Archive for Jacob Serebrin
Report finds “culture of contempt” at Concordia
Montreal university needs to clarify its mission
Concordia photo courtesy of Foxtongue on Flickr
Concordia University needs to make major changes to how it’s run, according to a new report on the university’s governance.
The report, released on June 15, says that the university suffers from a “substantial degree of misunderstanding, blatantly deficient internal communications and a lot of distrust, often bordering on mutual contempt, between the various communities of the university.”
The report was written by three outside experts who were brought in after the sudden departure of president Judith Woodsworth over the Christmas break exposed deep divisions between students, faculty and outsiders on the board of governors. Woodsworth’s immediate predecessor, Claude Lajeunesse, was also forced to resign by the board in 2007. As well, the university has seen the departure of a number of vice-presidents.
According to the report, efforts to solicit the opinions of community members found that “everyone seemed quite willing, in some cases even anxious, to think the worst of someone – in some cases, everyone – else.”
While the report acknowledges that the circumstances surrounding Woodsworth’s departure contributed to the “chorus of negative response,” it says that the problems within the university go deeper.
“The depth and even the fury of that response could only have arisen in a context where long simmering governance and internal communication problems between the board and the university community… had neither been addressed nor resolved.”
Part of the problem, according to the report, is the school’s lack of direction which has led to “tension between those who uphold its tradition of accessibility and openness as opposed to those who place greater value on a development model which features research and graduate studies.”
The report recommends that the university deal with this by updating its charter to include a clear mission statement and by developing an academic plan.
The report also recommends reducing the size of the board from 40 members to 25. The smaller board would maintain the current ratio of outsiders to insiders, but it would no longer include representatives from alumni associations. As well, the percentage of faculty on the board would increase while student representation would decrease slightly.
According to the report, “the committee saw no evidence, although there were rumours, accusations and insinuations … that the Concordia board has systematically interfered with core academic or curriculum decision making.”
However, the committee did find evidence that board members had worked “directly with members of the administration in such a way as to bypass and, therefore, weaken the function of the President.” As a result, the report recommends making the president the only point of contact between the board and the administration.
Other recommendations include formalizing the powers of the university senate and enforcing term-limits for board and senate members. The recommendations for a smaller board and firm term-limits are in line with a university governance bill currently before Quebec’s National Assembly.
Despite the problems, the report suggests the university is doing some things right. “What is remarkable… is that under these difficult and adverse circumstances, the core activities of the university, its teaching and research, appeared relatively unaffected,” it says.
The university will hold an open meeting on the report on June 28.
Who are the top 10 highest paid university admins in Quebec?
More than 43 admins make more than $200,000
Late last week, there was controversy after it was revealed that a Université Laval vice-rector had received a 30 per cent pay increase without proper approval from the university’s board. Le Soleil reported that Éric Bauce received the increase on a temporary basis when he took over a sick colleagues duties, but continued to be paid the higher wage even after she returned to work. The National Assembly was told Bauce received a salary of $246,000.*
But a salary that high is not as much of an anomaly as it may seem. In 2008 – 2009, the most recent year for which complete numbers are available, there were 43 university administrators in Quebec with base salaries of more than $200,000 a year, according to the National Assembly’s Culture and Education Committee. The majority of them worked at three large universities in Montreal, with 13 at McGill, 12 at the Université de Montréal and nine at Concordia. Those three schools were home to all 10 of the highest paid administrators in the province.
But bigger student populations don’t necessarily mean more money. The Université du Québec à Montréal, the province’s second largest university, doesn’t have any administrators who are paid more than $200,000. Laval and the Université de Sherbrooke each have only three. And although McGill pays the highest wages, it’s only Quebec’s fifth largest university by population.
In addition to base salary, many senior administrators also receive other benefits, sometimes worth tens of thousands of dollars. Universities are only required to disclose the total dollar value of all perks given to an individual, so details can be hard to find. But some schools have revealed more information. At Concordia, for instance, the president is entitled to housing and car allowances as well as memberships in private clubs.
Here is a list of the 10 highest paid university administrators in Quebec based on documents filed with the National Assembly last fall:
1. Heather Munroe-Blum, McGill principal – $585,481 (base pay of $356,174 plus $229,307 in perks and other compensation.**)
2. Richard Levin, McGill vice principal, health and medical affairs and dean of medicine – $548,929 (base pay of $496,921 plus $52,008 in perks and other compensation.)
3. Judith Woodsworth, Concordia president (Woodsworth was forced to resign last December) – $392,875 (base pay of $350,000 plus $42,875 in perks and other compensation.)
4. Luc Vinet, U de M rector (Vinet’s term ended June 1, 2010) – $362,230 (base pay of $339,031 plus $23,199 in perks and other compensation.)
5. Kathy Assayag, Concordia vice-president, advancement and alumni relations; president of the Concordia University foundation (Assayag left the university for “personal reasons” in September 2010) – $334,323 (base pay of $283,785 plus $50,538 in perks and other compensation.)
6. Michael Di Grappa, Concordia vice-president, services (DiGrappa left Concordia to take a position at McGill in late October, 2010) – $330,042 (base pay of $240,179 plus $89,863 in perks and other compensation.)
7. Rima Rozen, McGill assistant vice-principal, research and international relations – $317,553 (base pay of $226,933 plus $90,620 in perks and other compensation.)
8. Jean-Lucien Rouleau, U de M dean, medicine – $316,174 (base pay of $311,489 plus $4,023 in perks and other compensation.)
9. Peter Allan Todd, McGill dean, management – $310,137 (base pay of $308,129 plus $2,008 in perks and other compensation.)
10. Marc Weinstein, McGill vice-principal, development and alumni relations – $306,185 (base pay of $264,762 plus $41,423 in perks and other compensation.)
Photo courtesy of Duckie Monster on Flickr.
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Éric Bauce’s salary. On Campus regrets the error.
**An earlier version of this article lumped together all non-salary compensation as “perks.” A more accurate description is “perks and other compensation,” because this figure includes royalty payments, bonuses, housing allowances and car allowances.
Supreme Court should support Quebec religion and ethics class
There’s nothing wrong with teaching basic facts about diversity to children
The Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments on Wednesday about whether the parents of school children in Quebec should have the right to pull their kids out of mandatory classes, if they disagree with the content.
At issue is the province’s “Ethics and Religious Culture” course, which is taught at both the elementary and secondary levels. The course is intended to help children “develop an awareness” of the growing diversity in Quebec society.
According to the course curriculum, “students will be encouraged to engage in critical reflection on ethical questions and to understand the phenomenon of religion by practising, in a spirit of openness, dialogue that is oriented toward contributing to community life.”
But some parents don’t like it.
One Catholic couple, who cannot be identified because of a publication ban, sued to have their children exempted from the class. The Quebec Superior Court rejected their arguments and the Court of Appeals dismissed their appeal of that decision. They’re now challenging the Court of Appeals’ decision at the Supreme Court.
According to the Supreme Court’s case summary, the parents have a problem with the course because of the “disruption caused by forced, premature contact with a series of beliefs that were mostly incompatible with those of the family, as well as the adverse effect on the religious faith of the members of this family.”
Yes, that’s right, these parents don’t want their children to know that some members of our society have different beliefs than they do.
But most Quebecers no longer live in parochial ghettos, most likely the children in question have already encountered children from different backgrounds, who are being raised in different religious traditions, either in the classroom or on the playground.
There’s no problem with parents teaching their children their religious views. There’s also nothing stopping religious schools from teaching explicitly faith-based classes.
But at the same time, I see no problem with the state insisting that schools teach that most basic of Canadian values: that in our society all of us are considered equal.
As Supreme Court Justice Louis LeBel put it, “Is there anything wrong with trying to teach open mindedness to students, to make that a behaviour or an attitude?
In Canada, there shouldn’t be.
The parents’ lawyers have claimed that the course will destroy pluralism in Quebec. I’m not quite sure how teaching children that pluralism exists in a diverse society will lead to that outcome.
Part of the problem is that there seems to be a lot of misinformation going around about what the course actually teaches and some of it seems to be rather deliberate.
National Post columnist, Barbara Kay claims that children will be taught that “that Christianity and pagan Animism and tinfoil-hat science fiction are equally true and equally conducive to a life of morality and spiritual vigour.”
But that’s not what the curriculum says. In fact, the course gives prominence to Christian traditions because of the “historical and cultural importance of Catholicism and Protestantism.” It also focuses on Judaism and Aboriginal spiritual traditions because of their long histories in Quebec. The only other religions mentioned by uname in the curriculum are Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Orthodox Christianity, though there is some time set aside for “other religions” and “other forms of expression.”
What worries me most is the precedent that a victory by these parents could set. What comes next? Will parents be able to pull their children out of science classes because they don’t want them exposed to the theory of evolution? What if a parent doesn’t like what’s taught in a history class?
Canada is a diverse society and there’s nothing wrong with teaching basic facts about the people who live in this country to children.
Disqualifications reversed for all Concordia student election candidates
Student council makes a reasonable decision to overturn disqualification of opposition slate
The post election kerfuffle at the Concordia Student Union, which saw almost everyone who ran be disqualified, appears to be over.
On Wednesday, in one of their last actions, outgoing student council members voted to allow everyone who was elected take office and to reimburse candidates for election expenses.
The situation began around two weeks after the vote, held in late March, when elections chief, Oliver Cohen, disqualified both of the teams that contested the election.
A couple of weeks later, that decision was modified by the judicial board, who overturned Cohen’s decision to disqualify “Your Concordia,” the team that won the student union executive, a majority on council and most of the student seats on the university’s senate and board of governors.
However, the board upheld Cohen’s decision to deny both teams reimbursement for election expenses and to disqualify the other slate, “Action,” which won several council seats and a spot on the university senate.
The judicial board’s written report, released on Monday, alleges that both slates violated election rules by campaigning after polls had opened and that the winning slate engaged in negative campaigning. Shocking, I know.
According to the Concordian, councillors who supported reinstating the candidates said they were afraid that students in Concordia’s business school would be disenfranchised, as all their representatives remained disqualified.
It’s an interesting argument, but I think the real problem with the decisions to disqualify these candidates is that neither Cohen nor the judicial board attempted to prove that the alleged violations actually affected the results of the election. Disenfranchising every student is a serious action and should only be done in the gravest circumstances.
In “real” elections, it has to be proven that the results were actually affected for the vote to be annulled. As Ontario Superior Court Justice, Alexandra Hoy wrote in a 2011 decision about a Toronto election, “people have exercised their right to vote, and their votes should not be discounted without good reason.”
And the reasons presented here, especially considering the sorts of shenanigans that have taken place in previous Concordia elections, just aren’t good enough to throw out an entire election.
Sure, candidates shouldn’t break the rules, but should wearing a blue shirt after polling starts really be grounds for disqualification?
Some of the rules in this case seem downright ridiculous. According to judicial board member Tuan Dinh, “any rhetoric that refers to an oppositional party, even if through contrast” is grounds for disqualifying an entire team. Goodness. If Dinh was working for Elections Canada, we’d never stop having federal elections.
The “offending” item in question is a “rap” video where “Your Concordia” candidates spit cutting lines like, “nothing rhymes with Concordia except for ‘Action’ we’re sincerely getting bored of ya’.”
Cunning word-play it is not, but this was an election, not an MC battle and this video certainly wasn’t defamatory, slanderous or libellous as was claimed by Cohen and Dinh.
The other big problem with these disqualifications was that they penalized entire political parties for the actions of one or two individual candidates. Imagine if Elections Canada disqualified every Conservative who ran in the last election because one of them showed up at a polling station wearing a party t-shirt. Sounds pretty unreasonable, does it not?
New poll claims youth vote doubled, too bad it’s a poor survey
Historica-Dominion Institute survey has so many problems, it’s impossible to take its conclusions seriously
Youth voting rates doubled on May 2, when compared with the 2008 election, and more than half of those votes went to the NDP, according to a poll released yesterday by the Historica-Dominion Institute.
I’d be willing to believe that more than half of youth votes went to the NDP, but that might be because I live in Montreal and I don’t think I actually know anyone who didn’t vote for the NDP. And while I wouldn’t be surprised if the youth vote-rate increased, I’m a little incredulous about the claim that it rose to 76 per cent, from 37.4 per cent three years ago.
Now, it may be that the possibility of electing some of their peers to parliament drove youth turnout to unprecedented highs. Or it may be that this is just a shoddy survey.
The Canadian Press story about the poll gives some indication of the latter, saying (right at the end) that, “since it was conducted online, it’s impossible to say precisely how exact the poll is.”
But that’s the least of this survey’s problems.
The Historica-Dominion Institute claims the poll is representative of “youth” but that’s not actually the case. The participants are all members of a website, studentawards.com, which claims to help its members obtain university scholarships.
So, in fact, the survey only questioned students and those who intend to go to university in the near future. There’s a big difference between the voting habits of university students and non-student youth.
But even if this survey were being passed off as representative of students, there would be some big problems. The participants were selected from among a group of people who chose to register with a specific website and who opted-in to receiving surveys of this nature. That’s a pretty limited group and one that certainly has some self-selection bias.
The survey also has problems with sample size. Only 812 people across the country participated and while that might sound like a decent number of people, it means some very low sample sizes at the provincial level. In fact, the suvey doesn’t even provide the number of respondents by province for the Prairie (Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut) and Atlantic regions. Fewer than 60 people were survived in each of those regions.
There’s another big problem with post-election surveys, people tend to over-report voting. Post-election surveys, commissioned by Elections Canada, have found that the number of people who claim to have voted, when surveyed, is usually around 20 percentage points higher than the actual voting rate.
While I’d certainly like to find out that youth turnout increased in this election, we’re going to have to wait a little longer to find out what actually happened.
Is election of students another sign MPs are faceless?
Young MPs will be under the microscope
When Parliament resumes, the NDP’s Quebec delegation will include some of the youngest MPs ever elected.
On Monday night, Quebecers elected nine of the 11 university students running as NDP candidates in the province. At least two other new NDP MPs from Quebec are recent graduates.
Among the students is Canada’s youngest MP ever, Pierre-Luc Dusseault, an applied politics student at Université de Sherbrooke.
It definitely seems as though campaigning was optional for NDP candidates in Quebec. Charmaine Borg, one of several McGill students elected, didn’t speak to the local paper in Terrebonne-Blainville, the riding she represents, until election night. She spent most of the campaign in Montreal, helping out with Thomas Mulcair’s reelection effort.
She’s not the only young NDP MP coming under scrutiny, Isabelle Morin, a Université de Sherbrooke student who was elected in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Lachine, did her first interview with the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday. She told the paper that she had, in fact, been campaigning door-to-door in the riding and that, despite earlier reports, she could speak English, an important skill for the representative of a largely anglophone riding.
I probably don’t even need to mention the most infamous of the new NDP MPs, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, the Vegas-vacationing Ottawa bartender who still hasn’t spoken to any media.
The high level of scrutiny these MPs are under probably won’t be letting up soon, media here in Quebec will be watching to see if these new representatives open offices in their ridings and, in some cases, as they meet their constituents for the first time.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about this new crop of MPs.
I’m glad that ordinary young Canadians are taking seats in Parliament. I think that many of these young MPs will end up impressing people. Dusseault, in particular, has proven himself to be quite articulate. Even though most of these new MPs did not expect to win, all of them are engaged with, and clearly active in, Canadian politics, otherwise they would not have stood for election in the first place.
But I am concerned about what the election of these MPs says about the state of our system. None of these candidates were elected because of who they are, their record or their experience. No, they were elected because of the party they represent and that party’s leader.
To me, this is just another sign that MPs have become faceless, interchangeable representatives of their parties, rather than local individuals who represent their communities. There’s a reason we vote for candidates, not for parties or leaders.
Also, I’m a little jealous of these new MPs. They’ll all be looking at annual salaries of over $150,000 for, at least, the next four years.
NDP surge in Quebec could put students into office
10 university students standing as NDP candidates in Quebec
When Thomas Mulcair became the second NDP candidate ever to be elected in Quebec, it had far more to do with his personal popularity than with his party’s.
Mulciar had been the environment minister in Jean Charest’s cabinet and publicly disagreed with the premier on a plan to sell part of a provincial park. When he was demoted, he resigned. Standing up for his convictions may have hurt Mulcair’s career in Quebec City but it certainly didn’t hurt him at the federal ballot box.
Coming into this election, the NDP had its eyes on gaining a couple more seats in Quebec, but had no serious hopes of a massive breakthrough. As a result, in many ridings, the NDP has been willing to stand anyone with a pulse who wants to run. They’re placeholder candidates, whose only purpose is to ensure that the party’s name is on every ballot in the country.
But, with polls showing surprisingly strong for the NDP in Quebec, it caused a stir when one of the candidates took off for Vegas and when the party was unable to tell reporters if another candidate was still planning to take a vacation of her own. There have also been concerns that many of the candidates don’t live in their ridings and haven’t been campaigning.
Interestingly, 10 of the NDP candidates in Quebec are university students and two of them have a pretty good chance of being elected.
Some seat projections are putting Isabelle Morin, a student at Bishop’s University, in the lead in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Lachine. The western Montreal riding, which includes urban and suburban areas, has been considered a safe Liberal seat. Current MP Marlene Jennings has never received less than 40 per cent of the vote since she was elected in 1997.
The same seat projections are also suggesting that Elaine Michaud, a masters student at Quebec’s École nationale d’administration publique, could win in the riding of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier. The suburban riding, which surrounds much of Quebec City, is currently held by André Arthur, an independent who usually votes with the Conservatives.
While I’m not sure how much I trust riding-by-riding seat projections, it doesn’t look like some of the student candidates have much of a chance.
Some of them, like Charmaine Borg, who is standing in the riding of Terrebonne-Blainville, don’t seem to be campaigning at all. A local newspaper in the riding couldn’t even get in contact with her. Borg is the co-president of the NDP club at McGill. The other co-president, Matthew Dubé, is standing in the riding of Chambly-Borduas, just east of Montreal.
Others, like Pierre-Luc Dusseault, look like they’re actually trying to get elected. Dusseault, who is standing in the riding of Sherbrooke, is an applied politics student at Université de Sherbrooke.
Laurin Liu, standing in Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, north-west of Montreal, has some electoral experience, she was recently elected as one of the undergraduate representatives on the board of McGill’s campus radio station, CKUT.
If some of these students do get elected, it won’t be the first time Quebec has put a student in to the House of Commons. The youngest MP elected in 2008 was the Bloc Québécois’ Nicolas Dufour, who was 21 at the time. The youngest MP ever was also elected in Quebec; Claude-André Lachance, a Liberal, was 20 when he was elected in Montreal. Luachance got his law degree while he was a sitting MP.
Disqualification reversed for Concordia student election winners
Second-place team remains disqualified, neither slate will have expenses reimbursed
The team that won March’s Concordia Student Union election will take office after all.
Two weeks ago, the chief electoral officer disqualified all the candidates from the two main slates, accusing them of multiple election rule violations. On Wednesday, the student union’s judicial board overturned his decision to disqualify the members of Your Concordia, which won the executive along with a majority on council, according to board chair Bella Ratner.
The Your Concordia slate had received harsh criticism from elections chief Oliver Cohen, who banned members of the group from running in CSU elections for two years.
However, the board did uphold Cohen’s decision to disqualify the Action slate, which won nine of 29 council seats and one of four student seats on the university’s senate.
The board also upheld Cohen’s decision not to reimburse the slates for election expenses, over allegations of over-spending.
A full judicial board report will be issued next week.
A small number of independent candidates also stood in the election, however all of the positions were won by members of the two slates.
Student lobby group divided on extending language laws to CEGEPs
Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec can’t find consensus on issue of restricting access to English-language colleges
Quebec’s largest CEGEP student lobby group won’t be taking a stance on calls by the Parti Québécois for the province to extend language restrictions to the colleges.
The 23 student associations of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec debated the issue at the organization’s general assembly, last weekend. But after a “heated debate,” the group was unable to reach a consensus.
FÉCQ president Léo Bureau-Blouin, who was reelected to a second term at the assembly, told the Montreal Gazette that debate over the PQ proposal split the group down the middle, and that, “we haven’t closed the door on the idea … But for now, we’d like to proceed with measures [to promote French] that are more consensual.”
According to a FÉCQ press release, the group would like to see improvements to second-language instruction in CEGEPs, along with programs to help non-francophones in Montreal get jobs in French. The group says that these proposals would help preserve the French language without creating “deep divisions,” like the PQ proposal.
Quebec currently restricts access to English-language primary and secondary schools, forcing francophones and new immigrants, along with their descendants, into the French-language system. The PQ has called for these restrictions to be extended to CEGEPs. Students in Quebec, who graduate high school after grade 11, must attend CEGEP before they can attend university; the colleges also provide vocational programs.
Concordia grad students sue Canadian Federation of Students
Third Quebec student union to file suit against national lobby group
The Concordia Graduate Students’ Association has filed a lawsuit seeking to have the results of a referendum to leave the Canadian Federation of Students recognized.
The referendum, held last spring, saw students vote 456 to 148 in favour of leaving the organization but the vote, which was conducted without CFS support, has not been recognized by the Federation.
Undergraduates at Concordia and McGill graduate students are also suing the Federation, seeking to have the results of votes to leave the group recognized by the courts.
The two Concordia suits share several similarities, in both cases the CFS refused to allow referendums , in part, on the grounds that the student unions had years worth of unpaid membership fees. According to the GSA’s motion to institute proceedings, the CFS claimed they were owed $200,000. According to the motion, a lawyers letter sent to the GSA six weeks prior made no mention of an outstanding debt, as well, they argue that if the GSA had a debt dating back to 1994, it would have been claimed before March 2010 and would have been mentioned at a CFS general meeting.
Like the Concordia Student Union’s suit, the GSA attempts to establish a pattern of bad faith by the CFS when it comes to referendums. They also claim that students’ Quebec charter rights were violated and are seeking $100,000 in damages.
The CFS is now facing five lawsuits in Quebec. In addition to the three suits filed by student unions the lobby group is also being sued by its former Quebec branch and that organization’s former landlord.
The only CFS member in Quebec not currently suing the organization is student union at Dawson College, a CEGEP, a referendum was supposed to take place there but it still hasn’t happened.
The GSA and CFS will be in court on May 20.
McGill issues warning after sexual assaults
Four young women attacked in residential area near campus
McGill university has issued a safety warning after four young women were assaulted near the university’s downtown campus on Thursday night.
The four victims, aged between 19 and 26, were walking alone in the McGill ghetto, a residential area near the school, when they were attacked. All four were able to free themselves and escape. According to police, two of the victims were sexually assaulted. One of the victims was taken to hospital and released.
Police are asking for help from the public in locating a man suspected in the attacks.
McGill’s dean of students and security services are recommending that people be “extremely careful” when walking after dark, especially in the Milton-Parc area, stay in lighted areas and not walk alone.
The university’s Walksafe program is closed during the exam period and summer semester.
Young Quebecers have a difficult choice ahead
PQ platform will include tuition freeze, restricting access to English-language CEGEPs
The Parti Québécois held their big party congress over the weekend. This conference was particularly important because Quebec’s largest opposition party was deciding on the policies that they will be bringing to the voters in the next provincial election.
The biggest news out of the congress was the overwhelming level of support for leader Pauline Marois. She received over 93 per cent in a confidence vote, well over the 80 per cent required to avoid a leadership contest.
There were also some interesting developments on the education front, with delegates voting to oppose the tuition hikes introduced in last month’s provincial budget and, if elected, to freeze tuition at 2012 levels. That proposal has received support from the province’s largest student lobby group.
Delegates also backed recent calls by PQ members of the National Assembly to extend the province’s language laws, which currently restrict access to English-language primary and secondary schools, to CEGEPs. Students in Quebec, who graduate high school in grade 11, must attend a two-year CEGEP program before going to university. The colleges also provide vocational programs.
Currently in Quebec, children can only attend schools in the English-language system if one of their their parents or siblings was educated in English in Canada, or if the child began their schooling in English elsewhere in the country before moving to the province. Everyone else, essentially all francophones and immigrants, must attend French-language schools. The restrictions apply to all schools that receive any government funding, including most private schools.
The PQ has always been something of a strange animal. It is, essentially, a single issue coalition, centred around Quebec nationalism and promoting the French language. Yet, it has formed the province’s government on several occasions and, according to a poll that appeared in Saturday’s Le Devoir, may be poised to do so again.
Over the past few years some high-profile former PQ members, including former leader, Lucien Bouchard, have publicly denounced hard-line nationalist positions. This movement away from the party seems to be coming mostly from its right wing, leaving the PQ more left wing and more radical, at least when it comes to issues of Quebec nationalism and the French language.
But while Marois may be more radical than some of her predecessors, she is certainly not on the party’s radical fringe. Over the weekend, she convinced the majority of delegates to backtrack on a policy that would have called for all commercial signs in the province to be exclusively in French. Instead, the party will be sticking with the status quo, which allows multilingual signs, as long as French is predominant.
The party’s plans to extend the language laws to CEGEPs are controversial and may not be very popular but it’s probably not going to cost them politically. The number of students who would be affected by this change is small, around 4,000 a year, the far majority of whom are in the Montreal area, which isn’t exactly a PQ stronghold. As well, it’s a much bigger issue for anglophones, who wouldn’t have voted for the PQ anyway, than for francophones.
Quebec’s next election could still be a long way off, Premier Jean Charest doesn’t have to call one until December 2012, so it’s much too early to call this one for the PQ. But, when it does come, many young Quebecers will most likely be feeling that both of the province’s major parties are working against their interests.
Concordia student elections chief throws out vote results
Both slates disqualified, over alleged election rule violations, current executive and council to stay in power until November
Two weeks after ballot counting ended, the results of the Concordia Student Union election have been annulled.
In an email sent late Tuesday night, chief electoral officer, Oliver Cohen, informed both slates that all their candidates were disqualified, and accused them of multiple election rule violations.
Cohen also banned all members of one slate, Your Concordia, from running in any CSU election for two years, accusing the team of filing a false expense report. Your Concordia had won the executive and a council majority in the election.
The outgoing CSU executive has condemned the decision, issuing a statement calling it “shocking and unfortunate.”
“Please don’t believe for a second that any of us will have a hand in any of the rulings,” outgoing president Heather Lucas told the Concordian.
At a council meeting on Wednesday night the disqualifications were barely mentioned and Cohen was a no-show, according to the Concordian’s Sarah Deshaies.
Unsurprisingly, both slates intend to challenge the disqualifications at the union’s judicial board, which can over-rule Cohen. If the disqualifications are upheld, the current CSU executive and council will stay in office until a by-election is held in November.
The disqualifications came a week after the heads of the two slates pledged to work together on election reform. They have called for ending the practice of council affiliating with executive slates
While the results of CSU elections are inevitably subject to challenges, the last time something this big happened was in 2002. That time, the union’s judicial board nullified the results of a November by-election after the CEO disqualified and reinstated an executive slate on the first morning of voting. The nullification caused the university’s administration to sever ties with the student union until a new executive was elected in April.
Quebec moving ahead with university governance reform
Proposed law would require 60 per cent of a university’s board members to come from outside the school
The Quebec government appears to be moving ahead with legislation that will change the way every university in the province is run.
Bill 38, currently before the National Assembly would standardize university governance and make universities boards of directors more accountable to the provincial government. It would also require that 60 per cent of a university’s board members be from outside the school and that all boards include an equal number of men and women.
The government began discussing university governance reform in 2008, in the wake of a financial crisis at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
While legislation was first introduced in June 2009, it lingered in committee before dying on the order paper when premier Jean Charest prorogued the National Assembly for one day in February. The day after the Assembly reconvened, Bill 38 was reintroduced.
Now, the law appears to be moving forward once again, albeit slowly. The bill appeared on the agenda of Friday’s legislative session for a second reading. While the session ended before that item was reached, it does seem likely that it will be approved in principle within the next couple days.
Currently, each of Quebec’s universities has a different board structure. For example, Concordia has 40 members on its board, while UQAM’s has 16 members. Each board also has different representation: UQAM’s board includes a representative for local CEGEPs; Concordia and McGill both have representatives of their non-teaching staff on their boards, while UQAM and the Université de Montréal don’t. On the other hand, both UQAM and the U de M have some of their board members appointed by the government, the English-language schools don’t. I could keep going, but you get the idea. The universities like this, they say that they’re each different institutions with different missions, so they should have different governance structures. The province doesn’t agree.
For faculty and students, the most concerning part of the proposed law has been the requirement that 60 per cent of board members come from outside the university. Of Quebec’s six largest universities, Concordia and U de M already have this ratio. UQAM, Université de Sherbrooke, Université Laval and McGill don’t. At Concordia, there have also been concerns that a smaller board would diminish student and faculty representation.
There’s another issue at Concordia, the school is currently in the midst of a review of its governance structure. That process could be rendered completely irrelevant by this law, at a cost of $60,000.
The other big concern, at least at McGill and Concordia, is that under the bill, the province would appoint one member to each university’s board. For schools in the University of Quebec system the province would appoint three board members. For most French-language universities this would actually mean fewer government appointees on their boards.
The propose og law does have some positives though, it includes reasonably strict conflict of interest rules and, perhaps, most interestingly board members would be prohibited from serving more than two terms. There is one caveat to that rule, terms as chair of the board would be counted separately from regular terms; so a board member could serve for six years as a regular board member and another six years as chair. If the bill becomes law, it would see at least eon of the most controversial figures on Concordia’s board forced out quite soon.
There is also an interesting disclosure requirement in the bill, universities would be required to post board members’ meeting and committee attendance records online.
Concordia to remove bottled water from campus vending machines
Three-year project will include water fountain upgrades
Concordia University has announced a plan to remove bottled water from vending machines on campus.
The announcement comes just days after students at the university voted to ban bottled water on campus in a non-binding plebiscite.
The school intends to retrofit or replace the majority of water fountains on campus, over the next three years, so that they’ll be better for filling reusable bottles. Once the first stage of the upgrade is completed, around a year from now, bottled water will be pulled from vending machines.
“This is not only about bottled water but is consistent with the university’s values of promoting responsible sustainability practices,” acting vice-president, services, Roger Côté said in the university’s press release. “It’s the next step in Concordia’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the quality of life of the community in which we live.”
You might remember that there was a bit of a brouhaha a few months back, when Concordia re-signed an exclusive contract with Pepsi. A student threatened to sue the university and its former acting president, after the school allegedly broke a promise to consult with campus environmental groups before signing a new beverage deal. Those threats don’t appear to have gone anywhere, some lawyers letters may have been sent but I’ve been unable to find anything filed with the courts. The student in question, Laura Beach, was recently elected to the university’s board of governors. The Pepsi contract allows the university to decide whether bottled water will be sold in vending machines.
Concordia isn’t the first Quebec university to restrict the sale of bottled water on campus, a ban at Bishop’s University went into effect last fall. According to the Polaris Institute, 10 universities across Canada have banned the sale of bottled water on campus.
New report says CEGEP students should have language choice
Conseil supérieur de la langue française recommends maintaining the status quo
Quebec shouldn’t restrict the ability of CEGEP students to choose whether they study in English or French, according to a new report by the government agency which advises the minister responsible for the province’s language laws.
The opposition Parti Québécois has called for Bill 101, which restricts access to English-language elementary and secondary schools, to be extended to CEGEPs.
Quebec high school students graduate in grade 11 and must attend a two-year CEGEP program before attending university in the province. CEGEPs also provide vocational training.
The PQ claims that allowing large numbers of francophones and allophones, those whose first language is neither English nor French, to attend English-language CEGEPs is contributing to the “anglicisation” of the Montreal area.
According to the Conseil supérieur de la langue française, restricting access to English-language CEGEPs could upset the linguistic balance in the province.
In their recommendations, the Conseil points out that the majority of allophone and 95 per cent of francophone CEGEP students attend French-language schools. The report also says that the percentage of allophone students choosing to attend French-language schools has increased by around 20 percentage points in the past 10 years.
Quebec’s culture minister, Christine St-Pierre welcomed the recommendations, once again describing the PQ calls to extend the language laws as “radical.”
PQ language critic, Pierre Curzi was less impressed, accusing the Conseil of not being rigorous enough in their report.
While Curzi said it was understandable why francophones and allophones in the Montreal area would choose to attend English-language CEGEPs, he said, in French, that there need to be clearer “signs the French language is the official language, it’s the communal language, it’s that language that we live in, period. Work, study, everything.”
The Conseil is also recommending that French-language CEGEPs make themselves more attractive to anglophone and allophone students and that English-language CEGEPs should improve French language instruction.
The full report is available here, it is in French.
Five arrested at anti-tuition protest in Montreal
Over 2,000 students protested against tuition hikes
Here’s a bit of an update on yesterday’s tuition protest in Montreal.
Five protesters were arrested. According to police they’ll be facing charges including mischief and assaulting a police officer.
According to police, a woman was injured when a small group of protesters stormed the building that houses the offices of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities. Police said the woman, who works in the building, was injured in an altercation with protesters. CREPUQ had called for a tuition increase very similar to the one planed by the Quebec government.
It’s not clear why police chose to shut down the protest when they did. There were some small scuffles outside the doors of the office building, where police used pepper spray. But any violent incidents were pretty isolated and things seemed calm in the minutes before the riot squad showed up.
I’ve covered a lot of protests and I’ve never seen the police shut down an almost entirely peaceful protest the way they did yesterday. It all went down very quickly and their tactics seemed to be designed to intimidate and create panic. Police were firing stun grenades less than 10 minutes after the riot squad showed up. It was a pretty scary place to be. The Link’s Riley Sparks took a video that really shows how crazy the whole situation was.
Today, Quebec-based television network, TVA was asking questions about police conduct at the protest, after they obtained a video of riot cops knocking down a middle-aged woman.
Clearly, there are a lot of students who are angry about the tuition hikes and the fact that the protest was shut down by riot police isn’t going to help the situation any. The other key takeaway is that yesterday’s protest was very francophone and that all the student associations that endorsed the corresponding one-day strike are at French-language schools.
Former Concordia professor who killed 4 colleagues loses lawsuit
Valery Fabrikant pursued civil suit against colleagues for 19 years
A Quebec Superior Court Judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by convicted killer Valery Fabrikant against five of his former colleagues, on Wednesday.
Fabrikant first filed the suit, against two professors in Concordia’s mechanical engineering department, in 1992, a few months before he went on a shooting rampage, which left four professors dead and another person wounded.
After the shooting, Fabrikant added three other professors to the suit, claiming that they had taken credit for his work.
The case was thrown out of court in 2007, after the judge said he could no longer remain impartial due to Fabrikant’s attitude. During those hearings, Fabrikant said his killings were justified, insulted the judge and filed motions for a larger table in the prisoner’s box. The case returned to trial earlier this year, after the Court of Appeals ruled that it had been dismissed in error.
This isn’t the only recent loss Fabrikant, who is currently serving a life sentence, has had in the Quebec courts. Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals dismissed a suit he filed against the attorneys general of Canada and Quebec. In November, he was denied leave to appeal in a suit against the prison where he is being held.
Student injured at Quebec budget protest
Protesters storm Quebec Finance Minister’s office, clash with security and police
One student was injured on Thursday, when several dozen protesters stormed the Montreal offices of Quebec’s Finance Minister.
According to organizers, the protester was injured when a security guard pushed him through a glass door. Police are investigating. Rue Frontenac also reported that a ministry staffer threatened to attack one of their photographers if photos were not deleted, when the photographer refused, the staff member grabbed his cell phone. It was later returned.
Apparently fearing for their safety, the protesters soon left the office. Several protesters were pepper sprayed by police but no arrests were reported.
The protest was organized by the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, one of Quebec’s largest student lobby groups. They’re upset with the tuition increases included in last week’s provincial budget, which they described as a “declaration of war against students.”
Another protest is planed for next Thursday.
As is often the case with posts like this, the majority of the links above are to French-language sources.
McGill MBA students support high tuition according to a new survey
Students back university, criticize lack of provincial bursary support
The majority of McGill MBA students support the program’s high tuition, according to a survey released by the MBA Student Association on Friday.
The release comes just days after the provincial government announced it would be fining McGill $2.1 million for raising MBA tuition without permission. Fees in the program rose from $3,400 to $29,500 last fall. The university has refused provincial funding for the program since the increase.
According to the student association, 70 per cent of those surveyed said that “the program is at a reasonable or below reasonable price.”
Students in the program are no longer eligible for provincial bursaries, in an interview about that issue last month, the president of the MBA Student Association, Pat Tenneriello, told me that the majority of students support the increase “because we see the investment.”
According to the student association, new professors have been hired and the program has already improved in international rankings.
The student association also used the release of the survey to criticize the lack of bursary support. “Our decision to pay the market price for our education should not affect our ability to receive funding in support of our endeavours to become future industry leaders within Quebec,” the release says.
While the Quebec government continued to thaw the tuition freeze in Thursday’s budget, tuition fees for provincially funded programs will still be assessed at a standardized per-credit rate.
