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Campus Spotlight, Student Life

A search for space and community after the SSMU Building closure

by Leanne Young on

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The Students; Society of McGill University (SSMU) Centre has been the heart of student life at McGill since its completion in 1965. From napping in the lounge, to grabbing a drink at Gerts Bar, to popping by the Peer Support Centre for a chat, the centre was students’ go-to for virtually anything.

When the building closed for renovations in March 2018, the community hub it provided also disappeared. Clubs and services have been forced to relocate off campus, Gerts is no longer a weeknight option, and students have become increasingly frustrated and confused. In this hectic period, SSMU now needs to reweave the threads of the student community.

“We are trying to alleviate the issues as much as we can,” SSMU President Tre Mansdoerfer said. “I want to emphasize that it’s a team effort, and we’re all trying to make sure people aren’t impacted [by the building closure] as much as they could be.”

Without a hub for students to access many of SSMU’s clubs and services, it has become increasingly difficult for students to find their favourite clubs or  discover a new place to meet up with fellow students. Finding a community space on campus helps students balance their academic and social lives while at university. Without a meeting place, it has become difficult for new students to become involved in the campus goings-on.

“There’s a severe imbalance between studying all the time and just not getting involved at all because you feel like classes are just pounding down on you,” Cody Esterle, SSMU Vice-President of Student Life said. “Involvement is really key because you find a community and people who like [the same] things you do [….] In terms of how people can find their community, they can’t walk around the university centre and hang out there anymore, and that’s really a shame, but it’s just not going to be possible this year.”

Students are feeling the impact of the building closure every day. It’s an inconvenience for everyone, but it’s not a hopeless situation. Although every SSMU member is counting down the days until the building opens again, there are still ways for students to become involved in the McGill community.

For students, clubs offer a space to convene outside of class and help them develop closer bonds with their peers. From art to politics, there is an extracurricular out there for everyone. Regardless of skill set, students can join university clubs to extend their social networks and try something new. Joining an extracurricular activity can help students who feel isolated meet like-minded people with common interests and unwind after a long day of hard work. Experiences from extracurriculars are what most students will remember after graduation, so it’s important to get out there and create valuable memories.

Even clubs for which building space is essential to their operations continue to service the community. Students need only check SSMU’s building closure website to see where these clubs are now located. The Plate Club is based out of Peel Street, Midnight Kitchen is servicing students out of their Saint-Henri kitchen, and the Players’ Theatre will temporarily stage productions at the Mainline Theatre.

Attending campus activity fairs, where there are plenty of student groups and representatives present, is a valuable first step. Activities Night takes place during the first couple weeks of each semester.Attendees are often surprised to discover the eclectic range of clubs and communities available on campus. Starting with small steps—such as attending events like Activities Night, a club’s welcome event, or SSMU’s biannual Volunteer Fair—students can form friendships and survey a variety of interests while exploring a new community.

For those looking to get involved more promptly, a full list of university clubs is available on SSMU’s website year-round. Among the more unusual offerings are the McGill Students’ Circus Collective, McGill Students’ Wine Society, and McGill Students’ Astronomy Club. With over 250 extracurriculars available for students to explore, there are plenty of opportunities for them to find their niche.

Ultimately, community is defined by the people who are a part of it, not where its office is. Even though there isn’t a physical building to house a student hub anymore, the people are still here. The core of the McGill community always has been here, and it always will be.

“I don’t think the community finds itself through a specific group or a specific building. It’s the connections you make,” Esterle said. “I really hope that the 7,500 people who attended Activities Night this year have been able to find some of those connections, even if it was just a five-minute conversation. Maybe, it will be a longer conversation the next time they see them at the next event. I don’t think that the entire community is found through the building. I think it’s just found through the people.”

External affairs require internal dialogue
Editorial, Opinion

External affairs require internal dialogue

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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2018 has seen politics play out on social media, and the world of student government is no exception. On Oct. 2, the day after the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) won a majority mandate in the provincial election, then vice-president (VP) External of the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Marina Cupido posted a statement on the SSMU External Affairs Facebook page fiercely criticizing the party, alleging xenophobia and affiliations with white supremacists. Cupido resigned eight days later, citing mental health concerns.

In response to Cupido’s post, SSMU Legislative Councillors Bryan Buraga, Andrew Figueiredo, Brandon Hersh, and Haoyi Qiu submitted a Motion Regarding Responsible Representation. The motion is critical of Cupido’s post, and proposes that SSMU executives only publish statements through official SSMU channels if mandated by the Legislative Council, Executive Committee, a referendum, or a General Assembly motion. While formally requiring executives to consult with their colleagues before taking official stances is necessary, the way the motion sets out to implement such consultation would compromise SSMU’s ability to function.

Although Cupido’s strong language was ill-advised, their sentiment was valid given that the CAQ was elected on a platform that targets immigrants and religious minorities. The amended statement posted to the SSMU External Affairs Facebook page reiterates much of Cupido’s original post. Most severely lacking from Cupido’s post is evidence to substantiate their claims about the CAQ’s policies and affiliations. It is inappropriate for an elected student representative to make such inflammatory claims without proper citation. However, while the post could have relied more rigorously on fact, the VP External’s role is explicitly political and often requires pushing boundaries. For example, in April 2018, then VP External Connor Spencer accused McGill of violating Bill 151, An Act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions, in a letter to the Quebec Minister for Higher Education.

The Councillors’ motion is an attempt to ensure responsible representation of the student body’s  opinions. This is a laudable goal, but in reality, it is more of a reactive response than a calculated solution. Its retraction of Cupido’s original post undermines the legitimate points Cupido raised and fails to mention the racist backlash the post received. Moreover, the motion only adds to SSMU’s bureaucratic burden. SSMU executives should not ask the Legislative Council to adjudicate their disputes for them: It is the executives’ responsibility to keep their council functioning. Going forward, the most important step for SSMU is consultative communication within the Executive Committee. Continuing existing measures such as regular listserv emails and office hours is important, but student participation is limited. Many students see student governance as remote and inconsequential, and finding ways to engage their membership will allow SSMU to better represent the student body as a whole.

SSMU hasn’t announced whether they will hold a by-election for a new VP External, but it is crucial that they do so and that they begin this process as soon as possible. As SSMU’s link to external organizations like the provincial government, the VP External is an indispensable member of the Executive Committee, and the portfolio’s responsibilities are too vast to be redistributed among its remaining members. The advocacy efforts of past VP Externals have been invaluable to the McGill community: In addition to Connor Spencer’s work, 2011–12 VP External Joël Pedneault directed SSMU’s participation in the Quebec student strike.

With the emergence of racist, anti-immigrant, and discriminatory rhetoric in the Quebec election, McGill students need a focused executive to lobby for student rights and advocate for minorities in a way that is representative and responsible. Electing a new VP External who will commit to open consultation with students and executives is essential to making this goal a reality.

News, SSMU

SSMU VP External Marina Cupido resigns

by Andras Nemeth on

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The executive board of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is one member short as of Wednesday. On Oct. 10, SSMU announced the resignation of vice-president (VP) External Marina Cupido in a statement emailed to SSMU members by VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin, which cited mental health concerns as the cause of Cupido’s resignation. The statement, also posted on the SSMU website and signed by Cupido and the remaining members of the SSMU executive committee, included plans to address the vacancy of the position at an Oct. 18 Legislative Council meeting.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Cupido confirmed that their decision to resign arose from the unhealthy strain of the position’s workload.

“Being in this job literally became a threat to my physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing,” Cupido said. “A large part of that is because this job is ridiculous [….] There need to be structural changes at SSMU that, among many other things, make it possible to be a VP, to be an executive and [to] be healthy, and have a life beyond work.”

At the SSMU Legislative Council meeting on Oct. 11, SSMU President Tre Mansdoerfer expressed regret at Cupido’s resignation and assured council members that a proposal on how to respond to the resignation was forthcoming.

Cupido became involved in controversy after publishing a post on the SSMU VP External Affairs Facebook page on Oct. 2 which described the recently-elected Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government as ‘racist’ and ‘xenophobic.’ Although SSMU issued a statement on Oct. 11 reaffirming the sentiment, but apologizing for the language of Cupido’s post, Cupido told the Tribune that they did not regret publishing it.

“If I were writing a political science paper about the CAQ, I would describe it with a lot of the same language but also with more nuance,” Cupido said. “But I wasn’t [….] I honestly don’t regret posting that, I think that it was the right thing to do, I think it was called for and appropriate and basically fair. And I wish that SSMU was an institution where that was the norm.”

While Cupido is the first SSMU executive to resign this academic year, two executives, VP Finance and VP Operations and Sustainability, resigned during the prior academic year. In an email to the Tribune, McLaughlin concurred with Cupido’s statements regarding the strenuous workload of SSMU VPs and said that he hoped McGill students would be sympathetic given the body’s history of resignations.

“The sad reality is that executive resignations have become a staple of a typical year,” McLaughlin wrote. “As much as some people might think that resignations are often the result of politics and interpersonal issues, the reality is that executive roles are practically designed to cause resignations; the positions inexorably lead to burnout and issues of both mental and physical health. It’s easy to pass judgment and point fingers, but I’d encourage students to consider that executives are people, too.”

Cupido argued that the position of VP External would be easier to manage if the SSMU student positions under the External Affairs portfolio were expanded.

“To varying degrees, none of the student staff have enough hours,” Cupido said. “The VP External job has a lot of very disparate parts and having more of a team running those projects would be better [….] A [good] place to start would really be investing more in the team that does this job.”

Creative

Tribune Presents: Ivytide

by Tony Wang & James Collier on

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The Tribune team sits down with the boys from Ivytide to hear a couple tracks off their new EP!

“Ivytide is an Indie Psychedelic/RnB band formed in Montreal, Canada in March 2018. Members Nathan Gagné (Vocals/Guitar) and Jamie Snytte (Guitar) met at Avbury Studios where they started to develop chemistry in their songwriting. Jamie recruited the rest of the members Kyle Ruggiero (Bass), Adam Nutbey (Keys), and John Zambito (Drums). Ivytide released their debut EP “Bloom” on August 24th. The band draws much of its inspiration from artists such as Frank Ocean, Homeshake, Childish Gambino and Mac Demarco.

Find “Bloom” here:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2w7oY7G
Apple Music: https://apple.co/2NeKUUJ
Youtube: https://bit.ly/2BKRfpQ”

Video by Tony Wang, James Collier, and Tristan Surman

Creative, Podcasts

The Curiosity Podcast | Episode 1: Does monolingualism affect McGill students?

by Tristan Surman on

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This week the Tribune recaps recent developments in the appointment of a independent investigator of sexual assault claims at the university, Milton-Parc community activism, and our nation-wide epipen shortage.

In the latter half of the podcast we speak to Lucas Bird, the author of the contentious Tribune article “Quebec’s quest for monolingual domination makes healthcare less accessible” about what he has learned from responses to his work.

The views expressed in this podcast are not representative of the Tribune Editorial Board, but rather those featured in the Podcast.

Hosted and Produced by Multimedia Editor Tristan Surman

Features

This will not blow over

by Ariella Garmaise on

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So chanted the frustrated masses gathered outside the James Administration building on Apr. 11, 2018, protesting a university culture of abuse and open secrets. The walkout—which brought together students from McGill and Concordia—represented a fever pitch for student outrage. This event did not occur in isolation. On Apr. 4, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) sent an open letter to McGill, demanding that the university launch an external investigation into the Office of the Dean of Arts’ responses to reports of sexual violence. Thousands of students signed the letter. In conjunction with the exposure of a similar culture of abuse at Concordia earlier in the year, the walkout felt like a watershed moment for institutional accountability.

Off the Board, Opinion

Missed connections: Exchange can be isolating

by Emma Carr on

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Before I left for my exchange term at the University of Edinburgh last winter, I sat in Leacock 132, half-listening to a mandatory safety presentation, when one line caught my attention: “This is going to be the best five months of your life.” The idea terrified me: I was by no means hoping to peak at 20. Still, there was a part of me that wanted to believe this fantasy. Only two months later, I found myself sitting on the edge of my squeaky twin bed at four a.m., jet-lagged and teary-eyed, praying that the presenter was just being hyperbolic.

When I first settled in Edinburgh, I wasn’t consumed by excitement or post-arrival jitters. Instead, I felt an overwhelming pressure to have “the greatest time of my life,” without being entirely sure what that entailed. I spent my hours of free time in the middle of the night, courtesy of jet-lag, reading personal essays written by students claiming that studying abroad was life-changing. I scrolled through my fellow travellers’ polished Facebook albums of far-off places. From my late-night research, I deduced that, for everyone else, exchange was as exhilarating and wondrous as advertized. I felt obligated to live a similarly exciting, adventurous, and problem-free existence during my own exchange term, and was disappointed in myself for failing to do so.

Adjusting to my new and temporary life in Edinburgh was difficult. Yes, I spent time exploring the city, meeting new people, planning adventures, and traveling around the countryside. But, I also navigated a foreign healthcare system with a fever, slept on suspect mattresses in derelict hostels, and spent many nights alone in my bedroom. Though I had predicted the early adjustment period would be a challenge, nearly half-way through my program, I was still nostalgic for my familiar life back at McGill, and felt isolated without my usual support networks. At a particularly sensitive moment, I found myself welling up after receiving a Facebook invitation to an event in Montreal, and I lamented giving up a comfortable semester back at McGill. Every time I expressed frustration and defeat, I worried that I would come across as unappreciative to people back home, and I was concerned that I was not taking advantage of all the opportunities available to me.

Things did become easier over time. I became more content spending time alone, and Edinburgh became less foreign to me. Ultimately, I have come to appreciate that my bouts of vulnerability and loneliness were just as formative as my other adventures abroad. I expected to have the best time of my life while still achieving some sort of personal growth, but these ambitions were incompatible: It would be impossible to challenge myself without facing any obstacles. In the absence of close friendships, I ventured to become more independent, and, by the end of the semester, undertook a solo trip to the west coast of Scotland.

Was my exchange term in Edinburgh the best five months of my life? I hope not. In fact, I have never felt more relieved to return to a recognizable routine as the moment my plane touched down in my hometown of Chelsea, New York. But, when I reminisce with people back home about my travels, the hardships fade to the background, and I find myself feeling a little nostalgic for Edinburgh’s grey skies and my solo adventures.

Commentary, Opinion

Identity crises and queer history months

by Jacob Sailer on

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October is Queer History Month at McGill, the first event of its kind at a Canadian university. It aims to explore and expand on the boundaries of heteronormativity through educational initiatives and celebrations: A four-week tangle in the complex web of queer identity.

I came into my own sexuality with an unusual sense of animosity toward events like pride parades and queer history months. My identity felt pigeonholed by events like pride, walled in by the confines of what constitutes ‘gay pride’.

I’m gay. At least, I think I am. I’ll say queer for now—I’m young. I haven’t told my parents. They are two of the most loving and accepting people I have ever met, but I never got around to telling them. I assume they know: We fly a pride flag on our deck year-round. I probably would have taken it down myself were I three or four years younger and carrying the same weight of self-doubt and anxiety.

I am forever conscious of being ‘gay enough,’ a phrase that I drag around like a ball-and-chain of internal insecurities. When I came out to my best friend in eighth grade, she didn’t believe me. It seemed that all the boys around me neatly fit into a category, while I was neither gay enough, masculine enough, nor proud enough. But it got easier. I  kissed a boy; I gossiped about crushes with the girls in my English class; I watched Brokeback Mountain in my room by myself. I developed little ‘tells’ over time. I don’t know if they came naturally, but I started to fit the bill. I even internally rejoiced when one of my roommates told me that he got a specific ‘vibe’ from me during the first few days of our living together. I felt victorious, like I had finally found the proof I was looking for.

There seems to be a stale cultural attitude toward LGBTQ+ expression. I used to experience mass queer pride as focused entirely on the grandeur of celebration, ignoring the larger reasons for why such a month is necessary. It felt like too commercialized a festivity—a mass-produced bastardization of an existing cultural identity. In trying to elevate the queer community, those on its outskirts fall to the wayside.

Celebrations of queer pride need to ground themselves in history, especially in Montreal. 75 per cent of Montreal’s LGBTQ+ community experience bullying for their sexuality; the Sex Garage riots are a lasting stain on the city’s acceptance of the queer identity. Recognition of Montreal’s checkered history of queerness means not only celebrating, but also informing and including.

McGill would need 10 more queer history month celebrations to fully capture the queer community’s rich and diverse culture. So, I’m taking this time to recognize the shapes, voices, faces, feelings, and experiences of this rich and diverse community; but, also, to take a step back, to take time and let queerness be. Too often, the queer identity is walled in; too often, queerness is reduced to a TV segment about a pride parade or rainbow face-paint on cheekbones. This is a disservice to its diversity. This October, let those exploring their own identities come forward and share what they will. I’m taking a break from asking questions; I’m putting on my rainbow underwear and smiling at everyone I see on the sidewalk.

Religious neutrality isn't neutral
Commentary, Opinion

Religious neutrality isn’t neutral

by Mo Rajji on

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On Oct. 1, Quebec elected 74 members of the Coalition Avenir du Québec (CAQ) to the National Assembly, giving the party a majority mandate. The CAQ campaigned on a platform of reducing immigration, restructuring government institutions, and maintaining ‘religious neutrality.’ Discussions about religious neutrality are not new in Quebec: In 2013, the Parti Québécois government proposed the Quebec Values Charter, which would have banned religious symbols like turbans, hijabs, and kippahs for swaths of public employees, had they not been voted out of government before the bill could be passed. In contrast, the CAQ’s proposal to ban ‘ostentatious’ religious symbols for those in positions of authority might seem mild, but it has the same flaw: Eradicating religion to create social progress is a false equivalence. While removing the power of any one religious view from government gives freedom to those who come from different backgrounds, the erasure of religion from public life is an entirely different matter.

While the CAQ’s policy ostensibly applies to all religious symbols, they have put non-Christian accoutrements on the forefront of the platform. The party has stated they will not be removing the crucifix in the National Assembly. Secularism does not mean abolishing religion from the public sphere, but rather removing religion from the decision-making process of the government. This is not what the CAQ hopes to achieve: They do not plan to remove religious influence from government, but, rather, to remove non-Christian iconography from public view. This duplicity not unique to the CAQ: In 2017, the Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ) introduced Bill 62, banning the wearing of face-covering while giving or receiving public services, and 68 per cent of Canadians outside of Quebec support similar niqab bans in their own provinces.

The CAQ’s move to ban overt religious symbols follows a long history in Quebec of anti-Semitism and racism. The CAQ’s plan will ban the hijab, the Jewish kippah, and the Sikh turban. Critics of the CAQ have focused on how this will affect hijabi women because of both the precedent set by Bill 62 and remarks from CAQ leader François Legault about how he believes religious symbols like the hijab represent sexism. Yet, there are hijabi and niqabi women in Quebec who fear that these ‘anti-sexist’ bans will not only remove Muslim women’s liberty of choice, but will also punish them by removing them from their jobs if they do not comply. The CAQ’s proposal does not protect the rights of women; instead, it co-opts feminist ideas to further racist and religiously intolerant agendas.

Religion has provided answers to the question of human morality and informed much of our modern culture and belief systems. Religious movements have both helped and hurt the quest for the amelioration of humanity, reflecting the complexity of people and how we relate to one another. Removing religion from the public sphere will not end bigotry, nor will it create an egalitarian utopia. It will generate a void in which human uncertainties cannot be assuaged by a transcendent purpose. Religion is not its own entity, but an extension of humanity: Identifying religion alone as the cause of social dysfunction fails to evaluate larger systems of inequality.

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