Queens University students move to impeach Nick Day?

Nick Day exceeded his mandate as Rector, and he used the weight of his office to bolster his argument and divide the Queen’s community for personal, political, and partisan views. -Jake Roth a Queens University student has set up a Facebook group here.

A valuable lesson for Nick Day is fast approaching: Accountability. Nick Day used his position as the 32nd Rector to voice his personal opinions that are outside the mandate of his office. Elected student leaders  from the undergrads may have taken offense to his behaviour and negative publicity being generated for Queens University. 

Students are paying attention to issues that matter. A petition was quickly generated by them and the threshold has been met in order to have the AMS act on allowing a motion to be made.( A simple majority of fifty plus one per cent of the vote with no minimum will be necessary for the impeachment recommendation to be forwarded to the University Council.)

The graduate student union a member of CFS has voiced an objection to the undergraduate union use of language including the representation of the entire study body? Do they object to the removal of the Nick Day? The process undertaken against Mr. Day is an AMS process with neither the input nor the consent of graduate and professional students at Queen’s. Given the grave importance of this issue, the SGPS is carefully evaluating the options to determine the course of action that best reflects the interests of our members. Perhaps the President Jawad Qureshy, SGPS wants to be delay the process or protect the 32nd Rector from the referendum vote. In my limited understanding the AMS referendum on the impeachment of Nick Day it will not be binding on the University Council. This referendum is an opportunity to send a message from the student body on their  32nd Rector, Nick Day will become illegitimate in his role if the referendum passes regardless if University Council acts. I think it is a mistake for the SGPS to exclude themselves from this debate on the removal of the 32nd Rector. The elected student leaders should be polling their fellow members if their Rector did overstep his role and duty.

Is the  SGPS trying to negotiate some student-diplomatic immunity if he is a graduate union member? The SGPS boasts nearly 17% of the student enrollment, will they use their standing to protect Nick Day? ( Enrollment 22,477 vs 4,000 SGPS)

At a March 10 meeting of Queen’s University’s students’ society, a unanimous vote was passed to hold a referendum that will ask students to decide whether Day will continue to hold his position as rector.

Approximately 350 people were in attendance at the meeting, including Craig Draeger of Queen’s Campus Conservatives, who presented a petition with 2,200 signatures calling for Day’s impeachment. -Student Union and student body fed up with Nick Day? - Impeachment of Nick Day

A AMS Assembly records 35 in favour, 3 abstains, 0 against on holding a referendum at the 8:37-9.02 mark. Michael Coren has a few episodes this week in where they discuss the problems on campus.

I did a post on this a few days ago in defence of the Liberals and Ignatieff regarding the open letter from Nick Day.  I am not a fan of the Liberal party or their current leader. I don't support the radicalization on our campuses including IAW. I am glad to see the students are taking our campuses back from the radical groups in left. This is NOT about free speech or freedom of assembly. I believe this about the majority are tired of being intimidated by the most vocal minority. This is a great time for the moderates to step up and punish the radicals on either end of the spectrum. What do you think?

 

Guess Who is Coming For Dinner?

David Weinberg, director of the Canada-Israel Committee's Israel Office, told the Jerusalem Post that the trip "is a reflection of the extraordinarily strong ties between Canada and Israel on a range of political issues and bilateral matters. It is also an acknowledgment of Prime Minister Harper's principled leadership and friendship for Israel."
In 2002, a planned visit by Netanyahu, then Israel's foreign minister, to Concordia University in Montreal was canceled after students protesting the trip rioted and caused widespread damage.



Let's hope the radicals in left and those rally against the only democracy in the middle east don't disrupt this meeting. I support a free democratic Israel. Our Prime Minister stands with Israel. Canada has not a sitting Prime Minister visit since 1994.

Related:

Queen's Park Shows Leadership Against Destructive Campaign Against Israel


What party blocked Parliament from adopting this as motion?

Toronto Star: No Respect For Taxpayers?

The Toronto Star is failing to provide context in how much Federal Tax dollars are returned to Toronto. The Toronto Star may have taken the advice of Frank Graves, in invoking a "cultural war" and the "culture of entitlement."

However, last year, the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA), chose to sport tshirts with swastikas while they ambled down the street chanting "Fist by Fist, Blow by Blow, Apartheid State, Has Got to Go."Israel stands out as the only country in the Middle East where gay rights are respected on a par with other Western nations. Gay Pride rallies, for instance, are common in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities -- while the staging of such events in the Palestinian territories or any other part of the Arab world would almost certainly end in a bloodbath of dead gay paraders. If organizers cannot bring themselves to ensure participants keep their displays "on message," why should municipal, provincial or federal taxpayers have an obligation to foot the bill?

 

Why restrict the Poll to Federal Tax dollars of Toronto's Gay Pride? Did the Toronto Star miss the participation of groups that are political?

The early results are very interesting. Are all candidates running for the Mayor of Toronto pandering,  demanding the Federal Government provide funding indefinitely for a local event? What do the voters polled in the Toronto Star Poll think? Over 63% are against continuing FEDERAL tax dollars to fund Toronto's Gay Pride. Where is the respect for the taxpayers?  Luckily voters in Toronto can elect Rob Ford. He did not blame the Federal Government, which has contributed to over 500 projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and invoke an adversarial relationship.

“I’ve always said the public sector shouldn’t be funding parades, no matter what parade it is,” Ford said. “The private sector should be sponsoring these parades.”

Martin Gladstone, a Toronto-based Jewish gay lawyer who has witnessed the anti-Israel messaging in past parades, implored Pride organizers to remain apolitical, arguing that allowing any group with a political mandate to march in the parade is contrary to Pride’s non-profit “LGBT human rights mandate,” and that “gay pride has nothing to do with anti-Israel advocacy.”

Gladstone said he feared that the rise of anti-Israel, “and by extension anti-Jewish,” political messaging could threaten Pride’s existence and funding if legally challenged.

“The law is clear,” he wrote to the Pride council this year. “You cannot allow a non-profit corporation to facilitate political advocacy unrelated to its charter.” -CJNEWS

It's no good pretending the vicious anti-Zionism of the apartheid crowd is free of anti-Semitism. Many Jews do feel threatened by it, and rightly so. Some will no longer attend the parade out of discomfort. Typically of others I interviewed, lesbian Denise Alexander told me that the 2009 parade was "the first time I've ever felt unsafe as a Jew in Toronto." It wasn't only the words, "Down with Israel" or "The end of Israel": "It's the tone ... and the veins sticking out in their necks, like in Nazi Germany."

Harassment & Intimidation at Toronto's Pride Parade 2009 from josephinejosephine on Vimeo.

The film explores the explosive controversy that surrounded the 2009 Toronto Gay Pride Parade by the inclusion of groups that branded Israel an apartheid state.

Offering exclusive footage of the annual parade that has become Toronto’s top attraction, Reclaiming Our Pride illustrates how Pride is being hijacked by groups that have nothing to do with the celebration of gay rights.

Additional reading:

Gays and Israel Apartheid Week...

Queen's Park Shows Leadership Against Destructive Campaign Against Israel

CPC Led Government Demostrates Best Friend Status With Israel: Coalition Not So Much!

Cultural Wars: Teabaggers Canadian Style

Stand up for Israel 

 Toronto's-No-Go-Zones-For-Zionists 

Toronto Star Reviving Liberal Policy

David Akin: Liberal ridings get $1 million out of $69 million highway fund

Perhaps those who don't think the Toronto Star has done a balanced piece in viewing the concerns of should contact the editorial staff. here. It is not difficult when an editorial does not support the political party in Ottawa. Should they be more careful in providing context and facts.

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