Navy Blues
Military Recruitment Posters Appear in Hall Building
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Most days, when Concordia Student Union VP Advocacy Morgan Pudwell walks through the Hall Building towards the CSU offices, the posters that surround her are from your average student group, promoting their usual student events. But on the morning of Aug. 31, she saw one poster that was not like the others—a recruitment ad for the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I was coming up to the office and saw two people carrying around a big stack of posters,” said Pudwell. “I thought ‘Wow, those posters look large.’ As I walked around the corner, I saw these military posters. I walked past them and thought ‘Hmm, maybe I should go back.’’’ Pudwell then turned around and explained that they didn’t have the right to poster on campus.
The ads, which promote a tour of the naval branch of the CAF’s on HMCS Montreal frigate, included the line “Wanted: The Next Generation of Sailors”—a clear violation of the CSU’s policy against military recruitment on campus. The CSU also must approve and stamp all posters put up on its poster boards. Pudwell said that members of the CSU had gone to the nearest recruitment
center to ask for explanations about the posters, but found it closed.
Pudwell wasn’t the only member of the CSU executive to see the posters and take issue with them. Upon coming across them, CSU VP Clubs & Space Gonzo Nieto promptly began taking them down.
“Later, Gonzo came up and said he had seen more posters, I had only seen two,” said Pudwell. “By the time he came back to the office, there was more around. I think he said he took about 25 of them down.”
Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota said that the school has no relationship with the Armed Forces, and that most postering space on campus is the domain of the CSU.
Phone calls to the local recruiting centre have not yet been returned.
