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Arts & Entertainment, Dance, Theatre

Japanese urban dance film ‘Dreams on Fire’ sets Fantasia Festival ablaze

by Madison Mclauchlan on

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On Aug. 8, Dreams on Fire made its North American debut at the 25th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. Written, directed, and produced by Montreal-born filmmaker Philippe McKie, the film follows Yume’s (Bambi Naka) pursuit of fame as she moves to Tokyo to become a dancer. There, she grapples with the crushing disappointment of failure, the relentlessness of the hustle, and eventually, the euphoria of making it in the big city.

The screening took place at the Cinema du Musée, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, to a sold-out audience packed with Fantasia newbies and veterans alike. The energy of the crowd was unlike the rowdiness of festivals past; instead, there was a sense of reverent appreciation for the event’s return to in-person showings.

From its very first frame, Dreams on Fire establishes dance as its lifeblood—and also as Yume’s sole focus in life. Haunted by the family she left behind in the countryside, she launches herself into the gritty, electrifying world of urban dance, taking lessons when she can and working a string of exploitative jobs to support herself. Although Yume’s performances are stunning, the audience quickly realizes that she is but a tiny fish in a massive pond—her competitors are  at the top of their game. Their skills aren’t just for show, either; McKie insisted on only casting professional dancers for dance roles in the film. 

“Picking actors versus picking dancers, there is a gamble either way,” McKie said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “My gamble is, can they act? I am gambling on a lot, but at least the dance is going to be sick. This is the first-ever Japanese urban dance film, so nothing else matters.”

Yume delves into many different underground scenes in Tokyo, as she finds work at a hostess club and a BDSM-themed bar, visits drag shows, and tries to land a gig as a go-go dancer. The young performer faces exploitative bosses, predatory customers, and poverty. Her misfortune would feel relentless if it were not for the acts of kindness carried out by the women in the film. Dreams on Fire does not waste time on romantic subplots: Instead, it foregrounds female friendships. Yume’s bond with seamstress Chocho (Medusa Lee) reminds viewers that in the cut-throat Tokyo underground, knowing the right people is a survival mechanism in itself. 

“It was important to me that there would not be romance,” McKie said. “I’m tired of being force-fed those narratives in film. When you are hustling, sometimes there is no time for anything else. [There is] survival, and then the dream.”

As the camera follows Yume’s claustrophobic journey through Tokyo’s crowded streets and the tiny net cafe she lives in, the audience longs for her to spread her wings. Although viewers are treated to Yume’s spellbinding dance performances, recognition seems to escape her at every audition and competition. 

The film is achingly effective at portraying the pain of rejection. However, McKie prefers the term “failing forward” to describe Yume’s story: At every misstep or letdown, she forms a connection that leads her to another opportunity. 

“A lot of what the character goes through mirrors my own experiences,” McKie said, laughing. “The way that she does not let herself get destroyed, and keeps going, is kind of like my philosophy on life. In cinema, especially coming out of Hollywood, there are so many stories where there is one big challenge and the next time you win, but I don’t think that is representative of reality.”

McKie, who attended film school at Concordia but moved to Japan to embark on this ten-year-long project, hopes to expose Quebecers to the dynamism of Japanese cinema and to strike a balance between intrigue and authenticity. With Dreams on Fire, audiences cannot help but be captivated. 

The film will be streaming on the Fantasia Festival website until August 25. 

Arts & Entertainment, Dance, Theatre

Festival TransAmériques 2021 reveals the human condition through performance

by Noma Mirny on

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Founded in 1985 by Marie-Hélène Falcon and Jacques Vézina, the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) is an annual contemporary dance and theatre festival that brings artists from across the globe to Montreal to kick off the summer season. 

This year, dance and performance artists dusted off their costumes and laced up their pointe shoes for 26 performances that ran live from May 26 through June 12 at the Place des Arts. Ranging in artistic format and content, the performances explored the complexities of the human experience through dance, speech, and theatre. 

La Romance est pas morte by 2Fik!

La Romance est pas morte, 2Fik! or Romance ain’t dead, 2Fik!, followed the performance artist 2Fik’s examination of the absurdity and danger of online dating apps. Set in a colosseum-like structure lined with cardboard cutouts of countless fictional dating profiles, 2Fik chameleonically transformed himself into each one of them. Embodying each of the 100 characters he created for the project, 2Fik invited viewers to visit a fake dating website—romanceala2fik.com—to chat with his character while on the stage.

The set was a shuttered three-room faux-apartment: a bathroom, a kitchen, and a bedroom sat in the centre of the stage. Three screen panels hung on the audience-facing walls and linked to the fake dating website. The leftmost panel displayed a “hot-or-not” rating of the most upvoted characters on the app. The rightmost panel played a live-time list of all of the anonymous texts the audience sent him, while the central panel displayed the character 2Fik was playing. 

Whether straightening a wig or throwing on a leather jacket, 2Fik transformed into his characters, running the gamut of age, sexuality, gender, class, religion, and nationality. In a Deveare-like fashion, 2Fik demonstrated not only his own talent, but also his fluidity of these identities—and perhaps the triviality of such labels. Breathing life and nuance into each of his characters, 2Fik’s digital caricatures revealed the hypocrisy of dating-app users: A boomer trucker posts a picture of himself at a strip bar while his bio condemns the younger generation’s obscenity; a tech bro in his late 20s frequently quotes his mom; a recent divorcée of 40 features five of the same unflattering selfies on her profile. The performance ultimately revealed the falsity of digital personhood, the nonchalance with which we flatten human beings into sentences and photos, and the cruelty therein—fundamentally, the farce of online dating.

Stations by Louise Lecavalier

In Stations, Louise Lecavalier’s first solo dance performance, the music takes the reins. Opening in total darkness, the show began with a low rumble that eventually gave way to four rods of light on the corners of the stage. These created a metaphorical boxing ring in which Lecavalier danced at the mercy of the melody.

Moving through different parts of the performance, Lecavalier engaged in a ritualistic trance; when the music beat with an intense electronic throb, her body shook, her arms bobbing like a raggedy pierrot. When the rhythmical pulse of the electronica became a frenetic fast jazz, Lecavalier swung around erratically; her legs kicked and tugged one way, her arms jerked her another, her head wrenched upwards, downwards. When a slow ballad crooned, she moved as if through molasses, her head bent backwards while her arms crawled out from under it. In the end, a beam of white and the red-orange light singled out Lecavalier, who buried herself to the ground, crouching down, into a final, sweet beat of silence. 

Ultimately, the performance was able to communicate the universal human truth of instinctual, animal-like intelligence, and showed that what cannot be said through words, can often be said through movement. One could sense that the artist had gained control over the music, rather than vice versa. It seems, in the end, that she had won.

 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Evolution and 9 Horses’ ‘Omegah’

by Lowell Wolfe on

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The genre-bending music of New York City’s chamber jazz trio 9 Horses proves that just three instruments are capable of creating anything from prog rock to folk music, with sounds both melodic and jarring. At least, it does for composer and mandolin player Joseph Brent, violinist Sara Caswell, and bassist Andrew Ryan. On Aug. 6, the group released their fourth project, a nine-track album titled Omegah—their first release as an independent music group under their newly founded label, Adhyâropa Records. 

Omegah embodies 9 Horses’ musical evolution, as they worked with heavier musical production and featured other instrumentalists than in past projects, diversifying and expanding their sound. This change is paramount in the album’s fifth track, “Max Richter’s Dreams,” which features rich vocal layering over an equally gorgeous violin melody. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Ryan, who will be starting his master’s degree in sound recording at McGill’s Schulich School of Music this fall, detailed the magic behind the album’s creation.

“The record has grown out of just three core members into something that is really collaborative, [and] also uses elements that go beyond the traditional aspects of performance,” Ryan said. “Not only do we have people playing drums and playing piano, but then we have producers who will manipulate the sounds that are being made by those acoustic instruments to change the flavour.”

Such artistic development was not without setbacks, however: While the trio had begun recording Omegah in music studios before the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to switch from recording the album from their home in March 2020. 

“There are definite hurdles that get in place when you start recording from home because part of recording is creating a sonic environment for all of the instruments to live and interact [in],” Ryan said. “In studios, usually, that is quite easy to do because at least a couple of you are in the same room, and the engineers are priming every microphone to give off this consistency of sound.”  

Additionally, Omegah is the band’s first release as an independent label under their own record company, Adhyâropa Records. Responsibilities such as contracting promotional agents and scheduling performances were up to the band. Fortunately, because of Ryan and the band’s experiences as freelance musicians in New York City, they were confident they would thrive without guidance or assistance from a label. 

“Going with more of an independent release, […] you are on the hook for more,” Ryan said. “You get out of it what you put in, and you have to do more of it yourself. There is not an infrastructure in place of people who are trained and have been doing this and have the connections for years and years and years.” 

Overall, the tone of Omegah is consistently multicoloured. From the title track’s dramatic, metallic chords to the upbeat background percussion on “let’s just make It me and you,” listeners can expect a mixture of folk, jazz, rock, and much more in between. Across the entire album, such predictable unpredictability, all done with style and poise, makes for a riveting auditory experience. 

“The goal when we make records is that […] folk music listeners could come to this record to hear something that they want, and a jazz singer could come to the record and [hear] something that they want,” Ryan said. “And a classic listener, or a new music listener, or somebody who listens to [progressive] rock. That is the hope from an audience’s perspective.”

9 Horses looks forward to their performance on Oct. 10 at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. 

 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Ofer Pelz’s ‘Trinité’ experiments with audible embodiments of visual perception

by Lowell Wolfe on

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Composers have experimented with the art of musical composition for centuries, but rarely have they gone so far as to remove something so integral to music as melody itself. Ofer Pelz is a Montreal-based composer, pianist, and improviser who uses traditional classical music instrumentation to create unique, experimental sounds that often lack such a mainstay of classical music performance. On June 11, Pelz released Trinité, an album containing five of his compositions performed by the Meitar Ensemble, a Tel-Aviv-based music group with whom he has shared a long-lasting relationship, as well as being Israeli, like Pelz himself. 

Pelz wrote and recorded the songs for Trinité over a span of seven years, from 2010 to the completion of his doctoral research in Composition at the University of Montreal in 2017. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Pelz discussed the album’s creation and reception a month after its release.

“It is a celebration of a lot of years of work,” Pelz said. “Putting it all together, [it is] a product that can be distributed and can be seen by people who did not have access to my music before, and to the ensemble’s work before, so it’s great. I see that it arrives at people and places I did not  imagine, which is really cool.”

Each track is temporally and thematically independent, stemming from different places in Pelz’s life. Despite the subject of Pelz’s doctorate, ‘unstable repetition,’ the theme of predictable unpredictability ties these songs together into a cohesive project. 

“When you repeat something for a very long time, it might be interesting, but only in a meditative state,” Pelz said. “I try to keep the listener on the edge of the chair and to not just relax and enjoy the known things. Instead, I want to invoke their anticipation.”

Pelz explained that his music often  merges the audible and visual realms of perception during his creative process, using pictures and movements to inspire the sounds he writes. He might start with a specific word, or image, and allow his composition to mimic it.

“I try to go through the visual aspects of [a song], to draw it, or to give it words, but a lot of time it is on the visual side,” Pelz said. “I may forget what the initial sound image that I had was, but many times this is the beginning of the process.”

For example, the third track on the album, “Convergence,” sonically mimics the movement that a rubber ball takes once it is dropped and bounces on a floor until it stops. The piece features a light, jumpy flute performance by Meitar Ensemble musician Roy Amotz, beginning with turbulent, discordant notes and eventually ending in tranquility—mimicking the ball’s loss of energy. 

“This image of acceleration and something that hits and jumps and has its own energy to continue to jump […] is the kind of process that happens in general, in the piece,” Pelz said. “It starts from this throwing and ends by a long, empty sinus wave of sounds, which is kind of how everything converges.”

Members of the Meitar Ensemble, who perform the pieces on Trinité, are no strangers to Pelz’s work. The artists have collaborated since 2007, after one of Pelz’s professors recommended that they work together. 

“We have a big history together, and the relationship between composer and ensemble became a friendship,” Pelz said. “I know them very well, they know me, and it is good to have this kind of relationship because I write […] for friends and people I know. They are an amazing ensemble and it is very different than working with a new ensemble who I don’t know.

Pelz’s artistic process constitutes an exemplar of artistic vision in action. Trinité is this vision, fully realized. He encourages other artists, musical and other, to devote themselves to their own potential.

“Be true with yourself, and try to always search for what you want to really say. Continue to do that as much as possible,” Pelz said. 

Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo perform Pelz’s music live this coming September.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Isaiah Rashad’s ‘The House is Burning’ incompletely embodies its fiery namesake

by Lowell Wolfe on

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More than half a decade has passed since Isaiah Rashad released his dense, jazzy sophomore album, The Sun’s Tirade. While hip-hop music trends come and pass quickly, the release of Rashad’s new album The House is Burning on July 30 proved that he remains in the unique conscious, melodic, lo-fi-style lane of hip-hop that he has carved out for himself. 

The album expands this sound into a more complete and diverse listening experience. However, not all of this growth leads to success, as minor sonic inconsistencies upset the project’s general flow. 

Rashad is at his best when his album’s lyrics are introspective and the production soulful. On its second single, “Headshots (4r Da Locals),” Rashad becomes self-reflective on poetic rhymes such as “I see God when I be ridin’ out / Boy, you always ridin’ round with a target on,” over a beautiful vocal sample. Rashad showcases his skillful breath control and smooth flow on songs like “9-3 Freestyle,” where he raps quickly and effortlessly without sacrificing his voice’s tranquil nature.

While Rashad’s experimentation with trap instrumentals is effective in diversifying the album, his repetitive flow and the heavy percussion on “From The Garden” becomes obnoxious and tiring to listen to, not to mention the unexpected—and unwanted—feature from Lil Uzi Vert. Similarly, Rashad’s attempt at singing on “HB2U” lacks enough harmony or expression to make up for the absence of any solid verses, leaving much to be desired in spite of a mesmerizing vocal sample. While these tracks bring variety to The House is Burning, they take away from its greater enjoyability. 

Overall, Rashad develops both himself and his sound into an album’s worth of hard-hitting and simultaneously lo-fi rap music on The House is Burning. The album’s many highlights, such as “RIP Young” or “THIB,” outweigh its occasional missteps. 

 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

38 Spesh holds back the potential of Benny the Butcher and 38 Spesh’s ‘Trust The Sopranos’

by Lowell Wolfe on

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Riding a train powered by the gritty, imaginative imagery of street crime and new-age lyricism, Griselda Records member Benny the Butcher’s 2020 and 2021 albums have been consistently potent. 38 Spesh, one of Benny’s lesser-known yet widely accredited contemporaries, collaborates with Benny on Trust The Sopranos, an 11-track LP. To the dismay of listeners looking to lose themselves in vivid coke-rap poetry and warped, classic soul and R&B samples layered upon heavy 808s, Benny’s powerful presence is too insubstantial, and the instrumentals too hackneyed, to save this project from its biggest mistakes. 

While both Spesh and Benny possess similar grunge, noir-lyrical aesthetics, they lack the cohesion necessary to give the album a consistent and original texture. For instance, “Blue Money” features an outstanding verse from Benny, yet Spesh’s flow is too slow and his cadence too relaxed—a delivery that is incompatible with Benny’s aggressive, wicked style. Both artists refuse to meet each other half-way, giving the album an eclectic and hastily-constructed sound. Benny’s irregular appearances only compound the rappers’ mutual exclusivity.

All of Benny’s verses are powerfully vivid and focussed, but they only appear on six songs, encompassing a minor amount of the album’s 30-minute run time. Witty, creative lines like “Linked with execs who don’t know where no ghettos at / Where they get hit and bring no purple medals back” on “Immunity” prove that Benny adheres to his high standards when on the mic. Integrating quotes from early 2000s crime TV show The Sopranos on “Spineless,” Butcher mixes mobster and street-thug aesthetics to summate a lavish, calculated, and coldblood lifestyle. These highbrow moments, however, are too far and few between. While the numerous features—including the appreciable performance from Che Noir, Klass Murda, and Ransom on “Price of Fame”—appear to fill in this void, the inclusion of guests is ultimately unsatisfying knowing that Benny could, and should, be on these tracks.  

Spesh’s rhymes are also insubstantial, especially when coupled with half-baked instrumentals like the cliché, retro-soul sampling on “Tokyo Drift.” However, a few beats embody the old school hip-hop vibe that the project strives for; the keys on “Long Story Short” are effectively grim, keeping pace with the lyrics, and the spacey, minimal chord progression on “Silent Death” complements Chase Fetti’s dark performance. 

Overall, Trust The Sopranos has its highlights—specifically Benny the Butcher’s moments—but its tracks are not sonically or lyrically cohesive enough to fulfill the LP’s potential. Too many songs feature forgettable verses which, when coupled with generic instrumentals, become carbon-copies of a coke-rap formula that is becoming a tired hip-hop trope.

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

From benchtop to bedside: How tendon-inspired sutures can help heal wounds

by Amelia Stephenson on

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Sutures, the threads designed to close wounds and promote healing, have been used for thousands of years, having originated in ancient Egypt. Since their invention, physicians and scientists have experimented with a wide array of materials, from hemp and cotton to more modern synthetic fibres. New techniques have been developed that improve patient outcomes, reducing infection risks, facilitating the natural healing process, and lessening the appearance of scars. 

The current standard of care for suturing is far from perfect, however; suture materials can slice and damage already fragile tissues or cause inflammation by rubbing against adjacent tissues. This damage occurs because the materials used are dry and rigid, having been developed to bear tension as the wounds close. The rough fibres of sutures also conflict with the soft tissues they interface with, sometimes leading to postoperative complications. 

Zhenwei Ma, a PhD student supervised by Dr. Jianyu Li, assistant professor of McGill’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, looked to the human body for solutions to this problem. Ma led a team of engineers, clinicians, and pathologists to develop the tough gel sheathed (TGS) suture—a new suture technology inspired by the human tendon. 

Ma hopes the bio-inspired design could offer a solution to the drawbacks that traditional sutures present. Like the human endotenon sheath, the next-generation TGS suture is designed to bear tension. TGS’ hydrogel surface is also less stiff than that of sutures currently being used, reducing friction with surrounding tissues. 

“For our TGS surgical sutures, our design is inspired by […] the endotenon sheath, which is both tough and strong due to its double-network structure,” Ma wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune “It binds collagen fibres together while its elastin network strengthens it. This clever design found in nature inspires us to develop a tough double-network hydrogel sheath for surgical sutures with advanced wound-management functions.”

The TGS sutures can be used to deliver medication directly to the wound and monitor healing with near-infrared imaging. The team was inspired by limitations of current medical technology and Ma hopes other researchers will leverage this design to tackle different clinical challenges.

“We [were] inspired by the limitations of existing medical devices and biomaterials used in operating rooms and clinics,” Ma wrote.  “Building upon this platform technology, we are planning to extend the surface functionalization strategy to other fibre-based biomedical devices. Hopefully, this technology will also inspire and be leveraged by other researchers around the world to functionalize their biomaterials-of-interest.”

Although the team is currently working closely with clinicians in local McGill affiliated hospitals in Montreal, they believe this technology can be adapted to different biomaterials to meet distinct needs around the world, such as combatting rare diseases. Ma also hopes that translational clinical research will spark conversations between professionals from different disciplines and lead to out-of-the-box thinking with the potential to revolutionize treatment strategies.

Nevertheless, bench-top (lab-based) research faces a unique set of challenges before it can be translated into bedside use—from testing efficacy in patients to regulatory approval and product manufacturing. 

“As you can imagine, it would literally take a village and years’ efforts to make it happen,” Ma wrote.

With this new technology, innovation at the intersection of human anatomy and mechanical engineering is resulting in the emergence of translational clinical research as a viable strategy to meet patient needs.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that TGS sutures would allow patients to move freely without disrupting their stitches. In fact, sufficient testing has not been performed to confirm this. The Tribune regrets the error. 

News, The Tribune Explains

Tribune Explains: International students’ entry into Canada

by Juliet Morrison on

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As McGill opts for in-person learning this fall, international students are navigating the challenges of entering Canada, such as getting vaccinated, making a quarantine plan, and finding housing options. 

What are the requirements for students to enter Canada? 

As of Feb. 19, 2021, international students with a valid study permit or a study permit approval letter are allowed to enter Canada provided they have a negative COVID-19 test taken 72 hours before arrival. International students, regardless of vaccination status, must submit a precautionary quarantine plan—which details how they would access food and medicine in case the border officials deem a quarantine as necessary—through the ArriveCAN application. Students’ entry into Canada is still ultimately subject to the approval of officials at the border. 

Who has to quarantine upon arrival to Canada? 

As of July 5, fully vaccinated students eligible for entry to Canada are exempt from the mandatory 14-day quarantine, but students who are unvaccinated are still expected to comply with the quarantine. However, to be qualified as “fully vaccinated,” students must have  received their second dose of an approved vaccine 14 days prior to their arrival at the border. 

Canada’s mandatory three-day hotel quarantine will be dropped for all travellers, regardless of vaccination status, starting Aug. 9. 

How have entry requirements affected McGill students? 

Some international students, especially those affected by slow vaccine rollouts in their home countries, have claimed that Canada’s entry requirements have caused them stress. Adam*, U2 Science, explained that their inability to get an approved vaccine in time might lead to an unintended break in their studies. 

“I am facing a lot of problems with my vaccination,” Adam said. “In Iran, only the 50 and above age group can register to be vaccinated [….] I, as a 20-year-old with no medical problems, will not be vaccinated until early November. Not to mention that due to sanctions, the vaccines that are available in Iran are not on the list of approved vaccines by the Government of Canada. 

Yasi Khan, U2 Arts, realized getting a dose of Sinovac at the beginning of the summer in her home country of Pakistan meant she would not be eligible for the quarantine exemption—which she says has complicated her return to campus.

“As an international student, you are kind of on your own to consider all these things,” Khan said. “You have to have all the right documents and vaccines, and you have to be prepared for anything [the border officers] are going to ask you [….] You might get rejected [from the quarantine exemption]. It is just a lot.” 

How is the university supporting international students? 

McGill has dedicated New Residence Hall to international students arriving on campus between Aug. 1-6 who need to complete their 14 day quarantine. Students will be charged $50 per night for a room. The deadline to book a room is Aug 6. to allow for the full 14-day quarantine and for the building’s complete disinfection before residence move-in weekend on Aug. 21-22. 

According to Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, the administration and International Student Services (ISS) have implemented additional accommodations in recognition of the challenges international students may face. 

“There will be an online form available for students who may require academic accommodations at the beginning of the Fall term, and the Office of the Dean of Students will work on a case-by-case basis around academic accommodation for these students,” wrote Mazerolle to The McGill Tribune.

The ISS will be hosting four town halls during the month of August to answer any questions from students regarding quarantine requirements, housing options, and the logistics of arriving on campus. 

Hockey, Sports

Montreal Canadiens face offseason uncertainty after Stanley Cup loss

by Madison McLauchlan & Sarah Farnand on

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After a drought of nearly 30 years, it looked like this might be the year that the Montreal Canadiens bring home the Stanley Cup. In Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals, however, the Canadiens’ dreams were shattered by a single goal. The Tampa Bay Lightning, a powerhouse team by all measures, were crowned the champions for the second year in a row under the leadership of McGill alumnus Mathieu Darche, BComm ‘00. 

Despite the disappointing result, the Canadiens’ playoff run rejuvenated the city of Montreal after almost three decades of not making the finals. The run also came as the city was starting to reopen after laying dormant due to COVID-19 public health restrictions and business closures. Now, the team must lick their wounds, avoid losing key players during a tricky offseason, and start all over again in October. 

Coming off of a shoddy regular season (24-21-11) and barely squeezing through to the playoffs, the Habs were the clear underdogs in the first round when they faced off against their long-standing rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The outlook appeared grim for the Habs after three consecutive losses, but they embarked on a redemption arc that stymied the Winnipeg Jets and the Vegas Golden Knights, and brought them to compete in the finals against the reigning 2020 champs. 

Beating the Tampa Bay Lightning was never going to be an easy feat; with a stellar offensive core in players like Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, as well as a world-class goalie whose stats trump those of Carey Price’s, the Habs had their work cut out for them from Game 1. 

Despite the odds stacked against them, the Canadiens never saw themselves as underdogs. Battling extreme emotion during the post-game press conference, players, including Brendan Gallagher, expressed their bitter disappointment in failing to bring home the Stanley Cup. 

“We expected to be here,” Gallagher said, choking back tears. “Regardless of what people thought of our team, [our] expectations were to win this series.”

While returning home without the Cup was difficult for the whole team, it was especially painful for veteran players like Carey Price and captain Shea Weber, who may not have another opportunity to reach the championships. It is their 14th and 16th seasons in the NHL, respectively. 

Recent news of Weber’s injuries is especially concerning, with some sports networks saying that he may be out for most of the season and will not be protected for the upcoming Seattle Kraken expansion draft. 

Losing Shea Weber and his leadership would be a tough blow for the Canadiens, but arguably even tougher would be the loss of starting goaltender Carey Price. Having waived his No-Move Clause, Price will be exposed during the expansion draft to allow the Canadiens to protect their backup goaltender, Jake Allen. Price’s hefty $84 million contract and $11.5 million dollar signing bonus makes him quite pricey for the brand new Kraken team—a factor that may lessen his chances of being selected. However, exposing a starting goaltender, especially after such a successful playoff run, is risky. Jake Wagman, U2 Arts and an avid hockey fan, believes this move is ill-advised.

“Regardless of the chances, I think you need to protect the most important player on the team, [Carey Price],” Wagman said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I would say there is a 50 per cent chance [the Kraken will] take him and […] if they do take him, the Canadiens are in trouble despite having multiple young, promising players.”

Some of the team’s youngest players, like Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, have been serious offensive assets and are looking forward to playing in a full-capacity Bell Centre. Hopefully, that experience will include the support of their captain and starting goaltender.

“The city has been nothing but unbelievable,” Caufield said during his end-of-season media availability. “This is only just the start. The fans deserve a winning team. We gave them a little taste of it this year.” 

Science & Technology

Macdonald campus pollinator project gives native bees what they need

by Sara Chiarotto O'Brien on

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The Native Pollinator Habitat Project, launching in summer 2021, is McGill’s Macdonald Campus Sustainability Working Group’s latest initiative that aims to make the campus more hospitable to native species. Led by Frieda Beauregard, professor in the Department of Plant Science at McGill and curator of the McGill University Herbarium, the project will provide floral resources and nesting habitats to support local bee and pollinator populations. 

Inspired by a study in the Journal of Insect Conservation, Beauregard and her team will set up logs and squares of sandy soil to provide comfortable nesting places for local ground-nesting bees. 

Global bee populations have been in steady decline since the 1940s. A growing awareness of the threats to pollinators has resulted in an increased public effort to support bees, such as installing “bee hotels” on personal property, banning harmful pesticides called neonicotinoids, and cultivating wild plants.

Gail MacInnis, a postdoctoral fellow at Concordia University, is studying the impact of urban beekeeping in Montreal on native bee populations in Montreal. According to MacInnis, most of Montreal’s native bees have been neglected by mainstream conservation groups. This is why efforts like the Pollinator Project, which support the unique habitats and needs of native bees, are necessary.

“A lot of people do not realize that around 70 to 80 per cent of our [175] native bee species […] nest in the ground,” MacInnis said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. 

 Unlike the typical depictions of bees in swarms, many of Montreal’s native bee species are solitary and nest in sandy, well-drained, undisturbed soils where they lay between five and 10 eggs annually.

There has been a recent influx of urban beekeeping in Montreal, which has been on the rise since 2008; multiple companies have built profitable businesses selling urban beehives as a tool to support biodiversity. 

 MacInnis explained that native bee species have evolved with complex relationships to local plants. The native squash bee, for example, can only pollinate squash flowers. Though honey bees can also populate these blossoms, they often outcompete local species in doing so, draining local pollen resources and damaging local ecosystems. 

“People have been […] misled into thinking, ‘if I keep a hive in my backyard, this is helping fight bee decline,” MacInnis said. “It is much more likely that [specialized native bees are] going to decline because they cannot just shift to another plant like a honey bee would.” 

The impact of this rise in urban beekeeping on local bees is not yet known, and MacInnis believes that is part of the problem. Unlike Toronto and other major cities, Montreal has no formal system in place to track the location or quantity of honey bees in the city. 

“One of my biggest hopes is that […] we start monitoring our honey bee populations so that we [can] avoid situations where we are putting high densities of hives in the same area,” MacInnis said. “Keeping honey bees to save the bees is like keeping chickens to save the birds.” 

Luckily, supporting native bees through individual action is not difficult if done properly. Those with backyards can make their soils hospitable to ground-nesting bees by mulching less, avoiding pesticides, and planting native flowers like Bee Balm (Wild Bergamot). 

At Mac Campus, the 200 trees project and soon-to-be-planted wildflower meadow are other additions to the Pollinator Habitat Project aimed to support native bees. Through a partnership with John Abbott College, the campus will also be used for educational purposes: Students will be able to study the pollination patterns of insects and share discoveries on iNaturalist, an app that allows image-based sharing of native plants. 

“This project is a small part of other projects trying to make [Macdonald Campus] that much more full of life,” Beauregard said in an interview with the Tribune. 

MacInnis echoed the sentiment, and hopes that members of McGill and the public will embrace the opportunity to discover how they can support the local environments that sustain our native pollinators.

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