I don’t remember when I first learned about the existence of sex work. Certainly, I learned about sex at some point in a middle-school classroom, probably among a group of snickering teens. Yet the idea of sex as a job did not exist in my mind until cinematic depictions introduced[Read More…]
Features
Opening the curtains for the Montreal theatre scene
ACT I //Enter Canadian Theatre.// In 1949, Vincent Massey led the Massey Commission in an investigation of Canadian cultural and intellectual production. After its completion, the commission declared the country guilty of ignoring home-grown artistry in favour of foreign cultural products. While the American monopoly over publishing was a part[Read More…]
The right to be forgotten
Last semester, I travelled to Toronto by train to see a concert. My friend and I stayed at a modest Airbnb in someone’s suburban basement to save some cash. When I arrived, I hopped in the shower to wash off the grime and sweat from the five-hour train ride and[Read More…]
On justice and mathematics
There is a passage in Plato’s //Meno// that goes something like this: The well-born Meno asks for proof of Socrates’ claim that no one is ever taught anything, and instead they recollect things they already know. Socrates calls over one of Meno’s enslaved attendants and asks the boy, who has[Read More…]
A ticking clock
Watching my parents get older is a sombre pastime. It’s hard getting acquainted with a greyer, achier, more weathered version of them each year. Both my parents and I have become unconsenting spectators, watching their list of health concerns grow longer and bodies get more tired. Time seems to move[Read More…]
Putting nature in the foreground
The one constant for me throughout this turbulent pandemic has been seeking refuge in the outdoors. During the headlines, elections, and political battles that constantly preoccupied everyone’s minds, nature became a source of comfort and solace. It was in April 2020 when the virus initially surged in New England, right[Read More…]
Oh, the humanities
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every single employer in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a humanities graduate. The humanities graduate was spiteful. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. How do I turn from my degree and live?[Read More…]
When it comes to drugs, McGill is still stuck in the past
According to a 2020 Prison Policy Initiative study on mass incarceration, one in five incarcerated Americans are in prison because of a drug-related charge. In the U.S., there are approximately one million drug-related arrests each year, and six times as many arrests for drug possession as there are for drug[Read More…]
Carving fish in the sand
Every time I’m in the lecture hall analyzing a poem, I’m of two minds. On the one hand, as an English student, I am thinking of the poem as a critic would—sifting and weighing the words. But on the other hand, I am reading as a Christian, conscious of every[Read More…]
From hustling to health
One evening this past semester, my roommates and I were discussing the McGill mascot, Marty the Martlet. Although we knew what Marty looked like, none of us had any idea what an actual martlet was. After some research, we discovered that our beloved mascot is based on an ancient mythological[Read More…]