Even we could barely make it the whole time
On Nov. 12, the University of Ottawa Student’s Union (UOSU) held their Autumn General Assembly (AGA) in the Alumni Auditorium. Attended by students, club executives, and union members, the meeting was called to order at 10:53, almost an hour behind schedule.
The meeting formally began with words — more than a land acknowledgement — from former Indigenous Students Director, Quanah Traviss. There was an additional apology from UOSU for hosting the AGA on Diwali, a major Hindu festival celebrated by many U of O students, including the Fulcrum’s co-news editors.
Following some confusion about motions, visible voting, a friendly bingo card and questions about online proxy voting, the meeting formally began with the approval of the AGA’s assembly, which was moved by president-elect Delphine Robitaille and seconded by Traviss.
Annex A — Agenda Approval
There was an amendment by Lukas Redmond to strike a motion from the agenda, claiming it was unconstitutional and was brought to the Winter General Assembly (WGA). Ryan Banfield, the author of the motion, argued it was not unconstitutional and was written correctly to fit in the agenda. Redmond outlined that the policy referenced in the motion, CSG-002, no longer exists. The amendment passed, with 75 votes in favour out of 199 votes.
The entire agenda was approved with 171 votes in favour.
The motion to approve past meeting minutes, including the 2023 WGA meeting minutes, passed with 151 votes in favour.
Executive Committee Updates
The currently sitting members of the executive committee presented updates about their ongoing projects as they approach the end of the fall semester. The only executive member who remains on the committee (following the by-election) are advocacy commissioner Maisy Elspeth and student life commissioner Rayne Daprato.
Elspeth discussed their updates, which included re-negotiating the main agreement with the university and arranging for a working group over the Jock-Turcot University Centre (UCU) — the union hasn’t had control over the UCU since the former Student Federation of the University of Ottawa fell in 2018. Elspeth also explained their involvement in a issue with Workday, a new finnacial payment system the university has switched to over the summer. Student employees and staff were not paid as a result of the system switch, and Elspeth is still navigating the issue.
For out-going interim Francophone commissioner, Amine El Idrissi, his involvement in different activities for the Francophone student population, including a journalism contest and Franco-Ontarian Day. El Idrissi also discussed meeting with various faculty deans and resolving an ongoing Francophone scholarship issue from last year, in which more receipients were approved for than budgeted for.
Joyce Williams recently resigned as equity commissioner, but provided substantial updates on her projects. She discussed submitted payments to the university in order to install a Period Project dispenser — which provides free tampons and pads — in the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) building. Williams additionally discussed establishing accomodations for UOSU employees, speaking about wanting to “repair relationships” with staff on accessibility needs. She also discussed how the university has been in poor communication in regards to implementing gender neutral bathrooms.
Student life commissioner Rayne Daprato was elected to her role, no longer acting as interm commissioner. Many of her updates were in relation to 101 Week as well as its planning and training.
Following the updates, there was a question period for participants to ask questions about the executives’ project progress and other concern. The majority of questions were from various student club executives in regards to the changes of club funding, where clubs recieved 60 per cent less funding than initially applied for.
Annex B — Approval of By-election Results
The next agenda item was to approve the by-election results. Brandon Ly, the former director for social sciences and chief elections officer, moved an amendment to change the wording in one section of the motion, faulting a copy-paste error.
The open debate for this motion was extensive, largely due to the decision to ratify the results of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) and CHUO referendum results. After social sciences director James Adair externalized these two items, several union members spoke against the ratification of these results.
There is no union precedence for externalizing referendum questions and not ratifying them at general assemblies. Additionally, whether the referendum results are ratified or not at the AGA, the financial logistics (halting of fees) would not be taken into effect until September 2024.
The Board of Directors (BOD) deliberated on the matter for over 30 hours over the past two weeks and sought legal counsel on the matter before the AGA— the BOD recieved legal advice to not ratify the results, thus pushing them until the general elections in March 2024 to be voted on again. Several union members additionally said they experienced bullying and harassment from OPIRG and CHUO members regarding the referendum results.
Many students debated both the merits of defunding these organizations, and the concerns of harassment from organization members regarding the referendum decision to de-fund them. Arda Erbayav believed the organizations were focusing on the wrong thing and should have campaigned better. “Acting as if there’s a problem with vote is a pathetic attempt at relevancy,” he said.
Mica Oestreich, a member of uOVotez, argued the union must respect the democratic process, especially regarding the record turnout of the by-election. “It is deeply harmful to the democratic process at the university to externalize these results,” they said.
After more deliberation, Ethan Wing argued that many AGA participants were more “worried about the fidelity to the principle of democracy rather than trusting the people we’ve elected to make good decisions.”
President-elect Delphine Robitaille agreed with trusting elected union members and that if students have a strong will to defund OPIRG and CHUO, they can again in the winter. “It is a legal liability for us to proceed with ratifying these election results. Bring your voice forward again in the winter.”
With even more discussion, the referendum results of defunding OPIRG and CHUO were not ratified. The question was called (to proceed with voting on the entire motion) and the remaining by-election results were ratified, with 108 votes in favour and 3 against.
Annex C — Approval of Audit
This motion was to approve the union’s audit draft. It passed with 101 votes in favour and 25 abstentions.
Approval of Public Accountant
This motion passed with 123 votes in favour.
After four hours, the AGA began to discuss and vote on motions put forward by union members.
Motion A — U-Pass Opt-Out
Ah, the never-ending debate.
Originally moved by Christine Spice, the brief motion reads, “Be it resolved that the UOSU advocate for an ‘opt-out’ option for the U-Pass.”
Since 2010, the U-Pass is a mandatory charge for all full-time students at the U of O, but there have been long-standing complaints of the exemption criteria being too limited and the AGA was no exception to further debate.
In the end, the first motion of the GA passed with 69 votes in favour and 26 against.
Motion A(2) — St. Amand Memorial and Grief centre
Brought by Keith de Silvia Legault, this motion proposed that the Union take on the creation of a memorial and grief centre, as a space for students to mourn on campus. The motion was amended to give more details to the assembly on the logisitics of this proposed centre.
Many students spoke in favour of the motion and from personal experience, as it is important for students to have the space and resources to grieve, as well as offering amendments to the motion. The amendments included specification of the centre being a “sub-service” of the Peer Help Centre and there be staff trained in active listening and suicide prevention. There was also an amendment to ensure that the name the centre after former Francophone affairs commissioner Marrissa St. Amand, be pursuant to her family’s agreement to the use of their surname in the naming of the centre.
de Silvia Legault declared these amendments friendly and Daprato wrote the amended motion, which passed with 89 in favour.
Adair Omnibus
Following the adoption of motion A2, FSS director James Adair moved to Omnibus motions from members B (Free skate), E (Online classes), and H (Textbook prices). Voting to omnibus these motions passed with 76 in favour. – check recording.
Voting to pass the omnibus motion would be moved to the end of motions from members in the agenda order.
Motion R — Reinforcement of Library and Silent Study Spaces Rules
Written by Stéphanie St Jacque and moved by Lukas Redmond, this motion sought the “Reinforcement of Silence Rule,” “Prohibition of Disruptive Behaviors,” “Respect for Study Room Booking,” and “Enforcement Mechanisms” for use of library and study spaces on campus. Redmond would eventually attempt to rescind his moving of the motion but did not have the unanimous consent required to do so.
While the motion writer did not present themselves to speak on the motion, a number of students in the room took issue with specific wording and the overall problematic spirit of the motion. Some of the wording members took exception to was the “consumption of smelly or messy food” being listed among disruptive behavious for the Union to promote rules against; members highlighted that the language could be used against students of colour.
The motion was amended to remove this wording, but still failed to pass with 93 voting against, 8 for and 3 abstentions.
Motion U — Increasing Student Accessible Housing
Written by Levi Cottingham and moved by FSS director Armaan Singh, this motion proposed that UOSU work with U of O administration to build more student residences on and off campus.
79 voted in favour, 3 absentions, 1 against
For more details about the AGA, you can read the agenda here.
— With files from Bridget Coady, Shailee Shah & Kavi Vidya Achar
