The Students’ Society’s Winter 2012 General Assembly takes place tomorrow, and we’ll have the chance to see the newly-reformed GA in action. After a semester-long reform process SSMU Council approved a package of changes at their Dec. 1 meeting. The adopted reforms, however, didn’t go as far as introducing online ratification of GA motions.

The GA has been a problem for years, and various reform efforts have tried and failed to fix it. Part of me would prefer to see it scrapped for good. But perhaps putting decisions to an online vote could be a solution to the GA’s problems. This has the potential to preserve the GA as a forum for direct democracy and open debate while limiting its flaws and increasing its legitimacy. That could only be a plus for student democracy.

Since 2006, when mandatory biannual GAs were introduced, GAs have generally been divided into two sorts. When dealing with controversial motions they’ve tended to turn into shouting matches between polarized groups, the most notorious example being the Winter 2009 GA, which dealt with a motion condemning the bombing of educational institutions in Gaza. The rest of the time they struggle to reach or maintain quorum—just 100 students (spread among faculties) from an overall population of over 20,000. GAs have failed to meet or have lost quorum six times since 2006, and have been criticized for low attendance on a number of other occasions.

GA reform has been an issue every year since 2006. Referenda questions dealing with reform were on the ballot three years in a row before last year, when a motion to abolish the GA was debated but not put to referendum. None of these reform efforts did the trick, and the GA’s fundamental problems have remained. 

One of these problems has to do with the logistics of GA meetings. Although not central to how the GA functions, the fact that GA attendance is usually limited by the size of the room it’s held in has been an issue on more than one occasion. Denying students their right to vote because of room capacity is clearly problematic. And while everyone would love to see higher attendance at GAs, there’s a (theoretical) attendance limit, after which it becomes logistically impossible to run a meeting. This means the decision making at a physical GA is always limited to a very small proportion of the student body.

Yet by far the biggest problem is that the GA is a fundamentally unrepresentative body. The GA provides a forum for self-selected, vocal minority groups to push through policy that would often be rejected by the student population as a whole. It has become clear that small groups motivated by specific issues are able to outnumber and drown out the majority, who time and time again vote with their feet against the GA by not showing up.

At its worst, the GA is nothing more than a way for special-interest groups to dictate policy. This is fundamentally undemocratic, and it’s a far less representative institution than SSMU Council or referenda questions. This fall’s referenda were voted on by almost a quarter of undergraduates, versus the approximately 0.6 per cent who voted on motions at the last GA.

Introducing online voting on all GA motions could just be a way of finally addressing these issues. Done right, this would ensure that decisions are made by a larger and more representative group than at present Hopefully, it would ensure that controversial motions are decided not by polarizing minority groups but by a broader cross-section of students.

There are questions about  the constitutionality of online voting, but a referendum question changing the constitution would open the door to such a reform.

Online GA voting isn’t a new idea, and it isn’t a guaranteed solution to the GA’s ills, but it’s the best option if we want to give the GA another chance. If it works, then the GA can be preserved as the SSMU decision-making body. If not, there will be no sensible choice left aside from abolishing the GA and moving on.

McGill Tribune

The Quebec student movement is gearing up for a winter of action against the government’s proposed tuition hike. In coming months, an unlimited general strike will play an essential role. McGill can and must be a part of it.

The Quebec government seeks  a $1,625 raise in the annual base fee paid by all students, to be imposed in increments over five years, starting this fall. That’s a 75 per cent hike for Quebec students, and the government has left open the possibility of steeper increases for out-of-province and international students.

If we allow the hike to come into effect, university education will become less accessible. Groups that  tend to have more difficulty paying for university will be the most affected by the hike, worsening social inequalities. Since available financial aid will remain inadequate, students will face surging debt burdens, which act to channel us into high-paid corporate jobs, rather than work we might find more fulfilling.

Education is a right, not a privilege. In fact, Quebec agreed to respect this principle when it signed a 1976 UN declaration holding that “higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.”

Yet government officials and Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, a vocal proponent of the tuition hike, argue that budgetary constraints leave them no option but to seek more revenue from students.

In fact, funding for education is a question of government priorities. A study by research institute IRIS shows that Quebec could afford free postsecondary education for all were it to both raise its corporate capital gains tax rate from zero per cent to 2.4 per cent and its top-bracket income tax rate by 1.4 per cent. 

Munroe-Blum has also promised that the tuition hike would produce tangible benefits for students. But tuition hikes in Quebec have historically been accompanied by cuts to public education funding, meaning they serve to change how education is funded, not increase funding. Tuition hikes shift the cost of education from the society which benefits from the production of knowledge to students, imagined as individual consumers.

Some may object to tens of thousands of students marching through downtown Montreal against a tuition hike when their degrees would remain among the cheapest in North America. But the fact that fees are higher elsewhere is not an argument for raising them here. In some parts of the world, such as Denmark, Finland, and Brazil, postsecondary education is free. If anything, the comparisons drawn with other provinces and across the border heighten the urgency of defending Quebec’s relative accessibility, as a model of a North American society that values higher education as a public good. Tuition is low here only because students, working alongside broader social movements, have fought again and again to keep it that way.

Why an unlimited general strike?

Through years of negotiations, rallies, and marches, Quebec students have expressed to the government that tuition hikes are unacceptable. The government has failed to change course. An unlimited general strike is necessary because all other options have failed.

In 1996, a strike beginning on Oct. 24 and numbering around 100,000 students at its peak lead to the reversal of a planned 30 per cent fee increase.

Most recently, in 2005, the government tried to cut $103 million from financial aid. By March 15, over 230,000 students were on strike—over half of Quebec’s student population. On April 1, the Minister of Education agreed to restore all $103 million in cuts.

Unlimited general strikes work because of the economic pressure they exert on governments, which cannot afford the delay in the annual influx of tax-paying workers, or the additional classrooms and instructors needed to accommodate a cohort of students repeating a semester, just as a new cohort arrives.

The strike

The prospect of classes postponed indefinitely this semester is understandable cause for anxiety. Moreover, it may be unclear exactly how an unlimited general strike will work.

Once a special General Assembly of AUS or another student association votes for a strike mandate and the strike is initiated, the association will meet weekly to re-approve the continuation of the strike. In other words, no single vote mandates an unlimited strike, but typically it continues until student demands are met.

In any case, the semester will not be lost. Because the costs of accommodating the additional students in the following semester are too high to the government, at no time in the long history of Quebec student strikes has a semester been canceled. Classes will resume where they left off once the strike is over, extending the end of semester and exams into May, if necessary. For graduating students, a strike delays but does not jeopardize degree conferral.

Raising a GA ballot card in the air to vote “yes” to a strike can be a moment of shared empowerment without equal. As scenes of collective action sweep Quebec campuses this winter, we at McGill have the chance not only to defend our own future, but to build relationships of mutual support that extend far beyond the Roddick Gates to show bureaucrats and administrators across the province and the world that students, united, will always prevail.

Visit tuitiontruth.ca or bloquonslahausse.com for more information. A General Assembly of the AUS will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. in Stewart Bio S1/4, to debate and vote on several motions critical to the preparation for a strike.

Duncan Hood / McGill Tribune

The Honourable Bob Rae, the interim leader of the Liberal party, completed his five day tour of Quebec with a speech at Concordia University on Friday, Jan. 27. As he crosses the nation, Rae aims to remind Canadians of what the Liberal party represents, restructure the party, and open it up to regrowth after their defeat in the last federal election.  

In his speech, Rae encouraged students to speak up while the Liberal party is under renovation. 

“This is a generation that says ‘I don’t hear you talking about the things that matter to me … persuade me that [your opinion] was important,’ ” he said.   

Earlier this January, at the Liberal Biennial Convention, 3,300 delegates attended to vote on the Liberal Constitution. Among them were members of Liberal McGill such as Matthew Ballek, a U1 arts student who said he attended because of the possibilities the party has to offer. 

“The Liberal party lost so many votes that [they] have nothing to lose,” Ballek said. “They’re open to change … youth can have a huge impact.”

MP Mark Garneau, who fielded a question and answer period with MP Justin Trudeau after Rae’s speech, expressed the current state of the Liberal party best.  

“I like to compare the Liberal party to a body, and on the third of May, it was like a body being wheeled in on a gurney into an ER. They had to put the paddles to us,” Garneau said. “Today I’d say the Liberal Party has a heart beat … but we have a heck of a long way to go.”

Rae’s speech emphasized that the Liberal party is not having an “identity crisis,” as the other parties in the House of Commons would like to portray.  

“Governments and authority must explain and justify itself to people who have the means … to insist that the world must make sense to them. People today are dying for this idea … and it is the essential idea of the Liberal party,” Rae said.  

Some of the speakers questioned whether the current government is sufficiently accountable.  

“Our great concern [about Harper’s] process is … [how he’s] pushing meetings into closed doors … using the power of the majority to quash dissenting voices,” Trudeau said.  

Miranda Bradley, a U2 student in the faculty of arts, chose to attend the event though her family traditionally supports the NDP.  

“I have to respect that the Liberals aren’t afraid to leave [traditional] methods,” Bradley said. “They are trying to avoid doing things simply because that’s how it’s always been done.”

As the leadership election draws closer, there have been rumours that the Liberals need a younger leader to represent the rebirth of the Liberal party. Rae said that he has not decided whether he is going to run, but is hopeful for the future of the party.

“I always remind people, the one thing that is certain about public opinion is that it will change. And it changes in response to leadership …  in having an idea of where you want to go,” Rae said. “That is where our party has always been at its best … and that’s where we need to be again.”

On Jan. 27, approximately 100 university and CEGEP students created a human barricade outside the Montreal offices of the Ministry of Education to protest the Quebec government’s proposed tuition fee hikes. The protest was organized by the Coalition Large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (CLASSE), a temporary coalition of student associations. McGill students may vote to join this coalition in the AUS General Assembly on Jan. 31.

In addition to the vote to join  CLASSE, other GA motions, if passed, would aim to make the AUS eligible to do so. For example, CLASSE requires that the AUS take an official position in favour of free education and against all tuition increases. 

The motions were submitted by members of the Mobilization Committee (Mob Squad), an organization dedicated to combating inequity and defending accessible education.  

Kevin Paul, U3 arts student and member of the Mob Squad, said that the benefits of joining the Quebec-wide student movement would be worth the extra steps required to become eligible.  (Full disclosure: Kevin Paul is a contributor to the Tribune’s opinion section.)

“The government does not negotiate with individual student associations from one university, but it will negotiate with a coalition representing tens of thousands of students [who] are acting collectively,” Paul said. “[It] means that when CLASSE negotiates with the government, the interests of McGill Arts students will be represented.”

According to an email from Mobilization Committee members, the AUS has also accepted their petition for a Special Referendum to amend the AUS Constitution in order to make the society eligible to join CLASSE. The proposed changes would extend some powers currently held by the council to the General Assembly. Students will have the chance to vote on the referendum in early February.

However, even if the AUS GA votes on Tuesday to request to join CLASSE, Paul says that the power to strike will remain in the hands of McGill students.  

“The only votes for a strike will come when there is a Strike General Assembly and students pass a motion to stop going to class,” he said.

Joël Pedneault, SSMU VP External, is uncertain whether students will vote to strike, but thinks that it would be effective at this stage in the student movement. 

“I don’t know if people are convinced that [a strike’s] something that they want to do right now … but I think there might just be a critical mass of people who understand that we’re at that point right now,” Pedneault said. “The government’s still not backing down, so what’s going to work right now if going on a strike.”

-The AUS GA will take place at 6:00 on Jan. 31 in Stewart Biology S1/4. Students need a McGill arts student ID to vote.

Sam Reynolds / McGill Tribune

On Jan. 27, students, faculty, administration, and alumni came together at the Omni Hotel for the 32nd Management Achievement Awards. The event honoured four individuals in the business world who had exemplified entrepreneurial skills, using their success to give back to the community. The event also provided a unique networking experience for those in attendance.

“It’s one of those things you can’t learn in a classroom. This is hearing [advice] from people who have done it, who have experienced it, and who have succeeded in doing it,” Keith Chan, U3 international management and chairman of the event, said.

In a brief speech, the dean of the Desautels faculty of management, Peter Todd, commented on the appropriateness of the award’s recipients, who were chosen by the student organizers. The selection aimed to  recognize community entrepreneurs who would serve as a good example for other management students.

A subcommittee of the Management Undergraduate Society had been organizing this event since June. Management undergraduate students who attended the event also benefited from the presence of representatives from major Canadian companies such as Ernst & Young, Sid Lee, PWC, and KPMG.

“For students, they have a chance to meet [company representatives] and chat informally in an environment they might have not otherwise had,” Jason Paseli, a McGill alumnus now working for KPMG, said.

While the event was ideal for students to network, Samantha Butler, U3 accounting and chairwoman of the event, explained that it was designed for students to gain more than ordinary networking opportunities.

“This is business-meets-students and in a really interesting way, not just networking but having award winners share their stories. That’s not something you get with networking, where you’re trying to just sell yourself and [you can’t] just … put that aside and listen to people who made it to the top,” she said.

President and CEO of Dundee Corporation Ned Goodman, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, spoke about how students should proceed in the business world, showing students that success is about more than just large investments.

“There are people who say my success and career has been lucky, and they’re right, it has been lucky, but luck only comes from being associated with the right people. I have been lucky to surround myself with people who are smarter than me,” he said.

Having spent over 50 years in the natural resource investment industry, Goodman’s advice was not always specific to business.

“We live in a world that has confused regulations and rules with cultural principles,” he said. “Rules can always be bent but principles are forever … [You should] always finish what you start, when you’re riding through hell, keep riding, and never give up.”

Another award winner was Cora Tsouflidou, founder and chair of the board for Cora Franchise Group Inc. This franchise was created when Tsouflidou, a single mother, bought an abandoned diner in Montreal that later became Chez Cora. 

“Cora doesn’t come from a business background but possesses a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Look [at] what she has accomplished; she has taken her passion and built a great enterprise. It gives hope to students to take what they love and run with it,” Michaela Hirsh, U1 finance and director of operations and logistics of the event, said.

Bertrand Cesvet, chairman and chief strategist of Sid Lee, was ecstatic about being able to give back to the Desautels community.

“McGill changed my life; I really think that none of what I accomplished in my life could have happened if I had picked one of the other schools I was looking at,” he said.

The event emphasized that being a successful business leader is about more than securing investments and major projects.

“The news often paints corporate executives as monsters, but there are many people who share their success and I think that undergraduate students should see that,” Hirsch said. “When you work towards something, you’re not working just for your own personal gains but for the community at large.”