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McGill, News, PGSS

PGSS general assembly fails to meet quorum, discusses ways to increase attendance

by Dante Ventulieri on

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On Nov. 8, the Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS) held both its November council meeting and general assembly (GA) at Thomson House. As the GA failed to reach quorum—which is one per cent of PGSS members, or 96 students—no motions could be passed and all items on the agenda were for consultation and discussion purposes only.

The November council was led by Nora Delahaye, the Council Speaker, who explained the new submission guidelines for agenda items. Instead of agenda items being submitted on the Wednesday before the meeting, the new deadline would be the preceding Monday, as the extra time is needed to produce French copies of documents in compliance with Bill 96. 

Next, the speaker presented proposals for the library improvement fund, which were approved. External Affairs Officer Ansley Gnanapragasam explained what the two projects, which total over $12,000, entail for the Islamic Studies and Osler Libraries. 

“These two projects were submitted last year and sent to the library asking for the quote. We received the quote this year, reviewed it, and we found it reasonable,” Gnanapragasam explained. “[They] are more or less new ergonomic desks and chairs for the two libraries.”

PGSS Secretary General Satish Kumar Tumulu then touched on the motion regarding a PGSS response to Quebec’s proposed tuition hikes. The motion outlined potential actions PGSS could take, including an official statement, endorsement of politicians opposing the hikes, support for protests and demonstrations, and an email template for PGSS members to express their disapproval to provincial politicians. The motion was approved.

The council briefly pivoted to a call for candidates to fill vacancies for representatives on the appointment board before adjourning a few minutes past 6 p.m.

After a half-hour break, the GA began. The first dozen minutes were spent trying to reach quorum by urging people to join the Slido, an online voting platform. However, the efforts proved to be unsuccessful. As a result, it was not possible to vote on motions and the purpose of the meeting was therefore consultative; voting will take place at the winter GA on Feb. 7, provided quorum is reached.

The question period was the night’s greatest speaker-audience engagement. In response to a question regarding how PGSS intends to achieve quorum at the winter GA, the Secretary General acknowledged the lack of success in achieving quorum since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If [each] counselor can bring one extra person then we have a quorum. Right now we have 75 people in both in hybrid and in person,” Tumulu said. “We just need 21 more people to get quorum. It’s not that hard.”

Tumulu and Gnanapragasam mentioned that if all 122 council members attended, quorum would easily be reached. Various attendees then got up to offer suggestions on how to increase attendance and reach quorum. 

David Gallacher, a third year PhD candidate in physics, referenced his own department’s success in achieving quorum at meetings. 

“The most effective thing we did was just to go out and invite people in person, like walk around to all the offices, introduce ourselves and invite them to [our] GA,” Gallacher said. “One thing we found is that just sending more and more emails is increasingly less effective. Adding more emails is worse than having fewer emails.”

Other members insisted that the email communication be more direct and easy-to-understand, straying away from acronyms to lower the knowledge barrier and briefly explaining what can be achieved at PGSS meetings. One member even suggested that draws and raffles be used as a way to lure more participation. After acknowledging that the suggestions will be taken into account, the Secretary General dismissed the meeting a few minutes before 7 p.m. 

Moment of the meeting:

A member commented on the phrasing of Chapter 9, Section 4 of the Society Activities Manual, about how former executives “cannot run for election the same year and the following year,” pointing out that it would mean that they could run during either the current or following year but could only not run for both. After discussion, it was decided the word “and” will be substituted for “or”. 

Soundbite:

“Please call your friends so we have quorum.” — Delahaye, urging the crowd to help bring the GA to quorum.

Out on the Town, Student Life

Winter on wheels: BIXI attempts its first-ever year-round bike-sharing program

by Naomi Gupta on

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November usually marks the beginning of the frigid, seemingly everlasting Montreal winter. Dropping temperatures and the end of Daylight Savings Time are usually a wake-up call for city-dwellers to finally say goodbye to their bikes. But as Montrealers everywhere prepare for hibernation, BIXI bikes will sit—or ride—this one out. Last April, Montreal’s only public bicycle-sharing system announced an extension of its services through the winter months. Although the company usually ceases its operations in mid-November, its new year-round program will allow residents, for the first time, to BIXI during the colder months. This new initiative follows those in other North American cities such as Toronto and Chicago, where citizens experience similar, albeit milder, winters.  

Bikes at every corner? Think again.

For those used to readily available BIXIs, the company’s winter program will work a little differently: Bikes will only be accessible in seven of the cities’ boroughs. These include Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Plateau-Mont-Royal, Ville-Marie, and the Southwest. BIXI’s year-round station map, available on its website, pinpoints the exact spots where bike stations will be located. Unsurprisingly, they are mainly focused downtown and adjacent to certain metro stations in the Plateau. 

So, will students turn to BIXIs?

The extension of BIXI’s regular services into the colder months of the year is a game-changer for students who rely on public transportation to get to and from campus each day. As great as all of this sounds though, an obvious barrier remains: Montreal’s biting weather conditions. 

After all, there is a reason that BIXI refrained from introducing this initiative for so long. The city’s weather pattern of strong winds, blizzards, and iced pavements is difficult enough to cope with on two feet… let alone on two wheels. However, BIXI seems committed to overcoming that challenge. Its regular bikes will be equipped with studded tires and non-slip pedals—features which are essential for safe winter biking. Electric BIXIs, for their part, won’t make a reappearance until next spring. 

Despite BIXI’s plan to provide Montrealers with safe equipment, the city must also be committed to regular road and bike path maintenance. Cyclist safety remains an ongoing issue in Montreal as the city saw a 22.7 per cent increase in bike-related injuries in 2022. These numbers only threaten to increase as layers of snow, ice and slush appear are added to the equation. 

Is “BIXI-ing” truly a worthwhile option?

Unlike the Société de Transport de Montréal’s (STM’s) public transportation services, which offer discounted student passes for bussing and taking the metro, BIXI has yet to introduce a student-friendly discount on their services. Monthly memberships are currently priced at $20, and seasonal memberships amount to $99. 

This is somewhat justifiable, considering that BIXI’s summer services are extremely reliable: with over 884 bike stations, customers are almost always guaranteed to find bikes within walking distance during the regular season. However, BIXI’s new year-round program is set to reduce the number of bike stations available during the winter months: Only 150 stations will continue their operations—18 per cent of the company’s usual number of available stations. Despite this, membership rates are somehow identical to those applicable during the regular BIXI season. This raises the question as to whether these costs will end up being worth it, as access to the service will certainly change.

Montreal’s everlasting winters have become synonymous with over-crowded buses and metros, but year-long biking suggests that, perhaps, Montreal’s public transport scene will look a little different in the future. The question remains, however, as to whether Montreal’s spring-and-summer-only bikers will be persuaded by this change. 

Science & Technology

Concrete’s sandy underbelly and hidden carbon costs

by Atticus O’Rourke Rusin on

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As McGill students, we might not find the sidewalks we walk on during our daily walks to class particularly interesting. And yet, concrete is a major pillar of our society—quite literally. Its use and production affect our lives in innumerable ways. The construction industry uses more concrete than any other material on Earth. Society depends on it, from constructing skyscrapers to paving sidewalks. 

However, with the universal necessity of concrete comes a steep environmental cost. Its rigid construction amplifies the effects of floods, leaving pools of water on our streets and sidewalks. By some estimates, concrete is responsible for four to eight per cent of CO2 emissions. Water is also an integral component in concrete production, depleting this valuable resource in regions that need it most.

CarbiCrete, a concrete technology company based in Montreal, has an interesting approach to limiting the negative impacts of concrete use: They produce carbon-negative concrete. In other words, the company’s method of production not only limits carbon dioxide emissions, but also captures carbon from the atmosphere during the process. Along with water, a mixture of aggregates—like sand and gravel—make up concrete with cement binding everything together. CarbiCrete licenses their technology to concrete producers, who then implement it in their production process. 

“Typically, in the cement-based process, you take aggregate, water, cement; you mix those together. You mold them into whatever product it is you want to create. And then you cure the product with either heat or steam,” Yuri Mytko, CarbiCrete’s Chief Marketing Officer, said in an interview with The Tribune. “With our process, we replace the cement with steel slag [a by-product of the steel smelting process] […] but then when it comes to curing, we cure our products with carbon dioxide.” 

This process simultaneously recycles a by-product of the steel industry and, during the curing process, uses carbon dioxide that likely would have been released into the atmosphere. Incorporated in 2016, the company first brought its technology onto the market this September. They are working to license their technology with established concrete companies and expanding their operation.

“We’re constantly being inundated with requests […] there is a lot of interest. Our focus has really been on standing up this one facility in Drummondville. Basically, we had a pilot project set up at their facility that has essentially been turned into a commercial operation,” Mytko said. 

With CarbiCrete up and running and growing their business with investors, The Tribune spoke with Mette Bendixen, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Geography, to better understand what issues the industry of concrete production still needs to address.

According to Bendixen, the aggregates that are mixed with cement or, in the case of CarbiCrete, with steel slag, opens up a whole new can of worms centred around another seemingly inconspicuous resource: Sand. Although most people do not think of sand as a critical substance, it is the most mined resource on Earth, and sand excavation is eroding ecosystems worldwide. Demand for it has even resulted in “sand mafias”—individuals vying for control and profit in the sand trade. Its scarcity has also forced countries such as the United Arab Emirates to import sand from other countries, including Belgium. 

“[Sand excavation] naturally erodes the river banks […] meaning that we have houses falling into the rivers. It has huge consequences when you start digging that sand,” Bendixen said. 

Bendixen noted the carbon negative aspect of the technology, but also highlighted the lack of green initiative with regard to the aggregates used.

“What might be lacking in that story […] is are they even addressing this point about aggregates. Is that something that’s considered?,” Bendixen asked.

As CarbiCrete further establishes itself in the construction field, with interest in the company increasing exponentially, it will be important to address other areas of concrete production according to Bendixen. Of course, CarbiCrete has brought about a brilliant new technology. It will need to take more initiatives that are equally as forward thinking, however, to address the other issues our environment faces, even in industries as superficially ‘boring’ as sand.   

Science & Technology, STEM EVENTS

Inaugural Business Ethics Conference discusses a more inclusive health system

by K. Coco Zhang on

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On Nov. 10, McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management organized the Inaugural Business Ethics Conference. This full-day conference featured three insightful panel discussions centred around ethical management in the context of systemic challenges, with a focus on the healthcare industry. 

In the panel titled “Promoting Inclusion and Equity in Healthcare,” global health experts shared thoughts on the status quo in health equity from the perspective of marginalized groups such as Indigenous and queer communities. 

Marcia Anderson, Vice-Dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Science at the University of Manitoba, began by highlighting the health disparities for Indigenous peoples that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated.

“Not only were First Nations people at a higher risk of COVID-19 but they were also at a higher risk of severe outcomes due to COVID-19 at significantly younger ages,” Anderson noted. “The median age for hospitalization for First Nations people was a full 15 years younger than that for the general population.”

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Anderson also discussed the intertwining relationships among various social determinants of health—the non-medical factors that influence health, including race, income, education, employment, housing, and access to quality healthcare. 

According to Anderson, racism is a major driver of unequal access to education, employment, and healthcare services, resulting in substantial health disparities among certain populations, such as Indigenous peoples, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and Black Canadians. Given that, Anderson emphasized the urgent need to invest in equity-focused and ethical public policies to improve health outcomes and create a sustainable healthcare system.

Following Anderson’s speech, Richard Budgell, assistant professor at McGill’s Department of Family Medicine, moved the conversation forward by expressing concerns regarding the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples, especially Inuit people, in healthcare professions. 

“If we do not have Inuit within the healthcare system, then we are not making recommendations that are informed by the Inuit. That means the form of healthcare that the Inuit receive is not the form [they prefer], and that’s a problem,” Budgell said.

For Budgell, the problem lies with the difference between Western and Indigenous approaches to care. Western medicine mainly focuses on the physical aspects of health, whereas Indigenous traditional healing embodies a holistic approach that takes into account a person’s physical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual well-being.

Subsequently, Seeta Ramdass, associate director of the Office of Social Accountability and Community Engagement at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, expanded on the importance of racial and ethnic diversity in the healthcare workforce.

“If you are an Indigenous patient, and you happen to have on your healthcare team someone who is also Indigenous, then there is a language and cultural understanding, which can put the patient at ease right away. That actually leads to easier interactions and better health outcomes,” Ramdass explained.

Digital literacy is another barrier that makes healthcare less accessible for Indigenous populations. Due to a variety of systemic factors including lack of funding for Internet access on reservations, a 2017 report by the Brookfield Institute found that Indigenous peoples living in rural areas generally face more barriers to acquiring digital literacy than the rest of the Canadian population. 

Finally, Timothy Evans, director and associate dean of McGill’s School of Population and Global Health and Associate Vice-Principal, commented on future perspectives of the education of healthcare professionals. These new approaches take seriously the consequences of various social changes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing concerns about health disparities, and healthcare globalization—a trend where organizations worldwide work collaboratively to tackle pandemics.

“[The global demographic change has resulted in] situations where countries have decreased fertility and aging populations, meaning they don’t have a productive workforce that meets their needs for all services, inclusive of healthcare services,” Evans said.

To address the healthcare system’s overall performance, Evans pointed to the need for instructional and institutional reforms in the education of healthcare professionals by encouraging the inclusion of formative and transformative learning: The development of leadership skills that allow healthcare professionals to facilitate change.

Overall, the equity panel made clear that sufficient multi-level interventions, focusing on individual, organizational, community, and policy levels, are imperative for the eradication of health disparities in Canada and worldwide.

Student Life

Magasin le Chaînon opens a new location with style

by Katherine Weaver on

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On Nov. 2, beloved Plateau thrift store Magasin le Chaînon opened a new location at 4461 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, closing the doors at 4375 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, where it was based for over 20 years.

The grand opening was originally set for Wednesday, Nov. 1, but was postponed to the following morning due to a technical outage. However, once the doors opened on Thursday morning, the eager crowd filled the redesigned boutique to the brim.

By 10 a.m., the store was practically buzzing. Clean, organized racks and shelving units allowed for accessible browsing of a variety of items, from fur coats to household knick-knacks.

The details of the new store, such as its generous lighting, exposed wood panelling, and coherent floor plan, make it feel like a boutique. You could almost forget that the stock is, in fact, second-hand.

Magasin le Chaînon’s original location was opened in 2000 as a major fundraising arm for Le Chaînon, a group of women’s shelters in Montreal. Le Chaînon was founded in 1932 by Yvonne Maisonneuve, who ran a small women’s shelter on Avenue Fairmount. 

The organization has expanded since then to operate three shelters in Montreal for various lengths of stay, but it stays true to the original mission: To provide judgement-free support for any woman in need.

Store Director Stéphane Lamarche explained that how donations are selected and priced is central to the success and mission of Magasin le Chaînon. Lamarche wants to push against the idea that second hand stores sell items that are always dirty and in disrepair. 

“We have great respect for the merchandise,” he said in an interview with The Tribune. “You go to other thrift stores and find holes and dirty merchandise all the time. Not here.”

Lamarche explained how the store’s corps of over 75 volunteers combs through public donations and adds new items daily. The first rounds of donations are given straight to the shelters, while the items left over are sold at the store.

Valérie Tondreau, Director of Marketing, was quite busy the morning of the opening, coordinating on-floor operations and even jumping in behind a register to help shorten the checkout line that stretched the length of the shop. Despite the air of cheerful chaos throughout the store, Tondreau was not at all surprised by the turnout.

“When we would open up at 10 a.m. at the old store, there would already be people lined up outside every day,” she remarked.

The store sometimes undergoes multiple restocks in one day, meaning some Magasin le Chaînon fans will visit the store two or three times a day, according to Tondreau. These fans followed the trusty Plateau thrift store as it moved a couple of hundred metres down the block to the location formerly housing luxury furniture store Dubois. Lamarche was adamant that the store’s stock, prices, and mission did not change despite its distinct facelift.

Julia Michaud, U3 Management, would visit the old location almost every day. She explained she had counted down the days until the opening, and on Thursday morning, she and a friend were browsing the knick-knacks.

“I think the space is great. I think it looks more cohesive. It’s definitely a nicer space. I kinda miss how eclectic the other store was, but it’s got all the charm, just a little bit nicer now,” Michaud said.

Le Chaînon plans to open up a second store in Villeray at 8601 Boulevard Saint-Laurent in December 2023. This location will be the operation’s sole donation collection point.

McGill, News

AGSEM and McGill’s third bargaining meeting: New demands over collective agreement

by Maddie Higgins on

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On Nov. 9, the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) entered its third bargaining meeting with the McGill administration. Since Sept. 21, AGSEM—the union representing teaching assistants (TAs) at McGill—has been negotiating terms for improved working conditions and wages following the expiration of their collective agreement in July. Amidst negotiations, the union’s No More Free Hours (NMFH) campaign focuses on seeking better compensation for extended work hours not covered by TA’s current salaries. 

The recent meeting centred on a discussion around job security and healthcare, according to the union’s press release. Representing AGSEM, bargaining committee members Nada El Baba, Dallas Jokic, and Nick Vieira sat alongside Grievance Officer Jean-Philip Mattieu, Mobilization Officer Kiersten Beszterda van Vliet, Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) advisor Sébastien Boisvert, and CSN intern Andrea Cano.

Six additional union members attended the meeting, including Jesse*, a graduate student and TA in the Department of Anthropology. Jesse asserted that McGill supervisors and administrators discourage graduate students with external or internal fellowships and grants from applying for TA positions. In an email to The Tribune, Jesse described how many of their peers received informal emails from administrators requesting that these students “take one for the team” in favour of incoming students without supplemental funding.  

“The implicit message was that students with extra funding were greedy for wanting to take TA positions, even though their external or internal awards amount to an annual revenue that is still under Montreal’s poverty line,” Jesse said. 

AGSEM expressed concern that the practice undermines the priority pool rights of those with prior TA experience, a rule ensured in the now-expired collective agreement. Nick Vieira, a third-year physics Ph.D. candidate, wrote to The Tribune in an email, adding that not only does the university hurt the priority pool through discouraging certain students from becoming TAs, it also conflates TA wages with student funding packages.

“In some egregious cases, TA positions are included in students’ funding packages even when the department cannot guarantee that all graduate students will receive TA positions,” Viera wrote. “[Graduate] students are promised that they will receive $X + Y and then told Y is not available to them.”

In the email, Vieira alleged that McGill was willing to ban prohibitory language, where department heads would outright tell students not to apply to TA positions, but would not agree to the union’s proposed language for preventing any discouragement of students looking to become TAs. 

During the meeting, union members vocalized demands for better healthcare, namely to align their collective agreement with Article 12 of the Quebec Act Respecting Occupational Health and Safety, which states that workers have the right to refuse work if it exposes a worker “to danger to his health, safety or physical or mental well-being.” 

Vieira expressed that workers in the teaching industry can be subject to pressure from supervisors or be put in compromising situations. 

“We reject McGill’s suggestion that psychological danger is any less real or pressing than physical danger,” he wrote. 

Alex*, another TA in the social sciences department, stated that “wage theft takes the form of difficult situations,” explaining the pedagogical responsibility TAs feel to help students even while receiving no compensation for spillover hours. 

The backdrop of the Quebec government’s newly proposed tuition hikes has created a new impetus driving AGSEM’s NMFH campaign. With McGill under financial pressure, Alex fears that the tuition hikes will be used as a pretext for austere budgeting. 

“It becomes even more important that our basic wage offers some sense of security when everything around us is being chipped away,” Alex said, voicing anxiety that institutional capacities, extra funding, and resources will be stifled by the tuition hikes. 

While negotiations have only discussed non-monetary proposals, Vieira affirmed that the union will bring forth other demands of the NMFH campaign in the future. 

“If McGill has to make sacrifices, they should fall to high level administrators who make half a million dollars a year, not students or workers trying to make ends meet,” Vieira stated. 

Cynthia Lee, McGill’s Associate Director in Media Relations, in response to a statement request from The Tribune, said “McGill will not make any comments regarding the current discussions and will let the negotiation process run its course.”

*Jesse and Alex’s names have been changed to preserve their confidentiality.

A previous version of this article stated that AGSEM had not touched on non-monetary proposals as of the time of publication. In fact, the union had only discussed non-monetary proposals. The Tribune regrets this error.

McGill, News, Private, SSMU

SSMU Legislative Council approves SSMU statement for empathy and against doxxing

by Chloé Kichenane on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) gathered on Nov. 9 for its fifth Legislative Council meeting of the semester. Members of the council discussed students’ responses to tuition hikes, issues of food security on campus, and a potential statement in response to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. 

The meeting started with reports by councillors representing the Senate Caucus, the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society (ASUS), and the Nursing Undergraduate Society (NUS). The Senate Caucus discussed food security, stating that it meets with Let’s Eat McGill bi-weekly, and met with the Concordia Food Coalition on Nov. 8. The Senate also presented a university-wide survey on food security and encouraged the assembly to share it widely. Nursing Senator Naomi Pastrana Mankovitz explained that data from the survey will be used to write a motion for the creation of a Senate committee concerning food security.

“We need to assess food insecurity so we can better advocate for more security, with data,” Pastrana Mankovitz said.

Student Senators then presented questions they submitted to the McGill Senate in preparation for their upcoming meeting on Nov. 15. The first question—regarding the ongoing investigation into potential unmarked graves on the New Vic project site—was deferred due to the ongoing court case, but councillors noted McGill’s lack of transparency on the issue as a concern. Student Senators answered another question about the communications sent out by McGill on the Israel-Palestine conflict. As a representative of the caucus, Pastrana Mankovitz expressed its doubts on the decision-making process behind McGill’s communications.

“We are wondering about the consultation process behind the mass emails sent by McGill, their consequences and their apparent one-sidedness,” Pastrana Mankovitz said.

Arts and Science Councillors explained why ASUS decided to not release a statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict to students in the faculty. Councillors cited the faculty’s relatively small size and its limited resources, which could be allocated elsewhere considering that Arts and Science students already receive communications from both Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) and Science Undergraduate Society (SUS).

The meeting continued with reports from different committees, including the Gender and Sexuality Advocacy Committee’s presentation of its plans to increase the amount of the Queer Improvement and Partnership Solidarity (QUIPS) Bursary—which distributes funds to queer students and recent graduates. If accepted, this would increase the $3,000 currently being distributed to support queer students’ urgent needs and community projects. 

The Committee then updated the assembly on its advocacy work, such as their push for the removal of the gender dysphoria diagnosis requirement in StudentCareʼs new Gender Affirming Care policy, which provides coverage and legal assistance for students on their gender affirmation journeys. They also mentioned future projects of counter-protesting events to respond to anti-trans hate on campus.

SSMU executives then briefly reported on their activities. Vice President External Liam Gaither presented a few measures to address the recent announcement of tuition hikes in the province, such as a teach-in held on Nov. 8. 

“There will be another protest on November 30th. Follow @ssmu_ea for more details, and wear the red square,” Gaither said.

Members of the council also approved a motion regarding a Statement on Commitment to Empathy, Respect and Anti-Doxxing on Campus. The statement will condemn doxxing—a practice that broadcasts private information about an individual—and provide resources for students who fall victim to doxxing in an attempt to make campus a safe place for students to express their views. 

“‘[This] aligns with the SSMU commitment to fostering a safe and inclusive environment on campus and protecting students from harassment,” councillor Jacob Shannon explained, reading from the official motion. 

Moment of the meeting:

The council concluded that McGill’s response to the Israel-Palestine conflict was inappropriate. They specifically expressed concern on the consequences of these mass emails on the student body.

Soundbite:

Resources in ASUS are already limited and although we support any statement released by the SSMU, this would not be the best allocation of resources for ASUS.” — Councillor Natan Sakariji on ASUS’ decision to not release a statement addressing recent events in Gaza.

Behind the Bench, Sports

Voided races, national desertion, and the mess that was the 2023 Pan American Games

by Julie Ferreyra on

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From Oct. 20 to Nov. 5, Chile hosted the 2023 Pan American Games (PAG) in Santiago. The competition included a total of 33 sports, with 28 being part of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. The PAG are held every four years among athletes from North, Central, and South America in preparation for the Olympic Games, with the PAG serving as a direct qualifier for almost half of the sports held. All in all, the 2023 Pan American Games saw more than 1379 medals awarded, with the USA being the most decorated nation with 124 gold out of their 286 medals. Canada arrived at the top of the podium, earning a new record of 164 medals: 46 gold, 55 silver, and 63 bronze. However, the Games did not unfold without numerous setbacks noted by fans and administrators alike.

In Aug. 2023, the Canadian women’s national soccer team announced their withdrawal from the PAG citing scheduling issues. This decision disappointed fans, as they were eager to see the team play after their lacklustre performance and early exit in the Women’s World Cup this past July. 

Attendees might have noticed that several athletes were competing under a neutral flag, still hoping to participate. The Guatemalan delegation was unable to compete under its national flag, as the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had suspended the Guatemalan National Olympic Committee (GOC) on Oct. 15, 2022. The Guatemalan Constitutional Court had raised concerns about some provisions of the GOC and subsequently invalidated the GOC election in 2022. After having warned the GOC, the IOC effectively withdrew its recognition of the committee. This suspension prevents athletes from officially representing Guatemala and does not allow the GOC to receive  IOC funding. 100 Guatemalan athletes were still able to compete under a neutral flag, allowing them to perform and, for some of them, like Adriana Ruano, secure points toward Olympic qualifying. 

Outside of the large number of athletes competing under neutral flags, there were also a number of hiccups throughout that led the PAG to run far less smoothly than usual. To begin, the women’s 20-kilometre race walk on Oct. 20 left many people scratching their heads. The athletes’ times were voided after it was revealed that the course was three kilometres shorter than regulation. The officials only realized the mistake once Peruvian gold medallist Kimberly Garcia crossed the finish line in 1:12:46, beating the world record established by China’s Jiayu Yang by over ten minutes. Garcia supposedly realized the anomaly from the start when it was clear that her pacing did not match her splits through the race and had raised her concerns to officials. After investigation, organizers redrew the route to fix the issue for the men’s event. This mistake cost several athletes the chance to secure crucial points in an attempt to qualify for the Olympics, as the rankings are determined by finishing position times and bonuses. Although the Pan American Athletics Association (APA) took full responsibility for this mishap, the athletes remain robbed of a crucial opportunity. This event begs the question of how such a mistake could have happened at such a regulated international competition.

The Games also saw a number of political incidents facing the Cuban team, as six members of Cuba’s women’s field hockey team requested asylum in Chile, fleeing from their home country. Those players were joined by a seventh Cuban athlete competing in the 400-metre hurdles event. Earlier this year, three male rowers also defected from Cuba during a qualifying event for the PAG in late April as well as three members of the women’s hockey team, who remained in Barcelona, Spain in early May. Three male field hockey players had also left during training camp in Chile in late May. Those desertions contribute to the growing list of Cuban athletes who have decided to abandon their teams and flee their home country. By some estimates, up to 63 athletes have defected in 2023. 

As the Games drew to a close, the audience, athletes and administrators alike turned their attention to Barranquilla, Colombia, who will host the 20th edition of the Pan American Games in 2027. In the meantime, some athletes will hopefully reunite at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Commentary, Opinion

Montreal needs more than shock to put a stop to pedestrian fatalities

by Jayda Smith on

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The average number of pedestrian fatalities per year increased by 22.7 per cent in 2022 compared to the 2017-2021 average. According to the 2022 annual report from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), of the estimated 952 pedestrian collisions in the city, 20 resulted in pedestrian fatalities. This year, transport minister Geneviève Guilbault announced Quebec’s plan to hammer down on road accidents: The long-overdue launch of a five-year road safety plan that pushes firmer regulations and penalties for Quebec drivers. Though Montreal has adopted a more serious attitude toward road safety over the last few months with the implementation of projects like the SPVM’s pedestrian safety campaign, sidewalkers may not be able to count on the efficacy and enforcement of these new initiatives.

Children and older adults are not the only pedestrians at risk from reckless driving. As the cheapest mode of travel, walking is widespread among university students. If drivers’ callous attitudes toward the painted-yellow crosswalk on McGill’s campus, next to the intersection of rue Prince-Arthur and rue University, set an example, the future of road safety in Montreal looks bleaker by the minute. Very few drivers on this street seem to know or care about the province’s stricter rules and regulations around pedestrian safety. To use a crosswalk, pedestrians must summon the confidence to start walking without hesitation into oncoming traffic, hoping that drivers care enough about damage to their cars to stop. 

The SPVM’s recently launched pedestrian safety campaign involved a shocking advertisement intended to remind drivers to slow down at pedestrian crossings, though its efficacy is dubious. A paneled truck placed in the Vieux-Rosemont neighbourhood displayed a woman sprawled out on a crosswalk—implying that she had been hit by a vehicle. While residents have been pushing for concern for pedestrian safety, shock ads have a rather short lifespan; they become easier to ignore once people are accustomed to them. Considering the uncertain long-term success of such advertisements and the city’s late reaction in halting pedestrian fatalities, this campaign unwisely uses the money allocated toward Montreal’s road safety.

Beyond their advertising Quebec’s plan dubiously increases fines, surveillance, and regulations. But the city and province’s responses come only after immense outcry and grief from residents. The province unveiled its new initiatives many months after the uptick in tragic pedestrian fatalities, such as the hit-and-run incident of 7-year-old Mariia Lehenkovska. It also comes after months of frustrated protests and pleas from parents and pedestrian advocacy groups such as Piétons Québec. This seemingly diligent approach, after so many months of pain and advocacy, tastes bittersweet. Besides this long-delayed response, what use are fines without the consistent presence of traffic police and road-safety technology to enforce them? 

Though a part of Quebec’s road safety plan includes the installment of more photo radars on the province’s roads, it does not specify how many. This is particularly concerning given there are only 12 photo radars currently listed in the region of Montreal. Perhaps money allocated toward shock ads would be more effectively put to use by providing Montreal’s streets with more frequent traffic monitors and road-safety technology.  

Nonetheless, the presence of additional traffic officers might just increase civilian distress. Rather than ensuring the safety of pedestrians, more patrols will add to racial surveillance in Montreal. According to one report, police stop Indigenous women 11 times more than their white counterparts. Even if the government and local police addressed the lack of enforcement, they do not enforce without prejudice and undue violence. Reckless driving must not simply be swapped out for another, just-as-deadly epidemic. 

Montreal needs to provide more concrete and preemptive solutions, such as speed bumps and raised sidewalks in its high traffic areas, and needs to stop turning to surveillance tactics that disproportionately harm marginalized groups. Until then, Montreal’s busiest streets will remain hazardous for pedestrians.

Features

Academic algorithms: Grappling with the AI revolution at McGill

by Jiajia Li on

More in Features:

Since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT in late 2022, showcasing the startling capabilities and power of artificial intelligence (AI), there has been a surge in the number of sophisticated language models — like Google’s Bard, Meta’s Llama and Anthropic’s Claude. These technologies have captured both the attention and scrutiny of higher-education institutions. As the COVID-19 pandemic recently shook conventional ways of instruction, the education system is seeing yet another disruption: Generative artificial intelligence. 

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as GPT, which stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer model,” are trained on large amounts of textual data. They operate by predicting the probability of a word occurring within a longer sequence of words, achieved through the breakdown of text into smaller parts known as “tokens.” Notably, GPT-3, trained on an extensive dataset of 500 billion tokens, represents a significant milestone in AI advancement. A study conducted in January 2023 involving 1,000 students in the US found that 89 per cent have used ChatGPT to help with homework assignments, and the latest available data indicates that it currently boasts an impressive user base of over 180 million users, underscoring its growing influence on education.

Amid this technological change and the increasing usage of—and reliance on—generative AI among students, the question for McGill’s academic community is becoming clear: How can we proactively harness the potential of AI while addressing the concerns it poses in such a way that it benefits the higher education community at McGill as a whole?

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