Canada’s prison system is predicated on rehabilitation and reintegration—yet, the country’s own correctional service is defunding the most integral program to realizing that aim. Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has announced the suspension of its federal prison education program in Quebec correctional facilities, effective June 30, 2026. At present, Quebec offers[Read More…]
Articles by Ellen Lurie
Black Sisterhood at McGill targeted with online racist harassment
Content warning: Mentions of racial violence After Black Sisterhood at McGill (BSISSY) began recruiting members to start an Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority chapter at McGill, co-founders Lena Karis Moussio, U1 Arts, and Astou Badiane, U1 Arts, received racist comments and threats of violence through the organization’s Instagram account. The[Read More…]
Great pitch, terrible news
In The Tribune‘s Slack, ‘that’s great!’ doesn’t usually mean there’s good news. Coming up with pitches for our paper requires a particular analytic perspective. Examining politics, social life, and culture through the lens of journalism can instill a habit of reading the news in search of something controversial; something sensationalizable.[Read More…]
White supremacists cannot be trusted with coercive state power
Trigger warning: Mentions of racial and sexual violence WhiteDate, advertised as a “dating platform for white people with traditional values,” is a white supremacist, neo-eugenicist, ethnonationalist propaganda network impersonating a dating app. An investigation has revealed the presence of military and elected officials on this platform, posing a profound threat[Read More…]
Race-blind justice isn’t justice at all
In July 2025, Frank Paris, a 52-year-old Black man raised in Montreal, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking cannabis and hash. However, with the help of his lawyer, who submitted a report outlining Paris’s experiences with systemic racism, the judge reduced his sentence from[Read More…]
McGill Senate discusses identification policy, election rules, and budget outlook
On Jan. 14, the McGill Senate convened for its first meeting of the Winter 2026 Semester, discussing a proposed codification of the Senate’s electoral procedures, a draft identification policy governing access to university spaces, and McGill’s budget outlook for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. The meeting began with McGill’s President and[Read More…]
Keeping Montreal alive means letting shops stay open late
It’s 7 p.m. on a Saturday night, and you have nothing to wear. Rushing out the door, you take to St. Laurent in search of the perfect, innovative solution to a closet lacking inspiration: Another black top. Yet, no matter where you look, every store is closed: La Caravane, CUL-DE-SAC,[Read More…]
Canada must criminalize coerced sterilization and confront its propagation of colonial violence
In 2005, Montreal practitioners performed a nonconsensual hysterectomy on Quebec Senator Amina Gerba, resulting in irreversible infertility. Gerba would not learn she had undergone this procedure—a clear violation of her medical rights and autonomy—until over a decade later, when, during an unrelated procedure, her gynecologist discovered she lacked a uterus.[Read More…]
William Clare Roberts dismissed as Vice-Chair of the Committee on Student Discipline
On Aug. 27, the McGill Senate Nominating Committee issued a report calling for the immediate replacement of associate professor of McGill’s Department of Political Science William Clare Roberts in his role as member and Vice-Chair of the university’s Committee on Student Discipline (CSD). The committee’s decision followed a post made[Read More…]
Canada, union-busting won’t fly
On Saturday, Aug. 16, over 10,000 flight attendants went on strike in protest of Air Canada’s longstanding refusal to pay employees for their “ground work,” a term describing the labour obligations flight attendants execute while preparing the aircraft prior to take-off and after landing. The average flight attendant completes over[Read More…]
It’s time for the United States to finally get its 51st state
For many of my Canadian peers, the phrase “51st state” earns an eye-roll, no doubt in response to U.S. President Trump’s ceaseless political and economic antagonism. Yet, growing up in Washington, DC, “51st state” was a rallying cry, a call for the enfranchisement of the city’s over 700,000 residents who[Read More…]
‘Flora’ and the price of digital discipline
When the smartphone was invented, to have access to such a coveted—and expensive—piece of technology was an extreme privilege. Now, the smartphone is virtually ubiquitous—with over 90 per cent of Canadians owning one—and 21st-century users must confront a new problem: How to stop using it. Phantom buzz, obsessive notification-checking, and[Read More…]
Canada must look to its own history—not the United States’—when forming solutions to the fentanyl crisis
First distributed in the 1960s as an intravenous anesthetic, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. As one of the world’s most frequently used opioid analgesics, fentanyl’s high potency poses a severe risk of overdose, particularly when consumed unknowingly through dealer lacing. With a mere[Read More…]
In the wake of Trudeau’s resignation, U.S. political polarization should serve as a cautionary tale
A widely unpopular progressive party leader, having unsuccessfully attempted to fend off a populist conservative challenger, is forced to step down for the sake of his party’s re-election prospects. Wait, who are we talking about? Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation on Jan. 6, 2025 shares eerie resemblance with former[Read More…]
Could pedestrianizing Rue Sainte-Catherine ease our seasonal blues?
A last-minute battery replacement for your beloved laptop that’s well past its prime. A new top for a first date when you have nothing to wear. A warm pair of gloves because, yes, Montreal really is as cold as your mom warned it would be. A trip to the Eaton[Read More…]
Café Campus ticket scalping and the real cost of FOMO
It’s Halloween day, 2024. You and all your friends are in pursuit of what may be the pinnacle of McGill first-year social life: Halloween Thirsty Thursday at Café Campus. The tickets are bound to sell out as soon as they drop, and to make matters worse, sales are only going[Read More…]