The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) will host an exceptional referendum period from  April 10 to April 16, featuring a question regarding QPIRG’s existence and a question that would require motions passed at General Assemblies (GAs) to be ratified online via referendum.  

QPIRG’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), a document that determines the relationship between QPIRG and the administration, will expire May 31, 2012. For QPIRG to be able to renew it, students must vote in favour of QPIRG’s existence in a referendum. 

Earlier this semester,  the administration invalidated a referendum question posed by QPIRG  in the fall, noting that the question did not follow the SSMU constitution because it asked students to support two separate issues in a single question­-the existence of the organization and their student fees becoming non-optoutable online. 

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson wrote in an email to the Tribune that  QPIRG developed their special referendum question in accordance with the suggestions of the administration. Rather than dealing with two issues, the new question will only ask students to support the existence of the organization. QPIRG’s student fee will remain opt-outable online.

“The question being asked [by QPIRG] is based on a suggestion by the administration for a clear question on continuance, but there was some back-and-forth between the administration and QPIRG regarding the preamble,” he wrote.

Although the winter referendum period ended last week, the SSMU Constitution provides the provision for an exceptional referendum period when a motion for such a period is passed by a 2/3 majority in Council. Like regular referenda, quorum for this exceptional referenda will be 15 per cent of the student body. 

Following the invalidation of the fall referendum, QPIRG was in negotiations with the McGill administration throughout the beginning of the winter semester. The motion for a special referendum period was moved by four SSMU councilors, citing QPIRG’s situation as the main reason for this exceptional period.

“McGill notified QPIRG on the 8th of March, 2012, that they would not extend the current [MoA] until the Fall 2012 semester in order for QPIRG to reasonably obtain another referendum vote,” the motion reads. “This notification came after the Winter 2012 referendum period had already closed.”

According to the motion, the administration suggested that an exceptional referendum period would be QPIRG’s “only option.”

Mendelson wrote that  it is necessary for QPIRG to go to referendum “to confirm McGill students’ support for the continuance of QPIRG.”

Kira Page, member of QPIRG’s Board of Directors, said the decision to request a special referendum period was difficult for members of the organization to make.

“We were weighing the options of continuing to push the administration [in negotiations], with the potential of losing our funding at the end of May,” Page said. “[But] we decided that it was really important to us to continue to support the projects that we had going right now and all the student activities that QPIRG funds. If we went for the special referendum period we’d be able to continue that for at least a few more years.”

CKUT ran a question in the winter referendum to become non-optoutable, but it did not pass. CKUT will not be running a referendum question during the exceptional period, according to Myriam Zaidi, undergraduate representative to the CKUT board.  She noted that the board of CKUT has not met since the end of the winter referendum period.

After running a question similar to QPIRG’s in the fall referendum period and similarly having their results invalidated by the administration, CKUT successfully negotiated for the administration to recognize their existence. 

“We’re negotiating our MoA right now and that’s going well, so we didn’t think of running another question during the special referendum period,” Zaidi said. “If we run another question, it will be during the regular referendum period.”

In addition to QPIRG’s referendum question, the exceptional period will also include a question that would require resolutions passed at SSMU GAs to be ratified online. The referendum question would set quorum for GA ratifications to 15 per cent of the student body.

“[Currently] as little as 100 students can vote on a resolution that would affect more than 25,000 students,” the text of the motion reads. “an online voting system would allow students to participate in the democratic process, which would produce a decision more representative of the Society.”

SSMU President Maggie Knight said that she is not aware of  SSMU having held an exceptional referendum period in previous years.

“It may be a tough time of year to ensure a good turnout, but with tw
o important questions on the ballot we’ll do our best,” she said. “Additionally, both questions have the potential to be controversial, so I hope everyone will conduct themselves with integrity during the campaign period.”

Page is unsure of QPIRG’s plan of action should students not support QPIRG’s existence in the special referendum.

“I’m not really sure [what we’d do],” she said. “There are a bunch of different options and I guess we’ll get there when we get there.”

-Additional reporting by Carolina Millán Ronchetti