Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau captivated the world. Who’s next? PG. 7
Martlets Volleyball falls to Carabins in Friday night nail-biter UQÀM took the game in four sets as McGill fought to the last whistle
EDITORIAL
Between Nov. 7 and 14, 28 departments will hold general assemblies (GAs) to vote on strike motions in support of Palestine for the week of Nov. 17. As of Nov. 10, three of the 28 passed a motion to strike. The motions, although independently submitted to each faculty, share four central demands. They call on McGill to divest from its holdings in companies complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide and apartheid in occupied Palestine; disclose its financial holdings; drop disciplinary charges—such as injunctions—against students involved in popular organizing, political advocacy, and demonstrations; and end any research or financial partnerships involving organiza-
tions or individual donors that perpetuate or benefit from the sale of weapons or military technology.
Departmental strikes represent an institutionally mandated and unified channel to hold the McGill administration responsible for its complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Though the university has yet to divest, McGill cannot remain obstinate forever if pressure from its students and faculty continues. Striking may feel futile, and the effort to do so exhausting, but as a student body, our commitment to action must persist. In this war of attrition, the question is whether sustained student pressure can outlast institutional intransigence—whether we can make the status quo more costly to maintain than to change.
Where the possession, cultivation, and sale of magic mushrooms stands in Montreal
Amelia H. Clark Staff Writer
silocybin mushrooms, colloquially known as ‘magic’ mushrooms or ‘shrooms,’ contain a psychedelic compound—either psilocybin or psilocin—and are considered Schedule 3 substances under Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, alongside lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and ketamine. The cultivation and distribution of all Schedule 3 substances, unless prescribed by Health Canada, are punishable with
up to ten years of jail time. The Tribune explains how these legal constraints on ‘shrooms’ play out in Montreal.
Is taking ‘shrooms’ illegal? Yes, possession or consumption of psilocybin is illegal everywhere in Canada, unless you have an exemption from the government for the purpose of performing clinical trials with ‘magic’ mushrooms. Possessing ‘shrooms’ is punishable with a $1,000 CAD fine and up to three years jail time, while their production holds a penalty of ten years in prison.
Currently, UQÀM is ranked third and McGill is ranked sixth in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec volleyball standings. (Emiko Kamiya / The Tribune)
Montreal doctors rally against Bill 2, calling it a ‘catastrophe’ for Quebec’s health care system
Protestors warn that Bill 2’s reforms will deepen the strain on both doctors and patients
Jenna Durante Features Editor
On Nov. 9, thousands of doctors, specialists, residents, families, and friends rallied outside the Bell Centre to call for the suspension of new health legislation enacted by the province. On Oct. 25, the Quebec government adopted Bill 2, which will enforce a contract on Quebec doctors whose previous collective agreement expired in March 2023.
Under this law, ten per cent of physicians’ salaries will be tied to provincial performance targets. If those targets are not reached, their pay will be reduced. These goals include ensuring that 75 per cent of ER patients are seen within 90 minutes, and that 97 per cent of surgeries happen within a year of assessment. Furthermore, the law introduces capitation for family doctors, meaning they now receive a fixed payment per patient they support.
Largely following the framework of Bill 106, a proposal introduced in September 2025, Bill 2 represents a broader overhaul of how physicians are paid and evaluated in the province. Bill 106 already raised concerns within the medical community and sparked protest from the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Quebec (FMSQ), including FMSQ doctors striking from teaching obligations at Quebec medical schools.
In an interview with The Tribune, Aaron
Assedou, a doctor at L’hôpital d’urgence du Sacré-Cœur-de-Montréal, said this was the first rally he had attended against either bill and emphasized how much the collective action resonated with him.
“The message that the government is sending [about Bill 2] is that it’ll help patient access,” Assedou stated. “I think that’s not true. They’re just setting objectives that are not attainable for us, and by demoralizing the troops, by making work harder, by encouraging doctors to leave because they’re fed up, they’re just going to make access [to healthcare] even worse.”
Beyond the immediate financial strain it has placed on physicians, Bill 2 has created an atmosphere of fear. As medical students and doctors band together to protest the bill, they risk facing severe penalties: Steep fines of up to $20,000 CAD per day for individuals who disrupt medical services, and up to $500,000 CAD per day for groups. Members of the medical community have expressed concern that these strict measures discourage open criticism of provincial health care policy.
In an interview with The Tribune, André Barielle, an attendee at the protest, shared his concerns for his daughter, a recent Quebec medical school graduate.
“She’s anxious because things are changing too fast,” Barielle said. “She’s afraid that she’s going to have a revenue cut by 40 per
cent. She has no pension plan, so she has to plan for that. She has to have risk insurance [....] She cannot go work somewhere else. That is so unfair.”
Despite the threat of fines, chants of community and solidarity with medical professionals prevailed through downtown Montreal during the rally.
Dr. Emilie Gagné shared in an interview with The Tribune that while Bill 2’s stated goals are to improve medical service speed and access to care, she fears the legislation will have the opposite effect.
“There’s work to do, but this [bill] is not work. This is destruction.”
“For the patients, we want to do better,” Gagné said. “There’s a million people that don’t have a family doctor. I’m a family doctor, and I wish everybody had one.”
Gagné continued to express worries that instead of addressing systemic issues in the healthcare system, the bill may drive doctors out of the province, reduce Quebec’s quality of care, and limit access to providers. Quebec currently faces a shortage of approximately 1,200 general practitioners.
“There’s going to be more delays, more accidents, and more debt,” Gagne emphasized.
For family physician Julien Dumont, the day’s protest was rooted in unity and concern for the future of health care in Quebec. After over a decade of practice, he stated that the legislation has left many doctors questioning their vocations and identities in a system they once trusted.
“Everyone is impacted,” Dumont said in an interview with The Tribune. “It’s a catastrophe for the public health system [....] We’re here to unify. As a physician, I think everyone is hurt by what is going on with the law because we, as doctors, treat patients as individuals, and we do with all our heart.”
From campus to City Hall: Students campaign for the Montreal AntiApartheid Pledge
Over 100 City Council candidates signed the pledge, with 24 municipal representatives being elected on this platform
Samuel Hamilton Staff Writer
The Montreal Anti-Apartheid Pledge is a citizen-led campaign, backed by a multitude of civil society groups, to pressure those running in the Montreal municipal elections that took place on Nov. 2 to sign a set of six demands with the aim of ending Montreal’s complicity in Israeli apartheid against Palestinians.
Specifically, the pledge demands the city cut institutional ties with the Israeli government, divest from municipal contracts that are tied to Israel, and boycott Israeli sports teams, academic institutions, and cultural representatives. It also requests that the city of Montreal welcome more Palestinian refugees, that it demands a bilateral arms embargo from the federal government, and that it supports family reunification through expansion of the Temporary Resident Visa Program.
In the end, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the winner of the Montreal mayoral election, was the only one of the three main mayoral candidates running who did not sign the pledge. In spite of this, the Montreal AntiApartheid Pledge campaign claimed victory on Instagram, stating, “We succeeded in making Gaza a central issue in this election.” Montreal’s new City Hall reflects this, with
almost a third of seats now occupied by individuals who adopted the pledge.
In an interview with The Tribune, Rama Al Malah, U3 Sciences, who is part of the Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal and was involved with the Anti-Apartheid Pledge campaign, drew a connection between the student movement and municipal politics.
“Over the past two years, the student movement has positioned itself as an extension […] of the wider Palestinian movement,” she said. “We understand that the entire movement is united under a larger banner of isolating Zionism and cutting ties with Israel, whether it be through city investments or contracts, a bilateral arms embargo, or, as the students have been demanding, divestment.”
A representative from McGill’s chapter of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), a grassroots, anti-Zionist, Jewish organization, stated in an interview with The Tribune, “IJV McGill stands behind [the Anti-Apartheid Pledge] in municipal politics […] as much as national or international politics.”
“We condemn the use of claims of antisemitism as a tool to suppress pro-Palestine activism [on campus], or against politicians who are trying to have Quebec or Montreal divest,” they said.
In an interview with The Tribune, a student at Concordia University, who wished
to remain anonymous, explained that their participation in pro-Palestine protests in Montreal taught them about Quebec institutions’ complicity in the genocide, motivating them to get involved in the AntiApartheid Pledge campaign.
“I attended the Palestinian Youth Movement demonstration at the General Dynamics plant in Repentigny, where bullets were being shipped to the IDF [....] I protested the Israel Premier Tech cycling team at the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Montréal,” they shared in an interview with The Tribune. “Those moments clarified just how directly Montreal, Quebec, and Canada more broadly are complicit in the ongoing genocide.”
emphasized that their position as a student was particularly important as part of a significant voter base that could possibly mobilize in the province, as only 21 per cent of youth voted in the last municipal election in Montreal.
The student felt a responsibility to act on these connections between Israel and Montreal, and said that one of the most direct ways of doing so was by making Palestine a visible issue in this election. They
“Our goal for the student strategy was getting them out to vote, because they could easily swing an election,” they said. “Soraya won by just over 30,000 votes, while the student strikes in October had over 80,000 students on strike. Part of our leverage in the campaign was transferring that momentum into municipal election votes.”
Over 100 City Council candidates signed the pledge, with 24 municipal representatives elected on this platform. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)
22 per cent of Quebec doctors are over the age of 60, and Bill 2 may push them into retirement. (Jenna Durante / The Tribune)
Students report unprofessional treatment from Student Accessibility and Achievement
Students call on SAA to revisit professional standards of staff and invigilators
Merce Kellner Staff Writer
McGill students have reported unprofessional treatment from the staff at the McGill Student Accessibility and Achievement (SAA) Centre. SAA, as part of McGill’s Student Services, provides students experiencing learning challenges with a sanctioned area to take exams specific to their individual needs. Registered students with documented disabilities may take their final exams in the SAA centre and receive extra time. The SAA also provides services and amenities such as text enlargement in computer labs, earmuffs, and standing desks. However, many students have recently alleged that their SAA needs have not been properly met.
In a written statement to The Tribune, a student who wished to remain anonymous explained that they noticed a rise in unprofessionalism this year, describing a lack of empathy from SAA invigilators during a recent exam.
“I have been asked by invigilators in the past to start [my exam] without all of my accommodations being present,” they wrote. “My support person should not be more knowledgeable on the invigilation process than the invigilators themselves, and yet this is the case for every [SAA] exam. My support person has to follow up and ensure that my rights are being respected each time when my accommodations are not set up before I can begin.”
The student also recounted invigilators using mobile devices loudly in the SAA exam room, creating a distracting environment for themselves and other students.
receive SAA accommodations. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)
“I have had invigilators who played games on their phone with the volume on and […] speak the entire time loudly outside the door of my room, despite knowing that many students, including myself, are sound sensitive,” they reported.
This student’s experience is not an isolated instance. An-
other student shared about SAA neglecting their accommodation in a written statement to The Tribune.
“The invigilator stopped me from completing my evaluation a minute early […] by continually speaking to me, telling me to hurry up and leave,” the student wrote. “This even went on till after the minute was up. I tried to fill in my student ID on the Scantron portion as it was the only thing I forgot […] and they got mad at me for that, even though it’s a short-digit code [....] This [experience] has made [the SAA seem] very unpleasant and dreadful.”
Both students described these situations as having a significant impact on their exam performance.
“Not being able to focus due to the invigilator [resulted] in lower-than-expected marks that are not my normal marks,” the first student wrote. “I have issues with refocusing once distracted and struggle significantly with focus and migraines due to noise.”
They also highlighted that their peers, who were also entitled to accommodations, had faced scrutiny from the SAA, describing how the SAA discounted their chronic condition diagnoses on file.
“An SAA accessibility advisor has told friends that they should return to their education when they are healthy,” they noted.
The first student affirmed that such an array of unprofessional behaviour has left stu-
dents with accommodations, like themselves, feeling uncomfortable in testing environments.
Both students called for change. The first described the professionalism they would expect from the SAA staff, and hope to see in the future.
“Invigilators should have bias training and sensitivity training on the experiences of a wide range of disabled students, so that they have a strong understanding of what is appropriate to say and what is not,” they emphasized. “Invigilators should be aware that their job is to set up all accommodations listed, not to choose which ones they think may or may not be necessary for that assessment.”
The Tribune did not receive a response to a request for a statement from the SAA, nor McGill’s Media Relations Office, in time for publication.
In a written statement to The Tribune, Dymetri Taylor, President of the Students’ Society of McGill University, provided students with an alternate way to report unprofessional behaviour from the SAA.
“While we aren’t involved in the accommodations themselves, we do relay feedback we receive to both SAA and to the Deputy Provost [or] Student Services Director,” he wrote. “We’re always looking for further information to avoid [...] issues that may arise due to [...] unprofessionalism [....] Concerns can be relayed to @ua.ssmu.ca.”
New book McGill in History examines McGill’s past through an unflinching, critical lens
Department of History and Classical Studies hosts book launch panel discussion on Nov. 6
Eren Atac Staff Writer
McGill’s Department of History and Classical Studies hosted a panel discussion on Nov. 6 to commemorate the release of McGill in History, a critical historical study of the university. The book was edited by Brian Lewis, Don Nerbas and Melissa N. Shaw, each of whom spoke on the panel. Several of the book’s contributors also spoke, including Andrea Tone, Tess Elsworthy, and Marlene G. Shore.
McGill in History explores issues embedded in the university’s past, such as slavery and colonialism, inviting readers to reflect on how these systems of power impact higher education from the distant past to the present. The panellists explained their unique contributions to the text and how the core topics discussed by the book reflect a reckoning with the unethical power structures that shaped McGill.
The event began with words from Lewis, a professor in McGill’s Department of History. He explained the book’s goals and emphasized the need to unflinchingly confront McGill’s oppressive history head-on.
“We thought that there was a need […] for a rigorous scholarly investigation of McGill’s history by experts in the field, one that would range broadly, thematically and chronologically, that would place McGill in historical context, that would be fully alive to slavery and Indigenous issues, and that would serve as a fitting and lasting contribution from
McGill’s Department of History and Classical Studies,” Lewis said.
Nerbas, McGill associate professor and Chair in Canadian-Scottish Studies, then explained the reasoning behind the book’s chronological structure and historiographical approach.
“In a lot of ways, McGill’s history is very much a big history that appears already in a lot of aspects of Canadian history,” Nerbas stated. “There was an attempt to integrate [its] institutional history into the broader history of Canada, Quebec, Montreal, and, in fact, the
British Empire [....] So, the book is chronologically organized. It’s not a comprehensive history of the institution, but rather, it is based upon snapshots of particular topics that, in many ways, are decided based upon existing expertise.”
The next panellist to speak was Shaw, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of History and Classical Studies. She elaborated on the book’s approach to interactions between different histories, and reflections readers can glean from the work.
“[History] fosters dialogue and show-
cases the creative work that can emerge when historians examine and discuss the different levels at which history is analyzed and communicated,” Shaw said. “By tracing interactions between specific micro-histories and broader macro-histories, it prompts readers to consider how local experiences, shaped by those connected to McGill and influenced by its historical roots, politics, and procedures, relate to larger historical processes.”
The statements from the three editors were followed by comments from some of the book’s contributors. Tone, another professor of History, explained that her contribution focused on the McGill Department of Psychiatry’s involvement with the CIA and its MK-ULTRA program. Elsworthy, a graduate student in the Department of History and Classical Studies, wrote her section on the university banning Japanese students from attending during World War II. Finally, Shore, professor at York University’s Department of History, explained her contribution’s focus on McGill and Canada’s enduring lack of support for the humanities and social sciences.
The event concluded with a brief Q&A segment in which Lewis explained how he would like to see the text accessed in the future.
“I think that the book hopefully could be used in the classroom,” Lewis said. “I think in terms of actually introducing students to history, the university itself provides a really exciting subject, one that is nearby and one that actually is connected to a really fascinating and, as I mentioned, big history.”
Students must sign up 14 days before an exam to
Lewis stressed the project’s need for objectivity, affirming that McGill’s administration had no part in shaping the book’s content. (Emiko Kamiya / The Tribune)
The ‘Trip’une Explains: The legality of psilocybin mushrooms in Montreal
Where the possession, cultivation, and production of magic mushrooms stands in Montreal
Amelia H. Clark Staff Writer
Continued from page 1.
Former Mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante has advocated for the decriminalization of simple drug possession and personal use of Schedule 3 substances, including ‘magic’ mushrooms, since 2017. Still, the Service de police de la ville de Montreal (SPVM) has continued to pursue charges in both instances, with Plante telling the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the SPVM “will continue to enforce the law,” despite her cabinet’s stance.
What constitutes a charge?
A first-time offence of possession of less than 200 grams of ‘shrooms’ is typically considered a misdemeanour and is punishable by a $1,000 CAD fine, jail time of up to a year, probation, or legally mandated enrollment in a drug treatment program. Charges can only be filed if the prosecutor can prove the defendant had prior knowledge and control of the drug’s whereabouts. Possession with intent to dis-
tribute, sell, or traffic ‘magic’ mushrooms is a felony which can be met with a fine from $10,000 CAD to $1 million CAD and a possible prison sentence of twenty years. Charges can be further escalated if offenders have prior criminal records, and based on the location of the offence: For example, a dispensary operating near a middle or high school can receive harsher penalties than one in a business district.
What about magic mushroom dispensaries?
Storefronts often avoid police scrutiny by marketing themselves as wellness or medical clinics instead of dispensaries, and sometimes sell journals and other therapeutic tools alongside ‘magic’ mushrooms. Storefront dispensaries can also sell growing kits by claiming that their product is for non-psychedelic purposes, such as educational, agricultural, or cooking uses.
Many dispensaries operate online to avoid pressure from the SPVM to shut down. This allows them to doubly protect their employees and buyers, who may otherwise run the risk of being arrested during police raids of in-person stores.
Which dispensaries get raided?
It is unclear how and why specific dispensaries in Montreal are targeted, while others operate freely. Funguyz, a franchise dispensary with several locations across Montreal and Toronto, has been raided several times by police in both provinces. Their first Montreal location was opened and raided on July 11, 2023, with the SPVM seizing its merchandise and making four arrests. The location reopened a week later and was again raided on July 21, coupled with simultaneous searches of the apartment above the store and at another location on the island.
On Aug. 3, the SPVM conducted a third raid, making one more arrest and seizing four bulk kilograms, 753 grams of edible products, and 1,643 tablets of psilocybin. All those arrested were employees of the chain and faced varying charges of trafficking and possession.
The frequent raids led FunGuyz to announce in November 2024 that their business was moving entirely online. Despite this, some storefronts have continued to service customers in person.
Police mission Project Magic seized $3.5 million CAD worth of psychedelics across FunGuyz Ontario locations in April 2025. (Zoe Lee / The Tribune)
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The student empire strikes back
The Tribune Editorial Board
Continued from page 1.
Strikes at the departmental level are a testament to the incredible breadth of the proPalestine movement on campus and the diversity of contexts within which mobilization can emerge and prosper. By organizing within their own departments—rather than through Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) as in April’s and October’s centralized strikes—students and faculty show the movement is not confined to one demographic. It is a movement not only driven by students learning about politics and global conflict, but also by those studying computer science and physics alike. In breaking the stereotypes of political participation, everyone in the McGill
community is implicated. Therefore, those who choose not to participate must confront their complicity.
Due to its smaller scale, activism at the departmental level creates and sustains the interpersonal relationships necessary for successful mobilization much more effectively than under a single centralized organizational body, such as SSMU.
Departments have the choice between hard-picket and soft-picket striking strategies, as well as the date and time of their respective strikes.
Allotting agency to each department means that their subsequent strikes are rooted in an intrinsic motivation, as opposed to an externally imposed framework for activism.
Meanwhile, disseminating action across dozens of departments and across a number of days disarms the administration’s ability to stifle the pro-Palestine movement in any one fell swoop. This structure
nullifies McGill’s characteristic tactic for disabling centralized strike efforts, such as its severance of its memorandum of agreement with SSMU. With no single legal mechanism to delegitimize all striking departments, the administration will struggle to maintain its controlling grip that aims to vilify student activism.
On a symbolic level, the widespread will to strike from students and faculty alike demonstrates a marked shift in campus attitudes towards pro-Palestine activism—and towards solidarity between activists. These strike motions follow hot on the heels of the historic resolution from the McGill Association of University Teachers’ landslide vote to endorse the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, demonstrating a new solidarity between faculty and students, and the universality of support for Palestine. If we don’t cede, the
The Port of Montreal expansion can be great—if Carney listens to residents’ concerns
Max Funge-Ripley Contributor
The long-planned
Contrecœur Terminal Expansion Project aims to expand the Port of Montreal’s shipping container capacity by 60 per cent by building a new port 40 kilometres away from Montreal. At its core, this expansion is a good idea: It will create jobs and stabilize Canada’s Americanskewed international trade dynamic. However, residents worry it will harm their quality of life, local ecosystems, and the broader environment, while others claim its increase in size is unnecessary.
relied on the U.S., but that trust has recently been frayed, meaning that it is fiscally prudent for Canada to diversify its trading portfolio.
Lilly
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necessarily re- flect the opinions of The Tribune, its editors or its staff.
Critics’ ecological concerns, as well as their concerns about quality of life, are valid. Locals are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of this massive development. Prime Minister Mark Carney must give affected communities a voice in the planning process rather than steamrolling them. Incorporating community consultation into the expansion project will improve the benefits and sustainability of the port, while simultaneously strengthening public trust in government and its projects.
Canada’s economic future looks uncertain after President Donald Trump abruptly ended trade negotiations and promised increased tariffs as retribution for an anti-tariff advertisement aired by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Canada’s economy has historically
Opponents to the legislation argue that the port expansion violates Bill C-5—which aims to increase Canadian economic autonomy by facilitating free trade between provinces—since it makes Canada’s economy less autonomous and more dependent on international trade. However, by broadening capacity for maritime trade across the Atlantic, the port expansion critically lowers dependence on one specific and increasingly unpredictable trading partner: The U.S. Even though the port expansion will bring external competition for Canadian producers, it boosts Canadian autonomy by diversifying trade partners to offer a safety net to Trump’s flip-flopping policies. Bill C-5 explicitly permits exceptions for certain projects deemed to be in the national interest of Canada, and this plan meets that criterion.
However, this project poses environmental concerns for locals: Over 1,000 cubic litres of river water will be used each day to clean machinery on-site, and it is very possible that dredging may harm the local copper redhorse fish. While minister of Environment and Climate Change Julie Dabsuran has approved the original plan under strict conditions, involving environmental impact mitigation and collaboration with some First Nations communities, the government’s environmental
administration will have to—and participation is the first and most important step. The Religious Studies GA already failed to meet its department’s low quorum. Attend your departmental GA, petition if your department has not yet approved one, bring your friends with you, hold classmates and professors accountable, and use your vote. Striking is effective and only gains momentum as time goes on.
McGill’s administration has remained stubborn and unyielding, and shown strong endurance in waiting for protests to tire. When striking feels pointless, and when we—as students and faculty— feel the fatigue of two years of our activism remaining unheard and repressed, we must remind ourselves that those in power count on the burnout of the activists that hold them accountable. We must not give them that satisfaction.
responsibilities cannot end there. It must continue to incorporate input from local residents about the new changes.
One of the most blatant instances of neglect of community feedback is the project’s abrupt decision to allow construction work to continue late into the night. Instead of tailoring the project to address residents’ concerns, preliminary work began on the site almost immediately after the end of the comment period last month, sending a message to locals that their input is a low priority. Residents’ environmental concerns about the port expansion are intimately tied to questions about Canadian autonomy. Some residents highlight that the port contributes to an economy fueled by international trade, which contributes more to global warming. However, an economy oriented towards international trade can coexist with a healthy environment. Surprisingly, studies have shown that trade within North America is actually more carbon-intensive than trade across the Atlantic or Pacific. Most goods traded between the U.S. and Canada are transported into Canada on trucks, which emit far more carbon than ships do.
The port plan requires three Olympic-sized swimming pools of river water every week to clean construction equipment. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)
undoubtedly increase emissions in the shipping sector; a better alternative would be a smaller expansion that accommodates a growing shipping sector without creating surplus capacity.
To be clear, however, a massive expansion in shipping capacity will
Community concern about the effects of the port expansion on Canada’s sovereignty and the global environment is misplaced. However, local issues like water pollution, habitat destruction, and noise disturbance are real risks that the project planners have not clearly accounted for and have poorly communicated to residents under time pressure from the government. Carney’s administration must not let its ambition get in the way of due process. A smaller expansion could address constituent concerns by lowering water usage, requiring fewer construction hours, and curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever the compromise the people of Contrecœur and the government of Canada end up finding, the best solution will ultimately be one reached through genuine collaboration.
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Reporting on the Garment District’s new bike path doesn’t tell the full story
Joshua Karmiol Contributor
Last spring, the borough of AhuntsicCartierville installed a new bike lane, slicing through Montreal’s historic Garment District. Businesses claimed to suffer sales losses as customers who could not find parking started shopping elsewhere. At least, that’s the narrative that news outlets perpetuate. In reality, while controversy around new bike lanes is expected as they require a redistribution of public space, this controversy often finds itself in relentless opposition to much-needed infrastructure projects.
The Garment District, a block of buildings along a narrow section of rue Chabanel, runs less than a kilometre eastwest; to the north stand eight evenly spaced massive multi-storied glass and concrete cubes, the manufacturing hubs of Montreal’s historic fashion industry. To the south, midrise mixed-use storefronts open onto the street, behind which dense suburbs sprawl. The district can be walked in less than ten minutes.
However, the effects of globalization— and the resultant shift towards international manufacturing—can be felt in the changing urban fabric, with garment stores, cafes, convenience stores, restaurants, and banks. Today the area is home to over 2,000 companies with tens of thousands of employees. And of course, a new bike lane.
Earlier this month, CTV News produced a breathless article reporting on the local
uproar around the bike lane’s addition to the streetscape. Alongside interviews with cantankerous local business owners, the article uncritically recites the bullet points of a write-up by Société de developpement commercial District Central, a non-profit association of businesses in AhuntsicCartierville that commissioned a survey of local businesses. The survey found almost 90 per cent of local businesses self-reported “difficulty accessing their facilities.” It also found 66 per cent believe their company is less competitive due to the path’s addition. 90 per cent of business owners in the area also reported they were not properly consulted on the case.
This is especially apparent when one takes into account sampling bias. The survey's vast majority loses rhetorical power once placed in the context of its meagre 16 per cent turnout, representing only 170 businesses out of the 1,048 surveyed. Assessing the study’s measurands through a series of opinion questions about a piece of infrastructure yet to see a single winter can hardly be considered reputable data on the issue.
A study that finds that an overwhelming 90 per cent of a given population shares alignment on niche local planning issues boasts a consensus enviable for even the world’s most sycophantic regimes. But especially considering Montreal’s diverse mix of business class apparently reflected in the results, it casts doubts as to the legitimacy of the sampling process. Regardless of whatever statistical findings it produces, a business lobbying group essentially
surveying itself about a contentious new infrastructure addition is not expected to find anything but the result that best serves its own economic interests.
When considering the uproar, one may be reasonably deceived into believing the bike lane moves through rue Chabanel—the area that would typically be considered the Garment District. Far to the contrary, the path runs next to said Garment District: Northsouth down rue Meilleur before cutting one block over to continue down av. du Parc. One must walk the entire length of the Garment District just to glimpse the modest bike path, two thin strips bordered by green bollards on either side of the road. A single BIXI station sits on an otherwise wide sidewalk.
After getting a sense for this supposedly problematic section of road, the criticisms around it begin to seem more disingenuous.
A 2024 McGill study found bikes are underserved by allotted road space compared to their share of trips by 212 per cent. This outrage has little to do with genuine harm to local businesses; rather, it demonstrates how narratives of personal inconvenience and burdensome bureaucracy are mobilized to oppose even modest urban improvements.
For those who may be interested, the Garment District is relatively easy to get to, even in spite of the STM strike. All one needs to do is grab a BIXI and ride it north. The bike paths are pretty much uninterrupted all the way up, and it’s a decently pleasant ride.
90 per cent of business owners in Garment District say they weren’t properly consulted prior to bike lane installation. (Mia Helfrich / The Tribune)
COMMENTARY The true cost of daylight saving
Jamie Xie Staff Writer
As we trade our jack-o-lanterns for winter coats, a new yuletide tradition takes over. With the first snow rapidly approaching and the air already crisp with season’s greetings, it must be that festive time of the year: Daylight saving time (DST). Across the country, people collectively forget to adjust their clocks, gaining or losing an hour of sleep in the process. While the clocks might change in perfect synchronicity, our bodies rarely follow suit. Twice a year, we contort our schedules in the name of societal efficiency. Twice a year, we see a devastating spike in automotive accidents. Daylight savings is a demonstration of prioritizing productivity over our natural circadian rhythm.
Daylight savings was formally adopted by Canada in 1918 during World War I as a wartime fuel-saving measure. Its origins, then, are not rooted in agrarian rhythms or the popular supporting farmers’ myth but in the logistical production demands of war and industry. Humanity has existed for millennia without it, and we can continue to exist without it now. It is always worth having skepticism towards any practice that emerged as a temporary instrument to support imperial violence.
Studies have largely disproven the central justification for DST—that shifting the clocks saves energy. Research consistently
shows reductions of less than 0.5 per cent, and in some cases—such as Kansas (1997) and Indiana (2011)—energy use actually increased. The persistence of DST reveals less about efficiency than it does about society’s fixation on extraction—the cultural urge to squeeze more work from every hour at the lowest cost. This is not just about sleep or convenience. In fact, it’s antithetical to it; the core issue rests in how capitalism teaches us to view ourselves as machines in need of optimization, instead of humans necessitating patience and rest.
DST does not apply everywhere: In Nunavik—the northern third of Quebec— Makivvik, the Inuit representative organization, surveyed the region and has decided to end the practice in 2026, citing that the system no longer reflects local realities. A 2024 Quebec justice ministry survey showed that 91 per cent of the 214,000 respondents opposed DST and nearly three-quarters of them supported staying on daylight time year-round. There remains a desire among the Nunavimmiut to adopt a system of time authentic to northern life, rather than be dictated by a capitalistic-centred Western framework.
Nature does not ask flowers to bloom in winter, or bears to wake before the thaw. Yet it is mankind alone that is convinced of its Promethean entitlement to steal daylight that’s not hours. Indigenous concepts of time are ecological, embedded in land and aligned with cycles of rest and renewal. Colonial
frameworks of time impose the belief that humans dominate nature and are entitled to override natural rhythms. This perspective privileges only the wage-earning nine-to-five worker. When profit dictates time, it dictates whose work is valued. Careworkers and homemakers—disproportionately women— and those in shift-based service fields who labour year-round beyond the constraints of daylight hours, receive no temporal accommodations. This disparity is not a mere oversight: It reflects a broader cultural conviction that wage employment is inherently more worthy of economic recognition and validation while caregiving is not.
Our belief in rationality and human
dominion convinces us that we are exempt from nature’s call. Capitalism gives us the exceptionalist illusion that we can outsmart nature. This is a cultural arrogance that has been bred into us and exists at the heart of so much historic violence, evident in the ecological destruction and displacement of communities caused by colonial and industrial expansion. Daylight saving time asks us to forgo being human for one calendar hour. It’s the authoritarian, Fordist industrialism that invites us to consider how willing we are, as a society, to neglect our biology. Beware the Ides of March—it is the great hubris of man to conjure up a 25-hour day that brings the world from dawn to dusk just one hour earlier.
Globally, the practice of observing daylight savings time is a minority practice, with fewer than 40 per cent of countries participating (Emiko Kamiya / The Tribune)
Lovely Day brings Alain Farah’s autobiographical novel to the screen
In Philippe Falardeau’s latest film, Farah reconciles with the past and comes of age in Montreal
Ella Paulin Contributor
Lovely Day (Mille Secrets Mille Dangers), directed by Philippe Falardeau and based on an autobiographical novel by McGill’s own Alain Farah, weaves together Farah’s past as a young Lebanese Montrealer with the climactic moments of his wedding on the steps of St. Joseph’s Oratory. Although it starts and ends on the same day, the film meticulously unpacks the events of the last 20 years, jumping backwards and forwards in time to immerse the audience in Farah’s head as he wrestles with his past.
At the request of McGill students, there was a special screening of the film at Cinéma du Musée on Nov. 4, featuring a questionand-answer session with Falardeau and Farah themselves. After the screening, The Tribune sat down with Farah to discuss his journey from writing his novel to co-writing the script for Lovely Day to seeing the finished movie.
“It’s a process that produces a lot of ambiguity, but not from my point of view, because I am completely comfortable with the idea that we’re not just one thing,” Farah told The Tribune. “I’m able to be at the same time the character, the narrator, the co-script writer, the professor, the dad, the whatever.”
The novel itself, Mille Secrets Mille Dangers, published in French in 2021 with no English translation, stretches over 500 pages and draws stylistic inspiration from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Adapting such a complex book into a feature film posed a challenge for
Falardeau, who had to juggle the timelines of Farah’s childhood, adolescence, and wedding day in just a two-hour film. To make this more manageable, Farah and Falardeau decided to remove an additional future storyline from the book, focusing instead on the past and present.
Cutting between these different timelines, while cinematically complex, is crucial to the film’s deeper effect: Making the audience not just see, but empathize with Farah’s anxiety disorder, which manifests throughout the story in his panic attacks, and also in his climactic loss of consciousness during his own mother’s wedding toast.
“[Falardeau] often said while we were prepping, that it’s not enough to just see a character that’s tense or sweating. He wanted the people in the theatre to feel that anxiety,” Farah said. “I think he reached that goal. We’ve seen some people looking pretty anxious coming out of the movie.”
By introducing the story of his parents’ divorce and the onset of his chronic illness as a young child, and painstakingly tracing these threads through the friendships and betrayals of his adolescence, the film succeeds in placing us in Farah’s shoes as he navigates his long wedding day—which, of course, comes with its own ups and downs.
All of these timelines are set against the backdrop of Montreal. However, Farah emphasized that this wasn’t the Montreal we see in so many films—seemingly composed solely of downtown and the Mile End. The majority of Lovely Day is filmed where Farah grew up, in Ville Saint-Laurent, with nota-
ble pit stops at St. Joseph’s Oratory and the Olympic Basin. While Montreal is the ‘city of a thousand steeples,’ for Lovely Day, the action revolves around its three great domes: The Oratory, the Biosphere, and (how could we forget) the Orange Julep. These three landmarks, built in different neighbourhoods and eras for very different purposes, anchor the film in a Montreal that feels dynamic, diverse, and above all, lived-in.
“For me, a real concern was that kids from the community, or Montrealers at large, felt that this was our Montreal, and there
was a sense of belonging to that city,” Farah said. “You see the traffic jams, and you see the haziness, and you see some neighbourhoods that you don’t see too often [in movies]. But for me, despite a certain ugliness, there is kind of a beauty. When you see all those towers, this is where we grew up, most of us immigrant kids.”
By filming these locations with care, Lovely Day shifts the emotional centre of Montreal away from the Mile End, bringing a new side of the city to the cinema as it delves into Farah’s very personal adventures.
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau captivated the world.
A proposal of cute and totally normal Canada-U.S. celebrity ships
Dylan Hing Contributor
Acouple of weeks ago, Justin Trudeau was seen with American pop star
Katy Perry outside a famed Paris cabaret for the latter’s 41st birthday, apparently keeping in line with his father’s own escapades—dating an American singer. The shocking union between the American musician and the former Canadian prime minister appears amid heightened tensions between the two North American nations, tying them together in a way politics cannot. In a world where cultural unity provides much-needed camaraderie between nations, The Tribune is doing its part to repair Canada-U.S. relations by shipping celebrities from both countries.
Sophie Grégoire and Tom Cruise
Trudeau’s ex-wife Sophie Grégoire would have been magnificently paired with Perry’s own ex, Orlando Bloom. Unfortunately, he’s English, so infamous Scientologist Tom Cruise will have to do. This unlikely coupling represents a union of distinct Canadian and American traditions: Grégoire, a daughter of Quebec and former member of the Trudeau family, and Cruise, the poster boy of Hollywood stardom and the embodiment of America’s zealous religiosity.
Cruise, skilled as many celebrities are in the art of relationship-jumping, would almost certainly be a great help to Grégoire in the tran-
sition from her first marriage to a new relationship. While the former First Lady of Canada might not vibe with the ‘Maverick,’ one could almost see these two setting aside their longheld beliefs and living a cozy life where their children explore their own religious paths.
Pamela Anderson and Anthony Ramos
Pamela Anderson, actress, model, and woman of many public relationships, meets Anthony Ramos, former fiancé of Hamilton co-star Jasmine Cephas-Jones and alleged cheater. Just as Ramos danced his way into the life of Alexander Hamilton, he might find himself in the heights of Anderson’s love. The actress has seen her fair share of less-than-ideal lovers, yet perhaps she might find something in the protégé of Lin-Manuel Miranda. Maybe, just maybe, Ramos can actually get married this time. Or maybe not.
Drake and Caitlin Clark
Pairing an athlete who can’t stop winning with a rapper who can’t stop losing might seem odd—but it works. Caitlin Clark, who recently shot to fame in the Women’s National Basketball Association, would not be the first athlete Drake has dated, with rumours circulating in the early 2010s of a romance with tennis champion Serena Williams. Drake, who has a son with French artist Sophie Brussaux, is due for another relationship, and what better way to mend his image than to court Caitlin Clark? Worst-case scenario, if the romance ends
badly, we’ll at least get a new Drake album out of it.
If ever these potential lovebirds cross borders to hold each other in their arms, we should absolutely pay attention.
Shawn Mendes and Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian is no stranger to relationships with singers, having recently divorced from the musician Kanye West. Shawn Mendes, for his part, has also had a noteworthy dating life, most recently dating Sabrina Carpenter and Camila Cabello. This pairing would unite two icons of celebrity dating culture, guiding the popstar from the complicated CabelloCarpenter love triangle into the arms of a Kardashian.
If Mendes is drawn to the Kardashian light, he should take note of his lover’s four children from her previous marriage— North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm—who will certainly add liveliness to their household. Although Mendes does not have any kids of his own, his experience caring for his and Cabello’s golden retriever Tar-
next?
zan will certainly help him navigate his new parental role.
In the spirit of Justin Perry, or perhaps Katy Trudeau, these ships can bring Americans and Canadians together to celebrate cultural unity in a time of division. While some of these celebrities might not actually get together in real life, magnificent unions like these can bring joy to both nations, tearing down the walls of politics through fits of laughter.
Farah’s 2013 novel, Pourquoi Bologne (published in English as Ravenscrag), tells the story of a McGill professor who discovers the history of some troubling experiments on campus. (Mia Helfritch / The Tribune)
The pop star and the former prime minister were seen celebrating Perry’s 41st birthday in their first public appearance. (Zoe Lee /
Tribune)
Content warning: Sexual assault and violence
In 1880, a group of Montreal sex workers and brothel owners were arrested in a police raid. They refused to quietly comply. Instead, while being marched from the recorder’s court to their jail cells, they began to sing. Their voices rang out for over half an hour.
Today, their story is told at the Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises (MEM), where echoes of their song of resistance can still be heard in the determined efforts of Montreal’s sex worker advocates.
For as long as Montreal has been a city in which sex workers are policed, detained, and prosecuted for their profession, it has also been a site of community, resistance, and activism against unjust legislation.
Canada’s current sex work laws constitute a human rights violation. To recognize the agency and autonomy of sex workers, and to create conditions in which they can safely do their job, Canada must decriminalize sex work.
UNDERSTANDING CANADIAN LEGISLATION
In 2007, three Ontario sex workers—Terri-Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch, and Valerie Scott—took the federal government to the Supreme Court.
In Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, the plaintiffs argued sections of Canada’s Criminal Code prohibiting working in ‘bawdy houses,’ living on income derived from sex work, and communicating in public for the purpose of sex work violated sex workers’ constitutional right to security of the person.
Six years later, the Court issued its landmark ruling. It declared the Code’s three provisions unconstitutional and gave Parliament one year to introduce new legislation to protect sex workers.
“The prohibitions at issue do not merely impose conditions on how prostitutes operate,” former Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the decision. “They go a critical step further, by imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution; they prevent people engaged in a risky—but legal—activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risk.”
Rather than introducing a bill that pushed for the safety and health of sex workers, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government passed Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). This 2014 law maintained the criminalization of sex workers and third parties, as well as criminalizing, for the first time in Canadian history, the purchase of sex.
The Supreme Court instructed the government to improve the conditions of sex work; instead, Parliament passed a bill which made sex work more criminalized— and thus more dangerous.
While PCEPA claims to grant sex workers who sell or advertise only their own services immunity from prosecution, the criminalization of all aspects of their work creates an atmosphere of police presence and surveillance, which then contributes to isolation and vulnerability to violence. A 2021 UBC study found that one in three sex workers were unable to call 911 due to fear of the police, a statistic which illustrates the jeopardizing effects of PCEPA.
Sandra Wesley, the executive director at Stella, l’amie de Maimie, Montreal’s direct-service and advocacy organization run by sex workers for sex workers, emphasized that the Act puts sex workers in danger by creating and perpetuating this environment of violence and fear.
“[PCEPA] sends a message to every violent person out there that if you want to be violent, be violent towards a sex worker,” Wesley said in an interview with The Tribune “We know in the 10-plus years now that the law has been in place, that these violent people are receiving that message loud and clear from the government, that the government wants to eradicate us, the government doesn’t think that we have rights [....] Just think about Judge Goldstein’s words, ‘Violence is a feature, not a bug, of sex work.’”
SEX WORKER RESISTANCE IN MONTREAL
To counteract Canada’s oppression and endangerment of sex workers, Wesley and her Stella colleagues divide their efforts between broad-scale activism at a national level and on-the-ground support in Montreal. The organization draws on decades of resistance within Montreal, using regional advocacy as a catalyst for national change.
I met Jenn Clamen, Stella’s mobilization and communications coordinator, at the MEM, a towering museum in the
STRONG, VIBRANT—AND UNJUSTLY CRIMINALIZED CANADIAN SEX WORKERS FIGHT
middle of the bustling Quartier des Spectacles. She kindly agreed to tour me around Stella’s new exhibit, By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance, which celebrates the organization’s 30-year anniversary.
Clamen noted that the exhibit’s location in the MEM is not coincidental. By displaying this history of sex worker resistance in the centre of Montreal’s former Red-Light District, the organization aims to draw attention to the historical displacement and oppression of sex workers in the city.
“We didn’t choose the MEM for no reason. We chose it because we are standing in a space that has been highly occupied again and again and again over decades,” Clamen said. “If you look around and you look at the Quartier de Spectacle, the images that they use, the language that the city uses, talking about Montreal as a ‘sin city,’ […] they’re still using sex work ideas or sex work histories, sex work symbolism, to attract people, but sex workers aren’t allowed to work on the streets in the way that they used to.”
The By and For exhibit celebrates sex workers’ histor-
WRITTEN BY ELLA BACHRACH, DESIGNED BY ELIOT LOOSE,
history intertwined with sex work.
Clamen described Stella’s diametric opposition to carceral punishment, in part due to this intersection of sex work with other highly policed communities.
“Our feminism at Stella is an anti-carceral feminism,” Clamen said, “meaning that the solutions that we want or know to be successful for […] the challenges sex workers face are not through the use of criminal law, because of the ways that sex workers in our community are already surveilled and repressed.”
During my tour of the exhibit, two Stella members stopped in to say hello to Clamen. They were bundled up to face the cold and sported tall backpacks full of outreach supplies, from condoms and Narcan to printed guides on harm reduction and health. Hearing Clamen discuss the historical and legal context of Stella’s work and seeing her colleagues preparing to hit the streets encapsulated the unique breadth of the organization’s mission.
VIBRANT—AND CRIMINALIZED FIGHT FOR LEGISLATIVE CHANGE
BACHRACH, COPY WRITER
LOOSE, DESIGN EDITOR
model’—which encourages violence and carceral punishment, Stella and other organizations are pushing for the removal of all criminal sanctions surrounding sex work and the implementation of policies created with input from sex workers.
Wesley described how the current law creates an environment in which those who commit offences against sex workers can be charged not for their violence but for their participation in the sex work industry. She argued that decriminalization would allow these offenders to be correctly charged.
“If we decriminalize sex work, then what?” Wesley propounded. “Then maybe if we’re raped, the person can be charged with rape. Maybe if we’re being kidnapped and held against [our] will, that charge can actually happen, which it doesn’t right now. Maybe if a client assaults us or robs us, that’s the charge that he can have instead of purchasing. We already have all those things in the Criminal Code that are not being used right now because we’re seen
sex worker is [seen as], in and of itself, violence.”
One route to decriminalization is through the House of Commons, where Members of Parliament can choose to pass new sex work legislation at any time. Wesley noted that the Liberal Party claims to align with the goal of decriminalization, yet has failed to take any action despite its ten years in government.
“The liberals were supposed to change this law,” Wesley said. “They were against it in 2014, and when they were elected in 2015, they said they would change it. That’s their party’s position. They never acted on it. Why didn’t they act on it? Because it’s politically very appealing to hate sex workers.”
Another path towards new legislation involves the Supreme Court. Stella is a member group of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform (CASWLR), an organization currently engaged in a constitutional challenge to specific sex work criminal offences.
There have been previous, highly publicized challeng-
Canada’s current laws as constitutional in 2023’s CASWLR v Attorney General (Canada). CASWLR has since sought leave to appeal the ruling. If the Court of Appeal chooses to hear CASWLR’s appeal and overturns the Ontario Court’s decision, it will be referred to the Supreme Court of Canada.
NEW ZEALAND: A LEGISLATIVE MODEL
Decriminalization may still be a hopeful concept in Canada, but on the other side of the world, it has been a legislative reality for over 20 years.
In 2003, New Zealand passed the Prostitution Reform Act, a bill developed in association with the New Zealand Sex Workers Collective (NZPC) that decriminalized sex work. Since then, sex workers have experienced improved relationships with police, safer systems of reporting assault, legal wins on issues of harassment, and justice through the court system.
In New Zealand, sex workers are considered workers, not criminals, and their rights are guaranteed under employment and human rights laws.
Cherida Fraser, the Wellington regional coordinator of the NZPC, described how this legislation has created a safe and open work environment for sex workers.
“Decriminalization benefits workers’ health, safety, and wellbeing,” Fraser wrote to The Tribune. “It enables reporting of any harms in the justice system, without fear. It supports sex workers’ health (sexual, mental, general) as sex workers can be open about their work without fear of authorities.”
New Zealand, like Canada, has a high percentage of Indigenous sex workers who are already subject to increased police surveillance and violence. Fraser stated that the decriminalization of sex work supports Indigenous sex workers as it protects them from receiving discriminatory charges.
“Decriminalization made a positive change for Maori sex workers,” Fraser wrote, “mainly due to the institutional racism that existed which saw Maori sex workers disproportionately charged/incarcerated for all crimes.”
Both New Zealand and Canada pride themselves on having generally progressive political cultures, especially compared to their larger, more politically dominant neighbours, Australia and the United States. But Canada’s record on the rights of sex workers stands in stark contrast to this reputation.
If Canada wishes to remain a world leader in progressive policy and work towards reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, it must turn away from criminalization and adopt decriminalization legislation, as New Zealand has successfully done.
MOVING FORWARD
It is naive to believe that the criminalization of this profession will somehow result in its total eradication. Criminalization does not abolish sex work; it worsens the already challenging conditions in which sex workers live and labour.
Instead of fighting for a world in which sex work ceases to exist, the government must follow New Zealand’s lead and enact legislation that protects sex workers. CASWLR has provided an exhaustive proposal of recommended law reform; these suggestions come directly from sex workers with lived experience navigating the industry.
Whether through the Supreme Court or Parliament, Canada must decriminalize sex work. When drafting new legislation, the government must consult sex workers to ensure new laws are conducive to their health, safety, security, and human rights.
Stella’s work in Montreal exemplifies the power of local activism. Students can join the fight for decriminalization by writing to their Member of Parliament and explaining their concerns with Canada’s current sex work legislation.
The laws that govern our nation must protect all workers, not just those the government deems ideologically virtuous. For sex workers in Montreal and advocates at Stella, new legislation cannot come soon enough.
The full By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance exhibit will be displayed at the MEM until Feb. 1, 2026, and part of the exhibit will remain until March 15, 2026.
To learn more about the constitutional challenge put forward by the Canadian Association of Sex Workers for Law Reform, visit their website at sexworklawreform.com.
Jafar Panahi breaks his enforced silence with a defiant new film It Was Just an Accident confronts authoritarianism through its tense narrative
Jeremy Zelken Contributor
In 2010, police arrested the celebrated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi on fabricated charges of ‘anti-government propaganda.’ After a brief imprisonment at the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, he staged a hunger strike to protest his detention, which drew global outrage. He was released and placed on house arrest with a 20-year ban on filmmaking and leaving the country. In 2022, Panahi was arrested again, prompting yet another hunger strike and his subsequent release. Nevertheless, these arrests and bans haven’t stopped the filmmaker from doing what he loves most: Making movies.
Despite constraints, Panahi managed to smuggle his 2011 film This Is Not a Film into the Cannes Film Festival—hiding it famously on a USB drive inside a cake. In the years that followed, he secretly made four more acclaimed works while still officially banned: Closed Curtain in 2013, Taxi Tehran in 2015, 3 Faces in 2018, and No Bears in 2022.
Now, after years of secrecy and silence, Panahi has returned with his boldest statement yet: It Was Just an Accident, which was released this October.
The film begins with a routine late-night drive that sets off a thrilling chain of events. When a man strikes a dog with his car and seeks help near a remote mechanic’s garage, the mechanic—Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a former political prisoner—recognizes the sound of the man’s fake leg. Convinced that
the stranger is Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), an interrogator who once tortured him, Vahid kidnaps the man and drags him into the desert, intent on enacting his revenge. But as the day stretches on and doubt creeps in, Vahid begins to question whether he’s punishing the right man or merely repeating the cruelty that once broke him.
As the film progresses, more eccentric characters enter the story, each complicating Vahid’s quest for certainty. Through their interactions, the film creates a deeply human tale of trauma, vengeance, and forgiveness in the face of violence. What starts as a simple revenge story becomes a meditation on how trauma perpetuates and reinvents itself, and whether true accountability is possible in a
society haunted by its own political wounds. Part suspense-laden thriller, part dark comedy, and part psychological drama, It Was Just an Accident tackles multiple genres while maintaining Panahi’s typical political critique. Its bold themes and moral depth evoke the influence of Panahi’s fellow Iranian filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi, while remaining true to his own voice. The film not only reflects his trauma from his imprisonment in Iran but also illuminates the stories of his fellow inmates from Evin prison. One of the film’s most striking moments occurs near the end when Panahi, in a single take, captures Vahid’s confrontation with his alleged torturer. The scene pulses with both rage and re-
Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident was filmed secretly in Iran and finalized in France.
(Zoe Lee / The Tribune)
The revival of Dancing with the Stars
Stars of the show are going viral on social media
Loriane Chagnon Contributor
Halfway through its 34th season, Dancing with the Stars is enjoying renewed fame with some big celebrities competing in the ballroom this fall. Influencer Alix Earle, wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin, and The Parent Trap actress Elaine Hendrix are among those who joined the cast.
In recent seasons, some of the professional dancers on the show, or ‘pros,’ have gone viral on social media platforms like TikTok. By sharing daily vlogs and dance challenges, they give viewers a look at what goes on behind the scenes, showcase their celebrity partners’ personalities, and create a deeper connection with the audience. This trend has grown this season, with young pros like 20-year-old Rylee Arnold and 24-year-old Ezra Sosa gaining a large online following and bringing DWTS a breath of fresh air.
Showcasing styles that span ballroom, Latin, jazz, and contemporary, the pros and their celebrity partners have six days to choreograph a dance and then perform it every Tuesday night. With a different theme each week, the competition challenges couples to improve in the hopes of winning the coveted Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy at the end of the season, decided through a combination of points awarded by judges and the fan vote. Viewers keep coming back to the show after its 20-year run because of its emphasis on spectacle, deep emotion, and growth. Celebri-
ties often arrive with little-to-no dance experience and go on a journey of self-discovery that is both relatable and enticing to watch.
During the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame Night on Nov. 4, the top three couples had to dance a Paso Doble—a Spanish ballroom style inspired by the movement of the matador and the bull during a bullfight. The couples were also divided into two teams and had to partake in a team dance with the show’s hosts: Dancer Julianne Hough, and The Fresh Prince of BelAir actor Alfonso Ribeiro. The night ended with the exit of beloved Boy Meets World actress Danielle Fishel, as the remaining seven couples proceeded to the quarter-finals.
Fans are already making pyramid rankings of their favourite contestants online and voicing their opinions on this week’s dances. There seems to be a real sense of excitement as the show progresses, with people showing their anticipation ahead of the finale on Nov. 25.
However, this excitement has also come with criticism from fans who feel their favourite celebrities are being scored unfairly, especially by veteran judge Carrie Ann Inaba. Still, the fan vote has been able to tip the balance and help crowd-favourite Andy Richter, comedian and voice actor of Mort in Madagascar, remain in the competition, while other, more experienced dancers have exited. The ‘Fandies,’ as Richter’s fans call themselves, have kept the 59-year-old in the competition despite him holding last place on the leaderboard throughout the season. His partner
straint. The characters’ resilience and shared grief clearly echo the real-life experiences of those who endured personal loss under state oppression, grounding the film’s suspense in a human reality.
Distributed by the French company mk2 Films, the movie premiered at Cannes 2025, where Panahi, now permitted to travel outside Iran, appeared in person for the first time in over a decade. The film won the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ most prestigious award. Critics have hailed the film as Panahi’s most daring work yet, not just for its political defiance but for its raw, emotional poignancy and unflinching sincerity. While some might attribute this acclaim to solidarity with his defiance under censorship, It Was Just an Accident warrants its full praise for its masterful storytelling and innovative cinematography alone.
Although Panahi remains under sporadic surveillance in Iran, his renewed visibility signals a small but significant victory for artistic freedom. He continues to use film to advocate for Iranian artists and filmmakers who are silenced by the government, wielding his platform and popularity to amplify their voices on a global stage.
It Was Just an Accident isn’t just another arthouse drama. It is a courageous act of resistance disguised as a film. Its universal insight into human nature transcends national and cultural boundaries, resonating with audiences everywhere. Watching this film means bearing witness to Panahi’s refusal to be silenced, and to the resilience of creative truth in the face of repression.
Emma Slater is among the pros who use TikTok to show their day-to-day lives in rehearsals, rallying over 550,000 followers.
This new marketing strategy has given the show great visibility, as it broke its historical voting record of 50.15 million votes on Halloween Night. Opinions are mixed, with some pushing for Richter’s exit from the competition so that the best dancers remain, while others are voting to keep him on as long as possible. It is refreshing to see a celebrity commit themselves completely to the process and show genuine progression week to week. His
heartwarming personality and close bond with his partner make for great television.
Next week’s episode will be a celebration of 20 years of DWTS. Couples will perform their respective dances and compete in the Relay Dance competition alongside past DWTS winners for a chance at bonus points. You can tune in to DWTS every Tuesday on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) or Disney+ to cheer for your favourites. The show has been a cornerstone of American television for the last two decades, and with its renewed fame, it will surely continue to be.
OFF THE BOARD
I believe in fairies and Santa Claus
Bianca Sugunasiri Arts & Entertainment Editor
Since I can remember, my head has been in the clouds. From the moment I could string words together, I was always happiest poring over the pages of novels or tucked with my favourite show underneath a warm blanket of daydreams. I’ve fallen in love countless times with these worlds, each more fantastical than the next. The soles of my feet are worn smooth from the paths walked alongside Peter Pan, Anne Shirley, and Winnie-thePooh, my cheeks dimpled in glee from
their fanciful tales and my own heady admiration.
At the ripe age of 20, my room remains littered with the remnants of these fictional passions, colliding in a cacophony of butterflies and skateboards, katanas and typewriters— relics I’ve collected throughout my chimerical travels. Streaky sketches are taped about haphazardly: Rudimentary attempts to capture my flourishing imagination. The countless characters endeared to me remain marked both on my soul and the plaster of my walls.
I was convinced that this wonder could only exist between the pages of a book or the fabric of a daydream. I could steal away within stories, and like a portal, they would be my solace from the reality of every day. With my feet shackled to growing up, my mind could only remain rebellious in its musings. These two lives existed separately. One could not begin to approximate the other.
When I was 12, my family sat me down around Christmastime for the long-awaited crash down to reality. I sat very still, hands clammy, as my fantasies of Santa were dismantled. With the resignation settling on my
Le Quémino: A walk of
face, I almost missed what I was told next. At Christmas, people are inspired to share gifts, kindness, and twinkly lights. Doesn’t that seem pretty magical? I sat there for a moment, the disappointment and curiosity warring in my mind.
For the first time, the lines between my worlds began to blur.
As the stretch of maturity began to tug at my heels, I found magic seeping into the folds of my ordinary life. In a world now filled with responsibilities and the looming chill of failure, I floundered, clinging desperately to any scrap of guidance. I stumbled, and the voice of my younger self echoed in my mind with renewed vigour. I acquiesced to her demands, lapping up my dormant passions and reconceiving my world a bit brighter.
I felt like a child again, discovering joy in every moment. For the first time, the colours of my secret world were colliding with the reality I was so intent on escaping. This overlap lit the world ablaze with a new definition: Every experience was my first, each unique and tinged golden with secrets.
I recently had to trek home in a freezing drizzle, the sky pitch dark
hope against cancer
at 5:00 p.m. I ruminated over my miserable situation, shuddering in my coat and urging my feet to go faster. But as the music in my ears rose to a chorus, I stopped in my tracks. The lights along my path seemed to sparkle, the raindrops slanting haphazardly. I stood there, frozen for a moment as my hands chafed and my lips turned blue. The object of my irritation was suddenly mesmerizing, just as magical as, say, a white rabbit with a pocket watch.
As a society, we hold maturity as a token of pride. Kids who were praised as ‘mature’ wear it like a badge of honour, and polish it proudly. But as we grow up, we start to long for the saturated days of childhood. As adults, we cling to modest pleasures, only to be called immature. Told to grow up and stop dreaming.
But who is to say what is real and what is not? There is no time limit on passion and wonder. Children remain the happiest and most intelligent of us all, and it is only the wisest of grownups who can defer to the child they once were to take them by the hand and urge them forward—skipping and twirling all the way.
Journeying from Montreal to Mont-Tremblant to raise money for cancer research
Jamie Xie Staff Writer
What do a 142-kilometre trek and the McGill community have in common? A lot more than you might initially think. Over the course of five days—from Oct. 24 to 28—McGill students embarked on a formidable journey from Montreal to Mont-Tremblant on foot, in support of the Quebec Cancer Foundation and the estimated 67,219 Quebecers diagnosed with cancer just last year.
Primary organizer, Gabrielle Lavoie, U4 Engineering, dedicated the walk to her grandfather, who passed away from cancer earlier this year.
“Cancer touches so many lives,” she said in an interview with The Tribune “Walking in his memory allows me to honour him, carry forward the love he gave, and stand in support of everyone affected by this disease.”
With roughly 184 new cases diagnosed each day, and an estimated 22,800 deaths per year—an average of 62 per day—cancer remains the most pervasive cause of death in Quebec, surpassing even cardiovascular disease. In Quebec alone, someone learns they have cancer every eight minutes, and every 23 minutes, someone dies from it. Walking in memory of those we’ve lost, it’s impossible not to feel the weight of what cancer has taken. Yet it is the courage, resilience, and love it leaves behind that inspires action and fosters solidarity for all those still fighting.
Of all the students who walked, Lavoie was the only participant able to complete the full 142 kilometres. Although she has a background in running and has competed in a half-marathon before, this was an entirely different realm of physical and mental challenge. Some days stretched for 13 hours, taking her past dusk through the Laurentides terrain. Following the P’tit Train du Nord trail with stops in Bois-des-Filion, SaintJérôme, Sainte-Adèle, and Saint-Agathedes-Monts before concluding at MontTremblant, the walk traced a historic railway-turned-recreational path—a route once used daily by local residents, and a path that has connected communities for generations.
Le Quémino is not just an extraordinary act of endurance—it is a testament to the human spirit and the power of will we are all capable of. It is a performance of good-faith solidarity in the face of apathy, an opportunity to look inward and affirm: ‘I believe in possibilities.’
“It is inspiring to see hope in action [....] I’m just a McGill computer engineering student, but the truth is anyone can take on an initiative like this. When we believe something is impossible, it becomes impossible,” Lavoie reflected. “We kind of make it impossible. We often think we know ourselves but we only discover our limits by testing them. Sometimes we need to see what we are capable of to believe in ourselves and sometimes we need to see ourselves in others to act with the kindness and courage that real change requires.”
The fundraiser more than doubled its initial goal, raising $2,300 CAD over the five-day journey.
Lavoie hopes that the project will carry with it a ripple effect, inspiring others to take positive action.
“Just because you’re one person doesn’t mean you have to feel powerless. Each person has the ability to step out of their comfort zone and create the kind of change we want to see.”
When asked about a particularly memorable moment on her journey, Lavoie recalled a small navigational hiccup.
“I typed the destination into Apple Maps and it said no route could be found.”
This, of course, didn’t stop the journey. “To make a goal a reality you need to take it one step at a time. Though you may not al -
ways see the whole way forward, if you put one foot in front of the other and give yourself permission to believe in your own strength, you will find a way.”
“We found a route. We always do.”
Named in reference to the Camino de Santiago, Le Quémino adapts the idea of a long, meaningful pilgrimage into a Quebecois journey of solidarity and purpose. (Adam Simard / The Tribune)
Secret services:
Five lesser known perks at McGill McGill offers a variety of services that many students are unaware of
Rachel Blackstone Staff Writer
As a student paying for rent, groceries, utilities, and a hefty tuition, bills can add up quickly, making the hunt for free activities and resources pertinent. With near-constant construction, pricey on-campus food, and expensive course materials, some may wonder where our tuition money really goes. With that in mind, The Tribune presents five ‘free’ perks that McGill offers students.
Unlock your inner engineer
Although many non-engineers may find 3D printing elusive and exclusive, it is available for free to every McGill student, regardless of program. Students, staff, and faculty can access 3D printing through the Schulich Library 3D Printing Service. To print something, you must first register and read the regulations, then create your print job and submit it to the 3D Printing Job Request Form. Shortly afterward, it will be ready for pickup at the Schulich Library Service Desk. This is a great opportunity to explore your creative side and produce a completely unique object using advanced technology.
Art, art, and please, more art!
Through the McGill digital libraries, students have access to thousands of films, television shows, musical pieces, and live performance recordings. Students can immerse themselves in curated media ranging
from ballet performances by the Royal Ballet through the Naxos Video Library to popular new releases like Sinners on Criterion on Demand
Another excellent platform McGill grants students access to is Kanopy Kanopy is a streaming service with a diverse film library including Hollywood classics, independent films, foreign features, and fascinating educational documentaries. Completely free to McGill students, Kanopy has something for everyone, whether you’re on the hunt for an underground movie or simply need a break from monthly streaming services.
To access McGill’s collection of streamable media, go to the homepage of the libraries website, click the instructional support tab, and then the class screenings tab. You will then see the downloadable and streaming media tab, which leads you to the list of databases McGill has access to.
Breathe in, breathe out, and try out Headspace
The SSMU grants all McGill students a Headspace account free of charge. Headspace is an app focused on restoring and building mental health and wellbeing through mindfulness, offering meditation plans and music for focus, restful sleep, and quiet mornings. On the Headspace website, simply activate your account using your student email. This
Calling all McGill foodies: A guide to MTL à Table
resource is excellent for students who are struggling with stress or who want to practice mindfulness more generally. Enjoy this perk for free, and breathe out the pressure.
The McGill genealogy genie
Many students are curious about their family history, but tracing your lineage can be challenging—and expensive. Through McGill, students have access to Ancestry, a genealogy company which allows you to search for ancestors through voting, immigration, and census records. Navigate the McGill libraries website to find the genealogy research resources page, and prepare to learn more about your family tree.
A free winter wardrobe
Thrift McGill is an SSMU-funded shop where students can drop off and pick up clothes free of charge. The shop opened in the fall of 2024 through Student Life and Learning and Student Housing and Hospitality Services in partnership with the Sustainability Projects Fund. Thrift McGill is a way for students to sustainably declutter their closets and find stylish new pieces. Located at 3473 rue University, Thrift McGill is an excellent way to refresh your closet, help the environment, and give your wallet a muchneeded reprieve.
Taste cuisine from across the world in this celebration of Montreal’s culinary offerings
Talia Moskowitz
Staff Writer
MTL à Table is a unique celebration of Montreal’s vibrant culinary scene. From Oct. 30 to Nov. 16, the event features over 150 restaurants across the city offering three- to four-course tasting menus ranging from $35 CAD to $80 CAD. With a list this expansive, decision fatigue is bound to set in for adventurous McGill and Montreal foodies eager to try out some new spots. To counter that, The Tribune has compiled a list of must-try spots before the event is over.
Downtown
If you find yourself in downtown Montreal, you must stop by Brasserie Le Pois Penché, located at 1230 boul. De Maisonneuve Ouest, for a delicious three-course menu for $65 CAD. On a cold Montreal evening, this is the perfect spot for a meal that warms you from the inside out. Its French classics are unmatched, especially its French onion soup. This traditional brasserie is highly acclaimed for its other French fare as well, such as its delectable onglet à l’échalote and frites. This year, Le Pois Penché is partnering with MTL à Table to offer an affordable brunch menu for $25 CAD, perfect for a leisurely weekend meal with friends!
Old Montreal
Kwizzin Vieux-Port, located at 311 rue St.-Paul Est, serves Afro-Caribbean flavours with a Montreal flair. The vibrant fusion restaurant is serving up a four-course menu for $80 CAD that blends traditional Caribbean spices with modern culinary techniques to
create mouth-watering dishes. We recommend the duck foie gras with Haitian-style corn soufflé to capture the unique culinary experience of this establishment. The natural and inviting atmosphere will leave you wanting more—especially on their featured jazz nights every Thursday from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.!
Plateau-Mont-Royal
Chai-Yo, nestled in the heart of the Plateau right past Square St.-Louis, features an entirely plant-based, vegan menu. For this limited time, it is offering a three-course menu for $35 CAD. Its culinary mastery rests in its addictive, flavorful dishes, inspired by the fusion of street food and traditional Southeast Asian family recipes. For diners who grew up with traditional Thai and Chinese flavours, this restaurant’s comforting dishes are guaranteed to bring back childhood nostalgia. The fried brussels sprouts with peanut sauce and braised seasonal vegetables in a five-spice sauce satisfy every craving for warm, hearty Thai and Chinese comfort food.
The Plateau is also home to Le Virunga, located at 851 rue Rachel Est, a 2025 Michelin restaurant that celebrates West African cuisine with enthusiasm and passion. For $65 CAD, this three-course menu will take you on a journey from Mali to Senegal to Cameroon and back, filling you up with rich and satisfying dishes. With a wine list featuring a 100 per cent South African selection, diners are guaranteed to experience a traditional African experience featuring Congolese and Nigerian dishes with a modern Quebecois flair. Order the cream of sweet potato soup followed by the slow-cooked
beef chuck roast from Bon Boeuf and enjoy a truly unique culinary masterpiece.
Little Italy
If you’re looking for traditional Italian food that will transport you to the heart of Naples, look no further. Boggeta Pizzeria is a classic spot in Little Italy, perfect for a cozy, satiating meal, warmed by a huge wood-fire pizza oven (shipped in one piece from the port of Naples). The fourcourse menu is offered for $50 CAD, and it is remarkably simple and unchanging—a testament to long-lasting Italian culinary tradition. This restaurant’s ingredients are always fresh and bold, allowing for the beauty of simplicity to shine, where the fresh ingredients speak for themselves. The authentic Napolitana-style pizza is a must-try, defined by its raised golden crust and traditional ingredients that explode with flavour.
Sud-Ouest
MTL à Table celebrates the excellence, diversity and creativity of the Montreal food scene. (Alexa Roemer / The Tribune)
Heni Restaurant, located at 2621 NotreDame Ouest, is frequently voted one of Canada’s best restaurants. It was a finalist on
Air Canada’s Best New Restaurants in 2024, charming diners with its Middle Eastern cuisine that boasts seasonal ingredients for optimal freshness. For this select menu, Heni is offering a four-course menu for $65 CAD. This unique restaurant combines flavours of Southwest Asia and North Africa in a refined and inviting space. Their menu tells a story of the chef’s heritage through its inventive menu, crafted with local expertise and attention to every detail.
In 2024, the most-watched film on McGill Kanopy was Vivre sa vie by Jean-Luc Godard. (Armen Erzingatzian / The Tribune)
Advances and challenges in viral diseases and their emerging th erapies McGill event examines global distribution and health impact of infectious disease outbreaks
Sofia Lindelow Contributor
The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call to the world’s lack of resilience and infrastructure to guard communities from viral pathogens. This, in turn, has driven a global focus on viral pathogenesis, fostering collaboration and innovation. It also triggered a landmark coordination effort in vaccine development: mRNA vaccines were produced in under a year after SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—was identified, whereas under normal circumstances, vaccine development can take 10 to 15 years.
Now, almost six years since the initial outbreak, lead - ers in global health and immunology are advancing in three key domains of viral disease: Diagnostics, therapeutics and prevention, and epidemiology and health outcomes. The Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program (IDIGH) at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RIMUHC) is integrating research in infectious diseases, immunity, and global health through cross-disciplinary working groups with a translational focus.
In their event co-hosted with the McGill Research Centre on Complex Traits (MRCCT) and the Wainberg Centre for Viral Diseases, IDIGH brought together experts to examine advances and challenges in viral diseases and emerging therapies.
Leo Liu, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Microbiology & Immunology, presented work that advances understanding of SARS-CoV-2 replication.
He described a ‘Swiss-Army-knife’ molecular pore formed by viral non-structural proteins. Coronaviruses build this pore inside double-membrane vesicles—small sacs pinched from cellular membranes that shield viral activity from bodily immune sensors—where they copy their ribonucleic acid (RNA), the strand of genetic instructions the virus uses to make proteins and new genomes.
Because the pore spans the vesicle and serves as a conduit for both copying and exporting RNA, it is an attractive drug target. By disrupting the pore, therapies can block RNA synthesis and export simultaneously, effectively halting the production of infectious particles.
Liu’s broader lab focus—virus-host sensing and coronavirus biology—furthers this exploration by investigating how pore function intersects with innate immune detection and viral evasion, as well as the mechanisms by which viruses evade host immune responses. He argues that engineering therapies that target antiviral innate immunity—our bodies’ non-specific defence system—and RNA virus biology concurrently can maximize attenuation.
“Rather than seeing them as standalone mechanisms, this model of combinational viral attenuation leverages both host factors together,” Liu concluded.
Another speaker, David Kelvin from the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Dalhousie University, discussed his lab’s ongoing work on a novel outbreak of Mpox— previously known as monkeypox—Clade 1b. Mpox outbreaks are occurring with increasing frequency in its endemic regions of West and Central
Africa, and current data indicate shifting transmission patterns, with more sustained human-to-human spread having a disproportionate burden on children compared to prior waves.
Through contact tracing, his team’s facility in Kamituga, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), identified a likely index case in the mountainous town of Liwro, and followed the rapid transmission through the DRC into Rwanda and Burundi. His work examines two viral mutations believed to be involved in sustained human-to-human transmission of this variant, an OPG32 gene deletion and an OPG164 partial gene deletion.
“Ongoing mutational analysis of animal viruses compared with sporadic human infections with limited human-to-human transmission compared with sustained human-tohuman transmission will help in identifying potential hotspots for detailed investigation on transmission and pathogenicity,” Kelvin explained.
An audience member asked questions about the state of vaccine development and distribution, citing Moderna’s efforts to develop an mRNA-based mpox vaccine. Kelvin noted that the international response from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations lagged behind the growth of cases
after the initial outbreak in 2023.
“I think the initial supply was about 200,000 doses, and we need millions. And then who should get them?” he asked.
This raises difficult questions of priority, in addition to the preexisting challenges of low attrition for multi-dose vaccines, coupled with a lack of infrastructure. Kelvin also noted that the outbreak coincided with extreme political instability and conflict in an already isolated region, making distribution near impossible.
Such concerns highlight complicated challenges beyond virology: Leaders in global health and infectious disease must confront equity and access, structural barriers to care, and the political, social, and economic conditions that shape who gets protected—and when.
The effects of tobacco and cannabis use during pregnancy Review explores the products’ interactions and their effects on children
Leanne Cherry Science & Technology Editor
Around 70 per cent of people who use cannabis have been found to use nicotine and tobacco products (NTP) as well. This trend is similarly observed among pregnant people. While both NTP and cannabis use during pregnancy have individually been shown to negatively impact pregnancy outcomes—such as preterm birth for the former, and increased risk of stillbirth for the latter—some McGill researchers are interested in the impacts of exposure to both of these products while in utero.
In a recent review published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, Rachel A. Rabin, an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry, and her colleagues surveyed the existing literature on the effects of using both cannabis and tobacco during pregnancy. Specifically, they examined the neonatal, behavioural, physiological, and cognitive outcomes for the children of people who co-used while expecting. They hypothesized that these products would interact synergistically, exacerbating the existing negative effects of using them individually.
Co-exposure appeared to have stronger effects than individual substance exposure across nearly all categories. For neonatal out-
comes, infants had an increased risk of impaired physical development and birth malformations. For behavioural changes, researchers in the reviewed studies found an increase in externalizing symptoms, such as aggression and impulsivity, and internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression. For physiological outcomes, co-exposure was linked to lower cortisol levels—suggesting issues in stress regulation—as well as changes to biomarkers of immune and inflammation reactions. While the review did not find any cognitive impacts of co-use, Rabin noted that this could be due to methodological limitations in existing studies.
“Our conclusion was that the [cognitive] data’s not really good, so I wouldn’t necessarily believe that finding, but that’s what the data to date is saying,” Rabin said in an interview with The Tribune. “The studies were mostly these large cohort studies that didn’t do a very good job characterizing cannabis use. And they also were conducted, I think, in the ‘80s when cannabis potency was very, very different than the cannabis used today.”
Rabin’s interest in the subject emerged long before her work on this review. She explained how, in her PhD research, she examined people going through tobacco withdrawal. Her study found that people who used cannabis while abstaining from tobacco actu-
ally experienced greater tobacco withdrawal symptoms than those who abstained from either substance—a finding that further confirms the interactions between cannabis and NTP.
From there, Rabin’s interest in cannabis and tobacco’s interactions continued, which eventually led her to look at the effects of couse during pregnancy.
“We’re kind of just looking across the lifespan,” she said.
Given the dangers of engaging in substance co-use while pregnant, it is essential that we have viable treatment options for affected children and that we take measures to prevent such use in the first place. There appears to be a discrepancy in the general public’s understanding of the risks associated with NTP versus cannabis use.
“I think women are aware of the risks of using a nicotine or tobacco product while pregnant,” Rabin said. “For some reason, they just interpret [cannabis] as being more safe. And so a lot of women are using cannabis, especially in the first trimester to help with symp-
toms like nausea or problems sleeping. And if they have pain, then we’re seeing a trend that women prefer to use cannabis rather than some types of medications [....] The intervention, I think, is really just educating women at this point to understand some of the harms related to using cannabis while pregnant.”
The prevalence of cannabis and NTP couse during pregnancy speaks not only to the need to continue researching their synergistic effects, but also to communicate these findings in a way that everyone—whether expecting or not—can understand. With this, we can contribute to children’s safety and longevity for generations to come.
The event raised questions about strategies to improve vaccine development through AI. (Lilly Guilbeault / The Tribune)
How dominant genomic narratives reinforce colonial narratives
Kim TallBear discussed race, genomics, and Indigenous thriving at the 48th annual Osler Lecture
Helene Saleska News Editor
The ‘Vanishing Indian’ myth—the idea that Indigenous populations are destined to disappear— has long been used to excuse and enact the physical and cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. This rhetoric remains prevalent in modern genomics, often supporting the treatment of modern Indigenous Peoples not as autonomous communities, but as research subjects from which information about the past can be extracted.
On Nov. 7, at the 48th Annual Osler Lectureship, Kim TallBear, a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor of American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota, presented her critique of modern human genomic science and its tendency to reproduce the narrative that Indigenous Peoples are ‘vanishing.’ In her research, she argues that modern genetics often undermines Indigenous Peoples’ own conceptions of their tribes and histories by favouring a Eurocentric, genetic-based identity.
She began by outlining the historical roots of this perspective, showing how it became associated with evolutionary ideas of ‘fitness.’
“In conjunction with Indian removal [in the 19th century], popular American imagery began to play on earlier symbolic linkages between Indians and the past, and these images eventually produced the full-blown ideology of the vanishing Indian, which proclaimed that a less advanced society should disappear in the presence of those more advanced,” TallBear said.
She showed how the Genographic Project—a study aiming to map humans’ movement
across the Earth by gathering large amounts of DNA, conducted from 2005 to 2019—exemplified this. It claimed that ‘isolated’ Indigenous DNA was hard to gather because Indigenous cultures were “quickly vanishing into a 21stcentury global melting pot.”
TallBear then explained a fundamental difference in how Indigenous Peoples and Western science discuss and understand Indigeneity. She shared that most Indigenous people talk about their identity in explicitly political ways that push back against an assimilative state and emphasize their rights to govern the lands that we live on. They stress the continuity and ongoing connection between pre-colonial societies, modern people, and future generations.
She noted, however, that science attempts to separate itself from social and political relationships, while remaining implicitly political. Western science frames identity and populations as static, treating Indigenous people as a part of history. While ignoring the notions of kinship, culture, and relationship with land that Indigenous Peoples use to define themselves, science aims to categorize Indigenous tribes and populations purely by genetic ancestry.
“When Indigenous Peoples talk about connection to ancestors and to place, we’re doing it in a way that’s talking about our ongoing continuity [....] But with this [scientific] idea of autochthony, originating where found, this implies stasis,” she said. “So this is really the opposite of the way Indigenous people are using that connection to ancestors [....] Genome scientists use this category [of Indigenous] in a way that assumes and is supported by the assimilative state.”
TallBear used several examples to sup-
port this, one of them being the discovery of the Kennewick Man skull in 1996 in Washington. Although the skull was dated to be 9,000 years old, it took almost 20 years of genetic testing and legal battles for the skull to be identified as legally belonging to the five Native American tribes in the area.
“[Some scientists] said that despite the antiquity of the remains, there wasn’t sufficient evidence to link the ‘Ancient One,’ or Kennewick Man, to living tribes [today],” she said.
It was not until scientist Eske Willerslev gathered DNA from one of the tribes and showed the direct genetic link between them and the Kennewick Man that the tribes got legal rights to bury the skull.
TallBear concluded her talk by discussing her new research directions and involvement with the organization Summer Internships for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics (SING), which teaches young Indigenous scientists to connect scientific education with Indigenous knowledge and governance.
“A lot of young Indigenous scientists or aspiring scientists may be in great programs and getting really good training,
but they’re not taught how to contextualize this within Indigenous governance [....] All nations live governed by science, and that includes Indigenous nations,” she said.
TallBear reminds us that scientific knowledge production does not exist outside of political and social structures. These lessons can help young genomic scientists view research methods and implications critically, and to chart new, more equitable and thoughtful paths in science, just as she has done.
The Havasupai Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents and Arizona State University researchers in 2004 when they discovered the use of their DNA samples in studies they did not consent to. (Zoe Lee / The Tribune)
How aspects of body image may predict self-injury in university students Research reveals binary gender differences for body regard in nonsuicidal self-injury
Michelle Yankovsky Staff Writer
Content warning: Self-injury
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) remains an urgent and often overlooked mental health concern, and one that demands greater attention from universities worldwide. As many as 44 per cent of those who engage in NSSI in adolescence continue to do so when they start university, and eight per cent of all university students report engaging in NSSI behaviours in the past year.
The transition from secondary education to university represents a critical period of academic pressure, personal exploration, and increased social opportunities. During this timeframe, students face a heightened risk for mental disorders. Researchers have suggested that body regard—how one perceives, lives in, and cares for one’s body—plays a pivotal role in NSSI engagement.
In a recent publication in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Julia Petrovic, a recent PhD graduate of McGill’s Educational Psychology program and current post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, explored binary gender differences in the domains of body regard and NSSI. Petrovic hopes that the results of her research can guide the types of resources and support institutions provide.
Petrovic’s study investigated four body regard domains—body acceptance, athleticism, body care, and body connection—among students reporting NSSI over the past year. Using a quantitative approach, her study examined 3,343 college students, with 12.7 per cent reporting NSSI history in the past year. Of this 12.7 per cent, 82.4 per cent were women.
“We had a large sample with over 3,000 university students, so we can be confident in the results we found,” Petrovic said. “It was also the first study to explore body regard in its different domains, which really deepened our understanding of how aspects of body regard might contribute to the prediction of NSSI and how this differs by gender.”
Petrovic’s findings revealed that, on average, females were less accepting of their bodies and perceived themselves as less athletic relative to males. Furthermore, lower levels in the four domains of body regard were linked to a higher likelihood of self-injury in the last year among females, whereas in males, only lower levels in body care and body connection showed this effect. Despite these differences, both reported taking similarly good care
“The McGill community is very diverse, and so should be the mental health resources that are made available to its students,” Petrovic said in an interview with The Tribune. “It is my hope that my research eventually informs the way that student services at universities will respond to students’ mental health challenges.”
of their bodies and felt similarly connected to them.
“We essentially found evidence that having a positive regard for one’s body played a protective role in relation to self-injury, as well as some nuances for gender,” Petrovic said.
Petrovic emphasized the importance of repeating the study with university students who report more diverse gender identities to achieve more inclusive and generalizable results.
“University students who did not identify with a binary gender were unfortunately excluded from our analyses because there were too few individuals to include in a statistically [significant] way,” she said.
Petrovic also noted that the levels of body regard domains in predicting NSSI should be explored through longitudinal research, which follows participants over a longer period of time.
“An important limitation is the study’s cross-sectional design, so our results are really a snapshot of how things are interrelated at a given moment,” she said.
Petrovic concluded by emphasizing the importance of moving away from a ‘one size
fits all’ approach and tailoring interventions to more personalized strategies.
“Each individual’s history, whether they have lived experience of self-injury or unique ways in which they view themselves and their body, can impact what sort of mental health support would work best for them,” Petrovic explained. “The best we can do is try different strategies, like meditation, journaling, spending time in nature, exercising, talking to a friend or a mental health professional, so we could really find what works best for the individual.”
19 per cent of university students report a history of nonsuicidal self-injury engagement in their lifetime. (Sunny Bell / The Tribune)
From Canada, with love: A letter to the Toronto Blue Jays
How one improbable World Series run gave Canada powerful connection and hope
Jenna Payette Staff Writer
Dear Toronto Blue Jays,
You did it. You reminded us what it feels like to fall in love. Not just with a team or a sport, but with something much bigger: With the idea that hope can be shared, that joy can ripple from ballparks to basements, that a country as vast and varied as ours can come together under one blue sky.
From coast to coast, we watched you alone on our phones or huddled together in crowded bars, mesmerized and buzzing with excitement.
More than 18.5 million of us tuned in to Game Seven of the World Series, hearts thumping in unison. Even in Quebec, where nostalgia still lingers for the lost Montreal Expos, cheers echoed throughout the province for you. This was unity. This was pride. This was Canada—connected and reminded that the power of sport allows us to transcend different borders, languages, cultures, demographics, and leagues.
Like the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and Team Canada in last spring’s Four Nations Cup, you gave Canadians more than mere wins—you gave us a feeling of thrills, chills, shrills, and most of all, unrelenting hope.
From an 18-inning marathon to a rookie’s brilliance and a pinchhit grand slam, this World Series had it all—and then some. (Eliot Loose / The Tribune )
We wore your logo like a badge of belonging—not just Torontonians, but Canadians from every province and territory. We jumped on the bandwagon willingly, joyfully, because how could we not? You played with heart. You played for each other. You played for us.
And oh, what a cast of characters. From Vladdy, to Mad Max, to Bo, to the architect of the Springer Dinger, each of you became a household name. You
Know Your Team: Varsity Rowing
were a team stitched together by belief, not bravado. In a game where payroll often decides the story, you showed that the most valuable currency is connection. With players from 22 to 41 years old, your roster was filled with personalities, confidence, and selflessness—something for just about every fan to relate to.
There was Trey Yesavage, the rookie earning $57,000 CAD a year, striking out Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s dual-position phenom, who makes a whopping 824 times more. Then Alejandro Kirk, a 5-foot-8 catcher who signed with you for just $7,500 CAD in 2016, yet has grown to be one of the most feared hitters and defensive masterminds in baseball. Then Chris Bassitt, from a small town in northern Ohio where kids are not expected to make it to the majors. There he was, calm and unshakable, on the biggest stage of all. You are not just athletes. You are reminders that greatness often comes from the most unexpected places.
Maybe that is why we loved you so much. You were the underdogs, playing with joy, humility, and friendship. Positive in every moment, emotional when it mattered, but always measured.
Davis Schneider said it best.
“I loved coming to the park every day and sharing this stupid kids game with the people I get to call my best friends. Such a selfless group of ragtag dudes who just love playing baseball with each other at the highest level [....] We went to work
each day and gave it our all.”
We saw that. We felt it. Every stolen base, every grin in the dugout, every home run that sent a nation screaming into the night, was never just about the score.
Even as the final out of Game Seven was recorded and the Toronto World Series dream vanished, it was hard to be truly upset. We were proud—supremely, achingly proud.
You reminded us the game is about more than who wins or loses. You gave us hope: The kind that glows quietly in the dark, whispering that something good, something beautiful, might still be coming.
“In a time when we all needed it, our Blue Jays inspired us, lifted us, and united us—all through the game we love,” Blue Jays President and CEO Mark Shapiro wrote in a post-Series letter. “Lifelong fans were rewarded, and millions of new ones were born.”
And he’s right, because this wasn’t just your story. It was ours too.
So thank you, Blue Jays. For bridging regions and generations. For reminding us that, in a time of division and despair, one unexpected, heart-bursting, countryunifying championship run can make us believe again.
We are often told there is no such thing as a moral victory, but not all losses are created equal. And, for that, we are supremely grateful.
With love, Canada
McGill Rowing finishes off its 100th season by bringing national championships home to Montreal
Lialah Mavani Staff Writer
At the start of November, the McGill Rowing Team hosted the Canadian University Rowing Championship (CURC) for the fifth time in program history. The event was held on the team’s home turf at the Montreal Olympic Basin. The course’s unique layout meant fans, volunteers, and the McGill Rowing Junior Varsity (JV) and Novice athletes could bike alongside the racers and cheer them on.
Women’s Rowing Captain Naomi Fandrich, U2 Engineering, alongside her partner, Kaitlin Puddy, U2 Science, placed fourth overall in the Women’s Open double sculls. The women’s team finished off the season ranked tenth overall. Fandrich explained how racing at home with McGill’s full team present at the CURC helped her performance in an interview with The Tribune
“Usually, [universities] just send selected athletes [to Nationals] […], whereas we got to have the JVs and the Novices helping out,” she said. “It was really a big community thing.”
Fandrich added that McGill having the opportunity to host the CURC also highlighted the collaborative nature of Montreal’s rowing scene. McGill’s team trains at the Basin with other universities from Montreal and the Montreal Rowing Club.
“Even though we were hosting [individu-
ally], it felt like a shared effort,” she explained.
As Fandrich emphasized, the weekend was about much more than just rowing and podium finishes—it also reinforced the team’s close dynamic. The program’s supportive atmosphere is what makes the potentially difficult transition from McGill Novice to varsity crew smoother for athletes, Puddy highlighted.
“The transition to […] the varsity team is definitely hard,” she stated, in an interview with The Tribune. “There’s more hours to dedicate. It’s mentally a lot harder, but it’s really uplifting to be on a team. I think my teammates are what’s really most important for me.”
Puddy continued by sharing that her CURC success would not have been possible without support from her teammates.
“This sport really has shown me that you can always do things that you didn’t think you could,” she stated.
Beyond pushing each other on the water and in the weight room, the team also shares several pre-race rituals. The men’s and women’s crews each hold a team dinner the night before competition, reviewing race plans and locking in their focus for the next day. This cohesion shows when they get back on the water.
Jacob Lofaro, U4 Engineering, and teammate Patrice Légaré, U4 Engineering, cap-
tured gold for McGill in the men’s double sculls, marking McGill’s first gold in the doubles category since 2012. The pair were also named McGill’s Athletes of the Week.
Lofaro explained in an interview with The Tribune that his and Légaré’s strategy was straightforward: Start strong and take the lead early.
“We made a race plan to get out ahead in the very beginning, just so we could be in control of the race. We could pace it how we wanted, and if people wanted to challenge us, they had to be the ones to make the push,” Lofaro said. “During the race, it was just, ‘Let’s hold on, let’s pray and hope we can hold everyone off.’ And it worked.”
Building off of Lofaro’s remarks, Rowing Head Coach Stéphanie Marchand told The Tribune how proud she was of the team’s performance this season, especially against such strong competition. Looking ahead to next season, she hopes that making finals and earning medals becomes the standard for McGill Rowing—not the exception.
“I’m trying to create a space where it’s competitive, but it’s also incredibly healthy, and people are able to be there for each other and support each other,” Marchand said. “[The team has] so much potential, and we can achieve so many more podiums. Everyone trains, everyone is there, and everyone is yearround, training hard. I really wanted to bring the level of the team up, which we’re seeing. It takes time.”
The last time McGill hosted the CURC was in 2013. (Gwen Heffernan / The Tribune)
Know Your Team: McGill Men’s Lacrosse
Redbirds gear up for CUFLA National Championship
Zain Ahmed Staff Writer
Redbirds Lacrosse headed to Brampton, Ontario, from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9 for the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) Baggataway Cup with the same expectation as every fall: Play fast, play together, and play for silverware.
Captain and midfielder John Miraglia, U3 Arts, says this year’s group is better for having been tested. After a perfect 20242025 regular season ending short at Nationals, 2025-2026’s 9–2 campaign, composed of two one-goal losses, forced the team’s collective growth.
“We finally felt some adversity, and it really helped us adapt and sharpen what we need to win playoff lacrosse,” Miraglia said in an interview with The Tribune
The path was clear: A Friday bye as the number one seed, then a Saturday semifinal, and, if earned, a Sunday final with a shot at glory. The Redbirds’ biggest edge in the tournament, according to Miraglia, was their tempo and their time to rest.
“We play faster than anyone, and I have no doubt we have the highest skill level in the tournament,” Miraglia explained before the weekend. “Our bye means whoever we face played less than 24 hours earlier.”
The team’s speed is underwritten by depth and buy-in. Their rallying cry this season was ‘as one.’ Veteran short-stick defensive midfielder Jack Buzby, U4 Arts,
shared in an interview with The Tribune that after last year’s stumble, this attitude is a shift.
“We wanted more trust, less leaning on individuals,” he said. “Those tight, onegoal games made us comfortable under pressure. It’s us against us. [We need to] do our jobs, play our game, and take it one day at a time.”
The team also has a younger back-end than it did a year ago. Long-stick midfielder Preston Norris, U2 Arts, commented on this learning curve.
“The rookies took criticism, adapted fast, and kept communicating. That’s what has won us our games,” Norris said in an interview with The Tribune
If there is a snapshot of this group’s identity, it is their overtime play-in escape versus the Ottawa GeeGees on Nov. 2. The Redbirds, down 10-5 late in the game, rattled off five unanswered goals before attacker Mark Symon buried the winner off a tantalizing sprint and feed from roommate and fellow attacker Rowan Birrell. The bench never flinched.
“No one thought we were going to lose [against Ottawa], and it’s that energy that won us the game and hopefully can win us Nationals,” Miraglia said.
The team has further motivation: This is the final season for head coach Nicolas Soubry. For senior members of the team like Buzby, who took the field at Nationals with his brother Benjamin Buzby for the second time in their varsity careers, the
stakes are personal.
“Playing with my brother is everything. We grew up playing together and it’s truly special to be able to continue that,” Jack Buzby said before the Cup.
“For Coach Soubry, I want to end it on the high note he deserves.”
The Redbirds Lacrosse’s season sadly ended in a 15-12 loss on Nov. 8 at the hands of a relentless Nipissing University Lakers opposition in a fast-paced semifinal game—though Nipissing had lost their last nine games against McGill. McGill’s indomitable spirit saw them claw their way back from multiple deficits, tying the game 12-12 early in the fourth quarter before the Lakers closed with three unanswered goals, led by high-impact grad transfer Jason Knox.
McGill Lacrosse has won the CUFLA Baggataway Cup twice before, once in 2012, and again in 2015. (Ryan Dvorak / The Tribune)
ard, Charlie Hostetter, Torsten Blodgett, Massimo Thauvette, and Norris rounded out the scoring in a hard-fought contest marked by fiery pace and physicality.
Despite the loss, Joshua Jewell led McGill’s offence with a hat trick, while Dylan Fenton and Liam Miletich nailed two goals apiece. Goals from Owen How -
Nipissing’s attack, driven by Knox’s nine-point game, ultimately proved too much for even the top-seeded Redbirds. While their defeat brings a painful end to a strong season, McGill was still well-represented in the Nov. 8 CUFLA All-Rookie Game, with Hostetter, Fenton, Spencer Mason, Ryder Sunday, Jake Brady, Nick Gutin, Yoan Pinsonneault, Brennan Visokey, and George Carayiannis all earning selections.
Martlets Volleyball falls to Carabins in Friday night nail-biter
UQÀM took the game in four sets as McGill fought to the last whistle
Clara Smyrski Sports Editor
Selima Guidara started Martlets Volleyball’s Friday night match with a serve to the visiting Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) Citadins on Nov. 7. UQÀM clinched the first three points of the match, but their lead did not last long, as McGill tied the set up at 11-11 and then pulled ahead. The Martlets eventually secured the first set 25-23. Set two started with a UQÀM serve and a point by the Martlets. The set was tied at 3-3 when UQÀM went on a run. Mc -
Gill called a timeout to regroup, but it was not until set point with UQÀM up 24-16 that the Martlets lessened the score differential to 24-20. Unfortunately, the Citadins still managed to take the set 25-20.
With the game tied up, the race to victory intensified in the third set, where both teams battled to take charge. The match featured some long rallies and growing excitement from the crowd of around 200 people in McGill’s Love Competition Hall. UQÀM ultimately pulled ahead and sealed the victory 25-14, marking the largest point differential of the game.
McGill stayed gritty in set four and tied it up at 7-7. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, watching both teams battle for the ‘W.’ The game was tied up at 14-14, then again at 15-15 and 16-16, before some unfortunate mistakes from the McGill side allowed UQÀM to pull ahead 19-16. While the Martlets fought until the
end, the Citadins took the set 25-18 and therefore the match.
The team’s Head Coach Marie-Christine Lapointe was proud of the Martlets’ tenacity, saying they fought hard on defence and were disciplined with their blocks. This is Lapointe’s first year as Head Coach, following the legendary Rachèle Béliveau’s retirement after 34 years last season. The young coach and former member of the Volleyball Canada Junior National Team is thankful to have had Béliveau stay on as a coaching mentor this year.
“I’m feeling super excited and grateful to be here,” Lapointe said in an interview with The Tribune . “Rachèle is still here, and she’s helping me through all the phases, because she knows the ins and outs of this job. So it’s good to have her in my corner. And then when I have any questions, she’s there to help me. I’m wellsurrounded, so it makes [coaching] easy.”
Lapointe praised second-year Emma Waskiewicz—the team’s libero—for her impressive defensive performance, and Captain Sandrine Methot for her strong presence on the block, movement in the middle of the court, and offensive finish.
Waskiewicz, U2 Management, echoed her coach’s sentiments in an interview with The Tribune , saying her team found a fight in this match that was lacking in past games this season.
“In this match, we were really in it,
and we went into it with ferocity. Our mindset changed a lot,” Waskiewicz expressed. “The rally was long, we fought on defence, and we also fought on offence.”
Methot, U2 Education, who recorded seven kills and three blocks during the match, similarly said the Martlets showed great fight in the night’s game.
“We really stepped it up today. Even though we lost in four, it was a great fight,” she said, in an interview with The Tribune “Unfortunately, we made some mistakes that cost us the game, but I feel like we really gave it our all [....] We were digging every ball and going on the ground. The fight was really there. But I think we did make a lot of mistakes, and [UQÀM] did well, but we beat [ourselves].”
The pair are not just teammates, but good friends, and shared that they start every game day by juggling a soccer ball back and forth, trying to see how long they can keep it off the ground. They beat their record before Friday night’s matchup, logging 56 juggles.
Other Martlets with strong game performances include Emilia Grigorova and Justine Veillette, who each contributed eight points, and Guidara, who added 25 assists, 14 digs, two aces, and five assisted blocks.
The Martlets will face off again on Nov. 14 with the Université de Montréal Carabins, at 6:30 p.m. in Love Competition Hall.
