On Aug. 29, protestors toppled a statue of John A. Macdonald in Montreal. Besides serving as Canada’s first prime minister, Macdonald is infamously known as the creator of the residential school system and as someone who starved Indigenous groups to forcibly relocate them. Macdonald’s treatment of Indigenous Peoples was reconsitiuted[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
SSMU cannot ignore francophone students’ concerns
In March, during its Winter 2020 referendum, the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) voted on a new constitution, but a French version of the proposed document was not provided on the ballot. It was not even written until three months later — even though SSMU is officially a bilingual[Read More…]
Studying politics in a society that is rigged against you
When news reports came out on Aug. 26 about yet another incident of sexist harassment outside the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna’s office, I felt a familiar sinking feeling in my stomach. Since I began engaging with politics in my early teen years, my awareness of gendered attacks[Read More…]
Reconciliation must go beyond a toppled statue
The police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 sparked global protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism, giving renewed momentum to the Black Lives Matter movement. In light of these events, McGill, an institution whose history is rooted in violence and enslavement, expressed its intention to put forward[Read More…]
McGill cannot leave incoming first years behind
The end of the last academic year was extraordinary: COVID-19 barrelled through our lives and took the world by storm, instruction moved online at many universities, and the entire education system was uprooted. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s effects were particularly harsh on graduating high school seniors—students who will now be burdened[Read More…]
Is WE “A global force for good?” — An alumni’s perspective
As a nine-year-old, I became committed to ‘doing good’ through my involvement with Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan, a non-profit organization that helps girls in Afghanistan receive an education. Since then, activism has been a prevalent part of my life. When it came to choosing my university major,[Read More…]
Open letter on Frosh 2020
To the McGill community, Frosh has long been a cornerstone of the McGill experience, allowing new students to meet their peers while participating in social activities. Like so much of our lives right now, Frosh 2020 has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges that this pandemic presents,[Read More…]
Rankings distract McGill from student needs
The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) have each released their respective rankings of the world’s top universities for the upcoming academic year. After eight years of decline, McGill has improved in both rankings. CWUR rates McGill as the 27th-best university in the world, an increase[Read More…]
Tear them down
It took three years of protests, demonstrations, and referenda for McGill to rename its racist men’s varsity sports teams, all because the administration valued something that students voted overwhelmingly against. For a university that prides itself on its progression, this paternal insistence that McGill knows better than its students is[Read More…]
COVID-19 calls for a shift in how McGill students view the elderly
Michelle Wilson was shocked to find her father looking unrecognizable during a window visit to his nursing home in May, his lips cracked and arms ridden with sores, despite reassurance from staff that he was doing just fine. He died shortly thereafter. There’s no shortage of stories like this: Blood-curdling[Read More…]
