Despite the Quebec government’s efforts to make the province primarily monolingual, a study released by Statistics Canada found that the prevalence of English-French bilingualism in the Montreal metropolitan area reached a record level of 56.4 per cent in 2021. This has concerned Quebec sovereigntists that the popularity of English in[Read More…]
Commentary
Black in business: The consulting field needs more Black mentorship
On Sept. 12, JED Consulting, McGill Social Business Network (MSBN) Consulting, and the McGill Black Students’ Network (BSN) held their second annual “Being Black in Consulting” event. A four-person panel of Black consultants from some of the world’s top consulting firms shared their journeys, tips, and challenges. This was followed[Read More…]
Progressives must remain aspirational
Sept. 16’s Global Progress Actions Summit in Montreal was one of the largest gatherings of progressive politicians in the last 15 years. Current and former heads of state Tony Blair, Jacinda Ardern, Jonas Gahr Støre, Sanna Marin, Magdalena Andersson, and Justin Trudeau shared their assessments of the state of the[Read More…]
New French language funding cannot be a tool of linguistic domination
Tension over the use of French and English is nothing new for the city of Montreal. Decades of disputes between self-appointed defendants of French and those who recognize language laws’ discriminatory nature have brewed a debate so polarized that middle ground seems like a fantasy. Plowing straight through this precarious[Read More…]
Walkable cities are not a culture war, but a necessity in the 21st century
When you think of a street, what do you visualize? You might imagine an arterial road like Sherbrooke or René-Lévesque, with two lanes for cars in both directions while pedestrians are relegated to small sidewalks. Or, you might think of something more like Mont-Royal and Prince-Arthur, streets with a balance[Read More…]
Schulich library will not fill the void of a McLennan-Redpath closure
Though the reopening of the Schulich Library was timed conveniently with the impending closure of the McLennan-Redpath Complex, whether the new and improved Schulich will make a worthy competitor is the question of the hour. Apart from the labyrinthine path one must take to locate the library, Schulich’s questionable capacity,[Read More…]
Does A.I. development need more doomerism?
In the blink of an eye, artificial intelligence (A.I.) has been incorporated into nearly every aspect of our lives. From education to grocery shopping to music––there is no escaping it. Following the roll out of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the quantity of publicly available A.I. technologies exploded, leaving a chasm of unregulated[Read More…]
Residence staff deserve more respectful conduct from first years
In popular media, dorm life is represented as the pinnacle of the student experience. However, often forgotten are those who make this experience possible. Light must be shed on the pillars of residence life: The staff. As thousands of McGillians are returning to Montreal, many of whom are arriving on[Read More…]
Big tech has to pay, but Bill C-18 is not the way
An already-undermined Canadian media landscape is facing further silencing from Big Tech. In retaliation to the passing of The Online News Act, otherwise known as Bill C-18, Google and Meta announced that they will be blocking posts from Canadian news outlets on their platforms. By passing Bill C-18, the Canadian[Read More…]
The discriminatory disarray of Quebec’s health-care system
Over 800,000 Quebecers are currently looking for a new primary care physician in their area. Wait times to find one can extend to more than two years in Montreal, where the population faces one of the worst health-care accessibility crises in the country. This issue directly results from Quebec’s poor[Read More…]