jake williams
26th August 2009, 15:30
I'm going to McGill now, which for those of you who don't know is sort of a semi-elite Canadian university. It's an English university in a province where traditionally English speakers formed an elite minority, essentially the entirety of first the colonial ruling class and then the business ruling class. Apparently the guy who founded the university was some Scottish dude who was a "businessman", landowner, and slaveowner.
The university for its part likes to style itself "the Canadian Harvard", or something to that effect. It has the highest entering average grades in the country, etc. etc. They blather on about how we're going to lead the world.
So other than my sort of masochistic streak, and the feeling that I'm violating a space they've worked so hard to restrict (I certainly don't have any sort of an "elite" background - I don't have a passport, and when I tell anyone in administration I don't they glare at me with a weird mix of confusion and contempt), it's kind of an uncomfortable place to be. The "student union" defederated from the main Canadian university student union, it was one of several who did so because a bunch of whiny white male students were bothered that student unions were concerning themselves with things like rape prevention. The president showed us a video to introduce himself, and I'm not even being hyperbolic, the first words out of his mouth were "I'm not a leftist".
But Montréal is fucking awesome, even though my French is horrendous. And McGill is great if I decide to sell out.
The university for its part likes to style itself "the Canadian Harvard", or something to that effect. It has the highest entering average grades in the country, etc. etc. They blather on about how we're going to lead the world.
So other than my sort of masochistic streak, and the feeling that I'm violating a space they've worked so hard to restrict (I certainly don't have any sort of an "elite" background - I don't have a passport, and when I tell anyone in administration I don't they glare at me with a weird mix of confusion and contempt), it's kind of an uncomfortable place to be. The "student union" defederated from the main Canadian university student union, it was one of several who did so because a bunch of whiny white male students were bothered that student unions were concerning themselves with things like rape prevention. The president showed us a video to introduce himself, and I'm not even being hyperbolic, the first words out of his mouth were "I'm not a leftist".
But Montréal is fucking awesome, even though my French is horrendous. And McGill is great if I decide to sell out.