3,600 students support ouster of CSU executives

A petition seeking to recall the CSU executive has received over 3,600 signatures.
The petition, which was officially submitted on Dec. 19, has been signed by more than the 10 per cent of students required to trigger a recall election. But new rules governing recall petitions, passed by council just three days before it was officially submitted, may cause the petition to be thrown out.
Petition organizer Patrice Blais said he’s willing to go to court if a recall election isn’t called. “This is probably going to be their pathetic attempt at saving themselves,” he said. “They’re probably going to be like, ‘oh well, you don’t respect our new rules that did not exist when people signed your petition.'”
But CSU VP communications Elie Chivi said it doesn’t matter when the petition was started, only when it was handed in.
“A petition isn’t deemed to exist until it’s filed,” he said. “Because there’s no official process to say ‘we’re starting a petition, so anything from now on can’t change,’ unless the petition has already been filed, there’s absolutely no way to say that something is started.”
Blais doesn’t agree. “You can’t do that, first of all, it doesn’t have any legal grounds. Anybody with just a bit of brains will know it doesn’t make sense.”
“If it has to go to the superior court, then it will have to go to the superior court. This will be, again, another example of them spending student money to try and fight the will of their membership,” he said.
Chivi said that while the CSU is prepared to defend itself in court, they’d rather see any disputes over the petition handled by the CSU’s judicial board.
“If we have to go to court, we’ll have to stand up for what’s right,” he said.
The decision on whether or not an election will be called will be made by council chair Jessica Nudo.
The new rules, introduced on Dec. 16, require every page of recall petitions to include the full text of the CSU bylaws governing recall, the name of the president or representative that is the subject of the petition and names and e-mail addresses of “up to three promoters of the petition.” None of which are on Blais’ petition.
CSU councillor Louise Birdsell Bauer, who supports the petition, said the new rules make sense, but not the timing. “I think it’s obviously a political move,” she said. “I think the timing is very curious and very convenient.”
“Say these were brought up in September or October . . . I think they make a lot of sense,” said Birdsell Bauer.
While Blais said he thinks it’s significant that the 268-page petition received so many signatures, Chivi said he thinks students were misled into signing.
“Having heard the story that people were told and having been around petitioners I know the information they were given was completely inaccurate,” said Chivi.
The petition accuses the CSU of failing to stop the international tuition fee increases, something Chivi takes particular issue with.
“Its’ such a misleading statement, when the entire Concordia community was involved in the initiative to stop the fees for an entire year,” said Chivi. “Obviously it doesn’t state that we took the university to court, it doesn’t state that we saved students over $1.4 million.”
He said he hopes Nudo rejects the petition.
“I think it would be rather unfortunate to see students have to pay so much money for a by-election when this has been falsely floating as the will of the people, or a grassroots type of initiative, this is clearly not that.”
But Birdsell Bauer doesn’t think students were misled.
“I think it’s very significant. I think students are an informed population, more than the general population, and I don’t think students are the type to sign something they don’t agree with, or feel misinformed about.”
E-mails to Jessica Nudo were not returned by press time.

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