The Concordia Student Union’s general undergraduate survey reveals that, for every $1,000 of debt, students see a five per cent decrease in their grades. Photo by Matthew Coyte
Council also debates CREM endorsement, increased funding for First Peoples Week
The consensus was clear at the last Concordia Student Union (CSU) council meeting: financial security seems to lead to higher grades.
A review of the May 2017 General Undergraduate Survey at the latest CSU council meeting revealed that for every $1,000 of debt, students saw a 5 per cent decrease in grades, and scholarships result in a 4.5 per cent increase in grades.
The survey also asked the student body to answer questions about income, food security, financial stability, and experience with sexual assault and violence, as well as discrimination.
Former CSU Loyola coordinator Marcus Peters presented the findings to the council, but stressed that the results are not completely representative due to students unsubscribing from the CSU Live newsletter, which is how the survey was distributed. Another factor to consider, according to Peters, was the survey’s lack of questions regarding religion.
When students were asked if they had experienced any kind of sexual violence by someone within the Concordia community, two per cent of the respondents answered “yes.” An overwhelming majority of students who answered “yes” to questions about whether they had experienced discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity said the incidents had taken place in classrooms or other departmental spaces, such as lounges and libraries.
“That should be something that we’re addressing—there is discrimination happening, and mostly in the classrooms where we wouldn’t expect it to occur,” said Rory James, a councillor representing the John Molson School of Business.
According to Peters, a total of 2,991 students completed the survey. The goal of the survey was to “make accessible all information on student life,” he said.
Peters added that the lack of interaction between the general student body and the CSU made a survey the most efficient way to gather information about undergraduates at Concordia.
Another portion of the survey concerned student food security. The survey found that the People’s Potato was serving an average of 265 people per day, with the cost coming to 73 cents per plate.
Support for CREM
According to a report presented by external affairs and mobilization coordinator Ahmed Badr, the CSU council decided on Oct. 4 to support the eight recommendations presented to municipal electoral candidates by the Montreal Regional Student Coalition (CREM).
The CREM is a political coalition composed of various university and CEGEP student unions. According to Riaz, coalition members approached the CSU about supporting the recommendations. These recommendations covered topics the coalition hopes candidates will address once elected, including transportation and the consultation of Montreal’s youth on issues around the city.
This became a contentious point at the meeting, as some councillors voiced concern over the lack of communication between executives and CSU representatives on the matter. General coordinator Omar Riaz confirmed the executives met and decided to support the recommendations, but the rest of the council was not consulted.
Councillors Rowan Gaudet and Rory James, and Arts and Science Federation of Association (ASFA) President Julia Sutera Sardo, among others, questioned the legitimacy of the CSU’s support since the matter had never been discussed at a meeting.
In response, Badr stressed that the CSU had only supported recommendations that fell in line with the CSU’s beliefs.
“[The CSU] supporting the demands is essentially us joining the coalition,” James countered. He and others argued the issue wasn’t the recommendations that had been supported, but rather that the CSU was endorsing the coalition—something the entire council should have been consulted about.
Representatives motioned for the CSU to rescind its support of the CREM immediately until the topic could be properly discussed by the entirety of the CSU council.
Continuous support for First Voices Week
The CSU moved to increase its financial support for the First Voices Week, an “Indigenous-led initiative to acknowledge and celebrate local Indigenous peoples and communities at Concordia and within the Montreal area,” according to the event’s Facebook page. First Voices Week is held in January and hosts events including speeches, concerts and discussions.
Last year, the CSU spent $4,000 to finance the event, but will now commit an additional $1,000. The goal of the additional funding is to secure this money for future years, to facilitate the funding process for the event’s organizing committee and to ensure the event has “room to grow,” according to Riaz.
ASFA passed a motion to begin the hiring process for its first Loyola campus office coordinator during a council meeting on Oct. 12. Photo by Alex Hutchins
Council seeks to determine position’s workload and how to allocate funds for salary
The Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) passed a motion to begin the hiring process for its first Loyola campus office coordinator during a council meeting on Oct. 12.
Prior to the motion, introduced by liberal arts councillor Robert Young, several candidates interested in the position approached executives. According to interim VP finance Francesco Valente, one candidate in particular, who was recommended by downtown office coordinator Chris Lechkobit, is “extremely qualified.” However Valente said this candidate is “a close friend of all the executives, which I think is a kind of a big conflict of interest.” The candidate’s name was withheld from the meeting.
The motion to being an official hiring process and put a callout to council was intended to avoid this conflict of interest and select the candidate who was best suited for the position, according to interim ASFA president Julia Sutera Sardo. Hiring decisions are made independently from the council by the hiring committee, which consists of the president, VP internal, VP finance and the Sir George Williams campus office manager.
Sutera Sardo said the hiring committee planned to consult legal counsel on the contract, and to determine how many hours a week an office manager needed to be present at the Loyola campus before signing a contract with any candidate. A motion was passed to allow interim VP of external affairs and sustainability Bianca Bruzzese to fill the position for two weeks on a volunteer basis to determine how many office hours are necessary at the Loyola campus.
The motion also included a review of the annual budget before the next meeting to determine where extra funding for the new coordinator’s salary could be taken from. According to Valente, the $1,500 originally set aside for the coordinator’s salary would likely not be enough to pay the person $15 an hour for the whole year, as per ASFA policy.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the hiring process for the Loyola office coordinator position had already begun and that the ASFA website indicated a candidate had been hired. The Concordian regrets the error.
Montreal’s cycling community climbed Camilien Houde Way to honour Clément Ouimet, a young rider who died on Oct. 4. Photo by Kenneth Gibson
Montreal cyclists come together to remember young rider after tragic death
Camillien-Houde Way is one of the most popular training routes for Montreal cyclists because it provides a challenging climb up and over Mount Royal. On Oct. 6, hundreds of cyclists clipped into their pedals at the base of the trail—not to train, but to honour 18-year-old Clément Ouimet.
On Oct. 4, Ouimet was descending the mountain, just south of the Belvedere lookout, when he collided with an SUV. The driver of the SUV made an illegal U-turn in front of the cyclist. Unable to stop, Ouimet hit the vehicle and was rushed to hospital with head injuries. He died later that night.
The driver remained at the scene and did not sustain any injuries. No charges have been made, but police said the investigation is ongoing.
Ouimet’s death shocked the cycling community. Espoirs Élite Primeau, the Laval cycling club Ouimet was a part of, wrote on their Facebook page: “No words can describe all the pain and distress we are experiencing right now.”
According to CBC News, fellow cyclist Édouard Beaudoin wrote on the team’s Facebook page that he was “devastated” by the accident.
“Knowing that Clément died doing what he loves, it completely destroys me. No one should meet death practicing their favourite sport,” Beaudoin wrote.
Benoit Tessier did not know Ouimet personally, but had heard of him through the cycling community. Tessier said he felt it was important to attend the memorial ride to pay his respects. “He was a good cyclist and had good potential. He was just too young to die,” Tessier said.
After a moment of silence, members of Espoirs Élite Primeau led the silent memorial ride up the winding Camillien-Houde path. The two-kilometre climb ended at the parking lot near Beaver Lake.
Many individuals in the cycling community are demanding that the city do something to make Mount Royal safer for cyclists. Jacques Wiseman frequently rides up Mount Royal. “I do it myself, but I never descend because I always expect an accident going down,” he said. “It’s not secure enough. I think a wall [between the two lanes] or something must be installed.”
Cyclist Patrick Vanpeorgh agreed and said more protection is needed all the way up the route. He suggested the barrier separating the car lanes should be extended up the mountain, to prevent cars from making U-turns.
Wiseman said he is appalled by the amount of car traffic on the mountain, calling it a “tourist trap.”
“It’s too easy and too fast for cars to cross the mountain. It’s basically a highway on the mountain with bikes,” he said.
“It’s a big safety concern,” Wiseman added. “It must be addressed soon. It’s an easy and cheap fix in my mind.”
In a post on Twitter, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said he would create a group to study the area and determine whether Camillien-Houde Way should continue to be accessible to cars crossing Mount Royal. According to Coderre, the group would consist of organizations such as Vélo Québec, Amis de la montagne, Table concertation du Mont-Royal and the Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal.
“A death is one too many. An accident is one too many, and we have to take care of that,” Coderre said.
A photo of the young, promising cyclist was hung alongside medals and race numbers on the traffic light at the bottom of the hill where the memorial ride started. Underneath, bouquets of flowers were piled on top of one another, surrounding the pole.
Bishop Street business owners say construction on their street caused by renovations of the STM’s green line may put them out of business. Photo by Alex Hutchins
Construction on downtown street has caused some to consider closing up shop
Restaurant and bar owners on Bishop Street want financial compensation from the city of Montreal for lost revenue due to the construction of a new metro ventilation station that’s driving customers away.
According to the the Société de transport de Montréal, the station will replace an aging one on De la Montagne Street and provide fresh air to the green line between the Peel and Guy-Concordia stations. The STM said work on the station began in October 2016 and should be finished by mid-2020.
That’s too long for Carlo Zahabi, the owner of Le Gourmet Burger, a restaurant on Bishop Street that’s been hit hard by the construction. He said sales have dropped by as much as 60 per cent since the work began.
“I’m three to four months behind on my rent,” Zahabi said. “It’s a real possibility that I’ll have to close down.”
In April, Zahabi and a coalition of Bishop Street business owners filed a lawsuit against the city of Montreal and the STM requesting $2,500 compensation for every month of construction, and $25,000 to commision a private engineering firm to inspect the project and see if it could be done faster. The coalition also wants free advertising for their businesses in the nearby Peel and Guy-Concordia metro stations.
Last week, a judge denied the coalition’s request for temporary compensation—which would have given the businesses financial aid before the case went to trial. It’s a decision that seriously hurts the businesses’ ability to stay open even up until the trial date which will likely only take place in 2019, according to Legal Logik, the firm representing the merchants.
“We tried to show [the judge] that it was urgent,” said Gaby Nassar, the owner of Kafein, a café-bar on Bishop Street affected by the construction. “Now the delays will be substantial.”
The construction turned a usually busy street into a tangle of concrete barriers and metal fences. On their website, the STM urged pedestrians and cyclists to avoid the section of Bishop Street where the work is taking place.
“They’re blocking access to my restaurant with a fence,” Zahabi said. “It’s a dead end sidewalk, and they put up a sign that says ‘Trottoir Barré.’ Who’s going to come down there?”
Both Nassar and Zahabi said they’re unhappy with the way the STM notified them the work was going to start.
“[The STM] said they sent fliers,” Zahabi claimed. “That’s not any way to notify a business of construction in front of their place. They should have prepared a plan to save us before they started the work.”
Nassar agreed: “They could have approached us months in advance to talk instead of letting us cry for help.”
In February, the city of Montreal unveiled a plan to reconstruct a large part of St-Hubert Street. The work is slated to begin in the summer of 2018 and continue until 2021. The city announced it will be offering financial compensation to St-Hubert Street merchants who lose business as a result of the construction.
The city did not offer any compensation to the merchants on Bishop Street.
“[The city] told us [they have many] resources for financial programs to help businesses out when there’s construction, but for some reason we’re an exception,” Zahabi said. “I don’t see any exception. It’s all work.”
According to Zahabi, the construction has already forced two restaurants on Bishop Street to close and another to file for bankruptcy.
The coalition of Bishop Street merchants is determined to continue their legal battle against the STM and the city of Montreal. The STM refused to comment on the Bishop Street construction, noting that information about the project is available on their website.
“It’s a situation that needs a bit of attention,” Nassar said. “The city is being slow and not active. We’re not going to give up. My business has been here 15 years. We’re going to keep fighting.”
Rates of fentanyl contamination rise as a more potent opioid hits parts of Canada
Naomi Atkin had heard all about the opioid crisis. For the last three years, the 22-year-old volunteered with harm reduction organizations in Toronto. Among her responsibilities was attending concerts and raves to provide a safe support system to anyone who might have been experiencing a bad drug trip. However, it wasn’t until this summer when her former boyfriend died of a heroin overdose, that the epidemic took on a new meaning for her.
“I’d never been personally affected by it before and had someone actually die,” Atkin said.
Thousands of lives have been lost in Canada because of opioid-related overdoses, spiking in the 2000s with an increase in abuse of prescription and recreational oxycodone, according to the Globe and Mail. While Oxycontin—the brand-name version of oxycodone—was removed from the pharmaceutical market in 2012, other opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil have kept overdose rates high. Atkin’s home province of Ontario reported the second highest number of opioid-related deaths between January 2016 and March 2017, according to federal government statistics. This number, 865, was topped only by British Columbia, the province often deemed ground zero of Canada’s recent opioid epidemic. In April 2016, the province declared a public health emergency following a heightened number of fatal overdoses.
The number of opioid-related deaths in British Columbia was higher in the first six months of 2017 than it had been in that same time frame the year before. However, June saw the lowest number of deaths in 2017 in the province up to that point—a total of 111, which amounts to just under four deaths per day, according to the CBC. Despite the decrease in June, the presence of fentanyl in other illicit substances has accounted for an overall increase in drug overdoses in B.C. since 2012, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.
Fentanyl is a potent opioid pain medication typically available by prescription as a patch and about 100 times more powerful than heroin. However, it is no longer the strongest opioid being mixed with other drugs. Carfentanil—which is about 100 times more potent than fentanyl—was first detected on the streets of Vancouver in November 2016, according to the Vancouver Sun. A month later, Health Canada confirmed the opioid was found in Ontario, manufactured to resemble green Oxycontin pills. As little as 20 micrograms of carfentanil can be lethal—a little less than a pinch of salt, according to the Alberta RCMP.
In August 2016, the Calgary Police Service, the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency confiscated one kilogram of carfentanil at Vancouver Airport. The confiscated batch would have been enough to create 50 million deadly doses, according to the RCMP. Between September 2016 and June 2017, carfentanil was reported in Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and in a Saskatchewan penitentiary, according to the CBC. While carfentanil has yet to be detected on the streets of Montreal, Global News reported that 209 grams of the substance were seized at the Montreal-Mirabel airport in January.
Of these two opioids, fentanyl remains the most commonly found in Canada. According to an investigation by The Globe and Mail, black market fentanyl is being manufactured in China and illegally smuggled across the Canadian border in packages weighing less than 30 grams—below the legal weight of a package border guards can open without the consent of the recipient.
Fentanyl’s low cost and high potency allows drug dealers to spend less and earn more if they cut the opioid into other drugs, most commonly heroin, to heighten their effects. Across the country, there was a 40 per cent increase in street drugs testing positive for fentanyl, Global News reported in October 2016. According to the CBC, there have been cases in Montreal of fentanyl being found in cocaine, MDMA (molly or ecstasy) and PCP, among other illicit substances.
According to Dr. Warren Steiner, who obtained his degree from McGill and has been practicing psychiatry since 1988, many of Canada’s opioid users originally got hooked on prescription painkillers.
“Doctors, as a group, over the last 10 to 20 years, have been very irresponsible in their use of prescription [opioid] painkillers, and that led to a big part of this,” said Steiner, who has been employed at the Montreal-based private rehab centre 360 DTX since its opening in 2014. Over-prescription of opioids facilitated the development of addiction among many patients, Steiner said. “Then you progress from the regular prescriptions—you start buying from the street, and you go up the ladder to the more and more potent drugs,” he added.
Included in this phenomenon is what Steiner referred to as “divergence of prescription.” In Canada, Steiner said a significant number of prescription painkillers end up in the hands of someone other than the person they were intended for. “It’s not the person they’re prescribed to who ends up taking them—they get borrowed, given away, sold on the streets,” he said. “Divergence of prescription is a big part of the drug problem, and physicians have to take responsibility—and we are. There are now courses and more and more articles and education for doctors to be much more vigilant in prescribing opiates.”
Regardless of the origins of such substance abuse, a key factor in the current opioid crisis is the frequency with which fentanyl and carfentanil end up mixed with other drugs. Based on the stories Atkin has heard, it is something she said can happen more often than most expect.
“A lot of dealers sell more than one type of drug—so someone who has a lot of cocaine might also be selling heroin or fentanyl,” she said, adding that this can lead to contamination of lesser drugs. Traces of fentanyl as little as three milligrams—while sufficient to trigger an overdose—will not be enough to evenly contaminate an entire batch of cocaine. As Atkin explained, this makes contamination less likely to show up with a drug test kit if only a portion of the batch is tested. “That’s why it’s important to be prepared,” Atkin said. “You never know when that could happen.”
Atkin recently began volunteering at a pop-up safe injection site in Moss Park in downtown Toronto because she wanted to be more involved in preventing fatal overdoses. “I think that nothing good comes to people who are using heroin because it’s just so dangerous—especially now,” she said. “I saw someone overdosing on the street just a few weeks ago.” Although she had a naloxone kit with her—the opioid overdose antidote—an ambulance arrived before she needed to use it.
“I thought about it afterwards, and even though it was such a scary experience, I would rather have been prepared for something like that, than not at all,” Atkin said. “It’s important to realize that anything can happen at any moment, and being prepared is better than the alternative.”
CLEAR SIGNS OF AN OPIOID OVERDOSE
Graphic by Zeze Le LinThe opioid epidemic flows from British Columbia, the province often deemed ground zero of Canada’s recent opioid epidemic. Graphic by Zeze Le LinGraphic by Zeze Le Lin
Cold, clammy skin. A limp body, seemingly deep in sleep. Slow breathing. A faltering or halted heartbeat. These are the symptoms of an overdose.
Imagine you and your friends are sitting around a coffee table snorting cocaine. A mid-party upper to boost your energy perhaps. You start off small, to test your tolerance. Your friend, on the other hand, snorts a larger line. Following that bump, your friend sinks back into the couch, looking dopey or at least quite out of it. They become unresponsive and look as if they’re settling into a deep sleep. They may begin snoring or choking, their fingernails or skin may turn blue, their pupils may grow small or their eyes will begin to roll back. Not only is it important to know that these are not the typical effects of cocaine use, it could also be life-saving to know that these signs are likely indicative of fentanyl or carfentanil contamination.
Death caused by an overdose can happen within minutes of ingesting the drug, although it often happens up to a few hours later after the user has fallen into a deep sleep. Nonetheless, overdoses need to be handled swiftly.
In a scenario like the one described above, call 911 immediately. Someone should check the person’s breathing—if it’s slow or shallow, inject naloxone to regulate their breathing. If naloxone is not available, administer CPR to help the person breathe until first responders arrive.
If the person’s breathing is compromised, a lack of oxygen can cause brain damage within minutes. “When you have a lot more of that substance in your blood, then other receptors are also triggered, and those receptors are decreasing the ability of the brain to breathe,” according to Dr. Sophie Gosselin, a medical toxicologist at the McGill University Health Centre. “Rather than breathing at 16 breaths per minute, some of these people breathe at eight breaths per minute, or four breaths per minute,” she said. “That’s not enough to give the body all the oxygen it needs and that’s when they go into a coma.”
If you incorrectly assess an overdose and inject naloxone, it will not harm the person, as naloxone does not induce a high—it only blocks effects of other opioids to the brain.
“A death from an opiate overdose is really someone falling asleep, losing consciousness and getting into a very deep sleep where they can’t wake up, even though they should feel the need to breath—they stop breathing and they die from that,” according to Steiner.
As Gosselin explained, when the brain does not have enough oxygen it strokes out and your heart starts to give out––sometimes the user will stop breathing all together.
“If a user experiencing an overdose has a stroke from lack of oxygen and is placed on life support, the damage has already been done,” Gosselin added. “If taken off life support, their body would not have the ability to sustain breathing alone.”
Although there are three categories of opioids—natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic—the effects these drugs have on the brain are the same. They all bind to opiate receptors in the brain. The difference is the degree in strength of each opioid.
Natural opiates, such as codeine and morphine, are commonly used to alleviate pain and accompany a variety of medical procedures. “Those activate the opiate system very mildly,” Steiner said, adding that these drugs activate only about five per cent of a person’s opiate receptors.
Stronger, semi-synthetic opioids, however, such as heroin and oxycodone, have a greater impact on receptors. “They bind very strongly to these receptors in the brain, and they really turn on the system,” Steiner said. This is what makes these substances highly addictive, but also more dangerous. “The opiate system affects the respiration and the heart, which is why people overdose and die.”
Naloxone is the medication used to counter the effects of opioids and is either injected or ingested as a nasal spray. It can reverse an overdose by blocking opiate receptors, essentially pushing the heroin or fentanyl off the receptors, Steiner explained. “[Naloxone is] something that can save many, many lives if it’s out there in the community.”
MONTREAL’S RESPONSE
The municipal government has been taking precautions over the last few months in preparation for a predicted influx of opiate overdoses. Safe injection sites were introduced at the beginning of the summer and, in September, the city announced an initiative to make naloxone more accessible.
An approximation of the amount of each drug that could induce an overdose. Photo by Alex Hutchins
Safe injection sites provide a space for users to inject drugs and, if there is a medical emergency, a healthcare worker employed at the site can attend to the person.
Two safe injection sites opened in Montreal in June: Dopamine in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Cactus in downtown Montreal. “For us, it has been a nine-year battle to open this site in our facility,” said Martin Pagé, the director of Dopamine. Pagé said another safe injection site is set to open in the Centre-Sud neighbourhood this fall. Once all three sites are open to the public, they are estimated to provide service for a total of 200 to 300 drug injections per day, according to Montreal Gazette.
After the centres close for the day—Dopamine closes at 1 a.m. and Cactus at 4 a.m.—a van drives around Montreal offering a mobile safe injection space. The service is called Spectre de Rue.
Safe injection sites exist in Vancouver, with plans to open others in Surrey and Victoria have been approved by the federal government. Ottawa opened its first safe injection site on Sept. 26 and Toronto currently has a pop-up site in Moss Park.
When asked if safe injection sites would encourage drug use or not, Steiner said, “People are going to use drugs and they’re going to use them badly, but you try to protect them. You can’t just say because someone’s a drug user, they deserve to die.”
On Sept. 5, Mayor Denis Coderre announced a pilot project to supply police officers and firefighters in certain boroughs with naloxone kits and training to use the antidote, according to the CBC.
Access to naloxone has been scarce in Montreal, as only four pharmacies in the city carry the antidote, according to the National Observer. Additionally, proper training on how to administer naloxone has been limited to first responders, community workers and staff at the city’s safe injection sites.
“It is an epidemic in B.C. and it’s an epidemic in Toronto and the states,” Steiner said. “I wouldn’t call it an epidemic [in Montreal], but it’s certainly a public health crisis, which we don’t want to become an epidemic.”
Safe injection sites provide the community with greater access to naloxone. However, some, like Pagé, believe there needs to be greater access outside of these sites.
Pagé said he believes naloxone kits should be distributed in Montreal. “We administer at the moment, but we do not give the kit,” Pagé said. “[Police and firefighters] should have had [naloxone] a long time ago. For us, the authorities are a bit late.”
“It’s going to come east,” he said, referring fentanyl and carfentanil. “There was no reason to think that [Eastern Canada] should be spared from this crisis.”
Why The Goodnewspaper’s disregard of the negative isn’t the solution to improving society
So, what do you want to hear first: the good news or the bad news?
With all that is upsetting in the world today, from natural disasters and terrorism to politics and
everyday life, it’s understandable that many people feel powerless whenever they see the news. The scales of justice and equality seem to be tipped down, and it’s getting hard to imagine they could ever lift back up. A new quarterly publication called The Goodnewspaper aims to change this by only printing “good news.”
What falls under this category are mainly stories about people who “[cut] through the negativity by doing something different. They focus on hope and goodness and happiness,” according to the newspaper’s founder, Branden Harvey, on his podcast, Sounds Good. The idea is to motivate and inspire readers by sharing these positive stories, and help them see the world in a more positive way. The Goodnewspaper also offers a weekly newsletter that claims to feature the most inspiring and positive news from around the globe. Although this may sound like a good idea in theory, it certainly isn’t in reality.
Ultimately, I don’t think this newsletter should be seen as a legitimate news source, given it is censored to purposely avoid any bad news. In an attempt to avoid upsetting readers, The Goodnewspaper fails to tackle everyday issues like unproportional government services, poverty and injustice. Instead, it focuses solely on stories about people who have used a positive outlook to change their life.
The Goodnewspaper targets people looking for hope rather than negative news. Yet the problem with only hearing about success stories is they can make other shortcomings look colossal in comparison. It can be hard for everyday people to relate to these grand success stories, especially if they don’t have the same resources or opportunities. This newspaper brings attention to the fact that it’s a privileged idea to think everyone has time, money and physical abilities to do good deeds. The truth is, not a lot of people do.
In contrast, local and national news report things that affect regular people. These outlets reinforce the idea that, as a community, we are all partly responsible for what happens around us. It’s hard to hear about tragedies, to learn about the low points of society and to wonder how to make the world a better place. And remaining an informed citizen in today’s fast-paced world doesn’t make any of this easier. But being aware about bad situations is a good thing. It’s what gets people motivated to change the situations around them.
The news today may seem negative, but it’s important to remember the stories being told are ones we need to be talking about. And contrary to what The Goodnewspaper suggests, most of the news stories published or broadcasted aren’t meant to make people feel bad. Rather, exposing yourself to the bad news is an opportunity to learn about your community and question what can be changed.
People who stress out about world events would certainly benefit from this newsletter, but there are also a lot of people who will use it to ignore their responsibilities. It can be hard to motivate yourself to be an agent for change, but avoiding reality will limit your ability to question why things happen and make it harder to change these bad news stories into good ones.
We shouldn’t cut negativity out of our lives—we should learn from it. Every serious news story directly affects real people, and reading The Goodnewspaper won’t fix their problems. The truth is, there will never be a perfect balance between good and bad news, but as a society, we need both to survive.
Demonstrator holds a sign that calls for “Justice Now.” Photo by Mackenzie Lad
Hundreds gathered for 12th annual vigil to remember the missing and murdered
Dreary weather wasn’t enough to stop hundreds of people from gathering in downtown Montreal on Wednesday, Oct. 4 to honour Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The two-hour memorial event, held at Place Émilie-Gamelin, was coordinated by the Quebec Native Women’s Shelter and Missing Justice, a grassroots solidarity organization focused on Indigenous women’s issues. Throughout the evening, there were speeches in both English and French from various activists and family members of victims.
According to a 2014 RCMP report, there were 1,181 cases of homicide or long-term disappearances involving Indigenous women between 1980 and 2012. In 2015, Statistics Canada released data suggesting that, while Indigenous people make up just five per cent of Canada’s population, they are the victims of nearly one quarter of all of the country’s homicides.
Chelsea Obodoechina, a representative of Missing Justice, spoke about these horrifying statistics at the vigil, noting that the issue extends beyond women.
Hundreds gathered to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women on Oct. 4. Photo by Mackenzie Lad
“This phenomenon […] is also affecting Indigenous boys and young men,” Obodoechina said. “And we keep them in our hearts tonight.”
According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), Montreal’s annual vigil was one of many held across the country on Oct. 4. The NWAC claims that, when the vigils were first held in 2006, there were only 11 held nationally. Since 2014, over 200 vigils remembering missing and murdered Indigenous women have been organized across Canada every year.
Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist, also spoke at the vigil and reflected on the increased participation, noting that there were only 20 attendees at the first event in Montreal 11 years ago.
Despite the increased attention to the issue and the launch of a 28-month national inquiry in 2016, Gabriel reminded the audience that there is a long road ahead before Indigenous women—and Indigenous communities as a whole—receive justice.
“There are more [Indigenous] children in the child welfare system today than there were in residential schools,” Gabriel said. “Justin Trudeau recently gave a speech to the United Nations talking about Indigenous people […] but he’s presented no solutions on his part.”
Throughout the evening, attendees lit candles and some even brandished signs with phrases including “Justice For Our Women and Girls” and “Sisters in Spirit.” One speaker at the event asked those gathered to raise their hand if they knew a woman with the same name as some of the women who had been murdered or gone missing in Quebec since 1980. By the end of her list of about a dozen names, the overwhelming majority of the crowd had their hands up.
Vigil attendees raise their hands to show they knew a woman by the same name as one of the women who had been murdered or gone missing. Photo by Mackenzie Lad
Cheryl McDonald, a Mohawk woman whose sister, Carleen, went missing over Labour Day weekend in 1988 in Akwesasne, also spoke at the vigil. She talked about how Carleen’s body had been found several weeks later by a hunter. Although McDonald was visibly emotional while recounting the story of her sister, her speech remained hopeful.
“We, as women, have to stop hurting each other before we can expect men to,” McDonald said. “I choose to live and leave a trail of love behind me.”
While it may have been a night of mourning, the speakers reminded the audience that it was also a night of remembrance, resilience and hope.
“We will remember these women,” Gabriel said in her closing remarks, “and we will continue to fight.”
After government proposes new standards, Uber threatens to leave the province
Uber driver Francis Galarneau said he thinks a mandatory 35 hours of training for drivers is too long and so does his boss, Uber Québec general manager Jean-Nicolas Guillemette. The extended training is part of the government of Quebec’s new demands for the ride-sharing behemoth.
The changes to the province’s deal with Uber were presented by Quebec’s Minister of Transport Laurent Lessard on Sept. 22. Following Lessard’s announcement, Guillemette said Uber would pack up its things and leave Quebec.
The provincial government’s renewed deal with the American company also included the addition of criminal background checks performed by police on drivers, according to Mathieu Gaudreault, a spokesperson for Lessard.
“We do not want Uber’s departure from Quebec,” Gaudreault told The Concordian. “We believe that these modifications are legitimate and realistic.” Gaudreault added that the number of training hours were non-negotiable.
Galarneau’s situation is similar to that of many other Uber drivers: he has a full-time job and drive part-time on the side. According to a 2015 study by Uber’s head of research, Jonathan Hall, and Princeton University professor Alan Krueger, 31 per cent of the company’s drivers continue to work full-time.
Galarneau said it would be impossible for him to do the 35-hour training. “A training course via audio through the app would be a good solution,” he added.
The Uber driver said he believes the company already regulates its drivers enough for the app to be a safe service.
To become an Uber driver, Galarneau said he had to show proof of his driver’s license as well as undergo a vision exam, a medical exam and a theory exam—all of which had to be completed through the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ). Galarneau’s car also went through an initial inspection with Uber Montreal, which the company repeats annually. He said that, in total, all the exams cost him about $300.
When he first started driving, Galarneau said he only received an hour-and-a-half worth of training from a video he had to watch at the Uber Montreal office. He also explained that, if an Uber driver “constantly gets under 4.65 stars for their service on the Uber app, they are deactivated from the platform.”
“I’ve heard many customers mention that they prefer the services of Uber much better than taxis,” Galarneau said.
Phishing emails were sent to Concordia University students by a fake administration email account in early October.
University sends warning to students not to open hyperlink in spam mail
An email was sent by Concordia University to students on Oct. 3 advising them not to open a phishing email circulating in the student community. The phishing email was sent by newsonlineconcordia@concordia.ca, according to a screenshot sent by the university.
The phishing email read: “Concordia University Latest News & Media.” A second line included a hyperlink with the words “Breaking News. Find out more.”
In its message to students, the university asked to “please delete [the email] immediately […] Phishing techniques such as this can spread viruses and malware.”
The message continued: “A recent example of the dangers of this type of email is the WannaCrypt/WannaCry ransomware attack, which paralyzed thousands of computers across the globe.”
Phishing emails and potential cyberattacks have been commonplace in Montreal universities over the past two years. Last May, 120 computers at the Université de Montréal were infected by the WannaCry virus, which encrypted copies of user files before deleting the originals, forcing people to pay a ransom to regain access to their documents.
Phishing emails were sent to Concordia University students by a fake administration email account in early October
Cyberattacks occurred on two occasions at Concordia in the last two years. In March 2016, keyloggers were installed at the Webster and Vanier libraries. The devices allow hackers to record all the keys pressed by a person, allowing them to remember everything that was typed.
In April 2017, the university’s online course system, eConcordia, was also hacked.
Concordia President Alan Shepard told The Concordian in September that cyberattacks were a “big issue.” “We were lucky in both episodes that we didn’t have any major damage that we’re aware of,” he said, referring to the two incidents at Concordia.
According to Shepard, the university made “some technical changes to try and prevent repeats of these episodes.” The president wouldn’t disclose what these changes were.
Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, an accounting firm, audited the university’s IT security in 2017, according to Shepard. The IT audit was part of the annual audit presented to the university’s board of governors. Shepard said the audit showed the university’s cybersecurity had strengthened.
The audit differs from a separate project Shepard described as a “large-scale review of cybersecurity.” As the The Concordian previously reported, a call for tenders was sent by the university in July through the publicly accessible Système électronique d’appel d’offre du Québec (SEAO), seeking professional services to assess the university’s cybersecurity risks. Shepard said the result of the assessment will be private.
Eight different companies bidded for the contract, including Bell Canada, Montreal-based GoSecure and Okiok Data. The value of the contract is still unknown.
Concordia professor Richard Foltz said he doesn’t believe the Kurdish independence referendum will cause violence in the region. Photo by Alex Hutchins
Turkish Student Association Concordia fear referendum will spark violence
Kurds in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favour of establishing their own independent state on Sept. 25. In the aftermath of the referendum, which has received both support and criticism from the international community, Concordia students and faculty were divided in their feelings about Iraqi Kurdistan’s fight for independence.
Turkish Student Association Concordia (TSAC) condemned the independence movement in a written statement to TheConcordian. “We don’t support any separative movements that might cause violence,” the organization wrote. “Moreover, we don’t separate our members as Kurdish or Turkish. For us, we are one together.”
“I suggest you also support peace,” the statement continued. “What happened is very sad news that will potentially cause more violence in the region.”
This statement was in line with the Turkish government’s official stance on the referendum. The country fears the creation of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan could encourage an independence movement among its own Kurds, who represent 15 to 20 per cent of Turkey’s population according to the BBC. Quoted in The Independent on Sept. 30, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “They are not forming an independent state, they are opening a wound in the region to twist the knife in.”
Juman Al-Mashta, president of the Iraqi Students’ Association at Concordia, declined to comment on the referendum, saying the association is only a “cultural association” with “no official stance” on the issue. According to CNN, the Iraqi government has declared the referendum “unconstitutional” and is prepared to use violence to suppress separatism in the region.
Concordia professor Richard Foltz said he doesn’t foresee violence in the region. As an expert in Iranian civilization, his field of study has often brought him into contact with the culture, history and society of the Kurds, an Iranian people. He said he believes it is in Turkey’s best interest to maintain its trading relationship with Iraqi Kurdistan and to have a relatively stable democracy on its southern border.
He said Canada should break away from the United States’ foreign policy by officially backing Kurdish aspirations for independence. Foltz acknowledged that any referendum for independence around the world may be a “sore spot” for Canada, given Quebec’s history of referendums for sovereignty.
According to Foltz, since the time of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who successfully kept Canada out of the Iraq war, “Canada’s foreign policy has been dictated by Washington.” He said the United States is “trying to play both sides” by “supporting the Kurds militarily on the one hand, while at the same time [having] this stubborn insistence on maintaining the integrity of Iraq.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has avoided publicly taking a side on the issue. However, a week before the referendum, Canada participated in a joint meeting of foreign officials, organized by the U.S. State Department, which collectively agreed the referendum should not take place, according to the National Post.
Foltz said he does not know whether or not the Kurds will gain independence. However, “the Kurds will never, ever give up their quest for independence,” he added.
“There is nothing that anybody can do or say that will entice them to renounce that aspiration,” Foltz said. “I think that any foreign policy—be it Canada’s or America’s or Russia’s or Iran’s or Turkey’s—if it wants to be a successful foreign policy, it needs to begin with that understanding.”
QPIRG Concordia focused on research stipends and expanding resources available to students. Photo by Kirubel Mehari
Organization turns focus to the future following annual election, fee levy increases
Following the recent election of new board members and an eight-cent fee levy increase, Concordia’s chapter of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) is focusing on increasing research stipends and expanding their student resources.
The grassroots organization, which has historically focused on funding research and community-based projects aligned with their progressive political views, elected 12 members to their board of directors on Sept. 27 during their annual general meeting.
Since the organization works with both the Concordia and Montreal communities, it has two separate boards: one consisting of students and the other made up of community members. Any Concordia student with a valid student ID and all community QPIRG members (non-students who have donated at least $10 to the group or who volunteer 10 hours per year) were able to vote in the election.
Eamon Toohey, who was elected to the community board of directors on Sept. 27, said the board will spend the year developing and funding “radical, grassroots social justice initiatives” and will be prioritizing marginalized voices.
“I’m really excited to work with a whole new crop of board members to support the folks working for a brighter tomorrow in the city and beyond,” Toohey said. “Especially folks at the margins fighting for Indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice. Those two fights are brutally suppressed and forgotten, but absolutely vital.”
In addition to new board members, the organization recently received an increase to their annual student fee levy. According to the group’s 2016-17 financial report, between January 2007 and November 2016, the group received 31 cents per credit per undergraduate student, with the exception of students who chose to opt out in the first weeks of each semester.
Through a referendum vote during the fall 2016 Concordia Student Union (CSU) by-elections, the QPIRG was granted an eight-cent fee levy increase. Under this new model, undergraduate students pay 39 cents per credit per semester, or $11.70 annually for a 90-credit degree. The graduate student fee levy of 50 cents per credit was unchanged.
“It was up to Concordia undergraduates to decide at the polls,” Toohey said of the referendum. “When voting closed, our fee levy was raised, allowing us to support social and environmental initiatives all over the city.”
While the group’s primary source of income is fee levy funding, it’s impossible for the QPIRG to predict how much funding that will be, as all students have the option to opt-out each semester. According to financial records from October 2016 to August 2017, the group’s total revenue for the 2016-17 fiscal year was $238,586 with approximately $220,000 coming from student fee levy funds.
The QPIRG insisted the increased funding will be put towards community-based programs and research projects. According to Hesser Garcia, a newly-elected community board member, the fee levy increase has already allowed the group to fund a $3,000 summer stipend, which they granted to Captive Minds.
According to the QPIRG’s 2016-17 annual report, Captive Minds is a Little Burgundy-based mentorship project that connects black, low-income youth with an adult mentor in the prison system. Garcia said this stipend is “the first in many to come,” now that the group has increased funding.
“We were also able to provide better support for our alternative agenda, School Schmool, and our alternative library,” Garcia said. School Schmool is a free student planner that features articles and resources, including food banks and low-cost mental health services in the Montreal area. The alternative library, in QPIRG Concordia’s office at 1500 de Maisonneuve Blvd., offers books, magazines and audio-visual media focused on environmental and social justice issues.
In total, the QPIRG invested $20,000 in community and campus projects in 2016-2017. Several board members said they are hopeful the increased fee levy will allow them to expand funding for these programs even further in the coming year.
Demonstrator holds a sign that calls for “Justice Now.” Photos by Mackenzie Lad
Hundreds gathered for 12th annual vigil to remember the missing and murdered
Dreary weather wasn’t enough to stop hundreds of people from gathering in downtown Montreal on Wednesday, Oct. 4 to honour Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The two-hour memorial event, held at Place Émilie-Gamelin, was coordinated by the Quebec Native Women’s Shelter and Missing Justice, a grassroots solidarity organization focused on Indigenous women’s issues. Throughout the evening, there were speeches in both English and French from various activists and family members of victims.
According to a 2014 RCMP report, there were 1,181 cases of homicide or long-term disappearances involving Indigenous women between 1980 and 2012. In 2015, Statistics Canada released data suggesting that, while Indigenous people make up just five per cent of Canada’s population, they are the victims of nearly one quarter of all of the country’s homicides.
Chelsea Obodoechina, a representative of Missing Justice, spoke about these horrifying statistics at the vigil, noting that the issue extends beyond women.
“This phenomenon […] is also affecting Indigenous boys and young men,” Obodoechina said. “And we keep them in our hearts tonight.”
According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), Montreal’s annual vigil was one of many held across the country on Oct. 4. The NWAC claims that, when the vigils first started being held in 2006, there were only 11 held nationally. Since 2014, over 200 vigils remembering missing and murdered Indigenous women have been held across Canada every year.
Vigil attendees raise their hands to show they knew a woman by the same name as one of the women who had been murdered or gone missing. Photo by Mackenzie Lad
Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk activist, also spoke at the vigil and reflected on the increased participation, noting that there were only 20 attendees at the first event in Montreal 11 years ago.
Despite the increased attention to the issue and the launch of a 28-month national inquiry in 2016, Gabriel reminded the audience that there is a long road ahead before Indigenous women—and Indigenous communities as a whole—receive justice.
“There are more [Indigenous] children in the child welfare system today than were in residential schools,” Gabriel said. “Justin Trudeau recently gave a speech to the United Nations talking about Indigenous people […] but he’s presented no solutions on his part.”
Throughout the evening, attendees lit candles and some even brandished signs with phrases including “Justice For Our Women and Girls” and “Sisters in Spirit.” One speaker at the event asked those gathered to raise their hand if they knew a woman with the same name as some of the women who had been murdered or gone missing in Quebec since 1980. By the end of her list of about a dozen names, the overwhelming majority of the crowd had their hands up.
Hundreds gathered to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women on Oct. 4. Photo by Mackenzie Lad
Cheryl McDonald, a Mohawk woman whose sister, Carleen, went missing over Labour Day weekend in 1988 in Akwesasne, also spoke at the vigil. She talked about how Carleen’s body had been found several weeks later by a hunter. Although McDonald was visibly emotional while recounting the story of her sister, her speech remained hopeful.
“We, as women, have to stop hurting each other before we can expect men to,” McDonald said. “I choose to live and leave a trail of love behind me.”
While it may have been a night of mourning, the speakers reminded the audience that it was also a night of remembrance, resilience and hope.
“We will remember these women,” Gabriel said in her closing remarks, “and we will continue to fight.”
