The McGill Tribune Vol. 41 Issue 16

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022 | VOL. 41 | ISSUE 16

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FEATURE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Closing the curtain on political theatre

From hustling to health

Where do I begin: NFTs

PG. 5

PGs. 8-9

PG. 13

(Anoushka Oke / The McGill Tribune) PG. 2

Faculties rally to strike as McGill resumes in-person classes

Social Work Student Association votes to strike until February 25

Decision comes after McGill refused School’s decision to stay online Tess Pilkington Contributor After the McGill administration denied the School of Social Work’s decision to independently hold classes remotely until at least Feb. 25, the Social Work Student Association (SWSA) held a General Assembly (GA) on Jan. 17 to discuss the possibility of a strike.

The motion to strike was successfully passed, with 70 in favour, three against, and two abstaining. The SWSA had previously detailed their concerns in an open letter to the McGill Administration before the GA and vote occurred.

The strike is set to run until Feb. 25, when another GA will be convened to vote on whether it should continue past March 4. Students will strike from

School of Social Work classes held in person for the duration of the strike.

However, they will continue to attend field internships and are encouraged to attend those courses held online. The SWSA will end the strike if McGill grants the School of Social Work full independence in choosing how and when its students return to in-person learning.

PG. 3

Sustainable projects for staying at home

How to steer away winter screen time exhaustion Jackie Lee Copy Editor The end of January: Add/ drop is over, winter break is

but an amorphous memory, and outside is really, really cold. Instead of venturing into the frigid outdoors, try your hand at some sustainable projects to distract

yourself from the gloom of 5 p.m. sunsets—all without ratcheting up your screen time or purchasing superfluous materials.

PG. 11

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NEWS

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

Faculties rally to strike as McGill resumes in-person classes

Admin attempts to assuage student concerns with press releases, question periods Lily Cason News Editor

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any McGill students entered the classroom for the first time this semester on Jan. 24. The majority of McGill courses—except Tier 1 activities—began online due to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 and a subsequent provincial lockdown.

The university’s decision to require students and staff return to campus has been met with controversy, particularly from students who worry it is premature.

From open letters and statements to strikes, many members of the McGill community and student organizations have opposed the timing and execution of the university’s reopening.

Associate Dean (Student Affairs) Manuel Balán, which ran well over the allocated 30-minute period.

Most questions regarded McGill’s COVID-19-related accommodations and the possibility of making course materials accessible remotely. Balán explained that rules in place to protect instructors’ autonomy and intellectual property prevent the university from creating a blanket requirement to record classes.

“Given our rules, there is no possibility of mandating [...] instructors [to record class content], and MAUT and instructor associations have been really protective of me, as an instructor, and my freedom to manage my content,” Balán said. “I’ve been working with a number of instructors who have those concerns, to try to get them to post recordings.”

on their willingness to accept McGill’s plans for a Jan. 24 return to campus. The majority voted “no” in the informal poll. The town hall then entered an open period to discuss what position the AUS should adopt in regard to the return to in-person instruction, with talk of a potential strike front and centre.

George Ghabrial, U0 Arts and town hall attendee, suggested that a larger assembly with more AUS members present would be a good next step in deciding whether the society should call for strike—a decision that would translate to a refusal to attend in-person classes.

“I think one of the most important things, really, is to [...] have some sort of general assembly that is open to the broad [arts] student body,” Ghabrial said. “We have seen time and time again [...] that the

event: That McGill is prioritizing profit over student safety.

“A lot of us that are advocating and speaking up to this colonial power and oppression, that comes from the heart, that is compassion,” Martin said. “What McGill, and everything about this situation, is building off of is capitalism [and] loss of revenue on the campus downtown.”

Though it failed to establish concrete action items, the town hall concluded with high energy levels and a clear need for further discussion.

On the same day as the AUS town hall, Jan. 21, the McGill administration held a student media roundtable on the return to campus with Associate Provost (Teaching and Academic Programs) Christopher Buddle and Deputy

under which we interact and the level of risk, a procedural mask is really what we should go with.”

SSMU announced on Jan. 21 that it will be distributing respiratorstyle masks on a pay-what-you-can basis to at-risk students and those who come in contact with at-risk people frequently. Additionally, SSMU has created a spreadsheet with information about courses’ remote accessibility.

During the roundtable, the provosts also explained that there has been a shift in Quebec’s, and thus McGill’s, attitude toward pandemic management, noting that the Omicron variant, while more contagious, looks to cause less severe disease in most. Labeau acknowledged that McGill’s COVID-19 dashboard will be less accurate and will provide less detail

Some are concerned about returning to campus before having the chance to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccination, which is proven to boost immunity against the Omicron variant.

(Anoushka Oke / The McGill Tribune) Students have called attention to the highly contagious nature of Omicron, the weak accommodations for students and staff who are immunocompromised or live with at-risk people, the speed at which the university is reopening, and the lack of respirator-style masks available on campus.

In the weeks leading up to the re-opening, the administration sent a slew of university-wide emails, spoke to campus media and other student bodies, and made a 40-minute video interviewing students and faculty about their perspectives on the reopening in an attempt to ease safety concerns and address student confusion.

The Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) followed suit, holding a town hall on Jan. 21. The first substantial point on the agenda was a questionand-answer period with Arts Faculty

Balán also recognized the gaps in the accommodations framework, but vowed that the university is working to address them, urging students facing difficult circumstances to reach out to him directly in the meantime.

“There’s a framework for [...] instructors who are in a position that may put dependents [at] risk [of contracting COVID-19], but for students, there’s no such framework in place,” Balán said. “In the absence of that framework, [...] we don’t have easy answers right now, but [...] I will ask to hear from students in those situations and we will do our best, within our abilities, to try to help you navigate that.”

After the question period with Balán elapsed, Anya Narang, AUS speaker of the council and town hall facilitator, conducted a “temperature check,” polling the 40 or so attendees

McGill administration just does not [...] seem to have the students’ best interest in mind.”

Codey Martin, U3 Social Work, town hall attendee, and active participant in the School of Social Work’s strike emphasized the need for compassion during these times given the many factors that affect the accessibility of both in-person and online instruction.

“Our mandates, and our efforts to strike this in-person is about compassion and an understanding [of] the realities of the respective homes that we come from,” Martin said. “We are all placed in unique, and difficult, situations. Some may, or may not, carry internet, or have limited access. [Some may have] learning disabilities, whatever it may be.”

Martin also shared a sentiment echoed by many throughout the

Provost (Student Life & Learning) Fabrice Labeau. Both Buddle and Labeau stressed that McGill believes conditions are safe enough to return to in-person instruction.

When asked whether the procedural masks the university is distributing provide adequate protection against the Omicron variant—a point of contention raised in the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) press release—Labeau referenced a recent Institut national de santé publique du Québec’s (INSPQ) comparison of the efficacy of procedural and respirator-style masks.

“That report—which, by the way, is very much corroborated by our own medical experts—[finds] that there are not many settings in a university environment that could justify wearing an N95,” Labeau said. “Overall, given the conditions

given the decreased availability of testing and the onus now being placed on individuals who test positive to conduct contact tracing themselves.

“What we will be watching is the trends: Are we getting more calls this week or is it going down?”

Labeau said. “That will give us a sense of the trend at McGill, but we will never have access to the absolute number of cases.”

As of Jan. 24, undergraduates in the School of Social Work and graduates in the Education Faculty have decided to strike until Feb. 25 and Jan. 25 respectively. Each faculty will hold a vote over whether or not to extend the strike when each respective date approaches. Some students within both the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts are mobilizing for potential strikes as well.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

NEWS

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Social Work Student Association votes to strike until February 25

Decision comes after McGill refused School’s decision to stay online Tess Pilkington Contributor Continued from page 1.

Students at the GA, such as Jo Roy, U3 Social Work, felt that the SWSA’s decision to strike was in line with the ethos of social work. “[Social work] is very much a helping profession and one that cares about people and the ethics of it are very much in tandem with what we just did,” Roy said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Codey Martin, U3 Social Work, echoed Roy’s sentiments, noting that approving the motion to strike was an effort to apply the principles of social work in real life.

“It’s the basic fundamentals of the social work program that we are currently learning, [...] to put all the course content material learnt in the three-year degree into practice,” Martin said. “It comes down to supporting one another.”

Alyssa Salaciak, U2 Social Work and the internal affairs coordinator at SWSA, was the chairperson for the GA. With the strike in motion, Salaciak is tasked with supporting social work students by holding Zoom meetings for students to voice any concerns or offer points of advice to one

another.

“Now that we have agreed to strike, what does that mean for [SWSA]?” Salaciak said. “[It means] supporting students as they do it because it’s quite scary [...] We’re here for you. We’re here for each other.”

Hannah Kirk, U3 Social Work, has an internship working with elders and older people living in Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Like other social work students, Kirk is concerned about the risk of contracting COVID-19 in in-person classes and spreading it to the Indigenous communities with whom she interacts.

“The implications of me, as a white person, going to a class of 40 people, contracting COVID-19, and going on reserve and spreading it are really heavy, and McGill is responsible for that,” Kirk said. “When it comes to actually making decisions that protect the Indigenous community [...] they don’t care.”

The SWSA is not the only students’ association at McGill pushing for schoolspecific autonomy in regards to remote learning. The Education Graduate Students’ Society (EGSS) announced a strike vote on Jan. 19. The Law Student Association will hold a Special General Meeting on Jan. 28 to discuss student concerns and the possibility

A motion will be put forward on Jan. 25 to empower the Faculty of Arts to allow for independent program decision-making processes. (Anoushka Oke / The McGill Tribune) of a strike.

According to Martin, the motion to strike is just the beginning of a greater movement for the SWSA. “I think it’s going to build momentum and people are going to start to really start to voice their concern and speak for a better

understanding of the situation that McGill and other institutions are putting people in,” Martin said. “As much as I want to be in person, I’d love to be in-person, but unfortunately in the last 21 months of not contracting a virus, I kind of want to keep it that way.”

SSMU hosts virtual Activities Night, student groups cite low engagement

Club leaders tabled behind virtual booths on TriplePlay Anoushka Oke Staff Writer

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he Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted its Winter Activities Night on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18. During the Fall Activities Night, the virtual hosting platform Gather.Town crashed almost immediately after it failed to accommodate the high volume of participants attempting to join the event. To prevent another malfunction, SSMU partnered with another platform called TriplePlay, hoping for a smoother virtual experience.

Attendees had the option to choose between different categories of clubs, including charity and environment, athletics and recreational sports, political and social activism, and more. Once clicked, each link directed the attendees to TriplePlay. From there, they could drop into virtual “rooms” wherein club representatives were waiting. Students could choose which room to enter and could bounce between rooms at their discretion.

Karla Heisele Cubilla, SSMU vice-president Student Life, was responsible for organizing the event. Heisele Cubilla told The McGill Tribune that there were 131 groups present and 597 web

log-ins on Jan. 24, and 112 groups and 597 web log-ins on Jan. 25.

Though the event was originally supposed to be held in a hybrid format, government directives forbidding most inperson school events forced organizers to hold it entirely online. According to Heisele Cubilla, the responsibility to plan the event was compounded by the pressure to find a new platform that would work better than Gather.Town. Nonetheless, Heisele Cubilla believes that the event was largely successful.

“It’s a huge project, Activities Night, but this year

it’s virtual, so the main hope is to get the word out,” Heisele Cubilla said. “It is the winter semester, so we expect less attendance, but we still wanted to encourage students to come. And virtual events are not usually very successful, but we’ve been very lucky at SSMU to have a big attendance.”

While many clubs and services looked forward to Activities Night to reach new students, many representatives, like HeForShe president and co-founder Aakshi Puri, acknowledged that in-person Activities Nights allowed for

more dynamic interaction than a virtual version could.

“Activities Night is a great way to reach out to as many diverse groups of people as possible,” Puri wrote to the Tribune. “This was especially true when it was held in person in previous years, which would allow us to have open discussions about gender inequality, particularly with those who aren’t typically involved in the feminist movement.”

Many clubs, however, reported relatively low attendance rates to their booths.

Puri estimated that about

The SSMU had several sponsors for Activities Night, including Spin Energie, Freshii, and Campus 1 MTL, who hosted giveaways and distributed promotion codes to advertise the event. (ssmu.ca)

10 people showed up to the HeForShe booth throughout the two-day event. Socialist Fightback Club president Lucas Marques told the Tribune that a total of six people attended the club’s virtual booth. This low turnout, Marques argues, is a testament to a persistent issue within SSMU that runs much deeper than just Activities Night.

“I think this [problem] even goes into stuff like elections,” Marques said. “This is a reflection on the student union itself, certainly not the students, and I think that it’s because SSMU doesn’t present a fighting leadership, so students don’t actually look up to it as something that will fight for them.”

Some clubs, including Socialist Fightback often elect to host their own events to draw in members because they are not confident that participating in Activities Night will expand their membership.

“Last semester we hosted two events, and 90 people showed up to both,” Marques said. “We find that [independent events are] better for growing membership as opposed to Activities Night.

Obviously we would never discard any avenue for people to be interested, so we do partake in Activities Night, even if it is not the most efficient.”

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NEWS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

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SSMU Legislative Council passes motion to address doxxing of students

Executives also discussed the president’s absence and the university’s return to in-person classes Ella Fitzhugh News Editor

[...] highlight how students have been victims of racist surveillance.”

The motion, passed with 24 in favour and two abstentions, will mandate VP Internal Sarah Paulin publish a master plan by April 7, 2022 detailing how SSMU will help combat and end racist surveillance and doxxing at McGill.

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n Jan. 20, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council held their first meeting of the winter semester, discussing several annual reports and announcements, including the AUS Town Hall on the return to classes, and approving five motions. One motion will require SSMU executives on SSMU’s Divestment and Demilitarisation Campaign Mandate to provide progress updates; another motion sought to create an anti-surveillance master plan to protect McGill students who, because of their anti-colonial activism, have been doxxed and harassed on websites such as Canary Mission and Campus Watch. This master plan would institute a SSMU anti-surveillance commissioner to lead an anti-surveillance committee under the Council.

During the question period, vice-president (VP) University Affairs Claire Downie spelled out how SSMU organized their campaign to facilitate a safer return to campus on Jan. 24, including measures such as making respirator-style masks available.

“On Monday we announced that we’re going to be providing respiratory-style masks on a pay-what-you-can basis to students who are especially vulnerable to COVID,” Downie said. “We’re hopefully going to be announcing details about this in the coming days.”

VP Finance Éric Sader engaged in several backand-forths with councillors regarding president Darshan Daryanani’s continued absence. Sader told inquirers and the broader gallery that it is in the BoD’s “fiduciary duty to act in ways that benefit the company,” which includes, according to Sader, the “responsibility not to answer these questions” surrounding the president.

Councillors Ghania Javed and Yara Coussa then

MOMENT OF THE MEETING

During the announcement period, VP Finance Sader made a public apology to Councillors Coussa and Javed for his “unprofessional comments” toward them during the Nov. 25, 2021 Legislative Council meeting.

Sader also noted that, going forward, it is important for him to acknowledge power dynamics at play, given his position as a white man speaking to two racialized women during the incident.

Councillor Ghania Javed gave her official annual report as Arts Representative and announced the Council will soon be meeting with the Dean of Student Affairs to discuss the process of handling sexual violence cases at McGill. (Leanne Young / The McGill Tribune) presented the Motion Regarding the Creation of an AntiSurveillance Master Plan within the SSMU. Coussa spoke of public websites which blacklist and expose personal information about advocates and activists, including proPalestinian McGill students and staff, students involved in Uyghur, Tibetan, or Hong Kong liberation advocacy, as well as Muslim students since the enactment of Bill 21..

“These forms of intimidation and attacks impact students’ mental health, physical health, and discourage their involvement on campus,” Coussa said. “Some students have reported that it has prevented them from applying to leadership positions on campus [....] These examples

SOUND BITE

“I think it’s important to point out that McGill Athletics and Recreation are not funded by the university [...] and [are] not in a position to take a stand regarding divestment [....] It’s outside of the scope of McGill Athletics and Recreation. I just want to point out that what’s happening right now is students are losing out on services [....] Basically, Athletics and Recreation has their hands tied.”

— Member of the gallery Chloe Parsons, U3 Education and chair of the Student Athletics Council, on how the SSMU moratorium on auxiliary fees impacts the McGill Athletics and Recreation facility services available to students.

Max Liboiron leads webinar on anti-colonial technology within universities

Liboiron advocates for infrastructural tools for decolonial change Charlotte Power Contributor

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n Jan. 20, Max Liboiron led a webinar on “Building feminist and anticolonial technologies in compromised spaces” as a part of the fourth season of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker and Workshop Series. Co-sponsored by Alex Ketchum, a faculty lecturer at the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF), and Concordia University professor Damon Matthews, the webinar detailed how to navigate work in sites tainted by strong histories of colonialism—and ultimately, how to achieve structural change.

Liboiron, an associate professor in geography at Memorial University and formerly the school’s Associate VicePresident of Indigenous Research, is Métis and a leader in developing and promoting anticolonial research methods across disciplines. As the founder of the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), an interdisciplinary plastic pollution laboratory that operates out of Memorial University, Liboiron has shaped public policy on both plastics and Indigenous research.

During the webinar, Liboiron discussed the concept of “compromise”— not as a failure, as some proponents of

institutional change might see it, but as a condition of doing ethical work within uneven power relations. They highlighted the necessity of establishing equitable research methods and policies within colonial systems and institutions.

According to Liboiron, even in the process of decolonization, individuals will inevitably reproduce parts of colonialism due to its pervasiveness.

“When I’m talking about compromise and reproducing parts of the system that we are trying to change, it’s the condition of doing the thing. It is the condition for making change,” Liboiron said.

“You don’t get to start from somewhere else, there isn’t somewhere else, this is the place, and that is the basis of your collaboration in the world.”

Liboiron also highlighted the role infrastructures play in upholding and defining colonial spaces and institutions.

They explained that within the research sphere, structural power difference between Indigenous communities and universities is often downplayed; in practice, university researchers, rather than Indigenous people, often stand to gain the most from data collected on Indigenous communities. Thus, one of the key ways to decolonize research and combat unequal power dynamics, Liboiron explained, is to establish data agreements that empower Indigenous communities to own their own data.

“Indigenous data sovereignty is about how and why they need to own and control their data,” Liboiron said. “A sovereignty model for a research collaboration with an Indigenous group can be that the Indigenous groups decide the priorities, the overarching ethics and goals of the research, but then I as the researcher ‘fuck off’ and do the work. That’s the recognition of unevenness and of owning your place in the uneven infrastructure.”

Ketchum, writing to The McGill Tribune by email after the talk, said she feels inspired by Liboiron’s recent book, Pollution is Colonialism, and is motivated to bring anticolonial scholarship into the classroom.

“Dr. Liboiron thinks critically about university structures, lab structures, and research practices,” Ketchum said. “I’ve loved being able to assign Liboiron’s work in the GSFS feminist research methods courses that I teach, because their work helps students and researchers question what it means to do feminist and anticolonial research.”

Matthews, a professor, research chair of climate science and sustainability at Concordia, and director of the Leadership in Environmental and Digital Innovation for Sustainability (LEADS) program, hopes universities will use their influence to promote social and environmental sustainability.

“I really appreciate the idea that we

Liboiron’s book, Pollution is Colonialism, discusses a framework for scientific research method that embraces an Indigenous conception of land and ethics to combat pollution. (mcgill.ca) can work toward achieving transformative change while also acknowledging the flawed nature of many of the institutions that we operate within,” Matthews said.

“But, as institutions, few universities have succeeded in challenging the power structures that propagate the fundamental inequalities and injustices that could undermine our sustainability goals.”

opinion@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

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EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Sequoia Kim editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Ruobing Chen rchen@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Kennedy McKee-Braide kmckee-braide@mcgilltribune.com Madison Mclauchlan mmclauchlan@mcgilltribune.com Maya Abuali mabuali@mcgilltribune.com

News Editors Lily Cason, Ella Fitzhugh & Madison Edward-Wright news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Matthew Molinaro & Sepideh Afshar opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editors Shafaq Nami & Youssef Wahba scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Life Editors Holly Wethey & Wendy Zhao studentlife@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Tasmin Chu features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Lowell Wolfe & Michelle Siegel arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Sarah Farnand & Sophia Gorbounov sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Jinny Moon & Xiaotian Wang design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Kate Addison photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editors Noah Vaton & Wendy Lin multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Abby de Gala & Sneha Senthil webdev@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Jackie Lee copy@mcgilltribune.com

Closing the curtain on political theatre The McGill Tribune Editorial Board

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n Jan. 20, Quebec Premier François Legault held a press conference in which he made two statements: First, that citizens should “stand in solidarity” with hospital workers, and second that they should “stay prudent.” Combined with the shifting recovery plans in light of the Omicron variant, these remarks show that the province’s response to the COVID-19 crisis remains chock full of political theatre. The government’s mismanagement and poor communication conceals important decisions being made on travel, schools, and health, among other issues. To individuals’ risk, political theatre obscures government responsibility, and Quebec is certainly matched in performative statements coming from the federal, municipal, and university levels.

While these theatrical actions reveal the oftimprovised nature of government preparation, idle, action-less rhetoric continues to emerge.

While seemingly innocuous, messages like “Canadians, please come home” and “the pandemic does not discriminate” use emotional calls for unity to distract from the ways that structural inequalities disproportionately affect groups in Canada and around the world. Closing borders, for example, after South African scientists discovered the Omicron variant, was discriminatory toward African countries that had similar rates of infection as European countries.

What is more, when leaders position healthcare workers as “heroes,” their sincerity rings hollow, as they appear benevolent without taking concrete

OFF THE BOARD Lily Cason News Editor

Social Media Editor Taneeshaa Pradhan socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com Business Manager Joseph Abounohra business@mcgilltribune.com

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sequoia Kim, Reem Abdul Majid, Matthew Molinaro, Shafaq Nami, Joseph Abounohra, Namrata Rana, Shreya Rastogi

STAFF Léa Bourget, Elissa Dresdner, Saumya Gogte, Suzanna Graham, Bronte Grimmer, Arian Kamel, Louis Lussier-Piette, Adam Matthews-Kott, Abby McCormick, Adam Menikefs, Zoe Mineret, Juliet Morrison, Anoushka Oke, Juwel Rana, Mikaela Shadick, Corey Zhu

CONTRIBUTORS Shireen Aamir, Talar Ajemar, Anna Berglas, Valentina de la Borbolla, Tillie Burlock, Ella Gomes, Charlotte Hayes, Zoe Karkossa, Bryana-Alexa Liberta, Maiuri Maheswaran, Annika Pavlin, Tess Pilkington, Catherine Plawutsky, Charlotte Power, Courtney Squires, Jake Wagman

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I

spent this break wandering through the Shenandoah National Park, irresponsibly lost at points. With root systems and fungi speaking deep under the earth and leafless canopies suspended overhead, the woods enveloped me on all sides. I felt more at peace than I had in months. In nature, I feel a kind of insignificance, like I am an infinitesimal part of a whole.

Time somehow simultaneously speeds up and slows to a crawl.

I am not someone who just loses track of time. On the rare occasion that I do, feelings of guilt and panic often ensue. What

steps to improve material conditions for these “heroes.” Similarly, the McGill administration encourages students to focus on their mental health, all while their asinine decision-making and messaging leaves students confused and without flexible accommodations. It was these same aggressive displays of authority that forced social work students into the classroom and their fieldwork placements. Communication between the Canadian government and Canadians, the Quebec government and Quebecers, and McGill and McGillians is rife with disparities between what authorities say, and what they actually do.

This theatre from powerful leaders, of course, has its audience: With a federal minority Parliament and a provincial election on the horizon, the importance of popularity should not be prioritized over successful action or proper public health measures. Furthermore, contradicting information from the top-down breeds immense distrust within the public. We have come to a point where politicians have not only politicized masks, but also restrictions— encouraging skeptical and vaccine-hesitant citizens to embrace individual freedom over collective safety. When a curfew is implemented and lifted seemingly at random, politicians face the risk of undermining science. For example, some Indigenous people rightfully hold mistrust in Western medical institutions and, by extension, COVID-19 vaccinations. Quebec’s health-care system has a brutal history of systemic racism. The death of Joyce Echaquan, an Atikamekw woman who died at the hands of medical professionals in 2020, highlighted

OPINION

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EDITORIAL

the degree to which racism is embedded in multiple levels of health treatment. Over federal jurisdiction, Canada also conducted unethical vaccine experiments in residential schools.

These reasons qualify mistrust and hesitancy in interacting with governmental health services— and all the while, the government’s political performance does nothing to address these issues head-on.

Efforts to scale back political theatre tend to put the onus on individual citizens, who face the impossible task of overcoming their own lacklustre, yet powerful, elected officials.

For instance, it is unfair to ask students to compensate for McGill’s ever-changing decisions. Nevertheless, when governments separate science from their actions and McGill trades effective change for tired buzzwords like “student accomodations,” without actually providing them, citizens and students are burdened with mobilizing against their higherups’ overall ineptitude. At the municipal level, Montreal must hold newly elected Mayor Valerie Plante to her commitments to double the budget for services for the unhoused—and not let her get away with only making PR-fueled statements on shelters without addressing structural barriers to housing equality. Similarly, citizens should stress the importance of vaccination and vaccine equity, and support initiatives like Park Ex’s vaccine confidence measure WeCanVax. By matching meaningful measures to collective action, individuals can work to pull back the calculating and capricious curtain of political theatre.

When nature nurtures have I let slip through the cracks?

Why did I let myself waste so much time? My mind seeks data, control. One of the only things that can cut through the noise is being in nature. A switch flips, and suddenly, I am able to let go of the control I usually crave.

I am not alone in this experience. The science behind what makes nature so good for our mental health varies, but research affirms its profound impact. Even short periods in nature, like a walk through a park in the middle of a city, and visual depictions of nature can have a positive impact on one’s mental health and cognition. Furthermore, research links increased time in nature to greater respect for the natural world and our fellow earthlings.

One explanation for the impact that nature has on me, and others, is the biophilia hypothesis; based largely on qualitative data, it suggests that humans have an innate, genetic connection and draw to the natural world. I find this notion—a sort of vital link to nature which we often assume exists in other animals but not in ourselves—incredibly beautiful.

It defies speciesism and unites us with the rest of the animal kingdom.

All of this begs the question: If nature helps and heals us, why do we tear it down? Humans

have, by and large, let our relationship with nature become corrupt. We see the earth and our fellow inhabitants on it as tools at our disposal for expanding, uprooting, and containing. We take until there is nothing left to take, and refuse to stop a moment sooner.

My mind immediately goes to TC Energy’s Coastal GasLink (CGL) Pipeline currently being built through unceded Wet’suwet’en territory with strong backing from the Canadian government.

This project is egregious on numerous grounds: It threatens Indigenous sovereignty, harms the land and surrounding ecosystems, and exposes the hypocrisy of the supposedly climate-conscious, liberal Canadian government all in one fell swoop.

There are plenty more examples of extractivism, a practice often intertwined with the brutal and ongoing legacies of colonialism.

Indigenous communities have long stood against this practice, recognizing the importance of treating the land and animals with respect and dignity and staunchly advocating for environmental protection measures. Wet’suwet’en land defenders, for example, have set up checkpoints and are bravely fighting, despite a brutal,

militarized response from the RCMP, to stave off the CGL pipeline. Others have taken to the courts and streets in protest.

Those who subscribe to the biophilia hypothesis, like renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson, have long argued for its role in conservation efforts.

A renewed emphasis on the human-nature connection and the non-material, sustainable, well-being that we can derive from nature—even in an age rife with technological innovation— might help combat extractivist tendencies.

Admittedly, my relationship with nature is also a greedy one.

I use it as a crutch to cope with my anxiety and still fall into the all-too-easy trap of taking it for granted at times. But I like to think I’ve fostered a symbiotic relationship with my corner of the world: It will soothe me, and I’ll respect and defend it.

I can’t imagine anyone standing amongst the trees as I did over break—feeling tiny, immensely content, and grateful—and not taking issue with the havoc we wreak on the natural world. So I argue for a relationship to the natural world that is founded in reciprocity and inspires respect, awe, and creativity, rather than neglect and abuse.

6

OPINION

COMMENTARY

Students should deal with choice, not chance

Valentina de la Borbolla Contributor

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

opinion@mcgilltribune.com

n Dec. 31, McGill sent an email to all students and staff announcing that, in line with new Quebec regulations, the return to in-person learning would be delayed until January 24. The announcement came amid the surge in Omicron cases in the province and the world at large. However, despite McGill’s compliance with Quebec health mandates, the news puts students in a difficult position, stripping them of the option to choose when to

come back to Montreal. Online learning has been very challenging for students due to increased screen time and prolonged isolation.

While health risks associated with COVID19 prompted many to postpone their return to Montreal, for some, the added support of family and friends made staying home during online school the best choice. Furthermore, even though individuals still need to pay rent in Montreal, staying home can be a way to save some money on daily things like laundry, food, and transit, especially when considering that many service jobs have been interrupted due to restrictions.

Increased restrictions have put additional financial strain on students who relied on service jobs.

(McGill University)

COMMENTARY Courtney Squires Contributor

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ramped dorm rooms, unknown roommates, and questionable cafeteria food are all pillars of the firstyear university student experience.

However, in enforcing a mandatory meal plan for all students in residence, except for those in Solin Hall and the MORE houses, McGill stifles student autonomy. Meal plans are not mandatory at many of Canada’s other top universities: Schools such as the University of Toronto and Waterloo use a tiered system where students are given the option to choose a plan that best suits their needs. In contrast, McGill’s singular, mandatory meal plan fails students in the transitional period of first year, and is not only coddling, but outdated. Students should be given the choice to select tiered meal plans of varying sizes, or opt out altogether, and the residence meal plan should, fundamentally, not be mandatory.

Given that the first year of university can be overwhelming, being able to fall back on prepared meals can certainly take the pressure off having to prep and cook meals for the week. Although shopping for groceries and cooking is not a viable option for every

In addition, the advantages of student life in Montreal, like being on campus, going to cafés, exploring the city, and hanging out with friends, are severely limited due to the Quebec lockdown. As a result, staying home might help avoid feelings of isolation and uncertainty. Considering the high rates of COVID-19 cases in the city, being home might also be the safest option for some, or at least a reassuring one—being sick and alone can be a very stressful situation. Lastly, depending on where it is that students call home, not going back to Montreal can mean better weather, safer COVID-19 environments, and more lax COVID-19 restrictions.

But beyond the potential benefits of staying home, it is important to question why students were put in the position to make that choice in the first place. A major factor, of course, is the rise in COVID-19 cases. The epidemiological situation is critical right now and it has to be taken seriously.

Furthermore, considering how COVID-19 disproportionately affects disabled, racialized, and low-income people, individuals should be doing all in their power to curb the spread. However, there is a limit to what individuals can do in the face of a surge as big—and as transmissible—as this one. The Omicron spread comes after months of the Quebec government mishandling the pandemic in many ways, including imposing ineffective curfews and having insufficient testing capabilities. There is little scientific

evidence that curfews actually prevent a rise in COVID-19 cases, and yet the Quebec government decided to implement yet another one despite its known toll on mental health and disproportionate impact on other vulnerable communities. Other measures like accessible testing, timely booster shot rollout, and vaccine mandates may have been able to prevent this surge.

Institutions like McGill also have the responsibility of prioritizing the health of their communities. Although McGill has taken the necessary steps to comply with Quebec regulations, it has failed to provide safe and accessible learning environments for immunocompromised and disabled students throughout the pandemic. McGill has only taken steps to provide online alternatives when the government mandates them—but not when students advocate for them. Measures like continuing the S/U option, mandating professors to record lectures, and implementing a university-wide vaccine mandate could make the stress of university during a pandemic more manageable.

Despite the recent end of the curfew and the return to in-person classes, the pandemic is still not over, and neither are its impacts on students’ lives. Universities should not put student’s physical and mental health at risk. McGill should put their students’ interests first and take the necessary steps to make sure that its environment remains safe and accessible to all, no matter what type of instruction the government mandates.

The mandatory meal plan should be taken off the table first-year student due to lack of space and cooking amenities in residence, it remains a valuable skill set once they move into their own apartments. Adopting a tiered meal plan system, or an optional one where students can add money when desired, would allow students flexibility to do as they wish, whether that be cooking for themselves all the time, sometimes, or not at all. Additionally, the average cost of groceries is around $300 to $400 a month—multiply that by the eight months of the school year, and the top end is $3,200. McGill’s mandatory meal plan, on the other hand, is $5,975. Paying for convenience is one thing, but that nearly 90 per cent increase in fees is entirely another, ultimately making the system financially inaccessible to some. A tiered meal plan would give students the choice, and flexibility to spend money on food as they wish.

Particularly in the last two years, the mandatory meal plan has become less and less useful. With students being online for at least a portion of their schooling, be it last year or this one, many decided to stay home. Despite the introduction of a rollover plan, where unused dining dollars could be used in the next year, it still seems like a waste of money. McGill does also

McGill’s mandatory meal plan falls short in providing students with variable options, as costs are cut during the pandemic and rollover dollars rack up. (The Montreal Gazette) offer a Saver Meal Plan, albeit not for students in residence, so those who wish to continue eating at the various dining halls can do so throughout their degree. It seems odd that students have the choice to extend their meal plan, but not opt out of it. Though the dining hall food is not infamously terrible like other universities, students are not even given the choice: McGill forces OneCard on first-year residence students, and the money has to be spent one way or another.

Furthermore, for students who have dietary restrictions, the meal

plan does not even provide convenience due to the lack of options— especially during the pandemic with restrictions and limits on occupancy and staff. Halal and kosher options are scarce, and there are accommodations for those who are vegan, vegetarian, and gluten/ dairy free, but they are repetitive and lackluster. With limited options, many students with special dietary needs resort to grocery shopping on top of paying for the meal plan—which should not be necessary considering the plan’s base cost.

With its compulsory meal plans, McGill forces its students to give up some of their autonomy in first year. On top of the steep fees, the meal plan’s options are limited, and often not as accommodating to dietary restrictions as one would expect. And from the last two years, students have accumulated hundreds of dollars in rollover, despite the fact that the dining halls accept other forms of payment. So though you might be craving RVC pasta, or a Quesada burrito, it is easy to forget that OneCard should not have to be your only option.

scitech@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

7

How gene mutations affect vitamin B12 deficiency Exploring the biology behind inherited vitamin B12 diseases Maiuri Maheswaran Contributor

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n recent years, vitamin supplements have become all the rage, with an increasing number of supplements claiming to clear your skin, promote hair growth, and even increase your IQ. Unrealistic advertisements aside, vitamins are in fact quite important. Our bodies need vitamins in small amounts to be able to grow and function properly.

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is important for maintaining the body’s metabolism, forming red blood cells, and ensuring the proper functioning of the brain.

Because the human body cannot make vitamin B12 on its own, we depend on foods, mainly animal products, to get this particular nutrient. Certain non-animal products, such as nutritional yeast and soy milk, have been fortified with vitamin B12. However, people who follow a plant-based diet are recommended to take vitamin B12 supplements to prevent cobalamin deficiency, which is characterized by feelings of weakness, tingling, smooth tongue, anemia, and sometimes memory loss.

While such a deficiency can be reversed by vitamin B12 supplements, there are individuals for whom cobalamin supplementation is insufficient. These individuals have mutations in the genes that code for the proteins that help the body absorb or transport vitamin B12. There are currently 12 gene mutations that can lead to these inborn vitamin B12 diseases. However, the role of these genes is not well defined and thus are being studied by many researchers—one of whom is Dr. David Rosenblatt, a senior

Vitamin B12 deficiencies, in some cases, can be caused by long-term intake of heartburn drugs and birth control pills. (istockphoto.com) scientist in the Child Health and Human Development program at the MUHC Research Institute who has been treating patients with vitamin B12 deficiencies for over three decades.

Rosenblatt and researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine recently published a study in Nature Communications that found that the most common type of vitamin B12 deficiency disease, clbC, is caused by a mutation in the gene Mmachc. clbC is a multisystem disease that appears in utero and can lead to growth restriction and intractable epilepsy. The Mmachc gene codes for a protein that binds cobalamin when it enters the cell. However, mutations in two other genes, Ronin and Hcfc1, also cause clbC-like disease, but with more severe symptoms.

“The common clbC has more than 1,000 patients de-

scribed from around the world,” Rosenblatt wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “For the rare forms that are modeled in this paper, there is only one Ronin patient and less than 20 Hcfc1 patients.”

The goal of the paper was to characterize the cobalamin disorders these gene mutations cause in greater detail by studying the function of Ronin and Hcfc1. To do this, the researchers studied the disease in a mouse model afflicted by the same gene mutations. The mice showed symptoms that are typically associated with vitamin B12 deficiency, including brain abnormalities and cardiac defects. However, the researchers also saw symptoms that were atypical of vitamin deficiency, such as craniofacial dysmorphia, or abnormal growth of the brain and facial features. This sign is typically seen in patients that have ribosomopathies— disorders where the ribosomes, the tiny machines of the cell that make proteins, are non-functional.

To verify whether the craniofacial dysmorphia observed in the mice was a result of ribosomopathies, the authors examined protein expression in the mice. They observed that in the mice with both mutations, there was a decrease in the number of ribosomes, indicating ribosomopathy. These results show that the vitamin B12 deficiencies are much more complex than previously thought.

“I think that there is still a great deal more that needs to be learned about the basic mechanisms in these diseases,” Rosenblatt wrote. “Knowing more about mechanisms can sometimes lead to targets for therapy.”

Though it is too early to search for a cure, such studies are nevertheless a vital stepping stone toward understanding vitamin B12 deficiency diseases.

ROAAr symposium delves into the complicated relationships between scientists Many great discoveries arose from academic friendships

Madison Edward-Wright News Editor

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he science behind friendship and how it develops between people has been a longstanding object of study.

However, much less research has looked into the friendships between scientists themselves.

The Rare & Special Collections, Osler, Art, and Archives (ROAAr) branch of the McGill Library held a symposium on Jan. 20 to explore exactly that.

Stopes and Hewitt: A correspondence for the ages Laura Jean Cameron, professor of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University, first met Ingrid Birker, manager of the Public Program at McGill’s Redpath Museum, when she reached out to her in hopes of gaining access to part of the Redpath’s fossil collection. Cameron had requested access to some Fern Ledges fossils housed at Redpath. These fossils had a history: They were important items in the friendship between Charles Gordon Hewitt, an entomologist, and Marie Stopes, a palaeobotanist and suffragette.

Hewitt was first Stopes’ student at the University of Man-

chester, where in 1904 he attended her lectures on palaeobotany, the study of fossilized plants. When Hewitt moved to Canada in 1909 to become dominion entomologist, he and Stopes continued to communicate through letters. The two connected over the newly emerging field of ecology, but their friendship also inspired many of Stopes’ feminist writings.

“The success of their friendship was [...] one of the important contributions she may have wished to make for science,”

Cameron said during her presentation. “In her writing on behalf of women’s suffrage [...] Stopes expressed her belief that a friendship of equality between men and women was not only possible, but was an evolutionary imperative.”

While Birker and Cameron acknowledged the other friendships that Stopes and Hewitt had with problematic figures in Canada such as Duncan Campbell Scott, the notorious deputy superintendent general of Indian affairs, and Helen MacMurchy, a staunch promoter of eugen-

The friendship between endocrinologist Hans Selye and artist Marian Dale Scott, who painted the mural in the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building, were among those discussed. (McGill Reporter)

ics, the presenters glossed over Stopes’ involvement in the eugenics movement. Stopes was a vigorous supporter of birth control and family planning, but primarily because she believed these to be key tools in the practice of eugenics—which, for her, meant selective breeding to preserve the white race.

Penfield and Cone: Advancement of science but the end of a friendship Borrowing from his research for a larger exposé published by The Globe and Mail, journalist Eric Andrew-Gee examined the once prosperous, but ultimately volatile friendship between Wilder Penfield and William Cone.

Penfield and Cone began working together at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in 1924, where Penfield practiced surgery, primarily on the brain.

When Penfield moved to Montreal in 1928 after being recruited

by McGill University, he invited Cone to join him. The pair would eventually found the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital (MNI) in 1934. “[Penfield and Cone] led a team together that made groundbreaking discoveries about mem-

ory, pleasure, anxiety, and learning,” Andrew-Gee explained.

“They worked together in ‘double-harness,’ as they both liked to say, for 35 years.”

The friendship devolved, however, as Cone’s skills as a surgeon and dedication to the field of medicine surpassed Penfield’s, causing Penfield to grow jealous. Even worse, in 1953, Penfield was chosen over Cone for the directorship of the institute.

“By the 1950s, there were two camps at the [MNI],” Andrew-Gee said. “Cone’s people focussed on spinal surgery [while][...] Penfield’s focus[sed] on epilepsy.”

Cone became extremely depressed not long after these events and eventually died by suicide in 1959, which greatly upset Penfield. Despite the tragic ending, Andrew-Gee concluded his talk by acknowledging the instrumental role friendship played in the lives of the two men and their scientific developments.

“Cone and Penfield had a deeply loving friendship, and together, sitting and talking over a microscope or the head of a patient, they helped give birth to the romantic mathematics of neuroscience,” Andrew-Gee said.

Marty the Mythological Martlet One evening this past semester, my roommates and I were discussing the McGill mascot, Marty the Martlet. Although we knew what Marty looked like, none of us had any idea what a martlet actually was. After some research, we discovered that our beloved mascot is based on an ancient mythological bird with no feet. From the second the martlet enters the world, it is in perpetual flight until the last flap of its wings.

One evening this past semester, my roommates and I were discussing the McGill mascot, Marty the Martlet. Although we knew what Marty looked like, none of us had any idea what a martlet actually was. After some research, we discovered that our beloved mascot is based on an ancient mythological bird with no feet. From the second the martlet enters the world, it is in perpetual flight until the last flap of its wings.

Suddenly, we had a revelation: Marty the Martlet wasn’t so far fetched after all. A bird that can never take a break from flying, which must continuously flap its wings to survive? I couldn’t think of a better creature to represent McGill students.

It didn’t take me very long to sense the university’s intense, competitive hustle culture––I was exposed to it before I even arrived in Montreal. Soon after I accepted my offer at McGill, I joined the Facebook group for entering students to make some connections before I embarked on my degree.

Although the Facebook group’s purpose was to lessen the daunting stress of university, now just months ahead of me, it did the opposite.

I was bombarded with introductions from hundreds of students.

The idea was simple––to share a few fun facts about oneself. Yet even that simple prompt quickly became an incitement for

competition. If the first student that posted spoke two languages, then by the time the 10th student posted, they spoke 12 languages and were the son of an important diplomat.

“There definitely is a hustle culture at McGill,” wrote Alisa Nosova, U3 Arts, in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Everyone

try and compete: She took on multiple executive positions, became involved with the Arts Undergraduate Society, and acquired a part-time job. It wasn’t long before Nosova’s mental health took a hit.

“I felt so hopeless,” she said. “I felt I needed to make a Plan B for myself.”

After she realized that

year, I decided to branch out. I began the 2020-2021 school year with a plan to get involved in as much as possible, but the bleak reality of the ongoing pandemic prevented me from truly achieving this goal. It wasn’t until my third year that I succeeded in my plan to try and get involved as much as possible.

and I lost entire days as I lay in my bed. I was in a never-ending fight with my depression. Worse, I was shackled by a gutwrenching feeling of anxiety because I couldn’t do what I set out to do. I was losing. By the time December came around, I didn’t even recognize myself. I was now 15 pounds lighter. My usual outgoing and energetic nature was gone––I had officially hit a low I didn’t know existed. I was burnt out.

A Mental Health Crisis and Student Burnout

From hustling to health

Beyond productivity culture Noah Vaton, Multimedia Editor is hustling to get the best opportunities, get into the most interesting classes, build relationships with professors that teach classes of 200+ students, and take on executive positions in clubs. It’s competitive out there.”

Nosova is no stranger to the rat race. After arriving at McGill, she did everything in her power to

she had spread herself too thin, she decided to take a step back and focus on herself in her final year. As she put it, “I lost myself in the process of pampering my resume and chasing all the experience.”

Unfortunately, I fell prey to the same trap in my second year. After feeling insecure about my accomplishments in first

Unfortunately, even that semester didn’t play out how I had planned.

Things quickly went off the rails. When I wasn’t working on-campus, I found myself locked away in my bedroom.

As the semester dragged on, I watched as dishes piled up in my room. The period between my meals and showers lengthened,

The mental crisis I experienced was by no means unique. That semester, whenever I wanted to see that other students were feeling the same way, all I would have had to do was check the r/ mcgill subreddit.

The feeling that you aren’t good enough to be at McGill comes as no surprise when you consider the image the university attempts to uphold. The institution prides itself on its rankings as a top research university globally and consistently reminds the public of its notable alumni.

Of course, the mental health crisis extends far beyond the McGill student body. For example, a survey conducted by Ohio State University found that between August 2020 and April 2021, students who screened positive for depression or anxiety increased by four per cent.

As a result, the rate of student burnout increased from 40 to 71 per cent.

Additionally, findings from the American College Health Association Canadian Reference Group’s 2019 executive summary found that 51.6 per cent of students have felt so depressed that it was difficult to function, 68.9 per cent felt overwhelming anxiety, and 16.4 per cent have seriously considered suicide within the past 12 months. These numbers have only increased since the pandemic began.

Given this common experience and its impact on the mental health crisis at not only McGill but also across other Canadian universities, one might think that the university would make students’ well-being one of their main priorities. But after I had a conversation with Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) vice-president (VP) Student Life Karla Heisele Cubilla regarding SSMU’s role in the mental health and well-being of students, I learned this isn’t necessarily the case.

Heisele Cubilla believes that the mental health problem at McGill is largely structural. While McGill has a clinic, branded as the Wellness Hub, students have consistently faced barriers in accessing mental healthcare. Most students will face long and discouraging wait times before they can get help.

When Claire Downie, SSMU VP University Affairs, and Cubilla presented their concerns about the Wellness Hub with the Committee on Student Services, the meeting didn’t go well. According to Heisele Cubilla, the Committee said, “We are not a hospital, we do not have the resources for that.”

In the absence of adequate mental health resources, some students have had to come up with their own solutions to cope with the stress. Many students, for instance, have turned to study drugs, taking prescription stimulants like Ritalin, Adderall, and Vyvanse that are usually prescribed to people with AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

University Life In the midst of the pandemic, some students are turning away from university altogether.

College enrollment rates have dropped dramatically since COVID-19 hit in March 2020. Enrollment at U.S. colleges dropped by approximately 560,000 students between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020.

Although this drop-off

may be a consequence of the pandemic’s unique stresses, it also tells us something about the model of the university itself. For many, the university workload is simply unsustainable.

“While I believe that the culture to hustle at McGill may be more prevalent than at other universities, I think that one of the major contributing factors to students having poor mental health is the competitive nature of university in general,” wrote Avery Martin, a

graduate or medical school from day one, meaning the pressure is on at the start.

Martin admits that while he was at McGill, he felt like the only true measure of success was high grades. Consumed by school, he barely slept, failed to eat well, and neglected physical activity. The combination of these things left him feeling so burnt out that he withdrew from McGill in his second year.

“To say that I was miserable was an

As he puts it, if he had never reached his breaking point, he never would have sought positive change.

former McGill student now enrolled at the University of British Columbia, in an email to The McGill Tribune.

For one, Avery cited the stress of meeting admission standards to get into McGill in the first place––a source of anxiety that doesn’t necessarily end upon receipt of an acceptance letter for your undergraduate degree.

Many students already have their sights set on

understatement,” Martin said. “My mental health had deteriorated to a point where it wasn’t realistic to continue at this current point in time.”

Now, at UBC, Martin’s mental health has improved after taking the time to reflect on his time at McGill. Regardless of his negative experience, Martin believes his time spent at McGill acted as an important reality check.

universities, and within society as a whole. But it remains true that the McGill administration could better support their student’s well-being.

McGill has tried, albeit not hard enough.

Recently, they posted an announcement on MyCourses reminding students that if they are feeling overwhelmed, there are resources accessible to them. They’ve

Moving toward a healthier approach to academia When I started research for this article, I never anticipated finding a solution to the problem.

It’s certainly true that hustle culture and the ongoing mental health crisis is prevalent at many

also emailed out a graphicfilled, three-page PDF offered by the Office of the Dean of Students, which recommends students practice mindfulness.

Although this is a start, it’s far from perfect. While it is important for a university to remind students to make time for self-care, they shouldn’t consider their job done yet. After all, self-care only goes so far when an institution lacks sound support systems.

The administration needs to start listening to the needs of their student

body and addressing the mental health crisis at a structural level––rather than attempting to put a bandaid over a bullet wound by preaching mindfulness to their students.

Design by: Xiaotian Wang, Design Editor

10

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

scitech@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

Demystifying ARSACS, a rare neurodegenerative disease concentrated in Quebec Some parts of the cerebellum are affected more than others, study finds Bryana-Alexa Liberta Contributor

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utosomal recessive spastic ataxia of CharlevoixSaguenay (ARSACS) is a rare neurodegenerative disease first identified in the CharlevoixSaguenay region of Quebec. The disease affects muscle control, making a range of activities, from swallowing to speaking to walking, more difficult. Brenda Toscano Marquez, a postdoctoral researcher, and Alanna Watt, a biology professor at McGill, along with other researchers, recently published a paper in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience describing an intriguing discovery that is changing the way they look at the disease.

ARSACS is categorized as a rare disease worldwide, but in the Charlevoix-Saguenay region, it afflicts an estimated one in 1,500 to 2,000 people. The disease targets the cerebellum, the region of the brain responsible for motor control and coordination. ARSACS is caused by a mutation in the SACS gene, which tells cells how to make a protein called sacsin.

“[Sacsin] plays a role in the organizing [of] proteins from the cytoskeleton and might be involved in mitochondria health and distribution in the cells,” Marquez wrote in an email to the Tribune.

When the SACS gene is mutated, the cells make an unstable form of sacsin. While it is still unclear how this mutation prevents the protein from performing its normal functions, it nonetheless causes the neurons in the cerebellum to die.

The Watt lab at McGill and labs all over the world are working together to solve this mystery.

One unique characteristic of ARSACS is that the cerebellum does not degenerate the same way throughout—most of the degeneration happens in the anterior part of the structure, which is nearer to the front. Both the anterior and posterior part of the cerebellum contain zebrin-negative cells, these are cells in the cerebellum that are more likely to degenerate. However, from the results obtained by this group of McGill researchers, the zebrin-negative cells are only degenerating in this anterior part of the cerebellum.

“Our finding shows that there

are other molecular players in cells that have a zebrin-negative phenotype and that are located in the anterior part of the cerebellum that are making these cells more susceptible to die,” Marquez wrote. “If we can find who those players are, we could target them to treat the patients.”

Since ARSACS is a rare neurodegenerative disease, people that have it risk being misdiagnosed. For instance, ataxia is usually identified by uncoordinated movements due to injury in the cerebellum, but given that many different conditions can cause ataxia—from stroke to alcohol use—other symptoms and family history should be taken into account during the diagnosis process.

“ARSACS usually starts very early in life, around two years old,” Marquez wrote. “It is also accompanied by other symptoms like spasticity, peripheral nerve damage and retinal hypermyelination.”

These symptoms, accompanied by genetic tests to search for the sacsin mutation, are how doctors can confirm the presence of ARSACS. However, there is currently no treatment available.

“Rare diseases don’t get a lot of

ARSACS, a rare neurodegenerative disease, is causing those infected to lose motor control at a young age, greatly impacting their mental health.

(Medical College of Wisconsin) attention and it’s hard to get [pharmaceutical companies] interested in them,” Marquez wrote.

The disease affects those with the condition while they are very young, usually when they are toddlers. As patients grow older, these symptoms only get worse. Most require a wheelchair by the time they reach early-to-mid adulthood.

“The symptoms take a big toll

on family members and on patients [who] require constant help,” Marquez wrote. “That can also affect the mental health of the patient, who can’t live a more autonomous life.”

New discoveries about the biological underpinnings of ARSACS, such as that by the Watt lab, will bring the research field closer to finding a treatment for this rare disease.

A mother’s fight to bring an understanding of autism outside of the clinic How Clara Park used love and reason to learn to understand her daughter Zoe Karkossa Contributor

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rom last century’s fears surrounding poor parenting to modern vaccine hesitancy, persistent misconceptions about the causes of autism have often resulted in the developmental condition being wrongfully associated with moral panic. During a recent talk hosted by McGill’s Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry for the Culture, Mind and Brain Program’s Speaker Series, Marga Vicedo, an associate professor at the University of Toronto studying the history of science, highlighted the story of one mother determined to understand her daughter’s experience with

autism.

Clara Park gave birth to Jessica, her third child, on July 20, 1958. After three years, Park realized that her daughter was different from the rest of her siblings. Seemingly uninterested in other children, Jessica was instead fascinated by numbers, art, and the aurora borealis.

As a stay-at-home mother, Park spent a great deal of time carefully observing her daughter and figuring out how to best support her, and was disappointed when her findings were dismissed by the child development experts she consulted. At the time, psychoanalysis would have interpreted Park’s efforts to understand her daughter as evidence of refrigerator motherhood—an offensive term used to

Darwin himself greatly valued maternal insight in his study of infants, frequently seeking out observations from the mothers among his family and friends. (blogs.uoregon.edu)

describe detached, uncaring mothers of autistic children.

“Rejecting the separation of thinking and feeling, Park aimed to show that objectivity and reason are not incompatible with love, and can be a valuable part of mothering,” Vicedo said. “[And] further, that intelligent love could be also a way to reach reliable knowledge.”

Despite the initial opposition, Park remained convinced that her efforts were not at odds with her mothering. She found fellowship in her beliefs through a correspondence with Bernard Rimland, a researcher who attributed autism to organic causes, and her collaboration with Marie Battle Singer, a psychoanalyst and fellow innovative thinker.

Contemporary clinical methods to treat autism were underdeveloped and prevalent therapies, including Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), were often criticized as cruel and ineffective. Park reworked such programs by identifying useful principles and tailoring them to the domestic sphere in a pragmatic way. Inspired by certain elements of ABA, Park collaborated with her daughter to develop a practical system for behaviour modification. Incorporating Jessica’s love for numbers, Park and Jessica assigned points to specific behaviours and tracked them using a golf counter.

“Jessica set her goals, chose her rewards, and agreed to the penalties,” Vicedo said.

“Their program did not try to eliminate autistic behaviour such as rocking or flapping, but focussed on behaviour that Jessica said she wanted to change, because they made her feel anxious or interfered with other things she

wanted to do.”

Park’s impact extended far beyond her household. She presented her knowledge in The Siege, the most comprehensive account of raising an autistic child at the time and an invaluable resource to parents and therapists. She also brought together a large circle of mothers of autistic children who supported each other and corresponded at length.

This vibrant community met regularly at conferences and shared their experiences with each other, discovering important insights along the way. The children were also invited to speak at the gatherings to share their stories and perspectives once they were old enough.

Park was a dedicated proponent of the value of maternal insight and the fight against mother-blaming. She recognized the value of what she called the “deep knowledge of the child in context,” which refers to personalised catering to a child’s needs using observation of children in a wide variety of situations and a full understanding of their history. To Park, this lived maternal experience was a unique tool that did not undermine clinical methods, but complemented them.

“Park was not only questioning widespread notions of good mothering, but also challenging a central tenet in scientific epistemology,” Vicedo said.

Park harnessed both her love and her will in order to better understand her daughter. Her work remains a significant achievement that is deeply relevant to the current era of misinformation surrounding autism. Jessica has grown to be an accomplished artist.

studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

STUDENT LIFE

11

Sustainable projects for staying at home

How to steer away winter screen time exhaustion Jackie Lee Copy Editor Continued from page 1.

Grow microgreens Microgreens—nutrient-dense seedlings of plants or herbs—are often touted as exclusive to fine-dining menus or superfood listicles. But fear not: They are easy to grow at home. An ideal project for students who lack the time or resources necessary to garden, microgreens can inject some green into your home and diet during the bleak midwinter.

Once packed with soil, the individual cups of an egg carton make snug homes for presoaked seeds. After three-ish weeks, simply harvest the newly grown shoots and start again. While at first you might baffle your roommates as your makeshift planters hoard the prime sunny windowsill real estate, you’ll impress them with a dinner garnished with home-grown produce.

can start with simpler patterns like cranes and stars, and eventually graduate to succulents, elephants or lanterns; the list goes on.

Instructions-wise, YouTube is your friend: Video tutorials show each fold in 3D, and are often easier to follow than written steps. Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, the world is your (origami) oyster. Keep your hands busy while binging Netflix or rewatching lectures by folding butterflies or sparrows, which, when hung from a window frame, cast pretty, swaying shadows during golden hour. You could even try assembling a chess set with recycled cardstock as the board and

Pen a letter (or many) Tearing open an envelope to receive a thoughtful, heartfelt letter is a unique joy, a gift mutual to the writer and the receiver.

Short notes can be just as novel as a dozen pages: Your family or friends will appreciate receiving a freshly stamped letter in the mail, even if it’s only a few lines. To save on expensive stationary, fold your own envelope from recycled paper, and handdeliver your letters on campus or to their apartment. Severing an old greeting card in half yields a makeshift postcard from the front image while preserving the original message on the other. Tuck this, along with other goodies like tea bags, stickers, or even some origami, into a decorated envelope to add an extra-special touch.

Reuse kitchen scraps

Fold origami Don’t let the scribbled coursework of semesters past haunt you. Instead of chucking your old notes, try folding the scrap paper into creative creatures or bewildering beasts—origami dragons, anyone? Beginners

tiny shapes as the pieces.

Though typically introduced to us when we’re children, origami is a complex art form that hones precision and ingenuity. (newyorker.com)

It can be difficult to conjure the hopeful optimism of spring, with all its burgeoning flower buds and delicate petrichor, during the current sub-zero temperatures. But you can summon the season early with some easy projects. Prepare for your balcony garden by planting bulbs indoors now so they are ready to transfer outside after the first thaw.

For something more immediately gratifying, save the bottoms of green onions and place them in a shallow glass, making sure to submerge the roots in water. The onion will regrow quickly—just trim the tops and add to your meals. Turn a sprouted potato into a stamp by cutting it half and carving a simple design. Triage your houseplants to determine if they are nutrient deficient: If the soil lacks calcium, add crushed eggshells; if it lacks nitrogen, add old coffee grounds or steeped tea. Just remember to carefully monitor the soil’s pH to ensure the plant thrives.

Build a birdfeeder Help out your friendly feathered neighbours by providing them with highcalorie foods. Try crafting a bird feeder from recycled materials such as plastic bottles or hoary wooden spoons. Buy a brick of suet—rendered fat, essentially—and hang it in a suet feeder. You can make your own by melting leftover meat drippings with other ingredients like peanut butter, seeds, and dried berries. Pour the mixture into a muffin tray or container, place a loop of twine on the top, and pop it in the freezer to solidify.

Hang the loops of twine on your balcony or in a tree and wait for hungry birds to flock.

And if the squirrels end up devouring it first, well—they’re hungry too!

A guide to Montreal apartment hunting

How to find the place for you among McGill’s vast student apartment scene Abby McCormick Staff Writer

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ith the winter semester well underway, McGill students are beginning to ask themselves the allimportant question: Where will I live next year?

For many, the mere thought of delving into apartment hunting amid the return to hybrid learning is anxiety-inducing, to say the least. The range of different neighbourhoods, roommates, floorplans, and price ranges can seem both endless and daunting.

However, The McGill Tribune’s foolproof tips will help get you on track to finding the right apartment at the right price.

1

Deciding on your must-haves

The first step in finding your dream apartment is identifying what you’re looking for. Start by making a list of your “musthaves” and your “nice-to-haves”. For instance, if you are an avid baker, a spacious kitchen with sufficient counter space might be one of your must-haves. In particular, consider what amenities you wish to have included, the type of appliances, furniture, natural light, transit access, as well as the location of the apartment. This list will come in handy when visiting apartments and making your final decision.

2Budget, budget, budget

Before even beginning the search, it is critical to determine your budget range. Studio and one-bedroom apartments tend to have the highest rent per person, so you might consider living with roommates to offset costs. Generally, the higher your number of roommates, the lower your rent will be. However, communal living may not be suited for everyone. Before rushing into a decision, reflect on whether you would be comfortable sharing your space with others or making compromises. Stay realistic about what you can afford to spend on rent while still having room for other expenses, such as wifi and utilities if not included. Compare your findings with the average rent prices of each neighbourhood to glean a greater perspective, and try to find lease transfer agreements for below-market prices;

apartment swapping guarantees that the previous rent does not increase between tenants.

3Finding roommates

Not only does living with roommates help you save money on rent, but it’s also a great way to socialize and feel more a part of McGill’s student community. For those who are interested in living with one or several roommates, consider how well your day-to-day routines align. Is your potential roommate a night owl, while you need to get up before sunrise for swim practice? Do they like to party, while you prefer to stay in?

How do your cleaning preferences mesh? Asking questions like these prior to choosing a roommate is key to preventing future conflicts. Though it may be tempting, remember that your best friend isn’t necessarily the best roommate for you—it’s more important to live with someone whose values and lifestyles match up with yours. For those in search of roommates outside of their immediate social circles, McGill’s Off-campus Housing Facebook group and the International Roommates in Montreal Facebook group are great resources.

4Searching for an apartment

Now that you have identified precisely what you are looking for, it’s time to get started with the apartment hunt! Online search engines Padmapper and Zumper are great starting points, allowing users to tailor listings by desired location, number of bedrooms, and various amenities. Refer back to your list of must-haves, as well as your number of roommates to browse listings suited to your needs. You might even surprise yourself by finding a listing you love on Craigslist or Kijiji. McGill’s Off-campus Housing Facebook group also has a variety of apartments for rent, primarily located in either Milton Park or the Plateau—the two most common neighbourhoods for McGill students due to their proximity to campus. Alternatively, you could go for a walk in the neighbourhoods that you are interested in, taking notes of places with “for rent” signs. For those new to Montreal, this is also a great way to get a feel for different neighbourhoods.

Don’t underestimate the potential of online search engines, such as Zumper or Padmapper, during your apartment search.

(Talar Ajemar / The McGill Tribune)

5Making the decision

Once you have found some listings that interest you, make a list of your top few apartments. These can be places that either best suit your needs or merely speak to your design style. To start the process of renting an apartment, contact the landlord, agent, or tenant to set up visits, either in person or virtually.

Touring apartments wherever possible is essential, as you may notice flaws that the listing’s photos omitted; maybe there isn’t as much lighting as you thought there would be, or the kitchen is a lot smaller than anticipated. After having seen your top choices, refer back to your must-haves and nice-to-haves. This should help you to eliminate apartments that don’t sufficiently meet your criteria. Before signing any documents, make sure to be aware of your tenant rights to avoid entering into an unlawful agreement.

Remember, apartment hunting is tough, especially as a student. You may not find the “perfect” apartment right away, but don’t overlook the power of adding your own personal belongings, decor, and memories. Try to imagine the full potential of the space; it might only feel like home after some time settling in.

12

STUDENT LIFE

studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

Know your neighbourhood

The hidden histories of Montreal boroughs Holly Wethey & Wendy Zhao Student Life Editors

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iving in Montreal is exciting–– discovering each of the city’s neighbourhoods is like peeling back another layer of a metropolitan onion. And while there are over 180 000 students in Montreal, amidst our own categorizations of the city’s various boroughs––e.g. art girls with stick and poke tattoos live in the Plateau, frat boys reside in Milton Park––it can be easy to forget that beneath each of these areas lies a rich history, one that has existed long before the arrival of students.

The McGill Tribune sheds light on some of the communities and histories that continue to make Montreal neighbourhoods what they are today.

Plateau The borough that we know today as the Plateau dates back to the late 18th century, when it was made up mostly of farmland.

Eventually, in 1845, village-style homes began to appear, followed by duplexes and triplexes. The Plateau, however, only got its name in the 1930s: Some claim it came from a local newspaper referring to the

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022 broad terrace at the base of Mont-Royal, others claim it was a bus-driver stopping at a school called “Le Plateau” who would shout out the name upon arrival. While students see the area as an artsy place to live, the Plateau has been home to different populations for years. Among these are a Jewish community, French immigrants, and a large Portuguese population who arrived in the 1950s.

Mile-End Just north of the Plateau lies the Mile End, a neighbourhood that is home to the iconic Jean Talon Market, Fairmount Bagel, and Cafe Olimpico—known for its signature affogato. This borough also includes “Little Italy,” or Piccola Italia in Italian, which received its name from a wave of Italian immigration in the early 20th century. Those in the neighbourhood can pay a visit to Parc Dante, which has an open-air cinema in the summer, or try one of the many pizza restaurants in the neighbourhood. In addition to Italian immigrants, the Mile End is home to a large Jewish population and was once Montreal’s most Jewish neighbourhood.

There is also a Greek community who arrived after World War II and settled around Park Avenue, resulting in the area being called “Little Athens,” though many Greek residents have now moved away, along with many others who cannot afford the rising rent prices in the area.

Milton Park

Home to many immigrant populations throughout its history, The Plateau is also known by many names, including the “Jewish Quarter,” and “Le Petit Paris.” (Corey Zhu / The McGill Tribune)

Milton Park has seen a radical transformation from its initial formation at the turn of century as a neighbourhood for wealthier families. As its iconic Victorian row

houses were transformed into apartments, the city-central, low-rent housing attracted a cosmopolitan community, including McGill students and professors as well as immigrant families. In the 1960s, the quarter became home to a bustling local arts and counterculture scene: Big names in the era’s rock, folk, and jazz scenes graced venues, cafes, and record stores on Park Ave and Milton Street, including singer-songwriters Joni Mitchell and Muddy Waters. However, many of these beloved local gathering spots were only open for a few years, soon subject to increasing gentrification. In 1968, residents formed the Milton-Parc Citizens Committee to resist real-estate developers plotting to turn most of the neighborhood’s historic buildings into high-rise condos and commercial units. Through community demonstration, activists successfully gained a land trust and would go on to establish the largest cooperative housing project in North America.

Quartier des Spectacles In 1865, the Gesù theatre, the neighbourhood’s first cultural organization, opened its doors. Other theatres followed, opening alongside cabarets and jazz clubs.

During the American Prohibition era, Montreal, now famous for its nightlife and vibrancy, became a cultural hot spot. In the coming years, professional theatre grew in popularity, along with the construction of the metro system, thrusting Montreal into a modern era. Eventually, Complexe Desjardins opened, and the area saw a rise in commercial activity. Quartier de Spectacles is also known as the Latin Quarter, a name which, unlike Little Italy and Little Athens, was inspired by the Quartier Latin in Paris.

arts@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

13

Where do I begin: NFTs

Modern art dealership or passing Twitter trend?

Charlotte Hayes Contributor

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on-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the new year’s craziest phenomenon and strangest mystery. Following in the footsteps of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments, these tokenized digital commodities have taken the internet by storm. NFTs allow collectors to own original pieces of artwork in the digital form. What started as a way for artists to sell the rights to their work has evolved into a bustling marketplace for status symbols and Twitter profile pictures. The question remains: Are NFTs the next evolution of art dealerships or nothing more than a passing collection craze?

An object or asset is fungible if its owner can trade it for another object of equal value, such as money or Air Miles.

Both physical and digital assets can be fungible. In art markets, collectors buy and sell paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts, but do not exchange or trade them.

Art is therefore non-fungible; NFTs bring this phenomenon onto the internet. An NFT is a digital “token,” or object, that can only be purchased with cryptocurrency.

Whereas bitcoin or other forms of crypto are fungible, NFTs are publicly verifiable assets authenticated on the blockchain.

When an NFT is designated as a token on the blockchain, it can be sold like a tangible piece of artwork. In other words, NFTs are the digital public ledger of cryptocurrency.

What sets NFTs apart from other forms of digital art ownership or copyright is the to-

kenization of each asset. This helps prevent fraud by publicly publishing the ownership of these commodities.

On the one hand, NFTs allow artists to profit from the sales of one-of-a-kind digital works, including paintings, videos, and music—much like painters do with physical pieces. However, tech millionaires, hip-hop artists, and other celebrities have latched onto NFTs as the newest way to gaudily display their wealth. For example, popular digital artist Bored Ape Yacht Club has garnered over $1 billion in sales since its May 2021 launch, selling unique cartoons of apes valued as high as $3.4 million. Although some artists treat NFTs as another way to financially thrive off of selling their creations, others do very little in the way of fostering creativity, favouring profit. NFTs differ from other art purchasing sites, such as Etsy, in that the buyer doesn’t just own a copy of the digital art, but the rights to that particular digital image. Many NFTs posted to digital marketplaces like OpenSea are frauds, simply screen captures of an image with no accompanying proof of ownership.

Social media users and celebrities alike have flocked to Bored Ape Yacht Club, displaying their NFTs as social media profile pictures. Recently, Twitter began a pilot program allowing users to upload not just a photo, but the verified copy of an NFT to set as their profile picture on Twitter, which will appear as a hexagonal icon to indicate its authenticity. Instead of having the owner of an entity simply screengrab the image of the digital token and upload it to their profile, they would be able to up-

Mindy Seu: On citations, hypertext, and online activism

Designer, researcher, and creator of the digital Cyberfeminism Index Mindy Seu shares her history of the internet and discusses activist strategies.

Jan. 27, 6–7:30 p.m.

Online Tickets (Free) on Eventbrite

Digital Art in the 21st Century: A Panel on Art, Law, and NFTs Bored Ape Yacht Club is responsible for some of the most expensive NFTs ever sold. (theverge.com) load the token onto Twitter and prove their ownership of the NFT. Theoretically, NFTs seem like a fair way to give artists the privilege to distribute content online in a profitable, trustworthy way. However, due to the common lack of originality and authenticity in the art, as well as the abrupt spike in interest, NFTs resemble more of a fad rather than industry-altering technology. Relying solely on consumer-generated excitement and often lacking the depth or complexity that grants artistic works their timelessness, NFTs possess little long-term value.

Instead, they offer the possibility of exorbitantly displaying wealth as one would with streetwear or excessive jewelry— only online. At the end of the day, many NFT sales are less about art quality and more about brand names and showing off one’s money.

Held by the McGill Art Law Association and the Cheng Huai Art and Culture Association, three experts explain NFTs, copyright laws, digital art, and more.

Jan. 28, 3–4:30 p.m.

Online Free, Registration required

2022 USE Exhibition: The Sum of Our Shared Selves

Concordia University’s FOFA Gallery presents their Undergraduate Student Exhibition, featuring 13 artists focussing on corporeality, memory, and environmental consciousness.

Jan 24–Feb 25, M–F, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

La Galerie Fofa Free

Creating a Profound Audio Experience with Sun Noor

Broadcaster CJLO 1690AM and Montreal’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling host Montreal-based freelance music journalist Sun Noor for a workshop on sonic storytelling Jan. 26, 12 p.m.

On Air Free

‘Degrassi’ keeps it real, for better or worse

HBO Max recently announced a new reboot of the franchise Michelle Siegel Arts & Entertainment Editor

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f something happened at your high school, it probably also happened on Degrassi. Although the show’s “classic” era ended with Degrassi High in 1992, the Next Generation series surpassed it both in length and popularity. This was largely due to the show’s memorable cast: Toronto rapper Drake and actress Nina Dobrev both appeared as main cast members before finding considerable fame elsewhere. Most of the actors were the same age as their characters, bringing an authenticity to their onscreen awkwardness and growth. However, it is clear that many of the actors were relatively inexperienced, with scenes bringing the audience to tears from ridiculing laughter rather than powerful performances.

The long-running teen drama franchise, set and produced in and around Toronto, began with The Kids of Degrassi Street, which ran from 1979 to 1982. Its successor, Degrassi Junior High, began airing in 1987 and was directly followed by Degrassi High in 1989. The series officially concluded in 1992 and wasn’t revived until 2001, when Degrassi: The Next Generation premiered. The show was briefly continued as Degrassi: Next Class on Netflix from 2016-2017, with a new reboot of the show set to hit HBO Max in 2023. With the

next iteration of the franchise imminent, it’s worthwhile to examine the impact that the show had on the television industry and beyond.

Degrassi: The Next Generation stood apart from other teen shows for its procedural format and more grounded approach to portraying teenagers. By depicting nuanced emotional conflicts and social situations, Degrassi solidified its reputation as a show that wasn’t afraid to touch on darker or more controversial subjects. While Dawson’s Creek and other American shows featured older actors with exaggerated plots and questionable realism, Degrassi: The Next Generation was

entertaining without needing excessive stylization.

When I first encountered the show, it seemed drastically different than anything I’d seen before, especially since it was airing on TeenNick, the teen-aimed, mature Nickelodeon programming block that I never actually felt cool enough to watch. Degrassi: The Next Generation began airing music video promos in season 10, establishing the sustained appeal of the franchise and enticing new viewers.

Several episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation generated major attention for how they handled mature subject matters: “Accidents Will Happen” from season three, for instance,

The ‘Degrassi’ cast consisted mainly of teenagers from Toronto, bringing both authenticity and bad acting to the table. (cafemom.com)

focussed on Manny (Cassie Steele) having an abortion after getting pregnant at the age of 14. American network The N refused to air the episodes, which only became available in the United States in 2006, two years after their initial release in Canada. While the U.S. clung to shiny, happy-go-lucky teen programming, Canada wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. In season 10, Adam Torres (Jordan Todosey) was introduced, becoming one of the first transgender characters on scripted Canadian television. Degrassi High: School’s Out!, a television film that served as the finale for Degrassi High, even featured the first use of the word “fuck” on Canadian primetime television.

Degrassi has always been relatively selfcontained, which has led to the creation of many memes and jokes in the years since it went off-air. Despite the questionable fashion, gritty acting, and excessive school bands on the shows over the years, the series’ realism has allowed it to endure longer than other teen-oriented shows such as Riverdale.

While the lengthy duration of The Next Generation forced certain plots to get recycled— like teen pregnancy, car crashes, makeovers, and fights—they never became trivialized or glamourized. Unlike other soulless reboots, reviving Degrassi feels loyal to the trajectory of the franchise. The show’s theme song rings true: Whatever it takes, Degrassi will make it through.

14 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

arts@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

Literary theorist Jeff Dolven pays a virtual visit to the English department Dolven reflects on poetry’s traditions and experiments with classic techniques Ella Gomes & Suzanna Graham Contributor & Staff Writer

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n Jan. 19, the McGill English Department held its 2022 Spector Lecture, an annual event that highlights contemporary work in the literary field. This year, the department welcomed Jeff Dolven, a poet, literary critic, and Princeton professor of English. Later, students and faculty had a chance to hear several of his new poems at a virtual reading hosted by Poetry Matters on Jan. 20.

Originally planned to take place in McGill’s Wilson Hall on Mar. 24, 2020, organizers moved the lecture online after the pandemic prompted numerous reschedulings.

To start it off, Dolven introduced attendees to his most

On Jan. 19–20 Dolven gave a lecture on “Taking Turns” in literature and read several poems from his upcoming publication. (mcgill.ca)

recent area of study: Poetry and simultaneity. Dolven explored how human conversation is naturally inclined toward turn-taking—a tendency that poetic structure can disrupt to create metaphors that form overlapping connections.

Dolven then explained the importance of taking turns during conversation. No known human language prefers both parties to speak simultaneously during a conversation; overlapping speech often leaves us disoriented and overwhelmed. However, English poet Sir Philip Sidney’s double-sestina poem “Ye Goat-Herd Gods”—Dolven’s case study for the lecture—challenges this inherently human pattern. As the two speakers, shepherds Strephon and Klaius, lament their love for an ambiguous and distant feminine figure, the poem begins to abandon the typical back-andforth of human speech until the shepherds’ duet loses all essence of natural human behavior. While Strephon begins wailing “For she whose parts maintained a perfect music,” Klauis follows, echoing “For she, with whom compared, the Alps are valleys,” emphasizing the heavily formulated, yet related nature of their cries. With stark shifts between each shepherd’s longing confessions, Strephon’s and Klaius’ proclamations appear in sync, yet disconnected.

Dolven highlighted that the shepherds repeatedly echo each other’s form, rhetoric, and figurative language, imbuing metaphors and figures of speech with multiple “stacked” meanings. Though literary theorists commonly argue that metaphors link, or condense, two disparate objects together through speech, Dolven argues that this constant echoing and build-up of multiple meanings deconstructs the metaphor’s linear connections, instead fusing them into a web of multiple meanings.

A recording of the lecture will be available soon on the Poetry Matters website, and Dolven intends to elaborate on these ideas as well as others in his upcoming project exploring poetry and simultaneity, tentatively titled All Together Now. In addition to being a prominent literary theorist and critic, Dolven also writes poetry. His works have been fea-

tured in The New Yorker and The Paris Review, and he also edits for Cabinet Magazine. Dolven’s poetry reading, focussing on attention and solidarity, was an effective counterpart to his denser, more theoretical lecture the day before.

Discussing his forthcoming poetry collection, A New English Grammar, and Other Poems, Dolven explained his formula: Each poem begins with a grammar rule copied from a textbook, which he proceeds to break in the poem’s following lines. The rules encourage him to play with fun phrases that may make grammar purists uncomfortable, such as the line, “we’ve got any milk, but only any,” replacing the commonly used “some” with “any.” “[Grammar textbooks have] a bunch of sentences that have asterisks in front of them. That means this sentence is going to tell you something about how English works, but it’s wrong—don’t use it,” Dolven said during his presentation. “[I was] interested in what it would mean to try to make poems or make worlds within which this sort of strange, busted, broken language was, in fact, good currency.”

In addition to his grammar-defying poems, Dolven read several others that similarly break preconceptions, such as “State of Expectations,” a sweet lyric poem about an elephant, who, despite his title as “king of the beasts,” feels quietly insecure about living up to his status. On a heavier note, “Let the World Breathe for You” is a haunting pandemic poem about releasing self-ownership while living in an iron lung, a primitive respirator that helped save numerous polio victims in the 20th century. The poem asks readers to “sing poli-o, sing poli-oli-o,” using song to confront fear, much like the childhood tune “Ring Around the Rosie.”

Covering a wide range of literary terrain, from reading to theorizing about poetry, Dolven shared his love of literary experimentation with McGill’s faculty and students.

His presentations proved that the rules and presumptions of grammar, conversation, and ultimately the human experience become meaningless—or rather, meaning-full—in the world of poetry.

‘Too Hot to Handle’ season three enforces unhealthy sexual values

The reality TV show has changed some rules, but cannot escape the pitfalls of its premise Anne Berglas Contributor

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he Netflix series Too Hot to Handle’s season three presents an even hotter, more dramatic mess than its previous seasons of scandal. The dating show brings 10 horny young adult participants on an erotic vacation, only to enforce sexual abstinence after the 12-hour mark. The show documents the contestants as they struggle to choose between winning the $200,000 prize money or giving into their sexual urges— and they often choose wrong. At best, Too Hot to Handle is unbelievable, and at worst, it’s exploitative.

According to Deadline, Too Hot to Handle’s viewership decreased after the release of its second season, dropping from 51 million households to 29 million.

This lapse in popularity may explain some of the show’s changes—for instance, announcements revealing that money can be won back, and the surprise of some participants returning to the show even after being kicked off. Each

episode is a rollercoaster with no clear destination, as viewers buckle in for a dizzying experience.

To criticize Too Hot to Handle for its absurdity would be superfluous; the show makes no effort to hide its selling points of voyeurism and drama-laden guilty-pleasure watching. There are many sexually suggestive scenes, often brought out by producer manipulation through sensual workshops like body painting.

But what does go beyond the garish is how Too Hot to Handle fetishizes its representations of queer relations. When Izzy and Georgia inaugurate the contest’s first rule-breaking with some kissing, the narrator phrases the act as an attention-seeking grab rather than portraying it as having any legitimate intimacy or emotional connection. The kiss is followed by a cringey montage of the male contestants voicing their appreciation at the idea of sapphic sexual acts. The gender binary is still rigidly enforced: Men pursue the women and manipulate their male competitors. The kiss shared be-

Netflix’s ’Too Hot to Handle’ was released on Netflix Jan. 21, adding 10 more clueless contestants into the running for the audience’s scorn. (cosmopolitan.com) tween Izzy and Georgia is never acknowledged as part of the romantic conquests.

Though previous seasons have featured competitors open to polyamorous relations, this season’s participants act jealous and competitive toward one another, lending the episodes an air of toxicity. Viewers aren’t meant to sympathize with the contestants’ plights of sexless vacation; rather, the show’s selective editing and snarky narrator portrays

them as entitled and arrogant. Edited and manipulated to showcase the worst of these contestants, the show makes naturally dislikeable personalities even more unsavoury.

This season stigmatizes sex even more than previous iterations. According to the rule-enforcer character, Lana, sexual acts are a barrier for emotional connection. Too Hot to Handle enforces heteronormativity and traditionalism by offering contes-

tants as an example of what not to be, setting them up as detestable through edited interview clips and explicit narration mockery. The show delights in personal misery, preaching “deep emotional connection” to the contestants, who are simply not looking for that type of relationship. Given that the premise of the show is to lure in people interested in a month of sexual flings, the narrator’s demeaning attitude does not take into consideration the lack of interest participants have in longterm romance.

It is not unusual for viewers to detest the young singles as they prioritize immediate sexual gratification over financial success while manipulating those around them. However, the season’s drama-obsessed, insincere contestants are a regression from the show’s previous portrayals of individuals who were sex positive.

Still, the real blame lies with the show’s producers, as they manipulate and exploit the contestants to manufacture punchlines rather than meaningfully considering diverse forms of attraction.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

sports@mcgilltribune.com

SPORTS

15

Know Your Athlete: Louis-Philip Guindon McGill hockey alum will soon play for the Montreal Canadiens’ farm team Jake Wagman Contributor

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oving from McGill hockey to the American Hockey League (AHL), Louis-Philip Guindon is one of McGill’s greatest sports successes. After signing with the Laval Rocket on a player try-out, Guindon reflected on his history with hockey and how his time at McGill helped

hockey from the moment he could hold a stick.

“I started playing when I was very young,” Guindon said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Every kid in Quebec plays hockey, that’s just how it is. All my friends were playing, so I played too.”

Guindon developed a passion for the netminding position soon after he laced up his skates for the first time.

In his sophomore year at McGill, Guindon was voted OUA East Goaltender of the Year.

(McGill University Athletics) him in his journey toward the big leagues.

Born in Montreal, Guindon fell in love with

“I observed goalies at a tournament when I started playing and realized that the

position of goalie stands out the most on the ice,” Guindon said. “They are the stars, and that’s what I wanted to be.”

Although hockey first began as a rite of passage for Guindon, it quickly consumed his life. Like many high-level athletes, he did not pick up other hobbies or activities outside of hockey—that is, until he found himself at McGill. In university, reading and writing became creative outlets for Guindon, who learned to balance his athletic endeavours with his academic interests.

“I had a good excuse to be able to read and write [in school], since being on a McGill sports team requires their players to keep up with their studies,” Guindon said. “For the first time, I had an easy time balancing hockey and something else I thoroughly enjoyed.”

After his time spent with the McGill Redbirds, Guindon moved on to the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL. After about a year with the Nailers, Guindon secured a tryout contract with the Laval Rocket in the AHL. Although this was a step up on a professional level, Guindon emphasized that this promotion meant more than just a career achievement.

“I was blessed to receive the opportunity to play on the Rocket,” Guindon said. “It wasn’t always something I was striving for specifically. I just want to be able to work hard and do my absolute best when I play

hockey [....] Playing at a higher level gives me a greater challenge above anything else.”

As a goalie, Guindon had much to say about the position and his critical role in every game.

“Goalies make an impact on every moment of the game. There is a lot of pressure and everyone is watching you,” Guindon said. “You are the only player that’s on the ice the whole game and you have to make sure to keep your composure 100 per cent of the time and focus on your primary objective: Making saves.”

Instead of focussing on the future, Guindon prefers to stay grounded in the present moment.

“I take life day-to-day and I work hard for more opportunities to open up,” Guindon said. “If another chance comes along, I evaluate what to do and move forward from there. I am able to do my degree while playing hockey and I work hard in everything I do to have as many options for my future as possible.”

And it is clear that Louis-Philip Guindon has a bright future ahead of him. He thanks McGill for a large portion of his success, citing his time at university as essential in preparing him for his future in both hockey and everyday life. For now, Guindon will continue to strive forward in his hockey career—and only time will tell where he ends up next.

An axe to grind: It’s time for Atlanta’s 'chop' to go

MLB’s attachment to a racist gesture is dehumanizing to Indigenous communities Tillie Burlock Contributor

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he transition away from dehumanizing caricatures of Indigenous peoples within the sports world has been marked by many teams dropping their blatantly racist names.

After years of activism, McGill changed the moniker of their men’s varsity teams to the “Redbirds” in 2019. The Washington Football Team eliminated their degrading nickname in 2020 and the Cleveland Guardians followed suit in 2021.

Throughout their successful bid for a World Series ring in 2021, the Atlanta “Braves” and their notorious “Tomahawk chop” received rightful scrutiny while being placed in the spotlight.

As the audio cue for the “chop” rang throughout Truist Park, the TBS channel panned out to show Atlanta fans in cartoonish regalia and headdresses chanting a “warcry” while chopping their arms back and forth. The refusal of Atlanta to move away from the “chop,” combined with Major League Baseball (MLB) and TBS’s encouragement of the cheer, has left many fans perplexed as to why MLB would endorse such an objectionable act.

Racism within the Atlanta

“Braves” organization traces back to the team’s sale in 1912 to James Gaffney. Gaffney was an alderman for Tammany Hall—a New York City political organization named

in reality, practiced predominantly by white settlers who were institutionally encouraged and rewarded for this horrifying practice.

A fan at Minute Maid Park in Houston addresses ‘the chop.’

(Bob Levy / Getty Images) after Chief Tamanend of Lenape Nation. Tammany Hall referred to its members as the “Braves,” a term associated with Indigenous warriors.

In 1991, when the “chop” was adopted from Florida State University, a number of Indigenous groups protested outside the Metrodome, criticizing the chant and hand motion for making reference to scalping, a violent practice stereotypically associated with Indigenous peoples that is,​​

When partnered with Atlanta’s legacy of racist caricatures and the “Braves” name, the “chop” becomes a harmful misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples that marginalizes the Indigenous experience. As an accepted part of baseball fandom, the “chop” and its associated “war-cry” instill settlercolonial stereotypes of the “savage Indian” into mainstream baseball culture.

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has also

been unwavering in its calls for MLB, TBS, and FOX Broadcasting Company to refrain from showing the “chop.”

In a conversation with the Post Dispatch, Ryan Helsley, a pitcher for St. Louis Cardinals and a member of the Cherokee Nation, described his experiences playing at Truist Park as disappointing and disrespectful.

“It depicts them in this kind of caveman-type people way who aren’t intellectual,” Helsley said. “I don’t see why professional teams are so far behind on that.”

In response to this comment, Atlanta decided to stop distributing red foam tomahawks to fans, and to refrain from playing the audio cue—but only when Helsley was in the park.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Yann AllardTremblay, assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Political Science and a member of the Huron-Wendat First Nation, expressed his disappointment with Atlanta’s response “You can acknowledge that it is wrong but [the MLB] is still in a position where it doesn’t have to change,” Allard-Tremblay said. “[They’re] consolidating [their] dominance. It says a lot about how much care is taken to

the relationship with Indigenous peoples. As it is presented to me, Ryan Helsley seems to be saying that there is something wrong, that he is not comfortable, and the response is, ‘well local Indigenous people are fine with it.’”

If MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is going to continue to make weak excuses for his ongoing support of the name and its associated chant, Atlanta needs to take a name change into their own hands. Circulating petitions have suggested the Atlanta Hammers as a tribute to former Atlanta baseball star, Hammerin’ Hank Aaron.

“There is often an attachment to power,” Allard-Tremblay said.

“Being questioned about the power you exercise is often something that will lead to no answer. You see that in so many social dynamics of people who have entitlement and do not want to lose their entitlement. I am sure that is present here [with the MLB and Atlanta].”

As a team that has held six different names in three different cities, it is clear that Atlanta is not resistant to a name change or rebrand of the team. What they are resisting is the transition away from the exploitative representation of Indigenous peoples that continues to be profitable for Major League Baseball.

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SPORTS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 2022

sports@mcgilltribune.com

2022 X Games bring extreme spirit to the slopes

The Games returned for their 25th anniversary with an all-star roster of snowboarders Sophia Gorbounov Sports Editor

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he weekend of Jan. 21 to 23 marked the historic 25th edition of the Winter X Games. Remembered for new tricks and creative moves, the X Games are every extreme sport enthusiast’s favourite event of the year, and this year was no exception. Held at the Buttermilk ski resort in Aspen, Colorado, the Games ran just weeks before the 2022 Winter Olympics.

While Olympic events have scoring breakdowns and are judged according to specific skill sets, the X Games have no such limits, providing seasoned and rookie athletes alike the chance to let loose in events with less stringent rules and more room for unfiltered imagination. For instance, snowboarding, an activity well known for its adrenaline rushes, saw some of its best and brightest carve out their slice of winter sports history.

Inaugurated in 2019, the Knuckle Huck event—where snowboarders “huck,” or launch, themselves over the “knuckle,” or side, of a hill—had fans watching Fridtjof Sæther Tischendorf, Tyler Nicholson, brothers Dusty and Dillon Henricksen, and others perform what seemed like gravitydefying jumps. With a 35-minute “jam session” format, where no points are scored and results are only revealed at the end, the Knuckle Huck marks athletes based on the swagger of their

best jump.

Marcus Kleveland, after whom the event was inspired, took home the golden knuckle with a clean yet exhilarating front side cork, with Tischendorf coming second, and Dusty Henricksen taking home third.

Jaea Kleinberg, U2 Arts and an avid snowboarder herself, emphasized the creative opportunities afforded by the freestyle nature of the Knuckle Huck.

“While I do enjoy events such as Slopestyle, Big Air, and SuperPipe, the Knuckle Huck is definitely my favourite,” Kleinberg said. “It’s still a newer event, so it’s great to see the riders having fun and getting creative to impress the judges.”

Though the Knuckle Huck is arguably the event with the least rules, riders got to show off their skills in a variety of other competitions too.

Starting the X Games this year was the women’s slopestyle, another 35-minute jam session where each rider performed moves over a series of railings followed by three possible jumps. This event featured familiar faces like Jamie Anderson, Anna Gasser, and Quebec’s own Laurie Blouin.

Kleinberg was happy to see Canadian female athletes represented at the Games this year.

“It’s particularly nice to see at least one Canadian rider in all the female snowboarding events,” Kleinberg said. “Being a female

Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris won his sixth Slopestyle gold, breaking his tie with fellow rider Shaun White and attaining the record number of wins in the Slopestyle event. (Getty Images) snowboarder myself, it’s great to see such powerful women representing their country at the X Games.”

Despite an initially rocky start and early fall, Anderson, who began this year’s Games with 19 medals under her belt, earned second place, adding yet another one to her collection. Anderson’s now-20 awards make her the most decorated woman in Winter X Games history. First place went to Zoi Sadowski-Synnott for her first run, where she landed a backside

1080 double cork with ease.

Blouin, who jumped, twisted, and landed her way to a third place podium finish in Women’s Slopestyle, was not the only Canadian snowboarder kicking up a snowstorm at the Games.

Indeed, Mark McMorris made a notorious comeback in the Men’s Slopestyle event, winning gold— his 21st X Games medal—and maintaining the record for most Winter X Games awards won. Marcus Kleveland and Sven Thorgren won

second and third respectively. Last year, notable athletes like McMorris and Max Parrot withdrew from the X Games after contracting COVID-19, and it was refreshing to see them return.

“It’s always great to see such awesome Canadian riders like Darcy Sharpe, Laurie Blouin, Mark McMorris, Elizabeth Hosking, Tyler Nicholson, and Max Parrot competing,” Kleinberg said.

“The Canadian spirit will hopefully remain high for this year’s X Games!”

The course of true love never did run smooth

Montreal’s undying devotion to the most storied franchise in NHL history Kennedy McKee-Braide Managing Editor

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any Montrealers will be able to tell you where they were on June 24, 2021, when the Canadiens scored an overtime goal in game six of the second-to-last round of the playoffs against the Las Vegas Golden Knights—a win that propelled the team to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1993.

During the 1976-77 season, the Canadiens set an NHL record by losing only eight out of 80 regular season games. (Getty Images)

I was away at a cottage with friends at the time, crowded around an old television watching the game. When Artturi Lehkonen scored that goal, the three of us watching went wild––much like many across the province and even the country. When we managed to settle down, the first thing I did was call my mom, the person from whom I inherited my love for the Habs. She, too, was over the moon and mentioned how she wished her dad was around to see it happen.

As I was growing up, my mom would tell my grandfather, ahead of each season, that this year might be the one the Habs would surprise us and finally win their 25th Cup. Each time, regardless of how well the team was doing, my grandfather would reply, “No, not this time.” Evidently, he was always right.

It should have been unsurprising, then, when the team succumbed to the Tampa Bay Lightning two weeks later. After all, the boys had put on a lacklustre regular season performance, somehow managing to scrape by only when it counted. With each round, first against their arch-nemeses the Toronto Maple Leafs, then against the Winnipeg Jets, and finally against the Golden Knights, commentators who had been positive that the end of the Habs’ run was imminent were forced to eat their words. Despite the unlikely odds, the city was sent into a period of mourning when the final series came to a close.

Given the team’s stellar run last year, fans had high expectations going into the 2021-2022 season. But the off-season brought with it the losses of key players like Phillip Danault and Corey Perry––and not to mention injuries that prevented captain Shea Weber and star goaltender Carey Price from returning to the ice in the fall. Now, the team is standing dead last, making it statistically impossible for them to make the playoffs. Between injuries and placements into the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol, several games in December and January saw the team made up

almost entirely of players from the Laval Rocket.

While this fall from grace is rather extreme, it hearkens back to past episodes of Cup hopes that electrified the city. In 2009-2010, Jaroslav Halak’s success briefly called into question whether Price would remain the city’s starter or even remain in Montreal. That season, the team made it further into the playoffs than they had in years, but ultimately failed to make the final, losing their shot at clinching the Cup. The recurring pattern begs the question of why Canadiens fans remain so deeply devoted to a team that consistently disappoints. The Habs are said to have the “most intimidating home-ice advantage in the league,” with the Bell Centre known to draw in the loudest, most passionate fans. Beyond the atmosphere of their arena, furnished with energy that travelled across downtown Montreal from the historic Forum in 1999, the team also boasts the most Cups and the most retired numbers in the league.

Perhaps it’s the way the franchise’s history is so intimately tied to the culture of the city and the province. Or, maybe it’s the lack of another highly popular professional sports team in Montreal, or even the overwhelming number of iconic players to have sported the bleu-blanc-rouge. Regardless, the Canadiens have become a staple in many––arguably, the majority of–– Quebecers’ lives, making them a cultural giant rather than merely a sports team.

With new leadership and the looming possibility of a rebuild, some Habs fans are cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a team that is consistently great, not just in random, haphazard bouts. But I’ll always take the lengthy droughts in exchange for even a once-in-a-decade chance to experience the thrill, camaraderie, and joy that comes with times like the playoff run of summer 2021.