McGillNews

CONCERNED STUDENTS SPEAK OUT

AGAINST WEAPONS RESEARCH AT McGILL

The Shock Wave Physics Group has been running explosives experiments for the military since the 1960s.

The Network Dynamics Lab develops algo-rithms for social media surveillance, fund-ed by Canadian police and intelligence.

Psychology professor Don Taylor has run counter-terrorism experiments on Somali- Canadians without disclosing his military funding to participants – an ethical breach.The Institute of Air and Space Law trains U.S. Air Force lawyers.

The CFD Lab researches simulation soft-ware for drones and other military aircraft.The Office of Sponsored Research manages research contracts, while the Secretariat han-dles access-to-information requests.

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The Aerospace Mechatronics Lab develops drone software and ground robots for the Canadian military. The lab conducts flight tests at Mac Campus.

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research which directly benefits the development of harmful military technologies.

This research is not abstractly increasing knowl-edge that could hypothetically be used for harmful military purposes. Rather, it is making real contri-butions to specific military technologies that have been or will be used to kill and injure people.

Take the example of Shock Wave Physics Group re-search into thermobaric explosives, which is ongo-ing to this day. An American research council has noted that the McGill research is aiding the devel-opment of more “efficient” thermobaric weapons for the U.S. military.

Thermobaric weap-ons operate by first saturating the air with a metal dust, creating a cloud that expands in many directions and flows around objects. Next, a second charge ignites the oxygen-metal mix, creating an im-mense explosion and pressure wave that can knock down unreinforced structures, destroy goods, and incinerate people. If any of the metal fuel-satu-rated air has entered a person’s body, the second charge will probably rupture the lungs. If the fuel fails to properly detonate, victims are left inhaling a burning mix of chemicals, which can cause lung afflictions, severe burns, and death. By consuming all the oxygen in an enclosed space like a building or cave, thermobaric weapons also kill people by asphyxiation.

Thermobaric weapons and their predecessors, fuel-air explosives (which McGill also played a role in developing), have been used by the U.S. military in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and by the Assad regime in Syria against civilians.

Is contributing to this type of technology really the role of an institution of higher learning?

As McGill alumni from around the world gather in Montreal for Homecoming, a

campaign they may not have heard of is gaining steam on campus. Since 2012, a group of students and workers has assembled under the banner ‘Demilitarize McGill’ in an effort to shed light on military research activities and ask the Universi-ty to use its tremendous resources to promote the cause of peace, not war. Upon investigating mili-tary collaborations on campus, they encountered a startling reality: an array of labs and research groups across McGill are receiving funds from the military or defence contractors to conduct

MAPPING MILITARY RESEARCH AT McGILL

ACCESS TO INFORMATION DENIED

Students seeking to learn more about the Shock Wave Physics Group and other questionable

McGill research activities have tried to exercise their legal right to make requests to the admin-istration under the access-to-information (ATI) law to which the University is subject. They have sought access to research contracts, activity re-ports, communications between researchers and military officials, and other documents.

However, over the past three years, the McGill ad-ministration has gone to great lengths to block all information requests concerning its military ties. In 2012, the administration even took thirteen stu-dents to court seeking the power to ignore their requests and any futures ones they might make. After a judge denied this motion, the administra-tion handed over documents in response to some outstanding requests, but with pages upon pages completely redacted.

A McGill Tribune editorial held that the admin-istration’s ATI legal campaign “threatens [the public’s right to know], and risks severely com-promising the school’s accountability to students and staff, and to taxpayers in general.” Moreover, refusing transparency on military research makes it clear that the administration has something to hide. After all, most of the McGill community con-siders weapons research to present a grave offense to the mission of an institution of higher learning.

The above is a modest proposal, which you are free to accept, refuse, or adjust to your liking. You may, of course, be thinking about the good that donat-ing to an institution of higher learning can do. However, you should not lose sight of the fact that there are many ways in which you can do good through philanthropy.

If you are seeking alternatives to McGill for your philanthropic efforts, we invite you to consider donating to an organization which assists people harmed and displaced by war, such as Doctors Without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org) or the International Red Cross and Red Cres-cent Movement (www.ifrc.org).

You may also decide you want to make a differ-ence at McGill. While claiming to be suffering under the weight of budget cuts, the Universi-ty administration has spent over $100,000 since 2012 on access-to-information lawyers in an ef-fort to withhold information about military re-search. With a small fraction of this amount, stu-dents could pay a skilled lawyer to defend them before Quebec’s Commission on Access to Infor-mation. They would be infinitely grateful for any assistance, and you would be concretely helping the cause of transparency at your alma mater. For more information or to make a contribution, con-tact Emily Boytinck, the Vice-President (External) of the Students’ Society of McGill University, at external@ssmu.mcgill.ca.

You can reach the authors of this material at demilitarizemcgill@riseup.net, or by mail at:

Demilitarize McGill, c/o QPIRG McGill 3647 rue University, 3rd floor Montreal, QC H3A 2B3

Military research tarnishes your McGill degree. Together, we can demilitarize McGill!

A VOICE FOR ALUMNI

You deserve to cherish your fond memories of McGill for the rest of your life. Get back in

touch with a former classmate, reminisce among other alumni in your town, attend Homecoming. Yet, as an alum who might have concerns about the University funneling more and more of its re-sources into weapons research collaborations, you must recognize that you have a voice, and a strong one. When Alumni Relations representatives ap-proach you to ask if you will make a donation to your alma mater, you can decline their solicita-tion – and tell McGill in no uncertain terms that you will not be donating unless research designed to help build harmful military technologies stops.

You may be told that your money would not be going to the military research projects in ques-tion, and this may be true, but this would lead you to disregard the actual power you hold. One one hand, if only donations to Mechanical Engineering and other departments with military ties slowed down, the administration might take notice, but the effects could be mitigated. These departments are already heavily funded by companies and gov-ernment agencies themselves invested in military research. On the other hand, if a real movement by alumni from all faculties, schools, and depart-ments began to make a dent in fundraising across the University, the administration would in short order be obliged to rethink its commitment to mil-itary research collaborations.