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Medical revision: Putting women in the narrative

by Sarah McDonald on

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To be a woman is to live within systems designed without your body in mind. Whether or not this divide is felt or acknowledged is a far more personal question, but regardless, the reality remains: The marginalization of women is fundamentally ingrained in Western society. From endless bathroom queues to uncomfortable seatbelts calibrated for male bodies, the male lived experience is systemically privileged in all aspects of life—even the most mundane. 

This foregrounding is not always benign. It is more than a general inconsideration of the female social experience—the lack of free and available menstruation products in public restrooms, and the absence of garbage cans in restroom stalls for sanitary products, for example—it is a pervasive diminution of women’s physical and mental agency. 

This marginalization is especially prominent in the medical sphere, a sector historically designed by men, for men. Women’s pain is frequently ignored or dismissed as ‘exaggerated.’ Their concerns are attributed to menstruation or anxiety, and diagnostic criteria and treatments centre on male symptomologies, rendering women’s experiences as secondary within their own care. 

Systemically, this places women in the centre of a social schism: Women face pressure to remain healthy, yet are continually prevented from accessing adequate health resources when they have medical concerns. While progress has been made, the medical system is still failing women—especially Indigenous women and women of colour. 

To gain true social equality, medical biases must be addressed. 

//Women and the medical gaze//

Women have been notoriously excluded from medicine throughout history. McGill’s first graduating medical class to include women —Winifred Blampin, Jessie Boyd Scriver, Mary Childs, Lilian Irwin, and Eleanor Percival—was after WWI in 1922. This exclusion was rooted in the misconception that women are inherently more emotional and irrational, a belief used both to bar them from medical training and to justify their absence from clinical research 

Phoebe Friesen, an Associate Professor in McGill’s departments of Social Studies of Medicine and Equity, Ethics and Policy, discussed this gendered history in an interview with //The Tribune//.

“Traditionally, the notion of hormones disrupting the sort of normal state of a body constantly in a woman’s body was seen as noise,” Friesen explained. “So we have this really again, another sad history where a lot of experiences, symptoms of women in health have been dismissed or have been entangled with stereotypes like an emotional woman, a dramatic woman, an attention-seeking woman, a woman who’s faking it.”

While women are no longer deemed irrational by virtue of their sex, these stereotypes are still dangerously prevalent in medical atmospheres. There are countless recorded instances of women being turned away from medical care with their pain ignored, as doctors—both male and female—have operated under these faulty assumptions. With gender biases so deeply ingrained in medical curricula and interactions in medical schools, all doctors—regardless of sex or gender—are susceptible to undermining concerns expressed by women. 

Studies have consistently shown that women receive lower doses of pain medication in the emergency room compared to men experiencing comparable pain levels. The Victoria State Government’s state report on the gender pain gap concluded that 71 per cent of women and non-binary individuals seeking care felt dismissed by their providers. 

These stereotypes are particularly dangerous for Indigenous women, women of colour, and women from other marginalized communities. The intersectional nature of oppression compounds practitioner biases, preventing women from getting the care they need. According to a report published by the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019, maternal mortality rates are directly correlated to race: Non-Hispanic Black women had a maternal mortality rate 2.5 times higher than that of white women.

//Getting a (mis)diagnosis//

Women’s enforced absence from the medical sector resulted in male physiology being exclusively studied in medical education, while women were continually excluded from scientific study and clinical trials. 

“The history of medical research is just a sad story of the ‘normal’ body being a man’s body,” Friesen said. “So I think it made sense to early researchers, who were primarily men, to focus on the standard male body and utilize them as human participants in research, and it wasn’t until later that people started to recognize how profound the harms were to women.”

This perspective was corroborated by Sara Bishop, a Vancouver-based occupational therapist, who explained how our medical system privileges male symptomatology. When a diagnosis comes before a plan of action, having sex-specific symptomologies is critical to an accurate diagnosis—something our medical system is clearly missing.

“If the diagnostic manual is based mostly on men’s issues and how these issues present to men, then, therefore, some of the symptoms can be missed, because those symptoms are going to present differently in a man versus a woman,” Bishop explained in an interview with //The Tribune//. “But the manual where we, especially doctors, refer to is, I believe, based on men’s symptoms, and so right off the get-go, it’s hard for a woman to get the diagnosis, and therefore the correct treatment that would follow.”

She went on to describe her experience working with people with autism, noting the higher rates of misdiagnosis in girls as opposed to boys. One study showed women are 31 per cent more likely than men to receive an alternate psychiatric diagnosis prior to an autism diagnosis.

“[In girls], autism is often diagnosed as anxiety, depression, or OCD. Girls are given every other kind of mental health diagnosis, and autism is not even considered as a diagnosis,” Bishop said. “It’s treated with antidepressants or anti-anxiety medication, or sometimes ADHD medication, and it’s not helping, and it’s because the real diagnosis is something like autism or some sort of neurodivergency.”

Friesen further explained that, in addition to neurodivergencies and mental health conditions, this pattern of gendered misdiagnoses is prevalent with physical conditions. A salient example is that of heart attacks. Women experiencing heart attacks and other cardiac events are often //sent home// because their symptoms don’t line up with the symptoms //men// display during cardiac events. According to the University of Alberta, 53 per cent of women with heart-attack symptoms are dismissed and left undiagnosed despite seeking care.

This creates a devastating feedback loop, wherein a woman’s pain is not taken seriously, she is sent home without further investigation, and her pain propagates. After being dismissed, women begin to feel discouraged by the lack of support they have received and hesitate to seek out medical care.

“And then also sometimes people, just like in the desperation to be taken seriously, look for their own sort of objective reports to demonstrate their suffering,” Friesen said. “We see people paying out of pocket to get extra blood tests, so that they have something to take in to show, like, ‘look, here’s something real that shows that I’m suffering’ if they’re just continuously being dismissed.”

These extra, out-of-pocket fees add up; in 2023, CNN reported that women in the United States spent approximately $15.4 billion USD more than men, despite ‘equitable’ insurance coverage. This, when coupled with the gender wage gap, showcases just how inaccessible healthcare is for women. 

//Forging autonomy//

It was only in 1986 that the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) adjusted its guidelines to recommend that women be included as subjects in clinical trials. Since then, the field has been made more accessible. Women can now work in the medical field and participate, both as scientists and subjects, in clinical research.

However, while progress has been made, there is still much work to be done. While women are now studied in a clinical setting, this research is not always done with patients’ consent.

Informed consent is one of the cornerstones of the modern medical system; it is required for participation in any check-up, exam, procedure, or clinical trial. Further, consent critically affirms respect for all persons involved. Yet despite the moral underpinnings of consent, while under anesthesia, women are frequently given pelvic exams without having given prior, explicit consent.

Friesen explained how medical students on OB-GYN rotations are asked to do pelvic exams on anesthetized patients before their surgeries; patients have no way of knowing if these exams are taking place. 

“[They are] just using an unconscious body as a teaching tool without [the patient] knowing. And it’s, like, maybe one of the most vulnerable unconscious [bodies], naked from the waist down, faces sometimes covered,” Friesen said. “You don’t need, for the patient’s benefit, several extra pelvic exams by students, who are […] just there to observe.”

Friesen explains that this practice is often defended through claims of ‘students needing to learn,’ however, a desire for education should never override a patient’s right to clear and informed consent. There is no other sector of medicine where consent is breached so clearly and continually. Even //when// women are afforded adequate care, how can we expect them to trust a system that repeatedly violates their boundaries and autonomy?

“Sometimes people talk about ethical erosion in medical school. Just like some things fall away depending on what you learn, often in this sort of hidden curriculum,” Friesen explained. “This is a very implicit lesson about consent, about which bodies can be utilized as teaching tools without consent. And in other cases, you ask for consent.”

//Hear hoofbeats, think horses//

‘Hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras’ is a common refrain in medicine, urging clinicians to pursue the most statistically likely diagnosis rather than a rare one. While this may seem practical, it can have devastating consequences, especially for women.

When providers default to common diagnoses over serious medical concerns, they overlook critical symptoms in favour of simpler, less dangerous, and often inaccurate explanations. 

“A lot of things are dismissed from women as anxiety, depression, menopause, and menstrual problems,” Bishop said. “All of these things are kind of considered first before necessarily looking at other diagnoses or comorbidities.”

Treating women’s concerns as inconvenient or routine not only delays proper care but entrenches a cycle of dismissal that prevents adequate treatment altogether. 

Gabriella Giorgi, a U3 student studying English and Environmental Sciences, shared her experiences with medical dismissal in an interview with //The Tribune//.

“One time, I had Lyme and pneumonia at the same time,” Giorgi said. “I was very little, but I remember that I was in pain for, like, a year, and [doctors] kept just being like, ‘It’s growing pains.’ And my mom was like, ‘No, like, you need to test her for Lyme.’ And finally, she made them, and I had Lyme, and I had had it for a year. Then [my mom] was like, ‘Can you also test for pneumonia?’ And they [said] ‘No, she just has Lyme. That’s what it is.’ And my mom was like, ‘No, you’re [dismissing her] right now. You said that about Lyme.’ [Meanwhile] I had both of them.”

This was not an isolated incident for Giorgi. Growing up, she suffered from severe stomach aches, with her pain progressing, and further symptoms such as dizzy spells, migraines, and heart palpitations. Yet she was ignored by her doctors when she voiced her concerns. 

It was only once Giorgi started //passing out// that she was referred to both a cardiologist and a neurologist. But these specialists, both of whom were male, were no different than the doctors she had seen before: They ignored her concerns, simply chalking her symptoms up to “just anxiety.”

Strikingly, this pattern of dismissal changed as soon as her father—as opposed to her mother—advocated for Giorgi. 

“I went back with my dad for a follow-up a few weeks later. And it was very different, like, even just having a male figure there, and they ran, like, a bunch of tests and stuff.” 

All it took was having a man voice her concerns, and diagnostic progress was suddenly a conceivable option.

//The prognosis//

Giorgi’s story is not unique. There are innumerable stories of women facing similar circumstances: Women being told they are exaggerating, that they just have anxiety, that their pain is a joke. But women’s pain isn’t the problem; the medical system is squarely at fault. 

To be treated, women’s pain first needs to be recognized for what it is: Valid. Women’s symptomatology needs to be understood in its own right, not only perceived through the lens of male presentations, and as Bishop explained, the diagnostic manuals need to be updated to reflect these differing symptomatologies. 

“If you’re given the wrong diagnosis, then that leads to the wrong treatment, which takes time away from that girl’s life, where they could be feeling better,” Bishop said. “So if the DSM-5 could be revived, and the studies could be done on girls and women, then that would lead to [a] better diagnostic manual.” 

Women need to be heard. Women need to be given the attention and care that men are arbitrarily afforded, and this care must be granted without sacrificing a woman’s dignity, autonomy, or boundaries. It is critical that we continue to advocate for women’s lived experience within the medical system: That we support policies which address healthcare inequities, challenge our own biases about how women experience and express pain, and lobby for consistent application of consent policies in OB-GYN rotations. Medical care must be made equitable for all, and this simply cannot be achieved when women are continually pushed to the periphery of medical studies, practices, and treatment. 

Montreal, News

Ligue des droits et libertés explains challenges with the Combatting Hate Act 

by Asher Kui on

More in Montreal:

On Jan. 15, the Ligue des droits et libertés hosted a webinar titled, “Bill C-9: A threat to our liberties.” Bill C-9, also known as the Combatting Hate Act, was first proposed by Minister of Justice Sean Fraser in September in the House of Commons. The proposed legislation would amend the Canadian Criminal Code, primarily by criminalizing hate-motivated conduct with the aim of protecting access to religious sites, schools, community centres, and other spaces used by identifiable groups. Under this proposal, it would be a crime to willfully intimidate and obstruct people from accessing such places or to promote hatred by displaying certain terrorist or hate symbols in public.

While this act was introduced amid a rise in hate crimes in Canada, many civil societies across the country have criticized its anti-constitutional nature, questioning whether it would risk criminalizing Canadians’ rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Lynda Khelil, the webinar’s host, began by highlighting how presentations like this one inform the general public of legislative proposals that often go unnoticed.

“We have found that very few people are aware of the content of this bill,” Khelil said. “Bills are not issues that the general population pay attention to often […] but it concerns society as a whole because obviously, in many cases, it contains provisions that affect our rights and freedoms.”

The first panelist to speak was Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of the Fundamental Freedoms Program. She explained that many Canadians question the purpose of Bill C-9, as there are existing provisions in the Canadian Criminal Code that prohibit intimidation, harassment, and death threats.

“If someone has reasonable grounds to fear for their own security, it constitutes criminal harassment,” Bussières McNicoll explained. “What does the federal government want to further criminalize through Bill C-9? What effect could this have on peaceful protestors?”

Bussières McNicoll then highlighted how the bill’s content is loosely defined, granting police and security forces disproportionate power.

“Protests have created dissatisfaction among certain groups, and this is a provision that could easily be interpreted by police, targeting protests that are peaceful but disruptive, or offensive for some,” she said. 

Bussières McNicoll continued to emphasize the general public’s role in upholding Canadian constitutional rights.

“We are talking about a provision that will open the gate to police officers having great discretion to act in a prejudiced way without clear guidelines, leading to the criminalization of groups who already experience excessive police surveillance and inappropriate racial profiling,” she said. “We must be capable of tolerating discourse that is seemingly unpopular, that may seem unjustified or often outside of certain limits [….] We must say no to the criminalization of behaviour that is non-violent or non-threatening, simply because it displeases certain people.”  

The second panelist was criminal and immigration lawyer Lucia Flores Echaiz, who explained that the current Criminal Code already targets the incitement of hateful propaganda and hate speech. Bill C-9 aims to broaden what constitutes a hateful symbol. Under the proposed legislation, a symbol principally associated with a terrorist entity listed by Public Safety Canada would not be allowed in public spaces, including in the virtual world. She highlighted the unreliability of this list.

“The process for listing an organization [as a terrorist entity] is opaque and arbitrary,” Flores Echaiz said. “It is the result of a discretionary decision by the Minister of Public Security [.…] The government of Canada even recognizes that a listed entity does not necessarily mean that they committed a crime [….] It is almost impossible to be removed from the list.”

Flores Echaiz continued to argue that while courts have the power to push back against the bill, it nonetheless poses a threat to freedom of expression and the distribution of power.

“Even with the adoption of this bill, I hope the judges will be able to say no [in Court],” she said. “The police are the ones applying the law, and even if a person is acquitted at the end […] they would have experienced an arrest, potentially deprived of their liberty for a certain period of time […] the bill allows a great discretionary power to the police, and this is what concerns us here.”

*All quotes were translated from French.

Science & Technology

Yes, your city moves differently on special event days

by José Moro Gutiérrez on

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As major cities develop increasing dependence on shared micromobility—namely, e-scooters and e-bikes—urban planners face the challenge of understanding the fluctuating demand for these modes of transport. While daily travel patterns remain relatively predictable, special events such as festivals, parades, and protests regularly disrupt urban mobility. These events can attract large crowds, alter street access, and influence how people move through urban spaces. However, their direct impact on shared micromobility remains poorly understood. In a recent study, Dan Qiang, a PhD candidate in McGill’s Department of Geography, aims to address this gap.

“My PhD research focuses on something I call ‘mobility vitality,’ which [describes] how dynamic and active different places are,” Qiang wrote in an email correspondence with The Tribune. “Rather than relying only on static indicators, I look at mobility patterns as a behavioural lens on the city. That includes shared micromobility like bike-share […] that reflect how neighbourhoods ‘pulse’ across hours, days, and seasons.”

Her study focuses on Washington, D.C., a city known for its civic, cultural, and political events. Using high-resolution data from nearly 9.5 million shared e-bike and e-scooter trips collected between 2023 and 2024, researchers explored whether special events directly cause changes in micromobility usage or whether other factors, such as weather, seasonality, or holidays, explain the observed patterns.

The research team categorized events into three types: Government-authorized large events, such as parades, marathons, and major festivals; independently organized small events, including concerts, exhibitions, and workshops; and government-registered protests. For each event, they compared micromobility trip destinations within 500 metres of the event location to matched control periods when no event was taking place in the same area.

What distinguishes this research from earlier studies is its use of Double Machine Learning (DML). Unlike traditional statistical approaches that rely on correlations, DML allows researchers to control for many interacting variables simultaneously, such as weather, gas prices, time of day, neighbourhood infrastructure, and sociodemographic characteristics. Using this method, it is possible to isolate the causal effect of a specific event. Qiang noted that although DML does not outright solve the problem of unobserved confounding variables, it helps estimate their effect more concretely. 

Results showed that previous research underestimated the impact of special events’ shared micromobility thus far. Large events caused an average increase of more than 230 micromobility trips per event. Festival-related and entertainment-oriented events were found to be the most influential, sometimes generating several hundred additional trips near event venues.

Small events also increased micromobility usage, though to a lesser extent. On average, they led to approximately nine additional trips per event. The study further revealed that not all event types have the same effect. Although festivals and entertainment events consistently increased ridership, small art events showed no significant impact.

One of the most notable findings concerns protest events. Although initial correlations suggested that protests reduced micromobility usage, Qiang’s analysis found no significant effect after accounting for confounding factors.

The study also found that large events interacted strongly with the built environment. Infrastructure features such as bike lanes, sidewalks, and proximity to transit stations played a meaningful role in supporting increased micromobility use. In contrast, small events were influenced mostly by environmental factors, including event duration, season, and weather conditions, rather than surrounding infrastructure.

“Small events can often be absorbed by the existing system without stress, but large events push the system closer to its capacity limits. As capacity nears its limit, infrastructure shifts from being a passive background factor to the primary constraint,” Qiang wrote.

The findings carry important implications for urban planning and mobility management. Qiang argues that cities should adopt tailored strategies when preparing for events. For large events, investments in temporary infrastructure, parking zones, and coordination with transit systems may be most effective. For smaller events, operational measures, such as fleet redistribution or targeted incentives, should be sufficient to accommodate demand.

Ultimately, this study provides a strong foundation for understanding how special events reshape urban travel behaviour. As cities continue to host more frequent and diverse events, studies like these will be essential for designing transportation systems that are both resilient and responsive to consumer needs.

Basketball, Sports

Concordia Stingers narrowly dribble past Martlets Basketball in annual Shoot for the Cure game

by Lialah Mavani on

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Love Competition Hall was packed on Jan. 15 as fans gathered to watch McGill’s Martlets Basketball take on the Concordia Stingers. The cross-town rivals played in the 19th edition Shoot for the Cure game. The campaign is organized by U SPORTS in support of breast cancer awareness, with participating teams raising funds for the Canadian Cancer Society.

For some players, the event is more than just a tradition. Guard Daniella Mbengo, U4 Arts, told The Tribune about the cause’s personal significance. 

“My mom had breast cancer two years ago,” Mbengo shared. “I think it touches every one of us in different ways, whether it’s family, friends, or grandparents. It’s an important cause to bring forward.”

The Martlets showed their support not just in their fundraising efforts, but also on the court. The team wore pink shirts during the warm-up and pink hair accessories throughout the matchup as small reminders of the game’s significance. Other McGill athletes were in the crowd supporting the home favourite, as the game marked the launch of the new McGill Women in Sport (WiS) program logo. 

The first quarter started with the Stingers winning the jump ball and taking the first possession. While the Martlets started at a possession disadvantage, they opened the scoring in the first 40 seconds, taking the lead with their first shot of the match. For the remainder of the period, Concordia came out offensively strong, forcing quick turnovers and fast plays, giving them a 26-18 lead over the Martlets. 

In the second quarter, the gritty home team pushed to close the gap between itself and the Stingers. The period had lots of back and forth, with the Stingers and Martlets battling it out to score, the former team hoping to widen the gap while the latter aimed to keep the game close. Ultimately, Concordia retained its lead, finishing the half 45-37.

After halftime, the Stingers started the period with possession, taking their chances to put up more shots. The Martlets’ cohesion was clear on court as they fought for rebounds to close the point gap. Just three minutes into the period, the home team scored three baskets, narrowing the point margin to two points. However, the Martlets failed to capitalize. A dominant performance by the Stingers placed them 10 points ahead by the end of the third quarter.

The final quarter brought energy from the crowd, with supporters and teammates cheering, “Let’s Go Martlets.” Within three minutes and two seconds, the Martlets narrowed the gap to one point, with Mbengo as a lead scorer, racking up eight points within the quarter. The Martlets were unable to power ahead of the Stingers in the last few minutes of the game as the visiting team came back to win 80-74 at the end of the forty minutes. 

While the game was not what the Martlets hoped for, they were able to capitalize on some big moments for crucial points, Head Coach Rikki Bowles reflected. 

“Our goal is to get better every game and every week. We know what hurt us today, and so we’ll have to make some adjustments,” she said. “I want them going out there feeling free, not worried about making a mistake. At the end of the day, it’s a game, and I hope they have fun when they’re out there.”

Quotable:

“This season and also past years, we’ve had this same group of people and with key additions throughout the years. We’ve already built something great, and we allow ourselves to be right out there by just learning and keep getting better. Our objective is always to win.” — Guard Lily Rose Chatila, U3 Science, on the team’s goals for the rest of the season.

Stat Corner

Forward Emilia Diaz-Ruiz, U1 Engineering, was named Player of the Game. Diaz-Ruiz scored 14 points, two blocks, and nine rebounds.

Moment of the Game

In the last minute of the game, centre Kristy Awikeh, Master’s in Science, hit a three-point shot to lessen the point gap with the Stingers to one.

A previous version of this article stated that Daniella Mbengo was U3 Arts. In fact, Mbengo is U4 Arts. The Tribune regrets this error.

Student Life, The Tribune Explains

The Tribune explains: Symposiamania

by Gregor McCall on

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single student in possession of good research must be in want of a symposium in which to present it. Publishing and presenting research as an undergraduate is one of the most enriching opportunities students can pursue. Not only do they demand a level of academic rigour—driving students to hone skills in analysis, scholastic prose, and research methodology—but they also provide a fantastic environment to build your CV and make connections with peers, professors, and other scholars in your field. Even if you have next to no interest in pursuing professional academia, the benefits of the publishing and presenting process will aid you in any pursuit to come. 

For many, however, the process of publishing and presenting a paper at an undergraduate symposium or colloquium remains enigmatic, especially for those who are not part of their departmental association or research journal. In hopes of demystifying the elusive research symposium, The Tribune has compiled everything you need to know to disseminate your research as an undergraduate. 

The Submission

Before you can walk into a conference, scholarly guns blazing, to lay down your contributions to the canons of human thought, it will be helpful to review the listed criteria for the specific symposium or journal you’re interested in. Most, if not all, prefer and prioritize original research and longer essay formats, typically in the 10-20 page range (give or take, depending on the time, page, and length constraints of the particular symposium or journal). Many symposia and journals will also list a theme or relevant subjects of study they seek in the selection process. If you want to publish a paper you wrote for a class you took, this will most likely mean it should be from a 300-level course or above and within the A to A- grade range. Hence, the B- paper you pulled an all-nighter to write in first year about postcolonial subtext in Shakespeare’s The Tempest is probably unfit. 

Poetics of the Periphery, the upcoming symposium produced by The Channel Undergraduate Review and Canvas—for example—sought papers 2,000-3,000 words in length written for art history, communications, English literature, theatre, or cultural studies that analyze embodiments of oppression and exclusion in imaginative expression, representations of life-worlds typically ignored by mainstream academia, and investigations of recondite aesthetics. 

The Editing Process

Just because your paper has been selected does not mean the process is over. Often, in this stage, you will work with an editor, or a team of editors, to refine and rework some, if not all, of your paper. The editing stage is intensive, but it does not mean that your research was wrong, lacking, or unthorough. Rather, the focus here is to produce the best possible version of your original work. Remember: Your research, despite coming from you, is separate from you. Any critique of it is not a critique of you as a person, student, or writer. 

The Presentation

Here comes perhaps the hardest part—defending a thesis in front of an audience, some of whom may include experts in your chosen field. Though this is a legitimately scary thing to do, don’t fret—there are plenty of tips to ensure your presentation goes smoothly. The first key is to practice. Whether in front of a mirror, classmates, or friends, practicing your presentation is the best way to prepare for a symposium. Having someone to ask clarifying questions will allow you to refine parts of your research that may be ambiguous or in need of revision. Incorporating your personality into the presentation and making eye contact with audience members will keep your listeners engaged and enthralled. 

With these tips, you’ll be ready to take any symposium by storm and show the world who the next best armchair analyzing, tobacco pipe-smoking academic truly is.

McGill, News, The Tribune Explains

The Tribune Explains: McGill Abroad

by Eren Atac, Asher Kui on

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McGill Abroad is a program offered by the university that allows students to travel internationally for their studies or for an internship. Students may study at one of McGill’s partner universities, earning transferable credits while paying the same tuition as a full-time McGill student. No matter which international university-sanctioned activity students wish to participate in, The Tribune explains how McGill Abroad works, and what students must know before travelling abroad.

How do you go on exchange? 

There are several steps that must be followed before students can go on exchange. The first is to explore McGill exchange partners, which are compiled in a list that students can filter by region, destination, and faculties offered. 

The next step is to complete an application to the McGill exchange program, which is submitted through Minerva. Eligible applicants will be offered a nomination to a partner university. After accepting their nomination, students will receive instructions on how to apply for admission to their specific host university. 

If accepted to their host university, students must then register for their new courses and pay their McGill tuition. Once these steps are completed, students are ready to embark on their study abroad program. 

How do you transfer credits from your exchange university?

To obtain transfer credits, students must consult course requirements and have their studies pre-approved by McGill before going on exchange. Courses must meet content and credit equivalency requirements, which may be verified with the Course Equivalency Database.

Grades earned at an exchange university will not be calculated into students’ McGill CGPA. After their exchange, students must submit the Credit Assessment Form on Minerva approximately four months after the end of their studies.

Where can you find opportunities for an international internship?

McGill offers several resources for students looking to intern abroad. Vault is a website accessible only to McGill students which offers international internships and job opportunities. Other avenues for international internship opportunities include International Experience Canada, Canada World Youth, and the Programme de stages en organisations internationales  (French only). 

Arts students wanting to complete an internship abroad may consult the David M. Culver Center Arts Internship Office for internship postings. Here, students can view postings and apply for internships for Summer 2026. 

What prerequisites are necessary to go abroad? 

To apply to the McGill Exchange program, students must first fulfill several criteria. Eligible students must have a CGPA of at least 3.0, meet faculty-specific requirements, complete at least 24 McGill credits before their semester abroad, and verify their personal information in Minerva. 

Beyond these prerequisites, students must complete Pre-Departure Orientation, a course offered through MyCourses. The course covers logistical information necessary to study abroad concerning pre-departure preparations and the eventual return to McGill. The course is offered on a monthly basis but it is recommended that students complete it three to six months prior to their time abroad. 

What is the timeline for the application processes? 

After students have chosen their host university, they must submit their applications. While the application deadline for going on exchange in the Fall 2026 Term has already passed, students may begin applying for exchange in the Winter 2027 Term in April. Eligible candidates will then be nominated to exchange partner universities by February for Fall and full-year exchanges, or by early August for Winter exchanges.

Students must then independently apply for admission to the host university. Host universities will notify McGill students of their acceptance in a few months following their application.

Students wanting to complete an internship at the David M. Culver Centre Arts Internship Office must submit their applications by Feb. 8. The office will notify students if they are selected for an interview; if chosen, they have three days to accept the offer.

For more information regarding McGill-sanctioned activities abroad, visit the McGill Abroad website and consult their FAQ page.

Editorial, Opinion

McGill’s newly-proposed identification policy is a form of carcerality

by //The Tribune// Editorial Board on

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McGill regularly presents itself as an open and accessible campus, dedicated to offering the “best possible education” while ensuring academic freedom, equity, and inclusivity. Yet the university’s newly proposed Identification Policy for Access to Properties Owned, Occupied, or Used by the University, presented to the McGill Senate on Jan. 14, is grounded in a different premise altogether: That the university’s openness is contingent upon identification, monitoring, and the ability to regulate who inhabits its public spaces. Presented informationally to the Senate, the policy now moves directly to the Board of Governors for approval.

The proposed Identification Policy would empower “authorized personnel” to demand students, faculty, or visitors to produce McGill or government-issued identification and, if necessary, remove face-coverings for identity verification. The policy outlines several “legitimate purposes” for requesting ID: Supporting the integrity of campus or online activities, upholding university policies, ensuring the physical safety of community members, and protecting McGill property.

Although McGill frames the proposed Identification Policy as a neutral tool for campus safety, it extends discretionary surveillance powers across campus. In practice, this framework risks uneven enforcement while independently discouraging student organizing and entrenching a carceral approach to campus governance. 

Sponsored by Vice-President Administration and Finance Fabrice Labeau, the policy was framed as a measure to codify existing practices of identity verification and surveillance that have been occurring without a basis in explicit policy. Framing the policy as a mere formalization not only exposes that surveillance practices have been operating without formal authorization and policy grounding, but also trivializes the devastating consequences the policy would have if approved.

Unlike exam invigilation, where identification serves a clear and narrow function as an administrative safeguard, the security-related justifications identified under the policy as ‘legitimate purposes’ are vague and become a coercive demand in public campus life. 

The policy offers no criteria for determining necessity, no requirement that requests be expressly justified at the time they are made, and no immediate mechanism for challenge. Instead, it concentrates discretion in the hands of the individual enforcing it—an arrangement that directly violates McGill’s own commitments to equality and due process. 

The most consequential provision of the proposed policy is its authorization to demand the removal of a mask or face covering. This marks a shift in how presence on campus is regulated. Identification is no longer limited to confirming who someone is in a specific context, such as an exam, but extends to making individuals visibly identifiable in public university spaces. 

Mask removal changes the stakes of identification; once a face is revealed, anonymity is lost beyond the immediate interaction. For protestors, this risk is particularly acute, as anonymity often functions as a basic safeguard against retaliation, doxxing, or disciplinary targeting. The policy offers no guidance on how such risks are to be mitigated, nor does it account for how compelled visibility reshapes who feels safe participating in on-campus organizing. 

Although the policy includes provisions for religious accommodation—such as allowing identification in a private space or before a person of a particular gender—these measures do not prevent harm. Instead, they shift the burden onto the individual being stopped, who must submit to additional scrutiny to justify their presence on campus. In doing so, the policy treats masking as a problem to be managed rather than a practice grounded in health, safety, or religious reasons. In Quebec, provincial legislative acts such as Bill 21 and Bill 9 have repeatedly targeted Muslim people—particularly Muslim women—to sustain scrutiny over religious visibility and practice. In this context, discretionary enforcement of face-covering rules cannot be treated as neutral and is closely intertwined with the broader Islamophobic discrimination that is disguised as secularism. 

This burden is amplified by the policy’s lack of meaningful oversight. While McGill states that “authorized personnel” will be adequately trained to know when it is appropriate or lawful to request identification, the proposed policy provides no mechanism for verifying whether a request was legitimate at the moment it was made. This lack of clarity is compounded by the broad range of individuals who qualify as “authorized personnel.” Campus security officers—often employed through third-party contractors—are granted the same discretionary authority as exam invigilators and faculty acting in official capacities, without equivalent standards of transparency or accountability. Further, where students may be required to identify themselves on demand, “authorized personnel” are not required to provide identification in return. In practice, the policy concentrates enforcement power in such “authorized personnel.”

If McGill wishes to maintain credibility as an “open and accessible campus,” the minimum conditions are evident: Those empowered to demand identification must themselves be clearly identifiable, face-covering removal should not be treated as a routine enforcement tool, and policies governing protest must not hinge on discretionary interpretations made in the moment. 

An open campus does not treat anonymity as a threat. Until McGill reconciles that contradiction, this policy acts as a mechanism of control, not of safety.

Arts & Entertainment, Books, Film and TV

‘People We Meet on Vacation’: Best friends, right?

by Loriane Chagnon on

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Warning: This piece contains spoilers.

The highly anticipated movie adaptation of Emily Henry’s beloved second adult book, People We Meet on Vacation, directed by Brett Haley, premiered on Netflix on Jan. 9. The number one New York Times bestselling story follows Poppy and Alex, two best friends who meet every summer for over a decade to share a week-long vacation. That is, until their friendship falls apart after a tumultuous trip to Italy, during which they almost kiss. Narrated through flashbacks, the film revisits their past vacations while simultaneously exploring their current trip to Barcelona, where they attempt to rekindle the broken friendship that once nearly evolved into something more.

Leading the charge is My Lady Jane actor Emily Bader as Poppy Wright, alongside The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes veteran Tom Blyth as Alex Nilsen. The movie depicts the leads’ unfolding friendship and blossoming romance through picturesque scenery and palpable chemistry. These features ensure the film lives up to the quality of Henry’s work, which has become a phenomenon in recent years.

With charming warmth reminiscent of classic 90s romcoms like 13 Going on 30 and Notting Hill, the film masterfully employs beloved romance tropes, such as friends-to-lovers and forced proximity. Poppy is bright and adventurous, while Alex is steady and dependable. While she wanders the world, he remains in their rural hometown. Although they seem like polar opposites, they form a strong bond that deepens through their yearly trips to places like Squamish, New Orleans, and Tuscany. In this classic tale of opposites-attract that rivals that of Harry Burns and Sally Albright in Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally, Poppy’s bright energy balances Alex’s tranquillity. Yet, on their annual trips, Alex reveals a different and carefree side to his personality, which Poppy affectionately calls “Vacation Alex.”

“I’m only weird when I’m with you,” Alex tells Poppy in what stands out as the film’s strongest scene, after the characters complete a dance routine whilst playing dress-up as newlyweds. The film brilliantly depicts a deep connection between two people who have grown to love each other over a decade, an intimacy many of us hopeless romantics yearn to experience someday. Bader’s vulnerability and Blyth’s swoon-worthy performance make the almost two-hour run time pass like a blur.

Despite minor changes, People We Meet on Vacation, remains a faithful adaptation of the original work. One slight weak point lies in its treatment of Sarah, Alex’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, played by The White Lotus’s Sarah Catherine Hook. The book’s explanation of Sarah and Alex’s problems is replaced by a stronger emphasis on Alex and Poppy’s relationship in the movie. 

Moreover, Alex proposes to Sarah in the film, a moment that never occurs in the book, and their relationship also has fewer issues in the adaptation. These changes make the movie seem like a horror story from Sarah’s perspective: The film casts her as a nice and slightly naïve woman stuck between two best friends who have very few boundaries with each other. She seems like a woman whose long-term boyfriend—who she loves deeply—appears to have been in love with another woman for a long time. 

After watching the film, I felt deep pity for Sarah, which was absent when reading the book. Still, the movie gives her a happy ending, and as Poppy and Alex finally find their way back to each other, she, too, finds what she wanted by becoming a flight attendant and leaving her small town. People We Meet on Vacation is a fun and easy watch that may inspire you to book a vacation to Europe and perhaps even risk ruining a close friendship for the sake of love. The film stands out as a classic romantic comedy that leaves audiences longing for a love like that of Poppy and Alex.

McGill, News, PGSS

PGSS votes to dissolve several committees

by Kaitlyn Schramm on

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On Wednesday, Jan. 15, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) met in the Thomson House ballroom for its first meeting of the semester, commencing with an announcement advertising seven new positions that are open for election, including Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, and External Affairs. They also mentioned the annual referendum, which will review the student services fee. The fee is currently $200 CAD per year per student, but the referendum proposes a percentage increase. 

Secretary General Sheheryar Ahmed announced an interest among PGSS executives to host a town hall in the near future, offering to conduct the event after the February council meeting. Ahmed continued to describe the importance of hosting town halls. 

“This will be an opportunity to submit discussion topics and devote more time to them than is available at council meetings typically, and we won’t be following the same structure [….] We’ll just have much more time to address those kinds of concerns in an open forum,” Ahmed said. “It’s a really positive democratic experience. Hopefully we can start doing this every year.” 

Ahmed then went on to introduce a series of motions to dissolve inherited organizations within PGSS, claiming these committees are unfulfilled and stifle the administrative process. The motions would remove the Policy Structure and Advisory Committee, the Student Rights and Advocacy Committee, and the Governance Committee. He also shared that the Funding Working Group would be dissolved and reconstituted as a standing committee of council. 

The Governance Committee is responsible for addressing any legislative changes that the council wants to pass and is composed of three people who do not hold titled positions in PGSS. The issue with this, Ahmed noted, is that it is difficult to staff each year, as most active members of PGSS hold titled positions and therefore cannot work on the Governance Committee. 

Ahmed stated that, as chair of the committee, the Secretary General can fulfill the responsibilities of the Policy and Structure Advisory Committee without the specified seven members, claiming that the existence of a committee to fulfill these tasks only duplicates work being done. 

The Student Rights and Advocacy Committee used to be chaired by the Students’ Rights and Advocacy Commissioner, a position that was dissolved two years ago and replaced with the Funding and Supervision Commissioner. However, despite the chaired position no longer existing, the Student Rights and Advocacy Committee was never formally dissolved. 

As the meeting progressed, Internal Affairs Officer Naga Thovinakere echoed previous concerns from a governance standpoint, sharing worries with other council members who felt the dissolution of committees may not be the correct solution.

“My understanding with the role of the Governance Committee is it’s supposed to check and balance,” Thovinakere said. “I have a sense that the solution that we’re moving towards might not be the right one. Just because it has been vacant and redundant and inactive, might not be the actual reason to dissolve a committee. It exists for a reason.”

Debate over the dissolution continued, and University Affairs Officer Amina Bourai defended the proposal to dissolve the committees.

“I would be the first person to say if I saw something that was unfair, if something would alter the democracy of the society,” Bourai said. “But […] we have the [General Assembly (GA)], we have council, we have special GAs, we have executive meetings, commissioner meetings, senate. We have meetings with students all the time, with issues that they bring up.” 

In the end, Motions 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4, all concerned with the dissolutions, were carried with 25, 27, and 22 votes, respectively.

Moment of the Meeting

PGSS announced a series of initiatives in the following weeks to spread awareness on Academic Bullying from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30, during which graduate students can stop by the Thomson House to spin a trivia wheel on academic bullying in exchange for a free cookie. 

Soundbite

“I think maybe a potential solution would be to sort of merge some committees and then increase the numbers to not overburden the existing committees that seem to do the work [….] Then maybe we can look at a better resolution to incorporate what the other students’ concerns are […] that is probably enlarging some of the committees.” — Financial Affairs Officer, Mandy Lokko 

Science & Technology

Plurilingual Lab restarts Grad Talk series with a discussion on multilingual classrooms

by Russel Ismael on

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McGill’s Plurilingual Lab resumed its Grad Talks series on Jan. 15 as part of an initiative to highlight graduate students’ research on language education while also allowing them to receive constructive feedback from other researchers. The first talk of the year was led by Tiffany Tam, a University of Toronto master’s student who studies how teacher identity and multilingualism intersect in Ontario’s K-12 classrooms. 

Tam focused her talk on how teacher candidates (TCs) shape their professional identities based on their multilingual and racial backgrounds, and how these choices influence their teaching. She developed her framework regarding TC experience based on multiple case studies from schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) using raciolinguistics, which examines how race and language are intertwined.

In her research, Tam determined that current GTA classrooms often push English as the sole language for K-12 education. She noted that this is especially true for TCs, who often receive education in environments where learning in multiple languages is discouraged. As such, many TCs compartmentalize their multilingual identities rather than treating them as a valuable resource.

“Language patterns can be very different,” Tam explained. “But what you have in your mind, in your written and spoken language, are valuable. They can help you speak English better because you already know one or two more languages already.”

Due to this compartmentalization, Tam argued that TCs lose their cultural identity. Her research found that some TCs divorce themselves from their previous identities to easily integrate with Canadian culture, as shown in one of the TC case studies. Tam described how the TC in question gradually lost their native language fluency as they acclimated to Canada, so they sought to introduce more languages into Teacher Education Programs (TEPs). This measure would help students understand the value of speaking multiple languages in diverse environments.

However, since many TCs believe that multilingual students’ English development falls under the responsibility of English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, success is often limited. Tam corroborated this example with another case study, explaining how an ESL student struggled to understand English concepts, like cars. The student only understood after a TC described cars in Arabic, saying sayaara hamraa, meaning a red car.

Tam’s research also highlighted the insufficient education about race and language within TEPs, stating that her research participants felt that discussions surrounding race were often surface-level in classroom settings. She discussed how racialized speakers are still seen as ‘deficient’ speakers, with a separation between ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ English-speaking TCs. Tam explained how this “binarization of languages” serves to reinforce raciolinguistic stereotypes. This racialized perception often led to erroneous assumptions, as TCs with multilingual identities were presumed to be learning English as a second language.

Furthermore, Tam noted how TC practicum experiences differ across socioeconomic settings. In private schools, which often have a majority of white and Asian students, she emphasized how English is typically the only language heard in classrooms. In contrast, public schools often have classrooms where a myriad of languages can be heard. 

Tam explained this discrepancy as a result of students’ backgrounds: Public schools have more immigrant students who arrived in Canada with diverse language backgrounds. Despite the growing number of immigrant students, TEPs for public schools remain unchanging, hindering TCs’ teaching capabilities when it comes to educating ESL students. To improve this, Tam concludes that a multilingual framework celebrating language diversity can be adopted across schools.

“I believe that TEPs have to be up to date to meet the needs of these multilingual TCs and students in Ontario, as well as the changing climate of race, racialization, and language,” Tam said. “This has been an area that has always been taken for granted and pushed aside in education studies.”

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