The Tribune Vol. 43 Issue 1

The Tribune

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 2023 | VOL. 43 |

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Martlets shine in rugby season opener against Bishop’s Gaiters

McGill TAs allege $1 million in wage theft by the university

AGSEM launches ‘No More Free Hours’ campaign to combat TA overwork

Ghazal Azizi Contributor

As McGill students returned to campus for the first day of classes on the morning of Aug. 30, they were greet-

ed by food trucks and music on McTavish Street as part of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)’s rally for better contracts. AGSEM, the union representing teaching assistants (TAs) and invigilators at McGill’s downtown and Macdonald campuses, has been in

Pop of Life!’ captures the bold spirit of the Pop Art movement

Mia Helfrich Contributor

Bright reds, yellows, and blues frame the stunning new Pop Art exhibit at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), which features works from iconic international artists

like Andy Warhol and Eduardo Paolozzi as well as Québécois trailblazers like Pierre Ayot. Iris Amizlev, curator for the MMFA since 2020, curated The Pop of Life! to be interactive, cozy, and exciting, while at the same time integrating the serious themes of political

tension, consumerism, and scientific discovery from the 1960s and 1970s.

“The art is very serious and it’s very cerebral, but it’s also very delightful and fun. It’s a real reflection on what was happening at the time,” Amizlev said in an interview with The Tribune

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pre-negotiation talks with the university since July 2023, when their collective agreement (CA) expired. AGSEM alleges that McGill steals $1 million in TA wages annually by exploiting the assistants’ labour and making them work beyond their contracted hours.

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The sky’s the limit—or is it?

McGill hosts a panel to explore the future of space colonization

Russel Ismael Contributor

space.

Howard University.

McGill hosted the eighth Interstellar Symposium from July 10 to 13 and assembled a stellar panel of experts, ranging from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers to space lawyers, to discuss how to expand civilization into

The public panel featured: Alan Stern, the engineer in charge of the NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond; Philip Lubin, director of the University of California, Santa Barbara Experimental Cosmology Group; Erika Nesvold, a co-founder of JustSpace Alliance; and AJ Link, a space lawyer from

Stern began the panel by revealing the technology NASA is researching to make traversing the stars easier.

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“Our corporate mission is to develop a fusion drive that can take us to stars in a century or less. How’s that?” Stern said, which prompted a cacophonous applause.

(Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune)

‘The

The new MMFA exhibit showcases local and global works from the ‘60s and ‘70s

McGill TAs allege $1 million in wage theft by the university

AGSEM launches ‘No More Free Hours’ campaign to combat TA overwork

Ghazal Azizi Contributor

Continued from page 1.

As the pair await a bargaining date, the union has launched the No More Free Hours campaign to combat and raise awareness about the administration’s alleged wage theft.

The campaign encourages TAs to track every hour they spend on work, from writing emails to reading course material, and to withhold labour as soon as their contract hours have been exhausted. Faculty and students who are not TAs have been asked to show solidarity by signing an open letter that calls on the university to stop the exploitation of TAs.

Kiersten van Vliet, AGSEM’s Mobilization Officer and a Musicology Ph.D. candidate, has been working as a TA since 2017. They explained that the $1 million in wage theft figure was calculated from a 2017 survey in which 48 per cent of TAs reported working thirteen hours over their contract, leading to an average of $430 of unpaid labour per person each term. Additionally, the same 2017 membership survey found that more than a third of TAs forgo medical services—such as dental or optical check-ups—due to lack of income. As AGSEM heads to the bar-

gaining table this year, van Vliet says wages and healthcare are two of their top priorities.

“Of course, wages are usually the bread and butter of every negotiation, but we really need to see an investment in healthcare,” van Vliet told The Tribune . “We need to supplement our graduate student healthcare. We’re also demanding a transgender healthcare fund for gender-affirming care because many procedures or treatments are not covered under provincial insurance.”

In addition to food trucks and music, the Aug. 30 rally featured interactive activities for passersby to learn more about the union and its new campaign. On a wooden banner, members of the community were invited to write what they would do with an extra $430 per term. Paying for groceries, rent, or therapy were among the repeated answers on the papers stapled to the board. Around noon, AGSEM hosted speakers such as rally organizer Emma McKay, Physics TA Nick Vieira, and student labour activist Alex Engler from the Concordia Research and Education Workers’ Union (CREW). Philosophy professor Marguerite Deslauriers also took the stage to encourage the McGill community to acknowledge the value that TAs bring to the university’s quality of education.

“[T]hose of us who have teach-

ing assistants swan into the lecture hall oftentimes to leave scattered words of wisdom and bog off, leaving the teaching assistants to actually engage with the students, make sure they understand it, read their work, which we mostly don’t do, give them [...] guidance, encouragement, and feedback,” Deslauriers said. “It’s just very important work. It’s really the fundaments of teaching in the university—the work done by teaching assistants in conferences and then

SSMU VP Finance Alice Fang resigns Executives delegate responsibilities as they wait for a by-election

Jasjot Grewal News Editor

Alice Fang, who was elected Vice President (VP) Finance of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) last semester, left her executive position on Aug. 18. Fang handed in her formal resignation to the Board of Directors on Aug. 7, citing personal reasons unrelated to SSMU. The remaining executives have split the work of VP Finance as they await a by-election, which fills a single vacant position during a government term.

Under Section 10.8 of the SSMU Constitution, an executive whose term ends due to resignation may either be replaced through a by-election called by remaining executives or their position can remain vacant and their responsibilities can be delegated. Additionally, Section 1.8 of the SSMU Internal Regulations of Elections and Referenda states that to fill a vacant position, “the Legislative Council may call a by-election, fill the vacancy by appointment, or delegate the responsibilities to a sitting representative.”

The Tribune talked to Amelia Whitcomb, VP Finance of the Science Undergraduate Society (SUS), to discuss the responsibilities of a VP Finance. While SUS operations are smaller-scale than SSMU’s, there are similarities among the executives’ roles. Whitcomb shared that as a VP Finance, she takes care of the legal responsibilities

of the society, as well as ensuring that all departments and initiatives under SUS have the financial resources they need.

“I do a lot of work with reimbursements [and] paying invoices. Especially with Frosh just finishing up, I just paid all the people who were involved with that,” Whitcomb said in an interview with The Tribune. “Basically, it’s just making sure that the right people get their money at the right time.”

Whitcomb also explained that the dayto-day responsibilities of the VP Finance can be handled by remaining staff in the short-

term while an election is yet to be held.

“It’s feasible for the finance staff and for other executives to handle [day-to-day operations], especially because they all have really relevant experience within SSMU already,” Whitcomb said. “In the long-term, waiting for a by-election for a month or so, I think that’ll be fine. My only concern would be if they don’t fill the position for six months or a year.”

Antonina Nikolaev, VP Finance of the History Students’ Association (HSA) and President of the McGill Polish Students’

grading.”

The Tribune reached out to the university for a statement on AGSEM’s allegations of wage theft and its No More Free Hours campaign. In response, McGill Media Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle said “The TA collective agreement expired on July 31, 2023. McGill will not make any comments regarding upcoming discussions and will let the negotiation process run its course.”

Association (MPSA), shared a similar sentiment that student clubs and associations should not be greatly affected in the interim.

“In terms of departmental associations, I don’t think it will affect us as we deal with faculty-specific student unions for our funding,” Nikolaev said. “For our clubs, I think we’ll be okay as long the VP Student Life and club finance coordinator can help with us when we set our yearly budget.”

SSMU President Alexandre Ashkir plans to present a motion for a by-election at the first Legislative Council meeting of the school year, on Sept. 11. The motion will include a schedule outlining the desired timeline to fill the position. As the date approaches, Ashkir shared in a written statement to The Tribune that SSMU executives have distributed Fang’s responsibilities—including overseeing club funding and health and dental insurance—to ensure that students continue to have their needs met.

“While it is extra work on the already very heavy executive workload, we have managed to spread tasks in a manner that allows SSMU to run unhindered and that in the short term won’t be too detrimental to our other responsibilities,” Ashkir wrote. “This distribution is temporary and once a new VP Finance is elected, they will be returned to them gradually to ensure there [are] no interruptions of service on the student end.”

Alice Fang could not be reached for a comment.

van Vliet says some TAs at the Macdonald campus work double their contracts, leading to an alleged $1,500 in stolen wages per TA, per term. (Ghazal Azizi / The Tribune )

Fang was elected on Mar. 17 and began her term on June 1. (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

Water advisories issued due to high lead levels in six McGill buildings

Advisories remain active in four buildings

Shani Laskin News Editor

On July 27, the McGill community received an alert from Interim VicePrincipal for Administration and Finance Diana Dutton that water advisories had been issued for six McGill buildings: La Citadelle, Carrefour Sherbrooke, Elizabeth Wirth, Ferrier, Thomson House, and 3647 Peel. Routine water testing found that the lead levels in the buildings’ water sources exceeded the Government of Quebec’s thresholds. Over a month later, Ferrier, Thomson House, and 3647 Peel are still under the advisory. In addition, a new advisory was issued for the Barton building on the Macdonald Campus on Aug. 25.

Exposure to lead, even in small amounts, can cause serious health issues including high blood pressure, miscarriages, and even death. Lead can enter water sources from old pipes. The Government of Quebec’s website writes that buildings built past 1989 are very unlikely to have lead in their plumbing systems.

According to McGill Media

Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle, lead tests are conducted annually. Mazerolle explained the protocols McGill follows in case water exceeds provincial thresholds—anything above five micrograms of lead per litre of water—to protect community members from ingesting the water.

“Warning signs are put up next to faucets, drinking fountains are turned off, and building directors provide information on other sources of drinking water,” Mazerolle wrote to The Tribune “If possible, community members are directed to other locations for water. In the recent case of two student residences, bottled water was provided. For Carrefour Sherbrooke, where the advisory lasted four weeks, the second step was installing reverse osmosis filters to reduce dependence on bottled water.”

Lara Landauro, U3 Science, worked as a McGill Summer Academy (MSA) Crew Member when the advisories were first issued. MSA students were housed in McGill residences and were affected by the advisories put into place. Landauro wrote

to The Tribune that, ultimately, the response was quick and the situation was handled smoothly.

“We weren’t able to drink the water from the hotel for several days. The hotel would give us

While advisories have been lifted for Carrefour Sherbrooke, La Citadelle, and Elizabeth Wirth, three downtown campus buildings have yet to be put in the clear.

André Pierzhala, Operations

use. Pierzhala shared that Thomson House was initially given two pallets of water by the university and, subsequently, he has been buying large jugs to use around the building.

“It’s a different way of operating [...] and it works,” Pierzhala said in an interview with The Tribune. “It hasn’t prevented us from running our operation. It’s not the end of the world, it’s more of a nuisance but [...] as far as a crisis goes, I prefer having this as a crisis than something that’s a lot more serious.”

Pierzhala also noted that action on the part of the administration was swift given the circumstances.

Drinking lead-contaminated water can result in health effects such as increased blood pressure and digestive problems (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

water bottles instead,” Landauro wrote. “McGill responded well to the issue, finding a solution to our problem. It would have been better if the water problem was fixed earlier.”

Manager for the Post-Graduate Student Society said that Thomson House, one of the remaining affected buildings, has been dealing with the advisory by buying bottled water for students and the kitchen’s

“This is something that crept up and surprised everyone,” Pierzhala said. “The response from the institution was extremely quick in installing filters, specifically designed to remove lead from the water. So, I have to thank them because they were very responsive, very quick.”

Further testing for the downtown campus buildings was conducted on Aug. 28, the results of which will be released in the coming days.

Super Sandwich closes after thirty-five years of business

SSMU negotiates with McGill admin about long-term leases for businesses

Caroline Sun

News Editor Russel Ismael Contributor

McGill student-favourite

Super Sandwich shut its doors on June 23, citing increasing rent. The small dépanneur, which opened in 1988 and operated out of the basement of the Cartier Building, was popular among McGill students for its affordable sandwiches. Consequently, Super Sandwich reached out to SSMU, considering the possibility of reopening on campus in the University Centre. However, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) and McGill administration are still discussing the logistics of implementing long-term leases with businesses in the University Centre.

Super Sandwich owner Mathis Lo explained the circumstances of the shop’s closure in an interview with The Tribune. According to Lo, the shop’s rent would have increased to double what they were previously paying.

Like for many other small and family-owned businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic was

a challenging period for Super Sandwich. The business was also forced to increase the prices of their products earlier in 2023 because of food inflation, which reached its highest levels in decades. When their landlord informed them of the increased rent, Lo stated that he and his family did not want to feel pressured to put in even more hours at the store as a means to pay the rent.

“We didn’t want to be tied down to the store. Now we’re in a position where we can actually decide what we want to do, [whether] we want to leave or not,” Lo said.

Additionally, Lo explained that he did not see raising prices further as an option.

“For us, it wasn’t worthwhile staying because we didn’t want to increase our prices […] we wanted to keep our prices affordable for the students, and, for us, it didn’t make sense to overcharge,” Lo said.

Quang-Hai Francis Dinh, U3 Science, sees Super Sandwich’s closure—which he described as “devastating”—as both a sign of the times and a warning.

“Both rising rent and food insecurity are growing problems in

Montreal. The hardships of small businesses [are] representative of bigger issues to come,” Dinh said. “The closure takes away one of the most popular food spots near campus. Other sandwich shops exist but the main attraction was the cheap price.”

Many students have felt the burden of high food costs at McGill leading to demands from Let’s Eat McGill last Spring for better quality

and cheaper food options. This year, Student Housing and Hospitality Services switched the dining halls from à-la-carte to a buffet-style, allyou-care-to-eat plan. In addition, students have led initiatives such as the Good Food Boxes offered by the Student Nutrition Accessibility Club, and the newly opened independent grocery market Les Fermes du Marché in the University Centre.

Currently, SSMU is considering housing Super Sandwich in the University Centre. SSMU’s Vice-President of Operations and Sustainability, Hassanatou Koulibaly, wrote in an email to The Tribune that SSMU has ongoing conversations with the Office of Deputy Provost of Student Life and Learning to be able to offer long-term leases to businesses in the University Centre in the future.

“As we currently are discussing the terms of our agreement with McGill, we cannot give the longterm leases needed for Super Sandwich and other businesses to move into the University Centre,” Koulibaly wrote. “Once we secure an agreement with McGill, we will be able to accommodate many initiatives such as Super Sandwich in the University Centre.”

Meanwhile, Lo is looking forward to reopening the store in the University Centre if the proposed lease offers long-term stability and the rent is affordable. He believes that if SSMU is willing to offer an affordable rent price, then Super Sandwich will be able to offer low prices for their products, benefiting Lo and McGill students.

Mathis and Jenny Lo took over the Super Sandwich family business in 2005 from their parents, Jerry and Jocelyn Lo. (Super Sandwich / Facebook)

A guide to the many governance structures at McGill Governance 101

Lily Cason Managing Editor

McGill’s governance structures can seem opaque and difficult to navigate. The Tribune broke down the organizations that represent the student body and how they are governed, as well as how the university’s governance apparatuses work.

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)

SSMU is the students’ union that represents all undergraduates at McGill. The organization is funded by student fees and is responsible for advocating for undergraduate students, overseeing undergraduate student clubs, running Gerts Bar and Café, and providing services, resources, and events for its constituency. Seven executives—a President, a Vice-President (VP) Student Life, a VP of Internal Affairs, a VP External Affairs, a VP Finance, a VP Operations and Sustainability, and a VP University Affairs—are elected to help run the society each academic year. Full- and part-time staff report to the SSMU executives and help carry out their offices’ work. Board of Directors meetings take place every second week and bring together four of the elected executives and eight appointed students who are responsible for administering the business affairs of the organization and supervising its management. Legislative Council meetings, which are also held biweekly, are made up of thirty councillors who make political decisions for the Society. General Assemblies (GAs) are held at least once a semester; if the quorum of 350 students is met, any member of

SSMU is allowed to vote on the motions put forward.

The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS)

PGSS is the students’ union that represents all post-graduate students and post-doctoral fellows at McGill. Like SSMU, PGSS is funded by student fees and responsible for advocating for the needs of its constituency, providing resources and support, hosting events, and operating Thomson House—a restaurant and bar exclusively for PGSS members and their guests. There are six elected executives: A Secretary-General, an External Affairs Officer, a Financial Affairs Officer, an Internal Affairs Officer, a Member Services Officer, and a University Affairs Officer. Monthly PGSS council meetings are held to help determine the long-term vision of the society, pass new policies, approve committee appointments, and serve as an accountability mechanism for the executive team. Departments are responsible for appointing individuals to represent them on the council. The Society also holds at least one General Meeting a semester, during which all members of PGSS are allowed to vote on motions put forward, provided the quorum of one per cent of the membership is met.

The McGill Association of Continuing Education Students (MACES)

MACES represents all Continuing Education Students, advocating on their

behalf, providing resources such as academic support, and assisting members with networking. Like SSMU and PGSS, the association runs on student fees. A six-member executive team governs the organization, composed of a President, a VP Financial Affairs, a VP Social, a VP Communications, a VP Academic Affairs, and a Governor. The Board of Directors is elected by the constituency for a twoyear term and meets weekly—unless the agenda indicates there is not enough to discuss. MACES holds a GA at least once a semester, and the Association’s By-Laws state that GAs have comparable legislative power to the Board of Directors.

The Macdonald Campus Students’ Society

(MCSS)

Macdonald Campus students are represented by MCSS, which oversees clubs, seeks to promote students’ welfare and interests through advocacy and support, and runs The Ceilidh—a bar and restaurant on Macdonald Campus. Like the other students’ societies, it also runs on constituent fees. The MCSS executive council is comprised of a President, VP Finance, VP Internal, VP University Affairs, VP Business Operations, VP Communications, and VP Equity and Sustainability. The MCSS Council, which is comprised of 18 core members, meets bi-weekly to review and pass policies. Open Student Society Meetings meet quorum when ten per cent of the Society’s membership vote on the presented items and are held at least once a semester.

The McGill Board of Governors (BoG)

The BoG is the highest governing body at McGill and has final say over the academic, business, and financial affairs of the University. The BoG is comprised of the Chancellor, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, twelve members-atlarge, three representatives of the McGill Alumni Association, two representatives of the Senate, two representatives of the academic staff, two representatives of the administrative and support staff, one representative of SSMU, and one representative of PGSS. Both MACES and MCSS have non-voting observers appointed to the BoG. The Board meets two to three times a semester for three hours.

The McGill Senate

The Senate is the highest democratic governing body of the University. Unlike the BoG, it has a focus on academics. Created to serve as a link between the McGill community and the BoG, it is comprised of 111 voting members and meets once a month to discuss questions and motions raised by members. Representatives from SSMU, PGSS, MACES, and MCSS serve on the Senate and advocate for students’ needs. Other members of the Senate include the Chancellor, the Chair of the Board of Governors, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, the Deans of Faculties, professors and instructors from across the university, and members of the administrative and support staff, among others.

6 2023

T EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief Matthew Molinaro editor@mcgilltribune.com

Creative Director Mika Drygas mdrygas@mcgilltribune.com

Managing Editors Lily Cason lcason@mcgilltribune.com

Arian Kamel akamel@mcgilltribune.com

Tillie Burlock tburlock@mcgilltribune.com

News Editors

Shani Laskin, Jasjot Grewal & Caroline Sun news@mcgilltribune.com

Opinion Editors

Chloé Kichenane, Liliana Mason & Monique Kasonga opinion@mcgilltribune.com

Science & Technology Editors Ella Paulin & Athina Sitou scitech@mcgilltribune.com

Student Life Editors Abby McCormick & Dante Ventulieri studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

Features Editor Harry North features@mcgilltribune.com

Arts & Entertainment Editors

Dana Prather & Suzanna Graham arts@mcgilltribune.com

Sports Editors Anoushka Oke & Julie Ferreyra sports@mcgilltribune.com

Design Editors Drea Garcia & Sofia Stankovic design@mcgilltribune.com

Photo Editor Mason Bramadat photo@mcgilltribune.com

Multimedia Editors Anna Chudakov & Alyssa Razavi Mastali multimedia@mcgilltribune.com

Web Developers Jiajia Li webdev@mcgilltribune.com

Copy Editor Matthew Adelberg copy@mcgilltribune.com

Social Media Editor Sainka Walia socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com

Business Manager Sophie Smith business@mcgilltribune.com

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Matthew Molinaro & Sophie Smith

STAFF

Ali Baghirov, Ella Buckingham, Jayda Smith

Ghazal

The Tribune Editorial Board

McGill employees will once again bear the brunt of poor administrative choices. AMUSE (Association of McGill University Support Employees) has been fighting for better living conditions and wages for residence Floor Fellows, but they now have to make yet another sacrifice: Their living space.

In March 2023, the McGill administration decided that Floor Fellows’ living space will be decreased in every residence except Solin Hall—they will no longer be housed in the more spacious rooms of the university’s dormitory residences as was customary.

In Carrefour Sherbrooke and La Citadelle, the change will simply be a reduction of personal space. According to AMUSE, in Upper Residence (Molson Hall, McConnell Hall, and Gardner Hall), Douglas Hall, and Royal Victoria College (RVC), the Floor Fellow suites—typically including a private kitchenette and bathroom—have either been partitioned and renovated into two single bedrooms, or kept intact and rented to firstyear non-employee residents, while Floor Fellows have been moved into the smallest single bedrooms available. Additionally, in Upper, Douglas Hall, and RVC, Floor Fellows will be sharing the communal washrooms with the first year students they supervise, a significant imposition on the daily-life of both students and Floor Fellows living in

OFF THE BOARD

Matthew Molinaro Editor-in-Chief

McGill’s residences.

The university justified their decision citing an increasing number of applicants for student housing. In response to this decision, AMUSE filed a grievance against McGill, stating that this decision violates articles 1.01, 4.02, 5.01, 5.02, 12.01 and 12.07, noninclusively, of the Floor Fellow collective agreement.

Floor Fellows are an essential aspect of residence life, as their job directly contributes to the experience and success of first-year students. When the barrier between their working environment and living space is broken, Floor Fellows are left with an extremely challenging student job. The assigned shifts do not account for the intimate, informal, and essential work Floor Fellows do, when living amongst students inevitably demands constant awareness to unpredictable situations and the pressures of uncompensated emotional labour. With McGill putting profits over people, conditions for everyone in student residences worsen. By eliminating the distinct privacy that comes with the traditional Floor Fellow spaces, first-year students and Floor Fellows both lose their autonomy, with the former having to share a common space with an older figure of authority and the latter mediating between being an authority figure in shared spaces and accessing personal time.

It should be obvious to the McGill administration that diminishing the living conditions of Floor Fellows will inevitably impede on the quality of their work, both in

their ability to provide for first-years and to be strong students in their own studies. Although McGill fairly asserts that students need places to live on campus, it must not be done at the expense of Floor Fellows.

Floor Fellows do the hard work of helping students navigate through their first year, compensating for the poor mental health services that McGill provides; thus, neglecting and suppressing workers’ rights only adds to an endless cycle of abuse. McGill’s fraught relationship to unions will only be overcome with serious organization and consolidation of students, staff, and professors to speak out and use their collective power to hold the administration accountable.

Given the housing and affordability crisis in Montreal, there need to be more institutional and collaborative solutions from students, activists, and the McGill administration responding to what the community needs. If McGill is unable to meet the housing needs of first-year students while providing safe and private housing for Floor Fellows and students alike, they must be more transparent with incoming students and resolve the false idea that residence can be provided for all. Appropriate living—and thus working—conditions are necessary to ensure the supposedly high-quality service in residences which McGill currently claims to offer. If the university wants to continue to offer first-years a fulfilling living experience so they thrive in residence, it must put Floor Fellows first.

Hearing queers through new ears

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The Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune, and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Tribune, its editors or its staff.

Iwas not a podcast person until the world came to a halt. But upon frenzied shutdowns, curfews, and public health measures, I turned to the auditory for its unique pleasures. Walking in my suburban Ontarian neighbourhood, I could tune in to the experiences I had not grasped as an overinvolved high schooler. Bustling city life, chaotic and ephemeral relationships, underground arts communities surfaced quietly while my choices remained anonymous. Unsurveilled, I got to visualize, create, and live a new world. These are not podcasts to

pass on. The privacy of consuming a podcast is its greatest strength. Dance, theatre, and performance art rely on an audience, visual art and photography depend on the presence of the beholder and her object, and in its specific demands for time and space, reading enacts an eventful display. Any fellow reader miffed by the question, “What are you reading?” will understand. The contents of my listening lie solely between my phone and myself, with my headphones mediating. Within this intimate relationship of technology and self comes a reckoning. Will these private forms enter public life? If they should, whose interests will they actually serve? The margins do not need to cater to the centre.

In the outskirts of Toronto, where sidewalks meet driveways that sprawl onto single-family homes, where social liberalism and fiscal conservatism emerge as rapt dance partners, where whiteness and heteronormativity more easily tangle, multiply, and destroy other life-worlds, this form of unspectacular consumption would rehearse a freer future. I feel nostalgic for the lives I have not yet lived.

These walks became an escape. At most, four hours a day— but never under one and a half and always audibly accompanied. I eagerly await the opportunity to leave the house. My feet soften on the synthetic terrain, floating above over-manicured lawns, toxins ravaging each other to appear green. The knots in my back come undone, the crick in my neck dissipates, my head unclouds itself from the fear, the hate, and the force that is now a distant memory. Quiet as it is kept, an episode ends and I queue up what is to follow. I hear queers of colour chatting about sex and culture, gossiping about the show’s producer; radical feminists talking about surviving red states, affirming why they choose to fight; Black queer and trans people discussing HIVAIDS, the lived “rainbow,” and the imperative of love in South Africa. Passing a pedestrian who does not hear the lewd joke a host has made, a bitchy remark from a guest, a cutting quip from a caller, I relish the freedom to chortle innocently. In their eyes, I might be listening to a darkly-funny true-crime podcast or on a call with an up-and-coming friend in standup. In a way they might be right. This allows my

days to pass.

The walk to campus does not take long enough for me to properly listen. The rush and unsettled horizon of university keeps my brain otherwise occupied. There are texts to read, essays to write, and events to attend. These times develop as ones in which disclosures happen and confessions occur as brief words uttered aloud in the cold, where the orange sign of a 24-hour A&W flickers, daring us to admit to one another, to pull each other closer. Private becomes public. Definitions hop off the page and into the atmosphere. I strive to dream, to inherit, and to practice what I have heard.

Some of my podcasts do not come back. The hosts have reintegrated themselves into community work, lost funding from the state and, needing to crowdsource, have disappeared from the apps. They give us what we need, and they deserve to recharge. I cannot say how much they have provided me. Their hope may be found in my bones. Relistening now allows me to reclaim what we have lost. I am overjoyed, I am breathing unburdened, and this time, if you do not mind, I will keep this experience to myself.

CONTRIBUTORS

Azizi, Charlotte Bawol, Lulu Calame, Ava Ellis, Kellie Elrick, Mia Helfrich, Izzi Holmes, Russel Ismael, Annabella Lawlor, Adrienne Roy, Maïa Salhofer, Alyssa Sequeira, Alex Zhou

Residence staff deserve more respectful conduct from first-

Jayda Smith Staff Writer

In popular media, dorm life is represented as the pinnacle of the student experience. However, often forgotten are those who make this experience possible. Light must be shed on the pillars of residence life: The staff. As thousands of McGillians are returning to Montreal, many of whom are arriving on campus for the first time, residence staff members are preparing for the most stressful weeks of their job. Amidst the exciting yet scary chaos of settling into a new city, the residence staff that help new students build

COMMENTARY

Shani Laskin News Editor

An alreadyundermined Canadian media landscape is facing further silencing from Big Tech.

In retaliation to the passing of The Online News Act, otherwise known as Bill C-18, Google and Meta announced that they will be blocking posts from Canadian news outlets on their platforms. By passing

a home often go underappreciated and overworked by McGill and by many of the first-years in residence.

Porters, janitors, security guards, floor fellows, and other staff are the heart of McGill residences, and the quality of a first-year’s experience is moulded by them. Remove them from the picture and the residences freshmen call home are suddenly just old, dusty buildings.

I spoke to a janitor during my time at McConnell, one of the three residence buildings that make up the Upper Residence. Although ready to retire, he was one of the first people to show me kindness in a new city filled with strangers.

Before he left, he took it upon himself to pass on some of his extensive knowledge to a clueless first-year in desperate need of someone to talk to. He showed me where the more secluded bathrooms were, knowing that the communal bathrooms could take some getting used to, along with the emergency exits in the event I would ever need them. He wished me luck with my studies and told me he knew I would succeed. Being one of the few Black people in Upper, having someone who looked like me and who, just like me, hailed from the Caribbean, tell me his story, brought tears to my eyes.

Although he enjoyed his work and loved meeting new people from all over the world, the waves of students arriving and leaving each year was the toughest part. These parts of the year, filled with excitement, can make first years particularly unaware, and oftentimes disrespectful. He had many stories to tell that were very amusing at first—like when a student released a live chicken in the building as an end-of-year prank—but it quickly became clear that not everyone was laughing, as it became the burden of the residence staff to deal with the situation.

McConnell’s famously lovable porter never fails in getting packages to students––it’s like every name and room number is engraved in his brain. As a confidant for many students, I remember his friendliness,

which is why it was hard to ignore the disheartening sight of soda bottles and wrappers simply left by freshmen on the tables and floors of common areas, shared by both the students and the staff.

Yet, trash left on a table seems so mild upon reflection of the horrors sighted in the common bathroom. If I could barely stomach looking at the mess, what would it have been like to have to clean it? I wouldn’t wish that task upon my worst enemy, much less the friendly staff of Upper. For all the nights when empty bottles lined the bathroom counters like some form of upcycled art décor, the cleaning staff rose with the sun and all stalls would be spotless by the time I woke up.

For many, “college student” rhymes with freedom, and some degree of carelessness is to be expected. However, as first-years transition into this new, adult chapter of their lives, they also need to hold themselves accountable for their actions, and the consequences of those actions on those who surround them.

The first year of university is an unforgettable period for those who were lucky enough to experience it. But it’s worth reminding all incoming first-years that people work to support your newfound adulthood. With this, welcome to the new set of first-years, and remember that while this experience is exciting, being respectful should be a priority.

Big tech has to pay, but Bill C-18 is not the way

Bill C-18, the Canadian government is giving tech companies an excuse to trample Canadian news.

The era of print media is fading. Gone are the days of sitting around the breakfast table with the daily paper in one hand and a coffee in the other. Rather than paying for a subscription to newspapers that will be dropped on your doorstep or turning on cable, people tend to access news by easily clicking

on links through Meta or Google. In fact, a recent poll from the Maru Group found that the most common way for people aged 18-34 to get their news was through social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.

With fewer subscribers and less revenue from ads in print papers, news outlets have been losing money for years. In an attempt to make up for lost funding, Bill C-18 requires large tech companies to

negotiate compensation with Canadian news outlets in order to share their content on the companies’ platforms. In theory, the bill has the potential to bring a second wind to Canadian journalism––outlets would have more resources to hire more journalists, invest in equipment, and improve their coverage. In doing so, the public would be better informed, fostering a critical and thoughtful society, and allowing journalism to do what it is meant to do—speak truth to power.

However, the Canadian government’s refusal to back down from its Davidversus-Goliath stance has the potential to devastate Canadian media before any good can come of the bill’s prerogatives. For Meta and Google, Bill C-18 only means extra hassle and money to host news on their platforms. Driven by profit and unconvinced by the importance of a healthy democracy, the companies have no qualms about blocking Canadian media from their platforms.

In reality, the profits that Canada provides Meta and Google are pennies to the dollar when considering their relation to ad revenue, making negotiation completely unnecessary. Meta has already begun blocking Canadian media from its platforms, with Google planning to follow suit. In order to access trusted publications, Canadians will need to become more active as readers, directly navigating an outlet’s website—a significant change for a society so accustomed to the convenience that comes with social media use.

This power play from Google and Meta severely undermines the importance of Canadian news, particularly smaller local papers. Larger publications like The Globe and Mail and CBC will certainly see the effects, but thanks to their reputation as well-established and trusted news sources, they will survive. The fate of local news, however, is less certain. Local news outlets have already been

struggling to stay afloat amid budget cuts from large parent corporations, and Bill C-18 may be the nail in the coffin.

Moreover, by blocking Canadian news, the work of student journalists is much more likely to go unnoticed. The Tribune , for instance, has had some of the most comprehensive coverage of McGill’s lawsuit with the Mohawk Mothers, writing nearly twenty stories on the case. Small papers across Canada need to be accessible and promoted. Otherwise, crucial stories go unheard.

The problem lies with the outsized power of Big Tech in our democracy. The fact that Google and Meta can single-handedly make local news inaccessible to over thirty-eight million people indicates that changes need to be made in digital media consumption. Meanwhile, news outlets cannot afford to suffer while the government tussles with Google and Meta. For the preservation of Canadian news, there has to be another route.

McGill accepted 6397 first-year undergraduate students in 2022 (Cameron Flanagan / The Tribune)

On Aug. 1, Meta began blocking Canadian media from its platforms as a result of the passing of Bill C-18. Go to our website to read about how this will affect Canadian news. (Jasmine Liu / The Tribune)

The journey of a microplastic: An unfolding story

How microplastics travel through aquatic ecosystems

Shani Laskin News Editor

From the packaging of an online order to the takeaway cup holding a morning coffee, plastic is everywhere. In 2019, humans produced 460 million tonnes of plastic, an enormous increase from the mid-twentieth century when roughly two million tonnes were produced annually. A key aspect of plastic pollution is that it comes not just from large items such as water bottles and plastic bags, but also from microplastics—pieces that are five millimetres or smaller.

We know that the scale of plastic pollution is enormous, but what happens when microplastics infiltrate aquatic ecosystems? The Ricciardi Lab at McGill is looking to understand the routes by which organisms accumulate microplastics in their bodies.

The team, led by Geneviève D’Avignon, who recently received a PhD in Biology from McGill, and advised by Anthony Ricciardi, professor of invasion ecology & aquatic ecosystems, worked to create a basic replica of a benthic food web in the lab—a network of food chains for species living at the bottom of a body of water. To do this, they used three interacting organisms: The Quagga Mussel, the Gammarid Amphipod, and the Round Goby.

The mussel and gammarid have a commensalistic relationship—where one organism is benefited and the other is neither hurt nor helped. In this case, the gammarid eats the discarded food

from the mussel, and the mussel is unaffected. In addition, both the mussel and gammarid are prey for the goby.

The study replicated the food web between the three organisms and conducted single-exposure trials in which microplastics were added to the tanks in various concentrations. In each trial, the team observed multiple paths of microplastic uptake and noted how the organisms recovered. In particular, they examined the microplastic uptake through environmental routes such as water and sand as well as how microplastics are transferred through interspecies interactions.

“We ran different tests: There was the uptake, where we just exposed the animals and looked at how much particles they took up, how much they ingested in their bodies,” D’Avignon shared in an interview with The Tribune. “And then depuration, when you put the organism in a clean environment, and once they’ve been ingesting or taking up these particles, I’m looking at how long [...] it take[s] for them to release all the particles out of their bodies.”

The researchers discerned that non-trophic interactions—that is, interactions between species other than predator-prey, like commensalism and interactions with the environment—also account for a significant amount of microplastic transfer and uptake. For instance, the mussels, which ingest more of the water-suspended microplastics, transferred those microplastics to the gammarids.

D’Avignon also noted that the depuration times were longer than she had anticipated. In

general, the study served to enhance researchers’ understanding of the food web processes that are responsible for circulating microplastics.

“We saw that sometimes particles, in the mussels, for example, would stay for [about] 72 hours,” D’Avignon said. “It means that these organisms can retain them long enough for more transfers to happen.”

To her, this was a key takeaway because outside of the lab, with many other factors at play within an ecosystem, depuration times could be increasingly affected. Particularly, in nature, microplastics are a constant presence, so organisms may be able to expel microplastics at the rates studied in the lab. However, unlike the controlled environment of a lab, they will continue to accumulate microplastics, increasing the burden on the organisms’ bodies.

Ultimately, this experiment was a preliminary study that the team hopes to continue building upon by creating more and more complex models, with the end goal of understanding inter-species dynamics more comprehensively and working to heal ecosystems from man-made pollution.

Valuable information was gleaned from the experiments, but D’Avignon explained that there is still a long way to go in order to understand microplastic transfer in complex ecosystems.

“In reality, a lot of these species interact with the water column, interact with the sediments, interact with other species,” D’Avignon said. “So how much plastic they’re actually exposed to in a day, or that passes through our system can actually be, perhaps, increased in comparison to what we thought.”

McGill’s most sci-fi courses of the 2023-24 academic year

Discover five cutting-edge classes from across STEM fields

Ella Paulin Science & Technology Editor

PHYS 534 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

This course, taught by professor Peter Grutter, aims to provide an overview of nanotechnology, a field that studies and manipulates incredibly tiny materials, ranging from one to 100 nanometres in length. To put this in perspective, a DNA double helix is typically 10 nanometres wide, and a single virus can be around 100 nanometres in diameter. Nanotechnology has a wide range of applications, from nanoelectronics to drug delivery.

PHYS 534 discusses scanning probe microscopy, a revolutionary method for collecting surface information from nanomaterials to study their form and composition. Grutter’s own research involves developing microscopes to advance nanotechnology. The course also covers chemical self-assembly, computer modelling, and the field of microfabrication, which aims to create and alter nanomaterials.

GEOG

325 New Master-Planned Cities

What if you could build a city from the ground up, considering the latest research in

urban planning, balancing the local concerns of your population and landscape, and optimizing for environmental efficiency? Increasingly, governments across the globe have been constructing cities from scratch, which can create more functional cities with higher quality of life and lower environmental impact. But designing a place where tens of thousands of people will live and work is no easy task, and some argue that these cities, which often have private money behind them, have a sinister socio-political side. This course, taught by professor Sarah Moser, explores these issues, looking at the design of master-planned cities, their cultural politics, and the impacts of their construction.

PHGY 518 Artificial Cells

There’s no better place to study artificial cells than the place where they were invented. Artificial cells, a broad term for a variety of human-made materials that replicate the properties of natural cells, have revolutionized the field of medicine since they were invented here at McGill in the late 1950s by Dr. Thomas Ming Swi Chang. Chang was an undergraduate at the time and used improvised materials to create a permeable membrane to contain hemoglobin. Chang has been a major figure in the field of artificial cells ever since and is currently the course supervisor for PHGY 518. Today, the applications of this technology include blood substitutions and drug delivery, with ongoing research working towards the goal of assembling an artificial cell that could properly be called ‘alive.’

COMP 545 Natural Language Understanding with Deep Learning

With the public release of OpenAI’s groundbreaking ChatGPT last year and the rapid advancement of human-machine interactions, computer science is one of the hottest areas of innovation, making McGill’s computer science department one of the most futuristic branches of the university. They offer a variety of classes covering AI, large language models, and neural networks, including COMP 545, which focuses on natural language understanding (NLU). NLU is a field dedicated to allowing computers to not just process and use language but also to ‘understand’ it, which requires getting at the very fundamentals of meaning in language and finding innovative ways for computers to interface with it. The course is taught by professor Siva Reddy, whose research focuses on natural communications between humans and machines.

ASPL 637 Space Law: General Principles

McGill boasts an entire institute devoted to air and space law, a developing field that has a wide range of applications, including aviation regulations, satellite-based telecommunications, and the potential militarization or commercialization of outer space itself. ASPL 637, which provides a general overview of space law, is taught by Professor Ram Jakhu, who among other things sits on the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Space Law and has edited a large-scale study on global space governance. The course looks at Canadian elements of space and communication law, as well as international law and telecommunications at a global scale.

Microplastics have been found everywhere from the Pacific Ocean to Mount Everest. (Drea Garcia

Avila / The Tribune)

Daniel Miskin of family-law firm Miskin Law says they deal with some 50 to 90 cancer cases a year from asbestos exposures.

“I hear of every type of job […] pipefitters and drywallers; floor tile installers and electricians, even a bank worker. And then jobs I’ve never heard of like a roustabout or a farrier.”

He also says that while most of their clients are 50 and older, they have had some dying as young as 14 years old.

Miskin specializes in claiming just compensation for victims of mesothelioma cancer, a cancer of the membrane on the outside of the lungs, heart, and intestines. The life expectancy for most is around a year—and there is no cure. The only known cause is asbestos exposure.

The cases Miskin and his colleagues take on are among the thousands of asbestos-caused diseases each year in Canada.

Asbestos, a known carcinogenic mineral, was widely used as an insulator and fireproofing agent due to its heat-resistant properties from the 1930s to the 1980s—until it was banned from homes in 1990. According to Statistics Canada, some 9.2 million homes occupied today were built before the ban. Most will have asbestos in them.

Canada’s history with asbestos, however, goes far beyond household use. Until 2011, Canada was one of the world’s leading asbestos producers and exporters, selling mainly to countries like India and Bangladesh. The abundance of the mineral, found mostly in Quebec, provided thousands of jobs for years—and millions in profits. It was touted as Canada’s ‘white gold.’

There was just one snag: Its dust fibres are deadly.

Inhaling these asbestos fibres can cause mesothelioma and lung cancers as well as other non-cancerous diseases, like asbestosis—a deadly hardening of the lungs.

Exposures occur when the asbestos is disturbed or damaged—it is safe when the material is intact. And disturbances can be human-caused—like breaking a ceiling or floor tile that has asbestos in it—or they can happen naturally over time with gradual degradation and crumbling.

The World Health Organization (WHO) now recognizes that there is no safe exposure threshold to inhalable asbestos fibres, urging countries to impose extremely low control limits to minimize the risks, or avoid using asbestos at all.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, eventually set out to ban the sale and production of asbestos in 2016, with the ban coming into effect in 2018, seeking to end the country’s relationship with the deadly mineral—which at one point saw the major political parties, leading academics at universities (including McGill University) and even the trade union representing the asbestos miners, all supporting the asbestos lobby.

Today, however, the deadly legacy of asbestos in Canada lingers.

Asbestos is Canada’s number one workplace killer

Official compensation statistics—while scattered by province—confirm that asbestos is still Canada’s number one workplace killer.

In British Columbia, asbestos-related deaths in 2022 amounted to a third of all workplace deaths, while in Quebec, asbestos-related diseases were responsible for 124 deaths in 2022. But many researchers and lawyers believe these figures underestimate the true burden.

The most recent comprehensive national study in 2019 estimated that asbestos-caused cancers are responsible for around 2400 cases each year, accounting for 81 per cent of mesotheliomas and 8 per cent of all lung cancer cases.

According to Cheryl Peters, a senior scientist at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and one of the study’s authors, the percentages should still hold as estimates since they were based on decades of empirical analysis. Using the latest data from 2022 puts the current estimates upward of 2,800 new cases a year.

Most victims will be in their 60s and 70s—exposed while working decades ago. But as Miskin and others are witnessing, an increasing number of workers 50 and younger are falling victim, and from non-construction-based industries—the likes of teachers and bank workers.

Lung cancer and mesothelioma make up the highest number of cases. The other types included in the study were laryngeal and ovarian cancers, which account for a smaller number.

Both lung cancer and mesothelioma normally take decades to develop. Most victims eventually go to the doctor with mild symptoms—say, a cough or shortness of breath. The doctor will tell them that they may only have a year to live.

Chemotherapy and immunotherapies can delay the spread. But the survival rates are among the lowest of all cancers. Just 7 per cent of mesothelioma victims will live past five years.

Normally the impact on victims and their families is devastating—many anti-asbestos campaigners had their interest ignited by a family member or friend falling ill.

ASBESTOS IN A FORGOTTEN REMAINS

ONCE TOUTED AS CANADA’S ‘WHITE BUT ITS LEGACY LINGERS. EXPERTS EXPOSURES STILL KILL THOUSANDS

WRITTEN

The government of Canada’s current strategy maintains the federal ban on the production, sale, and import of asbestos, Health Canada confirmed to the The Tribune.

The strategy also includes increasing awareness about the health risks and continuing expanding the online list of government buildings with asbestos in them. There is no mention of a systematic plan to remove it from public buildings.

A spokesperson for Health Canada said, “while risks related to asbestos-containing products that are already in use or installed, such as in existing buildings, are managed by existing federal, provincial, and municipal rules and regulations, Health Canada and the federal government has made efforts to raise awareness among Canadians about to the dangers of asbestos [citing Canada help pages].”

Regulations and standards are made more complex in Canada than other countries such as the United Kingdom because of the interplay between municipal, provincial, and federal jurisdictions.

The gradual phasing out of products in homes across the 1980s came from all strands of government, and ended in a federal ban in 1990.

The 2018 federal regulation is the latest major ban—coming over two decades after European counterparts. But the ban includes exemptions for industries, such as for military and nuclear industries, which anti-asbestos campaigners advocated against. Kathleen Ruff, one of the leading human rights advocates involved with the fight against the asbestos lobby, said at the time, “they seem to have, if anything, weakened their proposed regulations and succumbed to lobbying by vested interests.”

Also exempt was the chlor-alkali industry, which produces chlorine. Asbestos had historically been used in the production of chlorine in the ‘diaphragms’ that separate the two compartments of an electrolytic cell. The diaphragm prevents sodium hydroxide from reacting with chlorine. The chlor-alkali industry

CANADA’S PLAGUED HISTORY OF ASBESTOS

1876

Chrysotile was discovered in the Thetford Township, Quebec. The first commercial mine opened at Thetford two years later, Quebec’s first asbestos mine.

1906-1913

The first documented death of an asbestos worker was recorded by Dr. Montague Murray in England. From 1908, insurance companies in North America started decreasing coverage and increasing the costs for

asbestos miners.

1930-40

A report in England examined hundreds of workers in the U.K asbestos textiles industry and found one in four had signs of serious respiratory illness. All the

while, asbestos companies avoided telling their workers about the risks.

1965 - 73

As production of asbestos is growing in both developed and developing countries, documents show that The Institute

of Environment and Health, which was founded by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association, began funding leading university academics, including the likes of the late J.C McDonald at McGill University.

1980-88

Asbestos companies file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and set up trust funds, with Johns Mansville setting up a $2.5 billion fund.

1998

Canada sues France at the newly formed WTO -

BY HARRY NORTH, DESIGN BY DREA GARCIAAVILA,

IN CANADA: FORGOTTEN KILLER AT LARGE

NORTH,

is exempt from the ban until the end of 2029.

Canada’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (ECCC) justified the exemptions to The Tribune, saying, “Exclusions to the regulations were only considered in exceptional circumstances, taking into account socio-economic factors, the demonstrated absence of suitable alternatives, and with the consideration of health risks.

“For the exclusion related to a chlor-alkali facility, the exemption applied to the use of asbestos in diaphragms [...] This time-limited exclusion was provided to allow the facility sufficient time to develop and test non-asbestos alternative technologies and safely implement necessary adjustments.”

Alternatives in the chlor-alkali industry are already in use internationally. According to the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than half of the chlor-alkali corporations using asbestos diaphragms in the U.S. have already transitioned to alternatives.

Olin Corporation, one of the last three American chlorine companies using asbestos diaphragms— also with factories in Canada—stated in April that they now support an asbestos ban in the industry. Health Canada commented on the matter to The Tribune saying, “we are actively monitoring the development of alternatives and may accelerate the phase out exemptions if circumstances permit.”

and enforcing workplace guidelines, but campaigners have called them to move faster on these issues. It was only last year that Quebec lowered its exposure limit for airborne fibres from 1 fibre/mL to 0.1, following the recommendations of an independent commission in 2020 from the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).

The new airborne standard in Quebec aligns the province with Canada’s Labour Code limit, but questions remain about whether it will be observed.

Gabriel Levesque with the Asbestos Victims Association of Quebec (AVAQ) told The Tribune that workplace regulation in construction industries is already difficult to enforce.

“Does it actually matter for the construction workers [if there is new regulation],” Levesque asked. “Most of the time, it’s not even 1 [fibre/mL], it’s even higher than that.”

Construction studies undertaken by Quebec in the late 2000s showed that factories often exceeded asbestos standards, posing deadly threats to workers. And to this day, the sentiment amongst campaigners The Tribune has spoken with is that rules are unlikely to be observed.

Other provinces have become more proactive. British Columbia in June announced asbestos removal contractors will have an official government licence by the end of the year—making it the first jurisdiction in Canada to do so, according to WorkSafe BC. But most provinces’ regulations are still hazy— including for private homes.

The BAPE report stated that in 2020, the City of Westmount in Quebec, one of the more affluent neighbourhoods, was the only municipality of over 1200 in Quebec to have asbestos home renovation regulations.

Data from Statistics Canada shows, however, that there are still some 1.4 million homes in Quebec built before 1990, which may have asbestos products in them.

And despite efforts made by the federal government to increase awareness, according to researchers and campaigners The Tribune has spoken to, awareness amongst the general public still remains low— with mostly former construction workers aware of the risks. But when citizens do identify an asbestos problem, there is often confusion around what to do next—and whose responsibility it is.

Levesque from AVAQ said that one of the members in the victims association went around in circles with municipal, provincial, and federal authorities after they discovered there was exposed asbestos following a renovation.

Workers are the ones who pay the ultimate price

Since the provincial and federal action over the last five years, unions across Canada continue to hear member’s concerns—from construction and non-construction industries.

Those exposed can usually file a claim against some combination of their employer, the asbestos product manufacturer or their provincial worker’s compensation board.

But as the exposures likely occurred some decades ago, victims—who may have already been served a death sentence—face an uphill battle proving liability. Statute laws also mean there is normally a time limit of around two to three years, depending on the province, to file a claim—or victims wait until they have passed, and leave it to their families to take up the claim.

“I barely remember what I had for breakfast. It’s difficult to remember what type of pipe insulation you were using 40 years ago,” Miskin said.

The asbestos companies that are liable sought to protect themselves by filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 80s and 90s—setting up trust funds to pay out victims. The majority of these companies remain in business today.

Other workers (that did not want to be named) who have not fallen ill yet but believe they have been exposed have also expressed difficulty speaking out to their employer.

“We have double standards [with workers], we don’t treat the lives of workers as being as valuable as others. And so we just don’t take action,” Ruff said.

Across the world, WHO still estimates asbestos to be the world’s biggest workplace killer. And friends of Canada are moving to reduce asbestos exposures more drastically. The European Union announced in June they would lower the airborne regulation further to 0.01 fibre/ml, while countries like Poland have implemented a strategy of removing asbestos from public buildings.

“I think we need more openness [in Canada] and more attention on this, so that people are aware of the dangers,” Ruff said. “We still need better standards, and you don’t need masses and masses of people to speak up and stand up for protecting human life [...] but you need a certain number.”

A simple eBay search can pull up products with asbestos, despite campaigners’ efforts.

Provincial governments play a larger role setting

and uses “expert witnesses” like J.C McDonald to argues against the ban.

1999 Academics who have previously accepted money from the asbestos industry fly to Brazil to argue for less stringent

“She contacted the municipality [...] got a response saying ‘it’s not in our jurisdiction [...] contact the Institut national de santé public du Quebec’[...] They said it’s the Quebec Ministry of Health. The Quebec ministry then said ‘no, it’s not our responsibility. It’s the city’s responsibility’ [...] They went like this for like, two months [...] We never got a response.”

regulation. McDonald of McGill goes and advocates for standards some 200 times more stringent than Canada’s standards in 2023.

2011 Canada’s largest mine, the Jeffrey Mine, closes.

At its height, the mine was responsible for half the world’s asbestos production.

2012 McGill University clears J.C McDonald of wrongdoing regarding conflicts of interests, anti-asbes-

tos campaigners and researchers are furious.

2012-15

Parti Quebec is elected and cancels a $58 million loan to revive an asbestos mine. The trade unions also pull their support for the asbestos mines.

2018Prime Minister Trudeau enacts a federal ban on the production of asbestos — but against anti-asbestos campaigners, it includes many exemptions, like for chlor-alkali.

2023

Asbestos problems continue — a University of Montreal Professor tragically dies, while McGill University closes buildings due to asbestos risks.

‘WHITE GOLD’. NOW IT’S BANNED— EXPERTS BELIEVE ASBESTOS THOUSANDS EACH YEAR.

FEATURES EDITOR

GARCIA AVILA, DESIGN EDITOR

The sky’s the limit—or is it?

McGill hosts a panel to explore the future of space colonization

Russel Ismael Contributor

Continued from page 1.

The engineer also discussed how the New Horizons spacecraft was the first human-made object to ever approach Pluto and is critical in understanding the area beyond Pluto called the Kuiper Belt.

“New Horizons sounds like it’s science fiction, but it’s not,” Stern said.

“We launched the spacecraft that crossed the entirety of our solar system between its launch in 2006 and 2015. It did the first exploration of Pluto and its system of moons, and is now out exploring the Kuiper Belt, the third zone of our solar system, and it’s travelling so fast that it’s leaving the solar system.”

Although New Horizons is travelling away at a break-neck speed of 482 million kilometres per second, Lubin argues that directed energy, which uses light to sail across the stars, has the potential to leave the probe in the cosmic dust.

“Directed energy is a path forward,” Lubin stated. “It’s the only way I know of, with the exception of an antimatter annihilation

engine, to go relativistic—and by that, I mean greater than 10 per cent speed of light—and that will enable very fast interstellar missions.”

Such solar sails work by having the directed light transfer its momentum to a spacecraft’s reflectors as it bounces off them, giving it a gentle push that balloons to a massive impact in the vacuum of space.

While Lubin’s excitement is understandable, what happens when technological advancement starts to outpace ethical development? Nesvold answered that in her own talk regarding space ethics.

“So, a lot of people who advocate for building communities in space talk about space as if it’s a blank slate where we reinvent ourselves,” Nesvold said. “But it’s only a blank slate before the humans get there—we’re still bringing all our baggage and problems with us.”

Nesvold pointed out that stargazers should first look back down to earth and determine if the problems here will be exacerbated in space.

“How will [workers] be compensated?” Nesvold asked. “What happens when you are working on Mars and you lose your job, and

you can’t pay rent, or for water or air, or for a ticket back to Earth?”

Her questions grounded the audience by acknowledging that we should not repeat the mistakes made on one planet on another. However, laws will need to be drafted to ensure this, which is why lawyers like Link exist.

“My background is Space Law, and I teach Space Law, but I evolved into someone who really works on space communication and accessibility,” Link said. “We immediately start talking about colonizing space, right? And is that language accessible to people who survived colonization?”

For Link, the stars are for everyone, and humanity should maintain that.

“I think we should just take a second to think about who’s been excluded,” Link said. “Are we designing our spacecraft so that people who use wheelchairs or don’t have use of their legs can use it? How about the blind? Are we really being [as] inclusive as we want to be?”

By asking such questions, humanity will ensure a future where space has enough space for everyone.

Shrek at the beach: Would green sunscreen be worth it?

Researchers isolate the component of

Ali Baghirov Staff Writer

Eumelanin, a form of melanin typical of mammals, is a brown-black coloured pigment found in skin, hair, and eyes. It absorbs sunlight energy and transforms it into heat, acting as a natural sunscreen.

For a pigment that plays this crucial role—and many more—surprisingly little is known about its composition and biosynthesis. Dr. Jean-Phillip Lumb, associate professor in McGill’s Department of Chemistry, and his research group recently published their research in Nature Chemistry , exploring eumelanin’s composition and chemical function.

In addition to its more well-known function as a natural form of sun protection, melanin has several additional functions that are not well understood.

“Melanin is produced in certain regions of your body that are not exposed to sunlight,” Lumb said in an interview with The Tribune . “One example is in the inner ear, there are [pigmented] hair follicles. If those hair follicles get damaged and stop producing pigment, it can lead to problems with ability to balance.”

The substantia nigra, a region of the brain involved in dopamine production, also contains a type of eumelanin. “People who experience neurodegeneration have a decline in the amount of the pigment in that region,” Lumb said. “But the truth is, a de-

eumelanin

fined precise role for melanin in the brain is not available—we don’t know exactly what it’s doing.”

One of the main objectives of Lumb’s research is to understand the structure of eumelanin to provide insights into its physiological roles.

Eumelanin granules are formed in pigment-producing cells called melanocytes, within football-shaped compartments called melanosomes. Inside them, a naturally occurring amino acid L-tyrosine becomes oxidized, causing it to lose electrons. This part of the process is well-documented; however, researchers still don’t fully understand what happens after oxidation. The next step is thought to be polymerization: The formation of a long ‘string’ of smaller subunits.

“What we think happens is that L-tyrosine gets oxidized [into] DHI [5,6-dihydroxyindole], and then DHI continues in this oxidation-polymerization pathway. Up to the work that we did, nobody had ever been able to isolate anything from the oxidation of DHI,” Lumb shared.

DHI is further oxidized into indole-5,6quinone (IQ)–after which everything gets more complex. Polymerization likely accompanies this oxidation, making it hard to isolate IQ. To tackle this, Lumb’s group chemically modified DHI by adding bulky groups surrounding the periphery of the DHI molecule, making polymerization difficult. By doing so, only oxidation occurred—allowing researchers to study the process in isolation.

that has sun-screening properties

Lumb’s research group soon discovered that some of eumelanin’s components possess its properties. Semiquinone radical (SQ)—an intermediate between DHI and IQ—has paramagnetic properties just like eumelanin, which is very unusual for a biomolecule. Equally interesting is that greencolored IQ exhibits sun-protective properties reminiscent of those of eumelanin.

Eumelanin-derived sunscreen would be different from our traditional reflective sunscreens, such as zinc oxide, which reflect light and typically have white or light color. Absorptive sunscreens absorb radiation and transform it into something innocuous, like heat, instead of giving it off in the same form, rendering it less dangerous to the skin.

“That is exactly what eumelanin does—

it is extremely good at converting light energy into heat, and that’s how it plays the role of a sunscreen.” Lumb shared. “It absorbs everything from the beginning of the ultraviolet spectrum all the way into the near infrared.”

Since IQ possesses eumelanin’s sunprotective properties, it could potentially be isolated and used as a sunscreen. However, there is one major problem: The compound is green.

This could limit its wide use as sunscreen—unless we all agree that looking like an alien from a ‘90s movie is fashionable. Either way, Lumb’s new research expands our understanding of eumelanin’s components and roles, with potential applications in medicine.

The Voyager probes hold records of Earth in hopes that extraterrestrials who find them would learn about us. (Drea Garcia Avila / The Tribune)

People with darker skin colours are at a lower risk of non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancer. (Alex Zhou / The Tribune)

Making Montreal your home away from home

How to overcome the international student blues

Charlotte Bawol Contributor

McGill is home to many international students, with nearly 30 per cent of the student population hailing from outside of Canada. This is one of the university’s greatest strengths, and a key reason that I and many others chose to attend.

I visited Canada for the first time in January 2021, when I moved into residence in the COVIDquarantine-curfew-hellscape that was the province of Quebec as an international student. Although I feel represented as French and American in a province that is famous for its blend of these two cultures, it is still hard being far away from home; I can’t imagine the feeling of homesickness that international students without that cultural presence can face.

One of the main ways you can combat homesickness is by trying to meet people who are from the same country, region, or cultural background as you. This can be done, among other ways, by joining clubs or associations through the university. There are over 20 religious and cultural clubs at

McGill—from the Belgian Student Society to the Malaysian and Singaporean Students’ Association, you might just be lucky enough to have a built-in community to join.

Thankfully, finding your community doesn’t stop at the McGill bubble. As an international student in Montreal, you are living in an immensely multicultural city. By some estimates, around 24 per cent of the Montreal population is made up of immigrants.

Take my roommate Beatriz, U3 Arts, for example. She is Portuguese, and we serendipitously signed a lease to live in Little Portugal our first year. When we first moved in, she went to the hardware store closest to our house to pick up some move-in essentials. When she came back, she was ecstatic.

“It turns out the hardware store is Portuguese, and the old ladies in there were speaking the same accent as the people from my mom’s region!” she exclaimed enthusiastically.

The piles of Portuguese dried fish, Bacalhau, sold at Segal’s—the Plateau grocery store beloved by many students—also reminded her of home.

To me, this illustrates one of the greatest things about Montreal: That you can find a small piece of your home country, scattered throughout the city.

Some international students will be more disoriented in Montreal than others. As a halfFrench person who had never been to Quebec before, I was shocked to find all of my favourite French pantry items stocked in the Provigo next to my house—it was so comforting.

Food is one of the ways in which international students can feel more at home in Montreal. Taste and smell are the senses most linked to emotion, so you might be able to find your Madeleine de Proust in the city.

Montreal residents pride themselves in having restaurants from nearly every cuisine around the globe, where the owners and employees faithfully cook their native dishes, often importing ingredients for authenticity. From the Za’atar in Lebanese restaurants to the legs of Serrano ham hanging from the ceilings of Spanish eateries, there is always a bite of your home country to be found through culinary experience.

These details can make eating in a restaurant from your home country and interacting with the patrons a very comforting experience that can help to keep homesickness at bay. Personally, the smell of bread baking in Toledo bakery on Mont-Royal and the inclusion of taxes in their prices is all I need to feel like I’m back in Paris.

If you don’t feel like going out or are trying to save money, you can still use food as a medium to combat homesickness. The many

international grocery stores around the city are perfect for finding imported products from your home country. The McGill International Student Services website is a great resource for anyone trying to find food from home here.

At the end of the day, however homesick you might feel, you will eventually end up making Montreal your home. As an international student graduating this May, I think I will be homesick for Montreal wherever I move next.

Seven spots to escape the hustle and bustle of university and go for a hike

Lily Cason Managing Editor

With fall just around the corner and the sweltering summer heat finally starting to break, it’s the perfect time to immerse yourself in nature.

Contrary to popular belief, hiking doesn’t have to be expensive and inaccessible; you can even find some lovely spots that are easy to reach by public transit on the island of Montreal. If you’re looking for camping gear or to go on a group trip, the McGill Outdoors Club offers affordable equipment rentals, guided outings, workshops, and even an outdoor frosh. Buses, ride-sharing services, and renting a Communauto are all great options to get outside on a budget. If you choose to rent a car, remember that the more friends you invite the less each person will need to pay. Without further ado, here is a breakdown of some of the best hiking spots within an hour of McGill.

Parc du Mont-Royal

Distance from campus: 10 minutes by foot

Entrance fee: None

While not exactly a hidden gem or a secluded experience given its proximity to downtown, Mont-Royal is a beautiful and convenient way

to escape to nature without veering too far from campus. In total there are around 30 kilometres worth of trails on the mountain, meaning one can explore for hours. As a bonus, running and hiking groups frequent the trails—making it the perfect place to get in some movement with friends.

Parc-nature de l’Île-de-laVisitation

Distance from campus: 1 hour by public transit or 35 minutes by car

Entrance fee: None

Also in Montreal, but less well known, is the Parc-nature de I’Île-dela-Visitation. It follows the Rivière des Prairies for over 8 kilometres, providing gorgeous views of the water. There are also plenty of historical buildings, such as the Maison du Pressoir, along the way if you’re one to stop and read a plaque or two. Keep in mind, however, that the park is more urban than MontRoyal and you are likely to see many other people during your stroll.

Parc national du Mont-SaintBruno

Distance from campus: 35 minutes by car

Entrance fee: $9.55

With beautiful lakes and over 30 kilometres of trails, Parc

national du Mont-Saint-Bruno is a great option if you are looking for a more private experience than you could get within city limits but don’t want to sacrifice too much time on the commute. There are also paddle board and canoe rentals if you fancy a dip in the lake.

Parc national des Îles-deBoucherville

Distance from campus: 35 minutes by car

Entrance fee: $9.55

At the Parc national des Îles-deBoucherville, 21 kilometres of trails weave through five islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence. Biking, sea kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding are all fan favourites on the islands—and the park rents out equipment. There are even campsites that you can reserve if you want to stay the night!

The Morgan Arboretum

Distance from campus: 40 minutes by car

Entrance fee: $5.50 (for students)

Operated by McGill and located on the Macdonald Campus, the Morgan Arboretum has a web of roughly 20 kilometres of hiking trails. This is an especially great option if you are interested in horticulture and like the idea of seeing a wide variety

of flora and fauna while on the trail.

Gault Nature Reserve

Distance from campus: 1 hour by car

Entrance fee: $9.55

Operated by McGill, the Gault Nature Reserve offers 25 kilometres of trails and a variety of hikes for every skill level. Hiking up Mont-Saint-Hilaire provides beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, including Lac Hertel. You might even see a McGill scientist in the wild!

Parc national d’Oka

Distance from campus: 1 hour by car

Entrance fee: $9.55

With over 28 kilometres of trails and an impressive beach, Parc national d’Oka has something for everyone. The park offers paddleboard, kayak, and bike rentals for those interested, and there are a plethora of campsites if you’re looking to stay the night. Before visiting, read up on the history of the 1990 Oka Crisis—a 78-day standoff between Mohawk protesters and members of the Quebec police, RCMP, and Canadian Army over the proposed development of a golf course in Kanesatake. The land in question has never gone back to the Mohawks of Kanesatake. It’s important to know the history of where you go before you go.

Montreal currently ranks as one of the top 20 student-friendly cities in the world. (Sofia Stankovic / The Tribune)

From Mont-Royal to the Gault Nature Reserve, you don’t have to go far for a good view

In addition to being open to the public, McGill uses the Gault Nature Reserve for teaching and research. (Maeve Reilly / The Tribune)

The Tribune’s guide to digital declutter

Developing your organized student era

Dante Ventulieri Student Life Editor

Whether it’s your file manager, desktop, or inbox, it’s easy for our digital world to get messy. So, before this semester’s workload picks up, set aside some time to declutter your computer. This will help you build better habits that’ll make you more efficient and relaxed during the school year.

Deep clean

The first part of this fall semester spring cleaning is to uninstall apps that you don’t need. Open the program manager, if there’s an app you can’t remember using or installing, delete it. If the antivirus that came with your computer only exists now to notify you that your trial expired, delete it.

Next is likely the most daunting, organizing your files. Start by creating a fresh hierarchy of folders. For your studies, try school -> degree -> semester -> course code for an intuitive way to sort both previous and upcoming semesters. Then, go through your files, folder by folder, making sure all important documents are sorted appropriately and others are deleted. Come up with a naming scheme for documents and as you’re going through them, rename them to be consistent. Last, pin the current semester for quick access.

Now it’s time to open the browser. Breathe, you can get through it. First, close your open tabs. If you haven’t revisited them yet, you probably aren’t going to. Next, look at your bookmark bar. Do you really need all those links accessible at all times? Chances are, probably not. Remove the bookmark bar and save the truly important links as buttons on your homepage. The extra browser space and reduced visual clutter will have a big impact. Finally, remove those extensions you

don’t use anymore.

Study the built-in organization features of your browser and use them. Don’t be afraid to try new browsers either. Vivaldi, Opera, and Sidekick have well-executed tools for ordering tabs and workspaces. On Mac, SigmaOS and Arc are two powerful alternatives to Safari.

Taking preventative action

Does your email app have a notification badge in the triple digits? It may be time to do something about it. If manually deleting emails is too overwhelming, simply mark them all as read. Go through emails and unsubscribe from newsletters that don’t do anything but annoy you. Consider using automatic sorting features going forward to prevent this from happening again.

The commotion that happens when your computer boots up shouldn’t be overwhelming. Restart your computer and for all the programs that start up when you sign in, go through the program’s settings and disable any feature that allows them to boot up automatically.

Take a pledge

All this effort will be short-lived if you don’t make a few promises to yourself. Vow that you’ll treat your desktop like you would an actual desk. Don’t toss random files willynilly; the desktop should not be the go-to for unsorted files. A few important folders and frequently used apps are okay, but you should be able to see your background. On Mac, take advantage of the stack by feature for quick decluttering.

The downloads folder should not be an endless list of randomly named documents and files, where there is no way to discern what is actually important. Delete what you don’t need, retitle the files where the original name makes no sense,

Treat your computer how you would your room—pick your files from the floor, take your open tabs off that chair next to your bed, and uninstall those socks you haven’t worn in forever.

(Dante Ventulieri / The Tribune)

and move the important files to your recently organized file system. But most importantly, promise yourself that you won’t rely on the download folder as a catchall for files you don’t want to deal with. Be conscientious going forward and change your browser settings to prompt you for where to file each download.

A new era

Organizing your computer has probably been on your todo list for some time. This is your sign to get it done. It might seem daunting but set a realistic timeline and tackle it step by step. Once your schoolwork gets more intense, you’ll be impressed by your new efficiency and structure.

The beloved OAP: McGill’s essential kickoff event

What to know about the Open Air Pub, and why it’s worth a visit

Lulu Calame Contributor

McGill’s Open Air Pub (OAP), run entirely by student volunteers, is a quintessential Montreal amalgam of fashion, nonchalance, music, beer, and social hubbub. Held at the beginning and end of each school year—this semester from Aug. 28 until Sept. 8—OAP showcases more than 25 small bands and DJs. OAP is open every weekday from noon until 9:00 pm, with the first artists performing in the early evening on a small stage in the Lower West Field of McGill’s campus, surrounded by a charming scatter of picnic tables and tents for food and drink.

OAP finds a way to encapsulate both a daytime mellowness and the high energy of nighttime. After the sun sets, students are quick to congregate in front of the stage for dancing, lit by the flashing red, blue, and green club lights and shrouded by a smoke machine. In the hours before, however, the atmosphere is much more relaxed, with students mingling near picnic tables, enjoying a hot dog, or sipping a beer.

Allesandria Papia, U1 Arts, spoke to why students choose to congregate at the event.

“Everybody there was looking for similar things, which is to meet people and to have fun,” Papia said.

Entrance to OAP is free—any McGill student can walk in and enjoy the music at no cost. Food and drink, however, require tickets. The general consensus seems to be that prices are reasonable and quality is satisfactory, though nothing earth-shattering; attendees reported that

the cheeseburgers were the best food option (though they sell out quickly), and the hot dogs are a good deal—two hot dogs for four dollars.

The vegetarian options, though, are lacking. Several hopeful veggie-burger consumers complained that while well-made, the veggie options are unreliable and run out quickly, so the OAP vegetarians should not count on a meal.

OAP holds a special place in the hearts of McGill students as it is the first social event of the year apart from Frosh, which is reserved for first-year students. For upper year students, it is a long-awaited reunion and a chance to see familiar faces, while for first years it is an opportunity to settle into their new school community.

Some students, however, found OAP to be a

less than ideal setting to meet new people. Addy Crocksen, U1 Arts and Science, is more hopeful for next year’s OAP.

“I don’t know a lot of people at this school, so I found it intimidating in that setting to be meeting people because a lot of people already knew each other and were in their own groups. I feel like I would have had a lot more fun in second or third year,” Crocksen said.

The buzz around OAP brings with it a line that stretches far around the perimeter of the fences. Three girls standing towards the middle of the line reported that they had been in the queue for an hour and a half. When asked what their hopes were for the event, they laughed and admitted that they would be happy just being allowed in after waiting so long in line.

Those who attended OAP in past years generally complemented its attention to sustainability and consistent high-quality music, though they also offered some improvements.

The advertising of OAP as a daytime festival, for some, means that the organizers prioritize music to the detriment of offering other activities such as games or sports to keep crowds occupied.

OAP is an event that reflects the energy it receives. It is an epicentre of both beginning-ofyear reunions and first-time introductions; it offers the choice of casual daytime music-listening or more energetic DJ-centric dancing; it can function as the event of the evening or as a preface to a later night out. But above all, OAP nurtures the essential Montreal fusion of community and entertainment, offering good food, drink, music, and socializing in a way that is casual, stylish, and wonderfully seamless.

Crowds gather at the stage towards the end of a day at OAP.. (Lulu Calame / The Tribune)

SAG-AFTRA

Adrienne Roy Contributor

negotiating for

On July 13th, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) voted to strike after unsuccessful contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The next day, SAG-AFTRA joined the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on picket lines across the United States, marking their first joint protest since 1960.

The AMPTP represents multi-billion-dollar production studios such as HBO, Disney, Netflix, Sony, Amazon/MGM, and Apple. Despite these companies’ overwhelming wealth, a staggering 87 per cent of SAG-AFTRA members earn under $26,470, making them unable to qualify for union health insurance. Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger dismissed SAG-AFTRA’s demands as “unrealistic”—a deeply ironic statement from a man who makes $31 million annually. These workers’ rights issues are not isolated to the entertainment industry, further justifying the broader need for this strike.

SAG-AFTRA is fighting for fair compensation in the era of streaming platforms and, now, artificial intelligence (AI). Out of SAG-AFTRA’s 86 proposals, key demands include increases in general wages, updated employer contributions to health and retirement plans, and better residual payments. The AMPTP’s inadequate counter-offers revealed more-than-mild disagreements on those core subjects. SAG-AFTRA seeks higher wages because their previous contract with the AMPTP failed to support actors through highrecord-breaking inflation. The union also claims that the AMPTP’s response towards raising employer contribution caps for health and pension plans—which haven’t changed in 40 years—was “insufficient.”

future of the entertainment industry

Unsurprisingly, the growing threat of AI exacerbates these issues. If left unregulated, AI will quickly jeopardize the livelihoods of all actors. Background actors in particular face an immediate risk because their digital likeness would eliminate the need for studios to hire extras by using and reusing the actors’ image on other projects.

Other than regular salary shortcomings, actors and writers are fighting to change how studios disburse residual paychecks. Residuals were determined by a formula—which writers and actors established the first time they struck together—and reflect the number of times a production is played and replayed on a cable network or sold as a DVD copy. Streaming services operate very differently, and top media executives have capitalized on these discrepancies for over a decade. Consequently, residuals have decreased dramatically, going from tens of thousands of dollars to cents.

Recently, the story of Alex O’Keefe, a writer for The Bear, went viral because he could not afford to buy the suit in which he accepted his WGA Award for Best Comedy Series—and such occurrences affect actors, as well. Recurring cast members of Orange Is The New Black—a show credited for Netflix’s ascendancy in TV and film—said they were paid the union minimum and kept their day jobs while working on the multi-award-winning series. If the artists behind critically acclaimed shows cannot make a living, then it’s not hard to envision the predicament of the myriad of artists working on smaller-scale, independent projects.

Since the public has found these concerns to be valid, reasonable, and universal, support was strong in the strike’s early days. Now, as the writers’ strike approaches the 5-month mark and the actors’ begin its second, the economic impact of this decision—albeit a necessary one—is becoming clearer. Other than

39 indie projects—which SAG-AFTRA authorized as they are being produced by non-struck companies—commercials, and reality television shows, union members cannot partake in any on or off-screen work, auditions, or promotional activities. So, much of the entertainment industry is on hold for the foreseeable future. It’s understandably difficult to imagine the world’s most beloved A-list actors struggling to make ends meet after months of unemployment, and for good reason: They aren’t. For too long, production studios have exploited working-class actors to make their already rich executives even richer. In an unprecedented time, these artists have the upper hand. And it’s the perfect occasion to support the 160,000 striking actors fighting for the future of performing arts.

Ava Ellis Contributor

In the dynamic realm of pop music, artists consistently seek innovative ways to captivate their audiences while pushing the boundaries of their creativity. Carly Rae Jepsen (CRJ) is no exception. Since she shocked the world in 2012 with Call Me Maybe, she has gone on to release multiple pop anthems including “I Really Like You” and “Run Away With Me”. After the releases of B-sides to her albums Emotion and Dedicated, her July 28th companion album to 2022’s The Loneliest Time wasn’t a surpriset unexpected. While both albums undoubtedly showcase musical prowess, a vital question arises for her listeners: Does The Loveliest Time maintain a coherent narrative or primarily serve as a vessel for unused songs?

Companion albums, a trend seen across the industry, can be both a boon and a bane for artists. Artists such as CRJ possess a surplus of songs that might not harmonize seamlessly within a single record, mirroring Taylor Swift’’s Folklore and Evermore. This dualrelease strategy may either enhance or, as exemplified by The Loveliest Time, contrast with the original story; But, this might just reveal a ploy to sell more music rather than

create aesthetic harmony.

Released during one of the first “normal” summers during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Loneliest Time provided an opportunity to reflect on the preceding two years while conveying hope for the future. The titular track, a collaboration with Canadian icon Rufus Wainwright, sees CRJ yearning to reconnect with an old flame, expressed through a disco-infused melody that masks underlying sorrow. This motif persists across the album— buoyant music overshadowing lyrics tinged with sadness. While certain tracks like “Western Wind” and “So Nice” bolster the album, weaker entries like “Beach House” detract from its overall strength; the latter is shockingly corny for a CRJ song.

“Go Find Yourself Or Whatever,”, toward the album’s close, evokes a sense of post-party introspection, effectively embodying the album’s claim as her loneliest.

In contrast, The Loveliest Time struggles to differentiate itself from its predecessor despite its alleged mood change. While CRJ clearly has an extensive musical repertoire, this album comes across as an outlet for unreleased tracks from the original. Evaluated in isolation, the album could merit a higher rating, yet it falters when you try to find the link to its companion. Unsurprisingly, listening to The Loneliest Time is

now more confusing with the newly released B-sides. I have a hard time remembering which songs are on which album, as they have such

cant risk. A successful outcome requires the second release to oppose or complement the original. Regrettably, these albums do not fall into

distinction of mood and atmosphere in the second sets the listener up for disappointment when the albums are so similar in their sound.

The Loveliest Time begins on a boom with “Anything To Be With You”, altering the vibe set by its predecessor. With a funky drum shot and an instant rhythm, I thought I was in for an entirely different aesthetic. However, subsequent tracks struggled to find their footing until “Psychedelic Switch”, a standout on the album. These songs are stronger when divorced from The Loneliest Time album. Nonetheless, the overlap between the albums makes it challenging to attribute specific songs to either.

The current trend of companion albums underscores the intricate balance between artistic evolution and thematic coherence. As music’s landscape evolves, the takeaway from this dual-release experience is clear: The Loveliest Time struggles to establish its own identity separate from The Loneliest Time. The risk of blurring the lines between CRJ’s two releases underscores the necessity for thoughtful curation and seamless thematic progression.

similar sounds. Even the album covers, although each is stunning, do not give us a hint about the music inside.

Double releases pose a signifi-

that category—the second release muddies the narrative the first creates. The adjective change in the title makes the listener expect something different. The anticipation of a

Carly Rae Jepsen’s album

The Loveliest Time is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music as well as all other music platforms.

Carly Rae Jepsen’’s companion album struggles to establish a coherent narrative

Actors are on strike for the first time since 1980

‘The Loveliest Time’: A musical journey, or an excuse for more?

is

the

Greedy CEOs fail to distribute their multi-million dollar salaries to SAG-AFTRA members—87 per cent of whom make less than $26,470 annually (David McNew / Getty Images)

While “The Loneliest Time” showcases musical flair, the album risks a thematic blur between itself and CRJ’s earlier companion album. (pitchfork.com)

The ‘Pop of Life!’ captures the bold spirit of the Pop Art movement

The new MMFA exhibit showcases local and global works from the ‘60s and ‘70s

Mia Helfrich Contributor

Continued from page 1.

The exhibition is delightfully sectioned into categories—Plastic Blitz, Future Now!, and Ordinary Things, to name a few—that bring forth a particular theme from the time period. Still, the categories merge gracefully as each artwork presents multiple, nuanced themes and messages. Regardless of these sections, which bear large titles along the walls of the exhibit, the artwork is subtly arranged like a house, with imaginative sculptures of a stove, chairs, and sofas fitting amongst a kitchen, living room, and foyer. So, while the room is an explosion of colours and geometric shapes, the soft lighting and home-like organization give the exhibit a cozy and relaxing atmosphere.

The Pop Art movement is famous for its love of ordinary things: A can of soup, a bowl of fruit, an assortment of shoes. In this exhibit, one will find creative and fun reimaginings of a mop, sandwich, and sink.

There is even a sculpture fashioned from a real stove, titled Pollo allo spiedo (1985), by Montréal native Pierre Ayot. Inside the stove, Ayot placed a video of a chicken cooking on a

2-hour loop.

“This [sculpture] is truly a brilliant work. He’s totally transformed [the stove].,” Amizlev explained.

The Pop of Life! transports the visitor into the political arena of the ‘60s and ‘70s, where one learns how artists used the Pop Art style to capture the political tensions of their environment.

Among local historic periods, James Brodie’s piece Québeclove No. 3 (1981) highlights the October Crisis of 1970. In revolutioninspired colours of bloody red and black, a Québécois man rests against his building while holding a gun. The harsh colours symbolize the extreme conflict of the October Crisis, yet they portray a member of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) in a leisurely pose, which calls attention to the ordinary people entangled in the Crisis. Through the art, the exhibition features artists from the period who deeply understand the contested politics and the humanity of those involved with each movement.

The displays, particularly in the Space Age and Future Now! sections, launch the visitor into out-of-this-world pieces centred around rising technology and ex-

traterrestrial discoveries.

“I find it very interesting as we’re approaching this new era of technology, artificial intelligence, and also new space exploration. It’s good to think about the ways in which artists confronted these advancements,” Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA, said in an interview with the The Tribune.

In an interactive sculpture titled Big Sleep (1968), artist Edmund Alleyn crafted a brain within a grey machine that whirrs and lights up when a visitor presses a button. The black screen from a sculpture of a television shaped

Albums and movies and novels, oh my!

The summer season may be cooling down, but The Tribune’s Arts & Entertainment (A&E) section is heating up! Here is a breakdown of what A&E enjoyed over summer break.

Joanna Newsom: The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)

By:

Annabella Lawlor

In her first studio album, The Milk-Eyed Mender, Joanna Newsom creates an authentic world of whimsical sound. Released in 2004, the record contributed to the rising popularity of the “freak folk” genre in Brooklyn and San Francisco. Newsom’s combination of mature lyrical prose with the unconventional sounds of doleful harp and harpsichord elicits the playful nature of her creations. The storybook aspect of her songs acts as an ode to the sanguine perceptions of childhood, prompting listeners to question the lost imaginations that come with growing up. Her vocal inflections vary from the utter sombreness of “This Side of the Blue” to the chant-like playfulness of “Inflammatory Writ.” The lyrical poignancy that she possesses from such a young age leaves the listener wanting more and questioning what else she is capable of.

Could be Good

Sky Poetry’s Introduction to Astrology

Learn about astrology and your natal chart in a workshop with a professional astrologer.

Wednesday, Sept 6, 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Zoom; link available with registration on Eventbrite Free

Book Launch: Our Lady of Mile End

Local author Sarah Gilbert launches her short story collection about the interlocking lives of neighbours, landlords, women, and more in Montréal’s Mile End neighbourhood. Books are available for purchase and the author is available for signing.

Thursday, Sept. 7, 7 p.m - La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 rue Bernard O

Saw (2004)

By: Alyssa Sequeira

This summer, I entered the Saw universe by watching all nine movies in preparation for Saw X’s release on Sept. 29. Creepy puppets and serial killers aside, the faces that stood out are those of Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell)—the original film’s protagonists. Lawrence and Adam begin the franchise chained by their ankles in a grimy (understatement!) bathroom with a dead body as the room’s centrepiece. The horrific setting unexpectedly gives way to underpinnings of romance. Along the way, the two men engage in sarcastic banter and quips loaded with sexual tension, such as Adam noting the fun they’re having without lubricant. Even the official Saw account tweeted a photo of the two adorned with a bloody heart on Valentine’s Day. Do these two make it out alive and spend the rest of their lives together? Watch and see for yourself.

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti (2022)

By: Izzi Holmes

In her 2022 novel Pure Colour, Canadian author Sheila Heti reimag-

like an astronaut helmet, titled Videosphere Television Set (1970) by the Japan Victor Company, reflects viewers and our modern aspirations for technology and scientific discovery. Among the rockets and futuristic furniture, the area invites visitors to explore, imagine, and get lost in curiosity.

“Everything is still relevant now,” Amizlev added. “That’s what makes this exhibition extremely accessible and […] that’s what I find so amazing.”

The Pop of Life! is on display at The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts until March 24, 2024.

ines creation as an artistic process. Much like a painter or writer, God revises the world in drafts. In God’s second draft, all people emerge from eggs as critics, taking the interpretive point of view of either a bird, fish, or bear. Heti essentially retells the book of Genesis, examining the dynamics each animal propagates through the relationships and life of “birdlike” Mira. Grieving the physical and emotional losses of those close to her, Mira grapples with the purpose of her own existence as an artist and a critic. As the fate of both Mira and humanity relies on the belief that to create and critique art is to live, Mira must contend with what it means to die, after her father’s passing. The modern cynicism and philosophical precision of Heti’s prose ensure the resonance and relevance of seemingly archaic anxieties.

Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro (1971)

By: Kellie Elrick

Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women follows Del Jordan as she comes of age in small-town Southwestern Ontario, shrewdly observing the intricacies and hypocrisies of class, religion, education, sex, desire,

Frosh Night 2023

Dance the night away at the (alleged) biggest “back to school” party in Montréal! Everyone is welcome.

Friday, Sept. 8, 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. Jet Night Club, 2020 rue Crescent Tickets $15 on Eventbrite

Montréal Late Night Comedy Show (English)

5-7 professional comedians will be performing “edgy” stand-up comedy in their own mental playground. Purchase tickets in advance to reserve a table.

Saturday, Sept. 9, doors 10:45 p.m., show at 11 p.m.

935 re de La Gauchetière O, Suite #54 in Gare Centrale - $10 in advance, $20 at the door

and of course, the lives of girls and women. The book’s beauty does not manifest itself through florid prose, but rather in its expression of beautiful truths that remain too often unspoken. Munro explores how we may all live multiple lives and often multiple truths. The novel’s structure illustrates this brilliantly, as it is arguably a short story collection in disguise as

a novel. “People’s lives, in Jubilee as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing, and unfathomable—deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum,” Munro writes. Lives of Girls and Women explores how perhaps we are not made whole by grand revelations and moments of intensity, but rather through everyday motions that quietly mould us into new selves.

What we liked this summer break!

Andy Warhol even highlights the infamous leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, in striking pink and yellow. (Christine Guest / The Suburban)

Joanna Newsom’s 2004 debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender is an exploration of sonic, whimsical imagination. (pitchfork.com)

Major League Baseball has a “nutting” problem

A new form of tanking is taking over small market teams

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

Professional sports leagues across North America all face the familiar practice of tanking: When teams underperform on purpose. They trade away their best players, neglect fan experience, refuse to sign franchise players to extensions, and intentionally make the team worse. The motivations behind tanking can vary. Oftentimes, the reason to tank is to have a better shot at selecting higher in the following years’ draft, like the 2001-02 Cleveland Cavaliers’ infamous tank to get a shot at LeBron

James—a gamble that was ultimately successful.

In other cases, tanking is a necessary evil; teams sometimes need to be bad in order to rebuild and be good again. Take the Houston Astros of the late 2000s and early 2010s—they are the prime example of how to properly rebuild a team by acquiring veteran assets as well as promising prospects in order to build a fresh system from the draft up. This process resulted in five American League West division titles, four American League pennants, and two World Series titles between 2017 and 2022.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is plagued by a different type of tanking—a practice

characterized by owners who take advantage of MLB’s revenue sharing system and continuously put out bad teams, much to the distaste of their fanbases. Although they find some success in winning seasons and make the odd playoff run in spite of their ownership, these teams do something beyond tanking, what Effectively Wild podcast host Meg Rowley calls “nutting.”

The etymology of nutting comes from the Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting and can be defined as “the act of an owner pocketing revenue instead of spending it to improve the team.” After acquiring majority ownership of the Pirates in 1996 and finishing last in the National League Central that same season, Nutting handcuffed team spending, refusing any commitment to spending on acquiring players or fixing existing player development issues.

All the while, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that in most years since 2007, the Pirates have been able to cover their payroll with their gate revenue (ie. ticket sales, concessions, stadium merchandise sales, and parking) alone. This does not include any revenue from national or local television, or, most importantly, revenue sharing.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated in 2022, each MLB team pools 48 per cent of local revenues with the total amount split equally between all 30 teams. This results in each team taking in 3.3 per cent of the total—an estimated $110 million USD, if not more. Teams also receive a share of national revenues, totalling around $90 million USD per

Redbirds soccer takes home win in Pride game

After a physical game with injured players, Redbird soccer wins 3 -2

Julie Ferreyra Contributor

After losing their RSEQ season opener to the Université de Québec à TroisRivières (UQTR) Patriotes (1–1–0) on Aug. 30, the Redbirds faced off against the Concordia Stingers (0–1–1) in their second home game of the regular season. In a physical matchup that left the Redbirds short-handed for most of the game, the Redbirds (1–1–0) took home their first win of the season. Sunday’s match also marked the Redbirds’ Pride game, with both coaching staff and most players wearing rainbow armbands.

“It’s important to raise awareness among

our spectators and players too,” assistant coach Pierre Lepage told The Tribune. “I know that our players received a seminar on the matter during the preseason. You shouldn’t be discriminated against because of your sexual orientation, your skin colour, your religion. This is a message we’re trying to reinforce, to become a more tolerant community that accepts differences.”*

The game opened on a sweltering 28 degree afternoon, with stands filled up by spectators, eager for the match to get underway. As the sun beat down on the Redbirds throughout the first half, the Stingers mounted a strong offense, and despite McGill’s best defensive efforts, buried the ball past goalkeeper Ludovyck Ciociola for a 1-0 lead.

The pressure from a rowdy crowd and heat started to affect the gameplay, with players getting more and more brusque as the game went on. Although there was rough play from both teams, midfielder Emilio Rossi-Levin landed two yellow cards within one minute, resulting in his ejection from the game and leaving the Redbirds short-handed for the remainder of the match.

“It wasn’t an easy game, because you’re ten men against eleven [for almost the whole game], and keeping the ball is difficult,” thirdyear defender Martin Baudelet told The Tribune “The game was very choppy, [having us] running away, running down the wing [...] and for the other shifting from left to right. Obviously, it was very tiring.”

As the first half came to a close, forward Mathis Cyr equalized the score with a corner kick and the Redbirds headed into the second half in a 1-1 tie.

The second half saw more successful action from the Redbirds, with no less physicality. Firstyear midfielder Nassim Kemel pierced through the Stingers goalkeeper, to give McGill a 2-1 lead early in the second half.

As the action continued, Ciociola faced several scoring attempts from the Stingers, before being taken out due to an injury sustained while making a save. However, Ciociola’s injury opened the door for goalkeeper Christopher Cinelli-Faia to enter the game.

As the Redbirds settled back in with their new keeper in net, first-year forward Yoan Simard buried another goal to make it 3-1. However, in the last few moments of the game, a Concordia shot hit a McGill player, going into the back of the

team. The goal of revenue sharing is to allow small market teams to compete with big market teams like the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers that bring in more money from ticket sales and merchandise. However, nutting has inspired many teams to exploit loopholes in this system, pushing revenue sharing money into other areas without improving their on-field product by increasing payroll.

The Oakland Athletics (A’s) are another team that practices what the Pirates preach. In the past decade, the A’s have either traded their best players away for minimal return (explaining their 22nd overall farm system ranking) or lost them to free agency. However, the motivation behind the A’s nutting has been not only to avoid spending money but to service the team’s relocation to Las Vegas—a move that A’s owner, John Fisher, claims will allow the team to stop using “Moneyball” tactics to field their roster.

The move to Vegas has not only alienated A’s fans, prompting “the Summer of Sell” movement––there is no guarantee that Fisher will not continue to roll out teams similar to this year’s abysmal $56.9 million USD player payroll that resulted in a current record of 42–96.

Despite the MLB Players Association pushing to further regulate revenue sharing, nothing in the new CBA forces teams to put these dollars towards their on-field product. Questions of whether a salary floor or greater restrictions on revenue sharing dollars are the solution is up for debate, but there is one certainty: MLB needs to put a stop to nutting.

net for a 3-2 final score.

Following a breakthrough toward the Stingers’ net, unfortunately thwarted by Concordia’s defense, thirdyear defender Baudelet sustained an injury. He was ultimately able to continue the game after receiving medical attention.

QUOTABLE

“It’s McGill against Concordia; it’s a hard game. It wasn’t a beautiful game. But it’s very, very, very pleasing to get this win.”

– Third-year defender Martin Baudelet on the importance of beating Concordia

MOMENT OF THE MEET STAT CORNER

The match featured 14 penalty cards, including one against the McGill team as a whole and one red card, 21 fouls, 13 attempted shots, five goals and 13 corner kicks.

*This interview was translated from French by the author.

Sunday’s win against Concordia marked the Redbird’s first win since the 2019-20 season. (Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune).

In addition to “reverse boycotts,” A’s fans have rented billboards throughout the Bay Area and near the Oakland Coliseum to push Fisher to sell the team. (Josie Lepe / Bay Area Sports Group).

Martlets soccer takes home back-to-back wins to open RSEQ season

McGill defeated the UQTR Patriotes on Aug. 30 and the Concordia Stingers on Sept. 3

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

On Aug. 30, following the first day of classes, the Martlets soccer team (2–0–0 ) kicked off their home opener and first game of the RSEQ season. With midfielder Mara Bouchard sporting the captains’ armband and the Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes (0–1–0 ) looking to put an end to a ninegame losing streak against McGill, Percival Molson Stadium was ready to go, despite the rainy weather.

The first half saw steady play from both UQTR and McGill, with the Martlets failing to solve the

Patriotes’ netminder despite several opportunities.

However, as the rain began to lighten up and the Martlets stepped onto the field for the second half, early pressure from McGill led UQTR to turn the ball over, allowing midfielder Hana Yazdani to send the ball to midfielder Chloe Renaud for a beautiful behindthe-back pass that found forward Arianne Lavoie. With 49 minutes on the clock, Lavoie escaped the Patriotes’ defense and netted the breakaway pass from Renaud for a 1-0 lead.

As the game entered extra-time, pressure grew as McGill entered UQTR’s zone to try and extend their lead with forward Annika Schmunk

just inches away from a goal with the Martlets’ final shot of the game. With a 1-0 final score, McGill took home the win, and goaltender Sophie Guilmette earned her first shutout of the season.

With the season opener in the rearview, the Martlets played their second game on Sept. 3, facing off against the Concordia Stingers (0–1–1) at home. This time, however, they took the pitch with a newfound confidence and in much better weather.

“The first game we were nervous,” head coach Jose-Luis Valdes told The Tribune. “It’s our first game at home. It’s the first game for a few players on the team. [...] Whereas today, there were no nerves.”

At the 28-minute mark, midfielder Katherine Chadwick netted the opening goal to give the Martlets a 1-0 lead. Shortly thereafter, forward Liliane Lefebvre scored a graceful header off of a pass from Renaud to close out the first half and put the Martlets up 2-0.

After the half, Guilmette continued her strong performance from the season opener with a number of stellar saves to protect McGill’s lead. In the 75th minute, forward Alexandra Hughes-Goyette scored the Martlets’ third goal of the game, all but securing the win. However, the Stingers crushed hopes of another shutout performance,

finding the back of the net with eight minutes of regular time remaining. In a 3-1 final score, the Martlets picked up their second win of the RSEQ regular season, and hope to carry on their success in their upcoming game against the Université de Montréal Carabins for their first game of the RSEQ season.

As for their early success, Bouchard attributes the two wins to the team’s ability to carry over what they learned from their preseason games.

“[During] the preseason, we worked a lot on just keeping the ball to feet, practicing our tilt, all going on the same side,” Bouchard explained. “I feel like both of the first two games we’ve been doing great at this. We did a good job and we’re solid defensively.”

Guilmette also emphasized the importance of getting points early on in the season.

“It was a team effort but I think a big part of what we need is to get those points, we have an objective to go to Nationals,” the netminder said. “These points against tougher opponents are really important early on in the season so that we can carry on towards the end of the season.”

The Martlets are back at home on Sunday, Sept. 10 against the Bishop’s Gaiters (1–1–0) for their Pride game.

MOMENT OF THE MEET

In their game against the Patroites, following a rush from UQTR that almost tied the game in extra time, Schmunk went back the other way, nearly netting an insurance goal and swaying the momentum back in McGill’s favour.

The team scored two tries in the final ten minutes to win the home turf game

Eliza Lee Staff Writer

On Aug. 31 at Percival Molson Stadium, the Martlets rugby team (1–0) put an end to a three-seasonlong winless drought in a thrilling defeat of the Bishop’s University Gaiters (0–1).

The Martlets established an early lead with a try seven minutes into the game by backrow Lauren Minns, but failed their conversion kick, leaving them up just 5-0. McGill’s lead was

quickly overturned when the Gaiters took the ball through the Martlet defense, giving them a 7-5 lead after a successful conversion. Despite the Martlets’ strong defense and a try scored by second row Catherine Murphy, the Gaiters made use of two penalty kicks to pick up several points throughout the game. By the midway point of the second half, Bishop’s led the game with a score of 13-10.

However, in the final ten minutes, any fears of prolonging the three-season losing streak were put to rest as the Martlets’

forwards stunned the audience with a series of impressive plays. Minns punctured Bishop’s defense in a breakaway to score McGill’s third try of the game, allowing them to overtake Bishop’s lead. Minutes later, in the final moments of the game, McGill secured their 22-13 victory with another try by Minns and a successful conversion by team captain and fly-half Raurie Moffat.

Minns spoke with The Tribune after the game and noted the resilience of the team in securing the final try through a particularly grueling pick-and-go strategy.

“After the second-to-last try, I knew time was running out, and I also knew how important the lead was for this team and this program,” Minns said. “I think the forwards took control of those last ten minutes because it’s the safest way to keep the ball alive [....] It’s a very tiring style of play but we only had five minutes left, so it’s just pick-and-go after pick-and-go [...] up and down the field.”

The game’s thrilling atmosphere was fueled by a vocal crowd of Martlets fans in the stands. A group of McGill varsity

rugby alumni and the Redbirds rugby team made the audience particularly boisterous, rallying the crowd with team cheers and chants throughout the match. Moffat emphasized that this spirited crowd motivated the team, especially as games in the past have seen sparser turnout.

“This was a huge change for me, personally,” Moffat said. “And I’m sure a lot of the other teammates feel like this too— hearing people supporting us in the crowd helped me [...] stay in my game and work really hard.”

Head coach Allan Swetman explained that the team’s victory is just one step towards the progress they hope to make throughout the season as they stay focused on overall improvement.

“For me, it’s not really about the results, it’s about how we play and watching every player continue to grow, and that’s kind of the aim for the season,” Swetman said. “So this is just a stepping stone and hopefully everyone on the team will continue to get better.”

McGill will next play Concordia University (0–0)on Sept. 6 in the 18th annual KellyAnne Drummond Cup.

“On a more personal note, I was hoping for the shutout today, didn’t get it, unfortunately, but we got the dub, that’s what matters.”

–Goaltender, Sophie Guilmette

QUOTABLE STAT CORNER

Between the two games, McGill totalled 15 shots, 12 shots on net, 10 corner kicks, and 19 fouls

Martlets shine in rugby season opener against Bishop’s Gaiters

MOMENT OF THE MEET

Moffat’s conversion of the team’s final try came at the 80-minute mark. As the ball sailed between the goalposts and the game came to an end, the athletes on the field and McGill fans in the stands erupted into cheers.

“Are we going to win the entire season? Probably not, but this is a stepping stone to show that all the work this team has put in the past years is gonna come to fruition eventually. [...] I think we’re only headed in the right direction.”

– Lauren Minns, on the team’s goals for the season

QUOTABLE STAT CORNER

40-yard, 53-yard

17-yard

The game marks the Martlets’ first win since September 2019. (Matt Garies / McGill Athletics).

In their last 10 match ups, the Martlets are 5–2–3 against the Stingers and 9–1–0 against the Patriotes. (Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune)

Minns scored her three tries of the game with

and a

runs, respectively, after having to sit out the past two seasons due to injuries.