Author: Hadassah Alencar

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Concordia will not comply with the Quebec Human Rights Commission’s recommendations regarding sexual assault complaints, sources say

A case against the university will escalate to the Human Rights Tribunal

Concordia University has chosen not to comply with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission’s recommendation to change how it handles sexual assault complaints. The case will escalate to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, sources told The Concordian.

In June, the Human Rights Commission issued a decision that said Concordia’s procedure for dealing with sexual assault and violence complaints was overly rigid and formal, leading to a contradictory and adversarial method of processing complaints that was “likely to have harmful effects.”

The case was brought forward by a former disabled Concordia student named Cathy.* The commission ruled that she was a victim of discrimination based on her gender and disability and that her right to equality was violated through Concordia’s handling of her sexual assault complaint.

“The way that Concordia has responded doesn’t surprise me and feels very in line with the sort of obstructions that I faced going through the entire process,” said Cathy.

After the first assault happened outside of the university campus, Cathy said she called the police, reported the assault, and obtained a restraining order against her aggressor, a Concordia student, who was arrested following the incident. She also said she approached Concordia’s campus security about the incident to warn them about her aggressor.

When Cathy was assaulted by the aggressor a second time, this time on campus, she said that she no longer feels safe at the university because the aggressor did not respect the restraining order. Following the incident, she called the police once more, and he was arrested again. 

Once again Cathy went to campus security, who told her she would have to file a formal complaint to the Office of Student Tribunals for the university to enact any sort of punishment for the aggressor.

 

Cathy described feeling as though the university tried to delay the process of her complaint against her aggressor. After Cathy filed the complaint in March of 2015, it took more than a year for the student tribunal to hear her case, in May of 2016.

Cathy expressed that she did not want to be in the same room as her aggressor during the tribunal hearing. She had faced him once before in court, where he pleaded guilty to the assault charges.

Cathy was told that her restraining order against her aggressor would be enforced in the tribunal, and that she could submit her testimony by video. However, none of these accommodations were provided.

Instead, in order to have her case heard at the tribunal, Cathy said she was told to “make an exception” in her restraining order against her aggressor, so they could simultaneously testify in-person. She would have to sit in the same room as him and testify in his presence.

“It was very shocking and upsetting,” said Cathy. “I had … to be two people away from my attacker.”

Cathy was also told she could not have an immediate family member there at the tribunal for support or to speak as a character witness on her behalf. Her aggressor, however, was able to invite his parents as his character witness.

“It felt so demeaning,” said Cathy.

According to Concordia’s policy regarding sexual violence, which was updated in June of 2020, “accommodations that may be considered include: providing seperate rooms prior to meetings; alternatives to face-to face meetings through other means of participation such as telephone, video, Skype; use of an intermediary; pre-recorded answers and statements; prepared written responses; as well as the opportunity to have support and representation at any hearing or confidential meeting with the investigator.”

 

The outcome of the tribunal came in June 2016, and the aggressor was penalized for “threatening and violent conduct.” His punishment was 30 hours of community service to be completed at the end of the Winter 2017 term.

The tribunal also dismissed Cathy’s allegation that the incident constituted sexual harassment, but did not give her any explanation as to why it came to that decision, according to Cathy.

In April 2017, Cathy asked the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) to file a complaint on her behalf with the Human Rights Commission against Concordia University based on how her sexual assault allegation was handled. The Human Rights Commission took three years to make a decision on her case, arriving at said decision in June of 2020.

The commission outlined its recommendations to Concordia University in three parts. The first was that Concordia should award Cathy $15,000 in damages ($10,000 in moral damages and $5,000 in punitive damages for violation of her civil rights).

Secondly, the commission called on the university to remove all adversarial elements in how the university handles sexual assault and violence complaints.

Thirdly, the commission asked that members of Concordia’s Office of Student Tribunals receive effective training to further curb all adversarial approaches in dealing with complaints of sexual assault.

 

Fo Niemi, Executive Director of the CRARR, helped Cathy bring her case to the Human Rights Commission. Niemi told The Concordian that Concordia University has decided not to comply with the Human Rights Commission’s recommendations.

When questioned about this decision, Spokesperson Vannina Maestracci told The Concordian that the university “does not comment on matters that are pending before the courts or administrative tribunals.”

According to Niemi, Concordia University had months to comply with the decision. Niemi said the university’s reasons for non-compliance will only be known when the case goes to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.

Niemi said that Cathy’s case escalating to the Human Rights Tribunal would be “precedent setting.”

“Not only for Concordia but for all universities here in Quebec, in dealing with campus sexual violence, especially universities that have a code of conduct that supposedly bans discrimination, harassment, and violence,” said Niemi.

 

Cathy said she is going forward with the case so that, “no one has to go through this again. The system has to change.”

Niemi said the Student Tribunal has problems that are “structural and systemic,” highlighting how Cathy was forced to testify in person, close to her aggressor, without a security guard in the room.

Concordia’s Office of Student Tribunals is composed of student volunteers and a group of lawyers who serve as chairs during the hearings. Members are trained to rule on complaints brought forward by students, with the most aggressive punishment being expulsion.

Niemi noted the unequal class representation and inadequate experience among the Student Tribunal lawyers who chair the hearings.

“They are all corporate lawyers with backgrounds in business and tax law — that is basically a reflection of a certain class bias,” said Niemi. The lack of experience in  diverse legal backgrounds “should raise concerns about the fairness of the entire Student Tribunal process.”

“Why can’t we get lawyers with labour, human rights, or independent criminal defense experiences?” Niemi continued.

Niemi pointed out that the tribunal consists of a majority white panel. “The gross lack of diversity among the appointees, that in itself is a betrayal in [the university’s] commitment to diversity.”

Walter Chi-yan Tom, manager at the Concordia Student Union (CSU) Legal Information Clinic, said that the university’s decision not to comply with the commission’s recommendations are “not surprising and [are] systemic.”

“The university’s usual behaviour pattern when a human rights complaint is filed against Concordia is that the educational institution just tries to drag on the case as long as possible, hoping that the student will eventually tire-out, graduate, or disappear, and therefore the problem will resolve itself,” said Tom, “but unfortunately not for the victim of sexual assault or violence.”

Tom also brought up the insufficient human rights training and lack of diversity among the tribunal chairs.

“Where is their background in human rights? Where is their professional experience and training in dealing with survivors of trauma, especially victims of sexual violence? How can the university’s selection of only white corporate lawyers as chairs possibly be representative of Concordia’s diversity?” asked Tom.

Jennifer Drummond, manager of Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC), informed the The Concordian that the total amount of training on sexual assault cases provided to both the chairs and volunteer students of the tribunal is one hour of a PowerPoint presentation. 

“How is this system survivor-centric? Trauma-informed?” said Tom.

Cathy said she hopes her experience sheds light on how universities treat victims of sexual violence and how “flawed this whole procedure and the student tribunal was.”

 

Concordia spokesperson Maestracci told The Concordian that the university has continuously updated their “original sexual violence policy in 2018 and 2020 (June) with inputs from members of the entire university, including students.”

*to protect the subject’s identity, we are using her preferred pseudonym.

Graphic by Taylor Reddam.

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Concordia Student Union News

Concordia’s online fee-levy opt-outs delayed to Winter 2021

Concordia administration plans to disregard some recommendations made by fee-levy groups

Concordia University’s online fee-levy opt-out system is delayed until January 2021, with the administration looking to implement changes that veers away from recommendations made by fee-levy groups, which are student-run organizations funded by the student population at large.

Concordia Student Union (CSU) Student Life Coordinator Eduardo Malorni, who is currently communicating with the administration regarding the new system, told The Concordian two of the six recommendations made by fee-levy groups will not be followed as written, with “four of them being followed more or less.”

Fee-levy organizations are elected by students through a CSU referendum to receive funding from the student population. The organizations provide a variety of different services for students, including food services like free meals and groceries; environmental, gender and advocacy centers; and student media organizations like The Concordian, The Link, and CJLO. They are not clubs, but function independently from the CSU. The majority of groups charge less than $0.40 per credit. 

Last year, the CSU held a referendum on the implementation of an online opt-out system. A majority 61.1 per cent of the student population voted in favour of a system that would be “created in consultation with all fee-levy organizations,” according to the “Fee-Levy Consultation Report.” The report was drafted by a CSU committee as per mandated by the referendum.

The fee-levy organizations outlined six recommendations for the online opt-out process.

According to Malorni, the first recommendation rejected by the Concordia administration is that students be required to read comprehensive descriptions of the groups they want to opt out of before being presented with a legal letter describing exactly which services they are agreeing to lose. For example, if a student wants to opt out of paying fees for People’s Potato, they will first need to read a description of its mandate and services, followed by a legal letter confirming the loss of said services, i.e. free meals and emergency food baskets.

“This process will exist for every group in order to give them a fair chance to showcase what they do and provide to the Concordia community,” reads the recommendation in the report.

Instead, the administration plans to implement a system that provides a general legal letter that applies to all fee-levy groups. Malorni said the letter would be presented before students even select which groups they want to opt out of and before they have the chance to read their descriptions.

The second recommendation Concordia University plans not to follow, according to Malorni, is that every fee-levy group description should include “an external link to learn even more about the group.”

“[Concordia] said they did not feel comfortable having links going outside of the Concordia domain,” said Malorni.

The link would only work if the group was on the Concordia University domain. There is no information as of yet if the administration will create or update existing webpages for each fee-levy group on the Concordia website.

According to Malorni, the groups will also have “only a few paragraphs” to describe what their organization does for the Concordia community, rather than the comprehensive descriptions requested by fee-levy groups.

Malorni will bring up these stipulations during a CSU council meeting next Wednesday, in which it will be determined whether “council still feels comfortable moving forward … knowing that the recommendations they specified aren’t 100 per cent being followed.”

Malorni told The Concordian the next CSU council meeting will be on Sept. 16. Fee-levy group members are encouraged to come to the council meeting to discuss their concerns.

A controversial process

The former General Coordinator Christopher Kalafatidis ran for CSU council on the “Cut the Crap” slate that included the online fee-levy opt-out system in 2019.

The “Fee Levy Consultation Report” was presented by Kalafatidis, who was now a councillor, in a CSU council meeting on June 10. A majority voted to have the university’s administration develop the online opt-out system.

Several fee-levy groups said they felt the consultation process with the CSU was insufficient.

Emma Campbell, Internal Coordinator of the Concordia Food Coalition, expressed concern about a system that does not provide sufficient information about what fee-levy organizations do.

“Ethical responsibility towards other students may be removed if students are able to go in and click all of the fee-levies that they want to be removed from without necessarily knowing what the fee-levies do or how this will impact other students,” Campbell said, citing the weekly emergency food baskets provided to Concordia students by groups such as the Concordia Food Coalition, Frigo Vert, and People’s Potato.

“I also fully understand students who are extremely financially strapped and who need to opt out for these very real and personal reasons that affect many disadvantaged students,” added Campbell.

In May, CSU councillor Margot Berner received a slew of documents revealing Kalafatidis had begun the opt-out system with the administration long before he consulted with fee-levy groups.

Berner accused Kalafatidis of not doing enough to include the input of fee-levy groups.

“I think that the content of those emails showed that the fee-levies were not as involved in the process as establishing online opt-out as Chris was leading everyone to believe,” said Berner. “I think it was a failure to do the work that he was mandated to do.”

Kalafatidis said he was only having conversations with the university because he claims the administration “might have gone ahead and created the system without my input.” He added that he gave the fee levy groups “weeks” to fulfill the consultation process, which took the form of a CSU survey distributed via Google Docs.

“I think there was more than enough input. We created, I think it was a 40-60 page document, containing the input of every fee-levy group that contacted the CSU,” said Kalafaditis on whether he sufficiently consulted the fee-levies. The “Fee Levy Consultation Report” was 44 pages.

“We actually used the feedback to heavily modify the online opt-out system proposal,” said Kalafaditis.

Francella Fiallos, station manager at CJLO, Concordia University’s campus radio station, said she was disappointed with the consultation process.

“They had a detailed plan as to how the online opt-out process would look well before fee-levy groups were even talked to, so it just showed that the consultation was not even going to be respected,” said Fiallos on the documents Berner brought to light.

“We submitted our concerns of having a formal consultation process replaced by a Google Doc,” Fiallos continued. “That report kind of doesn’t really have an accurate comprehensive view of how fee-levy groups feel.”

For the fall, fee-levy organizations have agreed to implement the same opt-out procedure they had during the summer, which required students to contact the groups they wish to opt out of directly.

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Concordia Student Union News

Clashes at CSU meeting underscore the union’s internal division

Members describe a growing “toxic” environment

A contentious last council meeting of the summer highlights the Concordia Student Union’s (CSU) divisive internal culture, with some members saying there are accumulating instances of alleged racism and political bias.

The heated exchange happened during the discussion of a motion to publicly condemn the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Unite the Right, and any other groups with “identical goals and ideologies” at the special council meeting on Aug. 26.

Isaiah Joyner, Executive General Coordinator of the CSU, expressed that he did not recall an official anti-racism position in the CSU Positions Book and that the union should take a broader stance on the issue of racism, instead of denouncing individual organizations.

From there Joyner said the CSU could create “a stringent policy within the organization as to what we define as anti-racism, what we define as hate speech.”

The debate turned sour after the now former councillor Christopher Kalafatidis, who resigned during the meeting, accused Joyner of refusing to denounce the KKK, and insinuated that Joyner’s issue with the motion was geared towards the councillor presenting the motion, not the motion itself. The councillor presenting the motion was the now former councillor Mathew Levitsky-Kaminski, who resigned after the meeting.

Levitsky-Kaminski himself alleged to The Concordian that there is political bias against him on council because of his conservative views. “[The CSU] has a history of anti-conservative thought processes and approaches to certain situations,” said Levitsky-Kaminski.

During the meeting, Kalafatidis expressed disdain for Joyner’s opposition to the motion.“I just saw the general coordinator of the CSU refuse to condemn the KKK, because there’s something else we could be doing. That’s a ridiculous reason not to condemn the KKK,” said Kalafatidis. Joyner responded he did not appreciate the accusation that he, as a Black person, would refuse to condemn the KKK. “Think about what comes out of your mouth, before you say it, because it has an effect on people,” said Joyner. “It hurts.” Joyner became visibly distressed and walked away from the video call.

“Honestly, [it was] one of the most racist things that has ever been said to me in a professional context,”

Joyner said, in an interview with The Concordian after the meeting. Joyner denied the insinuation that he only spoke against the motion because of a personal issue with Levitsky-Kaminski. “That I would take something so sensitive to my community, to my culture, and to my experiences in life, and then think that I would put all of that aside, just to stick it to somebody?” Joyner continued.

Following Joyner’s departure in the council meeting, Executive Academic and Advocacy Coordinator Sarah Mazhero, another Black member of council, said, “This is so heartbreaking, that this is a cycle we have to repeat over and over.” The incident follows a highly contentious summer in which several motions were tensely debated, and members described an increasingly divisive environment.

Former councillor Danielle Vandolder-Beaudin interrupted Mazhero during her speech to ask if the council could keep the discussion “on track.” Chairperson Caitlin Robinson, who mediated the discussion, said she was not going to stop a Black council member from expressing herself and allowed her to continue.

Shortly after, both Kalafatidis and Vandolder-Beaudin left the council meeting video call and sent their resignation while the meeting was still in session, as confirmed by chairperson Robinson. Both Kalafatidis and Vandolder-Beaudin told The Concordian they resigned because they were graduating.

“I just felt like it was a waste of time at that point, and I was going to wait until the end of the meeting, but the moment a motion on condemning the KKK is ripped apart and criticized, that’s just when [I’ve] got to go. I felt like there was no point to being there anymore,” said Kalafatidis, later explaining his fast resignation in an interview.

Several members of the council told The Concordian that situations which come off as inappropriate or alleged racist comments or actions against other councillors are consistent in the CSU.

Councillor S. Shivaane described an incident involving Kalafatidis during a recent diversity training, where he said he never learned anything at these trainings, and left early with Vandolder-Beaudin. Kalafatidis has confirmed this instance with The Concordian, expressing that the CSU needs to do a better job at diversity training.

“I’m not saying I don’t want to do diversity training,” Kalafatidis said. “I’m just really well read on, I don’t know, let’s say, all the theories of racism that currently exist. No one at the [diversity training] has been able to say anything that I haven’t read on the internet before.”

Kalafatidis said he is not concerned about how his words will come off.

“I know at this point that anything I say will be misconstrued in a way that will be used against me. I could say literally anything, like I could even say we should condemn the KKK and I’ll get criticized for that, which is what happened at the meeting.”

S. Shivaane said in regards to Kalafatidis and Vandolder-Beaudin, “I think … their CSU track record [has] been very insensitive when it comes to issues relating to discrimination.”

Vandolder-Beaudin said that these allegations, “seem quite over exaggerated, trying to hurt my reputation when in reality these attacks are just stalling tactics to make sure things don’t get brought up or passed.”

For Joyner, what concerns him is the lack of willingness to communicate and be mindful about speaking on race issues with other members of council.

“People [are] dismissive, they don’t acknowledge their peers. [Council members have] been told ‘I hear you, but I don’t think that that’s an issue,’ or ‘I don’t think that that’s a concern,’” said Joyner. “When you dismiss your peers, or you’re so close-minded that you don’t want to hear your peers, this is a dangerous thing.”

Although Joyner expressed the need for a broader stance on anti-racism during the council meeting, the CSU Positions Book does currently have a position against racism. Joyner said that nevertheless there is a need to “create more [strict], stringent policies,” that would be maintained in the CSU.

At the meeting members agreed with the intent of the motion to denounce groups like the KKK and Unite the Right. But many, such as Joyner, felt the motion needed additional work and could have received more input from other councillors before presenting it to council.

We shouldn’t be doing the brainstorming in the meeting. Take it to the people outside the meeting and work on it together and bring the final product to council,” said Joyner.

Kalafatidis was adamant that the only reason people were against the KKK motion was due to an internal faction rivalry.

“There’s a lot of rivalry on council, and it’s no secret. I’m sure to anybody that the council’s a very toxic place and the reason it’s a toxic place is because there are different factions on council, and to me what happened was it was just a consequence of, you know, two factions — one faction lashing out against another faction.”

The motion to condemn the KKK and Unite the Right was eventually voted to be sent for amendment to the CSU’s BIPOC committee.

“By sending it to other committees it’s not going to condemn the KKK any much more that we needed to do during that meeting,” said Levitsky-Kaminski to The Concordian.

Joyner said that, despite ongoing tensions in the CSU, he does not want the union to be defined by such divisiness.“Anything good that happens is done both (sic) through collaboration which requires parties to come together and to listen, to hear each other, and to understand each other.”

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Anonymous group of activists and protestors topple Sir John A. Macdonald statue following a peaceful protest to defund the police

The incident exposes Canada’s divided opinion over the the legacy of the former prime minister

A peaceful Montreal protest in favour of defunding the police ended abruptly on Saturday after a 125-year-old statue of Sir John A. Macdonald was toppled by an anonymous group of activists and protesters.

Politicians such as new Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and Mayor Valérie Plante have largely condemned the act, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying Monday, “those kinds of acts of vandalism are not advancing the path towards greater justice and equality in this country.”

The protest was organized by the BIPOC Coalition for Liberation. In an interview with The Concordian, Elijah Olise, one of the coalition’s founders, said, “what we wanted from the protest is not what we got, because [we] got a lot of attention on the statue, and that’s not what we went out there for.”

“We were caught by surprise just as much as everybody else. Do I condone their actions? No…but also I do not condemn [them],” said Olise.

The protest was coming to a close on Saturday afternoon, during which approximately 60 protesters remained at Place du Canada park. According to Olise, another organizer had set up a speaker system located roughly 250 metres away from the Sir John A. Macdonald statue for the closing ceremony speeches.

Olise introduced the speaker list and remained in front of the crowd of protestors watching the final speeches.

Meanwhile, several people had climbed up the monument base to stand next to the statue and install banners, a regular occurrence at various protests over the years.

Olise said he was focused on the crowd when a rope was thrown to the ground by people standing next to the statue. A few individuals grabbed the rope and started pulling, with some protestors joining in to help.

At around 2:45 p.m., the statue of Sir John A Macdonald came crashing down on the hard pavement, with its head flying off while protestors cheered.

“The statue came down in a very short amount of time,” said Olise.

SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant said that after the statue fell, the SPVM announced over a P.A. system for everyone to leave the area “for safety purposes and to establish a perimeter.”

“I realized at that point I was probably a target as an organizer,” said Olise. He said the police shot rubber bullets at him and other organizers and protesters as they collected equipment and left the area.

Brabant said, “there was no confrontation and no physical intervention.”

 

On their Facebook page, the BIPOC Coalition for Liberation wrote, “these racist monuments don’t deserve space.”

The organization added a list of demands for the police-defunding movement, such as reparations for the BIPOC community and RCMP off of Indigenous lands. They later added the “removal of all statues, plaques and emblems both on public and private property of any person, act, symbol, or movement that promotes or has promoted slavery, anti-Black racism, or anti-Indigenous racism.”

A flyer with the headline “TIME’S UP, JOHN” was distributed following the toppling of the statue, stating it was a deliberate act by an anonymous group of activists.

“We offer this action in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of Tio’tia:ke, Turtle Island and across the globe,” the flyer continues, “and all those fighting against colonist and anti-blackness in the struggle for a better world,”

Olise obtained a copy and shared the contents with The Concordian.

 

An image of the flyer distributed after the statue was toppled, courtesy of Elijah Olise.

Serge Simon, Grand Chief of the Mohawk council in Kanesatake told The Concordian he was “torn” regarding whether the statue should be permanently removed, or should stay as a “reminder.”

He explained how the former prime minister’s actions against Canada’s Indigenous Nation still resonate today, stating “everything Macdonald did laid the groundwork for later on, for the RCMP interventions against First Nations to the residential schools … Macdonald planted the seeds of First Nation suffering.”

“The lessons of history just can’t simply be wiped out by taking down the statue. Maybe the statue could remain, as a reminder of what not to do,” Simon added.

Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, expressed concern over how the statue was removed, “if anyone should bring it down it should be the politicians, it shouldn’t be protestors.”

Nakuset said politicians should look into Macdonald’s history and compare it to the reconciliation promises that have been made.

“Don’t put up a statue without actually putting reconciliation forward,” said Nakuset.

Nakuset added that the statue could be replaced by Mary Two-Axe Earley, a human rights activist who helped change laws that discriminated against Indigenous women.

According to tweets by Valérie Plante, the city plans to reinstall the statue with new historical information on the former Prime Minister.

“Some historical monuments, here as elsewhere, are at the heart of current emotional debates. I reiterate that it’s better to put them in context rather than remove them. I am also in favour of adding monuments that are more representative of the society to which we aspire,” Plante said.

On Tuesday morning, Trudeau tweeted regarding a National historic designation for residential schools, saying, “We must acknowledge the dark and shameful chapters of our past, including the residential school system that tore Indigenous families and communities apart and has had enduring impacts on Indigenous peoples across the country. We must make sure such acts are never forgotten.”

The last residential school closed in 1996.

 

The SPVM has confirmed the statue has been taken by the City of Montreal for repair.

The SPVM is investigating the incident, and is working to identify a potential suspect involved.

 

Photo courtesy of @noreornot on Twitter

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News

Leaked conversations reveal ASFA executive may be ineligible

Discovery prompts questioning of ASFA’s application process

Messages leaked to student media reveal an executive of the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA), a student group that represents Concordia undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts and Science, is allegedly ineligible for the position they hold.

The revelations have prompted questions into ASFA’s application process. According to messages on the ASFA Slack channel, one executive is not a regular student in the Faculty of the Arts and Science, which may disqualify them from holding the position.

The messages contain statements from John Hutton, ASFA’s general manager, who said the Dean’s Office had inquired whether all executive members are registered in the faculty.

Hutton said the email was unusual and proceeded to ask if anyone in the group is not part of the faculty.

The executive in question then revealed they are an independent student, as well as a visiting student. They expressed confusion over their status, stating that they pay ASFA fees.

 

The situation has called into question the vetting process for elected ASFA executives and eligibility requirements of independent and/or visiting students.

According to an anonymous ASFA member who leaked the messages, the executive’s status as an independent visiting student defies article 21 of the ASFA bylaws, which states that eligible executives must be “undergraduate students registered in an honours, specialization, major, minor or certificate within a program of study in the Arts & Science Faculty.”

ASFA’s Standing Regulations outline that if an executive was elected while ineligible, they are no longer able to hold their position.

 

A senior administration officer at ASFA’s Dean’s Office said the administration always checks with ASFA members whether all the students on the committee are actually enrolled with the faculty.

ASFA is currently looking into the issue and will follow up shortly with a statement. The communications team did not respond to requests for an interview, and the executive in question has yet to respond to our request for comment.

 

Update: In a statement posted to social media on July 15, ASFA referred to the issue as an oversight by ASFA election officials.

“[The executive] believed that she was eligible due to the ASFA fees that she paid,” the post read. “What should have happened was that the electoral officers of ASFA checked her student ID # on the membership list, and told her then that she was ineligible to run, at the time when she submitted her nomination forms.”

According to the statement, a meeting with all ASFA councillors will be called to further discuss the issue.

“ASFA executives who are in violation of the by-laws may be removed from their position with a 2/3 vote of the ASFA council. She is not automatically disqualified from holding the position,” it wrote.

The statement also discussed how visiting students are prevented from “fully participating in their ASFA community.”

“This is concerning to us,” it continued. “Ensuring that all students at Concordia have the rights and protections afforded by a union is something we intend to follow up on and advocate for.”

The statement also contained an apology and message from the executive in question, Phoebe Lamb, ASFA’s academic coordinator.

Lamb wrote that she is hoping to transfer her credits from her university in Halifax, and work on becoming officially enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

“I want nothing more than to continue to be ASFA’s Academic Coordinator,” Lamb wrote. “It is extremely important to [me] that the ASFA community is aware of, and has a say in this matter.”

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News

Peaceful protest against police violence followed by clashes between officers and demonstrators

Over 20,000 Montrealers came out to support a message against racism and police violence yesterday.

Clashes between police and protesters broke out Sunday night in the aftermath of a peaceful demonstration against police brutality. Organizers of the protest said they want the focus of the event to remain a message against racism and police violence.

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people gathered downtown to attend the protest, which had been dubbed Justice for Victims of Police Killings and was organized by a group of community activists. The event was created in solidarity with protests in the U.S. surrounding the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota last week after a police officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes. Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit 20 dollar bill to purchase cigarettes.

Marlihan Lopez, one of the protest’s organizers, said the event aimed to address the systemic issue of police violence not only in the U.S., but in Canada as well.

“This is not an American issue, this is also a Canadian and a Quebec issue,” said Lopez, before naming Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Black woman from Toronto who died after an intervention with the police last week. Police had been called to assist in a domestic conflict involving Korchinski-Paquet. Shortly after arriving, police emerged from Korchinski-Paquet’s apartment and informed her family that she had fallen from the 24-story balcony. The incident is currently under investigation.

Protesters take a knee in front of a police line that had formed later in the evening.

Those who attended the protest said they came to support changes to systematic injustice. Chants such as “No justice, no peace,” “I can’t breathe,” and “Black lives matter” rang out throughout the march.

“I have four boys and we live to make sure that they will be growing in a safe place,” said Karen Abelard. “[Being] here is important not only for us, but for the future, for our kids.”

26-year-old Lindsay Williams, a white protester, said,“I feel like we need to use our voice and our privilege to do this. Even though this is scary and uncomfortable, it’s time to be scared and uncomfortable.”

Events began to turn around 8 p.m. Although the majority of protesters had left the area, police began lining up in full gear on certain streets, blocking the path.

“The moment that we want to do something for Black people they’re blocking us off,” said an anonymous protester in response to this issue. “We’re being peaceful about it [but] we’re still not getting the chance to get our word across.”

At 8:11 an SPVM bus equipped with a loudspeaker announced that, as some protesters were engaging in unlawful conduct, the protest was now deemed illegal. The crowd was ordered to disperse.

SPVM relations told the Concordian, “at this point objects were thrown to [sic] police officers, so that’s why we gave the warning and said that the demonstrations were illegal— some criminal act[s] had already started.”

According to Luca Caruso-Moro, a Concordia Journalism student who was live tweeting the event, there was still a large group of protesters demonstrating peacefully in front of the SPVM headquarters on St-Urbain when the message to disperse was played.

“[This] was then followed only seconds later by several tear gas canisters being shot into the air,” said Caruso-Moro.

Protestors dispersed as the police line advanced and officers continued to shoot tear gas canisters. Meanwhile, some individuals began breaking windows on the Bell building on St-Urbain, while other protesters yelled at them to stop. Some protesters gathered to form a barricade, which was eventually put to the side for a firetruck to pass.

“The majority of people that I saw continuing to demonstrate after the initial rounds of tear gas were fired were doing so peacefully,” said Caruso-Moro.

Clashes ended around 11 p.m., with officers continuing to monitor the area throughout the night.

Over 70 cases of mischief were reported, including vandalism and breaking and entering. Of the total 11 arrests, nine were for breaking and entering, one was for assault with a weapon, and one was for mischief. SPVM said that investigations are currently underway and may result in further arrests in the following days.

Marlihan Lopez said that, despite the clashes, the message of the protest should remain focused on justice against racism and police violence.

“The vandalism isn’t the story, the graffiti isn’t the story, the looting isn’t the story, and even the protest is not the story: the story is police violence, it’s anti-blackness,” said Lopez.

Another protest is scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 7.

Photos by Hadassah Alencar

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Concordia statement on Black Lives and demandsfor an anti-racist pedagogy

 

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Concordia’s fall semester is moving online

Concordia will be following the lead of universities across the country

Concordia University has officially announced the upcoming fall semester will be almost entirely online.

In an official statement made this afternoon, the administration said the decision was based on public health recommendations regarding social distancing, and that an online semester is the “responsible choice.”

Some exceptions will be made for courses that require hands-on learning, such as studio work, biology labs, and research labs. Concordia students involved with courses that are deemed an exception should expect big changes to how the courses will be taught in person. 

The administration said the in-person classes will be taught with “fewer participants than usual, attending on a rotating basis.” More details regarding which other classes will remain on campus are still to come.

Students that are unable or uncomfortable attending in-person classes will be provided an online option for in-person classes. 

Student access to campus life will also be affected, with all campus libraries closing during the fall. Online access to the library collections and research assistance will continue to be available.

Concordia’s announcement comes the same week as McGill’s announcement to move classes online.

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March against police brutality

Police move in on horse. Photo by Alex Hutchins.

The annual march against police brutality on March 15 is an international protest dedicated to raising awareness of the rights of citizens and supporting victims of excessive police violence.

Despite several other large gatherings being cancelled over the coronavirus, the protest took place.

Usually, the contentious event involves clashes between officers and protestors resulting in mass arrests, injured police officers and citizens, and vandalism, since its creation in 1997. This Sunday’s protest included a protest gathering, testimonials and speeches by victims of police brutality, such as Marie Dimanche who spoke about the issues of political corruption in Haiti.

The event was co-created and organized by the Montreal-based Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP), an autonomous group dedicated to denouncing violence by police through marches, workshops, research, and other social projects. According to COBP, there were a total of 150 people and three arrests at the protest on Sunday. The SPVM, however, said there were no arrests made.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, some conversations on notable issues of police brutality in Montreal were absent. This included speaks on the death of Pierre Coriolan who was shot by the SPVM and Gabrielle Duchesneau, who had suffered a fractured skull during a demonstration on International Workers’ Day in 2012.

Consisting of victims, witnesses and those troubled by police violence, some members choose to remain anonymous to not be targeted by the authorities, including a member of the COBP who helped organize the march and goes by the alias 1312.

“It doesn’t matter if it is a right or a left [government], the repression is always there,” said 1312, speaking of the theme of this year’s event, “Police everywhere, justice nowhere.”

He explained how the focus of the protest would also include solidarity with social movements against authoritative repression targeting citizens’ rights and freedoms. He mentioned issues abroad in countries facing government oppression such as Chile, Haiti and Iran, and here in Canada with racial profiling.

A report last year documented how the SPVM has a systemic bias in targeting racial minorities during street checks. The findings drew a wide range of criticism, with many defining the acts of the police as racial profiling and remarks from city officials such as mayor Valérie Plante for calling for a change in SPVM’s conduct.

“We already knew it was happening, the sole difference is now, it is written on paper,” said 1312, who explained the situation with the police concerning racial profiling in Montreal has not changed. “We are inundated with calls, people sending emails, and of people who are victims of racial profiling.”

Adeela Arshad-Ayaz, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Department of Education at Concordia University and a fellow of Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability. Arshad-Ayaz researches and teaches on a variety of social subjects and issues, from multiculturalism to extremism.

She said, “Nobody is cut off from wider society. So police whether its police, or lets say academia, from where I am from, we are all a part of a bigger society, and the wider societal discourses they work on us and we are living in times where the tolerance is low and people try to take shortcuts, and we try to categorize people in small groups and label them and then it’s much easier for us to access that information.“

Arshad-Ayaz said that unlike those working in academia who have time to ponder decisions, “the nature of their [police] work is such that they have to take instantaneous actions.” She added that the only way to combat it is to increase transparency and to have, “balances, checks and measures, so that we can avoid brutality and violence because in the end we are all human beings and we can all make wrong decisions.”

The SPVM refused two attempts made to contact them for comment on the protest.

 

Photos from archive – by Alex Hutchins (2017)

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How to recognize, reject and report during Fraud Prevention Month

This March marks the 15th edition Fraud Prevention Month in Canada, dedicated to educating and increasing awareness among Canadians on how to recognize different types of fraud, how to avoid attempts and report incidents if they become victims.

Just last year, Canadians lost $98 million dollars to fraudulent activity according to the Canadian government’s Anti-Fraud Centre. While stereotypical scams still exist––CRA scam calls––fraudulent methods have evolved and have become more difficult for victims to steer clear of.

Jeffrey Thomson, a senior intelligence analyst for the RCMP, said the biggest change in scams targeting Canadians over the years is their direct approach.

“It used to be they’re trying to trick them into sending money and trick them into, you know, congratulations you’ve won a prize, or whatever the con was but today its just, you owe back taxes and if you don’t pay right away you’re going to be arrested and charged, fined, deported,” said Thomson.

In 2019, the top reported form of fraud was extortion, where information or money is urgently demanded through scare tactics like threats and blackmailing. CRA tax scams through illicit phone calls are still a nuisance throughout Canada, but new methods involve holding a person’s personal data against them.

Scammers use methods such as hacking a person’s webcam and recording them visiting explicit websites or doing something personal. This can include emailing pictures of personal data including SIN numbers or old email passwords, or locking a person out of their own email.

Thomson said it is important to recognize the variety of forms in which these types of fraud can occur, specifying: “over the phone, internet, social networking, email, text messaging –  just over the internet through fake websites.”

“Anytime you get an unsolicited call, text message, email, whatever it might be, that’s requesting personal or financial information, and requesting to make the payment in an urgent nature, you got to take a step back, you got to stop, you got to think about it, don’t react, don’t pay, don’t provide the information, do your due diligence, and then report,” said Thomson.

Thomson also said that victims of fraudulent messages can call the police, who can redirect them to a contact for help. The type of information being used to threaten the victim will determine what institution they will need to contact—such as, if a SIN number has been stolen, Service Canada must be contacted for help.

Kata Rados spoke at the Montreal Fraud Prevention Month launched by the Competition Bureau of Canada about popular modern scams that target Millenials and Gen-X. Rados, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, highlighted how social media has become a popular tool for fraud.

An example Rados used was health marketing scams: “scammers sometimes offer what appear to be legitimate alternative medicines and treatments that quickly and easily treat serious conditions–often endorsed by celebrities or sham testimonials.”

Rados said that sometimes people’s insecurities can entice them to share personal information and to buy an item from a sponsored post on social media. Before making the purchase, she recommended being vigilant with online offers. Taking the time to check if the company is legitimate and has good reviews, is one way to not fall into a trap.

For Jessie Arens, a second-year honours English literature student at Concordia, it was wanting to save money on clothes that made her the victim of a scam. She first saw a clothing company advertisement on Facebook. After reading some reviews and seeing videos about the company, she decided to make her first purchase.

She paid to receive items in a week, but after 4 weeks, her items hadn’t even been shipped. Fortunately, after a dozen emails and several calls, Arens was able to receive a refund for her $75 purchase.

She says the website looked legitimate, adding that “there were a ton of amazing reviews, which I found out after much digging were fake reviews. Other website and Facebook comments warned against ordering from them and described similar experiences to mine.”

The Competition Bureau has information on how to spot potential fraud in their free online book Little Black Book of Scams, available through their website.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Science can help reduce stress following traumatic events, breakups

Montreal-based clinical psychologist reprograms memories

A Montreal-based clinical psychologist expanded his treatment from PTSD patients to those who have experienced terrible betrayals in romantic relationships. The innovative treatment can reprogram traumatic memories with the help of a beta blocker drug and therapy.

In 2008, Dr. Alain Brunet created a treatment called the “reconsolidation therapy,” or the “Brunet Method,” which treats patients with PTSD or victims of crime or terror attacks, such as the one in Paris in 2016.

In short, reconsolidation therapy involves therapy sessions in conjunction with a blood pressure drug that alleviates the negative surge of emotions when remembering a traumatic memory.

Brunet was a student at the University of Montreal in 1989, when the Polytechnique shooting occurred. What he interpreted as a lack of care for those affected with psychotraumatic disorders after the attack inspired him to find a cure for people suffering from PTSD.

In 2015, Brunet turned to treating romantic heartbreaks and betrayals, with one of his former graduate students, Michelle Lonergan. Lonergan worked on the project as her PhD at McGill University. She said this method is “based on this idea that the trauma memory was really at the root of the disorder.”

For six weeks, participants in the study took propranolol––a drug normally used for treating high blood pressure––one hour before a weekly therapy session, where they read their personal handwritten account of the traumatic event. They would re-read the account every session and speak about the event itself with Brunet. Lonergan said at the end of the study, two-thirds of the participants experienced an overall reduction “in the severity of people’s symptoms and reactions.”

While the method may be reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for some––a movie where a couple erases the memory of their terrible relationship together. Lonergan said no memory is lost, only updated––comparing the process to editing an essay.“Let’s say we have an essay on a computer and the essay is written, it’s saved to our hard drive, well when we open the essay and make changes to it and re-save it, then it’s updated with that new information,” Lonergan said.

The memory we store is saved in two different parts of the brain: the dry element––the factual, visual occurrence––in the hippocampus, and the emotional portion of the experience in the amygdala. When a traumatic event occurs, it activates the adrenergic system––our stress system––pumping adrenaline into our brain, and the memory registers with a stressful, heightened emotional response.

When an affected individual recollects the event, or experiences a trigger, such as what they ate, saw, were wearing, or even smelled in those moments, it activates their adrenaline to the amygdala and the memory re-creates a surge of uncontrollable negative emotions. This tolls the person’s mental health and wellbeing.

“For some people, that system can become overactivated, and that would result in putting an emotional stance on the

memory that is just extremely powerful,” Lonergan said.

The drug for the treatment isn’t new. Propranolol is popularly used to reduce high blood pressure and heart rhythm disorders, but it has another quality that makes the treatment possible. It’s an adrenergic beta-blocker, meaning that it works by blocking the surge of adrenaline to the amygdala when re

membering the traumatic memory.

According to testimonials on Brunet’s website, patients described the initial version of their traumatic memory as so emotionally discharged, it feels like someone else wrote it.

Kanica Saphan, a sexologist counsellor who works with individuals and couples in Montreal, said that a lot of the baggage people carry from bad breakups is from negative stories they create from their experience. “It will become like a story of how we were either ugly, unworthy or valuable, that we had something to do with it,” she said, adding that such stories are created for many reasons, including misunderstanding the causes of a breakup.

For her counselling, Saphan works by developing a therapeutic relationship with her clients. She

uses “talk therapy,” meaning she develops a human connection with clients to work through issues and heal over time. She said she does not prescribe medication, and that while reconsolidation therapy can work for traumatic experiences, she suggested that using propranolol pills could restrain people from learning to use their own internal coping tools.

While Saphan hopes the treatment will not add to “pill culture,” where medication is used to treat an excessive range of emotional afflictions, Lonergan said the pill does not mask symp

toms. It can provide a significant change, and the treatment is short––roughly four to six weeks. Patients are not medicated long term, Lonergan said.

Lonergan suggested that the treatment could be expanded in the future, to other areas where people suffer psychological strain from emotionally-charged events.

Graphic by Jad Abukasm

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Food insecurity among post-secondary students

The largest cross-campus study on food insecurity among post-secondary students conducted in Canada, called Hungry for Knowledge, found nearly 39 per cent of students participating during the year-long study experience some form of inadequate access to food.

The survey analyzed the financial barriers causing food insecurity and the negative impacts on physical and mental health, which affects two in five students. The cost of food (52.7 per cent), tuition fees (51.2 per cent), and housing costs (47.5 per cent) were the most common contributors to food insecurity. Socioeconomic status also played a role: Aboriginal and racialized peoples, students who live in residence and students who use government student financial assistance programs experience some of the highest rates of food insecurity.

Erin Barker, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University, did a collaborative report on food insecurity at specific campuses across Canada, including a pool from Concordia University. The results are in line with the Hungry for Knowledge study, and showed that the first-year Concordia students surveyed who have food insecurity are at greater risk for mental health issues, including depression, anxiety and perceived stress in comparison with students who are food secure.

Barker said that to better address food insecurity on campus, more research on the issue has to be conducted. She said different circumstances, such as students who need immediate help for groceries and one who needs a meal to get through the day, would require different methods of assistance. The University may not currently have specific data on how the issue manifests and that would deter the institution from providing the best resources, “we don’t know what the pattern of food security is, to know what the best interventions are.”

One of the initiatives in the Hungry for Knowledge project is the Meal Exchange program, which is a survey program that works directly with a post-secondary university to find data on their specific institution’s food insecurity issues, and show faculty, students and the administration the findings to better address the issue head on.

As of yet, there is no specific department at Concordia for students facing food insecurity issues, but there are several resources available spread across different departments on campus.

The Multi-faith & Spirituality Centre offers the Student Emergency and Food Fund, which are gift cards for Provigo or Maxi for students in financial crisis. Ellie Hummel, Chaplain and Coordinator at the centre, said “the fund is heavily used every year.” Hummel said that many students who come in are facing financial issues such as problems with loan payments, unemployment and personal crisis situations. Most notably for Hummel, a considerable amount of international students seek out the service: “we have a higher percentage of international students [seeking emergency food funds] than we have percentage of international students at Concordia.”

The fund relies on donations accepted from the public and fundraising efforts. Hummel said that the exercise of giving voluntary donations from the Concordia community to the students is a privilege for her. She added that she often tells students receiving the donations, “this is money, but it also comes with encouragement and a real desire for you to succeed.”

Another resource is the Emergency Meal Plan provided by the Concordia Community Health Services, where different departments at Concordia, such as the Aboriginal Centre, Financial Aid and the Campus Wellness Clinic, can fill out a form after identifying a student facing food insecurity and $100 is uploaded onto their student card.

Anne-Marie Lanctôt, manager at the Concordia University Community Health Services said there has been a significant increase in the use of the program: in 2019, the program provided $6,000 for students compared to $1,100 in 2015.

For immediate daily food needs, there are soup kitchens across campus providing food for free or on a by-donation basis.

The People’s Potato is a vegan soup kitchen at the downtown campus where students can line up from Monday to Friday, 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch. At the Loyola campus, The Hive Free Lunch program offers free vegan, wheat-free and nut-free meals for everyone, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Both kitchens operate during the Fall and Winter semesters.

 

Stock photos from Pexels

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Black History Month 2020

Photo courtesy of Napoleon Communications

The 29th edition of Black History Month in Montreal kicked off on Jan. 23 at Place des Arts with a conference that introduced this year’s theme, representative spokespeople and laureates, and the events that will take place in February.

This year’s edition of Black History Month is called “Here and Now,” which focuses on celebrating Black excellence through the achievements of the younger Black generation in Montreal, and encouraging unity and action towards Black cultural education in Quebec. 

Michael Farkas, president of the board of directors for Black History Month, said it “allows the opportunity for Black excellence to be recognized, it creates awareness for all people, it brings us together, and it reminds us that Black history is a part of all history.”

For Farkas, recognizing Black youth contributing to Black excellence is vital in empowering the generation of the future. “There is an urgency to see the Black community, and particularly the youth, to come in and really play the vital role that they can, so that’s ‘Here and Now,’” said Farkas. “That means there is a space for them and a place for them and they need to be totally invested in the fabric of our society.” 

Singer and songwriter Sarahmée Ouellet, and comedian and actor Aba Atlas were chosen as the spokespeople for Black History Month. Alongside them, 12 distinguished Black youth from Montreal who excelled in their respective areas, which include teaching, entrepreneurship, and the arts, were chosen as this year’s laureates. 

Shanice Nicole, one of the chosen laureates, is a feminist educator, writer and a curator of free community resources in organizations such as the Black Foundation of Community Networks Scholarship Directory and All Black Everything in Montreal. She is working on a children’s book scheduled for publication in 2020 called Dear Black Girls.

“Young people are revolutionary and throughout history, young people have always been at the front and forefront of movements,” Nicole said of this year’s theme. “[Young people] have such capacity for change and a willingness as well to change that I think is really exciting.” 

Atlas said his race never came into question in Ethiopia, where he grew up, as it is a predominantly Black country. 

“Once I immigrated to Canada, that reality changed because the environments are different,” said Atlas. “That led me to want to know more about what it means to be Black, and I think it led me to where I am today; the importance of my race, the importance of my identity in general, and how it helps me to navigate the world,” he added, crediting his journey of education and empowerment.

According to the Canadian government’s webpage on Black History Month, the lack of any proper Black history was what inspired historian Carter G. Woodson to found “Negro History Week,” in 1926, which became Black History Week in the 70s. In 1976, it finally became Black History Month. According to the Mois de l’Histoire des Noirs’ website, the month of February was chosen because it was the birth month of two celebrated slavery abolitionists: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. The purpose of this event was to educate the public and to empower the Black community by teaching Black history objectively and fairly, and to advocate for Black history to be taught in public schools.

Black History Month has been celebrated in Montreal for decades by public and private institutions. Despite this, it was only officially adopted into law by the Quebec National Assembly in 2007, inaugurating February as Quebec’s official Black History Month, according to the Mois de l’Histoire des Noirs’ website.

Catherine Verdon Diamond is a local weather and traffic presenter, and media personality at CBC. As the main public speaker and host of the event, Diamond invited the public to “get to know Black culture in all its forms, as infused into all of these shows, exhibitions, conferences and screenings more than 150 cultural and social activities themed around the achievements of Black communities will be in the spotlight.”

 

Photo courtesy of Napoleon Communications

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