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A conversation with Concordia’s president

Photo by Alex Hutchins

Alan Shepard comments on allegations, fundraising, campus expansion

“I hate that this kind of stuff happens,” said Concordia president Alan Shepard in response to a question about the unsolicited social media campaign that resulted in two Concordia students being allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted.

Montreal police opened an investigation into the alleged assaults, however, “I don’t have any idea how the investigation is doing,” Shepard told The Concordian. He said the SPVM hasn’t shared details with him.

The university was informed of the cases during the first week of November, Concordia spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr disclosed in an interview with The Concordian. Shepard said the incidents happened “some time ago,” including one last winter. “We acted as soon as we felt we had our facts straight,” he said.

According to Shepard, these incidents won’t change the university’s sexual assault policy, which he described as “strong and robust.”

Fundraising campaign

According to Shepard, the university is halfway to raising the targeted $250 million for its Campaign for Concordia: Next-Gen fundraiser, the largest in the university’s history.

The campaign is to attract world-class talent to Concordia, Shepard said. “You’re trying to make great education. It’s a competitive landscape [between universities]. It’s not a ladies and gentlemen club—it’s a free-for-all,” Shepard explained. “We need the resources to attract really compelling faculty, researchers and compelling students.”

The president said the money is not currently in the bank, and, instead, comes in the form of pledges or promises of gifts that eventually come to the school “over a 10-year window.”

“We have the promise that it will come in the next while,” Shepard said, referring to the funds they’ve already amassed.

Expanding Concordia

Following the announcement of a new $52-million research facility to be built behind the Richard J. Renaud Science Complex on the Loyola campus, Shepard told The Concordian he has “ideas of other needs” the university has for expansion.

“Every public institution has a responsibility to look at options and think about the future,” Shepard said. But the president admitted the process can be long.

“These buildings take five, seven, eight or 10 years between the twinkle in your eyes [when you say] ‘I think we should build a building there’ to opening the doors to students,” he said. Speaking about the university’s downtown campus, Shepard said the university is “pretty strapped for land,” adding that, “if we were to expand, we’d probably look for new acquisitions.”

Faculty social media policy

In September 2016, a York University professor was fired “for allegedly sharing anti-Semitic posts on his public Facebook page,” Global News reported at the time.
Shepard and spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said there is no specific media policy, but the university’s academic code of conduct applies to all faculty members, even on social media.

“Whether you behave a certain way in person or in class or on social media, those same codes of conduct are in place,” Barr explained.
“If I’m your prof and I write to you by email, I’m writing to you in a governance framework. If you write to me on Facebook and I write back, I’m still writing to you as your prof, and the rule still applies,” Shepard explained. “If, as a private citizen, not as a professor, I write on Facebook, that’s a different matter.”

With files from Ian Down.

Feature photo by Alex Hutchins

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Reggies’s board of directors projects $6,000 deficit for end of year

Reggies’s board members met at the campus bar for their annual general meeting on Nov. 20. Photo by Alex Hutchins

General manager Justin McLellan optimistic despite last year’s larger-than-expected deficit

Reggies’s board of directors predicted a $6,000 deficit for the 2017-18 year at its annual general meeting on Nov. 20.

The Concordia campus bar’s board of directors and roughly 30 of its members gathered to review Reggies’s financial situation and highlight key areas for improvement.

In a presentation of Reggies’s audited financial statements from the year ending on June 30, 2017, outgoing president Rachel Gauthier said the campus bar ended last year with a larger deficit than expected.

“Like a lot of restaurants in Montreal, it takes approximately three to five years to actually get on your feet and have a good profit,” Gauthier said. Reggies is entering its third year of operation since re-opening in 2015 following two years of renovations.

Reggies is also entering its second year as a solidarity co-op. The bar is non-profit and customers can purchase a $5 membership which grants them part ownership and access to board meetings.

“We had to do two things at once: open and then transition into a cooperative,” Gauthier said.

To address the bar’s deficit, Gauthier said the board is implementing a number of cost-cutting initiatives which include choosing recipes that use many of the same ingredients to cut down on food waste and limiting the number of staff working at the same time.

Gauthier said the board should do more to gain new members and encourage member participation.

“The goal is to have as many members as possible because you want people to be involved in the bar, and you want people to want to give their opinions, give their ideas. That’s the point of a cooperative,” she said. According to Gauthier, Reggies has about 500 members.

Incoming president Veronika Rydzewski said Reggies is “not very visible on campus,” so a marketing committee will be created to increase the bar’s presence. She said the marketing campaign will include putting up a banner in the Hall building mezzanine and being more active on social media.

Rydzewski said Reggies was given an advance of about $34,000 from the CSU over the summer. “This was necessary for us to continue and re-open in September,” she said.

Despite last year’s larger-than-expected deficit, Reggies general manager Justin McLellan said that since he became the acting general manager in August, “we’ve increased our sales compared to last year, we’ve been on budget, and we’ve been cutting costs wherever we can.”

McLellan said Reggies is introducing new events, including open-mic and trivia nights. He said Reggies has also entered into partnerships with a number of brands, including Molson and Red Bull, allowing the bar to buy their products at a discounted price.

“We’re working a lot this year to re-vamp Reggies, to really focus on stuff that’s attractive to students,” McLellan said. “We want to showcase students’ talent. We want to be a place that people can come enjoy and hold events at low costs for student associations and make it a fun overall place for people to come and enjoy themselves.”

Photo by Alex Hutchins

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Make room for the millennial

22-year old borough councillor Younes Boukala is Montreal’s youngest municipal politician. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Lachine borough councillor Younes Boukala is giving a voice to his district and his generation

Next winter, while Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante makes some important political announcement, Lachine borough councillor Younes Boukala might be in class at the Université du Québec à Montréal. This is the reality of being the city’s youngest municipal politician.

At 22, Boukala is taking over the leadership of Lachine’s J.-Émery-Provost district, one of the borough’s most impoverished areas, under the banner of Projet Montréal. It’s a sector he knows all too well—he still lives there with his parents in cooperative housing.

I first spoke to Boukala in August, at the start of his campaign. He had just finished his mandate as youth ambassador of Lachine—one of Montreal’s 19 boroughs—for the city’s 375th anniversary.

The purpose of the project, organized by the Forum jeunesse de l’île de Montréal (FJIM), was for young Montrealers “to raise awareness about the reality of young people in their borough, to mobilize and consult with other young people in the borough,” according to the forum’s website.

During a trip to China with Boukala and other youth ambassadors last spring, FJIM president Jennifer Teasdale-Raymond spoke to Boukala about the possibility of running in the November municipal election.

“You need to be a bit audacious,” Boukala said in August about running for election. This is particularly true in the J.-Émery-Provost district, where high school graduation rates are low— just like voter turnout. Boukala admitted his parents had never voted in municipal elections before he announced his candidacy.

According to data collected by Le Devoir, at least three of the polling stations in the J.-Émery-Provost district had a voter turnout rate of less than 25 per cent in 2017.

During this campaign, Boukala discovered his area was home to two very distinct groups of people: those who have lived in Lachine their whole lives, and immigrant families who just arrived in Montreal. Despite their differences, Boukala said the two groups were united in their cynicism towards politics.

Boukala thought he represented both groups. He was born in Morocco but moved to Montreal when he was just one year old. “I saw what was necessary for families to integrate [into a new community] through the experience of my parents.”

“At the same time, I lived with native Quebecers and went through the Quebec education system,” he explained, “so I had the right profile.” Boukala said he considered himself “the middle ground” that could unite the multicultural and native Quebec communities in his district.

The young candidate had difficult moments throughout his campaign, but he told himself “it was part of life and that nothing was easy.” His laid-back attitude was apparent during our conversation. “I’m someone who enjoys life,” he said.

The week and a half following the election, before being sworn in, was when Boukala finally relaxed. He was tired, understandably. From late August to the start of September, he went door-to-door to campaign every day for at least four hours. On sunny days, he would leave his house at 10 a.m., campaign for eight hours and return home at 6 p.m. to eat.

“Doing eight hours of canvassing was something,” Boukala said, admitting that campaigning can be tough on morale. “It’s not easy when someone shuts the door on you, and then the neighbour is a Projet Montréal supporter,” he said. “You’ve got to find a balance.”

Getting young people interested in politics

One of Boukala’s objectives has always been to make municipal politics interesting to the younger generation. “Listen, we’re not only there to study and work in fields we don’t like,” he said about young people. “You don’t need a doctorate to be a candidate. You only need to be on the field, in your district.”

Retired people were surprised when he spoke to them during his campaign, Boukala remembered with a laugh. “Well then, how did this happen?” he remembered people asking, surprised by his age.

Throughout his time in college and university, Boukala said he never had one specific goal. “I lived and grabbed hold of opportunities as I went along,” he said.

Now he has the opportunity to make a change as a councillor.

“Councillors can be pawns or trailblazers,” Boukala said. “I want to walk in my neighborhood and think ‘I’m happy I did this. I improved the life of my fellow citizens.’”

Last Thursday, on Nov. 16, Boukala was officially sworn into office. Eleven days prior, Teasdale-Raymond surprised Boukala at the Corona Theatre where Projet Montréal gathered on election night.

“He wasn’t expecting [the result],” Teasdale-Raymond said. Running for election was a challenge, Boukala admitted, “but if you never challenge yourself, you never go forward.”

Photo by Alex Hutchins

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Concordia opens new wellness centre downtown

Graduate Student Association (GSA) president Srinivas Bathini said the association has no recent statistics on graduate student-supervisor relationships. Photo by Alex Hutchins

New centre includes student advocacy, counselling and psychological services

Concordia has introduced a new “wellness centre” on the downtown campus, a move intended to increase accessibility to vital student services.

The centre, which opened to the public on Nov. 13, is on the third floor of the GM building. It houses five offices that offer services related to wellness, health and accessibility, including the International Students Office, Counselling and Psychological Services, the Student Advocacy Office and the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities (ACSD).

“The new wellness centre provides students with state-of-the-art facilities in a welcoming environment,” said Concordia spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr. “Providing a consolidated space makes the GM building an all-encompassing location for health and wellness at Concordia’s downtown campus.”

The International Students Office is one of the many resources found in the new wellness centre. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Before the wellness centre opened, all of these services were located in the Hall building but on different floors. Each office moved the weekend prior to opening to ensure weekday office hours would not be interrupted.

Unlike each office’s previous location, the wellness centre was specifically created with accessibility in mind. There are four elevators that can be used to access the space, and all washrooms, hallways and doorways are designed to accommodate students with reduced mobility.

Along with the new wellness centre, the GM building also houses a number of important student services, including the downtown Health Services Centre, the Office of Student Tribunals, the Student Academic Services Office and the Financial Services Office.

According to Barr, the project included multiple renovations over an eight-month period. Each office operated during regular hours at their previous locations while construction was underway in the GM building. In total, the renovations cost $3.2 million.

The construction included completely redesigning the third floor of the GM building to accommodate the offices and the students who use them. Along with accessible washrooms, the centre also has automatic doors to assist students with mobility issues.

“The space users were directly involved in the planning of this new space to ensure it meets their needs and the needs of the university community,” Barr said.

The wide range of services available at the wellness centre include mental health workshops from Counselling and Psychological Services, tutoring and academic advising available at the ACSD, and assistance with visas and study permits from the International Students Office. Students who have faced charges under the Concordia Academic Code of Conduct or the Code of Rights and Responsibilities may also receive free and confidential advice from the Student Advocacy Office. Additionally, the wellness centre will be a space for students to take accommodated or rescheduled exams.

While each office operates separately, many of the services provided are related and utilized by the same students. For example, students with disabilities may require both exam accommodations, counselling sessions and assistance from the ACSD, making the wellness centre a convenient location.

Angela Ghadban, the interim manager at the International Students Office, said the new location is a helpful change for the office.

“I see the move to the GM building […] as a positive move,” he said. “The new space is bright, clean and functional, and we have access to amazing seminar rooms that we will use for our student activities, including our social events and our orientations.”

Ghadban added that sharing the space with Health Services, the ACSD and counselling services makes it easy for International Students Office employees to refer new students to these services.

“We can walk them right over to the services they need,” Ghadban said. “The GM location is very central for the SGW campus so, in terms of access for our international students, I think it is a big plus.”

According to Barr, while similar services are offered on Concordia’s Loyola campus, there are no plans to build a similar wellness centre there at this time, as these services are already located in the same building.

Photos by Alex Hutchins

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Concordia Food Coalition pushing for fee levy increase

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Concordia Food Coalition seeks to make food services financially sustainable, student-run

In May 2015, Concordia University awarded Aramark Corporation the school’s food services contract, which made the company the main provider of food services on campus.

Aramark was brought on with the promise of providing more vegan and fair-trade options over five years, with the option for Concordia to renew that contract for two separate one-year extensions.

Despite three years remaining to that initial contract, the Concordia Food Coalition (CFC) is already preparing to make a bid for the contract when it expires in 2020. The CFC is a branch of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) whose mission is to “facilitate a transition to a more sustainable food system in collaboration with organizations at Concordia,” according to their website.

At the moment, the organization is campaigning to increase their fee levy from $0.08 to $0.16 per student per credit, which would more than double their annual revenue, from $55,300 to $117,263. If enough students vote in favour of the increase, it would take effect at the beginning of the 2018-19 academic year.

“The end goal of the CFC is to take over the food system at Concordia and implement student-run, sustainable, healthy [food] options,” said CSU councillor Rowan Gaudet, who is acting as the CFC’s campaign manager. “The increase in fee levy is just one of the steps towards that. […] The fees just get us more resources.”

In addition to making more of the university’s food systems student-run, the CFC wants to eventually wean some of the larger food services off of school funds and make them financially sustainable, according to Gaudet.

Gaudet and CFC volunteer Samuel Oslund both cited the Hive Cafes and the Concordia farmer’s market as examples of what student-run, financially sustainable food services on campus would look like. The Hive used to be a working group within the CFC but has since “graduated,” Gaudet explained. Initiatives such as the farmer’s market that “graduate” and become financially sustainable are still run by the CFC, he added. However, they no longer depend on funding from the university.

According to the CFC’s proposed 2018 budget plan, which is based on a successful fee levy increase, the additional capital would result in an increase in the organization’s payroll expenses from $31,200 to $76,843. The CFC will add a paid Concordia farmer’s market coordinator position as well as develop an employee health insurance plan. The fee levy would allow for the external and internal coordinators to increase their hours from 15 to 25 hours a week.

Oslund further discussed the CFC’s goal to provide students with locally grown, organic food at a more affordable price and focus on making healthy food options more accessible to students.

“The CFC is formed as the backbone of the food movement here at Concordia. It’s the behind-the-scenes push for a lot of the student-led food movements,” Gaudet said. “Voting for the CFC fee levy increase is voting for student-led food.” All undergraduate students are eligible to vote.

The budget the CFC has provided also includes a plan to decrease the organization’s deficit from $31,912 to $3,174 by the end of 2018. Without the potential increase in funds from the fee levy, the CFC’s deficit is projected to be $24,099.

Out of the $117,263 the CFC would receive in the event of the fee levy increase, they have budgeted $10,800 for project expenses in 2018, which would be a decrease from the $15,425 the group budgeted for 2017. This decrease will take effect even if the fee levy increase isn’t approved, and can be partially attributed to the fact that returning groups will receive a maximum of $1,000 from the CFC next year. In addition, the Hudson Community Farms will not be reapplying for their $3,500 in funding next year.

Students can vote on the CFC fee levy increase during the CSU by-elections on Nov. 28, 29 and 30.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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CUPFA and Concordia reach a consensus

Graphic by Alex Hawksworth

New collective agreement enacted retroactively, to expire on Dec. 31, 2017

After two and a half years of negotiations, the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA) and the university’s administration signed a new collective agreement on Nov. 10. However, it will only be in effect until Dec. 31, 2017, because it retroactively fills the void since the last collective agreement expired on May 1, 2015.

According to Patrice Blais, CUPFA’s vice-president of grievances and collective agreement, the new agreement addresses many issues the association brought to the negotiating table, such as the pension plan and online courses for part-time faculty members. Concordia spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said the university wishes to represent a united front with the union with regards to the collective agreement.

Although negotiations began in May 2015, they were slowed down by a number of factors, including administrative changes in both parties, a replacement of the university’s vice-provost—the chief negotiator for faculty relations—and a CUPFA election, Blais explained. The process was also slowed because the two parties re-wrote most of the collective agreement rather than simply making a few amendments.

Among the association’s goals for the new agreement was a decrease in the number of credits required for part-time faculty to be given access to benefits, including a pension plan, sick leave and a comprehensive health plan. The previous agreement set the minimum at 50 credits of seniority, but that requirement will be lowered to 45 credits in the new agreement.

The previous collective agreement also did not have any guidelines as to how part-time faculty members could implement extra duties, which are tasks such as academic advising, course coordination and supervising graduate students. These tasks offer more work opportunities, according to Blais, which is important to CUPFA. However, Blais told The Concordian that extra duties were previously done by full-time faculty because of the lack of criteria for part-time faculty. The new collective agreement has clear-cut parameters for the implementation of extra duties by part-time faculty, including a remuneration model for such tasks.

Another significant change to the collective agreement is the modernization of paternity leave, as the previous agreement did not include paternity benefits. “Fathers will be able to get complementary benefits the same way that mothers do,” Blais said about the new agreement. This amendment allows fathers who are part-time faculty members to receive an income from the school during their five-week paternity leave, Blais explained. This amounts to 93 per cent of their regular salary, which is in line with last year’s adjustment to the Quebec parental insurance plan.

While Blais stated that improvements were made in the new agreement, CUPFA focused on pressing issues. “I am happy we’re going into a second round of negotiations [for the next collective agreement] because there are issues that still need to be addressed,” he said.

One of the issues CUPFA will be keeping an eye on are course cuts within the university. According to Blais, approximately 150 courses were eliminated because of government budget cuts and a decrease in enrollment three years ago after admission letters were sent out late.

In the 2016-17 academic year, approximately 80 courses were added to the list of those offered to part-time faculty. “We expect that with an increase in enrollment […] and voluntary retirement, it will lead to more work opportunities,” Blais said.

“It’s the end of a long process of negotiation and hard work, but the party doesn’t last very long,” he added. During the negotiations for the next collective agreement CUPFA will table an application process for online courses with part-time faculty, as these courses are structured differently than in class course.

Parallel to the negotiations about the collective agreement, CUPFA had discussions with Concordia about representation within the university. The association is demanding the creation of a part-time benefits committee, specifically for health benefits, and a non-voting seat with privileges in the university senate. These two demands have passed all the internal steps of approval and will be addressed at the board of governors meeting on Dec. 5.

Graphic by Alex Hawksworth

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A pre-med club for aspiring doctors

Concordia students at a seminar hosted by MedSpecs. Photo Courtesy of MedSpecs’ Website/Facebook

MedSpecs Concordia informs and supports students pursuing a career in medicine

Although Concordia offers a variety of science majors in fields of study like biology, chemistry, physics and engineering, the university does not offer a pre-medical program. For students not currently attending preparatory years of study for medical school at universities like McGill or the Université de Montréal, the field of medicine can be hard to navigate.

Founded in 2014, MedSpecs Concordia is the university’s first and only pre-medical club. The group is dedicated to informing and supporting undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in medicine. They help students find out more about the different careers related to medicine and ensure students take the steps necessary to achieve their goals.

“We are a club that is dedicated to helping students who are interested in pursuing a career in medicine,” said Joanne May Ramil, the co-president of MedSpecs Concordia. “Concordia doesn’t have many resources for students interested in medicine, so our group has tried to fill that gap.” The MedSpecs Concordia team offers workshops and seminars to students, focusing on information relevant to the medical school application process, such as MMIs (multiple mini interviews) and the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test).

MedSpecs Concordia also hosts lectures at the beginning of every school year, which feature students and other guests from medical and dentistry schools who discuss their experience in medicine and the application process. Last year, the group held their first networking event, bringing together Concordia students and different health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists.

Joanne May Ramil, the co-president of MedSpecs Concordia.

“It was a huge success, and we plan on organizing another one in March,” Ramil said.

MedSpecs Concordia is partnered with the ICU Bridge Program, a volunteer program that allows university students to shadow healthcare professionals in intensive care units. This year, MedSpecs Concordia is also partnered with Next Step, an MCAT preparation company, which offers courses and practice exams to help students study for the MCAT.

Sara Hojabri, a Montrealer studying medicine abroad at University College Cork, said her experience with the medical school application process was long and tiring.

“I applied to medical school three years in a row, and I can’t even tell you how many schools I applied to,” Hojabri said. “It’s also a hassle getting loads of [recommendation] letters and writing a different personal statement for each school as they all have different requirements. At some stages, it was like a full-time job.”

Hojabri said that to prepare for her applications, she read through pre-medical forums like Student Doctor Network and a pre-med subreddit. She also spoke to people studying medicine and those who had already been through the application process.

“In my case, it was a very discouraging process, receiving tons of rejection letters every year,” Hojabri said. “That’s just sort of the way it is for a lot of people, though, and the forums do help with that because it helps you see you’re not alone.”

Throughout her undergraduate degree at McGill, Hojabri occasionally used the services provided by the Science Undergraduate Society of McGill University (SUS). Similar to MedSpecs Concordia, the SUS offers assistance with the medical school application process. While she found the group to be fairly competitive, Hojabri said it was more or less useful.

“[They] do raffle off MCAT classes, and I actually got one of them. It was super helpful because it ended up being half price,” she said.

Ramil said Concordia students should look forward to upcoming MedSpecs Concordia events.

“This year, we have a lot of fun things planned,” she said. Earlier this month, MedSpecs Concordia and the Concordia Pre-Dental Student Society hosted an event called “So You Want to Become a Doctor?” that featured lectures from two medical school students and one dentistry student who shared tips and tricks about making it in their respective fields. According to Ramil, they also discussed extracurriculars, volunteering and research.

On Nov. 23, MedSpecs Concordia is offering a free first aid workshop in collaboration with First Aid Montreal. The event will take place at 6 p.m. in room CC-308 at the Loyola campus and will give a general overview of basic first aid training, covering issues like wound care as well as bone and joint injuries.

In partnership with Next Step, MedSpecs Concordia will be raffling off an MCAT preparatory bundle, which will include a preparation course and a set of practice exams. Tickets for the raffle will be sold cash-only during the first-aid workshop for $2 per entry, $5 for 10 entries and $10 for 20 entries.

Next semester, Ramil said MedSpecs Concordia will be hosting an MMI workshop, where students will be able to participate in a variety of interview simulations.

“We are also planning on having a mock MCAT day in partnership with Next Step, where we will simulate the whole testing procedure,” Ramil said. “We have also been in contact with Friends of MSF at McGill, and we might co-host a suturing workshop in the winter semester, however nothing has been set yet.”

For more information about their upcoming events, check out MedSpecs Concordia’s  Facebook page or medspecs.concordia.ca.

Photos Courtesy of MedSpecs’ Website/Facebook

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Siding with evidence rather than opinion

Concordia professor psychology Adam Radomsky believes the biggest push towards using evidence-based approaches comes from training programs like Concordia's. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Concordia professor: Measuring client progress through feedback is necessary

In May 2016, 26-year-old John Chayka was named general manager of the National Hockey League’s Arizona Coyotes. Chayka’s hiring was not only surprising because of his young age, but also because he was the first analytics-driven executive to lead a hockey organization. He has never played professional hockey, and was a recent business administration graduate from Western University’s Ivey Business School.

Since the successful use of performance metrics in the early 2000s by Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics, many sports have followed suit, hiring stats geniuses in their 20s and 30s to manage their teams. Politics, like sports, have also embraced the use of metrics for polling and recruitment. According to clinical psychologist Tony Rousmaniere, big data could also transform mental health treatment, “if only psychologists would stop ignoring it.”

In an essay published last April in The Atlantic, Rousmaniere reminded readers that therapists don’t have instruments of measurement as other doctors do, like stethoscopes or lab tests.

Instead, therapists are the instruments themselves—they are the ones who measure how much their client’s mental health has improved. According to Adam Radomsky, a Concordia professor and the university’s research chair in anxiety and related disorders, this is a real problem in mental health care.

“There are guidelines [from the Ordre des psychologues du Québec (OPQ)] saying that you should use evidence-based approaches, but there are no evidence-based police out there to come and make sure you’re doing something that’s been shown to work,” Radomsky told The Concordian. The OPQ is the professional body responsible for licensing psychologists in the province.

What Radomsky described as “evidence-based approaches” and what Rousmaniere calls feedback-informed treatment, or FIT, in his article, are types of feedback that inform therapists about the progress their clients are making. According to Rousmaniere, “perhaps no field faces higher barriers of incorporating performance feedback than psychotherapy.”

Clients often feel vulnerable when meeting a therapist, Radomsky explained, so they might not talk openly about the state of their mental health, even if it’s deteriorating.

“Many clients are more willing to report worsening symptoms to a computer—even if they know that their therapists will see the results—than disappointing their therapist face-to-face,” Rousmaniere wrote in The Atlantic.

Radomsky said evidence-based psychological therapy can refer to two different things. The first is the use of a treatment that’s been shown to work, “that’s been studied extensively [and] it has met that threshold,” he explained. The other “is that you use evidence to track the progress of your work with clients or patients.”

The Concordia professor—who has a small number of clients in addition to teaching—added that he “absolutely would not” be able to work without client feedback.

According to Rousmaniere, nearly 50 feedback systems for therapists have been developed over the last 20 years.

Radomsky explained that many of the clients he has seen and supervised fill out one or “a very small number of questionnaires” every week or each time they come in for a therapy session.

“These are often standardized questionnaires, validated through scientific studies, so we know what they’re measuring and we know how well they measure them,” Radomsky explained. “Then we track that over time to make sure that things are moving in the [right] direction.”

One system developed by Brigham Young University researcher Michael Lambert involves a 45-question online survey conducted before each appointment. If the clients appear to be at risk, Rousmaniere explained in The Atlantic, “their therapists are sent alerts that are colour-coded for different concerns. Red for risk of dropout or deterioration, yellow for less-than-expected progress.”

Rousmaniere said his “anecdotal impression is that use of FIT today remains disappointingly low among therapists.” According to Radomsky, using an evidence-approach is “very uncommon for some, and absolutely required for others.”

It can often depend on the psychologist’s training, Radomsky said. Older approaches to psychotherapy “weren’t really subjected to scientific tests in the same way some of the newer approaches are.” One of the newer and most commonly used approaches by psychologist right now, according to Radomsky, is cognitive behaviour therapy.

“I think that those of us that have been trained in the newer approaches, [like] cognitive behaviour therapy and other similar approaches, a part of what you do, is you track the progress of your work,” he added. “I think some people would never use it, some people would always use it. I’m not sure how many people are in between.”

Educational process

Radomsky said clients should ask their therapists about their approach and whether there is evidence to show that it works. However, he admitted it can be uncomfortable to ask these questions. “If the answers seem strange or cryptic or vague, find another therapist,” he advised. “A good therapist is happy to answer these questions.”

The Concordia professor tells his clients that, “if after about eight weeks, we’re not starting to see some improvements, I might need to fire myself.”

“I refuse to be an unhelpful therapist,” Radomsky said. “It doesn’t mean that the problems will be all gone in eight weeks, but what it does mean is that we should be tracking the progress of the work.”

According to Radomsky, the biggest push towards using evidence-based approaches comes from training programs like those in Concordia’s psychology department.

“I think it’s sometimes harder for people who’ve been doing things in a particular way for a very long time to change,” Radomsky said. “I think they should, but at the moment, there isn’t a way to force them to do that.”

Five years ago, the OPQ, which could not be reached for comment before publication, started requiring practicing psychologists to take courses or attend conferences to keep their training up to date, Radomsky told The Concordian.

“All psychologists providing therapy in the province are required to show that they are continuing to learn and train on an ongoing basis,” he explained.

The research chair said he believes the increasing use of evidence-based approaches is an ongoing process, and it needs to be more common.

“What is the alternative? Opinion doesn’t cut it.”

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

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In the run for the ASFA presidency

Former ASFA president Jonathan Roy. Photo by Alex Hutchins

Candidate advocates for sustainability, LGBTQ+ representation and mental health resources

Following interim ASFA president Julia Sutera Sardo’s announcement that she will not be running for re-election, Concordia student Jonathan Roy has stepped into the spotlight.

As VP internal and councillor of the Concordia Classics Student Association (CCSA), VP of finance of NDP Concordia and member of the Concordia Senate, Roy is heavily involved in student politics at Concordia. On Monday, Nov. 13, he announced his candidacy for the ASFA presidency.

His posters, plastered on the university’s walls, feature his campaign slogan: “Empowered together.”

“You can’t just leave the decisions of an organization to a single individual. They need to be worked through by a collective,” Roy said. “I’m doing this because I want to support the rest of the executives. I want to support all of our associations. I want to support our students. This isn’t about me.”

This sentiment is echoed in his platform of empowering the member associations (MAs) and ASFA executives to fulfill their mandates. Roy has proposed moving away from the traditional, hierarchical order of the executive.

“Yes, I’m running for the presidency but, in my mind, the spirit of that office is that of a general coordinator,” Roy said.

Roy’s other campaign promises include making ASFA more sustainable, increasing LGBTQ+ representation in student governments and a complete collaboration with Concordia’s mental health services.

In terms of environmental sustainability, Roy plans to put a compost bin in every MA lounge, if elected, and plans to continue his work with Waste Not Want Not, Concordia’s composting campaign.

As a gay man, Roy said he is all too familiar with the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in politics—especially in Concordia’s student associations. He said he plans to take concrete steps toward solving this issue.

“I want to propose setting a specific spot on ASFA’s advocacy committee aside for a representative of Queer Concordia to be a voice on behalf of our community,” Roy said. ASFA’s sustainability committee already holds a designated spot for a representative from Sustainable Concordia, which has been an extremely positive experience, according to Roy.

As for working with Concordia’s mental health services, Roy said this collaboration is deeply important to him. After suffering from severe depression and attempting suicide five years ago, he said helping people through mental illness is especially important to him.

“I was at the lowest point in my life,” Roy said. “I’m always candid about my mental health issues because it’s important to talk about it. That’s how we end the stigma around it.”

Having used the services himself, Roy said he hopes to further relations with the Concordia chapter of jack.org—a national mental health network—and ensure Concordia’s psychological services are better advertised, if elected. Roy plans to push for more open dialogue about mental health within the university so students and their academics suffer less.

“People don’t deserve to feel the way that I’ve felt, and I want to try to help them,” Roy said.

ASFA presidential candidate Jad Abi Semaan. Photo courtesy of Jad Abi Semaan

While Roy said he feels confident in his ability to win the election, he is not running unopposed. Jad-Faraj Abi Semaan told The Concordian he is also in the running for the position. Semaan is a political science student at Concordia. He said that, if elected, he plans to strengthen the relationship between ASFA and the MAs by improving communication and establishing a plan of action which will allow MAs to reach their full potential.

“In a world polarized more than ever, […] we need platforms that bring people together,” Semaan said. “I will make it a personal priority to give an equal voice to students from all backgrounds, religious affiliations and ethnicities, such as the LGBTQ+ community, Muslim students and students with disabilities.” Semaan also said he wants to ensure the ASFA community is loving, accepting and respectful.

According to Roy, Semaan has had no previous involvement with ASFA, apart from acting as a polling clerk for the association last year. However, Semaan told The Concordian he would “be more than happy to have a constructive conversation with [Roy] at any point during this campaign and put to bed all his concerns about [his] legitimacy.”

Overall, Roy said his priority throughout the campaign and, if elected, his presidency, will be to empower the student body as a whole.

“The way I see governance, especially student governance, is not about catering to the needs of one person. It’s about coming together to work to help everyone,” Roy said. “That’s something that I’m a huge proponent of and something that would be reflected in the work I would do as president.”

Feature photo by Alex Hutchins

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St-Pierre residents look to experts for solutions

Concordia professor Maria Elektorowicz, transport economist Zvi Leve and doctor Patrick Morency talked about sustainable mobility in the enclaved neighbourhood of St-Pierre. Photo by Kirubel Mehari

Revitalisation St-Pierre organizes panel to talk about the issue of sustainable mobility

One by one, the residents of St-Pierre—a small enclave neighbourhood within the Lachine borough—raised their hands when David Marshall told them it was time for a question period.

The three sustainable mobility experts, invited by Marshall and his colleague Isaac Boulou for a panel, listened to the residents whose demands have fallen onto deaf ears over the past few years.

The first question, asked by a woman who lives in the neighbourhood, was representative of what residents have been wondering for years: “Will someone ever listen to us?”

Marshall is the director of Revitalisation St-Pierre, an organization made up of St-Pierre residents and urban planners—like Marshall—whose goal is to revitalize the neighbourhood.

On Nov. 9, a few residents and community workers from Lachine gathered in a small room on the second floor of the St-Pierre community centre for the third of a series of panels organized by Revitalisation St-Pierre to discuss the future of the village-like area.

Present to give their thoughts on St-Pierre were transport economist Zvi Leve, Montreal health public department member and doctor Patrick Morency, and Concordia professor of environmental engineering Maria Elektorowicz.

The three panelists had very different perspectives on the issue of neighborhood revitalization. Each tried to help residents make sense of the future of their 5,400-person neighbourhood. St-Pierre was its own town until 1999, when it joined the then city of Lachine.

In recent years, a lot of cars and trucks have begun to drive through the neighbourhood along its main street. St-Jacques Street—which runs from east to west through the neighborhood—has become a bypass route to get onto the new Highway 136 that runs parallel to Highway 20 East.

“Instead of respecting St-Jacques Street as a commercial hub, it has become a highway,” Marshall said. According to Morency, sustainable mobility means giving community space back to the people.

“We shouldn’t subordinate the mobility and security of people to facilitate the flow of large trucks,” Morency said during the panel, earning applause from attendees.

The doctor was amazed by the lack of security for children attending Martin-Bélanger Elementary School—located next to the neighbourhood’s entrance—as they regularly have to cross St-Jacques.

St-Pierre residents already witnessed tragedy first-hand this summer when an 80-year-old woman was hit and killed by a truck as she tried to cross the St-Pierre and Notre-Dame intersection, next to the St-Pierre interchange, according to the Journal de Montreal. She was caught in the middle of the intersection because the time allotted to pedestrians to cross wasn’t long enough.

In an email to The Concordian, Montreal Port Authority director of communications Mélanie Nadeau wrote that the port has seen a 10 per cent increase in traffic from 2015 to 2016. Approximately 55 per cent of the traffic entering or exiting the port is by truck, according to Nadeau.

This is especially worrisome for St-Pierre, because 60 per cent of trucks that drive through the neighborhood are heading for or coming from St-Laurent, Pointe-Claire or Lachine.

“The main street of a neighbourhood can’t become a trucking route,” said Lachine mayor-elect Maja Vodanovic in June. Vodanovic was previously the borough councillor representing St-Pierre.

Elektorowicz said the borough has two main advantages: its proximity to the Lachine Canal and to Concordia’s Loyola campus, which is less than three kilometres away from the neighbourhood’s centre.

While the neighbourhood might be close to the canal, it is increasingly difficult for residents to reach it because they have to cross the St-Pierre and Notre-Dame intersection where the pedestrian was killed this summer.

In June, Marshall said his organization had been trying to get a sidewalk installed on the eastern part of the intersection for the last six years. This would allow cyclists and pedestrians to cross more safely. Plans to build the sidewalk were completed in 2015, but the sidewalk is still not built.

Just prior to the plans being accepted by the borough, Marshall said a young cyclist was killed while crossing the intersection.

Again in May 2016, a 58-year-old cyclist was hit by a car but survived, La Presse reported.

At a borough council meeting in August, Lachine councillors voted in favour of asking the Ministère des Transports to tear down and rebuild the St-Pierre interchange, which is one of four barriers that make the neighbourhood an enclave.

“When we rebuild the interchange, we really have to make sure there’s a passage for pedestrians and cyclists to make the link with the Lachine Canal,” Leve said.

Morency—who first visited the neighborhood 10 years ago—said politicians shouldn’t wait for the interchange to be rebuilt before securing the intersection for pedestrians and cyclists.

Morency advocates for a reallocation of resources to invest in cycling paths in St-Pierre. “We’ve got to invest in projects that will improve public security instead of deteriorating it,” he explained.

The lack of security and increase in traffic has taken a toll on residents and business owners. For example, cars cannot park on St-Jacques Street, so it is hard for people to reach businesses, Vodanovic explained. In June, the neighborhood’s only bank, a Desjardins on St-Jacques, decided to close up shop. At the time, the self-described “cooperative financial group” claimed that only 5,000 transactions were made every month, and it needed between 10,000 and 12,000 to turn a profit.

There are no easy solutions in St-Pierre. Last June, Marshall told The Concordian that 10 per cent of the population moves away from the neighborhood every year.

“On a population of 5,400 people, that means you have got 500 to 600 people coming and going every year,” he said.

“That also means that a student starting in kindergarten here, by the time they’re in grade five or six, nearly half the class is different. For children, that poses all sorts of difficulties, social development-wise, in terms of their friendships [and] social engagement,” Marshall explained.

Leve said politicians and organizers—like Marshall—should look for solutions within the neighbourhood itself.

Julie Pascale-Provost, a CEGEP teacher and the newest borough councillor representing St-Pierre for Projet Montréal, was one of the last attendees to question the panelists.

“Before Turcot and the St-Pierre interchange, where do we start?”

Photo by Kirubel Mehari

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Author of Concordia bomb threat in court

Hisham Saadi, the man who sent a letter threatening to detonated bombs at Concordia, will be back in court on Nov. 9 for his trial. Photo by Ana Hernandez

Hashim Saadi trial to begin this week

The man who sent a letter threatening Muslim students at Concordia University in March 2017 was back in court on Thursday, Nov. 9.

Hashim Saadi wore blue jeans, an orange fleece sweater and a flannel scarf to court. He stood silently in front of the judge as his lawyer argued to have his bail conditions altered to allow him to attend a work training in March.

Saadi, a former doctoral candidate in economics at Concordia, is being charged with carrying out a terror-related hoax, uttering threats and mischief in connection with a bomb threat to Concordia’s Muslim student population. His trial will begin on Nov. 16.

On March 1, 2017, Saadi allegedly sent a letter to multiple Montreal media outlets threatening to set off bombs in the Hall building on de Maisonneuve Blvd. and the EV building on Ste-Catherine Street.

The targeted buildings were evacuated at 11:30 a.m., sending thousands of students onto the streets. Classes resumed at the university’s downtown campus at 6 p.m. that day. In the wake of the threats, the Concordia Student Union released a statement urging the university to cancel classes for the rest of the week.

The threatening letter, obtained by The Concordian, said that unless Concordia stopped religious activity of all kinds on campus, “small artisanal bombs” would be detonated in the university. “These are not meant to kill anybody,” the letter read. “The only aim is to injure some Moslem [sic] students.”

The letter was signed by the Council of Conservative Citizens of Canada, or C4. No such organization is listed on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s online list of hate groups in Canada. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the similarly named Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) is an American white nationalist group. The group’s leader was contacted by CBC News on the day of the Concordia bomb threat. He denied involvement in or knowledge of the bomb threat.

A group called C4 does exist in Canada; it is called the Canadian Coalition of Concerned Citizens. Their Facebook page listed their mandate as “to protect democracy and freedom of speech.” Several days after the bomb scare at Concordia, the group organized a demonstration in Trois-Rivières against M-103, the federal Liberal government’s motion condemning Islamophobia. Members of the group quoted by Le Nouvelliste newspaper said they thought the Concordia hoax was a plot to silence freedom of speech, citing the fact that Saadi is reportedly of Lebanese origin.

Multiple media outlets initially linked the bomb threats to a wave of anti-Muslim incidents which occurred in the wake of the Quebec City mosque shooting on Jan. 29, 2017, when six people were killed. The National Council of Canadian Muslims reported that two Montreal mosques had been vandalized in the weeks following the shooting.

After Saadi’s arrest on March 3, dozens of international media outlets, including The Arab Herald and Lebanese outlet The 961, reported the story and decried the bomb threat as a hoax. On March 7, conservative writer and radio talk-show host Dennis Prager used the Concordia bomb scare as an example of fake anti-Islamic incidents in an article titled “There is no wave of Trump-induced anti-Semitism or racism.”

Concordia confirmed that Saadi was a doctoral candidate in economics at the university before his arrest. Two of Saadi’s friends, who appeared at his bail hearing, described him as a non-practicing Muslim. Police searched his apartment after his arrest but reported they hadn’t found any explosive materials.

Saadi underwent a psychological evaluation upon his arrest. His trial is expected to last four days.

Photo by Ana Hernandez

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Thousands gather to protest against racism

Thousands gathered in downtown Montreal for an anti-racism protest on Nov. 12. Photo by Mackenzie Lad

Three-hour demonstration, endorsed by 162 organizations, tackled issues surrounding Palestine and immigration

Several hundred protesters gathered in downtown Montreal on Sunday, Nov. 12 to protest against hatred and systemic racism. The demonstration began with a number of speeches from event organizers at Place Émilie-Gamelin, outside the Berri-UQAM metro station, before protesters took to the streets.

Over the next three hours, protesters travelled through the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough and down Sherbrooke Street, towards Concordia’s downtown campus.

“We are here to denounce capitalism and austerity,” cried out one of the event’s organizer using a megaphone. “We are here to show we care about non-status people being deported despite Montreal being declared a sanctuary city.”

According to the Montreal Gazette, a video emerged on social media the night before the demonstration showing an anonymous group vandalizing a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald at Place du Canada.

Although the anonymous group identified themselves as “anti-colonial anti-racists” in the video description, they denied being affiliated with the demonstration organizers.

MacDonald, Canada’s first prime minister, has become a controversial figure in recent years for his role in creating the residential school system. The Assembly of First Nations chief Perry Bellegarde recently supported efforts to have MacDonald’s name removed from schools and monuments, according to the Toronto Star.

Protesters brandished signs with anti-xenophobic and anti-racist slogans. Photo by Mackenzie Lad

As they marched, protesters brandished signs with anti-xenophobic slogans on them, ranging from “Queers Against White Supremacy” and “Racism is Not Welcome Here” to “Racists Suck In Bed.” One protester held a sign reading, “If You Like Bill 62, Then Fuck You,” a reference to the controversial piece of Quebec legislation.

Passed in October, the provincial legislation bans people from giving or receiving public services while their face is covered. The bill, which will take effect sometime before July 2018, according to Global News, would require Muslim women, among others, to remove their face veils to identify themselves when boarding public transportation, and would ban public workers, such as doctors and teachers, from covering their faces at work. During a press conference on Oct. 18, Montreal’s mayor-elect Valérie Plante said that, while she agrees with the principle of the law, she believes the Quebec government should do “crucial homework to make sure that it is applicable to the realities of Montreal.”

Palestinian flags were also popular among protesters, who, throughout the march, chanted “from Montreal to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”

“I can’t believe racism is even something we have to protest,” said Julia Morian, a protestor at the event. “I’m protesting because [anti-racism] should be a very popular belief.”

One hundred and sixty-two organizations, including the Concordia Student Union and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia, endorsed the march by signing a call to action condemning “the rise of racist hate speech in Quebec.” The call to action asked all groups that signed to denounce capitalism and austerity, oppose racism and participate in the march.

The call to action also cited recent political events, such as the election of President Donald Trump and the January 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting, as evidence of a rise in racism and hate crimes.

One of the groups present at the protest was Fightback Canada, a self-described Marxist journal and advocacy group. Farshad Acadian, an organizer and editor for Fightback, said the group was present at the protest and signed the call to action.

“We’re a journal with socialist analysis, but we’re also an organizing tool,” Acadian explained. “We want to help students understand issues and connect and fight back. This [protest] is fighting back.”

Another organization that signed the call to action was the Réseau des lesbiennes du Québec (RLQ), an advocacy group focused on the rights and equality of lesbians. For RLQ member Jessie Boideleau, the reason to protest was simple.

“We’re here because diversity should be supremacy.”

Photos by Mackenzie Lad

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