Now that we are in November, many may associate this month with the events linked to Movember.
In case you have been living under a rock, let me break down what Movember is exactly.
Movember is the mustache-growing charity event that occurs all throughout the course of November. The people who choose to participate in Movember donate to charities that support Men’s mental health initiatives. As well as bring awareness to men’s physical health issues like prostate cancer.
Now you might be asking yourself, Movember sounds great but how can I support these events as a student here at Concordia?
This is where the JMo’SB team at Concordia comes into play. In case you have never heard of JMo’SB, they are a non-profit sub-committee within the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA) cares. Their entire purpose is to raise money for men’s mental health initiatives throughout the month of November.
The team first started back in 2011 when a group of JMSB students came together to raise funds for Movember.
Fast-forward to last year, the JMo’SB team raised over $42,000 for men’s mental health initiatives. This year the team is aiming to raise over $50,000. If you would like to donate, please visit this page.
The president and co-president of JMo’SB, Liam Pinsonneault-Emond and Andrea Valcarcel gave The Concordian the inside scoop on what’s happening for Movember.
“We don’t actually have an event on November 19th for International Men’s Day but we have a lot of other events happening throughout the month,” Valcarcel said. “For example on November 18th we have a mental health day and it’s going to be at HIVE cafe, and it’s in collaboration with John Molson Women and Leadership. There’s going to be a lot of relaxing activities at that event, like decorating cookies, painting tote bags and there are also going to be panelists.”
The Nov. 18 event will be especially special because speakers from the Movember foundation itself will be among the panelists.
“We are also doing a comedy night which is going to be on November 20th at Montreal comedy club. We are actually in contact with the people from the comedy club and we asked them if the comedians could do a Movember theme. They said that they would try and find comedians that could do that,” Valcarcel explained.
Over the course of Nov. 7-11, the team also hosted two bake sales to further advance their fundraising efforts.
The month of November is an exciting time for the JMo’SB to further incite students at Concordia to participate in their events. Emond made a point to emphasize not to forget about one important thing during this month.
“For the people that this could sort of resonate with, if you have men in your life that are close to you, check in with them from time to time,” Emond explained. “Talk to them and make sure that they are okay, it doesn’t sound like much but just asking a guy how his day is going or how he’s doing, it would mean a lot to them.”
Review of Cinemania Festival’s opening film Chien Blanc
Acclaimed author and filmmaker Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette brought forth her new film Chien Blanc as the opening film of the 28th edition of the Cinemania Festival.
Her 2015 novel La Femme qui fuit received a lot attention owing to its second-person narration of Lavalette’s grandmother’s life.
Because of the acclaim she received from her novel and the various films she has made in the past such as Nelly, from the novel Putain by author Nelly Arcan, it was fair to have high expectations for this release.
Cinemania hopes to bring francophone cinema to an international spotlight and help these films achieve recognition. For this year’s edition of the festival, organizers hoped to engage audiences with relevant socio-political issues. The festival’s country of honour this year is Luxembourg, which will bring the country’s French cinema and culture to the foreground.
Beyond film screenings, the festival also organizes roundtables, conferences, concerts and an exhibit at the PHI Centre.
Chien Blanc was a result of Barbeau-Lavalette questioning her identity as a white person. For many, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 was a reality check. It brought more awareness to the struggles of people of colour — and for Barbeau-Lavalette, this awareness translated into a historical film.
“This is not a documentary,” states Lavalette in the Q&A session. The film, however, is composed in parallel to the narrative of archival footage of Black struggles from the Civil Rights movement of 1954-68 to the Black Lives Matter protests from last year.
It is controversial that, though a Canadian artist herself, Barbeau-Lavalette chose to depict racism in the U.S.but ignored similar racist trends in her own province of Quebec, whose prime minister openly stated that “systemic racism does not exist.”
Even though the film only has a runtime of ninety minutes, it seems to drag on much longer. This was in part due to the awkward editing. The audience barely had the opportunity to draw breath after dramatic scenes before the narration would quickly resume.
It is noticeable that Barbeau-Lavalette does not come from a filmmaking background. The metaphors used in the film were too on-the-nose, and provided little credibility.
For instance, the first scene shows a boy playing with a toy dog, foreshadowing the upcoming story with a dog as the central character. In another instance, Romain Gary (author of the original novel Chien Blanc) writes the last words of his book, which seems to symbolize the universal finality of racism. He writes with pen on paper in the film as a metaphor of the final words of his novel.
Barbeau-Lavalette touches upon the themes of white tears, but does not give them much depth. In a scene at the beginning of the film, a taxi driver is bringing Romain Gary to his home when we hear the news of Martin Luther King’s murder on the radio. Romain Gary overpays the driver — a direct symbol of white tears that Barbeau-Lavalette herself noted in the Q&A as “overcompensating his guilt by paying.”
Strong metaphors can enhance a storyline, but in this case they felt forced — as if they were trying to entirely manipulate the audience’s experience rather than giving them a chance to think for themselves.
The film does not flow very well as there are abrupt switches between images that make it, at times, an uncomfortable experience to watch.
Though her initial claim of making the film about what it means to be a white ally is interesting, the angle she has taken in Chien Blanc only serves to further divide. A better angle to take would’ve been centring more Black voices, for instance. Characters like Ballard who Gary gets out of prison, seemed central to the story during the initial scenes were only shown briefly.
Overall, the film was an interesting visual experience. The Cinema Imperial seating 800 people was entirely full. The audience was a diverse group that included school-going children and teenagers who would applaud at the end of every scene and laugh whenever an intimate scene would pop up on the screen.
Though Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette is known for her prose, and the film is an accurate adaptation of Romain Gary’s novel Chien Blanc, I’m not sure that filmmaking is the best avenue for her talents.
The dance-movement performance piece by Emily Gualtieri and David Albert-Toth was presented at Montreal’s Agora de la danse from Nov. 2 to 5
À bout de bras involved acrobatics and contortion, magic, humorous poems and storytelling, performed uniquely by Albert-Toth, all based on the theme of Tantalus.
The Greek mythical figure was famously punished after death in the deep abyss of Tartarus, where he was forced to stand in a pool of water under a fruit tree with low hanging branches. The water would sink every time he went to drink it, and the tree branches hanging over him would elude his grasp every time he was hungry.
Albert-Toth’s original inspiration for this piece came from the concept of solitude. “We looked to use an example of a fallen hero. The Joker, Muhammad Ali, who’d experienced their own solitude amounting to their self destruction. When we discovered the story of Tantalus, we knew we found the one,” said the performer.
The mythological figure was known to have been a ruler of the Anatolian city of Tantalís. He was sentenced to his infamous punishment after having offered his son as food to the gods when invited to Mount Olympus to prepare a feast for them.
The idea had been in the works since 2019. After the arrival of COVID-19, during which the world had to confine and experience solitude, Gualtieri and Albert-Toth knew it was essential to present it as soon as possible, after the ebbs and flows of the global crisis.
Courtesy of Agora de la Danse
The dancer started the piece almost nude, wrapped in a sparkly cloth. He argued to the crowd that instead of attending his act, we as citizens should be taking action to prevent the ongoing domination of capitalism. If we believed it was important, we wouldn’t choose to merely sit in our venue seats looking for entertainment. Only after Albert-Toth clothed himself and provided a powerful dance representing Tantalus’ struggle and torment, did he reveal the reason for his monologue on the economic system.
The following segment was an allegory involving a Coca-Cola vending machine and how desperate he was for a soda, but didn’t have any change. The soda represented relief and reward for hard work. The dancer humorously hyperbolised his desperation for it by contorting and writhing on the floor, rhythmically rapping about how he would do anything for that “kssss” in his life.
Albert-Toth alternated between expressive dances on Tantalus’ desperation and the real matters of companies capitalizing on our selfish needs. The performance ended in a heartwarming magic act, with many colours which contrasted the darkness submerging the dancer for nearly the entirety of the piece.
All in all, the show was brilliant and thought-provoking. As someone who found it difficult to understand interpretive dance and movement performance, the story, humour, and sheer athleticism opened a new world for me.
This top five is based on the last few seasons in the NHL (regular season and playoffs), including the start of the current season. This also takes into consideration my expectations for them for the remainder of the season, so it’s a subjective list.
Here are my top five most underrated players in the NHL:
#5 – Tage Thompson
The 2016 first-round pick had a rough start in the NHL, there is no denying it. Other than playing on a top 10 St. Louis Blues team his first year, Thompson had a tough time on the Buffalo Sabres, who were a bottom 10 team in the league. However, Thompson had an incredible season last year and has also had an amazing start to this season. The 25-year-old 6’6 winger is only getting started. Although he’s having success now, he was labelled a “bust” for years and that still follows him, so it’s reason enough to say he’s underrated.
#4 – Mason Marchment
The Dallas Stars’ winger went undrafted. He hasn’t had the easiest road to the NHL, but he made it and is now thriving at 27 years old after an impressive season with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. Many players who don’t get drafted can be considered underrated if they even just get a full-time lineup spot in the NHL, because they simply won’t get as much attention. But to thrive to the level Marchment has after so much adversity is remarkable, and that’s why he cracked my top five list. I think he’ll be getting more recognition soon.
#3 – Adam Pelech
Pelech is half of the iconic New York Islanders’ top defensive pair with Ryan Pulock, and together, they are the best defensive defencemen duo in the NHL. Defensive defencemen in general are underrated, but Pelech is so good and his chemistry with Pulock is amazing, so he can’t not make the list. He simply doesn’t get enough appreciation, especially considering how big a part he plays in the Islanders’ incredible defensive play.
#2 – Valeri Nichushkin
So the Colorado Avalanche, huh? They’re a great team, they have a lot of skill, and a bunch of superstars that I obviously don’t have to name. Nichushkin, however, is their most underrated player. He played a big part in their season and Cup run last year, and is showing that he’s not planning on slowing down. After a disappointing 2018-19 season with the Stars, who bought out his contract, he signed a one-year deal with Colorado and was able to prove his worth. If he keeps putting up great numbers, he should be getting more love from fans and media pretty soon.
#1 – Jaccob Slavin
If there was an award for best defensive defenceman in the NHL, Slavin would be a finalist, if not the winner, until he retires. The Carolina Hurricanes’ defenceman is easily the best defensive defenceman in the league. Once again, it’s a pretty similar argument to the one for Pelech, as defensive defencemen don’t get the appreciation they deserve. But on top of that, Slavin plays in a small market, which oftentimes is enough on its own to make a highly skilled player underappreciated. So that makes him twice as underrated around the league.
Don’t miss out on this festival of encounters and fusions between Eastern and Western worlds
The 23rd edition of The Arab World Festival of Montreal(FMA) is currently underway in the city until Nov. 13.
All are welcome to join this eclectic festival, which offers both free and ticketed events — from performing arts spectacles to cultural forums/conferences and cinematic experiences.
The Concordian had the pleasure of discussing the importance of this unique Montreal festival with the FMA’s communications and programming assistant Céline Camus.
Camus explained that the FMA “aims to be a meeting place, where many artists point out the similarities between Arab cultures but also the cultures of the rest of the world, whether in the East or in the West.”
This dynamic festival, where such dialogues are artistically facilitated and celebrated, is important in “a city like Montreal where diversity is the very essence of life,” added Camus.
The theme of this year’s edition is Corporeal: When the Flesh Dictates the Story! It is all about acknowledging the physical abilities and limitations of the body, while honouring the self in connection with the world.
During the FMA, visitors can expect to see local and international artists/intellectuals explore the corporeal theme through artworks, dances, and films in relation to their distinct and varied Arab cultures.
The Art of Skin: Body Painting Workshop and Live Painting were two events that took place on Nov. 1 at the Kawalees Cultural Cabaret as part of the festival. This low-key bar located in the Mile End neighbourhood had a quaint café-like vibe, which offered a vibrant yet relaxed setting for artist Zoya Tavangar’s intimate painting show.
During the Body Painting Workshop, Tavangar painted on a model’s face. Rather than using the model as a visual muse, Tavangar used the model’s face as a canvas itself. Drawing inspiration from the artistic and symbolic expression of tattoos, Tavangar colourfully re-painted a face on the model’s face, which — as she explained to the audience — “is in the art style of Cubism.”
Tavangar then proceeded onto the Live Painting event, where she painted a blue, realism-style portrait of a young woman. While Tavangar was focused on her painting, festival-goers were able to view her work up-close, or observe from their tables while having drinks or even ordering hummus and pita to snack on.
One such festival-goer that The Concordian was able to chat with was Redouane Ali who was experiencing the FMA for the first time.
“When I heard about this festival, it definitely interested me,” he said. Ali added that he specifically chose to visit The Art of Skin events because “after a busy day at work, watching an artist paint live while being able to have dinner seemed cool and therapeutic.”
The FMA is a Montreal gem and should not be overlooked. For those still interested in partaking in the festival, here is a list of shows and events that are still available!
Jean Dawson performing at Le Belmont. EVAN LINDSAY/The Concordian
On his first headlining tour Jean Dawson proves himself to be one of the most exciting new live acts
It was 8:45 p.m on Nov. 1. when Jean Dawson took the stage at Le Belmont, dressed in a massive black denim jacket atop an Aphex Twin hoodie, paired with leopard print pants. A black ski mask with a Homer chain hanging from his neck shone bright against his otherwise dark silhouette. The outfit showed a diverse array of interests that Dawson displays quite literally on his sleeve — even in his music. His sound melds hip-hop, R&B, pop-punk and electronic music into something that sounds both familiar and distinctly unique at the same time.
Dawson was accompanied by a four-piece backing band cramped onto Le Belmont’s tiny stage. The Montreal show was his first in Canada. Despite being on his first headlining tour, Dawson performed as if he had been at it for years.
The show began with the wailing guitars backing “Dummy” off Dawson’s sophomore album Pixel Bath. What I expected to be a roaring start for Dawson was actually a little bit sleepy. The band was clearly giving their all, but the lead singer had yet to truly warm up. Dawson followed “Dummy” with “PORN ACTING*” . The crowd was getting excited but it wasn’t the high-octane, over-the-top energy I expected. Dawson said later in the show that he was sick, which was also his reasoning for the ski mask.
Once Dawson performed “Devilish,” the show began to live up to the tour name, named after the artist’s most recent album CHAOS NOW*. The mosh pit opened up and it was pretty tough to avoid for the rest of the show. Fans jumped up and down and shouted lyrics into the microphone Dawson would wave over the crowd.
The rest of the performance easily surpassed my earlier expectations of a high-energy show. As Dawson’s energy built, so did the crowd’s. Fans shouted out song requests; one fan requested “Policia,” which shocked Dawson. Considering the song is mostly sung in Spanish, he was taken aback that it would get requested in Canada. While the song didn’t make it into the main set, Dawson and the band appeased the fan’s request by playing “Policia” in their encore.
Other highlights of the show included “PIRATE RADIO*,” which had the crowd slow down the moshing a bit as everyone sang along to one of Dawson’s slower tracks. The interaction between the crowd and Dawson culminated as he walked into the crowd during “0-HEROES*” leading up to the song’s massive chorus and another extended period of moshing.The backing band also held their own intense guitar and drum solos throughout the show.
The show concluded with “Power Freaks,” with Dawson finally taking off his ski mask to reveal a head of wild blonde dreads, in an electric final number (before returning for the fan favourite “Policia” in his encore.) Despite a bit of a slow start, Dawson tore up Le Belmont with an electric performance — one that will hopefully be the first of many to come in his career as well as in Canada.
With 31 homicides this year, Montreal has been witnessing a spike in violent crimes
Montreal has always been a home to students who live alone, as it was known for its safety and security. However, a sharp increase in homicides and crimes is affecting the way many students view the city.
“I still get shivers every time I step into my building,” said Rhea Bakhach, a business student at Concordia living in downtown Montreal. She recalled how one morning as she was going to work, her building’s lobby was filled with blood as policemen carried a body outside.
Bakhach’s neighbour, a 26-year-old music teacher, had killed his stepfather and stabbed his mother alongside two other people the night before.
Bakhach has been living in Montreal alone for two years as her family is back in Lebanon. “My family freaked out, they had me install a second lock, and I considered moving out for a while. I used to feel very safe alone here, but now, not so much.”
The city of Montreal has recorded 31 homicides so far this year, compared to 36 total recorded homicides last year. Half of those involved the use of firearms. According to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal’s (SPVM) annual report of 2021, homicides increased by 44 per cent last year. Compared to the last five years, the numbers are up by 39.5 per cent.
“Coming from Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world, even with everything happening in Montreal, I feel that I am safe living here,” said Rafael Ruiz González, an international journalism student at Concordia who lives in Verdun.
“It is worrisome to see this spike in crimes here but we have seen so many headlines and stories about violence that now we’re just immune to it and learn to live with it,” said González.
Michel Abou Jaoude, a government social worker, believes that there is a correlation between the rising crime rate and mental health issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These people committing the crimes are clearly not well-surrounded,” Abou Jaoude said. “With the labour shortage that’s been happening, a lot of resources that used to help troubled youth are no longer available.”
The labour shortage has also impacted the SPVM. Montreal Police Chief Sophie Roy announced during a news conference on Aug. 27 that the Quebec government will dedicate an additional $250 million to recruit 225 more officers in Montreal to help with this issue.
“Gun violence is also a major factor in these stories. More laws should be controlling the entrance of illegal guns,” added Abou Jaoude. A national freeze on the ownership, transfer and sale of handguns was announced as Bill C-21 was introduced earlier this year in May. While the bill doesn’t ban handguns for now, it limits their possession to the people already living in Canada. This decision might help restore the sense of control and safety that people are longing to get back.
Workshop facilitator and herbalist Hunter Cubitt-Cooke has been a collective member of Le Frigo Vert for eight years. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
On Nov 2. 2022, Le Frigo Vert hosted a mushroom workshop where participants can learn about how to use mushrooms in a variety of ways.
Workshop attendees learned to make their own mushroom tinctures from red belted conk, birch polypore, chaga, and reishi mushrooms. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Different mushroom tinctures. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Different herbs, spices, and mushrooms that participants can choose from. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
The participant is seen putting mushroom tincture into their container. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
Do you ever wish your favourite TV show just had *fewer* seasons?
Last year, I finally decided to watch the infamous The Office because everyone around me told me I would like it and that I was missing out on an important cultural moment of the 2000s.
I also wanted in on all the inside jokes. I wanted to know who Prison Mike was and how everyone started saying “that’s what she said.”
I had already seen some of the comedy gold that was the fire drill and the first-aid class scenes. They made me laugh so much, I needed more of this.
In short, people were right. To this day, The Office is the first and only show that made me laugh out loud alone in my room.
I would pause the episode, rewind and get my mom to come because she HAD to see this.
Then, I started to get in the later seasons. It was okay, but I found myself laughing less and less.
What really cut it for me was the moment nobody wants to talk about: when Steve Carrell’s character Michael Scott left.
It was not the same show. It felt like a bad attempt at a reboot or parody. The characters started to act out of character and the storylines were just not as funny.
You’ve probably been the victim of this: your favourite TV show becoming so bad it’s unwatchable.
While I haven’t watched it myself, I’ve heard about the atrocity that Riverdale has become. But I won’t get into that here.
There are many theories I want to explore as to why our favourite TV shows flop after a while.
First, there is the main-character-leaving-the-show complex. Obviously, Michael Scott was the trigger to most of my bursts of laughter. So for me, his departure from the show was a big downfall.
The Office is not the only show victim of that. I also remember how That ’70s Show was struggling after its main character Eric Foreman was no longer there. It makes sense why the storylines were a bit all over the place when he left as he was the one holding all the other characters together. After all, it was in HIS basement that the group of friends would gather in.
The Office was also the victim of too many seasons. This is easily explainable by the sheer success of the first few seasons. We can, again, see this in other shows.
Grey’s Anatomy also found so much success that its producers are trying to milk it until there are no more medical scenarios they can come up with.
This phenomenon is even seen with shows that should only have one season like 13 Reasons Why and You. The former being based on a book that did not have sequels, and the latter which just abused the character of Joe Goldberg too much. Like, seriously, how many times can you actually get away with such sporadic murders and changes of identity?
Overall, TV shows that get a lot of momentum after their first season will now for sure get, according to fans, too many seasons.
It’s like producers are not able to leave a show on a good note and start a new project.
But, at the same time, fans would not be ready either. Even though they are the first to critique a show for dragging on for too long, they are the first that want to know if a new season is coming.
Do you remember a time when you just finished a well-acclaimed show and went on Google just to find an ending explanation, only to see “season 2” as the first suggestion next to the show’s title? Yeah, that’s why producers will never let go of an opportunity to make a new season.
In Hollywood, money talks.
In the end, TV shows with too many seasons just lose their direction, originality, and credible plotlines.
I think ultimately, when a TV show is so good, it is deemed to become bad because of the high expectations we now set for it.
I had hopes for Squid Games when the director was pretty clear that he hadn’t thought about the show having other seasons. But, it was announced in June through Netflix’s Twitter account that the record-breaking show will come back.
Let’s hope this one won’t be milking the idea of a sick and twisted money game too much.
After A Two-Year Suspension, Course Evaluations Are Back With Students Doubting Their Ability To Affect Change And Professors Questioning Their Underlying Bias
At the beginning of 2019, Concordia’s Student Union (CSU) conducted its annual undergraduate survey. In that survey, many students voiced their concerns regarding the evaluation system at Concordia and believed that course evaluations did little to improve the teaching or the syllabi.
“Students who are filling out surveys could not benefit from professors’ adjustments and
thus many wouldn’t care to take time to do the surveys,” the survey concluded, which is why 84% of students wanted their professors to implement mid-term evaluations.
JAMES FAY @jamesfaydraws
Others believed that professors did not care enough about their evaluations and were not willing to engage with their feedback. Some students doubted whether their feedback would lead anywhere with regards to tenured professors.
“I think the problem is that professors are not held remotely accountable for being bad professors. Those with tenure have no reason to improve their teaching style because they don’t care enough,” mentioned a surveyed student.
A month after the 2019 annual survey was conducted, the pandemic was in full swing and Concordia’s courses had moved online. Following an agreement between the faculty unions and the University, course evaluations were suspended. “In part, this was done because course evaluations are designed for in-person courses and could not fairly account for the remote teaching context,” explained Vannina Maestracci, Concordia’s University Spokesperson.
While the students surveyed in 2019 had shown a strong preference for more course evaluations, they would not return until the summer of 2022.
Elisabeth Peltier, associate professor at John Molson School of Business and treasurer at Concordia University Faculty Association (CUFA) explained that “[Professors] had to learn how to work with technology and felt that having evaluations would not be fair because they weren’t doing their normal jobs.” However, CUFA was not involved in the prolonged suspension of course evaluations even after in-person courses resumed in the middle of the 2022 spring semester.
According to Maestracci, in 2021, a working group which included CSU and Graduate Student Association (GSA) representation, was set up to look at mechanisms for student feedback and issue recommendations on course evaluations at Concordia. However, there seems to be no concrete timeline to address the student issues that were put on hold due to the pandemic.
The key request from students was to have mid-term evaluations that allowed students to give feedback before the course was over, in the hope that some of the feedback would be implemented before the course’s end. The Concordian spoke with Eric Friedman, a student taking courses in the philosophy department at Concordia who has also echoed this sentiment.
“A discussion in the middle of the semester that addresses students’ concerns about the course and is done in class and as a discussion would be very helpful,” said Friedman.
However, as it currently stands, mid-course evaluations at Concordia are done at the discretion of the professor and are not mandatory, with many professors opting out of them.
“During the pandemic all the efforts at the CSU was focused on advocacy around COVID,” said Asli Isaaq, academic and advocacy coordinator at the CSU. The focus on COVID-related issues has put many other student concerns on the back-burner, with annual student surveys also suspended for the last three CSU mandates.
Some faculty members might be hesitant to support the expansion of course evaluations. Some professors are skeptical of the underlying bias that students might have, and how that bias would affect the instructors’ performance evaluations. “We don’t trust teaching evaluations because there is so much research that shows that they are biased,” added Peltier.
Recent research suggests that factors such as gender, accent, and appearance can play a role in how students evaluate their instructors. “The fact that the participation level is so low also makes evaluations not representative of an instructor’s performance,” explains Peltier.
Some students are also skeptical about course evaluations. Many were concerned that their feedback would not make a change if their professors were tenured and therefore they did not bother with course evaluations. “For tenured professors, research constitutes most of their responsibility and so course evaluations would not have much of an effect,” added Peltier.
Many students who are disappointed with the prospect of affecting change via course evaluations rely on websites such as Rate My Professors to avoid professors with bad reviews. However, external websites are not regulated and many of the reviews can be biased and untrustworthy.
Creating an internal evaluation and reviewing platform that allows students to share their class experiences and feedback could be an idea that addresses these concerns. Some students stated that being able to see other students’ evaluations would incentivize them to take part in more evaluations.
“I check my professors on Rate My Professors before I take a course and it helps me get a general idea of what people think overall,” says Asley, an undergraduate computer engineering student who did not want to disclose her last name. According to Asley, seeing other students’ comments is valuable and it can help incentivize participation.
However, Isaaq believes that such a platform should have been planned for the beginning of the CSU’s mandate and logistically it would not be possible to implement it at this time.
“I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea, but those are the types of things you plan at the beginning of your mandate,” said Isaaq. “My year is set and there’s only so many things you can do and decide on, but an idea like having your own platform to post your ratings […] takes a lot of labour and we already decided what our goals are for this year.”
Isaaq believes that there are benefits to an internal platform since Rate My Professors does not include all of the part-time professors and has no index to show who is currently teaching or no longer teaching at Concordia. However, Fawaz Halloum, the CSU General Coordinator, said that the issue of having mid-course evaluations will be “shared with the academic caucus who may decide to take it up with the Senate.”
The University maintains that course evaluations are taken seriously and that department chairs have access to them and can discuss any issues that arise from them with the respective faculty.
There has been a lack of action since the survey came out in 2019 since there are still no mid-course evaluations for most courses. Maestracci affirmed that “the recommendations are under review and we will be sharing more on their implementation once that is done.” However, she did not share any specific timeline as to when students can expect this implementation.
Third and fourth-language speakers talk about learning French at the famous Mundo Lingo meetup
Mundo Lingo is an international project that promotes language exchange operating on four continents and thrives to make language learning accessible to all. The project was founded in 2011 by Benji Moreira, and the first event happened in Buenos Aires. Moreira wanted to organize a space where locals could practice foreign languages, and foreigners could practice Spanish; this eventually became a global event where people are welcome to practice any language.
People that attend Mundo Lingo meetups come from all walks of life, old and young, international and local; they all come for one purpose: to discuss the languages they are learning and help people that are learning their own.
Each participant is given sticker flags for the respective languages they speak and want to practice, to signal to other people which languages can be spoken in their interactions.
Several Mundo Lingo enthusiasts spoke about their opinions on Bill 96 which imposes the speaking of French in the workplace among other things.
Courtesy of MUNDO LINGO
David Tousseau, an ambassador at Mundo Lingo who speaks French, English, Kinyarwanda, Spanish and Gaelic, says that as a university researcher, “linguistically I am not very involved politically,” and admitted to not really caring about Bill 96. He speaks these languages for patrimonial value, family relations and general interest.
Others like Argentinian Joaquim Marubio, who speaks Spanish, English, and a bit of French, spoke against Bill 96.
“Let me tell you something, Canada is part of a British Commonwealth, it belongs to Our Majesty, so we better speak English. Quebec is part of Canada, people need to speak English, it belongs to Our Majesty!”
Marubio continued to praise the King and said that imposing French was ironic with regards to Quebec’s ties with the Commonwealth.
Anthony Gagné, originally from Quebec, had opposite views to his friend Marubio. He comes to Mundo Lingo to socialize and practice his languages. He speaks French, English, Italian and Portuguese, and is learning Chinese.
“I think it’s a good law, we need to protect the language.” He says Montreal is a perfect example of a place where this law needs to exist. “There are two cultures, Bill 96 creates controversy, it’s taboo to talk about it, but we need to address it.”
He added that “the province of Quebec runs Montreal and that makes for a rather interesting phenomenon,” referring to the recent elections, of a majority government not representing Montreal voters.
He continued, “here it is sure that you will meet people that their French is a third, fourth language, but in everyday life there are not so many, but I really understand linguistically that French is complex, more complex than the other Romance languages”
Two women speaking in Spanish stated that they really appreciated being there, because everyone was so friendly, and it allowed them to practice French without shame. They said that in their workplaces they did not feel comfortable practicing their French because they only speak a bit of it.
Whether it be in language circles or the streets of Montreal, there is a lot of divide on questions of language protection and Bill 96 more specifically. What is certain is Mundo Lingo provides a space where people can share in any language they desire without fear of being shamed for having an accent.
EntomoMiam serves a variety of gourmet insect-based snacks, including roasted almonds & grasshoppers, a tomato and mealworm tapenade, and a cricket and mushroom shortbread. CATHERINE REYNOLDS/The Concordian
The Montreal Insectarium recently introduced entomophagy
With the climate rapidly changing, water is becoming less and less accessible. As the need to change the way we eat becomes more and more apparent, food industries are shifting, presenting new forms of food.
Chef-consultant Daniel Vézina, commissioned by Espace pour la vie, developed a series of edible insect snacks. Between Nov. 2 – 5 these snacks were served at a kiosk at Le Central.
“Insects have a lot of vitamins, and proteins, it’s very relevant to make people discover them,” said Elena Zumaran Vasquez, operations coordinator for Les Amis de insectarium.
Zumaran Vasquez explained that her organization specifically works for insect consumption, a practice known as entomophagy. It’s owing to this collaboration with David Vézina that she now believes more strongly that people are more willing to eat insects: “People don’t necessarily see them, they are presented in a different form, where they are integrated into the food.”.
Though insect-eating is not part of Canadian culture, it is a common snack in some countries like Thailand and South Africa. In Thailand, for instance, is it typical to eat fried grasshoppers, crickets, and even worms.
The tasting at Le Central offered four sample foods. There were green hard candies, made from ant sugar and balsam fir. The flavour of the ant sugar was not very strong and did not taste any different from the candies we are used to.
For salty snacks, there were seaweed chips creamed with a tomato tapenade, mixed with mealworm and seaweed dulse. Apart from being extremely salty, they were good.
The second salty snack was the one that people most feared eating. It was caramelized lime almonds with whole grasshoppers. This was the only tasting with a whole insect in it; and despite their sour lime taste, they tasted good. Nevertheless, I’m not sure if I would eat them like I would eat a bag of chips.
Zumaran Vasquez noted that the reactions to the tastings were quite diverse.
“There’s a lot of positive feedback and a lot of interest. At first people are reluctant, but most of them end up trying [it].”
The insects were so processed with the other ingredients that it was barely noticeable that one was eating insects, except for the almond snack, where the grasshopper was in its complete form.
Despite the original idea behind the snacks being the high nutritional value of insects, these bites were so mixed in sugar and salt that it begs the question, would people even eat these if they were not processed with so many unhealthy ingredients?
A suitable analogy would be that of vegan food industries sometimes trying hard to imitate a taste, only to end up making an extremely unhealthy product. Is the avenue of making foods universal for singular palates through imitation necessarily good, or should the food industry shift entirely to proposing foods completely different from what we know?
The crowd of people lined around the kiosk all seemed to enjoy the snacks. Some were more reluctant at first, especially with regards to the almond and grasshopper snack, but after tasting them, many people were pleasantly surprised.
It was only fifteen minutes subsequent to the tasting that my palate tasted strongly of insects. The unfamiliar lingering taste of grasshoppers stayed on my tongue longer than I would’ve liked.
It is indisputable that insects offer a great nutritional value and fill you up. Perhaps our Canadian bodies merely need to adapt to changing gastronomies and the possibility of insect consumption.
