Unsurprisingly, forming strong opinions about something that you cannot see or readily gather information about can pose a challenge. This simple phenomenon obstructs the vast majority of McGill students from interacting with, caring about, or even knowing of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). The SSMU name floats aimlessly[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Evictions of encampments encroach on equitable housing solutions
As the housing crisis in Montreal persists, neither the city government nor its citizens are addressing the unhoused population with the empathy and urgency they deserve. A coalition of residents from Saint-Henri recently expressed anger over a decision to build a four-storey housing complex for unhoused individuals and a supervised[Read More…]
STM constables’ new pepper spray is anti-progress for the Mental Health Crisis
At the start of October, the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) announced that constables in charge of patrolling the Montreal Metro will now be armed with gel aerosol pepper spray. The STM made this decision in response to a growing number of incidents in the metro system in which[Read More…]
The McGill Book Fair teaches us a lesson in institutional apathy 
Despite being heard by few students during the fall of 2022, a death knell sounded marking the end of the McGill Book Fair. Started in 1972 by the Women’s Associates of McGill and the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association, the Book Fair is yet another victim of the McLennan-Redpath complex renovation.[Read More…]
Birds: My mortal enemies
I didn’t see a single bird during the U.S. government shutdown between Dec. 22, 2018, and Jan. 25, 2019. While the feathery fiends in British Columbia may have just been taking the month off from antagonizing my fellow high schoolers on the frosty coast of Vancouver Island, I choose to[Read More…]
Support workers against the collapse of the public sector
Since the end of September, public-sector employees unionized under the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, Confédération des syndicats nationaux, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux and the Fédération travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, in Quebec have been marching to demand better pay[Read More…]
Green spaces tend the roots of ecological justice
This summer, I had the privilege of visiting my family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the first time. We stayed in Kinshasa for the duration of our trip, but part of me wished to see what was beyond the capital city. Deep down, my true desire was[Read More…]
For lack of heft, crumb, and flavour: A manifesto against the Montreal bagel
I still remember my first morning in Montreal, when I found myself in a hungry queue that extended out the door of the St. Viateur bagel shop in Mile End. The line moved fast––unlike those in New York––and I watched hopefully as the freshly-rolled bagels slid into the oven just[Read More…]
Will Montreal resurge as Montreal 2.0?
A recent article published in the Financial Post titled “Montreal 2.0: Could it challenge Toronto for Canadian economic supremacy?” describes how Montreal could regain its position as Canada’s business capital. Montreal was Canada’s largest and wealthiest city until the 1970s, when the rise of Québécois nationalism during the Quiet Revolution[Read More…]
We need collective action against Quebec’s push for financially inaccessible education
On Oct. 13, the Quebec government announced that tuition for incoming out-of-province Canadian students hoping to study at Quebec universities would double, at both anglophone and francophone post-secondary institutions. This measure will come into effect for all incoming students in Fall 2024 and would entirely reshape the province’s educational landscape.[Read More…]
