The McGill Daily Vol. 112, Issue 11

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Volume 112, Issue 11 | Monday, November 21, 2022 | mcgilldaily.com ...out of jealousy!! since 1911

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End Forced Evictions of Unhoused People

Earlier this month, the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ) told an encampment of unhoused people sheltered under the Ville-Marie Expressway that by November 10, the police would force out anyone remaining in the area. However, pressure from protestors and the media resulted in the police postponing the eviction indefinitely. Now, the Ville-Marie camp and other unhoused communities face a looming threat of eviction. The municipal government’s coercive threat of eviction demonstrates the city’s failure to remediate the homelessness crisis, instead worsening it through displacement and police intervention.

For those unable to find shelter, the encampment under the expressway has been a “survival camp.” According to a November 7 press release from Resilience Montreal, mediators from Cabot Square and staff from Resilience Montreal were able to support those at the encampment despite limited resources. Sheltering under the expressway is preferable to other areas where unhoused people are more likely to face harassment or be kicked out by police or where they might be more vulnerable to harsh weather. “It’s comfortable where we are,” Lucy Partridge, who lives under the expressway, told CTV News, “Nobody bothers each other.”

The press release explains that those living under the expressway had been visited by police several times a day and told they would have to leave their encampment imminently. Yet, according to Resilience Montreal, no adequate alternatives have been presented for those who will be displaced by the evictions. Montreal’s homeless shelters are lacking in space and resources, which means that seeking entry into shelters can be difficult or even impossible. The May 2022 Ombudsperson Report on Homelessness, titled “Don’t Look the Other Way,” reveals that the accommodation capacity of shelters – which had decreased during the pandemic due to health-related restrictions – continues to fall short of demand. The report further identifies an absence of transition shelters and social housing adapted to Indigenous and Inuit cultures.

Apart from the issue of limited capacity, other restrictions prevent many shelters from accommodating people. Those who experience or have experienced severe trauma, addiction, and mental health issues may be ineligible for existing housing programs and current emergency shelters – the reality for some who live under the expressway, per the press release. Furthermore, there are many reasons why individuals may not wish to stay in a shelter, including COVID-19 concerns, a desire for stability and autonomy given the regulations of many shelters, and past experiences of abuse or violence in shelters. While encampments like the one under the VilleMarie Expressway are not a long-term solution to Montreal’s housing crisis, displacing individuals without providing any better alternative for affordable, safe housing is certainly not a solution either.

approximately 20 people was formed not far from the eviction site on Notre-Dame Street. Residents had done everything they could to ensure their setup was safe, and a fire inspector invited to the encampment had approved the setup. Despite this, in May 2021, the MTQ warned residents of eviction mere days in advance on the grounds of “fire safety issues.”

The ministry’s letter threatened residents: “If you do not comply with this request, all necessary measures to put an end to the illegal occupation will be taken, without further notice or delay.” By afternoon on the day of eviction, a large group of police dressed in riot gear began to dismantle the encampment, and the residents vacated the site. As of this past summer, CBC reports that the city is seeking to hire a liaison officer to help dismantle other encampments that pop up, alluding to a continuation of these evictions.

Evicting and dismantling encampments where unhoused people have found a degree of safety, community, and stability is deplorable on the part of the city. The justification provided – that there are plenty of spaces available in shelters for those experiencing homelessness that would be safer and otherwise more optimal – is untrue. It also completely disregards the wants and needs of many unhoused individuals who cannot or choose not to stay in shelters. Instead of deploying police to destroy and displace the communities created at such sites, city workers must meet the wants and needs of unhoused persons while respecting their rights to mobility. For example, city officials can take action to improve safety conditions for those who wish to live in encampments, by providing clean water, durable temporary shelter suitable for harsh weather, and fire safety infrastructure. The current response of displacement and hostility continues to endanger the unhoused community.

The eviction of encampments is just one tactic with which the city criminalizes and polices those experiencing homelessness. A report published last year revealed that close to 40 per cent of the fines issued in Montreal went to unhoused people. A spokesperson for the SPVM said that, following complaints of “disturbances,” additional personnel were deployed in the area surrounding the new homeless shelter that opened at Hôtel-Dieu over the summer. Policing and issuing fines is not only potentially traumatic for unhoused people, but it also perpetuates cycles of debt, making it even more difficult to access housing and employment. “The cops are just going to keep kicking us out everywhere we go,” Partridge told CTV.

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The proposed eviction of those under the expressway is not an isolated incident. In December 2020, an encampment of approximately 60 individuals on Notre-Dame Street was violently removed by firefighters and police. Police began gathering at the site before dawn in large numbers; there were patrol cars, officers on bicycles and horseback, and officers in riot gear. Officers established a large security perimeter and prevented social workers from accessing the site. By late afternoon, city crews had seized tents and other personal belongings. Several months later, a new encampment of

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Ahead of future evictions of encampments, you can protest to the best of your ability and safety by, for example, attending protests organized by the Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union and others in response to the proposed eviction of the encampment under the Ville-Marie Expressway. If you witness an individual receiving unjust treatment by police on the grounds that they are experiencing homelessness, you can submit an online complaint for police misconduct with the Ombudsperson of Montreal, with the Police Ethics Commissioner, or at any police station. Other resources for witnessing police misconduct as a bystander can be found on the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality website, where you can report misconduct as well. As winter approaches, you can also donate to and get involved with organizations that provide resources and support for Montreal’s unhoused community, such as The Open Door, Resilience Montreal, and Chez Doris.

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Law Faculty Union Certified

firmer say in the development of policy.”

Van Vliet agreed that unions can align with the university’s interests, stating that “unions can actually make the workplace better for everybody.” AGSEM’s demands are “very focused on what would improve pedagogy, on what would improve teaching conditions, on what would improve learning conditions.” Van Vliet added that “if an employer is open to it, it doesn’t have to be adversarial [...] But my concern from my experiences with McGill unionizing, negotiating, and in labor relations is that McGill is not necessarily ready to take that step.”

This was proven by McGill’s decision to immediately pursue litigation after the AMPL petitioned the Tribunal for certification in November 2021. According to the Tribunal Decision Transmission, McGill’s argument was that the AMPL “does not take into account

Due to the fact that there is no existing professors’ union, the court declared that “the Tribunal did not have the necessary demonstration that this unit cannot in any way serve as a basis for establishing collective labour relations.” The ruling was highly in favor of the AMPL. Fox-Decent reported that “we literally ran the table five for five, with the judge saying that not only did we meet the threshold, but in many cases, we far surpassed it.”

McGill is currently weighing whether or not to challenge the decision of the Tribunal through judicial review. Fox-Decent discouraged further litigation, arguing that it is “quite literally inconceivable that a reviewing court would set aside the decision of the tribunal.” He has “encouraged [his] friends in the administration to prepare for collective bargaining.”

The question remains as to whether other McGill faculties might follow the AMPL’s example.

Quinn | Photos Editor

Eva Elbert News Contributor

On November 7, 2022, the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL) was certified as McGill’s first faculty union by the Tribunal adminsitratif du travail. The AMPL represents 40 tenured and tenure-track professors at the Faculty of Law. They first petitioned the Tribunal for certification in November 2021, but sources say many of their grievances with the administration began years ago.

In an interview with the Daily, AMPL Interim President Evan Fox-Decent revealed that his “first inkling that [unionizing] might be something that’s appropriate was when we lost our pension or the kind of pension that we had.” All other universities in Montreal offer a defined benefit (DB) pension plan, which guarantees a set income for employees in retirement. McGill offers a defined contributions (DC) plan where retirement incomes are dependent on investments in the stock market.

According to a 2011 newsletter by the McGill Association of University Teachers, until 2009, McGill offered a hybrid pension plan which primarily relied on returns on investment, but had a pension fund that would make up the difference if retirement incomes fell below the minimum defined in the plan. Fox-Decent explained that McGill professors essentially received “70

per cent of the income that [they] had earned during the last five years [..] as is standard in the public service, as is standard across all universities in Quebec.”

Employees hired from 2009 onwards moved to a pure DC plan, where retirement incomes are now fully tied to the stock market.

Fox-Decent said that the market “generally, odds on, does well. But sometimes it doesn’t. And when you have a crash and a third or half of the value is lost, it can take five to ten years to recover if it’s recovered at all.”

This decision was made with no consultation or discussion with faculty members, causing FoxDecent and other faculty members to question the way they are organized. Fox-Decent described that “for many of my colleagues, this has been a long time coming due to what they feel is a creeping centralization of the delivery of the academic mission of the various faculties in McGill.”

What Fox-Decent called the “bale of hay that broke the camel’s back” was the administration’s response to the vast majority of the law faculty’s request to require proof of vaccination for those returning to campus last fall. The only response from the Office of the Provost was a memo that encouraged chairs and deans to inform the Office of the Provost of faculty members who wished to teach from home. It stated that “fear about campus safety, residing in another jurisdiction, or

concern about relatives who might be at heightened risk or exposure to COVID-19, including those living under the same roof” are not valid reasons to teach remotely.

These conditions led Fox-Decent and his colleagues to decide that they would like to have more control over their workplace and work on the basis of a collective agreement rather than one-on-one negotiations. Collective agreements govern the conditions of work for a group of employees, and result from bargaining between an employer and a union. They are revisited every few years to better represent the current needs and concerns of the employees.

Kiersten van Vliet, Mobilization Officer of the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM), expressed the value of a collective bargaining position in an interview with the Daily: “It is much easier for McGill to negotiate with an individual rather than a collective. Collective negotiations are hard and they take a lot of resources. There’s a potential in that period when somebody is negotiating collectively that they could withhold their labor or they could have other sort of mobilization tactics.”

According to Fox-Decent, the AMPL strives to use their bargaining position to “contribute to the mission of the university. Most of the time, our interests and the university’s interests are aligned, but we would just like to have a

the converging interests of another group of employees that the Association is attempting to divide and the history of labour relations at the University.” Instead, they proposed a unit representing “all tenure-track or tenured faculty members of McGill University.”

Van Vliet explained that in order to unionize in Quebec, “you need 50 percent plus one of that group of workers to say ‘yes, I want that union’.” This threshold was surpassed by the AMPL in their 51-person faculty, but would become much more difficult with all 1744 McGill professors. McGill has used similar tactics with AGSEM, “changing the lists, changing the groups of employees that are included or not included, or what could count or not count,” currently demonstrated by AGSEM’s campaign to unionize Teaching Support workers such as graders or tutors who do similar work to teaching assistants, but are not protected by a collective agreement.

Fox-Decent noted that the judgment from the Tribunal suggests that “there are materials there that could be helpful for colleagues who may wish to organize either as individual faculties, as multiple faculties together, or potentially, McGill itself.”

“It’s amazing in terms of a type of building block,” van Vleit said. “If we think of the history of labor organizing on campus, like with AGSEM: you have one union that can lead to other groups of employees getting them.”

Both Fox-Decent and van Vleit encouraged students to get involved with their own unions. “I think probably the most important thing for students to do is to support their

union that is authorized to represent them collectively,” FoxDecent expressed. “And so when the student union asks you to go out for a march, for a protest, take part in an action to support them where

find your conscience allows you to do so.”

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McGill’s first faculty union certified by the Tribunal after facing resistance from university

Genevieve

“For many of my colleagues, this has been a long time coming due to what they feel is a creeping centralization of the delivery of the academic mission of the various faculties in McGill”

- Evan Fox-Decent

Open Letter Urges Drug Decriminalization

opioid crisis

Auriane Journet News Contributor

content warning: substance use, racism

The decriminalization of psychoactive drugs is gaining significant interest across North America. However, decriminalization in Quebec, where there is a high drug-induced death rate, is still highly debated.

From January 2019 to June 2022, 1,258 deaths by opioid overdose were reported, with a 25 per cent spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. Illicit drugs are now responsible for an average of one and a half fatal overdoses each day. With evidence that the current strategy is failing to tackle the opioid crisis, there is pressure on the provincial government for an urgent reassessment of the situation and a new approach to drug addiction.

In an open letter published on October 31 in La Presse and cosigned by 30 other organizations, the Coalition des organismes communautaires Québécois de lutte contre le SIDA (COCQ-SIDA), an organization fighting against HIV/ AIDS, urges the city of Montreal to request an exemption on the possession of narcotics from the federal government. They address the failure of the criminalization of drugs as a strategy to reduce the ongoing opioid crisis. The history of drug control in Canada has been characterized by harsh prohibitionist policies, which eventually led to the association of addiction with criminality.

By the mid-1990s, opposition movements emerged in response to Canada’s criminalization of substance use and identified the unintended consequences of such policies. Harm Reduction

TO, a harm reduction advocacy group in Toronto, argues that mass incarceration illustrates the government’s failure in addressing the public health outcomes generated by substance use. Drugs have historically been criminalized to disempower marginalized and racialized groups, for whom prohibitionist policies are disproportionately harmful. Moreover, prohibition has accelerated the development

of synthetic drugs by clandestine laboratories. The lack of governmental control over the production of narcotics has thus led to the widespread distribution and consumption of fatal synthetic drugs. For instance, Nitazene (or Tonis) was identified in Quebec in 2019. Stronger than fentanyl, it has been deemed responsible for a significant number of overdoses in Montreal. Moreover, punishing drug use increases the stigma of addiction and restricts the options of people dependent on substance use for seeking help.

Jurisdictions across Canada are starting to take action to address the inefficacy and harm of drug criminalization. In British Columbia, significant steps have been taken toward decriminalization and the adoption of harm reduction policies. In response to a request from the province, the federal government has granted the province an exemption to the federal laws on drug possession, along with a three-year decriminalization plan.

Applicable starting January 31, 2023, Canadians aged 18 and over will be able to possess up to a total of 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamines, and MDMA in BC. While the possession and

consumption of those drugs remain illegal, there will be no arrests or charges for personal possession at or below the 2.5-gram threshold. This model has proven to be especially efficient in Portugal, which became the first country in the world to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs in 2001. Since then, the drug-induced death rate has dropped significantly, and it now stands at one-fiftieth of that of the United States. Overall drug use has also declined among the 15to 24-year-old population. Mylène Drouin, Montreal’s Regional Director of Public Health, reported her motivation to implement such measures in Quebec as well in an interview with CBC, saying that “[decriminalization] could allow consumers to use drugs in much safer contexts and avoid all the prejudice associated with judicialization.”

She blames Legault’s opposition to decriminalization for failing to represent Montreal’s public interest. She therefore supports the community’s initiative in calling for change at the municipal level.

While Ottawa has expressed its openness to discuss decriminalization with provinces, Legault’s opposition presents a significant obstacle in bringing

changes to drug control policies in Quebec. Most efforts have been redirected to the municipal level in an attempt to reduce the high fatality rate recorded in Montreal. Montreal mayor Valérie Plante states, “We have shown interest in talking with the federal [government] because we’re seeing people struggling and suffering and we want to put the right tools together to support these people while making sure our communities are safe for everybody.” Thus, by addressing their letter to the Montreal administration, rather than the Quebec government, the coalition requests that the city itself use its powers in lobbying the federal government to bring about change, writing “We demand that Montreal act immediately by

asking the federal government for an exemption from drug possession laws to better protect Montrealers and take a step towards a city without overdoses.”

While political pressure can be an efficient tool to implement structural and systemic change in Montreal, efforts can be made at every scale. Harm reduction is one of the ways in which communitybased organizations are trying to promote safer drug use. Several supervised injection sites have been developed on the island. Take-home naloxone kits are also available at most pharmacies. Finally, if you are experiencing addiction or wish to help someone you know, harmreduction resources and addiction treatments are available, as well as a 24/7 helpline.

COCQ-SIDA and other organizations co-sign letter in response to Montreal’s

“We demand that Montreal act immediately by asking the federal government for an exemption from drug possession laws to better protect Montrealers and take a step towards a city without overdoses.”

Soraya Ghassemlou | Illustrations Contributor

SSMU Holds Town Hall on Accessible Education

Discussion about unpaid internships, fair working conditions, and democratization of the university

Next to speak were Justin Liao and Anna Leung, EDUS VP Academics and VP Finance respectively. Like at UQAM, they explained that education undergraduate students at McGill aren’t fairly compensated for the work experiences they complete as part of their degree. Although EDUS has not yet mobilized for paid internships, they’re looking to develop a financial aid framework to offset some of the costs incurred with completing these mandatory field experiences. For example, Liao explained that transportation can be very costly as students are often placed very far away from where they live. He added that students have other responsibilities such as jobs, classes, and children, and field experiences often take up over 40 hours per week, with students being expected to take on the majority of the cooperating teacher’s work for none of the pay.

Leung said that the recent strikes at UQAM resonated with the EDUS, which inspired them to push for increased financial aid. Although none of the current EDUS council would reap the benefits of these changes, they want to push for these reforms so that future education students can succeed.

and many graduate students have an income below the poverty line. They are requesting standardized funding processes and regulations across the university and a transparent process for resolving funding issues.

Emma Bainbridge News Editor

On November 16, SSMU’s External Affairs Office hosted a Town Hall on Accessible Education where representatives of various student groups came together to discuss the barriers students face at their respective universities, and how SSMU can better advocate on these issues on behalf of McGill’s student body. VP External Val Masny, who was facilitating, explained that although holding such events is part of SSMU’s mandate, it hadn’t been done for several years. However, they believed in the importance of holding such events once more given that many groups on campus are currently organizing

Rasha Hamade | Photos Contributor

around issues related to accessible education. Representatives from Divest McGill, McGill Law Students’ Association (LSA), Education Undergraduate Society of McGill (EDUS), and L’Association des étudiantes et étudiants de la Faculté des sciences de l’Éducation de l’UQAM (ADEESE) were present at the town hall.

Alicia Prosser, from ADEESE, started off by discussing its ongoing strike which began on October 13 in response to poor working conditions when doing mandatory work experience programs. They brought forth six demands: fair workload, commute time, flexible absences, a better harassment policy, accommodations for students with children, and paid internships, with

a particular focus on the last three. Prosser explained that UQAM’s harassment policy only applies within the university and not where the internship takes place, leaving people who experience harassment while on an internship with few options to address it. ADEESE also believes that student parents should get priority when choosing internship locations to ensure that it’s close to a daycare. Finally, they argue that it’s unfair to ask students to work for free at internships that are essentially work experience.

After four weeks of striking and protest, the university agreed to listen to their demands. As a result, UQAM created committees for a better harassment policy and accommodations for student parents, and they intend to continue organizing for paid internships. Prosser considers the strikes worth the effort, as they brought forth a lot of changes and helped to further democracy at UQAM. She encourages other students to do the same, adding that larger numbers will create a bigger statement.

After EDUS, Emily Thom, VP External of the LSA discussed the proposed Quebec Bar School reform, which would require law students to undertake more unpaid internships in order to complete their degree. Thom said that since law students often come into the program with prior degrees, they already have a lot of student debt.

As it’s already difficult to make money while in school, mandatory unpaid internships would add additional challenges. Laura Doyle Péan, a law student present, added that this change would discourage students from pursuing more social-justice-oriented careers in law, as corporate jobs have higher salaries which makes paying off student debt easier.

Masny presented a statement from the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) who weren’t able to attend the Town Hall. The statement focused on financial precarity among grad students, who often rely on grants and awards to fund their research. However, the funding offered doesn’t account for inflation and rising cost of living,

The last group present was Divest McGill, represented by Emily Hardie and Carley DoveMcFalls. Divest McGill has existed for almost ten years, and are planning actions to ‘celebrate’ their anniversary, including a collective scream in front of the James Administration Building and a Divest Birthday Party with free food and dancing. Divest McGill’s campaign revolves around divestment, democratization, and decolonization, particularly the democratization of the Board of Governors who refuse to divest from fossil fuels. In November 2021, they formed the Democratize McGill coalition alongside Queer McGill, Socialist Fightback at Concordia and McGill, McGill Corporate Accountability Project, and the Protestors Legal Information Clinic. During their two-week occupation of the Arts Building this year, they held three General Assemblies attended by more than 50 people, where they discussed what they wanted to see with regards to democratization. This includes the democratization of the Board of Governors, but also of other institutions such as studentled bodies, student housing, and food services, ultimately promoting community control over the University’s resources.

“At the centre of all these issues is the university’s undemocratic structure, which is what this campaign is trying to get people to realize,” explained Hardie. She also expressed frustration at the internal advocacy structures within McGill, saying that their bureaucratic nature forces groups to resort to protests and strikes to get what they need. Masny added that the Board of Governors can override decisions made by the democratically-elected Senate, another reason why groups may turn to alternate advocacy methods. Finally, they also argued that free tuition would reduce many financial burdens and make education more accessible to everyone, echoing the demands of the 2012 student strike.

As it’s already difficult to make money while in school, mandatory unpaid internships would add additional challenges.

Nicholas Hayek Commentary Contributor

content warning: antisemitism

Five short years ago, Ye, formerly Kanye West, made his right-wing political debut, clad in a “Make America Great Again” hat. This, mind you, was not his first political debut. That could be said to have occurred long before the Graduation rapper was ever caught with that red cap. West broke into the music industry with overtly political intentions, sporting an early lineup of songs that focused exclusively on the racial consciousness of America. His music had style, it had plenty of arrogance, and it had an irresistable appeal.

After a slow whittling away of once unquestionable respect – beginning with that red cap and ending with statements too inappropriate and numerous to fit between these dashes –West has finished his descent. He was once honourable, for a while contentious, and now

Kanye West: Past His Kanye Best Kanye West spurs antisemitism

defunct Nationalist Party –may be sufficient at preventing some domestic promotion of antisemitism. However, an impressionable teen, or a forumsurfer waiting to be radicalized, or even your everyday McGillian are not shielded from international vulgarity. Without much help from West, instances of antisemitism on this campus and this city have persisted: 17 per cent of Canadians, according to a 2018 study, believe Jews “talk too much” about the Holocaust; a further 23 per cent are proponents of the Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory, which purports that Jewish people have too much control over financial institutions; and hate crimes across Montreal have increased year after year.

not much more than an utterly prejudiced, capricious celebrity with dangerous reach.

He was once honourable, for a while contentious, and now not much more than an utterly prejudiced, capricious celebrity, with dangerous reach.

This October – having already exhausted the patience of many fans – Kanye began to evince to the world his support for the long-recycled conspiracy that Jewish people run the world, displayed without a vestige of his usual provocative irony. This, despite previous contributions to the proliferation of racially- and self-conscious subject matter

in hip-hop, is indefensible. Donning a MAGA hat has never seemed so harmful.

The man who had once railed at his own cost against institutional racism throughout the 2010s is now, older and apparently not wiser, at the furthest possible point from his former self. On a feed interspersed with delirious Twitter posts, West voices his intention to “go death con 3

On [sic] JEWISH PEOPLE.” (One could speculate the extent to which West’s frequently alluded-to habit of skipping meds was the cause of these tweets, but that’s a discussion for another time). The Twitter feeds of 31.8 million people were made a virtual bulletin for this statement, about 31,000 liked it before it was taken down, and the whole of American pop culture was exposed to it. Unsurprisingly, Kanye’s display of antisemitism has found a warm place, if it can be said to exist, in the hearts of neo-Nazis.

In Los Angeles, a group of such Nazis waved a sign over the 405 highway, reading “Kanye is right about the Jews.” A similar

Hyeyoon Cho | Design Editor

instance occurred at a college football match between the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators, where this same message was projected onto the main entrance of the stadium.

For those with the conviction that the United States, with all its internal struggles, is entirely self-contained, I’d remind you that ideas are gaseous things. They do not stop at a VermontQuébec border crossing and wait for a surly immigration officer to kick them back south. The hatespeech laws that are currently on the books in Canada – which are, notably, responsible for the recent conviction of the former leader of the now-

Kanye ranks as Spotify’s 21st most popular artist, and in a pool of 11 million artists dead and alive, that is certainly a seat at the top. Even after all that has been said about him and all that he has said himself, Kanye holds an indelible place in global and Canadian culture. On this campus, we should be wary of where that influence crops up. West, with all his multitudes, has in him the ability to inspire a generation – and the ability to inculcate antisemitic rhetoric in, say, McGill students.

As a final note, I would caution against the “cancellation” of those who stand by West’s music, especially his early works, in which can still be heard a pivotal voice for Black America. I, for one, am an ever-devoted listener, and like many admirers of his music, frequently remind myself that he did write Graduation Where the artist diverges from his art, however, his words are not so protected. A bigot is as a bigot does, and there looks to be no further pleas for this one, lest he wake up, Mr. West.

On this campus, we should be wary of where that influence crops up because West, with all his multitudes, has in him the ability to inspire a generation… and the ability to inculcate antisemitic rhetoric in, say, McGill students.

How to Run a Literary Magazine

Yehia Anas Sabaa Culture Editor

On November 15, I sat down with Curtis John McRae, editor-in-chief of yolk, in the Mile End’s Café Olimpico. Yolk is a literary magazine, and we talked about its place in the Canadian literary sphere, its publishing process, its past issues, and its plans for the future.

Yehia for The McGill Daily (MD): I would like to start with a question that might not seem relevant. As a writer, do you have strong opinions about fonts, software, stationery, etc.?

Curtis John McRae (CJM): Hilarious. That’s a great opening question. Yes, I have strong opinions about many of those things. It’s actually funny you should ask. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to go through the yolk website, but we have submission guidelines, and we suggest submitting work

in Garamond. I’m not quoting directly here, but if you don’t, you’ll be taking a side in a tireless, endless debate within yolk. I fall on the side of Garamond. So if anyone reading this is thinking about submitting, please do take Garamond. I’m a big fan of Garamond. Also Goudy Old Style. I don’t know if you know about it, but it’s got a bit more kick in it, a bit more pizzazz.

MD: How did yolk come about, and how did you become involved in it?

CJM: So yolk began about three years ago. I co-founded it with a couple of friends. It started between myself and my best friend, who is the current fiction editor, Alexandre Marceau. We had been trying to start writing workshops for a couple of months with no success. Eventually, Alex pivoted and said we should start a

project and get a literary journal going – gather a couple of friends, people we know who write, and just start this passion project. That’s how it began. Initially, we were five or six members, and we just met up on Sundays in a park and had discussions about our vision for the journal – what we wanted to add to the already rich literary scene in Montreal and Canada at large. We just found ourselves sort of falling into a rhythm and started assigning some tasks and roles and the next thing we knew we had our first print publication in our hands.

MD: Did you have a background in creative writing before yolk?

CJM: The original members were just a group of friends. Alex, the fiction editor I just mentioned, and I have known each other since high school. Neither of us was studying creative writing, but we were big readers. I was working at Chapters, for instance, and was just constantly reading whatever and whenever I could. Alex was

similar, so we always had that in common. Then we basically just brought on friends. The former editor-in-chief, Josh Quirion, was a friend of Alex’s. So he brought him on. I had brought on Sean Lee, the former social media manager, now social media projects. It was all very informal. We were passionate about literature, talking about it and writing it. But it was only later that we kind of in our own ways entered into [writing] programs. I had been studying English literature when I began yolk and then went on to complete my MA at Concordia. Josh was the only one who had graduated from a creative writing program when we began. Like I said, it was all very informal. Just a couple of friends with a shared passion for literature.

MD: What is yolk trying to do?

CJM: That’s a big one. I would say that our project mandate is two-fold. The obvious one is the journal (the print and digital publication). For that, we’re just

I guess, more broadly, we want to create a platform for good literature, for new writers and established ones, but also for experimental writers - perhaps for stories that might not find a home in a traditional journal.

- Curtis John McRae

Genevieve Quinn | Photo Editor

An interview with Curtis John McRae, editor-in-chief of yolk.

looking to cultivate a platform for both emerging and established writers to appear alongside each other in print and on our website. I guess, more broadly, we want to create a platform for good literature, for new writers and established ones, but also for experimental writers – perhaps for stories that might not find a home in a traditional journal. We’re looking for new, exciting, and fresh literature. We want to give a home for that. We’re also trying to keep the print journal alive. We’ve already seen some of our counterparts fold

can champion them, create events for them, advertise for them, and bring them into a preexisting literary community. There are many advantages to small literary journals, but one of them is that sense of community and closeness that a writer may not feel while publishing in some of the bigger journals.

MD: I wanted to talk about your last issue, “The Canadian Issue.” In the forward, written by the former editor-in-chief, you say that “there is a certain responsibility in defining what

reflecting on a fever dream. Then I need a month of just going to the spa. Kidding, but it’s quite intensive. Once the submission deadline has closed and we enter the stage where we’re selecting the work, we have genre pods. What that means is that our genre editors spearhead their own pods of readers. Those readers are both internal, like from the yolk masthead, and external. It’s within those pods that the selection is made. The genre editor, alongside the editor-in-chief, has the final and ultimate say over what makes it from the shortlist to the journal. By bringing in new minds and new readers, we keep it fresh while maintaining a consistency of style.

MJ: What about the order in which pieces appear in the issue? How do you decide that?

might be cool to juxtapose an artistic timeline of Canadian art with the contemporary art being submitted.

MJ: Did any of you have publishing experience before working on yolk?

and transition exclusively to digital publications. So we find it very important to maintain that physical medium. We do this for many reasons, but one of the fundamental ones is that, for a writer, seeing their name in print is incredibly encouraging. To actually hold the journal in your hands and see your name on the page and see all the other pieces beside your piece. It’s very exciting.

The second mandate is to create a sense of community. Beyond our publication, we’re very active in running and hosting events, curating spaces that aren’t exclusive to literature but welcoming to the art scene in general. So we’ve had performance art exhibitions, popup poetry events, readings. We’re just trying to curate a communal space for artists to gather in Montreal as well as publish their work.

MD: How different of an experience would it be for an artist to submit their work to yolk compared to a larger literary journal?

CJM: As a newer literary journal in Canada, I think yolk can expose writers to a lot of unique elements and aspects of the editorial process. That’s just one way of looking at it, which is to say that writers work quite closely with our editors and get a lot of time and engagement with the editors. There is also a certain amount of care and attention we can afford because we’re dealing with a smaller pool of writers. We

citizenship means” and that your “privilege is that you can try.” Why did you choose for this issue to be “The Canadian Issue,” and did you manage to define what it means to be Canadian?

CJM: The short answer is no. But I think that’s a very long and ongoing project that we’re just trying to contribute a small footnote to. As to why we decided to do “The Canadian Issue,”, there were two reasons. It’s our fourth issue, so, of course, we’re still reinventing and experimenting with the model. Previously, we had been accepting international submissions, and we thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like to only accept submissions from Canadian artists. So it was also about giving a platform to elevate Canadian writers and their voices. That was the initial idea, but we recognized that “Canadian” can be a very troubled term. We wanted to be very loose about what “Canadian” meant, and we landed on the side of Canadian citizens abroad or anyone residing within Canada. Again, I don’t think we answered the question of what it means to be Canadian.

But we’ve given a platform for Canadian artists, loosely defined, to publish their work.

MJ: I wanted to learn more about the process of producing yolk. After the submission deadline has passed and you have acquired all this material, what happens next?

CJM: Every time I finish a new print issue, it feels like I’m

CJM: That’s a great question. You asked the right person because that’s always been my job. This is a question I’ve been trying to answer myself for all four of these issues because there’s no strict formula that I’m following. It’s very intuitive. I actually print everything out and spread it all out across this large wooden table I have at home. I read through everything two, three, four times. I start to mark recurring themes or subject matters in a notepad, and then I’ll start to arrange the pieces based on that. Then I’ll ask myself some questions: What progression do I want to show in the journal? What kind of art do I want to show? Or do I want it to be anti-art and sporadic? Based on that, I’ll start arranging the journal into a progression of themes. I’m always moving things around.

CJM: That’s a great question. None of us had experience. We figured it out by “faking it till you make it.” Honestly, I think what really helped us along was that we were always fuelled by a passionate group of volunteers who felt that there was nothing that couldn’t be surmounted. When the time to print came around, we asked, what do we have to do to do this? We just kept moving forward, asking lots of questions, and now it’s just a sort of a repeat process. There’s a lot of plug-and-play that goes on, and then we send the documents to the printing press we have a partnership with. A couple of weeks later, we get a bunch of boxes on our front doorsteps with the print issues.

MD: Do you foresee any funding coming soon?

CJM: Yes. Since I began as editor-in-chief, I’ve assembled a funding committee who are exclusively working toward that. We’ve finally managed to check off a lot of boxes that make us eligible for a lot of the funding. But it takes money to get money. Most funding bodies want you to prove to them that you have passed the test of time. A lot of them require you to already pay your contributors, to be running for at least two years, and to have a certain amount of copies in circulation – something like 750. It’s expensive to finally qualify, but after three years running, we’ve just about got there.

MD: What do you look for in an art submission?

lot of time and effort into this. Why do you do it?

CJM: I ask myself that question all the time. Sometimes with high energy and sometimes with defeat. I think that people are thirsty for community spaces and for a place to publish their work. I know there are already other journals, but I think there’s room for more. I think that yolk has a unique tone and energy that people are excited about, and we want to keep that. I think, too, that the idea of a literary journal is incredibly important in the greater literary sphere. It’s important for platforming emerging writers. It’s democratic and egalitarian in a sense; you have emerging and established writers alongside each other. So it’s a useful tool for writers from all walks of life and at all levels of experience.

As an aspiring writer myself, I love the idea that the literary journal is not a dying medium but one that’s seeing a new surge of energy. If I can have any way to contribute to that, then I consider myself lucky.

MD: What’s your vision for yolk’s future?

MD: How do you pick the cover design?

CJM: For the first volume, we used the artwork of Marion Dale Scott, who was a Canadian painter. The original project was to begin to trace a trajectory of Canadian literature and art through the cover art, which we haven’t abandoned. For volume two, we selected work from what was submitted by artists to the journal. We thought it

CJM: I’m not looking for anything particular in the work besides being stopped – being arrested. That can happen in many ways. It can be a fresh and exciting voice or a surprising turn within a piece. There are many sorts of elements of craft, style, and voice that can elicit that reaction. But the truth of the matter is, I want originality in style, content, and voice –something that, after I read it, I’m going to be thinking about for the rest of the day. I think that can only be achieved through originality. I think that’s what excites readers in general – when they come across something ever so subtle that it stops them in their tracks.

MD: Everyone working at yolk is a volunteer, and you invest a

CJM: My dream is that the journal acquires funding. With that funding, we’ll be able to focus on establishing ourselves as at least a biannual print journal, and we’ll be able to maintain a very active online presence through more digital publications. But, most importantly, I think that yolk wants to embed itself not only in the Canadian literary sphere but in the Montreal one. One way we are hoping to do that is to procure a venue space where we can host events more frequently. If not in our own space, we’d like to continue to have events in Montreal. So to have a bigger, more consistent, and more frequent presence within the literary landscape is what we’re hoping to do. ***

Visit www.yolkliterary.ca to learn more about yolk!

I think that yolk wants to embed itself not only in the Canadian literary sphere but in the Montreal one.

-Curtis John McRae

There are many advantages to small literary journals, but one of them is that sense of community and closeness that a writer may not feel while publishing in some of the bigger journals.

-Curtis John McRae

I’m not looking for anything particular in the work besides being stoppedbeing arrested.

-Curtis John McRae

McGill Fails to Support Student Success with Adequate Mental Health Services

Natasha Kinne Features Contributor

The shortage of mental health services is an international health crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic during its ensuing years of social distancing and self-isolation. The increasing rate of diagnosed mental illness worldwide has uncovered the health service potholes which were swept over by decades of stigma towards mental health. Students of all ages have felt this impact of insufficient mental health services. With the best universities in North America having received criticism for their lack of commitment to their constituents’ mental health, McGill University’s lack of student resources does not

seem like an anomaly. A closer look at McGill’s grading policies and mental health resources reveal an alarming institutional disinterest in student health and well-being. McGill not only lacks sufficient mental wellness services but also facilitates declines in student health through its own exceedingly high standards for success. To this end, the university’s eagerness to champion itself as a cultivator of great minds and scholarly accolades is unnerving.

In over 200 years of operation, McGill has received no shortage of global praise. In the 2023 edition of the Times Higher Education University Rankings, McGill was ranked as the 46th best university in the world,

marking the university’s 13th consecutive year inside the top 50. Similarly, McGill was recognized as Canada’s top medical doctoral university by Maclean’s Magazine for the 18th consecutive year in 2022. McGill’s undergraduate programs have also gained worldwide recognition in the past few years, with the Department of Linguistics earning the rank of the world’s 17th best linguistics program in the 2019 edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds rankings. McGill also boasts a national record for graduates who have earned a Rhodes scholarship, with 147 recipients since inception. For the past few years, when a McGill student receives this highly selective award, the McGill Reporter

– the university-run paper –honours its bright young scholars with an article recognizing each of the university’s everincreasing total of recipients.

However, these articles do not seem to represent Rhodes scholars as three-dimensional people. Instead, McGill displays a Rhodes scholar’s successes

McGill [...] facilitates declines in student health through its own exceedingly high standards for success. To this end, the university’s eagerness to champion itself as a cultivator of great minds and scholarly accolades is unnerving.

Hyeyoon Cho | Design Editor

Students lack wellness services from the institution that profits off of their success

in terms of what it means for the university’s scholarly reputation. These articles have also instrumentalized a scholar’s identity in an effort to paint the selection process as inclusive and diverse: “This year’s class of Scholars is among the most diverse and most representative cohorts that we have ever selected,” says Richard Pan, the Canadian Secretary of the Rhodes Trust and the Chair for the Rhodes Scholarships in Canada. . Although it is expected for these articles to detail the preliminary achievements of successful Rhodes scholars, this example serves to demonstrate the extent to which McGill prioritizes its academic prestige over presenting their students as anything other than indicators of a good education.

There’s no doubt that McGill is designed to push its students academically. According to the McGill enrollment services website, McGill admitted 39% of undergraduate students who applied for fall admission in 2022. By accepting less than half of its applicants, McGill’s selective and competitive academic environment begins at its admissions process. Often nicknamed the “Harvard of Canada”, the university boasts the one of the highest minimum admission requirements (92%) and many individuals, including successful McGill graduates, attest to the university’s academically rigorous courses. Although McGill retains its status as an academically demanding university, the legitimacy of this title is sometimes contested by examining a recent rise in grade inflation, which is defined as a general rise in average grades earned by students within a faculty or a university at large. Though the average undergraduate GPA at McGill rose from 3.29 in 2016 to 3.63 in fall 2021, this does not mean that the university’s level of rigor has decreased. Not all faculties commit to the standard grading scale at McGill. The Department of Engineering, for example, adopts a grading scale where a mark of A and Adenote a “very good” performance, with a D denoting a “conditional pass”. Similarly, the Desautels Faculty of Management looks to actively encourage competition by mandatingtes class averages below 77.5% (3.3 GPA). All of this has given McGill a reputation for overworking students in the past.

In response to the prevalence of burnout and chronic stress on campus, McGill has published many halfhearted web pages to the university’s site which rely on superficial methods to treat serious mental health problems. What is perhaps most unhelpful

about these web pages is that they further the McGill administration’s tendency to respond to students’ growing mental health concerns with half-baked self-help material. With titles such as “A University’s Student Guide to Managing Stress During Difficult Times”, these resources simply encourage students to “have a look at” an infographic containing advice on how to manage stress rather than offer concrete solutions of how to improve mental wellbeing. For example, instead of offering advice on how to achieve worklife balance while taking graduate courses, the editor of the work-life balance page on the McGill website simply informs students that “work is a part of life but should not overwhelm other parts”.

So, McGill’s online reading materials and resources for the average stressed-out student are lacking. What about their bonafide health services? The McGill Wellness Hub is McGill’s principal health service for students. Through the Wellness Hub, students can request an appointment with a counselor or a psychiatrist; appointments can be held in-person again after a long lasting remote platform during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the combination of telehealth and inperson services guarantee most students access to healthcare, it is important to note that McGill Wellness Hub services extend only to those within the province of Quebec. This policy makes large subgroups of McGill students susceptible to a lack of health care, including Canadian citizens from outside Quebec, international students, and students participating in study abroad programs. This fact demonstrates the progress that must be made concerning general accessibility to the McGill Wellness Hub in addition to concerns regarding readily available health services.

When asked their thoughts on McGill’s existing health services, students have mixed reviews. To gain insight into student experiences with these services, The Daily spoke with a McGill student that received services from the McGill Wellness Hub, who will be called Jo*. In regards to appointment accessibility, Jo shared that because they looked up mental health resources at the beginning of their degree, they were able to “start off at the wellness hub in the first month of their first semester at McGill”. After navigating through the clerical steps of setting up an appointment, Noel finds counseling through the Wellness Hub very helpful. The difficulty,

however, lies in accessing mental health resources during stressful times of the year, including during midterms and final exams. “You have to do your own research and be proactive,” Noel explained. If you wait to request services until the end of the semester, you might wait for an appointment “for weeks on end”. From these statements, it is clear that the Wellness Hub personnel are capable of providing worthwhile care, but long waiting times means that McGill’s unresolved challenge continues to be its inability to make its services readily accessible to its nearly 40,000 students. Another McGill student, who will be called Avery*, shares this sentiment. When asked how easy it was to schedule an appointment with the McGill Wellness Hub, Avery said it “wasn’t easy at all”. They had to “call [the Wellness hub] multiple times for an appointment in the middle of April and [they were] calling at the start of February”. Again, the problem with McGill Wellness Hub services largely revolves around appointment availability, not the services themselves.

The inaccessibility of student health services can likely be attributed to a provincewide healthcare shortage. To counterbalance the lack of professional staff, the Wellness Hub hires McGill graduate students studying counseling psychology, clinical psychology, creative therapies, social work or similar fields. Jo commented that for one semester, instead of meeting with their former counselor, they were assigned a graduate student counselor.

They shared that it is common for students to be assigned different counselors instead of recurring meetings with one provider. While hiring graduate students addresses the problem of appointment availability, some students may find their academic proximity to undergraduate students concerning in terms of confidentiality and professional experience. Further, abrupt or constant changes in counselors may cause students to feel that the emotional burden is heavier to receive therapy rather than to go without it. Whether graduate students or an experienced medical professional, McGill should focus on providing students with consistent care and staff to meet their needs. This necessitates hiring more staff.

Though most have overall positive experiences with oneon-one counseling and therapy through the McGill Wellness Hub, they are not the only mental health services available. A quick visit to the psychiatrist subsection on the Wellness Hub site encourages students to sign up for workshops. The counselor page states that group therapy might be part of a student’s “personalized goaloriented wellness plan”. While this could be a step in the right direction, this still begs the question: if one-on-one therapy sessions take weeks to schedule, are group therapy sessions an adequate substitute? According to Jo, the answer is no. Based on their limited interaction with group therapy sessions, they observed that the resounding opinion of students was that the group session was a “waste of time”. They described the skills and techniques taught at the workshop as “baseline and shallow”. Indeed, instead of building camaraderie between students facing mental health

difficulties, the group sessions only emphasized the need for individual treatment. If dissatisfaction with the most available mental health services on campus is widespread, McGill may benefit from reallocating funds across its mental health resources and initiatives. Instead of rethinking or expanding the Student Wellness Center, McGill administration seems content to rely on the supplemental work of the Peer Support Center or the Student Accessibility and Achievement service. Though these services are valuable in their own right, they are not a substitute for health services provided by medical professionals. For an institution that, like any other, benefits from the success of its constituents, McGill University seems unwilling to modify their services to meet the needs of their students.

McGill depends on the success of its faculty and students to survive as an institution, so it is no surprise that they relish in our success. However, universities also have a responsibility to provide care for its students if it intends to market their academic excellency. So how can McGill show up for its students while reaping the benefits of our accolades? Jo says that the McGill administration needs to “think more from the perspective of the students.” Many of McGill’s shortcomings relate to not viewing the student as a multidimensional person. Though McGill’s web pages call work only a part of life, administration seems to base our entire worth around our studenthood and potential for future accolades. To improve mental health resources at McGill, conversations need to happen, person-to-person, about how students view mental health services provided by the Wellness Center.

Though McGill gains its prestige through the hard work of its student body, the Wellness Hub and other mental health resources fail to provide McGill’s large student body with adequate care. Some might argue that a university has no obligation to ensure its constituents have access to mental-emotional care. No part can function without its whole, however, and emotional strife bleeds into academic performance and productivity. It is in a university’s best interest to provide its students and employees with comprehensive mental health care. Creating a comprehensive education and university experience involves collaboration between all involved.

Whether graduate students or an experienced medical professional, McGill should focus on providing students with consistent care and staff to meet their needs. *The

If dissatisfaction with the most available mental health services on campus is widespread, McGill may benefit from reallocating funds across its mental health

Randa Mohamed | Staff Comicist