“I’m not political.” Hearing these words spread around campus frustrates me. How can you “not be political” when politics inherently concerns humanity? It doesn’t make sense. During nightly family dinners growing up, conversations would start with “How was your day?” but quickly turn into political discussions about current events. My[Read More…]
Tag: police
Anti-Black racism permeates Quebec’s journalism and legal system
Content Warning: Mentions of anti-Black racism and violence. Last month, an incident in Longueuil—a 20-minute drive from Montreal—shocked me tremendously. On Oct. 2, a 46-year-old woman by the name of Stéphanie Borel threw boiling water at a 10-year-old Black boy, leaving him with second-degree burns on his face, head, torso,[Read More…]
Student protest is meant to disrupt the status quo
In anticipation of heightened tensions on Oct. 7, the McGill administration preemptively closed campus, silencing student protest and increasing policing. The university moved classes online and required students to show identification at security checkpoints, with some students reporting that they were denied entry into academic buildings despite valid credentials. Fences[Read More…]
McGill student contingent joins Montreal-wide protest demanding justice for Palestine
A crowd of approximately 150 McGill community members chanted, “McGill, McGill, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” outside the university’s Roddick Gates on Oct. 5. The demonstrators formed the McGill student contingent attending the International Day of Action march and rally organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)’s[Read More…]
STM safety ambassadors are customers in uniform, not adequate emergency responders
If you saw an emergency on the metro, what would be your first instinct? Would you intervene yourself? Would you call the police? Ask another bystander for help? Google what to do? Odds are you didn’t say, “Find one of six safety ambassadors scattered around the metro station who cannot[Read More…]
Montreal’s 2024 budget inflates a ballooning SPVM, while crucial accessibility issues go unaddressed
Announced on Nov. 15, Montreal’s 2024 budget raises serious concerns regarding the skewed allocation of funds accompanying the 3.5 per cent spending increase. The municipal government allocated the majority of the budget to investments in public transit––which is receiving a budget increase of $48.4 million, bringing it up to $715.6[Read More…]
Evictions of encampments encroach on equitable housing solutions
As the housing crisis in Montreal persists, neither the city government nor its citizens are addressing the unhoused population with the empathy and urgency they deserve. A coalition of residents from Saint-Henri recently expressed anger over a decision to build a four-storey housing complex for unhoused individuals and a supervised[Read More…]
Abolish the SPVM
Content warning: Police violence, racism On Nov. 26, bystander video footage surfaced documenting two cases of police brutality against Black youth in Quebec. Pacifique Niyokwizera, an 18-year-old Black man, was waiting outside of a nightclub when five police officers brutalized him. In the same video, the same officers are seen[Read More…]
Three verdicts, one unjust reality
Content warning: racism, police violence In the past several days, three high-profile cases have come to deeply unsatisfying conclusions. Two are American—Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared of all charges after he killed two men during a night of unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, and the three white[Read More…]
Law enforcement and community experts call for dialogue on systemic discrimination
To promote a better understanding of systemic discrimination and how to combat it, the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) and the Criminal Law Group of McGill co-hosted a panel discussion on Feb. 11 titled “Systemic Discrimination: Challenges for Policing in An Age of Diversity and Heightened Public Scrutiny.”[Read More…]
