Legislative Council and its Committees

Overview

The Legislative Council is the legislative arm of the SSMU. Members of the Legislative Council may make motions and vote on resolutions at the Legislative Council, by the Constitution and the Internal Regulations.

The Council is composed of Thirty (30) councilors elected by specific constituencies, including school and faculty associations and councils representing particular student demographics, and the seven (7) SSMU Executives comprise the voting members of Council. The Speaker, Parliamentarian, General Manager, and Recording Secretary are non-voting members. Elections take place during the Fall semester and their term starts as of June 1st of each year.

Legislative Council

The Legislative Council is a body primarily responsible for the political decision-making body of Society. All decisions are subject to the provisions of the Acts, the Constitution, and the Internal Regulations. In addition, all resolutions passed by the Legislative Council must be ratified by the Board of Directors.

Meeting Dates

Note: The SSMU reserves the right to cancel or call a meeting or event without notice at its discretion. Please check our website/social media for such updates.

All SSMU members are welcome to attend open sessions of Council, which are generally held every second Thursday beginning at 6 pm in person (Lev Bukhman Room on the second floor of the University Centre, 3480 Mc Tavish St, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0E7). If you would like to attend these online sessions as a member of the gallery, please fill out this form.

For 2023-2024, the dates of Council are:

Meeting Documents

How you can participate in the debate:

While Council is run according to Code Véronneau, its proceedings should be accessible to all members; don’t hesitate to ask the Speaker, Parliamentarian or a Councillor (including Executives) how you can participate in the debate. Council meetings can last several hours, so if you are interested in a particular issue, it may be wise to check the agenda in advance and/or ask a Councillor to contact you (e.g. by text message) when the item relevant to your issue is coming up. 

The agenda order can also be amended to accommodate your schedule, so get in touch with a Councillor if this is something you require. You can peruse its agenda and “documents in advance” (reports of Executives and Committees, as well as proposed resolutions and policies) as seen above.

If you require assistance to access these sessions, please email speaker@ssmu.ca

Speaker of Council & Parliamentarian

Speaker of Council acts as the chair of the Council. They are responsible for the smooth procedural functioning of Council meetings which includes the call to order (which opens the meeting), granting the floor (i.e. giving people permission to speak) and stating motions and putting them to a vote. The Speaker is guided in their tasks by Code Véronneau in addition to the Constitution, Internal Regulations and any relevant resolutions of the Council.

The Parliamentarian is also responsible for running Council with the Speaker. While the Speaker controls the floor and grants Councillors speaking rights in an appropriate fashion, the Parliamentarian takes care of the organization, projection and amending of motions and reports during Council.

Committees of Council

SSMU Committees make recommendations to Council on everything from the allocation of funding to student groups to the approval of new clubs to the adoption of new policies. Each Councillor sits on at least one SSMU Committee. The Committee Terms of Reference contains all the information about the various committees at SSMU.

Committee Terms of Reference

The committees of the Legislative Council are listed below:

Memberships

Thirty (30) councilors elected by specific constituencies, including school and faculty associations and councils representing particular student demographics, and the seven (7) SSMU Executives comprise the voting members of Council. The Speaker, Parliamentarian, General Manager, and Recording Secretary are non-voting members. 

Representatives

The voting members of SSMU’s Legislative Council comprise thirty councillors elected by specific constituencies, including school and faculty associations and councils representing particular student demographics and the 6 SSMU Executives. The Speakers, Parliamentarian, General Manager, and Recording Secretary are non-voting members.

Councillors’ primary responsibility is to represent the interests of their constituencies in SSMU governance. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with your representatives!

	Constituency	Name	Email Address
	Arts Councillor	Emma Chen	artsrep1@ssmu.ca
	Arts Councillor	Rishi Kalaga	artsrep2@ssmu.ca
	Arts Councillor	Ben Weissman	artsrep3@ssmu.ca
	Arts Councillor	Logan Hamele	artsrep4@ssmu.ca
	Arts and Science Councillor	TBD	artscirep@ssmu.ca
	Athletics Councillor	Melanie Renaud	athleticsrep@ssmu.ca
	Campus Outaouais Councillor	TBD	outaouaisrep@ssmu.ca
	Clubs Councillor	TBD	clubsrep1@ssmu.ca
	Clubs Councillor	TBD	clubsrep2@ssmu.ca
	Dentistry Councillor	Brian Kim	dentistryrep@ssmu.ca
	Education Councillor	TBD	edrep@ssmu.ca
	Environment Councillor	TBD	envirorep@ssmu.ca
	Engineering Councillor	Rylee McKay	engrep1@ssmu.ca
	Engineering Councillor	Nicholas El Murr	engrep2@ssmu.ca
	First Year Councillor (FYC)	Justice Bongiovanni	fycrep@ssmu.ca
	Inter-Residence Councillor (IRC)	TBD	ircrep@ssmu.ca
	Law Councillor	Julien Bérubé	lawrep@ssmu.ca
	Management Councillor	Allan Nounke	managementrep1@ssmu.ca
	Management Councillor	Yanxin Li	managementrep2@ssmu.ca
	Medicine Councillor	Allison Engo	medicinerep@ssmu.ca
	Music Councillor	Seraphina Crema Black	musicrep@ssmu.ca
	Nursing Councillor	Morgane Pinard-Milette	nursingrep@ssmu.ca
	PT/OT Councillor	TBD	ptotrep@ssmu.ca
	Science Councillor	Hannah Kohler	sciencerep1@ssmu.ca
	Science Councillor	Eric Zhao	sciencerep2@ssmu.ca
	Science Councillor	Ishtia Kumar	sciencerep3@ssmu.ca
	Senate Caucus Councillor	TBD	senatecaucusrep1@ssmu.ca
	Senate Caucus Councillor	TBD	senatecaucusrep2@ssmu.ca
	Services Councillor	Hamza Abu-Alkhair	servicesrep@ssmu.ca
	Social Work Councillor	TBD	socialworkrep@ssmu.ca
	President	Dymetri Taylor	president@ssmu.ca
	VP (Internal Affairs)	Zeena Zahidah	internal@ssmu.ca
	VP (Student Life)	Vacant	studentlife@ssmu.ca
	VP (Finance)	Pauline Jolicoeur	finance@ssmu.ca
	VP (External Affairs)	Hugo-Victor Solomon	external@ssmu.ca
	VP (University Affairs)	Abe Berglas	ua@ssmu.ca
	VP (Operations and Sustainability)	Meg Baltes	operations@ssmu.ca

Non-Voting Members of Council

	Position	Name	Email Address
	Speaker	Jonathan Dong	speaker@ssmu.ca
	Deputy Speaker / Recording Secretary	Sierra Fallis	deputyspeaker@ssmu.ca
	Parliamentarian	Jessica Bakar	parliamentarian@ssmu.ca
	Recording Secretary	Sierra Fallis	recsec@ssmu.ca
	General Manager	Maya Marcus-Sells	mmarcussells@ssmu.ca