Author name: The Link

Holistic support for Indigenous communities

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Staff of the First Peoples Justice Centre pose for a photo. Photo Catherine Hamelin

Catherine Hamelin
Local Journalism Initiative

The First Peoples Justice Centre of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal is a service providing help to Indigenous people as they maneuver through the colonial justice system. Through decolonial methods, they provide a wide variety of support and adapted services fine-tuned to the community’s needs.

“[The centre is] tailored to supporting the Indigenous community here, so people know that they come here to have a safe space, feel at home, and take meaningful steps to address conflicts that they were in or harm they received,” said Amy Edward, the restorative justice coordinator at the centre. 

The centre’s employees are all trained to assist Indigenous people in different ways. Apart from offering support with the justice system, as Edward explained, they also help with wellness and people’s goals. Depending on the situation, the centre can offer housing and employment assistance, as well as access to food security so that they are on a good path moving forward. 

Indigenous people who do not want to go to the criminal courtroom are granted a similarly meaningful process through the centre. Edward finds the traditional justice system to be harmful to Indigenous people due to the lack of acknowledgement of past colonial damages. 

According to the Indigenous Justice Strategy report, Canadian courts of justice are “colonial systems that do not work for their communities.” More importantly, the subjects of the report expressed the need to have programs that offer community-based justice solutions. 

“There are underlying nuances [for Indigenous people] when it comes to intergenerational trauma, when it comes to substance mismanagement, and when it comes to family and community dynamics,” she said. “The reality is we work with a lot of folks who are in situations of homelessness.”

According to a 2022 study, one in ten off-reserve Indigenous people have experienced unsheltered homelessness. The study attributes this high rate to “systemic barriers to employment and education, racial discrimination in the housing market, and the intergenerational effects of colonization and residential school experiences.”

Ellen Filippelli, the executive director of the centre, explained that the government expects the Indigenous community to move forward and ignore the hurt that was inflicted on their people. 

“Just imagine for a moment. Somebody going into your home […] and searching for any child who’s four-years-old and over and is taking them all out of your house, and you never see them again,” she said. “We’re supposed to be okay with this.”

According to Filippelli, the centre’s work also remains limited due to a restricted amount of funding. “We’re trying to do twice as much with half the money,” she said. Filipelli added that with more financial assistance, the centre hopes to change the colonial perspectives the federal and provincial governments hold of Indigenous people. 

Filippelli explained that the government doesn’t recognize Indigenous people in the territories in the same way as in the urban area, leading to different amounts of money being allocated. In turn, many of them must commute to the city due to resources not being available on their land.

“The government always talks about truth and reconciliation. Well, let’s talk about the truth first,” said Filippelli. “The truth is that they’re not treating us any differently or with the right respect that they should be and acknowledging stuff like this, like funding our programs. Fully. Not half, not quarter; fully.”

Despite their monetary limitations, Corey Thomas, the transition coordinator at the centre, explained that in order to help people reintegrate into society, the centre will pay 100 per cent of their rent for the first six months and 50 per cent for the next three months. That way, they can focus more on their reintegration and less on financial matters. 

Thomas also analyzes what their conditions are, as well as what their obligations will be once they are released. He sees what is realistic for the individual with a parole officer. 

Every Indigenous individual is welcome to use their services. The centre aims to treat members as extended family.

“We not only [provide] service [to] Indigenous people, but they are programs that are run by Indigenous people, who have life experience and have passed through a lot of the terminals that our clients have,” said Filipelli. “It makes that connection right away with our people, and they feel it.”

The centre is accepting donations at this link.

Holistic support for Indigenous communities Read More »

New study permit cap divisive amongst international students

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Photo Alice Martin

Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

On Jan. 22, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced a temporary two-year intake cap on study permit applications in Canada to “protect international students from bad actors and support sustainable population growth in Canada.” 

The government will only approve approximately 360,000 study permits in 2024, a 35 per cent reduction from the 579,075 approved study permits in 2023. With this new number, the IRCC will hand out a chunk of the cap to each territory and province for them to delegate the permits accordingly. As for the number of study permits accepted in 2025, the government will reassess the potential number at the end of 2024. 

Upon announcement of the new policy, IRCC minister Marc Miller justified that this cap is not against international students but to ensure the quality of education. According to the IRCC, these measures are enforced to correct the abuse of international students by institutions. 

Kareem Rahaman, an international student from Trinidad and finance coordinator at the Concordia Student Union, agrees that international students are being taken advantage of, “and part of me wants to believe that the government is doing this to prevent [taking advantage of international students].” However, another part of Rahaman believes this is a “genius political move” in which the government is shifting the blame on international students instead of taking responsibility for poor health care and the housing crisis.

“When resources are limited, and you let this amount of people in, of course housing and cost of living are going to rise. I mean, that is just bound to happen,” said Mitchell Mak. Mak is an international student from Hong Kong studying a double major in psychology and linguistics at the University of Toronto (UofT). Mak’s family has been considering immigration for a while, as Mak moved to Canada in grade 12. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with a country trying to protect its own interest,” Mak said. 

The IRCC will now require all study permit applications to be submitted with an attestation letter from the territory or province of the desired study. Territories and provinces have until March 31, 2024, to solidify a plan to provide student attestation letters.
 
The cap will not impact current permit holders or those pursuing elementary, secondary, master’s, or doctorate degrees.

The cap will not negatively affect Quebec, this new policy allows the province to—if it wishes—take in more international students. Although Quebec can potentially take in more international students over the next couple of years, the guarantee appears slim, given that international students who wish to study at English institutions in Quebec “will see their minimum tuition fees set at roughly $20,000” for the fall 2024 semester, in addition to an obligation to learn French. According to Concordia’s website, the university will keep fees at the currently published tuition rates for international students for the 2024-2025 academic year. 

The cap will, however, drastically affect Ontario and British Columbia, two provinces that harbour the top percentage of international students in Canada. 

Last year, Ontario accepted 300,740 study permits, 51.9 per cent of the entire 2023 approved batch; that number is also 83.5 per cent of what the government will approve this year nationally. B.C took in the second most international students last year, approving 108,535 permits, 18.7 of the 2023 batch, and 30.1 per cent of the 2024 cap. These provinces will receive about half their usual number of international students this year. 

For Sofia Solano, a second-year international student from Belize who studies commerce at UofT, Ontario offered a higher level of education that was not possible at home. 

It is undeniable that Toronto is pricey for Solano, “I have a scholarship for $100,000, and it is barely making a dent,” she said. Yet Solano sees this high cost as a cost of a better life, “it does suck that we get charged a ridiculous amount more than domestic students. But again, I just view [studying abroad] as something that needs to be done,” she said.

This policy also came shortly after Miller announced an update to the financial requirement for those applying for a Canadian study permit. Applicants will now have to prove they have $20,635 in addition to their tuition and travel fees to be considered. 

The cap also puzzles Solano as she begs the question: “If you can’t afford it, you wouldn’t be here. Right?” She believes the cap is not about saving students from exploitation but reducing the number of international students in Canada.

Still, Mak does not think Canada is obligated to carry the burden of “improving the quality of international students’ lives.” 

“(Especially) not at the expense of worsening your own quality of life in your own country,” he said. 

Solano has two sisters looking into post-secondary education in the U.S. and Canada and might be affected by this cap. “It’s sad because I feel like everyone kind of deserves a fair shot,” Solana said.

A previous version of this article stated that international student tuition will double for fall 2024. Concordia has announced that for the 2024-2025 academic year, tuition for international students will remain the same. The Link regrets this error. 

New study permit cap divisive amongst international students Read More »

Montrealers urge government to stop Bill 31

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Protesters hold up a sign reading “it took three months to recognize a genocidal ‘state’. Do you really think the CAQ is worried about its tenants? Liberation for all.” Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Sarah-Maria Khoueiry
Local Journalism Initiative

On Feb. 3, around a thousand protesters gathered in front of the Saint-Édouard Church on the corner of Beaubien and Saint-Denis Street, where organizers handed out pamphlets and chant guides to the crowd.

The protest, organized by the Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ), aimed to publicly oppose  Bill 31. This bill, if passed, will allow landlords to reject lease transfers with no valid explanation, and then cancel the lease.

“The rents are already too high, and they will be higher after that,” said Martin Blanchard, the coordinator of the RCLALQ. “There are other things that we are mad about, but the lease transfer thing is the most damning.”

Among other concerns expressed by organizers such as Rosalye, the community organizer of the Comité logement de la Petite Patrie, is the discrimination against tenants from marginalized communities. Rosalye’s last name is revoked for fear of being refused an apartment in the future. She believes that expressing a negative opinion on current housing management could deny her housing in the future. Rosalye thinks France-Élaine Duranceau, Quebec’s housing minister, is directly “attacking tenants” by only consulting with landlords rather than talking to tenant rights’ organizations.

She also explained that the bill would allow municipalities to sell social housing (HLM).

“The fact that people will be able to buy HLM [is] so problematic,” she added. “That’s something we should be proud of as Quebecers to have for people that have less revenue.”

Most chants called for the resignation of Duranceau. The RCLALQ also demanded a rent freeze, rent control, abolishing security deposits, and the conservation of lease transfers.

The protesters marched down Beaubien Street, all the way to Marché Jean Talon by way of Little Italy, and finally reached the Centre de Ressources et d’Action Communautaire de la Petite-Patrie (CRACPP). The centre is home to the Comité logement de la Petite Patrie, an organization that helps people facing issues with housing, such as rent increases, vermin, discrimination, and gentrification.

Many speeches also brought up the link between the housing crisis, immigration influx and asylum seekers.

Cédric Dussault, the spokesperson of the RCLALQ, argued in an introductory speech that the housing crisis had touched regions with low immigration rates, like Gaspésie, discrediting the link between the two issues.

“It’s trying to deviate the tension from something else,” said Blanchard. “The problem [is] that the rates are too high and that the owners have too much leeway driving up rents.”

Among the attendees was Rich, a 64-year-old man living in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce who was recently evicted from his house, and who wished to remain anonymous. He believes the government doesn’t have a clear idea of how passing this bill will affect the population on a long-term basis.

“I just wish we weren’t here today,” he said. He expressed his disappointment in regards to the government’s lack of vision as to what the decisions are today and how they’re going to affect us. “It’s just going to get worse,” he said.

He believes that protesting gets exposure in the news that can help bring change.

“Through advocacy, you’re never alone,” Rich said.

Multiple attendees were waving Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs. A sign written in the colours of the Palestinian flag read, in French, “Three months to recognize a genocidal ‘state.’ Do you really think the CAQ cares about tenants? Liberation for all.”

Juan Carlos Angel Ramirez, a protester with the Alliance Ouvrière contingent, thinks that the issues are interconnected.

“If the people here rise up against the [Canadian] government […] maybe, that’s how we can change things [everywhere] somehow,” he said.

Montrealers urge government to stop Bill 31 Read More »

The reality of learning French in six months: In the aftermath of Bill 96, how are people coping to meet Quebec’s tight deadline?

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Graphic Myriam Ouazzani

Leora Schertzer
Local Journalism Initiative

As a pastry cook in the Mile-End, French is part of Louisa Sollohub’s daily life. Her neighbours and coworkers are francophone, and her vocabulary including “derrière” and “chaud” has helped her get by at the restaurant.

However, working in kitchens is not Sollohub’s end goal.

Back-of-house jobs are coveted by Montreal anglophones and allophones who can’t find other work, and Sollohub is among them. She feels her current intermediate level of French is not enough to pursue her ambitions in the film industry or marketing, let alone to obtain permanent residency.  

Sollohub lives in Montreal as an American on a post-graduation work permit with hopes to immigrate to Canada. 

To improve her French, she took publicly funded French classes through Francisation Québec last winter. 

For four months she juggled two day jobs while taking French night school, but was overwhelmed by the amount of work it became. 

To support non-francophones, the Quebec government offers free French language classes through the Ministère de francisation et de l’immigration (MIFI). These French classes are full-time, running Monday through Friday for 25 to 30 hours over a ten-week session. Students can receive up to $230 per week for taking the classes under the condition that they maintain perfect attendance.

“I got burned out after maybe two sessions [of French classes],” said Sollohub. She asked the school to take a break from the classes with the intention of returning after around a month, and they promised to save her spot. However, when she tried to return to the class less than one month later, Sollohub discovered it was not possible.

Quebec implemented Bill 96 in June 2022, placing strict measures on the use of English as well as implementing changes to their public French education program. Enrollment at the public French schools is now controlled by the provincial government through a centralized online portal, Francisation Québec, and out of the hands of the individual schools. In the past, admissions were managed by each French language school. 

With the new enrollment process, Sollohub had lost her spot in the class and was put on a centralized waitlist. She was told by the MIFI that the average wait time to get a spot in the classes was three months. Being put on the waitlist eats halfway through the six-month grace period immigrants now have to access government services in English. 

The pressure for immigrants to learn French in Quebec long predates the bill, but since Bill 96 was introduced 18 months ago, new arrivals to the province now have a deadline. After six months of living in Quebec, they cannot receive any government services—including healthcare, educational services, and housing and tax ministries— in English. At a hospital, for example, doctors and nurses are meant to refuse to speak English to their patient, unless the patient provides proof that they have lived in Quebec for under six months. 

For many non-French speaking immigrants, Quebec’s imposed six-month timeline to learn French is not realistic.

According to a 2018 Cambridge study, it takes about 500 hours of guided learning to achieve basic fluency in a language, equivalent to four or five months of full-time Francisation Quebec classes. However, for many immigrants, especially those supporting families, the $230 weekly income is not enough. Sollohub, and others working multiple jobs, say the full-time class schedule is not feasible alongside full-time work.

Maya Tanatwi, an international civil engineering student at Concordia from Qatar, was also told by the MIFI that she would have to wait three months to take French classes. Upon receiving the news, Tanatwi was somewhat relieved. She said she feels overwhelmed taking full-time French classes alongside her full-time Engineering studies. “I’m pushing it, but I think it’s hopefully doable.”

It does not seem like the waitlists will shorten anytime soon. Gabriel Bélanger, the media relations director at the MIFI, confirmed in an email that “there have been no changes to the funding arrangements for French-language learning services for school service centers and school boards in 2023-2024.” He wrote that 41,438 people took Francisation Québec courses from April 1 to Sept. 30 in 2023. Bélanger did not comment on the length of the waitlist.

Stewart, who did not wish to provide his last name for privacy reasons, is the academic coordinator with the Excellence through Quality Improvement Project (E-QIP), a private language school in downtown Montreal. He said he has noticed the stress of his students rise over the last 18 months. 

“Some of the [immigrant students] are with families. Some of them have made quite large sacrifices to come,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and energy to move to another country and take up a position. And then they’re kind of threatened with the prospect of not being able to stay.”

Stewart said that in the past, what drove his students to take French classes was self-motivation. Now he believes, “it’s more of a push, not a pull.”

The high workload and new immigration rules are not the only stressors of learning French amid Bill 96. The bill has also come with a set of bureaucratic barriers.

For Sollohub, the enrollment process for the classes has been “unnecessarily difficult.” She noted that the website has been hard to navigate because ”it’s all in French,” and she still doesn’t know French well enough to understand “specific government details.”

Tantawi has struggled with this same issue. “Every type of communication you want to have with the [MIFI], it’s all in French,” she said. “So if you don’t understand French, it’s almost impossible for you to know what they’re saying.”

Sollohub additionally faced issues with submitting her paperwork required to enrol. She received a confirmation email when she signed up for the classes online but didn’t hear back for several months. 

According to Solluhub, the process to enrol is “supposed to take a long time, so I thought it was normal.” At the three-month mark she called the MIFI. She was told her documents weren’t accepted because they were submitted virtually rather than through the mail. “It was very not clear that you’re supposed to do it through the mail because they had an option to submit it virtually,” Sollohub said. 

Sollohub now has to wait another three months to take the classes.

Bélanger from the MIFI wrote in an email that the new Francisation Québec system “makes it possible to consolidate requests in a single location,” which in turn will “enable better course planning.”

If someone can’t get into the public French courses, it is likely they will have to turn to private lessons, which might not be a feasible option for everybody. The private group classes at the language school E-QIP cost $60 to $75 per person for one 45-minute lesson. For Tantawi, the zero dollar price tag for the Francisation Québec course made it the clear option. She believes, to achieve fluency by taking the private lessons, one ends up paying half of their income. “I wasn’t willing to pay that,” Tantawi said.

The types of students E-QIP attracts has changed, according to Stewart. Since Bill 96, E-QIP has drawn in many business executives and professionals from private companies. Stewart said the students “need to meet the French requirements [to immigrate] and the resources available to them for free are not enough. It won’t get them over the hump in the amount of time they need [to pass the French test for permanent residency].” 

Stewart said they receive many students at E-QIP who are dissatisfied with the public system. He said it is challenging to learn a language with more than eight people in a room, “because you’re just not getting the attention you need.”

With regard to the new language laws, Tantawi said she will leave Quebec if “that’s how they feel about us.”

“If I’m going to get paid almost the same thing in other places, why would I stay here?” 

Despite the barriers with the French language, Tantawi has appreciated the quality of education she has received at Concordia. “We get very good education,” and “we are treated fairly in Canada education-wise.”

For Sollohub, Montreal is home. 

“I have so much motivation to take classes and learn French,” said Sollohub. “I want to have a job where I’m speaking French and be part of [Montreal’s] culture.”

The reality of learning French in six months: In the aftermath of Bill 96, how are people coping to meet Quebec’s tight deadline? Read More »

Vigil remembering those lost in 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

A speaker addresses the crowd at the vigil in remembrance of those who lost their lives. Photo Solène de Bar

Julia Cieri
Local Journalism Initiative

On Jan. 29, dozens gathered in the cold at Parc metro station in remembrance of the lost lives of Azzeddine Soufiane, Aboubaker Thabti, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry and Mamadou Tanou Barry. They were killed in the 2017 Islamic Cultural Centre shooting.

Organized by the Muslim Awareness Week association (MAW), the vigil commemorated the seventh anniversary of the massacre.

Organizers spoke in front of six posters of the victims whose lives were brutally taken. The organizers spoke out against Islamophobia in the province, the remembrance of lost Muslim lives, and solidarity with Palestinians and Arab diasporas.

“We are not here to victimize ourselves,” Samia Laouni, co-founder of MAW explains. “We are here for duty of memory towards the lost lives of the six Muslims, towards the people who were left handicapped until the end of their lives because of it, and towards the orphans that were left without a father simply because he was Muslim.” 

On Jan. 29, 2017, Quebec bore witness to one of the deadliest mass shootings in Canadian history; along with the six Muslim men who were killed, five men were critically injured by gunman Alexandre Bissonnette at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City. 

The gunman entered the mosque after evening prayers had ended, shot the men with his pistol, fled in a car and turned himself in 20 minutes later. He pleaded guilty in 2018 with six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder, but was not charged with terrorism-related offenses. 

Religious tension in Quebec has always been contentious, particularly the visibility of religious symbols within the province. Since the early 2000s, provincial governments have implemented bills seeking to “regulate” them.

Laouni believes that the federal government does not do enough to incite concrete change against the problem of Islamophobia within the country. “I get the feeling that whatever they’ve done is a mask, and their words do not follow their actions.”

Mayada Elmousawi and Zainab Ridha, a mother and daughter who attended the vigil also expressed their disappointment with the government. “We need their collaboration and we need their help,” they said. “We ask for a lot more work to be done to help fight Islamophobia.” 

In 2019, Bill 21, an act “respecting the laicity [secularism] of the State”, was enforced through the use of the notwithstanding clause, officially prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public service. The provincial legislature of Quebec decided that State laicity was of fundamental importance.

Research has shown that controversial secular laws such as Bill 21 are connected to the increase in hate crimes throughout the province. Ontario and Quebec are provinces in Canada with the greatest number of Islamophobic crimes. Most muslims in the country live in these provinces. According to Angus Reid, Islamophobia is most intense in Quebec. 

Ridha perceives this bill as a form of Islamophobia and finds it impedes on her freedom of religion. “They’re trying to limit what we can do, if I wanna follow my religion, I think I should be able to do it freely,” she expressed. “I’m not harming anyone, I’m not disturbing anyone.”

Reporting has shown that job applicants whose family names suggest an Arab background are up to two times less likely to be hired.
Since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, hate crimes and Islamophobic acts have skyrocketed, exceeding levels seen after 9/11. There has been a 1,300 per cent increase in Islamophobic incidents since Oct. 7, according to the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

“Our community has suffered a lot and continues to suffer with the current crisis in the Middle East,” said Salam El-Mousawi, another co-founder of MAW. “We think it’s important to shed light on the root cause of these issues and hope that everyone comes together to fight against injustices of all people.”

Vigil remembering those lost in 2017 Quebec Mosque shooting Read More »

Alternatives to the SPVM: The importance of low-stakes alternatives to calling 911Alternatives to the SPVM

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Graphic Myriam Ouazzani

Max Moller
Local Journalism Initiative

Disclaimer: If someone is dying or in immediate danger, please call 911.

According to its 2022 activity report, the Montreal police responded to over 1.4 million calls. Over 13,000 of these calls were about domestic disturbances. The SPVM’s specialized mental health team, the Équipe de soutien aux urgences psychosociales, has responded to 14,000 calls since 2012.

These numbers pale in comparison to the calls received by non-police entities that correspond to the same issues. From April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, SOS, a domestic violence support line, fielded over 50,000 requests for support, and Tracom, a mental health crisis intervention centre, conducted 13,000 interventions. 

Based on these statistics, many people are reaching out to these organisations instead of the cops. But why?

Claudine Thibaudeau, SOS’s manager of support and training, said that it may be due to the high stakes associated with taking action through the police. 

“For example,” she said, “Let’s say I’m with my partner, and we live together. He hits me, and I press charges. He’s going to be arrested, he might be incarcerated, he might lose his job. That’s gonna impact me.”

Involving police can also be stressful for people without proper legal documentation. The SPVM recommends going to a hospital or local community services centres, known as CLSCs for psychological aid. But as Maria Lorelli, Tracom’s clinical administrative coordinator, pointed out, these services typically require registration with the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. 

Tracom clients do not need to be registered, which allows them to help people who may not have proper legal status. They also do not need any form of medical diagnosis to receive aid. “Some of the people we see don’t want to consult, and they don’t want a diagnosis or medication,” Lorelli said.

According to Thibaudeau, another reason for people to avoid calling the SPVM is because pressing charges is not always a safe option for victims. In one such case, Nathalie Piché, a 55-year-old woman, filed domestic violence charges against her spouse with the SPVM in December 2020. After he signed a peace warrant pledging to not bother her, the charges were dropped. Later that year, Piché was killed by the same man.

The care provided by SOS and Tracom also extends beyond what the SPVM can offer. Tracom offers more than interventions, creating safety plans with people in crisis, helping them explore coping tools such as breathing and grounding exercises. SOS’s referral network covers over 4,000 organizations, such as legal aid and shelters. 

“A victim of violence will have many different needs…. [Violent partners] use anything in order to create a prison around a person. Our job is to find out, what can we do to help people break those bars?” Thibaudeau said. 

She added that SOS puts a lot of work into the prevention of domestic abuse by providing education to people who may not even be aware that they are experiencing violence. “It’s almost like a vaccine,” Thibaudeau said. “If you don’t know what subtle kinds of violence look like, you might not recognize it.”

All the people answering the calls at Tracom and SOS have backgrounds in psychology, social work, criminology, psycho-education and similar fields. Once hired, the employees go through a training process (three weeks at SOS, three months at Tracom). In contrast, the SPVM crisis training mainly consists of a mandatory two-day containment and de-escalation training program. “There are a lot of interventions that perhaps could have ended up being in a 911 call, but were diverted to something else,” Lorelli said.

SPVM online resources for domestic violence state that “if you are aware that an attacker is subject to conditions laid down by the Court […] call 911 immediately,” and that “you should speak up as soon as possible to break the cycle of abuse.”

Thibaudeau pointed out that the most crucial aspect of helping victims of intimate partner violence is to not push them into making decisions. “Violence is someone taking away your choices. To help someone, you have to do the opposite,” she said. 

SPVM resources for those experiencing mental crises also remain limited to two options. Their pamphlet on helping a loved one with a disturbed mental state lists the following: Either get the person to go in for a psychological evaluation—no further information is offered on how to do this—or try to get provisional custody over them and force them to have a psychiatric evaluation. This is a distinctly bureaucratic process that entails an applicant to state their case in front of a judge.

“It’s really hard for people to get past the shame involved with not doing well […] The shame sometimes blocks people from reaching out for help,” said Lorelli. “When family or friends call, [we] say ‘Go see that person. Talk to them, show them care, empathy, and then call us together.’”

If you or someone you know needs support, low-stake options are available.

To reach SOS, call +1 (800) 363-9010
To reach Tracom, call (514) 483-3033

Alternatives to the SPVM: The importance of low-stakes alternatives to calling 911Alternatives to the SPVM Read More »

How the institution of slavery built Quebec

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

“A general view of Quebec, from Point Levy,” 1761. Courtesy Université Laval

Julia Cieri
Local Journalism Initiative

Saint-Paul Street is considered Montreal’s oldest road, first paved in 1672. Among the many French colonists who established their homes on the street, more than half of all households owned enslaved Indigenous people.

The class of slave-owning white colonists was comprised of merchants, farmers, the political elite, and members of the Church, immensely contributing to the economic prosperity of the colony. 

For more than 200 years, slavery was part of Canada and Quebec’s colonial nation-building. In New France alone, there were over 4,200 slaves from the 17th century until the official abolition of the institution within the British Empire in 1834. 

More than half of enslaved people were Indigenous, and one third were Black. Thousands of enslaved people were bought, sold, traded and inherited as private property throughout  Canada. Indigenous slaves in what is now Montreal were called ‘panis’ in French, which signified ‘Indigenous slave,’ as a large percentage of them came from the Pawnee Nation located in present-day Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The Link sat down with Michael J. LaMonica, a PhD candidate at McGill University whose research focuses on the intersection of law, commerce, and empire in the eighteenth-century French Atlantic, to learn about the origins of slavery in New France.

Prior to colonization, the primary use of enslavement within some Indigenous nations was for prisoners of war, LaMonica explained. “Slavery that existed within Indigenous groups was different,” he said. “They would take people in wars and sometimes make them members of their own nation through this process of fictive kinship.”

McGill history professor Allan Greer, who specializes in colonial North America, early Canada, and the French Atlantic world, explained that when some Indigenous tribes took captives, most were women and children who were exchanged with other groups when forging alliances. “Each side would give the other human beings as tokens of connection,” he said.

By the 1670s, LaMonica explained, the French coureurs-de-bois began venturing into the Great Lakes regions for the fur trade, which they called the Pays d’en Haut. Trade relationships and military alliances between different nations and the French colonists were thus developed. “This is how the first Indigenous slaves made their way into Montreal, through these exchanges,” LaMonica said. 

However, the system of enslavement utilized by the French was more dehumanizing, LaMonica said. Many nations had a particular status for their prisoners captured in war, which differed from the way the colonists regarded captured people, he added. The primary difference was the concept of hereditary slavery present in the French system. He explained that the colonists viewed enslaved people more as property than prisoners of war.

How the institution of slavery built Quebec Read More »

Skyrocketing food prices impact Montrealers

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Ellie Wand & Hannah Scott-Talib
Local Journalism Initiative

When Liam Neary began his studies at Concordia, he expected a monthly grocery bill of around $250.

Now, having almost completed his second year, his food budget has gone up by approximately one hundred dollars—simply from buying enough to cook around three meals per week. “It’s only been going up since,” Neary said.

Like Neary, nursing student Gabrielle Axelle Elie’s Provigo trip now costs her close to $100, almost double to what it cost a few years ago.

According to a 2022 Maclean’s education report, 40 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada are food insecure, and heading into the upcoming year, inflation will continue to drive food prices higher and higher for students like him.

Canada’s 2024 Food Price Report states that overall food prices are likely to increase by 2.5 to 4.5 per cent over the coming year—a slight decrease from the five to seven per cent increase the year prior. The report states that broader factors such as labour disputes, climate change and the geopolitical impact of the Russia-Ukraine war contributed to food inflation throughout 2023.

COVID-19 lockdowns have resulted in higher energy prices, which is straining the food distribution system, and is driving the price of food up, according to Statistics Canada. 


Rebekah Walker is a second-year Concordia student who lives off campus. She says that she currently spends on average $250 per month on groceries. Like Neary, this is more than she had initially budgeted going into university. “I’m making it work and it’s okay,” said Walker. “[But] I feel like if it goes up more, it’ll be a lot harder to manage.” 

When it comes to cutting costs, Dalhousie University’s recent New Year’s Food Resolution Survey showed that 43 per cent of Canadians plan to focus on food promotions and sales to spend less on groceries. In addition to this, the survey revealed that many are looking at ways to reduce food waste to be more cost-efficient in the new year, making use of methods such as canning and freezing, purchasing more non-perishable food items, preserving and eating more leftovers as well as making their meal portions smaller. 

Meanwhile, students at Concordia are finding their own ways of keeping costs down when it comes to grocery shopping.

On his end, Neary religiously checks grocery flyers before going food shopping. His meals are planned and dependent on sales. “I go out of my way to go to the cheapest grocery stores,” he said.

For Walker, cost efficiency comes in the form of sharing groceries within her household. Between her and her three other roommates, products such as milk, butter, and bread are bought collectively, with everyone taking turns to pay for them. However, Walker said that certain perishable items like fruits and vegetables don’t often end up on her grocery list. “They’re pricier and they go bad, so it’s kind of a waste of money,” she said. 

Food Bank Canada’s 2023 Hunger Count also revealed that food bank usage is at an all-time high nationwide. The organization noted that around two million people visited Canadian food banks in 2023, which was reported to be a 32 per cent increase since March 2022.

“[With] what I see in grocery stores, it’s not a huge shock that people need to use food banks,” said Neary. “[But] It’s upsetting that that number has increased so drastically.”

There are several student-run initiatives aimed at fighting food insecurity at Concordia. One of these is the People’s Potato, a student-founded vegan soup kitchen, which is funded by a student fee levy paid through the Concordia Student Union. It provides free meals to students from Monday through Thursday at the Sir George Williams campus. 

For those at the Loyola campus, the Hive free breakfast and lunch program, which is also a student-funded fee levy group, provides free vegan and vegetarian breakfast and lunch to students during the weekdays. 

A few times a month, Walker said she makes use of Concordia-based initiatives such as The People’s Potato and Hive Free Lunch to get a meal, as both operations offer free meals to the community. “I think it’s really convenient, [and] it’s healthy, good food,” she said.

Boris Restrepo, a collective member of The People’s Potato, said that food insecurity is a reality for many students, but is a symptom of larger, systemic problems. “Food insecurity is a reality or a large portion of society, and this includes student communities,” he said. 

For Restrepo, addressing food insecurity means addressing the broader issues at play. “There’s a long list of things that our governments can be doing,” he said. “Universal basic income, access to mental health services, public funding for education or affordable access to education, consolidation of student loans.” 

Restrepo also wants to see food banks have access to more autonomous funding, making them less reliant on large charities.  

Montreal’s food banks are experiencing a severe lack of help and donations. As demand for food grows drastically, places like Moisson Montreal—the largest food bank in Canada—are reportedly not distributing nearly enough food in comparison to the number of clients they are receiving. Additionally, as the provider of food donations to over 300 organizations across the city, the situation is getting desperate, as expressed by Maggie Borowiec, Moisson Montreal’s director of philanthropy.

At Casa C.A.F.I., a support centre based in Verdun that offers food donations to immigrant families, funding has become a problem as well, according to Director Ana Gloria Blanch. She said that the centre received government funding during its first two years of business, but since then, that funding has been pulled. Now, for its food services, Casa C.A.F.I. relies on volunteer work and public donations to remain in operation. 

“The organization is stuck with the [notion] that everybody wants to continue, but we don’t have any money,” said Blanch. “Right now, we are asking others, ‘what do you want to do? How are we going to continue?’ It’s not fair.”

In contrast, Canada’s largest food companies also continue to face ongoing profiteering allegations heading into the new year. According to a 2023 Bloomberg News poll, 15 per cent of respondents deemed the food inflation crisis is in large part a result of profiteering on the side of grocery giants. 

Restrepo doesn’t think the food situation will happen anytime soon. “The system is ruthless,” he said. “Under capitalism, it seems like efforts are always based on profitable and questionable means.”

Skyrocketing food prices impact Montrealers Read More »

Over-policed and underserved: The stark contrast in police activity in Montreal’s different neighbourhoodsOver-policed and underserved:

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Iness Rifay
Local Journalism Initiative

The identity of Jade was concealed for their safety.

Jade was 15 when they first witnessed police violence. 

In the summer of 2016, they and their two friends were walking around the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood, near Martin-Luther-King Park. They all had been drinking and were under the influence. 

“Kids sometimes get into their parents’ alcohol and take it,” they recalled. “We were being loud and having fun.”

“I think someone called the police on us because of that,” Jade added. 

One of Jade’s friends was a taller Black girl of the same age. They believe the officers didn’t think she was a minor because of her height.

Upon arrival, the officers seized the girl and slammed her on the ground. 

“I remember looking over at my friend and feeling so helpless,” Jade said. “They didn’t bother coming to us and asking us who we were.” 

The police officers continued pushing her face on the ground, while asking her about the white friends she was with. According to Jade, the police had kept in close contact with the girl’s brothers, and would often roam around her house. 

“It was ridiculous,” Jade said. “When they asked her about the white girls she was with, it became apparent that they were targeting her because she is a Black person.”

“I didn’t need to be convinced anymore that the police found it easy to be so violent,” they added. “We have murderers walking around on the street.” 

In the past, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce has borne witness to several instances of police brutality against visible minorities. 

In 1987, 19-year-old Anthony Griffin was arrested for not paying a taxi fare. He attempted to escape the police station, but stopped in his tracks when told to. Police officer Allan Gosset then shot him in the head.

In 1990, Presley Leslie, 26, was shot several times at the Thunderdome dance club. According to the police, Leslie had allegedly fired into the crowd and threatened officers. However, testimonies following his death hinted at Leslie not having carried a firearm. Moreover, the pistol police believed he used had never been checked for fingerprints.

Mohamed Anas Bennis was shot twice in Côte-des-Neiges in 2005 after allegedly attacking a police officer. He was 25.
 
More recently, in 2018, 23-year-old Nicholas Gibbs was shot and killed by officers who alleged he was threatening them with a knife. A video captured the moment when they shot him five times, twice with his back turned. 

“There are no consequences for police who use violence,” said Ted Rutland, a researcher on policing and public safety in Canadian cities. “There has never been a police officer who has permanently lost their job for killing someone in Montreal.”

Additionally, sectors determined to be more “likely to have criminal activity” by the police force see an increased police presence, according to a 2023 report conducted on the SPVM. The report also states that data does not present an explicit enough tie between criminal activity and interventions. 

“More marginalized communities are always going to be suspected of criminality to a greater extent,” Rutland added. 

Amongst the top six neighbourhoods that see the most police interventions, according to self-reported and SPVM data, are Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal-Nord, and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension. 

According to the report, interviews with 69 different police officers found that 85 per cent of them believed racism was not present within the police force, or not to a greater extent than the general population. 

The report found that the overall statements from the officers “are not denying the existence of racism because it’s a truth that disturbs them. They are genuinely convinced that the allegations are false and unfair.” They also allege that when carrying out their duties, they don’t “pay attention to race or gender.”

Rutland believes the issue of racism goes beyond individuals within the police force, but stems from a settler white-colonialist system. “There is a fear of Blackness, of Indigeneity, of the unhoused,” he said.

“There is crime in every neighbourhood. They will all see a certain amount of crime every now and then,” he added, “but the discriminatory, racist and classist way that police resources are deployed means that poorer, more racialized people are just going to get caught for the crimes they commit way more often.”

Some may even be wrongfully charged, such was the case for Mamadi Fara Camara, a Guinean PhD student who was arrested in Park-Extension and detained for six days from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, 2021. He had been charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer, and disarming a police officer, all of which were dropped two days later. 

“If he had been arrested in Westmount, or any other upper-class neighbourhood, this mistake would not have been made,” said Amina M’Haia from the Park-Extension Roundtable. “They’re mainly white neighbourhoods.”

Camara sued the city for $1.2 million in damages. A settlement was reached for $347,000.

“I think there is profound systemic racism at play,” M’Haia added regarding Camara’s case.

“When we have a [premier] who won’t recognize that Quebec society has a racism problem, it’s hard to talk about.” Following Joyce Echaquan’s death and the subsequent report that was made, Premier François Legault stated that there was no systemic racism in Quebec.

Data on Park-Extension’s exact racial profiling statistics is difficult to come by, as the borough is grouped with Villeray and Saint-Michel. 

A report was conducted on racism in the sector, but only consulted 45 people, which M’Haia deems unrepresentative. She says a lack of funding is preventing larger-scale studies. 

“I’ve lived in Villeray, and I’ve never seen more police than in Park-Ex,” M’Haia said. “There is racism even in the statistics. As long as we’re immigrants, we’re all in the same basket.” 

M’Haia shared that the complaints on racial profiling the roundtable receives “barely scratch at the surface of the issue.” 

From Jane’s several family trips to Little Burgundy to growing up in Côte-des-Neiges, they found these assumptions to disproportionately impact racialized youth. 

“A lot of kids have had to grow older, faster,” they said. “They’re aware of things that a white family living in Outremont wouldn’t let their kids know.”

Over-policed and underserved: The stark contrast in police activity in Montreal’s different neighbourhoodsOver-policed and underserved: Read More »

The critical condition of crowded Canadian emergency rooms

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

An overcrowded ER can cause excess deaths, it is estimated 8000-15000 Canadian patients die unnecessarily per year. Photo India Das-Brown

India Das-Brown
Local Journalism Initiative

On a July night in 2021, Zoe Katz, then 20, went to the Montreal General Hospital after fainting and hitting the back of her head. She waited eight hours to be treated with stitches.

“I touched the back of my head and my fingers were wet [with blood],” Katz said.

After a few hours of waiting in the emergency room, Katz asked to be given a temporary solution. She was given a “flimsy bandage” by a nurse with “no other words about what would happen.”

“I felt like she didn’t really care whether I lived or died,” said Katz. “I cried a couple of times because I had read news about people being very neglected by the medical system and just undergoing really scary medical mishaps in ERs (Emergency Rooms).”

“It’s really jarring seeing blood come out of the back of your head and not really having a measure of where or how deep the wound is.”

According to Katz, she was in the third priority (urgent condition) range out of the five levels at the ER. Katz entered the ER at midnight and left around 8 a.m. that morning.

“The one takeaway I got [from my experience] is that I want to live my life in a way that minimizes my exposure to the ER,” said Katz. “I don’t want to be there and I don’t want to be in hospitals, so I just live my life as healthily and away from harm as possible.”

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the strain on Canada’s healthcare system has increased, with emergency departments growing more overcrowded and workers more overworked. According to the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, an estimated 8,000-15,000 Canadian patients die unnecessarily each year as a direct result of hospital crowding.

Dr. James Worrall, an emergency department physician at the Ottawa Hospital, said ER crowding and wait times are “just as bad or worse” following the pandemic.

“The situation almost every [public] hospital in North America faces is that there is not a bed available,” said Worrall. “So, the patient waits in the emergency department for a bed. That wait may be hours, it may be days. This reduces the ability of the emergency department itself to accept and care for new patients.”

A crowded emergency department does not mean huge crowds in the waiting room. It means all of the hospital’s care spaces and stretchers are occupied by patients who have been admitted and are waiting to move upstairs to a hospital bed. “Sometimes all our stretchers are full, and we’re packing people away in corridors,” Worrall said.

Before moving to Ottawa, Worrall worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal from 2005 to 2007. “We would have patients waiting for a week in the emergency department,” he said. “I mean, things are bad where I work now, but not that bad.”

In Quebec, there is a centralization of control and decision making around healthcare at the provincial ministry level. Municipalities lack the ability to hire as many doctors as needed, or to create innovative solutions that work for their hospital or their region, according to Worrall. Because decision-making power is decentralized in Ontario’s healthcare system, there is more municipal autonomy with governance, decision-making and regulatory matters.

The Plans régionaux d’effectifs médicaux (PREMs) were established two decades ago with the aim of promoting a fair distribution of family doctors throughout Quebec. The PREMs are assigned by region. All doctors employed in the public system must have a PREM and dedicate at least 55 per cent of their practice to the region where it was granted—otherwise they are docked 30 per cent of their pay and prevented from reapplying for three years.

The permits are distributed assuming that a doctor will manage a full patient load alongside their additional duties. However, if a physician takes parental leave, gets sick, or scales back their hours for any reason, there is no measure for other doctors to pick up the slack.

PREMs are also non-transferrable. If a physician like Worrall leaves the province, moves to the private system, or retires, the permit is lost forever. This means that hospitals can be left understaffed, and further, overcrowded.

“[PREMs are] just so centralized and bureaucratic, it is far less efficient,” said Worrall. “Another difference in Quebec is within hospitals, there is far greater acceptance of the idea that patients don’t need to come to the emergency department; they’re using the system irresponsibly. And when people get admitted, they can just stay in the emergency department hallway for days and days.”

Patients are often blamed for visiting the ER inappropriately, when in reality, Canadian health care systems are designed to funnel patients towards the ER, said Worrall.

Dr. Bianchi, a 45-year-old emergency department physician at the Hôpital de Verdun—granted a pseudonym for privacy reasons—said the majority of people waiting in ERs are there inappropriately.

“As a doctor, you’re tired and you just intubated a baby. You had a person that died in front of you because he had a car accident,” said Bianchi. “And then you see this person who has a runny nose and he doesn’t want to go to work tomorrow. This is the reality.”

In 2021, Bianchi was working in Verdun when a patient suddenly suffered a cardiac arrest. “There was no space [in the department] and there were no monitor pads [available], so it was complete chaos. Of course, we took the monitor pads off one of the patients, because this one was literally dead,” he said. “At some point it’s too much.”

In Montreal hospitals, emergency department occupancy rates hover well over 100 per cent in most cases, sometimes topping 200 per cent. According to the Index Santé website, only four of the 21 hospitals in Montreal were reporting occupancy rates under 100 per cent on Nov. 27. The highest traffic was reported at the Royal Victoria Hospital, with an average waiting room time of over 10 hours and an average time spent waiting on a stretcher surpassing 32 hours.

“We need a model of care where the inpatient parts of the hospital have to be able to accept whatever comes their way,” said Worrall. “They need to be able to flex up and bring in more people when needs are higher and then flex down when demands are lower.”

In 2004, the Department of Health in England set the target of a maximum four-hour wait in Accident and Emergency (A&E) from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. The aim was to reduce waiting times and control crowding. This target was initially set at 98 per cent compliance, and adjusted to 95 per cent in 2010.

Studies have shown that this standard has yielded positive outcomes for patient care. The standard has been linked to better hospital bed management and reducing patient waiting times and mortality rates. Within a year of visiting A&E, patient mortality reduced by 0.3 percentage points, representing 15,000 fewer deaths in 2012-2013.

Data from England’s National Health Service also shows that in 2002, 79 per cent of patients spent less than four hours in A&E, while in 2005 (after the target was introduced), that level was 98 per cent.

“It starts with the government saying, ‘We’re not accepting the current status quo,’” said Worrall. “The emergency department is effectively the waiting room for the rest of the hospital, and that’s not okay.”

The critical condition of crowded Canadian emergency rooms Read More »

Parc-Ex: A testimony of Montreal’s housing crisis

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

Graphic by Maya Robitaille Lopez

Julia Cieri
Local Journalism Initiative

Parc-Extension, a borough with a rich history, characterized by a predominantly working-class population and vibrant immigrant communities, has traditionally faced economic challenges.

Amy Darwish, a worker at Comité d’Action de Parc-Extension (CAPE), said that immigrant tenants in the area are being hit the hardest by the housing crisis, as Parc-Extension is one of the neighbourhoods in the city that is commonly subjected to gentrification and the housing crisis.

According to Darwish, a major cause of gentrification in Parc-Extension was the arrival of the Université de Montréal (UdeM) campus. There was an enormous amount of pressure put on tenants as a result, seen in the form of abusive rent increases, evictions and intimidation from landlords, she explained. The arrival of the campus in 2019 brought an influx of amenities catering to wealthy students, “which incentivized landlords to force out long-term tenants and rent out at much higher rates,” Darwish said. 

Beyond the construction of the UdeM campus as a sign of gentrification in Parc-Extension, renting a place to live in is proving to be a hurdle in itself. According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ), several barriers stand in the way of finding housing for Parc-Extension residents. With most rental listings being posted exclusively online, those with limited internet and digital access are left unable to access the advertisements. 

“You used to be able to find apartments in adjacent neighbourhoods,” said Darwish. “But what we’re seeing now is that people are being pushed off the island altogether.”

In addition, several tenants experienced being turned away from possible housing in discriminatory ways. The survey found that tenants with children, foreign accents, who are single women, and individuals with “non-Quebecois” names are more likely to be rejected from renting.

“[The housing crisis] disproportionately affects immigrants, women, single parents, elderly people; and people who don’t have the financial, organizational [means], or time to be able to fight back,” said Melissa Simard, a member of the Montreal’s Autonomous Tenant Union (MATU), a non-hierarchical tenant union. 

RCLALQ member Cédrick Dussault explained that, “[recent immigrants] are targets for eviction because they do not know their rights, as well as people who were here for a long time.”

Tenants who find themselves in discriminatory situations may fight for their rights, but must do so through the Régie du logement. The process however, like the listings, is often done online or over the phone, and may only be done in French or English. Additionally, some tenants may not know this service is available to them.

Despite discrimination in housing being forbidden by law, Dussault added that “landlords can just pick and choose who to accommodate.”

Darwish echoed Dussault’s sentiment. “[Discrimination] is very much triggered by the arrival of whiter, wealthier residents into the neighbourhood,” said Darwish. “We see a lot of landlords who are flat out refusing to rent to immigrants and are openly expressing preferences.” 

Simard believes harmful stereotypes carried out against marginalized communities, including assumptions about their lifestyle and economic contributions, foster more barriers within the housing market.

The issue is also intertwined with unstable legal statuses. Renting while undocumented makes it more difficult to fight for housing rights for fear of being denounced to immigration by landlords. “Having precarious immigration statuses is something that complicates people’s capacity to navigate a housing crisis,” Darwish said.

Montreal has also become a hot real estate market, suitable for speculation—an investment method among properties in which investors expect high rates of return quickly.

Dussault explained that ‘speculation’ drives landlords to make the most profit possible, in places that were originally cheap and affordable, with inexpensive buildings, slowly but surely rendering all sectors of Montreal with exorbitant rents. 

The issue is additionally apparent at the provincial level, according to tenant union associations. “This is probably the most severe housing crisis that we’ve had in the province,” Dussault said.

“Basically, there is no control on the price of rent,” he added. “When there is a change in tenant, the landlord can dictate the price they want.” 

While tenant rights exist in the Code civil du Québec, Dussault believes they are not sufficiently protected, and landlords do not face major consequences when bending the rules.

In the summer of 2023, a landlord in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood attempted to bypass “tribunal rules” by giving money to their tenants in exchange for their eviction.

The tribunal rules in question refer to the Tribunal administratif du logement. Darwish said she’s seen several other cases like these in Parc-Extension. 

“You see many instances where landlords say they’re going to get permits to renovate or are going to be moving in a family member, but it doesn’t end up happening, and they just rent to someone else for higher rates,” she added.

Every year, the tribunal publishes a suggested increase in rent prices for landlords to refer to in their own increases. However, according to the RCLALQ, they are not legally bound to follow this suggestion.

“For a long time, Montreal was considered more affordable than other cities in Canada, like Vancouver and Toronto, but data shows that we’re catching up,” said Dussault. In the last year alone, rent in Montreal rose by 16.4 per cent. According to statistics by the RCLALQ, the average monthly rent for a four-and-a-half apartment in Quebec went from $1,222 in 2020 to $1,504 in 2023. For more than three rooms, it amounts to almost $2,000 on average.

The reason for this bias towards landlords, according to MATU, is that government employees and ministers are part of the people who benefit from these systems. The Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, is a former real estate agent.

“This is reflective of the ideas around housing and accessibility,” said Simard. “The government is encouraging the speculative real estate market.”

Dussault supported this statement. “It’s a matter of social class,” he said. “People who are in power come from backgrounds of real estate investors.” 

Bill 31 is another barrier to housing accessibility for Montreal tenants. The bill, currently under review, would eliminate the possibility of lease transfers, and would consequently hit lower-income renters the hardest. 

“Lease transfers were a way of keeping rents affordable and getting around housing discrimination in neighbourhoods,” Darwish said. 

Simard believes lease transfers were an important tool for tenants. “They were kind of the last strongholds of tenants to be able to afford housing, and they’re taking that away,” she said. 

At the beginning of this year, another resource for tenants was shut down. AccèsLogis has served as the main provincial social housing program since 1997. According to the housing minister, the project was too outdated, and carried out too slowly.

To Darwish, these are all “concerted efforts by the Legault government to backtrack significantly on tenants’ rights.”

With files from Iness Rifay.

Parc-Ex: A testimony of Montreal’s housing crisis Read More »

100,000 protesters rally in Ottawa for Palestine

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Iness Rifay & Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

In his eight years of bus driving, Mourae Mouassine feels he has never taken a more important contract than the drive from Montreal to Ottawa on Nov. 25.

“This is more than work,” he said, seated in the school bus driver’s seat with a keffiyeh hanging from his shoulders. “I am proud to be here to support humanity.”

Mouassine was one of the bus drivers who volunteered with Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) to mobilize protesters from across Canada to Parliament Hill. Nine sold-out PYM-affiliated buses departed from Place du Canada around 9:30 a.m., all of which carried about 50 participants per busload.

Mouassine keeps a folder on his phone filled with pictures of the children who have died since the attacks on Gaza started. Between Oct. 7 and Nov. 26, over 6,000 Palestinian children have been killed. Following the collapse of Gaza’s health system, the Health Ministry has been unable to keep a regular count of the casualties, but it believes the toll continues to rise sharply.

“I have four kids,” he said. “Every time I see this murder, I can’t sleep. Imagine if it was my child, my friend’s child, my neighbour’s child; I cannot accept this.”

Upon arriving in Ottawa, Mouassine stood on Parliament Hill alongside his family who drove from Montreal to attend with him. They joined over 100,000 protesters gathered from all around the country in what organizer PYM considers the largest pro-Palestinian protest in Canadian history. 
 
“We are not standing on the hills of Parliament because we think we can convince or appeal to Justin Trudeau or the Canadian government’s morality,” said Yara Shoufani, a PYM member. “We are standing here because we know that by building a movement of the masses, we can force the Canadian government to change its direction.”

Speeches began echoing against the walls of Parliament around 1 p.m., delivered by a variety of speakers. Among them were independent Hamilton Centre member of provincial parliament Sarah Jama, who was removed from the Ontario New Democratic Party caucus; Dr. Tarek Loubani, a medic who worked in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital; Montreal Mohawk activist Ellen Gabriel and journalist Desmond Cole. 

“We will never be bullied or intimidated into silence while Justin Trudeau and his partners in crime continue to support the genocidal Israeli regime in the slaughter of more than 14,000 people,” Jama said. 

On Nov. 24, Israel granted a four-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange 50 of the 240 Israeli hostages held by Hamas with 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention. For Loubani, this isn’t enough. 

Loubani shared his experiences with protesters of “sewing up children’s heads” in Gaza without anesthesia prior to the events of Oct. 7. 

“Ceasefire is not my only demand,” Loubani shared with the crowd. “I will not go back to treating patients without tools. I will not go back to making up for the failures of the world to treat our Palestinian brothers, sisters and siblings.”

Protesters began marching through Ottawa at 3:40 p.m., with the demonstration looping back to reestablish its place on Parliament Hill around 5 p.m. Palestinian flags and signs of all sizes waved in the dry, chilly wind. The signs read “stop killing children” and “end the genocide in Gaza.”

Janine—a Palestinian protester who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons—has witnessed the Israeli occupation first hand. She feels that what is happening in Palestine is unjust, and deserves nothing less than demonstrators to dedicate their Saturday to solidarity. 

“[Our politicians] are the ones who are in control of this situation, they are the ones who are murdering the children—maybe not first hand—but they are not calling for the ceasefire,” said Janine. “For us to be such a huge number in the capital of our country puts a lot of pressure on Justin Trudeau who is complicit.”

English, Arabic, and French chants were loudly, and diligently, repeated throughout the protest. “The people united, will never be defeated,” “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” and “Ceasefire now” were among the chants cried out in unison by the masses.

Jina —who wished to keep her last name anonymous for safety reasons— is another Palestinian protester who wore face paint that read “Free Palestine” on her cheek. Jina partook in the protest because Palestinians “deserve to have a land, and deserve to live in it.” 

Jina recalled how when she was little, she would bear jealousy, as her classmates who weren’t from Canada would share about going home for the summer, while she had to stay. “I couldn’t go home, there’s no such thing for me. I just know that’s a feeling that a lot of other [Palestianians] feel,” expressed Jina. “I don’t think that is a feeling that anyone should feel.”

100,000 protesters rally in Ottawa for Palestine Read More »

The Yellow Door: Combatting senior isolation

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Kathryn Rieb (second from left) and Gabrielle McLaren (right) participate in the knitting circle alongside two members. Photo Demetra Kritsidimas

Demetra Kritsidimas
Local Journalism Initiative

Amid the clicking of knitting needles and a table full of vibrant-coloured yarn, the Yellow Door’s Tuesday afternoon knitting circle weaves together individuals from all generations. This scene captures the essence of the organization’s mission to bridge the gap between young and elderly communities through a plethora of activities.

The Yellow Door aims to minimize social isolation and exclusion of seniors, which is related to serious health effects and reduced quality of life. According to the International Federation on Aging, “the number one emerging issue facing seniors in Canada is keeping older people socially connected and active.” The government of Canada estimates that 30 per cent of Canadian seniors are at risk of becoming socially isolated. To combat the increasing senior isolation, Yellow Door helps up to a dozen seniors at each of their events.

Ever since moving to Montreal six years ago, Caroline Alince, the wellness group program coordinator, has been actively involved within the organization. Contributing as a volunteer since the age of 18 and getting hired into a full-time position this September, Alince said they have always been interested in the Yellow Door’s mission and thought it was a great community space.

The Yellow Door runs an initiative called the “55+ Community Hour” every Wednesday afternoon. A new activity takes place every week, with certain popular ones on a recurring basis. Seniors who would like to partake in this weekly hour are required to sign up free of charge to become a member. 

“I choose [the activities], but I also like to listen to seniors’ input about what they would like. That’s one of the only wellness groups that’s exclusive to our members.” Alince explained. 

So far, the community hour has seen activities like line dancing, bingo, workshops held by special guests, potlucks, a reading group and yoga. The group also goes on field trips, for instance, their apple-picking excursion this fall.

The Yellow Door also teaches seniors about technology. The idea was created in response to people’s reliance on technology during the pandemic. Dubbed BiblioTech Connect, the initiative notably allows seniors to borrow tablets. Tech Cafés are also hosted, where seniors can bring their own devices while volunteers give presentations and initiate small group projects about tech-related topics to help seniors get more familiar with their cell phone or tablet. 

If the members need more help, the organization provides one-on-one support with trained volunteers. Those Tech Help sessions are also great social bonding moments for many seniors. “Sometimes seniors have to wait a little bit before they’re able to get help, and I’ve seen some members helping each other while they wait and that’s really cool,” said Alince. “A lot of times they’ve actually problem-solved before we even get to it, and it’s really amazing to see that kind of mutual help.”

According to Alince, Tech Help is quite popular, with 10 to 12 members attending each session. 

The Yellow Door’s contributions to well-being, however, go beyond its senior members. Many volunteers have found a place of belonging through the organization. 

Gabrielle McLaren, who is currently employed at Concordia University, has been volunteering at the Yellow Door since moving to Montreal for her Master’s degree during the pandemic. She says that the most fulfilling part of volunteering is meeting people from all walks and stages of life. 

“I had a pretty good academic community, but then I realized, I didn’t want to only talk to people who were equally entrenched in academia in Montreal,” said McLaren. When a call went out for more people to join the Tuesday afternoon knitting circle a little over a year ago, McLaren began volunteering and has kept coming back ever since.

Kathryn Rieb, a software developer, relates to McLaren’s experience. Upon moving from Victoria, B.C. to Montreal last August, and knowing nobody in town other than her partner, Rieb  wondered how she could immediately become a part of something in this new city. Having enjoyed previous volunteer experiences, a few Google searches led her to join the knitting group at the Yellow Door.

“I really enjoyed having an immediate and accepting community. From the first day I showed up, everyone was so kind, everyone was happy to talk about their projects and share, and it was so easy to become a part of this group,” Rieb said, as she knit a wine-coloured turtleneck.  

McLaren found that a simple activity like knitting can offer much more than just social benefits. “I knit in classes, I knit on the bus, and I get comments like, ‘I could never do that.’ And the answer is, no, you for real could, and it actually is shown to be good for you,” said McLaren. “Textile crafts are good [for maintaining] your cognitive abilities and they have good emotional regulation benefits. It’s also cool to do volunteering that is good for you and that is good for the people who are participating.” 

As the winter months approach—a time linked to heightened senior isolation—the Yellow Door continues to organize lively activities like their Nordic walking group on Fridays, and a potential snowshoeing or skiing field trip. They are also marking the holiday season with a fundraising drive, a holiday concert on Dec. 6, and meal deliveries to seniors who are homebound on Dec. 14. 
Alince said they are looking forward to making new community connections and collaborating with organizations doing similar things in order to increase the number of participants and share resources. They have already reached out to Growing A.R.C. Montreal, a non-profit group with a community garden for new summer activities. 

As the pandemic highlighted the need for increased attention to seniors, the Yellow Door’s mission is as vital as ever, as McLaren put it, to “make sure people in [our] community aren’t falling through the cracks.”

Alince gets testimonies of the impacts the Yellow Door makes every day. “It’s amazing to see that that is actually happening with these seniors who are making connections every day, remaining active, and yeah, it’s just good to talk to them about that and be a part of [the Yellow Door’s mission],” they said.

The Yellow Door: Combatting senior isolation Read More »

Editorial: Power to the public sector

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Graphic Zachary Fortier

The Link
Local Journalism Initiative

“Guardian angels” is how Quebec Premier François Legault described healthcare workers in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. We heard similar sentiments towards teachers who made sure children were being educated, both online and eventually in-person, often putting their health at risk by doing so.

Now, these “guardian angels” are all without contracts and going on strike because the Coalition Avenir Quebec is failing to fairly compensate them for their work.

Teachers in Quebec remain the lowest paid across Canada, even if they’ve been working in the profession for over a decade. According to the latest salary-scale, released by the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers, the base salary of a “regular teacher” has increased 15.6 per cent over eight years, from $39,291 in 2014-2015 to $46,527 today. 

This pales in comparison to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) who was recently offered—and rejected—a 21 per cent increase over five years. On their website, the SQ 2021 starting salary is $48,386, which rises to $84,366 after five years. The SQ also increases the salary of officers every six months for the first three years, and every year after the fourth year.

Many nurses, who often have to deal with insufficient staffing and lack of beds, have reportedly been sleeping at the hospital between double or triple shifts.

At any given time, Montreal hospitals are at 80 to 200 per cent (or more) occupancy. Nearly 14,000 patients have been waiting for various surgeries for over a year, including over 4,000 in the Montreal area. An estimated 450 further delays are caused every day, that healthcare workers are on strike.

In the last few years, broken promises have led to growing anger. This includes the promise of bonuses to people to work in the healthcare system being cut, and a Quebec tribunal ordering nurses to stop threatening mass resignations.

Quebec has more than enough talent and money to be able to fill vacancies and properly compensate those who take on the exhausting work most often performed by women, particularly immigrant women of colour. 

Previous strikes by various unions have led the government enacting “back to work” legislation, and then continuing to shaft the people who were deemed heroes globally just under four years ago.

Back in 2021, Legault said “We’ve reached the capacity of what we can pay. So when some union leaders say ‘We want more money,’ well, we don’t have any more money,” adding that he had “been patient” with the unions for the previous year. The truth is that our essential “guardian angels” have been patient with you, Frank.

If the National Assembly is looking for extra funding, they can rescind the $30,000 salary increase they gave themselves in June 2023, or one of the other benefits that amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars for travel and “transition” allowances when they get voted out or leave politics.

If any of these politicians gave half a fuck about any of the roughly 570,000 striking workers, they would cap their own salary increases to match that of the lowest public sector employees. 

The Link stands firm in its support of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé, The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement, the Common Front, and all labour unions. We applaud the fight to ensure members are paid more than subsistence wage and given protections from the abysmal working conditions far too many are subject to.

Editorial: Power to the public sector Read More »

Integration over extraction; prioritizing action: Sharing ideas on the role of academia in addressing homelessness

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

(Left to right) Carmela Cucuzzella, Shayana Narcisse, Jayne Malenfant, Chris Brown listen to Jonathan Lebire (far-right) speak at Comm-un’s panel on universities role in addressing homelessness. Photo Julia Cieri

Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

On Nov. 25, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., community members and students gathered at Concordia University’s SHIFT center to learn about the non-profit Comm-Un, and discuss the role of universities in addressing homelessness.

Founded just over a year ago, Comm-Un is a non-profit collective deeply rooted in the Milton-Parc community, an area of Montreal made up of a number of unhoused Indigenous and Inuit persons.

In 2018, Indigenous people represented 12 per cent of Montreal’s unhoused population, despite representing just under one per cent of the city’s total population. Inuit made up 25 per cent of unhoused Indigenous people, despite making up only five per cent of Montreal’s Indigenous population.

Comm-Un’s panel addressed and critiqued the multiple social-worker and research programs throughout Montreal universities, highlighting what is missing in the exploration and intervention of homelessness.

Comm-Un believes the most important part about working with the unhoused is healing trauma.

According to Jonathan Lebire, founder and director of Comm-Un, the different approaches to homelessness—like “housing-first,” a concept that is recovery-focused which prioritizes swiftly placing individuals experiencing homelessness into stable housing, followed by further support and services that are offered based on individual needs—isn’t effective. Comm-Un, however, approaches care for the unhoused differently; to make healing and love the first step with unhoused communities.  “I coach, I listen, but I don’t tell them what to do. They tell me what they need to do and I make sure they can do it,” Lebire told The Link.

“Unhoused people experience lots of trauma—most of the services now are focused on just survival needs, and we need some spaces that consider the healing process,” said Concordia PhD student Moh Abdalreza. Abdalreza helps organize, plan events and projects, and so much more, according to Lebire, who has dubbed the Concordia student “Super-Moh.” Abdalreza researches the relationship between art and homelessness. 

A frequent sentiment expressed by Comm-Un is that there is a lack of communication between government bodies, neighbours, media and (most importantly) the unhoused regarding efforts to create safe spaces and take steps towards healing for a vulnerable population.

“We found that there is a big gap between lived experiences of unhoused people and policy making processes,” Abdalreza said.

Comm-Un also launched their current project and proposal for the collective at the panel. Their project, “Street University,” is described to be a strength-based space, alternative to day-shelters. 

“[Street University] is about moving from fragmentation to reintegration, from survival needs to healing, and also merging resources,” Abdalreza noted. 

Abdalreza stressed how universities have access to many resources. He shared how they own large amounts of land, infrastructure, and public spaces that have a copious potential to be employed for the benefit of the community. He feels many students who study homelessness within the walls of an institution fail to have actual conversations with their subjects; unhoused people.

When it came time for the panel, rectangular tables with three chairs were dually positioned in front of the panelists. Tables were set with crayons, markers, and paint-sticks coupled with paper to encourage art during the discussion.

The night, which drew in an audience of all ages, began with Lebire introducing himself and Comm-Un. He shared how, when he was about 16, he was unhoused. 

Lebire left his home for Sherbrooke, Que., with $20 and a backpack. When he came back to Montreal, he wanted to make a change. He went to the Université de Montréal to become a social worker. However, school didn’t help him understand the complexity of being a social worker and working with unhoused populations. 

“By the magic in life, I was introduced to the Indigenous people at Atwater park,” said Lebire. This changed how he saw intervention work.

The floor was then turned to the five panelists and researchers whose work aligned with addressing homelessness; Jayne Malenfant, Shayana Narcisse, Carmela Cucuzzella, Janis Timm-Bottos and Chris Brown.

When the question was posed to panelists about the universities’ impact on addressing homelessness, Malenfant expressed dissatisfaction with the disconnect from university researchers and those being researched. 

Malenfant, an assistant professor in social justice and community engaged studies at McGill University, spent a period of her life unhoused. 

“I often ask, ‘what is the point of working with researchers, and what is the point of working with universities when we as (unhoused) communities can take care of ourselves?’” she said. “The way we evaluate impact in the university is not just. It is not grounded in community knowledge, and there aren’t ongoing mechanisms for evaluation that are led by people who are directly impacted by the issues we are studying. The accountability isn’t there,” Malenfant explained. 

She believes one way universities could improve with its research approach, particularly when tackling homelessness, is by resourcing people with lived experiences and allowing them to lead the research.

For Timm-Bottos, the founder of Montreal’s first art-hive, social infrastructure within universities is the catalyst for action and change.

“We need to have gathering places, otherwise people are afraid of each other,” said Timm-Bottos. “We need to have these safe environments where we can throw off our identities and be real with each other.” She elaborated on how art is a method to communicate and learn from those residing in different socio-economic classes.

Comm-Un’s art hive is a testimony to Timm-Bottos’ shared sentiment. Members of the community paint, draw, carve stone or create any craft desired. Once the crafts are made, Lebire will

 sell the creations —sometimes for upwards of $200— and relay the money back to the artist. According to Abdalreza, there is a type of communication that transcends beyond words when those of different power dynamics gather to create art and learn techniques from each other.

Lebire borrowed the mic from panelists for a moment to heed caution of the delicacy that should come with conducting research of the unhoused.

He described how, if you’re considered unhoused by the system, it’s primarily because you went through struggles which transformed into traumas that were not dealt with—as there was no safety net in place. Lebire explained how these traumas want to be forgotten.

“The worst thing for [an unhoused individual] is somebody poking you, and reminding you of all of these [traumas],” asserted Lebire. “Whenever all of these researchers ask those questions, you have to keep in mind, you are bringing those things back up for a person that still does not have any means to deal with it. So every time, you trigger [their trauma] without giving a healing opportunity.” 

Narcisse is a creative with a focus on visual art and works toward action with her art. She has a lived experience with homelessness, and believes researchers with the subject of homelessness should approach the research in a holistic way: hiring the street workers and compensating them for the time spent learning from their experiences.

The panel later made room to hear and inquire further on the audience’s ideas on where they think the role of universities fit in addressing homelessness.

One participant expressed suspicion in whether an institution can have an acceptable role in helping the unhoused community.

“Unless we radically transform what a university is—and it can be in the service of direct action by collectivity that is autonomous—we have to be really skeptical about what we can do,” they explained.

The night concluded with a workshop where everyone was encouraged to share and explore alternative ways to mobilize researchers and leverage university resources effectively. 

Looseleaf was passed around, prompting participants to jot down resources and programs with their paint-sticks and markers— information Comm-Un could utilize to strengthen Street University. 

During the workshop, ideas were bounced off of both organizers and participants in hopes of mending ideas and outlets that Comm-Un can use to leverage storytelling through their work.

“If we want to understand [homelessness] from different perspectives. We need a new way of research and understanding that is connected to action,”  Abdalreza said.

Integration over extraction; prioritizing action: Sharing ideas on the role of academia in addressing homelessness Read More »

Bill 31 will mean more impossible choices for Montreal women

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

Bill 31 will only make the housing crisis worse for women. Graphic Panos Michalakopoulos

Benjamin Lucas
Local Journalism Initiative

Content warning: this article mentions suicide and abuse.

Posters on signposts, recurring protests down major streets, petitions and newscasts reveal the outrage of renters against the Legault regime’s proposed end to lease transfers through Bill 31. 

The gravity of the situation cannot be overstated: Quebec now stands at a crossroads, with a 44 per cent increase in homelessness in five years and 500 households left without a lease last moving day. The effects of the housing crisis have cascaded across all Canadian society. 

Women, who are at an economic disadvantage, are impacted more than most—with single mothers being 38 per cent more likely to spend more than a third of their income on rent. The result of this is that women having experienced abuse have to make a choice: remain with their abusers on whom they depend for housing, or face homelessness. 

The housing crisis is putting women in a double bind, forcing them to make impossible decisions, and exacerbating it will only put more strain on already scarce resources. Like living in any other city, being in Montreal brings you face-to-face with certain social realities. 

Advocates and experts say that lease transfers are one of the mechanisms that keep rent controlled, and in addition, the Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) bill would allow for the selling off of much-needed social housing. Given that Montreal is the only city in Canada with more renters than owners, this is especially dangerous.

Throughout Canada, the story is the same. There is  a simultaneous rising of rents and domestic abuse. Women’s shelters have lost $150 million in federal funding and face high staff turnover due to their inability to pay them. One woman, interviewed by the CBC, said, “I can’t try to find a job, I can’t better myself, I can’t be safe if I don’t have a home.” 

What is a woman to do? Some have even attempted suicide to escape this double bind. 

This is not hypothetical. The strain of the housing crisis on domestic violence survivors has already been seen as they lose alternatives to living with their abusers. In Montreal, the women’s shelter Chez Doris was forced to shut down temporarily because it could not feed everyone nor did it have the staff to keep up with demand. This drives women to other shelters, putting more strain on them in turn. A conservative estimate places the number of women turned away from Canadian shelters because of a lack of space at 19,000 per month.  

Wait lists for social housing in Canada can be a years long wait, and even the (relatively) fortunate women who can find a bed in a shelter may be unable to find a long-term place to go afterwards, leaving them to spend up to a year in the transition homes. At every stage, the housing crisis means abused women are left with no place to go to get away from their abusers. 

Stories from women in this situation are stark and display the impossible situations that they face. Women’s experiences include fearing losing custody of their children because they lack a stable home, spending weeks in abusive homes waiting for calls from shelters, or making the decision to return to the men abusing them. Living with their abusers means forfeiting full participation in society, as explored in Kylie Cheung’s book Survivor Injustice, including losing control over their ability to vote, reproductive system, and too often escalating to losing their life.  

The CAQ’s policy makes all this worse. By increasing rent, more people will be made unhoused, and this will put even more strain on the shelters that are available now. More women will be unable to leave their abusers. This comes in the aftermath of a rising tide of domestic abuse, just one sordid result of Legault’s COVID-19 policy.  

Perhaps all of this is easy for Legault to ignore, but it is impossible for women who have become ensnared in it. If the state fails to provide alternatives, it is complicit in this abuse. Legault should obey the will of Montreal renters and rescind Bill 31 immediately. 

Bill 31 will mean more impossible choices for Montreal women Read More »

Legault’s failure to protect public transit: Quebec’s resistance to fund public transit is detrimental for riders and climate

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

Bus stops have longer wait times caused by public transit issues. Graphic Olivia Shan

Genevieve Sylvestre
Local Journalism Initiative

Every day, I leave my apartment in the freezing cold to queue up and take a bus, followed by the metro, followed by another bus, or, God forbid, the Concordia shuttle. The problem: as I approach my bus stop, I notice the line is unusually long on a daily basis.

The bus I was supposed to take is late, as are all the ones after it, which seems to be the new norm. Instead of a bus passing every five minutes, three to four busses pass every fifteen to twenty minutes, and they are all filled to the brim with passengers.

If this sounds all too familiar, it’s not just you. According to data from the Sociéte de Transport de Montréal (STM), around a quarter of all buses are late. On average, only 78.3 per cent of all buses were on time in 2023 so far, and 74.9 per cent were on time in the month of September. Overall, buses this year are consistently more likely to be late than at the same time in 2022, and the yearly average has not been this low since 2019.

The potential reduction in the STM’s services came after Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault announced that the province’s capital would only fund 20 per cent of the cost of public transit in Montreal. Since this, Guilbault has agreed to cover 70 per cent of the cost, but that is still less than what the city asked for. 

Indeed, the ten regional transit agencies had asked for $300 million dollars, but the Quebec government is only offering to pay $265 million dollars, with $238 million dollars going to the city of Montreal. That is $35 million dollars less than what public transit agencies requested.  

The number of people using public transit in the city has not gone back to pre-pandemic levels, a huge blow to the STM budget. Even with the new offer from Guilbault, the STM still has a hole in its budget. If the STM cannot find the money, it will have to cut back on services, although the transit provider claims that it should not impact buses or the metro. 

For people who have to take multiple forms of public transit back to back, this tardiness compounds. A few minutes means missing a metro or maybe even the next bus, leading to even more wasted time and an increased risk of being late.

It is true that passengers can always leave earlier, but doing so can add 15 to 20 minutes to one’s daily commute, which can add up to two hours every week.  As someone who already spends around three hours commuting to Loyola campus every day, I would much rather spend those two hours sleeping or doing literally anything else besides waiting. 

This decrease in quality is especially frustrating considering STM fairs are rising rapidly. The cost of a monthly pass jumped from $94 to $97 in July 2023—a three per cent increase—while single passes jumped from $3.50 to $3.75. 

These hikes put additional pressure on commuters amidst a cost of living crisis, especially as the quality of services goes down. And with the news that the metro could begin closing at 11 p.m. and start opening at 9 a.m. on weekends, the future is looking bleak for those who rely on public transit. 

While these changes are not guaranteed, it is not uncommon for people who work in healthcare or in the service industry to leave or come back from work at that time.These changes could force people to use their car, pay for a taxi or an Uber just to get to work, or quit their job altogether. Indeed, if people are forced to pay to get to and from work, it might no longer be financially viable to keep that job. 

The reliance on cars over public transit also contributes significantly to the climate crisis. According to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) environmental plan, Quebec’s transportation sector accounted for 42.8 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in 2020, with light vehicles accounting for 60 per cent of those emissions. 

Public transit is essential to decreasing GHG emissions, with the STM reporting that public transit in Montreal helps avoid the emission of 2.3 million additional tonnes of greenhouse gases.

If the CAQ governments directed even a small amount of funds into public transit, it could help increase the number of buses on the road, increase the metro’s punctuality and could even lead to it closing later rather than earlier.

Legault’s failure to protect public transit: Quebec’s resistance to fund public transit is detrimental for riders and climate Read More »

Students voice concerns over Quebec’s newest financial barriers

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Graphic Sara Salsabili

Safa Hachi
Local Journalism Initiative

In the echoing halls of McMaster University, Nathalie White, a fourth-year psychology student, saw her grad school ambitions clouded by the news of a tuition increase, emphasizing the intersection of academic dreams with financial barriers.

“I had a list of graduate schools that I wanted to apply to next year,” said White. “I initially heard about the tuition increase briefly on the news and was immediately disheartened. I knew that I could simply not afford tuition fees.” 

“This may be a bit jaded, but it seems like they’re saying you’re not welcome unless you can afford it. I understand wanting to preserve French culture […] but that just means that whoever has the money can come,” she added. 

On Oct.13, Coalition Avenir Québec’s (CAQ) Minister of Higher Education Pascale Déry disclosed that the province intended to increase tuition fees for students from outside of Quebec. The new cost would rise from $8,992 to approximately $17,000 per year, starting fall 2024. Additionally, an established minimum tuition of $20,000 per year was stipulated for international students. For those who are already enrolled, they must remain in their current program for a maximum of five years, rendering deferrals and part-time studies more complicated.

This tuition hike hits Quebec’s English universities the hardest—Concordia, Bishops and McGill. Despite claims from Dery stating, “I’m not closing the door to any anglophone student,”  doubling out-of-province tuition undeniably imposes limitations.

Quebec French-language Minister Jean-François Roberge expressed in an interview with La Presse that, “We’re fed up with managing the decline, protecting the language, curbing the erosion of the language; these are all defensive terms. It’s time to regain some ground.”

In May 2022, Québec’s National Assembly passed Bill 96. The bill is designed to bolster the use of French in the province. The law spawned various initiatives, including Francisation Québec. Introduced by the CAQ on June 1, 2023, this initiative aims to centralize French learning services for immigrants, contributing to Quebec’s needs through temporary or permanent candidate selection, according to information taken from the Quebec government’s website.

During their first six months in Quebec, new immigrants are entitled to services in English. However, after this period, they are expected to handle services in French as effortlessly as resident speakers. This is despite the fact that the government’s own internal report on the feasibility of the acquisition of French within a six-month timeframe deemed it nearly impossible.

According to Julia Balot, a McGill student, there seems to be a lack of clarity between citizens and the government in regards to what Quebec is aiming to achieve. 

“It really makes me feel unwelcome here, especially by the government. Which is weird, because my day-to-day interactions with [Quebec-born francophones] tend to be pretty positive,” said Balot. “I’m happy to be able to go to a school like McGill […] but I definitely worry that the culture on campus might change. Amplifying this division between anglophones and francophones seems like a step in the wrong direction.” 

Students with a French citizenship or a francophone Belgian citizenship will be able to avoid the tuition increase. However, many Middle Eastern and North African international students speak French, but are subject to pay international fees. Yasmina May Hafiz, an international student from Morocco, called out the Quebec government’s double standard when it comes to French-speaking immigrants.

“I am already paying $24,000 a year,” Hafiz said.  

Hafiz comes from a country colonized by France, where French is a major part of her life. She speaks it fluently, both back home and here. 

“So why can’t I get lower tuition rates like French or Belgian citizens?” she continued.  “I moved here, pay rent here, work here, speak French here, I add to the so-called fortification of French, but I am no longer a desirable immigrant because I am North African,” she added.

Students voice concerns over Quebec’s newest financial barriers Read More »

Transgender community and allies gather for trans remembrance march

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

People march down the streets in support of the transgender community. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Leo Litke
Local Journalism Initiative

On the evening of Nov. 20, over 100 transgender people and allies gathered at the George Étienne Cartier monument to commemorate this year’s Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The vigil, spearheaded by trans activist Celeste Trianon, comes as one iteration of a yearly event commemorating members of the community who have lost their lives from transphobia. The first Transgender Day of Remembrance was held in 1999, and was created to avoid forgetting those lost to transphobic violence. 

“People have told me the importance of remembering people’s lives, remembering those lost,” Trianon said.

This event comes two months after the pro-trans counter-protest on Sept. 20. Though playing a key role, Trianon was not the sole organizer. “A lot of times when I organize protests, there is this false impression that it’s just me.” 

Throughout the event, Trianon spoke about the importance of community and collective action. “If there is one organizer you can pinpoint here, it’s the community.”

Attendee Lucille Sullivan said that due to the stark increase in anti-trans legislation in the United States and Canada, it is “a difficult time for trans people […] [It’s happening] in 49 states, so it’s not just in the south, it’s everywhere.” 

Sullivan said that the visibility of holding an event like this was important for those who wouldn’t otherwise interact with the community. “I hope people take a look and maybe see it and if they don’t know a lot about trans people educate themselves.”

“A lot of the time there’s kind of misconceptions. People don’t really know much about trans people and like to spread hateful rhetoric without knowing anything about us,” said Sullivan. 

Many volunteers helped contribute to the successful running of the event. Rajendra Kapilabandestio, a cisgender volunteer who acted as a traffic marshall, said that “[he acts] in solidarity with the transgender community.” 

“Trans rights are human rights and I think they need to be protected,” he said. “Slowly human rights and trans rights are being eroded throughout the country and we need to protect trans people and trans rights.”

Kapilabandestio said that it was important for him to be there, “to remember the trans activists and trans people who have died in the struggle to secure these fundamental human rights.”

Before speeches began as attendees gathered around the base of the monument and the steps below, organizers encouraged people to take candles and food they had prepared in advance. Concordia group The People’s Potato was handing out carrot and ginger soup, blueberry muffins and tea to attendees.

Trianon addressed the crowd, speaking to the importance of community and the resilience of trans people. She then held a minute of silence to remember those who have passed in the past year before inviting two speakers to join her at the base of the monument.

One organizer read tributes to a few transgender people lost in the past year that had been submitted prior to the event, and another speaker who was with Queers for Palestine (a new organization run through Mumbaadarat, Helem Montréal, and P!nk Bloc Montréal) stepped up to the monument. They spoke about the importance of liberation for all queer people worldwide.

Trianon then instructed the crowd to gather in the street in preparation to march toward La Fontaine Park. The large trans flag was removed from the monument and brought to the crowd, where attendees held on to the edges and carried it between them as they walked.

Chants such as “trans rights are human rights,” “we’re sexy, we’re hot, genocide is not,” “bottoms, tops, we all hate cops,” and “À qui la rue? À nous la rue!” began as the march started and made its way down the streets. 

At one point, an attendee’s electric candle was thrown into the trans flag and was bounced around by those flapping their portions to create waves across the surface, resulting in many candles bounding on the surface of the flag.


The group marched from Parc Avenue down Mont-Royal Avenue, where Trianon stopped the group in front of the Mont-Royal metro station and instructed marchers to participate in a die-in, a form of protest where participants occupy an area and pretend to be dead in order to call attention to unjust death caused by social or systemic issues, if they so wished.

Most marchers laid down, and Trianon continued speaking. She condemned transphobic violence and the complacency it was acknowledged with, asking rhetorical questions about how many more trans people must die before systemic issues were acknowledged. “We are not expressing any demands. We are marching first and foremost for ourselves, for the people who need it,” she said.

The group then continued until it reached La Fontaine Park, where Trianon spoke again. “If you have trans people in your lives right now, try and check in on them. The last few months have not been easy for trans people anywhere and I believe it is our civic duty to make sure that they are doing well,” she said.

Trianon closed by thanking everyone for their presence and encouraging attendees to bond with each other.

Transgender community and allies gather for trans remembrance march Read More »

Anglophone Montrealers rally against Bill 96

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Task Force president Andrew Caddell speaks to the crowd at Sunday’s rally. Photo Russell Tellier

Russell Tellier
Local Journalism Initiative

On the afternoon of Nov. 19, 300 people assembled in Trenholme Park in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce to protest Bill 96. The protest was organized by the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, which launched a lawsuit against said bill in May. 

“Today we are obliged to take the Quebec government to court to ensure our constitutional rights are protected,” said Marc Perez, a member of the Task Force’s board of directors. Task Force secretary-treasurer Dale Weber, meanwhile, described Bill 96 as both “illegal” and “mean-spirited.” 

The Task Force, which does not receive financial assistance from the government, is funding its lawsuit through individual donations.

In addition to other changes, Bill 96 further restricts access to English services in Quebec, increases French-language instruction in English CEGEPs, and imposes francization requirements on businesses with 25 to 49 employees. The bill was implemented by Minister François Legault’s government in May 2022 ostensibly to protect French throughout the province. 

“What we see also is that the percentage of people, especially on the island of Montreal, speaking French is decreasing. So, French will always be vulnerable in North America,” Legault said in September.

“French is not in decline in Quebec, no matter what the Premier may say,” said Geoffrey Chambers, the former president of the Quebec Community Groups Network, while addressing the crowd at Sunday’s rally. “The story of French in Quebec is a massive victory, a success. And we fully support and applaud that fact. This new piece of legislation does not protect the French language; it attacks the English-speaking community.”

Likewise, protesters Danielle Carter, Irwin Rapoport and Sharon Schmerer rejected the argument that French is in danger. 

“I think there are 1,000 or 2,000, at most, fluent Mohawk speakers. That’s a language that’s in danger,” said Rapoport. “There are about 6.9 million French speakers in Quebec. The language is not in danger. They’ve got thriving media and entertainment and publishing.”

According to Statistics Canada, 237,420 Indigenous people in Canada reported in 2021 that they could speak an Indigenous language well-enough to conduct a conversation. This constituted  a 4.3 per cent decline from 2016, and the first decline since this specific data collection started in 1991.  

Schmerer said: “The first language anywhere in the world is English. What’s wrong with two languages?” 

Both Chambers and Carter said that the Quebec government is trying to get rid of Quebec’s anglophones. “[Bill 96] has a devastating effect on the education system,” Carter said. 

“People are losing their jobs because they don’t speak French. Already we know that anglophone Quebecers are the poorest demographic in Quebec,” Weber said.

A recent study conducted by the Provincial Employment Roundtable (PERT) found that the provincial poverty rate for anglophone Quebecers (10 per cent) is almost twice as high as it is for francophone Quebecers (5.8 per cent). PERT also said that anglophone Quebecers are more likely than their francophone counterparts to be unemployed. 

Whilst Perez predicted that Bill 96 will eventually be overturned, Rapoport also expressed optimism, predicting that most of the legal challenges against the law will succeed.

Concordia student Robert Toto described the fight against Bill 96 as “a long uphill battle.” “I think the best thing to do is just continue fighting and keep going at it and simply not give up,” he said. 

The rally, which drew a small police presence, occurred between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. amidst cold weather. Cars that drove by honked in support of the protesters, many of whom were holding anti-Bill 96 signs. 

The Task Force organized a car procession that started at the Walmart on Decarie Boulevard before the rally and ended at Trenholme Park. 

Task Force president Andrew Caddell said that more anti-Bill 96 demonstrations will be held.

Anglophone Montrealers rally against Bill 96 Read More »

Public transportation workers protest lack of funding

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Workers of transport unions protesting outside of Transport Minister Genevieve Guilbault’s office in downtown Montreal. Photo Corinne Boyer

Corinne Boyer
Local Journalism Initiative

On Nov. 14, hundreds of bus drivers, maintenance employees, and other staff from public transport companies protested in front of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault’s office to petition for more investments in transportation.

The demonstration, which started at 10 a.m. had union workers sounding their horns, blasting music, and holding signs of Minister Guilbault’s face that said “return of the sardine class in buses,” mocking her refusal to invest in public transport until ridership returns to higher levels of commuters.

The protest was planned in retaliation to her government’s proposal in late October to pay only 20 per cent of Quebec’s collective transport $2.5 billion deficit. Four of the union presidents spoke at 11:45 a.m. to denounce this lack of investment.

“We all know that the government must give more money to the Société de Transport,” said Julie Sigouin, president of the Société de Transport de Laval (STL) drivers’ union. “With more money, we’re going to be able to have more buses on the road and more trains in the metro.”

Lack of funding has caused large deficits in the transportation sector and has forced transit companies to implement cutbacks. These cutbacks have largely affected the number of buses that are able to run on a daily basis. If such abatements are put into effect, the metro may have to close at 11 p.m. and buses may only run until 9 p.m.

Nicolas Nadeau-Fredette, media relations and public affairs manager at Trajectoire–a non-profit association that specializes in collective transport for Quebec–confirmed that passenger traffic is at more than 100 per cent in certain areas, and union representatives and transport workers fear that this will encourage the public to take their cars.

According to Nadeau-Fredette, union workers are asking for investments in operational services, which would allow for more bus drivers to alleviate these high traffic rates in certain areas. Though he says that the minister is refusing to invest more sums of money until commuter traffic returns to its pre COVID-19 overcrowding rates.

As negotiations continued, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government agreed to pay 70 per cent of the deficit, a 50 per cent increase to what they initially agreed to pay. Ultimately, they changed the way to calculate the deficit, which resulted in the potential reimbursement of a smaller amount. This led to contention amongst union groups and transport employees and led to their decision to demonstrate.

“Quebec municipalities responded by saying they agree that the government should pay 70 per cent but to calculate from the right numbers,” Nadeau-Fredette said.

Union representatives are asking the government to honour the promises made by former Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel in 2021. They also want the government’s honesty and transparency in their calculation methods for the 70 per cent deficit debt that they promised to pay off.

“Adequate funding ultimately saves households money, since transportation is the second-largest budget item for Quebec families, who are already hit hard by the cost of living,” said the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Marc Gingras.

The Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique and the CSN are calling on Premier François Legault and Minister Guilbault to make the right choice for the future of Quebec as well as future generations by investing the essential amounts of money into transport services. 

Public transit workers say they will continue to plan demonstrations if the government fails to heed their calls and that a future strike is not out of the question.

Public transportation workers protest lack of funding Read More »

Out-of-province tuition hikes spell trouble for Stingers, Redbirds, Martlets, Gaiters

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Sami Jahan dribbles past a McGill player during their Nov. 11 game. Photo Alice Martin

Jared Lackman-Mincoff
Local Journalism Initiative

After the Quebec government announced its tuition hikes for international and out-of-province students, varsity directors and coaches at Concordia University, McGill and Bishop’s can see out-of-province recruitment troubles on the horizon. Non-Quebec students make up a considerable proportion of the student-athletes at all three universities.

Hamilton, Ont. native Sami Jahan, one of the foremost members of the Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team, said that his university career would have looked much different if the tuition hikes had happened when he was choosing where to study.

“Looking at the kids who are in my shoes, whether they’re playing sports or even just trying to go to school out-of-province […] their landscape is going to change a lot,” he said. Jahan is a fourth-year veteran with the Stingers. The team’s impressive 2021-22 playoff run would not have been possible without him.

Jahan believes that varsity coaches will shift more of their recruitment focus towards CEGEPs. He feels that recruiting talent from out-of-province will be less beneficial for Quebec’s English universities, since they will be able to get four Quebec kids on a scholarship for the same price as one out-of-province recruit.

He emphasized that the tuition hike itself is not the only expense out-of-province students must consider.

“When you leave the province, your family has to put you in some type of residence or living situation. That’s another fee. Food is another thing. It just piles on,” he said. “If I was looking at schools in Canada and I saw Quebec’s tuition hike, my family would be like, ‘That doesn’t make financial sense when you can stay here.’”

The Stingers’ winter sports rosters put them in the best position of the three English universities. Only 20.8 per cent of the hockey and basketball rosters is composed of out-of-province and international students—whose tuition could increase by a minimum of $20,000. Non-Quebec recruits makeup 49.4 per cent of McGill’s hockey and basketball rosters, and 43.1 per cent for Bishop’s. 

Deep Saini, principal and vice-chancellor of McGill, estimated that one third of McGill’s student-athletes hail from another province. Director of Athletics at Bishop’s Matt McBrine told La Tribunethat he believes that number to be nearly 50 per cent for his institution. Most notably, 86.7 per cent of the Bishop’s Gaiters women’s soccer team comes from another province or country. Both schools fear that they will need to eliminate some varsity teams due to the hike.

Coaches at Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s had considerable advantages over their francophone counterparts when it came to recruiting out-of-province and international students, but the hike will nullify them completely.

“We’re able to recruit from out west because it’s an English institution […] and the price […] was similar to other universities,” said Marc-André Elément, head coach of the Stingers men’s hockey team. “But now with the increase, it’s going to be another game, and it’s going to be really hard to recruit from outside Quebec, that’s for sure.”

The Stinger’s men’s hockey team only has two non-Quebec players on the roster. However, the program still faces the same obstacles as others that are more dependent on out-of-province recruitment.

“It’s a bit frustrating because we have such good programs,” said Elément. “A lot of guys from [other parts] of the country […] want to come and study here because it’s a good school and everything and now we’re taking that away.”

Elément and his staff are working to find a new recruitment strategy, but they do not see a clear solution right now.

The tuition hikes could potentially create a ripple effect on the rest of the province if English varsity programs become less formidable competition or get wiped out entirely.

“It will also have an impact on Quebec sports infrastructure, something that people tend to forget,” McBrine told La Tribune in French. “If you have three universities—McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s—who are in several sports leagues, and can no longer compete, it will have an impact on every sport.”

Women’s hockey and football are set to receive a big punch. The three English schools make up 50 per cent of the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) women’s hockey conference, and Concordia and McGill form two out of five RSEQ football teams. McBrine agreed with this notion, telling La Tribune that he doubts that three francophone university programs would offer high caliber competition.

The English schools additionally form three out of seven RSEQ teams for men’s and women’s rugby. But the situation is most dire for basketball, where the trio comprises three out of five Quebec programs for men’s and women’s hoops.

If Quebec teams are no longer fit to compete against each other, then the remaining teams may need to move to the Ontario University Athletics or Atlantic University Sport conferences to maintain a high enough level of competition for varsity play.

Out-of-province tuition hikes spell trouble for Stingers, Redbirds, Martlets, Gaiters Read More »

Snowdon metro station.

Transit cuts raise concerns amongst Montrealers: STM is considering service reductions due to financial shortcomings

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Snowdon metro station. Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Claudia Beaudoin
Local Journalism Initiative

Monica Jackiewicz wraps up her 12-hour night shift at the hospital, exiting around 7:30 a.m., thoroughly drained. The metro has been her reliable mode of commuting home, but she’s now learning that on weekends, it might be off-limits for her until 9 a.m.

On Oct. 30, the Société de Transport de Montréal’s (STM) director general Marie-Claude Léonard confirmed a contingency plan in light of budgetary challenges. This plan entails substantial service cutbacks which include the metro closing at 11 p.m. every day and resuming operations at 9 a.m. on weekends in addition to reducing the frequency of bus services. 

Léonard further clarified that these are merely proposals, and they do not intend to implement such measures unless deemed necessary.

Jackiewicz expressed concern that these cutbacks would force her to resign from her job, given her current work schedule, which includes day shifts starting at 6:30 a.m. and night shifts that typically finish around 7:30 a.m. 

According to Jackiewicz, there was a lack of consideration for the broader societal benefits that the metro provides.“If it’s keeping hospitals open, isn’t that a benefit worth considering?”

With fewer services available, additional time will be added to Jackiewicz’s commute. She mentioned that this would leave her with insufficient time between her shifts, making it unsustainable.

As budget deadlines approach, Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault has decided to allocate $265 million out of the requested $424 million by the Autorité Régionale de Transport Métropolitain in additional funding for 2024. This remains a notable advancement in light of their initial commitment to cover only 20 per cent of the budget.

Guilbault said she believes that budget adjustments can still be made without resorting to significant service reductions.

While the STM’s contingency plan is still under consideration, the disclosure has prompted inquiries and concerns within the affected communities as they contemplate the potential repercussions of such a change.

“I already thought 12:30 a.m. was early compared to the Toronto metro,” said Dalena Nguyen, a student from Ontario attending Concordia University. The metro serves as her sole means of transportation during her studies. She described the 11 p.m. metro closure as feeling like a curfew. In contrast, The Toronto Transit Commission closes approximately at 2 a.m. daily.

Nguyen’s weekly schedule would not be affected, yet most of her exams have been on weekends. Though the bus might be an additional option, her 15-minute commute would grow closer to an hour. “I don’t really like buses because I find them not very accurate to the time. I’m always worried I’ll be late for the bus,” Nguyen said.

In a recent press conference, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante emphasized the cultural, economic, and environmental significance of the STM, stating, “The government needs to continue to show their enthusiasm to support public transit.” 

While Montrealers advocate for transit as an essential service, market fluctuations and such alterations make it challenging to rely on. Earlier this year, STM users also experienced fare hikes–an increase of approximately 3 per cent. 

STM Chairman Éric Alan Caldwell highlighted the direct relationship between service cutbacks and ridership at a talk organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal on Oct. 30. He demonstrated that from 2011 to 2018, when the STM experienced service reductions, ridership declined. Whereas, when service levels improved, ridership tended to increase.

Christian Favreau, a Climate Justice Montreal member and active participant in transit campaigns, shared a similar sentiment. In addition to his personal disappointment, he emphasized the broader consequences of these decisions.

“Public transit is a climate solution in a way that electric vehicles are not,” said Favreau. He discussed the overall emissions generated during the production of these cars, along with their accessibility to the public.

In its new five-year climate action plan, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) announced that transportation was the cause of 42.8 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Quebec in 2020. 

A budget of $3.8 billion has been designated to support Quebec’s transportation sector, with a strong focus on promoting electric vehicles.

“What we are seeing is that the bulk of the CAQ’s five-year climate action Budget is going towards electrical vehicle subsidies,” said Favreau. “But [to do that] we need to get cars off the road.” 

He emphasized the pressing need to alleviate urban congestion and minimize the extent of paved surfaces to address the looming threat of heat waves.

The significance of the transit system as a contributor to climate action is acknowledged in the STM’s sustainable development plan 2025, highlighting that the STM contributes to averting 2.3 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

“The transit system isn’t being viewed as a public good or public service because every time it’s in the news we are talking about a deficit,” said Favreau. “We need to be revolutionizing the way we see our buses and metros.”

Transit cuts raise concerns amongst Montrealers: STM is considering service reductions due to financial shortcomings Read More »

Quebec rejects English universities’ proposal

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

Concordia downtown campus. Photo Caroline Marsh

Maria Cholakova
Local Journalism Initiative

On Nov. 6, Concordia University president Graham Carr—along with Bishop’s University principal Sébastien Lebel-Grenier and McGill University principal Deep Sani—met with Premier François Legault and Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry.

They discussed the universities’ proposal to promote the French language on campus and the impact the new tuition hike policy would have on Concordia. The offer was rejected by the government, 12 hours after its presentation. 

According to a letter that Carr sent to students, Concordia, McGill and Bishop’s presented a tentative five point plan that English universities would implement for the integration of French on campus. The requirements include a mandatory French course for out-of-province students; the addition of “immersive internships in the region”; the implementation of more French and culture courses on campus; the organization of French and Quebec cultural activities; integration of programs in collaboration with businesses to promote integration in Quebec after graduation. 

In addition to the proposed changes, the university is asking for the government to exempt out-of-province students from the tuition hikes. Concordia is also considering, with help from Quebec universities, “an alternative to the government’s proposal concerning the financing for international students, so as to ensure that it is sustainable and equitable for the entire network.”

In the letter, Carr expressed his concern with the negative financial and cultural effects the government’s new tuition policy would have on Concordia.

In the proposal, there was no plan for the implementation of mandatory French courses for international students. 

Quebec rejects English universities’ proposal Read More »

Editorial: Practicing what we preach

Local Journalism Initiative / / /
Graphic Carl Bindman

Local Journalism Initiative

In March 2023, The Link published its final editorial of the academic year, resulting in the volume being cut short. Titled “The Link Has a Problem,” the article’s purpose was to shine a light on the unethical labour standards and practices staff members were expected to follow.

Six months later, we have an update on our working conditions.

The day following the editorial’s publication, we held our general elections. Members of the managing team ran on promises of systemic reform and policy changes. Within a few weeks, The Link’s Board of Directors was notified of the editors’ requirements for such an overhaul.

We spent the next three months in numerous meetings, spanning hours, negotiating potential solutions. By the end of June, we had successfully drafted a package of structural reforms. To our astonishment, the Board unanimously approved the overwhelming majority of our proposals.

We are calling Vol. 44 of The Link a pilot project. Using a sizable portion of our investments, as well as funding from grants like the Local Journalism Initiative, we’re testing out what an alternative financial model could look like for student journalism in Quebec.

Similar to many other student groups, editors are paid weekly honorariums, while some staff writers are also sporadically compensated based on their involvement. Prior to the reforms, an editor was making approximately $110 per week. Staff writers would receive a smaller honorarium in a rather arbitrary manner. We changed those numbers.

Under this pilot project, editors will be receiving at least $305 as a weekly honorarium. As Vol. 43 ended, we asked every editor to give us an estimate of how much work they did weekly. We then applied Quebec’s minimum wage as a metric to determine an editor’s honorarium, which is how several other student newspapers in Canada operate.

Beyond editors’ pay, we additionally knew we needed to reform how contributors and staff writers were remunerated. Furthermore, we passed the creation of The Link’s Contributor Freelance Fund, a method for every single contributor and staff writer to be compensated for their work. More information can be found on our website and on the back of this print issue.

The editorial we wrote also mentioned serious problems of insensitivity, racism, discrimination and other forms of intolerance that made the work culture at the newspaper toxic. We have invested resources into mapping out the future of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion at The Link. Moreover, we are in talks with prominent advocacy journalists in Quebec who do important work involving marginalized communities. Mandatory training sessions for staff members on these vital issues are in the works.

The Link has called itself an advocacy publication for years, but in order to act as advocates, we first need to ensure our working conditions reflect our values. It’s time to ditch the empty words and practice what we preach. We must respect ourselves as workers.

However, this is all easier said than done. Alternative funding methods can only go so far. In a matter of weeks, a fee levy increase to The Link will be on the ballot for all Concordia Student Union and Graduate Students’ Association members. Concordia community, we need your help to keep campus journalism alive and thriving.

Editorial: Practicing what we preach Read More »

Medical assistance in dying slated for mental illness update

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Medical Assistance in Dying will be available to eligible Canadians suffering from mental illness. Graphic Myriam Ouazzani

Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

In June 2016, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) became legal in Canada. Canadians who were suffering an intolerable, naturally foreseeable death had the choice to have a medically assisted passing.

Presently, Canada is on track to adjust the legislation and expand the eligible criteria for MAID. Coming into effect on March 17, 2024, certain individuals suffering from mental illnesses will be eligible for MAID.

The Canadian government refers to MAID as a “complex and deeply personal issue.” The MAID expansion was set to come into effect in March 2023, but was deferred, and given a one-year extension to provide the government with appropriate time to “prepare for the safe and consistent assessment and provision of MAID in all cases.”

This new law will no longer require an individual’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable.

Once the criteria to apply for MAID expands, Canada will be one of the few countries that offers access to MAID for those suffering from a mental illness as a sole underlying condition.

In 2014, prior to the inception of MAID, if Canadians sought a medically assisted death, they would have to make their case to the courts. An example of this is the Carter v Canada case, where a woman diagnosed with a fatal neurodegenerative disease challenged the constitutionality of the criminal code prohibiting medical assistance in dying. The judge found that these prohibitions violate the rights of “competent adults” who are suffering intolerably as a result of a grievous medical condition. The woman was granted an exemption to the then legislation.

Now Canadians will not need to withstand an intricate process to receive MAID– especially if they suffer from severe mental illness–they just need to meet the respective criteria. 

A request for MAID must be hand-written, signed by an independent witness and must be requested after the individual is informed of their “grievous and irremediable medical condition.” Two independent doctors or nurses must provide an assessment and confirm that the individual is properly eligible. The individual must also be informed that not only can they withdraw their request at any time, but also be informed of all the available and appropriate means to relieve their suffering: counselling, mental health and disability support services, community services, palliative care and the individual must be offered consultations with professionals. The individual must have exercised every option to relieve their suffering, and immediately before the patient receives MAID, they must be given the option to opt out of their request if they so choose. 

The period to determine an individual’s eligibility assessment typically takes at least 90 days, however, if the individual is close to losing the capacity to make healthcare decisions for themselves, the period can lessen.

There are two ways in which MAID can be made available to Canadians, and both vary based on provincial guidelines. The first is clinician-administered MAID, which is when a physician or nurse administers a lethal injection. The second is self-administered dying, when a physician or nurse prescribes a drug the eligible person takes themselves.  

Dr. Derryck Smith, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, highlighted that the idea around MAID is to give people the option to escape from unbearable and intolerable suffering. “I think the whole point about this legislation […] is to show compassion for people who are suffering unnecessarily. Why do we want people to suffer?”

Smith believes MAID is an option that appeals to many Canadians. He referenced how in 2021 there were a total of 10,064 MAID provisions in Canada. From 2016 to 2021, the sum of those who received MAID was 31,664.

When it comes down to the expansion of MAID, Smith believes psychiatric illnesses should be handled in a similar manner to medical illness.

“Psychiatric illnesses is all a disorder of the brain,” Smith said. “The brain is a part of the human body.”

Ella Amir, the executive director of AMI Quebec—an association that predominantly works with families who struggle with mental health challenges—believes MAID is a result of neglecting the living conditions of those with mental illnesses. “People don’t want to die, people don’t want to live the way they do,” said Amir. “This [MAID expansion] is going to exempt us as a society from our obligation to change the living condition of those with mental illness.”  

Amir offered the perspective that people with mental illness are often marginalized as the conditions of their circumstances can often be a root cause of their hardship—such as economic status, and environment. She added how MAID is a result of the government’s insufficiency of proper structures in place for those who are struggling.

“On one hand, [Canada wants] to be really progressive and egalitarian in the way everybody gets to decide their own autonomy for themselves, I feel like this is commendable,” Amir said. “But it is really not enough unless we look into the root causes of why people want to die.”

According to a 2017 survey of 528 psychiatrists in Canada, 72 per cent of psychiatrists supported MAID in some circumstances, and only 29 per cent of that number supported MAID for mental illnesses.

Smith argued that the opinion of psychiatrists’ shouldn’t matter on whether or not they agree with MAID legislation, rather medical professionals should be prepared to administer the procedures when needed. “This is not for doctors, this is an option for patients to have some control over the end of their life, the time and place of their death and how they are going to die,” he said. “It is just an option, there is nothing mandatory about MAID.”

Denise Lefebvre is a death doula in Montreal who accompanies people—and often their families—who are near death. She also provides advice and organizes the desired type of end-of-life. They believe MAID can provide comfort to those who feel like they need an exit. “Just knowing the procedure is there can be comforting,” they said.

Lefebvre has worked with families and people awaiting MAID, and reasoned it gives them more time to prepare. “It gives them more [of] the impetus to plan, rather than deny,” she added.

With MAID, Lefebvre describes that just because there will be a set date and time of a medically assisted death, some might reason there is more room to grieve and say goodbye. However, “MAID or anything else isn’t going to change that grief, it’s going to change how you prepare for it,” they said. “[Preparing for death] is a celebration as much as preparing for a birth. Because, you are not going to see this person afterwards. Death is a wake-up call to us all to pay attention […] if we truly cherish people, then let’s celebrate them.”

AMI Quebec will be hosting a hybrid-panel on MAID on Nov.2 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall. Amir emphasized that the goal of this panel is to shed light on the complexity of the issue, open up perspectives of the idea of MAID and further the conversation around it.

Medical assistance in dying slated for mental illness update Read More »

University students and faculty march together down Maisonneuve Street to protest the tuition hikes on Oct. 30.

Montreal students and faculty rally against tuition hikes

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

University students and faculty march together down Maisonneuve Street to protest the tuition hikes on Oct. 30. Photo Marta Malvina Mostardini

Leo Litke
Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 13, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) announced that tuition would greatly increase for out-of-province and international students studying at English universities in Quebec in fall 2024.

The government will double the tuition for incoming out-of-province Canadian students, as well as require universities to pay $20,000 for every international student enrolled. The money will be used by the government to support francophone universities. 

Currently, Concordia students have three tiers of tuition rates. According to the Concordia Student Union (CSU), Quebec residents pay $90.84 per credit, out-of-province students pay over triple their rate at $283.52 per credit, and international students pay $790 per credit. With a full course load of 15 credits, one semester of tuition is respectively $1,362.60, $4,252.80 or $11,850, before other university fees and expenses. 

French language minister Jean-François Roberge argued that these tuition hikes are measures to protect the French language in Montreal, a city he deemed “too anglicized.” 

However, not everyone agrees with this sentiment. “Anglicization is actually an irrational fear that is used to mask not only the prohibition of education to poorer individuals but also to the broader English-speaking community,” said Alex O’Neill, a co-organizer of the Blue Fall protest against these tuition hikes. 

The CSU, the Students’ Society of McGill University and the Bishop’s University Students’ Representative Council are all supporting the protest, alongside two student associations from the Université du Québec à Montréal: the Student Faculty Association of Political Science and Law and the Student Faculty Association of Science and Education as well as their sub-organizations, who are joining in solidarity. 

On Oct. 26, Concordia English professor Nathan Brown published an open letter in support of the protests, criticizing Concordia’s Office of the Provost for their statement discouraging staff from participating. “I think that was a missed opportunity,” he said, adding that it is an issue that students, staff, faculty and administration should be united on. “I think we should be doing everything we can, at every level, to push back against this legislation.”

Brown isn’t the only Concordia staff member to voice their concerns. Jarrett Carty, the liberal arts chair at Concordia, expressed his severe concern about how this will affect his department. 

In an email correspondence to the Liberal Arts College, he stated that “there are simply no sound arguments or evidence behind this announced policy,” describing the potential effects as “utterly devastating” to specifically Bishop’s and Concordia. He noted that the immediate drop of students will severely impact Concordia’s Liberal Arts College, where out-of-province students make up 30 per cent of enrollment each year.

“The fact that the universities only found out with the public is an issue of itself. There’s no transparency, there’s no clear communication,” said Noah Sparrow, another co-organizer of the Blue Fall protest. Since the government’s announcement, the specifics of how this will affect certain groups is still unclear. 

While it is reported that this will not affect research-based masters or PhDs, O’Neill is not convinced. “The word on the street is that they won’t be, but there are certain elements that are being communicated directly to the universities that conflict with that statement,” he claimed, mentioning what he has been told by an employee at McGill.

“There’s obviously a specific intersectional racial element to it,” O’Neill said. “We’re talking about the Middle East—specifically North Africa—as well as the French Caribbean, where there is cultivated talent. There are diverse perspectives that are obviously going to be afforded to other parts of Canada […] if this policy passes.” 

Yasmine Wagdy, a prospective Concordia international student and fluent francophone, had hoped to start at Concordia next fall but is not sure if she will be able to. “I don’t really have a plan for what I’m going to do now […] because if they do double the tuition I don’t think I’ll be able to go,” she said.

A report by the CBC highlights that it is difficult for immigrants to learn French in a six month period of time. “I think French is a beautiful language, I speak French constantly and I think people around the world recognize that French is a nice language to learn,” said Davoc Beaupré, a francophone Concordia student. “I think that people are naturally curious, given the time and opportunity to be able to. I don’t see how you can twist [this policy] around to make it positive.”

English universities’ reactions to the tuition hikes could potentially limit current or potential students’ opportunities to learn French. McGill announced the suspension of a $50 million dollar plan to improve the French skills of its students and faculty, citing difficulty finding funding following the announcement of the hikes. 

Bishop’s has stressed that the increase in tuition will have a major impact on the school, as a third of its student body is from outside Quebec.

During a press conference on Oct. 25, Quebec Premier François Legault stated that “the number of English-speaking students in Quebec threatens the survival of the French language,” describing the hikes as being difficult, but ultimately necessary.

“Montreal is an internationally renowned […] city for university students,” said Sparrow, who, along with O’Neill, attributed part of this reputation to the city’s multiculturalism. Sparrow added that by virtue of being educated here, he has immensely benefited from Montreal’s cultural diversity.

“I think international students complete the mosaic that is Montreal,” O’Neill said.

Brown is concerned about the announcement’s effects on the city as a whole. “We want that intellectual culture of the city to be as robust as possible and I think this legislation is a really short-sighted threat to that,” he said.

At time of writing, there is no information regarding how the hikes impact current students looking to transfer programs for next fall. Students are required to finish their degree in five years or less in order to retain their current rates.

A walkout organized by O’Neill and Sparrow took place at 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 30. The walkout began at Dorchester Square before marching by Concordia and ending at McGill’s Roddick Gates.

Montreal students and faculty rally against tuition hikes Read More »

René Lemieux leafs through a bilingual Cree/English edition of Kâ-pî-isi_kiskisiyân / The Way I Remember.

Keeping languages and histories alive

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

René Lemieux leafs through a bilingual Cree/English edition of Kâ-pî-isi_kiskisiyân / The
Way I Remember. Photo Miguel Fowke-Quintas

Miguel Fowke-Quintas
Local Journalism Initiative

In 2019, Canada passed the Indigenous Languages Act, responding to a Call to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Act allocated $330 million to support projects for reclaiming and revitalizing Indigenous languages.

Dr. Sigwan Thivierge, a Linguistics and First Peoples Studies professor at Concordia, believes that linguistics training has an important role to play in Indigenous language revitalization.

“I want to bring more Indigenous people into the field and also make the knowledge that we already have accessible to community members,” Thivierge said, “It’s about bringing the

community to linguistics, and bringing linguistics into the community.” 

Thivierge herself is from Long Point First Nation in Quebec, an Anishinabeg community, as well as a speaker and learner of Anicinabemowin. 

Quebec is home to nine Indigenous languages, spoken by roughly 50,000 people—the greatest share of Indigenous language speakers out of any Canadian province or territory.

According to Statistics Canada, between 2016 and 2023, the number of First Nations language speakers fell by almost five per cent. 

Article 13 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their languages.” The UN estimates say that an Indigenous language dies every two weeks.

In response, UNESCO launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages last year. Linguists like Thivierge say that Indigenous perspectives are crucial to reclamation and revitalization efforts.

There is evidence of some language revitalization among First Nations youth in Quebec. Statistics Canada revealed that in 2021, almost 40 per cent of First Nations children

could speak an Indigenous language, a figure nearly three times higher than First Nations adults aged 65 and older.  

René Lemieux is a researcher at Concordia, who works on the Awikhiganisaskak Project to create learning materials for Abenaki using 17th century dictionaries written by hand on parchment. “Often, we’re working with information given to us by missionaries, so we have to be conscious of the layers of ideology,” said Lemieux, explaining that the goal is to process the existing documentation and return it to Indigenous communities.

“Linguistics is a field that lends itself to extractive research methodologies,” Thivierge said. Historically, settler linguists and anthropologists would collect data about Indigenous languages and then compile it into academic tomes which were inaccessible to laypeople.

“Communities want documentation, they want databases, they want their stories to be kept alive,” said Thivierge. “Yet, the data that does exist is not formatted for learners. You open a random page and see nominalising, or verb particles, and ask ‘What is this?’”

Learning Indigenous languages as living languages rather than only learning about them is crucial for the work of the Awikhiganisaskak Project, according to Raphael Bosco, a researcher for the project. 

Reflecting on his experience as an Abenaki learner, he encouraged other settlers to take classes in Indigenous languages. “It helps with reconciliation of non-Indigenous people and Indigenous people,” he said. “Learning a language is always a way to see things from a different perspective.”

Keeping languages and histories alive Read More »

Demonstrators gather in support of the Search the Landfill Movement.

Canada’s disregard for Indigenous grief: How Canadian healthcare dismisses Indigenous cultural approaches to well-being

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Demonstrators gather in support of the Search the Landfill Movement. Photo Dorothy Mombrun

Claudia Beaudoin
Local Journalism Initiative

In the face of grief, the pursuit of closure and dignity for loved ones is a process one may seek to attain. For Indigenous communities in Canada, however, it’s a privilege they have often been denied.

Within the heart of these communities, a network of healing and unity continues to flourish, going beyond what the Canadian government can provide.

The shortcomings in the justice system, as highlighted at the MMIWG2S+ vigil in Montreal on Oct. 4, serve as a reminder of the injustices endured by Indigenous communities, both physically and emotionally. 

The healthcare system falls short of effectively tending to these issues.

Among the 94 specific Calls to Action established by the federal government in 2015 following the 2013 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, not one of the seven healthcare-related recommendations for Indigenous communities has been implemented to date. 

This includes recognizing the unique health requirements of Indigenous communities, as specified in Call 20. The call to action encompasses the prevalent health concerns that differ between communities such as the higher rates of tuberculosis or mental health issues. It also involves incorporating their healing practices in their treatments, as outlined in Call 22.

A recurring theme among Indigenous families seeking help is the persistent experience of racism, discrimination or neglect when dealing with authorities. Those who muster the courage to reach out to health or judicial services often receive blame for the situation they are in.

Joyce Echaquan’s death is an example of the persistent struggle of systemic racism within the healthcare system. Even after her passing, caused by an excess of fluids in her lungs, speculation of drug withdrawal continued to be used as an excuse rather than addressing the neglectful and racist treatment she received from healthcare professionals. 

Cambria Harris, an Ojibwa activist and member of Long Plain First Nation, lost her mother to a homicide in 2022. Her mother’s remains have yet to be found, as the police decided to halt their search of the Manitoba landfill where her remains are believed to be buried. Harris said there have not been any services provided by the government for the mental toll this has had on her family. She continues to demand the action of authorities.

“Those [cases of neglect and discrimination] are the conditions where it makes it really hard for people to heal or have closure because there’s no justice and no social justice,” said Dr. Catherine Kineweskwêw Richardson, a Métis scholar of Cree and Gwich’in descent and co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice—a centre that aims to promote effective responses to violence for Indigenous communities through counselling, education, research and advocacy.

These systemic issues become even more concerning when examining the suicide rates for Indigenous youth. They are ten times higher for males and 22 times higher for females than non-Indigenous youth. “No one questions why those statistics are not changing, and that’s because of the government before us; they’re not putting their resources at the right places,” Harris said.

Health programs which already exist, such as the Non-Insured Health Benefits—a program that provides coverage of health benefits for Indigenous communities—tend to be challenging to access due to the rigorous paperwork and requirements, further alienating those in need.

In a flawed justice system, where healthcare systems are facing their own challenges, Indigenous communities struggle to seek recourse, which can create a pervasive sense of deficiency.

Delta Jacobs, a Kanien’kehà:ka artist, said when she navigated the healthcare system, she felt unrepresented, emphasizing that she discovered comfort in art therapy as opposed to the more conventional client-centred therapy suggested by Western practices.

“The way they (most Western therapists) approach things seems so monotonous, medical and sterile for me,” Jacobs said.

Less than one percent of Canada’s physicians identify as Indigenous.

“Psychology is one of the arms of colonization,” Richardson said. She explained that individual-based therapy and diagnoses can oversimplify situations and people, failing to address the broader social injustices that affect communities.

Richardson also highlighted the issue of using psychiatric language from Western culture against Indigenous people. She said an example of this is the recurring issue of removing children from their parents based on perceived mental health diagnoses. 

“They come onto the reserves and pull families apart, which is just a way to break the community because they know that’s our strength,” Jacobs said. 

The solution social workers gave Jacobs’ three siblings was to take them to group homes at a young age for supervision.

Canada’s disregard for Indigenous grief: How Canadian healthcare dismisses Indigenous cultural approaches to well-being Read More »

CSU hosts town hall to discuss proposed Quebec tuition hikes

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

CSU hosted a town hall for students to discuss tuition hikes. Photo Catriona Ray

Catriona Ray
Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 26, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) hosted a town hall to discuss the tuition hikes recently proposed by the Quebec government.

The event was held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and was led by CSU General Coordinator Harley Martin, CSU Academic Coordinator Alexandrah Cardona. In attendance on the panel were also Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) Mobilization Coordinator Lily Charette, and School of Community and Public Affairs member  Adam Semergian. The event covered a variety of student concerns, with a particular focus on what student mobilization on this issue may look like in the coming months.

The proposed tuition hikes would force out-of-province students to pay a minimum of $17,000 per semester. In addition, universities will have to pay $20,000 to the government per international student enrolled.  Most importantly, the Quebec government would expect institutions to charge above the minimum to make up for any potential losses—out-of-province and international students could end up paying closer to $30,000 per year minimum as admissions drop. Additionally, while these measures would not initially affect students who are already enrolled, actions like a degree or faculty change may force an already-enrolled student to pay higher prices.

Semergian, kicked off the event with a brief history of the student movement in Quebec, which has been active since as early as the 1960s. 

“A very common thread in all of this has been for free tuition or to end tuition hikes,” said Semergian. The largest of these movements took place in 2012 when province-wide tuition increases were protested by students from both francophone and anglophone campuses. Student strikes lasted for months and eventually forced the government to rescind their proposal for higher tuition.

“For years there has been a fight in Quebec for free education,” said Cardona. “This tuition increase is just another wave in the government trying to combat that movement.”

Semergian also cautioned against the possibility of student division. “Remember that just because right now [the tuition hikes] don’t affect in-province students […] this is probably just a preamble to something that would affect everybody.”

Charette agreed. “It’s very intentional that these increases in tuition are being done in a way that brings in language politics,” she said. “It deeply confuses the situation and is going to create so many rifts between communities […] They’re hoping to divide the student movement in Quebec.”

Furthermore, tuition increases have wide-ranging impacts on Concordia as an institution. Cardona told students, “Concordia is projecting, on the conservative side, that we would lose enrollment by up to 60 per cent […] Funding-wise, Concordia would be looking at losing upwards of tens of millions of dollars per year.”

Cardona also pointed out that programs that attract mostly out-of-province students will be disproportionately affected. Fine arts, including studio arts— as well as the aerospace and engineering programs—are looking at especially devastating losses.

“This is a first step in trying to coordinate our actions,” said Charette. Going forward, large unions like the CSU and ASFA are looking to smaller, department-level student associations to make their voices heard. According to Charette, because a general assembly to vote on a strike mandate for the CSU would require upwards of 450 students to appear in-person and vote, smaller student associations have a better chance of getting mobilization started in earnest.

While this may sound intimidating, student associations certainly wouldn’t be working alone. Cardona assured students that the CSU intends to assist with coordination, funding, and communication going forward. Additionally, according to Becca Wilgosh, who represented CREW-CSN, most of Concordia’s labour unions are nearing the end of their negotiations with the university, which would allow them to legally strike. “This is a key moment for solidarity between labour unions and student unions,” she said.

A full-on student strike is likely impossible, however, until at least the winter semester. This is due to scheduling and communication constraints. In the meantime, Cardona encouraged students to get acquainted with their department-level student associations and agitate for action against the tuition hikes.

“The more students say, ‘Why aren’t we striking about this? We should do this,’ [it] gives more power to us to start planning and coordinating those kinds of actions,” Charette said.

The CSU is now endorsing a protest on Monday, Oct. 30. It is set to begin in Dorchester Square at 1 p.m., and students will march to McGill’s Roddick Gates. There is also a teach-in on the history of the Quebec student movement on Nov. 16, as well as a petition available on CSU social media this week to bring this issue before the National Assembly.

A previous version of this article stated that the townhall was organized by the CSU, ASFA and La Crues. The townhall was organized solely by the CSU. In addition, Adam Semergian was named as an executive of La Crues. However, he is a member of the School of Community and Public Affairs. The Link regrets these errors. 

CSU hosts town hall to discuss proposed Quebec tuition hikes Read More »

The Atwater Community Pantry: “Free food, mutual aid project for all”

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

The Atwater Community Pantry welcomes donations from everyone, and encourages the community to take from the box when needed. Photo Cate Gransaull

Shyam Ragavan
Local Journalism Initiative

Located in the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, the Atwater Community Pantry is a bright green wooden cabinet often stuffed with bread, juice boxes and hygiene products. The pantry was founded by the Green Earth Club, a student association at Dawson College which focuses on helping the community and fighting climate change. 

Over five million people used food banks and similar discounted or free food initiatives across Canada per month in 2022 according to Second Harvest, a national food rescue organization. This year, the number is expected to rise to over eight million, a 60 per cent climb. 

As mutual aid projects emerged during the pandemic, it sparked inspiration for a group of Dawson College students. One of these students was John Nathaniel Gertler, a former member of the Green Earth Club turned co-founder of the Atwater Community Pantry.

“Some people give from their own pantry at home, some people go to the grocery store and buy things. The main way that the community [pantry] gets filled is volunteers go to bakeries and restaurants to pick up food,” Gertler says.

The pantry welcomes donations from everyone, as long as the food is non-perishable.

“It transforms people’s mindset in the sense that we’re here to help each other. We aren’t saying this is mine or this is yours. We are helping everyone,” says Ana Sofia Hernandez, another member of the club.

The pantry is about mutual aid, rather than charity. “There’s a lot of people who volunteer and take food from the pantry. That’s the whole idea of mutual aid. It’s not like the rich helping the poor, [but rather] about people supporting one another,” Gertler says.

Other food aid services in Quebec such as the Welcome Hall Mission’s Marché Bon Accueil and The Depot Community Food Centre (formerly the NDG depot) require either membership cards or registration. The Atwater Community Pantry, however, is free for anyone to use.

“There are a lot of people housed in precarious situations who take from the pantry. A lot of [unhoused] people, members of the Atwater community and even I take from the pantry,” Gertler says.

The club organizes community meals to meet the people involved in the project. Due to the pantry’s anonymity, it can sometimes be difficult to know who is interacting with the pantry. “We’re still learning and trying to get better at bringing together the community,” Gertler says. 

Gertler and other members of the club went to nearby restaurants and asked if they would like to donate leftover food instead of throwing it out. Shaughnessy Café and Forno West bakery were among those who agreed to contribute to the pantry.

Resilience Montréal, a non-profit day-shelter, also orders food for the pantry. The partnership came about as many students had volunteered there.

Non-perishable food donations include: bagels, granola bars, water and canned food; as well as staples like rice, flour and sugar which are accepted by the pantry. Apart from food, menstrual products are also welcomed by the pantry.

Tianqi Wang, a student at McGill University, volunteers at the Atwater Community Pantry. It was his first time volunteering for the pantry and he had brought a huge bag packed with bread from Forno West bakery.

“I saw the poster near the Atwater metro. I followed their Instagram and then I signed up with the link in their profile,” he says. 

Wang hopes that people who have access to surplus food and resources would donate to the less privileged groups in order to reduce inequality. 

The pantry’s heavy reliance on volunteers, or lack thereof, has caused problems during the summer when most students are not around to fulfil a needed quota for the pantry. This is just one of many challenges faced by the club. For example, the initiative is based on the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, a women’s religious order founded in 1658. This community was directly associated with the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal, and helped to found Ville-Marie, now Montreal. 

Members of the convent of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame established a boarding school for Indigenous girls which operated with the goal of Indigenous religious conversion to Christianity and cultural adaptation to French norms. The system followed a structure similar to residential schools found in late nineteenth and twentieth century Canada.

Indigenous people make up a large part of the unhoused community in Atwater. 

“We see a lot of concrete effects of settler colonialism. We see people struggling with intergenerational trauma, whether it be drug abuse and mental health issues,” Gertler says. He continues by lending his perspective on the congregation’s seedy past:

“As far as we know, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame wasn’t directly involved in setting up or servicing residential schools, but it was a part of a network of catholic institutions [involved in] genocidal activity. We have a discomfort being involved with an institution like that, but at the end of the day, [The congregation has] been really good hosts to us, and haven’t questioned some of our more political activity, which is hard to find, even in a more progressive institution like Dawson.”

While the unsettling history of the congregation lingers on with the pantry, the students have their eyes set on more ambitious projects.

“We [also] organize clothing drives. In the winter, we have a bin where anyone can put their old garments, which we then take to Resilience Montréal,” Hernandez says. “This semester, we plan to organize fundraisers for Guatemala, Hawaii and Morocco. [The countries] are suffering from humanitarian crises and environmental effects of climate change.”

Their Instagram is regularly updated with news about their latest initiatives, ways to get involved and how to sign up as a volunteer.

The Atwater Community Pantry: “Free food, mutual aid project for all” Read More »

No solutions, just evictions: Jacco Stuben, an unhoused man who recently experienced a challenging eviction, faces the threat again

Local Journalism Initiative / / /
Jacco Stuben trying to move his belongings before he is evicted by Transport Quebec. Photo Tuza Dulcinée

Hannah Vogan
Local Journalism Initiative

In a small forested area just steps away from a Westmount Sherwin-Williams paint store, tents and trinkets lay low beneath the trees, where Jacco Stuben and one other unhoused individual reside.

The residents were evicted from their previous encampment only two and a half months prior, enduring a hellish cycle of eviction and displacement. After recently being evicted from the encampment under Route 136 of the Ville-Marie Expressway, Stuben can’t seem to escape the shoving hands of the Transports et Mobilité durable Québec (MTQ).

“[MTQ is] throwing people out […] just rushing everybody out, all the people are [now] scattered on the streets,” Stuben told The Link.

One year ago, MTQ had signed a contract to do repair work on Route 136 of the Ville-Marie expressway; about 20 individuals had lived in the encampment for roughly five years. As preparations for construction began, MTQ realized it would threaten the safety of the individuals living under the expressway if construction proceeded, calling for an evacuation of the area.

MTQ faced criticism from activist groups, allies and shelters for evicting the residents of this encampment without providing adequate alternatives. On account of the campers’ first official eviction date, Montreal’s Autonomous Tenant Union (MATU) organized a public demonstration in retaliation, thus delaying the eviction to a later date.

MTQ’s pattern of proposing an eviction, receiving pushback from the community, and then halting evictions continued until March 2023, when campers were verbally informed by MTQ that the camp was to be vacated along with their belongings by the end of the month. Fifteen days after this notice, Mobile Legal Clinic (MLC), a team that represented the campers’ rights in court, solicited an injunction to prolong the end-of-month eviction against MTQ and arrange for suitable alternatives to the encampment. MLC sought to defer the eviction until mid-July to allow for the relocation of campers in friendly weather while culminating an action plan that redirects these individuals into stable housing, offering social reintegration programs and aiming to permanently detach them from the cycle of homelessness.

This gruelling legal battle ended after the judge ruled construction could no longer be postponed and that the campers would be evicted on July 11, 2023.

MTQ spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun said MTQ had only one purpose throughout all this, “to be able to find long-term housing for the campers.”

In documents acquired by The Link, it is revealed that from the period of Nov. 2022 to July 2023, MTQ spent $38,415 on protection activities—such as fencing and concrete barriers—for the campers and $57,210 on relocation (containers).

Still, only four people who lived under the bridge moved into government-subsidized housing. The others could put their belongings in lockers provided by MTQ and were left to scatter throughout the city.

Photo Tuza Dulcinée

Not only were the campers evicted, but more than half of them currently resorted to more threatening situations than before.

“Everyone is interested in looking good […] We all wanna look good. Frequently, people choose to look good over facing real problems that are with us,” David Chapman, the executive director of Resilience Montreal, told The Link. “They (MTQ) had people going in for the purposes of saying that they did [help the campers]. That was largely about the optics.”

Two and a half months after the Ville-Marie eviction, Stuben finds himself scrambling as he prepares to be ejected from a different piece of MTQ property in a matter of days.

“Everywhere, the [MTQ] want to conquer,” Stuben said.

Chapman has worked with Montreal’s unhoused population for years and has fought alongside encampment members for their rights since the beginning.

“If simply an alternative location would have been given to the people, there would’ve been no court case. All they needed to do is say where they could go. That proved impossible,” Chapman said, sharing his disappointment about Stuben’s situation.

According to Chapman, dismantling encampments and displacing campers ushers them in search of dark alleyways, small forested spots, and abandoned buildings, which isolates them from the community and forces them into dangerous situations.

“What’s concerning is for some of the folks who’ve headed to abandoned buildings, they won’t even tell me as an intervention worker where they are,” Chapman said. He added that the more secret the location, the lower the probability of eviction. However; “If something goes wrong, you really are in a predicament. There is no one there to administer naloxone. There is no community looking out for you. What it does is it just hastens the probability of an early death.”

On Apr. 11, a judge overseeing the case between MTQ and MLC found that if no alternative solution was granted to the campers in the event of an eviction, the campers would suffer irreparable harm.

“Bonds have been formed between them and as a result of the mutual assistance between them […] they consider themselves a community, which gives them a certain sense of security,” said Judge Chantal Massé in French.

Stuben has been told he is facing eviction due to complaints from neighbours. According to Bensadoun, MTQ must intervene with an encampment when a request by the city, police, or emergency services is made. Guillaume Rivest, press relations for the City of Montreal, told The Link in an email that “the City must intervene very quickly for the safety of all.”

The issue with the dissolution of encampments is the lack of options for those continually displaced.

Rivest declared that, “For the City of Montreal, urban encampments are not a viable, safe or lasting solution.”

Chapman believes rather than shutting down encampments, one could designate an area of a park, or an unused spot under a bridge, “an area where you can be left alone in the meantime,” said Chapman. Without resources to help people transition into subsidized housing and access to affordable housing, Chapman emphasized that encampments will continue to exist.

Shelters aren’t permanently a solution, either. Chapman told The Link, although shelters were liberally offered by MTQ partners to the campers, not one of them went.

Shelters tend to have strict rules, making accommodating individual needs challenging. Out of the 79 shelters listed on Quebec 211 on the island of Montreal, only six allow pets. Some shelters are gendered (which restricts heterosexual couples from living together), only offer daily accommodations or have limited bed availability. Others require interviews and applications by phone or email, and some shelters bear a zero intoxication tolerance, requiring users to do the difficult task of going cold turkey.

Stuben has plenty of belongings that make it difficult to move anywhere: he has an expensive grill he was gifted, which he loves to cook on. On Sept. 28, he was told he had 24 hours to evacuate his new spot. After some negotiation, MTQ asked Stuben to leave by Oct. 9. As of the last contact with Stuben, he is still struggling to collect his belongings and desperately needs a moving truck for transportation. All belongings left behind are thrown in the trash.

Evictions with no solid solution only shake the ground for the unhoused trying to find their footing. “It’s not fair. Don’t treat us so bad,” Stuben said.

No solutions, just evictions: Jacco Stuben, an unhoused man who recently experienced a challenging eviction, faces the threat again Read More »

Concordia Health Services refers student to “unprofessional” clinic: An out-of-province student was charged $150 with no receipt, for lacklustre service and a prescription of Reactine

Local Journalism Initiative / / /

Hannah Vogan

Local Journalism Initiative

Fresh into the semester, Olivia Steer, a second-year out-of-province full-time Concordia student spent days coping with a full-body rash and hives. When Steer began to miss classes as a result of her ailment, she sought refuge in Concordia Health Services (CHS). CHS is available to all students who pay their Student Service fee which is the sum of $11.11 per credit each semester.

On Sept. 29, Steer described her symptoms to a CHS nurse. After examination, the nurse advised Steer to see a doctor. However, Steer visited CHS on a Friday and the clinic only schedules doctor appointments Monday through Thursday. The nurse then handed Steer a sheet with two referral clinics listed: Queen Elizabeth Health Centre and Clinique Médicale Crescent, to which Steer called the latter of the clinics listed and booked an appointment. Steer was met with disappointment after CHS referred her to a clinic where their quoted client testimonials are dummy text, and the attributed photos are stock images.

Steer eventually arrived at the clinic at around 4:10 p.m. As she walked in, she felt uneasy. Steer notices printouts that read “seven dollar Botox,” and that the clinic was packed. Those who were unable to take a seat on the chairs provided stood or sat on the floor. As she checked in with the front desk, Steer clarified she is an out-of-province patient, to which the receptionist told her a fee of $150 is required for the appointment. When Steer said she would pay by card, the receptionist told her it was cash or e-transfer only, mentioning to Steer that there was an ATM across the street.

“I should’ve known just from that,” Steer told The Link.

The receptionist handed her a large printed paper with the email in which to e-transfer. After Steer sent the money, she was subsequently told that there was still a bit of a wait. The receptionist emphasized that the time you booked your appointment is not the time you will receive treatment.

Over five hours of sitting on the floor later, Steer was still waiting.

Meanwhile, Steer’s mother called the clinic to request a refund for her daughter as the service at this clinic had been anything but timely.

The clinic staff told her mother that there was no need for a refund, and that Steer was already in the doctor’s office: Steer was still in the waiting room.

By the second time Steer’s mother called, “They picked up, said nothing and hung up,” Steer said. “At this point, I’m fed up. This is not worth waiting this long. I could literally have traveled back to Ontario and saw my family doctor for free in that amount of time.”

Feeling irritated, Steer requested a refund so she could leave the clinic. Insisting they were unable to e-transfer her back, the receptionist insisted Steer would see the doctor shortly.

“I don’t know why they made it seem [impossible to issue a refund]. They literally refused to give me my money back,” Steer said.

The way the clinic took payments, you were unable to obtain a receipt. In Steer’s case, there was no way to verify that she paid for the service, she was unable to cover the treatment under her insurance.

Once again, Steer requested a refund; she wanted to go home. The receptionist then told her to “wait,” and put Steer in front of everyone who had been waiting longer than her.

By the time Steer met with the doctor, she told him, “before you say anything, I want a refund,” to which the doctor started to diagnose her. Compliantly, she told him her symptoms.

“I don’t know why I said anything, I should have kept it quiet,” Steer said. “He (the doctor) just didn’t care.” The doctor proceeded to prescribe her Reactine. “I could’ve gone to a pharmacy, and they could’ve told me that for free.”

With 111 reviews averaging a 2.3 star rating on Google, Steer questions why Concordia could not conduct a simple background check.

“I feel betrayed,” Steer said. “The fact that Concordia is making people go to this place is very odd. I feel like they haven’t had a background check on that place. I think whoever put that place down has never been.”

Steer’s experience is not unique.

Carly Hylton, a Quebec resident, is a registered nurse (RN) who is completing her bachelor’s degree in nursing at McGill. This past June, Hylton booked a blood draw at Clinique Médicale Crescent.

Hylton described the clinic as strange.

“It didn’t look very hygienic,” Hylton told The Link.

She noticed the clinic was hot, sticky and crammed. The prices for services were slightly higher than other private clinics, the two receptionists were on their phones texting—not really being responsive to patients—and the Botox advertisements plastered around the clinic alarmed Hylton.

The receptionists were confused about her requests to get her blood drawn. They told Hylton to sit and wait to see a doctor. This weirded Hylton out, she told them that for a blood draw she just needed to see a nurse.

The receptionist kept asking questions about her blood test, even though it was written on her requisition. “How do you not know what this is?” Hylton said.

Hylton left as the clinic exhibited “too many red flags.”

“I felt like the environment was very unprofessional, and kind of sketchy […] I waited for a half hour with no idea of what was happening.”

When told about Steer’s situation, Hylton was shocked.

“As a healthcare professional I am surprised,” Hylton said. “I think it is strange that [CHS] would be referring people to this clinic […] If I am referring people somewhere I personally check out the place.”

Hylton additionally expressed how prescribing Steer Reactine does not require an in-person physical assessment. “I think Concordia should take a stronger stance on this and help students access good care.”

She mentioned how there are tons of other private healthcare clinics in the downtown area. At a different clinic only minutes away, Hylton got her blood drawn “quicker,” for cheaper, and in a “clean environment.”

Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci said Concordia has never received any formal complaints about this clinic, and only removes clinics from their reference list if they are told the clinic engages in problematic practices.

Clinique Médicale Crescent declined The Link’s interview request. A Link photojournalist was harassed on the street as she attempted to photograph the building.

Concordia Health Services refers student to “unprofessional” clinic: An out-of-province student was charged $150 with no receipt, for lacklustre service and a prescription of Reactine Read More »

Palestinian students claim Concordia dean of students waved middle finger at them: The university denies the altercation between Andrew Woodall and the students

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

Maria Cholakova & Iness Rifay

Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 12 around 6 p.m., Bara Abuhamed and his friend Yusuf, who wished to be given a pseudonym for his safety, were driving on Mackay Street while waving the Palestinian flag through the sunroof.

As the car passed by the Hall building on the Sir George Williams Campus, the students noticed a familiar figure at the nearby Bixi station. “We were parking the car when we saw an old man giving us the middle finger,” Yusuf said.

“Obviously, we were shaken,” Abuhamed said. “Why was he flipping us off?”

As the man loaned out a bicycle from the station, Abuhamed recognized the man to be Concordia Dean of Students Andrew Woodall.

“When I recognized him, I said ‘you’re the Dean of Students,’ and he said ‘yeah’ and drove off,” he said. “That’s when I stopped the car and told him that I’m a student. That’s when he stops, turns around and comes to apologize.”

In a video of the apology sent to The Link, Abuhamed confronted Woodall, calling him out for the disrespectful action. He also told the Dean he was being a hypocrite.

Abuhamed’s accusation of hypocrisy comes from his previous work with Woodall. In 2017, a letter threatening to set off a bomb in two of Concordia’s downtown buildings was sent to the Muslim Student Association (MSA). Abuhamed, who was the association’s VP at the time, worked with Woodall to ensure students were safe. Now, six years later, Woodall is allegedly giving the finger to the same person with whom he worked alongside.

Woodall apologized again and blamed the pressure on a “ton of pressure going on.”

Abuhamed responds “on us too,” telling the Dean that the Palestinian Concordia students community has gotten their private information leaked online–or doxxed–by Zionist extremists.

Woodall repeated his apology once more as Abuhamed told him that if a similar interaction transpired again, he would file a formal complaint.

“You do what you need to do,” Woodall said.

The Link contacted Concordia’s spokesperson Vannina Maestracci for comment on the situation, and she denied that Woodall made the gesture. According to Maestracci, “He [Dean Woodall] did give a look to the student,” given the statement that was sent on Wednesday about ‘high-charged moments such as the one we are in right now.’”

Upon hearing the spokesperson’s official response, Abuhamed wasn’t happy about how the university was dealing with the incident.

“If she’s going to accuse students of a lie, she’s either saying that my eyes don’t work or she wants to deny a situation that she knows Andrew is guilty of,” he said. “It’s clear as day what a middle finger looks like.”

Abuhamed also believes that if he and Yusuf had not disclosed that they were students to Woodall, he would not have come back to apologize.

Anti-Palestinian racism has been on the rise across North America in the past week. Two days prior to Abuhamed’s encounter with Woodall, a Tunisian woman got verbally harassed by a Montreal author, who wished upon the victim to get sexually harassed for carrying a Palestinian flag. On Oct. 14, CNN reported on a six-year-old Muslim child who was stabbed 26 times in Illinois by his family’s landlord and passed away the same day. His mother was also stabbed more than a dozen times.

In the wake of such hatred, demonstrators have started to gather not just in support of Gaza and Palestine, but the wider Arab community.

Palestinian students claim Concordia dean of students waved middle finger at them: The university denies the altercation between Andrew Woodall and the students Read More »

The fight for fair pay continues: Care and CREW-CSN are demanding better wages for TAs and RAs

Local Journalism Initiative / / /

Maria Cholakova

Local Journalism Initiative

Unions across campus have started negotiations with Concordia University to increase workers’ pay and sign new collective agreements.

The Concordia Association of Research Employees (CARE) has been at the negotiating table for over a year, demanding livable wages that match inflation and that are comparable to other universities in Montreal.

According to the union’s secretary-treasurer, Gabrielle McLaren, negotiations with Concordia have been “extremely difficult.” CARE’s collective agreement expired on May 31, 2022 and the union started negotiations three months later. However, McLaren noted that Concordia didn’t want to budge on salaries.

“They’ve been really unflinching, which is a problem,” she said. “It took us a really, really long time to even get Concordia to talk about money.”

She said she believes Concordia’s unwillingness to increase salaries is unfounded when comparing research employee salaries to those at McGill. “[McGill] just takes research more seriously and it shows financially,” she said.

Depending on the job employees unionized under CARE have, the hourly salary as a research assistant (RA) is a minimum of $23.43 per hour. In contrast, McGill pays RAs a minimum of $28 to $30 per hour.

By November 2022, negotiations were slower than CARE would have liked. “It became really clear that it was sort of [Concordia’s] way or the highway, which isn’t how bargaining works. That’s not how negotiations work,” McLaren said. Then, CARE decided to take matters into their own hands.

On Feb. 22, 2023, one hour before their meeting with Concordia’s negotiating team, CARE members gathered in front of the Faubourg Building, giving out flyers and informing passersby on the need for an increase in RA wages. The gathering was quickly shut down by Concordia security, who asked union members for their IDs.

“It became really clear from the start of that meeting that the university was unhappy that they had been greeted downstairs by our group, and it was a really difficult meeting that ended up with Concordia telling us that if we didn’t agree with them, we should just leave,” McLaren said.

For McLaren, the meetings weren’t productive anymore. “[Concordia] wasn’t respecting what we were bringing to the table, they weren’t showing up at meetings ready,” she said.

CARE then moved to conciliation, a step in bargaining where a neutral party would get involved to facilitate and fast-forward negotiation discussions.

“At first, we were sensing a change of attitude,” McLaren said. “Tensions in the room were releasing, the dialogue was more productive, but […] that did not last.”

In early August, Concordia presented an offer. Although some demands were met, the minimum salary was not increased for 2023. “It is ridiculous, given inflation. Plus, the minimums aren’t that high, they’re like $21,” she said.

Concordia refusing to increase wages was unacceptable for CARE. “You’re asking people to have research expertise, to have specialized skills with different software, different computing, different financial systems, different administrations; that’s not a competitive salary,” said McLaren.

CARE didn’t accept the offer and waited until September for Concordia’s new offer, which never came.

“Often our colleagues would ask, ‘How’d it go?’ And it was really tough,” she said. “How do I tell them that the employer just wasted two months of our time in the most diplomatic way possible.”

According to Vannina Maestracci, Concordia’s spokesperson, “The parties continue to negotiate and we are committed to reaching an agreement.”

The struggle for better pay has been felt by CARE and CREW-CSN alike.

Zachary Mitchell, a CREW-CSN militant and a teaching assistant (TA) and RA in the history department, said that considering inflation hit 5.2 per cent, the union will demand pay to at least match inflation.

“Fundamentally, a lot of us are being priced out of our own city. This is where we work, this is where we live. If we can’t afford rent, if we can’t afford food, what are we supposed to do?”

Mitchell said a better working environment culturally would benefit TAs and RAs as a whole. “We’re contracted for [a certain] number of hours, but often the expectation is to work above those hours, and there’s a real culture around it that’s developed over the years,” he said.

Mitchell added that Concordia’s negotiation strategies should change in order for unions to see change. “Concordia really has signalled sort of a policy of austerity in the past years, despite record inflation, but a very selective austerity,” he said.

He used Concordia President Graham Carr’s 10 per cent salary increase as an example in contrast to their strict no-pay increases for unions.

“Some of the unions here, even ones which are asking for very little—like four or five per cent—they’re kind of getting snubbed,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell added that all hope is not lost. “When things fail at the bargaining table, that’s when unions begin to take larger steps doing things like industrial action, possibly even escalating eventually to strikes,” he said.

The fight for fair pay continues: Care and CREW-CSN are demanding better wages for TAs and RAs Read More »

Pro-trans protest counters OMMC for a second time: Another country-wide protest opposing LGBTQIA2S+ school policies meets a mass pro-trans response around Canada

Local Journalism Initiative / / /

Julia Israel

Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 21, clashing protests outside the Ministry of Education office occurred between the One Million March for Children (OMMC) group protesting LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive school curriculums and a collection of counter-protesting groups advocating for the rights and safety of LGBTQIA2S+ youth.

This is the second time they’ve gathered since Sept. 20 to counter the country-wide protests against gender-inclusive curriculums and policies in schools.

Counter-protesters arrived early to occupy the area in front of the Ministry of Education building on Fullum Street. They managed to block the whole street, redirecting OMMC protesters to regroup on the other side of the building.

The crowd of hundreds of counter-protesters played music, provided free meals and refreshments, and strictly controlled access to the gathering for safety purposes. Social media posts by organizers Celeste Trianon and Sarah Worthman stated that the aim of the counter-protest is to disrupt a movement that wants to deprive students of comprehensive and inclusive educations that support the rights and freedoms of all.

With signs reading “our kids belong to us” and “stop indoctrinating and sexualizing our children,” the OMMC protest stands against LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive policies in schools. These policies include a child’s right to use their preferred pronouns and preferred first name without parental consent, mixed-gender bathrooms, and education on sexual orientation and gender identity. The rise of this movement was originally sparked by the New Brunswick government’s policy of parental consent for teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns and first names in June. Additionally, Saskatchewan’s subsequent adoption of this bill on Oct. 20 does the same.

The rise of these protests around the country has raised fears and concerns for safety among the LGBTQIA2S+ community and its allies. A number of protesters in cities across the country were arrested for inciting hate and disruption in this past month. Police reported that anti-LGBTQIA2S+ hate crimes have risen 64 per cent since 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Counter-protester Alex Nelson said he felt hypocrisy among the protesters in their messaging about child protection. “They have nothing against child’s pageant contests, which is really sexualized,” said Nelson. “They only have a problem when it’s trans kids expressing themselves.

No statement on the protests has been made by Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville who said he objects to mixed-gender bathrooms in schools last month.

“It’s about showing up and being an ally,” said Sharon Desouza, a counter-protester, “we want to make sure that our communities are being fully represented.”

High school teacher Elyse Bourdeau emphasized that LGBTQIA2S+ policies aim to create safe spaces for students at school who might otherwise not have a place to express themselves safely. She said that parental consent policies single out trans and non-binary students, putting them in particularly vulnerable positions. “The teenager must have a safe space in school to experiment, to try to discover themselves. And our goal is never to hide anything from the parents. But sometimes we have to, and most of all, we must protect the teen,” Bourdeau said.

When protesters with the OMMC started arriving around 11 a.m., they were directed to the other side of the Ministry of Education building by counter-protest volunteers at the blockade on Fullum Street and St Catherine Street East. Some non-violent hostile interactions occurred between sides. The groups faced off near the Ministry of Education building for a couple hours until the OMMC protesters dispersed.

Once the protesters dispersed around 1:30 p.m., counter-protesters marched down St Catherine Street East to Frontenac Metro. “There’s no place for hate in Montreal, there’s no place for transphobia in Montreal,” cheered counter-protesters.

Pro-trans protest counters OMMC for a second time: Another country-wide protest opposing LGBTQIA2S+ school policies meets a mass pro-trans response around Canada Read More »

Thousands rally in urgent last-minute demonstration for Gaza: Following the Israeli bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital, protesters called for an immediate ceasefire

Local Journalism Initiative / / /

Abby Cole

Local Journalism Initiative

On the evening of Oct. 17, pro-Palestine protesters filled the street in front of the US Consulate in downtown Montreal.

This emergency protest was called in response to the deadly Israeli air raid attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, where at least 500 people were killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. This is the third protest in support of Palestine this week in Montreal, with more to come.

Organizers, including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia, organized the demonstration in only a couple of hours after hearing the news.

“There are over 5,000 people here with under two hours of mobilization,” explained Sarah Shamy, an organizer with PYM.

“This shows that our people are glued to the screens,” she added, “they want to see justice and they want to see accountability.”

The rally shifted into a march as protesters headed to the Israeli Consulate. Chants including “Free, Free, Palestine” and “Solidarity with Palestine” could be heard across the crowd, with many attendees moved to tears while still processing the day’s atrocities.

“Part of me is here to seek support from our community,” said Noor, who is part of SPHR Concordia. “I can say for all my fellow Palestinians, that this week has been almost unbearable. A lot of survivor’s guilt, of course, wondering why we’re here and why we’re not there.”

Many people in attendance were grieving for family and friends in Gaza. One demonstrator, Rania, attended the rally “to defend the people of Gaza, to give them a voice.”

“I have a lot of relatives in Gaza,” she said, “[my husband’s] family house, his whole neighbourhood, was bombed today. All his childhood friends and neighbours died. His family made it out miraculously.”

“This is not a retaliation,” she continued. “This is a massacre. It’s a genocide.”

Shamy added that many people are not able to get in touch with their families. On Oct. 7, Israel cut off electricity to Gaza, alongside food and other supplies.

“Some people’s families have been murdered,” she said. “And this is what we’re seeing today and this is why people are angry.”

Shortly after the attack in Gaza, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a public statement. “The news coming out of Gaza is horrific and absolutely unacceptable. International humanitarian and international law needs to be respected in this and in all cases.”

“Canada is trying to save face,” Noor said in response to Trudeau’s comment.

Up until this point, Trudeau has routinely expressed Canada’s support for “Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law.”

“[Canada has] already ruined the relationship with an entire Arab community and more now,” said Noor. “But I think really all we can do is just look at the people, and try to get them to put more pressure on the government.”

“We want an end to the bombing of Gaza immediately,” said Shamy. “The civilians are dying as we speak. And they are being bombarded as we speak. And we want Canada to end its material support and its diplomatic cover for the Israeli state.”

On Oct. 12, Canada began airlifting citizens, families and foreign nationals out of Tel Aviv. The country also announced $10 million in funding for humanitarian assistance for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

“[SPHR Concordia has] kind of mixed efforts right now. Part of it is towards our own community,” said Noor. “[we’re] setting up healing circles, vigils—anything we can, really, to make sure that we are taking care of ourselves and each other. And of course, we’re also looking to educate the community.”

Thousands rally in urgent last-minute demonstration for Gaza: Following the Israeli bombing of al-Ahli Arab Hospital, protesters called for an immediate ceasefire Read More »

Finance update: ConU President’s trip to Israel: A breakdown of Graham Carr’s university-funded expenses during 2022 trip

Local Journalism Initiative / / /
Graphic Adam Gibbard

Maria Cholakova & Zachary Fortier

Local Journalism Initiative

In August 2022, Concordia President Graham Carr participated in a trip to Israel to visit Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv and build academic connections. Six months after the trip, The Link spoke to Palestinian students and Canadian academics about their reactions and to understand why Concordia decided to participate.

Since the article’s publication in February 2023, The Link has acquired new information about the trip via records provided by an access to information request.

In total, the university spent nearly $9,000 to send its president on the trip to Israel. The money was spent on business class flights, luxury hotels and several activities on the itinerary.

Carr left Montreal on Aug. 26, 2022, three days after his sit-down interview with The Link. He transferred to Toronto Pearson Airport and then took a direct flight to Tel Aviv. Sitting in a business class seat, Concordia spent $5,883 on airfare alone. That price doesn’t include the additional $75 for taxis to and from the airport. The president was also allowed a daily allowance of $52 while in Israel, which would come up to $364 for the week-long stay.

In addition, the university paid $2,500 to participate in the trip itself. The event was organized by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which took care of the trip’s itinerary and its collective organization.

All 15 Canadian university presidents who attended the trip stayed at two five-star luxury hotels during their stay. Although the prices for the rooms were not listed in the document, Mamilla Hotel in Jerusalem currently charges $580 per night for a studio room, which is the least premium of those rooms available. Carlton Hotel charges $385 per room for a “Superior City View Room.” Carr stayed eight nights split between the two hotels.

During his week-long stay in Israel, the president visited seven Israeli and two Palestinian universities. On Sept. 1, 2022, Carr attended an “Israeli Politics 101” seminar and later in the day met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The itinerary also included several dinners, networking events, strolls around cities and leisurely activities like a “Lunch and Swim” at the Vert Hotel.

However, Concordia’s ties to Israel are deeply rooted. In 2011, Concordia received $5 million from the Azrieli Foundation for the creation of the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies at Concordia.

More recently, in January 2023, Concordia received $1 million courtesy of Miriam Roland, a former member of Concordia’s Board of Governors and honorary president and chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal. The donation would be shared with Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel. According to the Euro-Med Monitor for Human Rights, BGU had strong connections with the Israeli military. According to their report, in 2018, the Israeli government allocated $15 million to BGU to accommodate thousands of active Israeli soldiers in technology-related subjects, as the Israeli Defence Forces continue to transfer its technology units to the Negev region, where the university is located.

Concordia has yet to make an official statement on the trip or speak directly to Palestinian students on campus.

Finance update: ConU President’s trip to Israel: A breakdown of Graham Carr’s university-funded expenses during 2022 trip Read More »

Students denounce double standard in Concordia’s Israel-Palestine statements: Separate emails leave students feeling “appalled” and “unsafe” by administration

Local Journalism Initiative / / /
Graphic Adam Gibbard

Iness Rifay

Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 11, the Concordia Communications team and President Graham Carr sent out a statement to the university’s entire student body regarding the “events in the Middle East.”

The correspondence described how “profoundly troubling the deadly attacks and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel” are, and expressed concern that “the violence and the reporting on it will inevitably intensify emotions in ways that risk becoming even more polarizing than they already are.”

The email asked the Concordia community to “conduct [it]self respectfully” in the event demonstrations occur on campus, mentioning past demonstrations “not authorized by or associated with Concordia” that have taken place.

The administration then detailed having “reached out to some students and student groups whose members are most affected by this war” in support.

SPHR member Leith Barghouthi explained that the “safety” and “zero-tolerance policy for hate and violence” message Concordia reiterated in its mass email resulted in more uneasiness for the Palestinian student community.

“Scratch SPHR—as a Palestinian student, we’re not feeling safe,” he said. “They think they have a superiority complex on us and it’s something we don’t approve of.”

The day prior, the student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) Concordia received an email from Dean of Students Andrew Woodall. After he expressed wishes of safety for any family members possibly located in the region, Woodall wrote: “I also want to remind you that we do expect everyone at Concordia to be respectful of each other even in difficult times so if any of your members are feeling otherwise, please let us know. We are proud of our safe campus notwithstanding many different opinions.”

On Oct. 8, multiple Israeli international students received a separate email from the International Students Office in which on and off-campus mental health resources were explicitly laid out. The message mentions “Concordia’s wishes to express deep concern for all members of the community impacted by the violence in the Middle East.” While 30 students registered as Palestinian with the ISO received these ressources, members of the Palestinian diaspora within the Concordia community were not accommodated. These emails were also never sent to members of SPHR.

One Israeli student, granted anonymity for their safety, was a recipient of this correspondence. They expressed their “complete appallment and disappointment [towards] the actions committed by the Concordia administration” to The Link.

“Sending out an email of support and sympathy to only Israeli students and disregarding that all the other students are going through a difficult time is an absolutely disgraceful thing to do,” they said.

They added that “the Concordia administration should be ashamed of this act and should rectify it as soon as possible.”

A previous version of this article stated that Palestinian students were never contacted. The International Student Office (ISO) sent resources to 30 Palestinian students. The Link regrets this error.

With files from Maria Cholakova.

Students denounce double standard in Concordia’s Israel-Palestine statements: Separate emails leave students feeling “appalled” and “unsafe” by administration Read More »

Canadian Armenians advocate for community overseas: Armenian community in Canada reflects on ethnic cleansing in contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh

Local Journalism Initiative / / /
Art by Maral

Julia Cieri

Local Journalism Initiative

The contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a majoritarily Armenian inhabited enclave internationally recognized as a semi-autonomous part of Azerbaijan, is seeing most of its Armenian population flee following the Sept. 19 Azerbaijani assault in the area.

Over 100,000 refugees have fled from Artsakh to Armenia, most of which have had to go without essential supplies for days according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh is a separatist ethnic-Armenian enclave within the borders of Azerbaijan. It was occupied by Armenia for decades before Azerbaijan won a fight in 2020 with the aid of the Turkish government and therefore gained the area as territory following the surrender of the Armenian government.

On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a military operation on Nagorno-Karabakh labeled as an “anti-terrorist” campaign by the country’s defense ministry. Following the attack, over 200 people have been killed, leaving Nagorno-Karabakh with no choice but to capitulate due to their being overwhelmed with the Azerbaijan army.

Tensions between the two regions had already been running high due to the nine month blockade that went on beforehand, during which the importation of food was completely prevented.

Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) executive director and Ontarian of Armenian origin Sevag Belian explained that Nagorno-Karabakh was under total blockade before the events of Sept. 19 and that the people barely had any food, medicine, fuel and other basic necessities. “Not only these people were attacked, but ten months prior to that, they were being starved by Azerbaijan, and the media didn’t talk about it until the people were forcibly uprooted and we witnessed one of the worst refugee crises.”

Through the difficulties of her community overseas, Maral, who did not want to disclose her name for safety reasons, a student of Armenian descent at Concordia University expressed her commitment to raising awareness on the issue.”Personally for me, everything I do has to be for this cause right now, I can’t look away. I can’t distract myself, I can’t pretend it’s not there. I just can’t have normal conversations. I’m not gonna fake anything, I think people should know what’s happening.”

Maral shared her pain regarding the bombings from the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, that killed over 200 people. “​​When you feel that heart-to-heart connection to a land and then it’s being bombed, you kinda feel like you’re losing someone,” she said, “the first emotion I felt was why am I here in Montreal? Why am I not hurting with my people? I felt guilt and resentment and anger.”

Matthew Doramajian, an engineering student at Concordia, was born in Canada but has grandparents immigrated from western Armenia to Egypt and then Canada in the 1960s. He is also feeling deep sadness and hurt. “I feel my nation is my family so even though I’m so far away, it’s like my own family being violated.”

Although he feels this way, Doramajian is nonplussed about such events occurring. “It’s almost horrible to say, but it doesn’t surprise me. As bad as it is, there’s nothing us Armenians haven’t seen before,” he said. “Right now, I witness my brothers and sisters being massacred, just how my parents in the 80s and 90s also saw their brothers and sisters being massacred, just how my grandparents witnessed massacre as well. It’s continuous, we feel helpless; it’s not a comfortable feeling.”

Belian voiced his disappointment on the reactions happening on a global level. “The fact that 100 years later the Armenian people are once again witnessing the same thing brings a lot of frustration and outrage in us because the international community really didn’t take their responsibility to protect vulnerable populations seriously” he said. He continues,“there’s a sense of devastation, there’s a sense of haunting memories coming back and also a sense of anger and frustration that this all happened in the 21st century, a modern day genocide.”

Belian delved deeper into his perspective of the situation: “Forcing people to leave their land under pressure, it’s a form of genocide,” he said. “It deprives them of what they hold most dear to their heart, and that is their belonging, their spatial recognition, and their connection to the land that has been their indigenous land for millennia.”

Maral started a journey in activism, standing in protest in front of McGill University. She wore a traditional Armenian dress, a skirt called a taraz, and played Armenian music to bring awareness to the crisis overseas. “It was just this symbolism for pain and suffering. It was human, not just tied to culture, just like the human pain that comes with terrorism. It’s something else when you stand with your people.”

There are doubts by the Armenian community on whether mainstream media is properly covering the conflict. “We were covered by CBC news and anytime I said the word genocide, […] the news cut off the word,” Maral said. “I think it’s important for people to know who the aggressor is. The world seems to not want to be upfront about it.”

Belian explained that the media comes in only when an issue reaches a very critical point. “This sudden attention that we’re getting is like bringing flowers to someone’s funeral,” he said. “After everything is done, after all the damage is done, the media takes interest and starts talking about the misery of the population,” Belian said.

Doramajian believes interventions from international governments are essential to ignite change.

“In politics, it is not the crime that is important, it is who is doing it. If they are a threat, then countries will push for their crimes to be punished. If not, they don’t care,” he said.

Canadian Armenians advocate for community overseas: Armenian community in Canada reflects on ethnic cleansing in contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh Read More »

Pro-trans protesters hold up signs in support for their cause.

Pro-trans protest counters OMMC for a second time

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

Pro-trans protesters hold up signs in support for their cause. Photo Vincent Casinghino

Julia Israel
Local Journalism Initiative

On Oct. 21, clashing protests outside the Ministry of Education office occurred between the One Million March for Children (OMMC) group protesting LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive school curriculums and a collection of counter-protesting groups advocating for the rights and safety of LGBTQIA2S+ youth.

This is the second time they’ve gathered since Sept. 20 to counter the country-wide protests against gender-inclusive curriculums and policies in schools.

Counter-protesters arrived early to occupy the area in front of the Ministry of Education building on Fullum Street. They managed to block the whole street, redirecting OMMC protesters to regroup on the other side of the building.

The crowd of hundreds of counter-protesters played music, provided free meals and refreshments, and strictly controlled access to the gathering for safety purposes. Social media posts by organizers Celeste Trianon and Sarah Worthman stated that the aim of the counter-protest is to disrupt a movement that wants to deprive students of comprehensive and inclusive educations that support the rights and freedoms of all.

With signs reading “our kids belong to us” and “stop indoctrinating and sexualizing our children,” the OMMC protest stands against LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive policies in schools. These policies include a child’s right to use their preferred pronouns and preferred first name without parental consent, mixed-gender bathrooms, and education on sexual orientation and gender identity. The rise of this movement was originally sparked by the New Brunswick government’s policy of parental consent for teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns and first names in June. Additionally, Saskatchewan’s subsequent adoption of this bill on Oct. 20 does the same.

The rise of these protests around the country has raised fears and concerns for safety among the  LGBTQIA2S+ community and its allies. A number of protesters in cities across the country were arrested for inciting hate and disruption in this past month. Police reported that anti-LGBTQIA2S+ hate crimes have risen 64 per cent since 2021, according to Statistics Canada.

Counter-protester Alex Nelson said he felt hypocrisy among the protesters in their messaging about child protection. “They have nothing against child’s pageant contests, which is really sexualized,” said Nelson. “They only have a problem when it’s trans kids expressing themselves.

No statement on the protests has been made by Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville who said he objects to mixed-gender bathrooms in schools last month.

“It’s about showing up and being an ally,” said Sharon Desouza, a counter-protester, “we want to make sure that our communities are being fully represented.”

High school teacher Elyse Bourdeau emphasized that LGBTQIA2S+ policies aim to create safe spaces for students at school who might otherwise not have a place to express themselves safely. She said that parental consent policies single out trans and non-binary students, putting them in particularly vulnerable positions. “The teenager must have a safe space in school to experiment, to try to discover themselves. And our goal is never to hide anything from the parents. But sometimes we have to, and most of all, we must protect the teen,” Bourdeau said.

When protesters with the OMMC started arriving around 11 a.m., they were directed to the other side of the Ministry of Education building by counter-protest volunteers at the blockade on Fullum Street and St Catherine Street East. Some non-violent hostile interactions occurred between sides. The groups faced off near the Ministry of Education building for a couple hours until the OMMC protesters dispersed.

Once the protesters dispersed around 1:30 p.m., counter-protesters marched down St Catherine Street East to Frontenac Metro. “There’s no place for hate in Montreal, there’s no place for transphobia in Montreal,” cheered counter-protesters.

Pro-trans protest counters OMMC for a second time Read More »

Scroll to Top