At its March 15 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion Regarding the Policy for the Implementation of a Fall Reading Break, renewing SSMU’s mandate to lobby for the institution of a Fall break at McGill. Council also passed the Motion Regarding the Joint[Read More…]
News
News, off and on campus.
McGill professors debate the effectiveness of fossil fuel divestment
“The research shows that [divestment] does make a difference,” Mikkelson said. “The most comprehensive study [of divestment movements] was done at Oxford, and they looked at other divestment campaigns that didn’t necessarily cripple the industries they were targeting, but what they did do is make a big public impact, and that spurred governments to take action [….] Divestment creates impact by raising awareness, stigmatizing target companies, and influencing legislation.”
Etzion further emphasized the status of divestment as a social rather than economic movement.
“I don’t really perceive [fossil fuel divestment] as a financial tactic,” Etzion said. “It’s about something much bigger than what you invest in, it’s actually a social movement. And the objective of this tactic is to de-legitimize an entire industry. [Universities] are very influential in how the world perceives issues, and [divestment] empowers people to envision a world that is not running on a path to destruction.”
ISA walk out brings movement for Indigenous justice to McGill
Protesters honoured the deaths of Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, and Brady Francis—three Indigenous youths who were murdered without any suspects being held criminally responsible—at a walkout on campus on March 14, National School Walkout Day. Over 3,100 walkouts took place at schools across North America that day, mostly over gun[Read More…]
Man shot in broad daylight two blocks from McGill campus
On March 14, Tony Elian, the owner of the high-end clothing store Giorgio Gruppo Roma on Peel Street, was shot by an unidentified man in his own boutique. After suffering gunshot wounds to his lower back, Elian was rushed to the hospital. The Service de Police de la Ville de[Read More…]
Meet your SSMU presidential candidates
With polls opening today, get to know your two SSMU Presidential candidates, Corinne Bulger and Tre Mansdoerfer.
SSMU candidates wrestle with eroded student trust, building closure at debate
Corrine Bulger, U2 Arts, is running on a platform of increasing the number of SSMU community spaces, following through with incumbents’ projects—including creating a SSMU sexual violence policy and improving relations with the Milton-Parc community—and making SSMU governance more accessible by incorporating multimedia.
Tre Mansdoerfer, U2 Engineering, wishes to develop closer relationships with faculty associations and increase their participation and representation in Senate, re-establish students’ trust in SSMU’s governance, and advocate for initiatives including a Fall reading week, improvements in mental health services, and redressing McGill’s Sexual Violence Policy.
Liberal’s Budget 2018 invests heavily in research
In the Liberal Party of Canada’s Budget 2018, the government of Canada announced that it would invest heavily in research, allocating a total of $6.6 billion to science and innovation. This is a $1.2 billion increase from the 2017 budget. For students at McGill, the increase in funding will allow[Read More…]
Students question CAMSR’s transparency at BoG student forum
McGill’s Board of Governors (BoG) held its fifth annual Board-Student forum on March 1, giving students and Governors the opportunity to discuss their respective roles at McGill. In the first part of the forum, Board members were assigned tables while students rotated, giving students a chance to debate issues with[Read More…]
PGSS and McGill Athletics’ tensions addressed at Council
At the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council meeting on Feb. 21, councillors addressed the tenuous relationship between student federations and McGill Athletics and Recreation. Francois Miller, manager of the McGill Office of Sustainability, also briefly presented the Vision 2020 sustainability strategy. Following this, Council moved on to reviewing and approving[Read More…]
McGill Senate tackles distraction in lectures
“Interaction between students is at least as important as interaction with the professor,” Ragan said. “Peer instruction happens when you have a group of students whose knowledge individually is very incomplete but are able to bounce ideas off of each other and effectively find a solution.”
