Specific language has always allowed queer communities to avoid hostile attention and identify themselves to one another — in Montreal during the 1980s, for example, a group of lesbian women would picnic in the Plateau under a banner labelled the “spinsters’ circle” (cercle des vieilles filles) in order to escape unwanted scrutiny. The language used by queer people, often marked by double entendres and subtle subversions, came to develop a tenacious ability to subvert harmful intentions. Even the term ‘queer’ itself, originally a derogatory label meaning ‘strange’ was eventually reclaimed and absorbed into the community’s lexicon.

Today, the topic of queer language (such as gender-neutral pronouns) sparks endless debate and culture-war skirmishes; however, what these ideological frays obscure is the significance of accurate representation to individual identity. Pronouns in particular have inherent personal meaning: they are increasingly being used to indicate not only how someone views themselves but also how they wish to be perceived by others. The growing importance of pronouns in describing queer identities makes Quebec’s exclusion of gender-inclusive language in government communications all the
more distressing.

The use of ‘queer’ as an activist term began in the 1990s. Tyler D. Harvey, a PhD student at the Yale School of Public Health, calls the label a “political identity rooted in demands for equality and liberation for [the] community.” To be openly queer is to resist a system that suppresses your identity. The free expression of this identity, therefore, is itself an act of radical defiance. For many Gen-Z members of the LGBTQ+ community, queer appellatives are “not just a matter of communication […] but also educate and influences society as a whole, despite pushback from those in power,” writes English undergraduate student Kayci Resende-Abbott of Suffolk University.

Supposedly justified under the banner of ‘protecting the French language,’ Quebec’s ban of inclusive language in French government communications ultimately denies the identity of gender nonconforming members of Quebec’s queer community. According to Victoria Legault, the executive director of Aide aux Trans du Québec, this restriction excludes those who use the pronoun iel from participation in public life.

Even Jean-François Roberge — the former language minister responsible for this policy — accepts that “[p]eople are gender-fluid. They are who they are, they are who they want to be.” However, by instating this legislation, he has established a precedent of harming and invalidating the very community which he allegedly supports. Although Roberge claims that “we want people to be happy,” his actions tell a different story. In the realm of healthcare, for example, the lack of gender inclusive ianguage has been suggested to deter members of the LGBTQ+ community from seeking care when needed.

This Queer History Month, The McGill Daily’s editorial board reaffirms our commitment to using language that respects the identities of LGBTQ+ individuals and communities. Queer individuals deserve to be faithfully recognized and represented by the new PQ government. The following sources and organizations provide useful information on respectful terms and language:

University of Michigan Spectrum Center
McGill’s guide to gender-inclusive language
Glossary of Queer terms
Queer Speak en Français
LGBTIQA+ Multilingual Terminology
Aide aux Trans du Québec

The post Queer Language is Queer Resistance appeared first on The McGill Daily.

According to the campaign website, salaries of MUNACA staff have increased by 6.1 per cent since the 2021-2022 fiscal year while those of the top 10 highest paid McGill positions have increased by 13.1 per cent. In 2024, MUNACA and McGill’s collective agreement expired; since then, MUNACA has been bargaining with McGill for fairer conditions and pay to no avail.

On May 22, Diana Dutton, Associate Vice President of McGill Human Resources, acknowledged a letter from a coalition of McGill union presidents linked on the MUNACA website, stating, “We remain confident and committed to reaching a negotiated agreement.” In this acknowledgement, she disputed “the erroneous information it contains.”

Demands from MUNACA include freezing layoffs, cutting executive pay, and suspending administrative hiring. Additionally, the union has asked McGill to publicize the actions of NOUS Group — the consulting firm that produced Horizon McGill — and provide MUNACA a place in all discussions.

They are not the first members of McGill staff to request collaboration on fiscal matters with the university. Professor Derek Nystrom, Secretary for the Association of McGill Professors of the Faculty of Arts (AMPFA) and Associate Professor of English, told the Daily last year that the “real solution to [budget] dilemmas is not to hire outside consultants with a track record of taking a wrecking ball through other universities, but in working with faculty, staff, and students here to determine how best to address these challenges.” Largely, the Horizon Plan has been shared with McGill employees through press releases, unilateral town hall presentations, and the occasional Q&A session.

The staff we engage with on a daily basis, who help shape our experiences as students, make up MUNACA. This includes lab technicians as well as employees who manage the university’s athletic facilities, central information system (Minerva), and student services. Some examples of these student services are scheduling, academic advisors, and financial services.

Many McGill staff unions stand in solidarity with MUNACA, including AMPFA, the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), Association of McGill Professors of Education (AMPE), Association of McGill University Research Employees (AMURE), Association of McGill Libraries Academic Staff (AMLAS), Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL), McGill Course Lecturers and Instructors Union (MCLIU), Association of McGill Professors of Science (AMPS), Association of McGill Academic Staff of the School of Continuing Studies (AMASCS), Association of McGill Library Academic Staff (AMLAS), and Teaching Support Union at McGill (TSUM) — formerly known as the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM).

On February 7, 2025, President and Vice Chancellor Deep Saini, Provost and Executive Vice President Academic Christoper Manfredi, and Vice President Administration and Finance Fabrice Labeau presented McGill’s Horizon Plan. The plan aims to eliminate a total operating deficit of 75 million dollars over three years, ending in the 2027-28 fiscal year. According to McGill’s 2024-25 financial report, the base salaries and taxable income of each of these executives were as follows: $682,267 (Saini), $410,375 (Manfredi), and $322,429 (Labeau). As of 2023, MUNACA staff members were paid between 21.99 and 48.65 dollars per hour. From 2024 to 2025, the two highest paid senior administrators earned more than 23 MUNACA members combined.

The first phase of the Horizon plan had a bullet point for “reducing salary mass,” which Manfredi suggested that McGill might: “delay the filling of vacancies, eliminate overtime, reduce working hours, [the reduction of ] pay … [and] attrition and not replacing staff who leave the university.” He continued, “but we also know… that’s not likely to be enough … Positions will have to be abolished.”

They told students, “Offering the best education to you with minimum disruptions and at the highest quality is an utmost priority for all of us.” Yet as students, the Daily’s editorial board finds that the best education is fostered in a university environment where staff and professors feel that their labor is valued and fairly compensated.

With a goal to “protect McGill’s long-term sustainability,” Saini, Manfredi, and Labeau presented a plan that included cutting 350-500 jobs and pressuring faculties to increase enrolments without adding faculty and teaching assistant support. Retired faculty have gone unreplaced, diminishing course offerings and overworking those who remain.

According to MUNACA, while student enrolment declined by 1 per cent in 2019-20 and 2022-23, management staff grew by 28 per cent. In deliberately allocating funding to executive expansion, McGill has sacrificed the needs of its support and non-academic staff.

With McGill professors and support staff stretched thin, students are suffering too. The Faculty of Arts has already increased course enrollment caps without increasing the number of TAs. This adversely impacts the extent to which students can receive individualized feedback and learning in addition to blatantly overworking TAs. The No More Free Hours campaign launched by TSUM in 2023 stated that, “In some departments, TAs with 45-hour contracts are regularly working twice their hours.” Moreover, the diminution of class assessments means that students have less opportunities to exercise theoretical learning. In GSFS 250, for example, the instructor stated that he has had to eliminate an essay assignment just to keep TAs within their contractual hours.

Head to mcgillfacts.ca to take action in solidarity with McGill’s support workers. There you will find both the emails of several university figureheads and email templates that you can customize based on your priorities as a student. Facts are facts, McGill.

The post MUNACA’s Campaign Exposes the McGill Administration’s Greed appeared first on The McGill Daily.

However, the continued oversimplification of the term “decolonization” has watered down its meaning. When only employed as a metaphor, it loses its potency. For instance, you’ll often hear people talk about “decolonizing” a syllabus or “decolonizing” their mind.

The scholars Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang explore how the reductive use of the term “decolonization” has become normalized within social justice frameworks. They argue that activists’ inability to question the word’s meaning prevents them from confronting the deeper issue of continued colonialism. As a result, “The desire to reconcile [becomes] just as relentless as the desire to disappear the Native; it is a desire to not have to deal with this (Indian) problem anymore.” Tuck and Yang describe this phenomenon using the phrase “settler moves to innocence,” explained as “strategies or positionings that attempt to relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility without giving up land or power or privilege.”

One of the methods used in decolonization efforts is repatriation, which Professor Rebecca L. Bourgeois of the University of Alberta’s Anthropology department describes as the “the return of cultural heritage […] from institutions back to their communities.” This “return of cultural heritage” is a laborious, complex process that can simultaneously conjure dark histories just as much as cherished ancestral knowledge for Indigenous communities.

Recently, a few objects have been successfully repatriated. For example, in 2023, the Royal BC Museum repatriated a Nuxalk totem pole back to the Nuxalk Nation. The totem pole was carved by the great-grandfather of the Hereditary Chief Snuxyaltwa (Deric Snow) and has a deep sense of meaning to the Nuxalk Nation. In a quote given to The Canadian Press, a Nuxalk member said “Our history is embedded in these poles, a great history, and when they’re taken, it’s almost as if it’s like our children were taken.”

“Rematriation” has also been raised as an alternative to the word “repatriation” in academic discourse to challenge colonial institutions such as heteropatriarchy. This term highlights the various considerations needed to be made during this return of artifacts. It also demonstrates how this process can look different to every Indigenous culture as each one has different protocols and traditions that need to be respected.

In exploring the nuances of the language surrounding decolonization, the Daily doesn’t claim to know exactly what reconciliation, repatriation, rematriation, or even decolonization itself should look like. As a publication on unceded land with an editorial board of non-Indigenous students the best we can do is to take a step back and ask ourselves: “How can we try to be more conscious of our word usage?”

If you are a non-Indigenous person reading this editorial, we ask you to do the same. Take a step back and question your place on Turtle Island. Read articles and discourse on Indigenous issues, keep up to date with local demonstrations, and draw informed conclusions. Below we have listed the scholarly sources that made up the argument of this article, and we urge you to look further.

“Towards the ‘tangible unknown’”: Decolonization and the
Indigenous future” by Aman Sium, Chandni Desai, and Eric
Ritskes

“Decolonization is not a metaphor” by Eve Tuck, State
University of New York at New Paltz, and K. Wayne Yang,
University of California, San Diego

“Rematriation: Ts’msyen Law, Rights of Relationality, and
Protocols of Return” by Robin R. R. Gray

“Reconceptualizing Repatriation as the Power to Decide” by
Rebecca L. Bourgeois, Kisha Supernant, and Neha Gupta

The post “Decolonization” appeared first on The McGill Daily.

When life gets busy, our physical well-being is the first thing we sacrifice. This problem is the unfortunate reality for many university students. The transition into post-secondary life is a unique circumstance for many of us: acclimating to new responsibilities, increased independence, living alone, a greater courseload…all at once. In the wake of these new and immediate pressures, we usually put our physical health on the backburner. Pulling all-nighters, hours working at a computer screen, and neglecting nutrition are all commonplace — especially at a competitive university like McGill, where we’ve glorified destructive habits and reframed them as necessary sacrifices for academic success.

The effects of these habits on our health are yet to be seen. We’re young, we’re adaptable, we tell ourselves that we can afford to miss a night of sleep — this assignment is just too important! That is exactly the problem: whereas schoolwork yields short-term results, our lifestyle choices can have detrimental effects on our long-term health despite having little consequence in our current day-to day lives.

Sleep debt, for example, is particularly acute among university students. A study found that many university students in North America report struggling to get enough sleep. McGill is no exception — all- nighters are all-too common. In fact, irregular and insufficient sleep is so normalized that the university itself keeps its libraries open 24 hours a day during exam periods. While this is ostensibly to support students struggling through exam prep, it also turns a blind eye to the irreparable damage round-the- clock studying can have on students’ bodies and brain development.

Indeed, neglecting sleep has far worse consequences than we often assume. In the short-term, muscle repair slows and the immune system weakens, making us more susceptible to all sorts of disease, sickness, and injury. In the long-term, sustained sleep deprivation is positively correlated with all-cause mortality, stroke, disease, and a plethora of other somatic diseases and conditions. Just because sleep deprivation is normalized doesn’t mean it’s natural or inevitable. We should find it alarming that we are ready to sacrifice something so fundamental for the sake of productivity.

Similarly, our neglect of proper nutrition is disturbing. Disordered eating patterns emerge in times of high stress; students cite a lack of motivation to cook and a perceived lack of time during exam periods as reasons to resort to ordering expensive take-out, or skipping meals altogether. Food options from cafes, fast food restaurants, or convenience stores can be a quick-fix to fit a meal into a tight schedule. However, when we develop a dependency on these options, we become passive consumers of food rather than active decision-makers in our nutritional habits. Relying on these makeshift meals makes it difficult to develop sustainable and financially responsible habits surrounding food down the line. While McGill has a selection of affordable food on campus, such as SSMU’s free lunch, the majority of their food services include cafes, restaurants, and convenience stores that can be unaffordable for students.

Another result of neglecting nutrition is the normalization of skipping meals and underfueling. This issue is especially pertinent for young women, a major university demographic, who are the most prone to disordered eating. In addition to the destructive mental health consequences, the physical effects of restrictive eating are devastating: higher risk of death, osteoporosis, and low mobility.

An inactive lifestyle exacerbates problems caused by irregular sleep and improper nutrition. Academic work is almost always done sitting behind a computer screen and often spans long periods of time. Although sedentary work doesn’t necessarily result in a completely sedentary lifestyle, students often organize their schedules and other commitments revolving around their academics. It is expected that all else — food, rest, and activity — will be readily sacrificed for one’s desired GPA.

We don’t just take part in these self-destructive habits; we take pride in them. Bragging about getting little to no sleep and eating next to nothing in order to commit to endless hours of schoolwork falsely assumes that when more sacrifices are made, we will be more successful. Meanwhile, eating well, sleeping enough, and making time for physical activity has time and time again proven to better academic performance.

Still, improving grades should not be the main objective of cultivating better habits; a happy and healthy life itself should be the goal. At McGill, once the semester ramps up, it seems like everyone is constantly struggling, tired, and overwhelmed; if you aren’t, then you are seen to “have it easy.” Of course university should still challenge students, but we need to shift academic culture away from glamorizing stress and an overbearing workload. This only leads students to pin success on over- exertion and neglecting their physical wellbeing.

If we want to protect ourselves in a world that prioritizes results over humans, we need to start taking care of ourselves. Eat a sandwich, drink water, take a nap, and go for a walk.

The post Health First! appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Once the summer and fall festivities wind down, we realize how integral outdoor spaces are to Montreal’s social fabric. Throughout the summer, the city puts on some of its most notable free and low-cost events and activities: movie nights, music festivals, and splash pads in the park. These ‘third spaces,’ locations outside of the home and the workplace with low financial barriers to entry, serve as informal gathering places. Once activities shift indoors, however, spending often becomes central to participation.

With a thriving cafe culture and vibrant nightlife, social life during the Montreal winter hinges on purchasing coffee or drinks. Malls in Montreal’s famous “Underground City” further encourage pedestrians to spend their money indoors.

While nearly half of Canadians report the rising cost of living impacting their ability to afford day-to- day expenses, spending money has become necessary for participation in social life. For young people, going into a store ‘just to look’ is the new way of socializing indoors. Even without spending a dollar, using these spaces in this way centres social life around commercial activity rather than community.

Montreal has been called one of the best cities in the world to be a student. Yet finding the energy to prioritize social interactions is especially hard to do when the heavy winter snow and harsh winds make going outside so challenging. When your view alternates exclusively between the glow of your laptop screen and the barren, grey landscape outside, it can feel easier to stay indoors. If there are no free and easy means of socializing available, making the effort to see friends can feel exhausting. In the time of year when it is easiest to miss human connection, the lack of third spaces leaves us the most alone — an experience many of us are much too familiar with. That’s why third spaces are so important: they provide easily accessible means of seeing old friends and making new ones, and Montreal’s residents deserve more of them all year round.

Below you’ll find a list of financially accessible third spaces available to McGill students in Montreal. These spaces recognize that leisure is a right, not a commodity reserved for those who can afford it.

McGill affiliated:
SSMU Lounge (3480 Rue McTavish, Room 106-A)
QPIRG Alternative Library (3516 Av. du Parc)
Redpath Museum (859 Rue Sherbrooke W.)
James Square (3537 Rue University)

Non-McGill affiliated:
Co-op Bar Milton Parc (3714 Av. du Parc)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1380 Rue Sherbrooke W.)
Le Frigo Vert (2238 Rue Guy)
Westmount Public Library (4574 Rue Sherbrooke W.)
Esplanade Tranquille (1442 Rue Clarke)

The post Searching For a Third Space appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The move-in and move-out periods generate a significant amount of waste in the Milton Parc neighbourhood. The dumpsters outside of residence halls overflow with cardboard boxes and single use packaging. Piles of black trash bags line the sidewalks from Lorne to Hutchison. Even just the packaging that comes with furnishing a dorm room or an apartment results in a massive amount of trash when multiplied by thousands of students.

The truth is that stopping the move-out mass littering begins at move-in. The reality for many McGill students is that we are temporary residents in Montreal, and many of us will leave the city after graduation. As much as departure seems far away upon arrival, we must remember that many of our possessions will not come with us when we leave.

As university students, how often are we thinking about the afterlife of our belongings when contemplating a purchase? It’s easy to imagine the missing piece for a shared living room or a shoebox dorm room when shopping after move-in. Much less often are we thinking of a piece of plastic that will take thousands of years to break down. The expectation should not be to buy something that will serve its purpose for a few years before being tossed away. Rather, moving into one’s apartment should come with the understanding that we have a responsibility to be sustainable for the sake of our neighborhood, environment, and wallet.

Instead of buying mass-produced items, turn to second-hand. when it comes to filling up your space. In addition to being better for the environment, buying second-hand will likely save you money in the process. Montreal has a vibrant Facebook Marketplace community, where you can find all sorts of furniture and unique decor for low prices, or even free of charge. And once you’re ready to move out of your university apartment, you can easily re-list items online or simply donate them to a local thrif store.

McGill runs its own on-campus thrift store out of University Hall. Launched in 2024 by Student Housing Services with the support of the Office of Sustainability, ThriftMcGill has since received over 10,000 donations including clothing, home decor, books, kitchenware, and board games. All items are free of charge for McGill students, making furnishing an apartment readily accessible.

When moving out, think of non-profit organization Sollicite’s Trash2Treasure initiative: a circular, volunteer-based program which redistributes used furniture and household items to charitable organizations across the island. Since 2017, the organization has dedicated itself to cleaning up the neighbourhood for a good cause. During the late-April move-out season, the team collaborates with the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU) to run multiple days of free home-collection services in Milton Parc. Volunteers pick up discarded items, including electronics, furniture, and small appliances, that can be recycled for those in need. In 2025 alone, they collected over 18 tonnes of material and gave new life to 96 per cent of it.

Frosh soon follows the excitement of residence move-in and OAP brings thousands of students to the lower field in the first week of classes. Both events have dedicated coordinators who work with McGill’s Office of Sustainability. In September 2025 OAP earned a gold sustainability certification, while the Management, Engineering, and Music Froshes earned platinum. In order for these events to happen, we have to be respectful and responsible participants and clean up our waste.

The beginning of the fall semester brings a lot of excitement to McGill’s undergraduate community, but we must remember the neighbourhood’s permanent residents while having fun. When attending back-to-school parties or other events in Milton Parc and beyond, dispose of cans, cups, and other plastic waste responsibly. Not only will cleaning up after partying help you avoid fines from your landlord, but it’s the right thing to do for our neighbours and our planet.

Moving into a dorm or returning to an apartment is, for many students leaving home to study, one of the most exciting parts of the university experience. But ultimately, Canada produces nearly five million tonnes of plastic waste each year, less than seven per cent of which is successfully recycled into new products. Bottom line, it is our responsibility to be mindful of the ways we can keep Milton Parc and Montreal clean throughout our time as residents on the island all year round.

The post Keep the Planet in Mind During Move-in appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Sciences/Applied Sciences: Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons 

Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canadian Space Agency (CA) astronaut Jennifer, “Jenni” Sidey-Gibbons graduated from McGill with honours in mechanical engineering with the class of 2011. She went on to earn a PhD in engineering from the University of Cambridge where she then became an assistant professor. Subsequently, she was selected by the CA as the third-ever woman to join the ranks of their astronaut candidates, completing her training in 2020. Currently, she is a backup crew member on the Artemis II lunar flyby mission. Gibbons has also acted as ground communicator on a number of International Space Station spacewalks and has mentored astronaut candidates. 

Fine Arts: Sheree Spencer 

Born in Toronto to parents of Barbadian descent, stage director and producer Sheree Spencer, attended McGill’s Schulich School of Music with a minor in Drama Performance from the Faculty of Arts. After graduating with her BA in 2012, she freelanced as a stage performer, featured in productions at the Vancouver Opera and the Toronto Fringe Festival. She also went on to earn accolades such as TD Emerging Producer of Toronto Fringe 2016 as well as international recognition for her direction of the opera Plaything: Spencer has since relocated to New York to take up the position of a Mellon Producing Fellow with Beth Morrison Projects, where she continues to produce and direct new works. 

Politics & Activism: Emmanuella Lambropoulos 

Sitting one row from the back and four seats in from the aisle in the House of Commons chamber, Emmanuella Lambropoulos has represented the constituency of Saint-Laurent since 2017. Growing up in Saint-Laurent’s Greek community, she graduated from McGill University in 2013 and was president of the university’s Hellenic Students’ Association. She then moved on to a short career in education, working in the local Saint-Laurent school district. Having volunteered with Stephane Dion, who represented Saint-Laurent from 1996 to 2017, Lambropoulos reported that she’s always been interested in politics. After canvassing door-to-door every day for weeks, she won the Liberal nomination and ultimately a seat in an upset over a seasoned provincial politician, Yolande James. 

Sports: Sylvia Sweeney 

An induction to the McGill Athletics Hall of Fame in 2021 is only the latest accolade in Sylvia Sweeney’s decorated basketball career: Not only playing for McGill, Concordia, and Laurentian, she joined the Canadian national team in 1974 and played in two Olympic games. As a native Montrealer, she studied classical piano performance at McGill University from 1973 to 1975. In 2017, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada, the highest honour a civilian can receive. In 1994, Sweeney was inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame. Every year since then, the Hall recognizes a female university player with the Sylvia Sweeney award for outstanding achievement on and off the court. After her time in basketball, she began a second career in television, commenting on sports and current affairs and then moving into production. Passionate across disciplines, Sweeney also founded the international ArtsGames competition to celebrate the arts. 

Media: Allya Davidson 

Amidst an ever-evolving media landscape, Emmy-winning journalist and producer Allya Davidson, an alumna of The McGill Daily, still believes in the power of investigative reporting. Graduating from McGill in 2009 with a degree in cultural studies and world religions, the Mississauga-born Davidson earned a master’s in broadcast journalism from the City St George’s, University of London. She went on to produce documentaries for global networks such as VICE, PBS Frontline, and ABC Australia. Davidson is now the first Black executive producer of CBC’s The Fifth Estate, a weekly program that airs investigative documentaries on Canadian and international issues. Davidson also mentors young BIPOC journalists through the Canadian Association of Journalists. Trail-blazing and accomplished, Davidson points to her time at McGill as foundational: “At McGill I learned to live, work with and understand people who were from all over the world, from different backgrounds and religions. I had always been a nerd interested in the world around me, and McGill proved that there were and are thousands of people like me.” 

Business: Ritika Dutt 

Recognized by Forbes in their 2020 30 Under 30 list for Law & Policy, Ritika Dutt co-founded Botler AI in 2017 to help victims of sexual harassment better understand their rights. Born in India and raised in Hong Kong and Singapore, Dutt moved to Montreal to attend McGill and graduated in 2013. Soon after, an experience with a stalker left her scared and confused. “The more I researched about sexual harassment,” Dutt told McGill News, “I realized there were many women, and men, like me, who didn’t know their legal rights in these situations.” Partly inspired by her circumstances and the rise of the #MeToo movement, Dutt co-created Botler AI, which analyzes user reports for free and predicts whether they constitute sexual harassment. It also indicates which laws may have been broken and generates a report that can be sent to the respective authorities. In 2021, the Canadian government invested in Botler to help produce the Pan-Canadian Triage System for Sexual Harassment, Misconduct & Violence. Relaying her belief to CTV News that there is an “urgent, vital need for an easy, accessible solution that empowers individuals to seek justice on their own terms,” Dutt continues to lead Botler as its CEO.

The post Spotlighting Powerful McGill Alumnae appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The McGill Daily’s Editorial Board presents its endorsements for the Executive candidates running for the 2026-2027 SSMU election. The editorial board’s decision process included researching each executive’s roles and responsibilities, as well as the responses of the candidates present at the executive debate. Decisions were made through a democratic vote among the editorial board.

President

Endorsement: Yes to Hamza Abu-Alkhair with reservations

According to the SSMU website, “The President is the chief officer of SSMU, responsible for determining the vision of the Society, coordinating and supporting the activities of the other Executive Officers, and representing student interests on various university governance bodies.”

Experience: Hamza Abu-Alkhair has extensive experience in student government: he is currently a member of the Syrian Student Association, a member of the Arab Students Network, and most importantly, the current VP Clubs and Services of the SSMU. Abu-Alkhair’s position in the SSMU demonstrates an understanding of the organization’s tructure.

Platform: Abu-Alkhair’s platform focuses on three main initiatives: accessibility, community, and financial stability. He aims to achieve his first initiative by launching event summaries for students, ensuring transparency of how SSMU operates, improving SSMU outreach, and promoting student engagement. In terms of community building, he aims to make SSMU more visible on campus, develop a multi-year plan to rebuild SSMU as student-centered hub, and increase daytime programming in the University Centre. Finally, he aims to improve financial stability and transparency through collaboration with VP Finance to ensure financial reporting is accessible and inclusive of student voices.

Endorsement: Hamza Abu-Alkhair’s experience as VP Clubs and Services demonstrates his understanding of the SSMU structure and his experience communicating with student organizations. While his platform lacks specificity in describing the mechanisms he will install to improve current SSMU operations, his recognition of SSMU’s internal limitations demonstrates a desire for change and the implementation of student voices in democracy.

VP Clubs and Services

According to the SSMU website, “The VP Clubs and Services is the point person for internal relations between SSMU and its clubs, services, and independent student groups. They are also responsible for mental health promotion, collaborating with Student Services, and addressing issues of student life on campus.”

Endorsement: Yes to Acadia Knickerbocker

Experience: Acadia Knickerbocker has diverse community engagement experience in and out of McGill. She has served as the VP Race Director for McGill Run Club, AUS Co-Commissioner of the Sponsorship committee, and volunteers at the Milton Park Food Hub. Within the SSMU, she has served as the governance speaker of the Legislative Council, chairman of the Board of Directors under Internal Council, and Corporate Secretary.

Platform: Knickerbocker’s extensive platform targets four main areas of clubs and services. She firstly aims to expand resource accessibility by improving the SSMU club fund, increasing storage space, and expanding University Centre booking access. She strives to increase engagement with student groups through on-campus promotion and orientation channels as well as establishing an Activities Night bursary. Her platform also centres on administrative reform, which she states can be achieved by improving the backlog of student club requests, updating internal regulations of student groups. Finally, she intends to address accounting reform by increasing club financing and autonomy.

Endorsement: Acadia Knickerbocker’s platform and campaign showcase a deep understanding of the SSMU structure, policies, and areas of improvement. Her platform includes clear goals, and concrete solutions for existing concerns among student organizations. The Daily Editorial Board endorses Acadia Knickerbocker for the role of VP Clubs and Services, and believes her diverse experience in student clubs, her cohesive platform, and her passionate campaign position her as a strong fit for the role of VP Clubs and Services.

Vice President External

Endorsement: Yes to Harry Wang

According to the SSMU website, “The VP External is in charge of coordinating SSMU’s relations with various levels of government, student associations, community groups, and campus labour unions; as well as managing political campaigns and mobilization efforts.”

Experience: As a provincial School Board Trustee for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, Harry Wang has experience in public service, developing academic policy. Wang has brought this experience to McGill University, where they has served as corporate Secretary for the SSMU, parliamentarian on the Legal & Governance team under the Internal Counsel, chair of the nominating committee for the VP Finance, board member at large, and a member of the judiciary, as well as a member of the accountability committee.

Platform: Harry Wang’s platform relies on three pillars: Government Advocacy, Student Affordability, and Accountability and Transparency. Wang aims to demystify the ways Quebecois provincial policy impacts McGill operations through collaboration with undergraduate student associations and news platforms. Their platform also discusses supporting lower-income students through subsidies and bursaries to support lower-income students in the face of tuition hikes. Finally, Wang aims to limit the unilateral uses of power and increase transparency on the structure and portfolio of the SSMU.

Endorsement: Harry Wang’s experience in provincial school boards as well as various McGill committees demonstrates maturity and familiarity with representing students’ voices on a larger platform. By championing anti-austerity initiatives, promoting minority voices, and highlighting the impact of provincial policies on McGill, Wang shows to beknowledgeable about student demands and interested in meeting student needs. The Daily’s Editorial Board strongly believes that Wang’s campaign showcases his strongcommitment to striving in the role of VP External.

Vice President Internal 

According to the SSMU website, “The VP Internal is chiefly in charge of communication and creating a sense of community with the student body through event planning and communications (such as the listserv).”

Endorsement: Yes to Maggie Tang with reservations

Experience: Maggie Tang’s experience in student government spans the faculty-wide and school-wide scales, having been the AUS HR Administrator as well as the Faculty of Arts Senator. The former comprised matters like promoting awareness of sexual violence and introducing initiatives to improve student life, and the latter involved liaising directly with the SSMU President and VP Internal. She has also worked as SSMU VP Internal administration.

Platform: The three pillars of Maggie Tang’s platform are Inclusivity, Safety and Good Vibes. In terms of inclusivity, her proposed initiatives include free events, engagement with first-year and international students and interfaculty partnerships. Regarding safety, she suggests lower intervention by external security authorities, more structured and transparent event planning processes, and advocacy for the prevention of sexual violence. Finally, lower-cost ticketed events, stronger alumni career fairs, and attractive events like Winter Carnival and SSMU’s Got Talent – in addition to events that aim to ameliorate mental health through light-hearted, casual means – are part of her plan to infuse good vibes into the student body.

Endorsement: Maggie Tang’s platform is not only full of personality, but full of heart. Despite stating that “the role is not about politics,” we believe that her platform and past experience still demonstrates her commitment to social justice issues, which are not only tied to the communitarian roles of VP Internal but are also inherently political. With her additional knowledge of SSMU bureaucracy, we believe in her ability to navigate the responsibilities that come with shaping the student body.

Vice President of University Affairs 

According to the SSMU website, “The VP University Affairs advocates for student interests at almost all levels of university governance. They do this through coordinating student representation to the university Senate and its committees, researching and consulting on policy solutions, and overseeing academic affairs. They also oversee equity initiatives and complaints, as well as advocacy regarding libraries.”

Endorsement: Yes to Meghan Lai

Experience: Meghan Lai’s experience mostly lies in the faculty of education. These roles are Education Student Senator, Legislative Councilor, Co-Chair of the McGill Committee on Student Services, Director on SSMU Daycare Board, EdUS Council Member, Faculty of Education Council Member, Education Faculty Ambassador, McGill Students For the Open Door Montreal Volunteer.

Platform: The three pillars of Lai’s platform include three ABCs: Academics, Bridge, and Community. In terms of academics, their specific aims include revising the Policy on Assessment of Student Learning, develop AI use guidelines/policy, and bring back VP Academic roundtables. They also aim to improve student services through alleviating Student Accessibility and achievement’s exam proctoring load, develop online booking with the Wellness Hub, and increase Student Services programs. Finally, Lai recognizes, and aims to continue the sitting University Affairs’ open-door policy while also striving to facilitate idea sharing through the University Affairs instagram and website.

Endorsement: Meghan Lai’s extensive experience in the undergraduate Education Faculty demonstrates a commitment to pedagogy and student interests. Their understanding of the responsibility of the VP University Affairs role showcases a strong ability to deliver their promises. Finally, Lai’s dedication to social justice, including menstrual health awareness, diversity, and mental health highlight their care and devotion to student wellness amidst an rigorous academic environment.

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McGill removed 2.38 million physical sources from its downtown campus in 2024. In 2025, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences found that among graduate students, 64.4 per cent were e-book readers. Additionally, according to the Association of American Publishers, in 2024, digital book formats accounted for 14 per cent of revenue, which increased by 11.4 per cent since 2023. This trend does not seem to be just some passing fad: in an interview with BBC, Robert Stein — the founder of the Institute for the Future of the Book — states “The affordances of screen reading will continuously improve and expand, offering people a reason to switch to screens.”

In other words, online media is becoming more accessible, and, as a result, increasingly consumed. At the Colleges of Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, 74.6 per cent of students who prefer e-books do so because they are easier to carry, while students at Yeditepe University primarily use e-books for research and accessibility. E- books are greatly accessible because they are cost-effective, can be used by many people at the same time, and obtained without leaving the comfort of your room.

The benefits of these digital resources extend to learning. According to a 2024 ACRL study at Rowan University, e-books are “linked to quick decision-making, [and] rapid pattern recognition.” However, the ACRL also states that e-books are associated with “instant gratification, and often impatience when results are not immediate.” This is because the convenience of the Internet comes with a caveat: worsening self-control and time-management, as well as a greater propensity towards distraction.

On the other hand, print books are “linked to deeper focus and concentration, better integration of concepts, and easier memorization.” Moreover, according to the Colleges of Sultan Qaboos University study, 67.9 per cent of students prefer physical books for the purpose of note-taking. Reading comprehension is 6 to 8 times greater with the use of print books. According to Psychology Today, the physical act of turning a page creates an “index” in the reader’s mind “mapping what we read visually to a particular page.”

Although these results suggest each form of media has different uses – print for studying, e-books for research – the increased screen time that accompanies digital media use poses many adverse effects on mental and physical health.

So, is a lighter backpack worth the headache?

According to another study conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, excessive screen time can cause back pain and a collection of eye-related problems including “eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, as well as neck and shoulder pain.” Mentally, ramifications include “increased levels of depression, anxiety, and overall other mood disorders” as well as negatively impacting “social relationships and cognitive development.”

Moreover, according to the 2024 ACRL study, first-generation university students feel the impact of increased digital resource use more acutely. Universities assume that current students are “digital natives who prefer electronic resources since they have grown up surrounded by this technology” and benefit from the accessibility of electronic resources, but libraries have witnessed the opposite with first-generation students.

Perhaps most importantly, print books are preferred by a majority of students. According to a 2015 study conducted by Dr. Naomi S. Baron —a professor emerita of world languages and culture at American University — 92 per cent of students favour physical books over digital ones.

However, this does not dismiss the very real issue of cost. Even though physical sources are often preferred and more beneficial to learning, they are not always chosen. This is due to the expense of print books and course packs, and the accessibility of digital versions. At McGill, some professors link both libraries and Internet- sourced e-books on their syllabi, as well as scanned PDFs of book sections on myCourses. Conversely, others require students to find the texts on their own. This requires either spending hundreds of dollars at Paragraphe or the McGill Bookstore, or otherwise finding online and possibly illegally-pirated copies. It seems that many universities are taking advantage of the abundance of online resources available to avoid the responsibility of providing students with a more affordable means of accessing print media.

That being said, resources exist — both within and beyond McGill — meant to improve your access to print books.

McGill students can request physical books from McGill’ s libraries as well as from the 17 Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ) member Quebec university libraries through the Sofia Discovery Tool — a shared library catalogue. If you prefer to borrow books in person at other university libraries, simply bring your McGill ID card to show the library staff and they will provide you with a library card. Additionally, students can borrow books from McGill partner libraries, such as the Montreal Neurological Institute Hospital Library, Neuro-Patient Resource Centre, Polish Institute, and Presbyterian College Library.

If you want to save money and roam the welcoming wooden aisles of a cozy bookshop, independent booksellers are also an option. Barely a five minute walk from campus, The Word is a family-run staple of the McGill and broader Montreal community, providing coursebooks and used texts in English and French. Librairie l’Échange is another secondhand bookstore, located in Plateau Mont-Royal; they sell books, CDs, and records in English and French. Next to Berri-UQAM, Volume Boutique sells used books, DVDs, CDs, and records. On Boulevard de Maisonneuve are two more secondhand bookstores: Librairie Bonheur D’Occasion and Yann Vernay Librairie.

Additionally, there are many useful websites that resell or even loan course materials. These include, but are not limited to: Thrift Books, the McGill University Book Exchange, and the Free Textbook Loan Program — a student-led initiative of the QPIRG- McGill Alternative Library.

The Department of English Student Association (DESA) also hosts biannual book sales.

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“Can we not talk about politics, please? Not everything is political.” 

This is a sentiment often heard when a controversial topic arises, be it at the dinner table with family, in a group setting with friends, overheard at a coffee shop, or online when expressing an opinion. 

But what does “being political” even mean? Is it pledging allegiance to a political party? Is it exclusive to government actions? Is it following the news diligently and participating in conversations about current events? Or has the definition of engaging in ‘political speech’ evolved throughout the years?

Politics surrounds us – when politics is an inherently human system, you cannot argue that it is separate from humanity. Those who live without thinking of politics are allowed to because they are the ones benefitting from it. 

Distancing yourself from politics is harmful because everything is political. By choosing to ignore or not engage in political issues, or claiming nothing is “that deep,” we fail to take into account that often, things actually are that deep. 

To live in a world of internet populism is to live in a reality where everything is humorized. Where the government-sanctioned murder of an innocent woman is played for jokes by prominent political figures. Where Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have been glorified by the Trump administration through meme culture. Where racist tropes of South Americans as members of drug cartels have been weaponized by the Trump administration to justify the abduction of a sitting national leader. We are being gaslit by the current political establishment into taking the serious unseriously, into believing that crimes are practical jokes, and that abuses of power are trends confined to our For You feeds.

The American political debacle reflects a wider trend in modern internet culture, where politics is trivialized and even reduced, in some circumstances, to entertainment. In this internet age, one might assume that increasing accessibility to information would lead to greater political awareness and literacy. However, the immediacy of the news has become a double-edged sword: we are being exposed to the world through a digital lens, while simultaneously downplaying said news to the background.

We’ve entered an era where people react to the news in the same way they react to entertainment. Wars are equated to reality shows. Humanitarian crises are taken as the newest “hot button” topic, trends to be consumed and fed through the internet discourse cycle. Racialized language has become the newest punchline. As social media platforms have emerged as the primary means of accessing news, people online lose the ability to differentiate fact from fiction and attitudes from experience. 

One second we might be viewing images from the genocide in Gaza; the next, we’re judging celebrities’ outfits at the Met Gala. Graphic images of death and destruction flash before us and become quickly forgotten. We’re growing used to being entertained rather than informed.  

Coming to terms with the political nature of our world can evidently be burdensome. However, this does not mean that we should take on a defeatist attitude. Getting involved in independent journalism, advocacy campaigns, and crowdfunding initiatives are just a few concrete steps we can take to integrate political issues into our social lives. While we must remember that everything is political, it does not mean that everything is doomed.

The post The Distressing Increase in Depoliticization  appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Described by CBC as the “perfect storm,” Canada’s current economic instability was a long time coming, partly due to the ongoing trade war with the United States. As the Governor of the Bank of Canada acknowledged last June, US President Donald Trump’s erratic threats and tariffs on Canada have “stalled momentum” in the labour market. When combined with post-pandemic inflation and a growing population outpacing job availability, continued economic instability has led six in ten Canadians to believe the economy will only deteriorate further in 2026.

Furthermore, as in most other sectors of society, artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to transform the Canadian economy and youth employment prospects. In a recent survey of Canadian companies, 23 per cent reported plans to reduce their employee count in 2026 due to increased reliance on AI. The jobs currently threatened by AI are highly repetitive, entry-level positions that often allow young workers to get a foothold in their respective fields. 

Commenting on the Carney government’s recent efforts to alleviate youth unemployment, the vice-president of Scotiabank Economics said, “they’re going to have to go deeper in terms of how the education and the university systems [are] equipping younger 

Canadians to enter and stay in the workforce.” When it comes to McGill, Career & Planning Services is responsible for equipping students for the workforce. CaPS provides a range of resources, including “career counselling and advising, skills development workshops, experiential learning and career exploration programs, mentoring, and career and networking events.” 

Student reviews of CaPS are mixed. While some may find value in the services CaPS offers, others find their instruction to be rudimentary and largely unhelpful. Many students report being redirected towards LinkedIn and Indeed after seeking career guidance from CaPS. “I went to one of their events, and I did a one-on-one consultation,” says one third-year undergraduate. “Most of the information shared at both was nothing beyond basic information that I already knew or could find very easily with a Google search or TikTok.” Additionally, the limit on post-graduation access to CaPS is currently restricted to one year for most services, including “access to search jobs, book appointments, and attend career events” through McGill’s MyFuture portal. For many, a year simply isn’t enough time to find a job anymore. 

Amid ongoing concerns over youth unemployment, McGill must reform the quality of CaPS’ assistance. CaPS needs to improve its accessibility and provide greater personalization in guiding students through an ever-evolving economic landscape. In a job market where it’s more about who you know than what, CaPS must also do more to directly facilitate connections between students and prospective employers. With our futures on the line, our generation needs all the guidance we can get. 

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The 2026 referendum threatens to fragment Canadian unity at a moment when the nation is facing political and economic belligerence from our southern neighbours. One of the most common conceptions of national identity, theorized by Benedict Anderson, is that a national identity can be challenged and reimagined. What constitutes Canadian identity has been contested, particularly through conflicts between the federal and provincial governments. Today, these debates have been re-ignited as American protectionism and economic tariffs weaken North American cohesion.

This newest plebiscite was proposed by the citizen-run Alberta Prosperity Project (APP). The APP’s agenda aims to address “high costs of living, federal overreach, paying the carbon tax, equalization payments, and unequal representation,” among other action items. Alberta’s election agency has approved the current referendum on the province’s independence, and voting will remain open until January 11.

However, the APP’s position is not shared by all Albertans. A petition against Albertan separatism with 404,293 signatures was submitted by former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk to the Albertan Legislative Assembly on December 1.

Last November, Prime Minister Carney and Premier Smith signed a memorandum of understanding as a potential compromise between Alberta’s interests in expanding bitumen pipelines and accessing British Columbia to export beyond American markets and the federal targets of reducing emissions. This counters the sentiment of Western alienation echoed in the 2021 referendum and makes the 2026 referendum less likely to pass.

Ultimately, changing geopolitical conditions in North America are enforcing national unity against provincial referendums. This extends beyond Alberta to Quebec, where referendums on provincial independence have been taking place since the 1990s. While Quebec’s motivations to secede differ from Alberta’s, largely concerning cultural preservation and federal decentralization, there is a common sentiment against federal overreach shared by both provinces. Centuries of regional fragmentation have long obscured the bigger picture of pan-Canadian integrity. Now more than ever, it is crucial for all Canadians to present a united front.

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Despite this, student newspapers remain essential to informing the public on local happenings. At universities across Canada and beyond, students have historically used their voices to interrogate structures of power and delve into the nitty-gritty of local politics. These papers have critically touched on topics that city-wide news neglects.

In the US, student journalism is another pillar of expression that has come under attack from the Trump administration. As the GOP’s assault on free speech has prompted the restructuring and silencing of large media personalities and organizations, students have continued to pursue candid journalism. Nonetheless, federal crackdowns on student journalism have persisted. Journalists at Columbia University’s Spectator have been issued suspensions for covering campus protests. Indiana University notably fired its the Indiana Daily Student’s student media advisor in an effort to censor the paper’s political content. Journalists at the University of Pennsylvania’s Daily Pennsylvanian have camped out overnight to ensure that they would be able to cover university issues after administrative pushback, such as the student protests against the genocide in Gazstudenjt newsa, police activity on campus, and administrative budget conflicts.

Student journalists continue to form a vital component of the reporting ecosystem around universities. Despite the rise of social media, especially in the post-pandemic era, student-run traditional news media has proven its continued importance. For example, at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, the local campus paper saw a nearly 30 per cent increase in pickup rates over the past four years. As Barbie Zelizer for The Philadelphia Inquirer notes, undergraduate journalists “expend boundless energy to get the facts right.” In a new era of journalism, where censorship runs rampant and political threats are abundant, yet student journalists continue to move forward. We must turn away from monopolized media organizations and uphold and return to our roots: driven by passionate students willing to fight oppressive political forces.

If you engage with student journalism, then you are making a difference by believing in the free exchange of ideas, in the right to inform the public of injustices, and in defending the truth, you are making a difference by engaging with student journalists.

Our publication serves to inform the student population and document campus stories and history. The Daily exists for and by the students of McGill University. This newspaper cannot achieve its goals without the contributions of our community, and the best way to do this is to get involved. Email one of us, pick up a pitch, or contribute your own ideas. The Daily is a platform to amplify your stories and your perspective. To fight the deterioration of engagement with student journalism is to engage in it yourself.

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Recently, the discussion regarding the importance of higher education has re-entered campus conversations. In light of the federal government’s caps on international students and McGill’s own budget cuts to its faculties, students are beginning to question how much Canadian post-secondary institutions truly value education. In particular, as universities become increasingly corporate and inaccessible, they are less recognized as critical informational nuclei. Attending an academic institution typically includes access to a substantial array of resources. Students at McGill can take advantage of millions of academic and cultural databases — from maps to musical scores — in addition to hundreds of extracurricular clubs and engagement opportunities. Given the threat to the survival of these resources — such as the downsizing of McGill’s physical library — it is crucial for undergraduate students to stay informed about the opportunities available to them beyond the classroom.

This is especially important as continued demand for change within our institutions — for instance, McGill divesting from arms manufacturers — forces us to consider how we want to shape universities to become stronger centres for social change. Correspondingly, a key element in advancing this change can be through the reinvestment of funds into educational and cultural resources that have the power to encourage socio-political praxis. 

At McGill, our physical and digital libraries already contain a plethora of academic journals, books, and articles. However, few are aware of the media collection available both for download and streaming. These collections act as both an educational alternative to dense academic texts and as a source of entertainment for students. This audio and visual resource contains an immense collection of various film streaming platforms, e-books, audiobo oks, and music files that all students can utilize. Moreover, McGill students have access to radical student-run catalogues, such as those from the Quebec Public Interest Research Group’s (QPIRG) alternative library and the Union for Gender Empowerment’s library, which supplies anti-oppressive and independently published texts. Knowledge about the availability of these resources is imperative for our intellectual and political freedom. In times of structural repression, education is one of the most constructive tools in collective consciousness raising. Thus, with McGill’s numerous prohibitions on students’ ability to protest and freedom of expression, we must capitalize on the means at our disposal to stay informed about social and political issues. 

As students at a university with a distinct international population, campus life exposes us to a variety of cultures. This diverse demographic — accompanied by the numerous student clubs, art exhibitions, concerts, and research opportunities — opens students up to a rich set of ideas and customs. This diversity is what makes McGill, and by extension, university campuses, so central to cultural change. The campus acts as a microcosm of the global: through direct engagement with the opportunities it offers, students learn to cultivate their own aesthetic tastes, interests, and philosophical missions. As federal policy continues to reduce the international enrolment rate in Canada, reaffirming our commitment to this diversity is necessary. Students from all cultural backgrounds should feel welcome on campus: we must continue to foster multiculturalism. 

Despite the nominal freedom of information granted to us as students, we must still maintain a nuanced assessment of our position on campus. Quality of health services at McGill University remains a persistent problem. Cuts to student-run services has made it difficult for students to access essential resources and exercise their voices. In the larger picture, the administration has failed to respond to community demands, such as divestment from arms manufacturers. These issues underscore the growing distance between the institutional structures that make up universities and the student body they are meant to serve.

We must remember that access to higher education is an opportunity we as undergraduates have the privilege to capitalize on. The materials at our disposal can provide us with the tools to better ourselves and the world around us. We must remember that these means are not universal, nor is their quantity and quality guaranteed. University resources are a privilege, and it’s in our best interest to make use of them.

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Queer issues go beyond the question of identities and labels. Attacks on queerness are attacks on humanity as a whole. Our activism, therefore, must consider how some identities overlap between marginalized groups. In particular, queer identities are often impacted within social and political conflicts arising from prevailing attitudes toward other ethnic and racial groups. This Queer History Month, we must remember that the oppression of these other communities ultimately affects queer issues too.

When we consider the genocide in Gaza, the rise in global fascism, or the mounting housing insecurity closer to home, queer issues are never as far away as we think. On October 18, seven million people mobilized across the United States in “No Kings” protests against the loss of human rights resulting from U.S. President Donald Trump’s authoritarian policies. Amidst the signs condemning media censorship and government corruption, protesters raised manifestos against the expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. ICE has been under fire for their rampant mistreatment of queer and trans immigrants in the agency’s detention facilities. Queer detainees in the Southern Louisiana ICE processing centre have shared accounts of sexual harassment and assault, including being forced by officers to perform oral sex, being stripped naked, and mocked, and being touched inappropriately while performing labour tasks. The abuse endured by queer immigrants in ICE facilities is the result of their intersectional identities as members of both marginalized groups. The ongoing activism protesting ICE’s abuses of power does not address the whole of the issue as long as we fail to mention the systematic abuse of queer people in processing centres across the U.S. With Queer History Month and No Kings Day taking place simultaneously, it becomes evident that the fight against anti-democratic governmental backsliding and the struggle against the oppression of queer immigrants are deeply entangled.

Here in Montreal, queer individuals have raised many concerns about the need for a more nuanced approach to local activism efforts, especially as pertains to Palestine. Israel’s “pinkwashing” strategy, which seeks to “conceal the continuing violations of Palestinians’ human rights behind an image of modernity signified by Israeli gay life,” has given queer activists around the world the additional challenge of preventing their causes from being used to justify the genocide in Gaza. In May 2024, Helem Montréal, a 2SLGBTQ+ organization made of members of SWANA communities (Southwest Asia and North Africa), publicly cut ties with Montreal Pride, stating that the organization had failed to address the issue of Pride events potentially being co-opted to vehiculate the ongoing oppression of Palestinian rights.

Meanwhile, membership to the organization Queers for Palestine has been increasing across Canada, specifically in major cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa. Members aim to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggles for liberation, and with the plight of queer Palestinians in particular. As the Queers for Palestine Ottawa website states: “We aim to centre and amplify the voices of Palestinians, in Palestine and in diaspora, who are and have been leading the calls to liberate their people. ” However, this stance has been ill-received by many others concerned for queer rights, with critics often raising the issue of the abysmal treatment of queer people under regimes across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA.) In a 2023 article, journalist Armin Navabi writes that support for Palestinian liberation goes hand-in-hand with support for the Islamist resistance group Hamas, positing that “the deep-seated radical Islamist ethos driving the organization…if unbridled, would jeopardize the very freedoms cherished by LGBT people across the developed world.” But this discourse fails to acknowledge that the state of Israel has never actually attempted to address the criminalization of homosexuality in the MENA region, and has instead been using such rhetoric as a smokescreen to justify the ongoing genocide.

For Canadians, rising socioeconomic concerns – including job and housing security – also disproportionately affects those in the queer communities. 2SLGBTQ+ Canadians are more than twice as likely to experience visible homelessness than their straight, cisgender counterparts, with queer women in particular being four times as likely. Trans Canadians are twice as likely as the general public to experience extreme poverty and homelessness, and more than half of the trans population has difficulty meeting the financial demands to retain housing. This issue is especially pertinent to queer youth, as approximately one out of every three homeless young Canadians identifies as 2SLGBTQ+.

Many Montrealers have been subject to the struggle of remaining housed, and the city has seen a dramatic increase in visible homelessness within the past seven years. Queer people, specifically Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) who also identify as 2SLGBTQ+, face increased struggles in finding secure housing. Those left with nowhere to go are often forced into “hidden homelessness,” leaving them to resort to unstable and often dangerous strategies for short-term habitation. As well as facing higher risks and more barriers associated with housing access, queer unhoused people have a unique set of needs. Many 2SLGBTQ+ youth specifically struggle with dramatically higher rates of mental health issues or suicide, and being unhoused makes it increasingly difficult for them to access essential mental, physical, and sexual health services. Not having a safe space solely for members of the queer community who are struggling with housing insecurity leaves an already vulnerable population susceptible to additional violence and discrimination on the streets or in shelters. Despite the many shelters and resource systems available to unhoused people in Montreal, there are currently no shelters in Quebec offering emergency services exclusively catered to the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ people. Though there are plans for such shelters being discussed, notably the Lambda House Project, there is still a long way to go in ensuring that the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ unhoused people are adequately met.

All queer issues are human issues. When we think about confronting oppression across the country and across the world, we must consider the queer people who are marginalized in other ways. Fighting oppression is our collective responsibility, and this Queer History Month it is essential to consider the intersectionality of queer identity in our activism. When we have these conversations, we need to do so with nuance in order to facilitate the wider discussion that so many queer voices are a part of.

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