Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement passed with overwhelming majority

Over 900 undergraduate students attended the CSU’s special general meeting to vote for Concordia to divest.
The CSU Special General Meeting in H-110 Photo by Chantal Bellefuille / The Concordian

This is a developing story.

Over 900 Concordia University undergraduate students gathered in the Hall building to vote at the Concordia Student Union’s (CSU) Special General Meeting (SGM) on Jan. 29. Both motions passed with an overwhelming majority in a vote of 885 to 58.

The motions centred around ordering the CSU to demand the university comply with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and for it to be presented to Concordia’s Board of Governors (BOG).

“I feel extremely happy; I feel that, as a whole, we are making progress, and we are laying down change for a better future,” said Concordia student Laura Scarabello. “It’s nice to see everyone stand together in solidarity.”

This was the first SGM called in over a decade, the last being held in 2012 to extend the tuition hike strikes. At the time, due to insufficient attendance, the quorum was not met. With this decade-old result in mind, the CSU was concerned about student turnout before the SGM. 

“We were hoping to take quorum. [The CSU’s] biggest fear was that we wouldn’t,” said External Affairs & Mobilization Coordinator Danna Ballantyne. “So, to have more than double the amount of people that were needed to conduct this meeting was super surprising to us.”

The SGM was held in room H-110, which can accommodate around 600 people. It reached its capacity, and the CSU had to accommodate the remainder of the students in the mezzanine with a live stream.

“We had to plan on the fly and figure out how to set up an overflow space; we had to cut out extra voting cards … There was a great team of people who were really involved with making sure that the meeting ran smoothly. They were able to solve those problems with the clock ticking. So I’m really impressed with that,” said Ballantyne.

However, not everyone was happy with the vote.

“For me, this is very disturbing, and I’m very upset with the results,” said CSU Councillor and Chabad Concordia President Chana Leah Natanblut. “I really hope for better; I really want people to come together, to have a conversation, to have a dialogue, to find common ground. But when you vote in BDS, it really narrows those possibilities.”

This motion to divest will be presented to BOG at their next meeting on Feb. 6. 

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