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McGill, Montreal, News

Monthly Dignity responds to international movements against period poverty

by Maya Watt on

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In Nov. 2017, Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, Med 2, and Julia Coste, BA ‘19, launched Monthly Dignity, a non-profit organization that distributes menstrual hygiene products to unhoused people in Montreal. After founding the initiative, the duo realized that “period poverty” affects many diverse communities, including unhoused people, people living under the poverty line, single mothers, and students. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial precarity has made it harder to access basic resources on a day-to-day basis, and period poverty has only worsened.

While several countries such as Scotland and New Zealand have recently passed legislation confirming access to period products as a right, Canada has yet to commit to universal access, although it did eliminate taxes on tampons in 2015. The expense of menstrual hygiene products creates obstacles for those of lower socio-economic backgrounds. Pronovost-Morgan questioned why menstrual products are not always accessible in public spaces, when other essential hygiene products are readily available. 

“The accessibility of toilet paper and soap is not a question that we ask ourselves,” Pronovost-Morgan said. “But how awkward would it be if you went into a public space and you did not have toilet paper?” 

A recent global movement has seen a push by several nations to eliminate period inequity. Following in the Scotish government’s footsteps, which passed The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill in Nov. 2020, the New Zealand government announced on February 2021 that the country will be making menstrual products free in schools. Part of New Zealand’s Youth and Wellbeing strategy legally requires local authorities to ensure that those who need menstrual products can obtain them for free. 

“This [legislation] is a completely new way of thinking about it, at least for me,” Pronovost-Morgan said. “When we started out we could not even conceive of a world where this is possible, but of course, we are drawing inspiration from Scotland and New Zealand.”

While Scotland and New Zealand are at the forefront of this movement, in the United States, 30 states still tax menstrual products as luxury items. In Canada, menstrual products are also taxed, but not as luxury items. Organizations like Period Packs and Period Promise have raised awareness in places like Ottawa and Vancouver, but no substantial systemic change regarding menstrual equity has occurred in Canada. 

Brooklyn Frizzle, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President University Affairs, is responsible for the coordination of menstrual hygiene products on campus. Frizzle discussed SSMU’s efforts to alleviate menstrual poverty during the pandemic.

“I can say that the SSMU Menstrual Hygiene Team has really made the best of a bad situation [by] reorienting our services away from our usual buildings and towards donations to community groups and campus services,” Frizzle said.

Plan International Canada claims that the pandemic has exacerbated the issue by highlighting a severe shortage of period products, a sharp rise in prices, and a lack of access to basic information all complicate period management for those already experiencing period poverty. 

Community organizations, such as Montreal women’s shelter Chez Doris, are making similar strides by offering home deliveries for menstrual products. Marina Boulos-Winton, executive director of Chez Doris, claims that donations of menstrual products during the pandemic have not waned. 

“Donations have been strong [and] people have been so generous.” Boulos-Winton said. 

In the past three years since their launch, Pronovost-Morgan said the Monthly Dignity team has faced roadblocks to achieving their goal of universal access to menstrual hygiene products.

“We are limited by funds and partnership arrangements,” Pronovost-Morgan said. “We have gotten to the point where we think the government should step in [because] the problem is much bigger than we thought.”Monthly Dignity plans on expanding its community outreach, and has recently partnered with Project 10, an organization that aims to support the wellbeing 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.

Montreal, News

Montreal Global Day of Climate Action march draws hundreds

by Joseph Pappas on

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On March 19, the Coalition étudiant pour un virage environnemental et social (CEVES) organized “Manifestation mondiale pour la justice climatique et sociale” (Global protest for climate and social justice). The march was part of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, which unites climate protesters worldwide each Friday to demand government action to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, and the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty over unceded lands. CEVES, a Quebec student organization, seeks to achieve racial, climate, and immigration justice in Montreal and worldwide.

The march, which saw over 300 people participate, began with a rally in Jean-Mance Park. Attendees gathered to demand carbon neutrality by 2030, the recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in Canada, and the defunding and demilitarization of police forces. 

Activist Janet Pilot from The Racial Justice Collective, a community organization that aims to create a better future for BIPOC youth, spoke about her work with students. Pilot emphasized the need to work collectively as a community to achieve climate and racial justice for the generations to come. She stressed that both the government and individuals have a role in combating systemic racism against Indigenous communities across Canada.

“We want to help our children in the right direction for our next generation,” Pilot said.* “We know that all of the systems are strong. Our government will not address these concerns, especially in the area of the health of our government [….] So, to send our children in the right direction for the next generation, it will take the help of everyone.”

The event focussed on climate and social justice, highlighting the voices of local activists—joined by socialists, communists, and nationalists alike—and their unique perspectives on the necessity for policy changes addressing the climate crisis. Nathalia Garcia, BA ’18, attended the march with Socialist Fightback at Concordia and McGill, an organization that aims to change the current cycles of economic production to pave the way for a sustainable future. Garcia urged that there was a distinct connection between climate change and capitalism.

“We are here to connect the struggle against climate change with the struggle against capitalism,” Garcia said. “I think that there’s a really clear link between everything that is going on with the environment and the way that we produce things. The people who make the decisions about production don’t really care about the environment, oil spills, green energy, or anything about the environment [….] Let’s put production in the hands of people who actually care about the environment and the people who actually feel the effects of the environmental collapse.”

According to Garcia, marches and mass politics play an important role in the fight for climate justice; change will only transpire from a collective force.

“I think protesting and mass action is very important, but it can’t just be random actions here and there,” Garcia said. “There has to be coordination. The labour movement has to get involved as well.”

Hady Anne spoke on behalf of Solidarity Across Borders, a Montreal-based migrant justice network. Anne described his organization’s goals regarding the intersectional fight for migrant and climate justice.

“We demand a strategy for all because we have a duty to act regarding the issues of environment, extraction, forest deterioration, the confiscation of Indigenous lands, but also of migration,” Anne said.*

Anne emphasized the critical link between the environmentally unsustainable policies of developed nations and the influx of migrants as a result of unstable living conditions in their home countries.

“They leave their countries because of the theft,” Anne said. “They leave their countries because there is this capitalism which extracts resources from their countries, which creates wars, and which displaces their people.”

*Note: The quotes from Hady Anne and Janet Pilot have been translated from French by the author.

News, SSMU

Darshan Daryanani claims SSMU presidency in narrowly passed election

by Ella Fitzhugh on

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The 2021-2022 Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) executive election polling period closed on March 19 at 5:00 p.m. EST, ringing in Darshan Daryanani, U3 Arts, as the  SSMU President-elect. Daryanani was elected with 1614 the electorate ranking him first on the ballot. The second-place candidate, Jake Reed, U2 Engineering, amassed 935 votes as the first-choice candidate. The election, which saw 3455 out of 22691 undergraduate electors vote, narrowly met the required quorum of 15 per cent.

Students also elected Claire Downie, U3 Arts, to be the next Vice-President (VP) University Affairs (UA)—the only other contested position in the running. Downie surpassed her opponent Neel Soman, U3 Arts, winning 60 per cent of the student vote.

VP Finance Éric Sader, VP Student Life Karla Heisele Cubilla, VP Internal Sarah Paulin and VP External Sacha Delouvrier, will make up the rest of the executive team.

Incoming SSMU President Daryanani’s platform centres on revamping student spaces, introducing student services like a SSMU smartphone application, advocating for marginalized students, and ensuring anti-oppression practices at McGill. Daryanani reflected on his campaign and detailed his goals in a statement to the Tribune.

“It has been an equally challenging and rewarding experience, and I cannot wait to begin the hard work of fulfilling my campaign promises alongside my peers at SSMU,” Daryanani wrote. “Throughout the past four years, I have witnessed the limitless resilience of McGill students. Over the next few months, I hope to consult with key stakeholders to coordinate a seamless transition and discuss plans for the coming term.”

Downie was elected VP University Affairs on her platform to advocate for the continuation of the expanded S/U policy for students, uphold COVID-19 safety guidelines in Fall 2021, and push for greater academic accessibility, especially for students with disabilities. Downie acknowledged the work of her predecessors.

“It felt very special to get to know new people during COVID, where meeting new people has been harder than most years,” Downie wrote. “I feel so lucky to have learned from Madeline and Brooklyn over the past two years [….] I am grateful for everyone who trusted me with this responsibility. I do not take this work lightly.”

Incoming VP Internal Paulin hopes to improve communication between different faculties and increase Francophone representation at McGill. Her platform focusses on ensuring safety during the transition back to in-person learning formats.

“I am so excited to get to work and create a more transparent campus during my time at SSMU,” Paulin wrote. “I hope the legacy I am able to leave is one of increased communication and a more accessible campus for all, particularly [for] first-year and Francophone students [….] My first course of action will be to create a timeline of events that will promote safety on campus while attempting to bring back a semblance of normalcy to campus.”

VP External-elect Delouvrier commended current VP External Ayo Ogunremi’s work and is looking forward to beginning his term.

“I would like to underline the high quality of the work that the incumbent, Ayo Ogunremi, has done,” Delouvrier wrote. “I look forward to advocating for student rights, conducting political affairs, and helping students transition back to in-person learning and activities, whether it is from the SSMU offices or directly on the streets as part of a mobilization effort.”

All but one of the Winter 2021 Referendum questions were passed with a “yes” vote, with 50.4 per cent voting against a proposed increase of the SSMU membership fee. The increased member fee would have gone toward providing hourly wages for student senators and councillors.

Commentary, Opinion

Fair labour at SSMU must include employees, not just councillors

by Zeke Bertrand, Mo Rajji Courtney, Noah Fisher, Belle Sullivan on

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Despite years of solidarity with unions, both on campus and beyond McGill, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has not shown the same grace to its own workers. After almost seven months of collective bargaining with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 5447, better known as the SSMUnion, the collective agreement is nowhere near complete.

Not having a collective agreement means that SSMU employees have not seen pay raises, changes to working conditions, increased benefits, reclassification of salaries, or stability in currently tenuous contractual employment. In sharp contrast, on March 16, voting opened for the SSMU Winter Referendum, in which one of the questions asks if students wish to pay their legislative councillors and senators by raising the SSMU base fee. While the SSMUnion is strongly in favour of paying councillors and senators, this should not come before dues-paying employees receive a collective agreement. 

When the initiative to pay councillors and senators was first announced, there was coordination and collaboration with the SSMUnion to propose the base fee increase as important for labour equity, for both the union and to pay councillors. This necessary augmentation of the base fee would have accommodated the future collective agreement to ensure that wages and benefits of current employees would increase as soon as the Fall 2021 term. Instead, SSMU’s bargaining team, composed of General Manager Daniel Dufour, President Jemark Earle, and Human Resources Director Khatera Noor, has dragged their feet throughout this unusually long bargaining process. 

The initially agreed upon timeline planned to close bargaining by the end of March, with the hopes that we could have estimates for a base fee increase in time for the Winter 2021 Referendum. Yet more than halfway into March, normative clauses, which focus on more operational aspects of working at the SSMU, still have not been closed. Financial clauses, which have to do with wages, benefits, and leave, have not even been discussed yet. These delays made it impossible to have a larger proposed base fee increase in time for the Winter 2021 Referendum. The currently proposed base fee increase is insufficient to cover SSMUnion demands.

While it is expected that the management of a workplace will have trouble seeing eye to eye on many issues in collective bargaining with its union, SSMU’s stubbornness has been exceptional.  They have wasted weeks of time throughout this process, attempting to re-open and entirely change closed and mutually agreed upon articles from months prior. SSMU has also been unwilling to compromise on industry-standard practices, such as providing employees with personal protective equipment or union seats on the Board of Directors and hiring committees.

Instead, they made offensive counter offers to SSMUnion demands, such as offering only one paid day of bereavement leave as opposed to five, and other “compromises” which amount to little more than the minimum requirements which the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) set out. If these minimums set out by the CNESST were anywhere near enough, there would be no need for the SSMU’s employees to have formed a union. 

While SSMU advocates for other workers, such as on-campus unions representing McGill employees, it has shown itself entirely unwilling to respect its own employees and their union. SSMU has demonstrated hypocrisy by excluding union involvement in decision-making processes. The importance of union involvement is essential to labour equity at SSMU, something that is often overlooked in viewing it only as a governance structure, rather than also as a workplace. The result of this drawn-out bargaining process is that SSMU legislative councillors may be granted fair wages before the SSMUnion has even been given the chance to demand specific wage reclassifications. 

Although the SSMUnion agrees with the motion to pay councillors, the timing of it is insulting and unjust to the over one hundred dues-paying SSMU employees who are still awaiting a collective agreement. SSMU’s priorities do a disservice to everyone. Students who put hope in organizations that claim to promote social justice deserve better. To do this, management must prioritize the needs and voices of its workers, and all of us, students and employees alike, must hold SSMU to their stated values.

McGill, News, SSMU

SSMU executive candidates debate safety and accessibility

by Ella Milloy on

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The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted the 2021-2022 SSMU Executive Candidates’ Debate virtually on March 15. After presenting their platforms, the candidates answered questions from current SSMU executives, the SSMUnion, and attendees. Four of the six executive positions, Vice-President (VP) Student Life, VP Finance, VP Internal, and VP External, are uncontested. Three candidates are running for SSMU President, and two candidates are competing for VP University Affairs. Safety, accessibility, and inclusivity were among the major themes that emerged from the candidates’ discussion.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, presidential candidate Mark Morrison, U2 Science, was unable to participate in the debate against opponents Jake Reed, U2 Engineering, and Darshan Daryanani, U3 Arts. The majority of the questions directed at Daryanani inquired about how his platform differs from current President Jemark Earle’s five-year plan. Daryanani stated that he intends to continue the work done by previous SSMU executives.

“I have acknowledged the tremendous labor that past and current executives have put in,” Daryanani said. “In no way am I trying to take credit for the work of these hard-working individuals. In fact, I am looking for their trust and support to continue to provide the long-term support that the Society needs.”

Reed shared their ideas on expanding the president portfolio’s advocacy role.

“Being able to plan on a long-term basis heavily plays into the advocacy portfolio,” Reed said. “I hope to work closely with the VP External to implement specific changes, such as the expansion of an external affairs and advocacy database, [and expand] roles in the portfolio that have to do with advocacy both in the External portfolio and the president’s outward-facing portfolio.”

With the university administration’s recent announcement of a return to in-person activities for the Fall 2021 semester, many candidates shared their plans for a smooth transition back to campus. Claire Downie, U3 Arts and VP University Affairs candidate, highlighted how she will ensure that McGill upholds COVID-19 safety protocols. 

“I would love to add a component of ‘Know Your COVID Rights and Responsibilities’ into the existing Know Your Rights Campaign that the [University Affairs] portfolio does every fall,” Downie said. “You have the right to an environment where your professors are wearing masks. You have a right to be in a room that is a safe size [….] I do not feel there is room for compromise on this.”

VP University Affairs candidate Neel Soman, U3 Arts, shared Downie’s concerns regarding the return to campus and emphasized the importance of having a system for reporting unsafe behaviour or conditions.

“My number one priority on this front is to make a very clear document that is accessible to everyone with lists of what the regulations are, how we can change them, and who [students] can talk to,” Soman said.

VP Internal candidate Sarah Paulin, U1 Arts, talked about using social media and linktree to share SSMU information and rebrand the Society as a place of inclusivity and transparency. Paulin, along with VP External candidate Sacha Delouvrier, U2 Arts, and VP Finance candidate Éric Sader, U3 Arts, stressed the importance of prioritizing francophone affairs. If elected, Delouvrier and Sader look to translate both the finance and external portfolios to ensure French alternatives of documentation.

VP Student Life candidate Karla Heisele Cubille, U2 Arts, closed the evening detailing her ideas for improved mental health services, alternative and accessible child care services for student parents, and the establishment of certifiable workshops to enhance student resumes. 

“From my personal experience, I know the people that go to [existing] workshops don’t pay attention because there is not much interaction,” Cubille said. “I really wanted to have this platform so everyone can access these workshops and actually use them [for] their future development.”

SSMU constituents are able to cast their votes for the 2021-2022 executive election and the Winter Referendum between March 16-19 at this link.

 

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

‘Minari’ waters down the Korean immigrant experience for the white gaze

by Judy Park on

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As a Korean Canadian who immigrated to Canada at age 12, I had high hopes for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari (2020), touted as a moving immigrant drama that tells the story of growing up Korean in 1980s Arkansas. Since its award-winning world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Minari has drawn immense critical acclaim. It appeared on the top movies of 2020 lists of 67 critics and took home the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film—a controversial categorization that warrants its own discussion. I was disappointed to find, however, that Minari ignores the complex subtleties inherent to the lived experience of the Korean diaspora in favour of a cliched “immigrant story” watered down for a white audience.

When you watch something that is supposedly a representation of your lived experience, you hope to see authenticity in its depiction, especially if representations of your identity are rare. Minari’s most glaring failure of authenticity comes from Steven Yeun’s portrayal of Jacob Yi, a recent immigrant from Korea who moves to Arkansas to start a farm with his family. Jacob speaks broken, accented English that implies Korean is indeed his first language; however, Yeun delivers his Korean lines with a noticeable North American accent that makes Jacob sound less like a seasoned Korean farmer and more akin to a modern-day Korean American, like Yeun himself. The director’s disregard for the delivery of Yeun’s Korean dialogue is even more striking since Yeun’s efforts to alter his fluent English into an accented one garnered critical praise for his verbal command and likely contributed to his Best Actor nods from SAG, Critics Choice, and the Academy Awards. Yeun’s acting in general, while otherwise qualified, nonetheless is compromised by his dialectal shortcomings. His linguistic incongruence was distracting enough to prevent me from fully engaging with his performance—a viewing experience more easily afforded to non-Korean and predominantly white audiences.

Minari further misrepresents Korean Americans in its oversimplification of Korean family dynamics and the enduring racism experienced by racialized people. The hardship and tension within the Yi family is clear throughout the film, but is often portrayed without regard for the nuanced implications unique to a Korean family. For instance, when Monica’s (Han Ye-Ri) mother moves in with the family in Arkansas, there is a complex yet inherent discord that is not addressed: Traditionally, due to Confucian influences in Korean culture, it is considered abnormal—even shameful—to have maternal grandparents living with one’s family. Chung relies instead on universal tropes that do not accurately depict the Korean immigrant experience to create Minari’s family conflict.

Similarly, depictions of racism toward the Yis are reduced to a single three-minute scene in which well-meaning but clueless white churchgoers deliver a series of microaggressions: A woman in her Sunday dress refers to Monica’s accent as “cute” in an inadvertently condescending manner, and a white boy named John asks David (Alan Kim) why his face is so flat right before inviting him for a sleepover—the seriousness of his racist remarks was alleviated by his childish good intentions. Chung forgoes the opportunity to thoroughly examine systemic racism against Asian Americans, and instead delivers one single, cliche scene with comical undertones to address racism in the entire film.

As an immigrant, the desire to temper one’s otherness to appease a white majority is all too familiar. Chung, an immigrant himself, appears unable to escape this desire even in the telling of his personal story, prioritizing the viewing experience of white audiences over that of the Korean Americans he hoped to represent in his film. While the recent surge of Asian American representation in cinema is undoubtedly positive, true representation will not be realized until filmmakers are able to embrace their cultural identity and represent it accurately without adapting it for the white gaze.

Arts & Entertainment, Gaming, Internet

‘Kind Words’ promotes compassion and honesty in the gaming community

by Dante Ventulieri on

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Video games often receive criticism for promoting toxic communities and hate-filled chats, but Kind Words offers something unique: An environment where gamers can lend a helping hand and seek input from peers. In a time of isolation, this friendly game has become a means of correspondence for thousands of people across the world.

Kind Words is a growing network of anonymous people offering or seeking support and spreading positivity. Unlike social media, which consumes its users’ attention with an endless feed and stream of notifications, Kind Words encourages mindfulness in each action: The player’s avatar sits at their desk and from there, they decide whether to write a request or respond to other gamers’ requests. Paper airplanes, which can be opened when clicked, are used to deliver positive thoughts and messages to other users. A virtual deer explains the game, makes announcements, and delivers the letters. 

The purpose of the game is not to meet people or make connections. There is no back-and-forth; once someone responds to a letter, they can receive a virtual sticker as a thank you, but they will never even know who sent it. The term “game,” in a traditional sense is a misnomer: There are no levels, challenges, or skills to learn, as instead its progression system consists of collecting stickers from others and using them to decorate your avatar’s room. 

Kind Words has created a safe space for its users, where anonymity encourages each player to speak about whatever comes to mind, whether personal or lighthearted. The game’s relaxed atmosphere and lo-fi soundtrack lulls its users. The conversation requests cover a wide range of topics, from stress and burnout in school to relationship issues.

Students make up the majority of the game’s playerbase. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Ziba Scott, the developer of Kind Words, explained why he believes the platform is popular for students.

“The student years of most people’s lives are often their most influential on their identities,” Scott said. “[It’s] a time in their life filled with a larger rotating cast of characters [….] Kind Words is a good fit for those kinds of mental [and] emotional exercises.”

While the game’s encouraged vulnerability sounds like a perfect invitation for trolls, Kind Words has done a great job keeping them at bay—in over four months of gameplay, I have yet to come across any. The game’s moderation tools and report mechanisms help to combat cyberharassment, but for Scott, the user interface of the game inherently prevents trolling.

“The structure of information flow in Kind Words makes it more like a river than a soup,” Scott said. “Most communication is directly between users and is one-way only. A shitty comment on YouTube sticks around, floats to the top and upsets everyone. In Kind Words, it washes away, seen by very few people, if any.”

The sort of vitriol Scott alludes to regarding YouTube comments are, in part, the inspiration behind the game. With a growing culture of political polarization and hate on social media, Scott and Luigi Guatieri, Kind Words’s designer, hope that the game will offer an escape centred on mindfulness and compassion.

“Lots of factors [pushed us to develop the Kind Words], but at the core of it was that it felt like a worthy use of our time in an increasingly cruel world,” Scott said.

For students experiencing the effects of social distancing or school burnout, Kind Words is worth exploring. With so much of our lives anchored in social media’s frenzy, the game’s tranquil atmosphere and low-commitment gameplay provides a much needed break. Currently, Scott does not intend to bring the game to a mobile platform because he feels it important to have a focussed and seated environment when playing. 

Kind Words is exclusively available on Steam and costs $5.69.

Features

For the love of indie bookstores

by Madison McLauchlan on

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Entering a small bookstore is like dropping a pebble into a calm pond. The ripples start immediately: The door bells chime a sound of greeting, prompting the lone cashier to look up and drawing disinterested glances from other customers. Outside air whooshes in, momentarily ruffling the pages of books on display. Brief greetings are exchanged as one settles in to browse the shelves of beloved novels, and the bookstore regains its serenity. 

 

Such was the scene at S.W. Welch, an independent bookstore in Montreal’s Mile End, on a cold March afternoon one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the capacity was capped at eight and customers were careful to respect social distancing in the store, the magic of searching through shelves of books for hidden gems remains an enchanting experience. 

 

This atmosphere of literary love in Montreal has been overshadowed by the looming threat of gentrification for several years. On Feb. 27, S.W. Welch’s owner, Stephen Welch, announced that an exorbitant rent hike may force the store to close. The news of the potential closure came as a shock to Montreal’s small non-essential businesses, which were only allowed to reopen stores on Feb. 8 after an extended lockdown. 

 

Before the pandemic, indie bookstores were already facing competition from big-box retailers that offer books alongside a range of other essential products. According to Charles de Brabant, executive director of McGill’s Bensadoun School of Retail Management, the retail industry had been diverging into two extremes for years. At one end of the spectrum are companies like Walmart and Amazon, which prioritize efficiency and convenience; at the other end, small, independent bookstores focus on customer experience and loyalty. Big-box book retailers like Indigo and Barnes & Noble found themselves stuck in the middle and shifted their focus to customer experience, cutting into the market for small bookstores. 

 

“During the pandemic, what ended up happening is that the convenience efficiency extreme thrived because those were the essential goods,” de Brabant said in an interview with //The McGill Tribune.// “Experience was mostly non-essential.” 

Science & Technology

Unravelling the engineering behind the Perseverance landing

by Youssef Wahba on

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On Feb. 18, physicists and engineers marked a new chapter in Martian history: A series of radio signals confirmed the touchdown of NASA’s Perseverance rover. Over seven months, the rover completed a 300 million mile journey to Mars, averaging a speed of about 12,000 miles an hour. 

The Perseverance Rover landed on the Jezero Crater, where it will search for signs of life by collecting samples of Martian soil. 

Montreal-born Dr. Farah Alibay is a NASA systems engineer who is part of the operations team for the Mars 2020 mission. The team was responsible for manufacturing, testing, and landing the Perseverance rover. 

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Alibay detailed the feats of engineering behind the mission, its main objectives, and how Perseverance differed from previous rovers sent to Mars.

“We think that about two billion years ago, Mars looked like Earth,” Alibay said. “It had an atmosphere, a magnetic field, [and] liquid water [….] About two billion years ago, Earth had microbial life. If there was life on Earth back then and Mars looked like that, there could have been life on Mars too, and that is what we are looking for.”

Perseverance shares many common technical features with its predecessor, Curiosity. Although Perseverance is almost 100 kilograms heavier than Curiosity, it cost almost 300 million dollars less to build. Other paramount differences between the two rovers include an upgrade in the number and quality of cameras on Perseverance. 

“Perseverance has an additional computer onboard and that is the Vision Compute Element, which allowed us to land on the Jezero Crater,” Alibay said. “The computer was taking images as we were landing, comparing them to a map, [and] allowing the rover to make decisions on board on how to divert the rover and to land.” 

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) also implemented a thicker aluminum wheel with a greater diameter, but a narrower width, allowing Perseverance to overcome the sharp Martian terrain. 

Perseverance is equipped with six more cameras than Curiosity and was designed to collect rock samples in a different manner. 

“Perseverance has a robotic arm that contains a set of instruments located on its end,” Alibay said. “One of which is a coring drill that will drill out a sample and transfer it to the Sample Caching System. Another robotic arm then inserts the samples into tubes and seals them.” 

One of the main goals of the mission is to test out a new technology: The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE). 

MOXIE aims to take in Martian air rich in carbon dioxide and pass it through a series of pumps that carries the gas to an electrode that extracts the oxygen. 

“If we are ever to send astronauts to Mars, then they are going to need oxygen,” Alibay said. “Not just to breathe, but as a rocket fuel to bring them back home.”

Aboard Perseverance is Ingenuity, a four-pound helicopter set to carry out the first controlled flight mission on another planet. The 0.49 metre-tall helicopter is powered by solar energy and will have to overcome a plethora of obstacles, like low atmospheric pressure and rocky Martian terrain, to carry out a successful flight. 

“If you are having only one per cent of atmosphere then you are not getting as much lift, so we had to come up with a system that is both really light but also rugged to survive the Martian environment,” Alibay said. “We are currently looking for a site to drop off the helicopter and once we have done that, we will drop it off, do the initial commissioning and then fly it. I am hopeful that will happen within the next couple of months.”

It has been decades since humans last set foot on a celestial body. Without a doubt, the Mars 2020 mission brings us one trip closer to a human mission to the red planet.

Know Your Athlete, Sports

Know your athlete: Charlene Robitaille

by Sophia Gorbounov on

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For Charlene Robitaille, U3 Science, athletics are about the spirit of the team and the pure excitement of each game. Robitaille sits near the top of the women’s volleyball team leaderboards, ranking in the top five of every category. However, the esteemed middle blocker did not seriously pursue volleyball until late in high school. 

“At first, my big sport was soccer, but then my best friends were playing volleyball and they told me to come [join them],” Robitaille said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “In my fourth year [of high school], I [switched] to a school with a better trainer and a better team so I could learn more.” 

Robitaille played through her final years of high school, developing her skills and her strength. She remained committed to volleyball at CEGEP Edouard-Montpetit and competed in the 2014 Jeux du Québec tournament, where Robitaille and her team took the victory. 

Robitaille has played on McGill’s volleyball team for three years, although she has not competed yet this year due to the suspension of all university sports. Robitaille reminisced on the energetic atmosphere that came with being surrounded by fellow athletes and enthusiastic fans.

“[The in-person games] are the thing I miss the most,” Robitaille said. “All the people there, all the other sports [teams]. We are friends with a lot of the other [teams]. The Friday nights were my favourite, [with] all the energy and all the spirit.”

Robitaille especially enjoys the camaraderie within sports teams at McGill and the supportive atmosphere on and off the court. 

“I like the relationships between every sport,” Robitaille said. “We go to see all the other sports teams play, they [attend] our games, [and] we get all this publicity on [social media]. I really love the atmosphere this creates.” 

As heavy lockdown measures in Quebec continue, Robitaille emphasized the importance of creating a schedule and following it. 

“I am doing a lot of training by myself, every day or every two days,” Robitaille said. “I do upper body, lower body, and I have weights as well. Training at home has always been something very important [to me]. I am doing it for my sport but I am also doing it for myself.”

However, pandemic restrictions have also allowed Robitaille to focus more on her academics, especially in a year as mentally taxing as this one. 

“I’m really trying to focus on school,” Robitaille said. “I’m trying to be attentive in all my classes and avoid only watching recordings [….] I tried last semester to only watch the recorded lectures and it really did not work, so I’m keeping to my schedule.”

Robitaille explained how her major in sports nutrition has positively impacted her athletic performance as she progresses to more advanced courses.

“Before, [my classes] were very general, like food chemistry and learning about proteins and enzymes,” Robitaille said. “This semester, I feel that [what we are learning] are things that I can use myself.” 

Learning about the roles of macronutrients has helped Robitaille improve her eating habits.  She explained how she modified her protein and carbohydrate intakes to fuel her activity and training levels.

Robitaille admits, however, that she has room to improve when it comes to cooking. 

“I cook a little bit,” Robitaille said. “I like to eat, but […] I did not have much time [for cooking] and was a bit lazy, but now I am trying to do a little bit more [….] I am in sports nutrition, so I need to be able to cook.”

Although university athletics remain uncertain for the upcoming year, Robitaille expressed her excitement to return to in-person practices and games.

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