Now that Justin Trudeau has stepped down from the position, current Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in control of this nation- building project. The HSR was mentioned in Carney’s Canada Strong plan and is ostensibly a goal for Carney’s time in office. Trudeau’s administration brought up several large-scale infrastructure and resource projects, such as the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines, without taking any action so far. Now, Carney’s administration has inherited this burdened reputation of unfinished projects. However, American President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his bold stance on Canada’s sovereignty should provide additional motivation for Carney to complete this project. The United States has been Canada’s biggest trading partner for years, but this change in relationship means there is a need for the nation to strengthen pre-existing markets to be able to sustain itself.

Alto, the company behind the HSR, believes the project will be able to offer accommodation for Canada’s rapidly growing population. In addition to faster travel, over 50,000 jobs are expected to be created via the construction of the HSR. The company estimates that Canadians could save up to $570 million in travel efficiency, besides reducing carbon emissions by transitioning to an electric rail system. Furthermore, they claim that the project will contribute an annual $35 billion to the country’s economy.

However, before even beginning construction, the HSR’s design phase alone could last up to four or five years. Accounting for planning and design, the rail line is not projected to be fully operational for another eighteen years. The heavy time investment required by the project is just one of the concerns that Canadians have been voicing around the HSR.

Many farmers question the company’s level of consideration for the long-term impacts of the project on the lands and communities that will be affected by its construction. Similarly, a group known as Alt-NO has formed in opposition to the proposed HSR line. They’ve created a GoFundMe for donations used to spread awareness on Alto’s project. They write, “The Alt-NO committee, composed of citizens, residents and businesspeople, landowners and farmers, has formed to oppose the proposed high-speed rail corridor project being developed by Alto, a federal Crown corporation. We are non-partisan and our opposition is founded in our concern for the serious and irreversible impacts this project would have on farms, natural habitats, and communities in Ontario and Quebec along the proposed routes. This is a 90 billion dollar folly at taxpayer expense.” Members of the group have been expressing concerns with the ramifications of Bill C-15 and its effects, including the expropriation of land, the lowering of property values, and the potential to block residents from their property for the period of construction. Alt- NO are in favour of abandoning the project entirely and focusing instead on pre-existing infrastructure.

Additionally, several online groups have also voiced disquiet over the project’s environmental impacts. A group of ecologists from Carleton University recently signed off on a Facebook post warning against the loss of natural habitat they believe the HSR would cause and questioning whether Alto had a plan to mitigate environmental harm.

Despite public opposition, the planning phase of the HSR project is currently underway. During this pre- construction period, representatives from Alto have been visiting cities and towns for “public consultations” to answer citizen and media questions about the new rail line. Additionally, the company says they plan on conducting field studies and have begun technical design work on the infrastructure.

Alto states that they have “signed several collaboration agreements with Indigenous communities” to mark their progress in “building strong partnerships.” In October 2023, when Alto was working on a High Frequency Rail (HFR) project, the company published a “What We Heard & What We’re Doing” report, which demonstrates an effort to bring Indigenous voices into their project. In this report, Alto acknowledges the involvement of Indigenous people as “essential to its success.” Through the report, Alto gained a concern for Indigenous peoples’ engagement in the project, awareness of economic considerations, and respect for Aboriginal and treaty rights while the HFR project was in motion. Now that the company has transitioned to an HSR project, its ideals have not changed, but there hasn’t been a report released yet. Iori:wase, the publication for the Kanien’kehá:ka or Mohawk Nation, writes that the “Mohawk Council of Kanesatake (MCK) Acting Vice Chief Brant Etienne said the council has not signed up for any of the consultation sessions as of yet.” Nothing is planned, but that’s not to say consultations between Alto and Indigenous groups will not happen.

While Alto has successfully gained federal approval, citizens in the region where it plans to build remain uneasy about the HSL project. 

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GardaWorld’s involvement with ICE was revealed last July in a Miami Herald report that detailed how a subsidiary of the Montreal- based firm, GardaWorld Federal Services, was approved as one among ten companies to aid in running Alligator Alcatraz. The company was awarded eight million USD by ICE for the security contract.

Montreal activists — accompanied by Québec solidaire, Amnesty International, and several union representatives from the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN – Federation of National Trades Unions) and the Fédération Autonome de l’Enseignement (FAE) — gathered at Place Vertu, before making the approximately two-kilometre march towards the security firm’s headquarters. A McGill contingency also attended the protest.

The university has historically procured at least $19 million in GardaWorld contracts for campus security services. McGill currently continues to hire security officers from GardaWorld, with job listings as recent as February 4, 2026. Student organizers joined the march with a banner stating: “Garda Off Our Campus.”

McGill students departed from the McGill campus and joined other demonstrators at Place Vertu. The organizers, who have asked the Daily to remain anonymous, elected to create this contingent to encourage students to travel to the protest despite being 55 minutes away by public transit. They sought to highlight McGill’s involvement with GardaWorld in a written statement to the Daily: “McGill contracts GardaWorld to police its students. Students have observed an increased presence of GardaWorld security in the semesters that followed the Gaza Solidarity encampment.”

The McGill organizers further stated that, “McGill has been extremely willing to pay large amounts of money to “securitize” its campus … Considering that a good portion of this money must have gone to their partnership with Garda[World], the students have a responsibility to demand an end to our University’s complicity in ICE’s terrorism, which we know is facilitated by GardaWorld.”

When asked about their personal feelings about having GardaWorld’s security officers on campus grounds, the organizers said that, “we are outraged. It is extremely unsettling to think that the same security guards who follow around students and encroach on their right to protest” work for the same organization that helps “ICE dehumanize and terrorize people in Alligator Alcatraz.”

When asked about why McGill students should mobilize, student organizers responded, “Students should be in charge of what occurs on their own campus.” The contingency outlined future steps that McGill students can take, should they also feel outraged by the GardaWorld contract: “We need to mobilize to show admin that we do not agree with the securitization of our own campuses. We refuse for our tuition to go towards security that we don’t want … our money going towards a company which funds ICE.”

Before leaving from Place Vertu, Celeste Trianon, one of the protest organizers, led a series of speakers to the fore. Each condemned GardaWorld’s collaboration with ICE and their participation in detaining over 6,000 individuals at the South Florida detention centre under inhuman and unsanitary living conditions.

An organizer from Indivisible Québec said, “While ICE operates in the United States, the infrastructure that enables it does not stop at the border. GardaWorld, a corporation headquartered here in Quebec, is one of the private contractors involved in the immigration detention systems.” In 2022, Investissement Québec, a provincial investment agency, invested $300 million CAD in the firm; while nationally, the Canadian federal government has entered into significant, long-term contracts with GardaWorld, including a deal brokered with Canadian Air Transport Security Authority in 2023 for $2.7 billion.

“Let us be clear: when public funds strengthen corporations tied to detention systems, when subsidies and contracts flow without scrutiny, and when profit is made from incarceration that is not neutrality. That is participation,” the speaker continued.

A Montreal local who wished to remain anonymous spoke with the Daily, stating that it was vital for Canadians to show up and protest, “especially when we are seeing this rise in right-wing conservatives who are not afraid to assemble on the other side.” She noted that attending protests such as this one is important for building community and creating active change in the world we live in.

“There’s a lot of action in the US [against ICE], which makes the world think that Canada isn’t doing anything, but we are,” she said. “Canada is also participating in protesting here — that’s why it is so important.”

So far, the protestors mentioned there have been no talks with the McGill administration regarding its affiliation with GardaWorld. The students urged that there is a chance for dialogue should there be more pressure on the University through popular support and direct action. As they put it, “They will not change unless they are cornered into doing so.”

The Daily has reached out for comment from McGill University. As of the time of writing, we are waiting for a response.

Upon arriving at the firm’s headquarters at 5 PM, the demonstrators were met with riot police and GardaWorld’s security staff. According to the Montreal Gazette, the confrontation resulted in officers spraying the crowd with pepper spray and tear gas. At least one demonstrator was arrested, reportedly throwing a piece of ice at an officer before being pinned to the ground.

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Approached by ICE Out MTL organizers clad in bright orange and neon green vests, protestors and passers-by were offered a slip of paper that asked the question many in Canada  have been struggling with as the US seemed to spiral: “What can we do from Canada?” One such person was Jacob Wesoky, president of Democrats at McGill, who The McGill Daily interviewed prior to the protest. As an American abroad, Wesoky cited combatting this sense of hopelessness as a driving force behind helping to organize ICE Out MTL: “There are a lot of Americans here, and it’s easy to feel powerless watching all of this chaos from afar. But in Canada, we’re not powerless. We still have a voice.”

Olivia, a second-year McGill student who braved the -10 degree weather to join the protest, indicated a similar sentiment: “I wish I could participate in all the protests happening in the US right now. It’s really hard to see everything going on from here and feeling kind of helpless.”

In addition to calls for the abolishment of ICE, bluntly referred to by one speaker as the “new American gestapo,” ICE Out MTL was also intended as a wake-up call for Canadians. As such, Wesoky outlined the details behind Indivisible Québec’s demand in their pre-protest press release to end “Canadian firms’ complicity” in financing ICE. His examples range from post-secondary institutions like McGill to firms based in Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. 

“McGill holds over $2.2 million in investments in Palantir, the AI surveillance company that’s behind ICE’s immigration crackdown and the illegal surveillance of millions of Americans. Ontario-based Roshel supplies armoured vehicles to ICE. Montreal-based GardaWorld staffed Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, which was the site of some of the worst human rights abuses in modern American history. Vancouver-based Hoopsuite provides social media services that amplify ICE’s propaganda.” Exemplified by chants of “Quebec stop funding ICE’s crimes.” Participants of ICE Out MTL made it clear that they would not tolerate Canadian complicity in funding and supplying ICE.

At around 1:30 PM, protestors were led around the corner to Dorchester Square, where they were presented with a QR code to contact their MPs in support of the No More Loopholes Act. The bill, first proposed in 2025, seeks to tighten export restrictions for Canadian arms manufacturers. As the website handed out through that QR code during ICE Out MTL puts it, the hope is that the No More Loopholes Act will stop the Canadian funneling of “unrestricted and unregulated arms to Trump’s illegal wars, ICE’s campaign of terror, and Israel’s ongoing genocide.” 

Their breath floating into the cloudless sky, the multigenerational crowd assembled in Dorchester Square cheered and jeered as vested organizers, including Wesoky and lead organizer Michael Lipset, delivered passionate speeches against ICE and in support of immigrants and those protesting in Minneapolis. Lipset, a Montreal resident originally from Minnesota, compared Trump’s America to Nazi Germany and declared, “This is not about border security. This is about state power without constraint.” 

Wesoky made a direct appeal to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in his speech, referencing Carney’s widely covered Davos address: “Part of taking down the sign from the window, part of no longer living within the lie, is recognizing the reality in the United States right now. […] If Canada is the beacon of hope and freedom that you say it is, then Canada will open its doors and protect the rights and dignity of migrants and asylum seekers.” Wesoky also called for an end to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the US, which requires refugee claimants to request protection only from the country they arrive in: “[The STCA exists] under the premise that the United States is a safe country for immigrants to seek asylum. […] The United States does not respect immigrant rights.” 

At around 2:30 PM, protestors walked back to the cramped sidewalk in front of the US Consulate. Despite a reduced headcount, the crowd resumed loudly chanting, shouting through megaphones, and holding up their signs. Refusing to go unnoticed, one person rattled a green tambourine, while another blew through a harmonica. Half an hour later, just before the scheduled end of the demonstration, ICE Out MTL organizers thanked those still remaining and made a final appeal: “Keep making your voice heard. Keep showing up.” 

ICE now has the largest budget of any US law enforcement agency in history. Nevertheless, Wesoky, who began efforts to protest against government-sponsored brutality by organizing a walkout at his middle school following the 2018 Parkland school shooting, seemed undeterred. In organizing ICE Out MTL, he hoped Americans back home could see that “the world is noticing what’s happening in the US, and we’re not going to sit back and just watch it happen.” 

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The 2026-2027 recommendations were determined by the TAL using a new method of calculation. With the old formula proving inefficient in post- Covid years, the new formula takes inflation and previous rent prices into account. While Eric Sansoucy, spokesperson of the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec (CORPIQ) representing Quebec landlords, told the Montreal Gazette that “the balanced solution is at inflation,” it has been shown that if the new formula had been applied to preceding years, excluding 2025, the TAL would have predicted a much steeper increase in rent over the past two decades. Thus, tenants associations have protested against the new recommendations, with Shannon Franssen, interim coordinator of the Coalition of Housing Rights Committees of Quebec (RCLALQ), declaring to CTV News that the new TAL formula contributes to an “inflationary spiral” of rent prices. Franssen explains that, seeing as the new calculation takes previous rent prices into account and rents have increased for the past few years, “rents are going up and justify further rent increases.”

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) reported that in Montreal, despite an overall easing in the market, rents increased by 7.2 per cent in 2025 — a number significantly above the TAL’s 2025-2026 5.9 per cent recommendation. Steve Blair, community organizer for the Quebec Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants’ Associations (RCLALQ), remarked to the Daily that rents “often go up faster than the [predicted] rate.” Blair explained that it is often difficult to prevent landlords from bumping the prices up as “tenants either don’t refuse, or can’t refuse, or there is a change in tenants.”

This 7.2 per cent increase outpaced the overall increase in income, meaning housing became even less affordable for most. The easing in the market that the CMHC describes is partly due to a rise in new, largely unaffordable, residences, while affordable units remain desperately scarce and are even disappearing from Montreal with further rent increases.

It is in this context of already unaffordable housing and heightening prices that the TAL recommended a 3.1 per cent increase for the year to come. Blair described this increase as only slightly “less bad than last year,” which he had characterised as the “worst year on record by far.”

Nevertheless, these TAL guidelines are only recommendations. As a tenant, you may refute the increase in rent if you deem it unfair or unlawful. In its last fiscal year, the TAL received 22,494 requests to settle a rent dispute. Resources provided by the RCLALQ allow Montreal tenants to more easily calculate how much rent may increase, how to refuse rent increases, and what procedures to follow afterwards. Syndicat des locataires autonomes de Montréal (SLAM), the autonomous syndicate of tenants, also provides support for tenants seeking help or suffering from abusive landlords. The collective actively protested against the new TAL recommendations on January 29 and helped build tenant unions in the city.

Amidst rising rent prices and unaffordable housing, it is important to remember that tenants have rights too.

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City officials framed the budget as both “rigorous and responsible,” arguing that it was prepared in an “uncertain economic situation” and amid concern about a “possible recession.” Martinez Ferrada has said the administration is aiming to keep tax increases in line with inflation while also emphasizing debt management as a central objective. Under the plan, the city administration says it intends to bring its net-debt-to- revenue ratio back to 100 per cent by the end of 2026, an objective it is tying to the cost of servicing debt and the need to finance long-term infrastructure work laid out in the city’s ten- year capital plan.

Municipal documents also stress that council is limiting the tax burden increase “under its control” to 3.4 per cent for both residential and non-residential properties, a distinction the city uses to separate the central administration’s decisions from borough-level components affecting the final bill. The budget’s capital plan is presented as heavily maintenance- oriented. According to the city’s summary, 67.7 per cent of planned investments over 2026 to 2035 are directed toward protecting existing assets, while 32.3 per cent is allocated toward development. The largest investment envelopes by 2035 are projected to be environment and underground infrastructure, at $8.0 billion, and road infrastructure, at $6.7 billion; figures the administration cites to justify the scale of upkeep and renewal required for aging systems.

Homelessness and housing emerge as the most prominent social commitments in the budget’s early reception, with the administration repeatedly signalling their high priority status. The plan sets aside $29.9 million in 2026 to support community organizations working with people experiencing homelessness and initiatives meant to manage “cohabitation” in public spaces. It also includes a longer-term objective of investing $100 million by 2035 to acquire and renovate buildings intended for emergency shelter spaces. Reported comparisons to previous budgets have framed the 2026 homelessness allocation with a marked increase from earlier years, underscoring a shift toward higher recurring spending in this area.

Housing policy is tied closely to that homelessness strategy. Over the ten-year horizon, the city is committing $578.7 million to acquire buildings for social and affordable housing, including $100 million linked directly to homelessness-related housing needs. The administration is also signalling a change in how it intends to push new housing supply. Rather than maintaining the existing ‘20-20-20’ framework for large developments, requiring equal shares of social, affordable, and family housing or a fine, the city has indicated it wants to move toward ‘financial incentives’ and closer partnerships with developers, non-profits, and private builders. Alongside those broader shifts, the budget includes smaller, targeted measures connected to the rental market, including multi-year funding for tenant-rights organizations and an expansion of preventive building inspections that the city says will reach 1,600 buildings in 2026.

Public safety and emergency services are also highlighted as major budget areas, both because of their size in the operating budget and because of the policy debates they tend to provoke. Public safety is presented as the largest share of expenses at 17.9 per cent. The plan includes funding for police body cameras, expanded use of public-space cameras, and increased spending framedasprevention,particularly youth violence prevention and safety measures around school zones. The budget earmarks $15.8 million in 2026 for reducing youth violence and $17.4 million for securing routes around schools. Furthermore, it sets out a longer- term $40-million, ten-year plan connected to body cameras.

Alongside new spending, the administration has emphasized restraint measures and trade- offs. The city has pointed to $79 million in identified savings, largely framed as the result of reviewing municipal programs, and has indicated that hiring will be frozen in parts of the public service. At the same time, the budget is presented against a background of significant debt servicing costs, with 16.6 per cent of the 2026 budget, about $1.27 billion, allocated toward it. Reported examples of the budget’s constraints include some delayed or reduced projects, such as infrastructure work pushed to later years and a reduction in funding for certain mobility-related services.

The budget has drawn conflicting interpretations among political opponents and stakeholders. The official opposition has criticized the proposal as lacking long-term vision and argued that it “smells like austerity,” disputing the administration’s narrative that it represents a fresh start for the city. Other institutional voices have welcomed the emphasis on “rigour,” particularly the effort to document recurring savings and manage limited fiscal room. In statements responding to the tabling, business groups have also pointed to structural pressures, such as a municipal wage bill nearing $3 billion and upcoming collective bargaining, as ongoing drivers of costs that will shape the city’s ability to expand services without further tax increases.

For residents, including students who largely rent and depend on public transit, the immediate effects of the municipal budget will not necessarily be direct. However, the broader pressures it reflects will be closely connected to everyday affordability. The proposed budget underscores a central tension for Montreal’s finances: large portions of the city’s fiscal capacity are absorbed by maintaining and renewing aging infrastructure, even as the operating plan commits new money to urgent social needs such as homelessness and housing.

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More than just a leadership shuffle, Legault’s departure is widely being read as a referendum on the CAQ’s governing project: a blend of Quebec nationalism, French- language protectionism, and secularism. It also reflects scrutiny of the CAQ’s self-styled “managerial” approach; an emphasis on governing like a results-driven administration, foregrounding efficiency, measurable outcomes, and the promise of practical reforms over ideology. That brand has been tested in recent years by high- profile scandals and contentious policy changes, as parties now reposition on issues that have repeatedly become political flashpoints in Montreal, including tuition policy for out- of-province students and French- language requirements affecting English-language universities.

What happens now?

Next comes a CAQ leadership race that will choose the party’s next leader and Quebec’s next premier. In the days following Legault’s announcement, multiple senior figures signalled interest or faced public encouragement: the Minister of Economy, Christine Fréchette, said she is considering running. Finance Minister Eric Girard said he was interested, but that it was too early to say whether he would enter the race. Several CAQ Members of the National Assembly urged Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to enter the race. While the CAQ runs its leadership selection process, the Legault government will continue to govern during an interim transition period, with Legault remaining premier until a successor is chosen.

Although the general election is scheduled for October 5, Quebec’s premier can still ask the lieutenant governor to dissolve the National Assembly earlier, meaning an early election remains legally possible even under a fixed-date system. The practical effect is a compressed timeline: the next CAQ leader may have months, not years, to define a new agenda and defend it in a province already in campaign posture.

Legault’s premiership: the “manager nationalist” era

Legault’s tenure has been characterized by political scientists as a form of “autonomist and managerial nationalism.” As former Parti Québéquois (PQ) minister and founder of the CAQ, Legault led a party that broke the longstanding legacy of Liberal–PQ. It presented itself as a pragmatic, autonomy-first alternative, promising competence and stability while advancing an assertive agenda on identity and state authority. Over the course of two majority mandates, his government repeatedly returned to defining policy areas: secularism in public institutions, French-language protection, and a harder line on immigration and integration, alongside high- stakes reforms that later became political liabilities, including identity legislation (such as Bill 21 and Bill 96) and major initiatives in public services.

Secularism as a defining, and polarizing, policy area

One of the CAQ’s signature policies is Bill 21, adopted in 2019 as Quebec’s secularism law. The law restricts the wearing of religious symbols for certain state employees in positions of authority while on the job; symbols often cited in public debate include the hijab, turban, and yarmulke/ kippah. This has remained a persistent fault line between the government’s claim to be defending state neutrality and critics’ arguments that it infringes religious freedom and disproportionately affects religious minorities, who are legally protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bill 21 has been especially contentious in Montreal, home to many of Quebec’s most diverse neighbourhoods and institutions, shaping debates about who belongs in the public sphere and what neutrality means in practice. The policy’s legal future is still unsettled at the national level: the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to hear the constitutional challenge, setting up a major test of both the law itself and Quebec’s use of the notwithstanding clause.

French-language protection as a central project

If Bill 21 defined the CAQ’s secularism agenda, Bill 96 became its defining language policy. The legislation, assented to on June 1, 2022, overhauled Quebec’s language regime by affirming French as the province’s only official and “common” language, and by amending the Charter of the French language across multiple sectors. Supporters argue Bill 96 is necessary to protect the French language amid demographic and cultural changes. Critics, particularly in Montreal’s bilingual institutional ecosystem, have warned it can restrict language rights and add barriers for anglophones, allophones, students navigating education, and government services.

Bill 96 also reinforced a pattern in the CAQ’s broader approach to governing: the idea that protecting Quebec’s identity and social cohesion require stronger state intervention. This approach plays well in parts of the province, but can land as punitive or exclusionary in Montreal, where bilingual workplaces and institutions are common and where debates about language often overlap with questions of economic strategy and the ability to attract students, researchers, and skilled workers.

“Competence” tested by scandals and public-service conflict

While identity legislation anchored Legault’s political brand, a series of controversies eroded his “steady manager” image. A central example is what has been dubbed the SAAQclic ‘fiasco.’ At a public inquiry, Quebec’s interim auditor general Alain Fortin testified that budget overruns could bring the total for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ)’s digital transformation project (SAAQclic) to about $1.1 billion CAD by 2027, nearly $500 million more than planned.

Healthcare became another front of political turmoil. Bill 2, adopted in late 2025, tied part of physicians’ compensation to performance targets, which sparked backlash from doctors who argued that the policy shifts the responsibility of access problems onto a strained workforce. The bill became so politically controversial that the government later signalled its openness to amendments while insisting some pay remain linked to patient-service targets.

Why resign now? Converging pressure in an election countdown

Legault framed his resignation as an acknowledgment that voters want change, but reporting around the announcement pointed to deeper turbulence: sustained low polling, internal strain, and a series of controversies that kept the government on the defensive heading into an election year. In an Associated Press interview, political analyst and McGill professor Daniel Béland said Legault is “the least popular premier in the country right now,” attributing this to his unpopular policies and missteps in communication.

The timing of Legault’s resignation effectively allows for a strategic gamble. A new leader can argue that the CAQ is turning the page, but the leader will also inherit the party’s most divisive policies, with little leeway to rebuild trust before voters head to the ballot box.

McGill and English universities: why a leadership change matters in Montreal

For McGill and Montreal’s other English-language universities, Legault’s resignation follows a policy debate that has become a proxy battle over Quebec’s identity, demographics, and economic strategy. In October 2023, the CAQ government proposed a raise in tuition for out-of-province Canadian students and imposed a French-language requirement. These changes sparked immediate pushback from English universities, student groups, and Montreal citizens.

In April 2025, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour struck down key elements of the framework, ruling parts of the plan, including the French proficiency requirement, unreasonable and invalid and ordered the government to revise its regulations within a set timeline. The case sharpened a broader question that now hangs over the CAQ’s succession: whether Montreal’s universities will continue to be used as an election-season wedge, or whether a new premier will recalibrate the government’s approach to protect the French language while maintaining Montreal’s competitiveness in research and higher education.

The stakes are practical as well as symbolic: recruitment, retention, tuition revenue, program planning, and the city’s ability to position itself as an international destination without policy volatilities that discourage students and faculty. With Quebec’s campaign season beginning early, Montreal and post-secondary institutions like McGill are likely to remain the central terrain in the province’s fight over what “change” should mean after Legault.

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For  students  across  Montreal, including  at  McGill, Concordia, UQAM, and Université de Montréal, the surge is tangible: it’s showing up as empty lecture seats, missed shifts, and an illness that’s lingering longer than many expect.

“I’ve lived in Montreal my whole life, so I usually don’t get sick much,” said a McGill student interviewed on January 8, her first day back at school. “But I caught the flu that’s been going around and it left me bedridden for over two weeks. Even talking right now hurts my throat. I’m only starting to feel  normal again — a pretty awful way to spend New Year’s.”

Clinicians  have  described  this season’s rise as unusually sharp. In a Canadian  Press  report,  infectious disease physician Donald Vinh from McGill University Health Center (MUHC) said emergency rooms are “bursting at the seams” as the province grapples with a combination of the flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). He called influenza the “main culprit,” describing  an epidemiological curve that is “downright scary” and rising at a rate that is “almost vertical.”

Quebec’s own surveillance data backs up the sense of intensity. According to the Institute National de Sante Publique Quebec’s (INSPQ) weekly respiratory virus reporting, influenza A detections and test positivity climbed to very high levels in late-December and early-January period. In the week ending January 3, Quebec reported 6,231 influenza A positive tests, and Montreal’s influenza A test positivity was 27.43 per cent. The week prior (ending December 27, 2025) was higher still, with Montreal at 34.31 per cent positivity.

For comparison, in the final week of December 2024, Quebec’s overall influenza test positivity was 8.4 per cent (835 positives out of 10,889 tests). In the final week of December 2025 (Dec 21-27), that figure jumped to 38.3 per cent (6,525 positives out of 17,092 tests), more than 4 times higher than in 2024.

The downstream effect is visible in emergency departments. In the same CBC report on Urgences-santé’s record day, Quebec-wide ER stretcher occupancy was cited at 128 per cent, with Montreal at 135 per cent. At the Centre hospitalier de l’Université  de  Montréal (CHUM), CityNews reported the emergency room was “packed” with 159 patients, and patients on stretchers  were  waiting  an average of nearly 17 hours. These kinds of delays and overcrowded triage areas become harder to manage when large numbers of patients  arrive  with  fever, dehydration, breathing difficulty, or complications that require monitoring.

Public health experts often caution against drawing big conclusions from anecdotes alone. Still, the collision of factors this winter helps explain why so many Montrealers describe the season as unusually disruptive. Influenza activity has been high at the same moment people have been spending more time indoors, over the holidays and through winter weather, before returning to shared spaces like classrooms, offices, gyms, and public transit. At the same time, clinicians have pointed to a broader  mix of respiratory viruses circulating alongside the flu, which adds pressure to urgent  care  and  emergency medicine. And because hospitals are already operating near or above capacity, surges don’t have to be unprecedented to create bottlenecks; they simply have to be sustained. Put simply: even if many influenza cases can be managed at home, a small increase in severe cases, layered onto an already-strained system, can push hospitals past capacity.

Universities are built for close contact: packed lecture halls, shared libraries, group projects, residence  floors,  and  winter commutes. That implication matters when influenza is already widespread in the city.

McGill has previously hosted flu vaccination  access  points  on campus. A November 12, 2025 flu-vaccine clinic run through the Ingram School of Nursing and the Student Wellness Hub administered 112 flu shots in a single day, with organizers describing the goal as making vaccination easy for students and staff.

However, the vaccination clinics in November didn’t fully answer the question  students are  asking  in  January:  what protections  exist  once  people are back in the same rooms, day after day?

Students interviewed on campus said they’re less focused on sweeping mandates and more about   concrete, low-friction options, clear guidance about staying home when feverish, readily available masks in clinical spaces, and easy routes to vaccination and advice.

With emergency services already strained, physicians and public health agencies have emphasized  steps  that  reduce both transmission  and unnecessary hospital visits. One is vaccination: in Montreal, public health authorities state that the flu vaccine is free for anyone aged six months and older who requests it. Another is triage: Quebec health messaging during this surge has encouraged people to call Info-Santé 811 for guidance when symptoms are concerning but not clearly life-threatening, reserving emergency departments for severe cases.

Clinicians  also  continue  to recommend straightforward harm reduction: staying home when sick, masking when symptomatic in crowded indoor spaces, and basic hygiene.  None of these eliminate risk, but in aggregate they can slow spread, and in a season defined by capacity limits, slowing spread can translate into fewer crises.

This winter’s crunch is also landing in a healthcare landscape shaped by earlier tensions. In the fall, Quebec medical students mounted strike action over training conditions and the future of access, with reporting noting fears that policy direction and working conditions could worsen physician availability. Influenza didn’t cause those structural issues, but it exposes them. When stretchers are already full and staff are already stretched, the margin for absorbing a predictable winter surge becomes thin.

For  students  returning  to campus, that reality raises a blunt question: in a city where ERs are routinely over capacity, what does “normal winter sickness” look like now? And for those currently sick, the  answer  is  immediate  and personal: a virus can be ordinary, and still knock you flat.

The post “Downright scary”: Montreal’s Flu Wave Strains Emergency Care appeared first on The McGill Daily.

In response, the Canadian government has devised new immigration policies as part of their 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which aims to recalibrate the immigration system to lessen the pressure on these sectors. Their overarching objective is to reduce immigrant intake and limit admission to favour those who meet certain criteria. These include higher job qualifications, proficiency in French, and skills in provincially-determined sectors of the economy.

The new policy restricts the number of permanent resident admissions to 380,000 in 2026. Of the permanent resident candidates, the government seeks to prioritize those who fall under “economic immigrants”: newcomers with high economic potential based on their work qualification and competence for particular jobs. This encompasses the Minister of Immigration Lena Metlege Diab’s push for the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), in which provinces select immigrants with backgrounds in areas of labour based on particular economic needs. The remaining permanent residencies will be allocated to family reunification and humanitarian aid for refugees and protected persons.

From 2018 to 2024, the number of temporary residents in Canada more than doubled, increasing from 3.3 to 7.5 per cent of the population. With the new Immigration Levels Plan, the department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) wishes to lower this number to below five per cent by 2027. The overall number of study permits issued was capped in January 2024, eliciting a downward trend of admitted international students. While nearly 675,000 temporary residents entered Canada in 2025, the target for 2026 is 385,000. From these, 230,000 will be workers and 155,000 students, this is 47 per cent lower than last year’s target “economic immigrants.”

Although the policies in the 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan do not directly affect current international students at McGill or any Canadian university, they may be an impasse for international students who plan on staying in Canada after graduating. In addition to the Immigration Levels Plan restricting the volume of work and study permits, applicants in Quebec are required to demonstrate higher proof of funds, confirming access to annual funds of $24,617 when applying. Before January 1, 2026, this provincial requirement was $15,509.

Moreover, the significant reduction of temporary permanent residency programs has limited the options of any McGill international student who wishes to remain in Quebec. For example, the Programme d’experience québecoise (PEQ), which was shut down in November 2025, used to allow international students with a CLB level 7 French (intermediate) graduating from Designated Learning Institution (DLI) to fast-track their permanent residency application. Now, this can only be made possible through the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ). Unlike the PEQ, which offered a predictable pathway to permanent immigration, the PSTQ uses a point system based on specifications like work experience in Quebec, in-demand occupations, French expertise, and educational qualifications, among other requirements, with still no guarantee of admission or acceptance.

2026 marks the start of a less accessible, more economically-driven, and highly restrictive admission process for permanent and temporary immigration to Canada. If this affects your plans for remaining in Quebec or Canada after the duration of your studies, it is recommended that you search for alternatives or check your eligibility for the remaining immigration programs. Do not hesitate to reach out to the International Student Services if you need any further assistance.

The ISS can be reached at https://www.mcgill.ca/internationalstudents/.”

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The results come amid stalled civic engagement: turnout fell to 37 per cent, one of the lowest levels in the city’s recent electoral history. Analysts note that the combination of low participation and a decisive victory signals both appetite for change and ongoing voter disengagement.

Policy commitments and proposed reforms

Throughout Ensemble Montréal’s campaign, Ferrada emphasized a 100-day roadmap aimed at immediate intervention on housing and homelessness issues throughout the city. She pledged to replace the city’s previous 20-20-20 housing bylaw, which required developers to reserve a portion of units for affordable or social housing, with a system of incentives intended to accelerate construction and encourage private participation.

The 100-day plan proposes creating a Tactical Intervention Group on Homelessness, which aims to increase the city’s budget for managing homelessness, and collaborating with community organizations to transition residents from encampments into stable housing. Furthermore, Ferrada promised to publish a citywide inventory of vacant or underused municipal buildings, which could be converted into shelters or affordable housing units.

On the issue of transportation, Ensemble Montréal committed to a comprehensive audit of Montreal’s bike-lane network. This includes evaluating safety, connectivity, and the impact of bike lanes on traffic. The audit may lead to redesigns or removals, though the team has stated publicly that it does not intend to “dismantle” the network, but rather ensure its functionality and sustainability.

Additionally, Martinez Ferrada has indicated an intention to rejuvenate administrative processes through AI-assisted service deliveries, reorganize communication between boroughs and city hall to reduce delays, and relaunch the Cultural Metropolis Office, created to support arts and culture across Montreal.

First days as mayor

The new mayor was officially sworn in on November 13, during a ceremony at city hall attended by municipal staff, elected officials, and community representatives. In her inaugural speech, Ferrada reaffirmed her commitment to act “quickly and collaboratively,” again highlighting homelessness as one of the administration’s central priorities.

Since taking office, she has established transition teams to begin work on the 100-day plan and initiated consultations with borough mayors. Departments have been directed to compile preliminary data for both the homelessness inventory and the bike-lane audit. While no bylaws have yet been introduced, municipal staff indicate that early steps will rely on administrative directives and targeted budget reallocations.

Coverage from La Presse and The Canadian Press notes that these early weeks in office have focused on assessing existing programs and identifying immediate operational changes, such as streamlining construction coordination and accelerating housing project approvals.

Low voter turnout raises concerns

The election’s 37 per cent voter turnout has drawn attention from civic engagement organizations, who argue that the election depicts ongoing structural barriers to participation, limited outreach and a lack of visibility for municipal issues among younger voters.

Furthermore, the level of disengagement surprised many residents, including McGill students who expressed frustration at the lack of civic involvement.

“I don’t see why you wouldn’t vote,” said one student, calling the turnout “disappointing” given the stakes of the election.

One Political Science student noted that the mood on campus reflected a broader sense of detachment.

“Many of my friends didn’t vote,” said another student, adding that the final result “feels representative of the broader attitudes of conservatism” present in parts of the electorate.

Several students interviewed attributed low engagement to the issues dominating the campaign: “Some of the issues of this election felt trivial. Like how frequent trash day should be,” said a fourth student. “It didn’t feel like a pressing election.”

Political analysts have also pointed to voter fatigue after years of political debate over bike lanes, construction, and housing policy. Others note that the absence of a strong anti-incumbent mobilization, despite a leadership change, may have contributed to the low numbers.

Municipal affairs specialists interviewed by The Canadian Press argue that voter disengagement could complicate Martinez Ferrada’s broader mandate, as major reforms may face public skepticism if residents feel detached from the political process.

Implications for future mayoral races

Onlookers might suggest that the 2025 election may influence Montreal’s municipal politics in several key ways. As Montreal’s first expatriate mayor, Ferrada’s victory has been described by several political commentators as a landmark for representation in Quebec politics; in turn, this may potentially encourage more candidates from immigrant and racial-minority communities to run. Ensemble Montréal’s win reflects a desire among a majority of voters for policy approaches framed as practical and incremental at the municipal level rather than being ideologically motivated. Finally, with turnout reaching historic lows, future campaigns may place an even greater emphasis on accessibility and outreach.

Looking ahead

As Ferrada’s administration continues to roll out its plan, residents and community groups watch closely for concrete progress on Ensemble Montréal’s promises. The degree to and speed at which early decisions improve public services will manage Montreal’s expectations. Whether 2025 marks a long-term shift or a temporary realignment will depend on how voters evaluate the impact of Ferrada’s policies in the coming years.

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Bill 94, formally titled “An Act to, in particular, reinforce laicity in the education network and to amend various legislative provisions,” was introduced by Education Minister, Bernard Drainville, and passed in the National Assembly in March 2025. The law’s central purpose is to strengthen laicity (laïcité), Quebec’s model of state secularism that emphasises a strict separation between religion and public institutions, within the school system. It extends the ban on religious symbols to all school staff, requires students and staff to keep their faces uncovered during school hours, and imposes stricter regulations on religious accommodations, demanding behaviour that aligns with Quebec’s notion of religious neutrality.

This legislation builds on Bill 21, adopted in 2019, which restricts certain public workers from wearing religious symbols. Bill 94 significantly broadens that scope, placing almost every staff member in the school network within its reach. The expanded scope of these restrictions has alarmed civil-liberties groups and advocates for minority rights.

QESBA argues that Bill 94 does far more than restrict religious freedom. The organization claims the law undermines the foundations of English-language public education in Quebec. One of the primary concerns expressed by QESBA is the centralisation of authority: the bill transfers greater power to the Ministry of Education, weakening the autonomy of locally elected school boards. QESBA maintains that this shift erodes constitutional protections, specifically Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which grants Quebec’s English- speaking minority the right to manage and control its own schools.

The association also denounces the bill as an act of ideological overreach. QESBA President, Joe Ortona, warned that Bill 94 replaces professional judgment and classroom autonomy with a rigid, government-mandated vision of “Quebec values.” Bill 94 limits religious accommodations, enforces face uncovering, and enables the use of override clauses that suspend key protections in both the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Canadian Charter. QEBSA argues that these measures suppress diversity of thought and endanger the pluralistic ethos on which public education should rest.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has echoed these concerns, denouncing Bill 94 as a “threat to civil liberties.” It warns that the law undermines fundamental freedoms by cutting back religious accommodations and prohibiting visible prayer in schools, raising serious concerns about freedom of expression and religion. The CCLA is particularly troubled by the government’s reliance on the notwithstanding clause, which shields the legislation from constitutional challenges, and has raised concerns that the bill dangerously weakens the rights of vulnerable groups, including women, racialised communities, and religious minorities.

QESBA reiterates that by placing decision-making power in the hands of the Ministry of Education, the law threatens the democratic legitimacy of school boards and undermines the minority community’s ability to run its own institutions. The use of the notwithstanding clause further complicates any potential legal challenge, effectively closing off ordinary avenues of recourse.

Bill 94 has been primarily supported by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, in addition to some members of the Parti Québécois.

The bill has been put into effect immediately, with schools responsible for enforcing its requirements. Students and staff are required to keep their faces uncovered and not display religious symbols. A refusal to comply potentially results in the loss of school services. The law includes eliminating menus adapted for religious dietary restrictions, prohibiting religious leave, and banning religious practices on school property outside class time. Together, these measures aim to standardize school policies by removing religious accommodations and setting uniform rules for conduct and services.

Since the bill’s introduction on October 30, many school boards have raised concerns regarding staffing difficulties, as support personnel may be unwilling or unable to comply with strict bans on religious symbols. Distrust between school boards, teachers, and the ministry could erode centralised directives to replace local decision-making. The Federation of Education Unions (CSQ), have raised concerns that students and staff from religious minorities may feel excluded or punished simply for expressing their faith. They also expressed concern that, as more power shifts upward, the role of democratically elected English-language school boards risks being diminished.

Bill 94 has brought to light a broader debate in Quebec over secularism, minority rights, and the definition of collective values. For many English- speaking Quebecers, the legislation reignites longstanding anxieties about losing control over their school system and watching cultural and linguistic rights erode. For civil-liberties advocates, it marks a troubling expansion of state authority at the expense of personal freedoms.

The post Bill 94 Sparks Outcry appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The strikes have resulted in reduced metro and bus service: the metro is currently running between 6:30a.m. and 9:30a.m., between 2:45p.m. and 5:45p.m, and from 11p.m. to closing time; buses are running between 6:15 a.m. and 9:15a.m., from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., and between 11:15 p.m. and 1:15 a.m. Most buses will complete the routes they have started. Paratransit services will continue as normal.

The Syndicat des chauffeurs, opérateurs et employés des services connexes-1989 has also expressed intent to strike on November 15 and 16, but the STM stated on Thursday, October 30 that they had not yet received official notice of these strikes.

Since public transit is an essential service, the striking union and the STM must discuss what threshold of services to maintain after a strike is announced. The STM claims that they have been attempting to negotiate an increased level of metro service during the strike through discussions over the past week. The final decision is then made by the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT), who rule on the adequacy of the level of essential service provided.

The month-long Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN maintenance workers’ strike is the third instalment in a year-long struggle with the STM, while the SCFP-1983 strike will be the union’s first in 38 years. The maintenance workers’ union stated in April that they are striking against the creation of atypical work schedules, staff relocations, reduced job protections against subcontracting, job insecurity through the creation of part-time positions and additional shift workers, the rejection of vacation quotas, and the removal of clauses protecting weekday work schedules. The SCFP-1983 said in an October 14 statement that it is asking the STM for more humane working hours, fair wage increases that reflect the current economic climate, a better work- life balance, and no rollbacks in job security.

The STM strike comes at a crucial moment for workers’ rights and union power. Bruno Jeanotte, president of the Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN, told the Montreal Gazette that “we wouldn’t be in a strike of this magnitude” without the looming Bill 89, as the bill “forces [the union] to apply much more aggressive pressure tactics.” As of November 30, Bill 89 will come into effect in Quebec, which will give the Minister of Labour the power to unilaterally end strikes if they are deemed detrimental to the public, and expands the amount of essential services which must be maintained while workers are striking. The bill, which was sponsored by Quebec’s current Minister of Labour Jean Boulet, purports to “give greater consideration to the needs of the population in the event of a strike or a lock-out,” but has been criticized as a “major retreat in workers’ rights” by three labour law professors at the Université de Montréal and members of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT).

McGill students who rely on public transit to go to and from campus are struggling to work around the strike. Lindsy Yang is a fourth-year neuroscience student who commutes to school every day via metro. When metro service is regular, Lindsy’s commute usually takes 30 minutes. On days when she has an 8:30 a.m. class then choir in the evening, she would normally go home in the interim. But due to the strikes, stranded by the gaps in service, she is spending up to 14.5 hours on campus. “[The strike] very much fragments my time,” Lindsy told the Daily.

Eva Leblanc is a U4 history student who has also been impacted by the STM strike. She sees the strike as a differentiating force which acts disproportionately on some students. “Students who have to commute are put at a disadvantage academically, and are at the whims of the metro,” she says. Mariana Monsalve, a U1 political science student minoring in sociology, identifies this disparity as based in social class: “[The strike] will disproportionately affect… poorer students that don’t have the means to pay for an Uber or a car, or students that aren’t able to bike or use alternative modes of transportation.”

There have been attempts to close this gap between students who can easily get to campus during the strike period and those who cannot. The Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) posted on Instagram last Wednesday that they will be reimbursing students for transport-related expenses incurred as a result of the altered transit schedule. Organized by the SSMU Equity Commissioners and Vice President University Affairs Susan Aloudat, the Emergency Transportation Subsidy Project evaluates submissions based on the information submitted alongside the application and uses equity programming funds to reimburse SSMU members for transportation costs throughout the duration of the strike. Acceptable submissions include Bixi fees, fees for rides between campus and the home address listed on a student’s enrollment letter, parking passes, and other transportation passes.

During the November 6 SSMU Legislative Council meeting, as of the third day of the support project, Aldoudat expressed to the Daily that while she hopes students can recognize that this is an unprecedented pilot project, “the intention is to subsidize and support as many students as we can.” Requests will be evaluated based on which submissions yield the greatest “return on investment,” but SSMU is focused on accessibility and will thoughtfully consider the explanations students provide in their submissions. “I really hope that students will feel that this is one way that [they] can get support from SSMU and that they can benefit from [it] more than anything,” Aloudat shared. SSMU is open to hearing commuter experiences as feedback on this program to ensure that members are being adequately supported throughout the strike.

Subsidiary requests can be submitted throughout the duration of the strike through a webform on the Resources page of SSMU’s website, under Funding Opportunities.

Some McGill professors are accommodating students’ inability to attend classes, and McGill has posted a statement encouraging employers and instructors to “show flexibility.” However, there is currently no blanket mandate for McGill faculty to accommodate students’ transport needs. Monsalve said we sees this as a failure on the part of the university: “The university is capable of accommodating,” she says. “It’s that they don’t want to.”

Editor’s Note: In the print version of this article, it was written that the Emergency Transportation Subsidy Project was organized by the SSMU Equity Committee rather than the SSMU Equity Commissioners. This is the correct version.

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But who are this year’s candidates, and what campaign promises are they running on? 

There is a marked distinction between the realms of what the province is responsible for, and those that the municipalities are in charge of. While Quebec deals with issues such as health care, education, or immigration, municipalities provide Montrealers with basic services, including snow removal, road maintenance, or water provision to residents. As a result, these candidates have focused their promised policy agendas on issues such as public transit, unhoused populations, cleanliness, and culture/recreation. 

This Sunday, voters should expect to see five main candidates on the ballot: Luc Rabouin from Projet Montréal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada from Ensemble Montréal, Craig Sauvé from Transition Montréal, Gilbert Thibodeau from Action Montréal, and Jean-François Kacou from Futur Montréal.

Of the city’s main issues, Montrealers are most concerned with the cost of living, homelessness, and transportation around the city. Let’s look at how each candidate fares on these three policy areas.

Luc Rabouin

Coming from incumbent Valérie Plante’s party, Luc Rabouin came out in the lead in Projet Montréal’s leadership race this past March to become the new party leader. He has held political office for five years, which began after his victory as the elected borough mayor of Plateau-Mont-Royal in 2019.

Rabouin’s push to run his campaign on the homelessness crisis and affordable housing in the city is what ultimately led to his victory in becoming party leader for Projet Montréal this year. He claims to be driven by a wide array of issues including environmental policy, urban planning, and participatory democracy.

Cost of Living

When it comes to affordable housing and the cost of living, many Montrealers feel skeptical of the possibility for change under another Projet Montréal term. Since 2018, housing has become increasingly inaccessible, with the average cost of rent almost 120 per cent higher than when Plante took office in 2018. In that same time period, the number of unhoused people has also increased by 10 per cent each year.

Rabouin claims that his office will bring affordability back to Montreal. He intends to launch a $100 million fund that would support nonprofits in building out socialized housing which would replace Plante’s 20-20-20 affordable housing bylaw that mandated all new residential developments to designate at least 20 per cent of units as social housing, 20 per cent as affordable housing, and 20 per cent as family housing. This bylaw, which was adopted in 2021, was unable to fulfill its goal of creating more affordable housing due to its lack of enforcement, and had also eased some of its requirements for new development projects. Rabouin’s focus has been on incentivizing property owners to allocate more of their lands into housing, as well as forcing landlords to keep their properties on the market through a tax on unoccupied housing. For low-income homeowners and elderly residents, his plan will also include a property-tax deferral program.

Unhoused Crisis

The homelessness crisis was presented as one of Projet Montréal key agendas, as revealed in the party’s electoral platform released earlier this month. Rabouin pledges to eliminate homelessness in Montreal by 2030 by doubling the funding granted to organizations that work with unhoused populations. He also proposed to add 1,000 total social and transitional housing units, 500 of which would be modular units, which are smaller scale forms of transitional housing that are quicker and cheaper to construct.

Public Transit

Furthermore, as the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) prepares for another strike to be held next month, public transit has risen as another key area of concern for Montrealers. Rabouin has announced his plans for an “efficient bus network” system called the Réseau express bus that would implement a reserved bus lane and operate 24/7. Additionally, his campaign supports the construction of three new tram lines that are already under development, including the east-end tramway project, increasing the frequency of the Metro during rush hour, and making all Metro stations universally accessible.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada

Soraya Martinez Ferrada is a former Liberal Member of Parliament for Hochelaga and former Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, ending her tenure in early 2025 to lead Ensemble Montréal. Having begun her political career in 2005 as a Montreal City Councillor for Saint-Michel, she has twenty years of experience within the Quebec political scene.

Martinez Ferrada is currently polling ahead of the other mayoral candidates for Montrealers’ top pick, according to a Segma Research for Radio-Canada poll conducted on Thursday, October 16. She is currently the candidate with the most voter support at 26 per cent, compared to Rabouin who is at 18 per cent. Although her platform is largely centered on housing-related issues, giving herself the title la mairesse du logement, or “the mayor of housing,” her reputation among Montrealers took a hit this May after having violated Quebec law by illegally collecting a security deposit from one of her renting tenants.

Cost of Living

In order to tackle the lack of affordable housing and the rising cost of living, Martinez Ferrada claims she will invest $1 million in community organization and housing initiatives, such as La Maison du Père, a rent assistance bank in Montreal. She has also pushed forward a housing bank initiative that would reserve affordable housing units on the market with the intention of transferring the leases to those without housing on July 1, which is when most leases in Montreal begin. In tension with her history as a landlord, as well as her connections with the landlord lobbyist group CORPIQ, she states that her party is committed to protecting renters’ rights and aims to establish a municipal rental registry. In addition to these larger projects, her campaign is also running on assisting first-time homeowners with buying property by granting them tax breaks as well as loans.

Unhoused Crisis

Under the wing of Martinez Ferrada, Ensemble Montréal seeks to establish a Tactical Homelessness Intervention Group that will approach the unhoused crisis in the city as a long-term goal. The party looks to work with the Montreal municipal police, Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, to create public safety committees alongside citizens, community organizers, and borough representatives.

Within her first 100 days, Martinez Ferrada announced plans for a protocol to manage homeless encampments that would be developed with community organizations, with the promise of ending encampments in the city within the next four years. She also intends to increase the city’s annual budget that addresses homelessness to $30 million, with a $10 million matching fund in the private sector to attract contributions that would fund homelessness initiatives.

Public Transit

One of Ensemble Montréal’s key policy platforms is to promote safe and efficient transportation. They have focused their energy on making the Metro system more efficient, specifically transways on the eastern side of Montreal. The party has stated that it plans to increase the frequency of Metro services as well as “improve the comfort, speed, and safety of users,” which local transportation planning experts have found to be a large undertaking. In addition, Martinez Ferrada claims she wants to reduce the STM’s “unnecessary spending.”

With regards to active transit, Martinez Ferrada had been headstrong on the biking front, committing to launch an audit of Montreal’s bike path network in her first 100 days. She is looking to secure safe bike paths by allocating funds to bring most routes “up to standard,” while eliminating ones that are found to be potentially dangerous.

Craig Sauvé

Transition Montréal’s mission is vastly different from both Ensemble Montréal and Projet Montréal. Led and founded by Craig Sauvé, former city councillor for Projet Montréal and now vice-chair of the STM’s Board of Directors, this party is attempting “to offer [Montrealers] a new voice: a constructive voice, a voice that focuses on collaboration and good ideas.”

The party is strongly rooted in its progressive vision, proposing a divestment plan from the genocide in Palestine and the war in Ukraine. Sauvé’s platform is ambitious in reenvisioning transit for Montrealers, implementing municipal electoral reforms, establishing safer school environments, offering social transit fares for low-income residents, and imposing higher property taxes on Montreal’s ultra-wealthy landowners.

Sauvé has caught the attention of many young progressives in the city with his radical approach to public transportation, even denouncing Quebec’s ban on gender-neutral language in provincial communications, which other candidates have yet to do. Major concerns about Transition Montréal surround the party’s ability to follow through with the strong claims they have campaigned on.

Cost of Living

Sauvé has campaigned on a progressive housing policy that is geared towards improving tenant conditions within the city. Transition Montréal is looking to establish Bâtir Montréal, a paramunicipal body that will oversee the construction of public and community housing alongside local non-profit to develop a $10 million rental assistance bank with a public rent registry. He aims to make the process of receiving assistance more efficient by creating a “one-stop housing portal” to centralize permitting applications, as well as simplify the permits co-operates and non-profits apply for. Additionally, Sauvé intends on taxing the city’s ultra-wealthy by subjecting single-family properties valued at over $3.5 million to 1.25 times the standard tax rate.

Unhoused Crisis

At a debate on October 9, Sauvé announced that he would declare a state of emergency to allow unhoused people to move into vacant buildings and hotels as sources of temporary shelter. With regards to homeless encampments, he noted explicitly his plans to ban police interventions on encampments and replace them with community initiatives led by a team of social workers and outreach staff. Longer-term efforts consist in establishing a detailed plan for how to approach encampments with more than 10 tents, consulting with local and unhoused populations on decisions regarding those encampments. Transition Montréal estimates allocating a total of $20 million annually to combat homelessness.

Public Transit

Public transpiration is one of Transition Montréal’s key priorities. The party proposes extending the orange and green Metro lines to the Bois-Franc REM station and to LaSalle and Lachine, respectively. This is a part of Sauvé’s vision to restructure the Grand Sud-Ouest. They have also proposed the “social fare system” that would make public transit more affordable for low-income residents, giving those with an adjusted annual income of under $47,500 the reduced monthly fare of $62.75. For transit infrastructure, Transition Montréal is looking to invest in rapid bus corridors and create reserved lanes on routes where light-rail network rails are planned to be built. Furthermore, they hope to establish a kilometre-based tax on vehicles, with tax revenue going towards maintaining roads and developing more extensive public transit systems.

Gilbert Thibodeau

Gilbert Thibodeau, the founder of his party Action Montréal, is running again in this year’s municipal elections after having received less than 1 per cent of the vote during the 2021 election cycle. Thibodeau’s platform leans center-right, with his proposed agenda aiming to reduce the number of elected officials in Montreal, increase surveillance efforts among Montreal police, and eliminate a number of bike paths and Bixi stations to clear up street spaces.

Cost of Living

To address the increased cost of living, Action Montréal aims to support social economy organizations such as the Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant, the Fédération des coopératives de Montréal, and the Société de développement Angus in providing affordable housing. The party has claimed they are opposed to rent registries, and intend to respond to the housing crisis through strengthening rent transparency, protecting tenants against renovations, encouraging tenant autonomy, and facilitating cooperating and non-profit initiatives.

Unhoused Crisis

Action Montréal recognizes the severity of the unhoused crisis and aims to utilize civil society organizations, such as churches and mosques, to provide these populations with temporary housing. To address the current crisis, Action Montréal’s platform states that the party will introduce “transitional centres” in the next two years. These are described as secure hubs located in 80 vacant Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal buildings that would provide key health and sanitary services for “three profiles: people facing economic hardship, those with addictions, or those with mental health challenges.” With the help of social workers, the party additionally states that they will offer personalized rehabilitation programs for individuals belonging to these profiles. In terms of mitigation efforts, Action Montréal plans to provide rent assistance and at-risk youth programs.

Public Transit

Thibodeau has been vocal about reducing the number of bike lanes in the city in order to promote and protect drivers. In order to achieve this, he has proposed the removal of Bixi rental stations between December 1 and March 15. Action Montréal also plans to make car parking more accessible through the implementation of price caps on parking meters at $2 per hour, with free marking meters from Fridays at 9:00 AM to Mondays at 9:00 AM.

Jean-François Kacou

Futur Montréal is the newest centrist party in the running, founded just this year, with the goal of “doing politics differently, with bold ideas, pragmatic solutions and leadership rooted in fairness, accountability and inclusion.” Jean-François Kacou has an extensive political background, having served as the executive director of Ensemble Montréal and as an elected member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Futur Montréal unveiled its party platform on October 23, with key policy areas including tackling the unhoused crisis, securing public transportation, and bringing affordable housing to Montrealers.

Cost of Living

Futur Montreal is looking to levy on luxury housing, moving subsequent tax revenue into a transparent fund dedicated for building social housing. The party have been strongly opposed to the current 20-20-20 bylaw and instead wants to focus on converting underused spaces into rent-controlled student housing zones.

Unhoused Crisis

Futur Montréal’s platform outlines plans to create a Social Intervention Service (SIS) which would unite over 60 organizations already active in addressing the unhoused crisis. The SIS’s projects would include a pilot project that would convert vacant industrial buildings that would temporarily provide immediate shelter for the city’s unhoused population. It would additionally provide relocation assistance and transportation for unhoused populations.

Public Transit

Jean-François Kacou has placed a heavy emphasis on the increased accessibility of bus networks. In an interview with CBC, the Futur Montréal leader stated that he “wants Montreal to have the best bus network in the world.” Acknowledging the cost efficient price of public transport in Montreal, the Futur Montréal platform states that the party aims to introduce a four year public transit fare freeze and increase the efficiency of the city’s bus network with a proposed frequency of buses every 15 minutes, seven days a week. In relation to cycling networks, Futur Montréal plans on suspending the construction of new bike lanes along commercial arteries, residential streets, and parks to improve safety. The party has made it their objective to improve the security of existing bike lanes and to implement a safe and monitored overnight bicycle storage.

The post The Daily’s (Last Minute) Guide to Montreal’s Municipal Elections appeared first on The McGill Daily.

These funds would be allocated towards provincial and territorial legal aid clinics, civil rights organizations that produce IRCAs, and national training efforts and awareness campaigns.

Marie-Hélène Mercier, a representative for the Quebec Justice Department, elucidates Quebec’s reasoning, that the government is ” not party to any funding agreement involving impact of Race and Culture Assessments, as Quebec doesn’t subscribe to the approach on which the funding program is based, namely systemic racism.”

Dr. Marie Manikis, an associate professor and William Dawson Scholar at the McGill Faculty of Law, clarifies to the Daily: “The Quebec government does not recognize that there is such a reality of systemic racism and therefore does not think this consideration should have a role in sentencing,” despite the fact that, “several studies, particularly in the context of criminalization have made clear that this phenomenon exists and contributes to substantive inequalities.”

According to findings published by the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety (CCJCS), Black people were found 24 per cent more likely to serve time in jail after arrest or sentencing between 2005–2016. Additionally, a CCJCS study from the same time period shows that Black Canadians are 36 per cent more likely than white Canadians to be sentenced to 2 years or more. A 2021 Statistics Canada report shows that Black people are nearly six times more likely to be accused of homicide. Despite the utility of such statistics, cohesive racialized data regarding alleged offenders of the criminal justice system is limited and underreported.

As of now, Quebec residents must pay out of pocket for IRCAs.

IRCAs have been used in Canada for over ten years to address the overrepresentation of Black people in the criminal justice system by assessing how the accused’s experience with systemic racism has influenced their current circumstances. In an interview with CBC, Michael Tshimanga, a board member of the Viola Desmond Justice Institute, a pro-bono group which fights against anti-Black racism in Montreal’s criminal justice system, described IRCAs as “a clinical forensic assessment done by a masters level mental health clinician.” He elaborated on the factors considered by IRCAs: physical disability, history of systemic racism and anti-Black racism within the particular region the IRCA is conducted, education family history, and a collateral interview with acquaintances of the accused – such as former employers, family members, and community members.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Kennedy, an Assistant Professor in the McGill Faculty of Law, in an interview with the Daily, “As a general point, we might note that having more and better information makes for better decisions. This is also true for sentencing, which involves complex moral and practical assessments about complex people and situations.”

Dr. Kennedy also referenced a statement made by Justice Campbell in the 2017 R. v. Gabriel case, where the IRCA was used to contextualize the crime through the lens of cultural and racial factors: “Sentencing judges struggle to understand the context of the crime and person being sentenced. To do that, judges rely on [their] own common sense and understanding of human nature. Sometimes that isn’t enough. Our common sense and our understanding of human nature are products of our own background[s] and experiences. An individual judge’s common sense and understanding of human nature may offer little insight into the actions of a young African Nova Scotian male. [IRCAs] serves as a reminder of the fallibility of some assumptions based on an entirely different life experience.”

“The state’s failure in various institutional aspects of life to provide equal opportunities and the reality of discrimination give rise to various phenomena documented in research, including more limited potential for choices, greater incentives for offending in certain contexts, and reduced stakes [to comply] with the law — all these dimensions are relevant to the level of blameworthiness of an offender, which sentencing law recognizes as an important consideration,” states Dr. Manikis.

Dr. Manikis continues, “For these reasons, taking into account the person’s social context, which includes their background and discrimination results in a sentence that is more tailored to the person’s degree of responsibility for the offence…and their motivaions for offending, which can play an important role [in] eventual crime reduction/ or social safety.”

“Importantly, the relevance of IRCAs is not limited to decisions about more or less punishment. IRCAs might also help judges choose strategies that may more effectively address the issues underpinning criminalized behaviour,” stresses Dr. Kennedy. “For example, in the [2021] case of Anderson” — regarding the use of IRCAs in sentencing Rakeem Rayshon Anderson, an African Nova Scotian, for being found with a loaded gun at random motor vehicle checkpoint — “the kind of information provided helped choose between two different kinds of programming, one of which was thought to be more effective for the person being sentenced. In this way, IRCAs hold the potential to help achieve practical aims like reducing crime,” he stated to the Daily.

“The state has an important role to reduce its criminogenic role and therefore any response or sentence needs to also provide adequate resources that address the substantive inequalities that often [are] the root cause of offending,” added Dr. Manikis.

Kwame Bonsu, a representative for the Federal Justice Department, told CBC that, “Canada remains ready to work with Quebec and other interested provinces and territories to support the implementation of IRCAs in their respective jurisdictions.”

Ultimately, provinces and territories decide how and if these funds are used. Currently, the provinces and territories without such funding include Prince Edward Island, where the representative for the justice minister says they are considering it; Saskatchewan, where progress is challenged by a lack of professionals, though discussions with the federal government are being facilitated; Alberta, where an agreement made in December of 2024 has been suspended; Nunavut, which cannot respond for the present moment; and the Northwest Territories, which are ready for the legal aid office to reach out.

As Dr. Kennedy stated to the Daily, “Having a bit of humility means acknowledging the limits of one’s own understanding and allowing others to help provide information and perspectives that begin to bridge the gaps. This applies to sentencing judges too, and IRCAs help with that.”

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Roberge then claimed that using gender-inclusive writing led to the employment of words “that pose significant problems for the French language.” While languages evolve and change in accordance with their social context or even to advance social progress, the Office Québécois de la langue Français – or the Quebec Ministry of the French Language – seems to take a conservative approach towards the practice of the French language, preferring an unchanging Quebecois French to a dynamic language. Correspondingly, the ban of gender-inclusive writing can be viewed as the grammatical manifestation of the increasingly conservative turn of the Legault government since the last ministry shuffle on September 11. Widely unpopular in public opinion, Legault promised drastic change and announced a new government to illustrate this change.

However, banning the use of gender-inclusive language from official documents by far exceeds grammatical conservatism: it has a real life impact on non-binary and trans communities. The government has announced a plan to ultimately extend this stance to gender- inclusive writing in schools and the healthcare system. But this stance also shows the lack of consideration Legault’s Government and Jean-François Roberge have for trans and non-binary communities, who are Quebec citizens as much as any other person. Celeste Trianon, a trans activist, says, “It’s a kind of policy which serves absolutely no purpose except to exclude people”.” For Victoria Legault, director for Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ), the decision came in the context of increasing polarization: “We’re seeing a rise in hatred, intolerance and violence toward trans and nonbinary people here and everywhere, ” she stated to the Montreal Gazette. “Quebec’s decision just encourages or supports this.”

Gender-inclusive language, even if it only appears as something that “doesn’t make sense” for Roberge, has a tangible impact on LGBTQIA+ communities in Canada and elsewhere. The Edgewood Health Network (EHN) testifies that using inclusive language contributes to the mental health of those concerned. It allows transgender or non-binary people not only to be seen, but to be respected, whether it be in a conversation, via text message, or a government document. Inclusive language and writing practices allow for citizens of Quebec to feel seen, as well as allowing them to receive the same sense of inclusion and respect as cisgender peoples. Banning it leaves queer communities susceptible to exclusion, despite the Ministry’s claims to protect them. Saying the ban does not intend  to exclude anyone  does not mean that the ban is not exclusive and that it will not have profound effects on the province’s transgender and non-binary communities, as voiced by critics of the proposal.

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“Naming a station for Mary Two-Axe Earley is a good step,” wrote Mia Alunik Fischlin to The McGill Daily, the Administrative Student Affairs Coordinator in the Indigenous Studies Program at McGill (MISC). “Hearing powerful Indigenous names in daily life matters,” she continued. “It reminds people that these are Indigenous places and that Indigenous women and Peoples fought for their rights.”

Mary Two-Axe Earley was a member of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation (Mohawk), born in Kahnawà:ke, which is located on the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River. This is the easternmost point of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, of which the Kanien’kehá:ka Peoples are the “Keepers of the Eastern Door.” At the age of 18, Two-Axe Earley relocated to New York City, despite being separated by the colonizer-determined Canadian-American border. She then lost her “Indian Status” in 1938 upon marrying her non-Indigenous husband, Edward Earley. According to Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act of 1876, Indigenous women who married non-status spouses lost their status of Indigeneity and could not pass it down to their children.

Additionally, Indigenous women could lose their status upon divorcing their husbands. This was not true for Indigenous men with non-status spouses. This is because status was inherited patrilineally, rendering Indigenous women status-dependent on Indigenous men to “displace our matriarchs and destabilize our society,” writes Dr. Wahéhshon Whitebean to The McGill Daily, a Wolf Clan Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) scholar and professor in Indigenous Studies (MISC) at McGill.

“We pass our identity and citizenship through our matrilineal Clans,” states Whitebean. “Status is manufactured and determined by the colonial state and imposed on us to undermine our traditional Haudenosaunee Clan System,” she says, which is particularly evident in the institutionalization of Indigenous women’s disenfranchisement. Losing status meant losing distinct legal rights to Band Council membership, treaty benefits, and reserve property ownership.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Two-Axe Earley’s activism was prompted by the death of a close friend, Florence, who was unable to return to Kahnawà:ke after losing her status and property. In 1967, the same year the Royal Commission on the Status of Women (RCSW) was established, Two-Axe Earley founded Equal Rights for Indian Women (ERIW), a provincial organization that later evolved nationally into the Indian Rights for Indian Women (IRIW). The timing of the RCSW, which called for the amendment of the Indian Act to allow Indigenous women to keep their status and pass it down to their children, was an objective shared by the IRIW. Two years after the commission, Two-Axe Earley returned to Kahnawà:ke with her daughter, who had gained status from her Kanien’kehá:ka husband and could thus own housing on the reserve. There, Two-Axe Earley continued her activism as a founding member of the Québec Native Women’s Association (QNW) in 1974.

“My grandmother [Millie, who was stripped of her status] was part of these movements and joined meetings with Mary Two-Axe Earley,” recalled Dr. Whitebean. “She spoke highly of her, and as a result, I grew up thinking of her as a hero for fighting against one of many inequalities that Indigenous women face in our lifetimes,” added Whitebean. This perception of Two-Axe Earley was shared by many, as her work spread internationally in 1975 when she and 60 women from Kahnawà:ke attended the International Women’s Year conference in Mexico City. During this time, the Kahnawà:ke Band Council sent eviction notices to the Kanien’kehá:ka women participating in the conference, which were repealed when Two-Axe Earley publicly revealed the discriminatory nature of these actions at the conference. The council’s actions are examples of “what colonialism does,” which, according to Dr. Whitebean, “[destabilizes] communities and destroys relational bonds,” as “[the] pain and struggle [Whitebean’s grandmother] endured was mainly at home, inflicted by her own people.” This is still apparent now. For example, the Quebec Superior Court ruled the Kahnawà:ke Band Council’s membership law, known as the “marry out, stay out” policy through which Indigenous residents with non- Indigenous spouses were evicted from the Kahnawà:ke reserve, as a Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) violation in 2018. Nonetheless, Two-Axe Earley and Dr. Whitebean’s grandmother Mille “remained on the reserve through all of the tensions and violence.”

Moreover, “[m]any people do not realize that it was at least two decades of advocacy and activism at local, regional, national, and international stages that built enough momentum to push those changes through the legislature,” reflected Dr. Whitebean. In 1982, Two-Axe Earley’s activism pressured the federal government to address the discrimination First Nations women faced. This was done with the support of Quebec’s former Premier René Lévesque, who at the First Minister’s Conference, gave his seat to Two-Axe Earley after she was denied time to speak. The conference regarded the inclusion of “Aboriginal and treaty rights” into the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982 and its protection in the Canadian Charter. Today, Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 guarantees these rights for all Indigenous Peoples, including women, as stated explicitly in subsection 4. Nonetheless, Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act remained in place. Ultimately, it was in 1985, with Bill C-31, that the section was amended. That same year, at the age of 73, Two-Axe Earley became the first Indigenous woman to have her status reinstated and was awarded the National Order of Quebec for making contributions of the highest order to the province’s development.

It is important to note, however, that many Indigenous women and children did not regain their status following the amendment. It took until 2011 for Bill C-3 to reinstate status to those after the second-generation cut-off — where third generation children don’t hold status despite being Indigenous after two previous generations of parents lost their statuses — and until 2017 for Bill S-3 to grant status to the grandchildren of the Indigenous women who were reinstated. According to the Government of Canada, “[w]ith the full enactment of Bill S-3 on August 15, 2019, all known sex- based inequities have been eliminated from the Indian Act.”

These amendments are a result of decades of activism pioneered not only by Two-Axe Earley but also by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Yvonne Bédard who challenged Section 12(1)(b) at the Supreme Court of Canada, and activist Sandra Lovelace. “Although these legislative changes were a [product] of collective activism,” wrote Dr. Whitebean, “they also required personal sacrifice.” Thus, names like Mary Two-Axe Earley “should be raised up,” especially since many government-subsidized public spaces “are named after colonial settler men or religious figures.” Dr. Whitebean reminds us that “[t]here is power in naming”; the metro stop named in Two-Axe Earley’s honour represents “the power of Indigenous women and Kanien’kehá:ka matriarchs.” These efforts have not ceased; Whitebean affirms, “we’re still here fighting for our future generations.”

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