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Commentary, Opinion

Cabinet criticisms coincide with McGill’s concerning treatment of faculty

by Matthew Molinaro on

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On Oct. 26, Governor General Mary May Simon swore in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet. As Canada faces its second consecutive Liberal minority government, the cabinet will become a focal point of debates over the future of the nation. Notably, Trudeau appointed Member of Parliament (MP) Anita Anand to one of Canada’s most prominent portfolios, the ministry of National Defence, and MP Steven Guilbeault, former leader of Greenpeace Quebec and co-founder of Équiterre, to the ministry of Environment and Climate Change. These two appointments rankled observers, who questioned their qualifications for their roles. Regardless of an observer’s political leanings, such comments on Anand and Guilbeault’s resumés deflect from the meaningful policies the Canadian public should push these ministers and the Liberal government to enact. These criticisms, though, relate to a pattern in hiring and protection at universities, in which departments overlook and mistreat those who challenge systems of power, favouring instead those who conform to institutional expectations.

Anand, the former Minister of Public Services and Procurement in charge of Canada’s vaccine rollout, faced both widespread acclaim and criticism from foreign and domestic news sources following her appointment. A now-retitled National Post article announced her appointment by merely stating that “a woman” would replace former Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan. More serious criticisms come from those who highlighted Anand’s lack of military experience, calling her a military “outsider.” Anand herself addressed the optics of her appointment by acknowledging both her position as the first female defence minister since Kim Campbell and her expertise in governance, process, and law. The Canadian Armed Forces is rife with sexual assault and harassment, with countless women and members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community encountering a hostile environment within the service. It is surprising, then, that critics would have preferred an official with military experience given the fact that previous ministers with extensive training, including Sajjan, have turned their back to allegations of sexual violence. Anand’s fresh outlook, proven expertise, and extensive legal training should be welcomed in supporting not just the safety, security, and freedom of those serving in the armed forces, but of all Canadians.

Guilbeault, the former Minister of Heritage, experienced diametrically opposite reactions from Quebec and Alberta. Many Quebecers, still upset at Trudeau’s choice to snub Guilbeault of Environment in the last cabinet appointment, were cautiously optimistic to see their climate hero rise to a position of influence. Alberta politicians suggested otherwise, with Conservative Premier Jason Kenney attacking the minister’s “radical activism’” and former New Democratic Premier and current Leader of the Opposition Rachel Notley marking his troubling past statements about oil. A photo of Guilbeault getting arrested while wearing an orange jumpsuit after a climate protest also made rounds on social media. To attack a politician for their previous activism is to silence current activists who apply public pressure on leaders, especially on such urgent issues supported by a majority of Canadians, like mitigating climate change. If the political arena becomes sealed off to civilian activists, politics will return to the traditional, backdoor status quo procedures that only serve to protect the interests of privileged Canadians.

Likewise, at McGill, when scholars speak out about divestment, racial injustice, and human rights—issues many of McGill’s esteemed scholars have vast academic and practical experience in—they receive less protection than anti-2SLGBTQIA+ scholars. Instead, they often encounter doxxing, unequal tenure opportunities, and roadblocks to promotion. At the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights program, a recent donor-influenced decision to withhold hiring noted academic Valentina Azarova because of her work critical of Israel presents a too-often occurring phenomenon in the modern university. For scholars, neglecting current issues would be cataclysmic––an arrest of all critical reimaginings of this profoundly unjust world. 

Of course, Anand and Guilbeault should not be glorified above other Canadians or ministers. In an increasingly centralized Canadian political system, where the Prime Minister’s Office wields immense power over ministers, Canadians must seek out their allies and hold them responsible, just as Anand and Guilbeault must hold the military and fossil fuel corporations accountable. The same must be stated of the McGill administration, wherein the expansion of Gender, African and Black, and Indigenous studies must proceed hand-in-hand with feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial practices. When this happens, scholars, students, and politicians can do their best, most authentic and transformative work.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘The French Dispatch’ is the height of the Wes Anderson aesthetic

by Charlotte Hayes on

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Nearly three years after his last feature, beloved American filmmaker Wes Anderson is back with The French Dispatch. Premiering in Toronto and theUnited States on Oct. 22, the film was released in theatres across Canada on Oct. 28. Anderson described it as a “love letter to journalism,” and it is just that. Drawing upon the eccentric cinematic style and storytelling techniques that audiences have come to expect from the idiosyncratically comedic director, The French Dispatch is sure to be popular among Anderson fans, but risks losing casual viewers with its confusing plot and excessive stylization. 

Set in the mid-20th-century French offices of an American travel journal, The French Dispatch is a collection of vignettes that comprise the articles featured in the titular magazine. The film follows a team of journalists—Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), and Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson)—as they pitch their stories to editor Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray). The articles explore each writer and their different journalistic subjects: An artist sentenced to life in prison, a student chess riot, and a kidnapping solved with the help of a chef. 

The French Dispatch is ostensibly five different movies in one, as each article presented by each character creates a world of its own, allowing the audience to tap into a different side of the small fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. This technique, although narratively interesting, quickly becomes confusing. With such complex smaller segments of the film—each of which could almost pass for its own feature film—the audience can easily forget the overarching narrative. The film requires that the audience do some work in uniting separately constructed worlds to piece together a continual narrative.

Frequent Wes Anderson collaborators Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson, and Adrien Brody all appear once again in The French Dispatch, each delivering excellent performances. The best performance in the film comes from Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio Del Toro), who plays an imprisoned artist who is in love with Simone (Léa Seydoux), a prison security guard. Del Toro delivers the most entertaining and hilarious scenes of the film, despite limited dialogue.

A staple of Wes Anderson’s films is witty dialogue with deadpan delivery. The French Dispatch and its fictional French village provide the perfect canvas for this, as the characters in the utmost absurd stories behave with complete sincerity. The juxtaposition of these quiet journalists against larger-than-life characters strengthens the film’s comedic edge. The film’s rapid pacing and light tone is a saving grace for general audiences who might otherwise become confused by the film’s structure. 

The French Dispatch continues in the same stylistic tradition as Wes Anderson’s previous work. With eccentric set pieces, perfectly symmetrical shots, and rigid colour palette, Anderson’s films instantly transport the viewer to another world. However, this intensely surreal cinematographic style may go too far, at times feeling nearly satirical in its execution. The world of the film is so perfectly symmetrical and vibrantly saturated that it almost feels as if it loses touch with reality, diverging from a hyper-styled version of real life into a fantasy that more closely resembles a dollhouse. This style can become frustrating.

The film is ultimately Wes Anderson’s style at its peak. With its geometrical cinematography, distinctive colour palettes, and eclectic 1950s fashion, The French Dispatch is sure to capture the aesthetic attention of fans of Anderson’s work. Although it isn’t without its flaws, The French Dispatch is a creative and dynamic piece of work that stands out amid 2021’s track record of films, and well worth a trip to the theatre. 

Off the Board, Opinion

Made with love

by Sepideh Afshar on

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Growing up, I never had chicken nuggets or frozen pizza for dinner. Instead, there was a fresh, home-cooked Persian meal in front of me each night––and looking back, I was extremely unappreciative of it. As I have gotten older, I have grown to appreciate that the love of somebody labouring for twelve hours to make your favourite dish is not a feeling that everybody gets to experience, at least not on a regular basis. As silly as it may sound, understanding the love languages of those around you is vital to healthy relationships. It was through this newfound appreciation for the many different ways of showing affection that I began to value all the little things my dad did for me growing up—even if it just started with a stew.

When I was a kid I was a picky eater and somebody who did not understand that different cultures come with different foods. I truly thought that my parents were villains for not letting me have mozzarella sticks for dinner like many of my peers did. When I was served an intricate Persian meal, I would promptly complain and ask for spaghetti. But this never stopped my family from showing their love in the way they do best, and that is how Persian spaghetti entered our home. A combination of Canadian and Persian food that had spaghetti and meat sauce but also incorporated potato tahdig—an addition that my sister and I would fight over—it became a dish my dad made often. 

My dad is the epitome of what you would call “a man of few words.” You can tell him a 20-minute-long story, and while he will pay careful attention the whole time, there is a good chance that the only response you will get is a nod. When I was younger this would frustrate me; all I wanted was some kind of conversation. But as I have grown older, I have learned to appreciate the way that he shows his love. To put it in terms that my father would not fully understand: His love language is definitely ‘acts of service,’ and cooking allows him to express his love for our family. 

A lot changed as I grew up, but the quality and the love that went into the food I ate remained consistent. Even when our family shrank from four members to three after my parents’ divorce, and then three to two when my sister went to university, my dad would spend hours cooking. I did not understand why he spent so much time in the kitchen after a long day at work when it was just us two. Drawing on what I saw from my peers around me, at Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, I thought that me and my dad at the dinner table, re-watching Gilmore Girls, was not exactly the right occasion for sabzi polo. But my dad does not need an audience. He just needs one person that he loves at the table, and he is happy to spend 10 hours over the stove, making sure that everything is perfect. 

Although it sometimes saddens me that I failed to fully appreciate what it meant when my dad would pull out estamboli on a random Thursday night when I lived with him, I know that to him, seeing me hastily finish the food on my plate was more than enough. On the train to my dads, my sister and I talk over what we want to eat at home. I know her go-to is ghormeh sabzi, an herb stew, and mine is always fesenjoon, a pomegranate and walnut stew that takes all day to make. When we get into my dad’s car, we both know that his first question will be, “what dishes do you two want this weekend?”

McGill, News

McGill reinstates Winter 2022 exchanges

by Juliet Morrison on

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On Oct. 22, just 17 days after cancelling all student exchanges for the Winter 2022 term, McGill announced that exchanges would be reinstated. This development came a day after Global Affairs Canada lifted the non-essential travel advisory, which McGill based their travel rules on amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the return of exchange programs was met with student enthusiasm, the backtracking was frustrating for some who had made alternate plans following the initial cancellation. 

McGill Abroad, the office that coordinates exchanges, contacted students on Oct. 22, asking them to confirm whether they were still interested in participating in their planned programs during the upcoming winter semester. Students were asked to make their decision by Oct. 27 and were told that they would receive confirmation about whether their exchange will go forth during the week of Nov. 1, once McGill Abroad coordinates with their partner institution. 

In an email to The McGill Tribune, Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, explained the implications of Canada’s updated travel advisory, noting that McGill is trying its best to coordinate the exchanges, but that some may not work. 

“With the removal of the global travel advisory, McGill will be able to return to pre-pandemic travel conditions, allowing for freer movement of students, faculty and staff,” Mazerolle wrote. “Although we cannot guarantee that it will be possible, McGill is working with students and partner universities with the aim of making it possible for students to proceed with their exchanges.”

Many students were excited by McGill’s announcement, including Juliette Debray, U3 Engineering and co-creator of a petition that called for the reinstatement of Winter 2022 exchanges. While Debray was happy to hear about the reversal, she also acknowledged the negative impacts of McGill’s “hasty” decision to cancel them in the first place.  

“Obviously, I’m really happy,” Debray said. “But, I know I am lucky in the sense that the only decision I made in between was [changing flights]. I know people that signed leases [in Montreal] for their winter semester and so now will have to deal with that if they […] go on [an] exchange [….] McGill said they were not going to change their mind [about winter exchanges] and then they did.”

Debray also has a theory that other universities, such as the University of British Columbia, timed their announcements on Winter 2022 exchanges under the assumption that Global Affairs Canada was going to adjust their travel advisory. Debray suggested McGill should have done the same.

Some students, like Max Garcia, U2 Arts and the other co-creator of the petition, were worried about meeting the deadlines set by their host university and about obtaining proper immigration documents in time. The application deadline for Garcia’s intended host university, Sciences Po, in France, had already passed when McGill back-tracked on their cancellation. 

“The office contacted me and all the other students who had planned to go to Sciences Po as we missed the application deadline [due to the cancellation],” Garcia said in an interview with the Tribune. “It is a quick turnaround, so I hope we can all get our visa applications through.” 

Debray and Garcia’s petition garnered over 800 signatures from students frustrated by McGill’s initial cancellation. Garcia believes it may have played a role in McGill’s decision to reinstate exchanges. 

“I think [the petition] had a real impact in mobilizing students to express their frustration with the administration’s decision,” Garcia said. “I was really happy along with everyone else [about the reinstation]. I am just glad it all ended well and we are able to go abroad.” 

McGill, Montreal, News

Kahentinetha demands a suspension to New Vic Project, calling for further investigation into the site’s history

by Benjamin Wexler on

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Kahentinetha, a Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mother) of the Bear Clan and founder of Mohawk Nation News, is demanding the suspension of McGill’s New Vic project. In a brief posted to the Mohawk Nation News website, Kahentinetha called on McGill to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty and to allow an investigation team—comprised of a surveyor, geologist, search dog, all guided by GeoView Pro software—to search for unmarked graves she suspects may be on the project site.

In the Mohawk Nation News post, Kahentinetha argued that because the Royal Victoria Hospital site sits on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, the kaia’nere:kowa (The Great Law of Peace), pre-colonial Mohawk law,  applies. Under this law, the Kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera are caretakers of the land, and all decisions regarding it must be made with their consent. Additionally, Kahentinetha claimed that the Canadian government held money from the Iroquois Trust Fund, loaned it to McGill Universityin 1847, and never paid it back. 

According to a McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle, McGill’s Indigenous Initiatives Unit and the Indigenous-owned consulting firm Acosys aimed to include Indigenous peoples in producing the project’s design.

“There have been several exchanges, including information sessions and round table discussions with Indigenous education organizations, Mohawk alumni, and Elders,” Mazerolle wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. 

In an interview with the Tribune, Kahentinetha argued that the land should be treated as an archeological site until further investigations are completed.

“[Rumours of unmarked graves on the property] are becoming more and more serious, so we would like that investigated,” Kahentinetha said. “And certainly there are our people buried up there in pre-colonial times, and we want that investigated as well. Nothing can proceed until that is done [….] If there’s going to be any investigation, we want to be involved with that. We want it done to our satisfaction.”

Kahentinetha believes McGill’s exchanges with Indigenous peoples should go beyond discussions with select community representatives, and should instead look to gain the consent of each member of the community, according to structures of Indigenous law.

“I do not think any one of [the Indigenous groups and representatives consulted] lives by the Great Peace,” Kahentinetha said. “We do not want consultation. You have to get our permission, and our permission we get from the Great Law [….] Each one of us has to have a say in whatever the decision is. Each one of us. Nobody speaks for us.”

In the 1950s and 60s, Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron experimented with torture techniques at the Allan Memorial Institute, a former psychiatric hospital next to the old Royal Victoria building. One Mohawk Nation News article features an interview with Lana Ponting, a survivor of these experiments, who says, “I am convinced that there are bodies buried in the property in the interview [….] I was really concerned about Indigenous peoples. I firmly believe that some of them were in the Allan.”

Kahentinetha, too, wants to send a forensic and archeological team to search for the bodies of potential Indigenous and non-Indigenous victims of Cameron’s experiments.

Public consultation on the New Vic project is ongoing. The rotisken’raketeh (Men’s Council Fire) will present Kahentinetha’s brief to the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) on Nov. 10.

Mazerolle did not specify whether McGill would change the direction of the project to investigate human remains, pointing to prior studies conducted onsite.

“McGill commissioned a study on the archeological potential of the Royal Victoria Hospital site in 2016,” Mazerolle wrote. “According to this study, it is unlikely that Indigenous remains will be found on the New Vic Project site. However, McGill remains committed to collaborating with the government and First Nations communities regarding potential vestiges. Should such vestiges be found, it will be made public immediately, the work will be suspended, and an archaeological officer of the Minister of Culture and Communications will be alerted (as stated in the Cultural Heritage Act.1).”

While the study Mazerolle references determined that pre-colonial Indigenous settlement on the project site was unlikely, it also states there is no way to confidently know whether it was a burial site, unless human remains are found.

McGill plans to begin construction on the New Vic in 2023.

McGill, News

McGill students frustrated with university’s frequent internet issues

by Ghazal Azizi on

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Since October 2017, McGill has been rolling out its Network and Information Security Upgrade initiative. These upgrades seek to improve network infrastructure by installing new equipment and access ethernet cables throughout McGill’s buildings and creating wireless local area networks (WLANs), among other projects.

Despite these efforts, students and faculty have experienced regular connection issues. The most recent network failure on Oct. 12, which caused campus wide internet disruptions, prompted IT Services to reboot McGill’s firewalls, which the university claimed successfully remedied the issues. 

Some McGill students attest that these frequent connection issues are disruptive to their learning and parts of their everyday life. Without stable internet connection, students have trouble accessing their lectures and other class material on myCourses and are cut off from using social media to communicate with classmates, family, and friends. 

Ciara Balhi, U1 Arts, said she is often left with no choice but to connect to the guest wifi and has had to give up attending her online lectures on campus since her Zoom meetings regularly freeze.

“Cafés are definitely a safer bet,” Balhi said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “When I think I definitely have to watch lectures [live], I go to a café to be sure that the wifi will work [.…] I have to pay for it, instead of just going to the library which is free, as it should be.” 

The university’s IT Services recommends that students avoid busy areas when connected to McGill’s wifi in order to prevent videos from freezing or being choppy. However, for students living in residence, this recommendation is not always easy to follow.

Robert MacLeod, U1 Engineering, shared Balhi’s concerns regarding McGill’s wifi, adding that he frequently has to reprioritize his tasks because he cannot rely on his residence’s wifi. “I did have one case where [the wifi] just disconnected and I tried to [re]connect […] for a solid 10 minutes,” Macleod said. “Luckily, I wasn’t doing anything particularly important at the time. But, had I been in a midterm, that’s one fifth of the entire time that I have to do it that is gone [since most of my midterms are only 50 minutes long].”

The spotty wifi has posed an additional challenge for international students, many of whom rely on video call apps such as FaceTime and WhatsApp as their primary methods of contacting their families. Maisie Wynd Smith, U1 Arts and an international student, depends on McGill’s internet to contact her family at home. In an interview with the Tribune, Smith explained that for her, irregular wifi can mean isolation from her family.

“Before I had a SIM card, I would rely on the wifi. When my wifi was not working, I could not contact my parents,” Smith said. “It is just a large problem across the board […] and I just don’t see why [the wifi] is such a hard issue to fix [for McGill].”   

Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, stated in an email to the Tribune that the IT Services team has been working diligently to ensure a sustained internet access this Fall. 

“We continue to monitor issues as they arise and have implemented a number of changes over the past few weeks to help address these issues and improve service,” Mazerolle said. “[In the meantime] we encourage all users to contact the IT Service Desk to report issues with any McGill IT Service.”

McGill, Montreal, News

SSMU Legislative Council discusses New Vic Project and approves motion condemning Bill 2

by Sepideh Afshar on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council convened on Oct. 28 to hear from Dean of Science Bruce Lennox, who provided a midpoint update on the New Vic project and answered questions regarding the project’s accessibility, sustainability, and community consultations. During the question period, councillors harkened back to the quality of the first botched Activities Night of Fall 2021, and pressed on the repeated absence of SSMU president Darshan Daryanani. Councillors also voted on referendum questions and a motion to condemn Bill 2—a bill that proposes to add sex and gender as separate categories to birth certificates, and would also require people to undergo gender-affirming surgery to officiate a sex change on their birth certificate. 

Lennox, as academic lead of the New Vic project, provided a project timeline and mock-ups of what the interiors will look like. Lennox also shared some insights gathered from consultations with Acosys Consulting Services, an Indigenous consultancy group.

“What has come out of these [many] discussions since January is a series of potential [Indigenous] representations [on the New Vic site],” Lennox explained. “[The New Vic site may include] everything from sculpture, landscaping, garden design, interior artwork, to actual interior shaping of spaces that have their origins in Indigenous culture.” 

During the question period, council members inquired about Daryanani’s absences and questioned how the society can run smoothly without a president. Vice-president (VP) Finance, Éric Sader, who has taken over Daryanani’s role as signatory on SSMU meeting minutes, stated that the president is not currently active in his role.

“The president is on leave at this time and I would ask everyone to respect his privacy,” Sader said. “And I can confirm the society is functioning quite well.”

Next, VP Student Life, Karla Heisele Cubilla, acknowledged the shortcomings of the first rendition of SSMU’s activities night, but looked forward to the upcoming activities night 2.0 running from Nov. 1 to 3. 

“The reason why we did not do an in-person fair event for the first edition is because this was planned in June,” Heisele Cubilla said. “There were no vaccine passports. No venue would take more than 150 people, so it was a big struggle. For the second edition, we are doing an in-person event […] for three days, and we are also doing a hybrid option which is via Zoom in Redlands, so we are doing our best.”

Further motions regarding SSMU referral service fees, including the Motion Regarding the MUSTBUS Fee-Levy, the Motion Regarding CKUT Existence, and the Motion Regarding QPIRG Existence, all passed. During the debate period for each motion, Medicine Representative Benson Wan proposed an amendment that would require groups requesting fee increases to provide financial reports.

“Councillor Wan, your dedication to budget transparency,” Ashkir started, “I hope it is noted in the minutes and in any article that is written about this.” 

Moment of the Meeting

Speaker of the Legislative Council Alexandre Ashkir noted that almost 50 per cent of SSMU councillors did not attend the mandatory anti-violence training and explained that follow-ups will be scheduled to ensure those who missed it had valid reasons. 

Soundbite 

“It would call on the Quebec government to remove the provisions of Bill 2 that infringe on the autonomy of trans, intersex, and non-binary people in Quebec [….] If this motion passes, it will show the trans and intersex and non-binary community on campus SSMU’s determination in supporting them. As such I urge all of you to vote ‘yes’ on this motion and condemn the transphobic bill proposed by the Quebec government.” –Arts Representative Yara Coussa on the Motion Regarding Condemnation of Bill 2

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that almost 50 per cent of SSMU workers did not attend the mandatory anti-violence training. In fact, it was 50 per cent of SSMU councillors. The Tribune regrets this error.

Commentary, Opinion

Pandemic prison conditions emphasize need for reform

by El Bush on

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Throughout the pandemic, prisons have faced a reckoning, and Montreal’s Bordeaux prison is no exception. The prison has seen some of civilians’ worst fears play out, from multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, to inadequate resources, and more recently, to more than 1,000 inmates locked in their cells for over 24 hours while staff conducted an institution-wide search. These recent events, along with similar happenings in other prisons around the world, have re-energized calls for prison reform and restorative justice. 

The discourse was revitalized in the wake of the summer 2020 protests, which saw the Black Lives Matter movement take to the world stage following the police murder of George Floyd. The movement calls upon civilians and policymakers alike to rethink, and even do away with, the current criminal justice system in an effort to revitalize communities. The crisis at Bordeaux prison calls for renewed discussions in the Montreal context and also presents an opportunity for McGill students to take part in the debate. Although prison conditions may seem irrelevant or out of the control of many McGill students, the community must not turn its back on Bordeaux. It is the responsibility of all those living in Montreal and Canada to take a stance on the injustices festering in the prison system, given that these institutions are funded by tax dollars and have long-lasting impacts on the lives of marginalized youth. 

One of the most common arguments in favour of prison reform is that the current system is rife with human rights abuses with little to no accountability mechanisms. Throughout the pandemic, many Bordeaux prisoners’ basic human rights were disregarded due to the inadequate allocation of resources. With minimal access to showers, books, phones, or visits, those behind bars faced inhumane periods of isolation and solitude. Incarcerated people and employees alike protested the conditions, with over 30 engaging in a hunger strike last February to protest a lengthy  14-day confinement measure. In another instance, prison workers called on the government to provide adequate vaccination resources to the prison following a series of outbreaks. The blatant violation of human rights in these cases serve as a stark reminder of the necessity of prison reform. According to the United Nations’ recommendations for criminal justice and prison reform, prison authorities have the responsibility to ensure that the treatment of incarcerated people is in line with the law and respects their human rights. At the end of the day, it is imperative to guarantee incarcerated people, many of whom are jailed for non-violent offenses, the rights with which they were born.

In addition to assuring human rights, prison reform can support communities and promote equity and anti-oppression. In Canada, marginalized communities, most notably Indigenous individuals, are disproportionately incarcerated as a result of long histories of systemic discrimination in legal, political, and social spheres. Since systemic inequalities extend to all parts of the criminal justice system, including policing, sentencing, and prosecution, marginalized communities are often overrepresented in prisons. Meaningful prison reform must be accompanied by the adoption of anti-oppressive policies within the criminal justice system, ideally with an emphasis on revitalizing the communities that have been disproportionately affected. 

Conversations regarding prison reform should not be taboo: Students can take the lead in calling for change in an arena where older generations have often been hesitant to make strides toward justice. Students at McGill and beyond can do this by educating themselves on the issue by engaging with racialized scholars’ work on prison reform and abolition, contacting their local members of the National Assembly and parliament, and starting discussions about what prison reform could look like in the context of their own communities. Ultimately, it is only through continued dialogue about criminal justice that meaningful reform can begin.

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

The ebb and flow of fish biomass over the decades

by Adam Matthews-Kott on

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The oceans once held what humans considered to be a limitless supply of fish—populations were so abundant that it was nearly inconceivable that the waters would ever run out. That viewpoint was challenged in the ‘80s and ‘90s as overfishing caused fish stocks in the North Atlantic to rapidly collapse. 

According to a recent study published in Science Advances led by Eric Galbraith, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill, the number of fish in the world’s oceans has plummeted in recent years, reducing the rate at which nutrients are cycled. The study aimed to quantify the amount of economically viable fish biomass in the ocean and the effects that changes in the biomass would have on ocean ecosystems.

“I think what was really unique about our [study] is [that] we were able to constrain it, at least, by using satellite data,” David A. Carozza, a research associate at UQAM and co-author of the study, said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “At least we know that our model represented peak [fish] harvest [….] It was a different approach, but still of a comparable magnitude to other studies.”

The researchers used fishery data to estimate the historical biomass of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans at different time periods. They found that pre-industrial biomass hovered around 3.3 billion tons, but that it had dropped by approximately 47 per cent by the 1990s.

 “The scale that we worked with was large marine ecosystems, mostly coastal ones, around peak harvest,” Carozza said.“And using that information, we were able to […] literally backtrack into the past so we know that the model worked into the present day.”

Fish biomass today is slowly increasing as it recovers from the global overfishing crisis of the ‘90s. This recovery process, however, is extremely fragile: Although fishing is far more regulated now, the severe reduction of fish biomass means that population levels are more sensitive to perturbations from fishing activities.

“On the policy side, there’s been a lot of imbalance between different countries. Larger fisheries are able to travel farther out in the ocean where there’s less oversight,” Carozza explained. “Although there are some promising statistics, I’m still concerned about the state of fisheries globally.”

The study’s model elucidates how changes in fish biomass affect deep water respiration and carbon levels at the ocean’s surface through carbon sequestration.

“If you were to add fecal pellets, you [would] reduce oxygen content since bacteria use oxygen in this respiration process,” Carozza said. “We observed the opposite, where when fecal pellets are reduced, deep water respiration is also reduced.”  

Fish contribute to carbon sequestration in a fascinating way. Abundant phytoplankton in the ocean creates a large draw on carbon from the atmosphere. Phytoplankton is consumed by larger organisms, and this consumption continues up the food chain until the carbon content reaches fish. The excrement that fish produce then drops to the ocean floor. This process is very efficient, with pre-industrial fish populations accounting for 10 per cent of organically sequestered carbon.

“There’s no point in counting phytoplankton, they don’t have a part in [sequestering carbon in the deep ocean],” Carozza said. “And they are quite small, very little [carbon] is exported. Even smaller fish are able to release fecal matter that can escape the mixed layer of the ocean, where that matter would otherwise reside for hundreds of thousands of years.” 

Although there are other factors that cause fish populations to decrease, the study found overfishing to be the predominant driver. 

“For drivers other than catch, the ecosystem-level impacts, over a variety of marine ecosystems, were simply not known and could not be integrated into our modelling framework,” Carozza said.

The study stresses the importance of fish biomass not only for human consumption, but also for its role in sustaining ocean chemistry and regulating carbon sequestration. It also highlights the importance of computer models in broadening our understanding of ocean processes and mitigating the human impact on the planet.

Arts & Entertainment, Pop Rhetoric

Halloween movies: When holiday culture meets the horror film genre

by Paulina Kasak on

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Randy Meeks from the cult classic Scream once said, “There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie.” In Meek’s words: “You can never have sex, you can never drink or do drugs, and never (ever, under any circumstances) say ‘I’ll be right back!’” These survival tips almost become common knowledge during the Halloween season, when horror films abound.  

In this respect, the Halloween film is not its own genre. It is necessarily connected to the greater world of horror. Halloween movies became popular not because they present a unique category in film, but because they became attributed to a cultural fascination with normative violence. 

One of the earliest Halloween horror movies is the aptly titled 1978 Halloween, directed by John Carpenter. This cult classic follows the story of Michael Myers, who escapes from a mental hospital 15 years after murdering his sister on Halloween and returns to his small town to kill again. 

The movie’s intrigue lies not in its most outlandish moments, but rather in its ability to distort reality in a terrifyingly realistic way. Myers is not only a fictional representation of a man at a loss for humanity, he is a killer in the ordinary world; he could be the viewer’s neighbour, their teacher, or their local grocery store clerk. 

What Halloween shows us is that the “Halloween movie” is not bound to the supernatural—quite the contrary. What is most alluring about movies like Halloween is their imitation of reality and perversion of the ordinary in the most twisted, ridiculous, unbelievable, and ghastly ways. 

The 1992 film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic novel Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, can serve as further evidence. It’s been suggested that Stoker’s Dracula was based on Vlad the Impaler, a real-life 15th-century Romanian king. Dracula, like Myers, is a physical representation of our darkest fears: A person stripped of all humanity, now on the hunt for blood—more of an empty void than a monster.    

Horror films that lean toward the realistic can evoke sympathy for the monster. Mary Shelley’s famous Frankenstein, adapted to film in 1931, is an example of this; the viewer is drawn in because they witness a monster who, deep down, still has a heart. 

The aforementioned films, Halloween, Dracula, and Frankenstein, air yearly around Halloween. All three are labeled as either horror or thriller, but not as “Halloween.” This is because the so-called Halloween movie is not defined by the film industry, but is instead a projection of popular demand for horror.  


The final nail in the coffin suggests that the “Halloween movie” is best animated through the audience’s reaction. A scary movie is not a “Halloween movie” unless its fans come to associate the film with the holiday. The ordinary alongside the gruesome, however terrifying to admit, is inexplicably fascinating. After all, the spirit of Halloween, through its many permutations, originates in a weakened veil between the worlds of the living and the worlds of the dead—Halloween movies simply transport this magic into the power of film. 

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