Over 800 Concordia University students vote for BDS
The Concordia Student Union will bring the BDS motions to the Board of Governors
On Jan. 29, nearly 1,000 Concordia University undergraduate students attended a Special General Meeting (SGM) and voted for the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to adopt two Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) motions.
The turnout was more than double the quorum of 450 students needed for the meeting to be valid.
A total of 885 students voted in favour of the motions and 58 voted against.
The SGM was organized as a result of a BDS petition signed by over 250 Concordia undergraduate students. The petition was created by the Concordia chapter of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR). According to CSU bylaws, the chairperson is mandated to hold an SGM within 30 days of receiving a petition of this size from the membership. The student body voted for the CSU to adopt two motions.
The first motion called on the CSU to advocate for the university to, divest from companies complicit in genocide, to defend student activists from sanctions, and to declare support for a full arms embargo. The second motion called on the CSU executive team to bring the contents of the first motion to a vote at the next Board of Governors meeting on Feb. 6.
After presenting student IDs at the door and receiving red voter cards, students quickly filled the Henry F. Hall Building’s auditorium starting around 5:30 p.m. The 692-seat room rapidly filled with students lining up for samosas, juice boxes and apples.
Due to a large turnout that exceeded the auditorium’s capacity, the overflow of students was sent to the Hall building mezzanine, where they watched a live stream of the meeting. The students in the mezzanine had their student IDs verified and participated in voting.
After organizers settled attendees, the meeting was called to order at 7:07 p.m. On several occasions during the meeting, students cheered, booed and chanted, with the chairperson calling the membership to order.
Following the appointment of the assistant-chairperson, mood watcher and minute taker,
CSU external affairs and mobilization coordinator and promoter of the motion Danna Ballantyne motioned to adopt a set of procedural rules for the meeting.
After a short debate and a failed amendment to the proposed procedural rules, a student motioned to call the question. The motion triggered a vote to end all debate and immediately vote on the proposed procedural rules. Both the motion to call the question and the proposed rules for the meeting passed.
Ballantyne reminded students that the CSU does not have the capacity to enforce the positions in the motions.
“What you are voting on tonight is to request for us, your student representatives, to bring this to the university’s administration as they are the ones who have the capacity to make these changes,” Ballantyne said.
The CSU first adopted a position in favour of BDS in 2014, but it was later overturned during the 2020 elections.
CSU academic and advocacy coordinator Vanessa Massot presented the two BDS motions with minor amendments that were agreed on beforehand by promoters of the motion. The chairperson clarified that this is permitted under the rules of order.
The first amendment called on the university to provide suitable alternatives to students for employment partnerships. The second called to reinstate the practice of department political statements.
After the presentation, the chairperson opened the debate and invited students to line up at the microphones to discuss the motions.
CSU councillor Ali Salman was the first to speak.“I think everyone here knows their moral stance on Palestine and Gaza,” Salman said.
He then motioned to call the question as many students cheered.
A student voiced their opposition to this motion, but since calls to questions are not debatable, the chairperson proceeded to the vote. Salman’s motion passed and students immediately voted on the two BDS motions on the agenda.
Students held their red voter cards in the air as people double-counted the votes for and against the motions. Once the results were announced and the motions passed, students started chanting in solidarity with Palestine and poured out onto the first floor of the Hall building.
The chants continued as students celebrated in an impromptu demonstration until they moved outside and began marching up Blvd. De Maisonneuve W. The demonstration ended near McGill Metro Station.
A day after the vote, Concordia President Graham Carr released a statement to the Concordia community, denouncing the vote as “contrary to the value of academic freedom upon which all universities are founded.”
Carr also claimed that the SGM saw “heavily masked individuals, complaints of discriminatory behaviour and the use of intimidation tactics.”
On Jan. 31, SPHR Concordia released a statement in response to Carr. The group called the statement “spineless and shameful.”
Disclaimer: The writer of this article is a Concordia undergraduate student and, therefore, a voting member in the CSU. She, along with every member of The Link team present, voted at the SGM.
