Latest News

a, Student Life

The Yellow Door aims to prevent urban isolation

by Natalie Wong on

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Montreal is a city coloured with many longstanding unique organizations. One such organization is the non-for-profit Yellow Door, located at 3625 Rue Aylmer, which aims to promote creative artistic expression and encourage service for the community.

“The purpose of the Yellow Door is to give young people an opportunity to initiate and participate in projects of various kinds—social and creative—that combat urban isolation, work across multiple generations, and that hopefully lead to positive social change,” said Marc Nerenberg, Yellow Door Coffeehouse Coordinator.

The Yellow Door has a history that has close ties with McGill University, dating back to the early 1900s. McGill students created the YMCA of McGill University in 1887, which the Student Christian Movement of Canada took over in Canadian universities in 1928. During the 1960s, the Yellow Door Coffeehouse grew from an initiative of the Student Christian Movement, where it served to create a spot for creative expression for local artists.

“The Yellow Door Coffeehouse became fairly well-known over time—it was named Canada’s oldest coffeehouse,” said Nerenberg. “Where other coffeehouses were more of a business venture, the [Yellow Door] was a soulful venture.”

From 1967 to 1971, the coffeehouse acted as a setting to help individuals with financial aid and connect them through lunch programs and music. 

“[The coffeehouse] has a very special history,” said Matthew Bouchard, executive director of the Yellow Door. “In the [1960s], there were a lot of draft-dodgers coming from the United States and settling in Montreal. A lot of them settled in this area because it was low-income housing for the most part; they also came along with their music culture [….] Many of them had to live off of very low wages, so we had a soup kitchen, as well as a coffeehouse. The coffeehouse allowed for like-minded individuals to come together to connect and build relationships around music.”

With the growth of the drug scene in Montreal in the early ’70s, the Yellow Door set up a drop-in psychiatric clinic where doctors provided counselling for youth with drug addictions. In 1972, the organization started the Yellow Door Elderly Project, which began when a group of McGill students used the Local Initiatives Projects grant from the federal Liberal Party to conduct door-to-door surveys of the elderly living in the community and recognized a need to provide services to isolated elderly citizens.

Currently, the Yellow Door is still running with donations from the Quebec government, various private corporations and individuals, as well as with grants from Centraide. The Yellow Door currently runs four key projects: The Yellow Door Coffeehouse, the Generations Project, the Rabbit Hole Café, and Branch Out. 

The Generations Project has evolved from the Yellow Door Elderly Project, and is now run by two coordinators with over 250 volunteers, serving around 300 elderly members within the downtown Montreal community. 

“The mission of it is to try to connect generations through service,” said Bouchard. “The idea is that we get young students to volunteer and they are matched with isolated elderly people in the Montreal area [….] It’s very much for both individuals to benefit from it as much as possible.”

The Rabbit Hole Café is a vegan lunch kitchen—funded by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (MORSL) at McGill—that operates every Friday during the school term, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. For a donation of $2, students are provided with a vegan lunch. The Yellow Door also includes a small food bank filled with non-perishable items that students can access during the Rabbit Hole Café hours.

Branch Out is the newest initiative started at the Yellow Door. It currently has two projects—the Youth Engagement Project, which fosters creative mentorship between high school students and university students, and Spontaneous Space, which offers activities such as painting, wood carving, chess, and musical improv, to students for free.

The Yellow Door Coffeehouse, which has run for almost 50 years, still continues every Friday and Saturday night. Various famous singer-songwriters performed at the Coffeehouse, including renowned artists such as Gordon Lightfoot, Rufus Wainwright, and Stan Rogers. It currently runs open mics, and hosts a featured performer every Friday. The Singer-Songwriter Second Saturday Series runs every second Saturday of each month, and includes a featured act.

Gareth Dicker, member of the Yellow Door Board of Directors, highlighted the strong sense of community cultivated by the Coffeehouse.

“The community of the coffeehouse has been going on for over 40 years as well, so it’s a good way to connect with several decades of musicianship, dating back to when folk music was actually popular,” Dicker said.           

a, Basketball, Sports

10 Things: NBA All-Star weekend

by Abdulaziz Atta on

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  • 1) Michael Jordan’s freeze-out All-Star game

    The All-Star game is the stage where the best players in the world get to showcase their talent, but the great Michael Jordan barely got to touch the ball in his first appearance. According to NBA lore, point guard Isiah Thomas ‘froze-out’ Jordan in the 1985 All-Star Game out of jealousy of Jordan’s skyrocketing fame.

     

  • 2) Inaugural NBA fashion show

    As we all know, the NBA’s athletes are known for their interesting wardrobes. This year, LeBron James used the All-Star game as an opportunity to produce the NBA’s first fashion show ever, starring James Harden, DeMarcus Cousins, Russell Westbrook, and many of the league’s notable fashion trailblazers. LeBron’s new teammate J.R. Smith strutted down the runway in a fur-trimmed three-piece suit to narrowly beat out the Mavericks’ Chandler Parsons in the judges’ eyes and was crowned winner of the show.

     

  • 3) Brotherly rivalry

    Two of the most dominant post players in the league today—Marc and Pau Gasol—faced off in an epic battle of East vs. West on Sunday. It marked the first time in NBA history that two brothers started on opposing teams in an All-Star game. Bragging rights at the Gasol family table were on the line, and it looks like Marc will be serving up crawdad burgers for supper.

     

  • 4) Short guys can dunk too

    he Slam Dunk competition is a non-stop aerial assault on the rim, featuring some of the NBA’s most freakishly athletic leapers. We tend to think that the taller players generally have the advantage, but it will come as a surprise to many that the shortest player in the NBA today—the 5’9” Nate Robinson—has the most Slam Dunk trophies to his name, with three titles in all.

     

  • 5) Concrete jungle

    The city that never sleeps was buzzing this weekend thanks to all the All-Star related activities. Some of North America’s biggest celebrities gathered under one roof; there were wild after parties, and we’re betting KD and Russ challenged LeBron and Kyrie to a friendly game of two-on-two in Rucker Park at some point.

     

  • 6) Sticker shock

    Unless you’re an A-list celeb or a Russian oligarch, getting a ticket to the All-Star game is no easy feat. Would you like to sit courtside with Kevin Hart, Rihanna, and Drake, and watch Steph Curry go bonkers from behind the three-point line? It’ll only set you back $9,000. If that’s too much, you can always sit up in the nosebleeds, where tickets go for $700 each.

     

  • 7) Virtual reality

    If those courtside tickets aren’t quite in your price range, or are not immersive enough for you, fear not! The NBA is filming the All-Star weekend with virtual reality cameras, so if you happen to own a pair of virtual reality glasses, then you can experience highlights of the All-Star weekend in virtual reality for free.

     

  • 8) Vintage jerseys

    The 2015 NBA All-Star jersey was designed to reflect New York City’s rich culture and age-old relationship with basketball. The five stars represent each of New York’s five boroughs, and each star has unique patterns meant to demonstrate the boroughs’ main characteristics, such as the vinyl record patterns on one star to pay homage to the great hip-hop scene of the Bronx.

     

  • 9) The Riley rule

    Every year, the head coach with the best record at the break is chosen to represent his respective conference in the All-Star game. Ever since the 1990s, however, the ‘Riley Rule’ has been in place, barring a coach from making consecutive all-star appearances. The rule, of course, is named after Pat Riley, whose incredible Lakers teams in the 1980s earned him eight All-Star nods in nine seasons.

     

  • 10) What All-Star weekend?

    When the All-Star game was conceptualized in 1951, NBA President Maurice Podoloff was skeptical about the idea of having an exhibition match featuring the best players in the league. He was on the verge of nixing the idea, but Walter Brown, the owner of the Boston Celtics, promised to assume all costs if the project failed. Today, in part thanks to Brown’s daring confidence, it is one of the most popular annual sporting events in North America.

     

a, News

McGill students organize vigil for three Muslim students killed in North Carolina

by Julia Dick on

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McGill students gathered at a vigil last Thursday night to mourn and honor the three Muslim students who were killed in a shooting at UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The three victims, Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, Deah Bakarat, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, were murdered on Feb. 10 by Craig Stephen Hicks, a resident of Chapel Hill. Hicks turned himself in and was later charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The Chapel Hill police made a statement on Wednesday explaining that they are still investigating the incident, which they believed to be motivated by a parking dispute. 

Students and members of the Montreal community gathered in front of Roddick gates, and moved to stand outside of the Arts building as the vigil grew. A hundred or so people gathered to hold signs and candles in support of the Chapel Hill community. 

While not affiliated with a particular group on campus, the organizers of the vigil, Summia Saed Aldien, U2 Engineering, and Yara Hammami, U2 Arts, stated that they wanted to commemorate the victims and raise awareness within the McGill community. 

“When we heard the news we were shocked,” Hammami said. “We were also shocked that no specific organization […] took the stance and the action to do something.”

Their Facebook event quickly went viral in Montreal. As of Thursday afternoon, over 4,000 people had been invited to the event on the Facebook group.

Aldien stated that the vigil was about establishing solidarity with the three victims.

“We […] have to stand together.” Aldien said. “If we […] do not do this together, then who’s going to stand up to crimes like this that are happening on a daily basis?”

Anna Marchese, a second-year Arts student at McGill, heard about the event through Facebook and stated that she attended the event to stand in solidarity against the shooting.

“I’m here just to combat […] general populations or groups within America that feel as though this act is justified, that feel like it’s all right to attack people because they’re different,” Marchese said. “We’re here, and we’re trying to show our support for the family first and foremost.”

Alaa Moussa, a finance student at Concordia, also heard about the vigil through Facebook. Moussa criticised the media coverage of the incident.  

“From what I heard—and unfortunately there is not much serious coverage—it is probably not a parking spot issue,” Moussa said. “[Hicks] maybe hates all religions, but he killed Muslims.”

Since the shooting, various social media campaigns and public vigils have been held in solidarity with the victims and their families. Social media was also used to decry the shooting as a hate crime and criticize the media for failing to cover it adequately. #ChapelHillShooting and #MuslimLivesMatter became trending topics worldwide on Twitter for most of the week.

The organizers also emphasized that they hoped that the shooter would be brought to justice.

“There’s a sense of dehumanizing it, in a way, and it’s just that we’re trying to highlight that […] Muslim lives matter as well,” Hammami said. “There should be justice for everyone; all lives are equal no matter what, and all innocent lives should be treated [equally].” 

a, Editorial, Opinion

Editorial: Debating divestment – Editorial and dissent

by McGill Tribune Editorial Board on

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Divest McGill, a student group that attempts to lobby the university to divest its financial holdings in fossil fuel companies, recently submitted a proposal to the McGill Board of Governors (BoG) Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR). This proposal specifically targets the estimated five per cent of McGill’s nearly $1 billion endowment that is invested in fossil fuel companies.

a, Science & Technology, Student Research

This month in student research: Travis Chen

by Chloe Nevitt on

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Travis Chen calls his current lab work a serendipitous event. The U3 pharmacology major has spent the last three years working with two major ant species—Formicidae and Myrmicine.

“Like every first year, I was thinking about [medical] school [and] I was volunteering at a hospital, and [that’s when I] realized it wasn’t for me,” Chen explained. “I [had] met a friend who was doing work in the lab I’m working in now, and they were asking for [more] volunteers, so I decided to join.” 

Chen is currently working in Ehab Abouheif’s lab, an evolutionary developmental biology lab with a focus on understanding the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes.

Together with Ben Fung, a U3 pharmacology major, they have worked to create a developmental stage table for the Formicidea and Myrmicina ants. 

“We basically grew these ant embryos [and] created [developmental stage] tables for them by creating stereotypic stages,” said Chen. 

Researchers who need to target specific stages during the ant’s embryogenesis can use staging tables, like Chen’s, as a reference tool.

“If you want to inject DNA and have transgenic effects, then you have [to know] when [the ant] is in its early stages to [use it] before the DNA cellularizes,” stated Chen.

The team managed to find 17 stages in Formicidae in their 13 days of development, and 13 stages for Myrmicina in 10 days. Currently, the team has two papers in the works that promise to be very ‘ant-heavy,’ Chen said.

First, though, Chen had to learn how to work with the ants, develop new protocols that were specific for his species of interest—something that he said proved to be his most difficult challenge—and deal with the ant bites. 

“[Fung and I] went into this as first-year students, and we didn’t [know how to do] many techniques, so we had to learn everything from lab protocols and books,” Chen said. “It took us about a year to develop the protocols.”

Chen said he finds the job itself incredibly rewarding, and loves working with the animals. 

“Every single one of them is really different,” he said. “The more you work with them, the more you enjoy them.”

After learning more about different ant colonies, Chen explained it became more clear as to why certain species react to certain stimuli. Today, there are 13,000 species of ants catalogued, and scientists predict that the real number should be around 22,000. Furthermore, when comparing the biomass of all the ants in the world to humans, the ratio hovers around one-to-one—a startling comparison.

“They represent 15 to 25 per cent of all land animal biomass,” Chen said. 

There’s an abundance of variety amongst the species due to its size. This is what interests Chen the most. Ants display a trait known as polyphenism—in which one genotype can produce many phenotypes. Humans see this most commonly in traits like height, but in ants, these polyphenic traits can cause a much bigger variance within the population.

“[You can have] a worker that comes out of the same embryo as a queen, and the worker lives six months max, and that same queen can live 20 something years,” Chen explained. 

Being able to understand these phenotypic differences due to hormonal signaling or environmental stresses can provide valuable insight into things like neurodegenerative diseases. Polyphenisms are new in the genetic field, where people traditionally believed that one genotype would result in one phenotype.

Chen largely attributes his success to his passion for his work, and from it, a love of developmental biology has grown—something he hopes to pursue further. 

“I was recommended by my PI [principal investigator] to do a study with a professor at Harvard,” explained Chen. “But it’s up in the air right now.” 

 When getting into research Chen said that it is  important to consider all aspects of the lab experience—not just the science. 

“It’s super cool stuff and the people in the lab really love doing the work they’re doing,” Chen said. “It’s not just the research—it’s the people.”

a, Arts & Entertainment

Janet Devlin – Duvet Daze

by Jack Neal on

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After rising to the spotlight in the 2011 X Factor series with her awkward, charming rendition of Elton John’s “Love Song,” 16-year-old Irish singer Janet Devlin won the audience over with her quirky image, shy personality, and fascinatingly whimsical voice. Despite leaving the show after a series of nervous breakdowns and clashes with the producers’ visions for her performances, Devlin has been extremely busy releasing a debut album and touring all throughout the UK, and more recently, dropping her second EP, Duvet Daze.

The short album consists of four covers, stripped back, and hugely representative of Devlin’s ethereal vocals. It reverts to the much more acoustic-based sound she proved she was more than capable of during her X Factor days, and sees her thankfully take a step away from the often over-produced sound of her previous full-length release, Running With Scissors (2014).

However, while this allows Devlin to fully develop and focus on the element of her artistry that makes her stand apart from the rest—her voice—the result is one of the most uninteresting albums to be released this year. Instead of burdening her voice with the weight of multiple instruments, it is allowed to shine through the almost elementary guitar and harp strums. 

Opening with Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire”—Devlin incorporates an Irish flute in the background that somehow works—she pays homage to her roots. “I’m Not In Love” is an extremely stripped-back track consisting of not much more than a picked guitar and her voice. Surprisingly, Devlin pulls off a mature cover of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball,” and while it serves as a nice listen, it fails to fully grasp the emotional aspect of the song that Cyrus’ does.

Devlin is good, but Duvet Daze doesn’t allow her to explore the vocal abilities that she possesses. It’s just four songs to half listen to in the background while falling asleep in some sort of lodge in the middle of the woods. Duvet Daze is much more of a summary of her persona as opposed to a further development of it.

a, Montreal, News

Bill 10: MUHC concerned about new network structure

by Philippe Dumais on

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On Feb. 7, Bill 10 was passed in the National Assembly of Quebec. The Bill is set to abolish the 18 regional health agencies, which are currently responsible for coordinating the health care and social services of a given area. These include child protection services, elderly care, hospitals, and other additional services. In their place, the bill will re-organise the current Health and Social Service Centres (CISSS) in a way that would seek to fulfill the gap created by the abolition of the regional agencies.

The bill will merge the current 184 CISSS to form 28 new ones, each covering a larger area. The newly administered CISSS’s  will have board members appointed by the Minister of Health and Social Services Gaetan Barrette, and resources will then be allocated to each of the 16 administrative regions of the province. Montreal will have five CISSS’s. 

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) declined to comment on how the reform will affect its daily operations. However, its administration expressed concerns towards how the Montreal community would be affected by any forthcoming changes to the MUHC as a result of the Bill. 

“Our consultation has revealed considerable concern about the important role our community plays in the governance of our hospitals,” reads the MUHC’s press release regarding Bill 10.

The MUHC also raised questions about its new status as a superregional institution under the Bill and demanded more clarity from Barrette.

“The problem with this is that it is unclear what defines a superregional institution and how it fits into the proposed network structure,” the press release reads.

Even though the MUHC is not directly impacted by most of the effects of Bill 10, the reorganization of resources in the area alters the number of specialists it will be allocated.

“Under a clinical reorganization by the Quebec Health Department, the MUHC would lose 83 specialists over the next five years,” Aaron Deferel reported for Post Media.

Isabelle Lavigne, spokesperson for the Centre Hospitalier de l’University de Montreal (CHUM), declined to comment, saying it is too early to determine how the operations will be affected.  

“The CHUM remains an autonomous facility and we do not know yet how the reform will affect its activities,” Lavigne said.

Associate Professor in Social Work at McGill Delphine Collin-Vézina was invited to appear before the National Assembly committee called the Commission sur la Santé et les Services Sociaux, which is responsible for examining all  health care legislation. The committee examined Bill 10 before it was adopted. 

“We were raising concerns regarding the expertise in assessing child maltreatment cases that could be lost,” Collin-Vézina said.  As a result of Bill 10, local services dedicated to the protection of children will be merged into new CISSS infrastructures.

Paul Thomas, the president of the MUHC workers union (SECUSM-CSN), explained that the reorganization and the mergers complicate labour relationships.  

“We are concerned by the new power this reform gives to the Health Minister,” Thomas said. “If mandates or services are altered, it will force labour reorganization.” 

Thomas continued to explain that the MUHC would not be affected by union mergers, although other health-centres, such as the CHUM, are concerned that smaller unions may lose their voice if merged with larger ones.

“[The MUHC] is excluded from the facility mergers, hence our employees will not have to vote and change union,” Thomas said.  “I discussed with the president of the employees from CHUM, and they will be affected when the Notre-Dame hospital will be integrated with a different sector when the [new site for the] CHUM will open.”

a, News, SSMU

SSMU Council opposes deregulation, approves ECOLE referendum question

by Max Berger on

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Motion regarding opposition to deregulation of international tuition

Last Thursday, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed a motion to oppose the McGill administration’s decision to lobby the Quebec government to deregulate international students’ tuition in all programs. 

The implementation of this deregulation proposal would increase tuition revenue from international students, as it allows McGill to determine the supplemental tuition it would charge its students. Currently, the provincial government decides the amount of supplementary tuition that international students pay, then reallocates the tuition from them to universities throughout Quebec based on total population rather than international student population.

Arts representative Eddie Lin voiced his concern about the difficulties this would pose for students currently paying higher levels of tuition.

“[International students] already pay about two or three times more than regular Canadian students,” Lin said. “It’s just not reasonable to put a burden on [a group] that’s already so burdened.”

Alternatively, Engineering representative Anikke Rioux urged the Council to consider the advantages of the extra funding that would result from increased tuition.

“One of the biggest benefits is that the effect of budget cuts […] doesn’t affect us quite as much when we’re deregulated because international students bring in a lot of money to the university,” Rioux explained. 

While most Council members were in favour of opposing deregulation, there was discussion about the possibility of amending the motion and voting on it instead at the Winter General Assembly (GA) as a means of more effectively engaging students. However, that amendment did not pass as councillors decided on the need of immediate action. 

“The VP External portfolio can’t move forward if we table all actions that are political to the GA,” Arts representative Lola Baraldi said. “I don’t see it as mutually exclusive to pass this motion […] and then perhaps [bring] a stronger discussion or a second motion building off of this one [to] the GA.”  

Motion regarding the ECOLE referendum question

Council also approved a motion that will allow the Educational Community Living Environment (ECOLE) Project, a student-run sustainability initiative that houses its facilitators in a property rented from McGill on 3559 University, to run a question in the upcoming Winter Referendum regarding the creation of a $2 student fee per semester. If passed, the fee would go towards the funding needed for ECOLE to cover its $144,195 budget. ECOLE recieves $44,000 in rent fees from its tennants, which then goes towards the $94,000 it is charged by McGill for the use of the ECOLE building. Currently, most of ECOLE’s funding comes from the non-renewable McGill’s Sustainable Project Fund.

The motion follows ECOLE’s recently acquired Independent Student Group (ISG) status, which allows the organization to charge student fee levies. Three ECOLE representatives came to Council to address the progress of the project and answer questions about the fee levy. 

“The idea behind this motion is that ECOLE will be able to continue for many years to come,” ECOLE co-coordinator Brooke Nancekivell explained. “We also have, for context, looked into many other funding options at McGill [besides a student fee], many of which we’re not eligible for. We’ve also looked into funding options outside of McGill, and a lot of those grants come from sources that don’t align with our mandate.”

Senate Caucus representative Kareem Ibrahim, who also sits on the Board of Directors of ECOLE, proposed an amendment to increase the fee in the question from $2 to $2.50. It did not pass, and VP Finance and Operations Kathleen Bradley, who is a fellow board member with Ibrahim, expressed that she supported the original motion but couldn’t endorse the fee increase.

“I made the $2 recommendation based upon my professional opinion and I would still agree with that opinion,” Bradley said. “This amendment is not a responsible use of student funds.”

Anti-austerity progress report

In her report to Council, Vice-President External Amina Moustaqim-Barrette discussed the anti-austerity actions that SSMU is currently undertaking. Last Wednesday, Moustaqim-Barrette met for the first time with the Mobilization Committee, a group that was formed under Moustaqim-Barrette’s portfolio after SSMU resolved to take an official stance against austerity at the Fall GA and is open to all students to join. It has arranged to hang anti-austerity banners around the SSMU building, and will be rallying students to participate in an anti-austerity strike organized by the anti-austerity group Comité Printemps 2015, that will be taking place in Montreal on Mar. 21. Moustaqim-Barrette also encouraged councillors to contact her if they would like to bring a strike motion to their constituents.

“What I’d really like to see is us empower departments and faculties having strike votes [at that level],” Moustaqim-Barrette said. “Within my position as VP External, I see myself […]  really just [… trying to] get the information out there to our students about austerity and alternatives to it.” 

a, Montreal, News

Public school teachers protest austerity measures, proposed changes to contract agreements

by Jenna Stanwood on

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On Feb. 9, the Montreal trade union of kindergarten to high school teachers, the Alliance des Professeures et Professeurs de Montreal (APPM), staged a protest outside Roddick Gates. The APPM represents teachers’ interests before the Commission Scolaire de Montreal (CSM), the Montreal public school board.

According to APPM members, the union is facing the end of its current contract with the Quebec government on March 31, and is in ongoing negotiations with the government over a new contract. As a part of the austerity measures currently being implemented across Quebec to cut back on public spending, the Ministry of Education has proposed numerous changes to its contract with the APPM, which would affect public elementary and high school institutions.

Anger over the Ministry’s proposed deal sparked the protest, according to Carolyne Hebert, a teacher at École primaire des Amis-du-Monde, an elementary school in Côte-St-Luc. Among the potential changes are an increase in the number of students per class for grade three and up, a two-year freeze on salaries, changes to maternity leave and retirement age requirements, and cuts to special education programs.

“The rate [of students] per class usually is about 25 students, [and] they want to raise that,” Hebert said. “We have many students that […have] learning difficulties or […] behaviour problems, so it would be even worse if we had more students in our [classes].” 

Christine Fahndrich, a teacher in Montreal for 26 years, voiced concerns that the proposed changes will ultimately harm students. According to Fahndrich, the proposed contract may also affect the chances for younger teachers new to the field to secure permanent employment.

“They want to change the [hiring] conditions […] for younger persons getting [teaching] jobs, so that it’s hard for them to get a permanent job,” Fahndrich said. “[It’s] the kids that are going to pay. The conditions are going to be harder, more kids, more handicapped kids […] with less service, less teachers […and] less professionals to help those kids.”  

James Wilson, a supervisor of student teachers with the Faculty of Education at McGill, explained that there are two types of contracts a teacher in Montreal can be offered: Tenured positions and part-time contracts. Under a part-time contract, a teacher may be working full-time, but their contract will stipulate an end date for the job.

Usually [the teacher with the part-time contract] will be going in and replacing somebody for a year,” Wilson said. “When that year ends and that person comes back […] that job disappears.” 

A teacher who receives two of these part-time contracts is put on a short list for hiring in the event that another part-time or tenured position opens up. This system leaves many teachers constantly looking for a job and long application lists for tenured positions.

The effects of the government’s proposed contract, if it is accepted as the new agreement, could have grave consequences for those looking for employment in education. According to Wilson, a large component of the offer would feature increasing class sizes to decrease the number of teachers needed per school.

“If you’re saying to teachers, ‘Look, you’ve got to stay in the job longer,’ it means it reduces the number of posts which would become available to young people looking for a job,” Wilson said. “If you increase the workload, [that] means that you need less teachers anyway. So this is not good news for people [who] are thinking of getting into the job.”

Wilson explained that the Quebec government has the final say in the contract negotiations. 

“[The school boards are] just a mouthpiece that the government speaks through—in the end it’s the government that calls the shots.” Wilson said. 

Though the negotiations are likely to last for a while longer, according to Wilson, if an agreement is not reached by March 3, the current agreement will be automatically extended to cover the gap until a new contract is decided on.

a, Recipes, Student Life

Recipe: Red velvet cheesecake hearts

by Jer Lin Poh on

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Ingredients

  • Red velvet base

  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted

    7/8 cup sugar

    1 tsp vanilla extract

    1 tbsp cocoa powder

    ¼ tsp salt

    1 tbsp red food colouring

    1 tsp white vinegar

    2 large eggs

    3/4 cup all-purpose flour

  • Cheesecake layer

    8oz cream cheese, softened

    3/8 cup sugar

    1 large egg

    1 tsp vanilla extract

    ¼ cup milk

    Directions

  • Red velvet base

    1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8 inch pan with baking paper.

    2. Sift flour and salt together.

    3. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, vinegar, vanilla, cocoa powder,

    and food colouring. Whisk in the eggs, then mix in the flour until just combined.

    4. Set aside 1/3 cup of batter. Pour remaining batter into the baking pan.

  • Cheesecake layer

    5. In a medium bowl, beat together the sugar, egg, and vanilla with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Then, beat in the cream cheese until smooth and well-combined.

    6. Pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the red velvet batter in the baking pan.

    7. Combine the remaining red velvet batter with the milk. Drop dollops of the mixture on top of the cheesecake layer, then swirl the batters together using the tip of a knife.

    8. Bake the cheesecake for 30 minutes. After cooling, allow the cheesecake to chill thoroughly before slicing with a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

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