Following eight days of rocket exchanges, hundreds of deaths, and thousands of injuries, Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire last Wednesday. The thousand-year-old conflict and ongoing political and religious tension over the land known today as Israel is a primary cause of the eruption of violence—but an external element,[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Corruption and McGill’s obsession with rankings
The recent case of Arthur Porter comes as little surprise to those who have some sense of how McGill, and other big universities in general, recruit well-known and top-ranking professors. Benefits such as large, publicly undisclosed salaries and low-interest loans are a perk if you are a valued academic signing[Read More…]
Making the moustache matter
I can’t exactly remember the conversation where my mom told me that my dad might have prostate cancer. Ironically enough, it happened on a November evening, but in the long months that ensued, we never said the words out loud again. We’d never been confronted with a something so deadly[Read More…]
McGill loan scandal highlights a bigger problem of transparency
Last week, the Montreal Gazette reported that McGill is filing a lawsuit against Arthur Porter, former executive director of the McGill University Health Centre, over an unpaid loan (see “News in Brief,” page 2). The unfurling fiasco has brought forward one disconcerting revelation after another. It’s hard to choose which[Read More…]
Quebec’s refusal to accept Albertan oil is all political
Last Wednesday, Parti Québécois (PQ) Environment Minster Daniel Breton raised considerable controversy. When asked about proposals currently being brought forward to start moving crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in Montreal and further east in the Maritimes, he rejected the notion outright. “Albertans want to bring their oil[Read More…]
Justin Trudeau and the Political Centre
I never knew too much about Justin Trudeau—who is now in the race for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada—other than the fact that his father’s stint in the Prime Minister’s office inspired my own father’s lifelong conservatism. “Pierre Trudeau was the first and only Liberal I’ve ever[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor
Provost Masi’s letter in the last issue of the Tribune was a response to The Daily’s editorial “Demanding student voices at the top” (Oct. 29, 2012). The Daily editorial criticized the lack of student involvement in the selection of a new Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning). Our administration can[Read More…]
Focus of Remembrance Day should remain individual sacrifice
In the past week, there has been considerable debate on campus about the role that Remembrance Day should play in Canadian life. Some have questioned whether the annual event transcends remembrance, and instead, glorifies war and idolizes a willingness to die for one’s country. Here, a key question emerges: is[Read More…]
Demanding student voices at the top
There has been some recent discussion on campus and in some of the student press about the process to appoint a new Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning). I would like to correct some misconceptions that have been circulated about this process. The Advisory Committee for the Appointment of a[Read More…]
Hope and Change
Since leaving Canadian politics, Michael Ignatieff has been forceful, intelligent, charismatic, and well-spoken. In other words, he has become the diametric opposite of the Michael Ignatieff who led the Liberal party to its worst parliamentary showing in recent memory. Speaking at the BBC’s annual Free Thinking Festival, Ignatieff decried the[Read More…]