Members of Carleton’s Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) voted March 22 in favour of Carleton divesting from companies involved in illegal military occupations and other violations of international laws.
The plebiscite passed with 71 per cent support, according to results posted on the GSA’s website. This makes the GSA the first student union to take a position supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign launched by the Palestinian civil society, according to a press release.
“We’re very happy with the result. I think that it is representative of the spirit on campus,” said Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) member Samantha Ponting.
“Graduate students have come out and demonstrated that they are strongly in support of divesting from companies that are complicit in illegal military occupation,” she said.
The referendum question, which asked students if they support Carleton “adopting a binding socially responsible investment policy that would require it to divest from companies complicit in illegal military occupations and other violations of international law, including but not limited to: BAE Systems, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman, and Tesco Supermarkets,” was put forth by members of the graduate student body, and brought before the GSA’s general council, according to GSA president Elizabeth Whyte.
While the plebiscite passed with over two-thirds support, only eight per cent of graduate students voted, Whyte said, attributing the low voter turnout to difficulty in engaging graduate students. Only 204 students voted in favour, with 77 against and six spoiled ballots.
Despite the low voter turnout, Whyte said the results of the referendum will be useful in negotiating with the university, and they will be bringing the decision from their membership to every meeting with the senior administration.
A similar question was pulled from the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) referendum after it was amended by journalism councillor Yaelle Gang.
Gang said she amended the original question to ensure it applied to a wider range of issues.
“It was misleading to students not to directly mention Israel and mention that’s what they’re taking a position on,” she said. “This is a very specific intention, and not mentioning it misguides people who are voting.”
The amendment would not have prevented SAIA from arguing to divest from specific companies and they could have continued with their campaign, Gang said.
“What shocked me at that meeting was after that amendment, they decided to pull the question completely, because they said it no longer was about Israel,” Gang said.
SAIA member Dax D’Orazio said the matter is not about Israel, but divesting from companies involved in “the occupation alone.”
Ponting said while CUSA has blocked SAIA’s plan to run a campus-wide plebiscite, their campaign will continue with the results from the GSA plebiscite.
“We see it as a great victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, and we are very happy moving forward, knowing that there’s such a standing support on campus for divesting from companies that are violating international law in the occupied Palestinian territories,” she said.
