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Science & Technology

Unraveling the painful mysteries of dyskinetic cerebral palsy

by Guillaume Delgado on

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Dyskinetic cerebral palsy is the second most common subtype of cerebral palsy (CP). Children with DCP usually experience serious motor impairments along with comorbidities such as cognitive deficits, communication challenges, seizure disorders, and sensory impairments. 

Despite its severity, very little is understood about DCP. McGill MD student Victoria D’Amours and her colleagues, representing prominent pediatric institutes across Canada, attempted to address these critical research gaps by conducting a large sample study on DCP, which was published in Pediatric Neurology. 

“People tend to believe that cerebral palsy is just associated with a baby that lacked oxygen at birth. But actually, that’s not it,” D’Amours said in an interview with The Tribune. “You have kids that grew up without CP and can develop CP as long as there is a certain insult to the brain. And to know there are certain factors that can either cause or increase the severity of cerebral palsy.” 

In their study, D’Amours and her colleagues evaluated the prognostic significance—how much a particular factor can be used to determine the outcome of a disease or disorder—of two potential early markers: Gestational age (GA) and neonatal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. GA is the time period between conception and birth, whereas neonatal MRI involves scanning a newborn’s brain to detect any abnormalities. Both methods are routinely available in early life care and have been proposed as predictors of developmental outcomes in other forms of CP, yet their use in DCP remains under-researched.

D’Amours’s analysis draws on data from a sample from the Canadian Cerebral Palsy Registry of 170 children diagnosed with DCP. This study’s large sample size is especially vital considering that the majority of previous research on DCP used relatively small convenience samples. 

D’Amours and her colleagues compared the effectiveness of GA to MRI as early indicators of DCP. Based on their findings, they concluded that GA analysis was a more effective indicator for properly diagnosing DCP. Specifically regarding GA, D’Amours found that 60 per cent of the infants with DCP included in the study were born at term. 

“I don’t think MRI is necessarily inconclusive. I just think when we do compare MRI to gestational age, gestational age is a better predictor of future DCP severity,” D’Amours said in an interview with The Tribune.

These results could help alleviate the delays in diagnosing DCP in children. If certain patterns of brain injury from MRI or thresholds of maturity in GA are found to reliably predict worse outcomes, then children exposed to these methods might benefit from earlier diagnoses and more intensive support. This could, in turn, help to improve the overall quality of life for children afflicted with DCP.

Although D’Amours’ work provides tremendous insight into this subtype of cerebral palsy, DCP remains a critically underexplored subject. Researchers have yet to understand why children born at term are more likely to have DCP than others. Investigating the root causes of DCP is the next step in uncovering these mysteries. 

“We found that there are more kids with DCP that were born at term, but we also don’t know why,” D’Amours said. “So I think the future is in digging deeper and understanding the causal relationships between things, and also seeing where genetics actually plays a role.” 

Science & Technology

Shop talk: We need to have a word about jargon

by Ella Paulin on

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A 2020 study on jargon published in the Journal of Language and Social Psychology found that not only did using more jargon harm levels of understanding among lay people, but it also decreased their engagement with the material and their subjective sense of identification with the scientific community at large. Interestingly, it appears that jargon is not just a barrier for the general public: A 2021 study on citation patterns across 21,486 biology papers found that the amount of jargon in a paper’s title was negatively correlated with the number of citations it received. Taken together, it is clear that jargon may be a barrier to communication for both experts and lay people. Consequently, there is a growing movement to make scientific writing more readable—for example, by developing ‘lay summaries’ for new research in addition to abstracts. 

However, here in the ivory towers of the McGill campus, scientific jargon is not going anywhere anytime soon. In the meantime, let’s take a look at how different fields choose their jargon—and see if we can find some disciplines that fare better than others…

“Conformally covariant boundary operators and sharp higher order CR Sobolev trace inequalities on the Siegel domain and complex ball”

Mathematics

At least mathematics makes things simple for students: If you forget the name of a formula, theorem, or identity, there is a good chance it is named after a dead white guy, and there is a good chance that dead white guy is Euler. To be fair, they do often have fun names—Bernoulli was always a personal favourite, not to mention Cauchy and Schrödinger—but it can get hard to keep track of them all after a few years. When in doubt, though, guess Euler. 

“Vestigial ergativity in Shughni: At the intersection of alignment, clitic doubling, and feature-driven movement”

Linguistics

Ah, linguistics—as the only discipline on this list whose experts should theoretically be able to use human language to communicate with others, you would expect this to be an easy victory. Nowhere is the linguist’s mantra, “we study languages, we don’t speak them,” more on display than in their technical terminology. On the one hand, there’s an overflow of extremely precise, opaque concepts: Welcome to the study of specificational copular sentences, overgeneralizations of dative altemation, and early left-anterior negativity. On the other, we step out of the office and into a place of surprising, wanton sex and violence. Here we have bleeding and counter-bleeding, sisters dominating sisters, clauses binding poor, defenceless pronouns, and PPs—prepositional phrases—searching for verbs to “fill their slots.” Despite the professional shell of linguistic terminology, the inner world of a syntax tree is a dark and dangerous place.

“RobusTAD: reference panel based annotation of nested topologically associating domains”

Biology & Anatomy

As a Classics minor, I have always appreciated life science’s penchant for Latin names, even if they are the bane of every first-year biology student as they frantically memorize body parts and taxonomical kingdoms the night before their final exams. At the same time, these Latin terms are part of a legacy of an elite, patriarchal approach to life sciences that has only begun to change in the last fifty years. Look no further than the jargon for the female body—the fallopian tube and the G-spot are just two examples of many of male doctors’ names that remain attached to female anatomy. 

“On Learning Whittle Index Policy for Restless Bandits With Scalable Regret”

Computer Science

Although it was somewhat of a dark horse in this competition, computer science, and in particular algorithm studies, has an unexpected knack for finding vivid metaphors for thorny abstract concepts. Restless bandits? Regret? We are more in the realm of a fantasy novel than an academic paper, and after the other fields, it is a welcome break from the slew of four-syllable Latinate terminology. Do I know what any of it means? Not at all—but colour me intrigued. 

McGill, Montreal, News

McGill community considers transportation alternatives in the face of upcoming STM strike

by Sonia Berman, Samuel Hamilton on

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The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) has announced a workers’ strike starting on Sept. 22. During the strike, city buses and the metro will be running on restricted schedules Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until either Oct. 5, or when the STM and the Syndicat du transport de Montréal—a union that is part of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux labour federation—come to an agreement. While STM paratransit will remain unrestricted, school service buses will experience reduced service times during the strike. 

During the strike days of restriction, buses will be available from 6:15-9:15 a.m., and 3:00-6:00 p.m. The night bus service will remain unchanged, going from 11:15 p.m.-1:15 a.m. All buses will finish their routes in their entirety once they have begun. 

The metro will function on a similar schedule, remaining open from 6:30-9:30 a.m. and 2:45-5:40 p.m. The night service will last from 11:00 p.m. through the usual closing time of approximately 1:00 a.m. The STM will close stations’ doors as soon as the last train passes through each stop.

In an interview with The Tribune, Sarah Moser, associate professor of McGill’s Department of Geography and associate member of the School of Urban Planning, pointed out that a lack of provincial assistance to Montreal’s transportation system has been a recurring issue. 

“The STM is being starved of funding from the province, so tension like this will likely occur more regularly in the future,” Moser said.

31 out of 68 STM stations are considered by the STM itself to be in poor or very poor condition. Stations Saint-Michel, Peel, and Champ-de-Mars—among others—have experienced significant physical deterioration that could eventually pose safety risks. Despite these concerns, the Quebec government’s 2025-2026 budget plan announced a $258 million CAD cut to the STM’s funding over the next three years. Éric Alan Caldwell, president of the Board of Directors of the STM and city councillor of the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, pointed out at a press conference on March 26 that the STM will require more funding to provide reliable and safe transportation services to its everyday commuters.

Moser also explained that this STM strike has been caused by a history of numerous unsuccessful negotiations between the STM and the Syndicat du transport de Montréal.

“To get to the stage where workers are striking, there have been failed attempts to address the problems,” Moser said. “The upcoming STM strike stems from frustration over the practice of hiring outside contractors, who are not unionized, rather than using unionized employees. The employer is either unable or unwilling to address these problems, so the union may feel they have no other choice but to strike.”

The upcoming 14-day strike will be the STM’s second strike of the year—with the union also striking in June 2025. This previous strike coincided with Montreal’s Canadian Grand Prix 2025, which saw a record of 352,000 spectators heading to Île Notre-Dame over three days to attend the event. In order to handle the resulting transit usage surge across the Grand Prix weekend, Quebec’s Tribunal administratif du travail mandated a pause to the strike, forcing the STM to resume full service from Friday, June 13 to Sunday, June 15.

Moser explained that while alternative transportation options to the STM exist, vulnerable and marginalized groups in Montreal who rely on metro and bus services may be most heavily affected by the upcoming strike.

“Many people like myself take the STM to work, but if there are delays resulting from the strike, I can also ride my bike or take a taxi if I need to,” Moser stated. “However, many people are unable to ride a bike, don’t own a car, and can’t afford a taxi, so they are particularly vulnerable. If I am late for work, it’s not the end of the world, but for many employees, being late could mean getting fired or have other serious consequences.”

Lince Ketchate, U3 Science, stated in an interview with The Tribune that an STM strike would greatly impact his route to school due to the timing of his classes.

“My commute would be mostly affected in the afternoon, because I finish classes when it’s not peak hours, so there would not be service,” Ketchate explained.

He added that this disruption will be particularly difficult in comparison to the last STM strike in June, when he was able to ride a Bixi without having to manage his school supplies. 

“I don’t have a Bixi pass, so I have to pay a lot for every trip, and I had to bike for 50 minutes, so it’s really exhausting,” Ketchate said. “And especially now that I have my backpack with me and I have my books, […] everything’s going to be heavy.” 

In a written statement to The Tribune, Dymetri Taylor, President of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), maintained that the union will continue to accommodate students’ needs during the strike.

“The SSMU’s services will remain available during the strike,” Taylor wrote.

One of these services, DriveSafe, is a student-run volunteer platform that will transport students to destinations anywhere on the island of Montreal from Thursday to Saturday between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. In a written statement to The Tribune, DriveSafe explained that they are in the process of finding additional solutions to support students affected by the strike.

“We anticipate no impact to our regular operations, [but] we are currently exploring options to potentially offer a shuttle service of some kind during the day when all STM services are suspended,” DriveSafe wrote. “We would like to remind students that we are an entirely volunteer run and operated service, and thus are limited in how many rides we are able to provide during our service hours.”

DriveSafe also provided recommendations for how best to access their resources in high-demand times, such as during a transit strike.

“Wait times can get fairly long during busy periods, so the earlier [one calls,] the more likely [one will be] able to get a ride before the end of our service hours,” DriveSafe wrote. “Any updates regarding this matter will be made to our Instagram profile, @ssmudrivesafe.” 

Ketchate noted that while he could delay his commute until peak hour STM services resume during the strike, he remains apprehensive about having to wait extensively for strained transportation services, thus missing out on time that could be spent completing schoolwork or participating in clubs. 

“The other option is just to stay on campus until the service resumes, so I [would] have to be here for four hours, but I don’t have anything to do for four hours,” Ketchate stated. “Especially now that [since] things are starting up, I’m going to get more assignments, […] [the strike is] a really big inconvenience.” 

Ketchate concluded by suggesting that it would be helpful if McGill could arrange alternative transportation options or opportunities for remote learning for students throughout the duration of the STM strike.

“I don’t know if it’d be possible for [McGill] to offer some kind of bus service,” Ketchate said. “From campus, to maybe a central metro station […] or [look into offering] classes online.” 

McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) declined to comment on the strike and whether the university will make any efforts to accommodate its affected students. 

Behind the Bench, Hockey, Sports

Remembering Ken Dryden: Canadiens legend and McGill alum

by Jenna Payette on

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Ken Dryden, the towering goaltender who backstopped the Montreal Canadiens to six Stanley Cups and became the calm heart of a dynasty, died on Sept. 5 at 78 following a battle with cancer. More than a hockey player, Dryden was a symbol of Montreal’s golden age. An athlete, intellectual, and leader, his presence still echoes throughout the city.

Dryden was larger than life in both frame and character. At six foot four, he commanded the crease with quiet authority, his face hidden behind a goalie’s pretzel mask that revealed little and shielded even less. His poise became the stuff of legend.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1947, Dryden was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1964 before his rights were traded to Montreal. Prior to entering the big leagues, he pursued a history degree at Cornell University, while guiding the Big Red to their first national championship in 1967. But when Dryden finally donned his Canadiens jersey, few expected the extensive impact he would make.

Dryden had just six regular-season games under his belt when he was thrown into the 1971 National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs against the defending champion Bruins, led by Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. Montreal was not expected to last. But Dryden, 23 years old and unshaken, outduelled the league’s best. He carried the Habs to the Stanley Cup title and was named the postseason’s most valuable player, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy. 

The following year, Dryden earned the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, having been ineligible in his first season without enough regular-season games. No one else has ever captured the Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe, and Calder in that order; it was a remarkable feat, unlikely to be replicated.

But Dryden did not stop there. He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender five times. He recorded 258 wins and 46 shutouts in 397 games. 

From 1976 to 1979, the Canadiens won four straight Cups. Dryden’s style in net throughout these victories was not flashy, but cerebral. He employed a ‘stand-up’ style, focusing on anticipation and positioning, and rarely relying on sprawling saves. His intelligence and confidence in goal made Dryden a unifying presence in a city divided by language and culture, where the Canadiens were a shared source of pride.

Dryden was never only an athlete. While tending goal at night, he studied law at McGill University by day, often seen in the Forum with textbooks under his arm. When a contract dispute impacted Dryden’s play in 1973, he stepped away from the Canadiens for a season to complete his degree and article at a Toronto law firm. 

In his post-hockey career, Dryden’s relationship with McGill endured. Decades later, he returned to the university to teach “Making the Future”—a course that challenged its students to transform their visions into action, and think critically about the version of Canada that awaited them. His dedication to activism also helped launch “FSCI 198: Climate Crisis and Climate Actions,” a course that continues to shape how students confront urgent environmental issues today.

Dryden retired definitively from hockey in 1979 at just 31, before carving out a second act as an author, lawyer, commentator, and public servant. His 1983 book, The Game, is still hailed the finest book ever written on hockey, as it blends sport with reflections on culture, pressure, and identity. He later became president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, entered politics as a federal cabinet minister, and in 2013, was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983, and his No. 29 jersey was raised to the rafters of the Bell Centre in 2007.

Numbers alone cannot define Ken Dryden. Montreal remembers the calm presence he displayed in the crease. McGill remembers the scholar who inspired students to dream boldly. And Canada remembers a man who stood tall—for the game, for his community, and for the future he helped shape.

Dryden is survived by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren.

We will always remember the quiet courage and grace he showed in life, and in facing cancer. Thank you, Mr. Dryden. Your spirit will continue to inspire generations to come.

Science & Technology

Exploring the role of virtual family participation in adult intensive care unit rounds

by Michelle Yankovsky on

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Family engagement in patient care is an essential aspect of adult intensive care unit (ICU) practice. The approach includes family members in multidisciplinary care rounds, allowing them to contribute to medical decision-making while being present for their loved ones—yet systemic and individual-level barriers often get in the way. But what if families of ICU patients could participate in rounds without ever stepping foot in the hospital? A virtual approach may overcome these issues while still benefiting patient outcomes.

In a recent publication in the Journal of Critical Care, Michael Goldfarb, associate professor and physician at McGill’s Department of Medicine and researcher at the Lady Davis Institute, investigated the feasibility of virtual family participation in adult ICU rounds. Motivated by the lack of measurable evidence demonstrating how family member involvement actually improves patient outcomes, Goldfarb aimed to advance this field of research by providing data that could ultimately persuade clinicians to alter their practice.

“There’s not a lot of quantitative evidence in this field,” Goldfarb said in an interview with The Tribune. “A lot of it has been qualitative, involving interviews and focus groups with family members in the ICU […] but what I set out to do was [quantitatively] measure how family member involvement in care actually improves outcomes, and that information will be much more persuasive to the people who work in the ICU.”

Goldfarb emphasized the pivotal role played by family members in patient care and outcomes. He explained that familial involvement can facilitate better communication with the healthcare team, thus creating more effective treatment plans, as well as helping alleviate patients’ fear through a sense of support.

“[The ICU] is more concerned about the best medical management, what medications to use, what therapies to do. But the family members are the integral part of the care team, and in many ways can actually contribute to the patient’s care and outcomes,” Goldfarb explained. “They know the patient best.”

To determine the feasibility of implementing virtual family participation in ICU rounding, 84 participants were given the opportunity to engage via videoconference during ICU rounds across five hospitals in Montreal. Feasibility metrics included recruitment rate, intervention uptake, technical issues, and follow-up rate.

“It allowed people who were at home and couldn’t come to the hospital for various reasons to be more involved in their loved ones’ care,” Goldfarb said.

The results showed that 72 out of 84 participants engaged in at least one virtual round, and they experienced no technical issues in 113 out of 132 rounds.

“We were able to have a high number of successful rounds with very few technical issues,” he noted. “The vast majority of the ICU health care team workers, physicians, nurses, and other allied health members, were willing to participate in rounds with family members virtually, so the overall finding was that it was feasible.”

Not only do these findings indicate that virtual participation by family members in ICU rounds is feasible, but more importantly, it is associated with improved family engagement and high satisfaction scores.

Goldfarb also highlighted that similar results were replicated across five hospitals, speaking to the study’s validity.

“Each centre has its own culture and own team dynamics, so the fact that we’re able to show [this finding] at several centres means it’s potentially generalizable to a larger number of [hospitals] and shows strength to the study,” he said.

Despite these findings, Goldfarb stressed the importance of reassessing these results by conducting a randomized control experimental study in order to determine causation.

“Everyone got the same intervention, which means that we really need studies where people are randomized to the intervention or to the usual [non-virtual rounding] care, to see that this [treatment] actually makes a difference in improving outcomes,” Goldfarb said.

Overall, Goldfarb’s study points to a promising future of virtual rounding in ICUs, where families can care for their loved ones no matter where they are, ensuring the patient receives comfort and support despite the distance.

Student Life

Refreshing third spaces in Montreal that decenter alcohol 

by Mairin Burke on

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After weeks of OAP, McGill Frosh, working your way through Piknic Électronik’s 2025 lineup, and filling university friends in on your summer drama over drinks, your start to September may have been drenched with alcohol. Getting back to Montreal, it can be hard to escape the pressure to enjoy the city’s liquored-up nightlife and McGill’s drinking-centric events. In case you’ve been needing a reset, The Tribune is here to offer you a list of third spaces not focused on alcohol consumption. Ordered from lowest to highest in price, these venues and activities around the city offer a refreshing alternative to drinking, for individuals and groups alike.

Page Break at De Stiil Booksellers

Every Wednesday, regulars of the Plateau’s beautifully curated English bookstore, De Stiil, find themselves eagerly lining up at the shop’s checkout counter to dispose of their cellphones. This is Page Break—hosted weekly at 7:00 p.m., though the seasoned attendee knows to get there for 6:30—a rare and precious opportunity to cuddle up with a good book, all distractions circumvented. For $5 CAD, De Stiil’s staff will confiscate your devices and point you to a corner of the store, where you can nest in cushions or a comfortable chair with your book of the moment. Once everyone is settled in with a glass of lemonade or water, the shopkeepers will lock De Stiil’s doors and turn on mellow jazz music. Page Break’s hour of total, communal immersion in your book flies by magically fast, after which you can mingle with your fellow technophobes and discuss what about your books most deeply engrossed you that evening.

Cinéma Moderne

Cinéma Moderne’s innovative, independent programming is always worth a watch. This cozy movie theatre offers a perfect escape from the gloomiest of days—both emotional and weather-wise. In any given week, the cinema’s programming will range from local and experimental films to cult classics and current fan favourites, making it hard to decide what to buy a $14 CAD ticket for first. Nevertheless, be sure to keep an eye out for the theatre’s monthly Queer Cinema Club, which hosts screenings of emerging and canonical 2SLGBTQIA+ films to spotlight and celebrate queer narratives and creators in the industry. While not the most conversation-appropriate activity, Cinéma Moderne’s Mile End location lends itself well to a post-movie snack with friends at ICONOGLACE—but don’t forget to enjoy the theatre’s popcorn sprinkled with paprika during your show.

Innocere Yoga

For a more introspective option, try a hot yoga or pilates class at Innocere. Tucked away up an unassuming staircase on the pedestrian stretch of Prince Arthur, Innocere’s beautiful space is expansive and full of sun. Their flow options range from beginner-friendly overviews of foundational yoga poses to dynamic vinyasa practice, all in a studio that grounds any level of session in high-intensity movement. After your class, lounge in Innocere’s cushioned, lamplit reception area and enjoy aromatic herbal tea while chatting with your classmates. Though typically a more expensive outing, Innocere frequently offers discounted class packages, and commonly hosts $11 CAD Community Classes taught by newer instructors—cheaper than the average Montreal cocktail.

Late-night ice skating and dim sum
A big group of friends on a Friday winter’s evening can never go wrong by heading to the Quartier des spectacles at Place des Arts. With no cover-charge, you just need to bring your own skates—or rent a pair there for $15 CAD—to enjoy the city’s largest refrigerated ice rink, alongside skaters of all ages and experience levels. With digital art illuminating its surface and hot chocolate sold right beside its locker rooms, the Esplanade Tranquille offers skaters a relaxed, social, and quintessential winter experience as they work up an appetite skating laps around the rink. Enter a post-skate dim sum date in nearby Chinatown, where many delicious restaurants stay open past the rink’s mid-evening close: Late enough that you can get into your spot of choice without requiring a promoter to get you on the guest list.

Student Life

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!

by Jamie Xie on

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They walk among us, disguised as men. They whisper in accents you don’t recognize and laugh at jokes no one finds funny. Rumour has it that McGill students have superior, bigger ears for listening, while Concordia students have pointier elbows indicative of too much time spent doing studio art. 

McGill x Concordia is the only truly convincing love story of our generation—enemies turned lovers of Montreal’s dark-academia sphere. Both are anglophone, both victims of tuition hikes. As two schools with highly international student populations, they are the highly unlikely downtown darlings of the Montreal imagination. 

Welcome to Concordia 101—The Tribune’s crash course for McGill students looking to co-opt the best Concordia has to offer!

Studying Surrounded by the Enemy

You would need an extra pair of hands to count the number of times a Concordia student has complained about a McGillian using their libraries. Open to the public everyday from 7:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m., both the Webster and Vanier Libraries have quickly become popular spaces for McGill students looking to study. What many people don’t know is that Concordia’s online event calendar lists many drop-in offerings that don’t require a Concordia ID to register; nearly once a month, the Vanier Library on Loyola hosts Therapy Dog drop-in at VL-101 from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and VR gaming on the third floor. The Webster Library on the Sir George Williams Campus hosts the Fibre Arts Technology Club every Tuesday afternoon from 2:00 p.m.-4:45 p.m. at the Technology Sandbox room, for those interested in knitting, crocheting and “integrated work with wearable technology.”

Though currently closed, the Concordia Greenhouse in the Henry F. Hall rooftop is another study space option that brings a touch of greenery even in winter, with a grand reopening anticipated by the end of Winter 2025. 

Creativity without a Prerequisite

Looking for a space to get creative? At two permanent Concordia Art Hive studios, a pair of creative art therapists host four weekly free walk-in non-directed art sessions. Alongside these time-slots, they offer approximately ten pop-up events per term at varying spaces on Concordia campus to facilitate community bonding. 

For those who would rather admire than create art, the Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery offers free contemporary exhibitions, while the Concordia Film Festival hosted by the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema is the longest running student film festival in North America, also free to attend. 

You Aren’t What You Eat

If you’re looking for a quick meal, the People’s Potato Kitchen is a vegan soup kitchen at Hall building H-700 that offers donation meals from Monday to Thursday from 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m., as well as a food bank every second Friday. On the Loyola Campus, the Hive Cafe Co-op has a similar free vegan meal offering on Fridays from 12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. on the SC building’s second floor.

Though initiated in 2015 by two McGill psychology students, Vent over Tea has since become a Concordia-run service, offering one-hour anonymous, non-judgemental listening sessions with trained volunteers at a cafe of your choice. The service is free—you just need to cover the cost of your own drink. Whether you prefer to meet downtown, in the West Island, or online, Vent over Tea offers a safe space to feel heard and serves as an example of the meaningful collaboration that can emerge when McGill and Concordia are able to realize their responsibilities to a shared Montreal community.

A school by any other name would smell as sweet. Beneath the banners and rivalries which obscure what unites us, we are all struggling students trying to navigate the unfamiliar, hostile environment of being young dreamers. Though there is comfort in school pride, there is shame in personal apathy. University is an opportunity to discover yourself, and that journey begins with fostering an understanding of the shared challenges that every student faces. One person’s success is never another’s failure. To share resources, spaces, and support is more than an act of generosity; it is an act of student solidarity—a respectful acknowledgement of our mutual struggle which spares no one. It’s time that we ask not what we can do for our schools, but what our schools can do for us. 

Baseball, Know Your Coach, Sports

Know Your Coach: Christopher Haddad

by Zain Ahmed on

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When Christopher Haddad walks onto the diamond, he brings more than a clipboard and a lineup card. The McGill baseball head coach, now in his second season at the helm, carries with him the weight of the program’s history, the lessons of his own playing days, and a belief that joy is as essential as discipline.

Haddad’s ties to McGill run deep. From 2009-2012, he shone on the field as a student-athlete, balancing his love for baseball with the academic rigour of one of Canada’s most demanding universities. 

“I was smart enough to get by without doing many of the readings,” he joked in an interview with The Tribune, “but McGill gave me the chance to grow, both as a player and as a person.” 

Haddad’s decision to attend McGill was shaped by his CEGEP peers at John Abbott College and his early fascination with sports psychology—a field he would later pursue through a master’s degree in human kinetics and recreation.

After completing his master’s, Haddad cycled through teaching and coaching roles at Pierrefonds Baseball Club and Dawson College before returning full circle to McGill. Initially, Haddad admitted, the leap to university coaching was daunting. 

“At the CEGEP level, you have a lot more support staff,” he recalled. “At McGill, the responsibilities are heavier, [with] recruiting, administration, [and] gear orders. I wasn’t prepared at first, but the Athletics Department has been patient, and, over time, I’ve grown into [the role]. Now, I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Haddad’s coaching framework can be summed up in two words: “Fun and detailed.” 

“If you enjoy something, you’re going to work harder for it. That’s the fun,” he explained. “But the detail is just as important. Whether you [are completing] ten reps or a hundred, make them the best reps you can. It’s about quality and intent.” 

For Haddad, enjoyment and precision are not opposites, but work in harmony to build resilient and well-rounded athletes. This perspective is especially important for the upcoming 2025-2026 season, a self-described “rebuild year” for McGill baseball. When 15 key players graduated last spring—enough to make a starting lineup—Haddad entered this season with only two returning starters. 

“It’s not easy to bring in half a new squad and get them performing the way you want,” he admitted. 

Yet Haddad sees opportunity in the challenge. 

“I always had to find ways to beat bigger, stronger players,” he shared. “I’m trying to instill a mentality of finding the way, no matter the odds in this group. I don’t want athletes who constantly ask, ‘What did I do wrong?’ I want them to think for themselves, to be self-motivated, to become aware of their own game.” 

Off the field, Haddad is equally concerned with the team’s balance. He remembers stepping away from McGill’s baseball program in his final year as a student to focus on academics, and he makes sure his players also know that school comes first. 

“I’ve seen too many athletes burn out from overtraining and overthinking,” Haddad emphasized. “If the game stops being fun, no one performs at their best.”

Haddad is candid about the obstacles facing McGill baseball, beyond his roster. University baseball in Quebec is at a crossroads. Rival programs have folded, Concordia’s team is suspended, and the province is teetering on the edge of lacking a legitimate league. 

“It’s frustrating because there’s talent in Quebec,” Haddad said. “But without a sustainable league, we’re left piecing together a 30-game exhibition schedule. I don’t want to see baseball fail at McGill or anywhere else.”

Despite this uncertainty, Haddad remains grounded in what matters most for his players: The experience. 

“There’s nothing like being on a varsity team, [experiencing] the friendships, the late practices, the chaos of balancing class and competition,” Haddad expressed. “You miss it when it’s gone.” 

In the end, that is the heart of Haddad’s philosophy: Fun and detail, challenge and growth. McGill baseball may be rebuilding, but with a coach who blends rigour with positivity, the program’s future looks as promising as its past.

Science & Technology

Normal results, hidden illness: Rethinking bloodwork in anorexia nervosa

by Tasha Amin on

More in Science & Technology:

Blood tests are the cornerstone of modern medicine, often relied on as objective indicators of health. In patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), however, these numbers may be misleading.

A new study from Montreal’s Douglas Institute, published in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, found that women with anorexia nervosa had higher serum levels of vitamin B12 and betaine—results that would otherwise be reassuring if they were not masking malnourishment.

For Howard Steiger, senior author of the study and psychologist at the Douglas Institute, this paradox highlights the complex ways biology and lived experience intersect in patients with AN. 

Steiger’s study compared 162 women divided into three groups: 64 with active AN, 49 in remission, and 49 who had never experienced an eating disorder. The group with active AN included both restrictive and binge-purge subtypes. The researchers note no subgroup differences. The sample size, however, may have been too small to detect such differences. Importantly, no participants were taking dietary supplements.

The sample was limited to women, who represent the majority of AN cases. Socially, women face heightened cultural pressures around body size and appearance. Biologically, sex-based differences also play a role in AN susceptibility—a confounding factor for which Steiger’s design accounted.

Steiger explained in an interview with The Tribune that prenatal hormone exposure can shape later susceptibility. He pointed to research linking a ‘feminized’ digit ratio—where the index finger is longer than the ring finger, suggesting greater exposure to estrogen in the womb—with heightened eating disorder risk.

Results showed that those with active AN had higher B12 and betaine levels as compared to healthy controls. Concerningly, B12 levels remained elevated even a year into remission. This persistence raises questions about whether AN leaves lasting biological traces, even after remission.

Under normal conditions, nutrients like B12 and betaine get used up and help regulate DNA methylation, a chemical, epigenetic process that influences which genes are expressed. 

“If you think of a [piano] keyboard, it’s a fixed thing. It has 88 keys, nothing’s going to change that, but depending on which keys you play, you can get a lot of different tunes,” Steiger said. “I like to think of the epigenome as the environment playing on a 30,000-key DNA keyboard, constantly changing and reprogramming and resetting what’s being expressed.”

In AN, this regulatory relationship between nutrients and DNA methylation breaks down. Elevated nutrient levels may not indicate better nutrition, but can instead signal problems with how the body processes and uses these vitamins. When cells cannot properly absorb nutrients from the bloodstream, vitamins accumulate in the blood rather than reaching the tissues that need them. 

The study explains that this disruption has also been observed in autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, where inflammation disrupts normal vitamin transport. Given that AN affects cellular metabolism and has links to immune dysfunction, similar mechanisms may be at play, though the underlying biology remains unclear.

The study also found hints of lasting epigenetic effects: Even over 12 months into remission, the B12-methylation relationship remained altered. Still, Steiger stressed that biology is not fatalistic: His previous, larger-scale research shows that DNA methylation disruptions associated with AN reverse with recovery.

“Epigenetic processes can explain how you go from a genotype, a genetic susceptibility, to a phenotype, a full-blown eating disorder, and back,” Steiger said.

For clinicians, these findings are a warning: Normal bloodwork may not reveal the true nutritional state of someone with an eating disorder. Numbers alone cannot capture the lived experience of the illness—an experience that plays, and sometimes creates dissonance with, the very keys of biology. 

“People with eating disorders often have a hard time getting access to well-informed care,” Steiger added. “There’s a tendency to blame them [….] This work really helps us to understand that it’s not weakness. It’s not a moral weakness, it’s not a lack of effort, and it’s not bad parenting. It’s biology. But it’s biology that is changeable.”

The paradox of normal-looking bloodwork underscores how complex and misunderstood anorexia nervosa can be; it is not a choice, recovery is possible, and biology is not destiny.

McGill, News, SSMU

First SSMU Legislative Council meeting of the year discusses proposed edits to Accountability Plan

by Amelia H. Clark on

More in McGill:

The first Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council (LC) meeting of the academic year began on Sept. 11 by introducing all in attendance, with 16 out of 34 voting members on the Council present.

Speaker Jonathan Dong and Deputy Speaker Yasmin Beeai could not be present in person, so President Dymetri Taylor assumed the Speaker role. Over Zoom, Dong announced that he will be resigning as Speaker to become the LC’s Accountability Commissioner as of Sept. 15. His successor will be Acadia Knickerbocker.

After adopting the meeting’s agenda, the council moved on to an announcement by Commissaire aux Affaires francophones Maëla Dube, who discussed how the committee is dedicated to making meetings more accessible for French speakers. 

A representative from Agence Voltaic, the photography organization responsible for graduation and class photos at McGill, then gave a presentation. The representative pointed out that the studio takes appointments for graduation pictures year-round, yet most students book for November or March, leading to scheduling congestion. In order to encourage students to utilize the agency more efficiently, SSMU’s Communications staff created faculty-specific posters in collaboration with Agence Voltaic, explaining how to register for pictures.

The council next discussed two motions on the table, both of which were brought forth by Taylor. The Motion Regarding the Adoption of the Standing Rules for the 2025-2026 Legislative Council and General Assemblies (GA) sought to add more strict regulations for decorum and procedure to these meetings, such as requiring presented reports to include deadlines. Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Susan Aloudat questioned the motion’s language, noting that some rules were referred to with “should” and others “must,” which called into confusion which aspects of the motion were optional. 

“For example, the rules say we [must] close our laptops for guest speakers, but everyone’s laptop was open [during the Agence Voltaire presentation],” Aloudat said. “So, do we want to go back and review this?”

Taylor responded that SSMU should enforce all regulations listed to make governance events run smoother, and that since the motion had not yet been passed, the rules were not currently in effect. 

VP Clubs and Services Hamza Abu Alkhair motioned for a five-minute recess so council members could re-read the bill for questioning, after which Aloudat asked if the Accountability Commissioner would be enforcing the mandates listed in the motion. Dong responded that the members themselves will be responsible for submitting reports to the Parliamentarian when fellow members fail to follow the Accountability Plan. 

“This is something that is changing in the administration section of the new [Internal Regulations] of governance, [that] the executives will be reporting at every meeting,” Dong said.

Aloudat asked to amend the motion by removing the section prohibiting snapping, clapping, and knocking on desks at GAs, and the section prohibiting council members from having their laptops open. Taylor made these amendments, and the bill passed, with all except Abu Alkhair in favour.

The council then discussed the Motion Regarding the Legislative Council Committee Allocations. Council members decided which student committee they will stand on, as all are mandated to participate in at least one. No one volunteered to join the Board of Directors, leaving one seat still vacant.

Moment of the Meeting: Taylor concluded by introducing a notice of the Motion Regarding Edits to the Accountability Plan and Committee Terms of Reference, before ceding his time to the current Accountability Commissioner, Asma Khamis. The motion seeks to implement revised guidelines for how the Accountability Committee must process, communicate, and address complaints regarding SSMU operations—stipulating that the Committee must present reports to the LC on an as-needed basis for matters of public interest like reports against councillors, and otherwise as per the Committee’s regular reporting schedule.

Soundbite: “[The Motion Regarding Edits] was mainly spurred by the fact that I don’t necessarily have the authority to enact accountability recommendations. I can only suggest and recommend. It’s up to the councils to determine a course of action.”—Khamis, on the importance of revising the SSMU Accountability Plan. 

A previous version of this article’s headline stated that the LC approved edits to the SSMU Accountability Plan. In fact, the Accountability Plan was only discussed by the Council as a notice of motion, and thus not ratified. As well, a previous version of this article stated that if the motion were approved, the Accountability Committee would have to present monthly reports to the LC. In fact, the notice of motion outlined that the Accountability Committee must present reports to the LC on an as-needed basis—in matters of public interest—and otherwise as per their regular reporting schedule. The Tribune regrets these errors.

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