Beginning as a student club in 1987, the Quebec Public Interest Group (QPIRG) at McGill University won funding from the Students’ Society through a petition process and then the approbation of the governing bodies of McGill in 1988. In 1989 it was incorporated as non-profit organization including a board of directors made up of student volunteers. QPIRG McGill’s mission is the promotion of social change on the campus and in the larger community through engagement in public campaigns to help bring pressure to bear on issues such as environmentalism, international development, racism, war and sexism. Most of these endeavors have taken place on the McGill campus or elsewhere in Montreal area but some have had a national or international dimension. QPIRG McGill is composed of working groups devoted to specific areas of concern and also supports projects and conferences QPIRG McGill has also engaged in co-operative programs with other local Montreal university PIRGS including joint training ventures for student activists.

The McGill Physical Society was founded in 1897 as a means of bringing members of the teaching staff together to discuss problems in physics. Many important scientists were members of the Society, including Ernest Rutherford, A. S. Eve, H. T. Barnes, Frederick Soddy and H. A. Wilson, and many valuable contributions to science in the forms of reports and paper were given by members before the Society.