Editorial: Here’s to 45, and a million more

OpinionsEditorialThe Link — Published April 1, 2025 5 minutes

Since then, we’ve made significant strides toward fulfilling said promise, which continues to evolve, take new forms and dilate to cover every aspect of our mandate.

Since August 2024, The Link has listened to its community. To improve and smooth out our internal structure, we updated our policies and mandate. In short, we’ve created and implemented an Advertising Policy, Investment Policy, Event Coverage Policy, and Artificial Intelligence Policy. We also revised our mandate and Contributor Freelance Fund (CFF) policy.

We are happy to announce that we are extending our CFF into Volume 46. The CFF began in Volume 44 as a pilot project, and through patience, persistence and dedication to the project’s longevity, it is exceeding its designation as temporary, solidifying itself as a juvenile pillar of The Link’s structure.

To avoid sounding like a broken record while still accentuating the importance of keeping The Link alive, we wanted to reiterate that this project does not come with permanence unless we secure solid external funding, like a fee levy increase (something we explain in grave depth in our editorial “In loving memory of the student press”). However, until that day comes, the CFF will see adjustments with its sentiments remaining a principled effort to extend our gratitude to contributors who work tirelessly for this publication and, in turn, the community.

The CFF is now a part of The Link; if it crumbles, so do we, and that is our cross to bear. We bear it with our heads high, we carry this cross as a symbolic gesture to student papers nationally—that we stand by fair compensation for student journalists killing themselves to uphold accountability.

Our work does not go neglected; we’ve received numerous accolades in this volume that exemplify our work, and for this, we are forever grateful.

In the Graduate Student Association’s (GSA) fall by-elections, we occupied a space on the ballot, asking graduate students to add us as a fee levy group in the GSA. This meant more than just securing funding; it was about catering to a larger student population. It was about time to formally include graduate students in The Link. Our fee levy referendum passed, and amongst all our lost hope for fee levy referendums, something green and promising sprouted from a seemingly deserted plane. For this, we are forever grateful to Concordia University’s graduate students; thank you for believing in us.

In addition, we received funding from the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) for the second year in a row—making The Link one of the first student publications in all of Canada to receive federal funding, not just once, but two consecutive years in a row. The LJI also recognized us as more than a student newspaper; it recognized us as a community newspaper, a standard to which we will always hold the paper. Since finding our place in the LJI, provisions have been made to exclude student papers. This doesn’t discourage us. Rather, we extend our sincerest thanks to the Quebec Community Newspapers Association for working with us and platforming The Link.

About a month ago, The Link was awarded the Canadian Periodical Fund to overcome market disadvantages and continue to provide readers with content. This is yet another example of our hard work and sleepless nights being honoured and respected.

Equally, our reporting has been honoured in this volume through various nominations and awards. At the Canadian University Press’s NASH awards, The Link garnered eight nominations and one win for the article, “Hall building altercation: Students share their perspectives.”

The Link was also notably awarded an Amnesty International Canada award for Dana Hachwa’s “‘We Want Them All’: Syria’s detained and forcibly disappeared.”

In an effort to strengthen community ties at Concordia, The Link began an ad fund in collaboration with the Concordia Student Union (CSU). This fund allows CSU services, as well as student organizations, businesses and clubs, to advertise for free in our publication, allowing them to expand their reach. So far, the fund has allowed for over $5,000 in ads to be published at no cost from hardworking students.

Additionally, during a jaded era for Canadian publications fighting against the advent of the suppressive Bill C-18, The Link has kept its news consumable and convenient for students and the Montreal community via social media. We lost our Instagram account in the summer of 2023 due to the bill and swiftly worked to build up an alternative to ensure our community would remain informed in this way. Since then, we’ve exceeded 2,100 followers, expecting to surpass our old Instagram follower count by the new volume.

For this, we will bring the broken record back out with fair intent: Thank you. It is because of you reading this right now that we write stories that matter, that we fight to tread water to keep you informed.

We also want to thank our 25 staff writers and 159 contributors who trusted us with our edits, covered important stories and worked long hours. We wouldn’t be where we are now without you.

From the newspaper that doesn’t let the administration sweep student arrests under the rug, that doesn’t let unnecessary spending, wrongful termination and union incompetence go unnoticed: thank you for trusting us with another volume.

The Link made another promise, an internal one at the start of the volume: to leave The Link at the end of Volume 45 better than it was inherited, and as Florence Welsh once sang: “You have to go to war to find material to sing.” We went to war externally and fought for important causes through our reporting, with staff and contributors facing painfully long defamatory soliloquies from far-right Zionist enemies or brutality and harassment from police during protests. And we went to war internally, fighting for fair compensation, drafting and restructuring internal policies, all for the betterment of The Link’s environment and reporting.

As you thumb through our final print issue of Volume 45, either physically or online, we hope you can feel our devotion to you and quality journalism through each article, graphic and photo; it’s all for you.

Volume 45 is passing the torch onto an extraordinary editorial team for Volume 46, who will uphold and exceed the expectations laid out in this editorial. May they learn from their predecessors’ faults and continue to nurture The Link towards its zenith.

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 12, published April 1, 2025.