it not failed, would have revoked Choose Life's club status entirely. 'Farnan-gate' Controversy In October 2013, Brian Farnan, then the VP of Internal Affairs for SSMU, sent out a weekly listserv email which included a doctored GIF image of US President Barack Obama kicking down a door with the caption "honestly midterms, get out of here." Subsequently, an anonymous complaint was filed with SSMU's equity commission, and Farnan was compelled to publicly apologize for purportedly carrying out the microaggression of perpetuating negative African-American stereotypes. Backlash manifested itself both on campus and beyond as a result of the apology, which gained the attention of national media and was dubbed 'Farnan-gate' by campus media. SSMU's equity policy was heavily criticized and placed under review as a result. In March 2014, SSMU moved to officially rescind its motion mandating Farnan's apology, releasing a statement which acknowledged the "unnecessary and excessively punitive" perception of the apology and stated it had "trivialized racism." Criticism of Academic Freedom On November 20, 2020, SSMU published an open letter demanding that McGill overhaul its policy on academic freedom. The letter said that the policy was endangering people of colour and that what speech is acceptable is decided by "the power of whiteness." Several McGill faculty responded in a letter to the Montreal Gazette, noting that students had cultivated a culture of fear at McGill among faculty since allegations of harm, hate, racism and sexism have been leveraged to justify silencing instructors, the retraction of published works, or defamation campaigns. The respondents suggested students use their platform to argue against views they disagree with instead of demanding they be silenced. SSMU's demand that academic freedom be "overhauled" was criticized in the Canadian and international press. See also List of Quebec students' associations McGill Martlets McGill Redbirds References External links Union for Gender Empowerment Web Site McGill First Year Committee of Council (FYCC) McGill Daily McGill Tribune TVMcGill University Site McGill University McGill Quebec students' associations Student government