Latest News

McGill, News

Black Sisterhood at McGill targeted with online racist harassment

by Moyọ Alabi, Ellen Lurie on

More in McGill:

Content warning: Mentions of racial violence

After Black Sisterhood at McGill (BSISSY) began recruiting members to start an Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority chapter at McGill, co-founders Lena Karis Moussio, U1 Arts, and Astou Badiane, U1 Arts, received racist comments and threats of violence through the organization’s Instagram account. The account was subsequently taken down after being falsely reported. 

Established in 1908, AKA was founded in the United States at Howard University, a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). As the oldest Greek-letter organization established by Black women on a college campus, AKA aims to foster unity and friendship among college women while simultaneously advancing and uplifting Black communities. In a written statement to The Tribune, Moussio and Badiane described BSISSY’s mission in creating an AKA chapter at McGill.

“Aiming to bring a chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. to McGill, […] [BSISSY is] a sorority based on Black excellence, Black sisterhood, and […] giving back to the community,” Moussio and Badiane wrote. “[It is] a space where Black women can be themselves and feel safe, without having to be someone else.”

However, once BSISSY began recruiting on social media, their Instagram account was targeted with racist comments and private messages.

“The comments we were receiving were asking what the point of doing this was, if white guys could join, and saying things like ‘If it were white people doing this, we would’ve burned the school down,’” Moussio and Badiane shared. “Someone even told us to ‘stay segregated’ and called us ‘baboons.’ I think the worst was the person who told us to shut down the school because they wanted to ‘shoot’ us. That was really scary.”

The BSISSY Instagram account—alongside Badiane’s personal page—was later banned due to “child sexualization,” a claim with no relevance to the organization’s social media activity. 

“It was such a hard day for me. I couldn’t do anything, I was just so sad and discouraged. I kept asking myself what we had done wrong,” Badiane said. “However […] after that, we knew the project would continue no matter what. It was just our social media that had been affected, not our connections or the work or preparation we had already done for the project.”

In an interview with The Tribune, N. Keita Christophe, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Psychology and principal investigator of the Cultural Development Science Lab, explained that such experiences are unfortunately not uncommon among Black university students. 

“It just makes me sad, you know, because it’s consistent with […] my experience recruiting for our students, consistent with a lot of things that individual students […] over the past several years have come in and talked about,” Christophe said. “It’s just another reminder that racial discrimination is still common in our society, and that trickles down all the way to our campuses.”

Christophe then emphasized the importance of institutional dedication to dismantling systemic racism and fostering a welcoming and diverse community.

“Institutions like McGill [must] continually [drive] a culture that is maximally inclusive and accepting, and […] [signal] that when people don’t act in the spirit of equity, diversity, and inclusion, that this is inconsistent with the values of the university,” Christophe said. “Continuing to invest in [affinity groups] […] signals as an institution [that] we are supportive of people creating community, and we aren’t putting up roadblocks to that.” 

In a written statement to The Tribune, McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) highlighted the university’s ongoing efforts toward combatting anti-Black racism on campus. 

“In 2020, McGill launched an Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism to ensure the University enters its third-century with a firm commitment to equity and inclusion,” the MRO wrote. “Every member of our campus community deserves to work and learn in a respectful, inclusive, and supportive environment. Likewise, we all share a responsibility to foster a climate that rejects hate, intolerance, and harassment.”

Following the incidents on social media, Moussio and Badiane report having received support from the McGill administration.

“Antoine-Samuel [Mauffette] Alavo, the liaison officer for Black students, reached out and asked for a meeting that will take place in the coming weeks,” they wrote. “He has already brought us a lot of support for what’s next. We’ll see over time what measures will be put in place.”

Christophe added that, beyond institutional support, allyship from both Black and non-Black students is important in combatting anti-Black racism.

“It’s one thing for people that are personally affected by unequal social structures to advocate for themselves […] but I think it’s also important for people that are even benefiting from existing structures, people with privilege in different areas, to also speak up for those that are oppressed and help them out,” Christophe said. 

Moussio emphasized the solidarity McGill community members extended toward the organization following this incident.

“I never thought that my video would go viral and that we would get so much support from the McGill Black community,” Moussio wrote. “Even non-Black people have been very supportive, and we’re truly grateful that people understand that the goal is to fight against racism and sexism at McGill, and that Black girls should have the same college experience as everyone else.”

BSISSY will be hosting its next meeting on Friday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. in the Black Student Space, Ferrier Building 216.

Behind the Bench, Know Your Athlete, Sports

Senior spotlight: Sophie Courville, Ayoub Sabri, and Erik Linseisen

by Clara Smyrski, Ivanna Zhang on

More in Behind the Bench:

Sophie Courville

Sophie Courville, a physiology senior and Cross Country runner, was voted Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year, led the team with a fifth-place finish at the U SPORTS National Championships, and earned all-star honours for the third time.

While this is more than enough to earn her a place in Martlet history, she also joined Team Canada for the 2026 FISU World University Cross Country Championships, where she earned sixth place in the long run to help Canada secure bronze.

Throughout her time at McGill, Courville has learned to emphasize enjoyment over success.

“[T]he most important part […] is having fun,” Courville wrote in an email to The Tribune. “At the end of the day, we do it because we love the sport and the team, we wouldn’t be doing it day after day if it was only for the result. Good results are fun, but not as fun as enjoying the day to day, and bad results shouldn’t affect our love for the sport.”

Courville is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year at the 2026 Varsity Awards Gala, which will take place on April 14. After graduation, she will head to London, U.K., to start a PhD in Immunology at the Francis Crick Institute and will continue to pursue her athletic passion in London’s vibrant running scene.

Ayoub Sabri

Ayoub Sabri, a senior in the Faculty of Science, started rowing at McGill for fun and to meet new people. However, since joining, he has helped McGill Rowing achieve tremendous success. At the Head of the Rideau Regatta last September, he won two gold medals and helped the team secure the Kandahar Trophy—awarded to the top-scoring university team.

In an email to the The Tribune, Sabri recalled his favourite memory from his athletic career so far.

“My favourite memory is sitting at the starting gates of my first international race at the Under 23 World Rowing Championships. Hearing the empires call out each boat by country and finally hearing ‘Morocco’ gave me chills,” Sabri wrote. “It was the moment I realized how far I had come. I was representing my country on the world stage against the fastest crews in the world.”

As a joint honours student in computer science and mathematics, he explained the importance of enjoying and learning through the journey, both academically and physically, to avoid burnout.

“It is easy to get overwhelmed by numbers, standards, and expectations,” Sabri wrote. “However, if you keep enjoying the process and having fun, performance will naturally follow.”

Sabri hopes to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Science after graduating. Regardless, he will keep rowing.

“No matter where I end up, I’m going to keep rowing. I want to see how far I can go in the sport and ultimately race at the Olympics!”

Erik Linseisen

Erik Linseisen, of Redbirds Swimming, is a civil engineering senior who, with his relay partner Tristan Govier, earned bronze at the U SPORTS National Championship, completing the 4×100 freestyle relay in 3:32.39 and breaking the school record.

While he has excelled in the pool throughout his McGill career, Linseisen’s final season was his most impactful. He led the Redbirds with two gold medals in the 50-metre breaststroke and 100-metre individual medley at the annual University of Toronto dual meet, where he also qualified for the U SPORTS championships in three events.

Echoing Courville and Sabri’s sentiments, Linseisen emphasized having fun when competing and highlighted the commitment he has learned through sport.

“The most important thing I’ve learned […] is how to stay committed through both the highs and the lows,” he wrote to The Tribune. “There are times when the results will not reflect the work you’re putting in, but having the mental resilience to do what’s required instead of what’s comfortable is where the real growth takes place, both in performance and personal development.”

Linseisen is nominated for the Richard Pound Award for Proficiency and Leadership in Athletics, which will be awarded at the Varsity Awards Gala.

After graduation, Linseisen will work to grow Alta Construction Group—a Montreal-based construction and real estate company he co-founded, whose goal is to rethink project delivery and support housing in Canada.

While the McGill athletic community will miss these seniors’ grit, talent, and tireless dedication to their sport, their impact on teammates and fans alike will last long after they leave McGill. Considering their competitive careers for the Martlets and Redbirds, and the success they found in their sports and in the classroom, this group of seniors is sure to excel in their post-graduate endeavours.

Montreal, News, Private

Parc-Extension tenants rally against abusive rent hikes, demanding effective rent control

by Nell Pollak on

More in Montreal:

Over 100 tenants and fair housing activists gathered outside 955 av. d’Anvers on March 31 to denounce what organizers called abusive rent increases imposed on residents. Organized by the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ) and the Comité d’Action de Parc-Extension (CAPE), the rally’s attendees demanded better rent control. In collaboration with artistic and activist collective Le Sémaphore, the organizers projected messages like “No to abusive rent increase,” and “Je refuse je reste” (“I refuse I’m staying”) onto the building’s exterior.

The building’s tenants, part of a complex of 18 buildings for a total of 165 units, reported receiving increases of up to 20 per cent. According to a representative from the rally, one tenant received a rent increase of $300 CAD, and many of these notices do not include meaningful renovations to justify them. March 31 is the deadline for many Quebec landlords to send rent increase notices, making it a deliberate day for action.

In an interview with The Tribune, Noémie Beauvais, a community organizer with the RCLALQ, explained that the increases reflect a persistent gap in tenant protections despite recent regulatory changes. Quebec introduced a new rent-setting formula in January, but Beauvais noted that the reform has done little to curb excessive demands from landlords.

“The calculation is a bit different. It is a bit easier for tenants to understand,” Beauvais said. “But the problem is the same. If the landlord wants to just put any number on the notice, then [the tenants][…] feel like they have no power.”

The complex has changed ownership multiple times in recent years. In a speech to the crowd, Rizwan Khan, a community organizer with CAPE, highlighted that conditions have deteriorated across each transition.

“These buildings have been affected for a very long time with cleanliness and hygiene issues related to negligence from the owners*,” Khan said. “The new owners also introduced new building regulations with abusive clauses and pressured tenants by saying, ‘If you want your new key to the building’s front door, you have no choice but to sign.’ These are the kinds of tactics that are used by far too many landlords, and this has to stop*.”

In an interview with The Tribune, Sohnia Karamat Ali, an organizer with CAPE, emphasized how the cycle of ownership changes has worn tenants down.

“This is the third administration,” Karamat Ali said. “We started mobilizing against the first who were here five, six years ago. After a huge mobilization, they just sold the building [….] It is like every time, we start from zero again.”

Ali Kamruzzaman, a 70-year-old tenant who has lived in Parc-Extension for 27 years, told  The Tribune that many residents are afraid to push back against the increases. He urged fellow tenants not to acquiesce to their demands.

“My message is: Do not be scared,” Kamruzzaman said. “We have the Parc-Extension Action Committee, and you can ask them. They can advise you where to go. You have the rental board.”

The rally is part of a province-wide campaign organized by the RCLALQ against the 2026 rent increase season, with similar actions held in Quebec City and Granby. The Tribunal administratif du logement set a baseline increase of 3.1 per cent for leases renewing after April 1 under a new formula tied to the consumer price index, down from the 4.1 per cent in 2025. But the rate has done little to slow a broader trend: Average rents in Quebec have risen by roughly $1,800 CAD per year since 2023, and asking rents in Montreal have doubled since 2019. The RCLALQ reaffirmed that a revised framework should include stricter limits on annual increases tied to actual maintenance costs and new legal obligations for landlords to justify any hikes above the standard rate. 

Émile Boucher, a community organizer with the RCLALQ, stressed that the rate only functions as a floor, and tenants in the complex are facing increases nearly seven times that amount.

“There is no effective rent control,” Boucher said in an interview with The Tribune. “Landlords can still propose whatever increase they want. They are not required to follow the recommendations of the Tribunal administratif du logement, and that is an enormous problem for us. People will experience rent hikes individually because they receive the notice, they have to accept it or refuse it, they have to pay. But we are showing that this is a collective problem, and tenants are not alone in this*.”


*These quotes were translated from French.

Arts & Entertainment, Books, Culture

Preserving childhood magic in adulthood

by Bianca Sugunasiri, Alexandra Lasser, and Malika Logossou on

More in Arts & Entertainment:

As kids, we ache to grow older; as adults, we ache for childhood. The Tribune shares three childhood books that capture this longing.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Bianca Sugunasiri, Arts and Entertainment Editor 

Grown-ups become preoccupied with the most inconsequential matters. Peering at the world blindly, they neglect what is laid bare in their hearts, unsure of what they’re searching for. They forget everything that was once painfully obvious as children. 

The Little Prince is a story of a stranded pilot once discouraged from drawing elephant-eating-boa constrictors, and the clever little prince he meets in the desert—a child tired of always and forever explaining things to grown-ups. The little prince is a character full of wonder, and wiser than most every grown-up I’ve ever met. His inquisitive heart never relinquishes a question once asked. In his dedication, author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry notes that although all grown-ups were once children, few remember it. 

In finishing this book, you find yourself with more questions than you would’ve thought to ask—why is it that when making a new friend, grown-ups only ask about inconsequential things like their age, but never what their voice sounds like, or whether they collect butterflies? You will also follow the little prince to otherworldly places: Secrets in the land of tears, a planet with forty-four sunsets, and a glass dome with a tamed rose inside. He reminds grown-ups that their “matters of consequence” matter very little. The Little Prince is a book which you will mourn after finishing. It will leave you listening for the golden-haired prince laughing amongst every interaction you will have.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster – Alexandra Lasser, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Though it’s difficult to pick a single moment that began my love of literature, reading the first pages of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth is definitely in the running. The story follows Milo, a young boy bored with life, until a mysterious tollbooth appears and whisks him away to a land of imagination and endless wordplay. There he learns that the ordinary is not always boring, and that one can make an adventure out of every day. Juster’s world-building conjures images as vivid today as they were upon first reading. It is a novel that isn’t afraid to dive into the ridiculous, hysterical nonsense that children—and adults, secretly too—find amusing.

For all those longing for a world unburdened by the everyday routines that melt weeks into years, The Phantom Tollbooth escapes the confines of time and space as the princesses, Rhyme and Reason, are missing. Milo and readers are charged to tackle the beautiful chaos of the world to restore logic and meaning to life. As a student, the pressure of work and assignments makes the idea of a world without structure enticing, and Juster appeases that, but not without a lesson. Chaos is not sustainable; eventually, rhyme and reason must return to grant purpose and organization to a society, leaving readers to appreciate the consistency of each new day. 

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch – Malika Logossou, Managing Editor

As children, we are rarely confronted with the reality of aging, of watching those who care for us grow old. But with time, that innocence fades, and this reality grows closer, scarier, and harder to ignore. Love You Forever by Robert Munsch traces a boy’s life from infancy to adulthood, marked by his mother’s unconditional love for him as expressed through her singing: I’ll love you forever / I’ll like you for always / As long as I’m living / my baby you’ll be. She is present at every stage of his life, even going to her son’s house once he’s grown, opening his bedroom window and crawling inside, collapsing the distance between childhood and adulthood as if it never existed. However, the story shifts as the boy grows older and his mother ages. Their roles reverse as he holds her and sings the same song back, later sharing it with his daughter. Revisiting Love You Forever as an adult reminds readers that love—whether from a parent, guardian, or anyone who shapes us—moves in cycles and endures over time.

Science & Technology

Has spring felt weird this year? This is why

by Antoine Larocque on

More in Science & Technology:

Spring has felt unusually out of sync this year, with winter lingering well into late March and only brief, inconsistent stretches of warmth. Is this just a strange season or a symptom of climate change? In an interview with The Tribune, Robert Fajber, Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, shared his thoughts on the city’s recent weather patterns.

“Montreal kind of follows […] the same overall climate and weather patterns that we see for most of the mid latitudes,” Fajber said.

As a result of climate change, Montreal has warmed up by 1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius over the last 50 years. With this warming comes a shift in precipitation.

“Globally, precipitation changes by about two per cent per degree of global warming,” Fajber said. “However, local extreme precipitation changes more like seven per cent per degree. So if you have an extreme rainfall event, and the local warming is two or three degrees, expect that extreme rainfall event to be more like 20 per cent stronger.”

According to climate data comparing recent decades to the mid-20th century, winters in Montreal are becoming shorter and milder. Between 1950 and 1980, the city experienced about 148 frost days—the number of days when the minimum air temperature is below zero—per year, but today that number has dropped to around 130.

Winter is also shifting in time: It now starts later, moving from around Oct. 10 to Oct. 18, and ends earlier, with the last frost day arriving closer to April 20 instead of April 29. These trends are based on 30-year climate normals, which smooth out year-to-year variability, but individual winters can still differ widely, as seen this year.

To explain this year’s odd spring temperatures, we need to understand what drives the North American climate. Much of North America’s climate is shaped by an “east–west dipole,” where one side of the continent experiences cold conditions while the other is warmer. This pattern is driven by atmospheric waves, influenced by temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Depending on how these waves shift, Arctic air can be pulled further south, bringing colder conditions to regions like eastern Canada. This year, unusually strong flows of cold Arctic air occurred, cooling Montreal.

Predicting these patterns is becoming more challenging. Over the past decade, both oceans have experienced unprecedented heat waves, starting with the Pacific “blob” around 2014, and more recently, extreme warming in the Atlantic since 2023. These ocean influences are now interacting in complex ways, making climate patterns harder to predict.

“Most climate models actually show the Atlantic as being one of the slowest places that [has] warmed on the planet,” Fajber said. “The North Atlantic warms very slowly because this is an area where the ocean actually draws down a lot of water, and as that water basically goes away from the surface. It takes heat with it.”

Looking ahead, scientists expect Montreal to see climate trends that largely mirror the past half-century. Winters will likely continue to shrink, snow cover will decline, and extreme weather events will intensify.

However, new uncertainties are emerging. In addition to the unexpected warming of the Atlantic Ocean, sea level rise remains unknown. While sudden and large-scale ice loss is considered unlikely in the next 50 years, it could significantly raise water levels in the st. Lawrence River, impacting people living on its shores.

Beyond gradual warming, extremes are the real story. Heavy precipitation and severe storms are intensifying faster than average conditions and will likely have the greatest impact on daily life.

As these changes accelerate in Montreal, adaptation strategies must go beyond individual action. While personal efforts can help, they are often limited in scope.

“We are much better when we work together on adaptations than when we try to work by ourselves,” Fajber said.

Sports

As the 2026 World Cup expands, access to it narrows

by Nell Pollak on

More in Sports:

Last July, a father and asylum-seeker took his two children to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. He was cited for a minor drone ordinance violation in a nearby parking lot. Instead of releasing him, officers handed him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. He spent 11 weeks in arbitrary detention before self-deporting to Colombia. The 2026 World Cup final will be played on the same field this summer, just over one year later.

The 2026 edition promises the largest World Cup yet: 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 host cities—11 in the U.S. and five split between Canada and Mexico. FIFA’s infamous slogan is that “football unites the world,” but as the tournament grows in size and spectacle, the world it claims to welcome is shrinking, staged behind the most restrictive entry regime in World Cup history. Fans from Haiti—who will compete for the first time in 52 years— Iran, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast face almost a complete travel ban that suspends tourist visas for those without one already in hand. Fans from Algeria, Tunisia, and Cape Verde—which qualified for its first-ever World Cup this year—must deposit up to $15,000 USD per person under the State Department’s Visa Bond Pilot Program just to obtain a tourist visa. Under a new rule expected to take effect before the tournament, travellers from 42 additional countries will be required to provide five-year social media disclosures as a condition of entry.

This is not what was promised. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico pitched the 2026 tournament to FIFA in 2018 as the United Bid—a trilateral showcase of continental cooperation. For the first time, human rights commitments were embedded directly into the hosting agreement. Each host city was required to develop action plans addressing discrimination, workers’ rights, and protections for vulnerable populations. The bid’s campaign video declared the tournament would be “more inclusive [and] more universal than ever.”

Those commitments have been hollowed out, pressing FIFA to match its rhetoric with action. As of March 2026, only four of the 16 U.S. host cities had published their plans, and Amnesty International found that none of them addressed protections from ICE operations. ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, testified this February that the agency would be a “key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup” and refused to rule out enforcement at venues. From January to October 2025, ICE arrested at least 92,392 people in and around the 11 U.S. cities hosting World Cup matches. Of these arrests, 65.1 per cent involved immigrants with no criminal convictions. Amnesty International’s March 2026 report described the U.S. as facing a “human rights emergency” and warned that the tournament was drifting far from the safe and inclusive event promised eight years ago.

FIFA is not a neutral arbiter of these failures. President Gianni Infantino has met with U.S. President Donald Trump at least a dozen times since January 2025.  In December 2025, Infantino created the FIFA Peace Prize and awarded it to Trump at the World Cup draw for his “tireless efforts to promote peace.” An institution so closely aligned with the administration producing immigration policies that leave so many human rights organizations and fans in fear is in no position to challenge them.

In 2018, Infantino gifted Trump a referee kit with yellow and red cards, joking that the red card could be useful for Trump if he wanted to kick anyone out. Trump picked it up, grinning, and pretended to throw it at the press. Today, that ‘joke’ has hardened into reality. A tournament that bars, targets, and surveils the very fans it is supposed to unite is a bigoted red card being wielded before the games have even begun.

Student Life

Winter 2026 report card: On-campus dining

by Rachel Blackstone on

More in Student Life:

As finals season looms upon us, we get ready to say goodbye to our social lives, regular sleep schedules, and hobbies. In this time of despair, trips to the grocery store get farther and farther apart, causing many students to fall into a vending-machine-anchored diet. Arguably worse than the barely functioning existence we all enter each exam period is the endless waiting for grades McGill bestows upon us each semester. While The Tribune would love to promise early marks back, that is slightly beyond our reach. Instead, we present the marks of the best on-campus dining in hopes that the vending machines get some time off this April. 

Hot Dog Man: A

This McGill classic needs no introduction. Hot Dog Man’s return to campus each spring acts as the unofficial first flicker of light at the end of a very snowy tunnel. The hot dogs themselves are great: The efficiency, faint taste of charcoal, toasted bun, and plethora of toppings make this staple something to write home about. The cart offers an original jumbo dog, a vegan option, and a Polish kielbasa. Perhaps even better than the sausages themselves is the excitement that hits as you stand in line with your friends, surrounded by fellow hot dog lovers. The Hot Dog Man unites McGillians across faculties and years, fostering a true sense of community amongst 40,000 students. This makes the Hot Dog Man an iconic part of our fleeting years at McGill and worthy of the coveted A grade. 

Vinh’s Café: A

Vinh’s Café has two locations, one in the Genome Building and the other in the Strathcona Music Building. It offers fresh Vietnamese food at affordable prices. Known for their bánh mi’s, Vietnamese coffee, and pho, Vinh’s is a convenient and delicious lunch on campus that won’t hurt your wallet beyond repair. Pick up one of their loyalty cards and get your 10th bánh mi for free!

Frostbite: A-

If you take a sharp left when you enter McConnell Engineering, you will stumble across Frostbite, McGill’s very own ice cream shop. Open Monday to Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Frostbite is entirely student-run and the perfect mid-day treat. McGill’s worst-kept secret is arguably the shop’s Toonie Tuesday special, where you can grab a ‘baby scoop’ in exchange for a single toonie. In addition to Toonie Tuesday, Frostbite gives out a free scoop to anyone who scores less than 30 per cent on an exam worth 15 per cent or more of their final grade. With rotating and interesting flavours to choose from, the only thing holding Frostbite back from that top score is the massive line that forms each Tuesday. 

SNAX: B+

Squeezed into the hallway between Leacock 26 and Rooms 111 and 112 is SNAX cafe. SNAX is affordable, conveniently located, and good at what they do. Since it is primarily a coffee shop, SNAX only offers a small selection of baked goods and delicious Montreal bagels; the somewhat limited menu results in a good but not excellent final grade. Nonetheless, SNAX is the perfect caffeine boost or hunger fix when running between classes. So, before frantically meeting with a TA in an attempt to master the entire syllabus, gift yourself an afternoon sweet treat and grab a double chocolate cookie for $2.75 CAD. 

McConnell Engineering Cafeteria: B+

Tucked above the racecars and Dispatch in the McConnell Engineering lobby is the McConnell Engineering Cafeteria, home to Mezze Café and Booster Juice. While both options are delicious and close to the indoor seating that is so essential in the winter, their prices turn a trip to the cafeteria into a special treat, with most meals being above $10 CAD. Mezze offers Mediterranean fare made with halal ingredients for both breakfast and lunch, and Booster Juice has an array of smoothies to choose from. What makes these options stand out is the incredibly kind employees who consistently take time to chat, smile, and laugh with each customer.  

Editorial, Opinion

60 years after Gloria Baylis’ landmark case, Canadian legal systems still fail to redress systemic racism

by The Tribune Editorial Board on

More in Editorial:

From Jan. 29 to March 8, 2026, a new exhibition at Montreal’s Sanaaq centre revisited the story of Gloria Baylis, a Black nurse who, in 1965, became the first person in Canada to successfully challenge racial discrimination in employment under the law. Baylis was denied a nursing position at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel after being falsely told that the position had been filled, which prompted her to bring the case forward under Quebec’s newly introduced Act Respecting Discrimination in Employment. She won. 

Today, Gloria Baylis’ precedential case is commemorated as a turning point in Canadian law. However, the persistence of similar cases in the present reaffirms the limits of the Canadian system. While legal precedent now exists, the institutional frameworks used to assess and ‘counter’ racism continue to obscure its structural nature, making incidents of discrimination susceptible to dismissal as the government continues to operate under the guise of progress. 

Although the $25 CAD penalty imposed on the Queen Elizabeth Hotel was symbolic, Baylis’s case offered undeniable proof that Canadian institutions could be held accountable under the law for racial discrimination in employment. The case also reshaped how discrimination could be publicly confronted. Prior to Baylis’s challenge, many Black individuals were reluctant to report discriminatory experiences, often fearing retaliation or believing that such claims would not be taken seriously. Following the ruling, more individuals came forward, allowing advocacy groups like the Negro Citizenship Association to document patterns of racial discrimination and build the case for watchdog agencies, such as the Federal Human Rights Commission and Quebec’s Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (CDPDJ). 

Yet, just over 60 years later, Wanda Kagan’s case is a reminder of the inadequacy of current legal frameworks to identify and address racial discrimination. After decades of working within Montreal’s public health system, Kagan filed a complaint with the CDPDJ, alleging that systemic racism had stalled her career advancement despite her qualifications and seniority.

However, the CDPDJ’s institutional design inherently constrains its ability to recognize and, by consequence, redress incidents of systemic racism. The CDPDJ does not provide clear public guidelines for how systemic racism in employment should be proven or dealt with, and such complaints are evaluated using the same standards as individual discrimination claims. In Kagan’s case, instrumental context—such as her race and the demographic composition of her workplace—was omitted from the commission’s statement of facts, minimizing a pattern of unequal treatment to a mere administrative ‘oversight.’ 

The limitations evident in Kagan’s case are not proper to a single complaint: They are part of a broader, recurring discrepancy in Quebec’s confrontation with systemic racism. Former Quebec Premier François Legault has repeatedly refused to formally acknowledge systemic racism as a fact of Quebec’s history and structural design. For example, the province refuses to consistently collect standardized, disaggregated, race-based data across employment or public institutions, making patterns of discrimination difficult to identify, and even harder to prove. Instead, complaints are assessed in isolation, reducing systemic racism to coincidental incidents that can be dismissed as irregularities instead of structural inequities that must be fundamentally addressed.

The aforementioned limitations in recognizing the full extent of systemic racism are also embedded within McGill itself. The University’s selective institutional memory celebrates its legacy of prestige while simultaneously minimizing the conditions of injustice upon which it was built. James McGill, the university’s founder, was a slave owner who amassed the majority of his wealth—which he then used to fund the creation of the school—through enslaved labour and the fur trade. 

Throughout the 20th century, McGill imposed restrictions on admission and instituted barriers to medical training and hospital internships for Black students. These histories are rarely foregrounded or acknowledged in McGill’s narrative—instead, McGill continues to maintain and re-embed systemically racist structures on campus. In September 2025, the university dissolved the Faculty of Medicine’s main equity, diversity, and inclusion body. As of 2023, Black professors represented merely 1.6 per cent of McGill’s teaching staff, with only 4.4 per cent of the student body self-identifying as Black. McGill’s omission of its historical and current perpetuations of anti-Black racism is purposeful. This selective institutional memory shapes how inequality is understood in the present and how it will be addressed in the future.

To move beyond commemoration, Quebec must formally recognize systemic racism as a structural reality to be addressed at a foundational level. Institutions like McGill must move past selective remembrance and commit to transparent accountability and meaningful support for Black students and scholarship. Without using the knowledge of the past as a catalyst for change, McGill risks not just perpetuating, but promoting practices of inequality.

Art, Arts & Entertainment, Culture

Live long and prosper, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

by Dylan Hing on

More in Art:

It can be easy to drift toward the known hotspots of Montreal’s art scene; if you are looking for an artist, throw a stone in Little Burgundy, Griffintown, or Little Portugal, and you’ll hit 10 of them. As international students, it’s also way too easy to stay within the McGill bubble or, when feeling “adventurous,” head to the Plateau and convince ourselves we’re experiencing all of Montreal’s artistic culture. However, neighbourhoods like Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) carry memories forged through generations of creativity. 

Known for its communal charm, you might not find the vibrant network of artists and meeting places that dot those more immediately attractive areas. However, if you take a closer look, you will find that art is not always a painting, a poem, or a photo, and it is not always created by a trained hand.

The municipality of NDG was first established in 1876, and primarily encompasses the community served by the beautiful Church of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. In a borough abundant with churches like the impressive St. Joseph’s Oratory, NDG’s church may seem quaint, but that only accentuates the neighbourhood’s artistic subtlety. It evokes feelings of intimacy through simplicity to focus its faith, with quiet touches of beauty in details such as the stained glass that colour this as a place of communal worship.

Four decades later, in 1916, Loyola College moved to NDG. The central building, opened in 1947, represents the grandeur of the College’s broader architectural style, creating cohesion with the rest of the campus despite its mid-20th-century construction. Loyola College and Sir George Williams University merged in 1974 to create Concordia University, which now boasts state-of-the-art journalism and media facilities. Although these facilities primarily serve the students of the university, they allow NDG to serve as a home for journalistic arts, nurturing future journalists such as CBC reporter Hana Gartner.

Today, the neighbourhood is well-represented in the field of community visual arts. A standout is the Our Lady of Grace mural just past rue Sherbrooke and Madison, created by art agency Ashop in 2011. The industrial-looking but colourful mural brightens an otherwise dreary Montreal winter, featuring a Madonna rising from a city while surrounded by red and turquoise nature. It harkens back to NDG’s past, with art bringing a community together as its religious subject once did.

While that mural stuns all who see it, it is not the only artwork to come from the neighbourhood. The impressive NDG Art Hive, which provides free access to workshops and studio spaces to those interested in trying visual art, was born out of the Cheap Art Collective of St. Raymonds in 2015. This concept, part of a larger network of art hives that seek to connect communities, uses art to provide a gathering space for people of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds under the common pursuit of artistic endeavour.

Any discussion of NDG’s artistic legacy would be incomplete without mention of actor William Shatner, of Star Trek fame. He grew up in the neighbourhood, having spent his youth acting with the NDG-based Montreal Children’s Theatre. Founded at the height of the Great Depression, youth arts programs like this represent the best of art culture. The theatre’s persistence serves as a reminder that, while culture can be found in Picasso or Shakespeare, it can also come from two ladies in a basement putting on a show with their kids.
Not every neighbourhood can be a cultural cornerstone–but they don’t all have to be. At its best, art is an expression of the unique memories a community shares. Culture is a mural of a saint; it is student journalists amplifying the voices of those who are overlooked; it is a group of ordinary people picking up paint brushes; it is the final frontier of self-discovery. The Notre-Dame-de-Grâce community draws on these collective memories boldly.

Science & Technology

A blast from the past: Revisiting some of our favourite SciTech pieces

by Malika Logossou, Sarah McDonald, Leanne Cherry on

More in Science & Technology:

A look at Artificial Intelligence – Malika Logossou, Managing Editor

A few months ago, I wrote a piece on Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, examining whether they reduce cognitive skills and how this extends to students and adults. Drawing from Nandini Asavari Bharadwaj’s expertise, a PhD candidate in McGill’s Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, she explained that the effect of AI on our critical thinking skills depends on how we use it—but it can also serve as a powerful instrument to assist learning. 

Since Alan Turing’s 1950 proposition of the ‘Imitation Game’ to test machine intelligence, to Arthur Samuel’s checkers-playing program, AI has evolved considerably. Most recently, a humanoid robot gave a speech alongside the U.S. First Lady at the Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit. Though AI is not new, it has become increasingly present in our everyday lives.

“AI has been around since the 1950s [….] Currently, we are seeing significant interest and development in generative AI, particularly large language models and related conversational interfaces such as chatbots,” wrote Bharadwaj in an email to The Tribune.

The trajectory of AI highlights its dual nature: It can enhance our thinking, but overreliance risks dulling our critical reasoning. Its growth also has environmental implications and social costs, and affects how we view and understand art and friendships. As we look back on why these tools were initially created, it’s important to remember that struggle, reasoning, human contact, and creation are central to human learning. 

Reviewing perceptions of public transport– Sarah McDonald, Science & Technology Editor

When I first joined SciTech as a staff writer, the third article I wrote examined public perceptions of public transportation developments. Reflecting on recent Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station openings, I reached back out to Lancelot Rodrigue, a member of the Researchers at Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM), to see how the team’s research has progressed since November 2024.

“The research project which we were talking about [in 2024] was […] part of our bigger project on the REM, so this project has been ongoing. I think now we just collected the wave six or seven […] of the survey,” Rodrigue explained. 

TRAM’s projects have included comparing reception from the Pie-IX BRT and the REM—finding that the BRT has been far less controversial than the REM—and analyzing the difference between projected and actual demographic use of the REM stations in a recent article.

Recent work has validated public concerns that Rodrigue described to me back in 2024.

“There are elements that we discussed about two years ago, which were issues with the references in terms of governance and planning, [such as], it might have gone too fast, and people weren’t feeling certain about it. We did have some confirmation that these were kind of valid fears in terms of issues that the REM has been having during the winter.”

With their research still ongoing, TRAM continues to evaluate both the impacts and perceptions of public transport developments such as the REM. 

Additional details on The James Webb Space Telescope – Leanne Cherry, Science & Technology Editor

One of the first pieces I wrote as a SciTech editor came after attending a Physical Society Colloquium on the James Webb Space Telescope. While every component of Webb is a feat of engineering, one particularly incredible aspect which I wasn’t able to mention in my original article is the telescope’s sunshield.

Webb captures images of our universe by detecting and interpreting the low-energy infrared light emitted from astronomical objects. The telescope itself must be kept at exceptionally low temperatures to accomplish this—a process which is largely mediated by the sunshield. The shield is larger than a tennis court, and is composed of five layers of Kapton—a tough and sturdy plastic—each layer thinner than a human hair. Acting as a wall between Webb’s lenses and the sun, the shield reduces the temperature by nearly 300 degrees Celsius from one side to the other.

Perhaps most impressively, the engineers figured out how to fold this massive structure into something that would not only fit inside a rocket but could be unfurled upon reaching its orbit without tearing. This required around 150 different mechanisms working in perfect harmony, and 7000 flight parts.

1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 1,367

Read the latest issue

Read the latest issue