I think that certain people at CUTV assumed that this was a planned attack, but it wasn’t, it was just independent people seeing the facts and then reacting to those facts,” O’Reilly said.

This isn’t the first controversial CUTV AGM. In February 2020, following a sudden increase in membership in the two weeks preceding the AGM, CUTV members accused board members of stacking the vote with friends and family to ensure their election to the board.

Peters says that this increase in membership was, rather, a form of campaigning for the new board’s plan to incubate a new media organization. 

“We mobilized dozens of students to come [to] the general meeting where I was elected,” Peters said. “It wasn’t one that barely met quorum. It was like 60 or 70 people that came out, because we knew that it was like a super serious undertaking.”

According to the station’s by-laws, members need to sign up at least 14 days in advance to be eligible to vote. Following the 2020 AGM, a removal vote was held at a special general meeting (SGM) in August where members voted to not remove their board of directors by a margin of 10 votes. 

According to a document The Link obtained, in the days following the AGM, 20 new CUTV community members have signed up.

A SGM will be held in the coming weeks for the membership to vote on CUTV’s involvement with The Breach. 

A previous version of this article stated that quorum was no longer present at the CUTV AGM following the two member’s departure. This is incorrect, quorum would not have been present regardless. The Link regrets this error. 

BREAKING: $360,000 CUTV incubation project questioned at AGM Read More »

Concordia president’s base salary exceeds $500,000

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Graphic Maria Cholakova

Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

A breakdown of Concordia University senior administration salaries in 2023-2024

In the 2023-2024 academic year, Concordia University President Graham Carr received a $33,352 salary increase, up 6.84 per cent from the year prior. Carr’s salary totalled $520,829 including other taxable amounts for the year.

Concordia’s financial statements and statements of salaries for the year ending on April 30, 2024 were completed in October and released on the Assemblée nationale du Québec’s website on Nov. 29. 

The other highest-paid members of Concordia’s senior administration include VP of Services and Sustainability Michael Di Grappa, Provost and VP of Academic Anne Whitelaw and VP of Research and Graduate Studies Dominique Bérubé. They received salary increases of $10,133, $10,626 and $10,901 respectively.

Salary increases for university senior administration in Quebec must be made in accordance with the rules and regulations from the Quebec government, laid out in article 5.11 of the Règles budgétaires et calcul des subventions de fonctionnement aux universités du Québec.

According to Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier, the salary increases for senior administration were equal or equivalent to those given to other “unions and associations” at the university. 

She also claimed that the president and other senior administration members donated the amount of their salary increase for 2023-2024 to the university. 
 
The increases come as Concordia is facing what it refers to as “extraordinarily challenging times” following the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ)’s tuition hikes for English-language universities.  

Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) academic coordinator Angelica Antonakopoulos said that the recent cuts have resulted in ASFA executive members being spread too thin as they attempt to mobilize against different austerity measures.

“We’re sitting in these meetings with university administrators over and over and over and the response that we get almost ad nauseam is there’s just not enough money,” Antonakopoulos said, adding that she finds it hypocritical for senior administration to raise their salaries as they cut and reduce student services. 

“I’m very disappointed, evidently, but I’m also not surprised,” she said. “I kind of expected to see this coming.”

Antonakopoulos added that, even if administration members have given away the amount of their salary increase, she is nonetheless left wondering why they accepted the increase in the first place. 

“I think this just underscores the fact that Concordia acts in bad faith financially,” said Antonakopoulos. “There have been calls for both divestment and anti-austerity measures yet the university can’t even manage financial austerity.”

In the budget updates for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, Concordia outlined that it implemented cuts of 7.8 per cent to reach its goal of ending the year with a $34.5 million deficit, down from the original projection of $78.9 million. 

Cuts have included reducing the shuttle bus service, maintaining the hiring freeze implemented in the 2023-2024 school year, cutting courses with low enrolment, and the closing of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. 

Concordia president’s base salary exceeds $500,000 Read More »

A look back on student encampments and resistance

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Students set up McGill encampment for Palestine. Photo Hannah Scott-Talib

Zina Chouaibi & Geneviève Sylvestre,
Local Journalism Initiative

The dismantling of the McGill encampment was not the end of Palestinian solidarity in Montreal

Over the past year, universities in Montreal and across the world have witnessed a surge in student activism, with campus encampments serving as symbols of Palestinian solidarity.

Antler, a camper at the McGill University encampment, who was granted a pseudonym for safety reasons, was about to leave Montreal for summer break when the encampment was erected on April 27. Instead, she chose to stay in the city to show her solidarity.

“This is a student opportunity that doesn’t happen often. It’s the first encampment in Canada, it was in a school that is already on stolen land, it had a lot of backstory to it that was very important to us,” said Antler. “At the time of the encampment, it kind of felt like it was the most we could do.”

The encampment brought unprecedented attention to the issue of divestment, highlighting activists’ demands that McGill and Concordia divest from companies with connections to the ongoing genocide and cut all academic ties with Israel.   

McGill filed three injunctions in an attempt to get the encampment removed. Two were rejected by Quebec Superior Court judges, and the last was withdrawn by McGill after the dismantlement of the camp by a private security firm on Jul. 10.

“The fact that it was forcefully removed by mercenaries only contributed positively to the momentum,” a representative from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill said. 

According to the representative, the encampments showcased the unity and power of the student front.

“We had never seen this much media coverage on this topic despite divestment being a demand for the past two decades,” they said.

Antler was not present the day the encampment was taken down, but says she is very proud of what all the campers accomplished.

“Honestly, more than anything, more than disappointed, I was just very, very proud of how long the encampment stayed and how resilient the students were,” she said. 

The removal of the encampments did not mark the end of the divestment movement, but rather a shift in tactics. Activists like Hassan Ridha from the Palestinian Youth Movement are now focusing on long-term strategies that involve coalition-building across different communities.

“When multiple separate efforts are joined together, they become more powerful,” Ridha said.

Despite the lack of meaningful progress from university administrations, Ridha sees the rise in solidarity as a significant victory.

“I consider the unification of students, businesses, professionals and parents a major success of the encampment,” he said. 

According to the SPHR McGill representative, the Montreal community played a crucial role in supporting the encampments and keeping the movement alive.

“The Montreal community has supported us throughout the encampment with donations for what was necessary to keep the encampment alive,” the SPHR McGill representative said. “That in itself plays a huge role in achieving divestment.” 

Currently, activists like Ridha are looking to engage new supporters to sustain the movement, particularly incoming students who may be unfamiliar with the history of the encampments. 

“To engage new supporters, it is important to be as present as possible in as many places as possible,” Ridha said. He believes that by expanding the movement’s reach and involving more communities, the movement can continue to grow and evolve.

“At the end of the day, we are students who don’t want our tuition money to go to the funding of a genocide,” the SPHR McGill representative said. “That is such a simple ask: justice.” 

With files from Maria Cholakova

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 1, published September 3, 2024.

A look back on student encampments and resistance Read More »

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