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Hockey, Know Your Team, Sports

Know Your Team: McGill Men’s Hockey

On Feb. 20, McGill Redbirds Hockey headed to Kingston to play a second game against the Queen’s University Gaels in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East Quarter-finals. Centre William Rouleau, U3 Management, scored first, giving McGill a temporary lead in the third period. The game would go to overtime following a Gaels equalizer, ultimately ending in a 2-1 loss for the Redbirds. Still, Rouleau highlighted that playing for McGill has been a privilege.

“It’s reminding ourselves that we play hockey for moments like these, that pressure is a privilege and [that] we have a chance to accomplish something great,” Rouleau said in an interview with The Tribune.

Forward Alexandre Gagnon, MA Kinesiology, is among the five players on the team expected to graduate this year. As team captain, he mentioned his efforts in being a role model for the team’s underclassmen.

“My role is really to use my experience to guide the younger players, help them understand what’s coming and how the playoffs unfold, and how important every game is,” the Ottawa Senators fan said. “But I’m not alone in that process, we have a great group of guys with strong leadership and even younger guys […] that contribute to keeping good vibes and a good morale.”

After their first game against the Gaels on Feb. 18, where McGill lost 6-2, defenseman Nicolas Pavan, U3 Education, reflected on how the team could improve moving forward.

“On their side, they played well defensively, they just got the puck out really fast and they were able to chip pucks out into the neutral zone,” Pavan said. “It’s the next [shift] that counts. You can’t do anything about the last one, and you just got to play the next one.”

Forward Patrick Larkin, U3 Arts, highlighted that being there for the team means bringing positive energy into the locker room and the arena.

“For me, just being vocal, energetic, and happy in the room, that’s one of my biggest attributes in every team that I’ve played on,” Larkin said. “When you get to playoff hockey, it’s very much a selfless game. 

It needs to be based on everyone coming together.”

In the second game against the Gaels, goaltender Nicolas Ruccia, U0 Continuing Studies, saved an impressive 41 of 43 shots. Ruccia pointed out that the players have a strong connection with each other on and off the ice, which is definitely a factor in their performance.

“A huge part of hockey is momentum and in a game, both teams are going to have their moments,” Ruccia said. “On the ice, the key for us is just managing the pressure and working collectively in those moments. Off the ice, we have really solid leadership and gel between us all, and that tightness will definitely help in those moments.”

Off the ice, the Redbirds players train with Redbirds Alum and Varsity Strength & Conditioning Coach Neal Prokop. In a written statement to The Tribune, Prokop highlighted the intensity of playoff hockey.

“A trip to the OUA finals will mean the potential of playing nine high-intensity games in 19 days,” Prokop said. “We can’t forget the athletes will still be practicing, travelling on a bus, taking full courseloads, and preparing for exams alongside their classmates [….] Thus the off-ice routine during playoffs is very dependent on how a series goes, and how the athletes feel.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Head Coach David Urquhart reaffirmed that this year’s team players are all self-motivated, and that it has been a pleasure to coach them.

“We have veteran leadership within the group that has been in these tough situations before and been able to come out the other side,” Urquhart said. “[We relied] heavily on them within the games to take control of the morale in the locker room and the effort and execution on the ice [….] I definitely would be picking our team if I had to pick any team to coach.”

As the Redbirds’ 149th campaign comes to an end, non-graduating players will continue to train during the off-season, preparing for the 150th anniversary season that will start in October 2026.

Behind the Bench, Sports

From Montreal to Milano Cortina: McGillians at the Olympics

This year, over two dozen McGillians took part in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy. Current McGill students and staff were among the athletes, coaches, officials, and media professionals shaping the Games both on and off the ice.  

One of the most high-profile figures is Lilah Fear, a 2023 Arts graduate who held the rare role of Olympic flag bearer, marking the fourth McGillian in history to receive that honour. Fear represented Great Britain in ice dancing alongside partner Lewis Gibson, performing a rhythm dance on Feb. 9 and the free dance final on Feb. 11.

Also competing was Kayla Tutino, known to many McGill students from her time as associate women’s hockey coach from 2022 to 2024. Tutino suited up for Italy’s women’s hockey team and made her mark by scoring Italy’s first goal of the tournament in a 4-1 victory over France

Five coaches and technical staff also carried the school’s legacy into the Olympics. Among them were multiple figures with ties to hockey, including assistant coach Alexandre Tremblay and goalkeeping coach Karel St-Laurent—both alumni of McGill’s hockey program—who worked with the Italian women’s team. Mikael Nahabedian, a former McGill Martlets video technician, also served as the team’s video coach.

Meanwhile, McGill also had a connection with Jamie Kompon, (BEd ‘87), the assistant coach of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Florida Panthers who is now supporting the German Olympic team, and Stephen Gough (BA ‘98, LLB ‘08), a former Canadian Olympian who served as the head coach for the U.S. short-track speed skating team

Additionally, this Olympics featured nine McGill alumni working in administration and official capacities, including Richard Pound (BCom ‘62, BCL ‘67), an International Olympic Committee member and former McGill varsity swimmer who competed at the 1960 Rome Olympics himself. On the organizational front, Canada’s presence at the games was bolstered by McGill graduates such as Jennifer Heil (BCom ‘13), a former Olympic champion who served as chef de mission for the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), and Marie-Andrée Lessard (BCom ‘01), who served as the COC’s senior director of Games. Others include Eric Myles (EMBA ‘11), the COC’s chief sport officer, Claire Carver-Dias (BA ‘01), a former Olympic bronze medalist now in COC operations, and Manny Almela (BA ‘99), guiding press operations at the Games. 

Five of the Games’ medical professionals also have ties to the university, including physicians from the McGill Sport Medicine Clinic and specialists like Robert Foxford, who was attending his sixth Olympics as a sports medicine physician. Additionally, five alumni served in media roles, including former National Football League (NFL) player Laurent Duvernay-Tardif covering events for Radio-Canada, and Jennifer Lorentz (BA ‘01), a graphic designer with NBC Sports on her eighth Olympic assignment. 

McGill’s connection to the Olympics stretches back more than a century. Since the first McGillian appeared at the 1904 Olympics, alumni have accumulated 34 Olympic medals, and several have carried national flags at opening ceremonies. Yet this historic legacy may face an uncertain future. In late 2025, McGill announced sweeping cuts to its varsity and club sports portfolio, eliminating 25 teams and clubs across a range of sports, including track and field, rugby, badminton, and Nordic skiing. The decision sparked considerable backlash from athletes, alumni, and much of the student body. 

Without certain varsity sports, future generations of McGillians may have fewer opportunities to train, compete, and pursue Olympic-level achievement. Phil Edwards, a former McGill track athlete who won five Olympic bronze medals between 1928 and 1936, developed his skills at McGill and later became the most decorated alumnus at the Olympics for several years. Edwards is just one of the many talented alumni who shone at the Olympics, who may not have achieved the same success without the opportunities and training McGill provided. With vast cuts to varsity teams within the McGill community, the university is clipping the wings of many athletes who may have had the potential to flourish as these Olympians have. As McGill diminishes its athletic scope, its presence at the Olympics will surely follow.  

Off the Board, Opinion

Against reducing, reusing, and recycling

As a full-time English Literature student and part-time movie-watcher, one of my greatest pleasures is building a mental web of intertextuality: The way texts are influenced by, adapted from, or allude to previous texts. Canonical works such as the Bible, Greek and Roman classics, and Shakespearean plays have long served as the foundations of or inspirations for works across literature and film. 

Milton’s Paradise Lost and Steinbeck’s East of Eden radically reimagine stories from the Book of Genesis. Carson’s Autobiography of Red draws from and gives new life to fragments of the lyric poet Stesichorus’s Geryoneis. My Own Private Idaho, The Lion King, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and countless other seemingly modern tales imaginatively retell or rework Shakespeare’s plays, themselves retellings of older stories. What makes adaptations like these work is that they believe in the works they are drawing from while establishing their own unique vision.

Walking into Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation last week, I certainly was not expecting anything near Paradise Lost’s level of innovation and depth. Somehow, it still managed to disappoint. 

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about obsession, rage, revenge, cruelty, and abuse. It’s about the class resentment and racial anxieties of the 19th-century British Empire. It grabs hold of its reader and doesn’t let them go. It does not invite the reader to mourn; it demands that we sit with our discomfort. 

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights saps the novel of all this substance, flattening it into a glossy, Romeo and Juliet-esque tragedy marketed as “the greatest love story of all time.” The novel, on the other hand, actually only grants about a third of its narrative space to Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship, focusing primarily on cycles of violence and abuse. Heathcliff is a victim of brutality and of racial Othering, but our readerly empathy for these struggles is stretched and challenged as he perpetuates calculated violence against other characters. Casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and framing his character as a sardonic and misunderstood dreamboat instead of a complex, tormented, terrifying figure goes beyond mere divergence from the source material: It squashes any possibility of transmitting the novel’s thoughtful commentary on social dynamics in 19th-century England. What the film lacks in real nuance it attempts to make up for in shock value and aesthetics, yet it ends up falling short of any meaningful intervention, entirely out of touch with what makes its source material so compelling. 

What stuck out most to me, though, was that I couldn’t even enjoy criticizing the film because it isn’t an isolated failure. The film is symptomatic of a much larger, disappointing cultural trend: Reliance on the profitability of nostalgia at the expense of originality and creativity. Studios greenlight lacklustre sequels and adaptations because they perform predictably and consistently well at the box office. Despite mixed reviews and criticism, Wuthering Heights is still the highest-grossing title of the year so far, bringing in $83 million USD at the global box office on opening weekend. 

Clearly, though, despite the prevalence of adaptations like //Wuthering Heights//, there remains a strong cultural desire for original and innovative works. The massive commercial success and critical acclaim of recent films such as Everything Everywhere All at Once and Sinners prove as much. Even so, these original works don’t stand entirely alone. Everything Everywhere All at Once began as Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s response to The Matrix but draws in allusions to other director styles and films, from Wong Kar-Wai to Princess Mononoke. Sinners reinvents the vampire genre and deepens familiar character archetypes and dynamics through the dimensions of race, religion, and class. 

Creation always comes from a vast and interconnected web of inspirations. The parameters for good retelling, then, are not so different from the parameters for good art in general. For an adaptation to work, it must both believe in the works it’s drawing from while establishing its own unique vision. All works should contribute to this conversation across time, as this connection is what allows art to deepen its individual and interwoven meanings instead of being watered down. 

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Players’ Theatre’s ‘The One Act Play That Goes Wrong’ is its worst play yet

“I didn’t know this was supposed to be bad,”—I overheard the audience member next to me whisper. This sentence perfectly encapsulates the theatrical genius of Players’ Theatre’s newest play, The One Act Play That Goes Wrong, which ran from Feb. 17 to Feb 20. Originally written by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer, Odessa Rontogiannis, U3 Arts, directed the Players’ Theatre adaptation, delivering just what was needed: The worst play ever, in the best way possible.

The production is meant to confuse the audience. In The Murder at Haversham Manor, a play-within-a-play, spectators watch as the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society puts on a whodunnit mystery revolving around the death of Charles Haversham (Luca McAndrew, U1 ArtSci), as the actors attempt to keep the show from falling apart. Some scenes came out more cohesive than others, but the bad ones were particularly hilarious, with every actor scrambling to disguise forgotten lines, broken props, and wrong cues, all while navigating the two plotlines unfolding on stage.

One thing is certain: The casting was flawless. Each cast member was able to fully embody their character while simultaneously portraying an actor who is trying to. Shea McDonnell, U2 Arts, exemplified the tension of a confused co-star playing an authoritative figure, while Lauren Hodgins, U2 Arts, personified rivalrous envy on stage. Gemma Martin, U1 Arts, epitomized the timidity of a typical stage manager: Her flat acting and awkward hesitations blurred the line between the performer and the character.

Just when the scene starts turning stale, the unexpected happens: McAndrew, with his explosive acting, bursts onto the stage at the wrong time. The set falls apart, with the stage manager rushing in to hold everything together. The PA system announces that a Duran Duran CD box has been found. The set plunges into total chaos. The cast runs out of breath as they reenact the same scene for the fourth time, each repetition an escalation in absurdity and disorder.

From lights on to curtain call, the production team deserves praise for being perfectly imperfect. There was a meticulous amount of confusion with the lights, the announcements, and the endless repetition of  Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. The technical ‘mistakes’ were executed with careful control, making the audience question whether a malfunction was truly a malfunction or a part of the script. We’ll never truly know—but we don’t need to.

Even the props deserve acknowledgement—or criticism. The production felt as if the Players’ Theatre’s budget was burnt through: Uneven papers cut into circles served as snowballs, and were later reused as blood after being coloured red. But the play’s true comedy lies in the discomfort it feeds to the audience—another skillful choice. Meanwhile, Inspector Carter’s costume design, along with the most enthusiastic acting by Naomi Decker, MA in English, created a character that many audience members will never forget.

Ultimately, The One Act Play that Goes Wrong succeeds because it invites the audience to simply let go of perfection—of expectation, of interpretation, and of true meaning. For an hour, we were able to kick back and enjoy the banter between Bennett Samberg, U3 Arts, and Elias Luz, U1 Arts, who played Perkins and Cecil. For an hour, we were not expected to decode hidden symbolisms behind sophisticated acting or follow intricate plot twists. This production demonstrates that the joy of theatre lies not in polished perfection, but in the chaotic process of figuring it out.

By the time McAndrew utters their final line in the play, the audience is sure of one thing—the play was supposed to be bad. Disaster is the design, and its utter mediocrity is key to its humorous delivery. Rontogiannis successfully created a space where her actors and staff could use the stage as a creative outlet, and in the process, spark ripples of laughter through the crowd.

Cast member Shea McDonnell is a Staff Writer at The Tribune and was not involved in the publication of this article.

Features

The politics of protection

On Nov. 6, 2025, Quebec Minister of Immigration Jean-François Roberge abolished the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), a program designed to help foreign students and workers obtain Canadian citizenship. This abolition erases the progress of those in this program, forcing them to seek different paths to citizenship. This measure is one of many that the government of Quebec has implemented in recent years to limit migration to the province, reflecting a broader trend throughout Canada to lock down on immigration while completely uprooting thousands of migrants’ lives. 

Over the past sixty years, controversy around immigration in the political realm continues to increase dramatically. In 1971, Canada announced its commitment to multiculturalism; in 1972, Richard Swanson was celebrated as the 10 millionth immigrant since confederation. Economically, immigration was applauded and appreciated, but in the early 1980s, migration entered Western politics as a highly debated issue following increasing worries with work and housing insecurity. As a result, politicians in election season focused on appeasing their electorate rather than on undocumented immigrants, who are unable to vote. 

Professor Emeritus in McGill’s Faculty of Law, François Crépeau, who specializes in migration and human rights law, explained the politics of migration in an interview with //The Tribune//. He described migration as an example of a ‘permacrisis,’ or a “long period of great difficulty, confusion, or suffering that seems to have no end,” arguing that political discourse around migration is often merely symbolic. 

“Many immigration-related measures are essentially a discourse towards citizens,” Crépeau said. “If you increase deportations, it’s to tell the citizens, ‘Look, I’m protecting you better.’ At the same time, you’re spending a lot of taxpayers’ dollars, and you have to justify it. So you have to amplify the risk that those migrants are posing to society, and that’s why the discourse about the permacrisis is constantly amplified.” 

One such example of this type of discourse came in 2012, when Canada altered its punitive measures for migrant smuggling. The law now mandates a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment for bringing one migrant illegally, the same punishment as for sexual assault with a weapon. The punishment for bringing 10 or more people into Canada illegally is prison for life—the equivalent of a crime against humanity. 

“The penalties that were decided by the Canadian government at that time were not designed to be implemented,” Crépeau said. “They were designed to send a message to the migrants, but most importantly, to the electorate. ‘Look how tough we are on crime.’” 

Crépeau continued, explaining the myriad of mechanisms that can be invoked to avoid detention and deportation. He listed, “Bail, guarantors, house arrests, ankle bracelets, being housed with community organizations, reporting to the police every day or every week.” These alternatives have been called for by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) for nearly 30 years, but they do not exist in immigration law. Rather, governments focus on punishments that bring electoral reward. Not only is the political display of detention an attempt at demonstrating heightened security measures, but the detention centres themselves simultaneously create jobs in, for example, construction work, management, and security. This is the core of the permacrisis: Politicians neglecting immigrants in order to appease the electorate. 

“Most [migrants] are totally innocuous. They have a job. They’re solidly citizens in all aspects except their papers. As long as we don’t recognize that, well, our politicians are going to continue to peddle this idea that these are dangerous people and we need to take very harsh measures like deportation and detention to get rid of them or protect the citizenry from them,” Crépeau said. 

In 2025 alone, Canada deported nearly 19,000 people—a sharp increase since 2022, when around 8,000 deportations occurred. Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), a Montreal-based migrant justice network, has organized to confront Canada’s unjust immigration system since 2003. Shi Tao Zhang, a representative from SAB, spoke with //The Tribune// on the years-long injustices migrants have faced in Canada. 

“Canadian Border Services Agency [CBSA] have yearly quotas of deportation and […] they’ve increased their goal by 25 per cent for this fiscal year as compared to last year, which is very worrying to me personally, because I feel like they’re just treating human beings like numbers,” Zhang described. “At the end of the fiscal year to meet their quota, they’ll often ramp up deportation.” 

Canada continues to deport and detain systematically in the name of political discourse and electoral reward, while thousands of migrants’ lives are violently uprooted. 

//THE LEGAL BLACK HOLE OF DETENTION//

The basic human dignity afforded to all citizens under due process is not extended to migrants, placing them in a vulnerable space where detention sentences are irresolute and lives often unravel. 

“When you’re in detention, your entire life stops. You become isolated from your family. You become isolated from everything. People lose essential pieces of their lives, people lose their jobs, people lose their housing and become homeless,” Zhang said.

Unlike jails or prisons, immigration detention is not formally punitive, but rather categorized as ‘administrative.’ Thus, it functions as a bureaucratic measure used to ensure removal, confirm identity, or address what authorities describe as a flight risk. Because it is not a criminal sentence, detainees are not serving time for an offence. Many have not been charged with any crime at all. While international human rights law outlines general protections for detained individuals, immigration detention operates in a grey zone. There is no fixed sentence, no guaranteed release date, and no trial determining guilt or innocence. 

In Canada, detainees are subject to periodic detention reviews, but release is never guaranteed. If the CBSA argues that an individual is unlikely to appear for removal or poses a security concern, detention can continue for months or even years. 

“You have international law about the rules for detention to respect the dignity of [prisoners]. They’re detained, but they’re not deprived of dignity. That doesn’t apply to detention centres, because this is administrative detention,” Crépeau explained. “It’s not a pre-trial detention or post-trial detention [….] They stay in detention for months or years on end, without any trial of any kind. And there’s no rule applying to that.” 

As a result, the living conditions within these centres cannot be tracked. Even after release, migrants often remain undocumented, with any brutality witnessed inside the centres going unreported out of fear. Oversight mechanisms are limited, and because detention is administrative rather than criminal, it falls outside many of the reporting systems that govern prisons. Advocates argue that this opacity makes it difficult to track use of force, medical neglect, or prolonged confinement. Upon release, many migrants return to legal limbo: Unable to work, access housing, or report mistreatment without risking further scrutiny. 

While much of the public scrutiny surrounding immigration detention has focused on the U.S., where footage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and overcrowded facilities circulate widely online, many Canadian advocates caution that this brutality is not a unique issue to the U.S. According to SAB, detainees across centres in Canada have described prolonged confinement with limited access to basic hygiene supplies, inconsistent medical attention, and restricted outdoor time. 

“Because what ICE is doing is overtly brutal and deliberately cruel, it’s attracting a lot of attention because it’s being filmed and disseminated online. But I think what Canadians don’t realize […] is CBSA is perpetrating the same types of violence on migrants here, but in silence, so no one really knows. They break into people’s rooms at night, they laugh at the children whose parents were arrested and make them cry,” Zhang said. 

Just north of Montreal, the Laval Immigration Holding Centre houses individuals awaiting deportation. The centre operates within a distinct oversight structure, and much of its day-to-day management is contracted to private security—a practice that tends to diffuse responsibility. Beyond the concern of what happens inside the facility, very little of its operations are visible to the broader public, and many detainees’ stories are only heard because of activist groups like SAB that communicate with detainees regularly. 

“It’s this regime of administrative detention that’s separate from the usual […] carceral system, because in administrative detention, they can technically keep you inside for as long as they want to,” Zhang said. “Unless you have a competent lawyer who intervenes, it’s usually very, very difficult, […] it’s kind of like a black hole.” 

//OUTSOURCING ACCOUNTABILITY //

As migration has increasingly been framed as a security concern rather than a humanitarian or administrative one, its enforcement expands beyond the CBSA, seeping into cities. Zhang described the key role the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) has played in advancing detention and deportation, noting that even though Montreal became a sanctuary city in 2017—theoretically meaning that the SPVM is no longer supposed to collaborate with CBSA—both institutions still work closely together. 

“In 2023, there were around 1,000 calls made from the SPVM to CBSA in terms of flagging or checking legal status,” Zhang explained. “There is something specific with the way the SPVM operates with CBSA with racial profiling [….] It is obviously more likely for someone who’s racialized to get stopped.” 

Photojournalist William Wilson has reported on SPVM brutality at protests for nearly 10 years and spoke with //The Tribune// about how SPVM attitudes have changed towards the public in the past decade. 

“Nowadays, the police are so intensely intimidating people [….] And that’s new. That’s totally new,” Wilson said. “10 years ago, they used to stay at a distance until the march got moving in the streets. But nowadays, it is just like they’re breathing down their neck the second they arrive.” 

While public police remain central to interior enforcement, migration control is increasingly intertwined with private security actors operating under government contract. Specifically, there has recently been public outcry over Canada’s involvement in U.S. deportation centres, with many protesting and signing petitions against the Montreal-based security company, GardaWorld. Despite the company’s leverage within American detention systems, it is a recent recipient of over $100 million CAD in Canadian government contracts since Mark Carney stepped in as prime minister.

GardaWorld has security guards in detention centres across Canada, including at the Laval Immigration Holding Centre, as well as throughout some of the more controversial detention centres in the U.S. One such example is the South Florida Detention Facility, infamously nicknamed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ given its location situated amidst a moat of alligators. 

Because private security firms operate under contractual agreements rather than public policing mandates, oversight mechanisms differ. Complaints processes, transparency requirements, and reporting obligations are often less visible to the public. 

“[Security contractors] have a key advantage. The supervision of their activities is much more difficult, as long as you have the military or the police, but you have oversight mechanisms, public oversight mechanisms that will report on what errors have been made and who did what [and] when, and you will get to the bottom of the thing,” Crépeau explained. “[With private security], it’s not done outside. It’s done inside […] where you have no journalists, no NGOs, no oversight mechanism.” 

The normalization of private security extends beyond detention infrastructure, as Montreal institutions increasingly rely on contracted security personnel to manage protests and campus unrest. GardaWorld manages security at 50 per cent of Canada’s airports and works with universities, maintaining a contractual relationship with McGill itself from Aug. 26, 2024, through April 30, 2027. As of 2024, Garda is McGill’s only private security, although they also hired Sirco in 2024 to dismantle the pro-Palestine encampment

Around the same time, Wilson covered a pro-Palestine protest on McGill’s campus and described the tactics used by the private security that day. He showed a video someone had filmed of him at the rally—10 or so guards completely surrounded him, with their shields, face coverings, and various intimidation tactics, while Wilson stood engulfed, holding his camera and yelling, “I’m a journalist.” 

“They started beating the shit out of people, and I was screaming at them, ‘I can’t move, I can’t move. I have nowhere to go,’” Wilson recounted. “That was the biggest security operation I’ve seen [McGill] do. They must have hired at least 100 people just that day.” 

This expansion reflects a broader cultural shift in which private security personnel assume roles once associated primarily with public police, often with fewer transparency requirements, and as oversight mechanisms struggle to keep pace, the expansion of private security reveals the deeper transformation in how migration—and public order—are governed and surveilled. 

//THE HUMAN COST OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE //

Throughout debates on migration, the language of security has become increasingly dominant and invoked to justify border closures, the expansion of policing, and administrative detention. When migrants are cast as risks to be managed, enforcement measures can expand with limited public scrutiny; policies framed as procedural or preventative often carry deeply personal consequences. 

The validation of detention and deportation perpetuates the narrative that migrants are dangerous. Consequently, security frameworks surrounding the measures become normalized and embedded into public life. With the abolition of the PEQ and other measures like it, jobs are lost, families are separated, and lives are suspended in uncertainty. If the issue of migration begins as discourse, its consequences reverberate far beyond policy. 

News, SSMU

SSMU LC discusses fee renewals, McLennan library, and DriveSafe

The Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) Legislative Council (LC) convened for the third time this semester on Thursday, Feb. 12, beginning with an introduction of the new recording secretary, Alissa Gharzouzi.

Vice-President (VP) Clubs and Services Hamza Abu Alkhair then proposed an amendment to the agenda, seeking to advance three motions moved by the Student Group Committee regarding group fees to the top, which were approved unanimously. Two motions regarded the World University Service of Canada (WUSC) Student Refugee Program fee, while the other pertained to the SSMU ECOLE Project fee, and all were passed after discussion. 

The minutes from the Jan. 29 council meeting were then approved unanimously with no changes or amendments. This was followed by a report from the Steering Committee.

The announcement period followed, during which VP University Affairs Susan Aloudat gave an update on McLennan Library’s sixth floor.

“I am so happy to announce that the sixth floor of McLennan no longer has a mold problem, and that means that the new reflection zone is officially open,” Aloudat said. “It’s a space specifically for quiet meditation. I really encourage everyone to check it out, it’s a very unique space that no other library has, and I’m so glad it’s finally available.”

President Dymetri Taylor then delivered the executive reports, followed by VP Finance Jean-Sébastien Leger. Reports by councillors came next, with those from the Medical (MSS), Nursing (NUS), and Education (EdUS) undergraduate societies providing updates on their respective responsibilities. 

Next, Taylor moved a motion regarding the renewal of the McGill Writing Centre fee. He then put forward three more motions pertaining to the Student Services Ancillary Fee, a referendum question on the renewal of the University Centre fee, and the Anti-Violence Fee, all of which passed unanimously. 

The Steering Committee’s motion to update the Standing Rules for the 2025-2026 SSMU Legislative Council was then passed unanimously, followed by a motion moved by VP External Seraphina Crema-Black to increase the SSMU Food Bank Fee by $1 CAD.

“At present, we restock the food pantry twice a week, and everything is gone in the 30 minutes after we restock it. So, obviously there’s […] high demand,” Crema-Black said. “We have been expanding it to a full-on food bank as opposed to a food pantry, so we need more money so that we can stock a food bank as it should be stocked.” 

After a brief recess, the council unanimously passed the last motion on the agenda regarding the SSMU Daycare fee, moved by Abu Alkhair.

The discussion period concluded the meeting, with Taylor introducing a plebiscite period where students could voice their opinions on the quorum for strikes.

“Right now it’s just 10 per cent of the students [who] need to participate in a vote to ratify it, going forward the question is […] particularly for student strikes, whether that should be increased to 50, 40, 30, 20 or 15 per cent to determine is there a certain amount of students that we need a threshold of to actually go on strike,” Taylor said.

Moment of the Meeting: 

The discussion session’s second item concerned DriveSafe’s inoperable phone number last Friday. The mistake is being investigated to determine how the error occurred and to ensure it is not repeated.  

Soundbite: 

“Last Friday, there was a Valentine’s Ball that was occurring at the University Centre. During this time, there was […] an incident that often comes up when alcohol is involved unfortunately, to which Drivesafe was called to transport the individual home. However, the phone number unfortunately did not work, instead routed to a number in Montreal […] to a gentleman who stated that he was very much not DriveSafe, […] and would not be giving anyone rides.”—Dymetri Taylor.

News

McGill Senate confronts the rise of AI and undergraduate enrolment pressures

On Feb. 11, the McGill Senate convened for its sixth meeting of the academic year. The senators discussed the Accountability and Implementation of the Policy of Assessment of Student Learning, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a broad university context, the proposed strategic plan on undergraduate enrolment and engagement, and the annual report on the Charter of Students’ Rights and Student Life and Learning

The meeting commenced with three memorial tributes to late Associate Professor David Shannon of the Faculty of Medicine, Associate Professor Richard Hovey of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Science, and Professor Rachelle Keyserlingk of the Faculty of Education. 

McGill’s President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini went on to share brief updates regarding international partnerships and university accomplishments. He noted that the Quebec National Assembly has resumed session, drawing attention to Bill 1, which aims to strengthen parliamentary sovereignty and could constrain certain legal challenges to provincial laws. He emphasized that academic freedom at the university level must remain protected. Saini also referenced Bill 9, which concerns secularism, expressing concern about its implications for teaching and campus life. He stressed that any legislative changes must preserve student autonomy and agency.

Turning to international initiatives, Saini highlighted McGill’s expanding global ties. During the 2026 World Governments Summit in Dubai, McGill signed a memorandum of understanding with the Khalifa Foundation to establish the United Arab Emirates-Indonesia Future Major Leaders program, with a donation from the foundation amounting to $17.5 million CAD. The initiative is built on more than 50 years of McGill’s collaboration with Indonesian education sectors and will focus on giving meaningful benefits to Indonesian students, educators, and institutions, while simultaneously providing support in areas of sustainability, engineering, and health care. 

Saini concluded by celebrating McGill’s recent accomplishments. The university ranked in the global top three in 10 of 11 subject areas in the latest Times Higher Education subject rankings, with particularly strong performances in medical and health sciences, law, psychology, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Saini thanked the university community for their contributions to this achievement. He also wished luck to McGill athletes, coaches, and staff participating in the ongoing Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics

The Senate moved to discuss the Accountability and Implementation of the Policy of Assessment of Student Learning, with senators reflecting on its rollout and areas for improvement. The policy is intended to provide a framework for assessment practices at McGill, aiming to advance student learning and well-being, support course instructors, and promote equity. 

Senator Meghan Lai opened the discussion by expressing gratitude for the work completed thus far. She then posed questions about next steps for resource engagement and stakeholder consultation. 

In response, Senator Jérôme Fortier pointed to the early successes of the policy’s implementation.

“I think the success of the implementation was the willingness and openness to look at assessments a little bit differently,” Fortier said. “Through that principle-based approach […] there were many practices done very well over the years, but the policy actually didn’t reflect the pedagogical value of some of those practices.” 

He further acknowledged ongoing challenges, particularly in developing effective rubrics and area-specific assessment frameworks. 

“I think the biggest [challenge] was this question of rubrics, or how to support instructors in providing clear expectations for every assessment,” Fortier explained. “That’s not the practice of many parts of the university, and for some disciplines, it actually can be quite challenging to create a rubric that would really reflect the right way to assess on a certain task.” 

Fortier concluded by highlighting the value of individual consultation and faculty drop-in sessions. He emphasized their focus on supporting instructors in developing courses using various pedagogical practices, and warned of potential difficulties in monitoring the policy going forward. 

“It’s difficult to encourage change months or even a year ahead of when a course is delivered. So, in many cases, in an ideal world, all [learning] policies, when they’re adopted, they’re implemented right away. This was unique in having this long window of implementation, but it is difficult to plan that far ahead in many cases.”

Next, the Senate turned to an open discussion on the use of AI at McGill. 

Framing the conversation, Associate Professor Christopher Buddle of the Department of Natural Resource Sciences emphasized that while he is not an expert in AI, the unprecedented speed of advancement in generative AI is a cause for concern. He described generative AI as a tool capable of producing text, code, and other outputs in response to prompts, noting that debates surrounding AI sit within a broader academic, governmental, and ethical ecosystem. 

“Artificial Intelligence is not new to universities. AI [has] been used for decades, but what’s new is its visibility, accessibility, and the speed of the tools,” Buddle stated. 

Senators then broke into 10 discussion groups before reconvening to share key points. 

Across groups, senators identified potential academic benefits of AI, including its ability to aid research, support students with learning differences, assist with coding and industry workflows, and help students develop skills in evaluating AI-generated outputs. Several noted that familiarity with generative AI will likely soon be expected in many professions.

Concerns about academic integrity and authorship were also prominent. Senators raised questions about how to assess originality, how to recognize AI-assisted work, and how grading practices may need to adapt. Some emphasized transparency and traceability as guiding principles, while others suggested developing a values-driven policy rather than rigid rules, given the rapidly evolving nature of the technology. Senators also raised environmental concerns, noting the high energy and water demands associated with AI systems.

“AI can support tutoring, drafting notes for studying, language support, accessibility, inclusion, research acceleration, and administrative efficiency,” Buddle stated. “Some of the challenges [concern] academic integrity. Who is the author? It’s the classic kind of question that could be important in high ed[ucation]. It’s been an important question for a long time, but again, that question has been accelerated.” 

Several groups stressed the importance of faculty training and institutional clarity, such as creating an endorsed list of AI tools, integrating guidance into course syllabi, and providing education on safe and responsible AI use. Others emphasized that norms will emerge through practice and that flexibility will be necessary.

The discussion concluded with broad agreement that AI will shape the future of teaching and learning at McGill, though senators differed on what university policy will consist of and how it will be implemented. 

The Senate then turned to discuss the proposed 2026-2030 Strategic Plan for Undergraduate Student Enrolment, led by Senator Angela Campbell

The plan outlines four major priorities for guiding the university’s requirement mission: Transform, expand globally, anchor locally, and unite. The aim is to move beyond admissions numbers to consider access, engagement, and long-term student outcomes. Campbell emphasized coordinated efforts between central admissions and faculties, aiming to create an ‘end-to-end’—from recruitment to graduation—student experience while carefully shaping the composition of the student body. 

“It’s not just the number of students that we’re thinking about when we recruit and admit students, but we’re thinking about the composition of our student demography, where we’re recruiting from, and how we are admitting our students,” Campbell said. 

But enrollment is also tied to budgeting. Engineering and Commerce have seen significant growth, yet course capacity is strained. Senator Jan Kopyscinski warned that Engineering admissions may be too high, citing limited lab space. Senator Chloé Muñoz described overcrowded lecture halls, with students sitting on floors, and raised concerns about housing shortages and retention. Campbell acknowledged that other departments face similar pressures, especially during the add-drop period.

Timing also matters. If admissions offers go out too late—as Senator Elham Emami noted—McGill risks losing students to faster-moving universities. Ultimately, Campbell stressed that the goal is to “get the target right” by encouraging redistribution, relieving pressure on oversubscribed programs, and planning growth sustainably.

Lastly, the Senate briefly reviewed the Annual Report of the Advisory Council on the Charter of Students’ Rights, presented by Associate Professor and Interim Dean of the Faculty of Law Tina Piper for information, before moving to the Annual Report on Student Life and Learning. 

Professor Anthony Mittermaier, who assumed the role of Interim Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) just last week, highlighted key achievements from 2024-2025, including the expanded use of preferred names and pronouns, an orientation welcoming over 7000 students, upgraded digital systems, and the administration of a revised Student Code of Conduct. The Student Wellness Hub also served more than 5,000 students, with expanded support for Jewish, Muslim, 2SLGBTQIA+, Black, and Indigenous students.

Moment of the Meeting:

Saini remarked that the flag would be lowered for the lives lost in a recent mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, and shared his condolences in response to the senseless act of violence.  

Soundbite

“AI does not simply change how work is done. It also raises questions about what institutions value, how learning is assessed, and how responsibility and accountability are distributed. So, it matters at McGill a great deal.”— Christopher Buddle.  

A previous version of this article stated that McGill’s 2024-2025 orientation welcomed over 700 students. In fact, the orientation welcomed over 7000. The Tribune regrets this error.

Editorial, Opinion

Canada’s AI strategy risks further propagating anti-Black racism

In September 2025, Minister of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon created the federal AI Strategy Task Force to provide recommendations on the role of AI in Canadian economic and social life. The Task Force conducted an extensive consultation of over 11,300 industry leaders, academic researchers, and civil society stakeholders to inform the government’s AI strategy, with particular emphasis on ethical research, transparent regulation, sovereign infrastructure, AI literacy, and security safeguards.

Yet, its composition and policy vision contain a critical failure: By excluding meaningful Black representation and refusing to directly confront how AI systems reproduce anti-Black racism, the Task Force has condoned and enabled racial harm across the infrastructures that AI is being built to govern.

On paper, the Task Force presented itself as a conglomerate of expert opinion and guidance, a time-limited advisory body assembled to generate ‘actionable’ recommendations on Canada’s AI development, governance, and usage. Beneath this consultative framing, however, is a structural absence of racial equity. 60 Black Canadian scholars have publicly cited underrepresentation on the Task Force. No sector is dedicated to equity in AI, and when the issue of equity does appear, it typically refers to equity of access rather than ensuring that these AI tools function equitably. In an open letter to Minister Solomon, over 40 groups and more than 100 individuals expressed concern regarding the AI strategy’s potential to automate anti-Black racism into decision-making tools used by the government, public sector, and private industry alike. By downplaying regulatory safeguards, the strategy prioritizes commercialization and global competitiveness, reflecting a preference for economic advancement over harm prevention.

AI systems already produce racial disparities in policing, immigration, facial recognition, hiring, loan rates, and health care allocation. These outcomes reflect the absence of marginalized voices within the designs of these systems and their strategies. Workforce exclusion intensifies this as Black workers remain overrepresented in sectors most vulnerable to automation whilst underrepresented in the industries designing these systems, further widening racial wealth and labour gaps.

AI’s capacity to reinforce systemic discrimination is a product of its design; bound by the data it is trained on, AI replicates the discriminatory nature of its inputs and is unable to self-correct. An MIT study on facial recognition found near-perfect accuracy for light-skinned men but error rates exceeding 34 per cent for dark-skinned women, reflecting the lack of diversity and representation within the training datasets for such software.

Studies on large language models reveal similar dynamics: Prompts such as “Black people are ___” generate disproportionately negative traits and associations. Though overtly racist outputs have declined through corporate filtering, covert bias persists, with software assigning lower-paying jobs, harsher criminal outcomes, and deficit-based characterizations to Black individuals. Without representative development teams, transparent datasets, and continuous auditing, AI systems risk formalizing anti-Black racism within the infrastructures governing social and institutional life.

Generative AI also has significant environmental implications. Data centres require immense energy consumption, water extraction for cooling, and the mining of minerals that drive ecosystem degradation and produce major carbon emissions. As these facilities proliferate, their environmental burdens are unevenly distributed. Environmental racism scholarship has long documented how polluting infrastructure is disproportionately placed in marginalized communities.

This pattern is visible on a global scale, from contaminated water crises in predominantly Black municipalities to the concentration of industrial and digital infrastructure in racialized neighbourhoods. In Africville, a historic Black community in Halifax, residents were denied sewage and water services while landfills, slaughterhouses, and infectious disease facilities were built nearby, posing severe health risks to community members. As AI is increasingly integrated into urban planning and infrastructure modelling, such systems risk reproducing these same spatial inequalities, recommending the placement of high-emission facilities in the very communities that already bear disproportionate environmental risk.

AI bias extends into education as well. Automated admissions, grading systems, and classroom tools are often deployed without critical oversight. Yet universities remain fundamentally underprepared. At McGill, AI governance is still framed primarily in terms of academic integrity rather than structural equity. While existing AI policies have acknowledged bias, they lack tangible enforcement mechanisms, shifting responsibility to individual students and instructors.

Canada’s AI strategy cannot be equitable without Black representation embedded at every level of design, regulation, and deployment. As AI infrastructure expands, Canada must now determine whether technological advancement will mitigate historical injustice or continue mechanizing it. 

Behind the Bench, Sports

The Harlem Globetrotters: A complicated piece of basketball’s history

In 1950, Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton entered the National Basketball Association (NBA) as the league’s first Black athletes. Cooper was the first to be drafted, Clifton was the first to sign an NBA contract, and Lloyd became the first Black player to enter an NBA game when he appeared on the court for the Washington Capitols in October of that year.

Prior to entering the NBA, Lloyd and Cooper had both played for the Harlem Globetrotters. While today the Globetrotters are seen more as a circus act than a basketball team, their role in the landscape of professional basketball is historically important.

The Harlem Globetrotters were originally founded in Illinois in the 1920s as the “Savoy Big Five,” a team that showcased Black talent at a time when segregation stopped Black players from playing in the professional league. They did not just happen to have Black players—they leaned into Black culture and identity. Later, the second iteration of the team branded itself as the “Harlem Globetrotters,” in reference to the Harlem Renaissance movement.

The team operated similarly to modern boxing, booking opponents and travelling around the globe to play in one-off games. Despite not being part of a formal basketball league, the Globetrotters dominated everywhere they went, with their most famous win taking place against Hall of Fame inductee George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers, who later became the Los Angeles Lakers. The Globetrotters were so dominant that they were forced to incorporate elements of the circus act we know them for today, as crowds were starting to become bored of how easily they would win games.

The team’s dominance and popularity meant the NBA simply could no longer ignore Black talent knocking at its door. In 1950, the NBA began signing players from the Globetrotters and continued to do so for years afterwards. NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain played one season with the Globetrotters in 1958-59, during which he took part in a sold-out tour in the Soviet Union. The following season, Chamberlain became a member of the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors, where he won league Most Valuable Player (MVP), All-Star Game MVP, and Rookie of the Year in his first season. Chamberlain went on to rewrite virtually every NBA record in existence, forever changing the game of basketball.

While the Globetrotters provided a platform for Black players, the team has its own complicated history with race. Team owner Abe Saperstein was a known racist who saw Black players solely as financial assets rather than as marginalized people whom he could be an ally to. The team used Harlem branding in an effort to profit from the cultural renaissance in Harlem, New York City, while enriching a team owner who was a racist. 

Saperstein attempted to sign Boston Celtics legend and 11-time NBA champion Bill Russell in 1956. Russell notably refused to play for the Globetrotters after Saperstein declined to speak with him directly during contract negotiations, instead speaking with Russell’s white college coach. While this may have worked with other players, Russell was one of the first professional athletes to use their platform to speak about racial injustice in America and to become a champion of civil rights. He was never going to stand for how the Globetrotters treated Black players just for a few extra dollars.
The Harlem Globetrotters’ role in basketball history is significant, but equally as complicated. The Globetrotters provided a platform for Black players and became so dominant that the NBA could no longer keep its doors closed. On the flipside, they had an owner who clearly lacked respect for the Black players he employed while also profiting off the Harlem Renaissance. They were an organization deemed racially unjust by Bill Russell, one of the sport’s most significant players. Despite their prominence, they have been relegated to the status of basketball’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in recent years, when really they ought to be seen for what they are: An important piece of history.

Montreal, News

Montreal protests GardaWorld’s complicity in ICE immigration crackdown

On Feb. 13, around 1,000 people gathered outside Place Vertu to protest the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown on illegal immigration and their aggressive treatment of migrants and citizens alike. The protestors decried the involvement of GardaWorld, a Canadian, Montreal-based private security firm whose U.S. subsidiary, GardaWorld Federal Services, provides armed security, logistics, and emergency services to ICE. Additionally, McGill University currently holds contracts with GardaWorld for campus security. 

At 3:30 p.m., a group of around 50 people joined the crowd, holding up banners that read “Garda Off Our Campus.” Shortly after this group arrived, Celeste Trianon, one of the organizers of the protest, introduced Alejandra Zaga Mendez, the Québec Solidaire member for Verdun. Zaga Mendez began her speech by mentioning the South Florida Detention Facility—colloquially known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz’—where many have reported inhumane and callous treatment of detainees.

“It’s GardaWorld with this international subsidiary that created the new ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in Florida, which tortures people,” Zaga Mendez said. “It’s GardaWorld who is complicit in deadly practices, practices that terrorize communities in the United States. As Quebecers, the reason we must protest is because there should not be one dollar, not even one cent of our money and our taxes, that has to go to a company like GardaWorld.”

Zaga Mendez continued by touching on a petition she launched in l’Assemblée Nationale du Québec, which was blocked by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ). She stated that civil demonstration must continue to denounce the government’s silence on the issue.

“The CAQ decided to block the motion. That’s not courageous, and extremely shameful at a time when communities continue to be terrorized,” she said. “We must not stop [protesting] until we [divest], and there is not one cent of our public funds involved [in ICE’s politics] [….] This is what we will continue to do.”

A representative from Solidarité sans frontières spoke next. They condemned GardaWorld’s involvement with the U.S. government, reaffirming that migrants have the right to be treated lawfully.

“When a corporation chooses to support or to collaborate with politicians who encourage mass detention, the separation of families, and criminalization of migrants, that’s not [politically] neutral,” they said. “Migration is not a crime. Fleeing violence is not a crime. Crossing the borders to protect one’s kids is not a crime. What is a crime, however, is [the corporations] gaining profits off of human suffering.”

Another representative, who was holding up a banner that read “Chinga La Migra,” recounted the story of the Bath Riots. In 1917, riots broke out after Mexican workers crossing the border into the U.S. were subjected to baths with toxic disinfectants. The representative made a connection between the Bath Riots and the working conditions at ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’

“[The chemicals used in 1917] were the same products used by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and the United States were the first to use them on the Mexicans,” they said. “The job offer which was published by GardaWorld for working at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ said one must be ready to be potentially exposed to toxic chemical products or gas [….] It’s this company that the Quebec government decided to give $300 million CAD to.”

The representative continued by asking the audience how far they believe ICE will go for ‘national security.’

“We have seen what ICE is capable of doing in front of cameras to even white citizens. We have seen how they have treated Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Imagine what they do behind closed doors when there are no cameras,” they said. “I would like to emphasize, also, the courage immigrants have in changing countries and restarting from zero [….] We owe them, as citizens of a so-called ‘first-world country,’ to fight for them and provide them a place where they may flourish.”

At 4:00 p.m., protestors left Place Vertu, walking westbound on chem. de la Côte-Vertu. They then turned right at the intersection with rue Bégin. They turned right again on rue Poirier, before turning left on rue Émile-Bélanger. From there, protestors walked straight until they reached the headquarters of GardaWorld.

The crowd chanted “gauche, gauche, extrême gauche” at every left turn, and “droite, droite, fuck la droite” at every right. In addition, some protestors chanted “Fuck ICE, le projet de loi 12, le fascisme ici là-bas, ça nous concerne tous,” in reference to the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act. Protestors criticized the bill’s lack of transparency and disproportionate distribution of power to immigration ministers.

At around 5:00 p.m., protestors arrived at the GardaWorld headquarters where they were met with around 30 police officers, including riot police. Protestors threw snowballs and ice at officers across the barricade tape, and the police deployed tear gas and pepper spray to ward off the protestors. A Tribune journalist in attendance at the event was knocked over by a police officer.

In an interview with The Tribune, a representative from the Alliance des professeures et professeurs de Montréal who wished to remain anonymous, stated that fascism certainly exists in the modern world and that it is a pressing issue in Quebec.

“Fascism is clearly an abuse of our democratic institutions for the wellness and power of certain people, in particular the current elected American politicians,” the representative said. “There is always a fear that such abuse and systemic racism is present in Quebec, even more so in our schools and institutions [….] It is important for us to speak out against it.”

All quotes were translated from French.

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