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Student Life

Borderless World Volunteers raises funds for Sudan genocide relief through Battle of the Bands

by Talia Moskowitz, Tamiyana Roemer on

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If you walked past rue McTavish Friday night, Nov. 21, you most likely heard the sounds and vibrations of live music emanating from Gerts Bar. Borderless World Volunteers (BWV) is a McGill club focused on empowering undergraduate students to lead and assist in development projects in Montreal and abroad. Their most recent fundraiser was a lively Battle of the Bands to raise money and awareness of the ongoing genocide in Sudan. 

Vice Presidents of External Fundraising Angélique Gouws, U3 Arts, and Anna Nogael, U4 Management, organized the event. Gouws expressed the club’s motivation and thought process behind the event in an interview with The Tribune. 

“There is a huge crisis in Sudan and [it] doesn’t have a lot of news coverage at all, so I thought we might as well try and see if we can get some funds going towards [those affected].”

Borderless World Volunteers donated 15 per cent of all ticket sales to Ethar Relief, an organization focused on supporting refugee crises in regions that have been neglected by the international community through comprehensive development projects and aid. Ethar is currently focused on addressing crises in Sudan, Yemen, and Djibouti. 

Gouws shared that it was important to her and BWV to make a contribution to an organization that would have an impact on the ground in Sudan. 

“I tried to find an organization that […] we can see that there is tangible evidence of them going in and having a real impact in the communities,” Gowan said. 

Six bands played at Gerts for the event, and all were happy to contribute to the charitable cause that BWV was supporting. 

“It was cool, there were quite a couple bands that I reached out to and they all seemed willing to do it. They all were really chill with the fact that we didn’t pay any of the bands, they were all happy that it’s a fundraiser,” Gowan said. 

Gowan emphasized BWV’s awareness of how development projects can often slide into neocolonial interventions with underlying presumptions of white saviourism, a problematic tendency the organization is conscious of circumventing. 

“A big issue with development projects is that it ends up pushing a kind of neocolonial agenda, and that’s something that we’re really trying to make sure we’re not doing. We’re really trying not to do that by sending people to other countries,” Gowan said. 

Adrienne Calzada, U4 Arts student and Co-President of BWV, illuminated the club’s mission and origins. 

“The club was founded in the early 2000s so we have been at McGill for a while [….] It was founded with the intention of giving undergraduate students opportunities to apply what they learned. The point of the club is essentially to bridge the theoretical learnings that we learn at McGill.” Calzada said.

While the club initially catered to students studying international development, it has expanded over the years to include the broader McGill undergraduate community. 

“What we’ve done over the years is […] branch out to other faculties because there is […]  a space for every faculty in this sort of movement,” Calzada said. 

Calzada also shared what BWV is looking to achieve this year both locally and abroad.

“Right now we’re working with a women’s shelter in the city and are in the process of finding an NGO that we want to work with this year, and our end goal is to raise enough money to send a couple students abroad over the summer so that they can take place in like grassroots sustainable initiatives,” she explained. 

Fundraising events like the Battle of the Bands not only generate tangible financial support in the face of violence and destruction but also make Sudan’s genocide—which remains vastly underreported in mainstream media—more visible within the McGill community.  It serves as a critical reminder that awareness itself is the first step in resisting international neglect and apathy.

Montreal, News

Recap: Solidarity Across Borders Montreal condemns Canada’s Bill C-12

by Mairin Burke on

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On Oct. 8, Canada’s House of Commons announced Bill C-12, which builds on Bill C-2 to majorly expand Canada’s power to revoke immigrants’ existing visas, permanent residency status, and work or study permits. This bill would allow mass deportations of these migrants without due process, in the name of public interest.

In response to Bill C-12, Solidarity Across Borders (SAB) Montreal, an anti-colonial migrant justice network, organized a caravan to the offices of four Montreal-based federal Members of Parliament (MPs) on Nov. 13: The Liberal Party of Canada’s Steven Guilbeault representing the Laurier—Sainte-Marie constituency, the Liberal Party’s Majorie Michel for Papineau, the Liberal Party’s Patricia Lattanzio for representing Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, and Le Bloc Québécois’s Mario Beaulieu for La Pointe-de-l’Île. The caravan read a letter at each MP’s office demanding that the officials reject Bill C-12. 

In a written statement to The Tribune, an organizer with SAB Montreal who wished to remain unnamed explained how the bill will increase pressure on Canada’s immigration system, rather than improve it as the government claims.

“Without any way of regularizing their [residency] status, many people would remain or become undocumented,” they wrote. “Borders would become more deadly [….] Undocumented people will be pushed even further to the margins, unable to access basic services in fear that this could lead inadvertently to their deportation.”

During the SAB action, demonstrators waved banners and signs, gave speeches, and handed out informational flyers to onlookers. The organizer highlighted some of Bill C-12’s student-specific impacts, describing how students from countries experiencing violence will be prevented from applying for refugee status to stay in Canada if they have been in the country for over a year without already doing so.

“International students could see their study permits cancelled en masse, without any individualized assessment or means of appeal,” they wrote. “If a student were to come out as queer, or transition, and it is dangerous or illegal to be queer or trans in their country of origin, they would nonetheless be barred from filing a refugee claim in Canada.”

The organizer concluded by encouraging people to participate in SAB’s upcoming events and to generally join the fight for migrant justice.

“If not already impacted personally, all students have someone in their lives who will be impacted by [Bill C-12],” they wrote. “Whether [a] friend, a loved one, a neighbour, [a] TA, […] [Bill] C-12 and the current rise in xenophobia is really an attack on all of us.”

Montreal, News, The Tribune Explains

The Tribune Explains: Quebec government ends two provincial immigration streams

by Eren Atac on

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The Quebec government ended the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ), which included the Quebec Graduates and Temporary Foreign Workers immigration streams, on Nov. 19. The removal of these two pathways leaves the Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) as the only major pathway for most temporary residents to permanently immigrate to Quebec. These changes follow the government’s cap of 45,000 permanent immigration admissions per year. The Tribune explains what the government’s immigration policy changes will entail for McGill students.

Why did the government remove these two pathways?

The CAQ has been limiting the PEQ for several years, starting with a restrictive reform in 2020, in response to a sharp increase in the number of non-permanent residents in Quebec over recent years. The Quebec government, led by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), has argued that the latest reforms will preserve the French language and make the immigration process more selective. 

Under the province’s old immigration system, many international students became eligible for permanent residency shortly after graduation through the Quebec Graduates PEQ stream. The PEQ had already been suspended from October 2024 through June 2025 before its total cancellation this November. 

How do these changes affect McGill students?

For many McGill students, the Quebec Graduates stream was the primary pathway to permanent residency. It allowed students with a Quebec diploma, such as a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD, to apply for permanent residency soon after graduation, without requiring extensive work experience or French fluency. Its removal leaves the PSTQ as the only substantial way to stay in the province. 

The PSTQ has stricter requirements, such as proof of B2-level spoken French, at least one year of eligible skilled work experience, and a competitive score on Arrima, Quebec’s point-based immigration system. 

These changes have created greater uncertainty for students who do not possess the required level of French proficiency and had planned to remain in Quebec after graduation. Students with a federal post-graduation work permit (PGWP) now face language barriers that previously did not exist.

What pathways to permanent residency still exist for students?

The PSTQ is now the main pathway to permanent residency for temporary residents of Quebec, including graduating students. Applicants can submit a profile through Arrima and may be selected based on various criteria, such as their French proficiency, work experience, and education. Students who are able to improve their French to the B2 level will gain a significant advantage in the Arrima point system. 

Students may also reconsider immigrating to Quebec altogether, given that other provinces have more accessible immigration pathways through their Provincial Nominee Programs. For example, the Ontario Immigration Nominee Program’s Employer Job Offer: International Student stream allows graduates with a job offer in a skilled position in the province to apply directly for nomination, without needing the points-based ranking used in Quebec. This pathway does not require any job experience, unlike Quebec’s requirement of one year of skilled work to gain residency status.

What transitional measures exist for affected students?

The government has introduced limited transitional measures for individuals affected by the changes. Those who submitted a complete application for residency before Nov. 19 will still be evaluated under the old rules, but students who were planning to apply are no longer eligible. 

While McGill’s International Student Services does not offer advising on permanent residency, students with immigration concerns may contact them for help with temporary immigration documents and maintaining student immigration status.

What are the criticisms of these changes?

Various organizations have levied criticisms against the new changes. The Canadian Immigration Lawyers’ Association condemned the changes for being non-transparent, harming Quebec’s attractiveness to foreign students who hope to fully immigrate to Canada after their educational program. The association also raised concerns about the lack of transitional measures in place for graduate students, who had expected to apply for residency through now-cancelled streams. Additionally, the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire has criticized the changes for reducing international interest in the province’s educational sector.

Commentary, Opinion

When Ottawa cuts, Kahnawà:ke pays

by Naïri Kibarian on

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Through Bill C-5’s ‘Building Canada Act,’ the Carney administration aims to achieve extensive economic development projects—though without respect for Indigenous rights and sovereignty. When critical funding for Indigenous services is placed on the chopping block, Indigenous communities have no choice but to take sovereign action to secure for themselves what the Canadian government has repeatedly refused to provide. 

In an effort to achieve the goals of Bill C-5, Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to cut 15 per cent of the annual budget, amounting to approximately $4.5 billion CAD over the next three years. These cuts amount to a 2 per cent reduction in funding for Indigenous-Crown Relations and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). While 2 per cent may seem insignificant, it will remove nearly $2.3 billion in funding from ISC by spring 2030. By making steep cuts to Indigenous Services Canada, the Carney government signals that economic goals outweigh its Charter obligations to protect Indigenous rights and livelihood.

In response to the funding shortfalls caused by Bill C-5, Kahnawà:ke Grand-Chief Cody Diabo is seeking to impose tolls on Highways 132, 138, and 206, routes which link the Island of Montreal and the South Shore by passing through Kahnawà:ke. The tolls are expected to cost around $4.60 CAD.

Roughly 120,000 vehicles travel these routes every day, traversing the Mohawk reserve on their commutes. If Canadians wish to enjoy the benefits of public infrastructure, since public infrastructure is a major focus of Bill C-5, the Mohawk community should also be empowered to charge tolls on the roads that pass through their land. This is not only because these roads rely on sovereign Kahnawà:ke land, but because their funding comes at the direct expense of essential services for Indigenous communities. 

Given that the Quebec government did not expropriate Kahnawà:ke reserve lands to create these roads, it is undeniably within the Mohawk council’s authority to enforce its own road safety and tolling codes in the regions where the highways cross into its territory.

Diabo asserts that this change is not intended to punish Canadians but to push the federal government. Ultimately, Indigenous communities must take measures to prioritize their needs when the government refuses to do so. 

While achieving economic development and infrastructural goals under Bill C-5 is undoubtedly important in light of Trump-led tariff pressure, actualizing these goals must not come at the expense of Indigenous communities’ Charter rights. This approach by the Carney government—positioning the bolstering of Indigenous services and economic growth as somehow incompatible with other legislative goals—perpetuates a vision of governance in which Indigenous communities remain subjects of regulation. If fiscal restraint were truly the motivation, its burden would be distributed evenly across departments. The refusal to enshrine funding for the ISC represents a political choice, not a budgetary necessity. Especially given Canada’s history of violent colonialism and settlement, providing federal funding for Indigenous Peoples to acquire crucial services is the bare minimum if the government has a genuine commitment towards reconciliation.

The Mohawk community’s proposed tolling system is not yet established or installed. Grand-Chief Diabo has stressed that he wishes, first and foremost, to make things ‘right,’ and that this plan will not be completed for the year to come. 

The tolls are not a provocation—they are a clear assertion of Indigenous rights in the face of federal neglect.

Arts & Entertainment, Made at McGill, Theatre

‘katzenmusik’: Social inequality explored at Moyse Hall

by Alexandra Lasser on

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The McGill Department of English Drama and Theatre Program presents Tom Fowler’s katzenmusik, a darkly compelling exploration of social inequality and civil unrest in the fictional town of Burnside. Told in reverse chronological order, the play recounts a cat massacre that devastates the town and forever tarnishes its reputation. Each scene allows viewers to piece together the truth as they witness events unfolding backwards, observing consequences before motives.

The reverse storytelling creates a tale that individualizes as it progresses. The show opens with a cacophony of rings and answering machines as townspeople rush hurriedly across the stage, talking over each other. Confusion and anxiety permeate the first half of the play, as news headlines spin an easy narrative around the tragic event. As the story rewinds, however, the underlying issues in Burnside are revealed. The massacre was not an isolated act of brutality, but rather the climax of long-simmering frustrations among Burnside’s working-class residents, many of whom lost their jobs after the abrupt closure of a large car manufacturing plant. Fed up with neglectful and opportunistic landlords, dishonest politicians, fruitless peaceful protests, and a media parade creating a circus out of their lives, ordinary people make the pivotal decision to murder the cats of the elite and powerful. This unique plot development forces audiences to confront the individuals at the core of such a large tragedy.

The production is a collaboration between undergraduate students and faculty members of the English Department. Students worked closely with professors not only as performers but also in courses on costume making, set design, and lighting, gaining hands-on experience in all aspects of mounting a show. The director, Sean Carney, worked closely with U3 Drama and Theatre student Celeste Gunnell-Joyce, who acted as assistant director. Having leadership in the hands of both faculty and students ensured the collaborative nature of the production and provided students with the valuable and unique opportunity to develop their creativity under the guidance of experienced professionals. 

“There’s a lot of real mentorship and apprenticeship going on [….] That’s been really incredible,” Gunnell-Joyce said in an interview with The Tribune. 

The play’s political message gains strength from its large ensemble of characters, inviting viewers to contemplate a diverse array of perspectives. With 15 performers in the production, the cast undertook the complex task of representing multiple characters in the show. This choice highlighted the community at the heart of the turmoil. There was no lead character to follow, just a web of townspeople populating each scene, sometimes as victims, sometimes as perpetrators. The lack of a clear moral distinction between characters complicated the narrative and further encouraged audiences to evaluate the situation themselves rather than seek convenient answers.

I was particularly impressed with the creation of imagined sets on the stage. Though the stage was void of any set or decor, each scene was vivid and clear in its setting. This was thanks to clever choreography, staging, spotlights, and the accomplished physical acting of the young cast. 

The final scene centres on the moral ambiguity of all the characters. It focuses on the landlord, who is largely responsible for the chaos. He addresses a conference, proudly recounting his rise from a low-income background in Burnside. He built his success by buying cheap housing and neglecting to pay maintenance fees, profiting off the backs of those whom the audience had watched suffer. The play avoids villainizing this specific individual, whose corrupt greed resulted from an ordinary desire to prosper; instead, this scene confronts viewers with the system that platforms and enables his actions, forcing the realization that towns like Burnside exist everywhere.

katzenmusik continues its run in Moyse Hall in the Arts Building from November 26 to 28.

McGill, News, Recap

Recap: Barry Eidlin gives lecture on Jo Freeman’s “The Tyranny of Structurelessness”

by Asher Kui on

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Barry Eidlin, associate professor in McGill’s Department of Sociology, gave a lecture entitled “Tyranny of Structurelessness” on Nov. 19 to approximately 15 students. The lecture was based on Jo Freeman’s essay “The Tyranny of Structurelessness,” first published in 1972, which explores the dichotomy between “structure” and “structurelessness.” Freeman argues that “structurelessness” in an activist organization does not actually exist—rather, it is a way of masking informal and unauthorized power.

The talk was one of many events hosted during the Shut It Down strike campaign, providing an alternative to attending class for students on departmental strike for Palestine between Nov. 17 and Nov. 21. Eidlin began the lecture by defining two key terms in activist movements: Strategy and tactic.

“Strategy [is] a broad, long-term, abstract goal, like abolishing patriarchy, freeing Palestine, and ending racism,” he explained. “It’s a big thing that you’re not just going to win in one fell swoop. It’s a multi-step process, […] [while] tactics are specific actions you take in pursuit of that strategic goal. The key question you could be asking is, ‘Does the tactic help or hinder my pursuit of that strategy? Am I getting myself further along that path, or am I just standing still, or am I going back?’”

Eidlin then expressed that in the context of social movements, organizers’ desired outcomes are often unattained because of a mismatch between their strategy and their tactic, or a lack of either.

“There’s a retreat into a moralist, individualist approach to politics, where politics becomes more a part of who you are, as an identity, rather than the thing that you do,” he stated. “In the modern day and age, […] you post all sorts of radical stuff online, but you’re not […] getting anywhere [….] [That is] strategy without tactics.”

Eidlin concluded his lecture by highlighting how Freeman calls for social movements to create more democratic structures.

“Organizations that claim to be non-hierarchical, horizontal, anti-authoritarian, [do] have a structure, they just don’t see it,” he said. “Problems that derive from this refusal to develop formal structure [can be alleviated through] creating instructions of accountability to distribute authority deliberately, [and] allocating tasks more democratically to create more open channels for permanent […] transparency.”

More information on the post-talk student discussion can be found here.

Know Your Athlete, Martlets, Sports, Swimming

Know Your Athlete: Rebecca McGrath

by Zain Ahmed on

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When most students are just beginning to wake up, Rebecca McGrath, U1 Science, has already been in the pool for hours—counting strokes, chasing splits, and sharpening the details that make her one of McGill Swimming’s most promising rookies. At only 19, the Psychology major made her presence known once again at the University of Toronto Varsity Blues dual meet on Sunday, Nov. 16, winning gold in both the 50 metre and 200 metre backstroke and qualifying for the U SPORTS Swimming Championships in both, as well as the 4×50 metre relay.

Despite her outstanding results, McGrath insisted the meet felt more like a training test than a peak.

“I kind of knew my race plans,” she shared in an interview with The Tribune. “The whole meet was more like training [….] We were all pretty fatigued, taking the train there and back, and it was our fifth weekend racing in suits.”

In Toronto, team points overshadowed the clock for McGill Swimming. McGrath’s 200 metre backstroke performance was where everything clicked.

“The first 100 metres, I set up my race pretty well, so I was already quite ahead [….] In the end, I knew I would win the race,” she explained. “That was the ultimate goal, not the time as much [….] It was really about whoever wins the most golds, whoever places better.”

Like most varsity athletes, McGrath has had to learn to manage more than just race strategy in competition. She detailed the setbacks that impact her time in the pool, and which adversity tends to be the hardest to overcome.

“I think it’s always injuries, as well as motivation, but with schoolwork and swimming load, that’s the hardest,” she said. “I dislocated my knee in the summer [….] [I had] to pull back for a bit, and [the impact] never really goes away.” 

What steadies her is McGill Swimming’s culture, which blends high performance with genuine enjoyment. McGrath’s path to McGill was shaped in part by her longtime coach Peter Carpenter, now the head coach at McGill. 

“I never really thought of pursuing swimming in Canada, it was always the [United] States,” McGrath explained. “But after my recruitment trip [to McGill] and [getting to have] Peter as a coach, […] I love his energy. That’s when I decided I wanted to continue varsity in Canada.”

She credits Carpenter as a major reason she thrives in the program.

“He makes people enjoy the sport. Not only do well in it, [but] he lets us have a good work-life balance, which is so hard to do,” McGrath emphasized.

This fall, McGrath also competed at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Toronto after qualifying at summer nationals. Racing in heats alongside world record holders was a surreal milestone.

“Everything they do is so insane, [yet] they’re so smiley and relaxed in the ready room. I admire them so much,” McGrath shared.

Balancing elite swimming with McGill’s academics is demanding, but Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel gave McGrath a strong foundation. Not only intense with her academic goals, McGrath has an ever-determined attitude when it comes to the competitive nature of varsity swimming. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, McGrath stays humble but ambitious as an athlete competing at the highest level. 

“There’s always something to improve, even if it’s just milliseconds. That’s what keeps it exciting,” she affirmed. “I feel like there’s still so much room to grow.”

McGrath did not hesitate to share what she loves most about McGill’s swimming program. 

“The team atmosphere,” she exclaimed. “Yesterday we had music on deck, Peter was singing and turning up the volume, and everyone was enjoying themselves as friends while still working hard.”

In a perfect segue, her advice to future McGill varsity athletes is simple: “Don’t take it too seriously. Have fun. It’s such a fun experience, really.”

With national and international race experience already behind her, McGrath is proving that joy, balance, and belief might be her most powerful tools in the pool.

Student Life

Five questions about departmental strikes, answered

by Gregor McCall and Tamiyana Roemer on

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This past week’s coordinated departmental strikes have raised a multitude of questions, concerns, criticisms, and misinformation. To clarify the purposes and intentions of these strikes, The Tribune has gathered five questions circulating on social media to answer, all relevant to understanding student activism on a deeper level. 

Why are students striking as opposed to donating, fundraising, or participating in sponsorships?

Donations, fundraisers, and sponsorship may support specific initiatives, including aid, but they do not directly challenge the policies or investments of McGill as an institution. A strike, by contrast, is a direct call to challenge and holds McGill accountable for its entanglement with violence and genocide rather than applying a temporary band-aid to those issues. Where donations and sponsorship largely operate within existing frameworks, strikes have the capacity to demand systemic change.

What is the actual goal that the strikers hope to achieve?

As listed in the departmental strike motions, students choosing to strike are calling on McGill to divest from weapons manufacturers profiting from destruction and genocide in Gaza, to disclose the full amount of its financial holdings, to drop disciplinary charges against students engaged in activism, and to terminate its exchange and research programs with Israeli institutions that promote military technology used in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. However, student strikes such as these are also intended to be symbolic; the coordinated departmental strikes signify that the McGill administration cannot simply outwait student activism until it dies out or dwindles down. The need for change is not just concentrated in a few departments but is a widespread conviction among many students across both campuses. That strikes are happening in departments from Philosophy to Atmospheric Science signal that McGill students want the administration to take hold of their demands, irrespective of their course of study. While there are certainly larger demands for the strikes, another goal is to reinforce that student activism is not a trend, nor is it frivolous. 

If strikers are so against McGill’s investment, why don’t they just transfer schools?

McGill, as a public educational institution, exists to serve its student body, and as tens of thousands of tuition-paying members, we have the privilege, power, and responsibility to push for ethical change from within. In 2022 alone, other Canadian universities such as Concordia and the University of Toronto achieved five major Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) victories. Rather than fleeing to institutions that have already begun to adopt desired outcomes, we can leverage our collective voice to influence McGill’s policies—and, in doing so, continue to set a standard for other universities to follow. The real question isn’t why we stay—it’s why McGill continues to fail to uphold the ethical standards it claims to value, and what we’re willing to do to force the administration to honour them.

Are the strikers really demanding amnesty from criminal offences: Vandalism, harassment, violence against those not participating?

One of the strike demands is for McGill to drop disciplinary charges against students involved in political demonstrations and advocacy. In April 2025, McGill filed an injunction that threatened disciplinary action against students who choose to participate in //peaceful// demonstrations. Likewise, McGill’s heightened security presence, including the hiring of an external private security firm, has served to create an atmosphere of violence against students exercising their right to free speech. The strike’s demands are not for McGill to allow people to break windows, incite violence, or intimidate those who choose not to participate. They are for McGill to recognize the right to protest and cease its disproportionately aggressive countermeasures, which, in the past, have included violent actions such as the employment of tear gas.

Is the strike intended to antagonize students who opt to go to class?

Students who continue attending classes are not the target of the action, but one goal of the strikes is to bring more saliency on campus to those who have chosen to look away from crimes against humanity. The strike seeks to draw attention to policies and investments that affect the entire community. By striking, departments create leverage that encourages McGill to act ethically and responsibly, which ultimately benefits all students. Rather than a personal attack, the strike is a form of collective advocacy that ensures student voices are heard in shaping the policies of the institution that we trust to serve our interests. In Gaza, 4 of the 16 university campuses have been destroyed, and 10 have been moderately to severely damaged. While we must acknowledge the importance of education, it is ultimately a privilege, and our learning cannot continue as normal when the livelihoods—and education—of other students around the world are so vulnerable. Meaningful change requires disruption—and if a temporary interruption to our routine is what it takes to compel McGill to act in the face of atrocity, that discomfort is nothing compared to what students and communities in Gaza have been forced to endure.

Commentary, Opinion

A local grocer staves off the predatory Loblaws monopoly

by Noah Bornstein on

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In the Mile End, on av. du Parc just south of av St.-Viateur, lies Lipa’s Kosher Market. Lipa’s, established over 70 years ago, belongs to a dying breed of local grocers geared to the needs of their community: In Lipa’s case, the Montreal Hasidic Jewish community. However, this past August, Maxi, a discounted grocer subsidiary of Loblaws, opened a new location—one of thirteen new Maxis in the Greater Montreal Area—just a few doors down from Lipa’s.

Loblaws strategically opens its chains, which also include Provigo, T&T, and Pharmaprix, in the vicinity of local independent grocers to assert its monopoly in the grocery market. This attempted sabotage of Lipa’s is only the beginning, and the Canadian Competition Bureau must take action before Loblaws’ monopolies run independent grocers out of business. Small business grocers are the heartbeats of communities and should be protected from predatory operations by industry giants.

Maxi is what is known as a discount monopoly. Maxi and its parent company, Loblaws, have immense buying power with wholesalers, enabling them to obtain goods for cheap to maintain predatory pricing until underfunded competitors go out of business.

While prices offered by chains like Maxi may be cheaper for customers in the short term, their monopolistic spread ultimately leads to much higher prices. Once these chains secure their place in the market and drive other grocers out of business, they lift their prices. Loblaws has already been accused of price gauging; letting a monopoly of Maxis pop up unnoticed across Montreal could lead to even more incidents of unfriendly price increases.

This is not Maxi’s first attempt at targeting Lipa’s. In October, Maxi established its 198th branch on av. Bernard, less than a ten-minute walk from Lipa’s. The av. Bernard Maxi replaced former high-end grocer Les 5 Saisons. This is part of an attempt by Loblaws to establish Maxi as the preeminent low-end grocery store chain in Quebec. Yet if this expansion goes unchecked, many small local grocers will be uprooted in the process.

Lipa’s is an important Hasidic Jewish institution in a city with over 90 thousand Jewish residents. Much of the Hasidic Jewish population is concentrated in the Mile End and Outremont neighbourhoods, making Lipa’s presence as a Kosher market vital to the cultural needs of these communities. According to its owner, Lipa’s staff know the names of every customer and their families, even allowing regulars who enter a period of temporary financial hardship to keep a running tab and pay the store back in the future.

The community nature of Lipa’s is undeniable, making it unsurprising that the market has thrived for many years as the primary place to obtain affordable Kosher goods in the Mile End. Yet with a new Maxi—with its own Kosher aisle—opening up around the corner, its business model is jeopardized.

Even if Maxi were to maintain the lower prices it currently offers in the long term, the loss of Lipa’s would represent a step in the ongoing gentrification of the Mile End. Over the last ten years, many iconic local businesses—including the famous Le Cagibi—have been forced out due to rising rent prices. Adding a Maxi to the neighbourhood could increase property values and rents further, threatening the historic Jewish cultural identity of those communities.

Lower prices do not justify the cultural harms the new Maxi will bring to the Mile End community. The government must protect Lipa’s from Maxi’s incursion. The Canadian Competition Bureau should police new store openings from Loblaws and its subsidiaries. More anti-monopoly laws are also key, such as in 2024, when the US Federal Trade Commission blocked the merger of two major grocers, Kroger and Albertsons.

Customers should avoid Maxi and support local grocers. Loblaws is taking advantage of this economic downturn with its new discount monopolies. Buying local helps keep massive corporations out of our neighbourhoods.

The increased presence of chain stores represents the corporatization of society. Whether it is by removing culture from local neighbourhoods or by creating massive monopolies, there has to be some regulation to stop the rapid expansion of the Loblaws empire. If not, we will lose core community ties in exchange for temporarily lower prices.

Commentary, Opinion

Fare dodging: Transit accessibility tactic or detractor?

by Sofia Lay on

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Fare dodging, for many urban dwellers, is simply a part of life. Whether it be leaping over a turnstile at the metro entrance or sneaking onto the back of the bus, the practice of evading public transit fees is regarded by many as innocuous and commonplace. Over the past decade, fare dodging in Montreal has become a community affair with a social mission. Facebook group “Contrôle en cours – STM” claims to promote transit accessibility by sharing live alerts that help passengers avoid STM constables while fare dodging. Yet the movement overlooks the importance of supporting public transit through paid ridership to the detriment of low-income passengers. 

Contrôle en Cours was founded in 2017 and has since amassed over ten thousand members. Though the group “cannot change what [public transit] costs,” they have dedicated themselves to ensuring “those who cannot afford [transit] costs risk less when attempting to use it.” The movement is not a reaction to recent Société de transport de Montréal (STM) strikes, as per recent clarification from the group moderator. Contrôle en Cours’s mission is built upon the implicit claim that Montreal transit pricing is problematically inaccessible. In reality, however, over 35 per cent of Montrealers are already eligible for free or reduced-price riding; the remaining 65 per cent of STM riders pay a $3.75 CAD metro fare that is either comparable or cheaper than transit fares in many other major cities. Of course, there are many people for whom even reduced transit fare is too expensive, and it is imperative that the city address this issue through rapid policy change; for example, Projet Montréal candidate Luc Rabouin proposed an STM pricing model that extends reduced transit fare to all residents making less than $30,000 CAD a year. Ultimately, the growing movement of STM fare dodging is centred on the debate over how much riders should pay for public transit, if at all. 

There is a common sentiment within fare-dodging circles that fee evasion is justified by the overarching principle of free (or at least, reduced-cost) public transit. Yet, in other public service contexts, citizen buy-in is both expected and respected. Per the Revenu Québec income tax rates, Quebecers pay 14 per cent to 25 per cent income tax each year, which is redirected to fund critical public services such as healthcare and education. In doing so, citizens support the government services that they then benefit from. There is no reason why public transit should be exempt from this model. The STM is heavily underfunded, and fare-dodging initiatives that reduce revenue will only decrease transit quality for residents. 

Low-income Montrealers are disproportionately impacted by fare dodging. The practice diverts revenue from the STM that could instead be directed towards positive improvements to the public transit system, such as faster service and increased routes. Because low-income residents are more dependent on the STM than wealthy residents, they stand to benefit—or suffer—most when it comes to its budgeting. For many people, the STM is their primary, if not only, mode of transportation. A well-funded, functioning public transit system is crucial for supporting the mobility of Montreal residents who cannot afford cars. Choosing to evade transit fares is a personal decision that has a collective negative impact on financially vulnerable populations who choose not to partake in fare dodging. 

Decreasing STM revenue through fare evasion is counterproductive to the stated goals of fare-dodging groups: Ensuring transit accessibility regardless of economic status. Groups like Contrôle en Cours have noble aims, but employ tactics that decrease rider accessibility. Contrôle en Cours should lobby for universally applied structural accessibility reforms that are more likely to have a long-term positive impact on transit equity in lieu of band-aid measures such as fare evasion. Generally speaking, fare dodgers should direct their resistance away from the STM and towards the Quebec government. Policy solutions such as broadened fare assistance programs and STM-oriented budget reallocation will promote mobility equity without dismantling the transit system on which this aim relies. 

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