PIRGs, Quebec PIRG, and Social Justice: A General Introduction

QPIRG McGill's logo. Click for more analysis.

QPIRG at McGill

For many students at McGill University, the ‘QPIRG’ acronym evokes memories of activism, self-proclaimed radicalism, and perhaps most of all, controversy. In Fall 2011, QPIRG-McGill, McGill’s campus branch of the ‘Public Interest Research Groups’ initiative, saw their main source of funding come under threat. With the student fee that comprises most of their revenue up for re-approval, a referendum was held, ultimately signaling a two-thirds victory for the fee's re-approval.[1]

However, the referendum itself sparked considerable debate (as referendums in Quebec tend to). Deputy Provost Morton Mendelson moved quickly to invalidate the results due to their purportedly confusing wording, sparking the infamous #6party protests that called for his resignation. The underlying issue, though, was more than just a question of semantics.[2] The true debate was over the allocation of public funds to left-leaning social justice advocacy groups – should such politically-charged groups, working towards their own broad conception of the ‘greater good,’ be financed by society?

In order to understand this question, and form our own conceptions of QPIRG’s role in the McGill community, it is first necessary to establish context. The PIRG initiative is one which prides itself on intrinsic decentralization.  Each of the twenty-one Canadian PIRGs undertakes vastly different projects and operates in a unique, autonomous manner.[3][4]

The Origins of the PIRG Project

The PIRG project began with famed American consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Touring universities in an attempt to spread an alternative, civil rights-driven rhetoric in the wake of the Vietnam War, Nader realized the potential for institutionalizing advocacy on campus, and set out to do just that. In 1970, the PIRG project was launched, beginning at two schools and then spreading to one hundred and thirty-five by 1973.[5]

In 1988, a referendum was passed at McGill making Quebec PIRG at McGill the first student-funded, autonomous PIRG in Quebec.[6] But what exactly is it that a PIRG does? The answer is not a simple one. According to a 1998 article on the organization, PIRGs represent…

• “a structure to harness the energy and innovation of students to address issues of public concern”
  
  
• “participatory democracy and a commitment to the collective public good”
  
  
• “the first ‘activist home’ for many”[7]

Within each PIRG, collections of issue-focused “working group” sub-units seek to act on projects related to the “complex connections between environmental and social justice issues.” [8] While, as previously mentioned, PIRGs’ mandates are extremely broad and diverse, they are united by the common themes of social justice and solidarity between different counter-oppression movements.

QPIRG and the Contemporary Social Social Movement

The social justice movement, much like QPIRG, is far-reaching and somewhat vague. Usefully, it can be “contrasted with those systems that foster arbitrary or unnecessary suffering, exploitation, abuse, tyranny, prejudice, and discrimination.”[9] As the causes of suffering and oppression change over, so too do the movements falling under the social justice umbrella.

Throughout QPIRG-McGill’s relatively short history, three distinct social justice movements have come to predominate both campus activism and QPIRG action: Feminism (of the third wave), Environmentalism, and Anti-colonialism. QPIRG McGill can thus be most effectively studied through its ties to these three major contemporary movement. This online exhibit will seek to delineate these connections by showcasing and analyzing research carried out on QPIRG’s archival materials at McGill.