The McGill Reporter statement of 27 February 2016

What this document is

The McGill Reporter is McGill University’s own publication. This item, dated 27 February 2016 and carrying no individual byline, reports the outcome of the online ratification vote on a BDS motion passed at the Students’ Society of McGill University, and publishes a statement from Suzanne Fortier, then Principal and Vice-Chancellor S042. The university deliberately withheld public comment until the student governance process had run its course, which is why the statement appears only after the ratification vote S042.

What it establishes

The ratification failed: 57 per cent voted against and 43 per cent in favour, with 6 per cent abstaining S042. Those are the figures this document supports. Raw vote counts circulate in press coverage of the same ballot, but they do not appear on this page and this site does not publish them on the strength of it.

The Principal’s statement is the substance. She said that the BDS movement, which among other things calls on universities to cut ties with Israeli universities, flies in the face of the tolerance and respect the university cherishes; that it proposes actions contrary to the principles of academic freedom, equity, inclusiveness and open dialogue; and that the administration of the university would have no part of the movement S042.

The document is useful for two distinct purposes. It records a student body declining to ratify BDS, and it records a Canadian university administration stating in its own publication, before the campus disputes of the 2020s, that it would not participate. The position is therefore not a recent reaction to events after October 2023.

Key passages

Fortier: “the administration of the University will have no part of the BDS movement” S042. She also said the movement “flies in the face of the tolerance and respect we cherish” S042.

How it is used on this site

The statement is cited on Canada’s position on BDS and on the timeline.

Provenance and access

The page is published by McGill at reporter.mcgill.ca, fetches normally, and has an Internet Archive snapshot recorded above. It is a university publication reporting a statement by the Principal, so it is treated here as a primary record of what she said and of the referendum result, and not as independent reporting on the student society’s internal process.

Page history

2026-09-21: First draft.