The Legislative Council is the legislative arm of the SSMU. Thirty councillors 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. According to Article 3 of the SSMU Constitution, Council is the governing body of the Society and “shall be empowered to make all decisions and take all actions on behalf of the Society.”
All SSMU members are welcome to attend open sessions of Council, which are generally held every second Thursday beginning at 6pm. For 2020-2021, the dates of Council are:
Fall Semester
September 8, 2020 via Zoom
September 24, 2020 via Zoom
October 8, 2020 via Zoom
October 22, 2020 via Zoom
November 5, 2020 via Zoom
November 19, 2020 via Zoom
December 3, 2020 via ZoomWinter Semester
January 14, 2021
January 28, 2021
February 11, 2021
February 25, 2021
March 11, 2021
March 25, 2021
April 8, 2021While 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) below.
Council Documents 2020 – 2021
If for any reason you have any difficulty accessing the documents below, please email the Speaker of Council or the President. You can also follow the Legislative Council on Twitter with the hashtag #SSMULegCouncil!
Council Meeting 2020-09-08
AGENDAAgenda-Legislative Council 2020-09-08 APPROVED
MINUTESMOTIONS
Motion Regarding the Adoption of the Standing Rules for the 2020-2021 Legislative Council 2020-09-08 APPROVED
Motion Regarding Legislative Council Committee Allocations 2020-09-08 APPROVED
Motion Regarding an Interim Provision for Elections and Referenda Timeline 2020-2021 2020-08-21 APPROVED
Motion Regarding an Interim Provision for Amendments to the McGill Debating Union Constitution 2020-07-08 APPROVED
Motion Regarding an Interim Provision for Amendments to the Human Resources Committee Terms of Reference 2020-06-25 APPROVED
Motion Regarding the Elections and Referenda Timeline 2020-2021 2020-09-08 APPROVED
Notice of Motion Regarding Amendments to the Internal Regulations of Elections and Referenda 2020-09-08 FOR APPROVAL
Notice of Motion Regarding the Adoption of the Human Resources Policy 2020-09-08 FOR APPROVALCOMMITTEE REPORTS
Report – Steering Committee 2020-09-08EXECUTIVES REPORTS
Report – President 2020-09-08
Report – Vice President (Finance) 2020-09-08
Report – Vice President (Student Life, 2020-08-08
Report – Vice President (University Affairs), 2020-09-08VOTING RECORD
Legislative Council Record of Votes 2020-09-08SPECIAL GUESTS
Speaker of Council & Parliamentarian
Speaker of Council acts as the chair of 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 Council.
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 of the information about the various committees at SSMU.
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!
This year’s representatives are:
Constituency Name Email Address Arts Paige Collins artsrep1@ssmu.ca Arts Alex Karasick artsrep2@ssmu.ca
Arts Chip Smith artsrep3@ssmu.ca
Arts Libby Williamson artsrep4@ssmu.ca Arts and Science Polina Litvina artscirep@ssmu.ca Athletics James Mulvaney athleticsrep@ssmu.ca Clubs clubsrep1@ssmu.ca Clubs clubsrep2@ssmu.ca
Dentistry Tom Lee dentistryrep@ssmu.ca Education Bella Bulhoes edrep@ssmu.ca Engineering Elif Kurkcu engrep1@ssmu.ca Engineering Jake Reed engrep2@ssmu.ca First Year Council (FYC) fycrep@ssmu.ca Law Brandon Bonan lawrep@ssmu.ca Management Noah Gundermann managementrep1@ssmu.ca Management Minalou Kunze-Roelens managementrep2@ssmu.ca Medicine Benson Wan medicinerep@ssmu.ca Music musicrep@ssmu.ca Nursing Alaina Ge nursingrep@ssmu.ca PT/OT Mariam Morgan ptotrep@ssmu.ca Science Lorna Fernandez Ciruela sciencerep1@ssmu.ca Science Shivali Sood sciencerep2@ssmu.ca Science Joy Zhang sciencerep3@ssmu.ca Senate Caucus Darshan Daryanani artssenator1@ssmu.ca Services servicesrep@ssmu.ca Social Work Jo Roy socialworkrep@ssmu.ca Non-Voting Members of Council
Position Name Email Address Speaker of Council Lauren Hill speaker@ssmu.ca Speaker On-Call Sena Lee speaker@ssmu.ca Parliamentarian Wing Wong parliamentarian@ssmu.ca Recording Secretary Sam Haward recsec@ssmu.ca Recording Secretary Lauren Hill recsec@ssmu.ca Governance Manager Michal Chernov governance@ssmu.ca General Manager Daniel Dufour gm@ssmu.ca
