Fire in the Mainframe

The 1969 Sir George Williams computer centre occupation has always felt like a secret, or underground, history, with whose protection Black Montreal has been entrusted. It is underground because it is often buried by mainstream Quebec history. When the FLQ (Front de libération du Québec), Quebec nationalism, and the October Crisis of 1970 are discussed, little or no reference is made to the occupation. That omission is telling, because people of my generation have grown up hearing about those events as centrepieces of “recent” Canadian history, and because, at the very least, the occupation shares the timeline. The occupation, in fact, preceded the October Crisis, and there is anecdotal evidence of a kind of cultural overlap. As a Black writer in Quebec, I am attracted to minor characters and suppressed histories, and this informs part of my interest in the occupation.

In the Legacy of Marronage: The Sir George Williams Affair and Acts of Refusal, Protest, and Care

At its core, this article is concerned with the relationship between Black life and the university. It is focused on those working and studying in and at the interstices of the university—those for which the university itself was made to exclude; those for whom the university cannot begin to know how to include. By attending to the events of the 1969 Sir George Williams Affair, which took place in Montreal, Canada, as well as the events preceding it, I consider how the occupation of the ninth floor computer centre by the university’s Black students operated within a legacy of refusal that can be traced back to an earlier history of resistance, specifically, to acts of marronage. Moreover, this article will seek to advance how the siting of spaces for protest, resistance, and solidarity by Black students illustrates how a lineage of marronage is at once a continuance of a project and practice of an ethics of care.

Roots, rhizomes and resistance: remembering the Sir George Williams student uprising

This article is a critical reflection, half a century on and offered from the Caribbean, about allegations of racial discrimination on the part of a professor that prompted the 1969 Sir George Williams affair in Montreal. It provides an overview of the factors that instigated the student uprising; details the response and aftermath that ensued; offers a focus on the role Black women played in the direct action; and illustrates how the incident was influenced by and had links to the West Indies. In addition, it historicises 1960s–1970s Trinidad and Tobago to explain how the political convictions and demonstration of the students inspired movements and galvanised solidarity for transformative change in the country post-independence. It highlights the translocal connections and metaphorical rhizomes that exist not only in the Caribbean diaspora, but across student protests, youth mobilisations and revolutionary struggles globally. The article is an act of diasporic remembrance on the uprising’s fiftieth anniversary, as well as a recognition of the significance it continues to have in the West Indies today, particularly in Trinidad and Tobago.

Correction: Investigating student and staff perceptions of students' experiences in teaching laboratories through the lens of meaningful learning

Correction for ‘Investigating student and staff perceptions of students' experiences in teaching laboratories through the lens of meaningful learning’ by Stephen R. George-Williams et al., Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2019, DOI: 10.1039/c8rp00188j.

Origin Stories of Pinhook

This chapter contains stories told to the authors by George Williams, Aretha Robinson, and Larry Robinson, as well as parts of an older interview with Jim Robinson, Jr, the son of Jim Robinson, Sr., one of the five men who first came to Pinhook from Tennessee, which was recorded by Will Sarvis of the Missouri Historical Society in 1998. Interviews with other former residents add important perspectives on what they know and remember about the establishment of the town.