You Have a Choice – Vote NO to QPIRG

A letter from the QPIRG No Committee

08 Apr, 2012 7:25

Written by Letters

In the upcoming referendum period, McGill students have a choice.  Students can allow an organization which consistently acts against the wishes and well-being of students to have access to its own, special student fee – a privilege no other political group on campus enjoys. Or students can vote No, and demand that student money not be wasted on political causes which students do not support.

QPIRG, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group, receives an automatic fee from each student at McGill of $3.75 per semester –over $220,000.00 per year if every student pays. QPIRG claims to be committed to “social and environmental justice” but it consistently betrays this stated aim, disregarding the wishes of the very students from whom its funding comes.

You may have heard of Tadamon!, a group funded by QPIRG to the tune of $2000.00 this year (source: QPIRG McGill Annual Report 2011-2012, p. 27). Tadamon! has supported the de-listing of the terrorist group Hezbollah from Canada’s list of terrorist entities, and supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Is this a cause important to students?

QPIRG has also supported causes closer to campus that students simply do not agree with. QPIRG stated that it “[stood] in solidarity” with the “#6Party” occupiers of the James administration building in February, and several of QPIRG’s own Directors took part in the occupation. (source: QPIRG Blog, 8 February 2012) QPIRG has also supported the “week of disruptive actions” being taken by Quebec student strikers across Montreal – even after faculty after faculty at McGill voted against strike action. (QPIRG Blog, 26 March, 2012) Readers of The Bull and Bear may remember the “disruptive actions” undertaken by strikers shouting and marching through the Bronfman building on April 3^rd.

We, and in our opinion McGill students in general, have no desire to denigrate those inoffensive and constructive activities and groups which are funded by QPIRG. We do however, take offense that these groups are often used as a shield behind which the repugnant, politically-motivated activities which QPIRG funds and supports may hide. By using these groups, like Campus Crops, as a defense for the organization as a whole, QPIRG is misleading students as to the necessity of funding it with its own special levy. We believe that the McGill community is more than willing to accommodate these other, positive groups independently, be it as SSMU clubs or by another arrangement. McGill students do not need the QPIRG middle-man to allocate their funds, allocating much of them to unnecessary administrative expenditures and political causes which McGill students do not support.

So McGill students, you have a choice – you can say No to funding an organization that disregards the wishes and wellbeing of students. You can say No to wasting money on a costly middle man who decides where your money goes. You can say No to QPIRG.

Vote No to QPIRG April 10-16 at ovs.ssmu.mcgill.ca.

Sincerely,

The QPIRG No Committee
 
 
 

EDITOR’S NOTE: READ THE “YES” LETTER HERE: | “Yes” Campaign” |

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