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Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Festival Stop-Motion Montréal explores the cultural significance of Indigenous filmmaking

by Louis Lussier-Piette on

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Festival Stop Motion Montréal, which took place from Sept. 10 to 19, is dedicated to highlighting the beauty and uniqueness of stop-motion film. For its 13th edition, the festival showcased both local and international talent and focussed on amplifying the work of Indigenous stop-motion artists.

As part of the festival, Wapikoni, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting First Nations cinema, hosted a round table on Indigenous stop-motion productions, featuring Métis/Anishinaabeg producer and filmmaker Melanie Jackson, Métis filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Terril Calder, producer Neil Christopher, Inuit filmmaker and producer Zacharias Kunuk, and moderator and Innu filmmaker Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush. The five artists—some having met at the panel, some having been long-time friends and colleagues—discussed their personal experiences as filmmakers and producers. 

“I’m fascinated by my culture, [and] fascinated by the knowledge and land,” Kunuk said. “[In the North], there are no trees, so no paper to write on. I am fascinated by [everything] thought orally.”

Kunuk’s stop-motion film Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice won the festival’s award for Best Independent Film at the festival this year.

The panellists agreed that stop-motion as an art form is an interesting way to tell the stories they grew up hearing from their elders. Director Melanie Jackson used hoop dancing to underline the importance of movement in Indigenous cultures, as shown in her 2009 short stop-motion film Vistas: Dancers of the Grass.

“When it comes to stop-motion, it’s the artistry of the movements [that are important],” Jackson said. “It’s a different way to share those stories that we have been told.”

Another unique aspect of the stop-motion format is its ability to use textures as a narrative tool. Kunuk used the texture of fur, snow, and leathered garments to highlight distinct aspects of Inuit culture. Christopher explained that the authenticity of these textures would have been impossible to recreate in classical or 3D animation.

“When Zacharias Kunuk approached us with a traditional story, stop-motion just felt like the right decision,” Christopher said. “We wanted to see the texture of the fur. It didn’t feel like we should bring it to the computer, and stop-motion would allow us to do animation in a very tactile way.”

Despite the patience required to shoot a stop-motion film, there is an accessibility to the medium that is otherwise rare in cinema. Without a crew to feed and actors to pay on set, the cost of shooting a stop-motion film is often drastically lower than shooting live action. There are opportunities to explore creative liberties that would otherwise be impossible, like shooting a movie in one’s native language.

“With stop-motion, all that is unimaginable becomes imaginable,” Kunuk said.

The round table closed on a discussion on the importance of uplifting Indigenous creators, something Festival Stop Motion Montréal aimed to do during this year’s edition. 

“The next challenge for Indigenous creators is to break channels other than APTN,” Jackson said. “Teletoon or Cartoon Network, for example.” 

Jackson explained that Canada, in comparison to New Zealand, lags behind when it comes to giving Indigenous creators the opportunity to share their work on country-wide television. 

“In New Zealand, TV broadcasters take pride in showing animated shows by Indigenous people,” Jackson said. “By seeing brown skin on screen, it encourages our youth [to see that] there is another way for them to get their stories out there.” 

McGill, News

All nine faculty froshes receive gold-level sustainability rating from Office of Sustainability

by Juliet Morrison on

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All nine of McGill’s faculty froshes, including Management, Arts & Science, Physical & Occupational Therapy, Education, Science, Music, Macdonald Campus, Engineering, and Arts, received gold-level certification from the Office of Sustainability for their late-August 2021 events. This was the second time all nine achieved the gold-level designation; they received the award in 2019 as well. 

McGill’s Office of Sustainability developed the Sustainable Events Certification Program in 2017. The program examines the extent to which events held at McGill, such as conferences, fairs, and parties, are environmentally sustainable. An event’s level of sustainability is determined according to factors ranging from using reusable dishware and working with socially responsible sponsors. All of the factors are included in the program’s Sustainable Events Certification checklist. In addition to following the office’s standards for environmental sustainability, frosh organizers say they took physical and financial accessibility concerns into account during their planning.

Froshes contacted the Office of Sustainability in early July to initiate the certification process. The first step of certification was reviewing the Sustainable Events Certification checklist, which was newly adapted for Frosh 2021. Frosh organizers then met with the office’s events team to discuss areas for improvement regarding accessibility and sustainability. 

Megan Toth, a sustainability officer with the Office of Sustainability, explained in an interview with The McGill Tribune that a long consultation process occurred between the frosh sustainability coordinators and the Office of Sustainability before the froshes were officially certified in mid-August.  

“We were really pleased and impressed with the effort that [the faculty frosh coordinators] all put forth,” Toth said. “They did not have to do the level of effort that they did, but they really all came through and met with us [….] There was a lot of work going into figuring out the types of actions that they could take and where they could improve.” 

Froshes took various actions to achieve the certification, such as designating a specific Sustainability and Inclusivity Coordinator for each frosh, developing and delivering an Indigenous land acknowledgement and pronunciation guide, and calculating and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions related to travel. 

Together, the nine froshes calculated a total of 35.52 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions during their events. Abiding by the McGill Offsetting Program, frosh organizers made payments to carbon offset projects selected through McGill’s Offset Selection Committee.  

Froshes also made use of the Sustainability Project Fund’s Tiny Stream—an award fund that grants 300 dollars to small sustainability projects. The award allowed Engineering Frosh to hire Compost Montreal to implement an effective waste disposal system and enabled Music Frosh to obtain waste sorting bins for their event at Jeanne Mance. 

Toth underscored the importance of sustainability efforts and of limiting McGill’s carbon footprint. 

“[Frosh] is a lot of people,” Toth said. “These are big events. So, when events of those sizes are more sustainable, then there’s a potential for a big impact.”

Sarah McCourt, U2 Management and 2021 frosh leader, emphasized that frosh plays a role in instilling campus culture in first-year students. 

“Frosh is significant because it introduces [incoming students] to the standards and values that we hold in the McGill community,” McCourt said. “It’s their introduction to it, and so the ideas we have on diversity, inclusion, [and] environmental sustainability are important.” 

In an interview with the Tribune, Jeanna Oliver, U0 Arts and frosh participant, said they were largely unaware of the specific sustainability efforts frosh events made, but that they were impressed by the organizers’ efforts to be inclusive and environmentally conscious. 

“To know the organizers were thinking about and putting efforts into being sustainable is really awesome to hear,” Oliver said. “These kinds of events are not easy to make sustainable or accessible, especially because of the nature of frosh [….] But, also, I think there’s always room for improvement with sustainability and inclusivity [….] As a community, we can always do more.”

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Investigating McGill’s mysterious Mafia Club

by Abby McCormick on

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If you want to improve your poker face, teamwork skills, and strategic thinking, look no further than McGill’s Mafia Club. Known for its long nights of intense gameplay filled with lies and deception, this student club offers a unique sense of community centred on the beloved game of social deduction.

Founded in 2013, McGill’s Mafia Club drew traction in the McGill community due to its niche premise and rumours of intense meetings. Mafia, also known as Werewolf, is among the most popular social psychology games, and with its simple set of rules, the game is easy to learn and enjoy. The game, at its core, is a battle of wits between two teams: The informed majority—the mafia—are tasked with killing off members of the uninformed majority—the townspeople—without being detected.

In addition to hosting Mafia games, the club also plays other social psychology games, such as Secret Hitler and The Resistance. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Mafia Club even played a variety of games virtually, such as Enigma. However, with in-person meetings allowed again, the club will return to its focus on Mafia, as it is better suited to a large, in-person group.

Daniella Serrador, U3 Science and co-president of Mafia Club, initially joined in 2019. As someone who enjoyed playing Mafia in high school, Serrador seized the opportunity to make new friends while continuing to play a game she loved.

Serrador said she hopes to foster a laid-back atmosphere, considering that many McGill spaces and clubs are often very focussed on academics.

“Mafia Club is accepting and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, [including] beginners,” Serrador said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “It is a relaxed place to come and unwind.”

Serrador believes the game has a unique ability to foster multiple social and personal skills. 

“[The club offers] the opportunity to improve your public speaking skills, because the game involves defending your point of view to others in the group in order to stay in,” Serrador said.

Mafia Club intrigued Emily Bidder, U3 Arts and general club member, when she visited Activities Night as a first-year student. Although she had played similar games in the past, Bidder was impressed by participants’ teamwork and deception during the beginner’s night.

Bidder was motivated to continue playing to improve her own strategic thinking skills applicable to her personal and academic life. However, the biggest takeaway for Bidder has been the close friends that she made, thanks in part to the club’s positive and social ambience.

“Because it’s such a social game, everybody gets involved [in] debating [to defend their side’s point of view],” Bidder said. “We do get a bit heated during the games, but it’s all in fun.”

With meetings drawing groups ranging from 15 to 40 participants, the club has proven to be an easy way to find people to connect with.

“I’ve never made so many friends in one place,” Abdel-Rahman Sadaqa, U4 Engineering and general member, said in an interview with the Tribune. “It’s one of the most comfortable […] environments I’ve ever been in.”

Members are dedicated to the game, despite the club veering from typical CV-boosting extracurricular activities. Proof of this passion are its several-hour-long meetings, with each round lasting up to 90 minutes. 

“It’s some of the most genuine frustration I’ve seen,” Jonathan Mayrhofer, U3 Arts and executive member, said. 

This year, McGill’s Mafia Club meets on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in room 201 of the SSMU building. They will also be hosting beginners’ nights for those that are new to the game and want to get involved. Those interested in joining are encouraged to email [email protected] to join the mailing list.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

‘Lettuce eat’: McGill’s first lettuce-eating competition a success

by Jackie Lee on

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Despite the stress of adjusting to a hybrid semester, McGill students ‘romaine’ committed to cultivating a vibrant campus culture. Case in point: The unbe-leaf-able turnout for McGill’s first-ever lettuce-eating competition, which took place at the lower field on Sept. 24. 

Upwards of 150 people, ranging from enthusiastic participants to bemused onlookers, attended. The event was BYOL, or “bring your own lettuce”—specifically, a head of iceberg lettuce weighing over 600g.

Arielle Lok, U2 Management and founder of Lettuce Club McGill, hosted the event with the help of Bjørn Christensen, U2 Arts, and Joel Conway, U2 Management. While lettuce clubs have existed in universities across Canada and the U.S. with the first appearing in Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1865, Lok thought the “fun and meme-y” concept would be a hit among McGill students.

“I was going to throw this online last year, but I thought it’d be silly to have a lot of people on a Zoom call eating heads of lettuce,” Lok said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “There had been a huge lack of student life [back then], so I’m glad this was able to make people happy.”

Just before noon, organizers ushered the lettuce-eaters into the rough outline of a circle. Brandishing an air horn and megaphone at its centre stood Lok, who first gave a shout-out to the climate march happening later that day. 

“We have to make sure we can grow the lettuce we’re eating!” Lok reminded the crowd.

Lok then blared her horn, the church bells ringing in agreement, and the race began.

Noah Vaton / The McGill Tribune

Lettuce littered the grass as competitors frantically chowed down. Some shredded their heads into manageable handfuls before downing mouthfuls; others bit into them like an apple. The act itself was unwieldy—and sort of gross—but the crowd’s energy was palpable.

Three minutes passed with boisterous fanfare. Soon after, some lettuce-eaters began to slow. The crowd eagerly pressed forward: Two competitors had almost finished their heads to the core, neck-in-neck. With a few resolute chugs of water, Aslan Lacouvee, U2 Arts and Science, emerged victorious. 

“I’m feeling on top of the world,” Lacouvee said to the Tribune after his win, which clocked in at three minutes and 45 seconds.

Is winning just the tip of the iceberg for the freshly appointed Head of Lettuce? Clout is the only prize, according to Lok. As the new leader of the Lettuce Club, however, Lacouvee will be tasked with organizing the next meeting if the competition is to continue. 

Maria Haddad, a second-year master’s student studying neuroscience, and Thomas Allen, U3 Engineering, participated in the contest together.

“I thought, life is short, might as well eat a whole head of lettuce for fun,” Haddad said. 

Allen’s motives skewed more to longevity. 

“I saw this [event], and I realized I hadn’t eaten any vegetables since before the semester started,” Allen laughed. “I thought it’d be a good idea to come here and make up for lost time.” 

Both Allen and Haddad agreed that the event’s turnout was a pleasant surprise. 

“I expected it to be maybe 10 people in a semicircle, [so] seeing all these people turn up is amazing,” Allen said. “I was down at Provigo today and they were having a bit of a lettuce shortage. I got three heads of lettuce and there were only two left on the shelf after that.”

With luck, there will be more creative events to engage the student community this year. 

“[If] you have a stupid idea, you should just go ahead with it,” Lok advised. “It turns out a lot of us like stupid ideas.”

Noah Vaton / The McGill Tribune

Out on the Town, Student Life

Nights at Jeanne-Mance

by Holly Wethey and Wendy Zhao on

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By the time 8:00 p.m. rolls around on a nice night, Jeanne-Mance Park is crowded with people. As the sun sets, people form small circles, huddle around picnic tables, and can sometimes be spotted dancing on the grass. In an effort to better understand the diversity of these park gatherings, The McGill Tribune talked to a range of park-goers one evening, many of whom were McGill students.

Isabel Heard, U3 Arts, joined friends for a picnic to break their fast following Yom Kippur. Stepping aside from her circle of friends, Heard shared her thoughts on Jeanne-Mance park gatherings.

“This is a very McGill space for me,” Heard said. “You can tell that there’s a lot of McGill students that hang out here [….] I usually spend time talking to everyone and […] I like it because it’s kind of chaotic.”

Though some associate the park with McGill student life, others like Elyssa Khoury, a first-year master’s student studying political science, have memories that date further back.

“I grew up in Montreal, so […] I have a lot of memories here,” Khoury said. “I planned a surprise party for my boyfriend [here].” 

Khoury has been coming back to the park more often than she did before the pandemic. That night, she and other master’s students chatted over a few beers.

“I think it’s different at a bar,” Khoury explained. “In a restaurant, you can’t really stay six hours, and then that shortens your social activity because you have to [ask] ‘what are we doing now? Is the night over?’”

The night certainly wasn’t over for another group who came to Jeanne-Mance to play volleyball but decided to hang out on the bleachers when they realized the nets were no longer up. 

Vivienne Orrell, a student at Dawson college, and her sister Ingrid, were among the group. As amateur volleyball players, they planned to play with their friends later that night, appreciating the absence of the more skilled volleyball teams that populate the court during the day. 

Gazing up at the Mount-Royal cross, visible from the park’s fields, the sisters looked back on a night they spent out with friends roaming around the mountain, no specific destination in sight. 

“One time we spent all night on the mountain walking,” Orrell said. “We were saying it was going to be an all-nighter, but then everyone went home around five.” 

Spanning 14 hectares of greenery, Orrell feels Jeanne-Mance Park is an essential part of the city. 

“At night, […] people are drinking,” Orrell said. “I suppose the sentiment of downtown is present in the park tonight.”  

While some park meet-ups are planned casually between friends, others are run by student organizations. 

Sophia Howard, U2 Science, was at an event with AM McGill, also celebrating Yom Kippur. 

“It kind of reminds me of Washington Square Park,” Howard said of the park’s liveliness, reminiscent of a hometown spot for her. 

Others, like Ismael Sefiane, U1 Management, and his friend Simo Bouayad, U2 Management, came to the park on a whim. The park’s central location, bordering on neighbourhoods densely populated by students, makes it a convenient meeting place.

“Some friends [from management] called me, so here we are,” Sefiane said. “They just told me five minutes ago.”

In comparison to typical house parties, Sefiane noted the different atmosphere meet-ups in the park offer. 

“It’s more chill [in the park],” Sefiane said. “The house is smaller and […] it’s going to be more crazy.”

As we spoke, a growing crowd gathering behind us began to dance, chanting “hotel, motel, Desautels.” 

With dancing and singing currently prohibited in Montreal bars and clubs, Jeanne-Mance has quickly become the venue for an adapted version of traditional student nightlife activities over the pandemic. Where there is an open space, you will almost undoubtedly find students taking the opportunity to party there.

Ask Ainsley, Student Life

Ask Ainsley: How do I live harmoniously with my roommates?

by Erika Mackenzie on

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Dear Ainsley,

I’m in my second year at McGill, and I just moved into my first apartment with four of my friends. Although I’m very excited for this new chapter of adulthood, I’ve never had roommates before, and I’m worried that a five-person apartment is bound to breed conflict. What advice do you have for maintaining positive relationships with your roommates?

Sincerely,

Anxious Disorganized Roomie (ADR)

Dear ADR,

Congratulations on moving into your first apartment! Living independently for the first time can be exciting, but also overwhelming. This is especially true when you’re sharing an apartment with four people you’ve never lived with before. Luckily, there are many ways to develop and preserve an environment where everyone can feel at home. 

Since many roommate conflicts are the result of miscommunication, it’s important to ensure everyone is on the same page. Consider forming group chats on Facebook, Discord, or iMessage—whichever platform works best for everyone. You can use this group chat to send out reminders about things like chores and rent. 

It’s equally important to establish ground rules and personal boundaries. You may wish to set up a meeting early on to acquaint yourself with your roommates’ living habits: Are they early birds or night owls? Do they cook elaborate meals or mostly order takeout? All of this information will not only give you a sense of what to expect on a daily basis, but will also help you accommodate everyone’s needs. After becoming familiar with each other’s preferences, you might set up monthly meetings to address any issues that arise—especially since there are five of you living under the same roof. 

Another priority for when you first move in should be to create a roommate agreement that outlines each roommate’s duties and expectations. This agreement can be an opportunity to establish household management and bill-paying plans. Going forward, consider using a chore chart to accommodate each roommate’s unique schedule and time constraints. You can make things even easier by using a roommate chore app, such as Tody, ChoreBuster, OurGroceries, Cozi, or OurHome. 

Even with preventative measures in place, problems may still arise, and you will need a good strategy in place for managing them. While it can be daunting to directly address issues with your roommates, it will save you a headache later down the road. First off, ensure that you approach your roommates level-headed and willing to hear them out. Aside from blurring your own judgment, any anger is bound to put them in defensive mode. Rather than throwing accusations, try to use “I” statements, like “I feel I am frequently taking out the trash and would appreciate a little more help.” By framing it in these terms, you’re expressing to your roommate how you feel, thereby encouraging collaboration rather than conflict. 

The LARA method can also help you foster successful dialogue with your roommates. The L stands for listen: Try and be an active listener by providing them with thoughtful responses, open body language, and eye contact. The A stands for affirm or acknowledge, meaning that you recognize the feelings and needs behind what is being said. The R stands for respond, giving you the floor to express your thoughts and feelings about the problems your roommate brought up, and the second A stands for Add, finishing off with a chance to voice any of your additional opinions or solutions. If you follow LARA, your roommates are more likely to recognize that you are invested in resolving the issue in a way that works for you both.

Using these tactics is a sure-fire way to cultivate a harmonious relationship with your roommates. But if all else fails and you’re still struggling to get them to wash their dishes, you can always leave them passive aggressive messages. 

In all seriousness, living with roommates is an incredible way to build friendships, have fun, and make the most out of your college experience. Don’t forget to enjoy the process and let loose!

Good luck with your semester.

Sincerely,

Ainsley

Commentary, Opinion

Embracing the uncertainties of hybrid learning

by Courtney Squires on

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After the August heatwave, September promised to bring fall weather, pumpkin spice lattes, and the ability to wear full-length pants outside of the house. And for a while, it did: Jeans walked the campus roads; cardigans thrived. But then, the average temperature rose to around 20 degrees Celsius, bringing with it a fashion dilemma: What to wear when it is too hot for pants, yet too cold for shorts. This ambiguous, 20-degree mid-point between seasons mirrors McGill’s hybrid learning model. With the model threatening to freeze their personality development, students must make an effort to make the most of this fall’s ever-changing circumstances.  

Whether it is sprinting to the library from the Stewart Biology Building to make it to an online Zoom lecture on time, or hiding in Starbucks from unexpected bouts of rain, students have adopted flexible mindsets and routines to adapt to this year’s unique challenges. University is a transitional period, a time of newfound freedom where many students begin to discover themselves as individuals. However, remote learning last year interrupted that process, and McGill’s hybrid model this year continues to present challenges, as most students have a mix of virtual and in-person lectures, tutorials, labs, and conferences. Although online learning may allow for flexible schedules and self-paced learning, a study published in PLOS ONE found that pandemic learning has disrupted many important neurological processes in college students, particularly personality development. 

Now that in-person classes have recommenced, the social aspect of learning has returned, accompanied by a harsh mental distinction between online and in-person classes. Hybrid schedules make it difficult to experience either to the fullest extent. Furthermore, much like how sunshine can disguise a chilly day, this balancing act can cause dissonance between the desired, idyllic school experience and reality. While university is usually a place where students discover their own identities, yet when personality development is inhibited, ​​they tend to mirror the traits of others in proximity, rather than cultivating unique personalities. 

Isolation has been proven to exacerbate introverted tendencies and can make it difficult for students to switch between virtual Zoom classes and pre-recorded lectures, let alone contribute to participation marks at in-person classes. Pandemic fatigue and academic burnout further discourage participation. However, taking part in educational settings shapes students’ personality development and other non-cognitive skills. 

In 2013, a study discovered that a positive sense of self in adolescents is often associated with psychological growth and personality development. This was also found to be correlated with increased emotional stability and personal autonomy. The pandemic, and now hybrid learning, has forced students to surrender to life’s unpredictability, dismantling routines and even sense of belonging. These changes emphasize the uncertainty that is living through a pandemic; but just like flash rainstorms, sometimes the unexpected can lead to transformative and memorable experiences. Students should adopt a mindset of radical acceptance and understand that life is unpredictable, but change, and its effect on the psyche, should be appreciated.  

McGill is difficult to navigate without a pandemic, but luckily, personality and self-discovery are neurologically flexible traits that are only enriched by experiences. So, much like the ambiguity of 20-degree weather, hybrid learning will leave students sweaty, confused, and wishing they had checked the weather app one more time.

Commentary, Opinion

McGill’s library vaccine mandate is indicative of its patchwork approach to COVID-19

by Valentina de la Borbolla on

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On Sept. 17, McGill sent an email announcing that students will need to present their  Quebec COVID-19 vaccine passport to enter any on-campus library—beginning in mid-October. The announcement came three weeks into the Fall semester, amidst demands from McGill students and faculty to implement stricter COVID-19 protections. The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) drafted an open letter and staged a protest on campus demanding a vaccine mandate, online accommodation for all classes, the prohibition of mandatory attendance, and a commitment to including student representatives in COVID-19 related decisions. Although McGill’s new library policy is a step toward protecting students, it is also proof of a disorganized and backward approach to vaccine requirements. McGill should instead enforce a university-wide vaccine mandate instead of haphazardly patching up the gaps in their own policies. 

Whereas many Canadian and American universities have implemented a vaccine mandate, McGill has not. The university has argued that the Quebec government’s vaccine passport provides enough incentive for students to get vaccinated and that a university mandate is beyond their legal jurisdiction. But despite McGill’s efforts, alongside the province’s hefty lottery incentives, cases and hospitalizations have risen within and beyond campus. During the first week of class, McGill reported six COVID-19 cases on campus with no community transmission. Just one week later, that number tripled, rising to 18, and the week after that, the McGill community was alerted to 13 cases with possible community transmission in the McIntyre building. This rise in cases is not surprising, given that students are returning to in-person classes and student life, parties, and large gatherings for the first time in almost two years. McGill should have predicted the spike in cases and should have mandated vaccinations for all students, faculty, and staff at the beginning of the term. An all-encompassing mandate would be less confusing, and it would have set clear rules and standards from the start. It would show that McGill is prepared to guarantee students’ safety during the return to in-person learning. 

Although the vaccine requirement for accessing libraries is a welcome step, it does not protect students from transmission in their classes, especially considering the fact that masks are not mandatory for instructors. McGill’s patchwork approach leaves students confused as to where they need to show proof of vaccination, and what the rules are—there is no established standard delineating which spaces and activities require proof of vaccination, and which do not. Not only are there ambiguities, but there are also logical inconsistencies:  A passport is required to attend sporting events, but not to live in residence. Similarly, the decision to require vaccine passports in libraries, but not in other spaces was not a matter of coherence for the administration; instead, it was a matter of pressing firmer COVID-19 protocols while avoiding implementing a school-wide vaccine requirement. 

Furthermore, the university’s vaccine verification procedures have been inefficient, considering the long lines outside of dining halls, where students wait to get their vaccine QR codes scanned. Library lines, too, risk becoming very long because of the sheer number of students that go in and out every day. Considering the amount of time McGill has taken to make this decision, the administration needs to present a plan for a more efficient system. Furthermore, as colder weather settles in, students will begin to migrate to indoor spaces, spending more time in higher-risk areas such as dining halls and libraries. Additionally, many speculate that library capacity limits will increase once access is restricted to those fully vaccinated, or that people will be allowed to take their masks off while studying. If the capacity does not increase, how the university will deal with rising demand in study spaces remains unclear. 

McGill still has some time to figure out the logistics of the new policy, but the administration should be prepared to answer questions and address the concerns of its students before they ask them to comply. 

Research Briefs, Science & Technology

McGill researchers find link between chronotype and sleep behaviour

by Shirley Xu on

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Irregular sleep schedules are common among university students: From late night exam cramming to binge-watching favourite TV shows, most students have first-hand experience with sleep deprivation. Since proper rest is essential for optimal functioning and health, disrupted sleep is associated with many health-adverse effects including cardiovascular diseases. As such, studying sleep and exploring ways to improve daily rest are central to improving human health and wellbeing.

When analyzing rest patterns, shift workers are an important group to focus on as their sleep-wake schedules often misalign with their bodies’ circadian rhythms. Because of this, they are thought to experience shorter and poorer quality sleep. In a recent article published in the journal Sleep, a group of McGill researchers set out to investigate how chronotype—an individual’s preference for going to sleep early or late—can influence sleep behaviour and quality. 

By conducting a field study on rotating shift workers, the researchers discovered that the effect of an individual’s chronotype on sleep quantity depends on whether their shift is in the morning, evening, or night. 

For around a month, 74 Quebec police officers wore an actigraph, a device that functions as a watch, to measure their sleeping and napping behaviour while they worked their regular shifts. The researchers used watch data to determine sleep duration, questionnaires to deduce chronotype, and statistical models to study whether chronotype and shift type affect sleep duration. Between the most extreme chronotypes of the group, the early risers slept 1.1 hours longer on average during a series of morning shifts, while night owls slept two hours longer on average during a series of evening shifts. ​​No significant effect of chronotype on sleep duration was observed during night shifts. Dr. Diane Boivin, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill and director of the Centre for Study and Treatment of Circadian Rhythms at the Douglas Research Centre, explained that naps were the most efficient countermeasures against shortened night sleep for early chronotypes completing night shifts—making up for the lost night rest. 

“The early chronotype has a more difficult time adjusting to working night [shifts], in that their main sleep period is shorter,” Boivin said. “But they catch up on the sleep restriction by napping more, to a point that the association between chronotype and sleep duration is no more significant [than] with night [chronotypes].”

Running counter to the theory that napping leads to sleep inertia, Boivin insists that napping is something to encourage, arguing that its benefits outweigh its downsides. 

As for coffee-lovers, the study found little interaction between chronotype or shift type and the daily intake of caffeinated beverages. Although it was not directly explored in this static study, Boivin noted that chronotype is not a fixed concept and that it can evolve throughout one’s lifetime.

“In our teens and early 20s, there is a period of delayed sleep schedule [where] we tend to be more evening chronotypes,” Boivin explained. “As we grow older, we tend to be more morning types, [although sometimes the original pattern persists].” 

While previous studies examined the effect of chronotype and shift type on sleep quantity using between-subject comparison and self-reported sleep duration, this study employed more objective assessment methods, such as actigraphy-measured sleep and intra-subject changes.

“This [study] shows that individual differences in internal biological timing, which is regulated by the endogenous circadian clock, impact the amount of sleep that shift workers are able to get,” Boivin said. “Our findings show that chronotype should be considered in the design of strategies or recommendations [to optimize sleep in shift workers].”

McGill, News

In absence of university-wide vaccine mandate, McGill law professors warn of liability risk

by Dima Kiwan on

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Many Canadian universities, including the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia, have recently announced proof of vaccination requirements to access campus. Students and faculty began rallying for McGill to implement a university-wide vaccine mandate in early September, and McGill responded in a statement arguing that the policy is infeasible under Quebec law. Following this, a group of 12 McGill law professors wrote an open letter that found fault in McGill’s statement. 

Twelve McGill professors—later 36, as discussions continued—researched the legal case behind vaccine mandates and wrote to Rath Panda, chair of McGill’s Board of Directors, Suzanne Fortier, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University, and Christopher Manfredi, provost and vice-principal (Academic) urging McGill to reevaluate their stance. 

Richard Janda, associate professor in the Faculty of Law and a member of the initial twelve who voiced these concerns, argued that the university may be liable for damages to vulnerable people disproportionately impacted by the pandemic—such as immunocompromised people, pregnant women, and those with young families—should McGill not implement mandatory proof of vaccination.

“We were trying to signal that the university’s policy produced particular vulnerability for those people because they were not sure if they were safe in the classroom and some of them had to make very difficult choices between giving up their year in school versus coming to class,” Janda said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “I have seen the kinds of serious impacts that there can be, and people who would suffer impacts of that sort would certainly have a basis for making a claim if they could make out that the university had acted negligently.”

Janda refuted the legal standing McGill used to defend their position, referencing a recent decision upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, which involved students at University of Indiana making similar arguments.

“To argue that the people we should be protecting here are the people who, for no health or religious reason simply do not want to be vaccinated, is not really the protection of a vulnerable group of Canadians,” Janda asserted. “The president of the University of Ottawa, who has implemented such a proof of vaccination regime, is the former president of the Quebec Human Rights Commission and he’s a constitutional lawyer who knows this stuff inside out. So frankly, I trust Jacques Frémont’s analysis of this much more than I trust that of our general counsel.”

As per the federal government’s statement that education is an essential service, the McGill administration explains it will act, and implement COVID-19-specific accommodations, to make sure that no students are excluded from the learning environment. 

“The government considers higher education to be an essential service, [which imposes] a responsibility to ensure that no one enrolled in our university is excluded from essential learning activities without extraordinary justification,” wrote McGill media relations officer Frédérique Mazerolle. “McGill’s plan for the Fall involves several layers of protection, [and]  accommodations are available for vulnerable students and employees with appropriate medical documentation.”

While Janda and the university state that accommodations are available for people unable to get vaccinated for certain reasons, 2L law student *Grace is concerned that the Faculty of Law, in particular, has not delivered on this promise.

“There is absolutely no accommodation at the Faculty of Law,” *Grace said. “There is no imposed hybrid learning, if you miss class you miss class. [The Faculty cannot] accommodate to the point of telling people to just not come to school, which is very ableist in my opinion. There is no way for them to ethically impose vaccine mandates on campus without offering an across-the-board hybrid option for people who can’t go.”


*Grace’s name has been changed to preserve their anonymity.

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