What the hell was that? My first General Assembly is, of course, today’s topic. But don’t go! I understand your weariness – the front page article, the editorial, and all the guest commentary pieces from student politicians with an overestimation of their own importance, as if we the constituents waited impatiently all weekend for their straight-talk account of things.
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: What a Winer
Re: “Why Gaza Remembrance Week misses the point” by Adam Winer (09.02.10) Mr. Winer seems to have entirely missed the point in believing that SPHR should be neutral in its display and presentation of speakers for the Gaza Remembrance event. When an entire population becomes the target of Israeli amunition and unjustified sanctions, then logically people have to stand up in defence of human rights and to lobby governments and intellectuals to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people.
COMMENTARY: Eye-fucking hate Avatar
I am worried about the future. There are many things that make me think that the future will not be as exciting as Back to the Future 2 and The Jetsons, such as global warming, international strife, the possible collapse of capitalism, and other similarly serious problems.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Be careful, name calling can hurt
I think the Financial Ethics Review Committee cares a lot about human rights, social justice, and environmental protection. I also think that the Israeli army and the Israeli government sometimes do things that are morally questionable, if not repugnant. However, I think that Wednesday’s motion is not primarily a function of anybody’s commitment to human rights, social justice, and environmental protection, but of condemning the State of Israel.
EDITORIAL: Buying Haven Books was a costly, irresponsible mistake
Haven Books was doomed from the start. In March 2007, the Students’ Society paid approximately $40,000 for a consignment bookstore in a poor location, with an unmemorable name and a bad business model. They did so despite a Memorandum of Agreement with McGill that prevented SSMU from advertising the bookstore on campus, and a report from their auditing firm that showed Haven had lost about $95,000 in the previous year.
COMMENTARY: Opt-out misinformation
Re: “Opting out of QPIRG” by Brendan Steven (26.01.10) In his article “Opting out of QPIRG,” Brendan Steven claims that “controversial groups” should go directly to students for their funding, instead of receiving it through the McGill chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group.
MY POINT … AND I DO HAVE ONE: The shock doctrine in Haiti
Irony’s a funny thing. And whether it’s a minority-elected government preaching democracy to the global south or an American-educated, torture-supporting opposition leader speaking about returning Canada to its place of soft-power prominence in the world, Canadian politics is ripe with irony.
OFF THE BOARD: Class you can watch in bed?
PSYCH 213: Cognition is like most 200-level psychology courses: it’s straightforward, chock-full of interesting studies that explain human behaviour, and it’s in Leacock 132. But unlike most large science classes, it’s not recorded. Among the many redundant questions posted on WebCT, there have been well over 100 requests to record Cognition lectures – in addition to dozens of emails and in-class appeals about the same subject.
FRESH HELL: I never knew’d
Although I’ve played team sports since I was old enough to don a pinny, I’m usually quite awkward in locker rooms. Part of it has to do with my upbringing. My family was never a particularly naked one – we didn’t do a lot of topless sunbathing in the backyard or play nude family Monopoly – so nakedness has always startled me.
COMMENTARY: What do you want from your GA?
There are few parts of the legislative process as controversial as the “rider.” Riders are unrelated provisos typically attached to bills that are politically impossible to veto or postpone, usually in order to pass unpopular legislation that would not get approval by itself.
