The Bull & Bear | Winter 2018 - Bonjour/Bye

NEWS The Kids Are Not Alright BUSINESS & TECH The $6+ Billion Gamble Under our Feet ARTS & CULTURE Should Oui Stay or Should Oui Go?

THE BULL & BEAR

OPINION The Cyclone of Satire

WINTER 2018

A PUBLICATION OF THE

The BULL & BEAR CONTENTS FEATURE 3 The Kids Are Not Alright 6 The $6+ Billion Gamble Under our Feet 8 Should Oui Stay or Should Oui Go? 11 The Cyclone of Satire

NEWS 13 ‘Tis the Season…To Get the Flu 14 In Honour of Flood Girl 15 Remembering the Holocaust

BUSINESS & TECH 16 Taking on Google

ARTS & CULTURE 17 ‘‘Arrival Measures’’ Takes Centre Stage

at Centerfold Gallery

18 Montreal’s Open Air Paintings 20 Second Helpings in a Streaming Age

OPINION 21 (Tide) Pod Save Us All 22 Montreal(s) and Me

EDITORS’ NOTE The temporal experience of a university degree is impossible to synthesize into words that will ring true to all those who read them. Durations, both literal and perceived, can span anywhere from a few years to a handful of decades (we know of a few degrees that are capable of aging people 60 years regardless of how long they take). For some, completion offers a clean break, finality, a closing of a chapter; whereas, for others, it simply functions as an ellipsis or a prologue to future academic endeavors. Regardless of where one may fall on this spectrum, we know that for some McGill students, academic aspirations aside, the temporality of their stay in Montreal may be short, sweet, and function as a transition into whatever awaits them after graduation. For many students, Montreal is a revolving door, a quick kiss on both cheeks, a passing hello/goodbye or, if you will, a bittersweet bonjour/bye.

This semester, we wanted to honour the transitory experience of some McGill students whilst also thanking the beautiful city that hosts us. Our team wanted to both acknowledge and proverbially pop the ‘McGill Bubble,’ investigating questions of not only what it means to pursue a degree, but what it means to do so in Montreal specifically. What brings students to Montreal? What makes locals stay? What ensnares those of us who remain after graduation and what awaits those who decide to leave? Not to make a mountain out of a molehill (Mont Royal already won that idiom), but as two graduating managing editors, we were tempted to explore these questions and even more desperate to find the answers. So Bonjour, welcome to the Winter 2018 Print Edition of The Bull and Bear. Stay for a while if you so choose, but leave when it is your time - you can always come back and pick up right where you left off.

Bye for now, KATRINA & TIJANA

WINTER 2018 The Bull & Bear is published by the Management Undergraduate Society. The content of this publication is the responsibility of the Management Undergraduate Society and does not necessarily represent the view of McGill University.

Managing Editors (Editorial)

Jonah Silverman Executive Editor Tijana Mitrovic Katrina Brindle Managing Editors (Editorial)

Dan Schechner Managing Editor (Business Unit) Evelyn Dom Managing Editor (Media)

Michela Karen Rakotondralambo Managing Editor (Layout) Ali Schwenk Operations Officer

Seng Chiat Haw Managing Editor (Web) Abigail MacKenzie-Armes Léo Wang Finance Officers

NEWSFEATURE

THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT

BY TIJANA MITROVIC & MOLLY HARRIS

T

o say that earning a university degree is laden with stress is trite. The stress of managing a full course load is often the bare minimum for a McGill student.

One’s financial standing is also of major concern, as some students have to juggle one, two, or three jobs, maintain scholarship and aid requirements, and worry about repaying their student loans. Membership - and often leadership - in clubs and societies, coordinating and attending events and conferences, and playing sports create another layer of commitment that can become near impossible to balance. Alongside maintaining a “healthy” social life, students have very little time remaining to focus on themselves.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF JULIA ENRIGHT Tijana Mitrovic Molly Harris News Editors

Jeremy Steele Business & Tech Copy Editor

KC Moore Katrina Brindle Arts & Culture Editors

Quinn Halman Zach Lanys Opinion Editors

Harry Turner Will Pang Lauren Kranc Leora Schertzer Nicole Luongo Copy Editors

For many McGill students, this stress has come to define how they experience their time at university.

The pressure of managing one’s social and work lives in university is unique, due to the necessity of managing academics before all else.

While students will likely continue to juggle jobs and social lives once leaving the Roddick gates, it will no longer be on top of four to five courses: this is what makes university stress so particular.

William Horwitz Sr. Sponsorship Officer

Nick Madden Marketing Officer

Jared Gaffe Miller Cressman Jr. Sponsorship Officers

Patrick Timmer Emmy Wang Julia Enright Audrey Normand Layout Editors

Amina Magnin Cherlyne Mok David Diao Erik Friedman Photographers

Felix Lu Irina Lee Keyan Long Zeyna Benbrahim Photographers

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The stress during one’s time at only of drop-down lists naming different university is not eased by its temporality: smartphone applications, books, podcasts, the ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality and websites to be consulted. The is so pervasive at McGill that the idea Counselling Services page for ADHD of disregarding one’s academics, work, is filled with similar resources. Notably, or social life is a non-option. There is the “perfectionism,” “study skills,” and a lot to juggle over the course of an “procrastination” pages are identical. undergraduate career, and the pressure McGill Counselling Services also to have it all can be mentally exhausting. offers workshops on academic success, Simply put, McGill is a stress bubble. wellness, and life skills, including Skills for Time Management and Skills for The Turn Managing Anxiety & Stress. However, The pressures of maintaining all except for Mindfulness Meditation

a “work-life balance” at McGill cause many students to turn to the “vices” that Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens described in his now infamous November “hygiène de vie” interview. These “vices” have become reality for a plethora of McGill students.

Many may start drinking several cups of coffee a day, take up smoking cigarettes, or cut down on sleep — what Dyens would likely refer to as poor “hygiène de vie.” As well, many students will turn to Ritalin, Vyvanse, Concerta, and Adderall to help. These drugs are used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but are considered to be “performance enhancing” when used without a prescription. They are amphetamines, and their peculiar effect of increasing concentration and focus has made them a prized possession for long nights spent writing papers or eighteenhour days cramming for exams.

five such courses with extracurriculars, interviews, applications, and any shred of a social life, all while striving to meet the high margins set by external institutions, becomes near-impossible for many.

According to the students polled for this article, most who use “study drugs” without a prescription purchase them from friends who have one. Some students have remaining pills and refills from old prescriptions that they no longer need — they either take them during high-stress periods or sell them to

“There is a lot to juggle over the course of an undergraduate career, and the pressure to have it all can be mentally exhausting.

Simply put, McGill is a stress bubble. ” require registration ahead of time. For students already overburdened by school and other commitments, forfeiting a few hours even once a month is a sacrifice many are unwilling to make.

The High

The transition from high school to university causes many first year students to struggle with their first sets of midterms Recent studies by post-secondary and exams, and there is a subsequent steep institutes such as Columbia University, learning curve on how to learn. Moreover, University of Western Ontario, and the workload typically only increases as University of Toronto suggest that more students progress through their McGill than one in 20 North American students education. As students get older, the used study drugs from 2017-2018. prospect of finding an internship or a full time job, or being admitted to a graduate program, becomes all the more daunting.

The Setting At the same time, the pressure to meet Currently, McGill does not include specific GPA standards designated by the use of ‘performance-enhancing’ employers and admissions committees study drugs in its rules and policies becomes ever greater. While students on Academic Integrity. In fact, both can succeed by skimming the readings or disciplinary and support measures for listening to recorded lectures at 2x speed study drugs are non-existent at McGill. in a handful of first year courses, the The McGill Counselling Services potential for success with those methods website, for example, has “self-help” in upper-year courses tends to diminish pages dedicated to Anxiety, Stress and with every jump from in course level.

Substance Use. However, they consist Balancing the full workload of four or

friends. Some ADHD medications, such as Vyvanse, which offers less pronounced side effects than other similar drugs because of its chemical makeup, can be slightly harder to find than Adderall, Ritalin, or Concerta, all of which are relatively easy to find on campus.

McGill students take them because, as one student noted, they “can’t keep up with the volume of work, especially during finals week, at the same rate as [their] peers,” or because they struggle with the sheer volume of readings to get through before an exam.

One student discussed the energizing effect of the drugs, and how one pill in the morning eliminates their need for coffee or a nap midway through the day, especially during final exams, midterms, or paper seasons, when bedtime is somewhere between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., and wake-up is between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.

Others still emphasized the creative effect that Vyvanse, in particular, has on them. They noted that when writing a paper, all of their best ideas come after having taken Vyvanse, and that they experienced an abundance of ideas that

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was simply impossible to tap into when “sober.”

One student stated that taking Vyvanse makes her forget about the anxiety that typically plagues her on a day-to-day basis. She said that when she has taken Vyvanse, she “can just sit down and work, and not think about the other five hundred things [she has] to do, what [her] GPA will be if [she gets] a certain grade on a final exam, or generally what else is going on in [her] life outside of studying for the final or writing the paper at hand.” Others, however, noted that “study drugs” make them significantly more anxious than they would be had they not taken them, with some claiming that the anxiety the drugs create fuels them to sit and focus on their work. Anxiety is a common side effect of these so-called “performance enhancing drugs.”

Many surveyed students reported a common feeling of sitting in McLennan with freezing, clammy hands and profusely sweaty armpits after taking a “study drug,” but considered that this was the price to pay for a full day of focus. Others discussed the horrible sleeplessness they experienced at the end of a very long day, and some noted that they either took a sleeping pill or smoked marijuana before bed to calm down after using Vyvanse or Adderall.

prescription as a drawback, perhaps alluding to the intense academic pressures that prompt McGill students to use these medications. Some, however, noted that they would not touch “study drugs” after graduation, and that using them was a phenomenon highly specific to undergraduate years.

Much like the stress of working toward an undergraduate degree, the relief a “study drug” provides is transient.

Those who use them for several months

“One student confessed that they used Vyvanse for nearly two weeks before a midterm worth a significant portion of their grade, and experienced horribly blurred vision for most of the second week.”

The majority of students polled agreed that the primary reason for using “study drugs” without a prescription is because little else can help them focus.

As put by one student, “I find it really hard to sit and focus for more than 3 hours [without drugs]... most people One student confessed that they used I’m surrounded by can do more than 6 Vyvanse for nearly two weeks before a hours without any drugs,” which makes midterm worth a significant portion of using the drugs a necessary measure for their grade, and experienced horribly keeping up with peers. Another student blurred vision for most of the second praised a common side effect of the drug week.

The student told us, however, that — a decreased appetite — as one of its they would not have been able to get benefits. She claimed that by eliminating through and master all the material had her hunger, the drugs helped her stay they not taken the drugs.

Still another focused for significantly longer than on student noted that there have been times days she had not taken them, because where her “heart rate increased and she did not start thinking about what [she started] shaking, which [made her] she wants for lunch just a few hours after anxious,” but that those side effects were sitting down in the library. a small price to pay for the perceived benefits of using Vyvanse.

The Comedown The day after using a “study drug” is The two most ubiquitous often difficult for students, and some cited “performance enhancers” the students a sluggishness and moodiness comparable that spoke to The Bull & Bear take - to that of a hangover. They noted that Adderall and Vyvanse - have significant they are typically less productive the day side effects. In addition to a decreased after use than a normal, unmedicated day, appetite and weight loss, side effects and thus have to carefully plan when they include sleeplessness, fast heartbeat, will use the drugs around their academic sweating or fever, nausea or vomiting, and social schedules. diarrhea, muscle tightness, nervousness Notably, no students discussed and anxiety, stomach ache, dry mouth, the illegality of possessing and buying irritability, dizziness, blurred vision, and pharmaceutical drugs without a increased or decreased blood pressure.

can experience painful periods of withdrawal when they stop. Depression, mood swings, aggression, and an inability to feel pleasure without the drugs are all common after sustained use. The longer one misuses prescription stimulants, the worse these withdrawal symptoms get.

While not every McGill student uses ADHD medicine to enhance their academic performance, the students who spoke to The Bull & Bear noted that they are quite common. Their ubiquitous nature, coupled with the nonchalant attitude so many students take toward them, point to a larger, more systemic problem within the McGill community.

Whether it be an issue of unmanageably large workloads, unaccommodating professors, or restricted access to the support services that so many students need to maintain their health and wellbeing, the kids will not be alright until this problem is resolved.

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BUSINESS & TECHFEATURE

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF JULIA ENRIGHT

THE $6+ BILLION GAMBLE UNDER

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magine getting from McGill to the airport in about the same time it would take you to walk from a lecture in McMed to a conference in Sherbrooke 688. That’s just one of many promises made by the Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM), a sprawling, $6.3-billion light-rail project approved on February 8. Designed to replace a large portion of Montreal’s existing commuter-rail network, it will provide direct service from downtown to the airport, the West Island, DeuxMontagnes, and the South Shore by 2021.

BY JEREMY STEELE

same day the REM was approved.

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another turn in the next three? Cost and time overruns are hallmarks of recent infrastructural undertakings in Montreal, such as the ongoing remake of the Turcot highway interchange. The obvious lack of continuity during the first few years of planning won’t help break this trend.

Of equal concern is the governmental and financial structure of the project, and the precedent that it sets for future undertakings of a similar nature. In 2015, the Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec (CDPQ) was created almost explicitly to carry out the construction of the REM. It is supposedly a public body, designed to assess the infrastructural needs of the Quebec government and carry out projects to solve them.

However, in its short existence, it has already encountered doubts about its transparency from the Montreal Gazette and bloggers, notably Anton Dubrau.

Similarly, the only constants about the ridership and cost estimates are the doubts surrounding them. Although originally estimated to cost five-billion dollars, the addition of three downtown Although touted as an innovative, stations to the plan in late 2016 tacked “public-public” partnership with the on another billion to the total, and Quebec government, the first page of the that’s ignoring sizeable doubts about the initial agreement of the CDPQ’s creation verity of these figures from local media explicitly states that the government and stakeholders. Likewise, ridership “must never have the authority to direct estimates are disappointing in many the financial and administrative policies sections, and the modelling assumes Like any transportation megaproject, growth in areas that have been stagnant of the Caisse.” For a province well known the REM is cloaked in a confident, shiny at best for years, such as Technoparc, a for its frequent collusion issues, this is not sheen. Its promotional material, complete glorified suburban office park served by a particularly promising way forward. with glass-laden station mockups and a a looping, low-frequency, and generally Although the CDPQ is technically a public enterprise whose assets are governmentsmattering of custom-bastardized Futura, unused bus route. owned, the above agreement likens it to firmly establishes it as a product of cliché While exurban office parks and a privately-run entity with questionable, 2010s placelessness. Yet beneath its relatively well-off suburbs will get opaque governmental relations. bold assertions and wannabe millennial premium, frequent light-rail service in branding lie doubts and cracks that have Greater Montreal needs better the next three years, some of the most persisted through the first few years of transit, and this is certainly an ambitious poorly-connected swaths of Montreal the project’s topsy-turvy inception. proposal.

The REM is cause for still have to fight for basic, frequent bus excitement, being the largest transport Since the proposal was released service. Montreal-Nord, the Southwest undertaking the city has seen since the over two years ago, large portions of the and LaSalle, boroughs denser and more construction of the metro. It has the REM have been entirely redrawn. The transit-dependent than West Island potential to alleviate overcrowding on Bassin Peel station, located near rapidly- suburbs such as Kirkland and Pointeboth branches of the orange line, and gentrifying Griffintown, was not included Claire, continue to see underwhelming along with Plante’s proposed Pink Line, in the original plan. Then, in late 2016, and often unreliable bus service go it’s a welcome change from past decades pressure from local stakeholders led unaddressed. The Pie-IX bus rapid transit of stagnation.

Yet its lofty promises are planners to insert it directly under the project in Montreal-Nord, now set to be accompanied by copious fears that have canal, with one exit for Griffintown and completed in 2022, has been delayed for another for Pointe-Saint-Charles. But years despite costing a tiny fraction of the yet to be quelled. after obvious engineering concerns and price of the REM, and for just below half Hopefully, by 2021, there will be a

BY JEREMY fears of contamination, mainly STEELE arising of the REM’s ridership. light-rail running right under McGill. If from the historically industrial nature If fundamental parts of the plan there isn’t, we’ll know why. of the land, the station was recently have repeatedly changed over the last redesigned to lie above ground, the two years, what’s to say they won’t take

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ARTS & CULTUREFEATURE

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF AUDREY NORMAND

SHOULD OUI STAY OR SHOULD OUI GO?

BY KATRINA BRINDLE & KC MOORE

“Graduating Student Humbled community to shed more light on community, together. “McGill is a bubble, He Got To Explore Montreal From what the city has to offer students and but you can’t demonize it — it creates University To Parc,” reads a post from graduates outside the bubble, and new links and you meet people from The McTavish Radish. For many out- whether they chose or would choose to countries you’d never thought about, and of-town students, Montreal is but a stay after graduation.

I think that’s a good part of it.” transitory stop for university between Emma Renaud is a Franco-Japanese Dustin Finer completed his their hometown and their career; they U3 Arts student, majoring in Art History undergraduate degree in Saxophone come for a reputable, relatively cheap with minors in Political Science and Performance at the Schulich School of English education, and then move out East Asian Culture. She is involved Music in 2014 and has recently returned to start succeeding after approximately with art, fashion, and dance, and writes to pursue a Master’s, and comprises half four years. In other words, they come for for The Fridge Door Gallery, a fine of the audiovisual duo of DF, a group McGill, not Montreal. And while many arts association that runs a blog and a that pairs the music of Finer with the students cite the city itself as one of best semesterly vernissage, giving McGill interactive light installations and digital parts of their university experience, there students the opportunity to showcase projections of Dan Freder. Originally is also a constant struggle against the their artwork. from Killington, Vermont, Finer moved much-derided “McGill bubble.”

She thinks the bubble does its job in to Montreal in search of a city that “loves The Bull & Bear sat down with bringing McGill students, who comprise to do things a bit differently” and where Montréalais involved in the arts part of the city’s large international “people are down to get weird.”

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Nadim El-Asmar did not initially start out in the arts, but they found him anyway. After completing a major in Cognitive Science and minoring in Economics at McGill, El-Asmar is now a co-founder of Centerfold, a company that owns and manages a gallery in Westmount that focuses on supporting young artists.

And finally, born in Costa Rica but a resident of South Shore Montreal for most of his life, Jeremy Le Chatelier is a photographer, painter, avid surfer, and writer. Although Le Chatelier’s work is diverse and hard to capture in a few lines of summary, his approach to creativity can best be summed up in a verse from a poem he cowrote with a friend, Simon Camire: “I feel an abundance of space through art/A way to uproot most boundaries of the mind/No one can reinvent the wheel/ But who said invention was the apex of creation.”

In explaining these words, Le Chatelier expressed that “there is something that pushes me to create, I don’t know what it is. Not only in photography, but in painting, it’s really hard to put into words, but I feel like there is no limit on “You really feel part of the Montreal creation, because you can never truly community,” she says. “The thing about finish something, it is always open to art is that it’s a language in itself.” Similarly, improvements.” This drive to create is El-Asmar commented that the creativity formed and propelled by the intoxicating is not only central to the way Montreal’s culture Montreal provides, a city that is identity as a city has developed, but that shaped by its diversity, its winter, its open “the culture [of Montreal] is anchored accessibility, and its forever-changing by the arts”. It is this artistic foundation that enables the immense diversity found future. in Montreal, as El-Asmar explained: “Montreal has both anglophone Diversity and francophone communities that Renaud emphasizes the variety contribute to a unique culture that you in art that diversity produces, and the can only find in this city. Different people uniqueness of art created in Montreal. from different backgrounds express their “When I think of Montreal-based artists, unique perspective through art and that’s they’re all bilingual, they’re young, they’re something that is very important and modern, they’re contemporary… People something you can only really find in this our age who are Montreal-based artists, city.” they grew up in this bicultural Montreal, so of course the outcome of this is going to be this unique bicultural art. I think Winter is Coming The winter months are a struggle your roots always show in your art.” faced by all students, but felt particularly She describes her fellow Montrealais from by international or coastal students as “nice, welcoming, and inviting,” who who come to Montreal never having create a sense of belonging for everyone. experienced a harsh Quebecois winter.

Renaud first described the city in one word as ‘chill,’ and laughed as she amended the description to ‘cold.’ “I love when it starts getting warmer after a long winter, people just shine. Montreal has two completely different identities, with [a warm summer vs.] this cold winter that’s still super fun.”

Le Chatelier also mentioned the winters. “Everyone is hibernating in winter, and then in the summer everyone is super excited, full of energy, and creative. You go down and then you go really up. Summer is an explosion where you just want to do everything, so maybe it’s this fluctuation between seasons that helps. I travelled a lot, but it feels that Montreal is the small safe place that I can come back to and create.”

Accessibility Despite Montreal being one of the largest cities in Canada, and a well known cultural metropolis internationally, its artistic scene thrives because of how amazingly accessible it remains to new

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“Centerfold started with a somewhat radical idea of funding artists through audience’s consumption of their work; something that hasn’t really been done before. I’m not sure we would have had the success we’ve had with the project in other cities because Montreal has one of the highest densities of artists and an attitude of supporting creatives and finding ways to sustain cultural innovators.”

Nadim El-Asmar

and emerging artists. Both Le Chatelier and Finer described Montreal as a small big city, with Finer explaining “As I get more involved with certain scenes, I see how small a city Montreal is in many ways. I love the supportive, exploratory community we have.” This accessibility is enabled by comparatively cheap living, a huge student population, a comfortably bilingual working life, and just a general cultural ease that is far harder to put into words.

Renaud says that accessibility was one of the biggest lessons she learned from living in the city. “Coming to Montreal for me was getting out of that expat bubble. It was a complete change of scenery, with people from all over, and every social class.” She credits the city with broadening her artistic interests.

“I’m twenty years old and I have so many things that I want to change, and it’s not through fashion that I’m going to do that.

I don’t think I’ll be fulfilled unless I’m doing something to help people. I really want to have that more human side of things.”

The accessibility is one of the things she loves most about the city, and she believes it’s part of Montreal’s very identity. “Montreal has adopted ‘street style art’ — the murals mix into the city, with festivals every summer and free events. It’s alive, part of the architecture.

Whenever you take a picture of Montreal, there’s gonna be a mural in there. I think that Montreal really gives an opportunity for everyone to enjoy art.”

Final Thoughts “Montreal is a great city for the arts.

There is a vibrant community, lots of shows happening, it’s affordable, and there is government funding available for projects.”

“I think in Montreal there will be a good meeting halfway of both the tech world and contemporary art scene.

Technology is just a new material for artists to work with.”

Emma Renaud

Ultimately, art comes from people, and Montreal is the perfect place to grow as a person, as an artist, and meet other “It still isn’t super developed individuals who will improve your art. In compared to other big cities, so there is most students’ experiences, Montreal is space to create and there is still potential.” more than just a setting, it’s a character — that edgy, wild, fashionable, tech-obsessed Jeremy Le Chatelier friend with seasonal affective disorder whom you’re inseparable from for four years, then reminisce about fondly for the rest of your life. We cannot speak for you, but oui would definitely say yes to going from “McGillians” to Montrealais.

Dustin Finer

OPINIONFEATURE GRAPHIC COURTESY OF AUDREY NORMAND

THE CYCLONE OF SATIRE I

n her book The Writing Life, Annie Dillard says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

What about how we start our days? The morning newspaper routine is nowhere to be found on campus; instead, students opt for Youtube clips of the previous night’s round of politically charged, satirical monologues of Fallon, Meyers, Bee, and Oliver. Rather than engaging in pages worth of news and opinions, which help fortify our own, we continually dip in

BY QUINN HALMAN & ZACH LANYS

the same well over and over again, rarely challenging ourselves with opposing views that make us question our own opinionated foundations. And it makes perfect sense — it is significantly easier to digest the news with laughter than having to look at another replicable talking head in corporate chic, especially if his name is Chuck Todd and has a goatee.

We live in a time where news is not only accessible everywhere, but what qualifies as news is something many in

their own right struggle to define. In an era with a seemingly endless barrage of Tweets, push notifications, and CNN Breaking News Alerts (talking to you Wolf Blitzer), we are arguably living during the apex of the 24/7 news cycle.

This has, some would say, taken political journalism away from its true purpose.

Rather than looking towards objective news sources and journalists in order to form an independent opinion on a given issue, this vicious 24/7 news cycle seems

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to lend itself to telling us what to think, rather than the other way around. While the term “fake news” is tossed around incredulously and irresponsibly by the American Commander-in-Chief, there is some truth to it, albeit in a manner dissimilar to how he would describe it.

Although the news reported by CNN or MSNBC is certainly quality journalism, it is when many take political satire as absolute truth that the “fake news” moniker, to some degree, seems rather appropriate. Trying to figure out which host does the best Trump impersonation, after nearly three years of them, only takes away from the actuality of his actions.

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foreign policy are diluted to an eight- university aims to do. If we continue minute bit on HBO, the line between to be distracted by Trump’s menial satire and news becomes fuzzy. Taken in personal scandals that are comical simply context, these segments can play a helpful by circumstance, we become blind to role, but when taken as the most oft-cited higher stakes international events that source of political fact, they tend to have do not necessarily revolve around the a negative function in the discourse rather US President. Moreover, if we continue than the enlightened and humorous one to simply poke fun at the other side and they intend to play. use those opinions as our ammunition What has now materialized is news in a political debate, we end up aiding reporting on news, giving little space for hurting ourselves in the process, as the viewers to develop their own views on the other side becomes numb to substantive issues at hand. John Oliver acknowledged facts, choosing to use the apparent bias as as much in the season premiere of Last their main point of contention.

Week Tonight. In this episode, Oliver took a tour around the world to analyze how the ways in which Donald Trump’s attacks

“While the term “fake news” is tossed around incredulously and irresponsibly by the American Commander-in-Chief, there is some truth to it, albeit in a manner dissimilar to how he would describe it.”

University is a place where, above all else, we are supposed to develop our critical thinking skills. Dumbing down the discourse to the level of the lowest common denominator, while absolutely hilarious, does little to root out the cause of the problem. While it ought to be encouraged to continue to call out the absurdity of the Alex Jones’ of the world on a daily basis, the resistance cannot simply end there.

Understandably, it’s hard for people to grasp how Donald Trump could possibly be elected. But it also can’t be Many students at McGill tend to fall on the media has influenced how world easily forgotten that nearly 63 million to the left of the typical socio-political leaders treat their respective press corps. Americans voted for him, preferring him spectrum. One of the primary purposes Due to news media’s obsession with over the seemingly obvious choice to of engaging with the media is to engage covering their own trials and tribulations, many McGill students. Satire is a useful with views that differ from one’s own. foreign leaders often decide to bypass tool, but when it gets to the point where This is something that tuning into the seasoned political journalists, preferring it causes the side being satirized to simply likes of, say, Jake Tapper, would help one to speak directly to the people through remain in their echo chamber, it begs the to accomplish, as he tends to provide social media lest their words be satirized question: what is the purpose of such a fair and objective platform.Take for in a way that will later be used against endeavours in the first place? example Tapper’s recent interview them.

The intention of this is not to read with Broward County Sheriff Scott McGill loves to brag about its as an anti-satire political manifesto, but Israel after the Parkland Shooting that sizeable international student body. received widespread praise across the However, we are missing non-American rather a call to action to venture outside political spectrum. Ben Shapiro, far from international news stories. Instead, we one’s comfort zone and to explore the way CNN’s greatest champion, expressed his keep laughing about how intellectually the other side thinks in order to strengthen satisfaction with the interview, which superior we are to the typical Fox and our own views and arguments. At the end was neither a premeditated malicious Friends viewer, POTUS notwithstanding. of the day, we need to stop treating the takedown, nor hollow journalism void Although Americans make up a plurality opposition as the enemy, but rather as of purpose. Except, the typical student of McGill’s foreign students, their news a partner, who, if either side wants to is not caught sharing or liking the latest attracts a disproportionate amount of our accomplish anything worthwhile, must Jake Tapper trending clip on social media, attention. The ultimate goal of university be better engaged with and politically but rather the latest John Oliver spoof or is to prepare students to enter the “real invested in the pursuit of the betterment Trevor Noah hit-job. Don’t get us wrong, world”, but we are so distracted by the of society. we love these satirists as much as the cyclone of satire, many are ignorant to next person and feel they do play a role even the most basic of facts about the in public discourse. But when the most world we will soon be leaders of. Our widely circulated sources of journalism ignorance toward current global affairs on issues as complicated as American effectively sabotages much of what

NEWS

WINTER 2018

Ryan London News Writer

‘Tis the Season…To Get the Flu

S

ince the first week of January, vaccination rate this year than in previous Dr. Robert Allard, Associate Professor influenza infection numbers have years. in the Department of Epidemiology, been unusually high and will continue Some students, however, are taking Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, to rise. Not only is Influenza A, the most their health into their own hands. Hannah also believes that decreased vaccination common form of the virus, on the rise, but Weir, a psychology student from Ontario, rates have played a role in the number Influenza B, despite its slower maturation went to a local Montreal pharmacy to of flu cases at McGill. “There is more rate, is circulating much earlier this year receive the flu vaccine. She told The Bull transmission among McGill students than in the past. & Bear that “it is a great way to protect this year than in previous years, [which] Influenza A is most often the strain yourself and, by extension, those you probably reflects the fact that there is that causes epidemics, and is the most come into contact with on the daily, from more transmission among the general population,” he noted in an email to The prevalent strain this flu season. It is hosted getting sick.”

Bull & Bear. by birds, and tends to be characterized by Another student, who wished to a larger number of infected individuals remain anonymous, had the flu during Dr. Baltzan further articulated and more acute symptoms. Influenza B the first week of the winter semester. She that the Ministry of Health sets rules is hosted only by humans, and is usually described her experience as far worse to determine which portions of the less severe and less common. The two than any other time she’s had the flu population are considered at-risk, and share symptoms, however, including fever, because of the unusual gastrointestinal targets those groups for vaccination. chills, a runny nose, and muscle aches. symptoms that came along with it. She This includes those with certain chronic The majority of the time, both A and B claims to have been out of commission illnesses, the elderly, and small children. are nonfatal, but can sometimes be deadly. for several days, hardly able to get up “The problem is, most people aren’t in the Eighty-two deaths have been reported to and walk around her apartment, much target population. If the whole population date this winter flu season. less attend classes, grocery shop, or catch is unvaccinated, [the flu] hits a lot more As noted in a Global News article, up with friends. Ultimately, unable to people, and the target population [still] the immense volume of flu patients this get an appointment at the McGill clinic, gets sick. If you’re too targeted with your season can potentially be attributed she saw a doctor at a private clinic near vaccinations, and are only vaccinating to this year’s earlier flu epidemic in campus who informed her that the flu 1% of your population, the [majority] Australia and other parts of the Southern this year was particularly aggressive remains largely unvaccinated. Then an Hemisphere, where flu rates reached an all and accompanied by unusual stomach epidemic can go out of control, and that’s time high. Their winter runs from March symptoms. The doctor also noted that the what happened here.”

through May, and is often thought to be flu vaccine this year was only around 10% a good indicator of how the Northern “accurate” in terms of how well it fights Hemisphere will fare in the flu season. As the virus, compared to its usual 30%. It noted by Carmen Chai of Global News, took almost a week before this student “Scientists look at the patterns and make was feeling like herself again. their predictions based on which viruses Dr. Marc Baltzan, a respiratory made their rounds in the Southern specialist and Adjunct Professor Hemisphere and estimate what mutations of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and could occur before the influenzas make Occupational Health at McGill, has their way over the equator.” already lost two patients to the flu since As for flu rates in Quebec, the Christmas. He stated that the new policy government’s recent decision to ban towards vaccines has been a direct clinics and doctors’ offices from charging contributor to the high flu rates: “This a small fee for vaccines and other year, a minority of the population was procedures that are already covered vaccinated. Even healthcare professionals by the Régie de l’Assurance Maladie weren’t.” He went on to say, “Depending du Quebec (RAMQ) may have had on the clinic and how much they an adverse effect on the number of flu depended on the fees, staff were let infections. Though intended to reduce go, and they were the staff that either costs and increase efficiency, removing organized the vaccines or delivered them the option to be vaccinated by one’s because they were the ones qualified to own doctor has resulted in a much lower do so.”

He further warned that McGill students are not targeted by the Ministry due to the fact that they are often highincome, not chronically ill, and many are not from Quebec. According to Dr. Baltzan, this alongside the social lifestyle and sleep deprivation that comes with being a student, puts them especially at risk.

Other than getting a flu shot, the virus can be avoided by refraining from close contact with infected individuals, washing your hands frequently, and covering your mouth and nose in public places. Lots of sleep, a balanced diet, and staying hydrated all promote good health and a strong immune system.

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NEWS

bullandbearmcgill.com

Nora Duffy News Writer

O

In Honour of Flood Girl

n the evening of January 26, McGill students flocked to Gerts for an event titled “Flood Girl: Never Forget.” The evening was organized to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Flood Girl, an anonymous student whose attempt to cross a flooded McTavish Street in 2013 rapidly became a viral Youtube sensation.

phone, and the video later went viral, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. As the anonymous student reaches the middle of the street, the sheer force of the flood is visible. Soon after, Flood Girl is swept off her feet and down the hill, only regaining her footing near the Faculty Club.

to rally. At a school without a monolithic or pervasive “school spirit,” Flood Girl is one thing that so many students can relate to and laugh about. “Flood Girl is an important part of the McGill student body’s collective memory,” she noted.

This is not the first time Gerts has hosted an event in honour of Flood Girl. Shortly after the infamous events “Flood Girl is every McGill “Flood Girl may appear to be a of January 28, 2013, a bartender at ridiculous viral video of an unfortunate student, just as every McGill Gerts decided to commemorate the stilllady sliding down a hill,” said Maddy unidentified student, and it has since Vida, a bar manager at Gerts and one student is Flood Girl.” become a near-annual tradition at Gerts. of the event’s organizers, “but she is This year, students were treated to live truly a symbol of perseverance that Nearly every McGill student since music and a new menu addition: “Floodevery McGill student can relate to in any has heard a rendition of the Flood Girl gria,” the new moniker bestowed upon difficult situation.” story. Another organizer of “Flood Girl: Gerts sangria.

Never Forget” and bar manager at Gerts, Disaster struck in January 2013 As students gathered together to Ashkaan Mohtashami, believes this is drink, dance, and reflect upon the true when construction on the McTavish Reservoir, located at the intersection of because of the relatability of Flood Girl’s identity of Flood Girl, an important Dr. Penfield Avenue and McTavish Street, struggle. “Everyone has had a similar message, best articulated by Gerts bar ruptured a water main. Large amounts of experience at McGill, where despite your manager Bailey Hughes, resonated with water gushed out of the water main and best efforts and calculations, things just all: “Flood Girl is every McGill student, cascaded rapidly down McTavish Street, fall apart because of things outside of just as every McGill student is Flood your control,” explained Mohtashami. Girl.” making it impossible to traverse.

He added that he thinks “a lot of people However, one student, the just relate to her struggle.”

An earlier version of this article stated eponymous “Flood Girl,” endeavoured that the event’s future was uncertain due to the An anonymous student told The Bull upcoming closure of the Shatner Building. The to cross what had become a fast-moving & Bear that Flood Girl is not just a symbol Bull & Bear apologizes for this error. river on McTavish. Her attempt to cross of so many McGill students’ struggles, McTavish was recorded on a witness’ but also a unifying emblem around which

NEWS

WINTER 2018

Ali Schwenk News Writer

15

Remembering the Holocaust

“M

y grandmother was a teenager when the Second World War broke out in Warsaw. From a family of ten people, she was the only one to survive.

She had gone through the Warsaw Ghetto, through Majdanek concentration camp where her mother was killed, and she ended up at Auschwitz-Birkenau where her sister was killed. Despite the catastrophic experiences that marked her teenage years, she managed to rebuild a life in Canada. She managed, somehow, to put one foot in front of the other and live a life in which positivity, optimism, and resilience were critical components.”

This story comes from McGill Assistant Professor Daniel Heller, whose grandmother, Eva Kupfert, survived the Holocaust. The United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005, marking Auschwitz-Birkenau’s liberation 60 years prior, and thus the world commemorates the horrific tragedies of the Holocaust on this day.

more complicated, and in my view, far more horrific,” referring to the troubling notion that the perpetrators of Holocaust atrocities were often ordinary people.

“How is it that people like you and me, who are otherwise good and kind to their parents, to their wives, to their husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, siblings; who are otherwise compassionate; how people like that, at the same time, murder people point-blank? How can that compassion and that hatred coexist in the same person?” Professor Heller questioned.

Mikaela Rath, President of Hillel McGill, believes an important lesson to be learned from the Holocaust is the power of one person taking a stand. She cited figures such as Oskar Schindler and Antonina Żabińska, whose “bravery, kindness, and compassion saved lives.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOLLY HARRIS

Stories like Professor Heller’s are remembered worldwide, and remind us of the importance of Holocaust education. Leaders around the world issued statements encouraging their citizens to reflect on the horrors of the past, and to learn from this instance of hatred. The Bull & Bear turned to the McGill community to find out what Holocaust education looks like today, and why and how members of the McGill community remember.

“One of the most important components of Holocaust education is to alert people to some of the dangers of Professor Heller aims to honour the ethnic nationalism and hatred,” Professor legacies of those who fought to survive by Heller stated. He noted that as time passes, humanizing the Holocaust. He noted the it becomes easy to paint the Holocaust as tendency to paint over the rich histories a simple story of “good versus evil” and of Holocaust survivors, claiming that, point solely to the dangers of fascism. “in many ways, people mistakenly depict However, Professor Heller, who teaches the Jews of Eastern Europe, who had a course on the Holocaust at McGill, centuries of vibrant, dynamic, flourishing works to reveal the disturbing truths lives, as if they were poised to die from that go beyond the stereotypes of Nazi the moment they were born, as if they soldiers as “monsters” who had “gone were always on the edge of destruction. If insane.” He noted that “the truth is far we depict the victims of the Holocaust in

this fashion, we risk dehumanizing them.”

Professor Heller stressed the importance of including the human experience in Holocaust education to recognize the past while teaching lessons for the future.

A pressing challenge that Holocaust educators face is the diminishing population of survivors. Survivors have been central to Holocaust education, as they can help people understand the Holocaust experience from a first-hand perspective. Professor Heller maintains that “when we lose the ability to meet people who were victims of the Holocaust, we will suffer an irreparable loss. This fact may be disheartening, but it is also a feature of the human experience: when we don’t encounter people face-to-face, we oftentimes lose the ability to empathize with them and to connect with them.”

In commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Montreal’s Holocaust Museum offered free entrance on January 28. Six survivors shared their stories with students and other members of the public. Similarly, as of late January, Hillel McGill was planning to bring a Holocaust survivor to speak on campus.

Apart from formal education, Shira Mattuck, President of Chabad at McGill, points out that the legacy of the Holocaust is commemorated by practicing Judaism on a daily basis. “Every candle lit for the Sabbath, every prayer spoken, and every holiday celebrated serves as a testament to the six million Jews who perished during the Holocaust,” she noted. “By building a vibrant community for Jewish students and engaging in our religious traditions, we aim to ensure the continuity of Jewish life.”

Continuing to honour the legacies of Holocaust survivors reminds the world not only of the dangers of hatred, but also of the immense power of kindness, Rath articulated. “The stories from the Holocaust are filled with people hiding, saving, and protecting Jews. They demonstrate how acts of bravery and kindness, big or small, can impact the course of history.”

16

BUSINESS & TECH

bullandbearmcgill.com

Guy Miller Business & Tech Writer

Taking on Google form of $25,000. While the investment seemed sound, it may have been premature. The investors at FRV did not take into consideration the possibility of being pushed out of the market by a bigger player with a more profound effect on internet users – in this case, Google.

F

ront Row Ventures (FRV), a student-run venture capital firm, just inadvertently engaged Google in an ad blocking battle to the tune of $25,000, and it does not look promising.

such thing as free lunch, and in the case of advertising, the internet is a zero-sum game.

Pelcro is a Montreal-based startup, introduced in the McGill X-1 Accelerator, Though I did not retain much from which focuses on tracking, recovering, and my eleventh-grade economics class, one measuring revenues lost to ad blockers. A quote that still resonates with me is: large source of e-business comes from “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” advertising. Large corporations such One way or another, nothing is truly free. as Coca-Cola, Wix, and Via Rail pay While this idea seems intuitive, it gets companies to place their ads alongside convoluted and forgotten on the internet, web pages. Without users viewing ads, host sites are suffering losses, stunting especially in the world of ad blockers.

Ad blockers are internet plugins and their growth, thus making them more browser extensions that remove content prone to failure. While larger businesses are able to ride out the proverbial storm, “While you enjoy a free smaller businesses cannot. Pelcro comes in to remedy 30% of revenue lost to internet experience, ad blockers, keeping smaller businesses those providing the afloat. Pelcro’s technology detects blockers, shuts the user out, and offers a content lose a bulk of subscription-based service for a premium, no-ad experience.

their revenue due to adblocking services.”

advertising on web pages. While a web page is loading, the blocker evaluates the site’s scripts and compares them against a list of sites it was programed to block. It if finds any, it blocks them. Ad blockers may create a more ‘user-friendly’ internet.

However, users do not see the effect from a corporate perspective. While you enjoy a free internet experience, those providing the content lose a bulk of their revenue due to ad-blocking services. There is no

Pelcro’s selling point is that they can get internet users to stop using ad blockers on host sites, redeeming revenue in the process. Unfortunately for Pelcro, Google is doing the same.

The idea was strong but, alas, the funds were weak. Front Row Ventures, with holdings of $600,000, invested $25,000 in Pelcro. While FRV has a plethora of applicants for their $25,000 investments, not all align with FRV’s vision. Ultimately, Pelcro’s forecasting regarding the future of web-based monetization proved its potential in the

Pelcro’s selling point is that they can get internet users to stop using ad blockers on host sites, redeeming revenue in the process. Unfortunately for Pelcro, Google is doing the same. In February, Google introduced a web browser feature that blocks ads that autoplay, engulf users’ screens, or hold users back from accessing content right away. Google’s service will incentivize users to disable their ad blockers, as a nuanced ad-blocking software will be implemented with the Chrome browser. As Klint Finley states, Google hopes ridding the web of its very worst ads might discourage Chrome users from installing more aggressive ad-blocking software that saps revenue universally. Google’s service poses a serious threat to Pelcro in the form of

“Pelcro’s

selling

point

is that they can get internet users to stop using host

ad

blockers

sites,

on

redeeming

revenue in the process.

Unfortunately

for

Pelcro, Google is doing the same.”

a larger, more reliable network that is offering a similar service for free.

Whether it be Pelcro’s more blunt operation of not allowing users to access content or Google’s more gradual vexblocking technology, it will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Regardless of the outcome, the days of free rein on the internet seem to be coming to an end.

ARTS AND CULTURE

WINTER 2018

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROJIN SHAFIE

Zoe Peterson Arts & Culture Writer

‘‘Arrival Measures’’ Takes Centre Stage at Centerfold Gallery

O

n Friday February 9, friends and family gathered to celebrate the opening night of Zoë Pawlak’s new exhibition at Centerfold Gallery. The show, entitled Arrival Measures, features Pawlak’s new collection of contemporary landscapes. The paintings are at once accessible and whimsical, navigating the space between abstraction and realism.

According to the official press release, “The paintings do not note a particular time or place, but rather allow the viewer a space for contemplation. They are derived from her own subconscious memories of growing up on the West Coast and speak to the larger feeling of what it means to be Canadian and how our memories are connected to the landscape.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROJIN SHAFIE

Many of the paintings evoke memories of seascapes and mountain ranges, seamlessly melting into smooth skylines. The pieces provide spaces for meditation, their perusal inspiring a contemplative stillness in their audience.

Pawlak is an experienced painter who boasts an impressive resume, and her work has been featured in Martha Stewart Living, Interior Design Magazine, Design Milk, and Architectural Digest Magazine. She has collaborated on rug and furniture collections, and is garnering a reputation as a talented designer as well as painter.

Her eye for interior design can be seen throughout Arrival Measures, and the show is comprised of paintings that would each make a beautiful addition to any home. In fact, as the sleek white lookbooks artfully

scattered about the gallery proudly assert, Pawlak’s paintings already hang in the private collections of Cobie Smulders, Cristina and Trevor Linden, and Club Monaco.

The evening also marked the debut of Centerfold Gallery’s first permanent location, in Westmount’s Victoria Park Building. Centerfold is a Montreal-based organisation founded by McGill alumni, which originated as a series of pop-up events. The event series operated under an unprecedented economic model that funded artists based on the audience’s experience. Event attendees would make a donation upon entering, then rank the exhibits on a ballot, the results of which would determine how much the artists were compensated. This new, fixed location does not operate under this model, but aims to be a place where local and regional artists can gain exposure and sell their work. The new brick and mortar gallery is an airy, modern space that lends itself to conversation, as well as quiet contemplation. The lobby leading to the gallery features photo collections from other artists represented

by Centerfold, and contributes to the audience’s slow immersion into the calm, minimalist venue.

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18

ARTS AND CULTURE

bullandbearmcgill.com

MURAL BY INSA, PHOTO COURTESY OF IRINA LEE

Minh Berger Arts & Culture Writer

I

Montreal’s Open Air Paintings

n Montreal, it’s rare to take more than artistic value of each piece is bolstered two steps without seeing a wall covered by its potential to disappear at any time in graffiti. Murals have become an - a magnificent work of art you stroll by essential part of how we navigate the city, one day may be washed away hours and how we see the world. This relatively later. In contrast to more mainstream art new cultural phenomenon has exploded experiences, observing street art can be internationally and drastically changed fleeting and short-lived. urban landscapes across the world – major The transience of street art in cities have become open air art galleries. certain cases can be related to their Among many other urban landscapes, creators’ desire for anonymity, often Montreal is recognized as one of the motivated by the illegality of such best places to both create and observe actions. Whereas museum pieces are this peculiar art form. As Banksy’s iconic labeled and attributed to artists who Flower Thrower is increasingly displayed in are internationally famous, street artists students’ bedrooms, it is safe to say that prefer to either remain unknown most street art is now mainstream. But how of the time or work under aliases. These did street art become such an established names, used by artists to sign their work, form of art, coming from its roots in may also be a means to gain anonymous anonymity and rebellion? fame. One basic example is Banksy’s rise First of all, street art’s uniqueness to celebrity solely through his work across is partly derived from its ephemerality. the globe – no one knows who he is, but In most cities, strict regulations restrain that does not stop his Instagram and murals’ expansion. Montreal, for Twitter followers from accumulating in example, requires by law that property millions. This anonymity embodies street owners remove illegal paintings. As it is art’s uniqueness and represents one of its prohibited to paint on the majority of main pillars: the artists’ unknown identity the city’s urban surfaces, the average allows for their work to be judged fairly mural’s lifetime is severely limited. The and objectively, with a touch of mystery.

The obscurity is what makes the whole experience so entertaining. For all you know, the person who painted that mural down the block may be your neighbour.

Murals are visually impressive media for social commentary, but they are also significant tools for urban innovation.

The city of Montreal actually took initiatives to create more murals among its streets in order to give birth to highquality art and improve borough life. In addition to such measures, street artists have taken the matter into their own hands. There is a cycle of renewal: as urban zones are abandoned, regulations and surveillance are more relaxed. As a result, street art disseminates in the area, which in turn brings curious crowds and activity. This urban renovation does not stop at tourism, though – murals have the power to reanimate deserted urban zones, solely through the artistic value they provide. Colourful and aesthetic murals can radically change a neighbourhood’s atmosphere: Montreal counts many examples among its districts, notably along Boulevard Saint-Laurent, which proudly harbours some of the city’s best

ARTS AND CULTURE

WINTER FALL 2016 2018

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street art. Moreover, the metropolis’s clear, creation of authorized murals, such as drastic change has resulted in some of spaced-out, and open street structure, the ones near the intersection of Prince- these urban artists’ rise to fame, finally as well as brick and concrete-based Arthur and Saint-Laurent. Urban putting some familiar faces to previously architecture, are perfect accommodations paintings and street artists have therefore anonymous murals. For example, for such spray-painted expressions. This exploded among the city’s districts, now Montreal’s Miss Me has been exposing urban symbiosis is arguably one of the allowed to permanently mark the urban her sometimes unsettling but impactful reasons the city has such a distinct visual landscape. work in the streets, allowing her to gain identity. coverage from Complex, Vice and even TED Talks. This change should not be seen as street art’s betrayal of its true roots, but as a necessary evolution. After all, legitimacy is what has allowed the unique urban art form to blossom and breed impressive creations.

MURAL BY DODO OSE, PHOTO COURTESY OF IRINA LEE

Street art has now gone through a significant evolution, allowed by two factors. The first is its power of urban renovation. Urban art’s artistic value has been slowly accepted by most, transcending its image of vandalism and crime. The second reason is the huge costs associated with removing illegal paintings that keep returning. Montreal’s tight regulation has resulted in communities mobilizing for spaces dedicated to the

Consequently, street art has expanded, developed, and moved away from being defined solely by its two main characteristics – ephemerality and anonymity. With legitimacy, street art has finally found a safe, enduring haven in the streets. Moreover, as street art has started to be requested and commissioned, many artists now choose to make their identities public and even showcase themselves at work on social media platforms. This

While some closed-door expositions such as Station 16 exist, art has moved out of museums and stormed the streets.

Parking walls, brick buildings, concrete tunnels and rooftops have become literal blank canvases for the Rembrandts of our times. Street art is now a cultural phenomenon, celebrated across the world, and is the origin of countless festivals which gather dozens of artists from around the globe. Montreal in particular has seen the birth of a community and hundreds of beautiful murals, notably through the city population’s active support and favourable architecture.

Street art is one of the most authentic ways to experience the city, and best of all, it’s free. If you are into all things street art-related or just someone who enjoys seeing attractive and engaging murals, be sure to check out Montreal’s Mural Festival and MU – you will not be disappointed.

MURAL BY EL MAC & GENE PENDON, PHOTO COURTESY OF EVELYN DOM

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ARTS & CULTURE

bullandbearmcgill.com

Nathan Drezner Arts & Culture Writer

Second Helpings in a Streaming Age

O

ne of the first lessons we learn Coming back to an album you change how we consume entertainment about the internet is that listened to on repeat in middle school and remind ourselves of the unique anything posted lasts forever. On the might actually have something to it benefits of a smaller library that promotes internet, everything we upload is tracked, beyond mere nostalgia revisiting the entertainment we care stored, and accessible to everyone — about most.

The media I like most is often the forever. At the same time, everything media I return to. I’ll find myself clicking Slowly falling in love with an album, posted on the internet is fleeting. A the same album over and over again, movie, or artist is being replaced with Netflix feed constantly puts forward new unable to move onto something new. the virality of modern consumption – a content; it feels like every day there’s a The streaming age tries to prevent this method of listening and watching that new banner announcing the next Netflix experience, as it offers bait that makes it so means that before you can truly enjoy the original series. Spotify dumps an infinite much harder to come back to something. last item, the next one is being served amount of music into everyone’s pockets, There’s something special about the Instead of opting for a new show spewing out fresh music to be consumed slow burn of enjoying something over that could either be a complete dud or as a Discover Weekly playlist or Daily and over: noticing the little details bit by the next big thing, coming back to older Mix. bit, understanding the meaning behind content can be just as entertaining an This amount of fresh, new, everlasting something, and watching that meaning experience. Returning to an old show material is an unprecedented form of change over time. Slowly falling in love or movie has its own value in offering a watching movies and TV shows, not to with an album, movie, or artist is being chance to re-contextuali``ùe it and find mention diving into unheard music. And replaced with the virality of modern new meaning that simply couldn’t be while the concept of an inexhaustible consumption – before you can truly enjoy found in a different frame of mind. In the feed of new entertainment is fantastic, the last item, the next one is being served. “Watch it Again” section of your Netflix having such freedom also means it’s easy I’ve found the best way to milk the feed, one show I’d recommend revisiting to forget to come back to the old. most from every song, album, movie is to is Breaking Bad, which ended five years Case in point: This fall, Kendrick limit myself. Keeping an iTunes library ago but holds just as much intensity and Lamar re-released DAMN, less than one means you can’t click through millions weight as it did at its release. Most people year after its original release. There’s one of songs but must instead find your picked it up then or just after, not coming difference between DAMN and DAMN. (relatively) few favourites and recycle back for seconds — but man, are seconds Collector’s Edition: the order of the through them. I have a folder of pirated of Breaking Bad rewarding. track listing. The collector’s edition is movies, and whenever I’m in the mood Finding value in a new, previously the exact same content, just in a reversed for a movie night, I’ll pick from there. I overlooked detail is perhaps more order. The re-release is effectively a can’t pick from a selection of choices meaningful than equating value with means of bringing audiences back to the curated by someone else, so my choice novelty itself, as it’s an entirely unexpected album, forcing them to put it into a new in what I watch matters more. This also way to revisit the old, the comfortable, perspective simply by re-listening to the means I can come back to the films at and the familiar. Though it may seem an album. any time, skimming through scenes, or entirely absurd prospect, coming back In many ways, it represents a forced opening one randomly to find a specific to an album you listened to on repeat second look at an album that could have shot or image. in middle school might actually have easily been swept away by the thousands I don’t mean to say that Netflix or of new releases over the rest of the year. Spotify, or any of the hundreds of other Due to the accessibility of new content, streaming services, are ruining the way we media longevity has diminished. It consume entertainment. Without Spotify, becomes harder for music or movies for instance, there are hundreds of to remain at the forefront of cultural artists I could have never possibly heard discussions for very long, even if the of or listened to, because they aren’t content has the value of carrying those easily accessible anywhere else. Likewise, discussions. Re-listening to music or re- Netflix produces incredible original series, watching movies is important not just many of which likely would never have because it allows a viewer to understand been picked up by a traditional television old content in new ways, but because it network, due to the fact that they cater to means that media can have more of an an incredibly niche audience that only a impact on conversations, societal ideas, streaming service can reach. Rather, it’s and individuals. worth calling attention to the ways they

something to it beyond mere nostalgia.

To really find meaning in the content, it’s important to avoid the thrill of jumping from song to song, movie to movie, and instead to pause, rewind, and redo it all. Rather than skipping to the next item, return to the last and slow down the experience to milk it for everything it’s worth. After all, if you’re going to just consume something once and never think about it again, is it even worth your time in the first place?

OPINION

WINTER 2018

Chloe Grant Opinion Writer

(Tide) Pod Save Us All

I

t is no secret that the world is three subsequent friends like chainmail. concerned about the erosion of This initiative was originally criticized moral principles among the youth. Their as a cheap way for kids to narcissistically apathy makes aging family members boost their follower count and appear consistently question whether any of philanthropic without actually donating the value system that they painstakingly to a worthy cause. work to impart will stick — sneaking But, alas, I implore all to suspend peeks at their children on social media previous judgment because our own certainly does not provide reassurance. McGill scientists have decoded that the Intelligence, altruism, wit, respectability ALS craze was, in reality, a silent protest — all the foundations of humanity — to raise awareness about the ice caps are considered at risk in the hands of melting, polar bears dying, and water millennials. shortages around the world.

Technology and hyperLet’s not forget the Kylie Jenner Lip connectedness is often blamed for this Challenge, an infamous internet meme social degeneration. Plugged into our phenomenon where young girls would devices, watching the same mind-numbing suction their lips inside shot glasses, viral crap, the older generation predicts causing swelling in an effort to achieve that it’s only a matter of time before Kylie’s plumped, unrealistic look. Written we become homogenous humanoids off as dumb and dangerous, magazines wearing black Yeezys and capable of like Seventeen and Pop Sugar said that only basic articulations of emotion: new the challenge supported a sick societal phone who dis? (confusion!), cash me mentality of women working perpetually outside (anger!!), and hello darkness, my to improve their bodies. old friend (sadness!!!).

But don’t judge a girl by her shotglass; Well, just like the ancient philosophers’ the challenge was executing a metaphor discovery that the earth was round, the for the muting of women’s voices, a contemporary pseudoscientists have re- performance of social justice theatre discovered it as flat (shoutout to Kyrie that presents a physical manifestation of Irving, a first among equals in the flat dumbness in order to trigger a recognition earther world). Alas, a paradigm shift in of internal silencing. It is a sad irony the foundations of our understandings of that until now the world was unable to science has begun. understand the language that these girls A collaborative effort of McGill were communicating in. and Concordia linguists, who founded If you thought the Kardashians were a start-up dedicated to understanding the end of the internet challenge trend, patterns in meme culture, discovered be forewarned, as the Kardashian-Jenner that the Tide Pod phenomenon was the dynasty is never at the end of a trend. After missing dialectal link needed to decrypt intensive research, the rationale behind a secret language behind internet the incessant array of dance challenges challenges. This new vernacular, termed has been confirmed. The Cupid Shuffle, ‘technoexpressionism,’ has revolutionized Juju on that Beat, Running Man, the the contemporary attitude toward NaeNae, and, dare I say, even the Dab, millennials, presenting the misunderstood which matured away from just dance demographic in a much more positive and became its own oddball thing, are light. representative of the youth’s global efforts Remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? If publically nominated, you were expected to either donate to the ALS Association or dump a bucket of ice water over your head and nominate

to promote healthy living and combat obesity, in a manner more affordable and accessible than your mom’s Zumba class.

The 100 Layers Challenge was a bizarre time when the world was dared

to don 100 layers of clothing or makeup, creating grotesque caricatures of our everyday beauty rituals. This trend was more than the simple by-product of a backwards, wasteful society that imagines clown comedy as the pinnacle of humour; it was a mutiny against the masks that we wear everyday. Millennials adopted the 100 Layers Challenge to mock the current culture of veneer and shallow rivalry, imploring the world to practice self-love and strip back down to layer one — the natural look. Linguists are still assessing whether a known nudist colony had any influence in the viral nature of this particular challenge to aid their cause.

Finally, the Tide Pod Challenge — the youth’s most drastic measures yet.

Our linguists were first clued in to the possibility that there was a secret signalling language behind these challenges, when teenagers started eating Tide Pods simply because there has to be some way to explain behaviour that lacks any objective whatsoever. After months of feverishly questioning why, the linguists cracked, and so did the code. These young people, sick to death of being oldsplained and lectured about the good old days, went on a mission of martyrdom.

Only self-sacrifice would make people listen. Ingesting laundry detergent to impress upon the people the need for a worldwide moral cleanse couldn’t have been executed clearer, or cleaner. A final internet challenge to rule them all.

So now we know. It’s not that the children aren’t enlightened — they’re just avant-garde.

Like aliens trying to communicate, we cannot be hasty or hostile. Let the youth be our inspiration and guide us into a new age. They are here to help.

I nominate The Onion, Mtl Blog, and Fox News to share this article.

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OPINION

bullandbearmcgill.com

Sarah Farb Opinion Writer

Montreal(s) and Me

M

y earliest memories of Montreal are of scattered Legos on a royal blue carpet. We are in my grandparents’ old apartment in Côte Saint- Luc, and I can see two cousins in my peripheral view, sitting near me, and playing with other toys. It’s probably summertime, but I can’t tell because I’m facing the rippled eighties marble, plastered against the wall of the half-den converted into a playroom.

For me, Montreal was always a destination, but never quite a second home. My mother grew up here with my grandparents and her two siblings in a suburb called Saint-Laurent. She and my aunt both moved to Toronto, but my grandparents and uncle’s family remained here. So almost every year, in addition to meeting them for a week in Boca Raton, Florida, my father, mother, brother, and I would make a (warmweather) pilgrimage from Toronto to Montreal.

fella,” or “Miss America.” I can see strolls east on Sherbrooke, I found myself torn down St.- Laurent and Laurier in the between them. daytime, walking past his and my great In late October, when my grandfather uncle’s office and dipping in and out of got sick, yet another dimension was furniture stores with my grandmother added to my understanding of this city and mom. Mostly, I think I always just — a sort of purgatory. I would often remembered Montreal with a sort of Uber to the hospital alone, meeting my aged glow —a city made of old stone and grandma with goodies I had grabbed on wood with a warmth and an earnestness my way out of the Premiere Moisson in that Toronto seemed to lack.

Redpath. At the end of the evening, when the waiting room of the ICU reluctantly cleared, I would again head home alone, looking out the window at buildings I now recognized — Stewart Bio, McMed, Leacock. Jumping between my two Montreals on an almost daily basis, then, I started to make sense of the broader neighbourhood that actually connected my childhood walkways to my student stomping grounds.

For eighteen years, being in this PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTHOR city meant being with Grandma and Grandpa. We would pull up to their When I came here for school in late condominium, first in Côte St.-Luc August, the routine began more or less and later, at their cooler, un-carpeted the same as it always had. After dropping place on Sherbrooke with our cluttered off my stuff and signing my lease at Rez, I Acura, staggering out to give them big was promptly at Grandma and Grandpa’s hello hugs. We would spend the three or apartment, double-kissing hello, and, of four days with them, and until this year, course, discussing dinner plans.

Things every freeze-frame conception I had of started to change in September.

Suddenly, Montreal was coloured by and conflated St.-Laurent was only a nighttime activity, with images of my grandparents. and my daytime routines were limited I remember my grandfather, strutting to a four-block radius from University out of his room whilst combing thick to Parc and up to des Pins. La Belle white hair, urging my grandma to “Take Province was no longer a place where the kids to Snowdon Deli for lunch! I’m in Grandpa occasionally enjoyed a steamie, the mood for smoked meat!” I remember but a place to scarf down poutine whilst shady days in Westmount Park, trying to wasted, only to regret it the next morning. climb the Big Tree. I remember the fish I often went to my grandparents’ tank in the Chinese dive we’d frequent home for dinners on the weekends and with my cousins, and how we would stand sometimes stayed over, and being there in front of it, mesmerized, until our food still felt comfortable in the way it always came. did. Increasingly, though, it simply felt I remember the way I looked forward like my Montreal was really two worlds — to watching my grandfather interact with a familiar one I had known for eighteen strangers, the way he would make them years, and a strange, neon-hewn one I laugh by cursing in French or patting became acquainted with over the course them on the back and calling them, “Big of first semester. Often, heading back

In late November, my grandfather passed away. With him, he relegated a cherished piece of what I had always seen in Montreal to the past. In many ways, he was this city: an old gem who packed a punch; a man who, like this place, so sincerely wanted to just have fun. It was through my grandpa’s presence that my perception of Montreal was fostered, and it was in his departure that it would come to be complete.

In the wake of my grandpa’s death, the memories I have of the city seem to have finally woven into the life I live in it every day. Rather than running along parallel lines, Montreal’s daytime and nighttime networks, its delis and its clubs, coexist for me. I don’t think I will ever forget the particular frames, smells, phrases, and foods that connoted Montreal for me as a child, just like I don’t think I’ll ever not sigh at the gaping sight of Montreal General Hospital. But those things only add to the foundation on which I will build the rest of my time in this city, however long that may be.

For me, Montreal is both blue carpets and black bodysuits. It’s daytime steamies and nighttime poutine. I can no longer say Montreal is just a destination. In fact, it might well be a second home.

WINTER 2018

OPINION

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