Renowned ethicist and McGill Professor Margaret Somerville will give the 2006 Massey Lecture at the Mount Royale Centre today. Presented by CBC Radio One and McGill University, the Massey Lecture is a prestigious annual event designed to bring scholars to Canadian universities in order to discuss issues of political, cultural or philosophical importance.

Fasting For Darfur McGill’s Students Taking Action Now on Darfur organization participated in a broader global initiative to raise awareness about the Darfur crisis on Thursday. STAND members fasted for 24 hours and encouraged other students to give up a luxury for the day.

A speaking tour of Canada by Mustafa Barghouti, a well-known peace activist and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was cancelled last week due to delays in the Canadian visa application process. Barghouti, who finished second to Mahmoud Abbas in the 2005 Palestinian presidential election, had been set to visit Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal – where he was scheduled to speak at the University of Montreal on March 21 – in a tour organized by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

The Bachelor of Arts & Science Integrative Council hosted the second annual Ampersand Conference last week, which focussed on creativity in the digital age. The four-day event featured addresses by Christian Lander, the founder of the popular blog Stuff White People Like, and Ben Huh, the internet entrepreneur who popularized Lolcats, as well as workshops on digitial innovation.

Going back to school may be becoming less painful on your wallet with the introduction of free online books. Freeload Press Company is offering online versions of textbooks, workbooks and study guides in the popular PDF format at no cost. The catch? The pages also contain advertisements, making textbooks appear more like magazines and causing controversy within the academic world.

The Daily Publications Society, which publishes The McGill Daily and Le Délit, passed its $1 fee increase on Thursday, with 51.3 per cent of students voting to increase the DPS’s non-opt-outable fee to $6 per semester. Approximately 2,500 students, or 12.

As early as the nineties, McGill was at the forefront of developing a wireless network. Today that network provides over 2,500 wireless access points, each covering 250 square feet, and the university is in the process of upgrading its coverage and launching a three-year project to better integrate users around the campus.

Montreal is still a long way from racial equality, according to a recent study conducted by several professors at McGill’s School of Social Work. The comprehensive survey of the city’s black demographics found that black Montrealers make less money and are less likely to be employed than non-blacks.