Demonstrators demand Montreal's McGill Conservatory of Music stay open
CBC
Usually music fills the halls of McGill University's Schulich School of Music in Montreal, but music was instead heard outside on Tuesday as dozens gathered out front to protest the school's closure of its Conservatory of Music.
"I don't know how I'm going to do music for the next year," said Marianick Benoit.
She has studied singing at the McGill Conservatory of Music for nearly six years and was among the protesters calling on McGill University to reconsider its decision to close the institution.
The conservatory is run by the Schulich School of Music. Unlike the prestigious music faculty, it is open to the greater Montreal community, giving courses to students of all ages, like Benoit, and offering teaching space to instructors, free of charge.
But all that is slated to stop later this year.
Last week, the university announced the conservatory will be closing for good at the end of the summer after more than a century.
According to the school, the pandemic showed that "the conservatory is no longer financially viable nor sustainable."
While there were over 550 students before COVID-19 hit, projections showed that fewer than 100 students would sign up in the coming year.
Meanwhile, operating costs have increased and the university has been expanding its post-secondary music programs, meaning space on campus is at a premium.
"The trend is as clear as it is unfortunate," the announcement read, calling the conclusions "sobering, yet unavoidable."
However, instructor Marcelo Thys said these problems can be overcome and shutting down the conservatory is a blow to the arts.
"People who are going to attend concerts, people who are going to become musicians, people who are going to fund the arts here in the community — they're not going have this institution to represent them," he said.
"It's a very, very sad and frustrating day."
Speaking to the gathered crowd of protestors, Benoit said the school went online during the pandemic, forcing students to learn how to play instruments from home and that wasn't nearly as attractive as in-person learning.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.