The Tribune
TUESDAY, JANUARY 13 2026 | VOL. 45 | ISSUE 14
Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
2026: The Year of Olivia Dean PG. 10
OFF THE BOARD
When we dance, we make the world a little lighter
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FEATURE
Lost within the looking glass
PG. 11
PGS. 8-9
SPORTS
Italian women’s Olympic hockey team member Kristen Guerriero races McGill Martlets’ Jordyn Watson after a scramble for the puck near the Italian goal. (Anna Seger / The Tribune)
Chilled rivalry: Martlets Hockey fall to Italian National Team in pre-Olympic exhibition The Martlets test their game against elite international competition
Quebec’s neglect of students with disabilities is undermining education and well-being EDITORIAL
The Tribune Editorial Board
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ast week, Quebec school administrators informed thousands of students with disabilities that they would be experiencing a ‘break in services’ until Nov. 2026. Those breaks, the result of funding and staffing shortages that made accessibility programming reportedly infeasible, entail reduced schedules, removal from classes, and in some instances, being forced entirely into home learning. In June 2025, Quebec’s education ministry, at the time led by Bernard Drainville, imposed a $570 million CAD cut on lower-education institutions. Following public outcry over the budget cuts, the province later introduced a revised budgetary envelope reinstating $540 million CAD. However, the vast majority of its funds were earmarked to prevent schools from running deficits as a strategy to accumu-
late funding to cover critical student services, leaving schools with little flexibility to respond to accessibility needs. As reduced funding and stricter guidelines compound upon government-mandated changes to in-school policies, the result is a system in which decision-making has shifted away from the hands of educators and support staff on the ground—all to the detriment of students with disabilities. With budget cuts rising, the number of students with disabilities experiencing a break in services—3,417 students in 2025—will only continue to climb. As a result, families and communities are forced to take on the duty of homeschooling their children or outsource their educational needs to the private sector. Relying on families to take time away from their jobs to act as their children’s educators not only poses risks to the quality of education received by students with disabilities but also fails to fill the critical role schools play PG. 5 in child development.
PG. 15
PAJU hosts vigil in solidarity with Palestine at Station Bonaventure NEWS
Attendees hand out flyers explaining the No More Loopholes Act
Asher Kui News Editor
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n Jan. 8, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) hosted a vigil in solidarity with Palestine against Israel’s broken ceasefire and ongoing genocide. At 4:00 p.m., around 10 members of PAJU stationed themselves outside the turnstiles at Station Bonaventure, distributing flyers to commuters and pedestrians. In an interview with The Tribune, PAJU representative Bill Sloan, informally known as Captain Boycott, highlighted Israel’s history of breaking ceasefires, and PAJU’s commitment to protesting Israel’s actions amid adverse political situations. “Since 1948, Israel has never respected a truce or a ceasefire, never once,” Sloan said. “They have been and they continue to be permanently in a state of war, officially and
legally [....] We will continue to be a pain in the neck [...] [even when] cops tell [us] that [we’re] not allowed to [protest] here.” He continued to mention how some proIsrael citizens in Montreal have repeatedly attempted to shut down PAJU’s demonstrations. Another attendee who wished to remain unnamed, who is a part of a trio of activists that protest alongside PAJU each week, explained to The Tribune that Canada and Quebec are just as complicit as the United States in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. “People assume that Canada, which is far, far away, and it’s not America, [is] not involved, but we are highly involved with our tax dollars,” they said. “People simply refuse to make the connection [….] If people are out on the streets in large numbers, which they’re not, maybe something would happen, but as long as there’s this general indifference and sort of sleepwalkingness, it’s not going to get better.” PG. 2