In anticipation of heightened tensions on Oct. 7, the McGill administration preemptively closed campus, silencing student protest and increasing policing. The university moved classes online and required students to show identification at security checkpoints, with some students reporting that they were denied entry into academic buildings despite valid credentials. Fences[Read More…]
Editorial
As climate crises reach an unprecedented scale, Canada needs to rethink eco-justice
The climate crisis in Canada is worsening every year. In 2023, wildfires burned six times their historical average, polluting Montreal’s air quality to the lowest level in the world for two days. In 2024, 32,000 hectares of Jasper National Park burned down, rapidly eliminating critical local biodiversity and natural ecosystems.[Read More…]
Solidarity must supersede suppression at McGill
In the past week, Israel has intensified its military actions in Lebanon, killing over 700 civilians and displacing over 90,000 people. Destructive Israeli airstrikes have destroyed densely populated residential areas, including a massive bombing that flattened four buildings in Southern Beirut. Lebanon’s health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad, reported that Israel’s[Read More…]
Voting is vital to combat regressive politics
The United States is anticipating its presidential election on Nov. 5, and national polls overwhelmingly suggest a tight race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump. There are about 600,000 voting-age U.S. citizens residing in Canada, more than 2000 of whom attend McGill. The election’s outcome intertwines[Read More…]
Canada and McGill must confront their roles in eco-racism against Indigenous peoples 
As the climate crisis steadily worsens in Canada, so do the livelihoods and environments of Indigenous peoples who bear the disproportionate brunt of its effects. Climate change is eroding both access to resources and foundations of Indigenous tradition, ritual, and history. These impacts on Indigenous communities are not incidental. They[Read More…]
McGill must confront its reliance on SPVM’s racist policing
Historically, police units have been known to target unhoused, queer, transgender, disabled, mentally ill, lower-income, Indigenous, Black, and other marginalized communities. Unhoused individuals sleeping on a park bench in Montreal can get fined up to $1000 CAD. Atif Siddiqi, who is transgender, alleged that the police laughed at them when[Read More…]
Military spending fuels oppression, not peace
Canada’s military spending has recently faced increased scrutiny, with the United States urging the Trudeau government to meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)’s defence spending target of two per cent of their GDP. As one of the lowest spenders on defence among NATO allies, Canada has continuously faced criticism[Read More…]
Solidarity with BDS for the future of our campus
On March 21, the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAÀM) became the first Canadian university to have all of its student unions adopt Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) mandates. This final vote follows more than six years of tireless activism from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UQAAM (SDHPP). In comparison,[Read More…]
Cops off our campus, protect the pickets and protests
Last week, the teaching assistants’ (TAs) strike took priority at McGill as they protested to demand a fair wage for their work, healthcare, and indexed working hours. Beginning on March 25, students arrived on campus to the sight of picket lines and bright banners, full of signs indicating that all[Read More…]
Assist, don’t resist, TAs in their strikes for better rights
On Monday, March 25, McGill teaching assistants (TAs) began striking following months of failed bargaining and 19 meetings with the university to negotiate a new collective agreement (CA). Last week’s strike vote found 87.5 per cent of the TAs in favour of striking, providing the Association of Graduate Students Employed[Read More…]
