My mom taught at McGill in the ‘70s, left to teach at the University of Minnesota and then went back to McGill. So, growing up I heard a lot about McGill. I was at a college preparatory private school in Minnesota and all my classmates were applying to 10 different schools. I only applied to one university and that was McGill. I didn’t even think twice about it.
We were a group of students all living together, but our friends were older – they were artists, they were filmmakers. I think a lot of that informed what I wanted to do later in life without realizing it at the time.”
I had the brochure for the university, and I think it said something like ‘McGill University, a place to live and learn’. It really resonated with me once I was at McGill that the ‘live’ came before the ‘learn’. It wasn’t just about being at McGill, but it was being in Montreal, this amazing city, and it was about learning and gaining knowledge through experience. And that is how I look back at my own McGill experience.
McGill attracted a really special group of students. I made incredible friendships and relationships. At that age when you’re an undergrad, it’s this kind of amazing journey that you go through and I can’t think of a better place to do it than McGill and being in Montreal.
The first year I was living with my parents and then I moved out into the Plateau. At the time, the Plateau was not a place where students lived. Me and my friends were able to experience a certain kind of freedom that I’ve never experienced before, living in that neighbourhood – not just the freedom of being able to do what you want, when you want, but this incredibly creative environment. We were a group of students all living together, but our friends were older – they were artists, they were filmmakers. I think a lot of that informed what I wanted to do later in life without realizing it at the time.
We’ve become a true alternative to traditional media and that’s what we set out to do.”
Ignorance is bliss on some level. When I started the magazine in 1994, I didn’t realize just what a bad idea it was to start yet another English print publication in Montreal in a shrinking English market during an economic downturn. But I thought that there was a need for another perspective on storytelling out there – and it turns out that was the case.
I think it’s gone beyond what we had ever imagined it would when we started as a magazine in Montreal. We’re a global media company and the largest independent media company in the world now. We’ve become a true alternative to traditional media and that’s what we set out to do.
We’ve been really blessed that we’ve been able to survive the kind of ebb and flow and shifts and market forces as it relates to media. Today, we’re a proper diversified company with all these different divisions. It’s kind of a one in a million story, the story of Vice.