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How an eConcordia lecturer is still teaching, even after his death

An eConcordia class is continuing to use online course content developed by late faculty member

Concordia student Aaron Ansuini was left shocked and confused last Wednesday when he tried to search for the email address of the man he believed to be his professor and instead found an “In Memoriam” page.

Ansuini is enrolled in “From Realism to Abstraction in Canadian Art,” an eConcordia course. The instructor for the course is Dr. Marco Deyasi, a current assistant professor of Art History, but the pre-recorded video lectures are by Dr. François-Marc Gagnon, former affiliate professor in the Department of Art History and founding director of Concordia’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art.

Gagnon died on March 28, 2019.

Deyasi describes his role as “an instructor helping students learn from the pre-recorded material by giving them individualized feedback on their written work.”

Ansuini claims that he was never told that the man whose video lectures he had been admiring was deceased. The only email he had received in relation to the course was unsigned, and from a “do-not-respond” address, he said. At the time, he assumed that the emails were from Gagnon. Although the course outline says that Deyasi is the instructor of the course while the lectures are by Gagnon, it would still be possible to assume, as Ansuini pointed out, that the two educators are both alive and reachable, currently working together to co-teach the course.

When Ansuini wanted to ask Gagnon about an art collector that he had mentioned in one of his lectures, he found himself unsure how to reach him. This led to him searching the internet for Gagnon’s email and discovering that he was dead.

“It was one of those moments where you’re like, ‘I can’t believe this,’” Ansuini said. “Like, am I being pranked? This is obviously not okay.”

Ansuini values communication with his professors.

“I really like engaging with my teachers,” he said. “I tend to just need that connection to the teachers so that they know what I’m communicating to them.”

“Not being neurotypical doesn’t always compete well with having multiple evaluators that you’ve never met,” he added.

“I definitely don’t think it’s very okay,” Ansuini said, addressing the continued use of Gagnon’s content after his death, without students being informed that he is deceased.

“Teachers aren’t comparable to textbooks or other reusable objects, and to compare the teacher-student relationship to something like that is pretty minimizing.”

After discovering that Gagnon was dead, Ansuini, stunned, tweeted about it. His tweets received attention from many people who were disturbed by the situation, including many university professors, teaching assistants, and other university and college students. His original tweet about the situation currently has over 23,000 retweets and over 1500 replies.

Ansuini says that the replies on Twitter helped him realize that it was important to bring the situation to people’s attention.

“[The] knee-jerk reaction is to feel a little scared, because, you know, I’m an ant in this enormous institution that’s probably not very fond of me,” he said. “The added perspective of other educators helped.”

Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci told The Concordian that Gagnon developed the course some time before his death and that eConcordia courses were made to last a long time.

“Dr. Gagnon was an expert in his field and this course uses his lectures as a teaching tool — as other courses use textbooks or other educational material to support teaching,” she said.

Johanne Sloan, chair of the Department of Art History at Concordia, says that a biography of Gagnon, informing students of his passing, has been made available to students in the class within the past few days, since Ansuini’s discovery and subsequent tweets.

“[Gagnon] was an extraordinary teacher … he was so able to immerse you in the topic, and he loved it,” Sloan said.

“It’s such a great benefit to be able to continue to offer the results of Professor Gagnon’s pedagogy and knowledge … it’s a gift, really, it’s his legacy that exists in this form.”

 

Graphic by Chloë Lalonde @ihooqstudio

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Concordia’s Black Perspectives Office strives to empower Black voices and aspirations at the university

The office offers mentorship, scholarship, and wide-range supportive opportunities for Black students

Having started off as a pilot project, Concordia’s Black Perspectives Office proved a success in 2019 and was permanently installed as an advocacy and support office for Black students at Concordia.

Three-time Concordia graduate, Montreal Black activist and author Annick Maugile Flavien is the founding coordinator at the office, which aims to address and challenge systemic racism by representing, connecting, and supporting Black perspectives.

“Our students, our faculty, our staff need spaces to connect with one another,” said Flavien during an interview with Concordia alumni Josie Fomé, Montreal journalist and podcast host featured in Concordia’s 4TH SPACE in December.

In this space, Black students can freely express themselves. Flavien said, “We can kind of talk about their actual issues, or like what they really want to talk about, because they don’t have to check their Blackness at the door.”

Advocacy, funding Black student projects and education, and creating new resources for Black students is part of the work done in the office. All scholarships and funds, which range from $300–$2,500, include consistent mentorship with Flavien to help students fulfill their goals.

Last year, the office began plans to build the Black Mental Wellness on Campus project: a new bilingual mental wellness website, which will include different year-long programs on wellness education, such as skillshares, workshops, and events.

The website says the project will integrate and work with practitioners and individuals “who are dedicated to anti-racist and holistic mental wellness.”

This term, the focus will be towards creating a mentorship program with Concordia alumni, and improving mental health services, by hiring from the Black community into the university and helping students find the resources they need.

Like everything else, the BPO services have moved online, and while that has presented many challenges, Flavien said students are working on innovative new ideas for Black initiatives.

 “It’s been really exciting because students have a lot of energy and want to engage and are coming in with their ideas,” said Flavien.

One of these new projects was Concordia’s Black Student Union (BSU), which began at the beginning of the fall 2020 semester.

Historically, Black student unions began as a way to fight racism and discrimination on campus in the 1960s. Concordia’s BSU aims to continue that legacy, along with celebrating Black excellence, and supporting Black voices and initiatives on campus.

Flavien’s vision for the office is similar to the decades-old practices of BSU: to create a culture and system similar to Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States.

“It was just about creating a space in which I could be myself, and I could meet people from my community; I could collaborate with them, I can innovate with them,” said Flavien.

“I think that long term vision, I see the BPO being a theoretical as well as a physical manifestation of that dream.”

 

Screenshot of the Black Perspectives Website

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News

Google vs. Australia: the first battle for the future of the internet

Google threatens to remove its search engine from Australia

It’s no secret that traditional news media has been having a hard time. The balance of power between news sites and aggregator sites is a fight as old as the internet. In this effort, the Australian government proposed a law last year that would require companies like Google and Facebook to pay to link to news stories.

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the goal of the law is to “address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, specifically Google and Facebook.”

It includes a set of rules for the publishers and social sites to adhere to, including publishing “core news,” maintaining editorial standards, and being primarily Australian in origin and intended audience.

However, Google did not take this lying down. About a week ago, a yellow warning sign appeared under the search bar in Australia that linked to an open letter from Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silvia. They are threatening to shut down Google search from the country if the proposed law takes effect.

Google argues in their statement that this “puts Google’s business in Australia — and the services we provide more than 19 million Australians — at enormous risks,” and this monumental shift to how the internet works would lead to unforeseen consequences.

Google representatives did not respond to The Concordian’s request for comment.

“Many countries are contemplating link taxes or other forms of revenue sharing,” according to Robert Fay, managing director of digital economy at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

“In France, for example, Alphabet [Google] has agreed to negotiate licenses to pay for content,” said Fay. That French example is an agreement between news publishers and the Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale (APIG), where publishers make a deal with Google to showcase their articles in search results for a negotiated fee, rather than just exposure. A similar program called Google News Showcase is in place in Germany and Brazil already.

The Australian law would force Google to pay for links to news sites, not for the content of the articles. 

John Hinds, president of lobbying group News Media Canada, thinks that the Australian model may be the way to go, and stated that “it’s the most effective model because it also has a code of conduct that also deals with some of the advertising issues beyond simply the idea of paying for content.”

The click economy relies on big services such as Facebook and Google to get eyes on pages. It was a mutually beneficial partnership for years, as news sites relied on the coverage that Google and Facebook could give them. In return, pages like Google and Facebook benefitted from consumers using their platforms by both finding and sharing articles. Both publishers and social sites take in ad revenue from the consumer looking at their respective pages.

Delphine Halgand-Mishra, senior fellow at CIGI argued that, “knowing that this article has a production cost to bring reliable information, then it is only fair that the media get a portion of the ad-revenue the online service providers gained thanks to users reading the article and spending time on the platform.”

Fey added that “Google’s concern is likely that if it agrees to what Australia proposes other countries will follow. That boat has left the dock. Google’s ultimatum is not in its best interest since, in the end, it would only lose market share if it begins to pull out of countries.”

This fight comes at a pivotal point in the information age (or misinformation age).

Traditional reporting has been falling on hard times since the internet became commonplace, not just in terms of diminished readership but also in the loss of advertising revenue. Ever since 2000, revenue for newspapers in both advertising and circulation has been unstable and declining, ad revenue dropping 44 per cent between 2006 and 2009 alone. Confidence in the news continues to be low, and layoffs in newsrooms only serve to compound the troubles.

The need for reporting did not go away, however, and reliable information has only since gone up in importance. The internet removed barriers to accessing information, while not proposing a way to pay for said information.

The path forward is not entirely clear now. These rules appear to be in defiance of net neutrality, the idea that the internet is a level playing field. Many different sets of rules are likely to be rolled out across the globe, with Australia and France perhaps only early forerunners of a larger movement.

“New problems could always arise from new legislation,” argued Halgand-Mishra.

“The devil is always in the details. No legislation is ever perfect. I think this legislation will mostly change the way Google pays news providers. Google will not pay in its own terms anymore.”

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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News

New study shows COVID-19 could become as common as a seasonal cold

Scientists explain that Coronavirus is likely here to stay

“It’s important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” said Dr. Michael Ryan during a press conference held by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 13 of 2020.

It is just shy of one year later and it still doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight for COVID-19. However, a new study published in the Science journal shows that the virus is likely here to stay.

As a matter of fact, four of the six types of coronaviruses that are known to affect humans are already endemic, according to a study in the journal Trends in Microbiology. These four viruses circulate freely and are just about as disruptive as a common cold.

But what does it mean when a virus is endemic and how does it get to be that way?

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, “Endemic refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.”

Diseases that are usually present in a community — without causing disruption — are referred to as endemic or “baseline.” A disease can continue to circulate at this “baseline” level indefinitely, and continues to be considered endemic so long as its level of prevalence does not get any higher.

“Our model, incorporating these components of immunity … suggests that once the endemic phase is reached and primary exposure is in childhood, CoV-2 may be no more virulent than the common cold,” states the abstract in the Science study.

That is to say, COVID-19 will still be contagious but won’t cause people to get as sick over time, eventually becoming just another viral infection, as a result of herd immunity.

According to pharmaceutical company and developers of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer, this type of immunity takes place when a greater part of the population becomes immune to a disease as a result of either vaccinations or immunity developed as a consequence of having contracted the disease.

However, according to a 2020 article published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in order for herd immunity to be effective, approximately 50 to 90 per cent of the population must be immune.

That being said, with only 2.22 per cent of the Canadian population having been vaccinated with the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and over 770,000 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of Jan. 30, there is still a long way to go until herd immunity is achieved.

Graphic by Taylor Reddam. @5ecret

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Concordia Student Union

CSU Positions Book expiry

A referendum question was passed for the points in the position book to expire after four years

A referendum question was put on the ballot at the Concordia Student Union (CSU) meeting on Jan. 27 to remove the recent expiry date on positions in the CSU’s Positions Book.

Back in February 2020, a different referendum question passed, giving all positions in the book a four-year expiry date. This referendum question caused a lot of controversy, including a campaign against it, called Vote NO to ‘Democratise’ Positions Book.

A positions book is a common practice in student unions: it is an outline of the unions’ position on political, social, and student-life issues. The CSU’s positions book varies from points such as the CSU being against unpaid internships to the CSU being against racism in all forms. 

Referendums are held throughout the year, and students can add questions to the ballot as long as they gain more than 500 signatures from other Concordia students and present the question to the CSU. Then, it is voted on during the student election, and if it passes, the CSU is mandated to implement it. The next referendum is from March 16 to 18.

The four-year expiry date was brought to referendum by former councilor Danielle Vandolder-Beaudin, who tried to have a similar motion passed in 2019. According to an article in The Link, it would have revoked over 50 positions in the book, such as freedom of expression and Indigenous solidarity.

“This document represents our political beliefs, and this represents our student body. In 10 years, maybe that won’t be a general statement. We can’t assume things like that,” said Vandolder-Beaudin in the 2020 meeting.

Other counselors did not agree with the referendum question, such as former councilor Hannah Jamet-Lange, who said she did not believe that issues such as feminism and Indigenous solidarity should be regularly voted on.

During the recent CSU meeting, there was a similar divide in reference to the new referendum question that would stop the four-year expiry date. 

Many councilors saw the four-year expiry date as a way to keep the position book updated and focused. While others, such as Harrison Kirshner and S Shivaane who presented the motion, saw this as a way to undermine minority groups in Concordia.

In the general election this past fall, students voted on 19 referendum questions, several being for the positions book: Indigenous rights, Anti-racism/Diversity and inclusion, and Antisemitism/Holocaust denial positions. All position questions passed with an overwhelming majority vote.

“We have heard this is a problem from many, many students,” said Kirshner at the CSU meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 27, explaining that many students were surprised the CSU didn’t already support these positions.

“It’s not a good look to say we’re fighting for Indigenous issues every four years,” said Academic and Advocacy Coordinator Sarah Mazhero, agreeing with Kirshner that constantly voting on positions can imply the CSU is questioning their legitimacy.

Councillor James Hanna believes that he has a way to please both sides when it comes to the four-year expiry date.

“I’d much rather prefer the position book to be transformed into something that is binding so the CSU can actually accomplish it,” said Hanna.

He explained that his current idea is to have open-ended headers, such as Indigenous solidarity and climate change. These headers would be permanent, creating an outline of how the CSU should take action.

Under these headers would be things such as actions that should be taken by the university, and organizations to support. These positions would expire after four years, as they change in relevance to the overarching issue.

While the policy committee will work on potentially implementing Hanna’s idea, students will vote on the positions book question during the spring election in March.

 

Logo courtesy of the Concordia Student Union.

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News

Lawyer speaks out alleging Montreal police racially profiled his client following a stop and search over his jacket

“I’m confident that if [he] were white, that interception would not have been the same way,” said Fernando Belton

On Jan. 17, Andy Basora was stopped by two police officers in front of his house in Villeray–Saint-Michel for wearing a red North Face jacket similar to one reported stolen over a month ago. A video of this incident was filmed and posted on social media, where it went viral.

Basora’s lawyer Fernando Belton explained that before the video was taken, Basora was walking home from the pharmacy with his brother when he saw a police car driving in the opposite direction.Then, the police car made a U-turn and approached Basora as he was entering his home.

The video begins with two officers approaching Basora. One officer, who wasn’t wearing a mask, tells him to follow them. When Basora asks why, the officer informs the young man that he is wearing a jacket that has been reported stolen. He then grabs him by the shoulder, brings him in front of the police car, and starts going through his pockets and asking questions.

According to Belton, the encounter lasted five minutes before the police officers realized Basora was not responsible for the theft. Belton claims that his client, who is of Dominican ethnicity, was subject to racial profiling.

“There’s the official answer from the police department, and there’s actually what you see on the video, which I think speaks clearly about the real motive of the interception,” Belton pointed out.

“I’m confident that if Andy were white, that interception would not have been the same way,” he added.

In a Twitter thread, Montreal police explained that the jacket Basora was wearing is the same as the one stolen during a violent mugging on Dec. 19, 2020. The tweets also explain the events leading to the altercation with Basora and why one officer was not wearing a mask. The SPVM claims that some situations require “quick and immediate intervention,” and wearing a mask is not “always possible.”

The SPVM police did not return a request for comment.

Belton insists that the officers in the video, who are the same officers that originally reported the robbery, had no reason to question his client.

“Does the police officer intercept every young person that they see with a red North Face coat? Which is, by the way, a coat that is really popular among the youth.”

He also highlights that the police officers violated his client’s rights because neither possessed a search warrant, which is necessary to stop someone. Belton emphasizes that there were no legal grounds for this interception other than an opportunity to profile a minority racially.

A recent report commissioned by the city of Montreal in 2019 shows striking evidence of racial profiling by the SPVM. The authors demonstrate that Indigenous people and Black people are between four to five times more likely to be stopped by the police than white people are.

Moving forward, Belton and his client are in the process of filing a complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission as well as one to the police ethics board.

 

Archive graphic.

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News

Poli Savvy: Keystone pipeline project stopped in its tracks

Biden administration revokes Keystone XL project permit despite consequences in Canada

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, a long-standing friend to the oil and gas industry, has spoken out in anger against the U.S. government’s decision to halt the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Alberta’s premier called upon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a press conference on Jan. 20 to impose economic and trade sanctions on the United States.

“Discuss this decision in the context of a way forward between Canada and the U.S. on environmental policy, climate policy and energy security. Surely that is the least that our closest friends and ally owes Canada,” Kenney said.

Trudeau simply said in a subsequent press conference, “While [Canadians] welcome the [U.S.] president’s commitment to fight climate change, we are disappointed but acknowledge the president’s decision to fulfill his election campaign promise on Keystone XL.”

Furthermore, Kenny mentioned the impact that this is having on Canadian jobs, with 1,000 construction jobs already held up by the news, and 58,000 more at risk.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday Jan. 20, President Biden made his decision, stating in the executive order found on the White House website that “The United States must prioritize the development of a clean energy economy, which will in turn create good jobs.”

Kenny failed to mention the dozens of Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States that are delighted to hear this news. There has been lots of controversy following the Keystone pipeline project, previously known as the TMX pipeline project.

Not only will the construction damage the Indigenous land that they build through, but the pipeline in turn can damage marine life and the water supply.

Cooper Price, an organizer with Climate Strike Canada, said in a statement to the Concordian, “The cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline was an environmental and political necessity. The Trudeau government must use the money saved by not building this frivolous pipeline to invest in renewable energy, a just transition for oil and gas industry workers, and support for Indigenous communities.”

This executive order will surely have some lasting effects on the Canada-U.S. relationship, as this exploit will surely not die with the end of the Trump administration. However, it also highlights the beginning of a new relationship between Canada and the U.S.: one that is more politically aligned with the new Biden administration, despite the consequent economic impact.

On the contrary, some Canadians may be ready to take the economic plunge that drifts alongside the need for new sources of renewable energy.

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JMSB student starts petition to turn Grey Nuns Residence into temporary homeless shelter

In just four days, the petition collected over 3,000 signatures

After the recent deaths of homeless people in Montreal, David Desjardins, a third-year John Molson School of Business (JMSB) student at Concordia University, wanted to do more than just raise awareness about the city’s growing homelessness crisis.

Since the start of the pandemic, Montreal’s homeless population has increased from a pre-pandemic figure of around 3,000 to hundreds, maybe thousands, more. While experts have not been able to pinpoint the exact figure, the increase has manifested at homeless shelters, with staff reporting that they are operating at full capacity, though this is not enough to adequately serve the city’s increasing homeless population.

Meanwhile, several student residences in the city remain closed due to the pandemic. At Concordia, the Grey Nuns Residence — a heritage student residence and hotel building located near the downtown campus — is closed, with almost 600 beds unoccupied since the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.

Desjardins decided to call on Concordia University to step in, and started a petition on Jan. 28, directed towards President of Concordia University Graham Carr, to turn the Grey Nuns Residence into a temporary homeless shelter.

Part of Desjardins’ motivation for starting the petition includes believing that “we need to act with urgency to find these people somewhere to stay, at least temporarily, or else we will see bloodshed.”

The petition, which started off with a goal of 150 signatures, currently has over 3,000.

“It’s been pretty impressive, I’m very happy to see all the support we’re getting,” said Desjardins.

In addition to it’s high occupancy rate, the Grey Nuns Residence boasts a cafeteria space, several multipurpose rooms, and 234-seat silent reading room. There are no specific plans on how this space would be used; instead, Desjardins said his petition is meant to get the ball rolling.

He believes new resources made available for the homeless during the pandemic, such as the Old Royal Victoria Hospital being converted to a homeless shelter in August 2020, “was a great first step.”

However, Desjardins believes that, in many ways, efforts to help the homeless have fallen short.

“I wouldn’t even say the government is doing much to be quite frank.”

Since enacting stricter lockdown measures on Jan. 9, Legault did not exempt the homeless population and homeless shelters from the 8 p.m. curfew. That decision not only meant that homeless people could incur fines up to $1,500 for being outside after curfew, but that shelters could no longer accept new clients past the curfew as well.

Even after the death of Raphael “Napa” Andre, a 51-year-old homeless man who froze to death in a portable toilet just a few metres away from a shelter after curfew, Legault said he would continue to refuse exempting the homeless population from curfew regulations.

“You have to understand that if we put in the law that a homeless person cannot get a ticket, well then anyone could say “I’m homeless,” explained Legault.

Severe backlash followed Legault’s stance, with politicians and community members calling on the premier to have compassion towards the homeless. On Jan. 26, a Quebec Superior Court judge reversed Legault’s regulation, ruling the homeless were no longer subject to curfew.

Following the government’s rocky commitment to the issue, Desjardins looked for new solutions to help with the homelessness problem. He believes more organizations and businesses should be willing to help.

“I think that anybody who does not take action in these times where it’s needed, are going to be guilty and are going to have blood on their hands,” said Desjardins.

If the project is approved, Desjardins thinks the university would have to find creative ways to fund the project. While he would allow a portion of his own tuition to fund the project, he believes many students would be against their own tuition being used.

“Once we have a green light, we can look at finding ways to get food, clothing, personal protective equipment … and all kinds of other things that are going to require funding for this project,” said Desjardins.

For now, he has contacted staff from the Grey Nuns Residence, and says he would be open to being involved with the project if it goes forward.

“I’m just doing everything I possibly can to make this happen at the moment,” said Desjardins.

 

Photograph by Christine Beaudoin

Interview conducted by Hadassah Alencar and edited by Adam Mbowe.

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Quebec Restaurants are struggling to stay afloat

With the introduction of a commission-free delivery app, restaurants are given a lifeline

It is no secret that the restaurant and food industry is suffering from some effects of the pandemic.

The average restaurant in normal times could attribute most of their business to dine-in service, with take-out and delivery sales making up a smaller portion of revenues. Nowadays with in-house dining not being an option, all of Quebec restaurants’ revenues are from the takeout and delivery avenues.

While provinces like Ontario and British Columbia have set caps on the commission fees that delivery services like SkipTheDishes and UberEats can charge to restaurants, the Quebec government has all but done the same.

Though some of these services have offset the initial costs to set up their use for restaurants, the large commission fees are weighing down the open restaurants, and have brought others to close their doors.

Sherif Hafez, owner of Essence restaurant in downtown Montreal, has closed his restaurant after trying to operate with delivery services like SkipTheDishes for six months, saying, “You’re basically working for them and there’s nothing left for yourself.”

When the costs of operation such as labour, hydro and rent are put into the equation, and on top of that delivery services skim 30 to 35 per cent, “It wasn’t worth it at all to operate,” said Hafez.

Quebec restaurants that have thrived off the merit and business of the customer that dines in, are sinking. According to business owners like Hafez, the government is turning its back on them.

“I think it’s along the lines of the lack of support to the industry. The provincial government has not been supportive of the industry at all,” he said.

In light of these needs for restaurants, a new commission-free delivery service has arisen: CHK PLZ. To date, the app has received an average of a 4.7/5 user rating between the iOS and Google Play app stores.

The app does not take such high percentages off the top of restaurants’ orders, but rather a fixed rate per transaction. Instead of having its own fleet of drivers, the company partners with rideshare services, such as Montreal-based company, Eva.

When asked if he would consider trying out a commission free delivery service, Hafez said he would be open to trying the idea out.

Annie Clavette, owner of Le Gras Dur and Maamm Bolduc in Montreal, has enjoyed her experience with the service thus far.

“We like [CHK PLZ] very much but the sad part is not enough customers use it; UberEats is the more expensive and the most popular one — go figure,” she said.

While Le Gras Dur is available for order on a variety of delivery platforms, Clavette’s approach has seen her relocate the setup as a ghost kitchen at Maamm Bolduc. The ghost kitchen model sees restaurants geared towards takeout and delivery specifically — it is essentially just an operating kitchen, without having the added space of a dining room and a bar. By doing so, restaurants are able to save on many operational costs, much like a food truck.

Though Clavette has worked hard to receive support from the Association Restauration Québec, no new regulations or support systems have trickled down the grapevine as of yet.

For business owners like Clavette and Hafez, having to fight for support from the government to keep your profits can be demoralizing.

As Clavette put it, “It is very frustrating, you feel you are begging for your money.”

 

Photograph by Christine Beaudoin

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MPs unanimously vote to designate the Proud Boys group as terrorist organization

Stand back and DON’T standby

On Jan. 8, leader of the New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh tweeted a petition calling on the Trudeau government to ban the Proud Boys and designate them as a terrorist organization. On the NDP’s website, the petition claims that the Proud Boys were present and involved in leading the assault against the US Capitol building earlier this month. They declared that this was an act of domestic terrorism. In Canada, there was a brawl that took place in Toronto’s Eaton Centre in 2019 following an anti-Muslim event that was attended by Proud Boys members.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Proud Boys as a hate group. The group was established in the midst of the 2016 United States presidential election. They describe themselves as western chauvinists and a fraternal organization.

Members of Canada’s parliament passed by unanimous consent a motion introduced by Singh to designate the group as a terrorist organization on Monday. The federal government has yet to officially designate the group as a terrorist entity.

There are three degrees to membership in the Proud Boys. The first is to declare that you are a western chauvinist and that you will not apologize for “creating the modern world.” The second is to give up masturbation and endure a beating from fellow Proud Boys until you can name five breakfast cereals in order to demonstrate “adrenaline control.” The third is to get a Proud Boys tattoo. The group reached another level of infamy during the recent U.S. presidential debates when Donald Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and standby.”

The Proud Boys was founded by Gavin McInnes who also co-founded the popular media platform VICE. In the NDP website’s petition they refer to McInnes by stating “Alarmingly, their founder is from Canada.” McInnes was born in England, raised in Ottawa and moved to Montreal where he co-founded VICE in 1994 before moving to New York.

In the United States, there is a Change.org petition calling on newly inaugurated US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Counter-Terrorism to declare the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. At this time, there are almost 500,000 signees.

 

Graphic by Rose-Marie Dion

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News

“Unity”: Biden’s message for America

The new administration’s pipeline stance not evidence of Trump’s lingering aggressive diplomatic strategy, says former U.S. diplomat

“The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded,” said Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the newly sworn-in 46th president of the United States in his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, while overlooking Capitol Hill.

Sitting adjacent to the president, Vice President Kamala Devi Harris made history as the first Black and South Asian American woman to hold the position, along with her husband Doug Emhoff, the Nation’s first Second Gentleman.

Two weeks earlier, riots engulfed the government building, with right-wing protestors seeking to disrupt Biden’s electoral ballot certification, in an attempted coup to keep former president Trump in power.

Trump’s inaugural speech in 2017 told Americans they were witnessing “the birth of a new millennium,” where, “a new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights and heal our divisions.”

After refusing to attend the new president’s inauguration, Trump departed Washington D.C. on Air Force One the same morning before official ceremonies began, leaving behind a nation unhealed.

In his inaugural speech, Biden acknowledged the violent insurrection at the Capitol that left five dead and dozens injured, the rise of civil unrest, political extremism, economic inequality, and a public health crisis that has killed over 400,000 Americans.

Instead of “America First,” Biden called for the nation’s commitment to progress and “that most elusive of things in a democracy: unity.” Reminiscent of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, Biden asked to not solely rely on the government, but to do their part in healing the country’s strife.

Just over 39 million people watched Biden’s inauguration across major television networks. For the international community watching on, Biden said, “America has been tested, and we have come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was one of the first world leaders to congratulate the Democratic party’s win, both during election week and after the inaugural ceremony. Over the past four years of the Trump administration, diplomatic tension rose between the two countries.

“Unprecedented, and a bit chaotic,” said Sarah Goldfeder, former U.S. diplomat and fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, on the previous administration’s relations with Canada. The “America First” policy marked an aggressive international stance, where the former administration sought to undo unilaterally beneficial agreements, to give preferential treatment to U.S. interests.

The former U.S. ambassador to Canada during the Trump administration, Kelly Craft, came with a mission to implement this new vision, Goldfeder explained.

“When she came in, there was a very distinct kind of focus to what she was here to do — and it ended up being NAFTA.”

While not completely overriding other countries’ interest as Trump initially promised, the administration did manage to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) in March 2020, which included giving Americans an increase to 3.6 per cent from 3.25 per cent of the Canadian dairy market.

After a mere 22 months as ambassador, with a third of that time spent away from her post, Craft was moved to serve as Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations. During that time, there was no U.S. ambassador to Canada, causing a rift between the countries’ communications.

“That’s a big level of … connectivity, kind of a sub-political level that just wasn’t there,” said Goldfeder, on the lack of U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

With Biden promising to return to normal relations between countries, it came as a surprise to Canada when the new administration repealed the Keystone XL pipeline permit.

According to Goldfeder, this seemingly aggressive stance was not a continuation of Trump’s diplomatic practices, but a decision to return to former Democratic policies under the Obama administration.

“I think [what] Canada forgets [about] the Keystone presidential permit is that that decision was actually made initially, in 2015, to not grant the presidential permit by the Obama administration,” said Goldfeder.

Initially proposed in 2008, it took more than 10 years of conflicting political debate for the pipeline to come to end, with Obama’s vetoing of the project in 2015. In his decision, Obama acknowledged the pipeline would not contribute to the administration’s work towards sustainability and the fight against climate change.

Overall, Goldfeder has high hopes for the new administration.

“I think that what you’ll see with the Biden administration is a return to professionalism.”

Also in agreement is Graham G. Dodds, professor & associate chair in the department of Political Science at Concordia University, who feels that the new administration “will likely be a welcome change for Canada.”

The past four years hurt Canada’s close relationship with the U.S.; however, “common interests and shared values” is the bedrock of the two countries’ relationship, not who is leading the respective countries, said Dodds. But it doesn’t hurt to work with someone you see eye-to-eye with either.

“As someone well acquainted with facts, reason, and civility, Biden will likely be much easier for Canada and other allies to deal with than his erratic and caustic predecessor,” said Dodds.

 

Graphic by Lily Cowper

Categories
News

Thousands of Canadians vacationed in the Caribbean amid second wave of COVID-19

 

Update:

Non-essential flights to Mexico and the Caribbean will be suspended from Jan. 31 until April 30, Trudeau announced on Friday in response to the high volume of travel over the holiday season. 

All passengers will now have to take a mandatory PCR COVID-19 test upon arrival in Canada. They must self-quarantine for three days in a designated hotel before the test results are known—a procedure that may cost “more than $2,000” per traveller according to the prime minister. 

Until May, only Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver airports will service international flights. Canadian airlines such as WestJet, Air Canada, Sunwing, and Air Transat have all agreed to suspend their vacation-bound flights to further limit non-essential travel in the coming months.

 

Since October, Canadian airlines have completed over 1,500 flights between Canada and tropical vacation destinations. Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport alone operated more than 180 flights to and from Cancun, Mexico, over the same period.

While Canadians are advised to avoid travelling outside the country for non-essential purposes, there is no official ban that would prevent one from doing so. Travellers are not breaking any law if they self-isolate for two weeks immediately after returning from their non-essential trip.

On Jan. 2, Canadian airports registered over 50 flights between sunny destinations including Jamaica, Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. That same day, Canada witnessed 10,209 new COVID-19 cases, an all-time high since the start of the pandemic.

As a result, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned potential travellers that more severe travel restrictions may come into effect in the near future, without advance notice. Canadians are expected to follow Trudeau’s advice regarding travel before the government is forced to take more extreme measures.

“Let me be very clear: Nobody should be taking a vacation abroad right now. If you’ve got one planned, cancel it – and don’t book a trip for spring break. We need to hang on and hold tight for the next few months, and get through to the spring in the best shape possible,” Trudeau tweeted on Friday.

As of Jan. 7, all passengers over the age of five who are flying into Canada must present a negative COVID-19 test to be allowed to board the flight. The negative result will only be considered valid if the test was taken within 72 hours before boarding the flight.

Gabriel Martinica, a second-year Computer Science student at Concordia University, returned to Canada on Jan. 11 for the winter term. The journey from his home country of Nicaragua included a layover at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where Martinica encountered a concerning situation.

“At the airport, I saw many people who weren’t wearing a mask or following social distancing. The restaurants were open, and the tables were positioned way too close together. It was a pretty scary experience since the airport was so crowded and travellers acted as if the pandemic didn’t exist in the U.S.,” said Martinica.

In fact, the United States currently has 9.8 million active COVID-19 cases, the highest number in the entire world. Moreover, the U.S. has over 75,000 total recorded cases per one million people, while its northern neighbour has around 21,000.

Martinica added, “I was happy to finally arrive in Montreal, because there is a noticeable difference. The immigration officer immediately checked for my COVID test, asked how I was planning to isolate myself and get groceries for two weeks, and he warned me about potential fines.”

Any traveller who does not self-isolate upon entering Canada may receive a fine of up to $750,000 and/or be imprisoned for six months. Two days into the quarantine period, Martinica received a phone call from the Canadian government, which was to make sure the self-isolation process was being thoroughly completed.

Canada seems to have more control over the pandemic and takes it more seriously,” the international student concluded.

Nevertheless, in the first nine days of 2021, over 30 international flights that landed in Toronto had a passenger who ended up contracting the coronavirus.

For many Canadians, including some highly-ranked politicians, travelling to the south is a way of temporarily escaping from reality and forgetting about the pandemic, which has already lasted an entire year. However, just one short getaway during these times can damage one’s career and reputation.

Linda Hasenfratz, a member of Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, visited sunny Barbados in December. As the news spread to the general public earlier this month, Hasenfratz stepped down from her position and made a public apology, admitting that her winter break vacation was unacceptable.

Moreover, Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips has also resigned from his post following a trip to the Caribbean island of St. Barts, also in December. Since the vacation took place during Ontario’s strict lockdown, Phillips later called his actions “a significant error in judgment—a dumb, dumb mistake.”

Despite being greatly discouraged by the Trudeau government, Canadians may still fly abroad with no legal repercussions as of Jan. 24. Deciding whether to go on a tropical vacation during this worrying period now comes down to every Canadian’s personal judgment.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam.

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