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Open Letter to McGill Administration Regarding the Teaching Assistants’ Strike

by McGill Professors on

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On Friday, April 5, just before 2 p.m., a few signatories of the below open letter walked over to the James Administration building to deliver it in person, accompanied by about a dozen members of AGSEM. The plan was for three professors to walk in and deliver seven copies of the letter – one for each addressee. We did not really expect to meet with any of the addressees, but figured we would ask, and then simply leave the letters at the front desk, to be. To our surprise, our modest plan was quickly foiled: the door was locked. There was no doorbell, and no one inside to let us in. One of us tried the keycard entry reader. Red light, no luck. A security guard approached from outside and asked who we were. We explained the situation. “Do you have an appointment?” “No.” “You cannot enter the building without an appointment.” Perplexed that three McGill professors require an appointment in order to enter the administration building, we put our learned heads together and decided to try calling some members of the administration. Perhaps an administrative assistant would pick up, take pity on us, and come downstairs to collect our now rain-splashed letters. After a couple unanswered calls, we did finally really reach a member of the senior administration, who eventually authorized us to hand the letters to a security guard, who would carry them into the building for us. Perhaps the experience was just a fluke and if we had delivered the letter on a different day, it would have gone differently. But it certainly left us with a sinking sense of teaching at a university whose administration has walled itself off from students and professors alike, where collegial governance is so far gone that few can even remember its existence, if it ever had one.

To: Deep Saini, President and Vice-Chancellor; Christopher Manfredi, Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic); Diana Dutton, Interim Vice-President (Administration and Finance) and Associate Vice-President (Human Resources); Angela Campbell, Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies); Fabrice Labeau, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning); Francis Desjardins, Director, Labour and Employee Relations; Étienne Clark, Labour and Employee Relations Advisor 

Dear Colleagues, 

We write as McGill professors who are deeply concerned about the university administration’s handling of negotiations with the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM). In the last two weeks, in response to the strike, the administration has resorted to intimidation of faculty and graduate students alike. We fear the campus climate will continue to deteriorate unless there is a change in attitudes and tactics. 

The administration’s communications to faculty have been heavy-handed and, in some cases, inappropriate. McGill has directed professors and other course instructors that they have no choice but to perform the labour of striking student-employees or be placed on unpaid administrative leave. McGill has justified its position by arguing that instructors are managers (despite the fact that we don’t hire, fire, or set the hours of TAs), as if this is settled case law, and not in fact the subject of an ongoing legal dispute before the Tribunal administratif du travail. Rather than acknowledging this dispute and awaiting a ruling, the university has doubled down on its narrative, while also promising to pay for any fines and legal fees we might incur for following orders and breaking the law. (One wonders which budget line can be so easily diverted to covering these costs.) 

Just as disturbingly, the McGill administration’s position pushes faculty to prioritize the needs of undergraduate students over the needs of graduate students. The TAs who are on strike are graduate student-employees. As professors, we care about the needs, learning, and wellbeing of our undergraduate and graduate students, alike. On this note, we are seriously troubled by the administration’s decision to revoke teaching assistants’ access to their work email addresses. Though officially TAs have “work” and “student” emails, in practice many TAs use their work email for a range of scholarly and professional correspondence. Cutting off access to these email accounts will likely result in McGill graduate students missing important correspondence related to publications, conferences, grants, and job applications. Also alarming is the administration’s unwillingness to allow AGSEM members to continue to perform non-TA jobs at the university for the duration of the strike, something that AGSEM has repeatedly requested. 

We are very concerned that the university’s tactics could undermine trust and relationships between graduate students and faculty within departments, and we resent being placed in this

position by the university. Sowing these divisions threatens to seriously poison the campus climate and our ability to do our jobs. 

Intensifying this divisiveness are the administration’s inflammatory campus-wide emails about picketing AGSEM members. These emails have exaggerated the disruption caused by striking teaching assistants, creating an illusion of disorderly and even violent chaos that has no basis in reality. Strikes are a normal occurrence in democratic societies, and participating in strikes is part of individuals’ Charter-protected right to freedom of assembly. Disruptions to everyday routines are an essential part of strikes. While it is always possible that individual strikers might engage in inappropriate behaviour, it is in turn grossly inappropriate for the administration to use individual allegations to paint all picketing workers as threats to campus safety. Whatever their stated intent, these emails are themselves intimidating. Unlike the administration, AGSEM does not have the ability to send campus-wide emails and cannot, therefore, correct the record. 

The cumulative effect of these activities is to pit faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students against one another. We believe that it is possible to resolve this conflict without further poisoning our relationships with one another. To do that, the administration must drop the hardball tactics and lowball offers, which have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the soaring cost of living over recent years. 

TAs play a vital role in undergraduate education at McGill, leading labs and tutorials, grading papers and exams, and mentoring students one-on-one. Many undergraduate students build stronger relationships with their TAs than with their professors. Many professors treat their TAs as colleagues with whom they collaborate as part of a teaching team. But TAs are not just graduate student workers. They are also junior members of our scholarly community. What sort of community treats its junior members with such lack of support and outright disrespect? 

We close this letter with an urgent request to the administration: refrain from the intimidation of its employees and instead focus its energies and resources on negotiating a fair agreement with AGSEM. 

Sincerely, 

1. Alanna Thain, Associate Professor, English 

2. Barry Eidlin, Associate Professor, Sociology 

3. Catherine Leclerc, Associate Professor, Littératures de langue française, traduction et création 

4. Daniel Schwartz, Assistant Professor, Languages, Literatures, & Cultures 

5. Darin Barney, Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

6. Debra Thompson, Associate Professor, Political Science 

7. Derek Nystrom, Associate Professor, Department of English 

8. Don Nerbas, Associate Professor, History & Classical Studies 

9. Edward Dunsworth, Assistant Professor, History & Classical Studies 

10. Emily Carson, Associate Professor, Philosophy 

11. Emma Teitelman, Assistant Professor, History & Classical Studies 

12. Eric Lewis, Associate Professor, Philosophy 

13. Evan Fox-Decent, Professor of Law and Canada Research Chair in Cosmopolitan Law & Justice 

14. Hasana Sharp, Professor, Philosophy 

15. Ipek Tureli, Associate Professor, Architecture 

16. Jake Blanc, Associate Professor, History & Classical Studies 

17. Joshua Nichols, Assistant Professor, Law 

18. Kirsten Anker, Associate Professor, Law 

19. Kyle Kubler, Faculty Lecturer, McGill Writing Centre 

20. Louigi Addario-Berry, Professor, Mathematics & Statistics 

21. Malek Abisaab, Associate Professor, Department of History & Classical Studies and Institute of Islamic Studies 

22. Marianne Tarcov, Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies 

23. Marion Vergues, Senior Faculty Lecturer, French Language Centre 

24. Michael Hallett, Full Professor, Philosophy, Faculty of Arts 

25. Richard Gold, Professor, Law 

26. Robert Hasegawa, Associate Professor, Music Research 

27. Sandeep Banerjee, Associate Professor, English 

28. Stephen Menn, Professor, Philosophy 

29. Tari Ajadi, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science 

30. Tassos Anastassiadis, Associate professor, History & Classical studies 

31. Victor M. Muniz-Fraticelli, Associate Professor, Political Science and Law 

32. William Clare Roberts, Associate Professor, Political Science 

33. Aaron Bartels-Swindells, Faculty Lecturer, McGill Writing Centre 

34. Michelle Hartman, Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies 

35. Subho Basu, Associate Professor, History & Classical Studies 

36. Francesco Amodio, Associate Professor, Economics and Institute for the Study of International Development 

37. Jorge Alonso Gamarra, Sessional Lecturer, Anthropology 

38. Michael Hendricks, Associate Professor, Biology 

39. Amy Janzwood, Assistant Professor, Political Science 

40. Dennis Wendt, Associate Professor, Educational & Counselling Psychology 

41. Kevin McDonough, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

42. Aron Rosenberg, Faculty Lecturer, Department of Integrated Studies in Education 

43. Richard Janda, Associate Professor, Law 

44. Priya Gupta, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law 

45. Steven Jordan, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

46. Allison Gonsalves, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

47. Yves Winter, Associate Professor, Political Science 

48. Jill Hanley, Full Professor, School of Social Work 

49. Lynn Kozak, Associate Professor, Department of History & Classical Studies 

50. Nanre Nafziger, Assistant Professor, Department of integrated studies in education 

51. Jennifer Elrick, Associate Professor, Sociology 

52. Mela Sarkar, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

‘53. Margaret Levey, Faculty Lecturer, School of Continuing Studies 

54. Jenny Burman, Associate Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

55. Alia Al-Saji, Professor, Department of Philosophy 

56. Jonathan Sterne, Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

57. Omar Farahat, Associate Professor, Law 

58. Nicholas Dew, Associate professor, History 

59. Jacob Errington, Faculty Lecturer, School of Computer Science 

60. Claude Crépeau, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science 

61. Ross Sundberg, Faculty Lecturer, McGill Writing Centre 

62. Alex Ketchum, Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies 

63. Pedro Monaville, Associate Professor, History & Classical Studies 

64. Alex Blue V, Assistant Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

65. Gustavo Ferreira, Faculty Lecturer, Art History & Communication Studies Department 

66. Sabeena Shaikh, Faculty Lecturer, Institute of Islamic Studies 

67. Lyudmila Parts, Professor, Languages, Literatures, & Cultures 

68. Camille Owens, Assistant Professor, English 

69. Alexis Dennis, Assistant Professor, Sociology 

70. Eugenio Bolongaro, Associate Professor, Languages, Literatures, & Cultures 

71. Isabel Pike, Assistant Professor, Sociology 

72. David Hensley, Associate Professor, Department of English 

73. Carrie Rentschler, Associate Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

74. David Rolnick, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science 

75. Narendra Subramanian, Professor, Political Science 

76. David Avis, Professor Emeritus, School of Computer Science

77. Shokry Gohar, Faculty Lecturer, Islamic Studies 

78. Adrian Vetta, Professor, School of Computer Science and Department of Mathematics & Statistics 

79. Robert Robere, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science 

80. Jessica Ruglis, Associate Professor, Dept of Educational & Counselling Psychology 

81. Ara Osterweil, Associate Professor, English, Faculty of Arts 

82. Tania Islas Weinstein, Assistant Professor, Political Science 

83. Griet Vankeerberghen, Associate Professor, Department of History & Classical Studies 

84. Julie Charlotte Sénat, Faculty Lecturer, French Language Center 

85. Giulia Alberini, Faculty Lecturer, Computer Science 

86. Jayne Malenfant, Assistant Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

87. Alison Laywine, Associate Professor, Philosophy 

88. Tim Hoheisel, Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics 

89. G. Eric Jarvis, Associate Professor, Psychiatry 

90. Armando Salvatore, Professor, School of Religious Studies 

91. Elaine Weiner, Associate Professor, Sociology 

92. Cristiana Furlan, Faculty Lecturer, Languages, Literatures & Cultures 

93. Bobby Benedicto, Assistant Professor, Art History & Communication Studies 

94. Bronwen Low, Associate Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education Programs 

95. Sarah Brauner-Otto, Associate Professor, Sociology 

96. Philip Howard, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education 

97. Isabeau Prémont-Schwarz, Faculty Lecturer, School of Computer Science 

98. Pasha M. Khan, Associate Professor, Islamic Studies 

99. Diana Allan, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of International Development 

100. Mohamed El Sherbini, Associate Professor, Surgery 

101. Jeehee Hong, Associate Professor, East Asian Studies and Art History & Communication Studies 

102. Adrienne Hurley, Associate Professor, East Asian Studies 

103. Elizabeth Elbourne, Associate Professor, History & Classical Studies 

104. Wendell Adjetey, Assistant Professor, History & Classical Studies 

105. Edward Klorman, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier II), Music Research 

106. Ahmed El-Geneidy, Professor, School of Urban Planning 

107. Anna Kramer, Assistant Professor, School of Urban Planning 

108. leslie sabiston, assistant professor, anthropology 

109. Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, Associate professor, History & Classical Studies 

110. Nicole Biamonte, Associate Professor, Music Research 

111. David Austin, Lecturer, Institute for the Study of Canada 

112. Gwyn Campbell, Professor, Department of History & Classical Studies 

113. Daniel Douek, Faculty Lecturer, Political Science 

114. Marta Kobiela, Associate Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education 

115. Lucia Chamanadjian, Faculty Lecturer, Languages, Literatures, & Cultures 

116. Patrick Allen, Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics 

117. Lisa Barg, Associate Professor, Schulich School of Music 

118. Elizabeth Patitsas, Assistant Professor, Department of Integrated Studies in Education and School of Computer Science 

119. Rula Jurdi, Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies 

120. Linan Chen, Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics 

121. Jérôme Fortier, Faculty Lecturer, Mathematics & Statistics 

122. Zoe Thomas, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry 

123. Setrag Manoukian, Associate Professor, Islamic Studies and Anthropology 

124. Kaleem Siddiqi, Professor, School of Computer Science 

125. Rosalie Bélanger-Rioux, Faculty Lecturer, Mathematics & Statistics 

126. David Wachsmuth, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier II), School of Urban Planning 

127. Sandra T. Hyde, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Faculty of Arts 

128. Audrey Coussy, Associate Professor, French Language & Literature 

129. Fiona Ritchie, Associate Professor, Department of English 

130. Peter McMahan, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology 

131. Jean-Christophe Nave, Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics

Student Life

If these stalls could talk

by Simi Ogunsola on

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As the year comes to a close, we at The Tribune have been reflecting, and one topic of our reflection has been the hallowed bathroom stalls across campus. But what does your go-to bathroom say about you?

Leacock basement bathroom 

You’re an Arts student, but that’s just your part-time gig. Full-time, you’re breaking necks, dropping jaws, and slaying in your role as resident McGill fashion icon. People say that the school has a fashion culture because of you. Every class is a runway show, and every stride through the Y is a catwalk. If McGill has taught you anything, it’s that your suburban hometown held you back. You are a star. Now get that mirror fit-pic, baddie! 

OAP Porta-Potty 

You are probably laughing while reading this, even though I haven’t gotten to any jokes yet. You’re here for a good time, not necessarily a long time (especially if your essay due at 11:59 pm has anything to say about it. Yeah, remember that?). Nonetheless, you are the lively spirit that we need here at McGill, reminding all of us that we’re only young once, everyone’s trying their best, and we need to take time and celebrate ourselves. 

SSMU basement bathroom 

Not to be confused with the seasonal OAP-porta-potty regulars, you are committed to the celebratory lifestyle. Sessions in McLennan followed by a run to Gerts is your version of a Pomodoro timer. You’re not afraid of a 20-page essay, or problem sets so long as there are celebratory cheers on the other side of it. You embody McGill’s work hard, play hard spirit, and execute it with pride, and you know what? We salute you. 

SSMU fourth-floor bathroom

If more than once, you’ve found yourself reaching for a nonexistent roll of toilet paper to wipe your tears, then you’re probably a club executive holding it together by a thread on the fourth floor of the SSMU building. Your ideas are incredible, obviously. You’re always right, clearly. You are the heart and soul of that team, and everyone there is lucky to have you! But right now, take a breath, and take a moment. Whatever crisis needs averting will be solved, I promise. 

McGill Gym bathroom 

You are a beast. You are Thor. You are… hoping no one was paying close attention to your form during that last set of bicep curls. If the bathrooms down the hall from the gym are one of your favourite haunts, then you are a McGill gym baddie. You hit a question set in the AM and quads set in the PM. Day in, day out, you’re here grinding and getting better and praying not to have a surprise cameo on Spotted: McGill. 

Stewart Bio fifth-floor bathroom

You are a STEM baddie and McGill’s resident Rapunzel, locked in your tower atop the hill, wondering when will my life beginnnnnn? You are the best of us; stay strong soldier.

McLennan third-floor bathroom

If you routinely find yourself in the third-floor bathroom in McLennan, then life is a cruise ship, and you’re the entertainment director. And the third floor is your lido deck. You and your huge group of friends regularly regale the entire floor with your gossip and jokes, always making sure that everyone can hear you (wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on the tea, right?). You like to think of the library as both a place for studying and socializing. You know how sad the mood can get during finals, so you’re always there to bring the vibes up. Like, all the time. It’s a tough job, but you’re up to it. Besides, what would we all do without you?

McLennan sixth-floor bathroom

You are a soldier, you have nostrils of steel, and (I hope) shoes with thick soles.

McLennan-Redpath Complex first floor bathroom

If you often find yourself under the bright lights and endless stalls of the McLennan-Redpath Complex first-floor bathroom, then you are… all of us. You’re clocking in and chasing that degree one day at a time. Maybe you know what your future holds, or maybe you’re just happy to be here. But either way, you’re showing up, learning, working hard, and looking amazing doing it (upholding our reputation as Canada’s hottest university). Keep going, kid. Good luck this finals season and go easy on the Redbulls—you’ve got this! 

Editorial, Opinion

Cops off our campus, protect the pickets and protests

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

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Last week, the teaching assistants’ (TAs) strike took priority at McGill as they protested to demand a fair wage for their work, healthcare, and indexed working hours. Beginning on March 25, students arrived on campus to the sight of picket lines and bright banners, full of signs indicating that all 1,600 TAs will continue to pressure the university administration to renegotiate a new collective agreement (CA) with TAs, under the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM). However, TAs have not been alone in raising banners and chanting on campus, as Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students continue to call on McGill to divest from corporations tied to Israel and cut ties with Israeli universities, as they have done since October. McGill quickly responded to both protests by increasing police presence on campus and avoiding to engage in any kind of constructive conversation with students.

The administration’s reaction to protesters on campus is far from unprecedented. In 2011, Montreal riot police officers brutalized McGill students protesting on campus against tuition hikes. Last November, McGill President Deep Saini requested police presence for a peaceful protest led by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill, and the university called the police in response to the Feb. 22 pro-Palestine protest in front of the Bronfman Building. The students blockaded the building for the entire school day in response to the Desautels Faculty of Management’s course offerings of ORGB 434: Special Topics in Organizational Behaviour, Comparing Startup Ecosystems of Israel, and Canada and FINE 434: Topics in Finance—which includes a collaborative three-week study trip with the Hebrew University Business School. Saini deemed the obstruction of university activities, including blocking access to buildings, “unacceptable.” The disruption of classes on campus and “interference with McGill’s operations” is a necessary step toward change, and is a direct result of the university administration’s unwillingness to meaningfully engage with its student body.

When essential workers strike and frustration with the McGill administration is widespread, every single student must call for solidarity. Chanting and banners are not intended to intimidate fellow students, as the university claims, but serve to call for basic rights and fair treatment. While no one deserves to feel unsafe, the uncomfortable nature of activism is a necessary aspect of bringing about change. Course disruptions and uncertainty can be frustrating and confusing at the individual level, however, protesters’ continuous mobilization strives to gain students’ support and remind them who is at fault, because no change can be achieved in the silence of playing by the university’s rules. For this reason, students must join and protect the picket line, by calling out professors who engage in and even encourage scabbing.

Students must understand that increased police presence on campus is a tool for the university to secure its property and protect its image, not its students. The university uses security on campus to distract the student body, professors, and staff from the fact that their decision to dismiss calls for divestment and meet the TAs’ demands is a deeply rooted political and institutional issue, not a safety one. Security for the administration is not security for the students, and no circumstance justifies the presence of violent, racist, and colonial police on our campus. Resisting policing in the university is the first step to building an actual safe and free campus, where all students are liberated and all workers fairly treated.

McGill profits from the confusion and demonization of protesters on campus to try and turn students against their peers. In an email communication sent to the entire student body on Thursday, March 28, the administration announced that the police “made at least one arrest” and that McGill would press charges against a protester breaking the law. This strategy of threat and intimidation is meant to paint student mobilization as violent to the rest of the student body. Students must resist this tactic and instead see police presence on campus for what it really is: McGill’s fear of seeing its students and workers organize peacefully and its unwillingness to respect the growing consensus on the ground for fair treatment, divestment, and a better world.

Commentary, Opinion

Being a recreational musician at McGill is almost impossible. It shouldn’t be.

by Lulu Calame on

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My first semester at McGill marked my 12th year playing the violin, and I auditioned for the Classical Music Club as soon as I knew whom to email. I was placed in a trio with a flutist and a pianist and we were told to rehearse in a room on the fourth floor of the University Centre on Monday nights. As the music school practice rooms are open only to those with a Schulich School of Music student ID, practice rooms for any non-music students are nestled far and wide in the far and high-up corners of campus. Without the all-consuming commitment required to get a music degree at McGill, a musician is exiled to the periphery of McGill’s facilities. 

On the night of our first rehearsal, my flutist, pianist, and I met outside our allotted room in which another pianist and violinist were rehearsing an impressive duet. We waited for ten minutes, then sent our own pianist unwillingly to claim our rehearsal space. We felt awful, and the talented duet apologetically shuffled out. 

The next week the room was locked, as it was the week after. By the fourth week, our trio deserted the likely locked rehearsal space and opted instead to break into one of the Schulich School of Music practice rooms. This was both stressful and time-consuming, as it meant we had to trudge up and down the staircases until we caught a music student leaving the other way. Then we would slip into the hallway on the other side, and test our luck at an open room. As both the practice rooms and the music lockers open only to music-student ID cards, us recreational musicians found ourselves barred from a practice space, and without a place to keep a violin or a flute except for our bedrooms at home. I cannot imagine my predicament had I chosen twelve years ago to play the tuba. 

McGill’s Schulich School of Music is a prestigious school that attracts musicians from across the world. As grateful as I am to be at an institution where musical talent is given so much attention, I resent the way in which this attention has shut out what I consider a middle-class of musicians, like myself.

All three of us were good musicians. Our pianist had been playing longer than I had, and knew all of J.S Bach’s twenty children; our flutist was shy and nimble and could play arpeggios of high sixteenth-notes like the songbird on imagines a flute should emulate. I, for my own part, could play the entire Bach Double by heart and could sight-read most moderately challenging pieces of music on the first try. But finding space to practice as a group––an official music group, part of an official McGill music club––was more difficult for us than learning the musical repertoire we had to play. Finding a space at all was lucky, and twice when we succeeded we were shortly asked to leave––first by an opera singer and then by a cellist. We evacuated, peeved. However, our frustration was not at the musicians who kicked us out but at the fact that we––though not rehearsing for the Philharmonic––could not have a space to at least try.

Playing recreational music is made difficult at McGill. It is limiting enough that McGill does not have an arts centre for fine and performing arts, but to then render the few available spaces as unavailable and exclusive prevents a dimension of well-roundedness that ties an aloof academic institution like McGill to other important corners of the world—like pulling out a guitar at a dinner party instead of opening a discussion of Weber’s concept of the state.  

There is nothing commendable in evicting those of us who––regardless of skill level––have brought our instruments to university with us and want to play, whether we can play Paganini or not. A recognized school club such as the Classical Music Club, or those rehearsing for the novice Beethoven Orchestra, should not face relegation to the fourth floor of the University Centre for an unreliable practice space, the same way an individual involved in nothing except their own love of music should have just the same opportunity.

As McGill already chooses not to invest in a fine arts program—or in an arts centre for fine and performing arts at all––the least it could do is open its music facilities to anyone who wants to play music.

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Players’ McGill Drama Festival showcases the best of student theatre

by Ella Paulin on

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From exploring dusty old houses in A Farce About Time Travel to a complicated reunion with old friends (or more than friends) in Coping Mechanisms, the McGill Drama Festival (MDF) had something for everybody. With prizes handed out for Best Script and Best Directing, the festival’s only real loser was rural Ontario, with more than one play shining a light on the trials and travails of life in Canada’s least interesting province. 

Players’ Theatre’s annual festival featured five plays, all written and produced by students. 

“What I love about the McGill Drama Festival is that it’s a showcase of entirely student talent. Everything is written […] directed, acted, and produced all by students,” Danica Friss-Wilson, U1 Arts and the festival’s coordinator, explained in an interview with The Tribune. 

For many aspiring playwrights, MDF presents their first opportunity to have directors and actors bring their scripts to life. 

“For the writers, it showcases that there are people who can work on your script,” Friss-Wilson said. “You write something and you have a vision of it, and then you see it up on stage and it’s like nothing that I can describe.”

This was the case for Keianna Lewis, U2 Arts, who wrote the eerie discussion between some old circus colleagues that became Big Top Down. Having only started writing plays last fall, this performance marked the first time Lewis had seen a piece of their writing come to life.

“Knowing that this is something that I originally conceived while I was [in high school] and had no idea who I was as a writer, and then getting to edit it, and workshop it, and see it be brought to life by this wonderful director and wonderful cast—it’s kind of magical,” Lewis said in an interview with The Tribune. 

As it turned out, the judges agreed—Big Top Down’s Andrea Landeata, U2 Arts, brought home the prize for Best Directing. While the characters worked through their old grudges and familial conflicts by way of letters from long-lost loved ones, a mime lit up the show with spot-on reactions and an interlude between scenes. 

Meanwhile, in Ontario, the witty confusion and all-too-relatable family pressure in All You Can Eat earned it the award of Best Script. Written by Corey Madelzys, BCL/JD ‘24, and directed by Nora Bartram-Forbes, U3 Science, the play centres on a multi-generational family celebrating their youngest son’s last dinner before going off to college. 

By creating a space for student-written work to be directed and performed, MDF also allows students to take a chance on more experimental work and try out a new genre or style of storytelling. 

“I was intrigued by the idea of writing a play when the call came out this year, but really it was my roommate who pushed me to try something new,” Harriet Faught, U1 Education and the playwright behind Red Wine, Women, and Song told The Tribune. 

Faught’s play presents a series of vignettes, each centring around women in their early twenties exploring what womanhood means to them. As Faught explained, one goal of the play was for it to be an opportunity for the cast and crew to experiment.

“I really wrote the show to be whatever the directors and the actors wanted,” Faught said. “I didn’t actually give the characters names. [They] were chosen by the actors and directors, and I left the script really open because I wanted it to feel really real.”

The chance to play around, try out new things, and develop their craft isn’t limited to playwrights, actors, and directors. Claire Tees, U3 Arts and Executive Director of Players’ Theatre, emphasized that the festival was also a venue for running crew, light and sound technicians, and stage managers to gain hands-on experience. 
“That’s the other great thing about the McGill Drama Festival: Because there’s so many shows, there’s a lot more opportunity in tech as well,” Tees said in an interview with The Tribune. “The whole point is an opportunity for people to learn, for first time actors—first time everything!”

Commentary, Opinion

Why we need to reconsider Quebec’s subsidization of private schools

by Nell Pollak on

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Amid the François Legault government’s contentious policy decisions, including recent tuition hikes, Quebec’s substantial financial backing for private schools raises significant concerns for equal access to education across the province. This policy, whereby the majority of independent private schools receive subsidies from the government for each student, not only undermines the quality and accessibility of public education but also deepens the socio-economic divides within the province. Quebec must rethink its approach to educational funding, by shifting the focus and resources from private to public schools thereby fostering a more equitable and inclusive educational landscape.

Public education advocates and concerned taxpayers have increasingly scrutinized Quebec’s approach to funding education, particularly criticizing the generous subsidies it extends to private schools. In the 2018-19 academic year, 170 private schools received a total of just over $522 million in direct subsidies, along with an additional $27.6 million in approved transportation costs. Meanwhile, public school revenues from local taxation in 2020-21 were less than half of what they were in 2017- 18, representing 7.5 per cent of total revenues compared to 17.8 per cent three years prior. This, despite the fact that private schools cater to a considerably smaller, and often more affluent, portion of the province’s population. The decision to prioritize private education resulted in a concerning shift in the educational landscape and an alarming preferential shift among parents and students away from public schools: The market share of private schools has surged from 5 per cent in 1970 to a significant 21 per cent in 2022. In Montreal, the figures are even more pronounced, with private school enrollment reaching 39 per cent. This upward trend in private school enrolment not only siphons vital resources away from the public sector but also exacerbates socio-economic disparities. The burgeoning private school sector, bolstered by public funds, thus poses a direct barrier to an equitable and heterogeneous educational system.

The substantial public investment in private education amplifies advantages for the already privileged. Both national and international bodies have critiqued the profound consequences of this funding imbalance, including the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation, an extension of the Minister of Education, who declared Quebec’s system the most unequal in Canada. UNESCO has attempted to hold Quebec accountable for its “segregated” three-tier school system (subsidized private, public, and selective-public) in lieu of their recommended public single-system. Public schools—facing higher numbers of students who cannot financially access private and selective-public schools—struggle to provide quality education, creating a detrimental cycle where richer parents opt for private schools as opposed to advocating for better funding within the public system. The province’s neglect of the public school system leads Quebec to have the highest student dropout rates in the country and increasing teacher attrition, with a quarter of teachers leaving the profession during their first five years on the job market. 

Quebec’s restrictive language laws (especially Bill 101) exacerbate the harmful effects of the province’s private school subsidization. By requiring that the children of non-Canadian residents, immigrants, refugees and Canadian citizens who were not educated in English in Canada attend French-language schools, many newcomers are forced to send their children to French public schools. Meanwhile, a growing number of Quebecois parents have taken their children out of the public system and sent them to private schools. This disparity in education for the children of immigrants, refugees, and non-Canadian residents makes the adjustment to a new province all the more difficult. The flight of wealthier families who flee the public system and flock to government-supported private schools guarantees the continuation of this division. 

Private schools discriminate, using subjective criteria such as test scores, gender, economic status, and religion for admissions without external oversight. Additionally, the creation of a  selective public network, aiming to counter private schools’ elitism, instead inadvertently deepens educational divisions, entrenching a system where privilege determines educational quality. Quebec’s segregative system is paradoxical to the province’s professed values of equality and inclusivity.The recent tuition hikes for anglophone Quebec universities underscore the pressing need for a more equitable distribution of provincial resources. When even public universities, which //should// be accessible to all, are being forced to raise out-of-province tuition by nearly 30 per cent while Quebec private schools continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in funding each school year, it is imperative to question the Legault administration’s priorities. We all need to advocate for a system where education acts as a power of equalization, not division.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

A letter to lonely writers: Words of wisdom from Heather O’Neill

by Bianca Sugunasiri on

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“Oh here comes the torture” and “oh what crap” are phrases that acclaimed author Heather O’Neill uses to describe the harrowing experience of reciting passages from her novels in public. She is McGill’s Writer-In-Residence, known for her debut novel Lullabies for Little Criminals, which won Canada Reads (2007) and When We Lost Our Heads, her most recent bestseller. 

O’Neil alluded that the re-read is one of the most harrowing experiences for young writers; it’s the dreaded moment when you realize that the masterpiece you wrote not 24 hours ago is one of the worst things you’ve ever read. Unfortunately, O’Neill confirmed in an interview with The Tribune that the 24-hour expiry date does not dissipate with age, acclaim, or experience. 

As children, we hoped to be older and cooler with glossed lips and dyed hair. As teens, we hoped to be older and more sophisticated with our shit together. This much sought-after “final form writer” is as elusive as Peter Pan’s shadow. Once, an attendee at one of O’Neill’s book events asked her about an opinion of hers. She replied incredulously that she no longer agreed with that opinion and inquired when she had expressed it originally. The attendee replied that it had been no more than 20 minutes ago. Humans, flawed as we are, are trapped in a cycle of change as unpredictable as the Canadian weather.

As a child, O’Neill knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. From reading out newspaper clippings at dinner to printing zines at 50 cents apiece, no one could deny that O’Neill was destined to be an author. She faced many “weird kid accusations” with her attempts to spark conversation about books. As many introverts will understand, O’Neill did not experience this as a loss, thriving in a world rich with ink-sketched companions. Not only could these characters satisfy the role of a friend, but O’Neill’s own characters became self-reflections. These are characters that O’Neill would get along with, while simultaneously tiring of them, knowing as much as she does. 

When asked for her advice on writing, O’Neill encouraged young writers to embrace rejection.

“I just treat [rejection] like the flu,” she said in an interview with The Tribune. “I’m just gonna feel bad for three days […] but after three days I’m gonna feel fine.” 

While O’Neill refers to writing specifically, these words of wisdom apply to rejections of all kinds. O’Neill also advises creating and enforcing deadlines to motivate oneself. Additionally, she discourages attaching weight to literary trends as a means of success.

”You just have to be saying things no one has said before […] You want to become the trend.”

O’Neill muses that she would have liked to tell her younger self to elicit attention from more older authors and “forcefully” encourage them to mentor her. For legal purposes, this is not a suggestion to harass senior citizens. As for her writing process, O’Neill likes to get right into it by sketching out scenes to see how her characters improve with one another. She alternates her writing projects in three-month increments to help keep ideas fresh. 

O’Neill is looking forward to the release of her latest book this September; although specifics are top secret, she hinted that it may be her new favourite. Perhaps even more exciting is an idea that she pitched offhand, a podcast hosted by 80-year-old agoraphobic Heather who seldom interacts with people except to interview them from the comfort of her home. 

A final word of wisdom for the lonely writers who feel like they’re just not good enough yet, awaiting that moment of “older and wiser”:

“[You] get to a certain age and you’re like ‘okay, this is as much as I’m gonna know, so I might as well go out there and be confident.’”

That age is right now. So get out there and write.

Sports

CLF McGill hosts “Impact Zone: Navigating Sports-Related Concussions” panel

by Tillie Burlock on

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On March 28, the McGill Students for Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF McGill) hosted their annual symposium. Co-Presidents Trisha Tee, a second year master’s student in experimental surgery, and Lily MacDonald, a third year undergraduate Dietetics student, explained that with this year’s panel titled “Impact Zone: Navigating Sports-Related Concussions,” they hoped to illuminate the wide range of different approaches to concussion treatment throughout the sports world. 

“The goal of this panel is really to get everyone together to have an interdisciplinary approach to concussion care, treatment, recovery, rehab, and really get a bunch of the different multidisciplinary views on how to treat it rather than just one way,” MacDonald told The Tribune. 

The first speaker was Evan Patrician, a former hockey player for the McGill Redbirds who quit the team this year after sustaining five concussions in the span of four years. Patrician detailed his experience with concussions.

“After the most recent concussion before the summer of 2023, short-term memory [loss] was beginning to creep into my daily life frequently,” Patrician said. 

Patrician explained that despite attending training camp at the start of the 2023-24 season, he was scared to get hit. This led him to take some time away from hockey and ultimately decide that continuing to play hockey could negatively affect his pursuit of academic and career goals. Patrician also touched on the stigma surrounding concussions in hockey. 

“Junior hockey is your full-time job and your health is second,” Patrician explained. 

Gordon Bloom, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and the Director of the Sports Psychology Research Lab at McGill, spoke next. Bloom narrowed in on a discussion of the psychosocial aspects of post-concussion rehabilitation in athletes, highlighting the psychological aspects of recovering from a concussion. He explained concussions are difficult as they do not have a clear recovery timeline and as an “invisible injury,”, people often think athletes are faking it.  

Bloom discussed the advances in understanding and treating concussions since the early 2000s, highlighting the role of Eric Lindros’s 2011 concussion in bringing public attention to the issue. He then discussed the importance of qualitative studies in understanding what it is like for athletes to live with concussions. 

“For me, this was a real turning point, this article, because we finally had the empirical evidence that says, if you have multiple brain trauma injuries, and you don’t let it heal properly, your quality of life is going to be severely damaged,” Bloom said. 

Dr. Aimen Moussaddy, a neurologist specializing in vascular neurology, followed Bloom with a discussion of how he treats post-concussion symptoms. He explained the difficulties of treating patients when wait times are often weeks, if not months. Moussaddy also explored two ways of seeing how damage manifests in the concussed brain. 

“Axonal injury, which comes back to the fact that our brains are just a lump of wires […] those wires get twisted […] and that twist of wires ends up causing inflammation around the wires, and those wires to be dysfunctional,” Moussaddy said. “That dysfunction of wires can be reversible and temporary, or after repetitive effects, or depending on the severity of that one impact of that trauma may be irreversible [….] The second part of head trauma also modifies the way we release chemicals in our brain.” 

Bianca Brigitte Rock, a certified athletic therapist and co-founder of TMDS Canada, discussed a biophysical approach to concussions and outlined the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to treating concussions. Rock explained that there are five different spheres of symptoms: Physical, cognitive, sleep, affective, and the autonomic nervous system––anything to do with physical activity. 

Finally, Christine Beaulieu, a physiotherapist and osteopath specializing in concussion rehab spoke about the development of research on the physical activity after a concussion. She explained the process of developing consensus statements on concussion in sport which are produced at the International Conference on Concussion in Sport which occurs every four years. 

“The consensus statement is kind of the reference that people look at to create all of the policies and protocols on concussion,” Beaulieu said. “In 2022 […] this is where we see the biggest changes in the approach to rehabilitation [….] In terms of physical activity, now we say it is safe to start physical activity within two to 14 days after the concussion.”

The panel concluded with a Q&A session in which the audience asked the panellists about professional sports leagues’ concussion protocols, the gaps in concussion research along the lines of age and gender, and the need for public figures and government officials to speak up about the dangers of concussions. 

McGill, News

Protesters stage ‘die-in’ at Y-intersection to draw attention to McGill’s complicity in ongoing genocide of Palestinians

by Lily Cason on

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Content Warning: Mentions of genocide and a hunger strike.

On March 28, more than 40 protesters lay silently on the ground in front of the Arts Building for half an hour, their hands doused in red paint and bodies traced in chalk, to protest McGill’s financial and academic ties to the state of Israel. This ‘die-in’ was organized by the McGill Hunger Strike for Palestine—a group of students who are starving themselves in solidarity with Gazans who are facing famine to push for an end to McGill’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

Speeches began around 1 p.m. as the crowd continued to grow.  

“Today, we are standing on the edge of day 39 of our hunger strike. Thirty-nine days fueled by outrage, disgust, courage, love, compassion, unwavering conviction, and an unyielding demand for justice in Palestine,” Sage, who is part of the hunger strike, told the crowd.

Sage reiterated why the hunger strikers feel that immediate divestment from and an academic boycott of Israel are critical.

“By choosing McGill for our education, you and I are actively complicit,” Sage said. “We are participating in this genocide at this very moment, whether we want it or not. This is why we are here today to let McGill know that we are not okay with our education taking away lives.”

According to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill, another group fighting for the administration to cut ties with Israel, McGill invests approximately $20 million in companies supporting Israel’s siege on Gaza. The university also has partnerships with Israeli universities and institutions, through initiatives such as the Sylvan Adams Sports Science Institute and courses like FACC 501 in the Faculty of Engineering.

During his speech, Chadi, who is on an indefinite hunger strike, highlighted Israel’s targeting of academic infrastructure and students in Gaza.

“McGill university has funded the apartheid state of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people all throughout this genocide,” Chadi said. “It bears responsibility for the destruction of all twelve universities in the Gaza strip, which have been systematically targeted by a settler state. Over 4,326 Palestinian students in higher education, 231 teachers, and 94 professors have been martyred. If we were to dedicate a second for every single one of those students, you would stand silent for an hour and a half.”

Speakers also stressed the interwoven nature of anti-colonial struggles throughout the protest, linking the fight for Palestinian liberation to the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera’s (Mohawk Mothers) ongoing legal battle with McGill and the violence that western powers have instigated globally. 

“At the heart of our movement […] lies a fundamental truth that binds us all. That truth is the interconnectedness of our struggles,” Sage said. “We are not here just as individuals, but as representatives of the myriad of communities to which we each belong. Our fight for Palestine is intrinsically linked to the global struggle against imperialism and colonialism and all forms of oppression that seek to divide us.”

Throughout the die-in, organizers and protesters alike were critical of McGill’s response to the hunger strike and other pro-Palestine mobilization. The university has expressed concern over the health of hunger strikers, but has said that students must go through the official, bureaucratic channels if they wish to change McGill’s policies and investments. McGill has also stated that it will not consider severing ties with academic institutions in Israel. 

Chadi feels that the university’s messaging is contradictory to their actions.

“I think McGill’s unwillingness to discuss [divestment and an academic boycott] shows how blatantly hypocritical they are,” Chadi said in an interview with The Tribune. “They claim inclusion; they claim diversity; they claim freedom; and when the majority of their student body, when faculty and staff bring up something that is very dear and important in the midst of a genocide, when we are talking about where we want our money spent as students, they are shutting it down, and they are not allowing even discussion. At this point we are far beyond discussion; we are at action.”

In an email to The Tribune, the McGill Media Relations Office reaffirmed the university’s respect for “students’ rights to pursue political objectives and express political conviction.” 

”We urge them to do so in a way that prioritizes their health,” the office continued. “We have reminded the students that there is a process in place for expressing their concerns about any investment holding of the university. We have offered more than once to meet with them, but they have refused to meet on the terms proposed.” 

Em Kester, one of the students who participated in the die-in, spoke to the university’s response to pro-Palestine protests in an interview after the die-in. Over the past weeks, McGill has sent multiple university–wide emails telling protesters to respect McGill’s rules and regulations and telling both students and staff that they should avoid engaging with protesters and call security services if they are unable to get into buildings or have classes disrupted.

 Kester condemned McGill’s email communication around protests, calling them “fear-mongering.”

“I am saddened by the culture at McGill, and not supporting this, and not making it a university-wide thing, or even putting out a letter of support to protesters—like an email,” Kester said. “It’s a very conservative university and it makes that known every day.”

Kester also said that McGill has sent them emails saying that protesting could impact their ability to graduate.

“The university is threatening its students for doing a basic act of protesting. And I think that a lot of students are afraid of it,” Kester said.

The university did not respond to The Tribune’s questions about whether participating in on-campus protests may impact students’ graduation. The Media Relations Office did, however, state that it “is actively reviewing evidence and will begin disciplinary proceedings against any McGill students identified as having contravened the Code of Student Conduct, as [its] normal process.” On the evening of March 28, the university announced that it had called the police on protesters, and that at least one arrest “related to campus disruptions” had taken place. According to both the March 28 email and the Media Relations Office, the university plans to press charges.

One student who wished to remain anonymous spoke about the power of collective action in an interview after the protest, encouraging students who feel hopeless to mobilize.

“For people who haven’t been doing this because they feel kinda hopeless about it: When you’re occupying a space that you’re not supposed to occupy because McGill is telling you not to, you feel that power in the steps that you’re taking, and you feel that power in the collectiveness of it all. And these things only work if everybody does it,” they said.

After the die-in, organizers walked some protesters to meet the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera at the site of McGill’s New Vic project, where the Kahnistensera believe there to be unmarked Indigenous graves, while others went to join a SPHR protest taking place by the Milton Gates.

Off the Board, Opinion

In defense of gullibility

by Dana Prather on

More in Off the Board:

I have always been a little too gullible for my own good. From an early age, I internalized the idea that other than injuring someone or hurting their feelings, one of the worst things you could do was lie. Assuming that everyone around me was on the same page, I would nod in wide-eyed wonder as my elementary school classmates regaled me with tales of daring spring break adventures or claims of celebrity bloodlines. I was certain that they must be telling the truth, however fantastical the stories were. Even into junior high, I was quick to believe even the most improbable stories. One classmate managed to convince me that they were family friends with Martha Stewart because of their frequent trips to Martha’s Vineyard. While I eventually put it together that they were lying about the familial connection, it took me a frankly embarrassingly long time (midway through my second year at McGill) to realize that the charming coastal vacation spot was not, in fact, owned by Snoop Dogg’s bestie.   

I was also a very easily distracted kid, getting swept away in daydreams the moment some flower or passing stranger caught my eye. To my parents’ chagrin, this meant that I had a bad habit of wandering off whenever the impulse overtook me, meandering down side streets or off hiking paths wherever we went, with them always anxiously chasing after me. My flightiness has been an equally great source of entertainment for my family as it has a source of stress. The story of the time my six-year-old self strolled into a cruise ship casino and sat under a poker table while on a family reunion has been repeated enough times to make my cheeks burn at the sight of a slot machine. 

My over-trusting nature and penchant for distractibility combine into a formidable pair that has made me the perfect target for pranks, of the April Fools’ variety and otherwise. Whether it’s an elaborate deceit, a corny prank call, or a good old-fashioned whoopee cushion, you can bet that I’ve fallen for it. I once ate the better half of a Stink Bug–flavoured Jelly Bean pack, swallowing my disgust and powering on because a friend had given them to me as a “gift” with a seemingly earnest smile. Even tricks that seem too clichéd for a D-rate buddy comedy have managed to leave me bamboozled. Once, while I was attending a sleepaway camp in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, a camp counselor pointed off into the woods with an exaggerated, “Hey, is that a wolf?” While my bunkmates snickered and rolled their eyes at my obliviousness, I spent a solid two minutes scanning the treeline for the creature before realizing that the counselor had run in the opposite direction, cackling atop a hill while she triumphantly waved my stolen toothpaste above her head.  

For most of my life, my gullibility left me feeling embarrassed and a little stupid. Yet in the past few years, I’ve grown to appreciate the faith I have in other people, even when it’s to a fault. I don’t think I fall for these sorts of pranks and deceits because I’m stupid (at least, not entirely), but because I’d rather believe the people in my life and potentially fall for another prank than let myself become jaded and mistrusting. While I think a healthy amount of scepticism is required to navigate a world replete with misinformation—or avoid getting sucked into a cult—I would rather be overly trusting than overly suspicious of others. So if there’s even a slim possibility that they’re telling the truth, you can bet I’ll still turn and look when a friend takes the time to point out a wolf.

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