“We’re gonna make the movie. Mitch Hurwitz is just starting to write it. It’ll be out in a year and a
Private
Food expert David Morley discusses famine in Somalia
David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF, opened the McGill Global Food Security Conference with a moment of silence commemorating those killed in a bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Oct. 4; a stark reminder of the everyday dangers of life in the region. The death toll from the bombing has[Read More…]
Arguably hits hard
Living alone in first year, pushed strongly toward my introverted side by the solitude, I found a strange kind of comfort watching the YouTube videos of essayist Christopher Hitchens lecturing and debating the opposition. An overweight, potentially drunk, white-suited, occasionally bearded, smart-aleck British ex-pat eviscerating rabbis and theologians, dropping opinions[Read More…]
McGill reaches out to students in refugee camps
This August, the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) welcomed 74 refugees from Malawi and Kenya who will attend one of 61 participating universities across Canada this year. Two participants in the program have enrolled at McGill, both in the faculty of engineering. WUSC’s Student Refugee Program (SRP) provides refugees[Read More…]
Burtynsky peels back the layers of oil use
Edward Burtynsky Just how much have humans changed the planet? Edward Burtynsky’s series of 56 photographs, titled Oil, answers that question far better than any academic or researcher ever could. Oil shows just how much we rely on the precious resource, with pictures grouped into three chapters: extraction sites and[Read More…]
McGill jumps in world rankings
Holly Stewart McGill rose in the Times Higher Education World Rankings for 2011. McGill jumped from 35th last year to 28th in the current rankings. Two Canadian schools were ranked higher than McGill in the Times rankings: the University of British Columbia, which moved from 30th last year to 22nd[Read More…]
Tribute to Kenyan Nobel prize winner Wangari Maathai
Simon Poitrimolt Simon Poitrimolt Last Friday, Kenyan activist and political leader Flora Terah spoke at Atwater Library in celebration of the life of the late Wangari Maathai. Maathai, who passed away Sept. 25 at the age of 71, became the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in[Read More…]
Sounds of the prairies
As September began saying its goodbyes, Montreal indie-rock sensation Arcade Fire took the city for a free ride that is still the subject of many a Facebook status. The downtown streets swelled with a larger crowd than usual that Thursday, and so I paused in my weekly grocery run to[Read More…]
Hartman’s intent admirable, but misdirected
Professor Michelle Hartman, a member of the McGill Faculty Labour Action Group (MFLAG) has recently come under fire for holding a seminar off campus in the Plateau. The Islamic Studies professor supports the MUNACA strike, and wanted to avoid crossing the picket line—a symbolic gesture of solidarity—by teaching her classes[Read More…]
Think outside the picket lines
The university may indeed make strong practical arguments against Michelle Hartman’s decision to hold classes off campus in order to avoid crossing the picket line, but those practical concerns only thinly veil the underlying normative issue—did Hartman sacrifice the educational merit of her class and her academic duties in order[Read More…]