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Editorial, Opinion

McGill’s neglect of Indigenous veterans fuels settler colonialism

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

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Content warning: sexual violence, settler colonialism.

Observed a few days before Remembrance Day, Indigenous Veterans Day on Nov. 8 commemorates the notable contributions of Indigenous veterans to Canada’s historical military pursuits. Despite official recognition since the day’s establishment in 1994, the broader acknowledgment of Indigenous contributions remains insufficient, and the lack of care provided to Indigenous veterans is abominable. The failure to widely recognize the invaluable role of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s military fuels settler colonialism, while excluding Indigenous resistance to violent nation-building.

The treatment of veterans in Canada has historically rendered one truth: Canada fails to provide sufficient support for its veterans, especially Indigenous veterans. By the end of World War II, over 3,000 Indigenous soldiers, sailors, and air crew members served in the Canadian Forces. However, upon transitioning back to civilian life, many faced racism and encountered systemic obstacles to gaining rights and personhood. Until 1960, the Canadian government did not afford Indigenous soldiers the same rights and benefits after service––such as access to housing and financial and health supports––as non-Indigenous veterans. The general neglect of Canadian veterans is evident to this day as many returnees, grappling with various forms of trauma, confront mental health issues, houselessness, and drug addiction. When compounded by the enduring effects of intergenerational trauma and colonial violence that Indigenous peoples experience, the Canadian government’s neglect yields perilous consequences. McGill’s failure to acknowledge Indigenous Veterans Day illustrates the institution’s hypocrisy, erasing the diverse military experiences that form Canadian history. 

The decision of many Indigenous individuals to enlist in the military stems from inequality and injustice. The military, functioning as a business, strategically targets those from lower-income communities, enticing them with promises of financial and social benefits that many never receive. Historically, some Indigenous peoples have chosen military service as a means to escape the exploitation they face within Canada, only to encounter further exploitation and discrimination within the military.The military must cease targeting Indigenous people to serve for a settler colonial nation that does not provide them adequate care nor recognizes their need for support and redress. Urgently required is the establishment of culturally-responsive trauma and healing services for veterans, addressing the unique needs of Indigenous veterans and fostering genuine healing in the aftermath of war.

This oversight extends to the additional lack of recognition toward Indigenous women veterans. With the Canadian military being a ‘brotherhood’ predominantly composed of white cisgender men, their interests consistently take precedence. This results in a perpetuation of sexual violence, particularly toward women of colour. The Canadian justice system, built on the exclusion of Indigenous peoples under the Indian Act, habitually overlooks cases of sexual violence in the military. Disturbingly, this form of violence disproportionately affects Indigenous women, who are sexually assaulted at three times the rate of non-Indigenous women and represent 16 per cent of all female homicide victims while only comprising 4.3 per cent of the population of Canadian women. Canada must intensify its efforts to mitigate this violence and protect Indigenous women in the armed forces and beyond.

The absence of any mention of Indigenous Veterans Day in McGill’s communications adds another layer of insensitivity, raising questions about the institution’s commitment to decolonization. McGill’s performative and hypocritical actions toward the Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) fails to address the concerns about unmarked graves that the Mothers have raised. Acknowledging Indigenous Veterans Day goes beyond honouring the bravery of veterans; it means confronting war’s inseparable connection to colonialism. 

The acknowledgement of Indigenous Veterans Day must involve a confrontation with the violence that institutions have continually and historically inflicted upon Indigenous peoples—a reality in which McGill participates. For the university to stand with Indigenous peoples, it must go beyond superficial gestures, such as sending out emails selectively, and work toward a meaningful recognition of the diverse contributions Indigenous communities have made. True improvement in the university’s relationship with Indigenous communities cannot be limited to public relations strategies and requires substantive actions, conversations, and attention.

Features

The hidden opponent: How ACL tears threaten women’s soccer

by Anoushka Oke on

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As the 2023 Women’s Soccer World Cup kicked off Down Under, a shadow loomed over the tournament for players and fans alike: The absence of many of the game’s most electrifying stars. 

Notable absentees included Canada’s Janine Beckie, England’s Leah Williamson, and the United States’ Catarina Macario. They were missing not due to a lack of skill or determination, but by a common and devastating injury: A torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). 

The injured stars were just three of the many players who had torn their ACL during their club seasons, thereby side-lining them for the international tournament. They are just a small part of a concerning trend with ACL injuries disrupting women’s soccer.

ACL injuries in women athletes

The ACL, a ligament located in the middle of the knee, connects the patella, or kneecap, to the tibia, the shin bone. Its main function is to ensure knee stability and balance, which is crucial for movement. However, the ligament is susceptible to tearing, a common yet serious injury typically resulting from rigorous physical activity. For instance, stopping quickly when changing directions while running can cause an ACL to tear.

Sustaining an ACL injury is devastating for an athlete, frequently requiring surgery to reconstruct the ACL to prevent future injury and thus pushing them out of action for some nine to 12 months. The recovery period is so long because following surgery, athletes face the daunting task of regaining lost muscle mass, restoring mobility, and overcoming psychological hurdles from fear of re-injury. Avoiding surgery also runs the risk of sustaining another injury because daily activities like walking up the stairs or stepping off the curb can lead the knee to buckle, causing the injured person to fall.

“You need an ACL reconstruction because your knee is unstable,” Dr. Moreno Morelli, a faculty lecturer in McGill’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, explained. “An unstable knee also causes a lot more stress inside the joint, so there’s a greater risk of having additional damage to the inside of your knee.”

In my years of playing youth soccer, my coaches consistently drilled the heightened risk of ACL tears in women and girls into our heads. Experts from Yale Medicine state that women are two to eight times more likely to experience an ACL tear than men are. When I stopped playing soccer after my sophomore year of high school the fear of sustaining the injury stopped lingering in the back of my mind. 

“As [people assigned female at birth] start to grow, [the] pelvis changes shape, and it changes the alignment of [the] legs,” Morelli said. “So it puts you more into what you call a valgus position or knock-knees alignment, and that kind of alignment puts more strain on your ACL. As soon as you push off the limb or land on the limb when the leg is in that knock-knees position, it puts more strain on the ACL, and it could rupture.”

This strain becomes exacerbated by a larger Q angle in women—normally around 17 compared to 12 degrees in men—due to pelvis shape differences. The Q angle measures the angle between the line from the knee up the femur and an imaginary line connecting the knee with the bottom part of the pelvis. This larger angle also puts more pressure on the ACL, increasing the risk of injury.

Research from 2017 also suggests that hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle increase ACL tear risk, as it has been shown that elevated estrogen and progesterone cause the hormone relaxin, which loosens ligaments, to be more active. The greater ligament laxity, or looseness, makes the joint less stable, increasing the risk of injury. However, despite this observed connection between the menstrual cycle and increased ACL tears, we still lack definitive evidence.

Research gaps

A deficit in data and research on the increased ACL risk among women leads athletes to keep getting injured. According to Alireza Monajati, a senior lecturer in the University of East London’s Department of Bioscience and Sport, there is currently not enough data related to the circumstances surrounding ACL injuries. These gaps in the research make it more difficult for doctors and trainers to analyze the causes of the injury. There are also limited studies with high internal validity that detail ACL injuries in elite female athletes, so how can we find available research that could be used for preventative measures?

More data on elite female athletes will help develop better training and nutrition plans. For instance, should evidence conclusively establish a link between ACL injuries and the menstrual cycle, it would provide compelling cause for managers at elite clubs to tailor menstruating players’ training and match loads based on their cycles. However, this approach might also overreach into players’ intimate lives, giving coaches too much access to their bodies; in the pursuit of more complete data, research ethics is also crucial.

In an interview with //The Tribune//, Monajati discussed the challenges in gathering data on ACL injuries among athletes. 

“Experimental research on professional [athletes] is limited because of their availability, but in terms of the type of research, it doesn’t always have to be experimental research [where] you bring the professional athlete to the lab,” Monajati said. “Sometimes it’s just gathering the data around the event where the injury happened, and when you have a big pool of data, then you can make the right decisions.”

To enhance data collection, Monajati proposed a procedure that he believed would enable greater collection of such data in women’s soccer, inspired by the existing protocols for cardiac risk management in soccer. According to these protocols, set by governing bodies like the FA and UEFA, players participating in European or FIFA competitions are required to undergo cardiac screening every two years as a condition to play. Monajati believes a similar approach can be done for ACL tears.   

“They should undergo certain screening every one or two years, and when injuries happen, the data of that must be reported by the medical team to the FA. The data can involve so many things, [like] the load of the training, the surface where they’re playing, [and] the menstrual cycle phase they’re in. All of this data can be gathered so that you have a big [set of] data eventually, and with big data, you can then apply statistical analysis to process and find the patterns.”

Professionalization and inadequate medical care

Beyond gaps in data, women’s clubs’ frequently lack sufficient resources puts players at risk of increased ACL tears. In theory, the more at-risk demographic should be offered extra protection and preventative measures, such as supportive exercises and nutrition. However, this is not the case. 

A typical women’s soccer regular season is between 20-30 games depending on the number of teams in the league—National Women’s Soccer League (United States) teams play 28 games, while the Women’s Super League (England) and the Frauen-Bundesliga (Germany) play 22. This doesn’t factor in extra tournaments, like domestic cup games or the Champions League, and the intensity only heightens for players who also compete with their country’s national team. Samantha Kerr, one of the best women’s soccer players, competed in 38 games for Chelsea in the 2022-23 season and 12 games for Australia in 2023. 

In recent years, women’s soccer has been working toward greater professionalization to bring it up to the standard that men’s teams play at. In that process, the women’s teams have been playing a growing number of matches. Several global invitational tournaments that women players can compete in have grown in the past ten years, from the Arnold Clark Cup (2022) to the Cup of Nations (2019) to the SheBelievesCup (2016). Pre-existing competitions have also welcomed more teams, increasing the game count. In 2011, the World Cup featured 16 teams; the 2023 World Cup included 32.

However, as playing time increases, medical support has failed to keep pace. According to a FIFA report from 2021, more than 25 per cent of first-division women’s soccer teams did not hire a physio or a team doctor. Christina Le, a physiotherapist at the University of Alberta’s Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic and a passionate Arsenal fan, discussed the state of medical staff availability at women’s soccer clubs in an interview with //The Tribune//.

“Even clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea are just now starting to support their women’s sides better. I don’t think there were any full-time physios and stuff like that that were part of the [women’s] clubs until maybe the last couple of years,” she said. “So I think that’s a big thing: just trying to get a steady medical team instead of contracting a physio just for the season or just for like three months, [because otherwise] you have to build a whole new relationship with somebody else who comes in and takes over that role and maybe has a totally different treatment approach and style.”

Le believes the lack of permanent staff members is largely tied to the way that soccer fans and even club employees still see the women’s game as second-tier to the men’s.

“When they’re trying to pursue these sports [medicine] jobs, there are a lot of people who look at the women’s league as a stepping stone to get to the men’s league,” said Le. “That is not how this should work. They are different entities, and the women’s game should be the end goal for somebody. It shouldn’t be like people get their ‘in’ at a club by helping out with the women’s team and eventually get a promotion to the men’s side.”

Similar pressures appear in the coaching context. The media linked England Lionesses manager Sarina Wiegman to the England men’s coaching job in August, while Chelsea F. C. Women manager Emma Hayes was repeatedly asked by broadcasters if she would switch to coach in the Men’s Premier League. In both cases, the move to the men’s side is seen as a step up by the media and by fans—despite the fact that their teams had more successful years than the corresponding men’s teams. 

In an interview with Sky Sports, Lioness Georgia Stanway responded to rumours of Wiegman being linked to join men’s soccer coaching roles by emphasizing that managers enjoying their roles in women’s soccer is what will allow women’s soccer to continue to grow—they should not view women’s teams as a stepping stone. Hayes had a similar reaction to the rumours, telling an interviewer that Wiegman’s role as a women’s coach is important in and of itself and that women’s teams deserved top-tier coaches just as much as men’s teams do. Similarly, women’s teams also deserve top-tier medical staff.

Prevention Strategies

To address the disproportionately high risk of ACL tears, experts and sports professionals alike are emphasizing the need for comprehensive medical support. This focus pushes to overcome the physiological factors that uniquely, adversely affect women. A starting point is incorporating preventative exercise programs, which have demonstrated efficacy in reducing ACL injuries.

“There are several studies that have looked [at] specific exercise programs with the intent of decreasing the incidence of ACL tears,” Morelli said. “There’s a big study out of Los Angeles that was published almost ten years ago where they looked at about 1500 [14-18 year old female athletes] who did a specific exercise program and compared [them] to those who didn’t do the exercise program, and the exercise program reduced the incidence of ACL tears by about 80 per cent They carried this study out over two years, and in the second year, it reduced by 70 per cent.”

But to build a solid foundation, young women  pursuing elite soccer need adequate exposure to high-level training early on. Bad running form, for example—which entails habits like heel striking and overstriding—can lead to running-related injuries. Training that builds good patterns related to form and strengthens players’ bodies in a way that fortifies them against ACL injuries is essential.

“There’s a lot of attention put on the biological pieces, and I think it absolutely makes sense to integrate a part of that, but I think the tricky part with the biological pieces is that they’re not modifiable,” Le said. She explained that non-biological factors like having a medical team and access to proper strength and conditioning help. “In England at all of these big clubs, there are boys who are like nine and ten years old being signed to academies and then getting exposed to strength and movement patterns at that age. There’s not much of an academy for a lot of the women’s clubs, and if there are, they are a little bit older, maybe 15 or 16.”

According to Monajati, an injury-prevention program targeting ACL tears combines  improving coordination, balance, and strength. 

“The framework of that is basically these three aspects: the technique during landing and changing directions, which is something that can be taught, the balance in the lower limb muscles, which comes from strength and conditioning, and perception exercises, to improve coordination,” Monajati said.  

Physiological factors that increase women’s risk of ACL tears are not an excuse for the elevated frequency of the injury in the women’s game. Rather, they offer a call for increased attention, research, and data related to professional women’s soccer that will allow for the establishment of more adequate preventative measures.

Without preventative measures that target ACL tear risks, women soccer players will continue to miss out on momentous opportunities like the World Cup—devastating both players and fans.

Off the Board, Opinion

Learning to go slow

by Lily Cason on

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This past summer was a summer of long drives. I would put on a podcast, occasionally find a passenger, and hit the road in my beat-up blue Subaru. Ironically, at some point, while speeding on long stretches of Route 175, I also came to embrace moving slowly.

I have always been bad at slowing down. Even as a kid, I would immediately pick an ambitious project or set a new goal when presented with a break from school. I would take up knitting, train for a race, or fix a broken clock that I was determined not to replace. No matter what, I would pour my all into something that would give me tangible results and stave away the awful feeling of having wasted precious free time by simply relaxing. 

As I got older, hobbies turned into using my time off to plan for the future, but my fears of misusing time persisted. My calendar was meticulously organized in order to prevent a wasted moment. Breaks may have been about taking a pause from school, but they certainly were not about rest.

This summer, I was woefully unoccupied. The winter semester had been difficult for me, marked by burnout and depression. (It turns out that balancing a part-time job, working at a student paper, and being a full-time student are not conducive to a peaceful lifestyle.) So, there I was at the end of April, with my biggest fear about to be true: I had no summer plans. As friends left Montreal to take on impressive internships, network, and make money to save for the future, I quit my job at a restaurant and mindlessly travelled in the months to come.

Going into the summer, I was worried—given my track record with unconstructed time—that my mental health would go downhill. Of course, I panicked at times, feeling as if I was dooming my future, but I pleasantly surprised myself with my ability to lean into rest and let the open road take me anywhere. 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve also always been overly self-judgemental. I would tell any friend that they should relax and let loose—after all, we are only young once, and there is plenty of time for everything. But I never included myself in this and always felt guilty once I inevitably burnt out and was forced to take a break anyway. I am not going to lie and say that is no longer the case, but this summer was new for me. I let myself be thoroughly and unapologetically impractical, and boy did it feel good. 

I got lost alone in Venice at 2 a.m. with a dying phone, watching the water lap at the edges of beautiful buildings, feeling elated and free. I drove five hours from Saguenay to Montreal just to spend four hours with someone I love before promptly driving back. I let myself pull off of the highway in upstate New York to see a park that looked beautiful and take a nap in a hammock. Sure, I made some calls that hurt the next day—mostly due to sleep deprivation—but I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.

I am now staring down the barrel of graduation next semester, and July feels like pure fiction. In a sea of students imbued with productivity mindsets and competitive ambition, it is hard to hold myself to taking it slow and being kind to myself. But in moments when I feel so overwhelmed that I want to run away and never look back, I remember the feeling of driving through the forest, windows cracked, and a sense of calm contentment rolls over me like a wave. 

Commentary, Opinion

Quebec falls just short of a proactive response to post-pandemic mental health crisis

by Rebecca Winkelaar on

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The Quebec government’s recent announcement of new measures to avoid psychiatric hospitalization emphasizes the importance of patient-centric and holistic mental illness treatment.  However, it is also—put bluntly—too little, too late. Both the imminent introduction of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) as a care service for those struggling with severe mental illness and the regional inaccessibility of these new measures diminish the impact of this shift toward improved mental healthcare. The government will likely struggle to provide proper justification for offering MAiD to those suffering from mental illness when they have only recently invested in mental health crisis-related de-escalation and recovery.

Proposed as part of Quebec’s 2022-26 interdepartmental mental health action plan, the new intervention-focused program aims to deliver treatment within each patient’s home environment with three key initiatives. First is the deployment of specialized rapid-response teams to support patients experiencing crisis episodes following their discharge from the emergency department. Then, the introduction of psychiatric intervention units providing short-term stays (48 to 72 hours) will facilitate a return home during a crisis episode. Finally, the provincial government promises that they will implement intensive home treatment to avoid the potential for hospitalization-related trauma. 

If effectively implemented, these transformative shifts have the potential to empower those experiencing mental illness to maintain their autonomy throughout their recovery. However, all new measures introduced on Oct. 30 are accessible only to those in the Integrated University Health and Social Services Centres (CIUSSS) in the West Island and the Centre-Sud regions, leaving them largely inaccessible for many communities. While a step in the right direction, this lack of accessibility undermines the efficacy of these measures entirely. 

This investment into the treatment and prevention of mental illness is both timely and absolutely critical, given the broader mental health crisis. However, the regional inaccessibility of these measures is far from their greatest flaw. The introduction of MAiD is highly controversial, as many in Quebec debate whether the “intolerable suffering” of mental illness is enough to justify its inclusion in the program. Introducing the option of MAiD to those suffering from mental illness before fully implementing and investing in improved mental health treatment could significantly dampen the new measures’ positive impact. 

The complexity of layered approaches to mental health sparks tense discussions among psychiatry experts and mental health advocates alike, despite their united goal of providing the best care possible to those struggling. Many, including elements of the federal  government, that argue for the perception of mental illness as equal to physical illness are largely supportive of MAiD for individuals with severe mental conditions, similar to those with terminal illnesses such as cancer. 

However, this overgeneralization contradicts claims to a progressive, comprehensive conception of mental illness. It is uniquely challenging to diagnose, treat, and articulate mental illness, and the implication might even be that it is reductive to equate it to any other medical condition. MAiD has already erred dangerously close to the line of eugenics, as the government has been accused of using the service as an alternative for providing aid to disabled individuals.

Keeping this in mind, the government has a responsibility above all to invest extensively in the prevention and treatment of mental illness. Before turning to MAiD as an alternative care practice, the Quebec government must ensure that other measures are widely accessible for communities all across the province. 

Although the provincial government has undeniably illustrated a better understanding of the mental health crisis in its recent announcement, this is just the beginning. The introduction of MAiD as an option for those struggling with mental illness signifies a potential paradigm shift in mental health treatment, demanding careful navigation. The journey toward all-inclusive mental health reform is an ongoing commitment that requires dedication and vigilance to build a caring system that leaves no one behind. 

Art, Arts & Entertainment, Poetry

Rejection, the meaning of art, and Taco Bell

by Kellie Elrick on

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There’s a cartoon on page 62. Sometime in the future, a robot approaches a hipster and proclaims: “Citizen. My sensors indicate that you have not been living mas. Those who do not live sufficiently mas will be taken to the reeducation centre.”

A woman gives birth the same day she finds out she’s pregnant. Cartoon raccoons look up at the stars and have an existential crisis. There are crunchwrap supremes. Nietzsche. Grindr.

Taco Bell Quarterly—which is not published quarterly—is a literary journal with no word limit, no restrictions on medium, and no pretension. There is one rule, and one rule only: All submissions must, in some way, shape, or form, pertain to the cultural and culinary phenomenon known as Taco Bell. Their forthcoming issue has a 0.86 per cent submission acceptance rate, roughly on par with their foil, and longtime rival, The Paris Review.

Perhaps their Submission Guidelines say it best: “We’re not judgey and pretentious. We’re the Taco Bell fucking Quarterly.”

Their 74-page sixth issue was published earlier this year. Pieces include poetry, short stories, cartoons, watercolour illustrations, and art. One artwork is composed entirely of photos of burrito wrappings and up-close nachos, inscribed with “Live Mas” (with nacho cheese and hot sauce used as paint and a chip as a paintbrush, naturally). Some go all in—Taco Bell is their muse. Some include only a passing reference to a character eating a fiesta potato. Titles range from “Ode to My Mother Pissing into a Mountain Dew Baja Blast Cup” to “Tacorotica: A Fire Sauce Seduction.”

The eponymous Taco Bell has been featured in similarly fantastical media activity lately. The company recently won a legal battle to remove the trademark of the phrase “Taco Tuesday” and had a takeout order stolen by a bear—who later returned to steal their pop. The relationship between Taco Bell and its Quarterly seems to be friendly. As Editor-In-Chief M.M. Carrigan said in a 2022 interview with Chron, “They follow us on Twitter. They don’t sue us.”

Now that the publication’s seventh issue is ramping up, people have started to receive their rejection letters. These rejections have sparked inspirational genius on X, formerly known as Twitter. Due to Taco Bell Quarterly’s personalized rejection letters, people are turning said personalized letters into blackout poetry. 

The lyrical, romantic lines include: “You felt too invested in this. It’s a wonder you try” and “Thank you for submitting to rejection. I enjoy beats. I consider your name out there in the lit world!”

There’s a current climate of seemingly waning public enthusiasm about literature, where a future in writing has become increasingly unattainable and precarious, and increased horror abounds at the prospect of dedicating your life to something only to find out that you’re not that good at it. So, how can rejection be anything but demoralizing, despite being an inevitable part of art? 

But Taco Bell Quarterly has done it: They’ve made rejection fun, even something to look forward to, something to create something else out of. New art.

The other day, my friend recounted a story his professor told in class. He was walking through an art gallery and meandered through rooms full of contemporary art of the experimental sort (A toilet, blank canvases, etc.) before coming to a room with a red ladder leading up to a hole in the ceiling. He stayed and looked, along with others, for a few moments—then the gallery maintenance worker walked in, climbed the ladder, changed a lightbulb, and took the ladder away. 

What makes something art, or even worse, “good” art, when we strip away the walls of esteemed museums or the pages of prestigious journals? 

Blackout poetry on X, rejection letters, poetry, cartoons, contemporary art, coincidentally placed maintenance equipment, and Taco Bell all push the boundaries of what it means to create, inspire, and enjoy. Maybe Taco Bell Quarterly is exactly what the arts need: Absurd, frothy, fun, and literary all at once.

Live más. 


The sixth edition of Taco Bell Quarterly is currently available online. The seventh edition will be released when its editors feel like it.

Commentary, Opinion

Bio Locaux invests in the necessary model for Canada’s produce market

by Lulu Calame on

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Montreal, like so many other cities, has seen a steady rise in inflation of grocery prices. The grocery inflation rate is sitting at about eight per cent, and is expected to increase further throughout 2023. Canadians find themselves on tighter budgets, unable to buy the amount and quality of food that they once could, especially when it comes to fresh produce. 

Bio Locaux––a recently-opened local-only grocery store between Montreal’s Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhoods––is combating these intensifying economic constraints by removing the “middleman” of production, that is the processes and costs associated with getting produce from the farm to the store. All of their produce is from local farms, meaning that the cost of transportation and packaging is less of a factor, allowing produce to be fairly priced and much more accessible. 

Inflation in the Canadian grocery economy is upheld and exacerbated on all sides: The Canadian wildfires and climate-change-related devastation are damaging the land and the supply chain, making certain products more scarce, and therefore more expensive. The war in Ukraine has significantly impacted gas prices, increasing transportation costs. And, finally, the economy of grocery stores is becoming more concentrated during the pandemic, with about 80 per cent of the market controlled by just four companies: Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, and Safeway. The grocery economy of Canada is effectively trapped in an economic oligopoly, where prices rise in response to climate factors, transportation, controlled by the overwhelming individual market power of a few corporations.

In Canada’s increasingly-concentrated grocery economy, Bio Locaux’s market model is an optimistic triple threat. Beyond its fundamentally fair prices and nutritious produce, its support of local farmers inherently sustains the environment. Oil and gas extraction makes up the largest percentage of carbon emissions in Canada. Supporting local farmers mitigates gas consumption as major transportation is no longer a factor of production. Such systemic decrease in gas usage massively progresses the world toward decreased carbon emissions and is vital in creating a sustainable future. 

On an individual level, high grocery prices have led many Canadians to sacrifice nutritious foods such as dairy, meat, and produce for cheaper, less nutrient-dense foods. Bio Locaux sells the very products that have become too expensive for many Canadians, providing a critical supply of healthy food in an economy where such products are becoming too difficult to buy. 

Unless the powerful grocery firms of Canada make a similar attempt to get rid of the middleman of production, they will continue to out-price their customers, forcing them to turn elsewhere for affordable options. While a single store like Bio Locaux is far too small to supply even a fraction of the produce that the Canadian population requires, consumers should continue to support this local market structure as the solution to the crises that overpowering grocery firms spearhead.  

Despite the impracticality of expecting local stores to replace firms such as Sobeys and Loblaws overnight, innovators and grassroots food activists will likely adapt the Bio Locaux model within Montreal and beyond. When local produce and decreased international food trade become a priority for the Canadian government, funding could be allocated toward larger greenhouses and growing facilities. Such reallocation would be especially successful in light of McGill’s food insecurity, where students are generally less inclined to buy healthy produce due to expenses. An accessible produce business such as Bio Locaux would likely receive a large number of student customers and benefit the health of the large student population. 

Bio Locaux, while small and still developing in Montreal, presents a hopeful model for the future of Canadian food accessibility—for students and Montreal locals alike—in a time when the larger grocery economy is increasingly inhospitable. Such initiatives have already begun in places such as the University Centre, with its new independent grocery store Les Fermes du Marché. The future prospects of small-scale affordable produce look possible, and Bio Locaux is helping realize it.

Arts & Entertainment, Music, Pop Rhetoric

Pop dialectic: AI and The Beatles’ “Now & Then”

by Shani Laskin, Lily Dodson on

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The Beatles released their latest and final song, “Now and Then,” on Nov. 2, over sixty years after the release of their last album. The remaining Beatles—Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr—used artificial intelligence (AI) to splice together old demos with new recordings. The resultant song presents the four Beatles, dead and alive, singing together one last time. But what does this mean for the future of AI in music production? 

AI has no place in the music industry

“Now and Then” highlights just how powerful AI is becoming. I’ll admit that I was impressed with the lyrics and overall message of the sign, and the music video brought a tear to my eye. Yet, I still believe this release was unnecessary. 

As someone who is reasonably and unreasonably paranoid over AI’s rise, this further cemented my fears. Watching unaged John Lennon and George Harrison “sing” alongside an old Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr was frightening and shows the extent to which AI can take images and make them into realistic moving pictures. 

While this is definitely not the most exploitative use of AI, this opens the door to more artificial music, with the possibility for it to become exploitative. People with access to this advanced technology could decide to make “new” music from The Beatles—or any other artist—resulting in an album made totally of AI. Most artists who have passed away never consented to have their voices used in AI-created music, thus showing its potential to strip the artist of their creative autonomy. Music created by artificial intelligence lacks the magic of artistry. Is the next step going to be AI concerts? 

Despite my immense love for The Beatles, I’m fully satisfied with the work they’ve released. I don’t need–or want–any more “unreleased” songs to come out. This new music that could be created using AI software will most likely feel phoney, much like a cash-grab opportunity. To me, it will never feel as authentic as The Beatles’ original music, which most fans are still yearning for. Even though it’s a tough truth, we must accept that they stopped making music together in 1970, so we’ve had over 60 years to get over this loss. It’s time to let dead bugs lie. 

In defence of AI

As a life-long, deeply committed fan of The Beatles—no, seriously, my first ever words were “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”—I was elated to hear one last song. While concerns about exploitation in AI-created music are certainly real and valid, this is not one of those cases. Instead, “Now and Then” represents the amazing potential for AI in the music industry when it serves to aid in the technology behind music production rather than make original music. 

When Yoko Ono handed three of John Lennon’s demos to the three remaining Beatles in 1994, the technology available at the time could not salvage the “Now and Then” demo. With the rapid development of AI, producers used machine learning, a subfield of AI, to recognize and isolate Lennon’s voice in the original demo. This technology allowed producers to fix the volume of the background piano to better fit the voice on the track. What resulted is a deeply nostalgic collage of Lennon’s original demo from the nineties and present-day clips. 

AI is becoming increasingly prominent, and there is no question to me that it will become as integral to our lives—if not more—as the internet. Learning how to harness it in useful and creative ways is essential.

Of course, Harrison and Lennon could not give consent in their lifetimes for their voices and recordings to be used in this way, but I trust their former bandmates, closest friends, and loved ones to make the decision of what is or is not ethically sound. In the end, McCartney and Starr made the choice to bring back to light the music of two of the most beloved musicians from the last century and I, for one, am glad that AI could help.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

Bonding over books

by Ella Buckingham on

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The McConnell Buildings on McGill University’s and Concordia University’s downtown campuses appear inconspicuous, their exteriors giving no sign of what dwells within. This proves true with the one at McGill (did you know there’s a bar in the basement?), but was especially apparent at Concordia’s McConnell Building on Nov. 3 and 4. 

On these dates, entering through the building’s front doors and turning into the Atrium would have led you to the 2023 Read Quebec Book Fair, a cozy bazaar representing the breadth of English-language publishing in Quebec. People milled around, dressed in business-casual or university-student attire (complete with backpacks adorned with red squares in solidarity with tuition fee increase protests), and chatted with booksellers and publishing houses such as Drawn and Quarterly, the Montreal Review of Books, the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ), and Metonymy Press. The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming—the attendees’ shared love of books eased the usual awkwardness of introductions. 

The fair included events like “Eight Voices: Finalists for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Spoke Word Prize” and a live podcast recording of Getting Lit with Linda. The range of offerings brought together aspiring writers for “Perfect Your Pitch” workshops, families with children eager to make their own comics or write postcards to the future, and even film lovers with a screening of Scarborough, adapted from the 2017 novel of the same name.

“I remember […] putting pen to paper trying to tell the stories of what it was like to be a low-income person in Scarborough and seeing communities being affected by political whim,” Catherine Hernandez, author of Scarborough, said in an interview with The Tribune. “To have people feel like […] their lives are seen, it was really profound for me.”

Not only do book fairs and events such as these allow authors, booksellers, and publishers to connect with the community, they also centre local writers’ voices, giving them a platform to display their literary talents.

“For authors, the great thing about a festival is that people don’t just want a book, they want to know the person behind the book. [Audiences] get to see the passion you have as an author,” Hernandez said.

Another notable aspect of the fair was the variety of English translations of Quebec books written in French. According to Robin Philpot, publisher at Baraka Books, this was a deliberate move to introduce Quebec literature to anglophone readers. 

“For a long time, nobody in English Canada or the United States knew there was a Quebec literary world,” Philpot noted in an interview with The Tribune. “[T]hen there became a certain interest in Quebec fiction because […] [of] its different worldviews than English Canada or the US.” 

Baraka Books, he explained, was created specifically to publish translations of Quebec literature, ranging from fiction, non-fiction, and history books, so that readers could explore the province’s unique worldviews from the source.

“Often people tell the story of Quebec but they tell it from Toronto or from people who hardly speak French.”

The importance of engaging with local publishers, discoverable at events like these or at independent, community-oriented bookstores such as Librairie Drawn and Quarterly, cannot be overstated. They centre regional writers and their diverse worldviews, creating a starting point for dialogue and understanding. 

“We created an imprint [called QC Fiction] of younger writers who do interesting writing in Quebec, but [whose writing is] not known about. If the author’s not known, it’s hard to make a move in the English-speaking world. They don’t know the French-language writers in Canada,” Philpot said.

He added that while it is a challenge, Baraka Books chooses titles it feels are representative of Quebec literature. The fact that some of these books have been adapted for English-language courses in Canada makes Philpot and his staff feel all the more successful. 

By giving a new audience—one who might otherwise be hindered by the language barrier—access to Quebec’s rich culture, the literary world becomes more representative of various lived realities. Read Quebec Book Fair looks beyond the fan favourites of #BookTok, prompting readers to head to their nearest local bookstore and introduce themselves to the talent residing in our communities. 

Student Life, Word on the Y

Word on the Y: Quebec’s proposed tuition increases

by Abby McCormick on

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On Oct. 13, the Quebec government announced a new tuition model under which the province will no longer partially subsidize out-of-province and international student fees. The changes will increase out-of-province tuition from $8,992 to approximately $17,000 and raise international tuition to upward of $20,000. According to Quebec’s Minister of the French Language Jean-François Roberge, the tuition increase—which is set to come into effect in Fall 2024—will help to combat the decline of French in the province. The changes will not impact current students, who will have five years to finish their degrees under the existing tuition model. 

Quebec’s English-speaking universities have reported that these changes would have devastating consequences on their institutions, including a revenue loss of up to $94 million and up to 700 job cuts for McGill. As a result, the province’s three English-speaking universities—McGill, Concordia, and Bishop’s—proposed a deal to Premier François Legault in a meeting on Nov. 6, which included mandatory French language courses for anglophone students in lieu of the tuition increase. Students at English-speaking universities have also been advocating through protests and petitions since the announcement of the changes. 

While the Premier’s office agreed to make a full exemption for Bishop’s because the tuition increases put the institution’s survival at risk, it declined the universities’ proposal to replace the tuition increase with mandatory French courses within hours of their meeting. After the deal’s rejection, The Tribune talked to McGill students about how these proposed increases would impact incoming students and the institution’s future. 

“It is an embarrassment on the part of the Quebec government to raise prices, as it places an unnecessary burden on students and their families. Quebec wanting to preserve the French language is holding the province back, [like] in the ’70s when [it] introduced Bill 101, [and] Quebec lost hundreds of businesses to Ontario. While Legault’s government may not see it, this is a decision that will severely impact the province economically for years to come. I love McGill, and I love what its multicultural student body brings to it. It would not be the same without them.” — Emma Gallanti, U3 Arts, Quebec Student

“I think that there is this widespread misconception about the types of out-of-province students who choose to attend McGill, and that part of it comes from a disconnect between Legault’s government and anglophone student populations at English universities. Students here are not interested in gnawing at the foundations of francophone society in Montreal; students choose to come to McGill despite or in light of, the French language barrier [….] The tuition hikes are only hurting the Canadian students who are the most likely candidates to stay and reside in Quebec. These are the students who chose the French atmosphere in Quebec as opposed to other schools [and] cities. It is not the French language that deters me from building a life in Quebec, it is the constant influx of political messages that overtly demonstrate that non-Quebecers are not welcome in this province [….] It is a shame that this political game is coming at the expense of Canadian students, their future, and the future of this city as well.” — Nkwanzi Banage, U2 Arts, Out-of-Province Student

“The writing’s on the wall—these tuition hikes are not for the reasons the CAQ [Coalition Avenir Quebec] says. Otherwise, they would have accepted the deal to have anglophone students grow in Quebecois culture. Instead, their policy is blatantly xenophobic, threatening the multicultural foundation McGill is built off of by restricting [admission] only to the wealthiest.” — Domi Wong, U0 Science, Out-of-Province Student

“I have tried my best to both learn the language and familiarize myself with the culture here and now feel like no matter what I do, I am not welcome. I also feel bad for all the prospective students who would not be able to partake in what McGill has to offer due to the heightened costs, especially as this university has had such a profound impact on myself, my friends, and my fellow students.” — Amanda Klunowski, U2 Arts, Out-of-Province Student

Student Life

Caring for your leafy buddies

by Maria Gheorghiu on

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There’s no doubt that the change in seasons affects many of us. With the days getting shorter and trees getting barer, the absence of luscious greenery from summer days can leave a leaf-shaped hole in your heart. But fear not: You can keep those good vibes going from the comfort of your own home. Indoor plants offer many health benefits, including stress relief, mental health boosts, and air quality improvements. 

Taking care of houseplants doesn’t have to be a daunting task. As someone who has acquired a reasonable amount of knowledge from years of trial and error, here are some plant care tips that have worked for me.

It’s okay if your plant dies

Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can offer you is that it’s okay if your plant wilts and shrivels. This doesn’t mean you’re a bad plant parent, or that you’re doing something wrong! Some plants are harder to take care of than others—there’s something about cacti and succulents that I’ll never understand. Sometimes, choosing less care-intensive plants is the solution. My personal favourites are snake plants and pothos: The latter, in particular, will literally never stop growing, while the former seems to thrive on neglect. 

Plants need to stretch their legs too 

Staying active and moving around is important, even when the weather isn’t being cooperative. Just like you, your plants need their space to thrive. Sometimes, if a plant isn’t doing well, it might be because your pot is too small. This is especially common for older plants whose root networks have expanded over the years. So, treat that plant you’ve had in the corner of your room for years to a new pot and some fresh soil. Not only will this provide it with more nutrients and space to expand its roots, but getting your hands in some dirt might be more therapeutic than you think. 

Know when your plants are thirsty 

The indoor conditions of your home aren’t always the same as the ones at the plant nursery. Your room might be drier, or the soil might have changed from the time you got your plant, especially if you repotted it. Regardless of what it says on your plant’s care sheet, there’s no universal guide to watering plants, but a helpful rule of (green) thumb is checking the topsoil with your finger: If it feels dry, give it a good gulp of water, and take this opportunity to ask yourself when you last had one, too. Tropical plants also love a good misting every once in a while. Test out different misting frequencies and see which one your leafy friend thrives under. 

Learning to let go of brown leaves 

You’ve had your plant for years and it’s been with you through the ups and downs of life, or maybe you just got it and you simply can’t accept that its leaves are already falling out. That’s valid. But as hard as it may seem, you need to take your shears out and start pruning. Cutting off dead leaves will allow your plant to both grow fuller and look nicer. You can also choose to remove good branches or leaves and propagate them, allowing your plant to grow in a more balanced way (and the clippings make great gifts to friends).  

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