The Tribune Vol. 45, Issue 4

When

SPHR hosts vigil for Gaza at Y-intersection

Students mourn Palestinian lives lost to Israel’s genocide and continue to call for divestment

Helene Saleska News Editor

On Sept. 15, a group of approximately 50 McGill and Concordia students and community members gathered at McGill’s Y-intersection for a “Vigil for Gaza” organized by Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance

at McGill (SPHR). Students raised Palestinian flags around the area as the sun set. Around 6:45 p.m., a student with a microphone began the chant, “We will honour all our martyrs,” which the audience promptly picked up. Students lit candles as it got dark.

A representative from SPHR began by speaking about the current situation for people in Gaza.

Reviving a historical landmark to reclaim public space

Asher Kui News Editor

You pass by this intersection daily— whether on a BIXI bike back to your Plateau apartment, or on your stream of grocery shopping activities at Metro and Dollarama in the Complexe La Cité. Yet it rarely registers in your memory, silently blending into your daily routine. Where is it?

On av. du Parc, coin de la rue Milton, are the premises of what used to be Chez Gautier. Originally a fur trading store, it was

later turned into a sewing machine shop before pastry chef Moïse Gautier acquired it in 1976. Gautier, who owned the Belgian pastry shop right next door, transformed the small space into a Parisian-style café, which in the 1980s and 1990s attracted many locals and tourists. While it was rumoured that in 2012, his daughter Stéphanie Gautier took the business into her own hands and renovated it in her father’s legacy, Chez Gautier ultimately shut down indefinitely a year later. A real estate developer purchased the property in 2013, and it has remained vacant ever since— along with its unused parking lot.

“We are on day 710 of this genocide,” they stated. “There have been almost 200,000 martyrs. But numbers do no justice to each martyr, each with name, a family, with a home, and with hopes and dreams. [....] Their graves are not marked by tombstones, but by the rubble of their homes.”

“McGill is responsible for every penny it invests in this genocide,” they said.

Protestors chanted, “We’re here. We’re Queer. You can’t make us disappear!”

Amelia H. Clark Staff Writer

ueer McGill’s counter-protest against Ensemble pour protéger nos enfants (EPPNE)’s antitransgender demonstration began at 9:00 a.m. on Sept. 20, as protesters gathered in preparation for the arrival of EPPNE demonstrators at 11:00 a.m. Some EPPNE members arrived early in response, holding signs which read, “Protect children.” One counter-protester held a banner which stated, “Don’t be your child’s first bully.”

EPPNE is a right-wing organization petitioning to remove any mention of queer identities from Quebec’s K-12 curricula on the grounds that teaching youth what they describe as “gender ideology” infringes on parents’ rights to pass on their own religious or moral beliefs to their children. EPPNE further argues that children having knowledge of homosexuality or transgender identities erodes their innocence, and that this knowledge is used to indoctrinate adolescents into the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

SPHR hosts vigil for Gaza at Y-intersection

Students mourn Palestinian lives lost to Israel’s genocide and continue to call for divestment

Helene Saleska News Editor

Continued from page 1

The next speaker, an SPHR representative for graduate students, turned the solemn theme of mourning into a call for action.

“We vow to remember every martyr in Palestine with every action we take,” they expressed.

This speaker also noted that the death toll from the genocide in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, may be six times the amount reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. Other reports estimate the toll to be 40 per cent higher than the Gaza Health Ministry reports.

A McGill professor next spoke about the complicated mixture of anger, sadness, and love that she saw reflected in the crowd at the vigil. She echoed similar emotions of immense mourning for Palestinians, but also spoke about finding strength, community, and resilience in those who gathered to participate in collective grieving. The professor read a poem by Palestinian Poet Hiba Abu Nada, called “I Grant You Refuge.” She explained that Abu Nada wrote this particular poem only ten days before she was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Oct. 20, 2023, at the age of 32.

Students from McGill and Concordia and community members unite at McGill’s Y-intersection to hold a candlelit vigil organized by SPHR in honour of the thousands of Palestinians killed in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)

Afterwards, SPHR representatives began two prayers, one read in Arabic, the other in English, dedicated to all those who have been killed in Gaza.

In an interview with The Tribune , a spokesperson for SPHR explained why they decided to host the vigil, and what the most important takeaways for McGill students and administration are.

“We are gathered here tonight to mourn the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the genocide in Gaza, and to continue to fight for academic divestment,” they said. “We call on McGill to end its complicity [...] by divesting from weapons companies among other complicit companies, and ending academic partnerships with complicit institutions. [....]

Queer McGill fights transphobia in counter-protest

Students must join the fight for divestment.”

The McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) commented on these calls in a written statement to The Tribune

“The analysis by the Committee [on Sustainability and Social Responsibility] confirmed that the University had no exposure to companies involved in the production of controversial weapons at the time of the review [on July 8, 2024],” the MRO wrote.

Another student attending the vigil voiced what they hope will come from pro-Palestine activism on university campuses like McGill’s.

“We want to see McGill divestment, and we want to see Concordia divestment,” they explained. “We also want [these universities] to stop policing students. Both McGill and Concordia have been increasing their security for the purpose of policing students on campus who are speaking out.”

“McGill University is firmly committed to freedom of expression and has no issue with lawful activism and protest, regardless of the cause,” the MRO wrote. A McGill community member in attendance shared that they hope this vigil will lead to further action for Palestine in an interview with The Tribune

“We are taking the time to honour the

Protestors chanted, “We’re here. We’re Queer. You can’t make us disappear!”

Amelia H. Clark

Staff

Writer

Continued from page 1.

Celeste Trianon, a front-line advocate for the counter-protest and founder of a legal clinic that helps trans individuals change their legal genders and names, outlined how EPPNE’s petition—and others like it—would affect queer children in an interview with The Tribune . She stated that this movement would hinder self-acceptance among youths while increasing anti-transgender violence in educational and residential spaces.

“Schools are already unsafe as it is for trans kids,” Trianon said. “[Schools having] the right to out students to their parents [could] literally put kids in situations of homelessness. So, will [schools] actually protect children, or will [schools] put them in further danger?”

The counter-protest was held in honour of Sam Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota who was kidnapped and tortured for a month by his former online girlfriend and six others before dying in February 2025 from his injuries. Despite evidence that the extensive violence towards Nordquist was hate-based, the case was not ruled a hate crime, a distinction which could potentially influence sentencing severity.

Trianon shared with The Tribune that Canadians should be especially concerned

for trans safety considering the current backsliding of queer rights in the United States, demonstrated by such violence against transgender individuals and the way this violence is disregarded.

“Sam Nordquist [...] was effectively killed because of transphobia, and his death has basically been left completely unaddressed by most authorities,” Trianon said. “It’s a sign of what’s coming right now. Even in death, trans people often don’t have dignity.”

Once the EPPNE demonstrators assembled, counter-protesters followed them, from rue Guy and rue St. Catherine to McGill’s Roddick Gates. Meanwhile, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal blocked several streets from entry along the way, and then peppersprayed one counter-protester who attempted to bike past.

40 per cent of transgender youths attempt suicide before they turn 18. (Anna Seger / The Tribune)

when someone pepper sprays you in the face.”

In an interview with The Tribune , one pair of counter-protesters who wished to remain anonymous stated that while they were happy to have some separation from the demonstration created by the police presence, their past experiences being teargassed by police forces made it difficult to see the authorities as protection.

“Police should be protecting us, not looking as if they were targeting or suspicious of us,” one said. “They have a mission to keep the peace, but there is no peace

“I have been chased before during demonstrations, so [their presence] is a trauma,” the other said. “If they come near you, you have to run.”

At noon, the last remaining EPPNE demonstrators left the Roddick Gates, with over 50 of the 200 originally assembled counter-protesters still present. Despite this, police remained, surrounding the crowd on all sides.

In a written statement to T he Tribune , Queer McGill event coordinator Juno Adams stated that group solidarity through

counter-protests is necessary in the fight against transphobic legislation, explaining that what transgender individuals at McGill want from their fellow students is solidarity through actions like these.

“We are victims of an oppressing society that seeks to deprive us of basic human rights and we do not need pity, we need action and support,” Adams wrote. “Banning trans identities from both curriculum and culture within schools will cause kids to perpetrate more harm towards others and themselves. Simply put, removing queer identities from schools will kill kids in more than one way.”

Senate removes Professor Roberts from CSD and debates Code of Student Conduct

The revised Code proposes smaller decisory committees, a voting legal assessor, and new intent-based offence categories

Defne Feyzioglu Contributor

The McGill Senate convened on Sept. 17 for its first meeting of the academic year. Central topics of discussion were the Nominating Committee’s decision to remove Professor William Clare Roberts from the Committee on Student Discipline (CSD) because of a post Roberts made on X, and proposed revisions to the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.

The meeting started with memorial tributes to the late Faculty of Engineering professor emeritus Tomáš J.F. Pavlásek, medicine and health sciences assistant professor Kalonde Malama, and former Faculty of Science professor and director of the Redpath Museum Valerie Pasztor.

The memorials were followed by McGill President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini’s remarks on his priorities for McGill’s long-term future: To transform, expand globally, celebrate locally, and unite. He noted that McGill will increase its partnerships and establish centralized campuses around the world.

The Senate then debated whether to remove Roberts from the CSD. The discussion stemmed from a widely circulated post on X in which Roberts wrote, “I used to think BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) was a good idea. I’ve come around, though: nothing short of ‘full economic and military support for Hamas and Hezbollah’ is appropriate.” As both organizations are designated terrorist entities in Canada, the Nominating Committee recommended Roberts’s removal as Vice-Chair of the CSD, citing concerns about perceptions of his impartiality in student discipline cases.

While the Chair of the Nominating Committee and Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi assured that the Committee was carrying out removal procedures properly, some senators remained unsure.

Catherine Lu, professor in the Department of Political Science, argued that the Committee’s move implied the university’s administration distrusts one of its own bodies, thereby weakening wider confidence in McGill’s institutional procedures.

“I can say clearly that I don’t agree with Professor Roberts,” Lu said. “But as an academic institution, do we want to set the precedent of taking a professor’s extramural remarks about offcampus politics as a reason to impute such a great risk or perceived bias in on-campus administrative proceedings?”

departments across faculties and student groups to gather feedback—to determine his long-term priorities for McGill. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)

Victoria Kaspi, professor in the Department of Physics and Academic Staff Representative on McGill’s Board of Governors, countered such opposing remarks, saying the Committee had appeared to follow procedure in Roberts’ removal. She added

that, given the impact of Roberts’ words, there must be limits to what is acceptable to say.

“In a case where someone is adjudicating something like discipline, bias is so important,” Kaspi said. “I’m not sure how much more bias one could show.”

Senator Susan Aloudat, Students’ Society of McGill University Vice-President of University Affairs, said that she was uncomfortable accepting the decision.

“I feel compelled to speak because I am a student, but also a member of the Nominating Committee,” Aloudat said. “I don’t disagree that it was important to think about these [matters] as a Nominating Committee, but [...] the process could have used more diligence.”

The motion to remove Roberts from the CSD was ultimately carried with 42 in favour, 26 against, and 12 abstaining.

Interim Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Angela Campbell next discussed the administration’s proposed changes to the Code of Student Conduct, stressing that reforms made to the Code are not intended to “wield a hammer on students,” but to modernize the Code.

The proposed Code now includes mentalstate standards that categorize offences based on intent level. The draft also introduces a “not responsible” pathway—likened in debate to a “noncriminally responsible framework”—allowing the CSD to move serious cases out of disciplinary channels if its members conclude the student could not appreciate the nature of the ‘right-or-wrong’ness of their actions, without requiring a medical diagnosis as evidence. Some senators pressed on what would justify such findings, highlighting the span of committee discretion that could be allowed.

Structural updates to the Code include shrinking the CSD and Appeal Committee to four members by default, and six on request, thus converting the Committees’ legal assessor into a voting member. The Code also now uses the Canadian civil

standard of proof—a balance of probabilities— meaning that conduct is judged to have occurred on a ‘more likely than not’ basis.

The Senate then moved to debate who is permitted to sit on the CSD and its Appeal Committee. The revision to the Code would allow adding an alumni jurist nominated by McGill’s Board of Governors to these Committees, which Víctor Muñiz-Fraticelli, associate professor for the Faculty of Law and associate professor of political science, saw as blurring the line between academic autonomy and Board control.

“Are [Board members] going to be nominating people to take part in what is essentially an academic disciplinary procedure?” asked Muñiz-Fraticelli. “That seems to me to be a radical departure from principles of academic self-governance and [demonstrates], at the very least, a deep mistrust by the board [toward] the very people that function and operate in this university.”

Moment of the meeting:

Saini discussed the Sustainability Park, part of the redevelopment of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, describing it as a large interdisciplinary hub intended to connect research and teaching across fields.

Soundbite:

“I think there’s a lot of concern about the use of the word ‘celebrating’. [....] We need to acknowledge all of the history that’s been here, not just Quebec, but also the Indigenous history that exists. [....] And I was wondering why that’s not a larger integration as part of this movement.”—Arts and Science Student Senator Chloé Muñoz, on Saini’s priority for McGill to “celebrate locally.”

SSMU BoD discusses meeting rules, member eligibility, and building protocol

The meeting featured three motions, all of which were approved w ith no debate

Clara Smyrski Sports Editor

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) held its first Board of Directors (BoD) meeting of the academic year on Sept. 16.

The meeting began with Deputy Speaker Yasmin Beeai adopting the meeting agenda with zero opposition. Susan Aloudat, SSMU Vice-President (VP) University Affairs, successfully moved to postpone Beeai’s approval of the minutes until the next scheduled BoD meeting, as the minutes were not posted early enough for the Directors to review them in advance.

Next, SSMU President Dymetri Taylor announced that VP Finance Dylan Seiler resigned the week prior without reason for his resignation. Taylor also reported that VP Internal Zeena Zahida resigned from her position on Sept. 12, and a subsequent discussion on hiring a

replacement will occur during the SSMU Legislative Council (LC) meeting on Sept. 25.

The BoD then moved to discuss three motions, brought forward by Taylor, for approval.

The first was about the 2025-2026 standing rules for the BoD, which outline the Board’s meeting operations and regulations. After the motion received no questions or debate in response, Beeai put the motion to a vote, which was unanimously approved.

Taylor next introduced a motion disallowing the LC’s motion to appoint Councillor Meghan Lai to the BoD. SSMU regulations require BoD members to have completed 18 months at the university before joining, disqualifying Lai, who has only completed a year at McGill.

Aloudat spoke on Lai’s promise as a candidate.

“Councillor Lai would have been a great Director on the Board,” Aloudat

said. “She’s been super engaged so far on [the] Senate Caucus, and she has been really responsive and great over the summer. So, if any of you are in SSMU in the future and you see that name, Meghan Lai, definitely keep her around.”

The disallowance motion was then approved unanimously.

The Board moved to the third motion to approve building protocols for the University Centre. Taylor explained that these protocols are meant to ensure that the building has “rules regarding its usage, access rights, operating conditions, […]

space agreements, tenancy, renovations, et cetera.” This motion was, again, approved unanimously, with no questions or debate.

The BoD spent the rest of the meeting in confidential session.

Palestine on Campus screening highlights security crackdown on Montreal student activists

Post-screening panel discussed the dehumanizing nature of admin istrative bureaucracy

Mairin Burke Managing Editor

On Sept. 16, The Rover—an independent, reader-funded news outlet in Montreal—hosted a screening and panel discussion to showcase their first-ever documentary, Palestine on Campus, at Collectif MTL’s St. Catherine location. The 30-minute film, created by The Rover’s managing editor Savannah Stewart and producer and videographer Justin Khan, follows the recent hostilities inflicted on pro-Palestine student activists by their own university administrations.

Through interviews with McGill and Concordia students—including former VicePresident External of the Students’ Society of McGill University Hugo-Victor Solomon, professors at McGill and Dawson College, and legal experts—Palestine on Campus portrays a recent security crackdown across Montreal higher education that targets proPalestine activists.

The screening began with The Rover’s founder, Christopher Curtis, addressing the crowd of approximately 40 attendees about the importance of Palestine on Campus’s investigation.

“Almost all of the mainstream news stories about the Gaza encampment in Montreal perform mental gymnastics to avoid talking about the role that our institutions play in supporting genocide,” he said.

The documentary was followed by a panel, moderated by Stewart. One panelist, Gwendolyn Schulman, is a McGill alum who

helped lead the successful anti-South African apartheid movement on campus in the 1980s and co-founded CKUT’s long-running Amandla! program.

On the panel, Schulman noted the troubling differences between the anti-apartheid struggle and pro-Palestine activism for divestment from companies complicit in the genocide of Palestinians on McGill’s campus today.

“Even when we did our sit-ins and our demonstrations, [...] the one thing McGill did not do ever was [call] the police, and it never used private security firms against us,” she stated. “In fact, it was the exact opposite. They were so concerned about their public image that they wouldn’t let the police anywhere close. [....] We were never criminalized for what we did. We were never threatened with being expelled.”

Joining Schulman on the panel was Rine Vieth, a sociolegal scholar who contextualized how the increasing risks university student and faculty activists for Palestine face are unfolding just as much in Canada as they are, very visibly, in the United States. They also discussed how McGill’s recent austerity measures have been accompanied by an incongruous increase in the amount of private security employed by McGill, reflecting the “neoliberalization of higher education.”

“McGill is ostensibly a public university,” Vieth stated. “These are our tax dollars being used to fund this.”

Vieth and Schulman spoke alongside Danna Ballantyne, the Concordia Student Union (CSU)’s External Affairs & Mobiliza-

tion Coordinator. Ballantyne discussed the struggles the union has faced since Concordia launched an ongoing investigation into the CSU for allegedly violating administrative policies during a Special General Meeting in January 2025. During the meeting, approximately 94 per cent of attending undergraduates voted in favour of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) protocols for Palestine.

“There is absolutely nothing more dehumanizing than asking someone to talk bureaucracy while their friends and family are being murdered,” Ballantyne said. “The investigation is really not the main thing here. There’s a genocide happening. [....] Our friends are still dying at the end of the day. [....] You know, they call us a fringe minority, [but] most of us showed up to that meeting and [voted in favour of the BDS motion] when they said, ‘Do you want to divest?’”

Ballantyne concluded by describing how to address burnout as an activist, advising that “the more people in [one’s] entourage care, the less tired” they will feel continuing the fight for Palestine.

“If there’s one thing that all of us have, that everyone in Gaza needs right now, is con-

nection,” she implored. “Please just make a friend from Gaza and talk to them. [....] Answer someone’s [Instagram] story [...] and say, ‘We’re with you.’ [....] It makes every difference to them, and it’ll remind you what’s going on.”

Schulman also noted the importance of holding university communities accountable by preserving institutional memory.

“McGill celebrates itself for being the first Canadian university to divest. They never point out that they fought us tooth and nail and we won,” she proclaimed. “Eventually, [proPalestine activists] are going to win [the fight for divestment], [...] and McGill is going to claim credit [again]. [....] We know what McGill was and what McGill has become, and what it needs to become down the road.”

Editor-in-Chief Yusur Al-Sharqi editor@thetribune.ca

Creative Director Mia Helfrich creativedirector@thetribune.ca

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Malika Logossou mlogossou@thetribune.ca Nell Pollak npollak@thetribune.ca

News Editors Asher Kui Helene Saleska Kaitlyn Schramm news@thetribune.ca

Opinion Editors Moyo Alabi Lulu Calame Ellen Lurie opinion@thetribune.ca

Science & Technology Editors

Leanne Cherry Sarah McDonald scitech@thetribune.ca

Student Life Editors Gregor McCall Tamiyana Roemer studentlife@thetribune.ca

Features Editor Jenna Durante features@thetribune.ca

Arts & Entertainment Editors Annabella Lawlor Bianca Sugunasiri arts@thetribune.ca

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True nation-building is rooted in our environment

The Tribune Editorial Board

Awave of reinvigorated commitment to infrastructural expansion is sweeping the uppermost echelons of Canadian government. On Sept. 10, as an extension of the Building Canada Act, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a list of five major ‘nation-building’ projects aiming to “turbo-charge” the Canadian economy and create jobs. Meanwhile, Quebec Premier Legault is calling to suspend environmental goals to make economic development the province’s top priority. Instead of prioritizing the environment and its inhabitants, powerful political leaders like Carney and Legault are promoting an image of national development rooted in spectacle and glorified extraction.

While Carney claims his proposed nation-building projects are geared towards “protecting Canada’s rigorous environmental standards,” their environmental impacts will be undoubtedly detrimental—an outcome Legault is eager to ignore. One of these five projects, for example, aims to double the production of liquified natural gas (LNG)—a greenhouse gas which is 80 times more potent than CO2 in the short term, and 30 times

more potent in the long run. Two other projects aim to expand mines in Saskatchewan and northwest BC—an endeavour that destroys land, uproots ecosystems, and contaminates water and air with harmful sulfuric acid.

Normally, such projects would undergo strict environmental assessment to ensure their alignment with Canada’s national sustainability standards and climate plan, such as reducing national carbon emissions by 40 per cent below the 2005 levels by 2030, and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. However, Legault’s demands to speed up these assessment processes threaten to break this promise and reverse the decisive progress Canada has made in reducing CO2 emissions over the past several years.

Additionally, though Carney advertised the inclusion of Indigenous leaders in the planning process, the burden of ecological damage from these projects falls heavily on the shoulders of Indigenous and rural communities. Such damage reflects a long history of eco-racism against Indigenous Peoples in Canada who are already disproportionately harmed and displaced by extractive mining and the production of oil and gas. Rewriting ecological guidelines to enable destructive ‘nation-building’ projects does not uplift Canada’s national image—it corrupts it by

uprooting Indigenous land, polluting public air and water with toxic sulphur, and eschewing Canada’s uniquely low carbon footprint.

A ‘nation-building’ agenda whose success relies on environmental destruction is neither people-first nor, in the long run, profit-first. A peoplefirst agenda would not pollute or uproot the environments in which people live and upon which they depend. An agenda committed to long-term profit would not raze ecosystems irreversibly to the ground.

In fact, a truly people-first—and, in the long run, profitable—agenda is one that starts with an eye toward the environment. In the past ten years, the damages of climate change have cut $25 billion CAD off of Canadian GDP—a deficit which will compound over time if the country does not commit to nature-based climate solutions and damage control. Investing in the environment is the smartest choice Canada can make if it seeks to be truly nation-building, rather than risking its future for the allure of immediate profit.

Despite the federal government’s demonstrated disregard for Canadian ecosystems—and thus Canadian people—McGill has risen to the occasion as a leader in sustainability, setting a crucial precedent for other institutions. Not only is the university

Maple-washing by grocery giants threatens the Canadian domestic market

Julie Raout Contributor

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed 12 cases of ‘maple-washing’ between February and May 2025, a marketing tactic that exploits Canadian patriotism to encourage sales of imported goods. The agency caught multiple grocery chains promoting non-Canadian products using “Product of Canada” and “Made in Canada” labels, as well as a maple leaf symbol, thus threatening consumer trust, harming local businesses, and disadvantaging the domestic market in the process.

The CFIA can fine offenders up to $15,000 CAD when they jeopardize access to Canadian goods on the market. Yet, the agency issued no fines over the recently observed cases of maple-washing, despite their clear violation of Canada’s advertising laws. The CFIA’s reasons for the lack of fines stay vague; it states that labels had been corrected and issues therefore settled. Grocers receiving complaints have tagged false labelling as mere errors—and the CFIA seem more than willing to ignore the corporations’ plausibly calculated intentions. However, incidents of false advertising deemed ‘simple mistakes’ have not gone away nor settled

following the issuance of complaints. In fact, maple-washing saw a recent increase: The CFIA observed more than 70 complaints in July and August. Maple-washing’s rise in prevalence represents a strategic ploy by nonCanadian corporations. As Canadians attempt to promote the domestic market amidst tariff disputes and tensions with the White House, maplewashing offers a sly way to boost sales of boycotted imported goods.

President Trump’s reiterations— in March and June—of his wish to colonize Canada as the U.S.’ 51st state, combined with new 35 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods implemented on Aug. 1, galvanized Canadians into promoting domestic industry. The ‘Buy Canadian’ movement emerged as consumers began to prioritize buying local: 45 per cent of Canadians state they actively boycott U.S. goods in response to tariffs, choosing instead to purchase Canadian substitutes. McGill students shopping around campus at Provigo and Metro may have been impacted by maple-washing, as they have an incentive to buy Canadian as a statement against Trump’s policies.

Aware of these changes in consumer preferences, corporations have used maple leaf logos or “Made in Canada” labels to avoid market share decline. Riding the wave of Canadian patriotism to promote

publicly committed to the goals of zero-waste, carbon neutrality, and increased climate resilience, but it has taken tangible steps towards these goals.

As students, we must familiarize ourselves with McGill’s sustainability plan and adopt actionable steps to push it forward. As an institution, McGill must not settle into complacency, but continue to be proactive in revising, adapting, and expanding its sustainability goals.

At the federal level, Canada’s political leaders must reconceptualize the kind of nation they want to build, beginning with a reaffirmation of Canada’s legally-bound commitment to the Paris Agreement. Right now, Carney and Legault are sending a clear message that economically successful nation-building is, by design, in opposition to environmental sustainability. It is only when our leaders abandon this conviction that Canada can abandon nationbranding for true nation-building. By reassessing the relationships between human, environmental, and economic prosperity—beyond those assumed by capitalist political rhetoric—we find that, in fact, it is not hard to imagine a world in which the three are mutual beneficiaries, where the improvement and strengthening of one brings the same prosperity to the others.

international products is a clever marketing strategy. However, it becomes an unethical one when companies weaponize nationalism for profit by lying to their customers about their products’ country of origin.

The CFIA led a four-month investigation against Canadian grocery store Sobeys over imported avocado oil marketed as “Made in Canada,” but closed the case without issuing any penalties. The CFIA’s failure to act on recognized maplewashing pushes aside customers’ concerns and rights to accurate, truthful advertising. Consumers who have reported maple-washing cases say grocers have eroded their trust and demand punishment for misleading marketing patterns.

Montreal lawyer Joey Zukran took matters into his own hands in mid-September by seeking court approval to sue Provigo, Metro, and Sobeys, among other companies. After witnessing the CFIA’s inaction, Zukran aims to show that systemic false advertising cannot go unpunished.

As a result of maple-washing, Canada is losing an opportunity to benefit from its tariff war with the United States. By fearing a loss in capital, corporations have selfishly squandered Canada’s chance to

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has yet to fine grocery stores for misleading ‘Made in Canada’ labels. (Tarun Kalyanaraman / The Tribune)

capitalize on nationalistic momentum transparently and without threatening long-term market development. Instead, local companies remain overshadowed by imported goods even when citizens express a strong commitment to strengthening the national economy through their individual consumption choices. Labelling inaccuracies, when recurring and consistently made by multiple commercial corporations, are not mistakes. Companies falsely promoting products as Canadian should suffer a penalty: Normalizing incorrect labelling allows misleading advertising to secure its position in the food-selling industry. Until fines follow from fraud, the maple leaf risks regressing from a national emblem to a mere marketing gimmick.

Nick Luther Contributor

FWhy regulating short-term rentals was a must for Montreal

ollowing a series of deadly fires in two short-term rental units in Old Montreal, city council passed a bylaw heavily restricting the short-term rental market, most principally limiting the timing and duration for which rental properties can be listed. Despite criticism from some homeowners and Quebec’s tourism department, these regulations are a necessary step in mitigating rent increases and addressing the housing crisis.

Montrealers are now able to rent out their primary residences only during the summer tourist season—for no more than 31 consecutive days—and require a permit to do so. Year-round Airbnb units are only allowed on certain streets. Quebec’s Tourism Department has expressed concern about potential cooling effects on tourism, while homeowners are worried about the loss of income generated by renting out their residences through platforms such as Airbnb. Despite these drawbacks, it is the government’s responsibility to prioritize its own citizens’ access to affordable housing.

Montreal, along with the rest of Canada, is experiencing a housing crisis, manifesting in an extreme surge in rent prices in the city. Between 2019 and the first quarter of 2025, average asking rent for two-bedroom apartments in the Montreal metropolitan area increased by 70.8 per cent, from $1,130

COMMENTARY

Thomas Jutras-Monfort

Contributor

ACAD to $1,930 CAD. For comparison, the metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver saw average rent prices rise by 5.1 per cent and 27.3 per cent, respectively.

Although housing in Montreal is generally cheaper overall than both aforementioned cities, the government’s decision to regulate short-term rentals is nonetheless necessary in its potential to slow down rent increases. Studies show that as Airbnb investors turn what was once long-term housing for a city’s residents into short-term rental properties, rents rise for the locals due to a decrease in supply. In New York City, for example, estimates indicate Airbnb may have increased average rents by $400 USD per year.

Even those who already have an apartment are not safe from evictions exacerbated by short-term rentals. In a phenomenon known as renoviction, landlords have begun evicting their tenants to make room for short-term rental properties.

Students, who rely on affordable rentals during their studies, will particularly benefit from the implementation of a policy designed to address rent crises. As a city with over 180,000 university students, Montreal’s municipal government must do all it can to rein in this increase in rent prices; regulating platforms like Airbnb is a good starting point.

While a policy regulating Airbnb and other short-term rentals is not sufficient to

fully fix Montreal’s high rent prices and housing crisis, it is a good first step to take. Limiting the ubiquity of short-term housing in Montreal will ease pressures on rent, while simultaneously preventing ‘ghosttown’ neighbourhoods and ensuring the safety of tourists.

Perhaps most importantly, these regulations will ensure both tourists’ and locals’ safety and prevent future tragedies similar to the two fires in Old Montreal. Both fires occurred in illegal Airbnbs, which were located in areas of the city where short-term rentals had been prohibited but unregulated.

Before the implementation of the new law, owners would falsely claim properties as their primary residences to make renting them out easier. By January, over half of the short-term rental properties in Montreal did not comply with housing regulations. Since short-term rental platforms leave the detective work up to the cities they operate in, Montreal had trouble cracking down on rule-breaking properties. Now, in order to obtain the permit needed to rent part-time,

owners must first prove that the property is their principal residence. Whether owners are renting their property outside of the allowed season, or renting without a permit, the new rules make it much easier to spot and stop illegal short-term rentals. As more and more housing units transform into profit-focused short-term rentals, communities and neighbourhoods suffer. The commodification of housing in Montreal has the potential to quickly turn charming, community-focused neighbourhoods into ghost towns full of empty Airbnb units in the off-season. You cannot have a neighbourhood if you do not have neighbours.

Justifying the murder of Charlie Kirk means embracing his fascist rhetoric

t 12:23 p.m. on Sept. 10, farright activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated in front of a crowd of 3,000 at Utah Valley University. An hour and 20 minutes later, Ruth Marshall, a professor of religious studies and political science at the University of Toronto (UofT), tweeted: “Shooting is honestly too good for so many of you fascist c**ts.” Because of this tweet, UofT placed Marshall on leave and opened an investigation into her actions. If she is found to have caused UofT ‘reputational harm,’ Marshall may be terminated. This respect for procedure is commendable, but Marshall’s tweet demonstrates that she should not be a university professor and justifies her immediate firing.

It is important not to conflate Marshall’s suspension with other instances of censorship following Kirk’s death. The Trump administration has used the event as justification to attack and silence its political opponents, casting all criticism of Kirk or his movement as ‘hate speech’; unsurprisingly, no such move was made against far-right groups following the murder of Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman in June.

However, in Marshall’s case, her words were neither justified nor defensible. She was not criticizing the administration’s actions or Kirk’s views: She was calling for further violence. That is a line that should never be crossed in political debate.

In her tweet, Marshall calls Kirk a fascist, which he was. Kirk described all undocumented immigrants as “would-be rapists” to justify shooting them; he said that gay people wanted to “corrupt children,” a well-known homophobic dog-whistle; he implied trans women should be lynched. Kirk’s arguments were also frequently based on conspiracy theories: He famously denied the validity of the 2020 election. Such disregard for truth and democracy, along with blatant normalization of violence, is the foundational material on which fascist movements are built. But before it is a movement, fascism is a rhetoric that claims: Some lives are worth less than others. Some people deserve to be killed. Marshall’s tweet espoused that rhetoric.

It is common these days to hear that free speech and open diversity of opinion are integral to universities and to society as a whole. It is true that society cannot progress without debate. However, proper and productive debate is not ritualized ‘destruction’ of ‘opponents,’ but rather honest discussion between good-faith parties with the aim of learning and moving forward towards a better reality for all.

Some things, however, are not up for debate. An opinion that justifies violence as a means to a political end is not worth platforming: It intrinsically rejects dissent, and so it is antithetical to the mission of universities. Charlie Kirk was killed on the campus of Utah Valley University while promoting violent views. He should

not have been invited to the campus at all. Ruth Marshall, having projected similarly violent opinions, should not be allowed on UofT’s campus.

It would be naive, of course, to claim that Marshall’s deviation from proper and respectful debate was the actual reason for her suspension. Earlier this year, Marshall herself rightly called out UofT for failing to formally condemn professors using similarly violent language against proPalestinian protesters and journalists.

Rather, UofT may have had much more pragmatic reasons for sanctioning Marshall. On the right and far-right, Kirk’s death has prompted explicit talk of war and revenge. Tweets celebrating the murder could reasonably be expected to provoke violent retaliation against Marshall’s colleagues, her students, and herself. UofT has not publicly stated its reasoning in

sanctioning Marshall. After her suspension, however, UofT blocked public access to her department webpage, which presumably contained information on the location of her office. On Monday, the building where she works was closed.

One of the great successes of liberal democracy has been unprecedented safety from political violence. Before the late 20th century, most of our ancestors lived in dread of brutal, arbitrary attacks. Free speech is fundamental to preserving this achievement—but only when it serves discourse rather than destroying it. The moment we use our freedom of expression to call for violence against our political opponents, we abandon the very principles that make free speech worth defending. Universities, as guardians of open inquiry, have both the right and the responsibility to draw this line.

The Missing Image Is: Gaza counter-screening calls attention to absence

Stories are never completely missing; we must simply care enough to look

Anna Seger

Photo Editor

To omit Palestine is a political act.”

These words, drawn from a public statement by Montreal-based film collective Regards Palestiniens, call out the 2025 edition of the Biennale d’art contemporain, In Praise of the Missing Image On its website, the Biennale boasts that its diverse programming, which seeks to “amplify emancipatory voices” and invite reflection on “gaps in individual and collective memory,” features works by Canadian and international artists from a vast array of countries, provinces, and communities. Yet in both the programming and the curatorial statement, Palestine is distinctly absent.

This flagrant exclusion is what inspired the Regards Palestiniens’ counterscreening, The Missing Image Is: Gaza. On the crisp evening of Tuesday, Sept. 16, over 100 people gathered with camping chairs, blankets, and keffiyehs in the parking lot across from articule Gallery. The 65-minute program “seeks to restore meaning” to the Biennale’s title, originally drawn from Rithy Panh’s film The Missing Pictureabout the Cambodian genocide and Khmer Rouge regime.

The first screening and the most recent of the four films, Firas Shehadeh’s Final Hour Log – Handala, firmly as-

serts the theme’s pertinence. Using mostly livestream footage, Shehadeh reconstructs the final hour of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s civilian vessel Handala before it was seized by the Israeli Navy on July 26, 2025. A rapid escalation follows as, within minutes, the team scrambles to hide their memory cards and raise their hands in a display of peace. Nonetheless, Israeli naval officers storm the vessel, and one turns off the CCTV camera that was livestreaming. The film understands the power of images—the importance of “preserving what was meant to be erased,” as the website states.

Footage in the other three films spans seven decades, weaving together a spectrum of time and experience in Palestine. The steady current through all of them, though, is the dualism of Palestinian life. Sweet scenes of children and family are cast against a plea for help recorded after the Shuja’iyah massacre in Hadeel Assali’s Shuja’iyah: Land of the Brave. Sunny shores of Gaza peppered with flowers contrast a thoughtful reflection on the role of televised media in Oraib Toukan’s Offing The personal and the political become inextricable as a frantic mother mourns her home destroyed by bombing in Mustafa Abu Ali’s Scenes of the Occupation from Gaza

The Regards Palestiniens counterscreening thus begs the question: Are images of Gaza actually missing, or just ignored?

While social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook continue to systematically censor Palestinian content, since Oct. 7, some Palestinian creators have broken through the algorithm, documenting their stories and struggles on their own terms. The fact that images and stories from Palestine now permeate far beyond social media is a testament to the unwavering determination of these journalists, whose voices have successfully drawn Palestine into the international limelight. The same day as the Regards Palestiniens screening, a UN Commission found that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

In the social media age, it’s less likely that images of suffering are totally missing and more often that they are short-lived or turned into spectacle in the popular con-

Adolescence swept the Emmys and made history

sciousness and ignored by actors capable of enacting real change.

The Missing Image Is: Gaza is acutely and solemnly aware of this because it is precisely what makes the Biennale’s exclusion of Palestine really bite. “This exclusion is not accidental but the result of deliberate curatorial silence,” insists the Regards Palestinians team in their statement. Art has the potential to reach broad audiences and the power to introduce and elevate new perspectives. When exhibitions adopt radical aesthetics, they must earnestly believe in and bravely commit to them.

This Emmy award-winning TV show creates an opportunity to save lives.

Lia James Contributor

The 77th annual Emmy Awards had its usual share of glamour and viral moments, from stunning red carpet looks to controversial money countdowns. But the most memorable of all were the eight Emmys awarded to the Netflix limited series, Adolescence.

Adolescence is a reflection on how life for today’s youth has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Consisting of four episodes all taken in one shot, the show focuses on a 13-year-old boy named Jamie (Owen Cooper) who is arrested as a suspect for the murder of his classmate. The show dives into several topics, including increased knife violence in the U.K. and how misogynistic content impacts the behaviour of young boys on the internet. The show discusses Jamie’s beliefs about women, originating from this misogynistic Red Pill content.

The use of consecutive one-shot episodes throughout the mini-series immerses the audience in this boy’s mindset. When Jamie’s underlying issues of self-loathing are revealed, he abruptly switches from acting scared to angry and manipulative. With the audience still unsure of Jamie’s innocence, Cooper is able to create sympathy for his character. Acting in a single take requires perfect memorization of lines without making mistakes for an entire hour, a testament to his strong acting skills.

Cooper won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series, making history as the youngest man to win at just 15 years old. Many TV series cast adult actors as teenagers, resulting in a lack of authentic teenage representation. Cooper’s performance as

Jamie takes a realistic look at the mindsets of teenage boys with unlimited internet access. Many teens were left on their own during the pandemic, and online media usage dramatically increased. Because Owen Cooper was also a young boy during the pandemic, he can relate to this online childhood culture unlike an older actor.

The series writer and co-editor Stephen Graham wanted to cast an unknown northern English boy to play Jamie, increasing the impact of Cooper’s win. Cooper said during his acceptance speech: “When I started these drama classes, I didn’t expect to be in the United States, never mind here.” Cooper’s win emphasizes that you do not need to be born with powerful connections or have film credits to your name to become successful in the acting world.

Graham won the categories of Best Lead Actor in a Limited Series, playing Jamie’s father, and Outstanding Limited Series with cocreator Jack Thorne. Actress Erin Doherty, who played Jamie’s psychologist Briony, won Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series.

In the series, Briony attempts to understand Jamie’s mindset, leading him to express a variety of emotions, ranging from arrogance to aggravation. The third episode depicts the last meeting between the accused and his psychologist, creating a sense of exigency in their conversation. The episode begins with her questioning Jamie, which soon turns into a conversation about the stabbing of his classmate Katie. Their final scene shows Briony breaking down into tears after Jamie reveals information about his consumption of disturbing online content. This final scene elicits an emotional response

from the audience, grasping the impacts of the Red Pill content that many young boys consume.

The show generated popularity on its own; it became Netflix’s second most-watched English-language series ever. It has been shown across schools in the U.K. as a way to spark conversations with young people about harmful social media use.

Stephen Graham told the Associated Press that he wanted to focus on the “relatively normal” life of people accused of crimes similar

to Jamie’s. Graham said, “We’re all maybe accountable. School. Society. Parents. Community.”

Hopefully, this recognition can provoke similar action among schools in other countries—especially in North America, where the Emmys are filmed and originate. With 7.4 million people viewing this ceremony, it may guide more people to educate themselves on the extremely relevant issues among youth today that are brought up in the show: Issues that can mean life or death.

For 12 years, the empty property has been left abandoned while its futility continued to bring harm to the community socially and environmentally. Today, the Milton-Parc community has spoken: The Chez Gautier campaign petitions for the property located at 3487 av. du Parc to be transformed into a housing program to accommodate the community’s growing needs.

Since 2019, asking rents on the Island of Montreal have surged by 71 per cent. Centraide Montreal announced in 2023 that 360,000 households, representing one in five across the city, cannot afford rent and basic necessities. Amid the soaring housing costs, the Chez Gautier campaign calls on the city to take concrete action. The first step of the campaign is to pressure the city to acquire the land from private estate developers, ensuring its service to the community’s urgent needs.

Expropriation as a political tool

In an interview with The Tribune, Jacob Réal, Membership Delegate of the Chez Gautier campaign, explained that one of the campaign’s core goals is to set a political example for affordable housing in Montreal.

“The project is part of a fight for decommodifying housing on the Island of Montreal. We aim to establish a political precedent that expropriation of unused land is a possibility in constructing more social housing in the heart of Montreal,” Réal said. “The way of solving a housing crisis [should be] [...] a confrontation between locals and land speculators.”

Expropriation is defined as a municipality’s forcible acquisition of private land for public utility through compensating the landowner financially. The Chez Gautier campaign urges Montreal’s city council to use Articles 51 to 56 of the Loi sur la Société d’habitation du Québec to acquire and expropriate the vacant property. While this legal tool exists, the city council has rarely applied it in Montreal’s housing context, making the campaign an ambitious one.

Sophie Keenan, Campaign Assistant of the Chez Gautier Campaign, wrote to //The Tribune// that the campaign remains in its early stages, with a focus on pushing the city to obtain the land.

“Right now the campaign is focused on pressuring the city to expropriate the lot, which would be a precedent-setting victory [....] This is a longterm project,” she wrote.

To move toward this goal, the campaign is engaging in community outreach and petitioning for enough signatories to trigger a legal process. Yet expropriation raises questions about political will and public perception. Réal highlighted how expropriation, although an effective measure, may be received poorly in the community.

“While [expropriation] is possible, [the city] has never done it because it can be viewed as aggressive towards the neighbourhood’s landowners,” he said.

While expropriation may face resistance, other recent government actions show where priorities lie. The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) recently drafted a new regulation that reduces the number of variables when calculating annual rent increases—a move many Montrealers see as yet another sign of how the city’s policies favour

landlords over tenants.

“We need to change the narrative that the way out [of a housing crisis] is to collaborate with real estate developers and speculators, as they are incentivized to maintain a housing crisis [....] We are trying to use expropriation and direct government action to create a mixed-use neighbourhood that encourages developers to incorporate affordable housing into the city,” Réal said.

In June, the Milton-Parc Citizens’ Committee (MPCC) finalized the Chez Gautier petition, which has since been in circulation around the neighbourhood. Réal noted that the majority of Milton-Parc residents support the project.

Private landowners vs public need

The push to transform Chez Gautier has not been without resistance. While many in Milton-Parc view the campaign as an opportunity to reclaim long-abandoned space for the community, others are concerned about what new housing might bring to the neighbourhood.

Réal acknowledged that some worry the project might increase the number of unhoused individuals in the area, but he described those concerns as out of touch.

“There are a few neighbouring groups that are vocally against the project, but their point of view is, frankly, not in tune with reality. They accuse us of wanting to establish a second La Porte Ouverte [...] or even working in secret for them.”

La Porte Ouverte is a shelter that supports people experiencing homelessness, offering different events to accompany unhoused individuals towards a better quality of life. Yet a group of nearby residents has complained that La Porte Ouverte’s presence has attracted people experiencing homelessness to the neighbourhood.

Benjamin Forest, associate professor at the Department of Geography at McGill, wrote to The Tribune explaining that in urban theory, people experiencing homelessness are usually not in neighbourhoods with high housing costs.

“[Unhoused peoples’] locations are influenced both by the location of services available and by policing decisions [or in other words, whether] the police permit [them] to stay,” Forest wrote. “Social services tend to be located in low-income areas and police will typically funnel the homeless into lower income areas.”

Nadine Mailloux’s report Don’t Look the Other Way investigates a complaint made by a group of Milton-Parc citizens, which calls the homelessness situation in the neighbourhood a crisis due to the severity of safety problems, insalubrity, and violence. While the complaint ultimately aims to change the government’s approach to ending chronic homelessness, it nonetheless reflects a tension common in many urban areas, where anxiety about safety and cleanliness overshadows evidence of the systemic conditions that sustain homelessness.

Written By Asher

Designed by Eliot Loose,

Moreover, homelessness affects Indigenous Peoples in Canada disproportionately. According to the 2018 census enumeration of unhoused persons, Indigenous Peoples made up 12 per cent of Montreal’s people experiencing homelessness, while representing less than one per cent of the city’s population. This stark disparity illustrates that homelessness cannot be reduced to mere neighbourhood-level complaints—it is tied to Quebec’s colonial legacy that continues to challenge and discriminate against Indigenous Peoples.

Still, Keenan emphasized the importance of not drawing preliminary conclusions based on demographics, as this may manifest false assumptions. The information must be handled with care.

“I push back against highlighting a specific group as the most ‘unhoused’ [...] as these types of assumptions turn into misconceptions and stereotyping that we have been working to unpack in our community engagement,” Keenan said. “Whe rever they might hail from, we want to propose a systemic so lution to a systemic problem, aiming to avoid talking points that lean too heavily on identity politics fra meworks while striking a balance of recognizing specific needs and spe cific ways of living.”

Keenan affirmed that through the Chez Gautier campaign, the Milton-Parc neighbour hood will reap benefits no matter what form of housing program it as sumes.

“No matter whet her the lot becomes a co-op for elderly people, non-profit housing for low in come families, or permanent housing for unhoused Indige nous individuals, it will positively impact the safety and well-being of the neighbourhood,” she said. “Safe and comfortab le housing cannot be more of a detriment to the neighbour hood than an ugly, abandoned lot which continues to negatively af fect the health and perception of the

landmark to reclaim public space

Kui, News Editor

Loose, Design Editor

neighbourhood.”

Environmental stakes and urban development

Chez Gautier also claims that the empty parking lot contributes to the urban heat island effect, negatively impacting the health of residents. Low-income families are disproportionately affected due to limited access to air conditioning, while the elderly are vulnerable due to reduced heat tolerance.

In an interview with The Tribune, Raja Sengupta, associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Bieler School of Environment at McGill, clarified that the urban heat island effect is actually a nighttime phenomenon.

“All of the solar radiation that’s falling on the concrete around us, especially in downtown Montreal, is going to heat up and get stored,” he said. “The tall concrete structures absorb all that energy [which is released] for the next four or five hours. At 1:00 a.m. at night, that’s when the night temperature is six to seven degrees warmer [than rural areas].”

He continued to explain that the intensity of the urban heat island effect depends on two factors: Sky view and vegetation. While the Chez Gautier campaign affirms that constructing a building on an empty parking lot may ameliorate the urban heat effect, Sengupta’s research provides an insightful impe-

“Put green roofs on top, and you [may] see a reduction of what is called surface urban heat island. If you were to convert the parking lot into a green park [...] the nighttime temperature [may be reduced] by one degree,” Sengupta said. “Why not more? The area has other buildings. [Putting vegetation on one building] is

not going to [instantly] bring the temperature down by 9 degrees.”

While one project cannot undo the structural drivers of the urban heat island effect, each redevelopment may promote positive change and continue a trend of ecological urbanism. Choosing to incorporate green design elements—such as a rooftop garden—is a huge leap towards improving the quality of life of Milton-Parc residents.

When navigating between fostering social and environmental improvement along with conserving the city’s patrimony, Réal expressed his skepticism toward the city council.

“The city poses extremely strict regulations on certain individuals, but gives a lot of freedom to developers, often distributing exemptions,” he said. “The only way to preserve the character of a neighbourhood is to involve the local community in decisions that involve development.”

The Chez Gautier campaign stresses that both environmental and heritage concerns must shape development decisions, and that community participation is essential to building an ecological and patrimonial future.

A long-term vision for Chez Gautier

Keenan maintained that Chez Gautier will be a long-term project, and that predicting a calendar as of today is unrealistic.

“If the petition suc ceeds and the city moves forward to expropriate the lot, we will confer with experts to conduct the necessary studies and community consul tations,” Keenan wrote. “It is hard to know what a realistic timeline will be at this current stage, but the project will most likely have multiple phases over multiple years.”

In the meantime, McGill students have plenty of opportuni ties to get involved in the Milton-Parc community. The Milton-Parc Food Bank and Midnight Kitchen are food cooperatives that work to increase food accessibility in the neighbourhood.

Art Hives brin-

gs residents together through art sessions, while La Porte Ouverte is seeking volunteers to support its mobilization and administrative efforts.

Too often, students remain in the McGill bubble, detached from the realities of the city. But it’s time for McGill students to stand up for their community. Our strength lies in our numbers. McGill’s enormous student population must show the community that we care. Sign the Chez Gautier petition, keep up with information, and volunteer. Milton-Parc’s future is in our hands.

Keenan called for McGill students to approach the people experiencing homelessness with empathy and compassion.

“This area is so populated by young people but many of these [unhoused] individuals go ignored for most of the day [....] Saying hello and offering a smile to individuals who reside on the sidewalks on their walks to and from school is a very simple start for students,” Keenan wrote.

“Remove your bias from pretending that poverty is invisible,” she wrote. “Human kindness does not always require pocket change.”

For more information and instructions on signing the petition and subscribing to their newsletter, visit the Chez Gautier website.

*Quotes from Jacob Réal were translated from French.

Made at McGill: Scrivener Creative Review revives its past Candlelit tea chats about Scrivener’s vision for the future

Safna Mama Contributor

Scrivener Creative Review doesn’t save the good china for special occasions. Whilst sitting down over candlelit tea with Izzi Holmes, Jacob Sponga, and Isabella McBride, the respective Editors-in-Chief and Managing Editor of McGill’s oldest literary magazine, one thing was clear: This is a publication deeply invested in creating and maintaining a timeless aesthetic.

The conversation began with a brief history of Scrivener.

“ Scrivener was founded in 1980 […] in the department of English. In our first few years, we published the likes of Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Louis Dudek, F.R. Scott, and P.K. Page. //Scrivener// seems to have continued pretty steadily throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, picking up such eminence as Anne Carson, Seamus Heaney, [and] Michael Ondaatje. It continued throughout the 2010s […] and then went dormant during the pandemic,” Sponga told The Tribune

The current team relaunched its first issue last April and plans to release two new issues this year—one in the fall and one in the winter. They also seek to honour the magazine’s past, while looking towards the future, through its website. The Scrivener team digitally publishes key archival work, including an interview with Anne Carson from 1997 and four poems by Leonard Cohen from 1982.

But their vision goes beyond nostalgia; they strive to build a community that connects readers and writers alike.

“We’re hoping to cultivate literary excellence, and perhaps even more than that, a sense of community both in Montreal and beyond,” Holmes said.

Part of that vision is visual. Scrivener’ s current design embraces a monochrome, minimalist, and intentional style that equally captures both its artistic value and literary merit. Sponga mentioned that the team is still experimenting with the design of the magazine, but it is clear that aesthetic cohesiveness remains key in their creative direction.

But it is the team dynamic that best embodies the spirit of the magazine. With Scrivener’ s storied history looming over the team, they delved into how it felt suited to take on this responsibility. In the spirit of true teamwork, each member answered for the other.

“Izzi, ever the industrious socialite, is a good fit for the magazine because she lends it a certain tempo,” said Sponga.

Homes in turn said, “I find Jacob’s care for language and aesthetics alike very impressive, and truly value his attentiveness to detail. Both make our magazine all the better.”

Holmes also singled out McBride, commenting on her work ethic.

“I had Isabella in mind for Managing Editor because she puts the same amount of care into everything she does, whether that be sending emails, making schedules, or discussing the sentence structure of a short story.”

Scrivener ’s expansive and diligent editorial board currently includes undergraduate students, graduate students, and PhD candidates across a number of disciplines at McGill. They collaborate over four sec -

tions: design, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction/interviews.

A key moment for the team—and the culmination of their months of persistent work—was the launch party held on April 24, 2025, at Cardinal Tea Room.

Holmes said, “The launch was proof that what we were doing had worked and that we could reach an audience in real time. Everyone was excited about the contributors, with poems by Medrie Purdham and Derek Webster, as well as interviews with Montreal icons like Dimitri Roussopoulos and Gabrielle Drolet.”

As someone who attended the launch, I completely understood Holmes; it was the perfect encapsulation of what it meant to be part of Montreal’s rich and dynamic

literary community. The invited contributors, who had the chance to read their work aloud, were introduced by editors who had worked on the respective pieces, exemplifying the collaborative effort that went into publishing the magazine. Scrivener also invited other Montreal magazines—including Ahoy , Stimulant , and Soliloquies —to sell their own work. The launch truly showed Scrivener’ s investment in art, literature, and most importantly, cultivating a sense of community with others who share these interests.

Scrivener is accepting submissions for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art until October 6th. Copies of issue 46 are available at The Word Bookstore. For more, head to https://scrivenerreview.com.

Glimmers of art in everyday life at the MMFA’s Decorative Art and Design

The new exhibit exposes the creativity latent within commonplace objects

Norah Adams Staff Writer

To my right stands a four-foot-tall ceramic vase with hands cupping its own belly. To my left, chairs built from large plains of vibrant primary colours. Directly in front of me is a bird’s nest half my height made from plush felt—inside resting three large eggs. As I continue to walk through the MMFA’s Decorative Arts and Design Pavilion, reopened on Sept. 13, a diverse melange of quirky items surrounds me. Most strikingly, the pieces of art orbit around a massive abstract piece created by Dal Chihuly in 2003: A twisting, ebbing horde of warm-toned blown glass, aptly titled The Sun.

The museum’s reopened exhibit is a feat brought together by a host of keen-eyed art collectors. Notably featured is Liliane and David Stewart’s (the namesakes of the pavilion) 5000-piece art and design assemblage, a donation made to the MMFA in 2000.

Taking in the exhibition is an overwhelming endeavour. One minute you find yourself examining Kantharos with Geometric and Plant Motifs, an Italian glass bowl crafted between 700-200 BCE, and the next studying a 2009 table lamp that resembles a plate of spaghetti. The broad strokes made by this installation are reflective of the expansive nature of

decorative art: This type of art is characterized by the creativity applied to utilitarian objects, such as chairs and vases. This vast category leaves much liberty for what can fit into the exhibit, with the pavilion hosting items from earrings to a Smart Car.

The considerable differences between pieces of the same use are shocking. The pavilion is home to many tea and coffee sets, each one entirely distinct from the last. Despite having the same function, artists can make a teapot entirely their own. For example, one glass museum case displays the Como Tea and Coffee Service, a sleek crowd of silver-plated vessels created in 1957. The set presents a futuristic tone, characteristic of the Mid-Century modern style popular in the 1950s. Within the same case sits //Coral Firs Tea and Coffee Service, and Soup Tureen//, a set of white earthenware carafes ornamented with wobbly orange trees sitting atop yellow hills. The troop of dishware was designed by Clarice Cliff, the mother of the Art Deco style, born in the 1930s.

The fine details of service-based objects demonstrate human beings’ innate draw to art. It would be cheaper and easier if, throughout time, people simply designed one form of simple coffee set. Yet, we see that items are far more than pure usage: They function as vessels for creativity.2

Noting the divergences among designs

throughout time maps a history, for the art that people seek from moment to moment changes based on features of the period. As noted above, the 1950s tea and coffee set was boldly sleek, crafted in aerodynamic shapes, appearing almost spaceship-like. This cosmo-themed trend was influenced by the Space Race, a chase for the stars fought by the U.S. and the Soviets post-WWII.

Design represents the forms of creativity that humans wish to interact with in their daily lives. Looking back at things, such as utensils and chairs, forges a relationship with people of the past. One can imagine a person during the Qing dynasty 200 years ago eating with their tortoise shell Portable Knife and Chopstick Set, admiring its sleek and compact design.

Visiting the MMFA’s newly curated

and Design is an eye-opener as to how art appears in our daily lives. People often take for granted the detail that goes into making the chairs that they sit on and the tables that they eat from. However, if one looks closer, they may be able to catch a glimpse of the little glimmers of creativity hiding all around us.

The Arts and Design Pavilion is a new permanent exhibit at the MMFA. Tickets are available both online and in person. (Free for those aged 25 and under).

Make libraries cool again

Sahel Delafoulhouse Multimedia Editor

On Monday, as I was parting ways with a friend, she casually mentioned, “I’m going to the library to pick up a book for my research.” This phrase stuck with me—not because of what she said, but because of how rare it is to hear someone, especially a student, talk about going to the library not to study or kill time between classes, but to find a book that aids their current

research interest.

The next day, when another friend of mine suggested we visit Westmount Library, I spontaneously agreed. After wandering through the greenhouse and settling into a cozy spot, I began drafting this piece. Writing in a beautiful, hushed corner reminds me that these library spaces are more than just quiet rooms with Wi-Fi and outlets.

As I enter my second year of university and transition out of introductory courses, I’m realizing that deep, rigorous research isn’t just about gathering sources; it’s about knowing where to look and how to think. With the convenience of the Internet at our fingertips, we’ve come to rely on quick answers—but at what cost? Have we sacrificed the ability to critically evaluate sources in favour of speed? In this digital age, libraries push us to slow down in our research, ask better questions, and dig beyond an article’s introduction.

But these questions also lead me to wonder: Have we collectively forgotten how to use libraries? Or worse—do we not value them anymore?

Blues on Blues’ policies

With the rise of online databases, academic search engines, and, most recently, AI tools like ChatGPT, the role of the library as a physical epicentre of reference sources and research materials is fading. Why trek across the city or even across campus when information is just a few clicks away? But, in our convenience-driven approach to knowledge, we don’t just fail to take advantage of free, physical books; we also miss out on the library’s ecosystem of services designed to help us in our quest for knowledge.

Libraries are not just buildings that store books or offer an aesthetic place to study. They are the beating heart of research and scholarship.

Beyond storing the books themselves, libraries are staffed with trained research experts—human search engines, if you will—who can point you toward resources you didn’t know existed, offer perspectives on a thesis you hadn’t considered, or guide you through citation databases you’ve never used.

With 10,834,072 physical and digital items at our disposal in the

collection of the McGill Libraries, members of the McGill community have access to a vast range of materials from rare manuscripts to cuttingedge research journals. Beyond this impressive collection, McGill’s libraries also provide workshops such as the Introduction to Zotero workshop, teaching crucial skills for writing and managing citations. Or, if this article has re-ignited your interest in the library, the McGill library also offers a “Library Research Skills” workshop.

It is clear to me, as I sit in a library to write about libraries, that we need to shift the narrative surrounding these essential institutions. Libraries are not outdated—they are underutilized. If we, as students and emerging researchers, can reframe libraries as active tools in our academic lives, we’ll not only write better papers—we’ll become better thinkers.

So, let’s make libraries cool again. Not by plastering them with neon signs or turning them into Instagrammable study spots, but by using them, valuing them, pondering in the stacks, and remembering what they’re really for.

McGill Students express their mixed reviews on Blues’ new RSVP policy for nonengineering students

Simona Culotta Contributor

After Open Air Pub’s two-week bender of socialization, drinks, barbecuing, and dancing, students are looking to continue the party. While 4à7, Bar Des Arts, and Gerts are all up and running with the same schedule and system as last year, Blues Pub decided to switch things up.

This year, non-Engineering students interested in attending Blues are required to either RSVP for a ticket on Thursday to enter the pub on Friday—with a set limit of tickets sold each week—or be the plusone of an Engineering student. This new system, intended to control capacity and reduce security implementation, seems to be stirring up controversy among the McGill student body—some approving, some neutral, and many disappointed.

According to Blues’ Instagram, a poll of 360 voters indicated that almost half preferred the RSVP and plus-one system over a fixed plus-one or plus-two policy. Still, many students are dissatisfied with the change, viewing it as restrictive and unfair.

Frequent Blues participants like Dena Mathilde, U3 Arts, voiced strong sentiments against the new policy in an interview with The Tribune

“I absolutely do not support this decision […] because no other faculty bar is discriminating actively against other faculties with some sort of ‘legislation.’ In what world are you only allowing 100 [non-Engineering students]? What hap -

pens if 50 people come and it’s just lame? What are you gonna do?”

Mathilde stressed that adding a cap to entrees may disrupt the overall “fun and liveliness” of the event. She further explained that Blues is fun and popular because it’s “more [of] a spontaneous thing” to attend, and not a long ordeal that one has to prepare for days in advance.

Juliette Whitecross, U2 Science, similarly questioned such faculty division.

“None of the other student bars have done this, so I don’t understand why they are doing it to [Blues] specifically. I know a lot of the Science kids will be disappointed, since Science students don’t have a designated bar that they can fall back [on].”

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Engineering students yielded mixed opinions.

Aidan McKibbon, U3 Civil Engineering, detailed his approval of the new system, adding more context as to why Blues implemented these new rules in the first place.

“I generally support the new admission system. I have non-Engineering friends and they just come with me and my Engineering friends. I like the idea that it’ll be less busy and I also enjoy spending time with my Engineering community so [....] I think it will encourage me to go more and see my Engineering buddies.”

Other Engineering students feel differently. In an interview with The Tribune , Romain Le Galliard, U3 Civil Engineering, explained how the new

system takes away from the inclusive atmosphere that Blues once had.

“I’m against the policy because I feel like it’s just more fun when all faculties can get into Blues without tickets. I know that some people had trouble getting tickets because they sold out immediately when they came out.”

Le Galliard’s point suggests that the large number of interdisciplinary demographic students attending is what adds to the charm of the Blues experience. Once this barrier is in place, this diversity disappears.

Across Engineering, Science, and Arts, students have mixed critiques of this

system, voicing both costs and benefits. Most who expressed disapproval of the RSVP system also mentioned how this will discourage them from future appearances at Blues.

Mathilde added, “I actually don’t think that I will ever remember to [RSVP], and if this [system] continues I think that we will see a lot of people not be able to get in or make it to Blues this semester, which sucks because it’s really fun.”

Only time will reveal the outcome of the new admission policy: Whether it succeeds in its mission, affects future turnout, or pushes Blues to evolve further into an Engineer-centric event.

McGill Arts students face challenges in exchange matching for Winter 2026

Cutting Independent Study Away

Eren Atac Contributor

Students in McGill’s Faculty of Arts faced unprecedented challenges in the matching process for the exchange program this year. Many students were not matched with any of their top choices for study-away, forced instead to choose from a narrow list of universities they never had any intention of going to.

In past years, students in the Faculty of Arts were able to study abroad with McGill’s exchange program or through Independent Study Away (ISA). The ISA program, separate from standard exchanges, allowed students to study abroad at schools not included in McGill’s list of official exchange partners. Through ISA, students could directly apply and pay tuition to their host university, rather than through McGill.

As of Summer 2025, students in the Faculty of Arts are no longer able to apply for ISAs outside of Canada. This means students wanting to leave the country can only apply to schools within McGill’s list of exchange partners, significantly reducing the number of options for studying abroad.

The exchange application process asks students to submit their top four study abroad choices to the Exchange Office.

earlier

this year has narrowed options for Arts exchange

McGill then assigns each student their nominations based on a lottery, where students with higher GPAs are favoured to obtain their top choice.

Students applying for Winter 2026 exchanges often found that they were not nominated for any of their top four choices. They were then asked to reapply, this time from a short list of roughly 10 universities that were still available. In an interview with The Tribune , Samuel Hamilton, U2 Arts, explained the challenges he faced after not matching with any of his original top four choices.

“And [after I wasn’t matched with my top four], they also gave me a really short list of universities, like 10, [or maybe] a dozen,” Hamilton said. “Many of them didn’t have classes that counted for my degree. So, feasibly, it was kind of impossible for me to go there because it just wouldn’t count towards my degree.”

Hamilton further explained that even after submitting his new top choices from the shortlist, he still faced difficulties in matching.

“I re-submitted the form one minute after it opened, and I was like, okay, I probably got Leiden [my new top choice from the provided list] because what are the chances I don’t get that, you know?” he said. “And then I got an email three days ago, saying I got Helsinki. And I was like,

guys, I submitted this form in one minute. How would I not get Leiden? Now you’re giving me my sixth option. [....] Surely, you could have given me my first choice off this really short list.”

Through a stroke of luck, Hamilton ended up matching with one of his original top choices, the University of Copenhagen, he told The Tribune . But the experience still left him frustrated and confused.

“I’m already really limited,” he stated. “I just felt quite frustrated by the lack of options and how unaccommodating they were.”

Alvise Ceolato, U3 Arts, was also denied any of his top choices and instead matched with the University of Iceland, he reported in an interview with The Tribune . Like Hamilton, this university was not present on the first or second set of choices he submitted to the Exchange Office.

Ceolato also raised concerns regarding the potential financial ramifications of not being accepted to study abroad at

any of your top universities.

“People need to financially plan for where they end up going,” he said. “I was supposed to go to Singapore, and I ended up in Iceland. But, budgeting-wise, it’s extremely different, you know? So how can you expect people to be able to arrange that? In a way, you apply, and it’s still your choice. But I feel like it’s not really mindful of McGill.”

McGill’s list of official exchange partners lacks any universities in Africa. (Mia Helfrich / The Tribune)

Shana Tova: Tips for a peaceful and thoughtful Rosh Hashanah

Celebrate the Jewish New Year with friends, food, and retrospection

Rachel Blackstone Contributor

Iam eight years old, and it’s Rosh Hashanah. I’m sitting in a synagogue, and I don’t really know why. I know that I like the singing, and I like seeing my grandma. I like all of the standing up and the sitting down and standing up again. What I like even more is fluffy challah, steamy Matzo Ball Soup, and knowing the evening will bring quality time with my family. I like that I’m a part of this happy thing, but I don’t exactly know what this thing is.

I learned through my time spent in synagogue that Judaism is not a universal practice, but for each individual to define for themself. I began to approach Rosh Hashanah and my Jewish identity through the lens of culture, family, and gratitude. Judaism is a vast, diverse, and evolving religion that can be observed and celebrated in any which way—with community, with your family, or even by yourself. Here are The Tribune ’s tips for a fulfilling and joyous Rosh Hashanah.

Gather with your community

Organize a time to come together with friends, whether they are Jewish or not, to mark the significance of this time. This is an opportunity to share memories of past celebrations and teach your nonJewish friends something new about the sacred holiday.

Enjoy the simple and accessible treat that is apples and honey—a traditional

Rosh Hashanah snack, signifying the goal of a sweet and fruitful year. An easily prepared and delicious treat, apples and honey are a Rosh Hashanah staple. Connecting with family is also a great way to mark the new year and connect with Jewish culture. Call your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins, and wish them “ Shanah Tova Umetukah ”: A good and sweet year.

Get ambitious in the kitchen

Is there any better time to tackle the family challah recipe than the High Holidays? Spending holidays away from home

can be a bittersweet thing, for which a potential antidote could be tasting traditional food. If the family recipe is lost in translation, or simply didn’t make it to Montreal, check out this recipe for a classic braided challah.

Ditch the kitchen, and hit the classics Some don’t have the willpower, time, or space to make bread from home—and that’s okay. Instead of waiting for your dough to proof, taste the foods from home at classic Montreal restaurants. Check out Schwartz’s Deli for smoked meat, Beauty’s Restaurant for a classic Jewish break -

fast (lox, latkes, and blintzes), or Snowdon Deli for a hot brisket sandwich and killer french fries.

Look out for on-campus events

Independent Jewish Voices McGill (IJV), a chapter of IJV Canada, is a group focused on organizing and uniting Jewish students who support Palestinian liberation and strive to fight the harmful blurring of anti-Zionism and antisemitism. They frequently host student-led events, such as their recent potluck dinner, creating a space for students to come together and celebrate from the comfort of their campus.

Take a moment to reflect

Find a space where you feel at peace, maybe under a tree in Jeanne-Mance Park or in bed with your journal, and look back on the past year. Perhaps make intentions for the year ahead, or think about your favourite moments of the past year. Consider both the highs and lows, and what can be learned from these experiences. If being this intentional with your reflection feels unlike yourself, keep these ideas of gratitude and new beginnings in mind as you go through each day.

Remember to be kind and generous with the people in your life. The world is a confusing and scary place, and it can be easy to lose yourself in the slurry of anxiety and pessimism. Channel your appreciation for the good in the world into producing more of it. Create a feedback loop of positivity, nourishing both yourself and the world around you.

Kaitlyn Schramm New Editor

With the increasing presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday life, professors are grappling with the extent to which AI should be allowed in the classroom. Some allow AI as long as usage is disclosed, some strictly prohibit it, and others view it as a tool that encourages students to cheat themselves out of an education. Despite mixed perspectives from its professors, McGill has taken a definitive stance: Integrating AI use into academia.

The university promotes AI usage in its new module on MyCourses titled “Generative AI for Teaching and Learning,” where students and professors alike can explore McGill’s recommended Generative AI (Gen AI) prompts.

The module, designed by Associate Director of Learning Environments for Teaching and Learning Services Adam Finkelstein, offers a variety of services, including prompts to help create semesterly study plans and guides to navigating tricky social situations.

“In 2023 the [Academic Policy Committee’s] Subcommittee on Teaching and Learning (STL) created a working group on AI that drafted recommendations on using Gen AI for teaching and learning at McGill. One of the key recommendations, later received by Senate, was to develop an ongoing university-wide awareness program on using Gen AI in teaching and learning,” Finkelstein wrote to The Tribune

The module focuses on three key areas: Vitality of using AI ethically and responsibly; Gen AI for teaching support; and Gen AI for student learning support. Finkelstein emphasized the importance of including AI ethics at the beginning of the module, focusing on AI malfunctions like bias and hallucinations, as well as prioritizing safe AI use to protect users’ privacy.

“Part of the rationale for providing examples of how to use Gen AI to support learning is to help close the gap between the students that are already successfully using AI to support their learning and those that have never used it at all,” Finkelstein noted.

Despite controversy among professors and students alike surrounding the extent to which AI should be used in the classroom, Finkelstein maintained that the university must evolve alongside technology.

so we need to address it head on and not try to avoid the dialogue on its impact.”

This rhetoric echoes debates that took place following the invention of pocketsized calculators and their potential use in schools throughout the 1970s. Many worried that calculators would stunt students’ computational abilities and make them overly reliant on machines, preventing them from learning through mistakes. Today, calculators are not only accepted but required for many courses.

However, AI is not the calculator. In fact, calculators are still disallowed in early education to emphasize the importance of young students learning fundamental math skills. The difference with AI is that it has the potential to serve not just as a calculator—an instrument to cut out the middle man of tedious arithmetic—but as a convoluted, robotic writer. While McGill’s Gen AI module encourages the use of AI to cut out the tedium of creating study guides and increasing memory and retention, does it act as a method of damage control, reducing stress and thus reducing cheating? Or does it risk acting as a gateway drug of AI reliance, diminishing students’ necessary exercise of critical thought?

Considering the controversial and highly-debated nature of AI-use in academia, The Tribune sat down with Renee Sieber, associate professor jointly appointed in the School of Environment and the Department of Geography. Named one of the Top 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2025, Sieber provided helpful insight into what a future of AI, or a lack of one, could look like.

“Well, first of all, a calculator does not reason,” Sieber told The Tribune con -

Teaching and Learning

cerning the comparison with the calculator. “We tell calculators to do a bunch of steps, but what we’re instead doing is giving the reasoning over to AI, so these are not the same thing.”

Not only is Gen AI incomparable to the calculator, but its side effects are far more detrimental. Sieber emphasized the need to think more critically and ethically about AI use—an aspect she feels is missing in McGill’s Gen AI module.

“There are always problems when one talks about ethics in the classroom, especially in reference to technology, that it is shelved to the last possible moment, compressed into the last week or a single class, instead of being infused, diffused in all aspects of the technology,” Sieber said.

Furthermore, Sieber raised concerns with widespread Gen AI use: On a global scale, AI adoption among larger firms has already been declining since the middle of 2025, as 95 per cent of Gen AI adoptions have found 0 per cent return on investments. Beyond the implications of Gen AI shrinking the entry-level job market, there is a chance that the implementation of Gen AI itself will also soon shrink.

“The venture capitalists that are pumping enormous amounts of money in [...] haven’t seen the investment,” Sieber noted. “And when we have this infrastructure, whether it’s a data centre or it’s money— when these run out, what’s going to happen?”

McGill’s Gen AI module encourages AI use among professors—a priority that Sieber worries will result in decreased demand for teaching assistants (TAs). The module for teaching includes sections describing Gen AI use for creating course

outlines, developing assessments, and assuring clarity. There are also sections describing how to design AI in or out of a course.

“What makes me very distrustful is that [...] the subtext of those modules is you don’t need teaching assistants anymore. You can use the AI to do the work of the teaching assistants or to do your own evaluations.”

She goes on to describe the likely low lifespan of Gen AI, as investment returns are underwhelming and datacentres are running out of internet content to harvest. Her worry is that modules, such as this one, will discourage the hiring of TAs and other teaching support, which will be detrimental in the case that Gen AI dies out sooner than expected.

“It has enormous, incalculable implications for education. So you destroy the infrastructure of education, [...] and then we have to regenerate everything. Sometimes you can’t regenerate stuff,” Sieber urged. “You can’t regenerate that stuff after it’s been hollowed out so much.”

Sieber concluded by describing another key aspect she feels the module is missing: How Gen AI can shape how one thinks. Gen AI is often denoted as an objective source, but Sieber argues that this is not completely the case. She references instances where Gen AI has filtered out events of radical activism concerning the protection of the environment, focusing instead on smaller ‘band-aid’ fixes. Though these filters can seem negligible, the wider impact has slow and worrying effects.

“It is changing our brains cognitively and what we think is acceptable in subtle ways,” Sieber described. “You tell the technology something which feeds something back to you, and you get shaped in how you think about the world.”

While Gen AI may seem like a quick and easy solution to hasten the teaching and learning processes, the downsides heavily outweigh its convenience, branching out to many different areas of harm: Accelerating environmental destruction, gutting the infrastructure of institutions beyond repair, and altering the ability to think critically. In a period where Gen AI is pushed as an inevitable technology that must be integrated into our daily lives, it is important to remember the corruption that is entangled within. The tedium of creating a course outline or a study guide is not the enemy, and it surely is worth the protection of our environment, our universities, and our brains. When

“AI is here, in almost everything we do,

Fact or fiction: Is your brain wired for a specific learning styl e?

Unpacking common neuromyths

Malika Logossou Managing Editor

You have likely encountered the idea that everyone learns best through a specific ‘learning style.’ Social media, classroom discussions, and even online quizzes often promote this claim, categorizing students as auditory, visual, writing and reading, or kinesesthetic learners. This conception sounds convincing, and after many years in the educational system, you may have identified a style for yourself.

However, according to neuroscience, the belief in fixed learning styles is a neuromyth— a misconception about the brain stemming from a misunderstanding of scientific facts that has been endorsed by the public and educators.

In an email to The Tribune, Armin Yazdani, academic associate with the Office of Science Education (OSE), and OSE’s resident neuroscientist, explained why this widely believed idea fails under scientific scrutiny.

“While we may have a preference for receiving information in one modality, we do not have good evidence that these preferences actually predict better learning. While brain cells in the eye may only respond to photons of light or brain cells in the ear may only respond to pressure waves, the brain as a system is multisensory,” Yazdani wrote. “Learning involves neuroplasticity or the creation of neural connections in various brain regions. Memory is distributed across brain regions that are highly interconnected in networks, and retrieving something requires the activation of these networks

based on task demand, not [a] learner’s single sensory channel.”

Yazdani further dispelled this myth by pointing to a popular psychological experiment known as the Stroop effect.

“Imagine if I show you the word “RED” written in blue ink and ask you for the ink colour. To get to the correct answer, the brain recruits a wide range of neurons in the visual cortex, language areas, and attention networks.”

Learning works in a similar way: It involves the integration of information from distributed brain regions rather than dependence on a single sensory modality, despite the impression that only one sensory channel is at work.

Given that this theory is false, students may wonder how it still remains popular. Yazdani wrote that its appeal lies in its simplicity, making it easy for educators to disseminate.

“This myth is so pervasive because teachers propagate it mostly [....] It feels intuitive, which means teachers understand it and can explain it well to students. It’s also actionable, which means they can tailor their instruction to a student’s ‘learning style.’ Misinformation spreads faster and farther than facts, and we have been in a losing battle against this one.”

If learning styles aren’t the answer, what does neuroscience say improves learning, and how can students discover what works best for them? Yazdani highlighted three evidencebased strategies supported by cognitive neuroscience.

“It is context dependent, but we have evidence that dual coding may work better. This

is where we use multiple complementary representations—visual and auditory—to create stronger memory traces.”

Yazdani also recommended spacing out study sessions to support memory consolidation.

“If you are a student, I would highly recommend two other strategies. One is to space out your study sessions: Three one hour sessions are better than one three hour session. The second one is retrieval practice, where you actively recall information from memory—practice tests, flashcards.”

To help put these strategies into practice, the OSE offers a neuroscience-based program called SciLearn. Open to all undergraduates, participants explore research on the neurosci-

ence of learning via workshops, lectures, and study sessions. SciLearn also focuses on debunking neuromyths, such as the theory of specific preferential learning styles.

“We have evidence that participating in even a short SciLearn guest lecture is beneficial. We start with unlearning by dispelling common myths and misconceptions. We then discuss evidence based study strategies based on neuroscience and our own research, which many students adopt. We know that SciLearners may also shift their mindset and better plan, assess, and monitor their learning,” Yazdani wrote. Therefore, fact or fiction: Is your brain wired for a specific learning style? Neuroscience says no. Learning isn’t a fixed trait, but rather a skill.

Lava planets: Where oceans of magma rage and wind breaks the sp eed of sound Physics Society Colloquium discusses strange exoplanets with surfaces of molten lava

Leanne Cherry Science & Technology Editor

One side of these planets sits at temperatures hot enough not only to melt, but to vaporize their solid rocky surface, creating oceans of molten lava and an atmosphere of vaporized rock. On the other side, the cold is unrelenting—temperatures reach well below -200 degrees Celsius, allowing its surface to remain solid. These extremes are among some of the strange features of lava planets.

On Sept. 19, at the third Physics Society Colloquium of the 2025-2026 academic year, Nicolas B. Cowan, associate professor of Physics and Earth & Planetary Sciences at McGill, gave a lecture on the physics of lava planets. Lava planets are a kind of exoplanet—a planet outside of our solar system—that have permanent oceans of liquid hot magma raging at the surface. Cowan began by describing just how hot lava planets get—somewhere around 2,700 degrees Celsius, or 3,000 degrees kelvin.

“To put that in perspective, 3,000 kelvin is actually the median surface temperature of stars in the galaxy,” Cowan said. “That’s like your run-of-the-mill average star, [which] is a mid-M dwarf star, and it’s got a surface temperature of 3,000 kelvin, so the surface of this planet is actually that temperature. It’s pretty hot.”

As with any planet orbiting a star, lava planets have day and night sides, with the former directly facing the star and the latter facing the cold, dark void of space. They orbit so

closely to their star that they can complete a whole revolution in a mere few hours—something which Earth takes 365 days to achieve.

Similarly to our moon, lava planets are tidally locked, meaning the same side is always facing its star: It is on this day side where magma oceans rage.

Cowan noted that magma oceans have been a topic of discussion long before they were discovered on existing planets.

“Magma oceans are not some [newly] made up thing. People talked about magma oceans before lava planets, and that’s because we think that all rocky worlds, including the Earth, the moon, Mercury, whatever, all the planets start off molten.”

Rocky planets go through a period of being molten as a result of the energy dissipated when they first form. As layers of space dust and particulate matter come together, the pressure increases, thus increasing temperature and creating a molten state. The difference between planets like Earth and planets like K2-141B—a known lava planet—is that the latter’s molten lava ocean is a permanent fixture. On planets like Earth, the lava ocean eventually solidifies.

Cowan then went on to describe the atmosphere of lava planets. In every atmosphere— whether it surrounds Earth or K2-141B—winds are caused by air moving from areas of high to low pressure. Temperature and pressure are directly proportional; thus, the stark temperature difference between the day and night sides of lava planets results in abnormally fast winds emerging from the day side, in some cases

travelling 1.75 kilometres per second—or five times the speed of sound.

Coming down from the atmosphere, Cowan then discussed lava planets’ interior. Rock—which makes up a lava planet’s outer layer—is composed of a variety of chemical substances, the most abundant of which is silicon dioxide. Because of its complex chemical make-up, the rocky surface does not melt and solidify uniformly. The section between the approximately 100-kilometre-deep magma ocean and the planet’s solid iron core is in a state scientifically known as ‘mush’—a mixture of solid and liquid phases.

Cowan concluded his lecture by explaining why lava planets end up orbiting so closely

to their star. These planets could not have formed in such intense heat, as the temperatures in these close orbits would have vaporized any rocky material, thereby preventing it from solidifying and forming a planet. Cowan instead proposed that lava planets obtained their orbit by way of high eccentricity migration—a process by which a space body’s orbit shrinks and circularizes because of the effects of a nearby space body. In other words, these planets likely formed farther away and moved inward over time. Ultimately, the study of lava planets improves our understanding of the universe and the processes of planet formation and development, both within and beyond our solar system.

The politics of remembrance: The Yankees’ selective tribute to Charlie Kirk

Yankees blur the line between commemoration and endorsement

Lialah Mavani Staff Writer

On Sept. 10, American right-wing activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, was fatally shot by Tyler Robinson on the Utah Valley University campus. Kirk’s death has sparked significant debate over the appropriateness of mourning him, given his bigoted political views. Professional athletes’ reactions have ranged from Instagram tributes to on-field measures. For instance, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen had Charlie Kirk’s name embroidered on the side of his hat and the New York Yankees held a moment of silence in Kirk’s memory before their game on Sept. 10. These tributes to Kirk illustrate the growing overlap between professional sports and explicit political discourse, raising questions about the messages teams and athletes convey to fans when engaging with polarizing figures.

The Yankees’ tribute to Kirk has sparked conversations around professional sports amplifying political messages, which only benefits teams’ most privileged fans. Many saw the move as a moment of unity, while others pointed out Kirk’s radical rhetoric and controversial views. Kirk was well known as a figure who prompted a rise in right-wing conservatism amongst youth in America: Much of his popularity was cultivated by promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories, particularly

through his anti-vaccination views and belief that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was fraudulent. He emphasized a desire for the U.S. to return to a Christian state, advocated for anti-abortion policies, and supported the Second Amendment. He openly supported the National Rifle Association, despite the United States’ ongoing issues with gun violence. On top of this, Kirk held racist views, once stating, “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?”

The Yankees have received ongoing backlash on social media for their selectivity in memorializing Kirk, as they have not held a moment of silence for any gun violence victims since 2016, after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Notably, the team did not hold a moment of silence for the recent death of Melissa Hortman, lawmaker and leader of the Minnesota Democratic Caucus, who was slain along with her husband on June 14 in an act of political violence. This contrast raises questions as to why certain deaths are commemorated while others are ignored, suggesting that the Yankees’ decision to honour Kirk reflects an alignment with the charged nature of what he represented, rather than a consistent solidarity with victims of gun violence.

On the surface, honouring a victim of political assassination may appear neutral, even respectful. Yet in Kirk’s case, given

his role in advancing regressive right-wing politics, the gesture legitimizes harmful rhetoric, which can be damaging to the racialized and non-Christian groups Kirk made hateful claims about. Tributes like these blur the lines between memorializing and political endorsement. Further, this choice could create broader acceptance among the Yankees’ fanbase that such exclusionary opinions are justifiable, as Kirk’s life—as much as his death—reignited debates about the point at which political statements become hate speech.

The team doubled down on the rightwing undertones they assumed in holding a moment of silence for Kirk when President Donald Trump attended the Yankees’ next game, honouring the victims of 9/11. By posing for photos with Trump, the Yankees continue to align themselves with his politics, reinforcing the likelihood that their choice to honour Kirk was not a gesture to memorialize gun violence victims,

but rather an intentional Republican political positioning.

Ultimately, Kirk’s death highlights broader questions: How far can public figures and institutions go in promoting conservative politics before their platforms become outright exclusionary? What responsibility do sports teams have in deciding which voices to elevate and which to ignore? The Yankees’ tribute to Kirk shows how sports have never been separate from larger political issues. They have reminded us that moments of silence are never truly neutral; they signal whose voices are deemed morally worthy of remembrance.

The odds stacked against athletes: The darker side of sports betting

Not just a game, betting is becoming increasingly threatening to athletes and young fans

Zain Ahmed Contributor

The past decade has seen sports betting morph from a shadowy practice into a multibillion-dollar industry embedded in the heart of professional sports. With states across the U.S. legalizing gambling and Canada following suit in 2021, betting odds now flash across live broadcasts, podcasts casually reference parlays, and ESPN even operates their own sportsbook, known as ESPN Bet. What was once a shrouded subculture of sports has become a key facet of the fan experience, but in the wrong direction: Away from the love of the game. Behind sports betting’s flashy sponsorships and lucrative profits lie a set of troubling consequences that threaten athletes and fans alike.

A recent NCAA survey revealed that 58 per cent of participants aged 18 to 22 admitted to engaging in at least one sports betting activity in their teenage years. The number jumps to 67 per cent among students living on college campuses, many of whom report betting frequently and at higher rates. These statistics should alarm anyone concerned with youth well-being, especially considering colleges may inadvertently be fuelling such habits. Widespread exposure to gambling normalizes high-risk financial behaviour, particularly among students already navigating the financial and emotional instability of university life.

The negative effects reach well beyond the bettors themselves: Athletes at both collegiate and professional levels are bearing the brunt of

gambling’s darker impulses. Countless players have described receiving anonymous direct messages after games from disgruntled bettors who claim they ‘ruined’ a parlay. These are not just harmless rants—messages often include violent threats, racial slurs, and in some cases, extend to players’ families and loved ones via online platforms. One key example of an increased rate of online hate towards athletes is NCAA’s March Madness. The line between passionate fandom and dangerous harassment is being erased by sports betting, in service of the toxic entitlement of gamblers who see athletes as little more than pawns in their gambling chess games.

The stakes for fans who have money riding on games distort the athlete-fan relationship tenfold. Instead of receiving admiration or criticism rooted in their performance, players face livid bombardment tied directly to someone else’s bank account. For younger college athletes, this creates an environment of pressure and hostility that will inevitably erode both their mental health and physical performance at terrifying rates.

Yet, while players grapple with these threats, leagues and media companies have doubled down on their partnerships with betting firms. The New York Times recently reported that leagues have signed massive deals with betting giants like FanDuel and DraftKings, with ESPN corroborating that leagues are actively using gambling to boost engagement and keep fans watching longer. Terrifyingly, these companies are not only profiting financially, but are consistently farming data from their users. The

sports business model is leaning towards the notion that gambling profits come before athlete and fan protection.

Such crass corporate complicity ought to increase the leagues’ responsibility to protect athletes. At the very least, organizations should implement stricter safeguards, such as enhanced monitoring of online abuse, to protect athletes from harassment. Leagues should also reconsider their excessive use of gambling advertisements during events, which now dominate sports coverage in ways eerily reminiscent of cigarette ads in the 20th century.

Permissive policymakers must also consider the overall costs of gambling revenues: The internal struggles of players that go unheard, and the battles between leagues and athletes regarding safeguarding. Studies already suggest that younger demographics are more susceptible to gambling addiction, with long-term consequences ranging from financial ruin to enduring mental health struggles. If universities are reporting majority participation rates in betting, we may be witnessing the beginning of a generational problem.

Sports are meant to inspire— to showcase human resilience, teamwork, and passion. When gambling overshadows the game itself,

athletes are reduced to numbers on a betting slip, and fans fall into the façade of a rather sinister buzz of ‘competition’ and ‘excitement.’ The question is no longer whether betting will poison athletics, but how much sports leagues, their athletes, and their followers are willing to tolerate before stronger gambling regulation steps in. The world of sports, both college and professional, must act soon, or risk letting gambling rewrite the true spirit of competition.

UAE Team Emirates wins Grand Prix de Cycliste Montréal for second consecutive year

Demonstrators attended the race to protest the

Hillary Wright Contributor

Both cycling fans and pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in Montréal’s Mont-Royal Park and its surrounding area for the 14th annual Grands Prix Cycliste de Montréal (GPC de Montréal) on Sept. 14.

The GPC de Montréal is the only topranked professional cycling series hosted in North America, and is a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) registered road race. It consists of two events: a 216 km race in Quebec City and a 209.1 km race through Montreal. The Montreal course features 17 laps of steep, winding roads on Mont-Royal, with a total elevation of 4,573 m. This year, 207 riders competed, including nine Canadians—seven of them representing the Canadian National Team.

Teammates Brandon McNulty and Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates were the first to cross the finish line. The duo completed the race in five hours and 14 minutes. McNulty, an American racer, crossed ahead of the famed Slovenian cyclist, Pogačar, by a friendly few milliseconds. Pogačar, a two-time winner of the GPC de Montréal—in 2022 and 2024—also holds the 2025 Tour de France title, the 2024 UCI World Road Championship, and an arguable position as one of the greatest cyclists of all time. Pogačar’s performance on Sept. 14 shaved 14 minutes off his win -

ning GPC de Montréal time last year, despite disruptions caused by a protest along the av. du Parc race section.

The top Canadian result came from Hugo Houle of Israel—Premier Tech (IPT), who finished 45th, 15 minutes and one second behind McNulty. IPT was at the center of the day’s demonstrations, where an estimated 200 protesters gathered along the race barriers on av. du Parc to call on the UCI to exclude IPT from competition in light of Israel’s continuous acts of genocide in Gaza.

Israel—Premier Tech has close ties to Montréal. Sylvan Adams, who has since moved to Israel, is a Quebec-born billionaire with a strong affiliation with McGill University and co-ownership of the IPT team. Adams has heavily contributed to the development of IPT since its inception in 2014, and has long been the subject of criticism from pro-Palestinian groups, notably for his publicly made declaration as a “self-appointed ambassador to Israel.”

The IPT’s connection to the province also derives from its title partner and sponsor, Premier Tech, a Quebec-based agricultural technology company. Further, these ties echo a $29 million CAD donation made by Adams in 2022 to McGill University to establish the Sylvan Adams Sports Science Institute (SASSI). This funding established a partnership between McGill, Adams, and Tel Aviv University, drawing further concerns from pro-Palestinian

Israel—Premier Tech Team

campus advocates as they push the university to cut all financial ties to Israel.

Supported by various pro-Palestine and Gaza-affiliated Montreal cycling clubs, such as Bikers for Palestine— who shared details about the protest through their social media accounts— the demonstration at the GPC de Montréal also garnered support from Montreal’s chapters of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR).

The Montreal protest followed demonstrations at the Vuelta a España, a three-week UCI race across Spain, where a crowd of nearly 100,000 called for Israel to be barred from international sporting events. Following the disruptions, which cut the championship race short, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez PérezCastejón publicly urged for Israel’s exclusion from global competitions. The team stripped its uniforms of any direct references to Israel in response to the protests at the Vuelta. They wore their adapted uniforms in Montreal on Sunday.

Looking ahead, Montreal will host the UCI World Championship from Sept. 20-

27, 2026. Last held in Montreal in 1974, the event is expected to be the largest sporting competition in the city since the 1976 Olympic Games, bringing together 1,000 elite cyclists from more than 75 countries. This year’s GPC de Montréal highlighted the city’s prominent role in international cycling in two important ways: Its world-class competition, and the political debates at play within the sport. As Montreal prepares to host the 2026 UCI World Championship, it faces the challenge of balancing athletic excellence with questions of accountability beyond the race course.

A month of McGill Sports leaves room for improvement

The Martlets and Redbirds have a tough road ahead if they want to secure spots in their respective playoffs

Clara Smyrski Sports Editor

Sept. 22 marked one month since the start of the 2025-2026 McGill Fall Athletics season. So far, the Martlets and Redbirds are off to a rough start and are looking to regain their athletic prowess.

Redbirds Football is at a tipping point, with their season locked up with two wins and two losses. They started the season strong with a home-field win against Université de Sherbrooke’s Vert Et Or on Aug. 22. However, they were unable to secure wins at either of their away games on Aug. 30 versus the Université Laval Vert Et Rouge and on Sept. 5 versus the Concordia University Stingers. Despite their subsequent home-field win against the Université de Montréal Carabins on Sept. 19, the Redbirds will have to learn how to capture victories on the road if they want a winning season.

Soccer has experienced a similar start to the year, with both the Martlets and Redbirds having difficulty sealing wins. In their regular seasons, the Martlets are 2–1–4 and the Redbirds are 1–2–2, with both teams most recently tying the Vert Et Or on Sept. 19. However, both teams have seven matches left until the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) Semifinals, so it is not too late for them to end on top if they can start to outscore their opponents.

Redbirds Lacrosse is in for another successful season this year, and has already earned a 4–1 record with much of their season left. Senior midfielder Joshua Jewell has spearheaded this accomplishment, scoring seven goals across the team’s two winning games and being named McGill’s Athlete of the Week on Sept. 15. Another senior midfielder, John Miraglia, scored a hat-trick during the Redbirds’ win against Trent University on Sept. 14.

Redbirds Rugby are coming off a win in Sherbrooke versus the Bishop’s University Gaiters. This brings them to a 2–1 record. However, with such a short season, they will have to keep up the momentum in Ottawa this coming weekend to secure a home-field advantage in the RSEQ Semifinal. Martlets Rugby is having a tough time this season, having just come off a loss against Concordia on Sept. 21 to bring their season record to 0–4. The Martlets unfortunately have not finished within 20 points of any of their opponents, and have only two games left to prove themselves before the RSEQ Semifinal on Oct. 12.

Redbirds Baseball is having a difficult start, with a 3–7 record. This past weekend, they broke even at Carleton University, beating the Ravens twice on Saturday, then falling to them twice on Sunday. On Saturday, rookie catcher Nathaniel Steffler snagged two runs, and catcher Robert Glusker earned two hits, a walk, and two

runs scored. The team’s season is far from over, with 15 games left before the Canadian National University Championships, which are being held in Montreal this year.

McGill Golf have finished middle-of-the-pack in their past two tournaments, though star players have stood out. The Redbirds finished sixth of nine teams and the Martlets finished third of six teams in the teams’ first tournament, held on Aug. 24-25. During the second tournament, the Martlets secured the same ranking, and the Redbirds improved, finishing fourth out of nine teams. Martlets’ Astoria Yen has shone on the green and tied for first place out of 26 women players in the tournament last week, securing McGill Athlete of the Week on Sept. 15. Golf looks to improve its standings during the RSEQ Championships from Sept. 22-24 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

The McGill Cross Country team started their season off strong at the McGill Invitational this past Saturday, Sept. 20 at Parc Mont-Royal. The Martlets runners came in first and the Redbirds finished fourth of nine teams. Most notably, Martlets’ Sienna Matheson earned silver in the women’s race.

It is not the first month back that fans may have hoped for, but McGill’s Fall sports teams still have a chance to turn their seasons around, to get out of the dangerous middle range in their respective leagues, and to strive for the championship-bound path.

Author and Sports Editor Clara Smyrski is a member of the McGill Women’s Field Hockey team and thus cannot comment on their performance this season.