welcome to TMUPIRG!

TMUPIRG provides a unique space and intersection to TMU students focused on community based research and providing education around professional advocacy and other transferrable skills.

Public Interest Research Groups were formed in the 1970s and 1980s under the guidance of consumer advocate and lawyer Ralph Nader to provide a professional wing to the growing student activist movement. The PIRGs in the USA, which we take inspiration from, were built with research, lobbying, advocacy and education in mind as more tools that students can use to build effective and sustainable change across Turtle Island.

Currently, TMUPIRG is focusing on using hands on self directed research projects to build research skills for TMU students. We’d like to prove that the research of students can make major change, and that this research can come from students in any program, at any stage of their career, and through support, with any academic background. Uniquely, TMUPIRG is operated as a service of TMAPS and this is an important part of how TMUPIRG operates.

Over the next year we’ll be engaging students in an effort to host a referendum on making TMUPIRG a permanent part of TMAPS’ student services and support on campus. If you’d like to get involved, connect with our team!

We’re hoping that with more hands on deck, we’ll be able to build a robust system for students to gain professional advocacy experiences, learn how to lobby and engage in government relations, and engage with research of all kinds.