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Student Life

Spotlight on McGill’s women alumni

by Lucy Keller on

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To celebrate Women’s History Month, The McGill Tribune has compiled a list of inspiring female alumni to acknowledge the work of our predecessors. While the list is far from complete, all the women included below have left a significant mark within their field and continue to inspire current students in their journeys. 

Rosemary Brown (BA ‘55) 

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Rosemary Brown immigrated to Canada in 1951 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in social work at McGill. After completing her undergraduate degree at McGill and her master’s at the University of British Columbia, Brown became involved in activism and helped found the British Columbia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and Voice of Women. In 1972, Brown became the first Black woman to hold public office as a member of the British Columbia Legislature. Even after her retirement from politics in 1988, she dedicated her career to anti-racism and women’s rights, serving as the CEO of MATCH International Women’s Fund and promoting social, economic, and political advancement for women internationally. 

Paula Ann Cox (BA ‘80) 

After graduating from McGill with a political science degree in 1980 and returning to her hometown in  Bermuda, Paula Ann Cox began an impressive political career. In 2010, after serving in Bermudan Parliament for 14 years and winning the title of “the most effective politician” in the Best of Bermuda Gold Awards three times, Cox became the leader of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party and was eventually appointed premier of Bermuda. After serving as the Premier for two years, she continued her activism as a lawyer. In 2014, Cox was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her years of service. 

Sheliah Martin (Bachelor of Common Law ‘81)

Born and raised in Montreal, Supreme Court Justice Sheliah Martin earned a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill University in 1981. She then attained a Master of Laws and Doctorate of Juridical Science at the University of Alberta and University of Toronto, respectively. When she was called to the bar in Alberta, she used the word “person” instead of “man” in her oath, defying the gendered norm. After an impressive 30-year career in law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Martin to the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2017. 

Dr. Joanne Liu (M.D.,C.M. ‘91, IMHL ‘14)

After earning a M.D.,C.M. (Medicinæ Doctorem et Chirurgiæ Magistrum) degree at McGill, Dr. Joanne Liu completed pediatric specialty training at Université de Montréal, subspecialty training in pediatric emergency care at New York University, and an International Masters for Health Leadership at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management. After spending 20 years in a variety of roles at Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF), she was elected internal president. During her time at MSF, Liu provided medical support to vulnerable communities across the world, including Malian refugees in Mauritania after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, and Haitians during the cholera outbreak. Liu also developed one of the first programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo to offer comprehensive medical care for survivors of sexual violence. In 2015, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People after she spearheaded an effective response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa. 

Mariame Kaba (BA ‘92) 

A self-described activist, organizer, and curator, Mariame Kaba has made her mark on the world since she graduated with a sociology degree in 1992. Kaba’s work focusses on ending gender and race-based violence, dismantling the prison-industrial-complex, prioritizing transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development. She has founded, co-founded, and directed several grassroots organizations in Chicago and New York City including Project NIA, the Chicago Freedom School, and the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, among others. Since the first ‘Black Grad’ ceremony at McGill in 2019, the Mariame Kaba Prize in Leadership & Community Service, which includes a minimum of $1,000, has recognized a student for their commitment to community service. 

Student Life

‘Raising Spirits’ game uncovers 1950s McGill student life

by Wendy Zhao on

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While the McGill community remains geographically fragmented, the McGill Library’s alternate reality game Raising Spirits: A Timely Diversion invites students to converge virtually on campus sites and experience them anew. Featuring artifacts drawn from McGill’s library archives, the game resurrects marginalized figures from the university’s past and narrates their stories across space and time. The project seeks to give players a sense of shared identity rooted in this year’s online learning format. On March 18, the McGill Library released the third instalment of Raising Spirits, which highlights McGill student life in the 1950s. 

Paul Davarsi, BA ‘95, educator and creative director of Raising Spirits, described the game’s objectives in a panel discussion on its creation.

“We approached it with a […] spirit of trying to bring students from around the world who would not be on campus […] and give them a sense of place,” Davarsi said. 

To preserve the fun of discovery for new players, Nathalie Cooke, associate dean of McGill Library and the game’s producer, was hesitant to give spoilers. The games are designed to surprise players, revealing the histories of characters obscured from McGill’s past while taking students to campus spots such as Roddick Gates and various McGill libraries.

Raising Spirits is a collaborative project between archivists, graphic designers, librarians, and programmers that draws on McGill’s archives to create multimedia puzzles throughout its narratives. As players hunt for clues in digital space, they are given the experience of investigating library collections themselves.

The first installation of the game was released on Aug. 27 for Frosh activities, but it has since drawn interest from a wider audience beyond first-year students. Cooke expressed the team’s surprise at the game’s popularity in an interview with The McGill Tribune.  

“Graduate students loved it,” Cooke said. “Grown-ups loved it. Journalists and teachers were curious. Other librarians tried it. People who have never played digital games before tried it.”

The upcoming installation will allow players to explore student life in the 1950s through a trivia game hosted by Marty the Martlet.   

“We’ve got stories that people have never heard about, different kinds of students and graduates that people have never heard about, unusual professors from different generations and places,” Cooke said. “It’s going to be a real surprise for people who know the history of McGill as just William Osler, James McGill, and William Dawson.”

Aeron MacHattie, an archivist on the narrative design team, spoke to the game’s creators’ goal of spotlighting McGill’s marginalized histories. 

“Because archival reflections reflect the people in power, often these collections are very white-centred,” MacHattie said in a panel discussion. “So other histories […] of Black, Indigenous, queer, or working-class people aren’t as visible,” 

The third installation’s more recent scope grants living historical characters agency over the representation of their histories by allowing them to be collaborators themselves. McGill’s first Black Carnival queen Beryl Rapier––then Beryl Dickinson-Dash––for instance, is featured in the upcoming edition to describe campus experience in her time. 

Raising Spirits is centred around the theme of disruptions: The first two installations featured Amy Redpath Roddick, a McGill benefactor whose family was the subject of an unsolved Canadian murder mystery in the early 20th century, and Maude Abbott, a medical librarian who was denied entry McGill into McGill’s medical school in 1899 because of her gender.

Hannah Deskin, a collaborator on the narrative design team, described the autonomy that the game provides players. 

“We wanted to create a narrative that allowed students to feel like they were ridding the campus of a mysterious scourge or disruption,” Deskin said. “We hoped that putting the fate of the campus in their hands would allow them a sense of efficacy in a moment when many feel rather powerless.”

Raising Spirits itself records the present moment for the McGill community. For future players, the games will evidence current feelings of isolation and the need for some simple, light-hearted fun. 

Sports

In conversation with Dick Pound

by Adam Burton on

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Richard Pound is by far one of McGill’s most notable student-athlete alumni. During his time at McGill, Pound earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce and graduated on the Dean’s list, won the Canadian swimming freestyle championship four times, placed sixth representing team Canada at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and took home one gold, two silver, and one bronze medal at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Since his graduation in 1962, Pound has served as vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and founded the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). As the former president of WADA, Pound has clashed with notable organizations, such as the NHL, the Russian Olympic Team, and even individuals, including Lance Armstrong, over their unlawful use of performance-enhancing drugs. 

From his experiences as an Olympic athlete and through his work with anti-doping organizations, Pound strongly believes in ensuring a competitive but level playing field for all athletes. 

“It was important for me to do whatever I could to help the next generation enjoy the fun that I had as an athlete,” Pound said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Since Pound’s days as a collegiate athlete, the world of competition has only intensified, with an expansion of collegiate and professional sports on an international level. The development track for student athletes has only become more fraught with complications. 

“I would say that there’s a lot more money in the system now,” Pound said. “That means that you can actually carry on competing until you’re well into your thirties [….]  Back when I was doing it, when you finished McGill, you had to go to work.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency has made major progress in the fight against large-scale doping since its founding in 1999. High-profile cases, like the mass doping by the Russian Olympic team in the 2018 Winter Olympics and doping by professional cyclists in the early 2000s, resulted in independent investigations that confirmed their use of performance-enhancing drugs. The former ensued in Russia being banned from the next two Olympic games. Despite these strides toward fairness in sport, Pound emphasized that there is still much work to be done.

“People have asked me, ‘When do you declare that you’ve won the fight against doping in sport?’” Pound said. “The answer to that is, you can’t change human nature. There are always going to be people out there that do not care [about] what they promised. They do not care what the rules are. But if you can get 99.9 per cent of the athletes not to do it because it’s dangerous, and because you are breaking a promise you’ve made to your fellow competitors, [you will] be doing [it] right.”

Following his years spent trail-blazing the fight against doping, Pound remained in Montreal, where he worked as a tax attorney and authored several books that reflect his time as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. 

When ruminating on his storied life, Pound attributes much of his work ethic to his time spent as a student athlete at McGill. 

“[Being a student-athlete] rounds out your academic progress and certainly teaches you to manage your time better,” Pound said. “I went through almost my entire first year at McGill at the age of 16. I was totally immature, socially and all that kind of stuff, but […] I could compete and learn from folks that were all older than I was.”

Pound believes strongly in pursuing what is right—a value he was taught from a young age. 

“A lesson I remember from school was, ‘if it’s wrong, it’s wrong, even if everybody’s doing it. If it’s right, it’s right, even if nobody’s doing it.’”

McGill, News

Student Wellness Hub plans to offer hybrid in-person and virtual services in Fall 2021

by Madison Edward-Wright on

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, McGill’s Student Wellness Hub has adapted its services to an online format. With in-person learning halted for the year, counselling appointments have been held remotely and wellness activities—such as art nights and behavioural therapy sessions—are being conducted via Zoom. The McGill Tribune looked into how the Wellness Hub is preparing to transition back to in-person services. 

Between November and December 2020, Student Rights Researcher and Advocacy Commissioner (SRRAC) Adrienne Tessier surveyed 393 students on their experiences during the pandemic to inform the SSMU on how to address student needs in the coming semester. While results of this study are ongoing, Tessier and Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) University Affairs (UA) Brooklyn Frizzle shared some preliminary results with The McGill Tribune. Approximately 85 per cent of respondees experienced “Zoom fatigue” from online learning and another 85 per cent of students reported burnout. 

At the onset of the Fall 2020 semester, appointments with healthcare professionals transitioned online in response to the changing COVID-19 situation in Montreal and relied on virtual platforms like Zoom, Maple, and Dialogue. One-on-one appointments with Wellness Hub counsellors were also hosted virtually through online platforms. Starting in the Fall 2021 semester, the Wellness Hub plans to deliver support through a hybrid system of both virtual and in-person services.

“We look forward to bringing as many services as possible back to campus as soon as public health guidelines permit us to do so,” Media Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle said on behalf of McGill University. “In addition to our in-person services, we hope to continue offering virtual supports, as they have been very well received.”

One virtual tool that will remain in the hybrid system is Keep.meSAFE, a free 24/7 online mental health application available through the My SSP website that connects students to counsellors. According to Mazerolle, Keep.meSAFE will continue to be offered during Fall 2021 because of its wide reaching accessibility. Frizzle also noted that Keep.meSAFE has proven to be reliable during the pandemic.

“The pandemic has made healthcare inaccessible to many students […] and Keep.meSAFE ha[s] been useful for […] students abroad,” Frizzle wrote. 

The Wellness Hub staff are currently discussing which services should continue to be offered remotely and which should be held in person. SSMU Mental Health Commissioner Julia Caddy said the Society is advocating for the continuation of online resources, as the survey found them efficient in reducing wait times and expanding accessibility. 

“The biggest initiative moving forward really needs to be about communicating the opportunities available to students both in terms of accessible programming at the [Wellness] Hub [and] unique resources throughout the community,” Caddy said.

As research has shown, students’ mental health has suffered over the past year. Caddy mentioned that during the Winter 2021 semester, the volume of students requesting support at the Wellness Hub was higher than what was manageable. 

“It is no secret that the mental health services at the [Wellness] Hub and in our larger community are being pushed to capacity right now,” Caddy said. “In fact, they already were before the pandemic. We really hope to [raise awareness about] the vast array of health promotion activities, group opportunities, and more that the [Wellness] Hub has to offer.”

In addition to raising awareness about the mental health programs offered by the Wellness Hub, SSMU Mental Health is currently looking into other possible long term solutions to student mental health needs.

“A real solution requires working on a systemic level to create supportive environments in our daily life, to equip individuals and those around them with the skills to manage and respond to mental health [needs],” Caddy said. 

 

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.

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