<span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style style="background-color:rgb(248, 248, 255);border:1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255);border-radius:4px;color:rgb(42, 42, 196);padding:1px 8px;font-size:11px;display:inline-block;margin:0px;overflow-wrap:anywhere;user-select:none;box-sizing:inherit">First name, Thank you for your donation! By supporting QPIRG today, you've supported the rights of students to stand up for what they believe in. Please consider sharing our fundraiser in your networks. Every dollar from the community counts when we're against a behemoth institution. In solidarity,The QPIRG Board and Staff<a href="mailto:info@qpirgmcgill.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color:initial;user-select:auto;box-sizing:inherit" target="_blank">info@qpirgmcgill.org</a>(514) 284-2664

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 QPIRG McGill info@qpirgmcgill.org 5142842664

McGill University is threatening to cut off QPIRG’s funding and access to campus space if we continue our support of a pro-Palestine student group. We need your help to raise funds to fight this abusive and discriminatory targeting of Palestinian voices on campus. The repression of students who condemn Israel’s genocidal bombing of Gaza has been escalating at many institutions across the country, and we need your help to stand up and stop it here at McGill. 1. Who we areThe Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill) was founded in 1989 by students for students, responding to a lack of independent representation of their voice on campus. We are a small non-profit organization involved in grassroots organizing in Montreal, with a long history of supporting Palestinian movements in the city. Our affiliation with Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) goes back many years, and we have collaborated on many popular education events. We also support many other initiatives, including an alternative library, as well as 16 other activist groups working on and off-campus. 2. Why we’re fundraisingIn the context of increasing repression against SPHR and pro-Palestine activism, McGill University has issued a notice of default of QPIRG’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with McGill, threatening to suspend our student funding if we do not sever our support for SPHR.  By issuing a notice of default, McGill claims that QPIRG has broken the obligations stipulated in our MoA, which includes respecting McGill policies. McGill alleges that SPHR has broken the student Code of Conduct, and due to our association with them, we are also being accused of breaking our obligations to this code. However, neither a court nor even an internal tribunal of McGill has found SPHR in violation of anything. Instead, the university is scapegoating SPHR for the actions of individuals that McGill has failed to identify.  In order to remedy the alleged MoA default, McGill has demanded that we remove our association with SPHR altogether, including mentions on our website, their working group status, as well as all the financial and administrative support that their status entails. If QPIRG fails to do so, McGill has threatened to terminate the Memorandum of Agreement and place QPIRG’s finances in an interim trust until QPIRG is “restructured and reinstated.” Despite the decades of referendums confirming student support for our fee, McGill has total control over the delivery of our funds to us via our MOA and is wielding this financial power against us due to spurious allegations against SPHR, none of which have been proven in a court of law. 3. High stakes for the whole communityThere’s more at stake than merely QPIRG’s existence.  First, McGill is using its financial and legal power to bully smaller organizations like QPIRG in its attempt to isolate and suppress student activism, especially around Palestine. McGill has issued similar threats to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and the Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS) in an attempt to cut off financial support for student activism in solidarity with Palestine and push activist groups like SPHR off of campus. Their legal and financial resources are nigh-endless, especially since their Law Faculty is amongst the most prominent in the country, and politically well-connected. This is merely another attempt by McGill to suppress student activism towards divestment by removing pillars of material support for activists on the ground. If QPIRG-McGill capitulates to McGill immediately, we would block off one of the last avenues for pro-Palestinian organizing on campus, but if we contest until they bankrupt us, students will lose one of the independent voices willing to fight for them on campus. Second, QPIRG remains a vital bridge between students and the broader Montreal community. The organization helps students not only learn, but also integrate themselves into the broader struggles taking place within the city. Because of the alleged default, McGill cancelled a training on understanding homelessness that QPIRG was set to present on behalf of a community member for incoming frosh coordinators. Few other organizations on campus are similarly focused on expanding student activism beyond campus.  Finally, the material support given by QPIRG to working groups remains a pillar of power in the community. We are proud to have worked with different groups and provided expertise, financing, information and volunteers. The outcome of this battle will have a significant effect on activism at large in the community. We are asking for the community’s support to keep pro-Palestine activism on campus.  4. What will we spend it onThe money that we raise will go directly towards our legal fees, and any money raised in excess will be donated to a legal fund supporting activists in Tio:tia’ke. Our current estimate for our legal fees is as follows:- $900: Legal consultations- $5000: Legal fees for representation during arbitration- $1000: various “disbursements” like printing, research, etc. - $4200: Arbitrator fees (8 hours for hearing, 6 hours for prep x $600/hr divided by 2) JUNE 30TH UPDATE: We have a new quote from the arbitrator of $950/hr, as well as additional prep hours. With 8 hours for hearing, 10 for prep x $950/hr divided by 2, we now need to raise $8550 for the arbitrator fees. Our new goal is $15,450.00.5. What else you can do to help There are other things you can do to support us if you cannot donate at the moment: <ul><li>Share our fundraiser on social media </li><li>Volunteer your time to help fundraise</li></ul>

QPIRG-McGill

Stop McGill‘s repression of pro-Palestine student activism!