The Daily’s editorial board has decided to close the comments section on our website. While valuable comments certainly do exist, comments are often abusive, particularly comments left on pieces regarding issues including, but not limited to, sexual assault, race, settler colonialism, trans issues, or other critiques of systems of oppressions. Moreover, the most hateful comments left on our website are on pieces written by women, trans people, and people of colour. Hence, it is in accordance with our Statement of Principles to close this platform, which regularly subjects our contributors to online abuse.
However, we have chosen to keep the comment section on our editorials open. Editorials are the only platform where we as an editorial board can voice a unified opinion on a topic. As such, we welcome constructive feedback on our collective position.
With our comments section closed, we now encourage letters to the editor by emailing letters@mcgilldaily.com more than ever – these, if written by McGill students, will be printed under the Commentary section. Furthermore, we will be including the email of respective section editors at the bottom of every piece published online in order to facilitate communication and interaction between readers and the Daily. Should a contributor choose to have comments sections open on their piece, however, we will respect their wishes.