Existential crises are as awkward to talk about as bowel movements. In a milieu that celebrates irony more than sincerity, any attempt to be philosophical is either going to make me resemble an overeager, emo teenager, or an indecipherable, pompous intellectual, and I’m not sure which I’ll end up sounding like in this column.
Author: Admin
Helping Haiti: doing our part for the relief effort
It has been one week since an earthquake measuring 7.0 in magnitude struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, devastating the country’s infrastructure and sparking a humanitarian disaster. The Red Cross has confirmed that 50,000 people are dead, while Haitian officials say the death toll could be as high as 200,000.
A conversation with Stuart Cobbett, Board of Governors chairman
On January 6, the University’s Board of Governors, McGill’s highest governing body, announced Montreal-based lawyer Stuart H. (Kip) Cobbett as its new chairman. Cobbett, who succeeds outgoing chair Robert Rabinovich, received his B.A. from McGill in 1969 and B.
Talking to John F. Burns, the globetrotting foreign correspondent
On a Saturday evening several weeks ago, John F. Burns and I filed into King’s College, Cambridge, for evening services. Burns, the chief foreign correspondent for The New York Times, does not seem at first glance like a particularly religious man. The 65-year-old McGill graduate is a tall man, solidly built, with a mop of curly, light grey hair and a white beard.
Martlets come alive late to dispatch Gee-Gees, keep streak alive
Midway through the third period of women’s hockey action at McConnell Arena on Friday night, the McGill Martlets found themselves having to tune out the chants coming from the seats directly above the Ottawa University bench. With the game tied at two apiece and the momentum seemingly on the visitors’ side, McGill’s monumental winning streak seemed on the verge of collapse.
AMUSE gains accreditation
After a year and a half of campaigning, the Assiciation of McGill University Support Employees, the oraganization composed of McGill’s 3,000 casual workers, has unionized and affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The campaign, which began in September 2008, started when a group of undergraduate students in the McGill work study program felt they needed a union structure to balance their working conditions with those of the represented colleagues.
Suicide: it’s everybody’s problem
On November 18, a revision to the Criminal Code that makes it illegal to “counsel a person to commit suicide” or aid or abet them in doing so, regardless of whether they are successful, was passed unanimously in the House of Commons. The revision, which was proposed by Kitchener-Conestoga Member of Parliament Harold Albrecht, was a response to the March 2008 suicide of Nadia Kajouji, a first-year student at Carleton University who drowned herself in the Rideau River.
McGill joins Blair foundation
Last month, McGill University became an official partner of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and a committed member to the foundation’s Faith and Globalization Initiative. Founded in 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair, the foundation seeks to cultivate respect and cooperation among the world’s major religions, as well as to work with religious groups on development projects and education programs.
CD REVIEWS: Evening Hymns: Spirit Guides
Spirit Guides, the full length debut from Jonas Bonnetta under his Evening Hymns moniker, is also the newest release from the Trinity Bellwoods musical community (that features the likes of Timber Timbre and Ohbijou). Fortunately, it’s a good indication of the music coming from West Toronto’s indie music scene.
RIGHT MINDED: Defending prorogation
Contrary to what some of you may believe, proroguing parliament is not the “democratic travesty” that many are making it out to be. Canada is supposedly stirring with “grassroots fury,” according to the Toronto Star. More than 100,000 people have now joined a Facebook group in opposition to Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, united by their hatred of our prime minister.