If I regret any of my columns from this year, it would be February’s “Middle-class guilt.” My regret isn’t so much over the views I tried to express, but over the fact that I haven’t yet negotiated a comfortable balance between the nuanced views I try to maintain and my emotional writing style, which tends to be excessive and – as my mother complains – angry.
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Brahnaphobia
Re: “Sportsophobia” by Brahna Siegelberg (30.03.10) I always wanted to attend a great academic post-secondary institution, and I thought that McGill was the right school. However, after reading “Sportsophobia,” written by a fellow McGill student, my impression of the school is somewhat diminished.
COMMENTARY: TA (NGST)
I arrived in Montreal in Fall 2008 eager to begin my graduate career at McGill as a master’s student in political science. I knew McGill had a reputation for academic excellence and talented, open-minded, and intellectually stimulating students and faculty members.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The democratic hacky sack
Last Thursday, as I sat through Students’ Society Legislative Council, I felt like my nails were being pulled out of my fingers. I heard the word “democracy” being thrown around like a hacky sack as councillors took turns accusing others of infringing on their ‘democratic right’ to speak and then carefully stroking their own and, indeed, everyone’s ego with a passionate appeal to the ‘democratic process.
EDITORIAL: J-Board should throw out case against Newburgh
On Friday, the Students’ Society’s Judicial Board will hear Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights’ case against Zach Newburgh, SSMU’s speaker of council and SSMU president-elect. SPHR claims that by acting as chair of the Winter General Assembly, Newburgh “placed himself in a serious conflict of interest, making it impossible for him to perform his task in an impartial manner” during the debate over the motion “Re: The Defence of Human Rights, Social Justice, and Environmental Protection.
EDITORIAL: The wrong McMann for the job
After what can only be called an absolute debacle in 2005, 2006 was supposed to be different for the McGill football program. With their off-field issues supposedly behind them and a strong nucleus of veterans on offence, Head Coach Chuck McMann set the second round of the playoffs as the team’s goal.
SIMPLY SPOKEN: Canadian defence indefensible
I was lying in bed last week, spaced out from migraine meds and depressed from feeling out of sorts and useless, when I finally found something that made me laugh: “Guards walk off job at four B.C. border crossings.” As you may already know-and as I quickly found out-Canadian border guards have the right to walk off the job if things get dangerous.
EDITORIAL: Our assemblies are dysfunctional
The Tribune found itself in a difficult position last year when deciding whether or not to support the constitutional amendment on general assemblies. Essentially, we supported the idea of having regular assemblies but believed it would be damaging, democratically speaking, to lower the quorum from 200 to 100 students.
Money makes the world go ’round
Private donations constitute a bulk source of income for most post-secondary institutions. McGill is no different. In 2004-2005, total private funding for McGill was just over $55-million dollars. This may seem like a large number, but keep in mind that it’s just under $1,700 per student and with tuition covering a minor portion of total university costs, gifts are a very necessary part of the income.
WET PAINT: ‘Talking is just masturbating without the mess’
I’ve recently noticed a change in the way people are talking. From the street to the metro and from the library to the grocery store, people everywhere are talking to themselves. While I encountered this widespread habit upon first moving to Montreal and tried to think of it as one of our city’s endearing little quirks, the trend seems to have increased of late.
