Last week the Regroupement des étudiants de maîtrise, diplôme et doctorat (REMDUS), the postgraduate student association of the Université de Sherbrooke, took the initial step towards leaving the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a provincial federation of student associations of which the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
The most wonderful time of the cinematic year
There is a buzzing excitement that accompanies otherwise regular movie outings during this time of year. The experience becomes fraught with glowing expectations, brought on by compulsive IMDb-monitoring, the constant bombardment of film posters, and the onset of awards season. Just last week saw the announcement of the 2014 Oscar[Read More…]
Water under the bridgegate
In our time of disillusionment with public figures, it can seem of no surprise when politicians put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the people that they are representing. This is what happened in the so-called “bridgegate” scandal, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration inconvenienced thousands of [Read More…]
York accommodation quandary highlights institutional failure
Religious freedom is one of a host of rights, like freedom of speech and freedom of association, that are protected as “Fundamental Freedoms” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Like those rights, the neat ideal of religious freedom is frequently confronted with the messy reality of its implementation.[Read More…]
Crowdsourcing Innovation
I watched a man drive a hovercraft last week. The vehicle cruised over the San Francisco Bay, churning up a bed of bubbles as the crowd cheered. He sat behind the steering wheel, thousands of miles away from me and my computer screen. The man’s name is Matthew Riese, and[Read More…]
The silly, sordid story of salt
After spending the winter holidays in Toronto with a Christmas ice-storm generously donated by Jack Frost himself, I felt meteorologically prepared to start the semester at McGill; I was wrong. When I heard the sound of rain the morning of January 6, I uttered two words: Vatican cameos; watch out![Read More…]
Bookstores not to blame for high textbook prices
A week into my second year at McGill, I was apoplectic. My books for the first semester cost me nearly a thousand dollars—a sum unheard of for an Arts student. The text for my introduction to Chinese culture class, a fairly thin paperback, was nearly $200 alone. Like most students[Read More…]
Give students a say in student services surplus
At the end of last semester, an unexpected surplus was announced in the Student Services contingency fund, to the tune of $5 million. In the coming weeks and months, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens will be faced with the decision of how to allocate these funds. Although[Read More…]
Editorial: McGill must deliver on proposed sexual assault measures
Last Thursday, McGill University finally gave the response our community needed to hear on sexual assault. The message, a Media Relations Office email sent on behalf of Ollivier Dyens, deputy provost (Student Life and Learning), represented a first step towards the administration heeding the calls for change that have been[Read More…]
Sexual assault policies must be inclusive, comprehensive
Here at the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society’s Advocacy Branch (SACOMSS A-Branch), we commend the stance that McGill has taken towards the recent incidents emailed out on Nov. 21. We are happy that they are committing to creating a co-ordinating role to support survivors of sexual assault,[Read More…]
