The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) held their second legislative council meeting of the Fall 2020 semester on Sept. 24. With the online semester in full swing and COVID-19 safety measures continuing to affect in-person meetings, SSMU met via Zoom to debate and vote on the approval of five new motions. Despite a few technical difficulties at the start of the session, the council was able to proceed with the evening’s agenda smoothly.
The Motion Regarding Equitable Communication Practices was the only motion debated at length during the meeting. Brought forward by Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Brooklyn Frizzle, this amendment seeks to revise SSMU’s Equity Policy to ensure accessibility in SSMU’s communication practices.
“This motion is arising from some concerns that were raised over the past few years regarding the reoccurrence of tone policing and general inaccessibility in SSMU politics,” Frizzle said. “Since 2016, there have been repeated articles in the Tribune and the Daily citing concerns [in] emails from female SSMU representatives concerning the pattern of tone policing.”
The amendment to the Equity Policy would add a clause to protect individuals’ ability to express themselves using their preferred word choice and tone, so long as it does not violate SSMU’s Equity Policy, which prohibits hate speech, harassment, discrimination, and abusive language. The motion was approved, with 15 SSMU representatives voting in favor of the amendment.
“I think it’s a great initiative put forward by the VP University Affairs,” Arts Senator Darshan Daryanani said. “[Student politics] has in the past been very inaccessible for BIPOC and other marginalized communities. I think it is the council’s responsibility to ensure that we are able to provide a safe space in the right manner, while still upholding SSMU’s values and ensuring freedom of expression.”
The meeting came to a close with councillors from five faculties summarizing the work of their respective representative bodies. SSMU President Jemark Earle, along with other SSMU executive team members, presented their reports to the council to highlight their achievements from this year so far.
Moment of the meeting:
As SSMU continues to adapt to the virtual meeting format, Speaker of the Council Lauren Hill reminded councillors to refrain from using the chat as a means of communication during the meeting due to its informal nature. Councillor Daryanani engaged in “virtual cross-talk” during the council’s Approval of Minutes, leading to the subsequent disabling of the chat by Speaker Hill to avoid future disruptions.
Soundbite:
“I appreciate the background of [the Motion Regarding Equitable Communication Practice], particularly when it comes to contextualizing the public side of SSMU [….] I am concerned […] about the context in which profanity is used and perhaps a greater need for precision in delineating where profanity is actually appropriate, […] where it can actually be used to further silence other members. I myself have been in many workspaces where I have seen male co-workers target profanity in rather disturbing ways at femme-presenting co-workers of mine, and it’s important to me that we bear in mind the contexts in which we approve of or disapprove of the use of profanity.” – Jake Reed, Engineering Representative to SSMU
