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Editorial, Opinion

Social work students deserve compensation

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Unpaid and underpaid labour is pandemic in university culture; from internships to extracurriculars, students are often encouraged to take on work that pays in ‘experience’ rather than monetary compensation. From Nov. 19 to 23, the Social Work Students’ Association (SWSA) and the Social Work Association of Graduate Students (SWAGS) are on strike to protest their programs’ mandatory unpaid internships. Unpaid internships are an economic barrier that unfairly restrict students from lower-income backgrounds, and students deserve to be compensated for their labour.

Not only are social work students’ mandatory fieldwork hours unpaid, but, students pay to work them: According to SWSA, students have to pay tuition for fieldwork courses as they would for any other course. Students are not even compensated fairly in credits, as they must complete 12 credits of field placement courses to graduate with a BSW. Each course entails 200 hours of practicum work, or 15 hours per week. By definition, three-credit courses should consist of three hours a week of instructional time. The 12 hours of extra work a week that social work students perform without academic credit mean that, over the 800 hours of required for a BSW, social work students are short-changed 624 credits. Furthermore, social work students are expected to commute for up to one hour to their placements if necessary, adding to the unrecognized burden they carry.

The social work students’ strike is part of a broader protest against unpaid internships in Quebec which is organized by the Comités unitaires sur le travail étudiant (CUTE). Working without pay is a common experience for students, be it at community or campus organizations or as part of a degree: Like social work students, undergraduate students in education are required to complete four unpaid fieldwork assignments. These field placements are necessary and mandatory additions to the social work program. Social work requires immersive training, and it is imperative that students’ educations reflect that reality. Experiential learning is a valuable educational method, especially in a field like social work where much of the work is demanding, especially from an emotional perspective.

Even when unpaid labour is not an academic requirement, students’ desires to build work experience or help their fellow students make them vulnerable to exploitation. This is especially true of students’ emotional labour. The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), a Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) service that provides support to students who have experienced sexual violence, is staffed exclusively by volunteers; McGill’s Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (OS-VRSE) also has student volunteers. Walksafe, a SSMU service that accompanies students walking home alone at night, similarly depends on unpaid work. McGill and SSMU must offer financial support to these essential services  in order to ensure that employees’ work is properly compensated.

Paying social work students for their fieldwork entails obvious financial complications, as most host organizations are non-profits. However, the School of Social Work (SSW) and its community partners have an ethical obligation to work with social work students’ associations to find a sustainable long-term solution to these issues. That solution should include pay. For example, McGill, unlike most Canadian universities of its size, does not offer a co-op program; adopting a similar model for social work students ought to be considered.

The SSW faculty planned to stand in solidarity with the strikers by cancelling classes this week, but were directed to continue instruction as usual in an email sent by School of Social Work Director Nico Trocmé and Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi.

“Teaching faculty support the concerns of the students, but we do have a requirement to teach classes, both as part of our legal requirements and with respect to requirement [to provide instruction],” said Trocmé, director of the School of Social Work, said to The McGill Tribune. “Any student who requests class is entitled to have class.”

The SSW faculty efforts to support SWSA strikers were upended by Trocmé and Manfredi’s sudden decision to continue classes. Trocmé and Manfredi’s statement blatantly ignores students’ actual requests: Social work students overwhelmingly voted to strike, and this decision should be respected by the McGill administration.

Unpaid internships are not just detrimental to those undertaking them, and their inaccessibility to those without outside financial support perpetuates broader social and economic inequalities. Social work students provide an essential service to society by helping those who need it most. They deserve compensation and a better deal—from their school and host organizations alike.

 

SWSA’s protest will be held from 3–6 p.m. from Nov. 21 at Place Émilie-Gamelin.

McGill, News

Social work students strike against unpaid internships

by Jacqueline Yao on

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Social work students will participate in a strike against mandatory unpaid internships Nov. 19-23. The Social Work Student Association (SWSA) had previously voted at their Oct. 24 General Assembly to join undergraduate student associations at UQAM and Université de Montréal in demanding internship remuneration from the provincial government. In solidarity, the McGill School of Social Work (SSW) had intended on cancelling classes on Nov. 19-23, but is legally bound to maintain classes.

SWSA has been planning the strike since the beginning of the semester and had previously supported the Feb. 20 Global Intern Strike that called on employers to pay their interns.

U2 and U3 students enrolled in the BSW program are required to complete 200 hours of unpaid field placement work for 3 credits each year. According to Jacqueline Ohayon, SWSA activities coordinator, many BSW students work unpaid for 16 hours per week in addition to completing a full course load. She believes that unpaid internships  widen the wage gap and are inaccessible to marginalized groups.

“The fields that have unpaid internships are not only women-dominated but are [also] care-centered,” Ohayon said. “The narrative that people [in social work] are made for self-sacrifice […] has to be fought, and [the misconception shows that] society doesn’t value and doesn’t care about our profession.”

SWSA hopes that the Quebec Ministry of Education can compensate students for their work and establish labour standards for internships that are part of a degree program. Quebec’s Act Respecting Labour Standards protects only employees and paid interns by enforcing minimum acceptable working conditions on wage, length of a workweek, vacation time, and psychological harassment. Ohayon explained that the absence of an overarching policy about workplace standards puts unpaid interns at risk.

“All the conditions of the intern lie in the hands of [authorities such as the] field supervisor, field director, professor, [or] seminar professor,” Ohayon said. “There are a lot of people who were asked to be closeted during field placements because [their supervisors] said that [revealing one’s sexual orientation] was not appropriate.”

At the Nov. 14 SSW faculty meeting, the teaching faculty unanimously voted to cancel classes Nov. 19-23 in favour of extra classes in December or additional assignments. However, the McGill administration has since reminded teachers of their duty to follow the schedule.

“Teaching faculty support the concerns of the students, but we do have a requirement to teach classes, both as part of our legal requirements and with respect to the requirement [to provide instruction],” Nico Trocmé, director of the School of Social Work, said. “Any student who requests class is entitled to have class.”

Trocmé still expressed support for students participating in the strike and hopes that the Ministry of Education can relieve their financial burden.

“The School [of Social Work] has no funds to pay for internships, and many of the community agencies that students do their internships in have very limited budgets,” Trocmé wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Not only would [financial compensation for internships] relieve some pressure on students who have to assume part-time jobs or go into debt, but it would also […] attract students who, otherwise, cannot afford to obtain a professional degree and help increase the diversity of students in our programs.”

Students in most programs will not need to schedule extra field hours. Masters in Couple and Family Therapy studies must make up for missed internship hours because the Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec has strict accreditation standards for their program. SSW is currently trying to negotiate for fewer field placement requirements with accreditation organizations for social work programs.

Theresa*, U1 Arts, supports the strike and believes that either the government or the agencies should pay for students’ work.

“If you want students to spend time, energy, and money on a certain cause, they must be remunerated,” Theresa said. “Time spent on these placements is money lost.”

*Name has been changed at the request of the source.

Commentary, Opinion

Remembering Izy

by Evelyn Goessling on

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My beloved friend Isabella Guerrico, U3 Arts, passed away in a sudden accident on Thursday, Nov. 15. We will remember Izy, who was beloved by many in the McGill community, for her fiery and generous spirit.

When I moved into Gardner three years ago, I had no idea what was in store for me. I thought I would make new friends, have fun partying, and learn a few things in school, but I had no idea that I would meet some of the most important people in my life. Izy was one of those people. For a while I just knew her from afar by her bright turquoise hair and  cool tattoos and piercings. Her style was absolutely iconic. Before long, I could tell that she was something really special. She had this amazing ability to be completely herself and very independent, but at the same time make others feel included.

As I know many people from Gardner that year fondly remember, in the first months of school, when it was still warm enough outside, we would all sit on the stoop and smoke and talk and talk and talk. Izy had an amazingly loud voice and a laugh that drew me in. She had so much energy and passion for whatever she talked about, and she made me feel like it was okay to be myself, and be myself as loudly as possible. She would probably be embarrassed that I’m saying that she was loud, but I loved that about her. Izy was one of the most social people I knew. She always wanted to be out there in the world, in the centre of it all, experiencing things as fiercely as possible.

(Evelyn Goessling / The McGill Tribune)

 

Although Izy was extroverted in some ways, she was also shy about certain things. I didn’t know the extent of her passion for music until we were in a music history class together in third year. I learned that Izy was a cellist and a singer and had toured with her orchestra and choir in high school. We would study together at her apartment and listen to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. One time we watched the Mozart movie Amadeus together, which is one of our favourite movies. Then, the next day, she told me she watched it over again! That movie is three hours long! I laughed but was not surprised. Izy was always doing things like that. Just the other day, she bought and started reading a very large book about the history of soccer tactics. She was so passionate about the things she loved, whether it was her family or her favourite soccer team, FC Barcelona

When Izy became my roommate at the beginning of this year, I wondered how I had ever lived without her. In the morning, she would always emerge from her room and say good morning, with a smile already on her face. She had such a beautiful smile. It truly radiated from her whole being and always put me in a good mood.

(Izy Guerrico / The McGill Tribune)

 

It’s impossible to write down all the things I want to remember about Izy. She had the funniest expressions and reactions to things. While I cooked, she would hang out with me and do funny little dances—’jigs,’ we always joked. In fact, we had to make a rule against jigs because it was too loud for our downstairs neighbours. Only quiet jigs allowed! We both had the habit of singing or humming to ourselves, and I loved how I would pick up on whatever she was singing, or she would do the same, and we would quietly sing together.

Izy loved very spicy hot sauce and coffee. She loved watching T.V., everything from Fargo and Curb Your Enthusiasm to any and every soccer game. She loved reading. One of her favourite books was The Brothers Karamazov. Izy spoke Spanish and often talked about moving back to Spain, where her family lives. We always talked about what kind of dogs we would get when we were old enough. Izy said she would never get married or have kids, and, instead, have three or four huge dogs, maybe a German shepherd, a dalmatian, and a cockapoo like her dog at home, Gus.

Izy, I will miss you forever. I can’t believe you won’t be graduating with me this year, but whatever the future brings, I promise I will try and live by your light. Thinking of you, I will push myself to live and love hard and bright, like you did.

(Izy Guerrico / The McGill Tribune)
Letters to the Editor, Opinion

Letter to the Editor: The problem with SSMU’s GSVP funding gap

by Bryan Buraga on

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Content warning: sexual violence

On Oct. 6, The McGill Tribune’s editorial board published an editorial titled “The Anti-Violence Fee Levy requires immediate support.” In the article, the Editorial Board advocated for students to support the Anti-Violence Fee Levy that went before the student body for referendum Nov. 9-12. I wish that the Editorial Board had published an editorial titled “The Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy requires immediate support.”

I write this Letter to the Editor hesitantly, only to speak out against charges that I brought a case to the Judicial Board to further my own political agenda, or to virtue-signal without taking substantive action. This case has personal significance and implications for me, as well as for the undergraduate student body that the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy (GSVP) seeks to protect.

Early in my first year at McGill, I became a survivor of sexual violence. The trauma I experienced and continue to experience as a result still haunts me to this day. This is why, when the GSVP came to Legislative Council, I took an immediate interest in it. To me, the passage of this policy would help protect me from my abuser and aid me in representing my constituents without having to retraumatize myself or jeopardize my mental health.

However, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) executive has maintained that the only way to fund the $20,000 GSVP is through a fee levy due to a current budgetary deficit. As a result, the implementation of the procedural measures regarding sexual violence disclosures of the GSVP has been delayed to next semester due to the apparent ‘lack of funds’ immediately available for it, despite the fact that the executive was financially able to authorize unexpected reimbursements for the Children of the Corn event. I have tried and failed, on more than one occasion, to convince the Legislative Council to mandate the Vice-President (VP) Finance to find funding for the GSVP immediately, without resorting to the use of a fee levy. At the time, I was not prepared to share my personal experience as a survivor of sexual violence.

I argued that if the SSMU made the GSVP a priority, they would find the necessary permanent funding for it. In finding the funding, the adjudicative measures of the GSVP could have been implemented in October immediately after the passing of the policy instead of waiting until next semester. Four months is four months too long for survivors to have to wait in order to feel safe on campus.

Although the Finance Committee has been tasked with restructuring SSMU’s fee levies, providing a permanent source of funding for the GSVP in the SSMU’s base operating budget, there is currently an urgent lack of funding for the GSVP. I feel that the SSMU executive is using the Anti-Violence Fee Levy to put off the immediate and appropriate funding of the GSVP. At the SSMU’s Children of the Corn Halloween event, the SSMU executive resolved to reimburse students’ taxi and Uber rides home after their planned transportation fell through, and rightfully so. This ensured students’ safety at the cost of adding around $10,000 to our current deficit.

In response to concerns about deficits, VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin has stated that SSMU can carry deficits without substantial impact on its operations. This has led me to ask myself why the SSMU executive has chosen to prioritize the safety of one group of its constituents over another, when it has the means to ensure the safety of both. In the absence of an executive or legislative branch that is willing to protect its constituents, the judiciary has always been an option to turn to. That is why I am appealing to the Judicial Board to right this wrong and adjudicate the protection that I and all SSMU members need and deserve.

To this day, I still have to opt myself out of participating in clubs I am interested in to avoid contact with my abuser. To this day, I still have to ask my friends to check Facebook and see if my abuser will be attending a SSMU event. To this day, I still have to retraumatize myself every time I see my abuser at a SSMU function. To me, this represents a failure on the part of the SSMU to protect its members through its duly-passed and currently active Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy.

While I wish that I did not have to share my story as a survivor of sexual violence under these circumstances, I want students to understand that the Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy is not dependent on a fee levy to work; it is dependent on a SSMU executive that is willing to fund and enact it immediately.

Features

LORD, Give Me COFFEE To Change The Things I CAN, And WINE To Accept The Things I CAN’T

by Dylan Adamson on

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All of the clothes on the floor are damp, but the shirt seems to be the least damp. Judging by its position behind his accumulated under-bed objects, he assumes it’s been down there for a while. It’s difficult to discern which of his shirts it is.

Chill Thrills, Student Life

Tribune Tries: Death and cake

by Leyla Moy on

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“I love the brownies.” “I’m interested in learning about death.” These are the icebreakers at the November session of McGill’s Death Cafe. Though the event drew a varied crowd, commonalities developed between the full room of people intrigued by both creature comforts and talk of mortality.

On a rainy evening, participants filtered into an airy room with plants on the windowsill, past a table of pastries, berries, and fixings for tea. The contrast between conversations about death and a comfortable space with a whistling kettle and homemade baked goods is intentional, says facilitator Kit Racette.

“Death tends to separate us, and food brings us back together again,” Racette said.  

The café held on Monday, Nov. 5 was the second of a series hosted at McGill’s Building 21. Death Cafe’s stated aim is to make people more aware of death to help them maximize their life. The sessions at McGill are organized by Amanda Brown and Daniel Almeida in conjunction with Racette, who has hosted many death cafés across Montreal.

The pervasiveness of the death café, though it may seem niche, has been buoyed by a strong internet presence. The death café model was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid based on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, who held informal discussions about death over food and drink at his cafés mortels. Cafés mortels had no prescribed trajectory or religious inclination, and existed merely as spaces for people to talk openly about mortality. Inspired by Crettaz’s work, Underwood started the website deathcafe.com and wrote a guide to hosting death cafés based on Crettaz’s model. Death cafés based on this model are nonprofits, have no set agendas, and always serve refreshments. In the years following the website’s launch in 2013, death cafés have grown into a worldwide phenomenon.

Racette got involved since early in the project’s development. In a conversation after the event, she explained that she was intrigued by the concept. She went on to explain how shrouding mortality in taboo makes the inevitability of death feel all the more isolating and painful. Through her own experience of loss, she realized how an awareness and acceptance of death might allow us to better value our lives.

“I went looking for a way of getting people to talk about death and dying,” Racette said.

On occasion those conversations have brought out conflict in participants’ belief systems. Racette reiterated that the death café model recommends relative neutrality in terms of religion and spirituality.

“It’ll especially go there with people that are very Christian versus [those that are] very agnostic,” Racette said. “Death café isn’t a place to convince anyone.”

The conversation at McGill’s November Death Cafe touched on a variety of topics, including what people plan to do with their bodies, what attendees would do if they had three more months to live, reincarnation, ways of achieving immortality, whether faith is a comfort, and putting the pain of losing a pet into words. We discussed the ecological impact of traditional burial and the sentimental reasons for ‘formaldehyde-ing’ bodies, a desire which, as one participant pointed out, has roots in the post-Civil War need to preserve bodies until they got home as a comfort to loved ones. A few people in attendance had worked in areas related to death and, thus, had unique perspectives from their careers in palliative care or neuroscience. By the end of the conversation, I found an answer to my own fears of aging and losing autonomy after listening to another participant’s experience of working in a World War II veterans’ hospital and seeing people who had lost many of their faculties but still found joy and things to live for.

“[Today’s café had] a lot of philosophy,” Racette said. “And I find that’s normal with younger people […] to philosophize rather than deal with practicalities of their own deaths.”

The café ended with Racette asking attendees to reflect on their time at the café. Participants described the experience as  comforting and grounding. By the end, I felt that the collective initial hesitation at the topic had lifted, and that the group shared the comfort of a common understanding of their shared fate, however distant it may be.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Hot take: Greta Van Fleet’s debut album is a rock n’ roll throwback

by Demaris Oxman on

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The world of music journalism is full of takes: Good takes, bad takes, medium takes, and even hot takes. Here, in the Arts & Entertainment section of the The McGill Tribune, we try to supply the hottest takes around. Recently, Pitchfork lambasted Greta Van Fleet’s newest album. In the article, Jeremy D. Larson gave Anthem of the Peaceful Army a dismal 1.6 out of 10. While one could easily contest Pitchfork’s critical ability, they are undoubtedly one of the biggest voices in music journalism. We at the Tribune, however, believe that the biggest opinion does not necessarily correlate to the best. Here’s our hot take on Greta Van Fleet.

Album Review: Anthem of the Peaceful Army

Star rating: ★★★★

“Rock and roll is dead.” It’s a complaint heard often these days among classic rock enthusiasts. The recent emergence of Michigan-born blues and hard rock band Greta Van Fleet provides a glimmer of hope and a compelling piece of evidence to the contrary. After gaining traction last year with their EP “From the Fires,” the band released their first full-length album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, on Oct. 19.

Greta Van Fleet’s bluesy melodies and extended instrumental interludes take listeners back to the ‘70s and into the era that gave rise to emblematic bands like Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin. Critics often draw comparisons to the latter, and it’s obvious why: Lead singer Josh Kiszka’s raspy howl, featured prominently on songs like “When The Curtain Falls,” is strikingly similar to Robert Plant’s style, and the swirling guitar riffs of “Age of Man” and “Brave New World” are undoubtedly reminiscent of the legendary group. It’s like stepping into a time machine.

There’s a fine line between a style inspired by one’s predecessors and one that feels derivative. Critics of the band often dismiss them as a carbon copy of classic musical acts, lacking in creativity. There is validity to that argument: Most of the songs on Anthem of the Peaceful Army could inconspicuously feature on a Led Zeppelin playlist, and the average listener would never notice. But, the band’s members are barely in their twenties, and they are skilled in the art of rock ‘n roll. With time and experience, they’ll find a sound of their own.

Anthem of the Peaceful Army might be imitative, but it’s energetic, nostalgic, and just plain fun. In a world of autotune and drum machines, I’ll take a Led Zeppelin rip-off any day.

 

Student Life, Student of the Week

Student of the Week: Richard Davy

by Mary Keith on

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In 2017, Canada saw 3,987 cases of opioid-related deaths, 72 per cent of which resulted from the use of fentanyl-laced drugs. Given these frightening statistics, Richard Davy, U1 Social Work, aims to raise the public’s still-limited awareness of the opioid crisis and naloxone, an antidote that can be administered in the event of an opioid overdose. Through his independently-run workshops, Davy hopes attendees will learn more about naloxone administration and that they will have the ability to prevent future opioid-related deaths.

Though his primary academic interests is mental health research, Davy was first inspired to pursue the project when volunteering in the Montreal area during the Fall 2018 semester. He first witnessed the destructive effects of the opioid crisis when distributing food to individuals living on the streets.

“I’ve been doing outreach work on the streets […] as a link to talk to people [and] refer them to services, […] and I started to see that there was this problem with overuse of opioids,” Davy said.  “My major interest is around mental health, [and] I see addiction and drug use and misuse as a link back to mental health as a core concern.”

At each workshop, Davy begins by introducing the history of the opioid crisis. To reduce the stigma surrounding fentanyl overdoses, he also underscores the pervasive nature of the opioid crisis; he explains that, in addition to drug users, it afflicts children in homes where opioids are present. Because people of all ages and backgrounds are affected by the opioid crisis, Davy believes that it is imperative that more Montrealers are educated in naloxone use.  

“This isn’t just an interest with the ‘other’ [disadvantaged communities] and this isn’t just about recreational drug users,” Davy said. “This is also about regular, middle-class people, who are taking […] opioids at home. Youth ages 14-24 […] use [prescription opioids] recreationally […] from parents or caregivers. [Since] this impacts everybody […], we all need to know how to use naloxone.”

Davy has naloxone kits available at the workshop and shows attendees how to use and administer the antidote. As part of this training, he also teaches guests the signs of drug overdose: Loss of consciousness, slowed or stopped breathing, and blue lips, among others. If attendees notice this reaction Davy advises administering naloxone.

So far, the workshops have been a success. At his most recent event on Nov. 7, Davy had 40 attendees, and he expects a much larger crowd for his upcoming event. To further spread Davy’s message, the Centre Des Jeunes (CJD) will be broadcasting the workshop on Nov. 16. At present, Davy has rented a room for 120 guests, but is hopeful that the turnout is even greater.

In the near future, Davy plans to expand the program across the greater Montreal area by collaborating with the city’s health administrators.

“I’m talking to [the] Jewish General Hospital and they’re talking about me coming and presenting to the doctors there,” Davy said. “We had a family physician come to the [last] presentation, and […] he really wanted [doctors] to learn more.”

Through this work, Davy hopes to empower attendees with the knowledge that can save lives. He sees naloxone accessibility and education as a necessity in the province: Under the Civil Code of Quebec, bystanders are under a legal obligation to help those in need. In the future, he hopes that the university takes greater steps to keep students safe such as making naloxone kits a part of standard first-aid kits and holding mandatory naloxone workshops as part of orientation events.

“I think we need to make it a part of our education curriculum,” Davy said. “We know that people are going to be using these opioids recreationally and we know that people are using them under prescription, [so], if people are going to use them, they should use them safely.”

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