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McGill, News, PGSS, SSMU

McGill governance meeting highlights: Week of Nov. 4-8

by Malika Logossou, Titouan Le Ster, Eliza Lee on

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Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Nov. 6 Fall General Meeting

PGSS’s Fall General Meeting included key discussion points such as an update from the Quebec Student Union (QSU), a motion to share an Expression of Concern (EoC) on Palestine, and concerns from a Macdonald Campus student about parking and childcare services.

After Speaker Vibhuti Dikshit opened the meeting, Vice-President of the QSU Tania Michaud provided updates on the union’s campaigns to address food insecurity, student mental health, and financial aid. The QSU is an association that represents its member associations, such as PGSS, to the provincial government for improvements in student conditions. Michaud emphasized the need for more funding through the Quebec Research Fund. She also encouraged students to fill out the Quebec Provincial Survey on Student Mental Health in Higher Education and its Determinants.

Most of the meeting’s discussion centred around Motion 7.1: “Motion for the PGSS to share the recent Expression of Concern submitted by the McGill community.” This EoC, submitted by the McGill Graduate Students for Palestine, urges McGill to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Andrew Carkner, a PhD candidate in chemical engineering, introduced the motion, stressing that divestment has been an effective tool for social change at McGill, citing South African apartheid as a historical precedent. Following a petition that gathered over 600 signatures, the EoC was submitted to McGill’s Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility for review. Through Motion 7.1, Carkner argued that PGSS members ought to know the content of this EoC.

During the discussion, Jonathan Hubermann and Eleane Hamburger, two Master’s students in experimental surgery, expressed concerns about the clarity and consistency of the motion. They argued that the document was vague in its terms, lacked proofs and definitions, and had spelling mistakes. The two advocated for the vote to be delayed to the next meeting so that people would have time to reexamine the motion.    

Nick Vieira, a PhD candidate in astrophysics, proposed amendments to the motion for it to reflect what he alleged should have been the version on the agenda. This included having “Palestine” in the motion’s title. He also raised concerns that PGSS had altered the language to “share the context” rather than directly distributing the EoC, which he viewed as diluting the motion’s intent. Eventually, the assembly voted to approve the amended motion put forth by Vieira, with 73 in favour and 10 against.

The meeting concluded with Macdonald Campus graduate student in Food Science Ekua Manful raising concerns about parking availability for students with dependents and the lack of childcare services on the satellite campus. PGSS executives said they would work with the Macdonald Campus Graduate Students’ Society to address these issues and invited Manful to contact the PGSS External Affairs Officer and Mac Campus Commissioner.

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Nov. 7 Legislative Council meeting

The council’s fourth meeting of the semester began with reports presented by committees, executives, and councillors. Vice President (VP) Operations and Sustainability Meg Baltes announced her resignation, effective at the end of the semester. She noted that bi-elections for hers and the position of VP Student Life—vacant since Chloé Muñoz’s resignation on Oct. 29—are open.

The council moved on to debate four motions; the first was the Motion Regarding the SSMU Policy Against Antisemitism, presented by VP External Affairs Hugo-Victor Solomon. The motion aims to provide specific cultural, ethnic, and religiously sensitive measures to combat antisemitism for students. It also seeks to improve advocacy, communication, education, and trust between the SSMU, the McGill administration, and Jewish student groups. Solomon explained that consultation for the policy involved many actors including various Jewish student groups on campus. During the Q&A period of the meeting, he explained that he did not consult Israel on Campus (IOC) as the group had been deemed inactive by Muñoz per the SSMU’s Internal Regulations of Student Groups. Further, he explained that student groups involved in the consultations were strictly those who self identify as Jewish student organizations.  

Later on in the Q&A session, several council members expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed definition of antisemitism in the motion. It defined antisemitism as the discrimination against Jewish people or Jewish institutions, as well as conditions that marginalize Jews, hindering their ability to participate as equals in political, religious, cultural, economic, or social life.

Multiple executives disagreed that the definition was unsatisfactory. VP Internal Affairs Zeena Zahidah expressed that the policy was broad in order to encapsulate various Jewish student experiences and to provide swift action against antisemitism. 

In response, Music Senator Seraphina Crema Black put forth a motion to create a working group to amend the proposed policy which would include SSMU External Affairs and representatives from all interested McGill Jewish student groups. Her proposal sparked intense debates, with some believing the working group was necessary to come to a consensus while others saw it as a measure to shut down the conversation and leave the council without a working policy to address antisemitism. Some councillors pointed out that since no concrete amendments had been proposed, the motion should be passed. Ultimately, the council tabled the motion until the next meeting, cancelling Black’s motion. 

The council then moved on to the Motion Concernant la Politique des Affaires Francophones de l’AÉUM introduced by Solomon. The motion aims to promote the growth and endurance of the Francophone Affairs Committee (CAF). It also strives to provide funding to help cover the salary of the Commission des affaires francophones and part-time translators, and enhance accessibility to services for francophone students. Arts Councillor Rishi Kalaga asked to postpone the motion, saying he couldn’t understand it because it was in French, despite receiving it two weeks earlier. During the debate, some councillors expressed frustration that others had not taken the time to read the policy in advance of the meeting. Ultimately, the motion was approved.

Council also approved a motion on the Legislative Council Statement on Campus Emergency Measures 2024-2025, presented by VP University Affairs Abe Berglas. Additionally, Baltes introduced a motion to allow the VP Operations and Sustainability and President to fulfill the VP Student Life’s responsibility of leading the club committee until someone assumes the role. The motion passed unanimously.

McGill Senate and Board of Governors (BoG) Nov. 7 joint meeting

The Senate and BoG came together in the Faculty Club for the annual joint meeting of the governing bodies. The group focused on financial challenges the university faces arising from a number of pressures from the provincial government, including the tuition increases for out-of-province students, efforts to impose a cap on international students through Bill 74, and limits on funding for university capital projects. 

McGill President and Vice-Chancellor Deep Saini noted in his opening remarks that there is a perception that measures to adapt to these financial pressures are the responsibility of the senior administration team alone. 

“We need to shed that fallacy,” Saini said. “It’s our collective responsibility.” 

Addressing members of the Senate and BoG, Associate Provost (Teaching and Academic Planning) Christopher Buddle explored ways that the university could cut costs by reviewing the academic programs it offers. While some study areas are growing in enrollment—such as bioengineering and psychology—others are decreasing. Buddle drew attention to the fact that McGill currently offers roughly 415 degree programs, yet in Fall 2023, 73 programs had no students enrolled in them. He did not specify which programs. As Buddle emphasized, changing the university’s offering of programs would not necessarily mean slashing them. It could, however, mean retiring, restructuring, and even developing new programs.

In his presentation, Vice-President (Administration and Finance) Fabrice Labeau discussed how the university can begin to “transform” its delivery of services. Labeau stressed the need to increase efficiencies, such as through eliminating red tape—bureaucratic formalities that waste time—and to ensure that all members of the university community are working together to integrate changes. He also pointed to the imperative in increasing space efficiency on campus, especially since more McGill staff have begun to work from home since the pandemic. 

Then, Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) Christopher Manfredi gave a presentation on how McGill hopes to change its budget model to respond to financial challenges. Manfredi explained that McGill has an incremental budgetary model wherein all revenue flows to the Provost, who distributes the funds to different units. This stands in contrast to the Responsibility Centre Management or Activity-Based Budgeting models, wherein each unit controls its own budget and revenue. According to Manfredi, McGill will seek to move to a hybrid model, which may help incentivize faculties to develop new programs to attract more students and revenue. 

Following presentations from various members of the senior administration, there was a discussion period in which Senators and BoG members brought questions and concerns to the administrative team.

In his closing remarks, Saini highlighted the need to engage all members of the McGill community in addressing the university’s financial situation, including students. He also addressed the “trust deficit” between faculty and administration at the university and acknowledged the need for the latter “to restore it.” 

A previous version of this article stated that SSMU did not consult Israel on Campus (IOC) in its drafting of the SSMU Policy Against Antisemitism because of its previous inactivity. In fact, consultation did not occur because IOC had already been deemed inactive by former VP Student Life Chloé Muñoz before she left her role per the SSMU’s Internal Regulations of Student Groups. Further, IOC was not consulted because they are not a self-identified Jewish group. The Tribune regrets this error.

Science & Technology

Seeing superdiversity: How immigration shapes Canadian cities

by Kate Birch on

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How do we understand the dynamic population changes taking place in Canadian cities? At the end of 2024, the Superdiversity in Canadian Cities website will launch, designed to make complex immigration census data accessible to a wide audience. 

On Nov. 7, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) hosted a talk by Daniel Hiebert, a Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of British Columbia, showcasing the capabilities of this user-friendly data project.

Hiebert began by introducing his own research on superdiversity—a term coined by his partner for the project, Steven Vertovec, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. The “super” in superdiversity refers to superimposition, which captures the layered nature of diversity across nationality, ethnicity, religious affiliation, income, and other traits that shape the population of metropolitan centres in Canada.

The goal of the Superdiversity in Canadian Cities website is to allow Canadians to access census and social demographic data and to illuminate the rapid urban changes in metropolitan Canadian cities that are unfolding as a result of immigration.

Heibert led the attendees of the talk through the primary features of the website, which include a series of interactive graphs visualizing the population of immigrants over time. These graphs compare socioeconomic measures against other factors like ethnic background, age, gender, and generation. The socioeconomic measures include education level, employment status, income, and housing status, compared to the population average. 

Additionally, users can see maps showing where newcomers settle on a local, provincial, and national scale.

“We want to let people see for themselves,” Hiebert said. 

This is just the tip of the data-iceberg that will be completely public by the end of 2024, as the website will be highly interactive, allowing the user to explore the intricacies of urban superdiversity.

“We feel that Canadians have developed a set of assumptions about how immigrants integrate or perhaps don’t integrate into Canadian social life,” Hiebert said. 

One goal of the website is to dispel common myths about immigration, mainly by emphasizing the complexity of the data, rather than the generalizations we often hear in the news.

Hiebert used his website to illustrate the complex socio-cultural environment in Montreal and the makeup of its population over time.

According to Hiebert, about 1 per cent of Montreal identifies as Indigenous. Within the past 25 years, the population in Montreal that identifies as European has barely grown at all. Notably, the real growth in Montreal has been in people who are coming from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

“We want to show that in places like Montreal, diversity and social complexity is the norm rather than an exception,” Hiebert said.

He also stressed an important implication of the data, which is to negotiate a sense of a common identity through all of this diversity. 

“At the [Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada] IRCC, they think about policy, but they don’t think very much about the local outcomes of that policy,” Hiebert said. 

Hiebert aims for this resource to reach the general population, but also policymakers and the government itself to inform immigration policy decisions. 

Given the high degree of diversity in an urban Canadian city like Montreal, Hiebert explained that it was no wonder that government-mandated advisory committees struggle to accurately represent Montreal’s complex population. 

“If you’ve got people from 190 countries, and they’re also differentiated by religion, sex, age, and everything else, what do you want? A committee of 10,000 people?” Hiebert asked. “Notice the simplicity of this compared to the complexity of [Montreal’s population]. And that’s the superdiversity story.”

Overall, Hiebert’s presentation shed light on the concept of superdiversity and how it is visualized for Canadian cities. He ended by briefly mentioning the need for further development of visualization tools in the future.

Science & Technology

UAEM McGill stands for equitable access to medicines

by Jenna Durante on

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Why advocate for healthcare in Canada if it’s perceived as universally free? Despite the common misconception, increasing awareness of healthcare disparities in Canada—particularly highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic—emphasizes the urgent call for equitable access to medicines. In the fight for affordable care, McGill students are stepping up to advocate for a critical cause: Global health equity. 

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) McGill, a local chapter of the international organization, is led by passionate students who are committed to addressing the barriers that prevent essential medicines from reaching those who need them most. 

A mission to educate and advocate

United by a focus on both education and advocacy, the team is challenging the status quo within academic research. 

“I had been interested for a while in access to medicine, and at UAEM I saw an opportunity to learn in an extremely motivating yet kind environment,” UAEM McGill President Amanda Leloup, U3 Arts, wrote to the The Tribune.

One of UAEM’s initiatives, The Canadian Report Card, measures how well universities follow equitable licensing practices. The evaluation system assesses whether institutions such as McGill adhere to frameworks like the Global Access Licensing Framework (GALF). This report card is a crucial tool used to hold universities accountable, ensuring that research innovations are accessible to everyone, not just those who can afford them. 

By assessing and publicizing how universities manage their research outcomes, the report card pushes for greater transparency and fairness. For students, researchers, and policymakers, understanding and engaging with the report card is essential to advocacy efforts for policies that promote equitable access to essential medicines.

“We hold the university accountable to ensure that there is fair and equitable access to innovations paid for through tax money,” Leloup said. “We want to make sure McGill lives up to their equitable licensing agreements.”

In addition to their ongoing efforts, UAEM McGill is hosting its annual conference in Montreal later this year. This milestone event will bring chapters from across North America together to discuss the role of Canadian healthcare, Indigenous rights in medicine, and other topics regarding global health equity.

The conference will address the reality that even with public healthcare, affordability and accessibility remain pressing issues for marginalized communities in Canada. 

Projects and calls to action

Last April, the team launched a Donation Tracker website that invites manufacturers, shelters, and community groups to donate essential goods, such as masks and medications, to vulnerable populations in Montreal. In promoting the website, the team will be donating to The Open Door during their collaborative donations drive, sending clothes, food, and toiletries to those in need.

Additionally, their Open Science initiative advocates for transparency in medical research, ensuring that students, researchers, and the public can freely access research findings without costly paywalls. This is essential for students, as it enables them to engage with the latest scientific developments and contribute to ongoing research efforts. Open Science empowers the academic community to push for systemic changes underlying the importance of access and affordability in healthcare.

How McGill students can make a difference

UAEM McGill encourages students to get involved in advocacy and education regarding global health equity. In doing so, they empower themselves to become active participants in shaping a healthcare system that prioritizes accessibility and fairness for all.

“Students can gain access to resources, training, and a network of like-minded advocates who are all passionate about the same topic, and this enhances their capacity to influence policy, engage with experts, and work on impactful campaigns while making an actual impact,” Leloup wrote. 

Leloup also urges student researchers to incorporate Open Science and DEI principles into their research practices. This can help steer academia toward addressing the most pressing issues and focusing on structural inequalities in research. 

As the club’s motto goes, “Make medicines for people, not for profit.” This call to action reminds us all that accessible, affordable healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.

Know Your Athlete, Sports

Know Your Athlete: Ibrahim Chami

by Lialah Mavani on

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Ibrahim Chami, U1 Arts, a first-year defender for Redbirds Soccer, has made a strong mark on the field in his first season on the team. Starting off his rookie season strong, Chami has been named to the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team, has merited first-team all-star status in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) conference, and has been a starting player in all of the team’s regular-season games. 

Chami kicked his first soccer ball at three years old, practicing on his own and often playing with his dad. At the age of eight, he joined his first team and started playing competitively, and from there, his soccer career flourished. Chami has represented Team Lebanon on various occasions including at the Arab Cup, the Asian Cup, and the 2024 Olympic qualifiers. Now, he plays both for the Redbirds and also semi-professionally for the Association de Soccer de Blainville (AS Blainville) soccer club, where he competes in Ligue 1 Québec.  

His transition from playing high-level soccer throughout high school to being a student-athlete at McGill while balancing rigorous academics has been a tough adjustment, but one that has paid off on the field.

“I decided to [come to] McGill University because I know it’s a prestigious school,” Chami told The Tribune on Nov. 7. “Regarding the sport aspect, I wanted to challenge myself a bit, because in the past years, McGill didn’t have […] good results. So I wanted to change the tendency and try to push the team the highest that I can. And I think that, as a first-year student, things went very well, because we were not expected to be where we are today, and today we’re at Nationals.”

The Redbirds are having an extremely strong season, reaching nationals for the first time since 2011. They placed third out of seven teams in the RSEQ conference, with a record 5–4–3, achieving their highest regular-season record since 2018.

Despite coming off a loss (1-2) to the Université de Montréal Carabins in the conference championships, Chami says the Redbirds are looking to build from the positive moments from the game and the season to fuel them for the tough competition at Nationals. 

“We were all disappointed with the result of our final against [the Carabins], but we were pissed that we lost the game on specific details, details that we could have avoided,” he said. “But it was just small details that made the difference. And this is what happens in important games, things can change in seconds, just because of details. So I think we’re ready to bounce back today and in the upcoming games for nationals.”

Reaching the semi-finals, the Redbirds fought hard but ultimately fell short to the York Lions (3-1) in a bronze medal match on Nov. 10.

As the university soccer season comes to an end, Chami is looking to build on the great performance the Redbirds had this year. His first year on the team has shown how much of an impact he’s made and he aims to continue to build off of these positive wins from the season, pushing the team to be the best it can be in his next years at McGill.

As Chami reflected on his own soccer journey, playing competitively from a young age, he stressed the importance of resilience and a strong mentality.

“If you truly have something in mind and you want to achieve it, you just go for it,” he said. “You don’t find excuses […] you just put in the work. Even if you don’t get results immediately. But I see it as a process, and this is how it should be. Even if the results are not good for the moment, if you keep working, you keep grinding, at one point, things are going to turn for you.”

Science & Technology

Steering public transport forward with public policy

by Sarah McDonald on

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The successful development of sustainable public transportation is key in the global fight against climate change, due to its potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate land-use effects. On average, personal vehicles produce one pound of carbon dioxide per passenger mile, while public buses, if assumed to be operating at 25 per cent capacity, produce only 0.64 pounds of carbon dioxide per passenger mile. Ensuring high use rates of public transportation also helps increase their impact: The closer buses are to capacity, the lower their emission per passenger mile. 

Researchers at Transportation Research at McGill (TRAM) recently published an article in the journal Transport Policy analyzing how public perception influences sustainable public transportation development. They applied these analyses to two current projects in Montreal: A light-rail transit (LRT) system and a bus-rapid transit (BRT) system.

The Montreal LRT, with 27 open stations, is expected to be fully operational by 2027. Meanwhile, the BRT system, centred in Pie-IX, began its extension to Notre-Dame East Street in fall 2023. 

Lancelot Rodrigue, a PhD candidate working under Professor Ahmed El-Geneidy at McGill’s School of Urban Planning, helped design these analysis projects and co-authored the paper. 

“It was really to understand [the LRT and BRT] individually, but also to compare them to different types of projects,” Rodrigue said in an interview with The Tribune. “[We wanted to see] what drives support for these types of projects.”

To collect data, TRAM sent an anonymous survey to Montreal residents, analyzing both quantitative and qualitative responses.

“We always tend to focus on very objective data when we look at projects. But sometimes we forget that decision-making is not necessarily done solely from an objective standpoint, so we really wanted to go into this project taking into account the subjectivity of a lot of people’s perceptions,” Rodrigue explained.

The team found a critical difference between the quantitative and qualitative responses: While people generally gave positive ratings in the quantitative section, the open-ended qualitative responses were less favourable. 

“When you ask open-ended questions, first of all, not everyone answers them. People who feel neutral won’t necessarily answer, but the people that do answer almost always tend to be more negative,” Rodrigue said. “[This trend] is something that has been found in literature across a lot of different domains.”

The team also found that the public perception was highly impacted by the speed at which the government pursued the construction of these projects.

“There’s kind of a duality between how fast [the project governance team is] willing to go, but also how properly [the project governance team is] planning the projects,” Rodrigue said. 

They found that people generally wanted their projects completed quickly, but also wanted to ensure there was enough time to prevent common problems during development. Furthermore, they wished for plans to be public to encourage community input without derailing the project’s timeline. Given all of these concerns, policymakers need to achieve a delicate balance to ensure timely project completion while addressing community concerns and maintaining project integrity.

To better understand these dynamics, the TRAM team is continuing to analyze similar survey data. 

“The data from this paper was the second wave, and now we’re just finishing the fifth wave that we just collected,” Rodrigue said.

While their surveys are anonymous, TRAM collects demographic information to contextualize their findings within the Montreal population. They have noticed the results they receive tend to be skewed in favour of upper-class, white individuals, which is something they are actively working on addressing.

Through targeted advertising, the team has successfully altered their samples in more recent surveys to balance data received in terms of gender and are hoping that balance across race and income level will soon follow. 

“We’ve done a lot more targeted advertising, and we’re now weighing our sample to correct these issues as much as possible,” Rodrigue explained. “We’re trying to get a portrait that’s more representative of the Montreal population.”

By looking into the factors that dictate policy decisions, the TRAM team is working towards new policy guidelines that can help support both the decision-makers and the general public in future urban planning and transportation development.

Science & Technology

Championing Open Science and advancing research accessibility

by Daniel Pyo on

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Scientific research has undoubtedly become an integral aspect of human existence. It shapes our understanding of the world and drives advancements that impact nearly every aspect of life. With ongoing scientific efforts to combat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, and immune disorders, the demand for accessible data continues to grow, emphasizing the importance of Open Science for advancing scientific discovery.  

Open Science is the practice of sharing data, information, tools, and research results. It accelerates discovery by enabling others to build on previously validated research. 

On Nov. 7, the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (The Neuro) hosted its sixth annual Open Science in Action Symposium, aiming to highlight the practical implementation of Open Science across all stages of the research lifecycle. The event emphasized areas where the adoption of Open Science remains limited, such as data acquisition in laboratories. 

The symposium commenced with a compelling presentation on Open Science by keynote speaker, Ed Lein, a senior investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. 

Allen Institute and their open science commitment

Lein strives to enhance the accessibility of science to promote collaboration, team cohesion, and address any potential accessibility barriers in current research methods. 

“The aim here is to create resources that can be catalytic much, much beyond our walls. Our core principles really are picking big impactful problems in current health issues and helping researchers tackle the complexities in biology,” Lein said.

The keynote lecture then addressed the Allen Institute’s Open Science commitment as a transformative force within neuroscience and beyond. The Allen Institute’s approach is rooted in an ethos of early data sharing, which is a central focus of the institute. This guiding principle facilitates democratic access to research findings and accelerates progress in scientific discovery by making complex datasets readily accessible to the broader community. 

The Development of a Brain Cell Atlas and technological advancements

The remainder of the discussion centered on initiatives, featuring the Allen Institute’s Brain Cell Atlas project. 

This ambitious project involves cataloging the vast diversity of brain cells, understanding their unique properties, and mapping their spatial organization across different brain regions. 

“We now have a complete cell atlas of the mouse brain, and we’re able to get a first draft in humans,” Lein highlighted. 

The Brain Cell Atlas uses a technique called single-cell transcriptomics to differentiate various brain cell types. By examining the transcriptome, which encompasses all messenger molecules, this process pinpoints the active genes within each individual cell. This data allows scientists to group cells into categories based on their gene expression profiles, providing insights into their specific functions and identities. By analyzing these profiles, researchers can identify specific cell types and their roles in brain function and disease.

While single-cell transcriptomics provides a “who’s who” of brain cells, spatial transcriptomics shows where these cells are located within the brain’s complex architecture. By pinpointing the location of each cell type, scientists can understand brain structure, cellular interactions, and cellular arrangements in different areas of the brain. 

Developing the Brain Cell Atlas relies on integrating enormous datasets generated from advanced techniques. The Allen Institute uses sophisticated computational tools and machine learning to analyze and synthesize this data, allowing them to build a coherent map of the brain’s cellular landscape. This integration of vast datasets is essential for making connections between cell types in animals and humans, brain structure, and cognitive function.

“By focusing our sampling efforts, we’ve been able to identify and map over three thousand distinct human cell types, capturing their complex interactions within a comprehensive database,” Lein said. 

Through its commitment to transparency, the Allen Institute has emerged as a leader in Open Science, especially in neuroscience, where complex data often challenges traditional research approaches. Embracing this openness not only enhances collaboration but also accelerates discovery, setting a new standard for accessibility in scientific advancement.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

The literary world’s battles to ban and boycott Israeli literary institutions

by Siena Torres on

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Content Warning: Mentions of genocide

Reading is a political act. Whether it be the choice of what books a predominantly white industry chooses to publish, what books one has access to, or even the privilege of having time to read, literature is not neutral—especially in our current combative political climate. 

In the wake of Donald Trump’s recent re-election, readers and experts alike have voiced concerns over possible future book bans. Project 2025, the manifesto in which Trump and his allies are now clearly expressing intent to execute over the United States upon his inauguration, recommends implementing book bans in order to protect children from reading pornography. However, this is a dog whistle meant to conceal that, in effect, books with 2SLGBTQIA+ themes will be the first to go as their content is flattened by conservatives as “pornography.” This plan follows the disturbing trend of libraries and schools banning texts that deal with racism, homophobia, and sexism due to right-wing pressure which has also reached Canada. 

In another case of politicization in the literary world, PalFest and other campaign groups put forth a cultural boycott of Israeli literary institutions signed by thousands of authors and literary workers in response to the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The boycott follows the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement guidelines that call for the rejection of the normalization of Israeli culture to justify the occupation of Palestinians. This movement follows in the footsteps of similar boycotts of South African goods to oppose the country’s apartheid state in the 1980s. 

Specifically, this cultural boycott is targeting Israeli literary institutions that are either silent about or complicit in Palestinian oppression. The boycott’s supporters include prominent and prizewinning contemporary authors such as Percival Everett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Annie Ernaux, Rachel Kushner, Ocean Vuong, and Sally Rooney, the Irish author who has been deemed the ‘voice of a generation’ after the boom of her novel Normal People. She has been outspoken in her support for Palestinian rights for years. This ranges from refusing to sell Hebrew translation rights to an Israeli publisher in 2021 to expressing her solidarity with the people of Palestine in a speech at the recent launch of her latest novel. Rupi Kaur also showed her support of the boycott by refusing an invitation from the White House for a Diwali event last fall on account of the Biden administration’s continued armament of the Israeli military. 

Discussions of the Israeli occupation of Palestine have never been without controversy, especially for Palestinian authors. A few days after the Oct. 7 attack, Adania Shibli, the Palestinian author of Minor Detail, which focuses on a girl murdered by IDF soldiers in 1949, had her award ceremony for the book cancelled by The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. This decision provoked outrage from fellow writers and activists as it seemed to be made solely based on her Palestinian origins; Shibli had never condoned Hamas’ actions or expressed any disrespect to the victims of Oct. 7. The Fair responded by declaring their continued support for Israel, which is part of a larger conversation about German institutions’ complicity in Israeli war crimes. 

As for the recent literary boycott, over a thousand industry workers signed an open letter that denounced its intention. The letter pushes against the message that book spaces should not be political, arguing that this reduces the transformative power that books and their authors have to create tangible change and stating that boycotts create more divisiveness. 

However, as readers and authors respond to the complex and often controversial calls for political action in the literary world, books remain a powerful tool to create change in the world we want to inhabit. The choice to depoliticize literature is a privilege that only a few have when books have the power to bring awareness and tangibly impact movements. By continuing the boycott, there is a clear message that we must fight against injustice by ensuring that our literature does not stay neutral.

Commentary, Opinion

Major flaws in Montreal’s metro system leave McGill students at a loss

by Charlotte Theofanous on

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Montreal’s metro system has long been the lifeline of student life, whether it’s a late night out at Café Campus or an early 8 a.m. at Leacock Building. The metro system connects many major universities: Concordia, Université de Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Université de Montréal (UdeM), Université de Sherbrooke, and of course, McGill. It is fast, convenient, and affordable, enabling direct access to these educational institutions. In recent months, however, it has become apparent that it has many flaws, one of the more significant ones being frequent service delays. The causes of these holdups vary, from equipment failure to degrading infrastructure to leakages. Some of these delays last minutes or hours, but others are far more drastic, lasting weeks with no clear end in sight. Serious measures must be taken to enhance the functioning and reliability of Montreal’s public transportation system, for the sake of McGill students and the community at large.

A prime example of this is the ongoing shutdown of the St-Michel station on the Blue Line due to degraded concrete. Though this station is on the far end of the Blue Line, far from any downtown universities, it still affects those Montreal students living far from campus, as well as the many community members who also rely on public transportation. As a result of this station closure, Montreal is urging the province of Quebec to take action on this matter and increase funding for public transit to $560 million CAD per year, a significant jump from the current annual projected sum of $240 million CAD.  

Though there have been mixed reactions to this demand for increased funding, the overall consensus is that the metro system needs significant improvement. Denis Martin, mayor of Deux-Montagnes, agrees that the city has waited far too long for changes to be made. Geneviève Guilbault, Quebec’s Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, also acknowledges that service must be improved. Despite these high-level discussions and shared concerns, the reality remains stark: Montreal’s metro system faces budget cuts rather than the vital funding it needs. Students everywhere, myself included, cannot afford to keep arriving late for lectures or missing them altogether due to circumstances out of our control.

McGill students, many of whom depend on public transit to reach campus, face increasingly unreliable commutes with few alternative transportation options. McGill must play a role in advocating for its students and pushing for better services, by collaborating with the Societé de Transport de Montréal (STM) on initiatives to ensure transportation accessibility for students. The distribution of temporary taxi or Uber vouchers in times of STM system failures could be implemented, to guarantee that students can still arrive on campus in an affordable and timely manner. Alternatively, McGill could allow for flexible class schedules in times of delay. The university should allow students to attend lectures, labs and/or exams virtually during transportation disruptions, or at the very least allow for some degree of lenience, especially for classes that have a participation or attendance grade. 

The current trajectory of budget cuts rather than increased funding that STM desperately needs threatens not just daily commutes, but the fundamental accessibility of higher education in Montreal. As students navigate the pressures of academic life, the added uncertainty of reliable transportation creates an unnecessary burden that disproportionately affects those with fewer financial resources or schedule flexibility. This transit crisis, coupled with Quebec’s recent tuition hikes for out-of-province students at Anglophone universities, suggests a troubling trend of provincial policies that create additional barriers to education rather than fostering the accessible educational environment Montreal has long been known for.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

‘CHROMAKOPIA’ may be Tyler, the Creator’s most authentic work yet

by Lily Dodson on

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CHROMAKOPIA, released on Oct. 28, is Tyler, the Creator’s most authentic album yet, following 2023’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale. Typically, Tyler adopts a new “character” for each album cycle, such as Igor for his 2019 album of the same name, or Wolf Haley on his earlier albums Wolf and Goblin. By taking on these different personas, Tyler is able to honestly explore different aspects of himself and his musical sensibilities without being overly vulnerable. In the music video for “Sorry Not Sorry,” the closing track of The Estate Sale, Tyler kills off all of the alter egos that served as the protagonists of his previous albums, a symbolic gesture that represents how he is finally accepting that he needs to be himself in his music.

However, leaving his characters behind is not an easy feat for Tyler. On the album’s cover, he is seen donning a mask of his own face, demonstrating how he cannot help but hide even when he is trying to unveil his true self through his music. This is the most prevalent theme of Tyler’s newest album: Grappling with his rise to fame while also embracing who he is. Even though he takes on the persona of St. Chroma—a masked military figure who is seemingly another protagonist—in the album’s music videos, I interpreted CHROMAKOPIA as him abandoning the use of characters to tell his story—and finally telling it himself.

Despite continuing to mask himself on this album, Tyler dives into his emotionally fraught upbringing in the song “Like Him.” Singing to his mother—whose voice is featured in interludes throughout the album—Tyler asks if she resembles his estranged father. “Like Him” is a follow-up to his 2013 song “Answer,” which deals with the resentment Tyler feels towards his father for abandoning him when he was a child, while also wondering if his father would be there for him in times of need. However, on “Like Him,” his mother admits to being the reason why Tyler didn’t have his father in his life, thus turning the page on a topic that has long haunted his work. As a longtime fan of Tyler, this song is a heartbreaking listen, and it is one of the deepest looks into Tyler’s life we’ve gotten since “Answer.” 

Though “Like Him” is the album’s biggest standout, other songs such as “St. Chroma,” “NOID,” “Take Your Mask Off,” and “Sticky” are all well done lyrically and from a production standpoint. “St. Chroma” explores Tyler’s inner confidence and his desire for success with backing vocals from Daniel Caesar, while “NOID” details his constant paranoia stemming from being a star in today’s world. “Take Your Mask Off” urges others to embrace themselves as Tyler does on this album, and “Sticky” is a fun, upbeat listen with features from Lil Wayne, Sexyy Red, and GloRilla, placed in the middle of the album amongst some of the heavier themes. The closing track, “I Hope You Find Your Way Home,” is eerie and slow, closing with chants of the album’s title that make it linger with the listener long after the final notes.

Though Tyler has often felt he has had to hide his true self away, CHROMAKOPIA lets fans see behind both the literal and metaphorical masks he has worn over the years. It’s a degree of candour we haven’t heard since 2019’s IGOR, which was largely based upon a previous heartbreak he experienced. CHROMAKOPIA is Tyler at his most vulnerable.

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Staging Freedom: ‘Two Birds One Stone’ teaches empathetic understanding

by Adèle Contis on

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Two Birds One Stone, directed by Murdoch Schon, is a lesson in listening and a reminder that friendship must not be scoffed at when seeking a viable framework for peace. It’s the first show in Teesri Duniya Theatre’s 2024-2025 season: Staging Freedom. Playwrights Rimah Jabr, a Muslim Palestinian, and Natasha Greenblatt, a Jewish Canadian, co-wrote the piece in 2016. Eight years later, the pair felt compelled to revisit it, believing its message to be more relevant than ever in light of the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

This autofictional play intertwines stories from Jabr’s youth in Palestine and her move to Brussels after enrolling in theatre school with tales from Greenblatt’s youth in Montreal and Birthright trip to Israel. The women navigate the messiness of young adulthood while searching to make their way back to a family house in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Jabr’s grandmother’s home that she fled during the 1948 Nakba, which Greenblatt’s great grandfather purchased soon after Israeli settlers colonized the area.   

While the two playwrights played themselves in previous runs of the play, they are now both new mothers, leaving them unavailable to fill the roles for Teesri’s remounted production. Instead, actors Dalia Charafeddine and Natasha Fagant fill in for Jabr and Greenblatt, respectively, and portray the story’s numerous supporting characters—they sing, they cry, they laugh, and get fake drunk while slipping in and out of distinct accents and physicalities that differentiate these characters. Connecting with the audience in metatheatrical comedic moments, they dispel any awkwardness. We see two friends comment on their own performance, poking fun at the tiptoeing tendency we often see when engaging with Israel’s occupation and ongoing genocide in Palestine, shaping the intimate process of understanding into resistance. 

The dialogue takes centre stage, with the simple costumes, set, and blocking emphasizing the words above all else. Language is itself a tool that can obscure or bring truth to light, and Two Birds One Stone implicitly discusses these intentions. The play breathes life and immediacy, gripping us to feel all that is human. In the room, when the lights turn back on, tear-dampened cheeks lean on the shoulders of loved ones. 

This is what art is about—collaborative consumption—and there is no better place to be challenged than at Teesri Duniya Theatre. Its warm and collaborative approach encourages precisely these moments of self-reflection and openness. 

Creating works by and for the BIPOC community, Teesri Duniya’s commitment to multicultural reconciliation motivates its practices and shapes the stories it platforms. The space invites collaboration through the innovative Fireworks Play Development Program, which supports and mentors a cohort of local emerging playwrights as they develop their writing. 

Beyond its collaborations with the artists of Montreal, Teesri Duniya engages audiences in open dialogue via talkbacks after almost every show, mobilizing opinions that often continue to be discussed in the outside air of Avenue des Pins. Teesri Duniya’s founders and theatre directors Rahul Varma and Rana Bose hold fast to the belief that art should shun away from elitism, expanding theatre to all. Essentially, art is about trusting the community as it is, whether sitting in the audience or pacing its feet on stage.

Schon said in a CKUT 90.3 FM interview, “A good director wants people to leave with new questions in their pockets.” I believe this is true of Two Birds One Stone. It’s on my mind; I talk about it in a grocery store and share it with my friends. May we continue to attend theatre performances and feel their transformative power. May we learn from them and perform peace in our lives.

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