Category: News

Vanier’s music department tends to close itself off from the rest of the world, with their own private wing of the school where they can practice and rehearse from sunrise to sunset. That’s why it’s nice when someone from the department reaches out and offers up their talents for the sake of the community. One such student has made a big splash both in the department and beyond; Peter Zhuang, a second-year classical piano student, has spent the past two years organizing and putting in motion a volunteer program for…

To subvert is, essentially, to rebel, to overthrow the powerful by being different, and by breaking the rules. Subversions can cause revolutions, leading to innovation – innovation that is fueled by creativity. This semester, Vanier College’s English Department highlighted such authentic creativity in hosting a four day event entitled “Subversions: A Symposium”, which took place from October 27th through to the 30th. Featuring hip-hop artists, authors, video game producers, and other such creators whose works push boundaries, putting forth new ideas that move away from traditions of literature and other…

Paris should have been taken by storm on Friday, November 13th, by an exciting soccer game between France and the current world champions, Germany. Instead of being flooded by cheering fans, the streets of Paris were flooded with traumatized, panicked citizens and tourists after three bomb explosions at the Stade de France, along with no less than six shootings having occurred all over the city, notably at the stadium and at the Bataclan concert hall. Gunmen are said to have entered the crowded buildings and to have shot at random,…

On Tuesday, November 3rd, more than seventy schools across Quebec were targeted with bomb threats, having received an upsetting e-mail that morning. The message, sent by a mysterious group called Le Sceptre Rouge, was meant as a pressure tactic to put an end to the rotating teacher strikes that have been in process since the end of October. Le Sceptre Rouge’s campaign, “Four Days of Death”, was launched in the name of denouncing the so-called terrible conditions imposed upon students by the strike, which removes from schools both “proper learning”…

By his own admission, Kenneth Hilliam is not a scientist, but he’s hoping to get the attention of someone who is. While browsing the internet this past summer, he came across an article about Japanese Knotweed, an invasive plant native to the Far East that has made its way to the island of Montreal. What’s more, he knows exactly where it’s growing. “I found it […] along a bike path between Ville St. Pierre and Lachine. And I said, ‘wasn’t all this stuff cut down last summer?’” “I went in…

Students are often stereotyped as the rebellious young adults who protest like crazy in search of anything to overturn. Unfortunately, this sometimes takes away from the message students are trying to send, as people learn to ignore the groups of youngsters picketing with massive, red signs. Once in a while, however, one comes across a unique assembly of social activists who may seem insignificant in number (in comparison with the herds of students people grow accustomed to), though they can be extremely effective in gaining attention through their originality and…

Vanier and other Cegeps will be expecting teachers’ strikes this fall, with 90.5% of Vanier teachers voting in favour of a six day rotating strike sometime after elections. So why are teachers striking? Every five years, Cegeps make a new collective agreement with the Federation of Cegeps and the Ministry of Education, but this year, “the government is not serious about negotiating”, said Eric Durling, the president of the Vanier College Teachers’ Association. They say that their demands are not being heard, and that large cuts are expected for all…

Did you happen to miss the recent election debate? On Wednesday, September 16th, Vanier hosted a bilingual election debate in the auditorium. Present was a candidate from each of the parties, Jim Hughes from the Green Party (Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest–Île-des-Sœurs), Mario Beaulieu from the Bloc Québécois (La Pointe-de-l’Île), Stéphane Dion from the Liberal Party (St. Laurent/Cartierville), Daniel Green from the Green Party (NDG/Westmount), and Rodolphe Husny from the Conservative Party (Outremont). Various topics were approached in the debate, such as youth employment and the economy, environmental issues, aboriginal affairs, as well…

On September 28th, a spectacular natural phenomenon happened and bewildered millions of people over the planet. You guessed it; there was an orange-red moon high up in the sky watching every one of us. The blood moon, as it is commonly referred to, is actually a total lunar eclipse. This is when the moon orbits and goes behind the Earth. The Earth therefore casts a shadow onto the orb of night (the moon) because of the Sun’s rays and makes the latter appear to have a red hue. The light…