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CSU President Lex Gill is under fire. A petition demanding her immediate removal from office was presented to CSU council yesterday. 

Former CSU Councillor Tomer Shavit, Arts and Science Federation of Associations President Alex Gordon and Commerce and Administration Students’ Association President Marianna Luciano are the three authors of the petition now online at www.stoplexgill.com. Shavit was present at the meeting to defend his arguments.

“The idea of removing Lex Gill, who is a weight to the CSU right now, was brought up to strengthen the CSU so that we could be united,” Shavit said.

The petition holds Gill responsible for several issues including the decrease of student representatives and budget cuts at the Board of Governors. To be passed, the petition requires 10% of the student body to sign it - approximately 3500 names.

Though the document is now in circulation, whether it is valid or not, was called into question by council.

Under the current CSU Bylaws, a president cannot be removed from office individually. The only way this can happen, Gill explained, is if the entire executive is recalled for reelection. In other words, to replace her would mean to replace everyone. Shavit calls this ambiguity open for interpretation and plans to stick with the petition. 

Along with its validity, the content of the petition was disputed as well. “[The clauses] are rife with conjecture, misinformation, logical fallacies, defamatory statements and straightforward lies about myself, and more importantly the work of my executive team,” Gill said. 

Before Shavit was invited to speak, council voted and passed a motion of confidence, showing their full and unanimous support for their president. VP Chad Walcott added that focus should be placed on more important issues. “This is unnecessary and a waste of time,” Walcott said. “If individuals have so much time on their hands as to go around circulating a petition full of lies and defamatory accusations then let me extend a hand and ask for their help in the tuition campaign, which is the largest campaign the Concordia Student Union brought in since 2005.”

After the vote, Gill expressed confidence in both herself and her team. “I have absolute faith in the people I work with and the people that sit on this council,” Gill said. “There is really nothing fundamentally that has been done that merits this sort of behaviour.”

A Facebook event titled "Stop Lex Gill" was put up by the petition's organizers as a forum for debate. A counter website was also created to satirize the petition. You can find that site at www.stoplexgill.ca.

The ongoing feud destabilizing the Parti Quebecois has given Francois Legault the opportunity to promote his new political party, CTV reports.

The Coalition Avenir Quebec is currently looking to step over the PQ and become the second opposition.

Legault says Quebecers will strongly support the CAQ despite any objections the governing Liberals may have.

However, the National Assembly requires that each party have 12 elected MNAs in order to be recognized as a party.

Legault’s CAQ is three people short. 

Over the weekend, the CAQ absorbed the now defunct Action Democratique Quebec.

The National Assembly had exempt the ADQ from their 12-MNA rule during the last election.

Legault requests that his party be allowed to operate under the same set of rules.

The U.S. special forces rescued two hostages in Somalia yesterday. According to Aljazeera, the special forces killed nine Somalian pirates in the operation.

The two U.S. citizens rescued are aid workers and were abducted in Galmudug. The president of Galmudug thanked the U.S. and denounced the pirates as mafia and spoilers of peace and ethics. Pirate gangs have turned to kidnappings because new ships with better defenses have made commandeering more difficult.

The two aid workers were taken to a US military base in Djibouti. It is the only one in sub-Saharan Africa.

One British tourist, two Spanish doctors, and an American journalist are still being held hostage in Somalia.

NHL:

Another week full of storyline in the NHL this week, but we’ll stick to a topic that has sparked a lot of debate: following the nearly-horrific injury that Taylor Hall suffered from a teammates skate blade in warm-up (while not wearing a helmet), should the NHL make helmets mandatory during the warm-up for all teams? While I think it’s a good idea, I don’t see it happening; I doubt the players would go for it. The NHL can’t get them to wear visors during the games, why would they accept being forced to wear extra protection during a simple warm-up? While this was a fluke accident and probably won’t happen again, it still makes sense for the NHL to want to see its most prized assets as protected as possible. One way that could work would be to grandfather the concept into the game, meaning that from next year all rookies would have to wear helmets in warm-up, and continue that trend until every player in the league has helmets in warm-up. The problem is actually monitoring this; the NHL won’t have someone watching every warm-up to make sure the right players are following the rule.

NFL:

It was a wild championship Sunday as the Patriots and Giants advanced to Super Bowl in what should be an epic rematch of the incredible 2007 Super Bowl. While my score predictions were off, I was correct on the two winners. Seeing as there are two weeks until the big game, I’ll hold off until next week to make my predictions. An interesting aspect of both games was the fact that they each had a couple of clear-cut scapegoats. Wide receiver Lee Evans dropped the game-winning touchdown pass in the end zone with seconds remaining on the clock and Billy Cundiff missed the game-tying field goal with time about to expire, while in the other game kick returner Kyle Williams fumbled at two crucial moments, allowing the Giants to first score a big touchdown in regulation and ultimately kick the game-winning field goal in overtime.

NBA:

It was an average week in the NBA, but several questions came up concerning one current powerhouse and one former powerhouse. The Miami Heat are on a prolonged winning streak without superstar Dwayne Wade in the line-up, and those looking to stir the pot have been asking if Lebron James and the Heat are better off without two huge superstars in their starting five, that they simply need to have one and surround him with solid teammates (like Chris Bosh). Personally, I think the idea is downright silly; while Wade and James haven’t found that perfect, cohesive, unstoppable chemistry yet, they are too good to not find it eventually. When they do, the Heat will probably reach the incredibly lofty goals that they set when they joined forces last summer.

On the other hand, the glory days of the Boston Celtics seem to be a thing of the past, as it appears age has begun to creep up on Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. While they are in 8th place in the Eastern Conference, the trio look slowed by this compressed schedule and it’s been reported that if the right deal (or deals) come along, the Celtics might be willing to move them.

Tragedies:

It’s been a sad couple of days in the world of sports as two prominent figures have passed. The first was Sarah Burke, a pioneer in Canadian freestyle skiing, who died on Thursday due to injuries she sustained from a crash during a training session on January 10th. She was 29. The second round of bad news hit on a much more global level, as it was announced that legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno passed on January 22nd from lung cancer. Paterno will be remembered for his long tenure at Penn State and his status as the winningest coach in college football history, but his name will always be associated to the heavily scrutinized sexual abuse scandal that surrounded the program this past year. Paterno was 85.

-Andrew Maggio runs a dedicated Habs blog, check it out here