Introduction

When it comes to anti-oppressive research, sifting through  “open source” data, which is available for anyone to access and share, is a good place to start. Every province in Canada possesses an institution that compiles the documents – such as annual reports and financial statements – of public bodies that are required to deposit information. In Quebec, this is the Assemblée Nationale du Québec. You can use the search tool on their website to peruse and download public documents, such as the financial statements from McGill that show the salaries of senior administration officials. StatCan has data available pertaining to the census, population, and other aspects of Canadian life, such as the consumer price index. Données Québec offers provincial data, and Données Montréal offers municipal data. Finally, it can’t hurt to directly contact an individual for the documents you need – sometimes people will give you information if you just ask nicely.

If you can’t find the information you’re looking for in the open source data, it’s time for an ATI request! In Quebec, under the Act Respecting Access to Documents Held by Public Bodies and the Protection of Personal Information, section 9 contends that “every person has a right of access, on request, to the documents held by a public body.” More broadly speaking, the act allows you to issue access requests for documents withheld from public access and kept by public bodies. You may request documents with administrative or personal information that contain information about yourself. The act additionally grants the right to correct inaccurate personal information.

Where you can request ATIs

A public body is typically a body that is granted existence and authority from a statute enacted by a legislature, and whose functions affect the community of the persons to which its authority extends. More specifically, the designation of public bodies is applied to federal, provincial, and local governments and agencies. Organizations that receive government funding – such as public school boards, universities, and law enforcement – also fall under this definition. When filing your access request, it’s important to consider which public body will hold the document you are looking for – for example, is it a university? The Ministry of Education? Or the Ministry of Labor? 

If you’re interested, you can also submit an ATI request on the federal level under the Privacy Act and the Access to Information Act. However, you must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or an individual or organization currently present in Canada.

Some public bodies regrettably have fees for filing ATI requests, which usually must be paid online with a credit card. You can consult the table below to find fees of bodies that may be relevant to you. 

Determining the documents you need

It can be helpful to look at previously-submitted ATIs to get an idea of what sorts of things you can request and what documents you may need. The aforementioned Données Montréal includes a list of ATI requests filed within the past few years organized by category, subject, and borough. Categories include finances and financial evaluation, environment, infrastructure and public works, and permits and regulations, among others. Montreal residents have requested everything from street-cleaning schedules to the number of certified daycares in the city to information pertaining to climate change. Additionally, the federal government makes completed ATIs available online, the CBC updates a list of completed ATIs each month, and MuckRock is a website that tracks public records requests in the US. In general, meeting minutes, internal correspondence, and financial documents (e.g., audits or purchase receipts) are helpful to ask for.

In any case, you should do your homework to deduce what has already been requested and what has been made accessible.  

Writing your request

Once you’ve figured out what you’re looking for, it’s time to actually write your request! While the Quebec government has ATI templates available in both English and French, ATIs are more of an art than a science – it may take some trial and error to get your wording exactly right. Still, there are a few general principles to keep in mind: 1) make sure you mention the Act in your opening statement; 2) make your request as narrow as possible; and 3) do your best to indicate where the documents can be found (i.e., who the ATI commissioner should contact to get what you need). 

When writing, make sure to make your request as clear as possible to not only ensure you will be satisfied but that your request can be processed in a timely manner. In the request, include the specific administrative documents you are looking for, whether it be meeting minutes, digital (email) and physical correspondence, expenses and financial reports, contracts, opinions, briefs, internal memos, etc. If you’re looking to obtain a large yield of documents, you can write “including but not limited to […]” before listing the desired document types. When requesting documents, you can also request key words as well – just be sure to be specific. As an example, if you are looking into McGill’s proposed Sustainability Sciences and Public Policy Centre at the contested Royal Victoria Site, requesting correspondence and documents with the word “sustainability” would probably get you thousands of documents. However, if you narrow down your search to include “sustainability centre” or “New Vic Project,” you are likely to get a much more pointed and useful response. You can also request datasets, especially machine-readable data such as spreadsheets. For example, if you are interested in investigating a particular office, you may request to see a list of employed staff, hired staff, and/or staff leave. You can also request data to be organized in accordance to your liking, for example: per time period (i.e., per year, per month, per academic term, etc.) and/or by type (i.e., of staff, of department, etc.).

To help make your request as specific as possible, you should additionally specify the time period within which the documents you are looking for should be. For example, if you were investigating the hiring of McGill’s new principal, you would want to request documents and/or data between March 2022 (when the advisory committee to elect the new principal was formed) and November 2022 (when H. Deep Saini was appointed as the University’s new principal). 

Sometimes, your request can be summed up in merely one or two sentences. This would look like something to the effect of: “Under section nine of the Act, I hereby request a copy of x documents.” However, for more lengthy requests, we recommend presenting the documents you need in a bullet-pointed list, organized by category. The examples we’ve included here are organized based on the series within McGill’s University Classification Plan, but you can come up with categories of your own. For example, part of a request to the City of Montreal may fall under “Urbanisme et habitation,” while another may be more suited to “Permis et règlementation.” Categories are also helpful because you may then ask for an “interim release,” a method whereby a public body releases documents intermittently. This can be helpful since you may receive documents from one category sooner than another, rather than waiting to get them all at once. This is only common practice within federal bodies as of yet, and even then it’s not obligatory. Still, it can’t hurt to ask. 

Again, ATIs are not an exact science – the bottom line is, you should make your request as specific and easy to follow as possible.

What to do if you get stuck

In theory, ATIs should be fulfilled within twenty days of filing them, or 30 days if the commissioner invokes a 10-day extension; in practice, this is seldom the case. We’ll discuss how to file an appeal with the Commission below, but there are a few things you can do to try and speed up the process before taking this step.

Perhaps the easiest thing you can do is consistently follow up with the ATI commissioner working on your request. There are plenty of reasons a request may be delayed that are outside of their control: people may be dodging their emails and phone calls, or the relevant public body may be extremely reluctant to release the documents you’re seeking (especially if you’re a journalist). In that case, you can try to offer solutions to their problem: figure out if another entity also holds the documents you need, or if there’s a way you can narrow down your request so it doesn’t yield an impractical volume of documents. In general, ATI commissioners want to help you, so it’s wise to negotiate a compromise with them when you can. If you have reason to believe your commissioner is being intentionally inefficient or just plain lazy, you can always CC their boss in later follow-up emails.

If possible, it can be helpful to file the same request with multiple public bodies. For example, if you’re looking for internal correspondence between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Agri-Food Canada, file a request with both of these entities. Different bodies have different standards for what information they redact and what sorts of documents they consider exempt from ATI mechanisms, so you should cast a wide net to maximize your chance of success.

If the commissioner has not returned your request within 30 days of your submission, or if they have rejected your request without legal grounds in your opinion, it’s time to file an appeal! You can appeal to the Commission d’Accès à l’Information du Québec within 30 days of the deadline, or within 30 days of refusal. You can address your appeal to cai.communications@cai.gouv.qc.ca, with your reason for appealing, relevant correspondence between yourself and the commissioner processing your request, and your original request. The appeal will go to mediation and a meeting with a judge. 

Putting the process in action

Request for documents pertaining to wastewater testing – by Saylor Catlin

This request was fairly straightforward to file. I was suspicious that McGill had not published certain information about the wastewater testing project on their website, so I knew that I was looking for three things: 1) the methodology and implementation of wastewater testing, 2) raw data collected at each site over the course of the project, and 3) what amount of positive results for COVID-19 defined the thresholds for each of the alert levels on the website. I thus structured my request with this in mind. Because I knew the project was initiated as of October 2021, I asked for any documents, correspondence, and data from that point up until the moment I had filed the request (January 2022). I also knew that I was requesting documentation from McGill, but more specifically from the Emergency Operations Centre (which was in charge of COVID-19 policies at the time) and the head researchers who led the project. Naming these entities in my request helped specify what I was looking for, and, I can only imagine, expedited my request. 

Luckily, the office was able to fulfill my request within the 20-day limit! However, what was returned to me was a 25-MB zip drive full of months of email correspondence, testing procedures full of scientific jargon, and pages and pages full of wastewater data. So, needless to say, even though my request was fulfilled in a timely manner, the yield from it was so large that it took weeks for me to read through everything, analyze it, and translate it into an article. Regardless, I think this is fairly common, and for the most part all of the documents really helped me to get a full sense of what was going on. The bottom line: remember that even once you have waited 20 to 30 days for your request to be filled, the work isn’t over yet!

Request for documents pertaining to NHP use at McGill – by Abigail Popple

This ATI is a good example of a broad request that had to be narrowed down later but was ultimately successful. As Le Délit’s Rafael Miró and Philippe Bédard-Gagnon pointed out in March 2021, animal research at McGill is shrouded in secrecy, and while I did plenty of homework to figure out what information I needed, it was still a shot in the dark. Nevertheless, I got what I was looking for, and here’s how:

I began by taking a look at the information already available to me. Thanks to a previous ATI request, I knew that McGill subjects the vast majority of its non-human primates (NHPs) to Category D procedures. The second-most invasive category of procedures, Category D includes things like major surgery and subjecting animals to severe emotional distress. By reading through the university’s Standard Operating Procedures for NHPs, I also knew that cranial surgery, water deprivation, and genetic engineering are practiced in McGill’s NHP program. Finally, some more sniffing around on McGill’s website taught me that animal deaths are reported to the Animal Policy and Welfare Oversight Committee as well as the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

Armed with this knowledge, I then began formulating questions that filled in the gaps that remained: How many NHPs had died in recent years? What exactly were the Category D procedures being conducted? How frequently was McGill importing primates to use in its labs? Consulting the University Classification Plan told me I could probably obtain the meeting minutes, research files, and import permits relevant to these questions. I first attempted to acquire meeting minutes by contacting the animal care committee responsible for NHPs. When that failed, I set about writing my request. (I also suspect that my contacting the committee prompted the university to publish its FAQ on NHP use about a month later – it definitely caused alarm in the Media Relations Office!) 

Unfortunately, not all of my requests could be fulfilled. An ATI commissioner emailed to let me know that my request for documents pertaining to genetic engineering and Category D procedures would have yielded an unreasonably large number of documents, allegedly totalling over 8,000 pages. The commissioner offered to meet with me to narrow down the scope of my request, but I decided to withdraw those parts of the request entirely so she could focus on obtaining meeting minutes and reporting forms instead. The remaining parts of my request were fulfilled in a timely manner and revealed some chronic issues within McGill’s NHP program, so it was a win in my book! The moral of the story is that you should work with ATI commissioners when you can, and do thorough research to ascertain which kinds of documents will be the most useful to you before filing a request.

Suggestions for anti-o ATIs

Knowledge is power. It’s incredibly cliche, but it’s true. ATIs are one of our most accessible means of holding power to account, so even though Canada’s ATI system is archaic and inefficient, it’s important that activists and community members know how to navigate it. Here are some general suggestions on anti-oppressive ATIs to file:

• Check on the SPVM: Valérie Plante has given so much money to the municipal police force during her time in office. You could ask for a breakdown of the police budget over the past several years, or ask to see receipts from any weapons purchases that have been made in that time. You may be interested in seeing the internal correspondence that’s sent within the SPVM prior to public demonstrations or in trying to figure out the exact number of police deployed at various events. If you’re part of an activist organization or suspect you’ve earned a reputation as “Someone Who Incites Dissent,” it may be worth asking for internal correspondence mentioning the names of you or your organization to see what the police think of you. You can also get your own police records via ATI request; The Globe and Mail has produced a video with journalist Robyn Doolittle on how to do just that.

• Has your landlord abruptly started elaborate renovations or other construction work? Check and see if they’ve acquired the appropriate permits to carry out construction.

• ATIs can be a useful tool for prison abolitionists. Since it’s so hard to get information on prison conditions, consider filing an ATI to find out more about prison health care, medical isolation, or any other abuses of power that have occurred.

• The RCMP and branches of the military are also subject to ATI requests through the federal government. Again, requesting financial documents may yield some insight as to how these bodies wield their massive budgets.

• Here at McGill, you can file an ATI at no cost for personal documents, such as correspondence mentioning your name or medical documents which the university may have withheld from you. There are plenty of other opportunities for ATI requests: what goes on in EDI committee meetings? What precipitated the sudden “restructuring” of OSVRSE? How much money was spent on the university’s bicentennial celebrations compared with EDI initiatives?

If you have any questions about writing your own ATI request, or are interested in publishing the findings of your own institutional investigation in the Daily, you can reach out to news@mcgilldaily.com. We are always excited and eager to assist and platform anti-oppressive research from the community!

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Nonetheless, panelists and organizers had a productive conversation over the course of ninety minutes. “Maybe this town hall has taught us that students feel more comfortable communicating online in terms of what they want to see in terms of the advocacy from their representatives, and that’s okay,” remarked Sal Cuthbertson, SSMU’s accessibility coordinator. Ly added that the surveys conducted by SSMU have received “quite a few responses,” which will help advocates understand how to address students’ needs.

While the aforementioned Reddit post highlighted issues with the Wellness Hub and Student Accessibility and Achievement (SAA), formerly known as the Office for Students with Disabilities, speakers explained that accessibility issues include the obstacles which students face when reporting harassment and discrimination. Ly, who is the Policy and Mobilization Researcher for the VP External portfolio, said that her introduction to accessibility advocacy came by way of research into McGill’s harassment, discrimination, and sexual violence policies. Clara McGaughey, who is employed as a senior advocate at the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM), also spoke about these policies. The Student Advocacy Branch of the LICM helps students understand McGill’s policies and navigate conflicts within the university. “In terms of accessibility issues, that usually looks like us attending meetings with SAA, or filing grievances on behalf of students whose rights have been violated,” she explained. She added that the LICM can help students file “discrimination reports, harassment reports, [and] any kind of violence reports” as well as accompany students to the ensuing meetings with administrators or faculty. The LICM can also assist in informal dispute resolution by speaking with the Dean of Students or the ombudsperson so that a student does not have to file a formal complaint.

After McGaughey explained her work at the LICM, VP University Affairs Kerry Yang made an appearance to discuss two accessibility-related projects he and Mental Health Commissioner Maya Willard-Stepan have been working on. As of yet, McGill does not have a service animal policy, although service animals are permitted; Yang previously discussed his efforts to establish such a policy at the Fall Consultative Forum, and he elaborated on this during the town hall. “Compared to other Canadian provinces, [Quebec is] like decades behind […] And as a result, McGill follows exactly,” he said in explaining the province’s strict definition of what counts as a service animal. Yang said that he is advocating for McGill to broaden its definition of service animals and adopt a service animal policy which allows psychiatric service animals. The second of Yang’s accessibility projects is to improve short-term accommodations. Currently, students must ask their professors for short-term accommodations – for example, a last-minute extension or unexpectedly deferring an exam – which produces widely varying results from professor to professor. Yang is seeking to establish a policy comparable to those at Concordia and Western University – so far, he and Willard-Stepan have had preliminary conversations with a few administrators, and are hoping to present the policy to the Senate as soon as possible, Yang said.

Rine Vieth, a graduate student who has been advocating for improved mental health and disability accommodations since 2019, added that although McGill could choose to provide accommodations without medical documentation, the university is leaving those decisions up to individual instructors – whether a student gets accommodations comes down to how sympathetic their instructor is. They also recounted their work as the Mobilization Officer of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), which included advocating against imposing punitive measures on students experiencing a mental health crisis. For example, AGSEM unanimously passed a motion discouraging members from using the Early Alert System (EAS) – a mechanism on myCourses that instructors can use to “express concern for a student experiencing difficulty,” per the Office of the Dean of Students. According to Vieth, the committee in the Office that oversees the EAS involved the SPVM. Rather than involve the police, AGSEM chose to recommend directing students toward mental health services provided on campus and in Montreal. That same year, Vieth also advocated against the drafted Policy on Involuntary Leave, which would have prohibited students who posed a threat to themselves or others from accessing university services with the aim of pushing them to “get support external to McGill.” 

Speakers also shared their experiences sitting on various committees in the university and working at the Wellness Hub and Peer Support Centre. Combatting burnout is a difficult part of advocacy work: “Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of disabled people also get very used to accepting less than what they’re actually entitled to […] it feels like if you only have so much energy, it’s better to use it in other ways than to use it to try and improve,” said Zeke Bertrand, one of the External Affairs Commissioners. Cuthbertson added that working on McGill’s Accessibility Strategy has been a “slow and inefficient” process, and that communication between administration and students has been far from perfect. Although Cuthbertson has been working as the Accessibility Coordinator at SSMU for about a year and a half now – longer than McGill’s own accessibility advisor – they weren’t contacted about the Accessibility Strategy until recently. “It wasn’t until four months ago that I was mandatory to consult [as] a student representative for their EDI initiatives […] it was only then that I actually found out that this Accessibility Working Group was even being put together and an advisor had been appointed.” They continued to explain that while McGill organized a public relations campaign to tout the Accessibility Advisor, the university neglected to establish an infrastructure through which the advisor could connect with “the current accessibility framework that existed at McGill, and [which] existed from advocacy initiatives by student representatives.”

Ly had a similar experience in her work. “I think with a lot of the Black Student Associations that I was involved with, it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, we never expect McGill to take the lead on anything, so we’ll do it ourselves,’” she said while detailing her experience in advocating for improved mental health support for racialized students. Ly said that in 2020 she and other student advocates were told they would receive funding for a Black student wellness initiative that would fund therapy sessions for students who experienced trauma. However, Executive Director of Student Services Martine Gauthier expressed opposition to the initiative and directed students to use telehealth services instead, per Ly.

Later, Vieth remarked, “Black students need support, and to me, everyone wins if Black students get more support, right? […] I feel like getting more students involved and making sure there isn’t just one type of student representative is so, so important.” Ly added that while her experience working as a consult for the Black Student Wellness Plan was one of the best she’s had, the implementation of the plan was disappointing. “They can say they did that consultation, right? It’s in their report, but nothing follows through.” Another factor which may hinder the efficacy of McGill’s EDI plan is the limited extent to which various positions within McGill’s massive bureaucracy can advocate for students. For example, the Black Student Affairs Liaison and the Office for Mediation and Resolution report to the Provost’s Office, Ly said. So, if a student raises a concern to the Black Student Affairs Liaison about the provost’s response to a harassment and discrimination report, that puts the Liaison in a tricky spot: “Is he going to call out his boss and be like, ‘Oh, you didn’t do this investigation properly?’” she asked.

Despite the notorious inaccessibility of the Wellness Hub and difficulty of accessing academic accommodations at McGill, advocates in the VP External portfolio and elsewhere are continuing to push for a more accessible university. For students who would like to get involved, the VP University Affairs and VP External can be contacted at ua@ssmu.ca and external@ssmu.ca, respectively; a list of SSMU advocacy committees with open positions can be found at https://www.mcgill.ca/engage/campus-advocacy/ssmu-advocacy. 

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According to the Board of Directors Report presented by SSMU President Risann Wright, the Board has ratified five motions since the Winter 2022 assembly: the Motion regarding Accessible Libraries, Amendments to the Internal Regulations of Finance, Adoption of a Media and Transparency Plan, Amendments to Internal Regulations of Student Groups, and the SSMU Operation Budget 2022-2023. The Board also approved spending up to $65,000 on reusable menstrual products to be included in SSMU’s monthly menstrual pick-up. Wright also encouraged SSMU members to apply for a position on the Board as a member-at-large: “It is so important for us to have directors on the Board of Directors who are representative of the student body and who are members at large.”

Following Wright’s presentation was Cat Williams’ report on the VP Internal Affairs portfolio. Because social media falls under their portfolio, Williams spent the summer updating SSMU’s branding by revitalizing its social media accounts, including the External Affairs and University Affairs accounts. Williams also reported that new Internal Affairs employees have been hired, including a new translation manager position intended to help SSMU satisfy the language requirements of Bill 96. According to Williams, this year’s social events – such as SSMU’s alternative dry Frosh and the SSMU back to school party – have been successful so far.

Next, Wright took the floor again to present her report as president. She explained that the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Working Group and Plan are under way: the working group has established its terms of reference (i.e. an outline of the group’s working arrangements), and an initial structure for the plan has been outlined. Wright said that once seats on the EDI Working Group are filled, work on the plan and EDI consultations will begin.

VP External Affairs Val Mansy began their presentation with an introduction of the staff under their portfolio; the position of political campaigns coordinator is currently unfilled, so Mansy encouraged interested members to apply. They continued the presentation with a brief overview of their goals for the year and what they have already accomplished – notably, the External Affairs team is aiming to make sidewalks near McGill more accessible in the winter, and will support the Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera as they advocate for an investigation into potential unmarked graves near the Royal Victoria Hospital. Mansy encouraged students with feedback or ideas to email them at external@ssmu.ca, noting that it is possible to add new mandates to the portfolio if students feel that it would be appropriate.

During his report, VP Finance Marco Pizarro said that a revised budget for the Society will be ready by the end of October, based on the work he has done with SSMU’s accounting team since being elected. He also noted that this year, the Finance staff are working on a legal protection plan which students will vote on during the Winter 2023 referendum. Additionally, Pizarro said that he is looking into changing banks – SSMU currently banks with RBC, from which students have advocated for divestment. 

VP University Affairs Kerry Yang presented after Pizarro; Yang briefly explained the responsibilities within the University Affairs portfolio. As part of his advocacy work, Yang has been researching service animal policies; unlike other universities, McGill lacks a service animal policy, so he has been working on potential policies that could be adopted at McGill. Additionally, the University Affairs team has been working to solve equity complaints within SSMU, review the Involvement Restrictions Policy, and expand the distribution of menstrual health products.

Finally, VP Student Life Hassanatou Koulibaly presented her report. Koulibaly explained that this year’s Activities Night – the first one held in-person since the start of the pandemic – was “relatively successful,” despite having been moved indoors although the event was originally planned to be held on the lower field of campus. Koulibaly has also been working on a number of initiatives to make SSMU more accessible to students and clubs: for example, SSMU has partnered with Incredible Features to develop an app that will “facilitate the relationship that SSMU has with its student groups.” Koulibaly has also been helping to revitalize clubs which became inactive during remote learning, and has been updating student groups on their status within SSMU – per Koulibaly, previous communication issues prevented clubs from being notified of when they achieved interim status or full status. As part of the mental health responsibilities within the Student Life portfolio, Koulibaly has continued work on the Wellness World Portal, “a survey-based platform that will be able to direct you to your specific needs,” she explained.

Because students did not submit any items to the agenda, there is little consequence to the failure to meet quorum. Had a resolution been passed without meeting quorum, it would not have been binding and would be added to the agenda of the next GA or the next meeting of Legislative Council, at the discretion of the speaker. The Winter 2023 GA is scheduled for Monday, January 16; before then, students have the opportunity to participate in governance via SSMU’s biweekly Legislative Council meetings, the next one taking place on November 3 at 6:00 p.m.

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However, pro-Palestine activists were quick to point out Adams’ history of supporting and financing pro-Israel initiatives. During a university-led event announcing the establishment of the SASSI, writer and pro-Palestine activist Yves Engler interrupted a speech by Principal Suzanne Fortier to denounce the university’s continued suppression of pro-Palestine activism on campus: “Madame Fortier, do McGill students have the right to oppose Israel killing Palestinian children? Do they have the right to oppose Israeli colonialism and apartheid?” He went on to reference the Palestine Solidarity Policy, the passage of which prompted Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau to threaten termination of SSMU’s Memorandum of Agreement with McGill in May; ultimately, SSMU’s Board of Directors decided against ratifying the policy, and it was not adopted by the Society. Engler’s video of his interruption – which has accumulated more than 100,000 views on Twitter – ends with shaky footage of attendees averting their gaze as he is escorted out, yelling, “Free Palestine! […] You’re complicit in Israeli colonialism and violence!” As of writing, the university has not publicly acknowledged or responded to Engler’s comments.

In a phone interview with the Daily, Engler explained that interrupting the funding announcement was both an attempt to attract media attention to McGill’s complicity in Israeli apartheid, and a way of demonstrating solidarity with Palestinians and pro-Palestine activists. According to Engler, media outlets present at the announcement ignored his interruption, highlighting that The Montreal Gazette’s coverage of the announcement wholly neglected to mention his comments at the event. Still, Engler succeeded in raising awareness of the university’s response to the Palestine Solidarity Policy and Adams’ pro-Israel involvement via social media, which he believes is an important consequence of interruptions like his: “You get a message out there, but also you’re trying to have a sense of, like, there is a resistance, right? […] We don’t just allow these people in power to just get away with whatever they want to get away with.” 

In a September 1 blog post, Engler took issue with Adams funding the institute, writing that Adams has “plowed tens of millions of dollars into various sports and cultural initiatives explicitly designed to whitewash Israeli apartheid and violence.” For example, Adams organized Madonna’s Eurovision performance in Israel and helped fund a soccer tournament so that soccer superstar Lionel Messi could make an appearance in Tel Aviv. Engler told the Daily that these initiatives are “designed to basically whitewash Israeli colonialism.” Adams himself has admitted that he sees sporting events as opportunities to bolster support for Israel among those who are “generally apolitical,” and although he has described himself as Israel’s “self-appointed ambassador at large,” he claims that the work he does is not political. Engler also expressed concern over McGill’s readiness to please influential donors, remarking that universities will oppose any attempt at “meddling” in their financial investments, as has been the case with McGill’s refusal to divest from fossil fuels and its reluctance to divest from South African companies. Although universities may put on a “liberal facade” or “talk a decent game on the climate crisis,” university administrations tend to be conservative bodies that cater to fundraisers, he claimed. To illustrate this point, Engler brought up his own experience within the Concordia Student Union 20 years ago: when students protested an event where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to make a speech, the university had to “get the student activists in line, because there were donors threatening to withdraw their funds,” per Engler. 

The McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) shared this sentiment: in a written statement sent to the Daily, they described the announcement of SASSI as “sportswashing,” a method of distracting from a country’s human rights offenses by drawing attention to sports enterprises. A journalist from The Times of Israel asked Adams about sportswashing in a 2019 interview, to which he Adams replied that “Haters gonna hate” and explained that he feels he is showing “the real Israel.” SPHR also pointed to a handful of interviews where Adams denied Israeli apartheid, characterizing Israel as a peaceful country despite the fact that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have found that Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians. The statement also alluded to the university’s response to the Palestine Solidarity Policy as an example of McGill’s typical response to “students’ activism against Israeli settler colonial apartheid,” writing that McGill “runs to appease its donors while giving a big middle finger to its students.”

In an email to the Daily, McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) emphasized the need for respect, empathy, and inclusion when debating on campus. “Robust debate is key to what we do and who we are as a University. However, such debate cannot be carried out at the expense of respect and inclusion,” the statement continued – almost a word-for-word reiteration of what Labeau wrote in his May 24 email regarding the Palestine Solidarity Policy. The MRO email concluded by inviting students to participate in the events and activities recommended in the Initiative Against Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism (IAIAS) report; while the iaias@mcgill.ca email address is open for students to submit feedback, the statement did not specify whether this email would be an appropriate forum through which to present feedback regarding the SASSI.

When asked how he believed students should express opposition to the establishment of the SASSI, Engler said, “I think the most important thing is to protest, and what the actual mechanism of that protest is, is less important.” He added that increasing pressure from activist groups from outside the university would be key to furthering pro-Palestine messages on campus. SPHR indicated that a response from their organization is forthcoming: “rest assured that this initiative will not be left unanswered. Keep your eyes peeled because once again SPHR will not back down.”

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For two weeks in March of 2020, McGill shut down in a scramble to transition to remote teaching activities; this entailed a pause in animal research, along with other on-campus activities. Likewise, institutions across the country temporarily suspended animal research to comply with public health directives. As such, the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) distributed a “Disruption to Animal Ethics and Care Programs Due to COVID-19” tracking form, intended to record reductions in the number of animals held by research institutions. While the CCAC wrote that “every effort [would] be made to avoid euthanizing animals due to disruptions related to COVID-19,” the Council acknowledged that euthanasia may still occur, and requested that institutions report how many animals they euthanized. Additionally, the number of animals transferred to a different protocol (i.e., animals who were moved from one scientific study to another) and animals who were removed from the research institution (for instance, by transfer to an animal shelter or private adoption) were to be disclosed to the CCAC. All three of these situations – euthanasia, a change in protocol, or removal from the institution – count as disruptions in the data reported by the CCAC. In an email to the Daily, the Council wrote that “the CCAC always encourages methods other than euthanasia to certified institutions,” and explained that collecting data on disruptions to animal care “is in keeping with [their] commitment to transparency and public accountability.”

The Daily acquired McGill’s tracking form* for euthanized animals via Access to Documents Request. The form details the number of animals euthanized at McGill’s animal care facilities at the Downtown Campus, Macdonald Campus, and the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) in March and April 2020. Mice constituted the largest population of euthanized animals, with 11,808 euthanized at the Downtown Campus, 27 at the Macdonald Campus, and 60 at the MNI – adding up to 11,895 mice total. Additionally, 256 rats were euthanized at the Downtown Campus facilities. 3,000 chickens from the Macdonald Campus Farm were euthanized; the form clarifies that laying chickens had been offered to a commercial processing plant, but the plant could not accept the chickens due to staffing shortages. As such, these chickens were euthanized and sent to an animal food processing plant.

These consequences of animal research disruption are not unique to McGill – according to the CCAC’s February 2022 report “Impacts of COVID-19 on Ethical Animal Care and Use Programs,” euthanasia was the most common fate for animals disrupted by COVID-19, with about 83.73 per cent of these animals having been euthanized. As was the case at McGill, mice made up the largest population of disrupted animals by far, at 119,798 disruptions total, or 63.22 per cent. Rats came in a distant third place, making up just 2.02 per cent of disruptions reported to the CCAC; birds followed in fourth place at 1.11 per cent. While the report spans from January 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, the vast majority of disruptions – 72.99 per cent – occurred in the first three months of 2020, with 138,298 total animals disrupted during this time.

However, there is a discrepancy between McGill’s animal tracking form and the CCAC report: the 3,000 chickens euthanized at McGill are currently not accounted for in the CCAC’s data, which notes that just 2,102 birds in CCAC-certified institutions were disrupted. In an email to the CCAC, the Daily pointed out this discrepancy and attached McGill’s tracking forms for reference. The Council’s Director of Public Affairs and Communications initially responded that “[t]he documents [the Daily] included belong to McGill and therefore we cannot comment on the information reported within them. However, I believe you have been speaking with the University in regard to this question, and you have received the necessary information.” 

In fact, the discrepancy was due to an error made by the CCAC. Two days after their first response to the Daily, the Director sent a follow-up email to explain that “the CCAC took another look at the numbers reported within the document […] We determined that the CCAC did received [sic] [McGill’s] report, but there was a calculation error made on our part.” As such, the Council is working to correct the error and verify all other data in the report. “I do apologize for the oversight and want to assure you that the CCAC is doing everything we can to ensure the accuracy of our data,” she concluded.

In an email statement to the Daily, McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) clarified that regardless of the COVID-19 disruption, these animals would have been euthanized at the end of the relevant research – they were simply euthanized earlier than scheduled due to government mandates to halt on-campus activities. In the case of the MNI, mice grew too old during the pause in on-campus research to be used in the experiments to which they were designated: the tracking form notes that these mice were euthanized because they “needed to be scanned/behavioural testing at diffent [sic] age.” Although McGill’s tracking form indicates that the chickens were euthanized “due to cessation of research,” the MRO statement says that chickens “were to be involved in teaching and were destined to integrate into the food market.” The statement also stresses that McGill adheres to “the high standards established by the CCAC,” and that the university has strict rules and regulations in place to ensure that the use of animals is ethical. “Researchers and everyone involved in research with animals […] are sincerely concerned about the welfare of animals that are part of the research process,” the statement continues.

Nonetheless, McGill’s choice to euthanize animals drew criticism from animal rights activists. In a May 2020 letter to Principal Suzanne Fortier, Shalin Gala – a vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – wrote that the reported euthanization of 15 per cent of McGill’s rodents “begs the question of why taxpayer dollars are being used on experiments that can easily be ended or delayed.” Gala also asked the university to publicly release information pertaining to the disruption of animal research activities, including “if, when, and how many of [McGill’s] animals have been and/or will be euthanized.”

In an email to the Daily, Gala said that the university never provided PETA with this information. He also reasoned that much of McGill’s animal research must have been considered non-essential if it was abruptly ended or postponed: “PETA is questioning why any of these animals are being bought, bred, trapped or experimented on in the first place since they’ve been so easily disposed of and since experiments were ended or delayed.”

Research institutions often characterize animal research as essential – the MRO statement says that without animal research, people and animals “would simply not enjoy the quality and length of life they do today” and points out that the development of insulin, recent cancer treatments, and other major medical advancements have involved the use of animals. However, Gala argued that the drastic, abrupt reduction of animals in laboratories suggests otherwise: “more than 80 universities and research institutes in the US alone went on a killing spree due to the coronavirus […] That’s how quickly these animals went from purportedly being ‘essential tools to cure human diseases’ to instead now becoming simply disposable garbage.” According to the National Institutes of Health (an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Services that is the world’s largest source of funding for medical research), 95 per cent of new drugs considered safe and effective based on animal testing fail the subsequent human clinical trials – rendering animal experiments “cruel and wasteful,” per Gala.

The CCAC has not published the names of institutions affected by COVID-19; as such, the Council was unable to answer the Daily’s inquiry as to which institutions experienced the greatest disruptions. Data collected from the animal numbers tracking forms will “inform the development of future policies and improve emergency preparedness,” the CCAC told the Daily. “The COVID-19 pandemic brought incredible challenges and taught us many lessons,” the Council added. “The CCAC is committed to applying this new knowledge moving forward as we continue to improve animal care and use programs in institutions across Canada.”

*The Daily has redacted portions of the tracking form which name specific researchers and administrators.

If you have information or comments pertaining to animal research at McGill or other CCAC-certified institutions in Quebec, please email abigailpopple@protonmail.com.

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Indeed, trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) have an unfortunate knack for writing popular fiction. While perfectly capable of inventing whole new imaginary worlds, they find themselves utterly incapable of understanding that gender is a social construct. Perhaps the most famous example of this is J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series – flying cars are well within the limits of her imagination, but Rowling just can’t wrap her head around the fact that trans women are women.

McGill student Sam J. Wilson expressed disappointment that the division even had to be created. “Don’t get me wrong, I hate TERFs,” they said, “but it’s concerning that the Nobel committee had to incentivize being a decent human being so authors would feel less inclined to be pieces of shit.” Likewise, Professor Angela Bramble said they felt surprised and betrayed when their favourite authors were disqualified from the Non-TERF Division: “It’s absolutely astonishing. I mean, if we can’t trust liberal white women to be steadfast advocates for complete liberation from the patriarchy, who can we trust?” Fortunately for McGill students, we have an advocate for trans rights in our principal, Big Suze.

Author and notable uterus-haver Margaret Atwood spoke out against the Non-TERF Division. While Atwood is happy to take the brave stance that women should have the same legal status as men – her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale imagines a world in which women are second-class citizens, making the bold claim that gender inequality is indeed bad – her impressively progressive ideals end there. “One day you’re being asked to use the correct name and pronouns for someone, and the next you’re told to refrain from promoting hateful writing to your millions of Twitter followers; it’s absolute tyranny,” she said in an interview with L’Oignon. “I really think we just need to find a middle ground between basic decency and violent transphobia. Maybe, like, one in three people could invalidate strangers’ gender identity for no reason? That seems fair.”

The Daily reached out to Atwood for comment on this matter, but she declined, writing, “The McGill Daily editorial board is composed of a bunch of crazy anarchist hippies. As a staunch proponent of the Golden Mean Fallacy, I have no interest in speaking with you tyrants.” We would rebut this claim, but she’s not wrong.

If you want to read some quality literature that’s not written by despicable human beings, check out Verso Books’ Feminist Classics, Haymarket Books’ Feminism and Gender collection, n+1’s “A Women’s Strike Reading List,” and Noname Book Club’s monthly picks.

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McGill University

The history of pro-Palestine policies within SSMU is a tumultuous one: in the Winter 2016 General Assembly (GA), a motion mandating SSMU’s support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was passed in the initial round of voting, only to fail the subsequent online ratification process. Following the nullification of this motion, an anonymous student filed a Judicial Board (JBoard) petition inquiring into its constitutionality; in May of 2016, the JBoard came to the unanimous decision that “all motions which compel SSMU to actively campaign against specific countries are unconstitutional” – including motions in support of BDS. Despite this, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill has continued to campaign for divestment from corporations complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians; the passage of the Palestine Solidarity Policy (PSP) in SSMU’s Winter 2022 Referendum was to be their latest victory.

The Policy had initially been absent from the referendum ballot following a notice from Elections SSMU that the JBoard issued an interim order prohibiting the PSP from being placed on the ballot “until such time a legal determination [could] be made,” per a March 13 email sent from Elections SSMU to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill (SPHR). The following afternoon, Elections SSMU issued a statement explaining that the referendum ballot was “declared faulty and incomplete” – when the ballot was re-issued on Tuesday, March 15, the PSP was present, and later passed with 71.1 per cent of votes in favour.

The PSP, which SPHR described as “historic,” outlines nine action items, including the mandates that: 1) SSMU campaign for McGill to condemn Canary Mission and other surveillance campaigns against Palestinian and pro-Palestine students; 2) SSMU boycott “corporations and institutions complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians,” and advocate for McGill to do so as well; and 3) SSMU establish a Palestine Solidarity Committee. In their statement regarding the passage of the PSP, SPHR observed that “Time and time again, [Palestinian students’] activism has been met with censorship, blacklisting, and repression from an openly hostile McGill Administration” over the past two decades of pro-Palestine advocacy at McGill. 

As if on cue, the PSP was met with strong opposition from McGill Administration just three days later: on Thursday, March 24, Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau issued an email with the subject line “SSMU referendum outcome” via the Media Relations Office (MRO). Labeau expressed disappointment in the policy – which he said “calls for several actions that echo key tenets” of the BDS Movement, although the PSP makes no mention of BDS – referencing the recent development of the “Initiative to Prevent Anti-Semitism [sic] and Islamophobia.”  He continued that initiatives like the PSP “create excessive polarization in our community” and are “in contradiction with the principles expressed by SSMU in its own constitution.” The Daily asked the MRO whether Labeau had any student testimonials or data verifying the claim that the PSP would divide the McGill community; the university did not provide evidence substantiating this claim. In response to the Daily’s inquiry as to which specific part of the SSMU constitution was violated, McGill merely repeated that initiatives like the PSP are “in contradiction with the principles expressed by SSMU in its own constitution.”

Labeau also said that the university had “communicated [his] concerns to the SSMU leadership and advised them to take […] remedial action,” and divulged that the university is prepared to terminate its Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with SSMU. According to Article 12 of the MoA, the University may default the MoA “when the Association [i.e., SSMU] violates its constitution;” SSMU would be given 30 working days to remedy the default in the event of this happening. However, 2019-2020 SSMU President Bryan Buraga emailed SSMU Directors, Councillors, and Executives just under two hours after Labeau sent his MRO to explain that a default would not enable the university to “unilaterally dissolve the SSMU.” Buraga pointed out that in accordance with Article 12.3 of the MoA, SSMU could dispute arbitration within 90 days of receiving notice of the default. Furthermore, Articles 13.2 and 13.3 of the MoA and Sections 53 and 55 of the Act respecting the accreditation and financing of students’ associations mandate McGill to collect and distribute SSMU funds – termination of the MoA would make SSMU’s financial processes more cumbersome, but would not pose an existential threat to the Society, per Buraga.

According to current SSMU President Darshan Daryanani, McGill did not communicate its disapproval of the Policy prior to providing the Notice of Default: “The McGill Administration failed to engage with the SSMU with more consideration for the democratic and constitutional values of the Society,” Daryanani wrote in an email to the Daily. The statement sent to the Daily by the MRO says that the university “has communicated [its] concerns to the SSMU leadership,” but does not specify whether the university reached out to SSMU regarding the PSP prior to threatening a notice of default. Per Daryanani, Labeau’s Notice of Default states that “in no way can [the PSP] be considered to ‘facilitate communication and interaction between all students from all McGill communities’ or to ‘act in the best interests of [SSMUʼs] Members as a whole.’ It will also clearly lead to discrimination based on characteristics such as race, national or ethnic origin, and religion.” Daryanani does not appear to believe that the PSP violates SSMU’s Constitution, writing that it is the constitutional obligation of student representatives “to uphold matters of human rights, environmental protection and social justice.”

During the March 24 Legislative Council meeting, Councillors passed the “Motion Regarding Statement by SSMU in Response to MRO 2022-03-24,” which mandates SSMU to draft a public response to Labeau’s MRO as swiftly as possible. Arts Representative Yara Coussa, who told the Daily she is advocating for SSMU to contest the Notice of Default, is leading this initiative. Daryanani said that SSMU’s response is set to be released on April 5, pending approval from SSMU’s legal counsel.

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) has likewise had its controversies surrounding pro-BDS initiatives. In July of 2015, the UTSU Board of Directors (BoD) voted against the formation of a BDS committee, as reported in The Varsity. More recently, on February 16, the UTSU approved a motion to divest from firms complicit in the occupation of Palestinian territory following a lengthy and heated debate. Afterwards, the UTSU released a statement affirming that they would support Palestinian students “in a manner that unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism [sic], Islamophobia, and systemic oppression in all its forms.” According to this statement, the Special General Meeting wherein the motion was passed was meant to clear up “what precisely was meant by the terms used in the motion,” but there was not an opportunity to do so – as such, how the motion will impact UofT students remains to be seen.

On February 16, the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU)  voted to reject recommendations made by UofT’s Complaint and Resolution Council for Student Societies (CRCSS) regarding the Union’s BDS caucus. In February of 2021, the CRCSS reviewed the caucus due to allegations of antisemitism and found that it violated the Union’s Anti-Discrimination Policy “on the grounds of discrimination based on nationality.” In a statement to the Daily, the UTGSU wrote that it “believes that the caucus is not discriminatory, but rather that it calls for equity through activism to support Palestinians who are facing oppression.” Furthermore, the Union contends that the CRCSS itself is undemocratic, writing that it was created “to infringe upon student union autonomy without the consent of the UTGSU.”

In response to the UTGSU’s rejection of the CRCSS recommendations, UofT decided to withhold student fees allocated to the BDS caucus – $10,918 total, according to a news article which UofT sent the Daily. Per the UTGSU, the consequences of withholding these fees will likely not be felt until the summer semester, but “it sets a dangerous precedent […] for universities to overrule democratically-decided student union decisions that they don’t like.” The UTGSU is working to strengthen solidarity among student unions, and encouraged McGill’s student unions to join the Global Student Government coalition in its email to the Daily. “A divided student movement makes it easier for university administrations to infringe upon student union autonomy and weaken the student voice. We cannot afford to be isolationist,” the Union explained.

University of British Columbia

On March 23, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) Council voted “yes” to a motion mandating the Council to “urge [UBC] to divest from companies involved in or complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians.” AMS declined to respond to the Daily’s request for comment; the Daily also reached out to the UBC chapter of SPHR, but did not receive a response.

In an email statement to the Daily, UBC wrote that the university “does not invest directly in individual stocks or companies,” instead investing in “pooled funds and external fund managers” in accordance with principles “based on the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment.” However, the statement continues to explain that “the aggregate exposure of the Endowment Portfolio to the names cited in the motion on the UN database was approximately $43,000, or 0.002% of the portfolio as of December 31, 2021. Including the full list of companies cited in the motion, the Endowment’s aggregate exposure was less than 0.05%, or approximately $1 million.” As of writing, UBC has not attempted to intervene in the AMS decision; the university did not express any intention to interfere with the Society in its statement to the Daily.

Broader Trends

Michael Bueckert, Vice President at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), wrote that there has been a “renewed momentum” in pro-Palestine activism on university campuses within the last year, pointing to the policies recently passed at McGill, Concordia, UofT, and UBC. Universities have historically repressed pro-Palestine activism, per Bueckert – for example, when Israeli Apartheid Week was brand new, administrators “bann[ed] event posters and [shut] down organizers.” Bueckert explained that such repression had seemed to subside, but there has recently been increased interference in student activism – “with a resurgence of activism, it’s not surprising to see a new wave of efforts to shut it down,” he observed.

Communications Lead for Independent Jewish Voices, Aaron Lakoff, echoed these concerns in an interview with the Daily. “It’s absolutely abhorrent when university administrations take these kinds of punitive actions,” Lakoff said, adding that universities should be celebrating vibrant student democracies and the presence of anti-racist movements on their campuses. Of McGill and UofT’s response to pro-Palestine activism on their respective campuses, Lakoff remarked, “Who is the one guilty of the divisive atmosphere when you are threatening a democratic student body and democratically-made decisions?”

Still, Bueckert and Lakoff both emphasized that students have an important role to play in anti-racist and anti-apartheid efforts. In 1985, McGill divested from its holdings in apartheid South Africa in response to student pressure; per Bueckert, student initiatives at the time included “establishing apartheid-free zones, protesting speeches by ambassadors, and implementing general anti-apartheid policies” on McGill’s campus. Likewise, Lakoff pointed out that institutions like McGill are often complicit in Israeli apartheid due to their investments in companies which profit on occupied Palestinian land – as such, “students should never underestimate the powerful and important role they can play in terms of bringing down apartheid.”

Lakoff, who is himself Jewish, said that alleging motions such as the PSP are antisemitic “ignores the fact that there are Jews all around the world […] who are standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.” He also pointed out that universities should make an effort to protect Palestinian students from racism: if universities want to create a culture of inclusion, respect, and safety, they must consider “the safety of people of colour and Palestinian students who are attending a university that is complicit in their own people’s dispossession and complicit in apartheid.” 

Bueckert and Lakoff also expressed concern for the well-being of student democracies at the hands of administrators willing to interfere in student politics. “The fact that universities are using [financial] threats specifically to try to shut down anti-racist organizing is appalling,” Bueckert wrote, describing UofT and McGill’s behaviour as “anti-democratic and heavy-handed.” Similarly, Lakoff characterized these universities’ punitive actions as “abhorrent,” adding that these actions are “threats against student democracy and threats against the wellbeing of students and campus life.”

The Daily inquired as to why McGill chose to default its MoA with SSMU as opposed to another course of action; the university did not address this question in its statement to the Daily. Additionally, the Daily asked what Labeau feels would be an appropriate way to “address serious and important questions” such as the PSP – the university’s response only reiterates that “robust debate is key to what we do and who we are as a University.” 

Affairs related to the PSP are still developing as SSMU prepares its response to the Notice of Default; the Daily will continue to follow this story.

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Take the quiz below to find out!

Check off all that apply:

Results

If you checked off 9 or less:

Somehow you’ve retained your humanity throughout your time at McGill thus far – lucky you! Worry not, the university will kill the light in your eyes soon enough.

If you checked off 10-20:

McGill is indeed a Kafkaesque nightmare for you, but so far your experience is just Kafka-adjacent, not the work of Franz himself.

If you checked off 21 or more:

There’s no way you’re not the brainchild of a sad Czechian man. Go ahead and change your legal name to “K.”

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As of writing, McGill has not met the union’s demands. The university is offering minimum wage – which is currently $13.50/hour – for 13 hours of work per week. In an interview with the Daily, AMUSE President James Newman explained that the union initially asked for $18/hour (the same wage which the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec is advocating for), to which McGill countered a $13.64/hour wage. Later, the university retracted this offer, returning to the minimum wage. As of May 1, the minimum wage in Quebec will be raised to $14.25/hour; Newman said that the university dropped their $13.64/hour offer in anticipation of this raise. McGill told the union that the provincial minimum wage increase exceeds the university’s initial bargaining mandate, Newman claimed. According to a presentation* by Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS), SHHS makes $62 million/year, so the university should be able to afford an $18/hour wage, Newman said. “Suzanne Fortier makes $860,00 a year and she’s not even first aid certified,” he joked, pointing out that paying floor fellows $16/hour (what the union is currently proposing) would cost 47 per cent less than this salary.

McGill has pointed to the fact that floor fellows are provided housing as a justification for their low wages, Newman said. According to calculations which the university sent to AMUSE, the hourly value of housing, combined with the current hourly wage, amounts to around $30/hour for downtown campus floor fellows and around $25/hour for Macdonald campus floor fellows. In an interview with the Daily, VP Floor Fellow Christian Tonnesen highlighted that room and board is a taxable benefit, resulting in tax deductions from floor fellows’ pay checks. “We’re taxed at full fair market value, which […] is astronomically high,” Tonnesen said, estimating that his own taxes are around $1600/month. These deductions have resulted in net-zero paychecks for many floor fellows, and when the deductions exceed one paycheck, McGill deducts money from future paychecks. “We have a snowball effect of where we have high deductions and high taxes, which then cause a rollover to the next paycheck and the next paycheck,” explained Tonnesen. 

When a floor fellow’s paycheck does not cover the high deductions for their housing, McGill may also deduct money from other university jobs held by the floor fellow: “Floor fellows who have other jobs are seeing their pay from those jobs deducted to cover the absurd deductions from their floor fellow jobs,” Newman told the Daily. “We have never gotten a clear answer from McGill about why this is happening […] People are paying for the privilege to work at McGill,” he continued. Tonnesen recounted that one former floor fellow had to take on multiple jobs at McGill to pay for the deductions associated with his floor fellow job, and claimed that he has spoken to many floor fellows with similar experiences. While this has been a common occurrence this year, it is highly unusual: “I’ve never had paychecks this low before […] having worked this job for three years I’ve never seen it this absolutely buck wild before,” Tonnesen said. However, the university has maintained that the way they pay for deductions has not changed, per Tonnesen. 

Alongside housing, the university provides a meal plan to floor fellows; however, Newman drew attention to several shortcomings in the current plan which the union hopes to rectify in the CA. According to him, the meal plan has remained stagnant at about $4500 per academic year – by Newman’s calculations, this comes out to about one and a half meals per day, given the rising prices of cafeteria food caused by inflation. Moreover, the meal plan is only valid in McGill cafeterias, but not all residences have a cafeteria nearby: while Solin Hall includes kitchens in every unit and residents at the Macdonald Campus make use of communal kitchens, these residences lack cafeterias. As such, floor fellows at these residences must travel to the downtown campus if they wish to use their meal plan – and McGill does not compensate floor fellows for the cost of commuting to campus from a faraway residence, Newman said. 

Tonnessen explained that in the case of Solin, floor fellows are provided with a saver meal plan, which has less money allocated to it than a traditional meal plan; the rest of the plan is made up of grocery cards. Newman also pointed out that the university did not change Solin floor fellow’s meal plans to account for remote activities during the 2020-2021 Academic Year – floor fellows still had to travel to campus to use their meal plan despite the lack of on-campus activities. The union has been advocating for the option of receiving half of Solin floor fellows’ meal plans in the form of grocery cards, but McGill has refused.

Furthermore, the fact that McGill houses floor fellows gives the university “a kind of leverage that very few employers have over their employees,” Newman said. During the strike vote, members raised concerns that the university may cut striking workers off from their meal plans or evict them from their dorms; anticipating these concerns, AMUSE requested that their parent union – the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) – fund alternative accommodations for striking floor fellows. During the strike actions of Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, PSAC arranged access to housing and food outside of McGill to “neutralize [the potential] threat” of McGill evicting striking workers, per Newman.

McGill is also refusing to retroactively pay AMUSE members, which Newman said “is highly unusual […] Retroactive pay is a basic component of every CA.” Typically, once a new CA has been signed, any new wage increases will be made retroactive to the expiry of the previous CA – this way, employers do not get the advantage of a wage freeze, which may encourage them to stall negotiations so they do not have to pay higher wages. While refusing retroactive pay is unusual, McGill has now done it twice this year – McGill is refusing to retroactively pay MUNACA members who retire prior to the signing of a new CA.

Working an emotionally taxing job at minimum wage has led many floor fellows to become disenchanted and burned out, sources told the Daily. “McGill has never really come around to taking seriously the notion that what floor fellows do is work,” Newman said, adding that he’s gotten the impression that the university thinks of floor fellows as “special students […] who should be happy with whatever McGill gives them and jump at the opportunity to do extra work.” He added that the university’s opposition to harm-reduction practices has caused “moral injury” to many floor fellows, who are now being treated as “discount security guards” mandated to report drug paraphernalia despite their opposition to criminalizing drug use. “If you’ve ever been curious about what burnout is like, apply to be a floor fellow.”

AMUSE is circulating an open letter which students can sign to support the strike efforts. Newman hopes that the AMUSE strike empowers other workers: “We are hoping for a victory here that will inspire other workers, especially residence assistants in universities without unions to organize and fight for a living wage and fair working conditions. Your support for us today will pay dividends for all workers tomorrow.”

*this presentation was not leaked to the Daily by Newman or Tonnesen.

Additional reporting provided by Eve Cable, who interviewed Christian Tonnesen.

Updates provided by Christian Tonnesen: Tonnesen would like to issue a correction that the value of the room is around $1600, with his taxes averaging closer to $750 per month. However, that tax rate is still wildly above what someone paid at $13.50 per hour should pay.Tonnesen would like to clarify that while he cannot confirm that a Floor Fellow took on multiple jobs, it is not outside of the realm of possibility. It is confirmed, however, that many Floor Fellows have dropped jobs at McGill as it’s not worth it, given the pay is just deducted to cover Floor Fellow deduction.
Tonnesen would like to clarify that the proposal made to McGill by the Union at the time of publishing opted to give Solin Floor Fellows the option of receiving half of their meal plans entirely in the form of grocery cards, not the entirety of the meal plan.

The post Floor Fellows on Strike appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Throughout his absence, SSMU executives maintained that Daryanani was on leave. Executives continually stressed that the absence was a Human Resources (HR) issue which they could not publicly discuss – at the November 25 Legislative Council meeting, VP Finance Éric Sader remarked that he was feeling “like a broken record” when he explained that the President’s absence could not be discussed at Legislative Council. Executives and directors were also unable to confirm or deny whether Daryanani was on paid leave, as Sader pointed out during the January 31 Board of Directors meeting.

However, Daryanani shed light on his absence during the February 17 Legislative Council meeting, where he announced that he had been put on paid suspension by the Board of Directors on September 23. According to Daryanani, the initial suspension was meant to last until November 5, but was extended four more times by the Board of Directors (BoD). Likewise, the decision to reinstate Daryanani in his position as president was made by the BoD, sources say. 

At the February 17 session of Legislative Council and again at the consultative forum (that is, the General Assembly which did not meet quorum) on February 21, Daryanani claimed that he had not been given a reason for his suspension. However, in the aforementioned February 14 email, Daryanani did request “a complete and unredacted copy of the report prepared by HumaniLex Services Conseils,” claiming that he wanted to follow and respect the firm’s recommendations regarding the SSMU workplace. He referenced the case McCool v. EUS et al., in which Declan McCool – the 2020-2021 VP Internal-elect who was suspended following allegations of sexual violence – requested a copy of an investigative report held by the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS). The court ruled that the report should be “released to all parties” in this case.

Suspension

In an interview with the Daily, Skylar* said that Daryanani was suspended for allegations of sexism and harassment in accordance with Article 12.3 of SSMU’s HR Policy. SSMU hired HumaniLex, an external HR firm, to conduct an investigation; per Skylar, the investigator “didn’t reach out to a lot of people who wanted to […] share their experiences.” The only people whom the investigator reached out to for the admissibility analysis were the three who officially complained to HR – and Skylar said that the HR director at the time of these complaints “had a habit of talking people out of reporting and not helping.”

The investigator only spoke to two complainants – the third one, referred to as “Complainant C” in the analysis, declined to be interviewed by HumaniLex, sources say. However, Skylar estimates that they’ve heard from several women who have “felt uncomfortable or unsafe working with [Daryanani].” Despite having been provided the contact information of women who wanted to be interviewed, the firm did not speak to them during the investigation.

“[T]he investigation process did not give me and many women the space that we deserved and our voice[s] were, yet again, silenced,” one of these women said in a message to the Daily. Furthermore, several women had contacted board members to indicate their desire to speak with investigators, but were never contacted. Sources said that the women who reached out to the BoD had faced “serious incidents” of sexism at SSMU, such as “insulting and yelling at women.”

Casey*, who worked at SSMU at the time of Daryanani’s suspension, claimed that there had been internal efforts to remove Daryanani for “quite some time” due to “many instances of sexism, as well as breaches of confidentiality.” [Emphasis their own.] Casey alleged that Daryanani’s sexist behavior dates back to his time in the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) – where Daryanani was the AUS VP External in the 2019-2020 Academic Year, and an Arts Senator in 2020-2021 – but because SSMU lacks control over AUS governance, there was little SSMU could do to address his behaviour. In the email sent to the Daily, Casey included screenshots which contained claims that there were “several instances of sexism” during Daryanani’s time as a legislative councillor and senator; the investigation was meant to cover Daryanani’s entire time in SSMU, but the firm only focused on the complaints submitted in June 2021.

“Finally after a ton of work, we were able to get him suspended pending an investigation,” Casey continued, explaining that Quebec labour laws prevented SSMU executives and staff from speaking about the suspension and investigation. Casey was troubled by Daryanani’s reinstatement, claiming that “It either means the investigation was done poorly and inconclusively […] or that regardless of the investigation, [the] board actively chose to reinstate him.”

Additionally, sources have expressed concern that the investigation was conducted based upon SSMU’s Psychological Harassment Policy, rather than its Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy and Equity Policy. The Daily attempted to acquire a copy of the Psychological Harassment Policy; however, VP Internal Sarah Paulin explained that the Policy is not publicly available as “a lot of the things that are mentioned in this policy just simply would not make sense to people who do not work within the SSMU […] [the contents of the Policy] would not be very valuable information to people who do not hold positions within the SSMU itself.”

The firm found that Daryanani’s behaviour “could not constitute a situation of harassment.” The admissibility analysis was submitted to the BoD on February 7, concluding the investigation of allegations against Daryanani. Daryanani did not respond to the Daily’s inquiry as to whether he believes the HumaniLex investigation was related to his suspension, though sources say the investigation concerned Daryanani’s alleged sexist behaviour. 

Reinstatement

According to Skylar, SSMU is allegedly reaching out to those who have expressed discomfort with Daryanani’s return and offering accommodations. They pointed out a contradiction between Daryanani’s return and the accommodations, explaining that by reinstating him “they’re saying it’s fine,” but his return is “clearly not [fine]” if it requires SSMU to implement accommodations.

Per Jamie*, SSMU is telling employees that they “can request Darshan not contact [them] until May 31,” or they can request that Daryanani not be present at the meetings they attend. However, these accommodations are not feasible in some cases – Executives and Representatives are mandated to attend certain meetings, such as Legislative Council or BoD meetings, meaning that they would have no choice but to attend a meeting with Daryanani present. “It literally won’t work,” Jamie said.

Indeed, Daryanani was present at the February 17 Legislative Council meeting, and at the consultative forum the following Monday. At these meetings, the working environment of SSMU was discussed extensively, with some representatives testifying that women and gender minorities do not feel safe working at SSMU.

“I’ve had some of my constituents message me expressing how uncomfortable they felt about the current composition of the executive body […] I’ve been present at occasions where one of the members of the executive body has made comments that have made some of my female friends and colleagues uncomfortable.”

– Councillor Andres Perez-Tiniacos, February 17 Legislative Council

“I myself, and frankly a lot of other women and women of colour, don’t feel safe at the moment.” – Councillor Mary Zhang, February 21 Consultative Forum

“The President is currently not fulfilling the President’s purpose, nor is the President a positive force in the SSMU community. The fact that we’ve discussed nothing but the President for the past while is proof of that.” – Councillor Charlotte Gurung speaking on behalf of Councillor Nathaniel Saad, February 21 Consultative Forum

During the consultative forum, Daryanani said, “I’ve had employees come and cry to me about these very same concerns, and these are very real and traumatic experiences,” in response to a question about his feelings regarding the claim that SSMU is an unsafe working environment for women and gender minorities. 

Shortly after he made this comment, the Daily asked executives and councillors for comment regarding the absence of VP University Affairs Claire Downie, to which Arts Representative Yara Coussa replied: “I think that it is shameful that SSMU is an environment where an exec is unable to work because she feels unsafe […] I think that we have failed VP Downie.” In an email sent to the BoD and Legislative Council earlier that day, Downie wrote that she would “no longer participate in SSMU activities which place [her] in an unsafe space.” Later in the email, Downie explained: “I will not be attending the SSMU General Assembly tonight, as I do not believe it to be an environment in which I can participate safely.”

Daryanani said that he is “committed […] to making SSMU a place that we can all feel safe,” at the consultative forum – pointing to the formation of an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee as part of this commitment – and that his “door is open” for employees to bring their concerns to him. He has publicly claimed that he is unaware of the reason behind his suspension, despite his note that “the complaints were deemed inadmissible” in the February 14 email to the BoD and Executive Committee. Although the Daily pointed this out in email correspondence with Daryanani, he did not comment on whether he believes the HumaniLex report was about him or related to his suspension.

Concerns about the Board of Directors

One source who claimed to be an anonymous board member emailed the Daily expressing concern that executives had engaged in an “abuse of process.” They pointed out that the investigation did not begin until November 16, almost two months after Daryanani had been suspended – thereby “opening the SSMU to liability.” Furthermore, they said that Daryanani has already retained legal counsel, and that SSMU will likely face legal consequences for the suspension as the complaints against Daryanani were found to be inadmissible. While Daryanani has publicly stated that he sought legal counsel during his suspension – during the February 21 consultative forum, he said that he has “had to resort to legal action” – he clarified that he is unsure of whether he will be pursuing further action.

This  source explained that “some colleagues collectively levied complaints against Daryanani” to suspend him, an event which the source characterized as “a coup.” They further claimed that during the February 10 BoD meeting, the Board decided to reinstate Daryanani to “minimize legal consequences and mitigate additional liability.” The source concluded that “thousands of student dollars is likely to be wasted due to personal grudges.” Daryanani is requesting that SSMU reimburse the legal costs which he incurred during his suspension – at the consultative forum, he claimed that he has spent thousands of dollars in the process of trying to get reinstated. This source attached a copy of the admissibility analysis to their email (prior to the analysis being leaked on Reddit) along with a screenshot of the February 14 email which Daryanani sent to the BoD and Executive Committee.

However, women in SSMU disagreed with the description of Daryanani’s suspension as a product of “personal grudges.” One source claimed that the suspension “was prompted by [Daryanani] threatening” a female colleague, and that the ensuing investigation was meant to investigate complaints “dating back years,” so she found the term “personal grudges” to be hurtful and inaccurate. 

Casey also had concerns about the BoD’s conduct, but unlike the anonymous board member, their concerns stemmed from the Board’s failure to keep Daryanani out of office: “the BoD finished their work and allowed Darshan back when he absolutely should not be reinstated,” they wrote. When explaining the effort it took to suspend Daryanani, they remarked, “The fact that the board has essentially thrown all that work in the trash is incredibly concerning.”

Daryanani has maintained that the BoD has not presented him with a reason for his suspension, despite the fact that he requested a copy of the HumaniLex report from the Board. The Daily reached out to Daryanani to request a comment on the fact that female colleagues have described his behaviour as sexist; he replied that “In order to properly respond to [the Daily’s] questions, I would have to request detailed descriptions, including the dates, times, and locations, of the specific events that you would like me to comment on. I would also have to request screenshots, recordings and/or meeting minutes to support these claims, with any necessary redactions.” The Daily declined to provide these details, explaining that the allegations were being kept as general as possible to protect the confidentiality of sources; Daryanani did not respond to this follow-up email.

As of writing, Daryanani still holds his position as President. When the Daily asked if it was possible that Daryanani would be suspended for presenting the email informing him of his suspension at the February 24 BoD meeting, Sader said that Directors could not confirm whether Daryanani’s presentation of the letter was a breach of confidentiality.

*Some names changed for anonymity.

Note: Because she is employed at SSMU, Illustrations Editor Eve Cable did not play a role in the research, writing, or editing of this article.

A previous version of this article attributed a quote to Councillor Charlotte Gurung without clarifying that Gurung was speaking on behalf of Councillor Nathaniel Saad. The article has been updated to reflect this; the Daily regrets this error.

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Occupiers set up in the lobby of the Arts Building, crowded with tents, pamphlets, and posters. “Don’t mourn, organize,” a banner reminds passers-by; another one reads “Community Control, Not Oil, Not Coal.” Throughout the first week of the occupation, Divest McGill held a number of events centred around democratization and divestment. On March 14, the group announced their intention to continue the occupation for another week. As of March 18, the Arts Building is still occupied by Divest activists; the occupation expanded to the Y-intersection on March 17, where Divest organizers platformed Floor Fellows in their announcement of their strike.

The events which Divest hosted included a number of community discussions and educational initiatives. One such event was the March 9 discussion on anarchism – attendees spoke about what anarchism meant to them, then briefly went over early anarchist history. Additionally, attendees discussed how to get involved with mutual aid initiatives and direct action.

Democratize McGill mobilization and community building session

The Wednesday evening session began where the afternoon session concluded: by continuing to flesh out the group’s frustrations over McGill’s colonial past. Leading with an anecdote over how Canada is “not a country” (for it has “no culture,” “no language” – it is all stolen Indigenous land), the occupiers transitioned into discussing three instances where the university had historically wronged various Indigenous groups. 

First, the Divest occupiers discussed James McGill’s enslavement of two Indigenous people. McGill, who famously donated the land upon which the university that bears his name stands upon, continues to have a statue on the campus grounds – much to the occupiers’ frustration. Though a petition to remove McGill’s statue has amassed over 5,000 signatures and McGill University has said they’ll make an official decision by the end of the bicentennial year, there remains ambiguity over what such a timeline would look like. 

Second, the group spoke on McGill University’s historic misuse of Native Indigenous funds. Pointing to the university’s early financial difficulties “where instructors could not be compensated and resources… were scarce,” the group explained how the institution was forced to turn to the Canadian government in the 1860s to save itself from bankruptcy; receiving a lifeline, the Province of Canada withdrew $40,000 from the General Indian Trust Fund, loaning the money to McGill. Crucially, the deal was only secured following a $8,000 down payment from the university – a sum that was acquired via a fund allocated to the Six Nations of the Grand River. While McGill alleges to have settled their debt with the Quebec government in 1873, the original $8,000 used to secure the loan was never returned to the Indigenous groups from which it was taken. The occupiers went on to explain how the unpaid $8,000 loan – when accounting for interest – would be worth an estimated $1.7 billion today.   

The Divest occupiers concluded the first half of the session by discussing the controversy surrounding McGill’s New Vic project. The $700 million construction project, which plans to transform the old Royal Victoria Hospital site into new classrooms, sparked controversy when the Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers sued McGill over the plans. The Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers, who take issue with the building site, seek to stop the renovation plans until “a thorough investigation of the grounds is carried out for searching unmarked graves of individuals unlawfully experimented upon.” The injunction is, as of writing, still ongoing.

Switching to a more informal second half of the event, the conversation transitioned to discussing how the Divest occupiers could work to further democratize the university. Dividing into break out groups, the occupiers went on to discuss topics ranging from endowment justice, to democratizing classrooms, to the democratization of university resources. 

Perhaps the most constructive break out group discussion was that on how to further democratize the university classroom. The popcorn style discussion brought forth a variety of suggestions on how to improve McGill’s current academic policies. Beginning with grading, the group was in consensus that the exam-centric style of grading currently embraced by the western world needed an overhaul. The occupiers’ message was clear: exams did not often reflect the learning taking place by students in the classroom. In its place, the group’s solutions ranged from having a student’s best few grades from the semester being taken, to a system where grades were awarded in correlation to a student’s effort level. 

Finally, another popular topic of conversation was that on endowment justice. Beginning with discussions over McGill’s increasingly unaffordable international tuition fees (which reached $56,544 this academic year), the group shared concerns over how their tuition was being spent. The occupiers agreed that they wanted more student consultation in matters concerning university spending. One such instance discussed by the occupiers was McGill’s spending in the filming of the “Made by McGill” advertising campaign. Unsurprisingly, the campaign total spend – which cost the university $1,217,632 – raised student eyebrows. Not only did the occupiers allege that McGill spent far too much on the campaign, they questioned whether the university could have more effectively spent the money, citing a lack of university spending on OSD resources. The group agreed that a solution to this would be the establishment of community controlled resources. 

Running over the intended 9 p.m. end time, the session concluded with the handing out of pro-Divest pamphlets, before a movie was shown to the occupiers sleeping the night in the Arts building.   

Land back, McGill, the Royal Vic, and the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera

A Thursday afternoon event likewise explored the importance of decolonizing McGill, with one of the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk mothers) leading a discussion on the Land Back movement. As mentioned in the community-building session, McGill was spared from bankruptcy by drawing a loan from the General Indian Trust Fund – “McGill would not exist without our money. McGill has never repaid us,” the speaker said. She also highlighted McGill’s complicity in state-sponsored violence against Indigenous communities: McGill got its charter from Britain, making the school part of Britain’s colonial project. Furthermore, she pointed out that Canada should be considered a corporation or a colony as it is not a country. Although “Canada thinks it became a real country when it got a flag and its own anthem in 1967,” it was founded on stolen land.

The MK Ultra project – a series of twisted psychological experiments funded by the CIA and Canadian government, in part conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute – was also pointed to as an example of the school’s violent past. McGill’s sordid history is often hidden from the Indigenous communities of what is currently Montreal; for this reason, attendees were encouraged to aid in research about McGill’s past conducted by the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera. 

Attempting to decolonize McGill cannot undo the harm that the school and state have already inflicted – “the destruction of our land, our waters, our people, how do you fix that?” she asked. Nonetheless, decolonization goes hand-in-hand with divestment: in Mohawk culture, unborn children are considered owners of the land – mothers are thus tasked with taking care of the land for them. This idea is crucial to combating climate change: “True climate justice means solidarity means divestment & decolonization,” the organization tweeted about the event.

University Response

According to a March 11 Twitter thread on the Divest McGill account, a “loud siren noise” was played within the Arts Building lobby to drive out occupiers. “We are under the impression that this is the act of one, angry staff member [sic.],” the thread continued. However, a statement provided to the Daily by the Media Relations Office (MRO) claimed that the noise “was caused by an alarm that was accidently [sic.] triggered.” 

The MRO statement also said that the University has “shown leadership in sustainability and climate activities,” pointing to the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR), and the University’s “investments in clean technologies, renewable energy, pollution prevention, and other low-carbon funds,” as proof of McGill’s commitment to sustainability. In December 2019, CAMSR recommended decarbonization rather than divestment – per the MRO statement, “McGill is well on its way to meeting the […] goal of a 33 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2025.” Additionally, the school has reduced the carbon emissions of its public equity endowment portfolio by 20 per cent – the statement claims that this reduction “is already more than could have been accomplished by divesting from fossil fuel industry holdings alone.” However, economists have pointed out that part of the benefit of divestment is the social and political stigmatization of the fossil fuel industry, expanding divestment’s impact beyond a university’s carbon footprint. The statement does not acknowledge McGill’s investment in companies complicit in human rights violations, from which Divest McGill also encourages divestment.

Additionally, the Daily reached out to Security Services to request the Operating Procedures for the Arts Building along with a copy of security logs for the week of March 7; Security Services declined to provide these documents, explaining that they are “confidential and for internal use only.” However, the Operating Procedures Regarding Demonstrations, Protests and Occupations on McGill University Campuses are available on the Secretariat’s website – these procedures clarify that “University representatives will […] issue a clear warning” that disciplinary action will be taken if occupiers and demonstrators have transgressed the parameters outlined in the Procedures.

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The School of Social Work (SSW) had previously decided that courses would be delivered remotely through the end of February, as announced in a January 4 email from the School’s Director, Nico Trocmé. However, on January 6, students were told that the School had been directed to return in-person along with other departments. “I regret to announce that I have been told by the university that our School does not have the authority to decide to extend on-line [sic] course delivery beyond January 21st,” Trocmé wrote in a schoolwide email. “Please be assured that we will continue to advocate for teaching conditions that best meet the needs of our professional programs.” Trocmé did not respond to the Daily’s request for elaboration on why the university instructed the School not to extend the duration of remote learning.

Student concerns: mandatory fieldwork, hybrid learning, and accreditation

Achieving a degree in Social Work requires conducting fieldwork to gain practical experience – as such, many U2 and U3 students are currently working in hospitals, long-term care centres (CHSLDs), local community service centres (CLSCs), or other institutions outside of the university to fulfill this requirement. This makes a return to in-person learning at this time particularly problematic for Social Work students, per Roy: “It’s the expectation that on Monday we go to our classes, and then Tuesday go to the COVID ward, and then Wednesday we come back into our class and possibly spread COVID around,” they said in an interview with the Daily. Roy, whose current fieldwork placement is in Kahnawá:ke, emphasized that McGill’s decision to send Social Work students back to classrooms puts vulnerable communities at risk. “We already very much are aware of the history of spreading disease to Indigenous communities […] It’s keeping in line with McGill’s history of oppressive hierarchy, of making its own decisions for the sake of its own decisions and power and ego at the expense of vulnerable communities and in this context, at the expense of Indigenous communities, and perpetuating colonialism.” Fieldwork is considered a Tier One teaching activity, so it has continued throughout the pandemic – and despite the high amount of social contacts which fieldwork entails, the university has not offered accommodations or N95 masks to Social Work students, per Roy.

[Returning is] keeping in line with McGill’s history of oppressive hierarchy, of making its own decisions […] at the expense of vulnerable communities, and in this context, at the expense of Indigenous communities.

Jo Roy

While students at the GA expressed worries similar to Roy’s – one mentioned their employment in a COVID ward, while another was worried about chronically ill students having to choose between their health and education – students also raised concerns about how a strike would affect their studies, instructors’ workloads, and the School’s upcoming accreditation process. “If we go on strike and the professor’s doing their work only in class […] what is the option to not miss information or course content?” asked a student in the Zoom chat. According to Roy, instructors have “not-so-subtly” indicated support for the students’ strike initiative, so they do not anticipate instructors refusing to offer online course delivery; students would also continue encouraging instructors to record their in-person lectures for the benefit of those remaining online. Codey Martin – a U3 student who, along with Roy, encouraged the school to deliver courses remotely through February – was also troubled by the possibility that the strike could have negative ramifications for students who are about to graduate, but said he was still willing to strike: “Nobody here or within the McGill community is going to force me to forfeit my degree and force me in person.” Roy empathized with Martin, and pointed out that the strike does not call on students to abstain from their education altogether, as Social Work students will continue to participate in online activities while striking from classes conducted in person. 

However, the pressure to provide an online option could create more work for course lecturers and other non-tenured academic staff: having to teach both online and in-person students means twice the amount of work for one course. According to Roy, the McGill Course Lecturers and Instructors Union (MCLIU) has encouraged its members not to offer hybrid options for this reason. As such, the strikers are not advocating for a hybrid option – they encourage instructors to remain completely online. 

The SSW is preparing to renew its accreditation this year, meaning that the school’s Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program will be under the scrutiny of the Canadian Association of Social Work Education (CASWE). This fact could work in the favour of striking students, Roy pointed out during the GA: “Is McGill willing to completely risk losing entire cohorts of social workers when we’re already in demand in the field and when we’re in the middle of an accreditation process? […] I don’t think McGill is willing to risk that.” With McGill providing the only English-language BSW program in the province, the university stands to lose an important part of its reputation if it chooses to ignore striking students, or punish them by issuing failing grades. 

In the Daily’s follow-up interview with Roy, they elaborated on the strike’s potential impacts on accreditation. CASWE does qualitative assessments of schools’ pedagogy and conducts on-campus visits, they said – if students are absent from classes for a long period of time, or if McGill does not allow them to graduate, it stands to reason that this would negatively affect CASWE’s assessment of the school’s pedagogy. Additionally, social workers are in high demand, Roy pointed out; delaying the graduation of striking students would mean depriving the province of more social workers, and would have bad consequences for the English-language healthcare system in particular. As such, the university has considerable incentive to meet Social Work students’ demands, despite the SSW’s small size.

Despite these concerns, the strike resolution passed with an overwhelming majority in favour. Seventy students voted “yes” to adopting the resolution, while two abstained and three voted “no.” Roy said that they were “ecstatic” upon the passage of the resolution, viewing it as a sign of solidarity and community among Social Work students.

The “Butterfly Effect”

During the GA, Roy also mentioned the support that other student organizations have offered, saying that the strike resolution had inspired a “butterfly effect” within the Faculty of Law and the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS). The Faculty of Law held a Town Hall on Friday, January 21, with Dean Robert Leckey to discuss students’ concerns about returning in-person. On Friday, January 28, the Law Students’ Association (LSA) will be holding a Special General Meeting to make a collective decision on how the LSA should proceed with addressing student concerns. “We support students’ wishes to pursue collective action during this difficult time,” the FaceBook Event for the meeting reads.

PGSS expressed support for students’ right to strike in an email exchange with the Daily. PGSS representatives also indicated appreciation for the strike being “a principled and proactive creation of alternative learning conditions” rather than a walkout, which would disrupt students’ education. The SWSA has not reached out to PGSS asking for support, so the Society has not voted to take an explicit position on the strike. Additionally, the Society has listed SSW graduate students who are currently completing fieldwork requirements as part of the top priority group for their distribution of CA-N95s, FN-N95s, and KN95s. They also pointed out that online learning had been deemed pedagogically appropriate by SSW faculty. 

Likewise, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) has stated their support for students advocating against unsafe learning conditions. In an email to the Daily, AGSEM President Mario Roy wrote that the Association “stands in solidarity with all members of the McGill community who refuse to be put at risk by the university’s irresponsible decision to return to in-person teaching activities” before the end of the fifth wave. Currently, the union has not voted on the question of whether members should strike themselves.

On January 22, the Education Graduate Students’ Society endorsed a strike from classes on January 24 and January 25, organized by Emma McKay and Katherine Hardin. In an email exchange with the Daily, McKay said they were “distressed” by McGill’s plan to return to in-person school, but was inspired by the SWSA strike because “it demonstrated that [students] weren’t totally out of options. I called Kate and got to work,” they wrote. Additionally, Social Work students shared their tactics with EGSS organizers, McKay said. 

Similarly to Social Work undergraduates, graduate Education students often work in high-contact environments. So many EGSS members work in elementary and high schools during the day – sometimes at multiple different schools – that most graduate-level education classes have to be offered in the evening, per McKay and Hardin. This means that most education graduate students have many contacts during the day, so “in-person classes pose a much greater risk to all involved – children in those teachers’ classes included.”

The EGSS strike resolution passed with 86.3 per cent of members in favour. On January 25, EGSS will reconvene in a Special General Assembly to discuss extending the strike until February 25.

If there’s something I’ve learned over the past few years in trying to appreciate and integrate and learn Indigenous ways of knowing, it’s that we [should] be a good relative, and the strike is us being a good relative, I think.

Jo Roy

Additionally, a petition has been circulating within the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) requesting a GA to be held for students to vote on whether the AUS should strike. As per Article 17.2 of the AUS Constitution, the petition must reach 200 signatures for a GA to be called. The quorum for a GA concerning a student strike is 500 members. While the AUS did hold a Town Hall on Friday, January 21, Arts Representative Avishai Infeld clarified to the Daily that the Town Hall was not motivated by SWSA’s strike.

Organizers are encouraged by the solidarity that student organizations have offered to SWSA. “Students across campus are making their concerns and their care for each other known. Solidarity keeps us safe!” McKay and Hardin wrote. Likewise, Jo Roy said they were proud of Social Work students for going on strike, and proud of the solidarity which the strike has inspired. “If there’s something I’ve learned over the past few years in trying to appreciate and integrate and learn Indigenous ways of knowing, it’s that we [should] be a good relative, and the strike is us being a good relative, I think,” they concluded.

Faculty and Administration’s response

On January 19, Trocmé shared the School’s response to the strike resolution in an email to Social Work undergraduates. “It is the School’s mandate to urge students to follow the plans for the resumption of in-person teaching set out by the university,” he wrote, after acknowledging the time students had taken to prepare and pass the strike resolution. Per Trocmé’s email, Social Work instructors will be encouraged to be flexible and accommodating to students who do not attend class in-person. Additionally, the SSW has created a working committee to address student concerns, chaired by Michael MacKenzie, a professor of Social Work, Psychiatry and Pediatrics. Trocmé concluded his email with a reminder that “The need for new social workers is more pressing than ever. Let’s work together to make this term […] an effective learning experience.”

In a roundtable interview with Associate Provost Christopher Buddle and Deputy Provost Fabrice Labeau on January 21, Buddle responded to questions about the strike. While answering a question from The McGill Tribune about how the university plans to resolve the strike, Buddle said he understood the SWSA to be participating in a “boycott,” and continued that “it’s really about students making a decision […] to not attend in-person teaching activities […] and students have always had a choice whether or not to come to class.” He also said that he questions the narrative that the university is unsafe: “because of the layers of protection we have in place, we’re very confident that the university is an environment [where] we can effectively teach our activities in person.”

In an email to the Daily, Roy clarified that SWSA’s action is a strike, not a boycott. “Our strike organizers see Buddle’s statement as an effort to diminish the power behind our collective decision to strike,” they wrote. “We are on strike from in person classes until at least February 25th, there is no other fact than that.”

The Daily also inquired about why the School had been directed to return in-person despite the passage of an October Arts Faculty Council motion and the Course Delivery Parameters established by McGill’s Senate – both of which affirm faculties’ ability to determine the mode of course delivery. Buddle clarified that the Course Delivery Parameters do not constitute a “blanket statement” which allows programs to make their own decisions regarding in-person or remote learning. “It’s not the point of the university overturning [the SSW’s] decision. It’s really a point of having the conversation within the faculty, within programs around the balance of in-person and online,” he continued. Roy, who chairs the SSW’s Committee on Accessible Education, disagreed with Buddle. “Central admin denied [the SSW’s decision to remain online], eliminating our ability to choose and even have a conversation about it. The conversations have been had, McGill just refuses to listen,” they wrote.

The Daily will continue to cover student concerns about the return to in-person activities. If you have thoughts about the return to campus, or a tip to share, please email news@mcgilldaily.com.

A previous edition of this article characterized the statement from PGSS as “explicit support” for the strike when the Society has not taken a position on the strike. The article has been amended to reflect this fact – the Daily regrets this error.

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• Most classes will be in-person; lecture classes with over 200 students will remain online, with a few exceptions
• Students are encouraged to get a third dose of the vaccine
• Extracurricular activities must be conducted remotely
• Rapid testing is now available to symptomatic students living in downtown campus residences

While Labeau acknowledged that students may be anxious about in-person activities, he noted that most COVID-19 cases in fully vaccinated individuals are not severe. University administration is confident that in-person activities are able to resume safely because of McGill’s reportedly high levels of vaccination and the “many other layers of protection” that have been implemented, he continued. Labeau wrote that the university will provide more updates and information throughout the next week; the Daily will continue to follow the situation as it unfolds.

Advocacy & Accessibility

Shortly after Labeau’s statement was released, an open letter written by second-year Arts student Lavinia Auhoma and edited by VP University Affairs Claire Downie began circulating online. The letter’s demands include:

• online alternatives to every class, and mandatory recorded lectures
• a reopening plan with “detailed accounts of the methodology used for contact tracing [on] and off-campus”
• the distribution of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as KN95 masks
• flexible attendance requirements, so that students are not punished for missing class or in-person examinations

Although Labeau wrote that administration has “been receiving many emails and getting other feedback,” Auhoma points out that “the McGill student body at large has not been consulted or surveyed” about the decision of when to return to campus. She also responds to Labeau’s statement that most COVID cases in fully vaccinated individuals are not severe: “An assumption that most students will not be seriously harmed if infected […] is ableist and contributes to McGill’s devaluing of disabled students and community members.” The letter goes on to point out that Concordia has made the decision to remain online until February 2, just as other Canadian universities have extended the duration of remote learning. In a reference to Labeau’s suggestion that students “do something relaxing […] Go outside, call a friend, meditate,” the letter concludes that “Going outside, meditating, and calling a friend is not enough when the University is systematically failing us.”

In an email statement to the Daily, Auhoma said that the response to the open letter has been “overwhelmingly supportive,” with over 600 signatures as of Saturday, January 15. “I understand the limitations of an open letter […] but it’s remarkable that […] people have been listening,” she wrote, commenting on students’ pessimism regarding online activism. 

Auhoma sympathized with students concerned about the drawbacks to remote learning: “I started school in the pandemic and got my ‘university experience’ taken away before it even began.” As such, she wrote that the university should be giving students the option of safely returning to school or continuing their studies online. She also worried that the university is pointing towards students’ mental health concerns as a justification for reopening school, without actually meeting students’ needs: “McGill needs to prove that they actually care about mental health by providing safety nets and accommodations.” 

Auhoma further criticized the claim that the Omicron variant is mild, characterizing it as “dangerously ableist […] speculative and harmful” rhetoric. She pointed out that regardless of the severity of the virus, most students likely want to avoid sickness; if school reopens and mass absenteeism ensues because of widespread illness, there is little point in returning, per Auhoma. Additionally, she expressed concern that McGill’s lack of flexibility will incentivize sick students to attend class, claiming that testimony collected through the form attached to the open letter included ill students concerned that they would be pressured to return to school before fully recovering. She encouraged members of the McGill community who want to advocate further to attend student union meetings or Q&A sessions with McGill administration, and to monitor the news.

McGill needs to prove that they actually care about mental health by providing safety nets and accommodations.

Lavinia Auhoma

SSMU has begun some work to prepare for the return to campus – the VP University Affairs portfolio published a Google Form through which students can submit information about the in-person requirements of their courses. Responses are being compiled in a spreadsheet; according to the form, the project is intended to help students unable to attend school in-person to choose courses that meet their needs.

Additionally, SSMU’s Board of Directors passed a motion to allocate $8,000 towards the purchase of N95 or KN95 masks on January 6, as reported by The McGill Tribune. Details about this motion to come.

Booster Shot Information

While Quebec currently only requires two doses of the vaccine for an individual to be considered “adequately protected,” the government will require three doses “once the entire population has had a chance to receive their booster shot.” Here’s how to receive or register your booster shot.

To receive your booster shot: book an appointment on Clic Santé by choosing the “COVID Vaccine – 3rd dose” option in the “Select a Service” menu; if you are not covered by RAMQ, choose “COVID Vaccine – Troubleshooting.” Alternatively, find a walk-in clinic on the Santé Montréal website.

To register a booster shot from outside of Quebec: schedule an appointment at a designated vaccination centre on Clic Santé by choosing the “COVID Vaccine – Troubleshooting” option in the “Select a Service” menu. Bring a piece of ID and proof of vaccination; once your vaccine has been verified, your passport will be updated.

What to do if You’re Symptomatic

• Do not come to campus. You can find Montreal pharmacies distributing rapid tests through the Quebec government’s directory.
• If you are living in residence on the downtown campus, you can receive a rapid test by booking an appointment online through the link that was emailed by Student Housing and Hospitality Services.
  • Tests are being given at Carrefour Sherbrooke Ballroom, New Residence Hall Ballroom, and the main floor McConnell Hall Common Room. Choose the location closest to your residence.
  • Bring your student ID to verify that you live in residence.
  • If you test positive, Student Housing and Hospitality Services will contact you with information about how to isolate.
  • Macdonald campus residences do not yet have rapid testing services, but per Labeau’s statement, a rapid testing program will be implemented there in the coming weeks.
• Isolate. This means you must stay home, and avoid interacting with other people if possible – wear a mask and practice 2 metre social distancing if you share an indoor space with others.
  • Quebec’s recommended isolation period is five days for fully-vaccinated individuals, ten days for those who are not fully-vaccinated, and 21 days for immunosuppressed individuals (regardless of vaccination status).
  • To apply for short-term academic accommodations, use the COVID-19 Academic Considerations Request Form found in the Personal Menu on Minerva.
• If you were on campus within the 48 hours prior to developing symptoms, call the Case Management Group at 514-398-3000.
  • Case management staff will provide information about next steps and resources.

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Although Executives previously told the Daily that SSMU’s staff have “nothing to do with the politics of the Society,” they have since characterized Daryanani’s absence as an HR issue, separate from Society politics. Because of this, the reason and duration of Daryanani’s absence have not been shared with the Legislative Council, and Executives have not confirmed whether Daryanani is on paid leave.

VP Finance Éric Sader discouraged the Board from ratifying the motion, claiming that it made incorrect assumptions about Daryanani’s absence. “He has not been delinquent in his duties, he is on leave,” Sader said of Daryanani, disputing the motion’s claim that the President should be “held accountable for delinquency of duties.” Sader then reiterated that the President’s absence is an HR issue which can only be discussed in confidential session. VP External Sacha Delouvrier echoed Sader’s comments, stating that HR matters and the confidentiality of Daryanani’s absence prevented Directors from ratifying the motion. “Whether I agree with the content [of the motion] or not […] I sincerely don’t believe that we should go around HR matters,” he said, asking Directors to oppose ratification. However, he said that a motion calling for a Special General Assembly (GA) regarding an Executive would be “a different story.”

Management Representative Nathaniel Saad asked Sader and Delouvrier why they did not raise their concerns during the motion’s debate period at the Legislative Council meeting. Sader explained that his capacity as an Officer of SSMU is different from his capacity as a Director: “I felt the need to abstain because of knowledge that I had as a Director, and […] thought that it was not my place to be discussing those issues.” Delouvrier agreed, stating that it was more appropriate for him to discuss the motion at a Board meeting. He continued, “I just simply think that the motion itself asking for the President’s resignation is not the right way to go about this situation.”

Saad countered that ratification of the motion would not be an endorsement of its claim about delinquency, but would instead be an acknowledgement of the Legislative Council’s desire to enact the motion. He also pointed out that the motion includes an option to call for a Special GA: in the event that Daryanani refused to submit a letter of resignation within 48 hours of the motion’s ratification, a Special GA would be scheduled for the beginning of the Winter 2022 semester. Saad encouraged Directors to “consider taking that route” when contemplating ratification. After Saad’s comments, the Board elected to move discussion of ratification into a confidential session to be held later in the evening.

The confidential session lasted for over two hours. Upon returning to public session, Sader advised Directors to invoke section six, subsection 1.4 of the Internal Regulations of Governance, which states that the BoD may overturn the Legislative Council’s vote if doing so protects the Society’s “legal, financial, or operational well-being.” Saad asked whether the motion could be amended to address the Board’s concerns and be eligible for ratification. Sader said that answering Saad’s question would violate the confidentiality surrounding Daryanani’s leave of absence. Directors voted unanimously to postpone the motion indefinitely.

In an email statement sent to the Daily following the meeting, Saad expressed disappointment in the Board’s decision. “I’m confident that both myself and the other councillors will keep pushing to hold the SSMU execs and board accountable,” he continued, “but I believe some serious constitutional changes are needed because SSMU should be accountable to the student body above all else, but right now they’re not.” Saad also pointed to section 13.2 of the SSMU Constitution, which states that students can call for a special GA with a minimum of 50 students from four different faculties. He said that Councillors will be “ready to hit the ground running next semester and keep working to get some answers.”

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