According to an e-mail sent out to all Concordia students the University will be closed on Thursday March 22nd.
The decision comes due to the choice to use Concordia’s downtown campus as a meeting place for province wide tuition strikes on Thursday. It is expected that over 15000 students will be at Concordia on Thursday before marching towards Place Du Canada.
The closure means no laboratories or buildings will be accessible to anyone. The downtown tunnels will also be closed and the shuttle bus service will be cancelled for the day. The university has stated they will not extend the winter 2012 session as a result.
The Loyola campus will also be closed on the 22nd and as a result the CJLO news team will be unable to air the news that day. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience.
Flickr Photo by Steve Drolet
Traffic on the Champlain Bridge in direction to Montreal was blocked Tuesday morning.
Students protesting against tuition hikes were the reason behind the blockage.
They placed a row of cinder blocks blocking access to the entrance ramp connecting Route 132 to the Bridge. There was also around 200 students lined-up across Highway 10.
Police diverted traffic onto other routes leading to Montreal before crossing the bridge and approaching the protestors.
Protestors quickly walked off of the bridge and many fled in yellow school buses.
According to CTV Montreal, many where stopped and a total of 94 students were given fines of $494 for violating the Highway Safety Code.
Flickr photo by: Sean_Marshall
A group of Concordia students sold president Frederick Lowy’s condo on Tuesday morning.
The fake auction was held as a symbolic gesture to denounce mismanagement of public funds in universities.
In 2011, Concordia had promised Lowy a $1.4 million interest-free loan to keep his condo in Montreal and assure his return as interim president. He was called back to replace former president Judith Woodsworth, who was ousted with a $700,000 severance package.
The 60 students who showed up for the sale first marched to Lowy’s condo where they started hanging signs saying the condo was for sale. The auction then took place in front of the building where students were invited to increase their bids by lifting signs reading everything a university could buy for $1.4 million.
The organizers finally announced that the highest bid went to all Concordia students for being the ones paying for Lowy’s zero interest rate loan.

Carnivores are an indie rock band from Atlanta comprised of Caitlin Lang (keys), Philip Frobos (bass), Nathaniel Higgins (guitar) and Ross Politi (drums). "Every woman, every man makes me feel the same" sang Philip Frobos in their catchy jingle "Dressed For The Rain". I feel like singing back, "Every indie band makes me feel the same." They're an interesting enough live act to keep an audience's attention; their only problem is that they didn't lose it on the stage until their last song, which was actually really intense and enjoyable to watch. Some bands have their off nights, and I'm sure that opening for Bradford Cox could be a little intimidating. They kept my head bopping and my mouth from yawning, which is more than you tend to expect from an opening act. This is only my opinion, though, so you should listen to them for yourself. I recommend their second album, If I'm Ancient.
White Rainbow is just one dude (Dr. Pizza) singing into a computer microphone through a vocoder surrounded by a few synthesizers and drum machines. He introduced his set with a song that sounded like "Suicide", but instead of hyped up bellowing and screaming, Dr. Pizza just kind of stumbled and mumbled through half of the set. Wearing a pair of aviators and bopping his head to his drifts, I decided to ignore his obnoxious demeanor, keep an open mind and just go with the flow. His set progressively improved as the audience started packing in. A couple of bros with snapbacks were really feelin' Dr.Pizza's tasty beats. I didn't find anything too interesting or intriguing as he seemed to half-assedly piece together little samples and cue arpeggios to make a song. He wasn't necessarily a boring showman; I just hated him, which is actually a good thing. He brought me into his world of bleeps and bloops and stirred an emotional response. What more could you possibly ask of Dr. Pizza?
Atlas Sound, man! Bradford Cox performed for an hour and a half all by his lonesome to ensure that every attendee heard something they wanted to hear. He didn't pull a "My Sharona" or perform fellatio on the microphone, he just played his beautiful, sweet, sad songs. He alternated between looping an acoustic guitar, a (really cool looking) bass, a Jazzmaster and, finally, drums, all while singing and playing with effect pedals; Bradford Cox knows his sound. Without any struggle or interruption, he made it seem easy to be a successful one man band (it's not an easy thing, by the way). It's safe to say that Cox is one of the most interesting indie figures of our time. Watching him play, hearing his words and sharp articulation was heartbreaking but satisfying. His live renditions built up very organically and pushed the audience to the point of exhaustion before he would tear down the wall of sound he was building around us. Halfway through the set he stopped playing to banter for about fifteen minutes. This is what threw me off the whole performance... he was hilarious! He made the audience laugh, which was a huge relief considering we had all just witnessed and entertained forty minutes of unadulterated sadness. After his fashion show with Dr. Pizza, he said, "Alright that's enough" and resumed the Atlas Sound experience. Twenty minutes passed and he left the stage with an encore of twenty more minutes. I was in love; my friends were ready to go to bed.
-Michael Cota
Read by: Aisha Samu
Stories by: Aisha Samu, Jordie Yeager, Tara Brockwell and Niki Mohrdar
Produced by: Carlo Spiridigliozzi
Commuters in the South Shore were in for a surprise when they reached the Champlain bridge early this morning.
About 200 student protesters blocked the Montreal-bound side of the bridge in ongoing pressure tactics against tuition hikes.
According to CTV, cinder blocks were placed across the entrance ramp from Route 132 to the bridge. Surete de Quebec officers were present, monitoring the situation and preventing motorists from getting through.
The students were holding the symbolic red sqare as well as a banner that read "Stop the cuts, give us our dues."
Bus service from the South Shore was not affected since the busses use a counterflow lane on the opposite side of the bridge.
By 8:35 am, the protest ended and drivers were allowed through.

Hey metal people! Do you like 3 Inches of Blood? Do you like Devildriver? Do you like free things? Do you want to go to the Metal Alliance tour this Friday? Well, then tune into BVST on Wednesday from 7-9PM with your host Angelica to have a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show. Not only will you get to hear the best (and worst) of Rock and Roll, Country, Punk, and Metal, but you'll get a chance. So tune in for your chance to win!
The air maintenance firm that suspended its operations secured bankruptcy protection and a multi-million dollar emergency loan.
Aveos left over two thousand employees across Canada locked out yesterday including some eighteen hundred at its Montreal plant. The company blames its financial woes on its main client Air Canada for subcontracting much of its maintenance work overseas.
According to the CBC a Quebec Superior Court judge granted Aveos bankruptcy protection while Air Canada put forth a fifteen million dollar emergency loan. No word yet on how many Aveos employees may be able to return to work.
Air Canada says the latest won't cause flight disruptions.
Raymond Bachand, Quebec’s Minister of Finance, broke the tradition of Quebec finance ministers this Tuesday, by not wearing a new pair of shoes to their taxing ad spending plans. Instead, he wore new laces.
Bachand says he didn’t wear shoes because he doesn’t see the point in spending money on something he doesn’t need. In fact, he refuses to buy new shoes until next year when he hopes to return to a balanced budget.
Bachand’s invited his office for the annual pantomime of finance ministers. The budget that Buchand has been planning remains secret.
Currently, Quebec has been running on deficit budget since 2009 in order to counterbalance the events of late 2008. This was caused of risk-taking practices in financial markets.
From the time when Bouchand has been involved in Quebecs spending, he has proposed new taxes which have generated over $4billion in new tax revenues.
A student at the Université de Sherbrooke is taking legal action against strikers who caused him to miss class.
According to CBC, the student, named Philippe-Olivier Daniel, was prevented from going to class because of pressure from student associations he’s not even part of.
Daniel has sent letters to multiple student groups asking them to stop preventing people from attending classes. He’s also asking for financial reimbursement for the class he missed.
According to CBC, the Coalition Étudiante pour l'Association Libre – which Daniel is president of – says all student groups should make sure their members know that they have the right to attend classes.