“Tough guy” Igor Sadikov, who earlier this month had called for folks on Twitter to “punch a Zionist,” has resigned from his McGill University Students’ Society board of directors position … and may soon face removal from the main body.
The McGill Tribune reports that Sadikov blames the McGill administration for its “interference” in the whole affair, but nevertheless concluded “it is in the Society’s best interest” that he resign … after an initial refusal to do so.
As noted by The College Fix, Sadikov previously had survived a measure to have him ousted from the Society’s board of directors (the Tribune reports Sadikov was censured by the BoD, however), and at a Society legislative council meeting the second week of the month, members actually declined to denounce Sadikov’s call-for-violence tweet.
Shortly after the board of directors vote, in a meeting between McGill Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier, Sadikov, and Society President Ben Ger, Fortier is alleged to have “threatened to withhold student fees collected on behalf of SSMU if the Society did not publicly call for Sadikov’s resignation.”
“The University’s senior leaders shared their strong belief that the SSMU executives should ask for the resignation of SSMU Board member Igor Sadikov, who recently sent a Tweet inciting violence against a specific group,” Fortier wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “While McGill’s administration normally does not recommend a course of action to the SSMU leadership, this situation is exceptional. With any incitement to violence, it is the administration’s duty to intervene.”
Ger said that SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the university gives the administration the ability to exert influence over SSMU affairs. …
Sadikov did not comply with the calls for his resignation and condemned the university administration for involving itself in student-run institutions.
“This level of interference in student government is a new low for the university,” Sadikov told The McGill Daily on Feb. 17. “The [vice-chancellor] made it very clear that what she cares about in this situation is bending to political pressure from donors and alumni, rather than acting in the best interest of the campus community and respecting the decisions of the student groups affected.”
The Society Legislative Council will consider whether to expel Sadikov on March 9.
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