At the end of sixth grade—a year fraught with the kind of drama only 11-year-old girls can come up with—I made a promise to myself: No more talking shit. I do not think I ever really thought I was going to follow through with it. It was the kind of[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Cutting corners in higher education must be avoided at all costs
Higher education is not immune to the consequences of economic instability in Canada and around the world. Staff, faculty, and students at Queen’s University are all too aware of this, following The Queen’s Journal’s reporting on leaked documents that reveal a drastic budget deficit and the school’s plan to cut[Read More…]
The real value of a McGill degree
What makes McGill a good school to attend? Is it the superior facilities? The enormous introductory classes? Much of the value in attending McGill stems from the McGill degree as a form of cultural capital. In other words, having the McGill name on a resume lends clout. A McGill degree[Read More…]
Blanchet’s tale of “two Quebecs” embodies the Bloc Québécois’s hypocrisy
Montreal is a city characterized by its liveliness and natural beauty. The numerous events that take place on the island, such as the Nuits d’Afrique and Jazz Fest music festivals highlight the city’s diversity and boast its reputation as a tourist hotspot. Most enticing, however, is that Montreal is composed[Read More…]
Meryl Streep a god, Roger Ebert her faithful follower
There are a few moments in every person’s life that define who they become, the legacy that they leave behind. For me, this moment came when I stumbled upon a line with such RAW power that even recalling it makes me shake in my metaphorical boots. I remember it like[Read More…]
Divestment from fossil fuels was the first step; divestment from genocide is the next
Following 12 years of mobilization from students and faculty, the Board of Governors (BoG) voted on Dec. 14 to divest from all direct holdings in Carbon Underground (CU) 200 fossil fuel companies. This is a significant step toward greater environmental justice and a well-deserved victory for Divest McGill, an organization[Read More…]
Lecture recordings are a necessary step for greater accessibility
Finding mental health support as a McGill student has been a challenge for quite some time, with the university’s meagre efforts to offer services—like animal therapy and peer supporters—falling short. The Student Wellness Hub is inadequate for the majority of the student population; however, the jarring lack of mental health[Read More…]
Legault’s populism will not address the opioid crisis
Quebec’s opioid crisis is worsening. In 2023, paramedics administered more naloxone to treat acute overdoses than ever before, and death from opioid toxicity is set to reach its highest levels yet, continuing an upward trend since 2019. Novel synthetic opioids, such as isotonitazene, which can be deadly even in minute[Read More…]
Life expectancy inequality is a moral outrage
I was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, in 2004. The life expectancy of babies born at that place and time is 79 years. Three kilometres away, in Washington, D.C., it’s 74 years. I’ve spent most of my life in Seattle (in a county with a life expectancy of 83 years),[Read More…]
Reconceptualizing free speech on an unequal campus
The debate over free speech in higher education has attracted significant attention in recent months. Elite universities, such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have received international attention as raging conservative movements take down administrations while these same administrators stumble over institutional oppression. Recent right-wing backlash against[Read More…]
