Add/drop distress marks the beginning of every semester. This past fall, students endured 18 dreadful days of waitlist purgatory, and endured 13 days until this semester’s Jan. 17 add/drop deadline. Apps such as //Get A Seat//, which give email notifications when a spot has opened up, only alleviate stress to[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Canada’s 150th: Reflecting on the past while celebrating the present
As Canadians take 2017 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the year ahead should be a time for celebration. However, party preparations have recently been hindered by disagreement over the meaning of the anniversary. The Parti Québecois (PQ) recently announced that they have planned “L’autre 150ième,” a Quebec-focused celebration[Read More…]
Political conversation must break echo chambers at McGill in 2017
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…]
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…]
