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. In the Fall 2021 semester, all sessions of Council will be conducted via Zoom. If you would like to attend these online sessions as a member of the gallery, please fill out this form.
For 2021-2022, the dates of Council are:
Fall Semester
September 23, 2021 via Zoom
September 30, 2021 via Zoom
October 14, 2021 via Zoom
October 28, 2021 via Zoom
November 11, 2021 via Zoom
November 25, 2021 via ZoomWinter Semester
January 20, 2022 via Zoom
February 3, 2022 via Zoom
February 17, 2022 via Zoom
March 10, 2022 via Zoom
March 24, 2022 via Zoom
April 7, 2022 via ZoomWhile 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 2021-09-23
AGENDA
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YOUTUBE VIDEO
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MINUTES
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MOTIONS
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VOTING RECORD
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COMMITTEE REPORTS
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EXECUTIVES REPORTS
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COUNCILLOR REPORTS
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SPECIAL GUESTS
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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 Yara Coussa artsrep1@ssmu.ca Arts Asa Ford artsrep2@ssmu.ca
Arts Ghania Javed artsrep3@ssmu.ca
Arts Charlotte Gurung artsrep4@ssmu.ca Arts and Science Leo Holton artscirep@ssmu.ca Athletics – athleticsrep@ssmu.ca Clubs – clubsrep1@ssmu.ca Clubs clubsrep2@ssmu.ca
Dentistry Han Wen Yu dentistryrep@ssmu.ca Education Justin Liao edrep@ssmu.ca Environment Julie Bellia envirorep@ssmu.ca Engineering Robert Pelletier engrep1@ssmu.ca Engineering – engrep2@ssmu.ca First Year Council (FYC) – fycrep@ssmu.ca Inter-Residence Council (IRC) – ircrep@ssmu.ca Law Arnaud Desrochers lawrep@ssmu.ca Management Nathaniel Saad managementrep1@ssmu.ca Management Mary Zhang managementrep2@ssmu.ca Medicine Benson Wan medicinerep@ssmu.ca Music Mitra Khodadadi musicrep@ssmu.ca Nursing Emily Eiley nursingrep@ssmu.ca PT/OT – ptotrep@ssmu.ca Science Asma Khamis sciencerep1@ssmu.ca Science Emaan Qazi sciencerep2@ssmu.ca Science Andres Perez Tiniacos sciencerep3@ssmu.ca Senate Caucus – artssenator1@ssmu.ca Senate Caucus – Services – servicesrep@ssmu.ca Social Work Taisha Cayard socialworkrep@ssmu.ca Non-Voting Members of Council
Position Name Email Address Speaker of Council – speaker@ssmu.ca Speaker On-Call – speaker@ssmu.ca Parliamentarian – parliamentarian@ssmu.ca Recording Secretary – recsec@ssmu.ca Recording Secretary – recsec@ssmu.ca General Manager Daniel Dufour gm@ssmu.ca
