Last week a group calling themselves “QPIRG: Opt-Out!” posted an “open letter” on Facebook, urging students to opt-out of the fee that funds QPIRG. We, as the board of directors and staff at QPIRG, would like to respond to this misinformed, slanderous initiative.
The Quebec Public Interest Research Group has existed at McGill since 1988. Our mandate, as an autonomous organization funded by students, is to advocate for social and environmental justice. We strive to make the link between students and the surrounding Montreal community, and to help students engage in their community through research, action and public events.
The so-called “open letter” posted by this mysterious group was, in fact, never sent to us directly; we came across it when concerned members of QPIRG e-mailed us with the Facebook link. The letter is not only inflammatory and offensive; it is also rife with inaccuracies.
QPIRG McGill held a referendum just three years ago, asking students whether they agreed to continue to pay a $3.00 fee to fund QPIRG. Students voted yes on this question, and just last year voted again in another referendum in favour of increasing that fee levy to $3.75. The mandate of QPIRG was also addressed at these two referenda, at which time McGill students approved of the ways in which QPIRG was carrying out our stated mandate. This makes the student support more than just tacit, as the individuals who created the anti-QPIRG Facebook had suggested.
Furthermore, we would like to address their claim that QPIRG McGill is somehow undemocratic. Contrary to their claim that QPIRG “rejects student input,” it is in fact McGill students who decide where the money goes that they contribute at the beginning of each semester. QPIRG’s Board of Directors is elected by the student body each year at our Annual General Meeting. All meetings are open to student members; any McGill student who pays the levy of $3.75 (or $3.00, if you are a graduate student) is welcome to attend our regular board meetings as well as the AGM. Not once has any representative from the groups associated with this Facebook page spoken to or engaged with the board. If these individuals care about democracy, why have they never approached us in an attempt to provide input into the workings of our organization?
As far as opt-outs are concerned, it was actually QPIRG that introduced the opt-out process for student groups on McGill campus. Prior to 1988, students did not have the option of opting out of any fees. QPIRG initiated the opt out mechanism in line with the organization’s belief that students should have the choice to opt out of our fee if they so choose. When the McGill Administration imposed an on-line opt-out system on QPIRG last year, they took away our ability as an autonomous organization to represent ourselves to the student body in the ways in which we find to be consistent with our mandate. We believe in informed opt-outs; we do not believe that a university administration should encroach on student organizations’ right to self-organize and administer their own financial mechanisms. We also feel extremely uncomfortable with the idea of an inflammatory, slanderous website created for the sole purpose of persuading students to opt-out of a fee before understanding the purpose of the fee itself.
Those who created the “QPIRG Opt-Out” page also throw around the accusation that QPIRG is a “bigoted” organization. Any student who has ever attended a QPIRG event, been involved in one of our research projects, or been around the QPIRG space would be inclined to laugh at this accusation; QPIRG McGill’s mandate integrates an anti-oppression analysis into all aspects of the organization, and rejects discrimination in any form. Far from “promoting hate,” all of QPIRG McGill’s working groups, research and special projects operate within an anti-oppression framework and actively work towards eliminating all forms of racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
The further claim that QPIRG only targets Israel and therefore “supports and practices anti-Semitism” is appalling and offensive. We find it ignorant and short-sighted to equate a criticism of a state’s policy to a criticism of a people. We do not tolerate any kind of discrimination or oppression, including anti-Semitism, and we worry that these types of claims dilute the reality of anti-Semitism that we know is alive and well here in Montreal and across Canada. Furthermore, QPIRG’s working groups address a wide variety of social and environmental issues, ranging from groups that work towards making McGill an environmentally sustainable campus, to groups that address political and social realities in the Middle-East, Mexico, Alberta, as well as right here in Montreal. Furthermore, while SPHR and Independent Jewish Voices are strong allies of QPIRG, they are not, in fact, working groups of QPIRG McGill.
Finally, we are uncomfortable with the “QPIRG Opt-Out” campaign’s assumption of the right to speak for McGill students without any means of consultation or legitimate authority to do so. We find the use of terms such as “radical” and “mainstream” to be arbitrary and full of assumptions. The board and staff of QPIRG McGill firmly believe that students have the right to research, assert and defend their own positions, and that this is an integral part of academic freedom. Through projects like the Community University Research Exchange, through resources like our library, and through our support for many different working groups, we try to act on the belief that university campuses need alternative discourse and dialogue, and that it is part of what makes for a healthy, diverse university community.