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To my companions and my community

by Mia Helfrich on

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INT. LIVING ROOM — EVENING

//TJ’s parents are chatting on the sofa. He stands in front of them. They stop talking to look at him.//

TJ

//(wipes the sweat off his hands)//

Mom, Dad… I have something to tell you.

NARRATOR (V.O.)

But wait… haven’t we seen this before?

For some, coming out is an integral part of their queer journey, but to others, it is a casual statement about one aspect of their lives. The queer community encompasses a wide range of lived experiences. Yet, films and television often rely on a familiar pattern: Framing a queer character’s narrative around coming out, positioning it as the climax of their journey. While coming-out narratives provide essential representation for the queer community, they can also narrow the scope of what the queer experience is allowed to look like. 

A history of queer representation in film

From 1934 to 1968, the Hays Code required Hollywood movies to depict homosexuality negatively, forcing filmmakers to vilify or queercode queer characters. During the Gay Liberation Movement of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, activists urged people to “Come Out, Come Out, wherever you are,” and increased queer representation in television followed suit. Still, many stories treated queerness as a defect. An episode of the medical drama //The Eleventh Hour//, released in 1963, attributed Hallie Lambert’s (Kathryn Hays) lesbian identity to her overbearing mother, reinforcing the idea that queerness stems from familial failure. In response, advocacy groups such as the Gay Media Task Force, the National Gay Task Force, and the Gay Activists Alliance held protests against these offensive representations. Their pressure pushed television producers to reconsider how they represented queerness on screen. Thus, in ‘70s sitcoms, a side character’s coming out became a plot device for cisgender, straight leads to confront their own views on homosexuality. However, television shifted from this structure after Ellen DeGeneres’ trailblazing performance as the show’s lead Ellen Morgan on //Ellen// in 1998. Her appearance as a beloved lesbian character marked a shift toward the implementation of recurring mainstream queer characters. Since its formation in 2005, GLAAD, formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has tracked queer representation in media and publishes a report each year analyzing queer representation on broadcast television. According to GLAAD, 2SLGBTQIA+ characters in broadcast series today make up 9.3 per cent of all leads. While queer representation has moved far beyond early vilification, the continued focus on coming-out narratives in media reveals that queer media still needs to represent a diversity of stories for queerness to be widely normalized. 

*Dramatic pause* …I’m gay

Despite the increased positive representation of queerness, not everyone relates to the coming-out narrative. Movies like //Love, Simon//, released in 2018 //Happiest Season//, released in 2020,  and shows like //Heartstopper//, released in 2022, //Heated Rivalry//, released in 2025, and //One Day At A Time//, released in 2017, feature lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) characters who reach an emotional climax when they come out. These narratives stem from decades of underrepresentation, but a focus on these plots may amplify grand emotional scenes, which unintentionally push aside other queer experiences. 

Al Dervisevic, U4 Arts and Resource Coordinator for Queer McGill, discussed his own experiences watching coming-out scenes in an interview with //The Tribune//. 

“I’m sure there are queer people who have had these big sit-down moments with their loved ones, but it’s not something I’ve ever felt represented by. It’s not always this narratively satisfying moment,” Dervisevic said. “When we’re talking about normalizing queerness, taking it to be just a part of people’s lives, which it is, these grand scenes of coming out confessions are probably detracting from that.” 

This type of narrative, similar to ‘70s sitcom representation, also centres the queer character’s relationship with the straight people in their lives. Coming-out narratives are not just about how a queer character feels about their identity, but also about how they expect straight characters to react to hearing about it. It portrays a character’s queerness as the relationship between their identity and the heteronormative expectation to reveal it. 

“The queer narrative becomes a part of straight people’s narratives too, because suddenly they have a role to play,” Dervisvic explained.

This feeds into an underlying problem of many coming-out narratives: They are actually outings. Characters are placed under an external pressure to come out, which forces them to reveal their sexuality. 

Mae Johnson, U3 Science, touched on the theme of outings in film in an interview with //The Tribune//. 

“Many LGBTQ+ stories feature characters who don’t get to come out on their own terms, and while this is unfortunately the reality for some people, it’s sad when it seems to be one of the most common coming-out tropes,” Johnson said.

In //Love, Simon//, Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) is blackmailed by his classmate, who uses evidence of Simon’s closeted queerness as a bargaining chip. He is eventually outed at school. In a situation with enough circumstantial pressure to come out, the moment can seem as forced as an outing. In season 5, episode 7 of //Stranger Things//, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) feels anxious that the resident villain with a world-demolishing agenda, Vecna, will target his sexuality unless he comes out publicly. While the expressed support from his friends and family serves as a cathartic moment for Will, the decision to tell his friends was Hobson’s choice—he would rather come out than risk their deaths. Other outings with similar conditions can be found in //Heated Rivalry//, //Young Royals//, and //Red, White, and Royal Blue//.  While these portrayals represent a traumatic reality for many queer people, presenting an outing as a coming out reframes the conflict between heteronormative expectations and a queer person’s internal desires as a simple act of  ‘bravery,’ rather than as a constrained or coerced response. 

“These stories allow characters to show strength, resilience, and claim their identity in the face of scrutiny,” Johnson said. “However, I think that featuring queer characters coming out on their own terms is as important, though less seen.”

She also wonders if a pattern of coming-out narratives creates a perceived pressure to come out in real life. 

“I think it’s important to validate the idea that coming out is not what makes your queer identity real. If you’re not ready, or not in a safe space to make that happen, you don’t have to,” Johnson said. 

These sentiments suggest that the coming-out narrative is itself a staple of queer media, yet simultaneously a source of frustration for many queer people.

Who’s missing from the narrative?

Coming out narratives also underrepresent the stories of transgender people, racialized people, and queer elders. A study that analyzed the top 10 coming-out films recommended by IMDb found that while there are many interpretations of characters’ reactions to coming out, there is little diversity in race, gender, or the sexual orientation of the characters themselves. 

Val Muñoz, the Administrative Coordinator for Queer McGill, expressed that they would like to see more representation of queer stories from Central and South America, where queerness in many countries is persecuted. 

“I would want to see their stories highlighted and their community, and the fight that they have in their home countries,” they said in an interview with //The Tribune//.

The genre conventions of coming-out narratives further narrow representation. These stories most often appear in teen romantic comedies or sitcoms, leaving little room for queer elders. This framing perpetuates the idea that queerness is a phenomenon within a younger generation,  despite the reality that 2SLGBTQIA+ people have always existed. 

“These coming-out narratives are always in YA [young adult] or teen romance. But what about the people who weren’t able to come out until they were much older?” Muñoz said. “Even now, with social spaces in Montreal, it’s always catered to under-25s. We’re missing a whole generation of our queer ancestors who paved the path before us. It would be really nice to see and hear these people’s stories.” 

This absence highlights the wider lack of representation for transgender and characters of colour. In their 2024-2025 report, GLAAD found that of the 489 queer characters last year, 86.5 per cent were LGB, while there were only 33 transgender characters. They also reported that 51 per cent of characters were of colour. While this may seem balanced on paper, this does not necessarily translate into equitable representation on screen, nor does it address whether these characters occupy leading roles or are portrayed beyond stereotypes.

“We all have different experiences coming out, and I think it’s important to see that reflected in how we tell [these] stories,” Johnson said.

 Beyond coming out 

Media representation can have tangible effects on youth mental health and well-being. In a study which surveyed adolescents across the country, Bradley Bond, a Communications professor at the University of San Diego, found that more queer media exposure correlated with feeling less sad, dejected, and depressed. He theorized that positive depictions of 2SLGBTQIA+ characters could decrease suicidal feelings within queer youth. LGB youth are nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (CDC). Considering the high rate of depression and suicide among queer youth, accurate and inclusive portrayals of queer characters take on a new importance. Positive portrayals of queer characters in film and television could significantly affect not only the general public but our community itself.

 Within this context, the rom-com convention offers a unique opportunity to portray a healthy coming out and a happy ending. It can model what an appropriate acceptance looks like for friends and family. When shows and films follow the character’s emotional journey, the viewer is privy to thoughts and feelings about how their identity fits within their world. This fosters empathy and understanding for the character, which transfers to queer people in real life.

Ana Gomez, U3 Arts, voiced her feelings about watching coming-out scenes in an interview with //The Tribune//. 

“While I can’t relate, I have a lot of friends who are queer, so I feel a lot of empathy and admiration for my friends. I also just get very emotional for them, especially if it’s something that they have thought about for a while, and that they feel vulnerable and comfortable sharing with me.”

It can also depict the experience of stepping into the queer community as a teen and what community support should resemble. //Heartstopper//, for example, features an ensemble of queer characters, most of whom help other characters fall in love, come out, or transition.

“I love watching characters being able to live more authentically, and these stories are in many ways what encouraged me to come out as a teenager,” Johnson said. “I also think it is important to discuss the nuances around this experience and not pigeonhole what coming out looks like.” 

Ultimately, queerness is not dependent on coming out, nor is it a precursor to being a part of the queer community. With the improvement of queer representation in television, producers may move away from outing plots and include more transgender characters, characters of colour, and queer elders. They should also acknowledge that a character does not need a public declaration for their queerness to be real. For viewers within our community, we should continue to ask ourselves how particular depictions of coming out contribute to expectations and stereotypes for our community. 

//TJ looks down and hides his sweaty hands behind his back.//

NARRATOR (V.O.) — CONTINUED

Do you see that? Are you going to ask, “Haven’t we seen this before?”

News, PGSS, SSMU

SSMU BoD discusses PGSS food pantry access

by Eren Atac on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) discussed restricting Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) members’ access to the SSMU food pantry, and approved new funding for Indigenous student aid during its meeting on Jan. 20.  

The discussion surrounding the food pantry stemmed from a motion approved at the most recent SSMU Legislative Council (LC) meeting, which proposed implementing a fee for PGSS members to access the service. SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Seraphina Crema-Black told the BoD that the motion’s final wording did not reflect the intent of the LC’s position. 

“We discussed what this motion would look like during the Legislative Council [meeting],” Crema-Black said. “During this discussion, we spoke of stopping the disallowance of the food pantry after a discussion about the fee levy had happened between PGSS and SSMU representatives. The motion was still approved in its writing.”

Crema-Black suggested disallowing the portion of the motion regarding PGSS members regaining access to the pantry, arguing that restricting access to the food pantry would disproportionately affect graduate students who rely on the service. In response, Alumni Representative Joshua Chin cautioned against overturning a decision approved by the Legislative Council without clear legal justification.

“Ultimately, I get the feeling that this motion is more or less a political decision that was approved by the Legislative Council,” Chin said. “I’d be uncomfortable disallowing based on purely political or convenience reasons, if really there’s no case to be made for legal or operational necessity.”

The board did not reach a definitive conclusion on restricting PGSS member access to the food pantry during the meeting.

The BoD also reviewed a report from SSMU Elections on the Fall 2025 referendum and Plebiscite questions. Chief Officer of SSMU Elections Mike Lee addressed voter turnout, noting that low participation was not due to a lack of awareness.

“So the analysis here is that SSMU members do vote,” Lee said. “When I first started, we really questioned whether people don’t vote because they simply didn’t know if they had to vote or not. This clearly shows that they do get their Simply Voting emails. They do know they can vote. It does depend on what they think is relevant.” 

The board later approved a motion allocating $180,000 CAD, drawn from the Indigenous affairs fee, in four installments over four years to fund Indigenous student aid and scholarships. VP University Affairs Susan Aloudat emphasized the motion’s goal of increasing accessibility for Indigenous students seeking to study at McGill, stating that SSMU wants the application process for scholarships to be non-invasive. 

“Our mandate is to support and empower our Indigenous students,” Aloudat said. “We want to encourage Indigenous student enrollment. The idea is that McGill was supposed to increase how many Indigenous students we had, but we actually found that it’s decreasing. So the purpose of this award is to decrease the barriers to entry to education at McGill as much as possible for Indigenous students.”

The board also ratified a revised 2025–26 budget previously approved by the Legislative Council, suspending a section of the Internal Regulations of Finance that required applicants to submit a report before obtaining funding. The board also appointed Directors Simon Ngassam and Adam Corbier to the Accountability Committee, Director Ngassam to the Governance Reform Committee, and Directors Maxime Rouhan and Annette Yu to the Nominating Committee. The meeting concluded with a confidential session.

Moment of the Meeting

The board approved an advance loan of $60,000 CAD for MustBus, a student-run SSMU service group which provides transportation for students. 

Soundbite

“I think that it’s very, very bad for the SSMU’s reputation if we go ahead with [pulling PGSS access to the food pantry] [….] We’ve been speaking with them about a fee levy and introducing a fee for the food pantry. I want to know whether that’s something that they would consider before we pull access, especially because it’s used disproportionately by PGSS members, and food insecurity is a very important issue.” — VP External Seraphina Crema Black on the motion to restrict PGSS access to the SSMU food pantry.

A previous version of this article contained inaccuracies regarding discussions and decisions at SSMU’s Board of Directors meeting. In fact, the board did not debate restricting access, which was discussed at Legislative Council; Director Crema-Black did not formally move a motion regarding Food Pantry access, and the matter was instead referred to Legislative Council; the board did not suspend the Internal Regulations of Finance in full, but only a limited section related to funding disbursement and reporting; and several directors were appointed to multiple committees. The Tribune regrets these errors.


Editorial, Opinion

McGill’s silence on Iran unmasks its global negligence

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

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For an institution that prides itself on global engagement, McGill’s response to the crisis in Iran isn’t just inadequate—it’s indefensible. On Jan. 13, Dean of Students Tony Mittermaier sent an email to all students who hold an Iranian passport on McGill’s records. The message acknowledged the “civil unrest and disruptions to communications in Iran” and directed students to the Wellness Hub and GuardMe for mental health support. For academic accommodations, Mittermaier advised students to speak directly with their instructors. What the email did not provide was a clear, centralized protocol, or any standardized guidance to ensure that students receive consistent accommodations across courses. 

McGill regularly positions itself as a “globally engaged” institution. Still, as the Iranian government’s violent crackdown on protesters intensifies amid a nationwide internet blackout and mass arrests, the university has failed to offer comprehensive support systems for students and faculty during this time of crisis. 

The email’s recommendation that students speak directly with their instructors is not a neutral signal of support. It forces students to disclose personal distress as they navigate fear and uncertainty, unable to contact loved ones back home. This perfunctory response creates unequal access by design, as the accommodation outcome is likely to vary significantly depending on the instructor and the student’s comfort with disclosure. 

The McGill administration frequently offers vague, decentralized guidance to faculty members during exceptional circumstances and events, harming the consistency of accessibility measures. When this institutional obscurity is practiced during times of international crisis, students and faculty are left to face compounded uncertainty. 

McGill’s decision to only send this email to students with Iranian citizenship also raises the issue of visibility. Many students with loved ones or community in Iran do not hold an Iranian passport but are still deeply affected by the government’s violent repression of protestors. By deciding that passport-holders are the only appropriate recipients of this email communication, McGill is actively narrowing who gets recognized as impacted and, by consequence, who is connected with resources and support systems. 

Yet regardless of the mechanism through which administrators determine if a student ‘counts’ as Iranian for an email communication, McGill should express solidarity and treat international crisis as a collective, campus-wide concern. 

McGill has shown in the past that it can respond publicly and with empathy. When Russia launched its war on Ukraine in 2022, the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President issued a public statement strongly condemning the Russian invasion, expressing solidarity with Ukraine, and explicitly highlighting local and university-sanctioned resources available to McGill community members affected by the war, such as accelerated admissions and tuition waivers. McGill’s lack of institutional coordination to support students tied to Iran testifies to the university’s inconsistency in dictating how, when, and which students receive visibility, urgency, and empathy. This double standard is exacerbated by the disparity in enrollment numbers—in the 2024-2025 academic year, roughly 300 students with Iranian passports enrolled at McGill, compared to 17 students with Ukrainian passports. If McGill wants to continue claiming its title as a “motor of social inclusion,” it must confront and cease its discrepant treatment of different global crises. This is not a critique of McGill’s response to Ukraine—that statement reflected precisely the kind of institutional leadership and support students deserve during the crisis. The problem is: If the administration demonstrated its capacity for coordinated, public solidarity then, what explains its choice to withhold the same level of support now?

The gap between McGill’s stated values and its actions is hard to miss. For a university that emphasizes global engagement as central to its identity, its minimal, lacklustre response is striking. When McGill engagement is framed primarily through partnerships, prestige, recruitment, and research ties, while the university simultaneously neglects the well-being of its own community members by refusing to offer tangible support, it becomes extractive by default. If McGill wants to benefit from internationalism, it consequently inherits the obligation to uplift and advocate for the international and diasporic students who make this globalized status a reality. 

McGill can do better, and this does not require inventing a new system from scratch. Right now, the university’s approach makes the crisis in Iran feel unnecessarily isolated, when crisis communications should be public and centralized. By leaving students to rely on student associations and one-off conversations with professors, McGill is outsourcing its obligations in lieu of a proper response. 

If McGill cannot respond to global crises with the same standard of care every time, then that gap becomes a statement in itself. McGill has shown what it can do. Now is the time to apply that capacity consistently—because silence is a choice, and so is negligence.

McGill, Montreal, News, SSMU

QPIRG-McGill encourages students to run for SSMU

by Russel Ismael on

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On Jan. 22, McGill’s Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG-McGill) chapter held an information session on how to run for student government positions at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), titled “Fix Student Democracy.” The talks explored how student involvement in these administrative positions can enact positive change for the undergraduate student body.

In an interview with The Tribune, Nelly Wat, outreach coordinator at QPIRG-McGill, emphasized the importance of holding educational events.

“QPIRG really tries to serve as a hub for students who are really invested in social and environmental justice,” Wat said. “What we try to do is keep students politically engaged and connected with their community.”

Former SSMU Vice-President External Hugo-Victor Solomon began the talk with an overview of how the SSMU is run, illustrating how students can pursue their passions through student government. 

Throughout his tenure, Solomon pursued goals such as increasing visibility of the Mohawk Mothers, ratifying the Policy Against Genocide in Palestine, and implementing a fee for Francophone initiatives. Solomon described these projects as part of his vision to run SSMU as a union.

“A union has an obligation to deliver for its membership. A business has an obligation to deliver for its shareholders to protect its own kind of commercial well-being,” Solomon said. “You should not accept that type of framework, even though it might feel a bit more easy.”

Solomon also cautioned potential candidates against overworking themselves for a SSMU position. He advised that candidates should instead economize their work.

“Understanding where your [political] pressure is most effective will be kind of the difference between burning out and getting nothing done and accomplishing as many of your goals as possible,” Solomon said. “There’s a large number of people [on the External Affairs] team, and if you can cultivate a shared team identity and pursue goals that everybody already cares about, it can actually be really fun.”

Some SSMU representatives, however, find it difficult to optimize political authority due to perceived systemic issues. The next presenter, a SSMU employee who wished to remain anonymous, criticized SSMU for its alleged restructuring of political power, moving authority from General Assemblies (GAs) to the Legislative Council. The member argued that this change is detrimental to student democracy.

“GAs are the highest governing body of a student union,” the member explained. “One of the most telling things about how bad SSMU is right now is that they never hit quorum with their GAs unless there’s a vote on Palestine happening. So there are a bunch of democratic things that have been pushed to the side in SSMU.”

They also expressed their discontent toward SSMU’s handling of Midnight Kitchen (MK)—which SSMU shut down in October 2025 without consulting the kitchen’s staff. The member stated that, after MK was shut down, SSMU reappropriated its democratically allocated funding to instead hire private catering companies. 

The member was also alarmed by the new Student Code of Conduct, which was approved by both student senators and the SSMU executive team on Nov. 12. They claimed that the new Code of Conduct facilitates punishments for students involved in political activism, citing an alleged uptick in the number of disciplinary cases made against students by the university.   

However, SSMU President Dymetri Taylor disputes these claims, writing in an email to The Tribune that, had student senators not engaged with the administration, the outcomes for undergraduates would have been worse. He also explained that if the Code is causing too many issues for students, then student senators will petition for amendments.

“On the claim that there’s been a sudden increase in disciplinary cases this semester, that’s not accurate,” Taylor wrote. “There was definitely more enforcement activity around the [pro-Palestine] strikes, but that’s because people were blocking classes from taking place, which has always been against the Code.”

The member also alleged that these issues stem from the McGill administration’s intervention in SSMU, stating that these systemic changes were made at the request of President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini and Interim Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Angela Campbell. They alleged that issues such as limited student services funding and strikes became more difficult to organize as a result of these changes. 

However, Taylor asserted that these framings are incorrect. He stated that the lack of student funding is due to the student body voting against an increase and that SSMU, as a student society, cannot legally mandate strikes like a union can.

“We’ve been working more productively with [McGill] in order to get results and make sure student voices are heard. But the idea that people are doing this for personal gain isn’t true,” Taylor wrote. “In my experience, only a couple of executives in prior years approached the role that way, and they’re, thankfully, no longer here.”

Due to these issues, the member believes that SSMU finds itself in a precarious situation. They listed how many other organizations, such as the Concordia Student Union and Co-op Bar Milton-Parc, are more hesitant to work with SSMU now because of this paradigm shift. Despite this, the member is still optimistic about SSMU’s future.

“Those systems, those relationships are all being eroded really, really quickly in a way that is going to be hard to come back from,” the member said. “But it will just take people who are elected, who are motivated, who are excited about political change to change that and undo the damage that’s been done.”

McGill, News

COFAM continues negotiations with McGill over CAS precarious faculty employment

by Asher Kui on

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In July 2025, the Confederation of Faculty Associations of McGill (COFAM), composed of five faculty unions, began bargaining with McGill over the working conditions of Contract Academic Staff (CAS). 

COFAM consists of the Association of McGill Academic Staff of the School of Continuing Studies (AMASCS/AMPEEP), the Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE), the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA), the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL/AMPD), and the Association of McGill Library Academic Staff (AMLAS). This bargaining process primarily concerns CAS faculty members at McGill.

Tenure-track academic staff must fulfill three areas of work: Teaching, researching, and contributing to the university community. CAS faculty, however, only need to fulfill two out of the three categories. Even though staff in both streams are expected to work full-time, they do not receive the same contract length, hiring benefits, and pay as other tenure-track academic staff.

In an interview with The Tribune, Kyle Kubler, AMPFA treasurer and CAS faculty lecturer at the McGill Writing Centre, explained that the main purpose of this negotiation is to fix the discrepancy in employment conditions between tenure-track and CAS faculty. 

“We recognize that tenure-track professors have more job responsibilities in the sense [that] they have these three categories instead of two, but it’s not like […] by having more categories, they work more than us,” Kubler said. “We all work the same. Each individual person works slightly different hours depending on their setup, but there’s not an expectation that what we do is less than full-time and what they do is full-time or more than full-time.”

CAS faculty members generally must have six years of teaching experience at McGill before they may obtain a permanent contract. Kubler explained that this contract renewal system could create job instability.

“For CAS members, the university has the right to give you a contract of however long they want [….] There’s a lot of variability in those first six years before you become permanent,” he said. “That makes our jobs really insecure [….] Our proposal into bargaining is that we want to take the people that are currently CAS faculty lecturers and CAS professors and put them into the tenure stream [….] Where we get one for three years, we do a renewal process, and we get another for three years.”

On Jan. 20, COFAM met with the McGill administration for a bargaining meeting. McGill rejected COFAM’s initial proposal to eliminate the CAS system, instead offering a counter-proposal, which introduces teaching-intensive tenure-track positions.

Kubler expressed that while it is a step in the right direction, McGill’s decision remains inadequate in pragmatically improving working conditions for existing CAS faculty.

“What they’ve offered us right now is obviously insufficient in the sense that it doesn’t really address any of our concerns,” he said. “We’re happy to see them move in that direction, and we need a lot more information about details before we really know what to do with it.”

Julie Sénat, AMPFA vice president and French Language Centre faculty lecturer, was hired as a CAS faculty member on a two-year contract in 2022. In an interview with The Tribune, Sénat mentioned that amid McGill’s recent budget cuts, many CAS faculty are left questioning their job security.

“When I was hired, my colleagues and I were under the impression that [our jobs were] stable, [as] having a longer contract made me feel as if I was more secure,” Sénat said. “Later on, as McGill started budget cuts and I started getting more information, I realized that my position could be cut [….] If that were to happen, let’s say they were deciding to cut CAS positions, […] they could give me a non-renewable [contract] and I would not have any seniority. What would happen is that I would just [have to teach] the leftover courses.”

Kubler explained that while the current contract-length policy allows McGill to maintain maximum flexibility, it is unfair to CAS members.

“I’m not trying to say that this is something nefarious, but this is of course something they want,” Kubler said. “And then, of course, it makes sense for us why we wouldn’t want that, because we want certain clarity in terms of our employment. It becomes tricky [when] you’ve got someone who’s one year away from getting their permanent contract, and then they don’t know if they’re going to get renewed for that last year.”

Sénat then expressed dissatisfaction with McGill’s lack of transparency with its employees.

“We are way more precarious than our tenure-track colleagues, we’re way less paid,” she noted. “The feeling is that McGill’s culture has always been like everything is silent, things are not clear. It’s handled case by case. What we’re trying to do is to put together and clarify everything, negotiating together.”

The Tribune reached out to the McGill Labour and Employee Relations group, but they did not respond in time for publication.

In an interview with The Tribune, Steve Jordan, president of the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT) and associate professor in the Faculty of Education, explained that although COFAM and MAUT differ legally, they work in parallel to promote the interests of faculty members and staff.

“The Contract Academic Staff faculty lecturers are represented in MAUT,” Jordan said. “The MAUT Council is the governing body, and it’s composed of about 20 people [….] There’s a CAS representative [….] MAUT has been actively working with CAS around their working conditions. For example, in the last couple of years, we’ve had town halls and workshops specifically aimed at CAS, where we’ve invited CAS members to come along to air their concerns, their issues, as far as to provide support and feedback.”

He then explained that improving the working conditions of CAS members remains a priority.

“We have the Committee on Academic [Staff] Compensation, which is […] our body where we negotiate directly with the administration on salary, working conditions, and so forth,” Jordan said. “We’re quite concerned about CAS, because they have grown in numbers over the last several years, and so they become a really important part of our negotiations and our membership.”

Kubler also elaborated on why the collective bargaining process could take longer than expected.

“Because we’re unionized, the working conditions themselves get determined in collective bargaining,” he explained. “We’re in that process right now of trying to create this first collective agreement for faculty members [….] Employers are generally busy, and there’s not a huge incentive on their end to get things done super quickly […] there’s lots of unions on campus that they have to navigate with too, and some of them are also in bargaining.”

For many CAS faculty members, their ability to contribute meaningfully to the university is closely tied to a sense of stability in their employment at McGill. Kubler reiterated that McGill’s ambiguity around the working conditions of CAS faculty members will continue to dissuade them from committing long-term to the university.

“The best way that we can contribute to McGill is primarily through our teaching, because that’s largely what we do,” Kubler said. “If we want to develop new courses, and if we want to go to pedagogical conferences, if we end up doing advising [for] students or developing different kinds of programs […] these are all things that are there, like multi-year projects that require long-term investment. But if we don’t have these long-term contracts, then it makes it really difficult for us to commit and invest in that work and actually invest in McGill.”

Errata: A previous version of this article stated that COFAM consists of four unions. In fact, COFAM consists of five unions, including AMLAS. The Tribune regrets this error.

Football, Sports

Indiana’s impossible season ends in a National Championship

by Zain Ahmed on

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In a defining moment for college football, the Indiana University Hoosiers capped a perfect 16–0 season by beating the University of Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in the College Football Playoff National Championship on  Jan. 18 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. What makes this title run truly historic is not just the undefeated record, but the context behind it: A program that just a few years ago finished 3–9; a quarterback once overlooked by Miami itself; and a 64-year-old coach who rewrote expectations faster than anyone expected.

Head Coach Curt Cignetti arrived in Bloomington just two years before the championship and inherited a team with one of the worst recent records in Division I history. By the time the title game rolled around, his Hoosiers had transformed into the number one team in the nation, the Big Ten champions, and consensus national champions. Cignetti’s path was storied, from Division II stops to the pinnacle of college football. He lived up to his coaching lifer reputation with his measured leadership and bold fourth-down calls in the championship game which rewrote the narrative on what a turnaround could look like.

The emotional core of Indiana’s story was quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Originally from the Miami area, Mendoza transferred from the University of California, Berkley and became the heartbeat of Indiana’s offence. In the championship game, he completed 16 of 27 passes for 186 yards and rushed for a crucial 12-yard touchdown on 4th-and-4 late in the fourth quarter, which was the play that shifted momentum and gave the Hoosiers a 24-14 lead they would not relinquish. He would earn Offensive Player of the Game honours for his efforts.

Earlier in the season, Mendoza had already collected a shelf-full of awards, including the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, the Davey O’Brien Award, and Walter Camp Player of the Year, leading the Big Ten in key passing categories.

Indiana set the tone early with a sustained opening drive, capping it with a 34-yard field goal by kicker Nico Radicic to take a 3-0 lead. They followed with a methodical march downfield ending in a 1-yard touchdown run by tight end Riley Nowakowski, putting them ahead 10-0 at halftime. The Hoosiers’ defence, disciplined and opportunistic throughout the night, held Miami’s explosive offence in check through the opening two quarters. 

Miami cut the deficit to 10-7 with a long rushing score by Mark Fletcher Jr., but Indiana responded in spectacular fashion: Defensive lineman Mikail Kamara blocked a punt, which Isaiah Jones recovered in the end zone for a touchdown, flipping the energy of the game back to the Hoosiers’ favour. That play kept Indiana ahead despite Miami’s persistent rally attempts.

With the Hurricanes closing the gap to 17-14 in the third quarter, Cignetti’s offence manufactured a late game-defining drive: On 4th-and-5 from Miami’s 37, Mendoza connected with Charlie Becker for a 19-yard first down. On 4th-and-4, Mendoza’s bruising 12-yard run gave the Hoosiers a convincing lead with under ten minutes to play. Miami continued to fight back, cutting the lead to 24-21, but a late interception by Jamari Sharpe sealed the title for Indiana.

This was not a championship built on one game alone; it was the culmination of a 16–0 season, the first perfect campaign in modern college football since Yale University in 1894, and the first national championship in program history. Their path included a stunning Big Ten Championship Game win over Ohio State, 13-10, with Mendoza orchestrating the offence, a 38-3 Rose Bowl rout of Alabama, and dominance in the Peach Bowl vs. Oregon, winning 56-22. For a team with one of the lowest composite roster talent rankings in Power-4 football, Indiana’s rise to the top was nothing short of remarkable.

Focusing on disciplined coaching and clutch performances, Indiana carved a place and identity for itself that few analysts saw coming. From Cignetti’s improbable ascent to Mendoza’s poetic redemption against his hometown program, this Hoosier season will not just be remembered, it will be studied as history. In the annals of college football lore, Indiana’s 2025 campaign will be looked back on as a legacy-defining moment that will be studied for years to come.

Basketball, Know Your Athlete, Sports

Know Your Athlete: Lily Rose Chatila

by Lialah Mavani on

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Growing up in Quebec City, Martlets Basketball Guard Lily Rose Chatila, U3 Science, found basketball by chance. At just 10 years old, she was introduced to the sport unexpectedly while watching her older sister’s High School Musical school play. What began as a coincidence has since grown into a defining part of her life. Now at 22 years old, Chatila is one of the Martlets’ key players, steadily making her mark in McGill basketball history.

On Jan. 17, Martlets Basketball faced the Concordia Stingers after falling short just two days prior. After a quick turnaround, the team captured a decisive 62-51 win over the Stingers, with Chatila leading on the scoreboard. The young guard scored 33 points, with the majority of her points coming from two-point field goals and free throws. Chatila’s historic performance measures up to a previous record set in 2008 by Catherine Parent, making her one of four Martlets to ever score 33 or more points in a game.

Despite her outstanding results, Chatila reflected that she is not focusing on the score in most games. 

“I wasn’t necessarily aware of my points, but just the flow of the game was really good. I think it was one of our best games,” Chatila said. “[The] team gets really good things off of our defence, and we had amazing defence, which we put into offence.”

Like most varsity athletes, Chatila has had her fair share of injuries, and this season was no exception. In October she suffered a minor concussion, and in December she had a quadricep strain, which put her out of the team’s matchups before winter break.

Reflecting on how injuries can reshape an athlete’s perspective, Chatila extended lessons she learned off the court before facing the challenge of returning to play. Recovery is rarely straightforward, and navigating a season marked by injuries takes a toll not only on the athlete, but on the team as a whole.

“I just want to go and give my best, because yes, I’ve had one game that I played well, and then the next I couldn’t play,” Chatila said. “Our biggest thing this year is for every game to go out there and give our best, because it’s really up and down for injuries.”

Looking ahead at her remaining time at McGill, Chatila is optimistic about remaining a force to be reckoned with on court—despite not having any specific records in mind to break.

“My main goal is going to be to try and stay consistent,” Chatila said. “Obviously, I want to improve on everything. You always want to keep improving, but I think for me, the key is going to be consistent in practices and games, and then the summer, to be consistent with the work I’m putting in.”

Beyond her personal experience on the court, Chatila also touched on the broader landscape of women’s sports and the responsibility that comes with being a high-level university athlete. Reflecting on her journey from a chance introduction to basketball to becoming a leader on the Martlets roster, she emphasized the importance of confidence, perseverance, and embracing opportunity, especially for young women athletes hoping to carve out a place for themselves in the game.

“Even when it’s going good, bad, or not the way you want it to, I think if you’re surrounded by a good group [of people] and your mindset is right, you can find ways to have fun,” Chatila said. “Even if you lose some games, I think the important thing is, really, to enjoy it. Because if you don’t, then I don’t really think there’s a point to doing it, especially at a high level. Just enjoy it and make sure you surround yourself [with] a team where you feel like you can be yourself.”

Science & Technology

Take the Tribune’s Science and Technology quiz

by Malika Logossou on

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In 1989, Alan Emtage, a graduate and system administrator at McGill, created the first Internet search engine, which present-day search engines still rely on. What did he call his search engine?

a) WebCrawler
b) Yahoo
c) Archie
d) ChatGPT

As of Fall 2025, which faculty had the largest number of students enrolled?

a) Arts
b) Medicine and Health Sciences
c) Science
d) Engineering

Two of the three ‘Godfathers’ of Artificial Intelligence are Canadians. Who are they?

a) Yann LeCun and Yoshua Bengio
b) Ray Solomonoff and Arthur Samuel
c) Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio
d) Yann LeCun and Alan Turing

Which of these CEGEPs was named after a McGill alumnus?

a) LaSalle College
b) Dawson College
c) Marianopolis College
d) Vanier College

In what year did Carrie Derrick become Canada’s first female professor, having been appointed as a Professor of Morphological Botany at McGill?

a) 1912
b) 1950
c) 1963
d) 1934

McGill was the first Canadian university to award a degree in which discipline?

a) Medicine 
b) Arts
c) Engineering 
d) Religious Studies

The first McGill psychology course was taught in 1850, but psychology did not become its own department at the university until 1922. Under which department did psychology originate?

a) Sociology
b) Philosophy
c) Biology
d) Anthropology

Who was the second Canadian woman to go to space and the first to board the International Space Station, all while holding a degree from McGill?

a) Valentina Tereshkova
b) Katy Perry
c) Roberta Bondar
d) Julie Payette

Answers:
c) Archie
a) Arts
c) Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio
b) Dawson College
a) 1912
a) Medicine
b) Philosophy
d) Julie Payette

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘Partition’ views Palestine from the interwar period to modern-day experiences

by Josette Chandler on

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McGill’s Department of Anthropology and the Institute for the Study of International Development hosted a screening and Q&A session for Diana Allan’s film Partition on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at McGill’s Critical Media Lab (CML). Allan, a filmmaker and professor of Anthropology at McGill, considers Partition a collaborative work; other members of the lab—Co-Directors Lisa Stevenson and Megan Bradley, as well as Associate Director Julian Flavin—worked on the film with Allan.

When Allan introduced her film, she emphasized how the project would not have been possible without the people she worked with at the CML.

“[This film] is a product of this space and the friendships and collaborations that it has enabled,” Allan said. “If Montreal is the home of [this film], CML is the heart [….] Thank you for the partners in this project.”

Partition explores the impact of British colonialism in Palestine by combining 1900s black-and-white visuals with modern-day audio and stories. The film showcases photos and footage from the time of the British Mandate for Palestine, which spanned from 1917 to the establishment of an Israeli state in 1948. The footage, which was recorded by British soldiers, depicted daily Palestinian life as well as British military activity during the mandate.

The archival footage is taken from the Imperial War Museum Collection in London, accompanied by music and interviews from Allan’s own collection. 

“[The film] was bifocal in the sense that you’re seeing images from 100 years ago and sound from today,” Allan said.

Partition is not Allan’s first attempt to shed light on the ongoing genocide in Palestine through film. She has published a book, “Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile,” which explores the daily struggles of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. She is also the co-director of the Nakba Archive, an oral history collective recording and commemorating Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who lived through the Nakba.  

Allan focuses on the Palestinian experience, with all language in the film either written or spoken in Palestinian Arabic. Throughout the film, she interviews Palestinians about their lived experiences, as well as their families’ experiences in Palestine. Much of the film revolved around interviews with Sumaya, a former student of Allan’s. Through these interviews, Allan shares modern-day stories of Palestine as well as historical ones through the accounts of Sumaya’s family. 

In the Q&A session, Allan explains how this documentary shares similarities with many of her other films. Like Partition, Allan’s other films focus primarily on the human condition—specifically memory and the emotional impact it can have on the lives of refugees.

“All of my films have been about memory [….] Reference photos and through movement, through space, activates this sort of process of memory, and this form is about the experience of the archive itself,” Allan said.  

Paloma Masel, U2 Arts, said that the film’s focus on memory and human experience drew her to the screening. She emphasized the role of a traditional song Sumaya referred to as “the camel driver’s song.”

“That song being followed by what sounded like the songs of thousands of families […] that might have gone through that sort of trauma really stuck with me,” Masel said. “And I wanted to hear more encapsulation of that […] experience in the final sequence.” 

Before the Q&A began, Lisa Stevenson, co-director of the CML, warned attendees about using colonial images, as they could risk inadvertently uplifting colonial oppressors.

“I think that working with the colonial images is a very faulty endeavour and there’s a danger of you, obviously, questioning forms of colonial violence, that are the context for the making of these images and how you both make these images visible, these histories visible,” Stevenson said.

By using this footage in a film centred on the Palestinian cause, told by Palestinians themselves, Allan repurposes a tool of imperial control as a testimony of resistance against occupation. 

Allan shows aerial and ground surveillance footage, women hiding their faces from British soldiers, and British bombings of Palestine during the British Mandate. Palestinians were encouraged or forced to join the British military, which had placed them under constant watch. 

“You’re aware of the colonial violence. You’re very aware of the colonial gaze,” Allan says. “Images that seem to carry that kind of violence, […] something really malicious, frightening, and fearful. By the end, we transformed it into something else.”

Arts & Entertainment, Exhibition

Sixty years of song and community celebrated at the Marvin Duchow Music Library

by Dylan Hing on

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Since its inception 60 years ago, the Marvin Duchow Music Library has seen McGill students through the good, the bad, and the never-ending tears that accompany late-night cramming sessions. Wandering the aisles for the first time, I passed towering shelves lined with scores of music I doubt I will ever learn to decipher. Compared to the hectic atmosphere of rue Sherbrooke below, the library feels like a greenhouse for one of the most instinctive forms of art.

To mark its anniversary, the library is presenting Marvin Duchow Music Library at 60: Interplay of Community, Service, and Discovery, exhibiting artifacts drawn from the library and the university’s archives, with one display near the entrance and another inside. When I first explored the exhibit, a bright red record from 1982, featuring the McGill Symphony Orchestra conducted by Uri Mayer, immediately caught my eye. Like the musicians themselves, the record’s bold colours draw viewers into the intertwined histories of the Schulich School of Music and its ever-evolving library.

Rather than simply documenting the library’s history, the exhibit celebrates the efforts of those who sustained the space as a resource for the music community on campus and beyond. Marvin Duchow, a former Schulich School of Music Dean, understood how integral these two institutions were to each other. In a featured address to the Canadian and American Music Library Associations, he emphasized the reciprocal role music faculties and libraries play in sustaining one another.

Also featured are various administrative and informational artifacts, including a visitors’ log, The McGill Daily’s articles detailing students’ and librarians’ fight for a larger facility, photographs showing the library’s various iterations, and words from the many librarians who have looked after the collection over the decades. An obituary for Marvin Duchow is, of course, featured prominently in the collection—a fitting tribute to the man who dedicated himself to the pursuit of community knowledge.

Through the care taken in curating the exhibit and the honouring of those who fought for the library, the space is not only celebrated as somewhere to study but as a necessary resource for musicians. In a featured statement, former head librarian Cynthia Leive underscored the library’s role as a learning institution on its 25th anniversary.

“Students […] haven’t the years and money necessary to build a personal collection of books and scores,” Leive said. “So they start by coming here [….] They become more interested, more literate, and start studying scores [….] What they will take away with them is a love of music and knowledge, and of learning that will be with them for the rest of their lives. That, in essence, is the spirit of the library.”

The exhibit exemplifies Duchow’s belief that libraries are the heartbeat of an academic community by focusing on both the library’s evolution in the Elizabeth Wirth building and on the strong connection to its faculty. The library is loved through the care that librarians and staff put into keeping it going, day and night, for whatever one might need. The library, as its namesake hoped it would, continues to reflect the changing needs of the musicians it houses. Of course, the one thing that never changes is the music community’s commitment to protecting the space. 

In 1975, a decade after the library’s opening, Librarian Emirata Kathleen Toomey humorously recounted the quirks that come with her job, highlighting the work the exhibit celebrates. Her words, like the exhibit itself, find hope in the library’s future through the foundations of the past, and still resonate on its 60th anniversary.

“A library is not always such a frivolous place,” Toomey said. “There are those who rely on it for their life’s work, and it is of prime importance that it continues to grow—especially in its holdings. If the past ten years are an example of things to come, I can foresee only a bright future ahead.”

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