Dear Editor,
At the last monthly Student Council Meeting I was witness to possibly one of the most ridiculous displays of abuse of power I have ever seen. I believe these events need to come to light.
The Chair of the Meeting, who is supposed to have a semblance of impartiality, was blatantly preventing students from participating, and went above and beyond her powers concerning several controversial matters.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Chair took it upon herself to throw out three councilors (all from the GO slate), based on regulations what were at best tenuous and controversial. Neither the CSU standing regulations nor the Concordia University rules and regulations specifically make reference to the situations at hand (I won’t go further into this matter specifically for the privacy of those thrown out).
When one of the councilors in question (the other two were not present at the meeting) submitted a motion to challenge the decision of the chair, all of the Unity council members voted not to open discussion on the matter, curtailing the democratic process.
Although these councilors were thrown out, two members of council that were legally found guilty of electoral fraud are still allowed to sit on council.
I was there specifically to make sure a petition for a general assembly on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 12 p.m., which had been signed by over 300 students, was recognized. Since the petition was signed by a sufficient number of people, the chair decided not to add it to the agenda, but to approve it right away.
The chair then changed the date to Monday, Oct. 29, at 11 a.m., based on the fact that she had a midterm on the Thursday and that, as chair of student council, she needed to chair the general assembly.
I know this to be false, having organized a general assembly 2
