The English Montreal School Board, or EMSB, is in election season, the first since they successfully overturned parts of bill-40, thwarting attempts to abolish English school boards. The EMSB is the largest English school board in Quebec, serving thirty-five thousand students.

On November 3 voters will be able to vote for commissioners in their school districts and vote for chair. 

There are two candidates running for chair of the EMSB. The current chairperson Joe Ortona is seeking re-election after four years, and he is being challenged by the President of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec, Katherine Korakakis. CJLO spoke with both candidates about their platforms, English language rights, mental health, and student success rates.

The scariest words a music journalist can hear have to be, “Sorry, you’re not on the list.” Which is how my evening began after walking up the steep stairs from Parc Avenue to the will-call window at Théâtre Fairmount this past Friday night. Frantically texting and emailing anyone who could remedy this situation for me, I spent an anxious twenty minutes before doing what I never like to do, but when dealing with a sold-out show it is sometimes the only thing left to do.

Monday, October 7, the mostly peaceful student walkout ended in chaos and violence. Police fired tear gas on pro-divestment protesters, as independent students shattered windows of McGill buildings along Pine Avenue.

The walkout began at 1:30pm, students peacefully left classes and McGill and Concordia. Students and faculty marched through the streets demanding their institutions break ties with companies tied to Israel and take a public stance on Israel’s actions in the Middle East.

The first time I saw Hotline TNT live was last May in Vigo during their European tour. During the bus ride from Portugal to Spain, my friend Amanda and I could not contain our excitement that we were about to see our favorite band perform live in Spain. While there is some novelty behind the idea of travelling long distances to see a band perform live, poor planning and a few misunderstandings led to us nearly missing the entire show. Luckily enough, we made it for half of the last song and the encore.

20:00h

On Saturday night, Montreal seems to have been injected with hydrogen. Groups of girls wearing pointy heels half-run, half-shuffle along the sidewalk, late for somebody's pre-game or maybe a house party. They stumble, nearly trip, laugh at their gorgeous, impractical choice in footwear, and then continue running towards the crosswalk.