Daily tribulations

>>

by CRAIG SEGAL

On Tuesday the McGill Daily won a temporary injunction against a Student Union order to surrender its longtime premises in the basement of the Shatner Building. The paper now has until the end of next week to enjoy their premises. The larger case, to determine whether they'll get the boot for good, starts next Thursday.

Kevin McPhee of the Student Union says the McGill Daily and the French weekly, Le Délit Français, are blocking renovations and have offered the Daily another space on the same floor. The new space is 300-square-feet smaller and has less open space for conferencing, and the Daily doesn't like it a bit. "This has been a calculated business move from the beginning," says Jon Bricker, Daily news editor. "It favours the Tribune [the paper operated by the student union] and it's an attempt to monopolize the media on campus."

It's not the first time the two sides have clashed. Last February, the Daily successfully fought an exclusive Student Union deal with Coca-Cola and more recently led a controversial attack on McGill's offer of an honourary doctorate to Royal Bank CEO John Cleghorn.

Bricker calls the Student Union's behaviour, "A big, fucking ego trip. Other rent-paying student groups [that are in the way of the renovations] have not been asked to pay an increase in rent."

McPhee denies this, saying the Tribune is also getting a smaller space and that it--along with all the other groups affected by the renos--will face rent hikes.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre development, the Student Union revealed at the hearing that it intends to ask the judge for a publication ban on further hearings. Lawyers of the Daily called the request "unprecedented."

more news...