The Quebec government’s recent announcement of new measures to avoid psychiatric hospitalization emphasizes the importance of patient-centric and holistic mental illness treatment. However, it is also—put bluntly—too little, too late. Both the imminent introduction of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) as a care service for those struggling with severe mental[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Learning to go slow
This past summer was a summer of long drives. I would put on a podcast, occasionally find a passenger, and hit the road in my beat-up blue Subaru. Ironically, at some point, while speeding on long stretches of Route 175, I also came to embrace moving slowly. I have always[Read More…]
Bio Locaux invests in the necessary model for Canada’s produce market
Montreal, like so many other cities, has seen a steady rise in inflation of grocery prices. The grocery inflation rate is sitting at about eight per cent, and is expected to increase further throughout 2023. Canadians find themselves on tighter budgets, unable to buy the amount and quality of food[Read More…]
Montreal needs more than shock to put a stop to pedestrian fatalities
The average number of pedestrian fatalities per year increased by 22.7 per cent in 2022 compared to the 2017-2021 average. According to the 2022 annual report from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), of the estimated 952 pedestrian collisions in the city, 20 resulted in pedestrian[Read More…]
Palestinian, Israeli, Arab and Jewish students need McGill’s institutional support now
Over the past four weeks, Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian students, community members and allies have demonstrated on the McGill campus. On Oct. 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack killing over 1,400 Israelis and taking over 200 hostages. In a brutal response consisting of airstrikes, ground incursions, and a siege on[Read More…]
How to take a Mattwalk
I’ve never been a great sleeper. If left alone, my brain will run a marathon’s worth of circles, especially when it has something to chew on. The problem came to a head during my first year. The more I contorted myself on my residence-supplied mattress, the more tightly constricted I[Read More…]
Students are choosing apathy over engagement with SSMU
Unsurprisingly, forming strong opinions about something that you cannot see or readily gather information about can pose a challenge. This simple phenomenon obstructs the vast majority of McGill students from interacting with, caring about, or even knowing of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU). The SSMU name floats aimlessly[Read More…]
Evictions of encampments encroach on equitable housing solutions
As the housing crisis in Montreal persists, neither the city government nor its citizens are addressing the unhoused population with the empathy and urgency they deserve. A coalition of residents from Saint-Henri recently expressed anger over a decision to build a four-storey housing complex for unhoused individuals and a supervised[Read More…]
STM constables’ new pepper spray is anti-progress for the Mental Health Crisis
At the start of October, the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) announced that constables in charge of patrolling the Montreal Metro will now be armed with gel aerosol pepper spray. The STM made this decision in response to a growing number of incidents in the metro system in which[Read More…]
The McGill Book Fair teaches us a lesson in institutional apathy 
Despite being heard by few students during the fall of 2022, a death knell sounded marking the end of the McGill Book Fair. Started in 1972 by the Women’s Associates of McGill and the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association, the Book Fair is yet another victim of the McLennan-Redpath complex renovation.[Read More…]
