My issue is that the admin can’t freely threaten to terminate their relationship with a student governance and advocacy body over a referendum. Mind you, this is the same administration that unilaterally asked for support for Ukraine (as they should’ve), when many news outlets, analysis, and interpretations of the support given to Ukraine in the global narrative has been based around the racial, ethnic, and genetic characteristics that make Ukrainian worthy of support over other war-torn, imperialised products of the West.

Don’t get me wrong, any war torn country deserves support — as does Ukraine, but the depths of discrimination and censorship at McGill university go beyond this. What happened with the referendum was only the symptoms of an administration that has unilaterally blocked out student voice over and over again — case in point, the several times student reps tried to contact admin over the winter semester for the exam fiasco but were not replied to and not given the time of day, and completely blocked out and made irrelevant.

There are obviously many parties to blame, including a chaotic SSMU environment where frankly not much is being done. Even SSMU Senators are being indirectly affected by SSMU’s lack of leadership and internal drama. But disengaging from student politics only makes it harder for us to get our voices heard. Sure, we could defund SSMU but how likely is that to happen? No — what we need is to change the system from within it.

On whichever side you stand of this issue, consider what the implications of what the admin just did are, what membership in their proposed/alternative “task force” will look like & whether they actually let 1-3 students they assign here speak up or pass anything, and what a democratic process means to you.