The Tribune Vol. 43, Issue 2

Divest

Floor fellows file grievance against McGill over poor working conditions

AMUSE claims changes in floor fellows’ accommodation violate the collective agreement

Eliza Lee

Contributor

The union representing floor fellows at McGill, the Association of McGill University Support Employ -

ees (AMUSE), has filed a grievance against the university over changes to floor fellows’ accommodations. Floor fellows are upper-year students hired to live in residences and support the primarily first-year students living there, who are often new to living on their own.

‘Bottoms’ tops all other summer comedies

Emma Seligman perfectly executes the teen comedy format for modern audiences

Charlotte Hayes

Contributor

Dubbed ‘Lesbian Fight Club,’ Bottoms is Canadian director Emma Seligman’s second feature film. Reminiscent of beloved 90s and mid-aughts teen comedies like Superbad and American Pie, the

film delivers a hilarious and unapologetically gross romp that is sure to become an instant cult classic. With a tight 90-minute runtime, Bottoms should be at the top of everyone’s watch list this weekend.

The film follows PJ (Rachel Sennott) and her childhood best friend Josie

(Ayo Edebiri), two nerdy high schoolers who start a fight club masquerading as a self-defence club, in an effort to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. As the club gains traction, the most popular girls in school join, much to the delight of its founding members.

PG. 11

PG. 12

A grievance is a formal complaint made on behalf of the employees about a violation of their rights in the workplace. It can mean a violation of the law or the collective agreement.

PG. 2

Redbirds baseball stun Stingers in thrilling walk-off win

McGill defeats Concordia 12-11 in three hour and 25 minute season opener

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

After an undefeated weekend in Ottawa with six wins in three days, the Redbirds headed back across the Quebec border to play their regular season opener against the Concordia Stingers (0–1) on Sept. 5.

The game opened with a two-run top of the first for Concordia, but McGill was quick to respond, tying the game 2-2 in their at-bat. In the top of the second, the Stingers took a 3-2 lead, but third baseman Evan Dunne led off the bottom of the inning with a triple to deep centre field, and right fielder Brandon Kim scored him on

an RBI double to tie the game. After allowing three runs in the top of the third, starting pitcher Gabriel Braun was removed from the game and pitcher Braden Tennill entered with the bases loaded. Despite his best efforts, two more runs scored on back-to-back walks, allowing Concordia to exit the inning 7-3.

PG. 16

Floor fellows file grievance against McGill over poor working conditions

AMUSE claims changes in accommodation violate the collective agreement

Eliza Lee Contributor

Continued from page 1.

Beginning in the 2023-2024 academic year, McGill’s Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) converted larger rooms formerly designated for floor fellows into rooms for students, with floor fellows now occupying smaller rooms. According to AMUSE Vice President (VP) Floor Fellows Graeme Scott, this change in accommodations increases the number of spaces where floor fellows will be forced to interact with students throughout their daily routine, making it more challenging for floor fellows to take a break. AMUSE claims that the policy violates the 36-hour rest period guaranteed in their collective agreement with McGill.

“Imagine if you work at a more conventional office where you go home at five o’clock. Imagine if you’re at home on a Sunday morning and your co-workers from the office can just wander into your kitchen and start talking to you,” Scott said in an interview with The Tribune “By removing floor fellows’ ability to have these private spaces where we can step away from our residents, it makes it impossible for us to ever take a break from working.”

In a written statement to The Tribune , McGill Media Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle reported that these changes, specifically the renovation of some floor fellow rooms to accommodate additional students, were made in

response to a growing demand for student housing—but do not breach McGill’s legal agreement with floor fellows.

“The renovations were not a factor in the negotiations with [AMUSE] and are a separate project that does not affect the terms of the contract,” Mazerolle wrote.

“Our priority is to provide an equitable living experience for all residence students.”

AMUSE has also accused the university of bargaining in bad faith. Documents Scott shared with The Tribune reveal that the policy of smaller rooms for floor fellows has been under development for the past five years. However, the policy was first introduced to floor fellows by the SHHS on March 17 of this year, after strikes demanding higher pay in Spring 2022 paved the way to finalize their collective agreement with McGill.

Scott believes the timing of the policy’s implementation was strategic. Currently, floor fellows can no longer strike or perform work stoppages or slow-downs because they are bound to Article 28 of their collective agreement.

“Trying to separate this policy from the contract is, I think, a false and an absolutely disingenuous framing of the issue,” Scott said. “If we had known about this [policy] during the bargaining period, this would have been a massive priority. Now that we’re locked into this collective agreement, [McGill] chose to strike at a time when we have very little recourse through collective action.”

Scott also alleged that SHHS made it clear to floor fellows—both in communications with them regarding

union relations and as employees—that the policy was primarily designed to generate additional revenue.

“It has also been made clear that this policy is an attempt to generate extra revenue, in order to help SHHS clear its debts, which we have been told are in the area of multiple [tens] of millions of dollars,” Scott wrote. “If the primary motivation were to accommodate more students, McGill would not be renting out the larger Floor Fellow rooms to first years.”

Joey* is among the many floor fellows who claim the policy has had significant negative impacts on their quality of life in the residences. One of Joey’s major concerns with the policy is that it forces them to share a bathroom with first-year students. In their residence, the hooks to hang up towels are across from the shower stalls, creating the potential for students and floor fellows to walk in on one another while they are undressed.

In July 2023, floor fellows requested that SHHS designate certain bathrooms specifically for floor fellows. In an email chain obtained by The Tribune , SHHS responded by telling them it would not be logistically feasible to do so because it would limit the number of bathrooms for students. As a compromise, the SHHS offered to install hooks in the showers to allow for more privacy for floor fellows and students. As of Sept. 11, however, hooks beside the showers have not been installed in Joey’s residence bathroom. “This unresolved issue has placed me in a vulnerable situation [of] being assaulted or harassed. I do not feel safe when I go

to shower every night,” Joey wrote to The Tribune . “I feel disappointed that no action is being done to fix this easily solvable issue.”

Joey also shared that the changes make it more difficult for them to spend time with their friends. Their smaller room size means there is less space to accommodate guests, and their floor fellow duties make it difficult to find time to visit their friends’ homes. They explained that the policy has consequently interfered with their social life and has negatively affected their mental health.

“My social well-being has been impacted negatively as I no longer have the luxury of hosting many guests in my room,” Joey wrote. “The room changes have definitely decreased my social interactions with friends and exacerbated feelings of loneliness.”

For Joey, the impacts of this policy have extended to the attitude they bring to their work as a floor fellow. Previously, they had spent time outside of their work hours planning bonding activities such as dinners and game nights for their floor, but they do not intend to do so this year.

“The morale is low within the floor fellow community,” Joey wrote. “I am no longer motivated to go above and beyond my job requirements.”

The Tribune interviewed several firstyear students, none of whom reported any major disruptions to floor fellow support so far. According to Charlotte Dominy, U0 Arts, her floor fellow ran several activities during the first week and created a floor-wide group chat that helped students bond.

“The welcome week, I think it went by smoother because we had the opportunities to connect on socials because of the floor fellow,” Dominy said.

While floor fellows have reportedly assisted in a smooth transition into residence life for many first years, Scott believes that the worsened working conditions of floor fellows will ultimately lead to “a massive reduction in the quality of care” for first-year students. He stressed that without a culture of respect between floor fellows, AMUSE, and SHHS, floor fellows will lose motivation to go beyond for students in residence.

“When floor fellows are deprioritized by student housing, then the natural longterm result is that floor fellows begin to deprioritize their jobs in return, because why should we give extra when we’re not being treated fairly,” Scott said.

AMUSE has referred the grievance to the legal team of their parent organization, the Public ServiceAlliance of Canada (PSAC). AMUSE hopes to reverse the policy and receive monetary compensation for the university’s allegedly bad-faith bargaining through arbitration or court hearings.

*Joey’s name has been changed to preserve their confidentiality.

Floor fellows share a host of responsibilities, from ensuring a smooth move-in process for students during welcome week to providing support throughout the school year. (Noah Vaton/ The Tribune )

QPIRG-McGill launches free textbook loan program Students

who donate can receive five dollars

Shani Laskin News Editor

The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill) opened registration for its newlylaunched Free Textbook Loan Program on Sept. 11. The program, largely funded by the Arts Undergraduate Society’s (AUS) Arts Undergraduate Improvement Fund (AUIF), allows students to borrow textbooks donated by other students for free.

QPIRG-McGill is a student-run initiative working toward social and environmental justice through advocacy, research, and education. The program,

based in the Arts Lounge, works by having students who wish to donate fill out a Google Form with information about the books they are donating. QPIRG-McGill ensures that the textbooks students donate are required readings for McGill classes by cross-referencing with course syllabi and then offers five dollars in cash per title. Students may donate physically on-site, but can only receive compensation by using the Google Form.

Borrowing is on a first-come-firstserved basis with priority given to students in the Faculty of Arts. Prospective borrowers fill out a separate Google Form which is reviewed chronologically by QPIRG-McGill. Once a student is approved to borrow a textbook, they are allowed to keep it until the end of exam season, after which it must be returned to the program.

Nhuan Dong, QPIRGMcGill’s Resource Centre Coordinator and lead on the free textbook project, told The Tribune that he hopes to broaden the program in coming semesters to make this service accessible to all students.

“My larger objective is to

make this a universal project at McGill,” Dong said. “And hopefully, after this semester, we will have some data to prove that this is effective, and this is helping students. Then we can collaborate with other faculties, other student unions and other faculties.”

QPIRG-McGill conceived the program as a way to help ease the burden of education costs for students. Chloe Sproule, U2 Arts, donated to the program and wrote to The Tribune about why she thinks that this is an important initiative.

“It’s a common refrain to wail about the price of course books, and yet I’m continually surprised by the amount of people who just accept the financial blow,” Sproule wrote. “Simply, I think it is ridiculous that our tuition fees do not extend to even electronic copies of essential course materials. To [shell] out hundreds of dollars for a book without which you cannot pass a class is something that has stopped many people I know from enrolling in a given course.”

The AUIF is one of multiple financial aid opportunities offered by the AUS for Arts students and student associations. In an interview with //The Tribune//, Julia Widing*, AUS’s VP Finance, expressed that while she was glad that the AUS could shoulder much of the program’s cost, the

SSMU BoD discusses filling vacant VP finance position

VP External Liam Gaither will assume the voting seat on BoD

Suzanna Graham Arts & Entertainment Editor

The Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) gathered for their first meeting of the fall semester on Sept. 7. During the public session, they voted to elect Vice President (VP) External Liam Gaither to take over the VP Finance’s voting power. The responsibilities attached to the VP Finance position will remain shared amongst the executives. Next, it was decided that a by-election to elect a permanent replacement to carry out the rest of the term will likely be held on October 5. The Board also chose to postpone a motion to move the Grocery Program from the President’s portfolio to that of the VP Sustainability and Operations.

The board began the meeting by discussing a motion regarding filling the VP Finance position, which has been vacant since Alice Fang resigned in August. Following Article 6.10 of SSMU’s constitution, if an executive resigns, the BoD must nominate and subsequently elect one of their current members as a temporary replacement.

Then, SSMU needs to host a special by-election—an election to replace a vacant position prior to the formal election period—for the students to elect a new VP Finance, who will carry out the rest of the term.

“When a director position is empty, the seat must be filled in accordance with the constitution,” SSMU President Alexandre Ashkir said. “Within the [executives], we had a vote and Liam came out unanimously.”

There was neither debate nor opposition to the adoption of this motion. As such, the motion assigning Gaither to take over the VP Finance’s voting seat until the by-election passed.

The second motion centred around the transfer of the Grocery Program from the President’s portfolio to that of Hassanatou Koulibaly, the VP Sustainability and Operations. Ashkir said that the motion was brought up prior to the VP Finance’s vacancy, and as such, he had not discussed with Koulibaly if she was still able to handle the extra responsibility. To mitigate any confusion, Ashkir moved to postpone the motion, promising he would re-establish the motion at a later date. For now, the Grocery Program will remain a part of his portfolio.

MOMENT OF THE MEETING

Ashkir explained that the dates of the by-election would be finalized on Sept. 11 in a legislative council meeting. He also stated that the Board needed to consult with Elections SSMU to ensure the dates would work.

SOUND BITE

“I had a conversation with Elections SSMU [about] if [having overlapping elections] is a serious concern. They say it’s not [a concern] [...] The confusion aspect can be mitigated by campaigning.”

—Ashkir on his hesitancy to postpone the First Year Council elections or byelection due to their two-day polling period overlap

The final discussion surrounded the logistics of the special by-election to permanently fill the VP Finance position.

“[The Internal Regulations of Elections and Referenda say] we have to waive rights to have a special by-election [since] elections should only happen at the end of a winter semester,” Koulibaly said.

The BoD also decided a constitutional

demand for this service speaks to a lack of support from McGill.

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword because I can see how it can be flipped, where it’s great [that] we represent ourselves, and we’re giving back to our student community,” Widing said. “But at the same time, why do we have to help ourselves and fund ourselves when the institution is right there?”

Sproule also spoke to the concern about the financial burden that students face when having to buy textbooks in addition to tuition fees and costs of living.

“I could whine about the original promise of the University as a democratic institution, a fountain of knowledge and (often) refuge from poverty and persecution, but what’s reassuring is that students are finding their way around it,” Sproule wrote.

“The QPIRG Loan program is a fantastic idea—to house those books that are in high demand in introductory classes, read once (or not at all), and left to collect dust on a shelf. It’s reassuring that student organizations are taking initiatives to, officially or not, help students cope with some of the more egregious demands our University makes of us.”

*Widing’s opinions do not necessarily reflect that of AUS.

Once a new VP Finance is elected, they will end their term on May 31, 2024 alongside the rest of the executives. (Anoushka Oke )

amendment was needed to determine when the newly elected officer would start training for and acting in their duties. The current guidelines state the new officer would start within two business weeks of training, but did not specify when training would start. Consequently, the Board amended the section to require training to start within two weeks of the moment the election is announced.

VP Student Life Nadia Dakdouki pointed out that the First Year Council election is scheduled to take place during the same period.

“[The issue] is that there’s a week’s difference [between elections] and we’ll have to convince students to vote in two election periods,” Dakdouki said.

Ultimately, the Board decided the risk of potential confusion would not dissuade them from hosting a byelection.

The average cost of a single new textbook is greater than one hundred dollars. (Nhuan Dong / The Tribune)

PGSS says Bill 96 costs the society $7,000 per month, seeks monetary compensation

Council also discussed teaching assistant and invigilator rights

Abby McCormick Student Life Editor

The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) gathered for its first council meeting of the Fall 2023 semester on Sept. 6. Led by speaker Nora Delahaye, the hybrid session’s agenda included teaching assistants’ (TA) rights and Bill 96.

The meeting began with a presentation from Kiersten van Vliet, a representative from the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)—the union representing graduate TAs and invigilators. Van Vliet outlined the rights and responsibilities of TAs and invigilators and encouraged them to reach out if they felt that their workers’ rights were being violated.

“If you have experienced harassment, discrimination, or sexual violence, [AGSEM officials] will be your advocates because you are entitled to a safe working environment as an employee of McGill,” van Vliet said.

Van Vliet also informed the council about AGSEM’s No More Free Hours campaign, a work-to-rule strike aiming to prevent course supervisors from asking TAs to exceed their contracted working hours—time that they are not compensated for.

“Before AGSEM represented graduate teaching assistants at McGill, the lowest paid TAs were earning minimum wage, which at that time was $7.25 an hour,” van Vliet said. “There are some departments at McGill that would pay us

minimum wage if they could.”

PGSS University Affairs Officer Racchana Ramamurthy stressed in an email to The Tribune that this campaign is key to reducing the power imbalance between TAs and course supervisors.

“TAs hesitate to update the workload form if they exceed the hours fearing refutation from their supervisors and departments,” Ramamurthy wrote.

“This has to be addressed immediately, and I am sure AGSEM’s No More Free Hours campaign will raise awareness about this and encourage TAs to exercise their rights.”

Following van Vliet’s presentation, PGSS External Affairs Officer Ansley Gnanapragasam took the floor to discuss the impacts of Bill 96 on the society. The bill, which requires that all organizations and businesses serving people in Quebec produce documents written in French, has reportedly cost PGSS $7,000 per month in translation fees since its implementation in June.

“This is an unsustainable cost,” Gnanapragasam told the council. “We [need] to translate documents such as meeting minutes, contracts, and other documents pertaining to the PGSS.”

Gnanapragasam acknowledged that this is not only an issue that graduate students at McGill face, but one that also affects other English-speaking institutions throughout the province.

“[We have] contacted some other Englishspeaking universities to see whether or not this is an issue that they’re also facing,” Gnanapragasam said. “This has been the case at Concordia, some CEGEPs, as well as Bishop’s University.”

PGSS has reached out to both the provincial and federal governments to request monetary compensation to help cover the cost of translation. The council hopes that the government will establish a fund to assist non-French-speaking organizations grapple with the effects of Bill 96.

PGSS Secretary-General Satish Kumar Tulumu echoed the financial strain of Bill 96 on the council in an email to The Tribune

“More than three-quarters of PGSS membership are from outside Quebec and the vast majority of members from outside Quebec are also from non-French-speaking nations,” Tulumu wrote. “Many of the office bearers can’t write [in the] French language, leading to the hiring of French translators. This is good that we are employing local [francophones] but it makes us economically unsustainable.”

PGSS is seeking monetary compensation from the government to subsidize translation costs associated with Bill 96. (Mason Bramadat/ The Tribune)

MOMENT OF THE MEETING

Despite being scheduled for 1.5 hours, PGSS’s general meeting lasted only 42 minutes. Additionally, the council met its quorum of one per cent of total graduate membership, which has been a struggle in previous years.

SOUND BITE

“What we have found by surveying teaching assistants is that 48 per cent of teaching assistants worked above their contracted hours. On average, that would equal $430 of unpaid labour per TA. That equals a million dollars of unpaid TA labour that McGill is stealing from us every year.”

— Kiersten van Vliet on the importance of fair pay for TAs

Tribune explains: Unions and associations at McGill

A guide to the 14 unions and two associations that represent university employees

Lily Cason Managing Editor

McGill employs over 12,500 staff across its two campuses. There are fourteen unions and two associations that represent, support, and advocate for part- and full-time, academic and nonacademic employees of the university.

What are unions and associations?

Unions bring workers together to hear their concerns and advocate for better working conditions. They negotiate collective agreements (CAs) with employers that outline the specific terms of employment; for example, CAs often spell out regulations surrounding pay scales, benefits, health and safety of workers, and discrimination. Similarly, associations bring members together to try to better working conditions and advocate for their members, but generally have less bargaining power than unions. Both unions and associations typically elect their leadership.

Unions at McGill

The Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)

AGSEM has two units, one representing invigilators and another representing teaching assistants (TAs). Each unit has its own CA with the university. AGSEM was accredited in 1993, making it the oldest TA union in Quebec. The union was certified to represent invigilators in 2010. It is currently pushing for better working conditions and

pay for TAs—who they claim are overworked and underpaid by the university. The most recent CA for TAs expired at the end of July, and negotiations for a new contract are underway between AGSEM and the university.

The Association of McGill University Research Employees (AMURE)

AMURE represents postdoctoral fellows and research associates and assistants at the university. AMURE was accredited to represent research associates and assistants in 2010 and signed the first CA for research associates and assistants with the university in 2013. The union was accredited to represent postdoctoral fellows in 2015, and the first CA for postdoctoral fellows was signed in 2017.

The Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE)

AMUSE represents floor fellows and nonacademic casuals at McGill. The union was certified to represent non-academic casuals—parttime, non-academic McGill workers—in 2010, and was later certified to represent floor fellows in 2014. Both CAs are set to expire in 2025. In March 2023, McGill decided to reduce the size of Floor Fellows’ accommodations, citing increased demand for housing. This announcement led to backlash from the union, which believes this is a breach of the floor fellows’ CA and has filed a grievance against the university.

The McGill Course Lecturers and Instructors Union (MCLIU)

MCLIU represents course lecturers and instructors at the university. The union was accredited in 2011 as a third unit of AGSEM, but broke away and was re-certified in 2013. It ratified its first CA in 2015. The second MCLIU CA expired in August 2022, and negotiations are currently underway to sign a new one.

The McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA)

MUNACA represents clerical staff, laboratory and IT technicians, support staff, and library assistants at the university. The union was accredited in 1994. The current CA will expire in May 2024.

Service Employees Union Local 800 (SEU)

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) represents over two million service employees globally. SEU Local 800, a member of the SEIU, represents service employees throughout Quebec, including some at McGill. Data Centre employees, Faculties Management and Ancillary Services employees, Powerhouse employees on the downtown campus, Printing Services employees, Trades employees at the downtown campus, and Trades and Powerhouse employees at the Macdonald campus are all unionized, and each group has its own CA with the university.

The Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL)

AMPL, the first professors’ union at McGill, was certified in late 2022 after an extensive push

from professors in the Faculty of Law. The new union is currently facing litigation from the university and has not yet signed its first collective agreement.

Associations at McGill

McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) MAUT is a voluntary association that represents non-unionized teaching staff at the university. Founded in 1951, their website states that it works to engage faculty in the governance process, “foster academic freedom,” and better working conditions.

McGill University Non-Academic Staff Association (MUNASA)

MUNASA is a voluntary association that represents non-unionized non-academic staff at McGill. It was created in 1972 and amended after MUNACA was formed to represent management staff.

The first president of MUNACA, Allan Youster, had previously been the president of MUNASA. (Corey Zhu/ The Tribune)

T

EDITORIAL BOARD

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

Creative Director Mika Drygas mdrygas@mcgilltribune.com

Managing Editors Lily Cason lcason@mcgilltribune.com

Arian Kamel akamel@mcgilltribune.com

Tillie Burlock tburlock@mcgilltribune.com

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

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

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

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

Features Editor Harry North features@mcgilltribune.com

Arts & Entertainment Editors Dana Prather & Suzanna Graham arts@mcgilltribune.com

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

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

Photo Editor Mason Bramadat photo@mcgilltribune.com

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

Web Developers Jiajia Li webdev@mcgilltribune.com

Copy Editor Matthew Adelberg copy@mcgilltribune.com

Social Media Editor Sainka Walia socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com

Business Manager Sophie Smith business@mcgilltribune.com

Divest from fossil fuels and end

greenwashing—McGill needs climate action now

The Tribune Editorial Board

The past week has been marked by a heatwave sweeping across the country, with temperatures rising approximately ten degrees higher than the September average in Montreal. As McGill students walked to classes through the humid air, one thing was made clear: Even the most privileged are no longer spared from the effects of climate change.

The recent heatwave is only the latest example of climate change’s devastating effects. As of now, the wildfires raging across Canada this summer have destroyed 165,000 square kilometres of land, making it impossible to ignore the life-threatening reality of the climate crisis. Even within the comfort of the McGill bubble, smoke filled the lungs of anyone outdoors in the weeks of late June when Canadian cities experienced the worst air quality in the world.

In cities where the search for affordable housing is already a heavy weight on the shoulders of young adults, the climate crisis only serves to exacerbate this issue. In California, where subsidized housing is being built in wildfireprone areas, insurance companies are gradually starting to pull out, leaving residents unsafe and uninsured. In Canada, Desjardins is threatening to increase insurance premiums in response to Quebec’s wildfires. While the government has failed to control the current housing crisis, it has surveilled, policed, and underserved unhoused

OFF THE BOARD

Sofia Stankovic Design Editor

populations in Montreal who need care, shelter, and social services. Moreover, the lack of compassion toward wildfire victims does not address the struggles displaced populations face in acquiring permanent, safe housing.

Despite climate change’s universal consequences, Indigenous peoples in Canada are still disproportionately affected by the climate crisis. When land turns into property, when respect for the land turns into greed, climate change becomes the ultimate effect of settler colonialism. We must listen to Indigenous voices and seek solutions from those who know and care for the land and its many relations best. Indigenous peoples, who make up just five percent of the world’s population, protect 80 per cent of our global biodiversity. Embracing a comparative approach to climate justice will allow governments to understand what land means to others to better protect it. The loss of land for Indigenous peoples in rural and urban spaces goes beyond economic interests or environmental violence as the loss of a core, grounded, and personal connection, built from a young age.

Still, the Canadian government will not say or practice Land Back. Indeed, when it comes to Canada’s attitude toward the climate crisis, the Greenbelt controversy represents its failures. Ontario’s Greenbelt––a protected area of two million acres of farmland, forests, and rivers––prevents urban sprawl and ensures Ontarians’ access to local food, clean water, and nature. Last year, however, Ontario’s Progressive

Conservative government announced the construction of 50,000 homes in these protected areas, thus removing 7,400 acres of land from the Greenbelt and using the housing crisis as an excuse to please donors. The housing crisis is not a reason to dismiss environmental protections and vital legislation that safeguards the little protected land Canada has left.

Yet, both the government and institutions such as McGill engage in the individualistic rhetoric of climate change, displacing the blame on everyday people to protect themselves. With every summer getting hotter and every fire burning more fiercely than the last, throwing your bottle in the right bin on campus will never be enough. What we need is collective action on the ground and legislative action from above.

McGill needs to put an end to its greenwashing campaign and take action. As a university that takes pride in its brilliant researchers, McGill must listen to the voices of environment experts around the world. Fossil fuels are by far the biggest contributors to global climate change, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. McGill, which is investing tens of millions of dollars in the fossil fuel industry—$11,982,749 in Royal Bank of Canada and $2,610,419 in TC Energy as of Dec. 31, 2022—is not only complicit in global warming, it is complicit in the forests that are burning and in all the disasters to come. McGill needed to take climate action 20 years ago and now, more than ever, it needs to divest once and for all.

Finding Mr. Right in the Indigo Bestseller section

Matthew Molinaro & Sophie Smith

STAFF

Ali Baghirov, Ella Buckingham,, Jayda Smith

CONTRIBUTORS

David Bard, Lulu Calame, Genevieve Downing, Charlotte Hayes, Mia Helfrich, Sumire Kierkosz-Ueno, Eliza Lee, Allegra Mammoli, Maïa Salhofer, Sophie Naasz, Maeve Reilly, Eliza Wang, Katherine Weaver, Becca Winkelaar, Theodore Yohalem Shouse

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS TRIBUNE OFFICE

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

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

All of us have picked up a book advertised by Indigo as “a thrilling new romance between two forces of nature” only to find out it’s a drawn-out bore about two coworkers who are just afraid to ask each other out. Or maybe it’s about a woman falling in love with a manipulative, aggressive, slightly terrifying yet jaw-droppingly handsome man: But don’t worry––she can change him. For some reason, I’ve always had trouble getting behind a lot of popular modern romance books. I love pretty much anything with a good love story, but I find myself rolling my

eyes when trying to read another “enemies to lovers” novel that hinges entirely on miscommunication. For a lot of people, romance books are an escape from reality into a world of magic and intrigue, or perhaps just a story where men treat women like people. But for me, reading a book where I know exactly what is going to happen feels like taking years off my life.

When reading The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas, my first thought was that she must have industry connections because there is no way any respectable publisher would actually support this. The book drags on and on, and after reading almost 500 pages, a bleak realization settles in: Bland and predictable writing was not going to redeem the sponge-like personalities of the book’s main characters. There are thousands of Harry Styles fanfictions more engaging than this book, yet it remains extremely popular and well-rated. This can be accredited to the fact that this, along with many others of the genre, is simply an easy read. A basic, generic plot with characters who the reader knows are going to fall in love is comfortingly predictable.

One of the most common

romance tropes is “enemies to lovers,” something I actually really enjoy when done well. The tendency, however, for it to be based on the main character’s devotion to her work (obviously making her hate her super attractive coworker who keeps distracting her) is frustrating. I recently read Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and while romance is not its main focus, I was recommended the book many times because of its “incredible” love story. And yet, I was once again disappointed. The book is set in the 50s, so the male character is immediately dismissive of the female main character’s scientific prowess. Their love story only begins to unfold once he begins to treat her as an equal, something I couldn’t get behind considering the “enemies” part of the trope was truly just misogyny. Unfortunately, this is not unique to books set in the 50s and continues to be a common device in modern romance novels.

Other times, the author twists romance into a dark fantasy where abuse becomes a lazy tool to spur conflict, normalizing the idea that acting violent or manipulative is part of a passionate relationship. No one is more guilty of playing into this trope than popular romance

author Colleen Hoover. In an attempt to avoid predictability––an issue so pertinent in modern romance novels––Hoover makes her love interests morally grey and mysterious. This, coupled with poor prose and unnecessary twists, makes her novels buzzy and popular.

You may ask: Sofia, why do you keep reading these books if all you’re going to do is complain about them? Because I’m a hater! And of course, there is a part of me that hopes I will find a love story that will hold up against Normal People by Sally Rooney or Writers & Lovers by Lily King. These novels are extremely popular, and for good reason—the main characters and love interests are three-dimensional, complex individuals with real obstacles to their relationships. The stories are raw, powerful, and more importantly, make you root for the characters to be together, despite their flaws. I understand that not every love story can rise to the prestige of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. But seriously, if I have to read another miscommunication trope that could have been resolved in a single text message, I might have to give up reading romance forever.

COMMENTARY

Jayda Smith Staff Writer

Though the reopening of the Schulich Library was timed conveniently with the impending closure of the McLennan-Redpath Complex, whether the new and improved Schulich will make a worthy competitor is the question of the hour. Apart from the labyrinthine path one must take to locate the

Schulich library will not fill the void of a McLennanRedpath closure

library, Schulich’s questionable capacity, amenities, and interior design will determine the library’s reputation in upcoming months.

Yet, as it stands, Schulich’s opening is not a solution for the study space to be lost in the impending McLennan-Redpath closure and must be accompanied by an increased investment in accessible infrastructure across campus.

The intrigue surrounding the newly renovated Schulich is offset by the fact that it remains

inaccessible for newcomers—no one seems to know where it is. Unable to find the mysterious building with instructions from Google Maps, assistance from the McGill community was needed in my own search. Alas, this only served to complicate the issue. What was meant to be a quick fiveminute walk from Leacock more closely resembled the hunt for El Dorado

While it was determined that the simplest path to Schulich was through the Adams building and then to simply turn left at the Frank Dawson exit, it did actually require multiple sources to find this library. This is a major note in the con column when comparing Schulich’s accessibility to McLennan’s.

Schulich’s interior design is decidedly its most impressive feature. With an old-style structure, the subtle aroma of rich wood permeates the air of the building, lit with rays of natural light. For students wishing to study surrounded by an aura of mystery, a lovely little nook perfect for private study lies just up the stairs, though finding it unoccupied may prove to be a challenge. A soothing blend of blues and oranges throughout the

COMMENTARY

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

space combined with classic brick walls provide a warm ambiance conducive to studying. Even whilst maintaining its architectural roots of eras past, Schulich is not lacking a modern touch. There are several more contemporary work desks and study pods for those with more metropolitan tastes, as well as comfy couches perfect for studying with friends—not to mention the futuristic sixth floor, with its beams and windows that evoke the feeling of studying inside a spacecraft. A potential cause for concern is the basement, which is comparable to studying in a dungeon. But, there may too lie a market for dark and melancholy study spaces.

However, looks aren’t everything. One consistent complaint from McLennan-goers remains that the library is always full. If students already believe the largest library on campus has a capacity issue, Schulich faces an unavoidable fate of overcrowding once midterm season hits. As the influx of library goers inevitably increases later in the semester, having to wait indefinitely for Schulich’s one and only elevator may prove particularly frustrating for those who need it. While those

able to access the library will be able to make use of valuable resources such as printers, computer workstations, quiet zones and more, those unable to take the stairs may be prevented from accessing such amenities with ease. In creating these new spaces for students, McGill needs to place more emphasis on ensuring that students’ accessibility needs are met rather than focusing on aesthetics.

In a push to modernize and create more space for students in the McLennan-Redpath Complex, McGill has undertaken its Fiat Lux project, the reason for the Library’s upcoming renovations. While McGill’s ambition is admirable, attempting to solve a space issue by creating more of a space issue, albeit temporarily, does little to solve the problem.

All things considered, Schulich’s appealing aesthetic quality and promising amenities mask both a lack of space and of accessibility. Will Schulich emerge victorious against the test of anxietyinduced vomiting, spilt coffee, and stress-tears? Or, will it be doomed to the fate of McLennan—relegated to reconstruction once McGill decides it is no longer nice to look at.

Does A.I. development need more doomerism?

In the blink of an eye, artificial intelligence (A.I.) has been incorporated into nearly every aspect of our lives. From education to grocery shopping to music––there is no escaping it. Following the roll out of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the quantity of publicly available A.I. technologies exploded, leaving a chasm of unregulated opportunity for the continued

development of artificial intelligence. However, with the compilation of the terrifying uses of existing A.I. already able to fill a library, the question must be asked: Does A.I development need more doomerism?

A.I. phone scams are just one of the consequences of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. With many people having recordings of their voice posted on the internet, whether that be on social media or in a video presentation posted online for school, publicly

available A.I. voice cloning technologies can use machine learning to simulate any person’s voice. This disturbing practice has resulted in cases of scammers cloning the voices of children, then calling the children’s parents demanding a ransom for their kidnapped child.

Non-consensual deepfake porn is another exploitative dimension of our new reality. Not only is this content readily accessible through Google, the practice is so successful that popular deepfake creators are advertising paid positions to help create content.

If this is not convincing enough, the increasing role of A.I. in the military should send you into a spiral, contemplating how long the world is going to last. The use of A.I. in geopolitical conflict goes beyond the incorporation of A.I. into weaponry and decision-making.. Misinformation campaigns pose a dystopian reality in which A.I. generated audio, video, and text can be manipulated to replicate political officials and military leaders to falsify orders within military rankings or create panic amongst civilians. Not only are militaries already looking to use deepfakes in special operations, the continued development of and investment in such technologies poses the threat of an Oppenheimer-like catastrophe.

To draw brief attention to the benefits of this rapid A.I. development, the use of A.I. in the healthcare field to aid in cancer imaging, or even detection, reminds us that our future with artificial intelligence does not need to resemble a dystopian horror movie. But any application of A.I. to the healthcare system must be careful, under the increased potential of data breaches and the likelihood of underlying bias––a known

issue for many machine learning systems. We can no longer depend on government regulation to reign in Big Tech. Addressing direct threats such as election interference and disinformation campaigns that directly affect democracy has already proven too tall a task for government regulation. Guided by Cold War-era fears, the A.I. arms race makes it near impossible for government regulators to put barriers in front of A.I. development.

If governments are unwilling to provide adequate guardrails around artificial intelligence, who will? Anthropic––a safetyfocused A.I. start-up established by a group of employees who left OpenAI out of concern that the company had gotten too commercial––employs the doomers of A.I. development. Despite developing an A.I. chatbot months before ChatGPT was released, Claude––a Constitutional A.I. model––was never released publicly out of fear of how it may be misused. Anthropic claims to have created an “A.I. safety lab” where their anxiety of the potential catastrophe their creation may inflict on the world influences every decision they make.

The world of A.I. is scary and will likely only get scarier. A.I. tools are already in the hands of bad actors, and the consequences are cataclysmic. Despite concerns of whether or not Anthropic is just a capitalistic ploy attempting to appear responsible in a generally irresponsible field, it presents a case for how to promote critical A.I. development. Considering the impossibility of pressing pause on the development of machine learning, the only possible answer to ethically continue down this path is anxiety-informed A.I. development.

Schulich Library’s info desk service hours close at 6pm (Lauren Goldman / The McGill Reporter)

Following the success of ChatGPT, Google declared a “code red” corporate emergency and rushed its search-oriented chatbot, Bard, to market. (Kamil Sypién)

The Tribune predicts: Fall horoscopes

Find out what the stars have in store for you this back-to-school season

Abby McCormick Student Life Editor

With an end to the summer heat finally in sight and life returning to campus, you may be struggling to adjust to your new school routine. But don’t worry, dear McGillians—the stars are here to plot out the perfect start to your fall semester.

Aries (March 21-April 19):

Romance is in the air for you this fall, Aries. A special someone will turn up at the campus Starbucks that will leave you smitten. Don’t forget about your studies, though—those deadlines aren’t going anywhere.

Taurus (April 20-May 20):

Venus retrograde is coming to a close, which will bestow you with clarity and creativity. Use this opportunity to start cultivating your post-grad plan; there’s no better time. You may also find yourself developing a new hobby you had never considered before. Go for it, Taurus!

Gemini (May 21-June 20):

Be careful, Gemini! A rocky living situation will come to a head, leaving you frayed at the edges. Luckily, your friends will be there to support you and help you get back up on your feet.

Cancer (June 21-July 22):

As your sign aligns with Jupiter, fortune is on the horizon, Cancer. You will experience a series of events that will leave you feeling more financially secure. It’s also a great time for you to socialize. So, head out to Gerts with your friends or check out the McGill Farmer’s Market before school gets too hectic.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22):

You’re in for a great month, Leo! As the sun aligns with Jupiter, your social life will be on fire. Use this opportunity to branch out and talk to a new classmate in your lecture hall. You never know—maybe a romance will blossom.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

The sun is in your sign this month, so the spotlight is on you—make sure to use it wisely. At the end of the month, you will get a stroke of inspiration that will leave you more confident. Go get ‘em, Virgo.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

Oof! Libra, you’re in for a rough start to the month. A long-term plan will come crumbling down, leaving you to pick up the pieces. Lucky for you, when the sun enters your sign on Sept. 23, your social life will flourish.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

This back-to-school season, you will be on your A-game, Scorpio. You will spend hours in McLennan getting a head start on assignments. Fortunately, these immaculate study habits will pay off when your assignments come due.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

After an evening at Activities Night, a new passion will ignite a spark in you that you never would have imagined. Whether it be a school club, sports team, or social cause, take full advantage of it—it may help guide your future career prospects.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

With all those classes at the top of McTavish, you will be getting fit this semester, Capricorn. Just don’t be tempted to skip your classes—midterms are coming sooner than you

think!

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

You will start the semester feeling like the mouse in Redpath library at midnight: Everyone is moving on without you. But don’t worry, you’re not alone in feeling lonely. Things will turn around at the end of the month when you hit it off with someone in line at the hot dog stand. Will it be a friendship or romance? Only time will tell.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20):

This fall will bring a new set of challenges for you, Pisces. Don’t be afraid to tackle them head-on. If you maintain a positive mindset, this month will be rewarding— with new challenges come new opportunities.

Frosh 2023: A test of the head, heart, and liver Exploring the event’s controversial drinking culture and accessibility issues

Lulu Calame Contributor

McGill Frosh is an infamous four-day university orientation, sending thousands of first-year undergraduates across Montreal to concerts, bars, clubs, boats, beaches, and rooftops. Frosh is not an event for the faint of heart, legs, or liver. Drinking often begins in the morning and continues far into the night, giving the event a controversial reputation. Nevertheless, Frosh is a beloved and tried-and-true introduction to university life for thousands of first years that many, even years after, cite as their favourite memory at McGill.

While it elicits generally positive reviews, it seems that Frosh caters to a very specific personality. Gabrielle Chen, U0 Arts, highlighted that Frosh’s audience can exclude party-averse students in an interview with The Tribune

“You have to really love that one type of partying to have a good time because it’s not really dynamic or a very well-rounded event,” Chen said.

Maya Santos, U1 Management,

also pointed to the event’s focus on drinking culture.

“Frosh isn’t very schoolrelated. It’s more party-related.” Santos said.

Sara Prins, U0 Arts, agreed with Santos’ sentiments. She enjoyed Frosh, though attributed the majority of this experience to her outgoing nature.

“[Frosh] is built for a specific person,” Prins said. “If you’re not comfortable with dancing, you’re kinda screwed. If you’re not comfortable being around mobs of people, you’re kinda screwed.”

While “screwed” may be an exaggeration in some cases, Frosh activities lack the versatility required to appeal to their diverse participants. Beyond the restrictions of personal character, many froshies—to use the colloquial term—are 17 years old and thus not of legal drinking age. These students must stay sober at events where most other froshies are drinking heavily. In addition to the feelings of isolation that come with such a restriction, underage froshies receive no discount on their Frosh ticket.

Beyond the alcohol issue, Frosh requires a high level of adaptability

and flexibility. It is an exciting but ruthless mix of beginning-of-year nerves, poor sleep, sub-par meals, and lots of walking.

“If you have a lot of allergies or any sort of disability—even like anxiety—[Frosh] could be really tough,” Chen pointed out.

Beyond accessibility, some first-years opt out of Frosh for a variety of reasons. Ava Monet-Jazt, U1 Arts, lives in Montreal and has a group of friends and chose to skip the boozy and expensive orientation.

“I also know all the bars and all the clubs that I enjoy, so why would I spend 250 dollars to get really day drunk with a bunch of strangers if I can go and get drunk at the bars I already like with the friends I have?” Monet-Jazt said.

Though Frosh saw a great deal of complaints about long days, too much alcohol, and the expensive ticket price, the event still garnered generally positive reviews this year.

Aaron Bentros, U0 Arts, even rebutted the argument that there was pressure to drink during Frosh.

“I can’t drink too much, so I staggered myself out with water, and I don’t think anyone’s pressuring me to do anything,” Bentros said.

Chloe Dann, U0 Arts, described

Frosh as a great way to make close friendships with other first-year students, reporting that many of her closest friends thus far were made during the week’s activities. While Frosh could certainly

use some changes, it nevertheless provides a foundational opportunity for one to make friends, discover the essentials of Montreal nightlife, and jump headfirst into the McGill community.

This September brings a Jupiter retrograde, and with it, good luck and fortune. (Sofia Stankovic / The Tribune)

After getting personal drinks and snacks confiscated at the door, Froshies spent an afternoon on a three-story boat being served $10 cocktails and $18 nacho platters. (Lulu Calame / The Tribune)

“Ican’t do science if I can’t afford rent and groceries,” one sign read, at the Support Our Science (SOS) national walkout for better researcher pay on May 1 earlier this year. “My pay hasn’t increased since the airing of the Friends finale,” another said.

SOS is the grassroots organization leading the fight to change this reality for thousands of graduate and postdoctoral researchers living paycheck to paycheck across Canada.

The national walkout saw tens of thousands of researchers across almost 50 academic institutions take a stand for better pay. Professors and students stood shoulder to shoulder in solidarity. SOS’ ongoing movement has involved a series of petitions sent to the House of Commons delineating their most pressing demands. So far, the petitions have been supported by Members of Parliament from the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, and the Conservative Party.

SOS was born on May 15, 2022, following an open letter and petition sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry François-Philippe Champagne, and the House of Commons, urging them to increase support for Canadian researchers. Since then, they have organized marches, petitions, and social media advocacy campaigns. On Sept. 5, leading members from SOS met with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to discuss the pressing financial issues researchers face. Their mandate is simple: Improve pay for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in Canada.

Growing up in academia—both my parents are biology professors at the University of Toronto—graduate students have always played a significant role in my life. They watched me on days off from elementary school, accompanied my family on trips to conferences around North America, and entertained me at the frequent lab parties my parents threw in our home. Now, as a university student myself, I have felt the effects of the rising costs of living on students firsthand.

SOS has emerged in response to the increasingly dire financial situations faced by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across Canada over the past two decades. McGill’s Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS) shared an unreleased to The Tribune that re-

vealed the shocking truths about the state of graduate student funding at McGill. Students reported living off of peanut butter and jam sandwiches for multiple meals a day for semesters on end, all while experiencing delays in promised support payments from McGill. These issues add to the prevailing consensus among graduate students that they are valued only for their work—not as people.

For years, Canada has consistently ranked at the bottom among G7 countries for research and development spending, with graduate students bearing the brunt of this deficit. As Kali Heales, a second-year Neuroscience Ph.D. student and Funding and Supervision Commissioner of the PGSS, aptly articulated in an interview with The Tribune, “Everyone wants the cure to cancer, but no one wants to pay for it”.

To tackle the underfunding, SOS has presented the Canadian government with four requests. These will ameliorate the funding allotted to the Tri-Agencies: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council—the three main organizations responsible for funding research and innovation in Canada.

Ask 1: Increase the value of Tri-Agency graduate scholarships and postdoc fellowships by 53 per cent and index to inflation moving forwards

Since 2003, the values of graduate scholarships, such as CGS-M and PGS-D, have stagnated, while those of postdoctoral fellowships have only marginally increased. In contrast, inflation in Canada has grown by 52 per cent in the last 20 years. In real terms, this means that the graduate students that I played with at my parents’ lab parties when I was a toddler were earning the same salary as the graduate students I drank with at OAP today.

Ask 2: Increase the number of Tri-Agency graduate student scholarships by 50 per cent

Since 2010, the number of graduate scholarships (CGS-M, PGS-D, and CGS-D) offered has either decreased or remained the same across the board. However, graduate school enrolment has increased by around 30 per cent in the same period—and has doubled over the last 20 years.

Support Our Scientists: fighting for Canadian

Graduate students and postdoc researchers’ pay group has taken the fight to Ottawa—and

This phenomenon indicates that it’s not just the value of the awards that need to increase, but the sheer number being offered.

By Liliana Mason, Design by Sofia Stankovic,

Ask 3: Double the number of Tri-Agency postdoctoral fellowships

While the number of doctoral students has doubled, the number of postdoctoral fellowships has decreased by 40 per cent from 2010, underscoring the need for more funding opportunities. Without an increase in fellowships, Canada risks being unable to secure the high-quality researchers that are necessary to continue producing innovative work.

Ask 4: Increase Tri-Agency research grant budgets supporting faculty researchers by at least ten per cent for the next five years. The majority of graduate students and postdocs are paid through research grants. Individual research grant values, such as the NSERC Discovery Grant, have also remained the same for the last five years, despite 17 per cent economic inflation.

According to Heales, a major problem in tackling the issues is that Canadian graduate students are often left out of conversations on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), although they make up the backbone of the actual research.

Scientists: The group the future of Canadian Science

pay have remained stagnant for decades. Now one Ottawa—and across the country.

Mason, Opinion Editor Stankovic, Design Editor

“There are thousands of students across the country,” Heales said in an interview with The Tribune. “Who are the workers doing the wet lab work, the bench work, and the computational work to generate data for these really high-impact publications that contribute to the Canadian scientific community and the global scientific community?”

One of the biggest impacts of this is the beginning of a new wave of brain drain in Canada—something SOS is striving to change. A 2016 report found that a quarter of all STEM graduates left Canada for work, citing higher pay elsewhere as a top reason. In fact, the 2019 McGill Trace Report estimated that 38 per cent of newly trained Ph.D. students in humanities, social sciences, and fine arts leave Canada for better opportunities, predominantly to the United States and Europe. International students are disproportion- ately affected by the funding system in Canada. According to the PGSS survey, international students normally pay double the tuition fees of out-of-province students, and over four times as much as Québecois students.

Isabela Uquillas, an Ecuadorian Ph.D. student studying computational neuroscience at McGill, earned her undergraduate degree in

the United States and her master’s degree in the Netherlands. In an interview with The Tribune, she said “I know how the American system works. I know how the Dutch system works. And here [I] was just like, oh this is broken.”

As the president of the Graduate Student’s Association for Neuroscience (GSAN), the largest graduate student program at McGill, Uquillas sees the best and the worst of the Canadian system.

“We are all very angry,” Uquillas said. “Because this is unsustainable. This hasn’t changed in 20 years[…] Someone’s got to do something.”

An example of the unfairness is the importance of the activities graduate students do—and the cost of these projects. Students working on projects such as cell cultures may work with materials that cost up to $20,000 a day to maintain—much more than what they will take home in a year.

According to Uquillas, international students are already some of the most vulnerable of the affected groups—often more susceptible to predatory behaviour from the institution. Not only do they face higher international fees, but their visas are often tied to having a supervisor. This, she said, can lead to resigning to “Well, what are you going to do, quit?”

“I met international students that are like, ‘Why did I leave my country […] I had a house. I helped my parents pay their rent. I worked a nine to five.’ Why did I do this to myself?” Uquillas said. “When you’re disenfranchised you’re not thinking, ‘how can I fix this.’ You’re thinking ‘I want to see a breakdown.’”

SOS’ four requests look to translate these feelings into concrete demands with significant bargaining power. Graduate students are often under non-worker status, which means their work does not fall under minimum wage requirements. This also means they can not properly unionize or take collective action to bargain for higher wages.

As Uquillas said, “We can tell you a lot

about Alzheimer’s […], but we cannot bargain for a fair wage.”

Another group often left out of the conversation surrounding funding is individuals with accessibility needs. Tam Pham, a queer, disabled, student of colour at Dalhousie University, emphasizes the struggles faced by disabled graduate students in an interview with The Tribune

“Sometimes you ask for an accommodation and it gets invalidated because people will say, ‘Oh, this is an inconvenience, I don’t think we can afford this’. So there’s a lot of narratives about […] accommodations requests […] being framed as an inconvenience and not being referred to as a necessity, and a part of our body,” Pham said.

There is also a lack of understanding, Pham said, “because we always think of funding as paying for […] just regular daily life along with bills, but [we also have] our disability aids, our disability taxes […] the regular stuff that I have to pay that not a lot of people would know.”

These extra expenses include everything from medication to wheelchairs to screen-reading accessibility devices for students with visual impairments. “Accessibility is the key to equity,” Pham said. “So if we want to have more folks, more marginalized communities, participating in STEM, we need to make it more accessible. And that’s just the reality of it.”

The issue of accessibility is an age-old question for universities today. As Heales argued, it begs the question: “Are we recruiting the best of the best? Or just the students that are willing to take on that [kind of financial burden]?”

Without adequate funding opportunities for Canadian graduate students, we run the risk of not only losing our brightest minds, but failing to recruit them in the first place. For Canada to remain competitive on the global stage and ensure the well-being of its students, it must follow the requests of SOS to fix the deplorable state of research funding. Only then can we enter into a new and brighter age of academia.

So long, McLennan! Six study spots to check out during renovations

Katherine Weaver Contributor

As some library-goers may be aware, the Redpath-McLennan Complex will be under renovations for an estimated three years as of early 2024, as part of McGill’s Fiat Lux Library Project. The closure of the university’s largest library complex will change the study routines of many McGill students. Fear not, though! The Tribune has compiled a list of alternative study spaces across the downtown campus for those in search of a new favourite.

Schulich Library of Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Engineering

Space type: Quiet and group study

Noise level: Moderate

In terms of capacity and hours, the six-floor Schulich complex will be your closest match to McLennan throughout the construction. Much of the interior walls are exposed brick that section each floor into a variety of study areas with desk arrangements to suit your mood and study style, while broad half-round windows provide generous natural light. For those feeling hungry, plenty of dining options are available within a few minutes’ walk, including the RVC dining hall, Mezze Café, and Dispatch Coffee.

Address: 809 Sherbrooke Street West

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-midnight (open 24 hours over exam season)

Marvin Duchow Music Library

Space type: Quiet study

Noise level: Quiet

The Marvin Duchow Music Library occupies the third through fifth floors of the Elizabeth Wirth Music Building. Carrels, study tables, and couches line the perimeters of the three floors, providing lively views of Sherbrooke below for mid-work people-watching. One distinctive feature of the Marvin Duchow Music Library is its proximity to the Sherbrooke Starbucks.

Address: Elizabeth Wirth Music Building, 527 Sherbrooke Street West

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. (Monday-Thursday), 8:30-6 p.m. (Friday), 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Saturday), 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (Sunday)

Nahum Gelber Law Library

Space type: Quiet study

Noise level: Low

A short uphill walk from the heart of campus, the Nahum Gelber Law Library is on the quieter side, making it the ideal spot for independent study. A dimmer library, one of its most charming and distinguishing features is the arched desk lamps on each sleek wooden desk. If the five floors of both desks and tables are not quite quiet enough for your study style, the Law Library has two soundproof pods on the second floor that are available first come, first serve.

Address: 3660 Peel Street

Hours: 9 a.m.-midnight, (open 24 hours over exam season)

688 Sherbrooke Ninth Floor Study Space

Space type: Quiet study

Noise level: Quiet to moderate

Situated on the ninth floor of 688 Sherbrooke, this study space is clean and spacious, lending itself to hours of deep, productive work. With plenty of natural light, outlets, and cushioned office chairs, the environment is both bright and well-equipped to finish that pesky assignment that’s been glaring at you. The defining feature of this study space is the row of desks overlooking campus, which encourages individual work.

Address: 9th floor, Academic Personnel Office, 688 Sherbrooke St. West

Hours: 7 a.m.-11 p.m. (Monday-Friday), 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (Saturday)

Geographic Information Centre (GIC)

Space type: Group study

Noise level: Moderate to loud

Students looking for more of a chatty workspace can find a home in the GIC. This fifth-floor study space is bright and airy, and is scattered with various indoor plants for that muchneeded mood boost. Restaurant-style booths allow larger groups to cozy in shoulder-to-shoulder, while high-tops provide smaller groups a place to collaborate. There are also 75 desktop computers in the GIC for students’ use.

Address: 5th floor, Burnside Hall, 805 Sherbrooke Street West

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-9 p.m. (Monday-Friday)

Islamic Studies Library

Space type: Quiet study

Noise level: Very quiet

An incredibly quiet library situated adjacent

to Redpath Library in Morrice Hall, the Islamic Studies Library is one like no other. The highlight of this library is the Octagon Room, where laden bookshelves and stained glass windows surround the 16 study desks and a round central table. Studies have shown that working in highceilinged spaces has benefits for creativity and abstract thinking, making the Islamic Studies Library the perfect spot to brainstorm for that final term paper. Outlets are few and far between in this grand study environment, so come fully charged, or be prepared to stick to pen and paper.

Address: Morrice Hall, 859 Sherbrooke Street West

Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. (Monday-Friday), 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Sunday)

Morrice Hall was originally home to the Presbyterian College of Montreal, which explains its Gothic-style church architecture. (Drea Garcia Avila

Spotted: McGill reveals our imperfections—and our greatness

A deep dive into the page’s concerning, informative, and

Theodore Yohalem Shouse Contributor

Content Warning: Mentions of sex

Have you noticed your Instagram feed filling up with your fellow students’ intimate, hilarious, disgusting, and bizarre confessions? For those who follow the account Spotted: McGill, the answer is yes. The popular page allows students to anonymously confess whatever they wish to the public via a Google Form. Of course, not all submissions are published—for which we should be grateful, considering how intense (and sometimes risqué) the published content can be. But many students have succeeded in getting their message out there, for everyone else to read (including myself—not telling which submission is mine, though).

Confessing is fun and carefree: Students can open their hearts enough to feel the relief of revealing a secret, without the embarrassment or even legal consequences that can come with a true confession. For those who leave Montreal in the summer,

Spotted: McGill keeps them connected to campus goings-on. Reading about others’ romantic escapades in McLennan Library or disastrous dates at Thai Express reminds students of their lives back in Montreal.

Spotted: McGill helps students cut themselves slack by witnessing others’ embarrassing antics and blunders. We can empathize with one confessor who couldn’t figure out how to break up with a boyfriend who wouldn’t make time for them. We can giggle at the graduate student who apparently watches porn in the back of their class. A relatable confessor admitted to going to campus on days when they don’t even have class “just to feel something.” Plenty can sympathize with the confessor who lamented McGill athletes’ inability to satisfy her. Many posts are people confessing their crushes. Others are about people who can’t make the first move, can’t get over their crush, or are just lonely. Perhaps this is a bit sad, but it’s comforting to know others are out there.

Despite Spotted: McGill’s seeming popularity, plenty of students on campus are unconvinced of its

hilarious confessions

trustworthiness or are even critical of its content. Tahys Courrier, U2 Arts, believes that all the confessions are true, making her wary of certain parts of campus.

“Tellement—genre—the bathroom, I’m not going to the bathroom anymore,” she said.

Lucie Harnais-Cheusel, U2 Arts, believes 70 per cent of the confessions are true.

“The pegging lore is way too intense to not be accurate,” she explained.

Harnais-Cheusel and Courrier also pointed out that the crushes described in the confessions are often attractive by traditional Western standards—for example, having blond hair or being skinny.

Another critique was that Spotted: McGill fails to actually connect people who are interested in one another. Even if you realize you’re the subject of a confession, you don’t know who your secret admirer is—the downside of anonymity. Margaux Chaillou, U2 Arts, who found Spotted: McGill’s obsession with silly student love life frivolous, stated her opinion plainly: “I

vouch for its downfall.”

Despite criticism, the account is thriving with over 12,000 followers. “Spotted” Instagram accounts are popular at many universities. In fact, someone once wrote on Spotted: UofT that Spotted: McGill’s confessions frightened them.

“To the person who said go to McGill . . . I’m scared of you guys . . . Maybe York,” read the UofT confession.

Should you be scared of us? Maybe. Spotted: McGill is a cracked mirror that reveals our quirks, ferocious libido, and general awesomeness. We are weird and scary. Our squirrels are fat. Our administration isn’t zippy, to put it lightly. Our confessions are aweinspiring and stomach-churning. So be it.

UofT and York students be warned.

/ The Tribune)

The Instagram account allows students to anonymously recount weird happenings on campus, confess their dirt, and get their voice out there. (mcgill.ca)

‘Bottoms’ tops all other summer comedies

Emma Seligman perfectly executes the teen comedy format for modern audiences

Charlotte Hayes Contributor

Dubbed ‘Lesbian Fight Club,’ Bottoms is Canadian director Emma Seligman’s second feature film.

Reminiscent of beloved 90s and mid-aughts teen comedies like Superbad and American Pie , the film delivers a hilarious and unapologetically gross romp that is sure to become an instant cult classic. With a tight 90-minute runtime, Bottoms should be at the top of everyone’s watch list this weekend.

The film follows PJ (Rachel Sennott) and her childhood best friend Josie (Ayo Edebiri), two nerdy high schoolers who start a fight club masquerading as a self-defence club, in an effort to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. As the club gains traction, the most popular girls in school join, much to the delight of its founding members. Soon, the duo finds themselves in way over their heads as their web of lies starts catching up with them.

Seligman and Sennott’s first collaboration, 2020’s Shiva Baby , was gripping but unsettling . In this venture, which Sennott co-wrote, the pair swap suffocating anxiety for a lighter, more improvisational narrative. They have crafted a script that plays within the established rules and tropes of its predecessors while remaining relevant to modern young audiences’ tastes. It feels in touch with the pop culture references of the moment, making liberal use of Twitter’s cultivated vocabulary, without ever veering into cringy. Pinpointing cultural touchstones can be challenging in our ever-changing social media landscape, but the writing duo seems to accomplish more than what so many others can—creating a script that still feels relevant and clever, rather than quickly becoming outdated like the trends it draws from. The result is a piece of media that feels genuinely authentic in speaking to its audiences.

Edebiri and Sennott are magnetic and infinitely watch -

able, and the central premise of their friendship keeps the occasionally surrealist plot grounded as a teen comedy. However, the pair with the best chemistry is by far Edebiri and Havana Rose Liu, who plays cheerleader Isabel. The two bring an electric rom-com energy that adds a sweet and satisfying touch to what is otherwise a rather violent and absurdist final act. With adorably awkward run-in and swoon-worthy confessions of love, the two instantly become audience favourites—simply put, they are the couple you root for, a staple of the genre.

The rest of the supporting cast fills out the captivatingly hilarious and absurdist world of PJ and Josie’s high school with equal panache. Nicholas Galitzine shines as Jeff, star quarterback and world-class idiot, and Kaia Gerber, making her acting debut, portrays an unsurprisingly believable popular cheerleader Brittany. The chemistry of this great ensemble only adds to the ever-expanding repertoire of players in the Zillennial Cult Comedy Cinematic Universe.

The film’s true crowning achievement is how it’s able to do queer representation in a fun and light-hearted format. Mainstream queer representation, particularly lesbian representation, at the box office often comes in the form of serious dramas, so it’s refreshing to see a movie built for young queer audiences to have fun with. PJ and Josie’s trouble with getting girls isn’t about them being lesbians—there are other out queer students at their school—it’s just that they’re loser. Bottoms celebrates and has fun with young queer culture without it having to feel like a talking point of the movie.

With such roaring success, the bright future that Seligman and Sennott have as a creative team will be undoubtedly hilarious to watch. From needle drops to costume choices, the duo evidently have a great affection for the teen comedy genre and may be able to give it a full revival, if not a makeover, for a new generation. With killer

jokes, dynamic chemistry, and a final set piece worth the price of admission, Bottoms is a breath of fresh air in the space of teen comedies.

‘Bottoms’ is currently in theatres across the country.

Edebiri and Sennott previously stared together in ‘Ayo and Rachel are Single’ (iMDB)

Feminae Nox: Empowering people of colour working in music

McGill alumni launch platform to diversify Montrel’s Nightlife

Sophie Naasz Contributor

Walking into Francesco’s Discoteca, I was met with hazy red lights that lit up the long room with a seductive glow. Large mirrors scattered the sparkle of at least 30 disco balls around the room, dipping guests in a starry glow. Francesco’s was vibrant, from the postmodern art warming the walls to the towers of shining glasses ready to be filled. But if the venue was a living, breathing entity, then its beating heart was the music. Feminae Nox brought the place to life.

Founded by three incredibly talented McGill alumni—Mira Silvers (BA ‘11), Gloria-Sherryl François (BA ‘21), and Seny Kassaye (BA ‘20)—Feminae Nox is an equity-focused, femme-driven platform striving to prioritize Black, Brown, and racialized women on stage and behind the scenes. This Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, marked the launch of the platform’s residency at Fransesco’s Discoteca, ushering in a new era of soon-to-be regularly scheduled shows.

A city with an unquenchable thirst for nightlife, Montreal boasts many clubs that entice people out for a night of dancing. However, under the glamour of these establishments lies a static and restricted field. The agents, DJs, and staff in the music scene are predomi-

nantly white men, with little signs of a changing atmosphere. Unlike other professions that have strict qualifications, the music industry lacks strict criteria for choosing a job candidate. The beauty of this informality is a seemingly accessible and mixed industry, but in reality, it creates an environment based on connections where friends hire friends—a barrier that often restricts access for Black people, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour.

I interviewed co-founder Mira Silvers, who connected me with the two other co-founders. She also came up with the platform’s intriguing name—using both Latin and a reference to the Greek Goddess Nyx to mean “Goddess of the Night.” She has worked internationally in music in Public Relations and now acts as an agent for DJs and live acts, as well as pursuing avenues in management.

Silvers acknowledged the

industry’s unwillingness to allow entry to racial minorities. “There’s a fear that sharing info will detract from your own pocket,” she said in an interview with The Tribune “I’m anti-gatekeeping, the more we can share, the better the industry can get. We can create a platform built by us for the people being left on the fringes. We can create the industry we want.”

Silvers remembers the challenges she faced breaking into the industry, especially in Montreal, where she noticed a lack of support and guidance. Likewise, co-founder Gloria-Sherryl Francois (also known as the incredible DJ GLOWZI) and co-founder Seny Kassaye (an agent who has worked with artists including Cardi B, Central C, and Megan Thee Stallion, as well artists who performed on the Barbie Soundtrack) both faced many challenges themselves. It is these plights and difficult

Artist Séamus Gallagher reimagines the 1939

Genevieve Downing

Contributor

Stepping into Séamus Gallagher’s “Mother, Memory, and Cellophane” at the McCord Stewart Museum transports the viewer to a haunting world of artificiality and feminine identity, with a future in ruins. The exhibit melds femininity with the synthetic through drag performance, embodying imagined ideas of progress and their striking relevance in today’s world.

The exhibit takes its cues from the 1939 New York World’s Fair, whose theme was “The World of Tomorrow.” The fair featured the figure “Miss Chemistry,” the DuPont company’s living advertisement for the world premiere of nylon stockings. The next year, a newspaper survey found that mother, memory, and cellophane were the most beautiful words in the English language, thus inspiring the name of Gallagher’s exhibition.

Consisting of five prints, each made up of two images that change based on the viewer’s perspective, the exhibit creates a dazzling choreography for visitors. These images present a tension between visibility and invisibility, and much like the second skin of nylon stockings, prove to be elusive.

In video form, Gallagher plays the drag representation of Miss Chemistry’s ghost, circulating through the past, present, and future, posing a promise of innovation gone awry. What is most enticing about Miss Chemistry is her eerie face: Shadow and light dance across her mask, veiling her full portrait. She is unreachable by the audience, much like how the shiny material of a nylon stocking conceals the leg that wears it.

At the time of the New York World’s Fair, the nylon stocking was viewed as the pinnacle of chemistry and innovation—it harnessed coal, air, and water into a new, consumable form.

experiences that brought the three leaders together, determined to reshape the industry’s future.

With Fort Agency—of which all three founders are members—offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Montreal, these women are ushering in a wave of change internationally.

Kassaye’s nomination for the Young Executive Award at the 2023 International Live Music Conference’s Arthur Awards highlights her groundbreaking role as one of the only Black booking agents in Canada. While this is a trailblazing moment to be proud of, the reality of her being one of a few Black booking agents is a harrowing reflection of the stagnant state of diversity in the industry.

“People tell us we’re making history, but this history should have been made way in advance,” Silvers stated.

Feminae Nox will continue to disrupt the nightlife scene one event at a time, spotlighting racialized people & nonbinary people sharing their fiery love for music.

Feminae Nox’s next live show will be during POP Montreal on Sep 29th featuring Annahstasia + Eritrean-Canadian M.I.Blue.

‘World of Tomorrow’

Driving in Palestine: An exhibition by Rehab Nazzal

Interdisciplinary artist Rehab Nazzal employs a variety of media to examine the devastating effects of settlercolonial violence on the Palestinian people, land and non-human life. -- Montréal, arts interculturels (MAI) 3680, rue Jeanne-Mance, suite 103

Sept. 8 - Oct. 21 -- Free Admission

Gallagher

“Oil transmuted to stockings to rope. This material, less of an object, more of a movement,” Miss Chemistry’s ghost says. “Like those old nets and ropes, I’m unable to return to where I was before.”

These products, once hailed as symbols of progress, are now viewed in a new light. This material cannot be recycled— DuPont was responsible for the excessive pollution of rivers and soils within the United States. The boundless optimism of 1939 has since evolved into a sombre understanding, as the repercussions of industry, notably climate change and pollution, unfold before us in real-time. This exhibit perfectly captures the haunting of a past in which anything seemed possible.

This exhibit falls under the larger umbrella of the 18th MOMENTA Biennale de l’image. The event takes place across sixteen venues, with twenty-three artists presenting solo

Comedy Night

5à7 with They Go Low, We Go Laugh

As this year’s #ConsentMcGill closing event, this 5à7 comedy event is a reminder that, at the end of the day, sometimes all you can do is laugh and that’s ok.

PGSS Thompson House, 3650 McTavish Street (main level)

Sept. 15, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM - Free admission

Identities, skins, and faces — a photographic look at Afro-Queer Identities

Presented as part of the 15th Massimadi Festival, this photo exhibit displays portraits of Black LGBTQ+ and nonbinary individuals through the lens of local photographers.

Parc Daisy Peterson Sweeney, Rue DaisyPeterson-Sweeney, 2700 Rue Rufus-Rockhead

Sept. 14 - 17, various times Free

Festival Quartier Danses

In addition to their indoor events, FQD is showcasing numerous free outdoor performances suitable for audiences of all ages.

Various locations

Sept. 6 - 17 Free

projects that all explore the theme of “Masquerades: Drawn to Metamorphosis.”

Curator Ji-Yoon Han told me that this project aids in reinventing notions of identity, opening it to new meanings. According to Han, identity is being, rather than becoming. Identity exists within a liminal space, between self and other; it remains unfixed.

“The title of the exhibition was the three words that appealed in 1940, and I think it’s perfect,” Han said in an interview with The Tribune . “You have all the plastic and the cellophane that has been so instrumental in the modern world, but there is also memory, which has to do with the past, and mother, this kind of impossible nostalgia of going back to a lost future.”

One of the main facets of the Biennale’s masquerade is mimicry. Gallagher’s portrayal of the original Miss Chemistry provides a glimpse into how various figures and ideas have changed over time.

“Drag culture plays a lot with the stereotypes of femininity and pushes them to an extreme. I’m really interested in that excessive part; that also goes with the slippery part that Séamus is creating with their work,” Han explained.

“You can see the defaults, it’s not quite there. And drag culture is also about that; you would never be completely fooled, it’s not like a perfect mimicry, on the contrary, it’s an imperfect mimicry.”

“Mother, Memory, and Cellophane” runs from Sept. 8, 2023, to Feb. 4, 2024. Student tickets are $15 and are available on the McCord Stewart website or at the ticket counter.

“Mother, Memory, and Cellophane:” A queer performance of a haunted past

The platform, aspires to expand to festivals, showcases, and conferences (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

is known for their intermedial approach to photography, using a variety of mediums such as prints, costumes, sets, and video performances. (Stéphanie Poisson / musee-mccordstewart.ca)

A guide to McGill’s first-year science lecture halls

Ella Paulin Science & Technology Editor

Leacock 132

Any analysis of McGill’s intro-level science lecture halls has to start with Leacock 132, by far the most infamous room in a U0 Science student’s life. The largest lecture hall at McGill, Leacock 132 seats 650 people. While the space has an impressive resume, having hosted speakers such as Jane Goodall, Susan Sontag, and Ralph Nader, most students know it simply as one of the dreariest places to spend 50 minutes on campus.

“I’ve had six classes there and nothing of note has happened,” Ella Klein, U2 Arts, said, referencing their extensive experience with the lecture hall as a psychology major, in an interview with The Tribune. “Leacock 132 is a staple for psychology classes. I think all of the intro psychology classes are in it.”

One tip from an upper-year physics student: Keep a close eye on your pencils in this lecture hall, as the tightly-packed chairs make it almost impossible to find a missing item.

“I dropped my Apple Pencil one time in Leacock 132,” Mikey Baker, U2 Science, said in an interview with The Tribune. “It was the most stressful five minutes of my life.”

Stewart Biology S ¼

New students encounter a variety of problems with Stewart Bio S ¼ before taking their seat: How do you make it up the

hill without working up a sweat? What’s the difference between the South and North buildings? How are you supposed to say ‘¼’, anyway? After trudging up the punishing slopes of Mount Royal, navigating Stewart Bio’s bizarre numbering system is sure to throw even the most dedicated engineering students off their game. And that’s in good weather— as Cypress Zufferli, U1 Arts & Sciences, explained, bad conditions can make it downright dangerous to make the trek up.

“When it’s raining or snowing, Docteur-Penfield turns into a slip ‘n slide,” Zufferli told The Tribune

However, once you get inside, S ¼ is one of the better lecture halls of the bunch.

“The chairs are good,” said Zufferli. “I mean, they’re plastic, but they’re good. The annoying thing about it is the desks don’t move. So when you are trying to leave, you’re hitting your knees on the desks. And it makes for an awkward situation, if you’re late to class trying to get in.”

McIntyre Medical Building 522

McMed, one of the other major McGill buildings that require a trip up Mount Royal, received similar reviews from the science students I spoke to.

“I don’t have problems with the actual classroom,” Klein said. “But the way there is absolutely awful.”

In the case of McMed, which is even

farther up the hill than Stewart Bio, the journey can be impossible for some students, although new students should note that there is a tunnel and elevator connecting Stewart Bio to McMed for ease of access.

“My biggest problem with McMed 522 is that I had a friend who, because of their disability, found it really difficult to get up the hill, especially in winter,” Baker explained, who took COMP 206 in McMed 522. “And, like, they just couldn’t attend class. We were lucky that that class was recorded, but I feel like some of this stuff goes beyond the level of inconvenience.”

Adams Auditorium

Adams Auditorium is certainly in a

more convenient location than Stewart Bio or McMed, but the room makes up for that with its overall dreary atmosphere. The drooping ceiling tiles and flickering lights add to the ambiance created by the complete lack of windows and the indecipherable derivatives on the blackboard.

“There’s times where I’ve been in calc and I’m like ‘am I going crazy because I’ve been here for an hour and a half or is it because the lights do that?’” Zufferli said.

After your hour and a half in Adams Auditorium is over, make sure to budget a good five to ten minutes for exiting the lecture hall, winding out through the single stairwell and returning to the fresh air of Lower Field.

Ad Astra: McGill Rocket Team’s successful launch

These four rooms are a core part of every science student’s first-year experience McGill Rocket Team ranks 2nd in the Advanced Category in the Launch Canada 2023 Challenge

Eliza Wang Contributor

On Aug. 29, 2023, the McGill Rocket Team, having driven the ten hours from Montreal to Timmins, Ontario, successfully launched their lovinglyengineered rocket Porthos . The vehicle flew to a height of 10,000 feet, and most impressively, the flight used a fully studentresearched and developed hybrid engine.

Project Porthos earned them second place in the Advanced Category in the Launch Canada 2023 Challenge, not only showcasing the team’s exceptional expertise in rocketry but also confirming their reputation as a formidable force in innovative aerospace endeavours.

In an interview with The Tribune , Kay Romann, U2 Mechanical Engineering and Technical Director of the team, discussed the extensive commitment the team has put

into Project Porthos over the years.

“There’s been years of development and [...] testing. It takes a lot of time to validate an engine; you have to do it multiple times to identify issues and solve these problems,” Romann explained. “There’s the whole mathematics and physics of writing models to predict the performance of your engine [....] And so all of these aspects have been worked on by multiple generations of students that have now gone on to do research [and] commissioned research.”

Indeed, designing a hybrid motor—one that contains both solid fuel and liquid oxidizer—is no small feat.

“Engines that we’ve flown in the past, that most people buy, are solid motors, so both the oxidizer and the fuel are solid,” Amanda Kronish, U4 Mechanical Engineering and Co-Captain of the McGill Rocket Team, explained to The Tribune . “Hybrid engines are a lot more complex because you need to have plumbing to fill your rocket with that liquid oxidizer and transfer the liquid oxidizer to the combustion chamber. And that’s why [...] it is so much more complex and it takes so much more work.”

This level of complexity does not come without its own set of substantial challenges.

“Our first hybrid rocket Athos […], actually never got to fly. That was the first rocket we built after the pandemic,” Alexandre Fahmy, U4 Mechanical Engineering and Co-captain of the team, said. “A lot of our members graduated, so we lost a lot of experience and knowledge. It was a huge

challenge to build that rocket Athos ; every little thing was difficult. [...] But all of that experience allowed us to do much, much better this year.”

As they looked ahead to the new academic year, the McGill Rocket Team shared their two major objectives with The Tribune . One of the team’s goals is to significantly step up the power of their rockets.

“For this coming design cycle, we’re designing a rocket that goes to 60,000 feet, which is the maximum height that a rocket can fly at the competition that we attend,” Kronish said. “We want to push our engineering skills to their limits.”

The rockets that the team usually launches fly to 10,000 feet, which is a difficult task in itself, but achievable with a subsonic flight—one where the rocket never moves faster than the speed of sound. In order to achieve 60,000 feet, the rocket would have to go supersonic.

“It presents a whole new host of engineering challenges like making an airframe that survives that kind of speed, electronics, recovery, all kinds of things,” Kronish said.

The team’s other aim involves the work of the Payload subteam.

“We also are trying to start an orbital CubeSat program,” Kronish said. “In our rocket, we always have a payload, which is a scientific experiment, because we always want our rockets to have some kind of purpose, and an orbital CubeSat would basically be an extension of that program. So we want to send scientific experiments to space.”

The Leacock Building was built from 1962 to 1965, and is named after McGill professor and author Stephen Leacock. (healthenews.mcgill.ca)

Discovery of new mechanisms involved in breast cancer metastasis

Protein CdGAP contributes to the development of HER2+ breast cancer

Athina Sitou Science & Technology Editor

Finding more effective drugs that target certain aggressive forms of breast cancer first requires a deeper understanding of the disease’s progression mechanisms. The need for increased insight into the mitigation of breast cancer growth fueled a seven-yearlong study at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC).

Nathalie Lamarche-Vane, a professor in McGill’s Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and her team investigated the molecular and cellular processes underpinning the metastasis of breast cancer.

“This study goes deeply into the mechanism of metastasis to show the role of this molecule [CdGAP] as an important driver of metastasis,” Lamarche-Vane said in an interview with The Tribune

Metastasis is a key step in the growth of a cancer, during which cancer cells detach from the primary tumour and migrate to take over distant organs. Understanding the mechanisms driving this phenomenon is crucial because it constitutes the primary cause of mortality among breast cancer patients.

Since the subtype of breast cancer known as HER2+ amounts to nearly one-third of breast cancer cases with early-stage metastasis, the study focused on this specific type. While previous research has linked high expression of CdGAP with poor survival rates in HER2+

cancer, Lamarche-Vane’s research sheds light on the role of CdGAP in the tumorigenesis and metastasis caused by HER2+.

“This protein, [CdGAP], was discovered 20 years ago, [and] it’s really step by step that we came to the idea that it may have some role in cell migration and cell proliferation,” Lamarche-Vane said. “To our surprise, [the mouse breast cancer cell lines used as a research model] were having a high level of expression of CdGAP and that is what caught our attention, because normally, this protein, because of its known roles as a regulator of small GTPase enzymes, it should have been [suppressing rates of tumour growth rather than increasing them].”

The researchers established that CdGAP promotes HER2+ breast cancer growth and is instrumental in its metastatic evolution. CdGAP interacts with the adaptor protein talin to act as a transcriptional target for the TGF-β signaling, a crucial factor in cancer development. More specifically, CdGAP modulates an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which enables tumour dissociation by functioning as a molecular target of the TGF-β pathway.

They also identified talin as a protein interacting with CdGAP to regulate focal adhesions, mechanical structures allowing cell movement, and integrin activation, which signals to the cell that it is time to get ready to move. These molecular processes collectively contribute to the enhanced migration, invasion,

and adhesion of cancer cells, ultimately fueling the aggressive metastatic progression of HER2+ breast cancer.

Lamarche-Vane and her team’s dedication to investigating CdGAP and unraveling the foundational science described above has paved the way for the eventual breakthrough of a new therapy against HER2+ breast cancer.

“The difficulty [in devising a drug against CdGAP] is that this is not like a receptor,” Lamarche-Vane said. “So when you have a receptor at the surface, [...] you can design the molecules to block the binding to the ligands or antibodies. The CdGAP is [instead] a molecule that is inside the cell, in the cytoplasm. So

to derive drugs becomes a bit more difficult, but it is feasible. There is some indication that that could be the future.”

Although Lamarche-Vane acknowledged that this paper has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), she emphasized the bleak reality that fundamental research like this, which aims to establish a foundation on which future life-saving discoveries can be built, is widely under-funded.

“This is [fundamental] science, but then it’s the future, it takes time, it takes years, but this is what will lead, eventually, to [more practical discoveries such as] therapeutics,” Lamarche-Vane said.

Global collaboration is key to avoiding extinction

Rapid biodiversity loss must be monitored with a transnational, systematic approach

Becca Winkelaar Contributor

As the world is adapting to global-scale environmental crises, the scientific community must collaborate like never before. Current, unparalleled rates of biological diversity loss demand prompt implementation of science-informed policy.

In response, scientists belonging to the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), co-chaired by Andrew Gonzalez, professor and Liber Ero Chair in Conservation Biology at McGill University, have developed a proposal for the Global Biodiversity Operating System (GBiOS).

GBiOS would primarily exist to support each nation’s goals of preserving biodiversity by pooling together global data, knowledge, and technology. By connecting countries’ individual efforts, this system would also encourage collaboration and inform international policy-making.

Existing data repositories, like the Green Climate Fund (GCF), while valuable, lack a systematic approach. This hinders their international analysis and comparison, essential for guiding the strategic introduction of conservation measures and determining priority areas for conservation efforts.

“We can’t just keep going with a patchwork, opportunistic approach,” Gonzalez said in an interview with The Tribune

GBiOS would take advantage of pioneering technology, including a constellation of satellites, and the use of drones, environmental DNA, and camera traps, to bring the global

science community together in monitoring and sharing critical data related to biodiversity.

The system would not only inform biodiversity-related policy-making, but become an imperative tool for the corporate sector due to an upcoming international framework that will soon require companies to report their environmental impact.

“In order for companies to [disclose their impact], they’re going to have to have data,” Gonzalez explained. “And they don’t see something organized coming together that applies the proper scientific standards.”

While a system like GBiOS is clearly critical for scientists, policy-makers, and business executives, it is currently nothing more than a proposal, requiring government funding and public support to become a reality.

Gonzalez analogized GBiOS’ proposed infrastructure to a bucket that has been created by various global entities. A consistent, reliable flow of investment then needs to fill up this bucket. While certainly more complicated in reality, Gonzalez emphasized its feasibility.

“We have a governance model, and a funding mechanism, and I know it sounds crazy, but it’s really not difficult,” Gonzalez said. “We have the organization in place, and there’s plenty of money in the system. It’s just not being invested at this point.”

While every nation might not necessarily be in agreement with GBiOS, Gonzalez recently returned from the Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) 10 Plenary with a clear takeaway: “Many countries, both developed and

developing, need the support [that GBiOS can offer].”

Though necessary when tackling global issues like climate change and biodiversity, achieving international cooperation is always tricky to navigate. If any global framework, such as GBiOS, is going to have a fighting chance, it needs to be designed with international support from the ground up. After all, climate change and biodiversity know no borders.

“It’s a very 20th-century solution for a few wealthy Northern Hemisphere countries to come together, decide what to do, build a big system, and then have everybody jump on if they want to […] the world has changed since then,” Gonzalez said.

GEO BON, the organization behind GBiOS, addresses this issue by calling for a global approach, with an international team of scientists drafting the proposal. The system would concede to a slower, cooperative process, ensuring the equitable distribution of infrastructure across the world, so that relevant data is acquired fairly, efficiently, and reliably.

The loss of biodiversity has a universal impact. Everyone, including the McGill community, must continue to think of themselves as a contributor to a larger global network. Working internationally promises a much greater pay-off in the end, a truth that Gonzalez concluded with the old proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

The world is experiencing unparalleled rates of biodiversity loss, with close to one million animal and plant species currently facing extinction. (Mia Helfrich / The Tribune)

Know Your Coach: Kris Joseph

Former NBA player joins the Redbirds Basketball coaching team

Anoushka Oke Sports Editor

After a disappointing season for Redbirds basketball last year, McGill Athletics brought in reinforcements through the hire of former National Basketball Association (NBA) player Kris Joseph as the associate coach and recruiting contact. He will be the lead assistant coach of the team.

In an interview with The Tribune, Joseph expressed his excitement for the unique role that an assistant coach gets to play.

“Being an assistant is definitely an intricate role,” Joseph told The Tribune. “For one, being the bridge between the head coach and the players, because sometimes players don’t like to ask too many questions.”

The new coaching role is a sort of homecoming for Joseph, who was born in Montreal and spent most of his childhood in the neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges. While growing up in Montreal, he played city basketball for Sun Youth and the Dawson Community Blues.

In his last two years of high school, Joseph made the life-changing decision to finish his schooling in Washington, D.C.—a choice that led him to receive a number of full-ride scholarships to play basketball at top National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division one schools such as Georgetown and Clemson. Joseph ultimately decided to attend Syracuse University, appreciating its closeness

to Montreal as well as its status as alma mater of Carmelo Anthony, one of Joseph’s all-time favourite players.

Having played basketball during his university years, Joseph understands the struggles that come with being a studentathlete, and feels that he is particularly suited to advise players who hope to play professionally.

“Knowing how to manage classes, practice, [and my] social life were all issues that I had to go through as a young man, so [I know] that these are problems they are going to encounter on their journeys to being successful basketball players,” Joseph said. “I’m able to be that person that they can come to and ask questions and, more likely than not, if I didn’t experience it personally, I’ll know someone who did.”

After graduating from Syracuse, Joseph was drafted 51st overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2012 NBA draft. He played six games for the Celtics before he was waived. Later that season, Joseph signed with the Brooklyn Nets playing four games before moving to Europe. He then continued his professional basketball journey playing in leagues across France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal while briefly returning to Canada in 2018 to play with the Niagara River Lions in the National Basketball League of Canada and the Ottawa BlackJacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League in 2021.

Although moving to Europe was daunting at times, Joseph enjoyed his time playing overseas.

“[It’s important to] just embrace the

culture you’re in and make the best out of every experience,” Joseph said. “You’re in a whole different country, a whole different part of the globe, so it’s just kind of embracing where you’re at [in] the moment.”

On advice for hopeful professional players, Joseph emphasized the need for a strong work ethic—adding that hard work in basketball translates well to skills needed in life outside of the sport.

“If you’re practicing to be a pro, you’re building good habits, [...] that’s going to transfer to everyday life whenever you stop playing,” Joseph said. “Make sure you handle your business, which is to make sure you’re handling the school aspect of [being a] student athlete, and make sure you know that this is

what you signed up for.”

Despite having played for the Celtics and the Nets, Joseph is a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan. He also supports the Montréal Canadiens, and once tried playing some hockey before realizing skating really wasn’t his forté. Outside of sports, Joseph enjoys spending time with his family, hoping to be there for pivotal moments of his kids’ lives—something he was unable to do while playing overseas.

With the Redbirds playing their first game of the RSEQ season on Nov. 2 at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Joseph has his focus set on the start of the season and is excited to continue to prepare with the team.

Redbirds baseball stun Stingers in thrilling walk-off win

McGill defeats Concordia 12-11 in three hour and 25 minute season opener

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

Continued from page 1.

Following a quiet bottom of the third and top of the fourth, Kim reached base on a single and centre fielder Allesandro Perreault blasted a tworun shot to bring the Redbirds back within two runs in the bottom of the fourth.

“I think [the home run] really rallied the

team and really got us going,” Perreault told The Tribune. “Obviously it was a little bit difficult even after that, but we still picked it up and found a way to win that game.”

With the bases empty, shortstop Brad Marelich beat out a ground ball and stole second on a wild pitch. After a walk and a flyout, the Stingers walked three straight batters to tie the game 7-7. Following an RBI single from Dunne and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded, McGill exited the fourth inning with a 9-7 lead.

In the top of the fifth with two outs, an infield single resulted in runners on first and second, and as both runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, the pressure was on. The Stingers hit a ground ball to third base—a seemingly guaranteed third out. However, the runner was called safe at first, allowing Concordia to score two runs and tie the game, with first baseman Sasha Remilliard still holding the ball. The Stingers scored another run to take the lead 10-9, sending the Redbirds back to the dugout, drained by both the mental error and the humidity.

After a quiet inning and a half, Concordia scored in the top of the seventh, giving them an 11-9 lead heading into the final frame.

As the game completed its third hour, Marelich and second baseman Daniel Zevnick reached base on a walk and a hit-by-pitch respectively in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and Remillard up to bat, the Redbirds accomplished a double steal, moving the runners to second and third. Despite his fielding misplays in the top of the inning, Remillard became the hero with a massive two-run triple to tie the game and electrify the stadium.

“It meant everything because I had a feeling of letting down my whole team and this triple was like redemption for all the mistakes I did, so at least it ends on a good note,” Remillard said, still trying to catch his breath after the game ended.

Dunne then singled to centrefield to score Remillard and walk-off the game. Three hours and 25 minutes after they began, the Redbirds remained undefeated.

“They were really tired, and you could sort of tell by the length of the game today,”

newly appointed head coach Christoper Haddad explained. “One thing I’m going to attest to is they battled every single inning.”

However, when asked what they will be doing to prepare for their next game against the Université de Montréal Carabins on Sept. 12, Haddad had just one thing to say: “Rest.”

In the top of the first, catcher Chris Bodine threw out a runner trying to steal second, limiting Concordia to just one run that inning.

QUOTABLE

”“Attitude. Never giving up. [...] Fighting and battling. Also, hitters. [Our] hitters came through big time.” – Coach Haddad on what went well for McGill.

There were a total of 25 walks and seven hit-by-pitches.

Although he enjoyed playing football as a kid and hoped to be a wide receiver, Joseph decided not to pursue it because of the physical aspect of the game. (Matt Garies)

14 pitchers entered the game, six for McGill and eight for Concordia. (Allegra Mammoli / The Tribune)

MOMENT OF THE GAME

Out with the old, in with the new: PWHPA stakeholders buyout the PHF, creating the PWHL

A new breath for professional women’s hockey with a singular league in the PWHL

Julie Ferreyra

Sports Editor

As the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF)’s season came to a close with the Toronto Six’s Isobel Cup victory, fans and players were excited to prepare for the upcoming season. This anticipation, however, quickly turned into confusion as the news broke on Jun. 30 that North American professional women’s hockey was preparing for a major change.

Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) investors, Billie Jean King Enterprises and the Mark Walter Group, purchased the of the rival PHF, ceasing all league activity in service of the creation of a unified women’s professional hockey league––

the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

In contrast to men’s professional hockey which has been dominated by the National Hockey League (NHL) since the collapse of the World Hockey Association in 1979, the world of professional women’s hockey has been more unsteady. In 2007, the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) was founded and by 2017, the league expanded to have five teams across North America, as well as one in China. However, the league collapsed in 2019 due to an “economically unstable” business model.

Despite the existence of the CWHL, the National Women’s Hockey League was established in 2015, transforming into the PHF in 2021 to include seven teams across North America. While the PHF was largely regarded as having the most sustainable league infrastructure, the PWHPA was founded in 2019 in response to concerns regarding player protections and rights such as guaranteed contracts and maternity leave within the PHF. Upon the PWHPA’s founding, many top players such as Marie-Philip Poulin and

Sarah Nurse elected to not play in the PHF, believing the league to have “lesser” talent.

Although many hoped that the two leagues would eventually merge, the complete dissolution of the PHF came as a surprise to many players.

“We didn’t really know what’s gonna happen, it kind of came out of nowhere,” former Montréal Force player Samantha Isbell told The Tribune. “It was definitely a bit shocking for everyone, especially because we lost [...] stability and certainty.”

With news of the absorption, the PHF player’s contracts were voided with little compensation, leaving many players uncertain of their futures with no guarantee of contracts in the PWHL.

“I had a lot of good friends that ma[de] big purchases and things like that,” Isbell said. “It kind of put everybody in a tight spot who had already signed for the following year. [...] We’re not sure where we’re going to be next year or or if we’re even going to be playing hockey.”

On Aug. 29, the PWHL announced the six cities that will host teams––Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York City, Boston, and St. Paul, Minnesota––designating them as the “Original Six.” On Sept. 1, a 10-day signing window opened that allowed each team to sign up to three players ahead of the PWHL draft on Sept. 18. With only 138 total available roster spots divided amongst the six

McGill’s young team struggles to find its footing in blowout home opener Bishop’s Gaiters trounce Martlets in a 7-0 sweep

Sumire Kierkosz-Ueno Contributor

Following a disappointing 202223 season ending with a 2–32 record overall, the McGill Martlets hoped to start off on a better foot facing off against the Bishop’s Gaiters in a preseason match-up on Sept. 8. However, just 56 seconds into the first period, Bishops’ defenseman slid the puck past Martlets goalkeeper Sarah Carmichael to kick off an early lead that McGill would

not be able to counter for the remainder of the game.

Playing with a fresh roster composed of eight new players coming into the first game of the preseason, it was apparent that the Martlets struggled to gain their foothold. Despite attempts to generate offensive momentum, including first-year India Benoit’s rush into the offensive zone, the first period consisted mostly of sloppy passes, mishandled pucks, and sporadic possession. The final minute of the period saw Carmichael take a glancing blow off the helmet to save a hard shot on a Bishop’s two-on-one, keeping the Gaiters’ lead at 3-0 lead heading into intermission.

Still, all three of Bishops’ first period goals were scored in the first half of the period, and although McGill allowed two goals apiece in the following two periods, the pace of the game would improve steadily as the Martlets slowly found their footing.

Undeterred by the rough start to the game, Martlets’ forward Sarah-Maude Lavoie, whose standout performance kept the game competitive, saw the game as a stepping stone in the team’s progress.

“I think the first period was hard because it was the first time playing together but it got better,” Lavoie said.

“We know now [what we need to work on], so I think we’re going to go in the right direction.”

The second period started with another early goal from Bishop’s but by the close of the period, the Martlets were able to better hold off their opponents’ offensive rushes, ending the period with a misleading 5-0 score.

The game ended in a 7-0 defeat for the Martlets, but despite the blowout score, head coach Alyssa Cecere remained optimistic about the coming season.

“Having a stronger start would be something the girls would want to focus on [and] us as a staff would want to focus on,” Cecere said. “We know we’re not going to necessarily get it all done in the first game, the second game, and we’re building up to the season.”

First year forward Taylor Garcia mentioned the challenging transition from youth hockey to the varsity level.

“It’s definitely [that] the game just moves a lot faster, you have to make decisions much quicker because everyone is just older and at the next level,” Garcia confessed to The Tribune.

Although the Martlets home opener ended with a disappointing loss, it is still too early to say how the season will progress and the game shouldn’t be taken as a harbinger. How the young team will respond to the challenges of the coming season remains to be seen, but with the confidence of the coach behind

teams and many top players already signed, the competition for a spot on a PWHL team is high and many former PHF players will not make the cut.

Despite the disappointment at the dissolution of the PHF and concerns about their futures, Isbell explained that most former PHF players believe the PWHL is a step in the right direction.

“I think that was the goal for the PWHL is to put the best product on the ice,” Isbell explained. “It’s bittersweet [...] a lot of players are losing their job[s], a lot of players are maybe getting forced into retirement just because there’s not enough room. [...] It’s kind of sacrifice one for the other. ”

While the NHL maintained they would neither provide financial support to the PHF nor the PWHPA while there were two competing leagues, the league announced massive support for the PWHL. Many PWHL games will be played outside of their host cities in NHL arenas around North America and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has been working closely with PWHPA chairperson Jayna Hefford by brainstorming and providing advice to the PWHL.

It is difficult to wait until the inaugural season of the PWHL beginning in Jan. 2024 and running until April 2024 as this new league centralizes the talent.

their backs, this will test their capacity for growth.

The Martlets will play their next preseason game against St. Thomas University at McConnell Arena on Sept. 23.

MOMENT OF THE GAME

IThe Martlets put forth a valiant effort during a penalty-kill halfway through the second period, including an impressive forecheck ending in a shot by forward Sarah-Maude Lavoie. .

QUOTABLE

“I strongly believe that it will come, it’s just a matter of time and putting in the work.”

–– Coach Alyssa Cecere on the team’s potential

STAT CORNER

Despite allowing 14 shots on goal in the first period, the Martlets were able to cut Bishop’s momentum in half by the end of the game allowing only seven shots on goal in the third period.

The Martlets regular season opener is on Oct. 12 against the Concordia Stingers (Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune)

In its opening season, the PWHL will host matches all across North America (eliteprospects.com)