All Posts Tagged With: "McGill"
Ethical investing isn’t as easy as it sounds
Prof. Pettigrew on why universities can’t divest
Fort McMurray, Alta. oilsands (eryn.rickard/Flickr)
Here, Cape Breton University Professor Todd Pettigrew argues that divesting from “unethical” companies isn’t as easy as activists make it sound. After reading his commentary, check out Torrance Coste’s argument in favour of divestment.
I served, for a brief time, on the Board of Governors of Cape Breton University, and one thing I did during that period was speak in favour of looking into ethical investments. After all, we know from the proverbs that money talks. So if we are talking with our money, why not have it say something important?
Ethical investing, I argued at the time, seemed all the more urgent in the context of university education. If we are trying to teach our students to think critically, shouldn’t we ask tough questions about scholarship endowments and pension funds? Should we give scholarship funds to a student studying, let’s say, social justice, and then tell that student not to worry where that money came from?
Continue reading Ethical investing isn’t as easy as it sounds
McGill Principal defends herself
Protesters were “masked and hooded”
McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum told the Montreal Gazette yesterday that she is “sorry” to students who were hurt by pepper spray when riot police showed up at the administration building on Nov. 10. Students have called the response to their occupy-style protest heavy-handed. But Munroe-Blum defends herself by stressing that the occupiers were “masked and hooded,” which frightened the staff. She also added, “when you call the police you don’t tell them how to do their job.” The pepper-spraying at McGill came the same day tens of thousands of Quebec students marched in protest to the annual tuition rise of $325, which will bring fees more in line with the Canadian norm by 2017. Munroe-Blum continues to defend the tuition increases as a way to compete with better-funded schools like the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto. Three police officers at the University of California Davis are on leave after pepper-spraying 11 seated students at an Occupy protest Friday. Those protesters were not masked.
McGill students petition against cuts to language courses
University plans to consolidate four language programs
McGill University students are petitioning against a plan to consolidate several language programs under one department. “The university’s recent austerity cuts, we believe, are significantly hurting McGill University’s image as a world-leading university in a multicultural country and a bilingual city,” second-year Russian and Italian studies student, Michael Beauvais, who started the petition, told the Montreal Gazette. The plan, which is expected to take effect before the fall, would see Italian, German, and Russian/Slavic language departments housed under the same roof, while limiting access to language courses to students enroled in those programs. Several individual language courses have also been cut from the curriculum. The university says the reorganization allows for cost savings and addresses under-enrolment in the upper years language programs. More than 300 students have signed Beauvais’ petition.
McGill student president misled Ivy Leaguers
Conflict of interest allegations over social networking website continue to grow
McGill’s student president is accused of deceiving his counterparts at three Ivy League American universities over his involvement with a social networking website site. Zach Newburg was censured by his student council earlier this month after it was revealed that he had a financial stake in jobbook, a website that aims to connect employers with students at top universities. He did not disclose his interest in the company until January despite being involved for several months.
In promoting the new service, Newburg traveled with company founder Jean de Brabant to several universities in the United States and Britain. Newburg maintains that when meeting with student leaders at other universities, he represented only himself and not the Students’ Society of McGill University. “I was not representing the SSMU in an official capacity. And that should have been clear. And was made clear,” he told the McGill Daily.
However, the Daily reports that student presidents from Princeton, Harvard and Yale, who all met with Newburg, dispute those claims. “I thought throughout the meeting that [Newburgh] was representing McGill” said Michael Yaroshefsky, president of Princeton’s undergraduate union. “He was using his involvement in student government as a fulcrum to gain leverage for this private endeavour – it was dishonest and distasteful.”
McGill student president nearly impeached
Zach Newburgh failed to disclose stake in company, raising conflict of interest allegations
McGill’s student president has barely escaped a formal call for his resignation over his failure to disclose his involvement with a new social networking website, Jobbook.com. At a Thursday night meeting that carried well into Friday morning, the students’ society’s council initially voted for Zach Newburgh to resign as president, but after further deliberation settled on public censure.
According to reports in the McGill Daily and the McGill Tribune, Newburg had entered a business relationship with Jobbook’s founder Jean de Brabant back in September, but failed to inform council or the society’s Executive Committee. Newburg, who had a financial stake in the company, had agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement because Jobbook was not patented at the time. Jobbook is a site designed to match employers with students from elite universities. In promoting the new service, Newburg traveled with de Brabant to several universities in the United to States and Britain throughout the fall semester. He also intended to promote Jobbook to Mcgill’s students’ society and negotiated a deal with de Brabant that would see the union hold shares.
It wasn’t until mid-January that he sent a memo informing the Executive Committee of his involvement with the company, and it wasn’t until the Feb 3 meeting, where he was censured, that council was informed. Just prior to that meeting he elected to end his formal financial relationship with Jobbook. The meeting took place in closed session, and the Daily reported that “Several councillors refused to publicly comment, or requested to remain anonymous for fear of legal reprisals.”
One member of the executive, Joshua Abaki, did speak to the paper on the record. “There was definitely harm done to the Society. In my view, there were policies that he clearly went against, and he’s lost the moral authority to guide the Society,” he said.
In an interview with the Tribune, Newburg admitted that signing the confidentiality agreement was “poor judgment” on his part, but he denied any official wrongdoing. “There was no violation of any kind of policy, and this was always done in the best interests of students,” he said.
McGill relaunches sexual health website
University’s health services program hopes to fight misinformation by reaching students where they are
McGill recently relaunched a website where students can ask sexual health questions anonymously.
The health promotion co-ordinator for the university’s student health services, Amanda Unruh, told the McGill Reporter (the administration newsletter) that “most students get their sexual health information from their peers… and that isn’t always a good thing.”
According to Unruh, when it comes to sexual health misinformation is a major problem. The website hopes to provide students with an easy way to get accurate information.
“Youth spend the majority of their time online. It’s how they get their information,” Unruh told the Reporter. “It made sense to impart messages and information this way – particularly with sexual health. People can go online in the comfort of their own homes and get solid information from health professionals on subjects that aren’t always easy to talk about.”
Answers to common questions, including some general health questions, have been posted on the site.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there are other universities with similar sites, but those that don’t could definitely do well to emulate this model of reaching students where they are, especially when it comes to potentially awkward and embarrassing subjects like sexual health.
McGill VP threatened with legal action
Student group says former Concordia exec failed to consult students in Pepsi negotiations
Newly minted McGill vice-principal of administration and finances, Michael Di Grappa, is facing a legal challenge from a student at Concordia University, where he previously held an administrative post. Laura Beach has served Di Grappa a notice of a potential legal challenge over an alleged breach of trust in renegotiating Concordia’s beverage contract with PepsiCo. According to Beach, the Concordia administration failed to follow up on a promise to consult with students over the contract. Beach is a founder member of student group TAPThirst, which has been advocating for a ban on bottled water at Concordia, which is supplied by PepsiCo. Di Grappa says it is not clear that Beach should be considered an official spokesperson for students.
We need to stop talking about Israel and Palestine so much
And if we do talk about it, it’s time for constructive dialogue not pointless protests
It is sad day when the tone surrounding discussions of an issue at university campuses descends to such a point that individuals feel they have to form an organized group to promote such reasonable ideas as listening to the other side and recognizing that “none of the principal parties is absolutely right and none is absolutely wrong.”
But that does seem to be where we’re at when it come to Israel and Palestine. Students at McGill have formed a new group as “a response to too much inflammatory rhetoric on campus, as opposed to substantive discussion and dialogue,” one of the group’s vice presidents, Michah Stettin, told the McGill Daily. “We felt that there was a need to have a group on campus that was hospitable to numerous viewpoints.”
Omeq, the group’s name, comes “from the letters OMQ, which form the root of the word ‘depth’ or “profundity” in both Hebrew and Arabic.” Several of the group’s leaders are involved in the Jewish community and the group says the majority of founding members describe themselves as “critically pro Israel.”
The fact is that at universities across the country this debate has been hijacked by extremists. While the anti-Israel crowd is noisier and certainly gets more attention, there is a significant–and extreme–pro-Israel side on Canadian university campuses.
Groups like the Hasbara Fellowships take students to Israel for over two weeks of “pro-Israel education” and pays students on several campuses to advocate for Israel. Israeli army soldiers recently spoke at McGill, while Concordia Hillel has handed out pamphlets encouraging students to volunteer for the Israeli army.
When I was editor of the Concordian, I knew that almost any mention of Israel or Palestine would trigger a letter to the editor calling us biased towards one side or the other (if both sides called us biased towards the other then I knew we had done our job).
There is no other issue on Canadian campuses that is as polarizing and driven by hyperbole.
There is no event that gets students as much attention from the mainstream media as Israeli Apartheid Week and there is no other foreign conflict that gets as much ink in the student press.
Obviously, it is not just on campuses, the Israel-Palestine conflict gets a disproportionate amount of attention from Canadian media and politicians of all stripes.
Personally, I’m not sure why this conflict gets so much coverage and the other conflicts around the world, such as the conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara, get so little.
While I am certain that more students have strong opinions on these issues than most other foreign conflicts, I would argue that the far majority of students aren’t particularly interested.
And I think it’s time we stopped talking about it so much. Student newspapers shouldn’t be publishing the opinions of every armchair commentator with an opinion on this issue and the mainstream media shouldn’t be portraying the Israeli Aparthied Week bunch as any more than the small group that they are.
Perhaps part of my problem with this whole debate is that I really don’t know what either side hopes to accomplish on Canadian university campuses. I see nothing more than competing propaganda campaigns that will have no effect on the actual situation.
Certainly, there is room for discussion about all international conflicts, including this one, at Canadian universities. I think a group like Omeq is a good step towards moving toward constructive dialogue, rather than pointless protests.
Forget about cake, let them drink beer
Professor lives up to the stereotype of McGill elitists
Ed Clark, the CEO of TD Bank, recently told a Montreal audience that, if you look at the amount taxes increase and government benefits decline for every additional dollar of income, low-income Canadians are paying more than their fair share. He claims that has created a situation where some lower income people are motivated to work less, or not at all, because a higher income will actually leave them with less money.
In their story about Clark’s speech the Montreal Gazette interviewed McGill economics professor, Tomas Velk, who delivered this Marie Antoinette worthy quote:
“I would really dispute Mr. Clark’s notion that we need to give money to the beer drinkers,” [Velk said] “We can’t afford it. We’ve got to build future productivity and we have to do that in the private sector. And the only way to do that is to give funding to the productive citizens who privately invest” and create wealth and jobs.
That’s right, he thinks the government should give money to the rich directly, rather than cut taxes for the poor.
It just goes to show that, despite the prevailing notion that Canadian universities are hotbeds of leftist radicalism, there are plenty of right-wing extremists on university campuses as well.
McGill eliminates MCAT requirement
Claims the exam creates unequal access for Francophone applicants
McGill’s Faculty of Medicine has announced that the MCAT will no longer be a requirement for Canadian applicants.
Many med schools across Canada claim to treat every undergraduate degree equally. For these schools, the context of your GPA supposedly doesn’t matter: a 3.8 in Health Sciences, Philosophy or Social Work are all equivalent.
Some schools hedge their bets, encouraging students from a variety of backgrounds to apply, while noting that “the difficulty of the program” is taken into consideration.
The whole ‘every undergraduate degree is born equal’ policy is somewhat misleading. In addition to some schools having science prerequisites (including organic chemistry and biology courses), the MCAT has always been an Arts Degree Killer. The majority of Canadian med schools (11 out of 17) and almost every school in the U.S. require the MCAT, a multiple choice exam that assesses “problem-solving, critical thinking, writing skills and knowledge of science concepts.”
A degree in a traditional pre-med program, such as the Health Sciences or Biomedical Sciences, prepares students for the exam (and usually fulfills the prerequisite course requirement for most med schools).
Getting through the Verbal Reasoning and Writing Sample might not require any advanced scientific knowledge, but the physical sciences and biological sciences sections can pose a serious barrier to arts students with dreams of med school.
Fortunately for non-traditional pre-med students, the MCAT is becoming a thing of the past.
Applicants from Canadian universities are no longer required to write the exam.
“I feel what we’ve put in place is very acceptable and will allow us to properly evaluate candidates,” Dr. Saleem Razack, assistant dean of admissions for medicine at McGill, said in an interview with the Montreal Gazette. Dr. Razack says McGill would have kept the MCAT requirement if there was a French equivalent. “But we want to make sure there’s no barrier for a major segment of our population.” According to Razack, the regular med school class from undergraduate programs doesn’t have as many francophones as McGill would like.
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the University of Ottawa, and Francophone medical schools in Quebec don’t require the MCAT. After meeting with MCAT representatives about translating the exam- but ultimately finding it was “too complicated”- McGill is joining their ranks (some schools that require the exam actually make certain qualifications- such as McMaster University, which only uses the Verbal Reasoning section to determine interview eligibility and admission rank).
Interestingly enough, if you check out McGill’s Faculty of Medicine website, you’ll note that candidates who are not required to write the MCAT can still submit their scores, and the overall score will be evaluated by the Admissions Committee.
Related: McGill wants ‘non-traditional’ students
-photo courtesy of comedy nose
Penalties for dishonest profs
If professors demand intellectual honesty from students, we must demand it of ourselves
McGill professor Barbara Sherwin admits she made a mistake in taking credit for a paper that was largely ghost written by another author who was, in turn, contracted by a drug company.
Well, no shit, Sherwin.
When undergraduates take credit for other people’s work at my university, they face stiff penalties, beginning with zero on their papers and ending with suspension from the university. And that’s typically for teenagers who have just learned what cheating is. For an established scholar, there is no excuse. Sherwin says that the scholarship itself was sound, but she knows full well that that’s beside the point. It’s like a student saying, “Yes, I copied the answers from another student’s test, but I copied the right answers!”
Like judges, professors must maintain a high standard of obvious honesty. Without it, we cannot, in good conscience, teach students to work with those same values. And though others have done worse, it’s not like this is the first time.
McGill has promised appropriate action. Let’s hope it’s at least a year-long suspension. That’s what we do for students who should know better.
Hoping to get into med school?
Don’t be born in Ontario
For med school hopefuls, Ontario might seem like the perfect province to live in.
There are 17 med schools in the country. Six of those are in Ontario, more than any other province. But as I recently discovered, being born in Ontario is actually a huge handicap.
Most med schools prefer applicants from their own province. It makes sense: if you train local doctors, you produce local doctors. It’s not unusual to reserve 85 percent or even 90 percent of the available seats for in-province applicants. Most med schools even have higher entrance requirements for out-of-province applicants.
Everyone likes their own brand.
Except for Ontario. Not a single med school in Ontario reserves spots for Ontario applicants.
On the surface, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario might seem like exceptions to the rule. On it’s website, Northern says that it encourages applications from “students who are from Northern Ontario and/or students who have a strong interest in and aptitude for practicing medicine in northern urban, rural and remote communities.” Western Ontario gives special consideration to applicants from “rural/regional communities in Southwestern Ontario.”
But neither of these med schools actually reserve spots for in-province applicants. Not to mention, those “rural and remote” communities that Northern Ontario mentions could actually be anywhere across Canada.
McMaster’s policy is a bit more complicated. They don’t actually reserve med school spots for in-province applicants. Instead, they award 90 percent of interview positions for Ontario residents.
Yeah, I know. I had to read that twice, too.
It means that once you reach the interview stage, it doesn’t matter which province you’re from.
Even if McMaster offered a genuine advantage to in-province applicants, it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. With over 4500 applicants and a success rate of 4.9 per cent in 2006/2007, getting into McMaster is like winning the med school lottery.
Doctor shortage? Fence them in
The tricks provinces play to keep medical school graduates from moving
Last week, certain parts of Quebec’s French-language media got themselves all hot and bothered by the following discovery: many graduates of McGill University medical school move to… Ontario. Or Western Canada. Or the rest of the world.
The table below shows where 2006 graduates of Canada’s medical school were practicing, two years after exiting their post-MD training. McGill’s “problem”? It has the highest percentage of graduates who have moved to another province or country.
Training physicians is expensive, and provincial governments assume much of the cost of that training, hence the complaint. And the desire, on the part of some, to find ways to further fence in med school graduates: you know, if you want to go to medical school, you have to promise to never leave the country, or to spend umpteen years in a rural area. Some provinces, in particular Quebec, appear to feel themselves squeezed in the same way as some Third World countries are: their best and brightest and most educated leave.
But restrictions on mobility, as the experience of any Third World country can tell us, don’t tend to work. And Canada already imposes extensive restrictions on the labour mobility of doctors. And yet we still have doctor shortages in many places.
Canada’s restrictions on physicians start right up front–when prospective doctors apply to medical school. In all other areas, Canadian higher education is open to the most talented, regardless of whether they come from other provinces or overseas. The University of British Columbia does not turn away qualified applicants because they happen to live in Manitoba or Ontario — unless, that is, those applicants want to go to medical school. By order of every provincial government except one, medical school seats are overwhelmingly restricted to those who already live in the province. Just look at page 2 of this table, from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada.
The one province that does not impose a locals-only policy on its medical schools? Ontario.
UBC, the only medical school in BC, reserves 95% of its seats for BC residents. U Saskatchewan and U Manitoba, the only medical schools in their respective provinces, each set aside 90% of seats for locals. Dalhousie and Memorial, the only medical schools in Atlantic Canada, take the same approach, with a careful apportioning of seats among residents of the various Atlantic provinces. Quebec puts its medical schools in the same straight jacket, such that McGill — one of North America’s oldest and most prestigious medical schools — must reserve 91% of its seats for provincial residents.
And yet a substantial percentage of grads from almost every medical school leave the province. McGill’s numbers are the highest, but all Canadian medical schools are “bleeding” graduates to other provinces or countries. Look at Memorial: almost all of its students come from Atlantic Canada, yet a third of those who exited its post-MD training in 2006 are practicing elsewhere. (Go to page 132 of this document and you see that they have moved to Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and BC). Even UBC, which accepts almost no non-BC medical students, sends a substantial number of its graduates outside the province. (Most went to Ontario and Alberta. A few went to Quebec).
McGill set to buy another downtown hotel?
The other hotel-turned-residence, bought in 2003, operates at 99 per cent capacity
The Montreal Gazette and The McGill Tribune are reporting that McGill University is in the process of trying to buy the swanky Four Points Sheraton hotel on Sherbrooke St. W., just two blocks east of the school’s downtown campus.
In 2003, the university bought the Renaissance Hotel on Park Ave., right around the corner from the school, and turned it into a 700-bed dormitory.
Science student Billi Wun, vice-president of the First Year Council, told The McGill Tribune that the council’s president Sean Husband confirmed that negotiations to buy the hotel were taking place.
McGill University declined to comment on the issue, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., parent company of the hotel, didn’t return calls placed by the Gazette.
However, Michael Porritt, McGill’s executive director of residences and student housing did say the university’s residences operate at a 97.5 per cent occupancy rate. He says the former Renaissance Hotel is also regularly at 99 per cent occupancy.
Grad school applications up
Slowing economy prompts more students to stay in school
MONTREAL — With entry-level job postings down as much as 25 per cent, Canadian graduate schools are bracing for an increase in applications for next year as students opt to stay in school longer rather than enter the workforce at a time of economic uncertainty.
The University of Toronto has already received 12,631 grad school applications, about nine per cent more than it had received at the same time last year, graduate studies dean Susan Pfeiffer said.
While applications are still pouring in, Queen’s University MBA director Scott Carson said the prestigious program has thus far received twice the number of applications it had at this time last year.
“In times of economic slowdown, yes, university participation rates tend to go up,” added Tom Buckley, registrar at the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick.
“At this point it’s a little too early to tell if we’re seeing an actual increase, but we would sort of be inclined to anticipate an increase. Students will take a look at graduate study and professional programs if the job market is soft in their area.”
Administrators expect competition for scarce entry level jobs will be fierce, but so too will competition for some graduate programs given the increase in applications.
Gregg Blachford, McGill University’s director of career planning services, admitted an influx in grad school applications is common in tough economic times, but he cautions students against staying in school for the wrong reasons.
“There are still jobs and…opportunities out there, especially for university graduates,” he said, adding students can’t just rely on postings but must also reach out to potential employers.
“We encourage students to continue to look for work in the same way, but they’ll probably have to work harder to get a position than previously.”
While his counterparts at the University of Calgary suggest job postings at the school have dipped as much as 25 per cent, Blachford said McGill has experienced just a 10 per cent decline thus far.
Despite a small drop in participants at their upcoming technology career fair, Blachford said employer participation in university job fairs remains strong for most industries.
University of Calgary career services director Voula Cocolakis said the annual career fair that takes place in February was totally sold out by this time last year and she’s optimistic it will sell out again.
Still, she said a few companies have pulled out while others have forsaken taking out ads or sponsorship opportunities related to the event in order to cut down on costs.
As for last year’s graduates, career experts say it doesn’t appear employers are, to any great degree, reneging on earlier offers of employment because of the economic situation.
“The last time that happened it was the 2001 bubble bust… That was the dot-com bust,” said Andre Gagnon, Concordia University’s career services co-ordinator.
“That was really heavy.”
Carson said the number of Queen’s MBA students who’ve already secured jobs is actually on par with last year and he’s heard of just one student who had a job offer delayed before it was ultimately rescinded due to the ailing economy.
According to Statistics Canada figures released last week, more than 34,000 jobs were lost across the country last month alone.
Still, despite the grim forecasts, university administrators and job experts suggest generation Y may well be in the best position to weather this economic storm.
Some suggest most are wrapped up in their studies and haven’t really given much thought to their job prospects just yet.
But while they may get off to a slow start – some might even have to move back in with mom and dad for a time – they will catch up quickly as they’re called upon to replace retiring baby boomers, said Adwoa Buahene, a workplace demographics expert and founder of n-gen People Performance Inc.
She said gen-Yers are also multi-skilled individuals who don’t see themselves staying at the same job or even in the same career for the rest of their lives, which makes them more “adaptable” to the current environment.
— The Canadian Press
Confused? Get a career counselor
They may be able to help you figure out your future
Your palms are sweaty and your stomach is doing backflips. Friends and family, particularly your mother, give you their best advice while staring at you with pity and anxiety. If you are a student having a hard time deciding which university to attend or what program to take, this is probably your uncomfortable reality.
For some, the idea of choosing between university, college and a plethora of different career paths can seem insurmountably daunting. Many will choose a school or a major they end up hating. According to Statistics Canada, about 21 percent of students will choose to drop out and not graduate
If any of this sounds familiar, a career counselor could be exactly what you need to get the ball rolling in the right direction. However, their services can be time-consuming and, in some cases, quite expensive. So what is the best way to determine if career counseling is right for you?
See also: How to find the perfect career counselor
Lynda Prior, a career counselor based in Guelph, Ont., deals primarily with students in their last year of high school or first year of university. She says many career-related problems begin in high school.
“Most high-school guidance counselors are not properly informed or resourced to provide detailed university and college information to the thousands of students for whom they are responsible,” says Prior. But she says the real firefighting begins when a first-year student realizes that they’re in the wrong program and need a plan B.
“At this point they’re already down $15,000,” she says. “They don’t have the resources available to them, they don’t have the experience, and their sphere of influence is limited by the tremendously influential family unit, which is often biased.”
How To Escape ‘Helicopter Parents’
Prior cites the example of a young woman who attended two different universities in two different science programs and was already $20,000 in debt.
“After I tested her, the results indicated music in a huge way. Her dad’s immediate response was, “You’re not Avril Lavigne’,” she says. “But once we did all the technical assessments, everybody thought, ‘Wow! This must be it.’ Off she went to Fanshawe College in London into their music program and did amazingly well.”
A similar sentiment is echoed by Jeanette Hung, coordinator of career services at Dalhousie University in Halifax who also worked part-time as a private career counselor for about five years. She calls this phenomenon “helicopter parenting”.
McGill welcomes women’s hockey challenge from rival Montreal
McGill hopes creation of new team will lead to others
Plans by the University of Montreal to ice a women’s varsity hockey team may bring a dangerous rival into the path of the powerhouse McGill University Martlets.
McGill coach Peter Smith says that’s great news.
“It’s long overdue having another school in Quebec playing women’s ice hockey,” Smith said Thursday. “Maybe it will open the doors to more universities starting programs.”
The University of Montreal, Quebec’s top French university, has hired an impressive crew to put its team together, including former national women’s coach Daniele Sauvageau, who will oversee the team, and former national team star France St. Louis, who will likely be its coach.
In two years, they will enter a conference that currently has only four teams, McGill and Concordia in Montreal, and Carleton and Ottawa two hours down highway 417.
McGill is 16-0 in conference play this season going into a pair of regular season-ending games Friday and Sunday at home against Ottawa. The Martlets are 28-1-0 in Canadian Interuniversity Sports action, with their lone loss a 2-1 decision in a shootout to defending national champion Alberta on Dec. 30.
Smith says that with many strong women’s hockey programs at the municipal and junior college levels in Quebec, it likely won’t take long for Montreal to build a strong team.
Then the recruiting battle will also pick up.
“Recruiting is tough one way or the other,” said Smith, whose team is led by national team goalie Charlene Labonte, national under-22 defenceman Catherine Ward and scoring star Vanessa Davidson. “We recruit from across North America, but we have a lot of Quebec players.
“It will be more competition, but it’s a good thing. Maybe now we’ll lose fewer players to the NCAA (American universities).”
It is coincidence that Montreal is starting a team just as rising prospect Marie-Phillip Poulin, the 16-year-old scoring ace of the Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, will be getting to university age, although Poulin has said she is leaning toward playing in the NCAA.
Sauvageau said the University of Montreal will give players like Poulin one more option to consider before bolting to the States.
“There’s a lot of players who want to stay in Quebec,” said the coach who took Canada to Olympic gold in 2002 in Salt Lake City. “It’s an extra option for francophone players, but there are also a lot of anglophones who may want to go into a different program and will go to the U de M.”
Sauvageau has been overwhelmed by the response to Montreal’s plans to ice a women’s (but not a men’s) team. She said some players are already plotting transfers from other universities.
“Based on the response so far, I think we can put a strong team together very quickly,” she said.
“At the university level, if you can count on a good goaltender, that’s a key player. If you get your hands on a good goaltender and two or three players in the under-22 program at the national level, that’s how you build a team.”
-with a report from CP
