A motion for the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) to condemn the white poppy campaign failed at a council meeting Nov. 19.
If passed, the motion would have put CUSA against the veterans’ remembrance campaign, “I Remember For Peace,” that distributed white poppies around Remembrance Day.
A group called Ceasefire started the campaign. They included the white poppy this year, founder Steven Staples said.
The failed motion stated that the Royal Canadian Legion, the group which distributes red poppies for donations, condemned the white poppy.
The legion is against Ceasefire’s premise that red poppies glorify war and white represents peace, according to the legions’s secretary of the poppy remembrance committee, Bill Maxwell.
Staples said he doesn’t think it’s one or the other. He said he wore both red and white poppies during remembrance.
Seven councillors voted for the motion. Ten voted against and 14 abstained.
Councillor Ryan Marshall abstained from voting.
“I personally feel the whole white poppies issue and white poppies themselves are pretty stupid,” he said via email.
“I’m not really offended by them, but I think they’re getting more attention than they deserve,” he said.
Marshall, who is is currently serving in the military, said he doesn’t think CUSA should “take sides or radical positions on divisive issues.”
Roy Sengupta, the humanities councillor who presented the motion against white poppies, said CUSA needs to be more than a disperser of funds and an organizer of events.
CUSA needs to “represent the values of the Carleton student body,” he said.“I felt that the white poppy campaign is something that students have really strongly voiced themselves against,” he said.
If passed, the motion would have expired at the end of the school year in April 2014.
