This week, McGill undergraduates will vote on whether to keep The McGill Daily and Le Délit around. To be clear, this is not a referendum on a fee increase for the newspapers, but simply an affirmation of student support.
For now, it is less important that the McGill administration has unfairly forced this upon the newspapers. It is more important to understand just what is at stake here: the existence of an institution with a nearly 100-year history of fearless student journalism.
You have until Friday to go to vote.electionsmcgill.ca and vote Yes. The future of your student press is on the line. Vote Yes for:
An independent press
The Daily and Le Délit are this campus’s only fully autonomous, student-run newspapers. We are directly beholden to you, and are the best source of information for all things McGill and Montreal.
A forum for students
You make this newspaper possible. You are our editors, writers, photographers, artists, design gurus, and readers. We publish every letter we receive from students, giving you a soapbox to stand on and speak your mind.
Student life
From reviews of student plays to profiles of McGill bands to free listings of campus events, The Daily’s guide to student culture is unparalleled.
McGill’s School of Journalism
McGill might not have a j-school, but The Daily is the next best thing. From workshops on Photoshop and InDesign to writing guides to our open-to-all production nights, The Daily is a training ground for the next generation of journalists.
Campus democracy
The Daily holds the administration and student unions to account, keeping you informed on their doings and misdeeds. Whatever your political views are, a strong, independent press is crucial to campus democracy. “I have agreed and disagreed with The Daily over the years, just as people agreed and disagreed with the paper when I was editor,” famed CBC producer and Daily alumnus Mark Starowicz recently said. “That’s not the problem, that’s the point.”
Our famous alumni
Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Irwin Cotler, Mark Starowicz, Jan Wong, Susan Swan, Charles Krauthammer, and countless other journalists, writers, and political figures started out at The Daily. Who knows what other famed figures The Daily will produce in the years to come?
Award-winning journalism
The Daily regularly takes home top awards from the Canadian University Press, an organization with over 70 members newspapers from across the country. This year alone, The Daily and Le Délit won four awards, three of which were for first place in their categories. Last year, The Daily received the SSMU Award for Best Campus Publication.
An essential part of McGill history
The McGill Daily has been around since 1911, making it one of the oldest student newspapers in Canada. It began as a true daily – a one-page sports-and-news rag published by the administration – and over the years became the fiercely independent paper you know today. Covering everything from the Great Depression to Vietnam War protests to today’s university underfunding crisis, The Daily is truly McGill’s newspaper of record.
Le seul journal francophone à McGill
Seule publication étudiante francophone à McGill, Le Délit est un forum pour tous les étudiants, autant francophones que francophiles. En soulignant les liens entre le campus de l’université et Montréal, Le Délit est résolument en phase avec l’actualité de la métropole québécoise et les événements culturels qui s’y produisent. Les étudiants peuvent aussi profiter du contenu de haute qualité qu’offre le journal pour perfectionner leur apprentissage de la langue de Molière. McGill a besoin de cette présence en français pour lui rappeler le contexte culturel unique dans lequel le campus et ses étudiants évoluent.
Why is this referendum even happening?
Every five years, the Daily Publications Society (DPS) – the autonomous student-run organization that publishes The Daily and Le Délit – must renegotiate its contract with the McGill administration. Called a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), this contract allows the DPS to collect student fees, distribute the newspapers on campus, and use the McGill name.
This year, for the first time ever, the administration has made the finalization of the MoA contingent upon McGill undergraduates reaffirming their support for the newspapers via referendum. Without student fees or an agreement with McGill, the viability of the DPS will be fatally compromised.