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Concordia Student Union News

Student speaks on Experience with University Insurance as opt-out Period begins

CSU's multiple platforms and services accessible to students. Photo by Kaitlynn Rodney / THE CONCORDIAN

Students must soon disclose if they choose to keep their University insurance.

On Sept. 25, Concordia students will have their final chance to declare if they choose to stay with their student health and dental plan for the fall semester.

Offered through the Concordia Students Union (CSU), the insurance plan is included in each semester’s tuition, a fact Dom Doesburg, a third-year student in computer science, wished he knew earlier.

“Having it cover my therapy, quite literally, saved my life,” said Doesburg. “I wouldn’t have been able to stay in school, or get the support that I needed.”

For almost two years, Doesburg has been taking advantage of the CSU’s health and dental plan. Seeking mental health support, Doesburg initially paid for therapy out of pocket, something he said quickly became unsustainable as a full-time student living on his own.


The health plan covers a wide array of services, with varying amounts  upwards of $10,000 in total. For Doesburg, this primarily meant psychiatry, which the Studentcare plan covered 80 per cent of each session. 

Doesburg added that he didn’t want to miss any opportunity, as he’d later use his coverage for vaccinations and dental services. 

Despite the help he receives regularly, Doesburg explained that his journey to finding resources through the CSU was not simple.

“I did it all by myself, which was not fun,” Doesburg said. “I’ve talked to other people and they are really confused, so I’ve been helping. I think on the Concordia website, it needs to be way clearer somehow.”

Doesburg added that initial research into student health care yielded poor results, with only brief explanations on Concordia’s website. Eventually, he accessed the Studentcare website, the insurance broker associated with the CSU, where he found the information to get him started.

Brooks Reid-Constantin, a linguistics student and Concordia Student’s Nightline’s president, agreed that accessibility to professional mental health may not be within reach for every student.

“I think that it’s crazy how difficult it is to get in touch with a psychiatrist,” Reid-Constantin said. 

She explained that the student health services aided her life as a student, despite any limitations to the health plan.

Nightline operates during evening hours between Wednesday and Saturday, providing active listening to callers. According to Reid-Constantin, this allows callers, often anxious students, to feel heard and relieve them of certain stressors.

Working with Nightline, Reid-Constantin said she gained a perspective into matters of mental health, despite not being a professional. She believed that students should have more options than Nightline, and should seek professional help if accessible and medication if needed.

“It’s only ever one leg of the chair. You have to do a bunch of the work yourself,” Reid-Constantin added. “Giving anybody a head start and trying to take some of that financial burden off can be really helpful.”

The CSU operates mostly as a mediator between student and insurance broker. Often, a student is navigating the ins-and-outs of insurance for the first time, so they can definitely use the help. According to Hannah Jackson, the CSU’s external and mobilization coordinator, this is for the best.

“Concordia is a business. It is a for-profit corporation. We’re a union. We aren’t trying to make a profit every year and we aren’t trying to cut costs,” Jackson said. “We have a greater incentive to make it comprehensive and affordable, as opposed to the university administration.”

Jackson explained that the insurance coverage offered by the CSU is considered additional to that of the Régie de l’Assurance Maladie (RAMQ) including eye care and physiotherapy.

International and part-time students are exceptions, as they are not directly covered by the Studentcare. 

For the former, they must go through the university’s administration, to both Jackson and the CSU’s dismay. However, Jackson added that international students are eligible for dental care through which they may also receive the CSU’s newly established gender-affirming healthcare. 

Part-time students, although covered by the same insurance, must declare if they opt-in for coverage. As such, they must pay the yearly amount of $185 separate from their tuition.

“[Studentcare] can be bureaucratic. They can be very arbitrary in their rules,” Jackson said. “But I encourage people to explore what’s covered under their plan and to really claim it, because that money is there.”

A previous version of this article identified Brooks Reid-Constantin as external vice-president of the Nightline. Reid-Constantin is president of the Nightline.

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WATCH: The Most Important Meal is Now Free at The Hive

Breakfast is open from 8:30 to 9:00 and again from 10:00 to 10:30.

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Students meet to promote Mackay Street Pedestrianisation Effort

Lily Charette (furthest right) discusses the pedestrianised Mackay project with attendees. Photo by Matthew Daldalian / The Concordian

Thirty-year-long legacy continued by new cohort.

On September 8, a handful of Concordia students huddled around a bench on Mackay street to discuss what they hoped would be a big change for their community.

Organised by the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) mobilisation coordinator Lily Charette, the goal of the meeting was to discuss the long-lasting project to pedestrianise Mackay street, located on Concordia’s Sir George Williams campus.

“It’s something most people can get on board with,” said Charette. “There’s a lot of potential for building something that’s good for the community and Concordia students.”

Charette added that a pedestrianised Mackay would be a welcomed addition on campus, with the possibility of including water fountains and areas reserved for regreening, as well as a community garden.

Charette said she spent part of her summer break planning her project of a pedestrianised Mackay. She isn’t alone in her efforts. 

“This project has been going on for about 30 years now,” said Dashiell Friesen, a fourth-year student in design. “We think the push is way better now than ever before.”

Friesen shares Charette’s passion for public infrastructure and transportation. He explained that attempting a pedestrianisation of Mackay could prove successful in their latest attempt, despite the project’s history of failure. He attributed his faith in the project to recent pedestrianisation efforts for Mont Royal Avenue and Wellington street. 

Friesen argued that having a space for students to walk safely on campus, without the trouble of avoiding automobiles, would not only be beneficial to creating a larger sense of community on campus but would also boost sales at local shops as more on-foot traffic attracts more customers.  

Additionally, Friesen expressed his desire for Concordians to have access to walkable spaces, already available to students at neighbouring universities such as McGill.
Charette and Friesen explained they aim to send a letter to university officials proposing their project, with hopes of eventually appealing it to the city of Montreal. Their efforts would culminate in temporary pedestrianisation of Mackay, which would allow for time to observe its effect.   

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A return to four in-person workdays opposed by Concordia staff unions

Graham Carr talks with staff union members. Photo by Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman / The Concordian

Staff members are disappointed with the deans’ decision and are taking matters into their own hands.

At the President’s welcome last week, unions representing staff members of Concordia joined the festivities to present Graham Carr with a petition signed by 613 members. The petition asked him to reconsider the decision to request Concordia staff return to in-person work four days a week. 

This decision was announced in June. Before then, the hybrid work model had varied between departments, but many staff members said they enjoyed the flexibility and that it was a healthy and effective system.

Beata Tararuj, graduate program coordinator for the electrical and computer engineering department, created the petitions against the return to four in-person workdays. She did not hear about the decision from her dean, but from one of her colleagues. 

“The number of emails that I started getting, it was like an email after email after email, after email, after email, and everybody was so not happy. Everybody was miserable. Everybody was disappointed. We felt like somebody stabbed us in our back,” Tararuj said.

Her first petition was sent to all faculties at the university, collecting 250 votes. A second petition was later sent out when the unions were able to make their votes, which now has a total of 613 votes.  

“When a student comes with a problem, I am there to listen,” said Tararuj. “I’m here to navigate through the Concordia system. I’m here to make sure that these people are well taken care of.  So I was thinking to myself, I fight for students on a regular basis. Why won’t I fight for myself?” 

Since the pandemic, people have started to adapt to the new normal of hybrid work. Concordia University is still trying to define what this vision is going to look like.

In 2021, Concordia requested its staff return to in-person work two days a week. In 2022, that number went up to three days a week. And now, staff has been asked to return to campus four days a week.

Sigmund Lam, vice president negotiations of the Concordia University Professional Employees Union (CUPEU), worries that Concordia staff may be expected to return to full-time in-person work next year—a fear that was echoed by other union members. 

So where is this decision of increased workdays coming from? In an email, Vannina Maestracci, Concordia’s spokesperson, explained that it “prioritizes services and supports Concordia’s core activities: teaching, research and knowledge creation, and the student experience.”

Maestracci also wrote that this decision was taken “to achieve the vision of a vibrant campus experience and ensure fairness.” The fairness refers to the idea of having a uniform standard for all staff (four days in-person per week) instead of letting departments decide on their own guidelines.

The four faculty deans denied our request for an interview. When approached at the welcome event on Sept. 7, president Carr refused to comment on the decision or the petition.

Many staff members have said they wish the deans had given more explanations for this decision. Shoshana Kalfon, advisor and president of CUPEU, said she wants to see the data supporting this return to in-person work.

“They have all these keywords, the word of the day. ‘We want a vibrant campus.’ Was it not? And is it required that everybody be on campus all the time for that to exist?” she said.

To her, the hybrid work model is all about giving staff choices. Some may decide to work from home two days a week, and some may decide to be on campus every day.

“I don’t know if it’s that [the administration] doesn’t want us to have the opportunity to make a decision, to make a choice—and that, to me, comes down to control.” she said. 

Lam explained that staff often end up doing more productive work when they work from home. “Quite often, people in the office are interrupted constantly,” he said. 

“Unhappy employees are less productive,” he added. “And I believe the employees have lost trust in upper management’s ability to make decisions with regard to hybrid or flexible work. And loss of trust also causes a reduction in performance.”

Alycia Manning is the enrollment coordinator for the law and society program in the history department. Last semester, she worked in-person for three and a half days a week. 

She said she valued “being at home and being able to just focus [on herself].” “You wake up, you can do a little workout in the morning, then you can do your laundry at lunchtime. It’s nice to be able to just have that, just a little bit of freedom,” she added. 

Tararuj echoed that feeling, saying she needs a healthy work/life balance to stay present with her tasks and in every aspect of her life.

“This specific position [program coordinator], it’s a demanding position. There’s a lot of tasks, there’s a lot of students. I’m a high energy person and I like to give energy to my students,” she shared. “By the time I get home, I’m so dead. I’m so tired, I can’t even go to a park with my kids.”

Daniela Ferrer—who was, until recently, VP grievances and mobilization coordinator at Concordia University Support Staff Union (CUSSU)—is also worried that this decision will affect staff’s mental health.

“Concordia pays a lot of lip service to the importance of mental health, but they really don’t seem to be listening to workers when they tell them: ‘Hey, you know, working remotely has been incredibly beneficial to my mental health and this return to campus is causing a lot of anxiety,” Ferrer said.

“[The administration is] ignoring the fact that a lot of things changed during the pandemic and people’s priorities shifted,” said Ferrer. According to her, hybrid work has brought to light people’s “lost time”—time spent commuting, sitting at your desk when all the work is done, or waiting between meetings. 

Elizabeth Xu is a woodshop technician in the fine arts department and already works four days a week from 9 to 5. She hopes President Carr will listen to what the university’s staff has to say. 

“I hope that they can open their ears and open their hearts to the will of the people,” Xu said. “If the majority of the workers are saying that this [hybrid work] is something that’s better for them, I feel like it’s just the right thing to do from one human to another, to listen to their experiences and try and make accommodations where possible, especially if the work isn’t compromised.”

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Fighting Back-to-School Blues Season

Carleen Loney/THE CONCORDIAN

New and current students are once again faced with warding off anxiety over returning to classes.

With the semester in full swing, a palpable sense of anxiety pervades the minds of many students across campus—it’s back-to-school blues season. 

This switch to a heavier workload and adjusting to a new schedule might put some students in an uncomfortable position, one they might not be able to deal with alone.

Hera Baboudjian, a registered social worker in Quebec, said that anxiety over returning to the academic grind is common well into a person’s adulthood.

“It’s managing the workload while dealing with relationships—family or otherwise—and coming back to that can be hard,” Baboudjian said. “In a way, it’s like entering a mini-society and everyone has their role to deal with.”

Baboudjian explained academic stress manifests differently from one person to another. Different students come from situations independent from their academic lives. As such, dealing with these same issues is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Griffin Reed, a first-year music student, said he wasn’t looking forward to his first day on campus. “I was completely nervous. It’s a new campus, new faces, new everything,” Reed said. “I did not know there were like five buildings I had to find.” 

He was filled with dread over navigating his long commute from the Laurentides. He turned to one of his only comforts, listening to music during his ride.

Reed expressed an interest in Concordia’s Zen Dens, which offer mental health services and peer support. However, Reed said his classes were ultimately not as stressful as he thought. “I think it’ll just take time,” added Reed. “I can still see the Zen Dens usefulness.” 

Alternatively, Concordia’s health and wellness page offers tools and guides a student can refer to during times of stress, a resource Baboudjian recommended as well. 

She believes the first steps a person should take to fight their anxiety is to get organized, set realistic goals for themselves and find resources to help them.

More experienced students such as Yasmine Bakeeso, a second-year student in marketing, have acclimated to the stress that comes from returning to classes.

“You can’t be too hard on yourself. Even if you’re not at the place you want to be right now, you won’t regret giving it your best,” Bakesso explained. 

Despite having a full year of university under her belt, Bakesso anticipates the coming semester might take a toll on her mental health. As such, she considered reaching out to available specialists on campus, should the need for counseling arise.

Alessio Cipriano-Kardous, a third-year computer science student, said that he sympathizes with students who get nervous over a new semester. Working part-time as an IT technician, he’s no stranger to dealing with a lot on his plate. 

“It gets exhausting. I’ve learned to cope by giving myself the time to organize myself every week,” he explained. “The people who get used to it seem like the exception, but they don’t have to be.”

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Summer of infernos

Graphic by Keven Vaillancourt / The Concordian

Amidst the intensifying impact of climate change, Canadians endured nightmarish journeys, unforeseen expenses and heartwarming acts of kindness.

Renowned for its vibrant summer festivals, Montreal bore witness to a disturbing transformation this scorching season. Azure skies became the canvas for relentless infernos, shrouding the city in smog and smoke, a poignant reminder of fires sweeping not just across Canada, but the world.

Among those affected were Concordia University students, enduring a nightmarish ordeal that left a trail of devastation. 

For Joshua Iserhoff, a human relations student, this summer became a harrowing nightmare. His family embarked on a frantic odyssey from one threatened community to another, pursued by the flames.

The journey from Montreal to their home in Nemiscau along the Billy Diamond Highway was fraught with tension. Despite some reassuring forecasts, the unpredictable nature of wildfires always loomed. 

“Rabbits [were] running on the highway because they’re running as well,” Iserhoff recalls. “And that’s the safe place that they could find.”

Due to the fires, their endeavour involved additional hours on the road and in hotels, incurring unexpected expenses, a heavy burden, especially for a student. Their families rallied to provide support, easing the financial strain.

Their escape began on July 11 after attending a wedding in Ottawa, heading northward. At the Matagami Gate, a crucial checkpoint on the private Billy Diamond Highway, they received the all-clear from the toll attendant, oblivious to the impending danger.

Iserhoff had been driving his sister’s car when in mere seconds, the winds intensified, carrying a blinding wall of smoke and flames, plunging them into darkness, cars threatening to lift off the ground. Panic set in as he glanced at his own family in the other vehicle. 

Unable to communicate through open windows due to his daughter’s asthma, Iserhoff’s wife used soaked towels as makeshift respirators for their children, a life-saving suggestion by Iserhoff’s mother. Fortunately, an elderly stranger saw them struggling and offered N95 masks, providing a glimmer of hope.

Survival instincts took over. “I have to drive,” Iserhoff told his wife after switching cars to join his family. “She covered [the kids] with a blanket, and opened the iPad. We were singing in the cars.”

Despite putting on a brave face for his children, it was a traumatic experience. “It does something to your humanity,” Iserhoff said.

Out west, creative writing student Jess Thodas confronted an advancing wildfire that jumped across the lake that separates East and West Kelowna. “We went out with my dogs to the lake”, Thodas recounts. “We started noticing the sky was turning red.”

Reliant on sporadic emergency alerts and Twitter updates, she relied mainly on messages from within the community to stay safe.

All flights were grounded, runways reserved for water bombers. More than a week of cancellations later, Thodas finally boarded a flight back to Montreal, leaving her concerned for her family.

Thodas embarked on a challenging 20-hour journey, which involved a night sleeping at the airport with her dog. Unable to relax until reaching her apartment, Thodas just collapsed on her bed once she’d made it.

Photo courtesy of Jess Thodas
Photo courtesy of Jess Thodas

In the midst of this crisis, Dr. Rebecca Tittler, a forest ecologist who teaches at the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and in the Departments of Biology and of Geography, Planning and Environment and coordinates the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre at Concordia, provides insight into the situation.

She points out that while wildfires are a natural part of forest ecosystems, this year’s early and severe onset can likely be attributed to the hot and dry conditions caused by climate change. “We must remember that trees naturally burn, releasing what they’ve stored, unlike the greenhouse gases emitted by humans altering the climate,” she explained. 

Dr. Tittler emphasizes the pressing need to address climate change and safeguard communities in isolated forested areas and enhance evacuation measures, underlining that firefighting efforts prioritize protecting human lives due to the vastness of Canadian forests.

Despite these stories of resilience in the face of nature’s fury, each new blaze serves as a stark reminder of our shared vulnerability and the urgent imperative to confront the growing impact of climate change.

Cree Nation of Wemindji – Photo courtesy of Bradley Georgekish
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Students and faculty adjust to multi-factor authentication on Moodle

Visual by James Fay // The Concordian

As the fall semester begins, many will be introduced to the new sign-in system

While new and returning students will adjust to the new log-in system in the fall semester, the summer semesters offered others some perspective into MFA’s accessibility and utility on Moodle.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA), a cyber-security tool which provides alternative verification factors to a user’s log-in information, has been in mandatory service on Moodle since the end of the winter semester. 

“Anytime I’d open Moodle on the computer for exams, or every time I go to a new tab, it asks me [to log in] every time,” said Dom Doesburg, a third-year computer science student at Concordia. “And going back and forth and having to do it each time, it gets frustrating.”

Having spent the summer taking classes, Doesburg acclimated to authenticating his log-ins, but still ran into issues on his part.

Doesburg also expressed his continued frustration with password troubles, having to reset it multiple times over the summer despite saving it on his digital keychain. This eventually forced him to reset his password three times in order to submit an assignment on time.  

“I don’t get it, nobody’s going to log into my Moodle and submit things for me,” he said. “And if they do, frankly I’ll be happy.”

Although Doesburg sees the value in protecting private information on other Concordia services such as the Student Centre, he finds the extra layer of security unnecessary for Moodle.

On the other hand, however, students like Julien Prenevost find the extra measure justifiable. “I’ve got my phone on me 99 per cent of the time, so it’s never been an issue for me,” said Prenevost, a third-year student in sociology. “It’s a nice layer of security and it makes you worry less.”

Prenevost took courses during the summer while working in IT. He said that MFA is familiar to him, as he’d use it at his work frequently.“It just makes sense for Moodle,” he added. “There’s a lot of important documents, and if someone hacks it, well, they could steal them and plagiarize you.”

Despite the ease of access, Prenevost mentioned that an alternative method of authentication to  mobile devices should be offered—- an idea echoed by Ivan Pustogarov, assistant professor at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering.

“The problem here is that students don’t have enough options to choose their own tools to get [authentication],” said Pustogarov. “From my perspective as well, I’ve wished many times I could just use my computer.” 

Pustogarov is no stranger to cybersecurity, as it’s his main field of research. He explained that MFA is often used to counteract weak passwords which might otherwise be vulnerable to hackers.

“The goal is additional protection […] to decrease the possibility of password stealing attacks,” Pustogarov said.

As an alternative to authentication by mobile phone, Pustogarov suggested implementing recovery codes. These codes would be provided to users upon initial registration to Moodle and kept in case they don’t have access to their phone.   

Concordia’s MFA system is applied through Microsoft, similar to school emails. As such, the first method of authentication is done through the Outlook application.

If the user does not have their phone, the IT service page for MFA provides a guide to log into Moodle and related services. This includes downloading the Authy app, which provides the user with a generated code accessible through any computer. However, in order to activate Authy, a mobile phone is still required. 

As the need for more versatile cybersecurity grows, Concordia is following suit and adapting— even if that means testing our patience.

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New school year, new CSU: Harley Martin as General Coordinator

Harley Martin working on upcoming projects. Photo by Emma Megelas / The Concordian

How a political science student is creating a fair and engaging CSU for Concordia students.

In the wake of a new school year, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) is starting fresh with new members on their team. Harley Martin may not be one of them since he knows his way around the CSU, but now he has a new opportunity in his hands.

Harley Martin is a history and political science student and the CSU’s new General Coordinator (GC). Last year, he was formerly the Student Life Coordinator of the CSU, until he was later appointed as the GC.

“I feel every day I’m learning new things that I wasn’t aware of before, but having a year of experience to kind of see how things work, know people, know where to look for the answers all that is really helpful,” said Martin.

Following a scandal last year with the former GC, Martin has his eyes on having a steady communication between the members, making sure no idea or issue is ignored.

“We cannot have any silos of information, so I just try and share everything with everyone like on the team,” he told The Concordian.

Martin sees a more engaging and interconnected CSU staff this year. As the GC, he makes sure that everyone on the team is doing their work, is comfortable in their environment, and has all of the information they need for their projects. It is one of the most important tasks of his job and it helps him create deeper relationships with the team.

“Everyone is really fun and does their work, but also it’s fun to hang out when we have free time and we’re sitting here for a minute. So, it has a nice feel to it which is good because you need your environment to be pleasant,” said Martin.

Hannah Jackson is an art education student and the CSU’s External Affairs and Mobilization Coordinator. She is responsible for Concordia’s external connections for the CSU’s campaigns throughout the year. During COVID-19, she did not have the chance to be as involved in Concordia life as she had thought. With school being in-person again, she can now flourish in her passion for activism at the CSU and share her craft fiercely with her supportive colleagues.

“I found myself very supported not just by [my team] signing off on what I do, but also wanting to talk to me about and giving me their ideas, so that’s been really positive so far,” said Jackson.

Tanou Bah is a sociology student and the CSU’s new Student Life Coordinator. She was previously the Social Media Coordinator and she worked alongside Martin last year. Bah admires Martin’s perseverance to have a reliable team in the new year and she continues to see that in his work ethic.

“You’re only here for a year and then you’re gone and so a lot of the projects that were started can sometimes fall through. That’s why it’s great to have Harley because he knew what was happening last year and we can continue to push for that,” said Bah.

Harley Martin has one year left at Concordia and wants to continue his involvement one last time with the CSU by doing it right. He is hoping for more student involvement this year through tabling at the Loyola and downtown campuses next week, as well as by creating a safe environment at the CSU.

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Two Concordia Students claim they were violently arrested for Jaywalking

Graphic by Carleen Loney / The Concordian

The students will file complaints against the officers for excessive use of force

One night at the end of July, at almost 3 a.m., Concordia PhD students Amaechi Okafor and Wade Paul were walking on Saint-Jacques street, heading towards Okafor’s apartment in NDG. 

As they walked, they saw police cruisers and officers gathered around an individual wrapped in a blanket. Not wanting to interfere with the situation, Okafor and Paul stepped into the street to go around the cruiser, then returned to the sidewalk. 

“We didn’t even cross the road,” said Okafor. “I actually told him: ‘Let’s step on the road and avoid these cars and step back on the sidewalk,’ which we did for a split second. And all of a sudden, we just hear yelling.”

“Next thing I kind of remember, there was a police car coming up onto the sidewalk,” recalled Paul. Okafor said the intervention was “very, very aggressive.”

The officers were speaking French, and while Okafor speaks French, neither student could understand the officers’ accent—Okafor is an international student from Nigeria, and Paul is from St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick. When told this, the officers switched to English and requested to see Okafor’s ID. 

Okafor and Paul asked why they needed his ID, and the officers said that it was because they had been jaywalking. The students asked for clarification, at which point the officers asked to see Paul’s ID as well. 

“They said […] that we were under arrest,” said Paul. “I had my arm kind of twisted, I was thrown up against a fence. I had my rights started to be read to me. I was in full panic mode.”

“The way the arrest went was really strange for me because it’s something I’d never experienced,” said Okafor. He recalls being put to the fence, handcuffed from the back and searched from top to bottom.

He was then put against the cruiser, where the officers spread out his legs so far that his pants ripped and searched him again, he said. This also affected his old knee injuries, and he is still suffering from knee pain a month after the arrest. He said the pain makes it hard for him to walk and work.

“I felt abused. I think that was the word to use. Because I didn’t give them the right to touch me all over where they touched me,” said Okafor.

The students said they were put in separate police cruisers, where they were left alone for 20 minutes. Officers went through their belongings and wallets, and did not explain what was happening. Okafor said they never read him his rights.

Both were fined $49 for jaywalking and $499 for refusing to show their ID. 

Since the incident, Okafor’s family has joined him in Canada. He waited two years before bringing them here, wanting to make sure it was a safe place for them. Now, he fears what happened to him might happen to his three children.

“If my son is 16-17, what would happen if a cop were to stop him like that?” he asks. “I don’t want to lose my son because I’m ambitious.” 

The students have pleaded not guilty to their fine. With the help of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) and its executive director Fo Niemi, they are planning on filing complaints with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission for Racial Profiling and with the Quebec Police Ethics Commissioner.

“The only down thing is that the law, as it stands right now, will allow these officers not to cooperate with the Police Ethics Commissioner investigation,” explained Niemi. “Because they have the so-called constitutional right to silence. Not to incriminate oneself.”

Niemi is hopeful that the misconduct charges for excessive use of force will go far. “Just the fact that they were handcuffed, that’s a form of force that was used excessively,” he said.

“It all goes far to speak on how unsafe international students should feel,” he said. “Because if that could happen to me, it could happen to any other person.”

After hearing his story, other international students told him that they were worried about their own safety.

Niemi stressed the importance of speaking out about these situations. “Just because you’re international students, it doesn’t mean you have less rights when it comes to this.”

The SPVM declined to comment on the intervention.

Infographic by Carleen Loney / The Concordian
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The legal Battle to represent Concordia’s Teaching and Research Assistants

CREW badges on a table. Photo by Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman / The Concordian

Two unions spent the summer working behind the scenes to be Concordia TAs’ and RAs’ official union

While many Concordians were taking some well-deserved time away from school this summer, two unions were fighting to be the official representatives of Concordia’s Research Assistants (RAs) and Teaching Assistants (TAs).

Despite collecting the membership of a majority of TAs and RAs at the end of their campaign, the Concordia Research and Education Workers Union (CREW) failed to get accredited this summer. The Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia Union (TRAC) remains the official union, but TAs and RAs will have to vote this fall to choose the group that will represent them. 

CREW was created last March when all members of TRAC’s former executive team resigned to form a new union that was meant to be more independent. In their letter of resignation, the team spoke out against TRAC’s parent union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). According to them, PSAC was hindering the fight for better pay and better work conditions for TAs and RAs at Concordia. 

“The university takes full advantage of these dynamics [between TRAC and PSAC],” CREW wrote in the letter, “exploiting PSAC’s poor results and lack of consultation, not to mention its lack of a participatory union culture […] to push around our members and chip away at our working conditions.”

Bree Stuart, who was president of TRAC until May 2022 and is now their interim administrative assistant, disagreed with the arguments CREW was making in the letter. To her, PSAC had always been present in a supportive role whenever TRAC needed them.

She was also shocked that the executive team would resign while they were bargaining for a new collective agreement.

“That, to me, is just super disingenuous, that you can start bargaining in a union that you’re trying to destroy,” Stuart said.

The campaign for memberships

Before CREW could become the accredited union representing Concordia’s TAs and RAs, they had to campaign against TRAC. Both unions had until April 3, 2023 to collect as many membership cards as possible from the TAs and RAs.

“You could think of it as a referendum, in a way,” explained Stephanie Eccles, campaign coordinator and organizer at CREW. “So folks had to give their allegiance to TRAC or their allegiance to CREW.”

The deadline of April 3 had been chosen by both CREW and TRAC because union raids—the process of challenging an existing union—can only legally happen 60 days before the end of a union’s collective agreement. 

The accreditation 

On April 3, at midnight, CREW filed their membership cards with the Quebec Labor Board (TAT). At the time, they reported having 1,700 members out of Concordia’s 2,100 TAs and RAs, a number confirmed by TAT documentation.

“We were feeling very good about going into the court date on May 30,” recalled Eccles. “And then, on May 26—and this is how we found ourselves in our current situation—PSAC refiled a petition to certify the TAs and RAs at Concordia.”

On that day, PSAC sent the court a new list of their members, one in which they had a majority of memberships for TAs and RAs under contract on May 26. 

The reason they were able to refile despite being past the 60-day deadline was that PSAC had never filed TRAC’s Collective Agreement with TAT. In other words, in the eyes of TAT, TRAC’s Collective Agreement had expired on May 31, 2021.

“We just did a side agreement with the university,” said Eccles. “And so, what that means is that for the last few years, our union has been open to raids by other unions. It has not upheld the legal protections necessary.” 

The Collective Agreement had still been signed by the union and the university. According to Stuart, “even if it hadn’t been filed with the TAT, it was a signed, legally binding contract between Concordia and TRAC.”

As things stand now, CREW had a majority of signatures on April 3, and TRAC had a majority on May 26. There will be a secret email ballot in the fall to act as a tie-breaker and determine which union will be accredited. TAs and RAs should receive more information about who is eligible to vote in the next few weeks.

In the meantime, TRAC is still the official union and collects 1.84 per cent of TAs’ and RAs’ salaries, according to Eccles.

Where we currently stand

Two weeks ago, on August 22, TRAC elected their new executive team during an online General Assembly that student media was barred from attending. The quorum for the meeting was 30. TRAC claims that this quorum was met, at least during the votes at the beginning, but Eccles claims the election was done without meeting quorum.

Xiang Chen Zhu is TRAC’s newly elected mobilization officer. He initially supported CREW, but after the accreditation issues this summer, he started thinking that their campaign was taking time and attention away from bargaining and supporting TAs and RAs. “CREW has basically promised us everything will be transitioned smoothly,” he said, “and you will get a wage similar to the McGill students, which is around $33 [per hour].”

Marcus Granada, an organizer with CREW, disagrees with the idea that his union made false claims during their campaign last semester. He said that while CREW cannot make promises about wages or conditions, they can promise to fight for TAs and RAs. “Part of the campaign is being as transparent and honest as possible,” he said, “and not selling them a dream.”

What to expect in the coming months

Both unions are now turning their focus to the secret ballot this fall and the campaign that will precede it. The date for the vote is not yet set. 

“Of course, CREW is feeling very confident because, when we filed on April 3, we had over 1,700 of the 2,100 cards available,” said Eccles. “We had a strong majority.”

Granada highlighted the importance of mobilizing TAs and RAs to show up for the vote. “If the voter turnout is under 50 per cent of the TAs and RAs, then PSAC automatically wins,” he explained. “So we need to get the votes and we need to get a lot of people to vote as well.” 

On TRAC’s end, Zhu said they are ready to move on to bargaining. “Whoever wins the ballot, they should focus their time and effort on something that students really care about right now,” he said.

On her end, Bree Stuart believes that the secret ballot will give people a chance to express their true opinions about the union.“I just feel like it’s more ethical because people can take the time to sit down, educate themselves, and really make their own decision on what they want, who they feel is more apt at taking their bargaining demands into their own hands,” she said.

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Montreal freezes to a stop

On April 5, Montreal was hit by a freezing rain storm. Photo by Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman/ THE CONCORDIAN

Many students had to find new ways to study, as households lost power and internet

As finals approach, students are mustering up the strength to open up their textbooks one last time. However, nature decided to create some bumps in the road.

The city of Montreal ground to a halt two weeks ago due to freezing rain, forcing students to find creative new ways to study. The freezing rain started on Wednesday, April 5, and it soon created a spectacular landscape of ice. On Thursday morning, 1,114,750 households throughout Quebec did not have power. 

That night, Concordia alumni Danny Gold was walking home from his French class. As he walked down the street towards his home, he noticed that fallen branches were blocking the way. 

He hesitated, wondering if he should climb over them or find another way home. He eventually decided to go over the branches. 

“About two seconds after I step over these branches,” he recalled, “I take three steps, I hear ‘snap snap snap’ and then ‘boom!’ five feet behind me, a whole tree branch just came off the top of a tree and slammed on top of a car.”

The branch was around six inches thick, Gold estimated. It was thick enough to crack the windshield of the car behind him. 

The timing of the outages also coincided with Passover. Gold explained that offering help is an important part of the holiday, and of Judaism.

“If somebody knocks on your door, randomly, or messages you, someone you know, someone you don’t know, and they’re asking for shelter, for some food, any sort of help that you can provide from your home, it’s the biggest thing in Judaism to invite that person in your home, for nothing.”

Gold lives on the Plateau Mont-Royal, and his apartment was spared by the outages. So when a friend texted him asking for a place to warm up and charge their electronics, Gold was happy to help. He extended the invitation to coworkers, friends, and family. At some point, six people were crowding Gold’s Plateau apartment. 

For many Concordia students, losing power and heat was only part of their worries, as the threat of finals loomed on the horizon. 

Abilash Gunaratnam, a first-year Concordia science foundations student, lives in the West Island. He lost power from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. He also lost cell reception at the beginning of the outage. 

“The first two days, I was waiting for the power to come back on,” he said. “I had to get back to my school work, exams were coming, and I was stressed out. Exams weren’t too far away, and I needed to study.”

Gunaratnam initially thought the power would be back by early Friday morning. When that did not happen, he and his family decided to go stay with family members in Laval. 

“I was already behind, and then I got even more behind,” he said. “Since I had no power, I couldn’t study, so on Saturday I had to cover eight chapters [twice as much as planned.] And I had work on that day too.”

Matthew Erskine is a first-year computer science student. He lives in Pierrefonds and lost power from Wednesday night to Saturday morning.

Erskine was not overly worried about losing study time over the weekend, since most of his final assignments and exams were at the very end of the semester. He decided to go into school on Thursday morning to study and charge his electronics. 

“After the power came back on, I was just focused on not stressing too much,” he said. 

“In the grand scheme of things, it was just an inconvenience,” he added. “But needing food, that was the number one thing. Everything in our fridge was basically gone.”

Concordia itself was spared from the worst of the storm. According to the university’s spokesperson, Vannina Maestracci, neither campus lost power, and the facilities were open to students in need of power or internet.

Further accommodations like extensions were left in the hands of professors, said Maestracci, as the effects of the outages were very different throughout the island. 

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You do deserve to be here: Battling imposter phenomenon in university

Concordia counsellor hosts workshop on imposter phenomenon for students.

“I’m not supposed to be in this program.” “The selection committee must’ve made a mistake.” “I’m fooling everyone around me into thinking I know what I’m doing: that won’t last.”

These kinds of thoughts are typical of imposter phenomenon and all too common in university students, according to Camila Velez, Concordia wellness counsellor and psychotherapist. 

Imposter phenomenon is the belief that people falsely think you are more competent than you really are. It is accompanied by anxiety that you will be found out and exposed as a fraud. 

On April 6, Velez hosted a workshop exploring imposter phenomenon and how to deal with it.

Even though it is more commonly known as imposter syndrome, Velez prefers the term “phenomenon.”

“I think it really reflects the spectrum of imposter phenomenon,” she said. “How it’s multi-dimensional, and how it’s often influenced by external factors, not within the individual.” These factors include competitive environments or systemic barriers that can affect marginalized communities.

During the workshop, Velez explained that women and people of colour are more likely to experience imposter phenomenon. 

According to Velez, university structures are especially prone to contribute to students experiencing imposter phenomenon. Constant evaluations, feedback, new challenges, and the fear of failure contribute to students feeling incompetent. 

“Most of us experience those feelings, but we don’t share them [with others],” said Velez. “That’s also something that can be quite isolating as a university student.” 

During the workshop, Velez offered students an evaluation tool and several strategies to cope with imposter phenomenon. She advised students to normalize their feelings, to treat themselves with self-compassion, to practice a growth mindset and to say positive affirmations. 

Velez also warned against the culture that encourages students to let their mental health take the back seat. 

“We see our value tied to productivity, tied to achievements,” she said, “and we often neglect our mental health, our self-care. We neglect treating ourselves as human beings before students.”

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