The Tribune Vol. 43 Issue 24

The Tribune

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3 2024 | VOL. 43 | ISSUE 24

EDITORIAL

Cops off our campus, protect the pickets and protests

FEATURE

Finding the way forward in urban green spaces

STUDENT LIFE

A conversation with retiring History Professor Leonard Moore

PG. 8-9 PG. 5 PG. 12

Protesters stage ‘die-in’ at Y-intersection to draw attention to McGill’s complicity in ongoing genocide of Palestinians

Hunger strike for Palestine has now surpassed 40-day mark

Lily Cason Managing Editor

Content Warning: Mentions of genocide and a hunger strike.

On March 28, more than 40 protesters lay silently on the ground in front of the Arts Building for half an hour, their hands doused in red paint and bodies traced in

chalk, to protest McGill’s financial and academic ties to the state of Israel. This ‘die-in’ was organized by the McGill Hunger Strike for Palestine—a group of students who are starving themselves in solidarity with Gazans who are facing famine to push for an end to McGill’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

Speeches began around 1 p.m. as the crowd continued to grow.

Why we need to reconsider Quebec’s subsidization of private schools

Nell Pollak Contributor

Amid the François Legault government’s contentious policy decisions, including recent tuition hikes, Quebec’s substantial financial backing for private schools raises significant concerns for equal access to education across the province.

This policy, whereby the majority of independent private schools receive subsidies from the government for each student, not only undermines the quality and accessibility of public education but also deepens the socio-economic divides within the province. Quebec must rethink its approach to educational funding, by shifting the focus

and resources from private to public schools thereby fostering a more equitable and inclusive educational landscape. Public education advocates and concerned taxpayers have increasingly scrutinized Quebec’s approach to funding education, particularly criticizing the generous subsidies it extends to private schools. PG. 6

“Today, we are standing on the edge of day 39 of our hunger strike. Thirty-nine days fueled by outrage, disgust, courage, love, compassion, unwavering conviction, and an unyielding demand for justice in Palestine,” Sage, who is part of the hunger strike, told the crowd.

Sage reiterated why the hunger strikers feel that immediate divestment from and an academic boycott of Israel are critical.

Players’ McGill Drama Festival showcases the best of student theatre

Five entirely student-produced plays explore, experiment, and impress

Ella Paulin

Science & Technology

Editor

From exploring dusty old houses in A Farce About Time

Travel to a complicated reunion with old friends (or more than friends) in

Coping Mechanisms , the McGill Drama Festival (MDF) had something for everybody. With prizes handed out for Best Script and Best Directing, the festival’s only real loser was rural Ontario, with more than one play shining a light on the trials and

travails of life in Canada’s least interesting province.

Players’ Theatre’s annual festival featured five plays, all written and produced by students.

“What I love about the McGill Drama Festival is that it’s a showcase of entirely student talent.

Abby Zhu / The Tribune

Protesters stage ‘die-in’ at Y-intersection to draw attention to McGill’s complicity in ongoing genocide of Palestinians Hunger strike for Palestine has now surpassed 40-day mark

Lily Cason Managing Editor

Continued from page 1.

“By choosing McGill for our education, you and I are actively complicit,” Sage said. “We are participating in this genocide at this very moment, whether we want it or not. This is why we are here today to let McGill know that we are not okay with our education taking away lives.”

According to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill, another group fighting for the administration to cut ties with Israel, McGill invests approximately $20 million in companies supporting Israel’s siege on Gaza. The university also has partnerships with Israeli universities and institutions, through initiatives such as the Sylvan Adams Sports Science Institute and courses like FACC 501 in the Faculty of Engineering.

During his speech, Chadi, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, highlighted Israel’s targeting of academic infrastructure and students in Gaza.

“McGill university has funded the apartheid state of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people all throughout this genocide,” Chadi said. “It bears responsibility for the destruction of all twelve universities in the Gaza strip, which have been systematically targeted by a settler state. Over 4,326 Palestinian students in higher education, 231 teachers, and 94 professors have been martyred. If we were to dedicate a second for every single one of those students, you would stand silent for an hour and a half.”

Speakers also stressed the interwoven nature of anti-colonial struggles throughout the protest, linking the fight for Palestinian liberation to the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera’s (Mohawk Mothers) ongoing legal battle with McGill and the violence that western powers have instigated globally.

“At the heart of our movement [...] lies a fundamental truth that binds us all. That truth is the interconnectedness of our struggles,” Sage said. “We are not here just

as individuals, but as representatives of the myriad of communities to which we each belong. Our fight for Palestine is intrinsically linked to the global struggle against imperialism and colonialism and all forms of oppression that seek to divide us.”

Throughout the die-in, organizers and protesters alike were critical of McGill’s response to the hunger strike and other pro-Palestine mobilization. The university has expressed concern over the health of hunger strikers, but has said that students must go through the official, bureaucratic channels if they wish to change McGill’s policies and investments. McGill has also stated that it will not consider severing ties with academic institutions in Israel.

Chadi feels that the university’s messaging is contradictory to their actions.

“I think McGill’s unwillingness to discuss [divestment and an academic boycott] shows how blatantly hypocritical they are,” Chadi said in an interview with The Tribune . “They claim inclusion; they claim diversity; they claim freedom; and when the majority of their student body, when faculty and staff bring up something that is very dear and important in the midst of a genocide, when we are talking about where we want our money spent as students, they are shutting it down, and they are not allowing

even discussion. At this point we are far beyond discussion; we are at action.”

In an email to The Tribune , the McGill Media Relations Office reaffirmed the university’s respect for “students’ rights to pursue political objectives and express political conviction.”

”We urge them to do so in a way that prioritizes their health,” the office continued. “We have reminded the students that there is a process in place for expressing their concerns about any investment holding of the university. We have offered more than once to meet with them, but they have refused to meet on the terms proposed.”

Em Kester, one of the students who participated in the die-in, spoke to the university’s response to pro-Palestine protests in an interview after the die-in. Over the past weeks, McGill has sent multiple university-wide emails telling protesters to respect McGill’s rules and regulations and telling both students and staff that they should avoid engaging with protesters and call security services if they are unable to get into buildings or have classes disrupted.

Kester condemned McGill’s email communication around protests, calling them “fear-mongering.”

“I am saddened by the culture at McGill, and not supporting this, and not mak -

ing it a university-wide thing, or even putting out a letter of support to protesters—like an email,” Kester said. “It’s a very conservative university and it makes that known every day.”

Kester also said that McGill has sent them emails saying that protesting could impact their ability to graduate.

“The university is threatening its students for doing a basic act of protesting. And I think that a lot of students are afraid of it,” Kester said.

The university did not respond to The Tribune ’s questions about whether participating in on-campus protests may impact students’ graduation. The Media Relations Office did, however, state that it “is actively reviewing evidence and will begin disciplinary proceedings against any McGill students identified as having contravened the Code of Student Conduct, as [its] normal process.” On the evening of March 28, the university announced that it had called the police on protesters, and that at least one arrest “related to campus disruptions” had taken place. According to both the March 28 email and the Media Relations Office, the university plans to press charges.

One student who wished to remain anonymous spoke about the power of collective action in an interview after the protest, encouraging students who feel hopeless to mobilize.

“For people who haven’t been doing this because they feel kinda hopeless about it: When you’re occupying a space that you’re not supposed to occupy because McGill is telling you not to, you feel that power in the steps that you’re taking, and you feel that power in the collectiveness of it all. And these things only work if everybody does it,” they said.

After the die-in, organizers walked some protesters to meet the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera at the site of McGill’s New Vic project, where the Kahnistensera believe there to be unmarked Indigenous graves, while others went to join a SPHR protest taking place by the Milton Gates.

Photos by Abby Zhu, The Tribune

AGSEM attempts to unionize academic support workers amid TA strike

TAs continue picketing at Roddick Gates, meet with McGill for first bargaining session since strike began

Jasjot Grewal News Editor

As the Teaching Assistants (TAs) strike rolls into its second week, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM)—the union that represents TAs and Invigilators—has continued to negotiate over TAs’ new collective agreement (CA) with McGill and has called for all other academic support workers to sign union cards.

Since the beginning of the academic year, AGSEM and McGill have met 16 times to negotiate a new CA after the previous one expired on July 31. After AGSEM passed a strike mandate during the week of March 11, it met with McGill once again on March 19. McGill’s latest offer was a 4.25 per cent wage increase the first year, 2.25 per cent the second year, and 2 per cent in subsequent years, alongside an offer to put indexation on the agenda of the Labour Relations Committee—which AGSEM deemed unfair. Picketers are calling for better wages, healthcare, and indexed working hours for TAs. They have been at the Roddick Gates since the first day of the strike.

In a written statement to The Tribune , bargaining committee member Nick Vieira explained that at the March 26 bargaining session, McGill and AGSEM discussed what a potential deal between the parties could look like, given the items in AGSEM’s mandate. Furthermore, a bargaining session scheduled for the morning of Friday, March 29 was called off on Thursday evening by McGill.

“Despite AGSEM’s flexibility, McGill seems to be more interested in investing energy in attempting to undermine the strike, giving out dubious legal advice, and spreading misinformation, than they are in finding the deal,” Vieira wrote. “While we engaged in many discussions on wages and the problem of TA hours being cut while undergraduate enrolment remains the same or rises, a deal was not reached. McGill remains unwilling to give TAs the contract they deserve, despite our repeated attempts to indicate to McGill where a deal might be.”

Vieira also encouraged students to join TAs on the picket lines to advocate for the vital nature of the position to the university’s functions.

“We invite TAs and allied undergrads, grads, professors, course lecturers, and staff to join us on the picket line to continue to show McGill: McGill works because we do,” Vieira added.

Meanwhile, AGSEM is mobilizing to unionize additional academic support staff positions.

Bradley Por—a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Law and an AGSEM member— told The Tribune that the additional positions that AGSEM is looking to unionize are “open-ended” and include course assistants, graders, tutors, mentors, and other positions such as students who assist others through the Math Help Desk.

“It depends, department by department. Like in Math, for instance, its undergraduate course assistants, which are people that

[...] did really well [during] their first year, so they can grade the assignments for the class,” Por said. “So they’re actually supporting the TAs, so the TAs don’t have to do it, but they’re getting paid [$16] an hour. It’s also inconsistent across faculties. Because the same job in Computer Science is paid the TA rate.”

In a written statement to The Tribune , Kiersten Beszterda van Vliet—a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology and Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Studies and a member of AGSEM—explained the importance of academic support staff unionizing, stating that they essentially perform the same work as TAs while being paid lower wages. Van Vliet further explained the importance of all workers being unionized, as they believe McGill will be forced to more closely follow labour law once this happens.

“In most cases, this is the exact same work as graduate Teaching Assistants, and should be compensated as such. The only way to fix this is with a union that can collectively negotiate for better conditions because McGill is using a legal loophole of the ‘non-exclusivity’ of the work of unionized TAs (because professors also do grading or teaching, for example) to hire workers outside of existing collective agreements,” van Vliet wrote.

AGSEM is calling for academic support workers to sign their union cards before the end of the academic year. If over 35 per cent of academic support workers sign union cards by April 30, there will be a campaign to mobilize a vote on whether to join the union. If 35 per cent or less sign, a vote would not be able to take place, and instead, they would have to mobilize for a vote once again at the end of the next academic term. If over 50 per cent sign their cards by this deadline, they will automatically have a certified bargaining unit with

AGSEM.

“So from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024—that’s the academic year—we need to get like 50 per cent of all the employees that work in that time to sign a card. Then as of May 1, [2024], it’s like a whole new year,” Por said.

Van Vliet also explained that the last time AGSEM tried to mobilize a bargaining unit for academic support staff in April 2020, they were able to get over 35 per cent of union cards signed, which led to a vote in the Fall of 2022.

“We only lost this vote by one ballot. McGill’s lawyers had delayed this vote for so long that, unfortunately, we could not get in contact with all the workers from 2020 who had moved away. It’s frustrating because we could have already won a contract for these workers and they could have a higher wage right now as well as the benefits of job security and representation in labour disputes,” they wrote.

McGill’s Faculty of Law does not give TAs, but rather, hosts “Group Assistants” (GAs). Mark Kersten, who graduated from McGill’s Faculty of Law in 2022, elaborated on this in an email to The Tribune , sharing that GAs essentially perform the same tasks as TAs do for other faculties.

“As I understand it from my time there, [GAs] are effectively TAs. They do work like providing feedback to students, sometimes presenting in the course, helping with evaluations, responding to students, and so on. They pay tuition to receive credits for this work on behalf of profs. Ultimately, this is a pay-to-work scheme (students pay for the ‘experience’ of working for professors),” he wrote.

Kersten also shared that he brought the nature of the position to the administration in the past, but was met with a refusal to acknowledge the problematic position.

“Instead, it is defended on the basis that working is a ‘learning opportunity,’ which makes little sense because employment is a learning opportunity too. Like, when do people stop learning? And should people who are remunerated stop learning? Of course not. The argument is absurd,” Kersten added. “In my view, it would be fair to reward students with those credits without having them pay tuition in addition. The remuneration for labour would therefore be in credits.”

Van Vliet stressed the importance of all academic support staff signing their union cards, even if they are graduating this year or will not occupy one of these positions again.

“Hundreds of graders, tutors, and course assistants have already signed their cards. We have more than enough right now to get another vote at the Labour Tribunal. We don’t want to go to a vote again because a vote leaves too much to chance,” they wrote. “This is why we are in our final push in the next four weeks to get over that 50 per cent plus one threshold to win this union for academic support workers outright. We are asking everyone to sign their card as soon as possible.”

Kersten also shared that while it’s important for GAs to unionize as well, it’s even more vital that the university ends the “pay-to-work” nature of various academic support staff positions.

“Regardless of whether they unionize or not, it behooves the school—out of a sense of decency and dignity—to end the practice of having students pay to work. It should require no further action by students or anyone else,” Kersten said. “It’s an appalling, unjustifiable practice that undermines labour rights.”

McGill could not be reached for comment in time for publication.

While TAs at other Canadian universities tend to make $40 to $50 per hour, McGill TAs are paid $33.03 per hour. (Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune)

Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera hold town hall to discuss investigation into site of New Vic project

Student advocacy groups organize broader week of mobilization in support of the Mohawk Mothers

Fabienne de Cartier Staff Writer

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) held a town hall at Peterson Hall on March 26 to speak to members of the McGill community about their ongoing investigation into the site of the New Vic Project, where they fear there may be unmarked graves. The town hall came as part of a week of mobilization organized by various student activist groups, including Arts for Palestine, the Collective for Gender Equality, and Decolonial Solidarity. Other events included a tabling session, a poster-making and crafts session, a walk to the New Vic site, and a social mixer.

Karonhia’nó:ron—a McGill alum, incoming graduate student, and court-appointed cultural monitor in the Mothers’ investigation— who helped organize the town hall meeting, told The Tribune that they hoped the week of mobilization would help raise awareness around the Mohawk Mothers’ advocacy.

“I’m determined to inform as many people as possible about the Kahnistensera’s fight and McGill’s ongoing obstruction of the search for unmarked graves on school grounds,” Karonhia’nó:ron said.

At the town hall, the Mohawk Mothers sat down with members of the McGill and broader Montreal communities to answer questions about their investigation and explain their legal case against McGill, the Société québecoise des infrastructures, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the City of Montreal, and the Attorney General of Canada. Kwetiio, one of the Mothers, explained that since the investigation started, historic human remains

SSMU

detection dogs detected the scent of potential human remains by Hersey Pavillon in June 2023. Arkéos—the archaeological firm hired to carry out the investigation—then used ground-penetrating radar surveys were then used and found dozens of anomalies, as announced by McGill on Aug. 3, 2023.

Kwetiio explained she feels a responsibility to ensure the land, which is unceded Kanien’keha:ka territory, is honoured and the investigation is carried out in good faith.

“That’s somebody’s daughter; that’s somebody’s child,” Kwetiio said. “It is a Kahnistensera’s duty to look out for the children and leave the land the way it should be for the next seven generations.”

Rajendra Kapila Basdeo, a coordinator for Kahnistensera Solidarity Committee, added that in his view, the Mohawk Mothers and McGill are proceeding with the investigation in differing ways.

“Kahnistensera have always said that they are looking to find these children. McGill and [the] SQI have always maintained that they hope that they find nothing,” Basdeo said.

In an email to The Tribune, Associate Director of Media Relations Cynthia Lee stated that the investigation is still ongoing but asserted that no evidence of unmarked graves has been found thus far.

Lee also noted that McGill is actively pursuing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples by addressing the 52 calls to action set out by the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Education in 2017. The calls to action are organized into five categories: Student recruitment, physical representation, academic programs, research and academics, and building capacity.

However, Karonhia’nó:ron asserted that Mc-

Gill’s actions towards the Mohawk Mothers have not been in the spirit of reconciliation.

“There is nothing reconciliatory about actively obstructing an investigation into unmarked graves of Indigenous children on land that McGill is actively occupying at the expense of the Mohawk people,” Karonhia’nó:ron said. “At every step of this journey, [the] McGill administration has chosen the path of most resistance.”

The university’s operations, including the legal battle surrounding the New Vic Project, are funded by various revenue streams including tuition payments. Kwetiio reminded students that they have the ability to influence the university’s actions.

“I think as students [who] pay tuition […] you hold more power than you think,” Kwetiio said.

The McGill Media Relations Office asserted that McGill is acting in the best interest of students in a written statement to The Tribune

“It’s important to note that McGill did not initiate the matter that has been brought before the courts. Rather, McGill is defending itself. Participating responsibly in the resulting legal proceedings, including seeking leave to appeal, is in the best interests of the university, including McGill students,” wrote the Media Relations Office.

Basdeo said that the Mohawk Mothers have seen growing support from

students over the past couple of years.

“We started [the legal battle] about two and a half years ago and engagement has increased so much,” Basdeo noted. “McGill students are really doing an excellent job of raising awareness on campus, as well as putting pressure on the administration to really act in good faith.”

Karonhia’nó:ron echoed this sentiment and encouraged students to talk about the Mohawk Mothers and the New Vic project with people in their community.

“We have such strength in numbers,” Karonhia’nó:ron said. “We are reaching a point where the administration’s deflection tactics won’t work anymore. There is nowhere left to turn: Everywhere you look, there are masses of people standing together to hold this university accountable.”

The Mothers’ next court hearing is scheduled for June 11, 2024, when McGill and the defendants will appeal the court’s decision to reinstate the archaeological panel tasked with the investigation into unmarked graves. (James Knechtel / The Tribune)

BoD meets for first time since court proceedings over Policy Against Genocide in Palestine began

Topics discussed included approved winter 2024 referendum questions and amendments to the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy

Leah Gilbert Contributor

On March 28, the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) held its sixth meeting of 2024. At the meeting, the board discussed topics ranging from plans to amend the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy (GSVP) to ratifying the approved winter 2024 referendum questions.

Following the presentation of the executive committee’s public report—which encompassed all motions that had been approved since the previous meeting—SSMU President Alexandre Ashkir presented a report from the Governance Reform Committee (GRC). Ashkir outlined the two largest motions that have passed through the GRC this year: A revision of the internal regulations of governance to align the written documents with active practices and reforms to the Accountability Plan and Accountability Motion.

Ashkir went on to present a motion on behalf of SSMU’s equity and policy specialist, Sal Cuthbertson, who was absent from the meeting. The motion pertained to the amendments to the GSVP. Ashkir spoke to the inadequacy of the current policy, highlighting how it is an outdated approach to current needs and practices of SSMU.

“As a whole, this update of the GSVP will allow the policy to more strongly assist students on

our campus when it comes to gendered and sexual violence by ways of training and by way of reactions to instances,” Ashkir said.

Vice-President (VP) Student Life Nadia Dakdouki asked about the urgency of the amendments. Ashkir clarified that the renewal of the current policy has mediated the urgency of the amendments, allowing for its postponement.

Dakdouki then motioned to postpone the vote over the amendments to the GSVP to the next week’s meeting due to the time required to read the document in full. Director Eliot Bergeron seconded the motion and passed the board vote with no opposition.

Speaker Jonathan Dong went on to inform the board of email approvals that had happened since the previous meeting. An interim provision to the internal regulations of Student Groups and Clubs Committee and a ratification of the legislative council motion regarding SSMU’s special by-election for the president and VP Finance roles were both approved over email.

The approved questions for the winter 2024 referendum

were also ratified following minimal discussion. While VP Finance Amina Kudrati-Plummer described the approved nomination of the auditor for the 2024 fiscal year as standard, other board members expressed some concern.

“This past year, there were unprecedented costs relating to the auditors [...] and I was just wondering if that’s something that’s already been anticipated for or handled, or if we’re expecting the same costs as this past year,” VP Sustainability and Operations Hassanatou Koulibaly asked.

After assurance from Kudrati-Plummer that the quoted price had been negotiated down from a higher figure, the ratification passed the board vote

with no opposition.

Additionally, Dakdouki spoke about the court proceedings that began Monday, March 25, spurred by a McGill student filing for confidentiality and an injunction against the Policy Against Genocide in Palestine. The policy passed in the fall 2023 referendum but has been suspended since Nov. 21 due to the lawsuit and has not been ratified.

“The judge didn’t make any decisions yet and said that he would give us something by Thursday at 4:15 p.m [....] The only decision the judge made today [...] was basically that the safeguard order continues to be in place until the decision is made,” said Dakdouki.

Moment of the Meeting

The nomination window for SSMU’s special election for VP Finance and President is currently open with committee director spots also to be filled by new board directors.

Soundbite

“I was just talking to a few people, and it was brought up to me that the relations between Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS) and SSMU could be better and there were people that weren’t benefitting from all the resources and services and everything that SSMU offers.”

— Bergeron on the necessity for relations between the downtown and Macdonald Campus student societies.

The meeting ended with a confidential session open only to board members. (Yoojung Kim / The Tribune)

Caroline Sun news@thetribune.ca

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Cops off our campus, protect the pickets and protests

The Tribune Editorial Board

Last week, the teaching assistants’ (TAs) strike took priority at McGill as they protested to demand a fair wage for their work, healthcare, and indexed working hours. Beginning on March 25, students arrived on campus to the sight of picket lines and bright banners, full of signs indicating that all 1,600 TAs will continue to pressure the university administration to renegotiate a new collective agreement (CA) with TAs, under the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM). However, TAs have not been alone in raising banners and chanting on campus, as Palestinian and proPalestinian students continue to call on McGill to divest from corporations tied to Israel and cut ties with Israeli universities, as they have done since October. McGill quickly responded to both protests by increasing police presence on campus and avoiding to engage in any kind of constructive conversation with students.

The administration’s reaction to protesters on campus is far from unprecedented. In 2011, Montreal riot police

officers brutalized McGill students protesting on campus against tuition hikes. Last November, McGill President Deep Saini requested police presence for a peaceful protest led by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill, and the university called the police in response to the Feb. 22 pro-Palestine protest in front of the Bronfman Building. The students blockaded the building for the entire school day in response to the Desautels Faculty of Management’s course offerings of ORGB 434: Special Topics in Organizational Behaviour, Comparing Startup Ecosystems of Israel, and Canada and FINE 434: Topics in Finance—which includes a collaborative threeweek study trip with the Hebrew University Business School. Saini deemed the obstruction of university activities, including blocking access to buildings, “unacceptable.” The disruption of classes on campus and “interference with McGill’s operations” is a necessary step toward change, and is a direct result of the university administration’s unwillingness to meaningfully engage with its student body.

When essential workers

strike and frustration with the McGill administration is widespread, every single student must call for solidarity. Chanting and banners are not intended to intimidate fellow students, as the university claims, but serve to call for basic rights and fair treatment. While no one deserves to feel unsafe, the uncomfortable nature of activism is a necessary aspect of bringing about change. Course disruptions and uncertainty can be frustrating and confusing at the individual level, however, protesters’ continuous mobilization strives to gain students’ support and remind them who is at fault, because no change can be achieved in the silence of playing by the university’s rules. For this reason, students must join and protect the picket line, by calling out professors who engage in and even encourage scabbing. Students must understand that increased police presence on campus is a tool for the university to secure its property and protect its image, not its students. The university uses security on campus to distract the student body, professors, and staff from the fact that their decision to dismiss calls for divestment and meet the TAs’

In defense of gullibility

Dana Prather Arts & Entertainment Editor

Ihave always been a little too gullible for my own good. From an early age, I internalized the idea that other than injuring someone or hurting their feelings, one of the worst things you could do was lie. Assuming that everyone around me was on the same page, I would nod in wideeyed wonder as my elementary school classmates regaled me with tales of daring spring break adventures or claims of celebrity bloodlines. I was certain that

they must be telling the truth, however fantastical the stories were. Even into junior high, I was quick to believe even the most improbable stories. One classmate managed to convince me that they were family friends with Martha Stewart because of their frequent trips to Martha’s Vineyard. While I eventually put it together that they were lying about the familial connection, it took me a frankly embarrassingly long time (midway through my second year at McGill) to realize that the charming coastal vacation spot was not, in fact, owned by Snoop Dogg’s bestie.

I was also a very easily distracted kid, getting swept away in daydreams the moment some flower or passing stranger caught my eye. To my parents’ chagrin, this meant that I had a bad habit of wandering off whenever the impulse overtook me, meandering down side streets or off hiking paths wherever we went, with them always anxiously chasing after me. My flightiness has been an equally great source of entertainment for my family as it has a source of stress. The story

demands is a deeply rooted political and institutional issue, not a safety one. Security for the administration is not security for the students, and no circumstance justifies the presence of violent, racist, and colonial police on our campus. Resisting policing in the university is the first step to building an actual safe and free campus, where all students are liberated and all workers fairly treated.

McGill profits from the confusion and demonization of protesters on campus to try and turn students against their peers. In an email communication sent to the entire student body on Thursday, March 28, the administration announced that the police “made at least one arrest” and that McGill would press charges against a protester breaking the law. This strategy of threat and intimidation is meant to paint student mobilization as violent to the rest of the student body. Students must resist this tactic and instead see police presence on campus for what it really is: McGill’s fear of seeing its students and workers organize peacefully and its unwillingness to respect the growing consensus on the ground for fair treatment, divestment, and a better world.

of the time my six-year-old self strolled into a cruise ship casino and sat under a poker table while on a family reunion has been repeated enough times to make my cheeks burn at the sight of a slot machine. My over-trusting nature and penchant for distractibility combine into a formidable pair that has made me the perfect target for pranks, of the April Fools’ variety and otherwise. Whether it’s an elaborate deceit, a corny prank call, or a good old-fashioned whoopee cushion, you can bet that I’ve fallen for it. I once ate the better half of a Stink Bug–flavoured Jelly Bean pack, swallowing my disgust and powering on because a friend had given them to me as a “gift” with a seemingly earnest smile. Even tricks that seem too clichéd for a D-rate buddy comedy have managed to leave me bamboozled. Once, while I was attending a sleepaway camp in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, a camp counselor pointed off into the woods with an exaggerated, “Hey, is that a wolf?” While my bunkmates snickered and rolled their eyes

at my obliviousness, I spent a solid two minutes scanning the treeline for the creature before realizing that the counselor had run in the opposite direction, cackling atop a hill while she triumphantly waved my stolen toothpaste above her head.

For most of my life, my gullibility left me feeling embarrassed and a little stupid. Yet in the past few years, I’ve grown to appreciate the faith I have in other people, even when it’s to a fault. I don’t think I fall for these sorts of pranks and deceits because I’m stupid (at least, not entirely), but because I’d rather believe the people in my life and potentially fall for another prank than let myself become jaded and mistrusting. While I think a healthy amount of scepticism is required to navigate a world replete with misinformation—or avoid getting sucked into a cult—I would rather be overly trusting than overly suspicious of others. So if there’s even a slim possibility that they’re telling the truth, you can bet I’ll still turn and look when a friend takes the time to point out a wolf.

Nell Pollak Contributor

Continued from page 1.

In the 2018-19 academic year, 170 private schools received a total of just over $522 million in direct subsidies, along with an additional $27.6 million in approved transportation costs. Meanwhile, public school revenues from local taxation in 2020-21 were less than half of what they were in 2017- 18, representing 7.5 per cent of total revenues compared to 17.8 per cent three years prior. This, despite the fact that private schools cater to a considerably smaller, and often more affluent, portion of the province’s population. The decision to prioritize private education resulted in a concerning shift in the educational landscape and an alarming preferential shift among parents and students away from public schools: The market share of private schools has surged from 5 per cent in 1970 to a significant 21 per cent in 2022. In Montreal, the figures are even more pronounced, with private school enrollment reaching 39 per cent. This upward trend in private school enrolment not only

COMMENTARY

Lulu Calame Staff Writer

My first semester at McGill marked my 12th year playing the violin, and I auditioned for the Classical Music Club as soon as I knew whom to email. I was placed in a trio with a flutist and a pianist and we were told to rehearse in a room on the fourth floor of the University Centre on Monday nights. As the music school practice rooms are open only to those with a Schulich School of Music student ID, practice rooms for any nonmusic students are nestled far and wide in the far and high-up corners of campus. Without the allconsuming commitment required to get a music degree at McGill, a musician is exiled to the periphery of McGill’s facilities.

On the night of our first rehearsal, my flutist, pianist, and I met outside our allotted room in which another pianist and violinist were rehearsing an impressive duet. We waited for ten minutes, then sent our own pianist unwillingly to claim our rehearsal space. We felt awful, and the talented duet apologetically shuffled out.

The next week the room was

Why we need to reconsider Quebec’s subsidization of private schools

siphons vital resources away from the public sector but also exacerbates socio-economic disparities. The burgeoning private school sector, bolstered by public funds, thus poses a direct barrier to an equitable and heterogeneous educational system.

The substantial public investment in private education amplifies advantages for the already privileged. Both national and international bodies have critiqued the profound consequences of this funding imbalance, including the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation, an extension of the Minister of Education, who declared Quebec’s system the most unequal in Canada. UNESCO has attempted to hold Quebec accountable for its “segregated” three-tier school system (subsidized private, public, and selective-public) in lieu of their recommended public single-system. Public schools— facing higher numbers of students who cannot financially access private and selective-public schools—struggle to provide quality education, creating a detrimental cycle where richer parents opt for private schools as opposed to advocating for better funding within the public sys -

tem. The province’s neglect of the public school system leads Quebec to have the highest student dropout rates in the country and increasing teacher attrition, with a quarter of teachers leaving the profession during their first five years on the job market.

Quebec’s restrictive language laws (especially Bill 101) exacerbate the harmful effects of the province’s private school subsidization. By requiring that the children of non-Canadian residents, immigrants, refugees and Canadian citizens who were not educated in English in Canada attend French-language schools, many newcomers are forced to send their children to French public schools. Meanwhile, a growing number of Quebecois parents have taken their children out of the public system and sent them to private schools. This disparity in education for the children of immigrants, refugees, and non-Canadian residents makes the adjustment to a new province all the more difficult. The flight of wealthier families who flee the public system and flock to government-supported private schools guarantees the continuation of this division.

Private schools discriminate, using subjective criteria such as test scores, gender, economic status, and religion for admissions without external oversight. Additionally, the creation of a selective public network, aiming to counter private schools’ elitism, instead inadvertently deepens educational divisions, entrenching a system where privilege determines educational quality. Quebec’s segregative system is paradoxical to the province’s professed values of equality and inclusivity.

The recent tuition hikes for

anglophone Quebec universities underscore the pressing need for a more equitable distribution of provincial resources. When even public universities, which //should// be accessible to all, are being forced to raise out-of-province tuition by nearly 30 per cent while Quebec private schools continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each school year, it is imperative to question the Legault administration’s priorities. We all need to advocate for a system where education acts as a power of equalization, not division.

Being a recreational musician at McGill is almost impossible. It shouldn’t be.

locked, as it was the week after.

By the fourth week, our trio deserted the likely locked rehearsal space and opted instead to break into one of the Schulich School of Music practice rooms. This was both stressful and time-consuming, as it meant we had to trudge up and down the staircases until we caught a music student leaving the other way. Then we would slip into the hallway on the other side, and test our luck at an open room. As both the practice rooms and the music lockers open only to musicstudent ID cards, us recreational musicians found ourselves barred from a practice space, and without a place to keep a violin or a flute except for our bedrooms at home. I cannot imagine my predicament had I chosen twelve years ago to play the tuba.

McGill’s Schulich School of Music is a prestigious school that attracts musicians from across the world. As grateful as I am to be at an institution where musical talent is given so much attention, I resent the way in which this attention has shut out what I consider a middle-class of musicians, like myself.

All three of us were good musicians. Our pianist had been play -

ing longer than I had, and knew all of J.S Bach’s twenty children; our flutist was shy and nimble and could play arpeggios of high sixteenth-notes like the songbird on imagines a flute should emulate. I, for my own part, could play the entire Bach Double by heart and could sight-read most moderately challenging pieces of music on the first try. But finding space to practice as a group––an official music group, part of an official McGill music club ––was more difficult for us than learning the musical repertoire we had to play. Finding a space at all was lucky, and twice when we succeeded we were shortly asked to leave––first by an opera singer and then by a cellist. We evacuated, peeved. However, our frustration was not at the musicians who kicked us out but at the fact that we––though not rehearsing for the Philharmonic––could not have a space to at least try

Playing recreational music is made difficult at McGill. It is limiting enough that McGill does not have an arts centre for fine and performing arts, but to then render the few available spaces as unavailable and exclusive prevents a dimension of well-roundedness

that ties an aloof academic institution like McGill to other important corners of the world—like pulling out a guitar at a dinner party instead of opening a discussion of Weber’s concept of the state. There is nothing commendable in evicting those of us who––regardless of skill level––have brought our instruments to university with us and want to play, whether we can play Paganini or not. A recognized school club such as the Classical Music Club, or those rehearsing for the nov -

ice Beethoven Orchestra, should not face relegation to the fourth floor of the University Centre for an unreliable practice space, the same way an individual involved in nothing except their own love of music should have just the same opportunity.

As McGill already chooses not to invest in a fine arts program—or in an arts centre for fine and performing arts at all––the least it could do is open its music facilities to anyone who wants to play music.

Even novice musical ensembles, like the Beethoven Orchestra, have become overrun with those associated with the Schulich School of Music, making it difficult to become involved in any large orchestra as a recreational musician in the first place. (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

Quebec funds up to 40 per cent of private schools’ budgets, which adds up to about $500 million each year. (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

Trib Explains: A guide for viewing the total solar eclipse

All the science and safety tips to know before April 8

Jenna Durante Contributor

On April 8, a celestial spectacle will appear in the skies above North America as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, resulting in a total solar eclipse. Its totality—when the moon completely covers the sun—will occur at around 3:20 p.m. and last approximately one minute and 27 seconds.

As anticipation builds, it is essential to understand the nuances of the extraordinary event and how to view the total solar eclipse safely.

What is a total solar eclipse?

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the sun, covering what’s called the sun’s “solar disk.” This allows observers in the centre of the moon’s shadow to briefly see the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, which is normally too dim to see when the bright solar disk is uncovered. Despite the vast size difference between the sun and the moon, their apparent sizes—how they appear relative to each other from the perspective of an observer on Earth— align perfectly during an eclipse.

What will I see?

Assuming sunny weather, observers can expect to see a “diamond ring effect” just before and after totality, as the sun’s edge peeks through the lunar valleys, creating a stunning ring of light that resembles a diamond wedding band.

The moon’s shadow actually has two main components: The darker inner shadow, called the umbra, and a fainter outer shadow, called the penumbra. The sun’s light is completely blocked within the umbra, while only partially blocked in the penumbra— this is the part that shines through to form the “diamond ring.”

As the earth rotates and the moon follows its orbit, the moon’s shadow traces a path across the earth’s surface known as the “eclipse path.” Within this area is a smaller path traced by the sun’s umbra, called the path of totality.

In Canada, the Eastern and Atlantic provinces, including Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, will experience moments of darkness as the eclipse’s path of totality passes through them. Luckily for us, the path of totality just barely covers McGill, missing Laval and parts of northern Montreal.

Where and when can I view the

eclipse at McGill?

On April 8, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., members of the Trottier Space Institute are hosting an eclipse-watching event at the lower field on campus. The event will include a variety of activities related to the physics and astronomy of eclipses.

How do I view it safely?

Carolina Cruz-Vinaccia is the Program Administrator at the Trottier Space Institute and the event coordinator for the eclipse-watching event. She is in charge of science engagement efforts and runs outreach programs for the Montreal community. Cruz-Vinaccia advises viewing the eclipse with eclipse glasses. Looking directly at the sun without the appropriate protection can lead to serious vision problems and potentially irreversible damage to the retina.

“What the glasses do is filter out the part of the light that is harmful to your eyes,” Cruz-Vinaccia explained in an interview with The Tribune “You cannot stare directly at the sun with anything but the glasses, as they use special filters and lenses that are very opaque.”

Cruz-Vinaccia offered some solutions for those who cannot get access to eclipse glasses. She advised constructing an at-home pinhole projector by using household items like colanders or food strainers. These makeshift devices allow sunlight to pass through tiny holes, projecting an image of the eclipse onto a surface for observation.

What if I miss it?

“It’s once in a lifetime for most of us,” Cruz-Vinaccia said.

“We get partial eclipses much more regularly, but total eclipses are very rare, particularly over highly populated areas like Monreal. That’s what makes this one so special.”

Marking 50 years since the last total solar eclipse in Quebec, Cruz-Vinaccia encourages McGill students and members of the community to enjoy the rare celestial event. So, gather your eclipse glasses and homemade projectors to witness this once-ina-lifetime experience.

Cracking the honesty code: Key techniques for encouraging honesty in children

Exploring strategies to increase integrity and trustworthiness in young minds

Lana Liquard Staff Writer

Honesty is a crucial foundation for relationships and cooperation. In early childhood education, helping children recognize the importance of honesty is fundamental.

Victoria Talwar, professor in McGill’s Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and lab director of the Talwar Child Development Research Lab, recently published a paper in Developmental Psychology that investigates the effects of honesty promotion techniques on children of different ages.

“As [children’s] cognitive abilities mature, they develop [a] more nuanced understanding of others’ intentions and beliefs, they also understand the importance of truthtelling and the impact of lying on relationships,” Talwar wrote in an email to The Tribune

This study examined four honesty promotion techniques, including reading moral stories about honesty, increasing self-awareness, promising to tell the truth, and informing children about the positive effects of being honest. These techniques were chosen because they

promote truth-telling by enhancing a child’s self-awareness and social obligation to honesty.

Among different techniques, promising to tell the truth emerges as the most effective and the most studied approach. By instilling a sense of obligation or commitment, this method reinforces children’s dedication to honesty.

The authors organized this research into two consecutive studies. The first study assessed techniques that emphasize a child’s personal commitment to honesty, including promising to tell the truth and cultivating self-awareness.

Conversely, the second study investigated the influence of more social mechanisms on a child’s willingness to tell the truth. These mechanisms are modelling honesty and observing positive consequences of honesty.

To promote preschool-aged children’s honesty, increasing selfawareness and a combination of modelling honesty and positive consequences were equally effective. In seven- to eight-year-old children, promising to tell the truth, modelling honesty, and positive consequences of honesty were all successful in promoting honesty.

Notably, a combination of modelling truth-telling and observing positive consequences of being honest effectively reduced lie-telling across all ages.

Furthermore, Study One suggests that age may influence how effective the honesty promotion techniques are. Self-awareness, stimulated in the study by having the children look into a mirror, dramatically decreased lie-telling in children under the age of four.

“It may be that for younger children seeing themselves in the mirror reminded them of the adults’ expectations [for] their honesty and heightened their awareness of what they were doing,” Talwar explained.

Additionally, the study observed that seven- to eight-year-old children were significantly less likely to lie in any cohort implementing the promise technique. Telling the truth after promising promotes a child’s adherence to their commitments by allowing them to reflect on their reliability and trustworthiness.

Prior research has also shown that asking a child of five years or older to promise to tell the truth reduced lie-telling by 20 to 30 per cent. However, preschool-aged

children tend to have lower success rates despite implementing the same technique, potentially because they do not fully understand what a “promise” is.

The findings of Study Two demonstrate that irrespective of age, children were significantly less likely to lie after using a combination of modelling honesty and positive consequences. Moral stories that show not only how to tell the truth but also the positive consequences of honesty are important to increase truth-telling in young children.

“We notice and condemn

lying, we often fail to notice and praise truth-telling,” Talwar wrote. “We often tell stories and give messages about lying, about what not to do. We also need to provide stories and messages about what to do.”

These findings show that a multifaceted approach is necessary to encourage honesty among children. Combining external and internal motivations of modelling truth-telling and focusing on the positive rather than the negative consequences seem to be the most effective strategy for encouraging honesty in children.

Parents lying regularly to their own children is correlated to how often their kids lie, even after they grow up. (Barbara Olsen : pexels.com)

Quebec hasn’t witnessed a total solar eclipse since 1972, and its next one won’t be until 2106. (Mia Helfrich / The Tribune)

Three weeks ago, I had a spiritual awakening while photographing raccoons.

It all started 23 years ago. I am lucky to have been raised in Yukon Territory, where our population of around 40,000 is immersed in a patch of wilderness larger than California. Opportunities for connecting with the land are plentiful, and nature generously served as one of my primary caretakers and educators throughout my childhood. I learned to trust the trees, whose strong branches offered perfect perches for people-watching. I was taught spoken word by the ravens and their many musical calls. I was humbled by the massive, resolute power of the Yukon River, whose waters cracked and crumpled the winter’s ice each spring. Now, looking back, I realize that this wild playground also facilitated my healthy psychological development. It provided endless opportunities for happy play and mental stimulation. The amazing complexity of these ecosystems fostered my strong connection to and curiosity toward the environment. Above all, nature gave me the sense that I have an unalienable place in this world. This protective factor has supported my health in ways I may never fully understand.

When I came to Montreal to pursue my studies, I watched Mont Royal’s leaves burst into autumn colours with the same bright eyes with which I had watched wild cranberries glow translucent in the crisp morning light that follows the first frost. But soon, as I navigated the process of prioritizing my seemingly endless academic, work, and social responsibilities, I slowly forgot to make space for my relationship with nature. Under the stress and obligations that can accompany a busy student life, I lost touch with my love for the land.

Then, earlier this month, inspired by Peter Mather’s work on urban foxes, I was struck by the urge to photograph raccoons in and around the city. So one night, my trusted adventure partner Nate and I set out for the Camilien-Houde lookout on Mount Royal’s northern slope. As we walked along the park’s trails, the forest’s canopy shielded us from the city’s lights. We heard the scuttling of squirrels in overflowing garbage cans. Nervous flashes of fur leapt across our path, indicating that we had stirred up a resting rabbit. Branches scratched eerily as they danced in the breeze. Finally, we arrived at the lookout. After an hour of sitting

Finding the way forward

A guide to revitalizing our

Written and photographed by Mason Bramadat

on a cold bench, eating delicious chili and sipping local brews, out of the bushes came two raccoons. I scrambled to get my camera, snapped a few pics, and revelled in the raccoons’ polite curiosity. When we had gotten our fill, we made our way back down the mountain, giddy with success. Back home, lying in bed, I realized that our adventure had reawakened a feeling in me that had been dormant for too long. Spending time in the park had not only rekindled my connection with the land but also inspired me to investigate others’ experiences with urban nature.

Curious about what value urban nature brought to different people, I reached out to Lisa Mintz, an environmentalist who has been involved in multiple projects aiming to save green spaces from construction in Montreal. Like me, Mintz’s appreciation for nature began at home, having had access to a cottage and a large green space near her home in Toronto. However, when she moved to Montreal, she felt a void. She eventually realized that losing access to those green spaces deprived her of the psychological and spiritual benefits they had once offered.

Then, she discovered the raw, tangled beauty of the Saint-Jacques escarpment, a strip of forested land four kilometres long which, according to Mintz, has hosted over 70 species of birds, as well as deer and brown snakes. In 2015, Mintz was shocked and disturbed to see that a section of this forest had been levelled by bulldozers. She joined with other community members who shared her appreciation for the green space, and together they moved to protect it. In this process, Mintz founded Sauvons la Falaise!—an initiative that at first cleared pathways, removed garbage, documented wildlife, and filled bird feeders in the escarpment. In doing so, the group’s members made this stretch of urban nature their own and demonstrated just how valuable its preservation was to their community. Finally, in 2020, the City of Montreal announced that a green corridor

forward in urban green spaces relationships with the land

Bramadat ; Design by Drea Garcia Avila, Design Editor

would be added to the base of the escarpment, that trees and other vegetation would be planted to extend the forest, and that the area would eventually be designated as a grand parc.

In addition to her efforts to ensure the escarpment’s preservation, Mintz has enabled more people in the community to learn and reap the benefits of green spaces. She also co-founded UrbaNature, an organization dedicated to outdoor education, promoting the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits of being in nature. UrbaNature hosts university researchers and offers programming for people of all ages, including nature walks and summer day camps. All of these programs are run in green spaces around Montreal, often within the Saint-Jacques escarpment. Mintz, who teaches some of them, noted that kids have expressed their amazement at discovering the wide range of activities nature has to offer. Ultimately, her work illustrates the invaluable role that green spaces play as sites of education, recreation, and healing.

The psychological and spiritual value found in the outdoors was echoed during my interview with Chris Barrington-Leigh, an associate professor at McGill, jointly appointed to the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy and the Bieler School of Environment. One branch of his research focuses on the economics of well-being, where he measures people’s subjectively reported life satisfaction to better understand the effects of various economic and social conditions, changes, and policies. I was excited to learn that Barrington-Leigh also loves to spend time in nature, including climbing gnarly routes in British Columbia’s Bugaboos mountains, cross-country skiing, running, and bird watching in Montreal’s green spaces.

Interestingly, Barrington-Leigh reported that the most important predictors of life satisfaction are social, referring to factors like our relationships, sense of identity, and feelings of belonging. He emphasized that these predictors must be defined broadly. For example, “relationships” should extend to include connections beyond humans, like how Nate and I bonded with the raccoons. Similarly, our understanding of both “identity” and “belonging” should include our connections to the land. This more comprehensive definition of what it means to be social informs a better understanding of well-being and life satisfaction.

It seems then that green spaces are ripe with opportunities to develop

connections that can support our life satisfaction. And for people like me, who come to the city with an already-established relationship with nature, where else can we go in the city to maintain this connection? It’s abundantly clear that urban nature has great value. Although grassroots activists like Mintz and the team at Sauvons la Falaise! can undoubtedly have a major impact and successfully protect particular green spaces, change needs to occur at the policy level to ensure that these areas’ value is recognized across the board. This could, for example, ensure that residents don’t wake up to find the forests they once birdwatched bulldozed without warning.

I spoke with Kwetiio, who is one of the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers), an important voice in the struggle against the New Vic Project. When she looks at the nature that remains in the city today, whether that be the rising expanse of Mount Royal Park or simply a flower growing from a crack in the sidewalk, she wonders if the people around her understand how they came to be on this land. Do they know the rich and long history of the Kanien’kehá:ka in these green spaces, and if so, do they realize that hostile settler colonialism led to the cold urbanism that surrounds us today? To her, the roots of the big trees in Tiohtià:ke tell this history well. Their connections to this land go much deeper than those of two-and-a-half-inch trimmed grass. In Kwetiio’s eyes, the manicured nature we have today is a painful souvenir of what she and the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation had stolen from them.

But Kwetiio also sees urban nature as a beautiful reminder of the connectedness of all nature—of Creation. It reminds her that everything—air, water, earth, life—depends on one another to exist in harmony. Today, most people disrespect this relationship by using the land without recognition of all that it provides. Kwetiio believes that everyone has a responsibility to be grateful for the beauty, nourishment and connections that nature offers.

Looking forward, Kwetiio envisions a world wherein people look deeper into the land, to read the history and lessons written on its roots. She dreams of a more harmonious society, in which we allow green spaces to grow wild. Let us celebrate the beauty of Creation, instead of trying to control it. Instead of mowing down grass to get rid of mosquitoes, Kwetiio suggests we plant corn. She encourages us to garden, and in doing so, learn to lovingly tend to plants like they are our children. Kwetiio knows, and as a professional gardener I agree, that in raising plants, the more you respect them, the more beautiful they become. This is the kind of social knowledge that we stand to gain from engaging in reciprocal relationships with our green spaces. Let us nurture these spaces, and in turn, cultivate a culture of mutual caretaking and stronger communities.

In the end, it’s not just about what nature does for people, it’s also about what we can do for it.

Solving the bacterial genome: Visualizing chromosome segregation

On March 25th, the McGill Biology Department hosted Xindan Wang, a professor from Indiana University, as part of its ongoing Molecular Seminar Series. All quotes are taken from Wang’s presentation of her work on the bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Hi-C Contact Mapping: Simplified

Hi-C is a visual way of showing that DNA is, in fact, organized! “We add a chemical to crosslink [the DNA]. If two pieces of DNA are close together, they are going to be linked.”

“Use an enzyme to cut the DNA into small pieces.”

“Use an enzyme to [join] the crosslinked DNA into one strand–this is read and tells us that these two pieces of DNA are interacting with each other!”

SMC complex

ParA

ParB ParS

DNA is long – often much longer than the animal it codes for! Yet, it gets packed into a really tiny space. Instead of being a random jumble, there is a growing body of research showing how it’s organized.

“From bacteria to humans, there is one large conserved family of proteins called SMC complexes: Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes.”

SMC proteins are an exciting subject of research because they seem to play a key role in the organizational process.

In bacteria, SMCs work with the parABS partitioning system to organize and separate DNA strands during interphase and mitosis.

“[In bacteria], replication and segregation starts from the origin region.”

“DNA sequences called parS are scattered in the origin region. [...] ParB is DNA binding protein that binds to the [parS] sequences. [...] ParA is a motor protein, it binds to the parB/parS complex and [it] drags the origins apart.”

By Zoe Dubin Design Editor

Replication starts at a region called the origin.

As the second strand gets produced, parABS and SMC attach and start to drag the origins apart.

Et voila! Two daughter cells, with the same genetic information!

“It turns out that in different bacteria, ParA and SMC lift a different amount of weight [during segregation]. In our bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, parA is not required at all, but the SMC is really required for chromosome segregation.”

So, how does the SMC complex interact with parB/S?

No SMC: Failure to thrive No parA: Still able to replicate!

“The darker the color, the more frequently [the DNA] interacted.”

Bacillus subtilis original model

left origin right

left origin right left origin right

The Hi-C map DOES NOT match the model!

The darkest diagonal is predicted. The lighter diagonal is a surprise! It indicates interactions equidistant from the origin but on opposite sides of the chromosome!

“Somehow, [parB, parS, and SMC together] generated the inter-arm interactions. How is this generated?”

UPDATED Bacillus model using Hi-C data: origin zipper-like interactions

“So our working model right now is parB binding to parS loads the SMC [which] moves from the origin to the terminus generating these inter-arm interactions.”

The Tribune explores the mind’s bias against downward motion

Atticus O’Rourke Rusin Staff Writer

If two pieces of paper, one crumpled up and one flat, were to be dropped, which one would reach the ground first? Without much deliberation, most people would likely say the crumpled piece of paper, and they would be correct. Air resistance slows the descent of the flat piece of paper given its larger surface area. Another favourite physics

question is, in the absence of air resistance, whether a bowling ball or basketball would reach the ground first when dropped. In this case, while it might seem intuitive to assume that the bowling ball lands first, many graduates of high school physics would explain that the balls actually reach the ground at the same time.

What might be more surprising to students, however, is that Aristotle, one of the greatest thinkers of his age, was similarly stumped by falling

objects. Of course, there were no bowling balls when Aristotle was alive, but he did believe that the heavier an object was, the faster it fell.

In a new study in the journal Perception , a team of researchers studied human perceptual bias when watching an accelerating object. Perhaps, as the researchers suspected, humans have difficulty perceiving such an acceleration, leading them to erroneously conclude that all objects fall at a constant velocity; this would help to explain Aristotle’s error.

Fred Kingdom, professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at McGill, came up with the idea for the experiment after noticing his own inability to see the effects of gravity on falling objects, despite knowing that the object must be accelerating according to the laws of physics.

“I’ve always felt, when I look at an object that’s in free fall, I don’t actually get a very strong impression that its accelerating, even though the physics tells us that it is accelerating, and I thought that maybe there’s a bias in our

The question is:

How does this [parAB and SMC] complex result in bacteria chromosome segregation?”

You Try! Solving a complex genome

A. tumefaciens is multipartite: It has multiple separate DNA fragments to segregate!

Ch1 Ch2 pAt PTi origin A.

B. C.

Ch1 Ch2 pAt PTi

Ch1 Ch2 pAt PTi recreation of graph from Ren, Z. et al 2022 i like poetry

Against acceleration: Our biased perception of accelerating objects

perception of a free falling object,” Kingdom shared in an interview with The Tribune

The team set up an experiment, asking more than a hundred students at York University to watch videos of a basketball on their computer screens.

“We showed a range of different accelerations, and a range of different decelerations, and all the subject had to do on each trial was to say, ‘do you perceive it to accelerate?’ or ‘do you perceive it to decelerate?’” Kingdom said.

Analyzing the data, it appeared that people do have a bias that makes it harder to determine whether an object is accelerating downward when compared to an object moving up.

“What we found was that, for the object that was going downwards, you needed to have it accelerating more than if it was going upwards in order to perceive it,” Kingdom said.

Kingdom’s hypothesis for what causes this bias is just as fascinating as the experiment. Apparently, when we perceive acceleration often enough, our brains can get “tired” of it and,

See if you can match the Hi-C data with the proposed genome model! Hint: Dots indicate that the origins are touching email “I did it!!” to design@thetribune to recieve my adoration and praise!

in turn, inaccurately calculate the acceleration of moving objects. A moving train, for example, will seem to be moving in the opposite direction when, in fact, it is merely slowing down.

“If you are perceiving downwards movement all the time, it might fatigue the neurons which perceive downwards movement, but not the ones that perceive upwards movement,” Kingdom explained.

Our brains are not seeing objects thrown up in the air as much as objects falling through the air. In turn, the part of our brain that can perceive downward acceleration is “tired” more often the part that can take in upward movement.

Our brains do their best to analyze the world according to the laws of physics, having evolved over millions of years to do so, but just as computers have glitches, so do the worldgenerating capabilities of our brains. Of course, this is only one such bias in perception among many, further adding to our understanding of the complexity of our mind’s eye.

During the initial jump out of an airplane, the rapid acceleration due to gravity can feel more like floating than speeding up due to being in freefall. (Abby Zhu / The Tribune)

DNA junction marker

Bacillus subtilis Hi-C Map

Take notes, McGill: Classes we need

How your degree can prepare you for the real world

Auxane Bussac Staff Writer

Unlike many universities, McGill does not have required courses for all students. Here are some courses that, if mandated at McGill, would help equip students for the unexpected aspects of daily life as a McGillian.

WLKY 101: How to not break a leg while traversing the Y Navigating campus is dangerous, especially in the winter when the snow covers any potential danger. Don’t be fooled by the cute squirrels running around—you need to be 100 per cent focused on where you put your feet at all times. With tons of foot traffic and potholes, the Y-intersection is every McGillian’s nightmare. I have seen so many people display amazing acting skills after having inattentively stepped into one of those huge holes. I myself have accidentally spilled an entire cup of coffee because of them. Believe me, the shame hit me hard. Even though I don’t want to spoil the hot dog man’s daily show, every student on campus should be trained on how to navigate the Y.

THRSD 302: How to choose between BdA and 4à7

Thursday nights are wild in the basement of both the Leacock and Bronfman buildings. But which campus bar should you go to? Should you go to a party with the Arts kids? Or with the Desautels crowd? Most people are clear about what team they join

every week. On the one hand, Bar des Arts (BdA) is made for those who are fans of tradition—and sweat. BdA people are consistent and will never let you down: The grilled cheese tastes like paradise and the staff are always polite. But 4à7 is less crowded and boasts a better venue. They usually have an incredibly fun DJ set. Also, 4à7 is on the same street as Gerts so once it closes you don’t have to call it a night, just migrate toward the University Centre building. If you can’t decide, just wait for Friday and go to Blues!

BRGTCP 218: How to know what to bring to campus

While most students come to campus for class, there are so many other things you can do while there. First off, bring sunglasses—especially now that winter is finally coming to an end and you won’t want to miss those first rays of sunshine. Go lie down in the grass in front of the Redpath Museum, put on your best pair of sunglasses, and you’ll feel like the main character of a mainstream teenage flick.

If it’s Thursday or Friday, bring your reusable cup; it will come in handy in the most un-

Hidden gems worth exploring in Montreal

The ultimate guide to a unique adventure in the city

Dante Ventulieri Student Life Editor

Whether you’re a student from out of town, a tourist, or even a lifetime resident, Montreal has plenty to offer, and many of its best sights are off the beaten path. The Tribune has compiled a list of hidden gems across the island to help you elevate your weekends and get out into parts of the city you might not have explored before.

Old Port

Tucked away along the shorelines of the Saint Lawrence River, this old part of the city is relatively unknown to travellers and residents alike. From the cobblestone streets to the narrow alleyways, the Old Port feels like a little slice of Europe hidden on this side of the Atlantic. Getting to the area can be a bit tricky; when the metro was constructed in the 1960s, the city purposefully avoided naming the area’s stations anything obvious like “Old Port” as they feared doing so would bring in too much attention. The signage can be confusing as it’s written in some obscure local dialect called “français,” so keep an eye out for “Vieux-Port.”

Mount Royal

Most McGillians go about their daily lives not knowing that one of Canada’s tallest mountains is quietly nestled right behind the university. After having been scammed by Desjardin’s Aurora Borealis, students

are quick to dismiss the tall structure as another corporate misdirection. Finding your way up this hill—nay, mountain—can be a challenge, but the views from the top are well worth it. Where most students fail is that on their walk up McTavish, they get distracted by the prospect of a cold beer at Gerts or Thomson House—power through until you find a staircase across the street from that random law building. An expert tip: It’s a long walk, so pack your school bag with at least 10 litres of water.

McGill Campus

Only the longest-tenured of Montreal residents know about this hidden gem. It features stunning buildings dating back over 150 years, lush greenery, lusher asbestos, and a scale replica of the Death Star from Star Wars , known by locals as Burnside. During the hustle and bustle of everyday life, McGill University’s campus offers an ideal spot for a quick repose, unless, for some reason, the place actually causes you stress—but I doubt that’s the case for anyone.

Sainte Catherine Street West Tourists and students don’t assume that Montreal has a world-class shopping street to rival the famous Fifth Avenue, Bond Street, or Rodeo Drive, and they’re right. However, Montreal has its own, much lesser-known, approximation of those famous streets. Often referred to as “The Place with the Construction” or “Where the Zara is,” this commercial artery has been essential

expected circumstances. Also, bring a book. If, like most McGill students, you have 30 minutes of nothingness in between your classes, you know that it’s tempting to take your phone out and scroll on TikTok or Insta. But, trust me, you’ll feel so much more rewarded if you choose to read instead. Bring cash—or a debit card—you never know when you might crave a nice hot dog out in the spring sun. Finally, bring a smile. Our campus is beautiful and with summer on the way, it’s almost like finals don’t exist so just fake it till you make it!

OPHGVR 206: How to cure your post-OAP hangover

To celebrate the end of finals, McGill students will reunite on the Lower West Field of campus for Open Air Pub (OAP). No need to worry about the campus bars closing! OAP is like a mini-festival and its slogan, “The Best Place On Earth,” is definitely accurate. The goal is to relax after a long semester and enjoy the beginning of summer with fellow McGillians. You can eat burgers or hot dogs and drink alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages while enjoying various concerts and DJ sets. Since most of us go there to party, we usually wake up with a headache the next morning. I suggest chugging several bottles of water when going home—if you can do it with beer, you can do it with water. Also, don’t forget to eat while at OAP—the food tent offers different options, so you’ll be sure to find something. Keep in mind that OAP only happens twice a year. As the year comes to an end, this might be the last opportunity to party with your university friends before going back home for the summer, so don’t spoil it!

in keeping the consumerist nature of Montrealers alive for decades.

Plateau-Mont-Royal

Some boroughs, like Anjou, Pointe-Claire, and Saint-Léonard, are worldrenowned for their beautiful landscapes, jaw-dropping architecture, and fantastic coffee culture. But some Montrealers know that the smaller, quieter borough of the Plateau-MontRoyal is a great alternative due to its proximity to downtown. According to legend, the area is home to some great hole-inthe-wall restaurants, including Schwartz’s Deli, La Banquise, and Au Pied du Cochon. Due to the high student population, it can be very quiet on Friday nights and weekends, as most are at home studying or resting for a hard week ahead.

Decarie Expressway

If visiting the Katy Freeway or Interstate-10 is high up on your bucket list, a visit to Decarie Expressway is sure to tickle your fancy. Constructed in the mid-1950s, this autoroute has become a beloved part of many Montrealers’ morning routines. Astute fans of design will marvel at its trenched structure, which helps concentrate the car fumes. After a quick southbound stroll, you’ll reach the Turcot Interchange, a reconstruction so faithful to the planning policies of the 1950s that you’ll be shocked to find out it’s not even a decade old. Montrealers who know about this hidden gem love to perch themselves on the narrow sidewalks for hours to watch the cars go by.

Local cafés like Tim Hortons and Second Cup offer up some delicious coffees and baked goods you can only find in Montreal. (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

The cuteness overload you experience when first feeding a campus squirrel will quickly fade away—they are aggressive! (Julia Buckle / The Tribune)

A conversation with retiring History Professor Leonard Moore

The professor will deliver his final lecture this month after 33 years at McGill

Alex Sher Contributor

On April 11, Professor Leonard Joseph Moore will deliver his final lecture and bid farewell to McGill alongside this year’s cohort of wide-eyed graduating students. Professor Moore was an undergraduate at the University of California (UC) Davis 50 years ago, but in his words, he’s “never really been a graduating student before.” He moved directly from Davis to UCLA, then to Reed College for a year, before arriving at McGill in 1991. He explained that “there was always another university,” so he never truly had to leave behind the “environment that electrified” him. It is only now, in the last year of his nearly half-century-long career, that Moore finally finds himself feeling like a graduating student, having to walk away from the space that he fell in love with as a teenager.

Moore grew up in the suburbs of San Francisco during the postwar baby boom, one of eight children. He lived on a street where all of the men had served in the Second World War. Though a good student in high school, Moore was more concerned with his status on the football team. However, things changed dramatically for Moore at UC Davis.

“It kind of electrified me. I just really loved learning and loved history in particular,” Moore said in an interview with The Tribune . “But I was thinking of law school in the default setting like most people [who] were studying what I was studying.”

European history had language requirements that Moore considered impossible, and he was resigned to law school until a good friend suggested he take American history. “I thought, oh, I had that in high school; it was boring,” he recalled. But he gave it some thought, and in his last year, he “loaded up on American history courses and realized it was just as exciting as other fields,” and applied to graduate schools for American history.

Moore started his PhD at UCLA in the ’70s, just as the job crisis for historians was emerging. His acceptance letter to UCLA came with a separate letter that said “something to the effect of ‘we here at the university feel morally obligated to let you know there are no jobs in your field. You shouldn’t come here expecting to be a professor; you should only come here if you feel some kind of spiritual calling to study history.’

“The realities of the job market hung over my head the entire time I was in graduate school,” Moore said. “The vast majority of people I went to grad school with quit. Those of us who didn’t quit weren’t the most gifted; we were the most stubborn.” He never had a plan B.

While in graduate school, Moore substituted for profes sors at local universities while he wrote his dissertation. During this time, Moore discovered his love of teaching.

“I always felt that teaching was undervalued […] and could always tell when I had a professor who was just kind of punching the clock on teaching and not pouring themselves into it,” Moore explained.

In his last year as an undergraduate, a professor Moore respected pulled him aside after a presentation to tell him he would be a good teacher.

“That meant an enormous amount to me […] and he in lots of ways was always a model to me. Trying to be positive. Try to en courage people, challenge them and show them when you think they’ve done well. And that was always with me, even when my focus was totally on my research,” he said.

After working non-tenure track jobs at Caltech and Reed College, Moore landed a job at McGill in 1991 and pub lished his dissertation turned book, Citizen Klansmen study of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. When Moore started at McGill, there was no cap on class sizes for 300level classes, and it became evident that there was an im mense demand for American history as his classes rose to over 200 seats.

“Whenever I walk into a classroom here, there’s a kind of intellectual electricity in the air, students are there who really want to learn, who are sincerely interested in what’s going on,” Moore explained.

Moore was struck by the student engagement and interest, which made him feel “a lot of responsibility for trying to do a good job […] in giving people a usable understanding of modern U.S. history.” Students showed overwhelming interest in civil rights, so Moore developed a two-course sequence on civil rights history. “That felt important to do,” Moore explained, “It’s at the heart of U.S. history, issues of citizenship and equality, and all of the injustice and challenges to the notion of equality.”

While at McGill, Moore has worked in voting rights litigation, serving as an expert witness. Moore described it as “some of the most satisfying work.” Voting rights litigation almost always involves historians because establishing a history of discrimination in a jurisdiction is part of the litigation. The fight against voter discrimination and suppression offers historians an opportunity to use history for public consequence.

When asked how the triumph of winning a voting rights case differs from the satisfaction of teaching, Moore replied, “The victories that I’ve been involved in, in litigation, are flickers on the screen compared to the satisfaction of teaching here, day to day, year to year.” Moore has always loved the work he’s done at McGill and considers himself extraordinarily lucky to look back on his career and feel that way.

On the search for pride in American history, Moore explained that the story of American history is the story of trying to live up to the revolutionary ideals of the Declaration of Independence—the idea that there are unalienable human rights and that government should flow from the consent of the governed.

Moore looks at all the famous and anonymous people who put their lives on the line for those ideals. His first first feeling is not of pride or triumphalism, because he feels “like the battle just continues.” He doesn’t think about it in terms of flag waving and self-congratulations, but rather that he is American, therefore, he has a responsibility to try to live up to the ideals of the United States.

Moore continued, “I can give you a long list of American heroes and heroines, and some of them were not citizens of the United States at the time or were fighting against the American government.”

“One of my favourite Americans is a former student who is an Indigenous person who has gone on to be a professor of Indigenous history and write an extraordinary book [...] about Indigenous people in American history and how you have to understand Indigenous history to understand American history,” Moore said.

“He’s writing from a specific perspective that doesn’t really have a lot in common with what maybe a lot of Americans think of when they wave their flag or watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. I’m proud of him as a former student, but also as an American.”

While reflecting on his final lecture, Moore explained that his wife has been encouraging him to retire for a while but that he felt he needed to teach the Civil War and the U.S. History since 1965 classes one more time.

All semester long he’s had this last lecture on his mind. “Putting Trump and this election in historical perspective is one of the most challenging things, especially when I have students from the ’90s, the ’00s, and the ’10s,” Moore said. To him, navigating this final lecture in the midst of what he considers to be the most dire presidential election since 1860 is the challenge of an American historian and the challenge of someone who cares deeply about the importance of his -

“I’ve spent 40 years teaching about American history and doing it somehow makes you feel like you’re making the world a little bit better. Like you’re contributing something in a positive way,” Moore said.

“It’s hard to walk away at this particular moment,” he continued. “It feels kind of like leaving the game at halftime. Or leaving the battlefield. And leaving it to others. When I’ve always felt a personal responsibility to be involved and do my part. So, I won’t be playing as active a role, you know. The world will still spin on its axis of course, but I won’t have the same role and that’s a bit of a hard thing to digest.”

Professor Moore’s final lecture will be open to the public. (Shireen Aamir / The Tribune)

After two years, the artists’ catalogues have returned to the streaming giant Peace has returned to Spotify via Neil Young and Joni Mitchell

Lily Dodson Contributor

At the beginning of 2022, music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, alongside a few other artists pulled their music off Spotify in response to the streaming service platforming controversial podcaster Joe Rogan. Young explained that he did not want to be associated with a brand that had such a controversial figure attached to it, as Rogan has faced accusations from the medical community for spreading disinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines. Over two years later, both artists have decided to bring their music back to Spotify despite Rogan remaining on the platform. The question is, what changed?

Earlier this year, Spotify adjusted Rogan’s contract, allowing him to put his hit podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” on other streaming platforms. Such an expansion allows Rogan to expand his podcast’s reach while still allowing Spotify to handle the distribution of the podcast and gain a certain percentage of revenue from advertising. This ultimately sparked Young’s decision to put his music back on Spotify, as pulling his albums from every streaming service would not be a feasible solution. Young reasoned that if he pulled his entire discography off of every platform, it would be nearly impossible for his fans to enjoy his music. Listeners would have to buy either digital or physical cop -

ies of his music, with physical copies being much less accessible now. Though neither Joni Mitchell nor anyone from her team has specifically stated why the acclaimed folk artist has made her catalogue available on the streaming giant again, their simultaneous return implies that similar reasoning motivated this decision.

For millions of listeners, the return of Young and Mitchell’s music to Spotify is a triumph. One of Young’s biggest grievances with Spotify is the platform’s quality of music, which is considerably more low-resolution compared to its biggest competitors, such as Amazon Music or Apple Music. As a Spotify user, being able to listen to their best albums and songs on the same app—as opposed to going on YouTube or another streaming service— makes it much easier to enjoy their music.

I, for one, am incredibly grateful that both artists have decided to put their music back on Spotify—I got desperate enough that I almost bought my favourite albums, Blue by Mitchell and Harvest Moon by Young on iTunes to upload it myself to Spotify. Still, I cannot help but be slightly disappointed with the circumstances surrounding their decisions. Such a choice on behalf of both artists may be a win for Spotify and its users, but it is not a win for every other streaming service or the general public.

Now that Rogan has an even bigger platform to spread his disinformation and spew his hateful rhetoric, he has the potential to cause even greater harm. While Spotify has approximately 602 million

users, Rogan’s podcast will now reach an even larger audience—Apple Music has around 88 million listeners and Amazon Music has around 82 million listeners. Needless to say, it is disappointing that the return of neither Mitchell nor Young’s music to Spotify happened on ideal terms. When Young first pulled his music off of Spotify in early 2022, he announced in a statement addressed to the platform, “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” Now, Spotify has both, making Young’s initial protest seem slightly meaningless. This expansion to other platforms will likely have negative implications for the general public. While I agree with and understand Young’s decision to bring his music back to the platform, he could have used his returning catalogue as leverage to entice Spotify to renegotiate their deal with Rogan. While Spotify may have still sided with Rogan, I would have liked to see Young attempt to use his position and le -

Stankovic / The Tribune)

verage to force Spotify to rein in Rogan’s controversial podcast by holding him to higher standards.

Five entirely student-produced plays explore, experiment, and impress Players’ McGill Drama Festival showcases the best of student theatre

Ella Paulin Science & Technology Editor

Continued from page 1.

Everything is written [...] directed, acted, and produced all by students,” Danica Friss-Wilson, U1 Arts and the festival’s coordinator, explained in an interview with The Tribune

For many aspiring playwrights, MDF presents their first opportunity to have directors and actors bring their scripts to life.

“For the writers, it showcases that there are people who can work on your script,” Friss-Wilson said. “You write something and you have a vision of it, and then you see it up on stage and it’s like nothing that I can describe.”

This was the case for Keianna Lewis, U2 Arts, who wrote the eerie discussion between some old circus colleagues that became Big Top Down . Having only started writing plays last fall, this performance marked the first time Lewis had seen a piece of their writing come to life.

“Knowing that this is something that I originally conceived while I was [in high school] and had no idea who I was as a writer, and then getting to edit it, and workshop it, and see it be brought to life by this wonderful director and wonderful cast—it’s kind of magical,” Lewis said in an interview with The Tribune

As it turned out, the judges agreed— Big Top Down ’s Andrea Landeata, U2

Arts, brought home the prize for Best Directing. While the characters worked through their old grudges and familial conflicts by way of letters from long-lost loved ones, a mime lit up the show with spot-on reactions and an interlude between scenes.

Meanwhile, in Ontario, the witty confusion and all-too-relatable family pressure in All You Can Eat earned it the award of Best Script. Written by Corey Madelzys, BCL/JD ‘24, and directed by Nora Bartram-Forbes, U3 Science, the play centres on a multi-generational family celebrating their youngest son’s last dinner before going off to college.

By creating a space for student-written work to be directed and performed, MDF also allows students to take a chance on more experimental work and try out a new genre or style of storytelling.

“I was intrigued by the idea of writing a play when the call came out this year, but really it was my roommate who pushed me to try something new,” Harriet Faught, U1 Education and the playwright behind Red Wine, Women, and Song told The Tribune

Faught’s play presents a series of vignettes, each centring around women in their early twenties exploring what womanhood means to them. As Faught explained, one goal of the play was for it to be an opportunity for the cast and crew to experiment.

“I really wrote the show to be what -

ever the directors and the actors wanted,” Faught said. “I didn’t actually give the characters names. [They] were chosen by the actors and directors, and I left the script really open because I wanted it to feel really real.”

The chance to play around, try out new things, and develop their craft isn’t limited to playwrights, actors, and directors. Claire Tees, U3 Arts and Executive Director of Players’ Theatre, emphasized

that the festival was also a venue for running crew, light and sound technicians, and stage managers to gain hands-on experience.

“That’s the other great thing about the McGill Drama Festival: Because there’s so many shows, there’s a lot more opportunity in tech as well,” Tees said in an interview with The Tribune . “The whole point is an opportunity for people to learn, for first time actors—first time everything!”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of McGill Drama Festival’s first iteration. (Harriet Faught)

This return to form comes as a shock, as neither artist expressed interest in bringing their music back to Spotify. (Sofia

A letter to lonely writers: Words of wisdom from Heather O’Neill

McGill’s Writer-in-Residence shares insight into the writing world

Bianca Sugunasiri Contributor

Oh here comes the torture” and “oh what crap” are phrases that acclaimed author Heather O’Neill uses to describe the harrowing experience of reciting passages from her novels in public. She is McGill’s Writer-InResidence, known for her debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals, which won Canada Reads (2007) and When We Lost Our Heads, her most recent bestseller.

O’Neil alluded that the re-read is one of the most harrowing experiences for young writers; it’s the dreaded moment when you realize that the masterpiece you wrote not 24 hours ago is one of the worst things you’ve ever read. Unfortunately, O’Neill confirmed in an interview with //The Tribune// that the 24-hour expiry date does not dissipate with age, acclaim, or experience.

As children, we hoped to be older and

cooler with glossed lips and dyed hair. As teens, we hoped to be older and more sophisticated with our shit together. This much sought-after “final form writer” is as elusive as Peter Pan’s shadow. Once, an attendee at one of O’Neill’s book events asked her about an opinion of hers. She replied incredulously that she no longer agreed with that opinion and inquired when she had expressed it originally. The attendee replied that it had been no more than 20 minutes ago. Humans, flawed as we are, are trapped in a cycle of change as unpredictable as the Canadian weather.

As a child, O’Neill knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. From reading out newspaper clippings at dinner to printing zines at 50 cents apiece, no one could deny that O’Neill was destined to be an author. She faced many “weird kid accusations” with her attempts to spark conversation about books. As many introverts will understand, O’Neill did not experience this as a loss, thriving in a world rich with ink-sketched companions. Not only could these characters satisfy the role of a friend, but O’Neill’s own characters became self-reflections. These are characters that O’Neill would get along with, while simultaneously tiring of them, knowing as much as she does.

When asked for her advice on writing, O’Neill encouraged young writers to embrace rejection.

“I just treat [rejection] like the flu,” she said in an interview with The Tribune. “I’m just gonna feel bad for three days [...] but after three days I’m gonna feel fine.”

While O’Neill refers to writing specifically, these words of wisdom apply to rejections of all kinds. O’Neill also advises creating and enforcing deadlines to motivate oneself. Additionally, she discourages attaching weight to literary trends as a means of success.

“You just have to be saying things no one has said before [...] You want to become the trend.”

O’Neill muses that she would have liked to tell her younger self to elicit attention from more older authors and “forcefully” encourage them to mentor her. For legal purposes, this is not a suggestion to harass senior citizens. As for her writing process, O’Neill likes to get right into it by sketching out scenes to see how her characters improve with one another. She alternates her writing projects in three-month increments to help keep ideas fresh.

O’Neill is looking forward to the release of her latest book this September; although specifics are top secret, she hinted that it may be her new favourite. Perhaps even more exciting is an idea that she pitched offhand, a podcast hosted by 80-year-old agoraphobic Heather who seldom interacts with people except to interview them from the comfort of her home.

A final word of wisdom for the lonely writers who feel like they’re just not good enough yet, awaiting that moment of “older and wiser”:

“[You] get to a certain age and you’re like ‘okay, this is as much as I’m gonna know, so I might as well go out there and be confident.’”

That age is right now. So get out there and write.

HOT TAKE

Bring back the interrobang

Kellie Elrick Staff Writer

In 1962, the exclamation point knocked up the question mark, and the interrobang was born. The affair was the brainchild of Martin K. Speckter, an advertising executive who thought ?! was the aesthetic equivalent of sewage and sought to combine them into a single mark: ‽. Speckter’s creation gradually fizzled out of use, much to the chagrin of surprised screamers everywhere. The interrobang—the Pluto of punctuation marks—not only provides an elegant alternative to its predecessors but introduces the possibility to enrich a variety of phrases, such as: Your dress has pockets‽ That’s supposed to be a cat‽ He’s allergic to melon‽ Why is it so sticky‽ You didn’t think the kangaroo would fight back‽ University is a place of learning—of asking questions. It is also a good place to scream. And the interrobang’s plutocratic origins match the goal of many universities today: To sell. Youth of the world, rise up! Sell your souls to the interrobang! Why hesitate‽

As a scientist and analytical person, I expected to find holes in Netflix’s Love Is Blind. There had to be something, something wrong with the scientific set up... An

The research, the hypothesis, the methods! The planning portion makes or breaks a study, and thankfully this experiment was written by top scientists Nick and Vanessa Lachey (obviously).

Results: Love is Blind! (for exactly one couple)

O’Neill’s book The Lonely Hearts Hotel won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (2017) and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2015) and CBC’s Canada Reads (Julie Artacho)

Sitting in complete darkness, I set out to test the rigourous set up...

Impact Zone: Navigating Sports-Related Concussions

McGill Students for Concussion Legacy Foundation Canada host speaker panel

Tillie Burlock Managing Editor

On March 28, the McGill Students for Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF McGill) hosted their annual symposium. Co-Presidents Trisha Tee, a second year master’s student in experimental surgery, and Lily MacDonald, a third year undergraduate Dietetics student, explained that with this year’s panel titled “Impact Zone: Navigating SportsRelated Concussions,” they hoped to illuminate the wide range of different approaches to concussion treatment throughout the sports world.

“The goal of this panel is really to get everyone together to have an interdisciplinary approach to concussion care, treatment, recovery, rehab, and really get a bunch of the different multidisciplinary views on how to treat it rather than just one way,”

MacDonald told The Tribune

The first speaker was Evan Patrician, a former hockey player for the McGill Redbirds who quit the team this year after sustaining five concussions in the span of four years. Patrician detailed his experience with concussions.

“After the most recent concussion before the summer of 2023, short-term memory [loss] was beginning to creep into my daily life frequently,” Patrician said.

Patrician explained that despite attending training camp at the start of the 2023-24 season, he was scared to get hit. This led him to take some time away from hockey and ultimately decide that continuing to play hockey could negatively affect his pursuit of academic and career goals. Patrician also touched on the stigma surrounding concussions in hockey.

“Junior hockey is your full-time job and your health is second,” Patrician explained.

Gordon Bloom, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and the Director of the Sports Psychology Research Lab at McGill, spoke next. Bloom narrowed in on a discussion of the psychosocial aspects of post-concussion rehabilitation in athletes, highlighting the psychological aspects of recovering from a concussion. He explained concussions are difficult as they do not have a clear recovery timeline and as an “invisible injury,” people often think athletes are faking it. Bloom discussed the advances in understanding and treating concussions since the early 2000s, highlighting the role of Eric Lindros’s 2011 concussion in bringing public attention to the issue. He then discussed the importance of qualitative studies in understanding

what it is like for athletes to live with concussions.

“For me, this was a real turning point, this article, because we finally had the empirical evidence that says, if you have multiple brain trauma injuries, and you don’t let it heal properly, your quality of life is going to be severely damaged,” Bloom said.

Dr. Aimen Moussaddy, a neurologist specializing in vascular neurology, followed Bloom with a discussion of how he treats postconcussion symptoms. He explained the difficulties of treating patients when wait times are often weeks, if not months. Moussaddy also explored two ways of seeing how damage manifests in the concussed brain.

“Axonal injury, which comes back to the fact that our brains are just a lump of wires [...] those wires get twisted [...] and that twist of wires ends up causing inflammation around the wires, and those wires to be dysfunctional,” Moussaddy said. “That dysfunction of wires can be reversible and temporary, or after repetitive effects, or depending on the severity of that one impact of that trauma may be irreversible [....]

The second part of head trauma also modifies the way we release chemicals in our brain.”

Bianca Brigitte Rock, a certified athletic therapist and co-founder

of TMDS Canada, discussed a biophysical approach to concussions and outlined the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to treating concussions. Rock explained that there are five different spheres of symptoms: Physical, cognitive, sleep, affective, and the autonomic nervous system––anything to do with physical activity.

Finally, Christine Beaulieu, a physiotherapist and osteopath specializing in concussion rehab spoke about the development of research on the physical activity after a concussion. She explained the process of developing consensus statements on concussion in sport which are produced at the International Conference on Concussion in Sport

which occurs every four years.

“The consensus statement is kind of the reference that people look at to create all of the policies and protocols on concussion,” Beaulieu said. “In 2022 [...] this is where we see the biggest changes in the approach to rehabilitation [....] In terms of physical activity, now we say it is safe to start physical activity within two to 14 days after the concussion.”

The panel concluded with a Q&A session in which the audience asked the panellists about professional sports leagues’ concussion protocols, the gaps in concussion research along the lines of age and gender, and the need for public figures and government officials to speak up about the dangers of concussions.

Sports betting scandals are not going anywhere

The ever-present nature of gambling in the world of sports creates a variety of issues

Marco Zeppilli Staff Writer

Here’s a rundown of the week’s sports news, (potentially sponsored by DraftKings if The Tribune manages to increase its readership numbers): In a press conference on March 25, Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani alleged his former interpreter stole money from his bank account. Ohtani reportedly fired his long-time interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, for making $4.5 million worth of wire transfers to an illegal bookmaker who is currently the subject of a federal investigation involving the IRS. Flipping over to basketball, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters about fans shouting at him from the stands about player substitutions and beating the spread. Bickerstaff went on to mention that he and his family received threats from disgruntled gamblers over lost bets. Finally, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is investigating a series of irregularities surrounding prop bets involving Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors. For those familiar with the betting landscape in professional sports, the most surprising thing to come out of any of those stories is

that Michael Porter Jr. apparently has a little brother who plays for the Raptors.

In 2018, when the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prohibited sports gambling in the country’s 49 states not named Nevada, Pandora’s Box opened. Leagues were wary of promoting gambling and did everything in their power to avoid any semblance of impropriety and maintain the integrity of their sports, due to its previous illegality. According to former Major League Baseball (MLB) closer Jonathan Papelbon, baseball went as far as to have mob members and FBI informants speak to players about the dangers of gambling. Of course, MLB continues to meet with players and staff prior to every campaign to remind them of what they can and cannot do as it relates to sports betting, as it is outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The difference now is that FanDuel and PointsBet ads are everywhere, with leagues and their teams profiting from lucrative sponsorship agreements from a multibillion dollar industry that operated exclusively on the black market in 49 of 50 states just six years ago.

Of course, sports betting scandals are not new. In the 1919 World Series, eight White Sox players including Shoeless Joe Jackson were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for throwing games. In 2007, the NBA faced a gambling scandal involving former referee Tim Donaghy, who admitted to placing wagers on games he was assigned to officiate and providing inside information to gamblers. In essence, it is not strictly because of the SCOTUS’ 2018 decision that the sports world is facing a smorgasbord of betting-related scandals right now.

In places where they are legal (38 of 50 states at the time of publication), sportsbooks are heavily monitored and regulated. This means that if a friend of Shane Pinto’s were to allegedly place a wager using the player’s betting account in New York state, alarm bells start ringing in the sportsbook’s offices and they are able to inform the league of what took place. Ditto for the Jontay Porter situation, where red flags were raised after DraftKings Sportsbook announced the player’s prop bets were the biggest moneymaker in the entire NBA on March 20.

The proliferation of sports betting means that these scandals are likely to continue. Americans bet almost 120

billion dollars on sports in 2023 alone. Sports betting is a recreational activity for some, but a dangerous, addictive practice for many others. Players and coaches will continue to be shouted at from the bleachers about beating the spread and their individual overunders. Disgruntled gamblers crazy enough to send threats to basketball coaches about their lost wagers will continue to do so. Making sure players and coaches do not place bets on their

own sports is only a small part of the challenges leagues will face going forward. Making sure their players are not involved in allegedly paying off illegal bookies, having friends place bets on their behalf, taking bribes, throwing games, and finding ways to protect players, coaches, and staff from crazed gamblers are some of the many other betting-related challenges leagues are facing, with unfortunately no easy fix.

CLF McGill also does educational presentations on concussions at elementary and high schools throughout the Montreal area. (CLF McGill)

Varsity Report Card: Winter 2024

The Tribune Sports Section reviews the Martlets’ and Redbirds’ fall seasons

Tillie Burlock & Julie Ferreyra & Sara Escallon Sotomayor Managing Editor & Sports Editors

Redbirds Hockey (21–5–2):

After a disappointing secondround exit from the playoffs last year, the Redbirds entered the 2023-24 season looking for vengeance. With an added year of experience for Eric Uba and William Rouleau and the addition of Zach Gallant, the Redbirds were expected to come out flying from game one. However, after opening the season with three straight losses, a sense of uncertainty began to emerge amongst the McGill fanbase. The rocky start proved to be no match for the Redbirds as they followed it up with a five-game winning streak that would be more characteristic of the season at large. The Redbirds bounced around between first and third place in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East division. However, a remarkable seven-game win streak to close out the season earned the team a first-place finish in the regular season. After earning a bye through the quarterfinals and sweeping the Concordia Stingers in the semifinals, McGill faced off against the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) Patriotes in the OUA East Finals. After losing game one at home––a loss that ended their 12-game win streak at McConnell Arena––the Redbirds defeated UQTR on the road in front of over 3,000 fans to keep the series going. With a slot in the OUA Finals on the line, the Redbirds lost 4-0, sending the Patriotes to face the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold while they took on the Brock Badgers in the bronze medal game. After emerging victorious with a 5-2 win, McGill headed back to Ontario just a week later to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in the U SPORTS National Championship quarterfinal. With a suspenseful 3-2 win, the Redbirds matched up against the Patriotes again in the semifinal where they fell 5-4 to their Quebec rival. The Redbirds concluded the season with a bronze medal victory against the TMU Bold. Marking several major improvements from last season, //The Tribune// awards the Redbirds an A grade for their 2023-24 season.

Martlets Hockey (5–18–2):

After a lowly two-win season in 2022-23, hopes that 2023-24 would be an improvement were on the rise as the Martlets were .500 in their first four games of the season. However, the nine-game losing streak that followed plummeted the Martlets to the bottom of the Réseau du Sport Étudiants du Québec (RSEQ) standings, where they would remain for the rest of the season. Probably the highlight of the Martlets’ 2023-24 season was their overtime 4-3 win against the University of Ottawa

Gee-Gees on Seniors’ Night. Overall, there was not much to celebrate for the Martlets this year, earning them a Band hopes for better luck next season.

Redbirds Basketball (3–13):

Hopes that McGill would bounce back from a disappointing 6–10 record last year were quickly stifled as the Redbirds opened the 2023-24 season with a detrimental four-game losing streak. After their first win of the season against the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins in late November, the Redbirds went on yet another losing streak, this time for six games. With the Redbirds only winning three games this season (two of which were by a margin of just two points), McGill’s 83-81 victory over the Concordia Stingers in the Lengvari Cup was likely this year’s high point. Sean Herscovitch being named as an RSEQ second-team all-star and teammate Saransh Padhy earning a spot on the RSEQ all-rookie squad were also bright spots on an otherwise disappointing year for the Redbirds that earned them a C+.

Martlets Basketball (5–11):

After a winless season in 202122, the Martlets improved to 3–13 in 2022-23 and to 5–11 in 2023-24. The Martlets started the year strong with back-to-back wins against Bishop’s and UQAM. After two losses, McGill went on a three-game win streak, but this was the beginning of the end as the Martlets went on a nine-game losing streak to close out the season. Despite the disappointing end to the season, Seyna Diggs was named as an RSEQ second-team all-star and earned a berth on the all-rookie squad alongside teammate Lily Rose Chatila.

Daniella Mbengo was also among eight U SPORTS student-athletes named as recipients of the Athletes on Track bursary, in conjunction with the BlackNorth Initiative (BNI).

Martlets and Redbirds

Track and Field:

seasons, punctuated by impressive showings at the U SPORTS championships. While Matthew Beaudet was unable to retain his titles of U SPORTS Track Athlete of the Year and RSEQ Track Performance of the Year from last year, he still had a remarkable season, winning silver

build off another strong season as many of their key performers return for another year.

Both the Redbirds and Martlets track and field teams had strong

in the men’s 3000m, setting a new school record in the process. Kilty McGonigal set a school record in the heptathlon, where he narrowly missed out on a podium finish in fourth. Redbird track also finished second overall in the RSEQ championship.

On the women’s side, Donna Ntambue won bronze in the U SPORTS 60m final and set a new school record of 7.32 earlier in the season. Moreover, Ntambue led the 4x200m relay team to a new school record and seventh place at the national championships. Next year, both sides are hoping to

Martlets Volleyball (15–6):

While the Martlets were unable to win the title this year falling in the playoffs to Sherbrooke, they still had a strong season compounded by a talented roster and spectacular performances.

Clara Poiré and Victoria Iannotti were named first team RSEQ all stars, Charlène Robitaille was named a second team all star, and Brook Brown won the Leadership and Community Service Award. While the Martlets were unable to achieve an elusive third-in-a-row showing at the U SPORTS National Championships this year, this season marks the end of an impressive era at Martlet volleyball

with ten graduating seniors including Robitaille, Iannoti, and Poiré, meaning that next year will be a rebuilding season. After the heights of the next three years, Martlet fans can only hope to see such a special group of players again.

Redbirds and Martlets Swimming:

Fans of the swimming squad may have noticed the consistent presence of Redbird and Martlet swimmers being nominated as McGill Athletes of the Week. Dominating the

university cups at UQTR, Université de Sherbrooke, and University of Ottawa and finally the RSEQ Provincial Championship at Université Laval, the squad consistently put hundreds of points between their first place and the runner-up. Regularly being crowned with Athletes of the Meet awards, the Redbirds put forth consistently outstanding results, pulling the squad to overall bronze at the U SPORTS Championships. Benefitting from the veteran presence of swimmers such as Hazem Issa, the team welcomed newcomers such as Mats Baradat, hailing from Hyères, who won RSEQ Rookie of the Year and Swimmer of the Year. From the first cup meet to the RSEQ Provincial Championships, the Martlets have been eclipsing their competitors with their consistent intensity and outstanding results. Nonetheless, the U SPORTS Championship has proved to be more challenging. With only one podium, earned by cocaptain Naomie Lo, the Martlet squad finished in fourth place, with 84 points fewer points than the bronze medalist. For their determination and enduring resilience, the combined efforts of the Redbirds and Martlets earned McGill swimming an A.

Artistic Swimming:

The McGill Invitational set a successful tone for the season to come for the artistic swimming team. The season opened on a confident and positive note with a total of nine medals. This momentum carried over to Eastern Championships, where McGill showcased their talent and artistry, making the podium at every event but two, and securing their spot at the National Championships, held in Winnipeg. With over 54 total points, McGill benefitted from the energetic and talented performances of senior Diana Paparelli. Paparelli won two golds and a silver and was also named all-around champion of the novice division, leading the novice sweeping podiums. The novice team’s gold-medal Black Eyed Peas performance earned McGill the Wendy Yule Trophy and contributed 21 points to McGill’s tally. The experienced squad placed third in the experienced division, with 33 points, thanks to the silverearning team free final, and firstyear Kayla Drew’s bronze solo. With a top-five finish in all six events and stunning performances by its swimmers, McGill’s artistic swimming squad placed first among all 14 competing universities. This national title is their 17th since the league’s inception and their first of the post-COVID era. It reestablishes McGill’s dominance over the Canadian University Artistic Swimming League (CUASL) and hopefully will be the start to another undefeated streak.

Lily Rose Chatila led the Martlets with 9.3 points-per-game this season. (Mason Bramadat / The Tribune)

William Rouleau led the Redbirds in points with 51 while Eric Uba led the team in goals with 26. (Maïa Salhofer / The Tribune)