Students protest against student hikes. Photo by Lily Cowper / The Concordian
Mobilization against tuition hikes continues with multiple student groups moving to strike on Nov. 30.
The Geography Undergraduate Student Society (GUSS) moved in unanimous support to block access to classrooms in accordance with a “hard picket” on Friday, Nov. 30 against the tuition hikes for out-of-province and international students.
Another student protest is set to happen on the corner of De Maisonneuve and McKay at 12 p.m. on Nov. 30. The movement is currently supported by the CSU, ASFA and the McGill student associations.
The tuition hikes will raise tuition for out-of-province students from around $9,000 to $17,000. For international students, the government will charge universities $20,000 per international student outside of France and Belgium. Concordia has now started a page for FAQs and the implications of the tuition changes.
In a general meeting open to all members of the geography undergraduate program on Nov. 17, GUSS moved to block the entrances of geography classes on Nov. 30 as an action of hard picketing. They will be accompanied by a number of other student associations including the Fine Arts Student Association (FASA), the Urban Planning Association (UPA) and the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association (SCPSA) among other MAs in defiance against tuition hikes.
“I found a program here that I really like, and I’ve found a community and a city I really like,” said Max Neumann, a student on the GUSS mobilization committee.
Neumann is from British Columbia and was looking to pursue a masters degree in Quebec, but will not be able to because of the tuition increases. She said that Concordia’s opportunities for geography students are unique to the university and that many students will be pushed into programs in Ontario because of the tuition hikes.
Some students have expressed concern with what they will potentially lose out on by not attending the classes that they paid to attend, but GUSS is lobbying to make sure that the effects of the hike on the students will not be detrimental.
Jackson Esworthy, a GUSS executive, said that a lot of the faculty informally supports student action against tuition hikes since this will affect the faculty and Concordia will see cutbacks in funding. They have not seen information from Concordia on which will be the most impacted programs nor any specific reports per program.
Students have a long history of successful student strikes in the province of Quebec. Esworhty added that GUSS was one of the first student associations in the province to lead the strike against the increased tuition. “That [strike] started at Concordia on the MA level,” Esworthy said about the 2012 “Red Squares” strike against the increase of tuition.
In 2012, students across Quebec mobilized against tuition increases posed by Jean Charest’s Liberal Party at the time to increase tuition by $325 every year from 2012 to 2017. Thousands of students across Quebec took to the streets to participate in the longest general unlimited strike in Canadian history.
As for the current tuition increases, weekly meetings are held with Concordia’s student groups as well as groups from other universities across Montreal including McGill and UQAM to maintain a front of solidarity and to work together to hold student strikes.
UQAM’s ASFA equivalent, Association Facultaire Étudiante des Sciences Humaines de l’UQAM (AFESH), told The Concordian that they “offer solidarity to student associations of English universities,” but offered no comment about whether they were participating in the strikes on Nov. 30.
The strikes on Nov. 30 will not be the last. The ASFA is moving to host a three-day strike from Wednesday, Jan. 31 to Friday, Feb. 2.
Women's Stingers hockey team from the bench.
Credit: David J. Beaudoin
The four-time Olympic gold medalist became the 10th woman to get the call from the Hall.
On Nov. 13, the annual Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held. In the Hall are about 300 legendary players and 115 builders who helped grow the game of hockey. During the 2023 meeting of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee on June 21, Caroline Ouellette’s nomination was a no-brainer despite it being only her second year on the ballot.
The road to this point for Ouellette was never an easy one. The player shared in her acceptance speech that when she was growing up, it took her two years to convince her parents to allow her to play hockey. Once she was able to convince her mom to help her buy her first pair of skates at the age of nine, Ouellette played on different all-boys teams until she was 17.
“I heard about every possible type of name-calling,” Ouellette shared during the speech. “These challenges helped me develop a deeper appreciation of how lucky I was to play hockey when so many women around my age couldn’t have the same opportunity,” she said.
Ouellette got her first taste of professional hockey in 1995 when she joined Team Quebec during the Canada Winter Games. She won her first gold medal in 1997, playing for Team Quebec at the National Women’s Under-18 Championship.
After putting up a whopping 60 points in 27 games in the 1998-99 season for the Montreal Wingstar of the National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), Ouellette played in her first of 12 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships. She would go on to win six gold medals and six silver medals in World Championships, ranking eighth all-time with 68 points in 59 games played.
In 2000, Concordia University got introduced to the hockey phenom. In her short time playing for the Stingers, Ouellette put up 19 points in just seven games. Oullette moved on to play three seasons for University of Minnesota-Duluth, where she also became the team’s captain for two seasons. Luckily for the Stingers, Ouellette would be back with the team in the future.
Ouellette played in the Winter Olympic Games four times between 2002 and 2014. She became the only ice hockey player to this date to win gold in all four Olympics she took part in. Ouellette put up 26 points in 20 career Olympic games played, cementing her legacy as one of the best international ice hockey players the sport has ever seen.
Having played in her last World Championship in 2015, Oullette played three more years of professional hockey for Les Canadiennes de Montréal in the city where it all began. She rejoined the Stingers as an assistant coach in 2016.
Coaching stints with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, International Canadian teams, and the Concordia Stingers have made up her ongoing career. She is currently the associate coach for the Stingers alongside partner and head coach Julie Chu, and the two have led the team to back-to-back national championship final appearances, including a gold-win in 2022.
Protesters march in protest of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Photo by Angie Isnel / The Concordian
Montreal students demand an end to unfair media coverage.
As the Israel-Hamas war continues to create polarized tensions, students in Montreal accuse the media of biased coverage and creating mistrust.
At a pro-Palestian march on Nov. 9, protesters directly targeted Radio Canada, TVA and CTV, all of whom were present. The protesters yelled: “Every time the media lies, neighborhoods in Gaza die. Shame on you!”
At the demonstration, a young woman half-masked by a red keffiyeh was surrounded by individuals holding “Jews say ceasefire now” and “Ending the genocide of the Palestinian people” signs, when she took the megaphone to denounce TVA Nouvelles.
“They [TVA] said there were only Arabo-muslims yesterday,” she added, referring to the incident at Concordia the previous day. “Can I hear all the other nationalities and religions here?” The crowd replied: “Yes!”
The march occurred a day after the incident at Concordia’s Hall Building on Nov. 8. The aftermath of the incident caused tensions to rise on campus, as various media outlets attempted to accurately recount the beginning of the conflict through interviews.
The Concordia pro-Israel club StartUp Nation called out CBC’s latest article, promising to “release the truth about yesterday’s horrific events on Concordia campus.”
According to a statement given to CBC, “Pro-Israel people came barging in and began screaming anti-Palestinian slogans and slurs at them.” This statement was denied by StartUp Nation. The group has since then published videos of the escalation on Instagram that contradict the statement given to the CBC.
During the protest, The Concordian spoke to various students from neighboring universities, to get their thoughts on the media coverage of events that ocurred over the past few days.
Karim, a UQAM student, deplored the polarizing angle of Canadian media stories. “The media are trying to show some sort of consent that Israel is right to do what they’re doing,” Karim said. “But people don’t believe them anymore. The information intensely flows through social media.”
Luz Montero, a UQAM student, held a painted portrait of Netanyahu with the word “infanticide” sprayed around his head. Montero said she stopped following mainstream media, instead getting information through alternative media. “The last thing I saw from CNN, I was like, ‘Oh my God, come on… Stop!,’” Montero said. “We are not ignorant, we know what’s happening there.”
David Derland-Beaupré, a Concordia student and member of La Riposte Socialiste, recounted challenging a Radio-Canada reporter about their support for either the pro- or anti-Israeli. “Where you don’t take sides, you take the side of those who oppress,” he told them. “So you have to expect that people don’t trust you anymore.”
Tara, a member of the Independent Jewish Voices at McGill, weighed in on the Nov. 8 incident at Concordia’s Hall building. “It’s really a horrific show of what divisive rhetoric can do, especially from university administrations that have a duty of care to protect all of their students rather than just a certain cohort,” Tara expressed.
While Thursday’s protest was unfolding, the Canadian Jewish Advocacy (CJA) federation held a press conference to express safety concerns following two Jewish school gunshots that occurred overnight.
Yair Szlak, CEO of CJA, said that the pro-Palestinian protest was “salt in the wounds” of the Jewish community, as the demonstration was scheduled on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a Nazi assault against the Jews in 1938. “The poster that [the pro-Palestinian protesters] use shows the breaking of glass,” Szlak said. “‘Kristallnacht’ means the night of broken glass,” which represents antisemitism for the Jewish community.
During a press conference on Nov. 8, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed that Canada is indeed facing a rise in antisemitism, which instills fear in Canadians across the country.
“We need to make sure that Canadians are doing what we do best, which is listening to our neighbors, understanding and acknowledging our neighbors’ pain, even though it may be diametrically opposed in its cause, to the same pain that we are feeling.”
Protesters unite last semester for the Rage Climatique protest. Photo by Angie Isnel / The Concordian
How student movements transformed the climate narrative in Quebec.
On Sept. 26, 2019, the streets of Montreal were flooded with colorful blue planet signs and urgent calls to action. Half a million people wearing blue and green makeup screamed, sang and danced to pressure the government to act against climate change.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg led the largest protest in Quebec history, with teenage activists as her bodyguards. “We held on by the hands, arms in hooks to form a circle around her. We were also in the middle of a procession of Indigenous delegations. That was special,” activist Albert Lalonde recalled.
Lalonde has been at the root of student-led climate activism in Montreal since 2019. Acting as Thunberg’s bodyguard on that sunny day represented the culmination of a year-long climate mobilization.
“There was a kind of richness, a moment of collective education. There was an incredible force to that,” Lalonde recalled.
Half a million people attended this march. This year’s climate protest in September, led by the anti-capitalist group Rage Climatique, gathered only 1,500 protestors.
In September 2019, half a million protesters took to the streets of Montreal to protest climate inaction. Photo by Kaitlynn Rodney / The Concordian
This September, 1,500 people attended the climate protest organized by the group Rage Climatique. Photo by Angie Isnel / The Concordian
In 2019, Lalonde co-founded La Coalition Étudiante pour un Virage Environnemental et Social (CEVES), a non-hierarchical group uniting climate activist groups across Quebec. The CEVES transcended the traditional normative structure of unions by organically rallying individuals around the same values: acting quickly through direct actions and taking responsibilities for the environment.
For spring 2020, the CEVES had planned a full Transition Week strike to engage even more people.
And then, COVID-19 hit.
The uniting strength of the CEVES’s non-hierarchical structure became its weakness. Students couldn’t gather anymore, and the movement lost momentum.
Last October, the CEVES in Montreal announced its dissolution.
That same month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the world is going in the wrong direction to keep global warming below a 1.5°C increase.
In November, the +2°C critical warning threshold was surpassed for the first time. A symbol, as states had sworn not to exceed the +2°C during the Paris Agreement in 2015. A federal audit also declared that Canada is not on track to meet the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan.
The COP28, which will take place at the end of November, will discuss the loss and damage created by the boiling era. This is a term recently used by the United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres, who said: “Global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived.”
In light of these events, Louis Couillard, one of the first members of the group La Planète s’invite à l’Université, believes renewed mobilization is necessary. “The government sees that, in 2019, we were half a million in the street. Today there are maybe 3,000. We need to put pressure again,” he said.
La Planète s’invite à l’Université was created in early 2019, uniting students from Université de Montréal, McGill, Concordia and UQAM around a desire to act against climate change.
Together, they urged their institutions to implement significant environmental measures, such as cutting fuel investments, implementing measures to cut methane and carbon emissions, and co-creating an awareness program about the climate crisis.
According to Couillard, these demands were ambitious. “Today, if you really look at it from a completely mathematical point of view, have our objectives been achieved? No,” he said.
Before co-creating the CEVES, Albert Lalonde started school strikes and walk-out early 2019 through Pour Le Futur Mtl, which echoed Greta Thunberg’s worldwide movement, Fridays For Future.
Lalonde felt that the government didn’t hear the warning sent by the student movement momentum, and that it instead used the call as a political recuperation.
Lalonde cited the federal government’s “2 billion trees” program, which was recently criticized for skewing their calculations of the trees planted. According to Lalonde, this feeds into a pattern of governmental hypocrisy around environmental action.
“The government declared a climate emergency one day, yes, and voted to buy back the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion the next day, within a 24-hour window,” they said.
Sebastien Jodoin, an environmental lawyer and professor at McGill, took part in the ENvironnement JEUnesse (ENJEU) lawsuit against Canada in 2019, aiming to represent Quebecers under 35 who were directly impacted by the lack of government measures against the climate crisis.
Two years later, the Quebec Court ruled against them. “It is a very disappointing decision,” Jodoin said. “It is contrary to everything we know from research, which shows the disproportionate impacts of climate change on young people.” Similar lawsuits are currently underway in Ontario.
Through successes and defeats, the student coalition ignited the environmental consciousness and deeply changed the media and political narrative. However, “this has become green economic development,” Couillard said. “That’s not at all how we wanted it to go.”
This “green economic development” is a greenwashing narrative that gives unearned environmental credit to political decisions and corporations. During the pandemic, La Planète s’invite à l’Université and the CEVES re-focused their messages toward criticism of capitalism and recognition of social issues.
Lalonde recounted the Gazoduc blockage in British-Columbia by the CEVES. “If there is no more propane supply because we block the trains, that’s a win,” Lalonde said. This event in co-mobilization with the Land Defenders Wet’suwet’en led to the Memorandum of Understanding signature that recognized and legalized the hereditary rights of Wet’suwet’en Chiefs in British-Columbia.
That event was a significant turning point in the message of the CEVES. “We really wanted to bring the imperative of this transition outside of capitalism,” Lalonde said, explaining that climate justice cannot be discussed without social justice. “The communities most vulnerable to the system are those who suffer the most.”
Couillard, who is now working for Greenpeace, emphasized the importance of students remaining active and voicing their concerns through mobilization. His optimism goes to the Coalition de Résistance pour l’Unité Étudiante Syndicale (CRUES), an inter-university student union created this year with strong social and environmental values.
However, he believes environmental activists have to collaborate on a bigger scale, through three levels of mobilization: students clubs, civil unions and larger NGOs. He thinks that bigger NGOs have the responsibility to help Indigenous groups and student movements to gain knowledge and independence.
Lalonde, now the communicator and events coordinator at David Suzuki Federation, learned from the successes and failures of the CEVES to create Horizon Commun. This project is slowly being launched after three years of incubation. It aims to empower regional communities, particularly Indigenous nations, with independent political structures. The initiative seeks to reshape social organization with climate-merging measures.
For environmental lawyer Jodoin, these social ideals aren’t realistic for the general society.
“Social change takes a lot of time, we don’t have that much time to solve the problem,” he said.
Jodoin sees the climate dilemma in a more pragmatic way, where people have to act at the individual level through their own financial and physical capacities. For him, technology, geo-engineering projects or innovative businesses are part of the solution. Jodoin thinks anti-capitalist speeches and grassroot activism are important, but not enough. “It will continue to play its role, but there are other initiatives that must be developed at the same time.”
Cruel to be Kind exhibition at Outremont Art Gallery. Photo by Maya Ruel / The Concordian.
Montreal artists use colours and various mediums to create a dream-like exhibition.
Jeanie Riddle and Delphine Hennelly, two Montreal-based painters, have taken over the Outremont Art Gallery from Nov. 8 until Jan. 7. The room hosting the artists’ exhibition, which is located inside the neighbourhood’s library, has undergone a complete transformation in order to showcase both women’s work.
Jeanie Riddle completed her MFA in painting from Concordia in 2005. Her portfolio includes acrylic paintings on canvas and on paper, as well as sculptures made of various fabrics. Delphine Hennelly, for her part, tends to make artwork which “addresses the human condition and prescribed gender roles,” according to her biography on the website of the Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London where her work was shown in February 2023.
The gallery walls are covered in Riddle’s and Hennelly’s vivid artwork, and on top of the paint are hung portraits and pieces of their collection. The exhibition is called Cruel to be Kind or Les plus beaux cauchemars, which translates to “the most beautiful nightmares.” This title feels very appropriate—upon entering the room, an aura of alternate reality becomes overwhelming, as if pacing inside a colourful dream.
Cruel to be Kind exhibition at Outremont Art Gallery. Photo by Maya Ruel / The Concordian.
All in tones of pastel, the artwork presented at the gallery varies greatly in style from one piece to another. Riddle and Hennelly’s artistic styles and chosen mediums are very different.
Hennelly finds much inspiration in art history and tapestries. She mostly creates vivid portraits which, even though she allows herself much creative freedom and steers away from realism, are still somewhat figurative. Women figures (though some have green skin) and outlines of human figures are easily distinguishable in her art. .
Riddle’s artwork, in contrast, is much more abstract. She paints colorful shapes and uses fabric, such as scrunched up latex, to create unique pieces which could be associated with clouds. There are also a few pieces displayed in the middle of the room which resemble bags and have been dyed in tones of pastel.
The encounter between both styles could have been difficult to digest, but somehow the artists’ work complete one another and are entangled brilliantly.
Cruel to be Kind is an exhibition with strong feminist undertones. All the human figures painted on the walls are women, and they are either smiling, holding the hand of a child, wearing hats and dresses, or are completely naked.
Painting by Delphine Hennelly. Photo by Maya Ruel / The Concordian.
A painting hung on one of the walls has been created with only a few strokes of blue acrylic paint accompanied by a yellow line which has a shape of breasts. Another painting shows a woman, all dressed-up, holding a handkerchief to her face—alluding to the hardships of living in a patriarchal society. The antitheses in the title, “cruel” and “kind,” or in French, “beautiful” and “nightmare,” correlate with the way women are treated and depicted in society—“both desired and despised,” as per the artists. The colours used in the artwork are light and vibrant and give a pure feeling of femininity: lots of warm pink, purple, light blue, and yellow.
As the year comes to a close and exams, final papers and projects loom ever nearer, there are a number of excellent films screening on campus to help motivate you through your finals and make the long, cold and dark nights of December a little warmer with the gentle glow of the silver screen.
Cinema Politica, a non-profit media arts organization dedicated to socially engaged cinema, has two final screenings for their Fall 2023 programming. On Dec. 4 at 7 p.m., Cinema Politica will host theQueer Cinema for Palestine event and premiereFoggy: Palestine Solidarity, Cinema, & the Archive(72 min). This collection of short films juxtapose archival footage, re-enactments, and present and past histories into a dialogue in tribute to historic and current activism and resistances Palestinian people.
The films include Sultana’s Reign (Hadi Moussally), Homecoming Queenz (Elias Wakeem), Tempest In A Teapot (Amy Gottlieb), Knobs & Chai (Noor Gatih), Nazareth (Mike Hoolboom), My Whole Heart Is With You (Essa Grayeb), Even A Dog In Babylon (Lior Shamriz) and The Poem We Sang (Annie Sakkab). This screening is dedicated to the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation, and not only offers film viewings, but also a vibrant space to gather, to learn, to grieve and to celebrate ongoing strength and resistance together.
On Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.,Cinema Politica will screenTautuktavuk (What We See). Co-directed by Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, this film explores the story of Inuit sisters Uyarak and Saqpinak as they attempt to connect during the beginning of the pandemic, each dealing with their trauma in their own ways. The film explores the intersecting and compounding impacts of pandemic measures, intergenerational trauma, domestic and sexual abuse, primarily through a series of video chats which attempt to bridge the physical and emotional gaps.
From Nov 3 until Dec. 15, the FOFA Gallery is hosting daily screenings between11 a.m. and 3 p.m. of Looking In, Looking Out, anew Black Arts Series presented in collaboration with the NouLa Black Student Centre and the Visual Collections Repository (VCR). The screening will showcase the work of six filmmakers of the Concordia community. This selection promises to meditate on familiar emotions and experiences, intertwining word and moving image alongside pasts, presents, and potential futures to speak to the concept of Black aliveness while still honouring the nuanced multiplicity of Black experience. The films include elemental (Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo), I’m Glad You’re Here (Karl Obakeng Ndebele), Mango Lemon Soda (Emem Etti, ASK ME WHAT MY NAME IS (Desirée de Jesús), Chez Dr. Bello (Badewa Ajibade), and halves & doubles(Adam Mbowe). The series explores themes of intergenerational strength and trauma, personal grief, collective love, and more.
More information about these films and events can be found on Cinema Politica and FOFA Gallery’s websites. With only a few weeks left in the semester, make sure to catch these films before the end of term.
Juliet Mackie, Jacqueline, 2023, Beadwork on felt. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patton.
Juliet Mackie paints motherly love and female power in her latest artwork.
Shé:kon Gallery is currently hosting Matrilineal Memory, an exhibition showcasing the work of Juliet Mackie. She is a visual artist from Métis origins, currently residing in Montreal. Through her beadings and paintings, she embraces her heritage and pays tribute to the women of her lineage.
Mackie is a PhD candidate in the iIndividualized iProgram at Concordia University as well as a holder of a BFA in painting and drawing. The exhibition’s curator, Alexandra Nordstrom, is a PhD student in the inter-university doctoral program in art history at Concordia University. Nordstrom and Mackie have previously collaborated on another exhibition, Braiding our Stories, at VAV Gallery.
Juliet Mackie, Kineweskwêw, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
Matrilineal Memory is hosted at Shé:kon Gallery, which belongs to the Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA). BACA is a non-profit organization launched in 2012 which promotes Indigenous artists’ artwork. The Gallery was opened in 2021 and is in function all year-round, and is described as a “space dedicated to emerging Indigenous artists and curators from Quebec.”
Juliet Mackie, Jaymie, 2023. Beadwork on felt. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
Starting with her great-great-great-grandmother and ending with her mother, Mackie has recounted the lives of her female ancestors. The women in the portrait collection share unequivocal family resemblances, such as dark hair and large brown eyes, as well as beadings of floral figures, which both represent Mackie’s connection to nature and embody femininity.
Juliet Mackie, Greta, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
The portraits and beadings are vividly colourful. In the paintings, some women are pictured in traditional Indigenous clothing, whereas others are painted wearing dresses and pearls. There is a family portrait called Trapline Girls where a woman wearing furs is seen smiling accompanied by three children, presumably girls, which might be the representation of tradition being passed down from generation to generation.
Juliet Mackie, Trapline Girls, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
Another painting, Granny Oak, shows an elderly woman holding a young girl in her arms, surrounded by pink flowers. This portrait particularly exudes maternal love and feminine energy. The background of some paintings includes flowers, trees and eagles—yet another reminder of the artist’s love of nature as well as the Métis’ connection to fauna and flora.
Juliet Mackie, Granny Oak, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
The artist’s great-grandmother, Evelyn Oak, is a central figure of the display. She was a Métis woman from the community of Fort Chipewyan, in Alberta. She, as well as her daughter Greta, inspired the artist through their journey of self-acceptance, resilience and courage as Indigenous women during the 20th century. As she embraces her family history, Mackie also embraces her own identity, reconnects with her origins, and celebrates tradition. Unapologetically feminist, Matrilineal Memory is an intimate encounter between the artist and the women who shaped her way of being.
Juliet Mackie, Evelyn of the North, 2023. Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Shé:Kon Gallery. Photo by Michael Patten.
Projet Casa Façade, Vendu-Sold VIP opening night. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.
ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction featured works from these ten Concordia alumni.
Bilingual contemporary art magazine ESSE’s 14th annual benefit auction, Vendu-Sold, was recently on view at Projet Casa from Nov. 9 through Nov. 19. The opening event was attended by ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, along with many other ESSE administrators and several of the artists. Here is a list of all the works produced by Concordia alumni that were included in the auction—be sure to check them out and support their work!
ESSE’s director, Concordia alumnus Sylvette Babin, speaking at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.
Having earned her BFA in photography at Concordia, Clara Lacasse balances the industrial with the ethereal in her bright and airy work, Trame, 2020.
Clara Lacasse’s piece Trame, 2020 at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.
Trevor Baird, who earned his BFA in ceramics at Concordia, is showing his work The Gates of Ishtar, 2021. This curious work blends the new and the old, incorporating graphic design elements into a ceramic facade.
Lorna Bauer is currently Concordia’s studio arts program’s artist in residence. Her hand-blown glass work Sítio Bottle (Millefiori) #2, 2021,is one of a series of over fifty individual pieces that she began in 2018.
Ari Bayuaji studied fine arts at Concordia after moving to Canada from Indonesia in 2005. His woven plastic work The Rock Islands, 2022, speaks to the relationship between community and the environment.
Concordia’s MFA graduate program director in studio arts Kelly Jazvac’s work Time Scale (Granite #1), 2022, makes use of manufactured materials in order to comment on the longevity of humanity’s environmental footprint.
Jeanette Johns holds an MFA in print media from Concordia. Her work Plain Hunt on Four: 1234, 2023, combines the hand-made with the digital to create vibrating imagery that challenges our perception of space.
Élise Lafontaine earned her BFA from Concordia in 2015 before going on to complete her master’s at UQÁM. Her synesthetic work Rib of Sound, 2022, seeks to mystically translate sound itself into a visible gesture.
Jean-Michel Leclerc holds an MFA in fine arts from Concordia. His untitled work is part of a series that examines the crisis of the 1930s—rearticulating found imagery through analog photographic processes and digital fragmentation.
Staff writer Shaghayegh Naderolasli observing Jean-Michel Leclerc’s work at Projet Casa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.
Former Concordia professor François Morelli’s rosy and surreal work Les aurevoirs, 2022, offers an illustrative and dynamic scene of sensual figures entangled in space.
Bea Parsons is a full-time professor at Concordia who previously studied fine arts at the university. Her monotype print Sun Dog, 2023, has a soothing, painterly quality that demonstrates how the possibilities of printmaking techniques can illustrate incredible natural phenomenons.
Alexandre Pépin earned his BFA in studio arts from Concordia in 2018 before recently receiving his MFA from the University of Texas in Austin. In Fish, 2021, employs a textured blend of painting and drawing techniques with a pastel colour palette to render the image of a fish out of water.
Multidisciplinary artist Fatine-Violette Sabiri holds a BFA in studio arts from Concordia. Her work Majdouline, 2019, draws its visual language from her Moroccan heritage.
Eve Tagny earned a BFA in film production from Concordia in 2011. Her xerox impression Poppies field print, 2022, is a dark and mysterious image of a poppy field that captures a moment which speaks to humanity’s desire to capture nature.
Lan “Florence” Yee’s bright and self-aware oil painting Cantonese Still Life, 2018,is a commentary on the dominance of European traditions within the art historical canon as defined by “Western” academia. Yee earned her BFA from Concordia and her MFA from OCAD University.
Visit ESSE’s website here to see all of these artworks and more!
Karim Brissault, Eric Maximuik, Loïk Gagné, Nicolas Roy and Franck Tchembe stood out across the league this season.
The Concordia Stingers shocked the university football world this past season, finishing with a winning record of 5-3. U-Sports ranked them as a non-contender, below Université de Sherbrooke at the beginning of the season, as they finished below the Vert et Or last season with a record of 2-6.
“It was our motivation all season,” linebacker Loïk Gagné said. “We were in ‘the rest.’ We took that as a lack of respect, and we said, ‘Okay, we’re bringing it this season.’”
The feelings among the selected players were mixed when it came to making the RSEQ All-Star team. For the offensive guard Karim Brissault and kicker-punter Eric Maximuik, it was a personal goal to earn this acclamation, but focusing on their semi-final game against Université Laval was more important.
Eric Maximuik (left) and Karim Brissault (right). Credit: Kaitlynn Rodney
“For me, personally, it’s definitely an honour, but it wasn’t something I kept in my mind too long. I was more worried about focusing on the playoff game after [it was] announced,” kicker-punter Maximuik expressed. He also announced that with an average 44.3 yards per punt this season, it is the most in the league.
The defensive players would trade it all away any day for a Vanier Cup.
The Stingers football team had a near-complete coaching change over the offseason—the defensive coaching staff was cleared and rebuilt from the ground up. Stingers head coach Brad Collinson added the role of head coach for the offensive line to his responsibilities, as his new assistant Fraser Baikie brought in a hands-on technical approach to that part of the lineup, according to Brissault.
Brissault’s offensive line was involved in the number one rushing offense in the RSEQ with over 1,200 yards in just 188 attempts, averaging 151 yards per game. The o-line placed number two in the league for least sacks allowed, with only nine in total.
Third-year running back Franck Tchembe, the nucleus of this offense, was the number one in RSEQ rushing with 529 total yards, number six overall in total offensive players, as he was ranked fourth overall in all-purpose offensive players with 57 receiving yards to the season.
Franck Tchembe, breaking a tackle at home against ULaval Rouge et Or, Sept. 23. Credit: Concordia Athletics
This drastic staff change allowed for a new culture to thrive within the team. Leadership, team bonding, healthy competition between players and self-analysis was emphasized during the campaign.
“Last summer, going into my second year, there were 10-12 guys regularly showing up and most guys were training by themselves. This year, we were thirty training together,” Brissault said.
According to the elected defensive All-Stars Nicolas Roy and Loïk Gagné, the new defensive coordinator Paul Eddy Saint-Vilien had a specific and effective vision for his group.
“This year, the coaches adapted to us,” said Roy, who originally started as a linebacker and played the season as a defensive end with 11.5 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble. “We had the smallest D-line in the league, and we still managed to be one of the best in the entire league because of our speed, and having had a game plan for our strengths and weaknesses.”
For example, Gagné is about 25 lbs heavier than the average linebacker, which means keeping up with speedier players and guarding man-to-man isn’t his strong suit. Saint-Vilien was aware of this and made the appropriate changes to reduce his role in man-to-man plays. He finished the season in the top two tackle leaders with 36.5 total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two recovered fumbles.
There were three important games in the regular season for the Stingers, the first being a tied favorite amongst the players: the away game played against the Vert et Or of Université de Sherbrooke. It was the second game of the season and the team’s hopes weren’t high, as they had been crushed at home by Université de Montréal’s Carabins.
The team was down by 21 points going into the second half. In the last two minutes of the fourth quarter, Maximuik converted his last extra point, sending the team to overtime at 24-24. He then outscored the opposing kicker on field goals, winning it 30-27 for the team in double-overtime. “That resilience that our team had to come back when we were losing […] for me was definitely a highlight,” he observed.
A switch was flipped that day. According to Gagné, the bench from that point had a less apprehensive approach to players making mistakes and more of a calming, level-headed, stoic approach. Roy also said the team discovered a new-found ability to ignite a second wind in the later stages of games, which their opponents didn’t counter across most matchups.
The final game of the season was the second team-favourite to remember, as the Stingers beat the ranked top-two Canadian overall Carabins in their home turf. Yet again, Maximuik displayed his abilities to perform under high-pressure circumstances. He scored 10 of Concordia’s 16 points, avenging their season-opening performance in the last second of the game with the winning field goal.
“I kind of got screenshots in my mind of seeing my target lining up, hearing the noise. I remember specifically being able to hear the crowd and how loud it was,” the kicker recalled. “Right before the snap, I smirked a little bit. I used that energy that I got from the crowd to just focus in a little bit more and from then it was kind of just a routine kick.”
The semi-final game against the Laval Rouge et Or was just as important, as the Stingers showed that the win was possible against the other dominant RSEQ team. Although their opponents laid the hurt in the first couple of quarters, the Stingers exploded in the last few minutes of the game. Gagné threw down 9.5 tackles and a sack throughout, Roy’s defense line held the opposition’s rushing success down to about a third of what the Stingers put up.
“Even the bench was on fire,” Brissault said, as he was sidelined due to an ankle injury. “At halftime, the coach said to not focus on what was on the board, more on what was on the field […] They’re not the Laval team I played in the first year.”
Unfortunately, Maximuik’s 41-yard field goal conversion was not enough to win the game. However, the progress made over the season was enough to satisfy the fans.
The loss of important players like Dawson Pierre, Ezechiel Tiede and Zachary Philion, all graduating this coming May, might affect the team to a certain point. However, almost all of the current players will be staying for next season and the stars all agree that the team’s display of grit and a winning record will attract major prospects entering the RSEQ. The team’s aim for the offseason is to stay as tightly-knit as they were on the field and to stay in shape.
All-in-all, the Stingers really wanted it this season and they showed real qualities of what a winning team looked like. With changes of that size, it’s clear that all the team needed was time to adapt. These All-Stars demonstrated that they will be the leaders of next year’s championship team.
Looking to start building up your CV? Check out these upcoming opportunities for emerging artists, including callouts, job listings, networking events and more!
Open Calls
On Dec. 7, Design Arts Student Alliance (DASA) will be holding their Something Wavy art market, and they are looking for participants who wish to sell their work! Students can submit photos of artworks or projects they wish to sell at the event before Nov. 22. For more information, check out the link in their Instagram bio.
The Painting and Drawing Student Association (PDSA) is looking for works by artists for their upcoming Fall 2023 project exhibition in collaboration with Atelier Galerie 2112! The exhibit will be juried and curated by PDSA coordinators. To submit, go to this google form and add in your personal information, a 250 word artist statement, a 100 word biography, and two images (with descriptions) of your work. The deadline to apply is Nov. 28, and selected participants will be notified by email by Dec. 3. The show will be up from Dec. 11 through Dec. 17, and the vernissage will be held on Dec. 14! Learn more on Instagram.
The Jano Lapin gallery is accepting applications for artists-in-residence. Eight contemporary visual artists are welcome to apply for a six-month residency that will provide mentorship, networking opportunities, feedback on their work and an exhibition. The deadline to apply is Nov. 23 for the January-June 2024 season, and Feb. 15 for the July-December 2024 season. Learn more on Instagram or on their website.
Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA) has issued a callout for six Black graphic designers to work on their Black History Month programming! The deadline to apply is Dec. 11, and the link is in FASA’s Instagram bio.
Headlight, an anthology of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, is currently accepting submissions for issue #25 until Nov. 30. Submit between 1-4 poems (8 pages maximum) or up to 4,000 word fiction or creative nonfiction works. BIPOC+ and 2SLGBTQIA+ writers are strongly encouraged! Learn more and submit here.
Conferences
Ever dreamed of giving a Ted Talk? TedX Concordia is recruiting speakers! Propose a talk at the link in their Instagram bio (@tedxconcordia_club) by Dec. 1!
Grants and Scholarships
MyMa’s November edition of their unrestricted artist grant—worth $500—is open for submissions! This month’s juror, Jamel Robinson, is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist whose work involves everything from poetry and performance to abstract painting and sculpture. The free application is available at their website here.
Networking
The Milieux Institute’s open house is coming up on Nov. 22 from 12 p.m. to-2 p.m. in Concordia’s downtown EV building, room 11.455. Take a tour through their studio lab spaces, meet their current students and learn about what the institute has to offer!
Celebrate Concordia’s Fine Arts Reading Room’s (FARR) publication grant recipients’ work at the Fall 2023 vernissage on Nov. 23! The event will be held in FARR space at Concordia’s downtown EV building, room 2.785 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. There will be food!
Book and zine lovers, you do not want to miss Expozine 2023! Over 250 publishers will gather on Dec. 2 through Dec. 3 at Église Saint-Arsène (1025 Bélanger) from 11h-18h for a free event full of new literature from comics to novels to zines!
Discover artist Julia Thibault’s photography at the opening reception of her show La chambre à dormir dehors at Arprim gallery on Nov. 24 at 5 p.m.
Take part in an online discussion between artist Séamus Gallagher and Morris Fox about Gallagher’s show Mother, Memory, Cellophane, currently on view at the McCord museum as a part of MOMENTA Biennale de l’image. The conversation and public discussion will be held in English on Nov. 22 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Register at the McCord museum’s website here.
Contribute to The Concordian!
Last but not least, don’t forget to contribute to The Concordian! The Arts & Culture section is always looking for new writers and graphic designers. Email us at artsculture@theconcordian.com to inquire. We would love to work with you!
Protester holding a sign at the Blue Falls protest. Photo by Aidan Raynor / The Concordian
English universities struggle to see what their future will be without diversity in registration.
Montreal is the diversity hub of Quebec, and the provincial government’s latest blow to its universities has led to uproar from all sides of the city.
“It feels terrible. Very like… have your cake and eat it too,” said Dyan Solomon, renowned restaurant owner in Montreal and once out-of-province student, on the topic of the tuition increases set by the government of Quebec.
On Oct. 13, the Quebec government implemented measures beginning at the start of the next fall term to “rebalance” the university network in Quebec and protect the French language. To do so, the Quebec government will be increasing tuition for out-of-province students from $9,000 to $17,000 and charging universities $20,000 for every international student. This move would make Quebec universities the most expensive in Canada for out-of-province students.
Students who are currently enrolled in an English university in Quebec will be grandfathered in at their current tuition rate.
“I’ve been paraded around a lot by the Quebec media,” she added. “It’s very charming, the anglophone who learned how to speak French.” Her overall experience with francophone Quebec media has been positive, but she questions why she is being used for tourism in Montreal while supposedly being a threat to the culture.
Graphics by Carleen Loney / The Concordian
Solomon hails from Kingston, Ontario. She moved to Montreal to study English literature at McGill. Now, Solomon has gone on to open up three renowned restaurants; Olive & Gourmando, Un Po’ Di Più, and Foxy. She employs over 100 people and is a massive contributor to the culinary culture of Montreal. Her cafe/restaurant Olive & Gourmando was the first business to breathe life back into Montreal’s Old Port. So, being described as a threat to the French language did not sit right with her.
She also spoke about many of her colleagues in the restaurant industry who have come from away and forged a life here in Quebec navigating the difficult life of entrepreneurship here as an Anglophone.
Since the tuition hikes were announced, she has been using her platform as an influential Montrealer on Instagram to share her story as a former out-of-province student. She quickly accumulated a lot of responses from other remarkable Montrealers who have come from away and decided to gouge out a life in Quebec.
Being here during the referendum of 1997, Solomon felt the high expectation of learning French as an out-of-province student in the 90s. “When you came here you had the responsibility to speak French,” she said. “This is what you do–get with the program.”
Students who are currently enrolled in an English university in Quebec will be grandfathered in at their current tuition rate.
In a press conference, Jean François-Roberge, minister of the French language, and Pascale Déry, higher education minister, presented the new tuition framework as a way to promote the French language in Montreal as well as redistribute funds in the under-funded Quebec university system.
When asked if there is too much English being spoken on the streets of Montreal, Jean François-Roberge said: “Of course.” This has sent Quebec’s three English universities, McGill, Concordia and Bishops, into a frenzy, as they account for the largest population of students from outside of Quebec.
In the same press conference Pascale Déry stated that they are looking to “put an end to funding Canadians” by introducing this tarification model. She said that most of these students leave after their studies, and asked why the Quebec tax payer should foot the more than $110 million a year bill for these students. This number has yet to be proven in documents from the government.
Bishops University, with a student population of just 2,500 students, 30 per cent of which are out-of-province and 15 per cent international, will feel the biggest impact of the tuition increase. This new framework threatens to force the closure of the small liberal arts college in the Eastern Townships.
As an out-of-province student from Alberta, Bishops’ student body president Sofia Stacey believes the measure will make out-of-province students feel unwelcome in Quebec. “Students are fearful, stressed, frustrated, but most of all angry, because they feel that they’ve been told whether they won’t be affected or not, that they don’t belong here,” she said and continued by saying that maybe there just isn’t a place for them in Quebec anyways.
Stacey fear the news of the proposed tuition hikes will steer incoming students away from Quebec. “That’s heartbreaking for those who have contributed, not just to the economy, but to Quebec society and the culture,” she added.
On Nov. 6, Quebec Premier Francois Legault refused a historic proposal put forth by English universities to significantly increase their French language education for students. This proposal included plans to help out-of-province students integrate into the French job market after they graduate.
After the announcement of the measure in October, Concordia University spokesperson Vannina Maestracci said in an interview that Concordia was not consulted on the new framework, but was notified two days before the announcement.
She added that Concordia was looking into what the total effects of the tuition increase will be on smaller programs like creative arts with a large affected population of almost 50 per cent of out-of-province students.
Graham Carr, president of Concordia University, shared the financial ramifications of the new framework in a letter to the Concordia community. With the added effects of the tuition increases on out-of-province and international students, the university will see a $62 million loss in four years, when the grandfathered tuition wears out.
Quebec Liberal education critic Marwah Rizqy has been the loudest MNA against the tuition hikes and said Minister Dery needs to “find some common sense” when it comes to the new tuition increases.
Many out-of-province students come here to learn French and experience the vast and diverse cultures of Montreal. Concordia student Semira Kosciuk from Toronto said she came here for the “culture and for the opportunity to learn more French by immersing myself in it.” Even if she did not speak enough French to complete a degree at a French university, Concordia was the next best thing to learn the language.
ASFA academic coordinator Angelica Antonakopoulos spoke after the Blue Fall Protest on Oct. 30, encouraging students to sign the petition sponsored by the Quebec Liberal Party to force the issue to be debated in Parliament.
ASFA is currently working on other demonstrations in partnership with other institutions to bring out more students later in November.
Karin Etemadi (center) and her team, the Saltshakers, plan out the design elements of their horror game set in the JMSB building on Nov. 3. Photo by Andrae Lerone Lewis.
Participants in Concordia’s Game Development Club (GCD) Game Jam spent last weekend making their dream games.
On Nov. 3, gaming enthusiasts from a variety of skill sets gathered at Concordia University to compete in the once-per-semester game development competition dubbed the Game Jam.
Hosted by Concordia’s Game Development Club (GCD), the event opens the opportunity for aspiring game creators from in and out of the university to demonstrate their skills under a strict 48-hour time limit. Either solo or with a team, Game Jam participants create a video game from scratch using their unique set of skills and expertise.
Maxx Freund, the president of the GCD and fourth-year software engineering student at Concordia, joined the club two years ago, following his interest in gaming and technology. “I joined the GCD knowing nothing about how to make a game and I made a really bad game, but I learned how to do it,” he said. “That was cool, because we had a product that we could be proud of.”
Three Game Jam iterations later, he’s taken on a role akin to a curator for the event. Freund broke down the creative process behind most teams; ideally, each team’s development process requires for artists to design concepts and characters, for programmers to map out controls, and for other roles to tackle aspects such as music design and game level design.
Each Game Jam offers challenges for would-be developers to complete, including a theme they must base their creation on. Chosen by the club’s executive team, the theme offers “a lot of creative freedom,” according to Freund and may be interpreted differently by each team.
Timothée Lafont (center right) and his team working on level design for their game Away Back on the sixth floor of the JMSB building on Nov. 3. Photo by Andrae Lerone Lewis.
This semester’s featured theme was “the space between.” Submissions ranged from traversing alternate realities to surviving alone on a desolate spaceship.
“They’re the best way to get that experience on how to build a game in such a short amount of time,” said Timothee Lafont, a teacher in game design at LaSalle College. “It pushes you to come up with clever ideas to come up with an engaging game.”
Using Unreal Engine 5, a game development software, Lafont’s team planned to make a puzzle game that would warp around the player as time passed. Along with his team of concept artists, Lafont aimed to make the game visually remarkable with unique level and character design. He was confident in his team’s ability to accomplish the task before the time limit.
Another team, headed by Karin Etemadi, a student in cell molecular biology at Concordia, started plans for a game set in space where the player must survive monsters in a desolate spaceship. A first-timer, Etemadi said she did not know what challenges her team, “the Saltshakers,” would face, but they aimed to produce a working model nonetheless.
Both teams successfully submitted their work in time for the event’s closing ceremony on Nov. 5 at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. The results will be determined in the coming weeks.
