Last week, the Board of Governors’ (BoG) announcement that Dr. Suzanne Fortier has been selected as the next Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill was accompanied by a flurry of press releases, interviews, and profiles introducing her to the McGill community. There were a few points about her that stood out[Read More…]
Editorial
The story behind the story
How do you measure a year? Maybe you do it in days, or maybe, like every other student at McGill, in the number of all-nighters left before the first day of summer vacation begins. The Tribune does it in words; 832,000 of them. Each week, the 20 editors of the[Read More…]
Editorial 101: The process behind an editorial
Every Friday, the Tribune’s editorial board meets to plan our editorial for the coming issue. We start with a range of ideas, and ultimately focus on the one that seems to us to be the most relevant, controversial, and interesting. We then discuss, each member bringing forward individual perspectives, but[Read More…]
Quebec must maintain its linguistic balance
Disclaimer: Although our editorial board comprises a diverse range of cultural, geographic, and linguistic backgrounds, none of us identifies as a Quebecker. The perspectives that we put forward here represent us as McGill students, and members of the various communities in Montreal that have embraced us, and that we, in[Read More…]
Bringing the issues back to student politics
According to Montreal city councillor Marvin Rotrand, municipal voters show far more interest in local issues—such as bike lanes and urban farming plans—than in selecting their representatives in local government. A recent proposal put forward by Rotrand would follow this logic, and seek to increase voter turnout by putting referendum[Read More…]
Accountability must come first in Access to Information debate
A fundamental pillar for the success of a publicly funded institution is the public’s right to know and understand where its money goes, and what is being done with it. McGill’s recent motion to the Commission d’accès à l’information seeking the authority to ignore Access To Information (ATI) requests threatens[Read More…]
Editorial: Abdelrazik deserves his day in court
The Tribune applauds the Federal Court’s recent decision permitting Montreal resident Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue the Canadian government for $27 million. A Sudanese-born Canadian citizen, Abdelrazik was visiting his sick mother in Khartoum in 2003 when he was arrested by Sudanese authorities, at the request of the Canadian government, for[Read More…]
Editorial: McGill was wrong to close Architecture Cafe
Almost exactly three years after the Architecture Café lost its independence, McGill students looking for a cheap sandwich or coffee found its doors locked last week. The closure of the café is disconcerting both because of the loss of a popular, reasonably priced, and student-managed venture offering some of the[Read More…]
Changing the Canadian organ donor system
McGill Tribune In 2008, there were 4,330 Canadians on waiting lists for organ transplants, and 215 of them died before receiving the potentially life-saving surgery they needed. At the moment, there are 1200 people on the waiting list in Quebec alone. Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that the legislation[Read More…]
SSMU should reconsider new equity policy
McGill Tribune Last week, the Students’ Society Legislative Council updated the 2008 version of the equity policy. There are problems with certain parts of the amended version. While they’re largely definitional problems, they’re anything but semantic. Future interpretations of the words in this document could lead to clubs unjustifiably having[Read More…]
