This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness. 

The McGill Daily (MD): After graduating from McGill and entering the workforce, you didn’t originally anticipate becoming a journalist. In what ways did your education at McGill and prior experience in economic research prepare you to become a journalist?

Luca Léry Moffat (LLM): To maybe give you a bit of background, in my third or fourth year, I got really into economics. I was doing a different major, did ECON 416 that was about topics in economic development, and sort of fell in love with it and decided to switch to the honours program. By the end of my third year, going into my fourth year, I was pretty set on applying for economic research. As I said in the lecture, I applied to a bunch of different pre-docs; most of which were very academic. 

Then, of course, I went on to get this job at a think tank. It was a kind of pre-doc as a research analyst, but it was at a think tank, so [it was] less academically focused. Policy is a bit different from academia. It’s more about being a messenger between academia and policymakers. So, as an economist, I was reading lots of academic stuff, policy papers, and then trying to communicate it clearly to another audience. 

I think it was actually during my first job when I picked up a lot of the skills that I needed in journalism: the ability to read a lot, synthesize that information, spin a story, figure out what the most important story is, and what the key messages you want to get across are. Something else I got from my first job was a network. So, I started building a network in Brussels, and those people have become invaluable in [my] pivoting to journalism because being a journalist is basically knowing lots of people and getting them to tell you stuff. I mean, that’s literally all it is – anyone could do it. 

I would say that one thing that I got from McGill in the economics program was the ability to use data. I think that has given me a real edge in my journalistic career because not many people can make a graph. Data visualization is something which journalism is really shifting towards. People don’t have [long] attention spans anymore, so we like to see pretty graphs and pictures while scrolling through these interactive articles. The ability to code and knowing how to use an Excel spreadsheet was very attractive to prospective employers. I’d say that’s something I got from McGill which really helped me. 

MD: You mentioned that you were also a graduate of POLI 331. With regards to knowledge concerning Ukraine, Russia, and their histories, what piqued your interest in Eastern European affairs during your undergraduate degree or even when working in economic research? 

LLM: I was talking to Professor Popova about this – I loved my time at McGill. I had amazing professors, learned so much, and got a really good quality of education. Having said that, I feel as though I was taught economics and Russian both quite badly. I don’t think that’s McGill’s fault, I think that’s just education in the West. 

On the economic side, you learn all of this economic theory which comes from the 1970s and 80s. But you don’t really look at finance at all even though finance has, over the last 40-50 years, become such a crucial part of the economic system. International financial flows have real ramifications for the economy, whereas that’s not integrated into a lot of the economic models that we study. On the Russian side, we were studying all of this literature without looking at it through the lens of colonialism. I think in the West, the idea that Russia is an empire is sort of a bit of an odd one when you’re first confronted with it. But actually, it’s one of the last standing empires from this massive period of colonialism. The US still exists, but many of the others have kind of disintegrated, or are now a shell of their former selves. I would study Russian literature and I remember studying, for example, A Hero of Our Time by [Mikhail] Lermontov, and at no point did I stop to consider, “Why is there this Russian guy in the Caucasus? What is he doing there?” Well, of course, it was part of this expansion of the Russian Empire. So, that’s just something which I’ve sort of reflected on since leaving McGill. 

In terms of what piques my interest in Eastern European affairs, I think it was classes like POLI 331 or HIST 226, which were about the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey throughout the 20th century. What I found so interesting about it was how it’s really complicated – borders changed all the time throughout the 20th century, and people moved. After World War I, borders moved and people stayed where they were. After World War II, borders pretty much stayed where they were and people moved. There’s so much packed into European history, which is really difficult to unearth because it’s complicated. The Russian, poli-sci, and history classes I took at McGill started to shed a light on that, or even just scratched the surface of those really complicated events. And it left me hungry for more. 

MD: During the Zoom call, you mentioned that you often feel conflicted as the journalistic field often emphasizes objectivity and neutrality, while the reporting you do and the publication you work for are staunchly supportive of Ukraine’s sovereignty. How do you navigate this conflict and adhere to journalistic integrity while fighting for a cause you feel so strongly about?

LLM: I find no trouble navigating it whatsoever because I think many things can be true at the same time. I’m staunchly supportive of Ukraine. I believe the facts clearly show that Ukraine is in a war for its own existence, that this is a war for two competing visions of society: one is dictatorship, and one is democracy and liberal values, and I am more partial to the latter. 

At the same time, I believe that Ukraine has a lot of work to do when it comes to implementing certain reforms. Some articles I’ve written have been sharply critical of the government. In other articles, I have been less critical or even praised the government. I’m not writing op-eds. I’m a reporter, so I’m interviewing people, I’m putting in their quotes, and I’m telling the story. I [will] always try to tell a story that I believe is factually accurate and where I’ve quoted people in the way that they would want to be quoted. 

At the end of the day, Ukraine is fighting for a future where it’s a democracy and it has its own sovereignty. Freedom of the press is a key tenet of a democratic, rules-based, sovereign state. So I think as a reporter, it makes complete sense that I’m writing articles which [can be] more critical of the government.

MD: To my knowledge, you are proficient in Russian and currently learning Ukrainian. What has the process of learning the Ukrainian language been like for you, and what is it like to report for a primarily English-language newspaper when English is not the official language of Ukraine?

LLM: First of all, learning Russian [at McGill] was amazing because I had incredible professors. I have to shout out Maria Ivanova, I think she’s still there, as well as Daniel Pratt, and a few others. Having had a series of other language teachers since who weren’t so good, it made me appreciate how incredible [my McGill ones] were. At McGill, the quality of education in the Russian department was really phenomenal. I’m really nostalgic about it. 

The process of learning Ukrainian started when I arrived here on the 17th of April, exactly 11 months ago. When I first arrived, I figured that my Russian would be reasonably helpful, even though I understood that people were speaking less Russian nowadays because they’re being invaded by Russia and also wanting to put [the] Ukrainian [language] into the limelight. Kyiv used to be a very Russian-speaking city up until the full-scale invasion in 2022, but has [now] massively pivoted to Ukrainian. You still hear Russian around quite a lot, but out of respect I wanted to learn Ukrainian. For me, it was very clear that a lot of people didn’t want to be spoken to in Russian. As a way of just being respectful, I wanted to learn Ukrainian. 

What I think the most crucial element of learning any language is completely immersing yourself. It’s been very humbling because learning a language from scratch is not easy. Ukrainian is a very difficult language. It’s massively helped me to have such a good quality of education at McGill on the Russian side of things because they’re both Slavic languages. Even though they’re very different, lots of the grammar is the same, [and] lots of the endings are sort of similar. Not having to start from scratch on the grammar side has been really helpful. 

MD: How have you perceived reporting from journalists in Ukraine on the Russo-Ukrainian war to be different from reporting published by Western media? 

LLM: I’m thinking of a time when I went back to the UK last summer, and we had a big gathering [with] a bunch of McGill alumni. I brought back a bunch of caps with the Ukrainian flag on them to give to some friends. Someone said, “Oh, you’re the one who’s working as a journalist in Ukraine,” and made a joke about not being neutral [in the war] because of my friends who had these caps on. I think there is a desire amongst some reporters, and a desire in the public rhetoric of the West, to believe that this war is political and that you can be neutral in it. 

What was always clear to me but really crystallized when I arrived in Ukraine was that this war is happening because of Russia’s intent to erase Ukrainian statehood, erase the Ukrainian language, and to absorb Ukraine as part of Russia. Putin has some really peculiar historical fantasies which all mainstream historians reject entirely: that Ukraine isn’t a real place and that it’s the Bolsheviks’ fault that Ukraine exists. The reality is that Ukraine is a real place. It has people who really care about their country, [and] demonstrably so because there are 900,000 people in the army. There are hundreds of thousands who have been injured or have died defending their country. There are so many Ukrainian civil society activists who care about their language. You see Ukrainian flags everywhere. People have backpacks with Ukrainian ribbons. 

Ukrainian society is complicated. There are lots of different perspectives within the country. But I’m actually rather impressed by the homogeneity in supporting Ukraine, Land] not wanting [it| to be part of Russia, especially in a country that has a long history of entanglement with Russia. Given everything that I’ve just said, it’s pretty easy to define this war as a genocidal war because it is an attempt to erase a nation. And that is the definition of genocide. 

In the Western media, this is not always made explicit. I think it should be made explicit. This is essentially an anachronistic empire. If you know anything about history, you can see this [repeating]. I mean, it rings throughout the ages. If you look at recent history, you can see Georgia in 2008, which Russia invaded. You can see Crimea in 2014. You can see interference in Ukrainian elections in 2004 [and] 2005 (the Orange Revolution). 

Western media sometimes doesn’t always do a good job of portraying that. But for me, those are the facts and a journalist’s job is to report the facts. And it’s very difficult for me to see it from any other perspective. I love hearing other people’s views, even if I find them abhorrent sometimes. I really enjoy trying to understand where people come from. For me, it’s so clear that the facts are [that] this is an imperialistic, genocidal war.

The post Reporting in a Warzone appeared first on The McGill Daily.

This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Eva Marriott-Fabre for The McGill Daily (MD): Tell me, what started your lifelong love of books? At what age did you become interested in reading, and who were your earliest influences?

Adrian King-Edwards (AKE): I’m sure it came from my mother reading to me. I can remember her reading David Copperfield — that’s a very strong memory — and she read Black Beauty to me. So definitely, my love of books came from my mother. I can’t remember ever thinking about it. I mean, it was just what I was interested in. So, I mean, I did well in high school in literature, and I really enjoyed it, and I can remember being close with the English teacher in high school. And then, of course, when I came to McGill, I studied literature.

MD: How did you decide you wanted to study at McGill specifically? What brought you to Quebec and Montreal?

AKE: The bright lights of Montreal … you know, from outside, it appears like an exciting city. It is an exciting city. Also, growing up in northern Ontario, you have a huge prejudice against Toronto. I really, really enjoyed being at McGill and studying literature. It was a great experience.

MD: How did you foster your love of reading throughout your degree?

AKE: There were several things I was very keen on. We did one whole term on Ulysses by Joyce, and I was very keen on Faulkner. I was so keen on Faulkner that I wanted to go and see his home in Mississippi. I didn’t have any money, and in those days, people would often hitchhike. So I hitchhiked from here to Mississippi. Another professor, Professor Malik, did Paradise Lost with us. It was a very intense class on Paradise Lost. And then we did Chaucer with Professor Williams, and he would read to us in Middle English. And that, again, was fantastic. It was a great department. I really, really enjoyed being there.

MD: I read that The Word was not your first endeavour in selling books, and you started by selling books in the back of a Volkswagen in British Columbia. So what got you there?

AKE: I had this idea, as I was going along, that I would be a writer as well, and I also sort of started writing short stories, and that kind of thing, towards my third and fourth year. I went on a cycling trip after I graduated, and then I came back, pursuing my desire to write. I was going to write about my cycling trip — I cycled from London to Lagos, Nigeria. It took me about six months to do the whole thing and I’ve still got the bike in my garage. My first wife and I had really close friends in BC, in Belcarra Park near Vancouver, and we went out to visit them for the summer. We would leave here in April, and we would be gone all summer. The municipal law was that you could only sell books in unincorporated areas — places that weren’t towns. We’d go to lumbering camps, mining camps, and little hamlets which weren’t incorporated. We’d put out a blanket on the ground and put our books out, face up, and we would sell books like that, and we’d get to know a lot of people. People would tell us, “you know, there’s this guy who lives in a cabin on the lake about ten miles that way, and he’s got a big collection of science fiction.” We would go and knock on his door, and we’d trade books with him, and inevitably, he would feed us. We were working hand to mouth, so sometimes we’d have to wait a little longer to sell more books before we could buy gas. It was really fun…my first wife had a child who was four years old when we were doing this, and in northern BC people would come by on horseback and take them for a ride.

MD: So what brought you back to Milton-Parc?

AKE: I’ve lived on Lorne, Hutchison, Milton and Aylmer … this area is a wonderfully exciting neighbourhood to be in because of all the students. And at the end of August, I really look forward to the students coming back, because there’s all that life and excitement and energy back in the neighbourhood.

MD: How were you able to establish such close ties with McGill and why was it important for you to develop these relationships with your alma mater?

AKE: Well, we always wanted to have a store that was seriously academic and would benefit the students. I mean, that was always our focus. Then, well — first it was the students who told each other, and because my wife and I both graduated from the English literature department, we had all kinds of contacts with people in that department. And then it grew from there … 30 professors ordered [their textbooks] through us. But it was quite a few years before we started ordering new books for courses — it didn’t happen immediately.

MD: What challenges did you encounter in establishing and developing The Word? What were the difficulties that come with being an independent bookstore?

AKE: We had the store back when we were living in our apartment next door — it was a four-and-a- half for $105 a month, and for a year and a half we sold books out of our apartment. There were four doors there that all looked the same, so we put a picture of George Bernard Shaw in the window. And then people would know. It got to the point where people would just walk in. I mean, nobody was ringing the bell or anything. They just kind of knew because it was the cool underground bookstore. There’s two aspects here: the buying and the selling of books, and then dealing with the customer. And if you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to like both. And it’s really fun. I mean, every day when I’m in this store, on at least one or two occasions people will find a book that they’re really excited about, and you can hear them. They’ll take it off the shelf, and they’ll go “Ooh!” And that’s one of the things I live for. One of the advantages we have is that we’re so visible because hundreds of students walk by us every day. We’re selling literature books or philosophy books for a third of what they cost at Indigo or Paragraphe, so there’s obviously a price difference. And also there are the second-hand books. We have a much wider range of books available. We have books from 1950 or 1960 … last week, we actually bought 70 books by and about Heidegger. Most of those books are out of print and they’re not available. Even if they’re on Amazon or Abe [Books], there’s a premium attached, because we might be selling the book for $15 and theirs might be $25 — $25 American, in fact. We definitely have a cost advantage.

MD: What does your weekly schedule look like? How often are you at the actual bookstore and how often are you out sourcing books across Montreal?

AKE: Well, usually I’m in the store, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. And then Thursdays, I do house calls. I go all over Montreal and we also buy books elsewhere. I mean, we bought a major library in Halifax a few years ago. In Toronto, we buy books … Ottawa, we buy books. But in those situations, we have to be sure that it’s really good. Sometimes you go for a house call and the books were misdescribed, or there really aren’t any books you want. So sometimes it doesn’t work. If we go down to Connecticut, for instance, we have to be sure that there’s going to be good books. And we always buy books when we travel. It’s something we always do. We just go buy books. You never know what you’re going to find — you can find some really real gems like that.

MD: How have you seen both The Word and the McGill community develop alongside each other over the years? Do you think there are many differences from when you first started, or even when you were a student?

AKE: I mean the neighbourhood has changed immensely. When we started the store, the neighbourhood was run-down. It was mainly rooming houses for elderly people and poor students. And then over the years, everything was bought up and turned into condos, and now it’s way more affluent than it used to be. That’s a major change in the neighbourhood. And although it doesn’t really appear that way from the outside, we’re making changes all the time in the store with regards to what we stock. Every week, we’ll discover a new author, and we’ll discuss whether we should stock their books. I would recommend if somebody is interested in literature, to start a second-hand bookstore. However, it’s really difficult now because of the really high rents. If we were just starting out now, we wouldn’t be here. If we didn’t buy the building 12 years ago, we would not be here because the rent would have been too high. Like any small business, you’ve got to work really hard to keep everything going … Yeah, we’re really fortunate. I’ve been glad that we’ve been in this location for so long. It’s really extraordinary.

The Word is open from Monday to Saturday at 469 Rue Milton. For more information, visit www.thewordbookstore.ca.

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Similarly, U1 Political Science student Charlotte Gillogley, who joined the team at the start of the winter semester, credits that same collaborative spirit in K-RAVE along with her interest in K-pop as to why she joined the club’s Communications Team. “I had a friend who was an exec, and it seemed like a really good community,” she said. “I heard lots of funny stories about the different execs and how they were all super nice.”

On March 22, K-RAVE, McGill’s K-pop and Korean entertainment club, hosted their 6th annual showcase, Haute Kouture, at Le National. The event featured songs by artists like BTS, aespa, TWICE,
and Enhypen, and it was the product of a year-long effort by both dancers and executives. Dancers can additionally hold responsibilities as Performance Executives, who organize practice schedules, book studios, and send out song suggestion forms, or as Dance Leaders, who lead performances, distribute parts equally among dancers, and provide feedback.

According to U3 Science and Pharmacology student Emilie Jarman, whose roles include VP Performance and dance leader, responsibilities for dancers ramp up over the course of the school year. In fall, dancers are expected to work on one cover posted to YouTube and practice roughly 2-4 hours a week, while in winter, showcase preparation can require up to 10 hours. Jarman performed in songs “Shhh!” by Viviz, “Dangerous” by BOYNEXTDOOR, “Strategy” by TWICE, and a BTS Medley, and was a dance leader for the latter two. She led the “Strategy” team by herself due to her expertise in performing girl-group styles of dance, and co-led the Medley with Annie Nguyen, Christine Wu, and
Sien Pei. Preparation for the medley began well before the school year started, with a four-hour-long call to decide which songs to include.

K-Pop incorporates a variety of genres into its production, and thus, the setlist for the showcase featured a range of dance styles. Alongside dancing in the Street Woman Fighter Medley and “Igloo” by Kiss of Life, Lock was especially excited to perform the Throwback Girl Group Medley under the leadership of her friend Frida Hou, and challenged herself by learning to dance in heels. “For the Girl Group Medley, every time they put the suggestion sheet out since I joined the club, I had put it in there,” she said. “The challenge came in when we started thinking about unified performance and when we all threw a pair of heels on […] Heels completely change the way you dance, but we all managed that really well.”

While leading her team, Jarman strived to establish a feeling of community as much as she emphasized practice, in order to help dancers feel welcome to voice their thoughts. Although she had not practiced with many of the dancers before the semester, she ultimately led them to success in creating a strong team dynamic. “Each week, each group gets closer and closer. Everyone gets more comfortable talking to each other or sharing corrections,” she said. “[Knowing] how people think or communicate is what gets the group to have good chemistry so that you can have a good performance.”

Although dancers perform in different songs and some may never be in an act together, it does not stop them from fostering a sense of community with one another. On the day of the showcase, Lock recalled how Tini Liu made the effort to talk to all of the other dancers and snap a memory with each of them with a digital camera. “During the showcase, she was going around with this digital camera, asking everyone to take a picture with her, and I thought that was so sweet,” she said. “Before, I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to meet her cause I wasn’t practising at the same time as her, and I thought it was a great way to talk to people and get those memories.” The cooperative effort extends from the dance practice rooms at the Fieldhouse to Leacock, where executives attend weekly meetings on Wednesdays. Although executives are divided into teams to carry out different tasks, they often collaborate with one another. The Communications team, for example, worked with Production to create content for the showcase’s sponsors and collaborated with Graphics for Social Media promotion. On the day of the showcase, while dancers practiced on stage, Gillogley and the rest of the Communications team ran around backstage to create a plethora of content to advertise the showcase on TikTok and Instagram. “It was a very fun bonding moment, especially as a new exec,” she said. “No one would judge someone for their idea. It was a very supportive environment, and I think we had a lot of fun making videos together.”

According to Lock, K-RAVE became her family when she was new to university. Over the years, she noticed that the audition pool has increased since she applied to become a dancer, and is overjoyed that more people are interested in joining the club. “K-RAVE is a great opportunity to have a built-in community when you’re coming to a new place,” she said. “I have this really great group of people that I get to hang out with every Saturday when we go to practice, and maybe grab a coffee after.” Jarman, who graduates at the end of the semester, said she will look back at her three years in K-RAVE with fond memories, thankful for the friendships formed, the confidence she developed, and the passion for dance it fostered. “K-RAVE has made my university experience […] Participating in K-RAVE has given me a lot of opportunities to be able to go out of my comfort zone and talk to new people and express how I feel,” she said. “I just hope the club continues to grow and that it continues to be a space for people to come together and destress from school or life while doing what makes them happy.”

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Under the collective of Pour la suite du monde, nearly two dozen Quebec cities took part in climate marches alongside Montreal. Over 50 organizations, seeking to bring forth democratic solutions to the pressing environmental concerns, were represented at the Montreal climate march as well. Many McGill student activists participated in the march, bringing self-made banners and chanting for change.

The McGill contingent gathered on campus by the McConnell Engineering Building around 4:30 p.m., hosting conversation circles and giving speeches, before marching down Sherbrooke Street and Parc Ave. By 6 p.m., they joined the broader Montreal community at the George-Étienne Cartier monument in Mont-Royal Park.

“We want to see more climate justice mobilizing on campus, and we’re coming together to join this significant Quebec-wide day of mobilization,” U2 History student Rebecca Hamilton said. Activists in Quebec are asking for a social ecological transition, one form of action within a broader environmental citizen movement, anchored in principles such as collaboration, sustainability, decentralization and self- management. In a press release from Pour la suite du monde, the group stated that they requested to meet and discuss with the Quebec government this past May in order to determine “actions in favor of a real social and environmental transition.” However, they have been left with no answers to date.

“The politicians are just dragging their feet and aren’t implementing [their promise], and we’re fed up with that lack of action and are coming together to build a new balance of power. We’re trying to contribute to that movement the best that we can from McGill today,” Hamilton added.

During the rally before the march, speakers representing McGill student advocacy groups condemned McGill’s direct investments in the fossil fuel industry. Although McGill has promised to divest from companies on the Carbon Underground 200 list by 2025, it will continue to invest in environmentally destructive companies like TC Energy.

“We also critique McGill’s existing sustainability initiatives, in particular, the New Vic project, where McGill has constantly refused to listen to the demands of the Mohawk Mothers to properly investigate potential unmarked graves on the site,” one of the speakers said in their speech.

Ahead of this year’s Climate March, Divest McGill earned a hard-fought victory after 11 years of student organizing. They succeeded in making McGill’s Board of Governors promise divest from direct investments in fossil fuel companies by the end of 2024.

“This is a big win, but there is more that we can do. We must continue to hold our university accountable for their lack of action to address the climate emergency and demand that they cut their ongoing ties with the industries and institutions that harrow our planet and fellow human beings,” a speaker said in their speech, “Our campaign for divestment from fossil fuels has shown us that the only way we can change things at McGill is through sustained student activism.”

U4 Sustainability, Science, and Society student Annelies Koch-Schulte was among the demonstrators Friday afternoon. She has been actively participating in gatherings and protests related to climate and environmental change for the past five years. Koch- Schulte shared that her mindset as an activist has shifted over time. Stepping down from hot-blooded frontline rallying to raise awareness for climate change by demanding new policy, she came to this year’s climate change march in hopes of solidifying an activist community at McGill and finding support in her own work of sustainability.

Koch-Schulte was glad to see the mobilization of student organizers, and the change they have brought in the past 10 years, but she believes that it is important to address questions like “What do we want activism on campus to look like?” or “What principles do we want it to be founded upon?” She wants to help student activists find their bearings, know who they are, and believe in their place in this field of work.

“It’s a feeling of hope and courage for future activists because it’s generations of students who work towards the same goal,” Koch-Schulte said, “There’s definitely a feeling of solidarity that comes from knowing that you are picking up the work of students that have come before you. I think that that is a really meaningful thing to be part of, that passing of the torch of activism on campus.”

After McGill’s announcement to divest from their investments in fossil fuel companies, student climate change activists are hoping to shift the trajectory of current protests and gatherings.

“We were focused on calling out the issues and identifying what the problems are… Now, we have a consensus that climate change is a problem, and it’s become a lot more nuanced, a lot more critical and a lot more interconnected with a lot of other social services movements, which I think is a really good step for it to be taken,” Koch-Schulte said. She added that it’s important to still be protesting to show people that these issues matter just as much as they did years ago.

There is a consensus in student activist groups that a solution lies in systemic change. Hamilton said that the climate movement for so long has been focused on individual actions. This has changed the narrative from climate action as something that can create a more equal and affordable society to an elitist movement because a lot of individual actions are more expensive and take a lot more effort to do.

“Most people’s number one priority in choosing what food to eat isn’t whether it’s plastic. It’s about whether it’s cheap. I think that we all lose if the climate movement focuses on narratives that perpetuate this sense of being an elitist [movement],” Hamilton said.

Various students came from the Students Strike for Palestine Organisation to advocate for Palestinian liberation alongside environmental protection. McGill student Carina believes that both issues are connected through the concept of extraction that encourages the exploitation of natural resources and reinforces colonial mindsets.

“The tie between the two of them is the legacy of imperialism and capitalism,” she said. “Once you see those connections between the layers of oppression and extractivism [for] any marginalized group, including the environment, it’s hard to look away and you can see the interconnectedness of all of these movements.”

Throughout the march, students chanted “Water is life, water is sacred, stop the pipeline, stop the hatred!” on their way to the George- Étienne Cartier monument.

Relating to the chant, another McGill attendee, Sebastian, condemned the Canadian government for constructing the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia.

“It violates every single aspect of Indigenous sovereignty over those lands. On the other hand, there’s already been leaks in the construction of it,” he said. “It’s not like it’s just a question of private interests and businesses… The entire Canadian government, the state, it’s completely complicit in it and of course, the corporations involved have the politician’s ears.”

While progress has been made worldwide in the 5 years since Thunberg marched alongside Montrealers, such as a decreasing global dependency on fossil fuels, Carina said activists continue to push for change by protesting as these issues persist.

“There’s been victories and some milestones, specifically the climate movement, [but] I also think that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said. “There’s structural issues, systemic issues … root issues that haven’t changed.”

A first-year McGill student, who chose to remain anonymous, said the march was the first climate- related strike they had attended at McGill. As a result, they felt compelled to get involved out of concern for their future and that of following generations. They emphasized the role of youth in climate activism, explaining that many young people get involved because the issues at hand directly threaten them, and action must take place to prevent it.

“I felt like I would regret it if I didn’t come,” they said. “The youth are the future – who else is going to be involved?”

Veteran student organizers like Hamilton and Koch-Schulte are hopeful for a better activist environment on the McGill campus in the future. Hamilton calls on students with interests in environmentalism and sustainability to get involved.

“It can feel isolating to just be learning in classes about ecological devastation and to feel rage at the small group of decision-makers that […] let destruction to people and the planet happen. But by coming together, we can feel hope,” she said. “It feels really good to be part of something bigger than yourself.”

“Your life is your moment in the sunshine where you have the opportunity to make change. It’s on all of us to use that sunshine and take that unique opportunity that is being you, and use it to the best of your abilities to make things better. [This is] a beautiful moment to make change,” Koch- Schulte concluded.

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