ISABELLE DUCHAINE
An Interview by Quinn Giordano
Charming, clever and always outspoken in her roles Isabel Duchaine served as last year’s ASUS Senate Caucus Chair and Academic Affairs Commissioner, as well as a recipient of the prestigious Tricolour Award.
She graciously sat down with us to discuss the issues from feminism to the Quebec Charter of Values and the joys of Twitter. We are so excited to have Isabelle as our first Campus Celebrity of the year!
Before delving into the pressing topics of today we asked Isabelle ten rapid-fire questions to get things started. Here the Brighton native shares her sense of good humour, dishing on who makes the best cup of coffee on campus and what Justin Bieber should do to get his troubled life together.
1) Bionic Arm or Bionic Leg?
Arm.
2) Fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?
Horse-sized duck. You can hide easier in holes.
3) Conan O’Brien or Conan the Barbarian?
Conan the Barbarian. But Conan O’Brien depending on how much they’re talking versus other things.
4) Super Mario or Mario Lopez?
Super Mario. Super Mario 64 ideally!
5) Wes Anderson or Anderson Cooper?
Anderson Cooper! The Silver fox…
6) Whoopee Cushion, Whoopi Goldberg or Rube Goldberg?
Whoopi Goldberg as featured in Star Trek the Next Generation.
7) Salvador Dali, The Dalai Lama or Dolly Parton?
Dalai Lama.
8) Tim’s, Starbucks or CoGro?
CoGro. I’ve never actually worked for an AMS service but it’s just indoctrinated into you when you work in the AMS.
9) Bieber: Needs a hug or needs a slap?
Needs a hug! I didn’t see the deposition video but if you want to go more broadly into my thoughts on Justin Bieber I think it’s hard to be however old he is and not have anyone in the world to say no to you except the law. It’s not like his mom can control him. He’s got literally millions upon millions of dollars! I think he probably needs to take a step back and find himself.
10) Smell great and look bad or look bad and smell great?
Look bad and smell great. Wait! No, look great and smell bad. I think there are more people without a sense of smell than we commonly assume so you could probably get by.
Now that we’ve gotten an anecdotal glimpse of Isabelle in our rapid-fire round, let’s present the bigger picture. Meet Isabelle Duchaine; the girl from small town Brighton Ontario, a town so small she tells us it doesn’t even have it’s own Tim Horton’s!
Since her high school days, Duchaine has been fiercely involved in advocacy and student government groups of all kinds including as the founder of her high school student senate. While she recounts somberly that she was narrowly defeated in an election at that very high school, she is quick to declare reassuringly, “But I turned out ok!” And indeed she has, proving once again the age-old value of perseverance. As Isabelle Duchaine looks back at her time here at Queen’s she sees just how far that girl from Brighton worrying about an election setback has come. She has served as Co-President of the politics departmental student council, Vice President of the Queen’s International Affairs Association, as an Arts and Sciences Senator, Academic Affairs Deputy and then Commissioner of Academic Affairs. To top it off, Ms. Duchaine is being honored as this year’s Tricolour Award winner. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Just what exactly is a Tricolour Award?” allow Isabelle to explain.
“The broader definition of the Tricolour award is for non-academic non-athletic contributions to the university. Recipients come from all factors of student life. It recognizes people who have given a lot of contribution beyond the classroom or the sporting arena. I was very honoured to be selected!”
It is an impressive legacy to leave behind and indeed it will stand the test of time as her name joins the ranks of the many Tricolour Award winners before her etched into the plaques on the walls of the JDUC. Humbled however, Isabelle says legacy was never her concern.
“I’m really lucky in that I just really enjoy the work that I’ve been able to do here. I really enjoy academic advocacy, and getting involved in the university’s government and working within the political studies department in whatever way that I think the problems need to be solved. It’s just something that I find fascinating! It’s nice to get recognition for that but it isn’t a primary motivator.”
Nor does it seem to be any reason for her to slow down. She took another bold step forward in proposing a course now in its pilot stages that would credit participation beyond the classroom. In her view it is unfortunate that aspiring leaders who are so actively engaged in political life in areas from parliamentary internships to jobs at the United Nations do so without formal recognition from Queen’s University to back it up.
“It’s a recognition of the fact that a lot of students in politics specifically are very actively involved in political life beyond the classroom, where they’re bringing a lot of the skills and knowledge and topics they’ve learned in the class and applying them to real life settings but the university and the department doesn’t give them credit or recognition for it.”
So in retrospect what does Isabelle Duchaine suggest for first years looking to take up her mantle one day? Her grounded and optimistic advice is simply to not hold back.
“Don’t be afraid! I mean it sounds so cliché but don’t be afraid to try something and then not do it again. If you do, that’s totally great but don’t be afraid to jump around from activity to another. When things don’t work out the way you want, when you’re not elected to be a rep or you’re not invited to join a certain club or you didn’t make a hiring process, that’s a stumbling block but there are so many different ways to get involved that you shouldn’t feel like you’re neglecting those opportunities because somebody else says you’re not the best candidate at that time. There’s a lot more flexibility in that sense than people realize and there’s a lot more time. It can seem overwhelming but just take your time.
Duchaine is one to take her own advice as she moved between disciplines multiple times in her academic career. She will graduate as a history and politics medial, a degree recognized in the same way as a double major, specializing in international relations and social history however before settling on this she had once aimed to major in English and at another time to seek a psychology medial. In fact, while she is known so well for her involvement in the subject of politics today, it was one of her worst subjects when she studied it in first year at the Bader International Studies Centre in the U.K. This altogether has given Ms. Duchaine a unique perspective on what it means to be a Queen’s student. To her, the Queen’s experience extends far beyond the shenanigans of orientation week.
“I think, and this is going to be pretty controversial, as someone who’s coming from the Castle in first year and wasn’t involved second year either, it’s interesting to me to see the passion and support that orientation week gets on campus, and so many student leaders that I respect are so passionately involved in it as a part of the Queen’s community and I’m just like, “That’s great! I’m glad that’s your thing and that you can run with it because I believe in the principles of a student run orientation week but it is not so much my jam…So much of what we consider “bleeding tricolour” can be alienating to some students who aren’t interested in participating in certain activities. And that doesn’t mean that they’re bad Queen’s students or that they don’t have the same sense of community that someone completely decked out for a football game does. There’s different ways to get involved and to support your community whether its in the classroom, through non-academic discipline or running a club, which is really a great way to look at it.”
Ever sensible though often controversial, Isabelle Duchaine is not one to shy away from speaking her mind.
“I’m someone who has been called everything this year from a right wing sympathizer to too radical on the left or too outspoken and I’m like, ‘Sweet! I guess you could aggregate me down the middle and find I’m pretty boring.’ I think it’s a compliment.”
Keep an eye out for Part 2 next week!