YEAR IN REVIEW
The 2015-16 year in student activism was bookended by the actions of Divest Mcgill, with Fossil Free Week in September and a sit-in by activists in March. They managed to garner the support, solidarity, and rage of thousands of students and community members. In fact, Divest Mcgill’s actions even eclipsed Demilitarize Mcgill, which was suspiciously quiet this year. However, they did protest the Remembrance Day ceremony, run a countercampaign to the Mcgill24 fundraising day, and throw fake blood at a defence contractor recruitment event on campus.
This year also saw a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion brought up at the Students’ Society of Mcgill University (SSMU) Winter General Assembly and the concurrent emergence of the Mcgill BDS Action Network, which provoked a powerful backlash from some parts of the Mcgill community. The division between those who speak the rhetoric of so- called political neutrality and those who mobilize for social justice is only widening.
The sweeping federal victory of Justin Trudeau in October was seen by some as a success for the left, and yet Trudeau has already been called into question over some of his decisions, or lack thereof; climate activists delivered a people’s injunction to Trudeau’s Montreal office in January, calling on the National Energy Board (NEB) to suspend the ongoing review of pipeline projects going through Indigenous territories. With the influx of Syrian refugees to Montreal – as part of Trudeau’s campaign promises – many have also called for the revaluation of immigration policies and the regularization of non- status people in Canada.
Austerity, and resistance to it, has also been a notable theme. This year saw the creation of SSMU’S Mcgill Against Austerity, as well as numerous protests in Montreal against the provincial government’s budget cuts to the education sector.
In the meantime, the University faced intense scrutiny over practically everything, including its lack of a sexual assault policy, the dismal state of its employment equity, and its general propensity to stuff its fingers in its ears and hum loudly in the face of widespread and vocal student organizing.
“We have called for this. It is your moral obligation as people of social conscience to answer this call. It is not your obligation to tell what Israel has done to us. Every single Jewish student in this room can fly to Israel tomorrow, while I have never been able to step foot on that land.”
—Laura Khoury, a Palestinian student and organizer for Mcgill BDS Action Network, at the Student’s Society of Mcgill University (SSMU) Winter 2016 General Assembly, speaking in favour of a motion to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at Mcgill
“How many of you feel safe to go to the police to report a crime? I don’t. My current case is open, nothing’s being done. They’re not pursuing the men that have raped me.”
—A speaker affliated with Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy, at the Take Back the Night march on November 7, describing her experiences of seeking redress in the wake of repeated sexual violence