The McGill Tribune Vol. 36 Issue 23

STUDENT LIVING “Chez Boris is closing its doors” pg. 13

NEWS “First annual ‘Clash of the Professors’ covers global economic affairs” pg. 03

The McGill Tribune

EDITORIAL: THE UPHILL BATTLE OF RESTORING TRUST IN SSMU pg. 07

TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2017 VOL. 36 ISSUE 23

PUBLISHED BY THE SPT, A STUDENT SOCIETY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY

McGILLTRIBUNE.COM

Martlets basketball celebrates first National Championship in McGill history From the RSEQ basement to 2016-17 U Sports champs Gabriel Rincon Staff Writer

See more from our creative supplement, pages 9-12. (Margaux Delalex / The McGill Tribune)

SSMU motion against ancillary fee increases invalidated by legal contract Indefinite end date of contract leaves executives unsure of how to renegotiate Becca Zhuang Staff Writer On Feb. 20 at the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Winter 2017 General Assembly (GA), the Motion Regarding Policy Against Ancillary Fee Increases was introduced by Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Erin Sobat.

The motion was approved at the GA and scheduled for online ratification until, according to Sobat, the SSMU executives were informed of a pre-existing and contradictory contract with the McGill administration.

Had it been enacted, motion would have had SSMU not approving referenda questions for increasing ancillary fees, also known as frais institutionnels obligatoires (FIOs) or mandatory institutional fees,

until the university met certain conditions. Some of these conditions include implementing a moratorium on increasing overhead charges, developing a transparent formula for overhead fees, and McGill providing yearly financial information to the Executive Committee about the distribution of all ancillary fees by SSMU members.

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The slow science of personal and professional development Selin Altuntur Arts & Entertainment Editor As undergraduate students, it’s easy to get caught up in thinking we need to have our professional trajectory entirely figured out before graduating. It doesn’t help that we’re encouraged to scramble for internships in order to beef up our resumes, or that some

girl from your high school already has a TED Talk. McGill’s environment places a strong emphasis on the importance of preparing ourselves for the “adult” world—yet, so many of us end up with even less of an idea of what to do with our lives after experiencing a diverse roster of classes and experiences while at university.

The good news is that most people have no

idea what they’ll be doing in the future. When I was young, I found out my pediatrician was an anthropologist before deciding he preferred working with sick children. It’s only human to need time to figure things out before discovering what path you want to take. In fact, adopting a slow and deliberate approach may actually be beneficial in the long run.

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The McGill Martlets women’s basketball team capped off a historic 2016-2017 season with a national championship win–the first in Martlet basketball history. Despite a dismal 2-5 start to the season, the coaching staff never lost faith in the team. “[Coach Thorne’s] confidence is just beyond belief and you just feed off of it,” junior guard Frederique Potvin said. “Our coaches were confident from the start that we could win this whole thing and just needed us to be confident as well.”

The Martlets’ trainer—Danielle Dobney—was unphased by the slow start to the season. Trusting themselves to bounce back was key to McGill’s success in the second half of hte season.

“At times, I felt we didn’t believe we were as good as we were,” Dobney said. “Our confidence was low after some hard losses and it took a lot of work collectively from all of the players and staff to remind us of our abilities.

It’s really hard to win a national championship, [but] you’ll never do it if you don’t believe you can.”

Dobney’s hard work both on and off the court preparing the team for every game was crucial to the Martlets’ championship run.

“I feel like I have to give a little shout out to [Dobney],” senior guard Frederique Potvin said. “From the beginning to the end, she was truly the one person that believed in us. She had a huge impact on the way our team got together in the end.”

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

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SSMU motion against ancillary fee increases invalidated by legal contract Indefinite end date of contract leaves executives unsure of how to renegotiate Becca Zhuang Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

The motion was moved due to concerns about overhead fees that are charged to fee-funded units, such as Student Services, Student Housing and Hospitality Services, and Athletics and Recreation. Yearly budgets of the above units would each need to be approved by a university committee with at least parity student representation.

Currently, both graduate and undergraduate McGill students are required to pay annual non-opt-outable FIOs that support fee-funded units. These fees vary from approximately $1,500 to $3,000, depending on the student’s residency status and program of study.

“The fees that you would have to pay [...] that are not part of the tuition [...] would be the student services fees,” Kyana Alexandre, student services secretary, said.

“You would have to pay fees for [services, such as] the student society, the transcripts and diploma, and the McGill writing centre [...] a lot of them are not expensive,

but it’s just that they accumulate.”

According to the motion, required university overhead charges for fee-funded units have risen significantly since 2010. Overhead fees are not regulated and are exempt from ministerial control in Quebec, meaning that universities are able to change overhead fees through a referendum process, but without provincial restriction.

These overhead fees fund resources such as legal, accounting, and maintenance services—which are not provided through the central university operating budget.

Governmental regulation of ancillary and overhead fees is difficult, as fees can be numerous and vary greatly between different institutions, while power over these fees are usually distributed among different administrative services.

The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Secretary-General Victor Frankel said that PGSS does not have a contract similar to SSMU’s.

“The requirement for PGSS to run a referendum on [FIOs] specifies that [the Legislative Council] initiates the process, but [the university] can’t compel us to run a referendum if, [after we]

initiate it, Council votes to not put the question out,” Frankel said.

PGSS’ ability to vote on fee increases before they are put to referendum was demonstrated on Feb. 15, when the PGSS Legislative Council vetoed a request for an ancillary fee increase from McGill Athletics and Recreation.

“The university [...] said that PGSS has to put the motion up for referendum, but PGSS responded that if they were compelled to initiate the process [...they] complied with the mandate by putting the question up to Council,” Frankel said.

According to Sobat, services that are funded by [FIOs] are charged overhead fees because they are not considered to be part of the university’s main operating budget.

“The issue is that there is no formula for determining how those charges are levied and they have been increasing exponentially the past few years, alongside overall budget cuts to the university,” Sobat said.

Sobat wrote in an article for The McGill Daily in September 2016 that overhead charges on Student Services have increased from $30,679 in 2009 to $651,385

The current contract between SSMU and McGill regarding anciallary fees does not have an end date.

(Hannah Taylor / The McGill Tribune) in 2016. According to Sobat, respected.”

Frankel also believes that SSMU cannot legally renegotiate their contract with the university. students should have more con“It’s indefinite, so there’s trol over fees.

“A lot of [...] services that no end date on this agreement,” Sobat said. “[….] I’m not sure should be provided [to students] that the current Executive is in by the university are being a position to look into the full pushed on to students through all legal scope of this contract. I these extra fees,” Frankel said. would certainly encourage the “[....] If we’re paying for these next Executive to do so […] to services, there needs to be a speensure that [SSMU’s] rights [as] cific effort to provide as much a student association are being transparency as possible.”

First annual ‘Clash of the Professors’ covers global economic affairs

Associate Professors Velk and Ragan present two different sides of economics Julia Métraux Staff Writer On March 13, the McGill Students Trading Society (MSTS) hosted its first annual “Clash of the Professors’ event on the subject of global economic affairs. Economics Professor Paul Dickinson moderated the debate between Economics and North American Studies Associate Professor Tom Velk and Economics Associate Professor Christopher Ragan.

MSTS Chief Marketing Officer Omar El-Sharawy introduced Ragan and Velk, noting that they both have had influence on financial institutions in their past positions, as Ragan served as an advisor to the Bank of Canada and Velk sat on the Board of Governors of the American Federal Reserve System.

Debate questions were divided into four topics: Environmental policy, international trade, central bank policy, and government spending in Canada.

For every question, Ragan and Velk had two minutes to present a position and one minute for a rebuttal.

Dickinson first posed a question about whether carbon pricing would affect greenhouse gases.

“The logic of carbon pricing is based on the idea that markets work pretty well, that prices actually allocate resources,” Ragan said. “It goes way

Ragan and Velk presented different views on who deserves to benefit from taxpayer- funded health benefits. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune) back to Adam Smith, when scarcity is reflected by higher-level prices and abundance is reflected by lower-level prices. By changing [carbon pricing], you are going to change behaviour.”

Velk disagreed with the notion of carbon pricing, dismissing climate change entirely.

“The notion of climate change and global warming is like religion for me, it doesn’t have support,” Velk said.

On free trade and trade agree-

ments, Velk and Ragan agreed that the real-life implications of industry specialization are often overlooked.

“England makes great cloth, lousy wine,” Velk said. “Portugal makes great wine, lousy cloth. As trade gets going, England clothmakers and Portuguese winemakers are better off.

The problem is, Portuguese clothmakers are out of business, as are English winemakers.”

However, Ragan pointed out that

the country specializing in the more valuable resource has increased bargaining power in negotiations, resulting in national benefits.

“We actually have some bargaining power [...] with the United States because we do some things very well,” Ragan said. “We export all of our natural gas to the United States.”

Another topic that Velk and Ragan differed on was their view of central banks.

“Central banking has the danger of allowing governments to borrow money irresponsibility,” Velk said.

Ragan, while agreeing with Velk that central banks have not always been productive to society, argued they are more successful than changes in policy.

“I don’t believe that central banks are perfect by any means, but I think the period from 1991 to 2008 shows central banks operating very successfully,” Ragan said.

When asked about government spending, Velk used the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as reasoning to have reservations against government expenditure.

“Everyone should pay for what they get,” Velk said. “The money [for ACA] comes from taxpayers and a lot of us end up having a life better than what we deserve to have and what we paid for.”

By contrast, Ragan supports government spending if it benefits a community.

“Yes, as long as the infrastructure is actually going to benefit the future generation,” Ragan said. “So, if you’re going to build stupid stuff that doesn’t benefit you or your children, I don’t think we should go with it at all or make you pay for it. If we are going to use money to build libraries or universities, [...] I have no problem about using money to create a good infrastructure.”

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SSMU Indigenous Affairs Committee hosts Indigeneity & Solidarity Week 2017

Workshops address solidarity with Indigenous communities

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Noah Century resigns from MUSA Executive following backlash from SSMU campaign MUSA President intends to implement workshops for future executives

Margherita de Castro Contributor From March 13 to 18, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Indigenous Affairs Committee hosted the second annual Indigeneity and Solidarity Week in conjunction with the Indigenous Student Alliance (ISA), the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the Indigenous Studies Program, and First Peoples’ House.

Speakers conducted workshops, panel sessions, and public lectures to shed light on Indigenous issues in North America.

This year, the SSMU Indigenous Affairs Committee opted to title the event series Indigeneity and Solidarity Week instead of Indigeneity and Allyship Week. SSMU Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Erin Sobat, one of the main organizers of the event, attributed the rebranding to the problematic nature of allyship, a concept that he claimed prioritizes settler validation over the needs of Indigenous peoples. Sobat wished to prioritize Indigenous communities and their concerns.

“The committee was particularly focused on creating spaces for Indigenous students and staff to think about resurgence and revitalization, or how we can best push back against colonialism and develop responses to contemporary issues in ways that prioritize Indigenous needs and narratives,” Sobat said.

Primarily organized and run by students, the event series encouraged relatable content. Sobat expressed his interest in the week also acting as a platform to hold the McGill administration accountable to their promises of self-reflective education.

With their grassroots, rather than an institutional, perspective, the organizers invited renowned activists and cultural figures to headline the week. One of the guest lecturers was Kyle T. Mays, a Black and Saginaw Anishinaabe post-doctoral scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mays’ expertise covers urban Indigenous history, Indigenous popular culture, and Afro-Indigenous studies.

On March 17, Mays ran a workshop on creating safe spaces in neoliberal universities. Mays urged attendees to discuss their definitions of diversity and their opinions on the 150th anniversary of Canada. On the latter, many participants felt that the country’s anniversary celebrations did not acknowledge Canada’s colonization process involving forceful assimilation and mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.

“Solidarity is important to move forward, especially now in the context of Canada’s 150th birthday and Black Lives Matter,” Mays said.

Mays followed the workshop with a public lecture on Black and Indigenous Solidarity on Turtle Island, referring to North America.

He discussed the dichotomy in the historic relationship between Black and Indigenous communities. Of particular concern was how Black groups contributed to the oppression and dispossession of Indigenous people, such as the role that African-American buffalo soldiers played in the U.S. government’s Western expansionist plans.

Mays found that the pursuit of Black liberation often came at the expense of accounting for Indigenous sovereignty.

However, Mays also cited instances where the two communities empowered each other’s movements. For example, Native-Americans participated in protesting the Flint water crisis, a situation that heavily affected African-Americans. Mays emphasized the value of the two communities’ cooperating to resolve the common issue of colonial behaviour.

“We can’t really engage in decolonization without an inclusive idea of decolonization that includes African-American people and others,” Mays said.

Kahawihson Horne, an Indigenous student at Concordia University in her second year of First People Studies, described Mays’ teachings as an instruction manual for young activists.

“He was talking about how self-care is one essential part of being an activist,” Horne said. “That just because someone is from the same community, band, or nation as you that does not necessarily make them your kinsfolk.”

Indigeneity and Solidarity week finished with the ISA’s full-day conference on the role of Indigenous arts in the revitalization of the community on March 18.

Sara Cullen News Editor

Century said that he is not sure why he made his comment to The Daily and is no longer involved with SSMU or MUSA. (Lauren Benson-Armer / The McGill Tribune)

On March 16, the Music Undergraduate Students’ Association (MUSA) announced that Noah Century resigned from his position as vice-president (VP) External.

Century had previously campaigned for the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) VP External Affairs position, but withdrew his candidacy after a formal censure from Elections SSMU. Elections SSMU issued the censure on March 11 after Century told a reporter in an interview with The McGill Daily on March 7 that his takeaway from the allegations of sexual and gendered violence against former VP External Affairs David Aird was, “Don’t get caught.”

MUSA President Lauren Toccalino said that on March 9, Century let the MUSA Council know that comments he had made to The Daily may affect his SSMU campaign. MUSA received feedback from both music students and McGill students at large after the censure was issued. Toccalino said that although it was difficult to lose a member of the MUSA Executive, it was the right decision to call for Century’s resignation.

“Students were no longer feeling that [Century] was representing them,” Toccalino said. “It was also a council decision [to call for his resignation], not just students.

[Century] was no longer fulfilling the responsibilities of his position to carry out the mandate of the MUSA Executive.”

Century said that he did not intend to cause anyone harm and that he regrets his statement to The Daily.

“Being a part of MUSA and a part of SSMU [...] has been the most enjoyable part of this year,” Century said. “[....] Running for SSMU candidacy [...] was the best part of this semester and losing all of that in less than a week has been a pretty serious blow. It’s made all the worse because it was caused by a comment that was a mistake, a comment that I would not under any circumstance ever have said. At this time, I’m still confused as to why I said it.”

According to Toccalino, it is important to acknowledge comments and actions, such as Century’s, because they have an effect on larger conversations about sexual violence.

“MUSA will definitely be considering implementing a sexual violence and awareness workshop and a workshop that teaches executives how to use language and approach this topic in a safe way,” Toccalino said. “Those structures are not formally in place yet, but I hope to pass these along to the next [MUSA] president.”

Although Century told The Daily reporter that his statement was a joke, SSMU Chief Electoral Officer Alexander Nehrbass received a formal complaint against Century on March 8. In an email to The McGill Tribune, Nehrbass wrote that upon investigation of Century’s comments, Elections SSMU decided that Century’s conduct was a violation of the SSMU Equity Policy.

“Censuring [Century] was a difficult decision to make–[...] Elections SSMU is supposed to remain neutral and uninvolved in promoting or hurting a candidate’s

campaign as far as possible,” Nehrbass wrote. “[....] I felt the right precedent to set in this situation was to put aside Elections SSMU’s duty of neutrality in order to stand by the SSMU’s obligation to promote equity.”

After Century’s censure, a “Campaign Against Noah Century for SSMU VP External” event was created on Facebook by Lauria Galbraith and Greta Hoaken, both U3 Arts. Galbraith wrote in a message to The Tribune that the event was made in order to inform students and make sure that the implications of Century’s comments were made clear.

“I think that there is no tolerance in situations like these because comments like Century’s are so incredibly belittling to the experience of survivors, as well as very ignorant to what rape culture is and how it gets perpetuated,” Galbraith wrote. “Most of the defence that I heard on Century’s behalf was that is was ‘just a joke,’ but it really wasn’t [....] There just isn’t a joke there.”

Hoaken wrote in a message to The Tribune that comments, such as the one made by Century, display a flippant attitude toward sexual violence. According to Hoaken, this type of attitude contributes to decisions that are not pro-survivor and which fail to create a safe campus environment–an issue that is especially important given recent events: Aird and former SSMU president Ben Ger recently resigned due to allegations of sexual and gendered violence, and former Arts Representative to SSMU Igor Sadikov resigned following accusations of psychological abuse in a past relationship.

“I think the key thing to note here is the difference between punishment and accountability,” Hoaken wrote. “We aren’t punishing Century for what he said simply because we did not like it. Rather, we are raising the issue that if you are going to make light of the trauma suffered by survivors, then you probably aren’t fit to hold public office at McGill–especially given the context of this year’s resignations.”

Additionally, Galbraith wrote that Century’s continued actions on social media did not demonstrate that his apology was sincere. “[...After] issuing a public apology, Century liked a comment on [his] post which said [...], ‘Too many triggered [social justice warriors] sjws [sic] right,’” Galbraith wrote. “So, it does not seem like [Century] actually felt remorse for his statement or understood why it was taken as such a grave offence.”

According to Century, his apology was genuine and weight should not be placed on the comments that he liked on Facebook.

“I know there are a lot of people that were saying that because I liked that comment, that clearly indicated that my apology was not sincere and it absolutely was,” Century said. “At the exact moment where I published my apology, [...] the situation was over and I was trying to move on. So, I was reading through the comments and some I found resonated true and some I found just simply amusing and I just starting liking some of them.”

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

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PGSS expresses doubts about LICM fee referendum transparency LICM chose to hold fee referendum independently of PGSS Julie Guichard Contributor At the Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council meeting on Jan. 18, the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM) submitted a referendum fee question for Council approval. The referendum proposed an increase in the PGSS LICM student fee from $2.00 to $4.50 per student per semester.

The LICM is a student-run service that provides free legal information to McGill students, staff, and members of the Montreal community on all areas of Quebec law except criminal, tax, and construction law. According to Executive Director of the LICM Marie-Pier Gauthier, the proposed fee increase would be used to fund a larger location for volunteers. The organization has not had a fee increase since the fee was first created in 1990.

Although the referendum question was approved by the PGSS Council, it was later found that LICM representatives had not reported accurate statistics regarding who used their services, according to PGSS Chief Returning Officer Manmeet Rai. “The question was introduced to Council and, while responding, the LICM misrepresented facts concerning the number of students who use the service,” Rai said.

“The LICM misrepresented facts, saying that 75 per cent of clients were students, which is not true.”

Gauthier later confirmed that students make up approximately 25 per cent of the LICM’s clients. Instead of returning to PGSS Council for re-assessment of the referendum question, the LICM sent the PGSS the accurate statistics by email and then decided to run the referendum independently. PGSS Secretary-General Victor Frankel found the mishap concerning.

“The LICM was not acting in bad faith to provide faulty statistics, […] but this raises questions on how prepared they are to run a campaign if they are giving faulty information, which is very important,” Frankel said.

Rai questioned the fairness of raising student fees for a service that is mostly used by external community members. Gauthier argued that the LICM is an important resource for students that is not otherwise provided at McGill.

“The LICM is the only clinic in Montreal open over 40 hours a week that can give help to students concerning aspects such as plagiarism, grievances, intellectual property disputes, and disputes with supervisors, even allegations of sexual harassment,” Gauthier said. “There is no comparable service on campus.”

While Rai suggested that the LICM look outside McGill for funding, Gauthier emphasized that the LICM’s top priority is McGill students and that the fee increase will directly benefit them.

“The LICM fee has never been increased, [while] the buying power of $2.00 has significantly decreased [and] our service has only increased,” Gauthier said. “The demand keeps going up and we do not have resources to keep up with the demand.”

Gauthier explained that the LICM chose to run the referendum independently due to overall difficulty and confusion when working with PGSS. “We ran independently because there was [ambiguity] on getting back to Council and the timeline,” Gauthier said. “The process was becoming unclear and difficult to predict. Running independently was even [recommended] by PGSS [after the Council meeting on Jan. 18].”

Another issue raised by Rai was the legitimacy and

The LICM is currently running a referendum to increase their graduate student fee.

(Hannah Taylor / The McGill Tribune) transparency of an independent fee referendum, as the LICM can change who is on the “Yes” committee to their advantage.

“The ‘Yes’ committee is exempt from [PGSS] nomination procedures, [enabling] the LICM to change [the] composition of [the] ‘Yes’ committee based on who joins the ‘No’ committee, thereby making the entire process skewed,” Rai said.

Although Rai expressed doubt over the fee being non-opt-outable, Gauthier felt that binding fees are fair if the student body votes in favour of them. She also clarified that their referendum is based on PGSS’ template. “[Voting] is optional and does not impose a fee on students,” Gauthier said. “Further, we have been very concerned about the transparency and fairness and the bylaws used are those drafted with the PGSS.” Voting for the independent referendum opens on March 20 and ends on March 26.

Innocence McGill hosts annual conference on wrongful criminal convictions Woman wrongly accused of murder shares her story Samuel Lottes Contributor Innocence McGill is a legal clinic at the Faculty of Law that investigates wrongful convictions in Quebec.

On March 15, it hosted its annual Bad Science Brought to Justice Conference, a panel that provides a spotlight for wrongful convictions stemming from negligent forensic analysis and bad science.

Moderated by Assistant Law Professor Alana Klein, this year’s panel consisted of Lianne Thibeault, an Ontario woman wrongfully convicted of murdering her child, the Honourable Stephen Goudge, commissioner of the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology, and Caroline Tanguay, an expert at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale in Quebec.

On Nov. 30, 1995, Thibeault’s 10-month-old son Nicholas accidentally fell and hit his head on a sewing machine in their Sudbury, Ontario home. Nicholas was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead. It was soon revealed to Thibeault, however, that the former head of the Ontario Pediatric Forensic Pathology Unit, Dr. Charles Smith, had accused Thibeault of murdering her son.

“What soon followed was a never-ending series of cruelty, lies, and sheer incompetence,” Thibeault said. “[Dr. Smith] was 99.9 per cent certain that I had caused Nicholas’ death and that I would do it again.”

Goudge established the 2007 Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, also known as the Goudge Inquiry. The inquiry was a response to concerns that arose regarding criminally suspicious deaths of children handled by the Province of Ontario, many of which directly involved Dr. Smith directly. After the inquiry was completed, a report was published in 2008.

“During the 1990s, there were red flags about the work of [Dr.] Smith,” Goudge said. “He was adamant his failings were never intentional, but it was discovered [that Dr.] Smith lacked basic knowledge about forensic pathol-

ogy.”

Goudge’s inquiry prompted the reinvestigation of more than 40 cases that Dr. Smith was involved in.

“It was quickly determined that in 20 [cases], the evidence didn’t sustain [Dr. Smith’s] opinion and in 12 cases there had been wrongful convictions,” Goudge said.

Goudge concluded that the legal system had failed the Thibeault family and at least twenty others wrongfully accused by Dr. Smith.

“It wasn’t just the failings of one individual,” Goudge said. “It was the failings of the set of participants in the system, […] the police and the scientists. In many of the cases, the lawyers failed to understand the weakness of the science.”

Klein then directed the conversation toward the question of why a respected doctor, like Dr. Smith, would work to persecute so many grieving families on evidence that was often ambiguous or misleading. Tanguay said that Dr. Smith’s actions accelerated Ontario’s standards for pathology training “Once people became pathologists, [they] jumped into performing autopsies without any training, without any notion of differentiating post-mortem changes,” Tanguay said. “They wouldn’t recognize the limits, [...they] would start to testify in court and because they testified, they would be recognized as expert witnesses and would build their credibility on personal experience, which they developed themselves without any formal training.”

Months after her son had been re-examined in a second autopsy, Thibeault’s case was independently investigated by the provincial coroner’s office, which unequivocally determined that there was no evidence of foul play.

Thibeault was acquitted of all charges and Dr. Smith was banned from performing further autopsies. Dr. Smith was reprimanded for his actions but it was not until 2011 that he was stripped of his license to practice medicine. Many of the families affected, including Thibeault’s, have been entitled to financial compensation.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

6 OPINION

Comm e nt a r y

Gabriel Rincon Staff Writer On March 6, McGill announced that its Senate would be consulting students on how the McGill Charter of Students’ Rights should be revised. The Charter is a document that outlines the rights and freedoms that each student at McGill is guaranteed, including academic rights. This revision is an apt opportunity for the university to review its grading policies.

The current grading policy is composed of a patchwork of faculty specific policies broadly governed by the Student Assessment Policy (SAP), which outlines the school’s policies on all forms of student assessment, as well as some rights delineated in the Charter. While these

c omm e nt a r y

Grey Gunning Contributor The Liberal Arts are often portrayed to be a set of dying disciplines, a collection of studies with a long pedigree, but no practical applications in today’s world.

Their continued existence is perennially up for debate. According to Statistics Canada, enrollment in Liberal Arts majors decreased by almost 6 per cent in 2015, and many universities are either decreasing their liberal arts offerings or combining the majors with other disciplines. While coming out of university with a Business degree might seem more economically tenable than exiting with a degree in, say, literature, a Liberal Arts degree is more than just a tenuous path to a job. It is a tool that facilitates communication and criticism.

Liberal Arts degrees enable their recipients to discern fact from fiction in the world around

In its Charter review, McGill should revise grading policies documents are comprehensive in guaranteeing generally fair assessment practices, faculties retain the discretion to define their own grading schemes and grade reassessment policies. This leeway can compromise the rights that the SAP and the Charter afford students, especially when it comes to consistent grading across faculties.

In the SAP, there is nothing to ensure a uniform grading scheme across courses, or even across different sections of the same course. The result is that some faculties, such as Management, pursue a very rigid curving scheme whereas others, such as Arts, leave it to the professors to determine how they wish to grade. Hence, students face very different outcomes depending on their major and their professor. This disparity translates to a significant injustice when students are competing for jobs, scholarships and academic accolades. A grade is only useful insofar as it communicates a uniform standard of quality; without some objective sense of what a B+ means and how it differs from a B-, grades become arbitrary. Thus, McGill should ensure that its assessment policies yield university-wide standards of grading. However, this reform would be moot if it is not paired

with clear grading criteria across faculties.

As students, we are no strangers to poorly-defined assignments. Oftentimes, there are no detailed grading rubrics given for assignments, or point values are not assigned to questions.

When the assignment is handed back, it is discouraging when the only comments are a few pen marks and a grade. Inevitably, growing class sizes, substantial workloads, and prioritization of research projects limit professor’s and teaching assistants’ (TAs)’ ability to provide comprehensive feedback to students.

However, if the university is committed to a “quality education” for each student, as the Charter promises, provisions should exist that emphasize the role of TAs and professors as not merely evaluators, but as educators. As stated in the Charter and in the SAP, students do have the right to an explanation of their grade– however, assessment reviews and explanations are available only upon student request. This provision should go further, by stipulating that students be provided assignment rubrics where possible. Additionally, the SAP should include reasonable comments on positive areas and where improvement is needed.

Feedback is essential to students

“ If the administration is truly looking to improve students’ well-being with Charter reforms, it would be an oversight to not review grading policies.

The value of a Liberal Arts degree in a post-truth world them, a skill that is increasingly important in a ‘post-truth’ world.

“Liberal Arts” is a nebulous category that encompasses a multitude of disciplines, from the humanities to the social sciences.

What these degrees all have in common is a basis in critical thinking and “cultural citizenship, through participation in the various conversations that constitute a culture.” In essence, a Liberal Arts degree facilitates cultural commentary and criticism, allowing students to step outside of cultural structures and comment on them. It provides its bearer with a way of thinking and a way of engaging with the world.

The importance of meeting the world with critical thinking skills cannot be overstated. Liberal Arts courses teach their students to question biased sources and challenge established precepts of thought.

Students are taught to be sensitive to bias, and to look beyond what they are told. In an era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” a Liberal Arts education helps its recipient to read and watch with a critical eye. According to The Economist, Americans shared 30 million false pro-Trump articles during the 2016 election cycle.

This kind of comfort with fake news is not exclusive to America—it is a phenomenon in Western politics at large.

The rhetoric of a post-truth world is visible in Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, as supporters of Brexit reject reliable data and scoff at expert opinions. While

Canada has not yet experienced such an egregious example of post-truth thought, the politics of falsehood prominent in its southern neighbour have begun to sneak across the

“

Educators and students must not lose sight of the importance of an education that teaches its recipient to responsible consume and create media.

”

border, most notably in the pushback against a Canadian carbon tax following Trump’s anti-climate change rhetoric.

While the fake news boom may seem like a baffling anomaly of the 21st century, it may also just be an unfortunate symptom of the Internet era. In his book “The Internet of Us,” philosophy professor and writer Michael

”

Lynch argues that the Internet “blinds” its users from truth, as they come to rely on it as a news source. As Lynch gravely suggests, the inability to critically consume internet media hamstrings objective reasoning.

Moreover, the internet undeniably provides an influx of information that is unprecedented in human history. Because of this, the people of the Internet age are perched on the edge of a radical reconceptualization of truth—the Internet may be an intended as an egalitarian sphere where anyone can speak their mind, but this egalitarianism can negate legitimacy as users come to trust online sources with no credentials.

These qualities of the online era, compounded by a political culture in which people no longer feel that they can trust established authorities, causes false sources to gain undue traction in public consciousness. Consequently, per The Economist’s observations on ‘the art of the lie’, “lies that are widely shared online within

learning from their mistakes and improving, and to any definition of a “quality education”.

Moreover, when students feel their grade is simply unjust, they may find little avail in the regrading policy. There is no university-wide regrading policy—it varies by faculty.

Moreover, regrading is usually a tacit threat of a lower grade.

Consequently, students are forced to weigh the possibility of a lower grade against the benefit of challenging one they believe to be unfair. Thus, in practice, the right to regrading is more a formality than a meaningful avenue of recourse. As such, McGill should devise a uniform double-blind regrading procedure in which all students are guaranteed a fair reassessment.

If the administration is truly looking to improve students’ well-being with Charter reforms, it would be an oversight to not review grading policies. There are three clear gaps in the current SAP that have perverse effects on students: Inconsistent grading schemes, poorly defined assignments and the regrading policy. Fair evaluations are an issue of justice where students are at significant power disadvantage.

The current policies do not go far enough to address this.

a network, whose members trust each other more than they trust any mainstream-media source, can quickly take on the appearance of truth.” It is imperative, then, for people to adjust themselves to an online culture in which truth is not always easy to find. To do this, responsible citizens need critical thinking skills and cultural literacy—skills that are traditionally associated with a Liberal Arts degree.

Educators and students must not lose sight of the importance of an education that teaches its recipient to responsibly consume and create media. Liberal Arts education provides the invaluable ability to not just discern truth, but to also shape what is perceived as “truth” through commentary.

This is crucial today because the nature of truth itself is in question. Beyond any economic usefulness, a Liberal Arts degree might have, it allows its bearer to take part in shaping political and cultural paradigms in a period of flux.

ERRATUM Erratum: An article in issue 22 titled “McGill students introduce clubs to the Board of Governors” incorrectly stated that Board of Governors (BoG) member Sam Minzberg’s last name was Minsberg. Additionally, the article incorrectly stated that BoG members are part of the McGill administration. Finally, the article incorrectly stated that a forum between the BoG and students had not been held in the last three years. In fact, this event was the fourth such meeting and the last one occurred last year. The Tribune regrets these errors.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

OPINION 7

e d ito r i a l Editor-in-Chief Julia Dick editor@mcgilltribune.com Creative Director Natalie Vineberg nvineberg@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors April Barrett abarrett@mcgilltribune.com Nicholas Jasinski njasinski@mcgilltribune.com News Editors Holly Cabrera, Sara Cullen, Calvin Trottier-Chi news@mcgilltribune.com Opinion Editors Jackie Houston & David Watson opinion@mcgilltribune.com Science & Technology Editor Lydia Kaprelian scitech@mcgilltribune.com Student Living Editor Audrey Carleton studentliving@mcgilltribune.com Features Editor Albert Park features@mcgilltribune.com Arts & Entertainment Editors Selin Altuntur & Evelyn Goessling arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors Joe Khammar & Aaron Rose sports@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Domitille Biehlmann & Daniel Freed design@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editor Lauren Benson-Armer photo@mcgilltribune.com Multimedia Editor Noah Sutton multimedia@mcgilltribune.com Web Developers Clare Lyle webdev@mcgilltribune.com Daniel Lutes online@mcgilltribune.com Copy Editor Areni Nicoghosian copy@mcgilltribune.com

The uphill battle to restoring trust in SSMU On March 17, the results of this year’s Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) executive elections were announced. The entire process took less than 10 minutes.

But brevity was to be expected– as is typical for SSMU elections, many of this year’s positions were uncontested, and the low level of fanfare was befitting of the 20 per cent voter turnout.

What distinguished this election from last year’s, and perhaps from any in recent history, however, was the series of scandals leading up to it. Since the beginning of this Winter semester, students have watched in increasing shock as former Arts Representative Igor Sadikov touted violence against Zionists­—and resigned following allegations of abuse in a previous relationship surfaced online­—former Vice-President (VP) External David Aird resigned following allegations of sexual harassment and assault, and, most recently, former president Ben Ger stepped down following accusations of gendered violence.

In the case of alleged sexual and gendered violence, this semester has made clear that means of transparent and prompt action are sorely lacking­.

A statement from the Community Disclosure Network (CDN) prompted Aird’s resignation from the executive

O F F T H E B O ARD

Business Manager Mingye Chen business@mcgilltribune.com

Publisher Chad Ronalds

TPS Board of Directors

Mingye Chen, Julia Dick, Audrey Carleton, Shrinkhala Dawadi, Arman Bery, Clare Fogarty, Arden Li

Staff Writers

Contributors

André Morin, Avleen Mokha, Catherine Morrison, Courtney Wright, Erin Dwyer, Grace Bahler, Grey Gunning, Jordan Foy Julie Guichard, Margherita de Castro, Omar Arafeh, Oyku Cildir, Samuel Lottes, Selwynne Hawkins Stephen Gill

Tribune Office

Shatner University Centre Suite 110, 3480 McTavish Montreal, QC H3A 0E7 T: 514.398.6789 The McGill Tribune is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Société de Publication de la Tribune, a student society of McGill University. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of The McGill Tribune and the Société de Publication de la Tribune, and does not necessarily represent the views of McGill University.

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

Selin Altuntur Arts & Entertainment Editor Continued from page 1.

The Slow Science movement, for instance, was born out of frustration with the accelerated pace at which peer-reviewed journal publications are pumped out. The Slow Science Manifesto insists, “Science needs time to think. Science needs time to read, and time to fail. Science does not always know what it might be at right now.”

A similar philosophy can and should be applied to the professional development of university students. For many of us, especially in the Faculty of Arts, university marks the beginning of our exposure to a vast number of disciplines—and a

for many, the Society is only visible when it’s tied to a crisis or scandal.

But between these flashpoints, the SSMU and its executives work diligently on behalf of students— they provide essential services in areas that the administration scales back on, such as peer support and student medical services, as well as identify and advocate for student interests. With bureaucratic work on top of their mandates, a reduction in the number of permanent staff to support executives, and the steep learning curve that comes with yearly turnover, executives are frequently overburdened and underprepared. In the face of this semester’s onslaught of crises, it isn’t surprising that the executives’ response was largely paralysis. The incoming executive must look for ways institutionalize improvements to the transition period and training of executives so that future executives are adequately equipped to handle such situations.

These constraints do not excuse SSMU’s poor response. Instead, it ­ reveals the dire need for institutional mechanisms to deal with cases of violence committed by its leaders.

Procedures must exist to deal with any student in power that causes harm, or otherwise violates their obligations to the student body.

Within SSMU, it is difficult to hold one another accountable, as many of its representatives are peers who have worked together for significant periods of time. If students are ever attacked or made to feel unsafe, they should trust that SSMU will be there for them and take action to hold the perpetrator to account. For many students, that trust now feels misplaced.

The incoming executive team has a tough job ahead of them. They must apply the lessons that can be taken from this year in meaningful and productive ways to begin to repair the relationship between SSMU and the student body. This means establishing clear procedures and consequences for instances of harm and sexual violence perpetrated by student representatives.

It means consulting with students and experts on how to achieve this, and how to best serve student interests.

Above all, next year’s executives must follow through on their platform promises of renewed representation and accountability, and remind students why they should trust SSMU. The task of restoring student’s faith in SSMU will likely not be achieved in a single year, but it is imperative that the incoming executives begin addressing the damage done by the failures of this semester.

The slow science of personal and professional development

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Advertising Executive Zain Hussain ads@mcgilltribune.com

Andy Wang, Alexandra Gardiner, Ariella Garmaise, Arman Bery, Ava Zwolinski, Cherry Ng, Daria Kisleva, Domenic Casciato, Elli Slavitch, Eric Noble-Marks, Flaminia Cooper, Gabriel Rincon, Hannah Taylor, Izze Siemann, Julia Métraux, Morgan Davis, Nicole Spadotto, Patrick Beacham, Rebecca Zhuang

council—appallingly, several SSMU executives were already aware Aird’s inappropriate workplace behaviour, and had sought to deal with the issue internally. This is a reprehensible contradiction of SSMU’s mandate to promote equity on campus, and a failure of SSMU’s commitment to the safety of its students. Transparent, accessible, and streamlined processes must exist to address allegations of sexual and gendered violence.

Across all of these crises, the Society’s response has been uncertain, delayed, and simply inadequate to resolve the concerns of affected students. These scandals do not negate the value of SSMU and the services it provides to students; however, if next year’s executives are to restore student trust in a Society that, by and large, has failed as a representative body this Winter, they must learn from the harms of this year, and implement procedures to re-establish the transparency, accountability, and responsiveness of SSMU. Many of the recently elected executives for 2017-18 discussed this in the campaigns; next year, it is important that steps are taken and the foundation is laid for the repair of the relationship between SSMU and its constituents.

SSMU is important. It’s easy for most students to forget this because,

A mere three or four years of study is sometimes not enough to gauge whether one would actually enjoy pursuing a certain professional path for the rest of his or her life.

”

mere three or four years of study is sometimes not enough to gauge whether one would actually enjoy pursuing a certain professional path for the rest of his or her live.

The emphasis that our campus culture places on choosing a meaningful and lucrative career can exacerbate the feeling of uncertainty that we already grapple with.

As students, we need time to think. We need time to get incredibly invested in one academic discipline—only to find out that actually working in said field would probably not be all that enjoyable. Additionally, we need to accept that although we are constantly bothered about whether we know what direction we’re heading in, we do not need to have it figured out right off the bat.

The Slow Science movement holds that the most important scientific discoveries about our world were not made under time constraints and deadlines.

Similarly, students are unlikely to discover what they’re really passionate about while juggling internship applications and a full-time course load. Sometimes taking time off during the summer to pursue hobbies and skills—

like learning to code, drawing, or volunteering—can teach you more about yourself and your priorities than being overworked.

The Slow Science Manifesto addresses the issue of societal pressure—“Society should give scientists the time they need, but more importantly, scientists must take their time.” University culture won’t necessarily encourage us to become more slow and deliberate, but we can certainly make that choice for ourselves. It is also important to understand the difference between taking one’s time and procrastinating. Avoiding an important task that needs to get done can be considered procrastination—therefore, many students are inclined to believe that, by not dedicating all their time off school to professional development, they are stalling.

Taking a break, clearing one’s mind, and exploring a variety of different options in order to better focus one’s effort can translate into valuable personal growth. Our postgraduation trajectories need not be clear-cut—but adopting a calm approach in the face of an uncertain future may be our best approach in finding our calling.

Tuesday March 21, 2017

8 STUDENT LIVING

Women who draw at McGill

Sinthusha Kandiah

Pauline Chi

Three female* students share their artistic stories Avleen K Mokha Contributor

Kelly Luo

Although visual arts have historically been gendered as a feminine pursuit, making them more socially acceptable for girls to explore their creativity than boys, a clear gender imbalance exists among the top figures of the industry, with male artists receiving more representation than women. To counter this inequality, Julia Rothman, co-founder of Women Who Draw, created an online directory of female* professional artists. After enlisting the help of co-founder Wendy MacNaughton, the pair developed the platform in order to increase the visibility of female illustrators, emphasizing female illustrators of colour, LBTQ+, and other minority groups of female illustrators. Inspiration from the site came after noticing a disparity of female representation in mainstream media sources.

“We counted a certain magazine that often has illustrated covers, and noticed that in the past 55 covers, only four were by women,” Rothman said, in an interview with the BBC. While McGill is globally known for its contributions to science and medical research, there exists a cozy but thriving community for visual artists on campus. The McGill Tribune spoke with three female artists from this community to discuss how their creative journeys have informed their lives.

Pauline Chi

While she had an interest in art as a child, taking high school art and design classes allowed Pauline Chi, U2 Science, to extensively experiment with her style. One component of her design class was to depict the same object through multiple mediums to see which one allows the most freedom of expression. “[The course requirement] helped me figure out which medium to use and in which configuration [depending on the work I’m creating],” Chi said. “I mostly [...] use acrylic or pencil because they’re the most convenient. Oil painting takes more time, but it gives more details. So it really depends on what the purpose of my painting is. If I’m trying to depict an abstract idea, I go for acrylic. But [...] I use oil for portraits.”

Creating art is mostly a solitary process for Chi. She finds it to be a fulfilling experience as it serves as an emotional outlet.

“I need a very quiet environment [to work in],” Chi said. “[Painting] is my way of putting my emotions into paint and lines. For

me, it’s actually something really private. While I post some of my work on social media, I have paintings that are more narrative, almost like a personal diary.”

When Chi was about to begin university, she considered studying fine arts, but ultimately decided against it.

“I’m not doing fine arts because the biggest challenge would be that when you treat it as a job, you can’t wait for ideas to come to you.

You have to push yourself. It feels less like a creative process.”

Chi’s biggest takeaway from her artistic journey is to have faith in her own course of artistic development, especially when it looks different from someone else’s.

“Don’t try to compare your progress with others because art means different things for different people and because each person has their [way] own of learning,” Chi said. “The feeling that other creative people are living the life you want is a very toxic one. Don’t focus on them, and just keep painting.”

Sinthusha Kandiah

In CEGEP, Sinthusha Kandiah, U3 Science, had her teacher encourage her to make her passion more than a hobby. Now, while she is not pursuing visual arts at McGill, she is paving her own path with her artwork.

“As a first-generation immigrant and a woman of colour [from the Tamil community], I face a lot of difficulties,” Kandiah said. “[....]

But my dream is to fuse my passion of art with science. I really want to become a medical illustrator.”

At the age of 17, Kandiah’s passion for art led her to envision and start the Divinart Foundation. The organization raises money by providing henna services and custom art to assist communities in need in Sri Lanka, her country of origin.

“Starting to apply [henna] on paper, then on skin, gave me a way to stay connected to my culture, as well as help me improve the lives of struggling children back home in Sri Lanka,” she said.

Kandiah remarks that, at first, her loved ones were ambivalent about her ambitions. “[People close to me] would say, ‘You’re a woman, how are you going to do this alone?’ However, through my journey, I’ve [learned] to not let the pressure of setting the path for my future generations get

in the way,” she said. “I’ve convinced my loved ones that following your passion is right. That opportunities will open up if you put your heart and soul into it.”

Kandiah advises her Tamil community and other immigrants to be fearless with their goals.

“Go ahead with what you want to do in life,” Kandiah said. “You don’t want to wake up not wanting to go to work. You want to wake up because what you work in motivates you and makes you happy.”

Kelly Luo

Kelly Luo, U3 Arts, can trace her initial fascination with drawing back to her childhood, when she would scribble with crayons and markers at the age of three. Luo began working with ink and pen around the age of 13, which is when her style began to develop.

Over time, Luo has observed the patterns in her style and now feels motivated to consciously develop them.

“I think [...] my style has gotten more consistent,” Luo said. “For example, I’m very detail-oriented. I like realism. But I’m making an active effort to be more surrealist.”

Because of her inclination toward geometry and symmetry, a lot of Luo’s work involves cityscapes. At the same time, Luo has discovered that many of her works also convey a distinct mood.

“I really like the melancholy, intimate kind of drawing. I love to draw the same theme of someone looking, an onlooker [to capture] the feeling of taking part in life, but also being away from it,” Luo said.

Luo advises young artists to not shy away from learning by imitation. In fact, she believes imitation helps emerging artists understand why and how someone produced the work they did, which can be crucial to refining one’s own style.

“I think a lot of people when they start to draw, especially when they are older or don’t have much creative experience, are apprehensive of mimicry,” Luo said. “They don’t want to copy someone because they think it’s wrong, [...] but the best artists in the last hundreds of years learned by imitation. There’s no shame in admiring someone else’s work and trying to recreate it.” *Women Who Draw is trans-inclusive and includes women, trans, and gender non-conforming illustrators.

dam

by Rebecca Dillon Dear Cosmos, realm of pages spent, Blank letters ripe with codes of lead, You’re our print upon the world, Till the screen we fix goes dead, Will pallor brought by those words, Still simmer on our stark face?

Will Lazarus seek to rise When existence, we erase.

Come seek the world in anguish, Where smoke reigns upon a crypt, No wind sighs and sings lament, The ashes burned black the script.

Tangled in the gloried nest Of false paper dyed with gold, We scale rusted truth to lies And keep that which can be sold.

above photo: Floral Escape

by Elli Slavitch left: Daniel A1, and Pangram Portrait

by Adam Melnyk

Will all this typing, letters, writing Outlast the smirking sun?

Will all this typing, sending, ending (Finally) dam thoughts my brain let’s run.

Hands Cupping

by Michaela Jones Hands cupping climates of forgetting, like it was necessary like it birthed clarity.

I reached in for a petal but found a cocoon: nature’s cradle, the first born fairy tale.

So I sat and waited watching my handheld hope.

Imagining the metamorphosis, I closed my eyes: but what crackled fourth (vicious, unforgiving) was no butterfly, but a memory of you.

Creative Supplement Edited by Evelyn Goessling The McGill Tribune is proud to present the 2016-17 Creative Supplement, highlighting excellent creative work by McGill students, including poetry, fiction, photography, and illustration.

For more work not featured here visit mcgilltribune.com/creative

The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

by Oceane Marescal

On the second floor of an old Victorian house, in the third room to the right, Henry Jones sagged at his desk. The house, kept in pristine condition, was poised alone on a hill far from the bustling life of the nearest town. It sat regally in the emptiness, silent apart from the occasional resonating creak. The sun reflected off its shingled turrets and stained-glass windows, making the intricate, multi-faceted structure gleam like a diamond—perfect, elegant, cold. Inside, paintings dangled on ivory-colored walls and dust coated the expensive marble counters. Henry wore a lavish black suit with an extravagant crimson tie and a well-ironed shirt. His blue eyes pierced through his wrinkled face, which wore an expression of permanent irritability. This house was the fruit of his toils, the result of years of work, and his rightfully deserved prize. Yet, even with his goal accomplished, Henry felt hollow, like an empty shell. In his pale, liver-spotted hands he held a leather bound journal. Attached to the front cover was an old newspaper clipping: Rare bird sighting in Louisiana.

-.

Untitled (Viñales, Cuba) by Emilie Slotine

by Alana Bertin Flocks of sheep populate this place Following shepherds be them winged or horned Few are there who occupy this nameless space To which I belong.

Here there is a myriad of senseless souls Harbouring ideas which aren’t their own Holding firm to that which they have been told Their thoughtless song.

A painful memory, a memory that his greed and ambition had gagged and silenced, now resurfaced. Like a creeping fog, the memory invaded Henry’s mind. He tried to push it away, but he was old now, old and alone, and the memory could not be kept at bay. With sickening sorrow Henry began to read.

Unaware, they march in bands on shards of earth Under the hex of their hypnosis Unchained with minds shackled to their place of birth To which they belong.

January 14, 1971.

It sure is cold today, but I don’t mind. I love watching the snow fall outside my window and sitting near the fireplace with Henry. He is so absorbed in his work all the time, always studying for something or another. He never has time for his little sister anymore… But it’s all going to pay off for him, he’s going to be a big-shot lawyer someday, he is. Mark my words. Anyways, I have really important news. There has been a sighting of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Louisiana! I’m going to ask Henry to see if he wants to come and try to catch a glimpse of it with me.

I can only imagine the woodpecker’s beautiful shiny black plumage, its red crest, and its signature ivory bill. You know, journal, it has been my dream since I was ten years old, since Daddy told me about it, to find the Ivory-billed woodpecker…

Anyways, I have to run. Until next time then,

Love, Jenny

Left are free thinkers to be scorned and shunned Lonely among the packs of pious puppets Lest they awaken their sisters to the realisation That they need not sing along.

Henry traced the words with his shriveled finger and closed his eyes. He remembered very well the day his sister had come up to him, her golden locks bouncing with excitement, to tell him that the famed ivory-billed woodpecker had been seen somewhere in Louisiana. He had been scratching away at a law school essay at the time and had only half-listened to her babbling until he heard her say, “Henry? Henry, could you come down to Louisiana and see it with me?” He had promptly refused; missing a week of law school would end all chances of him finishing at top of his class. He had chosen work over family, work over dreams. Henry opened his eyes again and kept reading.

left: Monkey at Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple) in Kathmadu, Nepal

by Alicia Jia

January 15, 1971.

Henry said no. Henry is busy. Henry doesn’t want to come. I don’t understand. I miss the old Henry… He went off to college one day, and when he came back he was never the same again… I practically had to rip his textbook out of his hands to get him to attend Daddy’s funeral. There has to be a way to get the old Henry back. Journal, can you keep a secret? I’m going to buy two tickets to Louisiana anyways, it’ll be a surprise!

I’m sure that Henry will change his mind. I know it. He loves the ivory-billed woodpecker too! The way Daddy used to talk about it, Henry was entranced. “The ivory-billed woodpecker is beautiful, unique and exceedingly rare.” Daddy used to say, “it is so fragile: only a few steps away from extinction. One day we’ll all go look for it, together.”

Those memories are tough. I guess that’s it for today.

Love, Jenny.

right: Alien (Stoneware Ceramics) by Elli Slavitch

Jenny had always reminded Henry of the rare bird. At twenty, she was young, beautiful, innocent, unique and rare, but at times so fragile in her own way. All that mattered to her was Henry, her only family, and the ivory-billed woodpecker, her only dream. All that mattered to Henry was money, and Jenny never understood that. When Henry still refused to go with her a week later, Jenny had fled the room in tears. To her, the Ivory-billed woodpecker meant hope, hope of restoring her family. Henry had crushed that hope.

January 22, 1971.

I hate him. I hate Henry. How could he choose law school over the ivory-billed woodpecker? Over me? Well, I don’t need him. I have gone to pursue my father’s dream, my dream, on my own. I will search every inch of the Louisiana Basin until I find the bird, and then I will never talk to Henry again.

Jenny.

Henry blinked several times as a tear slid down his cheek. He had made a choice that day. He had chosen not to take the plane, to abandon his Ivory-billed woodpecker. He had chosen to stay in school; he had chosen wealth, materialism, emptiness. He had chosen wrong. Henry never saw his sister again. Shortly after writing her last journal, Jenny disappeared into the Basin and had never been seen again. There were no more sightings of the Ivory-billed woodpecker.

And forty years later, here he was: greying and alone. True to Jenny’s prediction, he had become a successful lawyer, quickly amassing wealth and prestige. He had bought himself a big, expensive, empty house. Time and time again Henry chose work over dreams, wealth over friends. In his mind the Victorian house floated in a cloud of illusion, and in one of its many room he had lost his woodpecker, and killed it out of neglect.

left: Untitled

by Erica Stefano right: Island Dreams by Michelle Takamori

The Cage

by Isabella Siemann My words, restrained, confined, in rigid form Contained within the framework of these lines they set the rules for us and made this norm While dominating Earth in its past time.

The eagle we all thought would save our right To love, to stay inside the homes we make Is clawing hope from those who have to fight Whose skin is dark, and lives are all at stake.

And work that has defined our lives, no more Can be enough to reach our goal or dream The size of breasts reduce us to a “Four” Thus every effort’s lost to this regime.

To you—to say the answer is to wait, Permit this generation to harbor hate.

In Santorini, Maybe France

by Shelley Lin I kiss your neck.

The sun winds slowly up white brick wall, fresh and bright, and sand, blowing lightly through the streets, and berries, staining teeth and lips and bottles, bottles of sangria. The motorcycles outside, the gold sunset, slowly hum as the boys fell into the sea.

Arcs of water with light, rushing white bubbles when you land, plunge into the cool deep, blue Wet hair flicking, over tans eyes laughing.

We eat grapes, chill and wet, your mouth walking me home.

I see you when my eyes are closed your voice, trebles, or made of mustard gas In my head or in yours.

I lost count a long time ago which one was which To die in flower or to die in sleep To cry for your loved ones or fight for your keep What is a life? And where does it go when you take it?

Whose war is it? And what does it take, to get what is given?

Flanders fields are soft and red in May. Come back, you, my homeland back to me In memory of soldiers, who died at war.

In memory of citizens, who died at home.

In memory of every haunted life, Taken or left behind.

The sweet sleep of swimming, rise over my limbs Cover me I walk through the fields they fought the wars in Take the white bedsheet and upwards it floats suspended swan in your hands land on closed eyes so they can be at peace again The songs in the air are still, are again walking you home

right: Cape Vulture by Maddie Murray bottom: Nature’s Foot Baths (Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia) by Margaux Delalex

A Blurry Portrait

by Michaela Jones

I am seeping into a place I am yet to understand The creases of your eyes Like roots, or maybe fallen pines.

Hallucinating, (The way children do) Imaging monsters and magic, I imagined you.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

STUDENT LIVING 13

Chez Boris is closing its doors

Beloved beignet café to close at the end of April

Grace Bahler Contributor Coffee and donuts are an age-old combination.

But Chez Boris, located on the corner of Avenue du Parc and Avenue Laurier, made the pair extra-good.

The quirky café—known for its ¢75 Russian-style beignets and incredible coffee—opened in August 2012; just five years later, it’s closing its doors.

On March 1, Chez Boris made the announcement on its Facebook page that the café would be gone for good come the end of April, citing a new landlord who has decided not to renew its lease as the main reason for closing.

Yet, according to the manager of the café, Michael Heinermann, this came at the right time. The owner and creator, Boris Volfson, is permanently situated in Baltimore, Maryland, which makes managing the café slightly more difficult. And for many people, Volfson is a large part of the draw to the café. “[Volfson is] a great guy, and when he’s in town, we see a lot more people come in [.…] He’s a good boss. Not really a boss, kind of a friend,” Heinermann said.

Heinermann and four other employees of Chez Boris recently began to develop a co-op to continue the café’s legacy—going by the name of “Beigne Oui.” The employees behind the coop plan to continue serving donuts—among other fried-foods—using a democratic pricing system decided by its membership, as most food co-ops do.

Volfson is in full support of the plans to

turn the café into a co-op. Though he tried to find a new space for Chez Boris himself, serious interests did not turn into serious offers. As a result, the café’s staff has taken matters into their own hands, continuing to pursue a co-op space. The determination of the staff is a true testament to what Chez Boris means to the Mile-End community. It’s more than a café; it’s a part of the neighbourhood itself, a reflection of the value its attendees place in support and togetherness.

“It’s the people that come here [that make it special],” Heinermann said.

The importance of the café’s communal aspect is a shared sentiment. Helena Lin, U3 Arts, is a Montreal café fiend. A photographer for Foodora, blogger for McGill’s chapter of Spoon University, and soon-to-be manager at Hôtel Ambrose’s café, she has an eye for only the best—and that includes Chez Boris. “[Chez Boris is] a place where people on all walks of life feel welcome to come in for some comfort in the form of donuts and coffee,” Lin said. “[It] was never a café about making money, it was never a café that wanted to be the next Instagram hot spot or the best third wave spot in Montreal.

Chez Boris has always been a café about building community, about supporting everyone who came in.”

Lin emphasized the role that the staff and Volfson have had in making Chez Boris what it is, creating an entire experience out of the café that supersedes the traditional. In a way, Chez Boris feels like a haven from city life. From the funky

Chez Boris will be closing in April after five years of serving affordable beignet doughnuts. (Courtesy of Helena Lin) background music to the smell of fresh donuts, its instant comfort and coziness undoubtedly make Chez Boris into something greater than a café.

Moreover, the café has made itself known as a friend to local artists, hosting art shows and selling one-of-a-kind pieces on its walls that fit right in alongside a mini library and collection of board games. No one goes there simply for the aesthetically-pleasing scene or the phenomenal food as they may at other cafés—people go because

there is a unique sense of belonging.

“You’ll always be able to find a good café in Montreal, but you surely will not be able to find any other place like Chez Boris,” Lin said.

The closing of Chez Boris is more than sad; it is the end of something irreplaceable. Though its legacy will carry on through the Beigne Oui co-op, come the end of April the donuts will not be forgotten—and neither will the space that made them so wonderful.

Ask Ainsley: I just had my first panic attack. What should I do?

Dear Ainsley, I just had my first panic attack after finding out that I’d failed a test, and it really scared me.

What do I do to keep this from happening in the future? What resources are available to me?

Sincerely, Perplexed About my Panic Attack (PAPA) Dear PAPA, First of all, thank you so much for your question. Often one of the hardest steps in dealing with a panic attack is coming forward and telling someone about what you’re going through.

Before worrying about anything else, take a deep breath and try to remember that you are not alone—many other students have experienced the same thing you have. In fact, in a 2013 study of McGill students, 51 per cent expressed some level of general anxiety and 79 per cent expressed feelings of academic distress. More recently, the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) Wellness Survey found that 74 per cent of its students find their large workload to be their biggest source of stress. With the overwhelm of midterms and the seemingly never-ending winter, it can be particularly difficult to remain optimistic.

However, there are many tactics you can use and changes you can make in your lifestyle to help reduce your chance of experiencing another panic attack. There are also many resources at McGill and in Montreal to help you.

In the peak of a panic attack, it’s easy to feel like you are completely out of control. Know that this feeling is completely normal and it is ok to let yourself feel that way for a few minutes. However, once you feel like you can, there are a couple

things that are helpful in bringing yourself back movie, listening to music, or spending time with to reality. Try following the Five-Step Rule: Find a loved one can be beneficial when you’re feeling five things you can see, four things you can touch, alone or stressed out. These lifestyle changes are three things you can hear, two things you can really helpful as they give you a break and allow smell, and one that you can taste. This trick allows you to shift your focus away from school in order you to observe your surroundings, which can ease to regain confidence and motivation for your you out of a cycle of negative thoughts. Another studies.

If you find that you simply cannot handle really helpful coping trick is to get outside, go for a walk, and breathe some fresh air. If the Five- this alone, fortunately, as students at McGill, there are many resources available to us.

Step Rule doesn’t work, try stepping The McGill Mental Health Hub outside or telling a friend that provides many different resources you need some help to calm to address all the areas that down. could be causing you stress.

Although knowing The site’s screening test what to do during the is aimed at helping you panic attack is vital, understand your mental small lifestyle health and find the options improvements that are best for you can help out of the potentiallypreemptively overwhelming decrease the totality that they occurrence of provide. Please stress-induced don’t forget panic attacks. that if you feel Some self-care that you are in tips include immediate danger, watching what make sure to call you’re consuming: 9-1-1 or, if you’re on Restricting your intake campus, Campus Security of caffeine, alcohol, at 514-398-3000. tobacco, and other Panic attacks can be scary. Ainsley addresses reader concerns McGill Counselling drugs really helps to about them. (Alissa Zilber / The McGill Tribune) Crisis Support also lower stress levels.

Studies have shown that consuming an excess of these substances greatly increases your chance of developing anxiety. Cutting back can be very difficult; when doing so, try taking small steps, like decreasing your intake of something by a small fraction per day. Most importantly, take time for yourself to do something you enjoy. Watching a

offers daytime counselling Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and McGill Mental Health Emergency Hours are from Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both of these resources are found in the Brown Building. Outside of McGill, the Quebec Suicide Hotline also offers 24-hour support to those in crisis situations.

If you believe your panic attack might have been rooted in academic stress, McGill offers resources for academic support. From speaking to an advisor, to attending a workshop hosted by the McGill Counselling Services, to seeking out support from myAccess services, offered by the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD), there are many ways to get academic support on campus at McGill.

No matter what type of support you choose to seek out, know that you will be able to get through this. Panic attacks are common among students—though nonetheless scary—and there are a plethora of tactics you can use to mitigate their occurence.

All the best, Ainsley There are many more resources in addition to the ones mentioned in this article. You may benefit from seeking professional support and therapy at the McGill Counselling Service in order to better understand the root and solution to your stress.

McGill also offers many peer support programs including the Peer Support Center, the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), and McGill Students’ Nightline.

These programs are very helpful if you don’t feel comfortable seeking professional help as they are offer in-person drop-ins, phone lines, and mentoring programs where students support each other. Lastly, there are many different communitybased resources that are available by phone or in-person, such as Head & Hands, which offers a number of medical, social, and legal services, and Face à Face, an intervention centre offering active listening, intervention, and collaborative support.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

14 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ALBUM REVIEW

Jay Som’s latest release is the most boundary-pushing indie album of this year. (jaysom.bandcamp.com)

EVERYBODY WORKS JAY SOM

It’s hard to make an indie-rock record in 2017. With rock’s virtually non-existent commercial clout and alternative music’s critical supremacy all but sapped, the genre has been bogged down in a midlife crisis for the past few years. Those who have managed to hang around—Mitski, Car Seat Headrest—have done so through a combination of lyrical dexterity and an ability to pluck freely from past tropes without being defined by them. Add to this list 22-year-old Melina Duterte, aka Jay Som, whose sophomore album, Everybody Works, is the most competent rock release of this year so far—if not the most boundarypushing.

Opener “Lipstick Stains” begins with gorgeous swells of piano, guitar drones and the calming coo of Duterte’s voice. Easily the most effusive song on the record, it is a bit of a red herring on an album that will run the gamut of modern rock and pop niches, but is nevertheless a breathtaking first track.

Starting things off proper is lead single, “The Bus Song,” which sounds like a faithful copy of late 90s emo, right down to the American Football-style trumpet at the end. Nevertheless, in the first instance of what will be a recurring theme on Everybody Works, Duterte manages to find her voice within the conventions of genre, swapping emo heartbreak for cool-headed devotion.

The chorus—“Take time to figure it out/I’ll be the one who sticks around”—exudes a quiet confidence. Som’s low-key ferocity elevates her above her contemporaries.

It’s perhaps the deep resonance of

tracks like “The Bus Song” that makes the album’s more upbeat and immediate tracks feel a bit jarring. Tracks like “1 Billion Dogs” and “Take It” draw heavily from artists such as the Pixies, displaying an urgency that doesn’t feel earnest when paired with Duterte’s slow delivery.

Better tracks are the slow burners “One More Time, Please” and “Baybee,” which pair slick, after-midnight R&B hooks with some of Duterte’s haziest vocal work. These songs feel intimate and atmospheric without coming off as dreary, a set of jams just as suitable for the bedroom as the dancefloor.

They are the album’s conceptual peak.

The title track is a solidly crafted piece of power-pop bedrock that neither seems rushed nor overstays its welcome.

Though the same cannot be said for closer “For Light,” which at 7:23 seems to drag a little, but nevertheless remains a respectable closer for a respectable album.

Not everything works on Everybody Works. Nevertheless, there is a workmanlike efficiency to this record, where Duterte samples pretty much everything going on in alternative music today and hits the mark more often than not. This is not the record that will save indierock, but it’s proof that the genre is alive, even if its time in the limelight continues to recede.

Youtuber JonTron’s unfortunate foray into alt-right politics Joe Khammar Sports Editor Millions of fans around the world love Jon Jafari—the creator of the JonTronShow and former Game Grumps host. For six years, his videos have brought tears of laughter to anyone fortunate enough to have discovered his channel—yet, with his recent foray into the altright and white supremacist political spheres, his reputation is taking a hit.

Given the content of his comments, many longtime fans will not feel comfortable supporting Jafari in his future endeavours.

Back in November 2016, he first tested the political waters in an interview with Breitbart. Many fans were concerned that Jafari decided to speak to such an unreliable—and to some, hateful and offensive—news service. However, fans seemed to give him the benefit of the doubt. His comments were generally harmless and mentioned his past support for former President Barack Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Unfortunately, the discourse didn’t stay so benign. On March 12, Jafari tweeted out his support for Iowa Representative Steve King in the wake of his comment that, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” His words of support immediately set off a

chain reaction within his fan base, and as well as with other YouTubers, leading to a debate with streamer Steve Bonnell.

During the Twitter debate, JonTron doubled down on his stance.

“It’s not as if we’re saying all black people are irresponsible,” Jafari

Spencer’s—a well-known white supremacist—than President Donald Trump’s. There is no question that fans of his, especially minorities, feel uncomfortable with Jafari’s beliefs and statements. In fact, the backlash was so ferocious, the JonTron Reddit was locked because of the toxic

because of an anti-Semitic joke calling for “Death to all jews,” in a now-removed video. While many do not believe Kjellberg is anti-Semitic, fans needed to re-evaluate their support for someone who regularly uses race-based humour.

These two controversies are

Jon Jafari is in hot water after tweeting in support of Iowa Representative, Steve King. (youtube.com) said. “I’m just saying, like you can’t make the argument that whites should be okay with becoming a minority in the country their ancestors built.”

The issue is not that he is conservative, it’s that his political views are closer to that of Richard

atmosphere.

The situation with Jafari is part of a larger trend within YouTube. On Feb. 13, Internet celebrity PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, found himself in trouble with both fans and sponsors

similar because they remind viewers that popular Youtube content creators are individuals. Unlike Hollywood celebrities with teams of public relations and employees vetting their every word, Internet stars are largely independent. Their

-

Eric Noble-Marks Staff Writer POP RHETORIC

personal views may, at times, collide with the audience’s. Whether it’s an off-kilter joke by PewDiePie or the racist political beliefs of JonTron, fans need to understand that these people are being themselves. Some will be able to look past their issues as imperfect beings in a world with high expectations, but others will regard them, especially Jafari, with justifiable contempt. The beauty of the YouTube platform is that it allows fans to take a stand against Jon Jafari via public comments, unsubscribing, or using AdBlock to prevent ad revenue to the Youtuber.

Regardless, these two instances will not be the end of JonTron or PewDiePie. They will continue to produce content on their YouTube channels at the same rate as before; however, with Jafari, videos will be forever tainted by his deplorable political views. Given his voting history, it’s equal parts perplexing and infuriating that Jafari has bought into the alt-right movement. Jontron previously supported Senator Sanders, meaning his views are subject to drastic change. Hopefully Jontron will change his views, so that the content that has brought happiness to millions of viewers around the world can be enjoyed without the heavy blight that is attached to it now.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 15

Tuesday, March 21, 2017 WHERE DO I BEGIN? K-POP

active co-ed group. They were formed under DBS Media in 2016. They released their first song at the end of the year and fans anxiously waited for their next song, which finally came out February 2017. Co-ed groups are rare in K-pop and do not tend to last long. So far, K.A.R.D. has been exceptional—blending catchy rap and an edgy spirit into one. Check out their videos for “Oh NaNa” and “Don’t Recall.”

Areni Nicoghosian Copy Editor

Ever heard of K-pop? How about a singer named PSY? There is much more to the Korean pop phenomenon than the famous “Gangnam Style” singer. There are a plethora of girl and boy groups, all of which have different styles. Each group and every performance has a different aesthetic, as K-pop groups include a blend of singers, dancers, and rappers.

If you’ve never had a friend introduce you to K-pop, here is a list of groups you should check out. Once you get into it, you can join the K-Pop fandom, an online community that makes each new album release and piece of celebrity gossip all the more exciting.

Girl groups

The big three

The big three companies are S.M. Entertainment (SM), YG Entertainment (YG), and JYP Entertainment (JYP). Most people start with groups from these companies because they often dominate the music charts. I would recommend branching out and listening to groups from smaller, lesser—known companies—there is talent everywhere.

Multi-talented groups

What I love most about K-pop is the aesthetic combination of

K-pop groups are extremely diverse in style. (Areni Nicoghosian / The McGill Tribune) dancing, singing, and rapping.

There is no need to worry about the language barrier, as the music goes beyond language. The songs are not only catchy, but the music videos are visually entertaining.

Each has dances to go along with them, and the clothing is fun and colourful, showcasing a broad range of styles depending on the concept of the music video and song.

Boy groups

Bangtan Boys (BTS) is a seven-member group formed by Big Hit Entertainment in 2013.

The group’s popularity began to rise quickly after the release of their single, “I Need You” in 2015.

BTS is my favourite group because of the beautiful production design and the universal themes behind their songs and music videos—addressing issues such

as the importance of camaraderie and individuality. Check out their music video (MV) “Blood Sweat & Tears.” Their MVs strive for perfection–the intricate storytelling, costuming, and set design still keep blowing me away.

Co-ed group

K.A.R.D. is a four-member group, with two girls and two boys, and is currently the only

BLACKPINK is a fourmember girl group under YG, formed in 2016. They are my favourite girl group because of their bad-girl persona. A lot of girl groups are often very feminine and cutesy, yet BLACKPINK diverges from this typical style.

Thus, for a beginner to K-pop, I recommend this group because they are different from the more common types of girl groups. Their debut songs—“Boombayah” and “Whistle”—were hits, showcasing the typically edgy persona that YG groups are known for. Their most recent songs ,“Playing with Fire”—which has a great MV— and “Stay” display a softer side to their music. If you prefer romantic ballads, check out “Stay.”

These groups are few among many talented groups that you should check out. K-pop helps me get through the hard days, boosts my energy, and makes me happy.

‘Logan’ a fitting finale to the Wolverine franchise Jordan Foy Contributor

X-Men films are a standard of the superhero genre, dating back to the first film, X-Men, in 2000. Over the course of the series, the original trilogy of films was joined by multiple spin-offs, including X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), a weird quasi-reboot that confused many fans. One of the only constants in the series was Hugh Jackman’s character, Wolverine, who makes an appearance in every film. Intended to be the final film in which Jackman will portray Wolverine, Logan is a spectacular send-off for Jackman—and may even be the best film in the X-Men series.

When Logan begins, it is clear that things have changed since the last X-Men movie that starred Wolverine—Days of Future Past. Mutants are on the verge of extinction, most of the X-Men have disappeared, and Logan (Hugh Jackman) is in Mexico taking care of Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who appears to have lost some of his marbles. Along with fellow mutant Caliban (Stephen Merchant), the trio live a quiet existence along the MexicoUnited States border. However, the arrival of a mysterious girl, Laura (Dafne Keen), forces Logan to embark on a cross-country

journey to get her to safety.

Logan is action-packed, epic, and grittier than a mouthful of sand. In many ways, the film bends the traditional paradigms of the superhero genre, with more complexity than an average action film. Logan is without a doubt the darkest and most intense X-Men movie, as reflected by its R-rating. The film is laden with f-bombs and graphic violence, but Logan is more than just a hyper-violent action film. Important themes, such as family and redemption, as well as stylistic flairs, add depth to the film’s surface thrills.

The influence of the Western genre can be felt throughout the film. The epic and vast landscapes characteristic of Westerns make their way into Logan via its beautiful, scenic shots. The bad guys are essentially ‘guns for hire,’ and the film even ends in a showdown of sorts. The incorporation of these elements makes for a satisfying deviation from the standard superhero film formula.

Logan focuses on a cast of few characters, in contrast to other recent blockbusters like The Avengers and the upcoming Justice League, that feature large ensembles. This proves to be refreshing, as the smaller cast allows viewers to enjoy the relationships that develop between the characters, ultimately enabling audiences

Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine in Logan. (wired.com) to become more emotionally invested than other blockbusters of this kind. Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine is excellent—at times the ferocious character we are used to, but at others displaying a more sensitive and conflicted side.

Additionally, Wolverine’s dynamic with Laura, is enormously entertaining—the two characters are equally stubborn and angry, and constantly butt heads.

However, one drawback is that the violence and action sequences can be

excessive. After so many severed limbs and decapitations, the violence can be a little overwhelming, and at times detracts from the story.

Regardless, Logan is an emotional finale to the story of Wolverine, and will leave fans of the X-Men series satisfied. The film shows another side to the Wolverine character, as well as the superhero genre, and is truly a superb film. Logan is a reminder that big-budget films that deviate from typical formulas pay off.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

16 science & technology

Fighting surveillance: OpenMedia McGill equips students with encryption tools Workshop participants are introduced to privacy-protecting apps Omar Arafeh Contributor In a rapidly evolving world where people’s information is becoming more accessible and privacy is quickly eroding, anti-surveillance tools are increasing in popularity. To overcome a lack of privacy, OpenMedia McGill, in partnership with HackMcGill, acquainted students with anti-surveillance tools, like Tor and Signal, in a workshop on March 16. The workshop demonstrated how individuals can protect themselves using encryptionbased apps while on the Internet to protect messages, emails, or maintain their anonymity online. OpenMedia McGill is part of a Canadian NGO that protects and promotes student interests concerning information policy, privacy, and surveillance.

The workshop stressed the value of privacy in an increasingly information-based and Internet-dependent society.

“Everyone wants to maintain a certain amount of privacy, whether they think they do or not,” Michelle Guo, U2 Arts and director of OpenMedia McGill, explained.

The workshop introduced the application Signal, a messenger that uses end-to-end encryption to encrypt texts such that only those communicating are able to read them—this makes it nearly impossible to be breached by a form of surveillance.

In the Canadian context, Bill C-51, the Anti-terrorism Act that the Canadian parliament passed in 2015, expanded the power of government agencies to share information about individuals. This type of governmental surveillance is what OpenMedia is attempting to curtail by providing free workshops. Using an app like Signal is an initial step to combat the state of increased security from the consumer end. Additionally, such apps offer more individual control over personal information and

In the age of increased surveillance, encryption is more important than ever.

(Daria Kiseleva / The McGill Tribune)

privacy.

Despite the workshop’s emphasis on surveillance, the fear of a dystopian Big Brother constantly watching is not the incentive that drives OpenMedia’s work.

“The goal is not to insight fear,” Vice-President of OpenMedia McGill, Nina Soulier, said. “It’s more like what steps to be taken to prevent government surveillance and breach of privacy.”

Using a network like Tor would provide its users with anonymity from both government surveillance and any individual that may wish them harm. The focus of the workshop is not only preventing government surveillance, but also that of non-governmental parties.

Distinct from surveillance, hacking is often romanticized in TV shows and movies as a formidable threat in which the average individual is a defenceless target.

“Hacking can be prevented with two-step verification for social media accounts, but mostly [with] common sense,” Guo said. “For example, changing URLs to ‘https’ to ensure security whenever you can and avoid clicking on phishing links or suspicious emails.”

It is important for these workshops to rationalize the fear of the unknown. If the concept of hacking is unpacked and attendees understand the steps needed to guard against it, they will begin to feel empowered, which is ultimately what these workshops try to do.

Interestingly, not all of the participants attending were there for the protection of their privacy. Samy Zarour, a fourth-year Computer Science student, explained that he didn’t necessarily attend the workshop for his own privacy interest.

“Encryption is a very important part of developing apps [...] and there aren’t any courses at McGill that teach you this skill,” Zarour said. “I’m not here to learn how to protect myself.”

The workshop not only served as an anti-surveillance guide, but also an opportunity for prospective app designers to learn how to protect their future creations.

Regardless of what each individual takes out of the workshops, it’s important to note that OpenMedia McGill is attempting to empower and educate the student body regarding their privacy and teach a skill to avoid unwanted hacking or surveillance.

Why Nanosatellites might be the future of space exploration How the space industry can survive Courtney Wright & Oyku Cildir Contributors NASA has always been an institute of great scientific accomplishment and innovation, but this comes with a hefty price tag. As the agency moves forward in its three-stage plan to put humans on Mars, the public agency’s budget is under heavy scrutiny. Increased pressure has been put on NASA to develop more costeffective alternatives.

In its Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget estimates, NASA requested $19 billion USD from the U.S. government, projected to increase to $20.4 billion USD by 2021.

With such a large budget, it seems natural to assume that the 2020 Mars rover will be superior to its predecessors in every way.

In 2017, $377 million USD will go to the 2020 Mars rover exploration mission alone, according the FY 2017 budget estimates.

The 2020 rover will be heavily based upon the Curiosity rover, which launched in November 2011. While the Curiosity rover has been hailed as a huge success, NASA stated that a major reason for re-implementing much of the 2011 technology in the 2020 rover is to cut costs. Considering the net cost of the 2020 rover, the fact that NASA had to reuse technology, and that the agency is largely

funded by taxpayers, it is obvious why people may look for more cost-efficient solutions to space research.

In recent years, NASA has started to put significant effort into deploying nanosatellites, such as cube satellites, in order to maximize research while cutting costs. Nanosatellites have a mass between one to ten kilograms and provide a smaller, less expensive alternative to conventional satellites. One such example is the CubeSat Launch Initiative. Cube satellites are a specific type of nanosatellite measured in standard 10x10x11cm units, called U’s. Started in 2008, this initiative organizes partnerships between NASA and educational institutions all over the US to launch cube satellites into space.

The consistent size of cube satellites makes it easy to standardize the launch process, allowing NASA to launch 49 CubeSats into space since the beginning of the 2008 initiative.

In Fall 2016, U3 electrical engineering student Paul Albert-LeBrun founded a space club called The McGill Space Systems Group. Albert-Lebrun said his interest in space exploration has been a part of his life since he was a child, citing his father’s job in the aerospace industry as the original source of inspiration.

“We have pretty much visited everything [on Earth…],” Albert-Lebrun

said. “Space is something we don’t know much of and there are so many things to explore about it.”

This interest in the unknown drove Albert-Lebrun to seek out aerospace internships, resulting in work placements at several different companies, including aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.

The McGill Space Systems Group is part of the wave of university groups, such as those taking part in NASA’s CubeSat program, working with nanosatellites.

The group is currently designing and building a nanosatellite to identify gravitational waves and other space activity. Albert-Lebrun hopes that through this process he can make the concept of space

exploration and technologies more accessible to students and overall more useful and interesting.

“The idea of nanosatellites is very important […],” Albert-Lebrun said.

“You can build in a week, they are more affordable, and are built on a smaller scale [….] This is the only way that the space industry can survive. There is still the financial limitation but we have to move towards a more agile system.”

Under NASA’s budget restrictions, nanosatellites are looking to be more and more promising. The next generation of space explorers can join in the effort now to provide a more sustainable future for the space industry.

Rovers may not be the the future of space exploration. (Madeline Kinney / The McGill Tribune)

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

science & technology 17

Fresh off the Petri dish

The emerging industry of cellular agriculture Daria Kiseleva Staff Illustrator Which came first: The chicken or the egg?

In the not too distant future, the popular dilemma may become less universal.

On March 13, Effective Altruists at McGill, with the support of Greenpeace McGill, hosted an informative presentation delivered by coPresident Trent Eady entitled, “Saving the World through Biotechnology.”

Eady began by highlighting the environmental and health-related costs of the modern animal agriculture industry, including its contribution of about 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, susceptibility to disease epidemics, and its role in creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The harsh treatment of animals in the name of efficiency poses an additional ethical concern, which is implicitly acknowledged by laws that prohibit filming in factory farms.

“The reality is that like everything else that we buy, animal products are produced in huge industrial facilities that don’t look like farms look in the popular imagination,” Eady said.

However, significantly reducing demand for animal products—especially in the face of rapid global population growth—is hardly realistic. A 2014 study showed that as many as 84 per cent of people who attempted a vegan or vegetarian diet returned to eating meat or other animal products.

Enter cellular agriculture—a field that aims to create molecular duplicates of animal products on a cellular or subcellular level. In the near future, this pioneering industry promises to serve lab-grown meat, eggs, and dairy

products that perfectly mimic the properties of their naturally-derived equivalents, but spare us the troubling aftertaste of environmental and ethical implications. Indeed, the production of animal products in a lab requires significantly less energy, land, and water, and produces less greenhouse gas than traditional farming.

“The biotechnological solution to animal agriculture would be like making a cigarette that has the same experience for the smoker, but has no negative impact on human health,” Eady said.

“You wouldn’t have to deal with the super hard behaviour change problem.”

The first cultured beef burger, created by Dr. Mark Post at Maastricht University, famously debuted in London in 2013. Its design began with extraction of muscle stem cells from a living cow. The cells were allowed to grow and divide in an artificial environment supplied with growth medium. In the absence of blood vessels to deliver nutrients to and remove waste from cells directly, tissue could only grow to a limited size, so many tiny strands had to be layered together in the final beef patty.

The cell culture still relied on fetal bovine serum—a product extracted from fetal cows. Ongoing research continues to look for sustainable animal-free alternatives for growth media.

Re-creation of egg whites and dairy, on the other hand, relies only on the dutiful service of yeast. Egg whites are made up of protein, whereas milk contains both proteins and fats. Yeast DNA is modified by inserting genes that drive the yeast to produce desired proteins. The yeast consumes sugar and divides while obediently secreting these target proteins, which are then isolated

Trent Eady of Effective Altruists at McGill presented a lecture on the future of animal agriculture.

(Noah Sutton / The McGill Tribune)

from the yeast. In the case of milk, plant-sourced fats are then added.

While a variety of cellular agriculture research is currently funded by non-profit institutes, notably New Harvest, some biotechnology companies have surprisingly attracted investors from the animal agriculture industry.

“It’s like the innovator’s dilemma where these [animal agriculture] companies can see the future, but the future also destroys the present business,” Eady said. “[….] Maybe some will drag their heels, [but] others will try and get ahead of this [and] go along with the future rather than fight against it.”

Cellular agriculture might be closer than one might imagine. Perfect Day, a startup developing animal-free dairy, promised to launch its first commercial product by the end of 2017.

As a self-proclaimed enthusiast of technological trends, Eady speculates that cellular agriculture will eventually advance beyond mere imitation of existing animal products.

“When you look beyond the five-year timespan, [it will be possible to manipulate biomolecules] with the same sort of detailed precision that we can manipulate software,” Eady said. “So, there’s a possibility in the very long-term for us to create entirely new foods, [… which] no one today even imagines.”

Will artificial intelligence be able to replace human vision?

McGill labs use AI to develop adaptive modelling for pilots Erin Dwyer Contributor In 2014, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking warned us of the dangers artificial intelligence (AI) poses to mankind. He told BBC News, “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

Hawking is best known for his predictive theorem— called Hawking radiation— which predicts that black holes release blackbody radiation.

His suspicions about intelligent machines were sparked by developments that helped him cope with his own terminal illness: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 2014, Hawking began using a system based on basic AI that assists him in verbal communication.

Despite the fact that many people share this same concern, the rise of AI technologies has only accelerated. Developments in speech recognition, algorithmic trading, and probabilistic programming continue to astonish the scientific community. At McGill, researchers are managing to keep pace with the rapidly

evolving industry.

Founded in 1985, the Centre for Intelligent Machines is a McGill research group interested in systems that can sense and perceive their environment, make inferences based on that information, and finally construct and execute a course of action.

“This is the centre for intelligent machines,” Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Dr. Frank Ferrie said.

“[Here], you have theoreticians that are interested in the mathematical problem. And then at the far other end you have engineers interested in solving real-world problems. [Each] of us sees and understands a piece of [AI].”

Within the centre, there are 15 research labs that each tackle a more specialized field within AI. The Artificial Perception Laboratory, headed by Ferrie, took

Will drones replace humans in the future? (Erica Stefano / The McGill Tribune)

part in a project called Geoide that demonstrates the true extent of McGill’s AI capabilities. This massive cross-university research collaboration is a series of 121 projects related to the collection and interpretation of data about the Earth’s surface.

Ferrie and his students’ role in Geoide related to the construction of artificial visual systems for use by helicopter pilots in lowvisibility conditions.

“If you’re in poor weather […] a helicopter can’t fly unless you can see the ground,” Ferrie said. “So the idea was, ‘How can we enhance the ability of a human to navigate in these situations?’”

The group had satellites collecting data and forming models of the environment from locations around the world. From previously collected data, it is possible to project a picture of what the pilot is supposed to see in real time. As part of the project, pilots were given helmets to shield their eyes, while a screen projected a virtual image.

“As the pilot moves his [or her] head around, he [or she] sees a fake world,” Ferrie explained.

“It’s not meant to be [exact], it’s meant to provide just enough

information so that they can perform their job.”

With this kind of technology, regardless of the weather, pilots can use the image to perform their duties. Ferrie points out that issues could arise if the world changes, invalidating the previously collected data.

To tackle this issue, Ferrie’s previous PhD student, Phillippe Simard, developed a model that uses measurements that are made in real time to compare with the previously loaded data.

“So, essentially, we have a model that can build models on the fly,” Ferrie explained.

The Geoide project wrapped up in 2012. Since then, the Artificial Perception Lab has branched out into other fields.

“We are now trying to put together a project for use in an educational environment,” Ferrie said. “So you have a student, and you have a white board, and maybe one of the things you want to do is work interactively. What if the board could interact with you? What if it could push back?”

Currently, the group aims to develop perceptual illusions that will help education become more interactive.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

18 science & technology

You’re a

(Natural)

Studies by McGill researchers show how music, memory, and emotion are interconnected Izze Siemann Staff Writer Music affects the human brain in endless ways. From experiencing pleasure and joy to sound, to remembering autobiographical events, to communicating through movement, music impacts humans constantly and significantly.

In a recent study published in February in Scientific Reports—led by Cognitive Psychologist and Professor Dr. Daniel Levitin—sex, drugs, and music were all shown to operate in the same reward pathway in the brain—showing how musical pleasure compares to the pleasure received from sex and drugs. According to PhD candidate and co-author of the paper, Adiel Mallik, this system is known as the dopamine-opioid pathway.

“The drug naltrexone blocks the muopioid receptor, which is responsible for experiencing euphoria and pain relief,” Mallik said.

In the study, the participants who were administered naltrexone reported a dulling of their overall emotions—even after they were asked to listen to their self-identified favourite songs.

“One [participant] said, ‘I know this is my favourite song, but it doesn’t feel like it usually does,’” Levitin said of a report he received from a study subject. “Another [reported], ‘It sounds pretty, but it’s not doing anything for me.’”

But the effects don’t end there. The team also investigated the impact of naltrexone

(Elli Slavitch / The McGill Tribune)

on zygomatic activity—also known as ‘smiling’ activity—and corrugator activity—a muscle activated while frowning. Subjects were connected to a facial electromyogram—used to measure emotional expression.

“What I found interesting was that we expected the zygomatic activity to go down, but the corrugator muscle activity also went down, so there was a positive and negative emotional response,” Mallik said.

The opioid blockage thus made people both frown and smile less, having an overall neutralizing impact on participants. The team was surprised to find that the feelings shown by the subjects towards their favourite songs was emptiness, as opposed to experiencing pure negativity. Imagine an all-time favourite song, one that previously evoked joy and emotional intensity, eliciting no feelings.

Opioids are, however, often associated with addictive behaviours, which can cause damage to an individual’s life and those around them. Thus, research toward understanding the complex interactions between neurochemical roots of pleasure may help neuroscientists address addiction as an issue.

Emotion inspired by music can also be visibly seen and comprehended. A study published last April in Emotion, conducted by Steven Livingstone, a former postdoctoral fellow in McGill’s Department of Psychology, and Dr. Caroline Palmer, McGill psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance, showed that singers and

performers can express their emotions when they move their bodies—their head signals carry information to the audience before any sound is even made.

“We know from how singers sing that they are very expressive when they move their bodies, and head movements of singers and of speakers carry a lot of information— even before they start making sound,” Palmer explained.

The study showed that subjects possessed the ability to judge emotion based on head movements alone, without the addition of sounds or expressions. This ability allows situations to be analyzed where no discernable music or sound persists, such as in a noisy club, or observing others in conversation.

Clearly, music contributes to human emotion and the display of emotion; however, it can reach further and influence one’s personal identity.

“Music is a powerful trigger to thinking about the past,” Dr. Signy Sheldon, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, said.

In her February 2017 study, entitled “More than a feeling: Emotional cues impact the access and experience of autobiographical memories,” Sheldon explores what characteristics of music stimulate memory: Is the song itself what sparks an image from the past, or is it the characteristics of music as a whole?

As Levitin’s study shows, music influences current mood and feelings.

Sheldon focuses on how music can turn on different aspects of emotion, allowing for memory conjuration.

To investigate this question, participants in Sheldon’s study listened to unfamiliar, classical, scientifically-developed music that evoked different emotions.

The happier m u s i c had a

major key and was more upbeat, while the sad music samples had minor keys and slower tempos.

Unexpected results arose from this study. Participants accessed memories faster when listening to happy music as opposed to sad, although they had never heard the classical tunes before. In addition, positive music promoted the recollection of positive memories, while the negative music, whether scary or sad, brought negative memories to the surface.

The ramifications of these findings reveal a lot about human nature.

“Past memories help us build our selfidentity, or our concept of self,” Sheldon said. “So being able to access memories from past autobiographical events, and access our past personal experiences, to happy music, could mean that we are constantly trying to uphold a happy depiction of our autobiographical selves. Happy music will make us think about ourselves more than any other type of music because of this function of autobiographical memory, to maintain a positive self-identity.”

The fact that the tone of music influences human emotion also highlights key elements of memory retrieval—that it is dynamic and flexible. Accessing our past is not based on personal choice. Rather, our surroundings and the emotions being experienced, control which memories we access.

“This study shows us that we won’t access memories based on what we need, but based on the situation we’re in while we’re remembering,” Sheldon said.

Scientists were able to make this observation after they discovered music’s impact on emotion.

In future studies, Sheldon will research how emotions experienced while listening to music affect learning or the uptake of information. Participants will be presented with complex images while listening to similar musical emotional queues. Eye tracking techniques will be applied to analyze how people digest this information.

Sheldon also plans to use brain scanning in order to identify any differences in cortical— or brain—regions while subjects access memories in light of happy cues. “[The] take-home message is that if you are trying to remind someone of a past event and you want them to remember it in a positive light, play happy music for them,” Sheldon said.

These two studies show the connections between music and emotional cues and how they promote access to memories. The best part of this newly discovered link: The relationship between music and the brain is practically universal.

From six-month-old babies to adults with musical and non-musical careers, music recognition and its impact on people works in similar ways.

“Why is it that everyone is capable of creating music?” Palmer asked. “The idea that you can go to a concert and hear a piece of music that you have never heard before and move in time to it is wonderful.”

Every day, music revives memories within us that remind us who we are, and who we want to be—so keep clapping, tapping, and listening.

SPORTS 19

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Martlets basketball celebrates first National Championship in McGill history From the RSEQ basement to 2016-17 U Sports champs Gabriel Rincon Staff Writer Continued from page 1.

Not having senior forward Jennifer Silver in the starting lineup due to a hand injury added to the shaky start to the season. In the 2015-16 season, she averaged 5.4 rebounds and 8 points per game. Withour Silver, Coach Thorne and company were forced to make changes on the fly, trying to build chemistry into their new lineups.

“It definitely took some time to adjust [after Silver’s injury],” senior centre Alex Kiss-Rusk said. “Silver gives that spark on the court, she really hustles every rebound.

She’s more of a quiet leader, you follow her more by example than what she says because she works so hard.”

Silver’s energy on the court earned the respect of her fellow teammates, who look to her to push them to hustle. “[She] is a fighter, she always goes [and] gets some boards, she’ll never give up,” Potvin said. “It just makes the team feel like everyone should do the same thing.”

Silver embraces her role on the court and looks to inspire her teammates to work harder.

“I’m definitely a lead-by-example type of player and I try to leave everything out there on the court,” Silver said.

“I give my full energy to everything I do so as to never look back and wish I had.”

With Silver out, senior wing-player Marie-Love Michel was moved from playing out on the perimeter to playing inside the key. Despite standing only 5’9’’ tall, Michel relished her new role logging significant minutes matching up against significantly taller competition.

“She really embraced that role and really played it well. I think it was a huge positive that came out of it, as much as losing [Silver] hurt,” Kiss-Rusk said.

If anything, the slow start gave the Martlets underdog status, helping them to sneak through the RSEQ and into the U Sports playoffs as fourth-seed. Last year, they went into the CIS tournament—now called U Sports—the topranked team in the country, but were upset in the second round by the Ryerson Rams.

“A lot of [this year’s success] had to do with the pressure that wasn’t there that’s been there in the past,” KissRusk said. “Last year, we were ranked number one. There was ton of media coverage, we were the first [Martlets] team to be ranked number one in the history of McGill going into the tournament. There were a lot of expectations and I think that also affected the way our coaches were dealing with us. This year, [the reduced pressure] helped them be a lot more calm and be a lot more relaxed, and that really helped us stay relaxed.”

Laval was the first seed going into the playoffs and had only lost twice all year–both times against McGill.

The teams split their season series and the stage was set for a grudge match in the finals. The Martlets had a tough third quarter where they were outscored 17-11 and clung to a slim one-point lead at the end.

“By the time we got to the fourth quarter, we knew that it was our game and we just had a bit of a tough run in the third,” Kiss-Rusk said.

Confidence remained high and the team stayed fixated on their goal of winning the national championship.

“In the fourth quarter, we literally all looked at each other and said; ‘What are we doing?’” Potvin said. “‘Let’s go, let’s get this,’ [and] we got the [win]!””

McGill’s swarming defence was key to their 66-55 win over Laval. The Martlets held the Rouge et Or to only 30.3 per cent shooting from the field and 27.6 per cent from beyond the arc. After playing Laval four times during the season, McGill knew they had to neutralize their shooters.

“We played [Laval] like four times during the season, so we know what they do best,” Potvin said. “Pretty much

The McGill Martlets celebrate the first women’s basketball national championship in school history. (mcgillathletics.ca)

BY THE NUMBERS

20 5-7 1

Alex Kiss-Rusk scored 15 points and picked up 20 rebounds against Laval

Forward Jenn Silver was 5-7 shooting in her last appearance as a Martlet

Laval-type basketball is they shoot the ball really well, so we had to contain them one-on-one s o they wouldn’t beat us and create open threes.”

The McGill offence was led by hot three-point shooting, 40 per cent from deep. Their barrage from outside the arc was led by Guerin, the RSEQ’s best three-point shooter. In her last game as a Martlet, Guerin hit a teamhigh three triples to round off her 14 points.

“All season we worked on [our three-point shot],” Guerin said. “Sometimes you have games where even if you [practice] four times during the week [...] you’re not going to make your shots. I think we felt comfortable in that gym—the whole weekend we were comfortable—and you could see it in the way we were scoring.”

However, it was Kiss-Rusk’s huge 15 points and 20 board stat line that really secured their victory.

“We felt we have a huge advantage inside with Alex and we have great shooters on the outside. Alex is a great player and really sees the court,” Silver said. “We played great inside-out basketball where Alex was the centre, scoring herself and setting up our teammates.”

With Kiss-Rusk dialled in in the first quarter, there was no looking back.

“Towards the beginning of the game, I got a board

st

This was the first time two teams from Quebec played each other in the finals

and then [had it] stripped, and [Coach Thorne] kind of pulled me aside and he [said], ‘If we’re gonna win this you’ve got to get them all,’” Kiss-Rusk said. “That kind of stuck with me for the rest of the game. My teammates did a good job of boxing-out and letting me go get some easy ones.”

Kiss-Rusk’s dominance was also appreciated by her teammates.

“You can give [Kiss-Rusk] some credit, nobody could guard her in there,” Potvin said.

Looking towards next season, two starters—Guerin and Silver—are graduating, so Thorne will need to make some adjustments. But compared to last season—when the Martlets lost four players—the core of the team will remain relatively intact. The future looks bright with young players who now have finals experience. Kiss-Rusk, for one, is sure McGill will continue to contend for championships.

“Every season the goal is to win a national championship,” Kiss-Rusk said. “We got it done this year and it’s gonna be the same goal next year. We’re gonna have to face the same challenges, people are gonna have to step up and fill different roles. But I think we’re certainly capable of [a repeat].”

20 SPORTS

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

McGill hockey championships roundup REDMEN

Martlets

Stephen Gill Contributor

André Morin Contributor

Christopher Lalonde scored seventh-seeded McGill’s only goal in a 4-1 loss to St. Francis Xavier in the U Sports University Cup quarterfinals on March 17. The X-Men’s offence proved too persistent, outshooting the Redmen 35-22 and scoring two goals within 51 seconds into the third period to push the game out of reach.

The disappointing loss marked the end of the season for men’s hockey. McGill struggled out of the gates in 2016, splitting six wins and losses in their first 12 games. However, the team’s performance soon stabilized and they finished the season with a strong 29-14 record. Coach Kelly Nobes and his team carried this momentum into the postseason as they reached the OUA East finals and secured a wild-card spot in the U Sports tournament.

Nobes has his work cut out for him heading into next season, where he could lose up to eight players to graduation this year, including Mathieu Pompei and Patrick Delisle-Houde.

Pompei led the team in points while Delisle-Houde, a two-year captain, scored a team-high 17 goals. On the bright side, the squad will not lose much of its supporting cast, so a successful 2017-2018 campaign is certainly within reach.

The McGill Martlets women’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the U Sports Gold Medal Game, falling 2-1 in double overtime against the sixth-seeded University of Alberta Pandas. The Pandas took a 1-0 lead into the third period, which would stand until fifth-year forward Mélodie Daoust scored a power-play goal with under five minutes to go.

Fatigue began to set in during the overtime periods, as the teams exchanged chances at both ends. McGill failed to capitalize on two minutes of 4-on-3 power-play in the second overtime. After over four periods, a deflection by Pandas’ defender Taylor Kezama scored on Martlets’ goalkeeper Tricia Deguire and gave Alberta their record eighth national championship. Daoust received player of the game honours for McGill, as well as being named to the tournament All-Star team with teammates Gabrielle Davidson and Emilia Cotter.

The Martlets entered the tournament as RSEQ champions and the fourth seed, taking on the fifth-seeded St. Francis Xavier X-Women in the first round. Down 1-0 early, fifth-year forward Gabrielle Davidson soon scored the first

(mcgillathletics.ca)

of her two goals on the night to tie things up. Freshman forward Jade Downie-Landry scored the eventual game winner in the second period while freshman netminder Tricia Deguire held down the fort the rest of the way as the Martlets moved on with a convincing 3-1 win.

In the semi-finals, the Martlets took on the top-seeded University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds. Once again, Davidson was the hero, scoring the only goal in the final minutes of the game, lifting McGill to a shocking 1-0 win over UBC. Deguire put together another solid performance in net, posting 17 saves in her shutout. In a game filled with penalties, the Martlets were able to successfully kill six Thunderbirds powerplays, but were unable to capitalize on any of their eight.

The Martlets finish their season with a 29-11-1 record.

They are now four for eight in Championship game appearances.

With fifth years Davidson and Daoust graduating at the end of the year, Head Coach Peter Smith will look to sophmore forward Olivia Atkinson and netminder Deguire to continue to improve after their stellar seasons. With nine first year players on the team this season, McGill should be able to reload quickly and contend again next year as they try to make their fifth straight national finals. The experience at this year’s final should serve as motivation for all returning players.

(mcgillathletics.ca)

Disappointment on the international stage

Canada’s inability to get best and brightest leads to failure to compete Selwynne Hawkins Contributor For Canadian hockey players, wearing the Maple Leaf is one of the highest honours in sports. For the chosen men and women, it signifies that he or she is among the world’s best.

Unlike league play, representing one’s country is a patriotic duty, demonstrating pride in unparalleled ways.

While hockey is still quintessentially Canadian, multiculturalism has brought other sports into the Canadian athletic picture. The recent successes of Toronto’s pro sports teams and their growth in popularity across the country—including the notable “We The North” Toronto Raptors campaign—have made it abundantly clear: Canadians love other sports, too. However, while the Canadian men’s and women’s hockey team never struggle to get their top athletes to suit up, the nations other teams unfortunately struggle to bring top-talent and inspire the next generation of players.

Most recently, the Canadian national baseball team competed in the quadrennial World Baseball Classic (WBC), in a prime example of this struggle. Though Canada has produced all-star calibre baseball players, the country’s WBC roster certainly has not shown it.

“For us to compete at this level, we have to have all of our professional players,” Team

Canada Manager Ernie Whitt said after the team was eliminated from the WBC on March 19. “We can’t put our roster up against teams like the Dominican and the United States if we don’t have all of our big league players.”

Admittedly, Canada was placed in a tough group—with games against the Dominican Republic, the United States, and Colombia—but their relatively weak roster and lack of quality pitching didn’t give them much of a chance to advance. Canada lost 9-2, 4-1, and 8-0 in their three first round games.

While the United States also struggles to put its best athletes forward, it’s the Caribbean and Latin American countries that have really taken to the WBC, putting together powerhouse rosters with their nations’ stars. Unlike the United States who can still compete with second-tier athletes, Canada needs their top athletes to be a threat. The absence of MLB AllStar Joey Votto and Phillies’ outfielder Michael Saunders, who chose to stay home to prepare for the upcoming MLB season, hamstrung Canadian baseball. Although these players’ priorities have certainly disappointed Canadian baseball fans, their decisions aren’t unprecedented in Canadian sports.

On the Canadian men’s basketball team, 2015 NBA rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins cited similar reasons for withdrawing from Team Canada’s FIBA Olympic qualifiers. The

Without starpower, Team Canada struggled at the World Baseball Classic. (baseball.ca) Cavaliers’ big man Tristan Thompson, too, was unable to attend the tournament as he and his agent worked through lengthy contract negotiations last summer. While it’s certainly important for Canadians to compete in professional sports at the highest level, international sports have a unique role in inspiring the next generation of Canadian talent—just ask members of the Canadian Women’s Soccer Team. Though most of these women have impressive careers in the National Women’s Soccer League, it was their Olympic Games performances in 2012

and 2016 that turned players like Christine Sinclair into household names.

If Canada wants to become a sports powerhouse, its top athletes need to play a part and compete on the pitch, hardwood, or diamond.

As long as players like Votto and Wiggins choose to stay home, Canadian teams–aside from hockey, rugby and lacrosse–will never be able to establish themselves as serious competitors on the world stage. Canada has proven its hockey dominance—now it’s time to show that it isn’t a one trick pony.