The COVID-19 pandemic has toppled the higher-education house of cards, scattering vulnerable academic support staff into uncertain workplace predicaments. McGill forced these employees into dire straits well before the pandemic: Overburdened by faculties and underappreciated by students, the university treats teaching assistants (TAs) and other academic support staff like raw[Read More…]
Editorial
Quebec’s racist health care system needs reform
On Sept. 28, Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman and mother of seven, livestreamed the moments before her death at Joliette Hospital. The widely-shared video shows hospital staff making racist comments towards Echaquan, and sparked outrage across the country. The horrific situation highlights the deep flaws inherent in the Canadian health[Read More…]
The Royal Victoria Hospital must remain in public hands
On Sept. 4, students joined forces with Milton-Parc residents to protest the privatization of the old Royal Victoria Hospital. The building’s fate has remained unclear since it was decommissioned in 2015. In July, it was converted into a shelter for the unhoused during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the City of[Read More…]
PEQ reforms highlight the CAQ’s xenophobia
On Sept. 12, activist group Le Quebec c’est nous aussi held a protest against proposed reforms to the Programme experience Quebecoise (PEQ), a fast-track immigration program for international students who wish to permanently reside in Quebec after graduation. While similar reforms proposed (and later suspended) last November sought to impose[Read More…]
Zoom University threatens to leave students behind
During the last two weeks, students were welcomed back to a McGill that no one had ever seen before. Across time zones throughout Canada and around the world, frantic searching for class locations was replaced with anxious scrambling for Zoom links as students and academic staff struggled to adapt to[Read More…]
Reconciliation must go beyond a toppled statue
The police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 sparked global protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism, giving renewed momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement. In light of these events, McGill, an institution whose history is rooted in violence and enslavement, expressed its intention to put forward[Read More…]
McGill must move carefully into the digital world
McGill students’ lives are shifting entirely online. April 3 marks the end of the first week of classes since the university made course instruction remote. McGill administrators are attempting to provide uniformity to students in all faculties, but even so, professors have been left largely to their own devices in[Read More…]
COVID-19 threatens McGill students’ financial security
As a result of COVID-19, Quebec Premier François Legault has mandated that non-essential businesses and services shut down until at least April 13, leaving many McGill students without work. The cancellation of student internships and entry level jobs have left self-supported students without an income to pay for their tuition,[Read More…]
Keep your distance: students must respect social distancing
Over the last week, the spread of COVID-19 has drastically altered the lives of the McGill community. As we enter the second week of the university’s comprehensive shutdown, the McGill administration has consistently communicated about how to slow the disease’s spread. In addition to cancelling all in-person instruction for[Read More…]
McGill should communicate quickly but carefully about COVID-19
Over the course of the last week, the McGill community has been informed through a series of emails from the administration about how the university is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 13, the Quebec government announced that all schools in the province would be closing for two weeks. Following[Read More…]
