Tag: Pandemic

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Interview with Concordia University President Graham Carr

On this unprecedented year, and a hint on what students can expect going forward

Concordia University’s President and Vice-Chancellor Graham Carr virtually sat down with The Concordian to talk about this past year and the university’s plans moving forwards.

TC: How did Concordia handle the changes brought on by the pandemic?

GC: I’m pretty pleased with how the whole university community responded. I think that faculty members, by and large, really made a great effort … to develop courses in the online environment that were stimulating for students and that allowed them to develop the competencies that they needed.

Not to say that [students] enjoyed the situation, nobody enjoyed the fact that we were not able to access campus — but … we had [the] largest graduating class we’ve ever had last June. We had the largest summer enrollment that we ever had. And interestingly, in January, we had the lowest dropout rate from courses that we’ve ever had.

So to me what that says is that students, although it was a challenging year, were making adaptations to try and to cope with the situation.

TC: Can you provide an update on what students can expect for the upcoming year?

GC: We anticipate and we hope that our fall [2021] will include a much greater number of in-person courses. Our senses [are] that students who are not currently in Montreal*… would prefer to be in Montreal, even if some of their courses continue to be delivered online.

Our goal with this is that by May, we can actually tell students, this is what the schedule is going to look like.

*On March 29, Concordia sent a letter encouraging international students to make plans to move back to Montreal for the fall semester. More information can be found here.

TC: Will Concordia consider providing vaccinations for students on campus?

GC: So that’s a discussion point that universities are having with public health. We’ve indicated that we would be prepared to [be a] site for vaccination for members of our own community.

But the decision around the rollout of vaccinations is … a decision of public health authorities. For the moment, they’re focused on an age based vaccination process … and we are part of those conversations with public health, about [the] potential strategies with regard to our own community, including students.

TC: A lot of students have complained that the quality of education has not remained the same. Can you speak on that?

GC: In March and April of last year when we really had to switch on a dime, from in-person teaching to remote teaching … that was an emergency situation and I think faculty members adapted as best they could.

Since that time … many faculty members have continued to modify their approach to teaching in an online environment. So I think that the quality of what is available — I won’t say in every single case — generally, online, has significantly improved.

TC: How are you hearing back from students without the teacher evaluations?

GC: We’ve done a number of surveys with students over the course of the last year. I … meet regularly with both the heads of [the] CSU and the Graduate Student Association. When we were at the height of the closures, we were meeting once or twice a week.

Also we had the COVID-19 hotline and web based interaction where we literally received thousands of questions and comments from students.

TC: Students were asking for a pass/fail option this past year, and the university granted the option for one class after much deliberation. Could you speak on that decision?

GC: Under the context of COVID we were trying to make accommodations which will reduce tension and stress on the student population. If I have any regret about the fall, [it] was that we didn’t come to that decision and announce that decision a few weeks earlier.

I think the ideal framework in which to approach a pass/fail option is not something that’s across the board, but something that’s very selective and which has a positive intention of allowing and encouraging students to experiment. This is something that we want to look at with [the] senate as a potential permanent change to the universities approach going forward.

TC: There have been calls to reduce tuition. What are your thoughts on that movement?

GC: Tuition for the overwhelming majority of students is set by the Government of Quebec. When students are paying tuition they’re paying for the competency that comes with the credits that they get for the course. And whether that’s delivered in an online environment or an in-person environment, the competencies are still the same.

I’m comfortable that the tuition that students pay is to allow them to achieve those objectives.

 

Courtesy of Concordia University

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Owning a music venue through the pandemic

An interview with Austin Wrinch of the Diving Bell Social Club

At 3956 Saint Laurent Blvd., behind a black door covered in graffiti, and three stories up a single flight of stairs is the Diving Bell Social Club. The venue opened in 2018 in a space previously occupied by the once-popular Champs sports bar.

Since their opening, the Diving Bell has acted as a multimedia performance venue, hosting concerts, stand-up comedy and drag shows.

However, the club has been closed since early March 2020, when the owners chose to close the venue in response to the then-burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, not long before government regulations forced all venues to close. 

Diving Bell Social Club is under renovation.

Austin Wrinch is the co-owner and manager of the Diving Bell.

“We actually decided ourselves to kind of close before [the government] had fully mandated it. Basically, we’re an event space and a bar. So our activity, what we do at the space, is very much dictated by the community around us,” said Wrinch.

“At that point, we were saying, [we’d be closed] ‘til the end of the month of March 2020, which is kind of funny in retrospect.”

It’s disappointing that the Diving Bell has had to close for so long when 2020 was looking like it could be their best year yet.

“January and half of February was definitely a good time. It’s weird thinking back now … My memories of those shows don’t include any sort of COVID fear. It kind of set in like, two weeks later [that] it was just here to stay,” said Wrinch.

“If we were not hitting a stride, I would feel less confident about all this time passing and opening up again … If it wasn’t for COVID, 2020 was looking like it was going to be the best year ever for us. But it will again.”

The venue has stayed afloat thanks to rental subsidies and loans that have been made available to small businesses. Some emergency loans have been made available for small businesses, but they depend on a variety of criteria such as revenue. Some loans are interest-free while others have small amounts of interest. All of them are outlined under Canada’s COVID-19 response plan.

But, in the world of the pandemic, those loans don’t guarantee that you’ll be able to keep your business open.

“Yeah, you can get access to $20,000 or something for your business as a loan. [But] you know you have to start paying that back at a certain point, and then there’s interest after a certain point,” said Wrinch.

“When your business has been closed and it’s still unclear how long it’s going to be before you can actually be generating money with that business, it’s actually kind of nerve-racking, using more loan money, because that’s not your money. It’s all going to be paid back eventually.”

The staff at the Diving Bell hasn’t remained completely out of work.

“We had a lot of time to do a lot of things that we’ve always wanted to do in the space,” Wrinch said.

The team has been doing some renovations during its closure, which is great but can be very tricky to do when you have no idea when your business may be open again.

“It’s been definitely very tough the last year, just with the uncertainty and everything, and it’s by no means over,” said Wrinch

“We didn’t do crazy renovations, we did them all ourselves … We had to be very, very cautious on not spending too much money.”

Wrinch says the space has also been used by artists to do live streams and hybrid performances, as a way of making sure it gets some use during the pandemic. 

As restrictions are gradually being lifted, theatres and larger venues were able to open on March 26, 2021. But because the Diving Bell is also a bar and a smaller standing room venue, it will be remaining closed.

Even when restrictions are lifted, the team at the Diving Bell won’t be desperate to open up if they don’t feel it’s safe. “We would definitely stay closed if we didn’t feel like it was a good idea,” said Wrinch.

But even if the space was to reopen, their business revolves around the artists who perform there. In the summer when restrictions were more relaxed, it was difficult to get people to come out and perform.

“The general response was ‘yeah, I’m definitely down. But I want to wait and see some other shows go first, to kind of gauge the vibe and make sure that it’s not pushing it.’ You don’t want it to feel irresponsible.”

Wrinch is confident the Diving Bell will be able to reopen but isn’t sure it will be happening anytime soon.

“It’s been definitely very tough the last year, just with the uncertainty and everything, and it’s by no means over,” said Wrinch

“People have been good with supporting local businesses, restaurants and stuff. But, I think that really when it comes down to reopening live performance halls in safe ways, it’s obvious [that] it’s going to come down to people showing the actual support, going and contributing to those communities, if they want them to survive,” Wrinch continued.

The Diving Bell Social Club will be back to hosting concerts of all kinds — as soon as it’s safe — at 3956 Saint Laurent Blvd., way up the stairs.

 

Photos by Kit Mergaert

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News

#refund2020: a student-led battle against Concordia’s tuition fees

 Over 100 students have signed the #refund2020 petition, aiming for economic and academic justice at the university

A new student campaign called #refund2020 was launched on March 21, demanding a full refund of summer and fall 2020 tuition fees to all Concordia students.

The movement is based on students who are feeling dissatisfied with paying full tuition fees for an allegedly inferior quality of remote education, as well as limited access to on-campus activities and services.  

Ace Baldwin is the founder of Economic Justice Concordia, a student group seeking to “break down financial and economic barriers to wellness for Concordia students.” Besides tuition-related demands, which also include a detailed report of Concordia’s expenditures in 2020, Baldwin’s campaign advocates for prioritizing student health on campus.

Nathalie Heller, co-organizer of #refund2020, says that it can take up to several months to schedule a mental health appointment at the university, even if a student only wishes to have a brief conversation with a specialist.

As an international student currently living in Colombia, Heller also believes that non-Canadian citizens are at a disadvantage when it comes to health coverage at Concordia.

“My health care plan would be over $1,000 this semester, yet Quebec’s Blue Cross insurance can’t [always] be extended to other countries. I can’t even negotiate my coverage abroad, so it feels unfair since I had already paid for this service in the past,” she explained.

The campaign also wants to provide the Pass/Fail and DISC options to every student, this time for an unlimited number of courses taken in the summer and fall of 2020. As of now, Concordia students are allowed to apply the Pass notation to just one course in the fall 2020 and winter 2021 semesters.

The platform also aims to eliminate all proctored exams at the university and to bring back course evaluations, which would allow students to provide honest feedback for their professors.

While #refund2020 has collected over 130 signatures on its official website, the campaign is determined to take further action.

On April 10, Economic Justice Concordia will host an on-campus rally in collaboration with students from McGill University, according to Baldwin. Further details should be announced closer to the date of the protest.

“We are serious about this. It’s a joint effort to show our administration and the Quebec government that this is a pressing issue,” said Baldwin.

#refund2020 also organized a tuition action night, which is set to take place on March 30 at 7 p.m. over Zoom. The event will be hosted by Nora Loreto, a writer and activist specializing in social movement organization, especially for labour unions, women, and students.

“We will discuss how collective action works — and also how it looks — because there’s often a disconnect between the two concepts … Despite living through a difficult period right now, the pandemic is actually a very fertile moment for political action,” Loreto explained.

The activist wants to inform Concordia students on how to organize general assemblies and have a detailed action plan, since movements such as the 2012 Quebec student protests have proven to be effective.

As of now, #refund2020 has not received an official response from Concordia’s administration.

However, Baldwin remains hopeful that their campaign will soon reach an agreement with the university, with both parties approaching this situation as allies rather than opponents.

 

Logo courtesy of #refund2020

 

Economic Justice Concordia changed the date of their on campus rally to April 10. A previous version of the article said the rally was on April 3.

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News

Concordia students share their thoughts on heading back to campus

In-person classes are allowed again… but is that what students want?

On Feb. 2, the Quebec government announced universities could begin to reopen gradually, encouraging students to get back in the classroom.

Quebec’s guidelines for higher education specific to COVID-19 currently state that “Since February 8, 2021, educational institutions must ensure that all students are able to access in-person educational activities several times a month, ideally once a week.”

Despite this improvement on the education front, the province-wide curfew and restrictions on gatherings in private homes are continuing, with some exceptions.

Universities have been holding the majority of classes online since the pandemic’s first wave began last spring. Exceptions have been made for students who need to take part in essential in-person activities, such as labs or studio work.

An email sent out to the Concordia student body from the office of the Provost said “What the government has announced are orientations, not directives. It goes without saying that Concordia would like to see campus life return to ‘pre-pandemic normal’ as soon as public health conditions permit.” The university will continue to evaluate public health conditions against what in person activities they already offer before making a large-scale return to in-person activity.

Evaluating whether or not it is the appropriate time is difficult. While COVID-19 case numbers have been trending down in the province, there is a large amount of speculation that international variants of the virus have found their way to Montreal.

There is also the question of how students feel right now. Many students don’t feel safe returning to classes. 

“I wouldn’t feel safe because in Montreal I live with a host family. So if I do bring the virus home that would be like, not good for me … For my course at least I don’t see any advantage in having in-person, only some classes, let’s say group work and things like that,” said Natalia Ferraz de Camargo, a second-year international student who is currently located in Brazil.

But it’s not just international students who may not be able to take advantage of new in-person activity. Students who are immunocompromised or live with someone who is will have to seriously consider whether they can take advantage of returning to class.

“You have to listen to your conscience and ask yourself, am I going in because I really want to and it’s going to make me feel good, [is it] the best thing for the people around me? Especially if you have people in your life who are immunocompromised or older, you might not want to take that risk,” said Ebby Crowe, a first-year student in Child Studies.

However, there are students who feel fine about returning to school.

“I don’t think I would have a problem regarding the COVID situation to go back to classes… As long as everyone is wearing masks and two meters apart it’s basically the same as being back at work,” said Mahoor Ramzirezaei, a graduate diploma student in Communications Studies.

For many students, the timing of the announcement is also an issue. For many out-of-province and international students who chose to stay home for the semester, it’s hard to hear that suddenly classes could be available, five weeks into the semester.

“If I knew that it was going to be in person like before the semester even started I would go back for sure. But now, like, if they tell me ‘oh it’s in person,’ I don’t want to go back,” said Ferraz de Camargo.

Concordia won’t be making any of the new in-person activities mandatory, and students located outside of Montreal are not being told they need to flock back to the city.

If the doors to Concordia and other universities are going to open, some students don’t think that classes are the first place to start.

“I’m thinking about the counselling services … There are so many students who are waiting to be put on the list and I know that you have to email them and hope to god there’s a spot available,” said Crowe.

It’s important to remember that last March, classes weren’t the only thing that went online. Most of Concordia’s university services remain online or require online booking. This new government ordinance could be an opportunity to gradually open up student services on campus and make them more accessible before we worry about flooding classrooms one day a week.

Despite universities having the option to host in-person classes and declining COVID cases, a large-scale return to class still seems to be a long way off. But, in response to these new governmental orders, Concordia has said they are “working to organize social and/or extra-curricular activities, such as spaces for networking and team meetings, that would allow you to gather with peers on campus at a safe distance, should you wish.” 

Graphic by James Fay

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Music

How the pandemic changed the way we listen to music

As the world changed around me, I had music to get me through it

Listening to music is a crucial part of my life. Before the pandemic, my headphones were on before I was out of the door. I would hit play on my music soon after. I would lip-sync throughout the entire length of my commute, and sometimes I would get odd looks, but I felt happy and that was all that mattered.

However, as much as music was there every day, I started to lose that deep connection with it. Music just became the typical part of my life, and it still impacted my moods, but I no longer felt inspired by music anymore. Songs like Billie Eilish’s “bad guy” and Kesha’s “Praying” were no longer special to me — I was just a product of the repeat and shuffle buttons.

March 2020 was the start of two incredible new chapters in my life. On March 12, I found out I was pregnant. On March 13, strict COVID-19 measures were put in place — and nothing has been the same since. So within two days, I got amazing news and some of the scariest news of my life to date.

For the first month after hearing about the pandemic, I didn’t bother listening to music at all. I took away a source of pleasure and entertainment because I didn’t think I deserved to have anything enjoyable. My life was consumed by the news. I would hear the introduction music for Global News Morning, and my days turned to dread really quickly. That sound meant non-stop COVID-19 news, and it would send me into a spiral of fear.

There was one day in late April where my husband and I decided to limit our news intake and take a break from the information. That’s when I decided to listen to music again; because if I was going to  feel a whirlwind of emotions, I would rather it be because of music.

My first idea was to search music from the early 2000s, because it was music that was so far removed from the pandemic. Songs like “Sorry, Blame It On Me” by Akon and “Beautiful Soul” by Jesse McCartney made me feel nostalgic. I was able to sing them from start to finish with no missed lyrics, and I felt accomplished. During a time where I was still suffering from morning sickness and not being able to leave my apartment, something as simple as singing a song made me feel amazing.

While the pandemic had me feeling down, I didn’t want to limit my intake of sad music. Sometimes I just needed a good cry and music was a safe way to do that. I listened to “Take Me Home, Country Roads” because it was sung in a death scene in an otherwise silly action movie that struck me. The reason I wanted to do this was because I wanted to be in control of my sadness, even if it was just for a few minutes.

Playing a music guessing game was something my husband and I decided to bring back to our games list, but this time around, we had had a lot more fun with it. We would each pick a pre-made playlist on Spotify and have the other person guess what song was playing. He and I are both competitive people, so games like these are fun for us. By reintroducing this game into our lives, we got to disconnect from all the ugliness the pandemic had caused. We started to play it more often because we had nothing else to do, but we also got to bond more. We decided to pick more obscure lists like wrestling entry music. Getting to experience the snippets of music, most of which ended up being unfamiliar, allowed me to feel happily frustrated when I didn’t know the answer.

Since I had a lot of time, I would sometimes put music channels on our TV, and through that, I got to experience everything from happiness to disbelief. I found a lot of new music through those channels, like Ashe. Some of the best songs I have heard from her are “Moral of the Story,” “Save Myself” and “Shitty Places, Pretty Faces.” Her music speaks to me on such a profound level.

I felt confused sometimes when I heard some new music that I found to be awful. Whether the discoveries made me feel positive or negative, I felt fortunate to be able to rebuild my relationship with music. 

Now that my son is here, and nearly a year since the lockdown started, music has become even more important to me. Music is now my source of energy and calm. I listen to a lot of baby songs now because I use that to bond with my son, though he seems to be more interested in the music I like instead, which makes me smile. Music has also become a teaching tool, and as someone who loves to teach, it enhances my overall relationship with music and with my son.

As cliché as it sounds, music has become my escape from the hardships of the pandemic. I have had the chance to redefine my relationship with music in a way that I didn’t think would happen. I realized that I was taking my love of music for granted, and now I no longer do that. 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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News

Protestors gather to protest against police-based solutions to the health crisis

“Money for the health, not for the police,” shouted protestors.

A group of organizations and protestors joined to march against the police-based solutions facing the COVID-19 pandemic on Feb. 6. The group of 300 people met at Place Émilie-Gamelin and walked down De Maisonneuve Boulevard.

Collectively, Meals For Milton-Parc, The Racial Justice Collective, Solidarity Across Borders, Ensemble Contre la Gentrification, L’Association Québécoise pour la promotion de la santé des personnes utilisatrices de drogues (AQPSUD), Pas de solution policière à la crise sanitaire, and many more marched.

The groups demanded new systemic solutions such as reinvestment in the social safety net, such as housing to fight against the pandemic.

By giving the police the power to decide how the curfew is applied arbitrarily, it deprives vulnerable people of their rights to the health and safety,” said Chantal Montmorency, a member of the AQPSUD.

Though the curfew has been suspended for the homeless population, the protestors believe that the curfew remains ineffective for other marginalized communities like people with precarious status, drug users, domestic violence victims, sex workers, and fugitives.

During her speech, Montmorency emphasized that the curfew prevents vulnerable people from accessing the health and security services and care they are entitled to and guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Montmorency also said that the AQPSUD has dealt with managing epidemics for over 30 years, and stated that repression, denunciations and police interventions are not the only solutions to end the pandemic. Whether it is an epidemic or pandemic, she said, it is prevention, education, and constant care that will solve the issue.

According to Maryan Kikhounga-Ngot, organizer of the housing group Projet d’organisation populaire, d’information et de regroupement (P.O.P.I.R), the protest’s goal was to address the housing crisis.

“We don’t need a curfew, we don’t need repression and repressive measures, but rather we need solutions.” According to Kikhounga-Ngot, the solution is to increase housing options for the homeless.

If [Raphaël André] had housing, he would have respected the curfew in his house as the prime minister wanted, and not dead in a public toilet.”

Raphaël André was a 51-year-old man who froze to death in a portable toilet at the corner of Milton Street and Parc Avenue trying to respect the curfew rules.

Member of the Socialist Fightback Students (SFS), Simon Berger, shared the same thoughts.“We are here because we vote [against] the repressive measures of the CAQ government like the curfew, and we are for solidarity measures against the pandemic.”

Berger clarified that he and the SFS did not attend the protest because they don’t believe in the virus. He explains that the best way to fight against the pandemic is for all the different organizations to protest for everyone’s health and safety by demanding democratic measures.

On the Facebook event page for the protest, a post by Pas de solution policière à la crise sanitaire says that the protest was a success, making it possible for their message to be heard loud and clear. The post concludes by assuring the public not to give up as the fight is not over.

 

Photographs by Christine Beaudion

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News

New study shows COVID-19 could become as common as a seasonal cold

Scientists explain that Coronavirus is likely here to stay

“It’s important to put this on the table: this virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” said Dr. Michael Ryan during a press conference held by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 13 of 2020.

It is just shy of one year later and it still doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight for COVID-19. However, a new study published in the Science journal shows that the virus is likely here to stay.

As a matter of fact, four of the six types of coronaviruses that are known to affect humans are already endemic, according to a study in the journal Trends in Microbiology. These four viruses circulate freely and are just about as disruptive as a common cold.

But what does it mean when a virus is endemic and how does it get to be that way?

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, “Endemic refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.”

Diseases that are usually present in a community — without causing disruption — are referred to as endemic or “baseline.” A disease can continue to circulate at this “baseline” level indefinitely, and continues to be considered endemic so long as its level of prevalence does not get any higher.

“Our model, incorporating these components of immunity … suggests that once the endemic phase is reached and primary exposure is in childhood, CoV-2 may be no more virulent than the common cold,” states the abstract in the Science study.

That is to say, COVID-19 will still be contagious but won’t cause people to get as sick over time, eventually becoming just another viral infection, as a result of herd immunity.

According to pharmaceutical company and developers of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer, this type of immunity takes place when a greater part of the population becomes immune to a disease as a result of either vaccinations or immunity developed as a consequence of having contracted the disease.

However, according to a 2020 article published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in order for herd immunity to be effective, approximately 50 to 90 per cent of the population must be immune.

That being said, with only 2.22 per cent of the Canadian population having been vaccinated with the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines and over 770,000 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of Jan. 30, there is still a long way to go until herd immunity is achieved.

Graphic by Taylor Reddam. @5ecret

Categories
Sports

Should the NBA postpone the 2020–21 season?

From safety to finances, fans wonder about the fate of the NBA’s season

A hotly contested topic among National Basketball Association (NBA) fans is whether or not the season should be postponed due to the large number of players being infected with COVID-19. Pushing through the remainder of the season will result in the league generating more income, allowing its players to continue as normal. However, there are safety concerns, as many players have caught the virus on and off the court.

First, one must consider the health implications this may have on the players. Players have caught COVID-19 from other teams across the league, and eventually one of these cases may lead to a player getting really sick. Also, due to the condensed season schedule, more players are playing back-to-back sets, meaning players are getting injured more frequently.

Some matches have also been completely one-sided since some teams had to play with less players due to quarantine protocols and an increase in injuries. Notably, the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat have recently played games with only eight players instead of the usual 15 that teams can dress on any given night due to a combination of injuries and COVID-19 protocols. The 76ers in particular only had seven players because they activated Mike Scott from the injured reserve a game early in order to have the minimum requirement of eight players in their game.

It is unfair to teams who just so happened to have a player catch the virus, especially if all their players were following the NBA protocols correctly. The league should consider postponing games more often to level the playing field, because being unlucky with COVID-19 cases for a small period could derail a team’s playoff hopes.

Oftentimes, a player tests positive for the virus, and since they have been in contact with the other players on the roster, some of those contacts must also enter a mandatory quarantine.

The Heat, for example, had an even record before losing a large portion of their roster to the pandemic protocols and since have had a record of 2-3, including a devastating 120-100 loss to the last-place Detroit Pistons. Some games were postponed for the team, but they are still missing some of their most important players and have had to go into some games shorthanded.

Financially, however, it makes sense to push through the season. By doing so, the league may be able to recuperate some of the lost income they accrued by not being able to have fans in most arenas.

A significant portion of the league’s revenue is generated through hosting games in arenas around North America, which means the league is now relying on television ratings and NBA League Pass subscriptions for their revenues. Television revenues in all sports have been in decline for various reasons; for example, some leagues chose to have some early kickoff times while the majority of at-home spectators had work. As well, during prime time this year due to the pandemic, there was a period of time when the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all had games. Usually, only two or three of these leagues are occurring at the same time, therefore people had to pick and choose which sport to watch on a given night.

Also, doing this would allow the league to keep player salaries and the salary cap consistent. If players’ salaries end up being affected by the pandemic, players may go on strike and a lockout situation may be initiated, like we have seen previously in the NHL and other sports leagues.

The NBA has rules in place which should be able to mitigate the spread of the virus amongst its players. However, there have been issues with players obeying the rules. Players such as James Harden and Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets have been known to go to bars and clubs, even though league rules specifically state to avoid these locations.

Postponing the NBA season would create more complications in terms of league finances and player salaries, but perhaps postponement is still the best option, as it might save some upcoming problems. There are strong cases on either side of the issue, and it is important to weigh the costs versus the benefits of such a move.

A small shutdown for a couple of weeks may help to get the players who are currently quarantined under the NBA’s health and safety protocols virus-free, but as long as COVID-19 is still impacting North America, the league will likely not be able to get back to normal.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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News

COVID-19 vaccine: what Canadians should expect in 2021

With over 100,000 Quebecers vaccinated, the province prepares for mass immunization

Two days before Christmas, Agnes Wong walked into the Berkley Care Centre in North Vancouver to begin her usual shift as a cook. Having worked at the senior home for 15 years, she was feeling particularly nervous that day. It was on Dec. 23 when Wong received her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

As a staff member of a long-term care centre, Wong became part of the first phase of Canada’s mass vaccination plan. This phase also includes residents of such care centres, as well as seniors aged 70 and over, frontline healthcare workers, and adults living in Indigenous communities.

Before the procedure, Wong was concerned about the vaccine’s potential side effects, as it was developed in less than a year. Pfizer and Moderna, the only companies whose vaccines have been approved by the Canadian government thus far, have both warned that patients may experience fatigue, headaches, chills, muscle pain, or fever after getting the vaccine.

However, Wong told The Concordian that she only felt slight pain in her left arm, in the area where the vaccine was administered.

“The pain disappeared two days later, so I don’t feel that discomfort anymore. I’m ready to receive the second dose of this vaccine, which should happen in about two weeks,” said Wong.

The World Health Organization recommends people take the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine within 21-28 days. It is expected to cause stronger side effects than the first dose, with 16 per cent of vaccinees aged 18 to 55 having experienced fever after its injection, as well as 11 per cent of those aged 56 and above.

The highest-priority groups are recommended to receive the vaccine before the rest of the population in every province and territory by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). However, each province, including Quebec, is responsible for its own vaccination plan.

Over 115,000 Quebecers have been vaccinated as of Jan. 15, according to Health Minister Christian Dubé. The province has already received 162,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and this number is expected to reach 250,000 next month.

As of now, Canada has vaccinated 1.1 per cent of its population and thus occupies the 13th position worldwide in terms of the COVID-19 vaccination rate. The current world leader is Israel, where a whopping 25 per cent of the population already received the COVID vaccine.

The estimated cost of Canada’s vaccination process remains unknown. However, it will be fully covered by the federal government, meaning all vaccine doses will be free of charge for Canadians.

Going forward, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Tuesday that the country is “on track to have every Canadian who wants a vaccine receive one by September.” This year, the government expects to receive a total of 80 million vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna.

At the same time, Trudeau made it clear that the COVID-19 vaccine will not be mandatory for the general public. The Prime Minister also reassured Canadians that there is no plan to develop a system of COVID-19 vaccine passports, which would act as official proof of one’s vaccination, as he believes it would create a divisive impact on the country.

According to an Ipsos/Radio-Canada poll conducted in late November, 16 per cent of Canadians definitely oppose taking the vaccine, while 64 per cent would be willing to get vaccinated. However, just 41 per cent of Canadians believe that vaccination should be mandatory for all, a poll from the Association for Canadian Studies reveals.

Wong also believes that mass vaccination will help Canada get through such a challenging period and move in a positive direction. She added, “I believe the vaccine should be widely administered because — just like a flu shot — it would give people a sense of security.”

There is no guarantee that all pandemic-related restrictions will be lifted as soon as the vaccine becomes available to the general public. However, mass vaccination is a major step towards returning to ordinary life in Canada.

The quicker everyone gets vaccinated, the quicker we’re going to be able to get back to a semblance of normality,” stated Trudeau.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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The return of Pass/Fail

The pass/fail option is back with some changes

As the winter semester begins and Concordia students return to classes, the pandemic’s second wave remains in full force. To help students cope through the stress of the pandemic, Concordia University has reintroduced a pass/fail option, which will be available for the fall 2020 and winter 2021 semester.

The option gives students the ability to change one of their grades in an eligible class from a standard letter grade, to a PASS grade. Choosing a pass will allow students to take a grade which does not affect their GPA.

In a statement made to The Concordian the university said, “Concordia has developed a set of compassionate measures to support students … including a pass/fail option for one eligible course for both the fall 2020 and winter 2021, the automatic conversions of eligible F grades to a DISC notation and simplified and flexible final exam deferral requests.”

The University introduced a similar option during the winter 2020 semester with one large difference: students could take advantage of the pass/fail option with as many eligible classes as they liked. But it was only intended as a measure to ease students through the sudden change to virtual classes.

“The unforeseen disruption brought on by the start of the pandemic in March 2020 led to exceptional measures following the unanticipated change from in-person to remote learning and exams in the middle of the winter 2020 term,” said Concordia’s statement.

Students are glad to see pass/fail return, but wish they knew about it at the beginning of the fall term.

“I’m glad that they gave the option but I wish there was more of a comprehensive plan before the end of term,” said Claire Dyment, a second year psychology student.

“I wish they had announced it and seen this was going to happen at the beginning of the term. A lot of people thought they were gonna do bad in certain classes so they dropped them, but they could have just passed.”

The initial removal of the pass/fail option was disappointing to many students, considering classes were still being held online. When a number of referendum questions were posed to students in a Concordia Student Union by-election last November, students were asked if they would like to see the pass/fail option return while classes remained online. With a 17.8 per cent turnout of Concordia’s student population voting to bring back pass/fail, 91.5 per cent of students taking part voted yes.

The change to only allowing one pass per term seems to be a decision that some students think is fair.

“I think one class is pretty good, if we had too much wiggle room kids will start taking advantage of it,” said Dyment.

Some were also worried about how being able to pass/fail all of their classes would affect their future.

“I personally think it’s difficult to say if it’s a good thing or not … we haven’t had the conversation about how pass/fail will impact students in the long term, if having a bachelor’s degree that has a lot of pass/fail courses in it will hinder your chances at employment … or graduate school in the future.” Said Aya Chkirate, a first year finance student at Concordia.

“But at the same time I think it’s a good thing for students. In the short term it lets students focus on courses that might be more difficult.” Chkirate continued.

Students will be able to exercise the pass/fail option for the fall 2020 term as of Jan. 18 on their MyConcordia page. The deadline to request a pass is Jan. 22, 2021 at 5 p.m EST.

 

Graphic by Taylor Reddam

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Pandemic stress puts frontline workers’ lives on the line and society’s values on trial

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

A nurse long-term care nurse shares her experience of working during the pandemic

With a passion to heal people’s pain and a Christian devotion to serving others, Mary Morcos, 32, has always dreamed of becoming a nurse one day. Little had she known about what the COVID-19 pandemic had in store for her.

Morcos pursued her dreams of becoming a nurse after immigrating with her family to Canada from Egypt in 2011. She put her mind to training to become an orderly. She overcame all barriers possible: she learned French so she could use it to study; she lived on a tight budget while also taking care of her family during her two-year-medical training in Montreal.

After being an on-call orderly at several long-term care homes, she landed a permanent job as a CHSLD orderly at a long-term care residence.

On a typical non-pandemic day, Morcos signs in and checks the daily reports written about the elderly residents she takes care of. Her tasks range from measuring blood pressure rates, to administering medications or disinfecting wounds. She also feeds clients who have trouble swallowing and looks after their cleanliness.

Morcos has quickly grown attached to her clients over the months she worked there.

“I’m a warm person. I can’t live without people. Even when some clients are rude to me, I feel so sad when they are gone,” says Morcos.

A storyteller by default, she remembers the most peculiar details of her clients’ lives and stories. The symptoms and medical cases may vary, but one story will stay in her memory forever.

“It’s the same story. It’s about feeling abandoned by your children after all the years and losing relevance to society and the world,” said Morcos.

At those homes, some residents have mild illnesses, such as diabetes or blood pressure; other patients have complicated illnesses made worse by the ravages of time.

“Alzheimer’s patients are the hardest cases. They can harm themselves and blame it on others. I have seen residents walking naked, or wailing, or talking nonsense. I’ve seen all that,” Morcos said.

When the pandemic broke out, Morcos found herself obliged to do more with less. There was inadequate protective equipment at first, which scared many workers off.

She started obsessing over her temperature or how many times she sneezed or coughed each day. She would shower after work and change her clothes, then shower again at home. She has done several COVID-19 tests and has had to wait in anguish for days awaiting the results.

There were days when Morcos could not go back home because she had to spend some nights at the shelter during times of pressure. At home where her husband and daughters confined themselves completely for four months, she totally refrained from hugging or kissing her children.

In a separate room, she could only talk briefly to them and hear their voices.

“Mina, my husband, is a hypochondriac. He was so anxious and could not eat with me or sleep next to me. The news was grim; knowing that I worked at a place with infected people was too much for him to take,” said Morcos.

Her mood has gradually started to go down despite her bubbly sociable personality. Morcos faced bouts of anxiety which explained her psychosomatic symptoms such as stomach ulcers and headaches.

But she had a moral obligation to go on.

“If everyone left, who could be there for them? I could not turn my back on them,” Morcos said.

It is still not clear how CHSLD organizations are assisting health care workers as they weather the tough weeks of the pandemic and stay resilient.

Psychologists are growing more interested in understanding how working on the front lines of COVID-19 could be tampering with the personal lives, relationships and sanity of many doctors, nurses and support workers.

According to Dr. Lucille Lufinni, a psychologist residing in Montreal, monitoring the rates of mood, sleep, and anxiety among healthcare workers during such a crisis is key.

“Depression, anxiety and insomnia are commonly cited symptoms among frontline health care workers, and we need to do more research studies if we really want to help those affected workers,” said Dr. Lufinni.

At work, Morcos sensed that things were growing more morbid.

“I remember hearing many desperate residents saying that they wished the virus would come and kill them. Death was their only savior from the prison they were living in,” said Morcos.

Residents were not allowed to leave their rooms, which led many to fall behind on autonomy and mobility. They were soon back in their diapers, glued to their beds.

Reports also mentioned how sanitary conditions in the long-term care homes were deteriorating: residents were hungry, thirsty and reeking with the smell of their urine and feces amidst dirty rooms with fruit flies buzzing everywhere.

Morcos has been able to deal with the job-related trauma. She could also understand her husband’s abstinence. But she could not wrap her head around seeing her friends distance themselves from her.

“They would plan outings and not tell me. They made excuses so they would not see me. If they were avoiding any contact with anyone, I would understand,” said Morcos, adding “but they were socializing with other people who worked at drug stores. Besides, everyone was spreading the virus.”

Morcos empathized with her clients at the nursing home and shared a similar sense of estrangement and disillusionment in humanity when her friends acted that way towards her. Like her clients, she did not receive the nourishing friend-to-friend support she expected and needed.

“It’s like when a man is loved by his wife, then all of a sudden he gets sick, and she asks for a divorce instead of being there for him. A friend who I cannot count on at a time of need is no longer a friend,” said Morcos.

“Nurses and orderlies are doing what many other people cannot do. This is a stressful job. We are frontline workers, and that means we are putting our own lives on the line,” Morcos said.  

“We are brave citizens, not monsters. We deserve better treatment and more support.”

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Swept under the rug: disappearing Indigenous languages

Brazil’s native identity threatened amid COVID-19

Around 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide today, yet over 40 per cent of them are at risk of disappearing before the end of this century. On average, one Indigenous language dies every two weeks, and this rate has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brazil is one of the most vulnerable countries currently seeing its native languages disappear, despite being a very diverse nation. The largest and most populated country in South America is home to 305 Indigenous ethnic groups, with almost every tribe having its own language. The number, however, was much higher before the 16th century: thousands of Indigenous languages have disappeared in Brazil since it was colonized by Portugal during that period.

Elderly natives are almost always the last representatives of their tribe’s language, since languages disappear when the younger generation no longer uses, or even understands, them.

First, the language dies when it loses its last native speaker. Then, it becomes extinct when it is no longer understood even by second-language speakers.

Such occurrences are far from uncommon, as elders and parents face challenges when passing their language to the next generation. As a result of European colonialism, Indigenous languages were unable to solidify their position not only in Brazil, but also in most of sub-Saharan and West Africa, as well as North America.

English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese became the lingua francas of the former colonies. Different ethnic groups would use European languages to communicate with one another. Moreover, when young Indigenous people look for opportunities in their own country, mastering a European language is a necessity, while their mother tongue’s use in the professional world is virtually non-existent.

However, the Guaraní people in Brazil managed to resist assimilation and keep its language alive. There are over 50,000 Guaraní people in the country, and their language is even taught in the community’s public elementary schools.

Other Indigenous languages in Brazil, though, have an unfortunate fate. Puruborá, Omagua, and Tariana are already considered critically endangered, with only 100, 10, and two native speakers left on the planet, respectively.

In 2020, the biggest challenge for endangered Indigenous languages is the pandemic, as elders are the age group most vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus. With over 175,000 pandemic-related deaths in Brazil, the situation is alarming for Indigenous groups. Not only their language, but also their history, values, traditions, and entire cultures are at risk of being permanently erased.

 

Graphic by @the.beta.lab

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