In his report to Council, VP Finance and Operations Nick Drew expressed concern about the increasing number of students opting out of SSMU fees. In an interview with The Daily, he noted that the opt-out rate increased by roughly 3 per cent over the past year, and suggested that the QPIRG Opt-Out campaign has played a role in this.

“The QPIRG opt-out is spilling over into all of the groups. People are just randomly opting out of things without making an informed decision…It makes SSMU look bad. Opt-out campaigns are hurting everyone across the board,” Drew said.

Drew also discussed Gerts’ upcoming renovations, since recent cost estimates exceeded the expected budget for the project by $300,000. Multiple councillors, including Clubs and Services Representative Max Zidel, expressed concern about the financial feasibility of the endeavour.

“I actually don’t think [SSMU has] the money. I’m under the impression that it doesn’t exist. We’re committed to several other projects right now from CERF [Capital Expenditure Reserve Fund]…I think [Gerts] is a huge part of campus life, we just don’t have the money,” Zidel said at Council.

Drew explained that Gerts is a priority for SSMU, noting that the Society has already paid $8000 in architect fees for the project. He went on to emphasize the bar’s increased revenues this year, and stressed its importance for student life.

The approval of an increased budget for bar renovations was ultimately tabled.

Simon Gosselin, who is running for Secretary General of Quebec Student Roundtable, and Lauran Ayotte, running for Vice-Secretary General, were present at Council. The candidates presented their goals for next year, but voting on the subject was postponed due to a loss of quorum.

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Zoumboulakis described the SDA’s plans as a proposal presented to the city “to take or expropriate the whole lower Main and turn it into some kind of office tower.”

“The Main was never known as an office space. It is a historic place, and it’s been the center of entertainment since Montreal was founded,” he said when asked to explain why he refused to sell. Café Cleopatra has been a part of the neighbourhood for 34 years.

“I want to see the continuation of the idea of a Quartier des Spectacles, and not turn it into a Quartier des Office Tower,” he added.

A representative for the SDA, Geneviève Marsan, described the goals of the SDA’s project.

“The idea isn’t just to make office buildings, it’s to revitalize the area; to make it more lively, more attractive for tourists and for Montrealers,” she said in French.

“Have you been there recently? We want to revitalize the Quartier. We don’t want strip clubs. They don’t fit in with [SDA’s] values. We certainly want to integrate commerce, but not exploitative commerce,” she added.

According to Marsan, the revitalization would take place in two phases – beginning in 2013 – and would include opening office buildings and residential spaces. She emphasized that the SDA has no intention of corporatizing the historic area, but instead wants to render it more accessible to the greater Montreal community.

Zoumboulakis insisted that the area remains popular for locals and tourists alike, attracting a diverse and reputable clientele.

“[Our clientele] are very nice, very reputable people. Federal government employees come here…they are mainstream people that work from all surrounding areas, from all walks of life, and I have clientele from all nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. Francophones, Anglophones and Allophones – all get along very nicely in here, and they appreciate the existence of Cleopatra,” he said.

Zoumboulakis also denied the claim that Café Cleopatra functioned only as a strip club, pointing out that the bar also serves as a venue for many events and festivals.

Though Zoumboulakis’s refusal to sell has not deterred the SDA from their plans to proceed with the revitalization of the neighbourhood, it has caused frustration for some of the project’s coordinators.

“We’re disappointed. We would have preferred to make one cohesive, integrated, and complete project,” Marsan said. “We’ll construct all around [Café Cleopatra] and we’ll do our project anyway.”

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The Executive Committee were also asked why they failed to go on a retreat scheduled for the previous week. Newburgh replied, “Very frankly, members of the SSMU Executive were disappointed with the way in which the GA motion was brought up, and therefore refused to go on the Executive retreat.” This claim contradicted a statement made by VP Finance and Operations Nick Drew, who, in an interview  with The Daily attributed the cancellation of the retreat to excessive work.

The Executive’s decision to cancel the retreat cost SSMU $800.

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The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiant (ASSÉ) called for the occupations to protest what they regard as administrators’ compliance with the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ) proposal to increase tuition in Quebec by $500 a year for three years, beginning in 2012.

Maxime Larue-Bourdages, the Internal Coordinator of ASSÉ, elaborated on the motivations behind the sit-ins.

“We find it very hypocritical that [the Ministry of Education] now says that tuition has to increase for students when university administration’s prefer to put their money in construction, rather than students, who are the life of the university. Year after year members of the administration give themselves higher salaries and bonuses, and they take that money from students,” he said.

ASSÉ’s official press release echoed these sentiments in French: “On the one hand, the rectors of universities get paid exorbitant salaries, and divert public funds to megalomaniacal real estate projects, while simultaneously complaining of being underfunded to advocate for a dizzying increase in tuition. We are not fooled by their hypocrisy!”

Students at Université du Québec à Montréal succeeded in blocking off all administrative buildings, preventing rector Claude Corbo from entering his office for the remainder of the afternoon, and prompting him to cancel all his planned activities for the week.

Jaouad Laaroussi, a UQAM student present at the sit-in, made his demands clear in the ASSÉ press release.

“How dare our president demand an increase in tuition when it is his direction that is plunging UQAM into financial distress?” he wrote.

At the Université de Montréal, students blocked off the administrative area, occupyed rector Guy Breton’s office, and hung banners denouncing Breton’s support of tuition increases. “If Mr. Breton left his office more often, he would see the reality for students. We don’t earn $365,00 a year!” said Héloïse Lanouette, a student at UdeM, in the ASSÉ press release.

SSMU maintains communication with ASSÉ but does not have official membership within the student association, which is renowned for its more radical approach to mobilization against planned tuition hikes.

SSMU created its own Mobilization Committee last January, which is starting to gain momentum, according to VP External Myriam Zaidi, who explained the differences between the ASSÉ approach to protesting and the Mobilization Committee’s methods of raising awareness about tuition increases.

“When you’re mobilizing at McGill you have to start from scratch. Here people don’t follow Quebec politics. The ASSÉ are more radical, but [the Mobilization Committee] is hoping to get students at McGill who want to mobilize together, and when that gets going we can talk about actions. It started with a delay, but I’m very optimistic about the future,” she said.

Larue-Bourdages also expressed his optimism about the future of the student movements against tuition increases.

“Historically speaking, student mobilization has almost always been successful for students. The only time they don’t get what they want is when they don’t mobilize, don’t strike, and don’t put more pressure on the administration. I hope that the student movement will take mobilization seriously, because if they do, I think we will win.”

Representatives from Corbo’s office failed to reply to the Daily’s calls.

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Many councillors and executives were concerned that the committee’s decision about drinking games was illegal and could jeopardize SSMU’s liquor license, which is being negotiated with the administration as part of SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).

Quebec’s Régie des alcools regulations state that “drinking games that encourage excessive consumption over a short period of time are prohibited.” Permit holders who violate this policy are fined for their first three offenses and can then be called before the Régie where, if the board finds they are not responsibly serving their patrons, they could lose their permit.

SSMU President Zach Newburgh addressed the law in an interview with The Daily, saying that it is ambiguous with regard to certain drinking games.

“I would say there’s definitely a grey area in the law about what constitutes the rapid consumption of alcohol. For individuals who are having a good time, there should be a degree of lenience, and I think that this degree of lenience has certainly been applied to other bars across the city of Montreal. Why not Gerts as well?” he said.

The report in question, which is signed by Newburgh and available to the public, stipulates that “The executives approved that the following games shall be permitted in Gerts: power hour, card games, chanting and drinking, and quarters.”

Newburgh clarified his reasoning for approving the games: “We are not in any way promoting or permitting any kind of games that resemble beer pong, flip cup, or king’s cup, any of these that really would be blatant violations or at least be very questionable violations of this grey area in the law.”

He continued that, “Upon the request of an incredibly large number of students to play certain games in the bar, we chose that it may be appropriate for these games [in the report] to be played because it’s very difficult to tell whether or not they’re drinking games.”

Amara Possian, a councillor and Arts senator, described her surprise at the executive committee’s decision. She explained the potential legal implications had the report been passed.

“I’m not sure why the executive committee thought it was appropriate to bring this up at Council,” she said.

“By officially allowing drinking games in Gerts, SSMU would be jeopardizing their liquor permit. The fact that the executive openly stated, in Council, that they were allowing these specific drinking games because they didn’t look like drinking games makes the situation much worse, because it makes it seem like they were trying to undermine the law.”

In an email to The Daily, Arts representative Zach Margolis countered Possian’s assessment.

“No one is trying to fly under the radar to avoid provincial laws,” he wrote. “This was just something that was not fully thought through before being brought forward. … Clearly SSMU…[has] no intention of trying to circumvent Quebec law. As I understand it, this was simply an attempt to ensure all of our rules are enforceable and to avoid any confusion by patrons of Gerts.”

“As no decision or change to our regulations was made, this does not impact our relationship with McGill or the Quebec Régie des alcools in any way,” he added.

When it came time for Council to vote on accepting the executive committee’s report, a decision was made to divide the question, allowing for the section of the report pertaining to the approval of drinking games to be committed to the Operations Management Committee and separated from the remainder of the report.

The committee is composed of Management representative Matt Reid, VP Finance and Operations Nick Drew, SSMU General Manager Pauline Gervais, Possian, and Margolis.

Possian spoke to The Daily about Council’s decision to move the discussion to a committee.

“Ultimately, this is somewhere where Council did its job very well. We caught the executives’ mistake, and by dividing the question and not passing the part of the executive committee’s report regarding drinking games, we stopped SSMU from jeopardizing its liquor permit,” she said.

Despite the fact that Council did not pass anything regarding drinking games at Gerts, Drew emphasized the risky nature of making the debate about drinking games public.

“I’d just like to stress that this report [on the Executive’s approval of certain drinking games at Gerts] is a highly sensitive issue, because we’re negotiating our lease with the administration,” Drew told Council last Thursday. “If they knew that we were thinking about allowing this, we might lose our alcohol permit. I just want to make sure [Council] is aware of the implications of making this information public and not confidential until our MoA is signed.”

Newburgh admitted that it was inappropriate for the issue to have been discussed at Council.

“Ultimately this piece of information should’ve been discussed and decided upon by the operations committee, rather than in the Legislative Council forum. Each of our operations should have the autonomy and independence to be able to work with and deal with such issues,” he said.

—With files from Michael Lee-Murphy

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Many Council members pointed out that the mention of the war in Afghanistan was divisive and took issue with the resolution’s implicit support for the war. Maggie Knight, a Clubs and Services Representative, explained her reasoning for supporting an amendment that would strike the second half of the controversial clause.

“I’m in general support of remembering the sacrifice made by soldiers. However, whether or not the war in Afghanistan is in defense of Canada is highly up for debate,” she said.

Radney Jean-Claude, the Social Work representative, echoed Knight’s sentiments, saying, “What’s important is to remember the sacrifice we made in the war, but including the words ‘and continue to fight in defense of Canada’ implies that SSMU supports the war in Afghanistan, and puts it in an ideological position.”

Spencer Burger, an Arts representative and author of the motion, addressed concerns that his resolution was too divisive to be debated at Council, and explained his motivation for writing the resolution. “This isn’t meant to be a divisive issue,” he said. “I meant it purely as recognition of the sacrifices of Canadian men and women in uniform. It’s an important issue on campus and for students.”

Anushay Khan, SSMU’s VP Clubs and Services, voiced her opposition to the resolution during Council, stating that as an entity that represents the McGill student body as a whole, SSMU does not have a right to take a stance on a political issue.

“I don’t think that this body [Legislative Council] has the authority to represent one side’s point of view or the other, and that’s why our clubs exist. As long as [the resolution] continues to say that Canadians die fighting for defense of liberty, democracy, and human rights, there’s a problem, because it’s something a lot of people may not agree with,” she said.

Eli Freedman, a Management representative, spoke in support of the un-amended motion, justifying his views in an emotional plea to council.

“I’m deeply disturbed that we would slight our veterans. I would be embarrassed if I told people that our student body did not just quickly approve this motion as I think any respectful Canadian would do. … I find it extremely insulting not to honour veterans.”

In response to the amendment’s passage, Freedman suggested that “those who voted to strike [the clause mentioning the Afghanistan War] down should publicly record their vote so they can be held accountable,” in the view that supporting such an amendment was humiliating for SSMU. Cathal Rooney-Cespedes, the Speaker of Council, struck down this motion, deeming it out of order.

The resolution passed by a large majority with an amendment that struck out the words, “and continue to fight in defense of Canada, liberty, democracy, and human rights.”

Knight defended the removal of the clause in an interview with The Daily.

“What we tried to do by arguing on behalf of an amendment to replace the controversial clause was to allow us to support the sacrifice of veterans without having a political aspect,” she said. “I think that many people would not unilaterally support the actions of the Canadian military, and I think that to truly value the sacrifices of our veterans, we need to disconnect their sacrifice from the politics of the particular conflict they’re involved in.”

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Only three councillors abstained from voting on the measure: Nick Drew, Eli Freedman, and Spencer Burger, who admitted to being distracted while voting.

The resolution further stipulated that SSMU would be required to submit a formal letter in support of the proposal to both the EUS and to the McGill administration.

“The administration closed the Architecture Café due to financial reasons. It did not consult with students, and we now have Engineering and Architecture students who want to engage with the administration and try to solve this issue so that they won’t have to close the Arch Café,” said Gustavo Marquez, Engineering representative and co-author of the motion. “I think it’s extremely important that we recognize the effort and the time these students put into writing the report, and more importantly, to applaud their initiative.”

The proposal, jointly authored by members of the EUS and ASA before the latter organization officially joined the EUS as a departmental association, contained an elaborate outline of how the Arch Café would function under EUS, citing other successful EUS endeavours, such as Frostbite and Copi-EUS. The proposal was rejected by the administration on October 9 in a response from Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson, who explained that the University is shifting away from student-run food services.

Lauren Hudak, Science repre-sentative and co-author of the motion, addressed the administration’s rejection of the proposal, while maintaining that SSMU should support the student initiative.

“Mendelson said that even though he liked the effort that had been put into [the motion], it was ultimately rejected because the McGill administration has moved away from student initiatives. However, we [the authors] still think it’s a very important endeavour, because instead of just saying we’re going to support something – both the EUS and the ASA took an incredible amount of time to draft this document,” she said.

Responding to questions about whether or not a declaration of support for the proposal would be effective in re-opening the Café, considering the administration’s apparent lack of approval for such a project, Hudak stressed that, “SSMU’s support is critical, because [it] has a great deal of power and influence.”

SSMU President Zach Newburgh went on to note the symbolic nature of SSMU’s support for the proposal, saying “The motion exists simply to support the right [of student societies] to govern their own space.”

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The agenda for the Rencontres lays out, in French, three themes for the meeting: what “principles” to pursue in raising tuition; how to direct financial aid to maintain accessibility to education; and what to do with the “additional revenue” gained by raising tuition.

All of the major provincial student lobby groups have been expecting the government to table plans for tuition increases at the meeting, and some students are boycotting the event.

SSMU VP External Myriam Zaidi suggested that the Ministry was aware that the date comes at a busy time for students, saying that the “minister of education definitely knew that students were planning on going and demonstrating during the meeting,” and that the timing of the Rencontres “makes it harder for students to go protest during the meeting.”

Joël Pedneault, Vice-Secretary General of the Quebec Students Roundtable (QSR), echoed Zaidi’s sentiment and added that the lack of time students have been given to prepare for the Rencontres is an indication of the Ministry’s disregard for student opinion.

“What we think is deplorable about the timing of the meeting is that it doesn’t give students a lot of time to prepare for it,” he said. “The Ministry hasn’t even announced what will be said at the meeting, and they’re only giving us a day to discuss the issues. To properly discuss these issues in a democratic forum we would need more than a day.”

Louis-Philipe Savoie, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), said he was skeptical that the Rencontres would serve as a venue for student consultation. He noted that the ministry is already committed to raising tuition, as first stated in the March 30 budget. But Savoie reaffirmed FEUQ’s intention to attend the meeting.

“Since 2007, the Fédération has asked the Ministry of Education for a wide-ranging consultation on every issue that concerns university education. However, with today’s announcement, we must say that our demands have not been met,” he said.

The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) will proceed with plans to boycott the Rencontres and picket outside the meeting in hopes of preventing negotiations from taking place. ASSÉ’s Secretary of Coordination, Élise Carrier-Martin, said that the organization plans to call for a student strike on December 6, in hopes of avoiding scheduling conflicts between exams and the Rencontres.

She told The Daily in French, “It’s clear that the Ministry chose that date, knowing that it was during exams in order to make it harder for students and ASSÉ members to turn up and make sure the meeting isn’t held. We already decided that we would vote for a day of strike on December 6 so as to not prevent people with exams from attending the protest.”

On October 17, ASSÉ reported on their website that a government official had leaked the Ministry’s plans for raising tuition, which were to be revealed publicly at the Rencontres. The alleged plans showed that the government is considering raising tuition to the Canadian average – $5,138 for undergraduates and $5,182 for graduates – over four years. The ministry has denied that ASSÉ’s numbers are accurate.

Despite the Rencontres’s controversial timing, Carrier-Martin believes that many students will turn up to demonstrate against tuition increases.

“A lot of students are so furious about the Ministry’s attempts to increase tuition to the national average that they will be motivated to mobilize and demonstrate. We want to send a clear message to the Quebec government and to the general population that there was absolutely no consensus among students for tuition increases,” she said.

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Before a crowded audience in Leacock 132, Phúc explained how the iconic image of war impacted her life, and how she finally forgave those who conducted the air strike on her village.

“I’ve learned to accept what happened to me, and move on to reach out and help others. That is my point, not politics. I’ve learned how to control my photo.”

Phúc is outspoken about her devotion to Christianity, but insists that her mission is to speak about how she found solace, rather than to promote her religion.

“I don’t want to advise people to commit to my God,” Phúc said. “I believe in Jesus Christ and I just want to share what happened to that little girl. I want people to have free will and see how they can have happiness, freedom, and peace.”

Phúc is currently a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and has founded numerous hospitals and shelters for children affected by war through a secular, non-profit organization called the Kim Phúc Foundation International.

The organization is currently building a health center in Ongutoi, Uganda. Phúc spends most of her time travelling and working on behalf of her foundation.

The McGill event’s organizers requested that all questions directed at Phúc remain apolitical. According to Andrew Williamson, a representative of Campus for Christ, Phúc’s capacity for forgiveness is the primary message the organization wishes to convey, rather than focusing on the photograph’s historical and political significance.

“Politics aren’t a big part of it,” said Williamson. “It’s really important to talk about Kim’s story and the role that her faith played in her ability to forgive.”

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