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McGill, News

Rodents run rampant in McGill residences

by Shani Laskin on

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At 2:30 a.m. on June 26, Tobias Gurl, a third-year master’s student in the Department of Family Medicine, woke up to the sound of a rat squealing and thrashing, its head stuck in a trap. Unsure what to do, Gurl swept the dying rat onto the fire escape of his one-bedroom unit in the McGill graduate residence, 3643 University. Gurl told The Tribune that this was just one of the multiple rodent-related incidents he has encountered while living in McGill residences.

Gurl moved into 3643 University in January 2024. By late March, he started to hear scuttling noises in his unit and noticed holes in his groceries. At the beginning of April, he contacted Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS), who sent an exterminator to lay traps. Gurl explained that the noises continued, so he notified SHHS again, and they sent another exterminator. This pattern persisted until late July when the university relocated Gurl to Solin Hall at his request. Altogether, Gurl estimates that exterminators visited his 3643 University unit over five times and caught up to nine rats in the span of four months. 

“At the start of July, I started to get really fed up with this,” Gurl said in an interview with The Tribune. “I was losing more and more space in my unit to the rats [….] There were droppings everywhere. The burden was put on me to clean them up, despite the fact that they were a health hazard.”

Amid this, Gurl also explained that he was concerned for the health of himself and his service dog from the prolonged exposure to rodents. On June 27, Gurl sent an email to SHHS requesting relocation per the suggestion of the exterminator who had laid traps earlier that day. SHHS initially offered to relocate Gurl to the basement unit of 3643 University; however, Gurl did not receive further information until July 10 when SHHS notified him that the other unit was no longer available due to a “major water leak.” During this lull in communication, Gurl contacted a reporter from The Montreal Gazette through a friend and a lawyer through the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) referral.

“What I needed was verification that I wasn’t losing my mind that something was very wrong here, that it wasn’t reasonable for me to be accepting this many rats in an area, or even one rat,” Gurl said. “I had no sense of what was normal, what was proportionate and I also needed that backup, that when I said something, or when I asked for something, I would have someone with actual enforcement muscles standing behind me.”

Gurl explained to The Tribune that he had advocated to live in McGill residences in the first place due to discrimination he faced in the private market on the basis of having a service dog. For him, McGill residences were the only viable option for accommodation while he finished his degree. Without another option, Gurl hoped the problem would be resolved proactively.

“There was also a frog boiling effect, where at every stage I assumed that this next step they were taking was correct,” Gurl said. “There was no [moment] until July, where it was obvious the problem wasn’t going to be fixed.”

After some negotiation over email, SHHS offered to help move Gurl’s belongings to a one-bedroom apartment in Solin Hall on July 19. On Aug. 22, Gurl reported a mouse in his new unit.

“I started hearing those noises again and little flashes of something along the edges of the walls. I thought I was imagining things at first, that my brain was playing tricks on me,” Gurl said. “There was no possible way I had gone from a place with rats to a place with more rodents.”

On Sept. 13, maintenance sealed a hole suspected as an entry point for rodents in the Solin Hall unit. This temporarily quieted the issue but on Oct. 15, maintenance found another mouse in the apartment. According to McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO), the university has received five complaints of rodents in residences since the beginning of the academic year—an issue which becomes more salient in the fall as rodents seek shelter and food to survive the cold.

Speaking to The Tribune, Gurl expressed that he felt failed by what he perceived as a lack of a proactive response from McGill.

“I have a lot of sympathy for the position McGill is in,” Gurl said. “They’re not responsible for the rising rat population in the city [….] They don’t have control over the derelict buildings in the block or so where a lot of their housing is. They don’t have full control over trash pickup. But the [thing] I would have wanted from them [was] communication.”

He also felt “siloed” and isolated by McGill’s response to the situation.

“The way McGill presented solutions to me was always focused on things I should be doing,” Gurl said. “The emphasis [was] placed on me cleaning things up, me putting the food away [….] It really communicated this message that I was doing something wrong, I was at fault. And when you send that message to a tenant, it makes them want to hide the problem, because if I’m the only one going through this, if it’s because I’m not clean enough, then I can’t talk about that with other people.”

In an email to The Tribune the MRO explained that McGill’s pest control strategy includes regular inspections and specific complaints are handled on a case-by-case basis.

“This issue is taken very seriously by McGill,” the MRO wrote. “As a landlord, McGill is bound by the requirements of the [Tribunal administratif du logement]. It’s worth noting that tenants also have a responsibility to ensure that there is no food left out in dorm rooms since that can attract and sustain pests.”

PGSS Member Support Commissioner Emily Tetrault explained the The Tribune that while PGSS does not offer direct support to members facing issues with their landlords, it can connect students with services such as the Legal Information Clinic at McGill, and the Legal Protection Program. Tetrault also underscored the vulnerable position international students can be in when dealing with landlord disputes.

“Knowing your rights as a tenant, especially as an international student, is key from the beginning in my opinion. Educaloi is a great website to help people in Quebec understand their rights in relation to various topics but especially renting in Quebec. Unfortunately, many out-of-province and international students don’t know that landlords cannot take a damage deposit, and some landlords take advantage of this,” Tetrault said.

In an email to //The Tribune//, the Syndicat des locataires de Montréal/Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union (SLAM/MATU) encouraged students to start a dialogue about their living conditions in and out of McGill residences.

“At the very least, students can make each other aware that they don’t have to take price gouging and neglect from their landlords,” the union wrote. “We highly encourage McGill students to discuss their housing conditions and pricing and to plan actions, and to keep that conversation going even after they leave their dorms.”

For Gurl, refusing to stay silent and advocating for oneself is crucial to advancing change.

“[Landlords] rely on tenants keeping quiet to keep getting away with bullshit, and as soon as your voice becomes impossible to ignore, then they’ll act.”

Campus Spotlight, McGill Recommendations, Student Life

McGill Global Brigades is building bridges in global health

by Lauren Brownell on

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McGill is home to many student clubs focused on global issues like sustainability and public health. Among them, McGill Global Brigades stands out as a club that encourages students of all fields and interests to roll up their sleeves and collaborate for public health initiatives. Not only does it create new communities and build networking skills, but it also enacts tangible global change.

With 27 chapters across Canada and over 340 across the world, Global Brigades unites students in promoting sustainable international health initiatives. This non-profit organization works with various communities around the world to promote health and economic goals such as access to clean water and sanitation. 

At McGill, numerous programs—including medical, dental, business, public health, and engineering—work to advance sustainability initiatives in their respective spheres. The medical subgroup, for example, focuses on health and wellness, while the business program hones in on financial development initiatives. The McGill chapter raises awareness about these global health issues through fundraisers and hygiene drives in support of the organization’s remote clinics in countries around the world. 

While the club mainly holds fundraising events, they also promote academic and non-academic gatherings, such as game nights and a Spanish-language acquisition workshop in preparation for their most recent “brigade”—a trip to Honduras scheduled for May 2024.

Eva Weigle, U2 Arts, is a member of the events subcommittee for McGill’s chapter of Global Brigades. While she joined the club just this year, the chapter has helped her build on her fascination for global health and sustainability initiatives, as she explained in an interview with The Tribune. 

“I’m an econ major and a bio minor, and I’m really passionate about public health. I like how Global Brigades is kind of like an intersection of all things I’m interested in,” Weigle said. “It’s really focused on helping communities, specifically with global health, but also they do a lot of other things, like micro-financing.”

Global Brigades not only harnesses multi-subject interests among its members, but it also cultivates a strong sense of fulfillment and achievement within the club. 

“I’ve volunteered in vaccination events, and that’s where I feel like I’m actually informing people and helping people,” Weigle added. 

As part of the Global Brigades events subcommittee, Weigle emphasizes the networking and outreach skills she practices in the club, which extend beyond McGill to other communities around Montreal. 

“It’s actually really cool, because I get experience reaching out to local pubs and local bars. And it’s really good because it’s work experience, almost like I’m getting ready for the real world, and it’s fun,” she said.

While the club mainly conducts fundraising and awareness events at McGill itself, its hands-on practice of doing brigade trips allows its members to have real-world work experience in the medical field while seeing their fundraising efforts make an impact. 

“I really am excited to see what we do in person,” Weigle said. “And I’m just kind of excited to help out [in] any way I can.”

The club also provides a great sense of community, as its members are ecstatic and passionate about global health and sustainability efforts. 

“I really liked how I [had] never really heard of Global Brigades before, but everyone in the club is so excited about it that that really drew me in,” Weigle noted.

Weigle highlights the multidimensional aspect of the club and encourages other students to join as representatives or members of their events or design subcommittees. 

“If you are passionate about global health, or even if not, you’re just passionate about helping people, we do so much,” Weigle said. “If you’re interested in medicine, global health, and economics, we kind of have a little bit of everything.” 

To keep up with Global Brigades’ future events and activities, sign up for their Listserv, take a look at their Linktree and website, or follow them on Facebook and Instagram. 

Know Your Team, Sports

Know Your Team: McGill Swimming

by Clara Smyrski on

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The McGill Swim Team has dominated the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), taking home the championship for the past three years. The team started this season strong at their first meet, where they racked up 1,187.5 points, 477.5 points above the second-place team, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. They have also made their mark nationally, when the women’s team came in fourth place and the men placed third at the 2024 U SPORTS championships last spring. Members of the team sat down with The Tribune to discuss the group’s recent successes, their rigorous schedule, and how support from team members can have an impressive effect on an individual sport.  

The team follows an intensive schedule that spans from preseason in August to the U SPORTS championships in March. Swimmers participate in at least seven practices each week, including double sessions twice a week and weight training sessions. This means that on particularly busy days, swimmers can train for up to five hours while balancing their academic commitments. On top of this, the team competes in meets every other week. Women’s Captain Naomie Lo, U3 Engineering, discussed the training schedule in an interview with The Tribune.

“Training that amount of hours on top of school is not an easy pursuit, and that’s where a team is really important, to kind of help motivate each other,” she said. “We’re 50 swimmers, which is a lot, but it’s nice because there’s 50 other people going through the exact same thing as you, and we do a really good job of bringing each other up, especially when we’re down.”  

As Lo explained, it is clear that support from the team is one of the pillars of McGill Swim’s success. The team has bolstered the positive group dynamic outside of practice and meets. 2024 McGill Female Rookie of the Year Maya McGhan credits the team’s trip to Puerto Rico last year as a beneficial team bonding experience.

“From there, so many friendships and connections were built that are super important to me now, and I think that really made me feel welcome on the team and brought us together before nationals,” she said. 

Along with the hours of practice and the supportive team culture, much of the team’s success is attributed to their coaching staff, led by Head Coach Peter Carpenter, who has been the Martlets’ and Redbirds’ coach for 16 years. Carpenter focuses on individualized coaching, saying he moved away from a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach after advancing to the university level. 

“I started focusing a lot more on coaching the person rather than coaching the athlete,” Carpenter said. “The distinction there is looking at each person as an individual and trying to provide what they need in all aspects of their lives to make a more holistic approach.” 

The McGill Swim Team’s future is looking bright. McGhan expressed that some key recruits have joined the team in recent years, and the returning players are excited about their prospects. While some teams might see past successes as added pressure that hinders athletes from performing their best, Men’s Captain Bruno Dehem-Lemelin, U6 Engineering, explained that the swim team views it as a motivating factor that helps them reach their full potential. 

“Especially before the first meet, we are […] never 100 per cent sure of where the other teams are at,” he said in an interview with The Tribune. “Coming into Cup One is always a bit stressful, and then seeing the good result makes us happy and excited about the rest of the year. We’ve won the RSEQ the past four seasons, so we’re hoping [to do it again], and it’s looking good after Cup One, but it’s obviously not done.” 

Hearing from the swimmers themselves, it is clear that McGill Swimming will continue cementing their success in the RSEQ and U SPORTS history books. One can expect to see great things from the team this year and for years to come. 

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Tokyo Police Club says a final “au revoir” to Montreal

by Isobel Bray on

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On Jan. 23, Canadian indie rock band Tokyo Police Club (TPC) announced their farewell tour, and on Oct. 12, they played for the last time in Montreal, a city with strong ties to their beginnings as a band. The news of their breakup was met with overwhelming support from fans. Hailing from Newmarket, Ontario, high school friends Dave Monks (lead vocals and guitar), Graham Wright (keyboard and guitar), Josh Hook (guitar), and Greg Alsop (percussion) formed TPC in 2005. Nearly 20 years later, the band has released eight albums and captured the hearts of countless fans.

Before TPC could say their goodbyes to Montreal, the Toronto-based indie rock band Born Ruffians opened with an energetic set. Even if they were unfamiliar faces to some audience members, their music still had people moving and singing along with their friends. The longtime friends of TPC celebrated the band’s career, and by their last song, the crowd’s energy was palpable.

People eagerly awaited TPC’s arrival, erupting into raucous applause the moment the band stepped onstage. Kicking off the set with “Argentina (Parts I, II, III),” the band’s passion for performing shone through. When not playing, Wright danced around on stage, having fun with both the audience and his bandmates. Hook and Monks also moved around the stage, making sure to include Alsop in the fun. Their setlist featured songs from all eras of their discography, including their biggest hits and fan-favourites like “End of a Spark” and “Nature of the Experiment.”

Between songs, they celebrated Montreal as their honourary second home and a major part of their origin story. In 2006, they performed at POP Montreal, a not-for-profit music festival. Monks attended McGill at the time, so all four band members crammed into his Gardner Hall dorm room. Shortly after, the band signed with Toronto-based label Paper Bag Records and released their debut record A Lesson In Crime. Both Monks and Alsop dropped out of school to pursue music, and this risky decision has evidently paid off: TPC has performed on Late Night with David Letterman and at festivals like Osheaga and Coachella, making themselves a household name in Canada and beyond.

The band views this tour as a celebration of their career and friendship, and though the show had its fair share of headbanging, the stage’s small standing lights also made for a more intimate atmosphere. Near the end of the set, Monks entered the stage alone to perform “The Harrowing Adventures Of…” and “Ready To Win.” Monks wrote the latter about looking back on mistakes but finding the strength to move forward (the day after turning 30). It includes the lyric, “So turn on the house lights, turn to your left / Shake hands with someone that you’ll probably forget”—and the audience did just that. The lights came up and people who didn’t know each other shook hands before turning back to the stage to enjoy the music they all came to see. This felt especially fitting for a TPC performance, as the band expressed the desire for their music to bring people together.

TPC exited the stage after playing “Tessellate,” but the crowd chanted “Tokyo” until they returned for the encore. During “Cheer It On,” whose lyrics feature the band’s name, the audience joyfully yelled the lyrics back to them. Before closing with “Your English Is Good,” an indie-rock favourite, Monks asked the audience to wave, and the band waved back, saying their final “au revoir” to Montreal. 

Throughout their performance, the band leaned on each other—literally and metaphorically—making sure to tell their fans how much this experience has meant to them. The audience members showed their love for the band with enthusiastic cheers and energetic dancing. It’s clear that even though Tokyo Police Club’s time as a band is coming to an end, their music will still have a place in Montreal, and in the hearts of many fans, both old and new.  

Behind the Bench, Sports

The end of an era: The Oakland A’s relocate to Vegas

by Samuel Ferreira Duran on

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On Sept. 26, the Oakland Athletics (A’s) played their final game in the storied yet crumbling Oakland Coliseum ahead of their relocation to Las Vegas, defeating the Texas Rangers 3-2 in a bittersweet victory. Despite the triumph and a sold-out stadium, the Coliseum was filled with a kaleidoscope of emotions, including fans’ feelings of anger and sadness. These are sentiments likely to resonate with Montreal Expos supporters, the last fanbase in Major League Baseball (MLB) to undergo a relocation before the A’s.

The game marked the end of a historic chapter for the A’s. Although Oakland was the A’s third home, after Philadelphia and Kansas City, it became its most decorated. Since their move from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, the team won four World Series titles, including three consecutive championships from 1972 to 1974. 

The A’s move to Vegas will be the latest departure in a series of team exits from Oakland following the Warriors’ move to San Francisco in 2019 and the Raiders’ relocation to Las Vegas in 2020. 

The A’s departure, while heartbreaking, was not a shock to Oakland fans. The franchise has been burdened with the task of finding a new stadium to replace the historic Coliseum for years and has considered relocation several times. The A’s fanbase overwhelmingly considers the franchise’s relocation to Las Vegas as a direct result of poor management by the team’s owner, John Fisher. Fans have determinedly but unsuccessfully pushed for him to sell the team. Ahead of the A’s final game in Oakland, Fisher released a statement to saddened fans addressing his failure to find the team a new stadium in Oakland. He urged A’s fans to continue supporting the team and consistently highlighted his efforts to keep the team in Oakland. 

Many fans found the letter insincere, including ABC7 Sports Director Larry Beil who ripped up the statement live on air. The disappointment over the A’s departure even caught the attention of U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Bay Area native, who lamented the A’s departure from Oakland on the All the Smoke podcast.

To make matters worse for Oakland sports fans, the A’s relocation to Vegas will not be complete until the 2028 season. The A’s will play the next three seasons at Sutter Health Park, the stadium of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, as they wait for their new stadium to be built. During this time, the A’s will lack a home city and will simply be known as the Athletics. 

For Montreal baseball fans, the A’s’ relocation draws reminders of the Expos’ move in 2004, and for some, even shines hopes of the return of an MLB franchise to the city. Montreal has been a candidate city to host a new franchise in the MLB in recent years. A survey conducted by The Athletic in 2022 of over 11,500 subscribers showed that 45.4 per cent of fans would like to see a new franchise in Montreal. While sports franchise relocations always cause sadness and disappointment among fans of the departing team, they can also bring excitement and opportunity to new cities which are desperate to call a major franchise their own.
A’s fans have every reason to be upset with the mismanagement of the team. The franchise’s owners have run the A’s like a business, prioritizing their financial interests over their fans. Pursuing flawed stadium projects in Oakland and managing the lowest payroll in the MLB by a wide margin is not the right strategy if your goal is to win championships. As A’s fans know, sports teams should be run as passion projects, not as financial ventures.

Cross-Country / Track, Sports

A runner’s guide to Montreal

by Anoushka Oke on

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About 27,000 runners participated in either the Montreal Marathon or the Montreal Half this September, showcasing the city’s passion for running. I ran cross-country and distance track in high school, and when I arrived in Montreal, I was thrilled to discover that the city is a paradise for running enthusiasts; it’s a city where early mornings will see the late-night partiers crossing paths with the early-morning runners. Montreal’s thriving running culture is supported by local athletic stores and brands (like Ciele), its fun and inclusive run clubs, and all of the many running routes it offers. Here are some of my personal favourite routes that are great for any Montreal runner.

Mont Royal

Let’s start with the elephant in the room—the fact that there is an entire mountain resting right in the middle of our city makes for several running route options. Mont Royal is covered in miles of trails of varying steepness, and a run to the summit is rewarded with stunning views of the city skyline. Mont Royal’s trails offer Montrealers a nature-based refuge from city life, making them a peaceful and pleasant place to run. It also features Beaver Lake, which has a running and walking path around its perimeter.

Straight shot along Sherbrooke or de Maisonneuve

This one is controversial—I know many people who are repulsed at the thought of running on such a busy street where onlookers could watch their every move, but I personally love the feeling of running through a busy urban area. There is  an abundance of energy around you, and so much to watch and distract yourself with while you run. If you mistime your run and the sun starts to set, there is little risk of being in a dark and isolated area. The frequent crosswalks across busy streets with stop lights also offer beginner runners some breaks. While either direction is enjoyable, I prefer going southwest because it is a gradual uphill on the way out and then a gradual downhill on the way back. As you approach Westmount when running southwest from McGill’s campus, occupy your mind by taking a look at all of the multi-million dollar houses and cute shops scattered throughout the neighbourhood. 

Through the Plateau to Parc La Fontaine

Mont Royal isn’t the only greenspace that is an attractive backdrop for a run; running through Parc La Fontaine and the areas surrounding it is part of my favourite five-kilometre route. It is a great option for people like myself who prefer flatter running routes, and it’s both beautiful and lively. People are always out walking their dogs, playing sports, having picnics, and, of course, running. The park features walking paths and a pond surrounded by a perfect running path. Although it is significantly smaller than Mont Royal, incorporating some of the charming surrounding Plateau streets into your route will enhance the running experience. I particularly recommend doing this route during golden hour, as the tree leaves and the ripples of the pond become illuminated in the most stunning way.

Along the Lachine Canal

Running southeast from McGill’s campus will eventually bring you to the Lachine Canal, which is neighboured by both a bike path and a running trail. From my experience, running by a body of water makes for a more peaceful run. The route will also take you through neighbourhoods outside the typical McGill bubble like Griffintown, Little Burgundy, and St. Henri. Along this route you will also pass Atwater Market—the perfect spot for a mid- or post-run treat.

Bonus: a route to avoid

Straight shot along St. Catherine

The great thing about running along Sherbrooke or Maisonneuve is that you get the city feel while still having room to move around and weave through people. This is not the case with St. Catherine, at least not the part that aligns with McGill’s campus. The few times I made the mistake of running here, I often found myself walking because there was no safe way to pass through the bustling crowds of people. All-in-all, it makes for a frustrating experience and an abhorrent elapsed running time.

McGill, Montreal, News

Mohawk Mothers bring legal battle with McGill to Supreme Court of Canada

by Fabienne de Cartier on

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On Oct. 15, the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) filed a motion with the Supreme Court of Canada seeking an independent investigation into possible unmarked graves at the site of McGill’s New Vic Project at the former Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH). 

“We stand in front of the Supreme Court of Canada facing a political violation by the people of Canada that we wish to discuss so that we may get justice,” said Mohawk Mother Kahentinetha at a press conference outside the Court in Ottawa. 

McGill’s New Vic Project, a plan to expand the downtown campus, will occupy 15 per cent of the former RVH site, the rest of which is managed by the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI). During the 1950s and 1960s, the RVH’s Allan Memorial Institute was one of many sites across North America on which the CIA conducted MK-ULTRA mind control and chemical interrogation experiments. The Mohawk Mothers believe that the site houses both ancestral burials that predate colonization and unmarked graves from the CIA’s experiments, which they allege disproportionately targeted Indigenous peoples. Since 2015, the Mohawk Mothers have been advocating against construction and excavation until a comprehensive investigation into possible unmarked graves is completed.

Karonhia’no:ron, a graduate student at McGill and cultural monitor for the Mohawk Mothers, called on McGill and the Quebec government to prioritize reconciliation over construction at the press conference.

“Perhaps it was naïive of me to believe that my university and the province of Quebec would agree that protecting Indigenous children was more important than a campus redevelopment project,” said Karonhia’no:ron.

In April 2023, the Mohawk Mothers reached a settlement agreement with McGill, the SQI, the RVH, the City of Montreal, and the Attorney General of Canada, which mandated that a panel of archaeologists jointly appointed by all parties immediately begin archival, testimonial, and archaeological investigations into the site. The Mohawk Mothers allege that McGill disbanded the panel in August 2023, before the investigation had been completed. However, in a statement to The Tribune McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) asserted that the panel dissolved after they fulfilled their mandate by completing their investigation and issuing their final report in July 2023. The MRO maintains that no unmarked graves “have been made” on the site and that all archaeological work is being done in accordance with the settlement agreement and the recommendations of the panel.

The Mohawk Mothers argue that there is evidence of unmarked graves on the site that necessitate further investigation. At the press conference, Kwetiio, one of the Mohawk Mothers, explained that in June 2023, historic human remains detection dogs detected the scent of potential human remains near Hersey Pavilion. Ground-penetrating radar surveys then revealed dozens of anomalies, as announced by Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi on Aug. 3, 2023.

Kimberly Murray, a member of the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Nation and the Independent Special Interlocutor appointed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, voiced her solidarity with their motion to the Supreme Court at the press conference on Tuesday. Murray, who is responsible for making recommendations to improve Canada’s legal processes to help identify and protect the unmarked graves and burial sites associated with residential schools, emphasized that Canada’s legal system continues to fail the Mohawk Mothers and other Indigenous communities.

“Canadian law has been used to oppress Indigenous people for decades. The [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] has said that the law has operated to stop the truth from coming out,” Murray said. “So I support this appeal. It’s of national importance.”

In November 2023, Justice Gregory Moore ruled to reinstate the panel of archaeologists, asserting that their mandate had not been completed in July as McGill argued. However, McGill successfully appealed this decision at Quebec’s Court of Appeal this August. 

By submitting an application to appeal to the Supreme Court, the Mohawk Mothers are hoping to reverse the Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision and reinstate the panel of archaeologists to oversee the investigation. According to the Mohawk Mothers, this represented the first time that traditional Kanien’kehá:ka legal documents were submitted to the Supreme Court.

Kwetiio underlined that Canada must reckon with the genocide it has committed against Indigenous peoples before reconciliation can be pursued in good faith.

“Truth comes before reconciliation,” Kwetiio said. “We hope that Canadians and their Supreme Court will see that.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

What we liked this fall break

by Lily Dodson, Siena Torres, Annabella Lawlor on

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Pretty Little Liars – Lily Dodson, Contributor 

Every fall, there’s little my sister and I enjoy more than sitting on our couch and binging episodes of Pretty Little Liars (PLL). Since discovering it on our parents’ Netflix account at the ages of 10 and 12, we’ve been hooked. 

The eerie, ominous nature of the show makes it perfect for fall. Set in the fictional town of Rosewood, PA, PLL follows a group of four friends grappling with the murder of the fifth member of their clique, while also receiving threatening messages from an anonymous stalker who signs off as “A.” Even though it has some of the most absurd story arcs and one-liners in television history—“Call off your techno boy toy, or I tell the cops what your mom keeps in the lasagna box” is a quip I can’t begin to explain to a non-viewer—it is thoroughly entertaining. Despite rewatching it around half a dozen times, the show’s seemingly endless supply of nonsensical plot twists ensures it never gets tiring.

Beyond its absurdity, the show is a touching ode to friendship. The four ‘liars’ stick together despite all of the chaos they face throughout the show’s seven seasons. My sister and I enjoy watching to get a good laugh in, but I have grown to appreciate the absolute loyalty that the girls have for each other, and that itself reminds me of why we keep going back to it every fall.

Tell Me Lies Season Two – Siena Torres, Contributor

Season two of Tell Me Lies just finished airing last week, and I am still reeling from its cliffhanger ending. Since it first aired in 2022, Tell Me Lies has created a scandalous, raunchy, and toxic world worthy of its Gossip Girl influences. One major difference is that it is a rare television show set in a university, which allows for more scandal and consequences than a high school setting does.

Told mostly through the eyes of Lucy (Grace Van Patten), we follow her from her freshman year with her new friends and observe how she becomes involved with the narcissistic Stephen (Jackson White). The show is held together by the real-life couple’s intense chemistry, which provides the only justification for why Lucy keeps coming back to such a toxic relationship.

In flash-forward moments, the friend group celebrates a wedding that threatens to implode due to past secrets. The new season expands on other characters’ troubles including an affair, a sexual trauma, and explorations of queerness. The episodes aired weekly which allowed for anticipation to build for the finale and its relentless string of reveals. If you are looking for a new show to binge with characters that will provoke out your emotions, Tell Me Lies is well worth a watch.

Saturday Night – Annabella Lawlor, Staff Writer

90 minutes until showtime. The final bricks are being laid. There are too many sketches for too little time. Cigarettes are smoked in anticipation. The microphones stop functioning. There’s no one to work the lights. Fights break out over a bee costume. Scripts are burned. 20 gallons of blood are misplaced. It’s Oct. 11, 1975, and Saturday Night Live is set to premiere at 11:30 p.m.


Jason Reitman’s new film, Saturday Night, thoughtfully replicates the growing tensions between the cast and crew of the historically acclaimed sketch-comedy show. The film follows showrunner Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) on his quest to tame the chaos of comedic creativity. With his performance, LaBelle captures the looming fear of failure in the show’s conception and the anxieties of harnessing the self-involved talents of up-and-comers including Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner. The set and costuming transport the audience back to 1975, perfectly capturing the dying state of late-night comedy in the period with its juxtaposition of the kitsch comedy then airing to SNL’s seemingly revolutionary approach to the genre. Saturday Night is an ode to the original show’s everlasting legacy and cultural impact, memorializing it in 16mm film as the rebirth of comedic culture. It’s emotional and tense, reminding viewers of the young comedians who once sought to revitalize late-night television with their daring absurdism and refreshing humour.

Science & Technology

Turning pollution into power: McGill’s green energy innovation

by Sarah McDonald on

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At the First Earth Summit in 1972, the world set out guidelines to help preserve the Earth and prevent climate change. Since then, climate change has gained a prominent place in the global political agenda and has remained a matter of international importance for decades. But what has changed since then? Despite 196 countries uniting at the Paris Agreement of 2016 and committing to achieving green goals by 2030, the rate of global greenhouse gas emissions was at an all-time high between 2010 and 2019, and the world continues to experience devastating natural disasters at an increasing rate. 

While governments address climate change by implementing policies like carbon taxes, scientists like Hui Su, a Postdoctoral Fellow in McGill’s Department of Chemistry, and Jing-Tan Han, a PhD student at McGill’s C-J Li Lab, have been striving to develop alternative ways to combat the climate crisis. 

In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, Su and Han discuss their success in using light to catalyze the conversion of greenhouse gasses, specifically methane and carbon dioxide, into valuable industrial chemicals such as green methanol and carbon monoxide.

“We wanted to combat the climate change caused by the emissions of greenhouse gasses, so that was our starting point,” Han said in an interview with The Tribune. 

With a background in small molecule transformation, Han found the reactions he studied often produced carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gasses as byproducts. This observation inspired him to use carbon monoxide and methane as reactants and transform them into useful products.

Since 2014, Han’s team has been dedicated to this research, and after a decade of work, their efforts have begun to come to fruition.

Through their innovative process, gold and palladium ions are added to gallium-nitride, creating a photocatalyst—a substance that alters the reaction rate of a chemical reaction upon exposure to light. With the photocatalyst present, the activation energy required to break the carbon-oxygen bond in carbon dioxide and re-bond that oxygen atom to one of the carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane is decreased, creating methanol.  

Methanol, a type of alcohol made primarily from natural gas, serves as a valuable chemical in the production of plastics and construction materials and can be used to fuel vehicles and ships.

Han and Su’s method can synthesize methanol from pollutants without producing any toxic byproducts.

“We didn’t anticipate this product,” Han explained.

Han and Su were expecting the production of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, two gasses that contribute to climate change far less than carbon dioxide, but instead produced methanol and oxygen—a more beneficial result.

This process could help combat climate change—fuel could be created from factory exhaust and other emissions, and recycled to power those same factories and vehicles. 

By transforming pollutants like carbon dioxide into usable resources, this new method has the potential to help pull carbon dioxide out of the lower atmosphere, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Before achieving success, the team spent over six months optimizing each aspect of the project. 

“We’re still trying to optimize our parameters, but we are trying to scale this process up,” Han explained. In order to decrease costs, they are looking at utilizing other photocatalysts, such as nickel or iron, as gallium-nitride is comparably expensive. In addition, they are exploring ways to potentially synthesize cheaper gallium-nitride.

In the meantime, while they continue to optimize their product before they commercialize, the team has patented their new technology. 

“[It’s a] new, novel process, which has never really been reported before, [so we’ve created] new opportunities for research,” Han expressed.  

Moving forward, this advancement in green-energy technology promises to be a useful tool in the global fight against climate change.

Science & Technology

How does sign language impact deaf children’s ability to learn spoken language?

by Russel Ismael on

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An infant’s first three years of life are their most intensive period for acquiring language. At this stage, parents often speak to their children to stimulate language development and avoid communication challenges later on for their infant. However, this period can be difficult to navigate for speaking parents of deaf infants, as the children cannot absorb the parents’ spoken language. 

Expert opinions on how to navigate early childhood education for deaf infants have changed over the years. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, teachers often discouraged sign language for deaf children, instead focusing on lip reading and producing speech sounds. In addition to the ethical concerns around preventing children from accessing communication methods that are most natural to them, current research shows that this approach may impair children’s language development. Audrey Delcenserie, a McGill graduate pursuing a PhD at the Université de Montréal, has published a paper regarding language deprivation and its adverse impacts on deaf children’s linguistic development.

“If you don’t expose [deaf children] to sign language, they actually go through linguistic deprivation, as they are not exposed to auditory inputs and they are not exposed to visual inputs,” Delcenserie said in an interview with The Tribune. “This means that [deaf children] start [language learning] after what we call the ‘critical’ or ‘sensitive’ period for phonological development.”

If deaf children only begin learning language after this critical period, they may struggle with learning any language, whether it be visual or auditory. As such, Delcenserie emphasized that parents should use any available resources to teach their children sign language.

The Visual Takeover Hypothesis (VTH) is often cited by those concerned with sign language being taught to deaf children, as the hypothesis asserts that learning a visual language may impair auditory language development. This hypothesis argues that deaf children who receive a cochlear implant—a device that makes sound waves perceptible to deaf individuals by synthesizing the waves—later struggle with auditory language, as their brain has been primed for visual learning.

However, Delcenserie argued that the concerns regarding the VTH are overstated. She asserted that exposure to any language, even in suboptimal conditions, is better than having no exposure at all.

“An increasing number of studies show that [the VTH] is not the case,” Delcenserie said. “The changes that happen in the brain are actually more of a consequence of deafness itself than exposure to signs.”

In Delcenserie’s research, she observed positive outcomes in cognitive growth for children who were exposed to sign language. Delcenserie calls these children ‘multimodal bilinguals,’ as they show proficiency in both auditory and visual languages and have the potential to further develop these skills.

“As the results point out, [multimodal bilingual] kids actually do quite well in terms of auditory perception when we tested these kids in French,” Delcenserie explained. “So this means their exposure to sign language may not be detrimental for their acquisition of French.”

Delcenserie also stated that even if VTH was a valid model, the speech pathology community would need to decide whether auditory difficulties are preferable to language deprivation. 

“It’s possible that my results may not be replicated, and that people will come up with different results—it’s science, it’s perfectly fine,” Delcenserie said. “Even if [VTH] is true, I think parents should ask themselves what’s the best for their child: These perceptual difficulties, or language and cognition?”

Delcenserie is hopeful that her paper will positively contribute to the discourse on sign language exposure and its benefits for deaf children.

“It’s quite clear that an increasing number of studies actually suggest that not exposing kids to any language input, whatever the modality is, is detrimental for language acquisition and cognitive development,” Delcenserie explained. “I don’t really know why [some speech pathologists] persist in thinking that linguistic deprivation might be a good idea, but I hope the article will help.”

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