MSS Equity Committee

The Equity Bookshelf is a library for all med students interested in exploring social justice, racism in health care, access to health care for LGBTQ people, anti‐oppressive practices in medicine, and personal testimonies from marginalized people interacting with the healthcare system. Containing books, zines and online resources that students can view or sign out, the equity bookshelf helps students build skills they can use in their clinical practice. It emphasizes that we are becoming physicians in a system which has done a lot of good but also has the power to systemically harm.

McGill’s medical students are eager to learn about the impacts of discrimination in medicine. As students read and share the resources in the equity bookshelf, it will help them enrich and build upon an understanding of their own identities, those of their peers, as well as others’ communities. We anticipate the benefits to be to our student body, who will have improved access to these resources, but it is our greatest hope that this project will have a positive trickle-down effect into the care that people with marginalized identities receive. There is also an online component to the bookshelf, with even more books and resources, in progress!

The Equity Bookshelf is found in the Living Room of the Lady Meredith Annex (3708 Peel St, Montreal, QC H3A 1W9).

If you would like to send us a recommendation of a new book or online resource to get for the Equity Bookshelf, please don’t hesitate to write to the VP EDI.

On December 4th 2019, the MSS Equity Committee hosted a workshop on ethical, sustainable and local gift giving. We will built gift baskets with locally-sourced, environmentally friendly and ethically produced items, which were donated to local shelters at the end of the evening. Aspen Murray, a young activist and the founder of ethigirl.com, was our teacher for the evening.

Aspen Murray is a young activist and the founder of Ethigirl.com. She is dedicating her life to the pursuit of making ethical + sustainable fashion the norm. She firmly believes that we all have the power to vote with our dollars, but that we need to reform how we look at conscious consumerism: it shouldn’t be difficult, it shouldn’t be inaccessible to certain people, and it’s okay if we mess up − because the onus should never fall entirely on the consumer.

There is a lot of behind the scenes work going on this year, stayed tuned for more information!

At the Fall 2017 General Assembly, a motion to mandate Indigenous land acknowledgement was passed. It was written in part by Equity Committee members and and proposed on behalf of the Equity Committee. It mandated all MSS events and meetings to start with the following statement. “McGill University is situated on the traditional territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations.”

The McGill Medical Students’ Society Equity Committee, McGill Global Health, and HealthQueer Professionals presented a panel discussion and screening of the documentary “120 battements par minute”. The event took place in the Leacock Building, room ARTS150, on Monday, October 15, 2018 from 6:00-9:00pm.

“120 battements par minute” relates the fight of French AIDS activist during the AIDS crisis in the mid 90s. Their struggle spans many fronts, whether it is trying to access promising anti-retroviral therapy, pushing for sexual education in schools, or surviving the horrific illness itself. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, this beautifully shot movie, pulsating to 90s synth pop hits, dresses a moving portrait of illness, identity, and advocacy.

For the panel discussion preceding the film, we were pleased to have Dr. Jean Robert (Microbiology, Immunology and Public Health physician), and Mr. Ken Monteith (Director of Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida (COCQ-SIDA).

Like our Facebook Page to stay informed on the committee’s events and to discuss issues related to social justice in medicine.

After the Faculty of Medicine removed the personal narrative from the admissions process, the Equity Committee felt that there was an element missing that allowed applicants to give a context on their life and experiences. In response, the Equity Committee suggested that with each entry in the CV there should be a place to add this context (e.g. if you worked all throughout undergrad to support yourself/your family). The Faculty was very responsive to this, and an area to add context to the CV was added from the Class of 2023 admissions process onwards.

On behalf of the Equity Committee of the MSS, Ali Elias and Safina Adatia, we have published a statement opposing the implementation of Bill 21, branded as the Secularism Bill. Introduced on March 28, Bill 21 seeks to invoke religious neutrality across the province. The Equity Committee of the MSS believes this Bill discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities and is in clear contradiction with the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

The Equity Committee wrote a statement denouncing the racist and islamophobic nature of Quebec’s Bill 62. The statement was endorsed by the MSS at the Fall 2017 General Assembly, and is therefore the official position of all MSS members.

We are meeting with a group of students across STEMM faculties working to advance equity in their respective departments. The group wrote a letter and sent it to the Dean of Medicine and the Dean of Science making four requests:

• A faculty-level equity committee in each department
• Training for faculty about creating inclusive learning environments
•  Anti-oppression training for students during orientation
•  Called upon the Faculty of Medicine to respect McGill’s preferred name policy.

The group is continuing to work with administration to realize these goals.

Every year, Gabrielle Bouchard from the Centre for Gender Advocacy leads a workshop on how medicine has contributed to the marginalization of trans people in Quebec and ways that we can advocate for our trans patients at the individual and structural levels.