Council began with a presentation by SSMU VP External Connor Spencer. Spencer gave an overview of Our Turn, a nationwide movement against sexual violence on university campuses. Our Turn’s National Action Plan provides a framework for prevention, support, and advocacy.

Spencer stressed the report’s strengths, saying it details “what you should look for within your own policy, and what you should make sure it doesn’t have…. It gives [student unions] something very concrete to start working with their admin on, rather than just going in blind.”

After announcements and a brief question period, two previously submitted motions, the Motion to Create an Ad Hoc Committee on Provincial Representation and the Motion Calling for an Immediate Contestation of Bill 62, both passed. The first mandates the creation of an ad hoc committee to report regularly to Legislative Council on the activities of two province-wide student unions, the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ) and the Student Union of Quebec (UEQ). The second motion commits SSMU to take a stand and actively campaign against Bill 62, a recent piece of Quebec legislation widely decried as Islamophobic. After a brief discussion and several amendments, the motion passed unanimously.

Several motions were submitted from the floor for voting and discussion. The most contentious motion of the night called for SSMU to endorse the Daily Publications Society (DPS) in its upcoming existence referendum. The DPS is the umbrella organization that publishes The McGill Daily and Le Délit. After a lengthy debate the motion failed with ten representatives in favour, twelve opposed, and two abstentions.

Motion concerning Daily Publications Society

Vocal opposition to the motion centered around two main sources of debate. A member of the audience asked if it was a conflict of interest to seek “an endorsement from the organization which campus media is supposed to be critiquing and actively working to hold accountable.” Councillors reiterated this point throughout the debate. Spencer responded, saying, “I think it’s really important that we as an institution support those that are holding us accountable. I would be very wary about not endorsing someone who has been heavily critical of SSMU.”

Indeed, it is not considered a conflict of interest when government institutions support the continued existence of the free press. In fact, supporting journalism has long been a hallmark of democracy in Canada, Quebec, and even within SSMU itself. SSMU has voiced their support for the DPS during their referendums for the past 30 years, consistently endorsing the continued existence of The Daily and Le Délit.

The Daily’s political stances were the second main discussion point, as councillors reiterated their opposition to institutional support of The Daily’s editorial line, best described by The Daily’s anti-oppressive Statement of Principles.

President Muna Tojiboeva, who has described The Daily as operating under “the sole purpose of discrediting [her] character,” voiced her concerns: “Seeing that this is a student referendum, we should let the students make their own individual decisions. […] We shouldn’t endorse a paper that marginalizes certain voices on campus.”

Tojiboeva did not clarify which voices The Daily allegedly marginalizes. In fact, The Daily is the only paper on campus that has an explicit mandate to give a platform to communities that have been marginalized “on the basis of gender, age, social class, race, sexuality, religion, ability, and cultural identity.”

Councillors argued that constituents should not have to fund campus newspapers if they do not agree with the views those publications express; one councillor argued that he didn’t want to support the motion because he disagrees with the paper’s editorial line, in particular, The Daily’s support for pro-Palestinian movements on campus. 

In response, DPS representative and former Daily editor Xavier Richer Vis countered that SSMU has endorsed the DPS for the past 30 years, not on the premise of agreeing with everything they publish, but in support of the free press. As Matthew Savage, the Social Work Representative, put it, “We live in a society right now that continuously takes away the rights of our press, and I for one am for anything that this student union is going to do to make sure that we have as many different views as possible.”

During the debate, Arts and Science Representative R’ay Fodor repeatedly criticized The Daily for an alleged lack of journalistic integrity. He argued that since The Daily’s journalists voted in the past SSMU General Assembly (GA), which they were there to report on, the paper lacked integrity.

In fact, reporters from Le Délit and the McGill Tribune also voted in the GA. Fodor noted that Bull & Bear staff did not vote, stating, “there is a standard being held somewhere.” Fodor went on to applaud the Bull & Bear for their funding mechanism; Bull & Bear editor Molly Harris detailed the paper’s reliance on corporate funding to operate. Fodor also asked if it were “possible to fund Le Délit on its own.” This called into question whether the issue of voting in the GA was his true concern. In response to the tone of these questions, councillor Savage reminded the room that “it’s important for us to remain respectful when addressing each other.”

While most of the discussion centred around The Daily, some councillors did mention Le Délit. One councillor said, “especially when Le Délit is the only francophone newspaper on this campus, we really need to understand that if the DPS does not exist, there’s already a minority voice that’s not going to be heard.”

Other business

Council discussed a motion to put forward a special referendum on student-submitted changes to SSMU’s constitution. These proposed changes would then be sent to the BoD for approval, after which they would be sent to the Judicial Board for review. Before the discussion, Tojiboeva and Spencer read aloud an email correspondence between legal counsel and a mover of the motions respectively. Spencer clarified that although the motion came from different movers, the proposed changes were submitted in the same document. If separate, every possible combination would need to be submitted to the Judicial Board for review. President Tojiboeva added that per Article 91 of the Quebec Companies Act, constitutional amendments had to be approved by the BoD before proceeding to the membership.

The meeting wrapped up with reports from the Executive and Steering Committees, as well as reports from several councillors and the SSMU Executive.

[Ed. note: This article was amended on November 10 to clarify that Article 91 pertained to the Companies Act in Quebec law.]

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Elaine Patterson

Elaine Patterson is the current VP Communications of the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS). Before that, she was the Living Learning Communities (LLC) Rez Life Facilitator and the VP Communications for the Carrefour Hall Council. She told The Daily that she is “passionate about working with other students,” and that she really likes “how much facetime this position gets with students.” She is also very excited that the mental health portfolio was added to the position during the restructuring, saying that this is one of the reasons why she is running.

For Patterson, the most important aspect of the VP Student Life position is being a liaison between students and the McGill administration. In addition, she believes that the VP Student Life should be approachable, meaning that any student should absolutely feel free to consult her with any matter regarding her portfolio, be it conflict resolution, budgetary issues, or other concerns.

For the mental health portfolio of the position, she wishes to harmonize McGill’s mental health services. She promises to host a Mental Health Services roundtable each semester, where all eleven mental health services can talk about their initiatives and plans for the future. She also wants to be a liaison between residence and off-campus floor fellow communities and McGill mental health services, to make sure that first-year students can easily access these services.

Patterson sees SSMU as a political actor, arguing that students are “invited to share their opinions with and through SSMU [with] the rest of the student body and [with] the McGill administration.” To that end, she promises to try her best to represent the views of constituents who are involved in SSMU clubs and services. Furthermore, she believes that it is difficult to determine which issues can be considered “external” to campus, given how international McGill is. In addition, she believes that it’s natural that students are divided on issues and that it’s important to make sure that “both sides, or however many sides there are about a certain issue” are being heard.

Dushan Tripp

Tripp, a U3 student, currently serves as a Clubs & Services Representative to SSMU Council. Within SSMU, he is also a member of the Funding, Club, and Referendum Committees – the latter of which he is using to campaign for an opt-outable Club Fund fee. He hopes to bring this experience, as well as his tenure as VP Finance for the Tonal Ecstasy A Capella club, to the position of VP Student Life.

Citing space and funding as main concerns for the over 230 clubs at SSMU, Tripp plans to make these issues the pillars of his campaign. In that vein, he aims to work with the incoming VP Operations to continue changing the distribution and booking of club rooms on the fourth floor of the SSMU Building, to create more bookable rooms as well as new storage rooms by the beginning of the Fall 2016 semester. Additionally, he plans on taking a second look at the viability of an online information and resource portal for clubs.

Other campaign points include efforts to make the club creation process easier and more transparent, to promote the visibility and accessibility of SSMU’s mental health projects, and to maintain a balance between transparency and efficiency.

This is the first year that the position of VP Clubs & Services has been expanded to include many of the former duties of VP University Affairs; Tripp recognizes that it will be difficult to do both jobs, but remains optimistic about the goals he has set. To be fair, those goals are quite modest, and, in the case of his transparency versus efficiency claim, incredibly vague. But with the possibility of services shutting down to balance SSMU’s budget, having modest goals is perhaps the most realistic approach.

While recognizing the political nature of SSMU, Tripp sees the Student Life position as focused on improving administrative structures. Thus, he says if elected he will vote in accordance with the majority opinion amongst the student body, not necessarily his own personal opinion.

Endorsement: Elaine Patterson

While both candidates have experience relevant to the Student Life portfolio, Patterson’s term as an AUS executive should better prepare her for the role of a SSMU VP. Furthermore, her work with Living and Learning Communities (LLC) has provided valuable experience interacting with and coordinating student groups, a core duty of the VP Student Life.

Also, in contrast to Tripp’s vague “holistic approach” to mental health, Patterson’s platform contains several concrete ideas with respect to the mental health component of the Student Life portfolio, such as a semesterly mental health services roundtable.

As such, The Daily endorses Patterson for this position.

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The march launched from Parc des Faubourgs, with the demonstrators carrying picket signs with the words “PLQ dégage” (Parti libéral du Québec, get out!) and “Respect existence or expect resistance.”

The group then marched down Ontario until St. Hubert, continuing on to the entrance of the Berri-UQAM metro station. The group largely dispersed after police barricaded the doors to the metro and occupied one of the platforms.

A smaller group of just over 100 people reconvened at a small park near the Frontenac metro station, at around 7:15 p.m.. They marched until Dézéry, then dispersed as SPVM officers arrived with over 15 vans, cars, and buses.

“Austerity is basically a proven ineffective measure, and I think it is frankly silly that is is in place.”

However, the anti-austerity activities in the park had started earlier that day. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) met to celebrate Labour Day with workers and public service employees, including nurses, social service workers, and postal service workers.

Some demonstrators were there because they are facing increasing economic insecurity. Others, like McGill student Connor Spencer and Concordia student Ben Goodman, were there in solidarity with public service employees.

In an interview with The Daily, Spencer said that things could change “if McGill starts paying attention and caring a little bit, if the student union at McGill starts actively involving the McGill population in what’s going on in the city that houses it.”

Students are also directly affected by the provincial austerity measures. According to Goodman, austerity measures greatly affect students: “Especially as we start school, [with] the budget cuts that are going to be taking place […] it’s frankly unfair.”

Public sector workers hit hard by austerity

The collective agreements of many public sector workers in Quebec expired on March 31, and a few have already started their renegotiations. The provincial government has expressed its conviction to reach a zero-deficit budget by 2015-16, which goes against the public sector unions’ demand of a 4.5 per cent salary hike per year over the next three years.

Speaking to The Daily, IWW member and acting s Nicholas Harvest said, “The reforming of unemployment insurance at the federal level hits employees drastically.” He continued, “There’s huge compressions in the public sector, these teachers are living [in] horrible, horrible working conditions, and they will also find themselves out of a job. […] That, coupled with what’s happened to the [postal workers], it’s a general push towards privatization, we can see that very well.”

Goodman noted, “Austerity is basically a proven ineffective measure, and I think it is frankly silly that is is in place.”

Harvest said, “We think that the real political power comes from the workers, comes from collective organization and direct action.” He added that despite the fact that IWW has no direct stakes in the federal election, it “still aims for an ‘automne chaud’ at the provincial level.

Labour Day, as a first step toward this goal, saw IWW joined by groups including the Revolutionary Student Movement, the Front d’action socialiste, and Concordia’s Whalebone Collective.

Harvest explained, “I feel like the police basically saw our capabilities organizing May 1, and saw our capabilities of bringing people together and bringing a sense of community to those that don’t have privilege, and I think they’re afraid of that and I think the state is afraid of that. […] When the state sees workers organizing, it tends to get scared.”

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