Thousands gathered at Place Émilie-Gamelin on Oct. 3 to participate in a peaceful demonstration, organized by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and its Executive Director Nakuset, Iskweu, and Janis Qavavauq-Bibeau, to demand justice for Joyce Echaquan. Joyce was a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman and mother of seven who faced racist[Read More…]
News
News, off and on campus.
Divest McGill forms coalition, writes open letter with 18 divestment groups across Canada
The Divest Canada Coalition, a consortium of climate action groups at 19 Canadian universities, penned an open letter in September 2020 calling on universities across the country to divest from fossil fuels. The coalition’s demands centre on divestment, but also address related issues such as the violation of Indigenous sovereignty,[Read More…]
McGill Board of Governors discuss potential declining international student rate
At their Oct. 1 meeting, the McGill University Board of Governors’ (BoG) passed revisions to the university’s Gift Acceptance Policy, stating that accepting gifts does not mean the university endorses the donor’s positions. It also discussed the status of student enrollment, McGill’s anti-Black racism action plan, and heard reports from[Read More…]
Growing COVID-19 case count pushes Montreal into the red zone
Quebec’s provincial government announced on Sept. 30 that Montreal is now one of three zones in the province under a red alert due to its rapidly growing number of COVID-19 cases. From Oct. 1 to 28, the city will enforce new restrictions on public and private gatherings designed to limit[Read More…]
Collective agreement ratified at AGSEM’s TA General Assembly
The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) held its Teaching Assistant (TA) General Assembly online on Sept. 30 to vote on the new tentative TA Collective Agreement (CA). After two years of negotiations, AGSEM’s Bargaining Committee presented the tentative contract to the AGSEM Unit 1(TA) membership. The meeting[Read More…]
10 out of 1726: Confronting McGill’s colonial past and racist present
McGill lost 10 per cent of its Black faculty when Art History professor Charmaine Nelson left to take up a new post at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in July 2020. Of the 1726 tenured or tenure-track faculty at McGill, only 10 are Black—a figure unearthed[Read More…]
McGill professor Dr. Debra Thompson leads ‘Blackness and Belonging’ seminar
On Sept.15, the University of California-Berkeley held an online seminar titled “Blackness and Belonging in North America” to explore the complex experiences of Black people living in North America. McGill political science professor, Dr. Debra Thompson, an expert on race and ethnic politics led the event. As a Black woman[Read More…]
McGill students commemorate human rights defenders in the Philippines
On Sept. 20, human rights activists and McGill students gathered at Parc Mackenzie-King to honour the victims and heroes who lived through military rule under late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Organized by PINAY Quebec, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, the Center for Philippine Concerns, Malaya Canada, and[Read More…]
McGill Alumnus Steven Pinker presents McGill’s 2020 Beatty Lecture online
Cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker presented this year’s Beatty Lecture to the McGill community and the general public on Sept. 25. Every year, the Beatty Lecture brings leading thinkers to McGill to present a public talk on a topic of their choice. During the online lecture, which drew in[Read More…]
PGSS panel argues for a fossil-free future for McGill
On Sept. 23, the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) and their Environment Committee hosted an online discussion and panel titled “Divestment from Fossil Fuels at McGill.” The panel presented arguments in favour of McGill divesting from fossil fuels, examined what divestment might look like, and delved into the broader implications[Read More…]
