The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) met on Oct. 2 for its second Council meeting of the Fall semester. Thirty-six voting members attended the meeting, surpassing quorum—one per cent of regular members, as laid out in PGSS’s Bylaws—for the first time since February of this year. As the previous Council meeting on Sept. 10 had failed to meet quorum and attendees were unable to vote on the motions discussed, this month’s meeting had a particularly long agenda.
The hybrid meeting was held in Thomson House and on Zoom. The discussion primarily centred on three motions—5.4, 5.5, and 5.6—from the December 2023 Council meeting, which expressed solidarity with Palestine. After PGSS and McGill received a legal notice from an anonymous member on June 20 that asked both parties to abide by an interlocutory injunction, the McGill administration proposed modifications to the motions, which would uphold PGSS’ Memoranda of Understanding with the university. These amendments included changing the name of motion 5.4 from “Council stand in solidarity with Palestine” to “Motion on Divestment from Armaments and Efforts to Promote Peace,” and removing words such as “Gaza,” and amending mentions of “genocide” to say “war.”
Many members abstained from voting on Motion 5.4. During the discussion, Member Services Officer Ambre Lambert offered insight on the importance for PGSS members to be familiar with the motions before voting as approving or rejecting them is their choice. She also added nuance to a previous discourse she held about advising voters to oppose Motion 5.4.
“I was encouraging students not to agree with the motion that was done last month [because the wording] was extremely restrictive and was losing the sense of the motions,” Ambre said. “I do think they are still losing some of their original meanings but I also think that I don’t know if we’ll reach an agreement with McGill [if we keep on debating].”
Some attendees voiced concerns that abstaining could lead to commissioners reentering negotiations—and even arbitration—with McGill over the wording of these motions. Councillors also raised questions throughout the discussion about adding context around McGill’s “watered-down” wording as Lambert put it.
The conversation turned to motion 5.6, originally called ‘Motion to support and encourage [Post-graduate Student Associations] PGSAs to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza and investigate their ties to settler-colonial violence and genocide against the Palestinian people.’ It was amended to be called ‘Motion to support and uphold the academic freedom and rights of freedom of expression, conscience, and assembly of PGSS members.’ Brenagh Rapoport from the Organization of Urban Planning Students highlighted the aspect of the motion that ensures PGSAs cannot condemn, penalize, or restrict students’ discussions or actions.
“Protecting our students from backlash from the university for [engaging in meaningful] action is really important [and] a material commitment to students not receiving [sanctions] for expressing opinions and engaging in political action […] is a concern for people in my department,” Rapoport said.
Councillors stressed that work still needs to be done to ensure students know their rights to freedom of expression. In response, University Affairs Officer Racchana Ramamurthy suggested adding shorter versions of the Code of Student Conduct with important points on myCourses.
In the end, abstention was disregarded, and Motions 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6, all passed—with 24 votes in favour of 5.4 and 5.6, and 17 votes for 5.5.
For the last part of the meeting, Shona Watt, Associate Director of Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF) presented the SPF, which funds environmental projects on campus. Since its founding in 2010, the initiative has allocated over $12.6 million CAD in funding to 370 sustainability-related projects. According to Watt, the SPF is the largest dedicated campus sustainability fund of its kind in Canada.
Moment of the meeting:
With the meeting’s extended agenda, the Council put forth a vote to extend the meeting to 8:30 p.m.. While 10 members voted in favour of continuing, 15 voted against. As a result, the meeting was not prolonged and the remaining agenda items will be postponed to future meetings.
Soundbite:
“It is 100 per cent your choice as a councillor and you have absolutely that option, to not accept those changes that are basically a compromise between us and McGill.” — Ambre Lambert, Member Services Officer, on voting members’ right to abstain on approving Motion 5.4.
