Montreal Survival Guide

As part of the URGE program and our updated graduate onboarding policy, I authored a resource map for all new members of our department. The guide features topics like transit and navigation systems, housing and rental market, cost of living, ethnic neighbourhoods and markets, languages spoken in the city and other good-to-know information about Montreal. The aim for this guide is to assist new residents of Montreal (and of McGill) settle into this city and familiarize themselves with the general information about Montreal. Our plan is to review and update this guide every year and share it with the accepted applicants of our department as part of the Admission Offer package. It has also been shared widely amongst other Faculty of Science departments.

You can access the guide here.

Crisis Resource Flowchart

We developed this Crisis resource flowchart in collaboration with the URGE program and the EDI Committee of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University. The flowchart features different categories of crisis response units at the departmental, university, and city level. These response units handle both medical and non-medical crises and provides support and protection to both victims and survivors of abuses. The list also features several telephone-based hotlines operated by Montreal crisis response centers. The aim of this flowchart is provide a snapshot of available crisis response resources to any member of our community during a time of need and streamlining the process of report filing and confidentiality.

You can access the crisis flowchart here and the departmental support webpage here.

Megho’s Recommendations, a.k.a Megho’s Reccos

This map contains all my favorite places to eat and drink that I have discovered in my last 3 years of living in this city. This is a non-exhaustive map and I am always open to new suggestions and explorations. Since it is a personal preference map, you may not like these places and that’s fine too. I will try my best to update this map as I explore more places in this city!

A couple of caveats for this map:

1. Since I am a graduate student, most of my recommendations are budget-friendly/cheap eats.
2. I prefer to encourage independent establishments run by BIPOC or LGBTQIA2S+ or Immigrant owners.
3. I intentionally left the Chinatown area blank. You can pretty much walk into any store there and have a great time. Highlighting one over the other will not do justice to the culinary delicacies that this area has to offer. So just follow the delicious smell to the nearest store and you are surely going to have a good time.
4. I also left the area around Old Port blank. Old Port is a tourist attraction featuring iconic Montreal locations, high-end galleries and equally high-end restaurants. As a resident of this city, I prefer to discover new neighbourhoods and small restaurants/businesses.