Tag: The Concordian

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Arts Photo Essay

Delve into the parallel world of barbershops: a photo essay

Photo by Valentine Alibert

Capturing barbers and clients in their daily lives

Photo by Valentine Alibert
Photo by Valentine Alibert
  1. Co-owner of Savvy barbershop Dave Lechasseur cuts the hair of his client. Feb. 1, 2023. The barbershop Savvy is located on St. Hubert Street and has a vintage and busy old-fashioned style.
  2. Barber Franck Duval gets closer to his client. The Emporium barbershop is located at the corner of St-Zotique and Parc Avenue in Mile-Ex.
Photo by Valentine Alibert
Photo by Valentine Alibert

3. Co-owner of Savvy barbershop Mikey Rose shaves his customer’s beard

4. Barber Franck Duval shaves his customer’s beard with a razor.

Photo by Valentine Alibert
Photo by Valentine Alibert

5. The barber Mikey Rose shaves the beard of his customer with his razor. The barbershop Savvy is located on St Hubert Street and has a vintage and busy style.

6. Franck Duval shaves his customer’s beard with a razor.

Photo by Valentine Alibert
Photo by Valentine Alibert

7. The barber Mikey Rose shaves the beard of his customer with his razor. The barbershop Savvy is located on St Hubert Street and has a vintage and busy style.

8. Franck Duval shaves his customer’s beard with a razor.

Photo by Valentine Alibert
Photo by Valentine Alibert

9. Mikey Rose massages the beard of the client with his hands.

10. Barber Frank Duval sits in one of the armchairs and watches a customer walking through the door.

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Features

Holocaust Survivor Angela Orosz speaks on intergenerational trauma

From left to right: Andrew Fuchs, Fischel Goloig, Lisa LaFlamme, Angela Orosz. Behind, right: Patrick Bordeaux and Daniel Amar. Photo by Emily Pasquarelli // The Concordian

“I dreamt of the Germans,” says Orosz’s daughter who was conditioned to learn adulthood before she even knew the meaning of the word

When she was just three years old, Katy Orosz was sent grocery shopping on her own. Unbeknownst to her, her mother Angela was secretly following along to ensure her safety. Still, the trauma of that early push for independence lingers in Katy today.

In late January, Angela Orosz, one of the youngest Holocaust survivors, spoke at the Montreal Holocaust Museum (MHM) to discuss her daughter’s experiences with intergenerational trauma.

The event, which held an audience of 350 people, took place on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. 

Former Chief Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV News, Lisa Laflamme, hosted the public interview with Orosz to discuss how the genocide impacted aspects of her life, notably her motherhood.

Laflamme covered Orosz’s story on CTV News in 2020, when the two visited Auschwitz. It had been the survivor’s first time back at the concentration camp since her birth.

Orosz was born on Dec. 21, 1944, in German-occupied Poland at the Auschwitz concentration camp. She was one of few to survive the liberation that following year.

The public discussion unraveled the painful psychological impacts of the Holocaust, and Orosz explained its influence on her early parental experiences.

During the mid to late 1960s, Orosz gave birth to her daughter Katy in Budapest, Hungary. Orosz passed down many of the “survivor skills” that she learned from her mother Vera Otvos-Beins. This consisted of sending her young daughter off to go grocery shopping and take public transportation “alone.”

“She was three years old. She can’t forgive me. I taught her how to go shopping by herself. She didn’t know I was following her, but I wanted her to have that feeling that whatever is happening, she is not lost,” confessed Orosz. 

This motherly instinct to push for early independence and adulthood in her toddler reflected the trauma she endured when anticipating a recurrence of the Holocaust. 

“I think it’s understandable, given what you’ve been through, what your mother probably taught you as a little girl,” said Laflamme. The journalist sympathized with Orosz on the challenges of teaching one’s own child as a survivor. 

In August of 2016, Orosz was asked to speak about the transmission of psychological trauma from mothers to children at a psychiatric conference in Dresden. However, Orosz’ reaction to the invite involved instant denial to her repressed feelings of trauma. “I’m not going to do it, I don’t have trauma,” she said.  

Orosz went directly to her two children to ask about their thoughts on her attending the event. When she questioned her having trauma, her son had little to say. “But my daughter gave me a list to China and back, on what I did,” she jokingly stated. 

“She said, ‘Mom, are you telling me you don’t have trauma? Your whole life is the Holocaust, everything was the Holocaust. You wanted me to be strong and you made me scared. I couldn’t go to sleep because I dreamt of the Germans,’” explained Orosz. 

Sarah Fogg is a staff member at the MHM and a third-generation survivor to her two grandparents, Marek and Mara Lewkowicz, who survived the Holocaust in Balkhash, Kazakhstan and Kassel, Germany. After World War II, the young couple began a family and fled as refugees to Canada, where they started a new chapter in their lives. 

Fogg has worked with Orosz for years, and emphasized her good intent in trying to protect her daughter from potential harms after the Holocaust. 

The thought of Orosz instilling fear into her daughter at such a young age had never been her intention. “For Angi, it wasn’t from that perspective at all, she was just trying to build a safer human,” expressed Fogg.

Orosz felt strongly towards being open about her past with her children, in hopes of teaching them resilience and gratefulness. 

She referred to memories early on in her parenthood when her children would complain about something. For instance, if they disliked the meal their mother cooked for them, Orosz would reply with “you know how happy [you] would have been in Auschwitz?”.

“We were happy if water came from the faucets in Auschwitz, how could you dare to complain?” she often asked her children.

When her children were young, she juggled the task of being a novice mother while carrying the weight of being a Holocaust survivor. Orosz was also just trying her best, and many other survivors were too.

“When I think of the survivors that I know, again I can’t speak for everybody, everyone’s different, everyone has just tried their best. They came to Canada as refugees, they had to build new lives, learn new languages, new jobs, start from nothing. And I think they all just did the best they could, really,” said Fogg.

Despite never enduring trauma from the Holocaust, Fogg sympathizes with other descendants who’ve felt as though they lived within their families’ tragic stories. 

“Now that I work at the museum, I know that there’s a right way and a wrong way to bring up the history because it could be really traumatizing to talk about it, for the listener and for the survivor,” said Fogg.

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Sports

Black Ice: testimonies of discrimination in yet another sport

Former Montreal Canadien Georges Laraque at the Monreal premiere. Photo by Amru Salahuddien

The Montreal premiere of Hubert Davis’ Black History documentary took place in Concordia’s Hall building on the evening of Feb. 13

“Talk to anybody of colour that tried to make it playing hockey up there, listen to the stories they had. It would be like, ‘Dude, were you in Alabama? No, I was in Manitoba,’ said comedian Bill Burr during an interview with Conan O’Brien on TBS. 

The clip kicked off what seemed like an endless series of videos and news reports of soul-crushing acts of racial atrocities: social media posts, videos of fans, and players spewing slurs and pantomiming acts of hate, all without any repercussions. In his new documentary, Hubert Davis underscores that BIPOC have seldom been accepted in the sport dominated by white people. 

Black Ice covers the Black history of hockey, and how Black players’ relationships and experiences with the sport have forever been bitter.

From the immigrants escaping slavery through the underground railroad to young children presently learning how to take their first strides on the ice, Davis covered the wide-spanning history of racial intolerance from the perspective of the harmed. For decades, ignorance and intolerance have been commonplace in locker rooms, from youth house leagues all the way to the NHL.

More importantly, the documentary focuses on current trailblazers who aim to make hockey a more inclusive sport, once and for all. These important members of the community have made waves by spreading awareness and encouraging BIPOC children to pursue their love of the game, all while educating and supporting them through the challenges they face.

Many beloved names from the hockey community spoke on their experiences with hate, such as producer P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds, Sarah Nurse, and Matt Dumba. The latter was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2020, which recognizes exemplary leadership qualities and contribution to the community. Dumba is also a member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance. 

Black Ice speaks about many historical figures and events such as the Coloured Hockey League, which was founded in Nova Scotia in 1895, and where the slap shot was pioneered. The greatest Black player to never play in the NHL, Herb Carnegie, was also featured in the documentary. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame a whole 68 years after his retirement, and 10 years posthumously. He turned down the New York Rangers’ low-ball salary offer, only after Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe announced that he’ll give $10,000 to anyone who can turn him white.

After the screening, a Q&A panel was held including former Montreal Canadiens Georges Laraque, Frantzi Joseph (father of NHL players Mathieu and Pierre-Oliver Joseph), and thirteen-year-old aspiring hockey player Keisha. The three discussed their own experiences, setting an even more intimate tone to the evening.

Black Ice is available to stream on Crave, and aired on TSN.

Categories
Briefs News

Roméo Dallaire to deliver speech at Loyola Campus

Dallaire will talk about his experience dealing with the Rwandan Genocide and his humanitarian work

Roméo Dallaire is coming to Concordia’s Loyola Campus to give a speech on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. 

The humanitarian and order of Canada recipient will speak and answer questions from Concordia students about his experiences in Rwanda and his humanitarian work.

Dallaire is best known for his role as the force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) from 1993 to 1994. During this period, Dallaire witnessed the Rwandan genocide, one of the deadliest genocides in history. The inability of the UNAMIR to mitigate the death toll had severe consequences on Dallaire’s mental health, leading him to eventually being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In 2004, he appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to testify in the trial of Théoneste Bagosora, the organizer of the Rwandan genocide. Dallaire’s testimony was critical to obtaining a guilty verdict in that trial. In 2005, he decided to get involved in Canadian politics by becoming a senator.

Since returning from Rwanda, Dallaire has dedicated his time to advocating for military veterans and raising awareness on mental health in his book, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. There is also a documentary version of the book, and it’s available online for all Concordia students.

In 2007, the former lieutenant general founded the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative. The organization works with Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. They try to end the recruitment of children for war. In order to do so, they work with governments by giving them the proper training to prevent the use of a child as a soldier.

Since its inception, the initiative has changed its name to the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security. 

The conference will be held in the CJ building at Concordia’s Loyola campus on Feb. 22, 2023. Students who want to attend the conference must register with Concordia’s journalism department online.

Categories
Arts

Meta-musical One Day showcases at Segal Centre

Cast of "One Day" at the Segal Centre Jared Lackman-Mincoff/The Concordian

The Montreal-based musical, which has been a work-in-progress for six years, showcased before a sold out audience

The musical is made up of four main characters — all of whom are queer men. Two of the characters are writers collaborating on a musical. Throughout their entire process, they are focused on writing what they know. Their musical is based on their lived experiences. 

“The way the two in the play were writing was basically my experience writing this show,” said writer and director Trevor Barrette. In the show, the two writers are scrambling to make a deadline to submit their musical, which Barrette says was precisely his experience when he was presenting the musical. But the musical has evolved into more than that.

“Over six years, we’ve turned it into the piece it is today, which I think is a really solid play,” Barrette said. “But it’s gone through a lot of change.”

Barrette started by writing the two characters of the musical within the musical, who were based off of characters he had written previously, and then he added the writers of the musical as characters later.

“I was finding the writing experience really fun,” he said. “It actually started with the characters and then going ‘No, I’m more interested in me writing for them than their own story.’”

The two writers within the musical often bring up the theme of ‘writing what you know,’ which was important for Barrette in the production process, but it was only a starting block.

“Sometimes you start off by trying to make some parallels with your own life,” he said. But a lot of the meaning in what he produced was only clear to him after the fact. “Sometimes you write something and people come up later and [say] ‘it’s so interesting you went that way or talked about this or made those connections’ and you [think] ‘oh I didn’t think I did, but I guess I did.’”

Barrette said that the feedback he has received since the showcase has been nothing but positive. “Everybody is finding different ways to relate, to connect to the story,” he said. “That’s been really, really exciting for me.”

He wanted to hold the showcase to get an idea of how his work is being perceived. “The audience is such an important part of theater, that’s why we do it,” he explained. “We’ve spent so much time making this piece what it is now, and we were so eager to share it with an audience. This is really the last big moment of development for us for the next little while.”

The musical contains many specific mentions of Montreal, which makes it more interesting if the musical were to showcase elsewhere. “I want to start it in Montreal but then I also think the play can be very easily translated to other places,” Barrette assured, joking that “there’s always a West Island.”

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Opinions

Are Yerba Mate energy drinks racist?

CARLEEN LONEY/The Concordian @shloneys

The rise of a new kind of energy drink raises serious issues

We’ve all seen them around. Whether in the hands of hipsters, on the shelves of your local store or thrown away carelessly on the street, Yerba Mate energy drinks (pronounced yer-ba ma-té) have become a classic drink for those looking for a healthier alternative to traditional energy drinks. Students love to drink them as a quick pick-me-up to meet the busy demands of university life. 

But where do these drinks come from? It might seem trivial to talk about a canned energy drink, but behind the fancy label listing health benefits and glitzy marketing on Instagram lies a story of racial appropriation, and greed.

Made from the leaves of ilex paraguariensis, a tree native to the subtropical forests of South America, Yerba Mate is a drink enjoyed by millions of people across Latin America. In some countries, such as Argentina and Paraguay, it is a common part of daily life and is deeply rooted in the local culture and identity.

The drink also holds a central place in the culture of the Guaraní, an Indigenous population located in the previously mentioned countries. Since long before the arrival of Spanish colonization, Yerba Mate has been central to their worldview, where it plays a core role in religious practices and creation stories.

Unlike the canned versions sold in Canada and the US, in South America, Yerba Mate is always drunk as an infusion, with hot water poured into a cup containing loose mate leaves. The resulting mixture is sipped through a straw with a special strainer called a “bombilla.”

Unfortunately, the arrival of this intrinsically South American product in Canadian stores has not promoted better understanding and knowledge of this continent and its people. Instead, it is yet another example of its exploitation by foreigners. 

Long the victim of domination and colonization by outside powers, today Latin America continues to suffer from high rates of inequality, poverty, and corruption, all while huge sections of the economy remain in the hands of Western companies, including many based in Canada. Many of these businesses have enriched themselves by exploiting weak states and cheap labour to extract ever more resources, material, and profit from the continent while giving very little back.

While perhaps a less extreme example of this issue, the US and Canadian companies creating Yerba Mate energy drinks for the North American market are still a part of this trend.

The cultivation of Yerba Mate, which takes place largely in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, is mostly carried out by poorer Indigenous people and is notorious for its abuses. In response, some North American brands are keen to highlight their sustainable practices and fair treatment of workers. Guayakí, a California-based brand of Yerba Mate energy drink, proudly claims on their website to support smallholders and Indigenous producers. They also state that “every purchase of Guayakí makes a positive global impact,” which they even trademarked as “Market Driven Regeneration™.”

However, as pointed out by researcher Ana Fochesatto in her thesis “Yerba Mate: National Project to Emerging Superfood“, all this does is recreate the Spanish colonial system of encomiendas where in return for protection, Indigenous peoples were forced to cultivate the plant as tribute to European masters. Only this time, the tribute is to a North American corporation that, according to their latest filings, raised $75 million from investors.

Furthermore, the marketing behind many of the major brands promotes a fetishised view of South America as a land of faraway jungles and primitive natives. Mate libre, a Yerba Mate energy drink from Quebec, describes mate as “the super-natural energy of South American rainforests.” Mateína, another Québec-based brand, states on its website that the local Indigenous population considered mate a “gift from the gods” that “gave them strength and courage.” 

While advertised as the sustainable, healthy and ethical choice for conscious consumers, in reality Yerba Mate energy drinks are the result of Western companies profiting off the appropriation of an intrinsically Latin American product, marketing that reduces the continent to an exoticised object and dubious promises of market-driven solutions to societal inequalities. There is nothing wrong with enjoying these products, but as consumers, we ought to stop buying into their shallow marketing.

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Arts

Laundry, taxes and googly eyes: frontrunners for the Oscars

Graphic, James Fay/The Concordian

The film Everything, Everywhere All at Once received 11 Oscar nominations, making the film the frontrunner for the upcoming Academy Awards

Everything, Everywhere All at Once is the frontrunner for the 2023 Academy Awards, the film received 11 nominations, four of which in the big five categories: best picture, best director, best screenplay and best lead actress.

The 2023 ceremony marks a historic year for Asian actors, with four receiving nominations — the most in the history of the award show. Everything, Everywhere All at Once actress Michelle Yeoh received a lead actress nomination for her role as Evelyn Wang and, if she were to win the Oscar, she would be the first Asian actress to do so. 

She shared her feelings on the nomination in an interview with The New York Times. “Of course, I’m over the moon, but I feel a little sad because I know we know there have been amazing actresses from Asia that come before me, and I stand on their shoulders,” she said.

Three more Everything, Everywhere All at Once actors received nominations: Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis for best supporting actress and Ke Huy Quan for best supporting actor.

Yeoh shared her experience working with Quan on the Los Angeles Times’ podcast The Envelope. “Before ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ came out, there weren’t even stories like this that were told. So I am very proud of Ke. He saw the opportunity and he ran for it. But what I’m saying is: Give us more opportunities.”

The film — written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert —  premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) on March 11, 2022 and released in the United States on April 8, 2022. 

Everything, Everywhere All at Once follows the story of Evelyn Wang, a laundromat owner, who is visited by a version of her husband Waymond Wang, played by Quan, who needs her help to save the multiverse. However, at the core of the bright colours, googly eyes and elaborate costumes is a story of love, family and acceptance.  

The languages spoken in the film switch between Mandarin, English and Cantonese. “It is very confusing when you are watching it at the beginning, but we wanted you to feel that. We wanted you to step into what is a real representation of what an Asian immigrant family would be at home,” said Yeoh on The Envelope.  

Everything, Everywhere All at Once received almost universal acclaim and is already doing well this awards season, with Yeoh and Quan having already won Golden Globes for their performances. 

Quan’s emotional acceptance speech pulled on many heartstrings, with him thanking Steven Spielberg for giving him his first role as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He shared how he long felt it was impossible to surpass his childhood accomplishments, and thanked Kwan and Scheinert for giving him “an opportunity to try again.”

The 2023 Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air on March 12 at 8 p.m.

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Concert Reviews Music

Super Bowl LVII halftime show: Rihanna delivers

Photo credit to Shutterstock

 Rihanna’s performance could have been perfect if only for one extra thing

Everyone tuned in to Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, not necessarily for the football game, but for Rihanna performing at the halftime show.

From the moment I heard she was going to perform, I knew it was going to be good, and so did everybody else. But that also came with high expectations, at least from my end, because well, it’s Rihanna. And after last year’s iconic show with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem, just to mention a few, I was ready to witness another flawless performance.

There were many speculations as to how the show would start, but Rihanna chose to open it with “B*tch Better Have My Money,” as she stood on a moving platform with lights that couldn’t have been any better. It gave everybody chills and set the tone for what would be an amazing show.

Rihanna has so many top hits that people were worried she wouldn’t be able to play their favourite songs, but the list of songs she performed was spot-on: banger after banger.

For me, the “O.M.G. Rihanna is performing and it’s absolutely iconic” moment hit when the intro to “Run This Town” started playing, and her ending the show with “Diamonds” was just the cherry on top.

But as much as I enjoyed her performance, something was lacking: a surprise guest.

There’s no denying that her baby being the surprise guest isn’t adorable, but a guest who could’ve performed with her (Drake, Jay-Z, where you at?) would have been the it factor that would have brought this show to the next level.

So when she transitioned from “Rude Boy” to “Work,” I was disappointed not seeing Drake appear on stage. It was the same when she started singing “Run This Town.” Having Jay-Z perform with her, followed by “Umbrella,” would have made the show as close to perfect as it could’ve been.

In the end, Rihanna still did it all. She sang, danced, performed, and levitated on platforms — all while being pregnant. The backup dancers and outfits really brought the whole thing together.

Overall, it was an enjoyable halftime show that gave everyone chills. And just like she always does, the queen delivered.

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Music Quickspins

QUICKSPINS: I and II – John Frusciante

 RHCP guitarist delivers an album out of left field

If you like ambient noise or are a synth nerd that likes fiddling around with drones and beep-boop chatter, then you’ve come to the right place. John Frusciante, most known for his role as guitarist in the band Red Hot Chili Peppers, just released his 13th studio album.

While this album might give people like my girlfriend anxiety, I can safely say that it helped me zone in on tasks that I had to accomplish (for instance, this review). 

Frusciante is known for his creative prowess in writing music, namely on guitar. However, this album takes it one step further in the realm of ambient synth music.

While Frusciante isn’t wading in uncharted waters with synthesis, vinyl-only I and digital/CD release II take the cake for his approaching a different method of songwriting. In his words, he “listened to and made music where things generally happen gradually rather than suddenly.” He used two analog synthesizers or groove-boxes from the company Elektron to make this ambient album. 

The album starts off with a harsh cicada-like synth on “Golpin.” The “trees are screaming” sound slowly evolves, allowing a sub-octave oscillator to fit in the mix. Five minutes into the 12-minute track, the wave takes an eerie turn with a slowly descending plucked sound, giving me the feeling that I’m being watched and followed.  

“Blesdub Dot” first starts off with what sounds like a two-oscillator waveform that has a smooth low-frequency output. What that means is that the sound rhythmically switches to a lower frequency at a set interval. Throughout the song, Frusciante implements a high-frequency wave with high-pass treble glitch noises. They sound like white noise chatter. 

This album is a bit weird for me to have a favourite track on. I would rather choose the songs that were busier than others. The first one being “Pyn,” for its ’90s-style chatter that tickled my brain the same way that “Bucephalus Bouncing Ball [Chosen by Warp co-founder Steve Beckett]” does with its rounded percussive notes. My next recommended song is “Clank” because it would fit right into the official soundtrack of a thriller or eerie movie.  

Honestly, I can say I enjoyed listening to this album. It’s not an easy listen for sure. In an age where music has to have a lot of shock value (trap stars I’m looking at you), and has multiple sharp twists and turns per song, this LP takes time to introduce new ideas to you. Best for working on programming, writing Stephen King-esque novels and cramming for exams with forbidden white noise.

P.S. Don’t listen to “Glavation” if you get easily overwhelmed.  

Trial track: Pyn 

Rating: 8/10 (for ambient drones’ sake!)

Categories
News

Concordia’s Zero-Carbon Future

Increasing Green Spaces. Photo by Ivona Bossert

Concordia researchers attend a panel on decarbonizing the city

As the city of Montreal works to become carbon-neutral in the next three decades, Concordia researchers are on the front lines of this energy-effectiveness initiative.

On Feb. 8, Concordia Public Scholar Mostafa Saad organized and moderated the panel: Decarbonizing Canadian Buildings: Opportunities and Obstacles. The four guest speakers, including both researchers and professional engineers, gathered to share their expertise in designing energy-efficient cities.

Saad is an engineer, and he explained that the panel provided him with the opportunity to learn about the business and policy side of the decarbonization movement. 

“It’s great to see from [the panelists’] experiences, what they encountered in that field,” said Saad. “It’s also guiding for a lot of students. They get to see what is really out there, and if they can make contributions towards that when they graduate or even during their studies.”

The decarbonization of buildings is an important part of Montreal’s 2030–50 Climate Plan, which aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. According to the city’s latest numbers, buildings generate 26 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Montreal. 

The plan aims to make buildings emit zero emissions by 2040. Owners will have to declare gas and fuel oil heating, and buildings that are bigger than 2,000 square meters will have to display their building’s energy consumption and work towards reaching zero emissions.

Sophie Lalonde is the director of the Service de la gestion et de la planification des immeubles for the city of Montreal. She is optimistic about the decarbonization movement despite major challenges it faces, such as a lack of funding, workforce shortages, and Hydro-Québec’s limited capacity. 

“Will we reach our goals? Yes, we will, by working together,” Lalonde said.  “I think that, more and more, there’s a rising awareness. And it’s accelerating. For my part, I’m convinced that it can only lead to small, positive steps, and it’s going to keep getting better.”

In Saad’s eyes, the first step to decarbonizing the city is making the data more available to policy makers and homeowners. Saad hopes to see technology develop that can explain the energy consumption of each building to its owner and how renovations are saving them money in the long run. 

According to Saad, the movement should prioritize renovating existing buildings with new energy-efficient approaches. 

“We have a quote that says: ‘the greenest building is the building that exists,’” he explained. “It’s already there, so if you add anything to it, you’re increasing the carbon, usually.”

Saad’s vision for the future of Montreal focuses on densification by making the city more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, as well as improving public transit. He would like to see Montreal become a “15-minute walk type of city,” in which work, home and services are no more than 15 minutes away from each other.  

One of the panellists featured at the event was Concordia professor Ursula Eicker, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Cities and Communities at Concordia University. Professor Eicker’s research focuses on every aspect of a city that creates a carbon footprint.

Eicker’s ideal version of Montreal focuses on replacing cars with public transit and on increasing green spaces, bike lanes and pedestrian streets. She also hopes that empty office buildings downtown may be transformed into apartments. 

“I’m pretty optimistic that we see some major changes in the next few years,” she said, “and really promoting Concordia as a sustainability champion, [which] means zero emission for the building operations, but much more than that: some talked about the solar integration, much more use of green spaces, urban farming…”

“It’s a really good time, just now, to move ahead, because we are all pretty aligned on where we should move towards,” she said. “And now we just need to make it happen.”

Categories
News

Government of Canada gives Concordia researchers $497,000 for climate research

A Concordia engineering research team will look into ways to reuse CO2 emissions. A first for this field of research, this project aims to help Canada reach its carbon-emission goals by 2050.

A research team from Concordia’s department of chemical and materials engineering, led by Yaser Khojasteh, was awarded $497,000 by the Climate Action and Awareness Fund, a federal government initiative to invest in Canadian projects that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

One of Canada’s goals for ecological transition is to become carbon neutral by 2050, which means that the Canadian economy would no longer emit greenhouse gases or would offset all of its emissions.

Some of the means of achieving carbon neutrality are what are known as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) techniques. CCUS is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) for the purpose of recycling it for future use. The captured CO2 can be converted into hydrocarbons (such as methanol) or plastics and concrete. It could even be utilized for various chemical syntheses.

Khojasteh explained that by 2030, industries will have to pay a tax on CO2 emissions. According to chapter 2 of Canada’s 2030 emissions reduction plan, beginning in 2023, the tax on every ton of carbon emitted will begin to increase by $15 every year until it reaches $170 per ton.

One of the research team’s goals is to find cheaper ways to capture and recycle CO2 to encourage industries to eliminate the carbon they produce. Khojasteh is hopeful that if they can find a way to make the process cheaper than the tax that companies will have to pay, recycling will be an easy decision.

“Eventually we can use renewable energy for, say, our electricity demand, but chemicals, polymer, these kinds of things we are always going to need and these are the [manufacturing] plants that are going to be in operation forever,” said Khojasteh. 

CCUS techniques can often be very energy-consuming and expensive. Khojasteh explained that the carbon dioxide reutilization process often consumes a lot of hydrogen. The research team will therefore aim to find ways to reduce the hydrogen consumption or propose processes that require smaller amounts.

“We’re trying to explore different options, improve our process efficiency for the larger scale,” said Khojasteh. “It is something that hopefully will be ready soon because time is very limited. We know that, according to some projections, it could be a matter of a decade before the window is closed for reversible action.”

Categories
News

Concordia’s steady path to a positive environment for the Black community

Since the 2020 Black Lives Matter surge, Concordia University’s initiatives to create a welcoming space for Black students and minorities alike have picked up steam

The world is now nearly three years removed from the massive wave of civil unrest sparked all around the globe by George Floyd’s tragic death. The sorrowful event also kicked off Concordia’s long-term commitment to creating a more welcoming and safe environment for minorities on campus. Today, student services like the Black Perspectives Office (BPO) are finally starting to find their footing within Concordia’s environment. 

Designed to connect and advocate for Black communities, the BPO came into effect in October 2020. The service is a way for Black students to find mentorship, support and funding opportunities to accompany them through their academic endeavours. 

Most recently, the office underwent a change with the arrival of its new manager Maurice Riley Case, who was appointed in January. Riley Case has a long history of advocacy for minorities and social work all around the country. 

“I hope to bring an even greater attention to the diversity and intersectionality of Black identities,” said Riley Case. “My colleagues and I look forward to collaborating with various units in order to design and sustain the conditions for Black Concordians to flourish across the University.”

Black students are a minority at Concordia. The BPO aims to help Black students reinforce and recognize their identity while connecting them to other members of the community. Riley Case calls this “Black Flourishing,” the celebration of range of experiences of the Black community. 

The BPO manager explained that the establishment of a “Black-specific student Resource and Success Centre” is essential for Black students, faculty and staff. The reform at the head of the BPO is only one of many signs that the future is bright for Black flourishing. A Black Student Centre is also set to open in the Concordia Hall building in Fall 2023, which will create a space for Black students to connect on campus. 

The President’s Anti-Racism Task Force also aided the creation of a positive environment for the Black community, a group created after Black Concordians demanded the University address systemic racism against Black people. With the task force’s two-year mandate now over, several recommendations have been submitted to the University.

Concordia Professor and former task force member Dr. Jacqueline Peters explained that the problems encountered by the task force were somewhat similar to the struggles for black people at Concordia. 

“Getting information is hard. Getting numbers of how many of us there are here[…] those were some of the things that we were sort of stuck on,” 

Said Peters.

According to Peters, the task force’s work was hindered by the severe unavailability of ethnic statistics, complicating the possibility of locating Black faculty, staff and students to conduct a thorough examination.

Despite the difficulties, the task force had a positive outcome, according to Peters. “We did word of mouth, we put out notifications which also worked well,” she said “One of the most positive aspects of working on the task force was all the Black people that got to know each other. Most of us have been here for many years and have never seen each other.”

While the creation of an inclusive environment is still a work in progress at Concordia, the sense of community among Black Concordians is starting to find a positive rhythm.

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