‘We are worth a million times more than what you presented to our team today,’ PSAC 901 said
M eghrig M ilkon Senior News Editor
This story first appeared online on March 10.
After rejecting an “offensive” offer from the University, graduate student workers represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) 901, Unit 1, have walked off the job.
The union, which represents approximately 2,000 Graduate Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, and Graduate Research Assistants, failed to reach a tentative agreement to renew their Collective Agreement, which expired on April 30. After the union filed a No Board Report on Feb. 21, talks broke down on March 10, prompting the union to strike.
“[Queen’s] we will not stand for this disgusting treatment. Members
of PSAC 901 are the reason why this university functions. We are worth a million times more than what you presented to our team today,” PSAC 901 said in an Instagram post early Monday morning. The union accused the University of showing “horrific disrespect” at the bargaining table, saying they had no choice but to strike.
At the heart of the union’s demands is wage increases, particularly to counter the effects of Bill 124, which previously capped public sector wage increases at one per cent per year before its repeal in February 2024. The union is calling for a $1,500 lump sum payment to offset past wage suppression, along with a four to six per cent wage increase moving forward.
In a Labour News update released early this morning, Queen’s confirmed no tentative agreement had been reached despite “best efforts” during negotiations. The University assured students classes would continue as schedules and advises them to allow extra time to get to class due to potential picket line disruptions.
Story continued online at queensjournal.ca
Queen’s rules against divestment
Board
of Trustees accepts Review Committee’s recommendation, citing cost concerns and portfolio risk
M eghrig M ilkon Senior News Editor
This story first appeared online on March 13.
Queen’s Board of Trustees has ruled out divesting from companies doing business in or with the State of Israel, rejecting a student-led demand after a nine-month review process.
In a March 13 announcement, the University confirmed its Board of Trustees accepted Principal’s Review Committee for Responsible Investing’s recommendation against withdrawing its pooled endowment and investment funds from companies operating with or in the State of Israel. The Committee also recommended against introducing a negative screening process for future investments, citing concerns over higher costs and increased portfolio risk—factors cited as incompatible with the Board of Trustees fiduciary responsibilities.
“The decision by the Board of Trustees to accept the recommendations of the committee aligns with the Board’s duty to prudently manage the University’s investments and ensure the strength and sustainability of our academic
mission into the future,”
Principal Patrick Deane said in the Gazette
The ruling follows nearly a year of activism from Queen’s University Apartheid Divest (QUAD), the student-led group that submitted the special request in June 2024, and a 12-day encampment on campus.
From August to mid-October, the Review Committee held consultations, receiving 44 in-person presentations representing the views of over 560 students, faculty, staff, alumni, benefactors, retirees, parents, and Kingston community members before concluding on Nov. 20.
In addition to rejecting divestment, the committee recommended a revision of the University’s Responsible Investment Policy. Specifically, it advised that future requests should be required to articulate how they’re consistent with fiduciary responsibility and institutional neutrality.
While this policy is under review, Procedure 2 (Special Requests) will be suspended.
“Should an issue arise that members of the Queen’s community feel strongly about, they are encouraged to contact the Secretariat’s Office,” the Gazette said.
Graduate student workers picket on Monday. PHOTO BY MEGHRIG MILKON
The announcement was made on March 13.
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Campus panel on social justice faces backlash over speaker selection
Hillel Queen’s criticizes the Yellow House for featuring alumni with ties to SPHR
Jonathan Reilly Assistant News Editor
A campus panel meant to foster social justice is now at the centre of controversy, as Hillel Queen’s challenges the choice of speakers.
Hillel Queen’s, a subgroup of the Jewish organization Hillel Ontario, made an Instagram post on March 12 criticizing the Yellow House Student Centre for Equity and Inclusion for its selection of speakers at an alumni panel event. The Yellow House, a centre for QTBIPoC students on campus which provides programming, spaces, and resources, recently hosted the Brockington Visitorship Alumni Panel: Cultivating Hope in Times of Grief on March 5, with five panelists in attendance, all of which currently work in social justice.
Hillel took issue with two of the alumni speakers at the event, Maysam Ghani, ConEd ’21, and Kavita Bissoondial, ArtSci ’10, claiming they were involved with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), a studentrun organization advocating for Palestinian human rights.
The post cited various issues Hillel took with SPHR, including the chant posted on SPHR’s Instagram highlight “from the water to the water (i.e. from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea), Palestine is Arab,” along with other instances, which a Hillel spokesperson expanded on in a statement to The Journal
“In the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023, SPHR Queen’s has repeatedly spread misinformation, including a post that denied the well-documented sexual violence that took place that day, violence that has been indisputably proven,” a Hillel spokesperson said.
Hillel also expressed concern that SPHR’s general “rhetoric and actions create fear and tension for Jewish and Israeli students, who have faced increasing hostility in the months since Oct. 7.”
According to Hillel, they met with University administrators to express their concerns with Yellow House’s decision, but they weren’t satisfied with the response.
“Initially, the University’s response was defensive, doubling down on the intent behind the event and insisting that its focus was on hope and self-care rather than politics. However, this response overlooked the implicit endorsement of the speakers’ views that came with the University’s decision to platform them over others,” Hillel said.
When asked why they believe a connection between the panelists and SPHR would be harmful, Hillel highlighted deeper, more fundamental concern.
“Supporting free expression
SGPS lands $15 thousand to tackle rising graduate food insecurity
shouldn’t mean giving a platform to rhetoric that dehumanizes and incites hostility against an identifiable group on campus,” the Hillel’s spokesperson said.
In a statement to The Journal, the University, speaking on behalf of Yellow House, explained that the event followed its Free Expression Policy, which seeks to provide “an environment conducive to open dialogue and debate.”
“The event was conceived within the framework of the University’s Free Expression Policy. All panelists respected the policy, and there were plans in place to ensure safety, respect, and accountability, to foster individual empowerments for all in attendance, as the University works to advance ongoing dialogue across change-making efforts on campus,” the University said.
The University also commented more directly on its engagement with Jewish students, explaining they recognize Jewish students haven’t always had affirming or positive experiences but they’re engaging with Hillel Queen’s to address these concerns.
The Journal reached out to SPHR for a response to the claims made by Hillel but was declined a statement.
SPHR stated refuse to comment as the original post by Hillel is “fueled with anti-Palestinian racism and hate.”
AMS tAlkS About IndIgenouS
StewArdShIp to the envIronMent
‘This land wasn’t for anybody to own if it’s just borrowed,’ Elder
Te ho wis kwûnt says
Aya Alhasany Assistant News Editor
At an event concluding with students wrapping tobacco in cloth, they first began by reflecting on the importance of stewardship.
In a discussion held by the AMS Environmental Sustainability Commission and the Social Issues Commission (SIC) on March 11, three Indigenous panelists and 10 students discussed sustainability through an Indigenous lens on stewardship—responsibly using and protecting the environment. Together, they reflected on the importance of fostering a reciprocal relationship with the land, ensuring students’ environmental efforts respect the spaces they inhabit.
Following a land acknowledgement from
‘Students are taking on the burden of feeding students,’ Kasim says
Meghrig Milkon Senior News Editor
While new graduate student funding provides temporary relief for food insecurity, student leaders are advocating for long-term solutions.
The Society on Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) successfully secured $15 thousand in funding to support its growing food insecurity programming, supported by the University’s Sustainability Initiatives and Activation Fund. This fund was established through the Cold Beverage Agreement, under which the University signed a five-year contract with Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited as its cold beverage supplier, with an option to extend for an additional five years.
Under this agreement, effective since 2023, Coca-Cola provides annual funding to support the University’s efforts in advancing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including “quality education,” “reducing inequalities,” “sustainable cities and communities,” and “responsible consumption and production” through the Sustainability Initiatives and Activation Fund.
In an interview with The Journal, Zaid Kasim, vice-president (graduate), emphasized the urgency of food insecurity and called for long-term solutions beyond emergency food programs.
“Food insecurity programming is a band-aid,” Kasim said. “It’s
Commissioner of Environmental Sustainability Anne Fu, HealthSci ’25, panelist Delia Pridham, ArtSci ’26, spoke about the Ottawa River, located between Ontario and Quebec, and the consequences of its dams to the Algonquin people. Pridham discussed how the building of dams along the river resulted in damage to ecosystems, causing toxicities in food sources for Algonquin communities which resulted in these peoples’ displacement.
Later in the discussion, Peer Advisor and Elder in the Office of Indigenous Initiatives, Allen Doxtator (Te ho wis kwûnt), emphasized the environment’s role in sustaining us through natural resources like air and water. He underscored how people must also work to serve the environment through stewardship and understanding rather than Western ownership.
“This land wasn’t for anybody to own if it’s just borrowed,” Doxtator said, addressing the audience.
In an interview with The Journal, Fu and SIC Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator Carlee Boissoneau Hunter, HealthSci ’26, explained
something that the government but also that Queen’s needs to step up and handle because from a student perspective, all the food insecurity programming feels like students are taking on the burden of feeding students, and that’s such a backwards way of doing things. We’re happy to do it, but it’s not our job.”
The SGPS’s food insecurity programming is made up of various campus partnerships that provide meals, grocery support, and additional resources to graduate and professional students on campus.
According to Kasim, the program includes multiple initiatives, such as the Mason Jar Meal and Fresh Food Box program, which was established last year and has since expanded from 40 to 50 meals per month with 500 meals given out to date. Other initiatives include the Good Times Diner, which distributed over 500 take-home meals for graduate and professional students in 2024-25, and a $1,000 contribution to the Ontario Public Interest Research Group to fund the their annual community garden program.
“When I say our food
insecurity program, that’s what it is—it’s a collection of all these various groups that we’ve sponsored to target their food insecurity program towards graduate and professional students,” Kasim said.
“Our philosophy is that we don’t really care about credit, we don’t really care about programming being ours. All we care about
the importance of educating non-Indigenous students on topics like stewardship, while providing spaces for Indigenous students to build upon and share knowledge with their peers.
“When we think about environmental activism and environmental justice, we really have to think about how that intersects with things like colonialism and anti-Indigenous racism,” Fu said.
In an interview with The Journal, Pridham and Sydney Allison-Muskratt, ArtSci ’26, explained how environmental stewardship is “a way of everyday life” in Indigenous communities compared to academic settings, where it’s often a new concept for students.
“These [stewardship] values are so ingrained in our culture, that
is that our students get fed. That’s all we [SGPS] care about,” Kasim said. Despite the secured funding, concerns remain over its long-term sustainability.
“The reality of the situation is that with inflation, the potential for maintaining our current programming was only going to realistically be two more years before we have to scale back,” Kasim said. “With this money, we can be strategic, and we can ensure that all of our programming students currently rely on won’t be changed for next year.”
Kasim criticized Queen’s for failing to acknowledge the issue of food insecurity while promoting the UN SDGs, particularly eradicating poverty and ensuring food security. SDGs are a set of global objectives the UN adopted as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“Queen’s prides itself on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, things like no poverty, food for all, but I think we need to begin to advocate more seriously on some of these issues,” Kasim said. “The AMS has been a great partner throughout all this, but I think [Queen’s] administrators need to step up, and faculty needs to step up. Everyone knows this is a problem, but as soon as we talk about it, we admit that it’s a problem.”
Looking ahead, the SGPS is calling for increased institutional and governmental support to tackle food insecurity in the long-term.
we don’t even think twice sometimes, and then once you get to kind of an academic setting where people are preaching these [stewardship] values as kind of a new and revolutionary idea, it’s almost hard to comprehend how people didn’t think of this originally,” Pridham said.
For Allison-Muskratt, stewardship means leadership.
“I think that it’s really important that Indigenous people are looking into powerful roles so that they can kind of front bigger projects [for environmental sustainability],” Allison-Muskratt said.
The event closed with attendees making tobacco ties as offerings to the environment. Offering tobacco in the form of a tobacco tie is a custom shared by many Indigenous peoples.
The funding was secured on March 7 PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Board of Trustees raises residence and non-domestic tuition fees
Student reports and Middle East conflict also among discussions
Aya Alhasany
&
Jonathan Reilly Assistant News Editors
Geopolitical statements and financial change took centre at the University’s first Board of Trustees meeting of the calendar year.
The Board of Trustees met on March 7 at 4:30 p.m. for a public session, followed by a closed session on March 8 for the Board’s members only. Board Chair David Court, Comm ’79, began the meeting by recognizing the following day, March 8, as International Women’s Day. He said the Board is full of “strong women” and reiterated Queen’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Student leaders reports
As his term nears its conclusion on April 30, and with the Board not convening again until May, AMS President Owen Rocchi delivered his final speech to Board members, reflecting on his team’s accomplishments. He spoke to the Board about the Queen’s Backing Action on the Climate Crisis, where
Rocchi stood behind the club’s petition encouraging the University to divest from fossil fuels.
Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS)
President Emils Matiss also delivered his final speech to the Board. He emphasized food insecurity as a pressing issue for graduate students, highlighting how the SGPS provided 1,060 meals over the past year. Matiss also raised concerns about the JDUC, including the significantly delayed move-in, which still lacks a finalized date.
Chancellor Shelagh Rogers responded, thanking the student leaders for their commitment to the University but didn’t directly address their concerns.
Political statements from members at large
In accordance with section three, paragraph 11 of the Board of Trustees bylaws, which allows any member of the public to request to make a statement to the Board, two verbal delegations were made.
Ariel Salzmann and Adnan Husain, both associate professors in the Department of History, addressed the Trustees for approximately 10 minutes each about the conflict in Gaza.
Salzmann began by speaking about the aftermath of the Oct. 7,
Ramadan means finding home through a shared Iftar meal
‘In Islamic teaching, feeding those who are fasting is seen as an act of immense reward,’ QUMSA executive say
Aya Alhasany Assistant News Editor
For 30 nights, as the sun sets, Muslim students and friends are gathering around the dinner table, creating a sense of home with every shared meal.
Queen’s University Muslim Student’s Association (QUMSA) runs its nightly Ramadan program at the Queen’s University International Centre (QUIC), serving dates, water, and a rotating Iftar dinner featuring Middle Eastern and South Asian cuisine. Each evening, the program welcomes approximately 200 Muslim and non-Muslim students to break
2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, stating the University’s response was inadequate. She believes the University was quick to mourn the death of Israelis but didn’t do the same when it came to the death of Palestinians, adding Queen’s must “divest from genocide.”
Husain stated Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, a Palestinian activist group, asked him to address the Board, believing faculty voices would carry more weight than students themselves.
While not directly addressing the concerns brought up by the speakers, Court asked the Trustees to reflect on whether Boards and Senates in the United States would allow such speeches to take place, urging them to be proud of Queen’s as an institution.
Tuition and residence fees
To address the University’s projected $35.7 million operating deficit, two motions were proposed to approve increases in tuition fees for out-of-province students and residents.
The first motion, Tuition Fee Report 2025-26, proposed by the Board’s Finance, Assets, and Strategic Infrastructure Committee Chair Sheila Murray, recommended a five per cent tuition increase
dining area, and provide meals to those participating. Food is provided nightly by Muslim community members, local businesses, University grants and sponsors such as local restaurant Manoosheh, the Queen’s Inclusive Community Fund, and the AMS.
“Over the last two years, there has been a massive increase in student participation, driven by the growing Muslim student population and a heightened demand for accessible Ramadan services on campus,” Jivani and Rizwan Karkal added.
for out-of-province direct-entry undergraduates, along with changes to domestic, international, and Bader College tuition fees.
This motion marked the fourth consecutive five per cent increase in out-of-province tuition, with similar motions being passed for the three past academic years.
According to Murray, domestic fees weren’t increased due to fixed domestic tuition by the
their fast and share in the experience. By offering these dinners, QUMSA hopes to help students find a home away from their homes and relieve financial stress and difficulty in finding Halal meals during Ramadan.
This year, Ramadan takes place from Feb. 28 to March 29, during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. They break their fast at Iftar, the evening meal marking the end of each day’s fast, according to Islamic Relief Canada.
“The program ensures that students, many of whom are far from home, have access to a nourishing meal and a sense of belonging during this sacred month,” QUMSA Presidents Sanaya Jivani, MPH ’25 and Raif Rizwan Karkal, CompSci ’25 wrote in a statement to The Journal
A team of 10 to 15 volunteers set up the Iftars every night, helping to pick up the food, set up the
Through past QUMSA programs, Jivani and Rizwan Karkal have seen firsthand how Iftar foster community among students. They remain committed to making these dinners a priority.
“Past experiences have shown us that providing Iftar is more than just offering food, it’s about fostering connections,easing the burden of fastingwhilemanaging academiccommitments, and ensuring that no student breaks their fast alone,” Jivani and Rizwan Karkal said.
During a period of fasting and academic stress, QUMSA executives and volunteers continue to find motivation by seeing the tangible impact they see every night. Jivani and Rizwan Karkal cited “the gratitude in students’ eyes, the laughter shared over meals, and the deep sense of community that continues to grow,” as reasons for continued efforts.
Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca
Government of Ontario.
“The government really forces our hand on tuition fees. The only flexibility we have is to raise out-of-province student tuition fees, and even that’s limited,” Murray explained.
room costs $17,307. With the increase, these fees will raise to $17,999.
No discussion followed either motion and both were carried with a majority in favour.
The Board of Trustees meet next on May 9 and 10.
Also proposed by Murray, the second motion, Residence Fees 2025-26, proposed a 3.78 per cent increase in total residence fees for the 2025-26 academic year. Under this motion, standard single and single-plus residences will see a four per cent increase in fees come September, while double, triple, quad, loft double, and upper-year single rooms will increase by 3.25 per cent. Currently, a single standard
AMS St. pAtty’S plAn encourAgeS StudentS to hAve fun And StAy SAfe
The University District Safety Initiative will be in effect from March 14 to 18
Lauren Nicol Assistant News Editor
Students are gearing up for another St. Patrick’s Day, with the AMS working to keep celebrations safe and fines at bay.
From March 14 to 18, the University District Safety Initiative (UDSI) is back in effect, allowing the City of Kingston to issue increased fines for nuisance parties and noise violations. With party-goers expected to flock to the streets on March 15 to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the AMS is building on past efforts to minimize hospital visits and fines.
This year, student celebrations had to adapt, as Aberdeen St. was closed for construction during Homecoming and remains partially shut down at its Johnson St. intersection due to ongoing work.
AMS Vice-President (University Affairs) Ruth Osunde told The Journal the goal for the upcoming celebration is to prioritize students’ safety and enjoyment over strict abstinence.
“We know [students are] going to drink but when we think about harm reduction, the key is, how can we let you do that while you’re safe? That’s the biggest thing,” Osunde said.
Kingston’s Police Liaison Team will be on campus on March 13 and 14 at the Queen’s Centre to answer any questions students have about the UDSI. Osunde said the team’s role is to educate, not fine, students on potential weekend penalties. Under the UDSI, students can be fined for noise bylaw offences, failure to leave premises, and even face a $2,000 fine for hosting, conducting, or sponsoring a nuisance party.
While Osunde understands why students may be apprehensive of police officers on campus, she encourages them to learn their rights through the AMS’s Social Issues Commission’s “Know Your Rights” campaign, which educates students on their rights during this time and helps them understand the bylaws.
Osunde hopes that by staying informed, students can make safer and more informed decisions during St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
In a statement to The Journal, Devin Clancy, Comm ’27, said he finds going out on St. Patrick’s Day not worth the hassle, citing longer lines at bars and Aberdeen’s closure.
“Street and house parties are likely to be smaller or less frequent due to concerns over hefty fines and increased enforcement,” Clancy said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if people start to resort to smaller get togethers to negate fines.”
The UDSI typically takes place during Orientation Week, Homecoming, and St. Patrick’s Day weekends.
Board of Trustees met on March 7.
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Iftar take place at Sunset in the QUIC.
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Campus groups unite to advance gender equity ahead of International Women’s Day
STEM-driven event honours the contributions of women on campus
Aya Alhasany
Assistant News Editor
A day before International Women’s Day (IWD), campus groups united to “Accelerate Action” for gender equity.
In celebration of IWD, Queen’s Women’s Network (QWN), Women in Science at Queen’s (WiSQ), and Women in Engineering came together to honour the contributions of women on campus and push for continued efforts towards gender equity. Held around noon in the Biosciences Complex on March 7, the event embraced this year’s theme—Accelerate Action inspiring attendees to tackle gender equity through action and momentum. IWD is observed annually on March 8.
The annual celebration drew approximately 50 students, staff, and faculty, kicking off with a speech from Marina Darling, Queen’s Organizational Development consultant and QWN committee member, who highlighted the significance of IWD.
“IWD is celebrated annually on March 8, and it honours the achievements of women across all aspects of life, social, economic, cultural and political, while also advocating for gender
equality,” Darling said.
In a statement to The Journal, Darling reflected on the importance of hosting such events, emphasizing their role in fostering inclusivity and momentum toward equity.
“Everyone has a part to play in accelerating gender equality. This event amplifies voices all around the world who are working tirelessly towards this mission. As a woman in today’s world, I feel it’s of the utmost [importance] to build community and connection that enables us to take tangible, measurable steps towards gender equality,” Darling said.
Dr. Patricia Lima, WiSQ founder and assistant adjunct professor at the Queen’s Cardiopulmonary Unit, followed Darling, speaking to the audience about the significance of this year’s theme.
“We [women] must accelerate actions and strengthen our collaboration with those who have the power to enforce policies to promote equity and to combat gender-based violence and discrimination,”
Lima said.
In an interview with The Journal, Lima explained how the theme reminds her that inequities for women still exist despite collective efforts to solve them.
“With the current situation that the world is coming to, I said, wait a minute, I think I’m wrong,” she said, referencing the
recent cultural shift against diversity, equity and inclusion in the United States, where President Trump, upon re-election, dismantled programs supporting these values. “Those inequities are still up there, but they’re in a different form and shape. We need to address those [inequities] in a different way,”
she said. In an interview with The Journal, Robyn Binsfeld, a neuroscience PhD student said IWD to her means involvement from all genders to address inequities between genders—not just women.
“It’s really nice being
around a bunch of other groups that kind of have the same vision and goals as we do.” Binsfeld said. “I feel a lot of times like we’re somewhat alone in our mission and what we’re trying to accomplish.”
A fter four d AyS on the p I cket l I ne , gr A duAte S tudent worker S MAI ntAI n S trong M o M entu M
Picketers continue calling on University to comply with PSAC 901’s demands
Aya Alhasany Assistant News Editor
Four days in, graduate student workers show no signs of slowing down on the picket line.
Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) 901, Unit 1, began striking on March 10 at 8:01 a.m. outside Stauffer Library after Graduate Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, and Graduate Research Assistants, failed to reach a tentative agreement to renew their Collective Agreement. With all graduate workers off the job—unable to lead tutorials, grade assignments, or respond to student| emails—they’re signing up for strike shifts. Active PSAC 901 members who fulfill daily strike duties can receive non-taxable strike pay of up to $84.79 per day, capped at $423.96 per week.
Every day this week from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., graduate student workers have set up tents on the intersection of Union St. and
AMS permanent General Manager sees turnover after a decade
Lyndon Smith will assume the role on April 30
Jonathan Reilly & Aya Alhasany Assistant News Editors
The AMS will be getting a new General Manager.
Lyndon Smith has been hired as the new permanent General Manager of the AMS, succeeding Lyn Parry, who has held the position since 2015 and is now retiring. Prior to becoming General Manager, Parry served as the AMS Controller from 2011 until transitioning into her managerial role.
The General Manager is one of the 16 permanent positions at the AMS, serving as a non-voting member of the AMS Board of Directors, which provides strategic guidance,
financial accountability, and human resources support for the AMS. Come April 30, Smith will support the incoming executive team in managing the AMS’s financial and operational affairs.
In a statement to The Journal, Smith expressed enthusiasm for his new role and highlighted his connection to Queen’s and the AMS.
“I have family and friends who have attended Queen’s, and they have been positively impacted by the experience of being part of the Queen’s undergraduate community,” Smith said. “The Society has a rich history of advocating for students as well as providing learning and work experiences for students who are part of the AMS team.”
Smith looks forward to collaborating with and supporting the AMS as they continue providing essential services to students and enhance campus life.
AMS President Owen Rocchi praised Parry’s contributions and welcomed Smith to the team. Rocchi shared Smith’s training and transition into the role has already begun.
“I can speak for the AMS in that we couldn’t be more excited to welcome the new General Manager to the team,” Rocchi said.
Rocchi thanked Parry for her continued commitment to the organization, and all the hard work she’s put into the Society during her tenure.
The Journal is currently lhiring for the Vol. 153 masthead.
If interested, contact the Incoming Editors in Chief Sarah and Meg at newjournal.editors@ams.queensu.ca
University Ave. to show how graduate student workers are fundamental to the University’s operations, and the importance of fair wages.
In an interview with The Journal, PSAC 901 President Jake Morrow highlighted the motivation and energy of the graduate student workers, noting how over 1,000 members have signed up for picketing shifts.
“With the way people are showing up in the streets, I think we’ve got a case for all of [our demands]. How far we can push depends on how many people show up in support, how many classes get cancelled, how many classes we shut down,” Morrow said.
Morrow emphasized the bargaining demands of the union, being fair wages and dignity for graduate student workers.
Other financial demands include increasing hourly wages and a lump sum to each worker following the effects of Bill 124, which capped wages of public sector workers to an increase of one per cent per year. The Bill was repealed in February 2024.
“What we’re fighting for is to stop graduate workers at Queen’s from being homeless, which many of our members are, from skipping meals, which
many of our members are,” Morrow said. “What we’re fighting for is our lives and our livelihood. What the University is fighting for is a budget line item, and that’s why we will win.”
Protesting alongside graduate student workers in front of Stauffer Library was Craig Reynolds, PSAC Ontario’s regional executive vice-president. In an interview with The Journal, he noted the display of solidarity of workers striking and called upon the University to take action.
“It’s time for Queen’s University to step up and start treating our [Graduate Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, and Graduate Research Assistants] as the workers they are. They’re the backbone of this organization, and they should be treated as such,” Reynolds said.
A statement from the University sent to The Journal on March 12 stated it respects collective bargaining and “remains committed to working with PSAC and its Local 901 to reach an agreement that both parties can ratify.” A March 13 e-mail sent to students by their respective faculty reiterated the expectation for students to attend classes.
Picketing will resume Monday at 8 a.m. unless a tentative agreement is reached beforehand.
The event was held on March 7
PHOTO BY NAY CHI HTWE
The important battles fought by Queen’s graduate students inspire more division and confusion than solidarity.
ILLUSTRATIONBYELLATHOMAS
Beginning March 10, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Local 901 took to Union St. and University Ave. to strike for fair wages, among other demands like affordable housing access and paid hours to learn course content. The union represents roughly 2,000 Teaching Assistants (TAs), Research Assistants (RAs), and Teaching Fellows, all of which are crucial to the university ecosystem.
Unlike recent labour negotiations between unions and the University—which were saved by last-minute deals—no such tentative agreement was reached this time around. This unexpected circumstance prompted graduate student workers to strike just past the halfway point of winter semester, halting operations in many departments.
at them, ultimately harms the cause more than it elicits solidarity. PSAC can’t afford for students to lose support for the cause by driving them away.
To make matters more confusing, conflicting communications from administration and faculty members further muddle the point of graduate worker strikes—from the Provost saying teaching will continue as usual, to TAs expressing their regret and empathy for students, and e-mails from professors stating there’s no precedence for this kind of job action, there’s no clear direction to follow.
Grad students are right, but their strategy is wrong
knees—especially for fourth-years, who are a few classes away from graduating—we’re on their side.
By walking off the job and forming picket lines out on the street, graduate students disrupted countless university operations. And that’s exactly the point. It mirrors the lack of fair compensation paid to them which disrupts their ability to work and support themselves.
Graduate workers make an immense impact on our education, whether as our TAs, RAs, or course instructors—it’s no question they deserve working conditions reflecting this contribution. And with the strike bringing Queen’s faculties, like the Faculty of Arts and Science, to their
Canada’s
Yet, despite how easy it is to take this stance, showing our solidarity proves more difficult in execution. At the risk of making this about undergraduates, the choice between standing with graduate workers or continuing our studies against their wishes shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. Although ceasing use of Queen’s premises, or demanding instructors to cancel in-person course delivery—as detailed in the pamphlets distributed by picketers—are strong symbolic actions to stand with grad workers, they’re not choices all of us can easily make.
Confronting students entering libraries or the Queen’s Centre with shame and aggression, and blowing whistles
The reality is, not all classes have been cancelled. For these undergraduate students, assignments and papers are still due, and it’s still necessary to study for final exams. If we’re spotted going on campus, it’s not because we’re against the cause—there’s just no one to cover us if we put our work on pause.
It’s challenging for undergraduates to recognize their role in helping their graduate counterparts. Mobilizing the Queen’s undergraduate community is possible, but it won’t happen overnight without proper leadership and direction from all sides.
All graduate students were once in our shoes, at Queen’s or elsewhere. So, for us to be on their side, they must learn to be on ours, too.
—Journal
Editorial Board
opioid crisis starts with ordinary prescriptions
After my brother snapped his collarbone and was prescribed morphine pills to ease his suffering, my first instinct was fear.
Prescription opioids are the cause of many addictions across North America. Opioids are often prescribed as painkillers because of their ability to latch onto nerve cells, blocking out pain signals and stimulating feelings of euphoria. In 2021, one in eight Canadians had been prescribed opioids at some point in their life. These tiny pills are highly addictive.
Currently, North America suffers from an opioid epidemic, with more than 130 people dying from opioid-related deaths every day. Yet, the opioid crisis doesn’t seem to be talked about enough, given the scale of tragedy that’s ensued.
Kingston only has to look to its neighbouring city of Belleville to see the crippling effects of the opioid crisis. In 2024, Belleville’s Mayor, Neil Ellis, declared a state of emergency after 23 people overdosed in the span of 48
hours. My father grew up in Belleville, and he used to walk my siblings and I through the streets, pointing out his cherished childhood memories—streets where, 35 years later, 13 people overdosed in the span of two hours. Ever since I was kid, I’ve heard countless warnings from my elders, including visits from nurses at school, about cannabis—a gateway drug. They claimed that if you tried it, you’d be sucked into a world of hard drugs and addiction.
When former drug addicts from a halfway house visited my elementary school in Ottawa, each speaker was asked if cannabis was the drug that led to their addictions. Yet, each one had the same hesitant answer—that their tumultuous experience with drugs actually began from prescription drugs. The visits from nurses and school presentations had never warned me of the dangers of medication.
Loosely prescribed drugs intended to help people have done more harm than good. From opium being doled out by doctors for stomach aches in the 18th century to Purdue Pharma’s false marketing of Oxycontin, a semi-synthetic opioid used to treat pain—opium has lurked in the shadows, ruining people’s lives for hundreds of years.
Purdue Pharma was aware of how dangerous and addictive Oxycontin was, yet they sold it. And it picks favourites—people who are, of course, in pain whether from abrupt injury or the aches of constant
physical labour.
As heartbreaking as it is, there’s corruption and fraud in the field of medicine.
In 2016, British Columbia declared a public health emergency due to a drastic increase in opioid-related overdose deaths. Since then, 21,000 more people in the province have lost their lives to opioid-related deaths. Though I was aware of the West Coast crisis, in the five minutes I spent driving through Vancouver’s East Hastings Street, I was jarred by the amount of chaos and suffering caused by the drug epidemic.
I witnessed people of all ages—many with needles in their arms, some staring off in a frozen trance or digging through the garbage, and others collapsing onto the ground to be met immediately by a team of paramedics. It’s crucial to remember there are real people behind what’s known as the Opioid Crisis, people whose lives have been destroyed after they themselves or their loved ones were introduced to opioids.
If, for some awful turn of fate, one is prescribed opioids for a medical concern, they must also be strongly prescribed with immense caution for care of usage.
Eva is a third-year English & History student and one of The Journal’s Assistant Arts & Culture Editors.
Eva Sheahan Assistant Arts & Culture Editor
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
A half-decade after COVID-19, Queen’s grapples with lost traditions
Wait, what are the words to the ‘Oil Thigh’?
Allie Moustakis, Skylar Soroka, & Herbert Wang Journal Staff
Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The next day, Queen’s University made the decision to cancel all in-person classes.
In the following weeks, the University was flipped on its head, treading into uncharted territory both academically and socially.
Phrases like “oil thigh na Banrighinn a’Banrighinn gu brath” would be a sweet reminder of an alum’s time at Queen’s, but now, it’s a hodgepodge of mispronounced words.
Milestone events like convocation were cancelled, and the Queen’s community was left to pick up the pieces of a completely online experience.
At the time, the choice was a matter of health and safety, led in large part by Dr. David Walker, professor emeritus, former Dean of Health Sciences, and the special advisor to Principal Patrick Deane on COVID-19.
The University had been aware of the threat of a pandemic for weeks before cancelling in-person classes. Dr. Walker recalls receiving an e-mail from Principal Deane in late Feburary 2020 while he was on a holiday in Barbados. The next day, they were meeting in his office discussing what was considered an epidemic. In preparation, a COVID19 management structure was created by Principal Deane, consisting of students, leaders, and administrators, as well as the local medical officer.
“The reason he asked me, I think, was because I had chaired the expert panel on SARS, the previous Coronavirus for the Government of Ontario,” Dr. Walker said in an interview with The Journal.
Despite his previous experience with the SARS virus, the team was dealing with an unknown threat without the benefit of hindsight.
“There was a concern that we didn’t know how lethal it was. We weren’t completely sure exactly how it spread. It was obviously close airborne, but it was spread easily,” Dr. Walker said.
As an institution where large numbers of people gather,
Queen’s was identified to be at particularly high risk for a rapid spread of the virus across the community.
The solution suggested was to take immediate and drastic action.
been the heart of school spirit, leading marches from Grant Hall to Richardson Stadium for football games, performing the “Oil Thigh” at Homecoming, and keeping century old traditions alive.
a sea of tricolour energy heading into the game. Now, the numbers have dwindled.
“People would march with us and everyone would go to the game together, that’s definitely
found creative ways to push what’s safe in the name of tradition.
To an outsider, the idea of climbing a pole covered in grease to grab a Scottish wool hat, just to
of first-years eager to boost school spirit at football games, Bands takes the title of the oldest Canadian university marching band and has evolved from its humble beginnings of only brass instruments.
The name can be misleading.
Queen’s Bands isn’t a single group, but rather a collection of six distinct performance units: the pipe band, brass band, cheerleaders, highland dancers, drum corps, and the colour guard. Together, they have
was lost.
“I feel like that’s been a bit of a loss, in terms of that game day atmosphere and kind of bringing energy up,” Rugg said. Bands’ job doesn’t start once they get to the stadium, it begins long before kickoff, as they march through campus, rallying students along the way. Before the pandemic, the traditional march from Grant Hall to Richardson to Stadium was an event in itself, with students falling in line, creating
spectacle rather than an invitation to join.
The instinct to participate—to be part of something bigger— was weakened by the pandemic, leaving behind a student body that’s only now learning how to engage in traditions that once felt automatic.
Bands and engineering students share one significant similarity—tradition.
Baked deeply in the culture of Queen’s engineering, students in the faculty have always
“a year” sounds ridiculous. The idea of going to a pub in the middle of a Friday to get a fabric bar to sew on a jacket, just to slam it on the ground might be a bit absurd, but for a majority of Smith Engineering students, it’s at the core of what it means to be a Queen’s engineer.
Part of ensuring that these events still run year to year are the executives of the Engineering Society of Queen’s University, including the Vice-President of Operations
(VPOPS), who has overseen the management of services such as Clark Hall Pub since the 1960s.
“[The portfolio was] offices, but from that came Clark Hall Pub, and then came the offices of the services like CEO and Golden Words, so tradition is a huge, huge part of that portfolio,” Jacob Badali, Sci ’25, last year’s VPOPS said in an interview with The Journal.
The Journal. Even more, it was a way to create lasting connections with classmates in his year.
“I went to Palm Springs with three of my closest engineering friends, who also happened to be the mechanical engineering bowling team, curling team, broomball team,” Stock said.
Despite the merits of the program, for one reason or another, the university began to faze out programs over time.
forced to put their teachings into writing to pass down for future managers.
“There wasn’t a formal transition manual or operations manual for Clark in terms of, how do you change beer gas, and how do you do all these things. And so when COVID-19 happened [the head manager] wrote it all down, and then it’s been updated since then,” Badali said.
Things have naturally been lost over the two year break, but a new set of eyes has allowed for change to happen
align with the regulations of University administrators.
Traditions being lost isn’t a foreign concept.
Paul Stock, Sci ’89, looks back on the former engineering interdisciplinary intramural program fondly.
“If it wasn’t for the intramural program, I would have failed out, it saved me. It got me out of Clark Hall. It got me to do something physical for my body and my mind,” Stock said in an interview with
to be university-wide and requires students to find their own teams.
“It’s too hard to join [now].
But if you do it by program, then every program has an opportunity to participate,” Stock said.
In the case of Clark Hall Pub, COVID-19 expedited that process, causing a steady stream of word of mouth transitions to suddenly stop.
The few motivated people during the pandemic were
was undoubtedly an event that changed the history of Queen’s, but five years on it’ll be that toughness and spirit that will rewrite traditions for the best.
Like the lyrics remind us, “soiled as they are by the battle and the rain, yet another victory to wipe away the stain”—the spirit of Queen’s may have weathered the storm of the pandemic, but it’s far from lost.
Children shouldn’t be obligated to care for their aging parents out of familial responsibility
The cultural obligation to take care of our elders is misleading
Krissy Liu Contributor
I often struggle to distinguish between what I do out of love and what I do out of obligation.
“You aren’t obligated to take care of us when we get old.” My dad explicitly said this in one of our weekly family discussions when I was 12 years old.
This point of information may not sound surprising until I tell you my family has been based in Beijing our entire lives, and we’re 100 per cent Chinese.
The Chinese concept of filial piety, or Xiao, emphasizes respecting and caring for one’s elders, and is one of many examples of the cultural obligations a child must carry out as they assist their parents’ health in their older age. This burden is placed on children with the guise that it’s an important, ancient tradition—but this may not be true.
Family is one of the central ideas of Confucian culture, an ancient Chinese belief system, and is the origin of Xiao. The foundational literature on this says: “When your parents are alive, don’t travel far. If you do have to travel, be sure to have a specific destination.” Chinese people consider caring for aging parents the right way of doing things. This right way of behaving has been transformed and masqueraded as an “obligation”
by a lot of people in Chinese society.
However, if we examine it more closely, the old Chinese saying aligns better with the reality of a responsibility: a moral choice, not a binding rule. Not everyone follows this philosophy, and those who don’t are still allowed to live their lives freely.
The crutch of ancient text to pressure children into the caretaking role is unsupportive to the strict rule that Chinese children ought to care for their parents, so it’s funny to think so many people follow this tradition.
If children do take on this role of caretaker, it’s simply out of familial love and a personal responsibility, not based in cultural truth. An obligation is a binding duty, often legal, which implies some sort of necessity. However, a responsibility is a general duty, which can be moral, social, or personal. The key difference is that while obligation entails necessity, responsibility can be encouraged or expected but isn’t mandatory.
Western cultures are used to the idea that there's no obligation between parents and children, but rather a moral responsibility of family members. The Western society embraces individualism, which shapes their views on the relationship between parents and children. After all, it’s not the children’s will to be conceived and born. Thus, it’s more civilized to acknowledge there’s no obligation for children to take care of their aging parents, but familial courtesy based on pre-established, loving relationships, with no strings attached.
It’s true that parents are legally bound to provide
necessities such as food, shelter, education, and healthcare for their children. However, “taking care” involves raising children with love, values, and guidance. This aligns with the definition of “responsibility” not “obligation.
I found myself feeling a pull towards my parents when I went away to university. I wanted to make sure they were okay and I took a personal interest in their health. It wasn't the cultural pressure I felt drawing me into this headspace, it was the moral duty I felt towards my loved ones.
Approximately one in four Canadians aged 15 and older provide care to a family member with a long-term health condition or physical or mental disability. This may seem like a benign statistic, but cultural obligation shaming children into this role contributes to the 7.8 million young familial caregivers seen
in Canada.
And that’s the difference. Obligation is enforced. Responsibility here is a chosen act of love and gratitude.
At the core of this debate is something deeply human: emotion. My dad is an individualist, yet his empathy guides his actions. He may believe in rational self-interest, but he isn’t selfish. Because ultimately, logic alone doesn’t define human relationships—love does.
Krissy Liu is a fourth-year commerce student .
Have an opinion you want to share? E-mail journal_letters@ams.queensu.ca.
Queen’s policy should put the onus on the perpetrator, not the survivor.
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Cait’s Cookies bakes up sweet success in the student entrepreneur space
‘If you’re thinking of starting something, I would just say do it’
Rather than winding down after a long day of school, one student entrepreneur’s night is defined by the sweet hum of an oven.
Just a month ago, Cait’s Cookies was born as the product of Caitlyn Shim’s, ConEd ’27, disappointment in cookie options on campus, and her love for baking. Selling her freshly made and individually wrapped cookies from $3 to $3.50 each, Shim’s baking and persistent marketing has propelled Cait’s Cookies into the Queen’s entrepreneur space.
“I realized how limited the options were for fresh, high-quality cookies to buy on campus,” Shim said in an interview with The Journal. “I’ve always loved baking for my friends and my family, and I was obsessed with watching [videos of] my inspiration, Brooki.”
Brooki is a well-known Australian baker and bakery owner who frequently posts
lifestyle content on YouTube, primarily day-in-the-life videos.
“I kept telling myself I wanted to start my own cookie business [like Brooki], but for years I never actually acted on it,” Shim added.
Shim recently hired her first employee to assist with baking, but before that she made every single cookie herself. Shim’s student house oven only permits one cookie tray—or eight cookies—at a time, making baking incredibly time-consuming.
Baking is only one of the responsibilities that comes with Cait’s Cookies. Marketing is another integral component to Shim’s business model.
Social media platforms are becoming an increasingly more valuable marketing resource for businesses given its wide reach and high audience engagement.
Cait’s Cookies promotes itself on TikTok and Instagram, with both platforms doubling as space for customers to submit a pre-order form if they don’t want to place bets on securing a cookie at one of Shim’s bake sales.
“I think TikTok has been the [account] people are noticing,” Shim said. Drawing inspiration from Brooki, she shapes her marketing strategy to be relatable and keeps the content fresh and relevant to students.
Shim’s marketing efforts have proven to be successful thus far—she consistently sells out pre-orders, capping them at 20,
and completely sold out of product during her first bake sale on Feb. 12. Shim projects she’ll sell over 200 cookies during her next one.
After one month of Cait’s Cookies, Shim is beginning to earn a profit via two forms of sales: pre-ordering and bake sales.
“[During my first bake sale] I didn’t make any [net profit]. There’s so much going into it that people just don’t see [such as ingredients, packaging, and decor] and I spent hours by myself baking the night before,” Shim said.
Shim has collaborated with Project Smile Kingston—a student-led non-profit fighting oral health disparities—and is collaborating with the Queen’s Dance Team for a bake sale on March 14 in the Queen’s Centre.
Through Shim’s trials and triumphs, she’s learned a lot about what it takes to run a
business, especially at the student level. Now, Shim is considering the next steps for her business.
“I definitely want to change [my pre-order] system as I grow, but as of right now that platform is free,” Shim said. “I have really big dreams of opening a real storefront one day […] but that’s going to take a lot of time.”
For those looking to support a Queen’s student-run business without purchasing, Shim says engaging with marketing content and providing feedback is impactful.
“If you’re thinking of starting something, I would just say do it,” Shim advised. “I’m still learning […] and every time there’s a struggle or something doesn’t go right, I learn from that and do better next time.”
DeepSeek’s surge suggests a new era of artificial intelligence
New AI models are reshaping the academic landscape
Florella Peng First Year Intern
ChatGPT’s monopoly as the leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) model faces a formidable challenger in DeepSeek, a rising powerhouse poised to redefine intelligence systems.
Since the launch of ChatGPT’s OpenAI model in late 2022, it’s been the dominant AI tool for many. The current surge of DeepSeek, however—which claims superior mathematical reasoning and structured responses—is challenging ChatGPT’s dominance.
In early 2025, the AI world was rocked by the surprising development of DeepSeek—a Chinese AI company—becoming a major player in the global AI race. Within weeks of its international launch, the DeepSeek app shot to the top of download charts, with United States President Donald Trump describing it as a “wake-up call” for US companies.
DeepSeek’s competitive advantage stems from its claims to have achieved performance comparable to leading models like ChatGPT, but at a fraction of the cost.
“While ChatGPT is popular for AI assistant for writing,
Queen’s researchers face uncertainty amid National Institutes of Health policy change
Updated policy implements a standardized indirect cost rate of 15 per cent across all grant awards
Florella Peng First Year Intern
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) has updated its policy on indirect costs for grants, projected to impact the broader biomedical research community—including Queen’s.
According to a Feb. 7 news release, the NIH has updated its policies, implementing a standardized indirect cost rate of 15 per cent across all new and existing grant awards in accordance with the US Code of Federal Regulations. Starting Feb. 10, all new grants and existing grants to universities will be subject to the cost rate to cover expenses such as building maintenance and administrative costs. The change aims to ensure more funds go towards research over administrative overhead.
With many research teams in Canada partnering with US institutions, NIH has played a crucial role in supporting Canadian medical research for years. The policy change raises concerns for American and Canadian researchers alike, including stalled projects, financial strains, and reduced international partnerships.
summarizing information, and assistance with coding, DeepSeek’s focus on mathematical reasoning and technical accuracy makes it a strong competitor,” Bella Lin, Comm ’28, said in an interview with The Journal.
The DeepSeek-R1 model, the first installment of the third series, is specifically designed to use complex reasoning, making it more suitable for tasks that require deep logical thinking, like mathematics and coding. ChatGPT-4o—OpenAI’s newest and most advanced model—is a versatile multimodal model that offers interaction across text, audio, and vision, making it more suitable for writing and creative tasks.
In an interview with The Journal, Ali Etemad, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering shed light on the rivalry between models.
“It’s hard to tell if one is perfectly better than the other ones [AI models], each of them are
good at certain things,” Etemad said.
According to Etemad, the constant evolution and changes in AI tools make it difficult to have a definitive winner between AI models.
“When this race started, [ChatGPT] was the best one, then [Google] Gemini came and that started to get close to ChatGPT and surpass it some aspects, and then [Meta] Llama came and then DeepSeek and all the other ones,” he added.
The rapid evolution of AI indicates no AI tool will continuously dominate. AI development may be moving towards more specialized markets and agents that can take action, opening new avenues for AI to be integrated into our daily lives.
Etemad doesn’t foresee the rapid development slowing down anytime soon, in fact he anticipates the opposite.
“In the next few years, we’ll have
all of these [AI models] converge to the same power, and there won’t be a dominant one,” Etemad shared.
Regardless, with the widespread adoption of AI in education, students now have instant access to answers, potentially improving efficiency in learning.
“Students are doing better in classes because they can get answers instantly […] before, they’d have had to book an appointment with their instructor or Teaching Assistant. Now, it’s two sentences away,” Etemad said.
While AI tools are heightening learning, some students believe they’re still far from perfect.
“ChatGPT and DeepSeek are definitely useful tools, but they’re still limiting […] sometimes, the answers lack nuance, and I still have to fact-check everything,” Lin said.
Lin’s observations on her own AI usage suggest these tools serve best as supplementary tools rather than standalone solutions for coursework.
Etemad, a researcher of human-centered machine and deep learning, wonders where the line between beneficial AI use and overreliance is defined.
Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca
Queen’s has long benefited from NIH grants, supporting health and science research across disciplines, such as cancer treatments, neuroscience, and public health studies. In the 2024 fiscal year, Queen’s was awarded $2,333,866 from NIH.
The full impact of NIH’s policy change remains unclear.
In a statement to The Journal, Dr. Steven Smith, Queen’s deputy vice-principal research, vice-president of health sciences research at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, and president and chief executive officer of the Kingston General Health Research Institute, acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
“It’s too early to determine what, if any impact on Queen’s researchers and research projects who receive funding from US government sources, including NIH,” Dr. Smith said.
As Canadian researchers await clarity, institutions like Queen’s are closely monitoring developments.
“The Vice-Principal Research portfolio is closely monitoring the situation and the impacts on the research landscape in North America […] and we’re actively engaging with our researchers who are receiving and may receive NIH funding to ensure their programs of study are minimally affected if there are changes to access to those funds,” Dr. Smith added.
GRAPHIC BY NATALIE VIEBROCK
DeepSeek is a competitor for ChatGPT.
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Caitlyn Shim created Cait’s Cookies in 2025.
Cure Cancer Classic in Photos
Charity hockey game raises over $560 thousand for cancer research
BY
PHOTOS
SARAH ADAMS
Men’s Volleyball win Forsyth Cup
Gaels beat Lancers 3-1, advancing to U SPORTS Championship
Aidan Michaelov Senior Sports Editor
The Men’s Volleyball team won their first Forsyth Cup since 2020, beating the Windsor Lancers three sets to one on March 7.
With an OUA championship under their belt, the Gaels secured their spot in the U SPORTS Men’s Volleyball Championship and will head to Manitoba, where they’ll face the Saskatchewan Huskies in the first round on March 21.
Reflecting on the game, Head Coach Gabe deGroot credited his team’s composure and preparation against a familiar opponent.
“It was good to know Windsor had the potential to beat us and that we had to be our best to win this match,” deGroot said in an interview with The Journal.
The Gaels split their regular season meeting with the Lancers 1-1, but deGroot emphasized that his team had evolved since their last matchups back in November. The team focused on setter distribution and defensive adjustments, ensuring they wouldn’t allow the Lancers to repeat their previous victory.
“Those [regular season games] give us strategic opportunities to make adjustments, tactical advantages that we can maybe key on from the previous time we played them,” he said. But I think ultimately when we played
them in the fall, we hadn’t executed as high a level as we are now.”
The first set of the championship game was extremely close, with Queen’s ultimately edging out the Lancers 28-26. This was largely due to a few late kills from OUA Athlete of the Week, Zig Licis, Sci ’25.
From there, deGroot felt the Gaels were in control.
“Once we broke [through] the first set and got the lead, I think it felt like we were in pretty good control and from there on it was just a matter of staying the course and staying level headed,” he said. “By the fourth set, I think we were well in control of the match and I think just
waited for the opportunity to celebrate the victory by the end.”
The Gaels won the second set more decisively, 25-21 before dropping the third in a tight 26-28 contest. However, they rebounded well, making much-needed adjustments and authoritatively closing out the fourth set 25-16 to seal the championship win.
For most of the players on the team, the Forsyth Cup represents their first gold medal on the OUA stage, but deGroot emphasized they’re no strangers to high-stakes matches.
“This group played in a U SPORTS quarterfinal and a semifinal bronze medal match here last year with a packed house,
full crowd, high energy. We were in an OUA final finishing silver last year against McMaster, so these types of moments aren’t new for our group,” he said.
With their sights set on a U SPORTS medal, the Gaels will prepare to take on the Huskies, who finished fourth in the Canada West division with a 14-6 record.
deGroot, along with the rest of the Men’s Volleyball team, is taking each game as it comes, not getting ahead of themselves while remaining confident.
“There’s a deep-rooted belief in this team,” he said. “To have success at a national championship takes time—that’s not something you just have one year, one-off
With new talent and McHaffie at the helm, Gaels aim for comeback season
Head Coach of the Women’s Hockey team sits down with ‘The Journal’
Aidan Michaelov
Senior Sports Editor
The Women’s Hockey team may have taken a step back in the standings this season, but Head Coach Morgan McHaffie, ArtSci ’14, sees the setbacks as part of the natural growing pains as she completes her second season leading the program.
McHaffie has been a fixture in the Gaels’ hockey program for 15 years, beginning as a player in 2009-2010. During her time on the ice, she led the Gaels to two OUA gold medals in 2010-11 and 2011-12, amassing an impressive 153 points over 128 career games.
After retiring in 2014, McHaffie transitioned into coaching, serving as an assistant coach before stepping into the head coaching role mid-season in 2023-24. Now, with a full year behind her, she’s finally starting to feel like she’s in control of her team.
“I’ve always felt tied to the
program, and that’s because I did have some involvement with some of the recruiting previously. […] But I just think having the ability to make all the decisions with regards to how we’re going to implement our structure, the teaching points, and those things was really great,” McHaffie said in an interview with The Journal.
While the Gaels had a disappointing season, finishing with an 11-19-0 record through the regular season, they were able to keep most of their games competitive and managed to reach the second round of the OUA playoffs, where they lost to the Nipissing Lakers.
Coaching transitions can be difficult, as teams rely on established systems and tactics. When a new philosophy is introduced, growing pains are inevitable—something the Women’s Hockey team experienced this season.
McHaffie is well aware of the difficulties that come with change and has been implementing a new style of play focused on creativity and puck possession.
“As a coach, I like to see us playing a bit more of a possession game, or with a higher level of creativity,” McHaffie said. “If we have nothing forward,
bring the puck back and a different structure around practices.”
While the season was filled with many losses, there were a few bright spots for the Gaels.
Emma Tennant, Sci ’26, asserted herself as a reliable goaltender and one of the best in the league, ranking second overall in saves with 781 and posting a .928 save percentage.
Forward Mikayla Cranney, ArtSci ’27, has also grown into her own this season, leading the team with 18 points in 26 games. A dynamic playmaker, Cranney recorded a team-high 12 assists in the season, proving her ability to set up teammates while creating opportunities for herself.
With an incoming recruiting class featuring speed, size, and offensive poise, McHaffie is optimistic about next season, as it aligns with her vision of a puck-possession system.
McHaffie looks forward to her continued growth with the program and the Kingston community and is extremely grateful for all the support the Women’s Hockey team has been lucky enough to receive and give over these past couple of seasons.
“I just appreciate everyone’s
success, so going back to what I’ve said before, I think this is about building off the experience we’ve had before.”
He also acknowledged the challenge ahead, as the OUA hasn’t won a U SPORT Championship since 1968, when the Ottawa Gee-Gees beat the Manitoba Bison 2-0 in Guelph, Ont.
“For our group, that’s like climbing Mount Everest, it’s a task that’s seemingly insurmountable, but we’re up for it.”
To make it over the U SPORTS mountain, the Gaels will need to overcome multiple Canada West teams. While the road ahead is tough, deGroot and his squad are confident in their ability to shine under the bright national spotlight on March 21.
Gaels fall to Gee-Gees
in oUa
Championship, bUt their season isn’t over yet
Men’s Basketball eyes U SPORTS redemption after losing 87-95 to Ottawa in OUA Final
Aidan Michaelov Senior Sports Editor
The Gaels traveled to the nation’s capital on March 8, where they fell just short of becoming back-to-back OUA Champions, losing 87-95 to the Ottawa Gee-Gees 87-95 in a hard-fought battle.
support all year long,” McHaffie said. “I love how we’ve started to really get involved with the community. We’ve had a lot of Kingston Ice Wolves out, and the Gananoque community and some of those areas are continuing to increase support. Hopefully, in the case of the Memorial Centre, the City of Kingston will help with doing some upgrades on the rink because that has been a huge challenge at times.”
With McHaffie’s leadership and a fresh wave of talent incoming, the Gaels are poised for a stronger, more competitive season ahead.
Going into their championship matchup, the Gaels had lost both regular season contests against the Gee-Gees, 82-95 on Jan. 31 and 84-89 on Feb. 15.
The two regular season losses seemed to fuel the Gaels, as they stormed out the gates with a dominant first quarter, outscoring the top-ranked team 28-15.
The Gaels were lights-out in the opening frame, shooting 57 per cent from the three-point line and 63 per cent from the field. U SPORTS Rookie of the Year, Ollie Engen, Kin ’28, Jalen Sikkema, Arts ’28, and Lucas Ponting, Comm ’27, combined for 16 points, setting the tone early.
Ottawa, however, found its rhythm in the second quarter, tightening up defensively and cutting down on turnovers.
The Gaels’ red-hot shooting cooled, and the Gee-Gees capitalized, outscoring Queen’s 25-19. Still, the Gaels entered halftime up 47-40.
Led by Luka Syllas, ConEd ’25, the Gaels went into halftime looking focused, seemingly ready to put it all on the line to fend off the comeback the Gee-Gees would need to get back into the game.
deGroot and the Gaels are headed west to Manitoba for the U SPORTS Championships.
PHOTO BY JASHAN DUA
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Horoscopes: Luck is in the air
The Psychic scholar Staff Writer
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and group chats are abuzz with discussions about where the weekend will take them. Some are busy making detailed plans, anxiously Instacarting green food dye, while others are more laid-back, ready to let Irish music and spontaneity set the tone.
No matter how you celebrate—whether it’s hitting a pub, hosting a darty, or simply embracing the luck of the Irish—the stars have something in store for every zodiac sign this weekend.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21)
Loosen up
Sagittarius—it’s St. Patrick’s Day, not exam season. You’ve been grinding hard, as always, but this weekend calls for a little indulgence. Whether it’s a festive breakfast or a night out with friends, give yourself permission to let loose. Luck is on your side!
Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19)
Shine on, Capricorn! St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect excuse to take center stage. Luck is in the air, but don’t rely on four-leaf clovers alone—your natural charisma is all the magic you need. Just don’t get so caught up in the shenanigans that you forget to pace yourself.
Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)
Aquarius, this weekend is all about savouring life’s little pleasures. A hearty green pancake, a pint of Guinness, and good company
are all you need to feel the festive spirit. You may not be one for wild crowds, but a cozy night in with friends or a low-key celebration will bring you all the joy you’re looking for.
Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20)
Pisces, this holiday was made for social butterflies like you. Whether you’re hopping from darty to darty or sparking conversations with every ginger you see, your charm will be in full force today. The fun is endless, but you don’t have to say yes to everything. Sometimes, the best memories come from choosing the right crowd to spend your time with.
Aries (March 21 – April 19)
Keep it cozy, Aries! A small gathering with close friends and some Irish tunes might be just the way to celebrate. That said, if you do decide to venture out to Aberdeen St., you may find yourself playing the role of emotional—and sober—anchor for friends who have a little too much fun.
Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
Taurus —St. Patrick’s Day is your stage. Whether you’re dazzling the crowd with your best green outfit or commanding attention at the ginger run, you’re in your element. Just remember, true luck isn’t about being the loudest in the room—it’s about knowing when to step back and enjoy the moment, too. A little mystery will only add to your charm. Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Stay
nobody’s fool, even on a holiday full of luck and mischief. You might be more focused on keeping plans organized than getting lost in the revelry but try to let loose just a little. Not everything needs a strategy—besides, you deserve a break from all that responsibility.
Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Embrace the balance, Cancer! You thrive in the energy, whether you’re hopping between friend groups or settling debates over which bar line to attempt next. Just be careful not to get too caught up in people-pleasing—your luck today comes from following your own kind of fun.
Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22)
Play it cool, Leo. St. Patrick’s Day may be loud and chaotic, but you don’t have to be. An intimate
conversation with a new friend and a strong drink might be more your speed. That being said, a little spontaneity won’t hurt. Maybe tonight’s the night to surprise yourself with your charms.
Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22)
Virgo—where will the weekend take you? You’re in your element with the festive energy of St. Patrick’s Day, and the possibilities are endless. Lean into the excitement. Just don’t get so caught up chasing luck you forget to enjoy where you are in the moment.
Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22)
Libra, there’s something a little magical about St. Patrick’s Day, and you can feel it. Embrace the whimsy of the holiday. A few shenanigans, a Shamrock Shake, and maybe even a little unexpected good fortune are all in store. Just make sure you’re not so lost in your own world that you miss the fun happening right in front of you.
Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21)
March to your own Irish beat, Scorpio. You’re not one for traditions, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make this holiday your own. Whether that means skipping the crowded Ale House line in favour of an unconventional night out or finding a unique name for your Borg, embrace your individuality. The best luck comes when you do things your way. Need
sharp, Gemini—you’re
ARTS & CULTURE
Camaraderie and Country Coexist in harmony with Good Co.
Country-rock band set to release debut self-titled album
Eva Sheahan
Assistant Arts & Culture Editor
The brothers in Good Co., went from Ben teaching Cody to play guitar, to releasing a country-rock album together.
Brothers, Ben Cranston and Cody Allen James, have been playing music together for years, performing in bands like Radio Mama and The Mature Themes, before starting their own Kingston-based band, Good Co. in 2023.
‘Journal’ alumni share their best music memories
From featuring in The Hip’s music video to mosh pit madness, ‘The Journal’ has seen it all
Madison Taylor
Senior Arts & Culture Editor
The life of The Journal’s Arts & Culture Editor is unlike any other on the masthead.
The role itself wears many faces and holds even more names. From as early as 1908, The Journal has had a “music” section, evolving from Arts to Arts & Entertainment, back to Arts, and eventually Arts & Culture. Confused? Understandable.
From leaving late night bars drenched in beer you didn’t drink, dealing with D-list divas— as well as A-listers if you’re lucky—catching someone before their big break, and plain being in the right place at the right time, the privilege of the press pass has helped the section capture snapshots of time, turning fleeting moments into something permanent.
Despite its chameleonic appearance, one part of the job has always stayed the same. We have the most fun when it comes to music.
To prove my point, I spoke with Journal alum—mostly past Arts Editors, and a few welcome guests to the section—for their most memorable music moments during their time on the masthead. ***
The most famous Kingston band, of course, is The Tragically Hip. I started at Queen’s in 1990 so the band was already becoming well known nationally. (I was an early fan and can be spotted in the crowd in their video for “New Orleans is Sinking” which was filmed in Calgary the
year before.)
In Kingston in September 1991, I saw them play Old Fort Henry, introduced by Dan Ackroyd. They rocked the place with tracks from their latest album, Road Apples. And I got to meet them in person at Alfie’s on a Tuesday night when The Mahones played a gig.
—Brock Martland, Features Editor, Vol. 121, ArtSci ’95
I was very lucky to be Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Journal in 2004-05, right in the middle of one of the golden eras in Canadian music. Living between Toronto and Montreal at that time meant we were spoiled with amazing live shows. I saw Arcade Fire play Clark Hall Pub, Broken Social Scene at Grant Hall, Metric at Elixir, Sam Roberts at AJ’s Hanger, Alexisonfire at the Iron Horse Saloon. So, so many wall-shaking shows at The Grad Club—the Constantines, Cuff the Duke, Stars, Joel Plaskett, the Sadies. It really felt like we had a front-row seat to something truly special happening in Canadian music. I also have fond memories of seeing campus bands, like Tomate Potate and The Radical Dudez, and Kingston bands like Magic Jordan and The Gertrudes. With CFRC, the Artel and Apple Crisp all putting on amazing shows as well, it was just a glorious time and place to be a music fan.
—Brendan Kennedy, Arts & Entertainment Editor, Vol. 133, ArtSci ’07
Picture this, it’s the middle of Kingston summer and you walk into The Mansion to see an unnamed rock band your friend’s brother landscapes with. The rock band is, well, rocking, and vibes are up! Everyone’s feeling loose and I decide to get a closer look at the band, being
the curious young journalist I was. Making my way through the crowd with my friend’s hand in mine, we are determined and steadfast... all of a sudden we hear “DEATH CIRCLE!” and everyone starts going crazy moshing.
Next thing I know, my friend and I are pinned to the floor and we’ve been trampled over. We crawl our way out from the dedicated rockers on top of us and find safety on the sidelines. No broken bones on either of us, the adrenaline was pumping so hard it didn’t even hurt! All that’s left is the vodka cran stains on my top and the fond memory in my brain. It was a good lesson that The Mansion is for the real ones and if you can’t hang with the mosh, you may be better off watching from the sides.
— Rida Chaudhry, Arts Editor, Vol. 150, ArtSci, ’23
Writing for The Journal brought me out of the Queen’s “bubble” and into what felt like a more real world of Kingston, where, in nearby neighbourhoods people had families and jobs and art and music were being made on every block.
That time and place may be best illustrated by the Backyard Sex Band, a sprawling bunch, maybe 15 performers strong, of multi-instrumentalists and no instrumentalists (hand clappers? yoohoo-ers?) who played every Wednesday night at The Grad Club’s open mic. The cover songs they played were just as free-range; songs like “Oh Yoko” and “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” They were the kind of songs that could showcase—or withstand—folksy gang vocals, roaming rhythms, a trombone and a theremin.
The goal wasn’t perfection, it was to be together. To meet at a sun-filled apartment on Pine Street for a potluck dinner and a flying rehearsal, and then walk over to
The Grad Club and hope to get the 9:30 spot—together.
After a few years, the Backyard Sex Band morphed and grew as these things do, and in this case, maybe even grew up, got a little less shaggy and a little more tight. They played their first gig as The Gertrudes at a fundraiser for Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, back when it was just north of Princess. Their sixth full-length album, City Noise, was released today, March 14, 2025.
—Meghan Sheffield, Arts & Entertainment Editor, Vol. 135, ArtSci ’08
Armed with a camera and wearing a black smock from American Apparel, I knocked back a coffee spiked with Goldschläger and grimaced—it tasted disgusting. Poised to cover Holy Fuck’s sold-out electronic rock show at The Grad Club, I was excited to snap photos of live music for the first time. Outside the packed venue, an indie oasis, the streets crawled with police in preparation for the weekend’s notorious Homecoming celebrations.
Before Holy Fuck’s set, a cute girl shared a joint with me on the venue’s Victorian wrap-around porch. As Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh twisted knobs and smashed pedals alongside live drums and bass, I danced on the built-in bench amidst grad students and baby hipsters—Urban Outfitters had just opened in town, and it was the year jocks began trading in their polo shirts and Ugg boots for flannel and skinny jeans. I revelled in the beautiful robot music and all the bodies pulsing in this living room of the Kingston arts scene.
Adèle Barclay, Arts & Entertainment Editor, Vol. 136, ArtSci, ’09
My favourite music-related thing that happened when I was Arts Editor in 149 was getting to interview PUP. It was the first time I actually got to interview a band I know and like, which was
The dynamic group of talent consists of Cranston on vocals and bass, James on guitar and vocals, Mike Rapkins on lead guitar and vocals, and Dan Killen on drums and percussion. Together, they crafted Good Co.’s self-titled debut album, a country-rock release set to drop on April 5, accompanied by a same-day show at The Buckle.
In anticipation of the album, The Journal sat down with James for insight into the band’s creative journey and what listeners can expect.
Recorded in Scarborough by Tobin Hopwood and mastered by Charles Carvalho, Good Co., took shape in 2024. With three singles already released, “Paint Fumes,” “Night/Day,” and “Taking Back the Night,” the band can’t wait for the album’s full release.
Good Co. is occasionally joined live by Jake Hochman on pedal steel and Sarah Bassakyros on backup vocals—both of whom contributed to the album—solidifying the band as a collaborative project rooted in a shared love of music.
For James, music has always been in his blood. His grandmother was a musician, often playing piano and singing old gospel tunes. His parents always had the radio on, with various records playing. Most influentially, his brother Cranston, with his ever-present guitar, shaped the musician James is today.
“In some form or another, we [Cranston and James] have been a part of our musical journey together,” James said in an interview with The Journal.
Along with tinkering around together on the guitar and drums, James explains the brother duo grew up on old rock and roll and country.
Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca
cool. If I remember correctly, they performed at the Ale House and did a great job. It was interesting because it kind of felt like a show that would’ve happened 10 or 15 years earlier, a bit of a throwback.
—Ben Wrixon, Arts Editor, Vol. 149, ArtSci ’22
Kingston’s music scene has a fascinating history.
GRAPHIC BY NATALIE VIEBROCK
I tried daily meditation for a week, here’s what I learned
Turns out, zen is hard to come by
Natalie Viebrock Postscript Editor
I’ve never been good at sitting still. Even in Kindergarten, quiet time on the carpet felt like a cruel joke. Now, as an adult with a mild social media addiction, my attention span is worse than ever. I can barely get through an episode of TV without checking my phone, let alone meditate in complete silence.
I love self-care as much as the next person, but the whole “clear your mind” thing has always seemed unattainable. My brain is a constant loop of grocery lists, half-finished texts, and intrusive thoughts about the embarrassing thing I said in my seminar discussion last week.
Still, I couldn’t ignore the hype surrounding meditation. Celebrities swear by it, therapists recommend it, and apparently, even science backs it up.
So, in the name of personal growth—and possibly delusion—I committed to daily meditation for one whole week. Maybe it’s my White Lotus season three fever talking, or maybe my frontal lobe is finally developing, but I had a sneaky feeling this challenge might just unlock my inner zen.
Day one
To begin my journey into ultimate peace, I picked the first five-minute guided meditation I could find on Spotify, thinking it would be a breeze. I put my headphones on noise-canceling mode, turned up the volume, sat cross-legged on my bed, and placed
my hands face-up on my knees.
Almost immediately, I felt the urge to move—scratch my nose, adjust my hair, anything to avoid sitting still. My mind wandered wildly, anxiously wondering whether I’d open my eyes up to a burglar sneaking around my room, or my housemates madly putting out a fire. The more I tried to focus, the more my thoughts fought back. After five minutes of discomfort and agitation, I made it through, and that felt like a small win.
It’s safe to say, zen was not found on day one.
Day two
Determined to redeem myself from the previous day’s flop, I queued up another Spotify-suggested guided meditation—this time, a grueling 10 minutes long. And while it may sound dramatic, let me tell you—this was pure torture. You know what’s worse than sitting still for five minutes? Sitting still for 10.
But, against all odds, and my
Trad music lives on in Kingston
The city’s Celtic music scene is alive, not just surviving
Evelyn Hylands Contributor
A pint of Guinness isn’t the most exciting thing this St. Patrick’s day. As the holiday approaches, students prepare to storm Aberdeen St. and drink like the Irish, but celebrations of Celtic culture extend further
than just the student district. Within the city’s lively music scene, there’s a massive community that loves Scottish and Irish folk music.
Ahead of their March 15 show at The Grand Theatre, The Journal spoke with The Celtic Kitchen Party, a local Trad band, to get some insight into the popularity and importance of this scene in Kingston.
The traditional folk music scene—often referred to as “Trad” music—is alive and well in Kingston, despite being far from Celtic shores.
better judgment, I powered through. No casualties, no newfound enlightenment, just me, fidgeting my way through day two, still waiting for the promised calm to kick in.
Day three
Three days in, I still wasn’t great at shutting off my thoughts, but I did start noticing them. Instead of spiraling, I’d acknowledge a distracting thought, then let it go. It felt oddly freeing. Perhaps I was finally turning a corner.
Day four
For a challenge based on stillness, meditation made me aware of just how restless I am. For day four’s session, I kept wanting to reach for my phone and do literally anything other than sit with my thoughts. But I pushed through. A few minutes of discomfort was still better than 15 minutes lost to doom-scrolling.
“There’s a heavy, heavy scene in Kingston. People really love this kind of music,” guitarist Andrew Vanhorn said in an interview with The Journal.
Founded in 2009, The Celtic Kitchen Party takes influence from Irish Trad music, incorporating a wide range of instruments, from the fiddle to bagpipes. The seven member band includes Nathan Crockett on drums, Meryem Crockett on keyboard, Brian Flynn, Artsci ’91, Ed ’07 on fiddle, bodhran and vocals, Colin Skinner on pipes and tin whistle, Scott Jackson, Ed ’98 on electric guitar, Jeremy Daw on bass, and Vanhorn on guitar. Passionate about preserving Celtic culture, they continue to keep Trad music alive across Canada.
Kingston’s Celtic community thrives in venues like Tir Nan Og and the Toucan where the sounds of Scotland—fiddles, tin whistles, and lively folk tunes—fill the air.
The Trad scene traces back to the mass migration from Celtic countries to Canada’s East Coast in the 1640s, eventually making its way to Kingston. Scottish and Irish immigrants brought their music and culture, and generations of Canadians have made sure not to forget their Celtic roots.
“They [Scottish and Irish]
Day five
Day five proved challenging, thanks to a perfect storm of distractions. My inbox was overflowing, my group project chat was chaotic, and my brain decided to fixate on how behind I was on an impending assignment. But in the spirit of commitment, I begrudgingly carved out a whopping 20 minutes for meditation. Unfortunately, I felt no revelations or sudden enlightenment—just me, mildly annoyed and still waiting for the magic to happen.
Day six
Okay, I wouldn’t say I aligned my chakras or anything, but finally, something clicked. I tried my longest session yet, 30 minutes, and for the first time, I felt genuinely calm. My intrusive thoughts and impatience stayed at bay, and I experienced a surprising sense of peace. Was this finally zen? Maybe.
Day seven
By the end of the week, I wasn’t transformed into a yogi, but I did feel a shift. Meditation didn’t erase my overactive thoughts, but it helped me see them differently. And honestly, that’s pretty zen. Will I keep up with meditation every day? Probably not. But will I reach for it when I need a mental reset? Absolutely. Turns out, finding a little peace doesn’t mean silencing my thoughts—it just means learning to sit with them.
kept their culture musically. So that’s why I think it’s rising as I think people are getting more nostalgic for it. We all yearn. I think we yearn maybe for the traditional music in these crazy times,” Vanhorn said.
The long-standing Trad music scene in Kingston is something The Celtic Kitchen Party have been contributing to for years, beginning their residency at Tir Nan Og eight years ago. They’ve become a staple of the Trad music scene, playing shows across Canada. Next week, they’re heading over to British Columbia, continuing their mission to keep the music alive.
Trad is an ever-evolving style of music, with bands such as KNEECAP and Skipinnish bringing new styles of Trad influenced music to the genre.
In the recent Gaelic resurgence, Trad music is something that’s exploded in the last few years. There’s a new wave of young people involving themselves in this scene, with Vanhorn advising young musicians to “just keep playing.”
For as long as Vanhorn can remember,Kingstonhasappreciated and nurtured Trad music. The Kingston—and Queen’s—affiliation with Gaelic culture is due to a myriad of factors, cultural roots, and the city’s strong music scene.
The Celtic Kitchen Party isn’t the only Trad band keeping music alive. Kingston contemporaries such as Turpin’s Trail, Irish Root, and of course internationally recognized, The Mahones, who formed on St. Patrick’s day 1990 have all played a vital role in
two rabbits one hat reimaGines ‘maCbeth’ throuGh
the modern media
The bold reinterpretation explores media, power, and the politics of perception
Cloey Aconley Assistant Arts & Culture Editor
This modern take on Macbeth proves its themes remain politically poignant.
Two Rabbits One Hat’s inaugural production, Macbeth, ran from March 11 to 14 at Union Gallery, offering a fresh and thought-provoking take on one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Directed by Rachel Rusonik, ArtSci’ 25, and starring Jake Henderson, ArtSci ’25, and Eleanor Guy, ArtSci 27, the show puts a modern spin on the classic play, proving the continued relevance of its themes.
With only one alteration to the script, the three witches were reimagined as news reporters, transporting the narrative within a contemporary media-driven context. Instead of delivering prophecies, the witches report on the goings-on within the castle, a shift Rusonik used to explore how citizens engage with representative democracy.
“That’s sort of what inspired this vision of how do we get audiences to reflect on the fact that this is an ephemeral moment where we’re coming together in Macbeth’s castle is not something that we get to do in our everyday political structures,” Rusonik said in an interview with The Journal.
Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca
preserving and evolving the Trad music scene.
Vanhorn emphasized the importance of the Trad music scene in Kinston, and the kind of community it’s fostered. “People want to share this culture, before it slips away,” he shared.
He also mentioned the desire to engage with Celtic culture in Kingston, and Canada.
“There’s a saying. It’s there’s the Irish, and then those that want to be Irish.”
For those who want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day beyond just pints of Guinness, Kingston’s Celtic music scene offers an authentic and deeply rooted experiences. As a Scottish and Irish exchange student in Kingston, I wasn’t expecting to find the sounds of home here—but I did.
So, with St. Patricks day creeping closer, maybe polish off your claddagh and get yourself down to Tir Nan Og—Vanhorn’s personal recommendation—for a day or night of Trad music. Maybe even start a ceilidh on the dance floor.
Natalie embraces her inner yogi.
PHOTO BY NAY CHI HTWE
March marks a busy time of year for Trad bands. PHOTO BY NAY CHI HTWE
From Liz, With Love:
A love
letter to love, life, and friendship, and a final goodbye
The things that break us are often the same things that make us whole
Elizabeth Provost Staff Writer
I’ve been writing From Liz, With Love for four years. I started when I was 20, and now, at almost 24, life has dealt me an extraordinary hand—one that has allowed me to share what I’ve learned a bout love, friendship, and the winding, unpredictable path of life.
As I work to end off this chapter—finishing my master’s, leaving behind a place and time that has shaped me in ways I’m still discovering—I want to share four things I’ve learned in four years.
1. Love is beautifully hard Love cracks you open. It makes you feel seen, heard, safe. It can be all-consuming or quiet and sure, exhilarating or familiar. Love is like a favourite sweater—worn with time, shaped by care, frayed at the edges but softer for it.
Love isn’t just something you find, it’s something you build. And sometimes, no matter how strong the foundation, the walls crack, the roof leaks, and the structure you poured yourself into can’t weather every storm. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t real, or that it didn’t shelter you when you needed it.
Love can also undo you. It can leave you breathless, raw, aching in ways you never expected. And in those moments, love teaches you the most important lesson—you were always whole on your own.
Because in the end, the truest home you’ll ever have is the one you build within yourself. Don’t let love make you forget who you are. It should never ask you to shrink, to stay when it hurts, or to become someone you’re not.
2. Your friends can also be your soulmates
Here’s what I know about friendship—it’ll save your life.
Friendship will sit with you on the bathroom floor, taking off your makeup between sobs. It’ll let you scream in the passenger seat, then text you, “Did you get home okay?” even though your location is on.
Friendship will listen to the same heartbreak, the same
self-doubt, the same story, and still say, “Tell me again.”
It’ll pick up the phone at 2 a.m. with no hesitation. It’ll know when to show up and when to stand on the sidelines, cheering you on. It’ll squeeze your hand under the table when your voice shakes.
The right friendships will never ask you to shrink, to disappear, or to be less.
3. Look for the hearts
Therapy, and maybe a few too many wellness podcasts, have taught me we have more control over our minds than we think.
The overthinking, the doom scrolling, the days that feel too heavy to push through don’t have to consume us. The world is full of small reminders that you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. You just have to notice them.
What’s worked for me is deleting social media, prioritizing my mental and physical health, and looking for hearts.
Author and podcaster, Mel Robbins, taught me our thoughts are powerful, and the world isn’t working against us but trying to guide us. So today, when you step outside, look for the hearts—hidden in the clouds, in your coffee foam, in the way sunlight filters through the trees. And when you find one, remind yourself it’s there for you to see, just like everything else good in your life.
4. Everything happens for a reason
Even the worst moments, especially the worst moments, will teach you something you never knew you needed. The storm will come, and you’ll feel lost in it, convinced nothing will ever change. But it does. The clouds break, the sun returns, and though the light might not stay forever, neither will the darkness.
Some lessons arrive gently, while others carve, or even stab, their way into you, reshaping who you are. But no matter how painful, every heartbreak, every detour, every unexpected ending is leading you somewhere. You’ll walk away stronger, wiser, and with a heart that knows how to keep going.
So here it is—my last From Liz, With Love at The Journal. A love letter to romance, to friendship, to everything that has broken me and stitched me back together again, including myself.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for writing in. Thank you for allowing me, month after month, to send a little love out into
Don’t forget to turn Canadian for your next shopping spree
Canadian businesses like Peace Collective and Province of Canada provide alternatives to US retailers
Lauren Nicol Assistant News Editor
While American Eagle and Urban Outfitters are go-to fashion brands for many students, it’s time to wish them farewell.
With a trade war between the United States and Canada, shoppers north of the border have been advocating to “buy Canadian” and avoid US brands in defiance of President Trump’s tariffs.
Though American brands might seem enticing, it’s possible to look local when shopping for your latest outfit to go to class.
If you’re looking for clothing brands thatare cute as well as Canadian, here are some places to start.
Peace Collective
The Toronto-based brand Peace Collective is a Canadian staple with thousands of people passing by the Union Station store in Toronto every day.
The brand was formed in 2014 during the Toronto Raptors playoffs after CEO Yanal Dhailieh created a t-shirt that said “Toronto vs. Everyone” which he wore to a game. Since
the world.
With my whole heart, I hope you find what you ‘re looking for. The world has everything to offer you—if you just look for the hearts.
With Love, Liz
then, the brand has expanded, making merchandise for many major sports teams across various leagues in both the US and Canada.
With graphic tees and items that help show off fans’ undying love for their favourite sports team—and at a competitive price—the brand exudes Canadian energy. As seen in their new “Hockey Canada” collection or their “Canadian as Fuck” sweater, Peace Collective allows you to show off your inner Canuck.
Whether you want to grab a Montréal Victoire sweater, or Toronto Blue Jays sweatpants, Peace Collective is the place to go to show your Canadian spirit.
Province of Canada
There aren’t many better brands to add to this list than one whose slogan is “Honestly made, in Canada.”
With two Toronto storefronts and a thriving online shop, Province of Canada is a fashion and lifestyle brand founded by two Canadians with a vision: to create a brand completely manufactured right here in Canada. They eventually got married and left their day-jobs to start the company.
This brand offers a large range of products, from cozy sweaters to candles, with all of their products tying back to Canada in some way. Whether that be through their subtle Canadian flag hoodies or their candles which are hand poured in Canada, there’s something
for everyone.
Atelier Tulpe
The small Vancouver brand Atelier Tulpe emphasizes elegance and playfulness throughout their entire collection, both designed and made in British Columbia.
If you’re looking for your next “going-out top”—this brand has you covered. From reversible cowl neck tanks, to halter tops perfect for dinner parties and paying a visit to the bar down the street, Atelier Tulpe makes pieces designed to keep forever.
The small, woman-led brand emphasizes sustainability with garments made in their local area in Vancouver. Pieces are only created in small batches or on a made-to-order basis.
Atelier Tulpe is on the pricier side, but the hope is to create pieces people reach for consistently over time rather than micro-trends.
Go Play Outside!
There’s truly nothing more Canadian than a cozy sweater.
The Toronto-based brand Go Play Outside! is family-owned company that creates vintage inspired streetwear made to look like it came straight out of your grandfather’s closet. With their Canadian winter aesthetics that look right out of a ’70s ski trip, their designs balance nostalgia with elegance.
If sweaters aren’t your thing, you can still show off your Canadian spirit with a Georgian Bay cap or a waffle knit sweater with a small embroidered skier.
Buying Canadian isn’t just a trend. It’s about lifting up small Canadian businesses and furthering our economy. While trade tensions have encouraged shoppers to look inward, the real benefit is in fostering sustainable, community-driven brands that reflect Canadian values.
By choosing Canadianmade clothing, you’re not just investing in quality fashion—you’re helping to create jobs, sustain small businesses, and celebrate the creativity that makes Canadian style unique.
Canadian brands can hold their own.
GRAPHIC BY KELLYANN MARIE
PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN
Liz reflects on what she’s learned.
Nostalgia was holding me back from enjoying life to the fullest
Getting comfortable in the present is the only way to grow
Katharine Sung Editorials Editor
I’m over trying to make the perfect memories.
With my final weeks at Queen’s creeping up, I’m already looking back wistfully at a chapter that hasn’t even ended, wondering how I’ll see it from a year’s or decade’s time. I can’t help myself.
I’ve always been a hopelessly nostalgic person. Even when I was young, I found myself looking back at earlier memories, longing for things I no longer had—old friendships that drifted apart, my first childhood bedroom, or my beloved piglet stuffed animal. It’s ironic because it seems like nostalgia and sentimentality are qualities reserved for someone with far more years behind them.
“I’ve always been a hopelessly nostalgic person
Fast forward 10 years or so, and I’m still the same person. I can recall in utmost detail, fond memories from Grade five or high school as if I were living them in real-time. It’s not that I’m incapable of being present—I’m just enamoured by the idea that with a single thought I can transport back to a different place and time.
But dwelling on the past has robbed me from appreciating the environment, people, and opportunities right in
front of me. It’s a dishonest way to live.
Going into university, I felt this pressure to create amazing memories to look back on, so that one day when I’m old, retired, and feeling sentimental, I may relive satisfying moments from my adolescence. I fed into the idea that these four years were meant to be some of my best. I wondered about the friendships I’d make, the milestones I’d achieve, the person I’d become, and the lasting memories they’d create. But what I didn’t understand was not all these memories were going to be happy.
I spent the winter semester of third year studying abroad in Manchester, and the better part of those few months navigating a long-distance relationship. With so little time and even more pressure to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was in for a rude awakening.
Suddenly, I had one month of exchange left to go—I was freshly 21 with my first break-up under my belt, spending late nights alone in the library, wanting nothing more than to be back home. I felt like I was failing my future self and her nostalgic outlook, too scared to live with the regret and pain this was all my hard-earned time abroad amounted to.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
It’s true: my relationship didn’t make the distance, I didn’t go to all the places on my bucket list, and I didn’t keep in touch with all my friends in the UK once I returned home. But when you focus on all the times you failed to create
positive memories, you let the precious moments that were happening all along get away.
When the clouds of grief and sadness parted, I finally made space to hold the other memories I’d collected along the way. I started living life anew, letting moments unfold before me, not knowing what kind of memories they’d leave behind. I took a spontaneous trip to my dream city, Brighton, opened up to new faces, and finally slowed down, knowing there was no more expectation to turn every moment into something amazing, all the time.
“When the clouds of grief and sadness parted, I finally made space to hold the other memories I’d collected along the way
Looking back, I treasure this whole chapter of university—not because it was happy but because it transformed me. Those disappointing moments taught me to appreciate that there’s beauty when things don’t go according to plan.
We can’t pick and choose which moments become solidified in our memory. After all, life isn’t a carousel of carefully edited highlights. Between the blissful moments are ones that are insignificant, imperfect, unhappy, challenging, and painful. And those deserve to be remembered and cherished because they make us who we are.
We don’t create good memories. Our only job is to live life and enjoy it to the best of our ability—memories
will follow suit and create themselves.
In an effort to let go of nostalgic expectation and live in the moment, I’ve taken this perspective into my final semester of undergrad—and it’s liberating.
A list of memories to make before graduation sits unchecked in the back of my desk drawer, but I’m okay with trading them for the imperfect memories that I trust are unfolding, right now.
In my university house, every Tuesday night for the past three years has been designated “garbage night.” It wasn’t until recently this dreaded task—full of smells and unexplainable messes—became something I cherished. There aren’t many moments in our busy days where we’d drop everything, forget about our problems, and be our most unapologetic selves together.
I didn’t plan these moments. I didn’t craft these memories. Yet, they came to define my early adult years and taught me to enjoy living without looking back.
I might earn some questionable looks when I say my fondest university memories weren’t made on Homecoming or crazy weekend adventures, but rather cleaning the kitchen with my housemates at 11 p.m. with music blasting or chasing down that week’s new insect under the living room couch.
Sure, there are things I wish I accomplished—joining more clubs, devoting more time to developing as many film projects as my peers, or branching out earlier when I first got here. But knowing I ended up at The
Journal, made my first documentary, and have the amazing friends I have now—I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There’s something precious about fleeting moments that can only be savoured in the moment because no amount of nostalgia will rescue them
It truly serves no purpose to dwell on what’s gone or missing when I can be content with all the unexpected memories I did make. There’s something precious about fleeting moments that can only be savoured in the moment because no amount of nostalgia will rescue them. There’s no choosing which memories get solidified as part of our past—we accept the good and bad. What we can decide is how we grow and move on from them because in all the times that were disappointing or anticlimactic in the moment are seeds of growth and gratitude.
I’ll probably never stop being nostalgic. I still catch myself glancing back, through rose coloured glass, and missing experiences I’ll never have again.
But, for now, I’m choosing to ditch the comforting blanket of nostalgia I once clung to allowing my presentness to take me by the reins.
Want to write a postscript? E-mail journal_postscript@queensu.ca
Katharine learns to enjoy the end of university without looking back.
