And living in Canada.

"nothing to push against"

With those words, the editorial of the New York Times damned Robert Goddard's early rocketry, yet was proven to be total bunkum.

Of course, there is nothing in space, but if one receives directional radiation and re-readiates in a preferred direction, then you have a drive vector. This is how those spinning radiometers work, they preferentially emit from one "side" of the spinner.

So get a solar sail, paint one side black and the other side silver. Hey presto, you can tack, a bit. All sorts of effects are possible, depending on which side you turn to the sun and how you angle the sail.

For instance, with a "perfect" mirror sail, at an angle to the Sun, the thrust vector is normal to the mirrored surface. You can never tack towards the Sun, but you can move at almost 90 degrees to it.

With a suitably tuned plasma array, similar things *might* be possible. Don't rush to claim things are impossible. They might only be difficult.