Author: Laura Marchand

Concordia University bought three floors of the building for $9.5 million

Cracking bricks, building-wide leaks and ceilings that weren’t up to code—these are just some of the issues inspectors raised to Concordia after visiting the Faubourg Ste-Catherine, years before the university purchased three of the building’s floors for $9.5 million.

The inspection report, obtained by The Concordian through an Access to Information Request, was presented to Concordia after being commissioned by the university in December 2010. The document details the condition of the Faubourg after Concordia University had already established classrooms in the basement level.

According to the report, the outer walls of the structure exhibited discolouration, which indicated “a faulty assemblage, leakage, infiltration and/or other potential problems.” In addition, some bricks were seen “to have become loose and/or got chipped,” and cracks were noted in some of the exterior wall bricks. The documents added that the causes needed “to be investigated and treated and should not be overlooked nor neglected.”

The document also delved into the second basement floor, which is currently used as classroom space for the university. Inspectors noted that that level—which was already occupied by Concordia at the time—was in need of certain repairs.

Areas of the ceiling needed “to be replaced and corrected … because of damages possibly because of [a] leakage” that permeated several floors of the building. Inspectors also found a wall with “a vertical crack on the north side of the building,” as well as a particularly damaged wall elsewhere on the floor. The benches in the common area were singled out for replacement, due to the chipping of the marble and the poor condition of the leather on the banquettes.

There were also notable problems with staircases in the lower floors. The report claimed that several stairs needed to be refinished, including the stairs connecting the first and second basement floors, in addition to the curved staircases leading to the lower classrooms.

The inspectors also assessed floors five and six of the Faubourg, which were purchased two years later by Concordia for $4.5 million. The report noted areas such as handrails and the ceiling height were not code compliant, “and would need to be adjusted and/or replaced.” The report also noted a circular staircase between the fifth and sixth floors that was apparently blocked off and “[seemed] to be dangerous.”

Ultimately the report assessed the fifth and sixth floors as being in good condition. However, it also claimed that areas of the walls, ceilings and floors “need to be added or replaced as they are missing, broken, or damaged,” and that some places “need to be treated and repainted as they have been affected by leaks and/or water.”

Accessibility was also raised as an issue, with no way to reach the sixth floor without taking the stairs.

The escalators and elevators in the space were also assessed. The due diligence report for the escalators claimed that two of them were not compliant with safety codes, lacking a “large number of safety devices [which] are not installed on those units.” The escalators were also not well-maintained, as the report found “that a lack of preventative maintenance is leading to premature deterioration of some components.” It estimated that the cost for modernizing the escalators in question would be over $120,000 over two to five years.

The elevators were found to be acceptably maintained, however, the life expectancy for all of them was found to be five years or less from the time of writing in 2010. One elevator would require over $135,000 to repair; another two would require an estimated $160,000 combined.

Marie-Christine Houle, a Media Relations Coordinator with Concordia University, confirmed that renovations were done to the fifth and sixth floors, in addition to the ground floor lobby exiting onto Ste. Catherine St. No renovations were done to the basement space.

The total budget for the Faubourg project was approximately $10.5 million, according to Cléa Desjardins, Senior Advisor for External Communications at Concordia University. Following the purchases for the space, that left approximately $1 million for renovations.

“The renovations [made] are largely functional and include architectural and mechanical upgrades,” said Desjardins. “The Faubourg’s central location and the fact that it could meet our academic needs made it a solid option.”

The report also wrote that “the purchase of phase four [floors five and six] precedes the purchase of phase one [ground to fourth floors].” Concordia representatives could not confirm by press time whether or not the university had ever considered purchasing the entirety of the Faubourg building.

Click here to view Faubourg Report

A data-visual portrait of our university

The Refugee Centre is asking for a $0.37 per credit fee-levy

A group of concerned students and alumni are asking Concordia’s student body to approve a new fee-levy to support students in Canada as immigrants and refugees. The money—37 cents a credit, or $5.55 a semester for a full-time student—would be used to create a new Refugee Centre within the university.

The centre would be equipped to handle the unique problems associated with these communities. For example, the Centre would be capable of helping new arrivals navigate their immigration status, school work, career choices, housing, and legal issues.

“For the past couple of years we’ve been getting a lot of students come to [club offices] with problems and issues—and most of them were immigrants or refugees,” said Abdulla Daoud, one of the directors of the proposed Refugee Centre. “[We wanted to] give an opportunity to Concordia students to utilize their skills in whichever area of study they’re in to help out and aid these students in need, who are refugees or immigrants or newcomers to the country.”

Daoud says that existing resources at Concordia may not be equipped to handle the specifics of immigration law, which led the organizers to seek a new, specialized space.

In addition to helping newcomers to Canada, the Refugee Centre will also help established Concordians get valuable job experience. “We hope to have 20 internships that students can apply to, and get experience, so that when they reach the real world or they graduate, they have something on their resume,” said Daoud. “They’re done something that actually relates to their degree. That way both the students and the refugees and immigrants can benefit together.”

The organization has already been in talks with a number of organizations, such as Concordia’s Syrian Students Association, Amnesty International and Concordia University’s administration, and is prepared to mobilize should the referendum pass. “We’re going to move forward with structuring it and hopefully opening in the downtown campus,” said Daoud.

Daoud says that “the majority of the money will be going back to the students,” and believes that the amount of services the centre will provide will justify the cost. Even if the referendum fails, Daoud said they will try to offer what services they can without the fee-levy support.

Several MAs now say they are leaving the organization, for good

It’s Schrödinger’s ballot box: until Thursday, ASFA—as it is now—is both alive and dead.

Concordia’s Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) held a referendum from March 16 to 18, turning to students to decide its future. The organization was asking whether or not its constituents—some 15,000 Arts and Science students—wanted the association to change its bylaws and restructure itself into a new organization, one primarily focused on supporting member associations (MAs).

The motion failed, with 329 votes against the proposed restructuring. 277 students voted in favour—a difference of only 52 votes. 95 voters abstained.

However, whether or not the vote is valid will be decided at ASFA council. Due to factors in the electoral process, combined with the narrow margin that decided victory, the legitimacy of the result has been called into question.

Question 3, which asked students whether or not they supported the bylaw changes, did not clarify what the bylaw changes were. A printed version of the proposed bylaws were also supposed to be available at the voting booths, however, for at least half a day, they were not.

“We asked the [Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)] to add a preamble to the question so there would be clarity that a change in bylaws meant an entire new structure for ASFA, however, he did not add a preamble,” said ASFA President Jenna Cocullo. “[This] could have resulted in many ‘No’s or abstentions due to inadequate information being presented … So we feel students were very uninformed and confused as to what they were voting on.”

The challenges do not end at the question itself. Jason Poirier Lavoie, President of the Political Science Student Association (PSSA) believes many factors could have affected the outcome. “By removing the preamble, changing the resolution on the referendum question, by removing the ballot package, by not training clerks, by misinforming students and even permitting campaigning material on the table, we believe that that difference in votes is so small that [the CEO’s] actions could have compromised it,” said Poirier Lavoie.

But others don’t believe the electoral regulations had any effect on the outcome. Elizabeth Duong, ASFA councilor for the Concordia Undergraduate Psychology Association (CUPA) and restructuring opponent, said the No Committee did not even campaign during the voting period. “There was an incident where there was a poster that said ‘Vote Yes for Referendum’ right on the polling booth,” Duong recalled.

David Easey, who was tabling one of the voting booths, described situations that made him question the electoral practices of his fellow clerks. (Easey also works as a member of the masthead at The Concordian.)

“A lot of people working at the tables would refer to the bylaw changes as having no frosh, when in fact, it was much more than that. And I felt that was a biased aspect, because frosh obviously resonates with a lot of people,” said Easey. “I don’t think people understood it was a complete restructuring, they saw it as a loss of a social event.”

Easey also referred to strange practices, such as photographing the ID cards of students officers deemed “sketchy” without the students’ knowledge, and placing the votes of certain students into envelopes with their ID numbers on them. “From what I understood, that’s not normal at all,” said Easey.

If council decides the question should be re-posed to the population, a second referendum will take place during General Elections, tentatively scheduled in approximately a month. But Duong believes that reviving the question would be an insult to students.

“It’s like ‘Hey we didn’t like your opinion so we’re going to keep doing it until we get a ‘yes’.’ I don’t think that’s fair to the students who really voiced their opinions to vote ‘No’,” said Duong, who believes the ‘Yes’ side is not accepting the result. “You ran in student politics to be there for the students, so to neglect what the students—the majority of students—wanted because it does not coincide and agree with what you wanted, I think it’s really unfair.”

But Poirier Lavoie believes a second referendum would let students understand what they are really voting on. “This gives us the opportunity to re-run the question, given all of these procedural errors that were done,” he said.

The results of the vote may have been the last straw for some, with seven MAs now claiming that they are going to leave ASFA. These MAs—who, historically, have been in support of the proposed restructuring—have formed a coalition to form their own non-profit, separate from ASFA as an organization.

While nothing has been confirmed in a written contract, “an agreement [has been] made between policy committee and this new coalition, where ASFA would transfer the money proportionate to the [student] population leaving ASFA,” said Poirier Lavoie, whose association—the PSSA—is one of the seven MAs who are planning on leaving the organization.

Other MAs include the Students of Philosophy Association (SoPhiA), the School of Community and Public Affairs Students’ Association (SCPASA) and the Liberal Arts Society (LAS). Poirier Lavoie confirmed there are some MAs that have not decided if they will be joining the coalition. The students belonging to the departing MAs will need to vote to approve their representatives leaving ASFA. At the Student Congress hosted by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) on March 21, a motion was passed in support of the MAs going independent.

“The MAs that wanted to pursue [the restructuring] … I’m not surprised that they would find another alternative means to step away from ASFA,” said Duong. “It’s up to their choice. If they want to separate from ASFA that’s what they’re going to do. They found a legal way to do it.”

Duong, who is also on ASFA’s policy committee, confirmed that they have discussed with members of the new coalition and are deliberating more concrete ideas regarding their departure. However the “contract isn’t official and hasn’t been ratified through council yet,” said Duong.

The council meeting, scheduled for Thursday, March 24, will have council voting on whether or not to take the referendum to General Elections. The contract between departing MAs and ASFA will also be discussed.

Two other questions were included on the referendum ballot, both of which passed. The first asked students to approve ASFA increasing its fees per credit in order to remain tied to inflation, which was approved with 333 votes for and 300 votes against, for a difference of 33 votes.

The second question sought to approve a new fee levy to fund The Hive’s Free Lunch Program, which would add an additional fee of 10 cents per credit per student. Due to an error in wording, the ballots from the first day of voting were spoiled. However, ASFA representatives claim the motion passed regardless with over 66 per cent of the vote.

Bones writer and producer Kathy Reichs talks about the fallacies in crime fiction

Flipping through the channels, it’s impossible to escape a certain genre: it’s not sitcoms, news programs, or reality T.V. For the past decade or two, there has been a juggernaut that’s ruled the airwaves—the ever familiar and ever-present “forensic drama.”

The fact behind the fiction was the topic of Concordia University’s newest Thinking Out Loud talk. The event “Connect the Dots—The Science of Crime” was presented in collaboration with The Globe and Mail on March 14 at the D.B. Clarke Theatre in the Hall building. The panellists included Cameron Skinner, an associate professor at Concordia’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Brigitte Desharnais, a PhD student studying toxicology; and Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist and award-winning novelist of the Temperance Brennan series, which was adapted into the popular television show Bones.

A professor in North Carolina, Reichs participated in a faculty exchange, leading her to teach at Concordia University for a year in the early ‘90s. While here, she became involved with Montreal’s local police—a role she refers to as “their bone lady.” She participated in solving a serial murder case in Montreal, which was the foundation of her first novel, Déjà Dead. That work went on to win the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Reichs also participated in identifying remains found at ground zero following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, testified at the United Nations Tribunal on Genocide, and is one of only 82 anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

Reichs believes that the public infatuation with forensics likely began in the early ‘90s, with a significant high-profile case. “In ’94, we had the OJ trial, where everyone was exposed … 24/7, wall-to-wall [with forensics]. We heard about blood splatter patterns and knife trajectories. I think maybe that was the source of when people started saying ‘Huh, there are people that do this in labs, let’s think about it and read about it.’”

She continued to describe the challenges that come with basing her books around forensics. “When you’re writing fictions and you’re writing science for fiction, it has to be brief and it has to be entertaining and it has to be jargon-free,” explained Reichs. “You can’t use acronyms and special terminology, so there’s a skill to doing that.”

Desharnais agreed that there are a lot of instances of bad science in popular culture that can be hard for someone working in the field to swallow. “There are a few shows [I watch] and I’m like ‘this is impossible,’ ‘this isn’t a standard technique,’ or ‘they can’t do this in 20 minutes!’” laughed Desharnais.

Skinner joked that he often looks at the fictional instruments in popular culture enviously, “but nobody seems to sell them!” he added.

Often, toxicology reports are not as quick as shown on television, explained Desharnais. “For toxicology in [shows like] CSI … usually the body is still on the table and they have the toxicology result, which is always maddening to me,” said Desharnais. “In the real world … the target is [to have] 90 per cent of the [toxicology results] out in 90 days.”

When asked if there was science that could solve some of Canada’s biggest issues—such as the staggering numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women across the country—Reichs said that science simply cannot solve mysteries on its own.

“Science can’t solve everything,” she said. “Some of it—a lot of it—is still done by the investigating officers and there has to be motivation for that.”

It is part of a patchwork of dots and teamwork that goes into crime-solving, the panellists said—a teamwork that is rarely portrayed in mass media.

“That’s one of the big fallacies when I watch shows,” said Reichs. “You have the same person who goes to the crime scene, who collects the remains, then goes back to the lab and does the analysis, and then goes out with the detective and interviews witnesses—it really doesn’t work that way.”

Instead, it is a patchwork of different specialized roles, she explained. “CSI techs go out to the crime scene, collect the evidence, bring them back—they’re done,” explained Reichs. “Then the lab scientists do their analysis … then they’re done.”

Skinner says that what is also often ignored is the long, arduous process that goes into science—a divide he describes as being stuck “in the stone age” and looking ahead. “It’s a systematic approach towards problem solving, and that is the essence of science,” said Skinner. “It’s not haphazard approach, it’s not a ‘get up in the morning and I’ve got the theory of everything’—it’s a very slow, methodical process.”

Reich’s show Bones has just been renewed for a 12th (and final) season on FOX, making it the longest-running scripted drama in the network’s history. Her books, the Temperance Brennan series and the young adult Virals series, are available in bookstores.