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Concordia Student Union News

CSU executives asked to step down

VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon and VP finance Keny Toto were asked to resign  following a lengthy debate at the CSU’s regular council meeting,Wednesday night.The request for their resignation was a result of their roles in the mismanagement of funds for the ASFA Talks speaker series earlier this year.

As reported in The Concordian earlier this week, the motion was presented to council by Councillor Chad Walcott, who felt that Lauzon and Toto’s actions were in breach of a number of bylaws and standing regulations meant to provide oversight for the transfer or merging of funds from different lines in the CSU’s budget. In the ASFA Talks case, the offending decision was to use both the speaker series budget ($10,900) and the campaigns budgets ($20,100) to pay for a speaker at the event and to help with promotion.

At the meeting, councillors debated for over an hour about the intentions behind the move. The debate centered around whether Lauzon and Toto had received the authorization from then-president Schubert Laforest, and whether a request for resignation was too strong a punishment for their actions.

Lauzon, who outlined his involvement in the management of funds for ASFA talks in his executive report, admitted at the meeting that he and Toto had made a mistake in not correctly checking the bylaws before signing the contract that bound them to the payment of $30,000. Lauzon also said that when he approached both Toto and the CSU president about the matter and was told to proceed, he felt he had done his due diligence and did not check the bylaws himself.

“At the time I was totally ignorant of the bylaw that said anything above $10,000 you should go to [the financial committee], which is the entire reason we’re having this conversation, because I made a mistake,” he said. “I assumed that such a policy would have been made available to me when I approached both the president and VP finance, to ask them how do I go forward with this kind of transaction.”

The situation was made even more complicated when Laforest interjected via Twitter to say that he had had no such involvement and had not spoken to Lauzon about the issue or given him the go-ahead to proceed without consulting the finance committee. The Concordian reached out to Laforest to clarify his comments, but has so far received no response.

After the debate a vote was taken and both executives were asked to resign. The vote for Lauzon’s resignation received seven votes for and six votes against.  The vote for Toto’s resignation received 11 votes for and 2 abstentions. Although the requests for resignation are not binding, they could be followed by an impeachment if the request is denied and council decides to continue to pursue the matter. If either executive chooses to resign, they will need to send their resignation in writing to the chairperson of the CSU.

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Councillors to demand resignation of two outgoing VPs

The resignations of both the VP external and the VP finance of the Concordia Student Union are being asked for in a motion set to be presented at the upcoming CSU meeting, this Wednesday. The motion is a result of the mismanagement of CSU funds that led to a reallocation of $19,100 from the CSU’s campaigns budget without the proper authorization from council.

Outgoing CSU executives, VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon and VP finance Keny Toto are being asked to resign due to their roles in the mismanagement of funds allocated for the speaker series, ASFA Talks 2013, presented by the Arts and Science Federation of Associations. The series cost a total of $30,000, although only $10,900 was budgeted for such an event in the CSU’s annual operating budget. According to the motion, Toto was responsible for the decision to reallocate $19,100 from the CSU’s campaign fund without consulting with either the Finance Committee or Council. This is in violation of bylaw 7.8, which states that it is the responsibility of the VP finance to “ensure that the budget adopted by Council is respected” and standing Regulation 80 which state that “all financial transactions of the Student Union must be carried out in accordance with the Annual Operating Budget, or by a resolution of Council adopted by the Council of Representatives.”

Chad Walcott, the councillor who is due to present the motion at the upcoming meeting, told The Concordian that he first noticed the issue in Toto’s executive report and was concerned when it became clear that the decision to reallocate the funds was not brought to the Financial Committee by Toto or presented to Council.

“In my opinion, in a situation where such a large sum of money is spent in violation of so many regulations, and without any oversight from the appropriate bodies, it warrants a serious discussion about the continued service of those responsible,” Walcott said.

 Although Toto mentions the mistake in his executive report, Lauzon’s report describes the event in greater detail, stating that a number of factors led to the overspending and to the overall difficulties with holding the speaker series. He mentions that the recent budget cuts for universities was a factor, in that there was a sudden lack of funding from inside the university, despite earlier promises that Concordia would help finance a speaker series to be held at the school. As well, a tight deadline led to there being a rush to book a speaker and to make the payment on time. Low attendance was also a factor in the perceived failure of the speaker series.

“The event’s attendance was way lower than we would have liked,” Lauzon wrote in his report. “Although we tabled, had posters all around school, did some classroom presentations, as well as mentions in both the CSU and ASFA newsletters, we were unable to mobilize students to fill up H-110.”

Lauzon states that depending on the speaker, up to 150 students were in attendance at any one time. However, according to the CSU’s motion, there were only 47 students in attendance, which lead to a cost of approximately $640 per student.

In a written comment to The Concordian, Lauzon explained that ex-president Schubert Laforest, who was still in office at the time, was involved in the decision with Toto to combine the budget lines. Lauzon also questioned the attendance numbers mentioned in the motion, saying that they were not accurate, and criticized the fact that the motion included additional information that he felt wasn’t relevant.

“We’d all have an easier time dealing with this if the motion stuck to the relevant aspects only: the relevant accusations to dispose of an executive are clear in our by-laws…adding the number of students in attendance and anything else for that matter is simply an attack of character and will distract everyone from focusing on what is relevant,” he said. “What is relevant is that I combined two budget lines, and ended up paying more than $9, 999 for something without going to our financial committee…to me the rest is done in bad faith.

Lauzon also wrote that the decision to spend $30,000 on the speaker series was due to a surplus in funds.

“I was given primary control over both campaigns, and speakers’ budget lines at the start of my mandate. My understanding is that it was my responsibility to spend this money to benefit students as much as possible,” he wrote. “To reiterate the initial point, running a surplus is a negative thing to do for the CSU, and something I want to avoid. The $30,000 amount was decided due to my remaining resources at the time. After ASFA Talks I foresaw no expensive campaigns or events, so I identified this as an opportunity to have the best speaker  as possible.”

Lauzon wrote that despite any frustration he may feel towards Toto or former CSU President, Schubert Laforest, for their roles in making the transaction without proper authorization, he holds himself responsible for signing off on the decision.

 

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Wheeler takes the vote

Photo by Sophia Loffreda
Photo by Sophia Loffreda

Despite some late night hiccups and with only one contested position, the ballot counting for the Concordia Student Union elections finished with the CSYou affiliation being voted in for the upcoming academic year.

The only contested position, VP Finance, went to CSYou candidate Scott Carr with 617 votes in his favour. Competitor Pierre Tardivo had 364 votes.

The other CSYou candidates all received a similar number of votes. Roughly 900 students voted for CSYou, approximately 60 to 100 voted no and there were approximately 250 abstaining ballots.

All of the candidates running for council were also elected, including outgoing executives VP academic and advocacy Hajar El Jahidi, VP student life Alexis Suzuki and VP clubs and internal affairs Nadine Atallah who received 244, 279 and 41 yes votes, respectively.

The three referendum questions included in the voting were all passed by wide margins. The Greenhouse fee levy was granted its request for $0.12 per credit with a vote of 1142 for and 234 against. The Sustainable Concordia fee levy was granted its increase of $0.10 per credit, raising it to a total of $0.15 and the Concordia Food Coalition received a vote of 1,219 for and 145 against, in its request for support.

Three changes to the CSU’s bylaws were also adopted by the student body, despite a procedural mistake that almost let the alterations disappear since they were not initially included as referendum questions. A notice of requirement was not fulfilled and the CSU was forced to abide by a notwithstanding clause since the changes weren’t formally announced during postering.

In total 1,438 students voted out of more than 30,000 undergraduate students over the course of the three-day voting period, with women outvoting men by 783 to 655. The majority of the votes were cast by Arts and Science students, 816, with the second most common being Fine Arts students with 257 votes. John Molson School of Business and Engineering and Computer Science students voted the least with 182 and 133 votes cast respectively.

A last-minute mistake caught by Chief Electoral Officer Andre-Marcel Baril has forced a recount of the ballots in the JMSB building, but Baril has stated that the recount can in no way affect any of the results. Nevertheless Baril says that the recount must be done for the sake of procedure. An error left certain polling days with an irregular amount of votes and other dates with none for VP sustainability candidate Benjamin Prunty and VP student life candidate Katrina Caruso. The mistake is not expected to change the outcome of the vote but there will be a recount.

Speaking to The Concordian a few days after the ballots were counted, upcoming CSU President Melissa Kate Wheeler said that she and her team not only plan to shadow current executives in the coming weeks, but will also seek out past executives for advice and guidance. Wheeler gave Caruso as an example, saying that the incoming VP student life will be seeking out former VP Laura Glover for advice.

“Given that this year was not so great, it would be great to get a couple of extra people for training because I’m not convinced that this year’s executive knows what they are doing,” she said.

When asked about the fact that some of the current executives, such as Nadine Atallah and Alexis Suzuki, will be returning next year as councillors, Wheeler said that she was not concerned despite a history of butting heads this year.

“I trust that their intentions are good,” she said. “I think everyone has the best intentions at heart.”

No Fine Arts representation

Despite the intense campaign to fill empty Fine Arts seats on the CSU council earlier this year, not a single Fine Arts student ran for the CSU council for next year, leaving the department in a similar situation they faced after this year’s byelections. Steps taken during this election period, including specifically postering and campaigning in the Fine Arts VA building, did little to encourage students to involve themselves in next year’s CSU.

Recently-elected Caruso, herself a Fine Arts student, told The Concordian that while she was disappointed with the lack of Fine Arts students on the ballots, she understood the disconnect that made participation in the CSU’s affairs so uncommon.

“As a Fine Arts student, I’ve felt little connection with the Concordia Student Union prior to this election – and this is my third year at Concordia. Fine Arts students are incredibly under represented at Concordia, which is unfortunate because we have so much to offer,” she said.

Caruso added that the issue of communicating with Fine Arts students was one she hoped to address by fostering connections and building new relationships between students and the CSU.

“The major issue with the union is the lack of new blood — time and time again, people join the CSU because of their friends,” said Caruso. “I’d like to change that. I’m going to be working with FASA to have Fine Arts students at large run in the byelections, and win those seats.”

Any student wishing to see a full breakdown of the votes for and against each candidate and question can find them at the CSU elections website: http://csuelections.wordpress.com/

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Cast your vote

This year’s CSU executive candidates.

With the Concordia Student Union elections beginning Tuesday and running until March 28, the on-campus debates held at both campuses last week gave potential executives a last-minute platform to discuss relevant issues.

During the two events, topics like student apathy, improving communication with the student body and developing student space such as the Hive Café or the recently-rebranded student centre project were discussed.

Candidates fielded questions about their platforms as well as issues they hoped to address in the upcoming year, such as the perceived disconnect between students at the John Molson School of Business and the rest of Concordia.

The lack of any functioning CSU website all year was an issue addressed by presidential candidate Melissa Kate Wheeler, who said that a new website was needed for a number of reasons.

“There’s no clear place to go for any kind of specific question that any student might have and information is kind of scattered all over at the moment,” she said. “As well, there’s the fact that it doesn’t work. So yes, I think we will have to rebuild the website from the ground up. I think it’s needed not only on an IT level but also in terms of the logical flow and division of information which needs to be examined.”

The debates also gave the two VP finance candidates, Scott Carr, with CSYou and Pierre Tardivo, who is running independently, a chance to compare their ideas for issues like getting JMSB and engineering students involved with the CSU. Carr in particular spoke of his hopes of bridging the gap between JMSB students and the CSU.

“A lot of the times JSMB [students have] no respect for the CSU,” he said. “If they see an email from the CSU they’ll delete it right out of their inbox, it’s come to that point. When I was approached to run I discussed it with my peers and they said ‘Why in the world would you want to do that to yourself Scott?’”

Despite both coming from JMSB backgrounds, the two candidates had plenty to disagree about over the course of the two debates, with the subject of Reggie’s being the most contentious issue by far.

Carr claimed that Reggie’s problems began at the top with CUSACorp’s Board of Directors, saying that the students sitting on the board had no experience running a bar and no vision for the future due to the constant turnover. Tardivo expressed an interest in extending the mandates of directors to increase the board’s institutional memory and reduce the amount of information lost during turnover periods.

On the issue of increasing profit at Reggie’s, Tardivo expressed an interest in potentially serving food there, saying that in the past when it was tried, it proved very profitable for the bar, but Carr insisted that it was not a possibility as it would infringe on the exclusivity contract the school currently has with Chartwell’s to exclusively sell food on campus.

The debates also gave the potential executives a chance to discuss long-term goals beyond their mandates. Carr and Tardivo spoke about reducing Reggie’s debt and making it profitable, respectively, while James Vaccaro, the VP internal and clubs candidate discussed expanding sustainable food options on campus. Crystal Harrison, the candidate for VP Loyola, said that she hoped to put in motion the Hive Café and that it would continue to grow after her term was up.

“I actually hope that the Hive Café extends past my mandate because I want it to be a sustainable long-term investment that lasts for many years to come,” she said. “We’re going to lay down the framework and let it keep growing from there because I think it has so much potential.”

Melissa Kate Wheeler – Presidential candidate
Caroline Bourbonnière – VP external and mobilization candidate
James Vaccaro – VP internal and clubs candidate
Katrina Caruso – VP student life candidate
Crystal Harrison – VP Loyola candidate
Gene Morrow – VP academic and advocacy candidate
Benjamin Prunty – VP sustainability candidate
Scott Carr – VP finance candidate
Pierre Tardivo – VP finance candidate

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Pushing the boulder up the hill

News of the Hive Café’s impending opening has been circulating on a loop around campus for years now.

Stories and announcements can be found going back almost five years, each time Concordia Student Union candidates promising that the Hive Café would be opening in the coming weeks. Despite an investment of hundreds of thousand of dollars, and untold hours of work, the Hive Café is still not completed.

Despite a history of devouring any candidates that attempt to fix it, the Hive has found itself (once again) in the spotlight for the current executive campaigns. Candidates have made multiples promises during the campaign for how they intend to fix the broken student space, and despite what history tells us, outgoing VP Loyola Stefan Faina says he thinks they have a good chance of pulling it off.

“I like that the next executive hopefuls are talking about the Hive Café as much as they are,” he told The Concordian. “The Hive Café was not one of my campaign points but I took more and more interest in it as the school year progressed. The fact that the campaign right now is focusing as much as it is on the Hive is a good sign. I think they have what it takes to push the project forward.”

Crystal Harrison, the VP Loyola candidate with CSYou said that she hoped to find out what the community wants from the Hive and said that a member of her team had met that day with the manager of the G Lounge for an informal discussion about possible collaboration in the future.

“We foresee more of these conversations taking place,” she said. “We also plan to sit down with representatives from student groups on campus and in this way we hope to increase both the reach and relevance of our plans.”

Faina said that when he first came into his position as VP Loyola, the Hive was a concept and little else.

“There had been some work done towards setting it up in the past but the main problem always came down to a hesitancy on the side of the council and general manager to embark on what they saw as too great a financial risk,” he said.

Faina said that a lot of that hesitation came down to a few major issues: the rocky financial history of Reggie’s, the fact that no concrete business plan existed for the Hive, perceived difficulties with the electrical output available and problems with having unionized (Loyola Luncheon) and potentially non-unionized (Hive Café) employees sharing the same workspace.

Once he knew the issues, Faina says he worked on a plan of action, with the most important step being a much needed business plan. After exploring the options, he realized that looking within Concordia, such as at the consulting services offered at the JMSB, might be the best answer.

“This is supposed to be a student-run, student-implemented initiative. If we have the resources available to us on our home ground, why not use them? It would greatly save costs and be true to the student-oriented Hive Cafe philosophy.”

By the end of the year, Faina hopes that all the necessary steps will have been taken in order to begin construction at the Hive, with the business plan being the last step he finishes before his mandate is over. With that done, the only obstacle remaining may be the most difficult one to overcome: the turnover rate at the CSU. Faina says that in his opinion, the Hive has taken much longer than necessary because of the constant turnover from one VP Loyola to another, forcing the new executives to start from scratch. Next year, he says, he wants his successor to begin on the same page as he finishes.

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FASA objects to province-wide budget cuts

The Fine Arts Student Association has come out in opposition of the proposed budget cuts for their department following a council meeting two weeks ago where they voted unanimously against budget cuts and the proposed indexation of tuition.

Following the announcement last month that the Fine Arts department would see their budget cut by 15 to 20 per cent which would lead to reduced classes and less equipment, FASA met to discuss their options. Among other actions, a petition is being circulated to Fine Arts students to inform them of the cuts and to ask for their support in fighting against them.

Jessica Gilbert, VP internal communications for FASA, told The Concordian that the petition has been posted at both Cafe X locations in the VA and EV buildings where Fine Arts students could sign to show their support.

Mim Lennig, a third-year Fine Arts student, told The Concordian that while she had not seen or heard of FASA’s petition, she was strongly opposed to any further cuts to the Fine Arts department’s budget.

“The classes are already too big, considering the size of the classrooms, and there’s never enough tables for everyone, there’s never enough easels for everybody and the easels are no good,” she said. “I mean it kind of creates a bad experience to begin with, so I think it’s a ridiculous idea to begin with to cut the budget, but who cares about the Fine Arts students, right?”

Within the same motion, FASA also made official their opposition to the Parti Québécois’ planned tuition increase of three per cent a year. One of the reasons included in the motion is the fact that top-level non-academic administrators are only taking a pay cut of 2.4 per cent while indexation is increasing their pay by 2.54 per cent, thus netting them an increase despite the university’s financial difficulties.

Upon the surprising announcement of the slashes in funding from the provincial government in early December, Concordia University had to cut $13.2 million out of its operating budget for the 2012-13 academic year. This forced the university to declare a deficit and interim Provost Lisa Ostiguy said that the reductions “would be felt across the board.”

In a press release on their website, FASA stated that they were “calling on the current government of Quebec to repeal its cuts to university spending,” and that following their March 6 meeting, “the FASA council unanimously voted to oppose any cuts to the faculty’s operating budget, to oppose any fee indexation, and to oppose any type of austerity measure.”

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ASFA elections end predictably

The annual general elections for the Arts and Science Federation of Associations wrapped up last week following three days of voting in which all candidates ran unopposed for the 2013-14 academic year.

Following a tally of the votes, all candidates were declared winners for their positions and will take them on the following academic year.

Despite initial competition during campaigning, some candidates dropped out for various reasons leaving only a single candidate in each position. Crystal Harrison, a candidate for VP academic Loyola, dropped out of the race to run as as a candidate for VP Loyola for the Concordia Student Union.

Justin Occhionero, the newly elected VP external and sustainability, told The Concordian that he was not surprised when he found himself running uncontested. He cited student apathy as an issue, but said that he hopes to use his position to reach out to students and increase participation.

“Concordia has so much more to offer than just going to class,” he said. “There is a whole other world at our university that the majority of our students should but don’t know about.”

Occhionero also said that in his time as VP external and sustainability he hopes to improve ASFA’s bylaws and also improve communication between ASFA and groups such as the CSU and the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec.

“It is important that the rights and needs of arts and science students are properly represented at all levels of student governance,” he said. “This can be achieved by consistently communicating with other student unions and hopefully collaborating with them on new campaigns and events.”

Upcoming ASFA executives:
Paul Jerajian – President
Justin Occhionero – VP external and sustainability
Sean Nolan – VP social candidate
TingLi Lucia Lorigiano – VP academic and Loyola
Francis Boyer – VP internal
Anne-Sophie Grenier – VP finance
Stéphanie Gagnon-Laberge – VP communications

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Judicial Board rules in favour of council

In a unanimous decision late Wednesday night, the Concordia Student Union’s Judicial Board ruled in favour of plaintiff Gonzo Nieto on the matter of choosing a new CSU president.

In its decision, JB cited CSU bylaw 6.3C and standing regulation 52 as the fundamental basis for the conclusion that council is not forced to appoint the only vice-president who is willing or to remain leaderless. Bylaw 6.3C states that council will “act as the final authority on appointments of the student union” while standing regulation 52 states that “all internal and external appointments by council shall be by ordinary resolution.”

The complaint, originally submitted by councillors Nieto and James Vaccaro, stems from a regular meeting held on Feb.13. During the meeting, the executive presented VP clubs and internal Nadine Atallah to replace former President Schubert Laforest, who resigned due to health issues.

After hours of arguing, clashing over bylaws and threats of legal action, council rejected the proposal and Atallah refused to rescind her candidacy, leaving the CSU in a deadlock while the issue was sent to JB.

The central issue of the case was two separate interpretations of bylaw 7.4, which states that should there be a vacancy in the presidency, council shall appoint a president from the vice-presidents and should no vice-presidents be willing then a councillor may be appointed with two-thirds majority of votes.

The executive believed that council was violating the bylaws since Atallah was the only vice-president willing to take on the position. Conversely, council expressed their discontent, asking for a second option from the executive or to appoint a councillor.

During the hearing, Nieto represented the councillors who had issue with the idea of being forced to choose Atallah, while Atallah and VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon represented the executive. Over the course of the two-hour meeting, both sides argued their points before the five members of JB. After two hours of closed session deliberation the decision was made public.

Following the decision, Lauzon told The Concordian that the decision would allow the process of choosing a president to move forward.

“The decision defined the boundaries between which we can work,” Lauzon said.

Nadine Atallah told The Concordian that she was happy to have a ruling from the Judicial Board that would allow them to move forward with a discussion.

“I’m glad they were able to clear things up, and I’m glad they recognized that there needs to be some change to the policy as it is unclear,” she said.

The executive is set to present four executives as options: Atallah, Lauzon, VP academic and advocacy Hajar El Jahidi and VP Loyola Stefan Faina.

Nieto said that he was pleased with the decision the Board had reached but admitted that neither bylaw 6.3C nor standing regulation 52 were included in his argumentation despite the role they played in deciding the issue. Atallah also told The Concordian that 6.3C was not included in any of the arguments presented, and that its inclusion in the decision was a matter of the Judicial Board’s own research.

“We were debating this particular by-law, 7.4, and so we were arguing about how to interpret it rather than the entirety of the bylaws,” she said.

Vaccaro said he hopes the CSU can move forward from the impasse and that he was happy that JB recognized the importance of council.

Bylaw 6.3C “recognizes what the executive seems to be repeatedly neglecting,” he said. “The council of representatives is there to look out for the interests of students and represent them at all costs. The executive is elected to execute the will of council, which represents the will of students in lieu of a meeting of members.”

Nieto said that going forward he hoped other executives would present themselves as candidates, citing VP sustainability Andrew Roberts as an example.

“The thing with [Roberts] is that he keeps bringing up this thing about not liking the politics side of the position, and that’s exactly why we want him, because he’s been a very forthcoming, open and transparent person that’s shown the ability to listen attentively to both sides,” said Vaccaro.

The next regular CSU meeting is this Wednesday where the issue of presidency will be addressed.

With files from Kalina Laframboise

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People take to the streets again

Photo by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft
Photo by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft

Following the end of the education summit, over 10,000 protesters led the way through downtown Montreal last Tuesday in the largest protest since last summer.

The protest was organized by the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante in response to the exclusion of any discussion about free education at the education summit and the provincial government’s subsequent proposal to index university tuition fees. While it was largely peaceful, the protest was eventually broken up by police following incidents of snow, rocks, eggs and glass being thrown at police and their horses.

Premier Pauline Marois declared at the end of the two-day conference that the civil unrest of last spring was over but nonetheless thousands marched through downtown Montreal for hours shortly afterwards.

The demonstration officially began at 2 p.m. at Victoria Square, the former location of Occupy Montreal, opening with speeches and rallying cries before proceeding slowly but peacefully through the downtown core. The protest was deemed illegal almost immediately because an itinerary was not provided, violating a Montreal bylaw. Some protesters repeatedly pelted Service de police de la Ville de Montréal officers with snowballs whenever they approached, in some cases causing them to retreat.

By the time protesters reached Berri St. police had formed barriers and fired stun grenades to break up the protest. After charging the crowd, police followed protesters down Berri where they divided the demonstrators and attempted to disperse the crowd.Tear gas and stun grenades were used at certain points against protesters, as was a weapon the SPVM identified as a 40mm gun which fired green paint. The SPVM declined to elaborate on the purpose of the green paint saying that they cannot discuss strategies.

After being divided repeatedly by police lines and charges, the protest finally came to an end not far from the Berri-UQAM metro station around 5 p.m., with individuals still lingering and small contingents roaming nearby streets.

The SPVM confirmed 13 arrests once the protest was over for reasons including damaging police cars, attacking police officers and illegal assembly. According to the SPVM two individuals were also found to be carrying molotov cocktails.

Benjamin Prunty, a councillor for the Concordia Student Union who attended the protest, explained he was pleased with the turnout and with the message they sent, but was critical of the actions of the police.

“I am a peaceful person, and I felt very much provoked. There were way too many riot police and they were way too close to us,” he said. “[The police] represent the use of force and the protesters represent discontentment. Discontentment should be allowed to express itself freely and loudly without the looming threat of being beaten back by batons or burning chemicals.”

Prunty also said that he hoped the goal of free education continued to be a part of the conversation going forward.

“I think that having free education, combined with a responsible free press, is one of the surest methods of equalizing all segments of our society,” he said. “We need to worry far less about the people on the top and far more about the people on the bottom, all the while bringing each side closer to the other within a framework of healthy, diverse, and inclusive dialogue.”

Another protest is planned for Tuesday night at 8 p.m. from Place Émilie-Gamelin, where more than 3,000 individuals have already confirmed their attendance.

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Student leaders slam Léo Bureau-Blouin

Photo by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft
Photo by Gabriel Ellison-Scowcroft

Léo Bureau-Blouin, former student leader and current Member of the National Assembly for the Parti Québécois, has come under fire following the provincial government’s announcement of an increase tuition by three per cent in line with the cost of living next year.

Bureau-Blouin, who first came to prominence as the president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec during the student protests last year, has stood by the decision of his party to index tuition by roughly $70 a year, a stance that has not pleased his former colleagues.

Martine Desjardins, president for the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, told The Concordian that she was disappointed when Bureau-Blouin chose to support the indexation proposal, but that she was not surprised.

“Personally, when he decided to go up front and support the inflation proposed by the government, it was a shock,” said Desjardins. “But at the same time it’s easy to understand why because he’s like, you know, a deputy and he needs to follow the line of the party,” she said.

Desjardins explained that students felt deceived when Bureau-Blouin went against his initial position for a tuition freeze, something he advocated for as a student.

“There’s no surprise but there’s a lot of deception,” said Desjardins.

Following the announcement of the increase, Bureau-Blouin’s Facebook page became a place for students and protesters to vent their frustrations over his decision to support the indexation. One poster called Bureau-Blouin a traitor and demanded he resign, while another accused him of letting down a generation of students. Conversely, others voiced their support for Bureau-Blouin and congratulated him for his work.

The day after the education summit, Bureau-Blouin wrote that he had received threats and attacks but would still attend a monthly event to meet with his constituents on March 16.

When reached for comment, Bureau-Blouin’s office said that he would not comment on the threats on Facebook but did, however, call the situation “deplorable.”

On Facebook, Bureau-Blouin defended the increase by stating that by the 2015-2016 academic year students would be receiving an average of $1,140 in additional bursaries.

However, Desjardins called into question the suggestion that additional money for financial aid programs would help offset the increase claiming that not all students are eligible for bursaries.

“We know that there are a lot of problems with the financial aid program,” she said. “Actually it’s only 40 per cent of the students that have access to the financial aid program, so what are we doing with the other 60 per cent?”

On the Facebook page for the monthly meeting, critics promised to attend in order to face Bureau-Blouin and demand answers. Spokesperson Camille Robert for the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiantes, the student group in favour of free tuition, asked if he would be using his salary to help cover the cost of the indexation.

Simon-Pierre Lauzon, VP external for the Concordia Student Union, said he was not surprised that Bureau-Blouin’s interests had shifted from those of a student to those of a politician. He hoped, however, that the former student leader would push for student’s interests from within the PQ.

“He cares about his position within his new political context, and at the same time we should stop looking up to him as a peer,” Lauzon said. “He no longer is a FECQ representative, and we should treat him as such,” he said.

Lauzon believes students are now divided between those who see indexation as a realistic compromise and those who are in the streets again because they reject any increase.

“We went in the streets in significant part because we had no seat at the table, and our voices fell on deaf ears,” he said. “With the PQ, although we might not have every single thing we ask, we still have a measurable influence. Our leverage is still very potent, and while the printemps érable is in the PQ’s short term memory we will act to get as much as we can.”

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FASA will get its representation on council

The Fine Arts Student Association voted unanimously to accept a motion that would grant them three ex-officio seats on the Concordia Student Union’s council after byelections last November left Fine Arts students without representation.

At their meeting last Wednesday, FASA voted on the motion originally introduced at the CSU’s last regular meeting on Jan. 23 as a partial remedy for the lack of representation on council.

The motion passed by FASA accepted the three seats offered by the CSU. The same motion included amendments on issues like postering and communication with faculty associations to pressure the CSU to make changes to avoid similar situations in the future.

Iain Meyer-Macaulay, a Fine Arts student who attended the previous CSU meeting when the issue of representation was being discussed, said that the motion in question was an acceptable alternative to another byelection.

“It’s a pretty good offer considering what is able to happen now,” said Meyer-Macaulay.

He also gave some context to the issue and spoke of the petition authored by FASA VP clubs and services Erika Couto that first brought the lack of representation to light.

“This petition was sent in November to CSU council, and nothing really happened out of it,” he said. “However, because of time constraints and other issues within and without the CSU, these ex-officio seats are probably the best we can do to get representation for Fine Arts students.”

Another sore point for some of the FASA councillors and executives was the fact that in the CSU’s standing regulations under article 181, the Chief Electoral Officer is not required to post flyers in the VA building where a large percentage of Fine Arts classes are held. VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon explained that the issue of electoral postering was not one that the CSU had direct control over, but that they would work to amend the standing regulations if necessary.

“When it comes to election posters, it’s very much separated from the executive,” Lauzon said. “It’s handled by the Chief Electoral Officer, and he of course has policies that he has to follow, so when it comes to the postering it’s not our personal decision where the electoral posters go, it’s the CEO’s job to make sure that everything’s postered with the appropriate resources.”

VP clubs and internal affairs Nadine Atallah was also present at the meeting to answer questions about the last byelections and what is being done to avoid a similar situation occurring in the future.

Emissary promises

Atallah also discussed an idea she originally included in her campaign platform, to have emissaries between the CSU and student faculty associations like FASA, that is now being revisited as a possible solution to a lack of communication between the two groups.

“The way that it would work, and this is up to discussion, is that every year there would be councillors who would be appointed to faculty associations and the idea would be that the faculty associations would choose which councillors they would want to be their emissaries, so to speak,” she said. “So the idea would be that you would ask this councillor if they would be willing and if they are then we would appoint them to the faculty association and their job would be to be the go-between between the CSU and the faculty associations both by speaking about what happened at your meetings and what are your concerns and also bringing the CSU’s concerns back to your table as well.”

Atallah said that the original idea was first conceived when she was running for her current position, but that a lack of response from faculty associations on the project created concerns that implementing it without their involvement would encroach on other associations.

Under the CSU’s bylaws, it is the role of VP student life to act as a liaison between the executive and faculty associations. Bylaw 7.12 outlines the duties of VP student life to collaborate with the the other unions.

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A call for retroactive audits falls short

The Graduate Students’ Association voted to table a controversial motion and pass one of their own Tuesday following proposals from current and former Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation’s Board of Directors members regarding retroactive audits.
The tabled motion introduced by former CSBC BoD member Sabine Friesinger and Chadi Marouf, would have the GSA encourage CSBC to begin retroactive audits going back three years. If this was not done, the motion would allow the GSA to pull their fee-levies from CJLO, the student radio station that CSBC manages. Instead of accepting that, the GSA passed a motion advocating that the CSBC revise their bylaws in order to provide democratic and transparent practices within one year and publish three years worth of financial statements on their website.
Friesinger and Marouf spoke first on the matter, outlining what they interpreted as a history of financial mismanagement and unanswered allegations from an organization that Friesinger said received the most in student fee-levies of any group on campus but had the least oversight.
A second topic which became the focus of much concern was the CSBC’s membership list, the existence of which many at the meeting were unaware of. The list, which dictates who is and who is not considered a member of the organization, only contains the names of individuals who ask to be included despite the fact that all graduate and undergraduate students pay fee-levies into the corporation.
Angelica Calcagnile, president of the CSBC, argued that retroactive audits were an unnecessary expense and a waste of student money. The auditor employed by both the CSBC and the GSA advised CSBC’s board that audits were not needed for a corporation of their size, and that a financial review would be the industry standard. As Calcagnile explained, the difference between financial reviews and audits are that a review is less expensive but also less thorough than an audit, and is used by almost every organization on campus. The Concordia Student Union, as a multi-million dollar corporation, is legally obligated to provide audits.
During the question period that followed, GSA executives and members raised concerns on a number of issues, including the CSBC’s membership policies. According to Calcagnile, fee-paying students must sign up to be considered voting members of the CSBC according to laws that require them to hold a list of all their members. Due to privacy concerns, the university cannot give the CSBC a list of all fee-paying students, which means that they must keep one themselves.
“We are open to any undergrad or grad student to come and vote at our [Annual General Meeting,]” Calcagnile said. “All they need to do is register with us that they are an undergrad or graduate student, and the agreement that we make people sign basically says ‘I am a student and I have a vested interest or I am interested in voting.’ Nobody has ever been denied and there’s no reason for us to.”
Once both Calcagnile and Friesinger left the room, the GSA debated what actions would be the best response to the motion in question and the concerns they now had. Simon Vickers, one of the GSA’s Arts and Science directors, said at the meeting that he was concerned with the tone of the presentations and some of the additional information provided by Friesinger. This included a copy of a personal email exchange with Wendy Kraus-Heitmann, a former member of CUTV’s provisional BoD.
“It seems to me that they’re positioning us between some sort of infighting that deals with things that are outside of this audit,” Vickers said. “It seems that we’re being asked to attack [CSBC], and I don’t think that we should move forward with this, I think that we should find an alternative.”
Friesinger’s motion was eventually tabled until a future meeting to allow the GSA more time to investigate the matter, and to allow them to pass their own motion in response.
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