When angry students attack
About 50 students from Cégep Vieux-Montréal stormed the headquarters of Quebecor in Old Montreal last Thursday, proceeding to throw smokebombs and committing other acts of vandalism. Premier Jean Charest’s office was also targeted. A student association from the Cégep indicated in a press release they targeted Quebecor to denounce its “libertarian ideology” and “anti-union” attitude, adding they were against tuition hikes. The company stated that the students ransacked a photo exhibit and destroyed some furniture, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,000 employees. The student association’s press release also indicated that actor and director Xavier Dolan could be contacted for further information, though that was revealed the following day to be an error.
ASFA wants a communications committee
A motion was passed at ASFA’s council meeting last Thursday to create an ad hoc communications committee to aid in the promotion of the organization’s activities. The idea was originally suggested by VP communications Natasha Launi, who indicated that she would like to have up to five students-at-large who could help market ASFA’s events by speaking to classrooms, developing ideas for posters and selling tickets, for example. Launi stressed that at the moment she does most of the promotion on her own. It was then decided that ASFA would promote the committee and officially fill the positions at its next council meeting. Launi expressed hope that the committee would eventually expand to even more members.
ASFA VP internal candidate sanctioned
In a judgment upheld by ASFA’s judicial committee on Feb. 9, ASFA VP internal candidate Tanya-Michelle Contente was given a three-day campaign ban for violation of electoral regulations. Contente had used the mailing server of Humanitarian Affairs, Concordia University (HACU), to promote her candidacy, but the JC found this to be unfair to her opponents because not all ASFA candidates have access to this server. A similar sanction had been imposed earlier on VP finance candidate Pier-Luc Therrien Péloquin for informing the ASFA council through the organization’s mailing server that he would not be present at the upcoming council meeting. ASFA CEO Nick Cuillerier confirmed that to date, there have been three contestations during the electoral campaign.
Most TRAC members have now been paid
Most members of Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia were paid as of Feb. 10, according to the union’s president Thomas Leonard, although one person whose contract wasn’t signed until Jan. 20 has yet to receive a paycheck. TRAC had filed a grievance on Feb. 8 with the Faculty of Arts and Science over the fact that its members had not received pay since they began work on Jan. 3. The office of the dean signed off on the grievance the following day. The main demands for TRAC’s grievance are the university respecting its collective agreement as well as working with the union in order to create guidelines that will ensure that TAs and RAs are paid in a timely fashion.
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