With AUS elections underway (voting period is from October 4th-10th), debate on the importance of student politics is particularly potent. The recent discussion on student politics in the Tribune has suggested two things: first, there are core reasons we should be politically active on campus; second, political activism helps students[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
To move forward, CLASSE must condemn violence
If you left home on the rainy afternoon of Sept. 22 and found yourself confused amidst a reiteration of the student protests that reached their height in May, you certainly weren’t alone. Many Montrealers were puzzled by the Saturday protest—after all, hadn’t the newly-elected PQ just rescinded the tuition increase[Read More…]
Why are American universities so expensive?
We have seen over the past year in Quebec that the issue of university tuition can be incredibly polarizing. Indeed, in much of the debate over the recent planned tuition hikes, anti-hike activists drew ominous comparisons not only with the higher rates in the rest of Canada, but with the[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor
In his recent article, “Moral superiority and student politics,” Abraham Moussako argues that students have no duty to participate in campus politics. I’d like to refute that idea by arguing that judgements about the duty to participate are necessarily made in reference to particular facts about a particular issue. In[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor
As a known student radical and victim of police brutality, I find Abraham Moussako’s Guest Column (“Moral superiority and student politics”) generally callous and presumptuous. In particular (and more relevant to my critique), I found the text personally offensive. In his recent opinion piece, he looks down upon the complex[Read More…]
Letter to the Editor
I write this fully admitting that I am a bit of a nerd: I grew up listening to the radio. Mostly I enjoyed the National Public Radio (NPR) in the States, but at the ripe old age of five, I also happily proclaimed to my dad that our local[Read More…]
Aboriginal Studies Program at McGill long overdue
Last Friday’s fantastic Pow Wow brought an explosion of native culture to McGill’s campus. The events of Aboriginal Awareness Week bring the discussion of First Nations issues to the forefront, and though the week has only just begun, it has already rekindled calls from students and faculty for McGill to[Read More…]
Cheering for Israel in the World Baseball Classic? It’s not just my imagination
Benedict Anderson, political scientist and scholar of nationalism, defines a nation as an “imagined community”; a group of people too large to have all met but with bonds—including any or all of blood, language, a common history, specific territory, and so on—that allows them to believe that they are travelling[Read More…]
Where’s representation when you need it? In defence of a student-run café on campus
Last year, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hurried to finalize plans for a student-run café project, both in response to the closure of the Architecture Café and due to high student interest. The Student-Run Café (SRC) has been highly discussed and anticipated in recent years. It first gained[Read More…]
Moral Superiority and Student Politics: on the sanctimoniousness of student radicalism
As this term progresses, many of the usual routines of the year are fast returning to focus. Due dates are beginning their slow, inexorable evolution from abstractions printed on syllabi to concrete time commitments and nights of lost sleep. Libraries are, again, beginning to fill with students, and class schedules[Read More…]