The Tribune
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 2024 | VOL. 44 | ISSUE 9
STUDENT LIFE How did students celebrate Diwaloween? PG. 10
Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University
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FEATURE
On The Table: Kitchen Chemistry PGS. 8-9
OFF THE BOARD The quest for perfection is unrealistic and harmful PG. 5
Flip to page 7 for Fall 2024 SSMU Referendum Endorsements by The Tribune
(Eliot Loose / The Tribune), Tribune), PG. 3
Mohawk Mothers and Independent Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray call for legal reform and justice for Indigenous children
“Our current legislation [...] is not about finding the truth, it’s about hiding the truth,” Murray says Fabienne de Cartier & Eliza Lee News Editors Content warning: Mentions of residential schools, settler colonialism, violence, and death.
O
n Oct. 29, Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential
Schools, Kimberly Murray, released her final report on missing and disappeared Indigenous children. Murray— who was appointed to the position by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada in June 2022—worked with Indigenous residential school survivors, their families, and their communities to outline the actions needed to create a legal framework to protect the rights of and ensure justice for children buried at the sites of former residential schools. Murray’s findings also supported the demands of
the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers’) for an investigation into the New Vic Project site, for which they filed a motion at the Supreme Court on Oct. 15. Murray asserts that through actions such as subjecting them to violence, malnutrition, and medical experimentation, the state committed “enforced disappearances” of many Indigenous children sent to residential schools—a crime and violation of human rights under international law. PG. 2
SCIENCE & Canada’s new immigration Are you feeling burned out TECHNOLOGY with your STEM degree? restriction promotes racism and Uncovering the patterns of motivation loss xenophobia
EDITORIAL
The Tribune Editorial Board
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n Oct. 24, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new policy which will significantly cut the number of immigrants Canada admits, as a response to rapid population
growth and insufficient resources. This policy will reduce the number of legal immigrants in 2025 from the previously projected 500,000 to just 395,000—a drop of 21 per cent. The policy places additional restrictions on undergraduate and master’s student visas, further jeopardizing
the country’s international student population. This new legislation reflects the broader Canadian tendency to render certain immigrant groups scapegoats for governmental failures to properly address the turbulent economy, unaffordable housing, and crime rates. PG. 5
among STEM students K. Coco Zhang Science & Technology Editor
U
niversity students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) tend to lose motivation over time, largely due to daunting coursework and competitive
environments. This loss of motivation can be detrimental to students’ pursuit of careers and further studies in STEM fields, not to mention their mental health. A detailed understanding of when and how students are most likely to lose motivation could help support students and combat this issue,
but research into the dynamics of motivational loss is lacking. In a recent paper, Kristy Robinson, assistant professor in McGill’s Faculty of Education, and her team investigated short-term changes in motivation and how they correlate with specific academic setPG. 14 tings.