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Commentary, Opinion

The myth of conservative persecution on university campuses

by Kennedy McKee-Braide on

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Campus groups representing the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), including McGill’s Conservative Association, were criticized by the Canadian Association of University Professors last week for distributing cards encouraging students to vote Conservative “because you can only hear the same left-wing talking points from your professors so many times.” 

Scheer defended the campaign material, saying it was just supposed to be funny, but many conservatives complain more seriously about the presence of a left-wing bias on university campuses. In reality, contemporary left-wing political values which manifest at McGill do not jeopardize the safety or freedom of expression of conservative students. They can, in fact, serve to address issues that affect marginalized groups and bring new voices into academic discourse. 

 That University professors tend to lean to the left of the political spectrum is true for the most part. However, this is not due to discrimination against conservatives in hiring processes: Studies have shown multiple reasons for the shortage of conservative professors. Most significantly, conservatives are more likely to get jobs in professional fields like business and therefore are less likely to pursue a Ph.D. Differences in values and priorities are the biggest factor in the diverging political tendencies of university professors

Regardless of this trend, the idea that university professors employ a set of “left-wing talking points” is an oversimplification that undermines the work of academics. For example, certain critiques of capitalism, like its disastrous effects on climate change, are backed up by research. Additionally, most professors engage with texts which represent a wide range of perspectives and tend to welcome respectful debate in their classes, conferences, and even office hours regardless of their personal opinions or research. Universities are designed in part to allow students to develop their critical thinking skills, and all students can benefit from criticism of their views both inside and outside the classroom. 

One should also consider that many policies put into place or promoted by conservative governments and figures continue to hurt historically disadvantaged groups. In Alberta, Premier Jason Kenney recently lifted a ban that protected students against the risk of their parents being notified of their membership in Gay-Straight Alliance clubs, which could lead to students being outed without their consent. Quebec’s right-leaning Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government has put policies in place that restrict immigration and prohibit the wearing of religious symbols for public workers. Conversely, progressive or left-leaning parties tend to promote policies that aim to ameliorate the conditions of those belonging to marginalized groups, like raising the minimum wage, reconciliation with Indigenous communities, and ending employment discrimination.  Conservatives claiming to be persecuted for their views, when those opinions can lead to the creation of harmful policies for minority groups, is disrespectful. Conservatives may have a right to believe what they choose, but those of their beliefs (or those of their parties) that cause harm also deserve to be challenged. 

“However, freedom of speech does not equate to freedom from criticism, something that conservatives, in this instance, have failed to understand.”

Further, the existence of a wide range of progressive student groups on campus does not prevent conservatives from forming their own opinions. McGill’s freedom of speech policies protect all members of its community and conservative groups need only to adhere to SSMU’s regulations should they wish to remain legitimate clubs. However, freedom of speech does not equate to freedom from criticism, something that conservatives, in this instance, have failed to understand.

The way conservatives talk about this issue is telling. Scheer himself claimed that the cards being passed around were meant to be funny, and conservatives often make jokes about the sensitivity of those who lean left. While making these jokes, conservative students continue to claim that they face persecution when made to defend their views. Many conservatives seem to believe that they are the only ones allowed to feel offended when their views and identities are questioned. 

Going forward, we should continue to support a campus environment that allows all students to feel heard while combating bigotry and hate. While those on the left are not always innocent, conservatives should investigate why their views are so controversial, and reflect on whether their perspectives are simply unpopular or truly harmful.

Know Your Athlete, Private, Sports

Know Your Athlete: Dana Silerova

by Zoe Babad-Palmer on

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Martlet rugby’s third-year fullback Dana Silerova is certainly not one for staying in one place. Silerova, who intends to continue studying geology after she graduates in 2021, spent last semester studying abroad in Glasgow and has travelled to Nevada and France for fieldwork classes.

“I’m not quite tired of school yet, so I think I’m going to keep going until I am tired,” Silerova said. 

No matter where she ends up, she is confident that rugby will remain a part of her life. In addition to the weekly skill, strategy, and conditioning practices with the Martlets, she plays on a local club team in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue over the summer and found a team to play on while in Glasgow.

“[Playing in Glasgow] was a really fun way to get to know […] people who are actually from Scotland, as opposed to just hanging out with the [other] exchange people,” Silerova said. 

Community has always been a key part of Silerova’s rugby experience, From joining her school’s team in grade nine because of friends’ encouragement to pushing herself while training with her teammates.  

“It helps when you’re on the team, and you know that everyone else on the team has the same sort of [academic] stress,” Silerova said. “They’re also trying to balance everything, so sometimes we get together before practice [and] really take advantage of all the small chunks of time [we] have.”

Her teammates are a source of both camaraderie and motivation when she trains.

“I like pushing myself just to get better as a player, but I also like it when I have my teammates beside me, and it gets a bit competitive,” Silerova said. “We try to get competitive at practice so that it increases the intensity [.…] You’re trying to beat your friend in whatever you’re doing.”

Silerova noted the competitive aspect of McGill varsity rugby compared to the club teams she has played with. 

“The varsity team is definitely more intense,” Silerova said. “It’s a much shorter season [….] I feel like there’s definitely more pressure there. You feel like every game counts.”

Although McGill women’s rugby has not had a great deal of success in the past few years, Silerova has always been a key player. This year, she scored 15 points in their season opener against Bishop’s University on Sept. 1, earning her the RSEQ Athlete of the Week award.

Silerova also takes pride in the accomplishments of the Canadian national women’s rugby team, currently ranked fourth in the world behind New Zealand, England, and France. Their recent success is encouraging North Americans to follow rugby.

“I think a lot more people are starting to watch [rugby] and realize that it’s […] an exciting game to watch too, a lot of hitting and fast running,” Silerova said. 

With only two games left in McGill’s season, Silerova can certainly be expected to give her all to lead her team to victory.

Sports

2019 IAAF World Championships preview

by Adam Bell, Jack Armstrong, Zoe Babad-Palmer, Shaun Lalani, Sarah Farnand, Adam Burton on

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Women’s Distance Running

Canadian Gabriela DeBues-Stafford is ranked fourth in the world in the women’s 1,500m. Having medalled in four of her last five events, Debues-Stafford has a good shot at ending her season on top of the podium.

Since 1997, only Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes have won the Women’s 10,000m, and this year, they will likely stay dominant. While the two favourites are Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and Agnes Jebet Tirop, Ethiopian rising star Letesenbet Gidey may shock everyone to bring home the gold. Canadians should also keep an eye on veteran Natasha Wodak–having just set a Canadian and Pan American Games’ record this summer, she has a chance to crack the top 12.

Men’s Distance Running

While track and field is usually headlined by the 100m and 200m runners, the Men’s 1,500m is a must-watch this year. Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot is the clear favourite; he will be looking to come back from a second-place finish at the previous championships. Cheruiyot’s time is over one-and-a-half seconds faster than the rest of the competition, but a mere half second is all that separates the next six runners. Norweigian brothers Jakob and Filip Ingebritsen, who ranked second and fourth respectively, have both won major competitions and could stop Cheruiyot’s quest for redemption.

Women’s Sprinting 

Although Bahrain’s 21-year-old Salwa Eid Naser only had the second-fastest qualifying time in the women’s 400m sprint at 49.17, she will be the one to beat: She has been at the top of the rankings for the past 37 weeks and holds the Bahrain national record at 49.08 seconds.

Canadians will be cheering for 21-year-old Kyra Constantine of Toronto, who had the 18th-best qualifying time with 51.22. Constantine is ranked 21st in the world and first in Canada.

Men’s Sprinting 

Canada’s chances in men’s sprinting look bright, with sprinters Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse expected to breeze through qualification. De Grasse was Canada’s sweet surprise at the Rio 2016 Olympics, securing bronze in the 100m. After running a season-best of 9.97 seconds this month, De Grasse will be looking to win his first IAAF medal after missing the 2017 edition due to an injury. 

Brown will also be a contender: He recorded a personal best 9.96 seconds to upset De Grasse and clinch gold at the Canadian Track and Field championships last July. These two may well end up sharing the podium in Doha.

Women’s Field Events

The IAAF women’s field events will boast some exciting match-ups, particularly in women’s pole vaulting. Reigning world champion, Katerina Stefanidi of Greece, hit only the fifth-best overall height of the season, but is still considered a favourite for gold. Currently ranked third overall, Canada’s Alysha Newman vaulted the sixth-best overall height of the season; however, she recently set the Canadian indoor record for pole vault, putting her in contention for a medal. The height to beat this season, 4.91 metres, was set by American Jennifer Suhr, another likely contender for gold.

Men’s Field Events

The clear favourite for men’s shot put coming into the IAAF Championships is New Zealander Tomas Walsh, whose ranking hasn’t fallen below the top three since the 2016 World Indoor Championship where he won a gold medal. He will, however, be challenged by Brazilian Darlan Romani and American Ryan Crouser, who have both won Olympic gold. With the competition at such a high level and a plethora of newcomers, shot put is likely to be an exciting event with a riveting outcome.

Research Briefs, Science & Technology, Student Research

Searching for a home away from home

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman on

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Scientists believe that planets outside of the solar system capable of supporting life should look a lot like Earth. The theory posits that if the chemical components comprising Earth’s atmosphere can be found in that of distant planets, those worlds could harbour similar carbon-based life-forms. 

This summer, two McGill University astronomers put that idea to the test, assembling a ‘fingerprint’ for Earth that could be used to identify exoplanets—planets beyond our solar system—capable of supporting life.

“Our goal was to make a transit spectrum for Earth to see what it would look like if it were an exoplanet,” Evelyn MacDonald (B.Sc. ‘19), author of a newly published study on the topic, said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

MacDonald, along with her thesis advisor Nicolas Cowan, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, employed a novel method of molecular chemical analysis to complete the study.

“When a planet […] passes in front of a star the observer does not see the planet, but sees the starlight the planet blocks,” MacDonald said. “The amount of light the planet blocks depends on the wavelength of the molecules in the planet’s atmosphere. By seeing at which wavelengths the majority of light is blocked, we can tell which molecules are in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.”

SCISAT, a Canadian satellite launched in 2003 that uses the principles of light mechanics to identify the concentrations of different gases in Earth’s atmosphere, made the researchers’ work possible.

Working as an interstellar detective, Macdonald was able to recreate the transit profile of Earth by trailing the molecular imprints left by light in the atmosphere. In theory, the profile of a planet that possessed key compounds—primarily carbon dioxide, ozone, and methane—would look similar to the “fingerprint,” or biosignature, that MacDonald created for Earth. 

“Based on having found carbon, a sign that a planet has an atmosphere, we could look for other molecules, which together would suggest a planet could have life on it,” MacDonald said. 

Two chemicals in particular, ozone and methane, are rarely found together in nature. Astrophysicists are eager to find both molecules independently of one another in a planet’s atmosphere, because life-forms could be producing these gases. 

“It’s much harder to know for sure what is causing a particular process in a planet’s atmosphere, or rather what causes certain molecules to even be there,” MacDonald said. “But [the presence of such molecules] would definitely be a reason to keep observing that planet.”

Using Macdonald’s findings as a baseline, researchers can now explore the observable universe for comparable biosignatures of planets in the habitable zone of stars other than the sun. 

The publication of the study comes at a pivotal time in humanity’s search for habitable worlds beyond the solar system. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the planned successor to the Hubble Telescope, is due to launch into orbit in 2021. The JWST will allow for improved resolution and sensitivity in astronomical imaging, presenting space scientists with the opportunity to look deeper into the darkest bowels of the universe.

“New technology is key for scientists to analyze the plethora of data such a satellite will present,” Cowan said. “The interpretation of this kind of data is really hard. You see some wiggle on a spectrum and maybe you convince yourself that there is detectable ozone, but are you willing to say [that] there is life on that planet?”

For planetary scientists, the next decades of research will attempt to answer this central question. Until then, Earth remains the only planet within the 93 billion light year-wide universe that is known to contain life. 

 

Science & Technology, Student Research

Blending Western and traditional medicine in Colombia

by Sophia Gorbounov on

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In 2014, Juan Pablo Pimentel, a PhD candidate in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill, created a pilot exercise that has since become the basis for his PhD thesis. Working with Family Medicine professors Dr. Neil Andersson and Dr. Anne Cockcroft, Pimentel devised a way for medical students in Colombia to engage in training and activities to help close the medical gap between practitioners of traditional medicine and physicians trained in Western medicine. Together with traditional medicine users from the Sabana Centro region of Colombia, cultural safety experts, and senior medical students, Pimentel and his team now have an ongoing trial that will assess the impact of students’ participation in the trainings compared with standard lessons on cultural safety.

“[We came up with] a system in which players engage in competition under pre-defined rules with a common goal in mind,” Pimentel said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. 

Specifically, the system educated students on the cultural significance of traditional medicine and how to blend it with modern medical practices. In Colombia, where 40 per cent of the population uses traditional medicine methods, this is especially important. Blending traditional and Western medicine has increased awareness of cultural safety in medicine, a term that was developed by Irihapeti Ramsden, a Māori nurse in New Zealand. 

“She developed the concept as a result of the increasing discontent of Māori people with the type of healthcare they were receiving,” Pimentel said. “[It was] totally disconnected from their cultural background.” 

As part of her PhD dissertation, Ramsden wanted to adapt Western medicine to the cultural needs of Māori people, an indigenous people of New Zealand. At its core, cultural safety training dismantles the ethnocentric frame of mind—the tendency of people to view other customs and cultures through the lens of their own—to produce culturally competent health systems. Ramsden believes that by introducing future physicians to different cultures, Western and traditional medicine can exist in harmony with one another. 

Pimentel stressed that traditional medicine is much more comprehensive than many think. 

“We must avoid reducing traditional medicine to medicinal plants,” Pimentel said. “Traditional medicine encompasses many other aspects of life. For example, maintaining a healthy relationship with ourselves, our families and friends, the environment, and the spiritual world.” 

Spirituality and religion play an especially large role in some traditional medicine practices. For example, Catholicism is a major religion in Colombia, and concepts from the faith often blend with cultural health practices; communication with the spiritual world is regarded as an important way to keep a healthy mind.

Pimentel also highlighted the importance of environmental health in Colombian traditional medicine. 

“It is true that, in some cases, traditional medicine can harm the environment, especially when animal products from an endangered species are used,” Pimentel said. “However, traditional health systems […] include environmental health as a prerequisite for human health [.…] Actions such as recovery of native plants and protection of rivers are common health promotion activities.”

Though initially more popular in New Zealand and Australia, many universities in Canada—including McGill—have been developing ways to integrate the training into their medical programs. Since 2018, McGill has offered a course called Indigenous Perspectives: Decolonizing Health Approaches (FMED 506). Furthermore, the Royal College of Physicians plan to make cultural safety training mandatory in the near future. 

Latin American countries have been more hesitant to incorporate cultural safety into their medical programs. Pimentel hopes, however, that his thesis will be a step in the right direction. His end goal is to preserve cultural history while creating a happier and healthier world.

News, SSMU

Meet the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Executives

by Kyle Dewsnap, Helen Wu, & Nina Russell on

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Bryan Buraga, President

What are your three main goals as SSMU President?

“Three of my main goals include governance reform, advocacy for student issues, and just better communication with the student body. Governance reform is a project that will take about a year to unfold. We are consulting with a lot of different stakeholders here on campus, a lot of different executives and their portfolios to try to figure out how to better structure SSMU form the ground up to allow as many members of our university community to participate. There are student issues as well. There is a lot of mobilisation happening right now [for] divestment and for climate justice so that is something I am working with the rest of the executive team [on] better communicating with the student body. I think [that] there has always been this sort of disconnect between [what we’re actually doing] and what the student body thinks we are doing and I think it is important to let the study body know exactly all of the good things we are doing for them. [We want] to make sure that they know their student rights, but also the ways in which [SSMU] advocates for them, not just at a university level but also at a provincial and national level as well.”

Billy Kawasaki, VP Student Life

You mentioned that there is some friction between clubs and SSMU, especially in light of last year’s sanctions and all the new policies that have been developed. How do you hope to reduce this tension?

“So the policies [that mandate clubs to go to workshops] were in effect before last year, [but] they were just never followed through with. And I think [that] one of the problems is that these policies come forward, and then they say ‘we’re going to mandate clubs to go to workshops,’ but then they never really considered that there are other workshops [clubs] have to go to that are mandated by other policies. And then that becomes like five or six workshops that you have to go to. One of the things that I did is [create] a checklist at the beginning of the year, so that club executives know exactly what they need to do so that they’re not sanctioned. And the club portal will hopefully help with that as well, in terms of onboarding clubs for the workshops, as well as all the forms they need to submit so that we have their contact information.”

Sam Haward, VP Finance

What is the best part of your job?

“The best part of my job is seeing an event happen, to be honest. A lot of what I do is very abstract, [like] I’ll get a cheque request to book a venue. But I don’t see any of that. So just occasionally logging into Facebook, seeing [the Black Students’ Network] or whoever it may be posting pictures of their event, what they did, and how their funding helped them and their operations [….] it is really, really nice to see.”

What is the worst part of your job?

“Sometimes there’s a lot of red tape. We’re a not-for-profit corporation funded [almost] entirely by student fees. So there are some pretty strict restrictions on what we can and can’t do with our money. Sometimes that has a knock-on effect: Students will come here wanting to take on some kind of project, or pay for something [….] and we’re not able to make it happen because of the restrictions placed around us as a student union.”

Adam Gwiazda-Amsel, VP External

What are your three goals for the school year?

“Establishing and promoting a culture of institutional memory. And so that looks a lot [like] my portfolio, doing canvassing work, making sure that students who are coming into McGill know about the different political priorities that students have identified. So that’s one. Another one is like linking the Montreal and McGill communities and establishing our community outreach. And the third one that I stated in my platform is provincial affiliation, or sort of exploring avenues toward working more collectively with other student unions in the province. Because the reality is, if you try to go to a government as a single student union, and especially as an English student union [in a] French province, you don’t get much traction with the government, historically. So, collective organizing, in that sense [….] is a fairly big priority of mine, because we’re kind of flapping in the breeze right now.”

Madeline Wilson,VP University Affairs

Why did you want to work at SSMU?

“I think that, as tacky as it sounds, there are things that I can bring. [Over] the past few years, I’ve been really involved in Academic Affairs at McGill. And honestly, McGill’s fucked up! So I want to do my part to help change that; I think that being on SSMU is one of the most effective ways to do so.” 

Why do you say that McGill’s fucked up?

“McGill’s fucked up because it has no ability to perceive what being a student is like [….] You have a community where 70 per cent of the population, approximately, is students, but most of the decisions that are made are targeted towards the interest of alumni and donors [….] That manifests itself in things like international tuition deregulation, which disproportionately impacts people from low socioeconomic classes [….] and the revisions to Student Services’ Wellness Hub care model, and there’s just no perception of what it must be like to be a student walking through that system. And you just end up with a structure that’s so distant from the people that it’s really supposed to be helping.”

Sanchi Bhalla, VP Internal

What would you say is the biggest challenge of your job?

“The big thing definitely that I’ve noticed is that because my name and face [are]  in every student’s inbox, people who don’t know about SSMU still recognize me. So even just around campus, if I’m running late to class or [if] I’m around Montreal, people who have a problem with SSMU or have a problem with a club or service, even if it’s not on my portfolio, come up to me and [say] ‘Hey you’re the SSMU girl, can you help me out?’ [….] If I am at Nesta [bar and lounge] at 2:45 a.m., I don’t want to help you answer a question about club sanctions but I do recognize that I’m the face you recognize the most. Unless you’re very involved with student government, you probably don’t know the executives or their faces [and] it’s kind of sad. It’s something that I’m working on through the SSMU Instagram [….] It’s just people directing all types of SSMU questions at me because I’m sort of the one that everyone vaguely recognizes. I feel pretty bad if I can’t help them [….] I have my job but I am also a directory of sources you can go talk to.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

‘Chastity Belt’ is a plaintive meditation on growing up

by Sophie Brzozowski on

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Since their 2013 debut album, No Regerts, Chastity Belt have been celebrating girlhood in all its irreverence. Borrowing heavily from rrriot-girl predecessors like Sleater-Kinney, the band have toed the line between bold and brazen for most of their career, each of their songs flecked with mischief and bursting with righteous, feminist anger. Their latest work, however, a self-titled 10-track album which dropped on Sept. 20, reveals a gentler and more mature side of the band as the foursome reckons with their impending adulthood.

“Ann’s Jam,” the album’s lush and plaintive opener, finds its narrator recalling a road trip she took more than a decade ago. Frontwoman Julia Shaprio’s once-brassy vocals soften as she sings “We were driving South in your parents’ car / Singing out loud to scratched CDs.” 

Shapiro muses about her younger self with fondness, empathy, and perhaps jealousy, singing, “It was clear then, the sea before the storm / Now there’s a thick fog around everything / And I just kill time by dreading everything / But in that moment, life felt significant.”

Indeed, the album’s greatest success lies ultimately in its awareness of the gravity of growing up. Shapiro’s lyrics radiate with courage as she reckons with the reality that, even after so much evolution, there’s always more growing to do. The album’s closer “Pissed Pants” is a sparse and ambiguous number whose ominous noise harkens back to earlier albums. “Yeah, I saw it coming / I saw it coming, and now it’s gone” sings Shapiro remorsefully before her voice is shrouded by the static, fuzzy guitar.                 

Preoccupied with the past though it may be, Chastity Belt marks the start of a new chapter for the Washington band as they settle into a fuller, more developed sound. Gone are the adolescent larks, but the youthful spirit still remains.

3.5/5 stars

McGill, News

McGill Senate rejects motion to cancel classes on Sept. 27 for Climate Strike

by Maya Abuali on

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A motion to cancel classes on Sept. 27 for the upcoming Climate Strike was proposed at the McGill Senate’s latest meeting on Sept. 18. Though absent on the official meeting agenda, the motion was proposed by 10 senators the day before the meeting and induced a heated debate before its ultimate rejection.

Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier acknowledged the importance of addressing threats posed by climate change and praised students mobilizing to advocate for climate action. However, she believes that it is not up to the university to decide how, when, or where McGill students should take action. 

“As a university, we commit to […] working toward our academic mission, and therefore we will have academic activities [….] so it is an extraordinary circumstance that would drive us to cancel those activities,” Fortier said. 

However, Fortier recognised that some students worried about being punished academically for protesting on Friday.

“The Provost has asked all of the teaching staff to be accommodating of students who are wanting to participate in the Sept. 27 march,” Fortier said. “In particular, […] to [ensure] that they will not be negatively impacted by [missing] a test or an exam.”

Fortier proposed that each faculty make the appropriate arrangements to accommodate students wishing to participate in the march by rescheduling assessments on that day. 

“I think we have confidence in the wisdom of our academic staff to make those decisions,” Fortier said. 

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs Madeline Wilson argued that by dismissing the motion, McGill was falling behind some of its peers, seeing as Concordia University, the Université de Montréal, and Dawson College announced that they would be cancelling classes 11:45 am—4:00 pm in support of the march.

However, Dean of Students Christopher Buddle said that McGill was not obligated to follow the decisions of other institutions. Additionally, he said that the Senate meeting was not the right place to make the decision, and that cancelling classes defeats the purpose of a protest.

“Strikes by their very nature are rebellious, and we have to give up something for impact,” Buddle said. “It’s a rebellious act to walk out of class. […] Students walking out of class is central to the strike and […] to the global movement. Climate action is giving up something. Why isn’t this on a Saturday morning? It’s on a Friday when classes are supposed to be happening.” 

Buddle shared his discontent with the widespread cancellation of classes to accommodate social justice movements, emphasizing that as nothing is relinquished in the act itself, the impact of protests are diluted.

Senator Derek Nystrom disagreed, arguing that the concept of sacrificing for protests is inexorably forced upon youth while the root of the problem began with the older generations.

“It is my generation who created the problem of climate change, and I think to [say to] young people [that] ‘this is all on you’ … well, it’s already all on [them],” Nystrom said. “They are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of what we have generated for them.  We have to make a decision as an institution: Are we on the side of the people who are rebelling against this, or are we letting ourselves, with the institutions that are maintaining the status quo, [ask] young people to do the heavy lifting of rebellion?”

Senate ultimately dismissed the motion with support from a number of departments, including the Faculty of Dentistry, that did not wish to close their clinic when appointments had already been made.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Signs of the times: 65 years of the Beatty Lecture

by Leyla Moy on

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While students eagerly await Jane Goodall’s upcoming lecture on Sept. 26, they may be unaware of the history behind the star-studded Beatty Lecture series, named in honour of Sir Edward Beatty. Returning 40 years after her first lecture in 1979, Goodall will be the first repeat speaker in Beatty Lecture history. On the 65th anniversary of the annual event, Goodall’s talk will add to over half a century of seminal lectures by speakers that exemplify their eras. 

The exhibition “With the World to Choose From: Celebrating 65 Years of the Beatty Lecture” will be on display in the fourth-floor lobby of the McLennan Library building until Oct. 31. The vernissage on Sept. 12 launched both the main exhibit and a smaller collection focused on the life and home of former McGill Chancellor and president of the CPR Sir Edward Beatty.  

Curators Frédéric Giuliano and Robin Koning highlighted the Beatty Lecture’s mission to inspire students with 11 quotes from past speakers on the walls surrounding the exhibit. The exhibit draws a timeline from the establishment of the Beatty Lecture fund to promotional material and press from past lectures. In 1952, Dr. Henry A. Beatty donated $100,000 gift to McGill in memory of his brother, Sir Edward Beatty, establishing the Beatty Lecture fund. 

Robin Koning, Digital Marketing & Outreach Associate for the Office of the Vice Principal Research and Innovation, which organizes the Beatty Lecture, spoke on its namesake’s legacy. 

“Back in the day, the Canadian Pacific Railway was one of the largest corporations on the planet, so [Beatty] had a really big job really young,” Koning said. “He dedicated his life to being McGill’s chancellor and the CPR, and he was knighted in 1935 by King George V.”

The exhibit follows the process to select the first speaker before landing on India’s first post-colonial Vice President and President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Original ideas included author T. S. Eliot and pop culture theory pioneer Russel Nye. Frédéric Giuliano, who also works as an archivist at McGill University Archives, cited a letter from then Dean Thompson to the principal.

“This is where the title of the exhibit came from: ‘With the world to choose from, it becomes difficult to select for the Beatty lectureship,’” Giuliano said. 

Selecting the Beatty lecturer has grown into more than just a conversation between senior administrations. Alongside their selection committee, the Beatty Lecture website encourages suggestions from students and faculty alike, reifying the lecture’s multidisciplinary and essentially collective nature. 

“[The Lecture] is truly a campus-wide event,” Koning said. “It [tends to appeal] to a wide variety of people. It’s an event for McGill and for Montreal as well. It does stand unique, [being] so broad and [bringing] in such well known, influential names that are really part of the zeitgeist.” 

With an extensive pool of preeminent scholars to choose from, the Beatty Lecture has historically highlighted people at the forefront of their fields, creating an archive of the last century’s freshest ideas and intellectual conundrums. 

“In the ‘90s, people talked about environmental issues because [these issues] really entered into our popular dialogue,” Koning said. “You have people in the ‘70s [asking] what technology is going to do to us, wondering if we were going to become slaves to [it] since it was the beginning of tech and the first wave of computers. It’s like a timeline of some of the major events that have happened since the ‘50s.”

To access this remarkable timeline, Koning encourages students to explore past lectures on the digital archive on the website.

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