Agenda for CSU SGM Called by Petition

January 29th, 2025

Motion 1 - Disclose, Divest, Defend, Declare

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WHEREAS Boycott Divest and Sanctions (BDS) is a long-established international strategy in solidarity with Palestinian liberation from Israeli apartheid and Israel relies upon political, financial, and military support from countries in the Global North, such as Canada and the United States, AND relies on the support and investment of institutions like Concordia University to continue their genocide^[1] against the Palestinian people;

WHEREAS significant portions of the student body of Concordia have been engaged in prolonged political mobilization to bring BDS-aligned demands to the university through means of mass demonstrations, walk-outs, strikes, and other actions, including 2 (FASA and ASFA) of the 4 faculty associations, which represent 15 000 undergrad students at Concordia, adopting BDS positions in favour of a free Palestine;

WHEREAS Concordia is complicit of collaboration AND support of Israel and its institutions, most notably the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, funded by the Azrieli Foundation, and the Bar-Ilan Field school program called “Constructing the Israeli Identities”;

WHEREAS the Concordia Student Union has an obligation to oppose apartheid including by divesting, as voted in the Spring General Election 2022^[2];

WHEREAS Concordia holds financial investments that directly OR indirectly fund the Israeli occupation, most notably, BlackRock^[3]–who are major investors in weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman–, and Bank of Montreal, who approved a $90 million loan to weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in 2001;

BE IT RESOLVED that the CSU adopt the following demands and advocate for changes in line with these demands:

1. Disclose: with full transparency the entirety of the universities financial investments, in order to determine the extent of investments which are complicit in or benefit from militarized violence, war, colonialism, apartheid, and genocide

1. Provide a transparent and accessible breakdown of the Concordia University Intergenerational Fund (CUiF) as it currently stands, ie. naming what companies we have investments in, what banks/firms oversee these funds
2. Establish and publish quarterly reports on the CUiF’s investment portfolio

2. Divest: the entirety of financial investments which are currently held in funds complicit in or which benefit from militarized violence, war, colonialism, apartheid, and genocide

1. End the employment partnerships with Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, CAE, Pratty & Whitney, and Airbus
2. Permanently suspend any existing Memorandum of Understanding and refrain from entering into any new Memorandum of Understanding with Israeli Universities, as well as its Summer in Israel program, its Field School in Israel, the Goldie and Joe Raymer Travel Fellowship, the Naim Mehlab Student Travel Award, and any other programs and partnerships which facilitates and encourages the exchange with and normalization of Israeli academic institutions.
3. Establish and publish quarterly regular reports on the progress of divestment

3. Defend: student activists from sanctions due to their actions in solidarity with Palestinian liberation

1. Drop the Office of Rights and Responsibilities cases against student activists who have been charged with ORR violations due to their action in solidarity with Palestinian liberation
2. Reinstate and re-enroll students who have been suspended from the university due to their action in solidarity with Palestinian liberation
3. Cut the private security contract with Perceptage International
4. End the practice of Concordia Safety and Prevention Services (CSPS) conducting citizens arrests
5. Commit to fundamentally limiting the presence of the SPVM on campus through all available avenues

4. Declare: support for a full arms-embargo and end to all military contracts between Canada and Israel, and publish a statement which recognizes and condemns the genocide against the Palestinian people

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Motion 2 - Bring BDS to BoG

WHEREAS the demands of the student movement in solidarity with Palestine have not yet been formally presented to the Concordia Board of Governors;

WHEREAS it is the Board of Governors are the highest governing body of the university, and have the power to enact and materialize these demands;

WHEREAS it is the responsibility of the Concordia Student Union executive team to represent the interests of the students;

BE IT RESOLVED that the executive team of the Concordia Student Union are mandated by the students to bring Motion 1 - Disclose, Divest, Defend, Declare to the Board of Governors for a vote at the next BOG meeting, ie, February 6th 2025.