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Basketball, Martlets, Sports

McGill Martlet basketball falls to Ryerson 80-79

by Micah Angell on

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From Oct. 12 to Oct. 14, the Martlets hosted the 24th annual Redbird Classic, featuring McGill, University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBC Okanagan), Ryerson University, and Bishop’s University. The Martlets beat UBC Okanagan 96-51 on Oct. 12 but fell 80-79 to the Ryerson Rams on Oct. 13.  

The Martlets started out strong against Ryerson, scoring the first basket and continuing their solid start with four three-pointers in the first minutes. They managed to balance these outside shots with some beautiful post play and showed off the depth of their bench. Head Coach Ryan Thorne made full use of preseason play, giving each player at least a full quarter of playing time.

“It’s funny [that the team has such good depth] because we started out the season with three injured players and nine people playing,” fourth-year guard Geraldine Cabillo-Abante said. “It’s definitely nice to have a full rotation now.”

Finishing up the first half, however, Ryerson was in the lead with a score of 41-40. The turn of fortunes was largely a result of some strong moves from Ryerson in the key that nobody from McGill could shut down.

In the third quarter, McGill moved the ball around the three-point line looking for shots to open up, but they were unsuccessful and only ended up flirting with shot clock violations. Though the Martlets matched Ryerson’s tight defence on the other side of the court, Ryerson widened the scoring gap by the end of the third quarter to 58-52.  

Although things were looking grim with the Martlets down 14 points midway through the final quarter, McGill’s full-court press gave them a fighting chance in the last minutes of the game. The defensive tactic is fitting the McGill team well.

“I feel like that’s my comfort zone,” second-year forward Kamsi Ogbudibe said. “I’m really long, so I get a lot of deflections. People don’t expect me to be so long, so I get a touch, and then my teammates are there to help.”

Ogbudibe dominated the turnover game, and she contributed everywhere else on the box score, too, as she finished with 11 points, five rebounds, and three steals.

The Martlets stayed focused and intense throughout the game, but, in the closing quarter, they brought a new ferocity to the floor.

“I was on the [bench], and I was so into it,” Cabillo-Abante said. “Defensively, the intensity, everybody just wanting the ball and playing together.”

The team hustled to close the 14-point gap in impressive fashion, but the Martlets could not get the final point necessary to tie up the game, ultimately losing 80-79. Despite their tough loss, the team’s future is bright.

“We’re getting better, from the first game to now,” Ogbudibe said. “We just need to do a better job of closing out. We’ll just keep growing.”

With six new players on the roster, Cabillo-Abante noted the importance of the preseason for their growth as a team.

“[There are] a lot of new girls on the team,” Cabillo-Abante said. “[We have] six vets and six rookies. From our first game to our game just now, we’ve already improved a lot from just starting to trust each other, but we still have a long way to go.”

It seems this improvement is something to watch for when looking toward the rest of the season.

“I’m pretty confident for what’s coming up this season,” Cabillo-Abante said. “We’ll just keep getting better.”

Quotable

“Steph’s [Stephanie Mondou] last three, she chucked it up, and I was like ‘Oh, here we go.’ It banked [in,] and I was like ‘Okay, let’s go!’” – Second-year forward Kamsi Ogbudibe on Mondou’s shot-clock-beating three-pointer in the game’s closing seconds.

Moment of the Game

With 24 seconds left in the game and the buzzer sounding, third-year guard Stephanie Mondou hit a three-point shot to move the score to 78-77 for Ryerson.

Stat Corner

Out of its 79 total points, McGill made 30 points off of turnovers.

McGill, News

McGill Health Clinic temporarily relocated amidst renovations

by Jacqueline Yao on

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The Student Health Clinic closed Oct. 9-12 and relocated to Brown Building Room 3100, where services resumed on Oct. 15. Extensive renovations are now underway to transform the former clinic area into the Rossy Student Wellness Hub, which will supplement the clinic with a common area and have space for outreach and peer support. Contractors plan to finish renovating ‘The Hub’ by late Spring 2019 in order for new health and wellness programs to launch in Fall 2019.

On Oct. 2, McGill’s Media Relations Office emailed students about the clinic closure. Although the clinic did not book any doctors or nurses for the week, it rescheduled dietician appointments and directed students with ongoing critical needs to nurses, who contacted the patients directly. The clinic closure disproportionately affected international students and others who are not eligible for Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), Quebec’s provincial health insurance, as doctors unaffiliated with Student Services charge high rates that patients have to pay out of pocket.

Owain Guinn, U2 Arts, is an international student with Type I diabetes and was unable to contact the clinic during its closure.

“As an international student with a serious medical condition, I need the health clinic’s help being put in touch with specialists in Montreal,” Guinn wrote in a message to The McGill Tribune. “After getting a referral from the [student] clinic, I did not get a call from a hospital to schedule my appointment. I needed to go back to the clinic to ask for more help, but was unable to because of the move.”

The McGill administration planned to install The Hub between Summer 2018 and Dec. 2018 but did not select a contractor until Sept. 13. Student Services confirmed the clinic closure and relocation dates internally on Sept. 18. According to Dr. Hashana Perera, director of the Student Health Services (SHS), the administration was forced to push back construction dates due to delays beyond its control.

“[The Hub] is a very large construction project with many moving parts and it depends on inputs from many different partners, both internal and external,” Perera wrote in an email to the Tribune. “However, we made sure that construction wouldn’t start during our busiest period, [which is] back to school until end of September, to minimize impact.”

The Health and Wellness Committee, comprised of student leaders, faculty, and staff, developed the action plan outlined in the The McGill Health and Wellness Report. Key upgrades to the system include ‘Access Clinicians’ to provide same day care and triage, a ‘virtual hub’ for booking appointments online, and a common area where students can relax while waiting for their appointments. Student Services also seeks to increase medical personnel in the new clinic. Martine Gauthier, executive director of Student Services, is confident that The Hub’s emphasis on access will simplify healthcare services for students.

“We’re […] not only connecting students to the right care at the right time but also monitoring and adapting care to get results,” Gauthier wrote to in an email to The Tribune. “We are currently working on tools to help students find health and wellness resources that are covered by their particular insurance plans as part of the Rossy Student Wellness Hub [initiative].”

The Medical Students’ Society of McGill (MSS) hopes that the university can continue to provide services for students ineligible for RAMQ. André Lametti, Medicine senator for SSMU, expects shorter wait times and more comprehensive service coverage from the new clinic.

“We’ll see if there is an improvement [with the new clinic], but it is impossible to judge its success solely based on the plan,” Lametti said. “[The MSS hopes] that the clinic gives access that the students need in a timely fashion, especially for [those] who don’t have [insurance].”

Science & Technology

Making the most of Montreal’s bag ban

by Makena Anderson on

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Plastic is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest threats to our planet. With over eight million tons entering the ocean annually, the United Nations warns that, by 2050, the ocean could contain more plastic materials than fish. At the beginning of 2018, the city of Montreal banned plastic bags to reduce its plastic waste, leading consumers to wonder whether reusable bags offer any significant environmental benefits.

People reuse plastic bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) more than might be expected. Whether they’re lining a trash can or being used to carry lunch to campus, the thin plastic bags serve a purpose. The ban therefore, may encourage consumers to purchase plastic garbage bags, offsetting some of the benefits of banning plastic bags in the first place.

Ideally, the ban might encourage more consumers to use reusable bags. However, even if they remember to bring to bring them, reusable bags aren’t completely cost-free either.

Cotton bags, a popular alternative to plastic, are available for only a few dollars each, but the cost of their production is immense. While they only make up a small percentage of the overall cotton production, according to the World Wildlife Fund the industry as a whole plays a significant role in land degradation, pesticide pollution, and water contamination. A study published by the United Kingdom Environmental Agency (EA) indicates that a cotton bag must be used 131 times to have a lower global warming potential than a HDPE bag.

Meanwhile, polypropylene (PP) bags are a friendlier alternative that need only be used 11 times to produce less greenhouse gas emissions than HDPE, according to the EA. These bags are durable and can easily be washed out between uses to reduce the risk of contamination.

However, studies indicate that shoppers are unlikely to be as committed as their bags. A 2014 report published by Clemson University shows that only 50 per cent of consumers who use PP bags use them enough times to be more environmentally-friendly than HDPE bags.

Ultimately, the onus lies on the consumer, who decides how committed they are to reusage. Kendra Pomerantz, the Zero-Waste coordinator at the McGill Office of Sustainability, hopes that, in addition to reducing plastic use, the ban will spark a greater change.

“The publicity generated by the ban is even more important than the direct effect of the ban itself in terms of advancing our societal conversation about single-use plastics and promoting major shifts in the way that we view disposable items,” Pomerantz wrote in a message to The McGill Tribune.

Pomerantz believes that the $0.15 charge on the new, thicker plastic bags will incentivize consumers to bring bags with them.

“In other cities, a small charge has been shown to be effective to reduce the use of plastic bags,” Pomerantz wrote. “It’s more about forcing shoppers to think about their bag use instead of it being simply a passive habit.”

To further reduce climate impacts, students should evaluate not only what kind of bag they’re using, but what they’re putting in them. By reducing weekly meat consumption, students can significantly lessen their carbon footprint.

Pomerantz also suggests looking into the resources offered at McGill.

“By joining a sustainability group or participating in a course, research project, or program, [students] can link up with other like-minded people and help contribute to larger initiatives,” Pomerantz wrote.

While the ban is a step in the right direction, a change in consumer behaviour is necessary before the City of Montreal sees any substantial improvements in its environmental impact.

Football, Men's Varsity, Private, Sports

McGill football falls to Laval 57-13

by Owen Gibbs on

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The McGill Redmen (1-5) struggled to move the ball in the annual Homecoming football game on Oct. 13 in a 57-13 loss to the Université Laval Rouge-Et-Or (7-0).

McGill opened the scoring seven minutes into the game when third-year kicker Findlay Brown kicked a 12-yard field goal. The field goal turned out to be the Redmen’s only lead of the contest, and Laval took care of things from that point on.

With just under five minutes left in the frame, a Laval wide receiver caught a pass and took it to the McGill end zone to put the Rouge-Et-Or ahead 7-3. The Redmen took a safety on their next possession, pushing the Laval lead to six and the momentum firmly over to the visitor’s side.

The Laval onslaught continued in the second quarter. They scored their first touchdown of the quarter after one minute and added another only 48 seconds later. Laval subsequently carried in a third touchdown and a pair of safeties, pushing the score to 34-3 in Laval’s favour by halftime.

The Redmen showed perseverance and powered out of the gates to start the third quarter. Third-year wide receiver Jeremy Sauvageau broke through the Laval defence to put McGill in scoring position and then took another pass into the end zone to raise his team’s score into double digits. Still, Laval wasn’t done; the Rouge-Et-Or scored a touchdown at the end of the third quarter to push the score to 41-10. Two fourth-quarter touchdowns rounded out Laval’s barrage of scoring. A last-minute field goal added to McGill’s tally, and the contest ended 57-13 in Laval’s favour.

Despite the score, it was not a hopeless afternoon for the Redmen. Laval, winner of five of the last 10 Vanier Cup Championships, is one of the best teams in USports football, and the McGill team put forward a strong effort against the tough opponent.

“We wanted to come in here with the mentality that we will make the playoffs, and [this] is one of our possible opponents,” Head Coach Ronald Hilaire said. “We wanted to show that we are a team that is going to come out and play for four quarters and be combative, and I think we showed that.”

The Redmen sit teetering on the edge of a playoff berth with two games remaining in the season. If they make it, first-place Laval would likely be their opponent.

Coach Hilaire also praised his team’s defensive play and special teams throughout the game, a sentiment reiterated by fourth-year linebacker Maxime Rouyer.

“On special teams, we did a really good job to tackle and respect our assignments,” Rouyer said. “Offensively and defensively, we did some good things, but there’s still a lot of things that just need work.”

Fourth-year linebacker Kamba Katchelewa agreed that his team’s unrelenting effort was notable, even in a tough loss.

“We just kept playing until the end,” Katchelewa said. “I think we made a few mistakes, but we still came back to our game.”

Moment of the game

McGill quarterback Dimitrios Sinodinos completed a pass to Jeremy Sauvageau for a 61-yard catch-and-run to get the Redmen into scoring position.

Quotable

“Ultimately, we scored on one of the best defences in the conference, so we’ve got to take that as a positive going into the next game.” – Coach Ronald Hilaire on his team’s offensive performance

Stat corner

Sinodinos completed 17 passes for 223 yards, his highest totals of the season.

McGill, News

Concordia becomes first Canadian university to name an engineering faculty after a woman

by Nina Russell on

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On Sept. 24, Concordia University made history by becoming the first Canadian university to name its engineering faculty after a woman. The decision to rename the faculty the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science came after engineer and entrepreneur Gina Cody, a Concordia alumna, donated $15 million to the university to increase the visibility of underrepresented groups in the engineering field.

Cody immigrated to Canada from Iran in 1979 after obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Aryamehr University of Technology in Tehran. She was one of the only women in her cohort and became the first woman to graduate from Concordia with a building engineering PhD in 1989. Cody worked relentlessly over the next 30 years to establish herself as a leader in the field and was named one of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs in 2010.

“I would go to a meeting where there were 700 men, and I would be the only woman in that conference,” Cody wrote in a press release from Concordia about the renaming. “I was respected for who I am because of my knowledge and understanding of the area of my practice.”

Cody hopes that her donation will provide for future generations by adding three new research chairs, providing scholarships, and financing new equity initiatives.

McGill is experiencing its own reckoning with regards to renaming buildings, teams, and scholarships with inappropriate historical connotations. To address these concerns, the McGill Senate established the Working Group on Principles of Commemoration and Renaming in January 2018 to guide its policies. In an email to The McGill Tribune, the Working Group co-chairs Robert Leckey, professor and dean in the Faculty of Law, and Anja Geitmann, professor and dean in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, underlined the importance of names to an institution’s identity.

“Names of buildings and faculties carry and instill a sense of place and a sense of history and are therefore of crucial importance for an institution,” Leckey and Geitmann wrote. “If buildings of an institution are exclusively named after individuals that belong to a certain group, students that do not belong to this group may lack a role model that illustrates the path to professional success and visibility.”

Amin Bouabdellah and Constantina Roumeliotis, vice-president external affairs and president of the Engineering and Computer Science Association of Concordia (ECA), are optimistic about the positive impact the renaming will have.

“Gina Cody’s story reaffirms the fact that engineering is not at all a field exclusively for men,” Bouabdellah and Roumeliotis wrote in an email to the Tribune. “We’re hoping that the renaming of the school will send a message to girls all over Canada and the rest of the world: That they can succeed in the field and that the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science will give them all the tools they need to achieve their success.”

By changing the cultural conditions that lead to underrepresentation in certain fields, the ECA hopes to emphasize the diversity that already exists and foster a more inclusive environment in the future.

“We want to create a culture that’s open and welcoming to everyone at Concordia, and, in order to do so, that can sometimes mean changing the way things have been done in the past,” Bouabdellah and Roumeliotis wrote. “As student leaders, we need to be mindful of the diversity that exists in Engineering, and we’re always looking for ways to make everyone feel welcome and a part of the engineering community at Concordia.”

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

The Sweetest Swing in Baseball sparks dialogue about the healthcare system

by Nicholas Raffoul on

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The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, directed by Emily Sheeran (U3 Arts), currently playing at Morrice Hall until Oct. 20, centres around the failures of the mental health system. Written by Rebecca Gilman, Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre (TNC)’s production presents an unfiltered account of a suicidal painter’s struggle with manoeuvring both the art world and the healthcare system.

The play follows Dana (Maria Jimenez, U2 Arts), a 30-something artist, as she crumbles into a depressive spiral brought on by the collapse of her personal life and the unrelenting pressure from her peers to produce consistently stunning art.

When a suicide attempt forces Dana into a 10-day stint at a rehabilitation centre, she fakes a more serious mental illness—multiple personality disorder—to extend her stay. After reading his self-help book, Dana decides to assume the identity of baseball player Darryl Strawberry.

Jimenez is convincing in the role of Darcy, effortlessly switching between her two personas, while trying to reclaim her love for painting. Her performance never stretches credibility in an otherwise-unbelievable plot.

The minimalist setting—only a few chairs and easels serve as backdrop—directs the audience’s attention toward her emotional journey and her progression into a new stage of her life. No location is visually-distinguishable from another, which gives the actors more responsibility in activating a sense of setting.

At the rehab centre, Dana spends time with Gary (Aidan Dmytriw, exchange student), a sociopath memorable for his dark humour and tense monologues, and Michael (Antoine Guimbal, U2 Arts), an alcoholic. The chemistry between Jimenez and Guimbal shines through in their characters’ budding friendship. Michael, whom Guimbal plays with striking genuineness, is Dana’s only true support, and a trustworthy listener and ally.

Dana’s art dealer, Erica (Arielle Shiri, U2 Arts), on the other hand, embodies the trope of the well-intentioned friend lacking in sufficient empathy. Dana and Erica have a complicated relationship: Erica sees herself as Dana’s friend, yet, to Dana, Erica represents commerce, obligation, and the harshness of the art world. The play’s dialogue conveys their relationship effectively; Shiri fully commands the stage and excellently portrays subtle frustration in her inability to get Dana to open up to her.

Sheeran’s decision to have all actors, with the exception of Jimenez, play two roles was deliberate and effective. The creative choice brings out similarities between characters, drawing parallels between Dana’s experience with the healthcare system and the art world.

Caitlin Heiligmann (U2 Arts) plays Rhonda, a cut-throat art dealer, and Dr. Gilbert, Dana’s skeptical psychologist—two characters who represent barriers to Dana’s ambitions, inside and outside of the rehabilitation centre.

The Sweetest Swing in Baseball manages to broach the topic of mental health thoughtfully without sensationalizing it. The script is peppered with light humor to paint a bittersweet portrait of an artist coming to terms with her own setbacks. In the midst of a cultural conversation about mental health, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball finds its place within campus discourse.

TNC’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball is playing until Oct. 20 in Morrice Hall in the Islamic Studies Building, 3485 Rue McTavish. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 general admission.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

A search for space and community after the SSMU Building closure

by Leanne Young on

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The Students; Society of McGill University (SSMU) Centre has been the heart of student life at McGill since its completion in 1965. From napping in the lounge, to grabbing a drink at Gerts Bar, to popping by the Peer Support Centre for a chat, the centre was students’ go-to for virtually anything.

When the building closed for renovations in March 2018, the community hub it provided also disappeared. Clubs and services have been forced to relocate off campus, Gerts is no longer a weeknight option, and students have become increasingly frustrated and confused. In this hectic period, SSMU now needs to reweave the threads of the student community.

“We are trying to alleviate the issues as much as we can,” SSMU President Tre Mansdoerfer said. “I want to emphasize that it’s a team effort, and we’re all trying to make sure people aren’t impacted [by the building closure] as much as they could be.”

Without a hub for students to access many of SSMU’s clubs and services, it has become increasingly difficult for students to find their favourite clubs or  discover a new place to meet up with fellow students. Finding a community space on campus helps students balance their academic and social lives while at university. Without a meeting place, it has become difficult for new students to become involved in the campus goings-on.

“There’s a severe imbalance between studying all the time and just not getting involved at all because you feel like classes are just pounding down on you,” Cody Esterle, SSMU Vice-President of Student Life said. “Involvement is really key because you find a community and people who like [the same] things you do [….] In terms of how people can find their community, they can’t walk around the university centre and hang out there anymore, and that’s really a shame, but it’s just not going to be possible this year.”

Students are feeling the impact of the building closure every day. It’s an inconvenience for everyone, but it’s not a hopeless situation. Although every SSMU member is counting down the days until the building opens again, there are still ways for students to become involved in the McGill community.

For students, clubs offer a space to convene outside of class and help them develop closer bonds with their peers. From art to politics, there is an extracurricular out there for everyone. Regardless of skill set, students can join university clubs to extend their social networks and try something new. Joining an extracurricular activity can help students who feel isolated meet like-minded people with common interests and unwind after a long day of hard work. Experiences from extracurriculars are what most students will remember after graduation, so it’s important to get out there and create valuable memories.

Even clubs for which building space is essential to their operations continue to service the community. Students need only check SSMU’s building closure website to see where these clubs are now located. The Plate Club is based out of Peel Street, Midnight Kitchen is servicing students out of their Saint-Henri kitchen, and the Players’ Theatre will temporarily stage productions at the Mainline Theatre.

Attending campus activity fairs, where there are plenty of student groups and representatives present, is a valuable first step. Activities Night takes place during the first couple weeks of each semester.Attendees are often surprised to discover the eclectic range of clubs and communities available on campus. Starting with small steps—such as attending events like Activities Night, a club’s welcome event, or SSMU’s biannual Volunteer Fair—students can form friendships and survey a variety of interests while exploring a new community.

For those looking to get involved more promptly, a full list of university clubs is available on SSMU’s website year-round. Among the more unusual offerings are the McGill Students’ Circus Collective, McGill Students’ Wine Society, and McGill Students’ Astronomy Club. With over 250 extracurriculars available for students to explore, there are plenty of opportunities for them to find their niche.

Ultimately, community is defined by the people who are a part of it, not where its office is. Even though there isn’t a physical building to house a student hub anymore, the people are still here. The core of the McGill community always has been here, and it always will be.

“I don’t think the community finds itself through a specific group or a specific building. It’s the connections you make,” Esterle said. “I really hope that the 7,500 people who attended Activities Night this year have been able to find some of those connections, even if it was just a five-minute conversation. Maybe, it will be a longer conversation the next time they see them at the next event. I don’t think that the entire community is found through the building. I think it’s just found through the people.”

External affairs require internal dialogue
Editorial, Opinion

External affairs require internal dialogue

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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2018 has seen politics play out on social media, and the world of student government is no exception. On Oct. 2, the day after the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) won a majority mandate in the provincial election, then vice-president (VP) External of the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Marina Cupido posted a statement on the SSMU External Affairs Facebook page fiercely criticizing the party, alleging xenophobia and affiliations with white supremacists. Cupido resigned eight days later, citing mental health concerns.

In response to Cupido’s post, SSMU Legislative Councillors Bryan Buraga, Andrew Figueiredo, Brandon Hersh, and Haoyi Qiu submitted a Motion Regarding Responsible Representation. The motion is critical of Cupido’s post, and proposes that SSMU executives only publish statements through official SSMU channels if mandated by the Legislative Council, Executive Committee, a referendum, or a General Assembly motion. While formally requiring executives to consult with their colleagues before taking official stances is necessary, the way the motion sets out to implement such consultation would compromise SSMU’s ability to function.

Although Cupido’s strong language was ill-advised, their sentiment was valid given that the CAQ was elected on a platform that targets immigrants and religious minorities. The amended statement posted to the SSMU External Affairs Facebook page reiterates much of Cupido’s original post. Most severely lacking from Cupido’s post is evidence to substantiate their claims about the CAQ’s policies and affiliations. It is inappropriate for an elected student representative to make such inflammatory claims without proper citation. However, while the post could have relied more rigorously on fact, the VP External’s role is explicitly political and often requires pushing boundaries. For example, in April 2018, then VP External Connor Spencer accused McGill of violating Bill 151, An Act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions, in a letter to the Quebec Minister for Higher Education.

The Councillors’ motion is an attempt to ensure responsible representation of the student body’s  opinions. This is a laudable goal, but in reality, it is more of a reactive response than a calculated solution. Its retraction of Cupido’s original post undermines the legitimate points Cupido raised and fails to mention the racist backlash the post received. Moreover, the motion only adds to SSMU’s bureaucratic burden. SSMU executives should not ask the Legislative Council to adjudicate their disputes for them: It is the executives’ responsibility to keep their council functioning. Going forward, the most important step for SSMU is consultative communication within the Executive Committee. Continuing existing measures such as regular listserv emails and office hours is important, but student participation is limited. Many students see student governance as remote and inconsequential, and finding ways to engage their membership will allow SSMU to better represent the student body as a whole.

SSMU hasn’t announced whether they will hold a by-election for a new VP External, but it is crucial that they do so and that they begin this process as soon as possible. As SSMU’s link to external organizations like the provincial government, the VP External is an indispensable member of the Executive Committee, and the portfolio’s responsibilities are too vast to be redistributed among its remaining members. The advocacy efforts of past VP Externals have been invaluable to the McGill community: In addition to Connor Spencer’s work, 2011–12 VP External Joël Pedneault directed SSMU’s participation in the Quebec student strike.

With the emergence of racist, anti-immigrant, and discriminatory rhetoric in the Quebec election, McGill students need a focused executive to lobby for student rights and advocate for minorities in a way that is representative and responsible. Electing a new VP External who will commit to open consultation with students and executives is essential to making this goal a reality.

News, SSMU

SSMU VP External Marina Cupido resigns

by Andras Nemeth on

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The executive board of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) is one member short as of Wednesday. On Oct. 10, SSMU announced the resignation of vice-president (VP) External Marina Cupido in a statement emailed to SSMU members by VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin, which cited mental health concerns as the cause of Cupido’s resignation. The statement, also posted on the SSMU website and signed by Cupido and the remaining members of the SSMU executive committee, included plans to address the vacancy of the position at an Oct. 18 Legislative Council meeting.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Cupido confirmed that their decision to resign arose from the unhealthy strain of the position’s workload.

“Being in this job literally became a threat to my physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing,” Cupido said. “A large part of that is because this job is ridiculous [….] There need to be structural changes at SSMU that, among many other things, make it possible to be a VP, to be an executive and [to] be healthy, and have a life beyond work.”

At the SSMU Legislative Council meeting on Oct. 11, SSMU President Tre Mansdoerfer expressed regret at Cupido’s resignation and assured council members that a proposal on how to respond to the resignation was forthcoming.

Cupido became involved in controversy after publishing a post on the SSMU VP External Affairs Facebook page on Oct. 2 which described the recently-elected Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government as ‘racist’ and ‘xenophobic.’ Although SSMU issued a statement on Oct. 11 reaffirming the sentiment, but apologizing for the language of Cupido’s post, Cupido told the Tribune that they did not regret publishing it.

“If I were writing a political science paper about the CAQ, I would describe it with a lot of the same language but also with more nuance,” Cupido said. “But I wasn’t [….] I honestly don’t regret posting that, I think that it was the right thing to do, I think it was called for and appropriate and basically fair. And I wish that SSMU was an institution where that was the norm.”

While Cupido is the first SSMU executive to resign this academic year, two executives, VP Finance and VP Operations and Sustainability, resigned during the prior academic year. In an email to the Tribune, McLaughlin concurred with Cupido’s statements regarding the strenuous workload of SSMU VPs and said that he hoped McGill students would be sympathetic given the body’s history of resignations.

“The sad reality is that executive resignations have become a staple of a typical year,” McLaughlin wrote. “As much as some people might think that resignations are often the result of politics and interpersonal issues, the reality is that executive roles are practically designed to cause resignations; the positions inexorably lead to burnout and issues of both mental and physical health. It’s easy to pass judgment and point fingers, but I’d encourage students to consider that executives are people, too.”

Cupido argued that the position of VP External would be easier to manage if the SSMU student positions under the External Affairs portfolio were expanded.

“To varying degrees, none of the student staff have enough hours,” Cupido said. “The VP External job has a lot of very disparate parts and having more of a team running those projects would be better [….] A [good] place to start would really be investing more in the team that does this job.”

Creative

Tribune Presents: Ivytide

by Tony Wang & James Collier on

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The Tribune team sits down with the boys from Ivytide to hear a couple tracks off their new EP!

“Ivytide is an Indie Psychedelic/RnB band formed in Montreal, Canada in March 2018. Members Nathan Gagné (Vocals/Guitar) and Jamie Snytte (Guitar) met at Avbury Studios where they started to develop chemistry in their songwriting. Jamie recruited the rest of the members Kyle Ruggiero (Bass), Adam Nutbey (Keys), and John Zambito (Drums). Ivytide released their debut EP “Bloom” on August 24th. The band draws much of its inspiration from artists such as Frank Ocean, Homeshake, Childish Gambino and Mac Demarco.

Find “Bloom” here:

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2w7oY7G
Apple Music: https://apple.co/2NeKUUJ
Youtube: https://bit.ly/2BKRfpQ”

Video by Tony Wang, James Collier, and Tristan Surman

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