After careful consideration, the McGill Tribune Editorial Board proudly presents our fifth annual SSMU election candidate endorsements. While this year’s ballot includes two acclamations, we still provide our analysis of each candidate’s potential, along with our thoughts on the referendum questions (page 9).
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
SSMU Election Endorsement: VP University Affairs – David Lipsitz
The Tribune strongly endorses David Lipsitz for the position of vice-president university affairs. While we were impressed with the content of Joshua Abaki’s interview with the Tribune and with his performance at the candidate debates, the editorial board ultimately decided that Lipsitz’s familiarity with the UA portfolio and the tangible, practical nature of his platform goals make him the stronger candidate.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Fostering open dialogue.
Re: “Why Gaza Remembrance Week misses the point” by Adam Winer (26.1.10) Although Adam Winer’s commentary concludes on a somewhat optimistic note – calling on us to have open dialogue and broaden our knowledge about the Arab-Israeli conflict – the manner in which he wrote his op-ed makes clear that he has yet to follow this important piece of advice.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Tribune misses the point of the endless Dr. Cornett letters.
Re: “Dr. Cornett’s favorite play? Monty Python’s Spamalot.” by Anait Keuchguerian (9.2.10) Under the banner of academic transparency, a recent student letter advocated the screening of Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary about the remarkable teaching style of Norman Cornett, a professor whom McGill let go three years ago.
RIGHT MINDED: Haiti’s real problem
On February 9, Max Silverman wrote an article that viewed the aid effort in Haiti through the prism of Naomi Klein’s “shock doctrine” theory. The shock doctrine posits a theory of “disaster capitalism,” where practitioners take advantage of emergency or upheaval to force free market reforms onto a rebuilding country.
EDITORIAL: A double standard for Olympic women’s hockey
One of the best things about the Olympic Games is its commitment to gender equality. Eschewing the common male-dominated athletic hierarchy, almost every event in both the Summer and Winter Games awards medals to both genders as equals. And after some of the great female athletic performances we’ve witnessed during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics – by Joannie Rochette, Petra Majdic, and Clara Hughes, to name just a few – it has been refreshing to see people who normally ignore women’s sports sit up and take notice.
MY POINT … AND I DO HAVE ONE: supressing debate: Ontario’s language politics
The Ontario legislature – like most political bodies representing a diverse range of opinions – is a place where it’s hard to achieve consensus. One in five children in Toronto go to school hungry in the morning and asthma and cancer-causing coal power generate much of the province’s electricity, but no consensus can be found among the provincial political parties to address such dire issues.
FRESH HELL: The over-hyped Olympics
The Winter Olympics are pointless. They feature sports that are generally boring to watch or better showcased in other competitions (at the X Games, for example). They cost a lot of money, create headaches for people living in host cities, and don’t attract enough tourist dollars to offset the large taxpayer expense.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The weekly letter about Brendan’s column
Re: “Right Minded: An offensive motion” by Brendan Steven (09.02.10) Columnist Brendan Steven makes an argument that the upcoming (as of this letter) General Assembly motion on discriminatory groups constitutes a vote on freedom of speech. However, his analysis is significantly misguided.
COMMENTARY: The “P Word”
Has history not taught us anything? Aren’t we the ones who hold our predecessors accountable for the human rights atrocities that occurred due to their complicity in events such as European anti-Semitism, the centuries of slave trading, and most recently, the Rwandan and Darfur massacres? How contrite do we feel that past generations stood idly by and permitted Apartheid in South Africa? Better yet, why do we still slip into a vacuum of radical nationalism that blinds objective thinking? It’s as though we have yet to learn that this road will only lead to self-destruction – but somehow we keep submitting to this primitive train of thought.
