The AMS held its first Special Assembly of the academic year on Nov. 18 at Stirling Hall, following the Corporate Special General Meeting at 6 p.m. With voting open to all AMS who paid their hip fees, Assembly saw a peak turnout of 277 students, which is significantly higher than the 208 students required for quorum, according to an AMS communications release.
Of the 13 motions on the agenda, only eight were addressed during the six-hour session. Among these were two motions concerning The Queen’s Journal, a motion from Queen’s Backing Action on the Climate Crisis (QBACC) urging the University to divest from fossil fuels, and a motion calling for the AMS to introduce a new Equity Policy.
To accommodate the presenter, Deputy Speaker of AMS Assembly and Chief Governance Officer Emma Capstick moved the Fossil Fuel Divestment motion, Motion 11, forward. The motion, led by QBACC Co-President Olivia Winslow, ArtSci ’26, called for the AMS to endorse QBACC’s petition for Queen’s University to divest its $1.492 billion endowment fund from fossil fuels, of which 2.2 per cent is directly invested in such assets.
“We’re advocating for the complete divestment of Queen’s University’s endowment fund from fossil fuels,” Winslow told the Assembly.
Assembly voted in favour of the motion, successfully ing it with a majority.
Queen’s Journal motions
Assembly spent over an hour discussing Motion eight, which would’ve mandated The Journal’s Editors in Chief submit written reports to the AMS secretariat within 72 hours of notice and attend Assembly sessions upon request.
The motion, moved by President Owen Rocchi and seconded by Secretariat Sylvie Garabedian, aimed to establish greater ability and transparency.
A second motion, Motion 9, would have required any policy related to Section 14.1.4 of the AMS Constitution to be presented to AMS Assembly for approval by April 30, 2025. It also called for the creation of an Ad-Hoc Committee to review such policies, with the committee’s composition to be presented to the December 2024 Assembly after consultations with The Journal.
“I want this committee to hold us all able, to begin to work together, and I believe this committee can start some positive change on campus. This is a motion about clarity and ability; it’s not about control, it’s not about censorship,” Rocchi said, addressing the audience.
“There are no changes in this motion, there’s no mandate. This all needs to be discussed, and it will take time to talk about, and that’s important,” he added.
Rocchi explained the proposed motions weren’t intended to encroach on editorial autonomy, itting his oversight in failing to consult The Journal beforehand.
“I do really regret not meeting with The Journal. I’m being completely transparent with that, I’ve taken ability, and I know I’m being repeatedly reminded of that,” Rocchi said.
Rocchi emphasized that mental health challenges and a pervasive fear of engaging with the media are significant barriers for student leaders, stating these issues have not only caused stress but have also discouraged many from participating in student government.
When Engineering Society President Jack Walker, Sci ’25, asked whether The Journal would be open to discussing its operations with Assembly leaders, The Journal’s Editors in Chief Allie Moustakis and Skylar Soroka confirmed their willingness to engage in conversations to promote transparency and ability.
Both motions were voted on through Simply Voting, despite requests for manual voting due to past issues with the platform. Due to technical issues, the second motion’s vote had to be repeated three times. A pre-amended version of the motion was initially sent to students, requiring the ballot to be re-sent. Concerns about students missing the five-minute voting window led to a third round of voting.
The first motion failed, with 59.9 per cent of the 240 voters voting against it—139 opposed, 93 in favour, and eight abstained. The second motion failed by 66.8 per cent of the 203 voters opposed—131 against, 65 in favour, and seven abstentions.
Equity Policy motion
Following the Journal-related motions, Assembly extended its session by 30 minutes. Vice-President (Operations) of the Computing Students’ Association (COMPSA), Josh Cowan, CompSci ’25, motioned to address Motion 13 on club ratification before the Equity Policy motion, but voted to proceed with the latter.
Motion 10, moved by Ali Al-Safadi, ArtSci ’26, and seconded by Edlira Ballaj, ArtSci ’26, called for the AMS to require the Social Issues Commission (SIC) to propose an equity policy reaffirming the AMS Constitution’s commitment to Indigenization, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and Accessibility (I-EDIAA). The motion also required the SIC to consult with student groups, as outlined in Appendix F.
“This policy will allow us to bridge the gap between student leaders and students themselves, which is a need now more than ever,” Ballaj
The policy would involve defining key equity concepts in collaboration with equity-deserving groups on campus, including examples like the Queen’s Black Clubs Caucus’s definition of anti-Black racism, as outlined in the policy’s appendix.
at large raised concerns about the inclusion of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Queen’s in the definition of anti-Palestinian racism. Hillel Queen’s Vice-President (External Relations) Phoebe Starnino, CompSci ’27, questioned the precedent set by the non-ratified organization’s inclusion, citing concerns that SPHR poses a safety threat to Jewish students on campus.
“I want to reiterate that I stand for peace, for love, for life and for hope, and unfortunately, SPHR has proven time and time again that they stand for division and hatred,” Keren Katz, ArtSci ’25, a member at large said to the audience.
In response, students in attendance stated the importance of including student groups that represented all perspectives, citing SPHR and Hillel Queen’s as representative groups for Palestinian and Jewish student voices, respectively.
“You can talk as much as you want about what groups should do and what they shouldn’t do, but at the end of the day, these groups represent the students that belong to them and not the rest of the student body,” Al-Safadi said.
Ballaj later emphasized that when creating this policy, they kept students from all marginalized groups in mind. They expressed empathy for the pain felt by both Jewish and Palestinian students, which is why the policy was designed to treat both groups equally and with equal importance.
Vice-President (University Affairs) Ruth Osunde motioned for the amendment of the appendix to remove all references to specific student groups, and to let consultation groups be up to the discretion of the SIC.
Despite continued criticism of SPHR’s inclusion for consultation, Motion 10 ed with 70.5 per cent of voters in favour.
***
Assembly was unable to address several motions, including Motion 12, the Awards, Grants, and Bursary policy, and Motion 13 on club ratification. Proposed clubs, such as the Queen’s Astro Lens Club, the Queen’s Conservative Association, and the Queen’s Theatre Troupe, were left unresolved.
Secretariat Garabedian announced that, due to the inability to extend the Assembly beyond five 30-minute intervals, an online ballot would be sent to all students who ed at the beginning of Assembly to ratify the clubs.
Assembly will meet for the last time this semester at Memorial Hall on Dec. 2.
Corrections
A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a quote said during Assembly to Starnino.
Incorrect information appeared in the Nov. 22 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].