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Campus Spotlight, Student Life

Midterms & mental health: Alternative student resources

by Anna Sixsmith on

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It’s that time of year again: Midterm season. McLennan library  now has permanent tenants, and the weekly Tokyo outing is declined with, “Sorry, I have to study.” Due to the added academic pressures, midterm season sees a great increase in demand for mental health services—a need that isn’t easily satisfied at McGill. In addition to the classical Counselling Services, students have access to a variety of alternative mental health resources to assist them during particularly stressful weeks. The McGill Tribune spoke with SSMU Vice President (VP) Student Life Cody Esterle about these services and resources.

Peer Support Center

Esterle’s first suggestion was the Peer Support Centre, which offers a space for McGill students to speak to a trained peer mentor about any issues they are experiencing. Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Peer Support Centre is accessible for those wanting a discreet, anonymous conversation; they accept walk-ins for any sort of problem that a student may have.

Peer mentors are also accessible by appointment and will listen and share resources during their 45-minute sessions. The Peer Support Center is currently located on the second floor of 3471 Peel Street.

Nightline

Nightline is a confidential phone line that operates from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. every night. They are an anonymous, non-judgemental service run by McGill students extensively trained in crisis management and active listening.

“Nightline is […] a great resource for someone to talk to when [they] have to pull an all-nighter and start feeling [poorly], and no one is around,” Esterle said. “[Nightline is] just a phone call away.”

Nightline accepts calls from anyone, McGill student or otherwise. The organization lists many other resources on its website, including French phone lines, calming exercises, and LGBT-specific support.

Poetry and Comedy shows

Esterle also shared some of their favourite off-campus stress outlets. Small, student-run shows for poetry, comedy, and improv provide a space to unwind and meet new people in the McGill community. Creative activities have been found to relieve stress, aid communication, and slow cognitive decline.

“What I personally like to do is, […] after a long day studying, going to a poetry night at Kafein or McSway or to […] improv shows,” Esterle said. “It’s really nice to take a break and remind myself of the things and places I love and that my grades aren’t all that matters.”

Kafein, a café in the downtown area on Bishop Street, hosts an open-mic poetry night every other Tuesday. They offer a safe, anti-racist, and anti-sexist space in which to share poetry. Similarly, McSway Poetry hosts poetry recitals at 3559 University Street. Montreal Student Comedy hosts stand-up comedy shows by students, for students. Otman’s Basement: Comedy on Campus is the group’s series of free comedy shows held on the last Thursday of every month in the McConnell Engineering building.

Counselling Services

Most importantly, for students requiring professional attention, Esterle suggests McGill Counselling Services’ workshops and groups. These sessions provide community-based support for students seeking counselling on a range of problems.

Counselling Services offers life skills workshops that cover happiness, mindfulness, and overcoming perfectionism. They also have issue-specific workshops that focus on trauma, body image, grief, and sexual assault. Workshops are mostly free, exclusive to currently-enrolled students, and require registration. Most workshops begin mid-October or early November.

Students should reach out for help if they feel they are in a crisis situation. Campus services are available to offer students professional and medical treatment, including Counselling and Mental Health Services. If you feel that you, or someone you know, is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1, or if you are on campus, Campus Security at 514-398-3000.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Taking POP Montreal to prom

by Katia Innes, Noah Simon on

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While late September is commonly known as the season of midterms and rain, the start of fall has also been synonymous with POP Montreal. The annual festival took over Mile End from Sept. 26-30, pushing aside third-wave coffee venues and bicycle co-ops to make space for over 450 performers. With such a breadth of acts, the sheer selection can be overwhelming. While the A&E team couldn’t decide on who deserved the crown, we still have the authority to bestow superlatives to our favourite acts.

Best Homecoming – Homeshake

Katia Innes, A&E Editor

In the year since the release of his latest album Fresh Air, Montreal-based musician Peter Sagar, better known as Homeshake, has kept a relatively low profile. Playing only a handful of shows this past summer following his 2017 tour, Sagar has remained a reclusive figure on the music scene—he hasn’t played a show in Montreal since 2016. On Sept. 29, to a crowd of tiny-hatted and frayed-jean-clad spectators packed into Theatre Rialto, Sagar breezed through his 15-song set. Making sure to include fan favourites like “Every Single Thing” and “Call Me Up,” Sagar interrupted his dreamy set only twice to address the crowd.

“We’ve been here for seven, eight years. I’m trying so hard to move, guys,” Sagar joked.

Despite Sagar’s apparent weariness of Montreal, the hometown crowd seemed to love every second of the set, with chants reverberating around the Rialto as Sagar and company exited the stage. Never before has a horde of cultural studies majors been so riled up. What a fitting comeback performance for an unlikely hometown hero.

Sweatiest – JPEGMAFIA

Katia Innes

For 45 minutes, Baltimore rapper and ex-marine Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks, better known as JPEGMAFIA, played a frenzied set at Le Belmont. All expectations of personal space were thrown out the door as the crowd clawed for the best spot in the pit. Equipped with nothing but a microphone and seven bottles of water, Hendricks radiated manic energy. Burning through tracks from his recent album Veteran, Hendricks stripped down to nothing but a pair of shorts and a bandana, quickly draining the aforementioned water bottles. Playing tracks like “Baby I’m Bleeding” and “1539 N. Calvert,” at one point Hendricks jumped into the writhing mass of bodies that greeted him below. Talk about a close encounter.

Best Red-Eye Show – Kilo Kish

Katia Innes

Playing the Piccolo Rialto theatre—arguably the sweetest venue of the festival—Brooklyn-based rapper-singer-and-visual artist Kilo Kish didn’t take to the stage until 1 a.m., but her set was well worth the wait. Drawing mostly from her recent EP mothe, as well as her full length album Reflections in Real Time (2016), Kish swayed hypnotically around stage, exuding a strange magnetism. Kish cooed over slow the slow beats of a drum machine, crooning songs such as “Self Importance” and “San Pedro. In such a small venue, the lack of space can restrict performers. However, Kish’s allure made it impossible to look anywhere but the stage. Perhaps it was the crowd’s exhaustion or the intimacy of the venue, but Kish was spellbinding.

Most Resembling the “Elevated Consciousness” Meme—Oneohtrix Point Never

Noah Simon

On Sept. 26, Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, performed his show MYRIAD at the Monument National Theatre. MYRIAD is Lopatin’s ambitious art installation ’concertscape’ that seeks to redefines the concert. With a combination of electronic synths, samplers, and live drumming in addition to a backdrop of fragmented LED screens and elaborate light show MYRIAD is an immersive live experience. With original music he wrote specifically for the MYRIAD show, and tracks from his album Age Of (2018), Lopatin pits his digital soundscape against abstract images of the expansion of capitalism across Earth, exposing the show’s own artificiality as a consumer product. But what a product it is! Videos of animated flying eagles combine with angelic synth patterns, followed by a montage of newspaper prints and an abrasive-drone. The range of visual and musical styles reflects Lopatin’s conflicted perspective of our current place in history; he points towards the dangers of computers and electronics while fully acknowledging MYRIAD would not be possible without them. It was engrossing.

Best Venue—U.S. Girls, Cinema L’Amour

Noah Simon

A venue can completely alter the nature of a concert; the building’s history can pervade the physical space and affect the experience. This was certainly the case for the U.S. Girls’ show at Cinema L’Amour, the local adult theatre on Boul. St. Laurent.

Opening act Johnathan Rice put it best.

“I’m very happy for two things tonight. One, that I can perform for all of you, and also that people still get together to watch pornography,” he quipped.  

There were no such jokes from Meghan Remy and her band, and the seemingly dated institution perfectly reflected the sentimentality of her act. Remy’s set felt like a relic in time: The disco, funk, and attire all transported the audience to a different era. The crowd seemed liberated by the night’s taboo and danced to fan favourites like  “M.A.H.” and “Pearly Gates” as much as the confines of the cramped theatre allowed them. It was exciting and provocative, and one of the best acts that POP Montreal had to offer this year. All of those walking out with Cinema L’Amour merchandise seemed to agree.

Chillest—Advance Base

Noah Simon

Being one of the lesser known artists playing POP Montreal, Advance Base’s festival closing show at Bar Le Ritz to was pleasantly intimate. His music exemplifies the tenderness of youth  and the comparative hardships of adulthood. In addition to his keen eye for life’s minutiae, Ashworth’s swirling synths and subdued piano melodies express a bittersweetness—a simultaneous melancholy and fondness for human existence. After five days of running around the city, there was something poignant and rewarding in witnessing Ashworth, accompanied only by his keyboard, singing about dogs to a 15-person crowd.

“What if someone locked all the doors and we just did this all night,” Ashworth quipped.

Science & Technology

Honouring the creative process

by Sariel Coronado on

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It’s easy to forget that products of daily life, like video games, are the culmination of countless hours of work and meticulous design undertaken by teams as small as one person and as large as an entire company. Playing Hard – The Game Just Got Real, directed by Jean-Simon Chartier, delves into the minutiae of creating a video game.

Video game giant Ubisoft Montreal’s hit title For Honor sold three million copies in the first 10 days following the its release in Feb. 2017 and continues to retain a dedicated player base. With a large development team, the game represents a collective effort totalling millions of work hours. Focusing heavily on immersive third-person combat between online players on Xbox One, PC and PS4, For Honor depicts a tale of warfare over territory and resources between three powerful clans: knights, vikings and samurai.

Moreover, hidden inside the game lies an intense story about personal sacrifices in the pursuit of a dream. The protagonists: Jason VandenBerghe, creative director and eccentric visionary seeking to realize his passion; Stéphane Cardin, seasoned producer in charge of leading the project through endless obstacles; and Luc Duchaine, brand director on whose shoulders rests the marketing success of the entire enterprise.

The creative process is far from smooth, with shifting requirements forcing content to be cut and VandenBerghe’s demands becoming increasingly abrasive. The tale of For Honor’s development progresses like a play, complete with conflict, aspirations, and adversity. There is no end to the pressure and Chartier does not shy away from depicting each individual’s personal struggles.

The video game industry has a close relationship with violence given its simulated, lifelike conflict. Video game developers often feel responsible for addressing ethical dilemmas in their work. In a particularly touching scene, VandenBerghe learns of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting and is moved to tears.

“There is a lot of hate in this world,” VandenBerghe said, adding that his game is meant to be “a tool against violence.”

“I think we all have to be conscious about the impact of what we’re doing, whether that be as filmmakers or video game creators,” Chartier said.

Nevertheless, Chartier believes that there could be a value in certain depictions of violence in the medium.

“There’s violence in video games just as there is violence in film,” Chartier said. “In the end, violence is part of the world in which we live […], so, people can live these things through something that is fictional and be able to understand more of themselves [in the real world….] There’s [also] been some studies on the impact of violence in video games, and some of those studies show that there is no link at all between violence in video games and violence in the real world.”

Indeed, current studies published this year in journals such as Molecular Psychiatry have concluded that video games, in fact, do not promote aggression, neither in the short or the long-term.

Ultimately, though, Playing Hard’s underlying message concerns itself with the way the industry treats individuals.

“I think we see this industry as being very savage […], but I think

is not really about those big corporations,” Chartier said. “It’s about individuals that are passionate about something. There are human people behind these games, and at least when you play those games you have to take this into consideration.”

Playing Hard hit theatres on Sept. 21, and is a must-watch for anyone interested in game development at the scale of Ubisoft’s For Honor, which is currently the eighth most played game in the history of Steam, the world’s most popular online gaming platform.  

Basketball, Sports

NBA season preview

by Arman Imam on

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The past few NBA offseasons have been full of surprises and excitement, and the 2018 offseason provided much of the same. Now, it’s time to focus on the regular season. Here are The McGill Tribune’s predictions for the season ahead.

Most Improved Team: Los Angeles Lakers

When LeBron James makes a free-agency decision, the basketball world comes to a halt. So, when the King announced his decision to join the iconic purple and gold, the move sparked some debate: How long does LeBron have to win in LA, and what can fans expect from this season? They should expect it to be fun. James and his band of seasoned veterans will join a promising group of youngsters to create a compelling contender. With young, athletic wing players and perhaps three of the most gifted passers in the game—James, Rajon Rondo, and Lonzo Ball—this Lakers team will certainly entertain. Once President of basketball operations Magic Johnson adds a three-point marksman and a rim protector, the squad will hit its stride and finish in the top three of the daunting Western Conference.

MVP: LeBron James

The frontrunners for this year’s MVP will be Anthony Davis, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid, and LeBron James. Somehow, it has been five seasons since James, the league’s best player, last received the award. Perhaps, this is because the world takes his brilliance for granted, or because the honour usually goes to a player who surprises the NBA with a standout season. With James’ move to the Lakers, a team that hasn’t seen the postseason since 2013, the award should find its place in James’ trophy collection for the fifth time.

Dark Horse: Denver Nuggets  

The Nuggets missed the playoffs by a whisker last April after losing the final game of the regular season—a de-facto play-in game—to the Minnesota Timberwolves. This season, however, they may finally make the leap into the postseason. Jamal Murray and Gary Harris lead a capable young core supported by veterans like Paul Millsap and new addition Isaiah Thomas. Denver’s trump card, meanwhile, stands tall in the middle: Centre Nikola Jokic is a walking double-double with eyes in the back of his head. Rarely have we seen a big man with his court vision and passing ability. The Nuggets will likely finish in the lower half of the Western Conference’s top eight, and they may signal trouble for a top seed come the postseason.

Western Conference Final: Warriors over Rockets

Houston is the best bet to match the Warriors’ scoring prowess. The Rockets’ depleted defensive stock will set them back, but they have the necessary offensive arsenal with Chris Paul, James Harden, Eric Gordon, and new addition Carmelo Anthony to give Steve Kerr’s Warriors team a run for their rings. The wild Western Conference will come down to a rematch of last season’s seven-game classic. Fortunately, for basketball fans, this series has the potential to thrill once again. Due to their superior defence, the Warriors will again prove to be too much for the Rockets in a closely-contested series.

Eastern Conference Final: Raptors over Celtics

While the 76ers may win multiple championships in years to come, the Raptors and Celtics will edge them out this year. Led by one-time movie star Kyrie Irving, Boston is the favourite with plenty of scoring options and gutsy defenders. Toronto, on the other hand, finds strength in its roster’s depth: Each member of the beloved ‘Bench Mob’ knows exactly what their role is. They will also have the best player on either team in Kawhi Leonard, so this iteration of the Raptors has every reason to believe that this will finally be their year. This matchup promises to be a nail-biter, too. At the end of the day, Toronto will use the lessons they have learned from past playoff disappointments to slide past the conference-favourite Celtics.

NBA Finals prediction: Golden State over Toronto

The Warriors’ myriad of stars will best the Raptors’ versatility and depth on the way to an NBA Finals three-peat.

Campus Spotlight, Student Life

McGill’s political history: A conversation with Prof. McNally

by Gabriela McGuinty on

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An institution with a rich history, McGill has been at the centre of controversies, conflicts, and debates since its founding. On Sept. 25, Professor Peter F. McNally, a professor emeritus at the School of Information Studies in the Faculty of Education and the director of the History of McGill Project, delivered the lecture “Radicalism and Conservatism: Student Life at McGill.” The talk focused on McGill students’ radical and conservative views birthed in the ‘60s and how they have played a role in defining McGill today. In an interview with the The McGill Tribune, McNally discussed McGill’s dynamic political history.

McGill Tribune (MT): Would you say that McGill has earned a reputation for being a radical university? How so?

Peter McNally (PM): McGill earned a reputation for being the most radical university in Canada [in the ‘60s]. I think it was the fact that, in the ‘60s, McGill hired […] new faculty [members], many of whom came from the States and were quite radical. McGill has always had a high international enrollment, so you had a lot of American students here in the late ‘60s, and I think a lot of it had to do with their ideas and the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society], which basically factored control  [over] SSMU and the McGill Daily [….] There’d be occupations of the principal’s office, political rallies, huge demonstrations.

 

MT: Was McGill unique in this regard compared to other universities at the time?

PM: Other universities [were similar to] this. It’s just that, at McGill, it was that much more intense. [Activism was] happening, to a greater or lesser extent, everywhere, but, somehow, at McGill [activism] just captured the headlines, partly because it’s Montreal and partly because of McGill’s reputation.

 

MT: Do you believe that McGill’s location in Montreal played a role in this history?

PM: Without a doubt. McGill University is an English-language university in a jurisdiction where the official language is French. Now, English of course does have official status in Quebec, partly because parliament passed the Official Languages Act [….] But, even so, the official language of Quebec is French, and there are very few examples of a university operating in a different language from the official language of its jurisdiction. I think this gives a particular edge to McGill. We tend to see the world in a slightly different way [because] we are in [Montreal].

 

MT: How would you characterize McGill’s history of radicalism?

PN: Cutting edge […and] optimistic. These are still parts of the identities of McGill, but I don’t know that [they are] the full definition [of the university’s present-day identity].

So long, Marie-Anne: Gentrification’s impact in the Plateau (The McGill Tribune)
Editorial, Opinion

So long, Marie-Anne: Gentrification’s impact in the Plateau

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Many McGill students will tell you that they went ‘home’ over the Thanksgiving long weekend. It’s a revealing statement: Despite spending eight months of the year in Montreal, for many, home still means somewhere else. However, the student body’s effect on the city is permanent. Neighbourhoods like the Plateau, Saint-Henri, and the Gay Village have transformed into desirable—and increasingly expensive—places to live, due in part to Montreal’s 170,000 students. Students are a key factor in the Plateau’s gentrification, and they should ensure that the neighbourhood retains its unique atmosphere and accessibility.

On Oct. 2, the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough council passed a new bylaw that restricts commercial short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, to designated sections of St. Laurent and St. Denis. According to the bylaw’s preamble, the proliferation of unofficial hotels has led to quality-of-life concerns for residents, and increasing demand for short-term tourist lodgings risks displacing businesses. Like tourists, students are a major economic asset to the city, and, as with tourists, coexisting with students is not always easy for long-term residents.

According to Radio-Canada, the Plateau is one of Montreal’s most expensive neighbourhood, a fact at odds with its blue-collar roots. From the 1850s until the 1970s, the borough’s Mile End district was a multicultural landing pad for working-class European immigrants. But, as with other famous, culturally rich North American neighbourhoods like New York City’s SoHo, the Plateau has become a victim of its own success: The influx of demand for housing risks pricing out the people who made it so desirable in the first place.

Cities across North America have created policies to keep housing affordable, and Montreal should take note. In 2016, British Columbia instituted a 15 per cent tax on property purchases by foreign nationals, which has since been raised to 20 per cent. Toronto’s “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) movement advocates for the development of new housing in the city. On Oct. 9, Montreal’s Executive Committee approved a $1.6 million investment in student housing in the Plateau. The project will create 90 new units that range from studios to four-bedroom suites. The city deserves praise for taking prompt and meaningful action.

However, rising demand for housing is not the only rationale for the Plateau-Mont-Royal’s new bylaw. According to Richard Ryan, the Mile End city councillor who introduced the bylaw, tourists occupying Airbnbs often leave garbage on the street and disturb local residents with excessive noise and partying. Unlike municipal housing legislation, common decency is a problem that students can solve on their own. It goes without saying that keeping the streets clean and minimizing Hype Week chants are basic neighbourly responsibilities.

However, truly integrating into a neighbourhood requires more than just common courtesy. While getting involved with initiatives outside of McGill can be intimidating and unfamiliar, this need not stop students from contributing to their communities. Volunteer opportunities are abound: Santropol Roulant, a meals-on-wheels service, creates community ties while providing an essential service. Sun Youth, a Plateau-based community-service charity that does everything from school supply distribution to neighbourhood bike patrols, has many opportunities for student volunteers. Some McGill courses, such as GEOG 494: Urban Field Studies, get students out into the city as part of the coursework, deepening their knowledge of Montreal’s physical and social geography. Even choosing to shop at locally-owned stores helps to ensure that neighbourhood institutions can stay open as operating costs rise.

Without the combined forces of policy and individual effort, gentrification risks erasing that which defines communities like the Plateau. Students impact the places they live in whether they invest in their communities or not. By treating the places they live in as they would their own homes, students can ensure that these changes are for the better—even if ‘going home’ means heading somewhere else.

McGill, News

Lawsuit causes leadership crisis in the Institute of Islamic Studies

by Jacqueline Yao on

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Professor Michelle Hartman and Assistant Professor Pasha Khan of the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) have been dismissed from their respective roles as the Director and Undergraduate Program Director (UPD) of the Institute. The McGill World Islamic and Middle East Studies Student Association (WIMESSA) issued a statement on Sept. 20 expressing frustration with the McGill administration’s lack of communication with regards to the dismissals.

Dean of Arts Antonia Maioni and McGill Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi recused Hartman in light of an ongoing legal dispute involving an IIS student and faculty member. Over the summer, Assistant Professor Ahmed Ibrahim filed a lawsuit against Khan for defamation after Khan allegedly warned female students of Ibrahim’s sexual behaviours. The suit also named Sarah Abdelshamy, an undergraduate student, as a codefendant. According to Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell, appointing Physics Professor Martin Grant as IIS Steward is in the Institute’s best interests.

“The decision [to dismiss Hartman as IIS director] is intended to address a structural matter and in no way reflects the University’s confidence or trust in any individual member of the IIS,” Campbell wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Instead, the decision seeks to ensure that no one in an administrative role in the IIS appears to be in a conflict of interest or is subject to allegations of such a conflict.”

The McGill Board of Directors named Grant as the IIS Steward on Sept. 1. In addition to conducting theoretical physics research, Grant is now in charge of assigning academic duties within the IIS, overseeing its budget, and supervising its support staff. Professor Robert Wisnovsky, Associate Professor Khalid Medani, and Hartman—who remains the chair of the IIS tenure consideration committees—sit on the Steward’s advisory committee. Grant has full faith in his advisory committee.

“[Hartman] and [Wisnovsky] are knowledgeable, [as] they were both former directors, […and] they recommended [Medani] to the advisory committee,” Grant said. “We are having weekly meetings but I should mention that, [while] I listen to their advice, any decisions are mine to make.”

As Dean of Science from 2005 to 2015, Grant initiated Soup and Science, a popular event hosted every semester where students can attend science professors’ research presentations and mingle over lunch. Grant plans to roll out similar pilot projects in the IIS to promote increased academic interactions between students and faculty.

“What can we do to get people feeling ownership of the academic mission of the Institute again?” Grant asked. “I’m really big on the idea that the university is about academia. All of us, the support staff and the professors, feel very proud [of our commitment toward scholarship and research] because that makes a big difference for the students.”

According to the statement, Maioni and Grant informed WIMESSA and the IIS Graduate Student Council representatives of Hartman’s dismissal on Sept. 4. The McGill administration did not consult students before making the change and has yet to officially announce its decision to remove Khan as UPD. According to a WIMESSA representative who wished to remain anonymous, Khan directly notified the co-presidents of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council (MIISSC), Sabeena Shaikh and Ashutosh Kumar, that he would no longer serve as the IIS UPD.

“We were disappointed that […] Khan wouldn’t be the UPD this year, as we had already met and begun discussing our goals for the year,” the member wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Without [Khan] notifying us, we would not have known, as the [administration] has not yet reached out to us in any way to inform us of the development.”

In the future, WIMESSA hopes that the administration can communicate decisions directly to students instead of relying on Association to relay information.

“As WIMESSA stated in its statement, we believe that there needs to be much more transparency in communication between the administration and the students,” the WIMESSA member wrote. “This also means meeting with us when we request it […] and not just when they decide [to] clue us in.”

 

A previous version of this article stated that Sabeena Shaikh and Ashutosh Kumar were presidents of the McGill World Islamic and Middle East Studies Students Association (WIMESSA) and that a quote was from Senior Communication Officer James Martin. In fact, they are the co-presidents of the McGill Institute of Islamic Studies Student Council (MIISSC) and the quote was from Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell. The Tribune regrets this error.

Creative, Private, Sports

McGill Tribune Sports Podcast: Ep. 1 – Baseball (w/Eno Sarris)

by Gabe Nisker on

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McGill Tribune Sports Editors Gabe Nisker and Miya Keilin discuss McGill baseball and the MLB playoffs. Then, Gabe sits down with The Athletic’s Eno Sarris to talk about baseball, sandwiches, and much more!

Creative, Word on the Y

Word on the Y – Advice for first years

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The McGill Tribune takes to the Y to ask students what advice they would give to first year students beginning their journey at McGill.

Video by Sofia Mikton with help from Emma Carr, Bilal Virji, and Astrid Mohr

Editorial, Opinion

Supporting survivors means supporting their allies, too

by The McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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This past year has seen momentous changes in the way McGill handles sexual misconduct allegations: The university has hired a third-party special investigator and launched an ad hoc committee regarding student-teacher relationships. However, structural issues continue to persist. On Sept. 21, the World Islamic and Middle East Studies Student Association (WIMESSA) published a statement on their Facebook page announcing that the McGill administration had removed two faculty members in the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) from their administrative positions. According to WIMESSA’s statement, the Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Arts claimed that only an outsider could serve as director without bias, and that Undergraduate Program Director (UPD) Pasha Khan was subject to a conflict of interest after being sued for defamation by colleague Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim. The details are murky, but the message is clear: Two professors face professional retribution for speaking out, and, even as the university attempts to reorganize in the wake of student protests, it upholds a structure that seems detrimental to survivors and their allies.

In its statement, WIMESSA affirmed that it had no prior knowledge of the proposed administrative changes and that it was not consulted. Moreover, WIMESSA student representatives received the news of these decisions on the first day of classes; universities have a tendency to announce dramatic changes at busy times of the year in hopes that students simply won’t pay attention. While the substance of Khan’s purported conflict of interest is obvious, the depth of Hartman’s involvement is unclear. In Apr. 2018, Hartman signed the faculty members’ letter of support for the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) Open Letter in her capacity as a professor in the IIS. The letters alleges a mishandling of complaints against faculty members in the IIS and other departments in the Faculty of Arts.

McGill’s lack of transparency regarding Hartman and Khan’s departures is concerning. The only information currently available is WIMESSA’s statement on their Facebook page and website, as well as the absence of Khan and Hartman’s names on the IIS website’s list of administrative staff. McGill should have disclosed these events publicly—students’ associations cannot be solely responsible for announcing substantial departmental changes three weeks after the fact. McGill has failed IIS students by leaving them in the dark about departmental changes that directly impact them. Major university-wide changes, like the appointment of a special investigator, are a step in the right direction, but those changes are only as powerful as the administration allows them to be. To see substantive reform, McGill must continue to work with individual faculties and departments to create policies tailored to their specific needs.

If the administration has students’ best interests at heart, they should have consulted WIMESSA student representatives while making the decision to replace Hartman and Khan, or at least notified them in advance that a decision was being made. The disregard for WIMESSA’s input is troubling, since student representatives understand their constituents’ concerns better than distant administrative bodies. Moreover, Hartman and Khan’s replacement serves as a reminder that teaching assistants, professors, staff, and other faculty members are all a part of an academic hierarchy that is conducive to abuses of power.

Due to the lack of official communication on McGill’s behalf, the exact nature of the professors’ alleged conflicts of interest is unknown. Still, Hartman’s removal sets a precedent that supporting survivors is dangerous. Silencing Hartman and Khan will only make students in the department feel less safe and more reluctant in calling out potential abuses in the future. Until the administration demonstrates, rather than just proclaims, its commitment to supporting survivors, its expressions of concern will ring hollow.

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