On Jan. 7, black gowns dominated the red carpet at the 75th annual Golden Globes, as stars displayed their solidarity for Time’s Up, a movement dedicated to ending sexual assault, harassment, and inequality in the workplace. It arose out of a wave of feminist activism in 2017 that bred similar[Read More…]
Tag: sexual violence
Lack of French PGSS communications discussed at final Council meeting
On Dec. 6, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council held its last meeting of 2017, beginning with a discussion regarding translating PGSS emails, which are currently only written in English, into French. Councillors next debated a motion to prioritize PGSS engagement with the Quebec Student Union (QSU) over the Association[Read More…]
Bill 151 exposes gaps in McGill Policy Against Sexual Violence
At the Nov. 1 sitting of the National Assembly of Québec, Minister for Higher Education Hélène David introduced Bill 151, which aims to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions. The bill would require all universities in the province to develop a policy against sexual violence that is[Read More…]
McGill’s sexual violence policy lacking on professor-student relationships
Quebec’s proposed Bill 151 requires all postsecondary schools to have a campus sexual violence policy by September 2019. Among other things, the bill stipulates that an acceptable policy must provide a clear code of conduct on relationships between faculty members and students. In Fall 2016, McGill introduced a Policy against Sexual[Read More…]
PGSS to join the Coalition Régionale de Montréal
On Oct. 18, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council met for the fourth time this semester, where they voted to join the Coalition Régionale de Montréal (CREM), a student advocacy group with more than 260,000 student members from universities across Montreal. The new Chief Returning Officer (CRO) for the Secretary-General[Read More…]
SSMU Gendered and Sexual Violence Open Forum tackles lack of change and trust
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted a Gendered and Sexual Violence Open Forum on Oct. 16 to receive feedback and answer questions from members of the McGill community on campus discourse surrounding sexual violence and the development of a SSMU Gendered and Sexualized Violence Policy (GSVP). SSMU Vice-President[Read More…]
Board of Governors convene for the first meeting of the year
The Board of Governors (BoG) held its first meeting of the 2017-2018 term on Oct. 5, which highlighted the appointment of McGill alumna Julie Payette to the office of Governor General of Canada, McGill’s response to the legalization of cannabis, recent progress made by the Task Force on Indigenous Studies[Read More…]
On sexual violence policy reform, it’s McGill’s turn
In the 2018 Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings, McGill was the second best school in Canada. Maclean’s just named the university the number one medical and doctoral school in Canada, for the 13th year in a row. In contrast, last week the inter-university student group Our Turn gave McGill’s Policy Against Sexual Violence—passed in[Read More…]
PGSS Self Defence Course combats violence on and off campus
On Sept. 24 and Oct. 1, McGill students participated in a self-defence course at Gotac, a Montreal-based martial arts company, offered through the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS). The course aimed to teach effective methods to detect and eliminate threats and to identify, assert, and defend one’s space. The class was[Read More…]
How students can better support survivors of sexual violence
Sexual violence is pervasive on McGill’s campus—according to the Annual Report on the Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Discrimination Prohibited by Law, reports of sexual harassment increased significantly during the 2016-2017 academic year. Worse, many students feel ill-prepared to support a survivor when they disclose their experience of a violent[Read More…]
