Ensemble Montreal thinks residents should be aware of what the city does with their recycling. KAITLYNN RODNEY/THE CONCORDIAN
An investigation by Radio-Canada’s Enquête earlier this year showed Montreal ships bales of contaminated material to India
Ensemble Montréal, the Opposition party, is planning to present their proposals at the next city council meeting to improve recycling practices in Montreal. These requests come after the report by Enquête, who uncovered shocking recycling practices in Montreal.
Stephanie Valenzuela, city councillor of Ensemble Montréal said, “It’s something that we had been signaling as an opposition government for quite some time, you know. We had even back in December of 2020 to look into the state of recycling here in Montreal, but we got refused.”
Valenzuela stated the process dated back to 2019, when the city invested $487.2 million into new recycling centres that would sort and clean recycled goods efficiently. These recycled goods would then be used for other materials, or be sold to countries and businesses to reuse them.
However, it was found out that bales of recycled goods were being shipped to India full of contaminated material, a lot of which came from Montreal.
“So with the media coming out and actually showing what’s really taking place, there’s a clear lack of transparency on the end of the [Plante] administration,” Valenzuela explained.
The opposition wants to motion at the next council meeting for a meeting with the environmental department, and ask for monthly reports from Ricova, the recycling company hired by the city of Montreal.
Valenzuela highlighted that these reports will magnify what the recycling problems are and how long they have been going on, so that suggestions for possible solutions can be found.
“However, what I have to say is that obviously what definitely needs to be done without even looking at the statistics is that there has to be improvement in the performance of the sorting infrastructure,” she added.
The Concordian received a written statement in French from the city of Montreal, which discussed its Master Plan for the Management of Residual Materials in the Montreal Agglomeration 2020-2025 (PDGMR), which was implemented in 2020. It intends to work towards: “ prohibiting the distribution of certain single-use plastics (including shopping bags) [and] the deployment of food waste collection [for all buildings with nine or more dwellings, as well as other businesses, institutions and schools].. The city will also fight against food waste by promoting links between businesses and food banks. These efforts make it possible to meet the challenges linked to the environmental crisis”
When asked why these proposals were important, Valenzuela stated that we’re living in a climate crisis, and it is an urgent matter that must be dealt with.
“All Montrealers believe that they’re recycling, but the result of it is that it’s not actually working. […] We need to know what we’re actually engaging ourselves in, because the reality is that we have a lot of things that we need to change when it comes to environmentalism.”
Concordia will invest in a comprehensive cybersecurity program to further protect all computers on the university's network from potential cyber attacks. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
How five Canadian universities are paving the way towards safer data and cyber-infrastructure
The Government of Canada recently announced that they will award $76.4 million over four years to the National Cybersecurity Consortium (NCC), with additional funding bringing their total initial budget to $160-million. The NCC is a federally-incorporated non-for-profit partnership that was founded in 2020, which includes five Canadian universities: Concordia University, Ryerson University, the University of Calgary, the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Waterloo. It is intended to be a world-class cybersecurity innovation and talent development network.
This announcement came during a critical time when cybersecurity is being placed at the forefront — it is currently being used as a defense against cyber attacks and part of numerous military operations.
A few weeks before the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, Global Affairs Canada suffered a cyber attack. Canada’s cyber security agency speculates that the attack could have been from Russian or Russian-backed hackers. Mourad Debbabi, a Concordia University professor affiliated with the Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering and the director of Concordia’s Security Research Centre, emphasized the importance of such funding.
“It is everywhere; most companies have digitization and automation initiatives. One of the key factors for the successful deployment of technologies is security. So what’s the point of using technology if it’s not secured? Then you’re going to lose your data,” explained Debbabi.
This seems to be a key question that has potentially been neglected by the government until recently, when recent events, such as the cyber attack on the Global Affairs agency, pointed towards these gaps. Rafal Rohozinski, principal at the SecDev Group, senior fellow at Canada’s Centre for International Governance Innovation and CEO of Zeropoint security, has warned about a future cybergeddon— a conflict or a war that would take place in cyberspace and that would complete destroy society as we know it. This cybergeddon is something many security professionals fear, and have attempted to raise the alarm and point towards strengthening our cybersecurity.
Professor Debbabi states that the solution is in the numbers — and in collaboration.
“Very often, you don’t find that many faculty members with expertise in cybersecurity within one university. You need people that have the ability to defend and protect assets in terms of data, assets in terms of services, in terms of critical infrastructure — such as government networks, internet service providers and financial institutions. This is why creating an inter-university network, it’s an extremely smart idea because we will not work in isolation,” said Debabbi.
The above statement outlines the core mission of the NCC, which is to form a national and international network of cybersecurity research. Debbabi further states that the objective of the network is to advance the cybersecurity agenda — such as the network and the partnership between the universities— in terms of research and development (R&D), commercialization, innovation and training that is shared among the founder institutions.
“With this network, we can have a strong positive impact on cybersecurity in Canada. It will enhance the landscape of cybersecurity in terms of R&D, training, and innovation,” Debbabi explained.
“The network is giving us the means to bring together the ecosystem and instead of working in isolation, companies and universities will have the means to strategize, to work together and to define activities in these three areas.”
Concordia's Greenhouse on the 13th floor is just one of many urban farming projects across the city of Montreal. KAITLYNN RODNEY/THE CONCORDIAN
The Urban Agriculture lab is supporting agricultural projects within the city of Montreal – projects aimed not at filling your plates up but making you think
Montreal is a popular city for urban farms — more than 4.3 square kilometers of agricultural land around the island according to the Louis Bonduelle Foundation, an international organization dedicated to sustainable food missions.
Some of these farms are in the west of the island and despite being called urban farms, they are traditional farms in less urbanized areas of the island. The Urban Agriculture Lab (AU/LAB) is taking urban agriculture a step further by developing innovative agricultural techniques and connecting motivated individuals with land for their projects.
Vignes en ville is the success story of the Urban Agriculture Lab. Launched in 2017, and supported by the Urban Agriculture Lab, its vineyards are planted on five different roofs around Montreal.
“Urban agriculture is not meant to nourish the city,” said Véronique Lemieux, the founder of Vignes en ville. It shifts the focus from an unrealistic ideal of a city fed by its roof gardens, and chimeric proximity agriculture that relies on subsidies to survive, showing the lack of real need or interest from the inhabitants.
Education is the focus of urban agriculture; “It allows people that don’t necessarily have access to the soil to discover new ingredients, texture, colours.” said Lemieux.
She mentioned that some people don’t know what a potato plant looks like because they are not exposed to potato plants in their daily lives and don’t need to be. Yet, knowing what a plant looks like implies you know how it grows but also how hard it is to make it grow — giving value to the products.
Lemieux’s goal is to create initiatives that “bring a real solution. The point is not to be in competition with bio-intensive farmers, there are families behind these farms.”
The lab is developing innovative forms of agriculture by using existing agricultural knowledge and adapting it to the city’s needs: what needs to be produced, or recycled.
Vignes en ville, with the help of the Urban Agriculture Lab, responded to a need to recycle glass in the city: the sandy soil needed by the vine to grow can be replaced by crushed glass from used bottles, which avoids having to bring sand from mines from outside of the city. “You can’t destroy nature to develop agriculture in the city,” said Lemieux. According to Lemieux, 20,000 glass bottles were recycled in partnership with the SAQ, supplying a total of 345 vines around the roofs of the city, all with glass enriched soil.
The Urban Agriculture Lab’s new project, MontréalCulteurs, is a program inspired by the Parisculteur program launched in Paris in 2016. It links people with an empty plot of land, an available roof, basement, parking lot or any available space to facilitate urban agriculture businesses in need of space.
The Vignes en ville project is the perfect example: launched before the start of MontréalCulteurs, Lemieux had to approach the Urban Agriculture Lab proactively and convince them to start the Vignes en Villes project. The Urban Agriculture Lab is currently taking applications for starting urban agriculture companies via their email. The application needs to have a clear plan to start the project before 2023 and to be able to generate at least $5,000 in sales.
With just under 50 projects around the island, the Urban Agriculture Lab helps Montreal to be a leader in urban agriculture.
If you’re interested in projects like what the Urban Agriculture Lab is doing, contact the organization and the next Montreal melon roof farm project could be yours.
Concordia's EV building on the downtown campus. CAROLINE FABRE
Strike planned on the anniversary of the Maple Spring student strikes which prevented tuition hikes in Quebec in 2012
At a special assembly on Wednesday, March 16, Concordia University’s School of Community and Public Affairs Students’ Association (SCPASA) voted to strike. The demonstration will take place on March 22 – the ten year anniversary of the Maple Spring student strikes, one of the largest student walkouts in history, which saw thousands of students protest tuition hikes.
Today the SCPASA is striking for many of the same causes which students walked out for in 2012. Their primary concern is ongoing tuition hikes, although specific numbers regarding hikes were not shared in the motion.
“We continue the concerns about the ongoing privatization of education and the increasing tuition,” said Ellie Hamilton, a co-chair of the SCPASA Strike Readiness Committee and third year student at the School of Community and Public Affairs. The SCPASA is also striking for reasons that students in 2012 could never have seen coming – a lack of what they believe to be adequate health and safety measures provided by Concordia to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Concordia Student Union (CSU) published an open letter in February requesting the university implement a number of additional health and safety measures to accompany the return to campus, however Concordia has yet to comply with many of these requests such as providing K95 and KN95 masks to students.
“COVID exposed weaknesses. It didn’t create them, and they don’t go away just because we’re pretending the pandemic is over. So primarily tuition, secondarily health and safety and accessibility on campus.”
According to the SCPASA, 30 per cent of students at Concordia’s School of Community and Public Affairs voted in favor of the student association at the special general assembly where the strike was voted on. The School of Community and Public Affairs is an interdisciplinary program which integrates public policy, advocacy, and community development.
“For our first vote we had 76 per cent in favor, which is a very strong start. And again, we’re emphasizing over and over this is the first step, not the last.” said Hamilton.
The SCPASA will be planning other strikes in the near future with one set to take place on March 25, in order to line up with a future climate strike.
On March 22, the SCPASA will send representatives to the Large Protest for Free Education, an event organized by many Quebec student associations including the CSU, which will take place at Place Du Canada. Those involved will also be walking out of classes and engaging in friendly picketing on campus.
“In the short term, we want students to get experience with these types of mobilizations and we also want them to see that this is part of a bigger moment,” said Hamilton who explained that one of the main goals of this strike is “To help people place themselves within history. Understanding that this is the first step that builds us towards that point we saw with Maple Spring, where students were actually at the negotiating table directly with the government and not trying to do it by proxy through the provincial legislature.”
To Hamilton, organization, mobilization, and strikes like these are important because they have yielded very real and tangible results in the past, as was the case with the Maple Spring.
“This is what democracy looks like at its strongest; it’s when the people are able to get to the negotiating table and have a much more active voice informing policy than just casting a ballot through party machinery that they’ve never touched in their life,” said Hamilton.
Furthermore, to Hamilton fostering this democratic involvement is an essential role of education, which is hindered when universities become further privatized by increasing tuition costs.
“It’s important to protect education, because this is a necessary component to democracy,” said Hamilton.
“We want people to get good work from their university degrees. But if that’s all a university education is to people, we’re losing sight of that second piece that we need to be democratically engaged citizens.”
Concordia’s Student media comes together to profile this year’s CSU executive candidates
To cover this year’s CSU elections, The Concordian, The Link and CJLO News teamed up to interview several executive candidates. CSU elections will be held between March 15 – March 17.
Elijah Olise, general coordinator
Interview conducted by Zachary Fortier and Mohammad Khan, The Link
Elijah Olise is an urban studies student, currently working as a community organizer. Before running for general coordinator he planned to run as the CSU’s external coordinator in an effort to combine his work regarding housing, food security and community connection to Concordia and student government.
“I was hoping to connect the campus to work that I’m doing outside [school] and break down the walls of academia. To develop a mutually beneficial relationship for students as well as community members who are particularly part of marginalized communities.”
Olise wants to focus on further connecting the Concordia community and facilitating more student involvement with the CSU.
“I think it’s important to really invest more heavily into how we can build community,” said Olise.
As general coordinator he will focus on fostering this community through development of more clubs and events and encouraging greater democratic involvement within the CSU.
An ability to lead by example coupled with his decisiveness are some of the qualities Olise believes he possesses that will make him a good fit for general coordinator.
“When it’s necessary I’m decisive and ready to move forward on certain goals, past the talking phase and I encourage and inspire others around me to do exactly the same.”
Olise said some of his key values are community, inclusion, justice and sustainability.
Sean Levis, sustainability coordinator
Interview conducted by Cedric Gallant , CJLO News Editor
Sean Levis is a fifth year philosophy student at Concordia. In 2020 he began living at the Woodnote Solidarity Cooperative where he joined the finance committee, later becoming their treasurer. His major goals are to create greater institutional stability within the CSU and greater housing sustainability to Concordia students through supporting the Woodnote.
“The reason I chose sustainability was when I first moved into the Woodnote I realized that there was not a lot of support to ensure the sustainability of the organization itself,” said Levis.
“The reason why I’m running for the CSU sustainability coordinator is I think there are a lot of initiatives with regards to sustainability that need to be done within the Woodnote and I think there are some sustainability initiatives at the CSU that need to be undertaken as well.”
Levis wants to ensure that CSU councilors are more democratically connected to the faculties which they represent and held more accountable to accomplishing students wishes.
Encouraging more grassroots organizing by the student body, is one of Levi’s major goals. “The ability of students to organize in their member associations is somewhat limited because they don’t have the support or the resources that they could otherwise have from the CSU.”
Another of Levis’ key focuses is bringing food sustainability initiatives to the Woodnote to mitigate food insecurity. In addition to providing free hygiene products and bringing a composting program to the building.
Sabrina Morena, Loyola coordinator
Interview conducted by Evan Lindsay, Co-News Editor of The Concordian
Sabrina Morena is a third year human relations student at the Loyola campus. Some of Morena’s major goals as Loyola coordinator are to create more food options at the Loyola campus and creating a greater presence at the CSU there.
“I’ve been at Loyola the whole time throughout my undergraduate degree. […] There was a lack of presence of the CSU as well as lack of student life and sometype of engagement,” said Morena. “There should be some type of presence and some type of student life to make it more engaging and make those students who attend Loyola all the time feel like they matter as well.”
Morena said she wants to create more food options for students at Loyola or even create a discount card for restaurants around the campus. She also wants to bring more events like job fairs, orientation fairs and markets to the campus.
As Loyola coordinator Morena would try to highlight some of Loyola’s existing features like the Hive Café, a solidarity co-op program of which she is a board member.
“Many people I speak to in my classes don’t even know that the Hive exists or they might know but, they don’t know where it’s located,” said Morena.
“I want to bring more attention to [the Hive] because there could be some really cool initiatives that could be implemented at this location as well.
Meryem Benallal, finance coordinator
Interview Conducted by Zachary Fortier, The Link
Meryem Benallal is a second year student in political science. She has managed multiple companies, including her own, which lead to her running for the finance position.
“I opened my painting company with my husband. We had to do all the budgeting and the nitty gritty of a business. I learned a lot from that,” said Benallal. In addition to this, Benallal worked with two daycares managing their salaries, number of kids, different classes, and other regulations.
Benallal is a full time student and also a parent, which influences some of her biggest goals as finance coordinator. “My number one priority this semester is to hopefully fund or ease the struggles of student parents that I strongly empathize with.”
One of the important roles of the finance coordinator is to provide transparency to students on where their money goes – something Benallal thinks is very important
“Transparency is related to the students’ vision of where and how much they want to fund. I think we should first listen to what students want and their needs.”
Some of the areas that Benallal thinks require more funding are bursaries and CSU daycares. She also wants to provide greater transparency to students on where their tuition money goes and what students get out of that funding.
Fawaz Halloum, internal affairs coordinator
Interview conducted by Cedric Gallant, CJLO News Director
As the executive primarily responsible for clubs and spaces, Fawaz Halloum will work to guide student clubs, as well as organize communications within the CSU itself, including some financial matters. Halloum will also work to organize anti-oppression training within the CSU and the larger student body.
In his final year at Concordia. Halloum will draw on his experience as a founder of the Concordia Mycological Society.
“I truly hope to see more engagement from student clubs in experiential learning opportunities,” said Halloum.
“I do have a plan of creating a specialized fund for internships for mature enough clubs […] where they could conduct an internship if it’s appropriate to their mandate.”
One of his other goals is to create a special fund for journals for undergraduate scientific or arts programs.
Asli Isaaq, academic and advocacy coordinator
Interview Conducted by Zachary Fortier, The Link
Asli Isaaq is a second year sociology student. In the past she has been involved in the ASFA, particularly working in the Anti-Racism and Anti-Sexual Violence Taskforce. She was also president of her CEGEPs student association.
“Student advocacy comes with student mobilization,” said Isaaq.
“It’s very difficult for us to advocate for students if students aren’t involved first. Before we get to the step of advocating for students we first have to rally students behind us,” said Isaaq.
In addition to this, Isaaq said she wants to “set a new tone” with Concordia’s administration.
“I don’t doubt the incredible work that the past student execs have done. But clearly there is a point where something isn’t clicking,” said Isaaq.
“There has to be a point where we strategize and figure out how we can get what students want and also get this university on our side.”
Following the pandemic, Isaaq thinks students are missing support from the administration. She wants to ensure that students are not being penalized by the administration for how they are proceeding with education throughout the pandemic and beyond.
You can listen to the full interviews with each of these candidates on the CJLO News Podcast.
Many small efforts contribute to helping the incoming refugees after millions flee the war zone
Following Montreal’s first solidarity rally to support Ukrainians facing the Russian invasion, Montrealers are proactively preparing for relief efforts to help Ukrainians. The rally was organized by McGill and other universities on Feb. 24.
On the evening of March 9, Concordia University and Université de Montréal joined together to help the McGill Ukrainian Students’ Association (MUSA) make perogies (a popular Ukrainian dish) and donuts for a fundraiser scheduled the next day.
All the money collected went to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.
McGill Ukrainian Students Association’s perogie and donut sale to raise funds for the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
“What can we do as students right now?” asked Julia Hukowich, social and cultural director of MUSA. “You know, it’s small; we can probably only raise a couple of hundred dollars from this, but it’s something,” Hukowich added.
By the end of their fundraiser, the MUSA collected close to $900, with over 65 students attending the fundraiser showing support.
Annika Pavlin, a first-year international development student at McGill, shared her disappointment towards McGill while in line.
Concordia, along with McGill, shared their positions regarding the war in Ukraine in recent emails. Both universities defined Russia’s invasion as “conflict.”
“I’m here to support the private organizations, the clubs that have had to do what McGill is refusing to do, which is raise money, raise awareness,” said Pavlin.
Vitalia Khmil, president of the Concordia Ukrainian Students’ Union (CUSU), shared the same frustration as Pavlin.
“They just sent us an email […] they’re trying to stay inclusive. They didn’t mention anything about a war per se. They said ‘conflict,’ and it’s really important to get the vocabulary right because it’s clearly a war going on,” said Khmil.
Along with Khmil, Markel Reva, VP Finance of the CUSU, agreed Concordia can and should do more to help.
“They provided us with links to psychological care here and helplines, stuff like that, but that’s literally it”, said Khmil.
The current situation in Ukraine is very distressing for students like Khmil and Reva, who are trying to focus on midterms while their extended family is currently in Ukraine.
“We are trying to contact our universities to see how can we help Ukrainian students because we have midterms, we have exams, we have quizzes, and with all [that] happening […] I couldn’t read a single thing on my paper,” said Reva.
On Wednesday, Reva met with Andrew Woodall, Dean of Students at Concordia University, hoping to get more help.
“It is still very unclear on the position that Concordia is taking regarding the Russian aggression and the war in Ukraine.”
Woodall suggested that Reva speak with Graham Carr, President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University.
Though Reva can’t do much at Concordia right now, he and his family have offered their help through donations to St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Among the many churches turning into donation centres for Ukrainian refugees, St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church has been accepting donations for refugees since Feb. 26, the third day of the Russian invasion.
St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church is now receiving a large number of donations every day.
Donation boxes filled the floor of St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/THE CONCORDIAN
About two weeks ago, Reva’s family opened their home in the South Shore to collect donations 24/7 and bring them to the church. This included medication, clothes, food, hygiene products, sleeping bags, and more.
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new program to facilitate the immigration process of Ukrainian refugees, Montrealers have been helping newcomers through the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) Montreal Branch. This organization represents around 42,500 Ukrainians in Quebec.
The UCC helps in different ways, working as volunteers to help newcomers find housing, jobs, assisting with documentation, English tutoring, and more. The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program will accept an unlimited number of Ukrainians who want to come to Canada temporarily.
“It’s a huge undertaking that needs to be done, and we really appreciate the collaboration that we have with the city of Montreal in particular,” said Michael Shwec, president of the UCC Montreal Branch.
“We’re in a tight connection with the city to put together a robust plan to welcome them and make sure that they have a safe and warm place to stay,” Shwec added.
The UCC also provides a link on their website to donate money through the Canadian Red Cross.
“All Montrealers donating to the Red Cross and helping fund medical supplies and other forms of humanitarian aid are making a powerful impact on Ukraine’s ability to defend its people,” said Bogdan Lytvynenko, former news editor for The Concordian.
“Every dollar is critical. It is heartwarming and inspiring to see Montrealers donating and joining the rest of the world against the Russian aggression even despite being thousands of kilometres away from the warzone,” Lytvynenko added.
TRAC and other supporters came together on SGW campus to protest causes related to sexual assault and dropping of COVID restrictions. KAITLYNN RODNEY/THE CONCORDIAN
Concordia’s teaching assistants union and students gather to protest against a lack of transparency in sexual violence cases, aiming to spread awareness
“When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” That’s how protesters made their voices heard at the “Stand up Against Harassment” protest on March 8, International Women’s Day. The rally, held by the Norman Bethune statue, was intended to highlight the importance of acknowledging the lack of transparency in Concordia’s response to sexual violence and demand structural change.
The Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC) union organized the event, aiming to spread awareness and demand change regarding sexual violence victims who have been subject to Concordia’s treatment towards people suspected of committing sexual violence. Mya Walmsley, a TRAC delegate from Concordia’s Department of Philosophy, started her speech with a chant, enforcing the rally’s message for change, saying “We want change! When do we want it? Now!”
One of the reasons for the protest was philosophy students refusing to work with an unnamed professor in the department, who has an alleged history of sexual harassment. Until safer working conditions are set in place, the TAs and students refuse to work with him.
Late last year, the TRAC union created a petition, with 250 signatures, demanding from the university to be more transparent about cases of sexual assault and violence.
Concordia has been involved in six sexual allegation cases, from multiple departments, with one case dating back to the 90’s. In addition, from 2012 to 2018, six former Concordia students filed complaints to the Human Rights Commission about Concordia’s lack of response towards its students surrounding sexual violence cases.
“For a decade, the university has known about these allegations, and rather than working with survivors of sexual harassment, rather than working with students and staff to find a long-term solution, Concordia has swept these issues under the rug,” Walmsley explained.
The TRAC demands structural change to create a safer working environment, and an institutional response to sexual violence and harassment, emphasizing that sexual assault policies and gender violence must be survivor-centered, and it should never be a survivor’s responsibility to avoid the person who harassed or attacked them. Furthermore, the union demands Concordia protect survivors’ rights to tell their own stories, even if they have filed internal or external complaints. In addition, Students and TAs working and studying under the supervision of accused faculty members should be able to decide who they want to work with, or if the allegations have been dealt with satisfactorily.
Mathilde, one of the event organizers who wished to be referred to by they first name, made they stance on the topic clear.
“Today, we hold Concordia accountable for their action and responsibility towards all members of the Concordia community. We want everyone to be safe!”
Apart from the TRAC members and representatives, dozens of students and supporters joined the protest. Ra’anaa Brown, a doctoral student in the Art History Department joined the protest to show her support and draw awareness to unrecognized sexual violence at the university. “As a woman, as someone who has several sisters, as someone who knows non-binary and queer folks, this is an incredibly important cause for me,” Brown said. “Today is International Women’s Day, and it’s when women can come together across the globe, recognize our important contributions to society, but also fight for the basic human rights that we still do not have access to.”
Nelson Graves, both a master’s student and a TRAC delegate member in the philosophy department, has dedicated his time to fighting against prejudice in the Concordia administrative system. “It is a structural change. Yes, Concordia has the mandatory sexual violence course. However, someone that will perpetuate sexual violence is going to do it anyway, regardless if they have completed the course,” Graves explained. He believes that Concordia needs to enact more change, investigate how they work with survivors, and improve on transparency.
The government’s decision to ease sanitary measures may be a relief for certain businesses, however some experts believe that it can only be effectively done if properly safeguarded
Quebec’s Interim Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau announced in a press conference last week the easing of certain COVID-19 measures. As of March 12, Quebecers will no longer need to present their vaccination passport in public venues such as restaurants and bars, and businesses will be able to operate at 100 per cent capacity. By mid-April, the province intends to lift mask mandates, excluding on public transport, where mandates will remain in place until May.
Though Boileau and the Quebec government regard mask measures as an effective one, they cannot continue to oblige it. As the government continues to return to normalcy, Boileau said in his March 3 press conference that masks will become a personal choice. In last week’s press conference, Boileau lifted more health measures. For example, if asymptomatic, people will no longer need to self-isolate for five days if in contact with someone that has tested positive for COVID-19.
Though the government is adamant about continuing to lift sanitary COVID-19 measures, many are still questioning whether now is the best time to ease all restrictions. The virus’ prevalence has prompted experts to envision potential risks that could emerge from these actions later down the line.
Most businesses optimistic in return
For many businesses heavily impacted by COVID-19 regulations, this is a breath of relief. The hardest hit businesses, like restaurants and bars, are grateful that they can now return to serving customers free of added restrictions and measures imposed upon their business.
Martin Vézina, vice president of governmental and public affairs for Association Restauration Quebec (ARQ) claimed that many restaurants feel reassured with the easing of sanitary measures. “This is good news for us because it comes down to a certain sense of normalcy that we haven’t seen since March 2020. We’re looking forward to opening at full capacity.”
Restaurants that opened amid the pandemic like Bistro La Franquette are cautiously optimistic about easing measures. Co-owner Renée Deschenes has experienced many changes in health measures over the course of her restaurant’s existence, and feels like the added confusion from constant modifications has planted seeds of uncertainty and confusion among patrons entering her establishment.
“It’s nice and all that we are able to open up at 100 per cent capacity, but the after-effects of people being in lockdown, people having a curfew, and the general public not really knowing what the rules are and aren’t, those effects are definitely felt in the restaurant,” said Deschenes.
Experts are not fully convinced that now is the time to lift measures
Assistant professor at the McGill University Department of Medicine and infectious disease specialist Dr. Matthew Oughton is more cautious, and believes that though COVID-19 cases are low for now, the future of living with the virus can’t be accurately predicted. According to Oughton, continuing vaccine education, heavier viral monitoring, improving indoor air quality, and individual optimal vaccine protection are the four items that should be of primary concern while measures are eased.
Given how the virus has surprised many over the past two years, especially amid the emergence of variants with increased transmissibility like Omicron and BA.2, lifting sanitary measures may eventually lead to re-imposed measures on public spaces and venues. “All of a sudden within about a month or so it (Omicron) exploded in so many different parts of the world. So, could we see that same process again, given all of the surprises that COVID-19 has dealt us over the past two years, we should expect to be surprised.”
Despite the difficulty of accurately predicting if or when the next wave will hit, Oughton believes that if it does, it will be difficult for both the government and public health authorities to convince the public to respect re-implemented COVID-19 measures. “After two years, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people are very tired of dealing with this. […] Unfortunately, just because we are tired of the virus, that doesn’t mean the inverse, that the virus is tired of us.”
Despite the decline in cases, Oughton stated that most of Quebec’s population is not optimally protected from COVID-19. “If you look at the numbers, we’re about 91 per cent of people with at least one dose, we are at something like 87 per cent of the population with two doses, but we’re just only barely above 50 per cent of the population having three doses.”
Peter Darlington, associate professor in the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University explained that a virus’s lifespan ultimately depends upon the number of people it can infect. “How contagious it is would have an impact, because the virus essentially wants to be in as many people as possible. If you look at Ebola for example, the Ebola virus is not as transmissible because it has to travel through fluid, it’s not like an aerosol.” Darlington added that, the more variants like BA.2 are transmitted, there’s a greater possibility of other mutations occurring.
“Transmissibility is what derives its effects across a large population,” Oughton said. “Contagious diseases require close contact often for transmission so the more opportunities there are, the more you’re going to see some of these infections start to come back.”
The data on the presence of the BA.2 variant in areas like Montreal is still limited, but the lack of sufficient testing has prompted the Quebec government to re-monitor the virus through wastewater testing, a measure that experts like Oughton have been waiting for.
“I think it’s a brilliant measure and I’ve been arguing for this for a long time. By re-instituting our wastewater screening, we will have an early indicator that on a population level gives you a reasonable measure of the amount of disease activity.”
Safeguards like providing third doses to the near 50 per cent of Quebecers who have not yet received it, educating the public regarding the continued presence of the virus, and ensuring proper air quality in higher transmission zones are all effective measures to lessen the chances of transmission and re-imposed sanitary restrictions.
Protestors gathered near Parc metro station following International Women's Day. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
“Long live image resistance, long live solidarity and sisterhood. Long live International Women’s working days,” said Ishita Tiwary, spokesperson and assistant professor at Concordia
On March 12, hundreds of Montrealers gathered at Park metro station to march in solidarity following International Women’s Day.
The main message was to show the urgency to stand in solidarity with women facing all the injustices caused by the pandemic and all the social issues happening in all communities across Montreal and internationally.
Protestors, including members of feminist art collective Soy Nosotras (Above), gathered near Parc metro station following International Women’s Day. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
The rally is a yearly demonstration organized by the Women of Diverse Origins (WDO) organization to commemorate International Women’s Day and to recognize the history of injustices and inequalities that women face.
The organization was initially created in the wake of the Global War on Terrorism, the American-led military campaign launched following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
WDO includes women from different ethnicities, religions, and ages who join together to support women’s rights and fight against patriarchy, racism, capitalism, colonialism, fascism, and imperialism.
To honour the different ethnicities that make up the organization and to better represent all these women, the WDO invited women from various cultural backgrounds to share a word at the protest.
Wet’suwet’en elder and activist Marlene Hale spoke at the event on Saturday organized by Women of Diverse Origins. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
“Our stolen sisters — we still remember [them] from all across the land,” said Wet’suwet’en elder, activist, and chef Marlene Hale.
“Whether it’s one thing or the other, with the Indigenous, the non-Indigenous, for the coloured, we have been there before for each other.”
Kavitha Culasingam, a community organizer with the Centre des femmes d’ici et d’ailleurs, pointed out how the rise in violence against women and femicide in Quebec jeopardizes women’s rights of living equitably.
The Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development Canada, and Isabelle Charest, Minister for Education, shared a statement on March 2021 stating the COVID-19 pandemic increased the rates and severity of sexual and domestic violence against women in Quebec.
“It is important to remember that we can lose our rights at any time, and [we should] continue to fight,” said Culasingam.
Feminist art collective Soy Nosotras lit candles in solidarity with and remembrance of survivors of assault. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Culasingam highlighted women’s injustice in Quebec. Alee Coloma, a spokesperson of PINAY Quebec, an organization for migrant and immigrant Filipino women, called attention to the wars happening around the world and the injustices that follow.
“When we talk about war, we are not foolish enough to think that war is only happening in Ukraine. War is everywhere. In Europe, the Middle East, in Africa, in South America and Asia […] and who does war affect to the most, but women and children?” said Coloma.
During wars, women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, abuse and exploitation while caring for their families.
Feminist art collective Soy Nosotras organized an installation in which women could share their experiences of violence and assault in solidarity with one another. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Ishita Tiwary, spokesperson and assistant professor at Concordia said, “On this day, we raise our voices to demand peace, NATO provocation and the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian borders.”
Another solution suggested by Hélène Bissonnette, a member of the Socialist Fightback Students organization, is to transition into a socialist society.
“You see all the rise of violence in women, you see the rise of inequality, you see the attacks of abortion in the U.S. and across the world, they are real concrete reasons to fight against women’s oppression. But the root of all this, what we are seeing is that as the capitalist system,” said Bissonnette.
Concordia's GM Building on the SGW campus. The CSU is proposing a fee-levy to make more mental health services accessible to students. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Students will be able to vote on the creation of a new fee levy to fund the program in the upcoming by-elections.
The Concordia Student Union (CSU) is attempting to create a new fee levy to fund a CSU mental health service program. The program would feature dedicated long-term staff with experience in mental health services. The $0.45 per credit fee levy will be posed as a referendum question in the upcoming CSU by-elections.
The fee levy follows the result of a previous student referendum question where 96.8 per cent of participants voted in favor of establishing CSU-backed mental health services.
The idea to create more of these services came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has added extra stress to students’ mental health. However, this is not the key motivating factor for the CSU. They cited a growth in diversity within the Concordia student body as a reason to create more diverse and culturally appropriate mental health services – something that Faye Sun, sustainability coordinator for the CSU, thought was important to highlight.
“The way that mental health services operated in the past catered more to a very specific demographic of people.” said Sun. “Students who could afford to go to university.”
“Now we have more diversity in not just income, but race, culture, religion, and I think the services that are offered by a university and by a Student Union should be able to adapt to those changing circumstances as well.”
According to CSU Internal Affairs Coordinator Harrison Kirshner, the goal of the CSU’s mental health service isn’t to replace those already offered by the university but simply to create more complimentary services.
“We hope that the university service enhances. And that they’re able to offer more resources to students in the long run. But, our goal is to complement those services because in our opinion, mental health will always be an issue on campus. And we need to be able to provide resources to our students, and there’s never enough resources that we can provide,” said Kirshner.
“The current services that are being offered are inadequate and are overwhelmed. Students wait months and months for appointments,” Kirshner said.
Another goal of the CSU’s planned mental health services is to provide more preventative care for students.
”We have noticed that a lot of students tend to seek help whenever they’re in a crisis, but a lot of these issues are precipitated by a lot of various things that are going on in their lives that are not being addressed,” said Sun.
Sun said that housing insecurity, financial insecurity, unemployment, and other factors play a large role in students’ mental health. But, often they are not given enough consideration by existing mental health services.
“We would like to come up with initiatives and projects that can directly address those issues and [that’s] why we’re not just providing therapy itself. But, projects that hopefully can address these other issues that are contributing to students’ poor mental health.”
If the CSU’s mental health fee levy question passes in the next round of elections, these services could be introduced as soon as the 2022-23 academic year. Students will be given the opportunity to vote on the question from March 15-17 during the CSU by-elections.
For the past two Fridays, climate activists gathered to demand the federal government to refuse the project
Since Friday, Feb. 18, the Pour le futur student-run organization of climate activists have been skipping school to march every Friday afternoon to protest against the Bay du Nord (BdN) oil project. The organization took to the streets of Montreal again on Feb. 18 to demand the federal government to refuse the project, claiming it was incompatible with Canada’s climate targets.
The decision to go on strike for three weeks was meant to catch the attention of Steven Guilbault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, before his deadline to approve the project on March 6.
“We really want to put pressure on Guilbault […] to make the right decision for this project,” said Leticia Gonzalez, an organizer for Pour le futur.
The BdN project will be developed in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, if approved. Three oil resources locations were found in the area.
The project aims to extract 300 million to 1 billion barrels of oil over 30 years from 2028 when the project is supposed to begin operation.
Pour le futur’s goal is to create urgent action towards the current climate crisis, and they believe the BdN oil project is incompatible with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) suggestions. The IPPC’s report clarifies limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and the BdN project contributes to fossil fuel emissions.
Canada has pledged to reduce emissions by 40-45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Another of Canada’s targets is to be carbon neutral by 2050 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030.
“One of the first things we have to do is stop investing and stop allowing new oil exploitation projects,” said Shirley Barnea, spokesperson for the Pour le futur.
“That means in 2058, we’re still going to be producing oil. The entire world is supposed to be carbon neutral by 2050, and [the project] is completely against all of that,” she added.
Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology Andrew Parsons described a few weeks ago the BdN project as “critical” for Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy.
A report from Statista shows that mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction accounted for 40.45 per cent of the gross domestic product (GPD) of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020.
Due to the pandemic affecting the demand and supply chain, production decreased at every oilfield in Newfoundland in 2021 with total oil production down 9.5 per cent. Moreover, the corresponding value of production increased by 43.4 per cent. These prices compensate for the production decline.
“The one benefit [of this project] it’s that it’s going to help the economy. […] We think the way forward is for the government to invest in a just transition so that we can help the workers that are working in oil right now transition into something else because it doesn’t make sense to keep investing in something that’s killing the planet,” said Barnea.
According to Equinor’s website, the project will generate about $3.5 billion in revenue for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
“Right now, we’re focusing on BdN because it’s just such a polluting project that we really can’t afford to be building right now, but after hopefully if that’s rejected, we really want to push the government […] to deliver on a just transition that was promised in the 2019 elections,” said Barnea.
The last demonstration against the BdN will be on March 4 at the Montreal City Hall at 1:30 pm.
“The idea [is] to put as much as much pressure as we can on the government,” Barnea added.
Rev. Ihor Kutash, a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (left), and Eugène Czolij, a Montreal lawyer and Head of the Ukrainian World Congress (right), both helped to lead the demonstration on Sunday. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Last week, numerous demonstrations across Montreal showed support after Russian forces attacked Ukrainian territory
See photos from Sunday’s rally (Feb. 27).
Rev. Ihor Kutash, a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (left), and Eugène Czolij, a Montreal lawyer and Head of the Ukrainian World Congress (right), both helped to lead the demonstration on Sunday. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
KAITLYNN RODNEY/The Concordian
Bloc-Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet gave a speech at the Ukraine Solidarity Protest on Sunday, Feb. 27. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
JOËLLE JALBERT/The Concordian
KAITLYNN RODNEY/The Concordian
During the rally, protestors passed a giant Ukrainian flag across the crowd. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Bloc-Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet gave a speech at the Ukraine Solidarity Protest on Sunday, Feb. 27. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, many European attendees waved flags from nearby countries such as Georgia, as shown here. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
