McGill Tribune Vol. 35, Issue 21

The McGill Tribune TUesday, March 8, 2016 curiosity delivers

Volume No. 35 Issue No. 21

Editorial: more formal co-curricular record must become more inclusive

feature: Diversity Unravelled—student perspectives on race at M c Gill

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m c gilltribune.com @m c gilltribune

Exploring the World of math Clare Lyle Staff Writer

McGill’s only sketch comedy group delivers lots of laughs. (Selin Altuntur / McGill Tribune)

Bring your own juice is serious about silliness Gendered policies must avoid crossing line into paternalism Emma Avery Contributor Part of working towards true gender equality, whatever that looks like, is creating policies to help dismantle institutional practices that give men an advantage over women.

This can be a controversial and contentious process, but is necessary in eliminating subconscious, institutionalized sexism. The challenge, however, is that in working towards gender equality, society cannot just

simply say that women get exactly the same policies as men: Women and men are inherently different biologically, and always will be.

This may be stating the obvious, but it means that in some cases, different policies are required for different genders. This is the fine line between equality and paternalism.

Historically, gendered policies often meant paternalism. Women couldn’t vote, own property, or hold certain jobs, to name a few. Today, these lines are being drawn in new

policy arenas, such as healthcare. In light of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent recommendation that all women not on birth control should not consume alcohol, and a UK company’s recent decision to pioneer a “period policy,” it is apparent that certain solutions venture too far into the field of a woman’s personal discretion.

While perhaps well-intentioned, the CDC’s recommendation stirred resentment about paternal-

istic undertones for implying that women couldn’t make such decisions for themselves. If the recommendations had been framed differently, such as by outlining risks in detail so that women would be able to make informed decisions for themselves, there might not have been such backlash. But when a gendered policy is framed in a way that leaves a woman’s personal discretion out of the picture, it feels much more like paternalism than a friendly PSA.

The fast-paced world of finance has always been filled with big numbers. Astronomical numbers.

Mind-bogglingly huge numbers that inspire the question: How does this much money even exist?

Investors turned to mathematicians for help answering this question.

Thus, quantitative finance was born. Simply, quantitative finance is a math-intensive subfield that lets investment firms use computational methods to gain insight into markets.

Sebastian Dragnea is a McGill alumnus currently working as a quantitative analyst, known as a ‘quant,’ at Morgan Stanley, an investment banking firm. He graduated from McGill in 2014 with a joint honours degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. The decision to enter quantitative finance was, for him, natural.

“I liked both sides [of the program],” Dragnea explained. “I enjoyed programming and I enjoyed the math [....] So I wanted a job that combined both of those and the best field I found that combined [them] was quantitative finance. What I found at Morgan Stanley was that I was doing a lot of programming, but also doing math, and also applying a third field of finance, which involved different ways of looking at data.”

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McGill Principal Suzanne Fortier responds to failed BDS motion Alumni express hesitation with regards to donating in future Laura Hanrahan News Editor The passage of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter 2016 General Assembly (GA), and its subsequent failure in an online ratification period, has garnered a variety of reactions among the McGill community—including the administration’s condemnation of the

university’s participation in the BDS movement.

The motion, brought forward by petition and initially passed at the GA, proposed a mandate for SSMU to support campaigns associated with the BDS movement through the office of the vice-president (VP) External, and specifically outlined a need to divest from corporations the supporters of the movement considered complicit in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

McGill Principal Suzanne Fortier released a statement following the release of the online ratification results, explaining the university’s position on the BDS movement.

“The BDS movement, which among other things, calls for universities to cut ties with Israeli universities, flies in the face of the tolerance and respect we cherish as values fundamental to a university,” Fortier wrote. “It proposes actions that are contrary to the principles

of academic freedom, equity, inclusiveness and the exchange of views and ideas in responsible, open discourse.”

Laura Khoury, U2 Engineering, an organizer of McGill BDS Action Network—the group responsible for bringing the motion forward—expressed dismay with Fortier’s letter.

“It was extremely disappointing to see Principal Fortier, through her statement, delegitimize the voices of more than 2,000 students without

attempting to understand their concerns,” Khoury wrote in an email to the Tribune.

The motion specifically referenced McGill’s investments in companies operating in Israeli settlements, including Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank and Re/Max real estate. Principal Fortier’s statement did not address those investments, focusing rather on the implications of divesting from Israeli universities.

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2

NEWS

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

McGill sells Redpath properties for $20.6 million Sale of properties may be used to fund projects in the future, Manfredi says Regina Wung Staff Writer During the February Senate meeting, Christopher Manfredi, provost and vice-principal (VP) (Academic) announced the sale of a portion of McGill-owned land, resulting in an unanticipated $20.6 million in revenue for the university. Known as the Redpath properties and located to the west of campus near Guy Street and Dr. Penfield Avenue, the land was originally received as a donation to the university.

Before its sale, the Redpath properties served as a minor source of income for McGill, as the housing units built on the land regularly paid rent to the university. The rent for the properties this year would have been between $750,000 and $900,000.

Faculty of Arts Senator, John Galaty, cited concerns related to the university auctioning off assets in order to offset its deficit.

“Here you have [...] $20 million in relationship to a $10 million deficit,” Galaty said.

“It’s moved a significant amount of money from the asset column over to the [...] revenues being taken in by the university so we can pay our bills [....] Most of the downtown of Montreal used to belong to McGill, and one wonders, ‘If we’d only kept it and leased it rather than sold it, we’d probably be better off.’”

Manfredi assured the McGill Senate that this decision was unique and not part of a larger strategy to pay bills; however, he also conceded that the university may choose to sell other properties in the future as a method to fund different projects, including the proposed acquisition of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) site by McGill.

“There is no strategy to sell property in order to pay our bills,” said Manfredi. “If we were to undertake [the RVH] project, one of the ways in which McGill might finance its share would be by looking at some of our non-strategic real estate assets on the periphery of the campus and converting those into cash that would then be reinvested into the [RVH] site, if

we go down that road.”

VP (Administration and Finance) Michael Di Grappa also attested to the fact that there were no current plans to sell any of McGill’s other properties, refuting Galaty’s notion that the university was employing a strategy of selling capital to pay back debts.

“This was not an attempt to sell assets in order to pay for operating deficits or anything like that,” Di Grappa said. “With respect to the specific sale of the Redpath properties, that’s a case of an emphyteutic lease on land —[a lease] on which condominiums were built [....] The university [was] the owner of the land and [it collected] a rent for the use of the land from the owners of the condos.”

The lease for houses on the Redpath properties was created in the 1970s and included a formula for resetting rent prices every 20 years. In 2014, an offer was made to the university when the rent was being recalculated.

“The owners were faced with an issue where, in roughly 30 years, the land and whatev-

er was built on it was reverted back to McGill,” Di Grappa said. “The owners of the condos approached us because we were negotiating the increase in rent from 2014, and they made an offer to buy the land so they wouldn’t have to pay rent for [a certain] number of years.”

According to Di Grappa, from McGill’s perspective, keeping the land was not an ideal option because it could not profitably be used for university-related purposes.

“It is not a strategic property,” said Di Grappa. “[It is] not as if we could use it for another campus or another classroom, and it would be a waste to use it for student residences because the condos would fetch a higher value and [the university] would only be able to have 85 units there.”

Di Grappa defended the university’s decision to sell the land.

“In calculating the amounts we would derive in the 30 or so years from this emphyteutic lease versus the amount they would give us up front, we

thought it was in the best interests of the university to take this particular deal,” Di Grappa said.

“The sale was very satisfactory for the university because we have very pressing needs. The owners were very happy; they have the freedom to do what they wish with the land.”

The revenues from the sale of the Redpath properties will be invested in a sustainability project.

“That particular sale has actually allowed us to make a provision in our budgeting [...] to support a very important project in sustainability sciences, where we’ll be making a $10 million investment over the next five years,” Manfredi said. “We’re able to do that because of that kind of extraordinary revenue.”

As for McGill’s other properties, including lands on the South Shore and Macdonald campus, Di Grappa maintained that the university intends to keep these.

“There are no plans to dispose of any of that other space,” he said.

3

NEWS

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Wellness Recovery Action Plan offers alternative to Mental Health Services WRAP emphasizes group support, developing coping mechanisms William Pang Contributor Over the past five years, the McGill Mental Health Services (MMHS) has seen a 35 per cent increase in students seeking help. According to McGill’s Mental Health Education Coordinator Emily Yung, one in 11 McGill students in the past academic year are reported to have used MMHS services.

The Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) was initiated for students at McGill in Fall 2015 to help tackle the rapidly rising demand at MMHS. Founded in Vermont 18 years ago, WRAP is a psycho-education program developed for individuals living with mental health issues. At McGill, students meet once a week for six sessions, each lasting two hours in length.

Every session is facilitated by a mental health professional and a highly trained student.

According to Yung, students participating in the program learn a set of key concepts to help build a foundation for recovery, as well as developing a “wellness toolbox” to combat symptoms. The program also helps students identify triggers and develop an action plan when facing a mental breakdown.

“We talk about what are some strategies we can implement, what are things that have worked in the past for you, […] you talked to a friend, you sought medication from a psychiatrist, all of those things to build a support system in difficult times,” Yung explained.

Yung stressed that the success of the program is due to what students feel they can bring to the discussion. “[Students] are able to share some of their darkest moments in life and they can learn from each other about what’s worked,” she said.

WRAP is designed to help students cope with day-to-day challenges, but not for students who are actively in a mental health crisis.

“We allow students who have mild to moderate mental illness into this group,” Yung said. “We do not put in crisis cases because those students will need much more resources, perhaps more one-on-one [counselling].”

However, students who have been using MMHS services can also join the WRAP Program.

What differentiates WRAP from other services offered at MMHS is its transdiagnostic approach— WRAP does not tailor to a specific mental illness, but tackles a spectrum of mental health problems in a group setting.

“We want to change the mentality of having one-onone [therapy session] as the best [treatment strategy….] I understand that it can be appro-

propriate for many students, but research has shown that group [therapy] is equally as effective,” Yung said.

According to Clinical Director of MMHS Dr. Nancy Low, WRAP was given two years worth of funding from the Student Services Innovation Fund.

“We’re going to evaluate [WRAP] after two years and see if it is something we should incorporate [into MMHS],” Low said.

The cost of WRAP mainly comes from preparing the student facilitators, who are paid $1,000 to undergo a seven-day training session. Students who are currently interested in joining WRAP must first make an appointment with MMHS. “We eventually want to make it where students deliver [WRAP sessions],” Low said.

Julia Tischer, a PhD student in the school of Architecture who has participated in WRAP,

pointed to the time-sensitive nature of her needs as a factor that changes the effectiveness of the program for her. Tischer explained that she did not immediately get the help she needed when she approached MMHS, but that the WRAP program still benefitted her.

“When I went to the workshop, my difficult moment had already passed,” Tischer said.

However, she is still thankful to have joined WRAP as it helped her stay positive and prepare for a crisis situation. “[WRAP] was still very helpful in many ways,” Tischer said. “I had this wonderful bonding experience with other people who have been going through difficult situations, many related to stress in school. So I didn’t feel alone.”

Additional reporting by Joseph Timan.

Rent for Centennial Centre at Macdonald increases under new MoA Student fee will increase by $0.50 per year Ashley Kong Contributor On Feb. 4, the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society (MCSS) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the McGill administration, reducing the area of space in the Centennial Centre—the central student hub on the Macdonald campus— and increasing the student fee paid into the space. The renewed MoA will remain valid until 2020.

According to the agreement, the area of space in the Centennial Centre, granted to the MCSS for revenue generating activities, will be reduced from 3784 to 3043 square feet. Additionally, from 2016-2020, the MCSS will now have to pay $15.00/sq ft for the space, compared to the previous $13.00/sq ft with the rent being subjected to a $0.50 increase every year.

Originally, the McGill administration proposed a hike to $16.00/sq ft with a one-dollar increase every following year. Negotiations began early in 2015, however, a consensus was not reached until last month. According to MCSS Vice-President (VP) Finance Nihal Mandanna, MCSS could not accept the initial proposed increase.

“The negotiations dragged on so long [because] we were not going to agree with the one-

dollar increase [per year],” Mandanna said. “We can’t justify that increase towards students [.…]

The jump from $13 to $15 is a roughly 15 per cent increase. We didn’t feel [such a raise] on top of the one-dollar increase every single year […] is reasonable.”

Mandanna recalled that the administration’s justification for the proposed increase was that the rent for student spaces on Macdonald campus should be comparable to that of the Downtown campus. However, Mandanna raised the point that the populations of the two campuses differ greatly in size.

“It made zero sense,” Man-

InfographicbyDomitilleBiehlmann

danna said. “[The Macdonald Campus] has a total undergraduate population of around 1,400 students, versus almost 30,000 in Downtown [campus]. Just looking at that proportion, paying this [rate] is ridiculous.”

Two parties eventually finally settled on a $0.50 annual increase.

“We managed to negotiate it down to only [a] 50 cents increase every year,” Mandanna recalled. “The good side to that is in five year’s time, we will be paying $17.50/sq ft, compared to the [originally proposed] $20.00/ sq ft” According to Mandanna, despite the rent hike, MCSS is not planning to increase its student fees for the time being.

“We are in pretty good financial standing,” he said. “So we don’t see the necessity to increase our student fees yet.”

He also pledged not to make The Ceilidh, the campus bar at Centennial Centre, a major source of profit for MCSS to cover its rent and expenses.

“I personally don’t necessarily agree with making money off alcohol, especially off your students,” he explained. “If we’re going to provide a bar, we want to provide a service—a space to hang out, a space to have a drink with friends or profs [....] At Mac, The Ceilidh is one of our only student spaces. As such, it is

Infographic by Domitille Biehlmnann an essential part of Mac culture.”

According to President of MCGSS Nicolas Chatel-Launay, services provided by MCSS, such as The Ceilidh, form an integral part of graduate student life and welfare on Macdonald campus.

“The bar running well is a good thing for us [graduate students] as well,” Chatel-Launay said. “A lot of the bar staff are graduate students, and it is a tradition that the bar manager being a graduate student, usually a PhD. Also, it’s the social place here [.…] The bar is also open to staff and the department. When we have departmental seminars or parties, it’s in there, so every-

one benefits.”

According to Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Financial Officer Behrang Sharif, PGSS agreed to pay an annual fee to MCSS for members of its subsidiary organization on Macdonald Campus, the Macdonald Campus Graduate Students’ Society (MCGSS), to be able to use MCSS services.

“We have recently negotiated and signed a [Memorandum of Agreement] with MCSS to pay $11 per MCGSS student to help fund services and clubs at Macdonald campus,” Sharif said.

“This will be increased according to inflation every year.”

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NEWS

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Fortier responds to failed BDS motion Alumni express hesitation with regards to donating in future Laura Hanrahan News Editor Continued from Page 1.

“It is frustrating that the statement did not address the actual text of the motion,” Khoury wrote. “The lack of acknowledgement of these existing financial ties to international corporations that clearly demonstrate social injury toward Palestinians on a daily basis is an active stance to be complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation.”

According to McGill’s Internal Relations Director Doug Sweet, it is impossible to ignore the fact that boycotts from academic institutions are a central part of the BDS movement as a whole.

“Principal Fortier’s statement was consistent with the university’s position on the BDS movement in its entirety, which includes an academic boycott of Israeli academics and scholars, and their institutions,” Sweet wrote in an email to the Tribune. “[The] McGill administration has been on the record as being stead-

“Iwasappauledand shockedbytheSSMU verdict[regarding] BDStwoweeksago, andfurtherrevolted bythemail—which Ireceivedmoments afterthevotecame through my social mediafeeds—asking metopleasedonateto theschoolwhichinow believetobetainted and tarnished.”

The BDS motion at the SSMU GA passed, but failed in online ratification. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune) fastly opposed to this movement [....]

You cannot isolate just one component of the movement and seek support for it that way.”

Khoury cited financial pressures as the suspected primary reason for the university’s steadfast opposition to BDS. “It is important to realize that the reaction by the University has clearly come from outside financial pressure and is not based on principled research,” Khoury wrote.

Sweet alluded to the divisive effect that the motion has had on the McGill community, and on alumni in particular.

“As you can imagine with an issue as divisive as this, and an alumni base as large and widespread as McGill’s, alumni reaction has been quite diverse, as it has been for our Faculty members, students and staff,” Sweet explained. “Some agree with the stance taken by Principal Fortier; some don’t. As it is the case with every issue, we listen to all members of our community and take their concerns – some of which can be polar opposites–to heart.”

One such alumna, Jodi Katz (BA ’97), vehemently disagreed with the university’s participation in the BDS movement.

“I was appalled and shocked by

the SSMU verdict [regarding] BDS two weeks ago, and further revolted by the mail—which I received moments after the vote came through my social media feeds—asking me to please donate to the school which I now believe to be tainted and tarnished,” Katz wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Confused by the actions that transpired at the SSMU vote, I am so saddened that my beloved school is now a thorn in my side.”

According to Katz, the motion has the potential to misrepresent the student population as a whole.

“Every student at McGill should be fairly represented,” Katz explained. “The BDS movement reeks of propaganda and unrealistic perspectives [….] As a Jew, we must stand with Israel and we must all become more educated about the treatment of Palestinians by all nations and make proper informed perspectives. Calling something an ‘apartheid state’ with little initiative other than calling on a boycott is irresponsible.”

When asked if the failed online ratification would change her perspective on making donations to McGill, Katz did not dissent.

“I will have to reconsider but right now the answer is no,” Katz wrote. “I am encouraged by McGill’s response and Principal Fortier’s email

but it’s ‘already out there’ making us look as bad as the schools who do not denounce.”

According to Khoury, despite the motion’s failure, the McGill BDS Action Network will continue its efforts on campus.

“The McGill BDS Action network will continue to organize around BDS because there is an obvious marginalization of Palestinian students and their allies at McGill,” Khoury wrote. “In moments like these it is important to look at the history of McGill’s institutional positions on social movements.

Khoury justified the continuation of BDS Action by drawing parallels to both Canada’s and McGill’s reactions to the divestment movement around South Africa in the 1980s.

“Both the Canadian government and McGill were complicit in South African apartheid and initially refused to join the international movement to divest,” Khoury wrote. “There is historical proof that people in positions of power have been in the wrong before and are generally pressured by financial powers rather than moral, principled reasoning. It is only until the social pressure from students, faculty, and alumni outweighs McGill’s financial interests that the university will have to change its stance.”

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In response, Sweet stated that the university will maintain its position on the BDS movement.

“The university administration’s position on BDS is clear, and has been since this issue was first raised on campus in 2007,” Sweet wrote. “We will reiterate it as necessary.”

In light of the controversy surrounding the BDS motion, during its Feb. 24 Council meeting, SSMU Council passed a motion to put forward a question during the Winter Referendum which, if passed, would create a GA Steering Committee, composed of the SSMU president, VP (University Affairs), speaker of council, four councillors and a third Executive member to be chosen by a vote of the Council, who will decide if the content of a potential GA motion is too divisive or external to SSMU’s mandate to be debated and voted on by students. The question additionally outlines that the GA Steering Committee’s ruling can be overturned by a two-thirds majority.

“The requirement that positions on external political issues be adopted by a two-thirds vote would ensure that the adoption of external positions comes with the support of a significant portion of the Membership,” the motion reads.

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OPINION

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

e d ito r i a l Editor-in-Chief Mayaz Alam editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Hayley Lim hlim@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Shrinkhala Dawadi sdawadi@mcgilltribune.com Morgan Alexander malexander@mcgilltribune.com Julie Vanderperre jvanderperre@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Jenna Stanwood, Laura Hanrahan, Aislinn Kalob news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editor Julia Dick opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Chloe Nevitt scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Hailey MacKinnon studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Natalie Wong features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Christopher Lutes and April Barrett arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Nicholas Jasinski and Zikomo Smith sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editor Domitille Biehlmann design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors Natalie Vineberg and Noah Sutton photo@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers William Burgess webdev@mcgilltribune.com Matt Smith online@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Adrien Hu copy@mcgilltribune.com

More inclusivity needed to improve the Co-Curricular Record The Co-Curricular Record (CCR) has been available through MyInvolvement since 2013. At the moment, students can track their involvement in athletics, student governance, McGill workshops, and Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) clubs. Administrators are currently discussing ways of expanding the CCR so that it can be used to improve student CVs. If this process continues, students will soon be able to request an official copy of the CCR signed by the deputy provost, thereby giving an activity official McGill verification. While these changes are designed to aid students in validating their extra-curricular activities, it also creates an arbitrary structure of what is considered valuable to the university. Rather than pitching the CCR as an essential component of the modern resume, it should be considered as a tool for students to track their engagement.

Proponents of the CCR contend that it will legitimize extra-curricular experiences for students and bolster their resumes post-graduation. Yet there is sparse evidence to suggest that a CCR is something that graduate schools or employers expect from applicants. At Queen’s University, for example, there was not enough student support for the implementation of a CCR and the project was abandoned. At Laurier, the program is voluntary and students must optin; its system also documents learn-

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Contributors

Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 T: 514.398.6789 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. Please recycle this newspaper.

[ The CCR] must not become an additional burden for students who are unable to take unpaid internships or take on volunteer responsibilites.

process of validation. How the deputy provost, or any university administrator, would endorse the growth of a student in these terms remains unclear.

If the CCR is to take a more formal place alongside resumes, it must become more inclusive. In its current form, it suggests that volunteering one’s time is more valuable than being employed part-time. Students who are more financially constrained and unable to take less courses are

ineligible; McGill-adjacent groups, such as CKUT and QPIRG, are not included; student activism is also excluded. Discouraging the voices of students, whether in media or activism, is a dangerous game. If a student participates in various activities, some of which are eligible for the CCR and some of which are not, the discrepancy would undoubtedly cause confusion with employers and reduce the value of the non-CCR activities. Students must be able to select which activities are included on the CCR. The development of a CCR raises the need for the creation of a registry for clubs in SSMU. The CCR does require club supervisors to validate positions of executive members in a club, but how this verification will follow when students use the CCR after graduation is unclear. A complete registry would document membership through time so that employers may corroborate an applicant’s CV with greater ease.

Rather than tracking down the individual who was president of the club after they themselves have graduated, students would have a secure place to direct potential employers.

Instead of creating a hierarchical value system for student involvement, a registry would enable students to use the CCR as a tool while reducing the potential obstructions to verifying their involvement after graduation.

Gendered policies must avoid crossing line into paternalism

TPS Board of Directors

Sam Pinto, Mayaz Alam, Maryse Thomas, Nicolas Tuech, Luka Ciklovan, Adrien Hu, Chloe Nevitt, Mingye Chen

Tribune Office

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disadvantaged by this line of thinking. The CCR is undoubtedly a useful tool for tracking involvement, but it must not become an additional burden for students who are unable to take unpaid internships or take on volunteer responsibilities.

Moreover, it is likely to encourage students to join more clubs at a superficial level. Quality may be accounted for by identifying how long a student has participated in a club, but, as SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Emily Boytinck has said, the CCR may encourage titlegrabbing behaviour. This is not necessarily malicious—many students become members of various organizations throughout their time at McGill, but oftentimes that membership does not require full participation or engagement in the club or society. SSMU VP Clubs and Services Kimber Bialik has also argued that the CCR will be more beneficial to students who are involved in more organizations, thereby perpetuating superficial involvement. On the other hand, the CCR would help demonstrate how students use their time.

While there will be an expansion of the number of organizations and activities currently listed under the CCR, it excludes certain activities. Consequently, it creates a hierarchy that is both arbitrary and exclusionary. For example, positions for which you receive a stipend are

C omm e nt a r y

Publisher Chad Ronalds

Tanveer Ahmed, Selin Altuntur, Emma Avery, Luka Ciklovan, Miray Eroglu, Stephanie Fehertoi, Amin Guidara, Ashley Kong, Jin Lee, William Pang, Greta Rainbow, Emma Whitehall

ing outcomes from involvement. At McGill, adding this nuance would improve the qualitative strength of the CCR, but cause problems in the

Emma Avery Contributor Continued from Page 1.

A “period policy,” however, opens up a whole new set of problems. Bex Baxter, director of a Bristol-based company called Coexist, along with Alexandra Pope, a women’s leadership coach, is exploring ways to implement a policy to destigmatize menstruation and allow women to take time off or work more flexibly while menstruating. Baxter herself takes a day and a half off every month, and is quoted in the Guardian as say-

ing that “there is a misconception that taking time off makes a business unproductive—actually it is about synchronising work with the natural cycles of the body.” She states she is much more productive in the days following her period. While extreme menstrual pain is a real issue that can be debilitating for some women, some gynecologists argue that the focus should instead be on actually treating this chronic pain.

Like the CDC’s recommendations, Baxter’s ideas are no doubt well-intentioned; however, they have too much potential to feed into notions of female incompetencey. At worst, if introduced in more companies, they might lead to women being denied important tasks or timeconsuming promotions, or being resented for receiving ‘special treatment.’ A period policy would exacerbate the challenges women already face in managing pregnancy and maternity leave with their careers.

As women, we want to achieve equal opportunities for success without receiving “special treatment;” however, we shouldn’t have to feel ashamed of warranting different healthcare policies under certain circumstances. The problem is that the very policies that people such as Pope promote also further the divide between genders. In attempting to make society more accepting of biological differences between males and females, these policies feed into unsubstantiated notions that women are weaker than their male counterparts, or too emotional and incompetent for certain jobs. It’s hard to imagine that the US Republicans would feel any more comfortable with the idea of Hillary Clinton in office if she could take a day off every month to attune her duties to the power of her cycle, regardless of the state of affairs worldwide.

It’s not hard to think of a number of other jobs that would also find such a policy worrisome.

To mitigate gender inequality in the workplace, employers and legislators could explore ways to balance maternal leave with paternal leave. Giving women time off every month too closely resembles sheltering women from things they were supposedly incapable of.

As such, the risk of a ‘period policy’ still being perceived this way is too great. While it may be hard to walk the line between equal opportunity and paternalism, it is important to allow for personal discretion in individual matters. Employers and legislators should instead focus on improving healthcare for women suffering from chronic menstrual pain, or increasing support for birth control and abortions if they are concerned about fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Improved education and funding for women’s health would cater to biological differences without limiting a woman’s opportunities or personal discretion in the workplace or in society.

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Opinion C omm e nt a r y

Amin Guidara Columnist The premier of Quebec, Philippe Couillard, has announced he was “serious” about implementing an unconditional basic income for all Quebec residents. This universal basic income, inspired by countries such as Finland, would replace all of the government’s current aid in revenue, such as welfare and tax credits. The Quebec Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, François Blais, a proponent of this measure, said that it would be possible to initiate this reform in a span of 20 to 25 years.

Universal basic income is a measure that all governments should consider as a potential solution to extreme poverty. But in this scary era of austerity, this aspiration to universal basic income is paradoxical.

off the board

Noah Sutton Photo Editor The ride-sharing service Uber has exploded in popularity since it first launched internationally in 2014. Almost immediately, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said ‘UberX’—the app’s flagship service that summons an ordinary vehicle, rather than a cab—would operate illegally in Montreal. Despite this, Uber exists in Montreal. But contention is brewing amongst licensed taxi drivers who argue that the lack of regulations on UberX creates unfair competition. Taxi drivers have staged protests and in one instance even egged Uber’s Montreal office.

The sharing economy that Uber represents places labour in a precarious position. As Uber continues to expand, its growth depends on the drivers who vol-

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Basic income tightens the belts of the most vulnerable It would take at least 20 years to implement basic income, but the government has, in less than two years, carried out severe budget cuts in several social programs. One such austerity measure is Bill 70, which can reduce welfare cheques if applicants refuse to enlist in programs to find a job or get more training. While it is easy to say that universal basic income is a ‘serious’ option, it seems like Couillard wants to make citizens forget about the harsh reality he has inflicted upon Quebecers. Thinking seriously about universal income does not help the many Quebecers who, at this very moment, have a considerably diminished quality of life due to the politics of austerity. Although basic income might reduce basic inequalities in day-to-day life such as housing, transport, and food, it cannot replace social programs.

During these 20 years before the implementation of a basic income scheme—while the province continues its austerity measures—standards of living will continue to diminish. First-time welfare applicants, who could have psychological problems, will have more difficulty getting enough money to survive due to Bill 70. Drug addicts will be left

to themselves because financial assistance for rehabilitation has decreased from $750 to $200 a month, one of the biggest detox centres in Quebec, the Mélaric Centre, has closed, and 43 of the center’s patients have no other choice but to return to prison, even if it costs more for the government to jail them than assist them. Fields that are traditionally dominated by women, such as in teaching and nursing, will suffer a freeze in salaries. In that line of thought, Françoise David, spokesperson of Quebec Solidaire, said that “the government of Quebec has inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of female workers longer working hours and decreased salaries.”

Basic income has its flaws as a policy. It is not the solution to all social problems. It only helps the most basic needs, such as food and housing. While this is an important achievement as currently one in six Canadian children face hunger every year, improving basic needs fulfillment does not solve other variables of socioeconomic inequality. Even with basic income, budget cuts in kindergartens due to austerity will affect kids in their lives later on. Basic income will not provide kids and teenagers who need the

assistance of specialists, such as speech therapists and psychologists, to succeed. For example, a basic income scheme wouldn’t address the needs of autistic children, who only receive four hours of covered behavioural intervention instead of the necessary twenty. Small and medium-sized enterprises would become less financially stable as tax credits are cut as well. Workers who suffer a work-related accident or disease would still have less available compensation due to budget cuts in the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST).

The universal basic income is not the solution if there are no social programs in health and education.

Yet the real victims of these times of austerity—doctors and corporations—would be safe under a basic income scheme.

Health and Social Services’ Minister Gaétan Barrette has offered a raise of “42 per cent for specialists and 34 per cent for general practitioners.” Bombardier received a bailout of “$1.3 billion no questions asked” to save the C-Series division that employs around 2,000 employees.

These employees would be better off with a government-paid sabbatical year while finding anoth-

er job, instead of supporting an unsustainable line of airplanes.

After receiving the bailout, Bombardier has just announced the layoff of 2,400 employees in Quebec. In the end, the bailout did not even secure the jobs of Quebecer employees.

Even if universal basic income is a serious proposition, it cannot replace all social services that have been damaged by tremendous budget cuts. This ‘seriousness’ seems like a poisoned chalice; it looks good but it cannot solve everything, especially in health and education. The government’s obsession with a zero-deficit budget, which is the cause of so many cuts in social programs, looks to be more ideological than an actual economic necessity for Quebec. According to economist Pierre Fortin, austerity measures “could considerably damage economic growth, social stability and public administration’s effectiveness.” All in all, austerity measures are irresponsible in the economic and social sense. The government of Quebec needs to put a stop to austerity before seeking to resolve social inequalities through basic income. The timeline for its implementation is too long, and its results too ambiguous.

a way to make extra cash with low startup costs. Sites such as eBay, Craigslist, and Kijiji allow people to sell items and make money on something they otherwise might not have sold. Uber is different. In 2006, 50,110 people across Canada reported driving a cab as their primary source of income. Close to 40 per cent of Uber drivers have no other source of income. Uber doesn’t just attract potential drivers who are eager to work harder to supplement their income—it actively undercuts traditional taxi drivers and erodes the few protections awarded to those drivers in the first place. While Uber’s lower fares create a competitive edge against traditional taxi services, arguably to the benefit of consumers, this model is harmful to drivers for both Uber and traditional taxi services. In September 2014, Uber drivers argued that, “You can’t make a living working only for Uber.” This protest highlighted the core of what enables the service’s low pricing: The lack of collective bargaining power for its drivers.

Recently, the US Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business lobbying group unaffiliated with the US Government, sued Seattle for allowing Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize.

A similar class-action lawsuit was launched by Uber and Lyft driv-

ers who are seeking classification as full-time employees rather than independent contractors. Drivers argue their work deserves the basic protections awarded to employees such as a minimum wage, while Uber has argued the diversity of Uber drivers makes their classification as independent contractor necessary.

As traditional taxi drivers are squeezed out, more and more drivers are forced to move to Uber where they are stripped of their protections and considered increasingly expendable. So what’s to be done? A few have gone so far as to reimagine the future of Uber as a workers’ cooperative, in which workers who already own all the capital required to run the company control their own wages and collect the profits. But in the present, companies that expand precarious piecemeal work must be met with matching regulations to ensure the protection of their workers by recognizing them as employees, allowing their unionization, and providing benefits that full-time workers are guaranteed in other industries. As Uber continues to undercut traditional taxi companies and those drivers are forced to join Uber, this number will surely rise leaving many drivers without any basic protections.

Uber drivers require more protections untarily use the app to match them with a person in need of a ride. But as California’s Labor Commission indicated, Uber’s involvement is beyond simple logistics. Ridesharing drivers do not share anything; they sell their labour to Uber, who in turn, refuses to provide any stability for their position in order to keep fares low. Uber’s continued misrepresentation of the status of its drivers keeps their workforce easily expendable, without the basic provisions of the law. The most important first step is recognizing drivers as employees and granting them the collective bargaining rights so they may effectively negotiate with their employer.

Uber argues that drivers do not work for the company, but are more like partners operating independently of Uber. This model is by no means unique to Uber. The sharing economy rests on the idea that technology can act as a facilitator between people who have needs and people who can fulfill those needs. For Uber, the app brings drivers to people who need a ride.

The term “sharing” implies that this transaction is somehow charitable or even personal, but as the Harvard Business Review opined, the companies in the sharing economy generate purely economic exchanges with “utilitarian, rather than so-

cial, value.” By this definition, the company supplying the technology simply facilitates an otherwise unlikely transaction between two people. Uber’s insistence on the autonomy of its drivers directly draws on this definition. Flexible hours, being your own boss, and the ability for anyone with a car to become a driver all create the false image that Uber drivers are more business partners than employees.

But Uber exercises much more control over its ‘partners’ than vice versa. Drivers take on enormous and often understated liabilities and costs. They must pay for the maintenance of their vehicle, for gas, and for insurance, while at the same time Uber management sets their rates and terms of labour, including the right to deactivate drivers for a multitude of reasons beyond poor performance. In October 2014, Uber deactivated a driver’s account after he made “hateful statements regarding Uber through social media.”

The hate speech cited was an article the driver tweeted out questioning the safety of Uber. Driving for Uber is more than simply using an app to facilitate an exchange. There is a power relationship between the driver and the company.

The sharing economy appeals to certain demographics, such as those who are already employed, as

Student Living Dear McGill apartment hunter

7

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Tips for finding suitable accommodation in Montreal Hailey MacKinnon Student Living Editor This year marks my fourth year at McGill, and my fourth different living situation: One year in residence and three years in three different apartments. As someone who has made many avoidable mistakes when it comes to housing, I feel it is my duty to pass on the wisdom I’ve acquired over multiple years of bad apartments and unreliable landlords. Perhaps the following are mistakes that you will only learn from if you make them yourself, but if I can prevent at least one person from living in a creaky basement bedroom with no windows and a landlord who is ‘on business’ for two months, then I feel I have made the world a somewhat better place.

Tip #1: Be patient. If you haven’t signed a lease yet, you’re likely already doing something right. Often the leases that come up in January and February are the more expensive ones, which may lead to regret once you see all the apartments that become available in March and April. While it can seem that everyone has already figured out accommodations for the following year, don’t feel pressured to sign the first apartment you see just for the sake of keeping up with your peers. In fact, if you don’t feel like finding a summer subletter, the

nicest apartment I’ve lived in was one I found in August with a September lease, and many nice apartments’ leases don’t start until June or July.

Tip #2: Do not settle for a ‘lessthan’ apartment. If you feel iffy about an apartment the first or second time you see it, chances are you’re going to be even more disappointed when you move in, and its novelty has worn off.

If you’re bitter about bedroom sizes, this will likely fester. If the rooms are dark and dingy, it will only become more noticeable come winter. If it feels damp when the dryer is on, keep looking. There are better options out there.

Tip #3: Think about the practicalities. When I was first house hunting, my only criteria was that I wanted my apartment to have a big living room and to be relatively close to campus. This kind of tunnel vision led me to gloss over all the aspects of a place that actually make it liveable.

For example, do the toilets flush properly? Does your bedroom have a window to let sunlight in? Does the sink’s drain get clogged? Tiny annoyances like these can add up, and make daily life a pain.

Tip #4: Use your resources to choose a suitable landlord.

Importantly, this means knowing how to weed out the bad ones. Did you know McGill actually has a ‘burn-book’ of bad landlords? The

Montreal is home to a variety of eclectic neighbourhoods that can suit different housing needs. (Alessandra Hechanova / McGill Tribune) complaints binder, which can be found in McGill’s Off-Campus Housing Office, lists landlords with whom students have had bad experiences. A landlord who is too busy to respond to calls or texts is a landlord you should skip. It’s useful to consult both former tenants about their opinions, as well as meet the landlord yourself in order to make an informed decision. Keep this in mind as there is nothing worse than the combination of a broken toilet and a landlord who is ‘extremely busy’ for weeks at a time.

Tip #5: Be informed about the finders fee. You’ve probably heard by now that if the landlord asks you to pay an extra fee for the apartment, or if the former tenants require you to buy their furniture in order to secure the lease, that this is illegal. But myself and many people I know have bought the furniture because we thought it was a good deal for getting furnishing quickly and cheaply. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Often, former tenants will try to make a profit by getting rid of their old,

tarnished furniture to eager students.

But remember that you can get nice furniture for way cheaper by using McGill’s classified ads, the McGill Free & For Sale group, or Craigslist.

Come the end of April or the end of August, many people are in the process of moving out and are trying to get of their furniture in a hurry and will sell it for almost nothing. This is your best bet for furnishing your apartment quickly and easily—don’t be fooled by the seeming ease of other options.

No-bake energy bites

By Julie Vanderperre

(onesweetmess.com)

Ingredients 1 cup of oats ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips ½ cup of chopped walnuts ½ cup of peanut butter 1/3 cup of honey 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS 1.Combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

2. Form into balls using your hands.

3. Arrange balls on a baking sheet and freeze until set, about 1 hour.

In an ideal world, students would have the time to prepare three healthy, hearty meals per day, with neat tupperwares of leftovers stored in the fridge, prepped for the week. In reality, students end up eating out, snacking, and skipping meals due to their busy schedules. These energy bites are a healthy solution when you find yourself on

campus in need of a quick snack to hold you over for that three hour class or an afternoon packed with meetings. They are easy to pack into a Ziploc and also work well for breakfast. Most importantly, they only require a few ingredients (most of which you probably already have), and they can be prepared in under 10 minutes.

Diversity unravelled: Student perspectives on race and ethnicty

G

rowing up, I always knew I was different. As a Bangladeshi citizen who was born in Indonesia, I was atypical. As someone who attended the same international school for 11 years—where international schools are notorious for the amount of year to year turnover they see in their student bodies—I wasn’t normal. In many ways, that was the point of going to an international school. Everyone was different, yet differences were celebrated and diversity enriched both the learning and life experiences I had as a child.

Despite this, I rejected the idea that I was South Asian. Throughout my childhood I wanted to rid myself of my Bangladeshi identity.

I had never lived there and I didn’t identify with many of the things that made someone ‘Bangladeshi.’ I don’t have an accent, I act ‘westernised,’

and I have very few coethnic friends.

I came to McGill because, among other things, I wanted to go to an internationally renowned university with a diverse student body. Looking back on my decision to come here, I feel as though I wanted to recreate my experiences that I had while going to an international school. Each undergraduate student that attends McGill comes in with a certain degree of naiveté. I was no different.

McGill forced me to grow and understand that the world was not as simple as it seemed.

While it lauds its diversity and prides itself on being the most international university in Canada, the administration and faculty don’t necessarily reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of students. The senior administration at McGill has a glaring lack of people of colour, and only 14.6 per cent

Mayaz Alam Illustration by Elli Slavitch

of all staff surveyed in 2015 identify as members of visible minority groups. In 2009— the most recent time when demographic information on students was gathered—39.3 per cent of students surveyed said they were non-white. A recent report from the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) shone a light on McGill’s shortcomings with regards to equity in the hiring of academic staff. The report found that in many ways, McGill is lagging compared to its peer universities.

Although students of colour often don’t see themselves at the front of the classroom or in positions of power at McGill, the university shapes their experience.

Attending the university is a period of immense change and students grapple with their identities; however, not all students of colour see race in the same way or are affected by it in the same way.

For Shurabi Srikaruna—who is ethnically South Asian and is from Toronto—the fact that she grew up in Canada as opposed to abroad shaped her experience.

“Because I was brought up here I [...] never felt different because of my race,” Srikaruna, U3 Arts, explained.

“The difference was evident of people who were of different races that came to Canada and didn’t speak English or weren’t accustomed to Canadian traditions.”

Some students of colour, like Deanna Foster, U3 Arts, grew up in fairly ethnically homogenous hometowns.

Foster, of Caledon, Ontario, is biracial—her mom is white and her dad is black.

“Growing up in Caledon I was the black kid in my class [...] but because I’m so lightskinned it wasn’t so salient to me,” she said. “But the sad part is that my sister and brother are quite a bit darker than me [...] and had a lot of issues with bullying [... and] ignorance [....] I just remember feeling lucky to be as light-skinned as I am. Now, at an older age I can appreciate that as being a pretty disturbing fact.”

Others grow up in relatively multicultural places, like Reggie Oey, who is of Southeast Asian heritage but grew up in Vancouver. He was taught that racial issues, especially in Canada, are a thing of the past.

“Growing up, I could tell something was different about me,” Oey, U3 Arts & Science, said. “I knew that I grew up speaking a different language and that I had a different culture than my friends.

[But] before coming to McGill I wasn’t really aware of how race affected me or how it affected other people.”

Similarly, Élie Lubendo, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo but immigrated to Canada as a refugee during his childhood, noted that his views on race and ethnicity evolved in the latter half of his time at McGill.

“Coming to university I never thought that I would be involved with the black community,” Lubendo, U3 Management, explained. “Going from first year to third year it was really a big change, especially with all the things that happened with the Darren Wilson indictment, the death of Michael Brown, and the Ferguson protests.”

For students in first year who are living in residence, a new opportunity emerged to learn about issues of race earlier this Winter. Students participated in Rez Project: Race and Colonialism, a workshop that attempts to normalize conversations about race in students’ lives. It builds on the original Rez Project, which addresses issues of sexuality and consent; however, like Rez Project, Race Project only reaches students living in residence, which leaves half of the student population out of the discussion. Despite this, Oey, who is a floor fellow at Molson Hall, notes that even in its first year, Race Project has had an impact on students of colour and indigenous students.

“A lot of the feedback that we’ve received was really positive and I wish I had that experience to talk about race,” Oey said. “Hopefully having these sorts of projects will spur more conversations and encourage people to develop and learn in different ways.”

Issues of representation at the student governance level aren’t as prevalent as those at the university level. Despite this, issues of race do tend to become amplified. Lubendo has been heavily involved in student politics during his time at McGill, serving on First Year Council (FYC), SSMU Council, and the Management Undergraduate Society (MUS) council. Although he hasn’t sought to make his personal identity a part of his political identity, race has affected his experience at McGill.

“Just about in every year that I’ve been involved with student politics [...] there’s been a big event, whether that was Farnangate, Twerk Circus, or Froshafari for the MUS,” Lubendo said. “A lot of the race issues I dealt with in

“Growing up, I could tell something was different about me. I knew that I grew up speaking a different language and that I had a different culture than my friends. [But] before coming to McGill I wasn’t really aware of how race affected me or how it affected other people.”

student politics had nothing to do with me but because I am a black person that could answer to these issues [...] I almost always had to. It did, almost in a sense, weaken my role sometimes because it’s hard to fight your own team when you’re working with them every day but you need to tell them [...] we have to address these issues on race.”

Foster, a member of the Martlet Rugby team, felt that in some ways coming to the university did impact her views on her identity.

“At a younger age you don’t really realize it as much, I was kind of ignorant,” Foster said. “Being at McGill and being exposed to different schools of thought and studying different things [...] it became more salient to me that my experience here was different than most other students.”

Although programs like Race Project and groups like the Black Students’ Network have attempted to create a conversation about race on campus, discussions can be oftentimes polarizing, divisive, and ultimately non-constructive. As such, conversations about race are often only had after major campus-wide issues such as Farnangate arise.

Rather than becoming normalized on campus discourse,

issues related to race are often either sensationalized or trivialized.

“I don’t think that people are racist, but I do think that people are misunderstanding the conversations or they aren’t taking it seriously because they’re not in an environment where it needs to be taken seriously,” Lubendo said. “It’s a subconscious issue that you have to deal with by speaking up, not only when race-based issues come up on campus, but by being actively involved in the process that shapes the campus.”

Although she doesn’t think that there’s a large race problem at McGill, Srikaruna would encourage a more holistic and dynamic understanding between people.

“You should be looking at people not for their race but [...] looking at an individual as a whole and not just by one part of them and assuming because they’re black or brown that they have these certain stereotypes,” she said.

Political correctness can also act as barrier to developing a constructive conversation on race. Oey dislikes the term and thinks that people should view race in terms of mutual respect and understanding.

“When [people] talk about being politically correct it’s about being censored or being told not to say something,” Oey said. “When I’m talking about race, I’m trying to think about how what I’m doing affects other people and trying to be empathetic in my actions and what I’m saying.”

Foster echoed Oey’s sentiments and highlighted that in many ways, students at McGill feel like they don’t want to disturb the status quo of “don’t speak, don’t tell” by talking about issues like race.

“I feel like at McGill [...] people feel like they’re walking on thin ice,” Foster said.

“People are afraid to recognize differences or afraid to say their minds. I think I’d rather be faced with someone’s ignorance and have a constructive conversation than have things go unsaid and pretend [...] that things don’t exist.”

Additionally, the onus is often on people of colour to speak up or speak about issues of race. In situations when you’re the only visible minority in the room, it can often be taxing.

“In student politics, when you’re surrounded by people that you’re working with every day that don’t have the same views as you about race because they’re privileged by their identity and skin tone, it’s really hard for you to

speak up,” Lubendo explained.

“I didn’t get tired of talking about race, because I think that race is very important and that it’s not talked about enough. What I did get tired of was people more or less shouting at each other and not really coming to a consensus or not being able to compromise for the greater good.”

With an issue as personal as race, finding mutual empathy can be difficult. Oey has struggled at times to talk about race because of the misunderstandings that can arise.

“For me, it’s kind of hard to talk about race because I feel like my experiences will be invalidated or will be nullified,” Oey said. “Talking about race can be quite polarizing and can get people quite defensive [....] It’s hard because people think of racism as specific actions [...] and it’s not common to think of racism as systems that are entrenched in our society.”

Even if many millennials think that we live in a postracial society, ignorance regarding race does affect people’s lives. I know, because it has affected mine: When I first started at McGill, many people were surprised to hear that I spoke perfect English, despite having only lived in Canada for two years. Last summer, a fellow McGill student told me to get a white name.

To some degree, I share these experiences with many students of colour at McGill.

While racial tensions have not reached a boiling point at McGill like they did at Missouri, Yale, Harvard, and other campuses in the USA earlier this year, that doesn’t mean that issues of race are nonexistent.

Although they are very different than at the aforementioned universities, such issues exist. The conversation on them, however, is fairly nascent, and, at times, uncomfortable. That shouldn’t be a reason to avoid talking about race. Students on campus must understand that being silent on issues of race or avoiding the discussion because it does not affect them, directly stifles progress on problems of diversity.

Students should also know that when the discussion does develop, it will be essential to listen before talking. Just as we are all students at university, we are all different, coming from different backgrounds and having lived different life experiences.

We need to embrace our differences, respect them, and learn from them, to ensure that during this tumultuous period at McGill, we all grow.

10

Student Living and Science & Technology

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

McGill professor wins top Canadian science award Astrophysicist Victoria Kaspi takes home the Gerhard Herzberg prize Daniel Galef Staff Writer

Professor Victoria Kaspi, astrophysicist in McGill University’s Department of Physics and Director of the McGill Space Institute, was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the nation’s top scientific honour, last month.

Kaspi is one of the world’s leading experts on neutron stars, tiny stellar remnants which are only about the size of Montreal yet weigh about twice the mass of the Sun. Neutron stars are what is left when a star explodes into a supernova, but the remnants are are not massive enough to collapse into a black hole.

Kaspi also studies the fascinating subspecies of neutron stars, such as pulsars and magnetars. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields which shoot radiation from their poles. If the pulsar’s rotational and magnetic poles are oriented just right, the beam of radiation sweeps through Earth like the rays from a lighthouse, and scientists can detect short bursts of radio, X-rays, or even visible light at regular intervals as the poles sweep around again. This is how pulsars were first discovered in

the 1960s, when the perfectly uniform unexplained periodic pulses of energy led scientists to label the phenomenon ‘LGM’ for ‘Little Green Men.’ Kaspi is also the first woman ever to win the Herzberg Prize, an accomplishment made all the more notable by the widespread gender biases and disproportionate representation in the Canadian scientific and academic spheres. Growing up in Texas and in Israel, she recalls among her inspirations her older brother and a biography of the landmark physicist and Nobel laureate Marie Curie. Her plans for the future are many and varied. The Herzberg Prize comes with a minimum grant of $1 million, which Kaspi already has earmarked for what’s important.

“I will put it primarily to training undergraduate, MSc and PhD students, as well as post-doctoral scholars,” Kaspi explained.

Her most recent project is the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, currently under construction in British Columbia.

CHIME is a revolutionary type of telescope, called a radio telescope, that is hoped to offer a lot of new information on pulsars and other radio-emitting bodies.

Kaspi is the first woman and the youngest recipient of the Gerhard Herzberg prize. (huffpost.com) “CHIME has a truly novel design,” Kaspi said. “No moving parts! [...] Moreover, it will have 2048 antennas and a massive software correlator that allows it to ‘point’ in different directions all in software.”

This will be extremely advantageous over current designs that can only focus on where the massive dish is physically pointed.

Right now, both the CHIME project and Kaspi are setting their sights toward perhaps the most puzzling new mystery in astronomy: Fast Radio Bursts (FRB). These ultra-quick blasts of low-frequency radiation

have only just started to get noticed in the last few years, and astronomers are far from an answer. A few proposed theories involve magnetar hyperflares (immensely powerful bursts of energy put off by strongly charged neutron stars), interactions between black holes and neutron stars, or pulsars collapsing into black holes—a hypothesized event called a ‘blitzar.’

And at the forefront of this mystery has been Kaspi. She estimates that as many as 10,000 detectable—but unrecorded— FRBs occur in our sky every day.

In 2014 she helped determine

that the bizarre FRBs likely originate from outside the Milky Way Galaxy entirely.

In the coming years, Kaspi and her researchers, with the help of the new technology they are developing, may well solve this mystery for good.

“I think there is a revolution in radio astronomy going on, and the field is extremely promising for the study of pulsars,” Kaspi said. “From CHIME to FAST [China’s under-construction 500-metre radio telescope, which will be the largest and most precise ever built] to the foreseen Square Kilometre Array, the future of the field is very bright.”

Fashion for sub zero weather How to properly layer your winter oufits Emma Whitehall Contributor Although Mother Nature has been teasing us all winter with glimpses of spring air and fluctuating temperatures, let’s not forget that we choose to live in Montreal—a place where there was never a chance of emerging from winter without a few blasts of sub zero weather and ‘stop you in your tracks’ snowfall. Coming back from Reading Week ready to finish the semester strong, it is now time for fashion trends that will step in and cover us up in looks that we feel great (and warm) stepping out in.

Layering is always a natural progression as the temperature moves further and further below zero. This idea can be utilized even in our footwear choices: Thigh high boots are not a new innovation, but their prominence in everyday street style is definitely gaining momentum.

Most recently, Olivier Rousteing’s Fall-Winter 20162017 Paris Fashion Week show

for Balmain featured a repeated focus on thigh high boots. The square heel, or even a flat thigh high boot, can add almost an entire pant-length of warmth to your daytime winter layering.

Black, brown, grey, or any other neutral colour suede have been popular this season and can all be incorporated into already neutral winter wardrobes. Both aforementioned styles can easily make the cross to eveningwear, but the thin stiletto-style thigh high boot can also be brought out to make for a more dramatic evening look. It seems a fair bet that the trend will carry on into next year’s Winter season, so now is a great time to hit the mall and find a (possibly discounted) pair.

Faux fur jackets, vests, and scarves are all bold additions to any outfit, providing a space for your creativity to run wild through your style choices.

There are a multitude of quality faux fur looks on the market that add just as much glam to a look as real fur. So for the sake of

PETA, the animals, and our bank accounts, working a faux option into this year’s winter lineup is a positive sum game.

With numerous brands following the trend of oversized outerwear, there has even emerged the option to layer coats. A more fitted or lighter jacket can be worn under an oversized coat—a practical option for Montreal’s multiple degrees of frigidity.

Although many students resort to the hoodie as a safe source of warmth—but maybe not always style—the hoodie may in fact be having its 15 minutes of fame. Whether it will endure is still up for debate, but it is highly recommended to take advantage of the additional comfort factor before it has the chance to go back out of style. Statement hoodies are quickly becoming a fashion staple. Vogue even put together a creative online feature of gifs entitled 10 Fresh Ways to Wear a Hoodie. You may choose to work in a basic monochromatic hoodie right

Layering coats is a fresh take on street style for chilly days. (vogue.com) over your seemingly contrasting one at a time, or all at once, outfit (say, dress), or you could experimenting with more fabrics choose to make the sweatshirt in different places and of diverse the centerpiece of your outfit. kinds is the overall take-home.

Fashion icons from Rihanna Fashion is constantly evolving to Kourtney Kardashian have and forever moving towards been spotted rocking oversized freedom for the user. More often sweaters as outfits themselves, than not, trends, especially those opting out of pants and maybe with a focus on layering, can be even bringing the suggestions first tried with pieces you already full circle with a thigh high boot. have in your closet—possibly Whether you implement even the old worn out hoodie in these trends into your wardrobe the back.

STUDENT LIVING AND Science & technology

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

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Beyond the brain Perspectives on mindfulness meditation Graphic renderings of Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard’s brain scan in a fMRI test. (news.wisc.edu)

Audrey Carleton Staff Writer I’ve grappled with bouts of anxiety and obsessive negative thinking for years now, without realizing what a negative space they took up in my life. As a mechanism to enforce deadline-induced productivity, I frequently overcommit to far more extracurricular activities than I should. I often joke that I thrive academically in an environment in which I constantly feel under pressure—even panicked—and this was never more true than last semester.

This pressure, however, reared its ugly head as I watched my anxiety wear away at my relationships with others, my schoolwork, and myself. A few panic attacks later, I had the realization that I needed to make my mental health a priority, and the first step to doing so was to establish good habits

For those starting off, I recommend Calm’s “Seven Days of Calm” challenge, or Headspace’s “Take Ten” program to ease users into the basics of meditation while building habit.

Ensō and Samsara Lite are simple and user-friendly meditation timers for those seeking the freedom of meditating without guidance. Take and Break! and Smiling Mind were designed for those meditating with the intent of calming depression, anxiety, and stress, as I was. and routines. In addition to exercising and getting more sleep, I resolved to try meditation, something I’d never done before. Not knowing a better place to start, I turned to the app store on my iPhone and downloaded a mindfulness meditation app called Calm. Complete with a meditation timer, soothing noises, and recorded guided meditations, this app made sitting down to meditate for several minutes every evening

before bed feel less daunting.

Fear of challenge and failure has kept me from meditating in the past. While I’ve always known in theory that meditating eased anxiety, the idea of intentionally doing nothing for several minutes a day seemed like a waste, and clearing my mind entirely seemed impossible. As I expected, my first few sessions were frustrating. As the guided meditations I was using steered my thoughts toward a single place—the movement of my breath in and out of my body—I struggled to keep my focus there for more than a few seconds. Feeling frustrated by my inability to let go, I was reminded of my own obsessive thinking that brought me to meditation in the first place. Committed to keeping the habit, however, I continued to sit each night for three to five minutes, and with time, I grew calmer, realizing a drifting mind is not only normal, but expected in meditation. Under the instruction of a guided meditation recording, I grew stronger at calmly and non-judgmentally bringing my focus back to the movement of my breath when my thoughts wandered.

One night, I experienced what I’ve only ever heard described as a breakthrough—I was able to maintain a clear head for more than a few seconds while meditating. In that moment, I lost awareness of my surroundings and felt distanced from whatever source of anxiety had occupied my thoughts that day. From there, meditation grew easier and easier.

I didn’t truly see the impact of meditating in other aspects of my life until a few days later. Sitting on the sixth floor of McLennan, writing myself a to-do list for that day, I felt strangely calm and accepting of the list of tasks I had to complete. Several months before this point, the thought of working through an overwhelming to-do list would have worked me into a panicked frenzy. That day, I was able to recognize objectively that I had a lot to do, but that I would eventually complete everything painlessly. Astounded at the sense of calm I felt in the moment, I realized it was likely the regular meditation that had helped me alleviate the ongoing mild feelings of dread that are characteristic of anxiety disorders.

By testing my ability to let go of all thought—good and bad—meditation has taught me how to substitute negative or anxious thinking in daily life for productive thinking and focus on tasks at hand. While this is certainly no cure-all for anxiety, nor a suitable replacement for traditional therapy or medication for diagnosed anxiety disorders, I would highly recommend taking on the practice of meditation to anyone who, like me, often feels panicked by daily life.

Stephanie Fehertoi Contributor

Originating in Buddhist traditions, mindfulness meditation is defined as paying attention to one’s experience including thoughts, sensations, and emotions without judgment and in the present moment. It focuses on training attention to disengage from undesirable patterns of behaviour and cognition, and this meta-awareness is a main goal of meditation. Most practices aim to improve concentration and executive efficiency, achieve existential insight and clearthinking, and promote psychological well-being. In fact, scientific findings suggest that meditative practitioners do reap benefits, in addition to an aura of calm.

According to the Raz Lab at McGill University, led by Psychiatry Professor Amir Raz, scientists generally classify meditation practices into two categories: Focused attention and open monitoring— though most techniques lie on a spectrum between the two. This involves sustained narrowing of attention on an experiential object, such as the breath or a mantra., whereas open monitoring involves a widening of attention to include the whole field of present-moment experience.

Scientists have discovered that meditation achieves clearer thinking and better concentration by generating different brainwave patterns, or neural connections, that alter the brain’s behaviour. One illustration of this is meditation’s ability to reduce anxiety and even depression. Anxiety decreases with mindfulness meditation because the practice weakens neural circuits that link upsetting sensations to the medial prefrontal cortex, or the self-referencing part of the brain that processes much of our “me” thoughts and emotions. By learning to circumvent this pathway, the lateral prefrontal cortex receives stimuli less intensely and responds more rationally.

Because of this, it becomes easier for the mind to be aware of sensations, accept them, and let them pass without igniting fear or anxiety.

With daily practice, the mind can also learn not to get stuck in negative thought patterns, which is central to mindfulnessbased cognitive therapy (MBCT), an alternative meditation treatment to help those suffering from depression.

This attention training is one research area of the Raz Lab. Their work suggests that meditation cultivates the ability to disengage, re-orient, and sustain attention, thereby improving the flexibility, sensitivity, and stability of awareness.

Developing meta-awareness is crucial for honing focus and cognitive control, and the practice does appear to alter habits of spontaneous mind-wandering or over-thinking, as well as involuntary reactivity in response to strong emotions and pain. It has even been found to foster structural neuroplasticity in the brain, such as enhanced gray matter volume and connectivity between brain regions.

For instance, a study from the University of Wisconsin found that while normal participants would experience an “attentional blink,” or failure to detect a second stimulus that occurs quickly after the first, meditators responded more rapidly and easily to the concurrent stimuli. Electroencephalography (EEG) scans of their brains also revealed deeper rather than superficial information processing of the stimuli within brain areas. Working memory capacity and test performance, for example in reading comprehension on the GREs, also seemed to benefit from mindfulness meditation practice as it fostered better concentration levels, according to researchers from UC Santa Barbara. This increased focus might be due to the fact that long-term meditation practitioners of various types demonstrated reduced activation in neural structures related to spontaneous thought, called the default mode network (DMN), otherwise understood as “quieting” the mind, as demonstrated in the results of a 2011 study conducted by scientists from Yale University.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School also observed that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. In fact, a 2015 study from UCLA suggests less agerelated gray matter atrophy in long-term meditators, meaning a slower decline in their brain deterioration as they age.

Another recent study from Carnegie Mellon University found much lower blood levels of Interleukin 6, a biomarker of systemic inflammation, in newly trained meditators over time compared with those in the placebo group, as well as reduced activation of brain areas related to stress.

This growing body of research suggests that practicing meditation means a happier and healthier brain over time.

So whether you want to gain a clearer perspective, reduce your anxiety levels, curb negative rumination, or enhance your attention, cognitive abilities, and even your empathy, mindfulness meditation seems like a good place to start.

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Science & technology

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Exploring the world of math Algorithms, investors, and communications brush shoulders

Math is everywhere.

Math is powerful.

Math is aloof.

(Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune, Pic-about-space.com, theplaidzebra.com)

Clare Lyle Staff Writer Continued from Page 1.

Despite working at one of the best-known investment banks in the world, Dragnea only took one finance course at McGill.

“That’s pretty common in quantitative finance,” Dragnea explained. “If you come in with a strong background in data analysis or applied math or programming, that’s all the skills you need, and then you can learn finance on the job.”

This is because the required skills and expectations from a quantitative analyst differ wildly from those of more stereotypical Wolf-of-Wall Street-style investment bankers, whose intensive schedules are infamous.

“A typical workday starts somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 [a.m.],” Dragnea explained.

“I’ll check the [financial] news in the morning, make sure all of our software is working and implement any updates. Then, while the markets are open we have shorter term and longer term projects.”

Short-term projects include tasks like doing research for traders on bonds, or looking at particular funds. At the end of the day, after the market closes, a quant might work on longer-term projects to answer questions that can have a major impact on future success. “‘How do we automatically price this security?’” Dragnea said. “That can be anything from short term feed analysis to an idea of research-style questions: What’s the data? What can we infer from this? Okay, this is a strategy we should employ. What’s

an algorithm that can implement this?’”

But the biggest challenge of working in finance, Dragnea explained, is that it’s complicated.

“I’d say the biggest surprise was how much of an imperfect world it is in finance,” Dragnea

Our ability to express problems mathematically—and then solve those problems—is what has allowed humanity to travel to outer space, to fly, and to communicate almost instantaneously across the globe.

said. “In physics, a lot of the problems you’re solving have very fundamentally true solutions which are correct all the time, whereas in finance you end up with a lot of approximations, and doing your best in an imperfect world.”

On the other end of the spectrum are the researchers who are seeking to push the boundaries of what is

theoretically possible. Especially in more applied fields like computer science and combinatorics, the distinction between academia and industry is growing increasingly fuzzy. Currently a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, Nicolas Resch graduated from McGill in 2015, and has since been doing research in interactive computation and coding theory.

“I’m studying theoretical computer science, [which is] a mathematical framework for computation,” Resch said. “This lets us design more efficient algorithms [to create better computer programs] and understand the limits of computation, [to understand what computer programs can’t do].”

Experts in sought-after fields like machine learning frequently straddle the line between universities and corporations; a chief example is Andrew Ng, who co-founded Coursera and is both an associate professor at Stanford and chief scientist at Baidu; the equivalent of Google in China. This type of work often involves communication between two individuals on a channel, a process known as ‘interactive communication.’

“The goal is to come up with ways for two people to talk back and forth over a channel even if the channel sometimes distorts what they’re saying,” Resch said.

Even though this is theoretical computer science, people communicate over noisy channels every day. Memory registers are struck by cosmic rays, 1s are mistakenly flipped to 0s in transistors, and hardware is misconfigured on networks. “[One area I’m working in]

is called ‘knowledge-preserving interactive coding,’” said Resch.

“The idea is you have two people— called, as always, Alice and Bob— who want to talk back and forth in a noisy environment so some of their messages are being corrupted. The [...] requirement is that they don’t reveal anything that they know that they wouldn’t have revealed in

immense quantity of patience.

“I guess I just really like learning math, so I wanted an excuse to learn about all of the topics that I found interesting,” Resch said. “I figured I would spend a lot of time reading about math regardless of what I was doing, so I might as well try to get a degree out it. I also really like research, so it

Enrollment numbers in the school of computer science at McGill has exploded, increasing from 138 to 465 declared majors in the last 5 years non-noisy environment.”

Although this sounds a bit abstract, it’s something that people do in their own interactions every day. Resch compares this to a student taking a test. If a teacher gives the student a problem to solve, the teacher wants to be sure that the student is able to solve the first problem before moving onto the next; however, in a noisy communicative environment, the teacher may be tricked into thinking the student solved the problem when he or she really didn’t.

Compared to the lucrative salaries available in industry, the incentive to enter academia is usually more personal. Spending five or more years trying to solve a single problem requires both a passion for the subject, and an

seemed like a PhD program would be ideal for me. And I guess my dream at the moment is to become a professor, so a PhD is really a must.”

Although mathematics has a reputation for being abstract and removed from the real world, its students, like Resch and Dragnea, find in it a beauty and a powerful ability to describe the world, from finding patterns in economic markets to describing how information is transmitted.

Numbers and structures are everywhere, and mathematics can give us the power to make sense of them. Perhaps those high school math classes were intended to do more than combat grade inflation— the proof is left as an exercise to the reader.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Bring Your Own Juice is serious about silliness McGill’s only sketch comedy groups brings non-stop laughs to their teaser perfromance Selin Altuntur Contributor 2016 marks the fourth year of the original sketch comedy troupe Bring Your Own Juice (BYOJ)’s of bringing unabashed silliness to a relatively stodgy campus atmosphere.

The group, consisting of 10 student members, delivered a preview of their upcoming show at Players’ Theatre that was an absurd, surreal, and entertaining representation of its constituent members’ talents.

From the moment the show opened with a number about the growing sexual tension between two news anchors covering an annual “Grandparent’s Day Parade,” it became clear that BYOJ is serious about not taking itself seriously. At McGill, the majority of theatrical productions are highly thought out affairs, aiming to be streamlined and professional, putting months of planning and preparation into an adaptation of a known play.

The beauty of sketch comedy is that it is a completely different species of theatre. It doesn’t aim to transport you to some foreign realm with high production value or engross you in its calculated plot. Being funny is its first order of business—everything else works at the service of this main goal. This isn’t to say that there is less thought or work involved in a BYOJ

p o p r h et o ri c

production compared to something out of McGill’s drama department. As member Abbey Hipkin emphasizes, “the group both writes and develops its entire show in about a month, with rehearsals every day.” With only a small time frame to come up with an entire production, BYOJ’s sketches have a certain charming, imperfect quality about them that many long for in an academic environment that seeks perfection.

McGill is actually pretty late to join the sketch bandwagon, according to members Courtney Kassel and D.J. Mausner.

“I’m from the US,” Kassel said.

“Most universities have a sketch comedy group that’s pretty well known.”

Sketch comedy is actually a big deal outside McGill, and it is very understandable why—it offers a judgment-free, creative environment where negativity is left at the door and weirdness is embraced. And this is certainly clear from an audience member’s standpoint when watching the sketches in action. Plot points range from cleverly satirical to completely surreal, and the actors’ complete lack of inhibition makes for a comfortable and loose atmosphere.

Every segment is completely unlike anything one has watched before; and this constant feeling of having

no idea what to expect is part of what makes watching BYOJ such a great experience. The group succeeds in not only being hilarious, but also innovative, relevant and clever.

Mausner emphasized that being members of the student demographic is a huge part of its success.

“We’re very connected and we know what’s funny or interesting to write about first,” Mausner said, mentioning the group’s active involvement in student life and in Montreal’s comedy scene.

The sketches themselves didn’t follow a discernable formula or

BYOJ sketches out good times. (Selin Altuntur / McGill Tribune) theme, but nonetheless connected approachable and make you feel with the audience over very like you’re in on every joke. important cultural references, like If the press preview was any indication, the show that will mark #freethenipple for one. But perhaps one of the most endearing things the full culmination of BYOJ’s about BYOJ is a very tight-knit efforts in the past month promises to be a good time. Laughter really group.

“After spending every day is the best medicine, and likely together, you become really close,” a perfect cap off to the dreary midterm season. Go with one Hipkin said.

This is clearly conveyed in or five friends that know how the performance, where the actors to take a joke, and you won’t be appear to be playing rather than disappointed. working together. They make a Bring Your Own Juice will be very cohesive unit and their energy performing March 10 to 12 in Players’ is infectious. The sketches are Theatre at 8 p.m.. Tickets are $6.

R-RATED BANDWAGON A DOWNHILL RIDE

Deadpool’s success is making studios reconsider their attitude towards R-rated films. (foxfilm.com)

Tanveer Ahmed Contributor This is an age where an R-rated movie can make north of $150 million in a weekend in the United States alone. Deadpool not only smashed countless records, but also had the highest-grossing opening weekend of any R-rated film in the United States. This massive success has fans and studios jumping onto the R-rated bandwagon, calling for not only adaptations of mature properties to film, but also giving

formerly kid-ified material and R-rated twist. But this impulsive reaction might not be the right strategy.

Deadpool’s success can be attributed to many different things.

Firstly, it has a huge, passionate fanbase that floods every comic book convention in costumes.

This passion isn’t something that other adult-oriented properties such as The Punisher can boast.

Past attempts are a clear indication of this as Watchmen, a venerated cult graphic novel-turned-movie,

garnered barely more than $100 million domestically in its entire run.

Other examples include the Blade trilogy, which earned a combined $200 million or the two Punisher films that made $33 million and $8 million, respectively.

Perhaps a bigger reason for the hype created by Deadpool was its ingenious advertising campaign.

From its announcement, the publicity department was bang-on with posters and videos reminding the audience of the upcoming release of the film. Add to that

the self-aware nature of the social media engagement by the perfectlycast Ryan Reynolds and you have arguably the best marketing job ever done for a movie. The faithful portrayal lured in fans of the source material while the constant influx of publicity for the film sparked the interest of general audiences. This kind of perfect storm cannot be brewed by any other property than this due to the unique fourth-wallbreaking nature of this particular character. Studios and audiences may be mis-attributing the success of this film to its rating rather than the immense work put into marketing it.

The argument has been made for producing films with characters that have generally had a PG-13 rating as R-rated flicks.

Many have called for Batman or Wolverine to be portrayed in the brutally violent fashion that certain comic books have.

This approach however makes little sense for studios or general audiences who are not comic fanatics. Both of these characters have illustrious reputations in animation aimed at children, with Batman appearing in more than 60 different shows while Wolverine has had his own steady presence since the ’90s X-Men

animated series. These characters have ingrained themselves into people’s childhoods to the point that they are considered idols and heroes. Representing them as ultra-violent characters is not only a betrayal of the source material, but also an unfair proposition for the younger audience who would normally be looking forward to such films. Furthermore, these studios want all demographics possible heading to the box office to ensure massive box office success. This proposition alienates a large audience to the disadvantage of studios; it’s a lose-lose scenario.

Deadpool is a wonderful anomaly in a sea of formulaic comic-book movies, but it would be foolish to conclude that the film is anything beyond that. Attempting to cash in on its success would only render it a flash in the pan. Hollywood and audiences have to realize that such a change of pace was required in the first place due to the predictable nature of the movie climate today; modelling future releases after Deadpool will only perpetuate this problem.

Let it remain the breath of fresh air that it is instead of stuffing up the room with similar content.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Port Symphonies pay tribute to Queen of Crime The melodious ode to Agatha Christie brought new life to the Pointe-à-Calliere Miray Eroglu Contributor Pointe-à-Callière Museum’s 22nd edition of Port Symphonies , featuring composer and trombonist Scott Thomson, honoured the achievements of Agatha Christie, the famed murder-mystery novelist. The concert was held in Old Montréal at Place-Royale Square, next to the Pointe-àCallière Museum, where a current exhibition, Investigating Agatha Christie brings to light Christie’s many interests, from literature to archaeology. The exhibition paints a portrait of the woman behind the novels. For Agatha Christie fans, Investigating Agatha Christie, which includes mementos from Christie’s childhood, marriages, and life spent abroad, is a must-see as it provides the context for the purpose behind this year’s Port Symphonies concert. Together, these elements pay homage to the life and legacy of Agatha Christie and offer alternate modes in which to honour the “Queen of Crime.”

Port Symphonies opened to the sound of bagpipes and drums

F las h ba c k

performed in the middle of Place Royale Square. It was not long before the space was filled with onlookers who gathered to watch the performers and hear the boats, including tugboats and ships, blow their horns in unison. What began as an initially unusual arrangement of sound came together in an interesting medley of music through the combination of the bagpipes, trains and boat horns at different pitches. Thomson’s passion for improvisation is evident in the structure of Port Symphonies as the sounds combine together in surprising and interesting ways.

The performance had a feeling of spontaneity, as the crowd gathered to listen at different points of the concert, and could be enjoyed by everyone not only at Place-Royale but throughout the surrounding area of the museum and Old Port.

The sonorous tone of the horns from the boats filled the air with a resonant sound that enveloped the square. Members of the audience filmed the location and recorded the music, producing a sweeping panorama of the view looking out to the boats in the

The Investigating Agatha Christie museum exhibit gives context to the symphony . (pacmusee.qc.ca) river. In this manner, the concert was unique in that there was not a single performer, nor was the performance limited to a precise location, but features a variety of elements assembled to create a cohesive sound. The spectacle was framed by the scenic location, the charming beauty of Old Montreal beside the luminous skyline, and the harbour dotted with boats. Port Symphonies was truly an immersive experience for onlookers to join together and wait in anticipation for what the next sound arrangement will be.

As the boat horns echoed one another, it seemed as if the

sounds were in communication with each other, each responding in a different octave. The performance, about half an hour in duration, was framed by the sound of bagpipes, creating a sense of unity. The noise of the boats, bagpipes and locomotives throughout the symphony was reminiscent of the excitement and drama of Christie’s mystery novels. In particular, the sound of the train horn brings to mind one of Christie’s most celebrated novels, Murder on the Orient Express published in 1934.

Port Symphonies allowed the audience to experience

their environment in another way. Sound is central to the performance, and it offers an intriguing manner in which to honour the “Queen of Crime.”

As the sounds mixed together in curious and compelling ways, they mimicked the precision with which Christie developed the plot of her mystery novels. In this way, Port Symphonies delighted not only Agatha Christie fans and music enthusiasts, but remained open for everyone to come together and enjoy.

Investigating Agatha Christie is at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum (350 Place Royale) until April 17.

network of sending and receiving.

The collective used the United States Postal Service to send out their art; they circulated collages, drawings, and witticisms that relied on cultural references for the receiver to interpret and understand. Thus they created an “intimate bureaucracy” alternative to the massive bureaucracy of institutions like the mail service.

Johnson, through his estate, has catalogued hundreds of “mail art and ephemera” works sent to and from the conceptual pop artist. A page from December 1976 reads, “Silhouette University; I have drawn silhouettes of the following people, who have kindly posed for me” and then lists 93 first and last names. Many pages are maps of collected text and images, ambiguous without their sources, with drawings and always some variation of “Please add to and send to....”

Johnson’s medium of display and distribution undermined the tradition of the museum as a necessary platform for artwork to be seen. In 1956, the artist wrote to the Japanese magazine Gutai, “I send out monthly newsletters about the work that I am doing which takes the place of formal exhibitions. The works cannot

be exhibited in the usual way, because they continually change, like the news in the paper or the images on a movie screen.”

Not only did Johnson subvert the institution by replacing the gallery with the letterbox, he altered the role of the US mail. The inside jokes and Johnson’s signature doodles were transported from one artist to another by many unknown hands, who had no idea of their role. Sometimes Johnson addressed mail to a middleman who may or may not appreciate the page, with a request for him to forward it. In this way, the Correspondence School was an installation project, and although it was an elite and insular installation, it produced genuine art. The idea of famed abstract expressionist artists like Willem de Kooning adding devil horns to the faces drawn by Cy Twombly feels more real than any exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art could.

What is jarring is that this art could not exist today. As the use of the postage system plummeted, the view of mail as part of everyone’s everyday did too. That was the intrigue of the Correspondence School; Johnson and others were revolutionary because they changed the

postage system’s function at a time when checking the mail was so normal and ingrained.

Imagine a network of up-andcoming artists sending each other envelopes in 2016. Imagine going to the post office with some regularity. There is no way for it to be anything but depressingly nostalgic or kitschy. To create in the true spirit of Johnson, artists have to use the dominant modes of communication relevant to our age, to keep subverting the system but acknowledge that the system has changed.

Some are doing it. Australian photographer George Downing spent a year taking intimate portraits of Tinder matches in their bedrooms; Dutch art student Esmay Wagemans creates latex molds of her torso that she posts on Instagram as a jab at the app’s sexist nudity guidelines. And is it difficult to find something romantic about the sans serif text of a Gmail love letter, making inboxes at once a source of genuity and cheap flight deals? It is inevitable that the world’s operations will be in constant flux, but it’ll be fine if artistic responses are retained and create currents of personality that run through the faceless organizations that dominate societies.

R A Y J OH N S O N ’ S M A I L A R T

Ray Johnson replaced the gallery with the letterbox. (artexchange.org.uk)

Greta Rainbow Contributor “Ray Johnson are the funniest artist currently working in America.”

This sentence is not written in error, nor was it originally

when first scrawled in black marker across a page of addresses and cryptic notes. Ray Johnson is the founder of the New York Correspondence School, which included over 100 artists involved in the ’50s-’60s New York culturescape in a self-conscious

15

Sports

Tuesday, March 8, 2016 BLast from the past

The advent of Women’s Basketball

Morgan Alexander Managing Editor McGill alumnus James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 with the overarching goal of giving his restless students something to do during a Massachusetts blizzard. After the first game, his students beat each other up in an effort to score, so he instituted the 13 original rules of the sport to prevent excessive violence while still maintaining the spirit of the game. Basketball, like all sports at the time, was designed exclusively with male athletes in mind and it spread quickly across college campuses in the United States—but it wasn’t just men who were taking up the sport.

While Naismith is rightfully crowned as the Father of Basketball, Senda Berenson Abbott respectfully earned the title of Mother of Women’s Basketball in 1892 when she introduced the game to the female students at Smith college a year after Naismith invented the sport. Abbott altered the rules slightly to make it more acceptable for ladies to play by eliminating the rougher parts of the game, like being able to slap the ball out of players hands, and recentring the game on being a new form of exercise, much like simple aerobics.

While many basketball games were played by female

The Smith College Women’s basketball team in 1902. (www.wikipedia.com) athletes both in college gyms and in public, the first intercollegiate game officially took place in 1896, between Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley–Stanford won 2-1.

Interestingly, this matchup occurred just a year after the first intercollegiate game was played between men’s collegiate teams at Hamline University and the Minnesota State School for Agriculture, a match that Hamline won. Prior to this, most games were played between YMCA teams, an organization that adopted the game in its infancy and helped mold it

into what it has become today.

The development of basketball was slow for female players primarily because it was at odds with notions of female respectability. Early players were required to wear floor-length dresses, which they would trip over, resulting in black eyes and broken bones, until bloomers were introduced to the sport in 1896. Bloomers did away with the restrictive corset and made it much easier for ladies to breathe.

Some still complained that the sport was too masculine for ladies, and parents would forbid their

daughters from playing—that did not stop Spalding from publishing an official rule book for women’s basketball in 1899, nor did it prevent the sport from crossing into Canada’s borders.

Women were first admitted to McGill in 1844, and by the early 1900s they formed their own women’s college, the Royal Victoria College, which welcomed its first basketball team in 1909— four years after the Executive Committee on Basketball Rules was formed by the American Physical Education Association (APEA). The team was composed

of nine players, all of whom can be seen in their team photo modestly dressed in elbow-length sleeved tops and floor-length skirts— with, presumably, bloomers underneath—their official uniform.

The introduction of this sport, along with many other female sports at McGill, was spearheaded by the efforts of Ethel Mary Cartwright, who in 1919 established McGill’s Department of Physical Education and devoted her life to teaching and athletics opportunities for both male and female students.

In 1920, Cartwright invited the Queen’s University women’s basketball team, under the direction of Ruth Clark, to a matchup against her team, marking the first intercollegiate women’s basketball game in Eastern Canada. McGill won the match, which was so successful on the whole that Clark and Cartwright teamed up with Marie Parks from the University of Toronto to form the Canadian Intercollegiate Women’s Basketball League. The League included their three teams plus the University of Western Ontario in London. Three years later, the Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation (NAAF) was formed, an organization that would pave the way for multiple women’s collegiate basketball teams and players.

know your athlete

Melodie Daoust M a r t l e t HO c k e y

By Zikomo Smith (Photo courtesy of McGill Athletics)

Melodie Daoust is very busy. Jan. 8, half a day removed from captaining the Canadian Women’s Development team to a gold in Germany, the Senior physical education major stepped onto the ice in Martlet uniform to face Concordia.

“It is a lot of organization when you play for two teams, especially when you play for a team and you go to a school like McGill,” Doust said. “You try to balance your schoolwork with your hockey. It is possible for whoever wants to do it and put [their] heart into it.”

Daoust’s passion for hockey has driven her distinguished career. Her defining moment was making Team Canada Women’s that won gold in women’s hockey at the Sochi Olympics; she also represented Canada at the Under 18 (U18) level. Daoust has dominated as a Martlet—winning titles in both the CIS and RSEQ league, as well as CIS Rookie-of-the-Year and MVP awards. In her childhood, she played multiple sports until deciding to follow in her family’s footsteps and play hockey.

“Basically, I was five years old and my brother and my father were playing hockey,” Daoust recounted. “I was doing figure skating at the time and I wanted to just be like them. So I [asked] my parents to put me into hockey.”

Daoust was heavily recruited, but turned down multiple scholarships by American universities to play at McGill

instead, which she described as a “perfect fit.” However, Daoust did take a sabbatical from the Martlet team in the 2013-14 season to successfully pursue her dream of representing Canada at the Olympics.

“It was either you are going to stay in school and play hockey, or go live your dreams for the first time and experience it,” Daoust said. “It was not a tough choice.”

She has always relished the opportunity to put on the red-and-white uniform.

“The first time I received a call from the U18 program, that was a dream come true at that point,” Daoust said. “Just wearing the Team Canada jersey […] was just the best experience of my life[....] I don’t regret anything. It was a lot of work to get there, but once you are at that level, it is just an amazing experience overall.”

Daoust and the CIS no.3 ranked Martlets now have their focus on the CIS Nationals. They lost the RSEQ finals in a 4-3 Game 2 thriller against the Montreal Carabins, but still have the national title to play for. Daoust was struck by the strength of play in the RSEQ. “The RSEQ is probably the best league in Canada to play in,” Daoust explained. “All the teams in the conference are getting better. It’s awesome—the goaltenders in our league seem to have made a huge difference this year, because there are not a lot of goals in comparison to other years. You can see that women’s

game has really grown over the years.”

Daoust still has a year left of eligibility in her McGill career. As for her studies, which she described as “number one,” Daoust particularly prized the fieldwork aspect of her physical education degree.

“It made me know what I am going to do when I have graduated,” Daoust elaborated. “And I really enjoy teaching and sharing my experience with the kids.”

As for her future in hockey, Daoust wants to play professionally in the CWHL. She is definitely one to watch out for in the future.

McGill Tribune (MT): What is your favourite

show?

Melodie Daoust (MD): The Bachelor.

MT: Which street do you prefer, Rue Sainte-Catherine’s or Rue Saint-Laurent?

MD: Rue Sainte-Catherine’s.

MT: Who is your favourite superhero?

MD: Spiderman, because he’s flying around.

MT: What is your favourite meal to cook?

MD: Tartare.

16

Sports

Championship round-up

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

By Nick Jasinski

s y n c h r o , t r a c k a n d f i e l d , s w i mm i n g

(Emma Hameau, Laurie-Anne Benoit, and Mayaz Alam / McGill Tribune)

CIS Swimming Championships

Canadian University Synchronized Swim League National Championships

RSEQ Track and Field Indoor Championships McGill University, Montreal

Université Laval, Quebec City

McGill collected its third consecutive national synchronized swimming title and their 13th of the last 15 years at the 2016 CUSSL Championships at UBC. “I am really proud of the work our athletes put in this season–they’ve been working incredibly hard since the first week of September and it is so nice to see their hard work pay off in really good performances,” Head Coach Lindsay Duncan said.

McGill’s novice teams performed very strongly with gold medals in the novice duet trio and novice team routines, scoring 59.93 points and 59.10, respectively. Madeline Perrin and Minnie Fu placed 3rd and 6th in the novice solo routine with scores of 56.63 and 55.24. In the senior team routine, the Martlet’s 71.4 was just 0.1 point short of Ottawa’s first-place performance. McGill also earned sixth-place and 11th-place finishes in the senior duet trio, and third and sixth place finishes in the senior solo routine. McGill’s dominance in Canadian collegiate synchro competitions is even more impressive by the fact that the team receives no funds from the university for league fees, travel or uniforms. The swimmers provide the budget themselves, crowdfund using McGill Seeds of Change and organize bake sales and other fundraisers to pay the bills.

McGill used its home-track-advantage to collect 17 medals— including seven golds—at the two-day Quebec Championship meet. The Redmen and Martlets both came in third place overall and qualified a total of 11 athletes to the 2016 CIS Championships at York University from March 10 to 12. The standout performer for McGill was senior Helena Reinfels, who earned three gold and one bronze medal in addition to both Athlete-of-the-meet and RSEQ Athlete-of-the-year awards. Her first gold came in a McGillrecord-setting 300m race of 39.48 seconds, followed by a 9.01 second 60m hurdles win. The Puslinch, Ontario native contributed to another McGill record in the 4x200m relay in addition to a third place finish on the 4x400m relay squad. Other McGill gold medals from the meet belong to Martlet pole-vaulter Caroline Tanguay, who cleared a height of 3.40 metres, and Redman pole-vaulter Riley van Ryswyk, whose 4.86-metre vault was good enough for a new McGill record. The Redmen collected two more wins in the 4x200m and 4x400m metre relays, with the 4x400m’s 3:14.98 setting both RSEQ and McGill records. Overall, Laval took home its third consecutive RSEQ men’s title while Sherbrooke won its second straight women’s trophy.

While neither the Redmen nor the Martlets went home with any medals from the 2016 CIS Swimming Championships, both teams made more of a splash than they have in recent years. twenty-four McGill athletes made it to the final heats on day three of the meet, with 10 in the medal round and 14 in the consolation round. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues won both the men’s and women’s titles while McGill came in 12th and 8th, respectively. Graduating senior Katie Caldwell led the charge for McGill, qualifying for six finals which included a fourth-place finish in the 200m individual medley and fifth-place finishes in the 200m backstroke, 400m individual medley and as a member of the 4x200m freestyle relay. For the Redmen, freshman JeanDaniel Vallieres made finals in the 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley and 200m butterfly, coming in 8th, 9th, and 20th, respectively.

“I am disappointed that we didn’t win a medal, but it was easily the most competitive CIS Championship ever,” McGill Head Coach Peter Carpenter said. “That said, I am proud of the team performance. The meet was filled with many pleasant surprises and some disappointments as well.”

University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Redmen gamers compete to be crowned Heroes of the Dorm Rise of eSports and competitive gaming at McGill (heroes.blizzplanet.com)

Luka Ciklovan Staff Writer Adding the ‘e’ to Sports has been a long and contested road for the eSports community. eSports is a form of sport that designates a video game as the proverbial playing field. With high-end strategizing, physical execution, controversy over performance enhancing drugs, and match fixing pervading both sports and eSports, the line that separates the two can get muddled at times.

Regardless of whether it is classified as a traditional sport or a ‘mind’ sport, the rise of eSports, despite significant criticism from many traditional sports commentators, such as Colin Cowherd, is undeniable. Since the year 2000 the number, scale, and coverage of eSports events has been increasing across YouTube, CBS, ESPN, in addition to prize pools have followed suit, reaching up to $16,829,613 in the case of Valve’s annual International, an eSport competition. Relatively new to eSports, however, is the collegiate scene, with Blizzard’s second Heroes of the Dorm this year being the only

place for campuses to officially compete for electronic glory. Luckily, the ‘Redmen’—captained by Lucas Crea— have a fighting chance to put McGill on the eSports map this year.

The success of last year’s Heroes of the Dorm marked a watershed moment in eSports history, as it further institutionalized collegiate eSports, prompting various universities to offer scholarships for varsity-level cyber athletes, and had its Grand Finals between UC Berkeley vs. Arizona State broadcast live on ESPN, a first for the genre. Given the long match times and extensive background knowledge that tend to accompany eSport titles, Heroes of the Dorm, featuring Blizzard’s latest release Heroes of the Storm, attempts to bridge the gap between casual and competitive by offering a game that’s much quicker, simpler, and thus easier to watch without sacrificing the thrillof-the-kill signature to video games.

The result has been a tournament that has stimulated both the interest of mainstream media and the niche gamer fan base, and offers a promising future for the North American eSports scene.

Once they’ve passed the qualifying

round, standing between each player and the grand prize of paid college tuition for three years (up to $75,000) and a custom built PC gaming system (approximately $1,200) lies a grueling round-of-64 showdown between teams of five gamers and one substitute. The objective is deceptively simple: Destroy the enemy’s base. In between the goal however, stand waves of enemy units, tower defences, and five humancontrolled ‘heroes’ which require tactical coordination, wired reflexes, and composure to overcome on the professional level. Crea, whose team stands as the last vestige of McGill’s representation at this year’s Heroes of the Dorm, considers the team’s lack of experience its biggest challenge.

“Most of our players haven’t had much experience, or don’t play as much as myself and other team members, so the real challenge is just to get everyone more or less on the same playing field, and not have them do those silly mistakes that new players do.” Crea said. “The first couple of games were particularly frustrating, but they got better surprisingly quickly, and pushed us to win four games in a row”

Reflecting on McGill’s prospects for the remainder of the tournament, Crea expressed concern over the academic commitments that the team faces as students.

“Most members of my team are in really different programs [ranging] from engineering, biology, and nursing.”

Crea explained. “It makes for quite a busy schedule, so I don’t know if that will impact our chances. To make it in the quarter finals of regionals, we have to win our next games this weekend, and I think we have a fair chance at that”.

Crea also commended the skill of the Concordia Stingers who sent the Redmen to the losers’ bracket last weekend with a 2-0 victory, proving that the time-tested McGill and Concordia rivalry carries over into the electronic realm.

Plagued by bouts of sexism, player exploitation, and the still relatively high barrier to entry, the eSports community still have a long way to go, but Heroes of the Dorm is definitely a step in the right direction towards a healthier and more diverse community.

Though the Redmen were eliminated from the Tournament over

Reading Week, you can still watch the other teams progress through the round of 64 on ESPN3, Twitch, and YouTube, along with the Grand Finals on April 10 on ESPN2.