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Student Life

Pan-Asian Collective amplifies voice of the Asian student community

by Josephine Wang on

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For many McGill students of colour, finding inclusive and welcoming spaces can be a struggle. A lack of safe spaces can perpetuate climates where racialized students do not have the chance to build a more equitable, inclusive environment. Pan-Asian Collective (PAC) is a new community on campus that creates platforms for Asian voices in conversations that often exclude them. 

In an email to the The McGill Tribune, PAC’s Communications Bottomliner Lavanya Huria, Events Bottomliner Yuan Kelly, External Affairs Bottomliner Chris Lau, and Communications and Events Team Member Chandni Patel explained how PAC started, as well as ways the organization is trying to call out and dismantle harmful norms.

“PAC started [just over a year ago] with a few friends talking about feeling like there wasn’t a space that existed at McGill for Asians to explore their identities,” Huria, Kelly, Lau, and Patel wrote. “We talked about wanting a space by and for Asians that centred learning, connecting, and showing up for our own communities, as well as others. These conversations led us to our first iterations of PAC.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant rise in anti-Chinese sentiments that many students have experienced firsthand. At the same time, anti-Asian racism is often dismissed due to the false assumption that all Asian people are successful and well-adapted.

“A couple of us were really scared to leave our apartments alone, and some chose to avoid going outside altogether,” Huria, Kelly, Lau, and Patel said. “This was around the time a Korean man was stabbed in NDG. The pandemic has really brought to light an anti-Asian sentiment that has always existed but has been somewhat obscured, in part due to the [m]odel [m]inority [m]yth that has granted Asians, particularly East Asians[,] a sort of conditional belonging—a peace that can be taken away at any moment, as we saw with the onset of the pandemic.”

In response to these rising tensions, PAC has spoken out against xenophobia. 

“It was important for us to use PAC as a platform to speak out against this racism using our collective voices,” Huria, Kelly, Lau, and Patel said. “PAC released a statement back in March about anti-Asian racism and violence [….] Attacks against Asian people and businesses are still happening and we would be grateful if non-Asian people gave more attention to this [….] We encourage fellow Asians to stay informed about and show up for other communities that need public support right now, namely Black and Indigenous communities on Turtle Island.”

Additionally, PAC is taking direct action to support Asian and marginalized community members. During Asian Heritage Month in May, PAC hosted open mic events to uplift Asian voices and connect the Asian community. PAC also collaborated on events with the Indian Students’ Association and the Union for Gender Empowerment on intersectional aspects of Pan-Asian identity, like being queer and Asian. 

Currently, PAC is hosting a giveaway to garner support for struggling small businesses in Chinatown. PAC is also working on collaborations with the Black Students’ Network, Students for a Free Tibet, and Anakbayan Montreal on the topics of long-term activism and self-determination in Asia. 

Still, Asians face challenges both within their communities and in a broader context. The aforementioned model minority myth can push them out of discussions on race and prejudice. Additionally, Asians are often targeted by companies to fulfill workplace diversity. 

“The multitude of identities, ethnicities, cultures[,] and histories that exist under the Pan-Asian umbrella are hardly represented in mainstream media,” Huria, Kelly, Lau, and Patel explained.  “When we are [represented], it’s often in stereotypical and harmful ways.”

PAC empowers Montreal’s Asian communities by promoting meaningful engagement in Asian history and culture in a manner that recognizes the diversity of Asian experiences. As Asians have largely been excluded from Western media and history, PAC offers students a space to be themselves without being burdened by the expectation that they represent an entire culture.

Students can follow PAC on Facebook and Instagram to get involved or to hear about their updates, events, and resources.

News, SSMU

Debt-Free Degree campaign mobilizes students to fight for financial support

by Respina Rostamifar on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) announced its participation in the Debt-Free Degree campaign on Nov. 3, joining a coalition of eight other student unions that collectively represent over 250,000 undergraduate students in Canada. Since then, SSMU has encouraged students to voice their concerns on student debt by writing postcards to their local Member of Parliament (MP) through www.debtfreedegree.ca. Led by the Undergraduates of Canadian Research-Intensive Universities (UCRU) and the University Students’ Council at Western University, the campaign intends to advocate for increased financial support from the Canadian federal government for post-secondary students.

The coalition includes the Alma Mater Society of University of British Columbia, the University of Manitoba Students’ Union, the McMaster Students’ Union, the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union, the University of Toronto Students’ Union, the Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University, and the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association. The coalition aims to advocate for two financial support measures: A two-year grace period on all Canadian student loans and a doubling of investments in the Canada Student Grants Program.

Mackenzy Metcalfe, chair of the UCRU, explained why the organization chose student financial aid as a central demand of the campaign. 

“Students in Canada face significant financial barriers in their pursuit of higher education,” Metcalfe wrote. “The average amount of student debt in Canada is $28,000, which burdens students as they enter the workforce and begin their lives upon graduation [….] This campaign is important because investments in students are really an investment in the future. We will make up tomorrow’s workforce, and increased funding in student financial aid will undoubtedly see exponential returns.”  

Metcalfe encouraged students to take part in UCRU’s upcoming federal lobby week taking place from Nov. 23-27, where the coalition will be meeting with MPs to highlight students’ concerns.

“SSMU will be attending UCRU’s lobby week, along with the other UCRU schools, where we will elevate these concerns of students to Members of Parliament and advocate on issues including increased student financial aid, supports for Indigenous students, increasing research opportunities for undergraduate students, and supports for international students,” Metcalfe wrote.

Olivia Osso, U3 Arts, spoke to The McGill Tribune about the coalition’s attempts to increase public awareness and financial support for post-secondary students, especially considering the financial instability caused by COVID-19.

“Navigating financial barriers has always been difficult for post-secondary students,” Osso said. “With COVID-19, however, these difficulties have an added layer of uncertainty. Will recent graduates be able to gain employment right away? So many people are already losing their jobs after years of stable employment. Increasing the grace period for student loans and doubling investments are a few things that the federal government can do, but it would only be a start.”

SSMU Vice-President External Affairs Ayo Ogunremi explained the future goals of the campaign in regards to student involvement at McGill in an email to the Tribune.

“The McGill administration isn’t exactly an ally to students on issues of student fees,” Ogunremi said. “McGill students, however, can form solidarity networks and build grassroots capacity to challenge the structure of university financing [….] Our Policy on Accessible Education and Academics recognizes that our advocacy on student tuition always needs to be looking towards eventually eliminating tuition and ancillary fees [and seeking] alternate financing structures which do not place the burden on students.”

Ogunremi outlined the accomplishments of the current campaign so far, stating that UCRU representatives have been communicating with key government actors. 

“The effects of the campaign are difficult to tell so far, but I think you could say there have been small wins,” Ogunremi said. “The campaign is growing in attention across the country and UCRU representatives have been able to push these points with key federal ministers like the Honourable Mona Fortier, Minister of Middle-Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of Finance, and the Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth.”

Student Life

MUSTBUS seeks to make travel easy and affordable for McGill students

by Maya Mau on

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Last year, Alexis Zhou, U3 Arts, envisioned starting a student-run co-operative transportation service on the East Coast for McGill students. Zhou, disappointed in her experiences with New York City’s Port Authority Terminal and the Toronto Bus Terminal, hoped to satisfy a demand for affordable transportation among McGill students. Along with Matteo Trulli, U3 Management, Zhou founded McGill University Student Transport (MUSTBUS) to provide students with affordable transportation to major North American cities, including New York, Boston, and Toronto.

“Our immediate goal is to expand the college experience at McGill to really include Toronto, Quebec City, NYC[,] and Boston as a part of the McGill experience,” Zhou and Trulli wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Our ultimate goal is to link universities in Eastern Canada and [the] Northeastern United States that are poorly served by intercity transportation and allow their students to go places for cheap.”

To bring their idea to life, Zhou and Trulli’s team worked to obtain legal non-profit status and gauge interest. In February 2020, they ran a pilot route and sold tickets to and from New York City for $30 each. 

“The February 2020 pilot trip went very smoothly,” Zhou and Trulli wrote. “The trip sold out pretty quickly and we were at capacity. We chose New York City because it is the largest metropolitan area in North America and it is [six] hours away. We were like, why not [?]”

This “why not?” attitude sums up the MUSTBUS project. After all, McGill students wanted better access to other North American metropolises, and there was no reason why they could not make it happen themselves. Since that pilot trip to New York City, MUSTBUS has done extensive research to make their program as efficient and accessible as possible. Part of this involved establishing a relationship with the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

“To make this possible, [we] needed [to conduct] extensive research on the industry, [and work on] negotiation[s] with bus companies and SSMU,” Zhou and Trulli wrote. “We were only now able to go onto the SSMU referendum after pitching multiple ideas [….] We first thought of registering as a SSMU club but then it didn’t work out. We decided to rather focus on becoming our own legal entity so that we can operate more efficiently and really, just [give] everybody the opportunity to travel.”

 On Nov. 13, MUSTBUS announced that the referendum on the continuation of the program passed, with 85 per cent of students voting in favor of the project’s continued development. The co-operative plans to propose a small, opt-outable fee next semester that will fund the service in order to keep it affordable, though this fee was not associated with the most recent referendum.

The passing of the referendum was very exciting for Zhou, Trulli, and the entire MUSTBUS team. Though, like many other organizations, MUSTBUS has been forced to put operations on hold due to the pandemic, the organizing team is still planning ahead for the post-COVID-19 future.

“We’re not operating any buses during the pandemic, but we’re continuously strengthening and building our organizational capacity and preparing to offer the best travel experience for the upcoming year,” Zhou and Trulli wrote.

 Once it is safe to travel and the COVID-19–related public health regulations are lifted, MUSTBUS promises to continue their mission to make inter-North American travel accessible for McGill students for years to come.

 Students can keep up with new MUSTBUS developments on Facebook and the MUSTBUS website.

McGill, News

McGill Senate responds to petition for extended winter break

by Margaret Askey on

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Jules Barbe, U2 Arts & Science, shared a document authored by Elle Bremmer, U3 Arts, titled “Petition for an Extended Winter Holiday,” on Nov. 10, asking the administration to consider extending the current 12-day break. Since then, the petition has garnered over 9,000 signatures. During a Nov. 18 Senate meeting, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier announced McGill’s official response to the issue, saying a decision would be reached at the Dec. 2 Senate meeting. 

Barbe began the online petition after observing the adverse emotional and psychological toil the online semester has had on his peers.

“I kept seeing on social media, mainly [on] Reddit, how hard the semester was for my fellow students,” Barbe wrote in an email to the Tribune. “[It has been] very hard on students and professors alike. It’s very easy to […] see first-hand how students were impacted by online school [its] many challenges. ”

Barbe believes that McGill’s inaction on the issue is only exacerbated in comparison to other Quebec institutions that have already implemented a longer holiday.

“[E]veryone seemed completely defeated, especially seeing how other universities were getting a longer break themselves,” Barbe wrote. “Nothing’s [going to] change if we don’t try anything.”

On Nov. 20, a MRO McGill Communications email announced the administration’s intention to vote on extending the Winter 2021 semester at Dec. 2’s Senate meeting. Barbe expressed enthusiasm that his efforts have seemingly resulted in action from the administration.

“[The] announcement from the admin that they are sincerely planning to extend the break […] is a very good response […], and I’m looking forward to the decision they will make,” Barbe wrote. “This definitely made me more hopeful.”

Vice-President of University Affairs of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Brooklyn Frizzle helped disseminate the petition after Barbe reached out to SSMU. Frizzle explained to The McGill Tribune that it was important for SSMU to endorse the petition because they are an organization meant to advocate on behalf of the student body.

“[The petition] gained traction immediately after its release and the next logical step was to ask the Executive Committee to endorse the petition on behalf of SSMU, which we hoped would add some legitimacy to our efforts,” Frizzle wrote. “More broadly, this is an issue that students feel incredibly strongly about, and it just made sense for SSMU to put some force behind the petition.”

Frizzle explained that extending the break would benefit students who are feeling frustrated and burnt out by the online semester.

“Students need a break—it’s that simple,” Frizzle wrote. “We’re overworked and under-equipped to deal with such a chaotic and emotionally taxing semester. An extra week off is the least the university can do [….] I think faculty need this break as much as we do, not only to rest but to prepare.”

Frizzle responded to the university’s official consideration of an extended winter break, voicing their concerns with the process ahead.

“The fact that it took an emergency Senate motion […] on top of a petition with nearly 9,000 signatures for the university to even formally acknowledge the possibility of extending the break is telling in and of itself,” Frizzle wrote. “My concern […] is that if the university does end up announcing an extended break, they’ll do so without acknowledging the tremendous amount of student labour [involved].”

At the McGill Senate meeting on Nov. 18, Fortier did not provide a concrete explanation of the administration’s current plans.

“There was a motion submitted [Nov. 17] asking Senate to defer the start of the winter term by one week,” Fortier said. “We are actively exploring the possibility of adjusting the calendar of dates in order to postpone the beginning of classes in the winter term.”

Fortier acknowledged the need for an expedient decision-making process.

“We know it is very important for us to make a decision on this matter very soon, but […] we [need to] take the time needed to make a considered decision,” Fortier said. “We’re expecting to bring a motion to Senate on this matter in two week’s time, [on Dec. 2].”

A previous version of this article stated that Jules Barbe began the petition. In fact, it was Elle Bremmer who wrote the petition, and Barbe who disseminated it. The Tribune regrets this error.
Baseball, Sports

MLB must do more than Instagram posts to celebrate Kim Ng

by Miya Keilin on

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Kim Ng became the first female general manager of a Major League Baseball (MLB) team when the Miami Marlins hired her on Nov. 13. With 30 years of experience and six League Championships, she is one of the most overqualified individuals to ever be hired as a general manager. Her accomplishment garnered a tremendous amount of attention, both in and out of the baseball world, largely because it resonated with many groups of people. 

Ng’s hiring is a victory, because front offices are not designed to allow people who are not white men to rise to powerful positions—or even enter the building in the first place. Another woman, another person of colour, has broken a glass ceiling in an industry dominated by white men. As an Asian-American woman, especially one that loves baseball, thinking about Ng fills me with so many emotions: I feel proud, inspired, represented, worthy, and powerful. 

The league, teams, and other baseball-affiliated individuals and organizations should absolutely celebrate Ng and her historic achievement. Baseball social media accounts like MLB and the Marlins team posted a stream of quotes, artwork, and videos about Ng in the last week, and she more than deserves the attention. However, it was frustrating to see organizations make these posts without recognizing that they themselves play a historic role in keeping people like Ng out of baseball. Since the beginning of baseball, they have built and continued to uphold a culture that makes it challenging for minorities to be hired in positions of power. By failing to acknowledge this, these organizations are doing a disservice to her and every person she has inspired along the way. 

2020 has been the year of performative actions for MLB. The Black Lives Matter protests in May and June reopened conversations on discrimination against Black people within baseball; MLB took part in these conversations reluctantly. On Opening Weekend, opposing teams held a long piece of black fabric, a seemingly performative gesture highlighting the league’s inadequate efforts to support its Black players. Even with COVID-19, MLB failed to make genuine efforts. They paid for ads and campaigns to show appreciation for frontline healthcare workers, urging fans to take the pandemic seriously. However, when it came down to their bottom line, the league was all too willing to throw their respect and gratitude out the window and invited 11,388 fans into Globe Life Field to cheer—and breathe—together. 

So when organizations posted Kim Ng quotes and images on their social media accounts, I also want to know what concrete actions they are going to take next. I want to know how, from the top down, they are making systemic changes to public messaging, hiring, and combating internal racism and sexism. I want to know how they are going to make sure the next Asian-American woman doesn’t have to be as overqualified or wait as long as Ng did to get the job they earned. I want to know what they are doing to ensure that men like Brandon Taubman are not welcome in baseball. 

The best way for baseball to honour and celebrate Ng is to uproot the deeply ingrained culture of sexism and racism in the sport and finally live up to the ideal that baseball is for everyone. This responsibility does not rest solely on the Marlins, MLB, or any other single organization. The response from major league organizations to Ng’s historic achievement cannot simply be articles and tweets about how “awesome” she is. It is in spite of MLB that Ng rose through the ranks and was finally hired as a general manager. Her grit, hard work, and intelligence is remarkable; however, she is not the only woman who has ever possessed these qualities. I’m so excited that Kim Ng is finally getting her shot. I just hope that many more will soon get theirs too. 

Features

Strings and other things

by Adam Burton on

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Growing up, my favourite movie scene was the wand-shop sequence from Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. The scene opens with Harry entering Olivander’s wand shop, surrounded by towering shelves of wands and surfaces cluttered with tools and scraps of parchment. After trying an array of wands, he settles on one that feels just right. Olivander explains, “The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. It’s not always clear why. But I think it is clear that we can expect great things from you.”

To me, this scene offered a parallel fantasy to picking out a string instrument—an experience every string musician has in their life. A luthier—a maker of stringed instruments—brings out an array of instruments, and lines them up on a counter for you to play. After what can be a multi-day selection process, the musician picks the instrument they will play for dozens of hours a week, for what will hopefully be the rest of their life. Montreal’s classical music community is tightly-knit, and musicians at all levels—students, teachers, and amateurs—have been facilitating musical collaboration and connection before and during the pandemic. The amount of love and labour that goes into music making and crafting instruments is important, broadening horizons and encouraging people to pursue their passions.

Lili Saint-Michel manages sales, rentals, and institutional relations at Jules Saint-Michel Luthier, a string instrument shop in downtown Montreal. Saint-Michel studied biochemistry at University of Montreal, but when she developed tendinitis in her hand 25 years ago, she decided to start working at her father’s violin shop.

“The relationship with customers is very diversified,” Saint-Michel said. “You never get bored because the violin is something you can always learn more about [….] Repairs are very interesting. Sometimes, we may have a violin in the family that hasn’t been played for a long time and we put it back in playable condition, and it can be very emotional [….] It’s very nice to see the connection between people and their instruments through the restoration process.”

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

With tumours, it’s what’s on the inside that counts

by Namrata Rana on

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For the first time, McGill researchers have detected regions of high rigidity within the developing tumour microenvironment (TME) of breast cancer tumours. These findings, published in Nature Communications, suggest new possibilities for mapping the progression of invasive tumours based on the physical properties of the TME, including tissue stiffness.  

The TME, the area surrounding cancer cells, is enriched with several different cell types, blood vessels, and components of the extracellular matrix. The TME can impact tumour progression, determining whether a primary tumour will metastasize and spread to another site within the body, remain dormant, or be terminated.

Stephanie Mok, first author of the study and Ph.D candidate in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, spoke to the The McGill Tribune about the aims of her research and its potential implications for breast cancer treatment. 

“It can be hard to predict when tumours become aggressive, [so] we wanted [to put] a physical biomarker within tumours that can experience what a cell does,” Mok said.

Smart hydrogels are stimuli-responsive gels that rapidly change their shape in response to alterations in pH, temperature, and in the presence of specific chemicals. The first hydrogels used within human tissues were proposed in 1960, after which they became popularized for biomedical applications such as drug delivery. A variety of materials, both naturally derived and synthetic, can be used to make hydrogels. 

Mok and her team developed injectable thermo-responsive hydrogels that remain intact at body temperature and expand at lower temperatures. The degree to which these gels can expand is a direct indication of the “stiffness” of surrounding tissues.

“The goal of making a sensor system to measure internal stiffness within tumours was done because we didn’t know what physical profiles looked like in tumours,” Mok said.

Mok explained that hydrogels must be functionalized with a tag, such as a simple peptide sequence. This tag ensures that the immune system will not consider the hydrogel a foreign invader, a complication that could lead to rejection. 

“We were excited to see that the hydrogel probes remained in animals for a whole month without creating any adverse effects,” Mok said. “Hydrogels must be made to look more ‘native,’ allowing binding to neighbouring cells, similar to how a cell senses its environment. Any hydrogel material without functionalization looks like a blank space [to surrounding] cells, and [they] won’t react with it.”

Mechanobiology, the study of the physical forces that act on cells and tissues, is an emerging field in medicine that has recently been applied to oncology. Once cancer cells have spread successfully, secondary tumours must continue mutating to adapt to their new environment. Their ability to rapidly adapt to changing microenvironments is what makes cancer cells so difficult to eliminate.

Research shows tumour penetration in two-dimensional models are incapable of capturing the complex cellular dynamics that occur in vivo, meaning within a living organism. By culturing cells in a three-dimensional matrix, scientists have demonstrated that cells do not continuously proliferate as they do on two-dimensional cell plates. In three-dimensional models, cells form higher order structures that more accurately depict the formation of real tumours.

The McGill team of researchers hopes their study will open doors for understanding the effect of the local mechanical microenvironments on the complex processes of cancer progression.

“We are hopeful [that] in the future these findings can improve the mapping of progression in invasive cancers,” Mok said. “However, the goal of our study was to emphasize the importance of asking basic questions from a multidisciplinary perspective.”

Off the Board, Opinion

A piece of wisdom worth four thousand dollars

by Ruobing Chen on

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It is easy to believe that everyone who falls victim to a scam is uneducated or foolish until you are trying not to cry while informing your parents that you have lost $4,000 in your first year of university.

I received a call from the Montreal Police Department as I was leaving the lobby of the Carrefour Sherbrooke residence, and, astonished, I picked it up. Claiming to be the police, they told me that someone had accessed my bank account and that this person was using the funds for illegal drug purchases. They also said that they would move my money into a protected account while they were investigating the case. I asked them whether I should tell my parents, but was told that I would put anyone I informed in danger of conspiring with me in possible illegal wrongdoing should I be found guilty. And so, I could not. I did not want anyone else to go to prison for something I did not do.

After a visit to withdraw funds from the bank and an Uber ride to the address the scammers gave me, I transferred my assets, in cash, into a bitcoin machine. It took two hours of waiting for the bitcoin transfer receipt to arrive for me to realize that I had been scammed and would not be getting my “safeguarded” $4,000 back.

When I recount this story, the plot holes appear, and I am overcome with the feeling that I should have known better. However, it was not my naivete that led me to become $4,000 poorer; rather, it was the circumstances I was put in. I know to tell people when I need help and had little understanding of bitcoin at the time. But once I thought that I had been caught up in a deep, legal mess, fight-or-flight mode kicked in. Judging those who have fallen for scams is unfair. Some people are simply more susceptible, and some may believe that the world has more saints than evil-doers.

Those who fall victim to scams are not just grandparents targeted for their lack of understanding of newly developing technology and criminal methods, but other individuals who are vulnerable in different ways. This includes many first-year students, who have, in many cases, been sent out into the world to live as liberated, functional adults for the first time. Receiving the gift of independence was a heavier burden than I realized, and I was perhaps not prepared for the consequences of my actions to be as large as $4,000. 

A few things I have picked up, although too late, have equipped me to defend my financial assets should scammers attempt to abuse them again. Caller ID is not a reliable source of whether the call is a fraud: I had been called from what was stated as the Montreal Police Department, but it was only after I spoke to the real police that I found it was a fake ID. More importantly, in dangerous situations, sometimes it is not enough to trust one’s initial judgement: Stopping for a moment to breathe, thinking through the situation, and talking about it to someone you trust could spare you from tumbling down a rabbit hole of irrational choices. Scammers sometimes isolate their victims, rushing them in the hope that they will not realize that they have been robbed until it is too late. Besides financial judgements, first year is a time in which many students are outside their depth of experience and must adjust to making decisions that result in serious consequences. Consulting others is not a sign of weakness—it is a step to adjusting in an unpredictable society. 

Being wary of these low-profile scams could save you from paying a hefty price. Trust me, the non-refundable knowledge was not worth it. 

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