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Science & Technology

Global health diplomacy in Palestine: Overlooked and underutilized

by Leanne Cherry on

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To describe Palestine’s current healthcare system as anything less than devastated would be a mischaracterization. According to United Nations (UN) experts, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are systematically targeting and destroying hospitals, Israel is blocking external aid and resources, and famine is taking the country by storm. In such a crisis, effective global health diplomacy (GHD)—when countries work together to shape health policy and ultimately improve health outcomes—is absolutely crucial if there is any hope of rebuilding what has been lost. 

In a recent paper published in BMJ Global Health, Mohammed Alkhaldi, a researcher affiliated with McGill University with extensive experience in global public health policy, shed light on GHD—or lack thereof—in Palestine. In their commentary, Alkhaldi and his collaborator, Dr. Maidah—an international practitioner of public health and a GHD and security advocate—outline how standard approaches to GHD must be adapted to fit chronic humanitarian crises like Palestine’s. They also explain why GHD has, so far, failed Palestinians.

“GHD has failed because it has no teeth,” Maidah wrote to The Tribune. “Ceasefire talks get vetoed, humanitarian corridors are too short-lived, and accountability mechanisms don’t exist. In the meantime, the toll is generational [with] children growing up with amputations, untreated cancer patients dying in silence, [and] entire communities carrying trauma. The healthcare workforce is exhausted and leaving when they can. The long-term impact? A broken system that will take decades to rebuild, even if peace were to arrive tomorrow.”

Maidah and Alkhaldi note six different dimensions of GHD which need to be adapted to appropriately suit the needs of Palestinians. 

The first is a constructive negotiation process, which should prioritize reaching a ceasefire deal and creating safe zones rather than playing political chess. Second, for effective governance structures to thrive, Palestinian leadership must be prioritized rather than sidelined by donors. Third, coalitions should aim to create South-South solidarity; countries like Egypt and Pakistan have similarly had to overcome sanctions and blockades, and are thus well-versed in building resilience during trying times. Fourth, Palestine must be permitted to engage in partnerships that foster agency amongst its citizens, as opposed to treating Palestinians as mere recipients of charity. Fifth, healthcare responses must take a holistic approach. It is not enough to simply ship medical supplies; the system must be rebuilt as a whole. And finally, GHD must be implemented as a means for peace and safety. Without these adjustments, GHD will continue to be incapable of making a tangible difference to Palestine’s overall healthcare system. 

Maidah further exposed the devastating consequences of letting political agendas take precedence over human lives.

“We’ve seen GHD work elsewhere, such as days of tranquillity in Sudan for vaccination, corridors in Syria for medical aid,” Maidah wrote. “In Gaza, hospitals are bombed while the world debates semantics. The difference is that here, occupation and blockade are not temporary backdrops; they’re the chronic condition. Diplomacy isn’t just failing to deliver but it’s complicit in allowing international law to be ignored. That’s what makes Palestine so painfully unique.”

Maidah reiterated the importance of global collaboration that prioritizes Palestinian leadership and agency.  

“[The World Health Organization] WHO and UN bodies are important, yes, but they can’t be the only voices,” Maidah wrote. “Regional actors and Global South countries need to step up and not just [send] aid, but [push] for political accountability. And above all, Palestinian health professionals must lead. The ultimate goal is not another round of short-term supplies. It is guaranteeing safe, sustained healthcare access. In plain words the patients should be able to walk into a hospital and know it will still be standing tomorrow.”

GHD must prevail in Palestine, for failing to act undermines the legitimacy of the entire framework.

“Palestine is the litmus test of global health diplomacy,” Maidah wrote. “If GHD can’t protect hospitals in Gaza, then the concept itself risks becoming meaningless. We need to stop treating Palestinian health as charity and start treating it as justice. Health is not neutral in this context, it’s political, and unless GHD confronts that, it will continue to fail the very people it was meant to protect.”

Editorial, Opinion

McGill, your students condemn genocide—so must you.

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

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Today, Oct. 7, 2025, McGill students are striking in support of Palestinian liberation. On Sept. 29, the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU) held a Special Strike General Assembly (GA), in which Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) presented a motion calling for a strike for divestment. Students exceeded the Special Strike GA’s required quorum of 500 students, and the motion passed in nearly unanimous favour. The motion was ratified on Oct. 6 by an online student vote, with a record 9190 (36.3 per cent) voter turnout: 67.5 per cent in favour, and 32.5 per cent opposing. 

The motion calls on McGill to divest from companies involved in manufacturing weapons used in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, such as Lockheed Martin and Airbus, and cease research and financial partnerships with these organizations. Students are also demanding amnesty for peaceful pro-Palestine protesters who have been targeted by McGill’s disciplinary systems. This collective action represents something far more significant than just missing one day of class: it is a clear refusal to accept McGill’s institutional complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

Canada’s recognition of Palestine as a state, alongside acknowledgments from 157 of the 193 UN member states—representing 81 per cent of the international community— has marked an unprecedented shift in international pressure to hold the Israeli state accountable for its incessant violence against Palestinians. The United Nations has only now begun to explicitly define Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide. This recognition, while significant, is long overdue. That it took this long for global institutions to apply the correct terminology does not mean the genocide only began when it was named; it reflects a decades-long failure to respond to Palestinian suffering. However, legal and symbolic recognitions have yet to yield meaningful consequences. International institutions, including the UN, have time and time again proven largely ineffective in halting Israel’s ongoing violence, the mass killing of civilians, the use of starvation as a weapon, the bombing of hospitals and schools, sexual violence, and the deliberate targeting of children. This failure is mirrored by McGill’s continued investment in corporations complicit in these atrocities, despite urgent calls from its student body to divest.

McGill has not only failed to acknowledge its own complicity in the genocide, but has actively and unjustly suppressed student activism calling for full divestment. Following last October’s protest, the university filed an injunction specifically targeting SPHR. It also imposed ID card scanning requirements during pro-Palestinian mobilizations in April, and again Oct. 7, 2024, intensifying surveillance of student organizers. In recent months, McGill has heightened police presence and threatened students with disciplinary action for participating in peaceful demonstrations. These tactics, which are codified further through McGill’s revised Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with SSMU, conflate all forms of pro-Palestinian activism with violence, vilifying student protestors and undermining student freedoms of expression and assembly in the process.

The timing of the strike is not coincidental. Oct. 7 marks two years since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, a tragic event that Netanyahu and his cabinet have since weaponized to justify their ongoing genocide in Gaza. Oct. 7 also marks one year since McGill shut down its campus in anticipation of pro-Palestinian protests, citing ‘security concerns.’ Today’s strike represents more than defiance of McGill’s genocidal investment profile; it reclaims a date the university has since used to frame pro-Palestinian advocacy as dangerous, and declares that the Oct. 7 attacks cannot serve as a justification for Israel’s abhorrent and incommensurable brutality toward Palestinians. 

This strike’s power lies not in disruption for its own sake, but in its ability to reframe the classroom as a space for accountability. By walking out, students challenge the assumption that education is neutral. The strike is a signal to the administration that students will not remain passive when their university invests in mass violence. 


Today, Oct. 7, the student body must take the opportunity the strike presents for action—not merely by skipping class, but by participating in protests, having difficult conversations, and staying vigilant, knowing that meaningful solidarity demands discomfort. To faculty, the responsibility is twofold: accommodate students who strike, and stay informed on both student politics and McGill’s financial ties in aiding genocide. And to the McGill administration, the demands are clear: End retaliatory measures against protestors. Divest from weapons manufacturers. Cut ties with the Israeli state. Let this be the last time students must strike for Palestine.

Off the Board, Opinion

Protests are disruptive because they need to be

by Nell Pollak on

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On Sept. 29, I had barely joined the cheers celebrating the passing of the Motion to Strike for Divestment from Genocide through the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) General Assembly when SSMU Chair’s harsh voice cut through the crowd: “Decorum, decorum!”

The call for order echoed a contradiction at the heart of McGill and SSMU’s Sept. 4 joint statement, announcing the reinstatement of the two groups’ Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), which McGill attempted to terminate following a three-day strike for Palestine the previous spring. They proclaimed a “commitment to uphold students’ rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” before issuing an “unequivocal condemnation” of any protest involving disruption of “teaching, learning, research, and other core academic activities.” 

The insistence upon ‘decorum’ wasn’t just about noise; it was a command that each expression of collective power—or even shared exultation—remain palatable to those who hold authority over us. Therein lies McGill and SSMU’s shared message: Activism is tolerable, but only if it’s placid, convenient, and ignoreable. It is duplicitous to champion free expression and decry disruption in the same breath. One does not exist without the other, at McGill or anywhere else.

The university’s rhetoric—whether in statements, legal filings, or codes of conduct that further criminalize student activism—imposes an infantile vision of what protest is meant to accomplish. Effective protest has never been about making people comfortable or ensuring that business continues as usual. And no permitted protest or political plea will satisfy McGill when the quintessence of our demands lay bare the complicity behind the ‘core academic activities’ our university aims to shield from scrutiny.

Our calls to action strike at the very core of McGill’s moral authority. Severing research partnerships with Tel Aviv University—an institution that developed the Dahiya doctrine justifying disproportionate military force against civilians. This includes ending the Sports Adams Science Institute’s partnership, financed largely by self-declared ‘Israel ambassador’ Sylvan Adams, who has openly encouraged more murders of Palestinians and called for McGill to expel students opposing genocide. Terminating study abroad programs at Hebrew University—a centre for weapons research and military technology development that normalizes illegal occupation. Divesting from weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and Thales—investments McGill capitalizes upon with our student tuitions through fund managers. These demands expose the university’s willing entanglement with violence. The truth is that no form of protest will make the administration comfortable with that reckoning, no matter how prettily it is packaged, orderly it is arranged, or quietly it is laid out.

This is the confine of moderation that McGill wishes us to incarcerate ourselves within, implying that some imaginary middle ground exists where we can politely and quietly ask McGill to extract itself from complicity in genocide, and they’ll simply agree. Moderation serves to prolong inaction. What compels change is a visionary, unyielding alternative.

While administrators would like to convince our community that disruptive protests only serve unproductively to polarize, McGill’s own history contradicts this. In 1985, student activists forged a pathway for McGill to become the first Canadian university to fully divest from apartheid South Africa, after years of sustained and contentious protest. Today, McGill proudly references this pioneering moment, while effacing the charges and criminalization students endured in forcing this change—celebrating the result while erasing the resistance. 

Lost in McGill’s condemnation of protests is the democratic deficit that necessitates disruptive action in the first place. Students passed divestment policies through the SSMU in 2022, 2023, and 2025 with over 70 per cent majorities—each blocked by the administration. They organized hunger strikes and alternative campus tours. They established a 75-day encampment; McGill responded with aggressive dismantlement. Following a three-day student strike last spring, McGill sought out court injunctions banning protests within five metres of buildings that criminalized “excessive noise.” When activism is suppressed, disruption becomes an increasingly necessary tool for democratic participation, stripping away what institutional routine normally obscures. 

The sanitized version of campus life McGill seeks to maintain—where learning occurs in pristine isolation from the moral urgencies of our time—represents a bleak imagination of education’s transformative potential. Disruption is not an unfortunate side effect of protest that can be remedied by joint statements that celebrate expression while condemning its exercise; it is itself the mechanism through which change is wrested from power. And perhaps that’s the education McGill fears most: Its students discovering that power yields not to polite reason but to unflagging pressure, that institutions change not when persuaded but when the status quo becomes untenable. Disruptive action is necessary to shift reality when order is causing inordinate harm; maybe the most vital lesson we can learn on campus is that we have the capacity to rupture it.

McGill, Montreal, News

Mohawk Mothers seek new legal recourse against SQI and McGill regarding New Vic site

by Helene Saleska on

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At approximately 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 30, Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, three Kanien’keha:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) addressed a crowd clad in orange at McGill’s Allan Memorial Institute, describing their ongoing legal battle with McGill and the Société québécois des infrastructures (SQI). The Mothers’ fight concerns the potential unmarked graves of Indigenous children they believe to be present at and near McGill’s New Vic site. At the press conference, the Mothers discussed a new interlocutory motion they were planning to file against the SQI to prevent further excavations on the grounds. On Oct. 1, they announced they would not be filing the motion.

The Mohawk Mothers shared during the press conference that they will be returning to Quebec’s courts to pursue new legal action in hopes of preventing the SQI from excavating locations around the New Vic site— some of which have been newly identified—that are potential sites of human remains. 

Mother kwetiio emphasized in her speech that archeologists gathered evidence of newly-identified sites using three different technologies: Historic human remains detection dogs (HHRDDs), ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and a new S4 Subterra Grey probe designed specifically to detect human burials. 

“The search dogs identified three other areas with the scent of human remains, along with ground penetrating radar and a special probe designed to find burials,” she reported.

Philippe Blouin, a PhD candidate in McGill’s Department of Anthropology and associate of the Mothers, explained in an interview with The Tribune that despite these potential burial sites being outside of the zone of McGill’s construction, the Mothers worry that the SQI still plans to excavate the area. 

“The SQI […] announced that they will be coming into the zones where evidence has been identified […] to do excavations the same way they did in the past, meaning without any forensic precautions,” he said. 

He explained the importance of protecting these specific sites, in light of the Mohawk Mothers’ claim that McGill has previously destroyed evidence during construction. 

“[At McGill’s New Vic construction site], the damage was already done, and the Mohawk Mothers will be reserving the right to other legal recourses, […] for some sort of reparations,” he stated. 

The Mohawk Mothers announced that, in light of previous methods of excavation by McGill and the SQI at the New Vic Site—which the Mothers claim violated their shared settlement agreement—they will seek renewed legal action to ensure that the new sites will not be excavated, moved, or destroyed throughout the ongoing legal battle.

However, the day after this press conference, on Oct. 1, the Mohawk Mothers received new information that they were unable to discuss with The Tribune due to the ongoing nature of these legal proceedings. Instead of filing the interlocutory motion they planned, they will be switching gears to a new course of action for protecting the potential unmarked graves at the newly identified Allan Memorial Institute sites.

Blouin emphasized that the Mothers’ goals remain the same, despite their legal tactics changing. 

“We don’t know exactly how we will approach the interlocutory or emergency of protecting the area. We can’t state our strategy yet,” Blouin said. “But the same emergency stands, the threat to excavate the area with several pieces of evidence [in it] is still the [issue].”

Blouin also explained that the Mohawk Mothers have now been told that they should be ready for a full trial at the Superior Court of Quebec against McGill and the SQI by the end of March. The trial will discuss all the evidence of potential unmarked graves found on all sites and the question of whether McGill and the SQI have followed their obligations under their agreement with the Mohawk Mothers. 

“[The trial] will determine retrospectively what should have happened, and the pieces of evidence will be examined there,” Blouin stated. “But in the meantime, we are really adamant that the SQI should not touch the ground at all.”  

McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) said in a written statement to The Tribune that McGill has abided by their settlement agreement with the Mothers, and claimed that no evidence of human remains has ever been found on McGill’s New Vic construction site. 

“No study nor analysis conducted to date suggests a plausible risk of human remains on the site of McGill’s project,” the MRO wrote. “Should human remains be detected, McGill would act with the utmost respect, stop work immediately and abide by the Settlement Agreement signed in 2023.” 

The Every Child Matters march on Sept. 30. (Armen Erzingatzian/The Tribune)

In her speech at the press conference, Mother kahentinetha shared how the Mohawk Mothers’ struggle with McGill and the SQI is a continuation of the struggle that Kanien’keha:ka Peoples have endured against colonialism for nearly 500 years. 

“[Genocide], the ominous crime against humanity that Canada has been committing against us, […] continues to this day,” she stated. 

kahentinetha explained that two years ago, after McGill dismissed the panel of archaeologists that was appointed to oversee excavations at the New Vic site, the Mothers obtained a safeguard order from the Superior Court of Quebec requiring McGill to respect their shared settlement agreement. However, McGill got the order overturned in the Court of Appeal in August 2024. kahentinetha emphasized how these actions stand in opposition to the principles of truth and reconciliation. 

“What we see [at the New Vic site] is not only the hiding, but the very destruction of truth,” she stated. “We faced unprecedented pushback and gaslighting whenever we tried to make McGill and the SQI respect their own law and the very experts that they [hired].”

Mother kwetiio also explained the ways in which McGill specifically mishandled evidence of suspected unmarked graves at the New Vic site, prompting their case for the safeguard order.  

“[The HHRDDs] found two small leather shoes in [the] soil,” kwetiio said. “Instead of sifting the soil immediately, it was left uncovered in big piles, rotting, exposed to the elements. Only four months later was the soil finally sifted, but not manually, as they were legally supposed to do. It was dumped into trucks and moved to another location to let McGill’s bulldozers in to start the New Vic project.”

Throughout the press conference, the Mothers reflected on their struggle in light of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and implored the audience to do the same. 

 “[There is a] huge discrepancy between what this national holiday shows to the public and what is actually happening in real life for Indigenous people like us, trying to concretely protect and investigate the clandestine graves of our children,” kahentinetha said.

She directly called on the audience to think about what they can do to help the Mothers uncover the truth, by digging deeper into Canada’s full history. 

“There are mass graves all over Canada, and we need to find them,” kahentinetha stated. “We need you to help us, […] to open those doors. These are your doors.”

After the Mothers’ press conference, attendees walked to the Monument de Sir George-Étienne Cartier on av. du Parc for the Every Child Matters March. 

In an interview with The Tribune, McGill student Tarek Maussili, 2L Faculty of Law, shared the importance of attending the march and wearing orange on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

“I wear an orange shirt because, you know, I’m honouring my grandmother,” Maussili said. “I’m honouring my mom. Both went to residential school. [….] And it’s to remind ourselves that the war is not over, right? This is a war. Canada is committing genocide, and we’re here to remember those that [were forgotten].” 

Lacrosse, Sports

McGill Redbirds triumph in Legacy Game, honouring Indigenous roots of lacrosse

by Jenna Payette on

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The McGill Redbirds lacrosse team claimed their fourth consecutive win in the annual Legacy Game series, defeating the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 13-9 on the evening of Sept. 30. Nearly 600 fans stood witness to the highly entertaining match-up at Percival Molson Stadium. While the scoreboard reflected another strong Redbirds performance, the Legacy Game carried a significance far beyond sport.

Held annually on Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Legacy Game honours survivors of the residential school system and commemorates children who never returned home from these schools, promoting awareness of Canada’s history of violence against Indigenous Peoples and ongoing reconciliation efforts. For McGill, the game has become a way to blend athletics with thoughtful reflection, paying tribute to the Indigenous roots of lacrosse—the Creator’s Game.

The evening opened with inspiring remarks from Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Elder and Akwesasne Lacrosse Hall of Famer Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell, celebrated for his steadfast dedication to advocating for the rights and welfare of the Mohawk Nation and Indigenous communities at large. He reminded the crowd that lacrosse is more than competition: It is medicine, a gift from the Creator, and a way to resolve disputes without violence.

From the opening whistle, the Redbirds came out firing. Fourth-year attacker Rowan Birrell started their scoring, followed by tallies from midfielder Torsten Blodgett and attacker Zach Page. Page dazzled with a behind-the-back goal before adding two more to complete a first-quarter hat trick. By the end of the opening frame, the Redbirds held a commanding 6-1 lead. 

Ottawa, however, refused to retreat. The Gee-Gees battled back with three quick goals in the second quarter, capitalizing on a brief lull in McGill’s energy. By halftime, the Redbirds led 9-5, but momentum was shifting.

Halftime featured a performance from Kanien’kehá:ka artist DJ Pøptrt, who blended Mohawk sounds with contemporary electronic music, creating a lively atmosphere that emphasized Indigenous creativity and resilience.

McGill regained control in the second half of the match, sparked by Page’s fifth goal and a steady performance full of crucial stopping from goalie Henry Komosa. Admittedly, Komosa also had some luck on his side, as Ottawa struck the Redbirds’ goalposts an impressive seven times during the game. Blodgett added two more goals in the final minutes to seal McGill’s 13-9 victory. Despite Ottawa attacker Julien Belair’s stellar six-goal performance, the Redbirds improved to 6–1–0 and claimed the top spot in the East Division of the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association. 

Redbirds head coach Nicolas Soubry, who is in his final year with the program, reflected on the importance of this game for his team in an interview with The Tribune. 

“We’ve been able to team up with McGill Athletics and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives to create an event that focuses on letting Indigenous voices speak and share, whether that’s a point of view, an anecdote, or even music,” Soubry said. “We’re lucky to play, but the bigger focus is learning and community.”

For Soubry, the Legacy Game is always about more than the scoreboard result. 

“No matter what we do in the season, once we get to this point, it’s about winning this game,” he shared. “But more importantly, it’s about honouring the game by working hard.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Benjamin Buzby, U3 Management student and Redbirds defender, highlighted a key turning point in the match.

“A big faceoff win from Luke Nickel, then a selfless play dumping it off to Page for the goal, that was a good moment,” Buzby described. “It got the boys fired up.” 

Midfielder Preston Norris, U2 Economics, emphasized the team’s unity during the game in an interview with The Tribune.

“From the defensive side, watching the offence move the ball really well as a unit and put it in the back of the net was huge,” Norris stated. “It reassured the whole team.”

Now in its fourth year, the Legacy Game has become a cornerstone of McGill’s Indigenous Awareness Weeks, aligning sport with the work of reconciliation. The handcrafted celebratory lacrosse stick awarded to the winning team stands as a symbol of community and respect for the sport’s Indigenous roots.

As fans filtered out of Molson Stadium after yet another Redbirds win, what lingered was not only the scoreline, but the sense of honouring something much larger. Lacrosse, at its core, heals through every movement, nurtures connection, and brings communities together.

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Powerful photographs and untold stories at the World Press Photo Expo

by Armen Erzingatzian on

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The main floor of the market consists of overpriced souvenir shops and a few artisanal stores, visited mostly by tourists. It feels disconnected, fake. However, on the ground floor, facing de la Commune street, you will likely experience something more honest and engaging than in any other museum, monument, or exhibition in Montreal. 

This year, the World Press Photo Expo returned to Marché Bonsecours for its annual exhibition. World Press Photo, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, is an independent non-profit that aims to deepen understanding of the world’s complexities, promote dialogue on overlooked topics, and inspire action through photojournalism and documentary photography. The non-profit holds an annual contest and exhibits the winning photographs in over 80 locations worldwide.

The diversity and scope of the exhibition blow its audience away. It showcases the work of 42 photographers from 30 different countries, representing all corners of the world and centring a vast range of identities. The exhibition masterfully directs attention to the subjects and their stories in stand-alone photographs, such as Samar Abu Elouf’s portrait Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine—which won World Press Photo of the Year—and photo series such as Protests in Georgia, by Mikhail Tereshchenko. These images tell tales of resilience, resistance, war, pain, love, politics, and climate change. Some draw their power from the scene’s beauty, while others capture the raw emotion of their subject. The best do both.

Through Ebrahim Alipoor’s Bullets Have No Borders, visitors walk with kolbars—border carriers—through the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan. These labourers carry heavy goods on their backs from Iraq and Turkey into Iranian Kurdistan under harsh conditions for little pay. The Iranian state’s marginalization of Kurdish people and the ensuing unemployment in Kurdistan leads many to pursue this line of work, deemed illegal by the Iranian government, putting them at risk of being shot by security forces and border patrols. Yet, many kolbars see this activity as legitimate, as they feel ties to Kurds across the Iranian state borders—boundaries that they do not acknowledge. 

Alipoor, like many other photographers at the Expo, tell accounts that escape mainstream media, providing his audience with a more intimate and emotional narrative than traditional media can offer. The gentle smiles and soft camaraderie of the kolbars lie in stark contrast with the harsh, blinding light and the ragged, cracked rock of the Kurdish mountains. Warmth emanates from the photographs despite the lack of colour. 

In Maria, photographed by Maria Abranches, we follow Ana Maria, a resident of Lisbon, Portugal, throughout her daily activities as a carer and domestic worker. At the age of nine, Ana Maria was trafficked from Angola under false promises of education. Abranches wields natural lighting to create a vignette that surrounds Ana Maria and her possessions across a series of five images, creating the illusion that light radiates from her. She has found warmth and comfort in her occupation in a world that has mistreated her.

While many photographs convey pain and trauma, they are not restricted to those experiences. A common thread that ties the stories together is fortitude, strength, and compassion. It’s found in the subtle act of resistance of Afghan women dancing to music in their home, in the crowds of Bangladeshi and Kenyan youth rising against oppression and corruption, in the hands of healthcare workers and family members tending to an injured Palestinian boy lying on the hospital ground, and in the eyes and the collaboration of Eritrean women who tend to each other in the face of pain, trauma, and loss.

The photographs exhibited in Marché Bonsecours act as windows into countless realities and draw out empathy, admiration, and anger from viewers, fueling discussion and inspiring action, just as World Press Photo aspires to do. 

Consult the critical and self-aware guide provided by the Expo for more reflection and visit before October 13th. 

McGill, News, SSMU

SSMU General Assembly votes for motion to strike on Oct. 7 for divestment from genocide

by Amelia H. Clark on

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Over 500 students gathered in person and over Zoom at the Sept. 29 Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s Fall General Assembly (GA) to vote on a motion to strike on Oct. 7 for McGill’s divestment from Israel’s genocide.

The one-day solidarity strike motion calls on McGill to accept the same three demands guiding the SSMU’s strike for Palestine in April 2025, all of which remain unmet. The first and second demands cite the SSMU’s Policy on Harmful Military Technology to demand that McGill divest from companies that profit from Israel’s military action in Gaza, and end any research or financial relationships between the university and these companies. The strike motion’s third demand calls on McGill to drop all disciplinary cases filed against students involved in popular organizing and advocacy for Palestine, and grant students immunity for similar future protests. 

These renewed demands follow McGill’s decision to file a court order in the summer of 2025 for an injunction which would have indefinitely banned on-campus protests impacting McGill students, faculty, or property, in response to the SSMU student strike for Palestine in April 2025. The Quebec Court rejected the injunction on Sept. 30, stating that its broad scope would leave ample room for arbitrary interpretation that could be weaponized to restrict freedom of speech. 

The GA began with a report from the Executive Committee presented by SSMU President Dymetri Taylor, which primarily outlined the requirements for applying for the currently vacant roles of Vice-President (VP) Finance and VP Internal on the SSMU’s Board of Directors. Chair Acadia Knickerbocker then introduced a questioning period wherein students expressed curiosity about the positions, specifically regarding the positions’ hours and why the roles are now hired rather than elected. 

After a 10-minute recess to address technical difficulties with link-sharing for the Zoom, the meeting met quorum, and the GA proceeded with a five-minute presentation on the strike motion by its mover, Sumayya Kheireddine. 

Kheireddine began by telling attendees that over the last 723 days that McGill has not divested from Israeli manufacturing, Israel has murdered over 65,000 people in Palestine using weapons produced by the companies that the university supports. Therefore, Kheireddine expressed, divesting from the corporations responsible is not just a political imperative, but a moral duty.  

“The F-35 and F-16 jets supplied by these companies have dropped more than 85,000 tons of bombs since October 2023, killing and injuring more than 179,000 Palestinians and obliterating Gaza,” Kheireddine said. “All of this is made possible by universities like ours, which collaborate in their research with [Israel], are invested in [genocide], and profit from it.”

After a motion-specific question period, the strike was passed with a large majority in favour, and the bill entered a ratification voting period. The vote needed to meet a quorum of at least 10 per cent of undergraduates in order to be put into effect. After a six-day voting period, the motion for a strike passed, with 67.5 per cent of voting students in favour. 

In an interview with The Tribune, one voter in favour of the motion, who attended the April special GA for a strike and corresponding demonstrations, stated that events like these encourage activists to continue fighting for divestment by demonstrating the strength in numbers that is necessary to create change.

“We want open negotiations [with McGill],” the voter, who wished to remain unnamed, said. “We want more transparency [from McGill], and by showing up we get that point across. Showing up as a collective does also increase our morale and makes us feel like we’re not alone in these thoughts.”

In an interview with The Tribune, a representative of Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) said that although this victory marks a positive trend towards divestment, students should remain consistently engaged with pro-Palestinian activism, as the fight for liberation is far from over. The representative, who wished to remain unnamed, also encouraged students to show their continued support for Palestine by attending a rally on Oct. 7, starting at 1:00 p.m. at Concordia.

“The students have proven time and time again that they stand with Palestine and they demand divestment,” the representative stated. “So when is McGill going to listen to the student demand?”

Student Life

How and where to cut ties with apartheid 

by Tamiyana Roemer on

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As Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, it remains critical that students support the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom. Central to this struggle is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which uses global economic and cultural pressure to challenge systems of occupation and apartheid. This strategy allows consumers to take meaningful action with every purchase; each choice is intentional and impactful. To help you participate effectively and uphold your commitment to boycotting, The Tribune has compiled a list of responsible alternatives to companies targeted by the BDS movement.

McDonald’s

The BDS National Committee calls for a global boycott of McDonald’s, citing its support for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) through providing free meals and displaying complicity on its social media channels. The boycott is intended to put pressure on the company to sever ties with its Israeli franchisees for supporting genocide, and on its Malaysian franchisees for targeting and attempting to silence solidarity activists. For those looking for alternatives, Burger Bros on St.-Laurent offers juicy burgers, generous milkshakes, Lebanese poutine, and a wide range of halal options at affordable prices. Open as late as 3:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, it’s a solid choice for late-night fast food you can actually feel good about.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola’s Israeli franchise operates in illegal settlements and its subsidiaries profit from occupied land, making the company complicit in war crimes under international law. If you want to support a local, ethical alternative, look no further than Zamalek. Inspired by the vibrant Egyptian hibiscus tea karkadé, Zamalek offers multiple flavours from cola to hibiscus ginger. These refreshing canned drinks are available throughout the city—from supermarkets to restaurants. Beyond great taste, Zamalek’s partnerships reflect solidarity, from backing fundraising efforts for a family within the Gaza strip to sponsoring the Copa Palestina tournament. For another great option, consider supporting Salaam Cola the next time you’re eating out. From Mintar to Pumpui, restaurants all over the city stock this ethically-sourced cola, which pledges 10 percent of profits to charities supporting Palestine.

Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s Pizza stayed silent when its branches in Israel supported genocide and donated to the IDF. For those looking to support local alternatives, Fugazzi Pizza operates in multiple locations across the city. Fugazzi is known for its 12-inch artisanal pizzas, starting at just $11 CAD. The menu includes a well-priced lunch special featuring a pizza and drink for $11.95, ideal for a quick and satisfying midday option. Fugazzi also offers two combo deals that provide added value for those dining with others or looking to keep meals affordable. In addition to quality ingredients and creative flavours, choosing Fugazzi means supporting a local business that isn’t tied to international chains complicit in human rights violations.

Reebok

Reebok sponsors the Israel Football Association, which includes teams based in illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. For a local alternative, Lolë is an activewear brand that offers functional clothing for physical activities like yoga and running. Founded in Montreal, this label also offers outerwear suited for the city’s unforgiving winters. Additionally, the company emphasizes sustainability: Lolë utilizes recycled plastics in its production processes, reducing the environmental impact of its products. Major brands like Reebok can be tempting because of their wide availability and heavy promotion, but Lolë has several locations in the Montreal area, allowing for a convenient—and ethical—shopping experience.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

A Virgin sacrifice, live in Montreal

by Jamie Xie on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

On Pure Heroine’s twelve-year anniversary, Lorde was reborn a Virgin at Montreal’s Bell Centre. After a four-year hiatus since Solar Power, she arrived incomplete and half-made, perpetually becoming—an invitation to get ready with her—for one tender night of confessional pop.

Discussing her fourth album, Virgin, Lorde told Apple Music: “Everything was pure possibility. That first sound feels like it’s coming from a very guttural place in my body.” She continued, “My sister said ‘it sounds like it’s coming from your womb,’” hinting at the intimate inspiration behind the Ultrasound Tour‘s title.

“Hammer” opened the electric performance under a flickering ray of light that gradually expanded, carving the stage into Lorde’s enveloping spotlight. Drawing from her 2023 experience coming off birth control, the song explores the impossible task of repeatedly discovering beauty in something as mundanely familiar as one’s own body—a process familiar to artists who reinvent themselves each album cycle. 

Since then, she has spoken openly about her struggle with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Displaying her intrauterine device (IUD) on the x-ray album cover, she described it as “a photo of yourself that you don’t love but captures something true about you.” The concert merchandise reinforces a promise of vulnerability, including stripped-down, clear CDs. While visually striking, some failed on laser-based players, underscoring the tension between euphoric transparency and artistic performance. 

In a Rolling Stone interview, Lorde described ovulating for the first time in a decade as a profound moment of clarity where she recognized a disconnect between herself and conventional “regulated femininity.” It felt like a permission to inhabit her body fully. In “Supercut,” Lorde enacted this revelation, running endlessly on a treadmill, only to struggle and ultimately surrender; concession is a universal language, and her fragility is transformed into power.  

“I felt incredibly alone, always,” Lorde said in concert, “I sang from that place over and over and this year of my life is really making it hit home for me.”

This struggle is reflected through her accompanying performers. “Favourite Daughter” became a seamless pas de deux between Lorde and technology. Close-ups of Lorde interwove with sound booth and backstage footage, breaking the fourth wall to reveal the meta-machinery at the heart of the concert. In “Broken Glass,” two contemporary dancers revisited the eating disorder Lorde confronted during Solar Power—one convulsed on the floor as the other took bites of apples. Years earlier, she had tried to make herself smaller; now she allows herself to take up space, intertwining the physical act of liberation into the expansion of selfhood and gender.

Performed live with her chest bound in duct tape, Lorde’s “Man of the Year” exemplifies Virgin’s thesis of self-discovery and transformation as she questions what it means to be a woman—or not. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said, “I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.” 

Lorde has long toyed with gender fluidity, beginning with her stage name: Chosen at sixteen, ‘Lorde’ feminizes the masculine ‘lord’—a playful commentary on the role of gender in aristocratic power. 

At the emotional precipice, Lorde—visibly moved—addressed the crowd during “Liability”’s musical prelude: “We’re the freaks, you know. It’s always surprising to me that we get the big room on a Saturday night. [….] All these people have something in common, which is so beautiful and increasingly rare. To have an hour and forty-five minutes worth of anything in common with this many people, it’s beautiful.”

In “David,” Virgin’s outro, Lorde wandered through the crowd in a radiant mirrored suit. Echoing, “Am I ever going to love again?” she refracted not just the light but the audience’s emotional gravity. On the stage screen, footage of her past self from the concert’s opening flashes in superimposition, a haunting overlay of the memory of who she was and who she has become.

Dissolving back into the crowd at the end of the night, the Ultrasound Tour makes clear that Virgin isn’t a return to naive innocence—it’s an act of surrender, a willingness to become something unrecognizable. 

“There’s a violence to making these big changes sometimes.”

McGill, Montreal, News

McGill contingent joins Montreal-wide protest marking 700 days of resistance in Gaza

by Asher Kui on

More in McGill:

On Oct. 4, approximately 100 people gathered outside of Sherbrooke 680 for a student contingent march, organized by Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR), to commemorate the International Day of Action, which acknowledges Israel’s genocide of Palestinians as well as simultaneous resistance against this genocide. 

“Israël assassine les enfants de Palestine. Israël assassine les médecins de Palestine. Israël assassine les journalistes de Palestine,” protestors chanted.

In an interview with The Tribune, a representative of the McGill student contingent who wished to remain anonymous explained what the International Day of Action signifies, and why it is important to demonstrate on this day.

“Today […] there are multiple cities across North America and the rest of the world that are mobilizing for two years of genocide in Gaza,” they said. “It’s an international day for us to mobilize on the streets to show our complicit government and people of power that students and the people […] won’t be silenced by the actions that Israel is committing in Gaza, the crimes of humanity and the crime of genocide that is being committed.”

The representative continued to emphasize that McGill’s refusal to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide highlights the university’s priorities.

“Our administration sees that students are very mobilized in objecting to the university’s complicity in the genocide and in the occupation of Palestine, but they continue to refuse to divest and prioritize the donors’ money over the blood of the people in Gaza,” they said. “It’s clear that for them, it’s not about what the students want, it’s about what benefits them the most. [….] Money benefits them, and that’s what they choose.”

In a written exchange with The Tribune, McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) declined to comment on the student contingent march and the marchers’ calls for McGill to divest. 

At 2:10 p.m., the group outside of Sherbrooke 680, which included Profs 4 Palestine and Grad Students for Palestine, started heading east on rue Sherbrooke. At its intersection with av. du Parc, the demonstrators met La manif à vélo pour la Palestine, a group of around 200 cyclists who were also heading towards Place des Arts.

The student contingent reached Place des Arts—at the intersection of rue Ste.-Catherine and rue St.-Urbain—at 2:50 p.m. Around 1,000 protestors assembled, with multiple speakers explaining how different countries are complicit in Israel’s genocide. One speaker highlighted how only people coming together as a collective will have the power to influence the outcomes of Palestinian liberation.

“The power is not in the hands of those in the halls of [Canadian] Parliament,” they declared to the demonstrators. “The power is not in the hands of those who own bombs and weapons. The power is in the people who have something worth fighting for. There is no struggle more worthy of sacrifice than our struggle for liberation.”

In an interview with The Tribune, an organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Montreal mentioned the importance of Canada’s Arms Embargo Now campaign and how it has recently gained traction in the McGill community.

“[The Arms Embargo Now campaign] emphasizes the relationship between our universities and the calls for an arms embargo, especially as our universities are investing in weapons manufacturers but are also hosting research that is sometimes subcontracted by weapons companies,” they said. “McGill also hosts partnership programs with Israeli universities that are either closely tied to the Israeli occupation forces, or that are actually on stolen Palestinian land.”

The representative of the McGill student contingent also underlined that while Canada’s recent recognition of Palestine as a state is significant on the global stage, the Arms Embargo Now campaign is far more crucial in ending Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

“Now, the majority of the world recognizes Palestine, but it doesn’t change the material conditions in Gaza,” they explained. “People are still being massacred. The Western governments and the Western countries continue to provide arms to the Zionist entity. What the people want really is an arms embargo.”

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