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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

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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.

Science & Technology

Innovative approaches to modelling small-scale, Indigenous agriculture in Guatemala

by Ella Paulin on

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Creating robust statistical models to predict crop yields, food security, and malnutrition is crucial for determining the next steps for governments, community leaders, and farmers—all of whom are stakeholders in the fight for sustainable and reliable access to food. Developing these models typically relies on detailed, long-term data, which allow researchers to train their algorithm using historical data and then use it to make predictions about the future. 

Governments and large research agencies often fund the long-term research collection projects necessary to train these predictive statistical models, but in countries with unstable governments or limited funding for scientific research, the data can be scarce. How, then, can we approach developing and testing models for these regions?

A recent paper published in Agricultural Systems tackles this issue creatively by dividing their data along spatial rather than temporal lines. 

One of the researchers on the project, Julien Malard-Adam, who is currently affiliated with Université de Montpellier in France and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in India but was studying at McGill while the research was conducted, explained the method they used in an interview with The Tribune. 

Models are typically developed in two stages: First, they are calibrated on most—but not all—of the data available. Once they have been trained, researchers validate them by making predictions about the portion of the data they withheld. If the predictions match up with the data, then the model seems to be functioning well. This is a crucial step in the process of developing a model that’s ready for real-world applications.


“Validating the model means making sure the model really represents what we think it represents, and can give predictions that are useful and not misleading,” Malard-Adam explained. 

But, if scientists don’t have enough years of data for both the calibration and validation steps, it can be difficult to know if the statistical model truly works or not. 

“We can’t do this over time for one municipality because we don’t have that data,” Malard-Adam said. “But what we could do is say, ‘We’re going to make a hypothesis that this relationship is the same across most of the country.’ So instead of cutting it temporally, we could cut it geographically, and use these regions then to test if the model is following the major trends.”

For example, if they trained a model on data from Montreal and Vancouver in 2020, they would then make predictions about Toronto in the same year, and compare them with real data from Toronto to see if the predictions were accurate. 

Using this approach, the researchers validated a model that described the relationships between key variables like child malnutrition, population numbers, diversity of livelihoods, and forest cover. 

In order to determine what variables to study and learn more about their broader contexts and dependencies, the researchers used a participatory method that incorporated perspectives from community members in the regions they were modelling. 

“There’s nobody who’s as much of an expert on the system as the people who work with it everyday,” Malard-Adam stated. “There’s no way that a researcher, especially one who’s not from the region, could build a model that really captures the important aspects of the system by themselves.”

Ultimately, they found that although technological methods like chemical fertilizers and high-yield varieties of crops do improve crop yields, they do not improve the agricultural resilience of communities as a whole. Instead, they found that livelihood diversification—which means having a wider variety of methods of obtaining food and money—was more correlated with agricultural resilience. Malard-Adam explained that livelihood diversification may have been more impactful because it more effectively addressed the deeper, socioeconomic causes of hunger. 

“If we make fixes that attempt to boost productivity without fixing those underlying causes, we risk the system just adjusting over time,” Malard-Adam commented. “If we implement policies that instead tackle access to education, decent living wages for everybody, and access to land, then we have a better chance of really addressing the underlying causes and having food security improve naturally.”

Off the Board, Opinion

The quest for perfection is unrealistic and harmful

by Malika Logossou on

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After leaving high school sports behind and starting my post-secondary studies, school became a central part of my life. I quickly internalized that grades defined my worth and success. Good grades would lead to a good life—or so I thought—driving me to put relentless pressure on myself to excel. Anytime I scored lower than I had expected, I would spiral, assuming everyone else held the same perfectionist standards.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a full-on cram session for a midterm, sacrificing sleep and sanity in pursuit of the perfect grade. Following the exam I came home disappointed, telling myself I could have done more or studied differently. I calculated how much I would need to score next time to hit my goal as if that could somehow remedy my stress and frustration. While panicking frantically in my room, my 14-year-old sister walked in and said, “You’re always stressed. Why don’t you just live life?” 

Her statement annoyed me at first, but afterwards, it struck me. As the idiom goes, the truth came “out of the mouths of babes.” Her words made me rethink my relentless chase for academic perfection. Am I truly living my life, or spending it in constant obsession over grades?

Our exchange led me to confront the toxic side of academic perfectionism, which compels us to overlook the big picture of academic experience. Measuring success solely by grades makes us lose sight of education’s true value. Rather than seeing school as a place to grow and learn, we treat it as a never-ending race to flawless results. It narrows our focus to only the negatives, ignoring that mistakes are normal and setbacks are part of life and growth. As stated by the singer Gerard Way, “Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” For a long time, I fixated on these imperfections, only deepening my unhappiness. However, my sister forced me to recognize that doing my best is sufficient—what matters is the effort we put in, not the grade we receive.  

This new mindset made me question whether I’d ever truly valued my mental health. While I consistently encouraged my peers to embrace their efforts and offered support during setbacks, I realized I wasn’t extending the same compassion to myself. Cramming for exams was necessary, I told myself—but the constant comparisons and GPA fixation weren’t. Worrying endlessly about each exam or paper drained me, blocking out any appreciation for the university experience beyond school. It didn’t take long for me to recognize that this type of perfectionism has real consequences. The pressure wasn’t just limited to my school life; it was pervasive. 

If left unchecked, perfectionism can lead to increased levels of stress, worry, anxiety, and even depression. When I learned this, I knew I had to prioritize my mental health and remind myself that my value does not hinge on impossible standards. The university experience is about discovering oneself, making mistakes, meeting new people, joining clubs, and ultimately stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. Is sidelining all of that just to meet grade standards truly living?

While I still struggle with letting go of high expectations, I no longer equate grades with success or self-worth. Academics are important, but balancing them with life is crucial. Grades are not worth harming your mental health, and if you’re struggling to find balance, McGill offers plenty of resources to support you.

My sister’s timely reminder prompted me to reflect on my journey at McGill, and I realized that life is too short to strive for perfectionism and obsess over letters on a transcript. That night I felt lighter, understanding that I may not hit every mark I want, but life has so much more to offer than that. Instead of being perpetually stressed, I would rather, as my little sister says, embrace life.

Opinion

More than a Theme: McGill’s Neglect of Latin American and Hispanic Heritage Month

by Uma Le Daca Jolicoeur on

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In 2018, Quebec’s parliament designated October as Hispanic Heritage Month, and Canada’s parliament recognized it as Latin American Heritage Month. Since then, many organizations and institutions have celebrated the rich cultures and contributions of Latin American and Hispanic communities in Canada. Yet at McGill University—where a diverse student body includes 30 per cent international students, with 599 holding passports from Latin America and Spain—there has been a blatant silence. This figure alone doesn’t account for the diaspora who identify as Latinx or Hispanic and hold other passports. A more accurate number can be achieved by looking at the Spanish and Latin American Students’ Association (SLASA), whose member count reaches over 1,900. 

McGill offers two undergraduate programs that focus on Latinx and Hispanic culture, politics, and literature: The Latin American and Caribbean Studies program and the Hispanic Studies program. These provide the university with a wealth of academic resources, from professors and course lecturers to fellow students. Yet, while Dalhousie’s Human Rights and Equity Services wrote a broadcast message on their bulletin with resources and reflections on the importance of uplifting the voices and experiences of Latinx and Hispanic groups, and Toronto Metropolitan University organized a Latin American Heritage Day last year, McGill refuses to tap into its resources. This is a gross oversight considering that the university directly benefits from Latinx and Hispanic knowledge production and culture. Such rich opportunities for proper recognition are clearly at McGill’s fingertips, if not in its grasp. 

McGill’s librarians made a first effort in 2021 with a Redpath book display dedicated to Heritage Month, titled “Visions of Latinidad: How they see us and who we are.” The website is still up and has not been updated since. During a quest to find out where the annual display was, a librarian revealed that the ‘theme’ had been changed to Witches this year. This being the only attempt that the university itself makes around Heritage Month makes it all the more disappointing to students who walk through Redpath rightfully hoping to see themselves represented on the shelf, and instead see books on Salem. They could have at least thrown in a book or two on //brujería//. The understanding of Heritage Month and //Latinidad// as a simple theme to be used and displayed (or not) is reflective of McGill’s broader neglect and refusal to recognize marginalized groups. 

While McGill’s behaviour is disheartening, it comes as no surprise. The first Black student group at McGill was founded in 1940, and as of 2023, 4.4 per cent of McGill students self-identified as Black on McGill’s student census. However, it took McGill until 2017—10 years after the Quebec government legally recognized February as Black History Month—to host an official celebration. With similar numbers of Latinx/Hispanic students (4.7 per cent), and SLASA being founded in 1989, Latinx and Hispanic students at McGill should not expect to wait until 2028, or longer, for recognition. 

With nowhere left to turn, McGill’s Latinx and Hispanic student body is made to rely on student groups such as SLASA and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies and Hispanic Studies Students’ Association (CLASHSA) for representation, events, information, and celebration. Student groups—consisting mostly of full-time undergraduates volunteering their time—put immense effort into organizing Latin American and Hispanic Heritage Month events. The simple act of acknowledgement and support from McGill could greatly reduce this level of labour.

McGill is at a crossroads, with so many vibrant resources growing within its walls, and a future full of Latinx and Hispanic students who will become graduates of one of the most renowned Canadian universities and leaders in several fields. The administration’s lack of action during Latin American and Hispanic Heritage Month is a missed opportunity both for its own enrichment and for the elevation and inspiration of brilliant voices that would speak louder if they were afforded representation.  

Commentary, Opinion

Happiness isn’t a formula—just ask The Little Prince

by Anna Bistour on

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When an existential crisis knocks at your door, avoidance feels impossible. In such moments, finding meaning and addressing inner conflicts becomes urgent, even though it may be painful. In The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry explores this search for meaning, teaching readers to view life through fresh, unclouded eyes, and to appreciate its unique beauty. The book has a lot to teach us in adopting a ‘new set of eyes,’ to cherish the preciousness of life. This lesson is especially relevant in today’s fast-paced, efficiency-driven Western societies—where disregarding emotions and feelings has become common, especially among overworked and over-achieving students at McGill.

Amid the weight of adulthood, there’s a need to recapture the openness and curiosity that children bring to the world, embracing life as something to be explored and appreciated rather than merely managed. In this way, we become creators of meaning in our lives, painting each day with renewed wonder.

To “see” is to observe, to notice, to take in. It is with your eyes that you first experience the world each morning as you wake, transitioning between the dream’s fog and tangible reality. Yet, surprisingly, our eyes are not always the best tool to truly perceive our surroundings. The Little Prince teaches us to look at the world through this “new set of eyes,” encouraging us to grasp the singularity and preciousness of life. So, why don’t we start by using the powerful human faculties Mother Earth gifted us to adopt a more holistic outlook?

Driven by a success-oriented mindset, many overlook their emotions, deeming them irrational or distracting from measurable achievements. However, they have the potential to reveal more about our inner workings if we’re open to listening. Sweaty palms betray the tension of an exam, a racing heartbeat reveals the thrill of a first date, and a shaking leg exposes the fear stirred by a horror film. Each of us carries around 10 million sensory receptors, constantly absorbing data about our inner and outer worlds. These signals are invaluable; they remind us to pay attention to the little things and align with our deeper selves. As The Little Prince teaches, noticing these subtle messages is a crucial step toward a more authentic and fulfilling existence. In essence, our body is constantly speaking to us, and true clarity lies in the mind’s willingness to listen. 

In The Little Prince, the wise fox teaches readers to explore the external world and their inner selves, though this enterprise requires time, patience, and commitment. Following the fox’s guidance, the Little Prince embarks on a transformative journey, prompting him to appreciate life to the fullest, as he comes to understand the beauty of his planet—beautiful because of its uniqueness. After comparing his life to that of a businessman and a lamplighter, who have been perverted by society’s vices, the Little Prince realizes he has nothing to envy. He has found true peace and fulfillment in his values and relationships with his friends: The fox, the rose, the volcanoes, and the nature on his planet, which he carefully nurtures. 

The Little Prince epitomizes the everyman—excited about the sight of sunsets and shaken by the existential dread of loneliness. In the modern age, adults and young adults have gotten too serious. There is an urgent need to leave condescension behind the door and learn from children’s clarity to view the world and appreciate each piece of it. From the Latin, exsistere—as in ‘existence’—means to ‘come into being.’ On this account, life is a piece of art and you are the artist. No previous experience or fancy degree is required to build something meaningful in one’s own life. Worrying about the length of your LinkedIn or the prestigious schools you will attend will not help in your quest for meaning. True fulfillment results from one’s ability to appreciate the small details of everyday life and to treasure what one already has. Life is a canvas where no mistakes can occur, as we each live within our own universe, viewing the world through our unique prism of perception. 

Arts & Entertainment, Music

MJ Lenderman ushers the spirit of Asheville into Montreal’s Théâtre Fairmount

by Annabella Lawlor on

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Whirring guitars pierce through the night, sloshing through the cramped crowd of Théâtre Fairmount. The amps engulf the room in a communication of riffs, a call-and-response of rhythmic strums with the scalding guitar whistles and twang of the pedal steel. As the audience returns lyrical chants to the stage, shock transforms the performers’ modest demeanours into a mix of shy charisma and humble fortitude. Sporting clogs and a pair of worn-out Levi’s, MJ Lenderman and his touring band, The Wind, took to the stage in effervescent fashion, riding the high of the venue’s vibrant energy.

On his first of three major tours in subsequent months, Lenderman played in Montreal on Oct. 21 in support of his recent record, Manning Fireworks. After its release and succeeding critical acclaim, Lenderman’s fame reached new heights, with many publications pronouncing him the second coming of the pure indie-rock genre. The record is undoubtedly characteristic of several seminal “alt-country” and “loner-rock” records of the early 2000s by the likes of Bill Callahan, Will Oldham, and David Berman, many of whom Lenderman has described as huge influences on his musical output. Manning Fireworks is a lesson in paying homage: His inspirations are apparent in the constructed soundscapes, yet the narratives presented throughout the record are uniquely fresh and unabashedly honest.

In his lyrics, Lenderman embraces the mundanity of the world, humourizing life’s most monotonous moments and embracing the boredom that existence has to offer. There’s art in elevating the unexpected—beauty in the absence of chaotic experience. Each song is an amalgamation of short anecdotes, grappling with the predictability of life in the unintentionally humourous American landscape. In “Joker Lips,” he confesses, “And you know I love my TV / But all I really wanna see / Is see you need me,” and in “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In,” he recalls how “We sat under a half-mast McDonald’s flag.” His words carry a meta-recognition of the falsities of the American psyche and the emotions that plague a society so reliant on consumerism and corporate power structures. Lenderman’s tracks come across as honest documentations of America’s depravities and frank recollections of the modern world’s accidental absurdism. On “Rudolph,” he somehow describes accurately and emotively the feeling of helpless vulnerability with the comedic metaphor of a “Deleted scene of Lightning McQueen / Blacked out at full speed.”

His lyrics become more potent when considering the current landscape of loss in Lenderman’s hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. The shocking arrival of Hurricane Helene in late September destroyed homes and entire neighbourhoods as a result of mass flooding. Many figures in the Asheville music scene—including Lenderman’s other band Wednesday—have documented the displacement and devastation experienced by the city’s residents and called upon people across the country to donate to the city’s reconstruction. As a result, Lenderman cancelled several of the tour’s early stops. Lenderman informed the show’s audience of a new song he contributed to the compilation album Cardinals At The Window. With over one hundred participating musical artists, the record is only available through purchase, with its proceeds going to rebuilding Western North Carolina. Playing the new track, “Pianos,” Lenderman’s performance was a triumphant reassertion of Asheville’s musical spirit and the strength of its residents in the face of disaster.

The power of MJ Lenderman and The Wind as a musical unit is clear: They don’t play separate parts, but rather formulate a soundscape reliant on creative convergence and the synergy of their musical contributions. With every song, one could feel the immense joy emanating from each member; they were playing for themselves, yet their joy was undeniably contagious. 

MJ Lenderman’s music can be found on all music platforms.

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