McGill Tribune Vol. 35, Issue 16

The McGill Tribune TUesday, January 26, 2016 curiosity delivers

Volume No. 35 Issue No. 16

Editorial: SSMU Winter 2016 Special Referendum Endorsements pg. 05

feature: Sponsoring a community: the story of a refugee student at m c gill pg. 08 - 09

m c gilltribune.com @m c gilltribune

Off the board

Kevin O’Leary’s legacy of ashes Christopher Lutes Arts & Entertainment Editor

from the cheap seats

The McGill Woodsmen sawing away at the competition. (Julia Conzon / McGill Tribune)

56th Woodsmen Competition leaves crowd pining for more Elie Waitzer Contributor It was a perfect day for chopping wood. The crisp cold made the lumberjacks and lumberjills grip their axes tighter and the crowd huddled closely on the hard-packed ground breathing lungfuls of pine air. Kids climbed on snow mounds and men sipped coffee from their thermoses. In the distance, some students on cross country skis set off across the wide snowy fields of

MacDonald Campus.

The teams hunched over, primed to start their chopping, and the emcee counted down the start of the 56th annual Intercollegiate Woodsmen Competition.

The Canadian Intercollegiate Lumberjacking Association (CILA) holds four major events each year and the team with the most cumulative points is crowned the overall winner. On Saturday, McGill competed against Dalhousie, Sir Sanford Fleming College,

Algonquin College, University of New Brunswick, and Dartmouth College in the second to last event of the season. The stakes were high, but Sebastian Latraverse, a third-year student in the farm management and technology program at MacDonald campus, was loose and limber among the lumber.

“We practice every morning at six a.m., we do cardio, run through our events, [... and] basically just chop wood,” he said.

Despite the pressure and the

cold, every athlete competing was completely at home–especially when swinging an axe with all their might at a block of wood between their boots, or steadying a log with their bare fingers inches from a chainsaw.

They held their axes in their hands with the easy comfort of a baseball player holding a bat, like extensions of their own bodies; but while a bat can only hit a ball, an axe can keep you warm and give you shelter.

Dragon. Shark. Mr. Wonderful.

These are all nicknames of Canadian entrepreneur and TV personality Kevin O’Leary, the unfiltered personification of capitalistic inhumanity. More than usual, he has been artificially inserting himself into the nation’s headlines. O’Leary has offered the tidy sum of $1 million in investment to the Alberta energy sector in exchange for Premier Rachel Notley’s resignation—surely a panacea to counteract the estimated $5 billion that the Canadian economy has already lost with the drop in oil prices. Now, there are murmurs that he may run in the upcoming Conservative leadership race.

At first pass, it might seem like a good fit: O’Leary has the name recognition of a Donald Trump, but he’s also poised himself as some sort of paragon of fiscal pragmatism. But to understand why this isn’t remotely true, one need only dig a bit into his history.

After getting an MBA at Western University and working in the sexy world of cat food marketing for Nabisco, O’Leary founded SoftKey International, a children’s game software company behind such classic titles as “Shelley Duvall’s Tales of Digby the Dog” and “Solitaire Antics.” O’Leary’s strategy of packaging SoftKey’s titles as superfluous freeware with paid software or selling them at bargain basement prices eventually worked well enough that SoftKey was able to acquire The Learning Company (TLC) in 1995.

PG. 15

PG. 06

Campaigning for SSMU special referendum sees controversy Motions include $5.50 base fee increase, creation of seventh exec position Regina Wung Contributor Campaigning for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter term Special Referendum is now in full swing, with the polling period fast approaching. This semester, SSMU

Council has put forward two questions for consideration: One concerns a $5.50 increase in the mandatory SSMU base fee while the other proposes the creation of a seventh SSMU executive position, vice-president (VP) Operations. The two questions are independent of one another,

allowing students to vote for one and against the other, if they so wish.

The special referendum involves a $5.50 increase in mandatory SSMU membership fees per semester. If passed, fulltime students in the faculties of Arts, Architecture, Education,

Engineering, Music, Management, Nursing, Physical & Occupational Therapy, Science, and Arts & Science will see their fees increased from $44.75 to $50.25 per term, and part-time students in the same faculties will see their fees increased from $22.44 to $27.94 per term. In the facul-

ties of Law, Religious Studies, Dentistry, and Medicine, fees will rise from $33.56 to $39.06 per semester for full-time students, and from $16.83 to $22.33 per semester for part-time students.

PG. 04

2

NEWS Starvation in Canada: Food insecurity in the north

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

More effort needed to improve indigenous health, speakers say Ashley Kong Contributor On Jan 22, the Comparative Healthcare Systems Program (CHSP), a student initiative dedicated to study of public health and comparative healthcare, hosted a public health symposium on the theme of indigenous health. Speakers addressed food security and healthcare services in northern Canada, noting the alarming situations in indigenous communities in the north.

According to Associate Professor of wildlife biology at McGill University, Murray Humphries, people living in the north often suffer from food insecurity.

“Almost 10 per cent of the [Canadian] population [has] moderate to severe levels of food insecurity,” he explained.

“In Nunavut, it’s 36 per cent.

More than one in three households are in this state.”

Humphries shared his recent personal experience with limited food options during his time working on a research project in Old Crow, Yukon. “[There’s] only one place to purchase food,” he said. “Ten dollars for [a carton of] milk, $26 for [a jug of orange] juice, $16 for apples.”

Katarina Kunhert - U1 Sustainability, Science, and Society - lived in Inuvik, Northwest Territories when she was a toddler.

“In Inuvik in the 1990s, a box of mandarin oranges would cost $25 […] and it’s half rotten because it took so long to get there,” she recalled. “In Tuktoyatuk, which is an island a little bit further north, […] the same box of oranges cost $50, but now three-quarters of it is rotten [.…] If you were to buy the same box of oranges in Edmonton, then it would cost $6 and they’d all be perfect.”

According to Humphries, official statistics often do not reflect regional disparities between the northern and southern regions of provinces. The south is populated mostly by settlers, while the north is populated mostly by indigenous people.

“The higher rates [in the north] are often concealed by the provincial averages,” Humphries explained. “Given that the statistics are particularly alarming for Nunavut, then probably it’s equally as bad in portions of Northwest Territories, Yukon, and especially the northern prairie provinces, northern Ontario, and northern Quebec.”

Currently, the Canadian

federal government recognizes three main categories of Aboriginal Peoples: Inuit, First Nations, and Metis.

About 1.4 million people in Canada identify as Aboriginal.

John Pringle, nurse and epidemiologist with a PhD in public health and bioethics explained that health is not only about physical well-being, and that food security is not only about having enough food. “[There are] appalling rates of diabetes, suicides, substance abuse in these [indigenous] communities,” he said. “In [the] Northern Stores [grocery chain], it’s ridiculous how expensive food is; but you know, pop and chips are always on sale.”

According to Humphries, one of the leading causes of food insecurity in the north is difficult transportation.

“Railways and roads in Canada […] are surprisingly restricted to the south,” Humphries

Experts discuss food insecurity in indigenous communities in Canada. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune) in the north are currently oligopolized by a small number of corporations. Without competition, food prices stay high.

“The connection between food pricing and transporta-

like ‘Feed My Family,’ protesting [...] the cost of northern foods. Many communities are looking to generate their own cooperatives and food supplies, trying to put the costs down.”

Infographic by Domitille Biehlmann said. “You see vast portions of Canada that are outside the realm of roads or real access.

Some [parts] of [the north] are served by winter roads. These are the vast regions of the country that don’t get all-season access.”

Food procurement and retail

tion costs is complicated,” Humphries said. “In the north, Northern Stores is affiliated with the Hudson’s Bay [....] However, northern residents are already protesting and organizing initiatives to curtail the monopoly [....] A lot of people in the north […] formed Facebook groups

Humphries also drew attention to the lack of health services for people living in northern parts of Canada.

“In Old Crow, there’s a nursing station,” he said. “The doctor comes once a month.

Most people who require hospitalization will go to Whitehorse,

Vancouver, or Edmonton.”

Pringle, who worked at a nursing station serving First Nations communities in the Great Lakes District in Manitoba during the early 2000s, pointed out that services for Aboriginal Peoples are not only scarce, but also severely underfunded and short-handed.

“We should have [had] five nurses in that station, but we had two,” Pringle said. “We worked clinics all day and we were on call for emergencies all night, so there were times that we just never slept for days [....]

We were getting burnt out. The nurse that worked with me actually died of a heart attack.”

Pringle remarked that the nurses working in these stations are often inexperienced. “[When] I just graduated from nursing [school …] I called Health Canada and they paid for me to […] work for at least a year in a First Nations nursing station,” he said. “Of course, when I leave [the Great Lakes District,] they’ll stick some naïve, young nurse to take over for me.”

At the end of the symposium, Pringle encouraged students in healthcare-related programs to join in the course of improving Canadian health services.

“Issues like these are seldom discussed in the academic world,” he said. “But really, we lose the radical reasons [for why] we want to be health professionals in the first place [.…]

Keep the fire burning.”

3

NEWS

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

SSMU considering new provincial student federations, AVEC and UÉQ Membership to be presented to student body in Winter Referendum Sara Cullen Staff Writer The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) has been involved in the early formation of two new provincial student associations. A formal presentation by each of the organizations, L’Union Étudiants du Quebec (UÉQ) and the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ), will be given at the Jan. 28 SSMU Council meeting, after which one will be chosen to be presented to the student body and voted on during the regular Winter Referendum period.

Two main student federations, the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) and the Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Quebec (FÉUQ) currently exist in Quebec. In the early 1990s, McGill was one of the founding members of the FÉUQ, but has since joined and left three times. As a result, McGill has not been affiliated with a student federation since 2006 and is looking to join either UÉQ or AVEQ. Both federations are relatively new, and SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Emily Boytinck has been involved in their formation.

“UÉQ has mainly focused this semester on the associations who are affiliating,” Boytinck said. “They ran a couple of affiliation campaigns, some of them passed, some of them didn’t. UÉQ […] wanted to essentially focus more on getting people affiliated first and then [work] towards developing policies whereas AVEQ has taken the opposite approach, so I’ve been really active with AVEQ this semester.”

Problems with the FÉUQ stemmed from the proportional voting system, which allowed for larger organizations to easily dominate the council. Despite SSMU being the fourth largest association in Quebec, membership was not ideal, according to Boytinck.

“As an anglophone association, you just don’t have nearly as much power within these organizations,” Boytinck said. “[This] is why, when I was helping with the formation [of the other federations], I really pushed for an equalization of power at the congresses among sizes [...] so that every association was able to have their voice heard.”

Boytinck noted that the FÉUQ and ASSÉ have different approaches to student representation.

“The ASSÉ is notably the most radical [federation]; it does a lot of grassroots mobilization, and was super active in the 2012

strike,” Boytinck said. “[And] then you have the FÉUQ which was very government-oriented and very focused on the more corporatist channels. Those two are such fundamentally different approaches to advocating on behalf of students that they did conflict a whole lot.”

Boytinck stated that UÉQ and AVEQ are a good middle-ground between the FÉUQ and ASSÉ. “[At] SSMU […] we do a lot of mobilization, but we also want something legitimate and representable to the government,” Boytinck said. “[SSMU] was so in between it didn’t make a lot of sense [to join FÉUQ or ASSÉ....]

I think it will benefit the whole student movement if there is a good mobilizer—something in between, and something that focuses a lot on the more corporatist lobbying aspect.”

UÉQ and AVEQ differ in their voting schemes, with UÉQ adopting a double-majority system and AVEQ following a oneassociation-one-vote scheme.

“The UÉQ has pushed for what they call a ‘double majority system,’ so it goes through a semiproportional vote first and then it goes through a one association, one vote,” Boytinck said. “So it has to go through both to pass. The only problem I saw [with that] is that is still gives big associations the power to combine their voices and act as sort of gatekeepers.”

UÉQ and AVEQ also have different fee levies. UÉQ will cost

When I was helping with the formation [of the other federations], I really pushed for an equalization of power at the congresses among sizes [...] so that every association was able to have their voice heard.

students $4.50 per student per semester, and AVEQ will cost $3.50 per student per semester.

In order to inform the various student societies at McGill

Infographic by Domitille Biehlmann

about the two federations prior to the referendum period, Boytinck has presented both the UÉQ and AVEQ at faculty association council meetings across campus.

Arts Senator Erin Sobat explained that Boytinck outlined the importance of affiliating with a provincial student federation at the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) Council last semester.

Sobat additionally noted that affiliating with a provincial federation would have helped SSMU in November when submitting a question regarding international student tuition deregulation to the McGill Senate. “[McGill is] actually lobbying the government for deregulation and so if we are concerned about our students and how that will impact them, it’s difficult for us to lobby McGill on that,” Sobat said. “Currently we are missing that voice for the provincial government to be able to have an impact or an influence on policy.”

Nicolas Lavallée, secretarygeneral of the Fédération des Associations Étudiantes du Campus de L’Université de Montréal (FAÉCUM), commented on the organization’s role in creating UÉQ. “First of all, we were looking

for a credible organization to carry students’ voices to government officials,” Lavallée said. “We were looking for a goal-oriented organization that prioritizes education, research and students’ living standards. UÉQ represents for us an association that advocates with research-based arguments.”

Although Boytinck will continue to work with the UÉQ and AVEQ this semester, SSMU has not financially endorsed or fully committed to either federation as of yet.

“SSMU notably has not put any money towards either association, which meant that for UÉQ, we didn’t actually have a vote or a seat on the board right away,” Boytinck said. “I’m going […] to one of the first big [UÉQ] meetings in Quebec City this weekend.

It’ll be the first time I get an update back, and I think that then [...] we’ll get to start working on some policies [...] which is good because I do think that SSMU members want to know what we’re affiliating to.”

Last spring, UÉQ hired fulltime coordinators for their federation. AVEQ had not hired any fulltime staff until recently.

“AVEQ, just last weekend actually, hired [staff]. They had

some money inflowing because they had their first affiliation with the Concordia Student Union,” Boytinck said.

After hearing from both federations on Jan. 28, SSMU Council will take an informal vote on which federation will be presented to students on the Winter Referendum. The federation may be selected by Feb. 11, and one question will be submitted for approval. “[When Council votes on [the federations] they’re going to be voting on whether or not it’s a fair question to pose to students in the referendum—not whether or not we support it as a Council.”

Sobat said.

Sobat commented on the likelihood of selecting one federation over the other.

“I would say that given the trends between anglophone and francophone schools, and smaller and larger associations, [...] the AVEQ looks more like an association […] that the SSMU would move to join,” Sobat said. “But the first [vote] is the SSMU Council’s, and that’s a unique decision; it’s never really happened that there’s been two [federations] at the same time.”

4

NEWS

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Campaigning for SSMU special referendum sees controversy Motions include $5.50 base fee increase, creation of seventh exec position Regina Wung Contributor Continued from page 1.

According to Zacheriah Houston, SSMU VP Finance and Operations, the funding from this increase will be invested in student services, and will extend the clubs fund by $25,000 as well as reduce the cost of the leases of Independent Student Groups (ISG) by 15 per cent.

“The $5.50 increase will generate approximately $245,000 in annual revenue,” Houston said. “This additional revenue will go primarily towards increasing SSMU’s support for student groups, growth in mental health programming, and a greater focus on space improvements in the SSMU Building.”

According to Houston, without the fee increase, the services and improvements that SSMU Council have promised will have to be revoked, and students will potentially face cuts to services.

“If the referendum question does not pass, […] we will need to make approximately $100,000 in cuts to the next year’s operating budget,” he said. “These cuts will primarily involve reduced salaries, which translates into fewer available student staff positions and cuts to fulltime salaries. These staffing cuts would result in reduced service, including slower room booking approvals and funding disbursements, and the continuation of overburdened executives who are inaccessible and unable to fulfill their campaign commitments.”

According to Houston, an increase in fees now will be able to sustain the SSMU over the next decade. In his opinion, students will not need to expect

further increases in membership fees if the $5.50 increase passes.

“The reason that the fee needs to be increased now is that the SSMU has grown dramatically over the last 10 years,

With a team that burns out annually and is stretched very thin, each portfolio consistently features areas in which not enough energy [is] dedicated, simply due to the sheer volume.

and we now have reached a point where we need to slow the growth of the SSMU and ensure that its current operations are sustainable,” he explained. “I do not think the fee will need to be increased again for as long as the SSMU’s operations remain relatively constant; I imagine this will be the case for at least the next 10 years.”

However, some students feel that the proposed increase is unnecessary. A “Vote ‘NO’ to the SSMU Membership Fee Increase!” Facebook event page has been created in opposition to the “Yes” Campaign’s own Facebook event page. A thread organized by the SSMU executives on Reddit has received a number of negative comments

on the subject of the proposed membership fee increase. Many express a lack of confidence in SSMU’s contributions to student life. After reading through the referendum, U2 Economics student Fanta Kamara voiced her reluctance to consent to the fee increase.

“I do not think it is needed,” said Kamara. “We pay about $44 per semester in fees already—not including the extra charges for SSMU groups and activities such as the SSMU Equity Fee, Environment Fee, University Centre Fee [....] I’m not complaining about those charges because I think it’s all worthy; I just don’t see the need for an extra $5.50 per semester.”

The second question in this term’s referendum calls for the establishment of a seventh SSMU executive position. If passed, the VP Finance and Operations position will be split into two separate positions. According to the motion regarding the restructuring of executive portfolios, SSMU executives work upwards of 85 hours each week, although they are only contracted to work a maximum of 70 hours per week. Jennifer Moh, U3 Economics and International Development Studies, sympathizes with the SSMU Executive Council.

“Seeing that SSMU executives work 85 hours a week, I would be for adding another [executive],” said Moh. “An average person works roughly 40 hours a week and SSMU execs are working double that.”

For SSMU President Kareem Ibrahim, the introduction of a new executive is the most efficient solution to alleviating the current executive’s workload and serving the students.

“With a team that burns out annually and is stretched very

thin, each portfolio consistently features areas in which not enough energy [is] dedicated, simply due to the sheer volume to which they have all grown,” he said. “SSMU’s capacity to deliver adequate services and satisfy student needs depends on a well-functioning executive team which is neither overburdened, nor with poor mental or physical health.”

According to Ibrahim, in the event that the proposal to create a new executive position is rejected, the alternative options that remain mainly involve cutting student services.

“Services that our students have come to rely on will have to be reduced in volume, and wait times and costs associated with these services will likely

Proposed fee increase

Infographic by Domitille Biehlmann

increase,” he said. “Another option we could explore is to hire more student staff, but this is not a great solution either, as these staff need to be trained and actively supervised; both of these tasks require a great deal of people-power, something which the SSMU is lacking at the moment.”

Based on the proposed structure of executive portfolios, the changes that would be taking place if the referendum were passed are relatively subtle.

Kamara questioned whether the current structure necessitated change.

“There is a lot of overlap between [the proposed] VP Operations and other positions, which makes me slightly skeptical of the need for it, but I believe that a new SSMU position should be created if it increases the efficiency of SSMU,” she said.

SSMU Council was mandated to create a “Yes” Committee to organize the campaign. To maintain the neutrality of SSMU on this referendum, the SSMU executives were not able to speak as members of the executive council at the same time as they answered questions about the campaign.

“The executive committee was mandated to create a ‘Yes’ Committee in order to ensure that the time we are spending on this campaign is legitimate,” said Ibrahim, on behalf of the “Yes” Committee. “We are not allowed to use SSMU resources for our campaign, which makes sense, as that would advantage us over any other referendum committee, and our time in the office is a SSMU resource, since we are paid using SSMU funds.”

The campaigning period continues through Jan. 29, and the polling period will be open from Jan. 27 until Jan. 29.

Write For News. Just do it Mondays at 5:30 p.m. in ssmu 110

5

OPINION

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

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

Winter 2016 Special Referendum endorsements SSMU Membership Fee increase: Yes with reservations The Tribune endorses a “Yes” for this quesetion insofar as it will improve the Students’ Society of McGill University’s (SSMU) financial sustainability and maintain its ability to provide services for students; however, the presentation of the motion is currently too ambiguous.

If SSMU wants to convince students to vote “Yes,” the executives must distribute more information regarding the allocation of the proposed new funds.

More details must be provided over the remainder of the campaign period in order to ensure that students know what they will be paying for. At the moment, the most detailed expense plan using the increased base fee are in a rudimentary chart. It is unclear what the scope of the categories is. For example, $5,000 for ‘Mental Health’ is certainly commendable, but it is unclear what this will pay for— there is a difference between building a ‘mental health space’ and providing happy lights.

Although a fully detailed report on the minutiae of how the additional fees will be spent is not essential at this moment— the fee increase will be a continuous portion of the SSMU budget to be allocated according to the priorities of each year’s

Publisher Chad Ronalds

Staff Writers, Photographers, & Illustrators

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Contributors

Tribune Office

The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune, and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University.

Letters to the editor may be sent to editor@mcgilltribune.com and must include the contributor’s name, program and year and contact information. Letters should be kept under 300 words and submitted only to the Tribune. Submissions judged by the Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist, homophobic or solely promotional in nature will not be published. The Tribune reserves the right to edit all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and written by the editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the McGill Tribune, its editors or its staff. Please recycle this newspaper.

believe it is. A degree of instability and change is to be expected year-to-year, but student trust in SSMU has been continually eroding.

Voting “No,” however, is not going to help. Students should bear in mind that unless the referendum passes, President Kareem Ibrahim has said that SSMU “will need to make approximately $100,000 in cuts” to next year’s operating budget.

The consequence would be re-

Restructuring Executive Portfolios: Yes Adding another executive portfolio and restructuring executive portfolios is an essential change. SSMU executives regularly work up to 100 hours a week in order to fulfill the basic service requirements of their duties and the nature of the society has changed considerably since it was last restructured in the mid-2000s. As such, the Tribune therefore endorses a “Yes” vote.

Streamlining executive portfolios will ensure that each executive can continue to work to improve the provision of services for students. It will also improve the efficiency of executive portfolios by eliminating wasteful overlap. The responsibilities of the executive have expanded greatly in the last few years. By reallocating responsibilities in a new position, the VP Finance, VP Operations, and VP Student Life, which would replace what is now the VP Clubs & Services

position, will be able to work on campaign promises.

Yet the referendum question does not explicitly address the issue of high turnover. While this year is an anomaly due to the contiguous resignations of the general manager, VP Internal, and Daycare director, turnover is a problem that each incoming executive needs to address. Any restructuring that does not take steps to address this issue is incomplete.

Moreover, the new position raises concern regarding the role of student support staff within SSMU. Students, particularly those who are unable to work in Quebec due to language barriers, will feel the potential impact of fe wer student jobs. At the moment, the impact of the new position on student employment is ambiguous.

It is not uncommon for executive positions to be flexible and redefined. Though it has not happened for some time, the restructuring of executive portfolios is well past due. The referendum is, therefore, a necessary move forward for an unsustainable executive structure.

Full Disclosure: The Tribune Publication Society holds an interest in the outcome of the SSMU membership fee increase, as it is an independent student group tenant in the Shatner University Centre.

Kevin O’Leary’s legacy of ashes

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

Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 T: 514.398.6789

“

Voting “No” would be of detriment to both students and the society; but before voting “Yes,” students require as much specificity as is possible.

duced student staff positions, reduced salaries, and deterioration in service. A “No” vote would be of detriment to both students and the society; but before voting “Yes,” students require as much specificity as is possible. Once this is done, students must support the SSMU in its endeavours, despite the seemingly steep price tag.

off the board

TPS Board of Directors

Keara Campos, Weiyu Dang, Stephanie Fehertoi, Ty Fox, Daniel Freed, Daniel Galef, Ashley Kong, Jin Lee, Imogen Malpas, Daniel Mortimer, Jonathan Motha-Pollock, Ian Rodgers, Joshua Shapiro, Elie Waitzer, Andy Wang, David Watson, Emma Whitehall, Regina Wung

executive—students cannot be expected to give SSMU a blank cheque. Given how tumultuous this year has been, the numbers must demonstrate how this will be a sustainable increase rather than a reaction to the volatility, which many students currently

Christopher Lutes Arts & Entertainment Editor Continued from page 1.

Under the next three years of O’Leary’s management, TLC ran a deficit of $1.1 billion, but managed to seem profitable through accounting practices that could generously be called ‘highly suspicious.’

O’Leary then sold TLC to the Mattel toy company for $3.6 billion, making himself a very rich in the process. This is seen as one of the most lopsidedly bad acquisitions in business history, kneecapping Mat-

tel’s stock prices, and ended with the company’s shareholders suing management.

Since then, O’Leary has risen to fame as a television personality on Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank, where he’s built a reputation as a proponent of pursuing profit at all costs, the kind of guy who refers to himself as the “Voldemort of Capitalism.” His hedge fund, which is called the O’Leary Fund despite not being run by him—he doesn’t have the licence required to operate a hedge fund—has posted a 17 per cent loss since its inception in 2012. That’s a high rate of loss, even when the recent tanking of the economy is taken into account.

But none of that matters because most people don’t know his history. He’s a celebrity now, living in a world where image is more important than actual achievement.

After seeing the kind of publicity Donald Trump has gotten in the US, O’Leary must feel like he has a reasonable shot at becoming the

Canadian equivalent. He could not be more wrong.

For the Conservatives, he would be an unprecedented

“

After seeing the kind of publicity Donald Trump has gotten in the US, O’Leary must feel like he has a reasonable shot at becoming the Canadian equivalent. He could not be more wrong.

choice—a bombastic political outsider from a party that tends to pick buttoned-down career politicians.

The Tories pride themselves on not rocking the boat too much, making their machinations when they’re outside of the public eye. This is a party that had Stephen Harper, the human equivalent of a toast sandwich, as its leader for over a decade. ‘Personality’ is a four-letter word to them, just like ‘compassion,’ or ‘refugee.’ More broadly, O’Leary seems ill-suited to potentially hold the reins on an economy that is supposed to benefit people other than himself. His entire ethos is based around toxic Randian ideas of self-sufficiency and unfettered liberty that don’t play as well in Canada as they do in the US. Ideally, O’Leary runs for Conservative leader and does to the party what he did to Mattel and The Learning Company in the past, or what Trump is doing to the Republican Party in the present. But he won’t get that far—Canadian politics, thankfully, is not the place where bluster and fame trump performance record and intelligence.

Opinion

6 C o m m e nt a r y

Jaywalking to the other side of street crime collisions and pedestrian injuries on Halifax roads.

While the bold move has no direct impact on McGillians— except those who may be heading home to Nova Scotia in the

David Watson Contributor Halifax is in the grips of a terrible crime wave, or so the Nova Scotia Legislature seems to believe. Last month it voted for a dramatic increase in fines for a certain offence in order to punish Haligonians—yes, that’s really what they’re called—for their criminal ways. But the targets of these stiff new penalties are not who you would expect. They’re not gangsters, drug dealers, or even drunk drivers— they’re jaywalkers.

Thanks to a recent bill passed by the Nova Scotia government, jaywalking could now be punishable by a fine of $697.50, with additional penalties of $1,272 and $2,422 for subsequent offences. The hefty fines are part of the province’s effort to reduce the number of

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

“

Raising the jaywalking fine to almost $700 makes it higher than fines for much more dangerous conduct, including drunk driving, texting and driving, and driving 30 km/h over the speed limit in a school zone.

summer—the idea that jaywalking fines could be increased to almost $700 in a Canadian city should be terrifying to Montreal residents. If jaywalking is really a crime, then the average Montrealer is on par with Al Capone.

But hopefully, if Montreal city officials have even an ounce of common sense, $700 jaywalking tickets will never become a reality in the city.

As critics of the bill have pointed out, the new fines are completely disproportionate to the gravity of the offence, especially in light of the fines levied for other road-related offences.

Raising the jaywalking fine to almost $700 makes it higher than fines for much more dangerous conduct, including drunk driving, texting and driving, and driving 30 km/h over the speed limit in a school zone. Jaywalking can be perilous and therefore merits a ticket, but imposing fines bigger than those for much more dangerous offences distorts the incentives for perpetrators.

The bill raises the issue of whether higher fines are an effective deterrent at all. The logic of the province’s Legislature rests on the flimsy assumption that pedestrians are generally aware of how much a jaywalking ticket will cost them, and will adjust their behaviour accordingly. Unless the issue makes headlines, as Nova Scotia’s exorbitant fine has managed to, most pedestrians are likely to be unaware of how much a jaywalking ticket

costs. In Montreal, the fine is a modest $15; in Toronto, it can vary from $35 to $90. But unless that information is common knowledge, it’s unlikely to have an effect on pedestrian behaviour in either city.

Such a steep fine will also undoubtedly make the police hesitant to give out tickets, as jaywalking is a petty infraction.

In this case, the punishment is disproportionate to the harm of the crime. This would be especially troublesome in Montreal: This city’s cops already wear camouflage pants and decorate their squad cars with more stickers than a first grader’s spelling quiz. Handing out $700 jaywalking tickets is one of the few things that could make people take them even less seriously.

Moreover, deterring jaywalkers can be achieved in much more effective ways. In 2010, when the Toronto Police Service wanted to change pedestrian attitudes toward the offence, they focused on increased enforcement of the existing fine. The police cited enforcement and awareness of existing laws as the keys to deterring dangerous pedestrian practices, and to great effect.

Tighter enforcement of jay-

walking laws is a much more effective deterrent than exorbitant fines because it better addresses the philosophy behind jaywalking. What makes jaywalking a daily occurrence around Montreal isn’t the lack of a large fine, it’s the minimal risk of getting caught. Jaywalking is like internet piracy: You don’t download 10 episodes of Game of Thrones because you think the penalty for piracy is too lenient; you do it because you’re confident the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) won’t show up at your door to drag you off to wherever Canadian Guantanamo is (Winnipeg?).

Increased road safety is an important goal, and one which will benefit pedestrians and motorists alike. But when cities like Halifax or Montreal attempt to address the issue of jaywalking, they should stick to methods that have proven effective—like increased enforcement—and steer clear of exorbitant fines. Students certainly don’t need $700 jaywalking fines here: After all, if a McGill student really wants to be arbitrarily charged $700, they’re always welcome to buy a Canada Goose jacket, get the latest iPhone, or head down to the bookstore for a textbook or two.

Renovations threaten what it means to be a McGill student

Zac Carson Columnist School spirit is traditionally displayed at homecoming games and by students donning their university’s insignia. McGill instead possesses a unique type of school spirit, binding students together in a way that no football game or homecoming party ever could: Coping with the school’s decrepit and aging facilities. But with the recent round of renovations—the Arts Building portico stabilization project, replacing and remodelling the Students’ Socity of McGill University lounge, and the Fiat Lux library plan—this shared experience is being threatened.

I first realized the universality of the McGill experience when I saw Eric Schreiber’s photo essay Ugly McGill. It was the realization of the feeling that students all seem to have when

walking through the downtown campus, a beautiful amalgam of an Orwellian nightmare and the ice planet Hoth. The feeling that this place is ugly and falling apart, and its frequent lack of sense—why can’t we use the Redpath library doors again?— defines the student experience, and makes it our own.

But renovations threaten this unique McGillian experience.

Fiat Lux offers natural light and additional seating space—concepts wholly foreign to the McGill experience. The portico stabilization project will restore the pristine and historical façade, but do away with the inconvenience of circling a construction zone.

The SSMU couches, with their multiple stains a living metaphor of the melting pot of McGill, will be replaced. Is the addition of modern, shiny library, some new couches, and a portico that is safe to walk under really worth losing the essence of being a student at McGill?

Despite the lack of traditional school spirit, the shared McGill experience bonds students together more tightly than a shared team or matching leather jackets ever could. Lumpy and stained SSMU couches; the soul-sucking brutalist behemoth that is the

SSMU sofas are the latest chip on the McGill student’s shoulder. (Claire Wang / McGill Tribune) McLennan library; the thrill of the knowledge that a chunk of the Arts Building could fall and crush you at any moment—these are the experiences that define student life at McGill.

Whether in Arts or Engineer-

ing, every McGill student knows the trials and tribulations of McGill’s construction zone. For one student, this experience could be the long walks through the fluorescent halls of McLennan during exam season, circling suc-

cessive floors in search of that elusive empty seat and wondering where Ferrier even is. For another, it may manifest while watching prospective students and their parents snapping pictures of the Arts Building, temporary structural support beams artfully hidden by a screen with a printed image of the original portico. Mention such experiences to another student and, though the details may vary, they are guaranteed to have similar tales of their own. While this may not quite qualify as pride, there is a definite sense of camaraderie in this knowledge.

As my graduation nears, it seems ever more likely that the McGill that I have come to love is on the precipice of extinction.

The Arts Building’s probability of collapse is on the decline.

McLennan-Redpath is slated to lose its fluorescent allure. If I return to McGill in 20 years and find the campus filled with shiny new buildings, designed to properly cater to the needs of students, I will not smile. Instead my heart will be filled with sadness, for it will no longer be my McGill. My McGill will always be ugly, it will always be decrepit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

play Review R E N T Ian Rodgers Contributor Sentimental is a term that is often used in a derogatory way in criticism.

Strong emotions are juxtaposed with a more savvy and self-aware, or clearheaded and objective approach to human issues. ‘Sentimental’ is a label frequently applied to musicals, and this year’s Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society (AUTS) production, RENT is no exception. The musical is firmly rooted in the lifestyle of the bohemian New York City artists of the time, and thus tackles the effects of the AIDS epidemic, gentrification, and drug abuse. Despite these dark themes, the work is undeniably earnest: The ideal of the bohemian is romanticized, and the themes presented are to live life in the moment and not abandon your passions.

In a world where Alphabet City has been gentrified beyond recognition, the success of a show like RENT is thus grounded in the ability of the cast and director to make these themes seem real and relevant rather than trite and nostalgic. Daniel Austin-Boyd, the director of the show, did an excellent job by taking the source material in a more abstract direction. RENT is traditionally performed as a rock opera, with very few dance numbers. For RENT, Austin-Boyd chose instead to enlist the help of experienced choreographer Debbie Friedmann. He uses a variety of dance numbers until the end of the first act, accentuating the fantastic and optimistic elements of the source material. This stands in contrast to the

more tragic second act, where dance takes a back seat. Beyond the musical numbers, the show is full of stylistic flair, using silhouette and tableau in ways that punctuate the show’s themes within the show.

Friedmann’s choreography is worth special mention. The show features a diverse array of dance styles, including waacking, contemporary, tango, burlesque, and street dance.

“Every movement is thought out both conceptually and in movement,” Friedmann explained. “When you put that much thought into the choreography, [the audience] gets the idea behind it.”

It takes a moment to adjust to the elaborate dance performances, which come close to overcrowding the stage at times, but it pays off in moments like “Contact,” a raw and sexual number that concludes with the entire ensemble forming a writhing mass in the middle of the stage. Waacking and other dances that originated in black queer subcultures are used in “Today 4 U” to great effect, bringing the fantastic camp of drag shows to light.

The protagonist, Angel (Jordan Pollock), is central to the work: Their death represents the cost borne by the queer community in New York during the AIDS epidemic. Pollack holds this role down well, performing in and out of drag, showcasing both his excellent voice and an appreciation for music. Collins, Angel’s partner who is portrayed by Zachary Sykes, has a fantastic bass voice which serves as a strong anchor throughout the show.

ALBUM REVIEW

Anderson .Paak represents a new wave of artists that don’t fit neatly into one genre. Rather, he stands in the hazy divide between them.

Featured on Dr Dre’s Compton, The Game’s The Documentary 2.5, and Goldlink’s And After that, We Didn’t Talk, .Paak seemed to be everywhere in 2015, primed to explode. On Malibu, his second full length album after 2014’s Venice, .Paak blends rap, jazz, and gospel into a lucid reflection of the struggles of coming to terms with his own confused identity as a half-Korean, halfblack Section 8 baby from Oxnard, California.

Humble honesty tempers his style—a triple threat of rapping, singing, and producing— creating an album whose heights sing higher than most. Album opener, “The Bird,” immerses listeners in a soundscape produced solely by .Paak.

As he croons, “We came up in a lonely castle / My papa was behind them bars / We never had to want for nothing / Said all we ever need is love,” cool jazz guitar riffs, slurred trumpet musings, and delicate piano flutters blend to introduce a sincere personal reflection.

The highs that songs like “The Bird” hit, however, set a standard hard to match. .Paak blends in disco tunes “Am I Wrong (feat.

Schoolboy Q)” and “Room in Here (feat. The Game and Sonyae)” to answer the despairing tone created by the fatalist musings of “The Bird,”

Mark (Olivier Bishop-Mercier) is the centrepiece of a stirring musical number. (Photo courtesy of Scott Cope) The chemistry between the two actors is not particularly steamy, but they both do an excellent job portraying their roles. A chemistry which works very well is between Mark (Olivier BishopMercier) and Roger (Jack Ball), who are friends outside of the production and have a natural ease and familiarity with each other on stage. Roger’s romance with Mimi (Theodora Metechiuk) exhibits clear sexuality. Her portrayal oozes sex appeal, though there could have been more done to emphasize the weakness and fear that Mimi feels.

An especially enjoyable performance comes through in Sophie Doyle’s Maureen, a character whose reputation is built up for a long time before she takes the stage. Doyle perfectly captures the complications in the figure of the bourgeoisie bohemian:

She is so passionate in what she does that she lacks self-awareness. Her performance of “Over the Moon” is over-the-top and hilarious, serving as a hint at some of the hypocrisy in bohemian communities as she takes centre stage to speak for experiences she doesn’t really understand. Overall, the casting fits the characters, and the additional members of the ensemble bring comedy as well as terrific voices to the production.

It’s impossible to talk about RENT without mentioning the music, which is superb throughout. As in previous productions at Moyse Hall, there are some issues with the wireless microphones, but the issues are relatively unobtrusive. The voices were nicely balanced, and the live band is talented.

The powerful, delicate harmonies create

shiver-worthy musical moments. In the end, this music seems to be the answer to the question of sentimentality, the feelings that it produces, combined with the stylistic touches, and performances makes the performance feel true.

Austin-Boyd and the cast and crew do a good job of bringing out meaning and nuance in their production of RENT. By nodding at some of the fantastical elements of the bohemian lifestyle, they make the harsh realities of it seem current. That said, this is still a very fun and enjoyable show to watch, with lots of laughs. The range of the performance makes it definitively a worthwhile production to see.

RENT will be performed in Moyse Hall from Thursday Jan. 28 to Saturday Jan. 30 at 6:45 p.m. Visit www. autsmcgill.com for ticket information.

Malibu Anderson .Paak the absolution-seeking “The Waters (feat. BJ the Chicago Kid),” and plaintive “The Season / Carry Me.” This lush balance attests to his evident maturity as a holistic artist who oversees his music’s every facet.

Yet, as far as his diligence goes, it overreaches on tracks that could do with gritty muddiness. Though “Your Prime” stands out for the buoyant DJ Khalil beat and .Paak’s smooth song-rap delivery, the cleanness of the production and unsustainable lyrical dynamism prevent it from reaching its full potential. A signature .Paak “Oh hell, naw” keys in a luxurious verse that begins “I had to get back for the candy, uh / I flew for an hour then landed, oh.” Unable to maintain this grit, the song falls into a lascivious bridge of “Come back to bed / come back to bed with me,” and the production fails to add interest.

Regardless, .Paak produces an emotional complex that artfully merges eclectic styles and a message of self-belief, culminating with “The Dreamer”: “Mama always kept the cable on / I’m a product of the tube and the free lunch / Living room, watching old reruns.” As .Paak reminds himself on “The Season / Carry Me,” “Don’t forget that dot, nigga you paid for it,” he reminds listeners of what it means and what it pays to craft a distinct identity in spite of everything that works against people.

— Weiyu Dang

(okayplayer.com)

STANDOUT TRACK “The Bird”

SOUNDS LIKE

BEST LYRICS

An alto, gritty, raspy blend of D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye, and Kendrick Lamar.

What’s the meaning of my fortune meeting? / When I crack the cookie all it said was ‘keep dreaming’

ended up in the Bachelor of Science program at McGill University.

While he did not specifically choose to come to McGill, Ishimwe is happy with where he ended up.

“If I had a choice, I would definitely have said McGill,” he said.

“Ever since I got to McGill, I knew right then and there that my life would not be the same, and not in that poetic way, but the feeling was so real this time.”

For many students like Ishimwe, the SRP is the only financial means to pursue post-secondary education and leave refugee camps. Several of Ishimwe’s friends from his home town have gone to other universities across Canada, such as University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, and University of British Columbia—all sponsored by the SRP.

Life at McGill

Photos by Noah Sutton

Sponsoring a community The story of a refugee student at McGill Albert Park There is an unmistakable trace of excitement in the voice of U2 Pharmacology student, Robert Ishimwe, as he describes his education at McGill. “[I] couldn’t imagine all this five years ago,” he said. “Being among all these amazing people and resources—it’s like a dream.”

With a smile on his face, he elaborates on what his journey to McGill means to him as a sponsored student.

“We grew up, waking up to see the happy faces of the students who have gotten a chance to pursue postsecondary education in other countries—it’s something we dreamt of since we [were] children,” Ishimwe said.

There is something unique, yet familiar, about Ishimwe’s narrative.

Listening to his story brings back memories of being introduced to new faces for the first time in McGill’s crowded lecture halls. Despite how many diverse backgrounds, stories, and sensibilities existed in one room, the varying experiences of students were overshadowed by an infallible feeling of camaraderie of enthusiastic students freshly acquainted into the McGill community.

Ishimwe was born in Rwanda.

He came to study at McGill in 2013

through the Student Refugee Program, which is part of McGill’s local World University Service of Canada (WUSC) committee, WUSC McGill.

The organization is a Canadian nonprofit working to provide education and employment opportunities to disadvantaged youth around the world.

On top of his studies, Ishimwe is the vice-president treasurer of WUSC McGill, and enjoys playing intramural soccer and volleyball.

Around campus, he is often spotted buried in textbooks at McLennanRedpath or exercising at the fitness centre.

Ishimwe grew up in the Dzaleka refugee camp in the Republic of Malawi, a country located in southeastern Africa. At the age of two, he was resettled in the camp with his family after they were forced to flee their country due to the Rwandan genocide. To this day, the camp holds around 20,000 people, including Ishimwe’s own parents. Residents are supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and provided monthly food portions, as well as free access to health care. The residents are not given the choice to leave the camp, with law enforcement surrounding the area.

Ishimwe is quick to point out that living in a refugee camp is a subjective experience, which affects forced migrants in different ways. It is not something that can be generalized.

“Refugees come from different situations and places,” Ishimwe said. “Sympathy is not really necessary; and at the same time, you have to understand and respect that not everyone wants to talk about their experiences.”

Ishimwe expresses the difficulty in finding the balance between bringing up some of the more negative aspects of camp life while also being careful not to glorify the experience. He recollects his own experiences growing up at the Dzaleka camp with a pragmatic view.

“It is not something you can glorify as being a beautiful place,” he said. “But as someone who grew up there, it doesn’t feel like a camp; it’s home [....] After graduation, I will visit the camp again—my parents are there after all.”

Sponsored Students and Education At McGill, one can meet other sponsored students like Ishimwe.

WUSC McGill coordinates the SRP,

which has supported 36 students since 1987, sponsoring two new students each academic year. Currently, there are 10 sponsored students studying at McGill from Sri Lanka, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.

There are around 60 million refugees around the world—a number growing by the day, largely due to the escalating armed conflicts in Syria. In response to the forced migration crisis, the McGill administration and WUSC McGill have recently announced a pledge to triple the number of sponsored students arriving on campus for the 2016-2017 academic year.

“Tripling the number of SRP students is only for [...] 2016-2017,” Sujay Neupane, a PhD student in neuroscience and the SRP coordinator of WUSC McGill, said. “It was made possible by extra funding from McGill, with four of the sponsored students from Syria being funded by the administration, while two will be supported by the existing WUSC levy. This pledge came as a response to the current crisis—brought to light by the photograph of a deceased migrant [Alan Kurdish] on a beach back in August.”

Providing education for individuals with refugee status is a long-

term solution to the crisis. Not only does it ensure that individuals affected by forced migration have the means to become empowered and knowledgeable enough to rebuild their own lives, but it provides a gateway to help entire communities affected by wars or civil conflicts to rebuild.

Despite this, only one per cent of young refugees are currently enrolled in post-secondary education.

For Ishimwe, the SRP was very meaningful—its impact runs back to recollections of his childhood.

“I always studied very hard when I was young,” he said. “We all did. The [SRP] was something we all knew about as children, and it really provided the motivation for us to work hard.”

Ishimwe’s diligent academic habits are qualities that serve him to this day as a McGill student. Growing up, he enjoyed science; in particular, he remembers one biology teacher who ignited his interest in life science. During the SRP application process, prospective students are given the chance to express their inspirations and interests. Through this information, the program applies to different schools and programs on behalf of the sponsored students, which is how Ishimwe

While Ishimwe might be accustomed to his life as a McGill student today, leaving Malawi and stepping into the busy streets of Montreal for the first time in August 2013 was a novel experience for him. Surrounded by new people and ideas, Ishimwe naturally found himself feeling bewildered and culture-shocked, despite his enthusiasm.

“For the first day you are very excited, and then for the next few days you are confused,” Ishimwe said. “You live one life for almost 20 years, and come to a new one—it’s very strange.”

In particular, Ishimwe recollects his experience of moving into the RVC residence and realizing that it was his first time using an elevator.

“I’d only seen them once or twice at the UNHCR Building—it was strange that it became a regular part of my life,” he said.

Coming to Canada for the first time with limited proficiency in English, he did not know what to expect. However, after two years, Ishimwe is enjoying his life in Montreal. During his free time, he likes to go sightseeing in the Old Port with his roommates and climb up Mount Royal.

On top of helping to fundraise the money necessary to sponsor students and raise awareness about the issue of forced migration on McGill campus, the committee is also responsible for providing a welcoming platform of support for sponsored students coming into the country.

Through weekly meetings with other sponsored students and members of the WUSC, Ishimwe was able to share his stories with them, talk about life at McGill, and improve his English. Ishimwe credits the local McGill WUSC committee for helping him grow accustomed to his new life.

“Everything is a learning process,” he said. “It can be frustrating at first but you get used to it. The local committee was really helpful.

They helped me find my place here.”

Bernice Samuel, U2 Life Science, also credits WUSC McGill and the SRP in helping her adjust to Canada after she arrived from Malawi to

McGill’s Macdonald campus.

“WUSC McGill has not only helped me settle in McGill but also in Canada,” Samuel said. “It gave me a resettlement, [and] a place to call home [....] The local committee was very supportive—they showed me around Montreal and also taught me everything I had to know about Canada.”

New sponsored students are often integrated into WUSC McGill through a very organic process. In a way, the sponsored students form a network of support amongst one another.

“The nice thing about the SRP is that the committee becomes selforganizing because last year’s sponsored students help the newly arrived ones according to what they experienced the year before,” Neupane said.

WUSC McGill The interaction between WUSC McGill and the sponsored student extends far past the creation of a support network. Ishimwe does his part to give back to WUSC by helping to ensure the sustainability of the SRP. He is a fervent member of the WUSC McGill team, participating in meetings to help plan events and share information about the group with his fellow peers. It is through the work of students like Ishimwe, that McGill can continue to bring in sponsored students.

For many McGill students, the forced migration crisis is not easy to grasp. While stories about refugees

“The university was a big part of why I was able to integrate so easily into Canada.” and their struggles are publicized heavily in the media, McGill WUSC hopes that hearing stories firsthand from sponsored students like Ishimwe will leave an impact and create a better understanding about the situation amongst the student body.

“I don’t mind telling people my story,” Ishimwe said. “If it helps raise more awareness about forced migration, it will help the WUSC reach their goals.”

Neupane provided insight on the importance of increasing the dialogue on the forced migration crisis on campus, and WUSC’s initiatives to meet this goal.

“We would like to set a platform at McGill to have a space for SRP students to tell their stories,” he said. “Increasing awareness about forced migration indirectly helps in understanding why a group like ours exists. In turn, increasing awareness

about our group helps in understanding and thinking about sustainable solution to the problem of forced migration.”

The SRP has been levied by a fee of 50 cents per term from every enrolled McGill student. While not every McGill student is aware of their contribution or the purpose of it, it is through their aid that McGill was able to provide education for sponsored students. Thus, the program is a community-driven effort.

According to Neupane, the community-driven aspect of the SRP is what attracts and motivates many of the members in WUSC McGill.

“This is one of the very few ‘charity’ programs which has a direct impact and result,” he said. “Because it is funded by students, it is very much community-driven and there is no involvement of any business entity which is, unfortunately, usually focused on profit and goodwill.”

However, the 50 cent contribution has never been adjusted for inflation, since its introduction in 1987. As a result, the funds at the disposal of the program are running out, especially given the increasing push to sponsor more students. The tripling of student refugee sponsorships this year is not provided by the student levy.

According to Neupane, the continuation of bringing in more student refugees will only be possible through a levy increase.

“In 2017-2018, we are back to [sponsoring] two students,” said Neupane. “We are trying to increase that number to three by doing a referendum this semester [....] We also have a word of support and pledge from [the McGill Syrian Students’ Association] on campus. We could increase [the number of students], but we will need to increase the levy for that. I am doubtful that McGill will keep funding four or more students every year. I would prefer that SRP is supported by a student levy than by the McGill administration because of aforementioned reasons—community-driven, profit/ fame-free.”

In order to address this issue, McGill WUSC is preparing a referendum to increase the levy to $2. In order for this to be successful, Neupane states that the support of the McGill student body is necessary.

“Increasing awareness about this program aids in making [it] sustainable, especially because it is funded directly by the students via a levy,” Neupane said. “If students are aware about this program, it will not be difficult to increase the levy through a referendum whenever needed.”

But McGill students’ support of sponsored students is not purely monetary. For Ishimwe, his education at McGill would not have been nearly as rewarding if not for the people he met here.

“The university was a big part of why I was able to integrate so easily into Canada. It’s easy to make friends here,” Ishimwe said. “The friends I made in my classes during my first year helped make me feel at

home here.”

It is not difficult to understand that this sentiment is not exclusively associated to sponsored students like Ishimwe. McGill University has a high ratio of international students, with students from from over 140 countries coming to live, learn, and grow together. While many of these students initially step onto campus without knowing anyone in Montreal, the university provides them with opportunities to make connections, whether it is in class, extracurricular activities, or through the community’s diverse range of student societies.

Being able to meet individuals from different cultures as well as hear their stories at McGill serves well in broadening a student’s outlook, which is arguably one of the main purposes of post-secondary education.

Neupane, who has known Ishimwe for two years, says that this is one of the main reasons he likes working with WUSC. “The experiential learning I get from my friendship and interactions with sponsored students is nothing of the sort I have learned from any books or classes. It has been extremely valuable to my own personal growth,” Neupane explained.

The multicultural aspect of McGill is also highly important to Ishimwe.

“I really enjoy the diversity here. People can talk about their lives. It makes it easier to blend in,” he said. “Everybody has a story.”

Ishimwe’s sentiments provide a better understanding of how the forced migration issue should be tackled on campus. Communication is the key to building a community.

The SRP is a community-driven program; it is funded by the student body and it is up to the students of McGill to provide a welcoming home to sponsored students. If McGill students desire to make a change and come up with a collective solution to the forced migration crisis, the first step is understanding the story of each individual sponsored student.

McGill students come from different countries and have different stories—the one thing that ties the student body together is the shared opportunity to pursue a post-secondary education.

Ishimwe’s favourite memory from the Dzaleka refugee camp is his graduation from the Dzaleka Secondary School.

“It may not have been that glamorous, but it felt that way at the time,” he said. “My friends and I felt so confident, like we could do anything in the world.”

This memory is reflected in his perceptions of the McGill community. When thinking about what stuck out to him at McGill, Ishimwe takes a long pause to think of the right words to say.

“Everyone is so enthusiastic about something, and they feel [...] they can do anything,” he mused. “It still challenges me up to date to keep growing in my aspirations in life.”

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Paradise Lost (1667) vs. Ex Machina (2015)

PAST VS. PRESENT

Nathan is a stand-in for god in Ex Machina. (ign.com)

Imogen Malpas Contributor Warning: This piece contains spoilers from the film Ex Machina.

Alex Garland’s 2015 film Ex Machina is, in fairly obvious ways, a creation story for the modern age.

Nathan (Oscar Isaac)—who strikes the balance between charm and egomania with uncanny precision—is the film’s self-styled deity. Nathan is Narcissus equipped with a research lab; instead

Tuesday January 26, 2016

of staring at his own reflection, he creates one that can stare back, from a head mounted on what is essentially a transparent Victoria’s Secret model with actress Alicia Vikander’s face.

This is Ava, an incredibly human artificial intelligence (AI) to whom a young programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) is brought ostensibly for research purposes. It soon becomes clear that the testing is mutual; Ava, like Eve, knows how to use her “beauty and submissive charms” to make her bid for freedom right under the noses

of the men watching her.

In John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem, Paradise Lost, Satan gives the readers a bird’s eye view of the “delicious paradise” that is Eden, a newly created Earth that one imagines would look a lot like the sweeping Norwegian vistas of Ex Machina’s opening sequence. But access to Eden, like Nathan’s elusive estate, is by invitation only­—a “steep wilderness” that screams, in words that could have come straight out of Alex Garland’s script, “access denied.” After a closer

look, something dark is already present.

In a perfect world, rivers should not run with “mazy,” “serpent error.” More than ‘too good to be true,’ it’s too good to be permanent. Rob Hardy’s exquisite cinematography in Ex Machina gives us a similar feeling, the bright greenery of the landscape almost threatening us in its absence of threat, its lack of shadows. You’d be forgiven for expecting a good old-fashioned jump scare as the camera pans innocently across another stunning, glass-walled interior. Of course, the real scare—that the danger is inside humans, in their own susceptibility to temptation—is the age-old punchline of both Milton’s epic poem and Ex Machina. Caleb’s desperate assault on the glass door in the film’s penultimate scene is the moment that the punchline hits: He has, in rewiring the building’s lockdown protocol to aid Ava’s escape, trapped himself inside it forever. It’s easy to laugh at his naïveté, but it’s nothing new; three and a half centuries earlier, Milton’s Adam fell “fondly overcome with female charm.”

Although it does have its saving graces, Paradise Lost can hardly be considered the seminal feminist text of its time. It appears that Ex Machina, with its stark feminisation of AI, is not much better. A turning point in the plot is when viewers discover that the mysterious power cuts that have

allowed Ava to discuss her escape plan with Caleb in private were in fact Ava’s work all along. Ultimately her power of manipulation, both of Nathan’s technology and Caleb’s emotions, are what free her from her high-tech prison. Her triumphant exit, leaving her creator dead and her liberator imprisoned as she was, is the kind of ending Paradise Lost might have had if it were written in the ’90s by a riot grrrl between anarchist band rehearsals. Sadly, it wasn’t, and Eve barely gets a taste of autonomy before her fall sends her begging for Adam’s forgiveness. As for Ava, her triumph is tainted—yes, she gets to choose how to present herself before facing the world for the first time, but only by peeling the skin and limbs off of discarded versions of herself, in a scene heavy with the shock of implicated violence.

In one of the film’s most emotionally charged moments, Ava asks Caleb, “What will happen to me if I fail your test?” It’s a question that could just have easily been posed

by Adam and Eve to God; none of these new creations understand death, “whatever thing Death be.” Milton’s Eden is like God’s test for humans, a test failed when the shiny allure of temptation proved too much to resist.

And if Ex Machina has anything to add to that story, it’s that over time, humans haven’t gotten better at resisting.

21st century challenges Centre Phi’s virtual reality exhibit brings you closer to the news than ever Luka Ciklovan Staff Writer Artistic mediums are generally defined or even created by the technologies that facilitate them.

Virtual Reality (VR) stands as the next ‘big thing’ to fundamentally alter the way humans visually interact with almost everything. Taking a stroll through your favourite tourist destination, watching movies that unfold around you, or even seeing political debates from a front row seat are just the tip of the futuristic iceberg that is VR. Centre Phi’s latest exhibit, “21st Century Challenges (Les Enjeux du 21e Siecle),” sets out to demonstrate the awesome potential of VR, and the result is an intimate and powerful look at socio-political problems facing our world today.

Focusing on key contemporary issues, such as the Syrian refugee crisis and the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, the “Virtual Reality Garden,” offers museum patrons the chance to get as close as most will ever get to these regions. The exhibit features four documentaries, filmed and mastered specifically with VR in mind, that attempt to bring these potentially remote, or perhaps forgotten, issues closer to home, by placing viewers right in the midst of the action. Each film is displayed on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 that is paired with a Samsung Gear

VR headset. While VR technology has historically been surrounded by much skepticism in regard to its ability to fully immerse viewers, Nintendo’s infamous Virtual Boy stands as a case in point. The standard of technology today, coupled with the relatively low cost to produce it, has finally made it possible to feasibly approach that immersive sensation VR enthusiasts have been craving.

“Waves of Grace,” a United Nations-commissioned project directed by Chris Milk and Gabo Arora, makes masterful use of 3D spatial sound audio tracking to portray Liberia during the recent Ebola crisis.

This method is captivating and allows the audience to face the tragedy head on. As the documentary traverses from schoolyards riddled with the sound of children’s play, marketplaces full of the cries of commerce, and hospitals overrun with incoming patients, all of the sounds of the film are adjusted according the positioning of the viewer’s head. This ultimately provides a much more ‘real’ experience than any newsreel could deliver. The viewer and the virtual world interact with each other in a powerful way.

Their curiosity is engaged as they attempt to absorb what they can from the 360 degree scene evolving around them. As a result, a more personal and emotional attachment to the issues at hand becomes possible.

A Centre Phi visitor immerses themself in a world thousands of kilometres away. (phi-centre.com) Perspective in the virtual world is crucial, as objects can feel intensely close or remotely distant just like they do in real life. “Nomands: Maasai,” directed by Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphael, brilliantly takes advantage of this phenomenon when depicting the vibrant heritage of the Maasai tribe.

There are a few scenes in which the viewer sits face to face with some of the tribe’s members for an extended amount of time under an emerging canopy of stars far more numerous than any member of industrial society is used to. These scenes convey the most intimate moments in a way that

regular cinema cannot. Staring into a real person’s eyes in such a way, while seeing every miniscule detail on their faces and the surrounding landscape, provides for a level of intimacy so palpable that it was almost awkward.

“Clouds Over Sidra,” also by Milk and Arora, provides a look into the daily life in a Syrian refugee camp from the perspective of Sidra, a 12-year-old child. This documentary, alongside “Inside Impact: East Africa,” which follows former U.S. president Bill Clinton’s endeavors for social development in East Africa, often place the viewer in a child’s perspective,

behind a school desk, for example.

These scenes provide a pleasant shift to a smaller perspective.

Ultimately, the Centre Phi’s VR Garden highlights the massive potential of virtual reality, all whilst bringing audiences face-to-face with important social questions in a powerfully intimate way that will surely become ingrained in one’s memory. The only way to understand the aforementioned films is to experience it for yourself.

“21st Century Challenges” runs from Jan. 18 to Mar. 31 at the Centre Phi (407 Rue Saint-Pierre). Admission is free.

11

Student Living O u t o n t h e to w n

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Kicking back at L’Entrepôt

L’Entrepôt is a resto-bar famous for it’s $4.95 per meal menu. This past Sunday, the Student Living team took a fieldtrip to the trendy Mont-Royal neighbourhood to see what all the hype is about.

Below are reviews from the section’s editors and contributors about what are must-tries and what can be passed up on. Have a restaurant you want us to review before you commit to it yourself? Email us at studentliving@mcgilltribune.com.

L’Entrpôt’s fish tacos are simple and delicious. (Audrey Carleton / McGill Tribune)

The Union Salad at L’Entrpôt. (Liz Willcock / McGill Tribune)

Liz Willcock Staff Writer

Hailey MacKinnon Student Living Editor

Keara Campos Contributor

Audrey Carleton Staff Writer

Julie Vanderperre Managing Editor

When I first walked in everything seemed vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until I opened their menu that I put two and two together. Anyone who’s ever been to Whistler, British Columbia, will recognize L’Entrepôt as the Montreal equivalent to The Furniture Warehouse (commonly known as Fernies.) This restaurant on Avenue du Mont-Royal is almost identical to the time-honoured Whistler establishment, with big wooden tables, leather bar stools, and most importantly, the everything-is-$5 menu.

Although I was skeptical the cheap food might mean we would lose out elsewhere, L’Entrepôt still has a cozy ambiance and reasonably large portion sizes.

I got the Union Square salad, filled with ramen, avocado, chicken, and lettuce.

It had a really tasty ginger soy dressing that made the combination of ramen and salad feel a little less weird. Although it was a little on the salty side, my $5.75 bill made me forget all about it.

I’m pretty much always up for fish tacos—anywhere, anytime—so L’Entrepôt was appropriate for my next venture. I was pleasantly surprised with what I was served, especially for the price, as mentioned elsewhere.

The dish came with three fish tacos that were nicely battered and filled with corn, tomatoes, peppers, and a lime—all topped with a chipotle and mayo sauce.

Though it didn’t live up to the likes of a similar dish (with a similar price) at Montreal’s also famous, L’Gros Luxe, it was still a satisfying meal in a relaxing hangout. Pro-tip: They only accepted cash and Visa, so don’t expect to use your debit card— although for $4.95 plus tax, you could probably pay for your meal with change from under the couch cushions.

L’Entrepôt boasts a laidback aesthetic with a homey interior and a patio area in the summer. I ordered the “Works Burger” which was a standard burger with cheese, tomato, lettuce, bacon, onions, and mayo. It was definitely good value for the amount, especially since it came with cream of broccoli soup as a side; however, keep in mind that because prices are affordable, the food isn’t necessarily amazing.

It was an average burger without any twists, no house sauce or special ingredient—akin to a burger at a family BBQ due to the simplicity—though it would be hard to mess it up. Overall, the meal was less memorable than the conversation that was had. It’s not a place to visit for the food per se, but rather the atmosphere and good pricing.

L’Entrepôt maintains a casual, social vibe that allows the establishment to straddle the fine line between a bar and a restaurant. I ordered the Quinoa and Apple Salad, consisting of romaine lettuce, quinoa, and slivers of cucumber, avocado, and Granny Smith apple.

It was topped with soy-honey-lime dressing, sweet corn salsa, and toasted almonds, and was both large and filling enough to have costed twice the price at any other restaurant. While quinoa is my go-to carb addition to make any salad more filling, I found the sauce saltier than preferable. The corn salsa was a nice addition, but what made the salad was the toasted almonds, which gave it a memorable crunch. Likely due in part to its wallet-friendly prices, the restaurant was nearly full at 2 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, which calls to question how full it typically is in the evening. To be safe, making a reservation in advance is advisable.

Even on a Saturday afternoon in the dead of winter, L’Entrepôt was convivial and crowded with groups of friends gathering together for a weekend meal. The vibe is casual with album covers plastered on the walls and a skater feel. I ordered the roasted turkey sandwich, which came on cranberry sourdough bread, stacked with cheese, lettuce, and dripping with honey mustard. The sandwich was tasty, although it didn’t compete with my Thanksgiving leftover turkey, cranberry, and sweet potato leftover sammies. I ordered it with a side salad, which was a very simple bowl of mixed greens with vinaigrette. While it was nothing to write home about, the meal was satisfying and worth the price, and I would definitely head back with a group of friends again for some beers and burgers on the cheap.

A c r oss t h e w o r l d c r oss w o r d

Across

Down

4. Theron’s homeland 6. The ‘6ix’ 8. Don’t even think about bringing chewing gum with you 10. On the southern tip of Spain and part of the United Kingdom 12. This archipelago is home to the world’s largest tortoise 15. Capital of Greenland (yes, it does have one) 16. Most populous country in Africa 18. The Burj Khalifa is located here 19. The volcano in Iceland that erupted in 2010 20. It may not be real, but the Beach Boys love this Florida Key 21. These Spanish islands share a name with a small yellow bird 22. If this country’s type of horse ever leaves, it can never return 24. Natural habitat of the Kiwi 27. Home to the golden temple in Sikhism 28. Angkor Wat is here 30. Moses floated down this as a baby 31. Split between Tanzania and Kenya, and great for a safari 32. Africa’s tallest mountain 35. The former city gate in Berlin 36. It’s in Ukraine, unless you’re asking Russia 37. The windy city 38. Exporter of Fjallraven Kånken

1. This city-state is sometimes called a playground for the rich and famous 2. This crater is an annular lake sometimes referred to as the “eye of Quebec” 3. This area is made up of 26 countries with no partitioning borders 5. Down under’s Ottawa 6. Current-day Siam 7. Madonna dreamt of it last night 9. The home of jazz 11. Home to Uluru 13. Encircled by Theron’s homeland 14. Its tagline is: “Where France meets North America” 17. Largest Muslim-majority country 23. It has a global seed vault in case of Doomsday 25. This lake is better than all the rest 26. Bissau, Papua New, Equatorial…

29. Balkan city or tasty frozen dessert 31. Host country of the Hajj 33. Earthworms as large as snakes have recently been found on this Scottish isle 34. The Dodo’s old stomping ground

12

Student Living Uniting the chaos through sustainable changes

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Bringing sustainable practices to the School of Environment Keara Campos Contributor The McGill Environment Students’ Society (MESS) is working to solve the lack of space for Environment students through sustainable initiatives, starting with the new MESS lounge. Upon receiving both basement space and funding from the School of Environment, the MESS council has been working to revamp the two rooms and couches sitting in the school’s building on Rue University. This redesign has catapulted further into different sustainable practices being undertaken within the space, such as a coffee co-op and alternative composting.

Andi Antal, U3 Environment, commented on the importance of having a space for Environment students.

“We’re always meshed in with Geography students,” Antal said. “Because of that we don’t have our own identity.”

Antal also spoke about the approach to furnishing the rooms that will put sustainable practices into action. Most of the furniture and decor pieces have been bought or found at Value Village, and on Craigslist—even the espresso machine that will be used by the Coffee Collective is a second hand purchase.

“Everything we need is already made, we don’t want to produce any-

thing more,” Antal said. “If we buy used, we’re contributing to reduction of waste [because] those items [aren’t] ending up in a landfill [and we’re] extending the lifecycle of the material good. Recycling is a mitigator but doesn’t actually address the issue of things being overproduced and in turn things being over consumed.”

Within the student space, MESS is also hoping to put a second initiative into action: The vermicompost. In conjunction with Campus Crops, a student run urban gardening initiative at McGill, the MESS team is hoping to set up the compost, which is a process by which worms are used to recycle organic waste. Eventually MESS is looking to set up a how-to workshop on composting for other students interested in waste reduction—whether that is with their own vermicompost or more simple but different ways to compost while on campus.

Antal is also leading the MESS mural design project, a rolling submission-based contest for a mural that will cover two small walls in the basement area of the lounge. This is a way to engage students more actively with the space, amd assure the space is representative of the environment community.

“My major role in it is more the artistic stuff,” Antal said. “Having environmentalism and art as two of my

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

Vermicomposting uses worms to convert food waste and organic material into a natural fertilizer. (villafinale.wordpress.com) major interests, I’m always trying to find ways to merge [them] and have them work together because I think they can [both be] really powerful.”

One of the final, tastier sustainable initiatives being introduced is the Coffee Collective Co-op, an independent student run group that will work to give students a cheaper alternative to specialty coffees on campus.

Chelsea Kingzett, U2 Environment student and MESS External Representative to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Council, explained that they will be sourcing from a Montreal company called Union as one way

Être Avec Toi

of keeping the co-op locally based.

They’re also eliminating the option of the to-go cup in order to encourage students to bring tumblers with them, or stay in the lounge with their coffees in reusable cups. “[The] MESS council decided unanimously to share [the] space with the Coffee Co-op,” Kingzett said. “[So] it will be a coffee bar located in [...] the MESS lounge. It’s going to be a program run by volunteers [...] as a breakeven operation. Basically, we’ll charge the amount to source beans for the next batch.”

By reducing coffee waste and

using the vermicompost bins, the program will run as a zero waste operation.

Although the efforts focus on sustainability, Antal and Kingzett both note that the projects ultimate goal will be to unite the school of Environment together as a community.

“Having the environment lounge will give students a space to come together, cross paths, and talk about different stuff they’re doing or even just meet people,” Kingzett said. “People [...] want more events and more opportunities to interact with [other] Environment students and we’re hoping this space will facilitate that.”

Street art curation meets fine dining

Emma Whitehall Contributor Être Avec Toi (ÊAT) is a dining experience unlike anything else Montreal has to offer. Located outside the McGill bubble on Rue du Square-Victoria, this new restaurant concept attached to the W Hotel was born of a collaboration between Sid Lee Architecture, specializing in cutting-edge designs, and MASSIVart, an agency with a mission to “amplify moments with art.” Together, the duo has brought together the worlds of visual art and fine dining in an unparalleled, innovative fashion.

The restaurant’s aesthetic is modern from the moment you walk in the entrance, which itself is an impressive collaboration between two local street artists, Stikki Peaches and What Is Adam.

They have covered the walls in an engaging homage to Montreal Canadiens hockey legends such as Maurice Richard and Bernard ‘Boom Boom’ Geoffrion, as well as other Canadian cultural references such as a ‘Maple Sizzurp’ installation referencing real Canadian maple syrup canisters.

Moving into the bar and restaurant area, patrons’ eyes are immediately drawn to the venue’s walls, which are covered in modern and contemporary pieces with bold colours and unique im-

An urban twist on the classic fine dining experience. (Emma Whitehall / McGill Tribune) ages, such as a pig wearing a crown and a massive mural of a roller coaster. The art pieces are interspersed with blank white spaces. The hand-selected artists chosen by MASSIVart will paint live in the restaurant a few times a month to fill the spaces, making the dining room into a project that is continuously evolving.

As Jean Pelland, architect and partner at Sid Lee Architecture, illustrates in ÊAT’s promotional video, “[The concept] was about the artistic nature of the food and how we wanted to create a mirrored image with the environment, so bringing art was very natural, and it became about running in parallel food and art.”

ÊAT features a seafood-based menu with a few options for those otherwise inclined. It is unquestionably a foodie’s paradise. The unshelled halflobster was very tender, and the meal had an option for two sides. Broccoli and cauliflower were chosen, and both were uniquely charred, adding to the overall taste.

In addition to the impressive textures and flavours of the food is an impeccable staff and wait service. Everyone from managers, hostesses, waiters, to the chef were constantly checking on guests and ensuring everyone’s evenings were going well in a friendly, light-hearted manner.

Unfortunately, fine food and high calibre service does not come cheap. On a student’s budget, ÊAT would be most sensibly left to special occasions. Looking at the menu, it would be impossible to order an appetizer and entrée for less than $30. The experience would also subsist as something much more doable for students on an evening when the live artists are in house since then patrons are treated to dinner and a show.

Evenings with live artists in-house are an immersive experience. It is a pioneering concept to watch the artists’ visions come to life in between when drinks arrive and the dessert menu is placed on the table. For those interested,

the next upcoming evenings featuring live artists will be Feb. 4 and 19.

As spaces on the walls fill up with art, the evolving nature of the concept is what makes this restaurant truly new. Every aspiring entrepreneur knows that creating something totally outside of what everyone else is doing generates a much more significant risk. ÊAT has dove in boldly and confidently with their concept, and so far the restaurant seems to be thriving among the local business crowd and trendy foodies alike, all looking for something novel in their dining experience.

FACT OR FICTION

13

Science & technology

Tuesday January 26, 2016

Is Blue Monday real?

If you felt particularly down last week, you might have Blue Monday to blame—or do you?

Stephanie Fehertoi Contributor Aside from being the title of a classic dance hit by New Order, the phrase “Blue Monday” is often used in reference to having feelings of sadness and anxiety upon returning to work in the beginning of the week; however, one specific Monday was singled out in recent years as being the bluest of them all: The third Monday of January.

This day was determined by Cliff Arnall, former part-time psychology lecturer at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. Arnall’s work was commissioned by a travel agency searching for the most depressing day of the year in order to market vacations.

Claiming to be mathematically calculated, his ‘formula’ took into account January’s gloomy weather, the post-holiday slump and its associated financial debt, the stress of the New Year, resolutions, as well as motivation (or lack thereof).

Other companies soon picked up Arnall’s Blue Monday as a depressing truth for PR purposes, but it was eventually met with criticism. Many pointed out that Arnall’s equation is nonsensical with no real scientific basis, and the factors he used to create the formula are ambiguous and unquantifiable. Indeed, Arnall does not

even state the units of measurement for his formula.

“I believe strongly that pseudoscience (like this equation) regularly presented as genuine science in the mainstream media harms the public understanding of science and psychology,” wrote Dean Burnett, a professor at Cardiff University, in The Guardian in 2012.

Burnett further explained that it is impossible for a reliable set of external factors, like those used by Arnall, to influence a population at the same time every year.

Arnall himself has denounced his whole claim, as Blue Monday picked up attention in Britain, continuing to trend in headlines and social media even today, 10 years after its creation in 2005.

“I’m pleased about the impact if it means people are talking about depression and how they feel, but I’m also encouraging people to refute the whole notion of there being a most depressing day and to use the day as a springboard for the things that really matter in your life,” Arnell said to The Telegraph in 2012.

Despite this, many might agree that January boasts some of the saddest days, especially as temperatures dip and school or work begins again. This might be attributed to cases of Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD). This is a condition in

which people’s moods are negatively affected by seasonal patterns, such as shorter and darker days in the winter.

The Canadian Mental Health Association notes that sufferers of SAD might experience fatigue, sadness, apathy, depression, and in extreme cases, suicidal ideation. As much as four per cent of Canadians become clinically depressed in the winter, while 10 to 15 per cent suffer from a milder form of SAD called sub-syndromal SAD. This seasonal mood change occurs because human serotonin levels are influenced by light, as the receptors in human retinas activate pathways responsible

For some people, feeling blue during the winter months is normal. (cosmopolitan.com) include exercise, spending time for making serotonin.

Lack of sunlight is often associated outdoors or near windows, and seeking with the disorder, and light therapy counselling.

While it is definitely fiction is increasingly being used to combat symptoms. In fact, two public libraries that some arbitrary date in January in Winnipeg and one in Edmonton will is the saddest of the year, many do soon install new sets of sun lamps to help understandably feel blue during winter those with SAD. Similarly, Montreal’s months. Especially here in Montreal, it Quartier des Spectacles includes is important to remember to embrace “Luminothérapie” art installations this cold season by enjoying winter every winter to brighten public spaces, activities like ice-skating or skiing, and the McGill Psychology Students’ spending cozy nights in with friends and Association recently added a ‘happy hot drinks, or even by simply admiring lamp,’ to their office (located in Stewart the snowfalls that make winter so Biological Sciences Building, room beautiful.

N7/8). Other methods of prevention

The best scientific publications at McGill

Looking for something new to read?

Daniel Galef Contributor While every newspaper at McGill, including the Daily, the Reporter, and the Tribune, has a Science & Technology section, McGill University is also home to a number of specialized publications that cover all aspects of scientific journalism and inquiry. Many of these, despite fascinating content and a hardworking staff (often volunteers), do not get the readership they deserve.

Here is a brief spotlight on three such publications that center on the sciences, but do so in very different ways.

Headway / En Tête The first resource for research on campus is Headway, an annual magazine simultaneously published in French as En Tête.

“There is so much extraordinary research happening at McGill,” explained Julie Fortier, the magazine’s editor and associate director of the McGill University Office of Communications and External Relations, the organization which co-publishes Headway. “We want to show how this research is done, why it’s important and the impact it will have—or is already having—here and around the world,”

Although not a student publication, the magazine highlights activities at McGill and is planning on introducing a brand new feature to offer students a direct voice in

“

McGill University is home to a number of specialized publications that cover all aspects of scientific journalism and inquiry.

communicating their undergraduate research to peers, alumni, and the greater scientific community. This new section is currently looking for interesting submissions in a variety of forms, such as photo slideshows and short videos, as well as more traditional text articles. In fact, the publication is right in the middle of a complete overhaul this spring.

“Instead of an annual print publication, Headway will become a quarterly electronic newsletter that anyone can subscribe to,” Fortier said.

The new, digital, and highlyaccessible format is scheduled to debut this March, and will be housed on the McGill Reporter website. Meanwhile, back issues are readable as PDFs online.

Behind the Roddick Gates, the Redpath Research Journal The Redpath Museum’s own research journal, Behind the Roddick Gates is one of McGill’s hidden gems, just like dawsonite (a mineral which was discovered on the museum’s construction site in 1874, viewable in the well-appointed second-floor mineralogy exhibit). The journal is focused on science and research, but with a decidedly eccentric twist—in its pages are recorded all manner of McGillian curiosa and esoterica. This includes things like campus legends at risk of dying out of the oral tradition, surprising ways McGill has influenced the world that are not normally brought to light, and the early colonial history of Montreal—but also very serious and illuminating papers on museum exhibits and scientific developments.

“We don’t really focus on one field in particular,” explained editor Aimy Wang. “You’ll notice that we have an article on an Egyptian pharaoh right next to a paper on Madagascan ammonites.”

With issues produced annually, the journal is the work of the Redpath Museum Club Society, and accepts submissions from the general student populace, priding its unrestricted authorship guidelines as one of the basis of its extremely diverse content.

In this regard, it is a fantastic example of undergraduate periodical production at McGill.

MSURJ Another such publication is MSURJ, the McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal, which prints annually and accepts all manner of student papers on subjects ranging from biochemistry to theoretical physics, and everything in between. Just this year, its scope has been expanded to include engineering, and the editors are excited about the journal’s new range.

“This year, we focused on getting more engineers involved in publishing with us,” said Ariana Aimani, co-editor in chief of the journal, “And we have received a great turnout.”

What’s more, unlike many less formal student publications, MSURJ is run entirely like a professional academic journal. Every issue and every article is peer-reviewed by active researchers in the relevant field. While contributors must be undergraduate university students, the journal frequently receives international submissions, and the actual research is always held to an extremely high standard.

“Undergraduate students who have completed any form of original research with a professor either for a 396 project, thesis, or summer project, as well as students who have written review papers [can submit to MSURJ],” Aimani said.

MSURJ, which celebrates its 10th year this issue, can be found in print on stands throughout campus, as well as on its digitized archive curated through the website, Issuu.

McGill is also home to a plethora of niche publications and departmental undergraduate journals concerning such more specialized fields as linguistics (Cellar Door), mathematics (Delta Epsilon), as well as Ampersand—the journal of the interfaculty Arts & Science program, which explores how the hard sciences can intersect with other fields.

14

Science & technology

Tuesday January 26, 2016

How much sleep do we actually need?

Scientists discover gene that enables certain individuals to stay up later Clare Lyle Staff Writer It’s a question that has perplexed humanity for centuries.

Some of the most prolific thinkers in human history, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and Winston Churchill were said to get by on as few as two or three hours of sleep per night. But can the human brain function optimally without the standard eight hours per night?

Recent studies have found that a gene called DEC-2 allows some individuals to get by on about four hours of sleep per night without any noticeable effects on their health.

In a study of sleeping patterns, researchers found a mother and daughter who only needed about six hours of sleep on a day to day basis to maintain normal function, while other family members in the study required eight.

To examine this gene further, researchers genetically engineered mice to have a mutated copy of the DEC-2 gene. These mice required, on average, an hour less of sleep per night when compared to normal mice.

On the surface, sleeping seems like an incredibly evolutionarily disadvantageous strategy. Every

hour of sleep is one less hour a hunter-gatherer could spend, well, hunting and gathering; however, as Psychiatry professor Reut Gruber of the Douglas Health Institute explains, sleep has many functions that are beneficial, and often necessary, for health.

“We have empirical data showing that we have to finish some businesses during the night that we cannot do as efficiently during the day,” Gruber explained. “One particular domain in which we have more and more information is cognitive processing. For example, memory consolidation. Our ability to benefit from information processed during the day is maximized if we have the opportunity to sleep on it.”

Sleep also plays a major role in academic performance. Gruber, who studies the effects of sleep on children and adolescents, has found that sleep deprivation results in significantly poorer grades.

“Insufficient sleep and poor sleep efficiency are directly correlated to poor grades,” Gruber said. “We saw [the] greatest deterioration in performance in math and languages; and so if some students think they do something good by pushing through and not sleeping through the night in terms of performing better, although

we can’t say where we draw the line, we can say that it is quite the opposite.”

One trend that appeared— particularly among individuals in demanding careers, and new mothers—is the use of polyphasic sleep schedules to maximize productivity. For example, one such schedule called the “Uberman” consists of six 20-minute naps spaced throughout the day. These sleep schedules are inspired by studies of individuals’ sleep patterns in extreme circumstances, such as soldiers on tour as well as sailors in long-distance races, and work by partitioning sleep into several segments spaced throughout the day.

In a study of sailors in longdistance races, race times were minimized when athletes took several 20 minute to one hour-long naps throughout the day, getting on average about four to five hours.

Indeed, in extreme circumstances studies like those above show that breaking sleep into multiple naps reduces the effects of sleep deprivation. The effects of polyphasic sleep on individuals in everyday environments have not been studied in great depth, however, so the longterm safety of such a sleep schedule is unknown.

Students who sacrifice sleep for their work can suffer from a number of negative side effects.

(Young Jin Cho / McGill Tribune) Beyond cognitive performance, sleep also plays a significant role in mental health.

“One thing that we don’t really talk about is the role of sleep in mental health,” Gruber said. “A lot of students struggle with emotional challenges, and it gets much worse when you’re sleep deprived. ” Although it’s tempting to try to get by on as little sleep as possible, empirical evidence shows that in trying to cheat sleep, students often end up cheating themselves.

Gruber’s studies of students in

high school and elementary school indicate that getting one or two fewer hours of sleep per night than is necessary results in major decreases in cognitive function, mood, and academic performance.

“Sleep should be prioritized a bit more with competing activities,” Gruber stated. “It’s a question of ‘How do I prioritize my leisure,’ and what should be sacrificed. And maybe if [students] realize the price they pay for [sacrificing sleep and] they’ll be able to make smarter choices.”

Sounds are better indicators of emotions than words

New study provides evidence for two processing systems of emotional cues Andy Wang Contributor Researchers have discovered two separate pathways for how emotions conveyed through speech are processed in the brain. Led by Dr. Marc Pell, associate dean and director of McGill University’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the work is the first of its kind to directly compare speech embedded emotions with vocalizations. The work was recently published in the Journal of Biological Psychology.

Pell has been studying the human voice for more than 20 years and is a world leader in the field of social neuroscience. To study these pathways, his team used eventrelated brain potentials (ERP), a type of electroencephalogram (EEG), to measure responses to two different types of vocal cues.

The first vocal cue, called ‘non-linguistic vocalizations,’ involved sounds produced by the human voice without semantic or linguistic meaning, such as growls, moans, cries, or laughter. The second, called “speech embedded emotions” were short emotional sentences with changes in pitch, loudness, rhythm and voice quality,

Dr. Marc Pell has discovered that people use two discrete systems to process auditory emotional information. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune) although the actual sentence itself carried no emotional meaning, like the phrase “he placktered the tozz.”

After hearing the auditory stimuli, participants were immediately shown a face expressing either an emotion, or a computer program-manipulated face that does not convey an emotion, called a “grimace.”

“Analyses of the data collected provide new neurophysiological evidence that vocalizations, as evolutionarily primitive signals, are accorded precedence over speechembedded emotions,” the paper

reads.

As a result of these differentiations, the researchers have postulated the existence of discrete brain regions for the processing of emotions in vocalizations as opposed to speech.

According to Pell, the study actually contained only half of their findings and that the faces were part of a companion study designed to investigate ‘emotional priming,’ or the conditioning of a subject to a particular emotion via vocal stimuli.

The study of the human voice

and vocal stimuli in the field of social neuroscience was, until only recently, overshadowed in popularity by research on the human face. The voice, however, has become an increasingly attractive subject of research in recent years.

This phenomenon is due in part by technological advancements.

“Historically, the voice was much harder to study because researchers are dealing with dynamic stimuli, whereas the face is static,” Pell said. “Improvements, particularly in real-time imaging and measuring techniques have

really pushed [the voice] into the spotlight.”

All participants in Pell’s study were native English speakers.

As the work was conducted in Montreal, a city famous for its bilingualism, speaking English as a mother tongue was a criterion in the selection of test subjects. The reason is that differences exist in emotional processing that are dependent on language.

“In our lab, we’ve found evidence that certain aspects of language systems affect the expression and identification of emotion,” he stated.

Pell has examined these differences with respect to Mandarin, a tonal language, and English, which is atonal.

In addition to language, Pell said that an even more important factor contributing to emotion and speech is culture. Social norms such as ‘when,’ and ‘to what extent’ an individual expresses an emotion, termed display rules, greatly contribute to individual differences.

However, many questions regarding the nature of vocal processing remain unanswered.

“We have [to] learn the similarities before we can learn the differences,” Pell said.

15

Sports

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

from the cheap seats

56th Woodsmen Competition leaves crowd pining for more Elie Waitzer Contributor Continued from page 1.

Unlike the major televised sports in North America, lumberjacking was not conceived of as a game. It’s a set of skills that supported our survival in the wilderness, in a time not so long ago. It’s not something you practiced for fun or for glory.

It’s only a sport because one day, some person said to another, “I bet I can chop that tree down with this axe faster than you can.”

Out of the 14 events in the competition, the McGill women’s team won the snowshoe, swede saw, crosscut saw, quart split, and underhand chop events and placed first with the most overall points.

The men came third overall, with strong performances in the single buck, snow shoe, and swede saw events. Latraverse was confident about the team’s position heading into the final CILA competition

at Dalhousie in February.

“Overall we have a really good team this year, we get a lot of points in every event and that’s what counts,” Latraverse said.

Not every event involved the cutting or chopping of wood.

The most entertaining competition of the day was the water boil, a singles event where each lumberjack is given a small cedar block, a hatchet, and three matches and has to bring a cup of water to boil as fast as possible.

The pole climb and the axe throw are pretty self explanatory—and pretty ridiculous to watch.

Some of the coolest events are rooted in interesting history. Log decking, which involves maneuvering a log up a ramp using a peavey (a logging tool that looks like a trident split in half), was an essential skill for lumberjacks trying to

The majority of events at the Woodsmen Competition are team events involving sawing, chopping, and fire-making. (Julia Conzon / McGill Tribune) float massive trees down rivers.

The underhand chop, where the lumberjack stands on top of a log and must break it in half by hacking into both ends, goes back to before saws were invented and when axes were used to cut wood

to the desired length.

While McGill’s Woodsmen and Woodswomen are mostly Mac campus students, some Engineering students travel back and forth from the Downtown campus, and Latraverse

encourages anyone interested to join.

“A lot of people who have never used a chainsaw or held an axe, we show them what to do, and if you stick with it you’ll get it eventually,” he said.

McGill Athletics: More than just varsity sports Fitness Centre offers many student-focused programs and activities Nicole Spadotto Staff Writer An average morning at the Currie Gymnasium in the McGill Sports Complex sees the full spectrum of the diverse McGill population intersect, as students begin their busy day. Between early morning training sessions and recreational classes, and the occasional stop in the sport clinic to treat an injury, these students all have something in common: They are striving to be their best physical selves and achieve a sense of community in the process.

Available to all students, the athletics complex and various programs are designed specifically for the average student seeking involvement in physical activities.

Some of the programs are entrenched in McGill tradition— intramural sports have been a staple at the university for decades, with different competition levels offered from beginner to advanced players.

When there is not enough interest in a sport to justify an intramural league, classes are offered to teach students the details of the sport, and will often put athletes in contact with tournament coordinators for competitions.

Matt Smrke, U0 Engineering, joined fencing classes upon arriving at McGill. Fencing appealed to him as a new and unexpected

sport that he could learn alongside experienced students who had competed previously.

“Even if you have no experience, everyone is happy to share their knowledge so others can improve,” Smrke said.

Besides fencing, many other out-of-the-ordinary activities are offered. Over the years, McGill Athletics has worked to implement programs to meet the evolving demands of students. As changing norms of fitness have permeated into the public consciousness, McGill has adapted their programs to include new niche athletic activities.

Though the staples of spinning and zumba are still offered, ballet barre lessons, a dance club, yoga, and boxing are now also available.

New to this year, athletic ‘passes’ are being offered so that students can participate in as many classes as they would like, across a variety of activities at one price. Not only is the new model incredibly efficient, it saves money for those who enjoy participating in athletic activities multiple days of the week.

This pass compliments the Rec Activities card, which is a punch card that gives students access to a variety of recreational activities on campus, including drop-in hockey at McConnell Arena and yoga classes at Currie Gymnasium.

“There is also ‘Free Fencing’ most weeknights,” Smrke added.

“Anyone can come and fence, […it]

Students have a wealth of options available to them at the gym. (Simon Poitrimolt / McGill Tribune) with participating in athletics. The read or study. creates a sense of community.”

Contrary to what many expect, new study space, intramurals, and The commitment that Athletics places upon community is key. appointments for the McGill athletic classes allow information Beyond physical fitness, overall Sports Medicine Clinic are open to flow from experienced athletes student wellness and health remains to both the student body and the and exercisers to those who are just a priority of McGill Athletics. A new Montreal public. The doctors and beginning to learn.

“My favourite part of fencing is study space was just unveiled in the physiotherapists who work at the second floor of Tomlinson Hall for clinic are accustomed to working [...] the great people,” said Smrke. those who spend their time around with elite athletes and high impact “Or that I get to hit people with a the athletics complex. The space, injuries, and are highly sought after sword for fun.”

This is the sentiment that though small, contains study tables for their expertise.

Though McGill offers many encompasses what athletics does and nooks that foster collaboration and teamwork. A treadmill and amenities to students beyond athletic for the McGill community. When stationary bike allow any student to facilities and services, the tying students help each other to meet take a physical study break or even force is the human connection and their physical and recreational to keep fit as they simultaneously the pure unbridled fun that comes goals, true community forms.

16 Martlet Basketball

Sports mcgill

72 -70

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Concordia

Injury-riddled Martlets squeak by Stingers in overtime Kiss-Rusk dominates with 28 points Morgan Alexander Managing Editor Despite trouncing the Concordia Stingers (2-8) 64-49 last Thursday, the McGill Martlets (7-1) barely beat their rivals Saturday, winning 72-70 in a nailbiting overtime performance.

McGill—sporting pink uniforms in honour of Pink Weekend, where the team aims to raise money for breast cancer research—fell six points behind Concordia in the first quarter. A quick race to regain their lead before the end of the first half followed, with the scoreboard showing 26-25 for McGill at the buzzer. The rest of the game consisted of back-and-forth action between the two teams, leading to an edgy and high-fouling second half as tensions heightened; the Martlets seemed uncharacteristically uneasy as the match progressed.

“We’ve got to be more disciplined and understand what we’re looking for,” Head Coach Ryan Thorne said on the team’s shaky performance. “I think sometimes when there are pressure situations it becomes frantic, and they just run around, and are uncertain, and will give [the ball] to anybody.”

Before this weekend, the Martlets

have had to get by without two of their top players: Senior point guard Dianna Ros, who is out with an ankle injury, and senior forward Marian Sylla, who only just got back onto the court after a week absence due to a leg injury. “[Ros has] been out for a couple weeks,” said Thorne. “[Sylla] hasn’t played for a couple games either; she didn’t play last Saturday and she didn’t play Thursday. We’re just reintegrating her into the whole thing […] limiting her minutes, just making sure she gets back okay.”

Sylla spent only 18 minutes on the court, but made efficient use of her playing time, putting up 10 points.

Meanwhile, junior centre and former NCAA player Alex Kiss-Rusk took control of the game, scoring 28 points for the Martlets, a game-high.

“Right now Alex is dominating, but the last two games where you see the real domination she’s playing against smaller post players,” Thorne explained. “Starting next weekend she gets in against some post players who are more her size, so we’ll be able to gauge that better once we see it.”

Despite recent injuries, the Martlets have maintained strong control over the top of the RSEQ, only

losing once this season to UQÀM (62). While Sylla and Ros’ injuries have undoubtedly hurt the team’s stats the past few games, their maintained dominance over the RSEQ is good news for the team’s future.

“The good thing is we’re winning games without [Sylla and Ros], so that’s positive,” Thorne said.

“I think [freshman guard] Gladys Hakizimana played a really good game today, she did a really good job

The Martlets dominated on the boards and in the paint. (Noah Sutton / McGill Tribune) offensively[….] I was happy with the Stat Corner overall team play.”

The Martlets out-rebounded the Stingers 45-16.

Quotable “It was a great opportunity.

That’s just a great cause, so for us to Play of the Game With time winding down at the do something like that we wanted to make it a little special [….] The girls end of the fourth quarter and the scores just loved it. It was an honour to do tied, Stingers senior forward Marilyse something like that.” — Head Coach Roy-Viau drove to the basket for a Ryan Thorne on filming an ad in chance to win the game. Fortunately for the Martlets, her layup did not fall. preparation for Pink Weekend.

Snow cricket World Cup comes to Montreal Cricketers descend on snow-covered Parc Jeanne Mance to celebrate their favourite sport

Zikomo Smith Sports Editor Cricket, the world’s most popular bat and ball game, normally takes place in temperate, sunny climates.

The coldest matches are usually found on blustery April mornings in Lancashire, England or in Dunedin, New Zealand—players can be seen wearing two sweaters, and clutching hand warmers in their pockets.

The snow cricket World Cup in Montreal, however, is a bit more extreme. A number of players— curious Montrealers and expats from Commonwealth countries, where the sport is primarily played—descend on Parc Jeanne-Mance to take part in the event. The tournament, now in its ninth year, has seen temperatures of -24°C in the past, leading participants to kit themselves up in Canada Goose, North Face, and Timberlands.

Cricketers start their match on the snowy fields of Parc Jeanne-Mance. (canadacricket.com) Founder of the tournament and President of the Pirates of the St.Lawrence Cricket Club, Angus Bell, got the inspiration for the tournament from his travels.

“The idea for snow cricket came from Estonia, where I was lucky enough to play cricket on ice, inside a former soviet missile factory against [the Estonian cricket team],” Bell explained. “It was part of a massive tour around the former Soviet Bloc and the Warsaw Pact countries at the time, so I was playing in the Croatian islands and the Slovakian mountains and stuff like that. So I thought if the guys can play cricket there, surely we can do it in Montreal.”

Translated from Eastern Europe to Parc Jeanne-Mance, snow cricket is wonderfully bizarre: A wooden platform lying on top of the snow

serves as the pitch on which the ball is bounced. There are no boundaries, so the batsmen can smash the ball and run between the wickets as many times as they deem fit. Bowlers and fielders don bulky winter wear. At any moment, a cross country skiier moving through the field could stop play. Running through the snow is notoriously difficult—likened to sand on more than one occasion.

“It just works,” Bell explained.

“Obviously when you are dressed up for the ski slopes like a ninja, bowling with frozen tennis balls on wood, it’s slightly ridiculous.”

A social, carnival atmosphere permeated the event. Teams were split into six different regions—England, the Asian bloc, the Celtics, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The teams had players of varying levels, and the

idea was to give everyone a chance to get involved.

“It’s a fantastic introduction to the game,” Bell said. “It’s winter outside so there is nothing else to do, it’s a lot of fun, the most fun you can have in winter. So people come out, they bring friends. It’s a gateway drug to cricket.”

Teams played to win, but not at the expense of the event’s social side. At lunchtime, everyone stopped to eat pies. During the game there was considerable banter between the players. Everybody was laughing and enjoying the incongruous setting for a cricket tournament.

Australia defeated the Asian bloc in the final—a game that saw big hitting, foolish running, and manic celebrations. Afterwards, in proper cricketing fashion, everyone hit the pub to warm up after the game.

The fun event is part of Bell’s, and the Pirates of the St.-Lawrence Cricket Club’s, vision to introduce cricket to the wider Montreal community. “[After finding inspiration from Estonia], it became a drive to open cricket to everybody,” Bell explained.

“We have had over a thousand players in eight years at the [Pirates of the St Lawrence cricket club]. We have matches all summer against teams from New York, Boston, Toronto[….]

Then we have our 10 week cricket

program.”

Bell has an inclusive vision for the sport in Montreal.

“Everything we do is open to everybody,” he commented. “We have a lot of beginners, a lot of people who haven’t played since primary school, and [The Pirates of the St.-Lawrence] is one of the [most affordable] sports clubs in Quebec, we have all the equipment so people just need to turn up.”