An example of a Golden Key International Honour Society membership letter. Photo by Alex Cole
Questions and answers about Concordia’s chapter of the international honour society
An undergraduate student in actuarial mathematics, Lisa Ho was a bit surprised when she was sent an invitation to join the Golden Key International Honour Society. Nonetheless, she was glad to be “recognized for [her] academic achievement” at the Concordia Golden Key chapter’s New Membership Recognition event on Oct. 27.
Psychology students Maneli Nourzad and Mehrnoosh Pezeshk, who also attended the event, joined the honour society because they believed it would look good on their CVs.
The New Member Recognition event featured student leaders from Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, as well as Montreal-native and director of Golden Key Canada Ian Sankey. Speakers explained membership benefits and awarded honourary memberships to John Molson School of Business (JMSB) professor Karim Boulos and Concordia alumnus and Montreal-born break-dancer Luca Patuelli.
If the Golden Key International Honour Society sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve received a letter inviting you to join as well. According to the co-president of Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, Natasha Sabelli, undergraduate students in the top 15 per cent of their program are invited to join the non-profit organization. This amounts to approximately 1,000 letters being sent out across Concordia’s four faculties each year, according to Sabelli.
How is Concordia’s Golden Key chapter funded?
In an interview with The Concordian, Sabelli said “all the funding comes from members who join.” The chapter does not receive any money from Concordia. As the invitation to join the society discloses, each new member of Golden Key pays a one-time membership fee of $90.
“For every new member that joins the Concordia chapter, we receive $12 towards our chapter funding and $2 goes towards scholarship funding for the chapter,” Sabelli said. The remaining $76 goes to Golden Key’s headquarters to fund the more than $500,000 in scholarships distributed by the organization every year, Sabelli added. Some of that remaining money also goes towards conferences like the Golden Key Canadian Regional Summit (CANCON) which the Concordia chapter will host in Montreal in February 2018.
Of the 1,000 letters sent out to prospective members by the Dean of Students office, Sabelli estimates that 500 Concordia students join Golden Key each year.
Concordia’s chapter was formed in 2001 and averages about 1,000 members at the university in any given year, according to their website. There are over 400 chapters at universities across eight countries.
What does Concordia’s Golden Key chapter do?
According to Sabelli, Concordia’s Golden Key chapter has Chapter Gold Standard. To obtain this level, Sabelli said the chapter must have at least seven officers on the executive team, host a member recognition event and partake in philanthropic events and initiatives.
Brent Pearce, a JMSB professor and the faculty advisor to Concordia’s Golden Key chapter, mentioned the importance of the chapter’s charitable projects. Pearce got the chapter involved with his charity, Christmas 4 A Cause, an organization that provides Christmas gifts and other donations to underprivileged families and children in Montreal. “We put smiles on kids faces,” he said. “We provide Christmas for families in need.”
How does Golden Key obtain student information?
Technically, they don’t, not until students provide it. In an email to The Concordian, university spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said, “the Dean of Students office identifies students who qualify for admittance to the Golden Key International Honour Society.” This means chosen students are responsible for contacting the organization and providing their personal information if they are interested in joining. “At no time does the university share personal student information with the Golden Key organization,” Barr wrote.
In April 2007, Golden Key was mentioned in a privacy complaint report filed against Ryerson University. A student at the Toronto university contacted the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC)—whose mandate is to promote open government and protect Ontarians’ privacy rights––concerning Golden Key’s access to students’ personal information.
Based on Ontario’s privacy legislation and the Ryerson University Act—which allows the university to collect student information for objectives such as advancements in learning––the investigator determined Ryerson did not reveal “students’ information prior to students’ acceptance of [Golden Key] invitations.”
What comes with joining Golden Key?
According to Pearce, joining Golden Key is a good opportunity for students to give back to the community, build a network of contacts and apply for scholarships and bursaries provided by Concordia’s Golden Key chapter and Golden Key’s International Honour Society.
According to Sabelli, the Concordia chapter gives out two to three scholarships totaling $1,500 to Golden Key members each year. The International Golden Key also awards a $1,500 to $5,000 scholarship to a Concordia chapter member annually, Sabelli added. In 2016, two Concordia students obtained bursaries from the Concordia chapter and one student received a bursary from the international organization, Sabelli said.
To Pearce, joining Golden Key gives members “a ready-made network of well over a million people in the world. […] The International Golden Key is everywhere.”
Sara Shields-Rivard is a Concordia music student, a singer and a Collabra-dabra-tory executive. Photo by Alex Hutchins
Concordia’s musical improvisation club connects, unites and empowers students
“I get out of every session with so much energy and a clear mind. It feels very similar to meditation in that way,” said Concordia music student Sara Shields-Rivard. She achieves this mental clarity through a type of musical therapy—one she strives to share with the Concordia community.
Shields-Rivard is an executive of Collabra-dabra-tory, a club at Concordia that practices musical improvisation. Students from a variety of backgrounds are welcomed to sessions every two weeks to contribute to a musical creation using their voices, instruments provided or instruments of their own.
The sessions are often led by Dr. Irene Feher, a professor who teaches voice at Concordia. Feher helps guide the direction of the improvisation by controlling the flow and allowing people to solo, play all together or pass melodies between participants. Feher and Shields-Rivard came up with the idea for a musical improvisation club together during one of their voice lessons.
“I mentioned something about how the Concordia music department didn’t have enough extra-curricular stuff going on for students. I felt that most people went to class and went home,” Shields-Rivard said. “I also felt that I was becoming too focused on the academics of music rather than the fun parts of it.”
Feher spoke to Shields-Rivard about Music For People, an organization she is a member of, created by Grammy award-winning cellist David Darling, that experiments with musical improvisation. They decided it would be the perfect idea to base a student club off of.
Another one of Feher’s voice students, Olivia Charlebois-Brandvold, is now Shields-Rivard’s co-executive at Collabra-dabra-tory.
“I was feeling a bit down because it was my first year in the music program and I felt like everyone already kind of knew each other, and I hadn’t really made any friends or connections yet,” Charlebois-Brandvold said. She was looking for a way to get more involved at school when she found herself in line at the People’s Potato behind Shields-Rivard, Feher and former club executive Meghan Riley.
Collabra-dabra-tory executive Olivia Charlebois-Brandvold studies classical voice at Concordia. Photo by Alex Hutchins
“Meghan just turned around and said, ‘Hey, we’re in a lot of the same classes together, would you want to run this new club with us?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’ It was definitely one of those right place, right time moments,” Charlebois-Brandvold said.
A year and a half has passed since Collabra-dabra-tory came to be and it has since developed into much more than the co-executives ever imagined. Shields-Rivard said they started off with an average of 15 people attending each session, but since the beginning of the fall semester this year, they have doubled that number at almost every meeting.
At their bi-weekly sessions, they experiment with new ideas and methods of improvisation. Feher and the executives try to facilitate activities that are accessible to both beginner and advanced musicians and singers.
“Last [session], for example, each group picked a nursery rhyme that they were very familiar with. Each group started off by singing or playing the lullaby as they knew it, but, by the time their time was up, the song had morphed into a whole new song that sounded very different from the original,” Charlebois-Brandvold said. “It was really cool.”
Shields-Rivard said they often practice with the “ABA” structure; starting off with an idea, bringing it to a completely new place and taking back to the original idea again.
“This kind of activity is free and basic enough that it makes it accessible to all levels of musicianship,” Shields-Rivard said. “You can make your improvisation simple or very complex.”
According to the executives, Collabra-dabra-tory is the perfect place for people who are hesitant to try improvisation-based activities. Charlebois-Brandvold said she has a love-hate relationship with it herself.
“Even though it is a musical improv club, every fibre of my being recoils against improvisation. It’s really hard for me to be vulnerable in that way and not care what people think,” she said. “Because of that, the sessions have become very therapeutic for me. I really feel that, with every meeting, I am taking down another brick from this wall that we put up for ourselves.”
Collabra-dabra-tory provides a space to make mistakes—in fact, nothing is considered a mistake during their musical improvisation sessions.
“One of our club mantras is, ‘there are no wrong notes!’ That way there’s no pressure to ‘sound good.’ The focus [is instead] on feeling and intuition. We are often surprised at the beauty and freedom of atonality,” Shields-Rivard said.
For students who love music (whether they play an instrument or not) and are looking to get out of their comfort zone in a safe space that is free of judgement, the executives of Collabra-dabra-tory wait with open arms.
“Musical improv is so therapeutic,” Shields-Rivard said. “The musicians that come are really amazing—not just at their craft but as people. You really get to see everyone’s true colours in that room because of how safe we feel together, but also because of how vulnerable the music makes us. We feel connected, united, empowered.”
Collabra-dabra-tory sessions are held every two weeks on Monday nights from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Their next meeting will be on Nov. 20. For more information, visit theirFacebook page or e-mail them at collabra.dabra.tory@gmail.com.
Ghost stories involving Grey Nuns are nothing new.
An inside look at Concordia’s haunted residence
For many Concordia students, the ghost stories surrounding Grey Nuns—the former convent and current downtown residence—are nothing new.
According to former Grey Nuns resident Gabby Crowley, people have claimed multiple children from the building’s daycare report having the same “imaginary friend,” a man with tattered clothing and burnt flesh.
“It was actually kind of cool,” Crowley said, “but I was never really freaked out [by the stories].”
In 2016, CBC News confirmed 50 orphans died in a fire in 1918.
Concordia professor Daniel O’Leary explained that, among the many stories about Grey Nuns, the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk is a chilling first-hand account of the convent from the 19th century.
Monk, who O’Leary described as a “non-voluntary inmate” at Grey Nuns, claimed the building hid an oubliette—a secret dungeon—containing the bodies of dead fetuses and infants from nuns who had secretly gotten pregnant.
Monk’s account might be seen as anti-Catholic propaganda, however O’Leary admitted to feeling uncomfortable being inside the building.
“It is an eerie place, and it is a common thing to see shadows and flitting figures” O’Leary said.
While I have never lived in Grey Nuns, both of my roommates have. After hearing our fair share about the supernatural, we decided to investigate.
On Oct. 26, we embarked on a slightly non-conventional investigation: a séance, complete with a talking board and a protective circle (a space that is safe from demonic entities, and cast by reciting a spell).
As we set up our protective circle, we heard eerie, operatic music echoing from a piano down the hall. Neither of my roommates remember this being a normal occurrence, but we decided it was likely nothing more than a coincidence.
For several minutes, my roommates and I waited in silence—our fingers on the board’s pointer—but nothing happened. It wasn’t until we were ready to give up that we felt the pointer glide across the board. In nearly perfect unison, we all insisted it wasn’t us moving it.
The planchette continued moving across the board, spelling out four letters: G-E-M-A. Then it stopped. Over the next 90 minutes, we seemed to have conversations with multiple entities, each one sliding to “yes” to tell us when they arrived, and “good bye” when they left. Few were as talkative as “Gema” seemed to be. When we asked her if she had been affected by the 1918 fire, she indicated no. When asked why she was here, the planchette slid from letter to letter, spelling out N-E-E-D-C-A-R-E.
Towards the end of the session, we noticed the pointer was repeatedly circling over “good-bye.” While this left us with a bad feeling in the pit of our stomachs, we continued, until the pointer began sliding manically across the board. When we asked who was with us, the pointer spelled out “Gema” again. Before we could ask another question, “Gema” began spelling out: G-E-T-A-W-A-.
Before she could finish, I quickly thanked her and told her she was released, as the board’s instructions indicated I should do. My roommates and I were fine not knowing if “Gema” had really intended to send an ominous “get away” warning.
As my roommate Hanna Buchanan explained, it’s interesting that many Grey Nuns residents are first-year students as there is something almost symbolic about spending your first year away from home in an allegedly haunted convent.
“Since Grey Nuns is essentially a place where students go to […] get out of their comfort zones, the fact that there’s this whole mythology around ghosts and the other world feels symbolic,” Buchanan said. “It’s all linked to the unknown.”
CUPFA chair of internal mobilization Erik Chevrier organized a week-long awareness campaign about the difficulties of part-time faculty members. Photo by Gabrielle Vendette
CUPFA holds awareness campaign for part-time faculty
Last week, the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA) held its 2017 Campus Equity Week, a week-long awareness campaign highlighting the difficulties many part-time faculty members face within the university.
Erik Chevrier, CUPFA’s chair of internal mobilization, headed the campaign’s organization and conception. Chevrier explained that the goal of the week was to inform people about the particular struggle of part-time faculty members who don’t have guaranteed positions within the university.
This year’s awareness campaign was focused on job security. According to Chevrier, few students know about the specific conditions that affect part-time faculty members, such as how they must re-apply every semester to teach their courses at Concordia and how it can take them up to 10 years to be eligible for health benefits.
Recently, according to Chevrier, part-time faculty members have been offered fewer courses.
According to Chevrier, since the 2012-13 academic year, 26 of the 50 departments that offer part-time positions have reduced the amount of courses offered to part-time faculty members. This has resulted in a total of about 431 fewer courses available to part-time professors.
Some of the most extreme examples Chevrier gave were from the sociology and anthropology departments, which went from offering approximately 92 courses in 2012-13 to 34 this school year. The geography, planning and environment department also saw a drop of almost 30 courses over the same period—from 74 to 46.
For professors who rely on these jobs as their main source of income, it can be extremely stressful to live without job security. Chevrier said he wanted the campaign to be fun and engaging, so CUPFA created short quizzes for students to fill out. The association also encouraged professors to take some time during their classes to give students the quiz. It featured little-known facts about part-time faculty at Concordia, such as how about 57 per cent of the university’s courses are taught by part-time professors.
According to Chevrier—who teaches courses for the political science, sociology and psychology departments—the quiz was very well received by students who were both surprised and concerned by how little they knew about part-time faculty working conditions.
“We teach quite a few courses. With that in mind, we should be respected like others at Concordia University as well,” Chevrier said.
The awareness campaign also included three short videos featuring students from the Arts and Science and Fine Arts faculties, as well as the John Molson School of Business, explaining what part-time faculty members brought to their classes. Many part-time professors actively work in their fields, which Chevrier said can bring a real-world perspective to the classroom and enhance students’ learning experiences.
“Looking forward, we want to be respected as equals, as professors,” he said. “We want to be recognized as colleagues.”
Campus Equity Week is organized under an international body called the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL), a network of groups that advocate for better treatment and working conditions for university part-time faculty, such as adjunct and part-time professors. Universities across Canada, the United States and Mexico each hold their own Campus Equity Weeks as part of COCAL’s international campaign.
Jackie Rae Wloski, Don’t Worry - Pilot in Total Control - Mixed media photo etching.
Upcoming show will highlight the work of Sir George Williams University, Loyola College graduates
Jackie Rae Wloski graduated from Concordia in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in two fields that don’t usually go hand-in-hand: fine arts and biology.
At the time, Concordia didn’t actually exist. Sir George Williams University (SGWU) and Loyola College only merged to form Concordia University in 1974. Today, the multi-media artist works from her home studio and creates art pieces, mainly portraits, landscapes and master copies by commission.
Ten years ago, Wloski decided she wanted to organize an alumni art show to exhibit the work of her former university peers. The process has been a long one, but it has finally fallen into place. Backed by the Concordia University Alumni Association, the art show will take place Nov. 1 and 2 and will feature the works of 64 artists, including Mark Prent, Ann McCall and Suraj Sadan. Wloski will also be presenting two of her own pieces: Myriam in the Backyard and Don’t Worry – Pilot in Total Control.
Prent is a Polish-born sculptor and performance artist who graduated from SGWU in 1970. Since then, he has received several awards and significant recognition for his work, including the 1978 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. At the alumni art show, Prent will be showing War and Peace.
Jackie Rae Wloski will be showing her piece, Myriam in the Backyard at the event.Convergence, a collograph by Ann McCall.Suraj Sadan’s piece titled Trinity.
McCall received her BFA from Concordia in 1978. The artist has had 10 solo exhibitions and participated in over 20 group exhibitions since 2008. Most recently, McCall won the Rideau Prize award for printmaking in visual art. Much of her work is inspired by the environment, from her seasonal series C’est l’hiver, based on the winter forest and animals of rural Quebec, to the complex environmental issues in Arborescence, which focuses on deforestation.
McCall will be showing and selling two pieces, Convergence and Arbes Hivernaux, made using the printmaking process of collography.
Sadan graduated from Concordia in 1980 with a master’s degree in art education. In 2011, he received an India Empire NRI Award for promotion of peace through art in New Delhi. His work is greatly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, whom he met at a refugee camp in 1947, according to Concordia University Magazine. Sadan is a portrait artist and has completed over 20 portraits of Gandhi, one of which was made into an international stamp and featured on the cover of UNESCO Courier in October 1969.
According to Wloski, the art show is an opportunity for alumni to gain exposure while reuniting with old peers. Wloski said she hopes the show will inspire young artists and students outside of the fine arts department to seek out opportunities post-graduation. “There is no need to study to practice,” she said. “We’re artists, and we’d like to show people what we do.”
The Pre-Concordia Alumni Art Show will be open for two days in the new conference centre on the ninth floor of John Molson School of Business. The vernissage will be on Nov. 1 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The show will be open until 9 p.m. on Wednesday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2.
Motion refusing to enforce law’s provisions passed at department meeting
A motion was passed at an Oct. 20 Concordia history department meeting condemning Bill 62, a provincial religious neutrality law adopted by the National Assembly on Oct. 18.
The motion—which was published on the department’s Facebook page—claims that the new law “discriminates specifically against one group, Muslim women who wear face coverings.”
After the law was adopted last week, it was understood that Bill 62 would require people to uncover their faces when receiving public services. However, on Oct. 24, Quebec Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée clarified that women who wear a veil will only have to show their face for identification purposes and when interacting with a public service employee.
In its motion, the history department added that “the real effect of Law 62 will be to restrict women’s access to essential services and public space.”
“Therefore, the Department of History resolves that we will refuse to enforce its provisions in our classrooms and offices,” the motion continued.
The history department is the first Concordia department to officially condemn the bill. The motion also urged the university and major unions, such as the Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) and the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA), to take a similar stand in refusing to enforce the law’s provisions.
In an interview with The Concordian on Oct. 20, Concordia president Alan Shepard said the university was not provided with guidelines or explanations for how to interpret or implement the law. “So for now, it’s a status-quo—as if the law weren’t there,” Shepard said.
As part of their motion, the history department stated, “the new law not only contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but also Concordia’s own policies regarding ‘civility, equity, respect, non-discrimination and an appreciation of diversity,’ as well as the right of all members of the university regarding ‘freedom of conscience and religion; freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.’”
Concordia’s Grey Nuns Motherhouse was granted $851,000 in federal funding as part of Parks Canada’s National Cost-Sharing Program.
Downtown residence granted funding under Parks Canada initiative to support National Historic Sites
Concordia’s Grey Nuns Motherhouse was granted $851,000 for preventative and restorative maintenance earlier this month as part of the Parks Canada National Cost-Sharing Program for Heritage Places.
Concordia spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said the funding will be invested in measures to reduce deterioration to the 146-year-old building. Barr said planned restoration efforts include replacing the building’s masonry and thoroughly cleaning all the surfaces in the Grey Nuns Chapel.
On Oct. 12, Marc Miller, the member of Parliament for Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs, made the funding announcement on behalf of Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who oversees the cost-sharing program. The funding was granted after an application process in which the university outlined the need for and costs associated with restorative work. According to Parks Canada records, Grey Nuns is one of 143 National Historic Sites that are receiving funding from the cost-sharing program.
“Our government has taken a leadership role in the protection and promotion of Canada’s invaluable and irreplaceable heritage such as the Motherhouse of the Grey Nuns in Montreal,” Miller said in a public statement. “This new funding will ensure the preservation of one of Montreal’s treasured heritage sites for future generations and help foster a healthy local economy and thriving tourism industry.”
Completed in 1871, the building was originally the Motherhouse for the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the Grey Nuns. For decades, the Grey Nuns used the building to serve the poor and take care of community members, including in times of hardship, such as the Great Depression and the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. According to Concordia’s website, the building was officially designated a historical monument under Quebec’s Cultural Property Act in 1976.
In 2007, Concordia University purchased the building. It was renovated and refurbished before being officially opened as a campus building in September 2014. Currently, the building offers a reading room, cafeteria and daycare centre, and serves as the only residence building on the Sir George Williams campus.
According to Barr, the restoration budget and projects will be managed by the university’s facilities management department. While the current project will focus on restoring the building’s chapel, the university is planning on restoring the facade and interior of the building’s other wings in future years.
“As stewards of this historic building, the university’s goal is to ensure that minimal restoration work is required over the next 100 years,” Barr said.
Concordia’s Esports team remains winless this season
Concordia’s Dota 2 team couldn’t fight a strong opposing attack by the University of Washington on Oct. 21, losing 2-0 in a two-game series.
The team’s loss this week was mostly due to the pick and ban. Picks and bans—known as drafting—happen before every match in Dota 2. During this time, teams choose which players they want to ban their opponents from using, then both teams choose which hero they will use in the game. This is an intricate part of every match when a lot of planning and strategizing is needed.
“We got outdrafted,” said Concordia team coordinator Michael Di Feo. “Sometimes we get lost in our picks and bans and we don’t know what to do.”
Concordia fell behind early on. Two minutes into the match, Concordia’s Clockwerk, a melee hero, suffered for overstepping into enemy territory. Two opposition heroes pinched him into the lane leading up to the University of Washington’s base, landing a stun and earning the first kill of the game.
Concordia did get a return kill three minutes later when a Washington player roamed too far down the bottom lane towards Concordia’s base. Yet, the game spiraled out of Concordia’s hands shortly after. The University of Washington fought back quickly, securing a double kill in the map’s middle lane. From then on, the Concordia squad lost most of its momentum, losing the game within 19 minutes.
The second match of the night didn’t fare much better, with Concordia lagging behind from the get go. The match had a start similar to the previous one. Within the first couple of minutes, Concordia was down one kill to none. The University of Washington continued to push forward throughout the match. They took over multiple towers in Concordia’s lanes, gaining leads in all three lanes. In the end, the University of Washington pushed down the middle lane to eventually win the series 2-0.
“We need to work on rotations,” Di Feo said, adding that the team did a better job the previous week against the University of British Columbia.
The team has their next game in two weeks. They will be playing against Arizona State University on Nov. 4 at 3 p.m. Until then, Di Feo said they will work on communication and their pick-and-ban system.
Despite only playing together for a month, team coordinator happy with start
The Concordia Esports Association (CESA) Dota team had their first Collegiate Starleague (CSL) match of the season, losing 2-0 to the defending champions, the University of British Columbia, on Oct. 14.
Dota is a five-against-five battle arena-based game. The objective is to break into the opponent’s base before they get to yours. The game’s map is more complex than that though. There are three main lanes (top, middle and bottom) which lead to the opponent’s base.
In each lane, there are two towers behind one another which shoot at your character, called a hero, when you get too close to the tower. There is also a jungle between the lanes. In the jungle, there are different creatures which, when killed, give the hero experience and gold to unlock in-game abilities.
This was the first time in three years that a Concordia team competed in the CSL Dota
tournament. The current roster has only been playing together for about a month. Despite the odds against them to beat UBC, the defending champs, the Concordia squad managed to put up a decent fight in the first match of the best-of-three series.
“Everything was going well in the early stage with the rotations [of the first game],” said team coordinator Michael Di Feo after the game. One of the team’s best plays came
in the early minutes. Two of the Concordia players managed to grab the first kill on an opponent by punishing UBC’s overly aggressive style in the jungle.
The UBC player was trying to secure his own kill when he moved too far forward, not noticing the second Concordia hero in the area. He was then “shackled up” and swiftly killed.
Even though UBC fell behind because of these small mistakes, they managed to chip at the Concordia defence and, through solid play, ended up taking the first game.
“[During the second match], things fell apart from the start,” Di Feo said. “[There isn’t] much to share except we got completely outplayed.”
The CESA Dota team is now looking ahead to their next match against Washington Esport Dota on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m.
Main photo courtesy of Concordia Esports Association.
CRARR executive director Fo Niemi is offering legal support to a Concordia student who is taking her alleged harasser to the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Photo by Alex Hutchins
CRARR and individual considering filing a civil rights complaint against Concordia
It’s Monday April 18, 2016. Concordia student Maria* checks her phone and sees a text message: “Hey Maria, my names [sic] Eric*, I saw you on [Plenty of Fish], how’s it going? (:”
She asks the man where he got her number. He answers with a screenshot of what Maria realizes is a fake account with her name on the dating app. “This is fake. Someone has been stealing my info,” she quickly replies.
A day earlier, according to documents obtained by The Concordian, a post appeared on the Concordia University subreddit—a forum dedicated to the university on Reddit—claiming Maria had been seen performing sexual acts in a university office.
Soon after the post was published, she was contacted by a student she had met a few months earlier. He informed her about the post and attempted to start a conversation. Maria told him she wasn’t interested in talking.
Less than 24 hours later, a second post was made on the Concordia University subreddit, describing Maria as a “whore.”
These interactions are included in a report written on April 22, 2016 by Concordia security investigator and preventionist Lyne Denis. The report documents weeks of alleged cyberbullying, online sexual harassment, intimidation and threats Maria faced from a fellow student.
The Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) offered Maria legal support following the recommendation of the Concordia Student Union Legal Information Clinic. On Sept. 2, the centre’s executive director, Fo Niemi, told The Concordian they would be filing a complaint against the alleged harasser to the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
In a press release sent out 19 days later, CRARR wrote that Maria was also “considering” filing a civil rights complaint against Concordia “for discrimination and failure to protect and support.”
Maria, a 21-year-old international student, first met her alleged harasser after posting a message on a Facebook page for new Concordia students. “I made a post [to introduce myself] trying to make friends in the group,” she said. She was 19 at the time. “We met up in person, and we became friends. We were on and off in that friendship.”
The harassment began when Maria ran for an elected position in a student association in 2016. A few months into her campaign, she said abrasive messages were being posted about her on Yik Yak, a now-defunct social media app that allowed users to anonymously post messages viewable by users within a certain radius, such as on or around campus.
Maria said she would receive messages from the alleged harasser shortly after the posts were made on Yik Yak. This behaviour became a recurring pattern.
“He messages me with, ‘Oh, look what’s being said about you.’ ‘Oh, I’m so sorry that this is happening to you,’” Maria said, referring to any time a message about her was posted on Yik Yak.
A Reddit account with her full name and the words “TheWhore” was also created around that same time. “He would always be the first one to message me with links to that,” Maria said. “It was posted five minutes ago, and he already knew. He already saw it, and he already had the time to text me about it.”
In April 2016, Maria said she confronted the student when another Reddit thread about her was created. “I know it’s you,” she recalled telling him. “Just stop. I’m going to go the police. If there’s a paper trail, I want it to lead to you.”
Maria explained that, “within five minutes of that conversation online, [the thread] was deleted.” During the same month, she allegedly got calls from men on several occasions because her Facebook pictures and phone number had been associated with fake online accounts under her name.
“I was walking to class, I would receive calls from strange men like, ‘Hey baby, I know you’re in the H building, just wait for me,” Maria explained. She said she also received rape threats “not from [the alleged harasser] but through the accounts he created,” yet she claimed little was done by the university to protect her.
A visit to Concordia’s security on April 22, 2016 was not the first step Maria took to address this ongoing issue. Two days prior, she went to the university’s Office of Rights and Responsibilities (ORR) to file a complaint for harassment, sexual harassment and threatening or violent conduct, according to CRARR’s Niemi.
The ORR’s annual reports indicate the office saw a steady increase in the number of reported infractions of the university’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities—which include cases and consultations handled by the office—between the 2012-13 and the 2015-16 academic years.
Graphic by Zeze Le Lin
In 2012-13, according to the office’s annual report, 59 harassment infractions and 16 sexual harassment infractions were reported to the office. Two years later, in 2014-15, 63 harassment infractions and 29 sexual harassment infractions were addressed by the ORR.
The academic year Maria filed her complaint with the ORR, 99 harassment infractions were reported, according to the annual report, as well as 33 sexual assault infractions.
Concordia’s Code of Rights and Responsibilities reads: “Formal complaints by students against other students shall be adjudicated by a hearing panel consisting only of students.” When a formal complaint is made, the secretary of the Hearing and Appeals Panel selects three graduate or undergraduate students from the Student Tribunal Pool, as well as one non-voting chair.
The Student Tribunal Pool is nominated by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) each year in June. A maximum of 15 undergraduate students are chosen by the student union, in addition to a maximum of 10 students selected by the Graduate Student Association (GSA), according to Concordia’s Policy on the Establishment of Tribunal Hearing Pools.
Every student hearing panel (SHP) also has a chair, whose role is “to preside over the proceedings, keep order and ensure fairness,” according to the Code of Rights and Responsibilities.
In November 2016, Niemi compiled an unofficial list of lawyers who have acted as student tribunal chairs, including Roanne C. Bratz, Emmanuelle Demers, Sandra Mastrogiuseppe and Angela Onesi. The Concordian confirmed the four to be acting chairs.
The chair for Maria’s case was Vincent Lesage, whose appointment had been proposed by the then-university counsel, Bram Freedman, in 2002.
“They tend to be from big law firms,” Niemi said. “And in dealing with sexual violence and harassment, we start to raise questions about whether these people are trained enough to deal with this issue.”
University spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr explained that tribunal chairs were chosen “due to relevant experience” and because they agree to chair the tribunals on a volunteer basis. “They are trained by our tribunal office on all our processes and policies,” she added.
Maria’s SHP did not take place until October 2016, four months after her visit to the ORR. In April, the same month she visited the ORR and Concordia Security, Maria filed a report with the Montreal police’s 20th precinct, near Concordia’s downtown campus.
An employee from Concordia Security accompanied her to the precinct on April 25 at 10:30 a.m., according to the incident report filed by Concordia Security’s Denis’s incident report.
When asked if Concordia had a copy of that report, Barr said the university would “not comment on a specific case.” “We can confirm that when a student brings to our attention a concern for their safety, with or without a police report, we look carefully at how we can support that student,” Barr explained.
According to Maria, the university offered her very little support.
“Pending the trial, at the beginning of April last year, [Concordia Security] offered to walk me to the metro [at] night, but that was it,” Maria said, adding that her alleged harasser could still approach her on campus.
Maria said she also received no follow-ups from the police regarding her report. “The Sexual Assault Resource Centre [SARC] offered to get me support, offered to be there for me, offered to email my professors asking for extensions, but that’s it. There were no continuous follow-ups.”
On April 20, Maria’s alleged harasser received an email from the ORR informing him that the office wanted to schedule a meeting with him and Concordia Security “to discuss […] concerns regarding his alleged behaviour involving another member of the university.”
A meeting was set up between the alleged harasser, ORR and Concordia Security on May 5, 2016. In her report, Denis wrote that the individual said “he would be available at any time after his last final.”
“The university accommodates him and his final schedule, but no accommodation was given to me,” Maria said.
On Oct. 25, 2016 at 1 p.m., Maria entered a room in Concordia’s GM building for the hearing.
Niemi and Maria later criticized the trial’s procedure. Maria told The Concordian there was a power imbalance. “I was represented by two CSU student advocates. He was represented by two university advocates paid by the university,” she said.
In addition, Maria had to sit at the same table as her alleged harasser. “If I wanted to go to the restroom, I would have to almost touch him because the room was very narrow, [and] he had his friends sitting outside, his witnesses, laughing. I could hear myself being called a whore,” she recalled.
According to Barr, “any party or person who feels uncomfortable in the physical setting can bring this up and solutions can be sought.” She added that survivors can be provided with information and support from the SARC coordinator throughout the process. According to the SHP decision, Maria’s advocate said SARC coordinator Jennifer Drummond would act as a witness. However, Drummond did not testify at the trial because “she had a prior commitment,” the SHP decision reads.
CRARR executive director Fo Niemi is offering legal support to a Concordia student taking. Photo by Kirubel Mehari
During the hearing, the respondent claimed he gave Maria’s phone number—which eventually ended up on fake online accounts—to an individual who used the alias William.
The respondent said he met the individual through the online gaming platform Steam but had never met him in person throughout their five years of acquaintance.
Maria’s advocates asked the SHP to expel the respondent, arguing that “if the respondent is not adequately sanctioned, the complainant will not be able to continue her studies at the university.”
In response, the respondent’s advocates argued that “the complainant’s advocates failed to establish a direct link between the respondent and the charges contained herein.” For that reason, they added, a sanction of expulsion “would be very severe.”
After a deliberation, the SHP unanimously upheld charges of harassment and sexual harassment, and a majority of the panel upheld the “threatening or violent conduct charge.”
In light of the decision, the SHP imposed a written reprimand and compensation for the cost associated with Maria’s need to change her cellphone. However, Maria said this was not an issue, since phone companies have policies to replace phones for free in cases of harassment.
Maria said it was very stressful for her to inform her family about the harassment. “I come from a very conservative family [and] the culture is not very feminist,” she explained. “Just the fact that I had to call my dad [and] having to explain to him, ‘I’m being called a whore. I can’t walk to campus without someone wanting to rape me.’” According to Niemi, Maria’s alleged harasser has also threatened to sue her.
In its Sept. 21 press release, CRARR wrote that “common patterns of the university’s failure to protect and support [students include] being kept in the dark about the aftermath once a decision is rendered, especially where personal safety is concerned.”
In its conclusion, the tribunal decision read that the “majority of the SHP recommended that the present file be forwarded to the appropriate department(s) for its assessment and management.”
Niemi said he doesn’t know where the file was forwarded. In an email, Barr wrote that the file “could be forwarded to Security, the Office of Rights and Responsibility and/or the Dean of Students—all depending on the circumstances.”
According to Niemi, Maria has been suspended from her program. Maria said she is not attending classes at the moment because her grades suffered too much throughout the ordeal. “In the middle of my finals, I was walking with security to the police department, spending five hours with them to write reports. How was I expected to do anything? Concordia was aware because I was going with [them] to do all these procedures,” Maria said, adding that the university did not unenroll her from the classes she expected to be excused from. “Classes that were supposed to be dropped were not dropped,” Maria said, and her GPA suffered as a result.
According to Maria, she only knew about the support available to her on campus because she was involved in student politics. “Had I just come to my class and then went home, I would not have even been aware of these bodies, and would have had effectively no support,” she said.
Niemi said the Quebec Human Rights Commission “will investigate the harasser [and] gather all the evidence to eventually rule whether she has been a victim of harassment and discrimination.” Despite the SHP’s decision to uphold the charges of harassment and sexual harassment, Niemi said he and Maria are not satisfied. As the SHP decision acknowledges, the tribunal “does not have the authority to impose conditions restricting the respondent’s movements on campus.”
If the Human Rights Commission recommends damages, Niemi said CRARR “is looking at five figures.”
Maria said she “wanted to make sure [her] experience had some good come out of it.”
“I want to make sure that this person will not go out in the world and perpetuate those same actions to someone else.”
*Names have been changed to ensure the individuals’ privacy and protection.
Head coach Jorge Sanchez has been with the Concordia Stingers since 2002. Photo by Matthew Coyte.
Veteran head coach, in his 16th season, emphasizes work ethic, responsibility and having fun
When The Concordianapproached women’s soccer head coach Jorge Sanchez about doing an interview for a profile of him, he was hesitant.
“It’s not about me,” Sanchez said. “It’s about the players.”
Sanchez has become synonymous with the Concordia Stingers women’s soccer team. Ever since taking over the role in July 2002, the coach has worked to improve the program.
Sanchez began his coaching career with the Lakeshore Soccer Club and also coached at John Abbott College. After coaching in the West Island, he moved to the provincial level, where he helped Quebec’s under-15 and under-17 women’s teams. From 1997 to 2001, he was an assistant coach for the national team’s training program, where he would train Quebec prospects who were considered hopefuls for the Canadian national team.
In 2002, the Stingers were looking for a full-time coach. Sanchez said he found himself at a professional crossroads.
“I didn’t want to go back to coaching club,” he said. “One morning, I was reading the paper and saw a job posting for head coach of the women’s team at Concordia […] so I said, ‘I’m going to take a chance, apply and see what happens.’”
Sanchez talks to his players ahead of practice. Photo by Matthew Coyte.
Fifteen years later, that leap of faith has paid off. “I now find myself being one of the more senior coaches in the department. I kind of like that role,” Sanchez said.
“I like to think that I’m a player’s coach, who trusts his players and demands loyalty from my players—not to me, but to the program,” he said.
“I’m not someone that is going to yell and scream all the time, but I have standards and I expect players to live up to them,” Sanchez said. “But I like to think that when they need me, I’m there.”
His players seem to agree. “He is a very committed coach,” said fourth-year midfielder Alice Grandpierre. “[He] will do anything in his power to do what is best for the team and his players.”
Third-year midfielder Laura Lamontagne added that a running joke for the players on the team has been Sanchez’s use of Twitter, where he is constantly updating scores and news related to the team.
“In a way, it’s funny, but it also shows how much he takes his coaching role seriously and wants our program to get more recognition,” Lamontagne said.
The veteran head coach has always been very adamant about supporting his players and helping them with what he calls his three pillars.
The first pillar is to remember to have fun. “Soccer is a game. If you’re not having fun doing it, you should probably be looking somewhere else,” he said.
For the second pillar, Sanchez wants players to be a part of the total student-athlete experience.
“It’s not just about the sport. They have to be successful in the classroom to even be eligible to play,” he said. “I want to create an enriching but competitive environment. Very positive, very supportive environment […] never forgetting that on Tuesdays and Thursdays at practice, they’re competing to get on the field as starters.”
Lastly, Sanchez wants players to take responsibility for their actions, both on and off the field. “As individuals, are they doing everything in their control to be successful?”
As much as the veteran head coach enjoys winning, that’s not the main focus of his job.
“You want good soccer players, but I hope I’m helping [the players] become good people as well,” he said.
While Sanchez is not at the end of his career just yet, he said he wants to retire with the Concordia Stingers.
“This will probably be my last coaching role. I’ve put so much time and energy into this, it would be hard to start over somewhere else because this is my passion,” he said. “It’s intertwined with who I am as a person.”
QPIRG Concordia focused on research stipends and expanding resources available to students. Photo by Kirubel Mehari
Organization turns focus to the future following annual election, fee levy increases
Following the recent election of new board members and an eight-cent fee levy increase, Concordia’s chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) is focusing on increasing research stipends and expanding their student resources.
The grassroots organization, which has historically focused on funding research and community-based projects aligned with their progressive political views, elected 12 members to their board of directors on Sept. 27 during their annual general meeting.
Since the organization works with both the Concordia and Montreal communities, it has two separate boards: one consisting of students and the other made up of community members. Any Concordia student with a valid student ID and all community QPIRG members (non-students who have donated at least $10 to the group or who volunteer 10 hours per year) were able to vote in the election.
Eamon Toohey, who was elected to the community board of directors on Sept. 27, said the board will spend the year developing and funding “radical, grassroots social justice initiatives” and will be prioritizing marginalized voices.
“I’m really excited to work with a whole new crop of board members to support the folks working for a brighter tomorrow in the city and beyond,” Toohey said. “Especially folks at the margins fighting for Indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice. Those two fights are brutally suppressed and forgotten, but absolutely vital.”
In addition to new board members, the organization recently received an increase to their annual student fee levy. According to the group’s 2016-17 financial report, between January 2007 and November 2016, the group received 31 cents per credit per undergraduate student, with the exception of students who chose to opt out in the first weeks of each semester.
Through a referendum vote during the fall 2016 Concordia Student Union (CSU) by-elections, the QPIRG was granted an eight-cent fee levy increase. Under this new model, undergraduate students pay 39 cents per credit per semester, or $11.70 annually for a 90-credit degree. The graduate student fee levy of 50 cents per credit was unchanged.
“It was up to Concordia undergraduates to decide at the polls,” Toohey said of the referendum. “When voting closed, our fee levy was raised, allowing us to support social and environmental initiatives all over the city.”
While the group’s primary source of income is fee levy funding, it’s impossible for the QPIRG to predict how much funding that will be, as all students have the option to opt-out each semester. According to financial records from October 2016 to August 2017, the group’s total revenue for the 2016-17 fiscal year was $238,586 with approximately $220,000 coming from student fee levy funds.
The QPIRG insisted the increased funding will be put towards community-based programs and research projects. According to Hesser Garcia, a newly-elected community board member, the fee levy increase has already allowed the group to fund a $3,000 summer stipend, which they granted to Captive Minds.
According to the QPIRG’s 2016-17 annual report, Captive Minds is a Little Burgundy-based mentorship project that connects black, low-income youth with an adult mentor in the prison system. Garcia said this stipend is “the first in many to come,” now that the group has increased funding.
“We were also able to provide better support for our alternative agenda, School Schmool, and our alternative library,” Garcia said. School Schmool is a free student planner that features articles and resources, including food banks and low-cost mental health services in the Montreal area. The alternative library, in QPIRG Concordia’s office at 1500 de Maisonneuve Blvd., offers books, magazines and audio-visual media focused on environmental and social justice issues.
In total, the QPIRG invested $20,000 in community and campus projects in 2016-2017. Several board members said they are hopeful the increased fee levy will allow them to expand funding for these programs even further in the coming year.
