On Jan 12, Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Kellie Leitch spoke at a meet-and-greet on Peel St., co-hosted by the Conservative Association at McGill University. In response, members of the Montreal community, including McGill students, staged a peaceful protest. While divisive, both the event and the protest are essential[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Humans need not apply: analog solutions to digital problems
There is an apocryphal story about Henry Ford II and Walter Reuther, the Union Head for the Ford Motor Company, touring a new factory. The two are looking over a balcony at an assembly line of robots when Ford turns to Reuther and says, “Hey Walter, how are you going[Read More…]
Editorial: Report on systemic discrimination in McGill faculty reveals the need for action
Last month, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Systemic Discrimination—commissioned by the Joint Board-Senate Committee on Equity—released a comprehensive report based on a survey of tenure-track and tenured faculty at McGill. The report gave a glimpse of the ongoing forms of discrimination, such as racism and sexism, that permeate the[Read More…]
Jordan Peterson’s real thesis lost in U of T pronoun debate
University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson has made headlines recently for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns in the classroom. Students at U of T have been protesting Peterson’s stance ever since late September, when he released several videos on the subjects of political correctness, the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC)[Read More…]
Ban on pedestrian cellphone use obscures real danger
A 2016 poll conducted by Insights West revealed that 66 per cent of Canadians support legislation that would crack down on distracted walking by banning pedestrian use of cellphones along sidewalks. The results of this poll demonstrate how out of tune Canadians are with the reality of accidents. Distracted walking[Read More…]
Bridging the gap between the downtown and Mac campuses
Although they are two halves of a single university, for downtown students, it may seem that the main things that the Macdonald and main campus share are the McGill name and a shuttle bus. The two campuses have separate student unions; therefore, students from one campus do not often engage[Read More…]
Discussing racism beyond Queen’s
Last week, photos surfaced online of a costume party at Queen’s University in which students dressed as various stereotypes of other nationalities and cultures. White students were photographed dressed as incarcerated Mexicans, Buddhist monks, Viet Cong guerillas, and other stereotypical outfits at the event. Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf and other[Read More…]
Partisan boundaries stifle discourse on Facebook
In theory, social media platforms should be a boundless, intellectual, free market for sharing ideas. It’s a platform for individuals to effortlessly and instantly share their views. In turn, all users would be subjected to a wide range of views from all sides of the ideological spectrum. This, however, has[Read More…]
When words lie: Leitch’s anti-Canadian values exclude on the basis of inclusion
“Violence and misogyny are not Canadian values,” Kellie Leitch, former minister of labour and minister of the status of women, tells Maclean’s. The above is an innocuous statement regarding Leitch’s vague and seemingly benign proposal to screen immigrants for “anti-Canadian values.” Obviously, most people don’t condone violence or misogyny. But,[Read More…]
‘Uncle’ Joe Biden meme tickles America’s funny bone
As Democrats mourn their candidate’s surprising loss in the recent presidential election, meme-viewers turn to one Ray-Ban sporting, ice cream loving, deified figure for reassurance and solace in this hard time: Vice-President Joe Biden’s meme alter-ego, ‘Uncle’ Joe. As Uncle Joe wistfully looks out onto the South Lawn, wondering if[Read More…]
