The McGill Tribune Vol. 42 Issue 12

Nixon,

Amour

COVID-positive students no longer need a medical note to defer exams

Student senators collaborate with McGill admin to update COVID-related exam deferral regulations

Jasjot Grewal Staff Writer

McGill’s exam deferral regulations now allow students with COVID-19 to request a deferral without a medical

note. This alteration was made on Nov. 25 after meetings between Law Senator Josh Werber, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) vice-president (VP) University Affairs (UA) Kerry Yang, and McGill administrators. Under McGill’s existing regulations, students in

Martlets volleyball claims victory in rematch against Sherbrooke Vert et Or

Philippe Haddad Contributor

On Nov. 27, McGill Martlets volleyball (6–2) extended their winning streak to four games following a home victory over the Sherbrooke Vert

et Or (4–6). The Martlets previously matched up against the Vert et Or in their season opener on Oct. 30, where they ultimately lost 3–2. Hoping to redress their opening defeat, the Martlets were fired up for a second shot.

“We were a lot more confident going into the game today.” first-year power hitter Rachel Leduc told The McGill Tribune “We know that we can beat them, so we actually played the way we know that we can.”

PG. 16

eligible faculties, including Arts, Management, and Science, get one opportunity while completing their degree to defer an exam without supporting documentation. For subsequent deferrals, supporting documentation is required.

Sex and Self’s new shame-free book club caters to open and honest discussions

Melissa Carter Staff Writer

Sex and Self, a notfor-profit, sex-positive organization, held its first book club meeting last Thursday over Zoom. Readers congregated virtually with Mo Asebiomo to discuss It’s

My Pleasure: Decolonizing Sex Positivity—the author’s debut book that challenges the basis of what it means to hold sex-positive attitudes in a white supremacist country. Participants discussed their interpretations, experiences, and observations, and also listened to Asebiomo read and discuss their work.

Sex and Self is a student-run group that aims to educate and empower individuals about their bodies, autonomy, and sexuality. The organization was set up at McGill in 2019 by Felicia Gisondi, but has now expanded to many universities in Canada.

Protecting disability rights is the only way forward

Mon

Why is Frosh always such a flop?

McGill not equipped to handle emergency mental health care cases

Wellness Hub and Office of the Dean of Students are the main contact points for mental health care

Madison Edward-Wright Managing Editor

Content warning: Mention of suicide

Since its inception in 2019, McGill’s Student Wellness Hub has been marred by a lack of staff, minimal support from other university infrastructures, soaring demand for appointments, and the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, students have struggled to book appointments and are often left to navigate Quebec’s understaffed and overwhelmed health care system.

Across Canadian universities, 30 per cent of students experience clinical depression and roughly 65 per cent of students report feeling overwhelming anxiety at least once. In Quebec, one in five people will experience mental health issues throughout their lifetime, but only about half of them will seek professional help. There are currently an estimated 155,864 mental health and substance use health care providers in the province— approximately 1,817 providers per 100,000 people. Despite this, many Quebecers report difficulty accessing care: In the most dire cases, lives are lost because of the system’s inadequacy. Jeremiah Wallace, a Quebec resident, has experienced the failings of the health care system firsthand.

In May 2022, Wallace’s daughter, Hannah, took her own life after a battle with depression and other mental health issues. (Wallace suspects Hannah may have had undiagnosed bipolar disorder.) Hannah was an education student at McGill and an Arts and Culture editor at The Bull and Bear , a studentrun magazine published by the Management Undergraduate Society. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Wallace described his daughter as a talented writer, an avid reader, and an overall wonderful person who was failed by the systems charged with caring for her. He believes that Hannah’s past suicidal behaviour should have qualified her for more urgent care.

“[McGill] should not have exposed [Hannah] to the inadequacies of the Quebec health care system,” Wallace said. “She was definitely eligible after a suicide attempt for somebody to take care of her, to watch her [....] My daughter had a nervous breakdown and a psychological breakdown, [yet] she was not

able to avail special services.”

Wallace is now channelling his grief into advocating for better mental health care on campus.

“I think [McGill] needs to improve their health care plan to have unlimited counselling. If somebody really needs it, they should be able to see a counsellor every day,” Wallace said. “Don’t say you are hiring one counsellor, that’s not enough. Tell me you are hiring 10 counsellors per year; tell me you are going to tell the next [donor] that shows up [...] to spend money on [mental health].”

McGill’s Wellness Hub is currently the main point of contact on campus for students looking to access mental health services. It is not, however, equipped to help students in crisis requiring immediate attention. In a written statement to the Tribune on behalf of the Wellness Hub, Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, explained that “emergency care for students in crisis is not part of the Wellness Hub’s mandate,” because the Hub does not have the means—financially or staffwise—to provide such services.

“We have connected with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to recruit graduates and are exploring more innovative digital recruitment approaches to adapt to an ever-changing Quebec job market,” Mazerolle wrote. “It is important to note, however, [that] crisis care requires a range of highly specialized services working together, around the clock, that the Wellness Hub is not equipped to provide.”

The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) mental health commissioner Maya Willard-Stepan added that emergency care is not a part of SSMU’s health care mandate because of its complexity.

“SSMU doesn't have the level of training or capacity needed to properly intervene in emergencies,” Willard-Stepan explained. “Currently at McGill, emergency cases are tended to through the Office of the Dean of Students, not any student group or the Wellness Hub.”

The Office of the Dean of Students (ODoS) employs case managers who work with students experiencing mental health difficulties and members of the McGill community who are worried about a student’s wellbeing. According to WillardStepan, case managers can streamline access to clinicians and other counsellors at the Wellness Hub so that students do not have to navigate the process

of booking an appointment on their own.

“If there is a student who is either a survivor of a suicide attempt or someone who is experiencing suicidality, when the situation is no longer an emergency, ODoS has referral power to clinical counsellors at the Hub,” Willard-Stepan said.

“You do not have to go through normal pathways.”

Accessing care through the Wellness Hub is notoriously difficult. Students have reported wait times of up to nearly three months for an appointment with a mental health care provider. While the Wellness Hub employs nurses, they can only write prescriptions for birth control medication and “smoking cessation tools.”

Wallace takes particular issue with McGill’s accommodation policies. Though he feels that an extension for a final project would not have changed Hannah’s mental state, an extended break may have been enough to allow him to find her proper care.

“She [sent] an email to a professor and said ‘I need an extension, I tried to commit suicide,’” Wallace alleges. “His response was ‘talk to your [teaching assistant].”

As the SSMU mental health commissioner, Willard-Stepan is responsible for advocating on behalf of students during meetings with the McGill administration. This semester, Willard-Stepan must also prepare for the renewal of SSMU’s Mental Health Policy, which expires on May 1, 2023. In order to forge a policy that responds to the evolving needs of students, Willard-Stepan is

holding community consultation meetings.

One of Willard-Stepan’s goals for the coming policy is to better acknowledge intersectionality—BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ students face many more barriers to care than white, cisgender, heterosexual students. The Wellness Hub currently has one wellness advisor dedicated to serving 2SLGBTQIA+ students, but the wellness advisor supporting Black students position is currently vacant. Mazerolle confirmed, however, that the Hub employs a diverse counselling team “with representation from BIPOC and 2S&LGBTQIA+ communities” and that “all staff at all levels are trained in [equity, diversity, and inclusion] informed practices and care.”

“I think that in the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of progress and understanding of how your intersection of identities impacts your health and also impacts your access to health,” Willard-Stepan explained. “Equitable access to health care is social justice.”

Also on the docket for Willard-Stepan next semester is the finalization of a suicide prevention framework. Currently, McGill has a postvention— after the fact—framework that is implemented in the case of a death on campus. There is no framework in place if a student dies off campus apart from formal procedures like cancelling their registration and lowering flags on campus to half-mast. WillardStepan is looking forward to developing a preventative framework that will hopefully help students when they are in

crisis rather than post-crisis.

“[The framework] is designed to create a preparedness plan at McGill so that when there is a death on campus or when there is someone experiencing suicidal thoughts, there is a document that gives people the knowledge of what they can do, and when their role stops and they need more support,” Willard-Stepan said.

While advocating for a reform of McGill’s and Quebec’s mental health care systems, Wallace is also calling on the Faculty of Education to commemorate Hannah in some way and to acknowledge that there is a mental health crisis on campus. In the meantime, he is focused on remembering his daughter as the beautiful, brilliant person she was.

“Hannah wrote several novels [....] She was a huge fan of Taylor Swift, Glee , and Love Simon , and before there was Love Simon , there was The Perks of Being a Wallflower ,” Wallace wrote in a follow-up email to the Tribune . “She likely read 5,000 novels. When she died, it was a bit like the fire in Alexandria.”

Students in crisis should contact Suicide Action Montréal at 1-866-277-3553. For an appointment with a doctor, wellness advisor, or mental health counsellor, students can contact case managers at the Office of the Dean of Students, call the Wellness Hub at 514398-6017 Monday through Friday, or go to the Hub’s website for more information. To consult with the SSMU mental health commissioner, email mentalhealth@ssmu.ca.

The World Health Organization has identified suicide as the fourth-leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 29. (mcgill.ca)

COVID-positive students no longer need a medical note to defer exams

Student senators collaborate with McGill administration to update COVID-related exam deferral regulations

Jasjot Grewal Staff Writer

Continued from page 1.

Such documentation includes a medical note from a verified health practitioner, a statement of capacity that indicates to what extent a student’s condition has hindered them academically, dates during which the student was impacted, and when they are expected to recover.

The Deferred and Supplemental Exams webpage now indicates that students in eligible faculties who have

contracted COVID-19 can request exam deferrals “with the exception of the requirement for a medical note, even if this is not your first deferral without documentation.”

As COVID-19 case numbers soar once again, medical clinics in Quebec are increasingly backlogged. Yang explained that the modification of the regulations is meant to alleviate the stress on students who contract the virus and struggle to obtain supporting documentation due to the overburdened health care system or other accessibility issues.

“All this, the documentation, the entire process [of requesting a deferral] is extremely stress-inducing, especially during finals season,” Yang said in an interview with the The McGill Tribune . “We sort of want what requires the least amount of work and effort out of [students].”

McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle noted in an email to the Tribune that exam deferrals should only be used for extremely strenuous circumstances.

“Deferring an exam is an exceptional measure, and is meant to help students who are severely ill or dealing with unforeseeable, significant extenuating circumstances,” Mazerolle wrote. “Requests due to minor illnesses (e.g. a cold, cramps, nausea, etc.), minor personal matters, for scheduling conflicts (e.g. travel plans), or to manage your workload will not be approved.”

Deferral requests can also be refused for the failure to provide a valid reason, recurring deferral requests for similar reasons without attempting to address the barriers hindering a student’s ability to write the exam, and inadequate medical documentation.

While there may be fear of students taking advantage of the policy due to the leniency of the new clause, Werber believes it should not present a significant concern. In an interview with the Tribune , he asserted that inappropriate use of a policy is bound to occur and that students in need of deferrals should not be punished for the possibility of improper use.

“You'll have students who legitimately deserve a deferral, who don't get one,” Werber said. “I'd rather have the occasional bad actor get a deferral than [have] some student who's legitimately sick [not] get it.”

Macdonald Campus Students' Society (MCSS) VP UA Ali Reza explained that the uncertainty over the approval of deferral requests has forced students to attend their exams while ill.

“The first thing that you think of is, ‘Okay, I have 12 hours before my exam, and I need to get my request approved and I also need to get, for example, medical documentation. So how can I do all of that? Isn't it better for me just to show up sick?’” Reza said.

Werber has hope that the medical note exemption for COVID-19 cases will be carried over to other illnessrelated exam deferrals.

“Hopefully, this practice of not requiring a medical note for COVID-19 is the beginning of a new direction by which students are believed when they have an accessibility issue or need a deferral, rather than always having to prove it all the time,” Werber said.

Those who need to request an exam deferral can do so through the Student Menu on Minerva.

QPIRG-McGill holds

Allie Harrison Contributor

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill) held its annual Culture Shock event series on “anti-racism, migrant justice, and Indigenous solidarity” from Nov. 21 to Nov. 25. Centred around the theme of “joy, pleasure, and celebration as a form of community building,” the week was filled with workshops, panels, and shows open to anyone. Contrary to last year, the majority of the week’s events were held in person—either on campus or around Montreal.

QPIRG-McGill is a student-funded and student-run non-profit organization founded in 1988. The organization is composed of a board of directors, staff members, volunteers, and working groups—such as the Community Cooks Collective (CCC)—who receive monetary and logistical support from QPIRG. McGill students who pay the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) or Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) fee of $5 are automatically members of QPIRG McGill. All students are welcome to attend events, volunteer, or apply for a position within the organization.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Ivory Tong, BA ‘19 and finance administration coordinator at QPIRG, explained that over the years, the organization has opened the doors for students—often new to Montreal—to participate in activism and engage with the broader Montreal community.

“Through socially engaged research, popular education, and advocacy, we are working

Culture Shock

towards social and environmental justice,” Tong said. “We aim to connect students interested in activism with the community. However, this week of events focuses specifically on anti-colonialism, anti-racism, and migrant justice.”

This year, organizers strongly encouraged community members to step forward with event proposals following the announcement of the week’s theme.

Tong told the Tribune that the theme of joy, pleasure, and celebration as a form of community building came easily, especially after all events were held online last year.

“We decided to go with this theme because so much of activism today is naturally focused on what is wrong and what is unjust in the world, but there is great joy in coming back together,” Tong said. “We especially wanted to try and create a space for queer, transgender, Black, Indigenous and people of colour to rest and allow ourselves pleasure and joy.”

Yara Coussa, U4 Arts and events coordinator at Queer McGill, was very fond of QPIRG’s choice of theme this year.

“The theme of joy and celebration is so important because it focuses on underserved populations, but does not portray us as damaged or broken, but rather celebrates us,” Coussa said in an interview with the Tribune. “Yes, we do face challenges and hardships, but it is always nice to celebrate our diversity and our uniqueness which I think this event series does very well.”

On Nov. 25, QPIRG held a QTBIPOC Comedy Night in collaboration with Queer McGill—a service run by queer students, for queer students.

“We are hosting They Go Low, We Go Laugh—a comedy group primarily composed of women of colour and friends. For this show, our prompt was queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, and the lineup of eight comedians identify themselves as such,” Coussa said. “I fell in love with their whole theme of inclusivity and comedy without being problematic, and just highlighting voices that aren’t represented in comedy.”

Sandy El Bitar, one of the comedians, told the Tribune that her act focused on the use of humour as a form of therapy and healing. She was moved by the audience’s interaction and

enthusiasm.

“I feel it’s great to offer brave spaces for marginalized people to come together and learn about each other’s life experiences,” El Bitar said.

Tong agrees with El Bitar and hopes that QPIRG-McGill can continue to be a space that allows for such community connection.

“I think that while we are talking about joy and pleasure, there has also been a lot of despair and sorrow,” Tong said. “I truly believe that one of the best ways to combat those feelings is to get involved in your local community, and if people are interested in doing so, they can come to QPIRG.”

COVID-19 counts as a “serious” illness under McGill's regulations, regardless of whether the infected individual is symptomatic (brocku.ca).

Max Bell School of Public Policy hosts conference about free speech

Canadian Supreme Court case 'Ward v. Quebec' sparks debate among panellists

Nicholas Hayek Contributor

McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy and the Faculty of Law’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism hosted a conference on Nov. 25 titled “Humour, Hate and Harm: Rethinking dignity, equality and freedom of expression after the Supreme Court’s decision in Ward v. Quebec .” The fivehour discussion featured three panels that discussed the legal and policy implications of the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2021 Ward v. Quebec decision.

The parents of Jérémy Gabriel, a singer from Quebec with Treacher Collins

syndrome, brought forth allegations of discrimination against Montreal comedian Mike Ward in 2012 after he delivered jokes mocking Gabriel. After a decade of litigation, the case was brought to the Supreme Court, which acquitted Ward of discrimination in a 5-4 split.

A recording of Ward’s controversial comedy routine was played for the audience in attendance before the talks kicked off.

Seven out of the eight panellists opposed the ruling, including two members of the Quebec Human Rights Commission (CDPDJ), the legal body that represented Quebec in court. Julius Grey, a constitutional lawyer who argued on Ward’s behalf in the Supreme Court, was the lone dissenter. After introductions, Grey began with a critique of the Commission’s stance.

“The importance of the right to express oneself and to say anything that might lead to change [...] is essential in any society,” Grey said. “The dissenting judgment simply does not understand the importance of free speech in our society [....] If somebody’s hurt by what you say, and that's good enough [to prosecute], then you will be effectively removing freedom of expression.”

During a Q&A session, Stéphanie Fournier, who represented CDPDJ in

Ward , contested Grey’s responses to audience member questions, after which Grey himself made further rebuttals.

"Intent should [...] never be part of the equation to determine whether or not there was discrimination in [a] case, in any case,” Fournier said during the Q&A session. “Free speech should be put aside to protect dignity, in full equality.”

The second panel examined the decision’s implications for racialized and marginalized communities, who are more often targeted by discriminatory speech. It consisted of Fo Niemi, former commissioner of the CDPDJ, Mohammed Hashin, the executive director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and Pablo Gilabert, a philosophy professor at Concordia University.

Gilabert focused primarily on the word “dignity,” a foundational principle in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and one which, he explained, gives “freedom of expression” its weight. Hashim and Niemi, on the other hand, analyzed how hate manifests in society and how the law might be able to curtail it. Hashim referenced the General Social Survey, which is conducted every five years across all provinces and gauges the overall well-being of Canadians.

“[Two-hundred and thirty thousand] people in the General Social Survey said

Tribune Explains: Financial Aid at McGill

that they have faced hate in some form, but only 3,000 of those people actually reported to the police,” Hashim explained.

“We need to create funds from the federal and provincial levels so that social service agencies can create [support for] victims of hate [...] because right now, just doing it alone seems so isolating and hard and challenging.”

Once all the panels had finished their presentations and a luncheon had been served, Marie-Claude Landry, the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, gave a speech on what she saw as the ethos of Gabriel’s case— that Gabriel, now 25, was only a teenager when Mike Ward mocked him.

“[Children] trust us. They trust that we have their best interests at heart,” Landry said. “We must treat them with care, dignity, and respect.”

After the conference ended, Pearl Eliadis, the event’s host and a McGill law professor, explained the dangers of greenlighting hate speech in an interview with The McGill Tribune

“[The allowance of hate] forces people to argue for their essential humanity, and erodes their trust in institutions,” Eliadis said. “If you don't believe in your institutions to represent you, support you, protect you, then you have an entire portion of the electorate that’s disenfranchised.”

McGill offers students resources such as bursaries and loans to help pay their tuition

Hanna Hipwell Serfaty Contributor

There are various avenues available to undergraduate McGill students in need of financial aid, from merit-based entrance scholarships to government aid or bursaries. The McGill Tribune looked into the resources available on and off campus, and how to access them.

What financial aid is available to incoming undergraduate students?

McGill has an Entrance Bursary Program for entering undergraduate, medicine, or law students who demonstrate financial need. The value of an entrance bursary varies depending on an applicant’s extent of need and tuition fee rate as determined by their program and living situation. In order to qualify, students must complete their Financial Profile on Minerva, which requires information about their salaries, cost of living, and their and their families’ tax information. Canadian and American students must also fill out a CSS profile.

Students registered with McGill’s Student Accessibility & Achievement may be eligible for the Entrance Bursary even if they are pursuing part-time studies. Additionally, any student receiving aid through the Entrance Bursary is automatically enrolled in McGill’s Work Study program, which offers a host of on-campus jobs and incentivizes campus employers to prioritize Work Study students when hiring.

What financial aid is available to current undergraduate students?

McGill’s in-course financial aid is also need-based and can be offered to students at any point during their studies, provided they are taking a full course load. Aid is granted in the form of a bursary or a loan. To apply, students must complete their Financial

Aid profile on Minerva, detailing their tax information, income, and cost of living. Once their profile is completed, a student can contact a financial aid counsellor at McGill who will determine the amount of aid for which they are eligible. This decision is based on the level of funding available each year, the number of applicants, and the relative need of other candidates.

How do tuition fee deferrals work?

Tuition fee deferrals are in place to give students an extended deadline to pay tuition without any late charges or registration holds. Deferrals are granted if students can prove that they are waiting on funds such as bursaries, government loans, or delayed international transfers. The Scholarships and Student Aid Office examines a student’s situation and approves the submissions made through Minerva.

How do emergency loans work?

The university has emergency loans available to students experiencing sudden, extreme financial hardship, such as homelessness or severe food insecurity. Students must complete an In-Course Financial Aid application and update their Financial Aid profile on Minerva in order to make this request.

What kind of government financial aid is available for Quebec residents?

The Quebec Government offers loans and bursaries to eligible Quebec residents pursuing post-secondary education. Eligibility is based on marital status, type and length of education, cost of tuition, and income. Applications must be submitted through a Student Financial Aid File. Students must apply a minimum of six to eight weeks before the beginning of the semester in order to receive their funding in time for the start of term. Importantly, the loan must be repaid after students graduate. When the time to repay student debt approaches, students must contact their financial institution’s student loan centre to negotiate their repayment schedules and

interest rates.

What kind of government financial aid is offered for out-ofprovince students?

There are both federal and provincial government aid programs available for out-of-province students. The Canada Student Financial Assistance Program offers grants and loans to eligible students to pay for their education, textbooks, and living expenses. Students are deemed eligible based on their tax information, income, number of dependents, and disability if any. Just like Quebec, each province has its own financial aid program. Federal and provincial financial aid can be combined.

What kind of financial aid is offered for international students?

While international students must demonstrate financial security and the ability to fund their education and living costs to be eligible for a Certificate of Acceptance of Quebec, they may still be eligible and considered for the Entrance Bursary, scholarships, in-course financial aid, tuition fee deferrals, Work Study, and emergency loans.

In 2012, after Jérémy Gabriel’s parents filed a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission, Ward was originally ordered to pay the family $42,000. (mcgill.ca_maxbellschool_)

SSMU is offering a Pilot Grocery Program to its members who are facing food insecurity. Students can grab a voucher for a grocery store of choice in December. (Corey Zhu / The McGill Tribune)

Editor-in-Chief

Madison McLauchlan editor@mcgilltribune.com

Creative Director

Anoushka Oke aoke@mcgilltribune.com

Managing Editors

Sepideh Afshar safshar@mcgilltribune.com Matthew Molinaro mmolinaro@mcgilltribune.com

Madison Edward-Wright medwardwright@mcgilltribune.com

News Editors

Lily Cason, Juliet Morrison & Ghazal Azizi news@mcgilltribune.com

Opinion Editors

Kareem Abuali, Leo Larman Brown & Valentina de la Borbolla opinion@mcgilltribune.com

Science & Technology Editors

Mayuri Maheswaran & Russel Ismael scitech@mcgilltribune.com

Student Life Editors

Abby McCormick & Mahnoor Chaudhry studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

Features Editor Wendy Zhao features@mcgilltribune.com

Arts & Entertainment Editors

Arian Kamel & Michelle Siegel arts@mcgilltribune.com

Sports Editors

Tillie Burlock & Sarah Farnand sports@mcgilltribune.com

Design Editors

Mika Drygas & Shireen Aamir design@mcgilltribune.com

Photo Editor

Cameron Flanagan photo@mcgilltribune.com

Multimedia Editors Wendy Lin multimedia@mcgilltribune.com

Web Developers

Sneha Senthil & Oliver Warne webdev@mcgilltribune.com

Copy Editor Sarina Macleod copy@mcgilltribune.com

Social Media Editor Taneeshaa Pradhan socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com

Business Manager Joseph Abounohra business@mcgilltribune.com

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The McGill Tribune Editorial Board

On Nov. 16, Quebec’s Health Minister Christian Dubé recommended the use of face masks in public spaces again.

In a press conference, he cited the rise in COVID-19 cases as well as the uptick in respiratory syncytial virus and influenza cases as a serious risk to public safety. What is being called a “tripledemic” has dramatically increased hospital bed occupancy in recent weeks, particularly in children’s wards. As a system already in disarray, the Quebec hospital network is completely unprepared to deal with what Dr. Luc Boileau, director of Quebec’s public health department, calls a “spicy cocktail” of respiratory viruses. To truly address this public health crisis, the provincial government and universities like McGill must centre disability rights in their COVID-19 policies to move away from violent medical and bureaucratic practices.

Public health officials have, at best, ignored disability rights and, at worst, curtailed them. Although disabled people are more at risk of suffering complications from COVID-19 infections and to die from the disease, public

health policies have been geared towards “returning back to normal” rather than protecting the most vulnerable. An insistence on limiting COVID-19 measures even when the epidemiological situation requires them is proof that disabled lives are seen as disposable. Indeed, much of the language around COVID-19 deaths evokes eugenics ideology: Throughout the pandemic and beyond, the Canadian government has engaged in deplorable eugenicist practices, with hospital guidelines denying disabled people ventilators in favour of non-disabled patients, effectively issuing a death sentence for those deemed to have a lower chance of survival.

While discourse surrounding COVID-19 measures tends to focus primarily on the individual strain on our social lives and relationships, this kind of understanding ignores the calls by disability activists for a politics of care that focuses on mutual aid and community resources. Rather than being burdensome, public health measures like mask mandates can ensure that essential spaces are available and accessible to all, not just those who can weigh the risk of infection. The forging of a “new normal” requires a change in the perception of which lives are worth living, as well as the

implementation of strong initiatives to support disabled people.

Institutions such as McGill have the power to lead this change. However, McGill’s response to the pandemic has been not only insufficient, but dangerous. Beyond masks, the university has virtually eliminated COVID-19 accommodations and case tracking efforts despite the continued spread of the virus. Lecture recordings are no longer mandatory, and professors still have the option to grade attendance. This leaves at-risk students in the precarious situation of having to attend class despite the dangers to their physical and mental health. Furthermore, McGill has not provided any support for immunocompromised professors who do not feel comfortable teaching in-person or being in crowded classrooms with unmasked students. This is just another iteration of McGill’s disregard for worker’s rights and a concerning manifestation of the university’s profit-forward thinking.

Considering that the provincial health system is in shambles, McGill must do everything in its power to alleviate the strain on Montreal hospitals. Instead, the substandard Wellness Hub consistently fails to address the needs of the student

body and funnels a steady stream of students into emergency rooms because of insufficient resources. This adds to the burden of already overcrowded and understaffed hospitals in the province and shows students that their university cannot and will not care for their health.

As respiratory viruses continue to emerge, McGill must reinstate academic accommodations and make them a permanent feature of university life. Health concerns, especially for disabled people, are not seasonal, and students need proper support throughout their degrees. As such, exam accommodations must be accessible without the need of a doctor’s note, all lectures must be recorded, and mandatory attendance must be scrapped. The university also needs to reinstate case tracking and address outbreaks that take place in dining halls and residences like the health emergencies they are. Most importantly, McGill must reform the Wellness Hub and provide students with quality and accessible health care every single day.

Until McGill takes action, the university is a dangerous place for disabled students. A post-COVID world must be pro-disabled lives, otherwise we will return to the ableist and deadly status quo that got us here in the first place.

OFF THE BOARD

Michelle Siegel Arts & Entertainment Editor

Like many of my other personality traits, I could easily blame my weirdest qualities on my immediate family. To many of my friends, buying a pair of ripped jeans or eating a sandwich with white bread are simple, unweighted choices. For me, deliberately calculating the cost-benefit analysis of such choices is a crushing reminder of how I’m disappointing my mother. The idea of buying white bread—even when it’s on sale—sends a chill down my spine, lighting up my nervous system with my eight-year-old self’s fear of stepping out of line.

low stakes. For the majority of my life, I actively avoided any and all scary movies. When I went to see Titane (2021)—a body horror drama film about a serial killer—I felt a glowing sense of pride as I left the theatre, even if I watched most of the movie’s gruesome first third through my fingers. It may not have been a traditional “scary” movie, but having previously avoided horror like the plague, it felt like a weird, powerful step towards overcoming my fears.

TRIBUNE OFFICE

Shatner University Centre, 3480 McTavish, Suite 110 Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 - T: 519.546.8263

The McGill 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 responsibil ity of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publica tion 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. Sub missions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely pro motional 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 McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff.

In middle school, I spent objectively too much time reading dystopian Young Adult fiction novels and watching romcoms from the 1990s and 2000s, which have now left me with a questionable repertoire of references and an insatiable taste for casual insurgency. I’ve never considered my attempts at nonconformity as dangerous to others simply because the scale of my “anarchy” is what many would call pathetic.

While I have no qualms about hiding my purchase of what my mother calls “overpriced pants that have already been broken” from her, I always feel a sense of anxiety when stepping into them, as if I have gained a power I have no control over. Even though I fully understand that the pants annoy my mother, it feels almost stupid to think that wearing pants with holes in them is a way to forge some kind of path forward for myself.

I wouldn’t necessarily describe myself as a rebellious person, but I am often compelled to do things that I had previously avoided at all costs, as long as there are hilariously

Sometimes I think that these casual acts are just a product of all my own insecurities—maybe a new angle at which I can attempt to not be myself. Because of my persistent inclination towards making selfdeprecating jokes, I know that it’s easy for me to joke about the lowstakes nature of these challenges. But inadvertently, some of these new efforts have brought me genuinely closer to different parts of myself than I had previously thought possible.

I’ve spent a solid two decades complaining about sports: I got excited about the Super Bowl solely because of the buffalo wings and would constantly decry that I didn’t get sports—it was easy to hide my chagrin from not understanding them behind loud expressions of hostility.

Yet, for all the times I’ve annoyed my family by complaining about the television constantly being tuned to the sports channel, my dislike has finally started to crack. While my brother bribing me with takeout to watch Mets games with him didn’t exactly spark joy, following the Rangers during the Stanley Cup playoffs last year with my family was an intense, yet jubilant experience. Watching every game was more than just a few hours of visual engagement; it was a true bonding experience. Becoming a hockey fan probably should have felt like a betrayal of my own opinions, but I found that picking up the game was more of a fun challenge—I don’t understand a good amount of the rules, but I still won’t quit.

I’m not immune to wishing I could take risks that are indubitably serious, or wanting to know more surely where that drive comes from. But for the most part, I’m pretty content with my low-pressure unrest—if the worst thing that can come from it is ribbing from my family, I can probably handle that. Regardless of how strange or mundane some risks may seem, if they bring me closer to myself and to my family, I see no good reason to stop.

The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math

Protecting disability rights is the only way forward

Joseph Abounohra, Kareem Abuali, Yasmine El Dukar, Ella Gomes, Sequoia Kim, Shani Laskin, Kennedy McKee-Braide, Madison McLauchlan, Michelle Siegel, Sophie Smith

Keith Baybayon, Julia Buckle, Zoe Dubin, Salma El Hamzawy, Drea Garcia Avila, Philippe Haddad, Allie Harrison, Nicholas Hayek, Monique Kasonga, Chloé Kichenane, Eliza Lee, Simi Ogunsola, Melody Schmidt, Joy Sebera, Hanna Hipwell Serfaty, K. Coco Zhang

STAFF

Margo Berthier, Ella Buckingham, Melissa Carter, Adeline Fisher, Drea Garcia, Suzanna Graham, Jasjot Grewal, Charlotte Hayes, Monique Kasonga, Chloé Kichenane, Shani Laskin, Zoé Mineret, Chetna Misra, Harry North, Ella Paulin, Dana Prather, Maeve Reilly, Sofia Stankovic, Athina Sitou, Yash Zodgekar

CONTRIBUTORS

Canadian mining: Putting a price on Latin American lives

Monique Kasonga Staff Writer

Canada is one of the world’s most prominent players in the mining industry, and its presence has been swiftly growing since the 1990s. Nowhere is Canada’s dominance seen more clearly than in Latin America—where between 50 and 70 per cent of mining activity involves Canadian companies.

With its neocolonialist control over the mining industry, Canada holds immense influence over the political and environmental landscapes of Latin America. This control has proven to be devastating, with mining

being responsible for the highest proportion of human rights violation complaints in Latin America. North American governments also create a trap of terrible conditions that workers in the mining industry cannot escape due to restrictive immigration policies in Canada and the U.S. Educational institutions that prepare students to enter the mining industry, including McGill, are complicit in the detrimental effects mining has on Latin American countries. With Canada’s oldest mining engineering program, McGill must re-orient its mining program towards sustainability and end its perpetuation of mining’s destructive status quo.

Canadian companies participate in extractivism, by which minerals are extracted from the Earth with virtually no regulation

to maximize profit. The lack of enforceable guidelines leads to terrible working conditions and environmental destruction, such as pipeline failures that cause cyanide solution to enter waterways. Canada funds and directs most mining operations in Mexico, which are notorious for poor labour conditions such as exposure to explosives, or toxic gases that contribute to injury and death through workplace accidents, lung disease, and cancer. Although the extractive model of mining provides workers with jobs, the lack of regulation stifles workers’ rights in an industry where conditions are already brutal. Furthermore, this practice encourages an economic focus on resource extraction that weakens the economic selfdetermination of the resource-rich region.

Inequitable mining practices are directly contributing to the displacement and subsequent migration of Latin American peoples. Although illegal border crossings have seen a downward trend in the past 20 years, Canada and the U.S. have been arresting and detaining more people than ever over the past three years with the numbers still on the rise. Migrants resorting to illegal entry often come from Mexico, where smugglers profit off of locals needing to escape dangerous working conditions, poverty, and violence. Canada already has a history of displacing and exploiting racialized peoples to achieve its economic goals, as evidenced by the construction of pipelines on Indigenous lands.

McGill prides itself on the fact that its students and alumni have “shaped the face of mining” in Canada and around the world. With this pride should also come responsibility. The McGill Research Group Investigating Canadian Mining in Latin America (MICLA)

is a research collective based at McGill that aims to fund public research and debate regarding Canadian mining in Latin America. Composed of students and faculty, MICLA is part of the university’s ongoing effort to link teaching with research and to connect these to the public interest. However, they have not released any public updates since 2013. McGill students working in mining research should be examining Canada’s neocolonial practices, and the MICLA’s mission should be revived to spur activism for those forced to work in these poor conditions.

To truly transition to sustainable mining, governments and corporations must acknowledge the horrific impacts of current mining conditions and bring forward laws and regulations that have undergone community consultation. The needs and concerns of those inhabiting the land must be prioritized in the development of a project to ensure the community is not harmed. Further, McGill must take the proper steps to change the devastating state of the mining industry by incorporating sustainable and ethical mining practices into its curricula.

It is crucial that the Canadian government be held accountable for its exploitative practices in Latin America. The unethical tactic of displacing workers and subsequent denial of safe and equitable migration cannot continue. McGill must pool its resources to prepare its students to promote positive change in the mining sector. Having the oldest mining program in Canada means nothing if it is not being continually updated to serve the needs of today. McGill must stop resting on its reputation of prestige, and work on sustainable changes.

Why is Frosh always such a flop?

Chloé Kichenane Staff Writer

As this fall semester comes to an end, I find myself looking back at my own first semester and reflecting on all the typical freshman experiences I had. Upon moving to Montreal, Frosh was my very first glimpse of what university life had to offer. As an ignorant international student, I had no idea what ‘Frosh’ actually meant. But one thing was certain: I didn’t want to be left out of it. Unfortunately, for me as well as for many others, Frosh turned out to be a huge letdown. Though some leave Frosh ready to do it all over again and become Frosh leaders, others, like myself, want nothing more than a refund for their money, time, and energy.

As an active Frosh hater, I pride myself on having pushed through the whole week and (almost) every single organized activity. This included painfully long movie nights and 9 a.m. bar crawls with the disrespectful 10 centilitre solo cups of lukewarm beer.

This brings me to my primary complaint about Frosh week, which is, like most things offered by McGill, the outrageously high cost. When I first agreed to pay the $170 fee for Arts Frosh, I surely didn’t expect having to additionally pay more than $30 every day for food and drinks, as barely any are included. Maybe it is too big of a grievance, but is it really unrealistic to expect a university to make its orientation week more financially accessible to students? Is it so unreasonable to think that an event with such an inescapable drinking culture would actually provide drinks?

Most people who attended Frosh will agree that the moments of bonding with your group rarely happen during the organized activities. Rather, it’s during the more intimate

group dinners or parties at Frosh leaders’ apartments where actual friendships bloom. Unfortunately, none of these are an official part of Frosh and, thus, fall at a student’s own expense. If Frosh refuses to include more activities for the price paid, it seems like all those on a tighter budget will have to skip out on the unofficial but essential experiences of that week.

Yet, my complaints only stem from my personal experience with Faculty Frosh, and it is important to remember that other options, such as Rad Frosh, for outdoors amateurs, or Fish Frosh, for those who may not want to drink, are available. These alternatives gather smaller groups of likeminded students rather than throwing hundreds of first-years who barely have anything in common into the same sweaty pit. In that regard, non-faculty Froshes seem to allow more space for first-years to actually get to know each other and form close bonds—in a way that is certainly more meaningful

than the awkward ice-breaking sessions at Jeanne Mance.

More than anything else, your Frosh experience heavily depends on your leaders and your fellow froshies. Here’s a warning: It doesn’t matter how many times you will promise each other to catch up and have a Frosh reunion, you will most likely forget about it and maybe vaguely nod at each other when your paths cross in the sinister atmosphere of the Royal Victoria College cafeteria.

I might be a professional Frosh hater, but I will recognize that maybe I was just unlucky in my experience. Frosh is not all that bad, as some movie-like miraculous friendships and meet-cutes emerge from it for the most fortunate among us. But to cap off my list of grievances, here’s what I will say: If Frosh was a little less sacralized as a must-do firstyear experience and was more oriented toward connecting students with each other, then it might not be such a flop.

With the least strict mining regulations in NAFTA, Mexico has long been a victim of environmentally destructive and exploitative mining practices from Canada and the U.S. (Reuters)

Every year at the end of August, Frosh week marks the kick-off of university life for thousands of first-years. (McGill University).

Trottier Foundation donates

Ella Paulin Staff Writer

The Trottier Family Foundation an nounced on Nov. 21 that they would be making a donation of $16 million to the McGill Space Institute (MSI)—which will now be called the Trottier Space Institute (TSI)—as well as $10 million to L’Université de Montréal. Half of the money donated to McGill will go towards building an annex onto the TSI building at 3550 University Street, while the other half will fund fellowships and provide increased support for research proj ects.

In light of the donation, Nicholas Vieira, a PhD student in astrophysics at McGill, dis cussed his hopes for the future of the TSI in an interview with The McGill Tribune

“Hearing about this new donation is super exciting as a graduate student, because I know that this kind of money is going to fund all sorts of new students to come to the TSI,” Vieira said.

Since the TSI was founded in 2015, it has grown to house more than 120 researchers who work on a wide variety of topics, includ ing exoplanets, astrobiology, and the forma tion of stars. As the TSI continues to grow, the extra space provided by the annex will allow for new and exciting research projects to de velop.

“My understanding is that the building is hopefully going to just accommodate a lot more students, because this building is beauti ful. I love it, but it’s not the biggest building on campus,” Vieria said.

Vieira studies kilonovae, phenomena that occur when two neutron stars orbiting each other collide, emitting a burst that lasts for about a week. “The reason why kilonovae are super interesting to me is that we think the reason they shine is that during these merg ers, you synthesize a bunch of radioactive el ements, and just heavy elements in general,” Vieira explained.

In the future, Vieira and a team of scien tists at the TSI hope to use the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in _____ to further their research.

“We really want to point James Webb at these things, and analyze how their [...] co lour evolves over time, how their brightness evolves over time, and see if we can learn stuff about the origin of these really heavy elements using that data,” Vieira.

Research into kilonovae is one of many space-related investigations currently under way at the TSI.

“There’s a lot of really exciting stuff going on, which is one of the things that I re ally like about coming into work here,” said Vieira.

Even before the donation, the TSI was

already doing ground-breaking re search. Professor Victoria Kaspi, di rector of the TSI, was even awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in September 2022.

“The ground-breaking work by the Space Institute’s research ers includes major discoveries in the area of neutron stars and fast radio bursts by [...] Victoria Kaspi,” wrote Frédérique Mazerolle, media relations officer at McGill, in an email to the Tribune

Kaspi is known for her past work on neutron stars, which are formed by the collapse of massive stars and are some of the densest objects in the universe. More re cently, at TSI, she has focused on fast radio bursts, which are a mys terious observed phenomenon.

Space Institute

“Fast radio bursts [...] are these bursts of radio waves that, as the name implies, are very fast, like millisec onds long,” Vieira explained. “What’s really neat about FRBs, as they’re called, is we have no idea where they come from, nobody knows what produces them.”

New astronomical telescopes and instru ments accelerate innovative research like Kas pi’s, and the donation from the Trottier Foun dation will help keep TSI at the cutting-edge

of this development.

“The visionary gift coincides with an ex citing age of discovery in astrophysics, thanks in part to the development of powerful new telescopes—such as the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and [the JWST]—that enable researchers to ex plore deep into our solar system and beyond,” Mazerolle wrote.

K. Coco Zhang Contributor

Hemorrhages account for about two million poten tially avoidable deaths around the world every year. With a 30 to 40 per cent rate of trauma mor tality, the impact of hemorrhages worldwide cannot be understated.

Yet, a group of researchers at Mc Gill made a remarkable improve ment in its treatment by developing bioadhesives derived from structures found in flatworms to efficiently handle pressurized blood flows in non-compressive hemorrhages.

Hemorrhages are caused by blood loss due to damaged blood vessels. The bleeding can be minor, resulting in a bruise, or significant, leading to fluctuations in vital signs and altered mental sta tus. Hemor rhaging can occur outside the body, as a traumatic wound, or in side the body, as internal bleeding. In ternal hem orrhages re quire clinical investigations that include physical ex aminations, laboratory tests, diag nostic imag ing tests, and

close monitoring of vital signs.

Various factors can lead to hemorrhaging, such as alcohol abuse, drug use, tobacco consump tion, cancer, surgery, or damage to an internal organ. Uncontrolled hemorrhaging leads to decreased blood flow and oxygen supply to or gans, which could ultimately result in organ failure, seizures, coma, and death. The treatment for a hemor rhage depends on its anatomical lo cation, the extent of the blood loss, and the patient’s symptoms.

External bleeding can usually be treated by applying direct pres sure and placing tourniquets near the wound. However, the treatment of non-compressible hemorrhages, when wound sites are inaccessible, remains challenging. Current treat ments, including the use of hemo static agents (thrombin and kaolin) and bioadhesive sealants, have major drawbacks: They can be in sufficiently absorbent and are diffi cult to store.

Researchers from McGill de veloped bioadhesives modelled after structures found in marine animals, such as mussels and flatworms, to remedy many of the problems pre sented by traditional adhesives.

In a new study published in Nature, Jianyu Li, a professor in McGill’s Department of Mechanical

Engineering, and his team have pro posed the use of liquid-infused mi crostructured bioadhesives (LIMBs) as an innovative strategy to treat non-compressible hemorrhages.

“These interesting microstruc tures provide us with a solution to handle heavy blood flows, which is mission-critical in the cases of noncompressive hemorrhages,” Li said in an interview with The McGill Tri bune. “They act like a sponge, suck ing in the blood at the source of [the] wound, can rapidly induce clotting, and can instantaneously form strong bioadhesion that seals bleeding sites. This new material is mechanically robust and tough to encounter pres surized blood flows and can be in stantly removed after surgery.”

As their name suggests, the LIMBs are formed by infusing liq uids into a bioadhesive gel called xerogel, which absorbs blood and promotes clotting at bleeding sites. Infused liquids facilitate interfa cial bonding and sealing—sticking formed by the intermolecular forces in liquids. The synergy of xerogel and infused liquids allows the bio adhesives to form robust adhesions without having to apply pressure.

Unlike traditional wound clo sure methods like sutures, wires, and staples, bioadhesives are less invasive and promote wound heal

ing through various mechanisms, such as the release of antibacterial and growth factors, induced host im mune responses, and delivery of healthy cells. The bioadhesives pos sess antibacterial, anti-inflamma tory, antioxidant, and self-healing properties, and can remain stable on the site of application due to their intrinsic adhesion property derived from flatworms. These bioadhesives also prevent leakages after surgery, which account for 30 per cent of complications that can easily result in pain, inflammation, infection, and death. LIMBs were validated through both in vitro and in vivo testing using pig models.

The application of LIMBs is quick and pressure-free, making them suitable for non-compressible hemorrhages. Additionally,e LIMBs minimize the risk of re-bleeding upon removal and can be left inside the body to be absorbed.

“Our material showed [...] bet ter-improved safety and bleeding control efficiency than other com mercial products,” Li said. “Beyond bleeding control, our material could one day replace wound sutures or deliver drugs to provide therapeutic effects and would have important implications in various clinical set tings and even the Canadian Armed Forces.”

Graduate students and postdocs excited about what $16 million donation entails for their research projects

$16 million to McGill

Medical breakthrough aims to treat non-compressive hemorrhages quickly

Flatworm-inspired bioadhesives allow for pressure-free hemorrhage treatment

The Trottier Family Foundation actually donated a total of $26 million to space research in Montreal—$10 million was given to UdeM’s Institute for Research on Exoplanets.. (Owen Egan/ McGill)

The growing interest in producing adhesives and sealants currently contributes to a market share of $38 billion worldwide. (Drea Garcia/ The McGill Tribune)

hat’s it, I have had enough. I can no longer stand by watch as students continue to criticize and bully François Legault. The truth has been staring us in the face this whole time, but we’ve been too distracted by violent video games and metal music to care. The charismatic Legault reminds me of another great man, one that came into my life all those years ago as a small child in Iran.

It was not until one fateful morning, spent with my only childhood friend, a battered copy of The Fountainhead (extended Marxist edition), that I stumbled upon a force beyond any comprehen sion. A life-size cutout of the 37th President of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon, aban doned in a sea of blooming red tulips, unfettered by society’s malignant whims. Fate had brought him to me. Up until that point, at the ripe age of seven, my primary influences had been Lazy Town’s Rob bie Rotten, Arthur’s Buster Baxter, and of course, Thomas Sowell. Oh, how foolish was I!

Like a fish to water, I quickly took to learn ing more about this intoxicating figure, trying to understand what made him tick. Where did he come from? What did he stand for? What was his stance on that damned gold standard? Waffles or pancakes? I wanted to breathe him in. All questions that I myself had wrestled with up until that very point.

Mainstream media is often quick to criticize great men. What lies behind their constant obses sion with Nixon’s supposed crimes, rather than his tremendous victories, is political opportunism. This is the same corrupt coverage that haunts our pre cious premier Legault. The mainstream media isn’t sleeping, it is, as always, plotting, scheming, work ing, and fighting to sully his good name. For these reasons, I shall shine a spotlight on the radical, leftist media’s blatant lies for you today.

Richard Milhous Nixon, or Dick as I like to call him, possessed an uncanny grip on the pulsing heart of the most powerful nation on the planet, demonstrating great girth and vigour––this explains

Twhy his opponents could not help but call him a ‘knob.’ Sure, he did not have Reagan’s charisma or Kennedy’s looks, but he did have the Sisyphean per sistence of an efficient bureaucrat. Among his many accomplish ments was establishing the Environ mental Protection Agency, thawing two decades of frigid animosity with China, and enforcing the desegrega tion of Southern schools, to name a few. And let us not forget his initiative to abandon the notoriously volatile gold standard, single-handedly saving the American economy from relentless inflation. It would not be an exaggera tion to say that, without Nixon’s tough choices, the U.S. would be in shambles today, with a shattered public image and rampant institutional racism to add. What an unforeseen nightmare that would be!

“When Alexander (The Great) saw the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer."

Hans

Gruber,

Nixon, Mon

Never has treason

Arian Kamel, Arts and Design by Mika Drygas,

warfare, then do they really care? Treason is healthy for a democracy, and by poking holes in different institutional vulnerabilities, Nixon led the way for lawmakers to patch them up, in fact strengthening U.S. foreign policy.

Die Hard

Nixon is the ideal politician, a stance I’ve reiter ated ever since my primary school days. Back then, when my contemporaries doodled silly flowers and uninspired cubes during our boring math lessons, I etched magnificent portraits of a shirtless Nixon lying atop a bear-skin rug with a fireplace glowing behind him, fuelled by American democracy and freedom. My math teacher, Mrs. Banaei, told me to apply myself, but I didn't know how to explain to her that I already had, to something much greater.

Whenever I have faced a tough choice in my life, when disaster seems all but inevitable, I repeat four letters to myself: W.W.N.D. What Would Nixon Do? Take, for example, when my ‘friend’ Amir Ali tried to ruthlessly steal my blue raspberry freezie in the second grade. I reacted proportionally by bombing his family home, and then mustard-gassing his neighbours just to cover all my bases. After all, if world governments are any reference, the Geneva Conventions are mostly suggestions.

Now, it would be irresponsible of me to leave some of Nixon’s more prominent critiques unaddressed. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: The Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration’s break-in to the Democratic National Commit tee headquarters and the ensuing cover-up attempt. As I’ve explained to my therapist every week for the last six years, it was not his goddamn fault! Nixon was a notoriously trust ing man (why else would he wiretap himself?), too pure for his time, really the Princess Diana of Washington. So why must he be blamed for the misdeeds of those beneath him?

Other critics might also reference his sabotage of peace negotiations for the Vietnam War in 1968, all so he could end the war himself once he won the presidential election (even though the conflict ended two years after he left office). Well, certainly, more traditionally-minded politi cal theorists may view treason as a detractor. These are fools. If a leader is unwilling to spice things up, to plunge their country into further chaos and

It makes me nauseous to even mention it, but some historians have even stooped so low as to use this tantalizing juggernaut's own words against him. Nixon is often indicted on one of his most famous quotes: “Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” But people often forget that tone can completely change the meaning behind any message.

In order to better understand the sweeping temperament across McGill campus toward Nixon and to make some headway in repairing his image, I set out to inter view different students on campus. Of the first six students I interviewed, none of them cared––four ran away, one called campus security, and one tripped and is currently in critical care. However, lucky number seven––a completely random McGill student, I must remind you––agreed to have his words published.

In an interview with The Mc Gill Tribune , this completely ran dom student, William Rantala, U2 Environment, commented, “Ari, are you still talking about Nixon? What’s wrong with you? I don’t understand how you’re still a student, I’ve never seen you go to class. You need to pay rent, you’re two months beh….”

At this point Mr. Rantala became unintelligible, so I shall spare the readers from his horrid screeches.

Stemming from the campus’ mixed reactions, it became apparent to me that greater, even su pernatural measures were sorely needed to correct students’ misconceptions. If my pleas for reason have proven unconvincing until now, dear readers, then the only logical next step is to contact the ghost of Richard Nixon himself. For this very rea son, I reached out to almost a dozen psychics and spirit mediums from respectable online communi ties.

Among the many candidates, only one ap peared to be of reasonable skill and mind, and also happened to message me back. This savant, who for the sake of this article wishes to remain anon ymous (for national security purposes), taught me far more than I could have ever imagined.

(Zoe Dubin)

Mon Amour

treason been so sexy

Entertainment Editor Drygas, Design Editor

Interview Transcript with Medium #14

Just to clear any doubt, are you accredited by any institutions?

I think, what’s important to know, there are so-called institutions who try to legitimize people, but with this type of thing…you’re either born with it or not. Like, I never attended any school or anything, but you know my grandma had the gift and ever since… like I know, I know what I know. And I take it very seriously.

What is it that you know?

I can, and I don’t want to get all ‘sixthsense’ with this, but I can speak to dead people. I have a spirit guide, and you can tell when someone’s a charlatan when they claim their spirit guide is, like, a famous person. Someone like Cleopatra, you know… but my spirit guide is a small child from Edwardian England who died when he was around nine years old. I’ve known him for as long as I’ve been alive. When I was younger, I thought he was my imaginary friend. I speak to him, and he speaks to the dead people for me. It’s a little bit like a game of telephone, but I trust him.

What’s the spirit medi um’s name?

Edward. Edward, the Edward ian child?

Yes, exactly. It was a common name.

So, this medium speaks to ghosts?

Well, I don’t like the term ghost. A ghost would be a member of the afterlife who lost his way back into our realm and, as a result, is ac cessible to us. And that’s not what we’re dealing with here. But in cases like this, we’re talking about someone who is on another plane. I prefer the term long-lost friend.

For a start, what was the president thinking in this image?

Sorry, it’s gonna take a minute. To me at least, from my psychic senses, he seems contemplative. I would say he seems a little lost. Obviously, he’s eating, and so he’s not hungry. But more than anything, he seems alone.

But is there not another person in the image?

Well alone… more spiritually.

In any case, what does President Nixon wish to say to all of his detractors?

The impression Edward is getting is that he knows he made a mistake. I think he’s definitely reflected in the afterlife. I think he has a lot of regrets. The way he thought about certain people and, like, groups of people, now that he’s in the afterlife, he and they have come to terms. Him and various communities.

Does the president regret ending the gold standard?

You know, I think in hindsight, no. It’s a part of his legacy he’s very proud of and… in fact he wished he went further. Edward seems to be saying NFTs a lot, so maybe that’s something.

To close it off on a high note, what advice would the president give to current world leaders?

That’s not really what I do here.

Despite Nixon’s hesitancy to advise modern leaders, thanks to this enlightening interview, I hope that you, my dear readers, can finally see Nixon from my perspec tive. Nixon, and our very own Legault, are playing a very complex game of politics, a game for the greater good. For the sake of clarity, I will attempt to explain their thinking through a brand-new field of political theory.

My magnum opus, really the perfect political strat agem, will be simply known as new-pseudo-post-metaNixonism (NPPNM), or moral calculus for short. Moral calculus theory, which I invented during a 24-hour coke-fuelled Wolf of Wall Street marathon, can be summed up using the famous axiom ‘the end justifies the means.’

“Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

Richard Nixon

To start off light and frisky, moral calculus begins with tapping into fear. It’s especially effective if the fear revolves around polarizing the dominant cohort of your population, because who else is going to vote for you?

Nixon did this brilliantly by exploiting the deep-seated, racism-driven fear and anxiety in Southern white com munities, and the Republican party has been in his debt ever since. Our own local Quebec government is just as wise, seeing as public policy and election cycles have been driven by the plight of the white, settler Quebecois identi ty. Fuck the 16-hour hospital wait times!

Where moral calculus truly shines is in its use of archaic good-faith laws. Remember, if certain legal proto cols were inscribed decades ago, or maybe even centuries if you’re lucky, under completely different circumstances, then they’re ripe for exploitation. Nixon, using executive orders, sent secret bombing operations to Cambodia, completely decimating innocent populations while attempting to keep Congress in the dark. But anyways, it was smarter to keep those top-secret plans locked within

the circle of a few trustworthy individuals in his cabinet, like Henry Kissinger. Now, the Quebec government is not as extreme or directly violent in their motives, but their methods are even more effective. Section 33, also known as the notwithstanding clause, means the Canadian Charter of Human Rights is nothing more than a stern shake of the head. If history has shown us anything, only brilliant free-thinkers dare go against such corruptible forces as the law.

“[Section 33] was inscribed in the Canadian consti tution because Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau needed the support of the premiers,” said Éric Bélanger, a political science professor at McGill, in an interview with the Tri bune. “Many of the premiers were reluctant of Trudeau’s charter because they feared that, with it, Canada could become a government by the judges. The provincial premiers wanted to make sure they retained control over policy decisions.”

To wrap moral calculus up, with a pretty bow on top, all you need to do is combine its first two components. After all, peanut butter and jelly are pretty great by them selves, but together they are oh-so magical. These archaic laws are perfect for targeting marginalized groups, from Ukrainian war refugees to disabled people, so your fearful base can finally celebrate their crushing dominance. For get about Nixon, Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) are the naturals here: Bill 21 and 96 violate the human rights of religious minorities and anglophone residents alike. Not to worry, though, as François Legault just swept his way to re-election.

“Bill 21 addresses any kind of religious clothing, but the most visible ones are the ones from the Muslim religion,” Bélanger commented. “At its basis, it’s a fear of disappearance on the part of the French-descending population in Quebec.”

Now, you may be asking what moral calculus has to do with morality, or even calculus, and that’s where the beauty of the theory lies—nothing. Like a politician kissing a baby’s forehead, it’s but a masquerade for a sem blance of legitimacy. And as long as their hidden inten tions serve the desires of the larger demographics, wheth er it’s infringing on the rights of Indigenous groups by the U.S. in the 1970s or by Québec in recent years, moral calculus will be every politician’s best friend, especially Legault. If only Nixon could see us now!

“ "I love you," "I'm proud of you," "I forgive you," "I'm grateful for you." That's what eternity is made of: invisible imperishable good stuff.”

Fred Rogers

(memolition.com)

persists at McGill

Athina Sitou Staff Writer

At the end of this semester, I will have completed half of my neu roscience undergraduate degree at McGill, and the number of women professors in my science courses so far is slightly alarming. Out of the 22 profes sors that I have had spanning disciplines like neuroscience, biology, mathematics, physiology, and computer science, only four of them were women—a measly 18 per cent. Many courses offered by the Faculty of Science are taught by more than one professor, and PHGY 311 is a prime example, with four different in structors leading the class over the course of one semester. Each time we finished a section of this course, my friends and I hoped that the new professor would be a woman. But with only three classes left, we now know that we will not be getting the opportunity to learn about ion channels from a woman professor. Many would argue that this doesn’t matter, but it reflects a broader gender inequity that is stubbornly entrenched across scientific disciplines.

PHGY 311 is not an outlier; it is the norm. In McGill’s physiology depart ment more broadly, men represent 72 per cent of all professors. It demonstrates the troubling reality that, on average, academic positions in the faculties of sci ence and engineering are primarily held by men. “Turning the Tide for Academic Women in STEM: A Postpandemic Vi sion for Supporting Female Scientists” is a recent study investigating the chal lenges women encountered in academia throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers noted that, although inclusiv ity in science has increased over the past decades, underrepresentation, salary dis crepancies, and increased career-related obstacles are some of the challenges that women in science, technology, engineer ing, and mathematics (STEM) continue to face.

The pandemic alone did not cause these issues—it exacerbated the effects of pre-existing inequalities between men and women academics. Women spent less time doing research throughout the pan demic because care responsibilities and other traditionally gendered tasks fell disproportionately on their shoulders. A meta-research study also found that the number of women who were first authors on COVID-19 papers published through out the pandemic decreased by a stagger ing 19 per cent compared to 2019.

The phenomenon behind gender dis parities, such as the decreased number of research publications, is known as the leaky pipeline, which describes how gen der biases may limit women’s opportu nities to ascend to the highest positions within STEM. These barriers can have devastating effects at various stages of women’s careers, such as hiring, fund ing, publishing, and professional advance ment. The leaky pipeline problem has re

According to Statistics Canada, more women high-school graduates enroll in postsecondary STEM programs than men. (Sunny Kim / The McGill Tribune )

sulted in a persistent gender gap among STEM academics despite the significant increase in the number of women pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences.

Julie O’Reilly, a second-year PhD student in the Bourque Lab at the Re search Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), has noticed that the number of women in McGill’s sci ence graduate programs contrasts starkly with the number of women who occupy academic positions at McGill.

In an interview with The McGill Tri bune , O’Reilly shared that, even though she has never consciously thought that women would be worse in STEM, she has realized that an unconscious bias, largely perpetuated by outdated social norms, has shaped the mental image that she has of principal investigators.

“When there’s a great discovery and it’s made by a female, then the article will mention: ‘It’s a female!’ and [the focus] would be about [gender], which shouldn’t be the case,” O’Reilly said.

Intersectional identities can further intensify the inequalities that women in STEM may experience. The term “double bind” encompasses both the institution al and interpersonal sexism and racism that women who are Black, Indigenous, or people of colour face. Another such

factor is the variability across specific STEM fields. Some studies have shown that women majoring in physics, engi neering, and computer science (PECS) are outnumbered by men who do worse academically. Even more surprisingly, the researchers determined that studentlevel factors, such as socioeconomic sta tus, self-confidence in scientific abilities, and home resources do not sufficiently explain the gender discrepancies wit nessed in PECS.

I sat down with Longyu Li, a thirdyear student in mechanical engineering at McGill, to learn about her experience as a minority in a major that is still very maledominated.

“I know that in other engineering de partments, there’s quite a few [women stu dents]. Mechanical [engineering] is just that one department that’s mostly boys,” Li said. “I think that if there were more ac tivities and social events, [we would feel better supported].”

When looking at the faculty members in the mechanical engineering department at McGill, the number of male professors significantly overshadows that of women academics. Of the 27 professors listed on the department’s website, only three are women.

The lack of representation of trans

gender and non-binary people in STEM is representative of a larger narrative that erases this community from key industries and fields of study. Queer McGill said in an email statement to The McGill Tribune that the history of gendered violence in Quebec may influence the makeup of the STEM field today.

“To be a woman in a STEM program is a position especially charged in Quebec in light of the École Polytechnique mas sacre, which targeted women in an engi neering class,” Queer McGill wrote. “We [do note] that many students and staff run initiatives in an attempt to overcome im poster syndrome, lack of equal opportuni ties, and other barriers related to being a minority in STEM programs.”

Such initiatives on campus include Diversity in Math, the equity discussion group led by professor Rosalie BélangerRioux, and Promoting Opportunities for Women in Engineering McGill.

“We would like to see these efforts shared and prioritized by the McGill ad ministration,” Queer McGill wrote.

Sophia Moubarak shared some of her experiences as a third-year student in elec trical engineering at McGill with the Tri bune . When I asked if she could remember how many women professors she has had since she started university, Moubarak quickly responded that she indeed could, because the paltry number—four women professors out of 23—was so easy to re call.

“You can count your female profes sors on one hand,” Moubarak said.

In accordance with what seems to be the trend in STEM majors at McGill, only 22 per cent of professors in the Depart ment of Electrical and Computer Engi neering are women. Prior to starting her undergraduate studies, Moubarak knew that the demographic would be tilted to wards men, but she still expected more in clusivity and better representation.

“If you see someone that you can maybe picture yourself as in the future, you tend to do better in those courses,” Moubarak said.

Some scholars have predicted that many STEM fields like computer sci ence, surgery, and mathematics will not achieve gender parity within the next 100 years. Although the prediction may seem discouraging, there are changes that insti tutions can implement to fast-track their faculty memberships to better reflect the population. Increased support for scien tists who are mothers will help alleviate some of the demands of childcare and domestic work. Advocacy committees can support women in STEM, especially racialized women, and raise awareness about the structural hurdles that prevent them from reaching the top. Pathways for career advancement should offer greater flexibility depending on the scientist’s particular circumstances, such as child care and household responsibilities. For science to continue its innovative and transformative work in society, the STEM workforce needs to equip women with bet ter resources and tools to succeed.

Academic positions in STEM fields, especially engineering and computer science, are still predominantly held by men

How STEM’s leaky pipeline

How trustworthy is Rate My Professors? A deep dive into one of the most popular faculty-reviewing platforms

Keith Baybayon Contributor

When the time for course selection begins, students often turn to their most reliable platform: Rate My Professors. However, are these anonymous reviews really trustworthy, or just an expression of students’ frustrations? The McGill Tribune decided to find out.

Rate My Professors allows the user to search for professors that will be teaching the courses they are interested in and lets them read anonymous reviews from previous students. This site is especially helpful to first-year students, who have only recently set out on their McGill journey. Charlotte Livingston, U0 Science, reflected on how the site helped her choose her courses for the winter semester in an interview with the Tribune

“Among STEM courses, there are multiple professors who will teach a class and have a certain reputation for being really good, so of course, I wanted to be in their class,” said Livingston.

Livingston believes this

platform is effective and uses it as a guiding point to choosing her courses for the upcoming semester. Many students have been using this site in a similar manner for years because it allows them to learn about the aspects of a course that are not found in the course description, such as evaluations or structure.

Another way students have been making the most of this platform is by leaving reviews and ratings. Students are often motivated to leave reviews discussing the way a professor teaches, the difficulty of course content, or even the grading scheme.

However, Rate My Professors is unlikely to fade away any time soon. It can be useful for many students, but small reviews often do not represent what the entire class may experience.

Jessica Kay Flake, an assistant professor at McGill’s Department of Psychology, says that “There are two types of students who use Rate My Professors: Students who love their course or students who hate their course.”

Flake’s research involves improving measurement practices in psychology. She believes that

Rate My Professors would be more helpful if more students used it because more reviews and ratings can bring validity to the platform. She does not think, however, that a small number of reviews for a professor that has taught hundreds or thousands of students would be accurate.

“If there aren’t many ratings, then that extreme information probably isn’t representative of the entire class,” said Flake.

As it turns out, many students do, in fact, leave reviews either due to their satisfaction or frustration

with the course.

“I really enjoyed [a] professor’s class and found them really interesting, so I wanted other students to take his class and share the similar sentiments I have,” Mia Bhatia U1 Arts and Science, said in an interview with the Tribune Rate My Professors not only gives students an opportunity to share any opinions they have on a professor, but to evaluate the instructor’s abilities and provide them with tags such as “inspirational” and “caring,” or even “stodgy.”

University professors can also check the ratings and reviews that students have left for them. However, this does not necessarily impact the way a professor will choose to teach going forward.

Daniel Douek, faculty lecturer at McGill’s political science department, said that he prefers to focus more on course evaluations than Rate My Professors.

“I systematically avoid Rate My Professors,” Douek said. “The course evaluations, I pay a lot of attention to and I have adjusted my teaching based on feedback I received in various instances.”

The course evaluations that are available through McGill’s Mercury platform near the end of a semester give students an opportunity to share their thoughts about the course content and style of instruction. Douek believes this is a better alternative and allows professors to reflect on their teaching methods.

“Maybe it’s useful when taken together with other considerations,” Douek said. “I imagine it could be useful, but at the same time it would probably be a mistake to rely upon it exclusively.”

Sex and Self’s new shame-free book club caters to open and honest discussions

Fostering openness and inclusivity through literature

Melissa Carter Staff Writer

Continued from page 1.

Sex and Self’s mission is built on three pillars: Scientifically-backed sex education, intersectionality, and a sex-positive atmosphere. It facilitates various seminars, workshops, and events to educate people about sexual and reproductive health and wellness. Simultaneously, the organization works with sex and health sponsors to attain free products for students and works with health care professionals to ensure their message is scientifically grounded.

The co-president of Sex and Self McGill, Holly Bloomfield, U4 Science, said in an interview with The McGill Tribune that “[o] ur main goal is to provide comprehensive sex education that’s shame-free, pleasurefocused, and scientifically backed to the McGill community.”

To expand its repertoire of sexpositive offerings, Sex and Self’s newest initiative, Book Club, provides a safe space to explore topics that are often not reflected in the media or sex education programs. A common theme surrounding sex education in the classroom is one of abstinence, in an attempt to scrub the important topic out of students’ awareness. Book Club takes a vastly different approach, with open discussions taking the forefront.

“Books ranging from anything, like smut, just give people a safe and informed place to talk about all the different kinds of

aspects of sex, while also bringing in perspectives that we may not hear through the books,” Bloomfield said.

Sex education taught at a younger age can be inadequate or even nonexistent; often, sex education lacks information, stigmatizes sex curiosity, and is done through a cisgender and heteronormative lens. With the slogan of “Nobody benefits from knowing less about their bodies,” Sex and Self is trying to help fill these gaps.

“Within our future generations, we don’t have to have this like closing up [around topics like sex]. I would love to live in a world where we can talk about genitals the same way we talk about other body parts like we don’t have to pause and say it quieter or laugh uncomfortably afterward,” said Tess Vardy, the University Coordinator at Sex and Self and a fourth-year Arts student at the University of Guelph. “Like, I’d love to say vagina like I say finger. That’s the kind of world I want to live in.”

This desire for open and shameless conversations about sex is brought into the book club meetings, as Vardy aims to create the most comfortable environment

possible when leading the club. They actively ensure a safe space by providing trigger warnings and low-pressure discussions so that people can participate if desired.

The other McGill Sex and Self copresident, Lidie Silva, U4 Science, spoke about her experience creating safe, inclusive environments while moderating different workshops and events.

“Allow everyone to learn and [don’t] assume that everyone has different backgrounds, voices, and information.

It’s just like, everyone has space to learn together,” Silva told the Tribune

Sex and Self’s fulsome resources are available on their Instagram or website, where you can sign up for events and stay up to date with their various initiatives. The organization also provides a wellness pantry on the first floor of the University Centre, where, at any time during opening hours, students can pick up pads, tampons, condoms, lube, ovulation strips, period cups, and (if you turn on their Instagram notifications) even sex toys.

The online platform, Rate My Professors, has received about 15 million ratings for over 1.3 million professors. (fitchburgpoint.com)

Since its start at McGill in 2019, Sex and Self has established chapters at other Canadian universities, such as Concordia University and University of Guelph. (Sofia Stankovic/ The McGill Tribune)

Ask Ainsley: Studying and self-care during finals

Balancing academics and taking

The Elusive Ainsley

Dear Ainsley,

During exam season, I’m a mess. I stay in my apartment all day trying to work, I spend hours scrolling through social media with increasing levels of stress, and my mind is a tangle of negative thoughts. I hate this. Please help.

Freaking Out Over Finals (FOOF)

Before I even begin, FOOF, I’m sure that you’ve heard it a million times, but I’ll make it a million and one: It’s going to be okay. It really is. Finals season brings everyone to this intense, lonely, stressful, breaking point, so know that (no matter what it may feel like) you’re not alone. Being in such a high-stress state for a long period can also lead to burnout and, having battled it a couple of times myself, I know how ugly it can get. This is a howto guide to studying during finals season, but it’s also a guide for how to do it in a way that centres self-care. This year, get the grades and your beauty sleep. Get the marks and the moments with friends. Make finals season a love letter to you.

Step Away

The first thing you’re going to want to do is step away. Close all of your tabs, swipe out of all the apps on your phone, and

care of yourself

turn everything off. Take a breath, then another, and then another. To study to the best of your ability, you need a healthy perspective. Right now, that perspective is crowded with negative thoughts, stress, and anxiety, so set your phone’s timer for an hour and do something else. Have an ‘everything’ shower, go to the gym, or have a deep stretching session. It can be super beneficial to get your body moving but, if that’s not possible, at least get your brain moving. Give yourself a second to breathe, away from the work. Give yourself a second that isn’t riddled with stress, simply because you deserve it.

Make a Detailed List

Now we’re going to open that laptop back up, but not to jump back into things just yet. You’re going to write down every single possible thing you have to do in order to get a particular task done. Get into detail and name all the steps between you and the finish line. Maybe the list is getting long and your freak-out-metre is starting to rev back up—but don’t stress. The list might be long, but it’s filled with tiny, manageable steps. You’ll fly through them and then be able to reward yourself with the satisfaction of checking things off your list!

Study in the Best Way for You

Sometimes the biggest roadblock to getting into your flow is studying in ways that

are actually blocking your flow instead. Study in the way that most excites you, feels natural, and helps you understand the content best. Here are some ideas:

- Flashcards

- Study sessions with friends (getting out of the house can work wonders)

- Creating your own practice questions

- Using old exam questions

- Mind-maps

- Creating collages/mood boards for different topics

Be sure to take regular breaks (have you tried the Pomodoro method?) and do at least one thing every day that is purely for fun, just for you.

Know That This is Only One Step

You’re doing great, and are well on your way to getting your studying done. Now, one final note, possibly the most important one, is to keep sight of the fact that this is only one step in your overall academic journey. Of course the assessment

matters, and you should bring your best self to it, but it’s still just one hurdle. Just one exam. Just one lab. Just one essay. It doesn’t define you. Who you become in this journey is way more important than any single step of it.

Happy studying!

Milton B offers students a convenient alternative to the library

A review of one of Milton Parc’s most popular student-friendly coffee shops

Harry North Staff Writer

There is not an hour in the day when a tired, hungover, deadlinepegged McGill student cannot seek refuge in the Milton B cafeteria.

Tucked in on the corner of Avenue Parc and Rue Milton, Milton B was originally a 24hour Second Cup and five years ago, it rebranded and reopened. But one thing remained: The shop’s hours. It’s still open 24/7. With exams looming, we need to stay ready for anything, and I want to play my part. So, I have placed three deliberate grammar mistakes in this piece. Grab a pen and circle the ones you can find. There are only three, so keep your eyes peeled. If you see four, I’ll buy you a Kit Kat.

I walk past Milton B every day I come to campus—and because I’m a nerd, this is most days. The building is a wooden structure with a steep gabled roof and a dash of vibrant green on the wall overlooking the sidewalk. Its straight out of Club Penguin. And despite coming close with it nearly every day, I still can’t

put my finger on what exactly Milton B is trying to be.

The interior is chaotic and incongruous. Thick, tan beams contrast razor-light green curtains by the front windows. A row of metal stools stalk the Rue Milton sidewalk and an assorted mix of yellow, green, black, and metal-rimmed chairs accompany a mismatch of different tables, with some varnished and some not quite as lucky.

My biggest issue is with the lifeless, white-grey wall on the far left of the entrance. It offers nothing but a reflection of your tired, depressed soul as you wish you were on a different plane of existence.

The menu offers the usual café fare, like espresso-based beverages, cakes, and pastries. But it also provides milkshakes and an extensive range of hot food, from calzones to poutine. Prices are reasonable, and some of the cakes were in clingfilm, which doesn’t scream ‘freshly baked.’

I order a black Americano ($3.55) and I’m quite peckish, so I also grab a cookie with a heart-shaped centre ($2.70), a chocolate torsade ($2.70), and a mozzarella chicken calzone

($7.95). I take a seat by the window.

The mood is sullen, like a late night in an airport. Piano jazz plays monotonously in the background and the light is desolate and unnatural, like in a casino.

The room is scattered with MacBook warriors toiling over deadlines. And they’re not just working—they’re waiting. Waiting to find love, to find an internship, to find a decent show on Netflix. But above all, they’re waiting to finish their work and go home.

And then it hit me: Milton B is not trying to be a café you

want to visit. It’s trying to be a café you visit out of necessity

A big tell of a shabby coffee shop is whether they use stale coffee. If there’s a harsh acid after-taste, the beans are probably stale. And, thankfully, Milton B’s coffee did not smear my taste buds. There isn’t the richness that more specialized coffee shops offer, but this Americano is balanced, pleasant, and easy to drink—once it cools down.

The cookie looked more appealing behind the glass. It’s, underbaked and its glaze is bleakly pale. It’s in desperate need of a tan. I’m not sure if the red sugary layer in the heart-

shaped centre was initially a spread of jam that’s since been desiccated from the artificial light. But whatever it is, it tastes like a melted edible sticker.

The chocolate torsade is nothing special. If anything, it’s a little dry. The mozzarella chicken calzone has the texture of a fossil. It could also be politely used as an object for a game of catch. The chicken is well-seasoned and fills you up. Would it survive the high streets of Naples? Don’t be silly. Does it suffice as a midnight snack? Hell yes!

Do finals have you overwhelmed? Make sure to vary your study methods using techniques like the Pomodoro Method. (Drea Gar cia/ The McGill Tribune)

Milton B provides free WiFi, ample charging ports, and suitable space to work (Bizcocity.com)

Write a novel in 30 days: Time starts now

The benefits and challenges of writing a novel within the structure of NaNoWriMo

Suzanna Graham Staff Writer

While a 2,000-word paper may be a daunting task for some students, others take on a greater and even more creatively stimu lating challenge—writing 50,000 words to draft an entire novel over the course of November. Besides being known as the month when exams start to loom, it also hosts National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an international challenge for aspiring and established writers alike to complete the first draft of a novel within the month.

NaNoWriMo began in 1999 as a straightforward challenge: Write 50,000 words in 30 days. Over 20 years later, the challenge is still going strong, boast ing over 400,000 participants in 2021. To put it in perspective, 50,000 words is about the length of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (47,094 words) or Chuck Palahnuik’s Fight Club (49,962 words). NaNoWriMo is responsible for the publication of several bestsell ers, including The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen—the latter of which was adapted into a movie of the same name starring Robert Pattinson.

While “winning” (in that some one reaches the 50,000-word count) is the advertised objective, the beauty of NaNoWriMo is that participants can use the program’s resources to support their individual goals. The website is available year-round, allowing writers to create at their own pace. Simply put, NaNoWriMo merely encourages people to write.

To reach the goal in November alone, one would need to write an av erage of 1,667 words per day. In an in terview with The McGill Tribune , cur rent NaNoWriMo coach and published author Shameez Patel Papathanasiou explained how this goal is surprisingly

motivating for aspiring NaNo winners.

“Almost every writer has one thing in common, and that is the powerful skill of procrastination,” Papathanasiou said. “NaNoWriMo is, for me, such a great way to turn off the perfectionist part of my brain. Because of the time pressure, I force myself to write [....] There’s no way to get stuck if you don’t know what terrible nonsense words you wrote the previous day.”

NaNoWriMo additionally fosters a growing community of writers to sup port each other along the journey. The organization uses its portal for authors to announce and track individual projects, and connect with fellow ‘WriMos’— other NaNo participants. The company additionally gathers published authors to coach new and experienced WriMos to the finish line through blog posts and Twitter takeovers. Papathanasiou—who drafted and edited her debut novel The Last Feather through NaNoWriMo’s programs—gushed about connecting with her local WriMos in Cape Town, South Africa.

“Joining NaNoWriMo was the first time I’d met, actually linked up, with other Cape Town authors. I didn’t know that this group even existed,” Papatha nasiou said. “Once I linked up with my writing community, they were active throughout the year [....] They become your beta readers, your critique partners, sometimes they’re your cheerleaders.”

Local businesses welcome and sup port regional authors in their NaNo chal lenges. In Montreal, WriMos meet up to participate in writing sprints at cafés like Second Cup or Thésaurus Thérrari um, a tea shop near the De L’Église stop on the green line. This year, Thésaurus Thérrarium is an official ‘Come Write In’ location and has provided goodie bags and tea, as well as kindly offering

to stay open until 9 p.m. on Fridays in November in support.

Of course, those participating in NaNoWriMo have work and social com mitments to contend with outside of the challenge. WriMos in university have found success and obstacles in partici pating while balancing full-time study ing and part-time work. Two Montreal WriMos wrote to The McGill Tribune about their experiences balancing these commitments. Discord user Reine_Mar gaux won NaNoWriMo in all four years of undergrad at L’Université de Mon tréal in the early 2000s.

“[Winning NaNoWriMo in univer sity] was way easier than it is now. I only had about 3.5 [hours] of classes a day and I was only working part-time,” Reine_Margaux said. “My part-time job was very menial, so [I had] lots of men tal space for plotting. I also sometimes wrote in class when I was bored. I can make word count in an hour when moti vated, so that helps.”

Time management is obviously a vital aspect of winning NaNoWriMo. As university students, WriMos may have more flexible schedules to sneak in writing time, but are also burdened with their employment and a heavy workload of exams and projects to juggle as fi nals approach. Ophelie, from Bishop’s University, said that this year’s NaNo is her third attempt at 50,000 words, after being unsuccessful in previous years due to heavy workloads.

“I struggle to manage between school and NaNo,” Ophelie said. “At first, I was trying to hit the 50k goal since I was in my reading week [but] now I have too much going on to write every day.”

Ophelie is a great example that not every WriMo sets out to win, rep resenting what is known as a NaNoW

riMo rebel, someone who deviates from the traditional NaNo objective. She expressed that her main objective for participating in NaNoWriMo is to set herself up for a career in editing. She said she wants to publish a novel her self before publishing others’ books and get a feel for what writers look for in an editor.

Although it is formidable that Reine_Margaux was able to win her NaNo challenge each year, it’s not fea sible for every participant, given that everyone writes differently. Thirty days is not a lot of time to write a draft, and for those who finish, not all WriMos are lucky enough nor have the insider information or connections to publish bestsellers. This idealized conception of ‘finishing’ a novel within strict time limits and potentially inaccessible writ ing conditions is why Sarah Wolfson, a McGill creative writing lecturer, takes issue with the program. Wolfson spe cifically feels concerned over NaNoW riMo as a timed challenge, a sentiment she expressed in an email to The McGill Tribune

“On the one hand, I support sys tems that motivate people to embark on a writing practice and to shape mean ingful stories,” Wolfson wrote. “On the other, I’m allergic to speed as a guiding principle in writing literature. I think most novels take time, simple as that.”

Ultimately, winning NaNoWriMo is not attainable for everyone, and maybe that’s okay. Some people write to pub lish and others to practice. It doesn’t matter if someone wins or “loses” be cause really, who loses if they’re mak ing progress? Participating in NaNoW riMo is a success for the published au thor, the aspiring writer, and the rebels forging their own literary path.

If writing 50,000 words doesn’t phase you, attempt NaNo winner and bestselling author Marissa Meyer’s 2008 NaNo challenge of writing over 150,000 words to complete three books of ‘The Lunar Chronicles’. (livingwriter..com)

Illustrations by Shireen Aamir

‘This is Actually Happening’ and the commodification of trauma

By sensationalizing trauma, the podcast puts profit before survivors

Eliza Lee Contributor

One particularly warm night this Sep tember, I found myself wide awake, sweating. Frustrated at my inability to sleep, I put on a podcast to take my mind off the heat. The show was an old favourite: This Is Actually Happening (TIAH). In high school, I listened to the show and found it riveting to learn about the firsthand experi ences of guests. But upon my return to it that night, newfound concerns about the show’s ethics overshadowed any entertainment the podcast could offer.

TIAH began as an independent podcast based in Oakland, California in Sep. 2013. In October 2020, it was bought by Amazonowned podcasting company Wondery. Each episode features a guest who recounts and reflects on personal events “that have dra matically altered” their life. Many of these experiences include traumatic events such as abuse, death, and mental health struggles. The podcast’s production style is extremely personal: The guests recount their experi ences in an unscripted, organic way, and any prompting from the host, Whit Missildine, is edited out to create an emotionally heavy monologue. The apparent lack of a modera tor makes listening to the guest’s experiences particularly intimate—it feels like they’re speaking straight to the audience. The vul nerable, direct tone in which the experiences

Pop

Dialectic:

are recounted only heightens the painful as pects of the guests’ experiences.

But while it includes personal accounts of dark and traumatic subject matter, TIAH frames the guests’ struggles simply as con tent for listeners. This is reflected in the show’s marketing. For example, episodes are titled to pique listeners’ interest about the life-changing event, such as “What if you went missing?” and “What if your best friend was dying?” These labels reduce people’s complex experiences to one dra matic detail for shock factor. Similarly, the TIAH website groups episodes into catego ries such as the “assault collection” and the “mental breakdown collection.” Not only do these labels generalize guests’ experiences into a single eye-catching element, but they also use this feature to group stories solely based on their darkest moment. Through this insensitive classification, the podcast sensationalizes the trauma of personal sto ries without showing respect toward those who experienced them.

Dramatizing survivors’ experiences isn’t just inconsiderate to the individual. Making their experiences into entertainment distances audiences from their obligations to support survivors, respect their stories, and address systemic issues—such as inadequate mental health services in the U.S. and Can ada that are often the source of trauma. By doing this, the podcast capitalizes on pain without addressing any root causes or help

ing survivors heal.

Based on information shared by individ uals who appeared on the podcast in several threads on the TIAH subreddit, it appears that storytellers aren’t even paid to speak on the show. According to these former guests, the interview process involves repeating their often traumatic experiences for upwards of four hours. There are many ways to interpret this: At best, TIAH allows survivors who willingly volunteer their time a chance to tell their story—perhaps because they think it will benefit others or help them heal. At worst, the show frames the trauma and free labour of others as an exciting story to garner more listeners and more advertising revenue.

Either way, it’s Wondery who pockets the profit generated from this emotionally taxing labour, not survivors.

Despite these pitfalls, TIAH has a siz able fanbase. The private TIAH fan Face book group has approximately 13,000 mem bers, many of whom report that the show validates their own experiences and allows them to connect with other survivors. While TIAH may benefit some listeners in this way, it prioritizes commercialization over support for more accessible mental health resources beyond the TIAH fan community. As long as the show sensationalizes survivors’ trauma, any good it offers comes at the cost of disre specting survivors and pocketing the change.

Two ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ movie reviews

Just For Laughs and Just the Facts – Two takes on the sequel

Joy Sebera & Simi Ogunsola Contributors

Just for Laughs - Simi Ogunsola

After four years of waiting, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is finally here and people have been talking. Some are calling the film an 11/10 and hailing Ryan Coogler as a genius while others can only describe the film as “mid” and prefer the first movie. Personally, I loved the film, but it was a wild ride for sure. Here is a spoiler-free list of my thoughts while watching.

No wayyy…..

Director Ryan Coogler definitely took audienc es for a ride with the cameos and plot twists in this sequel. One second I was flying to the edge of my chair in fear, and the next, shock had me flinging myself back. From multiple conflicts between Wakanda and Talokan going on at the same time, to the frantic omg-the-movie’salmost-done-but-the-problem-isn’t-resolved stress, the film keeps you engaged and thor oughly entertained.

The U.S. low-key being the bad guy? What’s changed!?

The movie explores tensions between Wakanda and the U.S., among other global superpowers. Without saying too much, it really made me reflect on what makes us consider a country “good” and “bad,” and how narratives (true or otherwise) can be spun to achieve a country’s goals. Poli sci and IDS majors, run, (with an open mind) don’t walk, to this one.

*Speechless*

By “speechless,” I mean that you could’ve heard a pin drop on the stained carpets of the atres worldwide. During the tribute moments, the entire theatre was silent. Fans hoping for a final goodbye to Chadwick Boseman will be pleased by what I can only describe as a love letter to the star. Suffice to say that during the post-credit scene, tears were definitely shed.

Purrrrr Ms. Girllllll!

One thing that wasn’t on my Wakanda Forever bingo card was a touching feminist tale. The film did not shove the “strong Black Woman” trope down audiences’ throats, nor did it obsess over Shuri being a young girl who likes science. The movie simply said: “Here is woman. Here is woman in all of her different facets.” It illus trated, without obsessing over, all the different ways for a woman to just be and I really ap preciated that.

The film tantalizes the viewer, the soundtrack pleases and surprises the ear, and of course, the actors bring it all home. A must-watch—you won’t regret it.

Cultural Faux Pas - Joy Sebera

Just the Facts

Although opinions may be divided about which Black Panther was better, viewers cannot ig nore the sequel’s cinematic merit, aesthetic ap peal, intense plot, and moving tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. However, one of the ele

ments that makes it so popular is the majority Black cast and the film’s inclusion of African cultures. That being said, who is actually being represented and who is the film truly for? The Black Panther superhero was created to intro duce a Black superhero, not an African super hero, to the American Marvel comics canon, and the films sustain that narrative.

One Size Fits All

Wakanda is a ficional African country that has closed its borders off from the rest of the world to protect itself from being exploited for vibranium, a fictional resource. The people of Wakanda speak Xhosa, a language from South Africa, and multiple East and West African cul tures are represented through the clothing and traditions showcased in the film. Is this positive representation or homogenization that does not take specific African identities seriously? What effect does this serve in a film that does not re flect African realities? Wakanda has never been colonized and the main conflict in the first film is if and how Wakanda should share their re sources with a hostile and alienating world. The message is from American voices disguised in African clothing, literally.

Who’s the real villain?

The Black Panther franchise features argu ably two of the most sympathetic villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe —Erik Killmonger and Kukulkan or “Namor.” Without giving too much away, the storyline that pits the Wakan dans and the Talokanil against each other is jus tified, and yet it seems to come completely out

In only a few weeks, this latest superhero flick has already grossed close to $700 million. (Wyatt Clough)

of left field. The introduction builds up a plot that would challenge Western exploitation, but it quickly becomes a battle between two nations that both fear exploitation, with Americans at the unsatisfying centre of the resolution. Is it re ally any surprise that, even in Xhosa, American voices speak the loudest?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is cur rently playing in theatres.

The Atlantic ranks TIAH as the 22nd best podcast of 2016. (womenandhollywood.com)

Melody Schmidt Contributor

When I tell people I’m a Buffalo Sabres fan, I get one of two extreme reactions: A look of shock, or one of disappointment. Everyone knows that being a Sabres fan is a merciless and unforgiving job, one that breaks you down until you find yourself cheering for any ounce of success they can hold on to. The only thing the Sabres are leading the NHL in right now is the longest-consecutive record for missing the playoffs at 11 years and counting.

For Sabres fans, it feels like we will never get a moment of reprieve from the endless cycle of lacklustre seasons. Despite making the playoffs in 201011, the Sabres have been on a steady decline since losing to the Dallas Stars in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Between 2012 and 2018, Buffalo finished last in their division in five out of six seasons.

The team desperately needed a rebuild but a few faulty decisions, like trading Ryan Miller and Steve Ott and picking up Evander Kane, who only brought controversy, left the team no better than where it started.

In 2015, hope arose in the form of superstar Connor McDavid, whom many Buffalo fans pegged as a sure future Sabre who could save the franchise. Things didn’t go as planned, however,

and Buffalo ended up with second pick Jack Eichel who, despite being one of the league’s top stars, amounted to nothing for the team. After failing to make the playoffs for Eichel’s first five seasons,

season ended in complete misery with yet another last-place finish, but spirits began to rise after drafting Rasmus Dahlin first overall in the 2018 Draft. That’s one thing the Sabres have going for them at least––

trade, has had an incredible season so far with 26 points. Dahlin and Alex Tuch, a highlight of the blockbuster Eichel trade last season, have held their own with 23 and 21 points, respectively. Owen Power, the first overall pick in 2021, is having the breakout season you dream about for a young player, with some even calling him the best defenceman in the game. Goaltender save percentages are hovering around average, Sabres stars are consistently putting up multi-point nights, and Buffalo’s roster of young, talented players are populating the top of NHL stat lists. Despite all of this, Buffalo still sucks.

To rub salt in the wound, O’Reilly won a Stanley Cup in his first season with the St. Louis Blues and Eichel has continued to taunt Sabres fans, scoring a hat trick in his most recent appearance in Buffalo.

his patience began to wear thin. As Buffalo continued to decline, drama arose surrounding a disagreement between Eichel and the team about how to handle an injury, leading him to publicly request a trade and be stripped of the captaincy.

Looking at the Sabres’ losing culture is painful, to say the least. The 2017-18

last-place finishes turned first-round draft picks, with 10 in the past five years.

Are the Buffalo Sabres just cursed? On paper, there is no practical reason for the Sabres to be this bad, especially this season. Tage Thompson, a former St. Louis Blues first-round pick, whom the Sabres acquired in the Ryan O’Reilly

All this leads me to the conclusion: Something is broken in the Sabres’ culture, and it’s time to fix it. With just a few tweaks, and by continuing to develop a promising young core, the Sabres may finally emerge from their decades-long slump. Not to sound like a broken record, or worse, a Leafs fan, but maybe next year really will be the season for the Sabres. If all scandals are avoided and if off-season moves live up to their promise, maybe, just maybe, the Sabres can sneak into the playoffs and give their debilitated fans something to cheer about.

Renée Rochefort Contributor

The exceptional play of firstyear goalkeeper Ludovyck Ciociola was a bright spot for Redbirds soccer fans during a disappointing 2–8–4 season. After a successful stint at Collège Ahuntsic, the rookie from Montreal North capped off his debut season at McGill by earning a spot on both the RSEQ all-rookie team and the U-SPORTS all-rookie team. This provincial and national level recognition cements Ciociola as a name to watch in the Canadian university soccer circuit. The McGill Tribune sat down with Ludovyck to discuss his accomplishments and to hear about his path to McGill.

A four (or maybe five, his memory failed him here) year-old Ciociola began playing soccer in his neighbourhood under the guidance of his number-one fan––his mother.

“Honestly, my mom put me in because it was the most popular sport in Montreal North. Since I can remember, I liked it, so I’ve just continued,” the keeper told the Tribune

It wasn’t until a few years later, however, that Ciociola started standing between the posts. The

transition from the outfield was seamless as the youngster slid into his new position with ease. With a game inspired by Barcelona’s Marc-André ter Stegen, the Redbirds keeper has the skill set of a modern goalkeeper: Excellent footwork, fast reflexes, and solid passing abilities.

Ciociola’s success this season comes after overcoming persistent doubt in his playing abilities early on.

“For a long time, I didn’t have self-confidence as a keeper,” Ciociola said. “From U13 to U17, I didn’t have the confidence to play AAA [the highest level in Quebec] [....] After U17, I just made the jump to AAA, and I won the golden glove in my only AAA season. I was invited to try

out for semi-pro. I made the semi-pro team, so when I got over that mental block, it really started working out.”

Early in the Redbirds’ season, Ciociola had a brilliant stretch of play, showcasing incredible poise against some high-quality teams.

“We faced [Université de Québec à Trois-Rivières] at home on Friday and won 1-0, then Sunday we went to Laval and [tied] 1-1,” Ciociola said. “I played excellent games on an individual level in the two matches. And, after that week, I won McGill athlete of the week, RSEQ athlete of the week, and U-SPORTS athlete of the week.”

However, the triumph didn’t last long. McGill’s early success

ground to a halt after the team failed to pick up points in five out of the last six contests. Nevertheless, Ciociola had plenty of positive experiences throughout his first year with the Redbirds.

“[I want to give a] shoutout to Mika [Michael Palomo], I met him this summer when I joined Blainville to play semi-pro, and I found that he really helped me become more aware of goalkeeping tactics,” the keeper said.

After getting the first-ever red card of his career against Sherbrooke on Sept. 15, Ciociola wanted to clear up what really happened and to emphasize the support from his team.

“It wasn’t really a red card; the ball hit my face. That was the one time I was actually mad [....] A coach, Pierre [Lepage], came to see me on the bench and told me they were going to win for me, and we did win, 2-0.”

Ciociola also expressed gratitude for senior goalkeeper Chris Cinelli-Faia as the veteran guided him through his first season.

“There’s the team, and then there are the goalies, who form a sort of team inside the team,” Ciociola explained. “Chris has been there all season, talking, giving advice. If I had something to ask, I would see

him. You can say he took me under his wing. Chris wrote a paper on penalties and how you should move as a keeper [...] but I haven’t applied his paper findings yet.”

During the offseason, the Redbirds keeper will be keeping busy by cheering on Les Bleus in their World Cup defence while attending his first-year management classes and weekly team training.

*The interview was translated from French by the author.

FINAL SCORES

WOMEN’S HOCKEY vs UdeMontréal L 5-1 vs Concordia L 6-0

MEN’S HOCKEY vs Carleton L (OT) 5-4 vs Ontario Tech W 4-1

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL vs Laval L 73-47

MEN’S BASKETBALL vs Laval W 85-68

After decades of last-place finishes, can Buffalo finally turn it around? Dear Buffalo Sabres:

The Buffalo Sabres hold the longest missed playoff streak of 18 consecutive seasons. (Harry Scull Jr. / Buffalo News )

Ciociola picks Messi over Ronaldo in the G.O.A.T. debate. (Matt Garies / McGill Athletics)

Qatar World Cup 2022: Notable moments from week one

The Tribune Sports Section summarizes game play and FIFA controversy

Salma El Hamzawy Contributor

Infantino’s unhinged defence of FIFA

Off the pitch, in a bizarre defence of FIFA’s controversial decision to host the tournament in Qatar, FIFA president Gianni Infantino went on a 57-minute rant praising Qatar’s migrant worker policies and deflecting criticism of the human rights abuses that continue to unfold under FIFA’s supervision. In the speech, Infantino, often regarded as the most powerful man in sports, compared himself to a number of oppressed groups and labelled the criticism directed at FIFA as hypocritical.

Qatar’s early knockout

The tournament opened with a 2-0 win for Ecuador over Qatar. For many, this did not come as a surprise as Qatar had never qualified for the World Cup before 2022. All host countries are given automatic entry regardless of their ranking. This marked the first time that the host of a World Cup lost the opening game; after Qatar’s 3-1 loss to Senegal, it marked the earliest elimination for a host team in FIFA’s 92-year history.

Protests against the Iranian government

On Nov. 21, the Iranian football team refused to sing their country’s national anthem in a display of solidarity with the ongoing human rights protests in Iran. Despite this move, the team met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi prior to the World Cup. Fans wearing shirts with the name “Mahsa Amini”, the woman who was killed by the Islamic Regime’s morality

police, were removed from the stadium. Some protesting fans said they had flags, t-shirts, and signs confiscated while others were shouted at and harassed by stadium workers.

Upset number one: Saudi Arabia beats Argentina

Saudi Arabia shocked the world with a 2-1 victory over Argentina on Nov. 22. This win astonished many fans as Argentina is ranked third in the world and was a pre-tournament favourite, while Saudi Arabia is ranked 51st. This ended Argentina’s three-year, 36-game winning streak but the team was able to avoid elimination with a 2-0 win over Mexico on Nov. 26.

Upset number two: Japan snubs Germany

Another pre-tournament favourite faced defeat on Nov. 23, when Japan claimed victory in a 2-1 win over Germany. Germany is a fourtime World Cup champion, while Japan has never progressed past the round of 16 stage.

Hope for a new era of men’s soccer in Canada

While many eyes were drawn to Spain’s record breaking 7-0 win against Costa Rica, the Canadians took the field for the first time since 1986. In a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Belgium, the Canadian team still made its fans proud with their impressive performance. They had 14 shots on the Belgian goal in the opening 45 minutes alone and dominated play for much of the match, but unfortunately, were unable to capitalize on any of their opportunities. Canada became the second country to be eliminated from the World Cup, after getting defeated by Croatia 4-1 on

Nov. 27. The match did have some bright spots, with Alphonso Davies scoring Canada’s first goal in five World Cup games within 67 seconds of play.

The first red card

On Nov. 25, Wales’ goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, crashed into Iranian striker, Mehdi Taremi, when he steamed out of his penalty area, missed an attempted clearance, and received the first red card of the tournament. Iran scored two goals after the ejection for a 2-0 victory.

The banning of ‘OneLove’ armbands

With the tournament taking place in Qatar, a country where homosexuality is illegal, rainbow armbands intended to show support to

the LGBTQ+ community have been banned, alienating queer players and fans. The captains of seven European teams were planning on wearing armbands with the ‘OneLove’ logo but FIFA warned that they would receive an automatic yellow card if they did so. In protest, German players covered their mouths with their right hands in team pictures before their opening game to denounce how FIFA is silencing support of the LGBTQ+ community. Fans and media have also been subject to these restrictions, as a BBC cameraman and Welsh fans were refused entry for possessing items with the rainbow print. Although FIFA has continually insisted that all fans are allowed and encouraged to attend matches, it is clear that certain spectators are not welcome at the World Cup.

Martlets volleyball claims victory in rematch against Sherbrooke Vert et Or

Philippe Haddad Contributor

Continued from page 1.

The Martlets kickstarted their first set with a service ace by third-year outside hitter Masha Solaja. However, Sherbrooke played hard defence by forcing McGill’s libero, Catherine Vercheval, to dive for her digs. A combination of sharp cut shots from power hitters Leduc and

co-captain Victoria Iannotti as well as compounded Sherbrooke errors allowed McGill to pull away with a 25-22 score and take the set.

The second set was similarly sparked by the Martlets’ efforts, this time by a set of blocks from Leduc and middle blocker Meaghan Smith. Steadfast McGill defence was the order of the day as the Martlets repeatedly shut down Sherbrooke’s scoring attempts.

Leduc told the Tribune about their preparations for Sunday’s game.

“This week, our coach [shook us a bit] and said ‘girls we have to pick it up on defence’,” Leduc said. “We popped off every single practice and everyone was giving their 110 per cent. Today we really brought that into play.”

The Martlets finished the second set leading with a demoralizing score of 25-15, punctuated by

phenomenal defensive efforts from fourth-year power hitter Clara Poire, co-captain Charlene Robitaille, Leduc, and Smith.

The third set marked another sensational opening run from McGill, as Iannotti and fourthyear setter Audrey Trottier combined for a deadly combo of a clinical attack, a double block, and a service ace to start the set 3-1. Sherbrooke, however, turned it up on their end, forcing mistakes from McGill by bending the Martlets’ defence out of shape to take the lead. Both sides were neck and neck heading down the stretch, with McGill climbing back to match Sherbrooke with stunning serves from third-year Olivia Krishnan and Smith. Despite their second-year setter Charlotte Chouinard-Laliberté’s efforts, Sherbrooke took the set with a tight 26-24 score to hang on. It looked as though the Vert et Or might finally be back in the

game, but the Martlets said, not today.

“Our team makes a conscious effort to have a positive attitude,” Iannotti told the Tribune . “[With] volleyball being a game of errors, you cannot get caught up in the past. You have to snap out of it really fast.”

Sherbrooke carried their momentum over to begin the fourth set, but were met with staunch defence as McGill pulled from their energy reserves to finish the game. In the dying moments of the set with the score at 24-23 for the Martlets, a nail-biter rally culminated in cocaptain Robitaille taking a hard receive to the head and hitting the deck briefly before getting back into the exchange. Iannotti stepped up and delivered the final blow.

The Martlets will close out the semester at home on Friday, Dec. 2 against the Ottawa Gee-Gees (2–7) before resting over the winter holidays.

MOMENT OF THE GAME

In the final seconds of a frantic fourth set, Victoria Iannotti chased down a setup to crush the Sherbrooke defence and win the game with a commanding spike.

QUOTABLE

“When the ball gets up […] whichever way that ball goes will bring a lot of momentum to the team [....] I was like every single time I’m touching the ball in this rally I’m giving it my all to close or set someone else up to close [….] It was time to finish the game.” –– Cocaptain Victoria Iannotti on the final rally of the game

STAT CORNER

Co-captains Victoria Iannotti and Charlene Robitaille topped the kills leaderboard with 15 and 11 apiece through four sets. (Matt Garies / McGill Athletics)

Canada qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1986—a 36-year drought. (Stuart Franklin / Getty Images)

Meaghan Smith dominated on the front lines with two solo blocks and six additional block assists.