“It’s the way we’re trying to manage things, to set expectations. You’re not going to find any document in a green book somewhere that says this is the policy of the University,” said Jim Nicell, Associate VP (University Services). Nicell has been coordinating many of the sustainability and infrastructure developments on campus.

The change is part of McGill’s master plan to update infrastructure and make lower campus a greener and safer space for pedestrians. The administration says there have been numerous accidents involving cyclists over the years.

“The reason for making the lower campus a walk-bike zone should be readily apparent: thousands of pedestrians cross McGill’s downtown campus every day, sometimes – especially when classes change – in substantial numbers,” a preliminary document explaining the new transportation protocols reads.  
“Mounted bicycles are incompatible with pedestrian safety,” it continued.    
Nicell emphasized the increased ability for pedestrians to take advantage of outdoor space. In addition to the ban on cycling, deliveries are now restricted to between 7 and 11 a.m., parking permits for about 150 vehicles have been transferred elsewhere, and McTavish is now completely car-free.

“We want to bring people off of the sidewalks,” Nicell said.  “The idea is to give them more social space.”

The University does not view the no-bike implementation as incompatible with its greening initiatives.  The number of bike racks on campus, mostly clustered around entrances, is also being doubled by the end of 2010.

According to the University, it shouldn’t be a big deal to dismount and walk.

“I think a lot of us feel that it’s not a huge compromise,” Nicell said. “To the cyclists, we’re offering them as many parking spots as we can physically fit on the campus. We try to make sure they’re as safe and secure locations as possible. And we’re asking them, as well, to walk the reasonable distance to wherever they’re going.”

As for general public who commute through campus or arrive by bike to enjoy the space, Nicell does not see any major inconvenience.  
“You have a choice to go around [McGill], or you can enjoy us for two more minutes,” he said.

Campus cyclists, however, are less than thrilled. Chuk Plante, a sociology graduate student, cyclist, and volunteer at the Flat, the student bike collective in the Shatner basement, says that the change is misguided at best.

“It’s not an anti-bike policy so much as an overly-reactive safety policy,” he said. “It assumes pedestrians are pretty dumb, and cyclists are pretty careless.”  
Plante argues that it further antagonizes the administration in students’ eyes. “The policy makes it seem like the administration is very out of touch,” he said. “As long as it’s in place, [students] interact with the admin every day in a negative way.”

While Plante tends to obey the dismount request and agrees that the new bike racks are helpful, others often speed past security guards.  Last Friday night, two disgruntled cyclists on McTavish even tried to steal a “Dismount Your Bike” sign before the guard was able to retrieve it.

Nicell concedes the change can seem harsh at late hours when there are virtually no pedestrians.  As the semester begins, the University may look to reduce the hours during which cyclists must dismount to peak times.

“From a long-term sustainability viewpoint, we need to figure out how we’re going to work with cyclists and put them into the mix with pedestrians,” he said.  “We’re trying to find that middle ground…and in this case, compromise on the ability of cyclists to pass through the campus.”

Further concerns have been voiced, however, about a perceived lack of consultation before the protocol’s implementation, which began in earnest this summer, but can be traced back to the construction at the Milton gates that restricted road space over the past two years.

Though the administration is holding a forum for cyclists and other interested parties September 23, some think it’s coming too late.

Nicell argued that proper consultation was done. He said that the diverse stakeholders involved in weekly planning discussions included avid cyclists, though no students. According to Nicell, several presentations on sustainability, including some to Senate last year, were sufficient, even though the presentations may not have specifically discussed the no-bike rule.

“They probably should have involved people before it was implemented,” Plante said.

The post Biking banned on campus appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Hanging in front of the James Administration building, the signs contained a large computerized image and descriptions in both English and French detailing plans for a statue of principal Heather Munroe-Blum. They were weatherproof, supported by two wooden beams, and came complete with McGill and City of Montreal logos at the bottom.

The posters, the administration claimed, are part of an elaborate hoax.

A phony print-up of an online McGill Reporter article spread the Heather Munroe-Blum statue rumour further. Matthew Ward, SSMU Director of Communications and Publications, found the print-up tacked up on a wall. The article, titled “Working towards a growing Campus,” claimed a publication date of July 24, 2008.

The McGill Reporter does not publish in July. The URL at the bottom of the print-up leads to a “404 Not Found” page, and searching the author’s name yields zero hits in the McGill Reporter search results.

Both the sham McGill Reporter article and the signs that outline plans for the expansion of the green space, tunnel and pipe repair, construction on the Burnside and Leacock buildings, landscaping of the lower field, and “the unveiling of a statue of Principal Heather Munroe-Blum in honour of her remarkable fundraising achievements for McGill.”

The article even quotes Robert Stanley, the Projects Director at Facilities Development, as saying, “Its [sic] thanks in large part to the success of Campaign McGill that we were able to do all these projects…so its [sic] fitting that we can use this opportunity to honour McGill’s most historic fundraiser.”

Jim Nicell, the coordinator of the Master Plan, McGill’s long-term outline for the physical improvement of campus, said the signs were a complete joke. He had not heard about the phony Reporter article before The Daily interviewed him.

Plans for the area – currently under construction due to actual tunnel repairs – will not be finalized for another four to five months, according to Nicell. The project is not expected to be finished until August.

Though Nicell did not wish to comment on the statue hoax directly, he mentioned that he, the principal, and his staff got a kick out of the signs they found. One currently stands in his office while the other sits in Munroe-Blum’s.

“I had a good laugh out of it,” he said.

Munroe-Blum was unavailable for comment before press time.

The post HMB statue is a hoax appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Adopted in December 2005, the policy, called Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law, outlines the process by which members of the McGill community – students, employees, and office holders – can file and resolve a complaint of harassment, sexual harassment, or discrimination.

But since it is mandated to only undergo a review in its third year of existence, with no provision for future reviews, the stakes are high within the McGill Senate working group.

The Sexual Assault Centre of McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), urged the body to focus on revising the definition of sexual harassment in a document submitted to the working group.

The current definition of sexual harassment requires “intent, in whole or in part.”

“We want to focus on the effect of the situation because that’s most relevant to the survivor, as opposed to intent, which is more relevant to the perpetrator,” said SACOMSS external coordinator Becky Harris.

According to SACOMSS, regardless of intent, the effect is still sexual harassment if that’s how the survivor perceives it.

Professor William Foster, Assistant Provost Policies and Procedures, who is chairing the group, said they will discuss the definition “intent.”

“It can have a significant impact,” Foster said. “The issue of intent will be looked at.”

He noted the difference between subjective intent, defined as deliberate and conscious, and objective intent, the way a reasonable person would interpret conduct regardless of intent to sexually harass.

SSMU president Kay Turner was concerned that decisions on sexual harassment cases effectively lie in the hands of two people.

According to current policy, a member of the McGill community may file a complaint against another member to an assessor – an appointed administrator or academic. The assessor then attempts to facilitate a mutually agreeable informal resolution, but if the agreement fails, the assessor then recommends or discourages disciplinary action to the Provost. They in turn can render whatever disciplinary measures they see fit without having met the parties involved.

“It would be better for complaints to go through some sort of group of people,” Turner said. She also criticized the current system’s lack of a mechanism for appeals.

“My perception is that this is not an optimal policy. There are better ways it could be shaped for all parties involved, specifically in the review of complaints and the appeals process,” Turner said.

SACOMSS’s letter shared Turner’s sentiments and suggested the working group create a provision for appeals.

If parties agree to an informal resolution – such as a formal written apology or switching residences – they waive any right to external or further internal recourse. The survivor is therefore unable to sue the perpetrator in a court of law, or take any other course of action should they change their mind. If the decision goes all the way to the Provost, the survivor must go through a grievance procedure to appeal the decision.

SACOMSS representatives have been invited to the next working group meeting.

The post Harassment policy reviewed appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The Plate Club, formed in February 2007 as a Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPRIG) and Greening McGill initiative, originally supplied dishes to groups requesting their services for events. Last year the Club upgraded to a 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekday lunch service on the second floor of the SSMU building for students eating at Tiki Ming, Franx Supreme, Cultures, and Midnight Kitchen.

According to Tim Dowling, Interim Plate Club Liaison to SSMU, the Club stopped dish distribution for logistical concerns – sanitation concerns about the bins used for washing dishes, a shortage of members to fill shifts, and the time and labour-intensive nature of washing dishes – necessitating the Plate Club to rethink their operations.

“We need to have a structure that’s sustainable,” he said.

Sebastian Ronderos-Morgan, U2 Political Science and Economics and representative to the SSMU Environmental Committee, was surprised and disappointed when the Club’s lunchtime table was missing this semester.

“It’s a fantastic service that impacts our environmental footprint,” Ronderos-Morgan said. “[The cafeteria restaurants] don’t give out reusable plates, so…I use paper plates when I eat there. When I eat at Midnight Kitchen, I have no choice but to beg and grovel for Tupperware.”

Despite their absence in Shatner, Dowling assured the Plate Club is still active, providing clubs and campus groups with dishes for their events by request. During a busy week, Dowling said the Club can work up to five events.

Dowling plans to submit a research stipend proposal to the Clubs and Services Committee of SSMU next week that would explore options for a more centralized plate operation run by SSMU, more involvement from the McGill Sustainability Office, or for the Plate Club to gain SSMU service status.

“We are actively looking at options for what plate services in SSMU should look like,” Dowling said.

Samantha Cook, SSMU VP Clubs & Services, was unaware that the Club wouldn’t be dishing out lunch before the semester started. She mentioned the possibility of creating a work-study position next year to have a student operate the industrial dishwasher that SSMU installed this summer.

The work-study application deadline has already passed for the 2008-2009 academic year.

“In the meantime, I need to have more conversations with the Plate Club and the SSMU exec before we go forward with anything,” Cook said.

Cook explained that the Plate Club members applied for service status last April, but withdrew the application after discussions with Marcelle Kosman, the former VP Clubs & Services. According to Cook, Kosman was concerned that the transition from a club to a service was moving too quickly.

“There should be more time before a club becomes a service. Granting [the Plate Club] such high status without being sure it could self-perpetuate would be risky,” Cook said.

SSMU currently has 20 services, all of which are institutionalized under SSMU’s services by-laws and have a mandate to service the entire undergraduate student body. According to Cook, services hold increased responsibilities to the students and to SSMU – ensuring regular availability to undergrads and conforming to SSMU’s accounting procedures.

In spite of the unanswered questions that plague the Plate Club’s future, Dowling predicted the Plate Club will return to its table on the second floor in the future – though for the moment it will only supply events.

According to Dowling’s latest tally, the Plate Club has approximately 325 plates, 75 cups, 96 wine goblets, but not enough cutlery.

“There’s a donation box in the SSMU office,” he added.

The post And the dish ran away with the spoon appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The City of Montreal and the Plateau-Mont Royal borough are spending a combined $9-million in a three-stage redevelopment effort in the St. Viateur East sector – between Henri Julien and St. Urbain, running north to the Canadian Pacific railway – slated to begin this year.

An area on St. Viateur that is currently dominated by apartments, empty lots, and warehouses is the first scheduled for a face-lift. Plans include widening the sidewalks, installing new lampposts, and burying electrical wires.

The next stage will see the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks, intended to increase accessibility surrounding the Rosemont metro station. It will also extend two streets: St. Viateur and Alma.

At its monthly council meeting today, the Borough is expected to approve a $52,300 contract with Vlan Paysages, an urban planning and landscape firm hired to restructure St. Viateur between St. Laurent and Gaspé. The contract outlines the geographical plan for the project, conditions of tender, and provisions for the City’s surveillance.

While most tenants and organizations of the neighbourhood acknowledge the need for improvement in the area’s infrastructure and accessibility, they are raising serious concerns about green space, the City’s lack of communication, and the long-term viability of current residents and businesses.

Big ol’ plans

Borys Fridman, the owner of Jeans Jeans Jeans, a popular denim warehouse located in a building set to be destroyed in the extension of St. Viateur, has identified the area as a “maze” of overpasses and small one-way streets. But he said that the problems are rooted deeper than accessibility and cannot be relieved with simple monetary investments.

“What’s the purpose of spending millions of dollars? So that somebody can have St. Viateur go another block [to Henri Julien]? It’s not going to alleviate any of the issues here,” Fridman said.

St. Viateur East once supported Montreal’s extensive textile-related industry. Overwhelmed by a collection of concrete structures and deafening wind tunnels, the area has deteriorated as businesses migrated north or abroad and the bordering railway closed.

According to Daniel Casey, an urban planner and long-time observer of Mile End, the City has had its eye on the district, located in the northwest corner of the Plateau Mont-Royal borough, for several years, planning to re-establish the structures as owners leave and firms close down.

“The area does not have a high profile – partly because you can’t walk through it,” Casey said.

“But if we’re talking about revitalizing forgotten spaces you need to think about why they were forgotten in the first place.”

Mark Snyder, the Political Advisor for the Plateau-Mont Royal borough, said that the plan focuses on residential rather than commercial development.

“We’re looking to have somewhere around 11,000 extra residential units,” Snyder said.

“This area is a very unstructured area. You’ve got some residential, you’ve got some big business, big tracks and empty lots. The intention is to have something better integrated, better quality of life, and redeveloped in a major way through residential usage,” he said.

According to Casey, plans for St. Viateur break from the City’s past redevelopment schemes, which have either fused fractured areas, or focused on implementing public spaces. He claimed that the City has ignored social housing in the face of commercialization and that voices advocating green space have been muted.

Casey pointed to rumoured plans for the conversion of a park under the Rosemont overpass at Clark and Van Horne – an area now utilized by the artist-run centre DARE-DARE – into a parking lot for public works vehicles. DARE-DARE’s permit expires without renewal at the end of June.

Snyder mentioned a 181 residential unit building for seniors currently being built on Gaspé.

And the people?

As plans about the proposed future of St. Viateur East trickle into the area, uninformed residents and business owners are accusing the City of withholding information.

Fridman said that he discovered the plans to demolish his business’s building only when customers who work at nearby UbiSoft casually asked where Jeans Jeans Jeans would be relocating.

UbiSoft, a well-known gaming and entertainment company, has two offices in the area. According to Fridman, the company is located in the heart of the neighbourhood’s former industrial centre, and was partially responsible for bringing both better and higher-paying jobs to former textile workers and for the recruitment of younger workers, contributing to gentrification in the area.

Fridman learned that the City’s press conference announcing the project – of which he was unaware – was held at UbiSoft.

“It’s not like [the businesses] were involved in planning.… It was more like, ‘We’re doing this, live with it,’” Fridman said.

According to its policy on public consultation and participation, Montreal must “foster public consultation practices that are transparent, credible, effective and useful to the decision-making process.”

But Fridman alleged the consultation process did not happen.

“I’ve been here for 35 years. I’m not hidden; I’m the first thing you see [at the intersection]. You’d think the City would have come and spoken with me,” he said, adding, “There is no question that the consultations weren’t done,” he said.

However, Snyder said that the consultation process has been ongoing since 2001, when the City first presented the Plan d’urbanisme to revitalize Montreal. He cited that one-third of the borough’s $4.7-million investment budget is allocated to a “participatory budget” account, with which citizens decide what projects to take on.

The money the Borough is contributing to the project is not coming from this account.

Snyder also said that the City’s obligation was to building owners, not tenants.

Marlene Caron, the Community Development Advisor for the Plateau-Mont Royal borough, also noted that the monthly council meetings are open for the public to raise concerns. Fridman said that he has left repeated messages at the Borough’s office.

No one has returned his calls.

The long term

According to city officials, the $9-million invested into the project will be recouped through increased taxes and private investment. KPMG, an accounting firm hired by the City, estimates that up to $250-million will be generated in private real estate development.

Snyder believes current merchants and residents will remain economically viable after the increased taxes.

“There is a very strong will from [the City] that the people who are there can continue to stay there,” Snyder said, adding that it cannot guarantee such an outcome.

Fridman is skeptical, citing the drawn-out reconstruction of St. Laurent that forced several merchants out of business and other redevelopment efforts in Montreal that left residents with skyrocketing taxes.

“Their concepts and ideas are great, but in practice there are so many mistakes that happen, and the city never suffers the consequences – it’s the business owners and home owners that do.”

– with files from Jennifer Markowitz

The post Mile End to undergo massive redevelopment appeared first on The McGill Daily.

After nearly a year of planning and several location changes, the SSMU bike collective opened its doors on Tuesday to a pack of students anxious to fix their rusty chains, flat tires, and dead brakes.

According to Sara Todd, U3 International Development Studies, people can bring their bicycles to the collective – located in room B02 in the Shatner basement – and learn how to do repairs themselves with help from volunteer mechanics on shift.

“It’s about demystifying the bicycle, taking it apart, knowing how it works, not being scared of it,” Todd said. “It’s really cool to find out how simple the machine really is.”

The modestly-sized room has plenty of shelving space, a sitting area, and three stands for mounting bikes for repairs.

Less than an hour after the collective opened, all three stands were occupied and the room was bustling with volunteers and curious students stopping by. One student’s bike had been run over by a sidewalk snowplough.

Peter O’Connor, U3 Engineering, brought his bike in after his brakes and derailleur – the gear mechanism – had rusted over. Currently a member of Right to Move, a bike co-op on the Concordia campus that charges $20 a year for membership, O’Connor said he was excited to see another bike service downtown.

“There’s such a load of people using bike services, especially in the spring and summer – so it’s good to have an extra service,” O’Connor said.

“I’m freaking pumped. It’s great.”

Before the co-op moved into its current space next to Gert’s, which used to be the SSMU IT offices, SSMU Council and volunteers had considered the kitchen in the sub-basement, used by Organic Campus, and room 108, now set to be occupied by Liquid Nutrition.

The bike collective has an operating budget of $4,700 each year that is funded by part of the opt-outable SSMU Environmetnt Fee, to which students contribute $1.25 per semester. Other student services are paid for from SSMU’s regular clubs and services budget or from special fee levies.

The non-hierarchical bike collective strives to differentiate itself from other bike co-ops and shops, said volunteer Kerri Westlake.

“We really want to make the space safe and accessible. I feel like sometimes bike shops can be really intimidating, and we want to move away from that,” Westlake said.

Though some volunteers know more about bike mechanics than others, Westlake said it’s easy to learn how to make repairs. Neither she nor Todd were familiar with bicycle maintenance before becoming volunteers.

Several other volunteers who have experience working in shops and co-ops, like Jeff McMahon, a six-month Right to Move volunteer, led workshops earlier this semester to train more inexperienced volunteers. McMahon also stressed that the collective encourages beginners to use the service.

“Anyone can come in and learn,” McMahon said.

The collective plans on holding more workshops for non-volunteers as well, though plans have not been finalized.

Students are asked to make donations when using the service, and McMahon encourages donating used parts as well. The bike collective is now open Tuesdays and Fridays, 4:30 to 9 p.m. It will be open during the summer as well, with hours to be announced.

Marcelle Kosman, current SSMU VP Clubs & Services, said she was excited the collective had finally opened, and said students were looking forward to more bike-friendly weather.

“This fucking weather won’t stop being winter,” Kosman said.

The Daily reported that the collective had originally considered room 103 as a potential location, in fact, it considered room 108

The post Bike collective gets rolling this week appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Trevor Chow-Fraser spoke on behalf of the Yes Committee for the autonomous opt-out question, which asks if students support SSMU groups and independent student organizations to administer their own accessible online opt-out system.

“Minerva’s minimalist interface presents each fee as little more than an alpha-numeric code with an attached dollar amount, similar to the way students are often treated,” Chow-Fraser said.

Currently, the opt-out option is on Minerva, and critics say it does not offer proper context about the groups affected.

According to Chow-Fraser, the system creates opportunities for decontextualized smear campaigns against the groups, as well as huge amounts of instability in funding.

“These small organizations run with the tightest budgets on campus. When they don’t know if they can pay their staff or rent, projects are going to live and die from semester to semester,” he said.

The debate for the Clubs and Services referendum, which calls for SSMU to declare its support for the student groups, provoked interest within the audience.

Joshua Stark of the question’s Yes Committee, noted this year’s budget cuts were a detriment to the viability of clubs and services. He pointed to SSMU’s decision to buy Haven Books as a threat to student groups.

“[SSMU shouldn’t] buy businesses that are going to cost a huge amount of money without consulting students,” Stark said.

An audience member pointed to SSMU’s VP Clubs & Services position as a demonstration of the Society’s commitment.

The question asking students to reaffirm their five-dollar fee to the Daily Publications Society (DPS) initially met a quiet audience, but shortly attracted interest.

Several students asked Yes Committee members Sarah Colgrove and Max Reed why the Daily Publications Society (DPS), which publishes The Daily and Le Delit, must go to referendum, and if the papers could seek alternative funding sources.

Colgrove said that the administration is mandating the referendum as a prerequisite to the DPS’s Memorandum of Agreement with McGill.

She emphasized the historical significance of the Daily, which has been publishing for 97 years.

“The papers are constantly morphing to reflect the students interests of the time,” Colgrove said.

The DPS provides the only independent press and the only francophone paper on campus. Reed emphasized the openness of the Daily; it prints every letter it receives and allows anyone who has written six articles voting power on the editorial board.

The senator debates were less animated. Of the acclaimed Senate positions – those in the Faculties of Management, Law, and Music – only Faizel Gulamhussein, the Law Senator, was present. He delivered a brief bilingual speech that stated the need for Law students to reclaim their library.

The four candidates running for three Arts Senator positions – Zach Honoroff, Will Johnston, Kevin Markl, and Ivan Neilson – were present.

All share inexperience in experience working with McGill administrators, but had concrete ideas to improve student life.

Neither candidate running for the Medicine Senator position attended.

Of the four candidates running for three slots as Science Senator – Safia Chatur, Andrew Ling, Ryan Luther, and Matthew McIntosh – only Ling was present. His speech, partly in French, focused on greater accessibility of student services to francophones and on the need for a more long-term career oriented Career and Placement Centre.

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