student union

CSU delays vote to fire chief electoral officer

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

The CSU delayed a motion to terminate its chief electoral officer. Photo Maria Cholakova

India Das-Brown,
Local Journalism Initiative

Lack of meeting notice leads councillors to table motion

On June 11, at the first regular council meeting of its new mandate, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) voted to postpone a motion to terminate its chief electoral officer (CEO) following concerns about procedural fairness and transparency.

External affairs coordinator Danna Ballantyne presented the initial motion, citing months of unresponsiveness, bylaw violations during recent elections, and failure to notify the deputy electoral officer of a called vote. Multiple councillors reported similar issues, with some saying they never received replies to questions during the nomination period.

However, internal coordinator Leo Litke, among others, suggested that the CEO be given a chance to respond, noting that, due to technical issues, the meeting was not properly publicized. The motion was tabled to a later special council meeting (SCM) with Ballantyne’s support. Ballantyne retracted the motion.

The meeting, held over Zoom, was chaired by former CSU chairperson Michelle Lam, appointed after chairperson Angelica Antonakopoulos reported being unwell. Lam was nominated by Ballantyne and approved unanimously.

Agenda delays were attributed to IT miscommunications that left the new chairperson without email access ahead of the submission deadline.

As a result, a request from the fee-levy group Art Matters was not addressed in time and council voted to add Art Matters to the agenda. The fee-levy group’s general coordinator, Bridget McPhee, was able to ask questions about the CSU’s updated fee levy application process.

McPhee raised concerns about conflicting information across the CSU website, bylaws and policy documents. Ballantyne explained that the CSU recently dissolved its fee levy committee and that application procedures are being revised.

Council also approved a motion to move discussion of an office restoration proposal to the operational budget and appointed councillor Lili Daviault-Campbell to the Student Space, Accessible Education, and Legal Contingency Fund Committee, used for large-scale student-focused projects. These include infrastructure like the CSU building on Bishop St. and other initiatives that directly benefit student life, according to CSU finance coordinator Ryan Assaker.

Several councillors raised concerns that CSU meeting minutes had not been uploaded to the website for months. Ballantyne explained that the previous minute keeper stopped attending meetings partway through the last mandate. She added that the new minute keeper is now working to transcribe and finalize the backlog using recorded Zoom meetings.

“A big goal of the incoming executive team is to make sure that we clean up any messes left from the past mandate,” Ballantyne said.

The meeting was adjourned around 8:30 p.m. The date for the SCM on the CEO termination motion will be announced shortly.

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Concordia investigating Student Union over BDS vote intimidation

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By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Some 100 mostly masked anti-Israel activists held a protest last Thursday outside Concordia’s GM Building on de Maisonneuve West to press the Board of Governors to vote on a Boycott Divestment Sanction motion approved at a Jan. 29 Concordia Student Union meeting. There was a heavy police and Concordia security presence inside and outside the building.

Less than 2% of the Concordia student body participated in the BDS motion, which called for divesting from companies which the CSU says helped Israel in its war against the terrorist group Hamas. The Suburban has checked the minutes of the Feb. 6 Board of Governors meeting, and saw no reference to the BDS vote.

However, the Concordia administration has decided to investigate the Jan. 29 meeting, according to an email and a statement by university President Graham Carr. The email was sent Feb. 6, the same day as the Board of Governors meeting, to the CSU by Concordia provost Anne Whitelaw and Concordia VP of Services and Sustainability Michael Di Grappa.

Concordia is probing if the Hall building auditorium was filled beyond capacity for the vote and thus violated regulations, and also alleges that the mezzanine was used for additional voters without authorization. The university is also checking whether the CSU allowed the People’s Potato to serve food without permission.

The university also alleges that “there was discrimination against and intimidation of a group of students during the CSU event that took place in the auditorium. The information and reports that we receive suggest, among other things, that heavily masked individuals were present and created an intimidating climate, that chants glorifying terrorism and recognized terrorist groups were made and tolerated, and then opposing voices were silenced.”

As well, it is alleged that the CSU “permitted and facilitated conduct that compromise the values of civility, equity, respect and non-discrimination and created an intimidating and hostile climate for members of the Concordia community.”

As well, all CSU bookings for events on campus, including in the Hall building, have been suspended until the investigation is complete.

Also, in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 29 CSU vote, Carr released a statement that the meeting included the “presence of heavily masked individuals, complaints of discriminatory behaviour and the use of intimidation tactics. This behaviour is unacceptable on campus and contravenes our policies.

“The university has no input on the motions presented by the CSU or on its deliberative and decision-making processes. But we will examine the behaviour around and at the special meeting, and urge those who have complaints to report them.”

The Feb. 6 anti-Israel pressure protest, which took place hours after buildings at McGill were vandalized, included chants of “from the river to the sea,” “long live the intifada”, “close the campus”, and “if we don’t get it, shut it down.” There were also references by speakers to the “criminal administration” and there was an effigy of Carr, with the names of companies the CSU voted that the university should divest from, attached to the figure.

One masked speaker representing the CSU said the McGill vandalism should not be conflated with the bigger concerns of pro-Palestinian activists. Another speaker accused the administration of ignoring “acts of violent anti-Palestinian racism on campus,” and condemned Carr’s statement about the Jan. 29 meeting. A masked speaker from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Concordia made reference to the “Zionist entity” and the “shameless white supremacist administration” ignoring student demands.

The protest concluded with a march that had a police escort that proceeded to McGill University, which also had a Board of Governors meeting and where its buildings were again vandalized, this time with red paint. n

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Students voice concerns over Quebec’s newest financial barriers

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Graphic Sara Salsabili

Safa Hachi
Local Journalism Initiative

In the echoing halls of McMaster University, Nathalie White, a fourth-year psychology student, saw her grad school ambitions clouded by the news of a tuition increase, emphasizing the intersection of academic dreams with financial barriers.

“I had a list of graduate schools that I wanted to apply to next year,” said White. “I initially heard about the tuition increase briefly on the news and was immediately disheartened. I knew that I could simply not afford tuition fees.” 

“This may be a bit jaded, but it seems like they’re saying you’re not welcome unless you can afford it. I understand wanting to preserve French culture […] but that just means that whoever has the money can come,” she added. 

On Oct.13, Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) Minister of Higher Education Pascale Déry disclosed that the province intended to increase tuition fees for students from outside of Quebec. The new cost would rise from $8,992 to approximately $17,000 per year, starting fall 2024. Additionally, an established minimum tuition of $20,000 per year was stipulated for international students. For those who are already enrolled, they must remain in their current program for a maximum of five years, rendering deferrals and part-time studies more complicated.

This tuition hike hits Quebec’s English universities the hardest—Concordia, Bishops and McGill. Despite claims from Dery stating, “I’m not closing the door to any anglophone student,”  doubling out-of-province tuition undeniably imposes limitations.

Quebec French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge expressed in an interview with La Presse that, “We’re fed up with managing the decline, protecting the language, curbing the erosion of the language; these are all defensive terms. It’s time to regain some ground.”

In May 2022, Québec’s National Assembly passed Bill 96. The bill is designed to bolster the use of French in the province. The law spawned various initiatives, including Francisation Québec. Introduced by the CAQ on June 1, 2023, this initiative aims to centralize French learning services for immigrants, contributing to Quebec’s needs through temporary or permanent candidate selection, according to information taken from the Quebec government’s website.

During their first six months in Quebec, new immigrants are entitled to services in English. However, after this period, they are expected to handle services in French as effortlessly as resident speakers. This is despite the fact that the government’s own internal report on the feasibility of the acquisition of French within a six-month timeframe deemed it nearly impossible.

According to Julia Balot, a McGill student, there seems to be a lack of clarity between citizens and the government in regards to what Quebec is aiming to achieve. 

“It really makes me feel unwelcome here, especially by the government. Which is weird, because my day-to-day interactions with [Quebec-born francophones] tend to be pretty positive,” said Balot. “I’m happy to be able to go to a school like McGill […] but I definitely worry that the culture on campus might change. Amplifying this division between anglophones and francophones seems like a step in the wrong direction.” 

Students with a French citizenship or a francophone Belgian citizenship will be able to avoid the tuition increase. However, many Middle Eastern and North African international students speak French, but are subject to pay international fees. Yasmina May Hafiz, an international student from Morocco, called out the Quebec government’s double standard when it comes to French-speaking immigrants.

“I am already paying $24,000 a year,” Hafiz said.  

Hafiz comes from a country colonized by France, where French is a major part of her life. She speaks it fluently, both back home and here. 

“So why can’t I get lower tuition rates like French or Belgian citizens?” she continued.  “I moved here, pay rent here, work here, speak French here, I add to the so-called fortification of French, but I am no longer a desirable immigrant because I am North African,” she added.

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