C o n fr o n tin g h o m o p h o b ia B y C h r i s t i n e P r i t c h a r d _______________
The Lesbians, Bisexuals, Gays, and Transgender Students of McGill held its Third Annual McGill Queer Pride Week. Although many of last week’s activities were active and social, LBGTM ’s underlying mes sage focused on general attitudes towards homosexuality. According to the Queer Pride W eek pamphlet, “Pride W eek aim[ed] to both celebrate the experi ences of LBGT students on campus and to promote awareness about issues of concern to the community. Events relatefd] to art, health, poli tics, partying, entertainment, educa tion, but always [kept] our underly ing goal of confronting homophobia and heterosexism in mind.” The individuals attending Queer Pride Week events, however, were not only queer. According to organizers, much emphasis was placed on the fact that everyone was invited to participate in the week’s activities. “We create safe spaces on cam pus where we take on not only an anti-homophobic and anti-heterosexist stance, but also a queer-posi tive stance so we ensure that every one feels co m fo rtable,” stated L B G T M ’s administrator Darrell Tan. As of mid-week, members of LBGTM were positive about event turnout and Queer Pride W eek’ s success in general. “We’ve had an amazing week so far both in terms o f the scale we’re organizing [Pride Week] on this year and the success of events in terms of quality and popularity,” Tan said. “W e’ ve had bigger turnouts than w e’ ve ever had before.” Along with activities and dis cussion groups that are held yearround, certain Queer Pride Week events involved issues not frequent ly addressed, such as a workshop on violence and same-sex relationships. Facilitated by Marcie Gibson, a public worker at the Sexual Assault Centre of McGill’s Student Society, the workshop touched upon issues such as types of abuse in and myths about sam e-sex relationships. C o n tin u ed o n p a g e 7
St. V alentine loves a ll lovers. C h eck ou t p a g e 15 f o r p e r s o n a l m essages fr o m y o u r sw eetheart.
Rebecca Catching
V P F in a n c e a d m its e r r o r in s ig n in g K P M G c o n tr a c t By Nilima G ulraiani The contract between KPMG Consulting and SSM U was once again a source o f contention and confusion at last week’ s council meeting. Meanwhile, VP Finance Duncan Reid admitted he made a serious procedural error when han dling the $25,000 agreement. The controversy surrounding the KPMG contract stems from a previous council meeting after it became apparent that councillors had never entertained or ratified a formal executive motion to approve the contract. Past executive commit tee reports, however, referred to KPMG, sparking some debate about whether inclusion in a report consti tuted ratification by council. “The Chairs ruled in September that unless an executive report was challenged by council, it would stand...No one challenged the ruling of the chair and then no one chal lenged this [contract],” stated Reid. “To say that the executive commit tee tried to sneak things through is flat out wrong.” Nevertheless, the KPMG con tract is a significantly large, nonbudgeted expense; as a result the motion should have been enter
tained by council. Speakers Cheryl Rosebush and Marc Bissell admit ted their September ruling violated the constitution and cited Articles 8.1 and 8.3 of the constitution as “problematic.” They ruled that a formal motion would have to be presented to council ratifying all 1997-1998 Executive Committee reports. However, Law councillor M ario Nigro was adamant that KPMG was an issue apart from all the rest. “[KPMG] is a non-budgeted, new matter that should be brought to cou n cil,” said Nigro. “[Reid] knows the constitution and the executive’ s role...He consciously and with intent violated the constitu tion.” As a result, council passed a formal motion accepting all 199798 Executive Committee reports, with the exception of the KPMG issues, as legally binding. When the VP Finance broached the subject of KPMG as new business at the virtu al conclusion of the meeting, he sparked immediate debate about proper protocol and his intentions. According to official council procedure, two-thirds o f council must be in favour of discussing an issue for it to be entertained as a
motion at short notice. Both the speakers and Reid were unaware of this rule until it was pointed out to them by Nigro. In the interim, heat ed debate over the KPMG issue ensued. “I agree that cou ncil could have taken a more active role in this [KPM G co n tra ct],” said Carrie G oldstein, representative to the Board of Governors. “This is really not the first time [councillors have] heard of this...There’s nothing in the KPMG proposal that was shocking or surprising...[I]t is a detailed out line of what [the executive] wish to do according to our [council’s] stan dards.” Council, however, overwhelm ingly voted in favour of postponing the debate concerning KPMG until a more appropriate time. Nigro pas sionately believes that Reid’s intro duction o f the motion late in the meeting and without prior notice was an attempt to preempt informed debate on the KPMG contract. “Did anybody have notice of motion of such a critical decision tonight?” asked Nigro at the meet ing. “When you make decisions, you’ve got to put information in front of councillors — you’ve got to give us time to think hard, time to
discuss with constituents...” Reid contends that Nigro misC o n tin u ed o n p a g e 3 Fea
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