Legislative Council approves policy against harmful military research mcgilltribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mcgilltribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
On Tuesday, February 16, SSMU held its Winter 2021 General Assembly. Remarkably, the GA reached its quorum of 350 people and, for part of the meeting, held official GA status, meaning that any votes during those portions of the meeting would be binding. The most time consuming topic of discussion was the Motion Regarding the Adoption of the Divest for Human Rights Policy, which was submitted by petition. The motion sought to “expand the SSMU’s commitment to leadership on matters of social justice and human rights by establishing” a campaign urging McGill to divest from companies “which enable and profit from multiple forms of systemic violence, including settler-colonial land theft, environmental destruction, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The corporations listed in the appendix of the motion are TC Energy Corporation (and therefore the Coastal GasLink Pipeline), Lockheed Martin, Re/Max, Oshkosh Corporation, Puma, Foot Locker, Nordstrom, and Kohl’s.
The Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on Feb. 25, where council members voted on the Motion Regarding the Adoption of the Divest for Human Rights Policy. The policy encourages SSMU to lobby the McGill administration to divest from companies that are complicit in a variety of human rights violations. It was initially put forth at the Feb. 16 SSMU General Assembly (GA), but was only adopted in a consultative capacity after approximately 80 attendees left the meeting prior to the vote, causing the assembly to lose quorum. Following 90 per cent approval for the motion at the GA, the coalition that authored the motion released a petition on Feb. 22 to encourage the Legislative Council to vote in favour of the motion.