TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 2026 | VOL. 45 | ISSUE 18
OFF THE BOARD
An ode to emails and the archival nature of the inbox PG. 11
Montreal upholds its colonial legacy by failing to prioritize reconciliation
PG. 5
Montreal’s will to swing
FEATURE PG. 8-9
Asher Kui News Editor
On Feb. 2, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) hosted a lecture titled “Determining new international and domestic orders: Reflections on modern Canada’s endurance and more so resilience as Black and West Indian.” The lecture was given by Cecil Foster, a professor at the Department of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo.
Daniel Béland, a professor at McGill’s Department of Political Science and MISC’s director, began the event with a land acknowledgement, along with a brief description of Foster’s work and McGill’s initiatives during Black History Month.
“Each year, Black History Month at McGill brings together students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members through […] [opportunities] to learn, reconnect and celebrate Black communities’ contributions to education and research,” Béland said. “[Foster] is a leading author, academic, journalist, and public intellectual. His work speaks about the challenges that Black people have encountered historically in Canada and their efforts to achieve respect and recognition for their contribution to what is now a multicultural Canada.”
Béland then passed the microphone to Foster, who began by highlighting the presupposition that Canada’s social resilience comes from its historical and perpetual whiteness—whether it be Anglophone, Francophone, or a combination of the two. Foster then presented his counterargument, claiming that Canada’s history and political structure today reflect a longstanding British West Indian heritage.
had in mind the words of the Black porters and those of the Negro Citizenship Association, [who] […] challenged the Canadian government not to be afraid of the changing times and the noisiness that comes with changing social orders?”
Foster then mentioned Carney’s speech at the Citadelle of Quebec just two days after the World Economic Forum Meeting, where Carney recounted the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. He framed it as a pivotal point in history when Canada chose accommodation over assimilation, recognizing its two founding peoples—the English and the French. Foster criticized such a narrative, arguing that it erases Black contributions in Canada.
“These are ethno-nationalist narra -
ered free members of society for the first time—were a leading example of changing social orders.
“To be a Negro meant to not have a country of belonging,” Foster said. “A single jurisdiction, among other things, would help create an order where freedom would confront enslavement, [where] British values of inclusion and diversity […] [would confront] American values of exclusion, white assimilation and individualism. Two different moralities [sought] to establish a single dominant order [….]
In Frederick Douglass’s view, the British West Indies epitomize, worldwide, the highest ideals of human freedom and dignity, and was a model of societal nationalist formation to be copied throughout the
ing times, there are challenging times, but only if we continue to live the lie of dominant narratives,” Foster said. “This is an opportunity to think of all of our separate ethnicities and nationalities […] as examples of how humanity’s dignity has always fought the established enduring social orders [….] Canada was always Black, and its multicultural values and ideals that now set it apart are those developed similarly […] in the former Black British West Indies.”
The event then moved on to a Q&A session. Debra Thompson, associate professor in McGill’s Department of Political Science, questioned whether Black understandings of freedom are commensurate with multiculturalism in Canada.
“[Can] the equation of all that comprises Black understandings of freedom and radicalism that frequently are imagined beyond the boundaries of any nation state, and certainly beyond the boundaries of liberal democracy or capitalism, really be rolled into multiculturalism?” Thompson asked.
Foster responded by highlighting that we must remove institutional boundaries when considering multiculturalism.
“From even its earliest days as a settler colony, Canada was inherently Black,” Foster said. “To this day, a social justice model of development based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness reflects Canada’s undeniable historical, cultural, and British West Indian heritage. This is an identity that dominant Canada always tried to deny in preference for the whiteness imposed through structural and institutional conformity and corruption.”
Foster then made a connection to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the 2026 World Economic Forum Meeting. In his speech, Carney implied that many people in the world live under the illusion that current domestic and international orders produce justice for everyone. Foster referred to Donald Willard Moore, a civil rights activist who publicly criticized Canada’s racist immigration laws in 1954, suggesting that Carney acknowledged Canada’s fundamental Blackness.
“Although not seen so directly, Carney was implying [that] Canada is fundamentally Black in its cultural values, expressions, and aspirational mores and ethos,” Foster said. “Could Carney have
tives presupposing and even defending the centrality of whiteness and the marginalization of all non-whites, in effect sidelining all other peoples in their various forms and ethnicities [and] racialized Blackness,” Foster said. “British soldiers and sailors in steaming ports like Montreal, Quebec City […] were demographically multicultural British subjects and prototypical modern Canadians. Most of them were Black with their home bases in the British West Indies [….] With the technological change to introduce trains, as the sleeping car porters on Canada’s railways that knitted Canada together, they had always a sense of belonging to Canada and always fought for inclusion and to be treated as equals to all Canadians.”
Foster then focused his lecture on a period during which there were repeated calls and appeals for the British West Indies to become part of the Canadian Confederation. Following the Slavery Abolition Act, many prominent Canadians wanted to establish a single political jurisdiction of British colonies in the Americas. The proposal did not materialize, as the population of the British West Indies was predominantly Black, while Canada officially portrayed itself as white. Foster highlighted that the British West Indies in 1838—when Black people were consid -
Americas by the 1860s.”
Foster then quoted a speech from 1957 presented by former chief minister of Jamaica Norman Manley, in which Manley pointed out that the British West Indies were able to answer the ‘race question’ before many other countries.
“I dare to say that the West Indies have travelled hundreds of years ahead of large parts of the world in solving the problems of how people of different races and origins can live together in harmony,” Foster quoted. “One has only to look around this room to comprehend that we have completely exploded the myth of racial superiority, and we are rapidly progressing to a higher level in that field than most countries know, because with us, it is ceasing to be a matter of tolerance. For a tolerance itself presupposes that there is something to be tolerated, and it ceases to be a matter of acceptance, because acceptance in itself presupposes that there is some problem to overcome and some difficulty to be accepted.”
Foster ended his lecture by encouraging the audience to revise established narratives of Canadian history, emphasizing how Black communities are not merely contributors but foundational to the establishment of modern Canadian values.
“As we live in academically stimulat -
“If you start with the notion that the nation is of the people demographically and not institutionally, then it can work,” Foster said. “It might very well mean, as is being attempted now in Canada and elsewhere, the radical dismantling of many of the institutions. That’s the only way you can bring about reconciliation [….] You start by the will of the people, so that the nation becomes a projection of the will of the people, rather than the nation being an ethno-nationalist notion where people are forced or slotted into the nation, and those who don’t meet a specific criteria are excluded.”
Nadia Alexan, founder of the nonprofit Citizens in Action, spoke next. She commented on the shifting political power of the wealthy, and how the current global order is increasingly shaped by elite interests rather than the true will of the people.
“The biggest danger we have now is the billionaires who have hijacked our governments. They are not content with influencing the government. They now want to be the government,” Alexan said. “It’s unbelievable what is going on, and that’s the danger […] as long as they keep making profits and cannibalizing the world.”
Foster emphasized that the initiative which started in the British West Indies and the Americas may facilitate new perspectives on international issues.
“As we think about the future, the lessons that we can learn from the experiences that have been developed in no other part of the world than in the Americas […] gives us a kind of a uniqueness,” Foster said. “We can look at all of these things and try to make sense of them and maybe share some of our experiences […] as to how some of these things might be overcome.”
the
Thousands will now have to restart the immigration process or fa ce deportation
Amelia H. Clark News Editor
Protesters gathered in front of the Ministry of Immigration on Feb. 7 to protest Immigration Minister JeanFrançois Roberge’s decision to abolish the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ), a popular immigration program for international students and foreign workers seeking to obtain Canadian citizenship. The demonstration was organized by Le Québec c’est nous aussi, Syndicat APTS, Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN), and Les Orphelins Du PEQ.
Prior to this decision, the PEQ admitted 20,000 people annually, all required to have advanced French language skills and at least two years of work experience in the province under a Quebecois employer. Meeting these criteria, participants could obtain a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ) from the Ministry of Immigration, Francization, and
Integration, which affirmed that the holder had been selected to settle in Quebec. Participants could then apply for permanent residency in Canada.
Roberge abolished the program on Nov. 6, replacing it with the Skilled Worker Selection Program (SWSP). The SWSP is a points-based system that assesses applicants depending on how their labour skills factor into the province’s market needs. It also requires applicants to have a degree, thereby excluding international undergraduate students. Those who were already pursuing Canadian citizenship through PEQ will not have any advantages under the SWSP system.
Chloe Brough moved from France to Montreal three years ago with her husband and two children. She, like many others, was expecting to settle in Canada permanently through the PEQ, and now feels she has no real chance of receiving citizenship through the SWSP.
“My only chance to stay here is the
PEQ,” Brough said. “When I came in 2023, [...] it was granted that I could stay in Quebec. I’m highly qualified, I have two kids, we are French. It was heartbreaking, [...] the feeling of betrayal by this development [….] What are we going to offer to the kids back in France? We are integrated and we want to stay here. It matters for us.”
This demonstration was one of seven across Quebec, with several thousand in total marching for the reinstatement of the PEQ or the implementation of a grandfather clause, which would grant a CSQ to immigrants already established in Quebec under the PEQ.
Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, Parliament member and speaker for Quebec Solidaire, began the demonstration by announcing to the crowd of nearly 150 that protests will persist until the government agrees to honour its promise of citizenship to immigrants enrolled in the PEQ.
“In this crisis, Jean-François Roberge did something that I didn’t think he was capable of doing. He has named himself the worst immigration minister in Quebec’s recent history,” Cliche-Rivard announced. “It is terrible, the attack on Quebec’s reputation that Jean-François Roberge has made. All over the world, we see images of broken promises from people who have travelled to Quebec, who have learned French, who have studied at its institutions, who have worked day and night for Quebec, and who are abandoned.”
Afterwards, Cliche-Rivard expanded on his speech in an interview with The Tribune , stating that Roberge’s decision is senseless in the eyes of the public and Parliament alike.
“This cannot stand. We promised so much to these people. They left everything behind to work here and immigrate here, and now we’re going to abandon them,” Cliche-Rivard said. “[Roberge is] the only one
thinking this is a good idea. Now, Quebec is unanimous, asking him to quash that decision and to go back with the program that was so good for Quebec. So, the only thing he has to do now is to reinstate the PEQ.”
CSN President Caroline Senneville took the stage next, noting that Roberge’s decision harms international students who came to the province for its multicultural reputation, a trait which she believes will greatly diminish should the program not be reinstated.
“This is a closing of the doors, a step backward, and it sends an extremely worrying message to thousands of people who are already integrated, already rooted, and already engaged in the society,” Senneville said. “The refusal to implement a grandfather clause is particularly scandalous. [Abolishing the PEQ] directly impacts people who have followed all the rules, completed their studies, and planned their future according to the program the government is thus abolishing [….] By abolishing the PEQ, the government is, once again, abandoning international students.”
Shawn, a protester holding a sign that read “bait and switch,” who withheld his last name, said he came to the protest in support of his girlfriend, a former PEQ applicant who must now restart her immigration process.
“A lot of people came here with a promise that they’d be able to build a life here. They came here to get a better future. What’s being done right now is basically robbing them of that promise,” Shawn said. “It’s dishonest to the people who invested themselves, came here, paid taxes, and are part of our communities [….] This country was built by immigrants, and now we’re closing the door behind them.”
*Caroline Senneville’s and the first of Guillaume Cliche-Rivard’s quotes were translated from French.
Recap: Quebec maintains 33 per cent tuition hike for out-of-province students
The new policy is intended to prioritize funding the education o f in-province students
Quebec’s provincial government has chosen to keep a 33 per cent tuition hike for out-of-province students attending an English university, who enrolled after Fall 2024, despite a 2025 Quebec Superior Court ruling that found the increase unreasonable. In a recent updated policy, the government justified its decision to maintain the hike as a measure to prevent Quebec taxpayers from having to fund the education of non-Quebecois Canadians.
The hike, initially introduced in 2024, increased tuition for out-of-province students from $9,000 CAD to $12,000 CAD. This increase primarily affects students at Concordia and McGill, the two largest English-language universities in Quebec.
In a written exchange with The Tri -
bune , McGill’s Media Relations Office (MRO) declined to comment on the university’s perspective on the tuition hike.
While McGill’s administration has avoided taking a public stance on the policy, students say it has changed their perspectives on the university’s affordability.
Orion Pirang, a U1 Management student from Ontario, said the tuition hike would have changed his decision to attend McGill had it been in place when he applied.
“It probably would have [changed my decision to go to McGill]. I think part of the reason that I chose it over Queens was [...] because, even without scholarships, the tuition was manageable,” Pirang said.
“Compared to Queens [...] it’s still significantly less, but across the board, it makes it a lot more unaffordable. Especially compared to in-province, [even] if you’re not from Toronto, it would be cheaper now to go to the University of Toronto.”
For Pirang, the policy felt like an extension of broader political conflicts over language in Quebec.
“Quebec has a long and tenuous history of conflict between Anglophones and Francophones, and, in administrations past, they’ve perpetuated this division,” Pirang said. “On one hand, it almost feels inflammatory and prejudiced, but on the other hand, it doesn’t feel productive.
did not provide any details on how legislation would proceed after maintaining the hike.
It doesn’t seem like it’s doing meaningful work to protect the French language, and all it’s really doing is sowing divide.”
Josette Chandler Staff Writer
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Annie Bunting, professor of Law and Society at York University, hosted a discussion at the McGill Faculty of Law’s Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) entitled “Knowledge production and gender justice in post-conflict Africa” at New Chancellor Day Hall.
Bunting opened the presentation with a background on her past work in international feminist law, including her role as the Chair of International Gender Justice at York University.
“I started as a Boulton fellow here at McGill back in another century, which is such an amazing program,” Bunting said. “I am really glad to be engaging with all of you, especially at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism because the [work done here] fits really nicely with my own.”
Bunting then explained her experience working on the Conjugal Slavery and War Project from 2015 to 2020, a project that documented cases of forced marriage during times of conflict to establish a system of reparations for survivors of gender-based violence.
“The coalition was monitoring international criminal tribunals and their prosecution of gender crimes, starting with the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda,” Bunting said. “The special court for Sierra Leone in 2008 found forced marriage to be its own heading of a crime against humanity. This was the impetus for this further research project.”
Bunting then shifted her focus to the Kinshasa Declaration, made at a Survivor’s Hearing on reparations during November 2021 in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To help create this document, Bunting assembled survivors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and secured financial backing from 12 African countries.
Bunting emphasized the number and diversity of goals presented during the hearing, explaining how she, the survivors, and the NGOs involved in the creation of the declaration came to the hearing with different outcomes in mind.
“I’m interested in the tracking of these crimes against humanity, especially forced marriage,” Bunting said. “You have survivors [who] are very concerned about school fees for their children, about medical fees, about reintegration. So, you have really quite disparate goals for this event.”
The event then transitioned to an open discussion, during which McGill Law Professor René Provost explained how language barriers impacted the drafting of the declaration.
“One of the challenges we encounter is that the vocabulary used to talk about sexual relations in some African languages tends to be metaphorical, which posed enormous challenges when we convert that to the language of international or criminal law,” Provost said.
Next, McGill research fellow and Board of Displaced Internationals member Yana Liubymova spoke on the connection between sexual violence and conflict through her experiences with the war in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we have numbers and numbers of survivor cases, and unfortunately, the statistics are growing. But, we improved our legislation and have a special program for survivors,” Liubymova said. “The displacement process is absolutely linked with the survivors of sexual violence in war.”
Bunting concluded by emphasizing the need for a focus that expands beyond individual survivor narratives, tackling the systemic issues themselves that enable genderbased violence.
“I don’t want to leave the impression that we should overly rely on survivor testimonies or individual harm, because I think that can limit our thinking to not engage in substantive and structural redress. And that’s not an easy thing, right? It’s not easy to talk about what structural change looks like,” Bunting said. “These individual narratives exist within this broader communal push for recognition and reparations and for substantive change.”
As Black History Month continues, a look at the supports shapin g Black student life
Kaitlyn Schramm Managing Editor
As McGill marks Black History Month (BHM) this February, the university and student groups alike are hosting events to celebrate Black histories, cultures, and contributions on campus. Beyond month-long programming, McGill also offers a range of institutional services and student-run organizations for academic, mental health, and community support throughout the year for its Black students. The Tribune breaks down the resources that are currently available to Black students, from university-led initiatives to student-organized spaces, with instructions on how to access these resources.
What events is McGill hosting for BHM?
McGill’s keynote event for BHM will take place on Feb. 12 with Sabaa Quao, founding president of the marketing agency PlusCo Venture Studio. In the talk, titled “One Step Back. Two Steps Forward,” Quao will share ideas for young entrepreneurs and creatives gleaned from his experience in technology, finance, and culture. Although registration has already filled up for the event, students can watch the keynote through a livestream on McGill’s website.
What student-run events are happening this month?
Beyond McGill’s events, student group-organized activities will also run throughout the month. The Black Students’ Network (BSN), McGill African Students’ Society (MASS), and the Caribbean Students’ Society (CSS) are all holding events with social, cultural, and educational themes
during February.
Throughout February 2026, McGill is advertising a series of student-run events in honour of BHM, including a hair workshop hosted by the CSS on Feb. 11, and the BSN’s Black Canada Panel led by Dr. Melissa Shaw on Feb. 20. On Feb. 16, there will be a Black Legacy Dinner featuring both a panel and dinner event celebrating Black excellence and achievement hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) McGill chapter as part of its BHM programming.
McGill’s Black Varsity Association (BVA)is hosting a panel event on Feb. 27, alongside weekly posts every Friday in February, that highlight Black athletes in a series called “Unsung Heroes.”
The Black Law Students’ Association of McGill (BLSAM), the Women of Colour Collective (WOCC), the Black Medical Students’ Association (BMSA), and Canadian Black Nurses McGill (CBNA) are also hosting events throughout the month. A complete schedule of all the different student group-organized events is available on McGill’s BHM webpage.
aimed at supporting Black students.
Additionally, McGill’s Community Outreach and Branches pages highlight ongoing student engagement and communitybuilding initiatives by and for Black students year-round.
What services does McGill offer its Black students?
McGill provides a mix of institutional support and community-oriented services
The Anti-Black Racism Action Plan, the university’s broader anti-Black racism initiative, includes mental health supports, scholarships and awards tailored for Black students, and toolkits to help students connect with campus services.
McGill also offers financial support through the Black Equity Fund for student and faculty initiatives that aim to address anti-Black racism, including support for events, projects, and research. The application for funds is open from September through April, and applicants may apply for up to $1,500 CAD per application.
For Black students searching for men -
tal health support, McGill offers a variety of mental health resources such as a team of Local Wellness Advisors with dedicated training to battle the mental health side effects connected to anti-Black racism. Melissa Cobbler, Sabrine Nérée, and Angela Ahenkorah are the three mental health professionals at the Wellness Hub who advise Black students on a myriad of issues, from traditional mental health struggles to racerelated ones.
Additionally, McGill runs a Black Mentorship Program through the Black Alumni Association that pairs students with alumni for academic and professional guidance.
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Brooke Barak, Rachel Blackstone, Loriane Chagnon, Josette Chandler, Carla Cretin, José Moro Gutiérrez, Will Kennedy, Antoine Larocque, Sofia Lay, Lialah Mavani, Talia Moskowitz, Talia Moskowitz, Luca Paone,Julie Raout, Parisa Rasul, Alex Hawes Silva, Michelle Yankovsky, Ivanna Zhang Gwen Heffernan, Lilly Guilbeault, Emiko Kamiya, Alexa Roemer
CONTRIBUTORS
Noah Bornstein, Arielle Brunet, Amy Gelfand,Abby Kronenberg, Amélie Marquet, Vittoria Vespoli Sunny Bell, Abbey Locker, Sophie Schuyler
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Montreal upholds its colonial legacy by failing to prioritize reconciliation
On Nov. 18, Montreal
Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada announced the composition of her new 14-member executive committee, with roles ranging from security and housing to green economic development. While Ferrada’s committee included a plethora of portfolios, it omitted a committee member explicitly responsible for reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples—a role that had been active for almost eight years under the Valérie Plante administration.
Ferrada has insisted that reconciliation remains a top priority for her administration, stating that the responsibilities of the role would instead be handled by Associate Councillor of Cultural Services, Diversity and Inclusion (SDIS), Josué Corvil. However, Corvil’s title contains no explicit reference to reconciliation.
In conflating reconciliation efforts with ‘cultural diversity and inclusion,’ Ferrada’s government has failed to re-enshrine the importance of acknowledging, atoning for, and taking action to provide redress for Canada’s history of colonial violence
Noah Bornstein Contributor
Every year, the third Monday in January is supposed to be the ‘saddest day of the year.’
With the doldrums of winter in full swing, and no holidays in sight, Blue Monday can be a day of deep isolation—at least, that is what we are told. But the Blue Monday claim has no scientific basis. Popularized during a 2005 PR campaign by a British travel agency encouraging people to book summer vacations, the ‘formula’ behind it—which takes into consideration weather, low motivation, and already-broken resolutions—has been widely criticized as pseudoscience. In other words, Blue Monday is an invented marketing gimmick—an opportunity for large corporations to sell finance courses, health supplements and travel deals to cure us of our supposed blues. Manufacturing imaginary problems so businesses can solve them with their products is a core feature of marketing in our consumerist age. That part is predictable. The problem is that Blue Monday takes Canada’s very
and dispossession. Instead, this homogenization collapses nationto-nation responsibility into a vague diversity mandate. The Ferrada administration must reinstate the role and pursue reconciliation in its genuine form: A distinct political relationship rooted in Indigenous sovereignty that addresses the city’s presence on the unceded land of the Kanien’kehá:ka, Anishinaabeg, Abenaki and Huron/Wendat peoples.
Plante first introduced the reconciliation role in 2018 following citywide criticism for her executive committee’s lack of racial diversity. When announcing the creation of the role, Plante framed it as critical to strengthening dialogue with Indigenous nations and improving the efficacy of the city’s reconciliation efforts. Yet, the changes Plante’s cabinet implemented through this role remained superficial, neglecting deep-rooted issues that affect Indigenous people at disproportionate rates, such as police harassment, antiIndigenous racism, and homelessness. Municipal action repeatedly stalled at symbolism—resulting in statements, consultations, and commemorations without durable policy, funding or enforcement.
The Ferrada government had an opportunity to correct the egregious shortcomings of prior
administrations, but by abolishing the reconciliation role, her government has abandoned its obligations—not only to move beyond the lacklustre efforts of her predecessors, but to commit to reconciliation at all Many of the issues central to the objectives of reconciliation—land claims and stewardship, consent over development, policing, and criminalization—do not fall under the ‘diversity’ umbrella of responsibilities, making her restructuring of the committee nonsensical and highly problematic. Indigenous children are over 17 times more likely to be removed from their families and placed in the child welfare system than nonIndigenous children. These high rates of parent-child separation are a direct continuation of the Residential School system, which perpetuated a multi-generational cycle of family disruption. Clearly, combating colonial structures, which are deeply embedded in every aspect of governance, policing, healthcare, and child welfare, requires more than standardized Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) measures. Any policy that governs enforcement, service access, or institutional oversight should require not just consultation, but active inclusion and decisionmaking power. Yet, with the removal
of this role, the cabinet has done more than sideline reconciliation—it has eliminated Indigenous representation altogether, effectively shutting Indigenous voices out of executive decision-making.
The city’s decision to bury reconciliation inside Corvil’s role under SDIS runs parallel to McGill’s own chronic failure to prioritize genuine reconciliation measures. The university has repeatedly claimed its commitment to the 94 calls to action identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee and its own 52 Calls to Action, yet it has repeatedly failed to deliver anything more than mere symbolic commitments to institutional change. Empty land acknowledgements cannot conceal the fact that the university continues construction of the New Vic Project and aggressive legal injunction against the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) despite mounting evidence of potential human remains on the site.
If reconciliation is truly a priority, both Montreal and McGill need to act as such—structurally, not rhetorically. Reconciliation cannot be managed as a sub-file of ‘inclusion.’ It is a political process that demands redistribution of power, consent, and sustained action.
“Blue Monday” is nothing more than an exercise in consumption
real and very troubling mental health crisis, and turns it into a revenue stream. In a country where 1 in 5 people experience mental illness in a given year, this issue needs to be tackled more seriously than with a marketing campaign.
This kind of branding doesn’t only show up in Blue Monday ads but also in corporate awareness days that ask the public to talk about mental health—all while the corporation’s everyday practices tell a different story. Blue Monday is followed closely by Bell’s Let’s Talk Day. On Jan. 21 this year, Bell once again asked Canadians to ‘take action’ on mental health. The idea of reducing stigma and encouraging conversation is commendable. But curiously, Bell’s compassion doesn’t always extend to the remaining 364 days of the year, when customers and workers are left navigating the company as it actually operates.
In July 2024, a Quebec case ordered Bell to pay $1,000 CAD after a Montreal customer described a “Kafkaesque” ordeal while trying to cancel his satellite television plan. One court case doesn’t define a company, but it does puncture its
carefully curated image. Accurately promoting itself as a mentalhealth leader would require the enforcement of consistent respect in day-to-day interactions. In 2022, Bell was obligated to pay a former employee more than $120,000 CAD after a discriminatory firing connected to disability. The company has been repeatedly accused of workers’ rights violations, including not paying interns, unlawful termination, and sexist discrimination. A mental health campaign cannot be carried in good faith if it functions mainly as reputation management— compassionate branding disguising practices that prioritize control and profit.
Bell is not the only actor in this ecosystem of performative support. Blue Monday is a bigger cultural script—one that invites corporations to package distress as a personal problem, with a purchasable solution. Many companies try to take advantage of people’s anxiety and loneliness to sell them products they do not need. That may be common, but it is not harmless.
The Canadian Association for Mental Health (CAMH) has
published a Blue Monday Survival Guide, and the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan has done the same. The coping tips themselves—sleep, movement, social support—can be helpful. But attaching them to Blue Monday plays into the capitalist selfhelp industry they claim to refute. CAMH even notes that there’s no scientific evidence that one specific day is uniquely depressing—yet the frame remains: Blue Monday is real enough to require a guide.
Distress in many cases is not an individual, seasonal inconvenience—it is a structural crisis shaped by isolation, cost of living, precarious work, long waitlists, and underfunded care. It is time to change the narrative on Blue Monday and push for free, accessible mental health services to people across Quebec and Canada, rather than surface-level awareness campaigns, wellness tips, and certainly not corporate branding exercises. Consumption is not the answer to the mental health crisis. If corporations want credibility on mental health, they have to show up in everyday practices and measurable follow-through—not only in campaign messaging.
Amélie Marquet Contributor
ince his 2018 inauguration, Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) leader and Quebec premier François Legault has prioritized secularization and the protection of Quebec’s francophone identity. His resignation in January 2026 has left the province in political uncertainty, particularly regarding Bill 21, which prohibits certain public servants—including police officers, judges, and teachers—from wearing religious symbols at work.
The bill was adopted through the notwithstanding clause, which allows the provincial government to override sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and prevents the Supreme Court from challenging Bill 21’s validity for the next five years. With Legault's departure, Quebec faces a choice: Continue down a path that uses secularism as a pretext for exclusion, or seize this moment of political transition to address what Bill 21 truly represents. Far from being a neutral measure of secularism, Bill 21 functions as a legal tool that legitimizes systemic employment discrimination. Legault's resignation removes the political figurehead most personally invested in defending this framework, making it both politically feasible and ethically necessary to re-examine whether Quebec's commitment to secularism must come at the cost of systemic discrimination against religious minorities.
Quebec’s contemporary debates on
Sofia Lay Staff Writer
Tsecularism are rooted in sentiments dating back to the 1940s and 1950s, when the Catholic Church exercised significant influence over social and political life, administering schools, hospitals, and moral norms. The Quiet Revolution of the 1960s marked a decisive effort by Quebecois society to reduce religious influence and assert greater provincial control over public institutions. Although Bill 21 might function as a bulwark to limit religious impact on future governance, such objectives do not require the exclusion of religious minorities from public representation or employment.
The Bill disproportionately targets marginalized groups by banning visible religious symbols or clothing—including the hijab, the kippah, and the dastar. This comes as Islamophobia, xenophobia, and antisemitism are on the rise in Canada: Police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims increased by 173 per cent from 2020 to 2024, and antisemitic hate crimes increased by 83 per cent from 2021 to 2023.
Compared to other provinces, Quebec has significantly higher levels of Islamophobia than the rest of Canada, with 56 per cent of Quebec residents reporting a negative view of Islam compared to 36 per cent outside of Quebec. This has forced religious minorities into an impossible position: Having to choose between removing required religious symbols, or giving up on a stable, public-sector job. State employment guarantees, on average, stability, security, better salary and retirement benefits. Bill 21, therefore, enforces structural inequality under a false sense of secularism and neutrality.
According to a survey conducted on Oct. 22, nearly 80 per cent of Quebecers aged 25 to 34 said that Legault should step down. (Mia Helfrich / The Tribune)
Furthermore, the bill creates symbolic exclusion, arbitrarily designating who is truly considered to have Quebecois Identity. As teachers, judges, and police officers embody public authority, the exclusion of religious minorities from these professions distances them from the province’s sphere of influence. Bill 21 not only creates structural inequality in job opportunities but also in social representation. Montreal, the most diverse city in Quebec, reported that the city is approximately 11.9 per cent Muslim, 3.8 per cent Jewish, and 0.9 per cent Sikh in 2021. The bill does more than regulate religious
symbols—it insinuates who the government believes belongs in Quebec’s public sector. The use of the notwithstanding clause to preemptively override Charter protections further normalizes limiting minority rights and permits the bill to be passed without adherence to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The clause’s use signals that minority protection can easily be suspended for political goals, and encourages future restrictions.
Legault's resignation offers Quebec's next government a chance to chart a different course—one that doesn't require the province to choose between secularism and inclusion.
only itself
his past November, McGill’s Advisory Panel on Campus Expression (APCE) delivered a report on the state of academic freedom and expression at the university. The report recommended that McGill exercise “institutional restraint” and refrain from responding publicly to controversial geopolitical issues in order to preserve academic freedom. This policy encourages McGill to prioritize its reputation over critical advocacy, neglecting global responsibility under the pretense of protecting free thought.
Following the report’s publication, President and Vice Chancellor Deep Saini issued an enthusiastic statement affirming the APCE’s recommendations on campus expression. However, the report’s call for political neutrality undercuts McGill’s stated commitments to responsibility and global engagement. By extricating itself from political discourse, McGill forfeits its power to catalyze meaningful community discussion.
Just last week, in light of the brutalization of Iranian protestors, McGill released an email directing students to mental health resources. Strikingly, this email was sent only to students on McGill records as Iranian passport holders and did not include a clear condemnation of the Iranian government’s actions. This message exemplifies McGill’s reticence to speak publicly on issues with global reach and disturbing human rights implications.
While the university is eager to embrace its reputation as a globally-renowned institution,
it engages selectively with the world around it, prioritizing its own reputation over advocacy. Because McGill’s priorities are not transparently reflected in its mission statements, the university’s decision to implement institutional restraint rings particularly dissonant.
In its report, the APCE draws a false contrast between academic freedom and institutional positions, weaponizing this manufactured dichotomy to justify McGill’s silence on geopolitical issues. The report does not offer a clear definition of academic freedom, but merely describes the concept as “associational to freedom of expression” and bound by “the standards of scholarly research and inquiry.” The APCE’s intentional vagueness in defining academic freedom obscures the fact that official university stances and academic freedom are not inherently at odds with one another. Arguably, academic freedom is epitomized when educational authority figures can simultaneously espouse opinions and encourage community dissent. It is dangerous to conflate neutrality with equity and tolerance, as such practices vilify the expression of opinions. Additionally, if academic freedom extends only so far as “scholarly standards,” then opinions, institutional or otherwise, are protected only when they reinforce McGill’s pre-existing party lines.
This outcome—where the McGill administration’s biases are preached as nonpartisan and student voices are made political—is at clear odds with the APCE’s overarching goal of maintaining a vibrant academic and intellectual culture at McGill.
The APCE advocates that McGill assume
a neutral stance on all geopolitical issues. However, maintaining neutrality is a position in and of itself. In today’s polarized climate, acknowledging facts can be perceived as a political act. Institutional restraint enables McGill to refrain from affirming vital truths as suits the university’s agenda. In its report, McGill repeatedly refused to acknowledge genocide in Gaza, instead referring to the conflict as the “Israel-Gaza War.” Although intergovernmental organizations and NGO’s, including the UN, have repeatedly stated that the Israeli government’s actions align with the definition of genocide, in its report, the APCE employs misleading alternative terminology that downplays the conflict’s severity.
The Advisory Panel on Campus Expression spoke to multiple student groups as a part of its investigation. (Sophie Schuyler / The Tribune)
Yet, McGill doesn’t stray from all political conviction. In 2022, the Provost issued a statement denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and expressing “shock and sorrow” over the conflict. Herein lies just one example of how the concept of neutrality can be selectively applied to uphold some truths while obscuring those deemed “too controversial” for public endorsement. In many critical instances, McGill, a school that prides itself on promoting the “dissemination of knowledge,” chooses to remain silent and protect its reputation.
The APCE cited community outrage regarding previous university-issued geopolitical statements as a pretense for the necessity of
institutional restraint. The report stated that, on an individual level, many faculty and staff members felt discouraged from voicing their opinions on political issues because they fear being negatively misinterpreted. Thus, the students are burdened with the responsibility to foster a campus environment that promotes constructive conversation and institution-level dialogue over ‘cancel culture,’ whereas professors—hired with a duty to protect academic freedom and promote discourse—are absolved of this duty.
The APCE portrays institutional restraint as promoting academic freedom, drawing a false contrast between the declaration of political views and the protection of free thought. Yet, in today’s polarized social climate, even the truth has become politicized. Truth is imperative to freedom, both academic and otherwise. McGill would be wise to remember this.
Amy Gelfand Contributor
From uncovering the genes that cause birth defects to serving as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Black Scientists Network, Professor Loydie Jerome-Majewska has been a catalyst for change across fields. She serves as a professor in McGill’s Department of Pediatrics and senior scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. Jerome-Majewska sat down with The Tribune to shine light on her work in developmental biology and her efforts to advance equity and representation in the field.
Since the start of her academic journey at Wesleyan University, Jerome-Majewska has approached science with curiosity and an open mind. As an undergraduate pursuing an honours degree in biology, she gained hands-on laboratory experience working with her advisor, Laura Grabel, a professor in the Department of Biology.
“She was this amazing researcher who had children of her own, who danced after work, I mean, she just did it all,” JeromeMajewska said. “And I thought that was just awesome. And so, I applied for graduate school.”
Jerome-Majewska continued her studies in graduate school at Columbia University’s medical campus in New York City.
“I worked with another amazing woman, [Virginia] Papaioannou,” referencing her graduate advisor and a promi -
nent developmental biologist. “[She] was making a genetic mutation in mice using embryonic stem cells. It was brand new. Had never been done. I’ve just been fortunate to have really good advisors, and she also had children, whilst doing amazing science, she was just an amazing person.”
Combined with her postdoctoral work at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute with Elizabeth H. Lacy as her postdoctoral advisor—one of the women who started the whole molecular biology techniques in mice—Jerome-Majewska’s academic journey laid the foundation for her current research. Currently, she focuses on developmental disorders, using mouse models to predict how gene mutations could affect human patients.
“Now I’m interested in researching babies with congenital malformation at the time of birth, who have malformations when they’re born because things went wrong during embryogenesis.”
With a person-first approach to science, Jerome-Majewska emphasizes the importance of setting priorities to maintain balanced academic excellence, which, for her, meant stepping down from teaching to focus on her research.
“I enjoyed my teaching. I met some awesome undergrads, but you have to do it well. I’m doing a lot of other things too. I can’t do it all. You can never do it all,” she said.
Nevertheless, while the field of developmental biology continues to flourish, Jerome-Majewska notes that inclusive rep -
resentation remains a challenge.
“I think there are things that impede how far we’ve moved into not just my field, but in science in general, because I don’t think everybody interested or excited who can contribute has been able to participate and contribute,” Jerome-Majewska said. “I think humans have huge potential, and if we could have all of the different people participate, we’d be so much further. Yeah, so in that way, I think that’s too bad for all of our field […], if everybody’s doing the same thing, we’re not gonna get anywhere.”
This recognition of social barriers inspired her involvement with the Black Canadian Scientists Network, which, with over a thousand members, creates space for representation and collaboration in science and is currently focused on the GenCARE project.
“We’ve been able to get part of the Genome Canada grant to sequence the genomes of people of African ancestry, looking at diseases that impact the population negatively.”
Looking toward the future, Jerome-
Majewska emphasizes the importance of building a more inclusive genetic research landscape for the future generation of researchers.
“I think, for the GenCARE project, I’m super excited, because, as a Black woman, I know that precision medicine is coming, and if we don’t have the DNA from people that look like me, it’s not gonna work. And I can do something about it, I have the skills. So, it’s a no-brainer.”
Jerome-Majewska has been at McGill for 20 years and has taught undergraduate courses for at least 15 of them. (Zoe Lee / The Tribune)
fauna to flora: The benefits of switching to plant-based
tein Quantifying the positive environmental, nutritional, and health-based impacts
Sarah McDonald Science & Technology Editor
Vegetarianism has been on the rise for years; in 2024, 2.3 million Canadians self-identified as vegetarian, a 176 per cent increase from 2015. Several factors contribute to the marked rise, including vegetarianism’s perceived benefits for both individual consumers and the environment. But how beneficial is it really? McGill Professor of Animal Science, Surgio Burgos, and his former PhD student, Olivia Auclair—a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute— worked to determine the benefits of transitioning towards, or entirely to, a vegetarian diet.
“First, we looked at the contribution of important foods, which we call ‘livestock produce products,’ whether that be meat, red meat, white meat, or dairy foods, and the contribution to nutrients,” Burgos said in an interview with The Tribune. “[We] then looked at the environmental impact [of these foods] through greenhouse gas emissions [....] [Then we] put the information that we had gained for Canada in the context of other countries.”
In their recent review paper, Burgos and Auclair aimed to further elucidate the consequences of switching from animal-based protein to plant-based protein, analyzing nutritional, environmental, and health impacts of complete and partial dietary substitutions.
“Basically, we found that there were co-
benefits of substituting red and processed meat with plant protein foods across all three of the dimensions that we looked at, so nutrition, environment and also health,” Auclair said in an interview with The Tribune. “So that’s good news, and we saw that for total replacements, where 100 per cent of red and processed meat was substituted. But we also saw, obviously smaller, but similar co-benefits when simulations were partial substitutions, so 50 per cent of red and processed meat.”
Their study found that substituting animalbased protein with plant-based protein sources led to average increases in calcium, iron, fibre, and potassium intake, as well as decreased levels of saturated fats. They, however, noted that their results were highly influenced by governmental policy.
“For example, in the Netherlands, they don’t supplement [cow] milk with vitamin D, but we do [in Canada], it is mandatory. In the U.S., it is optional. So that vitamin D outcome changes because of [those policies],” Burgos said.
This illustrates the impact of policy on nutritional levels; the nutritional benefits of switching from animal to plant-based products are dependent upon which sources are fortified. Fortifying plant-based protein alternatives is critical to cementing the benefits of transitioning towards a plant-based diet.
Along with vitamin D, vitamin A, calcium, and iodine levels appear to have been particu-
larly dependent on fortification policy.
“So for me, the goal of the study is to inform public policy in dietary guidance [and plant-based alternative fortification],” Burgos said. “Some countries include environmental impact as part of the considerations that they have to guide dietary guidance [....] But food fortification is another aspect of it.”
Another key finding of the study is that substituting meat with plant-based alternatives yields greater benefits than dairy substitutions.
“We’re sort of seeing there’s no clear co-benefits from substituting dairy. You get trade-offs with certain nutrients, you don’t see as big of reductions to diet-related greenhouse gas emissions, and the health gains that we saw in the dairy scenarios were only because of this increase in plantbased foods that accompany the reduction in dairy,” Auclair said.
The research highlights the importance of choice in dietary substitutions. While the study shows that opting for plant-based alternatives can have positive environmental, nutritional, and health-based impacts, policy plays a
huge role in the nutritional benefits of these substitutions. Their findings also reveal that changes don’t need to be extreme to have a real impact; substituting meat with plant-based alternatives, even just once a week, can benefit both your health and the environment.
“I think, for me, it’s not so much like telling people to eat a specific way, like ‘You should do this dietary pattern, or this dietary pattern,’ it’s really about just making more conscious food choices,” Auclair said. “And like Sergio said, like a few nights a week, integrating [plants], instead of cooking something with red meat, just try a new recipe [....] It’s about those individual choices that you make every day.”
MONTREAL’S JAZZ SCENE CONTINUES TO THRIVE THROUGH ACADEMIA, NEW VENUES, AND A COMMUNITY DEVOTED TO KEEPING THE MUSIC ALIVE WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY
ELIOT LOOSE, DESIGN EDITOR
The story of Montreal’s jazz scene began in spectacular fashion. As a host to many iconic musicians still revered today, the city’s nightclubs oozed with excitement and creativity centred around jazz improvisation, and the demanding after-hours environments allowed emerging musicians to blossom. Additionally, rooted in and around Montreal’s largest Black residential area, the culture provided a safe space for the Black community to thrive in an expressive and economic capacity.
Despite the local scene’s success, things quickly took a turn for the worse. The neighbourhood that had nurtured the music was demolished, enthusiasm for the genre waned, and one by one, the businesses that upheld what once was a defining element of Montreal’s culture shut down for good. It became apparent that, to survive, the scene needed to veer in a new direction. And it did. As educational institutions across the city established programs dedicated to jazz performance, the scene in Montreal was revitalized, championing homegrown musicians and community venues.
Today, Montreal’s notoriety as the jazz capital of Canada is, in many respects, indebted to the popularity of its annual Montreal International Jazz Festival. But the greatness of Montreal’s jazz scene is not one of impermanence. Every day, the city and its culture are uplifted by people who are devoted to keeping the music alive. Montreal’s jazz identity is not shaped by nostalgia or an icon of tourist appeal, but by a living network of students, educators, businesses, and concert-goers who cherish live music and its ability to bring people together.
Fueled by the United States’ Prohibition era, Montreal made a name for itself as a jazz capital in the 1920s, as tourists and musicians flocked north to experience Quebec’s lively nightlife. Dubbed “The Harlem of the North,” the St. Antoine District was home to Montreal’s largest Black community, as well as an array of fixtures in Montreal’s catalogue of nightclubs dedicated to jazz. Lasting well into the 1950s, Montreal’s “Sin City” era hosted performers of the highest calibre, with the likes of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Nina Simone making appearances at esteemed venues like Rockhead’s Paradise. At the same time, Montreal was fostering talent of its own: Pianists Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones became local staples, as did trumpeter and bandleader Maynard Ferguson.
But as the 1960s loomed, urban developers began to sink their teeth into St. Antoine. The area was rebranded as “Little Burgundy” and, under the guise of “urban renewal”, broad waves of gentrification expropriated its longtime residents and, consequently, the musical soul the neighbourhood once possessed. Simultaneously, jazz itself was reshaping. Subgenres like jazz fusion, cool jazz, and free jazz
ushered in new eras of performers and audiences. By the time Little Burgundy had withered away, disco, pop, and rock and roll garnered the most attention.
Montreal particularly felt the shift in public taste. With many Parisians travelling to Quebec, the city acted as a bridge between European and North American influences, predominantly in the realm of disco. Audiences rapidly gravitated towards the movement’s novelty. As early as 1966, Montreal hosted at least 15 discoteques and was deemed disco’s Second City.
In the midst of this cultural transformation, jazz was left behind. The intimacy of Montreal’s listening rooms was eclipsed by the dynamism of the era’s popular movements. Additionally, the after-hours clubs, which served as atmospheres of total independence from “commercial jazz,” were indirectly shut down by city-wide opening hour mandates imposed by Mayor Jean Drapeau, whose intention was to limit organized crime. By the late 1970s, the majority of Montreal’s classic jazz clubs had shut down, and many jazz musicians found that sustaining a career in the city was unattainable.
This was not the end of Montreal’s jazz scene, however, for in the empty pitch, new players began to emerge. In 1980, the Montreal International Jazz Festival hosted its inaugural event, serving an audience of roughly 12,000, with headliners such as Chick Corea and Ray Charles. “Biddle’s Jazz and Ribs”, later to be known as The House of Jazz, opened its doors on Aylmer Street in 1981 and quickly flourished as a space for Montreal’s local musicians to enter the limelight.
That same year, McGill University became the first institution in Canada to offer a Bachelor of Music in jazz performance, and within the next three years, Université de Montréal and Concordia launched similar programs of their own. With a hopeful festival, an upand-coming venue, and various avenues of academia, scores of prospective students and educators poured into Montreal, sounding off a new beginning for the local scene.
After McGill’s jazz performance degree was established, Professor Kevin Dean was hired to design its curriculum in 1984, and it was not long before students could be found around town exercising their new repertoire. Gertrudes II, informally dubbed “The Alley,” had recently opened in the basement of the University Centre, and the bar served as a jazz hotspot for McGillians looking to watch their peers perform. In an interview with The Tribune, Dean reflected on these shows.
“We had combo seminars a couple of nights a week. We had one night a week that was dedicated to the graduate students, where they played the whole night. And then on the weekends, we had professional people play,”
Dean explained. “It was fantastic, but it had to do with whoever was in charge of the food services, right? [....] And after about five years, they got a new company, and the guys walked in, and they looked around and said, ‘We’re thinking sports bar, not jazz.’ And it was over, it’s just done like that overnight.”
This hiccup was brief, however, as a new establishment was entering the scene. Shortly after Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill was founded in 1995, McGill and the club owners struck up a lasting friendship. Today, you can find students from all facets of McGill’s jazz program performing every Tuesday night during the academic year with no cover fee included on the bill.
From its inception, getting students out of the classroom and performing in Montreal’s urban jungle was a core pillar of the curriculum. Jazz performance students are expected to organize their own jazz combos and, after rehearsing, the bands leave the practice rooms and take the stage. However, unlike other universities, McGill distinguishes itself by giving its combos the freedom to exercise any musical avenues that pique their interests.
“[We] let students form their own groups with the people that are like-minded in the kind of music that they want to play, and let them choose a supervisor that has similar musical tastes,” Dean explained.
As a result, the variety of music found in these combos knows no bounds. One group might prioritize notable Blue Note records, the next might spin its influence on a tune from an Australian rock band, and the last might transport the audience to Brazil with a few bossa nova tunes. Students are also encouraged to write and perform original compositions, especially as a means of developing their own sound. Rather than rejecting the broad spectrum of jazz, the program cultivates an environment that accommodates students and their interests, which, in turn, assures prospective concert-goers that there is something for everyone.
Students are also encouraged to play with people of all ages and experience. On a given night, an audience might find undergraduate and graduate students playing alongside one another, sometimes even accompanied by a professor. In an interview with The Tribune, Vancouver-born saxophonist Ingrid Li, U2 Music in Jazz Performance, shared her own experiences playing in these collaborative spaces.
“Something so special about jazz is just the culture of sharing the stage with different generations of players, like old players and young
players coming together to play [….] When I was in first year, to play with fourth years and hear them, and just be inspired, and have a better idea of the sound that I would like to make for my own horn,” Li explained.
At Upstairs, monthly shows like Lex French’s Young Lions and Kevin Dean Presents The Next Generation serve as a pedestal for young musicians to play on their own bill, while also experiencing a professional setting with a well-established artist. But professional gigs are not the only undertakings that excite a motivation to practice. Whether through jam sessions at Upstairs, in a practice room, or even in Dean’s office, students are always looking for an opportunity to play alongside other musicians.
“We play because we want to swing […] and it doesn’t matter if maybe someone’s been playing for four years, or if someone’s been playing their whole life. We can just play the same tune and learn from each other and have a good time,” Li said.
With the closure of The House of Jazz in 2020, Upstairs and Diese Onze stand as the last remnants of Montreal’s traditional jazz listening rooms. Yet even as the local clubs become increasingly more competitive, students are still finding opportunities to play throughout the city on their own accord. One of Li’s first professional gigs in Montreal was at Barbossa’s Monday Jazz Nights, and she has since performed at countless other venues, including Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, P’tit Ours, and Casa Del Popolo. While these spaces offer productive atmospheres for musicians to showcase their abilities, venues solely dedicated to jazz and its development are few in number, leaving the door for opportunity wide open.
The success of Upstairs, Diese Onze, and the Off Festival de Jazz de Montréal speaks to the city’s demand for lasting jazz sites that promote local talent. Vigilant of this fact, three musicians seized the opportunity to capitalize on it. Raphael
first [….] The musicians need to be comfortable and respected in the place,” Roy-Dumouchel explained.
L’Entracte is expected to open in the coming months and, with it, a new space for Montreal’s musicians to collaborate, entertain, and engage themselves and audiences in the music they love.
“Our mission is mainly about the local scene. Let’s put Montreal back on the map for jazz, because it was the jazz capital of Canada, but now it feels like it’s more Toronto. Let’s bring it back here,” Roy-Dumouchel said. “Hopefully, we are going to be able to get big artists, but not only that, we want more of a local scene, a little bit like Upstairs and Diese Onze already do, but with more opportunity for the younger generation.”
A distinct quality that separates Montreal’s jazz scene from other major cities is its accessibility. Audiences rarely feel the burden of a $30+ CAD ticket outside of a prominent concert venue. Consequently, finding musicians to love and support has never been easier. This is especially the case for jazz in all its facets. With a fresh venue in the mix and countless musicians who are uncompromising in their desire to bring music to every corner of Montreal, a time to engage with local artists and businesses has never been more convenient. The environment is constantly changing, accommodating listeners of every taste and walk of life. Its limits are not bound by a temporary spectacle, but by a collective effort of artists, enthusiasts, and audiences who are unwavering in their commitment to develop Montreal’s musical community, day in and day out. Go out and experience the music and the culture that accompanies it. Discover an emerging artist or an established one. Support a local business, and be a part of a shared effort to sustain and uplift this community’s cre-
ative endeavours. Its doors are open, its energy is unmatched, and you surely will be eager for more. So, find a show, grab a seat, and witness the dynamic atmosphere that Montreal’s jazz scene upholds.
February 20th: Remi Bolduc présente Les Esprits Oubliés, Diese Onze
February 22nd: Lex French’s Young Lions, Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill
February 24th: Ingrid Li Quartet ft. Rumi Johnson, Emmet Murray, and Dylan Cudmore, Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill
February 27th & 28th: Mike Bruzzese Quartet Featuring Lenny White, Jean-Michel Pilc & Ira Coleman, Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill
March 22nd: Kevin Dean Presents The Next Generation, Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill
Roy-Dumouchel, Sajid Baina, and Nikola Haddad-Edizel are in the midst of premiering Cabaret Jazz L’Entracte, a non-profit listening room located on Rue Peel & Rue Sainte-Catherine O. The venue will be the only jazz club in Montreal with a stage large enough to comfortably host a big band. Additionally, an organ will accompany the space.
In an interview with The Tribune, Roy-Dumouchel, the artistic director of L’Entracte, as well as a McGill jazz performance student, spoke about the club’s mission.
“We wanted it from the get-go to be a nonprofit, to make sure we can maintain the mission and vision […] it has to be the musician
Arielle Brunet
Contributor
Have you ever wondered why you were encouraged to eat your greens as a child? Not only are they packed with healthy nutrients, but some of these cruciferous vegetables are also home to a chemical compound called isothiocyanates (ITCs)—phytochemicals. These are shown to play a role in preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, as well as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Previous research has shown that high dosages of ITCs can be used as an anti-cancer drug promoting apoptosis—programmed cell death—of cancer cells. Sanjima Pal, a researcher for the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, confirmed this finding in her own paper but also found that ITCs can promote cellular healing at low doses.
Pal began studying isothiocyanates after completing her PhD at the National Institute of Science Education and Research in India in 2011 and is now pursuing postdoctoral studies at McGill.
Her research began by exploring ITCs’ low-concentration effects on macrophage cells—immune cells that protect our bodies from tumours and germs, among other things. Pal was particularly interested in the macrophages that promote arthritis healing and aimed to investigate how research could then contribute to therapeutic treatments of inflammatory disease.
“When at low concentration, this iso-
thiocyanate group of compounds can modulate and switch macrophage [functional and phenotypic] properties […] towards a favourable macrophage type. This can reduce the arthritis burden,” Pal explained in an interview with The Tribune . “You [aid] wound healing from this.”
So how exactly do ITCs do this? Once they are introduced in the cells, they target enzymes—proteins that speed up biochemical processes—which, in turn, regulate a kind of imbalance in the body’s defence system called oxidative stress. By modulating these enzymes, ITCs can help regulate the autoimmune response for a variety of diseases, such as arthritis.
“My thesis publication was one of the first publications in that zone [....] So that time, I used an in vitro model and used human blood. In human blood, […] I isolated macrophage and then showed the same switching [of macrophage types],” Pal said.
ITCs also form from another compound through enzymatic activity. Broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage are among the top sources of ITCs. When we eat these vegetables, an enzyme acts on glucosinolates to produce ITCs. However, it is important to note that ITCs’ therapeutic properties for autoimmune disease or cancer may not come from natural food sources, because ITCs in this form are not bioavailable. In other words, eating broccoli for every meal will not necessarily help prevent cancer. The concentration varies too much, which affects the consistency and efficiency of the phytochemical. Nevertheless, this field could soon start being integrated into
clinical practice.
“The synthesis is quite tough. And even if you synthesize it [and] purify it at a higher amount and then make it available pharmacologically, it’s a very complicated process,” Pal said, explaining the challenges of working with the ITC compound. “Because even if it is available in cruciferous vegetables, if you heat the vegetables, you lose the property.”
Overall, Pal’s research highlights how simply shifting the dosage of bioactive compounds, such as ITCs, can expand the scope of their benefits. For her future research, Pal
is interested in learning more about the benefits ITCs offer and how exactly they function—especially considering that neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, could benefit from ITC’s regulation of oxidative stress.
“This is one of the drugs I will always look forward to putting into my research work [....] It has a diverse effect and some activity we don’t even know [about], like anything at the neuronal level,” Pal said. “You can implement this compound and see how neuron and immune cells interact. This is now a hot topic.”
Moyọ Alabi Opinion Editor
Ihave often felt as though the diction and formalities of texting culture—or lack thereof—should emulate that of email correspondence. Emails preserve a level of linguistic intentionality that contemporary messaging platforms have largely flattened.
My affinity for emails began rather early. At the age of nine or ten, my school provided each student with a personalized institutional-domain Gmail address. As a child without a phone, this ‘brand-new’ mode of communication became my lifeline.
This early exposure positioned email as more than a communicative tool; it became a formative space through which I learned the rhythms and nuances of written exchange. Email correspondence required
a new level of intention, and through repeated engagement, I came to understand this attentiveness as intrinsic to the act of communication itself.
Electronic mail, as a hybrid epistolary form, preserves the intimacy and kinship of letter-writing whilst adapting correspondence to modern temporality, thereby sustaining the kind of relational exchange fundamental to human flourishing.
As I grew up, my inbox became intertwined with moments of personal and academic development. It was through this electronic correspondence that I learned of scholastic achievements, opportunities, and acknowledgements that continue to shape my being. Beyond these moments, email also functioned as a consistent means of interaction, facilitating friendships in my adolescent years and professional relationships later on.
The Aristotelian notion of human flourishing, or eudaimonia, indicates that to live well is to participate in rational activity enacted through reflection, deliberation, and the sustained cultivation of virtue. Such activities unfold temporally and require the gradual shaping of one’s ethical and intellectual character through collective discourse. One comes to know one’s own reasoning through encounters with others and being respected within shared intellectual life.
Central to this is philia, a form of friendship rooted in mutual recognition
and ongoing participation in one another’s intellectual and virtuous becoming. Aristotle positions such friendship as necessary to life itself because human beings do not actualize their capacities in isolation. Within this companionship, one’s thinking is both a sacred and social affair.
To live well, then, requires communicative companionship. The sharing of reflections, deliberations, and affirmations in sustained intellectual discourse becomes constitutive of the flourishing life insofar as it situates rational activity within lived relational practice.
It becomes difficult not to situate email within this relational structure. The exchange of drafts and written feedback sustains a form of intellectual companionship across distance. One participates in another’s thought process; one’s own thinking is received and built upon. Through such correspondence, thought becomes a joint venture. Where letters historically carried friendship across geographies, email preserves this epistolary nature within a temporality adapted to contemporary life.
The significance of the email does not lie simply in its ability to sustain intellectual companionship; it also permits one’s voice to circulate in its authored form. One writes oneself into presence, without needing to worry about an incoming message interrupting the cadence of thought before it has been completed: The email is composed in full before it is sent. There is something
especially resonant in encountering one’s voice intact, given how often Black articulation has been historically mediated by white third parties. But with emails, diction remains one’s own. Cadence remains one’s own. Online correspondence is entangled with autonomous self-authorship.
To look back on these threads is to encounter evidence of one’s becoming. Words once offered outward return and bear witness to intellectual growth, kinship, and authored presence across time. The inbox comes to function as a personal archive assembled unintentionally through the quiet accumulation of correspondence, preserving one’s exchanges and accomplishments.
If the medium through which we communicate shapes the emotional and relational experience it carries, then email’s hybrid form produces a communicative intimacy distinct from both handwritten letters and instantaneous direct-messaging. Emails are the beautiful halfway point, the love child of letters merged with direct messages and texts. They inherit the intentionality and reflective nature of handwritten missives whilst retaining the immediacy of digital delivery.
I fail to understand why one would deny oneself the opportunity to participate in this form of communication through the vessel of online mail. What a beautiful way to adapt to the times whilst still respecting the sacred passion of epistolary tradition.
and events to fill your cup with love, even without a partner
Gregor McCall Student Life Editor
For some, Feb. 14 marks a time to celebrate Cupid and his eternal casting of divine arrows into the souls of kindred lovers for time immemorial. For others, it’s a corporate-manufactured holiday fabricated solely to sell greeting cards and pompous kitsch. Yet, even subscribing to the latter set of beliefs makes it no easier to witness the never-ending songs of lovebirds basking in displays of romantic affection. It’s true—couples have it easy on Valentine’s Day. But why should they get all the fun? The Tribune has gathered everything you need to know to enjoy Valentine’s Day while flaunting the bachelor(ette) life.
Old School Mile-End Dance Party at Bar le Ritz
What better way is there to shake off the mid-winter single blues than dancing late into the night? Step back into the Mile-End golden age of hipster moustaches and indie sleaze at Bar le Ritz’s oneof-a-kind Valentine’s Day event. Dress to the nines in your best vintage attire, and prepare to get sweaty as you bust out your best moves on the dance floor. What’s more, dancing has been demonstrated to reduce stress and increase serotonin levels—a perfect remedy to leave any winter slump and boost your mental health. Who knows, maybe you’ll even meet that spe -
cial someone you’ve been waiting your whole, albeit short, romantic life for.
Treat yourself
Going on a Valentine’s Day date need not be the purview of couples alone. Sometimes, the best date is one you take yourself on. The Montreal restaurant scene offers a wide range of Valentine’s Day date options, many of which feature special prix-fixe tasting menus. While getting a reservation as a couple can be a strenuous, expensive, and onerous ordeal, it is immensely easier to do so as a solo diner. Take advantage of only needing to pay for one plate, and treat yourself to a well-earned and delicious meal that would make anyone’s partner jealous. If reservations aren’t your thing, don’t fret—try restaurants like the Plateau’s Yokato Yokabai or Pointe-St.-Charles’ Bar Milky Way, which operate on a firstcome, first-served basis. Even if there’s a line, you’ll likely be seated much quicker than if you were with a group.
A spa day with a discount
Fight the blistering cold with hot steam and relaxing thermal pools at one of Montreal’s many spas, which offer an enticing student discount. At Spa Centrale Parc and Spa Ovarium, you’ll be able to trade in your Student-ID for a 15 per cent discount from Monday to Thursday. At Espace Nomad, students are eligible for 20 per cent off all treatments on Thursday
evenings, while at Spa Carre St-Louis, students enjoy a $20 CAD discount from Monday to Thursday. Though you won’t be able to redeem such discounts on Valentine’s Day itself, a spa day makes the perfect gift to yourself. Take your mind off the holiday pageantry with a day filled with mindfulness and tranquillity.
Host a singles-only romance extravaganza
Whether it’s When Harry Met Sally or Heated Rivalry, hosting a romance-filled movie night with friends is one of the best ways to feel the love sans lover. To enhance the experience, make celebratory treats like chocolate-covered strawberries or The Tribune ’s very own ‘Cupid’s Chocolate Lava Cake.’ You could even shake things up with a loveydovey cocktail like a Between the Sheets, Naked & Famous, or Very Sexy Martini. Either way, spending the day with those who care the most for you is the pur -
pose of the holiday. After all, according to Plato, love between true friends is the highest form of connection we can experience, one that unites souls together for eternity.
Being single on Valentine’s Day isn’t something to dread in the least. Take care of yourself, and you’ll be able to get some tender love and care with no scrubs to ruin it. And if it’s any consolation, all that time spent spreading amour only got Saint Valentine decapitated. Maybe the pessimists really do have it right.
Brooke Barak Staff Writer
Are you anxious about Valentine’s Day? Have you been so busy preparing for the upcoming midterm season that you forgot to book a dinner reservation at your significant other’s favourite restaurant? Or were L’Express, Bar Darling, and Fish Bone completely full by the time you finally called? Take a deep breath, The Tribune has come to your rescue.
Although a fine-dining experience may be the grand romantic gesture that wows your partner on Feb. 14, sharing a personalized, delicious meal together is never a bad idea. These recipes were adapted from The New York Times’ Chocolate Lava Cake for Two and “Marry Me” Salmon— with The Tribune’s Valentine’s twist.
“Marry Me” Salmon
For all the seafood lovers, this dinner will blow your partner’s expectations right out of the water.
Ingredients:
❤ 2 6 oz. salmon fillets
❤ Kosher salt and black pepper
❤ ¼ cup thinly sliced sundried tomatoes, and 2 tsp. oil from the jar
❤ ½ cup medium-yellow onion, chopped
❤ ½ cup cremini mushrooms
❤ 1 tsp. dried oregano
❤ 8 oz bottle clam juice
❤ 2 tbsp tomato paste
❤ 1 tbsp harissa paste
❤ ½ cup heavy cream
❤ Fresh basil leaves (optional)
Steps:
❤ Pat the salmon dry and sprinkle salt and pepper over it. Rub 1 tbsp harissa paste onto the salmon.
❤ Heat a cast-iron skillet over mediumhigh heat. Add 1 tsp. of oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes.
❤ Place the salmon skin-side down on the pan and sear for 5-7 minutes until the skin is crisp and brown. Reduce heat if the skin starts to burn. Then, transfer to a plate, skin side up.
❤ Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion and mushroom to the skillet and season with salt. Cook for 5-7 minutes and stir occasionally.
❤ Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the oregano, crushed red pepper, and remaining 1 tsp. of sundried tomato oil to the skillet and stir for a few seconds. Then, add the tomato paste and stir frequently for 3 minutes until it becomes darker.
❤ Add the clam juice and raise the heat back to medium-high. Cook and stir occasionally for 4-5 minutes until it reduces by half. Reduce the heat back medium-low. Add the cream and sundried tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add more spices if needed.
❤ Bring the salmon, flesh-side down, back to the skillet and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 1 minute until the salmon is cooked through. Add basil leaves if desired.
Cupid’s Chocolate Lava Cake
A romantic Valentine’s Day dinner is not complete without a sweet treat. This chocolate lava cake will leave your partner happy to end the night right, or maybe just begin it.
Ingredients:
❤ 3 oz. of chopped bittersweet chocolate (7074 per cent cacao)
❤ 3 tbsp. of unsalted butter cut into cubes
❤ 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
❤ 1 large egg yolk
❤ ½ tsp. of vanilla extract
❤ ⅛ tsp. of kosher salt
❤ 2 tbsp. of all-purpose flour
❤ ¼ cup raspberries
❤ Confectionery sugar (optional)
❤ Sliced strawberries (optional)
Steps:
❤ Heat the oven to 425 degrees and butter a 10-ounce ramekin dusted with granulated sugar.
❤ Combine the chocolate and butter in a
What do the stars hold for you this Valentine’s?
Parisa Rasul Staff Writer
Valentine’s Day is coming up, and love really is all around! While unpredictability is customary for this holiday, we could all do with a touch of clarity on Feb. 14th. Find out what your horoscope holds for you in The Tribune Predicts: Valentine’s Day Edition!
Aries (March 21 – April 19): Much like the famed Greek god of warfare, your love life is a battlefield. Whether you’ll lay waste to it or not depends on how prepared you are to fight for what you want. Be ready to give it your all this Valentine’s Day, Aries, and win that special someone’s heart!
Taurus (April 20 – May 20): As an earth sign, your groundedness will keep you and your relationships stable and healthy this Valentine’s. Ditch the frivolities and opt for a relaxing and simple Saturday this year.
Gemini (May 21 – June 21): You’ll be extra busy this Valentine’s Day (like you always are), but be sure to take some time to wind down and have a special night with your special someone. As an air sign, your mind is always elsewhere, but try to be present during this holiday.
Cancer (June 22 – July 22): You have a tendency to burn bright and let everyone know it. However, like your mascot, the crab, you sometimes hide under a protective shell. There might be an admirer in store for you this year, Cancer, but in order to secure their attention, you’ll have to leave your comfort zone!
Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22): You’re very picky about where you’ll spend your Valentine’s this year. If the never-ending search for the perfect reservation has left you fatigued, consider spending the night at home instead. Buy some chocolates, splurge on wine, and put on a movie for some at-home viewing!
Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22): Your logical, practical, and systematic tendencies seep into your love life. This Valentine’s Day, you may find yourself thinking about what your relationship means for the future. It’s definitely something to keep in mind, but don’t forget to let loose and feel the love of right now!
Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 23): As a Libra, you are obsessed with finding that person who’s the mirror image of yourself. This Valentine’s, however, you may not find your perfect reflection. But who needs “perfect”? Hold out for a connection you may not think will work, but
might surprise you by actually balancing you out just right!
Scorpio (Oct. 24 – Nov. 21): Your emotions are messy and intense, Scorpio. You may need to take this year to figure them out and piece together what you actually want. But don’t feel let down just yet! Your mysterious personality is attractive to many, and a secret admirer awaits.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21): Be sure to stay alert this Valentine’s Day! You love making other people laugh, and you’re mighty good at it! However, a real clown may be headed your way, so proceed with caution, and steer clear of the “but he’s sooo funny!” trope.
Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19): Capricorns, you’re probably expecting the worst this Valentine’s. You have a tendency to undermine yourself in the romance that approaches you. However, you’ll meet someone persistent in gaining your affections this year, so keep your door open for any secret, or not-so-secret, admirers.
Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20): Pisces, get ready for the love triangle of your life this Valentine’s Day. You’ll have to make some
bowl and set over a pan of gently boiling water. Cook until smooth. Then, remove from heat and set it to the side.
❤ Combine the egg yolk, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk for 2 minutes until it is foamy and thick. Then, whisk in flour until smooth.
❤ Use a spatula to add the chocolate to the flour mixture and mix until smooth.
❤ Pour mixture into the ramekin, adding ¼ cup of raspberries, and bake for 12-14 minutes.
❤ Use a knife to loosen the edges of the cake from the ramekin and invert the cake gently. Remove from ramekin and sprinkle the cake with confectionary sugar. Garnish with sliced strawberries.
Valentine’s Day may have its roots as far back as Ancient Rome in the purification and fertility festival, Lupercalia. (Gwen Heffernan / The Tribune)
hard decisions soon, and be sure to make the right one! Or, even better, have fun with it… *Challengers theme plays.*
Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18): You care a lot. You care almost too much. You’re the most non-nonchalant person when it comes to love. You may be waiting for your Mr. Darcy, and wait you must! Yearning is written in the stars for you, but don’t fret not. Mr. Darcy is indeed on his way across the misty field to win your heart!
Oscar Peterson: A heart that yearns for liberty Artist, educator, and humanitarian, Peterson’s legacy lives on through his music
Loriane Chagnon Staff Writer
On a warm summer day in August 1925, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, one of Canada’s most respected jazz artists, was born. Growing up in the workingclass, predominantly Black neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Peterson developed his musical skills alongside his four siblings and with the support of his loving parents. Forced to give up the trumpet after contracting tuberculosis, he chose to focus on the piano and soon developed a musical talent that foreshadowed his bright future. Peterson honed his skills, and with the support of his sister, Daisy, won a nationwide amateur talent competition in Canada and landed his own weekly radio show: Fifteen Minutes Piano Rambling. Soon after, Peterson signed with a record label, and, by 1945, he had released his first two recordings: I Got Rhythm and The Sheik of Araby Norman Granz, founder of Verve Records, became Peterson’s agent, allowing his fame to grow internationally. Granz was famous for introducing jazz to broader audiences by taking “jazz out of smoky clubs and putting it in concert halls.” He heard Young Peterson on the radio in a taxicab on his way to the Montreal airport and was immediately struck. After learning that the music was a recording of Peterson at the Alberta Lounge, Granz asked the driver to turn around and take him there so that he could meet him. In the
following years, Peterson’s career grew, and he established himself as a household name in the jazz world, working with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. The last nicknamed him “the man with four hands” for his rapidity and precision when playing.
“The way you play music is a tonal biography of yourself, your thoughts and feelings,” said Peterson. Peterson was a quick and precise artist; he could execute lightning-
fast runs, possessed incredible timing, and had a deep understanding of swing. His hands were able to tell many stories, such as that of a lover yearning for his beloved in Blue and Sentimental or of a person who has achieved success at the cost of someone special in I Can’t Get Started
He is further remembered for his commitment to racial equality and his defiance of stereotypes, emerging as Canada’s first Black jazz star in the 20th century. He overcame ra-
Love of mortals and Olympians alike
A glance into the ancient romance embedded in tales of mythology
Bianca Sugunasiri Arts & Entertainment Editor
Greek mythology has traversed themes of love across eons. Although the stories themselves may have evolved through modern times, their passion, yearning, and grief still ring true today. In honour of Valentine’s Day, The Tribune presents two everlasting love stories to pierce the hearts of all Greek mythology lovers.
The Story of Patroclus and Achilles — “I would know him in death, at the end of the world,” The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
Poised on the edge of Achilles’s impetuous blade, Patroclus was his balancing force. Their story began as boys when Patroclus was banished from Opus after accidentally killing a man in a game of dice. He then travelled to Phthia and resided under the command of King Peleus. There, he became acquainted with Peleus’ son, the famed Achilles.
Like fire and water, the two became opposing sides of a coin—their fellowship lasting a lifetime. Achilles’s precipitous nature was often soothed by Patroclus’ resolute hand. During the Trojan War, the lovers joined the Greek attack force. Achilles, quick to anger, got into a quarrel with Mycenaean leader Agamemnon and refused to continue leading charges in battle.
In an ill-fated attempt to bolster the Greek troops after Achilles’s refusal, Patroclus donned his paramour’s armour and rode into battle underneath his lover’s helm. Achilles emerged
from his brooding to find his dearest companion slaughtered.
He contorted with grief, instilling fear even in the gods. Sullying himself with dirt and grime, he tore at his shining golden locks. Half of his heart had been cleaved clean away. He had valued Patroclus above all others and loved him as dearly as his own life.
Achilles’s anguish recast itself as acidic rage as he turned his attention to Patroclus’s executioner. After killing Prince Hector in single combat, Achilles fastened his corpse to the chariot by its heels and dragged it through the dirt until he returned to the Greek battle camp. He denied his adversary a proper burial as penance for his sin.
The lovers were reunited in death at Achilles’s request to have his own ashes mixed with Patroclus’s. They rest together, encased in a golden urn.
The Myth of Eros and Psyche — “For I love and cherish you passionately, whoever you are, as much as my own life,” Metamorphoses, Apuleius
The irresistible Psyche, constantly mistaken for the goddess Aphrodite, lived a lonely life, too beautiful for anyone to approach her. It was as though she was trapped in a case of glass, an ornament at which to marvel but not understand.
Her revered countenance attracted Aphrodite’s censorious eye, and the goddess became chagrined that a mortal was being worshipped as a god. She commanded her son, Eros, to punish Psyche by compelling her to fall in love with a hideous creature. Eros obediently transformed
cial prejudice to establish himself as a giant in his field. Further, he was a music educator and humanitarian, receiving many accolades, including eight Grammy Awards, a Praemium Imperiale World Art Award, the UNESCO Music Prize, and 16 honorary doctorates. Notably, a coalition of Black community groups has recently asked for Montreal’s Place des Festivals to be renamed after Oscar Peterson to honour his legacy, which has marked the city’s music scene.
The prolific Peterson released several albums each year and appeared on more than 200 albums by other artists. He is widely considered to be one of the best jazz pianists of all time and remains a cornerstone of the genre. His influence resonates in the works of artists like Laufey, who are reintroducing jazz to younger audiences.
Peterson’s composition Hymn to Freedom also had a deep impact, becoming pivotal to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The song calls for a world of unity, dignity, and liberty, with lyrics by Hariette Hamilton. Peterson’s wife, Kelly, is currently translating the composition into various languages, such as French and Cree, to allow individuals from various backgrounds to hear and understand Peterson’s vision for a free and harmonious world.
Peterson is renowned for his technical mastery, virtuosity, and the warmth with which he played, and he is remembered for his deep love and connection with the art of music.
into a serpentine beast, but as he turned to face Psyche, it was his heart that flooded with love. He bid Zephyr, the west wind, to whisk Psyche to his opulent palace, where she might rest to wait for him. But when Eros came to call upon her, he insisted they embrace only in darkness. He begged her to have faith in their vulnerability even without the security of appearances.
As the nights passed, Psyche and Eros conjoined in darkness but never beneath the sun of day. Wishing for companionship, Psyche innocently invited her sisters to visit, despite Eros’s warnings of their ill intentions. Tarnished with envy at Psyche’s happiness, her sisters schemed to sow doubt in her faith in Eros; they claimed that if she properly looked, she would see the vile creature that he was. Although Psyche’s hands may have known the shape of her husband’s love, seeds of uncertainty festered in her mind.
As night fell, Psyche waited for Eros to succumb to slumber. She then lit a candle, allowing its glow to flicker across his seraphic features. She became so entranced that she did not see the melting wax dripping onto his lustrous skin. Awake and betrayed, Eros fled, his love scorned by distrust.
Psyche wandered across the countryside looking for her lover, pining for Eros. Cunning and still ensconced with indignation, Aphrodite promised to assist Psyche only
after she completed a set of impossible tasks. She completed the first of the two, swift in her earnest intentions. But in the third trial, she finally faltered, falling into an endless sleep. Eros, stricken with pain, appealed despairingly to Zeus. He woke Psyche from her sleep and even granted her immortality so she and Eros might be reunited forever. Their daughter, Hedone, a conjoinment of heart and mind, was born the goddess of pleasure.
The 68th annual Grammys uplifts Black artists and denounces ICE’s violence History is made at this year’s Grammy Awards with new records and impactful speeches
Lia James Staff Writer
On Feb. 1st, the 68th Annual Grammys took place, leaving room for the usual discussions, from reactions to celebrities’ gorgeous and often questionable outfits to debates over snubs and surprises. But the night’s most memorable moments came from the number of awards won by talented Black artists—personal standouts including Kendrick Lamar and Olivia Dean. Kendrick Lamar took home four Grammy awards, securing him the title of the most decorated rapper in history with 27 awards. Lamar won Best Rap Performance along with rap duo Clipse for his feature on their song, “Chains & Whips,” Best Rap Album for GNX, Best Me- lodic Rap Performance and Record of the Year for “Luther,” and Best Rap Song for “tv off.”
Time and again, Lamar has illustrated his earnest storytelling and lyrical complexity, not only through his accolades but also through his sustained relevance. Lamar’s sophomore album, good kid, m.A.A.d city, released in 2012, holds the record of longestcharting hip-hop studio album on the Billboard Top 200. It has sold over 10 million units in the U.S. Over a decade after winning his first Grammy for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance with “I,” Lamar has sustained a loyal fan base with more and more immense hits, with this new milestone further cementing his legacy.
On the other hand, Olivia Dean won Best New Artist this year, following her incredibly successful second album, The Art
of Loving, which blends neo-soul and pop to create an upbeat and comforting tone. In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to the hard work of many immigrants by reflecting on her own family.
“I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant. I’m a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated. We’re nothing without each other,” Dean said.
Her speech was incredibly powerful and timely, considering the aggressive operations conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as their underlying promotion of white supremacist ideals. Other artists, such as Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, also called out ICE in their acceptance speeches.
Influential figures speaking up against ICE are crucial, as their voices are extremely impactful on the general public. Hearing artists champion their immigrant backgrounds with pride amid ICE crackdowns fosters a sense of unity. By telling the general public that they are not alone in being against these acts, it shows that even successful celebrities refuse to support the U.S.’s rising fascism. It is only once we realize the power of collective action that change can occur, and these speeches are shifting this movement in the right direction.
Beyond music, two awards were given to the momentous horror film Sinners, spotlighting Black actors. It won Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, awarded to composer Ludwig Göransson, and Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, awarded to the entire collection of songs in
the movie. The music in Sinners consists of many original songs inspired by classic blues and Irish folk music, setting the tone for both the historical context and the film’s overall emotional profundity. One of the most memorable songs in the movie is Last Time (I Seen the Sun) by Alice Smith and Miles Caton, which plays during the end credits. This song accompanies the melancholic final conversation shared between two cousins who reunite after 60 years. Sinners is a beautiful movie that highlights themes of African-American life during the Jim Crow era, using the beloved theme of vampires to
tell the story. It is terrific to see this movie gain the praise it deserves from this award show.
Overall, award shows remain relevant as markers of success and history being made in the arts. There is much potential for reflection on an artist’s career through the awards and nominations they receive, as these can act as milestones in their profession. These shows also create a space for us to ponder the art these talented individuals have given us and take a moment to appreciate how they have made our lives more creative and colourful.
Love, reimagined: A Valentine’s mixtape for Black History Month Love is more than just romance—here’s the soundtrack.
Vittoria Vespoli
Contributor
Although Valentine’s Day tends to center on romance, love stretches far beyond it, ranging from platonic love to self-love and everything in between. The Tribune’s mixtape reflects on Black artists who skillfully capture the feeling in its many forms.
“Baby Steps” by Olivia Dean - on self love
From the album that earned her Best New Artist at the 2026 Grammys, Olivia Dean delivers “Baby Steps,” a song that captures the post-breakup healing process. She traces the journey of learning to trust yourself again to finding your independence and choosing your own company. In an online world saturated with couples content, pinkand-red aisles, and his-and-hers everything, the song offers an alternative: Showing up for yourself is just as cool as being with someone else.
“Nico’s Red Truck” by Dijon - on distance
For anyone living far from home, “Nico’s Red Truck” understands the quiet ache of distance. Dijon revisits North Carolina through a crumpled photograph, feeling the warm summer air as his friends squeeze into his dark green Honda Civic, their grins
frozen in time. Though at first he worries the memories will fade, he comes to realize that places stay alive through the people and moments tied to them. Loving a place doesn’t stop when you leave; it becomes something you carry rather than return to.
“Godspeed” by Frank Ocean - on family
In “Godspeed,” Frank Ocean sends us off with love. He captures the bittersweet feeling of growing up and stepping into a life of your own, away from the comfort of home. You might outgrow where you came from, look back and see it differently, but that childhood never stops being yours. Siblings, our very first friends, anchor us early on, providing a lifelong assurance that we’ve always got someone to lean on. His song conveys that no matter how far we go, the table is set: We’ll always have a place to call home.
“She’s Always in My Hair” by Prince - on friendship
Valentine’s Day tends to place couples front and centre, but the unwavering support and companionship from friendships deserve just as much celebration. With “She’s Always in My Hair,” Prince probably intended to write a love song, but it reads just as much like an ode to the people who stay when things get hard. Being in someone’s hair sounds irritating or overbearing, yet here,
Prince presents it as an incredibly intimate gesture of being a constant, loyal presence in someone’s life.
“Heartbeat” by Childish Gambino - on situationships
“Heartbeat” is the perfect song for that confusing in-between stage where you’re seeing someone intimately, yet you can’t call it a relationship. Actor Donald Glover, also known by his musical stage name as Childish Gambino, captures the push and pull, the miscommunication, and the mind games that surface when feelings get involved, but no one dares label the relationship. Through it all, the song reminds us that intimacy is never casual: It’s messy, raw and oddly relatable. The heart wants something it can’t name, but that doesn’t make the love any less real.
“Days” by Ravyn Lenae - on breakups
Valentine’s Day tends to sting after a breakup, but “Days” turns that pain into empowerment. Saying goodbye to the past, Ravyn Lenae flips the script, reflecting on a relationship that wasn’t right—she hasn’t lost herself, just the days. He’s out of sight, out of mind, and anyway, it’s
better to be alone than in bad company, right?
“Pegasus” by Arlo Parks ft. Phoebe Bridgers - on romance
This one’s for the lovers. “Pegasus” by Arlo Parks and Phoebe Bridgers captures a love that feels exhilarating yet grounded. They sing about falling headfirst for someone who welcomes your authentic self without performance. The happiness feels so unreal that in the song, Parks calls her mom just to say she’s in love, as if she needs proof it’s actually real.
Abby Kronenberg Contributor
When Ashleigh Brown, U4 Arts, first arrived at McGill, she had barely dreamed of being a varsity athlete, let alone running a campus-wide organization of athletes. Now, as one of the current Track and Field team captains, she juggles the responsibilities of student-athlete life with those of the Black Varsity Association (BVA)—McGill’s student-run initiative dedicated to uniting, supporting, and advocating for the university’s Black athletes.
The BVA was originally founded in 2000, but completely dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its then-leaders graduated, and with them left the association’s remaining support system. When McGill students and athletes returned to campus in 2022, two former BVA members invited Brown to join, and she has been active in the association since.
Reviving the BVA was not a straightforward process and required convincing the McGill Athletics administration of its importance. In an interview with The Tribune, Brown shed light on the need for the BVA.
“Once you’re a person that goes so long without something, you start to […] think that you don’t need it,” Brown said. “But, with continuous advocacy, there’s always people who are willing to help and be allies. And it’s about finding those right people within the administrative level specifically. That’s been one of the tougher parts.”
Beyond forming relationships with McGill Athletics’ administration, the main focus of the BVA is fostering community between its athletes.
“Finding people who share your culture and help you feel comfortable is something that really helps you excel in your sport,” Brown said.
As a Jamaican athlete herself, Brown recalled feeling surprised not to find any other Jamaican athletes on the track team.
“It’s already enough that you’re an athlete and you come to a totally new province or totally new school, and you have to adjust to that. But imagine when there’s not a lick of people who can relate to you culturally. It can really impact you in your performance.”
As Brown has spent more time in the BVA, her responsibilities have increased, along with the gratification of the association’s hard work paying off.
“The most rewarding part has been being able to see the community slowly become stronger in front of me. With the more events we have, people recognize each other and friendships are being formed.”
As the BVA’s current co-chair, Brown helps ensure that the association serves as a hub for resources tailored to McGill’s Black athletes.
“I was once there, an athlete that knew nowhere to go for any type of resource, whether it be monetary or any type of mental health support that’s specific to the experiences that you face at the level that we compete and as a person of colour,” she said. “You have things
like racism in sport all the time. But how can you get that help from people who actually know how to help you? I’ve been able to direct people to those spaces.”
Perhaps the biggest issue facing the BVA now has been McGill Athletics’ announcement that, as of next year, 25 of McGill’s varsity and club sports will no longer exist. One of the most surprising teams to be included in the list of cuts is the Track and Field team, which Brown said has the most Black athletes and athletes of colour of any McGill team. Since over half of the BVA’s executive board is on Track and Field, they face losing their status as athletes altogether.
“I don’t agree with their decision [to cut Track and Field] at all,” Brown said. “It does not make any sense because our team is one of the best. And this year, we’ve been performing the best we ever have. The McGill track team is still fighting against this decision.”
Despite this upcoming uncertainty, Brown remains optimistic about the BVA’s future and its importance at McGill.
“I’m hoping we can continue, and that BVA continues to grow, and that the administration continues to, or eventually recognizes how important it is to have associations like these so that they can better support [their student-athletes],” Brown said. “But most of all, seeing athletes of colour feel comfortable at McGill has been one of the greatest things ever.”
Will Kennedy Staff Writer
Never Google the owner of your favourite sports team. It almost never yields results that make you feel good about spending your money on tickets and merchandise, and often leaves you feeling put off altogether.
Five National Football League (NFL) owners have been named in the latest Jeffrey Epstein file release, with all communications occurring after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sex offences. Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf inquired about purchasing a property in Paris from Epstein in 2015. Epstein spoke via email with someone named “Josh” about New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was arrested and charged with two misdemeanour counts of soliciting prostitution in 2019. Epstein alluded to “a past issue with Kraft that may come to light later.” Josh Harris, co-owner of multiple teams, had a multi-year business relationship with Epstein and visited his Manhattan home on at least one occasion in 2014. Meanwhile, New York Giants owner Stephen Tisch crudely discussed multiple girls, including one so-called “Ukrainian girl,” over email with the depraved pedophile. In emails where Tisch asked Epstein to be set up with this “Ukrainian girl,” she was referred to in vulgar language before Tisch followed up with “pro or civilian,” inquiring if she was a prostitute.
On Jan. 30, Tisch put out a statement say-
ing he “regrets associating” with Epstein and that “we all know now, he was a terrible person”—something Tisch should have known from Epstein’s prior 2008 conviction.
While the Epstein files dominate the news, Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera has flown under the radar. On Jan. 29, investigative journalist Pablo Torre shared the findings of an investigation into the former Apple engineer and founder of Ubiquiti Inc., a company that specializes in making user-friendly internet equipment servicing remote areas of the globe.
One of Ubiquiti’s top customers is the Russian military. The company stopped direct shipments to Russia when sanctions were implemented in 2022, but since then, sales have continued to pass through third parties. The company has not yet released a public statement on Russian combat units obtaining their equipment, but verified videos from the Donbas region clearly show Ubiquiti technology being used to commit war crimes against civilians.
One Ukrainian military official estimated that 80 per cent of Russian drones use Ubiquiti equipment to relay video feed to command centers. The technology is so important that Russian military units have made Telegram videos begging for public donations in order to purchase more of the equipment. The equipment is small enough that it can be attached to the vests of operators, and, unlike satellite internet, it cannot be disabled by the provider remotely.
Although the company has stopped direct sales to Russia, sanctions experts have
told Pablo Torre that pleading ignorance is not a valid legal defence for how Russia obtained their technology.
This is not the first time Ubiquiti has been involved in a scandal over sanction violations. The company settled for over $500,000 USD in 2014 after it granted exclusive rights to a United Arab Emirates-based distributor to sell Ubiquiti technology to Iran. At the time of the settlement, Ubiquiti allegedly did not have a proper compliance department, and since then has taken no meaningful steps to ensure its technology does not end up in the wrong hands. Western tech illegally ending up in Russian hands is a large part of why the war is still ongoing. At best, Ubiquiti is being negligent; at worst, it is a willing participant in war crimes.
From a fan perspective, it can be really disheartening to know that supporting your favourite team may directly benefit these owners. It can cause a lot of conflicting feelings and disconnect fans from the team. It often feels like blissful ignorance might be your best option as a fan because major sports owners are rarely in the news for doing good in the world. Although our individual influence over such
matters may appear minuscule, it is crucial that as a whole we pay attention to these issues, as this is the only way we can impose any sense of accountability on owners. No fan wants to hear that the person who calls the shots for their favourite sports team is connected to a pedophile or is actively fueling wars. For those who want to support their favourite team and be part of something bigger than themselves, it is unfortunate that they may be financially benefiting some truly despicable folks in the process. Sports organizations are a massive part of the communities in which they exist and thus have a duty to properly represent the fans who support them.
Zain Ahmed Staff Writer
For Eliana Zhang, badminton has never existed in a vacuum. It is part of a life built around discipline, balance, and sustained excellence, which she has learned to manage at a level few student athletes ever reach.
A fifth-year medical student in her final year at McGill, Zhang has played badminton for 18 years. The Montreal-raised athlete from Ile-Bizard picked up the sport nearly by accident after transitioning from summer tennis. She recalls her tennis coach, David Pealow, who also coached badminton in the winter, urging her to try the sport out for fun at the end of the season.
“When it was time to go back to tennis, I just never went back,” Zhang said in an interview with The Tribune
That decision launched a career shaped by persistence and adaptation. Zhang rose quickly through Badminton Québec’s junior ranks, but the limits of provincial infrastructure became clear early on.
“I reached the top of my province as a junior, but then when nationals came, I got absolutely beaten by the Ontario and [British Columbia] kids,” she explained.
Rather than plateauing, Zhang adjusted. Beginning in 2015, she spent summers training in Toronto at E Badminton Training Centre and overseas in China. Eventually, Zhang benefited from elite coaching that followed her home to Montreal, where she trains at CB Excellence Yonex, with
coach Jean-Paul Girard. Those opportunities helped her achieve results beyond traditional Quebec standards. Today, Zhang is the only Quebec athlete competing internationally and the only national team member on McGill’s badminton roster.
“I was very lucky to have the resources move to me,” Zhang reflected.
Despite her elite background, Zhang did not initially plan on competing for McGill—it was a friend and soon-to-be teammate who convinced her to join. What she found was a rare sense of alignment.
“The McGill team really bridges my two identities. They’re student-athletes. They understand the grind that neither my professional badminton friends nor my fulltime medical school friends really get,” she said.
That understanding became crucial once Zhang entered medical school. Early on, she stepped away from badminton entirely after being told by a mentor that elite sport and surgical ambition could not coexist. Without the sport, she quickly felt the difference.
“My life was so much less structured. I had more free time, but I was procrastinating more. My health went out the door.”
Returning to badminton changed everything. She credits the sport with sharpening her ability to manage stress, a skill she now leans on heavily as she navigates residency interviews for ophthalmology, one of medicine’s most competitive specialties.
Zhang’s leadership evolved further this past summer at the 2025 FISU World
University Games in the RhineRuhr region of Germany. Competing alongside athletes from across Canada, she became more aware of her broader impact.
“I didn’t realize the amount of inspiration I was able to give people,” Zhang said. “I had been so focused on myself that I didn’t really think about the impact I could have on others.”
That realization has carried directly into her final varsity season. A two-time recipient of the Jean Béliveau Athletic Award, Zhang has shifted her focus toward mentorship, strategy, and leadership. As captain, she collaborates closely with the coaching staff on individualized training plans and, due to her coaching certifications, also serves as an on-court coach during tournaments.
With the RSEQ Championships looming, Zhang enters familiar territory. While the pressure of championship play remains, her preparation reflects years of navigating overlapping demands. Between residency interviews scheduled on the same day as competitions and an international tournament on the horizon, adaptability has become essential. Challenges remain—McGill is likely to face a vocal Université de Montréal crowd on the road, and many Martlets will be competing in their first university championship.
“A lot of [my teammates] haven’t
Ivanna Zhang Staff Writer
With an emotional collapse on the court and an overwhelming eruption from the Melbourne crowd, world number one Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam at only 22 years old. In just over three hours, the Spaniard defeated 38-year-old Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who was undefeated in 10 previous Australian Open finals.
The Australian Open, held from midJanuary to early February at Melbourne Park, is the first of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments. Expectations were high leading up to the first major tennis tournament of the year, despite the event’s notably slow start.
The tournament accelerated on the men’s semifinal night, starting with the longest semifinal match in the Australian Open’s history. In five hours and 27 minutes, Alcaraz beat Germany’s Alexander Zverev to secure a place in the final. For Alcaraz, landing a place in the final meant he was one step closer to achieving a career Gram Slam—winning all four major tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open).
Despite winning the first two sets in the semifinal matchup, Alcaraz suffered cramps in his right groin, which allowed Zverev
to tie the match—the first men’s match of this tournament to go to a deciding set in the Rod Laver Arena. Even though Zverev led for the majority of the set, the Spaniard won the last two crucial games and secured a spot in the final.
Another nail-biting final followed suit, and the night was far from over. The second men’s semifinal welcomed Djokovic and Italy’s Jannik Sinner. Sinner aimed to defend his title as last year’s winner of the Australian tournament. Across the net was Djokovic, hoping to get his 25th Grand Slam title and set the record for the most in men’s tennis. The match started with Sinner dominating, winning the first set in 38 minutes. However, the tide shifted in the second set. Djokovic established a lead early and held on to it to tie the match one-all.
After struggling physically in the third set, Djokovic emerged in the fourth with freshness and concentration. The Serbian took the upper hand by using his serves to win crucial points and hitting groundstrokes with incredible accuracy and depth. The night finished just after 1:30 a.m. with Djokovic setting up a 10th meeting with Alcaraz on Feb. 1.
Before the men’s final, the women’s singles final took centre stage on Jan. 31.
Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one and last year’s finalist, took on world number three Elena Rybakina. Sabalenka did not drop a set this entire tournament, and she
was in top form coming into the final.
Striking the ball with overwhelming power, Rybakina established a lead quickly. However, Sabalenka’s continuous and persistent efforts paid off in the second set. In the deciding set, Sabalenka built on her momentum to achieve a threegame lead, but it proved to be shortlived. Rybakina rallied, levelling the score and winning the crucial games to secure the championship.
played a tournament like this before, so it’s about reassuring them that the most important thing is to have fun,” Zhang emphasized Beyond McGill, Zhang’s future in badminton is already taking shape. A coach for six years, she mentors junior athletes, including a 15-year-old national champion, and was recently elected President of the Badminton Canada Players Association. As her varsity career nears its close, Zhang hopes her story resonates with younger students considering varsity athletics. Her advice is simple: “If you want to do it, do it. Don’t be scared.”
As Rybakina lifted her trophy, attention turned to the men’s singles finals. The night saw two records on the line, but only one could get broken: The youngest male player to complete a career Grand Slam, or the most Grand Slams ever won. Djokovic continued his top form, claiming the first set with authority. Still, the 22-year-old refused to back down. With Djokovic’s inability to keep up the high level throughout the match,
the Spaniard quickly turned the tide against the seasoned veteran, winning the next three sets. After a missed long forehand by Djokovic, Alcaraz dropped to the court while the crowd rose to their feet. Alcaraz has now joined a group of only nine male tennis legends who have completed a career Grand Slam—including his opponent Novak Djokovic, his fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal, and the legendary Rod Laver. And he did it all at only 22.