THURSDAY, MAY 30TH, 7 – 9 PM

Important Deadlines:
Register for AGM by Monday, May 27th at 5pm
Nomination Period for Board of Directors: Thursday, May 9th, 9 am – Thursday, May 16th, 5pm
Nomination Package Submission: Thursday, May 16th at 5 pm 

Get ready for OPIRG York’s Annual General Meeting! Join us on Thursday, May 30th from 7 – 9 pm EST. The AGM will be held virtually. All members* are welcome to attend. At the AGM we will share the highlights of the past year, and run an election for our Board of Directors. If you believe your values align with those of OPIRG York, we invite you to run for a position on the board. 

Nominations are open to any OPIRG York member, as long as the nomination is supported by at least 15 member signatures. All York University students* who have paid their student fees and have not opted out of OPIRG York, as well as any community member who has paid for membership are members of OPIRG York and are eligible for nomination. We especially encourage women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, trans­ people, queer people, disabled individuals, working class and union members, and diverse religious and cultural communities to run, in order to have a Board that is representative of the diversity of the York University community.

*note: this excludes Osgoode Hall students, and students at Glendon Campus.

What is the Board of Directors?

The Board of Directors are elected by the membership, or they are appointed by a current Board. The Board focuses on the long-term well being of the organization. This includes making decisions regarding activist training for volunteers, finances and yearly budget, overall planning and programming, the hiring of staff, and the allocation of funds and resources to support action groups, campaigns, and events. Collectively, the Board operates as the employer of the CUPE 1281 staff, which includes our Volunteer Coordinator, Programming Coordinator and Coordinator of Administration and Information. .

Why join the Board of Directors?

As a board member you will receive training in:

• the financial management and governance of a non-profit organization;
• consensus-based decision-making;
• how to facilitate and participate in meetings; 
• how to be an employer in a unionized workplace; and 
• much more!

The skills that you will learn as a Board member will be a major asset to you in other organizations.

What does it take to be on the Board?

• Be an OPIRG member (you can become a member for $3 donation to OPIRG York);
• make a commitment of working with staff and board for 4 – 6 hours per week, including participating in biweekly meetings of two hours;
• Uphold the OPIRG York mandate, policies, and procedures;
• Be committed to learning about and confronting the many forms o;f oppression;
• Be passionate about social and environmental justice;
• Be willing to work cooperatively with staff, other Board members, and volunteers;
• Have an interest in understanding how non-profits work, including staff/employer relations, policies and finances; and
• Have a desire to develop new skills.

How to apply

• Download and complete the nomination form. Please include a statement of introduction/interest and your preferred pronouns. Submit it via email to the Chief Returning Officer at opirgyorkcro2024@gmail.com.
• The deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 16th at 5 pm.
  

The voting period will be conducted at the AGM. 

Please email opirgyorkcro2024@gmail.com for more information.

OPIRG York condemns genocide in Gaza and calls for ceasefire immediately
October 19, 2023 | Download in PDF format

The Ontario Public Interest Research Group at York University (OPIRG York) strongly condemns Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza. Since the start of the war on October 7, at least 4,200 people have been killed, over one million have been displaced, and large parts of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble. On Tuesday evening (EST), we saw the bombing of a fully functioning and staffed Al Ahli hospital that alone has killed at least 500 people, including patients and healthcare workers providing essential and urgent care. These attacks on the people, institutions, and infrastructure of Gaza, exacerbated by Israel’s siege of the territory, constitute an egregious form of collective punishment that academics and activists now warn are genocidal in scope. We join humanitarian and human rights organizations around the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israel’s current blockade of Gaza and the 16-year siege, and a prisoners’ exchange. We view these as necessary first steps, designed to prevent the loss of more lives and to lay the groundwork for comprehensive negotiations aimed at ending Israel’s apartheid regime and illegal occupation and recognizing Palestinians’ right to self-determination.  

As a student-led and funded organization focused on social and environmental justice, we unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism and state-sanctioned violence that target any civilians. We mourn the loss of Israeli civilian lives claimed in Hamas’ initial assault, and those killed, wounded, and bereaved in Gaza. However, mourning is not sufficient. We call on all people of good conscience to see in these events but one more reason that the decades-long policies of dispossession, occupation, and apartheid that are at the root of the violence and atrocity, be forcefully challenged, and ultimately dismantled. 

Today, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which OPIRG York had previously endorsed. We call on York University to publicly denounce Israel’s assault on Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire, which it has yet to do. We remind York that to appear silent on what is unfolding in Gaza contradicts its own commitment to Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2028; as a publicly-funded institution for higher education, it must reject all forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism. As students, we call for York to release funds and resources to ensure the mental health and physical safety for all students – particularly Palestinians – and to end any partnerships with the Israeli state and state-funded academic/ research institutions immediately. We commit ourselves to supporting students and the broader community by assisting with research and resources, providing access to peer-reviewed reading materials, visuals, and graphics. Our staff and board are committed to receiving with urgency requests to fund student-led Palestine solidarity initiatives such as teach-ins and other activities. We encourage our broader community to support efforts and communities on the ground by donating to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNWRA – and / or Medical Aid for Palestine. 

Interested in learning more about what is happening in Gaza? We’ve compiled a list of multidisciplinary resources (not exhaustive by any means) that provide both historial context and more contemporary analysis of the current situation. We hope that through lists such as these, we can learn together and feel empowered to take collective action. We will be updating this list frequently.

If you are a community member or group, or a York U almunus, and do not have access to York University library systems, we would be happy to provide you with any of the listed resources or additional ones that are not open source. Please email program.opirgyork@gmail.com if you have a specific resource in mind. 

ARTISTS / POETS

• Rafeef Ziadah
• Joe Sacco
• Lowkey
• Mahmoud Darwish
• Suheir Hammad