Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘csu’

It’s been nearly five years since I graduated, and since then, it appears that CSU politics at Concordia haven’t improved by much:

For the second year running, copies of Concordia University’s student newspaper, The Link, vanished overnight at the height of the campaign for a new student government. And while editor-in-chief Misha Warbanski doesn’t know who to blame, she’s sure of one thing — this is no coincidence.

Back when I was a student there, the Link was blatantly biased, being controlled by pro-Palestinian students who would get involved in the paper with an eye towards influencing campus politics through the media. I don’t know the current landscape, but if today’s campus politics are anything like what they were then, the things reported by the campus and mainstream media are only the tips of the iceberg. Corruption, dirty tricks, propaganda, “joke slates” designed to slander the opposition, and the ever-present ripping down posters are just some of the things that students seem to confuse with democracy.

I must say I’m glad to be out of there.

I was driving home from a trip to the Fine Arts Museum and saw massive commotion downtown near Alexis-Nihon Plaza and Dawson College. Dozens of police cars, thousands of people on the streets, sirens everywhere. I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what happened, so I turned on the radio.

Apparently, there’s been a shooting at Dawson College. Nobody quite knows what happened yet. Apparently, a gunman entered the cafeteria and opened fire. The online reports are saying at least two people were shot, the radio reports are saying at least four.

More details to follow as they become available.

Update: It’s been about an hour since the whole thing started, and according to radio reports, many students are still inside the building. One caller said he spoke to his daughter on her cell phone, and she said they’re hiding behind lockers. There still appears to be massive confusion.

Update #2: They’re now reporting that the shooter was a 22-year-old student and he was wearing – you guessed it – a long black trench coat.

Update #3: Latest police updates are saying that the shooter is still inside the building, barricaded. Police are apparently still trying to get as many students out as possible, but a hostage situation is looking more likely.

Update #4: Students are calling into the radio from their cell phones now, saying that students still in the building are hiding out and waiting for the police to secure the building to get them out. Witnesses are saying that the gunman started shooting outside the building first, and then went inside and opened fire again.

Update #5: There’s now speculation that there was more than one gunman. Some reports are saying there were two or even three different gunmen. These reports are unconfirmed at this time. Another report speculates that one of the gunmen may have shot himself. Again, unconfirmed.

Also, students who have gotten out of Dawson’s building are being advised to walk down to Concordia’s Hall Building, as the student union is setting up assistance for anyone who needs it. Concordia as a safe haven… go figure.

Update #6: Just got in touch with Marieke, who is thankfully out of the building and safe. I only spoke with her for two seconds because everyone she knows is calling her, but she said she had just left the cafeteria before it happened.

Update – 2:30pm: CBC’s television report is saying that RDI is reporting that two gunmen are now dead – one shot by police, one having committed suicide.

Also, CTV is reporting that one of the gunmen seemed to be chasing someone in particular. Though CBC is still saying eyewitnesses are reporting that it appeared to be random.

Now, they’re reporting that pretty much everyone is out of the building.

Update – 2:35pm: Police hotlines have been set up for parents and friends looking for information at 514-280-2880 or 514-280-2806.

Update – 2:40pm: RDI is now reporting that 4 people have been killed and 16 injured. Wire reports are saying that there may be a third suspect. Also, metro service on the green line has been suspended.

Update – 2:45pm: More details are emerging. The shooters are being described as having long black hair, piercings and long black trench coats. There may be a third shooter still at large.

For anyone reading this from outside Quebec who is wondering about the cegep system, cegep is basically an intermediary step between high school and university. Most of the students are about 16-19 years old, since the pre-university programs are usually 2-year programs that are roughly the equivalent of grades 12 and 13. There are also a large number of 3-year technical programs in fields such as nursing, photography, design and such, so there are many older students too. Dawson is one of the three major public English-language cegeps in Montreal, and about 10,000 students attend classes there. It’s located in the middle of the western part of downtown Montreal, attached to Atwater metro station and Alexis-Nihon plaza and across the street from where the old Forum was. Pretty much everyone knows someone who either goes to Dawson or went to Dawson, and understandably everyone is utterly shocked.

Update – 3:05pm: CTV now has it online that police are confirming that two shooters are dead – one by suicide, one shot by police. CBC’s television report just said that police had been crouched in the bushes outside Dawson, next to a nearby daycare center, chasing what may have been a third gunman.

The whole area is cordoned off to traffic and people are telling me that traffic elsewhere is crazy, so if you don’t have to drive near the western part of downtown right now, don’t.

Update – 3:30pm: Conflicting reports on the number of dead and injured. CJAD radio is reporting no deaths and 16 injuries. Global TV is saying at least two deaths. RDI is still saying four. CBC Newsworld just reported that 15 people have been admitted to the Montreal General Hospital, and of those, 6 are critically injured, 2 are seriously injured and the remaining 7 are stable.

Update – 3:45pm: Amazing to see Concordia Student Union students on television for something non-controversial for a change. One of the CSU VPs is on television and he is urging all Dawson students in the area to walk down the street to Concordia’s Hall Building for food and drink, counseling, support and a central location to organize people and find out about their friends.

Update – 3:55pm: The latest police statement says that a suspect has been “neutralized”, that they’re still worried there might be another suspect in the area, and that everyone is out of the building, there are no hostages. Still no more information about the suspect or suspects.

By the way, if you’re looking for info on Dawson’s website, don’t bother; it’s very slow (because so many people are logging on) but there isn’t anything updated on there at the moment. You’re probably better off checking with the media, the police hotlines, or calling people directly.

Update – 4:00pm: CBC is reporting that police are confirming that, contrary to previous reports, there was only one gunman. Still waiting on confirmation of that.

Update – 4:05pm: A statement on the Montreal police website now says a third hotline number has been set up, at 514-280-2805. The Montreal General Hospital also has a hotline in place for anyone concerned about injured relatives at 514-843-2839.

Also, metro service is reportedly restored on the green line, but trains are not stopping at Atwater; they’re merely bypassing the station.

Update – 4:20pm: CBC has photos from the scene.

Update – 4:35pm: The General is hosting a press conference live right now, and it’s being carried by all the media outlets. (The local CTV affiliate has even pre-empted Oprah to cover the story!) Anyway, the hospital spokesperson is saying that they have 11 patients that have been brought to the emergency room, and of those, 8 are in critical condition, 3 are currently in the operating room and 3 more will be operated on.

All of the injured are described as having suffered gunshot wounds to various locations – some to the abdomen, some to the chest, some to the limbs and one head wound. Presumably, the one patient with the head wound is among those in critical condition.

They’ve said that 3 more patients were sent to Jean-Talon hospital, and 1 or 2 more to the Jewish General Hospital.

Update – 4:38pm: A police news conference is also going on right now. For now, they’re only confirming news about one suspect, who died “following intervention of police officers”. They haven’t confirmed or denied the existence of other suspect(s), and they aren’t saying anything about what the suspect’s motive or motives may have been.

Update – 4:50pm: Just to give you an idea of how uncommon it is to hear gunshots in Montreal, CBC is interviewing one student who said she was in the other cafeteria at the time when they first heard the shots, and that for about 10 minutes afterwards, people just continued doing whatever they were doing before, because nobody actually realized they were gunshots until someone ran into the room screaming at them to get out. She said everyone assumed it was a joke, or fireworks, or just a random loud noise.

Update – 5:00pm: All the conflicting reports are finally starting to be constructed into a vague timeline. It seems a gunman first approached a group of students outside Dawson, on the street, who were hanging out or having a smoke, and opened fire, shooting at least 4 people. He then went into the building, proceeded to the Atrium and the Cafeteria, told everyone to get down, and randomnly opened fire. At least 20 people were injured, and the gunman is now dead, either having been shot by police or having shot himself.

Students rushed to exit the building, and some barricaded themselves in classrooms or hid wherever they could. It took well over an hour for everyone to be evacuated.

The shooter has been described as a 19-year-old white male, with long slicked-back black hair, a black trench coat and/or dark army fatigues, with tattoos and piercings, and using what has been alternately described as a sniper’s rifle, a semi-automatic weapon, or an automatic weapon.

Police were searching for other suspects, but though a second and perhaps even third shooter has been widely reported, they have only confirmed the existence of one shooter.

Update – 5:10pm – Of course, references all over the media to the Columbine school massacre, as well as, closer to home, to Marc Lepine and to Valery Fabrikant. It seems from the initial reports that the today’s episode bears more resemblance to the Columbine shootings and to the subsequent and oft-forgotten shooting at a high school in Taber, Alberta than to the previous Montreal shootings, but that probably won’t stop anyone from drawing parallels and from suggesting that school shootings are something of an epidemic here in Montreal, despite the rarity of these episodes.

Update – 5:30pm: A student eyewitness who was inside the atrium’s cafeteria at the time of the shooting just reported that the gunman had started shooting first with a handgun, and then he pulled out a semi-automatic rifle from his trench coat and loaded it and started shooting it. The witness sounded pretty confident about the type of guns used, though as I mentioned before, guns are pretty rare around here. A lot of people (myself included) probably don’t know much about guns besides what they see in the movies, so we may have to wait for more concrete confirmation about that.

Update – 5:56pm: The euphamisms are over; the police spokesperson confirmed in plain English that the gunman was shot and killed by police.

Update – 6:15pm: A college spokesperson just announced that Dawson will be closed until Monday, with all classes suspended.

Update – 6:19pm: CBC is reporting that one of the injured victims just died of her injuries. She was 20 years old. Hospital spokespeople are not confirming this just yet.

Update – 6:50pm: One student inside Dawson took a video with his cellphone of the police and the shooter. The quality is very poor and so far I’ve only seen it on CTV, but I’m sure the footage will show up online shortly. If so, I’ll post a link. (Update – 10:50pm – CNN has the video available here).

And the Gazette is now confirming the death of one of the victims, as reported above by CBC. Still no official confirmation, with all questions about the victims or the shooters being referred to the SQ. There are rumours that there will be another press conference later this evening.

Update – 8:25pm: Just spoke to Andrea, who’s a med student doing a surgery elective at the MGH right now. She wasn’t directly involved, but was nearby, assisting in an unrelated surgery, and said one of the doctors who was supposed to scrub in came into the room to say “sorry, can’t, all hell has broken loose”. Andrea spoke highly of the efficiency of the hospital staff in preparing to receive the shooting victims. “They had the OR’s cleared in literally 5 minutes,” she told me. Amazing.

According to the news, many of the patients are still in surgery or in treatment, and there won’t be any official updates until tomorrow morning on their condition.

Update – 8:45pm: Just got off the phone with my mom. She was also trying to reach people all afternoon, and assured me that my cousin managed to get out of the building and is safe and sound. Also, her boss’s son escaped but apparently one of his close friends was shot in the arm. Insane.

Update – 9:30pm: There’s little new news to report at the moment. I’m going to close off the live-blogging thread at this point. I’ll post future updates on a new thread as more news arrives.

The Gazette reports that today’s Hillel rally outside Concordia was “peaceful”:

Almost two years after a violent demonstration outside Montreal’s Concordia University against former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there was another protest.

Only this time, it was more vocal than violent.

About two hundred people staged a peaceful demonstration outside the university’s downtown campus Tuesday.

They were protesting the administration’s decision not to allow a speech by another former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing lots more on the 6 o’ clock news. This story was just a placeholder. But even in its brevity, it says a lot.

Hillel holds peaceful protests. The right to free speech in Canada incorporates – and in fact, depends on – the right to peaceful protest.

But when the line is crossed into violence, protest becomes thuggery. That’s what happened when Netanyahu came to speak.

And now, Barak is denied his right to speak because of the fear of a repeat of the violence of the 2002 Netanyahu riots. SPHR has succeeded in shutting down any speech it doesn’t like at Concordia, through the use of violence.

But when speakers came who Hillel disagreed with, they protested peacefully. So speakers continue to come who Hillel disagrees with.

In other words, the viewpoint that the violent thugs agree with gets to be heard. But the viewpoint that the peaceful demonstrators agree with gets shut down.

Concordia is sending a strong message here: violence works. Who will be the next groups to employ SPHR’s tactics to muzzle speech they don’t like?

That’s why this isn’t just an issue for pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian students. It’s not just an issue for Concordia students. It’s an issue for all Montrealers, all Canadians, and all people committed to democracy. We cannot let violence win.

Many media outlets, when covering the tensions and flare-ups at Concordia, have tried to construct timelines. Most of them get it wrong, or at least omit many crucial points. Certainly it’s hard to be comprehensive, but here’s a partial look back at some of the key events of the past five years or so:

• April 1, 1999: The Rob Green executive is first elected to CSU office, ushering in an era of far-left dominance of the Concordia Student Union. His slate was re-elected one year later. A member of this executive, Sheryll Navidad, would eventually defraud $196,000 from the Union… something which the executive hushed up until a week after the CSU won provincial accreditation by a student referendum, ensuring that the University would have limited or no say on the Union’s actions.
• September 2000: The “Al-Aqsa Intifida” begins in Israel, setting off a wave of escalating violence. At Concordia, pro-Palestinian groups step up their tabling, exhibit, and promotion efforts.
• November 27, 2000: The CSU, upon request by SPHR, holds a general assembly to vote on whether to pressure the Canadian government to cut off ties with Israel for (in their view) not respecting UN Resolution 242. Though the assembly was boycotted by Hillel and failed to achieve quota, the CSU nonetheless decided to add this as a referendum question on the next CSU election ballot.
• December 18, 2000: The CSU condemns Hillel after SPHR complains about material that Hillel was distributing.
• March 2001: The leftist slate ACCESS is elected to the CSU to succeed the Rob Green executive. The referendum against Israel passes with 54% of the vote.
• August 20, 2001: Two leftist CSU executive members, Tom Keefer and Laith Marouf, are expelled and banned from campus for spraying anti-Israel graffiti on campus and threatening a security guard. The ban is reversed eight months later, after Keefer and Marouf complained of being denied due process.
• September 2001: The CSU publishes its student agenda, entitled “Uprising” which, among other things, calls for “intifada, anarchy, and revolution” and contains numerous articles containing antisemitism, incitement to theft and flag-burning, and violence. Released just after the 9/11 attacks, the handbook comes under fire from a large number of people.
• September 2001: Angry students begin circulating a petition to recall the CSU executive and force new elections. The petition eventually amasses over 3000 signatures – more than the number of people who voted in the election in the first place.
• October 15, 2001: Faced with the inevitable fact of the recall petition being submitted, Sabrina Stea resigns as CSU president, blaming the administration and forcing new elections.
• October 31, 2001: The CSU considers suing B’nai Brith for what it perceived as “racist” remarks made against the CSU. The CSU hurries to launch the lawsuit before it is forced out of office, but it never proceeds very far.
• November 29, 2001: The moderate Representative Union slate wins the by-elections with a record turnout, despite initial disqualification for fraud allegations that were never proven. The results of the election are, however, contested, and eventually annulled by the CSU judicial board. An interim CSU led by Leftist perennial Patrice Blais is appointed, leading to widespread disgust by the student body who had hoped, briefly, that their votes might make a difference.
• March 20-21, 2002: SPHR sets up their “Concordia Under Occupation” exhibit, setting up phony “checkpoints” at student entrances and harassing students for ID, then transforming the mezz into a mock graveyard with a sign saying “made in Israel”. The exhibit was received with widespread disgust.
• March 29, 2002: The widespread disgust from the November by-election leads to voter apathy. CanDo wins the CSU elections, under the leadership of Sabine Freisinger, ushering in a fifth straight year of leftist control of the Union, and a perceived mandate to “shake things up”.
• April 2, 2002: Hillel holds a peaceful sit-in, with singing and instruments, to protest SPHR’s virulent attacks on pro-Israel sentiment on campus.
• September 9, 2002: A mob of angry rioters, backed by the CSU and SPHR, violently shuts down Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking in the Hall Building auditorium. Many rioters are arrested and 11 are charged. The police have to use tear gas to disperse the crowd. The Concordia administration – in a move that implies that Hillel shares the blame for the riot – calls a “cooling-off period” issues a “moratorium” on all events or speeches having to do with Israel or the Palestinians. It also issues a temporary ban on student tabling of any kind.
• December 2, 2002: The CSU shuts down Concordia Hillel on the grounds that it was actively recruiting for a foreign military by distributing pamphlets about how people can volunteer for an IDF program. This gets widespread international coverage and criticism. The CSU later agrees to reinstate Hillel only if it signs a “pledge”. On principle, Hillel refuses to succumb to blackmail.
• December 5, 2002: Hillel holds a massive Chanukah rally to protest the unfair treatment by the CSU.
• December 21, 2002: Hillel files a lawsuit against the CSU, asking for unconditional reinstatement and an unfreezing of funds. The lawsuit is eventually suspended on the grounds that it is an internal matter, showing a lack of understanding of Concordia’s discrimination on the part of the justice system.
• March 12, 2003: CSU pro-Palestinian “activist” Laith Marouf draws a swastika on an Israeli flag in an art exhibit. He was acquitted of harassment charges.
• March 28, 2003: “Evolution, not Revolution” wins by a landslide in the CSU election, representing the first time that a moderate slate successfully ousted a far-left slate in five years (not counting the annulled 2001 by-elections).
• May 9, 2003: Global TV airs its documentary on the events of September 9th, entitled “Confrontation at Concordia”. The documentary comes under fire for being too “pro-Israel” in its bias.
• October 22, 2003: SPHR brings Eric Ben-Artzi, an Israeli “refusenik” and a nephew of Benjamin Netanyahu, to campus to speak. He is billed as a courageous dissenter. This is just one of a series of lectures that SPHR is allowed to hold, without any riots, protests, or violence.
• December 10, 2003: CSU council votes to ban Operation SICK, an international group opposed to children being used in warfare, from seeking club status at Concordia, on the grounds that it was loosely tied to Israeli Hasbara. An SPHR member called the group a “whitey-whitey group telling visible minority groups how to deal with their children.”
• March 26, 2004: “New Evolution” wins the CSU election, ushering in a second straight year of moderate CSU leadership.
• October 4, 2004: The university administration denies Hillel’s request to bring Ehud Barak to speak. Hillel plans a protest.

It’s impossible to list all the relevant events, but the above is a summary. The point is, the situation at Concordia is not just a series of isolated events. It is a pattern extending back a number of years.

And this latest flare-up proves that, while things have cooled down in the last year or two, they haven’t been resolved. When Jewish and pro-Israel students have their freedom of speech denied merely because people are afraid of things getting ugly, that’s not resolution, that’s avoidance.

September 9th, 2002, when this was the scene at Concordia:

The riot forced cancellation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, but that was just the short-term effect. It brought a campus war to a head, resulting in endless finger-pointing, international media attention that dragged Concordia’s name through the mud, and all-out political dissention that devolved into a CSU fight against Hillel. Concordia became known as “Gaza U”, as a hostile campus environment for Jewish students, and as a school that had pretty much hit rock bottom.

So what’s changed in two years? In March of 2003, anger at the CSU for the Netanyahu debacle was partly responsible for an upset victory for the moderates in the CSU elections. This was repeated in 2004, and the two years of relative calm have done a lot to help the student atmosphere. Activism is still alive at Concordia, but moderation is trumping extremism, and, on the whole, students are free to go to class without harassment. Speaking to friends who are still students there, I’m told that the difference between the atmosphere of two years ago and today’s campus atmosphere is like night and day.

But has progress really been made? Or is it just another sort of defeat? Could Hillel bring a pro-Israel speaker back to Concordia now, or would the event be shut down – not by violent protest, but by insinuations that they shouldn’t “rock the boat”? Is that really better?

For the past two years, the goal has been to ease tensions, cool everyone down, and neutralize the campus atmosphere. A lot of progress has been made on that front. But come March, if the extremists get elected again, things could go right back to the way they were. Unless the next step is taken: that of standing up for what’s right. Students need to be able to express their opinions freely, and not suppress them for fear of being provocative. They need to be able to do this in an atmosphere where they have the freedom to say what they think, without the risk of violence or being shut down. They need to be able to wear their support of Israel with pride, not hide it away because it’s not politically-correct.

There’s still much work to be done. Luckily, the new crop of student leaders seems to be rising to the challenge. I wish them luck and strength.

For the second year in a row, the moderates have won the CSU elections, thus ensuring that – at least for next year – the university will not be overtaken by those merely interested in shit-disturbing for headlines:

In election results announced just moments ago, Chief Electoral Officer Tara Tavender has declared victory for New Evolution, who gained exactly 50 per cent of the vote in this year’s election.

This is good news indeed. New Evolution was the slate favoured to win by – among others – Concordia Hillel, as it has promised to take a moderate, apolitical stand on Mideast issues.

Of course, there could still be trouble ahead:

The victory may be short-lived, however, as contestations are expected from both Renaissance Concordia and Concordians In Action, claiming that the New Evolution slate violated election regulations to get more votes.

Contestations are almost a standard occurrance. And I don’t know enough about this election to know whether they will have a leg to stand on. We’ll have to see. In the meantime, the students have spoken, and they’ve spoken against rioting and turmoil on campus. Let’s hope they get their wish.

Concordia University’s CSU elections are taking place this week.

Those of you who have been reading for a while know that this election is very important for students who don’t want more rioting, nonsense, and antagonism while going to school. Last year, the moderates swept to a much-needed victory over the extremists, and from what I hear, the school’s been a much better environment this year. This year I’m not really up on the details, but it seems to me that there isn’t as much anger about the student union as there was last year. A whole year without riots tends to restore people to their usual state of apathy, I guess.

So to all you Concordia students out there, make it your business to read up on the candidates and go out and vote.

There. That’s my public service announcement for the day.

The CSU council decided to ban Operation SICK from ever having the right to become an official club at Concordia… but the SPHR-cronies who pushed the ban vote through on council can’t seem to decide on a consistent excuse.

-”We banned it cause it’s racist!”

That’s inconsistent to say the least.

-”No, I mean, we banned it cause it’s affiliated with Israeli Hasbara.”

So what?

-”We disagree with OpSICK’s political stance.”

But that doesn’t give you the right to ban them.

-”Whoops, I meant that my problem is really that it’s not honest about its affiliation with Hasbara.”

Well, you found out pretty easily; it can’t be THAT big a secret. Besides, how about a little honesty about who really funds SPHR?

-”Um, what I REALLY meant is that we banned it cause it’s redundant, there are already similar groups on campus.”

Again, so what?

-”I mean… I mean… hell, it’s run by pro-Israel people and we don’t like you and we’re not gonna let you become a club no matter what, so screw you and stop asking us for a legitimate reason cause we don’t actually have one!”

And that, of course, is the crux of the matter. Council had no legitimate reason to ban Operation SICK (which, by the way, does not focus only on Palestinians, but on groups from countries all over the world who use child soldiers or incitement of hatred among children). They just decided that it was a group run by their “enemies” (read: Jews, Zionists) so they would come up with some reason to ban it. Just like they came up with a ridiculous excuse to ban Concordia Hillel last year.

The Link reported that Concordia Hillel lost its court case against the CSU:

In an Oct. 10 decision, the Quebec Court of Appeals found against Hillel’s appeal on lifting the suspension of their lawsuit against the CSU. The court also found in favour of the CSU’s cross appeal to force the inclusion of the Union’s Judicial Board in the process.

The judgment, in my (admittedly non-legal-educated) opinion, seems on the face ridiculous. After all, the Judicial Board consists of people chosen by the CSU Council. The chances that Hillel would have gotten a fair hearing by the JB on this issue last year were pretty slim.

In plain language, this sucks. The CSU Council had no business banning Hillel last year, and the court ruling shouldn’t force Hillel to submit to heavy-handed blackmail.

Oh, and P.S., for anyone wondering what’s been going on at Concordia lately, SPHR is up to their usual Israel-bashing:

A petition presented to the CSU last week by members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights has demanded the Union hold a general assembly on Nov. 6 to denounce Israel’s “apartheid wall” built along the border between Israel and the West Bank. Many human rights groups have condemned the wall, which groups say encroaches on Palestinian territory. The petition was signed by 250 students, even though only 100 are needed to force an assembly.

Yep, and if they called a general assembly asking people whether they thought all Zionists should be banned from the premises, it would probably get the 100 signatures in a heartbeat.

Great system, eh?

September 9th, 2002:

They came to shut down free speech. They violently rioted, as explained in this widely-circulated eyewitness account. They didn’t want Benjamin Netanyahu to give this speech – or, indeed, to speak at all – and so they gathered to riot, cause mayhem, and rough up people trying to attend.

The fallout made international headlines, led to the blame game almost immediately, and caused a ripple effect that is still being felt.

September 9th, 2003:

They’d have us believe that everything has changed. There’s a new CSU executive, a big orientation party for incoming and returning students, and a lecture series on conflict resolution.

But ultimately, behind the scenes, very little has changed despite surface appearances. Hillel, which had its privileges suspended by last year’s CSU is still fighting to get them restored. The so-called “activists” are still defending the rioting. Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited back to Montreal but not to Concordia. Antisemitism still gets printed in the Link as “legitimate political criticism”. Indeed, there is still much work to be done.

One year later, some baby steps in the right direction have been taken. What happens from here, we’ll just have to wait and see.