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Published by the Daily Publications Society, a student society of McGill University. The views and opinions expressed in the Daily are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of McGill University. The McGill Daily is independent from McGill University.
“
CThe Distressing Increase in Depoliticization
an we not talk about politics, please? Not everything is political.”
This is a sentiment often heard when a controversial topic arises, be it at the dinner table with family,inagroupsettingwithfriends,overheardatacoffee shop, or online when expressing an opinion.
But what does “being political” even mean? Is it pledging allegiancetoapoliticalparty?Isitexclusivetogovernment actions? Is it following the news diligently and participating in conversations about current events? Or has the definition of engaging in “political speech” evolved throughout the years?
Politics surrounds us and you cannot argue that it is separate from humanity. Those who live without thinking of politics are able to because they are often the ones benefitting from the system.
Distancing yourself from politics is harmful because everything is political. By choosing to ignore or not engage inpoliticalissues,orclaimingnothingis “thatdeep,” wefail to take into account that often, simple issues have deeper structural causes.
We live in a world of internet populism is to live in a reality where everything is humorized: where the government-sanctioned murder of an innocent woman is played for jokes, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have been glorified by the Trump administration through meme culture, and where racist tropes of South Americans as members of drug cartels have been weaponized by the same administration to justify the abductionofasittingnationalleader.Wearebeinggaslitby the current political establishment into taking the serious unseriously, into believing that crimes are practical jokes, and that abuses of power are trends confined to our “For
You” feeds.
The American political debacle reflects a wider trend in modern internet culture, where politics is trivialized and even reduced, in some circumstances, to entertainment. In this internet age, one might assume that increasing accessibility to information would lead to greater political awareness and literacy. However, the immediacy of the news has become a double-edged sword: we are being exposed to the world through a digital lens, while simultaneously downplaying said news to the background. We’ve entered an era where people react to the news in thesamewaytheyreacttoentertainment.Warsareequated to reality shows. Humanitarian crises are taken as the newest “hot button” topic, trends to be consumed and fed through the internet discourse cycle. Racialized language has become the newest punchline. As social media platforms have emerged as the primary means of accessing news, people online lose the ability to differentiate fact from fiction and attitudes from experience.
One second we might be viewing images from the genocideinGaza;thenext,we’rejudgingcelebrities’ outfits at the Met Gala. Graphic images of death and destruction flash before us and become quickly forgotten. We’ re growing used to being entertained rather than informed. Coming to terms with the political nature of our world can evidently be burdensome. However, this does not mean thatweshouldtakeonadefeatistattitude.Gettinginvolved in independent journalism, advocacy campaigns, and crowdfunding initiatives are just a few concrete steps we can take to integrate political issues into our social lives. While we must remember that everything is political, it does not mean that everything is doomed.
Legault Announces Resignation, Citing Quebecers’ Desire for “Change”
With a new CAQ leader pending, the province enters an election year in transition
Lisa Banti Staff Writer
On January 14, Quebec
Premier François Legault announced he would resign as leader of the CoalitionAvenir Québec (CAQ), the governing party,sayinghecould “clearlysee” thatmanyQuebecerswere “calling for change, including a change in premier.” Legault,whohasledthe province since 2018, said he will remain in office until the CAQ chooses a new leader to replace him, triggering a succession processatthetopoftheprovincial government just as Quebec heads intoanelectionyear.
More than just a leadership shuffle, Legault’s departure is widely being read as a referendum on the CAQ’ s governing project: a blend of Quebec nationalism, Frenchlanguage protectionism, and secularism. It also reflects scrutiny of the CAQ’s self-styled “managerial” approach; an emphasis on governing like a results-driven administration, foregrounding efficiency, measurable outcomes, and the promise of practical reforms over ideology. That brand has been tested in recent years by highprofile scandals and contentious policy changes, as parties now reposition on issues that have repeatedly become political flashpoints in Montreal, including tuition policy for outof-provincestudentsandFrenchlanguage requirements affecting English-languageuniversities.
What happens now?
Next comes a CAQ leadership race that will choose the party’ s next leader and Quebec’s next premier. In the days following Legault’s announcement, multiple senior figures signalled interest or faced public encouragement: the Minister of Economy, Christine Fréchette, said she is considering running. FinanceMinisterEricGirardsaid he was interested, but that it was tooearlytosaywhetherhewould enter the race. Several CAQ Members of the National Assembly urged Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to enter the race. While the CAQ runs its leadership selection process, the Legaultgovernmentwillcontinue to govern during an interim transition period, with Legault remaining premier until a successorischosen. Although the general election is
scheduledforOctober5,Quebec’ s premiercanstillaskthelieutenant governor to dissolve the National Assembly earlier, meaning an early election remains legally possible even under a fixed-date system. The practical effect is a compressed timeline: the next CAQleadermayhavemonths,not years, to define a new agenda and defend it in a province already in campaignposture.
Legault’s premiership: the “manager nationalist” era
Legault’s tenure has been characterized by political scientists as a form of “autonomist and managerial nationalism.” As former Parti Québéquois (PQ) minister and founderoftheCAQ,Legaultleda party that broke the longstanding legacy of Liberal–PQ. It presented itself as a pragmatic, autonomy-first alternative, promising competence and stability while advancing an assertive agenda on identity and state authority. Over the course of two majority mandates, his government repeatedly returned to defining policy areas: secularism in public institutions, French-language protection, and a harder line on immigration and integration, alongside highstakes reforms that later became political liabilities, including identity legislation (such as Bill 21 and Bill 96) and major initiativesinpublicservices.
Secularism as a defining, and polarizing, policy area
One of the CAQ’s signature policies is Bill 21, adopted in 2019 as Quebec’s secularism law. The law restricts the wearing of religious symbols for certain state employeesinpositionsofauthority while on the job; symbols often cited in public debate include the hijab, turban, and yarmulke/ kippah. This has remained a persistent fault line between the government’s claim to be defending state neutrality and critics’ arguments that it infringes religious freedom and disproportionatelyaffectsreligious minorities, who are legally protected under the Canadian CharterofRightsandFreedoms.
Bill 21 has been especially contentious in Montreal, home to many of Quebec’s most diverse neighbourhoods and institutions, shaping debates about who belongs in the public sphere and whatneutralitymeansinpractice.
The policy’s legal future is still
unsettledatthenationallevel:the SupremeCourtofCanadagranted leave to hear the constitutional challenge, setting up a major test ofboththelawitselfandQuebec’ s useofthenotwithstandingclause.
French-language protection as a central project
If Bill 21 defined the CAQ’ s secularism agenda, Bill 96 became its defining language policy. The legislation, assented to on June 1, 2022, overhauled Quebec’s language regime by affirming French as the province’s only official and “ common ” language, and by amending the Charter of the French language across multiple sectors. Supporters argue Bill 96 isnecessarytoprotecttheFrench
language amid demographic and cultural changes. Critics, particularly in Montreal’ s bilingual institutional ecosystem, have warned it can restrict language rights and add barriers for anglophones, allophones, students navigating education, andgovernmentservices.
“Competence” tested by scandals and public-service conflict
While identity legislation anchored Legault’s political brand, a series of controversies eroded his “steady manager” image. A central example is what has been dubbed the SAAQclic ‘fiasco.’ At a public inquiry, Quebec’s interim auditor general Alain Fortin testified that budget overruns could bring the total for the Société de l’ assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ)’ s digital transformation project (SAAQclic) to about $1.1 billion CADby2027,nearly$500million morethanplanned.
Bill 96 also reinforced a pattern in the CAQ’s broader approach to governing: the idea that protecting Quebec’s identity and social cohesion require stronger state intervention. This approach playswellinpartsoftheprovince, but can land as punitive or exclusionary in Montreal, where bilingual workplaces and institutions are common and where debates about language often overlap with questions of economic strategy and the ability to attract students, researchers, andskilledworkers.
Meredith Cloutier | Staff Illustrator
Healthcarebecameanotherfront of political turmoil. Bill 2, adopted inlate2025,tiedpartofphysicians’ compensation to performance targets, which sparked backlash from doctors who argued that the policy shifts the responsibility of access problems onto a strained workforce. The bill became so politically controversial that the government later signalled its openness to amendments while insistingsomepayremainlinkedto patient-servicetargets.
Why resign now? Converging pressure in an election countdown
Legault framed his resignation as an acknowledgment that voters want change, but reporting around the announcement pointed to deeper turbulence: sustained low polling,internalstrain,andaseries
of controversies that kept the government on the defensive heading into an election year. In an Associated Press interview, political analyst and McGill professor Daniel Béland said Legault is “the least popular premier in the country right now, ” attributing this to his unpopular policies and missteps in communication.
The timing of Legault’ s resignation effectively allows for a strategic gamble. A new leader can argue that the CAQ is turning the
page,buttheleaderwillalsoinherit the party’s most divisive policies, with little leeway to rebuild trust beforevotersheadtotheballotbox.
McGill and English universities: why a leadership change matters in Montreal
ForMcGillandMontreal’sother English-language universities, Legault’s resignation follows a policy debate that has become a proxy battle over Quebec’ s identity, demographics, and
These changes sparked immediate pushback from English universities, student groups, and Montreal citizens.
January 26, 2026 mcgilldaily.com
economic strategy. In October 2023, the CAQ government proposedaraiseintuitionforoutof-province Canadian students and imposed a French-language requirement. These changes sparked immediate pushback from English universities, student groups,andMontrealcitizens.
In April 2025, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour struck down key elements of the framework, ruling parts of the plan, including the French proficiency requirement, unreasonable and invalid and ordered the government to revise its regulations within a set timeline. The case sharpened a broader question that now hangs over the CAQ’s succession: whether Montreal’s universities will continue to be used as an election-season wedge, or whether a new premier will
recalibrate the government’ s approach to protect the French language while maintaining Montreal’s competitiveness in researchandhighereducation. The stakes are practical as well as symbolic: recruitment, retention, tuition revenue, program planning, and the city’ s ability to position itself as an international destination without policy volatilities that discourage students and faculty. With Quebec’s campaign season beginning early, Montreal and post-secondary institutions like McGill are likely to remain the central terrain in the province’ s fight over what “change” should meanafterLegault.
QPIRG Prepares Students for SSMU elections
Info sessions guide students to staying informed and getting involved in student politics
Adair Nelson News Editor
Thursday, January 29, marks the beginning of the twoweek nomination period for candidacy in the annual Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) executive elections. The available positions include President, Vice President Clubs and Services, Vice President Internal, Vice President External, and Vice President University Affairs. As a governing body that liaises between McGill undergraduate students and the administration, the SSMU operates through a collective democratic structure to represent and protect student rights and interests. Students can nominate themselves at the Board or Executive level to campaign on the issues that matter to them and their communities. The SSMU encourages all members to participate in the annual elections, either by running or supporting a campaign that aligns with their needs.
In preparation for the nomination period, the Quebec Public Interest Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill), a SSMUaffiliated, student-run social and environmental justice organization, held an information session on Wednesday January 21 in Leacock110,onhowandwhyto run for the SSMU. QPIRG staff,
SSMU employees, and former SSMU executives gathered to express the importance of active participation in student democracy and to demonstrate what “[it] could look like.” While outlining the requirements for candidacy and explaining how to organize a campaign, the presentation stressedthatthemainobjective of a student union like the SSMU is to make McGill better suited for the needs of its students.
As a non-profit that has supported student and community activism for over forty years in association with the SSMU, QPIRG organized the information session with the hopes of encouraging students to make their voices heard in their union. Full-time QPIRG staffer and McGill alum Nelly Wat expressed to the Daily that although student politics can seem confusing, there are many valuable things that the SSMU can offer to its students. “A student union is what students make of it,” she shared. “Students have a lot more power than they think [they do]. It’s so important for students to be informed.” Wat continued, “To a lot of students, [getting involved with the SSMU’s affairs] can seem really intimidating; it can seem like ‘there’ s so many things to be done, I have so little power, and there’ s so many things that can be different. But it’s so possible to make these changes happen, and there are a lot of other
students who would be there to support you.”
The SSMU legislative and executive governing bodies have the power to propose motionsonallocatingresources to student clubs and organizations, determining referendum ballots, adopting new policies, supporting student strikes, and collaborating with local initiatives – all with the aim of representing student interests alongside those of the McGill administration. To ensure that student voices are heard and advocated for, balancing the powers between councillors, executives, and the SSMU members – in general assemblies and student referendums – is essential. To underscore the importance of democratic participation, from staying informed on the SSMU’s affairs to running in the upcoming elections, QPIRG speakers contextualized the SSMU’s history of advocacy as the result of initiatives led by executives who were passionate about social issues.
“We have things at McGill, like QPIRG, Midnight Kitchen, and CKUT because there were execs who wanted those things to exist, and therefore they [came to exist],” the primary speaker, a SSMU member of staff, shared in the presentation. She stressed that during this election cycle, students must “make sure that the students elected care about democratic accountability and protect student services.”
While discussing how to get involved with the SSMU beyond the election period, multiple student attendees expressed difficulty understanding how the SSMU operates. “[Transparency]isahuge problem,” the speaker answered.
“We need people to know what’ s going on in the SSMU, and it’ s a high-effort thing to find out, but you can go to legislative council meetings and hear about things that [councillors and executives] are voting on. You can also email your execs; they are meant to represent you and you can discuss whatthey’redoing.”
“People don’t know what’ s going on at SSMU, and it’ s a real problem,” the speaker continued to the Daily “I just think that it’s really important right now, especially around elections, to get the word out in a way that will have an impact on these elections. It does really matter for the future of student democracy.” She added that students often don’t realize the role that the SSMU plays in their university experience, from activity nights to graduation.
“Students have a lot more power than they think. It’s so important for students to be involved.”
- Nelly Wat
The SSMU also hosted an information session on Thursday, January 22, for students interested inrunningforanexecutiveposition. The presentation covered an overview of the electoral process and gave potential nominees the chancetoposequestionstocurrent execsonwhatworkingattheSSMU isreallylike.
For those who missed the info session but are inspired to run for candidacy, the nomination kit, which outlines requirements, is available on the SSMU website under “Elections and Referenda.” Students can also reach out to incumbentstolearnmoreabout the details of their position and what being a SSMU executive really entails. The deadline for nominationsisFebruary12,and the voting period will begin on March 9.
“Engagement is really the only way [to ensure that student needs are advocated for]. If the SSMU doesn’t actually represent us, that just gives McGill the ability to go against what [students] actually want.” She urges students to start getting involved through voting, but also encourages them to support a campaign, submit referendum questions, and hold the SSMU’ s representatives accountable: “the more people hold them to account, the more accountable they will be to us.”
GoodPeople
Queering Engineering: An Interview with Ken Sipolla
McGill student club Queer Engineer seeks to foster LGBTQ+ inclusion in the engineering industry
Enid Kohler Staff Writer
Good People is a bi-weekly column highlighting McGill students doing communityoriented work on and around campus. Because it’s important to celebrate good people doing goodthings.
Founded by five engineering students from McMaster University in 2013, Queer Engineer is McGill’s chapter of EngiQueersCanada,anationwide nonprofit organization that promotes “diversity and belonging in engineering.” Queer Engineer creates welcoming spaces for McGill Engineering’ s queer community, hosting events such as craft nights, monthly socials, and professional networkingevents.
The Daily spoke with Ken Sipolla, an undergraduate Chemical Engineering student at McGill and President of Queer Engineer. We talked about the club’s evolution and recent growth, what a safe space looks like,andwhyqueerinclusionand representationintheengineering industrymatters.
Enid Kohler for the McGill Daily (MD): I’m curious about your role within Queer Engineer. How did you get involved in the club,andwhy?
Ken Sipolla (KS): I joined the club in 2022 because I wanted to beapartofacommunityofqueer engineeringstudents.Iwantedto be a part of a movement to improve the visibility and the acceptance of queer people in engineering.
The club's been around since 2013, but it has ebbed and flowed in its activity. At first, there were norolesontheexecutiveteam,so I asked if I could sit in on meetings. When a role eventually opened up, I became Vice President of Finance. However, when I was away on an internship, for about a year, the clubwaslessactive.WhenIcame back from that internship, I realized I was kind of the only one left. That's when I started stepping up into the role of being President.
I just knew I couldn't let it die on my watch; I had to do everything I could to make sure
it continued to exist.
MD: How would you pitch Queer Engineer to a prospective studentmember?
KS: Queer Engineer is primarily a social club about fostering connections and community.Wehostalotofcozy events like craft night, skating night, things like that. But it's also a great way to make professional connections and get involved with the community.
MD: On that note, how has the McGill community responded to havingaspacededicatedtoqueer inclusivity in the engineering field?Whyisitimportanttohave thiskindofcommunity?
KS: The response has been super positive. A lot of people didn't know about us before, so when they found out that we existed, they were like, ‘oh, wait, that's so cool.’ The Engineering Undergrad Society (EUS) was really, really helpful in making surewehavetheresourcestoget going again.
SomethingIthinkaboutalotis the definition of a safe space, a space that you walk into and feel accepted. Walking into a space and knowing you're not going to get hate-crimed is very different from walking into a space and knowing you're accepted. So even though the majority of spaces on campus are at least relatively safe, our club is about getting to that level when people know they’re going to be accepted and can be their true selves, which is why [Queer Engineer] is so important.
MD: That's really well said. You've already touched on this a bit, but in your experience, what have you observed about the level of queer inclusivity in the engineering field?
KS: I'm from rural Saskatchewan, so growing up, to be honest, I never thought that I would be able to work as an engineer in a way that I could be authentic to myself. I've done multiple internships and I have found it to be more accepting than I expected, but it definitely varies company by company. I know there's also a lot of people who don’t feel comfortable being theirtrueselvesinthefield,even though they don’t feel discriminated against directly.
They often can't mention things like, ‘oh yeah, on the weekend I waswithmyboyfriend,’ incasual conversation. There's still that level of hiding in a lot of engineering disciplines. And of course, there's a lot of places where it's just outright unsafe to be out. I would just emphasize thattherestillisalongwaytogo.
MD: Do you have a favourite memoryofyourworkwithQueer Engineer, or a moment that stands out to you in particular?
KS: That’s such a good question. One thing that I've found really fun and interesting in the last year is our merch and stickers that say, “Queer Engineer,” with a little logo. I've been really happy with how many people want to take the stickers and put it on their laptop[s], even if they're not necessarily queer. I also think it's great because then people, especially new students, can see
these stickers and feel more comfortable.
The other thing I've been really impressed with is how much engagement we've gotten in the last year. Before, the club was a lot quieter and we had a lot smaller events, but recently our reach has been much larger. Our comeback has been more successful than I actually anticipated,soI'mreallyexcited about that.
MD: Do you have a vision for how Queer Engineer will evolve in the future?
KS: This is something I've thought about a lot because I'm graduating this year, so I'm kind of passing the torch. When I became president, I really thought about, ‘how can I form thisgroupinawaythatit'sgoing to continue after me?’ What I hope to see is that it will continue being active, host social events, and also become
more involved in professional eventsandadvocacy.Ihavefaith that the future generation will carry the club on well.
MD: The theme of this column is “good people doing good things.” In the context of your workwithQueerEngineer,what does being a “good person” mean to you?
KS: To me, it means making things easier for the people who come after you. So that future Queer Engineering students, for example, have an easier time. In general, just trying to leave an environment better than when you arrived.
Find out more about Queer Engineer on Instagram, @queerengineermcgill.
Ifyouknowgoodpeopledoing goodthingswhoyouwouldlike to see featured in this column, emailnews@mcgilldaily.com.
ImagecourtesyofKenSipolla
January 26, 2026
From Paper to Screen: PeopleWe MeetonVacation
Julia Lok Culture Contributor
Spoilersahead!
MyNewYear'sresolutionisto read more books. While I love purchasing new ones, I decided over the winter break to bring back the books I had bought but had never read back to McGill. One of those books was Emily Henry’ s People We Meet on Vacation, and I rang in the New Year,whilereadingthestory.
When I started the book, the movie had just been released on Netflix, which further compelled me to read it quickly. PeopleWe Meet on Vacation was a wellanticipatedfilmbyHenry'sfansand reached 17.2 million views the weekend it was released. News of the book’s movie adaptation was announced in 2022, a year after its
publication, and a trailer was releasedinJuly2025tomuchbuzz.
However, after reading the book andwatchingthefilmadaptation,it became clear to me that the mixed reviews the movie recieved from fansandcriticswerewarranted.
A quick summary of the plot for those who are unfamiliar: Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen, polar opposites,meetattheUniversityof Chicagoandgraduallybecomebest friends.Eachsummer,theygoona trip together, travelling to places like Squamish and New Orleans, and grow even closer. Two years beforethestory’smainevents,ona trip to Croatia, something happens thatcausesthemtoseparatefortwo years. However, they reunite for one more trip, which the story’ s events center around. Will this summerallowthemtoworkthings out? A classic storyline. It was an entertaining read that gave me a break from the theory I’d been readingformyclasses.
To begin with my positive impressions of the film version of People We Meet on Vacation, I thinkthatitisvisuallypleasing.The variousgorgeousvacationspots,the bright colors, and the casting all contributedtoavisuallyeasywatch. Whilethe storylineonitsownwas interesting,thedifferencesfromthe book are the basis of my criticism forthefilmasanadaptation.
As a reader, I have a few strong opinions about the book itself. I personallybelievedthetensionand yearning between the best friends was frustrating because it was so obvious to me they were in love with each other throughout the entire book. It’s annoying to think about the romantic partners they didn’t ever feel “right” with and how their failed relationships weren ’t the wake-up calls needed to realize they wanted each other thewholetime.WhileIknowthat’ s the whole point of the romance novel,Ifoundithardtofullygrasp
the idea they had been holding out oneachother forsolongdespiteall of their history as well as their physicalandemotionalaffections. There are multiple inconsistencies between the book andthefilm.Fromspecificitieslike theuniversitythemainduoattend, andthelocationoftheirwedding;to largerthingslikehowitwasawork trip in the film rather than a nonsponsored trip in the book that brought Poppy and Alex back together, as well as the fact that Croatia was not mentioned in the film,thesedifferencesimpactone’ s perception of the storyline. To go more in depth, readers of Henry’ s book would know that Croatia was where Poppy and Alex first kissed, which caused their relationship to fallapart,hencethereasonwhythe storyevenexists.It’stheeventthey avoid discussing during the entire summer. To take that away and reduce the plot to the events that take place in Tuscany is to remove
Eva Marriott-Fabre | Visuals Editor
crucial contexts and serious plot pointsfromtheoriginalnarrative. Another detail being criticised by fans is the fact that Alex’ s tumultuous background was neglected in the film. If a viewer hadn’t read the book, they would neverknowthathismotherpassed away during childbirth, and that he had to raise his brothers by himself while his father mourned the loss. They would also never know that he got a vasectomy because of Poppy’ s pregnancy scare. These details are all important to understanding Alex’ s characterandthedepthofhisand Poppy’semotionalconnection.
Henry was inspired by When HarryMetSally (1989),andwhileI do see the connections between both narratives, I didn't feel the same while watching People We Meet on Vacation as I do when watching When Harry Met Sally Withthelatter,Iwassatisfiedwith the couple’s long-awaited happy ending; with the former, I simply felt irritated and a little disappointed. The endings of both films are predictable, so much so thatthedevelopmentin PeopleWe Meet on Vacation wasn ’t strong enough to make me feel relieved about their reconciliation. Viewers of the movie can understand that Poppy and Alex’s relationship is strong, but they are not as privy to its complex development as those whoreadthebook.Tocushionthe blow, some critics stated that the story is better suited as a miniseries, which would allow amplespaceforthedevelopmentof the storyline and all characters. Meanwhile, the two-hour-long movie feels rushed, especially in comparisontothebook.
PeopleWeMeetonVacation can be considered a classic in the contemporarynoveluniverse,andI enjoyedreadingitforthemostpart. However, after watching an attempted film adaptation, my feelings about the entire storyline are more mixed than ever. This review is not to take away from people’s enjoyment of the film; a viewer with a penchant for romcomswhohadneverreadthebook would love the movie’s classic friends-to-lovers storyline. However,ifyouchoosetoimmerse yourself in the PeopleWeMeeton Vacation universe, I recommend eitherreadingthebookorwatching the movie, but not both. While the endings are the same, there are so many inconsistencies that either strengthen or diminish the plot, so it’sbesttochooseoneversionofthe storyandsticktoit.
Flesh: From Ragsto-Riches
Elites
and Affairs: A Moral Dilemma
Lucy Fradin Culture Contributor
Montreal-born writer of Hungarian heritage David Szalay was named the 2025 Booker Prize Winner for his novel, Flesh SzalaywasborninCanada,grewup inLondon,livedinHungary,andnow resides in Vienna. It is then unsurprising that he told The Guardian his latest book was about the “underlying experience of being poised between two places and feeling not 100% at home in either of them” Nearly ten years after Szalay’ s All That Man Is was shortlisted for the ManBookerPrize,theprize-winning Flesh was found by the judges to be “hypnotically tense and compelling,” andan “astonishinglymovingportrait of a man’s life.” I agree with the judges Iwashookedfromthestart, and I sped through the book in a coupleofdays.
Flesh has an arresting and uncomfortable premise. Its protagonist, István, a timid, pubescent 15-year-old, is living with his mother in Hungary. His friend asks him if he’s done “it” before, saying a girl he knows is willing to sleep with István. Sexually confused and awkward, the interaction goes nowhere.However,Istvánthenstarts helping his neighbour with her groceryshopping.Theforty-twoyear old shockingly grooms him, and, in a mixture of disgust and desire, István becomes obsessed with her. The interactioneventuallyculminatesina violent altercation with her husband thatlandsIstváninjuvenileprison.
The reader only sees select episodes from István’s complicated andever-evolvinglife,withthenovel characterized by often disjointed timejumps.WeseeIstvánmovefrom prison, to military service in Iraq, to private security in London. “Money existsasawayofdistributingpower,” Szalay notes. As István secures work as driver and bodyguard to wealthy Karl Nyman and his family, he becomes increasingly immersed in the super-elite circles of London throughanaffairwithhisemployer’ s
wife. Eventually, he marries her a fulfilment of a truly unconventional rags-to-richesstory.
At the forefront of Flesh is the idea ofsexandthebody.Sexisdifficultto write about. In Szalay’s words, “It's always a challenge to avoid, sort of tippingintoakindofpornography,or writing about it in a sort of way that becomes ludicrous, or both.” Szalay calls it a “risk” to “write about sex fromaspecificallymaleperspective,” perhaps aware that Flesh would be caught up in current discussions about toxic masculinity and the positionality of contemporary male authors.
To dwell on this matter, however, would be to take away from the raw emotional impact that the book has onthereader.Istvánisbothamorally ambiguous and unlikeable character. Callous in the way he views and thinks about women, and unkind to many in his life, it is hard to connect or feel sympathy for him. However, the feeling of being lost and isolated in life is a thoroughly universal, human experience. Szalay, in Flesh, “wanted to write about what it [was] like to be a living body in the world,” andthisisexactlytheimpressionthe novelleaves.
Flesh holds a 3.8/5 star average on Goodreads,withmanycriticizingthe novel’s simple prose style. Indeed, István’s most commonly uttered phrasesare “okay” and “Idon’tknow.” On the one hand, his inability to emphasize or interpret his own emotions is completely frustrating, and his minimal dialogue leaves muchtothereader’simagination.On the other hand, this makes the reader’s experience ever more personal and unique. Between the sparing prose and one-line paragraphs is space to breathe and reflect. The ending is unresolved, with a bereaved István moving back toHungary.
Flesh is not a book for everyone. I, however,founditstrangelyhypnotic. Recently, a movie adaptation of the book has been announced. I can see plenty of scope for long, still shots of thebroodingIstvánpacingthestreets butIcanonlywishitsscriptwriter thebestofluckwiththedialogue.
“don’t leave”
Sophia
Di
Genova Culture Contributor
you ’rewatchingashow,yourfavouriteshow, andthefirstthreeseasonsaregreat! thegangjustdoestheirthing: laughingatthebarorthecoffeeshoporinthelivingroom, tellingadifferentversionofthesamesillytale, andthebestpartisthatthey’retogether;complete,whole. yousettleintoitwithoutasecondthought
How Igloofest shapes Montreal’s music scene, in conversation with No Police & Mathieu Constance
Isabelle Lim Culture Editor
“It’s going to be one for the books,” says Mathieu Constance, programming director of Igloofest, about the festival to the Daily “Everybody’ s very,veryexcited.”
Theopen-airwintermusicfestival, heldatPlaceJacques-Cartierinquite literally freezing weather, has been anticipated with ever-increasing fervour every January and February for almost two decades. Premiering inMontrealthisyearonJanuary15, the19theditionofIgloofestpromises to bring heat and adrenaline to the deepMontrealfreeze.
According to numbers provided to the Daily by the Igloofest team, Igloofest attendance is on an exponentially upward trend, with ballpark numbers leaping from 85,000 attendees in 2023 to over 118,000 in 2024. Evidently, the novelty of the festival’s trademark outdoor format, especially in the winter season, lends itself to the
lineup is peppered with global household names including DJ Snake (2016 summer, anyone?), Sofi Tukker and Hamza, then closing with Max Styler. There is trulysomethingforeverybody.
Constance told the Daily that Igloofest contacts performers anywhere from a few months to a year in advance. While artists’ availability and schedules are constantlyinflux,oneindisputable element among them is their interestinperformingatIgloofest.
“Oneofthebigplusesoforganizing Igloofest is that it’s so unique,” notes Constance. “When we approach artists, they're mesmerized by the fact that anybody is producing this kind of event, and generally really intriguedinparticipating.”
That being said, Igloofest is all aboutbringinginthemostexciting names in dance and electronic music. This includes not just big international names, but also upand-coming artists who are breaking into the industry. As live
Each artist promises a night of music that leaves no person stiff and awkward on the dance floor.
great interest of both locals and tourists alike. But why would one, or thousands, subject themselves toanightoutintemperaturesakin tothoseofAntarctica?
The answer to this, besides the abilitytodrinkcopiousamountsof alcohol with the excuse of staying warm, lies in the line-up of artists that Igloofest ensures. Each artist promises a night of music that leavesnopersonstiffandawkward on the dance floor. This year is no different:openingwithDiscoLines (of “NoBrokeBoys” notoriety),the
dance music genres have seen a surge in popularity in the last few years, Constance emphasizes the importanceofappealingtoasmany generations and music demographics as possible to keep festivals like Igloofest relevant.
“Being able to foster a new generation of Montreal talent and givethemanopportunitytoplayat aneventofthisscalehasbeenone of Igloofest’s primary objectives sincethebeginning.”
is also part of T.I.T.S. Collective, a rising all-female DJ collective based here in Montreal. No Police performed on Igloofest’ s Videotron stage on January 16 alongside her fellow collective memberCori.Igloofest,shewrites in correspondence with the Daily, is her “favourite festival ever” and onethatshehasattendedregularly over the last 12 years. Hence, the opportunity to attend from the other side of the stage was exhilarating. “I love being able to experiment and play new subgenres of music that I’ ve never playedbefore,” shewrites. “Having that platform is extremely important as a female artist, and I’mreallygrateful.”
While I wouldn’t call myself a rave or techno expert, I can say with conviction that No Police’ s Igloofest set was absolutely electrifying. The Videotron stage, accessiblethroughasideentrance, is not one to be underestimated. While smaller than the Sapporo stage and bereft of its SFX screens and psychedelic visuals, it providedtheperfectplatformfora distraction-freeimmersionintoNo Police’s set, which featured strong basslines and hard-hitting kicks that brought an infectious dynamism to the dancefloor. Accompanied by flashing blue lights and complete with songs dedicated to her family, who were alsoonthedancefloor,NoPolice’ s three-deck performance was certainly not something to be missed.Theenergyonlycontinued as she passed the decks along to Cori,whoplayedherowneffusive, entrancing set into the wee hours ofthemorning.
AmidconcernsofMontreal’sdying nightlife despite an ever-growing demandfornewconfigurationsoflive performance and music by way of experientialformats,Igloofest’slargescale occupies a limbo-like position.
While the noise restrictions specific to Igloofest are confidential, Constance remarks that they are nonetheless a concern, and stresses the need for open dialogue between allinvolvedactors,notjustthosewith the loudest voices. “With venues closingandcertainlawschangingor not changing, the city is definitely hitting a turning point,” he voices. “I thinkthatthekeyistobeabletolisten, anddedicatecertainspacesto things thatwillbetoleratedorallowed.”
The Montreal nightlife crowd, evidently,isnotonetobedismissed or stifled. No Police describes this demographic as “veryopenminded [and] receptive,” with their vocal feedback after impactful moments in the set being one of most special contributions to shows. Given how the attendees continue to show up year after year in larger groups in spite of Canada’s frigid winter, Igloofest is a testament to the durability and enthusiasm of Montreal’s thriving nightlife community.Constancebelievesthat anyonewhoattends,nomattertheir age, familiarity with the artists, or experiencewithmusicfestivals,can discoversomethingnew.
“It's really important to come
and to leave with the most open mind possible,” he states, “whether that's musically, because you don't know what you're getting into; or just discovering new relationships withnewpeopleandnewmusic... I think that’s probably [how you have] the most fun that you can have at these kinds of events. Whenwegobacktothehistoryof clubbing culture, that's where [the fun] comes from, so being able to continue and respect that iscrucial.”
Igloofestisaculturalfixturethat is undoubtedly here to stay. Since its initial conception in Montreal, Igloofest has expanded into Quebec City, Gatineau, and this year, marking its first foray into Western Canada: Edmonton. Anecdotally, I saw far too many people I knew on the nights I was there, and know for a fact that moreofthemwillbeinattendance atupcomingsets,whichIwillalso be present at. At minus twenty degrees Celsius (let’s not even talk about the “feels like” figures), it seems that the heat is only just startingtobuild.
Partitionby Dr. Diana Allan: Reclaiming British archival footage
An interview with the mind behind the RIDM’s Grand Prix’s 2025 Winner
Youmna El Halabi Culture Editor
Partition isadocumentaryby McGill Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Anthropology of Living Archives Dr. Diana Allan. It showcases Palestine under British occupationbetween1917and1948, throughfootageacquiredfromthe British Colonial Archives of MandatePalestine.
AsoneofNorthAmerica’sleading documentary festivals, the Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) seeks primarily to “promote and reflectonthemoststimulatingand diverse visions of documentary cinema.” Lastyear,thefestivalwas held from November 19 to 29, 2025. Their selections renew the audience’s relationship with the
appear to be originals. That is because Allan cleaned the digitizedarchivalfootagefromher own laptop. Resistance songs and the voices of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were then edited over them,culminatinginaprojectthat challengescolonialauthority.
The documentary is not concernedwithpreservingalinear narrative. In true oral history fashion,itrecallsoveracenturyof occupation and displacement through the sounds of echoes and overlaying perspectives. It was described by the festival as “ an invitation to rewrite Palestinian history through a decolonial lens, reflecting on the logic of the colonial gaze and the image’ s complicityinitsdevelopment.”
Partition is the fruit of much beautifulandcreativelabour,with the editing process beginning in
“This film is about what it means to encounter a kind of colonial archive from your past, from which you've been denied access, and what it means to experience that past, re-experience it, and reinvest it with Palestinian history and experience.”
Dr. Diana Allan
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Youmna El Halabi for the McGill Daily (MD): How did the idea come about to make the documentaryinthefirstplace?
Dr. Diana Allan (DA): All my work as a filmmaker and as an anthropologist has focused on histories of dispossession, displacement and exile. In addition to testimonial work, I've also worked as an ethnographer for many years with Palestinian communities mainly in [Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and] Shatila in Beirut and in Jal al Bahr, [attending] informal gatheringscalledthe tajamua’at in theSouth.
My work has also been about memory, processes of memory, and ephemeral forms of memory; highlightingthekindofnarratives that might not form part of these canonical narratives of displacement, but are to do with childhoodandloveandlabourthat aremaybelesspoliticallyresonant, but are still very important. I've been very interested in the processes of memory, and how photographs shape it. So this film kind of grows out of that, and is about what it means to encounter a kind of colonial archive from yourpast,fromwhichyou'vebeen denied access, and what it means to experience that past, reexperience it, and reinvest it with Palestinian history and experience.
MD: You mentioned that your work revolves a lot around memoriesandpreservingmemory. The movie is shot from the actual archives, and the zoom lens conveys that they are not original shots. How does the preservation ofmemorymanifestinthewayyou chosetopresentthedocumentary?
DA: Who do these histories belongto?Whodothesematerials belong to? These silent films were shot between 1917 and 1948 so I came across this collection sort of randomly. I'd heard that they'd just digitized their films. I came across this material that was amazing and revelationary to me in many different ways. When I contacted the archivist, they quoted me a really exorbitant sum for use of this material. Even after I'd explained that it was for an educational project that it wasn't for broadcast on television it was still exorbitant. At that pointIwasjustlike,I'mnotpaying a British government institution a huge amount of money to make a film about their dispossession of Palestinians. And one has to ask, well, who are these materials being preserved for? They should be preserved for stakeholder communities.
Thisisadecolonialproject.This is about bringing these histories back into contact with Palestinian communities. And so, I felt entirely justified in reclaiming them, exhuming them from this collection,andthenbringingthem back into circulation, bringing
them back into relation with the people whose histories are being heldinthesecollections.
MD: How has winning the Grand Prix changed people’ s perception and reception of the documentary?
DA: It has made my work more visible to my colleagues, both in my own department and in the Faculty of Arts. They sent out a notice about the award in the arts newsletter,andthatwasverynice. The screening at the CML [on January 16] was really packed. Partition is the first fully-fledged filmthathascomeoutofthelab,in whichacommunityofpeoplewho are working in film and sound is really being built. It was exciting tofeeltheforceofthatcommunity andthatkindofcommitment.
Partition is more than just a documentary reclaiming Palestinian history. In a way, it works as a sort of epic, told through blurred images, and the enchanting voice of a woman singingPalestinianfolkloricsongs. Whiletragicinitsreality,itisalso a story on the importance of resilience and preservation of memory anditisamust-watch.
worldandwithdocumentaryasanart form.OnNovember27and29RIDM screened Partition at the Cinémathèque Québecoise, in collaboration with Festival International Du Film EthnographiqueDuQuébec(FIFEQ).
Allan is an anthropologist by trade, who has worked for the duration of her professional and scholarly career with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The focus of her work has been documenting histories of displacement and dispossession in the camps across Lebanon, focusing on the testimonies of first-generation refugees,datingbacktotheNakba. Partition has been in the works for many years. At the time the footage was filmed, the British Empire shot a number of films in camps in Lebanon to document their colonial operations. Much of the footage used in the documentary is not in high definition, and the images do not
Lebanon and ending in Canada. Mahmoud Zeidan, a Palestinian refugee residing in Ain-al-Helweh campinLebanon,wasco-editorof this project. Zeidan and Allan also co-founded the Nakba Archive project in 2002, which comprises over 1,100 hours of footage with first-generation Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Julian Flavin, associate director of Critical Media Lab (CML) at McGill University, worked closely with Allan on Partition as the project’s sound designer. Lisa Stevenson, co-director of the CML, also played a role in the film’smaking.
On November 29, it was revealed that Partition wontheGrandPrixof thenationalcompetitionatRIDM.
OnJanuary19,TheDailysatwith Dr. Allan to get to know the woman behind the lens and understand the documentary’s ultimate goals.
It's really about re-temporizing the Nakba as something that has beengoingonfor100years,not78, and scrutinizing the role that the Britishhaveplayed.Iguessalsoas a British scholar, and filmmaker, I amscrutinizingmyownformation within this imperial imagery as a British citizen, which has periodically but only very marginallycomeintomywork.
As a British citizen, Allan had to consider her own relationship with histories of Palestinian dispossession, and the fundamental yet often-forgotten role that the British have played in this history. The Palestinian plight is normally considered to have begun with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, often referred to as the Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic. However, Palestine has been under a nakba long before the established Israeli state, with British rule beginning in the 1910s.
Golnar Saegh | Multimedia Editor
Is AI Killing Academic Integrity?
Amid the rise of AI usage among college students, professors reinstate in-person assessments to restore confidence in academic
Margot Aloccio Commentary Contributor
Over the last few decades, universities have largely moved away from conventional in-person exams in favour of take-home essays and quizzes, adapting to evolving digital practices and supplemental teaching tools. Today, howåever, the trend is reversing. In response to students’ growing reliance on generative artificial intelligence (AI), professors are reviving more traditional assessment methods, including in-person exams, in an effort to restore trust in learning processes that avoid cheating, plagiarism, and advantages. Yet this shift raises pressing questions about student accessibility, fairness, and whether limiting AI use in higher education is truly an effective response to integrity concerns.RatherthanrejectingAI use altogether, faculty members should adapt methods of evaluationtotheincreasingroleof generative tools, balancing the preservation of integrity with a realistic acknowledgment of contemporaryacademicpractices.
Why do students turn to generative tools?
Recent data illustrates how widespread this shift has become. A Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) survey conductedinFebruary2025found that 88 per cent of students reportedusinggenerativeAItools such as ChatGPT for assessments, a stark difference from the 53 per cent of students who admitted to using generative AI the previous year. At the same time, the proportion of students who reported not using generative AI dropped sharply, from 47 per cent in2024tojust12percentin2025. For many students, it seems as if AI tools have become a default form of academic support, used in response to mounting pressures such as heavy course loads, overlapping deadlines, and rising performanceexpectations. Although the use of generative AI is usually interpreted as a form of academic misconduct, such actions cannot be understood solely through the lens of cheating. In fact, the HEPI survey shows that students most commonly use AI tools to explain unfamiliar concepts, summarize readings, and generate research ideas reasons that fall within manyschools’ integrityguidelines. McGill’s Office of the Dean of Students emphasizes the “vital
importance” ofacademicintegrity, underscoring values such as honesty and “giving credit where credit is due.” For many, AI functions less as a shortcut to bypass academic work and more as a support mechanism. However,thisnormalizationofAI usecomeswithuncertainty.When the boundaries between acceptable use and misconduct remain unclear or inconsistently enforced, students are left navigating a grey zone, unsure whetherthetoolstheyrelyonmay laterbeusedagainstthem.
At the same time, not all students engage with AI in ways that align with institutional policies. Some rely on generative tools to produce substantial portions of their assignments, directly undermining not only the value of their work but also violating “the academic integrity of the University” itself. From an instructor’s perspective, distinguishing between legitimate support and misconduct has become increasingly difficult. “AI is a great opportunity to personalize a student’s learning,” Desautels Vice-Dean Genevieve Bassellier notes. However, a student can prompt generative tools such as ChatGPT or DeepSeektowriteentireessaysin minutes, which leaves professors grappling with how to distinguish human work from machinegenerated content. In many cases, the final submission may look the same, regardless of whether AI was used as a learning aid, a substitutefororiginalwork,ornot usedatall.
How are professors adapting to AI?
Concerns about academic integrity in the age of AI are being echoed at the institutional level. Research by UNESCO highlights how generative AI could disrupt assessment methods that rely primarily on final outputs such as essays. This demonstrates that when students can generate essays or reports in minutes, traditional indicators of effort and comprehension lose much of their reliability. The report thus encourageseducatorstoplacemore focus on smaller step-by-step assignments that emphasize the learning process itself, such as journalsorpeerreviews.
At McGill, departments focused on written assignments particularly in the arts and humanities have introduced explicitAIpoliciesincoursesyllabi. These disclosures increasingly restrict (or sometimes forbid) the
use of AI for idea generation, formulation, or refinement. A similar effort to define boundaries ofacceptableacademicconductcan be seen in the introduction of a mandatory online Academic IntegrityTutorialin2011.Required of both undergraduates and graduates, the tutorial walks students through scenarios involving plagiarism and academic misconduct, underscoring the idea that a degreeearnedthroughcheatingis ultimately hollow. Students who fail to complete the module are unabletoregisterforcourses. Moreover, many instructors are also reconsidering not only what they assess, but how and where that assessment takes place. Inperson examinations restrict access to AI tools and allow professors to observe students’ reasoning directly. For many students, the effects of this shift are already tangible. During my first semester at McGill in Fall 2023, only two of my five courses required in-person final exams. By contrast, all five of my courses this semester rely on in-person exams for both midterms and finals.
Importantly, the return to inperson evaluation is not driven solely by concerns about security.
As Dr. Andrew Woon argues in a 2025reportforHEPI,thevalueof examsliesintheirabilitytofoster “deep, internalised understanding”— particularly in fields with higher stakes such as medicine or education. Dr. Woon explains that, while AI can assist with information retrieval or diagnostics, it cannot replace the human judgment required to interpret context, nuance, or ethical complexity. “We wouldn’t want to be treated by a doctor who relied on ChatGPT to make clinical decisions,” he notes. These types of professions require rigorous skills that must be practiced and assessed directly.
However, in-person written exams are not necessarily a perfect solution. Concerns about potential AI-assisted cheating have led some educators to explore oral examinations as an alternative. According to Dr. Kyle Maclean, assistant professor at Ivey Business School, live oral exams are “about as cheat-proof asitgets,” astheyrequirestudents to explain their reasoning in real time. However, Dr. Maclean adds that oral exams present significant feasibility and equity challenges. They are difficult to scale in large undergraduate courses, grading can be less
consistent, and their lack of anonymity raises concerns about potential bias. Moreover, such formats are widely reported as stressful by students, particularly those with anxiety or processing challenges, highlighting tradeoffs inherent in assessment methodsdesignedtolimitAIuse.
What does this shift mean for students?
While for instructors, the return of in-person exams may restore confidence in students’ academic integrity, the effects of this exam type on students are more complex. One of the less obvious ramifications is the reshaping of student behaviour, even among those who do not dishonestly rely on AI. As sanctions against AIgenerated work become more common, some students have begun to self-police their writing to avoid suspicion. As an English student, I have found myself consciouslyalteringstylistichabits such as avoiding em dashes a punctuation mark frequently associated with AI-generated text not because of academic guidance, but out of fear of being misidentified as relying on generativetools.
Beyond questions of perception, these changes also raise concerns about equity and accessibility. By shifting assessment formats rapidly, students registered with disability services may face additionalbarrierssuchasreduced access to accommodations, heightened anxiety, physical or sensory challenges, or disadvantages in oral assessments that rely on verbal fluency and performance. When accommodations are unevenly implemented or poorly adapted to oral or time-constrained assessments,examseventuallyrisk privileging student confidence overgenuinecomprehension.
learning
In-person exams: harmful or helpful?
In-person examinations, while effective in limiting AI misuse, are not a comprehensive solution. Such exams may create fairness in one sense as they can standardize conditions and restrict cheating behaviour. Nonetheless, they risk pushing students to rely more heavilyonAIelsewhere readings, essays, research in order to manage increased academic pressure which eventually weakens the value placed on out-of-class work. As long as generative AI remains widely accessible and difficulttoregulate,attemptstofully exclude it from academic life are likelytoremainimperfect. Rather than framing such tools as a problem to be eliminated, universities may need to reconsider howAIcanbeintegratedintelligibly into teaching and assessment. The future of evaluation may lie not in strictercontrolsalone,butinsmaller classes, more project-based learning, and deeper, sustained conversationsbetweenstudentsand faculty.
AtatimewhenrelianceonAIrisks weakening foundational cognitive skills, academic degrees must be understoodasaprivilegeratherthan ashortcut.Inthissense,instructors play a crucial role in designing learning environments that protect core intellectual abilities restoring value to human reasoning instead of allowing it to be eclipsed bydigitalassistance. “That’swhyit’ s even more important that we continue to enforce the basic knowledge,” Bassellier notes. Ultimately, the challenge facing higher education is not how to assesswithoutAI,buthowtodesign systems of evaluation that continue to reward curiosity, effort, and the ability to think critically with it, to strike a balance in which AI can support, rather than undermine, studentlearning.
Zoe Sanguin | Staff Illustrator
The Rise of Solo Travel Among Gen Z
Are post-pandemic social norms making us increasingly anti-social, or more independent?
Alix Broudin Commentary Contributor
Everyone knows someone who took a solo trip this year. It’s always the same caption: “taking myself on a date” or “a one-way quest to selfdiscovery.” It is increasingly common for people to travel alone, and share their trips with large audiences on social media.
The #SoloTravel hashtag, for instance, has over 7 million posts onInstagram.
The rise of solo travel reflects a potential post-pandemic shift in socialnorms.Solitudeisnowseenas an intentional form of leisure and self-growththatcanimprovemental well-being by bringing clarity and renewedpurpose.
Thetravelindustryhasresponded to this trend in turn, with tour operators now creating itineraries specificallycuratedtosolotravellers. As solo travel becomes more mainstream and trendy, especially withinyoungergenerations,itpushes the conversation beyond tourism. What does choosing to travel by oneself mean for how we relate to others,andourselves?
Solo travel is indeed not just a trend.Foralongtime,doingthings alone carried a stigma. Society taughtusthatleisurewasmeantto be shared with our loved ones: restauranttablesare builtfortwo, hotelroomsarepricedforcouples, and even the concept of fun is marketed as a group activity, especially when it comes to board games.Yet,asChantéJoseph – the British Journalist behind Vogue’ s “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now” – suggests, being single is now fashionable.
Although loneliness is commonly associated with socialexclusion, public displays of solitude have recentlybecomemore acceptable.
As lifestyles become more individualized, perceptions of relationships and marriage shift, and the line between work and leisure blurs, solo activities have been progressively normalized in public space. With remote work, freelancing, and work-driven international mobility, daily life is less tied to shared office routines, making it easier to plan and do thingsonyourown.
Beingalonestoppedlookinglikea failure and started looking like a choice. As Judy Koutsky highlights in a Forbes article, COVID-19 pushed people to stop postponing travel destinations they always had in mind. Therefore, when travel restrictions were eased after the pandemic,manyrealizedthatitwas nowornever – theydidn’tneedto wait for a partner or friend to join them. HotelPlanner CEO Tim Hentschel further underlines that lockdown made us manage downtime “on our own terms,” making us far more “comfortable withourowncompany.”
AngelinaVilla-Clarkefrom Forbes highlightsthatsolotraveltripsgetrid of people’s need to compromise, giving them a unique sense of freedomandagency.Manytravelers havedescribedthischangeasmental relief, as evidenced in a Euronews interview with 31-year-old solo traveller Loana who said solo travellinghelpedreduceheranxiety and taught her to stop letting other people’s opinions dictate how she lives. Moreover, in an Emerald Cruisessurveyof500people,nearly halfoftherespondentssaidsolotrips boosted their confidence. Indeed,
when you’re solo on the road, you’ re constantlybeingtested.Whetherit’ sa hostelcancellingyourreservationlast minuteorit’smissingyourflight,you havetothinkfastandhandleitalone.It is in those moments that you realize howstrong,adaptable,andresourceful youtrulyare,fosteringagreatersense ofself-sufficiency.
However, there is a fine line betweenindividualismandselfishness. Putting our own interests and ambitions first instead of adapting to the schedules and desires of a group canlooklikeoptingoutofthechanceto strengthen meaningful relationships. Some may argue that the rise of solo travelreflectsabroaderweakeningof socialties.Inotherwords,peoplefeel less connected to friends, family, or community and are therefore more likelytotravelontheirown.
Instead of being stigmatized as selfish consumers, solo travelers may beexploringnewwaystoconnectwith others,orthemselves.Beyondgaining independence,takingtimeforyourself canbetherapeutic,givingyouspaceto process your thoughts, and emotions. Away from the expectations and the distractions of familiar social circles, youcanreflectonyourdesires,values, andgoals.Thatmentalclaritycanease stress and anxiety, particularly when you ’refreefromthedailypressureof pleasingothers.Seeingyourproblems against the wider world can also put things in perspective, reminding you that pain isn’t permanent and some worriesarenotworthspiralingover.
Solo trips often happen simply because aligning schedules, budgets, and interests is difficult. Plus, unlike forcedgrouptravel,whichcancreate tension, travelling alone can reduce pressureandhelppeoplereturnhome morepresentandengagedwiththose they care about. In practice, solo travellers are never truly alone; they
shareauniqueexperiencewithothers inthesamesituation.Takealookat hostels, for instance. You arrive unaccompanied, but you’ re surrounded by others who are also temporarily untethered. This idea of being “solo but not alone” suggests that social interactions, including connecting with other travellers, talking to locals, and receiving kindness from strangers is actually a keymotivationforsolotravellers.
By stepping out of your comfort zone, and exploring unfamiliar environments,youmaybecomemore open-minded and less judgemental. Exposure to different social norms, perspectives, and lifestyles can challenge your perceived assumptionswhilebuildingempathy and cultural appreciation. Paradoxically, being “alone” can actually make you feel connected to morepeople.
Astravellingaloneisn’talwayseasy, there are bound to be moments of uncertainty,loneliness,orfrustration encountered along the way. Therefore, we should acknowledge thatthesolitarynatureofsolotravel
can still produce an overwhelming feeling of isolation. However, by facing and overcoming obstacles on yourown,youbuildresilienceandthe ability to cope with adversity. Whether it’s dealing with language barriers,orsimplymanagingsolitude, solo travel strengthens how you handle stress and setbacks in other areasoflife.Itcaninfluencetheway you approach challenges, relationships,anddecision-making. Ultimately, solo travel allows for complex problem solving, cultural exchange, and grow a tolerance for adversity that simply cannot be taught. When asked about their overall solo travel experience, many describe it as “illuminating,” “liberating,” oreven “empowering.” So theriseofsolotravelisnotnecessarily evidencethatwe’rebecominglonelier as a society. It is instead proof that we ’re renegotiating what independencelookslikeafteraperiod of social isolation. The goal is not to travelalone simplyforthesakeofit, buttofindyourselfbysteppingaway fromthesocialpressureandfight-orflightrhythmofeverydaylife.
