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…]
Tag: activism
McGill must reinstate Shanon Fitzpatrick
In May of this year, Assistant Professor Shanon Fitzpatrick of McGill’s Department of History was denied tenure by the administration. This move was highly unusual—Associate Vice-Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell said in a presentation to student leaders earlier in the year that candidates who are endorsed by their[Read More…]
White activists—stop hijacking social movements
The future Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour (BIPOC) imagine for themselves is always in relation to their present-day lived experiences. Since June 2019, students have been expressing their discontent with Bill 21—McGill students consistently rally for climate justice, but the campus’s attention is not given to all causes.[Read More…]
Campus activism against Bill 21
Students may have seen the ‘No to Bill 21’ pins on various backpacks and jackets this semester, but they may not understand what the pins represent. Bill 21 is a law passed by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), which prohibits public sector employees from displaying religious symbols at work. The[Read More…]
Lecture halls are still unsafe for racialized students
On Oct. 23, an English professor at the University of Western Ontario used the n-word while describing terms that were historically used to refer to certain classes of slaves. The nonchalant use of a word with such violent historical and current implications was justifiably met with outrage by Black students[Read More…]
Climate activism requires institutional support
On Sept. 27, Montreal will host one of the most significant climate activism events of the year. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist of notable internet fame, will be in Montreal to lead a march protesting governmental and institutional inaction on climate change. Since Thunberg is expected to lead[Read More…]
Remembering McGill’s past to progress its future
With the new school year starting, many students prepare to fall back into their routines on McGill’s campus. Among the new classes and experiences to be had, many look forward to a fresh start in the Fall semester. While it may be tempting to leave the issues of last year[Read More…]
I’d rather be a Martlet
On April 12, McGill students received a monumental email: Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier had reached a decision on whether or not to change the controversial Men’s Varsity Team name. Fortier wrote that, with respect to Indigenous students who felt alienated and disrespected by the name, the Mens’ teams names[Read More…]
Where art and justice meet: A silent auction for Lawyers Without Borders
Lawyers without Borders McGill joins art with justice.
On activism and Jewish identity
On Dec. 3, I participated in a demonstration as part of IfNotNow Montreal (INN). The rally consisted of a small group of Jewish activists, most of them McGill students, who held posters displaying statistics about the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. INN is a Jewish organization that[Read More…]
