LaSalle College overenrolled 716 and 1066 students in its English-speaking programs in 2023 and 2024 respectively. In response, the Quebec Government imposed a $30 million CAD penalty on the college, forcing the institution to postpone the school year kickoff, initially scheduled for Aug. 25. The cost of such substantial defunding[Read More…]
Commentary
Quebec’s threshold of grace: Suffering, solace and the right to die with dignity
There is quiet strength in the decisions made at life’s edge—a reality Quebec has been able to realize through its approach to end-of-life care. Quebec has long been at the vanguard of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)—a medical protocol which allows an eligible individual to receive assistance from a medical[Read More…]
Institutional amnesia: How children’s media and universities feed revisionist history
The role of children’s media in shaping identity and worldview has always been influential; however, in recent years, the line between education and blatant ideological propaganda has become increasingly blurred. As children’s programming faces cuts and closures across North America, conservative platforms like PragerU Kids fill the gap with content[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…]
Bill 97 bulldozes Indigenous livelihoods
Quebec’s government is moving toward securing unbarred executive control over 8 million hectares of the province’s forests for the forestry industry’s industrial logging agenda. This legislation—Bill 97—pads the pockets of industrial logging companies, while bulldozing constitutional and humanitarian obligations to the Indigenous communities who steward much of the targeted land. [Read More…]
A welcome until it wasn’t: The double standard of Quebec’s secularism
Montreal’s city hall recently took down a welcome sign in its lobby that portrayed a woman in a hijab, less than a year after its installation. This decision comes amid a series of changes implemented under Quebec’s Bill 21 and the continued movement towards secularization—the separation of public institutions from[Read More…]
Term limits on elected officials infringe on democracy
In advance of the upcoming election, Canadians are haunted by a seemingly innocent quandary—do term limits break democracy? But let’s start with a different question, one you probably know the answer to: How long can any given Canadian prime minister govern? If you answered, “Until they’re voted out or resign,”[Read More…]
Duolingo claims to teach everyone—but does it really?
Duolingo’s very name—rooted in the Latin “duo” (two) and “lingua” (language)—champions multilingualism, which seems fitting considering the function of the app as a language-learning tool. Yet, ironically, Duolingo’s design choices often speak only one language: The language of exclusivity. In a generation where technology shapes our daily lives, the design[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…]
Point Counterpoint: A debate on pro-Palestine protest tactics 
Aggressive protest methods may alienate moderates, and make for less effective movements Daniel Miksha Over the past year, persistent protests played out on McGill campus in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Though smashed windows, encampments, and sod-pulling make headlines, some of these protest tactics alienate more politically moderate members of[Read More…]
