CSU Councillors and Candidates Demand Resignation of Election CEO

Students Displeased With Claire Girard-Moreau’s Online Presence

NewsElaine Genest — Published November 30, 2018

Girard-Moreau displayed a “lack of professionalism and bias” during the by-elections originally scheduled for Nov. 27 and 29.

In one instance, Girard-Moreau made a comment about online voting on the Facebook page Spotted: Concordia about how she had concerns about online voting, but that “councillors seemed to have their own agenda.”

Councillor Patrick Quinn said this isn’t the first time he’s seen her participate actively on Spotted: Concordia debate threads.

“I’ve seen her participating on Spotted just in general, through comments, but this is the first time I saw her giving out an actual opinion and I was kind of shocked,” Quinn said.

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Girard-Moreau explained that since her online presence is done through her personal Facebook account and not through an official CSU page, she’s at liberty to comment.

“What I post on Facebook is under my personal name and not under my CEO [page] or anything like that,” she said. “I think that as a student, as a person, I’m allowed to have personal opinions on things happening around me and involving me.”

General Coordinator Sophie Hough-Martin said executives were left in the dark about the letter from councillors and by-election candidates.

“I was forwarded that email today at 7:46 A.M. We were not asked to sign on, and we were not told it was happening until it had been sent,” said Hough-Martin.

Girard-Moreau would have needed to resign by the end of the semester since she will no longer be a Concordia student by the winter semester. The CSU said they were aware that she would no longer be a Concordia student after the fall semester while in the process of hiring her.

“Right now my resignation is not what is needed for the CSU,” said Girard-Moreau regarding the demand for her resignation.

“If I do quit right now, the election period will not be called, the campaign period will not resume, so it will only call for more chaos for the candidates and anyone involved in the elections,” she said.

Hough-Martin said the CSU does not have any upcoming plans for the new CEO. They are still working on getting a new CEO after Girard-Moreau’s mandate ends.