Everyone and their imaginary friend are writing about the events of this past two weeks. I don’t want to be left out, so I’ll throw in my two cents as well.
Although I wasn’t at the tuition hikes march, I did emerge from the SSMU building to a lot of shouting, confusion, and a helicopter casually helicoptering just above campus that night. Frightening, to be sure. Thursday, Nov. 10 was undoubtedly one of the most eventful days on campus. However, Monday’s “We are all McGill” event was probably a close second.
Campus has been quite divided lately. McGill is not usually known as the friendliest of university settings; just try walking around the Arts Building in sweatpants if you disagree. But this semester has presented the student body with a number of challenges. The MUNACA strike has been extremely divisive. Either you support MUNACA workers in their strike and are therefore a left-wing revolutionary, or you don’t support them and are some sort of right-wing nutcase with less than an ounce of empathy in your self-entitled body. Similarly, either you are vehemently against tuition hikes and are some sort of anarcho-leftist hippie-activist type, or, you don’t, and you’re a useless, spineless pawn of the capitalist system. There is very little middle ground.
Yet, despite the internal divisions of our student body, sometimes it seems like we can actually get our act together and listen to one another every once in a while. Or, at the very least, we can start shuffling in that general direction. To me, “We are all McGill” was a good example of an attempt at an inclusive and honest dialogue. While some may find it difficult to form an opinion on tuition hikes, it’s pretty easy to form an opinion on violence on campus. As my mom says, “hurting people is never okay, not even when you are really angry.” And not even when you think they are wrong or stupid.
The events of Nov. 10 sucked. A lot of people were harmed by the police, and others claim that students hurt police. Either way, there is no room on our campus for violence. Ever. It’s irrelevant whether or not I agree with the reasons for a protest; I believe strongly in the right of my fellow students to voice their opinions peacefully on campus. I agree with the clichéd chants: “This is what democracy looks like.”
“We are all McGill” was an opportunity for students to talk about their experiences on Nov. 10, and provided other students space to support those who had been harmed in the original protest. “We are all McGill” was also an opportunity for us to show our support for students’ right to protest peacefully on campus and to be safe while doing so. There were problems with the event; perhaps some felt that it remained too focused on tuition, or wasn’t focused enough. Everyone’s a critic. That doesn’t change the importance of this event as a good first step towards clearing the air.
“We are all McGill” can also be viewed as a first step toward recreating our campus community. This event demonstrated that peaceful discussion with many, many people is possible and that solidarity is a powerful tool. We don’t have to agree with each other, but we do need to respect each other’s right to voice opinions and be safe while doing so.
