Concordia offers a variety of services to help students make it through finals
We are approaching the time of the year where students become increasingly more stressed, anxious and sleep deprived. Concordia offers a variety of programs for students anxious about finals and looking for assistance.
Pet Therapy
The Concordia Webster Library organized a Pet Therapy session to help students take a break from their studies. Students crowded around two pugs near the library’s course reserve room on March 29 between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
“I think that pet therapy is a great way for students to take a break from school and de-stress,” said Ana Grubac, a Concordia economics major, who was at the event.
According to the article “Between Pets and People: the Importance of Animal Companionship,” by Alan Beck, director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University, in Indiana, petting a dog lowers blood pressure and helps your body release hormones like oxytocin, which is linked to happiness.
According to the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, “some people have experienced increased output of endorphins and dopamines after just five minutes with an animal.”
In addition, even brief encounters with pets, such as the ones who visited Concordia, help reduce levels of anxiety.
This year marks Concordia’s third edition of pet therapy, an event organized around the final exam period to help students cope with anxiety and stress.
“Some of the students are away from home and miss their own pets,” said Linda Toy, this year’s event organizer. “I have observed smiles and laughter during these events,” Toy added. “It is really quite special.”
Everyday Therapy
Throughout the semester, Concordia offers a variety of programs for students who need emotional support and guidance. One of these programs is the Everyday Therapy campaign, organized by Concordia Health Services.
The program is geared towards helping students with everyday personal struggles. The campaign hosts four therapy sessions throughout the semester to give students tips and suggestions for dealing with stress, personal relationships and confidence, throughout the fall and winter semesters.
According to Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, one in five people will suffer from a mental illness or addiction at some point in their life. Two out of three of those individuals will suffer in silence.
“Concordia offers a [variety] of resources for students, and will discuss internal and community resources to help deal with mental health,” said Dale Robinson, a psychologist and manager at Concordia’s Counselling & Psychological Services, in an interview with The Concordian in February.
Jack.org
For students seeking assistance with stress or mental health, Jack.org, is also available.
Jack.org is a non-profit organization designed by students for students with mental illnesses or suffering from emotional hardships. Concordia has its own Jack.org chapter.
“Jack.org reaches out to students who need help, and we help guide them to different resources available in their area,” said Michael Dorado, a Jack.org representative.
“Most often times, students don’t know that counseling and psychological services exist at Concordia. Our role is to show students that [services] exist and are available to help them,” Dorado said.
How Concordia’s Centre for the Arts in Human Development helps one student enjoy her day-to-day life
My 23-year-old sister, Lisa Mancini, is fully aware of her special needs. But it wasn’t always easy for her to come to terms with them. One Concordia service, however, has helped her come to grips with her reality and embrace herself as she is.
Concordia’s Centre for the Arts in Human Development (CAHD), located on Loyola campus, gives students with special needs the platform to express themselves freely without judgment.
When she was six years old, Lisa was diagnosed with pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), which falls under the autism spectrum. Some of her symptoms include depression, anxiety, low-attention span and difficulties learning and processing new information.
By attending CAHD, my sister was able to begin expressing her emotions in a creative way not possible in a traditional classroom. “The centre cured me of most of my anxiety. I never thought school could do such a thing,” Lisa said.
Graphic by Thom Bell
Before finding out about CAHD, my sister just couldn’t seem to find her place in society. When a friend told her about the centre, she knew this could be the catalyst for positive change in her life.
Now, seven months later, Lisa preaches about the therapy she receives at the centre, and about how it is helping her learn more about herself every day.
With the help of student interns and professional therapists, CAHD participants learn how to set goals and work towards them through therapy.
“What makes our centre very unique is it’s under a creative arts therapies paradigm,” said Stephen Snow, the co-director of research at CAHD. “The first part is to provide clinical services through the creative arts therapies for people with special needs.”
One of Lisa’s major goals was to learn how to better manage her emotions—anxiety, in particular. Through ongoing therapy, she said things are “getting better day-by-day.” Since beginning therapy in September 2016, my sister has never been happier.
My sister’s eyes light up when she is asked about her day at the centre. Some activities she participates in include painting, drama and dancing. She also receives one-on-one counseling to discuss personal issues, something that is rarely done at other Quebec universities. Lisa attends the program twice a week. “I like going to school. I like to socialize with the other adults because they can understand me,” Lisa said with a big smile.
My sister has had many breakthroughs since first attending CAHD, one being the realization that she is not alone. “I feel happy, I am able to relate with other people in my group and people actually listen to me,” Lisa said. “I feel less anxious.”
With a very strong focus on research, the program directors are always adjusting the program and trying to improve it and make it more visible. This is done through open houses and large-scale musical productions with the program’s participants.
“CAHD is a training site for graduate students who are studying art, drama and music therapy,” said Lenore Vosberg, the centre’s co-founder and director of clinical services and public outreach. “We work on social skills, human development, building self-esteem, self-confidence and communication skills. We tackle these goals over the course of three years and, by the time they graduate, it’s evident that most participants have made great strides in the accomplishment of their own personal goals.”
The centre takes referrals from the West Montreal Readaptation Centre, Miriam Home or a local CLSC. For more information about the CAHD, visit concordia.ca/cahd.
Have Your Say survey aims to shed light on the way Concordia deals with sexual violence
The Concordia Student Union (CSU) and the Centre for Gender Advocacy (CGA) are creating a report based on results from a survey that sought student input on the way Concordia handles cases of sexual violence on campus. The report will be published this week and presented to Concordia University’s administration and the Quebec minister of education.
Before filling out the survey, students were invited to a “Have Your Say” event held on March 16, where they were informed about the consultations the Quebec government is hosting to examine sexual violence at the province’s universities and CEGEP. The consultations hosted by Higher Education Minister Hélène David were held in Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau and Saguenay during the month of March.
Stacey Gomez, the action coordinator for the CGA, said the survey collected student feedback on how the Quebec government can respond to and prevent sexual violence on its university campuses.
“Our hope is to come up with a report that highlights student recommendations around how the campus can be a safer place, and how to better respond to sexual violence on campus,” Gomez said.
Lana Elinor Galbraith, the sustainability coordinator for the CSU and the person writing the report, said she hopes the report will encourage the university to create an actionable plan which will incorporate students’ suggestions.
In January, Galbraith attended a conference where student unions across Quebec were invited to discuss how different universities are handling matters of sexual assault. She was disappointed to learn that Concordia is one of the only universities that is relatively advanced. “We are the only ones that have a Sexual Assault Resource Centre (SARC) that’s paid for by the university and run by the university.” SARC offers support to students, faculty and staff who have been impacted by sexual harassment or assault.
Among the feedback gathered from the survey, Gomez said improving the services offered by the SARC was an important recommendation. “One of the things that came out of the Have Your Say event … was the need to have more resources for SARC and more staff,” Gomez said.
“For a long time, there was only one staff person for the entire campus. Now there are two,” she said, adding there is also a team of volunteers at the SARC.
“As we know, sexual violence on campus is a major issue, and so that’s not enough resources to be able to support students,” Gomez said.
In addition, Gomez said mandatory consent training was suggested for students at the university, particularly for those living in residence or involved in frosh.
“Many students mentioned that they did not feel supported by staff at the university, profs and also security,” Gomez said. She said the survey mentioned it would be beneficial for these parties to receive training on how to support survivors and address sexual violence. This would ensure that those in positions of power on campus “can be more understanding, more empathetic and more accommodating to students who are experiencing difficulties as a result of having experienced sexual violence,” Gomez said.
Graphic by Florence Yee
Fo Niemi, the co-founder and executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), a small Montreal-based non-profit civil rights organization that has handled 15 cases involving students at Concordia, weighed in on how Concordia’s security often handles reports of sexual assault.
“One of the things that comes back often is that they complain security staff are usually trained to handle crowds, demonstrations, security concerns such as … or terrorism or emergencies, but not the aspect of what we call the human violence,” Niemi said.
According to Niemi, CRARR has been in contact with some women who have brought forth legal action against universities in Ontario and B.C. where they were assaulted or harassed.
“We’re not sure [if the way security handles complaints] has really been looked at in an objective manner or a more transparent manner, and I think that is the key thing,” Niemi said. “Some cases we’ve heard is that security, either they don’t know how to deal with it or sometimes they themselves may do something that could possibly put the victims or the survivors in a very uncomfortable position—even if they mean well,” Niemi said.
Jennifer Drummond, the coordinator of the SARC, said many individuals in positions of power at Concordia already receive training. “All different parts of the Concordia community receive training on [sexual assault awareness and bystander intervention], including the security department, upper administrators and the president’s executive group,” Drummond said. “Part of SARC’s education plan, as outlined in the Sexual Assault Working Group’s report recommendation, is to continue to expand the number of groups that receive these trainings—which will include faculty and staff in frontline positions.”
Drummond believes the university has taken the right strides in preventing and responding to sexual violence. “Implementing a sexual violence policy … and having a sexual assault centre with individuals able to accompany the survivor through both internal and external processes can encourage reporting and are evidence of an institution that takes this issue seriously,” Drummond said. “We see female, male and trans* survivors. There are some resources that we provide that are specific to male and trans survivors,” she added.
Drummond said these steps can encourage students to come forward about their experiences with sexual violence. However, many cases are dismissed, go undocumented and, therefore, don’t make it into larger databases about sexual assault.
“Research suggests that less than 10 per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police,” said Drummond. In addition, she said it can be expected within schools for there to be low numbers of reports, as survivors in institutions face various barriers in disclosing and reporting a case of sexual assault.
According to a 2015-2016 report released by Concordia, 16 complaints of sexual assault were made to the university during that year, with only three of these complaints resulting in a hearing or investigation. During the 2014-2015 school year, 16 complaints were made to the Office of Rights and Responsibilities under the category of “sexual harassment.” During this time, there was not a stand-alone policy specifically for sexual assault at Concordia. Instead, data of harassment and assault were both categorized under sexual harassment.
In a 20-month investigation into authorities’ management of sexual assault cases, conducted by The Globe and Mail, it was discovered that one in five sexual assault allegations in Canada are viewed as groundless, resulting in them being dismissed and unfounded—meaning the allegations were not taken seriously, leading the accusation being dismissed rather than documented. Once a case is dismissed, it is no longer considered a legitimate allegation, according to the report. In this investigation, it was revealed 19.39 per cent of cases in Canada are unfounded, almost twice as high as the rate for physical assault.
The Globe and Mail curated this information by filing 250 access to information requests with police services across the country and requested data from 1,100 jurisdictions. The investigation included responses from 873 jurisdictions, which accounts for 92 per cent of the Canadian population.
In Montreal, the same investigation revealed that, over a five year period, 1,256 out of 6,893 allegations—just over 18 per cent—were identified as unfounded.
Graphic by Pauline Soumet
The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) launched a Sexual Assault Awareness Week on March 27. The week aims to raise awareness of sexual assault not only at McGill, but in the broader Montreal community, by hosting events and workshops between March 27 and 31.
While neither Concordia nor SARC host a sexual assault awareness week, university spokesperson Chris Mota said, “We see every day as an opportunity to raise awareness.” Mota added that SARC has upcoming events, including an open house on Wednesday, March 29. The SARC will also be holding an event on Thursday, April 13 to summarize the consultations held in Montreal by the Quebec government in March.
“Concordia was the first university in Canada to create the position of Sexual Harassment Advisor in 1987, and one of the first to adopt a policy on sexual harassment in the early 1990s,” Mota said.
“In 2013, Concordia launched the Sexual Assault Resource Centre to inform the campus community about consent, prevention and survivor support,” Mota said. “We felt it was an important step in supporting our community by providing services that specifically deal with sexual assault, given the issue of sexual assaults on campuses across Canada.”
Niemi said he has noticed some sexual violence cases at the university level may be prolonged or have unnecessary delays—there is the issue of the level of adequate support that is really given to the women. Niemi said he has not seen a difference in the way cases of sexual assault or harassment have been dealt with by the university since SARC has been implemented.
“For a student [body] of so many thousands of students with so much diversity [to] have only one person, Jennifer Drummond … She can be a superwoman, but she can’t address all of these things,” Niemi said. “They need at least three to four people in that office in addition to our support staff in order to work.”
SARC recently hired a service assistant and relocated for greater accessibility on campus. Fifteen people currently make up the SARC’s volunteer team.
When asked about expansion in terms of the team and the centre’s presence on campus, Drummond said, “SARC is still a very new service at Concordia and I expect, as time goes on, we will continue to expand our team and presence on campus.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Sera Kassab has never let her deafness slow her down. Photo by Sera Kassab
How one Concordia student doesn’t let her disability stop her
While Sera Kassab never doubted her career path, she did doubt how she would fit in among other students at Concordia. As a deaf student at Concordia, her scholastic experience is quite unique.
Born deaf in an entirely hearing Lebanese family, Kassab has been in contact with hearing culture from a very young age.
While Kassab said coming to Concordia changed her life for the better, adjusting to her new surroundings was challenging. “I was extremely nervous. I was going into a hearing environment that I am not used to, and everything felt so weird and scary,” she said. The 28-year-old student communicates using American Sign Language (ASL).
Art, in all its forms, has always been Kassab’s passion—she wasn’t going to let being deaf stop her from pursuing it. Kassab is now in her sixth year in the studio arts undergraduate program, pursuing her dream the only way she knows how–by letting her art speak for itself.
When she started university, Kassab said some students were caught off-guard by her at first, since many had never met a deaf person before. One of the hardest parts for her was breaking down people’s misconceptions. “People think deaf people are feeble-minded because we don’t always understand what hearing people are trying to tell us,” Kassab said. She, however, argues her deafness strengthens her other senses and actually serves as an advantage. Being deaf makes her more visual and attentive to details that hearing people might miss, she said. Kassab also developed a stronger memory, which helps her in school. When she paints,photographs, sculpts or designs, it helps her recreate things she sees and likes more easily.
Concordia’s Access Centre for Students with Disabilities offers Kassab interpreting services, tutoring and note-takers. Just like any regular student, Kassab attends her classes on campus, but she is accompanied by an interpreter. The interpreter translates the teacher’s explanations and comments made by students into ASL.
However, if the interpreter can’t make it, Kassab has to skip the class. Trying to follow the course without hearing anything and trying to communicate on her own would be too demanding. She remembers one time the interpreter didn’t show up, but she felt so uneasy with the situation she stayed in class anyway and just asked her teacher and classmates a lot of questions. Some students were patient with her, but she could tell they felt uncomfortable.
Kassab said feeling disconnected from her surroundings can be scary and difficult to deal with. She constantly worries about missing information, especially when teachers and students speak too quickly, or talk over each other. In moments like these, she relies on note-takers and students who offer their help. Other times, she’ll ask the teacher to go back over certain points. “After class, some students will actually come and thank me because they too can understand better,” Kassab said.
Today, Kassab feels she’s settled in and is “part of a family” at Concordia. She’s become more receptive to interactions with other students—some are even learning sign language to better communicate with her. Alongside fellow Concordia students and close friends, she’s participating in an artistic project called Mtl Seekers. The group was started by and for artists seeking to move up and evolve in their artistic careers. Within the group, they distinguish themselves by their different artistic tastes and influences. They will have their first art exposition next fall.
Kassab has never seen her deafness as a limitation, and she encourages both deaf and hearing people to see it as she does. By pursuing her dreams despite obstacles, Kassab hopes to “inspire deaf children to become artists [and to not] be afraid to show their talent.”
Marie Nadeau photographed holding care packages for the homeless.
First-year student organizes an initiative to create care packages for the homeless
Concordia therapeutic recreation student Marie Nadeau started an initiative to provide care packages for the homeless in Montreal, a project that she is continuing until the end of her first year.
Nadeau was inspired to start the project last Christmas due to the large number of people she saw living on the streets near her home in Concordia’s Grey Nuns residence.
By asking friends and peers in residence for help, largely through social media, Nadeau received an extensive amount of donations ranging from canned food, sweaters and coats to toothbrushes, soaps and towels, among other items.
Since Nadeau’s goal was to get as many people to donate to the homeless as possible, the generosity of her community drove her to continue the project past the initial date of delivery, March 12, and into the end of the school year.
“Since I’m from Vancouver, we don’t really experience these harsh weather conditions, so it was crazy to see how homeless people in Montreal survive the winter,” Nadeau said. “It definitely made me feel like I should do something about it.”
It was through the Grey Nuns residence Facebook group that Nadeau reached out to other students for both donations and volunteer help, and where her project proposal first received a lot of positive recognition. In fact, Theo Grebonval, also a first-year student residing in Grey Nuns, already had a similar idea.
“I wanted to collect things and donate to the homeless already, and then she proposed the idea and it was just best to do it with her,” Grebonval said. From there, a group chat was created to allow the 19 volunteers to communicate about the details, such as group meeting times and where donations would be delivered.
“One of the first things that we talked about was what should and shouldn’t be in the care packages,” Nadeau said. “Some people had some great ideas that I didn’t initially think about, like feminine hygiene products and that’s a huge thing.” Also included in the care packages were items such as granola bars, socks, toques and Band-Aids.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What would someone need the most?’” Grebonval said. “Everyone brought what they had, and we saw what we needed and wanted to put into one care package.”
However, they received so many clothing items that Nadeau decided the best thing to do was give them directly to the Old Brewery Mission. “There was also the aspect of fairness—if I was giving a sweater in one package, and I was giving a winter jacket in one package, that might be unfair,” Nadeau said.
The care packages ended up including donations from people outside of Grey Nuns, as Grebonval reached out to his hometown of Glen Rock, N.J. during reading week. “About five or six families donated some pretty big, prepaid and pre-made packages, so it was great. We had about 20 of them,” Grebonval said.
With the 20 packages organized and ready for delivery on Sunday, March 12, Nadeau along
with Grebonval and other volunteers, went out near the Concordia downtown campus, including on Ste. Catherine Street, in -17 C weather to give out as many care packages as possible. “I would tell them I had a care package for them and would tell them
briefly what was inside,” Nadeau said. “They were very thankful and appreciative of the gesture.”
However, on the day of delivery, there ended up being more packages than there were people to receive them.
“Now, each time I leave residence, I bring at least one or two care packages with me because
I’ll always see a homeless person on my walk.” Nadeau said, adding that Grebonval does the same. “It’s just a matter of every time you’re going out, don’t just think about yourself and think about others.”
Nadeau plans to continue handing out the remaining care packages along with more she will make using incoming donations for the remainder of the semester.
For those interested in donating items such as food, clothing or toiletries for future care packages, Nadeau will be accepting donations until April 14. She can be reached by email at marienadeau98@gmail.com.
12 of the students representatives who helped organizing the summit in Toronto. Photo courtesy of Jack.Org
Student Alexis Lahorra is one of 200 student leaders who took part in the mental health advocacy weekend in Toronto
Concordia student Alexis Lahorra participated as a student representative at the Jack.org summit last weekend in Toronto.
The summit, organized by Jack.org, brought together more than 200 students leaders from across Canada to come up with ways to cope with mental health. Nearly all of the students who attended were members of Jack.org, a national network where students discuss mental health.
“We gathered all these students who are involved with mental health initiatives in Toronto for three days to learn skills and competences that they can use within their own community,” said Lahorra, who leads Jack.org’s Concordia chapter. She was one of 12 students who helped barnstorm, plan, and execute the even.
Alexis Lahorra, a Concordia student, who helped organizing the summit.
Over the weekend, students learned about different skills related to coping with and improving mental health, and how to manage their own student groups and Jack.org chapters. Participants were also able to exchange new strategies of coping with mental health and learn from each other. “Imagine meeting 199 new friends and inspiring one another. It was really cool to gather this weekend,” Lahorra said.
Lahorra, a communication studies student, was also there to share her story with mental health on stage in front of the other student leaders. During the event, she also spoke with Radio-Canada, CBC’s French media, about the work she does within Concordia University and about her own experiences with mental health.
“When I published the [interview] video on my social media, I received personal messages from people saying, ‘thank you for sharing your story and showing that it’s fine to not be okay all the time,’” she said.
At the summit, she said she learned students “have to know our limits and we have to know when to delegate tasks to our colleagues and friends.”
Lahorra is currently looking to create a collaboration between Concordia’s Health Services and the university’s Jack.org chapter. “We are working on the peer mental health ambassador pilot project,” she said. “Students at Jack.org Concordia, who volunteer or are executives, will eventually become mentors who connect students to the health services available [at the university]—a little bit like student mentors, but who advocate mental health especially.”
Jack.org Concordia’s next event is an expression night on Thursday, March 31 at Reggies Bar, where students will be able to share their personal stories related to mental health in front of an audience.
Our worst nightmares came true on Wednesday morning as an ominous announcement echoed through the hallways, telling students and staff to evacuate both the Hall and EV buildings.
As students and staff flooded onto the streets of downtown Montreal, news circulated there was a bomb threat. A letter had been sent to various student groups and media outlets.
The letter referred specifically to Muslims and said the organization will not tolerate “Friday prayers and the often anti-Christian and anti-Jewish speeches,” going on at Concordia, referring to the fact that the 7th floor of the Hall building is used as a prayer space for Muslim students. It also demanded Concordia stop all religion-related activities on campus and that the organization is ready to “fight Moslems.”
After a search by the SPVM, no explosives were found. According to the Montreal Gazette, the suspect Hisham Saadi, 47, was arrested early Thursday morning at his apartment in Cote-des-Neiges. Saadi was charged with inciting terrorism fears, transmitting death threats, and mischief in connection to the bomb threat sent out on Wednesday.
This bomb threat came at a time when Concordia’s Muslim Student Association was hosting an “Islamic Awareness Week,” which included a variety of lectures and activities aimed at educating Concordia students about the religion.
It is terrifying to see something like this happen at Concordia University, a school filled with so many students from different parts of the world. The letter sent out on Wednesday points towards a harsher, more dangerous reality: the reality of Islamophobia.
With this incident, we at The Concordian were also reminded of the threat and terror Muslims faced during the Quebec mosque shooting only a little over a month ago. On Jan. 29, a gunman opened fire in a mosque in Quebec City, killing six innocent people. There have also been multiple incidents of mosques being defaced and vandalized in the past few months, creating a climate of fear for many individuals who practice Islam.
Here at The Concordian—where we have Muslim editors on our masthead—we completely and fully stand in solidarity with the Muslim community during these disturbing times. We denounce the threats made by this pitiful and cowardly individual. Saadi clearly seeks to disrupt and divide our university while instilling a culture of fear and hatred. We will not stand for this and will do all in our power to fight back against those who seek to harm students, staff and anyone else in the greater Montreal community.
The letter had said, “Now that President Trump is in office south of the border, things have changed.” And that is true—the political climate has changed and divisiveness seems to be the new norm. Hate is being normalized.
We at The Concordian urge people to stand up and denounce any kind of behaviour that incites terror or fear, and to always protect innocent minorities who are being threatened every day. Our university has always stood as a beacon of acceptance and diversity. We must in turn fight to preserve this treasured space and speak out against those who seek to destroy it.
The StrikeOut Cancer Fund prepares for their annual Bowl-A-Thon and gala to fundraise money to grant the wishes of children facing severe illness.
Photos courtesy of Anthony Pacella
Organization founded by Concordia student helps fundraise for Make-a-Wish Quebec
Anthony Pacella, a Concordia student studying management at the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) created StrikeOut Cancer, an organization which holds events to fundraise for initiatives to help those living with cancer. StrikeOut Cancer was created as a surprise for his mother Mary Melillo Pacella, who was diagnosed with lung cancer. Before the passing of his mother, Pacella told her about StrikeOut Cancer, to which he said she gave Pacella a thumbs up in approval.
“[In] August of 2010, my mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer,” Pacella said. His family was devastated—his mother had never smoked cigarettes, he said.
“Unfortunately, my mother lost her life at the age of 52 to cancer on January 6, 2011,” Pacella said. “She left this world with two young children and a great husband.”
Pacella had been raising money for StrikeOut Cancer initiatives during her treatment, however, he began planning his first events for the organization less than a few weeks after his mother’s passing.
Three months after his mother’s passing, StrikeOut Cancer hosted their first event, a Bowl-A-Thon, which is now an annual event held each spring. The Bowl-A-Thon is geared towards families in order to raise money for the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation in Montreal—the same hospital where Pacella’s mother received treatment. He was 15 years old when he organized the first Bowl-A-Thon.
In addition, StrikeOut Cancer organizes an annual gala in support of Make-A-Wish Quebec to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Pacella said the gala is held in November, with tickets available for $100. The cost covers the event and a full-course dinner.
“We raise thousands of dollars to make a child’s wishes come true,” Pacella said. He wanted StrikeOut Cancer to be involved with Make-A-Wish Quebec to contribute towards making children happy, he added.
“We continue to strive and expand in order to help our community, but most importantly, our goal is to make a young child’s wishes come true,” said Pacella.
Pacella said while he enjoyed working with St. Mary’s Hospital, he wanted to expand the StrikeOut Cancer initiative.
Pacella photographed with his mother Mary Melillo Pacella. Photos courtesy of Anthony Pacella.
“I wanted to make a greater impact, and I feel like my $10,000 [raised] wouldn’t find the cure to cancer,” Pacella said. “But my $10,000 could hopefully impact a child’s life.”
StrikeOut Cancer has helped three children so far. “They all wanted to go to Disneyland,” Pacella said.
The most recent gala, which was held on Nov. 7, 2016, honoured Chakameh, an eight-year-old diagnosed with leukemia.
“During my stay at Concordia, I hope that more people of Concordia hear about StrikeOut and I hope to continuously gain more support,” Pacella said.
Pacella hopes to have more support and involve more people in the StrikeOut Cancer initiative. He encourages anyone who is interested to contact him—he is particularly looking for volunteers to promote ticket sales, obtain more sponsors and spread awareness about StrikeOut Cancer.
For more information about StrikeOut Cancer and details on their upcoming Bowl-A-Thon, visit StrikeOut Cancer’s website or Facebook page. This year’s Bowl-A-Thon will be held on May 28 in at 1 p.m. at Le Centre de Quilles 440, 2535 boul Curé-Labelle in Laval.
A University of the Streets Café discussion reflects on the “pursuit of happiness”
University of the Streets Café hosted yet another edition of its public discussions at Café Aux Deux Marie on St-Denis Street last Wednesday to discuss a hefty topic—the illusive pursuit of happiness.
The talk was moderated by Anurag Dhir, a community engagement coordinator for McGill University’s Social Equity and Diversity Education Office. The event featured speakers who explored the idea of purposefulness and happiness in their line of work: Peter Hartman and Juniper Belshaw. Hartman is a motivational speaker and founder of Happy For A Change, an organization that looks to spread the word about positive global initiative. Belshaw currently works for the Cirque du Soleil as a senior advisor for talent management, but she used to work and volunteer a lot in the non-profit sector.
The atmosphere of the talk was quite relaxed. Once the speakers made their preliminary addresses, participants were encouraged to join in on the discussion.
While the intention of the talk was to discuss how to lead a life of impact within a community, the natural course of discussion led to the attendees sharing their views on what happiness means to them, and how to achieve a life of happiness. Most of the audience members agreed that living a life of happiness begins with the acceptance that things happen, and one can’t control everything.
There was a general consensus that, to live a life of positive impact, one must first find positivity in their own life. This echoed the sentiments of Belshaw, who at the end of her introduction said “maybe tonight I’m hoping to talk about how we build sustainable social change where we’re creating the world we want, but also living it as we do it.”
Peter Hartman, who also organizes discussions about finding a purpose in life through his organization Happy For A Change, said he’s used to hearing a lot of discussions turn into talks about the pursuit of happiness.
“There is overwhelmingly this focus on happiness,” he said. “I was hoping we would get beyond that… but I find it so useful, because every time we have that conversation we get a little bit further,” into what it means to lead a life of purpose.
Photo by Ana Hernandez
Hartman explained that, for him, living a life of purpose means living a life of meaningful action. “It’s when there is intention behind the actions that you do,” he said. “It’s not just that you have relationships—it’s the manner in which you have relationships that contribute to your overall purpose.”
Relationships, Hartman added, can be as basic as the contact a person has with a store clerk.
This and other guiding principles are the basis of Happy for A Change—what he calls a philosophy and a movement—with the goal of using people’s own search for happiness to make a positive change in the world.
“We understand that everybody is different and people want to work on different things, so we’re trying to find the lowest common denominator, what is the smallest action possible that we can convince people to do that would create change?” said Hartman. For the speaker, that action is going on social media. Hartman believes that going on social media is something that practically everyone does every day and he tries to harness its power by convincing people in the self-help industry to use their financial means to promote and market ideas that create a better society on social media.
Attendees discussed their thoughts on finding happiness through community engagement. Photo by Ana Hernandez
University of the Streets Café is a program part of Concordia’s Office of Community Engagement, which has existed for 15 years. According to Alex Megelas, the organizer of University of the Street Café programming, their mandate is to “promote a culture of community engagement at Concordia.” They do so by creating links between staff, students and different community based groups and organizations. University of the Streets Café is one of their initiatives.
Megelas said his principle role is to create discussions that reflect the goal of the program. This year, their goal is to look at city engagement and, more specifically, “how we live in cities as, individuals and together, [and] create shared experiences.”
The next University of the Streets Café discussion called “Representative Democracy: How do we foster citizenship literacy”, and will be held on March 9 at 7 p.m. at Temps Libre at 5606 De Gaspé St.
Concordia artist bends space by using old maps as a medium
Trusting in her artistic instinct, when Audrey “Em” Meubus came across a collection of Montreal maps from the 1980s, she knew she had to do something with them.
“I’ve always liked maps for what they represent—it’s finding yourself, and it’s the comforting feelings they evoke,” she said.
This discovery was the beginning of a project culminating in Epigram(me), Meubus’ first solo exhibition as an illustrator.
Meubus, who completed her BFA in film animation at Concordia in 2013, has worked on stop-motion animation sets for works such as The Little Prince. For her latest project, Meubus drew upon her skills as a writer, illustrator and animator to superimpose her striking, emblematic drawings on carefully-selected and significant sections of the city maps.
These works drew strong positive responses from Meubus’ friends and family.
“I would have groups of people forming around these maps, and I knew I was onto something… people were connecting [with them],” she said.
The strength of Meubus’ work comes from their symbolic meaning. Viewing an illustration superimposed over a map of a familiar area can generate strong personal responses connected to memory and belonging. The dark, graphic lines of Meubus’ illustrations contrast starkly with the sun-faded maps, making for an interesting aesthetic and contrast, engaging both the mind and emotions.
After having experimented with maps as a medium, the next step was teaming up with Studio Beluga, a Montreal-based non-profit organization run by a collective of artists, art professionals and curators. According to their website, the studio was established with the goal of facilitating artistic practices and forming a creative community.
“I know a lot of musicians and people from the theatre world, and that’s how I first came upon Studio Beluga,” she said. “I approached them, time went by until they eventually told me they had a space and I jumped on it.”
The final ingredient in the realization of Meubus’ project was the imposition of a strict two-week time limit on her creative process, in which she created the six pieces that were part of her exhibition.
“I do my best work on a deadline. I have all these ideas and just have to get them out of my head as fast as possible,” she said. “If I hit a wall with one of them, I can just put it aside and work on another one. This speedy and concentrated method allows me to not get bored with what I’m doing.”
Although her backdrops and drawings have particular personal significance, Meubus said she wants the viewer to find their own personal meaning in her work—hence the addition of (me) to Epigram. The name highlights her desire to spark the memory and imagination of the viewer in their own unique and distinctive fashion. In this way, the audience can rediscover something of themselves in these works, between Meubus’ illustrations and the locations the maps portray.
The exhibition runs at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine until April 15.
Four protest groups clashed outside Montreal City Hall over a free speech demonstration
Four political groups clashed outside Montreal City Hall on Saturday over a free speech demonstration.
Dozens of members of the Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCCC) mobilized to support free speech and condemn federal anti-Islamophobia Motion 103 at 11:30 a.m. on March 4. They were greeted soon after by the left-wing activist group Action Antifasciste Montréal (AAM), who chanted, threw smoke bombs and tore up the CCCC’s protest signs.
Several small scuffles broke out between the two opposing groups. As police intervened and separated them, the CCCC was joined by members of la Meute (the Wolf Pack), a Québécois anti-Islamist group. Members bore black flags emblazoned with wolf paws and howled in unison at the opposing demonstrators.
AAM, who opposes “austerity, inequality, racism, fascism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, capitalism and the State,” according to their Facebook page, were joined by a dozen other protesters organized by Solidarity Concordia, who marched from Concordia University to City Hall offer support.
Solidarity Concordia was formed in response to the Quebec government’s proposed austerity measures in 2015.
SPVM create barrier of officers between both parties. Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.
CCCC founder Georges Hallak said he planned a peaceful demonstration. “This is about peace, this is about communication, this is about free speech,” he said in a phone interview with The Concordian. He said the group, which he founded five weeks ago, was there only to say, “no to [Motion 103], no to Trudeau, and [yes to] free speech.”
“This Motion 103 is the beginning of Shariah Law in Canada,” he said. Hallak believes that, unless proper action is taken, all of Canada will be under Shariah law in 25 to 50 years. If passed by the House of Commons, M103 will compel the Canadian government to “condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination,” among other things.
Many Conservative MPs have criticized the motion. In a Facebook post, Conservative MP Maxime Bernier criticized it for not properly defining Islamophobia, and giving Islam special treatment over other religions.
Demonstrator Marlo Turner Ritchie does not see M103 as a threat. “The real threat here, the real menace à la societé, is racism, intolerance and fear-mongering,” she said.
“I think people want to send the strong message today that racist threats have no place in our homes, in our universities, in our daycare, in our government, in our place of business, in our streets,” Turner Ritchie added.
CCCC protest signs and garbage bin were inflamed before SPVM and firefighters set it out. Photo by Ian Down.
After la Meute dispersed, the remaining protesters marched north on Saint-Denis Street towards Place Émilie-Gamelin, where CCCC protest signs and a garbage bin were set on fire. The crowd slowly scattered as police and firefighters put out the fire.
The books discuss climate change, contraception and intercommunal violence
The Paragraphe bookstore on McGill Ave. was packed on March 2 with a large crowd of avid listeners for the launch of three books by Concordia history professors: Anya Zilberstein, Nora Jaffary and Max Bergholz. The professors introduced themselves and their fields of research before going more into depth about the contents and ideas behind their books.
Zilberstein’s book, A Temperate Empire: Making Climate Change in Early America, explores how climate change has informed discussions about science and politics. In her book, she outlines different theories about climate and man-made climate change through history, starting with the colonization of the Americas. Zilberstein said that, while many aspects of the theories outlined in her book are old or historical, elements of the theories themselves “have lingered on well into the next centuries.” Through her book, she said she hopes to inform readers that ideas about climate and man-made climate change have been used to push political debates and and alter the idea of the disposition of humankind.
In Jaffary’s book, Reproduction and its Discontents in Mexico: Childbirth and Contraception from 1750 to 1905, she explores women’s sexuality, pregnancy, birth and contraception in Mexico as the country transitioned from a colony to an independent nation. She said her original research did not lead her to where she thought it would—ideas of progress associated with the liberation of a colony didn’t necessarily mean progress for women’s sexuality. It continued to be heavily scrutinized, especially at the end of the 19th century. Jaffary describes approximately 250 cases of female sexual deviance in her book.
Bergholz began the description of his book, Violence as a Generative Force: Identity, Nationalism and Memory in a Balkan Community, with the story of where he found his case study: in the dusty basement of an archive in the city of Sarajevo. His book is a microhistory of a small village on the border of Bosnia and Croatia called Kulen Vakuf. It takes an in-depth look at intercommunal killings that happened during 1941, which included the disappearance and murder of 2,000 people in 48 hours. Bergholz said he seeks to answer the question of how a violent incident can occur and how it changes people’s identities and relations with each other.
The authors said it took about 10 years to complete their books. Jaffary described the research as a detective mission and explained how she had to adapt her writing to what she found. “You have an idea of what you might find, but you’re not sure and then you realize that the thing you’re looking for doesn’t exist, but this other thing exists, so you try to get as much of that as possible,” said Jaffary. During the research process, Jaffary had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and Spain and collaborate with fellow researchers. “It was stimulating, but not in a high-pressure way,” she said.
For Bergholz, both the research and the writing of his book were very demanding. He said the research involved spending long days in archive basements, sometimes going days without finding relevant information. “You have to get up and motivate yourself everyday to look at page after page after page,” he said. “I had to develop a tremendous amount of focus and discipline to keep my eye on the horizon.”
Bergholz said writing the book was emotionally taxing because of the traumatic, violent nature of the subject matter. To fully describe the events in the book, he said he had to “inhabit the material in a way and to internalize it, to try and feel the history… [which] means that those terrible things become, in some way, embedded inside your mind. They did for me.”
