Concordia council meeting adjourned expeditiously
Council approves consent agenda, declines to hear spontaneous motion
The Concordia Student Union (CSU)'s Feb. 11 regular council meeting (RCM) was adjourned less than half an hour after it began, following the approval of the consent agenda.
The meeting, which was held in person at the CSU lounge, began with councillor Anastasia Zorchinsky putting forward a motion for all votes during the meeting to proceed by roll call rather than by voice vote.
The motion failed, with a majority of the councillors vocally voting against it.
Next, councillor Ryan Michon put forward a motion to allow a member of the public to address the council for three minutes, on the topic of reinstating the New Democratic Party (NDP) club at Concordia.
The motion passed, and the member of the public, Gabriel Jean, was given three minutes to address the council.
“Since December 2024, and following the American election that year, I became determined to involve myself politically here in Montreal at Concordia,” Jean said. “I felt it was my duty as a citizen and as a student within a free democracy to use my voice to be a part of the solutions to the problems that we face.”
Jean added that the NDP club previously existed at the university up until 2019.
“I, along with prospective members of the liberal and conservative clubs, have come to discover that it is currently the CSU’s unofficial policy to deny any clubs tied to a political party,” he said. “With our democracy facing challenges on many fronts, most notably on our sovereignty, why are we therefore not allowing our students to properly organize in official channels?”
Following Jean’s speaking turn, Michon requested permission from the chairperson to introduce a motion to reinstate partisan clubs at Concordia, titled the Healthy Student Life motion.
However, following another councillor's concerns that the motion and its proper documentation were not submitted ahead of the meeting as is standard, a separate motion to allow Michon to introduce the Healthy Student Life motion was brought to a vote.
This motion, which required a three-quarter majority vote in favour, failed, with 11 councillors voting for and five voting against in a roll call vote.
Councillor Liora Hechel also voiced her concern that the external affairs and mobilization report was missing from the folder sent to councillors, which contained all the other CSU executive reports to be approved..
General coordinator Vanessa Massot apologized to council, saying that they forgot to upload it. Since the consent agenda contained only the executive’s reports and no items requiring council approval, the chairperson approved the consent agenda as distributed.
Afterwards, Councillor Ali Salman motioned to adjourn the meeting, with a majority of councillors voting in favour. The RCM adjourned at around 7 p.m.
