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Arts & Entertainment, Music

‘Les Antipodes’ is a triumph from Quebec’s beloved folk rockers

by Lilly Lecanu-Fayet on

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Beloved Quebec folk-rock band Les Cowboys Fringants dropped their long awaited album, Les Antipodes, on Oct. 4. The group had not released new music since 2015, and fans were eager to see if this classic band would stay true to their roots after such a long break. Les Cowboys Fringants have always been known for the  political commentary they weave into their songs, and recurring topics include Quebec sovereignty, environmental justice, and voter apathy. As the political climate has only grown more tense since their last album was released, fans anticipated a commentary-heavy album, and Les Antipodes did not fall short. 

On the evening of the launch, Les Cowboys held a party at La Tulipe, where they signed CDs and DJs entertained the crowd with techno versions of their previous albums. Members of the crowd ranged  from children to the elderly, and businessmen dressed in suits stood next to college students wearing sweatshirts and sneakers. Despite the diverse backgrounds of the crowd, everyone shared a common excitement at the prospect of listening to the music Les Cowboys had worked on for the past four  years.

The day before Les Antipodes was released for the public, the band uploaded its first single, “L’Amérique Pleure,” on YouTube. True to the band’s name, the music video features a line dancing instructor dressed as a cowboy leading a room full of people in a dance to the song. “L’Amérique Pleure” remains subtly political. The lyrics highlight the inequalities that lay behind the veneer of North American consumerism, musing that  “…behind the beautiful landscapes/there is so much inequality/and suffering on the faces”*. The song expresses the sadness and frustration towards the current state of affairs and the hypocrisy the band sees in controlling a complacent population.

No two songs on Les Antipodes feel or sound the same. There are long, somber ballads like “Sur Mon Épaule” sandwiched by folksy dance songs like “La Traversée (de l’Atlantique en 1774),” whose upbeat instrumentals contrast with the heavy subject matter it explores. The eclectic mix of songs make it easy for the band to reach a wider audience: There is truly something for everyone in the wide variety of genres they borrow from, making the album a delight to loyal fans and new listeners. 

 

*Quotation was translated from its original French

Out on the Town, Student Life

Heated terraces for cool days

by Lilly Lecanu-Fayet on

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As the warmth of summer fades into the crisp chill of autumn, it becomes more and more difficult to justify sitting on the city’s lovely open air terraces. Students are drawn to the heat of the indoors and set up their Seasonal Affective Disorder lamps in preparation for another long winter. While most of the outdoor terraces will be closing soon, a select few will remain open and heated through the colder months so Montrealers can get their daily dose of Vitamin D without sacrificing warmth.

Café Olimpico

124 rue St-Viateur O

Hours: 6 a.m.–12 a.m., every day

Price: $

Café Olimpico, which opened in the Mile-End in 1970, has become a beloved neighbourhood staple. This café is open 18 hours every day, making it an ideal location for hours of uninterrupted work. There are a variety of work spaces, from window seating to a dimly lit quiet area in the back. People funnel in and out all day, and the baristas are friendly with every customer. The light music playing in the background is punctuated by the chatter of regulars and visitors. Olimpico’s coffee has been named among the best in Montreal numerous times, and the café was even ranked in the top 50 cafés in the world by The Telegraph. Everything from the coffee to the desserts is simple but made with care. Their terrace stays open all year round and, during the winter, it becomes a cozy annex separated from the bustling cafe where patrons can enjoy sanctuary on a cold day while bathing in the warmth of this aromatic coffee shop.

Brutopia

1219 rue Crescent

Hours: 2 p.m.–3 a.m. Sunday–Wednesday, 12 p.m.–3 a.m. Thursday–Saturday

Price: $

Brutopia is a dark and cozy, slightly elevated dive bar with a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere. This brewpub in the heart of downtown boasts more than live music and specialty beers. During the winter months, their open air terrace is heated and becomes a haven to enjoy good times and fresh air in the safety of a toasty annex. The terrace is simple, just like most of the establishment, but not to be overlooked. There are lots of tables and the terrace itself is very spacious, so there is no need to worry about finding a seat. Brutopia has live entertainment every night of the week starting at 10 p.m., including an open-mic jam session every Sunday and trivia every Monday. As the name suggests, this pub is home to an active brewery, with a weekly rotating beer list. It’s perfectly suited to a chill night out with friends.

Bar Suzanne

20 ave. Duluth E.

Hours: 4 p.m. – 12 a.m. Sunday–Wednesday, 4 p.m. – 3 a.m. Thursday–Saturday

Price: $$

To say that Bar Suzanne has plants would be an understatement. Plants cover the beam system that runs overhead, and the rest of the room has potted plants and leafy wallpaper. The plants on the beams are really an intermediary for your eyes; the true beauty lies just behind them. Looking beyond, it is clear that the reason all the greenery is able to thrive is because of the skylight that makes up the majority of the ceiling, bathing the entire bar in natural light to offer patrons a terrace feel while remaining fully covered. Students looking for a deal can head over for happy hour and watch the natural light fade, leaving the glow of the candles that stand on every table. Bar Suzanne serves dumplings and specialty cocktails, but they also offer an extensive beer and wine list. As their website says, Bar Suzanne offers “enough to stay out late, but gently.” 

Leméac

1045 ave. Laurier O.

Hours: 11:45 a.m.-12 a.m. weekdays, 10:00 a.m.-12 a.m. weekends

Price: $$$

Leméac is a classic French bistro off of Avenue du Parc, close to Jeanne-Mance Park. Their covered patio remains open year-round and, in winter, has a direct view of the street. The best way to take advantage of everything this bistro has to offer is to head over for brunch on the weekend, where their heated patio provides a protected place for people-watching while you enjoy one of their delicious breakfast plates. Another way to enjoy this renowned restaurant while saving your wallet is by ordering off of the late night menu, a fixed-price menu served after 10 p.m. As the day turns to night in Leméac, the lights bathe the restaurant in a warm glow, maintaining the same inviting ambiance for the late night guests as for the brunch patrons. 

Divest McGill Illustration
McGill, News

Divest McGill builds on momentum from climate march

by Lauren Mayes on

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Students filled Burnside Hall on Oct. 4 for Divest McGill’s ‘Divest 101’ seminar led by Jacqueline Lee-Tam, U2 Arts, and April Kowalchuk-Reid, U2 Science, hoping to capitalize on momentum from the previous week’s climate march. The event highlighted the history of the fossil fuel divestment campaign at McGill and ways that students can get involved.

One of Divest McGill’s earliest actions was submitting a divestment request to the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) in 2013, which was later denied because the committee didn’t see enough evidence of the community being harmed by this issue. 

Since then, Divest McGill has submitted two more requests for fossil fuel divestment: One was also denied due to similar claims that climate change had not yet caused enough damage to the global community. The third request will be decided on later in the fall semester. Kowalchuk-Reid explained the group’s frustration with what they see as CAMSR inconsistently adhering to their mandate.

“[The] McGill Board of Governors is the highest functioning board and they ultimately have the final decision on how much money we have invested in the fossil fuel industry or if we’re involved in it whatsoever,” Kowalchuk-Reid said. “They made a subcommittee called CAMSR, [whose] sole mandate is to just look at [if] this [is] causing harm to the community [and] the environment. They […] made that committee mainly to discuss divestment and they are supposed to not be influenced by money, but that has not happened in the past.”

Lee-Tam emphasized that divestment campaigns have proven impactful in lobbying the fossil fuel industry to make changes. She further discussed the connection between money and divestment.

“[Divestment is] the idea of taking your money out of a [harmful] industry and putting your money into an industry that isn’t harmful or doesn’t cause grave and injurious consequences like whatever industry you were invested in.” Lee-Tam said. “If we get all these institutions to divest from fossil fuels, we’re removing the social license of the fossil fuel industry to operate …[and] insert[ing] awareness about the fossil fuel industry and its negative consequences into the public sphere.”

Despite other institutions, such as the University of California, divesting from fossil fuels, divestment at McGill has remained an elusive and opaque process. This is often due to CAMSR’s mode of operations and differing ideas of what it means to be transparent and inclusive.

Laura Mackey, U3 Environment, expressed her frustration with the results of her attempts to encourage transparency in the CAMSR evaluation process.

“When we found out [that CAMSR was] going to be revisiting divestment, one of the things that we specifically asked for was to be included in the conversation,” Mackey said. “I think if they were asked that question, they would say [that they had] included [us] in the conversation, but for us it’s very much felt the same as always where we’re on the outside, watching these internal deliberations that we don’t really know what they’re talking about or what’s happening. We just hope they’re paying attention to the mood on campus and the things our campaign is doing.”

Julia Elson, U4 Engineering, attended to learn about more effective ways to be involved in environmental protection following the march.

“I think that taking the energy that we’ve gained from the march and channeling that into something like an advocacy campaign […] will give you a lot more value for your time than sitting and being frustrated about it,” Elson said.

McGill, News

Board of Governors convenes to discuss commitments to sustainability

by Manuela Scalici Tremblay on

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The McGill Board of Governors held its first meeting of the year on Oct. 3 to discuss investments and climate initiatives for the coming school year. Although board members were satisfied with the recognition McGill has received for its environmental vision, students advocating for divestment felt that the sustainability initiatives the Board lauded were mostly superficial.

Joel Raby, Chair of the Board’s Investment Committee, presented a report on the performance of McGill’s investable assets in the last fiscal year. A motion to revise the Statement of Investment Policy (SIP), a plan for McGill’s assets managed through the McGill Investment Pool (MIP), was quickly approved. Raby then explained that McGill’s investments have not suffered from inflation and have ultimately preserved donors’ capital. 

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) President Bryan Buraga asked if Raby had any information about how the fossil fuels investments are performing compared to other investments. Ruby affirmed that although he did not have such information available, the Investment Committee would inform the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) on the university’s  risk-reward tradeoff for the divestment on fossil fuels.

As the board deferred a motion regarding divestment from fossil fuels to the Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) last year, that was not discussed at the meeting. The committee has been investigating the matter and will officially recommend a course of action in December. 

Maryse Bertrand, Vice-Chair of the board and member of CAMSR, gave a brief progress report. 

“We started the work on the committee exactly a year ago [in] 2018,” Bertrand said. “The first [phase] was very much a fact-finding, evidence-receiving sort of phase.  I think we’re in the stage where we’re going to try to now deliberate on the information that we’ve received [….]” 

The committee is set to release its official report by Dec. 5. The board’s next meeting on Dec. 12 will likely be the deciding vote on divestment.

The board also focused on their successful environmental initiatives on campus. François Miller, Sustainability Director and leader of the team behind the McGill Office of Sustainability, presented the report. 

“I just want to highlight that we’ve been implementing quite a few successful student and staff involvement programs at McGill.” Miller said. “In fact, those programs were recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education [AASHE]. So both the staff garden programs that we have near the Burnside building and the Sustainable Workplace Certification were awarded the Campus Sustainability Achievement award.”

Miller talked about numerous climate-related programs started in the past year. He mentioned the student-led Desautels Sustainability Network’s Business Conference on Sustainability and a measure setting aside $250,000 to cover the extra cost of purchasing an electric vehicle when a conventional vehicle needs replacement. He also cited Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna’s visit on campus to announce a $1.8 million investment from Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Fund to help McGill meet its carbon emissions goal. Miller also mentioned some of the external recognition McGill has received, such as the Sustainability Institution of the Year award for its Vision 2020 Sustainability Strategy given at an award ceremony supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

After the meeting, Laura Mackey, U3 Environment and a member of Divest McGill, spoke with The McGill Tribune about McGill’s failure to divest from fossil fuels. 

“McGill cannot be carbon neutral while still invested in fossil fuels,” Mackey said. “It’s all very surface level commitments to sustainability. And it’s nice to see, it’s nice to hear. But without fossil fuel divestment it isn’t meaningful [.…] It really feels like McGill is using greenwashing and wants an image of being a sustainable university while actually not meeting that goal whatsoever.”

 

Student Life

Navigating Montreal’s by-laws

by Scott Kennedy on

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As the school year wears on, students may be tempted to dart across busy streets on the way to class, grab an electric scooter to dash to an exam, or enjoy celebratory drinks in one of Montreal’s many parks. However, students should be aware of some rules specific to Montreal to avoid any unnecessary fines associated with such activities to enjoy the semester free of any legal trouble.

Drinking in public 

The legal drinking age in Quebec is 18-years-old, meaning that until you are of age, it is illegal to buy alcohol for yourself or another person, or have someone else buy alcohol for you. 

Even for students who have reached the drinking age, Montreal does not permit the consumption of alcohol in public areas. However, there is an exception to that rule that allows people to drink alcohol in some of the city’s parks, as long as they are also consuming a meal. Quebec law defines a meal as “food sufficient to constitute a person’s lunch or dinner.” This means that a picnic in Jeanne Mance would have to be a full meal, while a bag of two-bite brownies would not be enough to avoid a possible ticket. The law also states that the alcohol and accompanying meal must be in an area of the park where picnic tables are present.  

Traffic rules 

Traffic rules are very important for students walking to and from campus, especially approaching the Milton Gates. According to the Montreal police service, pedestrians must use crosswalks when going through any of the city’s intersections. Not obeying the various crosswalk signs in the city is considered a violation of traffic rules; this could include crossing a street against the signal, or beginning to cross once the light turns yellow. Even on streets without a nearby intersection or pedestrian crossing, pedestrians must yield to vehicles and cyclists and make sure there is no risk present when crossing. Additionally, people are not allowed to cross an intersection diagonally unless authorized by a police officer or if the intersection specifically allows it. 

Lime, Bird, and JUMP scooters

Many McGill students are familiar with electric scooters, the newest addition to Montreal’s streets. In recent months, the City of Montreal has enacted new by-laws in response to these e-scooters and e-bikes. Users are required to wear a helmet at all times and are prohibited from riding on the sidewalks. Across the city there are also 239 designated e-scooter parking spots where users are required to park their scooters, instead of leaving them on city sidewalks. As of Oct. 21, Montreal will begin fining riders $50 each for scooters found illegally parked outside these spots. 

Noise complaints

When it comes to noise complaints, each of Montreal’s boroughs have their own bylaws. However, police can issue tickets if they hear a noise prohibited under noise bylaws. A “prohibited noise” could be anything from cries, singing, altercations, cursing, or “any other form of uproar,” as well as noise produced by sound equipment according to Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

 

To learn more about laws and regulations in Quebec or Montreal, McGill has many resources available, such as the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM). The LICM is a non-profit information service staffed by McGill Law Students, with a mandate to provide free legal information, referrals, and community services to McGill and broader Montreal. Interested students can call or visit the LICM website. 

McGill, News

Dean of Students suspends plans for involuntary leave policy

by Kate Addison on

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The Office of the Dean of Students announced on Sept. 22 that it would suspend the proposed involuntary leave policy released to the public the week before. The policy, which received immediate opposition from student groups, would have allowed McGill to involuntarily remove students from the school if they were deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Although involuntary leave policies have been met with concerns that vulnerable students may be deprived of essential mental health care services, other Canadian universities, such as Concordia University and the University of Toronto, have instituted similar policies. In response to these concerns, Dean of Students Christopher Buddle, decided to reconsider the implementation of the policy. 

“I decided that I need to pull back completely from a policy and actually have some brainstorming sessions [and have] more of a co-creation with students to try and see if there is an alternative model to the involuntary leave policy,” Buddle said. “I don’t want to rush it through, there’s no reason to if students are unhappy with its current form.” 

Frustration with this policy comes largely from many McGill students who believe that the university does not provide its student body with sufficient psychiatric resources, and that support for those struggling with mental health is not prioritized. Madeline Wilson, Students’ Society of McGill University Vice-President University Affairs, expressed her concerns to The McGill Tribune. 

“I think that there are exceptions to be made, but I think that by and large, […] it was not clear that [the policy] was in the best interests of the community,” Wilson said. “It seemed like it was in the best interests of McGill.”

Rine Vieth, a PhD student in anthropology and advocate for mental health care services at McGill, said that the policy should not be a replacement for adequate mental health services on campus.

“I would love for more clinical care to be available,” Vieth said. “I would love for [the Office of Students with Disabilities] to receive more funding so [that] they would be able to work with more students who need [help]. It might just be a little thing, but that little [help] might stop a crisis from happening down the line.”

According to the policy draft, which has since been removed from the Dean of Students’ website, students posing a severe threat to the security of others would be placed on leave from McGill at the discretion of a case management team of members of the McGill community, and the deputy provost on a case by case basis. 

In addition to her concerns about the effects that this policy would have on the support available for students in crisis,  Wilson noted the lack of student input in the creation of this draft.

“Policies that govern students should be created with students, not created for two years behind the scenes and then brought to students for consultation the month before it’s supposed to be brought to the Senate,” Wilson said. 

In a statement released by the Office of the Dean of Students,  Buddle stated he plans to work on addressing the concerns surrounding the policy throughout the coming academic year. 

“[From] the feedback I’ve got, clearly it’s not the time, it’s not right,” said Buddle. “We’ll stop, rethink, regroup and take a longer view.”

feminist scholar
McGill, News

Famed feminist scholar delivers lecture to McGill students

by Magdalena Nitchi on

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Over 600 people gathered in the 6th floor auditorium at the McIntyre Medical Building on Oct. 4 to attend “Complaint as a Queer Method: Dismantling Institutions” featuring Sara Ahmed as a keynote speaker. Ahmed  is a world renowned feminist scholar who has authored books in feminist, racial, and queer studies. The talk opened with brief speeches from organizers Charlene Lewis-Sutherland, Meryem Benslimane, and Alanna Thain.

Thain gave a short biography of Ahmed and highlighted her work concerning discrimination against minority groups and how power is enforced or challenged in everyday life and institutions. She described a morning seminar with Ahmed, and the joy she felt when reading Ahmed’s book Living a Feminist Life. 

“When I read Ahmed’s works, […] I so often feel like I am dancing with the text the way you do as a child, standing on the toes of someone who is showing you the moves,” Thain said.

Ahmed then took the stage by explaining that the purpose of her work is to dismantle the discrimination found in everyday life. Her goal is to change university policies that are ineffective at protecting people from injustice.

Filing complaints is presented by institutions as an effective way to make changes; however, Ahmed pointed out a significant gap between how organizations represent the process of making a formal complaint and how it is experienced by those who are making the complaint.

“[To file a complaint] involves becoming an ‘institutional mechanic’, figuring out how to actually get the complaint through the system,” Ahmed said. “Because of the difficulty [of] getting [them] through, complaints often end up being about the system. Something that looks linear on paper can actually be quite circular.”

According to Ahmed, another important part of complaining is the process of going through doors. These doors can be both literal, in the sense of going in for meetings, and metaphorical, in the case of minorities being shut out.

“Complaints [always] happen behind closed doors,” Ahmed said. “But you know that no matter how much you do [to be heard], there are doors that remain closed to you. Something or someone [else] is pulling the strings, but you don’t know what or who. So this gap between what does happen and what is supposed to happen remains.”

Ahmed provided examples from 40 anonymous female students who were subjected to sexual harassment at the hands of professors and an Indigenous professor who was relentlessly bullied by her white colleagues. 

The majority of the testimonials she collected came from universities in the United Kingdom and were all dismissed by the institutions that were responsible for protecting their staff and students. Ahmed finished her talk by reminding the audience that forgotten complaints do not need to be a cause for despair.

“The filing cabinet can be seen as an institutional closet [that] preserves things,” Ahmed said. “We can leave something of ourselves behind by complaining. A complaint can let others [in the same position that you were in] receive something from you, even after you are gone. Complaints are writing on the [ walls of the institutions]: we are here, we did not disappear.”

Julia Bugiel, audience member, shared her enthusiasm about the speech.

“It was an incredible talk,” Bugiel said. “I think the lengthy applause [at the end of the talk] speaks for just how much everybody in this room enjoyed their time with someone who is so poetic and also such an insightful presenter who is so knowledgeable [about the institutional systems she discusses]. I think the things that are happening in Canadian media and politics are not divorced, they are very much linked to [the material discussed here tonight].”

Emerging Trends, Student Life

How memes became a form of protest art

by Sophia White on

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The Sept. 27 Global Climate Strike drew half a million protesters to the streets of Montreal in  a worldwide series of demonstrations against climate change. Typical environmental slogans like ‘There is no planet B’ or ‘Don’t be a fossil fool’ appeared on many marchers’ signs, but some of the messages that stood out most in the crowd were far less conventional: With references to SpongeBob, Queer Eye, “Hot Girl Summer,” and other popular memes, tweets, and Vines, there was no shortage of creativity on display.

Protests are a medium for free expression, and appreciating the originality of others’ signs creates a unique sense of camaraderie among students. However, some onlookers question whether the use of humour serves to downplay the threat of climate change as an issue. They wonder whether older generations of policymakers, many of whom may not understand niche pop culture references, are likely to respond to these messages. To those who do, however, memes serve as both a fun way of coping with the looming threat of some of today’s biggest headlines, and as powerful new tools for collective demonstration. 

Originally a term to describe the way that ideas and behaviours propagate through generations, the modern form of the word meme was derived from a Greek term meaning “that which is imitated.” The meme has since become an integral medium for political dialogue and civic engagement. Thanks to the internet, it has become increasingly easy for memes to gain popularity and go viral overnight. Given that there is no real limit on what can be considered a meme, they are often used to relay political or social commentary through humour.

Montreal’s climate march was just one instance of the unique intersection of protesting and meme culture. Pop culture references have recently fuelled a variety of movements around the globe, including Hong Kong’s anti-government protests this summer as well as national school walkouts in the US to demand gun reform. Unlike other forms of communicative protest, memes cannot easily be shut down, so they are a powerful mobilizing tool. With the internet as an efficient medium for disseminating snapshots from around the world, protesters draw inspiration from other signs and build on the movement with their own contributions.

Regardless of the political statements they make, memes are an innovative form of expression. They help to break down and articulate complex issues, spread ideas, and make sense of emotions. While some joke signs may be criticized for oversimplifying complex political matters, others can be comedic while still remaining poignant. 

While memes may not directly bring about any tangible policy action or reform, they relay important issues and spread quickly enough to bring them to the forefront of discussion. They reflect what is happening in society at a given point and help justify feelings of rage and fear while allowing us all to feel a little less alone. Further, memes are simple to create and reproduce, and they evolve over time based on their reception.

As students marched through the streets of Montreal and around the globe with posters inspired by memes, slogans, songs, and artwork, they proved that there is no one formula for demonstrating an issue as widespread as climate change. Our generation has the ability to band in solidarity over familiar images and slogans and seamlessly incorporate politics into our everyday self-expression. Memes make us laugh while simultaneously uniting us around common feelings about real world issues. Sometimes a laugh is necessary in the midst of all the political chaos, and a meme offers just that.

Baseball, Sports

Pride from 3,000 miles away

by Miya Keilin on

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54,005 baseball fans crowded into the RingCentral Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics, on the evening of Oct. 2 to watch the American League wild card game between the A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays. Fans filled every last seat of the dingy, old stadium, which still doubles as the Raiders’ home field during the NFL season, setting a new record for attendance at a wild card game. Going to the game would have been unrealistic for a variety of reasons, but I wished so badly that I could have been one of those 54,005. 

Being in Montreal has changed the kind of fan that I am. As much as I would love to, I can’t watch or listen to every one of their games as I had become accustomed to doing over the years. The three-hour time difference is one of the biggest factors: Games take place six or seven nights a week, with most home games starting at 10 p.m. EST and ending well after midnight. I recognize that I have it lucky, though, since the majority of the baseball season takes place during the summer. Fans of basketball and hockey face this predicament for almost the entire school year. 

My surroundings are another factor. I could easily eat, sleep, and breathe A’s baseball when everyone around me was also eating, sleeping, and breathing A’s baseball. Here, if I gush about the outstanding night that shortstop, and San Francisco Bay Area native, Marcus Semien had or mention that the team finally called up top prospect Jesús Luzardo, I get an “oh cool” out of pity at best. Even the most devoted baseball fans here do not know much—or care much—about my hometown’s heroes. 

I was not surprised that this was the case. While Montreal used to have the Expos, and plenty of Canadians can at least pretend to care about the Blue Jays, baseball culture in my circles at school is not like baseball culture at home. Similarly, Oakland does not hold a special place in anybody’s heart here like it does mine. Not that it should, of course. I am certainly not expecting people with little interest in baseball or a connection to the Bay Area to care about my team, but it does not change the fact that being an A’s fan in Montreal can get lonely. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while lonely, following the A’s in whatever way I can has helped alleviate feelings of homesickness. When I read The Athletic’s game recaps, it reminds me of chatting with my brother the morning after games, reliving our favourite moments or lamenting our bullpen’s struggles. When I see social media posts from the team, I chuckle to myself over inside jokes only Bay Area natives or A’s fans would find funny. When I celebrate quietly by myself while watching a live stream of a game from my bed, I feel the rumble of the stadium inside of me, as if I was there among the crowd again. 

The A’s lost Wednesday’s winner-take-all wild card game, and I was devastated. Four of my friends, all baseball fans, were at my apartment watching the game with me, but none of them love the A’s. In that moment, with tears on the verge of streaming down my face, I wanted to be surrounded by people who love the A’s as much as I do; by coming here, I lost that chance, just as I had lost the chance to be among the 54,005 fans in attendance. But sitting on my couch in Montreal with my kelly green Matt Chapman jersey on, I was so grateful for the incredible season that my favourite team had played, and I knew that despite being 3,000 miles away, I had not lost any pride or passion for my Oakland A’s. 

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

When hide and seek goes dangerously awry

by Deana Korsunsky on

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Girl meets boy, girl marries boy, girl spends her honeymoon fleeing from boy’s murderous family. Such is the plot of Ready Or Not. 

The film follows Grace (Samara Weaving), the newly-wed bride to Alex Le Domas (Mark O’Brien) of the wealthy Le Domas game empire. After the wedding ceremony, Alex sheepishly informs Grace that his family traditionally welcomes new members by playing a game at the stroke of midnight. An amused Grace agrees, and draws a random card to decide which game the family would play. Little does she know, by choosing a card labelled “hide and seek,” she unwittingly agrees to a deadly game of cat and mouse. The audience quickly realizes the fatal stakes of the game before Grace does. She spends the rest of the film hiding and fighting for her life, as the weapon-wielding Le Domases attempt to hunt her down before dawn, supposedly to give Satan his sacrifice and protect the family fortune.

Even though its heroine spends the film fleeing from her in-laws, Ready Or Not hesitates to identify itself as purely horror. Its scenes are interspersed with blood, gore, and the occasional jump-scare, but the film catches the viewer by surprise as it blends a dark sense of humour into its plot. One of the film’s memorable comic-horror moments arises when Fitch Bradley—Alex’s brother in law—is shown watching an instructional video on his phone entitled, “Getting to know your crossbow.” Bradley’s cluelessness challenges the idea that horror villains exist as well-oiled killing machines. The movie humourously juxtaposes a terrified Grace battling murderers with a naive, inept villain. 

Ready Or Not is a horror film that commits to the blend of horror and comedy. This union of genres makes for an engaging viewing experience; the audience is at the film’s mercy, waiting to laugh or jump, and equally prepared for either. Samara Weaving’s portrayal of Grace wields this power flawlessly: Her hilarious and creative combinations of curse words provide comic relief even during a chase scene that teems with suspense. 

The casting only adds to the successful union of genres. Andie MacDowell gives an arresting performance as Alex’s mother, Becky Le Domas. MacDowell, who is largely known for her roles in classic romantic comedies such as Groundhog Day or Four Weddings and a Funeral, continues the film’s tendency to privilege unlikely creative choices.

Equally as delightful is the comforting familiarity of aesthetic and narrative tropes. The wealthy Le Domas family’s dysfunction is reminiscent of Schitt’s Creek’s hilarious Rose family, while the trope of an unsuspecting victim entering a villainous family harkens to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Relying more on humour than horror, however, Ready Or Not similarly critiques elite society. The Le Domases’ bloodthirst is prompted by faithfulness to family tradition and preservation of their wealth. 

Ready Or Not is a horror-comedy of manners, satirizing the wealthy class while aligning the audience with its “final girl,” a refreshingly sharp and relatable protagonist who strays away from the dumb blonde horror victim stereotype. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett craft an inter-genre thriller that combines seemingly incompatible themes, bloodshed and humour, to create an engrossing viewing experience. Moviegoers will find that there is but one thing they can say to Ready or Not:“Here I come!”

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