The McGill Tribune Vol. 41 Issue 7

The McGill Tribune TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021 | VOL. 41 | ISSUE 7

Published by the SPT, a student society of McGill University

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM | @McGILLTRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FEATURE

STUDENT LIFE

Land acknowledgements are not political, but should be accompanied by political action

Orphaned tongues

McGill-themed Halloween costumes: 2021 Edition

PGs. 8-9

PG. 7

PG. 5

(Saumya Gogte / The McGill Tribune)

‘Dune’ is a return to the grandeur of in-person film

Students speak out about racism at Desautels Faculty of Management Insensitive language, tokenization, and stereotyping well-documented within the faculty Kellie Elrick Contributor A Reddit thread recently surfaced asking for feedback on Career Services at the Desautels Faculty of Management. The top comment was written by a student of colour

who claimed a Career Advisor made racist comments toward them during their first year. The student also writes that they, along with many other students of colour, have not gone back to Career Services since, out of fear of “being subjected to outright racism.”

PG. 2

PG. 14

Know Your Athlete: Elizabeth Ling

Catching up with record-breaking swimmer Elizabeth Ling Zoé Mineret Staff Writer Calgary native Elizabeth Ling has been making waves on the McGill swim team. After winning the first Quebec Cup competition of the season, Ling was named RSEQ Athlete of the Week for her impressive achievements.

In addition to winning three gold

and one silver medal during her first meet of the season, Ling broke two school records, registering her 50 free time at 25.47 seconds on a relay, just under that of Olympian Andrea Nugent’s time of 25.55, set in 1993. This remarkable feat led the McGill women’s swim team to win the first Quebec Cup competition of the season.

PG. 15

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NEWS

news@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

Students speak out about racism at Desautels Faculty of Management Insensitive language, tokenization, and stereotyping well-documented within the faculty

Kellie Elrick contributor Continued from page 1.

This is the latest instance of racism at Desautels in a history of similar testimonies. On July 30, 2020, an open letter that detailed the experiences of BIPOC students was sent to Desautels higher-ups.

With over 600 signatories, the letter included accounts ranging from uncomfortable class discussions to racist comments from career advisors.

It also issued a list of demands, such as curriculum revisions, an official, public anti-racism plan and demographic report, and a concession of a history of past racist behaviour, among other changes.

The open letter cites the lack of representation within the faculty as a primary obstacle in fostering a more inclusive environment. According to McGill’s 2021 Bicentennial Report on Employment Equity, 14.5 per cent of tenure-stream academics within the faculty identified as ethnic minorities, just above the university-wide average

of 13.6 per cent.

Though a statement on “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Desautels” is available on the faculty’s Strategic Plan for 2025 page of their website, the “Diversity” channel is currently blank.

In both the letter and the recent Reddit thread, students raised concerns about one career advisor in particular, who allegedly made discriminatory comments such as “ching chong chang,” “I don’t speak Asian,” and “You Muslims think.”

Riley*, U4 Management, feels that no real change has been implemented in regards to the advisor since the publishing of the open letter.

“In the immediate aftermath of the open letter being released, the staff [member] in question was soon removed from the Desautels website, which many assumed meant they had been removed from their role one way or another,” Riley said. “However, after a few months, when the buzz around the letter died down a bit, the person was put back on the website as a career advisor. No further actions were taken to our knowledge.”

“This culture has been allowed to survive because the Faculty has been complicit” (Open letter)]. (Kate Addison / The McGill Tribune) The McGill Tribune reached out to McGill administration for comment on the persistent accounts of racism at Desautels. Frédérique Mazerolle, a McGill media relations officer, emphasized that the university is dedicated to being a safe space for all its students.

“All members of the university community have the right to work and learn in an environment that is free

from harassment and discrimination,” Mazerolle wrote in an email to the Tribune. “The university is committed to fostering a community founded upon the fundamental dignity and worth of all of its members and an equitable environment in which all members of the university can flourish.”

This past June, Desautels appointed Yolande E. Chan, a woman

of colour, former associate dean and chair of digital technology at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business, and a Rhodes Scholar, as the new faculty dean. Mary Zhang, U4 Management, says Chan’s appointment is an important start, but that more needs to be done.

“I believe Desautels is making efforts to change for the better, yet we have a long way to go,” Zhang said.

Zhang also noted that missing expertise and experience in the field of equity, diversity, and inclusion within Desautels is still a major concern for students.

“The overall culture at Desautels is still far from one of inclusivity,” Zhang said. “A lot of marginalized students are, sadly but justifiably, fatigued by the disillusions of the bureaucracy and pushback in the process of institutional changemaking. Personally, despite the emotional labour, I look forward to continuing to push for change and believe in the potential the faculty has.” *Riley’s name has been changed to preserve their anonymity.

Open researching, publishing, and access on the table at McGill Library’s Open Access Week 2021 McGill Librarians call on organizations to form Open Access statements

Ella Fitzhugh News Editor

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he McGill Library is bringing International Open Access (OA) Week 2021 to the university’s scholarly community from Oct. 25 to Oct. 31. This year’s theme is “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity.” The planning committee members, such as librarians Jessica Lange, Michael David Miller, Lucy Kiester, and Robin Desmeules, organized several virtual events running throughout the week.

Events to note include “The Future is Open: Becoming an Open Researcher” on Oct. 25, “Publishing Data with the McGill Dataverse” Oct. 26, the “ORCID-a-thon” on Oct. 28, and “Open Access Scholarly Books: Demystifying the Publishing Process,” also on Oct. 28.

The McGill Library defines open access as the practice of making access to research free. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Jessica Lange, McGill Library coordinator for Scholarly Communications, noted that McGill is able to make scholarly articles and research materials free to students and staff because of the university’s status as a large scholarly institution.

“There has been a lot of discussion now in the Open Access field about [...] equity in terms of some institutions like McGill,” Lange said. “We can basically pay large publishers a certain amount of money, [and] negotiate [that] money, so that McGill researchers can publish open access for free in certain journals [....] We

have done that with SAGE and a couple other publishers.”

Lange emphasized the importance of this year’s theme, “Building Structural Equity,” pointing out the existing inequities in publishing. For instance, racialized authors are less frequently published within existing OA journals.

Lange also noted that smaller institutions are often excluded from the OA framework because they lack access to resources that larger institutions like McGill have.

“Of course, smaller institutions may not have [...] resources to negotiate such agreements, so [...] this leads to another structural inequity where researchers at larger institutions might have access to either funds or waivers that people at other

institutions do not,” Lange said.

The week features a virtual “ORCIDa-thon,” a workshop that helps students create accounts on ORCID—a platform that displays academics’ profiles. During the workshop, McGill librarians will help members of the McGill community build a comprehensive, self-updating, public Curriculum Vitae (CV) on the ORCID platform. Michael David Miller, associate librarian and liaison librarian for French Literature, Economics, and Gender Studies, spoke with the Tribune about the upcoming event, the first of its kind at McGill. “[ORCID] is an open and free identifier for researchers,” David Miller said. “There will be three of us [at the

McGill Library coordinator Jessica Lange wants to remind students of the library’s resources, such as the eScholarship open access digital repository. (Defne Gurcay / The McGill Tribune)

(mcgill.ca) ORCID-a-thon]. So, a researcher, grad student, or just anybody who is interested in ORCID [can] come in and we will help them set up their ORCID profile.”

Robin Desmeules, a cataloguing librarian at McGill and past chair of the Library’s Scholarly Communications Committee, believes having the ability to navigate the research world can have profound impacts on structures beyond educational institutions, such as the economy.

“It is really interesting to understand how knowledge is disseminated or not, and the economic impacts of that,” Desmeules said in an interview with the Tribune. “And how for-profit publishing, or capitalism in general, [...] can interfere with the free circulation of knowledge, and how that impacts scholarship in all of its forms.”

On how McGill organizations can help promote OA in scholarship and research, Lange, Miller, and Desmeules all expressed the importance of issuing statements in support of OA, like in McGill Library’s own statement and the Douglas Research Centre’s new Open Access Policy.

“We are starting to get pockets where you can see that departments are saying ‘this is a priority for us, we’re going to make a statement,’” Lange said. “So hopefully [...] we’ll see other [departments] pick up and recognize the relevance.”

news@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

NEWS

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Where is Gerts Café? Opening postponed after delays in equipment shipping Café set to open at Gerts Campus Bar during daytime hours Madison Edward-Wright News Editor

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he Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) University Centre, located at 3480 McTavish St., reopened at the start of the Fall 2021 semester, offering space for studying, club gatherings, eating, and socializing.

Gerts Campus Bar was also reopened with a new concept: A Gerts Café that would operate out of the same space as the bar during the day. While the bar section of Gerts has been in operation since Sept. 14, the cafe side has yet to open.

Baristas received training from Kittel, a Montreal coffee roaster on Oct. 25. (Lea Bourget / The McGill Tribune)

Inside Gerts, students can see a cafe-style counter set up in the corner closest to the entrance. Signage and arrows throughout the University Centre direct students toward “Gerts Café” at the ground level. There are also Quick Response (QR) codes posted on the Gerts entrance doors that lead to a webpage listing Gerts Café opening hours. Gerts doors, however, remain locked until 12:30 p.m., when the bar officially opens.

Many students, like Maya Sokoloff, U3 Arts, did not know Gerts would be adding a cafe, despite having been to the bar. Nevertheless, she expressed enthusiasm toward the concept.

“I only know [Gerts] as a bar,” Sokoloff said. “I think it is such a good idea [for Gerts to have a cafe]. Especially with it getting colder and rainier, I feel like there have been less communal spaces for people to hangout inside and having a nice student area for people to just do work, get coffee, and eat seems like a great idea.”

Gerts manager Nadine Pelaez explained that a series of logistical obstacles are behind the cafe’s delayed opening.

“An endeavor like this [has] so many moving parts,” Pelaez said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “The whole cafe is an entirely new business, so that in itself takes a lot of time. Another delay is that it took a second for our machines to arrive. [Because] this is a new business, I want to get a new espresso machine, I want to get a good grinder and to be selling good coffee, so with COVID supply chains, things [took] longer than we originally anticipated.”

Pelaez also cited staff schedules and training as a challenge to opening.

“It takes so much coordination to hire and start people out,” Pelaez said. “Here, everything has been from scratch. These six baristas, this is my starting lineup, we have to train them all at the same time but also everyone has class, half of them have class on the Mac Campus, and it is so hard to coordinate.”

Rex Hamilton, U1 Science and a bartender at Gerts, noted that shipping delays have had an impact on Gerts’ operations.

“There has been a huge backlog, not just of café equipment, but all over the world for all different sectors [...] because of COVID-19,” Hamilton said in an interview with the Tribune. “[Gerts Bar] has been short on tequila, there is a huge tequila shortage. But the [cafe] equipment did arrive a week or two ago, so I know [Nadine] has been scrambling to get the cafe staff ready.”

Despite backorders and the learning curve of opening a bar after a three-year hiatus, Hamilton has had a positive experience at Gerts so far and has enjoyed getting to know the McGill community.

“It has been a really good team, and we [have] all got each other’s backs,” Hamilton said. “I hope [the cafe staff] has fun and enjoys it too [....] I have met a lot of kids in the McGill universe through this job. It kind of feels like I am at the centre of everything if I am working [at Gerts]. So many different people come through [....] It is really cool to work a job where I feel like I am a part of the McGill community.”

RSN hosts debate on individual versus systemic climate action Discussion centred on who should shoulder the burden of climate change

Lily Cason News Editor

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n Sept. 19, McGill’s Research and Sustainability Network (RSN) held a virtual debate on the topic of individual versus systemic solutions to the climate crisis. The event featured three McGill professors who research environmental sustainability in their respective fields: Sanjith Gopalakrishnan, assistant professor of operations management in the Desautels Faculty of Management; Dror Etzion, associate professor of strategy and organization, also at Desautels; and Brian Robinson, assistant professor in the Department of Geography.

Shanaya D’sa, U4 Arts and copresident of the RSN, moderated the discussion. D’sa explained that the group’s mission is to help undergraduates get involved in sustainability-related research.

“The Research and Sustainability Network is a student-founded [SSMU] group that aims to bridge the gap between researchers and undergraduates,” D’sa said. “Through speaker series, panel discussions, and socials, we aim to feature a number of sustainability-related topics in an interdisciplinary environment.”

The panellists were first asked about the difference between individual and systemic climate action and how they believe the burden of action against climate change should be distributed.

Gopalakrishnan emphasized that, contrary to popular opinion, change can stem from individual-level action, but that an overall mix of institutional and individual action is needed.

“As individuals, it can often appear that we are sort of powerless in front of much larger players to do anything meaningful, but that is not quite true,” Gopalakrishnan said. “There are several ways in which you can make meaningful impacts. Food choice is one of them, [as is] moderating your consumption, rewarding companies or individuals who make right or ethical choices. All of these things are things that individuals can do and individuals must do.”

Etzion took a slightly different stance, arguing that the individual and institutional levels are inherently interconnected. While he cautioned that their interrelation can be for better and worse, Etzion believes it is possible for individual choices to influence positive systemic change. “[There is] very recent work that says [...] the way that you can influence solar panels in your neighbourhood is through contagion,” Dror said. “So, if people see solar panels around them, they are going to put solar panels on their buildings as well. If we create clusters of people having solar, then it is going to influence more and more people to have solar.”

Robinson approached the topic from a totally different angle, stating institutional change is imperative, even if

The speakers weighed in on the notion of holding CEOs of major polluters personally liable, concluding that it would be extremely difficult but potentially effective.. (change.org) change at the individual level might feel more attainable to some. “[W]e have little ability to rely on institutions to actually handle some of the forms of change that we need to see, despite that being where the change needs to happen,” Robinson said. “[Institutions] are the ones that shape some of the choices that we have to make as consumers and as individuals. They need to sort of set the bounds on those.”

The speakers noted that financially disadvantaged, racialized, and other marginalized communities often bear the brunt of the climate crisis. Robinson emphasized the importance of listening to these groups rather than talking over them.

“We cannot let our own institutions and policies of ‘good will’ overcome or overwhelm the autonomy and choice of these communities,” Robinson said.

“They need to be part of the solution and they need to be part of the discussion.”

At the tail end of the question and answer period, Amelia Murphy, U3 Arts and Science, asked the panellists a simple question: “Are we screwed?”

Gopalakrishnan answered “no,” optimistic about the amount of attention the climate crisis is currently receiving, but that we must remain diligent.

“I do not think we are screwed,” Gopalakrishnan said. “There are lots of people working on solutions. We can be optimistic, but not complacent.”

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NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

news@mcgilltribune.com

SSMU Board of Directors debate J-Board’s judgment on SPHR McGill v. SSMU case

A motion for VP Finance to take on several presidential responsibilities was unanimously passed Madison Edward-Wright News Editor

president Darshan Daryanani by SSMU vice-president (VP) Finance Eric Sader as the signatory on SSMU meeting minutes and documents. The motion to temporarily cede these responsibilities to Sader was unanimously passed.

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n Oct. 21, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Board of Directors (BoD) met to address several motions, including a motion to ratify the SSMU Judicial Board’s (J-Board) final judgement on Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill (SPHR) v. SSMU. The original Nakba Day motion was discussed and approved by the SSMU Legislative Council on May 13, in an allegedly confidential session. Typically, the Legislative Council approves in a public session. Once motions leave the Legislative Council, they go to the SSMU BoD to get ratified. The SSMU BoD is a significantly smaller council and they often meet in confidential sessions. SPHR and Bryan Buraga, a student representative for SPHR and former SSMU president, submitted a petition to the J-Board, claiming that the BoD’s choice to not approve the Nakba Day motion was invalid because the vote occurred in a confidential BoD session. The final J-Board ruling dictated that the BoD should reassess the original motion regarding Nakba Day and bring it to vote again.

The majority of the SSMU BoD’s discussion revolved around whether or not to approve the J-Board’s ruling. Many BoD members expressed concern that the J-Board ruling does not hold, because the Legislative Council approved the motion in an allegedly confidential session.

“I hope that the [BoD] can go through the facts and make sure that there are no other errors, as well, so that there is not a continual back and forth [between J-Board and BoD],” said BoD member-atlarge Beatrice Mackie.

Mackie also defended the BoD’s decision to keep the meeting minutes involving the Nakba Day decision confidential.

MOMENT OF THE MEETING The Judicial Board issued its final judgement in SPHR v. SSMU on Oct. 7. (ssmu.ca) “I do feel uncomfortable with the remedy of allowing the minutes to be published even if our names are taken off, simply because it has happened before where members of the Board and SSMU have received death threats and threats to their safety,” Mackie said, “I would strongly recommend against [making the meeting minutes public].”

Alex Karasick, SSMU Legislative council representative to the BoD, apologized for the BoD’s nearly four month delay in submitting required documents requested by J-Board.

“My apologies to the Judicial Board and former president Buraga for both our delay in responding and the delay in form,” Karasick said. “It was an unfortunate combination of internal factors and just bureaucracy [....] SSMU is an absolute horrendous beast of bureaucracy.”

The motion to ratify the J-Board ruling was not passed by the BoD; instead, it was replaced by a motion to reconsider the judgement and have director Karasick provide J-Board with a written statement of the reconsideration. This second motion passed with seven votes in favour, two abstentions, and none opposed.

The Board also addressed a motion regarding nominations to the BoD and a motion for the interim replacement of SSMU

The meeting opened with an overview of SSMU’s financial audit, presented by two members of the Fuller Landau accounting firm. One finding from the audit was that fees for the SSMU Health & Dental Plan had decreased for individual students by an average of 12 dollars per student, but that the overall fees collected by SSMU for the plan increased by 70,000 dollars because 439 more students subscribed to it.

SOUND BITE “If you folks feel like you have not had the opportunity to say your piece, I might suggest that you send it back to the J-Board and make sure that this time you submit your respondent forms and declarations on time so that we can adjudicate this as expeditiously as possible. Otherwise it would be nice to see the Board of Directors ratify it at this point and just go through the procedures properly and follow things by the letter as laid out in the internal regulations.”

— Former SSMU president Bryan Buraga on behalf of SPHR McGill trying to expedite the decision process that began four months ago.

McGill Senate presents annual report on Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism Senators gave updates on the university’s changes amidst COVID-19

Ella Fitzhugh News Editor

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he McGill Senate assembled remotely on Oct. 20 to discuss several reports, including the 2020-2021 Annual Report on the Implementation of the Strategic Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Plan, and the 202021 Annual Report on the Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism. The Senate also approved the 506th Report of the Academic Policy Committee.

During her welcoming remarks, principal and vice-chancellor Suzanne Fortier was optimistic about the Quebec government’s estimate that 94.9 per cent of the McGill student body is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“That is very good news. I think our experts were telling us to aim for 95 per cent, so we are very close to our target. Within the staff

community, the latest data are a bit older, it was two weeks ago, and at that point it was 91.2 per cent.”

Fortier also announced that the administration plans to increase the amount of inperson activities for the winter term.

“We will continue to be prudent, but are aiming to increase slightly the percentage of activities that will be done in person,” Fortier said. “We do know from our students that they very much want to have their academic activities in person on our campuses.”

Provost and vice-principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi presented the Report of the Academic Policy Committee, which included revisions to the academic structure for the School of Continuing Studies.

“These are revisions to the academic organizational structure of the School of

The theme of the Nov. 11 joint Board-Senate meeting is executing the McGill mission in the midst of the pandemic.. (mcgill.ca)

Continuing Studies, which has not changed since 1968,” Manfredi said. “Once every 50 years, whether it needs it or not, I think it is probably a good idea to review [the structure].”

The report included a motion to relocate the McGill Writing Centre (MWC) from the School of Continuing Studies to the Faculty of Arts. The motion to approve the relocation was passed.

The Senate appointed Eric Galbraith, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, to the Committee on Student Services, and Annie Chevrier, professor in the Ingram School of Nursing, to the Committee on Student Discipline, at the recommendation of the Senate Nominating Committee.

During associate provost (Equity & Academic Policies) Angela Campbell’s presentation of the Report on the Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism, Saku Mantere, professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management, raised concerns about mandating the learning module.

“I’m a scholar of organizational change myself, and I’m delighted that we’re working on a change of this kind. However, I would object to the implements of how this change is being pursued,” Mantere said. “I found that [...] having a mandatory module, [like “It Takes All of Us”], is a form of indoctrination rather than a form of learning.”

In response, Campbell explained that while the plan’s module will be mandatory, the consequences of non-compliance will be lesser than for the “It Takes All of Us” module, which blocks students’ course registration.

MOMENT OF THE MEETING Toward the end of the meeting, Edith Zorychta, associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, provided highlights of the Report from the Board of Governors to Senate. Of note is the approval of new grant agreements, which will sponsor research on air pollution in cities and on carbon neutral design and architecture.

SOUND BITE “The notion of hybrid teaching, the idea that an instructor can at once deliver a course both in person and virtually at the same time, is not currently feasible [....] The current infrastructure at the university does not permit that [....] We are not equipped for that, so that is something that I do not think will be entertained.”

—Angela Campbell, associate provost (Equity & Academic Policies), on the Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on COVID Academic Planning and Policies’ stance on hybrid teaching.

opinion@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

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OPINION

Editor-in-Chief Sequoia Kim editor@mcgilltribune.com

EDITORIAL Land acknowledgements are not political, but should be accompanied by political action

Creative Director Ruobing Chen rchen@mcgilltribune.com

The McGill Tribune Editorial Board

EDITORIAL BOARD

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 Jonah Fried, 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 Adam Burton & Sarah Farnand sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Jinny Moon & Xiaotian Wang design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Kate Addison photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editors Farah Jay & Noah Vaton multimedia@mcgilltribune.com

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n Oct. 16, a Montreal Canadiens announcer read a land acknowledgement aloud ahead of the team’s home opener at the Bell Centre, with the Canadiens having declared earlier that day that it will now be a permanent addition to their home games. On Oct. 20, Quebec’s non-Indigenous Indigenous Affairs minister, Ian Lafrenière, responded by saying, “it’s important to recognize that the First Nations were here before us and that we now live together, but we’re getting into a debate between historians who don’t agree with each other. I think it might be a mistake.” Lafrenière also questioned why a sports team had decided to participate in “political” affairs. Land acknowledgements signal a recognition of the land on which settlers gather, and are themselves only the beginning, not the end, of reconciliation.

Lafrenière’s comments showed that the Quebec government is unwilling to accept even the most symbolic action in support of Indigenous Peoples.

Lafrenière cloaked his disagreement with the Habs’ land acknowledgement in arguments

Web Developers Abby de Gala & Marwan Shiraz Khan webdev@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Jackie Lee copy@mcgilltribune.com Social Media Editor Taneeshaa Pradhan socialmedia@mcgilltribune.com

OFF THE BOARD Sarah Farnand Sports Editor

Business Manager Marilie Pilon business@mcgilltribune.com

TPS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sequoia Kim, Reem Abdul Majid, Matthew Molinaro, Shafaq Nami, Marilie Pilon, Namrata Rana, Shreya Rastogi, Angelica Voutsinas

STAFF Azwar Ali, Léa Bourget, Elissa Dresdner, Saumya Gogte, 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 Valentina de la Borbolla, Evelyn Burvant, Kellie Elrick, Suzanna Graham, Defne Gurcay, Charlotte Hayes, Paulina Kasak, Lilly Lecanu-Fayet, Ananya Mohanty, Catherine Plawutsky, Courtney Squires, Shirley Xu

TRIBUNE OFFICE Shatner University Centre, 3480 McTavish, Suite 110 Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 - T: 519.546.8263 The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University.

The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune, and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University. Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board.

All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff.

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s a third-year student, I feel like I should have this whole “university lifestyle” thing figured out. This year, however, I am living on my own for the very first time and at times feel as lost as I did in my first. I am someone who needs personal space and who takes great pleasure in spending time by myself, so conceptually, living alone sounded appealing to me. After a year of living with my

about the historical obscurity of which Indigenous group(s) were the original inhabitants of Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). This critique could have been a legitimate one in theory, but instead reads as an attempt to discredit the Canadiens’ efforts at moving toward reconciliation—a move that was applauded by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke. If Lafrenière’s genuine concern was historical accuracy, his comments would have been accompanied by some kind of praise for the action or recommendation on how to improve it, as opposed to challenging the Habs’ decision altogether. But this is old news: Lafrenière is a minister under an administration that refuses to believe systemic racism exists in its province, let alone officially recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The idea that the world of sports is apolitical terrain is simply untrue: Systemic oppression infiltrates all facets of life, and sports have a long history of activism. Lafreniere’s questioning of the Canadiens’ decision is an affront to every fan and player who has dealt with systemic oppression, not to mention those players who are themselves Indigenous, like Habs goaltender

Carey Price. The nationalism associated with sports teams also plays into the anti-woke rhetoric employed by Lafrenière and his ilk, which purports to protect Quebecois culture by ignoring the voices of marginalized peoples.

The widespread use of land acknowledgements is a relatively novel phenomenon. Their purpose is straightforward, asking settlers to take a moment to reflect upon the history of the land they are gathered on and recognize its traditional stewards. This can be a meaningful process, but some Indigenous activists and commentators have become critical of individuals, businesses, or organizations who instrumentalize land acknowledgements to position themselves as allies without taking any meaningful steps toward reconciliation. To make matters worse, many larger institutions recycle the same vague land acknowledgements, limiting opportunities for meaningful reflection. What is meant to be powerful is eventually reduced to a ticked checkbox on a list, a facade of allyship without substantive advocacy for Indigenous communities.

Take McGill as an example–– the university’s website lists a land acknowledgement, but the

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administration has consistently failed to respond to demands from its Indigenous students.

For instance, it took multiple vandalizations for the James McGill statue to finally be removed from its spot on campus following over a year of controversy, with no promise that the removal would be permanent. Perhaps McGill’s land acknowledgement would be more meaningful if it engaged with the university’s own entanglement in settler-colonialism and enslavement. But instead, it exists separately from the university’s brief acknowledgement that James McGill enslaved Black and Indigenous people.

Land acknowledgements are a mere first step in the process of unlearning and relearning history, and must above all be coupled with genuine efforts in support of Indigenous communities to have any true impact. In the McGill context, students holding events can lead by example and listen to suggestions from Indigenous activists on how to make land acknowledgements more meaningful. As well, the minister of Indigenous Affairs should recognize the demands of his constituency instead of wasting time disputing the wording of a land acknowledgement.

God, it’s brutal out here entire family and being constantly around people, I could not wait to once again “leave the nest” and move into a studio apartment.

When I arrived in Montreal for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, I wasted no time reuniting with old friends and fully embracing the freedom I missed so much.

But I quickly came to the stark realization that I was now facing life alone. Although many people think of living alone as a luxurious experience, I noticed right away that I was more anxious than I had been in a long time. A simple trip to the bank by myself sent me into a panic.

And while it was amazing to see friends again, I did not anticipate the amount of time that I would spend by myself. Even though McGill has returned to primarily in-person teaching, I somehow only have one in-person class.

This makes meeting new people more difficult and magnifies loneliness and solitude. One positive that has come with all of this unexpected “me-time” is the significant strides I have made in improving my self-image and self-confidence. It is no fun to

live with a roommate who hates you, and that still holds true when you are your own roommate. As I learn to do a lot of things by myself for the first time, it is an important reminder to go easy on myself when I inevitably make mistakes.

One thing I initially failed miserably at was cooking. After living in residence in my first year and then spending a year at home with my parents, I never really learned to cook. And while I spent the first week living alone mostly eating out, I eventually decided I had to at least start preparing my own breakfast. In making this one meal alone, I set off the smoke alarm in my apartment and gave myself food poisoning. After this experience, I thought for sure that I would be taking full advantage of my roll-over meal plan money for the remainder of the semester.

However, there is no better way to learn than being thrown into the deep-end, no matter how intimidating it may be. I can now proudly say that I have learned to cook numerous different meals with the help of internet recipes and my parents over Zoom.

Despite all of these growing

pains, there are some significant upsides to living alone. I can design my place to fit my needs and my needs only. I do not have to share my space with anyone else and therefore can set it up in a way that suits me. I feel more comfortable spreading my things around the apartment and listening to my own music without headphones. I also do things at my leisure––I no longer have to work within the schedule of other roommates or family members. But I also learned to appreciate the relationships I have with my friends and family.

Because I am no longer constantly surrounded by family members or roommates, I actually have the opportunity to miss them. I am able to choose exactly who I want to spend my time with, which makes the moments I do spend with friends and family all the more meaningful.

Spending countless hours alone can be extremely lonely and anxiety-provoking, but it can also help with self-discovery and self-love. The world is a daunting and scary place, but I am slowly learning how to conquer it all on my own.

6

OPINION

COMMENTARY

opinion@mcgilltribune.com

Facebook’s blackout should inspire us to reevaluate our relationship with the internet

Courtney Squires Contributor

O

n Monday, Oct. 4, at approximately 11:30 a.m., the entirety of Facebook shut down due to an internal malfunction. Its 3.5 billion users were denied access for approximately six hours, resulting in global panic and complaints. With WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, and all the other Facebook-owned platforms also down, many of McGill’s clubs and student-run organizations were left scrambling to find alternative methods of communication. Despite the temptation to surrender to the simplicity of remote learning, the outage served as a reminder that students and instructors should stay grounded in tangible learning, like taking handwritten notes rather than typing, and attending in-person lectures rather than watching the recorded ones.

The outage was a stark reminder of our deThe outage was a stark reminder of our dependence on social media. In a boom of online school and work, the pandemic has become a turning point: Society has now entered an irrevocable interdependent relationship with the internet.

Within four hours of the shutdown, Twitter’s official account tweeted about the influx of new users migrating to their platform from Facebook. Within hours, the tweet amassed over 2.4 million likes. Many news sources were providing live updates throughout the incident, the first serious outage Facebook has had since

COMMENTARY Valentina de la Borbolla Contributor

Q

uebec recently extended its deadline for the mandatory vaccination of all health care workers until Nov. 15. Additionally, the province announced that all people over the age of 13 would need to show proof of vaccination or their vaccine passport before entering health care facilities for non-essential reasons, such as visiting those in care. Quebec’s Health Minister Christian Dubé’s decision to extend the vaccine mandate deadline overlaps with the implementation of a mandatory vaccine passport to enter health care settings. Although both the mandate and the extension have brought the government under fire, the extension is the best possible option considering the circumstances.

Dubé’s approach may seem confusing, since visitors are being asked to get vaccinated, while the people caring for those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 are not.

Those who oppose vaccination mandates applauded the extension, while many workers saw the decision as a compromise that undermines the

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

2019. As the software came back online, Facebook apologized in a tweet, and CEO Mark Zuckerburg also issued a statement in a post.

However, already exposed was the terrifying reality that Facebook dominates our lives.

Billions of people use Facebook every day, relying on it for communication of all sorts. Outside of North America, WhatsApp is the main platform for communication. With over two billion users worldwide, it was estimated to generate between five and 10 billion dollars in revenue for Facebook in 2020 alone.

Added to Facebook’s monopoly on advertising and user data, the company has immense control over its users’ behaviour and encounters. At McGill, students use Facebook to chat with classmates and discuss course material—a now-normalized version of study groups. But many clubs and student-run activities at McGill also rely on Facebook’s apps for communication purposes, especially over the pandemic.

But many clubs and student-run activities at McGill also rely on Facebook’s apps for communication purposes, especially over the pandemic. With many operations now fully online, social media and the internet permeated into nearly all aspects of life. This rapid switch from analogue to digital prompted the development of online softwares designed to ease the transition, propelling platforms like Zoom to see an unprecedented boom in popularity. The internet is convenient and efficient, and as the world slowly opens up and normalcy returns, society is left with a growing—and potentially permanent—dependence on online technolo-

Though McGill’s online academic environments did not face the blackout, the potential of this happening could be disastrous for students and faculty alike. (Ananya Mohanty / The McGill Tribune) gies.

However, as much as society needs the internet, the internet also needs society. The outage resulted in Facebook shares plummeting 4.9 per cent—their biggest drop in almost a year. There is heavy corporate reliance on the customer base, and Facebook depends on their users to generate revenue. A self-sustaining cycle is created: The internet and social media are made popular by society and society uses them due to their popularity. This growing reliance on technology suggests the internet will continue to remain a crucial part of everyday

life, but such a codependent relationship could have disastrous consequences, leaving society’s future entanglement with technology uncertain.

Luckily, the majority of McGill’s coursework is distributed through myCourses, which is not a Facebook platform, but we can rest assured that if Zoom were to go down in a similar way, it would certainly result in campus-wide panic. With no alternative way to deliver online classes, McGill will need to confront post-pandemic academia as roughly half of the academic schedule would be thrown off course dramatically.

Quebec’s hospital vaccine mandate deadline extensions highlight a crumbling health care system government’s authority. Indeed, vaccine mandates have received backlash across the province, recently escalating to a legal challenge to the order. However, if Dubé had maintained his original deadline, the

months: Emergency rooms are closing due to exhausted and burnt out workers, and COVID-19 wings are consistently overwhelmed. Workers have reported forced overtime work, with a nurse clocking in four 16-hour

As of Oct. 25, 13,389,589 doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Quebec. (CTV) health care system would have lost around 22,000 workers who are currently unvaccinated—a figure that represents around 4 per cent of the province’s total health care workers.

Although the percentage seems slim, it is enough to make the whole system crumble.

Quebec’s health care system has been on the edge of failure for

shifts back to back at one point. The loss of 22,000 nurses and doctors would be catastrophic and would result in the loss of 600 beds and 35 operating rooms province-wide. The province cannot afford to take that risk. The Quebec government holds responsibility for guaranteeing safe, reliable, and quality medical care to the population—and despite Dubé’s

promises of “mammoth changes,” the situation remains critical. Taking this into account, enforcing the original deadline would have been a huge mistake. The fact that the provincial government had to choose between the short term and the long term safety of Quebecers, however, reveals a weak system with deeprooted issues like understaffing and inhumane working conditions.

The optics of Dubé’s decision are not ideal but the optics do not matter as much when the foundations of the system are at risk. There is a risk that the general population, and more importantly the unvaccinated staff, will not take the government’s threats seriously anymore.

Furthermore, it seems like Quebec is ceding to a tiny sector of the population who is refusing to comply with public health recommendations.

Nonetheless, that tiny sector could be responsible for a severe health crisis. Additionally, it is estimated that 80 per cent of the Quebec population is adequately protected against the virus. Although the vaccine does not completely eliminate the risk of infection and death, it does have the power to reduce it to a manageable level. But because the risk is not zero, especially for people who

are dealing with other health issues, the government should continue the implementation of simultaneous measures like mandatory testing and increased vaccine information campaigns, and should also add new measures like limiting the access to non-essential areas like cafeterias as a way to both curb the spread of the virus and incentivize the unvaccinated staff.

Fundamentally, the Quebec government must not grant any more extensions on this Nov. 15 deadline.

Patients’ lives are at risk and should not be compromised any longer. If the idea of a vaccine mandate is no longer plausible, then new implementations of regular testing must be put in place immediately. Dubé has been firm about his intention to enforce the deadline, and the fact that, since Wednesday’s announcement, 1000 healthcare workers have gotten vaccinated, is proof that his approach is working. The cost-benefit analysis that the government is doing is brutal. It seems like officials are having to sacrifice safety for stability, and the consequences eventually fall back onto the general population. But considering the bleak situation we are in, the government is choosing the least harmful option.

studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

STUDENT LIFE

McGill-themed Halloween costumes: 2021 Edition

Nine ensembles to cause a fright on campus Holly Wethey, Wendy Zhao Student Life Editors

W

ith Halloween just around the corner, The McGill Tribune offers you nine McGill themed costumes that are sure to set you apart from other party-goers.

sessions via Instagram Live certainly deserves to be honoured in costume.

Throw on a page boy hat and some wide rimmed glasses to achieve the look.

Bonus: if you have a beard, see if you can groom it as immaculately as Buddle does (p.s. I’m just kidding, we all know that this is impossible).

5. Classics major

(newyorker.com)

1. Cloudberry A star of the McGill Reddit, this albino squirrel has become somewhat of a mythical creature at McGill, with a sighting guaranteed to bring you good luck. Throw on a long fluffy white jacket to achieve the look. For an eerie take on this costume, opt for some red contact lenses (though it is debatable whether red-eyed albino squirrels are of the same family as the beloved Cloudberry).

2. Vegan hot dog Though Hot Dog Mobile sells a variety of hotdogs––from polish sausages to jumbo hot dogs––the vegan hot dog remains a favourite among McGill students. Just hit up your local costume shop and pick up a hot dog costume, but be sure to customize it with the classic toppings we know and love (and if you’re feeling brave, include sauerkraut).

Remember to indicate somewhere that you are dressed as a vegan hot dog in order to distinguish yourself from other hot-dogcostume-wearing people whose costumes aren’t as ethically sourced as yours.

3. Dispatch barista Known for their iconic hipster, nonchalant style, Dispatch baristas are an excellent source of costume inspiration.

Simply grab a beanie, a pair of overalls–– the more industrial the better, and holes in the denim are an added bonus––and some ironically hipster glasses, and you’re good to go. Head to a bar and people are sure to think they’ve spotted the sixth member of The Backstreet Boys during their golden age in the ‘90s.

4. Chris Buddle The legend who got us through a tough time with his speeches and Q&A

No one can top classics majors’ dark academia aesthetic. Pull on a crisp button down and layer it under a sweater vest and you’ll be sure to have people thinking you just stepped out of The Secret History.

Remember, when it comes to classics, it’s all about layering. See how many sweaters you can fit on top of one another. For a more traditional route, simply throw on a toga.

6. Desautels Chad Anyone can pull off the Desautels Chad look if they have enough confidence.

Though a suit is an asset, all that is really needed is a passion for the stock market and an enthusiasm for discussing your latest bitcoin purchases. Pro-tip: A Peaky Blinders haircut will also do the trick.

7. Skeleton from anatomy lab This costume is really a two-in-one.

Arts students will think you’re dressed as Phoebe Bridgers, but those in science will know the truth. However, if you ask an anatomy major they’ll likely say that the scariest thing about anatomy labs isn’t the skeletons, but the assignments.

8. Orange dot on myCourses The apple of our eyes, this menacing dot signals ominous futures. Put on an orange shirt and beanie to strike fear in onlookers’ eyes. Though you might repel your friends away with this costume because of how lame you’ll look, the orange dot works its magic anyways.

9. The mysterious box on the steps of Arts Too soon? If you’re daring, tie two bands of rope onto a box large enough to step inside and become the harbinger of drama on campus. For an added dynamic element to your costume, walk through the streets performing the classic mime act: Stuck in a box. People will be confused, but such is the sign of a successful showing.

Recently, Hot Dog Guy has become Hot Dog Guy Buddies. Don’t miss this prime couples’ costume opportunity. (Ruobing Chen / The McGill Tribune)

7

Orphaned tongues

Understanding the experience of first language attrition Wendy Zhao, Student Life Editor A few months ago, I taught my parents a gesture known as the “finger heart.” To make it, you gently cross your thumb and index finger. Selfies featuring this gesture have become a staple of our text conversations, and I hoard a precious collection of screenshots that document this phenomenon: My dad finger-hearting while driving, my mom performing the pinch on the couch. In each photo, I respond with a proud heart-shaped token of my own, my amused grin in the photo’s corner.

As my fluency in Mandarin worsens, this unspoken sign, as silly as it seems, sometimes feels like a more effective bridge than language.

Like a secret handshake I taught to them, a shared creation, its meaning feels specific to the space between me and them.

Since I grew up in Canada, my grasp of Mandarin has never been at the level of a native speaker’s. But using it with my family, taking nightly language lessons, and consistently watching Chinese dramas throughout my childhood meant the language always felt close to me. It held a comfortable place in my mouth.

During my first semester at McGill, however, apart from a few FaceTime calls with family, I didn’t speak Mandarin for months. I didn’t notice how much I had regressed until I visited home for winter break, when words for both mundane things and more complex emotions started to feel out of reach. Pauses punctuated my sentences as I spoke.

This unintentional forgetting, a common experience for immigrants, is known to linguists as first language attrition. The process typically occurs when a person is removed from their first language community, and then immersed in a community that uses a second language. Each time the second language is used, the brain has to suppress the first language, explained Debra Titone, the lab director of McGill’s Language and Multilingualism Lab, in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

“All these little cognitive events accumulate,” Titone said. “Like how the Colorado River, very slowly, drip

by drip, created the Grand Canyon.”

For adult speakers who end up using a second dominant language, the symptoms of language loss are often subtle: Aspects of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax morph in small ways. But for those who lose access to their first language community at a young age, typically before the age of 12, the degree of loss can be greater—even totalizing.

Perhaps attrition is too strong a word, however. A 2014 study in the Montreal area examined the linguistic understanding of children who had been adopted from China at 12 months and exposed only to French afterwards.

The adoptees showed the same brain activity as native speakers when they listened to pseudowords spoken in the four different tones of Mandarin, despite having no conscious comprehension of the language. Even before our coherent understanding of it, it seems that our mother tongue imprints itself on our minds.

Each individual’s experience with language attrition ultimately depends on the access they still have to that second language community. Sometimes forgetting one’s mother tongue is a conscious rejection; a language can be tied to experiences of trauma, or so gendered that it feels inadequate for expressing one’s identity. In other cases, the loss is beyond one’s control, a matter of violence and survival, or an attempt at belonging. In the Canadian context, languages other than French and English are termed “heritage languages,” learned at home or in small communities, and as a consequence, tend to be more marginalized.

Ohontsakéhte Montour, a member of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation, was fluent in his traditional language, Kanien’kéha, throughout his childhood. He attended a Mohawk immersion elementary school and spoke Kanien’kéha at home with his grandfather. But after Montour entered an English high school outside his community, he regressed to

a novice level. Years later, Montour returned to the language through a two-year immersion program offered by the Kanien’kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Center (KORLCC), a community centre with the goal of preserving Kanien’kehá:ka culture.

After graduating from the program in 2019, Montour felt reconnected with his ancestral histories and personal identity. The effect was profound.

“You learn a lot about yourself, it’s almost like relearning,” Montour said.

“It’s difficult to explain [....] You feel more connected to your community as a whole, you feel more connected to your elders. You hear stories that maybe you wouldn’t have heard if you don’t speak the language.”

Language attrition can be especially complex for Indigenous Peoples, whose languages have been historically oppressed. Students in KORLCC’S immersion program include survivors of Indian Residential School and Indian Day School systems that sought to eradicate Indigenous languages. Many members of a younger generation, like Montour, recognize the importance of relearning the languages that were lost at these violent institutions.

Many survivors are unable to pass on their languages to their children.

Some have forgotten, while others struggle with feelings of shame when speaking their mother tongue.

Seeking spaces to engage with one’s native language demands time and effort, and the labour of maintaining these spaces often lands on the

shoulders of community members.

Heritage languages across Montreal are taught and kept alive side-by-side with community culture and history: Introductory Haitian Creole language classes can be taken at the KEPKAA, a non-profit organization promoting Creole culture in Montreal, while the Museum of Jewish Montreal’s new Rad Yiddish Song and Text Club meets on Zoom to connect with a language that once filled the Main. At McGill, different cultural groups invite students to use and hear their first languages, whether formally at events like Spanish and Coffee meetings and Arabic Dialect workshops, or casually among club members.

Though seeking out others in the diaspora is a lifeline for many immigrants, it is not a universal choice.

In search of social and professional success, some immigrants neglect t h e i r native

language and suppress its traces in favour of the prestige afforded by the dominant speech of their new home. The voice, with all its nuances and variances from person to person, archives and reveals intimate parts of our personal histories and identities—and also makes one vulnerable to a host of ingrained stereotypes, including assumptions about economic status, intelligence, and personality.

It’s no wonder that in fiction about migrant experiences, like Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees or Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, ghost figures are often used as a common metaphor. There’s an urge to become in-tune with the sound of the crowd, to disguise one’s fleshly identifiers, sometimes to the point that it threatens self-erasure.

John Wayne dela Cruz, a Filipino immigrant and PhD student in language acquisition at McGill, remembers being policed by his management while working as a busboy in Alberta to stop speaking Tagalog with his co-workers in front of customers.

“Tagalog, it just comes so naturally, easily, but it made white clients uncomfortable,” dela Cruz said. “I can only imagine for many workplaces where there’s such policies from the get-go. Some adult immigrants would construct t h i s new identity at the company, like, ‘I’m a good

English speaker, a French speaker,’ because [they] want to be perceived as more professional.”

Striving for assimilation often comes at the price of severing one’s closest relationships. When she was one year old, U3 Arts student Emaline Gonzalez moved to Montreal from Colombia.

Before the age of three, Gonzalez spoke Spanish at home all the time, but once in Montreal, Gonzalez’s parents slowly stopped speaking the language to her, in the hopes of easing their daughter’s social experiences. As she grew older, she only encountered her mother tongue in brief stints through language classes and overhearing conversations between her parents and Colombian friends.

will feel the need to return to the language, others will not. Looking back, Gonzalez doesn’t feel ashamed for not knowing

Over the years, Gonzalez felt an urgency to recover her childhood language. Before starting university, she spent six months in Colombia.

For Gonzalez, Latin American culture and the Spanish language offered her the chance to express herself more confidently. A truer sense of self was finally able to surface.

Spanish earlier in life.

“In English, I get in my head a lot and am always consciously aware of the amount of space I’m taking up and how that’s affecting others around [me],” Gonzalez said. “But when I went to Colombia [...] everything was so loud and women were taking up so much space.

There’s something about [Spanish] that’s so driven by emotion and passion that the English language doesn’t have.”

Such sentiments don’t preclude deep feelings of disconnection. Some migrants feel especially disconnected within the home, where language barriers can lead to a profound sense of dislocation. Without a shared language between parent and child, the phrase “mother tongue” can feel paradoxical. Emotional barriers can arise when one or both parties struggle to find the right words.

Researchers found that individuals speaking in a non-dominant tongue made more utilitarian decisions when confronted with the classic trolley problem, which essentially asks you to choose whether or not to kill one to save many. The linguists who conducted the study hypothesized that these speakers’ emotional responses were dampened from the cognitive effort it takes to retrieve the right words. As Ange Guo, a Montrealborn poet and second-generation Chinese immigrant experienced firsthand, language barriers can sever emotional intimacy with loved ones.

Though language is inextricably tied with culture, there’s no prerequisite or uniform way to connect with one’s cultural community and identity. Each individual’s trajectory with their mother tongue will be different, and while s o m e

“I was never less Colombian, less Latina, just because I didn’t know the language,” Gonzalez said. “You are always exactly who you are, with exactly where you come from. Your circumstances were different.”

“I wasn’t doing well mentally for the longest time,” Guo explained. “But those weren’t things that I could explain at all [to my parents]. I don’t think I even knew how to say that I was sad, that I was not doing well. [It] made me into a very weird person.”

The first words out of Guo’s mouth were probably in Mandarin. But after growing up in Montreal, French is now the language through which she feels she can best express herself, and the one she uses in her poetry and prose.

However, because Guo’s parents have not learned French, they communicate together mainly in English—

simultaneously a point of connection and fracture in their relationship.

“English is a super cold language to me,” Guo said. “It’s like that bridge, but it doesn’t express fully any person’s side. Just like this transitory language.

Universal language, right?

Everybody calls it that.”

Writing has always seemed to me to allow for an articulation, as precise as one can get, of my most intimate thoughts. Guo told me it was difficult to accept that her parents would never read her work.

“I get it,” Guo said. “French is a stupid language that’s so hard to learn [...] but there’s also a part of me that’s just resentful. It’s like, you’ve been here 20 years, why don’t you speak my language, or send me to Chinese school? But I’ve accepted that they’ll never be able to [read me] and I think I’ve gotten closure on that [....] I know that they’re still proud of me just from their heart.”

Ultimately, Guo decided to move toward them. A couple of years ago, Guo started spending around an hour each day studying Mandarin herself.

Though her fluency is not at the level of a native speaker’s, her parents now tell her stories and anecdotes she has never heard before.

In truth, language, even among native speakers, is faulty and imperfect. But broken communication is still of value. Even translation, despite its weaknesses, extends a bridge, like my parents’ finger heart selfies. When I was a kid and couldn’t correctly distinguish between the different Chinese pronunciations of “hot” (re) and “hungry” (e), my family would know to ask, ‘Sun or belly?’”

These days, when I FaceTime my parents, most of the conversation is filled by their voices. My answers to their questions are brief. When I try to describe something beyond the routine points—‘Have you eaten?’, ‘Been getting exercise?’ and ‘How is school?’—words will usually escape me. I’ll tense up, feeling lost and put on the spot, filled by a restless urgency.

But I’m making an effort to go beyond these questions. Even when I blunder, I cherish our mutual translation efforts. The time it takes to explain words and jokes and idioms no longer feels like a nuisance as it did when I was a kid—instead, it feels like an invitation to step further into each other’s worlds.

Design: Xiaotian Wang, Design Editor

10

STUDENT LIFE

studentlife@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

‘On the Table Magazine’ paints a vivid portrait of Montreal’s culinary scene

Highlighting McGill’s only Culinary Magazine Holly Wethey Student Life Editor

T

here is no doubt that Montreal has one of the most diverse and exciting culinary scenes in the world. For Evelyne Eng, U4 Arts, the vibrant city served as inspiration for starting her own culinary magazine last summer.

(Erin Sass)

On the Table Magazine is an entirely student-run culinary magazine that aims to highlight the food scene in Montreal for its student readership through recipes, informative blog posts, and articles on restaurants and culinary-related organizations in the city. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Eng, the publication’s founder and editor-in-chief, described how the magazine came into existence.

“I got into food […] toward the end of high school, and then it sort of grew when I came to Montreal because there are so many restaurants and so many different cuisines to choose from,” Eng explained. “I got really pulled into that scene and then I [thought] it would be so cool to have a food journal.”

With the multitude of diverse restaurants in the city, the writers at On the Table Magazine will never run out of unique culinary stories.

Some of Eng’s favourite restaurants in the city include Boulangerie Le Toledo, an artisanal French bakery, Restaurant Manitoba, a restaurant serving New Canadian cuisine inspired by Indigenous ingredients, and Keung Kee, a Chinese seafood restaurant. “[The culinary scene is] super diverse,” Eng said. “I met somebody [...] who’s lived all around the world and she was saying that Montreal is the most exciting place in North America for food right now because of not just the turnover of restaurants, [...] but the ideas behind them [....] What’s cool about Montreal is that there’s a mixture of all the new young kids coming in and the institutions that remain.”

Eng has had a passion for food

long before she came to Montreal.

Since her parents did not tend to cook very much, Eng, motivated to start eating healthier, decided to learn how to cook for herself in high school.

“I just started by looking up recipes [and] watching YouTube videos,” Eng said. “I’ve always had an interest in journalism, so I then got really into reading food magazines.”

Eng’s interest in food magazines later resulted in the birth of On the Table Magazine.

In addition to highlighting local restaurants, the magazine also publishes recipes and helpful howto articles. More serious pieces are mixed and balanced out with more lighthearted ones; they recently posted an article about the diet of various squirrels across the city.

The magazine currently has a team of four editors and several contributors. While other publications on campus have set style guides and rules about how articles should be written, On the Table Magazine strives to give writers more freedom to explore their ideas.

“What I really want to do overall is allow the writers and photographers [...] freedom to write what they want about food from

In addition to showcasing culinary related organizations and restaurants, On the Table also offers helpful how-to articles, such as a guide to brewing your own Kombucha. (Léa Bourget / The McGill Tribune)

their background,” Eng explained.

“We have a really diverse range of writers coming from different departments.”

The magazine’s unique focus on food sets it apart from other publications at McGill. The recipes on the blog and restaurant profiles help newer students escape the McGill bubble and also render the task of cooking for onerself less daunting. Eng suggested that students interested in cooking for themselves should start with basic recipes that they can adapt to suit their budget and taste.

Though they offer students

advice about cooking, the On the Table team also aims to highlight McGill specific events. “[It’s] sort of a beautiful assemblage of quirky little things and more serious [pieces],” Eng said.

In addition to publishing articles on their website, On the Table Magazine will also be publishing a biannual print issue at the end of the semester. Find them on Facebook here and follow them on Instagram.

McGill’s witching community is a-brewing

“Witching Hour” brings witches together Evelyn Burvant Contributor The night of Oct. 22 took on a new kind of chill, when witches and queer folk alike gathered to attend “The Witching Hour” at Notre Dame Des Quilles, reading tarots, pasts, and futures.

Witchcraft may seem like ancient history, but even McGill has connections to it. McGill’s Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Student Association (GSFSSA) and Classics Students’ Association (CSA) collaborated to host “The Witching Hour” event with the intention of creating a safe space for both witches and queer folk. Taylor Douglas, U3 Arts and vice-president (VP) Events of the GSFSSA, explained the inspiration for the event in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

“I love the idea of reappropriating the scary witch women with independence as terrifying and beyond,” Douglas said.

“Like, let’s throw this event where everyone is a witch and they’re scary and kind of queer.”

There are many connections between gender, sexuality, and witchcraft. Rebecca Toropov, a U3 Arts student and CSA’s VP Events, discussed at length how witchcraft, queer, and other marginalized communities have, in the past and present, been given the title of ‘the Other’—something Toropov believes forges solidarity among them.

“After being considered the ‘Other,’ after being oppressed, there’s a lot of power [in] finding your people and coming to them in a safe space and utilizing that,” Toropov remarked. “I think that’s where magic is.”

The goal of the event was to create a safe place for witchy and queer communities to connect, and with attendees spending most of the night reading tarot cards and discussing fortunes, the event fulfilled its purpose.

Soul Cakes are small spiced cakes, resembling scones, that are commonly baked to mark Samhain. (Evelyn Burvant / The McGill Tribune)

For many in the witchcraft community, the pagan holiday of Samhain (pronounced sah-win) is a celebration that coincides with Halloween.

The ancient Celts believed that the barrier between the human world and the Otherworld thinned during Samhain, allowing for spirits, like deceased ancestors or supernatural beings, to walk among the living. Later, due to Samhain’s connection with pagan beliefs and practices, the holiday was

vilified and associated with satanic practices, thus evolving into the Halloween we know today. Samhain is a time to honour past loved ones, but also a time of change in nature.

Lou Schraeder, a student studying environment living in Montreal, has been practicing witchcraft since childhood. Like many people, Schraeder was drawn to the practice because of its focus on the self and personal growth.

“That deeply intimate personal passion [is] something I haven’t been able to find in other aspects of our society,” Schraeder said.

“I feel we have such a fast-paced, individualistic, and competitive and isolating culture. [With magic] you feel so vulnerable, but supported at the same time.”

With such ancient roots, it can be daunting to approach Samhain from a modern context. However, Schraeder made it abundantly clear that there is no definitive or uniform way to celebrate it.

“I am a definite fan of candles and salt on entryways, dried rosemary for protection and luck,” Schraeder said. “I always make sure that [rosemary] is on my body somewhere,” Schrader said.

In addition, Schraeder carves jack-o-lanterns and watches classic seasonal movies. Her rituals for Samhain are simple, but they all relate back to ideas of self-connection and of celebrating cycles in nature.

For your own practice, associations with Samhain may include: Apples, gold, rosemary, crows, onyx, and honey. To honour the dead, you can also make soul cakes. Try leaving them out as offerings or add them to a meal to give thanks and remember those who have left us.

Each individual’s practice is different because everyone finds connections to the earth and to themselves in unique places.

If you’re a new practitioner, do your research and follow what you connect with. Remember, you don’t have to play by the book; there is no set way to celebrate magic. So good luck and happy Samhain, little witches.

scitech@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

11

Vaccine stockpiling may do more harm than good

Research shows equitable sharing of vaccines can minimize burden on healthcare in lowincome countries Shafaq Nami Science & Technology Editor

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hile the high vaccination rate among certain portions of the population has lifted public health restrictions and allowed some semblance of normalcy, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Despite vaccine administration having begun in December 2020, only 37 per cent of the world’s population has received both doses, with high-income countries comprising the highest proportion of vaccinated people.

In a recent study, a team of researchers, including scientists from McGill, ran simulations that explored the impact of vaccine stockpiling by wealthy countries on infection rates in low- and middle-income countries.

Caroline Wagner, an assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Bioengineering and co-first author of the study, explained that the team was motivated to see if there was scientific evidence behind the claim that vaccine nationalism causes harm.

“I think you can argue against [vaccine stockpiling] on purely ethical grounds, and people have, but we also wanted to think scientifically [about] what the implications might be,” Wagner said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

The researchers simulated the expected number of infections in two hypothetical regions—one with high access to vaccines and the other with low access—using assumptions based on characteristics like vaccination rates, the strength and duration of natural and vaccine immunity, cross-border transmission, and the potential increase in infections due to viral evolution.

The results showed that in the case of limited vaccine supply, vaccine stockpiling by high-availability regions leads to increased infections in low-availability regions. There is also

A new delta subvariant has emerged in the past week and authorities believe it is more transmittable. (telegraphindia.com) more potential for the virus to evolve into more contagious variants as the number of infections increases.

“Allowing infections to circulate widely, which is going to be of particular concern in unvaccinated populations, is particularly bad for the potential for viral evolution because every time the virus replicates, mutations can arise,” Wagner said.

“If the virus evolves to a point where it can then evade our acquired immunity, then all the efforts to heavily vaccinate a certain region might be futile if a variant comes up that can evade the immunity conferred by that vaccine in the first place.”

In recent months, several new variants of the virus have emerged, such as Delta, Gamma, and Alpha. These variants are more contagious than the original virus and have the capacity to infect vaccinated people. Equitable global vaccine sharing,

Wagner explained, would decrease the burden on the health care system in low-income countries and minimize evolution of the COVID-19 virus.

“The vaccines are not perfect, there are breakthrough infections,” Wagner said. “But by and large, they are super effective at mitigating serious disease. Even if we don’t totally eliminate infections, if we can decrease the clinical burden of this disease around the world through vaccination, that’s very important. Especially in regions which might have less robust health care systems.”

The team presented their research to the World Health Organization and other health policy makers across different countries to encourage them to adopt a global perspective instead of solely considering their country’s interests. In the long run, with cross-border transmission of the new variants, increasing the number of vaccinated people globally would benefit individual countries.

The team’s current model simulates the effect of vaccine stockpiling in two hypothetical regions. Moving forward, the researchers want to incorporate real-world data and are currently working on a model specific to Canada.

As scientists and policymakers explore the possibility of additional “booster” doses, it becomes increasingly important to consider trade-offs between the benefits gained from a booster shot and the continued viral evolution and harm caused to more than half of the world’s unvaccinated population.

“Everyone is talking about boosters now, so we need to think about incorporating boosters into the model,” Wagner said. “It’s possible that everyone may need boosters, [...] but if we allow evolution to happen by not vaccinating the rest of the world, then we don’t know how long the gains from a booster would be beneficial for anyways. While vaccine supplies and availability are limited, it’s a zero-sum game [as] vaccinating here means not vaccinating somewhere else.”

Mapping provincial variations in Canada’s nitrogen output New study highlights the causes and effects of nitrogen emissions across the country Lilly Lecanu-Fayet Contributor

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eactive nitrogen (Nr) is a primary plant nutrient fertilizer that plays a critical role in agricultural production.

For the past century, the availability of Nr in soil has become increasingly important to farmers as they attempt to grow the crops that contribute to nitrogen fixation, the process by which microorganisms convert nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form usable by plants.

While the increased use of Nr has been effective in agricultural production, it has also contributed heavily to air pollution. In September, Sibeal McCourt, a PhD candidate in McGill’s Department of Geography, and Graham MacDonald, associate professor in the same department, published a study quantifying Canadian Nr emissions from food production and consumption, and comparing them to fossil fuel-related emissions.

McCourt and MacDonald developed a national nitrogen footprint and more specific provincial metrics in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of each

province’s contributions to Canada’s nitrogen emissions. These footprints look at virtual nitrogen factors (VNF), which refer to the total losses of Nr to the environment from the production of food.

The study accounts for Nr emissions released due to Canadians’ consumption and economic

activities. They measured the total (in Gg Nr yr−1) and per capita (kg Nr capita−1 yr−1) N footprints for a three-year average in 2018, using a top-down approach that encompasses both individual consumption patterns and broader country-wide activities. The objectives of this study were to esti-

The use of reactive nitrogen as a fertilizer helps farmers keep up with a growing population, but when nitrogen leaks out of the system, it contributes greatly to water and air pollution. (phys.org)

mate the Canadian and provincial VNFs as part of the N footprint of food, study the driving factors in N emissions, and compare variations between provinces.

“I found it surprising that fossil fuels could be the main contributor to N footprints in certain provinces,” McCourt said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “Previous studies indicated that fossil fuels do contribute to N footprints, but the biggest source is from food consumption, particularly meat.”

Canada’s estimated total N footprint is 995.7 Gg Nr yr−1, with an average national per capita footprint of 27.1 kg Nr capita−1yr−1.

The study revealed clear distinctions between provinces regarding total N footprints, per capita N footprints, and the main sources of Nr. For example, Prince Edward Island, with the smallest provincial population, produced 3.5 Gg Nr yr−1 and Ontario, with over 14 million people, produced 311.8 Gg Nr yr−1. Ontario’s per capita footprint clocked in at 22.0 kg Nr capita−1; however, Saskatchewan’s was by far the largest at 50.3 kg Nr capita−1 yr−1. This is due to Saskatchewan’s reliance on the production and use of fossil fuels for energy

and because much of the province’s land is dedicated to commercial agriculture. McCourt and MacDonald found that the major drivers across all provinces were wastewater treatment, beef consumption, and transport.

“Canada produces and exports a lot of food and fuel, and we also consume a relatively large amount of resources per capita,” McCourt said. “Having a better understanding of how both of these types of activities impact our environment will improve our sustainability.”

This research was conducted as part of McCourt’s PhD project, and the findings from this study will be used to further her research into emissions accounting in Canada. McCourt hopes to compare Canada’s reported provincial and national N emissions to the results she has come up with, and see what this could mean for the future of sustainable policy development.

“Hopefully this information will improve Canadians’ awareness of their environmental impacts,” McCourt said. “It’s important to hold companies and governments responsible for their environmental impacts so that we as consumers have more sustainable options available to us.”

12

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

scitech@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

The secret to mussels’ powerful underwater glue

McGill researchers discover the cellular mechanisms behind mussel adhesive formation Shirley Xu Contributor

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ussels spend their days withstanding crashing waves and brutal intertidal environments. A question that has long fascinated scientists and students alike is how they manage to stay tethered to rocks and their fellow mussels amidst these conditions. Luckily, evolution has solutions to such complex design challenges—and it also provides inspiration for human engineers. A recent McGill-led study published in Science details the process by which mussels produce their uniquely powerful glue.

Matthew Harrington, senior author of the paper and an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Chemistry, emphasized that the mussel glue mechanism was difficult to parse and even harder to emulate.

“This is not easy since [the glue secretion] process is hidden inside a secretory organ called the foot,” Harrington wrote in an email to //The McGill Tribune//. “To overcome this challenge, we used a combination of traditional biochemistry methods coupled with cuttingedge material science methods.”

Understanding how mussel glue forms can also have practical applications for human technology, such as surgical glues and dental adhesives. Mussel glues are much better than current human-made adhesives, which lose

function in wet or humid environments.

Working with the blue mussel Mytilus edulis, the team reconstructed the mussel foot using micro-CT tomography, revealing a complex network of longitudinal ducts (LDs), or long tubes. Two different microscopy techniques revealed that many tiny little hairs called cilia and microvilli form these LD micro channels. The mussels secrete byssus fibers, which attach the mussel to a solid surface, through an acidic secretion of fluid protein precursors into the distal depression, an indent at the tip of the foot’s ventral side. Before formation, plaque vesicle contents are highly fluid but rapidly form a solid, porous network. Mature plaques are then mechanically strengthened by protein-metal ion interactions, mediated by a compound called silk fibroin, a protein produced by numerous insects such as silkworms.

The researchers were surprised to find that the mussels use vanadium—an extremely rare metal in nature—in this process.

This research reveals several important insights relevant to bio-inspiration: The iron and vanadium ions used to form the plaque are accumulated and stored in the foot away from proteins necessary to the glue. Tiny metal flecks called intracellular metal storage particles (MSPs) are transported and mixed during plaque formation. As the secreted contents move through channels, the MSPs release their metal ions that spread throughout the plaque,

Human-made adhesives are poor at functioning in wet or humid environments, while mussel glue can keep them tethered amidst crashing waves. (insidescience.org) allowing the glue to retain its structure.

For Harrington, the most exciting part of this research is discovering the secrets of nature’s engineering.

“These materials and fabrication processes evolved over billions of years,” Harrington explained. “We are basically reverse engineering them to figure out useful chemical and materials tricks that we can then apply in a synthetic context.”

This innovative study uncovered much more of the glue formation process than was previously known. Harrington also notes that understanding how the glue mixes with metal ions—and to identify exactly which metal ions are being used by the mollusc—is crucial in order to mimic these processes in the lab. In-

deed, there is an entire field dedicated to the human study and application of nature’s mechanisms: Biomimicry.

“Humans are already making mussel-inspired glues that function in wet environments.

However, these glues mainly just mimic a specific aspect of the glue chemistry—the use of a chemical group called a catechol, which is really good at binding to surfaces,” Harrington wrote.

In addition to mussel glue formation, scientists in the biomimicry field are also studying spider silk production of smart wearable fibres, examining photosynthetic leaves to engineer efficient solar cells, and investigating snake toxins to manufacture anti-depression drugs.

Trottier Symposium talks dead bodies, COVID-19 myths Speakers Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Kari Northey featured in conference’s 21st edition Madison McLauchlan Managing Editor

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eath has an equalizing, inevitable force. But the pandemic, like all public health crises, has cast the sword of Damocles in sharper relief than ever, and indiscriminately so. Yet while the blade will always fall, few reflect on the science of it—what really happens to our bodies after we die?

The McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS) hosted day one of two of the 2021 Trottier Public Science Symposium on Oct. 25, with its central theme being the science of life and death. Headed by director Joe Schwarcz, the annual lecture series brings in leading experts to disseminate scientific knowledge in their respective fields and to fulfill the OSS mandate of “separating sense from nonsense” amid a deluge of falsehoods.

The chemicals that work best to preserve the dead, like arsenic, are often the worst for the living. (Heritage Image Partnership)

Dr. Paul Offit parses through vaccine misinformation Paul Offit is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania and a director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania. Having appeared as an expert guest on CNN only an hour before, Offit began his informative lecture with some statistics about herd immunity. He explained that in order to predict the herd immunity threshold, the contagiousness index—the number of people infected per one positive case—is divided by the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing contagion. In the case of COVID-19 in the U.S., this is around 90 per cent.

“I think we still need to vaccinate about 40 million more people in the United States if we really want to achieve herd immunity,” Offit said.

As a member of the FDA vaccine advisory committee, Offit receives many emails spouting vaccine misinformation in an attempt to dissuade him from encouraging vaccination.

On Oct. 26, the committee is set to discuss whether the vaccine should be approved for 5 to 11-year-olds in the U.S. Offit took the audience through several of the most common myths about the COVID-19 vaccines, such as claims that they decrease fertility or alter a recipient’s DNA. If the first myth were true, Offit explained, then the U.S. birth rate would have decreased significantly since the vaccine rollout began.

The mRNA vaccines cannot change DNA sequences because the pieces of RNA are unable to enter the cell nucleus or to be reverse-copied into DNA. Offit debunked several more unfounded claims, including one that asserted that vaccines can make humans magnetic.

The draw of pandemic conspiracy theories, like those touted in media such as Plandemic, is that individuals can put the blame on a common scapegoat and avail themselves of personal responsibility.

“A pandemic is chaos. There is so much that is unknown when it first [starts],” Offit said. “What [conspiracy pieces] do is make order out of chaos. They give you a villain, and give you a sense of order even though it’s completely wrong.”

Mortician Kari Northey explores the science of corpse preservation Licensed mortician and Youtuber Kari Northey has been in the business of bodies for more than 20 years, and has received a fair share of morbid inquiries about her career. In her captivating presentation, Northey took attendees through the history of the mortuary field and addressed the most common questions about caring for the dead.

“Embalming is more than injecting formaldehyde [and] draining out blood,” Northey said. “It’s preserving in various ways to allow viewing, funerals, and gatherings of family.”

Proteins denature during the biological process of death, leading to decay, but embalming fluid stops this process from occurring. Though formaldehyde was only introduced in the 20th century, the early origins of embalming stretch back to Ancient Egypt, with the use of natron, a mixture of soda ash and baking soda, on bodies before mummification.

Northey walked the audience through the embalming process, including the not-so-pleasant details of cavity drainage, which replaces the material in the abdomen—containing the bacteria that are decomposing the body—with preservative fluids.

Despite their gloomy job description, morticians can act as magicians by physically restoring the deceased so that they are made “viewable” for family members.

“It’s really an illusion of the person that we’re creating for family to connect with for that final moment,” Northey said.

“Even if the person’s not perfect, they may be perfectly recognizable.”

Northey closed by noting how the field has adapted to contemporary issues. Environmentally friendly options for the deceased, such as “aquamation” and green burials, are becoming increasingly popular.

“There’s now more women going into the field than there are men, there’s now funeral homes that look drastically different than they used to,” Northey said. “The face of the business is constantly changing with the times, which is beautiful to see.”

arts@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

13

Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ ‘Life After’ explores the pandemic’s toll on mental health Indigenous hip-hop duo’s fourth album takes a candid look at depression and isolation Louis Lussier-Piette Staff Writer

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notty Nose Rez Kids has never shied away from dealing with difficult subjects, and their fourth album Life After is no exception. Released on Oct. 22, the album explores themes of quarantine depression, addiction, and racism, mixed with a musical complexity that includes elements of punk, hardcore, and R&B. Young D (Darren Metz) and Yung Trypez (Quinton Nyce), the duo’s members, are members of the Haisla Nation on the west coast of Canada. After achieving a new high in their career with the release of Trapline in 2019, the Snotty Nose Rez Kids were planning their first U.S. tour in 2020—before the pandemic interrupted their plans. Life After came into existence after 18 months of isolation, with each song from the album capturing a different state of mind during the pandemic.

“Tour life has such a fast pace, it’s easy to distract yourself,” Metz said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “There were times when we wouldn’t take good care of ourselves mentally and emotionally, and all that stuff that we were ignoring came up during the pandemic, so we were forced to sit down and deal with it.”

Indigenous hip-hop duo Snotty Nose Rez Kids released their fourth album Life After on October 22, a complex and sincere project that explores quarantine depression, racism, and addiction. (windspeaker.com)

The duo had an entirely different concept album in the works prior to the pandemic, but isolation pushed them into an intensive art block that lasted months. When restrictions began to ease up, they put aside their other project to create Life After, an album dedicated to the hardships COVID-19 brought to both themselves and their community.

“There are times when I don’t want to talk to people about [my struggles], so I just write about it, for my own sanity,” Metz said.

“There were things that we needed to say and get off our chest. We came up with [the concept of] Life After because it’s about life after the pandemic, but it could be life after anything, really. Life after depression, or life after success, after grinding for so long.”

Metz describes Life After as a concept album that explores what the future holds after such a definitive moment in human history. The album not only focusses on the impact the pandemic has had on people’s physical and mental health, but also tackles cultural and political changes for Indigenous communities.

The album opens with the track “Grave Digger,” immediately immersing listeners in its dark atmosphere, with powerful lyrics like “I cleanse in the ocean, I don’t need no Baptist.” The entire album follows a unique flow that keeps the listeners intrigued, from trap and R&B sounds to punk and hardcore influences.

The song “Change” holds a special place in Metz’ heart. With the smooth voice of singer ebonEmpress in perfect parallel with the duo’s verses, the song explores the burden of COVID-19 on his community, with lyrics such as “I’ve seen more funerals than graduations or weddings.”

“When I heard the first mix of “Change,” I cried, Metz said. “After all these difficult times that we endured during this pandemic, those tears were a mix of sad tears and happy tears, like ‘we made it, we survived the goddamn pandemic.”Life After mixes joyful beats with darker soulful sounds to create a truly mesmerizing musical experience. The album is a clever combination of brilliant musicianship and candid lyricism, a must-listen for all hip hop fans.

Snotty Nose Rez Kids are currently on the road for their U.S. tour that started on October 25, stopping by Toronto on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.

Tricks and Treats: A Halloween Variety Show

A night of comedy, drag, burlesque, and more! This Halloween-themed event has something for everyone and will surely thrill and delight.

October 31, 8:00 PM The Diving Bell Social Club $12

Book Launch: Saving the City by Daniel Sanger The

launch of Saving the City: The Challenge of Transforming a Modern Metropolis by Daniel Sanger. Books will be for sale at the event, or can be ordered online on the Véhicule Press website.

October 26, 5:00-7:00 PM Le Reservoir Free

Open Mic

Open Mic Night hosted by Aidan Keeley: Each performer gets 3 songs and a free shot for playing, with $5 pints of Grolsch available until midnight! Musicians of all different genres of music are encouraged to come and play!

October 26, 8:00 PM Ye Olde Orchard Pub & Grill Free

Book Launch: Nothing Will Be Different

The launch for Tara McGowan-Ross’s début memoir Nothing Will Be Different, a searingly honest work about learning to live before getting ready to die.

October 28, 7:30 PM Facebook Live (Streaming) Free

Comedic, joyful, and sombre: ‘The Best Canadian Poetry of 2021’ An anthology of creative and pensive Canadian poems from this year Suzanna Graham Contributor

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anadian poets, consistently overshadowed by American writers, rarely get the recognition their talents deserve. is A collection of 50 poems

by Canadian poets, the Best Canadian Poetry 2021 anthology is curated by its guest editor Souvankham Thammavongsa, who has author of five books, including How to Pronounce Knife, and received several literary awards. Published on Oct. 5, the book features poetic reflections on the transience and joy of this past year. Many poems share themes of aging and loss, while others interject bizarre and comedic variety into the array.

Many featured poets happen to be Montreal locals. Hayden Ward explores his childhood memories in his poem, “From the Nurse’s Cabin Porch, Keats Island.”

Formatted into a series of haikus, the poem recalls himself as a young child as his mother frees him from a wasp swarm. By switching from third to first person, Ward finds meaning in both living through and retroactively remembering his childhood memories of summers in British Columbia.

Similarly, Mary Dean Lee, a professor in

the Faculty of Management, navigates her childhood memory of her brother’s death in “Riddle.” Lee captures the traumatic ef-

The Best Canadian Poetry 2021 is home to 50 poems of all shapes, sizes, and subjects. (biblioasis.com)

fects of this loss on her family by using a disjointed structure and rhythm to mimic the unique ways that family members process trauma. The separation between lines emphasize her family’s emotional estrangement from each other.

Other poems focus on lighter matters, including the horror of teenage acne and the (accidental) killing of a peace lily plant.

David Ezra Wang’s poem, “acne, blood, and all things that flow,” may resonate with many students who hoped, in vain, that their acne would disappear as they transitioned out of their teenage years. Wang expresses his discomfort with going out in public with acne, and wonders if he would find love if only he “really exfoliated.” Kayla Czaga, who admits to writing a first draft of “The Peace Lily” on a Thrifty Foods receipt, contemplates the simultaneous frustration and relief of killing her beloved houseplant.

Czaga juxtaposes her guilt with the poem’s beautiful imagery that captures the plant’s slow death, unaffected by the countless internet tricks Czaga employs in an attempt to save it.

One of the funniest poems in the anthology is George K Ilsley’s “Another Woman in Canada,” a found poem that ranks his 10 favourite one-star reviews of Canadian

short story writer Alice Munro’s short story collection, Dear Life. Ilsley highlights the unintentional irony of several reviewers who either dislike Canadians entirely, or believe themselves to be better literary critics than those who awarded Munro the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. For instance, reviewer number two says of Munro’s fiction, “The characters are boring and bland, like Canadians.” The Canadian poets in the anthology clearly refute this statement, discussing any and all aspects of the vibrant human experience that prove they are quite an interesting bunch. Between struggling with mental illnesses (Roxanna Bennett), shielding parents from embarrassment (David Romanda), and finding freedom in motherhood (Louise Carson), each poet has something new to say.

No matter whether a reader is a frequent or first-time poetry fan, Best Canadian Poetry 2021 is an excellent way to experience new and established Canadian poets. Bursting with personality, this anthology has something for everyone, and is a touching reflection on the highs and lows of 2021.

Best Canadian Poetry 2021 is available for purchase online or through local retailers.

14 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

arts@mcgilltribune.com

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

‘Dune’ is a return to the grandeur of film Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation delights fans with craft, scope, and scale Charlotte Hayes Contributor

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he pandemic has placed restrictions on movie theatres since March 2020, forcing many large studios to push back the release dates of their most anticipated films. One of the victims of these delays was Dune. Following its premier at the Venice International Film Festival, Dune finally debuted on HBO Max on Oct. 21 and in theatres across the world on Oct. 22, signalling the return of a certain quality of cinema. The film lives up to its expectations, delivering a visually stunning sci-fi epic.

Combining both the scale of the scifi genre and the stylistic touches of smaller indie films, Dune was well worth the wait.

Dune is an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 book of the same name. It follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), a gifted young man set to inherit powers far beyond his understanding. But first, Paul must journey to the wildest and most dangerous planet in the universe, Arrakis, to safeguard the future of his family. On Arrakis, conflict erupts over the planet’s supply of spice, the most precious resource in existence. Only those who are brave enough to conquer

the treacherous terrain will survive.

Paul must learn to harness his newfound powers in order to cross the desert and save his family from the evil Imperium.

The film’s immersive story is grounded in Chalamet’s dynamic and emotional performance, a delivery that audiences have come to expect from the young actor. Additionally, the most impactful performance from the large supporting cast comes from Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), a military personality and Paul’s close friend. Momoa’s charismatic character brings a much-needed comedic charm to what is otherwise an intense film.

From the moment he appears on screen, he’s instantly likeable, stealing every scene he’s in.

Chalamet and Momoa’s performances aside, another highlight of the film is its cinematography. Director of photography Greig Fraser brings the golden and otherworldly desert planet of Arrakis to life.

Sweeping drone shots of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, where the movie was filmed, combine seamlessly with CGI to create an immersive alien planet that feels fantastical, yet realistic. In doing so, the film avoids the pitfalls of its unpopular previous adaptation, which was criticized for having visually bland

The stunning desert visuals of Arrakis are owed to the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan and the Abu Dhabi desert. (dune.fandom.com) and monotone settings, and tedious, digressive plot that left the viewer bored and underwhelmed.

Director Denis Villeneuve employs the use of visions and flashbacks to add visual diversity to the film—and to perhaps tease a potential sequel. These short sequins change the lighting and colour palette, transporting the viewer into the future. Such dream-like sequences help distinguish the film from others in its genre and provide a visual escape from the never-ending desert.

Dune’s only flaw is its pacing.

At a staggering 155 minute run time, Villeneuve refuses to compromise artistic style for the sake of brevity. With gorgeous aerial shots and long-held close-ups, Villeneuve’s unique style demands patience from the audience. Despite having action-packed third and fourth acts, Dune requires that the audience sit through long establishing shots and quiet moments between central characters. However beautiful they may be, these quiet moments could

lose the attention of casual fans and younger audiences.

With a star-studded cast and a talented, seasoned director, Dune is sure to capture the attention of every sci-fi lover. The film offers audiences the scope and intensity of a blockbuster while maintaining the style and visual language of prestige cinema. Complete with a beautiful score, gorgeous cinematography, and the latest in CGI technology, it’s the perfect film to welcome every cinephile back into the theatres.

Korean Film Festival Canada highlights women’s struggle to define their identities This year’s theme is ‘Narratives Beyond Borders: Women’s Perspectives in the Korean Cinema’ Paulina Kasak Contributor

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he eighth iteration of the Korean Film Festival Canada runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 30 this year, and features the theme “Narratives Beyond Borders: Women’s Perspectives in the Korean Cinema.”

The struggles many women face in determining their identities emerge as a common thread in the festival’s offerings. Bae Changho, director of Whale Hunting, explained how the films navigate both the construction and spontaneous expression of femininity.

“There is naturally given femininity, and femininity given artificially in tradition, family, society, education,” said Bae in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “The latter femininity has tied and repressed women.”

Three of the featured films, The Apology, The Woman Who Ran, and An Uninterrupted View of the Sea, perfectly capture the festival’s essence. At the heart of these films lies the seemingly never-ending struggle to discover oneself.

The Apology, by Tiffany Hsiung, is a compelling and eye-opening documentary that follows the personal stories of three former “comfort women.” The women in the film were among 200,000 others who were forcibly taken without consent and sexually exploited by the Japanese Imperial army dur-

Hsiung’s “The Apology” is a powerful documentary, heartbreaking but revolutionary in its story of three women, objectified as young girls and coping in their old age. (ff.hrw.org) ing the Second World War. The film is not only a captivating historical piece, but a moving emotional journey. One of the women in the film expresses how she wants to be “reborn” as a woman to be able to “have [her] own precious family.” By documenting the stories of real women, interlaced with elements of trauma and hope, Hsiung succeeds in creating an intimate and harrowing connection with the viewer.

The Woman Who Ran by Hong Sang-soo is about a woman who has never been apart from her husband since being married. When he leaves for a business trip, she finds herself alone for the first time and takes the opportu-

nity to visit old friends. The film pushes the viewer—even those who are not married, in love, or in any kind of relationship—to selfreflect, and think on how one’s life decisions don’t always turn out the way one wants or hopes. This quality of normalcy is what makes the film so interesting; the quest for independence can be felt universally. SangSoo magnificently portrays the ordinary.

An Uninterrupted View of the Sea Short Film 1 by Mika Yatsuhashi chronicles Yatsuhashi’s great-grandfather’s struggle to prove his American identity as a Japanese immigrant. The short film is a conglomeration of old photographs, super 8mm films, and FBI

documents. In the span of just 15 minutes, Yatsuhashi introduces, and educates the audience about the emotional hardships specific to immigrant life, as well as the structures which enforce these difficulties. The old photographs transport the viewer into the life of her great-grandfather.

“I chose to use only the archive material because that is how I connected to this story,” Yatsuhashi said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

In the movie, the photographs and film act as looking glasses; they allow the audience to connect with the person even if through a distant lens. The film displays a very real and important struggle that many people tend to either ignore.

“I learned that you should define your own identity and not strive for the acceptance of a government [or] population, because all you’ll do is tire yourself out or worse,” Yatsuhashi said. “[Upon] realizing this, you can form your identity yourself, and not base it upon the values of a government.”

Even though the bulk of films centre culturally specific stories and experiences, the struggle to achieve inner peace, to develop an identity, and to attain a sense of belonging, resonate universally. The Korean Film Festival succeeds in directing a conversation about women’s struggle to define themselves..

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

sports@mcgilltribune.com

SPORTS

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Men’s rugby stuns Sherbrooke to win season title Standout Benjamin Russell scores two tries for Redbirds in decisive 36-3 victory Madison McLauchlan & Skylar Armstrong Managing Editor & Contributor

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eaded into their Oct. 23 match against Sherbrooke, McGill men’s rugby needed a win and four tries to secure their spot on top of the RSEQ rankings. The Redbirds (5–1) succeeded, scoring six tries in total and defeating the Sherbrooke Vert et Or (0–6) by a score of 36-3 to become the RSEQ regular-season champions.

Among the top scorers were fullback Benjamin Russell, who tallied 10 points, and Samuel Elrington and Gaspard Poiré, who both scored a try. Quebec natives Ian McDowell and Thomas Richards scored the other majors.

The Vert et Or brought intensity to the pitch despite their 0–5 record and one-man disadvantage, making the Redbirds work to keep up. Head coach Ian Baillie, who is in his eighth season at McGill,

commended the Vert et Or’s effort in a post-game interview with The McGill Tribune.

“To [Sherbrooke’s] credit, they came out and put it to us straight away,” Baillie said. “They didn’t allow us to get into our structure, they caused disruption, we couldn’t get any flow in our game going and couldn’t hold possession of the ball really well, and it was because of the pressure they were putting on us.”

The first half started out slow, with a scoring drought of over 20 minutes before William Couture of Sherbrooke broke the ice with a successful penalty kick. The game’s energy abated in the next minutes, with repetitive back-and-forth kicks over the centre line from both teams. Nearing halftime, however, the Redbirds scored two consecutive tries in five minutes, with scrum-half Owen Cumming picking up a conversion.

The second half saw a renewed Redbirds squad, quicker at getting the ball out of scrums

McGill men’s rugby has not finished on top of the RSEQ division since 2016.

(Kennedy McKee-Braide / The McGill Tribune)

and moving it up the field, much to Sherbrooke’s chagrin.

“We got our legs under us in the second half,” Baillie said. “Having a bench to pull guys onto the park that were fresh [...] made a big difference and it got us moving forward.”

Once the momentum shifted to McGill’s side, the team pushed forward incessantly, keeping possession of the ball through physical rucks and sustaining their offensive pressure until the very last moment.

There were few penalties issued during the match, but the clock stopped two minutes early after a Sherbrooke player was knocked out cold and required medical attention.

Despite the game ending on a sour note, the team’s thrill at winning the title could be felt from the stands. Fourth-year winger Hùng Lorin was pleased with their overall performance, but noted a few things the team could improve upon heading into the post-season.

“We’ve got to watch our hands and focus more on getting the ball straight and running harder lines,” Lorin said in a post-game interview with the Tribune. “We dropped it a couple of times, but the boys all did really great.”

Matthew Zeitouni, third-year flanker, agreed with his teammate’s assessment. “[We’ve] just got to reduce those handling errors and stick to what we know best,” Zeitouni said. “We wanted to finish first so that our next game, the semifinal, is on home ground, so we’re quite happy.”

Brad Hunger, first-year second row, emphasized that the team’s harmony played a major role in getting them this far.

“This is my first year playing rugby with the guys, and I already love each and every one of them like a brother, so, it’s awesome,” Hunger said.

Next Saturday’s sudden-death match against Bishop’s University (3–3) will determine whether or not the Redbirds can make a run at the playoff title. If all goes as planned, the team looks forward to hosting the RSEQ final on home turf and capping the post-season with a championship.

MOMENT OF THE GAME In the thick of the first half, third-year center Theo Bride made a try-saving tackle just before the goal line, giving McGill the spark they needed to find their footing in the game.

QUOTABLE “I’m just happy we were able to pull through with a strong win and finish on top of the league for the season.

It’s been a couple of years since we won the RSEQ so this is definitely a confidence booster. I’m proud of all our guys for the work they’ve put in over the last 2 months and now’s the time to cash it all in during playoffs.”

—Karl Hunger, team captain and second-row.

STAT CORNER Scrum-half Owen Cumming made a 2-point conversion, adding to his season tally of a whopping 36 points to solidify his spot as the Redbirds’ leading scorer.

Know Your Athlete: Elizabeth Ling

Catching up with record-breaking swimmer Elizabeth Ling Zoé Mineret Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

Ling’s performance comes as no surprise, as she has tremendous discipline and drive. She started swimming when she was 10 years old and has put in constant effort ever since, eventually making her way to the University of Calgary Swim Club.

“My first club never really pushed me, but moving to a pretty intense team [like Calgary] allowed me to get better and be recruited for the McGill team,” Ling explained in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

As a U2 student in civil engineering, Ling has learned how to focus on schoolwork while keeping her broader goals in mind. Both of her parents are civil engineers, which led to her passion for the subject and inspired her to pursue an engineering career of her own.

What Ling enjoys about swimming with McGill is the positive team atmosphere. The team always encourages each other to do better—fist bumps and high fives keep morale high during practice and at competitions.

A supportive team was a big factor in Ling’s decision to swim at McGill. A healthy, harmonious swim squad can be its own source of motivation and an additional incentive for athletic excellence. There are never discouraging comments between the swimmers—instead, the positive environment makes swimming easier and more fun.

“Everyone is super nice and super supportive,” Ling said.

“They’re extremely positive, especially during practice. With

my old club, people would make negative comments during practice, but I haven’t had any of that this year.”

Ling is also grateful for the guidance of Peter Carpenter, who has been coaching the McGill swim team since 2009. He was awarded the U SPORTS Fox 40 men’s Coach of the Year award in 2018 and 2020. There is something gratifying about being pushed to do your best by your coach, explained Ling,

Ling, the only swimmer in her family, took up the sport after trying soccer and gymnastics. (McGill Athletics)

and Carpenter’s attention to the mental as well as physical health of the swimmers helps them to perform at their best.

“My old club team would get mad at you if you missed practice, but Coach Carpenter is really understanding if you’re stressed and overwhelmed and need to miss a practice,” Ling said.

Ling is loving Montreal, especially in the fall. After living her whole life in Calgary, she felt it was time for a change. So far, Montreal has been living up to her expectations, both in athletics and in lifestyle. Ling recommends Chungchun for the best Korean corn dogs in town.

In the future, Ling will continue to swim for the McGill varsity team while she finishes her degree in the next three years, and hopes to eventually make the national team. Last summer, Ling was a project management intern for a civil-engineering company, and plans on interning for them again next summer.

“I’m happy to be doing actual engineering courses this year, as I did chemistry and math last year,” Ling said. “It’s still pretty hard to transition from online classes to in-person classes.”

As advice for aspiring competitive swimmers, Ling advised to keep pushing: Most swimmers go through a period where they want to quit, she said, but it is important to work through that urge. Perseverance is necessary for athletes in general.

“If you push through it and try harder in practices and do your best, it will reward you,” Ling said.

Ling’s goal for the team is to finish with more points than last year and to continue producing good results. One thing is for sure: Ling will give her all to make sure her goals become a reality.

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SPORTS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 2021

sports@mcgilltribune.com

McGill men’s hockey drops close contest to Concordia Rival Stingers win 1-o in defensive overtime game Adam Menikefs Staff Writer

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he McGill men’s hockey team (2–2–1) continued their preseason on Oct. 23 against the Concordia Stingers (2-2), dropping a 1-0 overtime affair.

The game started at a fast pace, with solid puck movement and strong physicality from both teams. Early in the contest, McGill had multiple opportunities to strike first, after Concordia took two minor penalties in the first 10 minutes.

However, Concordia’s penalty kill successfully squashed both chances for the Redbirds, and the game remained scoreless.

After seizing early momentum with a pressing forecheck, McGill forward Andrew McIntyre took a tripping penalty, swinging energy toward the away team. Thankfully for the Redbirds, this was not an issue, as their penalty kill unit began their game-long dominance with an early shutdown of the Stingers’ power play.

Following a strong showing at the end of the first period, McGill immediately hurt

This was Concordia’s first ever 1-0 result against the Redbirds hockey program.

(Kyran Thicke / Concordia Stingers) themselves again at the start of the second period, taking a head contact minor penalty, with an additional ten-minute misconduct given to the offender, Jordan-Ty Fournier. Again, the penalty kill unit stood tall, defending their own end phenomenally for two long minutes.

“I think that our penalty kill played really well. The forwards and defensemen were consistently in great position, especially considering it was a pre-season game and we have so many new players on the team,” first-year goaltender Alexis

Shank said.

Along with the penalty kill unit, a bright spot for the Redbirds was the rookie netminder. Shank stopped 41 shots, standing on his head at many points in the game, particularly during the second and third period when he faced 30 shots over 40 minutes.

Speaking to his fantastic performance, Shank remained humble, crediting his teammates for the success.

“I think my teammates have helped my confidence both on and off the ice,” Shank said.

“They limited many chances

throughout the game last night, and have made me feel comfortable as a young rookie on the squad.”

Following a scoreless second period that concluded with serious tension between the benches of the rival teams, it was evident that the first team to put the puck past the outstanding netminders would win the contest.

In the third period, both teams had excellent opportunities in their offensive zone. The Redbirds continued their strong defensive play, exemplified by a crucial sliding block by first-year forward William Poirier to prevent an attempt on goal.

After a tense final two minutes, in which McGill successfully killed the majority of yet another Concordia power play, the two downtown rivals were off to overtime to find a winner in the extremely defensive contest.

Just a few minutes into the electric, back-and-forth 3-on3 overtime, Concordia buried a top corner goal on an odd man rush, winning the game for the Stingers. Despite the

unfortunate result, the Redbirds played solid defence and have much to build on as the team heads into the regular season.

McGill begins their OUA season at Concordia on Nov. 3, followed by a “Friends of McGill Hockey Homecoming” match up against 2019-2020 national finalists, the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

MOMENT OF THE GAME First-year netminder Alexis Shank makes a fantastic set of saves late in the third period to maintain a shutout during regulation time.

STAT CORNER Alexis Shank saved 41 of 42 shots, the highest season total of any McGill netminder this year.

Martlets fall in Gee-Gee 61-38 shoot-out

Scotten’s 13 points shine through in tough loss to University of Ottawa Adam Burton Sports Editor On Oct. 23, the McGill Martlets (0–1) faced off against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees (2–1) in their second game of the pre-season. Emerging from a loss to the University of Windsor Lancers, the Martlets failed to end their losing streak coming out of the long COVID-19-induced pause of the 2020-2021 athletic season.

Over 100 fans gathered to attend this tête-à-tête at the Love Competition Hall for what proved to be a poignant loss for McGill fans.

The game opened at a leisurely pace, with both teams playing a hyper-effective full court press, suffocating any attempts at coordinated offensive play. The Martlets only managed 11 points to the Gee-Gees’ 15 in the first quarter, on only 29.4 per cent shooting from the field.

The second quarter began much the same as the first, with minimal scoring chances for McGill and a never-ending wave of offensive drives to the paint by Ottawa. By the

end of the quarter, McGill made only eight of their 38 attempts from three, and weren’t much better from inside the arc. First-year guard Emma-Jane Scotten was a bright spot amidst an otherwise fruitless quarter, making two of three three-pointers and ultimately leading the team to score 13 points, six rebounds, and two steals.

A quick three-pointer from Scotten and jump shot from Jessica Salanon heartened the largely uneasy McGill crowd for a fleeting moment like a beacon in the distance. But the Gee-Gees were quick to stamp out any spark of McGillian hope with an onslaught of defence and dominance in the paint. For the rest of the quarter, McGill kept pressure high, contesting every shot and guarding with enough tenacity to scrap up six turnovers.

Their defensive efforts came up short, however, as the Gee-Gees continued to make shots. Headed into the final quarter of the game, the score stood at 47-27 in favour of the Gee-Gees.

While the 20-point lead seemed insurmountable in the final 10 minutes of play, the Martlets never relented on defence, and even had flashes of greatness from first-year forward Charlotte Guerin, who tallied eight points, seven rebounds, and six steals over the course of the game. In the final moments, Guerin did not let up, getting her final steal with 12 seconds left on the clock.

While a final score of 61-38 will leave many chalking the loss up to poor play by the Martlets, the developing team is only just spreading its wings. Under the direction of new head coach Rikki Bowles, the rookie-dominant roster has lots of potential to grow as they head into the regular season. While the team shot only 19.4 per cent from behind the arc this week, this won’t always be the case—as soon as the shots start falling, so will McGill’s opponents.

Guerin is optimistic about the future of the team and how they plan to approach their next game against Queen’s University on Oct. 30.

“I think Queen’s is on the same level as Ottawa, and I think that every week we really do get better,” Guerin said. “Every week we’ve played, we’ve gotten better against the next team. Hopefully by the time we get to the regular season we’ll be able to win consistently.”

STAT CORNER First year forward Charlotte Guerin earned a game high six steals with a suffocating defensive presence that was felt throughout the game.

The Martlets will try for their first victory this Saturday when they host Queens at 3 p.m.

(McGill Athletics)