If there's one thing the Students' Society's biannual General Assembly does a good job of, it's helping to discredit - on both an intellectual and a practical level - direct democracy, or at least the twisted, substandard version we will once again be exposed to tomorrow afternoon.
Every year, twice a year, a GA rolls around, and usually one of two things happens. Either a series of "unexciting" motions - often related to internal SSMU issues - fail to attract quorum, or one or two controversial motions - usually dealing with external issues - attract partisans from two sides of an issue, and the GA descends into chaos (see: Winter 2009). Nothing productive happens in either case.
At SSMU's Winter 2010 GA, students will again be asked to vote on a number of divisive, pointless, and/or poorly-written motions, along with a couple of worthwhile proposals that can only hope for a quorum-level vote by piggybacking on the others.
Chief among the motions that should never have seen the light of day is one that seeks to ban "discriminatory" groups from SSMU - specifically pro-life clubs. This reaction to the Choose Life scandal serves only to misrepresent the sincere - and legitimate - frustration felt by much of the student body following the "Echoes of the Holocaust" event, by going much too far in the other direction. Sadly, it seems the irony of imposing a blanket ban on an ethical and political position under the guise of protecting the (apparently helpless) student body from discrimination is lost on the authors of this motion. Indeed, an affirmative vote tomorrow on the "Discriminatory Groups" motion would see a new clause preventing SSMU from granting club status to any group "whose goals and methods compromise the safety and health of any person or engage in acts of discrimination such as but not limited to pro-life groups" inserted directly after an existing clause stating that "no student organization should have the effect of limiting dialogue on these legitimate topics provided that such discussion is conducted in a respectful and non-coercive manner."
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John f. levesque
posted 2/11/10 @ 6:58 PM EST
And McGill students voted against the ban on pro life students having free speech rights.
This prooves yet again that centrists need to get involved in politics and stop leaving our universities to radical nut cases who oppose all free speech and love Castro/Chavez and Stalin. (Continued…)
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