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Art, Arts & Entertainment

AM Kanngieser’s ‘Listening as Coming To’ transports you through time

by Alex Hawes Silva on

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This fall, the PHI Centre is hosting Habitat Sonore: A Kind of Harmony, a series of six sound exhibitions created by different artists. Each event comprises an in-depth interview with the artist, followed by a collective listening experience for the sound piece. Most recently, the centre welcomed audiences on Oct. 26 and 27 for AM Kanngieser’s exhibition ‘Listening as Coming To.’ Kanngieser, an award-winning geographer and sound artist, brings his talent to the PHI Centre to shed light on environmental justice through sound art.  

Pioneered by futurist Luigi Russolo, sound art is an immersive art form that utilizes auditory mechanisms for creative expression through atmosphere. Kanngieser’s exhibition cultivates sounds in a way that illustrates a deeper form of recognition and understanding of the land and all that came before him: For ‘Listening as Coming To,” Kanngieser worked with the sounds of Nauru, a small island in Micronesia, to pay respect to the island’s Indigenous population.

The exhibition began with a conversation with the artist dissecting the concept of listening itself. Kanngieser and the interviewer discussed how, as humans, we come to conversations and environments with our own personal baggage that influences how we perceive and interpret sound. Thus, by bringing our own presence to every experience, we change the environment itself. 

Additionally, Kanngieser spoke to how certain cultures build relationships with sound patterns and utilize similar motifs of audio over the course of time. This cultural side of sound is based mostly on the environment, the history of a place, and the people that came there before. Recognizing and respecting that facet of the listening process is a crucial part of building a relationship with the listening environment and ensuring that the audience fully sees the space for all that it is.

“You have to establish a relation, you know, you can’t just go in and take things. You can’t just extract all the time again and again,” Kanngieser stated. 

He accompanied that statement by asserting that one’s presence must appreciate the totality of the environment when recording sounds for their art. Kanngeiser touched on building a relationship with a space, elaborating on how people can choose the conditions in which they care for a space and take into account its liberation amidst environmental change. With appreciation for the space came greater respect and understanding of what he created. 

One of the final things discussed in the interview was the power of silence and its complexities. Kanngieser explained that while most people view silence as a lack and sense of emptiness, he approaches it differently. 

“Silence is more of an overflowing of, an overabundance [of], all of these things that exist in a way that maybe can’t be said, that sit at the limits of language,” Kanngieser clarified. 

The interview concluded with Kanngieser establishing silence as an invitation to the audience to pause and listen, thereby reorienting themselves to the plethora of sonic relations occurring at that moment. Kanngieser’s 15-minute piece followed. 

The piece commenced with tranquil nature sounds that simulated a rainforest and what I perceived to be a river. With serene water sounds flowing all around the room, I felt as though I myself was in the rainforest. The dim lighting of the exhibition room, paired with the cozy cushions provided for audience members to lie on, created an idyllic ambience for sinking into the auditory experience. The piece continued with a series of sparkling sounds, celestial and otherworldly, until eventually fading out to silence. 

Throughout the experience, I felt transported from place to place and was moved to such a state of peace that I felt myself slowly being lulled to sleep. The piece was transportive and sensational, evoking feelings and sensations of serenity strictly from listening and bathing in the surrounding sounds. 

Kanngieser built this ambience by using recordings from Nauru to reveal the natural life of the island. By displaying the beauty of Nauru, Kanngieser hopes to spread awareness and spark discussions of environmental justice for the land in other creative spaces. 

McGill Recommendations, Out on the Town, Student Life

Explore Montreal’s culinary milieu with MTLàTABLE

by Tamiyana Roemer on

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With Halloween behind us, there’s no need to fear surprise charges lurking at the end of a meal. MTLàTABLE’s set-price menus offer students a taste of the city’s vibrant culinary scene, spook-free, until Nov. 17. Each participating restaurant offers three or four-course set-price evening menus priced at $35, $50, $65, or $80 CAD. With over 150 restaurants on board, MTLàTABLE showcases Montreal’s rich culinary diversity—and to help you choose, The Tribune has curated highlights from this year’s lineup.

French fare

From casual bistros to fine dining establishments, French cuisine is a cornerstone of the city’s restaurant scene. MTLàTABLE showcases this rich culinary heritage and invites diners to explore French dishes from an array of restaurants. Among the most enticing options are the $65 CAD three-course offerings at both Leméac and Modavie. Leméac, a landmark Montreal restaurant, is celebrated for its chic bistro fare, featuring unique delights such as cromesquis of suckling pig and arctic char. Meanwhile, Modavie, nestled in the heart of Old Montreal, presents French classics like escargots and duck confit in a charming vintage atmosphere. Both venues promise delightful evenings that highlight the depth of French influence in Montreal’s food culture.

Quebec cuisine

Quebec cuisine blends traditional French influences and local ingredients, reflecting the province’s distinct cultural heritage and culinary landscape. If you’d like to explore this gastronomic scene during MTLàTABLE, Caribou Gourmand is an excellent choice, offering a $50 CAD four-course menu that captures the essence of Montreal’s flavours. Their dishes include bison stew and the Magdalen Islands wild seal, highlighting unique Canadian offerings. If that doesn’t pique your interest, fear not: There are vegetarian options too, ideal for those who prefer their meals more flora than fauna-centered. After all, who needs to wrestle with a wild seal when you can indulge in homemade beet gnocchi?

For a unique twist on traditional Quebec flavours, try h3, which infuses Québecois classics with Asian influences—think squash soup with hints of yuzu and maple. Priced at $65 CAD for four courses, H3 impresses with main offerings like seared salmon paired with Massawipi miso and celeriac, along with beef striploin steak served with aligot potatoes. 

Pescatarian and vegetarian options

Perles et Paddock’s $50 CAD four-course menu features the rich flavours of Quebec and the Maritimes, featuring standout dishes like their tapioca cromesqui with pumpkin and curry, and a robust seafood option of grilled Bobines Farm trout served with barbecued salsify. Guests can choose between vegetarian delights, such as the roasted cauliflower with honey and tahini, and meatier fare like the braised beef short rib with butter-roasted parsnips. With clear identification of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options, this menu ensures that everyone can experience a remarkable dining experience, regardless of their dietary preference.

Date nightAs the temperatures drop, there’s nothing like warming up a chilly evening with a romantic date night and a cozy meal. The Tribune recommends three enticing dining options at varying price points, ensuring you can impress without breaking the bank. Foiegwa presents a three-course experience for just $35 CAD. Featured on their MTLàTABLE menu is the popular black truffle spaghetti, artfully topped with an egg yolk. The restaurant’s intimate seating and warm dim lighting create the perfect ambiance for a cozy evening. Le Boulevardier steps it up with four courses at $65 CAD, offering an impressive selection that includes scallops, tuna tartare, burrata, and sea bass. This elegant eatery strikes the right balance between sophistication and comfort, making it an ideal choice for a memorable night out. For those looking to treat themselves, Ratafia provides a luxurious four-course menu for $80 CAD. Highlights include the gravlax of Arctic char, eggplant with koji and amazake glaze, and a stunning dessert featuring burnt meringue paired with fresh sea buckthorn, buckwheat ganache, and a refreshing buffalo mozzarella sorbet from Maciocia Farm. Whichever option you choose, you’re bound to keep the chill at bay and impress your date!

Editorial, Opinion

Canada’s new immigration restriction promotes racism and xenophobia

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

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On Oct. 24, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new policy which will significantly cut the number of immigrants Canada admits, as a response to rapid population growth and insufficient resources. This policy will reduce the number of legal immigrants in 2025 from the previously projected 500,000 to just 395,000—a drop of 21 per cent. The policy places additional restrictions on undergraduate and master’s student visas, further jeopardizing the country’s international student population. This new legislation reflects the broader Canadian tendency to render certain immigrant groups scapegoats for governmental failures to properly address the turbulent economy, unaffordable housing, and crime rates. 

Since the 1988 Canadian Multiculturalism Act, Canada has prided itself on being a haven of diversity which welcomes and honours cultural, religious, and ethnic differences. However, racism in Canada has steadily increased in the past several years. Racism against the South Asian population—including the largest recent-immigrant demographic, Indians—has risen 143 per cent from 2019 to 2022. Forty-one per cent of Canada’s Black community report having experienced discrimination based on their skin colour—a frequency 15 times higher than non-Indigenous and non-racialized populations. The growing anti-immigration rhetoric, especially in reaction to Canada’s persistent housing crisis, exacerbates this bigotry. Under such circumstances, the Canadian government and large Canadian corporations evade accountability, shoving the onus of a failing housing system onto the backs of those most vulnerable and with the least power to defend themselves. 

Because Canadian xenophobic anti-immigration rhetoric is based in racism, it does not apply to white or white-passing immigrants, regardless of the country from which they emigrated, but instead to the “visible immigrant.” In this way, “immigrant” has become a euphemism for people of colour and thus a systemic, legally-enforced mechanism for racism in Canada. In addition to the racist anti-immigrant rhetoric they face, “visible immigrants” simultaneously contend with other forms of racism in the police force, the workplace, and healthcare, to name only a few environments. 

The prevalence of anti-immigration sentiment is ironic considering that the term “immigrant” applies to every citizen in Canada who is not part of the Indigenous population. It is a further irony that anti-immigration rhetoric blames immigrants for overtaking the job market or undermining the opportunities of other (“non-immigrant”) Canadians, when much of Canada itself is built on stolen Indigenous lands. 

At McGill, international students are a critical part of the campus ecosystem—they make up about 30 per cent of the student population and pay the highest tuition fees of all university attendees. For this reason, the new immigration policy could present a massive cut to McGill’s funding, potentially diluting the quality of its facilities and faculty, and thus reducing its prestige on the global educational stage. While McGill is taking productive steps by suing the Québec government for its tuition hikes and restrictions on international student visas, it still incentivizes European French-speaking students with lower tuition not offered to francophones from other parts of the world.

Perhaps more detrimental, reducing the number of international students at McGill undermines its diversity. One of the best remedies to rising racist rhetoric is exposure—coexisting with students from different countries, with different ethnic identities, and who practice different religions is the best education a school can offer. Denying this campus diversity will homogenize McGill’s student population and thus homogenize its students’ worldviews, working against Canada’s alleged commitment to multiculturalism and against challenging racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric. 

The first step in combating the growing xenophobic attitude in Canada is a governmental commitment to strong public services. There must be substantial and holistic attention to social safety nets such as affordable housing, access to transportation, and lower food prices in order to establish a solid foundation to support all those within the country. McGill must continue to fight for its international students while also ensuring fair and equitable admission and outreach, such as equitable incentivization for all francophone students, not just European francophones.  However, before all else, Canadian governments, corporations, and individual politicians must accept accountability for the faults of their own policies and institutions without shirking the blame onto its already vulnerable immigrant population.  

Behind the Bench, Sports

Jack Draper and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard claim ATP 500 titles in Vienna and Basel

by Samuel Ferreira Duran on

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On Oct. 27, Jack Draper and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard continued to set the stage for a new era of young tennis stars, claiming their maiden Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) 500 titles in the Vienna Open and the Swiss Indoors Basel. Both players won their finals in narrow straight sets, with Draper defeating the experienced Russian player Karen Khachanov 6-4, 7-5 and Perricard edging out sixth seed Ben Shelton 6-4, 7-6.

Their victories solidified what has been an exceptional year for the pair, as both players captured their first ATP 200 and 500 titles—achievements that position them for an exciting 2025 season, focused on Masters 1000 and Grand Slam opportunities. Perricard’s championship in Vienna culminated his breakthrough season, while Draper’s victory in Basel marked an impressive comeback year following a 2023 season marred by injuries.

Draper had his first standout season in 2022, climbing the ATP Rankings from World No. 265 to 42. Unfortunately, the 22-year-old Brit suffered numerous injuries in 2023, which caused him to drop out of the top 100 at one point during the year. At the end of 2023, Draper set his goal for the 2024 season: a top-20 finish. His triumph in Basel achieved just that, pushing him to World No. 15—a career-high—and capping off a spectacular year. Apart from his victory in Vienna, Draper won his first ATP 250 title in Stuttgart in June. He reached the US Open semifinals in September, where he lost to the eventual champion and World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. 

While Draper’s season continued to cement him as a highly-ranked player, Mpetshi Perricard made a name for himself this year; his victory in Basel sent a strong message to those still unaware of his talent. The Frenchman, standing at 6’8, showed his impressive backhand and unbelievable serve in the Basel championship game, drawing eyes as he hit 22 aces in the final. He defeated Canadian No. 1 Felix Auger-Aliassime, a Montreal native and a two-time defending champion, on his way to the final. Perricard, who only went pro in 2021, soared to World No. 31 following his triumph in Basel, having started the year at No. 205. The 21-year-old also won the ATP Lyon Open in May on home soil and reached the last 16 at Wimbledon in July. 

Draper’s and Perricard’s victories further mark 2024 as a transformative year for tennis. Until recently, the Big Three continued to rule Grand Slams and Master 1000 tournaments. Following Federer’s retirement in 2022 and Nadal’s exit this year, Djokovic maintained the Big Three’s dominance, producing a staggering 2023 season in which he won the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and the US Open. Still, for Djokovic, at 37 years old, retirement is on the horizon. 2024 marked the first year since 2002 that one of the Big Three did not win a Grand Slam, signalling a passing of the torch to the younger generations.

The old guard has changed. The Basel Open featured for the first time that the ATP tour had four semi-finalists born in the 2000s. The Vienna Open’s semi-finals featured two 22-year-olds. Draper has set himself as Britain’s new No. 1 following Andy Murray’s retirement this year, and Perricard joins the likes of Arthur Fils as exciting new French talent. 

A new era of young tennis talent has emerged, spearheaded by 21-year-old Carlos Alcaraz and 23-year-old Jannik Sinner who already have multiple Grand Slams to their names. The question remains of who will join them as the third great in this new chapter. Stories play a beautiful role in sports, and fans will quickly look to find a third member to join Alcaraz and Sinner. Draper’s and Perricard’s victories this past Sunday may well position both as potential candidates for that third member of a new Big Three.

McGill, News

2024 Mallory Lecture interrogates Canada’s pro-immigration appearance

by Ella Paulin on

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Irene Bloemraad, professor of Political Science and Sociology at the University of British Columbia, delivered the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada’s 2024 Mallory Lecture, titled “The Limits of Canadian Tolerance” on Oct. 30. She presented her recent research on Canadians’ attitudes towards out-of-status immigrants—temporary residents whose visas have expired. Bloemraad also explored the broader landscape of concerns around how many temporary and permanent immigrants Canada allows, what kind of support should be given to immigrants, and how Canada’s immigration patterns compare with the United States.

Opening by comparing the U.S. and Canada, Bloemraad noted that scholars in the U.S. have more reliable numbers on out-of-status immigrants than Canada does, because undocumented immigration has historically been a higher-profile issue in the U.S. than in Canada. In Canada, estimates of the number of out-of-status immigrants ranges from 20,000 up to 500,000, leaving Canadian experts unsure how widespread an occurrence this is. Bloemraad discussed this uncertainty in the field, which can leave policymakers and the public unsure of how many resources to allocate to addressing the issue. 

“Should we as Canadians, be concerned about [the number of out-of-status immigrants]?” Bloemraad asked during her lecture. “If you walk out of this talk with at least one thing in your mind, I want you to think that we need to get ahead of this, because it is going to be an issue.”

Bloemraad presented two major reasons for concern about immigration: That Canada currently grants more temporary work and study permits than permanent residencies; and that an influx of immigrants may face deportation from the U.S. by a possible Trump administration. 

“Irrespective of whether you think this is a good policy or a bad policy, if you have a temporary worker program or temporary students, you are probably going to get undocumented migration at some point in the future, because the temporary [immigrants] might stay and then fall out of status,” Bloemraad noted. 

Jacob Kates Rose, a master’s student in McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy, emphasized Bloemraad’s point about possible immigration from the U.S. in an interview with The Tribune. 

“One of the most important takeaways was that, projecting a possible Trump presidency, if [government officials] follow through on trying to deport millions of people, […] a lot of those people will end up in Canada,” Kates Rose said. 

Shifting from the broader policy landscape, Bloemraad outlined her recent study: “Categorical Inequalities and Canadian Attitudes toward Positive and Negative Rights.” To determine how likely Canadians were to be concerned about human rights violations against out-of-status immigrants, and endorse governmental support for them, Bloemraad designed a series of survey questions based on fictional vignettes. 

The vignettes showed immigrants of different races and legal statuses experiencing difficulties such as being repeatedly stopped and questioned by the police, or not having enough food to eat. Participants then answered questions about how serious of a problem they viewed the police stops as, and whether the government should support them in accessing food. 


Bloemraad found that respondents were most concerned about the police stops when the immigrant was Black, and a legal resident, less so for a white legal resident, and least of all for out-of-status immigrants of any race. In the food insecurity scenario, respondents generally agreed that the government should support the residents with legal status, although it was slightly lower for the Black immigrant than the white one. 

“The story here is, again, if you’re out-of-status, people are not particularly excited about having the government step in and help you, even if you’re not having enough to eat,” Bloemraad said. 

This research approach resonated with Japteg Singh, a PhD student in Epidemiology at McGill, who is studying immigrant experiences with the healthcare system in Canada. 
“No one’s really looked at [immigration] as heterogeneous, like immigrants come from different parts of the world. How does that affect their interaction with the healthcare system?” Singh said in an interview with The Tribune. “Immigration is complex, there are a lot of forces in play.”

Science & Technology

Reevaluating earplug comfort and effectiveness against hearing loss

by Daniel Pyo on

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Industrial noise levels frequently surpass 85 decibels, which is roughly equivalent to the noise a blender produces. Extended exposure to such noise levels can lead to long-term hearing damage, and earplugs are a common preventative measure to mitigate this risk. However, they are often either not worn at all or not used consistently, primarily due to comfort issues. This stems from the fact that conventional laboratory assessments of hearing protection are limited in their design and fail to replicate real-world conditions.

Olivier Valentin, a research associate in Neuroengineering at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, is committed to improving the quality of life for people with hearing disorders. A significant part of his research focuses on hearing loss prevention.

 Valentin was diagnosed with bilateral moderate high frequency hearing loss while participating in a routine auditory screening. This moment sparked a profound interest for him to understand the functioning of the hearing system, ultimately shaping his future research career. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Université de Sherbrooke, he implemented a novel laboratory method to assess the multidimensional comfort aspects  of different earplug families—roll-down foam, pre-molded foam, and push-to-fit—using fully immersive sound environments generated via virtual acoustics. Participants completed tasks designed to assess how well they could hear alarms and human speech, as well as answering questions about their comfort levels. 

“The way it is done usually is through cost-effective laboratory evaluations. And the problem is these evaluations are not adequate to capture the multidimensional aspects of comfort, due to design limitations. They are not replicating real work conditions,” Valentin said in an interview with The Tribune. 

As Valentin noted, the study assessed earplug comfort and efficiency across several dimensions in a simulated sound environment, with 96 speakers being used to mimic the acoustic environment of a loud workplace such as a factory. Objective tests—alarm detection and speech-in-noise perception—and questionnaires assessed the earplugs along the dimension of acoustic comfort, while additional surveys evaluated them along the dimensions of physical, functional, and psychological comfort. 

The study found that the acoustic characteristics of the environment significantly impacted earplugs’ outcomes, particularly in terms of alarm detection and speech comprehension while wearing earplugs in high-noise settings This highlights the importance of tailoring earplugs recommendations to specific workplace environments to ensure effective alarm signals detection and better speech intelligibility. 

This research also revealed that different types of earplugs affect comfort in distinct ways. Participants noted that push-to-fit and pre-molded earplugs caused less annoyance from internal sounds, such as the noises produced by eating and drinking, compared to roll-down foam. Roll-down foam and push-to-fit earplugs, on the other hand, led to less physical discomfort and pain than pre-molded ones. 

Participants reported the physical dimension of comfort as the most important factor in evaluating earplugs, followed by functional aspects, with the acoustical dimension being the least prioritized factor. While earplug type had minimal effect on alarm detection, it did impact users’ ability to understand speech in noisy settings. 

While the acoustical attenuation of earplugs is key to ensuring a proper level of protection, Valentin warned against overlooking comfort as people are more likely to consistently wear earplugs that are more comfortable.

“It’s critical not to overlook comfort when designing hearing protection devices,” Valentin noted. “Earplugs  must  effectively  reduce  exposure  to  harmful  noise  levels,  but  they  also  need  to  be comfortable to encourage consistent use.”

Although this research primarily focuses on workers in industrial settings, Valentin emphasized that harmful sound exposure is not exclusive to occupational settings. Everyday hobbies can pose similar risks. For instance, concerts often reach sound levels of 115 dB, while motorsports can exceed 140 dB—both well above the threshold for immediate hearing damage.

“There’s a common misconception that sound exposure is only a problem for workers in noisy industries, but our recreational activities can be just as dangerous,” Valentin explained. “Raising awareness is key. It’s essential to educate the public about hearing safety and promote preventative measures. Whether you’re at a concert, motorsport event, or engaging in any noisy activity, using hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs—even for short periods—can make a significant difference.”

“Ultimately, prevention is about protecting your hearing today so you can enjoy it tomorrow,” Valentin added. 

Since this interview, Valentin has joined the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Health as an Assistant Professor of Audiology. Students interested in pursuing a Master’s or Ph.D. project in the field of hearing sciences are encouraged to reach out to him at [email protected]. 

McGill, News

“Lupa ay Buhay” teach-in connects Filipino peasant struggles and Canadian imperialism

by Elsie Yang on

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The Quebec Public Interest Research Group’s (QPIRG) 2024 Culture Shock series concluded on Oct. 29 with the “Lupa Ay Buhay” (Land is Life) Teach-In, led by the Filipino youth group Anakbayan Montreal. Anakbayan’s work—as a chapter of an international Filipino National Democratic Front organization—includes several youth engagement and education programs, with a focus on “connecting Canadian issues to the homeland.” QPIRG has collaborated with Anakbayan for several years, as the organization was a part of QPIRG’s working group program. 

The first half of the workshop, led by former Anakbayan member Fatima Barron, provided background on the peasant struggle in the Philippines, and Canada’s relationship to the issue as an imperialist country. Filipino peasants are farmers, fisherfolk, and agricultural workers who produce most of the country’s food, yet the majority of peasants do not own the land they till and struggle to afford food. A legacy of Spanish colonialism, this semi-feudal system is maintained by the United States through neoliberal economic policy. Peasants face high land rent, high interest rates on loans for seeds and fertilizer, land grabbing from landlords or multinational corporations, and the criminalization of peasant leaders.

Barron noted how Canadian mining harms Philippine land and communities by degrading the environment and displacing Indigenous communities. She also drew attention to the exploitative conditions affecting Filipino migrant workers in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Employers often underpay or deny pay to workers, and may prevent them from seeking support. 

Barron’s knowledge of the topic comes, in part, from experience learning from peasant communities. She spent four months in the peasant community of Lupang Tartaria, Philippines, in the spring of 2024 as part of one of Anakbayan’s “exposure trips”—opportunities meant to facilitate a deeper understanding of social conditions in the Philippines. While there, armed personnel were reportedly building barricades on farmers’ agricultural land, prompting peasants to fight back. 

The event drew in both Filipino and non-Filipino participants, something that, for Barron, added to its effectiveness. 

“When I was in the Philippines, people [were] so happy to see Filipinos abroad and non-Filipinos caring about issues in the Philippines. It provides them a sense of motivation to show them that they’re not alone in their fight,” Barron said. 

During the event, Barron also highlighted the importance of arts and culture in Tartarian resistance and community building, bridging the connection between participants and farmers in Tartaria through the decoration of a banner reading “Lupa ay Buhay” (“Land is Life”). While introducing the project, she noted how participants benefit as consumers of peasant labour, which produces many essential products for Canadians such as rice. Attendees added a variety of materials to the banner, including rice, string, and fabric. Others painted scenes that the presentation brought up for them. 

Barron explained that Anakbayan Montreal’s inclusion of art as a part of the teach-in aligns with their political goals as a National Democratic organization. 

“Art is a vehicle to put forward ideas,” Barron said. “Anyone can make art, and everyone should be encouraged to [….] It’s also important to break down the idea that art is only for the few and the talented.” 

Joliz Dela Peña, a member of Anakbayan, said that having a collective activity enriched the educational aspect of the workshop.

“The banner-making activity truly inspired us to collaborate, and it was fun to meet youth that support these types of actions [in] this way,” Dela Peña said. 

Providing alternative learning spaces like the one created in the teach-in is a key part of QPIRG’s work. According to Lola Milder, the Campus Outreach Coordinator at QPIRG, the organization’s Culture Shock programming has seen a record turnout due to an increasing number of students’ disillusionment with traditional education.      

“There is an increasing distrust in the places we’ve gotten knowledge [as students] in the past, and people are realizing that what we’ve learned [in traditional school spaces] might not be accurate,” Milder said. “It makes people turn out.”  

Barron also attested to the importance of learning environments beyond school walls. 

“What’s beautiful about spaces like this is learning [how] we are not alone and that there’s a broader movement of peoples fighting for change,” Barron said.

Science & Technology

Are you feeling burned out with your STEM degree?

by K. Coco Zhang on

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University students studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) tend to lose motivation over time, largely due to daunting coursework and competitive environments. This loss of motivation can be detrimental to students’ pursuit of careers and further studies in STEM fields, not to mention their mental health. A detailed understanding of when and how students are most likely to lose motivation could help support students and combat this issue, but research into the dynamics of motivational loss is lacking. 

In a recent paper, Kristy Robinson, assistant professor in McGill’s Faculty of Education, and her team investigated short-term changes in motivation and how they correlate with specific academic settings.

“Building on previous research showing students tend to lose motivation over time, we wanted to identify times in the semester when motivational loss seems more or less common, and to answer the question of whether motivational changes can look different in different settings,” Robinson wrote to The Tribune. “In other words, how much of a difference might a teacher or class make for supporting positive motivational trajectories?” 

Robinson found students were most likely to lose motivation during the initial period of the semester. This suggests that interventions meant to maintain motivation might be particularly impactful if they are timed to the return to school.

“For example, if instructors aim to enhance students’ long-term academic choices, providing opportunities for students to reflect on the personal importance of learning early in the semester would be beneficial,” Robinson wrote.

Equipping students with strategies to regulate negative emotions, especially in the challenging environment of weed-out courses and near the beginning of the semester, could be helpful for managing the stress, worry, or embarrassment that students experience in high-pressure STEM environments. 

The study also found that a professor’s overall course design and approach could influence trends in motivation. 

“We did find that trajectories differed at least a bit from course to course. What we took away from that was that motivational declines aren’t inevitable, and that instructors can ‘move the needle’ on students’ motivation by providing supportive course environments,” Robinson wrote.

The research also revealed that students’ incoming perspectives—such as their confidence, how costly they felt the course would be, and the value they placed on the material—were closely linked to their course grades and choices of major. 

“In general, students who showed more positive trajectories of value and confidence tended to have higher course grades at the end of the semester,” Robinson wrote. “In contrast, students [who perceived the course as overly challenging] tended to receive lower final course grades, but different beliefs mattered more or less for grades and major choices depending on the time of the semester when the beliefs changed.” 

Robinson’s team also found that students tended to lose confidence for their course topic over time, while simultaneously perceiving an increasing burden associated with studying the course topic. 

Furthermore, early assignment scores appeared to be particularly important for shaping motivational changes. In other words, students who did well in their early assignments tended to see a subsequent increase in motivation.

The results of the study highlight the importance of developing interventions early in the semester to mitigate motivational declines in courses. 

“Our study is the first, to our knowledge, to examine how motivational change is situated within specific learning contexts, with important consequences for course performance and [choices of major],” Robinson wrote.

Moving forward, Robinson pointed to the need to understand which specific features of various courses, such as instructor speech or course assessment practices, are most important for shaping students’ motivation.

“Tracking students’ motivational changes, combined with carefully designed and perhaps even individually tailored support for their various motivational beliefs, is a really interesting avenue for future research,” Robinson wrote.

Science & Technology

The power of persuasion for driving vaccination against COVID-19

by Michelle Yankovsky on

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“Let’s get back to normal” was a phrase that circulated the globe at the height of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. To some, getting vaccinated to accelerate a return to normalcy was a no-brainer, but others felt various degrees of hesitation. Still, experts estimate that the COVID-19 vaccine prevented nearly 19.8 million deaths globally within the first year of vaccination. Why, then, does vaccine hesitancy persist?

In a recent publication in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, Krista Muis, a professor in McGill’s Faculty of Education, investigated the effectiveness of three different messages for persuading individuals to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Muis’ involvement was driven by the urgency of the pandemic and the intensity of conversations surrounding it.

“When COVID hit, there were a lot of misconceptions about it,” Muis said in an interview with The Tribune. “It seemed like a natural fit to look at something so relevant, so pressing, so immediate […] and impacting society at that moment.”

Muis was interested in examining how principles of persuasion from past research would apply to the pandemic and how emotions played a role in the decision-making process of getting vaccinated.

“I really wanted to make an impact and to get people to think about getting vaccinated,” Muis emphasized.

She collected data from 436 participants who self-reported their concern for COVID-19 and their confidence or hesitancy towards vaccination. She then randomly assigned participants to one of three text conditions.

The first was self-interest: This condition consisted of a persuasive message highlighting how serious of a threat COVID-19 was to the participant and the need to get vaccinated to ‘protect yourself.’

The second condition involved both self-interest and altruism—the practice of concern for the well-being of others. This condition featured a persuasive message focusing on COVID-19 being a threat to the participant and their community, emphasizing ‘protect[ing] you and your loved ones.’ 

“There are seniors that are getting sick and dying,” Muis explained. “If we get vaccinated, that will protect them. It’s doing something for the [betterment] of the community.”

The third condition combined self-interest, altruism, and an appeal to normalcy: A persuasive message including the other conditions but adding ‘this is the only way to get back to normal life.’

“That was one thing I heard a lot of people talking about—how it was awful, how we couldn’t socialize anymore, how we couldn’t go for dinner, nothing was normal,” Muis said.

There was also a baseline condition: A control with no textual information delivered.

The results indicated that the third condition was most effective at increasing participants’ willingness to get vaccinated. For those labelled vaccine-hesitant, these results bring important implications for similar contexts in the future.

“If ever we were to be in another situation like this, then we have a better understanding of what kind of messaging we need moving forward,” Muis said.

In the study, Muis also investigated emotions—quantified using self-report questionnaires—as a core variable in participants’ feelings toward COVID-19 and getting vaccinated.

Emotions such as joy, hope, and relief were shown to increase across all conditions with persuasive messages. Muis noted that experts believe that those in a positive mood tend to process information more holistically, making this an ideal environment to foster, especially for those with vaccine hesitancy. 

“We wanted to minimize the anger that they would experience reading about vaccinations. Having the messages focus on the positive […] would hopefully decrease the negative emotions they might have otherwise experienced,” Muis explained.

Moreover, giving participants the autonomy to select which brand of vaccine they wanted also increased willingness to get vaccinated.
Muis’ study highlights the power of persuasion and its ability to impact global health. Moving forward, investigating other contexts with differing value systems—for example, countries with a less collectivist emphasis—may be useful in establishing persuasive techniques that are unique and adjusted to each context’s values. With the pervasiveness of COVID-19, addressing the controversy surrounding vaccination is critical to our safety, health, and advancement of society.

Arts & Entertainment

The best fictional political dramas to get us through this election season

by Lily Dodson on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

For the few who haven’t yet had enough of American politics during this tumultuous election year, I have just the thing for you. Below are my top recommendations for political dramas as both an avid lover of the genre and someone fascinated with American politics. 

HBO’s Veep (2012-2019):

For newcomers to fictional political shows, Veep is the perfect place to start. This dramedy stars Seinfeld standout and beloved American comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer, a fictional vice president of the United States. 

Part of the magic of Veep is that it explicitly avoids mentioning Democrats or Republicans. Instead, the show refers to politicians of “our party” and ones of “the other party” to explore the corruption and immorality inherent in politics, regardless of party affiliation. 

Veep has experienced a recent resurgence partly due to comparisons between the current presidential election and the show. A particularly relevant comparison is at the end of Season 2, when Meyer finds out that the president of the United States (“POTUS,” as he is generally referred to on the show), isn’t going to be running for reelection, which gives her the green light to start her campaign. This is evidently reminiscent of this past July when President Joe Biden announced he was stepping down as the Democratic nominee, thus passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

ABC’s Scandal (2012-2018):

I believe, professionally speaking, that Shonda Rhimes can do little to no wrong; from Grey’s Anatomy to Bridgerton, she knows how to craft an immensely entertaining TV show. 

Scandal perfectly combines the soap opera-esque drama of Grey’s with the political elements of Veep. While the show’s leading character, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), is based on Washington D.C. lawyer Judy Smith, the show itself is highly dramatized, and its ridiculous storylines are a significant part of the show’s appeal. Though Scandal takes place in D.C. and features many politicians, the story centres Pope’s on-again-off-again relationship with the fictional president Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant (Tony Goldwyn) and her career as a “fixer” lawyer for prominent D.C. figures. Similarly to Veep, Scandal doesn’t shy away from Washington’s high level of corruption, though the latter does downplay the poor character of its politicians more than the former. 

NBC’s The West Wing (1999-2006):

Even though The West Wing is often praised as one of the greatest shows of all time, it is my least favourite on the list—it doesn’t have the same exciting dramatic effect of Scandal or the absurd comedy that makes Veep so punchy. Additionally, since reading reports that claim Veep is a more realistic portrayal of politics than The West Wing, I have to say I have lost some interest.  A staunch difference between The West Wing and the previous two shows is its overly optimistic nature and attempts to demonstrate that, despite their (sometimes) corrupt nature, politicians aren’t inherently as bad as we think. Though this may have been true when Aaron Sorkin began writing the show, most people would agree that The West Wing is more of an idealized version of what politics could be and less of what it actually is. There’s no shortage of corruption in Washington, and unlike how it’s portrayed on the show, politicians are not usually working together to achieve a common goal but instead working independently to further their own careers. Thus, it’s important to regard this show as a non-realistic version of American politics. It can be a comforting fantasy sometimes to imagine what politics could be like, but given the current political state in the United States, namely the intense polarization between political parties, it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine a world in which this was the case.

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