SSMU – The Concordian

Concordia students react to McGill union vote

Student group executives comment on decision not to ratify McGill university student Noah Lew

McGill University launched an investigation on Oct. 27 after one of its students, Noah Lew, claimed he was targeted for being Jewish. In a message posted on his Facebook page on Oct. 24, Lew wrote that he was “blocked from participating in student government because of [his] Jewish identity and [his]affiliations with Jewish organizations.”

Lew, a member of the board of directors of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)—the university’s student union—explained in his Facebook post that “over 100 students” opposed his assent as a director at the SSMU general assembly on Oct. 23.

The McGill student said the reason for the opposition was his support for the ratification of a decision by the SSMU judicial board that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel violated the SSMU constitution.

“I think it’s very sad that a person is discriminated [against] because of his cultural or religious identity,” Amina Chemssy, the Israel on Campus (IOC) Concordia president, told The Concordian.

The BDS movement calls for banks, local councils and other institutions “to withdraw investments from all Israeli companies,” according to the movement’s official website. The movement also calls on governments to “fulfill their legal obligation to hold Israel to account by ending military trade [and] free-trade agreements” and for people and organizations to “withdraw support for Israel and Israeli and international companies that are involved in the violation of Palestinian human rights.”

In December 2014, Concordia Student Union (CSU) members voted in favour of endorsing the BDS movement against Israel. While the CSU’s membership totals approximately 35,000 undergraduate students, only 2,343 students cast a vote.

Following the vote, Concordia president Alan Shepard wrote that the “result of the vote [was independent] of the university.”

Chemssy—a friend of Lew—and her colleague, IOC Concordia vice-president of finance Jonathan Mamane, have been following the situation at McGill closely.

Mamane, who was part of the “Vote no to BDS” campaign at Concordia in 2014, said he was not surprised Lew was not ratified.

At IOC Concordia meetings following the SSMU general assembly’s decision not to ratify Lew, Chemssy said people were shocked. “We thought Concordia was the most turbulent [of the two] campuses,” admitted Chemssy, who ran for an elected position in the March 2017 CSU elections.

“We thought, ‘Oh my God, this is happening next door. How are we supposed to react now?’” she said. According to Chemssy, she and IOC McGill president Grace Miller-Day are currently planning a “fun and non-political” event to bring people from both universities together.

According to Mamane, “there isn’t much of a working relationship” at the moment between IOC Concordia and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia—which supported the 2014 BDS vote. “However, some of us interact and engage other members in civil dialogue,” Mamane said.

The Concordian reached out to SPHR president Mustafa Bokesmati who wrote in a text message that his organization “would like to avoid discussing [the situation at McGill] publicly.”

“We have tried to do things with some organizations in the past and I’ll be honest with you, it doesn’t usually work out,” Mamane said.

“There are values on both sides and, if both groups can’t agree to some things, then it doesn’t end up working out so well and sometimes it’s better to just not do things together,” Mamane told The Concordian.

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

A clarification has been added to this article regarding how many CSU members voted in favour of endorsing the BDS movement. The Concordian regrets the misunderstanding.

Student groups are responding after McGill’s administration announced that it will not be recognizing the results of the Students’ Society of McGill’s (SSMU) fall 2011 referendum because the wording of the questions were “unclear.”

The news incited reactions from the independent student groups who posed the questions: McGill’s campus radio station 90.3 FM CKUT and research group QPIRG-McGill.

Both QPIRG and CKUT posed similarly-worded questions asking students to confirm whether or not they a) support the continued funding of the independent groups and b) agree that the fee opt-out period should be switched from online to in-person.

In both cases the election results revealed that over 60 per cent of students voted “yes” in the referendum, which saw over 5,000 students coming out to vote between Nov. 4 to Nov. 10.

However, after a preliminary meeting with the administration in December, QPIRG and CKUT were notified via email that McGill would not be recognizing the results.

Kira Page, a member of QPIRG’s board of directors, says that by not validating the results, the university is refusing to acknowledge the mandate of McGill’s student body.

“We had over 700 students sign to say that they understood the question and they believe it should go to referendum,” said Page. “It went through all the democratic processes available to us.”

The questions under administrative scrutiny were originally approved by Elections McGill, SSMU’s electoral body. SSMU president Maggie Knight sent a public letter to McGill’s deputy provost (student life and learning) Morton Mendelson asking for an explanation.

“The clarity of the question is primarily a debate between CKUT and QPIRG and McGill,” said Knight in an interview, explaining that the SSMU’s role is to represent its constituents, the undergrad students who voted in the referendum.

“When we see that both questions passed with majority vote, this appears to be the will of the student body so it’s our job to stand up for that,” Knight said.

However, some are siding with the university. According to the McGill Daily, a public hearing regarding a case filed by two students with SSMU’s judicial board asking for the referendum results to be invalidated due to alleged electoral infractions is set for Jan. 30.

McGill requires independent student groups like QPIRG and CKUT to prove that students still back them via “existence questions” in referendums every five years before being able to renew their memorandum of agreement.

By invaliding the referendum results, CKUT board of directors student representative Myriam Zaidi says the station is left scrambling. They need to renew their agreement with the university to secure funding, and the lease for their space is up in May.

“The McGill administration has a lot of power over us and we feel cornered,” said Zaidi.

Both QPIRG and CKUT have until Feb. 5 to submit new, differently-worded questions to SSMU council in time for the spring referendum.

Opt-out a hot issue at McGill

In voting overwhelmingly in favour of CKUT and QPIRG’s referendum questions, students were also agreeing to change the way that the fees that fund these student groups can be refunded.

Students have the option of being refunded for these fees during an opt-out period, which lasts for two weeks at the beginning of the fall semester following the deadline to add or drop courses.

In 2007, McGill moved the process online, allowing students to opt-out of paying these fees with a click of a button. CKUT and QPIRG oppose the change, saying that online opt-outs do not properly inform students about the groups they’re funding. They also argue that the online opt-out hinders their ability to plan their finances and makes it easier for pro opt-out campaigns to influence students to take back their money. They are pushing for the opt-out process to be moved from online to in-person.