An open letter to McGill

by Matthew Pencer

14 February 2012

James Building protest

Dear McGill,

Since you've probably been getting a lot of hate-mail recently, I feel I should do my best to counter that.

First of all, thank you for standing up to the protesters/occupiers/hooligans. I find it a disgrace to the world-renowned university that is McGill, as well as the peaceful, civilized country of Canada, that this group (I would rather not refer to them as 'students') feels the need to trespass onto private property, disturbing the lives of others, in order to protest what they feel is unfair to them. In a civilized society such as ours, if you have a disagreement over how a small portion of fees should be processed, you write a letter; at most, hold up some signs. The fact that these spoiled individuals are so upset that the opt-out process isn't handled the exact way they want that they feel the need to break the law to get their point across is appalling. I hope that these individuals are all arrested and expelled from McGill. Unlike them, I recognize it is a privilege to attend university, and I would like to use my time here to attend class rather than start political movements and occupy my university's property when I learn not everyone supports my politics.

On a side note, I would add that supporters of the protesters were going into classes today, asking students to support the protesters and saying that the occupiers inside were being denied basic rights such as food, water, and bathrooms. This is absolutely ridiculous, as anyone with a brain realizes they have the right to leave the building and go home; in fact they are obligated to. This is akin to saying that if someone is breaking into and robbing my home, I would be denying the perpetrator's human rights if I didn't give him some snacks so that he'd have the energy to carry out my TV.

Secondly, I would like to thank you for striking down the referendum's results. Like you said, there were clearly two questions asked. Regardless, I find the premise of the referendum completely unfair, unconstitutional and undemocratic. QPIRG is an activist group which supports positions myself and many other students disagree with. However, just like any other group, they should have the right to fundraise and operate regardless of my feelings towards them, and McGill students should have the option to support them (and the current opt-out process, as opposed to the more standard opt-in process, is quite generous, since many students are unknowingly giving them money). Yet QRIRG fails to realize that it would be a complete assault on my freedom of association if it were compulsory for me to join and fund this group I don't support (I would recommend reading this study by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy). If a future referendum does go through, and QPIRG wins with 99% of the vote, that should not give them the right to force the one percent to support them; a fundamental property of democracy is that regardless of the majority vote, the minority must always be protected. And of course, as Professor Masi said in the email earlier today, ""We respect the rights of students to support groups of their choosing. However, individual student groups do not have the right to change an opt-out system to a method less convenient for all students."" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Signed,

Matthew Pencer

U1 Mathematics Student

matthew.pencer2@mail.mcgill.ca

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An open letter to McGill

by Matthew Pencer

14 February 2012