At the Jan. 23 McGill Senate meeting, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum spoke on the government-imposed university budget cuts that the Parti Québécois (PQ) announced in December. Vice-President (Finance and Administration) Michael Di Grappa also updated Senate on the progress of the Statement of Values and Principles concerning freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.

Munroe-Blum told senators that she has received “signals” from Minister of Higher Education Pierre Duchesne that more budget cuts will affect the budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

“While we are committed to accountability and working productively with the government in every way we can, we also must take the course of not taking these retroactive cuts in this academic year,” she told Senate. “It would be irresponsible.”

According to Munroe-Blum, the university would be in a better position to accept budget cuts this year if the government promised to reinvest back into the university system in the years to come. However, she said Quebec Premier Pauline Marois “refuses to commit” to reinvestment, or indicate when such an action may come.

Munroe-Blum also noted that she has been participating in pre-Education Summit meetings in Quebec City on behalf of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universities du Québec (CREPUQ) and McGill. University leaders from Montreal intend to hold their own summit on Feb. 4.

“The goal of the summit is to set an agenda, and create Montreal as a centre of education … before the government summit begins,” Munroe-Blum said.
The principal also asked Di Grappa to provide an update on the statement of values and principles, which will be released this week. He announced that the statement will be accompanied by a separate document, detailing permanent “operational procedures.” These will serve as guidelines that campus security and disciplinary officers will follow when dealing with protests on campus.

Di Grappa confirmed that, while the statement of values and principles will be voted on by both Senate and the Board of Governors (BoG), the operational procedures will be implemented with no vote in either body.

“The operational procedures are an administrative document, not a matter of academic or fiscal policy. We have all kinds of operational procedures at McGill, in various units and departments,” Di Grappa said following Senate. “They are not approved by Senate or Board.”

Although they will be separate documents, the statement and operational procedures will face consultation together.

Consultation fairs over the statement of values and principles, as well as the operational procedures will occur at both campuses, and an open website is expected to launch this week, according to Di Grappa.

Arts Senator James Gutman expressed concern at Senate about how the last consultation period was handled, pointing to the fact that the administration only received 25 responses.

“One thing that upset me when you sent out the consultation email is that you sent it out during exams, and then had it end when students were coming back to McGill on Jan. 7,” he said. “I think that was really bad. … There is a reason only 25 people responded.”

Senate also discussed the possibility of expanding the McGill campus into the Royal Victoria Hospital area, as well as introducing the topic of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Following updates from top administrators, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs Haley Dinel asked Di Grappa if there were any plans to use Royal Victoria Hospital for university-related purposes like classes or research.

Di Grappa pointed out that the university does not own the hospital, but that before the PQ government was elected in September, there had been talks with the Charest government over the potential transfer of the property to McGill. The hospital will soon move to another site. According to Di Grappa, the government will have to decide what it does with the property once this move takes place.

“It is now unclear how Marois would deal with this,” he said. “McGill needs to expand its space. The hospital represents an important amount of space, in which the school could gradually expand over time.”

“The new government is undertaking a ‘reflection’ on what to do with this property, as well as Hotel Dieu,” he said following Senate. “We have met with representatives of the new government to make the case that McGill should acquire the site.”

Di Grappa also said it might not be the best time for the university to pursue plans to expand.

“It would appear that renovation costs would probably be too high,” he said. “We are examining this more to see if it is feasible. The university is also dealing with budget cuts … and a campus that has buildings that [already] need reparations.”

The majority of Wednesday’s Senate meeting was spent discussing MOOCs—online courses that universities like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University have begun to offer. The discussion outlined how various members of Senate feel about eventually implementing large online lectures into academic programs at McGill. Opinions on this topic varied widely.

Arts Senator Max Zidel said he supports the idea, but would like to see these programs as one option out of many that students could use when completing their programs.

“I would like to think of them as different [than] conferences and lectures,” he said.

Zidel suggested that high school students could be allowed to take MOOCs before coming to McGill to get certain prerequisite classes and program requirements out of the way.

Other senators showed concern about the idea of online courses.

“My gut feeling is that, at its root, this is ultimately a revenue generation exercise,” said Medicine Senator Daniel Bernard. “I know there might be a feeling that if we don’t get on this train, we might miss it, but I think we should consider that the train may be going nowhere or, worse, over a cliff.”

Dinel expressed hope that the courses would be open to a wider demographic, which could involve people in other countries.

“It could provide a great societal development,” she said. “It would provide access [to education] to students and people who can’t come [to McGill]. … It’s a great way to share our knowledge with everyone else.”

Dawson Defends Expulsion of Al-Khabaz

Montreal’s Dawson College expelled computer science student Ahmed Al-Khabaz after he discovered vulnerability in the college’s student portal. The college cited this as a violation of the department’s code of professional conduct. As the student portal is shared with other CEGEPs, the error compromised the personal information of 250,000 students. On Jan. 20, Al-Khabaz’s case came to the public’s attention when the National Post reported on his expulsion.

A statement released by Dawson College charges that the National Post article is “inaccurate.” The statement further suggests that Al-Khabaz was issued a ‘cease and desist’ order following his initial discovery of the vulnerability, which he contravened, attempting “repeatedly to intrude into areas of College information systems that had no relation with student information systems.”

Al-Khabaz maintains that he was only trying to help Dawson fix a serious security flaw in its system. He pointed out that in running his scans of the system, he never attempted to conceal his identity. Since his expulsion was first reported, Al-Khabaz has received 12 job offers, as well as one scholarship from Skytech, the company which designed Dawson’s website.

Ontario elects first female premier

Last Saturday, Kathleen Wynne was elected as Ontario’s first female premier at a convention devoted to choosing a successor for former Premier Dalton McGuinty. Wynne beat out former Windsor Member of Provincial Parliament Sandra Pupatello, with a vote of 1,150 to 866 during the third ballot of the convention.

Wynne, who represents the Don Valley West riding in Toronto, is also the province’s first openly gay premier. She faces several challenges as she takes office, including an ongoing dispute with the province’s teachers’ unions, a $12 billion provincial deficit, and a provincial election that may be called as early as this year. The premier has said that she hopes to avoid an early election by working with the opposition.

With Wynne’s election, female premiers now represent 87 per cent of the Canadian population, holding the leadership in six of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories.

Rob Ford Stays On As Mayor

An Ontario Divisional Court ruled in favour of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford last Friday, in an appeal of a court decision in November that would have removed him from the mayor’s office.

Ford’s legal woes stem from a 2010 report by the city integrity commissioner, which obliged Ford to pay back $3,150 in donations from lobbyists and corporations, given to his private football foundation. On Feb. 7, 2012, Ford voted in a city council motion that absolved him of the obligation to return the $3,150.

Ford admitted last September that he had never read the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, which forbids a member of council from voting on motions in which the member has a financial interest, nor a handbook given to city councillors regarding conflict of interest.

Last Friday, the court accepted Ford’s argument that city council did not have the authority to impose a personal financial penalty on Ford, as the donations had been accepted by his football foundation, and not Ford personally.

Chief Spence Ends Hunger Strike

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence ended her hunger strike last Wednesday, after subsisting on fish broth and medicinal tea for 44 days. Her hunger strike was an effort to press for a meeting between First Nations leaders, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Governor General David Johnston. Johnston has refused to meet with First Nations leaders, citing his inability to shape government policy.

The end to the hunger strike came after Liberal, NDP, and First Nations leaders agreed on a 13-point declaration to present to the government. NDP Member of Parliament Romeo Saganash, who helped to negotiate the declaration, and who was a prominent Cree public figure prior to entering politics, expressed frustration at the federal government’s lacklustre response.

“This is Canada, and this is 2013,” Saganash told the CBC. “We shouldn’t beg to have our rightful place in this country.”

The declaration calls for “an immediate meeting … between the Crown, Federal Governments, Provincial Governments, and all First Nations.” It also calls for greater enforcement of treaty rights, environmental oversight, and a review of the constitutionality of the omnibus budget bills passed by the Conservatives.

Keystone XL Pipeline One Step Closer to Reality

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman approved an alternate route to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline last Tuesday. Heineman’s decision was praised by TransCanada, the Calgary-based pipeline company heading the project, as well as Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, and Alberta Premier Alison Redford.

The old route also went through Nebraska, but the new route avoids an environmentally sensitive area, where erodible sand dunes heighten the risk of groundwater contamination. Nebraska has been a site of fierce opposition to the pipeline, as landowners and activists raised alarm over possible pollution of the Ogallala aquifer. The new route still crosses part of the aquifer.

The $7 billion project now awaits a decision by the U.S. State Department. The fate of the pipeline will lie in the hands of Hillary Clinton’s expected successor, U.S. Senator John Kerry, who has a reputation for being a dedicated environmentalist.

The day after Heineman’s decision, 53 senators signed a letter urging President Obama to approve the Keystone XL project. Polls show that a majority of Americans also support the pipeline.

The U.S. State Department does not expect to reach a decision before April.

McGill is seeking to prevent its students from filing Access to Information requests (ATIs) through a motion submitted to the Commission d’accès à l’information, the organization responsible for ensuring that public institutions comply with Quebec’s ATI laws.

The motion targets 14 individual McGill students and alumni, but also asks that the Commission allow the university to deny ATIs filed by McGill students, student journalists from The McGill Daily and Concordia’s The Link, people associated with McGilliLeaked—a website that posts documents obtained through ATIs—and “persons that could reasonably be linked to such requestors.”

McGill requests the authority to deny these requestors’ ATIs when the request is “overly broad,” similar to previous requests, or “frivolous.”

Christopher Bangs, a U3 arts student and one of the 14 respondents in the case, called the motion “paranoid” and “extreme.”

According to Bangs, this legal action could allow the university to avoid disclosing information to McGill students or student journalists for up to a year and a half, due to the severe backlog at the Commission.

“This is an attempt for [McGill] … to avoid disclosing anything they don’t want to disclose, to shut down campus media, and to really hurt the campaigns that students and allies are running to make this university a better place,” he said.

According to the motion, which was filed on Dec. 7, the university’s attempts to accommodate the growing number of ATIs have caused “serious impediments to its activities.” While McGill received 37 ATI requests in 2011, 120 were filed in 2012.

“The scope of documents and information requested by the respondents is unreasonable, each request often representing hundreds, if not thousands of pages, and spanning a time period of often more than 10 years,” the motion reads. “McGill does not have the resources to process many of the individual requests, notwithstanding the fact that they are all submitted within the same timeframe, even on the same day.”

Many of the ATIs listed in the motion deal with subjects such as military research, university documents relating to Plan Nord, and administrative expenses. McGill alleges that these similarities indicate that the 14 respondents were working together. However, several respondents pointed out that these topics were prominent in campus dialogue last semester—and are still prominent—at general assemblies and during the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Legislative Council meetings.

“I was legitimately doing the requests for [researching] SSMU Council motions,” SSMU Vice-President Clubs and Services Allison Cooper, who is one of the respondents, said. “If you look through which motions I have moved and argued in favour [of in Council], they are clearly correlated.”

McGill’s motion points to one of Cooper’s requests as an example of an ATI that contained the exact wording of an ATI filed by another respondent. Cooper said she sought help phrasing the ATI at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill, and suggested that similarities in wording may have arisen from other respondents taking a similar course of action.

The motion also identifies McGilliLeaked—a website created by Bangs—as a website that encourages people to submit ATI requests to McGill. McGill points to the website’s creation in October as corresponding to a “new wave” of ATI requests.
Several respondents said they were aware of the ATI system before the creation of McGilliLeaked.

“I think that McGill should recognize that there is an increased interest in universities in general, following a lot of the issues that were brought up over the strike, especially related to how they spend their money and what kind of external partnerships they have,” another one of the respondents, SSMU Vice-President External Robin Reid-Fraser, said.

Bangs said he created the website so people could share the ATIs they had received from the University. He said not all of the 14 people that McGill alleges were working together, even knew each other, although he has collaborated with several of them.

“Some of the people there are my friends and we are working on some campaigns together,” he said. “Finding out more information was a part of [these] campaigns, but obviously not all of us are connected through these campaigns.”

According to Bangs, the court case will not be able to progress for another three or four months, when a mediation session between the involved parties will take place. Several respondents expressed disappointment with the way McGill has addressed the issue.

“They could have easily invited us to meet to discuss the issue from their perspective before going to the Commission,” Reid-Fraser said. “It just seems quite unfortunate that they chose this direction, [instead of] a more constructive conversation.”

On Jan. 23, a group of McGill students, staff, and members of campus unions congregated at James Square to protest the provisional protocol regarding demonstrations, protests, and occupations, as well as any protocol the university might implement to regulate peaceful assembly on campus.

The protest comes after Provost Anthony Masi and Vice-President (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa announced on Jan. 16 that the current provisional protocol will be replaced by a statement of values and principles concerning freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly, rather than the draft permanent protocol that McGill released on Nov. 30.

According to Di Grappa, the provisional version of the protocol will likely remain in effect until April’s Board of Governors’ (BoG) meeting, at which point the BoG will vote to adopt the statement of values.

The first draft of a permanent protocol generated criticism due to its restrictive clauses, lack of clarity, and absence of student input.

“We’re hoping to get the message across to both [the] administration and the Board members, that the population of McGill is not in support of this protocol,” Kevin Whitaker, president of McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA), said. “We believe that it is a violation of the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we will not support this.”

According to protesttheprotocol.com, dissenters are particularly concerned that McGill plans to launch a new operations management policy regarding protests on campus, that does not require approval from either Senate or the BoG. This will be released in tandem with the statement of values, which will require approval from both Senate and the BoG.

Although McGill withdrew the draft of the permanent protocol on Jan. 16, participants in last Wednesday’s protest said they wanted to remain vigilant, and to continue communicating their discontent in hopes of receiving a more acceptable proposal from the next round of consultations.

“We already consider that there is victory on our party’s part, because the [draft of the] permanent protocol has been removed,” Julian Menezes, mobilization officer for McGill’s Teaching Union (AGSEM), said.  “But … we’re just out here to make sure that McGill knows that all protocols [and] all statements of values that restrict freedom of expression and association … on campus are not acceptable. They do not reflect the democratic values of this institution, [nor] the people who built this institution.”

Jaime MacLean, president of the Association for McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), expressed similar sentiments.

“We don’t need any protocol because the city of Montreal has its own protocol,” she said. “If anything, we need to be freer on campus.”

Baptist Rownir, a U2 arts student who attended the demonstration, expressed his support for the protest.

“[This protest is] basically another episode of administration and student conflict,” Rownir said. “I don’t think it’s great for the atmosphere [on campus], but we need it.”

“I definitely support the protest,” Bita Eslami, U2 social work, said.  “[The] McGill administration is infringing [on] our freedom of assembly and expression. I don’t think it’s good for campus.”