Volume 44, Issue 8

Volume 44, Issue 8 • January 16, 2024 • thelinknewspaper.ca "Why destroy? For experimental purposes" Since 1980

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WELCOME BACK CONCORDIA .CA

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all new and returning students. Hope you have a rewarding and wonderful experience this winter 2024 term.

Take good care,

Graham Carr President president@concordia.ca

NEWS

“We will free Palestine within our lifetime” Protesters continued to demand a ceasefire as the war in Gaza hits 100-day mark Maria Cholakova

@_maria_cholakova_

n Jan. 14, hundreds of PalesO tinian flags filled the streets of Montreal as protesters gath-

ered to denounce over 100 days of the genocide in Gaza. Since Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 24,000 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 2 million people have been displaced.

Protesters marched from Esplanade Place Ville Marie to Francois Legault’s Montreal office, demanding a permanent ceasefire and a halt to the killing of Palestinians. They also denounced Canada’s lack of support for Gaza.

A number of speakers from the Montreal for Palestine and the Palestinians Youth Movement (PYM) groups addressed the ground and encouraged them to keep fighting for Gaza’s liberation.

Iyad, a representative for Palestinians Abroad, reminded attendees of the struggles Palestinians face during the war and the importance of fighting for the Palestinian cause.

“For 100 days, we have been watching this war. It’s a matter of humility. Nowadays, you are [either] human or not human,” he said. “Palestinians have resisted with no food, water or electricity because it is a matter of dignity. If you are standing against oppression, anywhere—Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Sudan—you stand beside Palestine,” he added.

Anissa Kouki attended the protest because they believe all people deserve the right to live in safety and in dignity. Considering protesters’ readiness to speak up for Palestine, Kouki denounced Canada’s lack of support for Gaza.

Kouki expressed that it is hard to keep their pride in Canada considering the country’s disregard for Palestinian lives.

“Especially, [because] you live in a democracy, you’re voting for people who have similar ideals to yours,” they said. “To see that [you’re] not represented [brings a] feeling of shame. Wow, I can’t believe that I used to be proud to be from this place and they’re fail-

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PALESTINE PROTEST MARKS 100 DAYS OF THE WAR IN GAZA. PHOTO MARIA CHOLAKOVA ing me so viscerally right now.”

A protest attendee, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, echoed Kouki’s sentiment. “We’re always fed this propaganda that we live in the liberal West and that there is an international rule of law. We now see very clearly how false all of that is,” they said.

Since Oct. 8, Palestinian groups in Montreal have been organizing protests at least once every week, demanding that the government take action against Israel’s measures towards Gaza, holding vigils and mourning the loss of Palestinian lives. The protester has been attending every demonstration since then. To them, their attendance is just “a drop in the ocean”.

“As Muslims, we are all one brotherhood and sisterhood.

When any of us are hurt, all of us are hurt. And so it’s very important for us to do whatever we can to help our brothers and sisters in Palestine,” they said A few days prior, on Jan. 11, 2024, a vigil was organized to mourn the loss of the 117 journalists who were killed since the start of the war. The vigil was held in the Old Port and a moment of silence was held to honour their lives.

Speakers from PYM, Montreal for Palestine, Indigenous community members, and journalists took turns to give speeches to the crowd, honouring journalists and denouncing mainstream media for their coverage of events. “[Mainstream media] have repeatedly chosen not to report the horrors and the violence that Palestinians endure. This pattern

reflects not only a lack of courage, but a moral bankruptcy on the part of the CBC, CTV, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and every other mainstream Canadian news source,” one speaker said.

Sarah Shamy, an organizer for PYM, started her speech by asking the crowd to chant, “We will honour all our martyrs, all our fathers, sons and daughters” In her speech, Shamy reminded the crowd of the sacrifice Palestinian journalists endure to broadcast events in Gaza.

“In these 100 days, we've also learned what it means to be a hero. We've seen journalists like Wael Al-Dahdouh learn about his wife and children getting killed in a targeted Israeli airstrike live on air and remain firm and unbreakable,” she said.

She continued to explain that even through everything that Al-Dahdouh has experienced his conviction and the belief for a free Palestine, only emboldens protesters to be braver.

“They inspire us to make bigger sacrifices for the movement to ensure that as long as we are witnesses to these atrocities, we will not just be passive watchers of history, but we will be active agents in history and we will mobilize against those responsible for these war crimes,” she continued.

In between speeches, an organizer recited the names of each killed journalist, with the crowd chanting along.

The fight for Palestine has also risen to the international legal scene. On Dec. 29, 2023, South Africa brought forward a case to the United Nations’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

On Jan. 11, 2024, South Africa presented their case, outlining Israel’s crimes under international order. A day later, on Jan. 12, Israel delivered its response to South Africa’s genocide case. Although both sides presented their arguments, the verdict is expected to take weeks.

According to Shamy, the ICJ case is just one step in the right direction.

For Shamy, South Africa’s support and recognition for Gaza is monumental, especially coming from a country that suffered under Apartheid. “[The case] shows that countries that have been colonized, [...] they know what oppression looks like, and they’re willing to take a stance.”

“That being said, the court of ICJ is largely symbolic and will likely not lead to anything concrete,” Shamy continued. “What will it take for the world leaders to stop making profit from war and to stop greenlighting genocidal projects just because they profit from them?”

JANUARY 16, 2024 • NEWS 3

FRINGE ARTS

Éloïse Marseille: Deconstructing taboos around sex through comics The Concordia studio arts alumnus recently translated her own memoir in English Alice Martin

@_alcmrtn

ÉLOÏSE SITS AT HER STATION IN THE TATTOO STUDIO SHE OWNS WITH THREE COLLEAGUES. PHOTO ALICE MARTIN. efore Éloïse Marseille began of topics, ranging from sexually B writing her first comic book transmitted diseases, to questionduring a graphic novel class at ing her still-blurry sexual orienConcordia, one tip she kept in mind was to write what she knew, and for her, there was nothing she knew better than her own life.

“I had to find an angle and I really love talking about sex, I think it’s funny. We all have our awkward sex stories,” she said. “But as I was writing it, I realised it was going to more emotional places.” Éloïse’s NAKED: The Confessions of a Normal Woman—published originally in French in April 2022 and translated in English last November—is a memoir about her experiences with sex and relationships, going all the way from a first kiss in childhood to the recent end of her first longterm relationship.

She dives into a wide range

tation, as well as her experiences with infertility and abuse. She explained that she had “the bad luck of suffering plenty of taboo things” but that the book was her way to normalize these experiences.

“The fact that I have herpes is really taboo. But by talking about it openly, with confidence, it empowers me when society tells me I should be ashamed,” she said. “It’s the same thing with the fact that I’m sterile, especially considering a lot of people find it shameful and that my job as a woman is to pop out babies,” she added sarcastically. Éloïse was used to sharing her life online; she had already been publishing small three-panels comics on Instagram. However, for her graphic novel class, she was

4 FRINGE ARTS • JANUARY 16, 2024

determined to make the largest comic book project she had ever done, which eventually became Confessions of a Normal Woman.

Having graduated in studio arts in 2020 and going back through her old classwork out of quarantine boredom, Éloïse started adding onto the 25 pages she had first written for her class as a pandemic project. Pages piled up and she sent them to her cousin, Frédérique Marseille, who is also an author, for feedback.

“I thought it was genius. I told her she needed to send it to publishing houses because in my opinion, it was already publishable,” she said. Éloïse had never thought of publishing her book, but with a push from her cousin, she sent her manuscript to Pow Pow Press, a publishing house known for its Quebec-authored comics and autobiographical works. “Four hours later, they answered,” she said.

Indeed, when Luc Bossé, founder of Pow Pow Press, received Éloïse’s manuscript in his inbox, it was love at first sight.

“I have two young daughters and when I read this book, I knew that it was something I’d like my girls to read some day,” he said. “As a father, I’m worried about them being loose in a fucked-up world and Éloïse’s book confirms that it’s a fucked-up world sometimes.”

The French version of NAKED: The Confessions of a Normal Woman sold over 3,000 copies in Canada and is also available in France. Translating her memoir to English was something she knew she wanted to do herself ever since she began writing the original version.

“I wanted to try it out and I was scared some humour would get lost in the translation,” she said. “I’m happy I did it, but I don’t think I’d translate my next book myself.”

Admittedly, translating her work came with a unique challenge.

“Initially drawing the comic book is such a slow process that I had time to pace myself, to get in the zone. I wasn’t concentrating on the text, more on the illustrations,” she said. “Translating was much faster and it had been a while since I read it. There had been some stories I forgot had happened to

me and reliving the emotions all over again really saddened me.”

Confessions of a Normal Woman is part of a larger drive by Pow Pow to translate their books to reach a broader market outside of Quebec. Since 2015, Pow Pow has translated twenty of their comics, with Éloïse’s memoir being the latest.

“Montreal is a bilingual city and 90 per cent of Pow Pow’s authors are from Montreal, it just made sense to be a bilingual publishing house,” Bossé said. “It also helps us give more exposure to our authors.

In the long term, we’re also hoping to publish initially anglophone authors whose work we can translate into French.”

Close to two years after the release of her memoir, Éloïse is now working on a sequel, where this time around, the confessions will come from the cousin who initially pushed her to submit her manuscript.

“We are co-scripting and co-writing it,” said Frédérique.

“It’s the first time that I write collaboratively, and on top of that, I’m doing it with my cousin who I respect and love very much.” Éloïse’s ability to tackle hard subjects with the perfect amount of humour stood out to Frédérique when she first read her book, and this is what she hopes Éloïse will add to her own darker stories.

“We’re working together through all of it, I modify the text she sends me, I send it back for feedback,” said Éloïse. “She trusts me a lot with her story and she has a great sensitivity for the type of stories we’ll be telling.”

No date has yet been slated for the sequel, but Éloïse has high hopes for it and said it will touch on different stories separate from the first book. While she’s working on the sequel, Éloïse is working full-time as a tattoo artist and is the co-owner of Studio Lapin Lapin in the Plateau.

“I love tattooing, but I know it’s a temporary job,” she said. “In the future, I would really like to write and illustrate comic books full-time.”

With Confessions of a Normal Woman poised to be turned into a series, and it being one of Pow Pow’s best-selling comics at launch, Éloïse is on track to do just that.

For anyone reading Confessions of a Normal Woman, she hopes that people realise that embarrassing sex stories “aren’t that deep.”

“Shit happens and it’s not a big deal,” she added. “When it comes to love and sex, we tend to catastrophize everything in our head—and yes, sometimes it is especially when you’re talking about sexual violence and abuse. But in general: you’re going to be okay. No, you’re not stupid and you’re really not alone.”

ION VERS TIN. H T O AR OF B LICE M S R A E COV OTO THE OIR. PH MEM

’S

OÏSE

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« The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity » Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

THE CLASS ISSUE

GRAPHIC MYRIAM OUAZZANI

Editorial: Emergency Meeting olitical freedom in [the the ultra-wealthy. Sound familiar? destruction caused by capitalist is no alternative. As easy as it may divest from fossil fuel companies “P Western world] clearly Canadian society is now five production has never been more be to lose hope in a future with- is a form of radical love. Marching came along with the free market and the development of capitalist institutions,” wrote right-wing economist Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom.

Friedman was a founding theorist in an economic movement known as neoliberalism.

He argued that in order to maximize freedom, capitalism needed to be completely unshackled and unrestricted. His impact on the global economy fundamentally transformed how we lived our lives following the late 1970s, including his profound influence on some of the most ruthless anti-working class politicians globally.

The tenets of neoliberal capitalism are as follows: mass privatization of public services, the elimination of price controls and regulations, and most importantly, the mass reduction of taxes for

decades deep in neoliberal economic policy. Wealth inequality has gotten so abominable that the least wealthy 40 per cent of Canadian households control only two per cent of net worth nationwide.

The wealthiest fifth, on the other hand, controls approximately 70 per cent of the wealth.

Simultaneously, local and provincial governments have been contemplating back-towork legislation to end strikes organized by workers who cannot afford to put food on the table.

Worker productivity is at a near all-time high, and corporate consolidation has seen all this generated wealth get funneled to the wealthiest within the owner class. The Canadian working class is beyond burnt out.

Beyond our productivity, what has also been burning at record rates due to neoliberal policies is our planet. The environmental

6 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

dire—especially considering Indigenous land defenders’ pleas for immediate climate action. Instead of listening to their voices, Canadian officials have decided that Indigenous resistance and existence are an inconvenience, as seen by the police raids of an encampment for unhoused Indigenous people in Edmonton just last week. The existence of racist police forces and the maintenance of other systemically racist institutions only further the existence of the capitalist state.

The most unfortunate part of our current economic reality is we have been conditioned to believe these issues are simply flukes in a reformable system.

The reality is that these are not fixable problems; the system is operating as intended.

The result of decades of corrosive policies has resulted in a mass feeling of hopelessness: that there

out crushing student debt, piles of medical bills, tax dollars stuffed into the coffers of military contractors, or guaranteed housing, the goal of the bourgeoisie is to snuff out any thoughts that jeopardize its wealth.

While many progressives argue that showing love through community engagement and participation in the local small business economy is an adequate fix, this is not nearly enough of a step in the right direction. Love cannot power through as long as the free market has our government in a chokehold.

We would like to argue that true love is active, politically engaged and radical. Showing up to protest the Canadian government’s complicity in the slaughter of over 25,000 Gazans because of its economic ties to Israel is a form of radical love. Getting politicians and university administrators to

and urgently demanding a better future is community-based love at its most grassroots.

As a media organization, we have tried our best to platform change makers and system disturbers. As you read through this special issue on class and the economy, we hope you can reflect, discuss politics with your loved ones and mobilize for what you believe in. There is a future beyond this capitalist hellscape, and it all starts with class consciousness.

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Over-policed and underserved The stark contrast in police activity in Montreal’s different neighbourhoods NEWS The identities of Jade and Mary were concealed for their safety.

Jade was 15 when they first witnessed police violence.

In the summer of 2016, they and their two friends were walking around the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, near Martin-Luther-King Park. They all had been drinking and were under the influence.

“Kids sometimes get into their parents’ alcohol and take it,” they recalled. “We were being loud and having fun.”

“I think someone called the police on us because of that,” Jade added.

One of Jade’s friends was a taller Black girl of the same age. They believe the officers didn’t think she was a minor because of her height.

Upon arrival, the officers seized the girl and slammed her on the ground.

“I remember looking over at my friend and feeling so helpless,” Jade said. “They didn’t bother coming to us and asking us who we were.”

The police officers continued pushing her face on the ground, while asking her about the white friends she was with. According to Jade, the police had kept in close contact with the girl’s brothers, and would often roam around her house.

“It was ridiculous,” Jade said. “When they asked her about the white girls she was with, it became apparent that they were targeting her because she is a Black person.”

“I didn’t need to be convinced anymore that the police found it easy to be so violent,” they added. “We have murderers walking around on the street.”

In the past, Côte-desNeiges–Notre-Dame-deGrâce has borne witness to several instances of police brutality against visible minorities.

In 1987, 19-year-old Anthony Griffin was arrested for not paying a taxi fare. He attempted to escape the police station, but stopped in his tracks thelinknewspaper.ca

Iness Rifay

@inessdagoat

when told to. Police officer Allan Gosset then shot him in the head.

In 1990, Presley Leslie, 26, was shot several times at the Thunderdome dance club. According to the police, Leslie had allegedly fired into the crowd and threatened officers. However, testimonies following his death hinted at Leslie not having carried a firearm. Moreover, the pistol police believed he used had never been checked for fingerprints.

Mohamed Anas Bennis was shot twice in Côte-des-Neiges in 2005 after allegedly attacking a police officer. He was 25.

More recently, in 2018, 23-year-old Nicholas Gibbs was shot and killed by officers who alleged he was threatening them with a knife. A video captured the moment when they shot him five times, twice with his back turned.

“There are no consequences for police who use violence,” said Ted Rutland, a researcher on policing and public safety in Canadian cities. “There has never been a police officer who has permanently lost their job for killing someone in Montreal.”

Additionally, sectors determined to be more “likely to have criminal activity” by the police force see an increased police presence, according to a 2023 report conducted on the SPVM. The report also states that data does not present an explicit enough tie between criminal activity and interventions.

“More marginalized communities are always going to be suspected of criminality to a greater extent,” Rutland added.

Amongst the top six neighbourhoods that see the most police interventions, according to self-reported and SPVM data, are Côtedes-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal-Nord, and Villeray–SaintMichel–Parc-Extension.

According to the report, interviews with 69 different police officers found that 85 per cent of them believed racism was not present within the police force, or not to a greater extent than the general population.

The report found that the overall statements from the officers “are not denying the existence of racism because it’s a truth that disturbs them. They are genuinely convinced that the allegations are

PHOTO DOROTHY MOMBRUN false and unfair.” They also allege that when carrying out their duties, they don’t “pay attention to race or gender.”

Rutland believes the issue of racism goes beyond individuals within the police force, but stems from a settler white-colonialist system. “There is a fear of Blackness, of Indigeneity, of the unhoused,” he said.

“There is crime in every neighbourhood. They will all see a certain amount of crime every now and then,” he added, “but the discriminatory, racist and classist way that police resources are deployed means that poorer, more racialized people are just going to get caught for the crimes they commit way more often.”

Some may even be wrongfully charged, such was the case for Mamadi Fara Camara, a Guinean PhD student who was arrested in Park-Extension and detained for six days from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2021. He had been charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer, and disarming a police officer, all of which were dropped two days later.

“If he had been arrested in Westmount, or any other upper-class neighbourhood, this mistake would not have been made,” said Amina M’Haia from the Park-Extension Roundtable. “They’re mainly white neighbourhoods.”

Camara sued the city for $1.2 million in damages. A settlement was reached for $347,000.

“I think there is profound systemic racism at play,” M’Haia added regarding Camara’s case.

“When we have a [premier] who won’t recognize that Quebec society has a racism problem, it’s hard to talk about.” Following Joyce Echaquan’s death and the subsequent report that was made, Premier François Legault stated that there was no systemic racism in Quebec.

Data on Park-Extension’s exact racial profiling statistics is difficult to come by, as the borough is grouped with Villeray and Saint-Michel.

A report was conducted on racism in the sector, but only consulted 45 people, which M’Haia deems unrepresentative. She says a lack of funding is preventing larger-scale studies.

“I’ve lived in Villeray, and I’ve never seen more police than in Park-Ex,” M’Haia said. “There is racism even in the statistics. As long as we’re immigrants, we’re all in the same basket.”

M’Haia shared that the complaints on racial profiling the roundtable receives “barely scratch at the surface of the issue.”

From Jane’s several family trips to Little Burgundy to growing up in Côte-des-Neiges, they found these assumptions to disproportionately impact racialized youth.

“A lot of kids have had to grow older, faster,” they said. “They’re aware of things that a white family living in Outremont wouldn’t let their kids know.”

"The discriminatory, racist and classist way that police resources are deployed means that poorer, more racialized people are just going to get caught for the crimes they commit way more often.”

— Ted Rutland, researcher on policing and public safety in Canadian cities

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 7

THE CLASS ISSUE

How the institution of slavery built Quebec An integral piece of the province’s violent history that cannot be denied nor forgotten NEWS

Julia Cieri

"A GENERAL VIEW OF QUEBEC, FROM POINT LEVY," 1761. COURTESY UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL

@_juliacieri

aint-Paul Street is con- them came from the Pawnee Na- relationships and military allian- supporting research on the study its ports, Greer explained; S sidered Montreal’s old- tion located in present-day Neb- ces between different nations and of Canadian slavery and slavery in “it’s kind of casual trade with est road, first paved in 1672. raska, Oklahoma and Kansas. the French colonists were thus the American North, was featured colonies.”

Among the many French colonists who established their homes on the street, more than half of all households owned enslaved Indigenous people.

The class of slave-owning white colonists was comprised of merchants, farmers, the political elite, and members of the Church, immensely contributing to the economic prosperity of the colony.

For more than 200 years, slavery was part of Canada and Quebec’s colonial nation-building. In New France alone, there were over 4,200 slaves from the 17th century until the official abolition of the institution within the British Empire in 1834.

More than half of enslaved people were Indigenous, and one third were Black. Thousands of enslaved people were bought, sold, traded and inherited as private property throughout Canada. Indigenous slaves in what is now Montreal were called ‘panis’ in French, which signified ‘Indigenous slave,’ as a large percentage of

The Link sat down with Michael J. LaMonica, a PhD candidate at McGill University whose research focuses on the intersection of law, commerce, and empire in the eighteenth-century French Atlantic, to learn about the origins of slavery in New France.

Prior to colonization, the primary use of enslavement within some Indigenous nations was for prisoners of war, LaMonica explained. “Slavery that existed within Indigenous groups was different,” he said. “They would take people in wars and sometimes make them members of their own nation through this process of fictive kinship.”

McGill history professor Allan Greer, who specializes in colonial North America, early Canada, and the French Atlantic world, explained that when some Indigenous tribes took captives, most were women and children who were exchanged with other groups when forging alliances.

“Each side would give the other human beings as tokens of connection,” he said.

By the 1670s, French fur traders began venturing into the Great Lakes regions for more business, according to LaMonica. Trade

developed. “This is how the first Indigenous slaves made their way into Montreal, through these exchanges,” LaMonica said.

However, the system of enslavement utilized by the French was more dehumanizing, LaMonica added. Many nations had a particular status for prisoners captured in war, which differed from the way the colonists regarded captured people. The primary difference was the concept of hereditary slavery present in the French system. He explained that the colonists viewed enslaved people more as property than prisoners of war.

The children of those enslaved among different nations were generally accepted into the community as one of their own and did not have the same status as their parents, which was not the case within French ways of governing. “They got transferred from an Indigenous context of captive-taking into a European Atlantic slave system,” said Greer.

This distinction laid the groundwork for the colonial institution of slavery in Quebec.

Dr. Charmaine Nelson, art historian and founding director of the Slavery North Initiative,

“AN OVERSEER DOING HIS DUTY,” 1798. WATERCOLOUR BY BENJAMIN HENRY LATROBE. COURTESY MARYLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 8 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

in an episode of the Canadian history podcast Archives & Things in 2022.

She explained that the foundation of a nation is a powerful part of its history, and, foundational to the history of these two empires within Canada—France and Britain—was the use of slavery.

Nelson said that under European owners, slave ownership was permitted by the law, and colonizers strategically organized slavery in a matrilineal fashion so that any child of an enslaved woman at birth automatically became a slave to the owner.

In 1689, Louis XIV instituted the Code Noir in the French colonies, which codified the empowerment of slave owners over the human beings they owned.

According to Greer, the code was a regulatory framework for giving slaves religious instruction, baptism, regulations on ownership

by Protestant and Jewish people, and so on, but viewed the lives of slaves with such unimportance regardless. “In the French Caribbean, owners had power of life and death over their slaves,” said Greer. “You whip someone to death, you're not going to suffer.”

However, these laws were only officially applicable in the Caribbean colonies because slavery in New France was less developed at that time. This changed in 1709, when intendant Jacques Raudot adopted a colonial law in New France, which legalized the purchase and possession of slaves and reinforced the practice. According to LaMonica, Raudot’s ordinance was passed to clear up ambiguity about owning slaves in the colony. “It was extremely ambiguous to what extent the Code Noir applied in New France,” he said.

New France did not have a large enough market for enslaved Africans, so there were never any boats directly shipping slaves to

However, the colony was complicit in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. As Indigenous slavery was growing, there was simultaneously a higher demand for enslaved Africans. “All of the enslaved Africans who arrived in New France arrived either through the fortified city port of Louisbourg from Martinique or Guadeloupe, or they were smuggled in from the British colonies,” explained LaMonica. “There was contraband between the English colonies and New France.”

After the Conquest of New France by Great Britain in 1763, the enslavement of Indigenous and African people formally continued.

“Slavery is explicitly preserved when the colonies turned over to the British,” explained Greer. “There's a clause in the surrender that says French Canadians will be allowed to keep their slaves.”

The number of African slaves increased during British rule. “There was more of a connection to the West Indies, more maritime traffic,” explained LaMonica. Moreover, after the American Revolution, that number grew even larger due to British loyalists fleeing to Quebec and bringing along their slaves.

In her book Slavery, Geography and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica, Nelson explains how, despite ongoing military conflicts and competition over territories in the Americas, the French and the British suspended their ethnic, Continues on p. 9

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THE CLASS ISSUE Continued from p. 8 social, cultural, and religious differences to cooperate for the safety and security of the white plantocracy. Hence, although fierce adversaries, the French and British agreed upon the necessity of the preservation of slavery.

Historians today use two categories of distinction to establish hierarchies of slavery: slave societies and societies with slavery. The former refers to societies that flourished economically through the use of slavery, typically plantation slavery, while the latter indicates societies that don’t necessarily depend on slavery, but have it exist within their borders, LaMonica explained.

The economy of New France did not heavily depend on slavery because there were no plantations like in the Caribbean or in the United States, she argued; slaves were majoritarily seen in domestic settings. “They were mostly employed as domestic servants in a variety of functions, but above all cooks, maids…that sort of thing,” Greer said. This is why New France is considered today to be a society with slavery.

It was only throughout the early 1800s that actions were taken in favour of gradually ending the practice of slavery throughout British North America, thanks in part to the work of abolitionists. Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire in all its colonies in 1834, 30 years before the United States, making Upper and Lower Canada popular destinations for enslaved people to flee.

Canada’s pride in its role in the history of the Underground Railroad—the network of secret routes in the early 19th century established by abolitionists to help free African American slaves get to free Northern states or Canada—is sourced from its national narrative of being a land of freedom, according to LaMonica.

“The fact that slavery existed in New France and after the Conquest doesn't fit comfortably into that narrative,” he added.

“If history makes you feel good, it is not history that you are reading,” said Aly Ndiaye, a Senegalese-Quethelinknewspaper.ca

CARTOUCHE FROM WILLIAM FADEN, 1777. COURTESY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA becois hip-hop artist also known as Webster. He believes that Quebec chose a narrative that portrays the province as benevolent during the translatlantic slave trade. As an independent historian, activist and lecturer, he wants to democratize access to knowledge about Black history in Quebec.

Ndiaye explained that while the history of the Underground Railroad is important, it must be placed into perspective. Many people who aided the processes of this road were Black. “We forget this to have an image of a white Canada reaching out to Black slaves,” he said.

Ndiaye spoke about what contributed to the marginalization of Afro-Quebecers in the decades that came after abolition. “The mentality that permitted slavery does not disappear as easily as the practice itself,” he said.

He elaborated that the mentality behind slavery is intimately linked to racial superiority, leaving Black people living in Quebec to be viewed not as Quebecers, but “Blacks in Quebec,” even in the 20th century. Consequently, he said, even 60 years later, many Black people remained in domestic work, did not have social mobility, and remained on the margins of society.

Furthermore, Ndiaye explained that because the majority of enslaved Black people who came to Montreal spoke English, this history happened in English, contributing to their alterity.

“Due to the linguistic dynamic in Quebec, it is as if Black history in Quebec did not happen because it

happened in English,” he said Ndiaye believes that history was neglected and then forgotten.

“Our method of doing history has always been franco-centered, white-centered, and catholic-centered,” he said. “These are the three elements on which we based ourselves to define Quebec-ness.”

For Ndiaye, being excluded from these categories means exclusion from history.

Aeron McHattie, a history librarian at Concordia, finds that the education system in Quebec, specifically at the pre-university level, does not teach children about this particular part of history. As a younger student, “the history I got was standard colonial narrative,” she said.

“Canada's implication in the economic benefit of using unpaid labour bodies was not discussed,” McHattie said. “As someone who grew up in Montreal, it sucks that people don’t talk about it.”

LaMonica also had a similar experience when teaching this history in class. “Students often tell me they had not heard of Indigenous slavery before,” he said.

“In university, it’s the first time they're hearing about it.”

The use of the labour of enslaved people in any society must be spoken about and taught, regardless of scale, Greer believes.

“There is no such thing as nice slavery,” he said. “To be a slave is to be deprived of any kind of social and family connections, and that was definitely the case in Canada.

ABOLITIONIST MARY ANN SHADD, ABOLITIONIST, JOURNALIST AND FOUNDER OF THE PROVINCIAL FREEMAN IN CANADA IN 1853. COURTESY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

"CARTE DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE," 1732. COURTESY NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 9

THE CLASS ISSUE

Skyrocketing food prices impact Montrealers As grocery prices continue to rise, students call for systemic change NEWS

Hannah Scott-Talib and Ellie Wand

@hannah.sctt

hen Liam Neary began had initially budgeted going into people need to use food banks,” or a large portion of society, and families, funding has become a W his studies at Con- university. “I’m making it work said Neary. “[But] It’s upsetting this includes student commun- problem as well, according to Dircordia, he expected a month- and it’s okay,” said Walker. “[But] I that that number has increased so ities,” he said. ector Ana Gloria Blanch. She said ly grocery bill of around $250.

Now, having almost completed his second year, his food budget has gone up by approximately$100—simply from buying enough to cook around three meals per week. “It’s only been going up since,” Neary said.

Like Neary, nursing student Gabrielle Axelle Elie’s Provigo trip now costs her close to $100, almost double to what it cost a few years ago.

According to a 2022 Maclean’s education report, 40 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada are food insecure, and heading into the upcoming year, inflation will continue to drive food prices higher and higher for students like him.

Canada's 2024 Food Price Report states that overall food prices are likely to increase by 2.5 to 4.5 per cent over the coming year—a slight decrease from the five to seven per cent increase the year prior. The report states that broader factors such as labour disputes, climate change and the geopolitical impact of the Russia-Ukraine war contributed to food inflation throughout 2023.

COVID-19 lockdowns have resulted in higher energy prices, which is straining the food distribution system, and is driving the price of food up, according to Statistics Canada, Rebekah Walker is a second-year Concordia student who lives off campus.

She says that she currently spends on average $250 per month on groceries. Like Neary, this is more than she

feel like if it goes up more, it’ll be a lot harder to manage.”

When it comes to cutting costs, Dalhousie University’s recent New Year's Food Resolution Survey showed that 43 per cent of Canadians plan to focus on food promotions and sales to spend less on groceries. In addition to this, the survey revealed that many are looking at ways to reduce food waste to be more cost-efficient in the new year, making use of methods such as canning and freezing, purchasing more non-perishable food items, preserving and eating more leftovers as well as making their meal portions smaller.

Meanwhile, students at Concordia are finding their own ways of keeping costs down when it comes to grocery shopping.

On his end, Neary religiously checks grocery flyers before going food shopping. His meals are planned and dependent on sales.

“I go out of my way to go to the cheapest grocery stores,” he said.

For Walker, cost efficiency comes in the form of sharing groceries within her household.

Between her and her three other roommates, products such as milk, butter, and bread are bought collectively, with everyone taking turns to pay for them. However, Walker said that certain perishable items like fruits and vegetables don’t often end up on her grocery list. “They’re pricier and they go bad, so it’s kind of a waste of money,” she said.

Food Bank Canada’s 2023 Hunger Count also revealed that food bank usage is at an all-time high nationwide. The organization noted that around two million people visited Canadian food banks in 2023, which was reported to be a 32 per cent increase since March 2022. “[With] what I see in grocery stores, it’s not a huge shock that

drastically.”

There are several student-run initiatives aimed at fighting food insecurity at Concordia. One of these is the People’s Potato, a student-founded vegan soup kitchen, which is funded by a student fee levy paid through the Concordia Student Union. It provides free meals to students from Monday through Thursday at the Sir George Williams campus.

For those at the Loyola campus, the Hive free breakfast and lunch program, which is also a student-funded fee levy group, provides free vegan and vegetarian breakfast and lunch to students during the weekdays.

A few times a month, Walker said she makes use of Concordia-based initiatives such as The People’s Potato and Hive Free Lunch to get a meal, as both operations offer free meals to the community. “I think it’s really convenient, [and] it’s healthy, good food,” she said.

Boris Restrepo, a collective member of The People’s Potato, said that food insecurity is a reality for many students, but is a symptom of larger, systemic problems. “Food insecurity is a reality

For Restrepo, addressing food insecurity means addressing the broader issues at play. “There’s a long list of things that our governments can be doing,” he said.

“Universal basic income, access to mental health services, public funding for education or affordable access to education, consolidation of student loans.”

Restrepo also wants to see food banks have access to more autonomous funding, making them less reliant on large charities.

Montreal’s food banks are experiencing a severe lack of help and donations. As demand for food grows drastically, places like Moisson Montreal—the largest food bank in Canada—are reportedly not distributing nearly enough food in comparison to the number of clients they are receiving. Additionally, as the provider of food donations to over 300 organizations across the city, the situation is getting desperate, as expressed by Maggie Borowiec, Moisson Montreal’s director of philanthropy.

At Casa C.A.F.I., a support centre based in Verdun that offers food donations to immigrant

that the centre received government funding during its first two years of business, but since then, that funding has been pulled.

Now, for its food services, Casa C.A.F.I. relies on volunteer work and public donations to remain in operation.

“The organization is stuck with the [notion] that everybody wants to continue, but we don’t have any money,” said Blanch. “Right now, we are asking others, ‘what do you want to do? How are we going to continue?’ It’s not fair.”

In contrast, Canada’s largest food companies also continue to face ongoing profiteering allegations heading into the new year.

According to a 2023 Bloomberg News poll, 15 per cent of respondents deemed the food inflation crisis is in large part a result of profiteering on the side of grocery giants.

Restrepo doesn’t think the food situation will happen anytime soon. “The system is ruthless,” he said. “Under capitalism, it seems like efforts are always based on profitable and questionable means.”

PHOTO DOROTHY MOMBRUN

10 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Where gender and class intersect Q&A with Celeste Trianon NEWS

Leo Litke imal effort as they have “won the game of capitalism.” In healthcare, for instance, they might be less dependent on classist doctors who may end up hurting women and gender diverse people the most. They might be completely immune to that.

The way you experience gender as a wealthy person is going to be very different from the way you experience it as a lower income person. The same goes for so many other factors too. Being a single parent, being a single mom; it’s not easy and can easily force you to overwork and be unable to access forms of privilege in the first place.

The way you experience gender as someone who is wealthier or less wealthy absolutely plays a role here.

Do you think class exacerbates gender differences?

PHOTO ANDRAÉ LERONE LEWIS eleste Trianon is a trans- other job because of the fact they’re C gender activist and jur- a trans woman. A couple months ist. She has helped organize later they run out of unemployment the Transgender Day of Remembrance March and the pro-trans counter-protest in 2023, and worked with the Centre for Gender Advocacy’s trans ID clinic.

The Link had a sit-down interview with her to discuss the many ways in which gender identity, expression and perception vary with socioeconomic class.

Answers have been edited for clarity.

How do class and gender intersect and how does that manifest in day-to-day life?

Imagine a worker making their way up the ranks of a company. Let’s say the worker was assigned male at birth and was presenting male all that time.

They would have never seen many difficulties associated with their gender because they have access to a certain degree of privilege. Now imagine that worker transitions to a woman.

They end up getting fired for it and are unable to get hired at any thelinknewspaper.ca

insurance and their savings run out and they eventually find themselves homeless. That is not an impossible scenario and that’s oftentimes just an example of what happens to trans people in the workplace.

Class and gender intersect as in that they correlate with one another, unfortunately. They are interconnected and it’s impossible to say that somehow gender is completely disconnected from class and vice-versa. The very fact is that there is so much sexism, gender-based violence, and gender-based oppression in our society that your gender identity, your gender expression, the way you express yourself, the way you assert yourself; all of this is going to play vastly into determining which class you end up in.

Whether you have access to privilege or not, and so much more, it all hinges on that.

How do you think higher and lower class individuals tend to view gender?

Oftentimes, folks in the upper echelons of wealth are able to make a living on relatively min-

Absolutely, yes. To go back to our previous example of someone who transitioned on the job, let’s imagine they are already quite wealthy. They might no longer have a conflict to deal with. If they had that privilege, they would be able to afford everything they need, any gender-affirming surgeries, any clothes or treatments they need to better affirm themselves.

If someone on the streets transitions, it’s not going to be easy for them. They might not be able to afford any clothes, even secondhand used ones, that can affirm their gender. They might not be able to get health care if they lack an address. All of this pushes them to a point where their transness is not something they’re able to live with and their class prevents them from living their best life.

On more general fronts, class differences exacerbate the way you experience your gender. It can make it harder to be able to access health care, sanitary products (tampons, pads, and the like) and so many other things that can offset the very burden that oftentimes comes with so many gendered experiences in life.

Do you think that internalized homophobia and transphobia relates to class?

I’d say in good part, it can. I’m not going to say that it absolutely

will because I don’t have the expertise and empirical research to back it up, but I can say that from so many people I’ve chatted to from my work, it absolutely does.

Taking the example of someone who is unable to access health care, they may not perceive themselves as valid only due to the fact they are unable to afford gender-affirming healthcare. Poverty runs in a cycle.

It reminds me of a common excuse used regarding what is happening in Gaza right now. It’s “hey, queer people, why don’t you head to Gaza?”—I know this sounds completely unrelated right now but trust me I’m looping back—the common response given by many queer Palestinians themselves is that they are unable to experience their lives properly because of the fact that they are already so systematically oppressed by colonization. They are not going to be able to reach a point where they can experience who they are as a gay person, as a trans person.

How does external genderbased oppression affect those of different socioeconomic statuses?

It can come in so many different forms. Wage gaps are a classic, as well as the housekeeping gap for any home-related tasks. These are things that are exacerbated by gender-based violence. So much of this is interconnected. I think the obvious answer is whether it be discrimination or physical, any form of gender-based violence exacerbates class differences and artificial gender-based differences.

Do you think that there are any aspects of trans identity that remain universal across socioeconomic status?

Trans identity is something that’s so variable—I don’t think there is any single constant. Apart from simply being trans, trans experiences can be different between everyone. It can be health care and hormone therapy, which are nearly universal, but not entirely. I cannot say that there is anything that is universal across all socioeconomic classes. If there is one thing that is constant, it is that gender-based and anti-trans violence exists.

What specific socioeconomic contexts allow gender discourse to flourish? And which ones can restrict them?

Gender discourse will flourish in a context in which different forms of genderbased violence have been completely eliminated. In this context, gender is no longer a variable that determines how well you’re going to be able to live in society, or what you’re going to be able to make in a year, or how safe you’re going to be within the confines of your own home. In the perfect world, you’re going to have breathing room. In a world without transphobia, there are naturally going to be more people who feel comfortable coming out as trans; in a world without homophobia there are going to be more people coming out as gay.

There is also the flip side of the coin. Some people in a society where there is so much anti-trans hate, trans people are going to be among the most vulnerable, the most marginalized. Of course there is going to be targeted violence towards them. It’s been proven that anti-trans bills and anti-trans murders are correlated with one another. Differences are exacerbated by the contexts we live in right now.

The best thing we can do right now as people is to try and confirm the root causes of the issue; making transphobia unacceptable again and making sure anti-trans hate has no space within our respective communities.

Making sure sanitary products are distributed in all bathrooms, making sure that employers are held accountable if they maintain a wage gap, all of this, alongside so many extra steps, will help build a better, fairer society for all.

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 11

THE CLASS ISSUE

The financial obstacles to accessing a fine arts degree at Concordia Fine arts students aim to dispel myth of "creating something out of nothing" NEWS

Sarah-Maria Khoueiry

@sarah_maria.22

oncordia’s faculty of fine Cate Gransaull, a photography even more interesting when we get Associate professor of the stuC arts is typically catered to- student in her first year, shared creative in that way.” dio arts department Jonathan Mark wards students who—on top the complications she faces when Jain said one of the centre's Igloliorte received a grant with of their tuition fees—can afford to pay additional lab and studio fees, as well as the supplemental material that they must purchase for their classes.

In October 2023, an additional financial barrier was announced. The Quebec government told English-language universities that new tuition hikes for international and out-of-province students would be put in place, making access to higher education increasingly difficult. This burden would fall especially hard on students who wish to pursue degrees that require them to spend a large sum of money in addition to tuition fees.

Currently, tuition for outof-province fine-arts students stands at $8,992 per year, but is expected to reach $12,000— and an approximate addition of $5,000 per international student sent to the French university system—starting in the fall 2024 semester. It is also important to note that the cost of participation in these classes increases significantly when supplies and studio fees are taken into account. Some programs provide students with required material lists at the beginning of courses that can reach $1,200.

Nastaran Pourtaherian, an international student enrolled in the photography program who is also the outreach coordinator at the Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA), said she is expected to spend upward of $1,000 for class materials. She said the quote provided by her professors at the beginning of the school year is an estimate that is impossible not to exceed.

“There are so many accidents that happen, technical problems,” said Pourtaherian about her film photography projects. She went on, saying she would often need to buy more rolls than the beginning of semester estimate, and start from scratch, just on account of mistakes.

it comes to purchasing supplies. “I think it’s crazy how someone with a decent amount of privilege, like myself, is still struggling to [acquire materials],” she said. “I have a photography assignment due on Monday and I haven’t even had a chance to start it because I didn’t have money to buy film in time.”

Gransaull, who went to a public art high school in Toronto, said she was surprised by the extra costs of her classes when she first started her degree at Concordia. “During [high school], I paid a fee and had access to all the materials [I needed],” Gransaull said. “I didn’t have to buy my own camera, I didn’t even have to buy darkroom paper, which is so expensive. A public school somehow had the accessibility for everyone.”

Both Pourtaherian and Gransaull mentioned the Centre for Digital Arts depot for fine arts students, which allows students to rent out equipment for free for a limited period of time.

While Pourtaherian talkingfinds the depot to be “easy to access and very helpful,” Gransaull is more critical of it. For her, the fact that she can only rent out equipment for a couple of days and has to wait a week before being able to rent something else isn’t enough to complete her assignments.

There are other resources students can resort to in order to reduce the amount of money fine arts students must pay to complete their coursework.

The Centre for Creative Reuse (CUCCR) offers students and non-students the possibility to access a wide variety of materials for free. Through donated supplies, the centre is able to work alongside students to find the best way to approach their project.

“We actually do quite a bit of problem solving with students that come in,” said Maya Jain, CUCCR’s reuse coordinator. She explained the process behind finding more sustainable and less costly alternatives to typical materials. “Often, in my opinion, projects can be

12 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

goals is “fostering community and building culture change.” “[CUCCR is] sort of a balancing act between making things more accessible and encouraging creativity with materials while also being critical and thinking about the long-term impact of what we’re creating,” she added.

FASA also provides assistance to students in the form of personal, group or community project grants. The application forms, found on FASA’s website, require the applicants to have a clear vision for their project’s outcome, as they need to submit a statement, budget, description and goal. Adey Singer, FASA’s finance coordinator, said she wasn’t sure how many grants are given out each year, but said that very few people apply.

“With the personal grants, [the goal is] to help [students] with personal projects,” said Singer. “[For example], helping to fund a project [a student is] working on for class that can be expensive.”

Noa, a student in the studio arts program who was given a pseudonym upon request, was always aware of the extra costs of pursuing a Fine Arts degree. They grew up practicing art and expected to keep spending on supplies.

An issue they brought up is that, to their knowledge, these funding opportunities are advertised as only being for students with long-term projects in mind. “It feels like if you don’t know what to make, you are still discovering it, or you don’t have time to dedicate your life to art, there is not much that can be done for you,” Noa said.

Singer, however, expressed her desire to see more students apply for these grants. “The money for the grants come from a fee-levy so we do our best so that our money goes back into the pockets of Concordia students,” she said.

According to Singer, FASA utilizes two fee levies. The first one comes to around $2.16 per credit to finance general operations, and the second, dedicated to the Special Project grants, is of about $0.80 per credit.

which he bought his students French easels to complete an outdoor painting project instead of having them each buy their own. Additionally, he mentioned that the faculty of fine arts recently hired a technician who could help students build their own canvases. “[Stretching our own canvases] is something that is extremely cost effective,” he said.

“Getting an art degree is not a requirement to be a good artist, but it does its part to stop brilliant people from moving too quickly,” said Noa. “Art school, if done right, gives the opportunity to network.”

They highlighted the way museums are curated to weed out the people who don’t typically fit into a world reserved for the select few “dead male revolutionists that ‘upgraded society’ a hundred years ago.”

“It’s very rare that any of the people I see in my classrooms will even breathe near a museum exhibition of their own,” Noa said. “So what are we really paying for?”

CONCORDIA FINE ARTS STUDENTS AT PLACE DES AIGUILLEURS COMPLETING OUTDOOR COURSEWORK AS PART OF JONATHAN MARK IGLOLIORTE’S PAINTING 200 CLASS. PHOTO SARAH-MARIA KHOUEIRY

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THE CLASS ISSUE FRINGE ARTS

Tshimanga M., Mohammad Khan

What does the endless North American sky reveal?

What does the endless North American sky reveal?

Dreams for the Souls that dwell in the house of tomorrow, And cages for the souls from which we speak.

Cages dipped in promises.

Tossed in honey and hope.

How do you speak from the soul, When its tongue’s been twisted?

When its mother has been killed, lost, rejected, forgotten?

What does the endless North American sky reveal?

Motherless tongues and their migrating souls Trapped and troubled by yesterday’s baggage.

Writhing in agony, stuck in honey, Shackled by money.

GRAPHIC MYRIAM OUAZZANI

Catherine Morin paints a satirical portrait of class Using oil and acrylic paint, her work explores social and economic norms and values FRINGE ARTS Oliva Johnson

@24601ivia

triking colours and bold, that are more personal and based S confident figures line the on lived experiences. She recalls walls of Catherine Morin’s her first trip abroad to Manzanillo, booth at SCOPE Miami Beach.

Morin, a multidisciplinary artist based in Montreal, carefully places every element in her work. The character takes up the largest space in the painting and symbols such as baskets of fruit and rakes are used to evoke manual labour.

She paints workers, especially those involved in physical labour, highlighting their dignity, courage and accomplishments. She explained that it's often easiest to address thematic elements thelinknewspaper.ca

Mexico. Morin was 11-years-old but still remembers each member of her family wearing a shawl that they haggled from a child on the beach and queuing up for the buffet where tourists could gorge themselves excessively.

“I don't recall us stepping out of our golden castle,” she said.

“There's clearly something awkward and unhealthy about it. It carries an air of silent colonialism. We're all going to plunder the neighbour poorer than us. I wanted to represent it, in a critical yet slightly whimsical manner. A satirical look at ourselves.”

Tinker Temporary glances and momentary smiles Emotions tailored feelings styled Trying to fit freedom into a limitless box A paradox like a considerate goldilocks Or Perverted and reverberated to fit in the narrative of logical consequence The independence neglected and with it our strength So corporate shills and evil lies Are nothing more than a sick merchant's cries A middle class gag explains the homicidal acts of men butchering lives Free of thought, free of shame The same game played to make imperative of what we see as pragmatic To reduce ourselves to motion in an apparatus That thinks feels and hears for itself Responsibility is gone but hopeless devotion is left As we construct a monster from the deepest of depths With razor sharp wit and gargantuan size Ordered to lift us from our own demise The leviathan decides, life, liberty and security at the foreclosure of realization Caused by the distortion of our own creation To save face is an understatement, to save faces is more To become numbered traces in a data bank to store And as the vaults fill, and innocence distills Our own rationale fails us, in realizing our wills Upon deaths bed, stands an idle man Tinkering his top, breathing, as fast as he can.

GRAPHIC MYRIAM OUAZZANI

Her series “petits travailleurs”, for example, was inspired by the term “petites mains”. “Petites mains” often refers to low-paid, underqualified workers or people employed to do menial jobs. The paintings in the series feature portraits of blurred faces in front of pastoral landscapes. Despite the faces being front and centre, they are hard to identify, representing workers who are often underappreciated or forgotten.

Her exploration of working class people doesn’t end with portraits.

“I often depict hands and feet in an atrophied, twisted and deformed manner, almost as a hindrance to ease. They say there are no menial jobs, but what about our actual perception of the people who do them?” she said.

She explained that in America, there is an illusion that everything is based on meritocracy. The message “If you're in America, there are no excuses for failure” seems to be ever present but access to equal opportunities is less straightforward.

Her work was most recently featured at the 22nd edition of SCOPE Miami Beach in Miami, Florida.

Using the theme No Black and White, the international contemporary art show showcased work from underrepresented artistic voices across the 20th and 21st centuries.

“Our curatorial committee chose Catherine Morin to show at SCOPE as we found her work to be bold and impactful,” said Edie Mey-

er, director of exhibitor relations.

“Her skill as a painter is obvious as well as her distinctive style.”

When Morin begins a new painting, she starts with the face without knowing what comes next.

“As I build them, I feel like I'm establishing a dialogue with them, creating a story for them as the painting progresses. There's always a bit of myself intertwined with them,” she explained.

While she’s currently known for her brightly-coloured paintings that explore themes of social class, culture, and identity, her artistic career began with photographs.

At 17, Morin moved to Montreal where she completed a diploma of vocational studies in photography at the Centre de services scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys. She was living in an apartment and struggling to find work but realized she could get by with a part-time job, as rent was more affordable at the time. It gave her the freedom to dedicate time to painting and eventually, she started working as a painter on film and theatre sets.

"I've always drawn, as far back as I can remember. So, [painting] was a natural progression of my childhood interests,” she said. “I love the physicality of things in general; it helps me understand. I find it more tangible.”

Alabama-based artist Ana Sneeringer attended SCOPE and explained that Morin's exploration of individuals and societal

adjustments resonated with her own artistic inclinations.

When she stepped into the Wishbone Gallery at SCOPE, her attention was immediately drawn to the vibrant exhibition featuring Morin's artwork.

“A fascinating nuance in Morin's work is the intentional absence of eyes in all her figures," said Sneeringer. “This deliberate choice adds an enigmatic layer to her pieces, prompting viewers to delve into the complexities of personal and social narratives.”

"L'INSOUCIANCE DES MARGUERITES" BY CATHERINE MORIN, 2022. COURTESY WISHBONE ART GALLERY

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 13

THE CLASS ISSUE

16 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Tooth gems through status and fashion From a symbol of wealth to a renewed trend, the meaning of tooth gems has changed FRINGE ARTS

Geneviève Sylvestre

AUREL, 21, TOOTH-GEM TECHNICIAN MODELLING THEIR LATEST SET OF TOOTHGEMS THEY APPLIED ON THEMSELVES. ooth gems have explod- of mouth jewelry date back much also referred to as tooth gems, are T ed in popularity recently, further than the 20th century. Ar- regaining their prevalence withwith increasingly more people cheologists have discovered that out the process of drilling or the looking to get them done or learn how to do them themselves. However, aesthetic dental modification is an ancient practice that has historically been used as a social signaling years before becoming an acclaimed fashion statement.

The recent rise in tooth jewelry has its roots in Black culture, with fronts and grills rising in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, quickly becoming a corner-stone of the hip-hop scene.

Originating from West Indian immigrants in predominantly Black neighbourhoods in New York City, as the use of precious metals for dentistry was more common in the West Indies, it soon became a fashion statement. Unlike tooth gems, which are individually glued onto teeth, grills snap over the teeth and encapsulate them in a precious metal, like gold and occasionally jewels.

Many attribute Nelly’s 2005 hit song "Grillz" as the entrance of grills in mainstream American culture, with the song topping the charts and the video showcasing dozens of close-ups of grills.

However, early examples thelinknewspaper.ca

the Ancient Maya used precious materials, such as jadeite and pyrite, for dental inlays and fillings as early as the eighth century.

Archeologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles David Cheetham says that these dental modifications, as well as other types of body modifications performed by the Maya, were used to demonstrate one’s social status.

“It's social signaling,” said Cheetham. “As opposed to, say, a big house on a hill in Hollywood or a Ferrari, you're walking around with the ultimate social signal, which is your face, your head.”

Dental inlays served as a symbol of beauty in ancient Maya culture and the procedure was mainly performed on the elites of Maya society. To perform the procedure, they would drill a beveled hole into the tooth’s enamel so that a stone could fit snuggly.

Jade dental inlays in particular were a beautification procedure that demonstrated one’s social standing. “[Jade] is their gold, this is their precious stone,” said Cheetham. “[The Maya] would carve jade into any number of things, everything from necklaces to larger objects that would be used in rituals.”

Today, tooth ornamentations,

requirement of being an elite. Instead, gem technicians apply the charm to the tooth with a dental adhesive and cure it with a blue light.

Caren Labib, a human resources student at Université du Québec à Montréal, chose a gold starburst charm for her tooth gem after seeing many Egyptian social media influencers she loves getting them done. “I'm a jewelry girl, and I'm a gold jewelry girl,” said Labib. “I already love stars in general, so it felt kind of complete, you know, like the final touch."

Tooth gems are a semi-permanent procedure that should last around six months to a year. According to Longueuil-based tooth gem artist Aurel, improper oral hygiene, levels of acidity in the mouth, and eating crunchy or acidic foods are all factors that can affect their longevity.

For their clients, Aurel says the service can be a confidence booster. “I have a lot of clients who come in and they're like, ‘Oh, I'm not confident about my teeth and everything, maybe it can be a way for me to be smiling more.’

If I can help make someone more confident in themselves, of course I'm going to do it,” Aurel said.

Tooth gems can be applied by tooth gem technicians, but can

@gen_sylvestre be purchased on sites like Amazon or Etsy. Many professionals discourage applying them yourself, as many do-it-yourself kits contain gems or glue that are not meant for the immediate mouth area and can lead to tooth decay.

Karina Oliver is a tooth gem artist and entrepreneur based in Montreal. After years working a traditional nine-to-five job, she wanted more financial freedom and a more flexible schedule, so she decided to start her own business.

Oliver finds that the semi-permanent aspect of tooth gems is appealing for people who, for personal or religious reasons, don’t want the permanence of a piercing or tattoo but still want to enhance their look.

“It’s something that you can hide, it’s semi-permanent, but it’s also something that can make you feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I got this done,’” she said.

That is true for Yassine Haddar, who first became interested in tooth gems after seeing his teeth whitening technician’s portfolio on Instagram. “I don’t wear earrings and piercings don’t interest me, but it’s cool to have something shiny without going as far as getting a piercing,” said Haddar. “I wanted something discreet. Not too showy, not too extravagant, but something that’s there and that adds something nice.”

While the procedure has risen in popularity recently—with Google searches for tooth gems being the highest they’ve ever been since 2004—their purpose as a way for the elites to distinguish themselves has faded and people today choose to get them done for a variety of reasons.

Marilou Duquette, a makeup student at Collège LaSalle, first became interested in tooth gems when she was looking for a way to decorate her smile after getting her smiley piercing removed. “I had a friend who had a tooth gem and I thought that was really cute because I always wanted something around the mouth area,” said Duquette. “I love having tooth gems. I feel like it adds so much to the face.”

While tooth gems might not necessarily denote an elite status as they originally did, getting them done by a professional can run customers up to hundreds of dollars, as dental experts recommend only high-quality materials— like Swarovski crystals, gold or silver—should come in contact with the immediate tooth area.

“I've always had a big interest in tooth gems since I was a teenager. I've always been into glam and jewelry and just bling. So I always wanted a diamond or something in my tooth,” Oliver said.

Tooth gems are now seen as an often exciting beautification procedure with a rich history dating approximately 1,500 years. Like most other voluntary aesthetic procedures, the barrier to entry can be high for many, but the procedure has nonetheless gotten significantly more accessible today.

AUREL CHOOSING THE PERFECT FOUR GEMS TO USE ON THEIR CLIENT. A FOUR GEM SET USUALLY TAKES AROUND 20 MINUTES TO APPLY. JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 17

THE CLASS ISSUE

The steep price of being a major league sports fan Costs of attending in-person games harp on accessibility and fan engagement SPORTS

Hannah Vogan

@hannahvogann

reo has been a devoted C Toronto Raptors fan since he was seven and attended

his first Raptors game when he was eight.

Today, the 30-year-old Toronto-based musician and content creator has been to over 20 games throughout his 20 years of fandom. Recently, at the Dec. 15 game at Scotiabank Arena, he bought his row 16 ticket from a family friend for a discounted price of $200. Creo said the price tag hurt his bank account; "I remember when you could get a pair [of tickets] for $250," he said.

"The bar for entry is so much higher now for new fans to go experience," claimed Creo.

Creo explained how the communal involvement of watching a game is integral to the fan experience. But because of higher prices, the fan experience is robbed, he reasoned. For instance, cheering with the crowd, finding a temporary friend in a neighbouring seat, or capturing juvenile memories. He recalled a memory he had as a child at a Raptors game where he returned the ball that rolled off the court to one of the players, noting younger fans miss out on these experiences with remarkably high ticket prices.

As of October 2023, the team was valued at about $4.1 billion USD, with an average ticket price of $85 USD. The Link viewed prices for the Dec. 15 game on ticketmaster. ca prior to the playoff, where ticket costs ranged from about $60 to $3,679 CAD. Hockey is Creo's least favourite of the four major North American sports, but he 'speaks hockey' fluently.

The high ticket prices have deterred him from attending games. He also believes the Toronto Maple Leafs have been a victim of overpricing for years.

The Leafs won their 13th Stanley Cup in 1967; Forbes assesses the Leafs' value at $2.8 billion USD, awarding them the title of

THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS ARE THE MOST VALUED TEAM IN THE NHL WORTH $2.8 BILLION USD, THE MONTREAL CANADIENS, THIRD MOST VALUABLE TEAM WORTH $2.3 BILLION USD. PHOTO AVA SHAHKARAMI the NHL's most valuable team.

The Leafs may not have recently been awarded a Cup, but they have been crowned by Curiocity with having the most expensive tickets in the NHL, averaging around $150 USD, according to Forbes. The Link viewed prices on ticketmaster.ca for admission to the Leafs versus Ottawa Senators on December 27, where the cost of a single ticket ranged between $166.25 and $1,353.22 CAD before taxes and Ticketmaster fees.

The parent company for the Raptors and Leafs is Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), a sports conglomerate valued around $8 billion CAD. It also owns some of Canada's most prominent sports teams like Toronto FC, Toronto Argonauts and their home arenas.

Creo suggests that Toronto major league sports suffer from an overall decreased engagement from fans in the arena, as increased prices dish out seats only for those in higher socioeconomic brackets and corporate events. "[The arena] feels more quiet, feels more stale. It doesn't feel like the crowd is living and dying with the team in the same way that it was," Creo said.

As Scotiabank Arena, which hosts both Raptors and Leafs, inches closer to its 25th anniversary next month, the building is currently undergoing renovations worth more than $350 million

18 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

CAD. Some of these renovation costs cater directly to nursing the corporate quarters: The new Mastercard Lounge with packages starting at $60,000—and a refurbished private suite on the 200 level exceeds an annual cost of $500,000 including tickets for 12 people.

According to insurance company Dundaslife, $59,300 was the average Canadian's annual salary in 2022, suggesting these suites in Scotiabank Arena are virtually impossible for the average Canadian to access.

"When you get something for free, or when something doesn't cost as much to you, it—for the most part—is almost never as valuable," said Creo. "A lot of tickets are corporate or gifts from your rich parents […] a lot of those people don't care about the actual team and the sport; it's more about turning the basketball game into an event."

Parsa Kermani Pour, a 19-year-old second-year student at Toronto Metropolitan University, attended his first Raptors game on Dec. 18. His section 107 tickets were given to him by the parents of a child he tutors, who he described as “quite wealthy.”

He only recently got into basketball yet never considered buying tickets for himself.

"I was actually looking at the prices. I thought the tickets that I'd been given were like $50, $40

tickets and then I went on the website and saw they were $150 each. I'm like, who is affording this?" Kermani Pour said, "It should not be priced this way [...]

I would never pay over a hundred bucks for what I saw."

"MLSE has a very valuable product, and the people that are going to the games […] are very loyal and willing to pay a lot of money to go," David Soberman, professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management told The Link.

“The tickets are so expensive that the only people who can attend the games tend to be pretty advanced in their career," he said.

He asserted how the Leafs, in particular, garner far more demand than there are seats. Scotiabank Arena during Leaf games holds a capacity of 18,819. In comparison, the Bell Centre has a capacity of 21,302 during Habs games.

Soberman considers Toronto the biggest hockey market in the world. "There is no metropolitan area in the world with so many hockey fans," he said. "They've only got limited seats; it's a limited capacity business problem, and so what [MLSE is] trying to do is maximize the return from something that has a limited capacity."

Soberman believes sports games are luxuries. He continued to note Canada is a capitalist country, and companies like MLSE should be able to charge

the price the market will bear as they "have a right to earn a return on those investments."

Soberman agrees those working minimum wage jobs will struggle to obtain Leafs tickets, to which he added if a Leafs game was filled with equal representations of different segments of society, "the incentive to own the Leafs wouldn't be there."

"I understand [up-pricing] in a way when the team is good and when the team is winning [...] But the Leafs have not won in two of my lifetimes," said Creo. "What are you expensive for? I understand things being more expensive when they come with excellence, but [MLSE] teams are bad.

I don't understand how you justify putting a subpar product on the ice for so much money."

Toronto is the only Canadian city with an NBA, NHL and MLB team. This means they set the tone for the rest of Canada's sports markets, like Montreal's Bell Centre.

The Bell Centre is the sole NHL arena in Canada that imposes game-day prices on fans comparable to those of the Leafs. The Montreal Canadiens are ranked

by Forbes as the third highest valued team in the NHL, with a team value of $2.3 billion USD and an average ticket price of $100 USD, the second highest cost out of all Canadian NHL teams. Habs fans dealing with similarly costly tickets draw parallels to the financial obstacles Toronto fans face with their teams and the frustration felt by fans like Creo.

"Fans are emotional, and so decisions that teams make have a long-term effect on your fanbases going forward," said Creo. "We want to keep loving our sports and loving our guys, but it's hard to do when we can't afford to go."

An MLSE spokesperson told The Link there are several variables that determine how they price tickets, from the date and opponent to fan engagement levels.

“Playing in one of the top sports and entertainment markets in North America, Maple Leafs and Raptors ticketing pricing is a reflection of our market conditions including the demand for the product in the city,” they said.

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Student-athletes navigate hurdles beyond the field Examining how pay-to-participate fees and expenses pile up SPORTS

Conor Tomalty

@Conor_Tomalty

GRAPHIC ADAM GIBBARD

awson Pierre is on the whom he lives—to cover expens- with the Stingers, Pierre totalled 20 from lower-income families in week by the university at an hourly D doorstep of achieving his es. On top of dedicating countless tackles in six games and was named the regions outside Montreal, but rate of $7.50 USD. Needless to say, lifelong dream. From strap- hours to school and athletics, he to the Réseau du sport étudiant du “for the most part, it’s across the making ends meet was frequentping on his football pads at seven years old to wrapping up his career playing safety for the Concordia Stingers, he is ready to transition to a professional level.

“Just to say you’re going to play professional, it’s like you’re reaching the one per cent,” he said.

Pierre has showcased his talents at combines, most recently in Texas on Jan 5. However, Pierre initially assumed he couldn’t make the camp.

He had mistakenly overlooked the cost of a hotel room, which is not provided by the camp. The weekend before he was set to depart for Texas, he was sure that he couldn’t afford to go.

But Pierre understands financial hurdles well. The all-star safety from Longueuil has helped his mother—with

works at the REACH school in St Lambert, Que. as an attendant, and was on strike with fellow education workers this past winter, further hindering his income.

Thankfully, along with some money pooled from a GoFundMe campaign and family members, he was able to make the combine.

“A lot of [Canadian student-athletes], after the season, we work full-time jobs, or even during the season,” he said. “A lot of my friends, after the game, go to work as bouncers.” This, Pierre reminded, is on top of ending a game at 6 p.m., working the night, then attending classes the next morning.

Pierre was recently offered an invitation for the CFL Combine in March, held in Winnipeg, Man. His GoFundMe has a goal of $10,000, estimated to cover travel, hotel and participation fees. He was offered the invitation to the combine as a standout athlete. Throughout this past season

Québec all-star team in 2022.

Jonathan Collin, a former McGill football player, is also very familiar with the expenses and commitments student-athletes have to endure. Collin joined Fondation Aléo—a foundation that provides financial aid to Quebec student-athletes—in 2014 after completing his degree in education. He currently works as the coordinator of the bursary program.

Collin says expenses go beyond standard fees for participation.

“Access to infrastructure, but also quality infrastructure, is a huge barrier,” said Collin. “If you’re an athlete who’s good at karate, for example, and you live in Lac-St-Jean, pursuing your sport is extremely difficult […]

In order to continue, you have to be financially able to move to a different region or travel between them.” Collin confirmed that the majority of requests come

board. Everyone is hurting.”

Dominique Grondin-Allard was a university athlete in the United States. Originally from Boisbriand, Que., she committed to the University of Louisiana Monroe on a scholarship for waterskiing, a sport which she says is expensive in itself.

“To get in [to the sport], your family has to at least be a little comfortable [financially],” she said.

“But, once you get in, you realize how expensive it actually is. Then you have two types of people, those whose families can afford everything, and then you have the ones who work at different ski schools in exchange for a space to train.”

Grondin-Allard’s scholarship did not cover her full tuition, cost of living and other fees. As a graduate student, she had to dedicate hours working on campus to make ends meet. In doing so, she was limited to work 20 hours a

ly challenging, relying on extra cash-paying jobs such as tutoring.

“You’re at an age where you feel like a financial burden to your parents,” said Grondin-Allard. “I’m over 20 and still calling my parents a couple times a year being like ‘I’m too broke. Can you help me out?’ it’s not really doable.”

Although the financial barriers feel insurmountable, and elite sports can be a deterrent because they are “filled with problems,” Collin remains optimistic.

“What we do [at Aléo], I believe profoundly in. Sports is a school of life that is very difficult to replicate and that there’s an enormous value in combining your sport and your studies and the rest of your life.”

To support Dawson Pierre in his journey to the pros, donations to his GoFundMe can be made through the online version of this article.

Hockey’s financial gatekeeping

their children in hockey. A 2015 Project Play report, cited in 2023 research by Dr. Teresa Anne Fowler, assistant professor at Concordia University of Edmonton, named household income as the leading contributor to participation in organized sport.

Moreover, Fowler’s research emphasized that hockey has steered away from amateurism towards professionalism, driven by a culture of accumulating gold medals and international recognition. This elitism only exacerbates expenses and renders high-level hockey utterly inaccessible for children whose parents cannot invest every cent and second into potential hockey careers.

Today, aiming to be part of the 0.001 per cent of young players who will make it to the NHL automatically requires major financial investments and sacrifices from families. More professional hockey players than ever before have received specialized training in hockey academies and private schools which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Technological advances in

hockey are also to blame for hockey’s unaffordability. In an interview with the New York Times, Joe Thornton, a former NHL player, confided that, had he started hockey today, it would have been inaccessible for him and his parents. He highlighted that, back then, $12 wooden sticks were the norm while currently, composite sticks cost upwards of $100 and are seen as a necessity.

“It is commonly accepted that the cost of hockey is beyond many families,” Fowler highlighted, which is apparent when considering financial assistance programs, like Jumpstart and the Hockey Canada Assist Fund. But Fowler added that these programs do not address the elitism born out of the exclusiveness of hockey.

Beyond class status, hockey is also often reserved to white, cisgender and heteronormative male players. Hockey’s history is plagued with racism and sexism, which is intrinsically tied to Canada’s colonialism and nationalism.

Hockey’s development alongside Canada as it became an in-

dependent nation after colonization meant the sport “internalized what it meant to build a nation: a need to be strong, masculine, and white,” stated Fowler.

Today, this culture of toughness lingers and continues to exclude potential players based on race, gender and class.

Even without aiming to go pro, playing hockey can offer a wealth of benefits for young minds: healthy living habits, a sense of place, increased self-esteem, confidence, teamwork, and communication skills, as well as improved mental well-being.

However, gatekeeping hockey to a very select demographic only promises the perpetuation of a dangerous elitist culture, and not the inclusive culture that is only just bourgeoning.

Canada boasts itself as an inclusive and equal nation, but its own national winter sport often fails to represent these values.

Granted, steps are made towards achieving equality, but currently, not every kid has a shot at playing hockey, sometimes purely based on their parents’ income.

Canada’s national winter sport remains largely unaffordable to low-income families SPORTS

Alice Martin

@_alcmrtn

ast year saw promising other massive hurdle that direly L strides towards making needs to be addressed is hockey’s hockey accessible to a wider inaccessibility to kids from workrange of players. Notably, the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League is proving to the next generation of women that they can become professional hockey players too. Additionally, pushback from NHL players against the league’s ban on themed jerseys is showing that hockey may be on track towards a more inclusive culture.

Despite racism, sexism and homophobia being rampant in the sport, an-

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ing-class families.

Ice hockey was determined to be the most expensive youth sport, above skiing and snowboarding, according to data from the Aspen Institute’s Project Play and the Utah State University 2019 Youth Sport Survey. In one year, a family is expected to spend an average of $2,583 USD on equipment, travel, registration fees, camps and lessons.

With the average income in Canada reaching $50,500 in 2019, the cost of playing can be a major deterrent for families to register

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 19

THE CLASS ISSUE

The socialist past, present, and future of soccer How class struggle laid the foundation for the world’s game SPORTS

Elias Grigoriadis

n August 2017, French soc- of England’s upper class—veheImain cer club Paris Saint-Ger- mently refused to allow “procommitted to paying fessionalism” into the game as $420 million USD in transfer fees for just two players.

This wasn’t the first insane expenditure from a club and it wasn’t the last, but it seemingly was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Spending in Europe’s five biggest leagues has become increasingly dangerous, inflating the values of players and enabling clubs to charge what would’ve been world-record transfers fees just a few years ago for players who do not warrant such a price tag.

Given that the sport’s transfer market over the past 50 years has inflated to obscene heights, those with the deepest pockets have consistently found themselves higher up the pecking order.

This is where the idea that soccer is a capitalist sport gained traction.

However, in order to truly understand the socialist and working-class history of soccer and how it saved the game on a number of occasions, you need only look at it’s very foundation: Back when Manchester United and Manchester City went by the names Newton Heath and Ardwick, years before Liverpool, Barcelona, or Real Madrid were even founded.

Soccer began as a game for school boys to stay active. As its popularity grew, society’s upper class began to formalize the rules, the most notable being the rule that you could not be paid to play the game. Unable to compete due to the physical and monetary demands of playing at the highest level without any kind of wage, clubs from working-class towns were struggling to find real success.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the game was at a crossroads. The Football Association (FA)—whose board members were all part

it would somehow cheapen the sport.

What it did in reality was ensure the sport’s only governing body at the time could stubbornly maintain its grip on a sport that would end up going nowhere without the support of the working class and its teams. After realizing the limited potential soccer had if catered solely to the whims of the wealthy, the FA finally allowed clubs to pay their players, setting off a series of events that would lead to the soccer we know today.

Soccer’s popularity truly skyrocketed in the 20th century. With professional and amateur leagues appearing all over Europe and South America en route to becoming the most widespread game on the planet, soccer ascended the sports world. It had now become a cultural phenomenon that fans would cling to for dear life.

As such, different clubs would represent their communities both in ideology and representation.

For example, Spanish club Athletic Bilbao has maintained a policy since 1912 to only sign players born or raised in the Basque region in northern Spain and western France. Other clubs have embraced the working-class and socialist history of their origins by putting those ideals into practice.

Left-leaning supporters groups are commonplace in stadiums all over the world, but many have made it a core tenet of their—and by association their club’s—identity. Arguably the most famous is Celtic FC’s Green Brigade who can be seen at every game flying flags in support of Palestine and other oppressed communities as well as adopting an explicit anti-fascist and anti-imperialist stance.

Other clubs’ supporters groups have carved out their own leftist identities such as the Triangle of Brotherhood comprised of the fans from Greece’s AEK Athens, Italy’s AS Livorno and France’s Olympique de Marseille.

This phenomenon is not ex-

20 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

GRAPHIC ELMIRA AYATIZADEH clusive to European clubs, however. All over the world, supporter-owned clubs have not only been able to consistently operate at a high level, but have found tremendous amounts of success there. In Brazil, most clubs are owned by their members as notfor-profit organizations including all but six of the league champions from this century.

While less successful, fellow Brazilian club Esporte Clube Bahia saw the fans themselves take over the management of the club for nearly a decade. They were able to focus on creating a more inclusive environment for fans, combat racism, and bring a more sustainable environmental policy to the club.

Some clubs in Europe follow a similar model, with German clubs being prohibited from any single person or company owning a majority stake. This means that one of the biggest leagues in the world that includes Bayern Munich— one of the most successful clubs ever—has been able to thrive while not relying on massive financial takeovers in order to compete.

How do they do that? By simply ignoring the madness and not buying into the craze that is

a hyper-inflated transfer market.

Despite not spending hundreds of millions every year, they are consistently ranked amongst the best teams in Europe by recruiting locally and sticking to their own philosophy rather than going after the most expensive stars.

That philosophy is also what led to a resounding rejection of an invitation to join a league that would undermine hundreds of clubs and threaten thousands of jobs.

In 2021, a breakaway competition named the European Super League was presented, featuring some of the top clubs and players in the world. This in turn created an existential threat for many professional leagues and clubs all over Europe due to the arrival of a $5 billion USD investment from American bank JP Morgan going to the already massively wealthy few clubs at the top of the game.

The response was nothing short of overwhelming, coming from every corner of Europe. In the face of the most blatant attempt at a capitalist takeover of soccer, fans from all over united in protest and sent a definitive message, sending most clubs back to reconsider their involvement.

While it’s easy to point at inflated transfer fees and salaries, surging ticket prices, and greed from some of the top clubs in the world as examples of late-stage capitalism corrupting soccer, it’s important to remember that the very history of socialism itself is rooted in anti-capitalist struggle.

There are thousands of professional clubs and significantly more at the amateur level around the world.

Only an infinitely small percentage of soccer could be characterized as capitalist and an even smaller portion as greedy, they just get the most publicity. The rest of the game is simply regular people trying to make a living by doing what they love. The rest belongs to us, the people.

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Tropicalization of the West Indies & Latin America Economies crash, elites thrive, lands gentrified for westerner's holidays.

OPINIONS

GRAPHIC ADAM GIBBARD

Camila Colmenares B.

@cbc2x

happy you want to travel the Bahamas, initiated campaigns colonizers had chosen for the is- tries in any way possible, through ing to also minimize the spread Ihopeamto Latin America, though I to portray the islands as tropical land. The exhibition also aimed what Nobel Prize winner Derek of COVID-19. However, the plan that while you do so, you paradises. to encourage Black Jamaicans to Walcott describes as “the shame required either a vaccine or a negacherish and respect our countries and cultures. When I tell people I'm Colombian they often respond: “Really? I wanna travel to Mexico!” Other typical conversations revolve around drugs, or some sort of fetishization of either my ethnicity or my body. This makes it really hard for me to inform people of their ignorance (and racism) whilst also not contributing to the stereotype of the feisty Latina.

I have been fetishized and approached by Western tourists in my own country, even as a minor, and have seen people getting displaced from their homes to make space for hotels.

Let me take you back to before we thought of the Caribbean as paradise on Earth. Towards the end of the 19th century, British colonial administrators, white elites, as well as American and British hoteliers in Jamaica and

Due to slavery in the West Indies, Indigenous groups and colonizers alike died of fever, malaria and cholera. Colonizers began promoting tourism in the region as a way to remove people’s fear of getting infected on these islands, largely using photographs and decorative language. Many of those involved in tourism used this imagery in an attempt to boost the trade of agricultural products which were mostly locally grown fruits. These images displayed “picturesque natives,” who appeared “civilized” in order to persuade Western tourists to visit their countries.

This staged imagery to promote tourism was and still is exploitative, let alone when it is spearheaded by white colonizers.

Towards the end of the 19th century, an exhibition took place in Jamaica, as another attempt to boost the economy of “the New Jamaica,” with the narrative that

be part of the industry, and when they chose not to attend, a newspaper claimed that they were a dead weight in the development of the colonial project.

‘Tropics’ refers to the region between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, precisely where the West Indies are located. ‘Tropicalization,’ a term coined by Krista Thompson, refers to “the complex visual systems through which the islands were imaged for tourist consumption.”

Colonial portrayals of the region, depicting the islands as tropical paradises that promise a slice of heaven on Earth, are designed to attract Western tourists into visiting the Caribbean and promoting local economies managed by Western colonizers. However, the exploitation of Indigenous labour and the extraction of this region’s resources specifically to serve these tourists, fails to be mentioned. Latin American countries and the West Indies fall victim to advertising their coun-

of necessity.” This shame comes from the dependency on tourism to maintain the economy of these states. It is absolutely key to mention that France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and other colonial forces, have stolen and exploited the natural resources of Latin America since the 15th century.

To this day, these countries have benefitted from the wealth gained from our natural resources, while we are left only to watch it happen.

The detrimental impacts of tropicalization in Latin America are evident, as exemplified by the Dominican Republic’s implementation of tourism policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an attempt to diminish the pandemic’s economic impact in the Dominican Republic, the Minister of Tourism implemented “The Responsible Tourism Recovery Plan.” This policy allowed for tourism to continue in the Dominican Republic while also promis-

tive test to enter the country, but this didn’t reduce the risk of infection. Policies aimed at bolstering Latin American countries' dependency on Western tourism had a hand in the COVID-19 deaths of at least 1.5 million people in this region by allowing exposure from outside of the country.

The tropicalization of Latin America and the West Indies is fundamentally a contradiction.

Latin America is made up of 33 countries, all with unique cultures and customs. Westerners assigning Latinos to stereotypes is dehumanizing and reduces a pluralistic group of people into a monotheistic image. These stereotypes rooted in colonialism are commonly used for comedic and entertainment purposes, but this does not make the comments any less racist.

The economics of thinness To be rich is to be thin OPINIONS

Lory Saint-Fleur

@itsjustloryy

eing thin will never go out ing thin on wealth, relationships, “a moment on the lips, forever physical appearance and her especially women, will do anyBWhile of style. and discrimination, especially on the hips,” or “nothing feels as marital prospects, including the thing to be thinner, as it is their the ideal body for women who have unrealistic good as skinny feels” are socially likelihood of marriage and the currency for a better life. varies throughout different cultures and countries, this social standard often rings true. In some societies, such as Western and European societies, thinness is highly valued and associated with attractiveness and success. This standard is easier for some to reach than others—and there is a concrete correlation between thinness and wealth.

The economics of thinness explores the overlooked impact of weight loss and bethelinknewspaper.ca

beauty standards enforced upon them by society.

The positive perception of thinness is presented to us very early in Western media. Growing up in the early 2000s, I watched shows like The Biggest Loser and America's Next Top Model. These shows are among many that have altered the brain chemistry of an entire generation.

The focus on being skinny and becoming skinny at any cost has fostered an environment in which “motivational” slogans such as

accepted.

Being attractive in conformity to social standards makes you more respectable, more approachable, and it makes access to wealth easier. In fact, skinny women are more likely to marry rich men, according to a study. It suggests that a population with a higher number of women than men intensifies competition for partners, influencing women's body image and dieting inclination.

Additionally, the research found a link between a woman's

socio-economic attributes of her spouse. It concludes that thinner women tend to marry wealthier, more educated partners compared to their heavier counterparts.

The social prejudice around fatness is in connection with being lazy, unhealthy, unintelligent, and being unsuccessful. Fatphobia is described as the implicit and explicit bias of overweight individuals that is rooted in a sense of blame and presumed moral failing. Understandably, people,

However, stress, time and responsibilities make it difficult to lose weight. To be thin is to be privileged, as wealthier individuals have better access to personal trainers, nutritionists and organic foods. They can afford to prioritize their health at all times.

Historically, fatness was frequently associated with prosperity and abundance in different cultures, including the Western.

Continues on p. 22

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 21

THE CLASS ISSUE Continued from p. 21 It was a sign of affluence and power indicating access to food and resources.

Today under capitalism, the standard is reversed, and the pursuit of thinness began.

Body standards change because wealthy people will never want to be mistaken for less. They will follow the trend that distinguishes them the most from the lower class.

The aesthetic of old money and quiet luxury was extremely popular on TikTok in 2023. Associated with this style is an elegant way of dressing, hobbies like horse riding, and most importantly, being white and thin.

We can make an example out of Kim Kardashian. While she’s done various procedures during her life to attain a somewhat extreme hourglass figure, which has been the center of her popularity, the public has seen her slowly get smaller. If you were on the internet in 2022, you would know that Kim lost 16 lbs. in three weeks to fit in a Marylin Monroe dress for the Met Gala. The healthy amount of weight to lose per week is usually a pound or two, so you do the math.

Many have theorized that Kardashian change in appearance stems from wanting to have more professional legitimacy for her brand and to pivot the public’s perception of her as a member of the Kardashian family to a serious businesswoman and lawyer. Thin-

ness is seen as a symbol of refinement and sophistication associated with higher social classes.

Classism has led to rigorous beauty standards as it upholds idealized bodies that exclude diverse body types. Only through body positivity can we challenge these norms, advocate for a more accepting society in order for people of various shapes and sizes to be put in the limelight.

Well-being should be prioritized over conforming to narrow beauty ideals. Promoting a more inclusive and diverse understanding of beauty will lead to a healthier society. Ultimately, true wealth lies not in the constraints of societal expectations but in the richness of embracing diverse forms of beauty and well-being.

THINNESS IS AN UNREALISTIC BEAUTY STANDARD ESPECIALLY UNDER CAPITALISM. ARCHIVE (HARPER’S BAZAR COVER 1897)

Resellers are killing thrift culture The threads of affordability are becoming increasingly frayed OPINIONS

Safa Hachi

@safahachi

GRAPHIC SAMANTHA LEPINE hen I was a toddler, popular stores we could not afford W I remember going to at the time such as The Children’s Value Village with my mom to buy clothes for myself and my siblings.

The economy was rocky; my parents were saving up to move to a bigger place while my mom was getting her degree in early childhood education. These were all reasons to shop second hand.

Toys, books, shoes, clothes at lower prices, plus it was an added bonus that it was good for the environment.

The clothes came from the

Place or Justice, the only difference being the price. Considering the clothes were previously worn, there was a certain negative connotation associated with thrifting at the time.

Many felt very comfortable voicing their concerns about thrifting being dirty and risky as we were buying used clothes. This did not change my family's shopping habits and I still thrift to this day, but there has been a shift in the way people view thrifting.

Now, I would argue that you are more likely to be judged if

22 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

you don’t thrift. This is another example of how the pendulum always swings back and forth when it comes to opinions or ideologies.

Not only is thrifting more common but it has become a popular trend. Like all things that get extremely commodified in our capitalist society, aesthetics are meshing with trends and consumerism.

The rise of fast fashion, characterised by the quick production and replication of trendy designs, is one of the main contributors that has played a pivotal role in reshaping our shopping habits. This approach not only accelerates the turnover of styles but contributes to the environmental impact of discarded clothing.

The ever-changing and fastpaced culture of trends, fueled by the need for constant novelty, has transformed thrifting from a necessity borne of economic constraints into a fashionable pursuit.

The true essence of thrifting, once associated with sustainability and frugality, is now linked with the rapid turnover of styles dictated by the fast fashion industry.

This shift has consequences— not only for the frequency of shopping but also for the pricing

within thrift stores. As demand for specific aesthetics surges, thrift stores are compelled to adjust their pricing to reflect consumers’ newfound appetite.

Clothes are being bought, donated and replaced at an alarming rate. The more we are buying the more likely we will donate. The upsurge in donations is one of the big reasons prices are rising, especially in bigger cities.

Thrift stores, once havens for those with limited means, are now challenged by the commodification of aesthetics, driving prices higher and limiting access for those relying on affordability.

Enter the final boss: Depop.

The popular mobile shopping app allows users to buy and sell a wide array of secondhand items with a particular focus on fashion.

The platform embodies the paradox of contemporary thrifting.

The very concept of affordability, a cornerstone of secondhand shopping, is eroded as Depop users, driven by trends, mark up prices of their so-called unique finds.

I'm not here to shame the fashion enthusiasts, especially not those who use depop for good such as upcycling or offering vintage clothes for a wide range of sizes at reasonable prices. But perhaps it's time to acknowledge

that not everyone is meant to be a Depop reseller, especially when your entire career relies on tripling the price of baby tees found in the baby section, then marking them as vintage to lure in buyers and make a substantial profit.

At the end of the day, those who are buying from said resellers are also contributing to the problem.

The rise of Depop exemplifies how even within the realm of secondhand shopping, economic disparities persist, with unethical practices hindering access for those who need it the most.

In this intricate dance between trends and affordability, the lower class is disproportionately affected.

I remember thinking to myself “the end is near” when I saw a North Face puffer hanging from the ceiling of my local Value Village locked in a glass box with the price tag reading $200. Sure, the puffer originally retails for over $400, but I don’t think that justifies a triple digit price tag or the coat being locked up, especially not at a thrift store.

Exploring the shifts in fast fashion, changing aesthetics and the influence of platforms like Depop are crucial to understanding how thrifting goes beyond fashion, becoming an economic issue.

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THE CLASS ISSUE

Journalism, the mouthpiece of the elite Barriers for non-upper class journalists may spell the end of an already declining industry OPINIONS

Ellie Wand

GRAPHIC SARA SALSABILI ach year, The Canadian Nikki Usher’s News for the Rich, sands per year. As with most highE Association of Journalists White, and Blue: How Place and er education, those who attend releases a diversity survey. Power Distort American Journal- tend to be those who are fortunate This survey lists demographic data of various Canadian newsrooms. Absent from this report, however, is one of the most underrepresented groups in modern journalism: the working class.

Class is also not listed in the Review of Journalism’s 2023 diversity report. In fact, class in Canadian newsrooms is so understudied that relevant data for this article was difficult to find. This, in itself, is an issue.

But class is recorded in the United Kingdom’s journalism diversity report. According to the report commissioned by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, 72 per cent of U.K. journalists had at least one parent in one of the three highest occupational groups.

Among the broader British workforce, the number is only 44 per cent. This means U.K. journalists are twice as likely to be from higher-class backgrounds.

This is also an issue in the United States, some argue.

Batya Ungar-Sargon’s Bad News calls out the American media for being elitist. And

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ism argues that modern media is produced, consumed, and catered to the rich and the white.

There is little reason to believe Canada is much better, but as there are few surveys that study class in Canadian journalism, it is difficult to know just how pervasive this issue is.

The elitism starts at the barred gate blocking the entrance to the industry. Journalism is built on connections and networking; breaking in as a newcomer is a difficult task. The decline of print media—and the rise of social media—has made this entrance even harder, as ad revenue has taken a nosedive, resulting in smaller newsrooms and fewer jobs. Just this year, the Canadian journalism industry has seen hundreds of layoffs at mainstream outlets, such as the National Post and Groupe TVA. Corporations’ responses to Bill C-18 have also resulted in media being ousted from major social media platforms.

For many, journalism school is one of the only doors into this declining industry. However, j-school is expensive and time-consuming.

Canadian j-school tuition rates range from $5,000 per year to tens of thou-

enough to have parental support, or those who can afford the tuition and lost wages from time not working. To top it off, internships, which are the foot in the door for many, are often unpaid.

A career in journalism is not often lucrative, either, which makes it difficult to repay student debt. According to Statistics Canada, the median hourly rate for journalists in Quebec was $32 per hour last year. Glassdoor Jobs places the average income for Canadian journalists at $57,605.

Coupled with the rising cost of living, the housing crisis, as well as the inconsistent hours and the lack of benefits for new and freelance journalists, a career in journalism is near impossible to pursue without money.

From the start, journalism has a filter which makes it easier for those of higher class to succeed.

They can better afford j-school.

They’re also more likely to have connections within the industry, as they’re more likely to be from a similar social class. This is an issue that needs addressing for a number of reasons. Most prominent for journalism, however, is that the under-representation of people of different backgrounds results in an echo chamber, and a

breeding ground for nepotism.

Journalism is a public service.

Its purpose is to inform the public, unbiasedly and without agenda, and to shed light on issues, people and events of public interest. It cannot perform this function well if it actively disadvantages a section of the population it purports to serve. It is, of course, impossible for journalism to be completely unbiased. However, diversity of thought and experience are essential to providing coverage that is as well-rounded as possible. Without it, the industry only serves as an elitist mouthpiece, detached from the public they’re writing for.

The result: the public stops reading. Journalism becomes written by the elite, read by the elite, and eventually, written for the elite. And the industry, without broader public engagement, continues to decline.

Some might say this argument is insider-baseball; that all industries which require higher education are less accessible to those of lower socioeconomic status. This is true. Those with more money have more options in most circumstances. However, classism in journalism is a uniquely pressing issue, as it directly impacts the function of the newsroom and has the potential to become detrimental to it.

Public trust in the media is already trending down. According to Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital Report, only 42 per cent of Canadian respondents regularly trust their news, with younger Canadians being less trusting than older Canadians. That’s less than half of the population, and that number is not likely to be re-established without systemic change.

So, what can be done to fix the problem? Well, for starters, the industry needs to scrutinize the recruitment process, all the way down to j-school admissions. Journalism needs to ground itself in the people it serves—including the working class. And that starts with hiring from them.

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPECIAL ISSUE 23

THE CLASS ISSUE

Art school doesn’t make you an artist The institutional barriers to pursuing creativity full-time OPINIONS

Lory Saint-Fleur

@itsjustloryy

from a family of artists. From the artist to art collectors, school and having an impressive ity of certain artists. They can make fancy school and getting a degree.

Itocome To be an artist is to create Artists who moved on it has been a world offered to the portfolio is palpable. The focus or break someone’s career. Having the chance to network with them whatever your heart desires. To be doing what is considered a richest among us. on formal education leads to the stable job. My dad, a painter for most of his youth, became an accountant. One of my cousins, an excellent pianist, is pursuing a career in engineering. As for me, a musician and aspiring writer, I have chosen to pursue my degree in economics.

The artsworld has always been hard to enter. Becoming a successful artist who can live off their creativity happens to only a handful of people. Acquiring the title of artist has now been blocked by obstacles of elite schools and extraordinary teachers. Am I not considered an artist because I have chosen another path? Would I have chosen this path if being an artist had a better guarantee?

Classism has been interconnected with art for years.

The opportunity to go to a great art school and master your craft is a privilege. It is expensive and a financial burden for aspiring artists who come from lower-income households. This implies that remarkable future artists are stopped in their journey before having the chance to prove themselves.

Contrary to other fields, a degree in arts has a lower guarantee of making your money back, which makes the risk scary to many. Those in higher economic classes cannot only afford it, they can also afford to fail and jump to the next best thing.

Furthermore, students from more privileged backgrounds may have had access to private lessons and art materials throughout their earlier education which gives them a head start on their peers.

The emphasis on going to art

erasure of alternative pathways to artistic success. Numerous famous artists are self-taught, including Vincent van Gogh, one of the most influential painters of the 19th century.

Money buys opportunities and frequently, money buys success. Arduous work can achieve these too, but under different circumstances.

For emerging artists, the cost of creating and displaying their art includes studios, materials, and much more. Galleries tend to favour artists with a formal background, which makes it challenging to accomplish a distinguished career without credentials. As the world is built on networking and personal connections, coming from a higher economic class makes it easier to enter the circle of art collectors, galleries and institutions. Wealthy art collectors have a considerable influence on trends and the visibil-

through school events or affluent parents is an advantage.

The relationship between class and art is complex, particularly within the realms of art education and the art world. But to be an artist is more than going to a

an artist is to be proud and sometimes disappointed in your art. To be an artist is to have an imagination beyond boundaries. To be an artist is to enjoy sharing emotions and moments with the world.

GRAPHIC SEMIRA KOSCIUK

10 ways to not pay your rent (and get away with it) New year, same tax bracket OPINIONS ith the holiday season in W our rear-view mirrors, your bank account is likely looking a

bit… sad. However, your landlord is sure to still come knocking on the first of the month to put that final nail in the financial coffin.

But what if I told you there’s a way (or ten) to skip your rent?

1. For those with a landlord who might be on the older side with some memory issues… didn’t you already pay? Gaslight them. It’s hard times in this economy. I’ll forgive you.

2. Just ignore the issue. If your landlord has the memory of an elephant, well… maybe you don’t.

Claim some medical condition that affects your

Casey Kiss

3.

4.

5.

@cm18141

memory; they can’t be mad at you for that.

There’s the handy trick of a few swift kicks to those appliances they’re responsible for. I mean come on, how can they make you pay when nothing in your apartment even works?

That hardly seems fair.

Channel your inner Tom Cruise (minus the whole Scientology bit) and pull off a mission impossible.

Avoid your landlord at all costs, whether or not it involves extreme feats of athleticism. It’s that or be down to your last dime.

Your grandma died—one of the oldest tricks in the book. It’s sad and you can only use this one twice,

24 SPECIAL ISSUE • JANUARY 16, 2024

6.

7.

8.

but it’ll buy you some time if they have any sense of compassion and you can pull off a half decent performance.

This one you can only use once and you have to be prepared to run away very quickly. Uno reverse card.

Slip them the card and bolt. I mean, they can’t argue with it if A) they can’t catch you; and B) it’s just the rules. Now they owe you technically.

Murder.

While you may not be allowed pets, perhaps you sneak in a little mouse friend. I mean the place has mice and you still expect me to pay? The con is you do have to live with

GRAPHIC SEMIRA KOSCIUK the mice though, so check up on your vaccines before this one.

9. Now this is for a select few whose parents are their landlords. Guilt trip them. Parents seem to be great at pulling the guilt trip card, so you can too.

You didn’t ask to have all that childhood trauma.

They brought you into a world where you can’t possibly afford to rent on your own or even blink in the direction of buying a place—their fault.

10. Identify theft. You’re the landlord now. Hey, maybe you’ll make rent fairer and have compas-

sion for your tenants instead of being consumed by the spirit of capitalism. Just a thought.

You didn’t hear any of this from me though. While I don’t condone taking advantage of the elderly, lying about medical conditions, property damage or any of the other things that border on being or most definitely are felonies, I’m just trying to help y’all out. Don’t be a snitch. Happy savings!

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SPORTS

The Phaneuf brothers: A healthy dose of love and competition Alec and Matt compete against each other for the first time this season Alice Martin

@_alcmrtn

“I chose McGill

hile growing up, brothers W Alec and Matt Phaneuf cherished friendly competition

with each other on the basketball court in Gatineau, Que. “We'd go play with friends and then we’d just guard each other the whole time,” Alec said.

“Sometimes we’d team up and we’d win every time,” Matt chuckled.

This year, they’ve been able to put this intricate knowledge of one another’s style of play to work while suiting up for crosstown rival universities McGill and Concordia.

Alec, who is three years Matt’s senior and a third-year veteran for the Stingers, joined the team during the 2021-22 season.

“I was playing [at CEGEP de l’Outaouais] and we were losing a lot of games,” said Alec. “I was putting in good minutes and numbers, but no team really recruited me. It was down to the last game of the season and [Stingers headcoach Rastko Popovic] came to my game. He really liked the way I played and basically made me an offer on the spot.”

But when it came time for Matt to choose a varsity team before the season started, the decision was more complicated. He had the opportunity to join both the Stingers and Redbirds, and initially wanted to join Alec at Concordia.

“I chose McGill because of this guy,” Matt said, pointing to Alec.

“Basically, because we play the same position, [it] would have been really hard. It's like putting two quarterbacks in at the same time. So, going to McGill was better for me because there was less competition at the point guard spot.”

Alec agreed that Matt made a smart decision and that he would have done the same were he in Matt’s shoes. “I was hoping he would come with me to Concordia, but I think for him, McGill was a better choice,” Alec said.

For Alec and Matt, playing against each other in a varsity league for the first time is strange.

“It's like we're back playing in the park. That guy knows all my moves. I feel like he knows me so well, too. It's weird,” Alec said.

“At the same time, it's the person I guarded my whole life. It's weird environment-wise, because everybody's looking and we’re on a thelinknewspaper.ca

because of[Alec].

Basically, because we play the same position, [it] would have been really hard. It's like putting two quarterbacks in at the same time. So, going to McGill was better for me because there was less competition at the

MATT (LEFT) STANDS NEXT TO ALEC (RIGHT) IN UNIFORM WITH THEIR FAMILY ON NOV. 11 AFTER THEIR GAME. PHOTO ALICE MARTIN. U Sports court,” added Matt. “But, basketball-wise, I'm so used to it.

It's the most normal thing for me” The Phaneuf brothers both started their basketball careers in high school. Their family encouraged them to pick up a sport, and once Alec settled on basketball, Matt followed suit.

Christian Phaneuf, Alec and Matt’s father, recalled how his sons both aspired to play basketball at a varsity level when they were growing up.

“I remember thinking that it would be hard because they were smaller,” he said. “But to see them both succeed today with their physique, it’s exceptional. It takes a lot of discipline and talent.”

Both brothers settled on being point guards not necessarily by choice, according to Matt, but it was best considering their height.

Currently, at five-feet-nine inches, Alec and Matt are amongst the shortest players on their respective varsity teams.

Having a three-and-a-halfyear age difference, Alec and Matt never played on the same teams and leagues in high school nor during their time at CEGEP de l’Outaouais. Instead, they’d cheer on the other from the sidelines, something they adore. However, while on different university

teams this season, rooting for the other isn’t always easy or possible.

“It's hard because you want the other one to succeed, but at the same time, your success is detrimental to him, because we're guarding each other,” said Matt.

“Yes, I want to steal the ball from him and go get a layup in transition, but I don't want this guy to end up with the turnover. We still do our best, but it's really tough to not cheer for him when I guard.”

“Yeah, but the last thing I’d want is to get scored on by him,” Alec laughed.

On the court, Matt and Alec are easily recognizable as they both sport the number four.

“Oh God, it's kind of stupid,” said Matt when being asked about settling on the jersey number.

“Our number would be nine because in French, you say ‘Phaneuf ’. But because we're small, the smallest jerseys are always one through five. Alec had four, so [when I came in] I was just like ‘Oh, Alec’s number. I'll wear it’ because I couldn't get nine, it was like a medium, I would look stupid in the jersey.”

When Alec and Matt play against each other, games become a huge family affair. Phaneuf family members fill up a major section of the stands in the John

Dore Court at Concordia when they play McGill.

“My parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, everyone is there.

Clearly, I wouldn’t see them as often if the boys didn’t play basketball,” said Christian, who noted that on Jan. 11, the brothers’ last matchup at Concordia, 15 to 20 family members showed up.

For the brothers’ first game against each other, on Nov. 11, 2023 at Concordia, the Phaneuf family even came prepared with custom-made McGill and Concordia t-shirts.

“It was nice because it reminds [us] of why we do it,” added Matt.

“This is why we play, to talk about it after with the people we love.

If I'd been alone in this, it would suck sometimes, but we have so many supporters and it’s just so much love.”

Concordia’s latest home game against McGill on Jan. 11 was also extra special for the Phaneuf family, as both Alec and Matt were part of the starting lineup.

“It was a huge game,” beamed Christian. “Both of them were called on the starting team and they had great performances: Alec had 22 points, Matt had 11.

It was also a very tight game.”

Concordia clinched the victory in that match, 89-86, and

point guard spot.”

— Matt Phaneuf Alec was named player of the game for the Stingers.

“It’s emotional because I’ve seen [Alec’s] whole process,” Christian said, adding Alec came a long way since high school. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think he’d be this good and grow up to be such a dominant player.”

So far, Concordia has won all three of its games against McGill.

In the Réseau des sports étudiants du Québec, Concordia is ranked second and McGill, fifth.

Matt noted that the Redbirds have a young team this year.

“I really like the guys, the vibe, because we're really a young core and, you know, it'll be better in the next two, three years,” said Matt.

“We're ten rookies, and we only have three or four veterans, it's really crazy. I think we're one of the youngest teams in U Sports and that is difficult for us on the court because we have less experience.”

This season, Alec and Matt will only play against each other one more time. Fans of brotherly competition can catch Concordia play against McGill on the road at the Love Competition Hall on Feb. 17 at 2 p.m.

JANUARY 16, 2024 • SPORTS 25

LETTERS

Ónen ki’ wáhi Concordia Steve Bonspiel his column by editor-in-chief versity’s new chair of journalism, ancestral knowledge over “higher what I taught them, the guest grading papers, answering emails T of The Eastern Door and for- claiming only one person applied learning” is pretty apparent. speakers they met, the overall mes- and messages, and being a teacher mer Concordia journalism pro- for my class, therefore it was canThey know, full well, I serve sage of the course. Some of them I overall is not for the faint of heart. fessor Steve Bonspiel was originally published on Jan. 5. The Link was given permission to print it to inform the Concordia community of the situation.

After a year as journalist-in-residence, another year to develop the curriculum for Indigenous Journalism, and five years teaching the course, my time with Concordia University has come to an end.

It’s not by my own design or choosing, but the university’s “revamping” of Indigenous Journalism—a level-four, three-credit course that I invented, wrote, taught, and loved.

I made time for it because I believe in teaching students about our realities, especially non-Natives—you know, the ones who will eventually be working for CTV, CBC, and others—and they need to be sensitized to our issues.

Concordia decided to put out a call in October for someone to oversee the Indigenous Journalism program for fall 2024, which I guess means it’s expanding from the single course that I created into something much bigger.

The problem is, they didn’t tell me about it until an email from Andrea Hunter, Concordia Uni-

celled for winter 2024—a few months before class would have started.

I was baffled. I always had at least 10 students, with a small waiting list, and now, all of a sudden, one person applied? Something smelled fishy, so I asked for a meeting with her.

Sure enough, that wasn’t the whole story. Although I couldn’t confirm if the single application was truth or not, I found out they were, behind the scenes, reworking the whole thing. But I was, as she said, “welcome to apply” to the new position of assistant professor in Indigenous Journalism.

I’m writing about this because it needs to be on the public record, but also because readers need to understand how colonial institutes, even ones who say they prioritize reconciliation, are still colonial institutes, with a bottom line and agendas to fill, leaving little Onkwehón:we like me on the side.

I never went past high school in my educational journey, and I’m certainly not alone, but I know what I’m talking about, and I bring a different set of skills, knowledge, and background than your usual garden-variety journalist. The discounting of our

our communities in many capacities, including as The Eastern Door editor/publisher and Sharing Our Stories president, therefore I couldn’t apply even if I wanted to, but that doesn’t matter.

Paying lip service by inviting me to apply in spite of the inherent obstacles was gauche.

And sure, someone will come along—Joe Indian—and fill the position. Everyone will clap and Concordia will be praised for how progressive they are, but from a personal standpoint, it still hurts.

No matter who gets the job or how big the program becomes.

And yes, Concordia doesn’t owe me anything, but from having no Indigenous Journalism program to launching a full-on, dedicated space for it, well it would have been nice to have had a bit of a heads-up instead of having to chase the journalism chair for answers.

The lack of recognition for the work I put in was pretty blatant.

The students in my class succeeded because they embraced

ended up hiring at TED, and they used the year on the job to move on to the mainstream. Our current managing editor Marcus Bankuti is a former student and he has grown in leaps and bounds—his future is quite bright.

In short, the class worked, and it pushed our issues, history, and culture into the minds of future journalists. I’m hoping it grows from here and whoever takes over keeps pushing it higher and higher, with more success than I could have given it, as a full-time, developing piece that’s integral to our collectively bright future.

I had hoped for a more sympathetic ear from Concordia, at least to say thank you for what I put in, but institutions built on our land, ones that have never paid their rent, and have yet to see real comeuppance, just don’t have it in them.

They hire, fire, and move on. Next!

Besides, as you’ve surely read in the news, tuition hikes are insane, the French language is, of course, a hotter topic, and overall, Concordia is in some serious debt.

So, the writing was on the wall.

I just thought it was more graffiti.

I have too much on my plate as it is, so I welcome the break.

Teaching, finding guest speakers,

And I only had one class. I pity teachers who take on more.

But as they take on more, they become full-time, and that’s something I can never do in the other teaching role I’m in, serving our communities and fighting for—and sometimes against—our people.

It is what it is, as they say, and I didn’t write this to whine.

I thought it was important for people to know the truth, and for the public record to show what it needed to, long after I’m gone.

I’m hoping the person who gets the new job is at the very least Indigenous, but we will see. Anything else would be another slap in the face to every Onkwehón:we who applied and the students who deserve authentic representation of who and what we really are, from someone who lives it every single day.

We need to get more of our people into positions of power, and education is one way to do that, but when all is said and done, and the Indigenous services and spaces are added, and the Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen is said, and everyone seems happy, colonial institutions don’t magically change.

Their version of reconciliation is much different than ours. And there’s no truth to it.

PHOTO DOROTHY MOMBRUN 26 EDITORIAL • JANUARY 16, 2024

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LETTERS

Concordia Alumni Letter in Solidarity with Palestinians o President Graham Carr This latest escalation—which universities, as they face geno- of apartheid with a university that Concordia administration show T and the Concordia University genocide scholars argue is “a cide at the hands of Israel. That collaborates with the Israeli army the courage and leadership that Board of Governors, textbook case of genocide”—is statement must include a clear to develop weapon technology. this moment demands of us.

We, as Concordia University Alumni, are writing this letter to demand that Concordia University take a principled stand on one of the most urgent issues of our time—the ongoing and escalating genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli state.

Since October 7, the Israeli state—which human rights organizations across the world, including inside Israel, recognize as an apartheid state—has engaged in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Like any ethnic cleansing campaign, this has also included the targeting of cultural and educational institutions such as schools and universities.

The Israeli occupation forces have bombed the Islamic University of Gaza and the al-Azhar University, reducing both to rubble. As of November 4, the United Nations reported that Israel had damaged or destroyed over half of all schools in Gaza. Such numbers are almost certainly significantly worse today.

Volume 44, Issue 8 Tuesday, January 16, 2024 Concordia University Library Building, Room LB-717 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Montreal, Quebec H3G 18 Editor: 514-848-2424 x. 7407 Arts: 514-848-2424 x. 5813 News: 514-848-2424 x. 8682 Business: 514-848-7406 Advertising: 514-848-7406

made possible by the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in developing weapons and surveillance technology, engaging in historical revisionism, and building legal and ethical justifications for Israel’s crimes. They are an essential part of the material and theoretical infrastructure of dispossession in Palestine.

As such, we support the call, articulated by Palestinian academics and civil society organizations, to engage in an academic boycott of Israel. Just as the academic boycott of apartheid South Africa contributed to the liberation of Black South Africans, our academic institutions have a role to play in winning freedom for Palestinians today. It is only through Palestinian freedom that peace in the region becomes possible.

We demand: That Concordia University release a statement standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine, including academics and

demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, as well as an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine.

That Concordia University publicly commit to ending all collaboration with Israeli academic institutions, including terminating its Memorandum of Understanding with Bar Ilan University.

That Concordia University immediately and permanently suspend its Summer in Israel program, its Field School in Israel, the Goldie and Joe Raymer Travel Fellowship, the Naim Mehlab Student Travel Award, and any other internal programs which facilitate and incentivize exchange with Israeli academic institutions. We specifically support students activists' calls to end Concordia's Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies field school, “Constructing the Israeli Identities,” in collaboration with Bar-Ilan University. The program facilitates touring of colonized areas and the sanitization

That Concordia university’s financial holdings divest from any investments that directly OR indirectly fund the Israeli occupation, most notably: BlackRock, who are major investors in weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Northropp Grumman, and Bank of Montreal, who provided a $90 million loan to weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in 2021.

That Concordia University immediately cease any investigations into students for engaging in Palestine solidarity activism, and apologize to Palestinian students for slandering their activism.

That Concordia University create a publicly-accessible task force to monitor its progress on implementing the academic boycott, and that such a task force include elected representatives from the student body—including the Concordia Student Union and Palestinian organizations on campus.

In short, we demand that the

The Link is published fourteen times during the academic year by The Link Publication Society Inc. Content is independent of the university and student associations (ECA, CASA, ASFA, FASA, CSU). Editorial policy is set by an elected board as provided for in The Link 's constitution. Any student is welcome to work on The Link and become a voting staff member.

Material appearing in The Link may not be reproduced without prior written permision from The Link.

Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters 400 words or less will be printed, space permitting. The letters deadline is Friday at 4:00 p.m. The Link reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length and refuse those deemed racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, libellous or otherwise contrary to The Link 's statement of principles.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2023-2024: Voting Members: Katy Brady, Caroline Marsh, Jordan Lee Jerome-Pitre | Non-Voting Members: Adam Gibbard, Zachary Fortier TYPESETTING by The Link PRINTING by Hebdo-Litho.

CONTRIBUTORS: Julia Cieri, Hannah Scott-Talib, Ellie Wand, Leo Litke, Andraé Lerone Lewis, Sarah-Maria Khoueiry, Tshimanga M., Mohammad Khan, Olivia Johnson, Geneviève Sylvestre, Elias Grigoriadis, Elmira Ayatizadeh, Ava Shahkarami, Camila Colmenares B., Sara Salsabili, Safa Hachi, Samantha Lepine, Lory Saint-Fleur, Semira Kosciuk, Casey Kiss Covers and Poster: Dorothy Mombrun, Panos Michalakopoulos

Corrections for Vol. 44, Issue 7: In the article “Unity under scrutiny: Troubling reports cast shadow over Montreal queer nightclub” p/6-7, one of the photo captions stated that boycott flyers were held by Concordia student.This is incorrect. The flyers Concordia students were handing out read: ‘Before heading into Club Unity, please read.’ The Link regrets this error.

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Will this university continue its tacit support for Israel’s ethnic cleansing, or will it say enough is enough? When your children ask you, decades from now, what you did in this moment to prevent the unthinkable from happening, will you be able to answer them?

The Link endorses this letter and urges all Concordia alumni to sign it. Scan this QR code.

Editor-in-Chief ZACHARY FORTIER Managing Editor AUTUMN DAREY Coordinating Editor ANTHONY ISSA Creative Director MEIJI GRACE ESTRADA Co-News Editors MARIA CHOLAKOVA INESS RIFAY

Features Editor HANNAH VOGAN Outreach Coordinator PANOS MICHALAKOPOULOS Fringe Arts Editor GABRIELLE LAPERRIÈRE-LEBLANC Sports Editor ALICE MARTIN Opinions Editor OPEN Photo Editor DOROTHY MOMBRUN Video Editor DANA HACHWA Graphics Editor MYRIAM OUAZZANI Copy Editor CONOR TOMALTY Operations Manager ADAM GIBBARD Systems Administrator SHREYA SAVANT Bookkeeper MIKE TALAMANTES Distribution GUY LANDRY

JANUARY 16, 2024 • EDITORIAL 27