SSMU Winter referendum endorsements Click here for our previous reporting on the questions. Disaffiliation from TaCEQ:Yes This motion seeks to disaffiliate the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) from the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a group intended to advocate for student interests at the provincial level.[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
A microlesson in microaggression: clarifying a misinterpretation
On Dec. 5, the SSMU Legislative Council met and decided that a listserv sent by the SSMU VP Internal Brian Farnan containing a GIF image of Barack Obama kicking down a door served to reinforce the negative stereotypical image of the hyper-masculine aggressive black man. They decided that the Equity[Read More…]
An & in the wilderness
Last year, I transferred from the Faculty of Arts into Arts & Science after falling in love with the Cognitive Science program. Having entered McGill from the U.S., I had actually expected Arts & Science to be the default––at most universities in the United States, it is the largest faculty,[Read More…]
Eliminating ethnocentric tuition policies
Quebec has always made the preservation of the French language and culture within the province a priority. In many areas of Quebec, speaking French is not only encouraged, but necessary. This custom of preserving Quebec’s French roots merits praise; however, it should not come at the cost of alienating people[Read More…]
Recent rhetoric highlights need for linguistic tolerance
The issue of the flight of anglophones from Quebec returned to the forefront following the release of a study that found that over half of Quebec’s anglophone and allophone (those with a mother tongue that is neither English nor French) population has considered leaving Quebec in the past year. The[Read More…]
Voter ID laws: Disenfranchisement under dubious justification
On February 4, the Harper government unveiled its proposed Fair Elections Act, which, among other things, claims to simplify regulations, give law enforcement more autonomy, and increase the donation limit to campaigns. One of the more notable provisions would significantly strengthen voter identification requirements and dispose of the previous provision[Read More…]
The moral hazard of Birks
I was sitting in a conference in the basement of the Birks building, staring through the floor as the TA mumbled something about critical thinking… and I suddenly noticed that one of my classmates was still wearing his boots. As a rule-following person in general, I’ve followed the Birks rule[Read More…]
Concordia opt-out controversy carries lessons for McGill
The issue of student group fee opt-outs has returned to a university campus, but this time not McGill’s. On Feb. 12, a representative from Concordia’s John Molson School of Business (JMSB) presented two completed petitions to hold referendum questions on student group fees. One of the questions, as reported in[Read More…]
A nuanced approach to equity
Having spent much of my life growing up in the American South, I have experienced a number of events that have made me question my faith in human decency. In middle school, I was called a faggot, a fairy, and a queer—all in the derogatory sense. My classmates had parents[Read More…]
Mockery trivializes North Korean misery
I have never met my grandparents. This isn’t because of family division or irreconcilable differences, but due to an act of terrorism. On Nov. 29, 1987, Korean Airlines flight 858—en route to Seoul from Baghdad—exploded over the Andaman Sea. Two North Korean agents, acting on personal orders from Kim Jong-Il,[Read More…]
