McGill Tribune Vol. 35, Issue 17

The McGill Tribune TUesday, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 curiosity delivers

Volume No. 35 Issue No. 17

Editorial: Accommodation requires standardization

feature: m c gilltribune.com Declassified: Mind control at @m c gilltribune M c Gill

pg. 05

pg. 08 - 09

surfing the korean wave

how k-pop took over the world Harry Kim Contributor

Panellists discuss equitable hiring practices at McGill. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune)

panel highlights lack of diversity in academia

PG. 03

The red door flags MACES’ progress, underlying issues Two recent resignations sparked by the board’s internal problems Kiara Bernard Contributor The executive board of McGill’s Association of Continuing Education Studies (MACES) recently saw the resignation of two board members, including their vice-president (VP) finance Ghassan Berro and senator Nely Gaulea. These resignations have left a total of three vacant seats on their board. In 2012, an article published by the McGill Daily entitled “The Phantom Student Government” raised concerns over transparency and accountability within the MACES. Despite improvements in recent years, according to MACES President Sean Murphy, internal dissonance continues to exist among members.

Transparency Mike Simeon, alumnus of the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) and current member of the MACES bylaws review committee, raised concerns over the effectiveness of current

leadership.

“There’s a lack of leadership, a lack of transparency,” Simeon said.

“Each board member gets an annual stipend of $5,500, every member of the board gets paid for each year [....]

One board member attended four or five meetings throughout the whole year [....] Some-- I won’t say all-- because some are doing a great job, are not there for the right reasons.”

A recently-formed committee is reworking the organization’s bylaws to better reflect what is actually happening in the SCS, and to draft standard operating procedures to make sure that all the duties of the VPs and employees at MACES are done in a professional manner.

“You can be a board member, sit on the board, do nothing, and get compensated,” an individual who requested to remain anonymous said. “That is why we are reviewing the bylaws.”

Bylaw reform According to Simeon MACES also lacks connectivity with the 10,000

students that attend the SCS yearly. The average student at the SCS attends for one to two years, often with a fulltime job, seeking to further develop or complement their professional skills.

“You can’t compare MACES to, for example, [the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)], or [the Post Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS)],” Simeon said. “SSMU is pretty much students who are at McGill for at least three years [....]

MACES is very particular [....] Most of these students are at school on a part-time basis, so they’re not really involved in the school or with student life.”

In light of this, turnout at previous elections has been weak, both in candidate nominations and student voting, explained Kia Memarzadeh, MACES Elections ehief returning officer (CRO).

“In the graduate programs or undergraduate programs, many students are very involved with their emails and very in touch,” Memarzadeh said. “But many people in the School of Continuing Studies, actually-they

don’t even check their McGill email.

And this is our problem.”

Internal meeting conduct Although the board meets every three weeks, the internal source raised concerns over how meetings have been conducted.

“The last few months [...] was when we started to face problems,” the anonymous source said. “From following the bylaws, to making solo decisions, [to] not respecting Roberts’ Rules and how meetings are run; meetings are not recorded, for example.”

According to the source, transparency on the actions of the MACES board falls on them to improve.

“I’ve been talking about having minutes posted online as a way to inform the membership of what’s happening inside the organization,” the anonymous source said. “What do [we] do, what decisions we come up with whenever we meet.”

PG. 02

Last December, K-pop superstar group EXO announced a North American tour scheduled for early 2016. This headline garnered thousands of views and shares on various social media platforms, and concert tickets sold out almost instantly for each stop of the tour. But before the late 2000s, K-pop and South Korean culture didn’t have nearly the same amount of global appeal and popularity.

Hallyu , or “Korean Wave,” was coined in the early 2000s to define the increasing popularity of South Korean pop culture, especially among other East Asian countries. K-pop, or Korean pop music, is one of the many sub-genres of Hallyu , which include various media, such as dramas (soap operas), movies, and TV game shows.

Since the beginning of South Korea’s cultural exportation, the cultural and entertainment industries have thrived, becoming a significant part of the economy, generating more than $10 billion in 2015.

The K-pop movement started in Seoul in 1992, with a three-man boy band called Seo Taeji and Boys. Debuting with a never-before-seen style, mixing traditional Korean folk music with hip-hop and electronica, they became an instant sensation among the young. Arguably, their musical success became a template for rising stars to challenge conventional musical styles. After them, many other “idol groups”—pop groups consisting of many young members—arose. Interestingly enough, one of the former members of Seo Taeji and Boys, Yang Hyun Suk, is the founder and CEO of a major record label, YG Entertainment, holding contracts with stars such as PSY, BIGBANG, and 2NE1.

PG. 13

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NEWS Student group tackles misconceptions surrounding marijuana legalization

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Focuses on addiction and economic impacts Sofia Rautionmaa Contributor On Jan. 27, students discussed cannabis legalization at an open forum held at the Yellow Door, led by the McGill chapter of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP). Their goal as an organization, according to their website, is to discuss the negative impacts of drug policies on individuals and communities.

The forum began with a video showing an interview with two professors from McGill University, Dr. Mark Ware, a director of clinical research at McGill University Health Centre and Dr. Ken Lester, a professor of Finance in the Desautels Faculty of Management. Ware started the video by disproving the widely held assumption that the effects of cannabis are worse than tobacco.

“I don’t think there is a single metric that you can use that can prove that that statement is true,” Ware said.

“It’s clearly not infintely worse than tobacco. In fact, in many ways, cannabis is far safer than tobacco.”

Every year, millions of people die from over consumption of tobacco and other drugs, but the statistics

for cannabis use are not as high. Ware discussed the the effects of decriminalizing recreational cannabis use evidenced in the states of Washington and Colarado.

“There doesn’t seem to be a huge spike in traffic accidents, a huge spike in fatalities, [or] a huge spike in school dropouts [in those states,]” Ware explained.

Lester went on to explore the benefits of legalization for the government.

“Right now, the market is paying a huge premium because it is illegal,” Lester said. “What would it actually cost [the market] if it was not illegal? Probably 10 per cent of what the market is paying for now.

Theoretically, if that market price is doable [...] then that 90 per cent could be taxes.”

Despite government laws that restrict or ban certain substances, there is relatively easy access to them through the black market.

“If you want [cannabis], you can find it now—so I don’t think there are people looking for it that that can’t get it,” Lester said. “I don’t think that legalizing it will all the sudden increase the usage among [teenagers.] ” The main speaker of the eve-

CSSDP discussed the effects of cannabis legaliation in Canada. (Photo courtesy of Jesse Stein) ning, Gonzo Nieto, co-chair of CSSDP, spoke about the potential risks of addiction to cannabis, especially when it comes to teenagers and young adolescents who are the biggest users of the drug.

“We speak about ‘addictive’ as a quality of certain drugs, yet we have people addicted to gambling and no one is arguing that a pack of cards is addictive,” Nieto said. “People are addicted to work, and we don’t debate whether a given workplace is addictive. Sure, there are drugs that people are more likely to [become addicted] to, but what we need to look at is why

some people have a greater tendency to become addicted.”

Nieto explained that the drug itself doesn’t cause addictive behaviour.

There are many perscription drugs that patients can become dependent on, yet are still legal to perscribe.

“There is a lot of over-prescription of antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication which can also become an addiction [...] and in many cases, people aren’t aware that what they are under the effect of is a form of substance dependence,” Nieto said.

According to Ware, the decriminalization of cannabis would take the

focus away from the legal justice system and instead focus on harm reduction and helping those that are in need of support and aid.

“Having an approach where you treat people who have substance abuse disorders as a medical problem [and] not as a legal one allows us to help those people [get] treatment, to find access to something that’s clean that allows them to avoid the harm,” Ware said. “The harms often with these drugs are not so much the drug itself, but the illicit nature of the drug that goes with it.”

The red door flags MACES’ progress, but also underlying issues Two recent resignations sparked by the board’s internal problems Kiara Bernard Contributor Continued from page 1.

Financial challenges Nevertheless, the current board has worked on increasing their profile.

The front door of the MACES Building on Rue Peel was painted red by the current MACES president, Sean Murphy, to symbolize improvements to visibility on campus.

“When I became president, one of my primary things was making MACES more visible,” Murphy said.

“A lot of people don’t know what MACES is.”

Among the board’s initiatives are making workshops and events available to students, ensuring their members are present at Senate and Board of Governors meetings, and working closely with the career advising unit at the SCS. “We’ve been trying to work hard to make changes to meet the level of our students expectations,” Zaher Agha, MACES VP internal emphasized. “We cannot deny that there is always room for improvement [... but] we are genuinely working hard to best

represent those who have trusted us and elected us as representatives.”

The SCS student fee paid into MACES is $13 per registered course, and is directed at running their building on Rue Peel—which includes study, computer, and conference rooms— maintaining the state of the art language lab at the SCS, and providing bursaries.

To use the services McGill offers full-time students, MACES is charged more by McGill than other student unions on campus.

“Apart from taking care of this space and the administration of the building, which is actually quite lean, we have a few added costs because we are an affiliated organization, so we’re charged a little extra by McGill,” Murphy. said. “Our budget is actually quite stable. We’re trying to save money wherever we can. But I think we give back quite a bit, so it’s money well spent, there are no frivolous expenses.”

Under the previous VP Finance, MACES was able to rationalize many of its expenses. A full-time accountant monitors the billing, and an outside auditor is contracted to complete financial audits; however, a major point of contention leading to the resignation of board members was the tardy completion of the 2014-2015 yearly audit.

“I have been warning [the board]

since September that we should have our audit done, and this is when people got frustrated,” the anonymous source stated. “We have two people who left the board and the president [...] treated it like any other situation.”

Upcoming challenges In spite of the improvements the student union has undergone on the surface, it still seems that MACES is falling short on internal accountability.

During his time at the SCS, Simeon sat on a council created in 2013 for the purpose of overseeing the actions of the board, although this council only met twice that year. He expressed that this was not enough time to do a complete job.

“Our job was to be [...] a watchdog on what was happening inside the board,” Simeon said. “They were supposed to report to us at least once every semester, and we’re supposed to comment and give feedback on what they did, and what they should have done [....] It was like a formality.”

Upcoming elections for the MACES board of 2016-2018 will be held from Feb. 22 to Feb. 28, and the deadline for nominations ends Feb. 7. ”For those who think they can work for the MACES, [they should]

The red door of the MACES building represents visibility. (Natalie Vineberg / McGill Tribune) nominate themselves and go for that,” Memarzadeh said. “It will be, I think, a very good opportunity [....] And it’s a very good time for change.”

With the two recent resignations, current board members hope to see a degree of institutional memory and continuity going into the future.

“I’m concerned not about those three positions,” the anonymous source said. “I’m concerned more about the leadership and the future of this organization. We need someone who is a visionary, who is committed, who is a good negotiator, who listens to others and does not make solo decisions.”

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NEWS

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

SSMU hosts panel on diversity in academia Equitable hiring research report sees decline in aboriginal employees at McGill Laura Hanrahan News Editor McGill staff has seen little change in diversity since the 2008 implentation of an employment equity policy. Students and faculty came together to discuss issues of employment equity this past Thursday at a panel entitled Diversity In Academia. Hosted by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the panel featured commentary from four McGill faculty members: Associate Professor of Educational and Counselling Psychology Tara Flanagan, Professor of Civil Engineering Susan Gaskin, Professor of Law Adelle Blackett, and Professor of Sociology Zoua Vang.

The panel opened with a presentation from SSMU equitable hiring researcher Carolyn Huang on SSMU’s research report: Equity in the Hiring of McGill Academic Staff. The report highlighted the lack of changes McGill has seen since the 2008

employment equity policy.

“Since the formal implementation [of the policy] in 2008, the percentage of employees that identify as aboriginal and people with disabilities has actually declined,” Huang said.

“The employees that identify as women was only raised by one per cent since 2008 [and] 0.9 per cent for ethnic minorities.”

The report attributed these failings to a lack of communication of equity policies in the hiring process of new faculty.

“There’s no formalized communication between upper administration and departmental hiring committees,” Huang said. “There’s a lack of leadership among upper administration on equity, and in comparison to other universities which we examined […] McGill doesn’t have any particular programs or even an official equity office other than the [Social Equity and Diversity Education] (SEDE) office, which doesn’t have power to influence the upper adminis-

tration’s decision making.”

The panellists were then asked to discuss what barriers they believe exist for designated minority groups. Flanagan addressed issues of inaccessibility on McGill campus for individuals with physical disabilities.

“A couple of weeks ago, a colleague and I were hosting an event at the Faculty Club that was supposed to be a place that was accessible,” Flanagan said.

“We got the measurements for the elevator that went [up] from the main floor [and] sent that to our listed invitees [….] There was a wheelchair user who had a wheelchair that fit within the specifications, but once arriving to the elevator, it was clear that the invitee and the wheelchair would both not fit in the same time, so the wheelchair was brought up by a staff member at the faculty club and the person who was the wheelchair went up in the elevator without a wheelchair and had to have assistance.

It was embarrassing and difficult

for everybody involved. Even when we have a place that is onpaper accessible, there are still many nuances that we’re clearly not meeting.”

Gaskin spoke to the issue of subpar mentorship that is offered to women in academia when compared to their male counterparts.

“You’re not necessarily discriminated against all through your schooling, but [...] we [also] don’t get the same encouragement,” Gaskin said. “You may be very good at math or very good at science but you’re not told […] you could be an engineer or you could be a doctor.

So it’s more a lack of mentoring.”

Vang addressed the difficulties that can arise for professors who are racial minorities.

One difficulty, Vang explained, stemmed from the misperception that there is not a pool of qualified minority candidates that the university could hire from.

“Minority candidates are

viewed with scrutiny, and then with greater suspect,” Vang said. “If a minority candidate has the opportunity to get a job offer […] their qualifications are again questioned [….] There’s a lot of research that shows that racial minority faculty receive much poorer evaluations, and their poor course evaluations are then used by administrators or departmental heads as examples that minority faculty are less skilled teachers, when in fact a lot of the bias in those evaluations stem from conscious and subconscious bias and racial prejudice.”

According to Flanagan, the only way to correct these inequities in academia is to ensure that effort is being made from all levels of the administration.

“I think it’s very important to take concrete actions from the ground up, let’s say hiring committees, in our classes, and how we teach, but also from the top down,” she said. “We need to be having very clear policies about the kind of actions that we take.”

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NEWS

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Fight for Fifteen panel criticizes casualization of McGill employees Panellists address raising minimum wage on campus and elsewhere Regina Wung Contributor As part of the In the Streets & In the Courts—a radical law forum organized by student associations in the Faculty of Law—the Fight for Fifteen panel opened a discussion about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018, and improving worker benefits. Panellists Molly Swain, president of the Association of McGill University Support Employees (AMUSE), and Mostafa Henaway, community organizer with the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, addressed the issues that affect casual workers within McGill. Casual workers are employees with irregular and unguaranteed schedules, earning hourly wages without the benefits that workers with permanent positions enjoy.

“Over the past five [or] more years, [we’ve seen] a wave of casualization on campus,” Henaway said. “McGill is taking permanent jobs that are well-paid, very secure, [and] under union protection, and they’re [...] breaking them up into casual jobs [.…] People doing the exact same work, on often a parttime basis, will be making literally less than half of the salary that their permanent counterpart was making.”

Swain went on to state

AMUSE’s objective and reasoning in spearheading the Fight for Fifteen campaign, launched by a coalition of McGill labour unions, student organizations and faculty assocations.

“We want to make it less affordable for McGill to hire casual workers,” Swain said.

“We don’t think any work that happens on campus, or anywhere, really, is casual work, and we think that everybody deserves to have the same treatment and access to the same resources.”

The Fifteen and Fair campaign aims to raise wages for McGill’s casual workers.

“We’re asking for a $15 minimum for academic work,” said Swain. “We’re asking for benefits for all workers, including […] healthcare, parental leave, as well as access to the Employment Assistance Program […] We’re also asking for library access with a McGill ID card for all employees, tuition discounts for everyone working on campus including students, and also subsidized transportation costs—particularly for people over the age of 26.”

Fight for Fifteen panel discussed the danger of the casualization of labour on campus. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune) Henaway turned the focus of the discussion to the precarity, or lack of job and wage security, that looms over foreign workers at the Immigrant Workers Centre and in Canada in general.

“The Fight for Fifteen [campaign] is really critical for us because in an age of neoliberalism, precarity has become the norm,” Henaway said. “To fill that need of cheap labour, migration and immigration and immigrant workers have sort of become the pillars of precarity in Quebec and the global north in general.”

Henaway further emphasized the critical role that foreign workers

play in society as well as in large corporations’ success.

“If you [...] look at where these precarious workers are, they actually hold immense strength in our society,” Henaway said. “They [...] work as a key of not just the economy in Montreal, but of the global economy; they make things move for the WalMarts, the Dollaramas, the Sears.”

Swain and Henaway concluded the panel by answering questions and encouraging the audience to join the Fight for Fifteen movement. One student who attended, Gabe Hoogers, L2 Law, commended the panel and the

speakers’ work.

“There were two very important perspectives from organizers,” Hoogers said. “[Swain] is organizing directly at McGill, organizing the workers who are in a worse position than any university workers [...] in Montreal.

[Henaway] is organizing foreign and temporary workers, people who are in serious situations of precarity. I think that they both provided different, important perspectives on how to get people who are working in precarious situations to work together for that movement.”

SSMU Council sees controversy over new student federations Motions for smoke-free campus and community relations approved Jenna Stanwood News Editor At its Jan. 27 Council meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) clarified questions regarding their involvement in forming two new provincial student federations: The Union Étudiante du Québec (UÉQ) and the Association pour la Voix Étudiante au Québec (AVÉQ). Council additionally took an early step toward establishing a smoke-free campus, and renewed its commitment to maintaining a positive relationship with the Milton-Parc community.

Provincial student federations Council heard presentations from representatives of the UÉQ and the AVÉQ. SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Emily Boytinck has been involved with their formation since this past summer. Council is scheduled to present one of the federations to the student body through a referendum this semester, although it has yet to choose which one. Concerns over SSMU’s

involvement with the federations’ formations were raised at the meeting, especially in regards to using SSMU’s payroll system to hire a coordinator for AVÉQ. “There were […] these false allegations [raised at the confidential Council session] that I was sneakily hiring a coordinator of the AVÉQ and unfairly treating them, and that I was presenting these associations [in a] really biased [way,]” Boytinck said. “This was grossly misleading. First of all, it was in all of my Council reports; second of all, we didn’t actually pay for this coordinator— we just put him on our [human resources] HR software and other associations paid his salaries.”

SSMU had put the coordinator for AVÉQ on its payroll software to help the organization in its early stages; however, according to Boytinck, no SSMU funds were used to pay this employee.

“AVÉQ now has it’s own bank account, but while it was getting off the ground we volunteered to do that,” Boytinck said. “Basically […] we signed a contract with Concordia and the Université du Qué-

bec à Trois-Rivières [...] to basically pay the salary of this coordinator.

SSMU didn’t pay any of it, we have a break-even AVÉQ department.

We’re essentially like a bank account and we didn’t gain or lose any money because of this transaction.”

Smoke-free campus Council unanimously approved a plebiscite question for the Winter Referendum period to gauge student interest in establishing a smoke-free campus.

“Would you support McGill becoming a smoke-free campus if smoking cessation resources were provided and there were ongoing educational campaigns?” the plebiscite question reads.

The question comes in the wake of a student survey that showed student interest in progressing toward a smoke-free campus.

The question, as SSMU Councillor David Benrimoh explained, is a means for the administration to gauge student interest in this initiative.

“This [question] is in response to the survey […] which got over

620 responses,” Benrimoh said.

“We met with some members of the administration and basically they are saying ‘we’ve been waiting for students to come to us with this, we’re willing to move on it but we need to know that we have student support.’”

SSMU VP University Affairs Chloe Rourke explained that if students vote to approve it, the transition will happen gradually, with a harm reduction approach in mind.

“Harm reduction measures can be included simultaneously with a smoke-free campus,” said Rourke.

“For example, Health Services can continue to provide nicotine patches, or other harm reduction drugs or e-cigarettes as a method of quitting […] that are in line with a harm reduction approach.”

Community Action and Relations Endeavour Council approved updated messages for the Community Action and Relations Endeavour (CARE), which creates a framework for the relationship between students and residents of the near-

by residential area, Milton-Parc, under Boytinck’s portfolio.

“The CARE agreement was written in 2010; it was meant to be sort of a series of messages and a framework to address ongoing problems between SSMU and the Milton-Parc community and McGill,” Boytinck said. “So we set up this sort of formalized relationship structure that means that we meet annually. I meet with Milton-Parc representatives on a very regular basis, and this has actually resulted in concrete improvements in the way our relationship [functions].”

The update aims to further SSMU’s commitment to developing a positive relationship with the community, explained Matthew Satterthwaite, Arts and Science councillor.

“I’ve been a Frosh coordinator the last two years and a Frosh leader the year before that, and I saw how poorly our relationship was at the start with the [MiltonParc] community,” Satterthwaite said. “It’s a lot better than it was before but there’s a lot of room to keep going.”

5

OPINION

Tuesday, February 2, 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

Accommodation requires standardization Following a two-year battle with a student and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), York University will no longer require students to disclose mental health diagnoses before receiving special treatment for exam writing, assignment extensions, and other accordances. The issue of disclosure is highly contested at McGill, but the more fundamental issue at stake is in regard to accommodations. While the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) is working hard to ensure that it meets the growing demand for its services by standardizing its own procedures, such systematization must extend across the university campus. The McGill Senate, and student representatives to the Senate, must push for a uniform system for accommodating the needs of students.

Service Point, the OSD, and McGill Mental Health Services (MMHS) offer distinct and overlapping services to students seeking academic assistance. While the OSD and MMHS are admittedly understaffed, underfunded, and overexerted in the face of growing demand, a policy from Senate need not focus on these services. Instead, it ought to identify the possibilities

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have to cater to the distinct requirements of each professor, which is especially important when dealing with a personal tragedy.

Student senators are, therefore, the important link. This past year they were instrumental in creating a policy whereby no course could have a final worth more than 80 per cent of the final grade. More recently, the Senate passed a policy where a withdrawal can be removed from a transcript, if the student withdrew from university for a semester for a documented reason. Senate must do the same here.

Accommodations are an essential component of the university experience. While education is the priority, there must be entrenched guidelines so that students are not faced with additional stresses when handling a family emergency or personal issue. The current standards of each part of the McGill services chain are exemplary given their various constraints, but remain incomplete due to the recalcitrance of professors. Implementing an overarching, absolute procedure that details the guidelines for providing accessions is essential to protecting students and the educational standards of the university.

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damentally sudden and unpredictable, some professors do not accept notes after the fact. Moreover, the OSD is essential for students to procure notes that will be accepted by professors. As far as the York case is concerned, some may claim that there is cause for concern— not needing to provide a diagnosis seems like an opportunity for abuse of the system. Yet there are no statistics to verify such a claim. The overwhelming sentiment is that accommodations will help those students who need it the most; they should not be punished because of the potential for slackers to take advantage of the greater flexibility.

A consistent system would ensure that professors and students have equal, fair expectations as to what the McGill system is and is not capable of. Professors must be held accountable so that their decisions are not arbitrary. In addition, all professors must understand that it is not always possible to get a note for acute mental illness. Any such policy must also detail the possibilities for recourse.

For example, the university must decide whether a death certificate is required when a student claims a death in the family as a reason for absence. Students will therefore not

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for improved support in the classroom—not just for students with disabilities. Such a code must exist for each possible issue, whether it is a mental illness, a death in the family, or an injury, so that students know what they must do in order to receive the accommodations they need.

At McGill, a student must submit a diagnosis to the OSD in order to receive accommodations; however, students with mental illnesses often do not perceive their own illness as a disability, and thus do not register with the OSD. Consequently, professors are bestowed with substantial discretion over a student’s request for extra assistance, time, or support. There are some professors who will ask for a diagnosis, even though it is not within their rights to do so. Other professors may unilaterally decide that if a student misses a midterm, or an assignment for any excuse, their final grade will be weighted differently.

Mental illnesses typically develop and manifest in an individual’s late teens or early adult years, and are more likely to develop while in a high-stress environment, such as university. Though the nature of a mental breakdown is fun-

Aislinn Kalob News Editor The New Hampshire first-inthe-nation primary on Feb. 9 kicks off a long election season with many opportunities to cast a ballot on a national, state, and local level; however, engaging in one’s civic duty may seem like a daunting task when living abroad. Each one of the 2,276 students of American citizenship currently enrolled at McGill University is eligible to vote despite studying in Canada, but the process by which to do so is by no means intuitive. If an American citizen is planning on participating at all in this election cycle, now is the time to register to vote and request absentee ballots.

The participation of absentee voters is essential to the democratic process. The 18-24 age bracket is notorious for contributing to the lowest

voter turnout of all. In 2012, only 38 per cent of those who were eligible actually voted. It is the responsibility of young voters, even those far from home, to stay engaged with issues that matter: The 2016 presidential election must not follow this trend.

By registering as an absentee now, one’s status will be documented for any upcoming election. The key to understanding the process is knowing the resources available within a given period prior to an election. The primaries and caucuses will decide the nominee for the Democratic and Republican parties by the end of July.

Depending on when your home state holds its primary, the deadline to register may have already passed, or is otherwise quickly approaching. You only needs to register once, but it is required before being able to vote. So, request an absentee voter registration form as soon as possible to ensure less future stress, and to start receiving your ballots.

The process is made significantly easier with the help of online resources available at the click of a button, providing no excuse not to approach absentee voting. The Federal Voter Assistance Program (FVAP) and Votefromabroad.org offer any form needed to register and request an absentee ballot. Filling out and mail-

ing a Federal Post Card Application, a form standard for every state and available on FVAP.gov, both registers and allows us to automatically receive a ballot for every upcoming federal election. Votefromabroad.org offers the same service, but with state and local election ballots included. Information on every state’s deadlines and election dates can be found on the Vote from Abroad website by selecting from a drop-down menu. Once the ballot has been filled out, one can download a free, postage-paid envelope from FVAP.gov, and either take it to the nearest Canada Post or drop it off at the US consulate in Montreal.

Consulates and embassies around the world offer this absentee ballot mailing service, and can also provide inperson assistance with the process— just one more way voting from abroad is made easy.

Remaining engaged in domestic politics from abroad is easier than one would anticipate. Groups like Democrats Abroad and Republicans Overseas exist in chapters all over the world for the purpose of connecting Americans to their political organizations, thereby reducing the obstacles to being an informed constituent. On McGill’s campus, Democrats Abroad at McGill not only assists students looking for answers about absentee

ballots, but also hosts events related to politics, such as streaming the debates of both parties. In the 2012 cycle, alternative voting—mainly absentee and early voting—comprised 32.7 per cent of all ballots cast.

Though some American students may have just started at McGill, and so will not be in the country for the next president’s first term, they have the opportunity to impact the results of other levels of government.

Individual state and local elections are just as important as presidential races—if not more so. These generally happen in the early fall. While it often feels that voting in a nonswing state is a pointless and wasted act, this is simply not the case when considering the numerous other elected officials democratically selected in your state. Furthermore, if voting in one of the 26 states that allow for ballot initiatives or referenda, who have the unique opportunity to participate in directly voting on legislation.

All American students abroad have a stake in the upcoming presidential election— especially if they are considering returning to live and work after graduation. Given the ease of registering to vote, there is simply no excuse for failing to do so.

6

Opinion C o m m e nt a r y

Alexandra Harvey Contributor “Well, hi there,” Jian Ghomeshi addressed his faithful Q audience with his trademark opening line at 10:00a.m. on Oct. 23, 2014.

Ghomeshi and fans alike could not have known that this would be the last “hello” that they’d hear from Ghomeshi’s voice.

Ghomeshi’s trial commenced yesterday—more than a year since the radio star’s sexual assault scandal broke in Canadian media. His story exemplified the misogynistic values entrenched in society that teach people not to listen to women. It illuminated the grey zone of sexualized violence and the inevitable questioning and shaming of survivors that accompanies sexual assault cases. Ghomeshi’s case sparked a national conversation about the realities of sexual assault

C o m m e nt a r y

Albert Park Columnist It is no secret that McGill students are frequent victims of laptop theft. Whether it takes place on campus or off, there is no shortage of stories of students leaving their desks, or even turning their attention from their belongings for a few seconds, only to find their laptops gone the next moment. Just recently students tabling at Winter Activities Night were given a grim reminder of this issue when a Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) volunteer went around alerting them to keep a vigilant eye on their belongings after a laptop was stolen in the midst of the crowded fair. Students feel unsafe on campus; there are steps students can take to protect their property, but ultimately the university must also do more to increase the sense of security.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Ghomeshi trial an opportunity to reinvigorate conversation on sexual assault and rape, encouraging thousands of women to come forward and share their stories. One year later, it is clear that the conversation must be revived—short of a total attitude change, discussion is the only way to empower survivors and decrease the stigma surrounding sexual assault. Given the attention to his case, it is imperative that focus remains on the broader issue at stake.

The Ghomeshi case underscores the tendency of society to question allegations of sexualized violence, perpetuating stereotypical norms of victim shaming. Following the announcement that the CBC was cutting ties with Ghomeshi, the radio host made a post on his personal Facebook page where he claimed that the CBC wrongfully dismissed him because of “the risk of [his] private sex life being made public as a result of a campaign of false allegations pursued by a jilted ex-girlfriend and a freelance writer.”

Once the Toronto Star published an article detailing the accusations of three women who alleged that Ghomeshi had sexually assaulted them, it was clear that Ghomeshi’s portrayal of a “jilted ex-girlfriend” was far from the truth. Within a week, nine women, two who were willing to be named, came forward with personal testimonies accusing Ghomeshi of sexual assault and violence.

A wave of activism followed the testimonies of these women, embodied by Twitter hashtag #RapedButNeverReported. Journalists Sue Montgomery and Antonia Zerbisias began the campaign to encourage rape survivors to break their silence.

The hashtag received tens of millions of responses, creating an online community of voices for those who had previously not had the opportunity to be heard. “He pushed me on the couch and said: ‘You can’t say no, you’re my girlfriend.’

– I cried all that night. Many after. #BeenRapedNeverReported,” read one sobering tweet from @daphnesimone. In the midst of tragic controversy, survivors found unity and support. This conversation must not be diminished when it is no longer ‘trending.’ The momentum generated by this movement must carry into the national conversation today.

A crisis of underreporting perpetuates a general lack of understanding about the prevalence of sexual assault. It is estimated that 460,000 women are sexually assaulted in Canada each year. Only 15,200 of those cases are reported to the police. It is no wonder why women are so reluctant to report: Sexual assault trials have a reputation for being invasive—often, survivors are asked to provide a detailed account of their sexual

history, psychiatric and medical records, and to divulge other personal information. The act of sharing

“

Short of a total attitude change, discussion is the only way to empower survivors and decrease the stigma surrounding sexual assault.

one’s story, whether in a courtroom or not, has emotional consequences, causing feelings of guilt, shame, and fear to resurface within the survivor.

A mere 0.3 per cent of cases prosecuted in court end in conviction, meaning that 99.7 per cent of sexual assault perpetrators are never held accountable for their crimes.

There is a stark contrast between estimates that one in five women have been survivors of some kind of sexualized violence on campus and the reporting of

that violence. A recent CBC survey revealed a lack of awareness and credible information surrounding sexualized violence on Canadian university campuses.

Overall, the number of alleged cases of sexual assault reported to campus authorities in 2014 was 1.85 per 10,000. These numbers suggest severe undercounting. Evidently, university campuses lack sufficient resources and support to encourage survivors of sexual assault to come forward. While the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) exists here—an organization dedicated to the advocacy and support of survivors of sexual assault—more must be done to increase public awareness about the issue of underreporting so as to afford sexual assault survivors the respect and sympathy they deserve.

Hopefully, Ghomeshi’s trial will bring justice and peace of mind to those affected; however, Ghomeshi is not the only one on trial. Canada, as a nation, is on trial. Canadians must spark a discussion about how to encourage survivors of sexual assault to speak openly about their experiences, and foster a country where women are respected, trusted, and supported. The conversation about sexual assault must continue.

United surveillance a solution to laptop theft at McGill Posters about laptop theft posted around campus, frequent McGill Reddit PSAs, and even the Security Tracking of Office Property (STOP) program—a service that allows staff and students to register their laptops and affix a security plate to their laptops—give little doubt that there is enough awareness about the problem. Yet, this has not stopped the thefts from occurring. This is arguably due to how often the crimes go unnoticed and unpunished as a result of the McGill community’s general lack of response and reluctance to report suspicious activity.

McGill students and other members of the Montreal community must make a more active effort to report any crimes they witness around campus.

While it is difficult to make an underlying statement about Montreal law enforcement and laptop theft, it is rather easy to find stories about the crime being largely ignored by the police. Of course, it is somewhat understandable that law enforcement views the issue of laptop theft as a low priority. Despite this, it is not far-fetched to suggest that people in the city should report more in order to increase the amount of police responses to laptop thefts.

Laptop theft is a common cause for concern on campus. (Amanda Fiore / McGill Tribune) The police are unable to effectively respond to thefts occurring in Montreal due to the lack of proactive reporting and sharing of information from the victims and witnesses of the crime. In 2014, a research team at McGill published a study on bicycle theft around the city, reporting that out of 20,000 bicycle thefts occurring in the city every year, only about 2,000 cases are actually reported to the police.

Obviously, the impact of laptop theft and bicycle theft and the subsequent response is not entirely comparable; however, the study demonstrates a worrying trend of

citizens’ inability to consistently report criminal activities.

Naturally, the primary solution to the issue of theft is a call for students to keep a closer watch on their belongings and to never leave their laptops unattended—something that has clearly not worked so far. Increased personal vigilance alone will not address the issue of McGill students feeling unsafe around their campuses; it may only lead to increased paranoia and stress.

Students that have ever spent their nights at the McLennan-

Redpath Library complex has had the experience of watching a peer’s belongings as they make a quick trip to the washroom or Première Moisson. Exchanges such as this underline what the McGill community must do to make a collective effort to keep the campus safe from theft. On top of looking after a fellow colleague’s possessions when asked, students should make an effort to be on the lookout for suspicious activities in areas where laptops are often left unattended.

Regardless of how publicized the issue becomes and how careful individuals attempt to be, thieves will always find the opportunity and incentive to steal— unless there is a higher risk of repercussions. In this case, it seems logical that the university take more concrete steps to directly stop the theft from occurring or at least increase the level of response to them. Programs, such as STOP, that seek to protect students’ property when theft occurs is one thing— creating a safer campus is another. For the time being, it falls under the responsibility of McGill students to create cooperate in putting pressure on would-be thieves and consequently pave the way to a safer campus.

7

Student Living

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Politics in the kitchen The history of Midnight Kitchen’s political mandate Liz Willcock Staff Writer Monday to Friday, come 12:30 p.m., a line of students winds through the hallway that leads to the fourth floor clubs lounge in the Shatner Building.

Tupperware in hand, they await the arrival of Midnight Kitchen— McGill’s free vegan lunch service.

What few are aware of, however, is that Midnight Kitchen is more than just a food program for students.

In 2002, seven McGill students, who were members of the GrassRoots Association for Student Power (GRASP)—a student movement in response to globalization, corporatization, and privatization across university campuses—founded Midnight Kitchen. The purpose of the initiative was to combat the contracting of McGill’s food services to large corporations. For the founders of Midnight Kitchen, food distribution was an avenue through which they could exert their political voices. From the beginning, their goal was to provide healthy and affordable food to students on campus that was outside of the mainstream, capitalist food system. Although most students know Midnight Kitchen for its bean soups, brown rice, and apple cakes, the food it serves is merely the surface of the organization’s anti-capitalist, anti-oppression political mandate.

Many students who frequently eat lunch at Midnight Kitchen, including Katie Keyes, U3 Arts, were surprised to discover that it has a political mandate.

“Honestly, I didn’t look too far past the free food,” Keyes said.

“It’s not very well advertised. I knew they were funded by [the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)], but I thought they were a vegan or environmental group.”

Far from solely a vegan food service, Midnight Kitchen was founded as a response to privatization on McGill campus. In 2002, McGill had slowly started contracting out food services to different corporations, from Aramark, to Chartwell, and now Compass Group. Although it’s hard to imagine, McGill’s campus cafeterias were once run by the different faculties in which they were located.

These faculty cafeterias were phased out one by one, until the Architecture café, the last faculty dining hall, was closed in 2007.

Wade, who has been a member of the Midnight Kitchen Collective for three years and is now a paid employee, explained that these contracts still affect students

Mixing accessibility and anti-oppressive measures in Midnight Kitchen’s food servings. (Alissa Zilberchteine / McGill Tribune) today.

“McGill’s corporate catering contracts continue to prevent small-scale and/or student-run food initiatives from having a secure place on campus,” Wade said.

“Actually, one of the big reasons SNAX sandwiches were banned was because of McGill’s contract with Compass Group.”

Wade stressed that not only do these contracts create increasingly standardized, expensive, and inaccessible food on campus, but the corporations that McGill works with are part of an oppressive global power structure.

Compass Group, one of the world’s largest food contract service companies, provides food for oil rigs and prisons across the country. It recently been linked to issues over food quality for prisoners in Saskatchewan. When the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union (SGEU) lost its contract to Compass Group in a government effort to save money, the prisoners were served uncooked food. The conditions were so bad that more than 50 inmates embarked on a hunger strike.

Wade noted that Midnight Kitchen’s mandate stands in strong opposition to the mistreatment of prisoners.

“We believe that everyone deserves basic access to food, including those in prison,” Wade said. “Food should be accessible to all, and these corporations strictly limit what’s available to these already vulnerable and marginalized people.”

This is not only of importance in the prisons of Saskatchewan, but assuring that on McGill campus students have adequate access to food that caters to their dietary needs and financial capacity. According to Wade, for the same reason of accessibility, Midnight Kitchen maintains a strictly vegan and nut-free menu.

“Vegan food is inherently free of many allergens and accessible to people of a wide variety of needs and experiences,” Wade said. “This means we can reach the widest amount of students and community members, and take on more volunteers since it’s easier to not have to worry about meat and dairy in a volunteer-run kitchen.

We’re not advocating for veganism, we’re advocating for accessibility.”

By serving free vegan lunches, Midnight Kitchen seeks to cater to the people for whom it is more difficult to obtain food such as the disabled, low-income students, and religious minorities with dietary restrictions. According to Wade, these people are most at risk in the mainstream food system. Midnight Kitchen seeks to dissect these capitalist structures not only through the food they serve, but the structure of the collective itself.

Wade explained that the Midnight Kitchen collective is organized around an anti-oppressive mandate where members are all treated equally within a non-hierarchal system. Whether one is a new or old member of the collective, they are afforded the same right to voice their opinion and

vote on matters concerning the Kitchen.

“We focus on systemic power and oppression and know that these are inseparable from capitalism and colonialism,” Wade said.

“These systems interacting cause the oppression and marginalization of certain people, and we as a collective are aware of this. At a structural level, Midnight Kitchen is non-hierarchical, and aims to hire marginalized folks, such as people of colour, trans, queer, or disabled people. This is pretty important to us, and something we take very seriously in the hiring process.”

Midnight Kitchen assures that everything from the beans to the lettuce aligns with their anti-oppressive mandate. Their free lunch servings are composed of food donated by Moisson Montreal, a nonprofit food bank. The food bank gives the collective food in bulk on the sole condition that it be passed on for free. Wade pointed out that even the food itself is sourced in accordance to their political mandate.

“When we get food from Moisson Montreal, it’s excess food,” Wade said. “No corporations are profiting from us using it—in fact it would have [otherwise] gone to waste.”

However, Midnight Kitchen is not constrained to the fourth floor of SSMU. Around campus it seeks to bring their anti-capitalist antioppression politics to a variety of “solidarity servings” for groups Midnight Kitchen feels align with its mandate. It has provided food for the events of groups such as

Demilitarize McGill, the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG), CKUT radio, and Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS)—all on the condition that these events remain free and accessible to all.

In collaborating with these groups, Midnight Kitchen hopes to extend the reach of their mandate, and support other marginalized groups on campus. In an effort to increase the political presence of Midnight Kitchen on campus, the collective will be hosting a variety of events this semester that expose the political orientation of the organization. In the coming months, there will be workshops, closed dinners for certain marginalized communities, and the return of “Put Your Politics Where Your Mouth Is”—a series of collaborative workshops that look at the politics of food distribution.

Katie Tully, U3 Arts, was not particularly bothered by the political nature of the organization.

“I don’t really have a problem with it, because even though they have a political mandate, it’s ultimately more of a student service.” Tully said. “Where else am I going to get food I can afford on campus?”

Tully’s statement echoes the sentiment of many students lined up outside the fourth floor clubs lounge for lunch; regardless of its politics, it can’t be denied that Midnight Kitchen answers a desperate call on campus for food that is allergen free, affordable, and healthy.

Declassified: Mind control at McGill Forced psychotherapy on patients during the ’50s and ’60s Julie Vandeperre

T

he Allan Memorial Institute is located in an ominous mansion, formerly known as Ravenscrag, that looms over Rue McTavish at the foot of Mont Royal. The sinister stone building, said to be haunted, is befitting of the grisly experiment that occurred within its walls from 1957 to 1964: Project MK ULTRA. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mind control project used unconsenting patients to test the effects of sensory deprivation, LSD, electroshock therapy, and other methods of controlling the human psyche.

Although it may sound like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, these experiments were conducted at McGill, with devastating effects on the patients involved.

Project MK ULTRA was a largescale attempt by the CIA to research behavioural modification and the effects of certain drugs and psychological treatments on the human mind. It consisted of 144 different subprojects related to the control of human behaviour, which were carried out in 89 different institutions, including universities. The experiments within each subproject varied in both their purpose and techniques—but many, including those undertaken at McGill, involved invasive and unethical research on unwitting human subjects.

The events of Project MK ULTRA are cloaked in mystery, as almost all of

the records of the project were destroyed in 1973 by Richard Helms, the director of the CIA at the time. Several boxes of records were subsequently uncovered in 1977, revealing sparse but important information regarding the nature of the experiments. Most of the information regarding the project comes from these files that were recovered, and from the Senate hearings that were held and which included interviews with former CIA employees involved in MK ULTRA. During the hearings, these members admitted to the purpose of the project, as well as the unethical nature of several of the experiments.

Media outlets in the 1960s and ’70s jumped on the story when it was revealed, sensationalizing facts. This, combined with the few records that are still in existence, make the truth surrounding MK ULTRA murky.

Despite the shrouded nature of the project and the hazy details surrounding it, it is certain that unethical experiments were performed at many institutions, including McGill University.

The CIA seeks key to mind control The project began as an attempt by the US to devise mind control and interrogation techniques following the Korean War. American soldiers were

Photos by Noah Sutton returning home from Chinese captivity seemingly ‘brainwashed’—disillusioned with American values and overtaken by communist thoughts. The CIA began to believe that foreign powers possessed methods of mind control that had allowed them to brainwash American prisoners of war.

“We had become pretty well convinced after the experience of the brainwashing problems coming out of China, that it was the techniques of the interrogators that were causing the individuals to make confessions,” said John Gittinger, a CIA psychologist, in a testimony from a 1977 joint Senate hearing.

The CIA was initially interested in discovering a ‘truth serum.’ At the time, many believed in the possibility of a drug to use in interrogations that would eliminate all inhibitions, and prompt subjects to speak without reticence. The CIA first experimented with the use of LSD with little luck, and later delved into different types of psychotherapy and hypnosis in the hopes of discovering the secret of mind control.

Out of the research and experiments that were undertaken within hospitals and laboratories, those that took place at McGill, known as MK ULTRA subproject 68, were perhaps the most notorious. Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron was the head of McGill’s Allan Memorial Institute when the experiments were performed, and the

main researcher implicated in the project.

According to information from the 1977 Senate hearing, most of the researchers and doctors involved in Project MK ULTRA, including Cameron, were not informed of the project or of the fact that the funds for their research originated from the spy agency. In order to conceal the source of money, the CIA created research foundations, such as the Human Ecology Fund, to act as fronts for funnelling MK ULTRA research funds. The CIA then worked through such organizations to target researchers with projects that were of interest to them in developing techniques of interrogation or human behaviour control.

For the CIA, Cameron’s research was potentially the answer they had been looking for.

Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron Cameron was a leading figure in psychiatric research, and was working as a professor in Albany when he was invited to Montreal to become the first director of the recently founded the Allan Memorial Institute, which housed the psychiatric department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, and was affiliated with McGill University.

Cameron’s research was focused on discovering the root causes of mental

illnesses and finding ways to cure them.

He believed that the manifestation of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, was the result of repeated patterns of socially unhealthy behaviour in patients, and concluded that it could be cured by ‘depatterning’ these unsound habits. The depatterning was meant to break down the patient’s personality completely in order to rebuild it from scratch.

According to the Canadian government, approximately 80 patients at the Allan Memorial Institute underwent depatterning. The treatment involved putting patients into a prolonged period of sleep for several days through the administration of barbiturates (drugs that depress the central nervous system) and LSD. This was followed by massive doses of electroshock therapy over the course of several weeks, ultimately reducing patients to a childlike state.

“The method consisted essentially of the administration of two to four electroshocks daily to the point where the patient developed [...] acute confusion, disorientation, and interference with learned habits of eating and bladder and bowel control,” Cameron wrote in an article published in the journal, Comprehensive Psychiatry, in 1962. “The patient may [also] show [...] loss of a second language or all knowledge of his marital status.”

Once patients’ brains were depatterned, Cameron believed that they

would be able to be re-taught proper forms of interaction and behaviour. This practice, which Cameron dubbed ‘psychic driving,’ involved subjecting patients to repeated audio recordings in order to reinforce positive messages within their minds. Patients would typically be sedated with muscular paralytic drugs during this process, and they could be exposed to hundreds of thousands of repetitions of a single statement throughout the treatment.

Even in the 1950s and ’60s, when the experiments were conducted, the practices utilized by Cameron were extreme. Electroshock therapy was commonly used at the time to treat depression; patients would typically receive the treatment two to three times per week. Cameron’s administration of electroshock to patients multiple times a day over long periods of time, however, was undoubtedly outside of the norm.

“He was an authoritarian, ruthless, power hungry, nervous, tense, angry [...] not very nice,” Dr. Elliot Emmanuel, one of Cameron’s former colleagues, said of the doctor in a 1980 interview with CBC. Whether or not Cameron believed that his physically and psychologically devastating treatments were helping to cure his patients’ mental illnesses is up for debate, but the unethical nature of his treatment methods is apparent.

The role of ethics in research Standards for ethical research during the 1950s and 60s were not nearly as stringent as they are today. Regulations for experimentation on human subjects nowadays are strict, and require adherence to a very specific set of rules.

“The consent process has to be submitted for review by the Ethics Boards and this is usually done through a consent form,” said Ilde Lepore, Ethics Officer for

the Faculty of Medicine at McGill. “The consent form must contain all the elements so that the participant is clear on what they are being asked to do, that they are made aware of any possible risks involved, and that they are informed as to how their confidentiality will be maintained and how their information will be used.”

Although the norms of experimentation and research were different during the time that Cameron was undertaking these treatments, there is evidence that he was aware of the immoral nature of his actions.

Cameron attended the Nuremberg Trials following WWII, which tried German doctors for war crimes committed in concentration camps. Many of the accusations put forward at the trials involved allegations of unethical research on unconsenting subjects within the camps. Cameron was well acquainted with the necessity of informed consent in experimentation and research on human subjects. He actively denounced the atrocities committed by the German doctors during the war, and supported the Nuremberg Code, which laid out specific rules about what was legal when conducting human experiments.

Since then, even more standards have been put in place governing research on human subjects.

“The Belmont Report outlined the basic principles for ethics review for the Ethics Boards: Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. All of the research guidelines and regulations today are founded on these three principles,” said Lepore.

Compassionate compensation It was not until the 1980s that Cameron’s patients began to come forward, stating that they had been subjected to extreme and unusual forms of psychotherapy, including the processes that Cameron de-

scribed as depatterning and psychic driving.

All of the patients who were alleged victims of Cameron’s practices reported devastating mental and physical results for years to come. Many recounted extreme memory loss, feelings of isolation, anxiety, and no improvement of their initial conditions.

Several patients filed lawsuits against the Canadian government to receive compensation for the harms that were inflicted by the procedures. The Canadian government was initially reluctant to provide settlements for Cameron’s patients, rejecting several appeals for compensation by victims. Following settlements by the US, as well as impetus by the public to acknowledge the harms done, the Canadian government finally agreed to provide compensation on compassionate and humanitarian grounds beginning in the late 1980s. When settlements were at last accorded, the government did not acknowledge legal responsibility for the experiments, even though reports state that the Canadian government also funded part of Cameron’s work. In the end, Cameron’s patients were given the right to $100,000 in restitution as part of the Allan Memorial Institute Depatterned Persons Assistance Plan.

The lawsuits were an important victory in the public acknowledgement of the personal damages that resulted from the experimentation of Project MK ULTRA; however, the incident was largely swept under the rug, without being thoroughly recognized by the Canadian government or

by McGill.

Looking forward and looking back Senators at the joint hearing on Project MK ULTRA in 1977 discussed the role of universities in housing the re-

For the CIA, Cameron’s research was potentially the answer they had been looking for search for the project, and what implications this would have on their reputations and those of the researchers involved.

There was some disagreement over whether the CIA should inform the universities implicated in the project.

However, they concluded that scientists who had unwittingly taken part in MK ULTRA research should be informed of this fact. With regards to the universities, the senators from the 1977 hearing decided that presidents of all the universities involved should be notified of their involvement in the project in order to take the appropriate steps to adapt research procedures and ensure that such events did not recur in the future.

“The importance of preserving the independence of our research areas and the communities seems to me to be a very fundamental kind of question about the protection of the integrity of our universities,” Senator Edward Kennedy said at the hearing.

The committee concluded that the information incriminating the universities would be widely circulated in the media, and that the universities should be given the adequate information to know

the truth about what was being reported.

There was also concern about how this information would affect the reputations of the universities. Senators and ex-members of the CIA disagreed on whether or not presidents of the implicated universities should be prompted to publicly disclose the truth regarding their involvement in the project.

“Just because [...] a university is going to be embarrassed is not a reason to classify information,” Kennedy said at the time. “I would certainly hope that [the universities] would feel that they could make a public statement on it.”

The committee present at the hearing ultimately decided that the presidents of all of the universities involved should be informed, and that it would then be up to them to disclose the information to the public or not.

“We can devise a way of notifying these institutions on a private basis so that they can make their own decision whether their equities are best served by their announcing it publicly or their attempting to maintain it [private],” Admiral Stansfield Turner of the CIA said at the hearing.

Unsurprisingly, university presidents have not been eager to disclose or discuss this information publicly, as it represents dark and troubling parts of their institutions’ histories. McGill’s archives provide no mention of Cameron’s involvement in Project MK ULTRA, instead focusing simply on his “high reputation in the psychiatric field.”

There are bleak aspects of McGill’s history. Abuses of power, combined with changing social contexts and ethical standards, have grown over time into nightmarish stories of our university’s past. Only by acknowledging and discussing past wrongdoings will we be able to reconcile and learn from these mistakes.

10

Student Living C A M PU S S PO T L IGH T

Audrey Carleton Staff Writer The high cost of food on campus has traditionally garnered disdain from McGill’s student body. Without the flexibility of a meal plan, many students struggle to find coffee and snacks on campus at a price that won’t break the bank. The Arts Undergraduate Society’s (AUS) SNAX is one of few campus food sources that aims to provide a solution to this.

“SNAX is a student-run café that operates out of Leacock,” Holly Hilts, U3 Arts and assistant manager of SNAX, explained. “Our mandate is to be a green, not-for-profit opportunity for students to have jobs on campus and to have affordable snacks.”

In order to uphold the latter part of their mandate, SNAX keeps its prices low by not increasing them to any higher than they need to in order to sustain themselves.

“The amount that we spend on our products, we don’t try and gain more from that,” Hilts said. “We sell it very close to the price that we receive it at [....] If people are looking for vegan products or anything like that, they’re probably used to higher prices.”

In addition to operating with the average student’s budget in mind, SNAX provides employment opportunities that give students a source of income and invaluable work experience, something that many students struggle to find on McGill campus.

“We have a mandate to employ Arts students,” Emma Green, U3 Arts and Snax Manager, explained. “[However,] we can only employ so many students, and I find the frequency with which I receive applications to be troublingly indicative of a lack of student

S NA X

jobs on campus.”

Another central tenet of SNAX’s mandate is to limit its own carbon footprint as an organization, and to provide environmentally-conscious students with a source on campus to purchase goods that lower their own carbon footprints.

“We have a few core environmental initiatives,” Green said. “We’re committed to working towards greater sustainability through the materials we use, the distributors and foods we sell, and the projects we carry out. We only provide compostable disposable cups [....] We try to favour local companies, not just to support Montreal business, but also to limit the amount of travel involved in getting these products from their distributor to SNAX. We also try to seek fair trade, organic, and vegetarian/ vegan products.”

Along these lines, one of SNAX’s biggest attractions is its “Bring Your Own Mug” deal, in which a large coffee from local Cafe Santropol is discounted from $1.75 to $1 if students provide their own reusable mug. To discourage students from using non-reusable products like paper coffee cups, SNAX also sells its own travel mugs and prices its plastic goods strategically.

“We price water bottles a little bit higher to discourage people from waste,” Hilts said. “We charge for plastic utensils—just little things like that to shove people toward bringing re-usable products.”

Providing students with a wide selection of vegan food options is another key part of SNAX’s environmental initiative. To do so, it partners with local organizations to provide students with vegan food that has travelled limited distance to reach SNAX shelves. Last semester, SNAX began selling locally-

T h e V i e w p o i n t

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

produced vegan baked goods from Organic Campus, and at the start of this semester, they began selling brownies and cookies from Sophie Sucrée, a local vegan bakery located in the Plateau. So far, SNAX has received nothing but positive response from their recent partnership with Sophie Sucrée. “[Sophie Sucrée baked goods] have been selling so much,” Ali Barry, U0 Arts student and SNAX cashier, said. “Within two days, they’re pretty much gone. People see it and they’re like ‘Oh my god, Sophie Sucrée!’ and they’re really excited about it. And it’s good because, obviously it’s vegan stuff too, so it’s more accessible for people who can’t eat [other things] at SNAX.” Partnerships with local organizations have allowed SNAX to increase the diversity in products sold. This in-part offsets their limitations on selling sandwiches, a constraint placed on them by McGill administration in Winter 2015 in response to violation of a portion of their Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). SNAX management has continued to work with

SNAX serves vegan food at affordable prices. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Spiteri / SNAX) “I have a couple of classes I’ve AUS to reach a sound negotiation with McGill that benefits both parties been in where I’ve gotten to know the profs better just because they came to and the student body equally.

“A bulk of the problem with SNAX,” Claire Kingston, sustainabilsandwich sales, on the SNAX end of ity co-ordinator and cashier for SNAX, things, stemmed from a lack of clar- said. “I don’t have a lot of classes where ity in the old [....] contract,” Green I know the professor very well, but even explained. “The reason why nego- if I’m in a 300 person class and they tiations have taken a while now is be- know my name just because of SNAX, cause of a desire, on our end, at least, it’s always a plus.”

Professors are not the only SNAX for greater clarity in wording this time so we can ensure that this doesn’t be- customers who regularly greet cashiers come a problem again [...] As for the with a friendly face, however. SNAX future of sandwiches at SNAX, I can employees boast having universally tell you that we hope to have them kind and reliable customers across the board. very, very soon.”

“I adore working at SNAX for SNAX inventory includes more than what its title would indicate, the customer loyalty and good huhowever. The back corner of the store mour,” Green said. “As someone includes useful products to address who’s worked a lot of places, I can students’ needs during high-stress say that the McGill population prove times, including Tylenol, Bic pens, time and time again to be some of the Kleenex, Blistex chapstick, and free most considerate customers.”

Full disclosure: SNAX emcondoms and lube, provided by Healthy McGill. SNAX also sells New York ployees Morgan Alexander and Elli Times subscriptions, which are quite Slavitch edit and illustrate for the popular among McGill professors—a Tribune, respectively. They did not niche customer demographic that often participate in the writing or editing of this article. come during morning shifts.

Le Doggy Café

Does Montreal’s bring-your-own-dog café have more bark than bite?

Cindy Song Contributor Le Doggy Café, which first opened in January 2015, is a Montreal café that allows you to eat in the presence of your dog. Located on the corner of Avenue du Mont-Royal Est and Avenue Papineau, this unique spot is a bring-your-own-dog café that offers enticing vegetarian and vegan dishes as well as drinks and desserts.

When patrons first walk into the café, there is a small wooden gate that blocks the dogs on the inside from leaving when new customers come in. The bright yellow flowers and bathroom doors plastered with bright red fire hydrants keep the perfect setting for a dog.

The décor is quirky with mismatching chairs, tables and wallpaper. The walls are decorated with framed pictures of dogs that have visited the café before, embuing the café with a homey aesthetic. Overall, there is an incredibly laid back atmosphere that allows patrons to feel right at home. The workers will

come sit down with the dogs and chat with patrons over a cup of coffee. The café’s regulars know the staff very well and the dogs become part of the café’s family. Patrons can walk around the room, talk to other dog owners, and hang out with the animals.

The menu has a wide variety ranging from smoothies and coffees to desserts and burgers. The energizing juice, made with a mix of lemonade and ginger, is refreshing and zesty—an afternoon drink with a kick if you are feeling tired. The meal portion of the menu offers vegetarian and and vegan options like the quinoa burger and vegan mac and cheese. While the prices can range from around $9 to $16, the experience with the dogs make it all worthwhile.

For those not planning on staying at the café for long, a smoothie, juice, or slice of cake is bound to satisfy any cravings and keep patrons’ wallets happy.

“It’s really busy on the weekends and pretty quiet during the weekdays so if you want to see more dogs I would recommend coming on the weekends,”

Caroline Le Corre, a waitress at the café, explained.

Despite the lack of dogs at the café, there was one beautiful five month old Weimaraner named Tolstoy that was there that day. His owner brings him to the café around two to three times a week, so the space is a great place for her to work while allowing Tolstoy to play. Her puppy can’t be left alone at home for too long and so Le Doggy Café is extremely convenient for her.

Montreal also has a cat café that offers a similar concept to the doggy café except instead of bringing your own cat, the cats are owned by the store. The benefit of a bring your own dog café is that it offers the same experience that the cat café provides, on top of the fact that dog owners can also bring their own pet along.

“The cats were very friendly but in general they are more likely to chill by themselves and we have to initiate contact with the cats,” said Isabelle Del Mundo, a regular at the cat café.

The dogs at Le Doggy Café, on the

The new bring-your-own dog themed café. (Cindy Song / McGill Tribune) other hand, are not only well behaved but full of life and eager to meet new people and other dogs at the café.

“We recommend that owners exercise their dogs before coming here and advise people to be calm,” Le Corre added. “Every dog is different so it is hard to set up different rules for all dogs but we want everyone to feel comfortable. In fact, if owners think their dog would be more comfortable, they can

bring them a mat. We have treats for sale if people want to buy them for their dog but it’s also okay if owners bring their own treats.”

Le Doggy Café is great place whether or not you are a dog owner.

For those who need a study break, or simply left their furry friend at home, Le Doggy Café is a unique place for relaxing with a little dog therapy for the day.

FACT OR FICTION

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Science & technology

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Is MSG is bad for you?

Chinese-food enthusiasts dismayed about claims that their love comes at a cost Lydia Kaprelian Contributor It seems like no food is safe anymore. High fructose corn syrup causes diabetes. Swordfish is filled with mercury, a neurotoxin. And the latest bad news? Bacon is a carcinogen according to the World Health Organization (WHO). When it comes to monosodium glutamate (MSG), though, it looks like science is on the side of tasty foods.

Commonly associated with Chinese food, MSG has garnered quite a negative reputation over the years. Its use has been linked to a variety of health problems from headaches to allergic reactions to general sluggishness.

MSG’s bad rap can be traced back to a letter written in 1968 to the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok. The letter, titled “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,” recounted Ho Man Kwok’s experience of eating out at Chinese restaurants, which resulted in him having symptoms of numbness and weakness. Ho Man Kwok speculated that his malaise could be due to the flavouring used by Chinese restaurants.

“The cause is obscure,” the paper reads. “[Some] have suggested that it may be caused by the monosodium glutamate seasoning used to a great extent for seasoning in Chinese restaurants.”

And with that, Ho Man Kwok sparked one of the most pervasive food myths of today: MSG is dangerous.

Nowadays, stigma has caused many Chinese restaurants in Montreal and throughout North America to boast “No MSG” on storefronts and in menus.

The label can be found in the grocery store aisles on seasoning salts and prepackaged foods. The signs and labels are meant to ease customer concerns, but they also feed the fire that MSG should be avoided. As of yet, there’s no rigorous scientific evidence or research to back MSG’s infamous reputation.

Discovered by Tokyo Imperial University chemist Kikunae Ikeda in 1907, MSG was created to capitalize on umami flavour. Umami, a flavour outside of the four basic tastes—sour, sweet, salty, and bitter—is hailed as the savoury taste that’s found in foods such as mushrooms, beef, miso and Parmesan cheese. Umami-packed MSG helps to explain the deliciousness of ramen flavouring packets, for example.

It was Ikeda who first attempted to identify this feeling or flavour of umami. He discovered that many of the foods associated with umami contained L-glutamate. Seeking to isolate umami, Ikeda synthesized MSG by extracting glutamate from kombu seaweed and stabilizing the molecule with table salt and water. Glutamate is a non-essential amino acid naturally produced in the human body. L-glutamate refers to the chiral orientation of the amino acid.

If the two components of MSG— table salt and glutamate—are naturallyoccurring substances, then what is the big concern over MSG? As it turns out, MSG’s demise

MSG consumption has been inconclusively tied to a number of negative symptoms. (foodrenegade.com) is more than just a story about the difficulties of altering public perception; it is also a story about the misuse of science.

Soon after Ho Man Kwok’s letter to the New England Journal of Medicine was published, a study came out in Science, which implicated MSG consumption in some nasty symptoms. John Olney, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, published “Brain lesions, obesity, and other disturbances in mice treated with monosodium glutamate” in which newborn mice

were subcutaneously injected—that is, injected under their skin—with about 0.4 to 5 mg of MSG. Following the injections, the mice developed a slew of symptoms ranging from stunted skeletal development to obesity to neuronal necrosis of the hypothalamus.

Though the results did prove that direct injections of enormous quantities of MSG will have harmful effects, it by no means mimicked the way MSG is consumed by humans. For example, Olney injected the mice with MSG whereas humans acquire MSG by eating it. As a result, the human body

will metabolize MSG differently than Olney’s mice. This, coupled with the dose the mice received—rates of which would be very unlikely for humans— means that very little of this work can be applied to actual human consumption.

The study performed by Olney is an important lesson when considering scientific findings. While results may have indicated MSG is causing trouble for mice, it might not mean the same for humans. With MSG so heavily demonized in North America, changing the minds of the public is likely to take a long time.

pollutant trap, because it’s a mixture of water and ice.

“Snow is assembled [from] minute crystals with very high surface [areas] and, above -20 degrees Celsius, snow has a quasi-liquid water phase,” Nazarenko explained. “You have a lot of surfaces and various phases for absorption of the solution of substances into the snowpack whereas in water, you have much lower surface area for contact with air pollution.”

Immediate exposure of heated emissions from exhaust pipes to the cool winter atmosphere causes gases to condense into particulate form, which acts to increase snow’s absorption.

Despite these factors, many agencies have continued to ignore snow pollution.

“Much of the environmental protection regulations and standards are based on warm temperature research and don’t take into account the presence of snow, cold, freezing temperatures,” Nazarenko said.

This is because calculating these factors in cold weather can be difficult, expensive, and often inaccurate.

To address this problem and isolate vehicle pollution data, the research team at McGill created a system where

they eliminated various environmental factors like changes in wind speed, wind pumping—wind blowing through the snowpack—structure of the snowpack, interaction between surfaces like vegetation and buildings, and other pollutant sources. They collected freshly fallen snow from Parc du Mont-Royal which they kept at freezing temperature and measured the pollutant levels in the sample as a blank. The snow was then exposed to diluted exhaust from a gasoline engine and analysed.

Thus far, this study serves as a starting point for further research.

“Certain chemicals do undergo various chemical reactions due to photochemistry, pollution in the environment and in snow is not constant,” Nazarenko said. “Whatever is absorbed there, whatever your starting pollutants are, is not necessarily all going to remain in that form.”

More studies have to be conducted to identify the exact type and quantity of pollutants and to determine exactly what the environmental and health implications are. The end result may be that policy makers will encourage research in this field and update emission standards.

The dark secret behind snow pollution

Cold winter temperatures create an ideal pollutant sink Sihara Wickremasignhe Contributor The white blanket that covers everything and anything after a snowfall may not be as pure and untarnished as it appears. A recent study from McGill University discovered that freezing temperatures and fallen snow can change the way compounds found in air—air particulates—are distributed.

Yevgen Nazarenko, a postdoctoral fellow from McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a researcher with the study, explained that snow is the perfect pollutant trap.

“If you go to polluted regions like some cities in China and India [...] or even stand near some major roads, especially where they have a lot of diesel engines, you can see the air pollution,” Nazarenko explained. “You can physically see the particulates in the air or you see the brown smog.”

In areas where pollutants aren’t as visible, like Montreal for example, toxins are still absorbed by the snow, making them present in higher concentrations and potentially harmful.

Nazarenko and his team found increased levels of four specific

Snow easily absorbs air pollutants and can become toxic. (Cordelia Cho / McGill Tribune) petroleum-derived chemicals— benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX)—that have been shown to be toxic and carcinogenic.

Benzene is quickly and effectively absorbed into the body, causing drowsiness, confusion and headaches.

High enough levels (>10,000,000 parts per billion) can lead to death. Toluene and ethylbenzene are eagerly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract after

ingestion and can cause kidney and liver problems. Xylenes negatively impact the nervous system, affecting muscle coordination and balance. These monocyclic molecules are small— they can have width of about 240pm.

As a result, they can enter the human respiratory and circulatory systems with ease, leading to increased incidences of cancer and cardiovascular pulmonary disease. Snow is an extremely efficient

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Science & technology

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Visible invisibility: The science of cinematography Why do some movies look better than others?

Christopher Lutes Arts &Entertainment Editor Just about everybody loves seeing a good movie. Though a person’s experience is tied to many different factors, it generally boils down to whether or not the viewer can relate to what they’re seeing on screen and how fully they become immersed in this imaginary world. This is contingent on factors that the average audience member can easily identify: Acting, plot, and visual effects. But the connection also depends on a network of things that happen on-screen but largely go unnoticed—this known as the cinematography.

Cinematography comprises nearly everything about the visual ‘feel’ of a movie that is not explicitly part of the story, from the size of the screen, to the lighting, to what is and isn’t in focus on camera. Every light placement, every colour filter used, every lens chosen is the result of a series of active decisions made by the director and the cinematographer (usually listed as the director of photography in the credits).

The goal of their work is to use their tools in a way that best compliments the movie.

Film 101 Film stock is the medium that, until the early 21st century, was the only way for movies to be recorded and shown to an audience. Film stock is a layer of thin plastic known as celluloid and is coated on one side with a gelatin solution. Suspended in that solution are tiny crystals of silver halide—light-sensitive particles—that capture an imprint of an image after the light that passes through a camera lens hits it. The film is then treated with a developing solution that reduces the silver halide to elemental metal, and the images captured on the camera become visible to the naked eye.

The number of silver halide layers applied and how the film is developed both play a role in the film’s final look. Standard blackand-white film uses only one halide layer (called an emulsion layer) while colour film requires three layers (cyan, yellow, and magenta).

The chemical composition of those layers can differ widely between different brands of film in terms of the distribution of halide particles (this is responsible for how grainy the film looks), the stock’s sensitivity to light, and the proportions of chemicals used in

each layer, resulting in the overor under-saturation of certain colours. These differences can be be further influenced by how the film is actually developed.

Exposure time, the developing solution used, and the temperature of the developing chemicals are all tools the cinematographer can use to give the film the look that best complements the movie it is a part of. For instance, to fully convey the bleak intensity of the storming of Normandy beach in Saving Private Ryan (1998), Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski intentionally skipped a step in the developing process so that the silver halide outweighed the colour emulsion, giving the film a greyer, less colourful tone.

Film stock The width of the film stock is also important to how a film looks onscreen. Many studio films like Citizen Kane (1941), Vertigo (1958), and Pulp Fiction (1994) were shot using 35mm film stock, meaning the width of a frame of film was 35 millimeters in diameter. This was used because it had a high enough resolution—the wider the film stock, the higher the resolution— to be shown on a theatre screen.

Lower grades of film, 8mm and 16mm, were used for home movies and educational films, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum is 70mm, the widest and most cinematic format.

Used mainly in IMAX films today, 70mm was once synonymous with what now considered blockbusters.

Expensive films like Ben-Hur (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) were shot on 70mm film to give them a feeling of broadened scope and epicness.

Since the amount of physical space that the camera can capture is doubled from that of standard film, filmmakers can convey the grandiosity of a crowd scene or the desolation of the vast Sinai desert in a way that 35mm can’t.

Due to its high cost, 70mm film went out of fashion even before traditional 35mm film followed suit.

Digital vs. Analog The combination of the high cost of film stock and the increased resolution that digital photography is capable of exhibiting have made traditional methods of film all but obsolete.

In many ways, this is a good thing: Since spooling film requires a certain amount of bulk,

Top: Silver halide is used in traditional film to develop images. Bottom: Directors like Quentin Tarantino have returned to this to improve cinematographic effects. (Top: photo.tutsplus.com, bottom: cdn3.vox-cdn.com)

70 mm film is still used in IMAX theatres. (imgur.com) and therefore makes the camera harder to move, the presence of digital cameras has allowed filmmaking to become more dynamic in its movement.

The decreased cost of filming with a digital camera combined with the low price of high-quality cameras has greatly democratized cinema, allowing anybody with a modest budget to create a professional-looking film. For instance, Tangerine , a 2015 critical favourite, was shot entirely on an iPhone but looks as sharp as any studio film released last year. The digitization of cinema has also

allowed for the preservation and restoration of old film—film stock, which can be captured by a computer and digitally restored, usually through a process of painstakingly digitally removing imperfections caused by the degradation of time.

Despite the benefits of digital, a few purist directors like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese have been very vocal about their preference of traditional film, with Tarantino going as far as calling digital “the death of cinema.” They believe that “something special”

is lost with the transition, and they may have a point. There’s an inexplicable warmth to the graininess of old films in the same way vinyl records have a certain feeling that digital music doesn’t.

Films like Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight are designed to make the audience more aware of cinematographic effects. But the truth is that very few people actually notice the difference between digital and film. So as long as cinema continues to reinvent itself, maybe it is okay that these techniques continue to change.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Surfing the Korean Wave

How K-pop is taking over the world

Harry Kim Contributor Continued from page 1.

After initially gaining huge popularity in the East Asian market, K-pop started attracting international attention in the mid 2000s. Groups such as Girl’s Generation and Wonder Girls managed to attract North American crowds. Arguably, the release of Gangnam Style by PSY in 2012 launched K-pop into the global phenomenon it is today.

Generating a record-breaking million views per day in the first weeks of its release, the comedy song served to many as an introduction to K-pop and South Korean culture in general.

Since then, dozens of groups have gained popularity, and the industry has been becoming more and more lucrative.

The rise of K-pop is reflected in the evolution of Korean cultural and economic identity. Ever since the end of the Korean War in 1953, South Korea has been obsessed with escaping poverty and proving to the world that the tiny nation can indeed rise from the rubble. Economic growth was prioritized over democracy during years of military dictatorship: During his 19-year rule from 1961 to his assassination in 1979, president Park Jung Hee enforced a strict military rule, while establishing longterm economic plans that focused on industrialization, increasing exports, and technological advancements.

This eventually led to “The Miracle on the Han River,” an economic phenomenon that rapidly increased the national GDP from $800 million in the 1970s, to $85 billion by the 1990s. It was during this period that large corporations known as Chaebol (multinational business conglomerates), such as Hyundai and Samsung, rose to economic and political power. During this period, South Korean nuclear families were taught to be efficient, to be productive, and to strive for success and growth.

Decades of government propaganda, accompanied by a sudden economic growth spurt, may have engrained into the Korean identity an ultra-capitalistic, nationalist mindset, evident in the world of K-pop today. Accordingly, the movement has become a giant industry driven by profit and success.

The superstars themselves are highly manufactured: Behind the flashy music videos and unblemished looks, many of the stars sign a multi-year contract with a record label in their early teens, and receive years of training, while their identity is shaped by multiple managers, assistants, choreographers etc. The treatment of stars is a controversial issue, with little of the profits actually going into the performer’s hands. Those who do not make it to the big stage are confined as “trainees,” living

Group uniforms are just one of the ways K-pop reinforces a culture of conformity. (hophdimg.com)

K-pop performers are known as “idols,”and are often under the complete control of their managers. (revelwallpapers.com)

CL of 2NE1 is one K-pop star who has successfully gotten global fame both within her group and as a solo artist. (yellowslugreviews.com) in cramped apartments, dreaming of a chance to see the spotlight. In particular, three major labels, SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment, sign contracts with young stars-to-be, and make sure during their training that they maintain a certain persona.

The fact that the label has so much

control over every aspect of a band means there is little room for creative development.

It seems that South Korean culture itself was hit hardest by all the international attention. Besides controversies surrounding the industry itself, the by-products of its popularity produced unhealthy, if not

alarming, shifts to the cultural identity.

South Korea is a demographically homogeneous country, with low rates of immigration and a long history of isolationist policies.

However, it seems that due to the advent of K-pop, South Korea is also becoming more and more culturally homogeneous, preferring conformity

over individuality. South Korea now has the highest ratio of plastic surgeries per capita in the world: Cosmetic surgery is becoming a casual concept, comparable to putting on makeup. Hundreds of cosmetic centres advertise the ‘ideal image’ of K-pop stars and the importance of adhering to beauty standards; when roaming the busy streets of downtown Seoul, it is often difficult to tell the difference between people.

Musically, melody and lyricism have become lesser components, while catchy beats and dance patterns are prioritized. Many songs sound very similar, since they are produced by the same cookie-cutter mold of large record label companies. K-pop has become self-aware: The song “Rhythm Ta” by IKON says, “This is just a song so get on the rhythm.”

If one categorizes K-pop as pop music, it can be argued that it is a reflection of current trends, and it purposefully emphasizes dance and rhythm rather than lyricism. Further, K-pop is a good representation of the current YouTube generation: visually-appealing music videos are as important, if not more, than the musical content itself. In that sense, K-pop is thriving and taking advantage of popular social media to spread across the world. It goes without saying, there are many artists and songs that do have artistic qualities and are unique. Even though many South Korean bands are arising as indie groups in the musical underground, it is very rare for them to match the international attention of K-pop stars.

The advent of K-pop is a musical phenomenon that introduced South Korean culture to the world.

Today, people from all around the world enjoy the music and shows produced by the enormous industry which is booming more than ever and continuing to grow and match the public’s desires. The rise of K-pop seems to be a reflection of the people’s drive for progress during Korea’s economic growth throughout the 20th century, and thus, K-pop will continue to evolve.

Today, there are many facets of Korean culture as artistically rich and varied as any other that are shrouded by the flashy lights of K-pop. The rich history of Korea, a tiny 5000-year-old nation, developed a unique culture that is still relatively unknown to the world. Today, Seoul is continuing to grow as the trendsetting capital of Asia, with events such as Seoul Fashion Week and K-pop concerts attracting more and more people every year. The growing popularity is helping to expose other cultural aspects such as the food scene and architecture to the public. Hopefully, K-pop will not only serve as popular entertainment, but act as a beacon that can introduce South Korea’s rich and vast history to the world.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

14 EXHIBIT REVIEW Emma Whitehall Contributor Walking into the opening party for the No Gender art exhibit at NEVERAPART gallery, there was an undeniable atmosphere of community and celebration. This immediate sense of excitement was juxtaposed with the seriousness of what was on display.

For artist Sylvain Tremblay, the concept behind the No Gender exhibit was sparked 15 years ago on a trip to an orphanage in Vietnam. It was there that he witnessed doctors making the decision as to whether an intersex baby would receive surgery to make them a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl.’

People who may be born with both male and female reproductive organs often have significantly life-altering surgery on the basis of a decision made by doctors and parents, which can often be completely random. This phenomenon struck a cord with Tremblay, who felt that these babies have their gender and sex simultaneously assigned at a point in their lives when it is impossible to know whom they will eventually become.

This experience set Tremblay on a journey around the world meeting people with similar stories, culminating in the extraordinary exhibit.

On display were massive pieces of modern art surrounding the issue

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

N o Gen d er b y S y lVain T remb l ay of the binary gender system and the tragic effects it can have on individuals who know that they do not fit into this system. Repeated illusions to something being out of place within the binary gender system were utilized, such as gender-ambiguous bodies and textual representations of chromosomal combinations outside the standard XX female or XY male classifications.

Tremblay even confronted the social maneuverings of gender with a shocking canvas covered in children’s toys, which are usually gendered as being for boys or for girls. These toys were splattered with red paint.

“For this project, as an artist, I decided to use the colour red, like blood, because blood is the life and the death too,” Tremblay explained. “I decided to take a direction that would shock the people, because they have nudity, blood, and essentially, it would be really tough to see[....] Maybe people won’t like it, but they will remember.”

The paintings in the gallery are also supported with a contemporary film that plays on loop in a dark room to further expand on the arbitrary nature of gender assignment and challenge the visitors.

“The video is really important, because in the video, you travel all around the world to show people that there really isn’t just one way people

F r o m T h e View p o int

No Gender raises important criticisms about society’s binary conceptions of gender. (Photo courtesy of NEVERAPART) are,” Tremblay said. “I am not an expert, and I do not pretend to be an expert; I use my artistic—if you will—talents, to express people’s stories.”

Cigosi, a gender-neutral friend of Tremblay who attended the opening, elaborated on the topic of mutilation as a source of tragic inspiration.

“The sad part is, mutilation is not a temporary thing,” Cigosi explained.

“You know, once you remove a little baby’s penis, or sew up their vagina, it’s done. When the young person grows up and believes philosophically that they have to fit into the binary gender system,

and makes a decision […] and does all those changes to themselves […] they can become suicidal.”

The exhibit truly challenges the mind and forces audiences to acknowledge how incredibly gendered the smallest interactions in our daily lives remain. As with any social justice issue, the root of inappropriate reactions stem from a lack of understanding— one that is not surprising given that a large portion of the population does not experience the same struggle, although this does not make it any more warranted to ignorance.

Tremblay hopes that when people experience exhibits such as this one, they will ask questions and learn as much as they can about the topic, which will open up the possibility for more informed and sensitive discussions.

As Tremblay succinctly expresses, his motives come from a place of empathy and care for the world we live in.

“You, and me, and everybody want to live in a society where everybody is included,” he said.

No Gender will remain open to the public at the NEVERAPART Gallery (7049 Rue St. Urbain) until April 2.

A nn A rb o r fi l m festi v a l

Alfie Crooks Contributor As a newcomer to art house cinema, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Ann Arbor Film Festival’s screening of 13 short films by independent filmmakers at Cinémathèque Québécois on Saturday night. It could have been the hushed atmosphere of a dimly lit room, or maybe the fact that everyone around me seemed to hold an uncanny resemblance to my parents, but I thought I was in for a relatively smooth cinematic experience.

I was naively preparing for a cozy screening when the lights went down and the screen lit up with the ominous title A Symptom written backwards.

This image was accompanied by music closely resembling a radiator heating up, prompting the settling ambiance to stumble out the back of the cinema in a nervous wreck.

A Symptom continued to intimidate the viewer into submission with the subtlety of Mike Tyson. Shot on 16mm old-school film, the movie exists in a grainy black-and-white quality. More backwards subtitles were thrown onto the screen, playing over the movement of a mystery mouth that refused to run in sync with the encrypted sentences below it. This was intercut with a scene of something resembling a Christmas tree decoration hanging in an empty white room covered in grid lines, while the camera violently shook

An experimental shot from A Symptom intimidates the viewer by placing them in an unfamiliar context. (aafilmfest.org) from side to side. While there was an element of utter chaos that encapsulated the short, it wasn’t meaningless. It was evident that the director wanted the audience to strain and struggle to read the text, exhibiting the power of cinematography; however, not all of the shorts necessarily held this coherence.

Throughout the 13-short compilation, there were a number of films which truly made me question whether all of this was just going over my head. These mystifying films ranged from somewhat simplistic to positively absurd. I’m sure that if I had the ability to talk to the directors themselves I would

have appreciated the pieces more, but without that, I felt lost. Whether it was a film comprised entirely of different black and white angle shots of a wind turbine played in black and white to the tune of shrieking violins, or old war clips fading in and out of Hindu imagery, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something. Was there some sort of satire to these pieces? Was I just not looking close enough? The phrase stranger than fiction came to mind, and at certain junctures, it really felt like I was in some sort of parody of what arthouse cinema is.

That being said, there were

also a number of points when I was truly captivated by these shorts. The absurdity and barbarity of seeing a peacock defeathered and stuffed by a taxidermist was somehow horrific, beautiful, and fascinating film. Certain shorts shied away from novel themes completely to great effect. One director laid bare her personal life as she ran voice messages from her parents over clips of her trip to New York, capturing both the romance and the grit of the city.

The Ann Arbor Film Festival presented the works of only amateur

filmmakers, giving these hopeful professionals an arena in which to showcase their art. Its website notes that the festival is “a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists” and has featured the likes of George Lucas in its past. For such a prestigious organization with an ability to stay relevant, it was only fitting that this year’s edition finished with a clip of a pineapple set alight.

On occasion it was weird, but it also could be beautiful and rich, and it consistently refused to be boring. One has to appreciate it for simply that.

PO I N T C O U N T E RPO I N T

15

Sports

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Super bowl PREVIEW

Super Bowl 50 will be an intriguing matchup. Will the seemingly unstoppable Carolina Panthers run away with the title or will Peyton Manning lead his Denver Broncos to victory and finish his career with a second ring? Our contributors weigh in...

SupermanSuperman and the Sheriff faceSheriff off indo Superbowl (Photo courtesy Chris Keane / Reuters) and the battle in 50.

Superbowl 50. (ChrisofKeane/Reuters/Corbis)

DENVER BRONCOS

CAROLINA PANTHERS

The criminally underrated Denver Broncos are a good matchup to beat the The 17-1 Carolina Panthers have been closer to perfection than any NFL team this season, and Carolina Panthers going into Super Bowl 50. Their defence and discipline are perfect their trajectory points towards a very rare 18-1 season. They are complete—balanced yet explosive on to stop the explosive Panthers. offence, ballhawks on defence, and relentlessly energetic in their overall approach.

This year’s Broncos team has managed to change to a defensive-minded identity The team is led by arguably the most unique coach-quarterback tandem in Ron “Riverboat Ron” without losing a step in effectiveness. In just one year, Head Coach Gary Kubiak Rivera and Cam Newton. The two men made it clear throughout this season that they were going to and Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips have put together one of the best defences approach the sport with a commitment to playing and coaching their natural games—it has resulted in of the decade. The Panthers will face an insurmountable roadblock in the Broncos a beautifully organic product on and off the field. The media have often perceived Rivera and Newton defence—they will have to contend with conerbacks Chris Harris Jr., Aqib Talib, and as abrasive—in reality they are just unapologetically confident in their abilities. Rivera has allowed Bradley Roby covering their unspectacular receiving corps. the team to take on the personality and swagger. At the same time, the drive to succeed that emanates The Broncos also have the league’s best pass rush, spearheaded by Von from Newton has spread to all of his teammates. Seeing the team “dabbing” and dancing on and off Miller and Demarcus Ware. Boasting a league best 199.6 yards per the field, posing for team photos on the sideline, and always having fun with post-game game allowed in passing, the Broncos’ secondary will swallow interviews has shown how relaxed and cohesive the team truly is. quarterback Cam Newton and his group of castoff and bargain Newton’s million-dollar smile is a microcosm of the Panthers’ playing bin free agent wide receivers. The Broncos also have a very style: Enthusiastic, confident, fun-loving, and passionate. No occasion underrated run defence—it is third in the league with 83.6 is too big for them. It is evident when watching them how much fun yards per game, and they should have very little issue they are having on the field with their teammates. As the saying goes, slowing down the Jonathan Stewart led rushing attack. winning is contagious. What opposing teams end up encountering is Granted, stats usually mean very little when a group who know how good they are, talk about how good they predicting how Carolina will play, as they dominated are, but also are very determined to prove it every game day. In the excellent Arizona Cardinals defence in the NFC that sense, they are reminiscent of the 2013-2014 Seahawks, the Conference Championship game, but things will be difference being that for Seattle that persona was largely just different at the Super Bowl. Cam will not be able on the defence was more dominant than their offence, whereas to break the pocket nearly as much as he is used Carolina has a game changer on both sides of the ball (Newton Carolina’s relentless presence on both sides of to because of the Broncos’ bountiful talents at the and Josh Norman). One cannot discount the injury that linebacker the ball will be too much for Denver to handle. All linebacker position—inside linebackers Brandon Thomas Davis suffered in the NFC Championship game, but the the necessary pieces are in place for Newton to Marshall and Danny Trevathan complement each rumours are that there’s a high chance he’ll return to the field come other very well. The grossly overlooked and underrated Super Bowl Sunday to reunite the devastating linebacker tandem he lead his team to victory.

Marshall is possibly the best coverage linebacker in the has with Luke Kuechly.

NFL, with two passes defended so far this postseason, Carolina has averaged 32.2 points so far this season, and, and he has also amassed more than 100 tackles this season. unbelievably, have scored at least 20 points in every game bar their week Trevathan, who is one of the best run stuffers in the league, also 15 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Therefore, as powerful as the Denver Broncos recorded over 100 tackles on the year. He is most likely going to be defence has been all year, they will be going up against a team that features an elite tasked with spying Cam Newton all game to prevent him from breaking dual threat quarterback brimming with confidence, a stable offensive line, and a couple the pocket and running. of absolute bruisers in the backfield.

If the defence is successful, the Denver offence should get a multitude of scoring Furthermore, the Carolina defence has proven time and time again that they can make huge opportunities. Led by Peyton Manning, this group has seen better days. Gone are plays, whether it be interceptions, pick 6’s, strip sacks, or fumble recoveries. Carolina had a regular the times when Manning would throw for five touchdowns and 400 yards in highseason turnover differential of +20, comfortably the best in the NFL, which resulted in multiple games scoring victories. The offence does not even aim to compete with the explosiveness where the defence put points up on the board. of its past. Fortunately, Denver only needs to be efficient on offence, and so far Denver, will not have enough firepower to overcome Carolina. Manning has shown an ability in the 2016 post-season that has been the case; Manning has not yet thrown an this year to work through deteriorated arm power and mobility; He will, however, be facing a defence interception in the post-season and has utilized an effective ground game to dominate that capitalizes on almost every mistake made. Broncos pass rushers Miller and Ware will make the clock, negotiating victories against the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England their presence felt this game, but Cam’s improved composure this year as well as his ever-present Patriots. Manning might have become just a game manager, but he is an smart one. elusiveness will give them a strong chance to counter-act the Broncos’ pass rush.

His purpose in the twilight of his career is to hand the ball off to running back CJ Expect a changing of the guard at this Super Bowl—the legendary Peyton Manning will pass the Anderson, get close enough for Brandon McManus to kick a field goal, and not mantle onto Cam Newton, who sports the number 1 jersey—it’s a fitting number choice as Newton’s throw interceptions. If Manning can accomplish those three things, then the Broncos team will finish with just one loss for the entire season, and will also finish number one in the NFL, should stop the upstart Carolina Panthers, and emerge victorious next Sunday. when they hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy high into the air to conclude Super Bowl 50.

Editors’ Pick

Carolina Panthers

— Arman Bery

— Joe Khammar

16

Sports

T r ac k and F ield

m a r t le t s

3rd-4th

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Red m en

McGill Team Challenge sees record breaking performances McGill athletes collect 12 medals in total, including three gold Nick Jasinski Sports Editor Dalhousie University went home with both the men’s and women’s titles at the 21st McGill Team Challenge, the largest indoor track and field meet in Canada. About 600 athletes from 15 universities competed on Friday and Saturday at Richard Tomlinson Fieldhouse with the Redmen placing fourth and the Martlets finishing third overall. The Dalhousie Tigers’ pair of wins are the first men’s title for the university and the second for the women’s team, who last won in 2005.

Dalhousie’s men’s and women’s teams each earned 13 medals.

Overall, McGill collected three gold, three silver, and six bronze medals between the Redmen and Martlets. This marks a significant improvement over last year’s McGill Team Challenge, when the Redmen finished sixth and the Martlets came in ninth overall. Fourthyear Assistant Coach Jim McDannald was proud of the way his teams ran in front of a home crowd.

“I thought they all performed well,” he said, “It definitely helps when you have better teams coming in and being at home. People want to perform well in front of friends and family.

Red m e N H o c k e y

Hosting this meet in Montreal gets athletes excited to go out there and have high quality performances.”

The best McGill performance came from senior Helena Reinfels in the women’s pentathlon.

Her gold medalwinning effort for 3,777 points beat both the meet and McGill records of 3,767 and 3,515 respectively.

The Redmen and Martlets placed third and fourth overall, respectively. (L-A Benoit / Mcgill Tribune) The Puslinch, Ontario-native also qualified for the 3000m with a time of 8:18.79, and team ran 7:43.05, less than five seconds 2016 CIS National Championship at senior Vincent Parent-Pichette, whose away from qualifying for Nationals York University in March, the only 2:25.51 1000m time set yet another and just short of the school record of McGill record. Jarry’s record replaces 7:41.90. Senior Riley van Ryswyk of competitor from McGill to do so. “[Reinfels’] high jump is a previously set record of 8:22.00 by Surrey, British Columbia cleared 4.79m something that she’s been working Francois Binette in 1990 and also earned in the pole vault, also just short of the CIS Championship qualifying mark of really hard on,” McDannald said. “That him a silver medal in the event.

Besides Reinfels’ stunning 4.83m. came through for her this weekend McGill’s final home meet of the and led to a big score and hopefully performance in the pentathlon, McGill she continues to progress through the won gold medals in the men’s 4x800m season is on Feb. 13, followed by the season and have the chance to end up on relay and the men’s pole vault. The championship portion of the season. the podium at CIS [championships] and Redmen team was composed of junior This year’s RSEQ Championship will Cody Rountree running first leg; be held at McGill on Feb. 26. have a similar performance.”

“We’re hoping this [is] a kind of Other strong performers from followed by juniors Ethan Wilkinson McGill included junior Francois and Benjamin Forestell; and finally a building block to some bigger things Jarry, who set a McGill record in the Parent-Pichette in the anchor leg. The down the road for us this season,”

M c G ill

3-2

McDannald said. “We encourage the McGill community to come out and support us.”

Quotable “I think our team is getting more mature. We’ve had younger teams the last couple of years and in track and field–especially in field events–the practice it takes to acquire the skill in those events just takes time. Having a strong core of veteran athletes that has stuck together and made a commitment to get better over the long term has led us to where we are this year.”–McDannald on his teams’ improvements over last year’s McGill Team Challenge

Stat corner Two fieldhouse records, three meet records, and three McGill records were set over the weekend.

Moment of the meet Reinfels’ pentathlon score of 3,777 is the best university women’s pentathlon in Canada so far this season and consists of a cumulative score in the 60 metre hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800 metre race.

Q ueen ’ s

Hockey: McGill extends streak over Queen’s in 31st straight victory Labrecque ties Redmen defenceman points record in a season by a Redmen defenceman.

Initially credited with breaking the record after recording helper on the final goal, Labrecque humbly corrected the statistician, saying he had not touched the puck in the play, giving credit to rookie forwards Christophe Lalonde and Daniel Milne.

“I actually don’t know what felt better,” Labrecque elaborated. “The win or the [record tying] point.”

Nicole Spadotto Staff Writer McGill (20-6-0) proved themselves the kings of Queen’s (148-0) as they propelled themselves past an early deficit to a 3-2 victory in front of 598 fans at the annual “Renew the Rivalry” hockey game. Centre Mathieu Pompei and defenceman Samuel Labrecque were the stars of the night, helping seal the Redmen’s 31st straight victory over the Gaels. The victory was all the more sweet after the Redmen lost two games this past week.

“We weren’t really concerned with momentum [after last week’s losses],” Redmen Head Coach Kelly Nobes clarified. “We were more focused on our process and how we were playing the game. We weren’t necessarily concerned about the outcome.”

The focus on the process came to fruition as the Redmen outplayed Queen’s from the onset. Queen’s, however, took an early lead in the first period due to some costly McGill turnovers—a scrambled goal in the crease from Andrew Wiebe and power play snapshot conversion from Patrick McGillis, both of Queen’s, put the Redmen down 2-0.

The tides turned in the second period, when the Redmen began to

Quotable McGill and Queens first played each other in hockey in 1895. (Emma Hameau / McGill Tribune) convert their control of the game into bona fide scoring opportunities. With McGill rookie goaltender Joe Fleschler standing strong, the team was able to focus almost exclusively on offence.

Samuel Labrecque cycled the puck to the hash marks to set up freshman defenceman Dominic Talbot-Tassi for a goal from the point to put McGill on the board. Graduate student Liam Heelis picked up the second helper. McGill further capitalized on their momentum when speedy forward Mathieu Pompei tied up the game at 17.55 after picking up a bad Queen’s turnover in the defensive zone, outskating the remaining Queen’s defender to get a breakaway, and shooting, in stride, glove-side to beat All-Canadian goaltender Kevin Baillie.

McGill sealed the victory in an exciting third period, during which they killed off three penalties, including a 5-on-3. Pompei, coming up strong once again for McGill, slammed the puck home after it popped free from a scrum behind the net. A late powerplay for Queen’s with 8.9 seconds left looked like it could be a late surge gamechanger, but the Redmen held on to break their two game losing streak and reassert their position at the top of the standings, tied with UQTR for points.

“Despite going down 2-0, when we could have had a really big let up, we pushed back and we showed a lot of character,” Nobes said of the victory.

With his assist, CIS points leader Labrecque tied the record for most points

“We set objectives for tonight’s game in eight different categories and we looked at our game in those eight categories and I felt that we did well in those categories. I think that’s what probably pleased the coaching staff the most. It’s a good sign for things to come.” – Nobes on the Redmen’s process and how it will benefit the team as playoffs begin this month.

Stat corner McGill outshot the Gaels 56 to 28, dominating offensively throughout the match.

Play of the game Pompei’s

breakaway

to

tie

the game not only gave McGill the momentum they needed, but also showcased his skating prowess as he out-sprinted a flat footed Gaels defender to release a quick in-stride shot that found the twine over the glove of a dazed Bailie.