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Volume 115, Issue 9 | Monday, November 10, 2025 | mcgilldaily.com Slacking off since 1911
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table of Contents
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Table of Contents 3 • Editorial This Publication is for You 4 • News Good People • •
Hurricane Melissa STM Strike
8 • Commentary Anti-Intellectualism •
Canadian Foreign Policy
6 • Culture Policing Language • • •
Midterm Blurbs Art of the Brick The Titanic Immersive Voyage
10 •Compendium! Comics •
Midterm Horoscopes
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editorial
Volume 115 Issue 9
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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editorial board 3480 McTavish St, Room 107 Montreal, QC, H3A 0E7 phone 514.398.6790 fax 514.398.8318 mcgilldaily.com
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coordinating editor
Andrei Li managing editor
Sena Ho
This Publication is for You
news editors
Adair Nelson Justin Friedberg Mara Gibea
Emphasizing the importance of student journalism
commentary + compendium! editors
Ingara Maidou Sonia Berman culture editors
Isabelle Lim Youmna El Halabi features editor
Elaine Yang visuals editors
Eva Marriott-Fabre Nikhila Shanker copy editor
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Cassandra Cohen multimedia editors
Golnar Saegh Parker Russell social media editor
Lara Arab Makansi cover designs
Parker Russell staff contributors
Enid Kohler, Miranda Forester, Lisa Banti contributors
Julie Bertille, Olivia Epstein, Morgan Yi, Sarah Toman, Mallory Byrne, Zoe Sanguin, Natalie Chang, Sonia Ionescu
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reedom of the press has been on the decline. With free speech protections being attacked across North America, the precedent set by the United States has enacted a ripple effect across media organizations throughout the region. Political ideologies are creeping into independent journalism and to some degree, the future of journalism feels uncertain. At their best, journalists seek to inform and serve the people. Grassroots reporters would traditionally publish stories that reflect the lived experiences and opinions of their communities. Nowadays, the profession of journalism has gradually become an extension of elite institutions. Even while information has become more accessible than ever before, we have slowly become oblivious to the happenings around us. Now, as funding to local journalism initiatives dwindles, many local papers are virtually defunct. Despite this, student newspapers remain essential to informing the public on local happenings. At universities across Canada and beyond, students have historically used their voices to interrogate structures of power and delve into the nitty-gritty of local politics. These papers have critically touched on topics that city-wide news neglects. In the US, student journalism is another pillar of expression that has come under attack from the Trump administration. As the GOP’s assault on free speech has prompted the restructuring and silencing of large media personalities and organizations, students have continued to pursue candid journalism. Nonetheless, federal crackdowns on student journalism have persisted. Journalists at Columbia University’s Spectator have been issued suspensions for covering campus protests. Indiana University notably fired its the Indiana Daily Student's student media advisor in an effort to censor the paper’s political content. Journalists at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Daily Pennsylvanian have camped out overnight to ensure that they would be able to cover university issues after administrative pushback, such as the student protests against the genocide in Gaza, police activity on campus, and administrative budget conflicts. Student journalists continue to form a vital component of the reporting ecosystem around universities. Despite the rise of social media, especially in the post-pandemic era, studentrun traditional news media has proven its continued importance. For example, at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, the local campus paper saw a nearly 30 per cent increase in pickup rates over the past four years. As Barbie Zelizer for The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, undergraduate journalists “expend boundless energy to get the facts right.” In a new era of journalism, where censorship runs rampant and political threats are abundant, yet student journalists continue to move forward. We must turn away from monopolized media organizations and uphold and return to our roots: driven by passionate students willing to fight oppressive political forces. If you engage with student journalism, then you are making a difference by believing in the free exchange of ideas, in the right to inform the public of injustices, and in defending the truth, you are making a difference by engaging with student journalists. Our publication serves to inform the student population and document campus stories and history. The Daily exists for and by the students of McGill University. This newspaper cannot achieve its goals without the contributions of our community, and the best way to do this is to get involved. Email one of us, pick up a pitch, or contribute your own ideas. The Daily is a platform to amplify your stories and your perspective. To fight the deterioration of engagement with student journalism is to engage in it yourself.
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.
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November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
News
Good People
More Than Just Plates: An Interview with Jamie Silverman on The Plate Club McGill-student run service promotes sustainability through reusable dishware Enid Kohler Staff Writer Good People is a bi-monthly column highlighting McGill students doing community-oriented work on and around campus. Because it’s important to celebrate good people doing good things.
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ingle-use products have a significant environmental cost. Reusable products are therefore more sustainable than single-use items in any form. Since 2007, The Plate Club, run out of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), has been championing reusable products. The service provides free reusable dishware to McGill students and community members, with an eye towards promoting sustainable and environmentally-friendly practices. The Daily spoke with Jamie Silverman, the General Coordinator of The Plate Club and a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Sustainability, Science and Society with minors in Urban Studies and International Development. We talked about The Plate Club’s history, what it means to be sustainable, and making the world a better place. This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
compostables, because when you’re using compostables, it can still only be used once before it goes to the landfill. Whereas we’ve had these plates since 2007. They're not going anywhere. They're not breaking because most of our inventory is hard plastic, so they're meant to last. We have so many people using our stuff that it's definitely paid off for any kinds of disposables over time. Sustainability is made up of many facets, but one of them is economic sustainability. Even compostable dishes have to be bought new every time, whereas the Plate Club offers services for free. Let’s say you don't care about the environment whatsoever. You're still getting free dishware. Even if you don’t care about the environment, it doesn't really make any sense, given the Plate Club’s services on campus, in my opinion, to do anything else. MD: Do you have a favorite memory or an event that stands out to you from the past few years?
JS: I wouldn’t say I have a specific memory, but a continuous reminder of the accumulation of work over the last two years. It's very physical, right? All of our dishware is material; you see the plates going out and coming back in. It's a very material way of seeing your impact, quite directly in the orders that we're preparing. So it's pretty rewarding. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I know MD: How would you describe the Plate Club that every year we have over a hundred to someone who has never heard of it before? orders. We're trying to create a sustainability JS: So the Plate Club is a free dishware report to assess exactly how many dishes rental service. We essentially furnish we're diverting. In a report from 2007 to 2017, dishware to any group on campus or to the the service diverted over 60,000 disposable broader Montreal community for free. This items to landfill. There's no recent reports, means that all our dishes are rented out, but I'm hoping to put more emphasis on that volunteers package up the orders, and then so that over the years we have a better idea of groups use them, usually for big events like our impact. back-to-school barbecues, parties, or endMD: The theme of this column is “good of-year galas. The group has their event, they use the people doing good things.” In the context of plates and glasses and cutlery (it's not just your work with the Plate Club, what does plates!), and then they wash them and bring being a “good person” mean to you? them back to us, and then we put them back JS: For me, as a student studying in the office and do it all over again. Sustainability, Science and Society, I've MD: How and when did the Plate Club start? always had a very societal outlook on life. And so I think being a good person is living within JS: It actually started in 2007: this has the collective while trying to better been going on forever. It was originally everything around you. And people take that very avant-garde. It started on a smaller in a lot of different ways. You don't have to be scale with more basics, and then as we working in sustainability to be bettering grew and people started requesting our people's lives. I think ultimately, it is about service more frequently, we were lacking helping make the world a better place, which inventory for like 400-person events, and is what I see the Plate Club doing for McGill so we started getting grants and funds to and Montreal. increase our inventory. We have thousands Learn more about The Plate Club on of items right now. Instagram, @theplateclub, or place orders for MD: How would you respond to a student rent through their website, https://theplateclub. club who uses recyclable or compostable wixsite.com/mcgill/plate-rental. products in the hopes of being sustainable, End Note: If you know good people doing rather than using reusable ones? Why would you convince them to use Plate Club good things who you would like to see featured in this column, email news@mcgilldaily.com. resources instead? JS: I was actually looking up stats for this. I think you only have to use a reusable plate a handful of times for it to be better than
Hurricane Melissa Sounds the Alarm on Climate Change Climate change reveals unstable storm patterns across the Atlantic from Jamaica to the Maritime provinces Julie Bertille News Contributor
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f you went out on Halloween night in Montreal, there is a good chance you came home drenched. While the rainfall may have felt like a typical Canadian autumn misfortune, its source lay thousands of kilometres away, in the Caribbean. On October 28, Hurricane Melissa, a Category Five storm with winds exceeding 295 km/h (180 mph), struck Jamaica. The hurricane was among the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic since records have been kept, according to AccuWeather meteorologists. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, described the situation as catastrophic, warning that “there is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5.” According to AP News, the storm’s slow movement compounded its destructiveness, allowing intense rainfall of up to 50 cm or more in some areas of Jamaica. For Jamaicans, this hurricane was unprecedented, its destructive unlike that of any other storm in living memory. In the aftermath of Melissa, one hospital lost power, and three others suffered damage. This is because much of the island nation’s infrastructure was not built to withstand such strong gusts of wind. The impact of the hurricane was not limited to buildings: in St. Elizabeth — the southwestern part of Jamaica — where Hurricane Melissa first struck, villages were decimated and residents were either trapped or displaced. More than 500,000 people, roughly one-sixth of the population, were left without power on October 28. As of November 1, the number of people killed in Jamaica as a direct result of Hurricane Melissa had risen to 28, according to the Prime Minister’s office. This number may still grow in the coming days as rescue teams continue to assess remote and severely affected areas. The storm will be particularly devastating for Jamaica’s agricultural and tourism sectors, as both will likely face lasting economic consequences. Furthermore, with Jamaica’s renown as a tourist destination in the Caribbean, many tourists were also affected by Melissa. Approximately 25,000 international tourists were trapped on the island as airports closed due to the hurricane. According to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, no tourists were reported to have suffered casualties. While Melissa weakened following its peak on October 28, it was still producing winds of around 130 km/h (80 mph) on
October 30 as it hovered over the Atlantic toward Canada. On Halloween night, parts of Quebec, including Montreal, were affected by steady rain and cold winds, the same that had passed through the Caribbean earlier that week. Though Melissa’s influence was only minimal in Canada, it echoed a growing trend of intense storms affecting the Maritimes provinces. Two years earlier, in 2023, a powerful winter windstorm swept across the Maritimes, cutting power to over 100,000 Nova Scotian residents and leaving parts of the region plunged in darkness for days. Crews worked through fallen trees and flooded roads to restore electricity, while families gathered in community centres that had been turned into emergency shelters. Still in 2023, wind gusts reached 120 km/h at the Eskasoni First Nation in Cape Breton and 102 km/h at CFB Greenwood. In Cheticamp, temperatures rose to 18.5°C, breaking a record set in 1966, according to Environment Canada. The storm plunged parts of the Maritimes into darkness, serving as a sharp reminder of the region’s vulnerability to the growing instability of Atlantic weather. Meteorologists have emphasized that Hurricane Melissa’s rapid and unusual intensification reflect a wider trend in tropical storm behaviour. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) noted that rising ocean temperatures and shifting wind patterns in the Atlantic are creating conditions for more frequent Category Four and Five hurricanes. Researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada added that these same atmospheric forces can amplify fall and winter storms in Canada, underscoring the interconnection of climate systems across the region. Ultimately, Hurricane Melissa sounded the alarm on how smaller nations — despite contributing significantly less to climate change — are bearing the heaviest burden of climate disasters. From the devastated communities of Jamaica to the power-less communities of the Maritimes, these meteorological events call attention to the shared consequences of a changing climate and the growing urgency of resilience and mitigation efforts.
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November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
News
STM Workers on Strike Again as Negotiations Continue McGill students “at whims of the metro,” SSMU offers support Miranda Forester News Writer
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s of November 1, STM Société de transport de Montréal workers have gone on strike, as negotiations between the STM and unionized workers continue. Two separate unions are striking this month. The Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN, which represents STM maintenance workers, has announced their third strike of the year from November 1 to November 28, and the Syndicat des chauffeurs, opérateurs et employés des services connexes1983 (SCFP 1983) went on strike on November 1. The strikes have resulted in reduced metro and bus service: the metro is currently running between 6:30a.m. and 9:30a.m., between 2:45p.m. and 5:45p.m, and from 11p.m. to closing time; buses are running between 6:15 a.m. and 9:15a.m., from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and between 11:15 p.m. and 1:15 a.m. Most buses will complete the routes they have started. Paratransit services will continue as normal. The Syndicat des chauffeurs, opérateurs et employés des services connexes-1989 has also expressed intent to strike on November 15 and 16, but the STM stated on Thursday, October 30 that they had not yet received official notice of these strikes. Since public transit is an essential service, the striking union and the STM must discuss what threshold of services to maintain after a strike is announced. The STM claims that they have been attempting to negotiate an increased level of metro service during the strike through discussions over the past week. The final decision is then made by the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), who rule on the adequacy of the level of essential service provided. The month-long Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN maintenance workers’ strike is the third instalment in a yearlong struggle with the STM, while the SCFP-1983 strike will be the union’s first in 38 years. The maintenance workers’ union stated in April that they are striking against the creation of atypical work schedules, staff relocations, reduced job protections against subcontracting, job insecurity
through the creation of part-time positions and additional shift workers, the rejection of vacation quotas, and the removal of clauses protecting weekday work schedules. The SCFP-1983 said in an October 14 statement that it is asking the STM for more humane working hours, fair wage increases that reflect the current economic climate, a better worklife balance, and no rollbacks in job security. The STM strike comes at a crucial moment for workers’ rights and union power. Bruno Jeanotte, president of the Syndicat du transport de told the Montréal-CSN , Montreal Gazette that “we wouldn’t be in a strike of this magnitude” without the looming Bill 89, as the bill “forces [the union] to apply much more aggressive pressure tactics.” As of November 30, Bill 89 will come into effect in Quebec, which will give the Minister of Labour the power to unilaterally end strikes if they are deemed detrimental to the public, and expands the amount of essential services which must be maintained while workers are striking. The bill, which was sponsored by Quebec’s current Minister of Labour Jean Boulet, purports to “give greater consideration to the needs of the population in the event of a strike or a lock-out,” but has been criticized as a “major retreat in workers’ rights” by three labour law professors at the Université de Montréal and members of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT). McGill students who rely on public transit to go to and from campus are struggling to work around the strike. Lindsy Yang is a fourth-year neuroscience student who commutes to school every day via metro. When metro service is regular, Lindsy’s commute usually takes 30 minutes. On days when she has an 8:30a.m. class then choir in the evening, she would normally go home in the interim. But due to the strikes, stranded by the gaps in service, she is spending up to 14.5 hours on campus. “[The strike] very much fragments my time,” Lindsy told the Daily. Eva Leblanc is a U4 history student who has also been impacted by the STM strike. She sees the strike as a differentiating force which acts disproportionately on some
Eva Marriott-Fabre | Visuals Editor students. “Students who have to commute are put at a disadvantage academically, and are at the whims of the metro,” she says. Mariana Monsalve, a U1 political science student minoring in sociology, identifies this disparity as based in social class: “[The strike] will disproportionately affect… poorer students that don’t have the means to pay for an Uber or a car, or students that aren’t able to bike or use alternative modes of transportation.” There have been attempts to close this gap between students who can easily get to campus during the strike period and those who cannot. The Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) posted on Instagram last Wednesday that they will be reimbursing students for transport-related expenses incurred as a result of the altered transit schedule. Organized by the SSMU Equity Committee and Vice President University Affairs Susan Aloudat, the Emergency Transportation Subsidy Project evaluates submissions based on the information submitted alongside the application and uses equity programming funds to reimburse SSMU members for transportation costs throughout the duration of the strike. Acceptable submissions include Bixi fees, fees for rides between campus and the home address
listed on a student’s enrollment letter, parking passes, and other transportation passes. During the November 6 SSMU Legislative Council meeting, as of the third day of the support project, Aldoudat expressed to the Daily that while she hopes students can recognize that this is an unprecedented pilot project, “the intention is to subsidize and support as many students as we can.” Requests will be evaluated based on which submissions yield the greatest “return on investment,” but SSMU is focused on accessibility and will thoughtfully consider the explanations students provide in their submissions. “I really hope that students will feel that this is one way that [they] can get support from SSMU and that they can benefit from [it] more than anything,” Aloudat shared. SSMU is open to hearing
commuter experiences as feedback on this program to ensure that members are being adequately supported throughout the strike. Subsidiary requests can be submitted throughout the duration of the strike through a webform on the Resources page of SSMU’s website, under Funding Opportunities. Some McGill professors are accommodating students’ inability to attend classes, and McGill has posted a statement encouraging employers and instructors to “show flexibility.” However, there is currently no blanket mandate for McGill faculty to accommodate students’ transport needs. Monsalve said we sees this as a failure on the part of the university: “The university is capable of accommodating,” she says. “It’s that they don’t want to.”
“[The strike] will disproportionately affect ... poorer students that don’t have the means to pay for an Uber or a car, or students that aren’t able to bike or use alternative modes of transportation.”
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
CULTURE
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Covert Bigotry: When Self-Censorship Stands in for Hate The use of understatements to promulgate hate speech Olivia Epstein Culture Contributor
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hreatened by the negative consequences of being canceled on social media, many online users have become hyperaware of the language they resort to. To avoid the backlash of being outwardly problematic, individuals online have turned to posting understatements, using words that carry less weight than the intended rhetoric they are spewing. Conveying problematic opinions through sub-groups of mainstream Internet culture has been present since the early 2000s. Platforms such as 4chan and Reddit have become cesspools for users to find community through their ideologies, often circumventing the websites’ community guidelines by using code words and images with hidden meanings. One of the most popular examples of these dog whistles is the Pepe the Frog meme, used by Internet trolls, the KKK, and neo-Nazi groups, to make jokes at religious and racial minorities’ expense without explicitly doing so. Memes such as Pepe the Frog are not meant to be understood in this sense by mainstream populations. Instead, they are posted so that people with hateful ideologies can, often anonymously, exert a false sense of power over minorities without facing the consequences of their bigotry. Another prominent way that racists and neo-Nazis signal to like-minded individuals that
they are present on social media platforms is the “88” in many usernames, which refers to the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, standing in for “Heil Hitler.” There is a greater sensitivity associated with wording on social media, given that one’s words can rarely be taken back once they have been immortalized in Internet history. It has become insensitive and culturally inappropriate to refer to people by a distinctive quality as an adjective. People want to first be seen for themselves as individuals before the groups to which they belong. Many women have flagged the use of the noun “female” online, specifically by podcasters who share traditional views of gender roles, as indicators of their misogyny. Women on the Internet have stated that they prefer the noun “woman” to “female” because the latter likens them to animals. This ideal can only be achieved if people exercise greater care when choosing the words they use on the Internet. While the particular attention put on word choice has made many spaces feel safer for more communities, an adverse effect is also happening. Hateful people are, like with the Pepe the Frog meme, turning towards unconventional means to express their problematic views. It is not so much a fear of offending people, but rather a fear of having one’s posts removed from an app, that encourages people to replace a hateful word with a word that carries less weight. They may turn to an altered version of a slur to both avoid having their posts removed
Zoe Sanguin | Visuals Contributor and to freely express their hateful opinions in a covert fashion. Changing a slur to an inoffensive term does not soften the blow of the opinions these creators are propagating, however. If anything, changing their vernacular so that they can post hateful content without it getting shut down allows them to build a community in which people feel secure in sharing their mean-spirited takes without the fear of being discovered. People who might have been reluctant to post
something outwardly racist due to anxiety over their employer or university getting ahold of it become more likely to engage with a meme or post written with racist subtext that is not overtly incriminating. From behind a screen, posting hateful content is not only about intimidating and harassing minorities, but is also linked to a feeling of superiority for being in on a joke with other netizens. The “policing” of language is about acknowledging larger issues and tackling them head-
on. The bigger challenge, now, is being able to recognize when someone’s word choice online is minimizing a situation or implicitly spewing hatred. Spotting this trivialization of words, however, might be a taller order than simply seeing through a Pepe the Frog meme.
The Daily Recommends: Midterms “What are your midterm coping strategies?”
Nikhila Shanker Visuals Editor
Charley Tamagno Copy Editor
Mara Gibea News Editor
Ingara Maidou Commentary Editor
“ Watching others struggle in the
“My best strategy is to plan my days
“Personally, time management is not my
“ Midterms being over is my coping
Redpath basement makes me feel less alone in my suffering.”
down to the hour when I’m super overwhelmed. If I know when I can get everything done, I can also make time to do the things that make me happy! I always schedule breaks for treats and chatting with friends.”
forte, so what’s been helping me this midterm season has been the assignment planner on the University of Waterloo’s library’s website. It spaces out your work based on deadlines, which is super helpful for assignments, lab reports, and research essays.”
strategy.”
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
CULTURE
Turning Structure into Soul Nathan Sawaya’s Art of the Brick attention from both adults and children alike: “I think we grownups appreciate how cathartic ‘opening oneself up to the world’ can be for our souls. And the kids? Probably because yellow guts spilling onto the floor looks cool.” Although the piece may captivate its audience in these ways, Sawaya explains that for him, Yellow is ultimately about the “metamorphosis [he has] been through on [his] journeys.” Finally, visitors enter the room where the primary sense becomes touch, rather than sight. Children and adults alike snap together bricks in their own, imaginative ways. I saw many creations, including boats and houses. Other ones weren’t exactly identifiable, but beautiful and creative nonetheless. LEGO, in the meticulous hands of Nathan Sawaya, has exceptional potential in turning structure into soul. Even if we may all not make LEGO our prized possession, by leaving the viewer with the same tools that Sawaya began with, he amplifies the idea that the artistry of these masterpieces lies as much in the creative processes as in its finished versions. Journeying through Art of the Brick impresses more than simply the eye; it stimulates human connection and introspection, one brick at a time. As Sawaya puts it: “Art nurtures the brain. Whether made from clay, paint, wood, or a modern-day toy.”
Morgan Yi Culture Contributor
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12 Ste. Catherine Ouest may resemble any other corporate building. However, upon walking through the grey facade and down a fluorescently lit hallway, visitors find themselves awe-inspired by an art exhibition that transforms something simple to remarkably powerful. In Nathan Sawaya’s Art of the Brick, LEGO — a popular childhood obsession — has been reconstructed and reimagined into compelling structures of joy, grief, curiosity, and movement. “Many of my works center on the phenomena of how everyday life, people and raw emotion are intertwined. I am inspired by my own experiences, the journeys I take and the people I meet,” Sawaya states in the exhibition display. In this exhibit, there are more than 1 million LEGO pieces across over 130 separate works. Unexpectedly, Sawaya’s career path did not originate in art. He obtained his bachelor and law degrees from New York University, where he simultaneously developed a desire for a creative outlet. The solution to this itch was, as one could guess, LEGO. Although this hobby started in a office cubicle between stacks of paperwork, he quickly started gaining commissions from around the world. As a result, Sawaya quit his attorney career to become a fulltime LEGO artist and is now officially recognized as a Lego Certified Professional. One of the first rooms of the exhibition features Sawaya’s iterations of famous paintings: Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, Frida Kahlo’s The Frame, and Edvard Munch’s The Scream. From a distance, these recreations may feel simplistic. Up close, however, it’s made clear that each brick is a deliberate choice, popping with intentional curves and texture that give the paintings a new light. Depth emerges from flatness as Sawaya converts twodimensional canvases into tactile, dynamic mosaics. In Starry Night, swirls of colour pulse upward, transforming legos into modular motion. In The Frame, Kahlo’s portrait is a threedimensional figure inside a hollow, box-like frame — breathing life back into Kahlo’s original painting. In The Scream, the methodical brick placement exudes the essence that the original painting intended to brew, showing off Sawaya’s stark attentiveness to precise curves, vivid colours, and fine details. An adjacent gallery honours the
Courtesy of Morgan Yi Roman and Greek artistry as well as other historical stone sculptures in the form of fastidious LEGO reconstructions that capture the curvature and intention of the originals. Upon reading each of the placards, one can see Sawaya underwent a painstakingly difficult process to replicate the smooth curves and lines of the original structures, ultimately crafting a balance between artistic tension and perfection. Additionally, LEGO adds a unique sense of fragility to the artwork as the imperfections are clearly visible in the sculptures. Beyond the entrancing bright colours and intricate sculptures, the exhibition’s true emotional core appears in darker, more intimate galleries. Viewers are immersed in introspection as Sawaya displays his critiques and thoughts on human and societal perception, namely through his
works titled Wall, Underneath, and Mask Construction. In Underneath, Sawaya has written on the placard: “If you were to pull back your skin and show what was [u]nderneath, would it be so scary? A lot of the time, probably yeah.” The sculpture depicts a face being pulled down, revealing a discomforting image of a skeleton looking directly out at the viewer. Through this visual, visitors are confronted by the universal tension between public perception and private truth. Here, Sawaya uses LEGO as a profound commentary on deceptive human interactions in the modern-day world. A keystone of the exhibition lies in a separate room. Made up of an entire summer’s worth of building, visitors can behold a 80,020 piece, six-metre-long T. rex skeleton dominating the room with roaring
majesty. Nearby, a LEGO safariesque gallery reimagines nature in life-sized renditions of a wide range of wild animals. Flamingoes, giraffes, tigers — you name it. Each animal is in the foreground of a hyperrealistic photographic landscape which, in my experience, urges the viewer to consider environmental preservation and empathy for the endangerment of species. In this case, plastic bricks are both pure mesmerization and an homage to environmental sustainability. Upon entering the final exhibition room, visitors are greeted by perhaps Sawaya’s most famous piece, Yellow — a human figure tears open its chest and bricks spill onto the stand, igniting eye-catching, tender sentiments. Sawaya recognizes that the emotional and physical elements of Yellow are what garners so much
LEGO, in the meticulous hands of Nathan Sawaya, reveals the exceptional potential in turning structure into soul.
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Culture & Commentary
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
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A Terrific Experience at the Titanic Immersive Voyage
Impending doom and fun for the whole family Sarah Toman Culture Contributor
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ave you ever wished you could turn back time and live through the day the Titanic struck an iceberg, causing a tragedy that claimed the lives of over a thousand people? No? Me neither. However, it didn’t stop me from visiting the Titanic Immersive Voyage at Place Bonaventure. This experience puts you in the shoes of a passenger on the Titanic and encapsulates what it would have been like to travel on the famous ship. When I first heard about this, I was intrigued, mainly by the immersive aspect. Were they going to drop us in the middle of the Atlantic? Submerge us in a tub of freezing water? While neither of those things happened, the actual experience blew me away. The simulated voyage recreates parts of the vessel, including the bow where Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio stood in the famous shot from the 1997 film inspired by the ship. Visitors are free to pose and take pictures on the front of the boat, as well as in other recreations of the massive ship, such as a large staircase also shown in the film. I think all of us remember how we learned about the Titanic for
the first time, whether it was from a history book, the film, or — in my case — the Dear Canada book That Fatal Night: The Titanic Diary of Dorothy Wilson. The story of the tragic incident is embedded in our culture and is one that will never be forgotten. This Immersive Voyage not only allows people to gain insight into this tragically short journey, but also preserves the memory of those who were lost to the ultimate sinking of the ship. Before my visit, my knowledge of the Titanic was limited and mostly came from the movie — which isn’t the best source for historical information. However, I learned a lot during the immersive experience, and would therefore recommend it to anyone regardless of their confidence in their vast knowledge of the Titanic. Plaques on the walls described the process of building the ship, alongside official blueprints and floor plans. If the structure of the ship isn’t your main interest, you also get the chance to learn about daily life aboard the ship, detailing how the passengers spent their time. I got the chance to learn about the dinners held each night in the lavish dining rooms, which could fit hundreds of people at once. The voyage is a museum of sorts, with artifacts from the Titanic found in every room. One
that stood out to me was a window retrieved from the ship, with some of its panes either broken or missing. It was fascinating to see something that not only came from the vessel, but also survived the wreck and was recovered. The entire experience culminates in a room meant to resemble the ocean on that tragic night when the Titanic sank. Projections on the floor simulated the movement of waves, while the main screen depicted the Titanic slowly sinking. The centre of the room bore a life-sized replica of a lifeboat with benches where attendees could sit, creating the impression that they were passengers watching the ship go down. In my opinion, this room was the highlight of the experience. The screen displayed distress messages sent from the Titanic to nearby ships, with the only sound heard in the room being a bell ringing non-stop, creating a tense atmosphere fraught with fear and imminent danger. What makes this experience even more interesting is the knowledge of how it all ends. As I moved through the connected rooms and read about the famous ship, all I could think about was when and how everything went wrong. The fatal collision was in the back of my mind the entire time, making the
How President Trump has Weaponized the Rise of Anti-Intellectualism Alienation from the political sphere creates academic distrust Mallory Byrne Commentary Contributor
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ollowing US President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the outrage this political change caused slowly started to seep its way into my everyday life, increasing my desire to understand politics and social issues. For many other McGill students who seek to support meaningful political change, I believe this may also be the case. In recent years, anti-intellectualism – a general mistrust or rejection of intellectual pursuits, such as academia or science — has been growing in the US. This way of thinking is often associated with conspiracy theories and mistrust of the government, and is intended to appeal to the sympathies of working-class individuals who may regard political and academic institutions as disconnected from their everyday realities. Antiintellectualism is not new, yet it appears that it has seen a violent resurgence in recent years. This may be because we are currently witnessing the spread of these
ideals by President Trump. Through his constant dismissal of scientific and academic expertise, such as referring to the climate crisis as a “con job” and spreading misinformation regarding COVID19, Trump legitimizes skepticism towards experts and leading officials on important matters. One of the anti-intellectualism movement’s greatest critiques concerns the elitism associated with academia. American politicians tend to use their prestigious backgrounds, exceptional academic honours, and lengthy resumes in campaigns. Yet, Trump positions himself as more relatable to the average American, someone who ‘tells it like it is’ by rejecting the intellectual, professional tone often used by political figures. His language use is simple: his 2018 State of the Union address scored 8.1 out of 18 on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — a measure designed to determine the US grade school level required to understand a text – indicating that his vocabulary is akin to that of an eighth-grade student. While it may be presumed this result would hurt
his credibility, in the midst of a national literacy crisis, Trump’s speech shares the exact score of the average US adult’s literacy level. Trump's populist rhetoric amidst an elitist political climate is one of the major reasons antiintellectualism in the US can thrive. Being informed and educated is all well and good, but presenting this information in a way that only highly educated people can understand is alienating to much of the population. Consequently, Trump’s ability to appeal to less educated Americans reveals how feelings of exclusion from academic and political spaces can be leveraged as a tool to garner support, despite a lack of reliable sources. This may be one of the primary reasons why Trump is able to rally the support of so many people. It can be easy to take for granted the privilege that comes with higher education. When knowledge is presented in ways that appear elitist or inaccessible, it risks alienating those it fails to reach. Knowledge is a tool, but so is knowing how to use it effectively.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Toman experience more solemn. The immersive aspect of the voyage was, in my view, very well done. The recreations of rooms, as well as real artifacts from the Titanic, made me feel like I was actually walking through the ship, while the information on the walls helped me imagine what it would be like to spend a day there. The interactive activities drew me into the experience and made me forget that I wasn’t actually travelling on the Titanic. If this informative and somewhat haunting experience isn’t enough for you, there is also a gift shop at the end! From replicas of the heart
of the ocean to ice cube trays shaped like the ship, any Titanic merchandise you could ever want can be found there. I bought a rubber duck in a captain’s uniform, and still believe that the purchase was more than worth it. No matter how sombre the experience is at times, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that anyone, from children to adults, can enjoy.
Hence, it is increasingly necessary to reclaim the narrative of what is truthful by connecting with audiences through accessible and comprehensible means, catering to all levels of education. A lack of quality education can act as a barrier which limits many people’s exposure to diverse perspectives. This creates disparities in the academic resources and skills that allow individuals to assess the credibility of sources. When lacking the ability to distinguish between reliable and misleading information, it becomes easier to grow skeptical of all forms of expertise. This is especially pertinent in the misinformation salient throughout digital spaces. While people used to turn to news sources to receive their information, many now turn to social media platforms, which lack strict factuality regulations. Even for those who do not use social media as a primary news source, political messaging is repeated ad nauseam online and overpublicized by the algorithm to reinforce pre-existing beliefs. This issue is exemplified by Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy, in which the media is bombarded with controversial statements and high volumes of executive orders to overwhelm and confuse the population. With intentionally deceptive tactics like this at play, distinguishing between truth and misinformation is becoming
increasingly difficult. It is essential to find a means of creating this distinction in order to encourage the public to access reliable information rather than fall prey to conspiracy theories and illintentioned deceit. Upon taking a deeper dive into the growing anti-intellectual sentiments in the US the myriad of ways in which political and socio-economic issues can intersect to create polarization become evident. When political knowledge is presented as inaccessible, skepticism towards credible institutions on the whole starts to grow. If we are to foster a political climate that values impactful discourse and growth, we must work together with patience and respect despite our differing academic backgrounds. When we assume ignorance, we create a community which fosters social exclusion. Intellectualism shouldn’t be a weapon, but rather a bridge that connects people from all walks of life — the future of the American political landscape may depend on it.
November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
commentary
The Lesser Evil? We Must Question Canada’s Role in Global Affairs A look at why Canadians engage less with foreign policy, and what Ottawa is actually doing in the Middle East Lisa Banti Staff Writer
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ompared to its southern neighbour, Canadian foreign policy often unfolds offstage. The country’s image as a moderate, rule-respecting “middle power” helps keep political controversy low and media attention scarce. However, when we pull Canada’s foreign policy record into view, especially its affairs in the Middle East, the “lesser evil” narrative looks less like virtue and more like a cushion against scrutiny. One reason for the attention gap is systemic. Canadians consume a significant volume of news from the United States, and recent constraints on Canadian news distribution, such as the 2023 Meta news ban, have reduced the visibility of Canadian journalism in global platform flows. Industry analyses note that Canada’s high consumption of news from foreign sources, especially the US’ highly polarized political and cultural debates, pushes attention away from Canada’s own foreign policy. As a result, domestic coverage of Canadian foreign policy receives fewer cycles of sustained interest, with housing affordability, inflation, and health care backlogs dominating domestic headlines, leaving foreign policy with fewer cycles of sustained interest. At the same time, Canada’s enduring peacekeeping myth contributes to public disengagement from foreign policy. While many Canadians still characterize the country’s foreign security by their blue helmets and international mediation, the reality is quite different. Direct United Nations peacekeeping deployments are at historic lows: as of 2023-2024, Canada has just 47 military and police personnel deployed throughout the UN system. This sharp drop contrasts with past decades of significant participation and suggests that the brand of “peacekeeper Canada” no longer matches practice. To understand how this image took hold, it’s worth recalling that Canada’s peacekeeping record itself has long been uneven. Some missions enhanced stability, while others, such as Somalia and Rwanda, revealed deep flaws in both strategy and accountability. If Canadians believe their country is already a “good player,” in
world affairs, the incentive to question its foreign policy becomes much weaker. Nowhere is the gap between image and practice more evident than in the Middle East, particularly in Canada’s response to the Gaza war and its broader relationship with Israel. On October 27, 2023, Canada sponsored a UN General Assembly amendment that would have condemned Hamas for the October 7 attack on Israel, as well demanded the immediate release of hostages. That amendment, however, failed to secure the two-thirds majority required. In the full resolution that followed, Canada abstained rather than voting in favour or against. The resolution called for an “immediate and sustained humanitarian truce,” but omitted any direct condemnation of Hamas or explicit recognition of hostages. Canada’s official explanation emphasized Israel’s right to self-defence and indicated concern that the draft resolution failed to address issues such as the condemnation of Hamas and the hostages’ release. Less than two months later, on December 12, 2023, Canada shifted course and voted in favour of a UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and for Hamas’ release of hostages, which passed 153 to 10 with 23 abstentions. Ottawa’s statement referenced “the urgent need to protect civilians” while reaffirming its support for Israel’s security. By June 12, 2025, Canada voted yes on another UN resolution centred around the protection of civilians and compliance with international humanitarian law, showing that Ottawa’s posture was evolving not toward moral leadership, but toward cautious responsiveness under mounting global and domestic scrutiny as the conflict continued. Meanwhile, arms and export permit policy moved together in tandem. On January 8, 2024, the Canadian government announced it would stop approving new export permits to Israel amid human rights concerns. In March, Parliament passed a nonbinding motion, 204 to 117, calling to halt arms exports to Israel and to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state within a two-state solution. Rights advocates such as Project Ploughshares and the Canadian
Sonia Ionescu| Visuals Contributor Lawyers for International Human Rights noted, however, that existing arms permits issued before January remained valid, and that the indirect shipment of arms through the United States raised doubts about Canada’s ability to control the downstream use of its exports. These inconsistencies suggest that Ottawa's restraint was more performative than principled — a move that projected moral awareness while sidestepping the deeper contradictions within its own export system. Canadian civil society groups and a UN rights committee also raised concerns that Canadianmade arms or components could reach Israel or Gaza through third-party routes, exposing Canada to potential complicity in violations of international humanitarian law. Analysts have pointed out that Ottawa’s export controls tend to be reactive rather than preventive, as the federal government focuses on evidence of prior misuse instead of assessing substantial risks ahead of arms transfers. This differs from the traditional image of Canada as merely passive in world affairs. Passivity, in this case, implies inaction or withdrawal, but reactivity reflects something more strategic: an effort to preserve
Canada’s reputation by acting only once public or diplomatic pressure demands it. Canada’s foreign policy in the Middle East is problematic not because of our government’s overt malice but because of its complacency. Canada has managed to navigate the Gaza conflict deftly enough: shifting votes, freezing new permits, and maintaining humanitarian rhetoric without provoking major backlash. However, this apparent skill in avoiding public backlash and sustaining Canada’s reputation as a balanced actor owes more to low media visibility and selective framing than to Parliament’s coherence or conviction. While Canada paused new export permits to Israel, investigative reports indicate that Canadian-made munitions have still entered the region via U.S. routes as he country remains among the top non-U. S. arms exporters. In 2023, Canada exported $904.6 million (CAD) worth of military goods to Saudi Arabia, despite the kingdom’s documented human rights abuses. The “lesser evil” label endures because Canada’s action seems modest beside those of larger Western powers, yet limited news
coverage and minimal public backlash reveal how invisibility, not accountability, sustains this image. Canada’s policy in the Middle East remains largely obscured by its reputation for moderation and a lack of public scrutiny. The lack of direct confrontation with allies or regimes accused of humanrights abuses may look like pragmatism, but it risks eroding the moral foundation of Canadian diplomacy, which is built on the country’s longstanding claim to uphold human rights, multilateralism, and international law. When values that define national identity are not matched by consistent action displaying these ideals, a cautious, low-profile foreign policy becomes a liability. Though it rarely makes frontpage news, Canada’s role in global affairs is far from benign. By characterizing its stance in the Middle East as mild, Canada benefits from its reputation as the “lesser evil” among Western powers. But that image holds up only because its actions often trail behind its values. For Canadians to live up to their self-image, they need to push for change through greater transparency and consistency between values and action, and stronger civic engagement.
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November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
Compendium!
MARTLET MUSINGS
Natalie Chang Compendium! Contributor
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November 10, 2025 mcgilldaily.com | The McGill Daily
compendium!
DURING EXAM SEASON... Aries
Taurus
Gemini
(Mar 21 Apr 19)
(Apr 20 May 20)
(May 21 Jun 20)
BALANCE IS NOT A WORD IN YOUR VOCABULARY. YOU’RE WORKING HARD IN THE REDPATH BASEMENT FROM 8 A.M. TO 8 P.M.
YOU’RE STRESSED, BUT YOU DON‘T LET IT KNOCK YOU DOWN. A WARM CUP OF TEA, A COZY HOODIE, AND YOUR FAVOURITE PLAYLIST ARE ALL A MUST DURING STUDY SESSIONS.
YOU SOMEHOW WALK INTO EXAMS WITHOUT HAVING TOUCHED A TEXTBOOK AND STILL GET AN A.
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
(Jun 21 Jul 22)
(Jul 23 Aug 22)
(Aug 23 Sept 22)
WE GET THAT YOU WANT TO HELP YOUR FRIENDS MEMORIZE DEFINiTIONS, BUT IT’S OKAY TO PUT YOURSELF FIRST SOMETIMES...
YOU APPROACH FINALS SEASON WITH 100+ FLASHCARDS, COLOUR CODED NOTES, AND full caffeination. THOSE EXAMS SHOULD BE SCARED OF YOU.
WITH THE AMOUNT OF EMAILS YOU’VE SENT AND OFFICE HOURS YOU’VE ATTENDED YOU’RE PROBABLY ON A FIRST NAME BASIS WITH ALL YOUR PROFS.
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
(Sept 23 Oct 22)
(Oct 23 Nov 21)
(Nov 22 Dec 21)
YOU’RE MOST LIKELY BEGGING YOUR FRIENDS TO GO TO THE LIBRARY WITH YOU AND SENDING THEM SPOTTED MCGILL POSTS ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE EXAM SEASON IS.
EXAMS AREN’T LIFE OR DEATH. Please get off grade calculator!
every few days you’re hitting a new library or cafe. Exams and studying sucks but at least you’re making the most of it.
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
(Dec 22 Jan 19)
(Jan 20 Feb 18)
(Feb 19 Mar 20)
your grind is commendable, but studying with you makes us all feel a little inadequate...
you love to learn but can’t stop going down wikipedia rabbit holes during study sessions. Stay focused!
ONE IS MOST LIKELY TO FIND YOU IN THE ISLAMIC STUDIES LIBRARY OR THE BIRKS COMMON ROOM ROMANTICIZING YOUR STUDY SESSION.