Bangs and Luxion also allege that the University is violating its responsibilities under the Quebec Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.

According to the statement, several McGill students submitted access to information (ATI) requests five weeks ago regarding military research conducted by the Shock Wave Physics Group (SWPG) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

“Public records show that over the past decade, the SWPG has regularly engaged in explosives research with the support of Canada’s Department of National Defense,” the statement read. “This includes research on fuel-air explosives (thermobaric weapons) that has been used by the US Air Force.”

Students also requested information about the University’s ties to fossil fuel companies and Plan Nord, the provincial government’s controversial plan for the development of the natural resources extraction sector in the northern Quebec. The statement claimed that the purpose of these requests was to “better understand the links between the University and the corporations involved in these destructive projects,” claiming that at least 11 out of the 25 members of the Board of Governors profits from fossil fuels, and at least five are implicated in Plan Nord.

The University had an initial twenty-day period to provide the information requested under the Act, after which the University invoked an allowed additional delay of ten days. After the thirty days, the University demanded an extra three weeks to respond and denied parts of the requests.

In an email to The Daily, Bangs – the creator of McGilliLeaked, a website that publishes ATIs received from the University – explained that the University said they had to collect hard copies of the documents, which required more time. Regarding the parts of the requests that were denied altogether, Bangs said that they refused all requests for architectural plans of buildings.

Vice-Principal (External Relations) Olivier Marcil claimed that the University had not refused to provide the documents, but has been unable to do so within the time frame provided, citing the sheer volume of requests received by the University.

The Secretary-General’s office has received at least 26 requests containing 57 separate demands since the end of August and at least 155 requests since January, many of which are “broad in scope,” according to Marcil.

“For example, McGill has been asked to provide all documents related to all construction projects over the last five years. For the current year alone, that would be approximately 260 active projects – each involving thousands of documents,” Marcil wrote in an email to The Daily. “A conservative estimate puts the total number of documents at well over 100,000 pages. Each document needs to be read, redacted as required (under law governing access requests), and prepared for delivery. All within thirty days.”

Marcil also said that the Secretary-General’s office currently devotes two full-time staff members to meet ATI demands, claiming that the total hours applied to these requests including other branches of the University “amounts to at least five people.”

The students who requested the ATIs in question have filed a formal complaint with the Commission d’accès à l’information, which will initiate a review process.

“We have requested that our cases be taken forward collectively, as we believe this is a systemic failure to adhere to the law,” wrote Bangs. “At least six people have faced extra-legal delays in the processing of their requests in the last month and a half, and many others have faced similar delays in the past.”

According to Bangs, the review process involves going before a judge at the Commission and could take up to a year and a half.

Marcil claimed that the number of requests received places a burden on all affected University departments and requires the diversion of the University’s limited resources.

“If it is called before the Commission, McGill will be prepared to make this very clear,” he wrote.

Luxion and Bangs agreed that McGill’s behavior is not surprising.

“It’s not actually surprising that this administration is going to major, even illegal, lengths to avoid making public the extent of its involvement in research that ultimately enables armies to kill with greater efficiency,” said Luxion – a PhD student who submitted three ATI requests – in the press release.

“It was sadly not a surprise at all,” Bangs wrote to The Daily. “The only shock was the number of students faced with these delays.”

Marcil declined to comment on McGill’s current military- and fossil fuel-related research, as well as the University’s current lack of regulation on research with potentially harmful applications.

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Goldstein reviewed the University’s success in research as well as its challenges in funding. Although McGill has moved up from fourth to second place in “research intensity” among U15 universities for the total tri-council funding, less research-intensive universities have been increasing at a quicker rate than McGill, “working hard and capturing more than their market share,” according to Goldstein.

Goldstein described McGill as being in the “middle of the pack” in terms of its current growth in research funding.  While presenting a pie chart of the University’s current sources for research funding, she explained that McGill relies heavily on “traditional sources” of funding – provincial and federal government funds. Goldstein’s report thus stressed the importance of diversifying funding by soliciting funds from individuals, foundations, and philanthropists, among others.

A Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) document, submitted to the committee on October 9, outlined the graduate society’s comments on the Strategic Research Plan and expressed concerns over the Plan’s definition of success and excellence: “How will McGill measure and monitor how research is fulfilling these goals? Citations?  Publication in high-impact journals?  The feedback of other faculty members?  The social impact as expressed through media coverage, partnerships, etcetera?  The strategic research plan should articulate these metrics.”

Goldstein added that researchers have a responsibility in the Strategic Research Plan to “know our funders and what they want to fund” and to “seek out the strongest projects with the greatest possibility of success.”

Goldstein added that researchers have a responsibility in the Strategic Research Plan to “know our funders and what they want to fund” and to “seek out the strongest projects with the greatest possibility of success.”

The Strategic Research Plan includes seven “areas of research excellence” that the University should strategically support: Examine fundamental questions about humanity, identity, and expression; strengthen public policy and create a deeper understanding of social transformation; capitalize on the convergence of life sciences, natural sciences, and engineering; support health research and improved delivery of care; unlock the potential of the human brain and the entire nervous system; advance knowledge of the foundations and applications of technology in the Digital Age; and explore the power of the Earth, space, and the universe.

Multiple Senators expressed concerns about the limitations posed by the list, claiming that their departments were not consulted in the Plan’s development and were not reflected in the listed areas.

In response, Goldstein said that these areas were simply “examples,” and that the list was not exhaustive.

PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney had similar concerns. “There are some overall problems with the value of ‘categorizing’ research in this manner,” wrote Mooney in an email to The Daily. “We could easily come up with seven completely different categories showing different overlaps, so it is important to emphasize the limits of such an approach and note that categories are fluid.”

Later in the meeting, Professor Chandra Madramootoo presented a report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Recording and Transmission of Senate Meetings.

The practices of other universities in Canada and the United States, as well as the practices of the Supreme Court and National Assembly, the committee recommended that Senate grant permission for the live video recording and transmission of Senate meetings on a pilot basis from January to December 2013. The committee said that this recommendation was based on the need for Senate to “show some leadership in history with respect to openness and transparency with respect to decisions made by the University that have implications in academic life in the University,” as well as to bring about “engagement from the broad university community from staff, academic support staff, students, and alumni.”

However, the motion to adopt this recommendation quickly became contentious after an amendment was introduced to include archiving the recordings, rather than only allowing the live streaming of meetings.

SSMU President Josh Redel was among those pushing the amendment, which was officially introduced by Dean of Religious Studies Ellen Aitken.

Redel said that not archiving the recordings for later use would be a “step backwards” in terms of maximizing engagement and gave the example of people who work full-time and are unable to watch Senate meetings live.

Referring to the committee’s fourth recommendation, which cites Senate’s need to show leadership and maximize engagement, Redel said, “Leadership isn’t doing what other universities do. It’s going above and beyond what they do, not trying to catch up.”

In response, the committee cited its concerns that archived recordings could be leaked, reproduced, or recreated outside of McGill, and claimed that the current recommendation aimed to protect copywritten material.

Other Senate members expressed concerns over the possibility of legal action being taken over recorded statements.

After debate on the motion and its amendment, the amendment was withdrawn and the motion tabled to allow the committee to consult further with concerned Senate members.

The final portion of the meeting was dedicated to Interim Dean of Students Linda Starkey’s Annual Report of the Committee on Student Discipline, during which a group of students stood in the back with a sign that read “McGill’s Committee on Squashing Dissent” and periodically disrupted the proceedings with cheers, snaps, and boos.

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The referendum passed with 176 in favour, four against, and four abstaining. 184 out of 563 Macdonald campus graduate students voted, representing a turnout of 32.7 per cent.

As a result of the referendum, the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS) will contact the Deputy Provost’s office and ask them not to collect fees from graduate students at the Macdonald campus for the Winter 2013 semester and future semesters, according to PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney.

Next semester, MCGSS students will pay $60.91 in fees, the same amount as all other graduate students downtown, according to MCGSS President Lucy Lu. This represents a decrease of $51.75 for full-time students, $44.25 for part-time students, $51.75 for half-time students, and $36.75 for additional session students.

“We expect it to go through with no problems,” Mooney told The Daily. “We have a pretty clear contract with MCSS about what the obligations of MCGSS and MCSS are given this outcome.”

“Theirs are to go forward and contact the Deputy Provost to cancel the fees and to announce that they no longer consider graduate students to be part of MCSS. Our obligation is to work with [MCSS] to finalize the contract for services that MCSS will continue to provide to graduate students so that the situation at Mac campus won’t change,” he added.

Mooney said that the negotiations for the contract with MCSS are still in progress, but that both parties will be meeting this evening to continue work. They expect to have the contract finalized by the Winter 2013 semester.

“I really appreciate how cooperative MCSS has been through this whole process,” Lu told The Daily. “I look forward to working with them and PGSS to finalize an agreement regarding the terms of separation.”

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The PSA will be holding a day-long event in Gert’s on November 15 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. as a space for alternative education and forum for discussion on the student movement and educational accessibility. The event will be open to students and faculty from all departments. The PSA stressed, however, that it would not be going on strike.

The majority of the meeting consisted of a heated debate regarding the signing of the International Student Movement Joint Statement, which calls for “free and emancipatory education as a human right.” The PSA’s mandate includes supporting accessible education and opposing tuition hikes, but does not go so far as to call for free education.

Although members seemed to be unanimous in their intent to sign the statement, they were strongly divided on when to sign it.

About half of those in attendance felt that the statement should be signed at the PSA’s next general meeting on Tuesday, November 13, before the event at Gerts, citing the importance of demonstrating solidarity as soon as possible to those who will be fighting for accessible education around the world next week.

“To enter into the letter is to enter into a global community,” said PSA member Ethan Feldman. “By doing this we are entering into the global movement. So if we don’t sign the letter, what are we doing? We’re big fat phonies.”

He and others also stressed the timing of the signing, emphasizing the importance of officially entering the movement at the beginning of the week in solidarity with those who would also be fighting for accessibility at that time.

“The time is now to show some solidarity to other student movements that are actively struggling like Quebec was,” said another member.

Others felt strongly that the statement should be held after the event at Gert’s – at their general meeting on November 21, at the end of the Global Education Strike – both to foster discussion on the issue before signing and to engage a wider number of Philosophy students in the decision.

“I think it’s very worthwhile to get more feedback, more input from people that aren’t here now,” said one member. “It would be great if they would be interested before [the event at Gert’s], but that’s just not realistic.”

Another member stressed that the signing would be much more meaningful the more people that are involved in the decision.

After a long and heated debate, Feldman put forth the proposal to table the decision and have members print out copies of the statement and get as many signatures from Philosophy students as possible, in the hopes of signing the statement as a body at the PSA’s next general meeting on Tuesday.

“Any decision except [voting on Tuesday] makes me want to puke,” said Feldman.

This remark was followed by an intense back-and-forth in which a number of insults were exchanged.

In the end, the Association voted on whether to vote to sign the joint statement on November 14 or 21.

The result was a tie with six for the 14th and six for the 21st.

Feldman abstained, calling the vote “a sham.”

The statement will be distributed to Philosophy students and added to the agenda for Tuesday’s general meeting.

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In an attempt to diminish the high student fees paid by its members, the Macdonald Campus Graduate Student Society (MCGSS) is currently negotiating a separation from the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS), from which it currently receives a large portion of its funding.

At present, MCGSS is a part of both MCSS and the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS), the graduate student society for McGill’s downtown campus. MCSS provides MCGSS with Macdonald campus-related services – such as access to the campus bar Ceilidh – while PGSS provides graduate student services downtown, including daycare, grants and bursaries, car services through Communauto, and access to events.

According to MCGSS President Lucy Lu, the movement to separate from MCSS began last year when former MCGSS president Alyssa MacLeod found that MCGSS members were paying higher student fees than most other McGill students because of its dues to both MCSS and PGSS.

“Different solutions were considered, including working with MCSS and PGSS to lower the fees that we pay to either,” wrote Lu in an email to The Daily. “In the end, we decided that separating from MCSS would give the most benefit to MCGSS.”

The proposed separation from MCSS is thus “more of a reorganization to make student society relations and fees more efficient,” she wrote.

Lu explained that with the separation, MCGSS would receive guaranteed annual funding from PGSS in an increase of approximately $5,000, or about 50 per cent more in funding. Breaking away from MCSS would also decrease members’ student fees by $50, which would have gone to MCSS. PGSS would also pay MCSS a certain amount to allow MCGSS to continue receiving the same Macdonald campus services.

According to Lu, the details are currently under review by both parties.

“With the additional funds, we can offer more benefits to our members, such as more travel grants and in larger monetary amounts, as well as improvements to graduate student life through renovations of our student lounge and more MCGSS-sponsored events,” wrote Lu.

MCGSS will hold a referendum regarding separation from MCSS from November 5 to 9. They will also be holding a discussion session on the issue tomorrow, November 2, from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Macdonald campus faculty lounge.

According to PGSS Secretary-General Jonathan Mooney, a survey of Mac campus graduate students – which had a 27 per cent response rate – showed that 94 per cent of respondents wished to split from MCSS.

When asked about student reactions, Lu cited strong concerns that the proposed changes were not happening quickly enough – particularly in light of the recent PGSS student fee increase.

Mooney explained that PGSS received a letter from MCGSS on May 24 requesting to pay the full PGSS fee and terminate its membership to MCSS, which PGSS forwarded to the Deputy Provost. As a result, PGSS increased its fees for Macdonald campus graduate students to the full amount and requested that the Deputy Provost’s office terminate all MCSS fees.

“…This is where things get a bit unclear,” wrote Mooney. “At some point the University requested an acknowledgment of the split in the form of a letter from the MCSS. Due to problems of internal communication within the MCSS and concerns about the contract for services, the MCSS refused to sign this letter acknowledging the split, and the Deputy Provost’s office refused to terminate the fee collected by MCSS on graduate students.”

As a result, MCGSS students faced a fee increase rather than the planned decrease – a “ridiculous amount in student fees” that amounts to approximately $120 and is more than double other student society fees, according to Lu.

“We expected to finalize the changes before the start of this semester so that the implementation of the new PGSS fee structure (which resulted in an increase in PGSS fees) would have been offset by the removal of MCSS fees,” she wrote.

Mooney said that PGSS and MCSS met again in July and came to an agreement that MCSS would ask the University to cancel the Fall 2012 fees in return for a payment from PGSS.

“However, many people in the McGill administration were on vacation at this time, so it proved impossible to cancel the fee,” wrote Mooney.

MCSS sent another request to cancel or refund the fee on August 17. The University responded on August 23 saying that “they could not cancel the fee because they had been told that the request was not made in accordance with MCSS regulations governing fee changes,” Mooney wrote.

He added that PGSS found this “very strange and frustrating,” but that negotiations have gone well since then and progress has been made toward an agreement.

According to MCSS President Kerry Blake-Savery, MCSS and PGSS are currently in negotiations regarding the continuation of MCSS-provided services to MCGSS students through a fee paid by PGSS to MCSS.

“These include use of space, access to clubs, help planning events/selling tickets for events, accounting, and other administrative,” wrote Blake-Savery.

Mooney wrote that these negotiations have “proceeded nearly to completion,” and a letter of intent was signed by MCSS to enter in the agreement and present a final version in their next quorate council meeting.

Both PGSS and MCSS have also signed an agreement to recognize the results of the referendum “if more than 10 per cent of students vote and more students vote ‘Yes’ to leave than ‘No’ by sending a letter to the Deputy Provost’s office telling them to stop collecting fees and renouncing any claim that graduate students are members,” Mooney wrote.

“I think it was very responsible of MCSS President Kerry Blake-Savery and VP Finance Nicolas Chatel-Launay to sign this agreement, as it recognized the principle of freedom of association for graduate students within the MCSS,” Mooney added.

Lu said she is currently working with PGSS and MCSS to reach a formal agreement on the issue by November 20, the deadline to make changes to student fees for Winter 2013.

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Elections SSMU released the results in an email to SSMU members last Thursday. The motion regarding renaming the SSMU breakout room to the Madeleine Parent Room passed its online ratification with 2,002 “yes” votes and 459 “no” votes. The motion regarding the installation of a bouldering wall in the sub-basement of the Shatner Building passed with 2,024 “yes” votes and 530 “no” votes.

A total of 2,931 students participated in online ratification, according to Elections SSMU’s online results report.

This was the first GA to include online ratification since fall 2008.

“I think online ratification went well,” SSMU President Josh Redel wrote to The Daily in an email. “Considering that a lot of people thought nothing would pass if it went to online ratification, I’m glad to see that we were able to get them passed.”

The online voting page also featured embedded YouTube videos from the GA to aid online voters in their decisions.

“I am also glad to see the decent amount of views on the embedded YouTube videos of debate surrounding the motions,” wrote Redel. “Certainly just the start to how we make online ratification strong, but a good start!”

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Last Friday, William Straw, the director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) along with Aboriginal Sustainability Project (ASP) Coordinator Allan Vicaire and Interim Dean of Students Linda Starkey, met to discuss the work done thus far, including preliminary research compiled by SSMU-hired researcher and Education student Brett Lamoureux.

Straw also confirmed his commitment to the North American Indigenous Studies program, which will be tentatively overseen by MISC.

A forum is currently planned for November 15 to get community input on the program. Vicaire will meet with student leaders next week to solidify the forum’s details.

According to Straw, student interest for the program has been “enormous.”

“When I do advising in Canadian Studies and ask students what sorts of courses they want more of, Indigenous/Aboriginal studies is by far the area most often mentioned,” he wrote in an email to The Daily.

Lamoureux, who has been conducting preliminary research for the program since July, will continue researching until December, a date Vicaire cited as the deadline for his part of the preparations.

The Process

Once Vicaire and Lamoureux have compiled data from preliminary research and from the forum on November 15, they will write a report and pass it on to Straw, who will write the actual proposal for the program.

According to Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi, a concrete proposal is the first step in the process of creating a new program at McGill.

In the proposal, applicants must “identify the purposes of the program, [adhere to] certain rules about how many credits are part of the minor program, demonstrate [they have] done appropriate consultations with the units that would be affected, identify the unit that’s going to be responsible for it…[and] provide a list of courses that are going to be part of the program,” Manfredi told  The Daily.

From there, the proposal is reviewed by the curriculum committee and circulated among departments to make sure the program doesn’t overlap with existing programs. Once approved by the curriculum committee, it goes to the appropriate faculty council, then to the Academic Policy Committee, and then to Senate for final approval.

Manfredi pointed out that “at every stage of the process, there is student involvement in the body that has to make the decision.”

He also recalled that an Indigenous Studies program had been in the works for many years, but with little progress until now.

“This has been a long-standing thing, I think someone’s been talking to me about an [Indigenous Studies program] since I became Dean six years ago,” said Manfredi. “Every time someone came to me and said, ‘we’d like to put together a program,’ I said ‘great, go ahead, do it. Put the proposal together and bring it to the appropriate bodies,’ but for some reason it just never happened.”

According to Lamoureux’s preliminary report, the idea of an Indigenous Studies program was first initiated by former First Peoples’ House coordinator Ellen Gabriel in the early 2000s, eventually leading to discussions between the MISC and ASP in 2009.

More recently, members of Kanata and McGill faculty went on to form a subcommittee within the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office, which in 2010 submitted a proposal to the Principal’s Task Force on Diversity, Excellence and Community Engagement that resulted in the creation of a multidisciplinary Aboriginal Field Studies course.

Moving Forward

Straw said that he plans to have a proposal prepared for next year.

“On assuming the Directorship of [MISC] in June 2011, I made working on [an Indigenous Studies program] a top priority. I was aware that others have done a lot of work on this, but aware as well that one of the problems has been finding an academic unit to administer the program and usher through the proposal. I have consulted with those with a stake in such a program and have their agreement to go ahead with a proposal from the Institute,” Straw wrote in an email to The Daily.

“We have most of what is needed to support a proposal,” he added. “We will prepare the full proposal over the remainder of this term and submit it to the appropriate Faculty of Arts committee soon after. At the same time, we are developing a foundational course proposal for submission…so that, even if the program itself is delayed, the course may be in place.”

Straw said that he aims to submit the proposal for the first meeting of the Faculty of Arts curriculum committee in January.

“All these things take steps, they take time, and an actual major program might not happen for another five or six years,” Vicaire added.  “But we could have a minor…people entering first year at McGill may in a few years be able to do a minor in Indigenous Studies.”

The Program

As it is currently envisioned, the program will cover Indigenous Studies within the North American context.

“One could well imagine a program dealing with indigeneity that covered a wide range of indigenous peoples from virtually all continents of the globe,” wrote Straw. “The shared (or majority) feeling about McGill’s program is that the distinctiveness and shared experiences of North America’s indigenous peoples are clearly enough to warrant a program focused on them alone.”

Vicaire added that this did not preclude the inclusion of comparative studies with indigenous groups such as those in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, who have had similar experiences with British colonization.

Given that the current proposal will be for a minor program of study, it will likely require grouping together existing courses and putting a structure around them rather than creating new courses, according to Manfredi.

Lamoureux’s report cites a number of existing courses that could be cross-listed for a North American Indigenous Studies minor, including courses from Anthropology, Biology, Canadian Studies, English, Environmental Science, History, Geography, Law, Politics, Social Work, Sociology, and Education courses in languages such as Algonquin, Cree, Inuktitut, Mi’kmaq, Mohawk, and Naskapi.

Straw also cited a new MISC course on Aboriginal art and culture as a potential core course for the North American Indigenous Studies program.

“I think it’s a perfect fit, personally for me,” said Vicaire. “An anthropology or history lens can be so limited…sometimes for indigenous people, we feel uncomfortable with that…like we’re underneath a microscope…. Something broader like [Indigenous Studies] helps to broaden that scope.”

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Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc-André Blanchard ruled on Monday that because the federal government had developed the registry in partnership with individual provinces, it could not unilaterally destroy the data.

In the 42-page document detailing his decision, Blanchard wrote that Bill C-19 “impinges in a very substantial way, even exorbitantly, on provincial powers, and there is no rational or functional justification or any necessity to do so.”

Blanchard’s ruling granted a permanent injunction against the destruction of the data and gave the federal government thirty days to relinquish all of the data on Quebec long-gun ownership to the provincial government.

He also ordered that Canada’s attorney general and the federal director of the registry continue to maintain and update the registry so as not to create a gap in the data, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Public Safety Minister and supporter of Bill C-19 Vic Toews said in a statement that he was disappointed with the ruling, and “will thoroughly review the decision.”

According to the CBC, federal ministers are in the process of studying the ruling to decide whether to bring the case to Quebec’s Court of Appeal or even to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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Passed on April 5 by the Harper government, Bill C-19, or the Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Firearms Act, would lift the registration requirement for long guns and destroy all records from the Canadian Firearms Registry’s existing database.

The bill only applies to non-restricted firearms – such as rifles, shotguns, and other long guns – and will not affect registries or licensing practices for firearms classified as restricted or prohibited.

Quebec currently has an injunction against the destruction of the registry data, and can continue to add data to the registry while the injunction is in place.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told the CBC, “the data registry will be destroyed as soon as feasible.” He added, “As soon as the legislation is passed, there is a requirement to destroy the data.”

The legal debate continues, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police official Julie Gagnon told the CBC on August 31 that the dismantling process is “well underway,” though no actual records have been destroyed.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) told The Daily that Bill C-19 means the loss of an important tool for crime prevention, investigation, and public protection.

In an email to The Daily, SPVM Commanding Officer François Bleau said in French, “In the absence of long-gun registry, it will be impossible to identify their owners. In this context, criminals could use them without the risk that the authorities can locate them.”

Long-gun crime rates are generally lower than those related to restricted firearms, with only one out of 35 homicides being long-gun related in 2011 and three out of 37 in 2010, according to Bleau.

However, the majority of firearms in the registry are non-restricted firearms. According to the CBC, there are an estimated 7.8 million firearms registered, 90 per cent of which are non-restricted firearms.

Bleau said that the SPVM uses the registry not only to trace the origin of a weapon and bring charges against offenders, but also to advise on intervention strategies prior to the search of a residence, thereby protecting police officers. It is also a useful tool in crime prevention, he said, citing as an example the removal of weapons from homes where domestic disputes occur.

Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier told the CBC, “In 2010, we [seized] 2,500 guns from people who owned those guns, because they were dangerous [to] themselves or other people.”

Bleau said that the destruction of the registry might see a rise in long-gun related crime.

“Impunity, the wide availability of these weapons, and the low purchase price are factors that might favour their use,” he told The Daily.

“We may see poorer criminals, such as [those in street gangs], use long guns,” he continued. “Once the barrel has been cut to length, they have a portable, cheap, and anonymous weapon in the absence of the registry.”

Anti-registry groups, however, cite the cost of the registry and its alleged ineffectiveness as a justification for its destruction.

According to the CBC, Toews has described the registry as a “billion-dollar boondoggle,” arguing that money should be spent on more effective means of cracking down on gun crime.

The Canadian Firearms Program was investigated by Auditor General Sheila Fraser in 2002, who concluded that it was over-budget and would cost taxpayers over $1 billion – 500 times more than the original $2 million estimate.

Opposition groups such as the National Firearms Association (NFA) also argue that the registry represents a violation of personal freedoms.

“As long as the Liberal Firearms Act remains law, the freedoms, rights, and property of all Canadians remains at risk,” the NFA says on its website.

“The ending of long gun registration lays good ground work and is a positive first step in much needed and long overdue firearms law reform in Canada,” states the website.

Tuesday’s shooting at Metropolis during the Parti Québécois’ election rally has renewed public concern over gun deregulation.

Footage from the rally showed a pistol and a rifle – a long gun – at the scene. The police seized a total of 22 guns from suspect Richard Bain, including a pistol, semiautomatic, rifle, revolver, and a hunting or sport rifle.

All but one were registered.

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Bill 101, or The Charter of the French Language, defines French as the official language of Quebec and dictates fundamental language rights.

PQ leader Pauline Marois has announced plans to strengthen Bill 101, most notably with a provision that would prohibit francophones and allophones – those whose mother tongue is neither English nor French – from attending English colleges.

“Public money should not be used to anglicize Quebecers,” Marois told Le Devoir in French. “We have the responsibility to send a message to new Quebecers: here we speak French.”

According to protester Antoinette Mercurio, “Bill 101 did some good because a lot of people learned the French language, that’s great. But now, it’s becoming extreme.”

The protest was organized on Facebook by the Quebec Office of the English Language, a Montreal-based non-profit dedicated to the preservation and promotion of English in Quebec.

Michael Bradley, one of the organizers of the Facebook event, said in a message to The Daily that he wanted to be very clear that the protest “doesn’t come off as anti-French.”

“We are fighting not only for anglo rights but also for francophone, allophone, and immigrant rights,” he said.

According to the protest’s Facebook page, the goal of the protest was to “replace Bill 101 with 199 to make QC bilingual so that we ‘exist’ to the ethno-nationalists.”

Bill 199, or the Charter of the French and English languages, was introduced to the national assembly in 1993 by MNA Neil Cameron and would have made English and French the co-official languages of Quebec.

Many of the protesters were at least bilingual.

“I’m trilingual,” explained protester Mario Lauri. “I have Italian, I learned French no problem. They don’t need to come and tell me I can only speak one language. Why are they dumbing me down like this?”

One protester, Ania Kwiatkuwski, said that her mother had been verbally assaulted at a grocery store the day before for speaking English to a friend and had to be aided by security guards.

“I’m here to stand up against that kind of hate, abuse, and intolerance,” she said.

The protest was also joined by members of Language Fairness for All (LFA), a group from Cornwall, Ontario.

According to the LFA’s website, the group advocates for fair hiring practices for all Canadians through representation by population.

The website also states, “English is the working language of Canada and much of the world. A grasp of all other languages should be considered an asset, but not mandatory. People are equal, but languages are not.”

“Hopefully Quebecers will make a stand for themselves,” said LFA representative Christopher Cameron. “I’m here for the 1.5 million allophones and anglophones that have very little right comparatively because of these language laws.

According to the CBC, Marois’ new version of Bill 101 would require businesses that employ 11 or more employees to use French in all staff communications, close “bridging” schools that allow students to transition to English public schools, and expand the bill to CEGEPs, trade schools, and adult education centers.

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The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is the most conservative political party in the National Assembly. Mainly centered around François Legault, a former member of the Parti Québecois, CAQ was formed in 2011. The party later merged with the Action Democratique du Québec, a slightly older political party that was generally seen as centre-right.

CAQ sees the Quebec government as inefficient, bloated, and highly indebted. Its main campaign promise is to increase efficiency in the public sector by slashing thousands of government jobs, fighting corruption, and cutting wasteful spending. It plans to simultaneously reduce taxes on businesses and most individuals while reducing the debt.

On the student strike, CAQ believes that the Liberal government of Jean Charest has proven to be incapable of solving the crisis. Legault has said that he would implement a hike, albeit a slightly lower one than that proposed by the current government.

The party remains ambivalent to its separatist roots, claiming to be neither for nor against the independence of Quebec, and says that the province should solve its economic problems before considering separatism. However, it still portrays itself as a nationalist party that will continue to defend Quebec’s language bills.

—Laurent Bastien Corbeil

Parti Libéral du Québec

The Quebec Liberal Party’s (PLQ) 2003 defeat of the incumbent Parti Québecois (PQ) signaled a marked change in Quebec policy priority. The PLQ, self-described as “the party of the economy”, has consistently sought to raise revenue in order to address Quebec’s massive debt, which currently stands at $183.8 billion, or 55 per cent of GDP.

While these initiatives have remained the party’s proudest talking points, they have also catalyzed massive social unrest in the province, earning Jean Charest the lowest approval rating of any Canadian premier. The Charest administration’s proposal to raise university tuition by 75 per cent in seven years has sparked some of largest protest marches in North American history.

In an attempt to quell protests, the administration passed emergency legislation. Bill 78 has been publicly denounced by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the head of the Quebec Bar Association, among others.

The administration’s project to develop northern Quebec would, according to the Liberal government’s calculations, eventually bring in $14 billion for the province and create 20,000 new jobs a year. The plan has been heavily criticized on environmental grounds, however, and has been accused of neglecting to properly tax the foreign companies involved in the project.

Charest is one of the longest serving Quebec premiers in recent history.

—Lola Duffort

Parti Québecois

The Parti Québecois (PQ) was born in 1968 with the merger of René Lévesque’s Mouvement souveraineté-association (MSA) and the Ralliement national (RN). The PQ’s primary goal was Quebec sovereignty.

Pauline Marois became leader of the PQ in 2007. While the PQ allegedly remains dedicated to sovereignty, Marois has been unable to provide a precise timetable or course of action regarding a potential referendum, and a recent poll has reported that only one in five Quebecers believe that a PQ government would mean sovereignty.

Regarding the student conflict, the party has promised to restore the tuition freeze until the end of 2012 and hold a summit on the matter. The PQ recruited  former Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec president Léo Bureau-Blouin, and has vowed to repeal the controversial Bill 78.

Economically, the PQ intends to reach a zero deficit by raising taxes on the rich and halving exemptions on capital gains, using the resulting revenue to reduce debt. According to the Montreal Gazette, Marois has claimed that she would continue with the current Liberal government’s Plan Nord project to develop the resources sector in northern Quebec, but would establish a minimum royalty of five per cent, pointing out that minerals are a non-renewable resource.

—Annie Shiel

Québec Solidaire

By far the most progressive political party in the National Assembly, Québec Solidaire (QS) is a separatist party that first came into the media spotlight after Amir Khadir was elected in the Mercier riding during the 2008 elections. Since then, QS has advocated for free education, a reduction in the size of the private sector in healthcare, and stronger social programs. The party is unique in the sense that its leadership is shared by two spokespersons, Amir Khadir and Françoise David.

In the 2012 elections, QS has promised to raise pension benefits for retirees in Quebec, increase taxes on the extraction of mineral resources, and invest significantly in public transport. During the student strike, the party aligned itself strongly with the student movement. QS candidates could often be seen wearing the symbolic red square in opposition to the tuition hikes.

Regarding the environment, QS has promised to launch “Le Plan Vert” – a reference to the Liberal Party’s Plan Nord – to stimulate the economy and reduce Quebec’s carbon footprint. Under the program, more than $400 million would be invested in public transport.

The party is quick to differentiate itself from the Parti Québecois – Quebec’s most popular separatist party – often portraying itself as more friendly toward immigrants and more accommodating of languages other than French.

—Laurent Bastien Corbeil

Fringe parties

The four parties profiled to the left are not the only ones duking it out: here are the other thirteen officially registered provincial parties running candidates in this election.

Parti unité nationale

12 candidates

Formerly the Parti democratie chrétienne du Québec, this party was founded in 2000 by radical social conservative Gilles Noël with fellow Centre d’information nationale Robert Rumilly members. How radically conservative? One of the information centre’s members, Robert Dufour, argued in front of the Quebec National Assembly in 2002 that legalizing homosexual adoption would make adopted children more vulnerable to molestation.

Parti marxiste-léniniste du Québec 

25 candidates

This communist party has run candidates in Quebec sporadically since the 1970s under several names – this particular incarnation was officially registered in 1989.

Parti de la classe moyenne du Québec

7 candidates

Founded in July, this provincial party aims to empower the middle class by – most notably – limiting political donations to $100 per donor (the cap currently stands at $1000), increasing the minimum wage and putting a ten-year moratorium on all public administration bonuses in order to better finance post-secondary education.

Bloc pot

2 candidates

Founded in 1998, the Bloc pot’s political platform is primarily focused on the legalization of marijuana, although their website insists that their promotion of hemp derivatives as an alternative to fossil fuels, as well as their electoral reform advocacy, make them much more than a “single-issue party.”

Équipe autonomiste

17 candidates

This party was formed earlier this year by Action Démocratique Québec (ADQ) former riding association president Éric Barnabé in response to the ADQ’s merger with Francois Legault’s CAQ, which many former ADQ supporters and leaders reportedly found to not be right-wing enough.

Parti nul

10 candidates

Formed in 2009, this party subscribes to no ideology, and their platform consists entirely of giving voters a way to voice their dissatisfaction. Their website states in French that voting for Parti Nul is better than simply not voting or destroying one’s ballot since “no media attention is granted to destroyed votes.”

Québec – Révolution démocratique 

1 candidate

This party has no website, but it does have a Facebook page with 448 friends, and refuses to publish its platform until a sufficient number of militants are recruited. According to Elections Quebec, they were registered in May of 2011, and had $1,192 in net assets in 2011.

Parti conservateur du Québec 

27 candidates

Over 100 years ago, the conservative party commanded nearly fifty per cent of the vote in Quebec. The party hasn’t held a seat in the national assembly since 1935, when it was replaced by the autonomist Union Nationale party, which held power sporadically from the 1930s to the 1960s. Its leader, Luc Harvey, reregistered the party in 2009.

Coalition pour la constituante

29 candidates

Formed in June 2012 on the heels of the student strike and worldwide social justice movements, this party’s name means “coalition for the constituency,” and they seek to give voters an avenue by which to voice their dissatisfaction with the current political establishment. Elected candidates would be mandated to create a constituent assembly charged with writing a new constitution for Quebec with redefined political institutions.

Option nationale

120 candidates

Founded in 2011 by former Parti Quebécois (PQ) MNA Jean-Martin Aussant, the ON’s first mandate would be to declare Quebec independent before a referendum. Although currently polling at about two per cent, the party has recently received former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau’s endorsement, which could split the leftist sovereignty vote currently carried by Pauline Marois’ PQ.

Parti vert du Québec

7 candidates

According to a rabble.ca interview with party leader Claude Sabourin, the Greens’ three main priorities are the environment, education, and health. Despite their anti-tuition-hike stance, they accidentally ran a pro-hike candidate in Outremont; admitting to the gaffe, Sabourin told rabble.ca that “Obviously we should have researched her better, done a Google search on her name, and we didn’t do that.” She was taken off the ballot.

Parti indépendantiste

10 candidates

This party, led by long-time sovereigntist Michel Lepage, promises to separate the province from the rest of Canada as soon as it assumes power. It courted Jean-Martin Aussant in 2011, who instead decided to form his own party. Lepage has said that immigration and multiculturalism threaten Quebec identity. Aussant, on the other hand, is pro-immigration and has explicitly reached out to Anglo voters.

Union citoyenne du Québec

20 candidates

This party has been billed as the provincial version of the NDP – several of its members hail from the ranks of the national NDP, and it shares a platform similarly centered on environmental controls, a reformed health system, pro-immigrant policies, and a diversified economy. It has no official ties to the federal NDP, however, and very few funds, according to their spokesperson Maxine Guérin.

—compiled by Lola Duffort

The post The Daily’s guide to the provincial election’s main contenders appeared first on The McGill Daily.

According to SSMU President Josh Redel, reforms were ultimately aimed at “changing the culture of Frosh as a whole to make it less of a binge-drinking festival and more of a welcome week, and truly an orientation week.”

Seeking to improve the orientation week, working groups looked at students’ past experiences during Frosh week in order to learn from past mistakes – asking, for example, whether it was “just turning into Frosh leaders making a party for themselves and having froshies alongside,”  Redel explained.

Insufficient programming for students not yet old enough to drink was another one of the major issues identified in last year’s orientation week, according to AUS VP Events Josh Greenberg.

To correct this, several working groups redesigned Frosh programming over the course of the summer to ensure that a non-drinking event would be available every night of the week.

“This year we identified early on that there were two key values we wanted to emphasize: inclusivity and building community,” said Greenberg. “I genuinely think we have done so much more for the under-eighteen -year-olds than ever before.”

Improved leader training

Redel said that SSMU has been working closely with faculties to provide better leader training.

According to Greenberg, feedback from last year’s orientation week reported that leader training – given mainly by student facilitators on subjects such as first aid and sexual assault – “apparently wasn’t very effective.”

As a result, this year’s leader training was broken down into big group sessions with content experts – such as McGill’s Social Equity and Diversity Committee (SEDE), which ran a session on inclusivity – as well as smaller group sessions for situational role-playing on conflict resolution and safe space, run by student facilitators.

SSMU has also been meeting with members of the Milton-Parc community hoping to curb the “bad PR,” according to Redel, created by Frosh in the neighbourhoods surrounding campus. This year,  “street teams” of community members and students will go out during the week’s big party nights to provide food and water, remind students to keep quiet in the neighborhood, and make sure they get home safely.

Coordination between groups

This year also marks the first time that the different groups involved in planning Frosh have come together to create programming, a marked change from previous years, when, as Redel explained, there was “almost no communication” between organizers.

“We used to operate in independent silos and never really communicated with each other,” he said. “Now we have almost every unit at McGill and SSMU and the different faculty associations involved in orientation week working together at the same table.”

À la carte events

After students’ move-in to residences over the weekend, orientation events began with “Rez Fest” on Monday, followed by a SSMU-hosted concert on Tuesday, and a series of university–run events on Wednesday to introduce students to McGill and its services.

Beginning Thursday, the traditional faculty froshes are joined by a burgeoning number of non-faculty options, including Outdoors Frosh, Rad Frosh, Fish Frosh, Muslim Students Association Frosh, and the new Gefilte Frosh.

In addition, the week features a number of à la carte events, which students can register for individually. According to the orientation week website, these include over 100 events, run by over 70 different McGill services and clubs. Events include a nutritious cooking workshop hosted by Fit@McGill, a bike tour of Montreal’s green spaces hosted by the Outdoors Club, and a sex workshop by the Shag Shop and McGill Health, among others.

As Redel explained, the new events “provide a really awesome opportunity for new students to get involved in something more than street fest, where it’s just a five-minute interaction.”

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Rose Goldstein, vice-principal (Research and International Relations), and Phil Barker, interim director of the Montreal Neurological Institute, introduced the plans for the QI, a partnership between McGill and the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), an engineering institution in downtown Montreal.

According to Goldstein, the vision of QI is a “transformational partnership between ÉTS and McGill to establish an innovation ecosystem” in Griffintown. Its focus would be on educational, industrial, social-cultural, and urban innovation and entrepreneurship.

ÉTS approached McGill with the idea in the spring of 2010. In May 2011, Goldstein asked Barker to lead McGill’s internal planning process for the project.

Goldstein told the BoG that the project will “engage corporate partners by bringing them closer to our students.”

The project was criticized in a January Senate meeting for the lack of student involvement, as well as the potential corporate partners the project could attract. Barker’s report to Senate listed Bombardier, Google, and Monsanto among potential corporate partners.

Goldstein clarified corporate partnerships within QI in an email to The Daily on Wednesday. Goldstein wrote that the examples provided in Barker’s January report “were purely hypothetical and, in hindsight…not properly reviewed as to whether they would be appropriate partners.”

“We regret that any examples were included,” Goldstein continued.

In her email Goldstein wrote that neither Bombardier nor Monsanto are involved in the QI, and that McGill is “still in the process of determining how exactly the QI will interact with industry partners.”

The “pre-launch” year

The QI is set to launch this fall, although Goldstein told BoG a business plan will not be ready until the same time – also when the University is also planning on beginning consultation with students and faculty. At the January Senate meeting, the University had aimed to have a preliminary QI business plan by March.

Goldstein wrote in her email that “because of the complexity of the project and because we hope for the widest possible participation in the subsequent consultations, the decision was made to wait until September – when more students can participate – for the official launch.”

“It is important to remember that the QI is currently in its ‘pre-launch’ year,” continued Goldstein in her email. “While McGill and ÉTS are conducting a number of feasibility and planning studies, the full vision for the project will not be fully articulated or officially unveiled until early September.”

The QI will initially be located in two buildings dubbed INGO I and INGO II. INGO I, owned by the ÉTS, has already been renovated, and will house a McGill lab researching biofuels, according to Goldstein. The other building, INGO II, will require an investment of $40 million to renovate.

The project has over $1 million in secured funding, comprised of $350,000 each from the Montreal, Quebec, and Canadian governments. When Board member-at-large Lili de Grandpré asked how the project would continue to be financed, Goldstein said that there is no overall budget plan in place yet, answering, “We’re imagining some kind of PPP [Private and Public Partnerships] model.”

The PPP model has been applied recently in Canada to mixed success. While universities in British Columbia have been engaged with business partners since 2001, a PPP initiative with Busac Real Estate undertaken by the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) in 2005 to build two new buildings ended in failure. The project went $106 million over budget and left UQAM $400 million in debt.

Goldstein said in her interview that she didn’t foresee McGill investing a substantial part of its own money in the project, bud didn’t rule it out.

“We’re really looking for external funding,” she said.

QI “champions”

Goldstein added in her presentation that various business and community leaders – whom she dubbed “QI ‘champions’” – had already agreed to sponsor the project. In her email, Goldstein said there were several more still considering sponsoring the project, saying she did not think it was “appropriate to announce the participants until everyone has made a decision.”

In her presentation, she said the project already has an interim governance structure in place, and that “we’re in the process of identifying and recruiting [a] group” to form a permanent advisory board.”

She clarified in her email that McGill is “still exploring whether [the ‘champions’] will have a formal role in the QI governing structure or whether they will simply help share information about the project among their professional networks.”

After the presentation, Principal Heather Munroe-Blum said that “at this stage in development it’s always a bit nebulous,” but called the partnership a “critical step” for McGill.

“It’s going to be a bit of an experiment because there’s no rule book to go by,” continued Munroe-Blum.

Munroe-Blum said that in her meetings with students, their overwhelming priorities were internships and job placement.

“Compared to peer research universities, we are underdeveloped in giving students hands-on experience,” she said.

The project aims to fill this gap through its partnership with ÉTS, which requires one year of industry experience prior to graduation and boasts a 100 per cent job placement rate for students post-graduation, according to Goldstein.

Mitigating gentrification

Goldstein said that the project represents a way for McGill to “give back [to the community] in a way we haven’t been known to before.”

However, administrative and support staff representative David Kalant voiced concerns with a possible increase in housing costs as a result of the project. Goldstein answered that the University is working with the municipal government “to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

She said mixed-cost housing was one such solution being considered for the area. “We want to make sure everyone’s circumstances are respected,” she said.

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To say that the atmosphere at the ice cross world championships  was adrenaline-charged would be an understatement.

The ice cross downhill season starts in December and culminates in March with Red Bull Crashed Ice, the world’s championship event. This past weekend, about 100,000 spectators gathered in Quebec City to watch 170 men and 127 women with backgrounds in hockey, skiing, bobsledding, and mountain biking compete for the title of world champion.

This year’s track was not for the faint of heart: at 575 metres long, it included flights of stairs and sharp 180-degree turns, after which the athletes had to stop and start again.

McGill student and ice cross downhill athlete Corey Taber said the track was “super fun, but way harder than it looks.”

Athlete Jodran Fuder agreed. “It was fast, and probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” he said.

According to Christian Papillon, sports director of the  Championship and a former ice cross skater, the minute it takes to race through the course is exhausting.

“It seems like it’s nothing just thinking about it, but if you can try once to just run as fast as you can, jumping down stairs and running uphill for one minute, full energy, you will understand,” he said.

Canadians Kyle Croxall and Fannie Desforges took the world championship titles in the men’s and women’s races, respectively.

Croxall won the world championship for the season after finishing in second place in an exciting race, giving him 3000 points for the season. The men’s competition is comprised of four events with athletes from all over the world and events taking place in Europe as well as Canada.

The women’s competition is not yet as extensive as the men’s competition. Quebec City is the only event that features a women’s race. Desforges won the race at Quebec City and, on the strength of winning the only race, was named the world champion, but there is no season or points system like that of the men’s league.

The annual championship began in Quebec in 2006, but women weren’t a part of the event until 2009. Since then, they’ve been a force to be reckoned with.

According to Fuder, “[The women] are just as crazy [as the men], if not crazier… I know the sport is evolving and more women are getting involved, and it’s a great thing to see.”

The women who participate in Crashed Ice can only be described as tough. As one Red Bull Crashed Ice press release states, the sport is “not for ice princesses.”

“It’s true,” said athlete Marquise Brisebois, who placed third in the women’s championship on Saturday. “You can’t be on the track and fear something. If you do, you’re going to fall, or do something to injure yourself.”

“You have to throw it out there and go for it,” she continued. “If you don’t go for it, you’ll be last…. You can’t be a princess while you’re out there because there are three other people that want to get in front of you.”

Brisebois comes from a bobsled background, which, according to Papillon, gives her a powerful edge in the competition.

“She’s really powerful because she had to push a bobsled with the team really, really quick, and so I’d say that’ll probably help her,” he said.

For Brisebois, the big challenge in the competition was stamina.

“It’s exhausting,” she said. “Your thighs burn, your quads are just on fire. When you’re at the end you just want to push more and you feel like you don’t have any stamina left.”

Most importantly, she said, “you can’t stop,” because if anything’s true in this sport, it’s that “it’s not finished until you cross the finish line.”

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