Working Groups

QPIRG McGill’s activities are primarily conducted through its working groups. These are autonomous organisations, made up of students and community members, who undertake action and research into issues at the core of QPIRG McGill’s mandate

WORKING GROUPS 2011-2012

B. Refuge

B.Refuge combines volunteerism and campus outreach on refugee issues to break down social barriers between asylum seekers, refugees, McGill students, and the greater Montreal community. Their volunteer buddy program matches McGill students with asylum seekers and refugees in order to facilitate language and culture exchange, as well as encourage active engagement with the greater Montreal community.

Contact: brefuge.montreal@gmail.com

Barriere Lake Solidarity

A volunteer collective that supports Barriere Lake, an Algonquin community 4 hours north of Montreal, which has been trying to regain control over their traditional territories, protect their forests from clear-cut logging, and fend off the Canadian government’s interference in of their traditional governance system. We do popular education, organize demonstrations and direct action, and are developing a community radio station on the reserve.

Contact: barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com

Campus Crops

Campus Crops is a collective dedicated to sharing skills and knowledge to grow fresh produce in the city, and to think critically about the politics surrounding food production and land use. They run a volunteer-base garden as well as workshops, BBQs, and other events in and around McGill’s downtown campus.

Contact: campuscrops@gmail.com

Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble

Born for the May 2006 “Status for All” demo in Montreal, the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble is an activist street band that organizes according to anarchist principles. We play songs of a political nature in remembrance of worldwide struggles against oppression and to inspire our communities. All are welcome to join!

Contact: marchingband@vichama.org

Climate Justice Montreal

Climate Justice Montreal/Justice Climatique Montréal is a group that brings a social justice perspective to climate organizing. Rejecting false solutions that address only on CO2 emissions, we make connections with communities that are directly affected by climate change and fossil fuel infrastructure and work in solidarity with them.

Contact: Dru@dru.ca

Dignidad Migrante

Le collectif Dignidad Migrante (DM) est composé de travailleurs et travailleuses immigrant-e-s et natifs qui luttent et qui s’organisent pour faire reconnaître les droits des immigrant-e-s au Canada.

Contact: dignidadmigrante@gmail.com

Filipino Solidarity Collective

The Filipino Solidarity Collective is a student group dedicated to promoting solidarity and education with grassroots groups in Canada on the political, economic, and cultural struggles of transnational Filipino-Canadians. Their primary mandate is to raise awareness of the everyday experiences of Filipino-Canadians as they encounter systemic barriers related to racism/discrimination, transnational migrant work, women’s oppression, and low education achievement among Filipino youth. These activities help promote their ultimate goal of a genuine settlement and integration of Filipinos in Canada’s multiethnic and multicultural society.

Contact: filipinosolidarity@gmail.com

Greening McGill

Greening McGill is an environmental group dedicated to promoting environmental awareness and activism at McGill. We do this by organizing annual events such as Car-Free Day, as well as working on long-term projects such as the ‘Principled Purchasing’ campaign to promote sustainable and ethical purchasing habits.

Contact: greeningmcgill@mail.mcgill.ca

Justice for the Victims of Police Killings/Justice pour les victimes de bavures policières

This initiative came out of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity in January of 2010, during which the families of people killed by the police expressed their desire to come together to remember their loved ones and strengthen their respective struggles for dignity, justice and the truth. The symbolic date of October 22 was subsequently chosen for a family-friendly march to commemorate the victims of police killings to coincide with the National Day of Protest in the United States organized by the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, which has been mobilizing every year since 1996. The Justice for the Victims of Police Killings Coalition currently involves the family members and friends of Anas Bennis, Claudio Castagnetta, Ben Matson, Quilem Registre, Gladys Tolley and Fredy Villanueva, all of who died as a direct result of police actions and interventions. We continue to reach out to other victims of police killings.

Contact: 22oct.mtl@gmail.co

The Immigrant Workers’ Centre: Temporary Foreign Workers Campaign

The Temporary Foreign Workers Campaign is a workers collective actively engaged in connecting foreign and temporary agency workers to unite against workplace injustices. They work to end unfair temporary agency practice and ensure quality workplace standards that foster respect, equality, and security for foreign/temporary agency worker communities.

Contact: iwc_cti@yahoo.com

KANATA

KANATA is focused on creating a space and a vessel for conversations that affect native-newcomer relations in Canada. We seek to expand Indigenous Studies at McGill by publishing student essays and research papers on these topics, lobbying for a minor program in Indigenous Studies, utilising academia and going beyond its walls by acting as a portal to student’s studying these topics seeking out other forms of knowledge, organisations, and activist groups .

Contact: mcgillnativestudiesjournal@gmail.com

Les Grrrlz

Les Grrrlz is a group of young Womyn who are concerned about various forms of violence against Womyn. The group aims to further develop physical, mental and emotional skills in order to defend ourselves and to be able to express our opinions in a coherent and effective manner amongst ourselves and to the public. We aim to mobilise youth in our neighbourhoods with respect to this issue and we strive to build a society against systemic violence, and one that is based on social justice.

Contact: les_grrrlz@resist.ca

March 8th Action and Coordination Committee of Women of Diverse Origins/Femmes de Diverses Origins

The March 8th Coordination and Action Committee of Women of Diverse Origins are feminists of diverse origins. Immersed in the grassroots, in our communities, and in the wider society, we oppose patriarchy and misogyny in family relations, societal, economic, and political institutions, in culture, and in the media. We are committed to human dignity for all and advocate for women’s rights across the globe– we call for an end to all forms of capitalist, fundamentalist, and imperialist forms of intimidation and oppression.

Contact: wdo.fdo@gmail.com

Milton Parc Ad Hoc Committee to Save Parc Oxygène

For 22 years, local residents have fought to save a precious inner-city green space located between Park and Hutchison, Pine and Prince Arthur in the Milton Parc neighbourhood. The community-built and maintained park is now in danger of being sold to a developer who plans to destroy it and turn it into condos. The community group needs help to mobilize local residents, other community groups, as well as students at McGill who might be interested in the issue, raise public awareness through social media and other media, etc.

Contact: parcoxygene@gmail.com

Montreal Media Co-op/Coop média de Montréal

The Montreal Media Co-op provides grassroots, democratic coverage of politics, social movements and community initiatives in Montreal. They want to engage mass participation in media production, contributing to a coast-to-coast media network that can challenge the corporate and state media. They also publish The Dominion, a grassroots national newspaper.

Contact: ccm@mediacoop.ca

Project Fly Home/ Retour au bercail

Project Fly Home is a solidarity campaign in support of Montrealer Abousfian Abdelrazik, another survivor of Canadian outsourcing of torture. Project Fly Home supports Abdelrazik’s struggle to hold Canadian official involved in having him detained, tortured and exiled to account. They also support his struggle to have his name removed from the UN “1267″ blacklist, and international mechanism that arbitrarily imposes a travel ban and complete asset freeze on listed individuals. Opposing all such state listing mechanism, Project Fly Home calls for Canada to withdraw from the 1267 regime immediately.

Contact: projectflyhome@gmail.com

Radical Reference

Radical Reference: answering questions from those who question authority.

Radical Reference is a collective that supports activists communities, progressive organizations and independent journalists by providing experienced research support, education, and access to information. Services include online reference, workshops and training, and street reference.

Contact: radrefmtl@riseup.net

Right to the City – Montreal

From Milton-Parc to St. Henri to the Mile End, university students are in the vanguard of gentrification – the replacement of one population by another, in which race, class and power play determining factors. As students, alumni, and community members, Right to the City Montreal bridges the divide between students and community through research and organizing.

Contact: antigentrification@gmail.com

Tadamon!

Tadamon! (Arabic for “solidarity”), is a Montreal-based collective which works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality and justice in the ‘Middle East’ and in diaspora communities in Montreal and beyond. Tadamon strives for a world in which every human being is free to live and flourish in dignity and justice.