The Bull & Bear | Winter 2020 - The Story of Tonight

Business & Tech Surviving the Surge: Unwrapping Uber’s Unsympathetic Pricing Model

News The Sober Reality of McGill’s Drinking Culture

Arts & Culture Contagion in the Age of Corona

Opinion Hung Up About Campus Hookup Culture

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THE BULL & BEAR

Editor’s Note It was a Thursday evening in January when our editorial board decided on the central theme of our Winter 2020 print issue. Around us, the campus was alight with activity, students spilling out into the city to embrace the first moments of the weekend. Music from 4à7 rocked the Bronfman building, and the library steadily emptied. Montreal, of course, was bitingly cold, but that wasn’t going to stop anyone. Our huddle of editors chose to centre this semester’s issue on “the story of tonight,” because we felt it captured the energy around us that evening - the energy of a campus that moves and behaves differently at night, both for better and for worse.

As I write this note, Montreal is virtually devoid of students. I am at home in another city, and our editorial board can’t even meet in person, let alone hit the town. Perhaps, then, it seems like an odd time to peruse a magazine about the ins and outs of nighttime in Montreal.

But in this new and uncertain light, let this issue be an ode to what was, and what will be again sometime soon. It is not a rave review of the city’s bars and clubs, but rather a cross-section of one night for members of our McGill community. There are articles here about late night movies and James McGill’s sexuality, but also pieces about Uber price surges and the dangers of MDMA. Oh, and one late-semester addition about Contagion for good measure. Every page was written, edited, and formatted by our wonderful team of remotely connected McGill students, and I could not be prouder of what we have produced.

As a publication, as a school, and as a society, we have all come a long way since that January meeting. On behalf of the staff of the Bull & Bear, I hope you enjoy this semester’s print magazine.

Sarah Farb Executive Editor 2019-2020

The Team Executive Editor

Managing Editor

Business Director

Audio Producer

Sarah Farb

Megan Abellera

Kseniya Shulyarenko

Syndy Shi

Operations Director

Web Editor

Media Director

Layout Editor

Demi Assimacopoulos

Anas Shahid

Drake Wong

Beichen Li

News Editors Rose Bostwick & Noah Simon

Arts & Culture Editors

Opinion Editors

Jenna Benchetrit & Jacob Klemmer

Sam Shepherd & Liane Faingold

Business & Tech Editors Rohan Roychoudhury & Youcef Sahnoune

Graphic Designers Erin Sass, Axelle Karam, Ao Shen, Cynthia Cui, Karen Zhuang & Eden Granovsky

Copy Editors Sarah Sylvester, Lila Baer, Emma Slack-Jorgensen & Avery Franken

Photographers

Alexandra Makri, Bella Carver, Elsa Hetletvedt, Emily Handfield, Grace Hennigar, Iman Zarrunkoub, Melis May Sarfati, Mia Gill, Ruby Mouhanna, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Trevor Cross & Zeyna Benbrahim

Contents

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03. Surviving the Surge: Unwrapping Uber’s Unsympathetic Pricing Model

Rohan Roychoudhury and Youcef Sahnoune

05. Hanging in Limbo: How China’s Shutdown has

bus i n ess & t ec h 06.

Affected the Fashion World Seohee Yoon

Marijuana in Canada: Public or Private?

Reid Stimpson

07. Soju Boy: a Korean-Canadian’s Perspective on the People’s Liquor Sean Kim

The Sober Reality of McGill’s Drinking Culture 08.

Noah Simon and Rose Bostwick

High Time or Buzz Kill? 11.

Claire Chang

Indigenous Solidarity 13.

12 new s

Eva Julia van Dam

MDMA Deaths 15.

Dov Ellis

17

17. Contagion In the Age of Corona Jacob Klemmer and Jenna Benchetrit

19. The Queer Story of James McGay

a rt s & 21. cu lt u re

Sarah Manuszak

Work Harder and Keep Pivoting: an Interview with Saintwoods’ Zach Macklovitch Annie Chusid

Hung Up About Campus Hookup Culture 24.

Sam Shepherd and Liane Faingold

Growing Up in Blues Pub 27.

Danielle Cormier

The Magic of Late Night Moonlight 29.

Faith Reutas

I Downloaded Hinge So You Don’t Have To 31 Linnea Vidger

24 o p inion

Surge: Surviving the Surge Unwrapping Uber’s Unsympathetic Pricing Model

us. This is because, shockingly, that is exactly how Uber has designed the surge pricing model to work.

Avoiding the surge is a game played by many. Some are less successful than others, but we have all unwittingly fallen victim to the wrath of the infamous “2.0x” label, indicating that the cost of a $10 Uber ride will increase by double, or even more. Around the world, it seems as though the only way to truly avoid the surge is to just wait it out. But on a fast-paced night out in -10 degree weather, waiting is the last thing on the typical Montrealer’s mind.

Most would point toward the simple laws of supply and demand, but when Hurricane Sandy hit the United States’ east coast, these “laws” drew out an unending list of expletives from Uber users. As a company, Uber is adamant. Their exact words are that “riders pay more or wait.” The founder of Uber himself mentioned that supply should always be full, as any business wants. The pricing model, however, is used to fine-tune this supply as well as demand. Essentially, surge pricing is Uber’s ingenious way of running the daily operations of the business’s supply chain, without actually having to run the business itself. Simply put, it’s the company’s way of maximizing potential revenue streams.

It seems as though, in a world where the free market economy is supposed to rule, Uber’s surge pricing model is the exemplar. Putting jargon about demand system elasticities aside, the Uber experience makes it feel like the mobile app knows exactly how badly we want to climb into a car and head home after the horrors This raises the question: why does of St. Laurent have finally outdone Uber’s surge pricing system seem to catch us at the worst times?

Uber is notorious amongst its users for its surge pricing system. The convenience of using Uber often outweighs the troubles associated with surge pricing, but like with all systems of utility, there comes a time when tradeoffs between outrageous ride costs and ease of use emerge quite strongly.

Uber has found a way to focalize our exact location into small hexagonal blocks. When the demand specificities of these blocks begins to rise or fall, the coding of these blocks change.

According to a course study at Cornell University, this means that Uber knows just how much we need a ride once this locational information has been established. The app determines the rider’s exact phone battery level and predicts how likely the rider is to pay for surge pricing or not. Through a combination of other factors incorporated into the model, such as weather conditions, time of day, historical trend series, and even any local events that may be occurring, a final surge number is churned out onto our screens. Someone’s willingness to pay is ultimately up to them, but the fine details of this surge pricing model, as well as the level of hatred toward it, begins to create speculation about how the company is performing.

by Rohan Roychoudhury and Youcef Sahnoune

However, in spite of its vehement critics, supporters of the surge pricing model believe that upcharging customers not only benefits drivers, but the public in general. Some believe that surge pricing cuts idling times cut down, and that telling people where to be and when contributes to the natural flow of daily life. Moreover, Uber drivers, with their increased earnings on surge priced trips, are given more incentive to provide quality and expedient service. It also gives riders more motivation to be on the road during large planned events, holidays, and periods of high demand, like when there’s poor weather. And so far, this mentality has worked in bolstering profits.

But while this facet of Uber’s model has provided a healthy boost to their profits since its implementation, the company is still in financial

trouble. In spite of its 5.5 million daily riders, Uber has seen declining earnings and increasing levels of disillusionment with the company’s operations. From drivers striking in Montreal and across the globe, to their failed initial public offering in May (which has since halved the company’s value), Uber has abandoned its place of financial stability. With their stock down 37 percent in the last 10 months, as well as their recent decrease in demand due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, their future is in doubt now more than ever.

More than that, Uber has faced enormous pressure from its investor base, and has a lot to answer for. Amid their restructuring efforts, the company has laid off

1,000 workers in the last year, and is in the process of reworking their business operations to fit with increasing amounts of regulation toward what some call the ‘gig economy’ Uber has championed. In their last earnings call, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told investors that Uber has moved up its time table when it comes to profitability and is hopeful that the company can turn things around by the end of 2020.

With these financial pressures in mind, will Uber continue to search for ways to scrape profits in their pricing model? Indeed, this is not to say that all of the profits are pooled together and enjoyed only by the suits in the corporate office, but it goes to show that the fundamentals of our economic system are ultimately out to improve and streamline efficiencies, especially when surviving Uber’s surge.

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

Coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to wreak havoc across the global economy. Governments are reporting thousands of cases of the deadly respiratory infection, and it has emerged that the virus is spreading faster outside China than inside China for the first time.

does provide a valuable perspective. A year after the SARS epidemic began in China in 2002, the virus spread to 26 countries and put a $40-50 billion dent in the global economy. Back then, China was the world’s seventh-largest economy, and its consumers held a mere 2 percent share in the global personal luxury goods market.

Flight cancellations and travel bans only aggravate the luxury retailers’ slump in their sales, as their global brick-and-mortar travel retail and duty-free outlets have been left exposed.

For instance, the lack of Chinese tourists, who account for a third of retail sales in Changi Airport, leaves onethird of the airport’s profits evaporated.

Fast forward to the current coronavirus outbreak: China is now the world’s second-largest economy and the largest global fashion market, with its consumers making up over a third of global luxury spending. This massive disruption in the Chinese economy and the drop in Chinese consumption has already been felt; global companies have gotten a taste of lossIt is impossible to predict the scale es to come. Burberry, Capri Holdings and seriousness of future disruptions and Tapestry Inc. have scrapped their to the global economy, but history earlier outlooks, while Kering saw a drop in local traffic and sales, and Moncler reported an 80 percent drop in foot traffic to its mainland stores.

Nike also joined these brands in temporarily closing stores and warned of the shutdown’s impact on sales.

China also plays a significant role at the other end of the global fashion industry: it is deeply embedded in all aspects of fashion’s supply chain.

The World Trade Statistical Review found that in 2018 – the most recent data available – China exported $118.5bn (£91.1bn) of textiles and $157.8bn (£121.5bn) of clothing, making it the world’s biggest exporter of these categories. Therefore, the shut-down in the country hangs the global supply chains in limbo.

Beyond the devastating human cost, businesses are also feeling the deep impact of the ongoing outbreak. Towns, cities and entire regions across the world are on lockdown; China was the first to do so. Offices and factories are closed, private vehicles banned, and movement restricted in a bid to curtail the spread of the virus. The Chinese economy has already taken a hit.

It’s hard to predict when Chinese manufacturers will be operating at full capacity again. Businesses are taking action to mitigate risk and reduce their dependence on Chinese manufacturing. The future impact on people and businesses around the globe remains unknown, but China’s shut-down has for many highlighted the importance of supply chain diversification and flexibility – potentially driving further an existing shift away from China’s dominant stance in the market.

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

When Canada legalized marijuana on October 18th, 2018, it became the second country in the world to do so. While Bill C-45, the legislation that legalized the drug, was quite comprehensive, a lot was left up to provincial governments to determine how they would proceed with the implementation.

Manitoba and Quebec chose to opt out of a portion of the legislation that would have permitted residents to cultivate up to four of their own cannabis plants, a measure later deemed unconstitutional in Quebec. The larger portion of marijuana legalization left up to provinces was retail sales: who would own the rights to sell the drug?

The main difference between provinces is whether they allow licensed private retailers to sell marijuana, and whether the sales occur at government locations or externally. The regulation varies heavily from province to province: Manitoba offers sales only through private retailers, whereas New Brunswick offers sales only through government-operated locations. This stark contrast poses the question of how government regulation of distribution has affected marijuana sales, prices, and availability.

In Quebec, the Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC) is responsible for marijuana sales. As a subsidiary of the government liquor monopoly SAQ, the government has full control of the sales of the drug. In the early days of legalization, the ef-

ficiency of these stores was in question. In January 2019, the SQDC’s mere twelve locations were only open from Thursday to Sunday due to supply issues. Since then, SQDC’s reach has broadened to 30 active locations.

In fact, Quebec seems to pay the least for cannabis products, averaging about $6.75 per gram. Manitoba, a province who does sales exclusively through private retailers, pays one of the highest prices for cannabis, at an average of $9.14 per gram. However, these prices may be attributed to higher fees to operate there. Surprisingly, there seems to be little correlation between the price of marijuana and the type of retail law by province. Overall, the disparity in pricing across provinces seems to have little effect on how much consumers are paying for the drug.

One thing is clear about marijuana pricing in Canada: the black market does it better. In fact, the gap between legal and illegal prices for cannabis is widening, which is a source of concern for the government. According to the Canadian government, the rationales for legalizing weed are

two-fold: restrict access of cannabis to young people and displace illegal markets. Without a significant change in prices, these goals may never be achieved. The black market will likely still thrive as long as their pricing is attractive, and as long as that market thrives, the youth will have access.

The wide difference in provincial legislation surrounding cannabis sales in Canada is odd, to say the least. However, it seems that, be it public or private retailers, the core issues surrounding cannabis and its legalization in Canada remain. Until provincial governments – and potentially the federal government – find a way to reduce prices and effectively crack down on black market sellers, the hope of perfect legalization may remain a dream.

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BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

I come from a pretty traditional Korean family. As the oldest child of an immigrant family, Korean traditions and customs have remained a large part of my sense of self. While I think that I’ve adjusted nicely now, it was definitely a struggle at first to accept the unique cultural identity I was developing. While my friends would talk about fighting with their parents, I would secretly be in awe of the fact that they could even speak up to them. They would bring ham and mustard sandwiches, while I would bring fried rice in a thermos. One other big disparity was what we looked forward to. When we turned 18, they were ready to go out and get wasted on beers and shots. In my case, I was looking forward to the day I would be able to sit with my father at the dinner table, and share a bottle of soju.

While it has become increasingly popular in foreign markets, many people still do not know what soju is, especially in North America. Soju is a clear, alcoholic beverage that is distilled from rice and other starches. It has an alcohol level that can range from 16% to 45%, and normally comes in a clear, green bottle. It was developed before the Korean War, and has remained a proud Korean creation in the years following. In terms of taste, imagine a slightly sweeter, more viscous version of vodka.

Despite that fact that many people still do not know what it is, soju is now the world’s #1 selling type of alcohol in terms of pure volume, with the world’s largest soju brand, Jinro, 07

clocking in at 78 million 9-litre cases in 2018. This means that Jinro alone accounted for more than 700 million litres of soju on the world market.

Of course, the majority of sales are based in South Korea, but that alone should speak volumes to how much soju means to the Korean people.

rean culture, connecting older and younger generations. It can represent the maturing bond between a parent and their child, between lovers, between the closest of friends; this is what makes soju truly unique.

It is also known as the people’s liquor because of the low cost at which one Based on description alone, some can buy it in Korea, which may be might think of soju as a diluted ver- why it has had trouble translating to sion of vodka. This is true, but I be- the North American market. In Kolieve that this does not capture all of rea, you can buy a bottle of soju for the symbolic meaning of the drink. three to five dollars at the local bar, Soju is a drink that is meant to be which makes accessibility much eashad with food, and most important- ier. Here in Montreal, the only placly, with people. This is where the dif- es that you can buy soju are bars and ferences really begin, as there is very restaurants with premiums attached specific etiquette that needs to be ob- to the name, like Ganadara Bar and served when sharing the drink with Mon Ami, where a bottle of soju other people. For starters, the oldest goes for anywhere from $16 to $25. person at the table is the one who It is more of the same across North pours the first shot for everyone, with America. It may be a product of tariffs all the younger people positioning and a heightened cost of living, but their glasses to be as comfortable as this undercuts the symbolic meaning possible for the older person. In ad- that soju has, not just as an alcoholdition, after you bring your glasses ic beverage, but as an accessible litogether, the younger ones must turn quor that can cultivate relationships. their heads away from the table and drink with both hands on their cups. This is my plea to the Korean restaurants here in Montreal. Consider lowThe thing is, no one complains about ering your prices. As a Korean-Canaall these rules, because the point of dian person, I have great pride in soju soju isn’t the intricacies, or even the as a means of conveying Korean cultaste. (Nowadays, soju brands have ture and bringing people together. I been trying out infusing soju with believe that by making it more accessidifferent fruit flavours, which has ble to a larger range of people, not only led to some promising results.) Soju will it serve as a conduit for culture, is called “the people’s liquor” in Ko- but also as a means of increasing sales rea because it brings Korean people going forward when more and more together. Whether it be to celebrate people buy into the people’s liquor. an occasion or to mourn the loss of a loved one, soju is a constant in Ko-

THE SOBER REALITY OF MCGILL’S DRINKING CULTURE

By Rose Bostwick & Noah Simon

spoke to student organizers about the significance of McGill drinking In a city known for vibrant night- events to the student body, as well as life and the lowest legal drinking to non-drinkers about where they find age in Canada, it seems understand- themselves in the school community. able that alcohol-fueled activities foster a unique school spirit at McAlcohol in the Gill. Yet common slogans such as Institutional Context “Work hard, play hard” and, “It’s not alcoholism ‘till you graduate” don’t Much of McGill’s community and apply to the entire student body. nightlife revolves around drinking, Exploring the dimensions of McGill with the school’s most popular acdrinking culture, The Bull & Bear tivities being faculty pubs, apart*Names changed to protect anonymity

ment crawls, and MDOPs (multiday organized parties), all of which are student-run. For many around the school, these events act as a necessary way to build community. “[McGill] is a wet campus where everyone can drink, and if we can do it on campus, [drinking] brings everyone together,” said Ethan Casey cochair of Bars des Arts (BdA). BdA is a weekly faculty pub that currently finds itself without a home as the 08

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Arts Lounge undergoes construction. ing event, despite her having repeatedly suggested ideas for more.

Mercedes Labelle, BdA’s other cochair, agreed, adding, “Despite serving “I spent a lot of meetings advocatalcohol, the main purpose of these ing for non-drinking events… but events is to give students a safe and [I was] outnumbered in a council welcoming environment to interact of individuals who all participate with people they otherwise wouldn’t in binge-drinking events like Scihave the opportunity to.” She con- ence Games, [so] it fell on deaf ears,” tinued that, “while we’re not perfect Maya said. She added, “even when and do have some work to do on non-drinking events were voted for, making our bar more inclusive, we do it felt like simply ticking a diversiprovide a safe space for drinkers and ty check-box and not like there was non-drinkers alike to meet and talk.” any actual desire to host these events.”

Although Maya acknowledged that Arguing that MDOPs can be a strong many McGill organizations attempt outlet to relax “in more ways than to provide “spaces to build communijust the alcohol,” SSMU VP Inter- ty within clubs that are removed from nal Sanchi Bhalla explained, “after drinking,” she also noted that for those back-to-back midterms on complex seeking more non-drinking spaces, it is economic theories, getting on stage important to elect representatives who and seriously, passionately arguing will advocate for these specific needs. [over], ‘Is Spongebob dry or wet?’ is a Hosting drinking events often boils great way to give your brain a break.” down to finances. Bhalla explained that serving alcohol helps organiCasey, LaBelle, and Bhalla all empha- zations make back the money they sized a similar point: drinking alcohol spend. “At least in our experience, stuis not unique to McGill. Casey even dents don’t want to spend money on theorized that the drinking culture dry events,” she said. She added that, may be more pervasive at other uni- “if it ever gets to a point where the culversities. She said, “I think if you go ture changes such that Faculty Olymto any other school, the drinking is pics… start bleeding money instead of even more intense because people are bringing in revenue… of course there pressured to drink off campus, simi- will be a change in the programming.” lar to North America, where there is a drinking age, so you almost feel The Sober Student Experience: bad-ass drinking at a young age.”

A Night in the Life

“Frosh was a nightmare and I felt very marginalized and judged because I wasn’t craving alcohol at… seven in the morning,” confessed U2 Arts student “Campbell,”* who attended Arts Frosh. Adding that the pressure to drink was the highest during this week, she continued, “if I could do it again, I’d definitely choose either not to do Frosh or do [a dry frosh].”

U3 Science student Louis recalled that, despite having attended a Frosh that advertised itself as separate from the clubbing and binge-drinking common to faculty froshes, members of his Outdoor Frosh group brought cases of beer and began drinking at night.

Alcohol may be a ubiquitous facet of university life, but popular school administration and student-sponsored drinking events set McGill apart. In fact, student-led initiatives often prioritize hosting events where alcohol is served.

After the festivities of first year and Frosh, social life can become easier for non-drinking students, as they often find more accepting friend groups and solidify their social groups after moving out of student residences.

[S]tudent-led initiatives often prioritize hosting events where alcohol is served.

U2 Science student “Maya,”* who does not drink, holds an executive position on a departmental council.

Maya explained that this year, her council has held only one non-drink09

One factor that allows McGill to have a popular drinking culture is Quebec’s drinking age. This allows students to legally drink “practically from the minute they get to McGill,” as Labelle pointed out.

This was in reference to Frosh, McGill’s typically alcohol-soaked welcome to the university experience.

In a move towards increased inclusivity, McGill now offers multiple alternative Frosh experiences, such as Rad Frosh, Outdoor Frosh, and Fish Frosh, a dry frosh hosted by Montreal Christian groups. Still, for sober students who choose to attend other Frosh weeks, the experience is often flawed.

“The way McGill tries to initiate integration into the university is really centered around the shared experience of drinking,” Louis said. He explained further, “what I feel, and what I think a lot of other people who don’t drink feel, is that if you don’t participate in that culture, that rather than acting as a force of integration, [Frosh] acts like a force of repulsion from the community.”

“The way McGill tries to initiate integration into the university is really centered around the shared experience of drinking”

“I feel so much less pressure now that I live in my apartment rather than in [New Residence],” Campbell said.

She explained, “I honestly don’t mind people drinking, I just don’t like feeling left out because I don’t.” Of her current roommates, a group which included both sober and non-sober students, Campbell said, “we still go out and invite our friends often, but I don’t feel like I need to drink to

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make friends anymore, which is nice.”

able for non-drinkers. As a Montrealer who commutes to campus, Tinoli A Need For New Spaces said that because she “already has Sober students at McGill have strug- [a] social network made,” she choosgled to cultivate non-academic com- es not to attend McGill’s drinking munities on campus, and the dominant events “just because there doesn’t tend presence of alcohol-driven activities to be much more to do than drink.” like Frosh and BdA may contribute to this sense of isolation. The source [S]he chooses not to of this issue may lie in the instituattend McGill’s drinktional failures to provide student soling events “just beidarity and alternative social spaces.

While the students interviewed cited a wide range of reasons for staying sober— from religious principles, to family histories of substance abuse, to medical necessity, to simply personal preference— each reported having an active social life with some combination of working, extracurriculars, studying, and spending time with friends. When going out, they visit Montreal’s restaurants, Bhalla argued that these drinking concerts, festivals, and other events. events, “often provide a sense of school spirit that McGill sorely lacks…

Some, however, also feel that their and are so unique to this universiexperience might be slightly differ- ty that’s become my adopted home.” ent from the average university stu- Administrative incompetencies dent. Louis said, “my friendships are when it comes to construction permuch more one-on-one, which might haps amplify the issue: Labelle citstem from the fact that I don’t real- ed the long-term closings of BdA, ly have the scene that alcohol pro- Gerts, and the SSMU building as vides, for a large group of people contributing to McGill’s severe lack to have an excuse to get together.” of community. “McGill is increasM ingly losing thesee communi- t y U3 student Tinoli voiced a similar spaces… [and] iss reverting sentiment in saying, “[when] I do back to solely being ing an acaform friendships and such on cam- demic institution,” n,” she said. pus, my friends tend to be ones that are non-drinkers, like me. It’s just She also suggested ed that these because we can hang out more often spaces provided students who in dry environments, and I don’t have didn’t drink with ith places on to feel awkward about denying re- campus to socialize ialize at night quests to hang out at bars or whatnot.” without havingg to club on Saint Laurent. According rding to Labelle, Maya primarily criticized the re- the lack of these ese spaces “won’t quests to justify her sobriety; she deter people who want to shared , “I really hate the shocked drink from drinking, nking, but it eyes, the vocalization of disbelief, will further isolate olate stuand the insistence on why I could dents who don’t n’t drinkk ever possibly not want to participate but want a space pace to in the life changing experience that have meaningful ingful is getting shitfaced. It doesn’t mean peer-to-peerr inI’m stuck up, have trauma, or have teraction withthsomething I want to hide; I just don’t out the time me like drinking alcohol, that’s really it.” c o m m i t ment of “I really hate the shocked joining a club or eyes, ... and the insissports tence on why I could team, ever possibly not want e t c . ”

to participate in the life changing experience that is getting shitfaced.”

But many any of these community ity spaces may simply not be enjoy-

cause there doesn’t tend to be much more to do than drink.”

Similarly, Louis recalled, “‘Gerts ‘til it hurts’ [was] real. If you go, you’re going to be the only sober person there. Even if ostensibly it is inclusive, it’s not desirable.”

To improve McGill’s culture for drinkers and non-drinkers alike, Louis suggested providing more spaces for so- cializing on campus as natives to the library or alterafter-hours nights in after-hour He noted, bars. H “there are barely any spaces to talk to people where peopl aren’t supposed you are working; where to be wor have chance you can h conversations with peoconversation ple you don’t know and that’s acceptable.” you’re drinking, “If you might have the you m opportunity to have oppor more acquainmor tances, [but]… tan whether or not wh you’re drinking, yo finding deep reis llationships e x t r a o rd i n a r i ly difficult at McGill,” Louis stated. He continued, “I think that’s a structural thing.”

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NEWS

By Claire Chang

To protect the names of individuals who are involved in the illegal consumption of cannabis, certain names will be changed to protect their identity.

“Shit, oh shit.”

That was “Tessa’s” first reaction to hearing that Quebec had just enacted the most conservative cannabis restriction in the country. The legal age to buy and consume cannabis would become 21, effective Jan 1, 2020. Other underage students, like “Miles,” were equally surprised.

“I was kind of shocked because I thought that in Quebec and Montreal, laws regarding [cannabis] were pretty relaxed,” Miles said.

“I was so surprised it moved up to 21 and I didn’t really understand why they would do that because it doesn’t really make that much sense.”

Having been tabled previously by Junior Health Minister Lionel Car11

mant, Bill 2 was passed on Oct. 29, 2019 at the National Assembly, with a vote of 64 to 43. Afterward, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that increasing the legal age undermines the federal government’s efforts to eliminate the black market. Echoing Trudeau’s statements, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante told reporters: “They are saying to youth, go and get your stuff from organized crime.”

“They are saying to youth, go and get your stuff from organized crime.”

said. “Now, I’m going to start buying it from a drug dealer.”

Tessa also mentioned going to a dealer, but dealers aren’t the only way underage students are accessing weed now that it’s illegal. Miles says he knows people using fake IDs, which allows them access to SQDC and online dealers.

“Paige” said that she now orders weed from the website thccollection.com, which she found through Weedmaps.

THC Collection brands themselves as one of the leading mail order marijuana sites in Canada, and Weedmaps “provides consumers with information regarding cannabis products, including online ordering.” Both websites are legal, and before people can use Many underage McGill students, them, they only need to confirm they including “Landon,” are doing ex- are of age by clicking a yes/no button. actly that: instead of buying weed from the SQDC, a legal canna- Although many dealers on Weedbis store, they’re turning to dealers. maps ask for identification, students who smoke are finding loopholes re“I still had a bunch [of weed] left gardless. “The SQDC doesn’t know over from last semester,” Landon Fake IDs exist, so I walk in like I own

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used in the regulation of cannabis, and smoking less this semester, he makes ignored for substances like nicotine. it clear that “it wasn’t the legal age that made that decision. I just told “I get the whole scientific thing; myself I’d smoke less this semester.” your brain hasn’t finished developing until you’re 25 or something, but While the new law was enacted they didn’t change the age to 25,” with goals to restrict accessibiliAccording to Daniel Weinstock, the Landon said. “They didn’t change the ty and consumption of cannabis for director of the McGill Institute for age for alcohol and nicotine, which young adolescents, students make Health and Social Policy, easy ac- are both way worse for your health.” it clear that that’s not happening. cessibility for underage consumers despite the new law is why Quebec Weinstock agrees, arguing that while “[It’s] not going to change,” Tessa said. should move towards legalization prohibition could be ideal, it’s ulti- “People used to buy weed, people still and regulation instead of prohibition. mately unenforceable. In his opinion, a buy weed. [The increase in legal age] much more efficient way to control the doesn’t make a difference, in my In an article for Policy Options, Wein- harm of cannabis consumption is reg- opinion. If people want to buy stock writes that “at first glance, pro- ulation, which includes product test- weed they’re going to find ways.” hibition seems to make sense. But we ing and full transparency on potency. pay our elected officials to go beyond the first glance. Will the prohibition of “When prohibitions are ineff effective, cannabis for persons under 21 actually responsible legislators should d look protect young Quebecers more than for other ways of minimizing risk,” legalization and regulation would? The Weinstock writes. “Prohibition tion context of cannabis use by youth sug- combined with lack of sufficient nt gests reasons to think that it will not.” enforcement capacity could be the riskiest strategy of all.”

Miles voiced a similar sentiment, calling the increase in legal age “naive.” At McGill, prohibition has always been the policy: “If you were smoking weed before, since legalization was first innyou’re not just going to stop because troduced in 2018, the interim rim of the law,” he said. “It hasn’t real- policy was that all consumption ption ly become less accessible. You’re just of cannabis on campus was banned. anned. going to find another way to get it, and it’s just going to be less safe.” At the beginning of the winter nter semester, student residences posted numerous signs warning students dents of “If you were smokthe increase in legal age and d advering weed before, tising the new residence policy icy that smoking and possessing cannabis [now] you’re ... just anywhere in residence was illegal. egal. Yet, going to find anoth- many students are willing too break ng weed. er way to get it, and these rules to continue smoking the place,” U2 Arts student “Vera” explained, but added that the convenience of Weedmaps can’t be beat: “The delivery service is open until midnight, so until the SQDC gets better hours, I have no reason to return.”

it’s just going to be less safe.”

Carmant, the pediatric neurologist who tabled the bill, has told reporters that he wrote the bill to protect young people. According to Carmant, adolescents are the “most vulnerable to cannabis,” and if possible, he would raise the legal age to 25. But Landon says that what’s most frustrating about this argument is that it is only

Paige says she smokes in her er room “even though you’re not supposed osed to,” and Miles says “I still smoke outside.

In the same place [as last semester].” mester].”

For many underage students, nts, not much has changed from last semester. Even though it is no longer nger legally accessible, both Landon on and Paige say that they are not consuming any less cannabis than before.

And even though Miles says that he’s 12

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By Eva Julia Van Dam Prompted by the national conflict surrounding Coastal GasLink’s attempted construction of a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline through First Nations lands, a wave of activism has surged through Montreal in the past week.

Indigenous protests have been active and recurrent for decades in response to various trans-national pipeline projects. Currently, the Coastal GasLink pipeline is particularly contentious. Set to run through Wet’suwet’en territory, ranging from Dawson Creek to Kitimat in British Columbia, the pipeline is strongly opposed by the hereditary chiefs and peoples of Wet’su13

wet’en nation. Protests nationwide in- to us, so when we say to get the fuck clude the Ottawa train blockade and off of our land, it is his job to listen.” youth protests in Victoria occupying the Canadian parliamentary building. On Monday, February 13th, Indigenous youth groups, McGill students, Catie Galbraith, co-chair of the and Montrealers demonstrated in McGill Indigenous Student Alli- front of Justin Trudeau’s constituency ance (ISA), called to “shut down office in the Montreal district of PapCanada” in response to the govern- ineau, standing in solidarity with the ment’s “most important cession of Wet’suwet’en. The protest, which was sovereignty since Delgamuukw.” organized by the ISA, was a response Addressing Trudeau and his admin- to the Royal Canadian Mounted Poistration, Galbraith explained why lice (RCMP) raids on February 6th, Montreal is a crucial place for disruption. which led to the arrests of six land protectors on Wet’suwet’en territory.

“We are the people that Justin Trudeau is meant to be representing,” said Gal- Yesterday, on February 17, Indigenous braith. “He is meant to be accountable Youth for Wet’suwet’en and their al-

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Photo by Eva Julia Van Dam lies gathered between the intersection of Sherbrooke Street and McGill College Avenue, “holding sovereignty… in mobilizing against the Government of Canada’s invasion of unceded Wet’suwet’en territory” according to a press release from the movement.

Blocking the streets, demonstrators chanted traditional songs, carried signs, and chanted their support.

Since the 1997 Delgamuukw v. British Columbia case, the Supreme Court of Canada has affirmed the principle that hereditary chiefs have legal jurisdiction over their lands.

This principle is recognized by Indigenous, Canadian, and international law via the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Article 10 of UNDRIP states that, “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories”, and that “no relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned.”

This makes the recent actions by the Canadian government and armed forces illegal on multiple levels.

dian Mounted Police to enforce the the settler-colonial institutions of removal of Indigenous peoples to con- Canada that have persisted since the tinue the construction of the pipeline. creation of this country”, and that leads Canada to pursue “settler-coloThe February 13th demonstration, nialism and anti-ecological policies denounced the acts of the Canadian in the name of ‘progress.’” Everett Government and the RCMP against addressed this point, emphasizing the Wet’suwet’en peoples. Resistance that “we need to realize that when chants such as, “When I say land talking about Indigenous Rights, you say back”, or, “That’s bullshit, we’re talking about decolonization, get off it, this land is not for profit” and it is about time that more setresonated between the speeches of tlers start unifying with the indigeIndigenous Youth Representatives, nous peoples whose lands we occupy.”

Inuit throat-songs and traditional Indigenous drum accompanied songs. McGill U4 Arts student Simona Bobrow, a protester, emphasized the duty As McGill U3 Arts student and and responsibilities of non-indigenous protestor Lucy Everett explained, allies in the Wet’suwet’en demonstrathese demonstrations are even more tions. “A lot of people here are both crucial due to the media black- allies and settlers,” said Bobrow. “It is out in Wet’suwet’en territory. important to recognize and acknowledge that it is time for all the people of “One of the most important things Canada, both indigenous and non-inabout rallies like this is keeping the digenous, to fight back against the witpressure on the media, and keeping nessed injustices on Indigenous land.” the pressure in the public eyes,” said Everett. “Because journalists are not She continued by highlighting not getting let through in the territories, only the importance of voicing our there is really little way of know- dissatisfaction and participating in ing what sorts of abuses the RCMP rallies such as this one, but also dimight be committing right now.” rectly taking actions by complaining to government representatives, and The violation of Indigenous rights via “sending donations to support Indigthe construction of the Coastal Gas- enous protectors on the front lines.” link pipeline also poses a significant threat to the global environmental crisis. Galbraith highlighted the particular link that exists between Indigenous peoples and the environment.

“For us everything that is living and breathing has life,” explained Galbraith. “we’re protecting the sacred as Indigenous people have always been doing.” Galbraith continued by denouncing the “ongoing genocide” that is happening today, stating directly to the audience that, “if you’re exploiting the environment, you’re exploiting indigenous peoples; if you’re killing the environment, you’re killing Indigenous peoples.”

The rally expressed the importance Last December, however, the B.C. Su- of standing with Indigenous Peoples preme Court extended a 2018 injunc- not only in regard to the climate crition against Wet’suwet’en protesters, sis, but also in order to “dismantle part of which allows the Royal Cana-

Photo by Eva Julia Van Dam 14

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MDMA DEATHS

By Dov Ellis On June 29, 2019, a 19-year-old stu- of this, it is likely that deaths relatdent who had been slated to study at ed to illicit drug use will continue if Concordia University in the fall was preventative measures are not taken. found dead in the washroom of Nesta, a popular nightclub on Saint-Laurent Illicit drug use Boulevard, with a bag of white powder next to him that contained traces plays a prominent of fentanyl. Today, his grieving family is calling for more preventative part in Montreal measures to avoid future occurrences.

This may be a difficult feat in Quebec, but also a necessary one. A March 2019 Global News article reported that in that month alone, there were 98 hospital admits due to opioid poisoning in Quebec. For drug overdoses in general, Quebec hospitals see over a thousand cases every month. Illicit drug use plays a prominent part in Montreal nightlife and, as a result 15

nightlife

Party drugs such as cocaine, MDMA, speed, ketamine, hallucinogens, and more are often found at raves, after-hour clubs, and festivals such as Igloofest. U2 Arts student Yvonne* occasionally takes illicit drugs “to enhance [her] nights out.” Of the last time Yvonne took MDMA, she recalled “It’s always a great time; you feel intensely happy and very con-

nected with the people around you.”

But there is a trade-off for the experience: “There was probably a fair amount of speed in there, since one of my friends didn’t sleep for 24 hours,” Yvonne acknowledged, adding that she has heard recent rumors of Montreal dealers lacing their products with stronger drugs, such as fentanyl.

Tackling the issue at McGill, The Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP), a Canadian organization with chapters at multiple universities around Canada, is attempting to provide education and resources for safe drug use. Current McGill chapter head Matthew McLaughlin stated that the CSSDP primarily advocates for harm reduction and evidence-based drug policy. The organization also

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promotes decriminalization, safe sion with one of the CSSDP’s trained consumption sites, safe supply, and volunteers on general education sura general shift in drug policy from a rounding the use of illicit drugs. criminal issue to a public health issue.

Beyond McGill, there are currentAccording to McLaughlin, McGill’s ly multiple establishments in Monchapter is currently leaving a peri- treal that offer drug testing kits and od of dormancy in which it h a s services. Psychonaut, located at 3624 St Laurent Bl Blvd, offers a variety of various plans in mind, drug testin testing kits, such as a Marchief among them quis reagent which works to implementing ng rea identify a new initia-identi alkaloids as well tive at Mcas oother adulterants that drugs, in this case speGill that dr MDMA, will proccifically can be laced with. vide all students with According to “Fokits to test rensic Chemistry of for potenAlkaloids: Presumptial adulterrA tive Colour Test”, ants in cocaine, ine, ti Marquis reagent tests, MDMA, LSD, M and ketamine ne for also known as presumpcolour tests, help with free upon request. tive co the recognition of drug materials “McGill students use drugs, and they’ll via rapid colour changes. Marquis recontinue to use drugs. That hasn’t agents are the main method of adulchanged,” McLaughlin pointed out. terant testing for MDMA and work “What has changed is that adulter- by placing a drop of the liquid on a ants like fentanyl have become more sample of the MDMA which changes widespread in our drug supply, killing colour depending on the drug’s purity. thousands of people. If our drug testing kit project is successful, it could go “After hearing other people’s experia long way in promoting harm reduc- ences with it I knew I wanted to try tion among our student population.” it [MDMA], but since I know it can be dangerous I wanted to test it bePlans for the funding and distribu- fore taking it to make sure it was safe. tion of the testing kits are underway. That way I was more relaxed and Currently, the CSSDP is discussing felt safer while doing it and had using ad hoc funds from the SSMU a better experience”, ence”, noted to set the project in motion. If this Alex*, a U1 Artss student. initial trial period is successful, the long-term plan is to put an optional Currently, Yvonne ne student fee in place that is not ex- is also strongly pected to exceed 30 cents a student. considering eiIf the pilot period, expected to take ther thoroughly place in Fall 2020, is successful, the testing her drugs SSMU will hold a referendum to or refraining from vote on implementing the student fee. drug use entirely.

“Any time you buyy Once funding is secured, the CSSDP illegal drugs… you can an will set up office hours in which stu- pretty much take it as a given that dents are invited to stop by to receive there might be some other shit you drug testing kits, free of charge. Upon didn’t order,” she admitted. “That’s picking up the testing kits, students why I think it’s a really good idea to will also be invited to have a discus- have test kits on campus. People ar-

en’t going to stop doing drugs, but they can at least be safer about it.”

Any time you buy illegal drugs… you can pretty much take it as a given that there might be some other shit you didn t order Fentanyl is one of the most important adulterants to test for. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define fentanyl as a “synthetic opioid pain reliever, approved for treating severe pain, typically advanced cancer pain.” Various law enforcement organizations have reported that many of the synthetic opioid overdoses seen in the United States have been from illicitly made fentanyl.

An often fatal opioid, Fentanyl is 50100 times more potent than morphine and therefore is incredibly easy to overdose on. It is also a cheaper alternative to the purer forms of many illicit drugs such as cocaine, and therefore o is a common adulterant. com The use of illicit drugs is an inevitable part of Montreal nightlife, and whether or not w people choose pe participate, to there is a high likelipeople hood they know k do. This is why for orwho do ganizations like the CCSDP it ganiz is important that people begin to view it as more of an issue of public health and safety, as opposed to an issue of criminal behaviour. The CCSDP takes a neutral position on illicit drug use, but a pro-safety stance when it comes to the McGill community.

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CONTAGION IN THE AGE OF CORONA Jacob Klemmer and Jenna Benchetrit It’s been ten years since I watched Contagion, yet even after all this time, there is one edit I remember like it was yesterday. Kate Winslet, who plays the hyper-professional doctor flown into Minnesota to combat the virus in the early days, somehow contracts it in her hotel room. After a few frantic phone calls, she’s wheeled off to the hockey rink where she set up the mass treatment camps. Some time later, a man beside her, frozen by the cold, begs a doctor for another blanket to no avail; there’s a shortage. She reaches to the man, a good six feet away from her, trying to hand him her parka, but he doesn’t notice her. Smash cut to her face with a plastic sheet over it. She’s lying in a mass grave.

the sharpness of the montage itself. It is, for or me, the moment that unlocks Contagion. tagion. It demonstrates the quick, cutting ng nature of Soderbergh’s approach, as well as the humanity that underlies it. This film, which opens with Gwyneth Paltrow’s skull being sawed open and ends with a heartfelt makeshift prom, covers such a vast distance of tone, character, space and time, and yet through Soderbergh’s masterful approach, it is all unified.

Contagion’s strengths and weaknesses were well-litigated soon after its release, and to be sure, the things that don’t work about it still don’t work – chief among them everything involving Marion Cotillard’s bizarre hostage subplot, which is introduced in one I’m blown away by that cut from the early scene and then resolved the very coat to the grave: its economy, its co- next time it re-emerges, a full hour later. existing kindness and ruthlessness.

It’s as if Winslet was sliced open by But the flaws with this film are easy to 17

overlook given the scope of what Soderbergh achieves here. Simply put, he got it exactly right. Not just in terms of the vocabulary (among them “social distancing” and “basic reproduction number”), or because of the scenarios he depicts (the nightmarish runs to the grocery store, the right wing conspiracy theorists and their phony medicine, O’Hare shutting down), but because of the feel. Every time I’ve left my house to get groceries, or to go on a nighttime sanity walk, I think about that opening sequence, or that scene on the bus, every filthy, germy surface pored over by Soderbergh’s camera. I think of the forceful way he cuts between them, so quickly that the number of surfaces becomes more horrifying than the surfaces themselves.

Soderbergh is not a subjective filmmaker, but the frenzied state of mind in these transit sequences is just so eminently relatable in times like these.

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To match our sickly state of mind, we have a sickly green colour palette and a sense of movement that feels truly feverish. Soderbergh was an early adopter of digital cameras (and has since made the transition into hardcore iPhone shooting). Digital perfectly complements Contagion: the raw, off-white look of the images, the harshness of the natural lights, and the motion that appears just a bit too fast and too smooth all come together to create the germiest of cinematic effects, like the screen itself has come down with the sickness. Combine this with one of cinema’s most bizarre uses of a split-diopter lens (using the face of Paltrow as the dividing line between foci, exactly what they tell you not to do) and you get a film that’s simultaneously crystal clear and disorienting.

When Soderbergh introduces Kate Winslet’s character, a sharp, fact-spewing worker who can track the virus down through the sheer efficacy of her planning, it seems as if he’s introduced his director surrogate. The way she cycles through the people Paltrow met and the places she went, and then organizes all this information to narrow everything down to a single bus, seems to recall Soderbergh’s own process of editing the film in his head as he’s shooting it. Has anyone else ever killed their own surrogate character as ruthlessly as Soderbergh did in that coat-to-grave cut?

Oh, to be killed by a Soderbergh edit.

As we stagger through the current Covid-19 pandemic, people are revisiting Contagion in droves. But why, at this moment in time, watch a film slick with the viscerality of disease?

The nasty, two-note cough that opens the movie — that sort of sickly croak with a little catch in it — is enough to make anyone lean away slightly from the screen, triggering our instinct for self-preservation. The camera expresses a certain terror at its own proximity to the infection, eyeing, with disgust, the trajectory of the cough, following it from hand, to credit card, to hand, to machine and so on.

In just a few seconds we can imagine the sprawling legacy of that sin- By contrast, the movie’s scientists gle cough, and it is literally sickening. break with procedure to close the distance between civilian and offiContagion’s allure, then, comes from cial. Dr. Ally Hextall ( Jennifer Ehle), its explicitly defined chronology — the CDC research scientist charged its consideration of the virus’ lifes- with developing a vaccine, must work pan. Right now, most of our questions within rigid institutional boundaries. about the coronavirus are temporal: It may come as no surprise, then, that how much longer between now and all of the breakthrough moments in the end? This kind of movie is the es- the film’s vaccine research occur outcapism we need: a bottled depiction of side of the system’s rules; first, when mass crisis from beginning to near-end, Dr. Ian Sussman (Elliott Gould) viwith comforting timestamps to chart olates orders from the CDC and the pandemic’s trajectory. It gives us a finds a cell in which to harvest the hypothetical to hang onto, and some- disease; and then again, when Ally times, when you’re scared and anxious evades bureaucratic procedures by and grieving, hypothesis is enough. testing a possible — and eventualWhile the white-collar world of ly successful — vaccine on herself.

Contagion spends a great deal of its runtime trying to ensure physical dis- As Covid-19 has spread, we’ve seen tance between, well, all of humanity people let go from their jobs, kicked and implementing the same kind of out of their homes and racked with guidelines that we’re bound by today, stomach-turning medical expensthe film’s most urgent preoccupation es – but these are daily realities for is with the distance between crisis and many, even in the absence of a global calm. Can anyone really measure, for pandemic. Reading about the film’s instance, the span between the pan- shoot, I came across a passage so demic’s peak and its end? How far terrifically cynical that it made me away is the discovery of a viable vac- laugh, about Contagion star Gwyncine in relation to a trial period and an eth Paltrow’s takeaway from the film: approval period and a training period and, finally, a distribution period? And Despite being among the virus’ first once that point is reached, of course, victims, [Gwyneth] Paltrow bethere’s the question that Contagion lieved that Beth was “lucky” as she asks directly: “Who gets it first?” thought the disease’s survivors were being left to deal with the newly difWith that final question, the impor- ficult conditions of everyday life, such tance of distance becomes reversed -- as finding food and potable water. now it is a matter of proximity, a matter of who is closest to the front of the Yes — Gwyneth Paltrow’s interpreline that leads to survival. Those wield- tation of Contagion is that it would ing the most power leverage it in their be better to be dead than poor. In real favour; think of Laurence Fishburne’s life, it appears that a growing choCDC head Dr. Cheever, whose at- rus of the global political class agrees tempt to usher his wife to safety ends with her, albeit not in so many words. in chaos, and who desperately tries to Think back to videos of President use CDC resources to favour Wins- Trump, who shrugged his shoulders let’s Dr. Mears as she succumbs to the at the prospect of self-isolation, previrus. With Cheever, Contagion offers ferring instead to delegate death to a somewhat generous and sympathet- the old and infirm. Leaders like him ic portrayal of corrupted officials — in are the ones determining who reaches real life, we have lawmaking ghouls the finish line first and who might not like Senator Kelly Loeffler who ex- reach it at all; Contagion is a comfort ploit their positionality in service of because, for better or for worse, it never their addiction to money and greed. quite brings us to the end of the race. ##

ARTS & CULTURE

THE QUEER STORY OF JAMES MCGAY Sarah Manuszak It was a small ‘fun fact’ mentioned in a tour. An innocuous tidbit that many have forgotten, but it has haunted me every single day of my McGillian life. James McGill, over the course of four years, has become my most important gay icon. As a sixteen-yearold applicant, I travelled to Montreal and stepped foot on McGill campus at an admitted students’ weekend.

I went through all the motions of a university trip: the presentations, the forced interactions with other applicants, the tour. But that tour in horrific weather did more for me than any other McGill propaganda, because it forever implanted in me a terrible, wonderful, certainly incorrect notion: James McGill was a gay man.

Stopping outside the Arts building, my tour guide slipped a little fun fact into their presentation. “One thing many people don’t know,” she explained, “is that James McGill himself, the founder of the university, is buried right here underneath the Arts building crest.”

Of course, this perked up my teenage 19

ears. A corpse? On my university campus? It’s more likely than you’d think But her story got better. “There’s a bit of a ghost story along with this burial.

James McGill was originally buried at a different cemetery, which was closed down in the 1800s. The university resolved to move his remains to campus.

But when digging him up, they also dug up half of the remains of his close friend, as a DNA test on the remains later revealed. So, actually, there are 1.5 people buried under the crest!” My tour moved on, but my brain did not.

Who just “moves on” upon hearing such information? Since that day in 2016, my mind has not been able to find peace. Here, I intend to lay out some facts and hopefully answer some of my own questions about (fingers crossed) James McGay. So I don’t get sued or expelled, I’ll say it now: I have no affiliation with the estate of James McGill and I put forth my conjectures as ~fictional~ regarding the sexual preferences of this esteemed institution’s founder.

That being said…what the fuck, right?! Immediately my mind went to how this could be possible. Did nobody use coffins in the 1800s? Where was Mrs. McGill? Who was this mysterious “best friend”? Fortunately, a quick skim of James McGill’s Wikipedia page gave me the name of his burial buddy: John Porteous. From there, I was met with a wide expanse of nothing. Who was this Porteous, and how close was he really to McGill?

John Porteous was the fur-trading associate of Mr. James McGill. However, he was clearly much more. Upon the death of Porteous in 1782, James McGill became the effective father of his children, raising the youngest, Charlotte, as his own from near infancy. Because, didn’t you know, James McGill had no biological children of his own! In Stanley Frost’s biography, James McGill of Montreal, Frost reveals that McGill bought the plot in Dufferin Square Cemetery where Porteous was buried, and he moved him there from his original place of

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rest in 1797, seventeen years after Porteous’ death. Later, after his 1813 death at age 69 (nice), McGill would be buried in the same plot, next to a man who died almost 30 years before him. Such friendly devotion, isn’t it? ….It isn’t; it’s extremely gay. According to Frost, McGill’s grave was bestowed with an illustrious monument commemorating him with great honour. And, in the true manner of a gay counterpart, “a side panel referred to John Porteous as also being buried there.” What’s more, James McGill reportedly abandoned the fur trade entirely in the years before his death.

So, why was he buried with a remnant of his past, now cast-aside enterprise?

the Montreal community. Even in the excerpts of James McGill’s will available through the McGill archives, no mention is made of Porteous, ostensibly due to the fact that he died before the will was finalized. Suspiciously, though, there is no mention whatsoever of his desired burial state in these excerpts. The university even removed Porteous’ mention from the McGill monument upon his re-interment.

Could someone be conspiring to destroy the memory of Porteous from history? No, probably not. Would I pay big bucks to see that will in full?

Yes. I can only imagine how McGill’s burial clause goes. “Make sure to bury me in the same plot as John Say it with me: Porteous, a fur trading friend of mine, even though I now have renounced the fur trade. Yes, I am aware I can afford a second plot in the cemetery.

No, I don’t want to. Dig up the thirty-year ground and bury me so close to his newly decomposed corpse as to Many of the mysteries surrounding nearly mistake us for one body.” How this McGill-Porteous burial can be has nobody investigated this yet? written off as inconsequential. McGill wasn’t buried with his wife because he was Protestant and she was Catholic. He didn’t have any natural children because, I don’t know, he was busy. His remains were moved because the Dufferin Square cemetery was closed. Porteous was moved with him because people used to be buried so close together that you couldn’t tell whose body was who, right? And surely James McGill was heterosexual and devoted to his wife, with whom he probably never had sex, moreso than the man he was buried so close to that they literally could not dig up his body in the 1870s without also digging up Porteous! All of this I can accept as coincidence.

But what drives me to believe in my James McGay fantasy is the sheer mystery surrounding John Porteous.

As opposed to many of McGill’s other fur trade associates, John Porteous is an online ghost. No Wikipedia page, no archival mentions except in the queries of his possible descendants living in

James McGill was gay.

In the end, I see John Porteous and James McGill as the gay couple that every couple should be:

hopelessly devoted.

Even the other half of Porteous’ remains, now sitting under Complexe Guy-Favreau, were lovingly placed there by the man who seemed more devoted to him than to anyone else: James McGay. McGill displayed complete devotion to Porteous: he raised his children, buried his body, and later was buried next to the man himself. So where is the mark of this “best friendship” on history? If nothing else, I take comfort in the fact that these two possible lovers will remain together, at least partially, on the McGill campus. And I know two body parts in particular that will certainly remain close together forever in that grave: their hearts.

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WOODS

SAINT

WORK HARDER & KEEP PIVOTING: An Interview with Saintwoods’ Zach Macklovitch Annie Chusid Saintwoods’ co-founder Zach Macklovitch is busy. He has a music blog, clothing line, vodka brand, and multiple clubs that are among the most popular in Montreal and Toronto.

Saintwoods is the Montreal-based creative agency behind Apartment 200, École Privée, and SuWu – clubs famous for their inclusive environment, cutting-edge conceptual design, and lines longer than Schwartz’s on a Sunday. They’ve booked previously up-and-coming artists like Avicii, Post Malone, and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Now, their small promotions company that began in 2014has evolved into a creative powerhouse. I sat down with Macklovitch to talk about his successes, failures, and what’s ahead.

[The following interview has been edited for clarity] 21

The Bull & Bear: Tell us about how Saintwoods started.

Zach Macklovitch: I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I started trying to find different ways to make money at a pretty young age. I got involved at Saintwoods when I was about 22 years old. I had already had a nightlife career independent from Saintwoods since I was a teenager. I was working on an event at the time, and I wanted the McGill community there, and that’s how I met my business partner, Nathan. After we got to know each other, we both identified the other as driven. We had similar opinions on what made an event great, and we agreed on [the direction] we wanted to be pushing the culture [in].

B&B: So, your background was club promoting?

ZM: I was promoting, but at the same time, I started a clothing line when I was about 18. The line was all dress shirts and skinny chinos, rain jackets and sweaters. It was all made in Montreal. I lost a fortune, I had no idea what I was doing.

B&B: After you established Saintwoods, what were your first business ventures? What did you learn from them?

ZM: Back then, Saintwoods was doing concerts. I learned quickly that as much as concerts could make money, they could lose money as well. One of the first things I remember was an Avicii event we did in a Kingston hockey arena. We also did Meek Mill together, and it caused a riot. We did Waka Flocka together, and again, that caused a riot.

ARTS & CULTURE

B&B: What experiences do your the trend? venues offer that other Montreal ZM: Back then, our whole ethos was a clubs don’t? matter of finding artists. [The] nightZM: I consider these places a safe life and concert game was very differspace for all kinds of people. When we ent. The only way we could survive in first opened Apt. 200 [...] we wanted the market was by finding artists right to provide a place where you could as they were blowing up. Once dubdress up or dress down. You didn’t step got too big, we couldn’t afford need to have money, and you could to get dubstep artists, so we went to listen to cutting edge music and see progressive house. Then, progressive artists as they were blowing up. We house got too big, so we moved on to were able to offer these experiences to rap and deep house shows. The second our contemporaries, younger people, [that] mainstream culture gets onto and older people. It was a matter of what we’re doing, we need to pivot, creating a space where you could en- which has been a wonderful learning joy the culture — music, art, fashion, experience for us. whatever — in an inviting place where you would maybe not meet your reg- B&B: Would you call yourself a culular people. When we first started ture company? working in nightlife, there were either McGill parties, local Italian parties, or ZM: I would never say that myself, Haitian parties. The idea of all these but I like to think that whether we people coming together didn’t exist. I are working on our own brands, or was a local Montreal kid, and I would consulting for major brands, we try to have never met a girl from McGill make sure that if you’re going to interbecause there wasn’t an environment act with culture that you do it in the where I could meet her. Apt. 200 right way; you’re supporting up-anddoesn’t encompass one culture; every- coming artists, giving communities a one can feel comfortable. Nightlife is place to live, and not abusing the culture. I think too many companies take born in counterculture. an artist for all they’re worth and then B&B: You mentioned that night- just drop them like they are nothing. life is born in counterculture. To- It’s not just a matter of booking A-list day, bedroom pop/indie artists like Dominic Fike and Clairo seem to be leading the next countercultural wave. How do you think this new wave of counterculture will affect Saintwoods?

stars, it’s about supporting the culture you’re interested in.

B&B: For your clothing line, you have collaborations with iconic names like Nike, Opening Ceremony, and even Wu-Tang Clan. How do you choose which brands you collaborate with?

ZM: You don’t really choose Nike; Nike chooses you. Thankfully, the people at the Nike team believed in us, and they still do. They have been incredibly generous over the years.

They didn’t just lace us up in new gear, they also brought us to ComplexCon and made sure we were at the right events.

When it comes to collaborations, it’s always a balance. For example, we recently did a collaboration with Bone Soda. I remember when we released it, some of our contemporaries were like “who are these guys?” I was like, it’s this amazing record label from London. They are so awesome, they always have their finger on the pulse.

We wanted to introduce them to our clientele. The week after our release with Bone Soda, they released their documentary on Virgil’s Coachella

ZM: I think it’s important that we offer different ways for people to digest music, and different ways for music to live in our space. I’ve always been trying to get more live music and live instruments at the bar, so I hope this new trend allows me to present concerts that are more that “9 to 11 vibe” where you come and see amazing live music and then stay for the party after.

B&B: You booked Avicii before he reached international fame with the goal of introducing EDM to the college demographic. How do you manage to continually be ahead of 22

ARTS & CULTURE

ZM: I have incredibly amazing cousins who have insane CVs and successes in their own right, one being the DJ A-track. I’ve looked up to him since I was eight years old. There was a moment when we were still doing the Fool Gold block parties during the Mural Festival. In the first couple of years, it was hard to get the ball rolling. One year, it just popped off. We did it and had fourteen thousand people there, and I remember he looked back at me and was like, “Bro, you did it.” That’s a moment I will never forget. Also, [I remember] a couple of our Paris pop-ups during fashion week, [with] the pop-up in this small club called Hotel Bourbon. When I was looking around the room, I saw that Skepta was at the bar buying drinks and Rae Sremmurd was on the dance floor; people were just hanging out. These people are coming to the Apt. 200 pop-up the same night as the Louis [Vuitton] after-party.

B&B: Lastly, you run multiple venues and have numerous business endeavours. Do you have any advice for college students on how to manage time?

who originally founded Saintwoods is in the spirits business, so we had been talking about it with him. It took us almost two years just to find the right juice. When people look at the vodka, they compare it to our gum, where we just buy some stuff and put our packaging on it. However, they’re wrong.

We’re extremely proud of the product we developed. The bottle that we’ll release in April is handmade in Italy.

It’s super high-quality glass and cusB&B: In January 2019 you launched tom-designed. Trust me, tasting vodka at 9 A.M. is not a fun thing, but we Saintwoods Vodka.

ZM: When Nate was at McGill, did it all. he took a business class where he launched the idea of doing Saint- B&B: Do you have any career highwoods vodka. So, the concept is lights? Any moment that defined around ten years old. One of the guys your career thus far? set, and after that, a collab with Nike.

To be able to have a collaboration with them before everyone in North America knows about them really means something to me. Not that it isn’t exciting to work with them now, but I find the feather in your cap is worth more when you are able to say, “I worked with them when” rather than “I convinced them to work with me now.”

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ZM: The best advice I can give to students when it comes to [time management] is that you definitely have more time than you think you do. I was a double major, and throughout my university career, I also worked full-time and had my side business.

For me, when you’re in your late teens and early 20s, the excuse “I’m tired” is only hurting yourself. I’ll be honest with you: I just turned 30 this year, and now I’m starting to get tired. Now I’ll tell you what tired is like. When I hear a 22-year-old saying, “I don’t have any time,” I’m just like, trust me, you have time. Maybe you need to work harder, delete Instagram, whatever it might be, but if you’re making excuses and you want to be an entrepreneur, the only person you’re making excuses for is yourself, in which case you shouldn’t be doing it.

SECTION

Nearly every evening, no matter how frigid the air outside, a warm, enchanting glow emanates from Le Majestique Montreal: a popular bar in the Jewish Quarter of St. Laurent. Beneath a row of incandescent light bulbs, couples sit on eclectic, mismatched stools, dining on oysters and white wine.

Le Majestique is one of Montreal’s many bars, restaurants, and museums that give the city an aura of romance. In recent years, travel brochures and magazines have commented on Montreal being a nexus of love and charming date spots. Between ice skating on Beaver Lake in the winter and strolls through Atwater Mar##

HUNG UP ABOUT CAMPUS HOOKUP CULTURE

By Sam Shepherd and Liane Faingold

OPINION

ket in the summer, it is not surprising that other young people are having how many view Montreal as the ideal more sex — and better sex — than weekend getaway for lovesick couples. you. This comparison can foster a feeling of inadequacy, especially And, considering how McGill’s cam- among young, heterosexual men, who pus is sandwiched between these art often discuss sex and hookups with museums and hipster bars, dating the language of conquest. Oneculture for young people on campus time flings become another meamust surely exude that same, intimate surable commodity to amass and “Le Majestique” atmosphere, right? compare with peers, not unlike one’s GPA or number of Instagram likes.

Well, not exactly.

Ironically, a lot of this fear is perceived, but not reflective of reality. According “Dtf ?”: The Culture of Casual to the Online College Social Life SurHookups On Campus vey, a database that compiles research Whether by virtue of its enormous from over twenty U.S. colleges, the size or its young, achievement-driv- average undergraduate college student en student body, McGill today facil- only has about seven to eight sexual itates a culture of anonymous, casual partners over the course of a four year sex, more so than it does intimate degree. Further, a sizable 25% of collong-term relationships. Young peo- lege students do not hook up at all. ple today are not only having less sex than they have in the past, but this A sexual partner every semester or sex is becoming increasingly trans- so does not exactly sound like Bacactional. Students regularly “ghost” chanal hedonism. Yet, the competunwanted partners after a sour date, itive culture of casual dating fosters and they use dating apps that dis- unrealistic expectations and FOMO: till an individual’s complexities into a feeling that all college students are simplistic profiles to swipe through. going at it like rabbits, and you’re excluded from all the freewheeling fun.

The dimensions of McGill’s dating climate can contribute to a sense of alien- Are Students Too Busy to Have ation and anonymity. The expectation Relationships? of immediate physical gratification with intimacy as an afterthought per- Between our executive meetings, the vades campuses across North America three midterm papers that have yet to today, but whether this culture of ca- be written, and our morning classes, it sual encounters is harming or empow- may feel like we just don’t have time ering our generation is up for debate. for a dating life. In the face of a more competitive job market, students are Hookup Culture Makes Us Doubt, under a lot of pressure from their parents and mentors to “do it all” with “Am I Having Enough Sex?” the hopes of securing a brighter fuIn her 2020 book, Boys & Sex: Young ture. And make no mistake, this presMen on Hookups, Love, Porn, Con- sure has been instilled in us since high sent, and Navigating the New Mascu- school and remains persistent for years. linity, journalist Peggy Orenstein interviews dozens of young men in liberal In Kids These Days: Human Capital arts colleges across North America. and the Making of Millenials, MalOrenstein describes how these young colm Harris argues that a “decline in men on American campuses feel over- unsupervised free time” is an importwhelmed by the pressures of casual sex. ant reason why young people are dating less and having less sex. Gone are Hookup culture feeds into a mythos the days when students had an entire 25

Saturday to themselves; hangouts with friends have turned into group study sessions in the library and late-night partying. Students ultimately have to find time within their busy schedules to pencil in a possible date; and this does not come without any guilt.

Young people are always going to have sex — it’s the how, when, and why that tend to differ throughout the generations. When we finish class at 5:25 pm, only to realize that we need four hours to catch up on some readings, that nostrings-attached, late-night “u up?” text does not seem too bad, and just may be the thing we need to take the stress off.

What’s Scarier Than Vulnerability?

“Ghosting” and Why Young People Do It We’ve all been there — the moment you realize that it has been three whole days that the person you’ve been texting hasn’t responded. You can no longer try and convince yourself that they’re out with friends, that their phone is off, or that there is a family emergency; it’s clear that you’ve been ghosted.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, Urban Dictionary defines it as a situation in which “a person cuts off all communication with friends or the person they’re dating, with zero warning or notice [beforehand].”

Ghosting has unfortunately become a common practice among young people.

In a New York Times article, psychologist Dr. Jennice Vilauer points to the overwhelming amount of choice that accompanies modern dating that’s making us emotionally numb as a potential factor. Online dating is a very good example; it seems easy to ghost someone when you’re talking to many people at once and are active on both Tinder and Hinge. The reality is that we are more likely to ghost people when the spaces that we are operating within are structured in such a way that do not make us feel accountable for our actions.

OPINION

Vilauer goes on to explain that ghosting ultimately reveals a lot about the person who did the ghosting and their capacity to deal with confrontation and their emotions. People would rather resort to ghosting because they’re too afraid to send a courtesy “I’m not really into this” text for fear of being questioned; and thus, not responding seems like the easy way out.

However, the reason why ghosting hurts so much is due to both the ambiguity and abruptness that come with the practice. While the “Ghoster” may feel as though they have successfully avoided confronting an uncomfortable conversation, their actions only reveal their immaturity and their incapacity to take things head on. (We here at The Bull & Bear recommend that if you’ve ever been ghosted, delete their number and don’t respond when they text you again in three months.)

to improve one’s behaviour and interpersonal skills. Exclusively hooking up may protect you from being emotionally vulnerable, but it may also stunt your maturity long-term.

Hold Up! Feminists Fought So We Could Date Like This.

Still, Wade acknowledges how casual hookups can be liberating; after all, a culture of casual, consensual sex can be construed as the outcome of 1960s North American sexual liberation movements. Activists fought for greater gender equality and the acceptance of sex outside traditional notions of monogamy and marriage.

As grimy as a Tinder or Grindr one-night stand may feel, at least it demonstrates how society is viewing sex as a means of pleasure than strictly a method of reproduction.

Hookup culture has indeed subverted the narrative of the good womSwiping Through Some Pitiful an who is in constant search of her Partners future husband, and shows that A culture of casual dating has its mer- women can enjoy a night of noits, too. Orenstein describes one male strings-attached fun and assert their interviewee discussing how sifting independence in a similar way to men. through a string of casual, one-time flings helped him solidify his sexual Gayle Rubin, a feminist activist, arpreferences. Sociologist Lisa Wade gues that we still live in a culture echoes this sentiment in her 2017 that is seemingly “sex-negative,” in book, American Hookup. As Wade that it only endorses and promotes describes, a series of one-time part- women’s sexuality if it remains withners can solidify a person’s aversions in the confines of dominant heterin sex: a rapid-fire, trial-and-error onormative cultural practices, such method of determining what traits as long-term monogamous relationyou don’t want in a significant other. ships or marriage. This sex-negative worldview is still oppressive to Yet, unlike the slow process of serially women, as it places moral restrictions dating as a young person, hooking up on their right to be sexually expericircumscribes the usual psychological mental and to have multiple sexual benefits that accompany the ebb and partners. In many ways, the defense flow of love and heartbreak. Psycho- of hookup culture contributes to the therapist Robi Ludwig argues that normalization of female sexuality. the agonizing pain that accompanies heartbreak is in fact useful, because While some might find our campus’ it builds one’s emotional resilience hookup culture empowering, it is defiand increases one’s self-awareness. nitely not for everyone. No one should be embarrassed if they are looking to By avoiding intimacy altogether, one be in a committed relationship and is cheating a natural process intended turn down a late-night invitation; no

one should feel “less cool” if they disliked their experience of casual sex; and no one should ever feel pressured to partake in campus hookup culture just because it is the norm. While we are moving towards a more sex-positive world, it is still important to acknowledge that sex is individual, and consent remains of utmost importance.

Traditional Dating is Dying, But Is It Even Worth Resuscitating?

Walking along St. Laurent, one cannot help but feel instinctively envious about the happy millennials lounging underneath Le Majestique’s red-andyellow marquee. Several years older than today’s undergraduates, they roamed lecture halls at a time where dating apps were still in their infancy, and their college years were marked by less FOMO and perceived inadequacy.

Yet, as one continues walking, one gains a greater understanding of what we are gaining through our culture of casual hookups, too. Our generation is experiencing sex with less frequency, sure, but we are also doubling-down on the importance of consent and questioning traditional gender norms. The competitive culture of LGBTQ+ dating apps may damage mental health among queer youth, but our generation is also increasingly tolerant, and we are seeing sexuality as fluid rather than a fixed label throughout life. As Generation Z veers away from traditional monogamy and courtship, we are also rejecting some outdated, patriarchal values.

Once our final papers have been submitted and our graduation caps tipped, it is unclear how this climate of casual dating will affect our generation’s ability to forge meaningful relationships in the future. Time will tell if our preference for sloppy one-night stands in college will eventually mature into oysters inside Plateau bars, or if our culture of drunken flings and ghosting will haunt the way we treat each other in the adult world.

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Growing Up in Blues Pub

OPINION

by Danielle Cormier

The summer before my first semester of college, I came home from work as a hardware store cashier one day to my dad arranging a line of nips on our kitchen counter. There was tequila, vodka, whiskey, scotch, and two different kinds of beer. The only major alcohol type absent was wine, and that was only because I already regularly consumed it at church. My dad poured me a little of each type, handed me a sample of each one, explained the brand and the taste. He said he was “taking the mystery” out of alcohol, trying to curb the temptation to go overboard.

know I already felt no temptation to go overboard. At eighteen, I was already privy to what alcohol would do to my safety and dignity. I’d seen the movies, and heard the stories on the news or from friends. The college experience I pictured was not one of wild nights, and although that’s pretty much what happened, it was not as simple as I pictured; the fear I had of getting drunk would come back to bite me in a more personal, less dangerous or scary way.

Despite my uneasiness, I signed up for Frosh, but I only attended a grand total of two events. I was more turned It was a parenting tactic for an eigh- off from drinking than I had ever teen-year-old college freshman. It did been. I was already uncomfortable betake the mystery out, but he didn’t ing around new people, but even more

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uncomfortable because all of my peers were wasted and I had never seen anyone wasted. My future classmates were a mystery to me—both slow and dangerous, emotionally volatile and unpredictable, embarrassing themselves and also entirely lacking self-consciousness. On what was supposed to be my third day of binge drinking during Frosh, I attended a pre-game at a frat house and left half an hour in.

“Sober Danielle hates dancing; drunk Danielle hates dancing.”

OPINION

In my first year of university, I lived on the first floor of an Upper Rez building—the closest room to the common area, where all the pre-games were held. I knew no one in my Rez and so I didn’t join in on their Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night pres. As I navigated through the drunk crowd, giving directions to slurring strangers, and as I watched them all, hungover but laughing and just together in the cafeteria the next morning, I was both envious of them and disgusted. They were having the college experience I was not, and although I knew I didn’t want that kind of college experience—I had no interest getting blackout every weekend—I also couldn’t help but also feel some burgeoning jealousy.

“...although I knew I didn’t want that kind of college experience...

I also couldn’t help but feel some burgeoning jealousy” My second semester, I joined a sorority, and the week after, I went to my first mixer (a party of one fraternity and one sorority). I stood in a corner and just tried to observe. I was again turned off by the loud, emotionally volatile, sloppy drunkenness and jealous of their ability to just have fun and let go. I had fun at the mixer, but in the back of my mind there was also the nagging feeling that I could have had more fun. I was stuck between two poor choices. Drinking felt wrong and potentially dangerous, but remaining sober felt like missing out.

first years blacking out in Upper Rez. This year, I began to regularly attend Blues Pub, the every-Friday pub hosted by the Engineering Student Society. At first, I drank maybe one sangria over the five hours Blues is open. I was around a new group of people, and I worried about making myself look like an idiot. But it was a much more comfortable experience than Frosh, or Rez, or even my sorority mixer. I was anchored in a solid and defined group, sitting down and physically comfortable, with no expectations that I had to get wasted. It was really the unspoken pressure to get blackout drunk, rather than the pressure to drink, that I resented. They say at Frosh that you can be sober and have fun, that you don’t need alcohol to make friends in Rez, but you tend to be in the minority and on the periphery of social situations if you’re not drunk. It had become a matter of pride; I would not do something I didn’t want to just to make people like me more. I wouldn’t put myself in an uncomfortable position—one I perceived as potentially dangerous—to make friends.

For me, the fear of getting hurt and the fear of looking like a fool held me back from drinking, and it made me look down on those who were getting blacked out, while being jealous of them. The fear-mongering, especially for girls, in the media, universities, and parents, gave me such an unhealthy view of what drinking was like. I was being smart and safe and a good kid like I was supposed to—why couldn’t they? The kids who were blacking out were drinking the way they wanted to, making choices they wanted to. I should have been making the choices I wanted to, by taking my time slow, without being afraid and judgemental. Jumping in “head first” to the college experience is a bad idea, and so is trying to make kids afraid of themselves. You need to have faith in yourself and in your ability to stay informed and safe and take care of yourself. Everyone grows up and finds their relationship to these threatening adult vices. It doesn’t necessarily have to be scary, especially when you’re growing up in Blues Pub.

But I’m glad I didn’t. This year, I’ve finally gone to my first bars and my first club and finally discovered how drinking works for me. As scared as I initially felt of going wild, of losing myself and getting myself hurt, I found that drinking changes little for me. Sober Danielle hates dancing; drunk Danielle hates dancing. Sober Danielle doesn’t like talking to new people; drunk Danielle doesn’t like talking to new people. Sober Danielle doesn’t like hot, crowded, uncomfortable places, and neither does drunk Danielle. Drunk Danielle laughs more, has less of a filter and is really, really sleepy. But she’s still Danielle, and she’s not at all jealous of the

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OPINION

by Faith Ruetas

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OPINION

Picture this: a nest of pillows, a warm crown of lamplight, a silent house.

Outside, the world asserts itself (but does not intrude) through the faint sprinkling of rain, the crescendos of airplane engines. Maybe there’s a thick paperback involved, or perhaps a laptop and an endless refrain of “last episode.” Late at night, when the hours slowly fold into each other like molasses, I’ve always felt that reality crystalizes into this magical, ethereal bubble. To further illustrate what I mean, allow me to transport you into one of these such scenes.

It’s 11:45 on a Friday night, you’re holed up in your room, and you’ve just submitted the assignment you’ve laboured over for days. Equal parts giddy and euphoric, you feel your perspective shift like the spinning of a kaleidoscope. Colours take on a phosphorescent light, sounds adopt a celestial hum. You begin to marvel at the simplest things: the clean lines of pencil on paper, the web of veins lacing a leaf. In the corner of your room, the sweater draped over your chair droops towards the floor like liquid.

Against the walls, shadow and light merge into a nebulous haze, reminiscent of your exhaustion-addled consciousness.

Spurred by a newfound desire for artistic immersion, you scour the web for Bach’s prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major. From that first open, resonant note, you’re whisked away to a grassy clearing beneath sweeping clouds. Then, with the alternating arpeggios, you dance through a twisting forest path and soar up a rocky ledge before emerging onto a sunny mountaintop. Long after the final chord, the sound continues to shiver down your neck. Even without vocals you felt it: the rising curtains,

the darkening clouds, the mounting er than be judged and rejected, pertension, the cathartic return home. haps Orange created an over-the-top persona to push others away, thereby An hour after midnight, some innate avoiding pain on a more personal level. instinct peels you from your burrow and draws you down the hall- As you consider your past self in reway. From 1:00 until 4:00 AM is lation to The Orange, you recognize the best time to drink water. It’s an how you too erected facades that intuitive truth: the taste takes on a masked insecurities. Maybe this took cooler, smoother, rounder and more the form of feigned overconfidence, spectral quality, like a perfect pebble or maybe through a quiet self-effaceplucked from a tide pool. Whether ment. You cringe at yourself in retrothe source is Fiji or Brita, tap or al- spect. This makes you wonder — if kaline tonic, any water consumed in you could go back in time knowing a moonlit kitchen automatically be- everything you know now, would comes mana from the purest fjord. you do it? Would you relive your life Watching it fall into your glass, you’re knowing how you could improve its reminded of the substance’s life-giv- trajectory, but burden yourself with ing power, the ancient magnitude of fixing past transgressions? That said, the seas. To think that this very wa- have your blunders and failures not ter may have once danced along the made you who you are at this exact twilight of the seafloor… Amazing. moment in time? Are you not happy with yourself and what you have actuAs you stumble back to your room, a alized, at this exact moment in time? glimpse of an old photograph recalls vignettes of your childhood: recess af- To answer this imperative question, ter a fall rainstorm, grass stains on blue you reason that you must first consider jeans, Youtube videos on bus rides. the three main facets of being a Homo Sapien: the environmental conditions Suddenly, you remember the Annoy- of one’s birth, the hereditary traits ing Orange, a series that captivated one inherits, and the whims of fate you with its unmatched ability to irri- to which one is subjected. By mergtate your parents. You visualize the cel- ing these three facets, factoring in the ery colour of its eyes, the repulsive (yet distance to Mercury at the time of hypnotizing) flapping of its tongue. As your first public humiliation, you find you ponder the fruit’s character—its that the only logical conclusion is— essence—you’re struck by a renewed sense of clarity concerning the infa- Is that the sun already? Looking over, mous orange.With its yellowed teeth, the glowing numbers stare up at you horse-like eyelashes, and pockmarked from your phone: 5:23 AM. Though complexion, perhaps The Orange was you strain to recapture the thread you acutely aware of its undesirability. If were spinning, sleep begins to envelop this were true, perhaps it therefore you with its siren call. You feel your nagged the more popular foodstuffs eyelids falling, your body sighing. as a coping mechanism for its low Whatever you were thinking about self esteem. By constantly spewing would just have to wait; you’ve already bathroom jokes and flatulence noises, slipped halfway into the cosmos. A it could distract others from areas of thought for another night, perhaps. itself it did not want analyzed. Rath-

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OPINION

by Linnea Vidger

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OPINION

I find dating apps to be one of the most intriguing phenomena of the twenty-first century. No matter how feminist or liberating they ostensibly appear, their very existence essentially perpetuates snap judgements and superficial conversations. As a huge fan of both of these things, I immediately downloaded a new dating app, Hinge, after hearing about it from a few of my friends. Hinge markets itself as “not like those other apps” because it contains mandatory conversation prompts that all users must fill out, ranging from favorite movies to ideal dates. Although the app uses these prompts to make potential matches seem more interesting, my dalliance with Hinge demonstrates that people are even more bland than we thought.

I’ve come to use dating apps less as a way to actually meet people and more so as a research tool through which I can familiarize myself with and analyze the Montreal male dating app pool. After exhausting Montreal’s Tinder and Bumble selection, I’ve confirmed that a lot of men who use these apps are pretty boring. If I had a dollar for every time I flipped through a profile mentioning his love of dogs, vowing to cook a meal for me, or demanding that I swipe left if I don’t like The Office, I would be able to single-handedly fund the McLennan renovation plan.

After spending some time on the app, I’ve compiled what I believe to be some of the most representative and sometimes cringe-worthy responses I’ve encountered.

“A social cause I care about … Baby Yoda memes and saving animals.”

love for dogs will make them stand out. Sure, I love dogs, too, but we’ve all seen enough of these to know that I admire this guy’s bold choice while we share this wholesome pasto lead in without an actual so- sion in common, you will still drunk cial cause, followed by an extreme- text us at 3 am after we’ve ghosted you. ly vague social cause. Responses like “A shower thought I recently had: this are pretty clearly an attempt to seem at least relatively funny and What was the first guy to milk a cow trying to do?” meme-aware, while also being “aww”-worthy by mentioning animals.

You would be amazed at how many times I saw this exact response. Isn’t “I’ll fall for you if … You agree that Harry Potter is better than Star Wars.” it crazy how they all seem to have the same shower thought? It’s alThis particular response especially most as if this shower thought nevcaptivates me. The format implies that er happened at all, and instead this suitor is trying to find someone originated on Reddit in 2012. who is “not like the other girls,” but the references are generic enough that it “The hallmark of a good relationship is… sharing a Netflix account.” could attract just about anyone. I have to ask, why does the comparison of Harry Potter to Star Wars need to be Oh, really? Curious, I asked for his made? What do these two franchises Netflix password. He replied sayeven have in common? What does it ing, “Let’s meet first.” I’m not gosay about me if I, theoretically, enjoyed ing to lie, that was pretty smooth.

Star Wars just a little bit more than Harry Potter? Is it really over, then? In the growing world of online dating, Tinder and Bumble have succeeded in “Which of these two date ideas sounds giving boring guys a chance to shine better? 1. Getting wine drunk at 6pm, by letting them rely almost entirely on eating chicken nuggets, and petting their photos and a one-sentence deevery stranger’s dog. 2. Mini putt fol- scription. Hinge tempts to change this lowed by unlimited tequila shots.” through personalized prompts. Yes, Hinge may miss the mark on making While the prospect of binge drinking potential matches actually seem more with a complete stranger is promising, interesting. However, perhaps this I was still confused by the first propo- type of app is exactly what we need: sition, which offers a seemingly pain- a dating platform that allows users to ful combination of wine and gourmet tell right away who lacks enough pernourishment succeeded by the petting sonality to come up with a witty reof animals. I have still not cracked why sponse to a simple prompt. And if you so many men (or women) on dating don’t like it, just re-watch The Office apps still believe that mentioning their and tell me how much you like dogs.

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