Tag: Concordia University

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Concordia Student Union News

Abolition or reform? A new CSU position

CSU’s police brutality position is controversial in its wording

On Oct. 28, the CSU’s second meeting of the month discussed Arts and Science Representative Shivaane Subash’s police brutality position. In hopes of being added to the CSU’s Positions Book, the position highlights how the CSU does not support the SPVM in its treatment of Black and Indigenous students.

Two distinct positions were recognizable in the discussions: one for abolition, and one against. This doesn’t mean that any parties were against taking a position; rather, they had different approaches to the position.

Subash wrote in the position, “The CSU recognizes its racially diverse student population and how widely reported racial profiling experiences by the SPVM affects their educational experience. Thus, it is vital to advocate for their safety and security to ensure a safe, enriching university environment.”

This universal statement is one that most CSU representatives agree with. However, there are a handful of representatives that have issues with the last clause in the position.

The section originally read, “CSU stands in favour with defunding and abolishing the SVPM, so as to redirect those financial resources to areas such as healthcare, mental health, housing, education, jobs, and restorative-justice models that better suit the needs of our community.” After the discussion, the section of the quote in italics was removed.

Subash explained that she “looked at the Positions Book and realized there was just a small section on police brutality.”

As one of the only remaining women of colour in the CSU now that many have stepped down, she knew that someone needed to take a stand, and change the CSU’s position on these issues.

Subash is aware that abolishing and defunding the police is a controversial idea, and was expecting push back from fellow council members.

“This is natural, there was pushback and confusion from the general public and different leaders as well, so it was expected by everyone,” she said.

Despite this, she said it’s still exhausting to deal with this type of push back.

“It’s mostly tiring … especially when everyone is learning about concepts such as police brutality. They’re not new concepts, but they’re penetrating the public more nowadays.”

She stood by her ideas and statement, based on her own personal experience as a minority.

“A lot of people are against it because the police have always been there as an institution that we’ve had for ages,” she said.

So people are so used to that police presence, they don’t want to consider abolishing/ defunding the police.”

However, this isn’t the section that Tzvi Hersh Filler, a member of the CSU Council of Representatives, had issues with, but rather the word “abolish.”’

In Filler’s opinion, “In this case, seeing as [the police] is an essential service, scrapping it doesn’t make sense. Obviously, you have to fix the accountability issues.” He argues that the word “abolish” will create a sour relationship with the SPVM, which can lead to bigger issues.

Filler compares the situation to a similar one that occurred in New York City, where a group of Orthodox Jews were being harassed with bricks. According to Filler, the police failed to handle the situation properly.

He said, “The fact that the police were unable to properly handle [the situation], came down to the fact that the police felt like [the mayor] was out to abolish them, and that created this atmosphere where they couldn’t do their jobs.”

James Hanna, a Gina Cody councillor at the CSU is of the same opinion as Filler. Both agree that the SPVM is extremely problematic and needs to be fixed. However, these two don’t see how abolition is the key to this.

He said, “Without fixing society itself; without lowering the racism score, the level of [racism in] the police also won’t change because it’s the same pool of candidates, it’s still the subset of that same population, unless you radically change the population.”

As of now, the position’s 12.8 section stands as such: “CSU stands in favour with defunding and abolishing the SVPM.”

 

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Online School, a pandemic and no break

The lack of a fall reading week is adding to an already difficult fall semester

With the pandemic still in full force, Montreal is remaining under red zone status until at least Nov. 23. The reality of virtual school has set in, and students are struggling to find success in the online classroom. It’s no secret this fall semester has been challenging.

Online midterms add significant stress to the usual midterm season, and without a fall reading week, students have no chance to breathe.

Last year, students voted favourably on the addition of a fall reading week. Sixteen per cent of the student body took part in the vote with 86 per cent voting in favour of the break.

“A fall reading break would be a great method to reduce midterm stress and should be given increased consideration due to the pandemic,” said Omar Hamdy Salem, a third-year Economics and Political Science student. “I would like [time] to brush up on my midterms, perhaps spend some time [on] Zoom sessions with friends to try and study together.”

Despite the vote, a break has not yet been implemented.

“Concordia makes their academic calendar a year in advance … This fall had already been too late; the earliest convening time would have been fall 2021,” said Isaiah Joyner, the CSU’s general coordinator.

But just because it didn’t happen this year does not mean that the project is dead.

“The project is still ongoing, so we could see it as early as fall 2021,” said Joyner.

In a statement made to The Concordian, a concordia representative said “We will shortly be issuing a community consultation document to solicit feedback on two possible options: one, beginning the term before Labour Day, and two, shortening the term from 13 to 12 weeks.”

This means students will soon be able to give feedback on how they want the fall reading week implemented.

Without a break in the fall, the semester has been intense, and students have lost any relief that came from attending school. Going to the library to study, getting coffee at the Hive or even meeting their professors in person… simple aspects of the university experience have been stripped away.

“The blended lines with online learning and remote learning and now having to work so much harder because of the adaptations and the classes feeling even more overwhelming, they cut directly into your home life,” said Joyner.

“You could really go and make a separation — work-life balance, school-life balance — but now they are all blended into one … Taking a step back seems almost impossible.”

A fall break is not only an opportunity for students to study, but also to get some rest from the fast pace of the school year.

“People [could] detach themselves and realign, take it easy and be like, ‘I’ll make it to the break,’ but in the fall it’s just go, go, go and it can be very challenging,” said Joyner.

“I would spend it just studying … [and be] able to breathe and not do assignments after hours and hours of video lectures,” said Noah Choen-Wanis, a second-year Engineering student.

But the absence of a fall reading week isn’t the only thing contributing to students’ stress.

With online school comes a lack of personal attention from professors; a major change for many students.

“Not having in-person classes where it’s much easier to learn for me and get ready for midterms makes studying and midterm prep much harder,” said Cohen-Wanis.

Hosting midterms online comes with a lot of technical chaos as well.

“With how disorganized and random the assignment time and location is, [it] makes it a lot harder to study and do the work needed for the midterms,” Cohen-Wanis continued.

“I’ve felt more stressed than last year mostly because of all the self-managing and self-teaching I’ve had to do this semester … [it’s] mostly self-motivation issues,” said Emily Allen, a second-year Sociology student.

Online classes meant many international students remained in their home countries this year, which comes with unique challenges.

“This year, studying from my home country El Salvador has proved exceedingly difficult due to the constant power and internet outages [and] a lack of an appropriate study space,” said Jose Morales, an Industrial Engineering student.

A reading week could have been the perfect opportunity for students to recuperate from the stress of online school and the pandemic.

“I think a reading break would allow you to manage assessments … you could study all your courses at once without missing a class,” said Allen. “I think it would have been good last year, but this year even more so.”

 

Photo by Christine Beaudoin

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Concordia researchers explore how Montreal Casino’s “Vegas Nights” target our senses

Researchers describe the impact of experiential design by experiencing it themselves

Concordia researchers delved into the Montreal Casino’s Vegas Nights to study how the casino experience affects and caters to our senses.

From the neon glow, to the aroma of perfume at the slot machines and the collective experience of playing at a blackjack table, the researchers describe and examine how these different elements played with their senses.

Interdisciplinary scholar and lead author of the study Erin Lynch told The Concordian the study was about “how a sensory ethnographic approach could shed some light on that kind of experiential marketing within the casino space.”

Different from a traditional observatory study, a “sensory ethnography” approach involves researchers putting themselves in the space to better understand the environment.

“Instead of just observing, we want to experience the site along with other people to sort of really attune our senses and help us understand the way various sensory elements within the casino space are interacting, how they’re kind of mixing and mingling, and how that impacts the general experience at the casino,” said Lynch.

Experiential design isn’t new; it can dictate decisions such as how much resistance to put on a video game controller button, or how soft, plush, or smooth a fabric should be for use on chairs at a restaurant.

In a casino environment, almost every element involves experiential design. Lynch said, “That’s been a real push on the design side of it and we noticed that there hadn’t been that much research delved into the experiential part of it.”

Lynch describes the casino experience as an “emergence into another world.”

“We found that there’s a lot of this overwhelming quality, particularly if you look at sights and sounds in the casino, but we also wanted to pay attention to some sort of under-observed, or …  overlooked aspects of the sensory qualities of the casino,” said Lynch.

One example of this was a gaming machine that vibrates when a person wins.

“The casino touches back, which is a really interesting aspect that we were looking at.”

For taste, Lynch tried a signature cotton candy cocktail.

“I knew I was in trouble when they slid a couple of wet wipes over to me as they were handing me the drink,” said Lynch, who described the drink as stinky, overly sweet, and “pink” tasting.

The question begs: is it work when you’re having this much fun?

Lynch said they wanted to embrace the experience, not only talk about the risks and problems associated with gambling, but to really understand how the different aspects of a casino work to intrigue clients by going to the source themselves.

Going forward, the researchers will look at applying this methodology to other spaces, and see how the pandemic has changed the sensory experience in the casino space as well.

Concordia professors David Howes, a professor of Anthropology, and Martin French, an associate professor of Sociology, co-authored the study along with Lynch.

Howes will explore sensory design in places like hospitals, parks, and spas, “to examine the way sensory design is marketing to all the senses.”

For many, a hospital environment isn’t exactly a calming place.

“Think about fluorescent lighting, and smells, and the extent to which that could be stress-inducing. So [it’s] thinking about the way our environments and the design of our environments impacts us, in an embodied sort of sensory fashion,” said Lynch.

Ultimately, looking at these spaces through a sensory approach will help better understand how they impact us.

“The casino was a really fun area to explore that in, but I think what we’re hoping it has demonstrated is the value of that sensory ethnographic approach, and looking at these spaces more broadly,” said Lynch.

 

Graphic courtesy of @the.beta.lab

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Student Life Uncategorized

What first-years can teach us about surviving online school

Freshman students seem to be some of the best-equipped to handle university life

To put it frankly, the Fall 2020 semester is a hollow shell of what it could be. The pandemic, self-isolation, online classes, and stagnant tuition are all contributing to a rightfully pessimistic outlook on the academic year. And, naturally, the mood among most students reflects little hope and optimism. But there is one group of students that seem to be showing some much-needed enthusiasm: first-years.

One would think that incoming students to Concordia, who’ve never gone through university life, would be the most disgruntled with a greatly diminished freshman year. From what I’ve seen, this just isn’t true.

I’ve worked extensively with first years in my time at Concordia. In 2019-20, I worked in the dorms as a Resident Assistant, supporting students with their first-year experience.

Now in the current coronavirus-online-Zoom year, I’ve been working as a Student Facilitator on a new program Concordia is trying out called “Homeroom.” Delivered entirely on Zoom, Homeroom is a series of weekly sessions where first years can come together and hang out, learn about the university, and enrich their freshman experience, if only for an hour a week. This project has been extremely successful, with hundreds of first years logging in every week.

With those credentials, I can say with confidence that I have a decent insight into the attitudes of first-year students. With this, I believe there are three quintessential elements of a first year student: curiosity, energy, and above all, enthusiasm. Has this pandemic halted these virtues in students new to Concordia? I would say absolutely not.

For one, the first-years are still fascinated with Concordia. Most are coming from high schools or smaller CEGEPs, so the thrill of seeing such a monumental and happening institution (flaws and all) for the first time still has them asking me countless questions about clubs, events, opportunities, and everything else the school has to offer. I’m sure we can all remember our first month at Concordia, feeling an identical sentiment.

Energy is in abundance during these Zoom sessions. Students, always eager and on time, get much of their weekly socializing during this short hour. I’ll often run short presentations, either on university life, or skills development, which students happily participate in and engage with. I can’t help but smile hearing of all the connections and benefits everyone gets from these meetings.

Finally, there’s enthusiasm. While you could argue that this goes hand-in-hand with energy, I’d say enthusiasm encompasses a much broader and more abstract feeling. It’s the anxious yet exciting knowledge that this is the start of the crazy journey of going to Concordia. One that could last two years, five years, or 30 years (if you end up becoming a tenured professor). There’s an insatiable curiosity with what’s to come.

Granted, the sample size of my subjective observation is small; 50 or so students is not representative of the thousands of first-year students in 2020. But when I chat with some of my coworkers, the stories I hear are the same, and I’d wager these truths hold up for thousands more.

Mind you, this is all happening entirely online. No campus tours, no orientation or frosh week, no awe at the massive lecture halls or student-run bar crawls. This is excitement that you see with each passing year, and this one is no different.

Perhaps it’s due time to emulate some of this. Through the drudgery and tragedy of this online year, I feel many of us have lost sight of our deeply rooted hopes and goals. We’re monotonously going through the motions of being university students, with more apathy than ever before. Maybe one solution lies in the spirit of 2020’s freshman class.

 

Feature photo by Ben Mulchinock

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Concordia student starts petition for pass/fail option in the Fall 2020 semester

Concordia University spokesperson says pass/fail option will not be offered

A Concordia student has started a petition urging the university to enact the pass/fail option for the fall semester, while Concordia University told The Concordian the administration does not plan to do so.

Third-year English Literature student Marcia Lobo said she started the petition because this fall semester has been difficult for her and others around her. She says the stress of balancing the restrictions, online course work, and lack of family, friends, and support has been a lot.

“We weren’t expecting this semester,” said Lobo. “The stress didn’t go away, the pandemic is still here, it’s still very real and we are practically in lockdown … nothing has changed really.”

Lobo is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and due to the pandemic she will move back home. Lobo is currently juggling selling and packing her belongings, a part-time job, and studying full-time, and says she feels isolated, stressed, and unsupported.

“I feel like it’s even worse now, because in the beginning we were getting used to it and we didn’t think it would last that long, and now it just seems endless and we don’t know when things will go back to normal.”

“I don’t learn nearly as much,” said Lobo on the stress of online classes. She says some of her teachers have not been accommodating. She feels exceedingly stressed about getting good enough grades to apply for grad school, due to the pressure of trying to excel in a learning format that she struggles with.

“With the pressure I get even more nervous and I really don’t absorb what the professors are saying,” she said.

Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci released a statement to The Concordian saying the pass/fail option will not be offered this semester.

“The pass/fail option was offered to students in the Winter 2020 semester as an exceptional measure, due to the unforeseen disruption created by the pandemic. The option will not be offered this semester as it was announced last May that Fall 2020 would be delivered remotely for teaching and exams, giving time to all to prepare for this delivery format.”

Third-year finance student Jay Bowers told The Concordian, “This semester, everything changed … they just kind of expected us to keep up rigorously with the curriculum that they were demanding at whatever cost.”

Bowers had an online midterm exam where the program stopped working as he submitted his exam to COLE (Concordia OnLine Exams).

“I have a whole screen recording of this. I sent my professor this lengthy email … and [the professor] said [to] contact Proctorio, [but] it was COLE! Proctorio had nothing to do with this.”

According to Bowers, he spoke to a Proctorio representative, who told him this was a COLE issue. After emailing the professor, she told him to direct any more questions about the exams to COLE. Bowers said he feels bounced around between services and has been offered limited solutions.

Bowers said he has tried to reach out to his advisor this semester, but has been offered no concrete help and was not recommended anymore services he could seek.

“I feel that the support that they offered was minimal at best,” said Bowers. “Who’s listening?”

Venn Mauge, a second-year Management student, said this semester has been difficult because of the isolation and lack of support. Mauge is an international student, and cannot return home because her country’s borders are closed.

“I haven’t seen my family for an entire year, so that’s just a mental strain on its own. For me to have to just mask it with school, it’s just super overwhelming. I’m getting emotional talking about it,” said Mauge.

In one of her classes she had a quiz with 40 theory-based questions, each with five multiple choice answers to choose from, and the quiz length was 30 minutes. This leaves less than one minute per question.

“They ask you questions and you have to think of a theory and then apply it … I was on question eight and I looked at my timer and I had 17 minutes left. I’m not even halfway through … this is super unreasonable.”

Third-year Aerospace Engineering student Nico Brouillet said he was also facing issues with professors and online schooling.

He describes how in one of his classes, if a student asks a question during the lecture that is not immediately relevant to the topic the teacher is discussing at that exact moment, the professor has responded with anger and has kicked students out of the Zoom lecture.

“I’ve looked into emailing the program advisor, but it’s just— there’s no one place, there’s no certain spot to … report a teacher.”

All three students describe feeling like, on top of experiencing problems related to online learning and with no clear avenues for help, these issues are exacerbated by the pandemic. They described the burden of isolation from family and friends, and feeling like their home environment has been eclipsed by online school.

“We’ve never done this before, where everything is done online. The mental strain [on] students, they just don’t understand it. We’re stuck inside, we can’t even go see friends, we can’t go out,” said Brouillet. “Combining the two environments has been a catastrophe and much more than the average college student is ready to cope with.”

“It’s just school, school, school. I don’t have enough time for myself to focus on my mental health … I don’t have a life outside of school right now,” said Mauge.

General Coordinator of the CSU Isaiah Joyner said the CSU is working towards resolving issues around Proctario, COLE, and looking into pushing for pass/fail options.

“With more and more problems arising, it’s showing [that] although we are [almost] completely remote … this is still not the remote learning that is conducive to the student community.”

“We need some reassurance that this won’t have a lasting effect on our Masters, our internships, our GPAs,” said Joyner. “For those people that have been drastically affected given all those varying circumstances and needs, we need some type of support.”

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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Student Life

Studying 24/7: Examining the effects that time differences have on Concordia’s international students

How time zones amplify the inherent challenges in remote learning

It’s almost the end of your 8:45 a.m. Zoom lecture when the professor goes over the allotted time, again. Luckily, this time she’s only answering a question. She’s done five minutes later and logs off quicker than she can say goodbye.

You check the time on your laptop. It’s nearly midnight here in Hong Kong. If you go to bed now, you can get six hours of sleep before your next class at 6.p.m. EST.

Traditionally, every September, international students would return to Montreal for the start of the fall semester. However, as Concordia continues with remote learning, and with widespread travel restrictions in place, many students have decided to not return to Montreal this school year. For those who have decided to remain home, they face the unprecedented challenge of adapting to a university schedule based outside their respective time zones.

At the time of writing this article, I found surprisingly little on the official International Student Offices (ISO) website for these students. What I did find was mostly limited to the restrictions in place for travel in Canada. However, Concordia states that the university cannot provide any guarantees for students that they will be permitted to enter the country with the information provided. This has left many international students to make decisions about the 2020-2021 school year completely uninformed as to whether or not their decisions are valid, as was the case with Antony Flanagan, a third-year Fine Arts student at Concordia.

“I went onto the Canadian government website and looked through the restrictions,” said Flanagan. “I thought, well I might be able to get away with a few things, like some of them were vague criteria, but I called them and they just said no with what I had.”

Living in London, England, Flanagan finds the five-hour time difference frustrating but manageable. It’s when a student’s life outside of school begins to conflict with their school schedule when these challenges become more serious.

That has been the experience of a friend of mine, another third-year Fine Arts student who wishes to remain anonymous, currently studying in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“I can sum [remote learning] up for you in two words: it’s shit. I’ve been so unmotivated. I have so many classes that I need to catch up on, not to mention I’ve slept through a good amount of my classes … I work until 10 and my job is a 30-minute commute so I don’t get to bed until 11-ish. I just have no energy left,” she said.

As midterms are quickly approaching, she frequently questions her ability to continue like this in the long-term. She admits that deferring next semester has crossed her mind, but considers that to be her last resort. She would rather see Concordia provide more support to students stuck in similar positions.

Except for resources at the Student Success Centre and The Access Centre for Students with Disabilities, international students have to rely on the policies of their professors for support, which has left many students in serious trouble.

“I emailed [the professor] and asked if there is any way he could record the live sessions so that I don’t have to stay up from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. every night,” said Mohamed Almoallim, a fourth-year JMSB student studying from Saudi Arabia. “He told me to go find another section and that they weren’t going to change just for you.”

It’s this apathetic attitude towards students that have left him questioning his faith in post-secondary education in recent months.

“I’m learning online from professors at school. I can look at any search engine, find a reliable source, and find so much information. University is really worthless in a way, at least how it is now.”

It’s a common opinion shared by many students studying outside of Concordia’s local time zone, as time differences serve to amplify the inherent challenges in online learning. Concordia must provide more to students studying abroad, or risk having its international students become disillusioned with higher education completely.

If you are an international student studying abroad, you can find more information here.

 

Feature graphic by Taylor Reddam

Interview with Pulitzer Prize and Emmy award-winning photojournalist Barbara Davidson

Barbara Davidson is a Concordia alumni, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Emmy award-winning photojournalist, and a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. Davidson did an online panel on Wednesday, Oct. 14, where she talked about her life story, how she became a renowned photojournalist, and her time at Concordia.

Davidson was born and raised in Montreal and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and Film Studies. While she studied at Concordia, she worked at The Link newspaper as a photographer.

Since graduating from Concordia, Davidson has traveled to over 50 countries, working at newspapers like the Washington Times and the Los Angeles Times. Her most current work before COVID was traveling across the United States taking portraits of gunshot survivors.

“I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate with a university degree,” said Davidson in an interview with The Concordian. She explained that for CEGEP she went to night school, as she had to work during the day, and needed to improve her high school grades for university admission.

When asked if she saw financial standing as a barrier to photography, Davidson said that people go into photojournalism believing it to be an easy profession — similar to modeling. But the steep learning curve and the extraordinary effort that goes into it can turn people off.

“If it is something you are passionate about, you make it work,” said Davidson, who explained that during her university years she would save her money and borrow equipment so she could continue photography. “You make it happen, that is what success is all about, I had to work hard.”

Davidson said what she most enjoyed while she worked at The Link was the sense of comradery; a sense of family and purpose. She was attracted to the feeling of engagement with the community in Montreal.

Davidson said her time at The Link was “an incredibly inspiring learning time in my life.”

“There has to be a hungry curiosity, a hungry curiosity leads to all kinds of opportunity,” she said, emphasizing that curiosity can lead a person in a new direction. “Be mindful and honest with yourself, if you listen to that inner voice about what you are curious about, then that can lead you.”

Davidson said her biggest regret in university was not taking advantage of her professors’ expertise. She explained that professors are not just there to give grades, but also to help guide you on your way. She said that university is a rare time where you have access to these resources.

“There are so many [mistakes], I have fallen flat on my face more times than I care to share,” said Davidson, who continued to elaborate on a particular incident when she was working at the Missouri Photo Workshop, doing an article about two single mothers raising their kids together.

Davidson explained that she got caught up in the sensationalism of reporting on how the mothers were going to parties and living their lives, and failed to report on the good parenting the mothers were also doing.

“I did not show a well-rounded picture, and that failure has guided me my entire career moving forward after that,” Davidson said.

“As a human, as a journalist, I failed to look for the true humanity in them,” she said. “Always look for the humanity in people, regardless of the circumstances that they are currently in.”

Davidson said the best advice she can give to students is not to think of themselves alone, that there are people out there to help guide, shape, and inform students.

“You just have the bravery to reach out, and you will succeed,” said Davidson.

The panel was open to the public, but the majority who attended were Concordia students or alumni. Those reached out too said the panel was informative and inspirational.

“Even if it’s not the path [students] are interested in taking, they can get a sense of what lengths they can go to in their own dreams and with their own goals,” said Kendra Kabasele, a Concordia alumni journalist and photographer who attended Davidson’s panel.

“[Students] may even be triggered to pursue an avenue they hadn’t ever thought of before. That’s what’s important about panels like these; the awakening of what has yet to be awakened,” said Kabasele.

“It gave me hope and perspective as I began my career, hoping to work as a photographer and visual journalist,” said Matilda Cerone, a Journalism student at Concordia who also attended the panel. “I am reassured that it is okay that I am where I am and that things don’t need to happen right away for me to embark on an eventful and exciting experience.”

Cerone explained that while she enjoyed the panel, she felt that Davidson did not properly address the questions on white privilege and the white gaze in photojournalism.

“I too desire to take pictures that have a social impact, but I do not want to engage in white saviourism and I am very aware that when a white person photographs non-white people there is a toxic power dynamic,” Cerone said.

During the panel Davidson stated that she understands the privilege she has and has seen editors bypass photographers of colour. She stated that this needs to stop, as diversity creates more interesting and rich media.

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News

University students have mixed emotions about the COVID alert app

While some students are happy to use the new app, others have privacy concerns

Earlier this month, the COVID Alert app went live in Quebec. Many Quebecers were eager to have a new tool to slow the spread of the virus. However, some still aren’t willing to download the app.

The COVID alert app works with Bluetooth and random codes. Essentially, the Bluetooth signal detects phones that are near yours. Then the phones send each other random codes. If you contract COVID-19, you will have to enter a code into the app, which will notify all the people you came into close contact with that they may have been exposed to the virus.

“We have to use the application massively for it to work,” said Edith Joly, a family doctor in Montreal. “If not many people use it, it destroys its purpose.”

Despite her concerns about the app not having enough users to function correctly, over four million Canadians have already downloaded it, including university students like Marc-Olivier Gagné, an Engineering student at the Royal Military College of Canada who normally resides in Montreal.

“I think it’s a great tool to help combat COVID.”

Ashlee, a recent University of Ottawa graduate who lives in Gatineau, also believes this app could be beneficial to public health and safety.

“I think this app could help lower the cases if we all use it.”

However, many students aren’t as eager as Ashlee and Gagné to download the app due to privacy concerns such as the government tracking their location, or collecting personal information.

“I don’t know if they’re tracking my phone,” said Isabella Hernandez, a second-year HEC student. “I don’t know if the government is trying to issue tickets with this new app or collect my personal information.”

Contrary to Hernandez’s concerns, a Health Canada product manager asserted the app is “not tracking any of our data … There is no breach of privacy because the app is using Bluetooth and codes.”

The Government of Canada also stated, “The COVID Alert app creates a random code, so that no one will know your name, or your location.”

Some students who have already downloaded the app believe that those who aren’t willing to download it should consider what they are already doing on the internet.

“I don’t know how much of your liberty you’re conceding when you use this app considering your bitmoji appears on the Snapchat map,” said Gagné.

Gagné is referencing the feature on Snapchat that tracks users GPS location and displays it on a map featuring a cartoon version of the user.

Those who use Facebook and not the COVID Alert app are also criticized.

“I find it hypocritical to argue that you don’t want to use the COVID Alert app when you’re on Facebook and other social media,” said Ashlee. “I would rather the government have my information than private companies.”

Facebook has been criticized in the past for sharing user data with third-party companies for advertising purposes.

However, privacy concerns are not the only thing preventing people from wanting to download the app.

Some students believe the app wouldn’t work because people wouldn’t put in the effort to get tested or quarantine upon getting the app’s notification that they were exposed to the virus.

After hearing all the reasons people don’t want to download the app, retired health practitioner Dr. Judy Flecknell doesn’t understand why people won’t download the app if there’s a possibility it may help keep people safe.

“I think people have a responsibility towards others within our population,” stated Dr. Flecknell. “Downloading the app is not an invasion of your privacy, and keeping your loved ones safe is what’s important.”

The ongoing reluctance of so many to want to download the app could indicate that the government needs to find a better way to demonstrate that they aren’t collecting any user information.

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News

Free Gardens For All

Zac Clarke wants everyone to have a garden — so they’re building them for free

For Zac Clarke, founder of “Free Gardens for All,” the pandemic was an opportunity to rethink the direction of their life. Clarke owns “Dirty Pizza” on Mont-Royal Avenue, and after three years of working 60-70 hour weeks, they were completely burnt out. Then came the pandemic.

“I call coronavirus ‘the great pause,’” said Clarke. “I kinda stopped and thought: is this what I wanna do? And I decided that I wanted to make more money with my labour and less money exploiting the labour of others.”

Clarke originally studied carpentry at École des métiers de la construction de Montréal, but worked a series of kitchen jobs after graduating, which led them to Dirty Pizza.

Clarke’s goal now is to return to woodworking as an entrepreneur, and in the meantime they had a great idea: building free garden boxes. Not only would this allow them to get back into the swing of things with carpentry, but “as a baby socialist and anarchist, it’s good praxis!”

Garden boxes are small, raised planting beds that can be placed in a backyard, on a porch, a balcony, or even on the sidewalk, turning what was once bare concrete into a place to grow your own organic produce.

Clarke finds scrap wood — their first three boxes were all made from one-third of an old deck — and constructs the boxes with the help of volunteers.

The plan is to construct 20 boxes over the cold season and get at least 80 per cent of them producing food by next summer. After that, they’ll register as a nonprofit co-op and, if all goes well, Clarke can leave the project to grow on its own.

“When I was in high school I had a great theatre teacher, Louise Chalmers, who always said ‘If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I want this production running,’” said Clarke. “The hope with this is that I get the legs going, I get people motivated, and people can build free gardens whether I’m here or not.”

But they need volunteers to help make that happen. In particular, Clarke is looking for someone with a truck and anyone who has carpentry experience, but they made it clear that Free Gardens For All is an anti-ableist organization and welcomes everyone who has time to help.

Right now they’re focusing on building boxes and getting them installed, and once the spring comes, Clarke and volunteers will fill all the gardens with soil and compost from the Eco-Quartier so folks can get started planting.

With this project, Clarke hopes to get food back into the hands of the people. Another way to achieve that, they told me, is to get the city to expropriate roofs from the landlords who are hoarding them. All that extra growing space is a huge, unused resource.

“We’re fucked when it comes to climate change, when it comes to where our food comes from, when it comes to people not being able to afford food or healthy food,” they said.

But by making as many boxes as possible, hopefully “The spaces get greener, the money gets greener, and if the rooftops start coming, instead of people like Lufa, you’ve just got free fuckin’ gardens on people’s roofs.” Lufa is a Montreal-based company that sells produce grown in rooftop greenhouses.

Free Gardens For All is taking an intersectional approach for distributing garden boxes, and giving priority to anyone whose life would be really improved by having access to free, organic produce.

To volunteer, or to request a free garden box of your own, email freegardensforall@gmail.com and they’ll send you a Google form.

Categories
News

Former President of ECA on why he was disqualified.

Alex Stojda was disqualified as he ran to be President of the Engineering and Computer Science Association (ECA) for a second year

In March, Alex Stojda, then-President of the Board of Directors for the Engineering and Computer Science Association (ECA) was disqualified from running for reelection because of a bylaw infraction.

ECA’s bylaw B.4.1.3 states that, “Current executives of another society, association or committee that has financial affiliations with ECA, excluding all ECA appointed committees, shall not be eligible to be the President or Vice-President of Finance of the Association.”

Stojda was disqualified because it was his first year as President of the board of the ECA, and he was on the executive board at Reggies Bar, which has financial connections to ECA.

“I disagreed [with the disqualification], but I was willing to rectify the situation and resign [from Reggies] because the ECA is the thing I care the most about,” said Stojda.

He explained that he tried to appeal the decision, and said his bylaw infraction was minimal and easily remedied, but it was not accepted.

He also stated that bylaw B.4.1.3  was added in March 2019, halfway through his term on the executive board at Reggies.

When he became President of the board, he explained, the issue of him also being on the board of Reggies was never brought up.

“In one word, I feel betrayed,” said Stojda. He explained that while he understands that different interpretations of bylaws happen, the issue is that he was never allowed to argue against it, “Or have the three years of my work as an executive on the ECA considered.”

“My offer to resign from Reggies was never addressed and it was never explained to me why that option was unacceptable,” said Stojda.

He admits that he wasn’t surprised by the accusation, as it was election time and it is common for “the dirt to come out,” but he was surprised by the verdict.

A petition created in May to reinstate Stojda garnered just under 150 signatures, but the petition was never acknowledged by the ECA CEO Febrian Francione. Stojda explained that the support for the petition is a significant amount as the average voting turnout for the ECA is around 350 students.

The petition claims that the issue with this verdict is that Reggies does not fit into the bylaws definition of an organization, as it is an independent organization.

It also states that if the bylaw was interpreted correctly it would allow Stojda the opportunity to resign from Reggies and re-run for presidency.

According to Stojda, besides asking CEO Francione to reconsider, there is nothing else he can do, as the ECA doesn’t have a board of appeals.

He believes that if ECA had a similar board, such as the Concordia Student Union’s (CSU) judicial board — an independent judiciary branch of the CSU — he would be able to make it clear that he would resign from Reggies for the new election and have the disqualification overruled.

Stojda also admits that after three years of hard work, this verdict has heavily impacted his mental health; thus, he has decided to stop pursuing the issue and redirect his time to new opportunities.

“Despite all of this, I had a great three years representing the students and I only wish I had a fourth,” said Stojda. “I am worried that the work that I have been doing will be stained by this situation.”

The CEO has not responded or commented on the petition, nor have they responded to any of our communications. The article will be updated if they respond.

 

Photographs courtesy of Alex Stodja

Categories
Concordia Student Union News

New policy will keep CSU representatives accountable

After two long years of pushing the new sexual violence policy through, it’s finally official

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) voted in a new policy with a survivor-centred approach towards handling sexual misconduct involving CSU representatives.

Following a meeting on Sept. 23, the new policy was officially put in place and acknowledged in the CSU bylaws.

This policy was initially voted on in the 2018–19 academic year; however, after a failure to enforce it in the bylaws and delays due to leadership issues, the policy has never fully been enforced. This situation is now rectified.

The policy pertains to any complaints that involves CSU representatives in matters of sexual violence and harrasment, stating, “Creating a Sexual Violence Policy (the “Policy”) will ensure that allegations of sexual violence involving CSU members are properly addressed and that every CSU member is made aware of their roles and responsibilities regarding the prevention and response towards sexual violence.”

Eduardo Malorni, the CSU’s Student Life Coordinator, spoke to The Concordian to explain the circumstances around which the policy was voted in, and the urgency felt within the CSU. Previous to this new policy, there was no way of holding the student union accountable.

Malorni said, “Other than handling it individually one-on-one, or trying to work it out behind the scenes, there was nothing [in place] for a student to make an official complaint against a CSU representative.”

Each complaint will be evaluated by the committee members, who remain separate from the CSU.

“The committee members are someone from the judicial board, a student-at-large that was appointed, someone with experience in sexual violence, an investigator/HR person that has experience dealing with this, and the last one is someone on the Standing Committee of SMSV [Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence] from the university,” explained Malorni.

This policy and procedure is very different from Concordia’s policies related to sexual violence. When there are complaints of a sexual nature to be made that do not involve a CSU representative, the university will be responsible for said investigation.

In addition to a new way of handling complaints, this policy also enforces a mandatory consent training for each representative. This training module was the main point used to delay the implementation of this policy.

According to Malorni, ”[CSU members] were casually mentioning how failing or not attending consent training [should not] be a reason to get removed from the CSU; they were implying it wasn’t an impeachable thing.”

However, most CSU representatives were very eager for the training, and saw it as an opportunity to learn.

“There’s always going to be a few people who think it’s a waste of time. Sometime[s] there are people who are generally curious and they ask questions,” said Malorni.

 

Categories
News

Concordia student files two ethics complaints against five SPVM officers

Student said she felt dismissed and minimized when reporting her harasser to the Montreal police

 

A Concordia University student has filed two ethics complaints against five Montreal police officers over the dismissive treatment she endured while reporting a harassment complaint.

The 30-year-old PhD student Anna* told The Concordian she felt continuously dismissed and disparaged by the SPVM officers.

Over the course of a month, Anna said she made several attempts to report a man who had been stalking and harassing her on the downtown campus.

The Center for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) will be assisting Anna with the two complaints filed with the Quebec Police Ethics Commission. According to a statement on the issue released by CRARR, Anna was harassed in October and November of 2019.

“He followed me to coffee shops, and my workplace at Concordia, and would seemingly know my schedule,” said Anna.

She decided to file a formal criminal complaint to police at Station 20 near the downtown campus after the two months of harassment escalated to a physical altercation with the man.

She explained her situation at the station but was told that the officer who would listen to her complaint was busy with an Amazon package theft, and that she had to come back later.

“I had a feeling that there was no sense of triage, there was no sense of the gravity of my situation being taken seriously,” said Anna.

After she returned to the station, this time escorted by a Concordia security guard later that evening, Anna said she had to fill out a document about her complaint behind a glass window sitting in a waiting room chair.

She said this process took hours of back and forth with the officers, who asked her to describe details such as what her harasser was wearing, what time of day the incidents occurred, and what was said.

When she described to the supervising officer what the man looked like, Anna said the officer responded, “Sounds like a good looking man, why don’t you go on a date with him?”

“I was really shocked at this callous and offensive conduct,” said Anna.

After filing her complaint, she told an officer that she was scared, and asked to be escorted home. The officer dismissed Anna’s request, asking her if the attacker was at her home “right now,” and if she had any friends or family that could help her instead.

“Instead of supporting vulnerable women, who already self-identify as ‘I’m in trouble, I’m vulnerable’ there’s a sense of ‘we can’t help you, go find some friends, why don’t you call your family.’”

Anna is not originally from Montreal, and said she didn’t have a support system she could rely on at the time.

A few days later, Anna said she was terrified to be walking home from class at night, only to find the door to her apartment already open. She called 911, but the police officers took over an hour to arrive. The officers then gave Anna a document for her to fill out her complaint report, again.

The officers told Anna she would have to follow up with her complaint at the police station near the downtown campus, where it was initially filed.

After they left, Anna said she felt she needed to know more about her harasser. She decided to research about him online after obtaining information on her harasser from a police document. That’s when Anna found out he had a history of sexual assault.

“It hit me at that moment, that the police had a record of him and yet still did nothing to protect me, or even inform me of his record.”

Afraid for her safety, Anna went to the police station and waited for hours at the detention centre for a detective to look at her case.

“I was too afraid to go home,” she said.

On several occasions, Anna said when she tried to communicate in English about her case with the SPVM, officers were reluctant or outright dismissive of her case.

Anna described trying to follow up on nine separate occasions, and officers would hang up on her, or walk away from her at the station. On one occasion, she said she called and spoke to a supervising officer about her case only to have him say “tabarnak” and hang up on her.

“Being minimized, being laughed at, and not being taken seriously, and to have to chase the police down for my own safety, all of these are barriers to access to justice for women like me.”

Executive Director of the CRARR Fo Niemi, who is assisting Anna with her case, says this is the first time he has seen a case like this.

“We haven’t seen something so blatantly egregious like this, especially in terms of the very offensive comments that she got at the police station, and the fact that she had to run after police officers and the police department and after [reaching out] several times in order to get at least somebody to call back,” said Niemi.

According to Niemi, Anna’s two police ethics complaints involve incidents which occurred at the SPVM police station, and the incident in which the officers came to her apartment after it was broken into.

What concerns Niemi is not only the treatment Anna endured, but whether this is a systemic issue.

“If accessing a police department or police services involves this kind of reaction and conduct, you can imagine how many women may not even go to the police for fear of not being taken seriously and not being believed.”

SPVM spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant says the SPVM could not comment on the ongoing investigation.

*to protect the subject’s identity, we are using a pseudonym.

 

Graphic by @the.beta.lab

 

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