Latest news with #PolytechniqueMontréal
Winnipeg Free Press
19 hours ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘The road is long': Syrian refugee engineering a fresh start in Montreal
MONTREAL – When Jad Albasha arrived in Quebec in 2016 as a 21-year-old fleeing his war-torn home of Syria, he landed in a snow-covered world that spoke French, a language in which he did not understand a single word. But now it rolls off the tongue as if Albasha has lived here all of his life. When he graduates on Saturday with a master's degree in civil engineering from Polytechnique Montréal, it will mark yet another milestone that shows how far he's come. He went from being a third-year civil engineering student in Syria, just six months away from earning a degree, to wondering if he would be stuck working at a grocery store in Laval, north of Montreal, forever. 'The road is long. I sometimes wondered 'am I going to get there?' ' Albasha said in an interview. 'Nine years later, we see that it's possible to take steps.' Albasha decided he would immerse himself in French upon arrival. First with a francization course to learn the basics starting in March 2016 and lasting about nine months. The goal was to speak French with the least amount of errors. Then, Albasha enrolled in a junior college program that would allow him to eventually resume his university career. However, his transcripts and missing paperwork from Syria led him to be rejected by almost every local university due to incomplete applications. With the exception of one: Polytechnique Montréal. The engineering school, which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal, has a large cohort of international students. Nine years later, his French is fluent. Enough so that he's able to work as a teaching assistant at Polytechnique. 'Merci, Bonjour, Bonsoir,' that was the limit of his French in January 2016, Albasha recalled in an interview. 'I remember before I started my French courses I was working at a grocery store and I wasn't even a cashier, I was a bag boy because I couldn't speak to clients,' Albasha said. 'It was difficult, every time someone asked me a question in French, I'd have to ask a colleague.' In January 2013, bombings at the Aleppo University killed 78 people and convinced the family it was time to leave the only home they'd known. His family — including a twin brother, an older brother and his parents, spent some time briefly in Lebanon before Justin Trudeau's Liberal government expedited Syrian refugee claims allowing them to come to Canada over a period of a few months. Even today, Montreal snow reminds him of his arrival to the country. He associates the fresh flakes with a renewal of sorts. 'It's a symbol of happiness for me, a new chance, a new start,' Albasha said. He works at AtkinsRéalis Group Inc., where he specializes in hydroelectric dams, a priority for Quebec's economic future, according to the current provincial government. He doesn't see his family returning to Aleppo. All of his friends have either spread across the globe or have died in the war. Montreal is where the family's foundation has been laid. Polytechnique Montreal's president Maud Cohen said Albasha demonstrates an important need for Quebec to bring in more engineers amid an aging population and a demographic deficit. 'The engineers really are building Quebec, they're responsible for innovation, creativity, everything that's happening in tech, in high-tech,' Cohen said. 'So might as well bring in students like this that have been trained somewhere else that have the potential of bringing a contribution to the economy faster, that have the potential to be trained here. 'We need more people like Jad … and it's not to diminish the role of people that are already living here.' Last December, Quebec adopted a law that put a cap on international student applications, with the ultimate aim of reducing overall immigration. At a time when international students are facing a ban brought by the U.S. government and Canadian institutions look to capitalize on a brain drain due to funding cuts in the U.S., Cohen has a message for the government: 'Help us help you.' 'We recruit high-level students so how can we work together to make sure that we help you provide what the economy needs and to help us in the same way with either funding, or help us (by having) higher quotas to recruit.' Albasha is a mentor for others. He's the resource for many attempting to start anew. 'Sadly, I didn't have a chance to meet someone who'd lived through the same things as me, so I didn't have that example,' he said. But everyone deserves a chance regardless of where they come from. While recently presenting a paper in Winnipeg, Albasha went to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Inscribed on the wall was a quote: 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.' 'I found this to be profound and true,' he said. 'Sometimes we're not lucky, but we can't forget that if we persevere, we can get there in most cases.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2025.
CBC
17-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
Quebec businessman gifts $50M to Polytechnique Montréal for disruptive innovation hub
A Quebec-born businessman and philanthropist who is donating $50 million to a Montreal university to establish an institute dedicated to "disruptive innovation" says it has never been more important to invest in homegrown talent. Pierre Lassonde's donation to Polytechnique Montréal, to be officially announced at an event Monday, comes as Canada finds itself in the midst of a tariff war with the United States, its largest trading partner and ally. Lassonde believes Canada had grown used to being dependent on the U.S., a relationship that U.S. President Donald Trump has turned on its head since he took office in January. "It was an easy relationship. Well, it isn't anymore and we have to wake up to that," Lassonde said in an interview last week from his Toronto home. "Never waste a good crisis, this is a good crisis, so let's do something about it," Lassonde added. "This hopefully will kick-start something even bigger. Every single moment matters and this one matters a great deal." WATCH | Trump tariffs are in effect. Here's how Quebec is helping businesses: Trump tariffs are in effect. Here's how Quebec is helping businesses 13 days ago Duration 2:08 Lassonde, a Polytechnique graduate and an expert in mining and precious metals, heads the school's board of directors, and the family name already adorns a number of pavilions at the institution thanks to previous donations. The engineering school, which is affiliated with the Université de Montréal, described the $50 million as the largest gift in its history. Lassonde said the idea formed as he roamed the labs and spoke to professors and students. He detected untapped potential, due in part to a lack of money. "We do have incredible brains at Polytechnique in terms of deep tech. We are in some respects at the very cutting edge of the domain," he said. That's why the new funding will be used to invest in those minds before they are recruited into the private sector. Disruptive innovation is a process where a new product or service, often with a simpler or less sophisticated design, initially targets a specific market and then gradually or eventually replaces the existing product. "None of it is going into bricks and mortar, it's all about intellectual capital and about creating intellectual properties that will really be meaningful, that will create jobs, that will create economic activity, growth in Canada hopefully, and impact the world," Lassonde said. He also hopes to spur on others with the financial means to contribute toward the creation of forward-looking projects. Though Quebecers have in recent decades started "throwing their weight around" and giving more to higher education, he said more can be done. "It's a recurring issue in Canadian universities, simply because we don't have the philanthropic model that the U.S. universities have," Lassonde said. New tools, younger minds Oussama Moutanabbir, a professor at Polytechnique, said the new institute's main focus will be developing technologies to address immediate problems. "Since the beginning of humanity, people develop technology based on what they have in hand and what they need, and that paradigm continues today. There are many universities and research labs doing the same thing," Moutanabbir said. "But Polytechnique has a commitment to focus on this innovation by tapping into new fundamental knowledge, so bridging the gap between the discovery and the application." Moutanabbir gives the example of medical imaging and cancer — developing technology that can detect the first small clusters of tumour cells that appear in the body and to test as many patients as possible. Existing technology requires exposure to an X-ray with a high dose of radiation for people who are vulnerable, so the idea is to create a new tool that is smaller and can be operated with a much lower exposure. That involves going back to the drawing board. "To address that challenge, we have to go to the fundamental nature of matter and manipulate it," Moutanabbir said. "The institute would be focusing on these kind of problems ... the driving force will always be to maximize the impact of academic research on society." Forward-looking also means the need to invest in young minds, Moutanabbir said. "The very precious resource that we need to focus on is really young scientists," he said. Lassonde said he is worried about recent measures that limit the number of international students coming to Quebec. WATCH | Quebec cutting number of foreign students that can enrol in schools in the province Quebec cutting number of foreign students that can enrol in schools in the province 19 days ago Duration 2:05 The CAQ government is reducing how many applications it will process for new international students by about 20 per cent starting this year. Last month, the province announced it would issue 20 per cent fewer acceptance certificates to foreign students this year compared to last. "I am very concerned about our ability to attract the very best minds and bring them here," Lassonde said, noting that two-thirds of doctoral candidates at Polytechnique are international students and there are not enough Quebecers to meet the demand.
