McGill is known as one of Canada’s oldest universities and as one of North America’s finest. Names such as Sir William Osler, Dr. Wilder Penfield, and Ernest Rutherford are spoken of with reverence in promotional materials and there is a painstaking effort to portray the institution as one which is posited upon a rigorous demand for academic excellence. This tour looks beyond that academic mythos and exposes some of the major political forces and trends which have influenced the development of the university.
This virtual tour introduces some of the people and interests who shaped McGill. You will be challenged to consider how the university actually mediates power. Who was James McGill, and what was the purpose of his initial bequest? What was the relationship of Donald Smith (aka Lord Strathcona) to the university? How do the McLennans, the McConnells, and the Redpaths fit into the picture? What was the connection between Sir William C. Macdonald’s tobacco empire and his philanthropic contributions to the university? Who are the more recent ‘benefactors’ and what are their motives?
The tour will also explore how war-related activities have been used as a morally questionable engine of university growth. This will include discussions of various figures such as Arthur Currie, Otto Maass, Ewen Cameron, and Gerald Bull, and will also include a discussion of technical ‘advances’ at McGill such as the development of nerve gas, RDX explosives, fuel-air explosive (FAE) testing, high-altitude ballistic missiles, and the university’s contributions towards the development of the nuclear bomb. In addition, participants will learn about the university’s five-decade-long (1912-1966) association with the Canadian Officer Training Corps (COTC), and about the current push to resurrect this relationship.
Finally, the tour will touch upon native issues, admissions policy, the precarious history of political activism on campus, and … the stranger than fiction case of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream.
A prerequisite for meaningful political involvement in one’s community is a familiarity with that community’s political past. This tour seeks to give everyone, particularly McGill students, such a context in order that they may be better placed to exert a positive influence on the institution’s future.
Virtual Tour Itinerary
|
Tour itinerary:
|
Major Themes:
War: How McGill has been used an Engine of Militarism
McGill Archives: War and the Military Excerpt: "...The McGill Contingent of the Canadian Officers' Training Corps was established in 1912 to train students as militia officers. It's first commander was V.I. Smart, a McGill professor of railway engineering. The McGill C.O.T.C. was formally connected with the 148th (McGill) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and associated with a number of other units. During the Second World War, the contingent's role was reduced to training officers for the Canadian army. Overall the McGill C.O.T.C. provided military training for more than 12,000 men. ..."
Second World War McGill recruits marching around the Macdonald engineering building.
Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium Note: "... In 1947, the gym was extended and the swimming pool and the Memorial Hall were installed. The marble-floored Hall contains paintings of McGill's history and a wall of the names of all the graduates who gave their lives in the two World Wars.
John Bryden speech in Parliament:
Excerpt: "...The United States also accelerated its production of poison gas. Even before the war with Japan, before the end of World War II, the Americans were conscious that gas could be a factor. In typical American style they concentrated on mass production. By about 1942 the Americans had tens of thousands of tonnes of liquid mustard gas and other types of gas and had developed bomb casings to deliver these.
"The Canadians tended to specialize in actual research. We did experiments on humans. It was felt that one had to be sure the gas was effective. Many Canadian soldiers volunteered to be subjects for tests of poison gas. Sometimes these tests were very elaborate and I am sorry to say there were injuries to Canadian troops from the poison gas tests at Suffield.
"At McGill University Canadians made the biggest breakthrough among the allies in developing poison gas. A team at McGill discovered a nerve gas. It had been doing research on pesticides and made a connection with between pesticides which had caused accidental deaths and developed a nerve gas...."
Chemical weapons drill in Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium during WWII
Gerald Bull: Wikipedia entry After joining the McGill staff in 1960, "with money from the Pentagon he set up Project HARP (for High Altitude Research Program) on a large plot of land in Quebec near the US border. There he began working with 5" and 7" artillery pieces...."
Gerald Bull and crew with model of the "Martlet I" missile which they developed at McGill in the sixties.
McGill's Military Research Enlisted in U.S. Air Force Program "For five years, controversy has raged over research by two engineering professors into "fuel-air explosives" (FAEs). Throughout, Professors Roman Knystautas and John H. Lee of McGill University's Mechanical Engineering Department have maintained that their research was pure scientific enquiry, though it was funded by the Department of National Defence (DND). But U.S. government documents now show that the two scientists specifically carried out research on FAEs for the U.S. Air Force between 1977 and 1983. They specify FAE weapons as the focus of their research. Knystautas and Lee also reported having conducted large scale tests for this research in 1982 at the DND's Defence Research Establishment in Suffield, Alberta (DRES)...."
Second Annual Ross Ellis Memorial Lecture Among other things, LCol John A. English raises the spectre of "re-establishing Canadian Officer Training Corps in universities".
An officer training corps for Canada (Canadian Military Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 2004) "...Recently, under the Land Force Reserve Restructure initiative, there have been calls to resurrect a training system that Canada abandoned some years ago: the Officer Training Corps. Under a plan put forward in October 2003, the Canadian Forces Liaison Council (CFLC) is encouraging post-secondary educational institutions to make greater allowances for students enrolled in the CF. Simultaneously, Primary Reserve units are to build individual relationships with their local colleges and universities to encourage greater recruitment of students...."
Covert Psychiatric Research
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, Chapter 8: "Brainwashing" - by John Marks. Documents Ewen Cameron's CIA-funded 'depatterning' experiments in the late fifties (using electroshocks, sensory-deprivation, LSD, etc.) and the circumstances surrounding them.
The Sleep Room's Missing Memories - note how 'Fred Lowy' worked as "a young researcher who lasted only a few months in Cameron's employ." Yes, that's Frederick Lowy, current rector of Concordia University!
The Cold War Experiments - by Stephen Budiansky, Erica E. Goode and Ted Gest
Military funded McGill LSD trial (Dec. 7, 1998 / Ottawa Citizen)
1957-1961, Canada: MKULTRA Experiments in Montreal - emphasis on Mulroney government's apologetic stance towards Cameron and the CIA
Father, Son and CIA, Chapter 9 by Harvey Weinstein. Lot of interesting stuff about Ewen Cameron and MKULTRA, but also take note of this section about Donald Hebb, one of Cameron's colleagues at McGill: "...Even prior to the formation of the [Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology; front group for MKULTRA], the [CIA] had been interested in work done at McGill. Donald Hebb was chairman of the Human Relations and Research Committee of the Canadian Defence Research Board in 1950-51. As such, he was invited to attend a meeting of representatives of the British, Canadian and American governments who at that time were concerned about the ability of the Soviet Union to elicit confessions from its own citizens. They conjectured that the Soviets were using some new psychological techniques. Shortly thereafter, Hebb began to wonder about the use of sensory deprivation as a tool for breaking people down. He subsequently received about $10,000 a year from the Canadian Defence Research Board to develop his work on sensory deprivation. Carried on by Hebb's students, the results were, as previously noted, quite startling: volunteer students placed in sensory isolation for over two to three days became depersonalized and unable to think, and they experienced hallucinations; they were then receptive to attitudinal change.
One of Hebb's sensory deprivation subjects at McGill.
A Legacy of Shattered Lives - focus is on Heinz Lehmann, clinical director of the Allan Memorial Institute from 1958-1971
photo - Ewen Cameron is on the right, Cyril James in the centre
Tobacco Connections
McGill's basic financial building block?
William C. MacDonald 1831-1917 - "Tobacconist with a Heart" "...Citing smoking as a “wasteful habit” and the chewing of tobacco as “disgusting,” [Macdonald] sought a way in which his profits could benefit society at large." That is, get society hooked on tobacco philanthropy ... a strategy which has only begun to unravel for the tobacco industry very recently. Through strategic donations and marketing strategies, Macdonald Tobacco succeeded in branding entire generations of students (Coca-Cola and Pepsi have only picked up where the tobacco companies are leaving off), and added to their huge profits with contracts to supply the military with cigarettes for troops.
Macdonald Tobacco funded buildings at McGill:
History of RJR-Macdonald Inc. "...the brothers initiated a heart-shaped logo and coined the phrase “tobacco with a heart” – a trademark that lasted more than a century"
Sir William Macdonald (1831-1917) "The founder of Macdonald Tobacco was actually an ardent non-smoker who wouldn't let people light up near him...."
from A brief history of athletics at McGill (Dec 19, 2003):
from McGill Reporter (Nov. 7, 2002):
"...McGill desperately needed a new gymnasium - a project that had been first proposed in the 1800s. How could funds - $350,000 in all - be raised?
"The answer came in packs of 10, 20, 25 and 50. McGill brand cigarettes - complete with the University logo - were sold for years and led to the construction of the Currie Gym. The cigarettes were Macdonald tobacco's contribution to the new gymnasium - which was also needed as a winter training facility for the Canadian Officer Training Corps. The tobacco giant agreed to split the profit from every pack sold with McGill."
COTC training during WWII in Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium and Armoury (after the gym was completed in 1939 thanks to proceeds from the sale of 'McGill Cigarettes')
Links to Various People and Issues
James McGill
Link to online version of Gustavus Myers' seminal text: A History of Canadian Wealth (1914) - rich source of information about some of the people who were influential in McGill's early histroy. Excerpts:
(from chapter 5):"As the fur merchants controlling the North West Company controlled Milnes and the Executive Council, of which some were powerful members, they, of course, were foremost among the beneficiaries of land grants. Simon McTavish received a grant, in 1802, of 11,550 acres in the township of Chester ; and in the same year, Governor [Robert Shore] Milnes presented to William M’Gillivray a grant Of 11,550 acres of land in the township of Inverness.... Langelier says that after about 1806, the system of township associates fell into disuse, and that thereafter almost all of the large grants were made in the name of one individual or of a single family. Every person of eminence, prominence and political influence—which practically meant the all-dominating merchant class from which even the judges often came—rushed to share in the spoils. [James] McGill’s possession comprised 38,000 acres...."
Link to text of a 1788 contract by which James McGill bought one of his six slaves - and here is a complete list, the source of which is the "Dictionaire des esclaves et de leurs proprietaires au Canada francais" (LaSalle, Quebec: Hurtubise HMH. 1990), by Marcel Trudel:
James McGill - from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
John Strachan
Biography of John Strachan"...In the spring of 1807 he married Ann Wood McGill, the daughter of a Cornwall physician and widow of Andrew McGill [brother of James McGill].... [James] McGill wondered how to dispose of his extensive property, and Strachan suggested that it should be left for the encouragement of education. In consequence McGill made a will leaving the bulk of his estate to four trustees, one of them Strachan, who were to turn it over to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning if the latter established a college within ten years. McGill, who died in 1813, clearly contemplated that Strachan would be its principal. For various reasons he never was, but Strachan can be reckoned among the founders of McGill University...."
Peter McGill
Biographie de Peter McGill (1789-1860) -served as a governor of McGill university, but was not a close relative of James McGill. He was also the second mayor of Montreal and "... Il a certainement joué un rôle dans la formation de corps de volontaires dès novembre 1837 pour appuyer les troupes britanniques dans la répression des rebelles...." (also note that it was Charles Dewey Day, another member of the right-wing 'Constitutional Association' to which Peter McGill belonged and who later became Chancellor of McGill, who prosecuted the arrested Patriotes).
Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona)
From A History of Canadian Wealth by Gustavus Myers (1914), Chapter 8: "....Nascopie Indians who were terribly reduced by starvation, and who were forced to the awful extremity of eating the dead bodies of their companions, and even to kill and eat their own children ! It was in such a time and place that Donald A. Smith, later created Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal — Strathcona, the most powerful Canadian capitalist of these times — began and flourished. According to [Beckles] Willson, quoting from another writer, Smith was rated a highly valuable employe of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the 13 years he was in service in Labrador “ learning the secrets of the Company, how to manage the Indians, and how to produce the best returns.” He showed, Willson relates further, an “ invaluable knack of turning everything to account. ‘No matter,’ it has been heard of him, ‘however poor the post might be, Donald Smith always showed a balance on the right side of the ledger.’..."
Donald Smith - from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
History of BP "BP is one of Britain’s biggest companies and one of the world’s largest oil and petrochemical groups. Its origin dates back to May 1901.... After the discovery [of oil fields in Persia by George Reynolds] had been made, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was formed in 1909 to develop the oilfield and work the concessions. At the top of Anglo-Persian’s formation, Burmah Oil Company owned 97 percent of its ordinary shares. Lord Strathcona [Donald Smith, Chancellor of McGill from 1889-1914] , the company’s first chairman, owned the rest."
Sir Hugh Allan
Sir Hugh Allan - from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (1850-1892)
Asbestos Cover-up
Exposing the Myth of ABC, Anything But Chrysotile: A critique of the Canadian asbestos mining industry and McGill University chrysotile studies "...QAMA-funded researchers [working at McGill] put forth several myths purporting that Quebec-mined chrysotile was harmless, and contended that the contamination of chrysotile with oils, tremolite, or crocidolite was the source of occupational health risk. In addition, QAMA-funded researchers manipulated data and used unsound sampling and analysis techniques to back up their contention that chrysotile was essentially innocuous..."
Debt Owed to First Nations
McGill owes Six Nations more than $1.7 billion "...In 1989 Six Nations contacted McGill to inform it that they estimated that the amount owing now equalled $1,748,825,075 at a ten percent annual compound interest rate. How does McGill owe this much money? During the 1850s the university was in financial trouble and on the verge of bankruptcy. It, with the help of Charles Dewey Day, contacted the Executive Council of the Province of Canada, "praying that aid by way of Grant or Loan to the extent of $40,000 be extended to the University of McGill College to relieve it from present embarrassments and assist its future maintenance on an extended sphere of usefulness." It was therefore recommended by the Minister of Finance to loan to the university "$40,000 from the uninvested monies belonging to the Indian fund." The loan was granted on June 14, 1860, by the Executive Council of the Crown and was affirmed by an Order-in-Council signed by William H. Lee. Then on December 20, 1860, Day was paid $8,000 out of the loan to McGill. In 1989 Chief William K. Montour of Six Nations wrote to then Principal and Vice Chancellor of McGill University Dr. D. L. Johnston, that, "We have identified that this $8,000 did not come from the uninvested monies belonging to the General Indian Fund, but specifically from the funds of the Six Nations. Furthermore, our records reveal that McGill has never reimbursed the Six Nations for this $8,000 plus interest.... Monture also alluded that one way McGill could begin repaying the debt is to fund the First Peoples' House at McGill University. The First Peoples' House currently receives its funding from sources outside the university. Its mandate is to foster a sense of community, belonging and voice to Native students who are studying at McGill University." (see also: Six Nations says McGill owes it $1.7-billion -- McGill Daily / Nov. 13, 2006)
Faculty Purges
Canadian Sociological Approaches "... In 1930, some sociological researchers at McGill University set up the McGill Social Science Research Project which examined issues such as unemployment, social welfare, immigration, labour mobility, land tenure and education.... Marsh and his associated made many studies of employment and unemployment, but eventually the Project was terminated because senior McGill University professors and administrators considered the approach too radical...."
Things Which are Done in Secret by Marlene Dixon (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1976) Description: "Dr. Dixon of McGill University describes the attempts to purge herself and Dr. Pauline Vaillancourt from the sociology and from the political science departments at McGill University."
Peggy Ann Sheppard and the Admissions Scandal
Former director of admissions sues McGill "...Hearings began September 8 in a lawsuit in which former Director of Admissions Peggy Ann Sheppard accused McGill University of pressuring her to accept applicants that did not meet admissions standards. Sheppard is suing the university for approximately $1.4-million for firing her due to her refusal to admit under-qualified students..."
Update: "McGill cleared in lawsuit", states an October 16 2004 article in The Gazette. It appears that McGill has been cleared of charges of unlawful dismissal not because Sheppard's claim that she was pressured to accept unqualified applicants was false, but because McGill had offered her an 'equivalent' job which she declined to accept. It's worth noting that the 'equivalent' job offer only came after she was strung along by McGill for over eight years with offers of 'unequivalent' jobs.
Bernard Shapiro's Ban on Political Activity On Campus
McGill’s Shapiro banned campus protests – and got peace Exceprt from this Canadian Jewish News article:
"McGill University principal Bernard Shapiro [principal from 1994-2002] says he knew how to keep McGill University from becoming another Concordia. He banned political demonstrations on campus, he said, fully aware that such a move was illegal. He reasoned that “until somebody said something, I could always get away with it,” he told a recent B’nai Brith Covenant Breakfast at Congregation Beth El. He added that McGill has not experienced the kind of political discord over the Middle East that Concordia University did, in part because McGill has “almost no part-time students.” Because of that, he suggested, McGill students don’t have as much free time to engage in provocative activities...."
THE BAN ON POLITICAL ACTIVITY ON-CAMPUS REMAINS IN FORCE. Furthermore, it has been reported to McGillty Productions that among the list of lease conditions for at least one McGill residence is a stipulation declaring that the student will not engage in on-campus political activity. If such a condition is attached to your lease, please contact: mcgilltyproductions@yahoo.ca. We are compiling information on this infringement of student rights with a view towards a concerted response.
For more on the ban on political activity, see: Ban on campus politics can't be ignored (Sept. 20, 2004 / McGill Daily)
Reference Sites
Past Principals and Vice-Chancellors
The History and Tradition of Installation (1829-2003) - includes info on McGill's original will and other papers of governance
McGill News: McGill history feature
Student Life at McGill: 1829 - 1997 - a series of four online photo exhibitions. Of particular interest is the 'issues' section in which campus militarism -- the dominant political mode on campus throughout the first two thirds of the twentieth century -- is contrasted with the protest-oriented student activism which became prominent after the mid-sixties.
Monuments and Sculptures on and around the downtown campus
Remembrance Day 2003 - McGill Tribune Op-ed
Student groups tell Montreal universities to cut military ties (Feb. 3, 2005 / McGill Daily) "Student groups at McGill and Concordia universities are collaborating to try to oust members of the two schools’ boards of governors who have ties to U.S. military contracts. Organizers of the campaign, dubbed Know War, are circulating a petition...."
