This is what democracy looks like

Students voted overwhelmingly against expelling some corporations from Concordia at the Sept. 26 general assembly. The general assembly was called by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) President, Sabrina Stea.
Students also voted to allow the Engineering and Computer science Association (ECA) and the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA) councils to select their own representatives for the university governing bodies of the Board of Governors (BoG) and the university senate.
Stea said that the subjects for the general assembly were decided by students, councillors and employees of the student union.
She added that about 750 attended the general assembly. Quorum for assemblies is about 550 people.
Another motion that was voted upon, before the general assembly lost quorum was on whether Concordia should expel Bell Helicopters Textron Canada (BHTC), Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and Nortel Networks. The motion stated that these corporations had supplied the tools of war to bloody operations all the world, where human rights were being violated at the hands of the military.
David Bernans, the CSU researcher, supported the motion at the general assembly.
He had also written a controversial article about some of the corporations that were to be expelled.
Students for the motion said the situation in Columbia was as an example of what these corporations were doing. Those in opposition to the motion concentrated on the potential loss of job opportunity and financing.
Speaker Seana Miller appealed to students and cautioned them to remember that five companies had already withdrawn from the CASA and ECA career fairs, as they felt they had been accused of corporate crimes. She warned students that passing such a motion would send a strong message of anti-corporatism to companies.
Jason Leigh said students might suffer from the passing of the motion and suggested a more active approach. “These companies provide us with jobs. What are we going to do when they pack up and leave? The best thing that could happen would be for us to be recruited by these companies, and once we’re in, work to change their policies.”
“Students voted overwhelmingly ‘nay’ on this motion. I heard someone say ‘This is the day that students took the student union back.’ It was important that this general assembly happened because the executive is not compromising with students,” said Chris Schulz.
The other two issues on the agenda, a motion to re-instate expelled students Tom Keefer and Laith Marouf, the capital campaign fee motion and a motion of sympathy to the victims of New York were not discussed as quorum was called and it was found that it was lost.
Stea added that she wished that students had discussed more at the general assembly.
Additional reporting by Diana Thibeault

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