United States President Donald Trump renamed the Department of Defence (DoD) the ‘Department of War’ in an executive order issued on Sept. 5. Subsequently, ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth stated that the government is “going on offence, not just defence.” The White House’s rebranding of the institution is not a[Read More…]
Commentary
Housing is urgent; disclosure should be too
There is no debate that Montreal is experiencing a housing crisis. It is also equally evident that Chinatown’s remaining infrastructural heritage is scarce and essential to the preservation of Chinese culture in Montreal. Those two facts should be mutually exclusive, but right now, municipal lawmakers are threatening to turn Chinatown[Read More…]
Quebec French seduction programs are a win-win for francophones and anglophones alike
Since the 1960s’ Quiet Revolution, Quebecois secessionists have advocated for the creation of a separate Quebec nation-state and the preservation of strong French cultural and linguistic ties within the province. Yet French cultural initiatives, such as business language requirements, are often unnecessarily exclusionary towards the province’s anglophone residents, enforcing rigid[Read More…]
Francois Legault’s climate policy is an unforced error
Anxious about his plummeting approval rating, Quebec Premier François Legault is shrinking away from one of his strongest positions: Fighting climate change. Earlier this month, Legault’s government announced it will end funding for the Climate Action Barometer (CAB), an annual survey that allows Quebecers to voice their opinions about their[Read More…]
Nobody is running for mayor! The death of municipal democracy in Quebec
On Nov. 2, Quebec will hold municipal elections—though in 87 cities throughout the province, the results of these elections are already decided. In the 2025 Quebec municipal election cycle, over 4,500 municipal candidates ran unopposed. In a process known as acclamation, candidates who are running unopposed bypass the election cycle[Read More…]
Canada must criminalize coerced sterilization and confront its propagation of colonial violence
In 2005, Montreal practitioners performed a nonconsensual hysterectomy on Quebec Senator Amina Gerba, resulting in irreversible infertility. Gerba would not learn she had undergone this procedure—a clear violation of her medical rights and autonomy—until over a decade later, when, during an unrelated procedure, her gynecologist discovered she lacked a uterus.[Read More…]
Canadian gun advocates make a fair point—and it doesn’t matter
Earlier this month, demonstrators gathered on the lawn of the Myles F. Burke Police Headquarters in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to protest the federal government’s new gun buyback program. 250 strong and adorned in an assortment of flannel, sunglasses, and baseball caps, the rally-goers held bold text protest signs with[Read More…]
McGill Global, Montreal forgotten
On September 17, McGill President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini announced ‘McGill Global,’ a $185 million CAD plan to establish ‘satellite campuses’ abroad—branch campuses operated by McGill outside of Montreal. The announcement comes at a time of financial crisis at McGill, triggered by Quebec’s tuition hikes for out-of-province and international students.[Read More…]
More housing for the unhoused
Montreal’s new $2 million CAD housing fund demonstrates an increased political resolve to aid the city’s unhoused population. The fund is dedicated to the expansion of housing non-profits; Plante’s government aims to double the number of housing units available for unhoused individuals. The city is dividing the funding among four[Read More…]
The fatal consequences of racialized 911 calls
On Sept. 21, a police officer shot and killed 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi in a residential neighbourhood in Longueil, a suburb of Montreal. Radio Canada alleges the officer pulled the trigger just 58 seconds after arriving on the scene. At 2:48 p.m., an individual called the police to report a group[Read More…]
