October 6, 2022

BY HANNAH TIONGSON, JAMES FAY & CARLEEN LONEY

François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has been elected for a second mandate as the Quebec premier with a majority government and will remain in power until 2026.

The CAQ won 41 per cent of the vote and 90 seats in the National Assembly, the most seats any party has ever won in Quebec since 1989. This marked an increase of 16 seats since the 2018 elections.

“We had a clear message. Quebecers sent a power ful message. Quebecers told us: let’s continue!” shouted Legault during his victory speech.

The voter turnout was also slightly lower than in 2018. 66.07 per cent of Quebecers voted this year, compared to 66.45 per cent in 2018.

and Reconciliation?

BY CEDRIC GALLANT | Podcast Producer

Concordia’s Iranian community writes open letter to the University

Iranian Student Association of Concordia Univer sity

is proactively spreading the word but demands more support from the University.

ISACU is a cultural club at Concordia, part of the Inter national and Ethnic Asso ciations Council (IEAC).

Shayan Asgharian, presi dent of the club, shared his frustration and disappoint ment with the lack of funding.

to the current strikes in Iran. Since the death of Amini, Irani ans have been striking every day and leaving their jobs, making it difficult for Iranian parents to support their chil dren abroad financially.

MUSIC

BY HANNAH TIONGSON Co-News Editor

Last month, Iran’s moral ity police arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for not wearing a hijab. Amini died several days later while in custody, and many Iranians believe she was killed due to police violence. Her death triggered worldwide protests denounc ing the Iranian regime.

As demonstrations continue to take place in Montreal, many Montrealers are helping orga nize and raise awareness. The Iranian Student Association of Concordia University (ISACU)

“We’re a cultural club. We barely get the funding for doing things like this. So everything we’re doing right now is almost out of pocket,” Asgharian explained.

“The IEAC has been more than slow in return ing our money. We’ve made banners for protests, we’ve made posters, everything you can think of, and they’ve been horrible at return ing our money,” he added.

Asgharian explained the lack of funding is worrisome for international students with limited access to money due

A solution proposed by Asgharian is to divide tuition fees into segments for inter national students. Asgh arian brought this up to Concordia’s Dean of Students Andrew Woodall in an email but was not acknowledged.

“Many students have had no contact with their family members, and [for] over a week due to the govern ment’s shutting down the country’s internet. The shut ting down of the country’s internet has also caused all international students to lose access to their banks in Iran,” Asgharian wrote.

“Therefore, paying tuition

OPINIONS

CEDRIC

BY HANNAH TIONGSON, JAMES FAY, AND CARLEEN LONEY

change

Health care

living

IRANIAN STUDENTS DEMAND SUPPORT DURING CRISES AT HOME

mental health support.

for them has become extremely hard. I was wondering if it would be possible to extend the date of the tuition dead line and even maybe divide the tuition into segments for students to be able to pay their tuition off easier,” he added.

Another request was better

“We’ve all been really distraught […] by the current events in Iran. It feels like watching a genocide happening live in your country. There is no word to describe it,” said Daria Almasi, a member of ISACU.

Fora Fereydoumi, another member of ISACU, empha sized the need for better mental health support, specif ically for Iranian students.

Earlier last week, the Interna tional Student Office (ISO) sent a letter to students of Iranian

nationality to offer support and resources. A notice of support for Iranian students, faculty and staff was posted on Carre four and the Student Hub.

“We appreciate the accom modation that the University offered to Iranian students in Concordia, but most of them are always open to all students. There is not something extra for Iranians,” said Fereydoumi.

Aboozar Beheshti, another member of ISACU, suggested that psychological services be provided in Farsi, the spoken

language in Iran, to encourage Iranian students to communi cate and express their thoughts.

Beheshti also asked the University to support the Iranian community the same way they supported the Ukrainian community.

“The Ukraine [war] did not [happen too long ago]. You know, it was just a few months ago. We can take it as an exam ple of how the University tried to [raise] awareness and how the University tried to reach people to offer support,” said Beheshti.

Regardless of their current busy schedules, Asghar ian, Almasi, Fereydoumi, and Beheshti all attended the Freedom Rally for Iran last Saturday, Oct. 1, in front of McGill University.

Saman Abolfathi, a fourthyear psychology student, participated in the demonstra tion and raised similar concerns that members of ISACU did.

“I believe Concordia should have an official statement about what’s going on in Iran. Why [are] Concordia admin istrators and directors silent about it?” Abolfathi asked.

For international students like Abolfathi, exams and assignments are the least of their worries.

“I’m trying to help the orga nization of this protest, and every time I tried to contact my professors about it, they didn’t care that much, or maybe they did care, but they were like, ‘I cannot do anything for you,’ ” Abolfathi explained.

While Concordia tries its best to support Iranian students and raise awareness, Montreal ers were united as thousands gathered and marched for the Freedom Rally for Iran.

Among the many different women who delivered speeches was Alia Hassan-Cournol, elected official of the City of Montreal and associate coun cillor of Mayor Valérie Plante. Hassan-Cournol was present to share a word on behalf of Plante.

“We’re proud to see you fight for women’s rights, for freedom. So keep on doing that. Montreal is behind you guys,” said Hassan-Cournol.

COWPER

BY SIMON FEISTHAUER FOURNET | Assistant News Editor

Iranian

gather to protest the murder of Mahsa Amini

Elections

The Majority

Concordia delays move-in date for Le Mildoré Residence

After weeks of delays, residents of Concor dia’s latest student residence are stuck waiting to move into their dorms.

BY LUCAS MARSH | Co-News Editor

Residents of Concor dia’s newest student hous ing, Le Mildoré, have been waiting to move into their new dorms for weeks since their original move-in date.

Numerous construction delays resulted in Concordia Residence Life postponing Le Mildoré’s move-in date from the end of August to late October.

The newest Concordia resi dence was supposed to provide the University with 22 four-bed room units for use for the start of the 2022 fall semes ter. However, in an email sent on Aug. 26, Concordia Resi dence Life announced that all move-in dates to Le Mildoré were postponed and that resi dents would be provided units in the Grey Nuns Resi dence for the time being.

Emma Clark, a first-year psychology student and resi dent of Le Mildoré, recalls that she was not surprised when her move-in date had been postponed. Clark doubted Le Mildoré would be completed

in time for the fall semester after seeing the state of the building during the summer.

“I remember visiting Concor dia in June and I passed by Le Mildoré and it just was not ready at all,” Clark said. “I consistently emailed them [Concordia Resi dence services], like, hey, is everything going to be ready?”

Despite assurances from Concordia that construc tion would be done by the end of August, Clark says she got a call from Residence Life the night before her sched uled move-in date, informing her that she would be relo cated to the Grey Nuns resi dence for the time being.

Clark says the last update she received from the Univer sity was in early September and that Le Mildoré would be open to students by late October.

“It’s a little upsetting,” she said about the lack of infor mation the University has provided her. “I just want to move in as soon as possible.”

To compensate affected resi dents, Concordia has offered Le Mildoré residents free meal plans and a daily credit refund equivalent to their rents.

Unlike the Grey Nuns or Loyola residences, Concor dia does not own Le Mildoré building. Instead, the Univer sity has leased out 22 units from the building’s manage ment company, Univer sity Apartments Montreal.

Despite appearing on numer ous University advertisements, many Le Mildoré residents such as first-year linguistics student Ethan Knapp said they were unaware the residence was not owned by the University.

“The application process was the same as the other

Word on Campus

Students share their opinions on the strike for a reading week in the fall semester.

BY ANTHONY FALCONE | Contributor PHOTOS BY KAITLYNN RODNEY

As of Oct. 2, 13 member associations (MAs) within the Arts and Science Federation of Asso

“I think [the strike is] fair enough, you know what I mean? Reading weeks are important and they said that they would give one.”

- Luca Safar (right)

“I think it’s interesting and motivating to see everybody wanting to do this. I am an international student, so I don’t really know what a reading week is, but I do like the idea of having extra time to relax. We don’t seem to have that many breaks already throughout the term,”

ciations (ASFA) have passed a mandate to strike from Oct. 3 - 7 for a fall reading week. The grow ing awareness of the reading week strike has spread across Concordia, resulting in some students having strong thoughts on the subject.

The Concordian interviewed students across both Sir George Williams and Loyola campuses to get their opinions regard ing the upcoming reading week strike.

residences,” said Knapp. “So I thought it was owned by Concordia.”

On Sept. 27, The McGill Tribune published an arti cle detailing accusations from current Le Mildoré residents that University Apartments Canada is respon

sible for providing inhos pitable living conditions.

The Concordian received a similar email. However, after investigating the claims, it found insufficient evidence to support the allegations.

We asked: Should students strike?

You said...

“I think that it’s beneficial for students to do the strike and the reading week. Not only will it give us more time to study and be prepared, it will help to spread out our schedule so that you’re not crammed with other exams you have to do. You also won’t feel so stressed with work or getting a good grade, so you can be feeling a lot more confident with what you got.”

- Emma Megelas (below)

PHOTOS: KAITLYNN RODNEY/THE CONCORDIAN

CONCORDIA’S FARMERS’ MARKET IS BACK IN BUSINESS

The market wants to promote sustainabil ity by offering local and organic food to students

BY SIMON FEISTHAUER FOURNET | Assistant News Editor PHOTOS BY LUCAS MARSH

The Concordia Farm ers’ Market made its come back on both campuses for the fall semester.

Until the last week of Octo

ber, vendors will offer local and organic products to students.

The market takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays at Loyola and on Thursdays at the downtown campus.

Lacey Boudreau, one of the coordinators for the Farm ers’ Market, explained that it started as one of the many projects within the Concordia Food Coalition. Founded in 2013, the Food Coalition aims to promote a more sustain able food system at Concordia.

“It’s one of the pieces of the

We asked: Should students strike? You said...

puzzle that we’re trying to put together for a new food enterprise,” said Boudreau. “We want to give students the opportunity to have very direct access to local organic food every week.”

In front of the F.C. Smith Building at Loyola and the J.W. McConnell Building downtown, local vendors from the neighbouring area sell their organic products. Among them are the vendors from Co-op CultivAction, a food cooperative that is part of the Concordia Food Coalition.

Caleb Woolcott, a member of CultivAction, said the co-op provides food from its mixed diverse vegetable garden with the goal of making fresh local produce accessible to all.

Through their commu nity-supported agriculture

program, people can order baskets at the beginning of the season and come to the Farmers’ Market to pick up fresh vege tables every week. Vegetables are sourced locally from their garden that six staff members are responsible for, along with volunteers and interns.

A part of the garden also serves for the development of permaculture garden ing techniques and is used by students to learn and prac tice sustainable agriculture.

“Urban agriculture, a lot of it is about community engage ment, and there is a really wonderful community around the garden,” said Woolcott.

Nico Schutte, co-found ing member, explained CultivAction’s main goal is to work on food sover eignty within the University.

“We’re trying to have a circu lar food economy in Concor dia,” said Schutte. “The idea is to divest in the international factory farm food system that clearly does not feed the majority of people and only contributes to climate change.”

Though the market closes in November to reopen next summer, the team hopes to be active during the winter semester.

“There is the possibility of some pop-up holiday markets that we’ve been talking about or different things happen ing throughout the winter until we start again next summer,” said Boudreau.

-

“I think it’s a really good opportunity for students so they can catch up. Some students might have fallen behind on classes so it also gives them the opportunity to catch up. It has also been really crazy since we’ve been back in school. It’ll be great for everyone to relax, not stress out and settle down a little bit to use that time to catch up with notes and things like that.”

Ceballos,

Engineering

“I am not against it. I wasn’t sure about the reading week strike but now that I heard about it, I’m sure that students should get the time to participate. They can get their homework done. It’s good to have a strike. I’ll probably catch up with my homework, my labs, assignments, and get ready for midterms.”

“I think it should happen because we have one in the winter, and other schools have them, so I think it only makes sense to have the whole week off to catch up on studies and have time for midterms.” - Lennie (above right)

“I think it is a good idea because it’s important to have time to catch up on school, but it’s important to have time for other stuff than school like leisure, family or anything else in your life. I feel like when you’re in school you have less time for that.” - Amélie (above left)

“I think it should happen because other schools have a reading week in the fall term. I’m gonna need to study and catch up on my other classes.”

- Cesar Delossantos, Civil Engineering (above right)

Features

CONCORDIA TA’S OVERWORKED AND UNDERPAID

BY NIKOO PAJOOM | Assistant Features Editor PHOTOS BY KAITLYNN RODNEY INFOGRAPHICS BY JAMES FAY AND CARLEEN LONEY

“We deserve a living wage,” says Max Jones, communi cations officer for Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC). Jones, a master’s student in English literature, has been a TA himself for the past year.

TAs are paid $29 an hour at Concordia which is signifi cantly lower than some other Canadian universities, such as the University of Toronto where they are paid $49, or McGill University where the rate is $33 an hour.

Most TAs have contracts that cover an average of five to 15 hours a week. University policy states that “the maximum TA working hours for TAs is 20 hours per week in order not to interfere with their studies.”

According to Jones, “these hours do not reflect the needs.

At times English TAs need to read a whole book for a class and they can easily go overtime.”

The limited hours coupled with the relatively lower pay leaves many TAs financially strug gling. “There are cases where a grad student is a TRAC execu tive, has a TA contract, and also works for other organizations to make ends meet,” adds Jones.

Agustín Rugiero is a thirdyear PhD student in film studies. Currently, he has two RAships and one TAship while doing some other small

jobs to support himself. “You need at least three TAships to break even, $29 is not a living wage anymore,” Rugiero said.

As a PhD student he received an initial funding that allowed him to pay Quebec tuition rates. “This is not the case with all students,” acknowl edged Rugiero. The tuition for a full PhD program can amount to $59,000 for an Arts and Science program in the case of international students. Even for Rugiero, who is not paying such rates, he still finds himself eating through his funds instead of relying on the money he makes through his TA or RAship. “$4 more per hour for McGill students might not look like much, but it can amount to $400 more per TAship which makes a lot of difference,” he added.

PhD students are expected to carry out quality research in their fields which is in itself a full-time job, but as Rugiero points out, “if this is our job, why are we not being sustained by it?” Many PhD students are deprived of more reading and research time because they need to complement their TAships with more work. For Rugiero this fact has made it more diffi cult to find time to network with other researchers in his field who have the same interests.

All this can gravely affect the

quality of research that is being done at Concordia. “I enjoy my studies at Concordia; however, the creeping economic anxiet ies are also part of this expe rience,” admits Rugiero.

Vannina Maestracci, Concor dia’s University Spokesperson, explained to The Concord ian that the teaching assis tants’ wages “are negotiated between the University and the Union.” These wages are based on a “Collective Agree ment [that] is due to expire in June 2023 and that is when new wages will be negotiated.”

However, there is no guar antee that this new negotiation will result in higher wages for the TAs and RAs at Concor dia. When asked about the

possibility of a wage increase, Maestracci responded that they “can’t know what will happen in negotiations that are over a year and a half away.”

Currently, the low pay is not the only issue plaguing the TAs at Concordia. TAs are required to provide their sex assigned at birth when they are hired, “which forces trans TAs to out themselves,” Jones explains. The union has not been able to change this proce dure after talks with Concor dia’s Human Resources.

When The Concordian reached out to the University to inquire about the reasons behind such a requirement, it was explained that the University is “legally required to gather this [information] because TRAC employees (like all employees) are enti tled to pension plan enti tlements, which are based on age and gender at birth.”

The University official further explained that while this information is required, it is “collected separately from the other work-related information for an additional layer of confi dentiality. As always, this, and all personal information, is treated with great respect and confidentiality.” While this stands as a legal requirement, Jones explained that many trans employees continue to be deeply disturbed by it.

Addressing various TA and RA grievances has been a hard task to achieve so far for the union.

TRAC is a rela tively new union; it was also

dissolved in 2015 and put under the trusteeship of its parent union, the Public Service Alli ance of Canada (PSAC), due to an investigation that saw the removal of TRAC execu tives. The executive committee was found to be fully dysfunc tional, and the lack of a united front has affected the union’s capability to bargain in the past.

Moreover, graduate students have a high turn over since they mostly grad uate within two years. “Grad students are also so tired that it makes it hard to function ally bargain,” adds Jones.

Voicing grievances can also affect a TA’s prospects for pursuing a career in academia. “Your career path can be deter mined by the professor you work for since you need their recommendation or help and there are professors who take advantage of this power dynamic,” adds the TRAC member. Jones is referring to a case in 2022 where TAs campaigned against work ing for a philosophy profes sor who was accused of sexual harassment. Jones explained that some TAs hesitate to come forth with complaints due to career considerations.

“Professors need to be more respectful of TAs as people and not just as a way to lessen their workload,” said Jones. Jones added that at times the fail ure of a professor to sign their contracts on time has resulted in a TA not being paid for months.

This year the TAs and RAs at Concordia are also recovering

TAs struggle to make ends meet with wages that do not cover living expenses and are lower than some other Canadian universities

from COVID, where they had to learn new software and hold long Zoom hours to cope with the demands of the pandemic, and all these challenges were not reflected in their pay.

Rugiero is also a TRAC dele gate. He believes that despite all the difficulties and the general slow response from Concor dia, they can have high hopes for the negotiations. “TRAC is shaping up to be even better and has been rallying people up for a higher wage,” he adds.

Rugiero also believes that Concordia needs to support their words with concrete action when it comes to mental health. The low wage that pushes grad students to seek more employment affects their work quality as researchers as well as their mental health.

“We’re paying so much for tuition and TAships should not make us sacrifice our degrees so we can have money to eat,” says Jones.

The wage increase would benefit grad students and undergrads who might become grad students in the future, and in this way it would affect the student body as a whole. As Agustín stated: “Not having an inflation-adjusted wage amounts to having a pay cut.”

DAY, LITTLE PROGRESS

Leading Indigenous activists speak on the meaning of National Day for Truth and Recon ciliation, remain patient in their prog ress towards healing

BY CEDRIC GALLANT | Podcast Editor PHOTOS BY CEDRIC GALLANT & CATHERINE REYNOLDS

The march begins with a greeting, a must for any Indigenous ceremony. “We give thanks to our mother the Earth,” says Kahnawà:ke elder Steve McComber, “so that we can continue to grow, and have a good life.”

“As we gather here on this day,” he says, “we are here to commemorate and to make people all over the world aware of the things that have gone on. When I listened to the Prime Minister talk about truth and reconcilia tion, I thought this was nice, it is a beginning. But with out really knowing the truth, how can we really reconcile?”

Inflamed and armed with her arguments, Nakuset, the director of Montreal’s Native Women’s Shelter, says not much has been done since the first rendition of the National Day for Truth and Reconcili ation. “Last year, when I did the first march, I said I wanted people to hand out subpoenas. No subpoenas were given.”

“Somebody decided to dig that grave, someone decided to put a child in there, some one decided that they were not going to tell the families,” she follows. A whole group of government and church officials were involved, yet it was all hidden, and no one was blamed.

“If we actu ally hear the truth and change the history, that will bring some kind of comfort to the people, because there is no accountabil ity,” Nakuset says.

With Premier François Legault elected for four more years, systemic racism will continue to be questioned by the govern ing body. “He is someone that says there is no systemic racism,” she says, “yet we live it every single

day with every single institu tion, and we fight it every day.”

“When Legault says stuff like that,” Nakuset says, “it diminishes our importance.”

That same week, the second anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s tragic death was commemorated at Place du Canada. Nakuset says that Legault “is creating gener ational trauma to the chil dren.” She adds that “At the hospitals, when you mistreat people like what happened to Joyce, that’s generational trauma, because her kids may never want to go to a hospital.”

She then emulates shak ing someone by the shoul der, saying that “Today we need to shake people up!”

Off to the side, away from the crowd is Kanehsatà:ke activist Ellen Gabriel, sat on a bench, planning the speech she would deliver later during the march.

“You know, I was surprised that, when we first heard these stories, we didn’t riot,” she says. What is important now is to let these stories slowly come out. “I think it’s import ant to let Indigenous people lead, when it comes to telling these stories. To listen, to be comfortable in the uncom

fortableness, as it will be diffi cult for both sides,” she says.

“What we need is for recon ciliation to be initiated by the other side. It is usually the party that has harmed that should begin the process of reparations and restitutions.”

For Indigenous people, “We see genocide ongoing,” Gabriel says. “The denial of Premier Legault to say there is no systemic racism, that creates an atmosphere that perpetuates genocide.”

“We want reconciliation to be ongoing, and to be on a

daily basis.” She says that the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation should be more than just a holiday, but also “a national day of remembrance.”

A few things should be put in place at the government level to ensure that reconciliation is moving forward. “I think there should be an indepen dent group that monitors the government,” she says. “The government is supposed to have an annual report on their reconciliation progress, and as far as I am concerned, they really have not done anything.”

“Human rights are interre lated and interdependent,” she says, “if one is being violated, you cannot enjoy the rest of the human rights.”

“Indigenous Affairs minis ter Ian Lafreniere or Premier Legault often say that it’s a success, it’s not a success,” she says. “I have been doing this for 32 years, it’s really frustrating seeing the govern ment continue its propaganda, saying look we have done it! Well no, you have not done it, because you continue to do it.”

She calls upon us, Quebec

PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER AT THE ‘EVERY CHILD MATTERS’ MARCH. CEDRIC GALLANT/THE CONCORDIAN

ers and Canadians. “You have an obligation, not just a moral obligation but also a legal one, to make sure that reconciliation begins.”

“The government cannot claim it doesn’t know, “she says, “Canadians and Quebecers cannot claim they do not know, if you’re not doing anything to be part of the change then you are part of the problem.”

Inuk singer-songwriter Elis apie stood to the microphone, and performed a small excerpt from a song by her uncle Irsu tuk Kakayuk, lead singer of the band Sugluk. For her, art is also part of the process, as it’s part of the stories being told. “Art has always been there, we have always had our ceremonies, our dances, and our stories,” she says.

“I think, nowadays, we are just expanding our reali ties, exploring how we want

to tell them.” What matters most is to listen to Indigenous peoples, and understand the trauma they have faced for generations, without infring ing on their will to share.

In her speech she quotes her friend, Innu doctor Stanley Vollant, who was standing in the crowd, looking at her with admiration. She says “We might be sick now, we might have great pain, but with time, maybe in a few generations, we will be healed. But for now, to move towards healing, we need to be heard, and to be given space.”

FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE AT CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

BY DALIA NARDOLILLO Community Editor PHOTOS BY THOMAS VAILLANCOURT

September 23 marked the latest protest for climate justice organized by Fridays For Future in Montreal. This month, Concordia University marched for climate justice, along with many other schools.

Fridays For Future is a move ment that was started by climate activist Greta Thunberg. Thun berg was 15 at the time when she helped initiate the move ment back in August 2018. She, along with other activ

ists, sat in front of the Swedish parliament for three straight weeks to protest the lact of action for our climate crisis.

Students at Concordia University actively took part in a strike on Friday, Sept. 23 to protest against climate change.

The Concordian was present at the climate march to docu ment the protest and speak with students about their involve ment with climate justice.

On the morning of the march, students assembled on the Reggies bar terrace behind the Hall Building at Concordia.

Speeches were given by students who work at the Hive

about the purpose of the day’s march, demanding two things: Ban fossil fuels by 2030, in terms of production, process ing, exports and imports.

Impose a massive tax on the wealthy while reinvest ing into public services and social programs to ensure decent living conditions for all.

As the speeches concluded on the Reggies terrace, The Concordian met up with Concordia student Octavie Doherty-Haigh. Doherty-Haigh gave her thoughts about why she was participating in the march.

“I came here to the climate march today, because I know that change needs to happen. I know that during the pandemic, there’s been so much of a shutdown and that’s why it’s important to be here in person,” DohertyHaigh

explained.“I know that consuming meat is one of the biggest contributing factors to CO2 levels rising, so I’ve taken meat out of my diet. I also plant trees during the summertime.”

Students from Dawson College soon joined Concordia students to begin the climate march.

Concordia, Dawson, and McGill students marched together to the George-Éti enne Cartier Monument situated on Mont-Royal.

At the monument, all the participating schools and organizations assembled.

The Concordian spoke to three other students about their involvement in combating climate change.

Anna Abbott explained how individual change can make a difference in the community.

“I do believe in individual change, I take the public trans port when I can. I’ve been vegan for six years now. Bigger move ments like this are so import ant to engage the community,”

Abbott explained.

Many of the students at the climate march are actively switching to a plantbased or completely vegan diet in order to combat climate change. Others at the climate march simply just turned up, like Concor dia student Gabriel Casola.

“I am not doing much to combat climate change in my own life. I am here at this event and I am more than happy to be involved,” Casola said.

At the monument, a speech was given by the President of the National Commit tee for the Rights of First Nations Normand Pilot.

Pilot spoke about how as a community, we have to take care of Mother Earth and how future generations won’t have a chance if we don’t.

Everyone at the protest wanted to have their voices heard. Over 130,000 students were in attendance.

Fellow Concordia student and theatre major Julia Pye summa rized protesters’ thoughts on the event succinctly:

“I think the most important fight in climate change is the vote. I think that the government holds all the power and if we don’t get young people out there to vote, it’s going to be a horrible thing. Even talking to people around here so many people don’t know about the Quebec elections. I think educating the youth on that is the most important and knowing who you are voting for can literally save the planet.”

Concordia students are making a difference in the fight against climate change

ORANGE YOU PUMPED FOR HALLOWEEN?

BY DALIA NARDOLILLO | Community Editor

For all you fall fanatics out there, I have a fall activity that is a one hour drive from Montreal.

Citrouilleville credits itself to be ”the most original pumpkin village in Quebec.”

It is a little pumpkin village that is located in Saint-Zotique at the Ferme Benoit Vernier.

This pumpkin village features an abundance of activities. Citrouilleville is not only family friendly but dog friendly as well!

The creators of the pump kin village got extremely creative and built various houses made out of pump kins, and many vintage

cars that you can pose with.

These vintage cars include a Volkswagen beetle, a Volkswagen bus and a Dodge pickup truck.

For the lovers out there, they’ve also set up a kissing booth.

Around the farm you can get whisked away in a trac tor ride, or you can choose to get lost in the cornfield maze that they have set up.

On weekends, Citrouilleville has a lot of activities set up for kids. The staff put on perfor mances for kids at differ ent times on Saturdays and Sundays, and children can also indulge in facepainting and carnival games offered on-site.

The other nice thing about Citrouilleville is that they offer $1 squashes sold on-site as well as lots of different sizes of pumpkins. They also sell a vari ety of handmade goods like local honey and handmade jewelry.

There are snacks offered if you want to grab a bite to eat, including freshly popped popcorn (the smell wafts through the farm and honestly makes you sali vate), corn on the cob, etc.

If you choose to visit the site at night, you will be dazzled by the lights that line the paths around the farm.

Citrouilleville is open on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Sundays, they are open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is $17.50 for adults. Visitors can buy their tickets online and on-site.

Aside from weekends, they are exclusively open on Thanks giving, Oct. 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as on Hallow een, from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Five must-not miss events this October!

TRANSLATION IN JOURNALISM (WORKSHOP)

Learn about the critical roles in translation in jour nalism and on the meth ods on how it transends over the journalistic land scape.

When:

Where: Sir George Williams Campus J.W. McConnell Building LB 619 (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.)

HIP-HOP WITH KLASSY

Want to release stress in a fun way? Join the Zen Den online to register for a fun dance class!

When: October 7 & 14, 2022

Where: Online

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM AT THE GRADUATE LEVEL

Improve your knowl edge on the basic rules for documentation while being introduced to multi ple styles of writing.

When: October 11, 2022 1 p.m. – 3p.m.

Where: Online

INTERVIEW ESSENTIALS

Interested in acing your next job interview?

When: October 12, 2022

Where: SGW campus H - Henry F. Hall Building

H-771 (1455 De Maison neuve Blvd. W.)

THERAPY DOGS AT THE MB ZEN DEN

Drop by the Zen Dens to meet some furry friends

When: October 13, 2022 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Citrouilleville, a pumpkin village located one hour away from Montreal

community

Citrouilleville pumpkin village and farm in Saint-Zotique, Quebec. DALIA NARDOLILLO/THE CONCORDIAN

A pumpkin house at Citrouilleville pumpkin village. DALIA NARDOLILLO/THE CONCORDIAN

Zens Dens Dog Therapy

The effect of therapy dogs on the mental well-being of university

BY LEILA KHALIFA | Contributor

Zen Dens — Concordia’s wellness center — collab orates with Imagine Ther apy Dogs to bring dogs to either the Loyola or down town campus every two weeks.

On Thursday Sept. 29, Zen Dens brought their therapy dogs to the Vanier Library at the Loyola campus.

Even though Concordia students haven’t reached midterms just yet, the same feeling of stress could be felt on campus that day. The dogs came at the perfect time.

What sounds more appeal ing than playing with cute dogs when you’re super stressed out?

Speaking from personal experience, when responsibil ities pile up, one of the most positive ways to channel this stress is through animal ther apy and playing with puppies.

Imagine Ther apy Dogs has worked with several different centers, such as nursing homes, universities, hospitals, and childrens’centers.

Therapy dogs used to come visit the concordia campuses frequently in hopes of combatting some of the stress and anxiety that goes along with the semester.

KAITLYNN RODNEY/ THE CONCORDIAN

able to be part of such a fun and beneficial program.

The handlers’ training sees them go through a program with their own dogs, so that the dogs can become therapy dogs. They learn how to train their dogs to be calm and a source of relaxation while also playful and interactive.

Oxytocin is a feel-good hormone known as the “love” hormone or “cuddle chemi cal,” the same hormone that bonds mothers to babies.

ness is extremely important.

Orwa Boudra, a science student came to school on her day off just to meet the dogs. “ I was so nervous I have never acually touched a dog before” she shared.

KAITLYNN RODNEY/ THE CONCORDIAN

After speaking with the owner of Imagine Ther apy, Harriet Schleifer, she explained to The Concord ian that poten tial handlers go through extensive training to be

A research study available in the National Library of Medicine tested the benefits of animal therapy particularly with university students. The study tested the benefits of interacting with trained dogs on students’ mood and anxiety. It demonstrated that pre-tested levels of anxiety and situational depression declined when students interacted with dogs.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, petting a dog lowers cortisol levels (known as the stress hormone) while also increasing oxytocin levels.

club gets hooked on

On top of being a great way to relieve stress, the overall vibes of this event are spectacular. It’s a great way to meet new people and make some friends in a fun and relaxed environment.

The event had a great turn out; many students showed up and enjoyed their time with the dogs. Every once in a while everyone needs a serotonin boost, and what better way to do that than by playing with dogs.

As a first-year student 5,552 miles from home, the usual university stressors such as finances and academics can get a little over whelming. Finding ways to cope with feelings of homesick

Not only is this event a great tool to use as a positive outlet to channel stress, it’s also a great way to make new connections on campus. Zens Dens is offering many other therapy dog sessions over the course of the fall semester.

For any questions or concerns, please do not feel shy to reach out to the well ness ambassadors at Zens Dens. They will be more than happy to talk about the count less services offered to help deal with stress at school.

BY DALIA NARDOLILLO | Community Editor

Superhero fans rejoice! The Concordia Comic book club is back in action.

Concordia Comic Book Club executives Emily MacDon ald, Liam Quraeshi, and Wade Maddin explain all there is to know about comics.

“I think it started when I found my dad’s collection of comics. He had them in the basement and one time I was down there I found them all. It was quite a sight to see,” Quraeshi recalled. “Before then I never really bought any comics, so seeing all these varieties of ‘Spiderman’ and ‘X-Men,’ I became very inter ested in that whole world.”

Maddin explained that his early years of collect ing were very much influ enced by the cartoons that

he watched at the time.

“A lot of the cartoons I watched growing up were all stuff like Batman. I was also a big fan of the Avengers TV

show back when that was a thing,” Maddin recalled.

Just as each member became interested in comic books in various ways, their safekeeping methods differ as well.

MacDonald, who has been interested in comics since the age of 14, keeps her comics stored in four big boxes.

“I have a few hundred, like individual issues. In the comic indus try the stuff that you keep the comics in is called a bag and board.

Quraeshi, on the other hand, uses the knowl edge that he has acquired as a history major and applies it to the safe keeping of his collection.

“The best way to preserve any sort of paper, writing and

comics included, is to keep them in a nice dry and dark area. Too much light can damage the comic by draining the colour. If the area is too moist, the paper kind of smudges a bit and they can get stuck together,” Quraeshi explained.

Quraeshi also advises any new comic collectors to have paper dividers in between each and every issue. This is for purposes of organiza tion as well as to protect the condition of the actual issue.

In terms of the value of comic book issues, The Concordian was able to learn more about what makes comics valuable.

“Supply and demand is a big factor. Whenever there is a relatively small amount of a certain item, value increases.

In some cases it can differ, a good example is the ‘Action Comics 1,’ it’s not only one of the first detective comics but it also debuts one of the most popular superheroes, Superman,” Quraeshi said.

Quraeshi, along with his two other colleagues, is eager to spread his passion for comic books with new members.

Sports

Ads on NHL jerseys really aren’t that bad

Is it understandable that the NHL now allows teams to have ads on their jerseys — or is it just greedy?

BY MARIA BOUABDO | Sports Editor

By now, everyone has probably seen the blue and yellow RBC logo slapped onto the Montreal Canadiens’ classic red jerseys.

And it’s not pretty.

GRAPHIC BY CARLEEN LONEY/THE CONCORDIAN

Aaron Judge should be number one

MLB steroid scandals continue to overshadow raw talent

BY ALICE MARTIN | Assistant Sports Editor

On Sept. 28, New York Yankees hitter Aaron Judge made history by hitting his 61st home run of the season against the Toronto Blue Jays, pass ing Babe Ruth and tying Roger Maris on the list of home runs per season in Major League Baseball (MLB). Judge is now ranking first in the American League for that record and fourth overall in MLB history.

The amazing achievement by the 2017 rookie of the year has been widely celebrated by MLB and fans of the game, and rightfully so, as 61-yearold records don’t get beaten every day. However, his new record brings back a dark past in baseball history that unfor tunately eclipses Judge’s natu ral and exceptional athleticism.

Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds are the only three players to have hit more home runs in a single season than Judge (66, 70, and 73 respectively). What do they all have in common? Accord ing to MLB reports, all of them are intimately tied to the baseball steroid scandal era.

Steroids were laughably common in MLB before 2002, when the first instance of drug testing became mandatory for players over spring training. A thorough investigation of the usage of performance-enhanc ing drugs (PEDs) among MLB players, known as the Mitch

ell report concretized the issue when over a hundred players were exposed for their cheating, including Bonds. The sport took a massive blow and people who were once childhood heroes retreated into the darkness.

As a sport, baseball was seen almost as fake as the WWE.

Fortunately, today it’s picking back up, but traces of the steroid era linger in the record books.

Even if it is certain that all three aforementioned play ers tested positive for steroids, their names still figure ahead of Judge’s and Maris’s in record lists, and no asterisks could compensate for the horrific act of cheating. It might be a strong word but it is justifiable and accurate, even if many athletes used steroids at the time.

Now, for clarification, the use of steroids by Sosa, McGwire and Bonds hasn’t given them the hand-eye coordination needed to hit a ball going over 90 mph, but it did give them more strength, a necessity if you ever want to hit over 60 home runs. Therefore, it did impact their performance.

Sports should be about raw and natural human prow ess. Using PEDs should never be tolerated, and keeping the records of Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire justifies and down plays the gravity of using PEDs as professional athletes. At least they’re nowhere near the baseball Hall of Fame, so we can find some solace in that.

However, the issue remains

that it takes away from the true heroes, the ones who don’t need the crutch of steroids to beat records. Standing at 6’7” and weighing 282 lbs, Judge’s body is made to hit consecutive home runs. He has also never been associated with any PEDs and it’s utterly sad that we have to give him credit for that.

It’s his name that should be at the top of the single-sea son home run record. The best sport to be represented by athletes like him and his name should stick around, and not in fourth place. I wish him a 62nd home run, and I wish him the Triple Crown. Now, excuse me while I go knock on wood.

Author’s note: Aaron Judge remarkably hit his 62nd home run on Oct. 4, officially pass ing Roger Maris and setting the new American League single-season home run record. His last chance to further his lead will have been on Oct. 5.

The National Hockey League (NHL) intro duced ads on helmets last season, and now with the NHL’s Jersey Advertising Program, some teams have decided to go with ads on jerseys too.

Like in any sport, hockey teams have sponsors. They have ads on the boards as well as on the ice, both painted and projected. Now with jersey ads, some are wondering how far the NHL is willing to go.

Will NHL jerseys end up look ing like uniforms in Europe, where they have multiple ads on the jerseys, shorts, and socks?

I highly doubt it.

European teams need these sponsors to survive. NHL teams don’t.

However, hockey is a business, and if there is a way for teams to make extra money, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

While this isn’t the case for the Canadiens, a lot of teams made it work, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Minnesota Wild.

But where do we draw the line?

Thankfully, the ad patches are an option when buying jerseys, so they’re avoidable.

Does it still look weird when you watch a game and see a blue patch on the Habs’ jersey?

Absolutely. But will people get used to it? Eventually.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has ads on jerseys — barely notice able ads — that are small and blend in well with the colours of their respective teams.

If the Canadiens had just made an effort to make the RBC patch less noticeable, it wouldn’t have received such a strong and negative reaction.

Fans even made designs themselves, and some are better than the actual patch the Habs chose.

In the end, whether we like it or not, we live in a capital

GRAPHIC BY CARLEEN LONEY/ THE CONCORDIAN

ist society where everyone welcomes a bigger revenue.

As is the case for other kinds of ads, people will soon forget about these jersey patches and it’ll just become the new normal.

As long as one ad doesn’t become two or three in a few years, and that (hope fully) the Habs choose a more discreet patch, Habs fans will come around.

PHÉLIX MARTINEAU’S UNIQUE PATH TO HOCKEY CAPTAIN

Martineau’s leadership shone through in his first year with the Stingers’ men’s hockey team

BY MARIA BOUABDO Sports Editor

Phélix Martineau started playing hockey at six years old. Growing up, he was never the flashiest or biggest guy on the ice. He had to work hard to make the teams, always taking it one year at a time. Martineau had never imagined that he’d get drafted into the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), much less that he’d be playing professional hockey. But then it happened.

Right before he was first supposed to join the Concor dia Stingers in 2018, he had the chance to play in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) after his season with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL ended.

He played three regular-sea son games with the Fort Wayne Komets, who were the Montreal Canadiens’ ECHL affiliate at the time, and then went on a playoff run with them to the conference final. His impressive play in Fort Wayne, Indiana, earned him a contract with the Laval Rocket for the 2018-19 campaign, which would delay his start at Concordia until 2019.

With none of this being planned, it was a challenging year for the up-and-comer.

“I don’t think I was mature enough to manage it all,” Martineau said. “I never thought that I’d play there one day, so once I was there,

it was all new and I wasn’t mentally ready to face it, so it was a tough year mentally.”

He had the opportunity to leave the American Hockey League (AHL) and go to Concordia for the 2019 winter semester but ultimately decided against it, delaying his start there until the fall.

“When I had to make that decision, it was around Christ mas, I was playing with the Rocket and it was going very well, I was playing a lot,” he said. “But then after that, it wasn’t going as well. So the following summer I decided to go back to school.”

The uncertainty and lack of stability made it a diffi cult year for the centre. But with that uncertainty came an aspect of the game that he didn’t like — the business part of professional sports, espe cially at such a young age.

“I wasn’t happy playing professional hockey,” he said. “It’s really a business.

Coming from juniors, all the guys are together all year, no one is battling to re-sign for a better contract, so that aspect of it wasn’t as fun.”

If he or one of his teammates would have one off day, one bad practice, they could get scratched or sent down. This made opportunities to crack the lineup and maintain the spot very difficult. But battling with his own teammates every day, or taking some

one’s injury as an opportunity wasn’t something he enjoyed.

“But now, I have the expe rience of going through that, and I plan on going back with a completely differ ent mindset,” Martin eau said, thinking ahead.

Now the captain of the Stingers’ men’s hockey team, the 25-year-old couldn’t be happier with where he is and everything he has learned during his journey.

Having played profession ally before going to univer sity, Martineau had to take a year off from hockey in 201920. The following 2020-21 season was cancelled by U Sports because of COVID-19.

After two years of no play, Martineau finally got to wear the Stingers’ uniform in Octo ber 2021. Things, however, weren’t completely back to normal, with a two-month shutdown starting in Decem ber and a few cancelled games at the end of the season. This made it harder for Martin eau to get his groove back.

“Every time I got momentum and started to get going, some thing happened,” he said. “So then I had to wait until Febru ary to pick up my game again, and I think it showed phys ically that I hadn’t played for two years. I would’ve needed more time to get back into it but it’s all part of the game.”

During such a difficult year, Martineau’s leadership and

positive perspective didn’t go unnoticed by his teammates.

“With playing pro, you learn that you only control what you can control,” Martineau said. “There are things you can’t control in life and even if myself, as captain of the team, I’m disappointed or pissed about something, you can’t let it show, and it even helped me have a differ ent mindset on things, but it wasn’t easy on anyone.”

Maxim Trépanier, a fellow Stingers player, acknowl edged how hard it must have been for Martineau to join the team during the COVID year.

“That’s also what’s the most impressive about him, he’s always had a positive atti tude throughout these two years, and it really helped us get through this season,” Trépanier said. “When we needed to talk to him, he’d always be here to listen… it’s really his human side with the guys and his leadership.”

Stingers’ head coach Marc-André Elément recog nizes Martineau as very professional in his approach as a teammate and captain.

“It was his first year in our league, but also his first year as captain,” Elément said. “And it’s probably the first time a guy joins like that. Just the way he approaches every thing, his work ethic on the ice, in the gym, everywhere. He’s a really good leader.”

According to Elément, the decision to name Martin eau captain was pretty easy considering he was previously

captain in junior and had professional experience.

Something that Martineau lives by as captain goes back to what his former coach, Marc-André Dumont, told him during his time in Cape Breton: “to lead is to serve.”

“If you’re always making sure your teammates are at their best every day, you’ll be better and the team will be better,” he said. “For me, to be captain isn’t a privi lege, but a responsibility. Whether there’s a ‘C’ on my jersey or there’s no letter, I would act the same way.”

Other than playing hockey and being captain, Martineau also studies industrial engineering.

After doing his CEGEP online in Cape Breton, returning to in-per son courses was a chal lenge. And with no hockey, the first couple of years were even more difficult. However, after his taxing year travelling between Laval and Fort Wayne, he’s ultimately grateful for this forced break from the sport.

“Mentally when it came to hockey, I didn’t know if I still liked hockey,” he admitted. “It was a really tough year mentally. I would’ve liked to play the following year, but when I started playing games again, I realized that hockey is what I love doing.”

While he looks forward to going back to playing hockey professionally after graduation, his main prior ity at the moment is to grad uate from school and have his degree in his back pocket.

“I came to university to play hockey, yes, but also to get a degree,” Martineau said. “So I made a decision based on my education. I want to finish school and then not have it on my mind and focus on hockey.”

For now, with pre-sea son in full swing and the regular season starting on Oct. 15, Martineau is look ing forward to playing as many games as possible.

“We know we have a good team and we’re going for it all,” he said. “Anything less than a championship will be a disappointment.”

His plan for after gradu ation is to play in the ECHL or AHL, see how it goes for a couple of years, and maybe play in Europe for a few years if that offers him more stability. But with the Canadiens’ new ECHL affiliate in Trois-Riv ières, alternating between playing for the Rocket and Lions wouldn’t be so bad.

Martineau also said his degree would come in handy when he decides that he’s done playing hockey and is looking to settle down.

“I’m not 18 anymore, if I meet someone and it goes well and I want to have a family, I’m going to have to make differ ent decisions,” he concluded.

Phélix Martineau of the Concordia Stingers hockey team MARIA BOUABDO/THE CONCORDIAN

ARTS

Murals at Concordia: the University’s first studentled public art initiative

New faces appeared on the Hall Building’s walls last spring

BY VÉRONIQUE MORIN CONTRIBUTOR

A project initiated by the CSU financed two murals that were painted in May. Artists Monosourcil and Teenadult were invited to embellish the downtown campus. Colourful and detailed, the artworks’ aim is to represent all aspects of campus life. The student group who initiated the project were finalists for the Forces AVENIR provincial awards in the Arts, Letters and Culture category.

The seventh floor of the Hall Building is always full of life. During the day, students chat and study while others wait in line for a meal at The People’s Potato. In the evening, a completely differ ent crowd, groups of danc ers gather, in the open space.

Cristobal Perez-Boudon comes to campus almost every day after work to practice break dancing. “People come to dance here all the time. Sometimes we are more than 30 people.

There are the K-pop dancers and the B-boys,” he explained.

Perez-Boudon witnessed the production of the murals, and for him, they added a new energy to the space. “Since they are here, it feels like having our own studio. Before it was just an empty white space, you could think it was a cafeteria, but now there is something more.”

Plain, white walls are what stayed in Christopher Vacca rella’s mind when he started studying at Concordia in 2017.

“Everything was the same colour, no life, no personal ity,” he said. When he became a councillor for the CSU, adding art to the campus walls was one of the proj ects he wanted to propose.

Former CSU coordina tors, Shivaane S. and Camina Harrison-Chéry both joined forces with Vaccarella to secure the funding needed to produce the murals.

Their goal was to feature female and BIPOC artists.

“We all wanted the same thing where it focuses on diversity and people you don’t often see at festivals,” said Vaccarella.

Art on campus

Painted beside the CSU office, Maxilie Martel-Racicot’s mural

reflects the artist’s unique style while integrating elements from Concordia’s faculties. Depicted in contrasting shades of colour, the detailed work presents a large group of characters. Their identities are unclear, neither human nor animal.

Under her artist’s name, Monosourcil, Martel-Racicot created a world of her own in which she mixes sci-fi inspi rations with references to everyday life. For the mural ist, the themes of coexistence, tolerance and multicultural ism are always central to her work. “We are all humans, social animals, so it’s this idea that I represent, that we live in a group and in a commu nity in a certain way,” she said.

On the CSU’s Art Nook walls, artist Kezna Dalz (who also goes by Teenadult) replaced the seventh floor’s light grey walls with a creation full of flowers and butterflies. Dalz included the words “art heals” in her work. In the center are two black faces, as the artist aims to include diversity in all her creations. With this specific one, Dalz also wanted to create a positive atmosphere in the space. “The faces are tilted upwards, so

JUSTIN PHILIPPE PRACTICES BREAKDANCING AT CONCORDIA EVERY WEEK, VERONIQUE MORIN/THE CONCORDIAN

it’s about being confident, and just feeling good and creating in a space where you are feel ing yourself,” she explained.

“People gravitate towards colour,” said former CSU coordinator Shivaane S.. She sees this addition to the Art Nook as a way to make the space even more inspiring for students, and to “cultivate more student-life as well.”

For more public art

This is the first public art initiative to be fully student-led at Concordia. As the University is currently developing a new public art policy, the colour ful murals engage a reflection on what art can add to life on campus. The new policy should be delivered this fall and then implemented in winter 2023.

Even though the proj ect’s organizers have now left the CSU, the initiative is to be continued. A new mural should embellish the ceiling of Loyola’s G-Lounge this winter.

Loyola’s new CSU coordina tor, Sabrina Morena, believes art is meaningful to campus life: “To me, it means that we are not just here to study, we are also here to create a culture of care, and community.” She hopes to have even more murals painted at Concordia this year.

PHOTO CREDITS LEFT TO RIGHT

TOP: MONOSOURCIL’S MURAL ON THE 7TH FLOOR OF THE HALL BUILDING, CSU CRISTOBAL PEREZ-BOUDON, VÉRONIQUE MORIN/THE CONCORDIAN BOTTOM: TEENADULTT’S MURAL IN THE ART NOOK OF THE HALL BUILDING. CREDIT: CSU CRISTOBAL PEREZ-BOUDON, VÉRONIQUE MORIN/THE CONCORDIAN

Encore Books & Records: A gem that you’ll never find elsewhere

The mom-and-pop second hand books and records shop finds a way to stay alive despite various adversity

BY JEREMY COX ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR

In the early 90’s, Sean Madden, a young Concordia graduate, began buying books and records from local yard sales and auctions, eventually sparking his interest in selling them. As his hobbies pursued, his father — playwright Peter Madden — joined him, setting his literary passion ablaze.

“We often buy things from the community, and then it’s a nice process because it returns to the community. I always feel like I work really hard to keep Encore open because what we do here isn’t as much about sell ing as being a space for works of art to find other lives,” said Madden, the dedicated owner of Encore Books & Records.

The two would trade from all sorts of stores across town, namely S.W. Welch, The Word, and Odyssey. “Even tually we had so much stuff piled up, we were getting too good at it,” said Sean Madden.

“We stopped supplying other stores and looked for our own. It took us a year and a half to find this location. We lived in NDG, and we wanted something from NDG.” Thus, Encore Books & Records was opened in 1999 on Sherbrooke West and Harvard.

Madden was keen on finding unusual records from niche genres. “People were throwing out all kinds of things, and it’s always so fun to find somebody’s collection and learn about who they are, what they enjoy.”

Encore Books & Records has well over 100 genres of books, and over 40 genres of music

on vinyl. However, running a second-hand bookstore on a busy street is no simple task.

“Our profit margins are fine, but it’s a lot of work and I think it’s difficult, because our customers are also our suppliers, and people aren’t used to selling things to us,” said Madden. However, the team is always looking for great finds, and people can make their own contributions in their own way and pick something up for themselves.

The owner disclosed that he was not planning on expand ing the franchise, especially after how COVID-19 affected small retail businesses over the past couple of years.

“I hope Encore is here forever.”, said Caitlin Van Fossen, an Encore Books employee and a student at Concordia. “I think folks do love supporting local, and Sean likes to emphasise that we want to support the local community, unusual gems that you’ll never find elsewhere.”

“Sustainability is such a broad subject,” says in.site symposium organizer and Concordia Fine Arts professor pk langshaw

MFA professor and department chair pk langshaw describes the process of organizing the in.site Concordia sustain ability symposium

BY JEREMY COX ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR

When it came to creating extra-curricular organiza tions, professor pk langshaw had trouble finding sufficient funding. About four years ago, langshaw founded the Sustain ability of Fine Arts committee, which is currently finding fiscal means to stay up and running.

About a year and a half ago, langshaw reached out to faculty of fine arts dean Annie Gérin to propose her idea of a symposium. It would involve art exhibitions, hands-on workshops, presentations, discussions, and a sustainabil ity fair that explores social, cultural, and environmental sustainability in the context of artistic practice in Concor dia’s fine arts community.

Once the dean gave her the green light, professor lang shaw made calls and set up a “small team with big ideas” featuring BFA design majors Claire Lecker, Patrizio McLel land, Elizabeth Bureau, and computation arts student Sarah Hontoy-Major. Together, they got in contact with Concor dia’s 4th Space, where they were provided with tons

of technological support.

Langshaw found a chal lenge in finding the correct guest to invite to the sympo sium. “I had to balance it out between student, faculty, and alumni representation. That was the complex part. Seeing if we could get all nine departments represented and at what level it would be.”

The event featured Concor dia-run committees such as Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse, Zero Waste Concordia, Concordia Precious Plastic Project (CP3), Digital Fabrication Shop, Sustainabil ity Minor at Loyola Campus, Sustainability Action Fund, the Concordia Greenhouse, and Sustainable Concordia. During the second week of Septem ber, the in.site event held over 20 events, including nearly 20 Concordia-affiliated speakers.

According to professor lang shaw, “artists and design ers have a critical role in representing or comment ing on consumer society in general and a privilege to represent social commentary and environmental issues.”

There are a lot of artists pres ently working in the research and creation realm. Before

they looked at sustainability and materiality, artists and Concordia students weren’t intending to mass produce, so it wasn’t important to think about sustainability. But now, for example, the sculpture department is trying to be more sustainable with the materials they use: how they construct, how their creations go out to the public sphere, how they’re transported and what happens when it’s no longer viable.

This is especially important in terms of academic assign ments. The students will create projects that they won’t neces sarily show because they’re

still in the learning process, so understanding materiality and waste pollution is essential if the work will be discarded.

Eco-literacy, according to langshaw, is equally important because sustainability is such a broad term. “It means so much to specific disciplines. In our program we really try to look at all the elements together.”

Langshaw further explained by providing an example about domains interested in water pollution. “We really try to look at all the elements together. So, if the clothing you wear contains polyester, then its microplastic goes into the water

system when you wash it.”

Sustainability is such a broad subject, and people define it in terms of how broad their research is.

INSIDE ENCORE BOOKS & RECORDS, KAITLYNN RODNEY/THE CONCORDIAN

PK LANGSHAW PRESENTING HER PROJECT “THE PARACHUTE UNFOLDS: FOLLOWING THE THREADS” AT THE IN.SITE SYMPOSIUM, 4TH SPACE CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY ON YOUTUBE

Is Canadian Whiteness the New Theme of the 2022 Montreal International Black Film Festival?

BY LEÏLA AHOUMAN Contributor

The opening of the Montreal International Black Film Festi val with the screening of Lovely Jackson on Sept. 20 was noth ing less than a pure expression of devious Canadian whiteness.

Yes, there is such a thing.

A lot of Canadian identity is predicated on not being American. So when it comes to racism, the white Canadian rhetoric is that it’s simply “not as bad as it is in the States.”

The result is a local form of whiteness that pushes Euro-Ca nadians to decry racial violence in the United States but harshly deny its existence in their own country, so as to preserve the myth of white innocence, of

non-American superiority. I don’t know any Black person in Canada who hasn’t been humiliated by these seem ingly contradictory reactions that actually go hand in hand.

Yes, we are familiar with Canadian whiteness.

I expected more from the Montreal Black Film Festi val because it established multiple events and oppor tunities around the theme of Being Black in Canada. I thus decided to give Lovely Jack son a chance despite the fact that it’s produced by a white male (first red flag), and was suspiciously acclaimed by a white Québécois executive of the Festival (who declared in his speech that it was “just so beautiful”) — second red flag.

The movie tells the story of Rickey Jones, an African Amer ican man who spent 39 years on death row in Cleveland, Ohio for the murder of a white man that he did not commit. Two white police offi cers wrongfully convicted him at age 18 by forc ing a 12-yearold Black boy — the case’s sole eyewitness — to write a false statement “proving” his guilt.

He was released in 2014 at age 57, years after the Ohio Innocence Project started investigating his case.

As my heart juggled between rage, sadness and admira tion for Jackson, who boldly shared his incredible journey towards healing and happi ness, I grew more and more disgusted at Waldeck, the story’s antagonist, who care fully washed away the blood off the white criminal’s hands.

Not only was the Festi val’s choice of movie disre spectfully strategic in the Canadian context — another example of overshadowing local tyranny by focussing on racism in the US— it was

also full of white saviourism.

It is very clear: all white char acters are angels. More blame is put on the poor child who bore the traumatic burden of the officers’ illegal manipula tion and coercion for decades, than on the policemen respon sible for Jackson’s misery.

The movie includes detailed follow-ups on the life and testi monies of the former, but the latter are completely erased from the story, despite Jack son implying the full extent of their guilt in one brief clip.

This point-of-view remains unexplored. However, the white prosecutor who was the director of the Ohio Innocence

Project gets heroic attention — never mind the fact that he admitted to believing all pris oners were evil until the proj ect’s creator went on sabbatical leave, forcing him into the job.

The movie does not name “racism” or the prison-indus trial complex, let alone the roots of the colonial capitalist system that rips families apart and instills planned suffering into Black people’s existence.

I went from being frus trated to holding back tears at the cruelty of this world, exhausted by Waldeck’s distor tion of reality that was further empowered by the Canadian whiteness of the Festival.

Être ensemble: an art display that asks us to reflect on appreciating art rather than consuming advertisements

Zoom Art is a project that suggests people to look up from their mundane routine lives to expose themselves to artwork

BY ESTHER MORAND ARTS EDITOR

Curator Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette’s Zoom Art Project, presented by Ville de Laval Art Collection, is on display for its third edition until Oct. 16. The theme of this year’s edition is “être ensemble” which loosely translates to “being together.

The artworks will be accessible until Oct. 16.

The artworks are presented on astral panels, bus shel ters, posters in the Mont morency metro terminus, as well as in light boxes on metro platforms. These works replace advertising, display ing artwork instead of ads.

“The idea at the beginning was to allow a break from advertis ing and to have a kind of artistic oasis in the spaces where there usually is something to sell.”

Here, nothing is sold. People are invited “to reflect on their state, to have time for them selves, to be addressed as human beings, not as consum ers,” notes Goyer-Ouimette.

The project was born three years ago, in the midst of the pandemic. Goyer-Oui

mette explains that “muse ums were closed, people had limited access to culture.”

The first edition, curated by Anne-Sophie Michel and Anick Thibault, was organized in less than two months, with a selection of artists whose works were posted in bus shelters and on astral boards.

Previously, the proj ect served to help emerging artists, but for the second and third editions, pieces were chosen around a specific theme.

It was important for the curator to find an accessible theme that spoke to a large audience, where people could make links and think about the artworks without having necessarily studied fine arts. She wanted to find a theme around the term “to gather” without explaining it further.

“With the theme ‘être ensemble,’ contrary to the notion of ‘vivre ensem ble’ there is no intent given, it is more of an observa tion,” Goyer-Ouimette notes.

“Being together can reach the intimacy of conflicts between people, that it be in love relationships, power relationships, indoctrination,

or even very positive ones, such as relationships with a family, or being bored of being together.” The theme is thus reflected in the chosen pieces.

There are reproductions of artworks put into photog raphy; sometimes they are digitized because they come from real photographs that have been enlarged.

What is particular about Zoom Art is that “you can discover it by walking around randomly, but you can also discover it by day or by night. The works are very differ ent depending on the time of day,” Goyer-Ouimette said.

She notes that the proj ect resembles a cata log, but that the result is a display in a public space.

“One of the crucial steps in producing a catalog is to ensure the quality of the images. We often had to rework the size of the images.”

In choosing what artworks to represent, Goyer-Ouimette wanted “all the works [to] have a very strong visual appeal. In the bus shelters they contain details that will allow people to reflect,” because they have more time to wait for a bus, whereas

in the metro it has to be effective more quickly, so that the piece can convey itself effectively.

“Often people think that the worst that can happen is that people don’t like art, but the worst is when people don’t see it, don’t identify it as art, simply ignore it.”

The curator did not want to have to explain what artwork belonged to which artist, so the graphic designer selected a color inside each work to write the name of the artist.

“What this does is that we will associate the image with the name without it having to be explained,”

Goyer-Ouimette notes.

Two of the 17 artists, Jim Holyoak and Matt Shane, work in synchro nicity. Their work through the project is present on a bus shelter.

“One draws, and the other adds to it, they are truly working

together,” notes Goyer-Oui mette. “It’s a visual folly, the more you look at their work, the more you notice details. The drawing of one leads to the intervention of the other.”

On the other hand, Rafael Sottolichio’s work — displayed on a highway poster — deals with the theme of family coming out of the pandemic and external family reunions. Such works are a reminder of what we have just experienced throughout the pandemic .

The artworks intersect with the theme of togeth erness through different meanings and mediums.

EXAMPLE OF ZOOM ART AT MONTMORENCY METRO, ESTHER MORAND/THE CONCORDIAN

Music

It’s late March 2022 and while browsing through elec tives on MyConcordia, the last thing you expect to find is a whole class dedicated to one of hip hop’s most contro versial figures, Kanye West.

TAKING

‘YE’ CLASS AT CONCORDIA?

BY OLIVER ENG STAFF WRITER

The Killers murdered their performance in Montreal

BY ALEXANDRA BLACKIE Contributor

Downtown, the streets flooded with fans of all ages. From Gen X to Gen Z, the crowd rushed into the stadium in anticipation of the intoxicating perfor mance they were about to see.

The Killers opened their show with none other than Johnny Marr, an English singer and songwriter who was previously lead guitarist of the ’80s rock band The Smiths. Brandon

We’ve seen the Twitter frenzy and we’ve seen the Hypebeast article. Three weeks into the semester, you and around 200 other students are cramming into room 110 in the Hall building’s audito rium every Thursday to listen to what professor Yassin ‘Narcy’ Alsalman has in store.

“Honestly, anybody can come to the lectures.” said human relations student Alfred Umasao. “The profes sor doesn’t really care if you’re not in his class.”

If you’re curious about the nature of the course, look no further than the course outline to get a hint of what it’s like. The syllabus is presented in a PowerPoint format with artis tic pictures and font, sequenced in typical Kanye creativity.

“The purpose of this class is for you not only to appreciate Ye for his work, his vision and his addition to culture, but to also build a critical thinking of public domain, ownership, self-actualization, the world and more importantly, a real istic lens on celebrity, indus try, media, community and power. Nobody’s Perfect. Why is Ye so influential?” reads the first page of the PowerPoint.

Umasao, who’s been to all classes so far, has noth ing short of praise for the topics discussed so far.

“It’s less of a Kanye-based class but more of an intru sive self-reflection where you’re on your own and have to think about who you are as a person. One of our assign ments for example is ‘What made you disconnect as a five year old’ and like ‘How would you reconnect with him/her.’”

One of Alsalman’s ways of getting his students to feel comfortable in this environ ment is to play some chill Kanye beats before the lecture begins. Finance student Alissya Ghader describes the first day of class as entering a jam packed concert.

“The teacher some how managed to put us all at ease from the second we walked into the first class by blast ing some Kanye beats until everyone got settled in which gave me the same feeling as entering the doors of a concert venue.”

Professor Alsal man interacts with his students in a way in which they can feel comfortable express ing themselves. Ghader says that the profes sor even opted for

some Gen Z relatable humor. She also echoes Umasao’s previous comments about how immersive the class is.

“He said that he’d like for us to not only see this as a “Kanye Class” but more like a venue for exploring contemporary issues especially within the rap industry and how Ye was able to make something out of himself by overcoming it all.”

One of the course’s assign ments, called ”Kaneyetive Dissonance,” calls on students to examine a controversial moment in the rapper’s history and to explain critically why Kanye is or was problem atic, whether the incident was racialized and whether or not the rapper was right or wrong.

The course has also faced some criticism for its appar ent “meme” approach to the subject of Hip Hop and whether or not it should be taken seri ously as a university program.

That being said, the class does come with a hefty bill.

Jenna Wilson, a Concordia student who works at the book store, says that the two books Alsalman’s students must buy for the course aren’t cheap and were at one point in back order. The course pack, writ ten by Alsalman himself, costs $99.25. There’s also a smaller book called “Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” bringing the total to around $130 for the course.

Another student who preferred to remain anon ymous told The Concord ian that he still has mixed feelings for the course.

“I found it quite mixed, honestly… I’m not really sure of the whole point of the class. In some ways I feel like everybody there is just a Kanye fanboy/girl and that people don’t take it seriously.”

JOEY BRUCE/@JOEYBRUCEART

AT

Flowers, lead singer of The Kill ers, has previously cited that he was heavily influenced by The Smiths and was thrilled to have Johnny join them on tour.

Marr started off his act with songs such as “Spirit Power and Soul” and “All These Days” from his newly released album Fever Dream Pts. 1-4. His perfor mance consisted of a great mix between classic British rock and an electronic vibe which kept the crowd roaring for more.

After bantering with the audi ence about what song he should play next, Marr decided on two classics from The Smiths; “How Soon Is Now?” and “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” creating a nostalgic experi ence for the older demographic.

After a lengthy intermission,

The Killers warmed up their crowd with “My Own Soul’s Warning” from their 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, which was accompanied by the breathtaking art from their album cover splashed across the big screens in the background.

Two albums, four years, and no tours, The Killers expressed their excitement and grati tude to their audience. “It’s been four long years,” Flow ers stated to the crowd.

Flowers was all smiles throughout the entire show, laughing and chat ting with his band members and those in the front rows. His energy was infectious.

Although the group stuck to hits from their new albums, they broke up the rock and

roll with a heartfelt rendition of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” which brought tears to many. Definitely a performance I will never forget.

They ended their setlist with “All These Things That I’ve Done” from their 2004 album Hot Fuss. Their perfor mance was exhilarating. The band was able to unite the audience through their

music, having the crowd scream lyrics back at them. Finally, after 10 minutes of cheering and stomping, the band jumped back on stage to treat the audience to an extra performance with Johnny Marr before ending the show with a seven-minute version of “Mr. Brightside” which was the perfect way to wrap up the night.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COVER ART: HOW IT CAN MAKE OR BREAK A RECORD

Cover art is the first look you get at a body of work — might as well make it count with something eye-grabbing

BY GUILLAUME LABERGE MUSIC EDITOR

Choosing cover art to asso ciate with a piece of music will always be a big decision for artists, as the art introduces the music. Before listening to a single second, your experi ence with a body of work starts with the art that accompa nies it. Since it is the listener’s first contact with the music, the cover has to be intrigu ing enough for the listener to decide to dive into the record.

In some instances, cover art can be so eye-catching that it transcends a record’s popu larity and gets even more appreciated than the album itself, becoming its own thing. Album covers such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, with the famous trian gle prism and the beam of light passing through, or The Beat les’ Abbey Road which sees the band members wearing suits and crossing the street, are prime examples of this.

Don’t get me wrong — these

albums are considered some of the best of all time, but having such iconic covers definitely helped them gain the status and universal praise they still get to this day. These covers became so popular over time that you can now see them on clothes, posters, mugs, and tapestries, to a point where they’re almost symbolic.

With the streaming era, where everything is compiled on your phone, album art might not feel as important as 30 years ago when people would go to their nearest record store to skim through different album covers and buy which ever one caught their attention.

Regardless of the period we are in, album covers still abide by the same set of rules as before for picking good cover art.

The most important rule is that the cover art has to be representative of the music. The genre that does it best is metal music, where the violence showcased on the album art is an excellent indi cator of how brutal the music

is going to sound. Death metal outfit Cannibal Corpse have some of the most grue some album covers out there in metal, often picturing truly disgusting and unimaginable things done to people (look it up at your own risk) — and their very gross and murderous sound matches the vibe they portray on their front cover.

R&B also does it well, as it’s a more sexy and intimate genre, where artists don’t shy away from sensually posing on their album arts. You can take Doja Cat’s 2019 single “Juicy” as an example, a song talking about “juicy booties,” where Doja Cat herself is showcas ing her butt on the cover art.

The importance of cover art should never be neglected — while at its core, music is a form of sound art, an album or song also needs visual art to represent it. Who knows, maybe that split second of look ing at and judging a cool album cover might make you discover your next favourite artist.

REMEMBERING COOLIO

The hip-hop community mourns the loss of “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper Coolio, who passed away at the age of 59 on Sept. 28

BY SARO HARTOUNIAN ASSISTANT MUSIC EDITOR

Coolio passed away in Los Angeles, California on Sept. 28. The cause of his death was determined to be cardiac arrest. Foul play was not suspected, but questions were still raised amongst his friends and family. According to NY Post, it turns out that he suffered from severe asthma, which troubled him for years.

The rapper, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was born in Monessen, Pennsylva nia on Aug. 1, 1963. When he was 11 years old, his parents divorced, meaning he and his mom moved from Mones sen to live in Compton, LA

He first got into the rap scene in 1987 when he met with members of the hip hop group WC and the Maad Circle. Networking with them got him on their 1991 debut album Ain’t A Damn Thang Changed Coolio had released five studio albums and three compilation LPs. His most recent work was a collabora tion with Teddi Gold on “The Floor is Lava” single which was released earlier this year.

In 1995 he released the infamous “Gangsta’s Para dise” which sampled Stevie

Wonders’s “Pastime Paradise,” which came out in 1976.

Since then it has been on the list of iconic rap songs and is loved by many.

Since his passing, many newcomers and loyal fans alike have been listening to his first album It Takes a Thief, seeing as the debut track

“Fantastic Voyage” has over 18 million listens more than the other 15 tracks on Spotify. Celeb rities like Ice Cube, MC Hammer, and LL Cool J mourned his passing by post ing pictures of the late rapper on social media and sharing their condolences.

He is succeeded by his six children, his girlfriend Mimi Ivey, and his time less music that greatly impacted the rap scene.

You’ll be greatly missed, Coolio.

Some of my favour ite album covers includes:

Killers - Iron Maiden

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel

The House Is Burn ing - Isaiah Rashad

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

Twin FantasyCar Seat Headrest Midnight Maraud ers - A Tribe Called Quest Stranger in the Alps - Phoebe Bridgers

And Justice For All - Metallica Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus Songs In The Key Of Life - Stevie Wonder

ALBUM ART, JAMES FAY/THE CONCORDIAN

GANGSTA’S PARADISE ALBUM COVER, COOLIO

BY ZAINAH AL MEQBEL CONTRIBUTOR

Mohammed Amer is a Pales tinian-American comedian, and co-creator of Mo on Netflix, along with Golden Globe-win ning Egyptian-Ameri can actor Ramy Youssef.

The A24 series follows Mo Najjar as he navigates his life as a Palestinian refugee in Texas. The series is heavily auto biographical and the events are based on the experiences of Mohammed “Mo” Amer.

In one scene, Mo puts down a bottle of olive oil on the dinner table, freshly made by his mother, Yusra. “It’s nothing like the stuff back home,” she says.

The olive oil is a piece of home in Texas, so he holds on to it everywhere he goes as he juggles the intricacies of being Muslim and Palestinian in America.

The TV we consume shapes our mindsets; paired up with research and an open mind, TV shows that shine the spotlight on Muslim and Arab commu nities are a good place to start.

Mo is the representation Palestinians have been craving.

My Palestinian family and I watched it from our living room in Kuwait and have never felt more seen because finally, we got a show with accurate Arabic dialogue and relatable family dynamics.

My family comes from a city by the coast of Palestine called Haifa, but after the occupa tion of Palestine my grand parents fled to Kuwait, where I was born and raised. I had grown up so far away from what I felt resonated with my identity as a Palestinian.

Similarly, Mo’s parents were forced out of Haifa by the Isre ali Defense Force (IDF), leav ing them with no passports or residency anywhere. They ended up living in Kuwait, but had to leave after the Gulf War in 1990, the same war my parents endured as teenagers.

The details of Mo’s life felt so familiar it kept my family and I enticed for all eight episodes of the series, because watching something so relatable was so gratifying. The main char acter is undeniably flawed, authentic, and hilarious.

He juggles his relation

ship, illegal immigrant status, the weight of providing for his family, and the tragic death of his father as we watch his mental health deteriorate. Despite being a fictional char acter, the issues and struggles he represents are very real.

Alongside his traumatic flash backs and nightmares caused by his father’s death, I found it insightful that an Arab charac ter overcomes substance abuse issues on-screen. Mo develops an addiction to lean (a mixture of cough syrup and soda), shed ding light on an important scope in Muslim and Arab commu nities that is often dismissed.

Drug addiction and substance abuse are prominent within our communities (almost everyone I know has a nicotine addic tion), but cultural and religious stigma stop us from confronting the uncomfortable reality of it.

Even withdrawal symp toms are portrayed in the series, when Mo sits in the waiting room of the court house the day of their asylum case, sweating, vomiting, and struggling from a lack of sleep.

Yet the series remains funny

and lighthearted, and comedy television seems to be the only thing that humanizes these groups to the Western world.

There is something refreshing about laughing at the jokes of a main character who resembles your cousins and uncles, and remains a Muslim Arab char acter who isn’t battling loss and confusion with their identity.

Unlike the familiar tropes Muslims and Arabs are confined to in the media, Mo seems to reject the common Islamophobic plotlines we have become used to.

I would compare Mo’s char acter to other Muslim char acters in the media depicted as terrorists or victims of oppression. For example, in Netflix’s teenage drama Elite, one of the Muslim characters takes off her hijab to “liber ate” herself from her reli gion. However, Mo refuses to distance himself from his reli gious and national identity.

We have grown tired of two-dimensional and misrepresented Muslim and Arab characters.

We must recognize that the issue with such limited repre sentation of Palestinians in the media is that it has granted the power to the straight male dias pora to be the voice of Palestine.

The amount of screen time our communities get is what provides us our voice

OPINIONS Palestinians Deserved Netflix’s Mo Flâneurs and the Art of City Walking

and platform, although we must be wary of who exactly is the face of that platform.

This leaves room for misrep resentation or misinformation. For example, Mo comments on the borders set in Palestine in 1967 after the Six-Day War.

He says, “I’d be really happy if we’d go back to 1967 borders.” This neglects the reality of Palestinians living in Palestin ian territory in 1948. He refers to a time when Palestine was still actively under occupation, and Palestinians were being displaced from their homes.

It was refreshing to watch someone who speaks, eats, and prays the way I did growing up, and who carried a bottle of olive oil with him in an effort to hold onto his roots. It stressed the simplicity of taking our home with us no matter where we are.

I think we can agree that Mo is a face of Palestine, but definitely not the only one. The next step is a less Holly wood-washed, Westernized face of Palestine. One that acknowledges the struggle of Palestinians in Palestine and represents women, queer people, and stateless individ uals who identify as Palestin ian. Soon we will all be carrying our metaphorical bottle of olive oil everywhere we go.

— they suddenly felt so immense.

BY BEN MULCHINOCK CONTRIBUTOR

I never really liked walk ing in the city. To grow up in an urban environment meant life was fast-paced, so leisurely strolls didn’t really make sense. Instead, ratio nality and time manage ment overruled any effort to enjoy where I was walking.

A trip to the grocery store was done in haste, and school drop-offs were bundled together with errands. Even

a picnic in a public park was restricted to the one hour time slot we allocated for.

This mindset continued when I moved to Montreal and started my degree. I carried over the attitude of seeing the street as a transitional space between two more important locations.

The street carried no inher ent value and was to be navi gated as efficiently as possible.

Montreal’s summer and winter weather further entrenched my desire to limit city walking. My views were firm, but change came in response to a global pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought me many sedentary days and a yearning for some sort of connection.

Over the months, I looked for ways to temper my urban cabin fever. Running and cycling were fine, but the city paths I covered were still being used as mere accessories for my exercise — like an elaborate treadmill.

I wasn’t really experiencing anything the city had to offer.

It wasn’t until I learned about a certain historical group that I was inspired to connect to the urban outdoors. They were 19th century European flâneurs, and they saw the city in an entirely different light.

The flâneur, or flâneuse, was a well-to-do individual with plenty of free time on their hands. They were known to study the many districts of Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna in their industrial golden ages.

They took little part in the commercial activities of the markets and stores, and aside from resting at cafés and restau rants, they withdrew from the social activity of the streets. What they did was observe.

In maintaining anonym ity, the flâneur would witness the endless theatrics that unfolded on the city scene. These observant characters were able to find limitless dramas play out through the mundane activities of city folk.

This group intrigued me, and I wondered if it would be possi ble to recapture their enjoyment

of the city. With this in mind, I set out on a summer after noon to see what I could find.

Keeping my head high and ears tuned, I wandered around Montreal. With shoppers and commuters out, I was sure to find the streets filled. Through the summer heat and the city smell, I slowly tuned into the sights of the downtown bustle, and with the rigor ous style of the flâneurs, I took note of the city activity.

To my delight, I started to really connect with all the action around me. From construction workers to window shoppers, everything played out like elements in a great play, with everyone dutifully filling their roles.

For example, I noted a welldressed businessman fran tically phoning an airline to reorganize his flights. By itself, this scene wasn’t particularly memorable. But when I placed his troubles into the greater context of the times — the pandemic, the re-opening econ omy, the difficulties of flying, and the historic commer cial hub that is Montreal

The city itself also bore energy upon closer inspection. Construc tion pylons, cars, a dead pigeon, pesky living pigeons, and even the many angles of light bouncing off the skyscrapers came together to create their own complete unit. They had their own worth.

What was once a cumber some experience was now full of intensity. Whether through age, circumstance, or desper ation, something in me had changed. I felt connected to the complexities of the city, and I was deeply enjoying the expe rience. Even in my anonymous role of observer, I was a part of the story of that given day.

I continue these walks to this day, finding new stories every time. While I don’t always walk with the same observational fervour, I’ve come to depend on strolling through the city. By putting these walks in a fresh light, they become so much more than the chore they used to be.

Going through any given burrough and reflecting on the sheer brilliance of the action gives these spaces a whole new weight and impor tance. If it means budget ing more time in the day, then it’s fully worth the price.

new

is the most culturally

century urban explorers may be the key to rediscovering the beauty of Montreal

Good witch, bad witch, will she float or will she sink?

& State, Matilda Joslyn Gage, an American suffragette, reframed the witch hunts of the 1600s as a misogynistic attempt from the Christian church and state to police women’s bodies and keep gender roles in place.

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were murdered in barbaric ways under the broad crime of practising witchcraft.

I say “broad” because the

BY JOELLE JALBERT OPINIONS EDITOR

With today’s horror movies depicting their women protag onists as helpless haunted gals, I can’t help but reflect on the true feminist horror story: the origin of the witch.

While witch hunts stopped around the 17th century in America, the fear of the witch stayed in our culture, having a particular spotlight during the spooky season.

Although the topic has now evolved into popu lar culture, the real history of witches is much darker.

Witches were believed to be practitioners of the Devil’s work, calling upon spir its to heal or harm others. Although sometimes — and let’s face it — they were only practicing traditional medi cine or sciences, but them being women made it a crime.

It’s clear that witch hunts were targeting women: more specifically, single, widowed women, or women on the

ety— women who stepped outside their assigned role.

Bridget Marshall, Associate Professor in the department of English at the University of Massachusetts who studies witch trials and the history of witchcraft, believes that most witches were women because of systematic oppression.

“This is why witch trials weren’t just about accusa tions that today seem base less. They were also about a justice system that escalated local grievances to capital offenses and targeted a subju gated minority,” she says.

Indeed, out of the 19 people that were convicted of witch craft during the Salem witch trials of 1692, 14 were women and the other five were guilty by association — either a brother or husband.

So, how did these witch hunts contribute to shape the feminist movement?

It is only in 1893 that we see a critique of how the church treated women who were suspected of being witches.

Gage’s son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, author of the famous The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was inspired by her work to frame the character of the witch in his story in a more positive light.

The early 1960s TV show Bewitched centered around the life a white middle-class house wife, and coincides with the rise of the women’s liberation movement. The way the protag onist Samantha Stephens uses her magic around the house can be linked to early feminist argu ments for agency and free will.

This set the stage in popu lar culture for how we view the figure of the witch now: from a clumsy Sabrina the Teenage Witch, to the clever Hermione, to the villainous comedic Sanderson sisters.

Although we can argue that most of them are portrayed as feminist icons today, we have to acknowledge that the real history behind witch hunts is rooted in patriar chal power and the fear of a woman challenging that power.

Whether by drowning or

offence included an array of subjects that men were also studying at the time, such as astrology, sciences, medicine, and divination.

Besides the obvious reli gious hysteria around women, witch hunts were also used to establish dominance in these new male-only establishments.

The crime was ultimately that of being a woman .

on

The history of the witch: true tales of patriarchal terror