Tag: concordia

Categories
News

Concordia’s first pop-up building now open

If you walk along de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. near Concordia’s downtown campus, you will notice a cube-like building with a large inconspicuous LS plastered at the front entrance.

At door number 1535, Concordia’s first pop-up building opened its doors to students on Jan. 6.

The Learning Square is a temporary, two-storey, modular building that has eight classrooms that can accommodate about 80 students per class. The cost of building the structure was estimated at $6.5 million, and Concordia expects to use the building for five years.

The inside of the building is elegant; it is a reflection of what the Webster library looks like, post recent construction. Colourful walls adorn the interior, turquoise, yellow and lime green, juxtaposed against the white.

The temporary structure was built to make up for the loss of classroom space due to renovations in the Hall building. According to Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci, with this new building, the university will be able to complete the renovations faster and on a larger scale, with fewer disruptions to students and faculty.

“Space wise, in the classroom, it’s big, and the teachers are able to actually get their messages across, sound wise,” said sociology student Erin Bleau.

Maestracci said the expected gain of time for the renovations of the Hall building is about 18 months.

“I think that it’s really great that they’ve given us this space, because from what I understand, what’s going on in the Hall building involves even things like asbestos, and so on, so I’d much rather be over here,” said Professor Maggie McDonnell, lecturer and program coordinator of composition and professional writing.

According to Maestracci, Concordia looked at different options for creating more space for classrooms, but found that modular units are more beneficial and cost less than renting space. The building could also be moved and reused in another location.

“Given that it’s temporary, it’s actually pretty good,” said McDonnell. “You don’t feel like you’re in a trailer.”

Gender neutral washrooms

The Learning Square is the first Concordia building to have only gender neutral washrooms. The stalls also offer more privacy, as the doors start from the floor and reach up to the ceiling.

“It kind of adds an aspect of (privacy),” said communications student Steph Medalsy. “It could make a person who is maybe not okay with the idea a bit more comfortable, and maybe it will change some people’s opinions that it doesn’t really make a difference who’s using the washroom, considering the stalls are so secluded.”

 

Photos by Britanny Clarke

Categories
News

What experts think about human rights violations in China

A panel on China’s human rights violations was held in Concordia University’s Faubourg building on Jan. 15.

The experts, who were invited by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), expressed concerns about the Uyghur Muslim concentration camps in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China. They also discussed the brutal repression in Hong Kong and Tibet, as well as China’s increasing influence on the Western world and its implication for the future of democracy.

The event took place just days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director Kenneth Roth was denied entry into Hong Kong and HRW’s launch event for its World Report 2020 was disrupted by protestors, according to MIGS executive director Kyle Matthews.

“Human rights issues in China are nothing new,” said speaker Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, Senior Fellow at both the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy and the University of Alberta’s China Institute. She listed historical events such as the Cultural Revolution, the Xidan Democracy Wall, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre which she said “trampled on individual human rights in a myriad of ways.”

McCuaig-Johnston continued to explain that although China has lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty since 1978, this is not the same as ensuring individual human rights. She described how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses detention as a pressure tactic against dissidents and the abusive conditions under which they are detained, which were revealed by HRW’s interviews with former prisoners. She also explained the social credit system, in place since 2014, and the CCP’s widespread interference in Western countries.

Both McCuaig-Johnston and Benjamin Fung, a Canada Research Chair in Data Mining for Cybersecurity and an Action Free Hong Kong Montreal activist, highlighted the CCP’s infiltration in Canadian academics and described the pressure on faculty and Chinese students to self-censor criticism of the Chinese government.

The CCP’s use of technology, such as facial and voice recognition for repression, was also extensively discussed by both experts. Fung additionally focused on Chinese companies’ goal to expand the 5G network––he explained that the CCP controls every large corporation in China and that technology companies are obligated to cooperate with Chinese intelligence units.

“It’s about trust, you trust Apple to update your iPhone because it is a private company,” Fung explained, adding that we cannot trust Chinese companies who would introduce malware into the 5G network if the CCP asked them to.

Fung also spoke in detail about China’s one country, two systems policy and the CCP’s broken promise: its decision to maintain control over Hong Kong’s government instead of allowing universal suffrage, which Fung asserts was promised in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. He described what he called an ongoing humanitarian crisis and a system of police brutality, lengthy prison sentences, sexual assault, and white terror––attacks on pro-democracy activists.

The situation in Tibet was discussed by Sherap Therchin, executive director of the Canada-Tibet Committee, who explained it has been 70 years since China illegally invaded Tibet, and the Western world seems to have forgotten about it. He described the CCP’s reflexive control strategy: how they have been feeding manufactured information about Tibet to target groups so consistently that the Western world now believes their narrative that Tibet was historically part of China.

Therchin continued to explain that in the Western world’s eyes, control over Tibet is now an internal issue––a problem for China to deal with without Western influence.

Finally, Dilmurat Mahmut, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Education, talked about the Uyghur re-education camps in place since 2017. According to documents obtained through an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, an estimated 1 million Uyghur Muslims are detained in these camps, but Mahmut said these numbers could be as high as 3 million. He explained the history of the region of Xinjiang, originally East Turkistan, and the CCP’s labeling of all Turkic Muslims in the region as potential terrorists or pre-criminals.

Mahmut described the conditions in what the CCP calls vocational training centres, and explained that Uyghur children are being forcibly detained and sent to state-run orphanages where they are forbidden from learning the Uyghur language and, instead, only learn the Chinese culture—he called this cultural genocide. Mahmut finished his presentation with a warning from Roth on the dangers of not challenging Chinese human rights abuses and worldwide interference.

 

Photos by Brittany Clarke

Categories
Sports

Concordia 2, Montreal 1: Stingers outlast Carabins in statement win

After losing to the McGill Martlets yesterday, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team had just 24 hours to prepare for the other titan in the RSEQ; the Université de Montreal Carabins. 

“I still thought we played pretty well yesterday,” said head coach Julie Chu post-game. “Special teams needed to be better, but in general I think we just wanted to reset and refocus.”

The message got through to the Stingers, who managed to outlast the Carabins through two periods of overtime to take the win in the shootout. Emmy Fecteau provided the game-winning goal in the shootout thanks to a sneaky backhand shot through the five-hole of Carabins goalie Maude Trevisan. Trevisan finished the game with 40 saves on 41 shots.

“That’s really not the move I do usually,” said Fecteau. “Usually I go right, and this time I went left, but I knew what I was going to do. I talked to [Stingers goalie Alice Philbert] about what I should do, and she told me to go five-hole and that’s what I did.”

“We know we’re in a great league,” said Chu. “Even in the first half, we had like four overtimes or shootout situations. Sometimes they go our way, sometimes they don’t.”

The first period didn’t see either team pick up too much momentum, although the pendulum was definitely leaning towards the Carabins early. UDEM captain Catherine Dubois was a force, powering her way through Stingers defenders and driving play the whole game. But no goals after one period.

It took the Stingers two minutes to break the deadlock in the second period. Rosalie Bégin-Cyr continued her scoring streak when she found herself all alone in front with the puck. Not in a rush, the forward outwaited Trevisan and buried the puck to get the Stingers up by one.

It took the Carabins 18 seconds to tie the game up, and of course it was UDEM’s captain. Dubois came down on Stingers’ goalie Madison Oakes, and ripped a shot short side to tie it back up.

But that’s all that would get by Oakes. The second-year goalie has been the team’s main backup this season. Tonight she made 36 saves on 37 shots to snatch the win. In what was just the third game of her U Sports career, Oakes was the reason the Stingers were able to win this game. Her game tape will include an incredible blocker stop in the third period (“What’s going through my head, I probably can’t say,” said Oakes. “But like, damn. How’d I do that?”), as well as blanking all three Carabins shootout attempts.

“Honestly, I had a pretty good warm-up so I was feeling pretty good going into the game,” said Oakes. “I was a lot more calm than my game against Carleton. [I] come out decently far in the shootout. I’m a relatively small goalie, so I just stay calm and read what they do.”

“For a goaltender that maybe hasn’t played as many games for our program, those first couple of shots are the biggest,” said Chu. “It’s kind of like your first shift back after not playing for a while. But I think she settled in really well as the game went on. She’s a gamer. I think anytime our goaltenders are able to make big saves, that gives us a boost of energy.”

With the win, the Stingers extend their lead on first-place in the RSEQ to five points. The team in second? The Carabins.

“This was a fun game for people to watch,” said Chu. “I think for our team it was important. Every game is experience. Yesterday was experience losing, but bouncing back and having the experience of feeling the pressure, the intensity of overtime and all these different things.”

To finish this recap, you gotta remember that some things are bigger than hockey. That includes the news that Concordia Stingers women’s hockey coaches Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette are expecting their second child in May. Players streamed out of the dressing room post-game to do their cool-down with the couple’s gender reveal cake. Congrats to both Chu and Ouellette. Watch out, draft class of 2038.

NOTES:

  • Bégin-Cyr is now tied for sixth in U Sports scoring with 12 goals and 10 assists in 14 games. Every player ahead of her has played between 18 and 21 games.

Feature photo by Britanny Clarke

Categories
Sports

McGill 4, Concordia 3 (2OT): Comeback falls short as Stingers lose to the Martlets in double overtime

Down 3-1 going into the third period, the Concordia Stingers women’s hockey team managed a strong comeback attempt but ultimately fell to the McGill Martlets 4-3 in double overtime.

It’s the first time all season that the Stingers have dropped back-to-back games.

“We gained a really important point. That’s a good point on the road, especially being down by two,” said head coach Julie Chu post-game.

The first period was a mixed bag for the Stingers, who didn’t register a shot on net for the first eight minutes. Dubois and Belzile were responsible for generating most of the team’s chances once the Stingers got settled and started shooting. Belzile just looked like a human wrecking ball, careening around the ice, avoiding Martlet players and in some cases, definitely not avoiding them. Dubois continues to show why she wears the ‘C’, controlling play in the offensive zone and completing most of her zone entries. It’s in times like this that I wish we had advanced stats for U Sports—because even with 16 and 14 points respectively—the box score doesn’t do Dubois or Belzile justice in terms of their impact on the ice. McGill dominated much of the first period, forcing the puck deep and trying to force the puck out in front of goalie Alice Philbert. Philbert would finish the game with 23 saves on 27 shots.

Dubois and Belzile both shined, but this game belonged to Rosalie Bégin-Cyr. The RSEQ leading scorer added two goals to her total in this game and she’s now up to 11 goals and 10 assists in 13 games this season.  In this game, Bégin-Cyr’s vision to put herself in the right spots was perfectly demonstrated by her two goals. Her first was a chase-down on a puck before firing it through the pads of Martlet goalie Tricia Deguire. The second was a shot from the slot where Bégin-Cyr had movement coming across the ice and fired a cross-body shot that went off the post and in. Deguire made 36 saves on 39 shots.

“She’s only a second-year player and she’s a huge impact player for us,” said Chu about Bégin-Cyr. “I just think she’s going to continue to get better and better. The big thing about Rosalie is that she’s such a smart player. She’s skilled and talented and has a lot of great tools, but she probably has one of the best visions in the game. I think her instincts put her in good spots, and also give her linemates great opportunities as well.”

The biggest issue for the Stingers all year has been their power play. The team was 5-for-51 going into this game which adds up to a difficult 9.8% power play, worst in the division.

“It’s just repetition,” said Chu. “It’s taking a look at the game video and finding ways to make better reads. We have talented players, players that can score, pass, do all those things, but a successful power play has the ability to move the puck but ultimately read what’s the opening. I think that’s what we’ve had some trouble on.”

Now let’s combine a couple of things here. Let’s combine the Stingers’ seemingly cursed power play with the stop-at-nothing attitude that Belzile brings to her game. What comes out of the oven is a power play goal that saved the Stingers a crucial point in this game. Drawing a four-minute power play, the Stingers started out the extra player advantage similar to how they’ve done all season; they struggled. They struggled getting the puck out of their own end and they struggled moving the puck into dangerous areas. The Stingers called their time out, and pulled Philbert with over three minutes to play. With 36 seconds left on the power play, Dubois ripped a shot from the high circle, but the puck bounced off Deguire directly to Belzile who was barreling down the boards and fired a one-timer to tie it up.

“When our power play is not successful, that’s often times what’s happening, we’re not making the correct reads, maybe we’re forcing a little too much,” said Chu. “So it was good to see our girls really fight in the third, being down two goals, coming back getting one, and then plugging away and getting an opportunity on the power play at the end of that game to be successful as well.”

That was as much momentum as the Stingers would gather though. Overtime was dominated by the Martlets, first in the 4-on-4 period, and again in the 3-on-3 period. Kellyanne Lecours from McGill was the one to finally bury the puck past Philbert for the Martlets win.

“The big thing is to not hang our heads,” said Chu. “It’s a long season and we’re in a tremendous league. We know that we’re going to be in tight, hard-fought games and we gotta make sure that we continue doing the little things right and staying positive is the number one thing. We have an opportunity tomorrow to go and have a great game too.”

Notes:

  • Don’t be fooled by McGill’s lower ranking on the top 10 list. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them jump a couple of spots. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Concordia loses it’s #1 ranking if they can’t definitively beat UDEM on Sunday.
Categories
Sports

Rook out folks, Chess Club Concordia is here to play

There’s been a number of chess clubs at Concordia over the years, but as it often happens in university, members graduate or move on without passing the club down to other students.

Chess Club Concordia is a brand new club that was created and given club-status by the CSU back in October 2019 thanks to its four executives and establishing members — Nick McNulty, Sami Noun, Liam Douglas and Adam Luqman Hakim Bin Mohamed, alongside Roman Zelensky who joined as an executive shortly after– petitioning.

The four executives (pictured in feature photo) of the club held a tournament on Jan. 16 to decide who would represent Concordia at the Canadian University Chess Championship on Jan. 18 and 19 in Waterloo, Ontario. After the last checkmate, the four members heading to Waterloo include executives Luqman, Noun and Zelensky and member Jason Chan.

“We had to create a whole new club,” said McNulty as he took one of my pawns off the board. “Concordia has probably never participated [in the tournament]. I think this is a great opportunity to maybe get our asses kicked, but that’s not the point. The point is telling the world that Concordia has a chess club. We’re trying to garner more interest.”

I sit across from McNulty for a game while we talk. There are about six games going on at once, with a couple of people watching some of the more interesting matches. Some are regulars, others are brand new to the club or are just sitting down for the love of the game.

A player asks me if I’m doing a Vienna Game opening move. I quickly reassure them that there is absolutely no strategy involved in my gameplay.

“I was in chess club when I was in elementary school,” said McNulty. “Once I met Sami (Noun), he asked if I played, and we started playing online. Chess is a lot of study and memorization, but also it’s intuition and speed. It’s a matter of sensing what’s going to happen.”

The long table where all the games are being played is extremely social. Players swap opening move strategies, laugh at a viral video of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen beating a player in five moves, compare Lichess scores, and discuss their favourite online chess personalities like Eric Rosen and Chessbrah.

Photo by Matthew Coyte

“If we win one game at the championship, that would be pretty nice,” said Douglas. “It’s not about winning so much, it’s more about us just being there. Hopefully in the future we’ll go to more tournaments that are maybe a bit closer.”

Both McNulty and Douglas talk about the community of chess players that they’ve found since helping start the club.

The club has participated in a couple of open tournaments over the past couple months. “The turnout for open events at the library is actually quite numerous,” said Noun. “It’s not five or six, but open events we get 50 to 60 people who stop and play and ask questions.”

The club doesn’t have funding from Concordia to pay for the trip, so the four executives will be paying for the trip themselves.

“Right now we’re only going to send four people because we’re worried that we’re not going to get the money we’d need [to send two teams],” said McNulty. “We’re told that special funds requests open in February, and we’ll hope to be reimbursed later.”

As McNulty traps my king into a checkmate, an onlooker reassures me by telling me that I only lost because I made bad moves.

“Chess is pretty frustrating sometimes,” said McNulty. “Especially if you want to get good at it for some reason.”

Categories
News

Spotlight: Women in Engineering

“It’s important for every girl to know that there is support,” said president of Women in Engineering (WIE), Riya Dutta. “I think it’s important to be able to encourage and empower women.”

WIE is a Concordia-based student association that aims to give female engineering and computer science students academic, social and professional support. They promote inclusivity, as their association and activities are open to men, and aim to provide students with the tools to foster growth.

As Dutta explained, this inclusivity is intentional – exclusivity would not help the cause of closing the gender disparity gap seen in engineering programs.

“When everyone notices there is an issue, that’s when things will get resolved,” said Dutta.

According to WIE’s website, only 20 per cent of students enrolled in engineering programs across Canada are women, and only 12.8 per cent of those students become professional engineers.

“The gender disparity within engineering is huge,” said Dutta. “It’s important for women to know there’s a place for them in engineering, and it’s important to show young girls it’s possible.”

There are two levels to WIE’s activities. The association does in-house work, where opportunities are brought directly to the students by social and networking events. For example, on Feb. 6, WIE will be hosting a Power Networking event where attendees will have the opportunity to have several short one-on-one chats with female industry representatives. Dutta described the event as “speed dating, but with companies.”

The second tier is an outreach program dedicated to reaching women and girls of all ages through educational activities at primary and secondary schools and CEGEPs in Montreal. For example, on March 7, WIE will be hosting an event called “WIE Inspire WIE Empower,” which is a day of hands-on STEM workshops at a highschool for students between secondary one to five. The day is hosted by industry leaders such as Google, which will touch on several engineering fields. There will also be female guest speakers from the STEM field who have made impactful contributions, such as Gina Cody.

WIE also hosts coding workshops in elementary schools.

“We try to inspire them to learn science and to get into engineering,” said Dutta. “It’s such a great feeling when young kids learn.”

Through workshops and other activities, Dutta noticed some young women in CEGEP are worried about the gender disparity in Concordia’s engineering programs.

“We always tell them that getting more women in the field, and in these programs is how we are going to (close to disparity gap),” said Dutta.

Dina Khalesi, a software engineering student, sees the value of having a student association that offers support to female engineering students.

“WIE certainly affected me at the beginning of my journey,” said Khalesi. “They gave me the initial push to join Software Engineering through one of their conferences.”

“I think it is important to have these types of associations in a field mainly dominated by men,” continued Khalesi. “Knowing there’s a group of women going through the same struggles as you and knowing that they are there to support you inspires more confidence to stay and perform well in engineering.”

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

 

 

 

Categories
News

The President’s back-to-school get together

Newly appointed Concordia President and Vice-Chancellor Graham Carr met with students on Jan. 8 at the SP Atrium on the Loyola Campus. It was Carr’s first official event, as his five year mandate began on Dec. 12, 2019.

‘’I think it’s a great way for the whole community, students, faculty and staff to get an opportunity to get together at the beginning of the semester, before the semester gets too stressful,’’ said Carr. “To say ‘welcome back,’ and wish the best and success for the year ahead.’’

Carr revealed that he plans on continuing initiatives that have already been implemented at the university, such as Indigenous relations, sustainability and growing research.

As students, faculty and staff gathered, doctorate biology student Safa Sanami remarked that the event ditched plastic entirely. All the food was served on washable platters, no cutlery was used, drinks were distributed in large jugs and attendees were invited to bring their own cups.

The university has put these new initiatives into effect to improve its recycling, all while promoting ways for students to have fun, while highlighting that no act is insignificant to help the planet.

According to biology graduate student James Perry, cutting back on single-use and consumable products is essential.

‘’I like the idea that these plates and drinking glasses are compostable and recyclable, as opposed to mass-produced items that are not often made of recyclable materials,” he said. “Although, there isn’t an advanced and efficient upcycling or recycling system in place, I feel that we are improving and are more conscious than a year ago.”

It seems that Concordia University will be looking for more ways to evolve during this new era, as Carr also mentioned that he plans on doing more complementary things to improve Concordia’s teaching agenda and offering a panoply of opportunities to its student body.

 

Photos by Britany Clarke

Categories
Sports

A look back at Craig Beemer’s years with the Stingers

The Stingers won four Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championships with Beemer as head coach.

The Concordia Stingers men’s rugby team will start its next Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) season with a new head coach. The Concordia Stingers announced last month that Craig Beemer has stepped down from his head coaching duties for personal reasons.

The Stingers have been one of the most dominant Canadian university rugby teams in recent years. The team won four of the last six RSEQ championships, and participated to the Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship (CUMRC) the past three seasons. Beemer was a member of the coaching staff for all those RSEQ championships and CUMRC participations.

Beemer started coaching rugby when he joined McGill University men’s rugby team as an assistant coach. He was asked by the team’s head coach to join the program after he graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Education in 2005.

After eight championship seasons with McGill, Beemer stepped away from his coaching job with McGill in 2013, as he went to China that year. When he came back to Montreal, McGill had won the championship again. However, Beemer wanted to go back to coaching, and decided to post online to indicate his interest. Beemer was then approached by Clive Gibson, the Stingers head coach at the time, and took over leadership of the team  for the 2014-15 season.

“It was definitely a defining year,” Beemer said. “I was working at Loyola High School as a teacher [at the time]. I ended up coming out and helping out and coaching because I love to coach. It just happened to be the rivals [of the team I coached before]. It was very awkward to be honest. I was wearing Loyola High School gear the first game of the season, and the first game of the season was against McGill.”

Despite winning the RSEQ championship in his first season with his new team in 2014-15, Beemer said that year was a tough transition for him.

“It was pretty defining for me because all my success has been at one university [McGill],” Beemer said. “To change university [was significant]. I was fortunate that I had to take over as head coach.”

The next season was more challenging for Beemer and the Stingers. In 2015-16, Gibson made a comeback as head coach, and Beemer was back to being an assistant coach. The team finished the season with a 4-3 record, but lost their RSEQ quarter final game 19-18 against the École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) Piranhas.

“As an assistant coach, you’re not leading the ship,” Beemer said. “It was sometimes frustrating, but I was just doing the best as I could to help. 2015-16 was very difficult.”

Shortly before the 2016-17 season, Gibson retired. The Concordia Stingers Department of Recreation and Athletics announced a month later, which was also a month before the start of the season, that Beemer would take take over as new head coach.

Despite having been around since 2014 and having coached the Stingers that year during Gibson’s absence, 2016-17 had been more difficult for Beemer and his players. The team finished the season 1-6, and lost their RSEQ quarterfinal game 33-26 in overtime against the Bishop’s University Gaiters.

“We didn’t have as much talent [as the previous two seasons] in 2016-17,” Beemer said. “Progressing players went down with injuries in training camp before the season. It was a learning experience for every single person involved in the program. It was my first losing season ever.”

Beemer said despite being an incredibly tough season, it definitely helped him grow as a coach.

“Of all 12 seasons I coached [as head coach], it’s probably the one I’ve learned the most,” Beemer said. “I’m first to admit that you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes.”

The next three seasons were all but similar to 2016-17 for the Stingers. Since that difficult year, the team hasn’t lost a single game in the RSEQ. However, it didn’t happen just by luck. Beemer said it was a very positive off-season in 2017.

“I think the biggest thing I overcame is the standards, [in the sense of] where my standards were and where those of the program were,” Beemer said. “It was difficult to bridge the gap. There were a lot of hard conversations, a lot of reflection on my part, concerning what I needed to do differently to bring in a different culture and things like that.”

Beemer explained that the change of culture was a big step forward at that time for the team. He said that people’s expectations might concern wins and losses, but as a team, when you’re with people you know almost every day, there are other expectations you need to have before you even get to play a game.

“The culture really had to take a shift,” Beemer said. “I think the easiest thing I used to tell the guys was ‘six on 10 is acceptable in other aspects of your life, but it’s not here. We’re looking to strive for perfection, and obviously that’s not something we’ll always obtain. We can start to be happy with eight or nine on 10. I wanted to figure out a way to install that culture that would be embraced by the players.”

Not only were the Stingers starting 2017-18 with a new culture, but they were also seeing many key players injured in 2016-17 return to the lineup. Beemer said the Stingers simply were a more talented team coming into the new season.

“Our players were much better,” Beemer said. “I had good coaches [with me]. We went to work in the off-season, and got a really great recruiting class in. The standards may not have been nine on 10, but they no longer were six on 10. The players really started to take ownership over the program. I wasn’t the only one leading at that point. They didn’t want to have a repeat of 2016-17.”

Beemer admitted that he probably didn’t expect his team to go undefeated three years ago. However, he said that he’s always been a fairly confident person who always trusted his abilities as a coach.

“I believe that if you put in the work and time, and that you’re blessed to have the abilities and skills, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be successful,” Beemer said. “Coming into 2017, was the [RSEQ championship] really a realistic goal after a 1-6 season? No, but the confidence and abilities of the staff and players, including the ones coming back from injury and the rookies, were much better. I told the players that the thing that matters is to win your last game.”

The Stingers entered the 2018-19 RSEQ season in the same position as they were in 2015-2016, as they were the league’s defending champions. This time for Beemer and the Stingers, the team succeeded to defend its title with another perfect season. The Stingers went to the CUMRC, held in Victoria, and finished in fourth place.

Beemer said the experience the Stingers acquired at the CUMRC in Guelph in 2017 was probably one of the best things that could have happened to them. He explained that it gave his players even more desire to work hard in the off-season in order to be better.

“As much as we had an amazing season in Quebec [in 2017-18], the national championship wasn’t great for us,” Beemer said. “We didn’t want to go back to the CUMRC and not perform. In 2018-19, there wasn’t really the pressure of the RSEQ, but there was the pressure of going to the CUMRC and being ready. At that point, it was just our own goals. If you’re already winning and still trying to get better every single week, there’s a good chance you’ll continue winning.”

Finally came this past season, Beemer’s last as head coach. This season was huge for the Stingers, as not only were they the RSEQ defending champions, but had been selected to host the third edition of the CUMRC, which was held this November at Concordia Stadium.

“We really wanted to take advantage of [hosting the CUMRC] and promote rugby in Quebec,” Beemer said. “It was a huge season in the sense that we had two undefeated seasons under our belt, and didn’t want to go down [at that point]. The guys played really well. The standards the players had settled the previous two years really shined through this year.”

Beemer said a thing that helped his rugby program develop in its recent championships is the number of players training and practicing with the team. People always saw the same players on the field for every game, but in reality there were around 60 players training with the Stingers every week.

“Those guys were training with us to make sure we were increasing competition in our own training session, and making it a competitive atmosphere in our program,” Beemer said. “That way, we’re always going to have a good senior and rookie mix. Rookies had to come and fight for their spot. We had a deep program of players that you won’t even see on game-day that were supporting and looking to take a spot the very next year, which is pretty cool.”

After all those years and the success he had with the team, Beemer said it’s hard to name one favourite, or perhaps a highlight moment of his time passed as head coach of the Stingers. However, he said the thing that will stand out the most for him is the change of culture, and change of attitude of the players over the years.

“I got complimented on how respectful our athletes were and about how incredibly clean it was when they left almost everywhere we went,” Beemer said. “I watched the program grow. It turned guys here who just wanted to play rugby into very successful and outstanding young men who can play rugby well.”

Feature photo by Laurence B.D.

Categories
Sports

Montreal 4, Concordia 3: Penalties halt Stingers momentum in loss

Photo by Cecilia Piga

If you watched the Stingers play this season, you’ve seen a team that’s managed to consistently beat two of the top teams in the country. Playing in the RSEQ is gruelling. Concordia, McGill and the Universite de Montreal are all top-5 programs in Canada.

And this game against the UDEM Carabins was yet another heavyweight bout. Unfortunately for the top-ranked Stingers, they come out of this one with some bruises as they drop a 4-3 result to the number three ranked Carabins 24 hours after beating the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 6-2.

“We start off tough, we’re trying to come out of a hole and we take two penalties,” said head coach Julie Chu post-game. “We have to have an intensity and a grit and I think we just didn’t quite have it today. Part of it is the back-to-back and Montreal got the day off, yeah sure. But we’re going to see that at nationals, so there’s no excuse for this.”

Over the past 16 meetings between these two teams since 2017-18, 13 have been decided by one goal. This is only the second time out of those 16 games that UDEM has beaten Concordia in regulation.

The game started as a whirlwind as both teams traded blows. The Stingers were the first ones on the board courtesy of captain Claudia Dubois finding the puck in front of the net and powering a shot past Carabins goalie Aube Racine. Racine finished the game with 25 saves on 27 shots. Stingers goalie Alice Philbert is certainly not to blame in this loss, the Carabins made her life extremely difficult with tight screens, cross-ice passing and heavy shots. Philbert finished the game with 25 saves on 29 shots.

Graphic by Matthew Coyte

“We went through spurts where we were good,” said Chu. “But the penalties really killed us. Our power play wasn’t strong as well.”

Montreal’s Alexandra Labelle evened it up thanks to a cross-ice tap-in. Stingers’ Rosalie Begin-Cyr responded a minute later, capitalizing from the chaos caused in the slot by Dubois who took a hard hit to make the play. Begin-Cyr wired a wrister to retake the lead for the Stingers. The Carabins would tie it at two before the end of the period.

But the biggest problem for the Stingers was the special teams. In the team’s first 10 games of the season, the Stingers had only taken a league-best 25 penalties. In their first two games of 2020, they’ve taken 11, including six in this game.

“We have to play the full 60 minutes,” said Dubois post-game. “We have to avoid the penalties, that’s what really killed us. We had the momentum, then bang, we’re down by two.”

The power play wasn’t much better, and we’re at the point of the season where the benefit of the doubt for the Stingers is over. They hold a league-worst power play that’s converted just 8.8% of their powerplay chances, and went 0/4 this game.

“We have to improve the power play,” said Dubois. “It’s tough. We’re supposed to score. We’re supposed to capitalize on those chances and we’re not able to. There’s going to be changes and we’re going to try things for sure.”

The Carabins played what could have easily been their best game of the season thanks to their physical style of play and ability to take advantage of the Stingers mistakes. It often felt like Montreal had an odd-player rush while also having like six players back defending. It made no sense, but at the end of the day, the Stingers became frustrated and were baited into some unnecessary penalties.

The Stingers third goal was a weird one. Dubois was breaking into the Carabins zone and was beating the defender wide. The defender had no choice but to haul her down. The referee’s arm shot up, and everyone stopped. But no whistle. Racine moved out of the way to avoid Dubois, but by the powers of the hockey gods, the puck actually slid into the net with Dubois, cutting the Stingers deficit to one.

“We’ll take those goals, but those are definitely not normal goals,” said Dubois.

The Stingers were unable to convert a tying goal, but sometimes it’s just nice to watch some heavyweights go at it.

Notes:

  • I watched the replay on Dubois’ second goal about 10 times and I still have no idea how or why every single player on the ice stopped playing before the whistle. Even the crowd thought it was dead. The hockey gods giveth (a fun goal), and the hockey gods taketh away (a loss).
Categories
Sports

Concordia 6 Ottawa 2: Explosive second period helps Stingers earn decisive win

Photo by Laurence BD

Three goals in 41 seconds backed the Stingers to league-best 10-0-1.

The Stingers women’s hockey head coach Julie Chu expects a lot from her players. It’s why they had to be back at the rink in late December to compete in the Theresa Humes Tournament — a tournament they went 3-0 at.

“Coming out of December, it was about getting a good jump for the second half,” said Chu. “We ask our players to be back on [December] 27, which isn’t always easy. They got a good two weeks off and came back with focus and ready to go.”

Thanks to those expectations, the Stingers remain the top-ranked team in the country, and they didn’t worry about having to play any rust off in the first game of 2020. An explosive one minute stretch in the second period helped the Stingers defeat the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees 6-2 on Jan. 11.

“We were excited to have this first game back,” said captain Claudia Dubois, who finished the game with a goal and an assist. “It’s been a while since we played a regular season game. It was an exciting moment for us and we were all ready for it, so it was a good game.”

The Gee-Gees battled the entire game, but found each mistake they made ending up in the back of the net. Gee-Gees goalie Jennifer Walker made 30 saves on 36 shots. Gee-Gees rookie phenom Alice Fillion was a workhorse for them, forechecking hard at 5-v-5 and on the penalty kill, and just being a general problem for the Stingers. The Gee-Gees’ two goals came with heavy traffic in front of Stingers goalie Alice Philbert. Philbert was busy herself, making 29 saves on 31 shots.

Graphic by Matthew Coyte

The first period may have been one of the best the Stingers have played in a while, and the team jumped to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Maria Manarolis and Daniela Gendron, their first goals of the season. For Gendron, it was the first U Sports goal of her career.

“I’ve had goals in the pre-season, but this was pretty exciting,” said Gendron. “It was just to keep the momentum going and it was a pretty big goal. I’m surprised it went in honestly, I didn’t think it would. I was also on the [ice] when it went in.”

Despite the lead, the Gee-Gees came roaring back in the second period, and had it not been for Philbert, that 2-0 lead could have quickly turned into a deficit for the Stingers. Instead, the Stingers weathered the storm after allowing a goal. With two minutes left in the second period, they turned the dial up a notch.

Or three notches.

Audrey-Ann Rodrigue buried a cross-ice pass to Marie-Pascale Bernier to widen the Stingers’ lead to two with 1:46 left in the frame. Before the cheering could die down, Dubois and RSEQ leading scorer Rosalie Begin-Cyr capitalized on a Gee-Gee mistake and added another goal 10 seconds later. Just 31 seconds after that, Olivia Atkinson buried yet another goal to turn the score into a 5-1 lead. That’s right, three goals in 41 seconds. Six different Stingers picked up goals in this game.

“We were off a bit to start the second period,” said Dubois. “We got a penalty and they slowed us down a little bit. We were having trouble executing passes and those simple plays, but we have a team that never gives up and gives 100 per cent effort, so we came back with a ton of momentum.It was an exciting moment. We were just going all over [Ottawa] and forced a lot of mistakes from their defence and just got the puck in the net.”

The third period was a more even frame between the Stingers and the Gee-Gees, with both teams adding a goal to their scores, but in the end, the Stingers now improve to 10-0-1 on the season, and remain atop the RSEQ standings.

Notes:

  • Three goals in 41 seconds is absolutely insane and I can’t find any record of another U Sports team doing this.
  • If this is your first time reading me in 2020, I keep track of shots at these games, and my results may differ than what is registered by the RSEQ.

Feature photo by Laurence BD

Categories
Sports

McGill 3, Stingers 2 OT: McGill comes out on top on carnival night

There are very few times where teams are happy after a loss. For the Concordia Stingers, this was one of them.

It was a hostile environment at McConnell Arena as many McGill students were in attendance as part of their carnival week. Kyle Jessiman made his debut as a Stinger and despite the loss, the 20-year-old made quite the impression on his new team.

“For his first game, in front of all those people it could be a little intimidating,” said defenceman Carl Neill. “But he did a heck of a job, we’re very happy for him.”

Head coach Marc-André Élément showed great confidence in the rookie, starting him in front of the crowd. They jeered him the entire night but that did not faze the youngster making his first start.

“He played really well. I’m very proud of him,” said Élément. “It’s not easy coming in playing in full [arena], against McGill — it’s not easy. It just showed how mentally [tough] he is.”

The full crowd was given quite the show, as right from the opening faceoff, the game was fast-paced and physical. The game was reminiscent of the OUA conference final playoff series between the two teams back in the 2017-18 season.

The physicality of the game played to the strength of many Stingers players, including Chase Harwell who scored the team’s second goal of the game just under a minute after McGill took a 2-1 lead in the third period.

I love that type of game, the atmosphere was crazy and emotions are high,” said Harwell. “I think we played really well. We deserved those two points but that’s the way overtime goes — one bounce and it’s all over.”

This was without a doubt the Stingers’ best losing performance of the season, which on the surface isn’t saying much as they did not get the full two points. However the team felt that they deserved a better fate.

“I think we dominated the third period with a lot of scoring chances,” said Élément. “I’m really proud of the guys. It’s not easy to play in front of a full crowd like that.”

The Stingers hit a bunch of posts in the third period and overtime, and ultimately didn’t get the last bounce they needed to get the victory.

McGill’s goaltender Louis-Philippe Guindon had another stellar performance as well, making 56 saves on 58 shots. This was by far the Stingers’ highest output of shots on goal in a game this season.

This was one of the most entertaining games of the U-Sports season and Élément couldn’t help but take in all in and salute both teams, and the crowd.

“I think university should always [have a full crowd],” said Élément. “It was a great game. For 10 bucks they had a great show — it’s great for hockey.”

Élément wouldn’t confirm who would start in goal for the Stingers tonight against the #6 ranked Carleton Ravens. Puck drop for the game is set for 7:30.

Categories
News

Concordia Students’ Nightline set to reopen this week

The Concordia Students’ Nightline is set to resume service this Thursday, Jan. 9, after the winter holidays.

The Concordia-based active listening phone service was founded in 2017 by Concordia alumna Jade Se. The student-run nightline is completely anonymous and is open to anyone who calls.

“We’re very excited to reopen and hear about students’ winter breaks, as well as hear from our non-student callers,” said Camille Zolopa, President of the Nightline. “As an organization, we really aim to promote self-care and consideration for our volunteer corps as much as for our callers, so I think it’s super important to take breaks.”

According to Zolopa, some calls can be emotionally heavy, so it was necessary for volunteers to take some time off.

“Our approach is quite specific, in that we validate and actively listen to callers,” said Zolopa. “We don’t offer our opinions or advice; we think of ourselves more as an auditory journal for people. And perhaps most importantly, we’re open when a lot of services are closed, from 6:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m.”

Callers tend to feel more comfortable disclosing information with the students, said Zolopa, likely because they are considered peers.

“The volunteer active listeners are totally non-judgmental, and will keep any information that’s shared in the call confidential,” said Valentin Garriga, VP external of the non-profit organization. “It creates a space that can feel safe to share anything that you may want to talk about.”

Garriga said having this alternative is important because some students may not benefit from mental health services offered by the university, or may feel uncomfortable with meeting someone in person.

With this extra layer of anonymity, students don’t need to go through triage — a process where they speak with a general mental health practitioner or nurse to discuss the general themes they want to resolve with therapy — like they would need to through Concordia’s Counselling and Psychological Services. Through the Nightline, they can just call and talk.

“They can have the conversation that they want to have, without having to talk about things they don’t want to talk about,” said Garriga.

Although this alternative mental health service does not stand in for professional help, Garriga said the student listeners are thoroughly trained by senior volunteers.

“We will deal with a large variety of possible scenarios, and volunteers are trained on how to handle a number of subjects, especially those you might know as ‘tough’ topics, [like] sexual assault, violence, gender identity, or sexuality,” said Garriga. “Things that people have a really tough time talking about. We want to make sure people are ready to listen and help accordingly.”

According to Garriga, the training happens in person, and is quite a long-time commitment.

“While we are training extensively, we are also providing tons of support for new volunteers, as it could be emotionally draining and physically tiring,” said Garriga.

With the new semester, the Nightline will be training a new cohort of volunteer listeners, which means things will get a bit hectic the first couple of weeks of the semester.

“During the first week of each semester, experienced volunteers will be running training for the new recruits,” said Zolopa. “Therefore, we need returning volunteers who are not involved in training to cover more shifts during the first week back in service.”

With time and more manpower, Zolopa explained that a long-term goal of the Nightline is to increase their support system.

“Our long term goal is to be open every night of the week; once we have the volunteer corps to support that service expansion, we’ll be looking into new projects like offering a text/chat line,” said Zolopa.

Concordia’s Students’ Nightline  will be open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 6:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. at (514) 848-7787.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

Exit mobile version