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Science & Technology

Canadian nail salon workers exposed to high levels of hazardous chemicals

by Raymond Tu on

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Imagine a workplace where employees are exposed to toxic chemicals on a regular basis. And imagine that for the majority of these chemicals, there is little, if any, information regarding their effects on human health. Now imagine that quite a few have been suspected to cause health problems such as cancer and reproductive issues.

This is the reality for employees in the nail care industry. You might have imagined a workplace this hazardous to be a waste collection centre or a chemical manufacturing company, but University of Toronto researchers Miriam Diamond, Victoria Arrandale, and Linh Nguyen found that nail salons have unexpectedly high levels of chemicals such as diethyl phthalate (DEP) and tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)phosphate (TDCIPP). 

But, what are these substances, and where are they found?

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Bernard Robaire, a professor and environmental toxicant researcher in McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, noted that the two main chemical families investigated in the study are phthalates and organophosphate esters. These chemicals appear in many places: Phthalates, for instance, are found in many everyday products and can be added to materials such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make them more pliable.  

“The thing that makes lipsticks nice and glossy? Those are phthalates. When you walk into a new car, that new car smell is from phthalates,” Robaire explained.

Organophosphate esters (OPEs), such as TDCIPP, are another class of chemicals found in products ranging from pesticides to flame retardant materials, like furniture. 

While these chemicals are ubiquitous, nail salon technicians are exposed to high concentrations for long periods of time. Diamond and co-authors focussed on this group in their study, in collaboration with the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre and Toronto’s Healthy Nail Salons Network. They found that nail salon workers’ exposure in the workplace was up to 30 times higher than exposure in homes. 

The vast majority of nail salon workers are immigrant women, particularly of Asian descent. One study from the University of California at Los Angeles found that out of all the nail salon workers surveyed across the U.S., 81 per cent were female and 79 per cent were foreign-born, with nearly three-quarters of all immigrant workers listing Vietnam as their place of birth. The results of this study connect to a broader pattern of environmental racism within the industry, with administrative carelessness leading to inadequate protections and policies that disproportionately expose marginalized people to life-threatening toxicants in the workplace. 

“So then comes the question, if we’re exposed to [these chemicals], at what dose would we have to be exposed for them to have a toxic effect?” Robaire said. 

The Robaire and Hales team at McGill have published numerous papers that suggest mechanisms by which phthalates, OPEs, and other plasticizers may induce toxicity. Their research, along with other correlational studies, provide evidence that exposure to these chemicals at high enough levels could induce toxic effects on one’s nervous, reproductive, or immune systems. These effects are particularly worrisome for nail salon workers who may be pregnant or considering having children.

But nearly all of these studies are done in cell lines and animal models, with very few human epidemiological studies. Health Canada and other regulatory agencies currently require a high burden of proof to demonstrate that each of these individual chemicals are toxic at environmentally relevant levels. According to Robaire, this link is very difficult to prove. 

For example, the harmful effects of bisphenol A (BPA) were known for decades before Canada became the first country to formally declare it a harmful substance. Only then did Health Canada consider that there was sufficient evidence linking exposure to toxic health outcomes. However, Robaire’s team has found that substitutes for BPA may be even more toxic than the chemicals they replaced. Fortunately, Health Canada is considering changing their approach by regulating families of chemicals rather than one at a time. According to Robaire, change also needs to happen through government officials, scientists, and industry representatives from around the world to reduce human exposure to toxic chemicals.

Nail salon workers want these changes as well: Many have begun forming groups, such as the Nail Salon Workers Project, that call out the negative health impacts of working in nail salons and advocate for better work environments.

Off the Board, Opinion

The challenges and comforts of transitioning at McGill

by Aubrey Quinney on

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Crossing Sherbrooke street to pass through McGill’s Roddick Gates tends to offer newly admitted students the chance to explore a new life at university. When I first saw the majestic stone arch, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. I was proud of getting myself to the university I knew would set me up well for the future. After giving myself a metaphorical pat on the back, a gush of excitement came over me when I remembered all of my reasons for choosing McGill. Canada had strong queer rights, Quebec would help better my French fluency, and the university embodied liberal attitudes. As I passed under the gates, my eyes fell upon the impressive 19th-century architecture of the Arts building, and immediately, I felt confident that I had found my new home. 

However, my optimism in discovering Canadian ways of life dampened when I entered my residence in first year. Though most students were welcoming and just as excited as I was, I found little difference between them and the Europeans from whom I had tried to escape. They had designer, or thrifted, outfits trying to mimic the popular styles, or find their own, and, most of all, they were all very gendered. Most students were also outwardly heterosexual, and those who casually mentioned that they wanted to explore their sexuality were usually women who were influenced by the male gaze. Women who identify with the gaze, like kissing a girlfriend to attract men, abuse their privilege of engaging in queer actions without facing consequences, which has harmful impacts on queer people. When I went clubbing, I feared possible violent oppressions from cisgender men. Witnessing cisgender women kiss others then exacerbated my feelings of marginalization. It was only toward the end of the academic year that I found comfort in new friends who were outspoken about respecting queerness as more than just a heterosexual experiment. 

That same year, my experience with gender transition had positive and negative influences. On the one hand, there were students who thought I was “male” rather than “female” and were confused upon introductions when they compared my seemingly “feminine” name to my “masculine” apparel. On the other hand, positive influences included the rare gems of students who I met on nights out who voiced discontent with the gender binary and gave me confidence in my choices of clothes and haircut. 

In my second year, gender, sexuality and feminist studies (GSFS) courses rejuvenated my comfort in studying at McGill. Conversations that I had with my professors paved the way for me to understand my gender identity as nonbinary rather than fluid. Course content showed me the nonsense of labels, yet also their vital importance in a world of identity politics. The stories of fellow students that I heard in conferences set my heart ablaze. Once again, I felt more attached to McGill than my own home in France. 

With new knowledge comes old truths, and those of Canada were clear: The feminist agendas had not yet been achieved. I had to understand that McGill was part of the institutional barrier that slowed progressive change. For example, feminist discussions are essential for queer rights, but McGill fails to provide adequate resources to the GSFS department, like tenured funding, which mutes its impact on campus. Without a doubt, this reality tarnished the glorious façade of the university that I had set upon my arrival. Yet it sparked a fire within me to fight for something so much more important than an old building made of stone: An equitable society. 

As I near the end of my degree, I look across at the Roddick Gates and the Arts building and feel pride for the students who walked in with an opportunity to write a new chapter, and left with a desire to not fit in. With my McGill experience almost over, I feel grateful for being able to acknowledge that “feeling at home” is no longer attached to a place, but within my own body and identity. 

McGill, News

Divest McGill occupies Arts building, plans to stay overnight for at least one week

by Madison Edward-Wright on

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Divest McGill members and organizers arrived at the McCall MacBain Arts Building around 1:30 p.m. on March 7. It was the start of their minimum one-week-long occupation in protest of McGill’s continued investments in the fossil fuel industry. According to their manifesto, Divest is calling for a complete overhaul of what they say is a university system built on white supremacy and settler-colonialism, run by a Board of Governors (BoG) that serves capitalist interests. 

“We could not think of a better place to symbolically show McGill that we want to build a grassroots movement for democratization,” said Jordan,* a member of Divest, in an interview with The McGill Tribune inside the Arts building. “The Arts building is one of McGill’s most iconic buildings, especially from the outside. [We] want to demonstrate to the McGill community and the Montreal community as a whole that we will not stand for McGill to continue doing what they have been doing.”

In order to raise awareness about McGill’s approximately $50 million directly invested in the oil and gas industry, Divest is handing out pamphlets and flyers with information about police brutality, RBC’s investment in the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline, as well as information about past Divest occupations and actions. Among the handouts is Divest’s manifesto, which specifically calls on the university to divest from the CGL pipeline and to democratize their governing bodies.

Members of Divest are planning to stay overnight in tents set up in the main entrance of the Arts building. In addition to their 24-hour presence, they have organized several events to engage students in the fight for divestment and the democratization of the BoG and Senate. Movie screenings, community dinners, and open discussions on topics ranging from anarchism to Indigenous rights are slated to take place in the Arts building from March 8 to 11. 

According to Zahur Ashrafuzzaman, U2 Cognitive Science and member of Divest, the Arts occupation is also a way for Divest to stand in solidarity with several organizations pushing back against McGill, such as the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE) and the Mohawk Mothers. Several banners hung in the main Arts corridor call on McGill to divest from TC Energy, the company currently building pipelines through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. 

Jordan emphasized that the occupation being conducted by Divest is open to all members of the McGill community. Ashrafuzzaman added that accessibility was a priority.

“For so many people, McGill just does not feel safe in so many ways: We have the blacklist of Palestinian students, we have McGill restraining the use of harm reduction by floor fellows to actually keep students safe,” Ashrafuzzaman said in an interview with the Tribune. “So many people are put in a precarious situation because of McGill [….] So, we want to have somewhere that feels radically safe and radically full of care.”

Within the first couple hours of the occupation, Divest caught the attention of many passers-by. Students and McGill staff stopped regularly to ask questions about what was going on and staying longer to learn more about the divestment movement. Linden MacKenzie, U1 Environment and Development at the Bieler School of Environment, was heading to her class in Leacock when she was handed a pamphlet. 

“I feel proud to be a part of the student community here because obviously they care a lot,” MacKenzie said in an interview with the Tribune. “[I’m] not so proud to be a part of McGill as an institution that does not divest from fossil fuels.”

After reading the various handouts and visiting the resources on Divest’s social media, MacKenzie was all the more dismayed by McGill’s inaction. She plans to attend several upcoming events Divest has organized to show her solidarity with their pursuit. 

“How can [McGill] not understand the impact of fossil fuels?” MacKenzie said.

*Jordan’s name has been changed to preserve their anonymity

A previous version of this article quoted Zahur Ashrafuzzaman saying “we have floor fellows at the whim of being fired by McGill and losing housing.” In fact, floor fellows are not at the whim of being fired or losing housing, and the issue revolved more around McGill’s harm reduction policies. The Tribune regrets this error.

Arts & Entertainment, Dance

‘Why We Dance’ is a masterclass on the science of movement

by Adrienne Roy on

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From McGillian to award-winning documentarian, Nathalie Bibeau’s career is the answer to a question many Arts students dread: “What are you going to do with an Arts degree?”

Bibeau graduated from McGill in 1998 with a Joint Honours degree in history and sociology, before completing her Master’s degree the following year in history at the University of Toronto. After an internship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, she worked odd jobs, travelled, and met artists from around the world. Through those experiences, Bibeau realized that she could make a living as an artist, a career she once thrived in as a trained dancer and returned to as a documentarian. Her latest directorial project, Why We Dance, was produced for The Nature of Things—a documentary series examining the ways humans interact with nature. Why We Dance premiered on Feb. 25 on the CBC and will be available to stream on CBC Gem for the rest of the year. The documentary explores the intersections between science and art through dance—an activity we all do, whether we realize it or not. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Bibeau described how her research on dance stretched her understanding of the art form. 

“It opened the floodgates of what is possible in terms of dance, and what I imagined dance to be,” Bibeau said. “I always felt like I was a born dancer. When I started researching, I realized it’s not an activity we choose to do—we actually are all dancers.”

Bibeau’s team interviewed a compelling cast of choreographers, psychologists, and neuroscientists to understand the science behind dance. The diverse roster includes Bronwyn Tarr, an evolutionary psychologist at Oxford, who describes how even before birth, fetuses follow certain movement patterns. Such trends continue into childhood as creatures explore imitation, synchronization, and play as a means of expression. Why We Dance reveals that these tendencies toward dancing are neither exclusively human nor random. They explain developmental variations in social and physical behaviour, mating habits in animal species, and stories of cultural tradition. Fitting each element into a 44-minute run-time may seem absurd, but Bibeau crafts a fully realized picture.

From flamingo sanctuaries in France to MIT’s Immersion Lab to oceanside choreography, the cinematography in Why We Dance is stunning. Bibeau captures impactful frames by marrying the natural world with the man-made, further pushing the narrative forward. A meticulous storyteller, Bibeau also articulated the importance of the post-production process.

“One of the editing styles I was trying to work in for this film is ‘match cut,’” Bibeau said.“I wanted the film to feel like one long conversation. You can do that through narration and the clips you choose, but visually, I wanted to feel that way too [….] You’ll notice if we leave one scene with a turning dancer, we come into the next with someone finishing the turn. It was extremely deliberate.”

Beyond its captivating cinematics, Why We Dance touches on how dancing has served as a survival tool for oppressed communities throughout history. For instance, Bibeau interviewed Sandra Laronde, who is from the Temagami First Nation and serves as the executive and artistic director of Red Sky Performance, a world-renowned company of contemporary Indigenous performance. Through her work, Laronde explores the importance of dance in Indigenous cultures, noting that it was outlawed in Canada from 1884 to 1951. 

“We’re supposed to dance for people who cannot,” Laronde explained in the documentary.

Dance is an empowering act, one that strengthens communities, connects us to the spiritual and natural world, and unites different generations to one another. When asked what viewers should take away from the film, Bibeau responded without skipping a beat: “I hope they dance.” 

McGill, News

Students raise concerns about McGill governance’s accessibility and transparency

by Juliet Morrison on

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McGill’s primary governing bodies, the Senate and Board of Governors (BoG), have recently been subject to criticism from students regarding issues of transparency and accessibility, with meetings being difficult to attend, and recordings not being made public, or only staying up for a limited period of time. Students have also raised concerns in the past about the structure, role, and member composition of McGill’s governing bodies.

Under section 4.7 of the Board of Governors’ Rules of Order and Procedure, no recording of the meeting is allowed before or after the fact—students must attend the sessions live. Moreover, students wanting to attend a Board of Governors meeting must email the Secretariat to secure a spot. 

Senate meeting recordings can also be difficult to access as only current McGill students and staff can attend meetings. In addition, meeting recordings are only made available for a limited period of time before being replaced by the next meeting recording. Some students, such as Bryan Buraga, former Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) president who represented students at the BoG and Senate and member of Democratize McGill, worry that the difficulty of accessing the meetings poses concern for transparency.

“[The Senate] has a webcast that is usually recorded, but it is only available for the month in which the meeting was held, and then it gets taken down and you can’t access it anymore,” Buraga said in an interview with the Tribune. “Then, only the meeting minutes are available to the McGill community, [but] the minutes are words on paper. You don’t exactly hear what senators say. The minutes are written up by the Secretariat who are beholden to the administration, so there are a lot of measures that the administration can use to be untransparent.”

In an email to the Tribune, the Secretariat detailed certain practices it uses to ensure McGill’s governing bodies’ meetings remain available to students and the wider community. The office also noted that both the BoG and Senate meetings are live-streamed—a practice that arose over the pandemic in an attempt to maintain pre-pandemic accessibility—and accessible by members of the McGill community. 

“Senate meetings are generally open meetings, meaning that they are open to observation by any member of the university community and accredited press, subject to limitations of space and good conduct,” the Secretariat wrote. “Exceptionally, an item on the Senate agenda may require confidential treatment, in which case the Senate will meet in closed session.”

Unlike the Senate, Board of Governors meetings are not made available online afterward. In their email, the Secretariat disclosed that they would look into the possibility of making BoG meeting recordings available after the meeting had adjourned.

However, concerns about governance extend beyond the question of their accessibility. Last November, a coalition between Divest McGill and Divest for Human Rights formed Democratize McGill, a student organization that calls for more student involvement and representation at the university’s high-level, decision-making bodies. Democratize McGill aims to address the disconnect that it believes exists between the McGill community’s values and the university’s administrative actions.

Democratize McGill is currently looking into potential BoG reforms—ranging from abolishing the governing body entirely to making its membership more inclusive of students, in order to better reflect the views of McGill students.  

In contrast to the McGill administration, the SSMU Legislative Council uploads audio-only meeting recordings to their website—a change from last year’s video uploads to YouTube.


“The pandemic has moved the Legislative Council into an incredibly more accessible model for all students,” SSMU Speaker of the Legislative Council Alexandre Ashkir wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Hosting the meetings online allows people who would usually not want to stay late on campus, for security or for comfort, to participate [….] It lifts an important weight and barrier of entry oftentimes neglected. Time is precious and not all are ready, or privileged enough, to be able to spend these hours on campus on a Thursday night.”

Laughing Matters, Opinion

So you’ve just met an Asian girl

by Tasmin Chu on

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So you’ve just met an Asian girl. There she is, assigned to your group for the final project in HIST 208, with her Hydro Flask and laptop stickers. She’s kind of cute. This could be your chance. Time to shoot your shot: Where is she from?

Oh, she’s Chinese. Yikes! What does she think of that whole authoritarian government thing? Plus, um—COVID! If you want, you can talk about the Economist article you’ve read recently. There was this interesting one about Eileen Gu last week. You know, the skier? Can you believe she’s competing on behalf of China? 

There is something weird about this girl’s face, though. Oh, she says she’s half-white. Explain to her that you’re practically more Asian than she is! After all, you’ve been using chopsticks since the first time your parents took you to Panda Express. Also, you’ve watched like all of Death Note. Was it her mom or dad that was Asian? The dad? Oh. That’s weird. 

Make sure to ask her if she speaks the language. This, along with her facial structure, will determine how authentically Asian she really is. Wow, she doesn’t speak the language that well? That’s funny, because you actually took Intro to Mandarin in college. Konichiwa! Just joking. Proceed to introduce yourself to her in Chinese, following the tones of a 7th-grade oboe recital. You’re probably HSK 7 at this point. In fact, it’s always been your dream to teach English to Chinese children. The one thing you can’t stand, though, is the animal cruelty. No wonder the whole bat thing happened! You’re an ethical vegetarian. Well, Buddhists are okay, you guess. Speaking of food, you’ve always been exceptionally good at eating really, really spicy food. Like, really spicy. Make sure to explain to her that you always drain the Sriracha bottle. 

Oh, Fujian cuisine is on the milder side? You don’t even know where that is. That must be some smaller city.

Anyway. Time to open up a new line of conversation. Has she seen the hate crimes in the news recently? Well, you’ve been against that stuff from the beginning. Racism is wrong. It’s important to you to be on the right side of history. When that shooting in Atlanta happened, you raced to your computer to tweet #StopAsianHate. And things have changed, haven’t they? Or improved, anyway. Not that you’re an authority. Tell her that you’ve been thinking a lot about solidarity with the Asian community. And radical empathy. You’re a big fan of Andrew Yang, actually. 

It really seems like you’re clicking! And she is super cute. Maybe she’s the one? Don’t get ahead of yourself, but remember: You could be the Mark Zuckerberg to her Priscilla Chan. Ask her for her WeChat (yeah, you’re culturally versed). If you really want to get the point across, maybe slide in a subtle reference to your dick size in the chat. Unlike, you know, *wink*— the competition. 

Oh. Huh. It looks like she’s talking to the professor. What? She wants to get reassigned? This is unbelievable. What does she mean, you “made her uncomfortable”? As far as you could tell, she’s been enjoying this conversation from the very beginning. I guess some Asian girls aren’t submissive after all. Uppity bitch. 

Anyway, the class is letting out now. You might as well get some sushi. Maybe you can explain to the waitress at the restaurant that Panasonic has actually always made your favourite line of toasters.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

The companionship and versatility of r/McGill throughout the pandemic

by Rosie Kaissar on

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When the pandemic abruptly forced students into quarantine almost exactly two years ago, it brought with it the intangible consequences of physical distancing, such as increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Unable to connect with peers in person, many turned to the internet to find connection. Though COVID-19 necessarily disconnected the McGill community in some ways, the r/McGill subreddit has offered displaced McGillians a place to find support. 

Students use the McGill subreddit in a myriad of ways. Though the online forum can appear chaotic––frankly reflecting a university student’s brain amid a busy semester––students flock to the page to find practical solutions, solid advice, and a community support system. For example, throughout the pandemic, many students who faced travel restrictions and were not able to physically learn about the housing market in Montreal relied on r/McGill’s dedicated thread on housing for first-hand experiences and opinions.

The forum helped students find lost Jimmy Choo wallets, facilitated advice on how to make friends after returning to in-person classes, and assisted international students in navigating Canadian taxes.

“I use the McGill Reddit page to simply get an overall sense of what the McGill community is feeling,” Thomas Houlahan, U2 Arts, said. “Being an anonymous forum website, people tend to feel very comfortable sharing anything regarding McGill, from questions about classes and exams to gaining career advice from alumni. Best coffee places, best food, best study spots, comedy clubs, live music near McGill.”

The pandemic has given r/McGill an especially meaningful purpose: Mental health support. 

“There are a lot of posts about people feeling extremely down recently, mentions of depression, anxiety, failing classes, losing hope, even suicidal thoughts,” Houlahan said. “I would like to say that of any other social media the McGill people are active on, Reddit is the most open-minded, caring, and appreciative.” 

It’s no surprise that students log on to feel less alone. Some have gone to r/McGill to rant about mistakes and seek reassurance that they will be okay. User u/Majestic_Lifeguard81, who wrote a post titled “Took every wrong turn and crashed into myself,” asked community members at the end, “Anyone else ever make mistakes like this?” Fellow r/McGill community members flooded the comment sections with positive reassurances and pieces of advice. In other situations, some students have made posts about overcoming personal struggles and then give peers advice themselves.

Students have also taken to the McGill subreddit to express frustrations with experiences in their classes or on campus as a way to hold their peers accountable. One user, u/WasabiConsistent1485, used the platform to reach out to a stranger they saw crying at McLennan and offered a word of encouragement. There is even good news Monday, which is all about spreading positivity within the community.

“After being subject to online school and going to university with many online classes, I was slightly worried about the community aspect,” Jonny Shoshani, U0 Arts, said. “But, with r/McGill, I was able to receive tips and advice on how to meet people and clubs to join, so I was able to leave the isolation of online living and embrace the McGill community I was entering.”

The McGill subreddit has been around for years, but, especially in recent pandemic times, it has been a prominent social hub for students. r/McGill provides a community-gathering spot for the lighthearted, but also for the serious—having a space to share feelings of isolation and receive support, or just recognition, can be crucial in the alienating environment of university. 

Out on the Town, Student Life

Know your neighbourhood: Little Burgundy

by Dante Ventulieri on

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Little Burgundy, also known as la Petite Bourgogne or St-Antoine, is a small neighbourhood of around 10,000 people in Montreal’s Sud-Ouest district. 

Located around two kilometres southwest of McGill campus, Little Burgundy is only a 30-minute walk away. The area borders Shaughnessy Village and the 720 Highway to the north, Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Lachine Canal to the south, Griffintown and Guy Street to the west, and Saint-Henri and Atwater Street to the east. To reach Little Burgundy by public transit, take the metro to stations Georges-Vanier or Lionel-Groulx. 

Architecturally, the district is similar to other mid-density neighbourhoods in the Sud-Ouest, with multiplexes, red-brick facades, and minimal setbacks from the street. Former industrial buildings, now converted to apartments and condos, dot the canal and its surrounding streets.

In the early 20th century, Little Burgundy became the centre of Montreal’s Anglophone Black community. Nearly 90 per cent of men in the neighbourhood were employed by the nearby Windsor and Bonaventure rail stations, despite many of them having college degrees, as few other industries were willing to employ Black workers due to pervasive anti-Black racism. During the sleeping car era, most hires were porters; many described it as demeaning work that fixed the image of Black workers to the railroads. The transport companies provided housing in Little Burgundy for the porters, and as the area became more inhabited, Black-run services and facilities that catered to these workers and their families became concentrated in the area. Other businesses typically refused services to Black customers. 

In the 1920s, a decade now considered a golden period of Montreal’s Black history, there were numerous nightclubs and casinos that catered to white tourists looking to gamble and drink. Musical performances were a key part of the nightlife; Black musicians of the neighbourhood helped Montreal become one of the three main jazz hubs on the continent. Jazz clubs such as Rockhead’s Paradise hosted greats like Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, and Sammy Davis Jr., while also serving as a launching pad for local talents like Oscar Peterson. 

But when the Great Depression spread to Canada, Little Burgundy was hit particularly hard and the neighbourhood was unable to hold onto the success of the 1920s. To make matters worse, in the 1960s, mayor Jean Drapeau launched a series of urban renewal projects on the island of Montreal. The city’s intentions in Little Burgundy were two-fold: First, they wanted to “modernize” the area with a “slum clearance” project, and second, they wanted to build a highway to connect the majority-white suburbs to the downtown core.

The project was immense and irrevocable. The city sent in assessors to photograph the buildings and identify which ones would be expropriated, and pushed the project through without consulting local residents. Little Burgundy’s homes, restaurants, and business were all expropriated. The final result was a gentrified neighbourhood devoid of the culture and community it had built over the years. Many Black families were displaced: In 1966, the Black population was over 14,000, but by 1973, it had dropped to only 7,000. 

The expropriations of the ‘60s had lasting consequences,, including the dispossession of key institutions that served the Black community. The Negro Community Centre, for instance, was a community hive and safe space where neighbourhood members gathered and immersed in art and music, but it closed in 1989 due to financial struggles and was later demolished. Black Montrealers have called for its revival in recent years. The Black community in Little Burgundy is not as numerous as it had been before the urban renewal programs, but community activists have made local efforts to highlight its past by renaming the streets and parks and installing public art honouring community icons.


Today’s Little Burgundy is quite different from that of the 20th century. In recent decades, the borough has undergone even more gentrification, kickstarted by the creation of a linear park along the Lachine Canal, the revitalization of the Atwater Market, and the redevelopment of former industrial buildings. Members of Little Burgundy today continue to fight the dispossession of Little Burgundy’s working-class population and the neglect of its history—one that is central to the story of Montreal.

Sports

Investigating the pandemic’s effect on student athletes’ mental health

by Zoé Mineret on

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For the past two years, amidst numerous lockdowns, athletics have repeatedly been shut down in accordance with government and university public health regulations. Without access to equipment or athletic facilities, many athletes were unable to practice their sport. What once served as a source of regular exercise and stress relief was now taken away from them.. 

Athletes were often left in the dark regarding when they could return to training or when the athletic season would resume. Varsity soccer player Victor Henry, U2 Science, was among the many athletes who faced such struggles over the past two years.

“COVID gave me anxiety as to how long I’d go without playing soccer and if I’d lose my level,” Henry said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Especially after recently joining the team, I wanted to have the best performance possible.”

The combination of this drastic change in lifestyle and increased pressure chipped away at the mental wellbeing of many athletes. Dr. Gordon Bloom, a professor from McGill’s Department of Physiology and Physical Education, has conducted studies looking at virtual interventions for athletes struggling with mental health. According to Bloom, there is a lack of empirical data regarding the effect of isolation on athletes.

“I’m not aware of any research that ties in to lack of physical exercise, isolation, and performance, so to speak. I suspect we’ll start seeing a lot of that research getting published from 2022-2025,” Bloom wrote in an email to the Tribune. “For example, we did a virtual coach mentoring intervention during COVID and we’ve only just submitted the [manuscript] for review. It likely won’t be published for another year and a half.”

Isolation and confinement have also affected the way athletes approach their sport. For Henry, the prolonged isolation increased his performance anxiety.

“Because of COVID, we’ve had very limited games and practices this semester,” Henry said. “This means we have few chances to prove our worth on the team, making every game we participate in that much more important and stressful.”

Bloom hypothesizes that there is a correlation between performance anxiety and prolonged isolation. Despite being unable to connect in person, many teams engaged in social activities online to alleviate the stressful parts of athletic performance.  

“A lot of my interventions with teams at the start of COVID involved ‘connecting’ athletes with their teammates via Zoom or other social media outlets,” Bloom wrote. “A lot of athletes’ identity is tied to their sport, and the people who are a part of their inner circle. Most sport psychology professionals worked with the coaches of their teams to encourage ways to keep people connected.”

Many athletes, especially those struggling with their mental wellbeing, will seek the help of a sports psychologist to help improve both their mental health and physical performance. 

“The field of sport psychology has accumulated a large amount of empirical research on the psychological aspects of sport, from how psychological characteristics can affect sport performance to how participating in sport can affect psychological characteristics,” Bloom wrote. 

According to Bloom, there is mounting empirical evidence pointing to the importance of mind-body wellness in athletic performance. In his capacity as a sports psychology practitioner, Bloom has seen firsthand the impact of psychological interventions on athlete student wellness.

Bloom explained that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, his consultants have been working with athletes to map out the impacts of social isolation both inside and outside of their sport. 

McGill’s lack of transparency regarding sporting decisions further has exacerbated the negative effects of the pandemic on the mental wellness of student athletes. The cancellation of nine varsity sports at the beginning of the 2021-2022 season left many athletes who were hoping to get back to the grind disheartened.

McGill’s initiative to support varsity athletes through sports psychologists is a great one. Still, the institution needs to recognize the crucial importance college athletics holds for university students—and the effect repeated cancellations have on athletes’ mental health. After two years of isolation, uplifted only by the hope of returning to competition and practice, these athletes deserve more than a quick and sudden send-off.

McGill, News

Law professors continue to push for a union, a first in McGill’s history

by Ghazal Azizi on

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For the first time at McGill, a group of professors are seeking a union to represent them in their relations with the McGill administration. On Nov. 7, 2021, professors at the Faculty of Law submitted their union membership cards to the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), Quebec’s labour relations tribunal, and filed a petition for certification. Since then, the McGill administration has been litigating against the certification and refusing the faculty-specific union that the professors applied for. 

Professor Evan Fox-Decent, interim president of the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), explained that the motivation to unionize emerged out of a collective hope to restore collegial governance and faculty autonomy at McGill, arguing that “the COVID crisis was the bale of hay that broke the camel’s back.” 

In Aug. 2021, a number of law professors wrote a letter to the administration demanding that they implement a policy requiring proof of vaccination for those coming to campus for the Fall 2021 semester. The letter was greeted with a memo by Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Christopher Manfredi asking faculty deans and department heads to name specific professors who were reluctant to teach in person. Fox-Decent says the administration’s disciplinarian response to the letter highlights the “climate of fear” in which professors work. 

“The history of our governance at McGill has always, pridefully, been based on the notion of collegial governance, and it’s simply impossible to read that memo from August 29th and believe that the authors of it are committed to collegial governance in a meaningful sense,” Fox-Decent said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Our only hope is to work with [the administration] on a slightly more equal and transparent footing on matters of mutual concern with a collective foundation and the labour code to support us.”

According to Quebec’s Labour Code, upon receiving a petition for certification, a labour relations officer must assess whether the bargaining unit applied for is representative of the majority of workers that it would comprise, as well as whether the union has the agreement of the employer. In this instance, the requested bargaining unit would represent professors at the Faculty of Law. However, the McGill administration has opposed the union on the grounds that the bargaining unit should comprise professors across all faculties. 

In an email to the Tribune, Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, reported that none of the current bargaining units or associations at the university cover only a single faculty. 

“The university is of the opinion that the unit proposed by the petitioning association is not appropriate,” Mazerolle wrote. “Moreover, the administration feels it does not take into account the converging interests of a broader group of employees and the history of labour relations at McGill University.”

Fox-Decent recalled that unionized service personnel, such as custodial employees under the Service Employees Union (SEU) at McGill, have different bargaining units based on the buildings in which they work. Fox-Decent contends that similar to the SEU, the roles and work of professors are highly specialized and lead to distinct interests that require distinctive bargaining units. 

Richard Janda, a McGill law professor and secretary of the AMPL, is unsatisfied with McGill’s proposed bargaining unit, arguing that it dismisses the exact centralized force that the unionization efforts aim to combat. According to both Janda and Fox-Decent, McGill presented documents at the hearings before TAT that revealed yearly faculty agreements between the provost and the deans about budgeting and other matters of governance. Janda believes that the existence of individual agreements with each faculty demonstrates that each has specific interests that the administration’s proposed bargaining unit would counter.

“Our faculty, according to those documents, is given significant autonomy. In that sense, the university is something more akin to a federation […] and we’d like to keep it that way,” Janda said in an interview with the Tribune. “The fact remains that we have a pretty specific community of interests. It’s not unheard of [to] have specific units unionized within the university.”

There is precedent for this: At York University, for instance, professors of Osgoode Hall Law School are separately unionized under the Osgoode Hall Faculty Association (OHFA), while remaining faculty members are unionized under the York University Faculty Association (YUFA).

Fox-Decent shared Janda’s sentiments about the documents and expressed frustration about the fact that they had not been made known to professors previously. 

“We see unionizing and entering into collective bargaining as a sunshine offensive,” Fox-Decent said. “It’s going to make transparent many decision-making processes that have been hidden from us until now and give us the opportunity to participate in those.” 

Many law students at McGill have been vocal about their disapproval of the administration’s decision to litigate against law professors. In fact, at the law faculty’s town hall with Dean Robert Leckey on Jan. 21, many attending students turned their cameras off to reveal coordinated profile pictures that read out “Let them unionize,” followed by a red heart. 

Samuel Helguero, a 3L student who attended the town hall on Jan. 21 was disappointed in the administration’s refusal to accept the union and its decision to hire Corrado De Stefano—a partner lawyer from one of Canada’s biggest law firms, Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) limited liability partnership (LLP). 

“The central administration really has no leg to stand on in their legal case at the labour tribunal in resisting the union, which makes [their opposition] all the more incredulous,” Helguero said in an interview with the Tribune. “They are using students’ tuition money and they’re definitely union-busting, plain and simple.”

Helguero, who also helped organize the Law Students Association’s faculty strike in protest of the university’s reopening for the Winter 2022 semester, stressed that the unionization efforts and the student strikes are connected movements against McGill’s administration. 

“It’s really about the struggle for self-determination over the spaces that we are working in,” Helguero said. “Students are workers, as are professors—we should both have full decision-making powers. “COVID-19 illustrated external bodies that are unelected making decisions for us, and inevitably the decisions being made about us, without us, were the decisions we didn’t like and that were putting us in danger.”

Fox-Decent, who expressed solidarity with the law student strike movement in a letter, criticized McGill’s decision to fight the unionization, arguing that the money dedicated to litigation could have been redirected to purchase N-95 masks or to adopt other safety measures.

“To support us, students should write directly to Provost Manfredi and Principle Fortier expressing their dismay that at a time when McGill is saying that it does not have the resources to provide, for instance,  universal hybrid education in all of its courses, that it can, nevertheless, find considerable resources to engage in litigation to break a union that its law professors are trying to start,” Fox- Decent said.

Additionally, Fox-Decent encouraged students to attend the upcoming hearings. The AMPL is working to livestream the upcoming hearing to accommodate online attendees. 

“McGill just wants to pretend like [the unionization] is not happening, but at the same time they are not proud of [resisting the union],” Fox-Decent said. “It’s still possible for the wider McGill community to encourage our administration to think again about whether ongoing adversarial litigation against a supermajority of its colleagues in the Faculty of Law is the best way to run a university.”The previous hearing, originally scheduled for Feb. 14, was postponed by McGill due to a medical emergency with their attorney. The next AMPL v McGill (case number 1251090) hearings will take place on May 2, May 4, and May 13 at 9:30 a.m.

A previous version of this article stated that all law students at the Jan. 21 town hall turned their cameras off to show solidarity with the professors’ unionization efforts. In fact, it was many, but not all, of the students. The Tribune regrets the error.

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