It’s that time of year again: when the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group and its opponents go head-to-head over the issue of the former’s opt-outable fee levy. The opt-out period, during which students may choose not to give small support fees to student groups like QPIRG, ended last Thursday. The debate surrounding whether or not to support QPIRG has been a source of tension at McGill lately. As of last year, students, led by a QPIRG opt-out campaign, have engaged in opting out of SSMU’s fee levys.
“You can refuse to fund a group which has supported calls for Hezbollah—terrorists who deliberately target civilians—to be removed from Canada’s list of terrorist organizations,” said the group in a letter to the student body, found on its website. “[I]n short, you can refuse to fund causes you object to and beliefs you find repugnant.”
QPIRG, on the other hand, maintains that it provides crucial services to the student body. As a public interest research group, it conducts research on and advocates for a variety of topics under the umbrella of environmental and social justice issues.
“We try to act on the belief that university campuses need alternative discourse and dialogue, and that it is part of what makes for a healthy, diverse university community,” was the group’s response on its website to the opt-out letter.
Nevertheless, the opt-out campaign has had a significant effect on QPIRG’s resources. Following last year’s opt-out campaign, the group lost about 12 per cent of its funding.
“This year … the opt-out campaign has had more momentum and more supporters,” Brendan Steven, member of Conservative McGill and co-organizer of the QPIRG opt-out campaign, said. “The positive feedback we have received from ordinary students has been greater than ever before.”
The opt-out campaign may have negative effects on SSMU services across the board; once online, students who are opting out of QPIRG are more likely to opt out of other student services. Last year, a number of students chose not to support programs such as the Ambassador fund and the Library Improvement fund.
“When students opt out of one thing, they tend to opt out of everything without knowing exactly what they’re opting out of,” Shyam Patel, SSMU VP Finance and Operations, said. “I see a trend in students opting out of almost every fee, rather than opting out of a select few.”
Our Campus, Our Community, an opt-in campaign, was created by fee-levy groups in response to this issue.
“I would really like to think that [the opt-in campaign is] helping. The number [of opt-outs] this year didn’t spike as much as they have in the past; hopefully that’s indicating that students are starting to find out about us before choosing to opt out. We really do believe that if students find out about all the wide array of activities that we do, [they wouldn’t opt-out],” Anna Malla, QPIRG’S Internal Co-ordinator, said.
As part of its opt-in campaign, QPIRG has also counteracted the QPIRG Opt-Out movement’s drive to marginalize the group with its own facts and figures.
“[The opt-out campaign’s flyers] give misleading information to students, such as that we support Hezbollah; we in no way support Hezbollah … I would say the primary issue for us is that we spend so much time and energy defending ourselves against false accusations,” Malla said.
Regardless, it is clear that the opt-out campaign has had a significant effect on student groups.
“The best message I can provide is that you need to do research first,” Patel said. “There’s legitimacy in opting out, as long as you have a good rationale behind it.”
